Canon 45 Nuns not to be clothed in finery at tonsure

Since we have learned that in certain women's monasteries those who are about to be deemed worthy of that holy habit are first dressed, by those who bring them forward, in silks and in garments of every kind, and moreover in ornaments adorned with gold and stones, and so, approaching the altar, are stripped of so great an array of material things, and straightway the blessing of the habit is performed upon them and they are clothed in the black garment: we decree that from now on this be done no more. For it is not holy that she who has already by her own choice put away all the pleasantness of life, and embraced the way of life according to God, and confirmed it with unswerving thoughts, and so come to the monastery, should through such corruptible and fleeting adornment come again into remembrance of the things of which she had already made forgetfulness; and from this become wavering and be troubled in her soul, as with waves that flood over and whirl this way and that, so that at times she no longer lets fall even a tear, nor shows forth through the body the compunction in her heart. And even if some small tear, as is likely, should spring forth, it is reckoned by those who see it to have come forth not so much for the sake of her disposition toward the ascetic struggle as because she is leaving the world and the things in the world.