My entrails dark with hairy threads are fill’d:
Then to the leafy lops of shrubs I climb,
Make my cocoon, and rest by fate’s decree.
In a book written by this author, in praise of virginity, he observes, That chastity alone did not form an amiable and perfect character, but required to be accompanied and adorned by many other virtues; and this observation he further illustrates by the following simile taken from the art of weaving: “As it is not a web of one uniform color and texture, without any variety of figures, that pleaseth the eye and appears beautiful, but one that is woven by shuttles, filled with threads of purple, and many other colors, flying from side to side, and forming a variety of figures and images, in different compartments, with admirable art.”—Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xiii.
EIGHTH CENTURY.
BEDE, CL., A. D. 701.
Joseph autem mercatus est sindonem, et deponens eum involvit sindone. (Marc. xv. 46.)—Et ex simplici sepultura domini ambitio divitum condemnatur, qui ne in tumulis quidem possunt carere divitiis. Possumus autem juxta intelligentiam spiritalem hoc sentire, quod corpus domini non auro, non gemmis et serico, sed linteamine puro obvolvendum sit, quanquam et hoc significet, quod ille in sindone munda involvat Jesum, qui pura eum mente susceperit. Hinc ecclesiæ mos obtinuit, ut sacrificium altaris non in serico, neque in panno tincto, sed in lino terreno celebretur, sicut corpus est domini in sindone munda sepultum, juxta quod in gestis pontificalibus a beato Papâ Silvestro legimus esse statutum.—Expos. in Marcum, tom. v. p. 207. Col. Agrip. 1688.
But Joseph bought a linen cloth, and, taking him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth. (Mark xv. 46.)—The simple burial of our Lord condemns the ambition of rich men, who cannot be without wealth even in their tombs. That his body is to be wrapped not in gold, not in silk and precious stones, but in pure linen, may be understood by us spiritually. It also intimates, that he incloses Jesus in a clean linen cloth, who receives him with a pure mind. Hence the custom of the church has obtained, to celebrate the sacrifice of the altar, not in silk, nor in dyed cloth, but in earthy flax, as the body of our Lord was buried in a clean linen cloth; for so we read in the pontifical acts, that it was decreed by the blessed Pope Silvester.
The latter portion of this extract, wherein we are informed of the origin of the practice, universally adopted, of covering the Eucharist with a white linen cloth, must be a later addition. Pope Silvester lived, as the reader will perceive, long after the time of Bede.
Bede, in his History of the Abbots of Wearmouth, states that the first abbot and founder of the monastery, Biscop, surnamed Benedict, went a fifth time to Rome for ornaments and books to enrich it, and on this occasion (A. D. 685.) brought two scarfs, or palls, of incomparable workmanship, composed entirely of silk, with which he afterwards purchased the land of three families situated at the mouth of the Wear[83]. This shows the high value of silken articles at that period.