Editing Beard (section)

====Western Christianity====
At various times in the history of the [[Western world]] and depending on various circumstances, the [[Catholic Church]] permitted or prohibited facial hair (''barbae nutritio'', literally meaning "nourishing a beard") for [[Hierarchy of the Catholic Church|its clergymen]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02362a.htm |title=Catholic Encyclopedia entry |publisher=Newadvent.org |access-date=24 November 2011}}</ref> A decree of the beginning of the 6th century in either [[Carthage]] or the south of [[Gaul]] forbade clerics to let their hair and beards grow freely. The phrase "nourishing a beard" was interpreted in different ways, either as imposing a clean-shaven face or only excluding a too-lengthy beard.<ref>{{harvnb|Constable|1985|pp=103–114}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Nicholas |last=Rogers |chapter=English episcopal brasses, 1270–1350 |editor-first=John |editor-last=Coales |title=The Earliest English Brasses: patronage, style and workshops, 1270–1350 |location=London |publisher=Monumental Brass Society |year=1987 |isbn=0-9501298-5-2 |pages=8–68 (18) }}</ref> In relatively modern times, the first pope to wear a beard was [[Pope Julius II]], who in 1511–12 did so for a while as a sign of mourning for the loss of the city of [[Bologna]]. [[Pope Clement VII]] let his beard grow at the time of the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|sack of Rome in 1527]] and kept it. All his successors did so until the death in 1700 of [[Pope Innocent XII]]. Since then, no pope has worn a beard.

Beards have been associated at different dates with particular [[Religious order (Catholic)|Catholic religious orders]]. In the 1160s [[Burchard of Bellevaux|Burchardus]], abbot of the [[Bellevaux Abbey|Cistercian monastery of Bellevaux]] in the Franche-Comté, wrote a treatise on beards.<ref>''Apologiae duae: Gozechini epistola ad Walcherum; Burchardi, ut videtur, Abbatis Bellevallis Apologia de Barbis''. Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis LXII. Edited by R.B.C. Huygens, with an introduction on beards in the Middle Ages by Giles Constable (Turnholt: Brepols, 1985). Translation: McAlhany, J. ''Beards & Baldness in the Middle Ages: Three Texts''. (Brooklyn, NY: Leverhill, 2024), pp. 43-115.</ref> He regarded beards as appropriate for lay brothers, but not for the priests among the monks. In about 1240, [[Alberic of Trois-Fontaines]] described the [[Knights Templar]] as an "order of bearded brethren"; and, on the eve of the [[Knights Templar#Arrests, charges and dissolution|suppression of the order]] in 1312, out of nearly 230 knights and brothers questioned by the papal commissioners in Paris, 76 are described as wearing a beard (in some cases specified as "in the style of the Templars"), while another 133 are reported to have shaved their beards, either in renunciation of their vows or in a bid to escape detection.<ref>{{harvnb|Harris|2013|pp=124–125}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nicholson |first=Helen |title=The Knights Templar: a new history |publisher=Sutton |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7509-2517-4 |location=Stroud |pages=48, 124–27 }}</ref> [[Randle Holme#Randle Holme III (1627–1700)|Randle Holme]], writing in 1688, associated beards with Templars, [[Teutonic Order|Teutonic Knights]], [[Order of Saint Augustine|Austin Friars]], and [[Gregorian mission|Gregorians]].<ref>{{harvnb|Harris|2013|p=127}}</ref> Most [[Latin Church]] clergy are now clean-shaven, but [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchins]] and some others are bearded. Present [[Canon law of the Catholic Church|Canon law]] is silent on the matter.<ref>{{cite web|last1=McNamara|first1=Edward|title=Beards and Priests|url=http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/beards-and-priests|website=Zenit news agency|date=13 January 2015|access-date=13 January 2015}}</ref>

Although most [[Protestantism|Protestant Christians]] regard the beard as a matter of choice, some have taken the lead in fashion by openly encouraging its growth as "a habit most natural, scriptural, manly, and beneficial" ([[Charles Spurgeon|C. H. Spurgeon]]).<ref>Spurgeon, C. H., ''Lectures to My Students, First Series, Lecture 8'' (Baker Book House, 1981) p. 134.</ref> [[Amish]] and [[Hutterite]] men shave until they marry, then grow a beard and are never thereafter without one, although it is a particular form of a beard (see [[Visual markers of marital status]]). [[Diarmaid MacCulloch]], professor of [[Church history|ecclesiastical history]] at the [[University of Oxford]], writes: "There is no doubt that [[Thomas Cranmer|Cranmer]] mourned the dead king ([[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]])",<ref>{{cite book |last=MacCulloch |first=Diarmaid |author-link=Diarmaid MacCulloch |year=2017 |orig-year=1996 |title=Thomas Cranmer: A Life |location=New Haven, Connecticut|publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |edition=Revised |page=361 |isbn=978-03-00-22657-7}}</ref> and it was said that he showed his grief by growing a beard. However, MacCulloch also states that during the [[Reformation Era]], many [[Protestant Reformers]] decided to grow their beards in order to emphasize their break with the Catholic tradition:
{{blockquote|it was a break from the past for a clergyman to abandon his clean-shaven appearance which was the norm for late medieval priesthood; with [[Martin Luther|Luther]] providing a precedent [during his exile period], virtually all the continental reformers had deliberately grown beards as a mark of their rejection of the old church, and the significance of clerical beards as an aggressive anti-Catholic gesture was well recognised in mid-[[Tudor England]].}}

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File:Johannes Bessarion aport012.png|[[Basilios Bessarion]]'s beard contributed to his defeat in the [[1455 papal conclave|papal conclave of 1455]].<ref>{{cite book|last1 = Soykut|first1 = Mustapha|chapter = Chapter Nine: The Ottoman Empire and Europe in political history through Venetian and Papal sources|editor1-last = Birchwood|editor1-first = Matthew|editor2-last = Dimmock|editor2-first = Matthew|title = Cultural Encounters Between East and West, 1453-1699|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=U5zTAHQfI4MC|location = Newcastle-upon-Tyne|publisher = Cambridge Scholars Press|date = 2005|page = 170|isbn = 9781904303411|access-date = 2014-10-28|quote = [...] Bessarion later embraced the Catholic faith and in 1455 lost the election to become Pope with eight votes against fifteen from the cardinals. One of the arguments that was used against the election of Bessarion as Pope was that he still had a beard, even though he had converted to Catholicism, and insisted on wearing his Greek habit, which raised doubts on the sincerity of his conversion.}}</ref>
File:Titian - Pope Paul III - WGA22962.jpg|[[Pope Paul III]] (Alessandro Farnese), [[Bishop of Rome]] and ruler of the [[Papal States]] from 1534 to 1549.
File:Thomas Cranmer.png|[[Thomas Cranmer]], Archbishop of Canterbury and architect of the [[English Reformation]], wore a long beard in his later years.
File:Thomas Bramwell Welch.jpg|[[Thomas Bramwell Welch]] was a [[Methodism|Methodist]] minister and [[Temperance movement|Temperance activist]]
File:Solanuscasey.jpg|Roman Catholic [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin friar]], blessed [[Solanus Casey]] (1870–1957)
File:Amish Man in straw hat, suspenders, and shenandoah beard.jpg|An Amish man with a [[Shenandoah (beard)|Shenandoah]] beard
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