khazarzar-clement-of-alexandria-paedagogus

And in the case of the prophet Samuel, when he was sent to anoint one of the sons of Jesse as king, and he saw the eldest of his children, handsome and tall, and when Samuel brought forth the oil, pleased with him, the Lord said to him, as the account goes: Do not look upon his face and the height of his stature, for I reject him. For a man sees with the eyes, but the Lord sees into the heart, and he anointed not the one beautiful in body, but the one beautiful in soul. If, then, the natural beauty of the body is considered by the Lord as inferior to the beauty of the soul, what does he think of artificial beauty, rejecting utterly every falsehood? For we walk by faith, not by appearance. Most clearly, then, the Lord teaches through Abraham to despise both homeland and kindred and possessions and all wealth for the one who follows God, having made him a stranger, and for this reason also called him friend, because he despised his property at home; for he was of noble birth and very wealthy. With three hundred and eighteen of his own servants, he subdued the four kings who had taken Lot captive. We find only Esther adorning herself justly. She adorned herself mystically for her own king, but that beauty of hers proved to be the ransom of a people about to be slaughtered. And that adornment makes women courtesans, and men effeminate and adulterous, the tragic poet bears witness, speaking somewhat as follows:

And the one who judged the goddesses, coming from Phrygia, as the Argive myth has it, to Lacedaemon, resplendent in his colorful garments and gleaming with gold, with barbaric luxury, in love with a loving woman, carried off Helen to the cattle-stalls of Ida, taking her while Menelaus was abroad. O the adultery of beauty! Barbaric love of adornment and effeminate luxury overturned Greece; it destroyed Laconian self-control—dress, luxury, and youthful beauty. The barbaric love of adornment proved the daughter of Zeus to be a courtesan. They had no tutor to check their desires, nor anyone saying, "Do not commit adultery," nor "Do not desire," nor "Do not set out for adultery through desire," nor even "Do not kindle your appetites through love of adornment." What an end followed upon these things for them, and how many evils they enjoyed, who were unwilling to prevent self-love! Two continents were set in motion by undisciplined pleasures, and everything is shaken by a barbarian youth. All Greece takes to the sea, and the sea is crowded, bearing continents. A long war is kindled, and fierce battles break out, and the plains are filled with corpses. The barbarian insults the fleet. Injustice prevails, and the eye of that poetic Zeus looks upon the Thracians. Noble blood drinks barbarian plains, and the streams of rivers are stopped by dead bodies. Breasts are beaten in lamentation, and mourning spreads over the land. All the feet of many-springed Ida and its peaks are shaken, as well as the city of Troy and the ships of the Achaeans. Where, Homer, shall we flee and stand? Show us land that has not been shaken. Do not touch the reins, child, being inexperienced, nor mount the chariot to drive without having learned.

The heaven delights in two charioteers, by whom alone the fire is driven and led. For the mind is led astray by pleasure, and the purity of reason, if not guided by the Word, slips into licentiousness and receives as the wage of its transgression its fall. An example of this for you are the angels of God who abandoned beauty for a beauty that withers and fell so far from the heavens to the ground. But also the Sicyonians are punished, having fallen because they insulted the holy virgin; their punishment is a tomb, and the memorial of the penalty guides them to salvation. Against men who adorn themselves. To such a degree has luxury advanced that not only the female sex suffers from this vain pursuit, but also men emulate the disease. For not being pure from adornment, they are not healthy, but inclining toward the softer, they become effeminate, cutting their hair in ignoble and lewd styles, wrapped in transparent cloaks, chewing mastic, and smelling of perfume. What would one say seeing them? Unerringly, as a physiognomist, one would divine from their appearance that they are adulterers and catamites, hunting after both kinds of love, hating hair, hairless, loathing the masculine bloom, and adorning their locks like women. "Living in unholy audacities, the changelings perform reckless and evil deeds," says the Sibyl. Because of these, at any rate, the cities are full of those who pitch, shave, and pluck these effeminate men; workshops have been set up and are open everywhere, and craftsmen of this hetaeric prostitution openly trade in silver.

They smear themselves with pitch and pluck out their hair in every way, offering themselves up, feeling no shame before those who see them or those who pass by, nor even before themselves, that they are men. For such are the emulators of the baser passions, their entire body worked over by the violent tuggings of the pitch. But it is of no concern to proceed further into such shamelessness. For if nothing is left undone by them, nothing is unsaid by me either. Diogenes, when he was being sold, rebuking one of these base men in a pedagogical manner, said to him very courageously, "Boy, buy a man for yourself," chastening that man's whorishness with an ambiguous saying. For how is it not base for men to shave and smooth themselves? Dyeings of hair and anointings of gray hairs and blond dyes, practices of degenerate effeminates, and their womanish combings, must be abandoned. For they think, like a snake, to slough off old age from the head, rewriting themselves and making themselves new. But even if they trick the hairs, they will not escape the wrinkles, nor will they elude death, tricking time. For it is not terrible, not terrible, for an old man to seem what he is, unable to hide it. The more a man hastens toward the end, the more honorable he is in truth, having only God older than himself, since that one is also an eternal old man, the elder of all beings. "The Ancient of Days" prophecy has called him, and "the hair of his head is like pure wool," the prophet says. And no one else, the Lord says, can make a hair white or black.

How then do they work against God, or rather force themselves to oppose him, those godless ones who counterfeit the hair that he has made gray? "The gray hair of the elderly is a crown of much experience," says Scripture, "and the grayness of their face is the flower of much experience." But they put to shame the honor of age, gray hair. It is not possible, it is not possible for one who has a counterfeit head to show a genuine soul. "But you," it says, "did not learn Christ in this way," if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, that as truth is in Jesus, you must put off, according to your former way of life, the old man—not the gray-haired man, but the one corrupted by the desires of deceit—and be renewed, not by dyes and adornments, but by the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, the one created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth. For a man to comb his hair and cut it with a razor for elegance, and to arrange his hair before a mirror, to shave and pluck and smooth his cheeks—how is this not womanish? And if one were to see them naked, one would take them for women. For even if they are not permitted to wear gold, yet because of their effeminate desire they wrap straps and strips of gold around leaves, or make spherical shapes of the same material, and hang them from their ankles and suspend them from their necks. This is a trick of broken men who drag themselves into the women's quarters, amphibious and lecherous beasts; this is a whorish way of ambush and godless.

For God willed that woman be smooth, exulting only in her natural hair as a horse in its mane, while man he adorned like lions with beards and made manly with hairy chests—this is a sign of strength and rule. With this he also beautified the cocks that fight for the hens, as with crests, by their combs. And so highly does God regard these hairs that he commands them to come to men together with wisdom, and indeed, delighting in the dignity, he has honored the grimness of the sight with venerable gray hair. Wisdom and precise reasoning, gray with understanding, flourish together with time, and strengthen old age with the force of much experience, presenting gray hair as a lovable flower of dignified wisdom for reasonable faith. This then is the man's token, the beard, through which the man is revealed, which is older than Eve and a symbol of the superior nature; God deemed it fitting for this to be hairy, and scattered hairs over the whole body of the man, but removed the smooth and soft part from the side, creating Eve as a woman with a smooth surface for the reception of seed, she being a helper for generation and household management. And what—for he put forth the smooth—remained man and shows the man; and action is granted to him, as passion is to her. For hairy things are by nature drier and hotter than smooth ones. Hence males are hairier and hotter than females, the uncastrated than the castrated, and the perfect than the imperfect. Therefore, to violate the symbol of the manly nature, the hairy, is impious.

As for the beautification of depilation—for I am heated by the argument—if it is practiced on men, it is effeminate; if on women, it is adulterous. Both must be banished as far as possible from our way of life. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered, says the Lord; and those on the chin are also numbered, and indeed those over the whole body. Not a single one is to be plucked out contrary to the choice of God, which is counted among his will. "Unless you do not recognize yourselves," says the Apostle, "that Christ Jesus is in you; if we knew him dwelling within, I do not know how we would have dared to mutilate him." And as for being depilated with pitch—I shrink even from mentioning the indecency of the act—turning away and bending over, exposing the secret parts of nature to public view, gyrating and arching the back, with shameless postures, not blushing at themselves, in the midst of youth and the gymnasium, where the virtue of men is tested, behaving indecently, pursuing this unnatural practice—how is this not the utmost licentiousness? For those who do such things in public would scarcely be ashamed of anyone in private. Their shamelessness in public testifies to their unbridled license in private when they have the power; for he who denies the man under the sun is clearly proven a woman by night. "There shall not be," said the Word through Moses, "a harlot from among the daughters of Israel, and there shall not be a fornicator from among the sons of Israel.

But pitch is beneficial, they say. But it slanders, I reply. No one in his right mind would wish to be thought a fornicator when he is not diseased, nor would anyone willingly choose to slander the beautiful image. For if God foreknew those called according to his purpose to be conformed to the image of his Son, for whose sake, according to the blessed apostle, he ordained himself to be the firstborn among many brothers, how are not those who mutilate the body, which is the conformed likeness of the Lord, godless? For a man who wishes to be beautiful must adorn the noblest part of a human being, the mind, which he must display as more becoming each day; he must pluck not his hairs but his desires. I even pity the slave-dealers' boys who are adorned for outrage, but they are not mutilated by themselves; rather, they are beautified at command for base gain, the wretches. But those who willingly choose to do what they would have deemed worthy of death if commanded, were they men—how are they not despicable? And now life has advanced to such a degree of licentiousness, with injustice reveling, and every lascivious thing has been poured over the cities, having become law. Women stand on rooftops among them, selling their own flesh for the outrage of pleasure, and boys, taught to deny their nature, pretend to be women. Luxury has displaced everything; dainty fastidiousness has disgraced man; it seeks everything, attempts everything, forces everything, confuses nature: men have experienced what belongs to women, and women act like men contrary to nature, both marrying and being married to women. No path is impassable to licentiousness; their Aphrodite is made common property, and luxury is their housemate.

