The inventors of these adornments, I want to say, the alleged sons of God, who left God to possess the daughters of men (Gen. 6:2), were condemned to death for this, and this also served to dishonor the wife. It is they, or their descendants, who have invented, or discovered many things, carefully concealed by nature, and have learned many arts, which it would be better not to know; I say, they showed people how to look for metals in the interior of the earth, they discovered the power and quality of herbs; they were the first to cast enchantments, and dreamed of finding a spider to know the future in the arrangement of the stars. Their chief endeavour was to furnish their wives with all the instruments of vanity with which they adorn themselves with such discernment: from their hands flowed the glitter of the diamonds with which the necklaces shine, all the gold on their wrists, the pleasant variety of colours of the fabrics, in short, all the various substances which women use to adorn themselves and to conceal their faces. The quality of all these things may be judged by the qualities of their inventors: he must be utterly blind who does not see that sinners will never bring us to innocence, that seducing lovers will never teach chastity, that these rebellious spirits, so to speak, or their minions, will never instill in us the fear of the God whom they have forsaken. If their inventions were real sciences, then such worthless teachers cannot adequately instruct in them; but if these gifts are nothing but a pledge of debauchery, then what can be more shameful?

But whoever may be the seducers of the female sex, whoever may be the inventors of those arts and fabrics which produce vanity, especially in the hearts of women, let us endeavour to examine the very nature and essence of these things, in order to know exactly what causes impel us to seek them with such diligence. By the word dress of women I mean, first, their clothing proper, gold, silver, precious stones, and other ornaments belonging thereto, and secondly, their extreme care to remove their hair in a variety of ways, to maintain their nobility, to preserve freshness and complexion, and to apply to the secular mode of life other parts of the body exposed to the eyes of men. I believe that the first of these whims proceeds from vanity, and the second is real debauchery. I leave it to the Christian wives, the servants of God, to judge whether they can find here anything resembling humility, something in accordance with chastity, which they have made their first duty to observe inviolably.

What are gold and silver, which constitute the main substance of the splendor of secular people? Why is this substance, which is the same earth, more precious to them than the earth trampled underfoot? Is it not because the extraction of it from the deep caves where it was created often costs the lives of those unfortunates who are condemned to extract it from there? Or is it because it has changed its appearance from fire, and takes the name of metal, in order to serve such a use, to what ambition of man does it wish to turn it? I find nothing else in all this than the same thing that happens to iron, copper, and other products of the earth, and ordinary metals; and therefore it is foolish to suppose that these precious substances are endowed by nature with any precedence over other metals; but, on the contrary, nothing is more prudent than to prefer iron and brass to them, because from the latter we gain much more benefit and services than from gold and silver, which are sometimes justly used in the same way as them.

The land was never cultivated with gold, and ships were never built of silver. Never did a golden sword protect anyone's life, and silver walls did not serve as a bulwark for people either against bad weather or against enemy attacks. Finally, gold and silver have never been used for the extraction and processing of iron, whereas they themselves are of no use without the aid of iron. From all this I do not see that gold and silver have received any advantage from nature over other metals.

Is there anything better to say in favor of precious stones, which are revered more than gold and silver? Are they not of the same substance as flints and barren cartilage, which are nothing but eruptions of the earth? Of these precious stones it can be said with certainty that they do not bring any direct benefit. They cannot be used either for the foundations of houses, or for the construction of fortress walls, or for covering buildings, or for the construction of terraces. They serve only to satisfy the ambition of women and to increase their pride; and for this elegant use, they are polished with such difficulty, in order to give them a greater luster, so skilfully worked to amaze the eye with an excellent combination and variety of colors, so carefully pierced to hang to the ears, so skillfully set with gold, in order to give them a new beauty by a mixture of this metal.

But ambition is not satisfied with these things that are taken out of the earth. He needs people to dive into the depths of the sea, and there seek out and draw new food for him from the smallest shells; and what is most surprising, the so-called pearls are nothing but a deficiency of these shells, as a sickly excrescence formed within these animals. In general, there is nothing in the world that vanity does not take advantage of for its own satisfaction: it even penetrates into the head of the dragon in order to find there an imaginary precious stone to adorn itself, as if it were not enough for a Christian woman that her ancestor learned from the serpent to disobey God, and as if she needed it from the animal, which served as an instrument for our tempter, to borrow the substance for the ignition in oneself of the fire of ambition in pride. Do you not think, dear sisters, that the best way to erase the head of the serpent is to value its eruptions so dearly? Is this not a clear sign that you silently submit to him, when you wear these stones on your head, when you set them to adorn your brow with glory?

If the value of so many things you respect were recognized at least by the general agreement and approval of all nations, I might think that you had allowed yourself to be carried away by the mighty force of common opinion. But these substances, which you revere as precious, are despised in the lands from which they come, and are highly valued only where they are foreign, that is, where their real value is unknown. The abundance of these things instills indifference to them; and among the Parthians, Medes, and other nations who abound in gold mines, chains are often forged of gold for slaves and criminals, so that the latter, burdened with what we call wealth, are the more miserable the richer they are, and thus prove the truth that gold can sometimes be an object of contempt.

Among these peoples, precious stones are no more respected. We have seen recently in Rome with what contempt they treat them. Our noblest ladies were ashamed to see to what use these barbarian peoples turned their best adornments. The emeralds that dotted the curves of their belts, and the diamonds set into the scabbards of their swords, were carelessly hidden under the simplest clothes; and the pearls that covered their shoes were often covered with mud themselves. They wear jewels only in places where they are not to be seen, as if they wanted to teach the ladies of Rome that they were ashamed to exalt themselves with them. They are not content with dressing their servants in costly cloths of many colors, but usually cover the walls of their houses with them, considering them as unworthy of human use. They prefer clothes of a simple natural color to scarlet.

I do not think that such a general contempt for these things can be blamed and considered barbarous.

Thus, these things, which do not come from God, do not constitute good, but are the invention of His adversary, that is, the devil, who perverts all that is natural. What is not of God comes from the rival of His glory; and this rival is none other than the devil with his angels.

But, you will object, all these fabrics were not actually produced by the hands of God. "So be it. However, you do not use them in accordance with the will of God. It is as if you wanted to assure me that the heathen spectacles, against which I have written before, and the idolatry itself, are in accord with the will of God, because God created the things used by men for these abominations. Therefore, if a Christian is not allowed to be present at pagan spectacles, then he should not uniformly arrogate to himself the right to turn to his advantage gold and precious stones, created by God solely for His glory.

But how far removed this criminal and vain age is from the fulfillment of the will of God! While God has distributed all things differently in different lands, so that they are mutually rare and alien where they are not born, instead of being content with the works which God has provided to us in their own way, we are overwhelmed with a blind lust for novelty, and unhappily strive in heart and soul to possess such things as God has determined for the benefit of other nations.

Lust becomes the more insatiable the more extensive the possession of things is. We see the ruin of the noblest families from the acquisition of some boxes and caskets; we see veils worth up to twenty-five thousand gold coins; we see the value of whole forests and islands adorning a delicate head; we see untold incomes hanging on the ears of an ambitious beauty; We see on our fingers the cost of several bags of gold. Can it be said, then, that ambition does not triumph when such incredible expenses are spent on women?

Book Two