Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
As for drinking-cups made of silver and gold, and others set with gems, their use is worthless — it is a mere deception of the eye; for whether one pours a hot mixture into them, the vessels grow scorching hot and the taking of them is painful, or again one pours in something cold, the material imparts its quality, spoiling the mixed wine, and the rich drink becomes harmful. Away, then, with certain Thericlean cups and Antigonid tankards, and beakers and drinking-horns and limpet-shaped cups, and the countless kinds of vessels besides, and the wine-coolers on top of these and the wine-pitchers; "for gold and silver, taken simply, both privately and publicly, are an invidious possession," a possession exceeding need, rare to acquire, difficult to guard, and unsuited to use. Indeed the elaborate vanity of engravers applied to glass — which through their art is the more readily shattered — teaches one both to fear and to drink at once, and must be restricted by our good order. As for silver couches, basins, vinegar-dishes, little platters, and bowls — and, along with these, still further pieces of silverware and gold plate, some meant for serving food, and others meant for uses I am ashamed even to name; and tripods elaborately worked of easily-split cedar and citron-wood and ebony and ivory; and couches with silver feet, inlaid with ivory, spangled with gold, and dining-couches adorned with the shell of the tortoise; and purple bed-coverings, and others of colors hard to obtain — these are evidences of tasteless luxury, plots hatched by envy and stupidity for their own advantage, all to be dismissed, having no worthy purpose whatsoever. "For the time is short," as the apostle says. * * This alone remains: not to be got up ridiculously, as some are seen in processions, anointed on the outside to a striking show of solemnity, while within they are wretched. Making this yet more precise, he added: "it remains that a man with a wife should live as if he had none, and one who makes purchases as though owning nothing." But if this is said even of marriage, of which God says "be fruitful and multiply," how much more, do you suppose, must tastelessness be banished by the Lord's own authority? For this reason too the Lord says, "sell your possessions, give the proceeds to the destitute, and come along with me"; walk after God with ostentation cast off, empty of perishable display, possessing only what is truly yours, the good that cannot be taken away — faith toward God, confession of him who suffered, and beneficence toward men — a possession most precious of all. For my part I welcome Plato too, legislating outright "that one ought to have wealth neither of silver nor of gold," nor even any useless vessel which is not, along with necessary use, also moderate, so that the same object might serve many purposes, and the accumulation of possessions be abolished. Very finely, indeed, does the divine scripture somewhere say, directed against the self-loving and the boastful: "Where now are the princes of the nations, they who hold mastery over earth's wild beasts, who play games with the sky's birds, who store away silver and gold, the very things men set their confidence in, with no limit to their amassing; who shape silver and gold and are consumed with anxious care for them? Their doings cannot be tracked down; they perished and were brought down into the grave." This is the wage of tastelessness. For if we who farm have need of a mattock and a plow, yet no one would forge a silver hoe or a golden spade, but we make use of well-wrought material, not rich material, for tilling the soil — what, then, prevents those who take the same view regarding household vessels as well from holding the same reasoning? Let necessity, not extravagance, set their standard. So tell me this — will a kitchen-knife, lacking silver rivets or an ivory-fitted grip, somehow fail to cut? Or must Indian steel be forged for a portion of meat, as though we were calling in some ally? And again — if the wash-basin were made of clay, will it not receive the water for washing the hand? Or the foot-basin, the water for the foot? Will the table with feet fashioned of ivory take offense at bearing a loaf of bread worth a single obol? Nor indeed will the lamp fail to give its service of light because it is the work of a potter, not a goldsmith. And I say that the pallet-bed, providing a place to lie down no worse than the ivory couch, and the goat-hair blanket, quite sufficient to be spread beneath one — so that there is no need of purple or crimson coverlets — is nonetheless condemned for its cheapness, on account of the folly of luxury, that beginner of evils.
See what great delusion this is, what a passion for outward show. The Lord ate from a cheap dish, had his disciples lie down upon grass spread over the earth, and washed their feet, wrapping a towel about himself — he, the unproud God and Lord of all, not carrying about a silver foot-basin brought down from heaven. And he asked the Samaritan woman for something to drink, drawn up from the well in an earthen vessel, not seeking royal gold, but teaching that thirst is easily quenched; for he set need as his aim, not lack of goodness in excess. He likewise took food and wine at banquets, without mining ore from the ground, nor making use of little vessels of silver and gold — that is, of rust — reeking, such as the fumes that rise from material puffed up with pride. For, in short, I say that food and clothing and vessels and all the other things in the household, taken together, must be in keeping with the fixed principles of the Christian, being suited fittingly to the person, the age, the pursuit, and the occasion. For being servants of one God, it is fitting that our possessions and the furnishings that go with them show forth the tokens of one good life, and that each person, by an undivided faith, by this single-minded steadfastness, make what follows appear consistent and in harmony with that one disposition. And whatever things we acquire without difficulty, and use readily, and praise and guard easily, and share readily with others — these are better. So the useful things are better, and, of course, the cheaper things are better than the costly ones. In sum, wealth not rightly governed is a citadel of vice, around which the many, their eyes diseased with longing for it, could never make their way into the kingdom of heaven, sick as they are over worldly things, and living arrogantly on account of their luxuries. Those who are eager for salvation must grasp beforehand that all creation exists for our use, but possession is for the sake of self-sufficiency, which one might secure even from a few things. For vain are those who, through insatiable greed, rejoice in their hoarded treasures: "but he who gathers wages," it says, "gathers them into a bag full of holes." This is the one who gathers and shuts up the seed and grows the poorer, who shares with no one. It is a mockery and broad laughter that men should carry about silver chamber-pots and glass urinals, just as they bring along their own counselors, and that these women, senselessly wealthy, should have vessels of gold made to receive their excretions, so that not even the rich women may relieve themselves without ostentation; I could wish that throughout their whole life their gold be judged worth no more than dung. But now the citadel of vice has been found to be love of silver, a thing the apostle calls the source from which every evil springs, "which some, reaching after, have wandered away from the faith and impaled themselves upon many pains." The best wealth is poverty of desires, and true greatness of soul does not consist in being proud of wealth, but in despising it; but to boast greatly over one's vessels is utterly shameful, for it is not right to be so serious about things which anyone who wishes may buy in the marketplace, whereas wisdom is not bought with earthly coin, nor in the marketplace, but is sold in heaven, and sold for a just currency — the incorruptible Word, the royal gold.
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