to the disposition with which he comes thither: my care is only
that of refreshing and washing my poor body.' That kind of
defence does not clear you, nor does it excuse the crime of
lasciviousness and wantonness. Such a washing defiles; it does
not purify nor cleanse the limbs, but stains them. You behold no
one immodestly, but you, yourself, are gazed upon immodestly; you
do not pollute your eyes with disgraceful delight, but in
delighting others you yourself are polluted; you make a show of
the bathing-place; the places where you assemble are fouler than
a theatre. There all modesty is put off; together with the
clothing of garments, the honor and modesty of the body is laid
aside, virginity is exposed, to be pointed at and to be
handled.... Let your baths be performed with women, whose
behavior is modest towards you." (Cyprian, _De Habitu Virginum_,
cap. 19, 21.) The Church carried the same spirit among the
barbarians of northern Europe, and several centuries later the
promiscuous bathing of men and women was prohibited in some of
the Penitentials. (The custom was, however, preserved here and
there in Northern Europe, even to the end of the eighteenth
century, or later. In Rudeck's _Geschichte der oeffentlichen
Sittlichkeit in Deutschland_, an interesting chapter, with
contemporary illustrations, is devoted to this custom; also, Max
Bauer, _Das Geschlechtsleben in der Deutschen Vergangenheit_, pp.
216-265.)

"Women," says Clement again, "should not seek to be graceful by
avoiding broad drinking vessels that oblige them to stretch their
mouths, in order to drink from narrow alabastra that cause them
indecently to throw back the head, revealing to men their necks
and breasts. The mere thought of what she is ought to inspire a
woman with modesty.... On no account must a woman be permitted to
show to a man any portion of her body naked, for fear lest both
fall: the one by gazing eagerly, the other by delighting to
attract those eager glances." (_Paedagogus_, Book II, Chapter V.)

James, Bishop of Nisibis, in the fourth century, was a man of
great holiness. We are told by Thedoret that once, when James had
newly come into Persia, it was vouchsafed to him to perform a
miracle under the following circumstances: He chanced to pass by
a fountain where young women were wash