May I mention another thing yet more ridiculous than this? Only let no one tax us with speaking out of season, should our argument proceed with that instance also. For he that would cleanse an ulcer will not hesitate first to pollute his own hands. What then is this so very ridiculous custom? It is counted indeed as nothing; (and this is why I grieve;) but it is the beginning of folly and madness in the extreme. The women in the bath, nurses and waiting-maids, take up mud and smearing it with the finger make a mark on the child's forehead; and if one ask, What means the mud, and the clay? the answer is, "It turneth away an evil eye, witchcraft and envy [67] ." Astonishing! what power in the mud! what might in the clay! what mighty force is this which it has? It averts all the host of the devil. Tell me, can ye help hiding yourselves for shame? Will ye never come to understand the snares of the devil, how from earliest life he gradually brings in the several evils which he hath devised? For if the mud hath this effect, why dost thou not thyself also do the same to thine own forehead, when thou art a man and thy character is formed; and thou art likelier than the child to have such as envy thee? Why dost thou not as well bemire the whole body? I say, if on the forehead its virtue be so great, why not anoint thyself all over with mud? All this is mirth and stage-play to Satan, not mockery only but hell-fire being the consummation to which these deceived ones are tending.
[14.] Now that among Greeks such things should be done is no wonder: but among the worshippers of the Cross, (ton stauron proskunousi) and partakers in unspeakable mysteries, and professors of such high morality, (tosauta philosophousin) that such unseemliness should prevail, this is especially to be deplored again and again. God hath honored thee with spiritual anointing; and dost thou defile thy child with mud? God hath honored thee, and dost thou dishonor thyself? And when thou shouldest inscribe on his forehead the Cross which affords invincible security; dost thou forego this, and cast thyself into the madness of Satan?
If any look on these things as trifles, let them know that they are the source of great evils; and that not even unto Paul did it seem right to overlook the lesser things. For, tell me, what can be less than a man's covering his head? Yet observe how great a matter he makes of this and with how great earnestness he forbids it; saying, among many things, "He dishonoreth his head." (1 Cor. xi. 4.) Now if he that covers himself "dishonoreth his head"; he that besmears his child with mud, how can it be less than making it abominable? For how, I want to know, can he bring it to the hands of the priest? How canst thou require that on that forehead the seal [68] should be placed by the hand of the presbyter, where thou hast been smearing the mud? Nay, my brethren, do not these things, but from earliest life encompass them with spiritual armor and instruct them to seal the forehead with the hand (te cheiri paideute sphragizein to metopon): and before they are able to do this with their own hand [69] , do you imprint upon them the Cross.
Why should one speak of the other satanical observances in the case of travail-pangs and childbirths, which the midwives introduce with a mischief on their own heads? Of the outcries which take place at each person's death, and when he is carried to his burial; the irrational wailings, the folly enacted at the funerals; the zeal about men's monuments; the importunate and ridiculous swarm of the mourning women [70] ; the observances of days; the days, I mean, of entrance into the world and of departure?
[15.] Are these then, I beseech you, the persons whose good opinion thou followest after? And what can it be but the extreme of folly to seek earnestly the praise of men, so corrupt in their ideas, men whose conduct is all at random? when we ought always to resort to the unsleeping Eye, and look to His sentence in all that we do and speak? For these, even if they approve, will have no power to profit us. But He, should He accept our doings, will both here make us glorious, and in the future day will impart to us of the unspeakable good things: which may it be the lot of us all to obtain, through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ; with Whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and always, and unto everlasting ages. Amen.
[58] [The true text of this clause is well given in the Revised Version, "not to go beyond the things which are written."]
[59] [That is, conceding that they had the gifts which they claimed. C.]
[60] (pantes Savile; pantos Bened.) [Dr. Field adopts the former reading. C.]
[61] Bingham (b. xvi. c. 4. §. 10.) proves that actors and the like were debarred from the Sacraments, except they renounced their calling, from very early times: from S. Cyprian, Ep. 61, who says, "I think it inconsistent with the majesty of God and the discipline of the Gospel, to allow the chastity and glory of the Church to be defiled with so base contagion:" from Tertullian; de Spectac. 4; de Cor. Mil. 13; and from the Apostolical Constitutions, viii. 32.
[62] Gibbon, c. 31. from Ammianus, relates, that on occasion of a scarcity, when all strangers were expelled from Rome, an exception was made in favor of the actors, singers, dancers, &c.
[63] manganeias. Compare S. Augustin's account in the Confessions of the way in which some persons were bewitched by the gladiatorial shows; of which his friend Alypius in his youth was a remarkable instance. b. vi. §. 13.
[64] S. Chrys. on Gen. Hom. 48. near the end, speaking of Rebekah's veiling herself at sight of Isaac; "See the noble breeding of the maiden.......and observe here, I pray you, how there is no place here for these superfluous and useless things; for a diabolical procession, for cymbals and flutes and dances, and those revels, the device of Satan, and invectives full of all indecency; but all wisdom, all gravity, all thoughtfulness.......Let Rebekah be the pattern of our wives, let our husbands emulate Isaac; be it their endeavor thus to bring home their brides." Then complaining, nearly as in the text, of the Fescennine verses, as they were called, and other bad customs, relics of heathenism, "Rather," says he, "should the maiden be trained in all modesty from the beginning, and priests called, and prayers and blessings be used to rivet fast the concord of their common habitation, that so both the bridegroom's love may increase, and the damsel's purity of soul be heightened. So by all ways shall the deeds of virtue enter into that house, and all the acts of the devil be far off and they shall pass their life with joy, God's Providence bringing them together." So again Hom. 56. of the marriage of Jacob and Leah: in which place he complains especially of the introduction of people from the stage and orchestra at wedding feasts. See both places in Bingham, xxii. iv. 8: as also the 53d Canon of Laodicea: "It is wrong for Christians attending marriages to practice theatrical gestures or dances, but to take their part soberly in the morning or evening meal, as becometh Christians."
[65] tes heauton proteinousai soterias. The Benedictine translates as if it were tas heauton: which is here followed. [The true reading as given by Field is ten heauton propinousai soterian. C.]
[66] Compare St. Chrys. on Coloss. Hom. viii. near the end.
[67] So on Col. ubi supra. "What is all this folly? Here we have ashes, and soot, and salt, and the silly old woman again brought into play. Truly it is a mockery and a shame. Nay,' says she, an evil eye has caught hold of the child!' How long will you go on with these diabolical fancies?" &c.
[68] i.e. the sign of the cross in baptism, made with consecrated balm or ointment, and called sphragis in the Apostolical Constitutions, iii. 17; vid. Bingham xi. 9. 6. St. Chrysostom, it may be remarked, takes for granted, 1. that infants would be brought to baptism; 2. that they would be brought to the priest.
[69] Compare the well-known passages in Tertullian and St. Cyprian: the first, "At all our goings out and comings in, &c. we trace upon the forehead the sign of the cross;" de Cor. Mil. 3.: the other, "Arm your foreheads with all boldness, that the sign of the cross may be safe." Ep. 50: both in Bingham ubi supra.
[70] About this custom, of hiring heathen women as mourners, he speaks very strongly elsewhere; Hom. 32. in Matt., Hom. 4. in Heb., both which are quoted in Bingham, xxxiii. 18.