The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 57
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.
MACARIUS, CL., A. D. 373.
Yates's Translation
This author gives us.an additional proof [Homil. 17, § 9,) that
the use of silkeu 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
{sericuni) to be an article of Syrian and Phoenician traffic as
early as the time of that prophet.
In his beautiful and interesting Epistle to Laeta on the Edu-
cation of her Daughter {0pp. Paris, 1546, torn. 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 tlu-eads.
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 wc do not use garments of silk., wo are reckoned monks ; because we
are not drunken, and do not convulse ourselves with laughter, wc are called restrained
and sad : if our tunic is not white, wc immediately hear the proverb. He
is an impostor and a Greek.
—
torn. i. p. 156, ed. Erasmi, 1526.
Epist. ad Marccllum, Dc ^grotatione Blcsillce,
YoH 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 Atrcbates and from Laodl-
cea.
—
Adv. Jovintanum, I. ii 0pp. ed. Paris, 1546, (oin. ii. p. 29.
In the following he further condemns the practice of wrap-
ping 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, 12?«a