On Modesty

Tertullian

  1. 1. God Just as Well as Merciful; Accordingly, Mercy Must Not Be Indiscriminate.
  2. 2. God Just as Well as Merciful; Accordingly, Mercy Must Not Be Indiscriminate.
  3. 3. An Objection Anticipated Before the Discussion Above Promised is Commenced.
  4. 4. Adultery and Fornication Synonymous.
  5. 5. Of the Prohibition of Adultery in the Decalogue.
  6. 6. Examples of Such Offences Under the Old Dispensation No Pattern for the Disciples of the New. But Even the Old Has Examples of Vengeance Upon Such Offences.
  7. 7. Of the Parables of the Lost Ewe and the Lost Drachma.
  8. 8. Of the Prodigal Son.
  9. 9. Certain General Principles of Parabolic Interpretation. These Applied to the Parables Now Under Consideration, Especially to that of the Prodigal Son.
  10. 10. Repentance More Competent to Heathens Than to Christians.
  11. 11. From Parables Tertullian Comes to Consider Definite Acts of the Lord.
  12. 12. Of the Verdict of the Apostles, Assembled in Council, Upon the Subject of Adultery.
  13. 13. Of St. Paul, and the Person Whom He Urges the Corinthians to Forgive.
  14. 14. The Same Subject Continued.
  15. 15. The Same Subject Continued.
  16. 16. General Consistency of the Apostle.
  17. 17. Consistency of the Apostle in His Other Epistles.
  18. 18. Answer to a Psychical Objection.
  19. 19. Objections from the Revelation and the First Epistle of St. John Refuted.
  20. 20. From Apostolic Teaching Tertullian Turns to that of Companions of the Apostles, and of the Law.
  21. 21. Of the Difference Between Discipline and Power, and of the Power of the Keys.
  22. 22. Of Martyrs, and Their Intercession on Behalf of Scandalous Offenders.

Modesty, the flower of manners, the honour of our bodies, the grace of the sexes, the integrity of the blood, the guarantee of our race, the basis of sanctity, the pre-indication of every good disposition; rare though it is, and not easily perfected, and scarce ever retained in perpetuity, will yet up to a certain point linger in the world, if nature shall have laid the preliminary groundwork of it, discipline persuaded to it, censorial rigour curbed its excesses — on the hypothesis, that is, that every mental good quality is the result either of birth, or else of training, or else of external compulsion.

But as the conquering power of things evil is on the increase — which is the characteristic of the last times — things good are now not allowed either to be born, so corrupted are the seminal principles; or to be trained, so deserted are studies; nor to be enforced, so disarmed are the laws. In fact, (the modesty) of which we are now beginning (to treat) is by this time grown so obsolete, that it is not the abjuration but the moderation of the appetites which modesty is believed to be; and he is held to be chaste enough who has not been too chaste. But let the world's modesty see to itself, together with the world itself: together with its inherent nature, if it was wont to originate in birth; its study, if in training; its servitude, if in compulsion: except that it had been even more unhappy if it had remained only to prove fruitless, in that it had not been in God's household that its activities had been exercised. I should prefer no good to a vain good: what profits it that that should exist whose existence profits not? It is our own good things whose position is now sinking; it is the system of Christian modesty which is being shaken to its foundation — (Christian modesty), which derives its all from heaven; its nature, through the laver of regeneration; its discipline, through the instrumentality of preaching; its censorial rigour, through the judgments which each Testament exhibits; and is subject to a more constant external compulsion, arising from the apprehension or the desire of the eternal fire or kingdom.

In opposition to this (modesty), could I not have acted the dissembler? I hear that there has even been an edict set forth, and a peremptory one too. The Pontifex Maximus — that is, the bishop of bishops — issues an edict: I remit, to such as have discharged (the requirements of) repentance, the sins both of adultery and of fornication. O edict, on which cannot be inscribed, Good deed! And where shall this liberality be posted up? On the very spot, I suppose, on the very gates of the sensual appetites, beneath the very titles of the sensual appetites. There is the place for promulgating such repentance, where the delinquency itself shall haunt. There is the place to read the pardon, where entrance shall be made under the hope thereof. But it is in the church that this (edict) is read, and in the church that it is pronounced; and