Oh the pitiful sight, oh the unspeakable practice! These are trophies of your civic licentiousness, the refutation of your deeds, the prostitutes. Alas for such great lawlessness. But the wretches do not understand that the uncertainty of intercourse produces many tragedies. Fathers often unknowingly have intercourse with a son who has been a prostitute and with lecherous daughters, not remembering the exposed children, and licentiousness reveals the men who have fathered them. The wise men of the laws permit these things; it is lawful for them to sin according to the law, and they call the secrecy of pleasure ease. Those who commit adultery against nature think they are free from adultery, but justice follows them as avenger of their audacities, and drawing upon themselves an inexorable calamity, they purchase death for a small coin. The wretched merchants of these wares sail, carrying prostitution as cargo, like grain, like wine. Others, far more miserable, buy pleasures like bread, like relish, not even taking to heart that saying of Moses: "You shall not profane your daughter by prostituting her, and the land shall not prostitute itself, and the land shall be filled with lawlessness." These things were prophesied long ago, and the outcome is manifest; the whole earth is already filled with both prostitution and lawlessness. I praise the ancient Roman legislators; they abhorred the practice of hermaphroditism, and deemed intercourse of the body with the female contrary to the law of nature worthy of burial in a pit according to the law of justice. For it is not lawful ever to pluck out the beard, the natural beauty, the noble beauty first on the youth, whose prime is most graceful.

Proceeding further, he now anoints himself, delighting in his beard, upon which the prophetic oil descended when Aaron was honored. But the one who is rightly educated, upon whom peace has alighted, must also keep peace with his own hair. What, then, would women not contrive who hasten toward lewdness, when they see such things mirrored in their men? Rather, these should not be called men, but effeminates and weaklings, whose voices are broken and whose clothing is softened in texture and dye. Such persons are evident, convicted by their manner in outward attire, footwear, bearing, gait, haircut, and glance; for from a man's appearance he will be known, as Scripture says, and from a man's encounter a man will be known; a man's clothing, the step of his foot, and the laughter of his teeth will reveal what is about him. For those who are most at war with other hair tend only to the hair on their head, binding it up almost with hairnets like women. Lions, indeed, boast of their shagginess, but they arm themselves with their hair for battle; boars also pride themselves on their manes, but hunters fear them when their hair bristles; wool-bearing sheep are laden with fleeces, but the benevolent Father multiplied their hair for your service, O man, teaching you to shear the fleeces. And among the nations, the Celts and the Scythians wear their hair long, but they do not adorn it; there is something fearsome in the barbarian's thick hair, and its blondness threatens war; its color is akin to blood. Both these barbarians hate luxury.

They will produce clear witnesses: the German his wagon, the Scythian his wagon. But sometimes the Scythian even disregards the wagon—its size seems wealth to the barbarian—and, abandoning luxury, lives frugally; taking a self-sufficient home more portable than the wagon, the horse, a Scythian man mounts and is carried wherever he wishes. When he grows weary, he asks the horse for food by hunger, and it offers its veins, and what it alone possesses, it supplies its master with blood; and for the nomad the horse becomes both vehicle and food. As for the Arabs—these are other nomads—the fighting age are camel-riders; they mount their pregnant camels, which graze and run at the same time, carrying their masters, and they carry their household along with them. And if drink should fail the barbarians, they milk them for milk; and when their food is already exhausted, they do not even spare their blood, as they say rabid wolves do. But these beasts, tamer than the barbarians, do not bear a grudge when wronged, but confidently traverse the desert, both carrying and feeding their masters. So perish the guardian beasts whose food is blood; for it is not lawful for humans to touch blood, since the body is nothing but flesh cultivated by blood. Human blood has a share in the Word and partakes of grace with the spirit; and if anyone wrongs it, it will not go unnoticed. It is permitted to it, even naked of form, to speak to the Lord. I approve of the simplicity of the barbarians; having loved a portable way of life, the barbarians abandoned luxury.

The Lord calls us to be such: stripped of vulgarity, stripped of vainglory, torn away from sins, bearing only the wood of life, holding fast only to salvation. With whom one ought to associate. But I had unwittingly sailed past the sequence in my thought, and I must run back to it again and reproach the multitude of possessions among servants. For fleeing from self-labor and self-service, they take refuge in their attendants, purchasing a great crowd of cooks, table-setters, and those who skillfully cut meat into portions. Their servitude is divided into many branches: some labor for their gluttony—carvers, sauce-makers, and those who prepare pastries, honey-cakes, and soups, both assemblers and craftsmen; others busy themselves with superfluous garments; others guard gold like griffins; others watch over the silver and polish the drinking vessels and prepare the furnishings for feasts; others groom the pack animals; a throng of wine-pourers is trained among them, and herds of beautiful youths like flocks, from whom they milk beauty. And there are male and female adorners for the women.

Some women attend to mirrors, others to hairnets, others to combs; there are many eunuchs, and these are pimps, serving those who wish to indulge in pleasures without suspicion, trusted because they are incapable of taking pleasure. But a true eunuch is not one who is unable, but one who is unwilling to take pleasure. Indeed, the Word, through the prophet Samuel, testifies to the transgressors among the Jews: when the people asked for a king, he does not promise them a benevolent lord, but threatens them with a self-willed, tyrannical, and luxurious ruler, who, he says, will take your daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers, having conquered by the law of war, not emulating a peaceful household. And those who lift the litters high and carry women in them are many Celts; but spinning, wool-working, weaving, and the women's quarters' labor and housekeeping are nowhere to be found; instead, those who counterfeit women spend whole days with them, chattering erotic tales and wearing down their bodies and souls with false work and false speech. "You shall not be with many," it says, "for evil, nor shall you join with the multitude, because wisdom is found among few, but disorder is manifest in the multitude." And those women who do not wish to be seen, not for the sake of modesty, have their litter-bearers crowded together—for it would have been commendable if they had adopted this covering with that intention—but they, being affected, ride about, eager to make a show to the servants.

The curtain being drawn back, they look around more sharply at those who gaze at them, and are convicted in their manner; often they even lean out from within, disgracing their superficial modesty with slipping curiosity. "Do not look around," it says, "in the streets of the city, nor wander in its deserted places; for it is truly a desert, even if there is a crowd of licentious people, where no temperate person is present." These women are carried about in the temples, being exorcised and prophesied to, parading daily with vagabonds, begging priests of Cybele, and ribald old women who ruin households, enduring the old women's whispers over cups, learning from sorcerers certain love charms and incantations to the ruin of marriages. They have some of their husbands, pray for others, and seers promise them still others. They do not know, being deceived, that they give themselves as a vessel of pleasure to those who wish to indulge in lust, and exchange their own chastity for the most shameful outrage, considering the reproachful corruption a matter of profit. Many are the servants of hetaeric licentiousness, slipping in from one place or another; for the licentious are easily carried toward wantonness, like pigs borne toward the sinking part of a ship. Hence the Scripture most strongly exhorts: "Do not bring every man into your house, for many are the snares of the deceitful;" and elsewhere it says, "Let just men be your fellow diners, and your boast will remain in the fear of the Lord." To the crows with fornication!

For you know well this, says the apostle, that every fornicator or unclean person or covetous person, who is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. And women who take pleasure in the unions of effeminates, crowds of shameless catamites slip in within, foul in body, foul in speech, trained for licentious services, ministers of adultery, giggling and whispering and openly snorting the whorish catamite tune through their nostrils for lewdness, trying to please with licentious words and gestures and provoking laughter, the forerunner of fornication; and sometimes, inflamed by any chance anger, either they themselves are fornicators or have emulated the crowd of catamites to destruction, they croak with their nose like frogs, as if they had bile dwelling in their nostrils. But the more refined women than these rear Indian birds and Median peacocks and recline with the bald-headed ones playing, delighting in Sicinnian monsters; and hearing of Thersites they laugh, but they themselves buy costly Thersites, boasting not over their wedded husbands but over those, which are a burden of the earth; and they overlook a chaste widow, far superior to a Melitaean puppy, and they disregard a just old man, more seemly, I think, than a purchased monster; and they do not even take in an orphan child, these women who rear parrots and charadrii, but they expose the children they conceive at home, while they take in the nestlings of birds.

and they have preferred irrational creatures to rational ones, when they ought to support old men who profess temperance, and who are, I think, more comely than apes and able to utter something better than nightingales. But, he says, insofar as you have done this for one of these least things, you have done it for me. On the contrary, they have preferred ignorance to temperance, petrifying their own wealth into Indian pearls and emeralds; indeed, they squander and scatter their money on fugitive dyes and on slaves bought with silver, scratching through the dung of life like sated birds. Poverty, he says, humbles a man; he calls frugality poverty, according to which the rich are poor in giving, as if they had nothing. How one ought to behave at the baths. And what baths they have: artificial houses, solid and portable, covered with transparent linen, gilded seats, silver-studded, and countless vessels of gold and silver, some for drinking, some for food, some carried about for bathing; indeed, even braziers of coals; for they have reached such a degree of intemperance that they dine and get drunk while still bathing. And they display the silver vessels with which they parade, tastelessly, in the baths; perhaps for the sake of excessive ostentation of wealth, but especially to exhibit their willful ignorance, by which they accuse unmanly men of being mastered by women, while they themselves somehow prove that they cannot understand themselves or sweat without all those vessels.

