(1) Peter said: "My Lord, let the women cease to question, in order that we also may question." Jesus said unto Mary and the women: "Give opportunity to your men brethren, that they also may question." Peter answered and said: "My Lord, a robber and thief, whose sin is this persistently, when he cometh out of the body, what is his chastisement?"

(5) O brother sweet, what wilt thou have me say? A future time is in my sight already, To which this hour will not be very old, When from the pulpit shall be interdicted To the unblushing womankind of Florence To go about displaying breast and paps. What savages were e'er, what Saracens, Who stood in need, to make them covered go, Of spiritual or other discipline? But if the shameless women were assured Of what swift Heaven prepares for them, already Wide open would they have their mouths to howl; For if my foresight here deceive me not, They shall be sad ere he has bearded cheeks Who now is hushed to sleep with lullaby. O brother, now no longer hide thee from me; See that not only I, but all these people Are gazing there, where thou dost veil the sun." Whence I to him: "If thou bring back to mind What thou with me hast been and I with thee, The present memory will be grievous still. Out of that life he turned me back who goes In front of me, two days agone when round The sister of him yonder showed herself,"

(6) The devil and his crew continually excuse themselves, and so do all wicked men who are begotten in corruption, saying, God does them wrong in thrusting them out or rejecting them.

(15) Thy proud Horse [or Beast,] thou shameful Whore, shall ride no longer alone over the bended Knees; in that Time it will no more be said, The Power [Might or Authority] sticks in my Chest of Money; that Mineral [or Metal] becomes a Blossom in the Light; and the Tincture stands in the Blossom of the Lily; Stones are of as much worth [as that Metal is;] the Clothing of the Virgin is brighter than thy Pride. How finely does the Ornament of this World stand on Modesty and the Fear of God, if the Heart be humble? How does thy silken and golden Clothes adorn thee? Dost thou not appear in God's Deeds of Wonder? Who will call thee a false Woman, if thou be so very chaste? Dost thou not stand to the Honour of the Great God? Art thou not his Work of Wonder? Is there not a friendly laughter before thee? Who can say that thou art a wrathful Woman? Thy modest Countenance shines over Mountains and Valleys. Art thou not at the End of the World, and [will not] thy Glance [or Luster] be espied in Paradise? Wherefore stands thy Mother in Babel, and so very malicious? O! thou shameful Whore; get thee out, for Babel is % on Fire, or else thou wilt be burnt thyself.

(11) Hear me in gentleness and discover me in roughness. I am the woman crying out and cast upon the face of the earth. I prepare bread and my mind within. I am the knowledge of my name. I am the one who cries out and I listen. I appear . . . walk in . . . I am . . . the defense. I am called truth and iniquity. . . .

(15) Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons?

(63) Those who are opposed to God's creation, disparaging it under the fair name of continence, also quote the words to Salome which we mentioned earlier. They are found, I believe, in the Gospel according to the Egyptians. They say that the Saviour himself said "1 came to destroy the works of the female," meaning by "female" desire, and by "works" birth and corruption. What then would they say? Has this destruction in fact been accomplished? They could not say so, for the world continues exactly as before. Yet the Lord did not lie. For in truth he did destroy the works of desire, love of money, contentiousness, vanity, mad lust for women, paederasty, gluttony, licentious- ness, and similar vices. Their birth is the soul's corruption, since then we are "dead in sins." And this is the incontinence referred to as "female." Birth and the corruption chiefly involved in the creation must necessarily continue until the achievement of complete separation and the restoration of the elect, on whose account even the beings mingled with this world are restored to their proper condition.

(9) And they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins.

(7) This sorceress decks herself out in gorgeous and jewelled apparel and veils her face. Then she goes forth to seduce, men, too many of whom follow her to their own destruction. The Prophet has said that on the Judgment Day the world will appear in the form of a hideous witch with green eyes and projecting teeth. Men, beholding her, will say, "Mercy on us! who is this?" The angels will answer, "this is the world for whose sake you quarrelled and fought and embittered one another's lives." Then she will be cast into hell, whence she will cry out, "O Lord! where are those, my former lovers? God will then command that they be cast after her.

(122) Now eat and drink, now trim and dress thyself therewith, and domineer therein, thou fair goddess, how art thou become a whore, and thy shame and reproach continue for ever!

(12) (But Ahura will speak His rebuke, for) as to those doctrines which (such) men may be (basely) delivering (repelled) by the holiest action, (and galled by its sacred truth) God hath said: Evil (are they! Yea, unto these He hath said it) who have slain the Kine's life by a blessing (and have cursed her while they offered to help her ), men by whom Grehmas are loved above Righteousness, and the Karpans, and the Throne of those who have wished for the Demon of lies (as their deity and friend ).

(5) Be careful. Don't hate my obedience or love my self-control. When I am weak, don't forsake me or fear my power. Why do you despise my fear and curse my pride? I am a woman existing in every fear and in my strength when I tremble. I am a woman, weak, and carefree in a pleasant place. I am senseless and wise.

(52) Yet I do not complain; I merely state my case. My heart says, "He has injured me," Do me justice, O Thou who art the glory of the just, Who art the throne, and I the lintel of Thy door! But, in sober truth, where are throne and doorway? Where are "We" and "I?" There where our Beloved is! O Thou, who art exempt from "Us" and "Me," Who pervadest the spirits of all men and women; When man and woman become one, Thou art that One! When their union is dissolved, lo! Thou abidest!

(21) He by whose preaching the world was entranced Was he who spake the two words, "O Humaira!" Though water prevails over fire in might, When the cauldron intervenes between these two, Apparently thou art the ruler of thy wife, like water; Such is the peculiarity of man, He cannot withstand animal desire; that is his failing. The Prophet said that women hold dominion Over sages and over men of heart, But that fools, again, hold the upper hand over women,

(42) And unrighteousness went forth from her chambers: Whom she sought not she found, And dwelt with them, As rain in a desert And dew on a thirsty land.

(1) AND truly an we will lustily conform our love and our living, inasmuch as in us is, by grace and by counsel, unto the love and the living of Mary, no doubt but He shall answer on the same manner now for us ghostly each day, privily in the hearts of all those that either say or think against us. I say not but that evermore some men shall say or think somewhat against us, the whiles we live in the travail of this life, as they did against Mary. But I say, an we will give no more heed to their saying nor to their thinking, nor no more cease of our ghostly privy work for their words and their thoughts, than she did—I say, then, that our Lord shall answer them in spirit, if it shall be well with them that so say and so think, that they shall within few days have shame of their words and their thoughts.

(16) Neither have I any command to bring in complaints against them, to condemn them for anything, except for their wickedness and abominations, as pride, covetousness, envy and wrath, against which the spirit of nature complaineth very exceedingly, and not I: For what can I do, that am poor dust and ashes, also very weak, simple, and altogether unable?

(20) And if any woman or maid commit fornication amongst you, burn her with fire,* and let them not commit fornication with her after their eyes and their heart ; and let them not take to them- selves wives from the daughters of Canaan ; for the seed of Canaan will be rooted out of the land.

(4) He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?

(16) These cruel haters, these evil-doers, these vilest of men, I hurl always into the wombs of the demons in the cycle of births and deaths.