“Who,” says he, “will dare maintain, that the beard is not the ornament of man, the symbol of probity and justice; that it does not give him a grave, stern look; I mean to speak of those who are determined by reason rather than opinion? If it be admitted then that the beard is the ornament of an honest, just man, why should it not be the most decent ornament for a priest, who ought to be an example of virtue.” _Apologia Joannis Pierii Valeriani belumen._ I have seen three editions of this work.
Let us now examine whether this canon of the council of Carthage, on which the antibearded gentry found their anathemas, deserves any confidence. According to them, these are the words of the canon of that council: _Clericus nec comam nutriat nec barbam_; and these, according to the sticklers for beards: _Clericus nec comam nutriat, nec barbam radat._ The former forbids to wear long beards; the latter orders it. So the whole depends on the adding or suppressing of the word _radat_.
It seems at first, in favour of bearded chins, that the termination of the phrase, _nec barbam_, should point out the suppression of a verb, such as _radat_; and indeed it would have been much more simple, and more regular, in the same sense, to write, _Clericus nec comam nec barbam nutriat_.
This objection, which begins to throw light on the wiles of the enemies of beards, would be but weak, were it not confirmed by a number of triumphant proofs, and especially by the opinion of the most celebrated and most laborious commentators, such as fathers Labbe and Hardouin, &c. Savaron, in his commentary on the epistles of St. Sidoin Apollinarius, warmly maintains, that the word _radat_ has been suppressed from the 44th canon of this council of Carthage, and that the custom of wearing long beards was there precisely ordered. Father Sirmond, who published some time after a commentary on the same epistles, is of the same opinion as Savaron with respect to the suppression of this word _radat_. Charles Dumoulin, in his notes to the 5th chapter of the 1st record of the 3d book of the Decretals, assures us that the text of this canon has been mutilated, and that we ought to read _nec barbam radat_.
Let us see on what authority the opinion of these learned men is founded. The greatest part of the manuscripts of the councils have the word _radat_. Pierrius Valerianus, in his book _pro Sacerdotum Barbis_, quotes several, and those are the least suspected. Father Labbe has added a note to the canon in question, in which he numbers the manuscripts wherein the word _radat_ is found. Father Hardouin assures us that this important _radat_ exists in the most authentic manuscripts, such as those in the libraries of Corbie, Giblou, Barberin, Paris, &c.