For even the poor women, not taking part in the procession, share in the same baths. And indeed the filth of wealth provides a great covering for blasphemy. With this as with a bait they fish for the wretched men gaping at the glitter of gold; for by striking the tasteless with this they contrive to be admired by their lovers, who shortly after insult them when they are naked. And indeed they would not strip before their own husbands, feigning a credibility of shame, but it is permitted to any of the others who wish to see them, shut up at home, naked in the baths; for there they are not ashamed to strip before spectators as before dealers in bodies. But Hesiod advises not even to brighten the skin with a woman's bath. But the baths are opened in common to men and women alike, and from this they strip for intemperance; for from looking comes loving, as if their modesty were washed away in the baths. And those who are not so shameless shut out strangers, but bathe with their own servants and strip naked before slaves and are rubbed down by them, giving to the cowering fear of desire the fearlessness of touch; for the slaves introduced to the baths with their naked mistresses have practice in stripping for the boldness of desire, circumscribing fear by evil habit. And the ancient athletes, ashamed to show the man naked, preserved modesty by performing the contest in loincloths; but these women, having stripped off together

With their tunic they wish to appear beautiful even in their shame, yet they are convicted as evil when heard; for through it the wantonness of desire is especially revealed in the body, just as in those with dropsy the moisture concealed beneath the surface is evident; the disease in both is recognized from the appearance. Therefore men, becoming a noble example of truth for women, must be ashamed of undressing with them and guard against slippery glances; for he who gazes too curiously, it is said, has already sinned. At home one must respect parents and servants, on the roads those one meets, in the baths women, in solitude oneself, and everywhere the Word, which is everywhere, and without which nothing came to be. For only thus will one remain without stumbling, if one always thinks that God is present with him. That the Christian alone is rich. Wealth, then, must be shared worthily and given humanely, not vulgarly nor boastfully, nor must the love of beauty be turned into self-love and lack of taste, lest someone say even to us: his horse is worth fifteen talents, or his estate, or his servant, or his gold, but he himself is worth three coppers. For instance, take away the adornment of women and the servants from their masters, and you will find the masters no different from slaves bought with silver, not in gait, not in glance, not in speech; thus they resemble chattel. But they are distinguished by being weaker than their servants and by having been raised more delicately.

This, at any rate, is the best of teachings to sing on each occasion: that the good man, being temperate and just, stores up his wealth in heaven; he who has sold off his earthly possessions and given to the poor discovers the imperishable treasure, where there is no moth, no thief; truly blessed is he, even if he be small and weak and obscure, and he truly possesses the greatest wealth; but if he is wealthier than Cinyras and Midas, yet is unjust and arrogant, like the one who luxuriates in purple and fine linen and looks down on Lazarus, he is wretched and lives miserably and will not live. Wealth seems to me like a serpent: unless one knows how to grasp it harmlessly, and from a safe distance hangs the beast by the tip of its tail, it will coil around the hand and bite; and wealth is terrible, writhing as it does, whether one takes hold of it with experience or inexperience, clinging and biting, unless one, despising it, uses it knowledgeably, so that with the incantation of reason the beast is scraped away, while he himself remains unaffected. But, it seems, he who possesses things of greater value has escaped notice as being wealthy only; things of great value are not stone, not silver, not clothing, not bodily beauty, but virtue, which is reason transmitted through the pedagogue for practice; this reason, which renounces luxury, summons self-sufficiency as a servant, and extols frugality, the offspring of temperance—"Take education," it says, "and not money, and knowledge rather than tested gold; for wisdom is better than precious stones, and everything valuable is not worth it." And again:

me to be harvested above gold and precious stone and silver; for my produce is better than choice silver. But if one must make a distinction, let the rich man be the one who possesses many possessions, loaded down with gold like a filthy purse, while the well-ordered man is the just one, since good order is a measured arrangement in the proper formation concerning administrations and distributions; for there are those who sow and gather more, about whom it is written: he scattered, he gave to the poor, his justice remains forever. So it is not the one who has and keeps, but the one who gives who is rich, and giving shows the blessed man, not possession; the fruit of the soul is generosity; therefore, richness is in the soul. And indeed, let goods be attainable only by the good, and the good are Christians; a foolish or intemperate man would neither have perception of the good nor attain possession; therefore, goods are attainable only by Christians. And nothing is richer than these goods; therefore, these alone are rich. For true wealth is justice and the word more valuable than any treasure, not increased from flocks and fields, but given by God, an inalienable wealth—the soul alone is its treasury—, the best possession for its owner, providing the man blessed in truth. For if one has it that he desires none of the things not in our power, and that he obtains what he desires, and also that he receives from God what he piously asks for, how is this man not a possessor of many and of all things, having God as his eternal treasure? To the one who asks, it is said, it will be given, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

If God denies nothing, then everything belongs to the godly person. That frugality is a good provision for a Christian. But luxury, wandering into pleasures, becomes a grievous shipwreck for men; for this sweet and inglorious life of the many is alien to true love of beauty and to seemly pleasures. For by nature man is a lofty and proud animal, a seeker of the beautiful, since he is the creation of the only beautiful one; but a life devoted to the belly is shameful, reproachful, ugly, and ridiculous. Love of pleasure is most alien to the divine nature—to feed like sparrows, to mate like swine and goats; for considering pleasure a good is a sign of complete lack of taste for beauty, and love of wealth drives man from right living, persuading him to blush at nothing shameful, provided only that he has the power, like a beast, to eat all kinds of food and drink likewise, and to provide every satiety of sexual pleasures. For this reason he inherits the kingdom of God most rarely. Where, then, are so many dishes prepared except to fill one belly? The dung-heaps prove the impurity of gluttony, into which our stomachs spew the remnants of the feast. And where do they gather so many cupbearers, when they could be filled with a single cup? And where the chests of garments? And where the gold? And where the ornaments? These are prepared for thieves and malefactors and for greedy eyes. But let alms and faithfulness not fail you, says Scripture.

Behold, we have in the Thesbite Elias a good example of frugality, when he sat under the broom tree and the angel brought him food: it was a barley cake and a vessel of water. Such a lunch the Lord sent him. For us, then, who travel in truth, it is necessary to become light-armed. "Carry not," said the Lord, "a purse, nor a wallet, nor a shoe," that is, do not acquire wealth that is treasured only in a purse, do not fill your own storehouses as if storing seed in a wallet, but share also with those in need; do not busy yourselves with beasts of burden and servants, who are allegorically called the shoes of the rich, bearing the burden of their journey. Therefore, the multitude of utensils, the silver and gold drinking vessels, and the crowd of servants must be cast off, having received from the Pedagogue good and noble fellow-travelers: self-sufficiency and frugality. And one must walk in harmony with the Word, even if a wife and children accompany someone; the household is not a burden for a prudent traveler who has learned to bring it along. And the husband-loving wife must also be equipped in a manner similar to her husband for the journey, a good

provision for the journey to the heavens, carrying frugality together with temperate dignity; and the measure, just as the foot of the shoe, so also is the body for each one's possession; but the excess, which they call adornments, and the furnishings of the rich are a burden, not an ornament of the body. But one who is pressing to ascend to the heavens must carry beneficence as a good staff and, having shared with the oppressed, partake of true rest; for Scripture declares that a man's own wealth is the ransom of his soul, that is, if he is rich, he will be saved by giving. For just as wells that naturally gush forth, when drawn from, flow back to their original measure, so giving, being a good source of philanthropy, sharing the drink with the thirsty, increases again and is filled, in the way that milk is accustomed to flow to breasts that are suckled or milked. For he who has the all-powerful God Logos is without need and never lacks anything he requires; for the Logos is a possession without need and the cause of all abundance. But if someone says he has often seen a righteous man lacking bread, this is rare, and where there is no other righteous man; yet let him also read this: For the righteous man will not live by bread alone, but by the word of the Lord, which is true bread, bread of the heavens. Therefore the good man is never without resources, as long as he preserves his confession to God; for it is possible for him to ask and receive what he needs from the father of all and to enjoy his own, if he keeps the son; and it is also possible for him to perceive no lack.

Our pedagogical discourse gives us wealth, and there is no envy in being wealthy for those who acquire self-sufficiency through it; the one who possesses this wealth will inherit the kingdom of God. That images and examples are the greatest part of right teaching. If any of you will flee luxury to the end, nurtured by frugality, he will more easily learn to endure involuntary hardships, constantly making voluntary afflictions his training for persecutions, whenever he comes upon necessary pains and fears and griefs, being not unpracticed in endurance. For this reason we have no fatherland on earth, so that we might despise earthly possessions. Frugality is the wealthiest state, being un-deficient in expenditures for what is necessary and to the extent that it is necessary to complete them; for expenses are ends. How a man should live with his wife, concerning manual labor and household management and the use of servants, and also concerning the time of marriage and all that is fitting for women, we will set forth in the discourse on marriage; but only those things that are suitable for pedagogy are now to be presented by us, noting in the manner of an outline the life of Christians. And indeed most things have already been said and taught, and what still remains we will set forth; for examples are no small factor for salvation. See, says the tragedy, Telemachus did not kill Odysseus’ wife; for she did not marry one husband after another, but remains in the house with a sound marriage bed. Someone reproaching licentious adultery showed a beautiful image of self-restraint: love of one’s husband.

