On Prayer 15

But since we have touched on one empty observance, it will not be tiresome to point out the others too, whose vanity deserves reproach, since they are done without the authority of any precept either of the Lord or of an apostle. Things of this kind are counted not as religion but as superstition, affected and forced, belonging to a curious rather than a reasonable service; certainly to be checked if only because they put us on a level with the Gentiles. Such is the practice of some of praying with their cloaks laid aside; for that is how the heathen approach their idols. Surely, if this ought to be done, the apostles, who teach about the manner of praying, would have included it; unless some think that Paul left his cloak with Carpus while praying! God, of course, would not hear those in cloaks, he who heard the three holy men praying in the furnace of the Babylonian king in their trousers and turbans!