Till at the call of time it gladly leaves
Corruption, and its ancient shape resumes.
A little remnant of its mould'ring flesh,
By processes unspeakable and dark,
Restores the wonders of its earliest form.
Yates's Translation
MACARIUS, CL., A. D. 373.
This author gives us an additional proof (Homil. 17, § 9,) that the use of silken clothing was characteristic of dissolute women.
JEROME, CL., A. D. 378.
This great author mentions silk in numerous passages.
In his translation of Ezekiel xxvii. he has supposed silk (sericum) to be an article of Syrian and Phœnician traffic as early as the time of that prophet.
In his beautiful and interesting Epistle to Læta on the Education of her Daughter (Opp. Paris, 1546, tom. i. p. 20. C.), he says:
Let her learn also to spin wool, to hold the distaff, to place the basket in her
bosom, to twirl the spindle, to draw the threads with her thumb. Let her despise
the webs of silk-worms, the fleeces of the Seres, and gold beaten into threads.
Let her prepare such garments as may dispel cold, not expose the body naked,
even when it is clothed. Instead of gems and silk, let her love the sacred
books, &c.
Because we do not use garments of silk, we are reckoned monks; because we are not drunken, and do not convulse ourselves with laughter, we are called restrained and sad: if our tunic is not white, we immediately hear the proverb, He is an impostor and a Greek.—Epist. ad Marcellum, De Ægrotatione Blesillæ, tom. i. p. 156, ed. Erasmi, 1526.
You formerly went with naked feet; now you not only use shoes, but even ornamented ones. You then wore a poor tunic and a black shirt under it, dirty and pale, and having your hand callous with labor; now you go adorned with linen and silk, and with vestments obtained from the Atrebates and from Laodicea.—Adv. Jovinianum, l. ii Opp. ed. Paris, 1546, tom. ii. p. 29.
In the following he further condemns the practice of wrapping
the bodies of the dead in cloth of gold:
Why do you wrap your dead in garments of gold? Why does not ambition
cease amidst wailings and tears? Cannot the bodies of the rich go to corruption
except in silk?Epist. L. ii.
You cannot but be offended yourself, when you admire garments of silk and gold in others.—Epist. L. ii. No. 9, p. 138, ed. Par. 1613, 12mo.