The Helots—for the Helots are the name for servants—the Lacedaemonians compelled to get drunk, and thus showed to themselves, while sober, the effects of drunkenness as a part of therapy and correction. By observing their unseemly behavior, so that they themselves might not fall into similar disgraces, they were educated by the reproachfulness of the drunkards, benefiting for their own sinlessness. For among men, some are saved by being taught, while others either emulated or sought virtue self-taught. That one is most excellent who understands everything for himself; this is Abraham, who sought God. Good also is that one who heeds one who speaks well; these are the disciples who were persuaded by the Word. For this reason, one is called a friend, the others apostles, both proclaiming one and the same God, one by inquiring, the others by preaching. Both are peoples, and of these two the hearers are the one benefiting through inquiry, the other being saved through discovery. But he who neither understands himself nor, when hearing another, stores it in his heart, that man is useless. He is another people, a useless gentile people, this people who do not follow Christ. Yet in manifold ways the philanthropic pedagogue benefits: he has exhorted in some matters, reproached in others, and also pointed out to us the shame of others who sin and the punishment for this, while at the same time captivating and admonishing, revealing a philanthropic turning away from evil through the demonstration of those who have suffered.

Through these images he most clearly stopped those who were badly disposed, prevented others who dared the same things, grounded others in endurance, stopped others from vice, and even healed some who changed for the better through the contemplation of the similar. For who would not take some precaution, following someone along a road, when the one before has fallen into a pit, and not avoid the equal danger, guarding against the sequence of sin? And again, who, being an ascetic, having learned the way of love of glory and seen the prize which the contestant before him has received, does not himself hasten toward the crown, imitating the elder? Many such are the images of divine wisdom; but I will mention one example and set it forth briefly: the calamity of the Sodomites is a judgment for those who did wrong, but a lesson for those who hear. The Sodomites, having slipped from great luxury into licentiousness, committing adultery without fear and being madly frantic about pederasty, were observed by the all-seeing Word, whom it is impossible to escape when doing unholy deeds, nor did the sleepless guardian of humanity overlook their licentiousness; but turning us away from imitation of them, educating us to his own temperance, imposing punishment on the sinners so that the impunity of licentiousness might not gain additional license, he ordered Sodom to be burned, pouring a little of that prudent fire upon their licentiousness, so that their lust, not becoming unchaste, might not open wide gates to those carried away by pleasure. Therefore the just punishment of the Sodomites has become an image of the well-reasoned salvation of men.

For those who have not sinned in the same way as those who have been punished would never suffer the same penalty as sinners, since they are guarded from suffering by not sinning. "For I want you to know," says Judas, "that God, having once saved the people from the land of Egypt, destroyed the unbelievers a second time, and he has kept the angels who did not preserve their own office but abandoned their own dwelling, in eternal bonds under darkness of savage angels for the judgment of the great day." And very instructively he sets forth the images of those being judged little by little: "Woe to them, because they walked the way of Cain and were poured out in the error of Balaam and perished in the contradiction of Korah." For fear keeps those who cannot bear the authority of adoption from becoming insolent. For this reason there are punishments and threats, so that, fearing the penalties, we may abstain from sinning. I could relate to you the punishments of love of ornament and the penalties of love of glory, not only of incontinence, but also set before you the evil-minded blasphemies concerning wealth, in which the Word, through fear, restrains from wrongdoing. But, sparing the length of the treatise, I bring forward for you the following commandments of the pedagogue, so that you may indeed heed the threats. For what purpose the bath is to be taken. Concerning the bathhouse, then—for from this point

I was turned away, saying: There are four reasons for which we go to the bath: either for the sake of cleanliness, or warmth, or health, or lastly, pleasure. Bathing for the sake of pleasure must be dismissed; for shameless pleasure must be utterly cut off. Bathing is to be adopted by women for the sake of cleanliness and health, and by men for health alone. The matter of warmth is superfluous, since the body shriveled by cold can be comforted in other ways. Frequent use of the bath weakens the powers and relaxes the natural tensions, often producing faintness and swooning. For in a way the body drinks, like trees, not only through the mouth but also through the whole body by means of the pores during the bath, as they say. A proof of this: often those who are thirsty, after entering the water, have relieved their thirst. Therefore, if the bath is beneficial for something, we must use it sparingly. The ancients called them "fulleries for men," since they wear out the bodies faster than is proper and force premature aging, boiling the flesh like iron softened by heat; hence we need, as it were, the tempering and hardening of cold. Nor should one bathe every time; but if one is either too empty or too full, the bath must be avoided. Indeed, it must be according to the age of the body and the season of the year; for it does not benefit everyone always, nor always, as those wise in these matters agree. For us, moderation suffices, which we invoke everywhere as an aid to life.

Nor should one spend so much time in the bath as to need a guide, nor bathe continuously and many times a day, as if frequenting a marketplace. And to be anointed by many servants is to insult one's neighbors, since they take advantage of luxury and refuse to understand that the bath must be common property of all who bathe. One ought to wash, above all, the soul with the cleansing word, and the body as well, when necessary, because of the filth that grows on it, and also, at times, to relieve weariness. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," says the Lord, "for you are like whitewashed tombs: outside the tomb appears beautiful, but inside it is full of dead bones and all uncleanness." And again to the same he says: "Woe to you, because you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of uncleanness. Clean first the inside of the cup, so that the outside may also become clean." Now the best bath, that of the soul, wipes away its filth and is spiritual, concerning which the prophecy explicitly says: "The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Israel, and will cleanse the blood from among them, the blood of lawlessness and the murders of the prophets." And the Word added the manner of cleansing, saying: "by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning." The bath of the body, which is fleshly, is accomplished by water alone, as often happens in the countryside, where there is no bath.

That gymnastic exercises are to be approved for those who live according to reason. For youths, exercise in the gymnasium is sufficient, even if a bath is at hand; and indeed, for men, to approve these before bathing, more than anything else, is perhaps not amiss, since they have some usefulness for the young in regard to health, instilling both earnestness and ambition to care not only for good bodily condition but also for good spirit; which, when done without being drawn away from better occupations, is graceful and not without profit. Nor here should women be excluded from bodily exertion, but they are not to be summoned to wrestling and running; rather, they are to be exercised in wool-working and weaving and, if need be, in assisting at the cooking. Moreover, women must themselves bring forth from the storeroom what we need, and it is not shameful for them to approach the mill; nor is it a reproach for a domestic wife and helpmeet to be busy about the food, so that it may be pleasing to her husband. And if she should shake up a bed by herself, offer a drink to her thirsty husband, and set food before him, she would be exercising most becomingly and for temperate health. The Pedagogue approves such a woman, who will stretch out her arms for useful tasks, and will rest her hands on the distaff; she will open her hands to the poor, and extend her wrist to the beggar, not ashamed to emulate the most beautiful service of Sarah, who ministered to the travelers. For Abraham said to her: "Hasten and knead three measures of fine flour and make hearth-cakes." And Rachel, the daughter of Laban, came, it is said, with the sheep of her father. And not content with these things, teaching lack of pride, he added:

For she used to feed her father's sheep. And the scriptures offer countless examples of frugality together with self-reliance, and also models of exercises. Among men, some are naked and engage in wrestling, others play with the small ball in the game of phaininda, especially in the sun; for others, walking is sufficient as they go to the country or come down into the city. And if they should take up the mattock, this is not an ignoble incidental domestic exercise of agricultural labor. But I almost forgot to mention that famous Pittacus, that the king of the Mytilenaeans used to grind grain, engaging in active exercise. It is also good to draw water for oneself and to cut wood which one will use oneself. And Jacob tended the sheep of Laban that were left behind, having a royal scepter of storax wood as a sign, practicing through the wood to change nature for the better. For many, at times, even the exertion of reading is an exercise. And indeed, as for wrestling, which we have approved, let it not be undertaken for the sake of useless contentiousness, but for the expulsion of manly sweat; and one should not labor over the technical, the showy aspect of it, but the elements of upright wrestling, from the twisting of necks, hands, and sides; for such exertion is more decorous and more manly with seemly strength, undertaken for the sake of useful and beneficial health, while the other labors of gymnastics, practicing postures not befitting free men, are ridiculous. In all things, one must aim at measure. For just as it is best for labors to precede meals, so excessive labor is both worst, wearisome, and productive of disease.

Neither must one be entirely idle nor yet completely laborious. For just as we have discussed concerning food, so similarly in all things and everywhere one must not turn to pleasure and licentious living, nor yet to the opposite extreme, but to the middle way between these, which is harmonious, temperate, and pure from each vice, both luxury and stinginess. Already, as we have said before, self-reliance is an unpretentious exercise, and so is putting on one's own shoes, and washing one's own feet, and also rubbing oneself with oil after anointing; and giving an equal return in turn to the one who has rubbed you is an exercise of social justice, and sleeping beside a sick friend, and serving one who is unable, and setting food before one in need. And Abraham, it says, set a meal before the three under the tree and stood by while they ate. Fishing too is good, as for Peter, if we take leisure from the necessary studies in word. But better is this catch, which the Lord granted to the disciple, teaching him to fish for men through water as if they were fish.

