"Praetexta," to use Doran's words, "was a very respectable lady,
married to a somewhat paganist husband, Hymetius. Their niece,
Eustachia, resided with them. At the instigation of the husband,
Praetexta took the shy Eustachia in hand, attired her in a splendid dress
and covered her fair neck with ringlets. Having enjoyed the sight of the
modest maiden so attired, Praetexta went to bed. To that bedside
immediately descended an angel, with wrath upon his brow, and billows
of angry sounds rolling from his lips. 'Thou hast,' said the spirit,
'obeyed thy husband rather than the Lord, and hast dared to deck the
hair of a virgin, and make her look like a daughter of earth. For this
do I wither up thy hands, and bid them recognise the enormity of thy
crime in the amount of thy anguish and bodily suffering. Five months
more shalt thou live, and then Hell shall be thy portion; and if thou
art bold enough to touch the head of Eustachia again, thy husband and
thy children shall die even before thee.'"
Church history furnishes some strange stories against wearing wigs, and
the following may be taken as a good example.
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