Tertullian, in his book _de Cultu feminarum_, and in that _de Pallio_, speaks very advantageously of beards. This learned man, whom St. Cyprian called his master, was the first who wrote on the alteration of a canon of the council of Carthage, which forbade priests to shave their beards. Saint Cyprian has likewise expressed how much he thought a shaved chin contrary to the Christian institution. In deploring the state of this religion, he exclaims: _There is no longer this religious devotion and entire confidence in the ministers of God to be found in the priests; no more works of mercy, no more order among the lower classes: the men cut off their beards, and the women paint their faces._ And in another part: _And notwithstanding it is written, You shall not cut off your beards, they depilate their chins and colour their cheeks. Thus, to please the world, they are not afraid to displease God._[56] Footnote 56: _Divi Cypriani, liber de Lapsis._ It would be too long to cite the number of respectable authorities who have either written in praise of beards or censured shaved faces, who have not only looked upon it as an ornament conformable to Christian gravity, but maintained that it could not be cut away without a sin.[57] Footnote 57: All the first fathers of the Church have strongly recommended the custom of beards, or have spoken of them advantageously: such are St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, St. Epiphanius, St. Theodoret, St. Sidoin Apollinarius, &c. This opinion of the first fathers of the Church is supported by two councils: the first is the fourth council of Carthage, the 44th canon of which runs thus: _Clericus nec comam nutriat, nec barbam radat. A clergyman must neither keep up his hair nor shave away his beard._ Tho’ this canon has been entirely altered by the suppression of the word _radat_, as Tertullian remarks, and, after him, a number of commentators, it is certain it ought to be thus, which we will prove by what we are going to say. The second is a council held at Barcelona in 540, in the third canon of which we read: _Ut nullus Clericorum comam nutriat, aut barbam radat. Let no clergyman either keep up his hair, or shave away his beard._ After such sacred laws, and the opinion and example of the apostles, and of all the fathers of the primitive church; after the decisions of two authentic councils, one should not think there had existed men sufficiently deceitful or ignorant to maintain, not only that it is indifferent to shave or not, but likewise that the beard is contrary to the institution of the Church. Lighted by the torch of truth, and guided by the most scrupulous impartiality, we will follow up the chain of the different events which have so often changed the sentiments and beards of one part of Europe.