A summary account of the best life. For this reason, neither the wearing of gold nor the use of softer clothing is to be entirely cut off, but the irrational impulses must be bridled, lest they carry us away into luxurious living by excessive relaxation and hurl us into it; for pleasure, when it runs aground on satiety, is terrible, apt to prance, rear up, and throw off both the charioteer and the pedagogue, who from afar checks the reins and guides and directs the human horse—the irrational part of the soul concerned with pleasures and blameworthy appetites—toward salvation, even when it grows wild for stones, gold, variegated clothing, and the rest of finery. Keeping especially in mind that saying spoken in a holy manner: "Having your conduct among the nations good, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they may, observing your good works, glorify God." Therefore the pedagogue permits us to use simple clothing and the color white, as we have said before, so that, by making our own not what is artificially variegated but what is naturally produced, and by rejecting everything deceitful and false to the truth, we may embrace the uniform and single-faced character of truth. Sophocles, reproaching a young man for luxurious living, says: "You are resplendent in womanish garments." For just as there is a proper dress for a soldier, a sailor, and a ruler, so also for a temperate man there is a proper dress—unpretentious, becoming, and clean. In accordance with this, the law concerning leprosy established through Moses rejects the variegated and many-spotted as not holy, likening it to the many-colored scales of the serpent.

The man who no longer wishes to be adorned with a variety of colors, but to be wholly whitened from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, desires to be pure, so that, in the transition from the body, we may abandon the variegated and crafty passion of the mind and love the unvariegated and unhesitating simple color of truth. And in this, too, the emulator of Moses, the most excellent Plato, accepts that texture which has no more work than that of a temperate woman; and he says elsewhere that white colors would be suitable for dignity, and in weaving, too, that dyes should not be applied except for military adornments. White, therefore, is appropriate for peaceful and luminous men. Just as signs that are very close to their causes, when present, signify, or rather demonstrate, the existence of that which produced them—for example, smoke indicates fire, and good complexion and good pulse indicate health—so also among us, such a garment indicates the state of the character. Temperance is pure and simple, since purity is a habit that prepares a clean and untainted way of life, and simplicity is a habit that removes superfluities. Solid clothing, and especially that which is unfulled, retains the heat in the body, not because the garment itself possesses heat, but because it turns back the heat leaving the body and does not allow it passage; and if some does enter, it catches it and holds it within itself, and, being warmed by it, in turn warms the body, for which reason this garment is especially to be used in winter; and it is easy to manage.

Simplicity is a state free from excess, receptive to what suffices for a complete life according to reason—a healthy and blessed life. Let the woman also use the plain and modest garment, softer than is fitting for a man, yet not utterly shameless, nor dissolving in softness. Let the garments be suited to age, face, places, nature, and pursuits. For the divine apostle advises us to clothe ourselves most beautifully with Christ Jesus, and to take no thought for the flesh in pursuit of desires. Reason forbids those who force nature to pierce the lobes of the ears. Why not also the nose? So that the saying may be fulfilled: "As a ring in a pig's snout, so is beauty to a foolish woman." For in general, if anyone thinks to adorn herself with gold, she is inferior to gold, and one inferior to gold is not master of it. How is it not most absurd to admit oneself lesser and inferior to Lydian dust? Just as gold is defiled by the filth of a sow stirring up mire with its snout, so the more luxurious women, puffed up by abundance, outrage true beauty with the pollutions of lust. He gives them a ring of gold, not for adornment, but for sealing things at home worthy of guarding, for the sake of household management. For if all were educated, there would be no need of seals, since masters, servants, and all would be equally just; but since lack of education gives much inclination to injustice, we have needed seals. Yet there is a time to relax the tension.

For indeed, sometimes one must forgive those women who are not fortunate in a prudent marriage and who adorn themselves for the sake of pleasing their husbands. But let their limit be ambition directed only toward their own husbands. I would not wish them to cultivate physical comeliness, but to win over their husbands by prudent affection, a compelling and just remedy. Nevertheless, since they choose to be unfortunate in soul, let it be set before them, if they wish to be prudent, to gently soothe the irrational impulses and desires of their husbands; and quietly lead them toward simplicity by gradual habituation to what is more moderate. For a dignified bearing is achieved not by adding burdensome things, but by removing excess. Just as one should cut away the frivolous expenditures of women—like wings—which produce unstable and empty pleasures, by which they are lifted up and take flight, often flying away from marriage. Therefore, it is necessary to restrain women modestly and bind them with prudent shame, so that they do not slip from the truth through frivolity. It is good, then, for husbands to entrust their wives with the management of the household, having confidence in them, and to give them assistance for this purpose. But if it should be necessary for us, as citizens engaged in public life and in some other affairs conducted in the countryside, and often even being without our wives, to seal something for security, then for this purpose alone let us also have a signet ring; but the other rings must be thrown away, since ornament according to Scripture is a golden discipline for the prudent man.

husbands. Women who wear gold seem to me to fear that, if someone takes away their gold ornaments, they might be considered slaves when not adorned. But the nobility of truth, examined in the natural beauty of the soul, distinguishes the slave not by purchase and sale but by the servile disposition; and it befits us not to appear free, but to be free, who are educated by God and adopted by God. Therefore, one must adopt a bearing, movement, gait, dress, and, in short, the whole life as free as possible. Moreover, men should not wear a ring on the joint—for that is womanly—but on the little finger, and let it be placed at the very end of it; for thus the hand will be useful in those tasks where we need it, and the signet will not easily fall off, being secured by the greater constriction of the joint. Let our seals be a dove, a fish, a ship running before the wind, a musical lyre such as Polycrates used, or a ship’s anchor such as Seleucus engraved on his seal; and if someone is a fisherman, he will remember the apostle and the children drawn up from the water. For we must not engrave the faces of idols, to which even paying attention is forbidden, nor a sword or bow for those who pursue peace, nor drinking cups for the temperate. Many of the licentious have their lovers or courtesans engraved, so that even if they wished

they might at some time be able to forget their erotic passions because of the constant reminder of licentiousness. Concerning hair, this is his opinion: the head of men is bare, unless it has curly hair, and the beard is thick; but the twisted locks from the head should not fall too far into womanly braids; for the beard is sufficient for men. And if someone should also cut some of the beard, it should not be completely shaved; for the sight is shameful, and the close cropping of the beard, bordering on plucking and smoothness, is condemned. For instance, the psalmist, delighting in the hair of the beard, says, as the ointment that descends upon the beard, the beard of Aaron; having praised the comeliness of the face by the palinode of the beard, he anointed it with the ointment of the Lord. Since cropping is not to be undertaken for the sake of adornment, but out of necessity, the hairs of the head, so that they do not grow and hinder the eyes by falling down, and perhaps those on the mustache that become soiled during eating, should be trimmed, not with a razor—for that is ignoble—but with the two barber's shears; but those of the beard, which cause no annoyance, should not be disturbed, as they produce dignity of the face and are capable of generating awe; and the appearance also leads many astray not to sin because it is easily detected, while for those who do not wish to sin openly, the concealment of the appearance and its lack of distinctiveness is most delightful, under cover of which, being able to err through ignorance, they have reaped the benefit of sinning fearlessly by being assimilated to the majority.

Not only does the bareness of the head show the man to be austere, but it also renders the skull resistant to suffering, accustoming it to encounter both cold and heat, and it repels the harms from these, which hair, like a sponge, absorbs into itself and then transmits to the brain a persistent injury from the moisture. For women it is sufficient to soften their hair and to bind up their locks simply with a plain pin at the neck, increasing their chaste tresses into genuine beauty through simple care. For the meretricious braidings of hair and the fastenings of tresses, besides making them ugly, cut the hair, plucking it out with their artful interweavings, on account of which they do not even touch their own heads for fear of disturbing the arrangement of their hair, and even sleep comes to them with dread, lest they inadvertently dishevel the pattern of the braiding. Additions of others' hair are utterly rejected, and it is most impious to equip the head with alien tresses, dressing the skull in the locks of corpses; for on whom will the presbyter lay his hand? Whom will he bless? Not the adorned woman, but the alien hair and through it another head. But if the head of a woman is the man, and the head of a man is Christ, how is it not impious for them to fall into a double sin? For they deceive the men, their husbands, through the substitution of hair, and they dishonor the Lord, as far as in them lies, by adorning themselves meretriciously for the deception of truth and by blaspheming the truly beautiful head. Therefore, one should neither dye the hair nor change the color of gray hairs.

For it is not permitted to variegate the garment either; and especially the dignity of age and trustworthiness must not be concealed, but must be displayed under the rays of God as an honor for the reverence of the young; for sometimes the appearance of gray hair, like a pedagogue, has shamed them and converted them to self-control, and by the radiance of the countenance has struck down the youthful ardor of desire. But neither should faces be rubbed with the tricks of crafty wisdom; let us rather point out to them a modest art of adornment: for the best beauty is first of all the psychic, as I have often noted, when the soul is adorned with the Holy Spirit and inspired by its brightenings—justice, prudence, courage, temperance, love of goodness, and modesty, than which no more blooming color has ever been seen. Then also bodily beauty is to be cultivated, the symmetry of limbs and parts with good complexion. The art of adornment is here appropriate to health, by which the transition from the counterfeit image to the true one, according to the form given by God, is achieved. The good mixture of drinks and the proportion of foods are powerful to beautify according to nature. For from these the body not only gains health, but also causes beauty to shine forth. For from the fiery element come luster and sparkle, from the moist element brightness and grace, from the dry element manliness and stability, from the airy element good breath and equilibrium, from which this well-rhythmed and beautiful statue of the Word is adorned. And the flower of health is liberal beauty.

