The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
This reverence that is due to the angels is the third reason given by S. Paul why women should cover their heads. It is especially to be shown in church, for angels fill the church, and take notice of the gestures, prayers, and dress of every one present. Hear what S. Nilus relates happened to his master, S. Chrysostom, not once or twice (Ep. ad Anast.). He says : “John, the most reverend priest of the Church at Constantinople , and the light of the whole world, a man of great discernment , saw almost always the house of the Lord filled with a great company of angels , and especially whilst he was offering the holy and unbloody sacrifice ; and it was soon after this that he, full of amazement and joy , related what he had seen to his chief friends.
“‘When the priest had begun,’ he said, ‘the most holy sacrifice, many of these powers immediately descended, clad in the most beautiful robes, barefooted, and with rapt look, and with great reverence silently prostrated themselves around the altar , until the dread mystery was fulfilled. Then they dispersed hither and thither through the whole building , and kept close to the bishops , priests , and deacons , as they distributed the precious body and blood, doing all they could to help them.’”
S. Chrysostom himself (Hom. de Sac. Mensa) says in amazement : “At the altar cherubim stand ; to it descend the seraphim , endowed with six wings and hiding their faces . There the whole host of angels joins the priest in his work of ambassador for you.” S. Ambrose, commenting on the first chapter of S. Luke, speaks of the angel who appeared to Zacharias, and says : “ May the angel be present with us as we continually serve at the altar , and bring down the sacrifice ; nay, would that he would show himself to our bodily eyes . Doubt not that the angel is present when Christ comes down and is immolated.” S. Gregory (Dial. lib. iv. c. 58) says : “ Which of the faithful doubts that at the moment of immolation the heavens are opened at the voice of the priest, that the choirs of angels are present in this mystery of Jesus Christ ; that the lowest are joined to the highest , things earthly with divine , that things visible and invisible become one ? ” S. Dionysius Areopagites (Coelest. Hierarch. c. v. and ix.), says that angels of the highest order preside over the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the administration of the sacraments. Tertullian (de Orat. c. xiii.), censuring the custom of sitting during the Mass, says : “If indeed it is a mark of irreverence to sit down under the very eyes of one whom you fear and reverence, how much more impious is it to do so in the sight of the living God? while the angel of prayer is still standing? What else is it but to insult God because we are tired of praying?” John Moschus (in Prato Spir. c. 50) relates that a Roumelian Bishop, when celebrating Mass in the presence of Pope Agapitus, suddenly stopped, because he did not see as usual the descent of the Holy Spirit; and when the Pope asked him why he stopped, he said, “ Remove the deacon from the altar who holds the fly-flap.” When this had been done, the wonted sign was given, and he finished the sacrifice. Metaphrastes ( Vita S. Chrys.) says that the same thing happened to S. Chrysostom, through a deacon casting his eyes on a woman.
We should note (1.), that out of modesty and dignified reserve head-coverings were worn in the time before Christ by the women of Judaea, Troy, Rome, Arabia, and Sparta. Valerius Maximus
(lib. vi. c. 3) relates the severe punishment inflicted by C. Sulpicius on his wife : he divorced her because he had found her out of doors with uncovered head. Tertullian (de Vel. Virg. c. xiii.) says: “ The Gentile women of Arabia will rise up and judge us, for they cover, not only the head, but also the whole face, leaving only one eye to serve for both, rather than sell the whole face to every wanton gaze.” And again (de Cor. Milit. c. iv.) he says : “ Among the Jewish women , so customary is it to wear a head-covering that they may be known by it.” As to the Spartan women, Plutarch (Apophth. Lacon.) records that it was the custom for their maidens to go out in public unveiled, but married women veiled. The reason was that the one might so find husbands, while those who already had husbands might not seek to attract the attention of other men. But, as Clement of Alexandria says (Pædag. lib. ii. c. 10), it is a reproach to the Spartans that they wore their dress down to the knee only, so neither are their maidens to be praised for going forth in public with unveiled face, for in that way maiden modesty was lost by being put up for sale.
