“The
Encyclopedia Britannica points out that “the clergy of the Roman obedience
shaved clean, as have done the pope for two centuries and more.”” Pg. 26
“A prominent bishop of the time had such feelings against facial hair
that he compared bearded men of the Norman-English court with “filthy goats and
bristley Saracens”” Pg. 26
“During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries bearded popes were the
subject of strange and bitter controversy.
Henry I, in an attempt to revive beards, was denounced by the bishop of
Sees so forcibly that the king and his courtiers consented to have their beards
removed in church by the bishops own shears.” Pg. 27
“The
Picture of a twelfth century prophet from a sculpture in a cathedral in
Bomberg, Germany portrays a clean-shaven fashion as was pronounced and enforced
by Pope Anacletus (1130-1138) upon “literal authority of scripture.”” Pg.
33
“Some
bishops preached the Gospel of the razor, proclaiming that the wearer of facial
hair took after goats “whose filthy lasciviousness is shamefully imitated by
fornicators and sodomites.”” Pg. 33
“The
council of Limoger that shaving provided the clergy with a necessary “distinction”
This Council ordered all clergymen within its jurisdiction to shave. The same year the Council of Bourges followed
its example” Pg. 33
“Pope
Gregory was a great enemy of facial hair. He maintained that any priest who
wore a beard was guilty of a serious crime. Reynolds notes that “in 1703 he
[Pope Gregory] called a council where a canon against priestly beards was among
the decisions made. In 1119, a council in Toulhouse went so far as to threaten
with excommunication clerics who let their hair and beards grow. Pope Alexander
III is quoted by the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907, Vol. II, p. 363) as saying “that
such priest were to be shorn forcibly, if necessary, by the archdeacon.” This was a ruling later incorporated into the
canon law along with other decrees of Pope Gregory IX.” Pg. 33-34
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