For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 11:7 Go To 1 Corinthians 11
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For a man indeed ought two to cover his head, inasmuch as he is the image and glory of God. This is a hendiadys, for man is the image of the glory of God, or the glorious image of God, in whom the majesty and power of God shine forth most clearly. He is placed on the topmost step in nature, and is as it were God"s vicegerent, ruling everything This is the major of a syllogism of which the minor is: but the glory of God must be manifested, the glory of man hidden. Therefore, since woman is the glory of the Prayer of Manasseh , the man of God, it follows that woman should be veiled, that the man should not. S. Anicetus (Ep. ad. Episc. Galliæ) takes this verse of the Apostle chiefly of men in the ranks of the clergy, and of priests in particular, who, in obedience to S. Paul, ought not only to have their heads uncovered, but also a tonsure in the shape of a crown, as S. Peter had (Bede, Hist. Ang. lib. v. c23 , and Greg. of Tours, de Glor. Conf. c. xxvii.), to represent Christ"s crown of thorns and the contumely endured by S. Peter and his fellow Apostles, from which they expect a crown of glory in the heavens.
It should be remarked that in the Old Testament the high-priest offered sacrifices with bare feet and covered head, i.e, wearing his mitre (Exod. xxviii37), but in the New Testament the priests offer the sacrifice of the Mass with their feet shod and with uncovered head. Epiphanius says (Hres8o) that, in the New Testament, Christ, who is our Head, is conspicuous and manifest to us, but was veiled and hidden from the Jews in the Old Law. However, the Apostle is evidently referring here to all men in general, not to the clergy only.
It is not contrary to this precept of the Apostle for our priests, when they celebrate, to use the amice among the other vestments, for they do not cover the head with it while sacrificing, but only use it round the opening in the chasuble (Rupert, de Div. Off. lib. i. c10). The amice is not used, then, to cover the head, but to represent the ephod of the high-priest under the Old Law, as Alcuin and Rabanus say, or to signify the veil with which the Jews bound the eyes of Christ (S. Matthew 26:67). Cf. Dom. Soto, lib. iv. dist13 , qu2 , art4 , and Hugh Vict. de Sacr. lib. ii. c4.
But S. Paul wishes to abolish the heathen custom, first instituted, say Plutarch and Servius, by neas, of sacrificing and making supplication to their gods with veiled head. Tertullian (in Apol.) remarked this distinction between Christians and heathen, and Varro (de Ling. Lat. lib. iv.) records that the Roman women, when sacrificing, had their heads veiled in the same way.
But the woman is the glory of the man. Woman was made of man to his glory, as his workmanship and image; therefore she is subject to him, and should be veiled, in token of her subordination.
The woman, that is the wife, is the glory of the Prayer of Manasseh , his glorious image, because God formed Eve out of the Prayer of Manasseh , in his likeness, so that the image might represent the Prayer of Manasseh , as a copy the model. This image is seen in the mind and reason, inasmuch as the woman, like the Prayer of Manasseh , is endowed with a rational soul, with intellect, will, memory, liberty, and Isaiah , equally with the Prayer of Manasseh , capable of every degree of Wisdom of Solomon , grace, and glory. The woman, therefore, is the image of the Prayer of Manasseh , but only improperly; for the woman, as regards the rational soul, is man"s equal, and both man and woman have been made in the image of God; but the woman was made from the Prayer of Manasseh , after him, and is inferior to him, and created like him merely. Hence the Apostle does not say that "the woman is the image of the Prayer of Manasseh ," but only "the woman is the glory of the man." The reason is no doubt the one that Salmeron has pointed out, that woman is a notable ornament of Prayer of Manasseh , as given to him for a means to propagate children and govern his family, and as the material over which he may exercise his jurisdiction and dominion. For man"s dominion not only extends to inanimate things and brute animals, but also to rational beings, viz, to women and wives.