2. Tertullian (de Vel. Virg. c. ii.) blames those women who used a thin veil, because it was a provocation to lust rather than a protection to modesty, and was borrowed more from the custom of Gentile women than of believers in Christ. In chapter xii. he calls those women who consulted their mirrors for evidence of their beauty, sellers of their chastity. Moreover, S. Justin, writing to Severus (de Vita Christ.), hints plainly enough that Christians at that time abhorred mirrors. In short, Tertullian wrote a treatise (de Vel. Virg.) on this very point, to prove that all women, married or unmarried , religious or secular, should be veiled, any custom to the contrary notwithstanding, because so the Apostle enjoins. The Corinthians, he says (cap. 4), so understood S. Paul, and up to that time kept their maidens veiled. Moreover, the reasons given by the Apostle apply to all women alike, so that any breach of the precept ought to be censured and corrected. In some places, e.g., maidens go abroad with the head wholly uncovered, to show their beauty and attract a husband, when all that they really do is to peril the chastity of themselves and others, and to expose themselves daily to the wiles of panders, and hence we see and hear of so many shipwrecks to chastity.
Let, then, a maiden be veiled, and go abroad covered, lest she see herself what she ought not, or others be too much attracted by her features. For those who have ruined themselves, or slain others through the eye, are not to be numbered, and therefore the greatest watch should be kept over the eyes. Hence Tertullian ( de Vel. Virg. c. 15), says : “ Every public display of a maiden is a violation of her chastity ,” no doubt meaning that any one who walks about freely with roving eyes and exposed face, to see and be seen, is easily robbed of the purity of her mind. This very want of control is an index that the mind is not sufficiently chaste. Hence Tertullian goes on to say : “Put on the armour of shame, throw around thee the rampart of modesty, raise a wall about thy sex which will suffer neither thy eyes to go out nor those of others to come in.”
3. The head-dress of sacred virgins formerly consisted of a bridal-veil , of which Tertullian (de Vel. Virg. c. 15) says : “ Pure virginity is ever timid , and flies from the sight of men, flees for protection to its head-covering as its helmet against the attacks of temptation, the darts of scandal, against suspicions and back-bitings .” He adds that it was usual to solemnly bless these veils, whence the virgins were said to be wedded to God. Innocent I. (ad Victric. Ep . ii. c. 12) says too : “ These virgins are united to Christ in spiritual wedlock, and are veiled.” These virgins lastly were clad in a dark-coloured dress, and covered with a long cloak. On the other hand Lucian ( Philopatris) thus satirises the first dress of Christian men : “ A sorry cloak, bare head, hair cut short, no shoes.” They went then bare-footed, or at all events like the Capuchins, wearing only sandals.
Ver. 11. — Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man , in the Lord. This is to be referred to ver. 9, not to the words immediately preceding, which by some Bibles are rightly put in a parenthesis. Having said, in ver. 9, that the woman was created for the man, the Apostle, lest he might seem to have given to men an occasion for pride, to women of indignation, here softens the force of it by adding that in marriage neither can man be without woman nor woman without man. Each needs the other’s help, and that “ in the Lord,” that is, by the will and disposition of the Lord. Cf. S. Ambrose and the following verse.
“ In the Lord ” may also be understood “ in Christ, by Christian truth and law.” The rule of Christian law and of God’s ordinance is that the husband and wife give mutual help, procreate children, and educate them piously. This seems to be a reminder to married people of their duty to each other, and of Christian piety.
Ver. 12. — As the woman is of the man , &c. The first woman, Eve, was formed from man ; man is conceived, formed, born, propagated through woman : all is done, ordered, and disposed by God.
Ver. 14. — Doth not even nature itself teach you? The Latin Version reads, “ Neither doth nature itself teach you,” Nature doth not teach that women should be veiled, but it does teach that if a man grow long hair, it is a disgrace to him ; if a woman, it is her glory.