For the inner part of the body works, while that which has blossomed forth to the outside of the body manifests the good complexion clearly. Indeed, the best and healthiest regimens, by exercising the bodies, produce genuine and lasting beauty, as the heat draws to itself all moisture and the cold breath; heat, when fanned by movements, is attractive to itself. And when it has drawn, it gently steams through the flesh itself the surplus from nourishment, which is being warmed, partly by moisture, partly by excess of heat. Hence the previous food is also evacuated; but in a body that is inactive, the food eaten does not adhere, but falls away, like bread from a cold oven, either entirely or only leaving the base. Naturally, therefore, in those who are excessive, urine and excrement increase in the excretions, and their other superfluities also increase, and likewise their sweats, as the nourishment is not distributed to the body but is poured out into the superfluities. From this also arise lusts, as the surplus flows around the organs of procreation. Therefore, by moderate movements, this surplus must be melted and dissolved into digestion, through which beauty is reddened. But it is absurd for those who have been made in the image and likeness of God, as if dishonoring the archetype, to adopt adventitious cosmetics, preferring human malpractice to divine craftsmanship.

The pedagogue commands them to approach with orderly deportment, to adorn themselves with modesty and self-control, submitting to their own husbands, so that even if some should disobey the word, they will be won over without argument through the conduct of the women, when they have observed, he says, your chaste conduct in word. Let their adornment be not the external one of braiding hair and wearing gold or putting on garments, but the hidden person of the heart in the incorruptible spirit of gentleness and quietness, which is precious before God. Handiwork especially brings genuine beauty to women, exercising their bodies and adorning themselves through their own efforts, not offering adornment labored by others, which is disorderly, illiberal, and courtesan-like, but that of each prudent woman practiced and woven by her own hands, whenever she most needs it; for it is never fitting for women who live according to God to appear adorned with purchased goods from the market, but with domestic works of their own. For the finest work is a woman who is domestic, adorning both herself and her husband with her own ornaments, through which all rejoice: children in their mother, the husband in his wife, she in them, and all in God. In sum, a brave woman is a storehouse of virtue, who has not eaten idle food, and the laws of almsgiving are on her tongue, which has opened her mouth.

wisely and lawfully, whose children rose up and blessed her, as the holy word says through Solomon, and her husband praised her. For a pious woman is blessed, and let her praise the fear of the Lord. And again: A brave woman is a crown to her husband. But one must correct especially the postures, the glances, the gaits, and the voices. For not, as some do, emulating the pretense of comedy and watching for the broken movements of dancers, do they stage-manage their conversations, with delicate gestures, languid walks, and affected voices, glancing about loosely, trained as a bait of pleasure. For honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, who speaking for favor greases your throat, but later you will find it more bitter than gall and sharper than a two-edged sword; for the feet of folly lead those who consort with her after death into Hades. Indeed, the harlot conquered Samson, the noble man, and another woman sheared off his manhood. But another woman did not thus deceive Joseph; the Egyptian harlot was conquered, and chastity taking bonds appears stronger than loosened license. And that saying would be best: But I do not know at all how to whisper or to walk with a broken, sideways neck, as I see many catamites here in the city, and those who have been depilated. But women's movements, softness, and luxuries must be completely curtailed.

The luxuriousness of the movement involved in walking and the sauntering gait, as Anacreon says, seems to me to be utterly characteristic of courtesans. Comedy says that courtesan’s steps leave behind a season and luxury. But harlot’s steps do not rest upon truth; for they do not tread the paths of life, and her tracks are slippery and not easily recognized. Above all, one must spare the eyes, since it is better to slip with the feet than with the eyes. The Lord, at any rate, heals this passion most summarily, saying, if your eye offends you, pluck it out, tearing up desire from its roots. But languishing glances and winking, which is fluttering through the eyes, is nothing other than committing adultery through the eyes, with desire being shot forth through them. For the eyes are corrupted before the whole body. But the eye, beholding beautiful things, gladdens the heart, that is, having learned to see well, it gladdens; but the eye that winks deceitfully brings sorrows to men. Somewhere they introduce the effeminate Sardanapalus, the king of the Assyrians, sitting cross-legged on a couch, carding purple wool and rolling the whites of his eyes. Women who practice these things prostitute themselves by their own glances; for the eye is the lamp of the body, says Scripture, through which the inner things are revealed, illuminated by the visible light. The prostitution of a woman is in the lifting up of her eyes.

Therefore, mortify the members that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, on account of which the wrath of God comes. The apostle cries out, but we rekindle the passions and are not ashamed. Some of them, having eaten mastic, go about and grin at passersby; others, as if they had no fingers, scratch their heads with the pins they carry and affect daintiness, and they are curious about these pins, whether made of tortoise-shell or ivory or some other dead animal; still others, as if they had some kind of blossoms for the adornment of those who look at them, besmear their own faces with colorful cosmetics and stain them. Through Solomon, such a woman is called foolish and shameless; she sat at the doors of her own house on a stool, openly inviting passersby on the road, those directing their own paths, through her appearance and her whole life, evidently saying: "Which of you is the most foolish? Turn aside to me." And to those lacking in prudence she urges, saying: "Touch gladly of secret loaves and of sweet stolen water," speaking of this thievish Aphrodite. From this, the Boeotian Pindar, having been benefited, says something sweet, "a stolen delight of Cypris." But the wretch does not know that earth-born men will be destroyed by her, and that he meets with the net of Hades. But the Pedagogue says, "Jump away, do not linger in the place, nor fix your eye upon her." For thus you will cross alien water and pass beyond Acheron. Therefore the Lord says this through Isaiah:

Because the daughters of Zion walked with a high neck and with winks of the eyes, and in their gait at the same time dragging their tunics and playing with their feet, God will humble the daughters of Zion and will uncover their form, the shameful form. I do not even deem it right that the maidservants on the left side of the women or those following them should speak shamefully or act shamefully, but that they should be disciplined by their mistresses. Very severely, at any rate, the comic poet Philemon says: "Going out behind a free woman, I see only a maidservant following behind, a beautiful one from the Plataean district, and someone following her winking." For the licentiousness of the maidservant turns back upon the mistress, giving a stepping-stone to those who attempt the lesser things, so that they do not shrink from the greater, because the mistress, by tolerating shameful things, shows that she does not condemn them. And not being indignant with those who are licentious becomes a clear proof of a disposition that turns to the same thing. For as the proverb says, "As the mistress is, so is the dog." We must also banish from our walk the frantic manner, and choose the dignified and the leisurely, not the lingering gait, nor the swaying in the streets and looking sideways at those one meets, as if on a stage, strutting and pointed at with fingers, nor must we be turned about by servants pushed toward the snub-nosed, as we see the more luxurious ones, who seem to be strong but are broken by softness of soul.

A sign of a noble man is that there should be nothing conspicuous in his face indicating softness, nor in any other part of the body. Therefore, let ugliness of unmanliness never be found in movements or in postures. Nor, indeed, should one use healthy servants as if they were beasts of burden. For just as they are commanded to submit to their masters with all fear, not only to good and gentle ones but also to crooked ones, says Peter, so equality, patience, and philanthropy are fitting for masters. For the end, he says, is that all be of one mind, sympathetic, brotherly, compassionate, humble, and the like, so that you may inherit a blessing. Zeno of Citium seems to sketch a beautiful and lovable image of a young man, and thus he sculpts him: let the face be clean, the eyebrow not lowered, nor the eye wide open nor languid, the neck not thrown back, nor the limbs of the body relaxed, but the elevated parts like taut strings, sharpness directed toward reason, and retention of what is rightly said, and postures and movements yielding nothing of hope to the licentious. Let modesty and manliness bloom; and let there be absent the distress from perfume shops, goldsmiths, and wool shops, and from other workshops where men, adorned like courtesans, as those sitting on rooftops, spend the whole day. Therefore, let men not even in barbershops and

let those who spend their time in taverns chattering and gossiping, and hunting after women who pass by, cease at last; and many, even while blaspheming, do not stop laughing. Moreover, the game of dice must be forbidden, as well as the practice of knucklebones, which is a study of greed, which they love to handle. Such things their unthrifty luxury devises for them in their evil leisure; for idleness is the cause; and one is enamored of vain things that are outside the truth; for it is not possible to obtain pleasure without harm in any other way; and the choice of life is an imitation of each person's mind. But, as it seems, only associations with good men are beneficial. On the contrary, the all-wise pedagogue, through Moses, recognizing that association with base men is swine-like, forbade the older people to partake of swine, indicating that those who call upon God must not mix with unclean men, who, like swine, delight in bodily pleasures, in dainty foods, and in lascivious titillations itching for sexual pleasure, rejoicing in fruitless pleasure. But he also says, "You shall not eat the kite, or the swift-flying bird that devours its mother, or the eagle," meaning, "You shall not approach those who procure their living by plunder"; and the other things are similarly allegorized. With whom, then, should one associate? With the just, he says, again allegorizing.

Every cloven-footed and cud-chewing animal is clean, because the cloven foot signifies justice that is evenly balanced, ruminating its own proper food of righteousness—the Word entering from without, like food, through catechesis, and then sent up from within, as from the stomach of the mind, into rational recollection. The righteous man chews the cud of spiritual food, holding the Word in his mouth, and justice rightly cloven-footed, here too sanctifying and sending on into the coming age. Therefore the pedagogue will not lead us to the spectacles, nor would it be unreasonable to call the stadia and theaters a seat of plagues; for there too is an evil counsel, as in the case of the righteous man, for which reason the assembly over him is cursed. These gatherings are indeed filled with much disorder and lawlessness, and the pretexts for the assembly are a cause of indecency, with men and women mingling together to gaze at one another. Here the assembly already struts about. For when the eye is greedy, the appetites are heated, and the eyes, becoming accustomed to looking more boldly at those nearby, because they have leisure allowed them, inflame the erotic desires. Therefore both the spectacles and the performances, full of buffoonery and much idle talk, must be forbidden. For what shameful deed is not displayed in the theaters? What shameless word is not uttered by the jesters? Those who have enjoyed the wickedness in them clearly wipe off the images at home, but those who are unseduced and unaffected by these things would never stumble into careless pleasures.

