II.4. Tonsure.
(1) The use of ecclesiastical tonsure, unless I am mistaken, arose among the Nazirites. At first they maintained their hair; then, through a life of great continence, they shaved their heads in complete devotion and were ordered to place their hair in a fire of sacrifice, so that they might consecrate the perfection of their devotion to the Lord. The use of their examples was introduced by the apostles, so that those who, having been given over to divine worship, are consecrated to the Lord as the Nazirates, that is, the holy ones of God, might be renewed by having their hair cut. (2) Even Ezekiel the prophet was ordered to do this by the Lord speaking: "And you, O mortal, take a sharp sword; use it as a barber's razor and run it over your head and your beard" [Ezek 5:1]. This was because he was serving God devotedly in the manner of a priest in the ministry of sanctification. We also read in the Acts of the Apostles [see 18:18] that those Nazirites Priscilla and Aquila had done this first, and, after them, the apostle Paul and those of the disciples of Christ who stood out by following along in this cult.
(3) Among clerics, however, tonsure is a certain kind of sign that is symbolized in the body but is performed in the soul, so that by this sign in religion vices might be curtailed and we might cast off the crimes of our flesh just like our hairs. Then, senses, like wild locks of hair, having been made new, we might shine forth, according to the apostle, "seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed... according to the image of its creator" [Col 3:9-10]. It is fitting that this renovation be accomplished in the mind but be demonstrated on the head, where that mind is known to dwell.
(4) Since truly, the head having been shorn above, the crown of the circle is relinquished below [in the mind], I think that the priesthood and the leadership of the church are symbolized in these ways. For among the elders a tiara was placed on the head of the priests. (This tiara, made out of fine linen, was round in the manner of a sphere.) This is signified in the tonsured part of the head; for the width of the circle is a gold crown which girds the heads of the kings. And either sign [the tiara or the tonsure] is expressed on the head of the clerics so that there might be accomplished by a certain corporal similitude what is written by Peter the apostle emphatically teaching "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood" [1 Pet 2:9].
(5) It is asked, however: why as among the ancient Nazirites is the hair not first grown long and then cut. But those who investigate this might pay attention to what is between that prophetic veil and this revelation of the Gospel about which the apostle says: "when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed" [2 Cor 3:16]. For what that veil placed between the face of Moses and the sight of the people of Israel signifies, that is also what the hair is like a veil. Therefore it is now not fitting that the heads of those who are consecrated to the Lord be hidden by hair, but rather that they be revealed, because what was hidden in the sign of the prophet is now made known in the Gospel.
(trans. Knoebel 2008: 70-71)
