Religious dress

1 passages · search this phrase →

Often appears with: vainglory · religious persecution and toleration · pride, vanity, and humility · penance · humble apparel · custom and unwritten law

Usually: argument (1) · exhortation (1)

Quotable

“As Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. iii, 12), "in all external things, it is not the use but the intention of the user that is at fault.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) · insight

Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) primary

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint · c. 1271–1273 (Part II-II written within this period)
PART II-II ("Secunda Secundae") > i.e. black, "equally with glittering apparel. Fine and coarse clothes are equally to be shunned, for the one exhales pleasure, the other vainglory." Therefore, since vainglory is a graver sin than the use of pleasure, it would seem that religious who should aim at what is more perfect ought to avoid coarse rather than fine clothes. (1/4)

Aquinas addresses whether religious may wear coarser clothes, arguing objections based on avoiding “evil appearance” and excess, then concluding that intention matters and coarse apparel can signify penance and contempt of worldly glory.

Obj. 3: Further, religious should aim especially at doing works of penance. Now in works of penance we should use, not outward signs of sorrow, but rather signs of joy; for our Lord said (Matt. 6:16): "When you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, sad," and afterwards He added: "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face." Augustine commenting on these words (De Serm. Dom. in Monte ii, 12): "In this c…