If they claim that spectacles are taken up as part of play for amusement, I would say that the cities are not prudent, in which even playing is pursued seriously. For the merciless ambitions that cause so much death are no longer plays, nor are the vain pursuits and irrational emulations, nor the empty expenditures of property, nor the factions that arise from these still plays. But idleness must never be purchased by vain pursuit. For a sensible person would never choose the pleasant over the better. But not all of us, they say, are philosophers. Is it then that not all of us pursue life? What do you mean? How then have you believed? How do you still love God and your neighbor without philosophizing? How do you love yourself, if you are not a lover of life? I have not learned letters, they say. But if you have not learned to read, hearing is inexcusable, because it is not taught; faith is not the possession of the wise in worldly terms, but of those wise in God; and it is trained even without letters, and its common yet divine writing is called love, a spiritual composition. It is possible to hear divine wisdom, and it is possible to live as a citizen, and it is not forbidden to conduct worldly affairs in an orderly manner according to God. And let the one selling or buying never state two prices for what he buys or sells, but stating a single price and practicing truth, if he does not obtain this price, he obtains the truth and is rich in right disposition. Let praise and an oath about everything sold be absent, and let the oath be absent also in other matters. And in this way the market-goers and the shopkeepers philosophize.

You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain, for the Lord will not purify the one who takes his name in vain. Those who act contrary to this—the avaricious, the liars, the hypocrites, those who traffic in the truth—the Lord has cast out of the paternal court, not wishing the house of God, the holy one, to be a house of unjust commerce, whether of words or of material possessions. The woman and the man should be led into the church adorned modestly, with unaffected gait, embracing silence, possessing unfeigned love, pure in body, pure in heart, fit to pray to God. Let the woman have this further: let everything be covered, unless she happens to be at home; for the bearing is dignified and not liable to scrutiny. She will never slip, having placed modesty and her garment before her eyes, nor will she invite another into the slip of sin by baring her face. For this is what the Word intends, since it is fitting for her to pray veiled. They say that the wife of Aeneas, through an excess of modesty, did not uncover herself even when Troy was captured, but, though fleeing from the conflagration, remained covered. Those who are initiated into Christ ought to appear and be formed throughout their whole life as they shape themselves in church for the more dignified bearing, and to be, not merely to seem to be, such—so gentle, so reverent, so loving.

Now I do not know how they change along with places both their postures and their ways, just as they say that octopuses assimilate themselves to the rocks with which they consort, appearing of the same color. At any rate, having laid aside the inspired character of the congregation after their departure from it, they assimilate themselves to the many with whom they also live; rather, they are exposed, having laid aside the feigned pretense of dignity, and are revealed for what they were all along. And having reverenced the word concerning God, they have left it behind within where they heard it, while outside they wander with the godless, filled with erotic tunes and trills, aulos-singing, applause, drunkenness, and every kind of refuse. These very ones, who formerly hymned immortality, now sing and sing back in response, at the end chanting the most destructive palinode, wickedly and evilly: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." But they are not truly dying tomorrow; they are already dead to God, burying their own dead, that is, entombing themselves to death. The apostle opposes them with great vigor: "Do not be deceived; neither adulterers nor effeminates nor pederasts nor thieves nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, and all the others he chants, will inherit the kingdom of God." But if we are called to the kingdom of God, let us conduct ourselves worthily of the kingdom, loving God and our neighbor. Love is judged not by a kiss but by goodwill. But these people do nothing but fill the churches with the noise of a kiss, not having the loving thing within themselves.

And indeed this has been filled with suspicion of shame and blasphemy—the unrestrained use of the kiss, which ought to be mystical (the apostle has called it holy). Let us conduct ourselves worthily of the kingdom, expressing the goodwill of the soul through a temperate and closed mouth, through which a gentle manner is especially shown. There is also another impure kiss, full of poison, pretending holiness. Do you not know that even spiders, merely touching the mouth, afflict men with pains, and that kisses often inject the poison of licentiousness? It has therefore become clear to us that the kiss is not love; for love is of God. This is the love of God, says John: that we keep the commandments, not that we fawn upon one another with the mouth, and his commandments are not burdensome. Moreover, the greetings of the beloved along the roads, full of senseless boldness, of those who wish to be conspicuous to outsiders, partake of not even the slightest grace. For if it is right to pray to God mystically in the inner chamber, it would follow that one should also greet one's neighbor, whom we are commanded to love second, similarly to God and mystically, seizing the opportunity inwardly; for we are the salt of the earth, and whoever blesses a friend early with a loud voice, says the scripture, will seem to differ in nothing from one who curses. He seems above all to have turned away from the sight of women. For it is possible to sin not only by touching but also by looking, which the one genuinely being educated must especially avoid. Let your eyes look straight, and let your eyelids nod justly; for is it not possible to endure even after seeing?

But one must beware of falling. For it is possible to slip when one sees, but impossible to desire when one does not see. For it is not enough for the temperate to be pure, but one must also strive to be beyond reproach, shutting out every cause of suspicion for the summation of chastity, so that we may not only be faithful, but also appear trustworthy. And indeed this too must be guarded against, as the apostle says, lest anyone find fault with us; for we take thought for good things not only before the Lord, but also before men. Turn your eye away from a woman who is graced, and do not study another's beauty, says Scripture. And if you ask the reason, it will explain further to you: for many have been led astray by a woman's beauty, and from this friendship is kindled like fire, leading to unquenchable fire through sin—the friendship that arises from fire, which they have called love. A summary survey likewise of the best life, as many of the holy scriptures characterize the life of Christians. And I would also advise those who are married never to kiss their own wives in the presence of servants. For Aristotle did not even allow laughing at slaves, much less should a wife appear to be affectionate with them in their sight. It is better, beginning from home, to display dignity from marriage. For the union of temperance is very great, breathing pure pleasure. Indeed, the tragedy says wonderfully: Alas, alas, women, it says, how among men neither gold, nor tyranny, nor the luxury of wealth has so much provided different pleasures as the just mind of a noble man and a pious woman, thinking what is just.

These are the commandments of justice, and they are not to be rejected even when uttered by those who pursue worldly wisdom. Therefore, having recognized the work of each, spend the time of your sojourn in fear, knowing that we were not ransomed from our vain, ancestral way of life by perishable things, silver or gold, but by the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless and pure lamb. Sufficient, then, is the time that has passed, says Peter, for the will of the nations to have been accomplished, as we walked in licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, revels, drinking bouts, and lawless idolatries. Let us have the cross of the Lord as our boundary, by which we are fenced about and walled in from our former sins. Having been reborn, therefore, let us be nailed to the truth and let us come to our senses and be sanctified, because the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And who will harm us if we become zealots of the good? The best discipline is good order, which is perfect seemliness and a stable, ordered power, rendering well what follows in sequence in action, unsurpassable in virtue. These things, even if I have spoken rather harshly, managing the salvation of correction, have been said to me, says the pedagogue, since the one who rebukes with frankness makes peace. But you, if you listen to me, you will be saved; if you do not heed what has been said, it does not concern me—yet it does concern me even so, for it chooses the repentance of the sinner rather than death.

If you will listen to me, you will eat the good things of the earth, the pedagogue says again, naming human goods as good things of the earth: beauty, wealth, health and strength, nourishment. For truly good are those things which neither ear has heard nor ever entered the heart, the truly existing goods around the truly existing king, which are good and await us. For he is both giver and guardian of goods; by participation in those, the things here share the name, as the word divinely educates human weakness from the perceptible to the intellect. So then, what must be watched for at home and how life must be corrected, the pedagogue has discussed for us at length. But what he is pleased to converse with the children on the roads until he leads them to the teacher, these things he sets before us and presents in summary form through the scriptures themselves, presenting the commandments bare, adapting himself to the time of guidance, but entrusting their explanations to the teacher. For his law wishes to relax fear, having freed the voluntary into faith. Listen, he says, O child well educated, to the headings of salvation, for I will bare my own character and set before you these beautiful commandments, through which you will arrive at salvation. I lead you on the saving road. Depart from the roads of error, for the Lord knows the road of the righteous, and the road of the impious will perish. Follow then, O child, the good road, which I will explain to you, lending me your attentive ears, and I will give you hidden treasures, secret, invisible to the nations, but visible to us.

The treasures of wisdom are inexhaustible, which the apostle marvels at, calling them the depth of wealth and wisdom. And many treasures are supplied by the one God, some being revealed through the law, others through the prophets, others by the divine mouth, and another singing to the heptad of the Spirit; but the Lord, being one, is the same pedagogue through all of these. There is, then, a summary precept and a practical exhortation, containing everything: As you wish that men should do to you, do to them. And it is possible to encompass the commandments in two, as the Lord says: You shall love your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Then from these he adds, the whole law and the prophets hang. And indeed, to one who asked, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? he answered, You know the commandments; and when the other assented, he said, Do this and you will be saved. Moreover, the philanthropic character of the pedagogue must be set forth more distinctly through the various and saving commandments, so that we may have them at hand for

of the generous arrangement of the scriptures and the more ready discovery of salvation. We have the Decalogue through Moses, hinted at by a simple and single element, which circumscribes a saving designation of sins: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not worship idols, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother, and the things that follow from these. These things we must observe, as well as whatever else is enjoined in the readings of the books. And he also enjoins through Isaiah: Wash yourselves, become clean, remove the wickedness from your souls before my eyes; learn to do good, seek out justice, rescue the wronged, judge for the orphan, do right by the widow; and come, let us converse, says the Lord. And we would find many precepts also among the others, for example, concerning prayer: The good works, it says, are a prayer acceptable to the Lord, says scripture. And the manner of prayer is prescribed: If you see someone naked, it says, clothe him, and you will not overlook those of your own seed. Then your light will appear early, and your healings will quickly rise, and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of God will enfold you. What then is the fruit of this prayer? Then you will call out, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking, he will say, Behold, I am here. And concerning fasting: Why do you fast for me? says the Lord. I did not choose this fasting, nor a day for a man to humble his soul; not even if you bend your neck like a ring and spread sackcloth and ashes beneath you, will you thus call it an acceptable fasting.

