Canon XIII.
any woman, under pretence of
asceticism, shall change her apparel and, instead of a woman’s
accustomed clothing, shall put on that of a man, let her be
anathema.
Notes.
Whatever women wear men’s clothes, anathema to
them.
The synodal letter in its sixth article also speaks of
this. Exchange of dress, or the adoption by one sex of the dress
of the other, was forbidden in the Pentateuch (Deut. xxii. 5), and was therefore most strictly interdicted by the whole ancient Church. Such change of attire was formerly adopted mainly for theatrical purposes, or from effeminacy, wantonness, the furtherance of unchastity, or the like. The Eustathians, from quite opposite and hyper-ascetical reasons, had recommended women to assume male, that is probably monk’s attire, in order to show that for them, as the holy ones, there was no longer any distinction of sex; but the Church, also from ascetical reasons, forbade this change of attire, especially when joined to superstition and puritanical pride.
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian’s Decretum, Pars I., Dist. xxx., c. vi.