A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Oft-Wedded 565
and have renounced the world and have trodden its pleasures
under foot,
to ask the mothers of their communities
to cut their hair; not that afterward they go about with
heads uncovered in defiance of the Apostle's command,
for they wear a close-fitting cap and veil. No one knows
of this in any single case except the shearers and the shorn;
but as the practice is universal, it is almost universally
known. The custom has in fact become a second nature.
VI.
A Much Married Couple
The story I am about to relate is incredible; yet it is Twentyvouched
for by many witnesses. Many years ago when and twenty-
I was helping Damasus, bishop of Rome, with his eccle- ^^
^"^"
siastical correspondence, and writing his answers to the
•^
'^
„ ^
St. Jerome,
questions referred to him by the Councils of the East and Letter cxxiii.
West, I saw a married couple, both of whom were sprung
St. Jerome
from the very dregs of the people. The man had already demnfLc°°
buried twenty wives and the woman had had twenty-two ^F'^ ^^'^"
,
nages.
, ,
husbands. Now they were united to each other, as each
believed, for the last time. The greatest curiosity prevailed
among both men and women to see which of these
two veterans would live to bury the other. The husband
triumphed and walked before the bier of his oft-married
wife, amid a great concourse of people from all quarters,
with garland and palm-branch, scattering spelt as he
went along among an approving crowd.
VII.
The Pagan Gods are Immoral
Hence it proceedeth that those gods never had care of They are
the lives and manners of such cities and nations as gave every kind
them divine honors ; but contrarywise gave free permission oi^^*'°°"°*"
to such horrible and abominable evils, to enter, not upon
their lands, vines, houses, or treasures, no nor upon the