What then does fasting signify? "Behold," he says, "this is the fast which I have chosen," says the Lord. Loosen every bond of injustice, dissolve the knots of violent contracts, release the broken in forgiveness, and tear apart every unjust document. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; if you see someone naked, clothe them. And indeed concerning sacrifices: "What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?" says the Lord. "I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and I do not want the fat of lambs or the blood of bulls and goats, nor would you come to appear before me. For who sought these from your hands? You will not add to treading my court; if you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me; I do not endure your new moons and your sabbaths." How then shall I sacrifice to the Lord? "Sacrifice," he says, "to the Lord is a broken spirit." How then shall I crown myself or anoint with oil? Or what shall I burn as incense to the Lord? "A fragrance," he says, "of good odor to God is a heart glorifying the one who formed it." These are crowns, sacrifices, aromatics, and flowers of God. Further concerning forbearance: "If your brother sins," he says, "reprove him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times a day and seven times returns to you saying, 'I repent,' forgive him." And to those serving as soldiers through John he commands to be content with only their rations, and to tax collectors to exact nothing beyond what is prescribed; and to a judge he says, "Do not take a bribe in judgment, for gifts blind the eyes of those who see and corrupt just words; rescue the wronged." And also to stewards:

Property eagerly sought with lawlessness becomes less. And indeed concerning love: "Love," he says, "covers a multitude of sins." And concerning conduct: "Render to Caesar the things of Caesar and to God the things of God." And concerning oath and rancor: "Did I not command your fathers, when they were departing from the land of Egypt, to bring me whole burnt offerings and sacrifices? But this I commanded them: Let each of you not bear a grudge against his neighbor in his heart, and not love a false oath." But also to liars and the puffed up he utters threats, to the former in this way: "Woe to those who call the sweet bitter and the bitter sweet," and to the latter thus: "Woe to those who are wise in themselves and knowledgeable in their own eyes; he who humbles himself will be exalted, and he who exalts himself will be humbled." And he blesses the merciful, because they themselves will be pitied, but wisdom laments anger, because it will destroy even the prudent. Already he commands us to love our enemies and to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who abuse us. "To the one who strikes you on the cheek," he says, "offer the other also, and if someone takes your tunic, do not prevent him from also taking your cloak." And concerning faith: "All that you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive," he says; but "nothing is trustworthy to the faithless," according to Pindar. And one must treat servants as oneself; for they are human beings like us: "For God is equal to all, to the free and to the slaves, if you consider." And one must not punish servants who err, but reprove them.

For he who spares the rod, it is said, hates his own son. Moreover, he rejects love of glory: "Woe to you, Pharisees," he says, "because you love the chief seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces." But he welcomes the repentance of the sinner, loving the repentance that follows sins; for the Word alone is sinless. "For to err is innate and common to all, but to recover from sin is not for any ordinary man, but for one of worth." Concerning giving, he said: "Come to me, all you blessed ones, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me." And when have we done any of these things for the Lord? Again the Pedagogue himself will speak, turning beneficence and brotherly love toward himself and saying: "Insofar as you have done these things to the little ones, you have done them to me." And such as these will go into eternal life. Such are the rational laws, the hortatory words, not written on stone tablets by the finger of the Lord, but inscribed in the hearts of men, which alone admit no corruption. For this reason the tablets of the hard-hearted were broken, so that the faiths of the infants might be impressed upon tender minds. And both laws served the Word for the pedagogy of humanity, one through Moses, the other through the apostles. Such, then, is the pedagogy through the apostles.

It seems necessary to me to discuss this form as well, or rather, remembering myself, the Pedagogue himself says, I will again set forth the precepts summarily: Laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Let the sun not set upon your anger, and give no place to the devil. Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him labor working the good, so that he may have something to give to the one in need. Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and blasphemy be removed from you along with all evil. Be kind to one another, compassionate, granting favors to yourselves, just as God in Christ granted favors to you. Be therefore wise and imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us. Let wives be subject to their own husbands, as to the Lord, and let husbands love their own wives, just as Christ loved the Church. Let those who are joined together love one another as their own bodies. Children, obey your parents. Fathers, do not provoke your children, but rear them in the discipline and admonition of the Lord. Slaves, obey your masters in the flesh with fear

and trembling in the simplicity of your hearts as to Christ, serving from the soul with goodwill. And you masters, do good to your servants, relaxing your threats, knowing that both theirs and yours is the Lord in the heavens, and there is no partiality. If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit. Let us not become vainglorious, challenging one another, envying one another. Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. Doing good, let us not grow weary; for in its own season we shall reap, not growing faint. Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, comfort the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient with all. See that no one returns evil for evil. Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies; but test everything, hold fast to the good; abstain from every form of evil. Persevere in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Walk in wisdom toward those outside, seizing the opportunity. Let your speech always be in grace, seasoned with salt, knowing how you ought to answer each one. Nourish yourselves on the words of faith; train yourselves for piety. For bodily exercise is beneficial for a short time, but piety is beneficial for everything, having the promise of life both now and in the future. Those who have faithful masters should not despise them because they are brothers, but rather serve them because they are faithful. Let the giver be in simplicity, the leader in diligence, the merciful in cheerfulness.

Love without pretense. Abhorring evil, cleaving to the good; affectionate toward one another in brotherly love, honoring one another by precedence, not sluggish in zeal, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, enduring in affliction, persevering in prayer, pursuing hospitality, sharing in the needs of the saints. These few things from many, by way of example, the Pedagogue sets before his own children, having gone through them from the divine scriptures themselves, through which, so to speak, wickedness is utterly cut out and injustice is circumscribed. Countless are the instructions extending to chosen persons that are inscribed in the holy books, some for presbyters, some for bishops and deacons, others for widows, about which there would be another time to speak. Many things also through enigmas, many also through parables, it is possible for those who encounter them to be benefited. But it is not mine, says the Pedagogue, to teach these things further; we need a teacher for the exposition of those holy words, to whom we must go. And indeed it is time for me to cease from my pedagogy, and for you to listen to the teacher. Having taken you over, reared under a good upbringing, he will teach you the oracles. This church is the school, and the bridegroom is the only teacher, the good intention of a good father, genuine wisdom, sanctification of knowledge. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, as John says, who heals both our body and soul, the whole human being, Jesus, not only for our sins, but for the whole world.

And in this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. He who says he has known him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and in him the truth is not; but he who keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. In this we know that we are in him; he who says he abides in him ought to walk as he walked. O the blessed nurslings of the pedagogy; let us fill the good face of the church and run to the good mother, and if we become hearers of the word, let us glorify the blessed economy through which man is educated, sanctified as a child of God, and while being educated on earth, he dwells in heaven, and there receives a father whom he learns of on earth. The word both does and teaches and educates all things. A horse is led by a bridle, and an ox is led by a yoke, a wild beast is caught by a noose, but man is remolded by the word, by which wild beasts are tamed, swimming creatures are lured, and flying creatures are drawn down. This one truly contrives a bridle for the horse, a yoke for the ox, a noose for the beast, a rod for the fish, a snare for the bird; this one governs and farms, rules and serves, and creates all things: He made the earth, the sky, the sea, and all the constellations with which the sky is crowned. O the divine creations, O the divine commandments: this water, let it surge within itself; this fire, let it contain its anger; this air, let it wander into the ether; and let the earth be fixed and be borne, whenever I wish. I still wish to mold man; I have the elements as matter.

Dwell with my creation. If you know me, fire will serve you. So great is this Word, this Pedagogue, the creator of the world and of man, and through him already the Pedagogue of the world; by whose command we both stand together awaiting judgment. For he does not bear a stealthy vocal word to mortals; the Word will be wisdom, as Bacchylides says. But the blameless, pure, and unblemished children of God, according to Paul, appear in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation like lights in the world. What then remains at such a festival of the Word? Let us pray to the Word: Be gracious to your children, Pedagogue, Father, Charioteer of Israel, Son and Father, both one, Lord. Grant to us who follow your commandments to fulfill the likeness of the image and to perceive with all strength the good God and a judge not bitter, and provide all things yourself, as we live in your peace, as we are transferred to your city, having sailed through the surge of sin without waves, being calm to be borne along with the Holy Spirit, with ineffable wisdom; by night, by day, until the perfect day, praising with grateful praise the only Father and Son, Son and Father, Pedagogue and Teacher Son, together with the Holy Spirit. All to the One, in whom are all things, through whom all things are one, through whom is the eternal, whose members we all are, whose glory, ages, all to the good, all to the beautiful, all to the wise, all to the just. To whom is glory now and for the ages. Amen.

Since the Pedagogue, after establishing us in the church, entrusted us to himself, the didactic and all-overseeing Word, it would be fitting for us, now being here, to send up to the Lord a reward of just gratitude, a praise appropriate to noble pedagogy.