CYPRIAN,
Bishop of Carthage in the third century, inveighs in the following terms against the use of silk:
Tu licet indumenta peregrina et vestes sericas induas, nuda es. Auro te licet et
margaritis gemmisque condecores, sine Christi decore deformis es. De Lapsis, p. 135. ed. Fell.
Although thou shouldest put on a tunic of foreign silk, thou art naked; although thou shouldest beautify thyself with gold, and pearls, and gems, without the beauty of Christ thou art unadorned.
Also in his treatise on the dress of Virgins he says,
Sericum et purpuram indutæ, Christum induere non possunt: auro et margaritis
et monilibus adornatæ, ornamenta cordis et pectoris perdiderunt.
Those who put on silk and purple, cannot put on Christ: women, adorned with gold and pearls and necklaces, have lost the ornaments of the heart and of the breast.
In the same place he gives us a translation of the well-known
passage of Isaiah enumerating the luxuries of female
attire among the Jews: "In that day the Lord will take away
the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and
their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains,
and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the
ornaments of the legs, and the head-bands, and the tablets,
and the ear-rings, the rings, and nose-jewels, the changeable
suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the
crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods,
and the veils." Isaiah in. 18-23.
SOLINUS,
Primos hominum Seres cognoscimus, qui, aquarum aspergine inundatis frondibus,
vellera arborum adminiculo depectunt liquoris, et lanuginis teneram subtilitatem
humore domant ad obsequium. Hoc illud est sericum, in quo ostentare potius
corpora quàm vestire, primò feminis, nunc etiam viris persuasit luxuriæ
libido. Cap. 1.
The Seres first, having inundated the foliage with aspersions of water, combed down fleeces from trees by the aid of a fluid, and subdued to their purposes the tender and subtile down by the use of moisture. The substance so prepared is silk; that material in which at first women, but now even men, have been persuaded by the eagerness of luxury rather to display their bodies, than to clothe them.
