C. Dodgson, Tertullian Vol. 1. Apologetic and Practical Treatises. (1842). pp.1-106. Apologeticum.
THE
BOOK OF APOLOGY
AGAINST
THE HEATHEN.
--------
[The Apology was written probably A.D. 198. It was under Severus, because under one of the better Emperors (c. v. p. 13.) before he became a persecutor, (ib. and T. praises him c. 4.) and as the result of old laws, (c. 2----4.) i. e. before A. 202; after the conspiracy of Albinus (c. 35.) A.D. 396, 7., while the remains of the conspirators were being gleaned up, public rejoicings held at Rome, and a largess given, (ib.) as did Severus, upon his victory over Albinus, A. 198. (Herodian, Hist. iii. 8.) upon which he set out on the war against the Parthians (Spartian. in Sever. c. 14.) alluded to, probably, c. 37. (see Mosheim Disq. de aet. Apol.) Lumper, (Hist. S. Patr. t. vi. c. 1. §. 16.) places it A. 199, imagining the "gleaning" c. 25. to be that of the adherents of Niger. S. Clement Al. mentions "copious streams of the blood of martyrs shed daily," at the same time, before the edict of Severus, (Strom. ii. p. 494.) another proof that the sufferings of the early Christians were not confined to the great persecutions; they were demanded by the populace. Allix infers, from the way in which T. speaks of Rome and the Romans, (c. 9. 21. 35.) that the Apology was not written at Rome; it is addressed to the executive (c. i. 2. 9. 50.) in a Proconsulate, (c. 45. see Bp. Kaye, Tert. p. 52.) so that Eusebius is probably mistaken in saying it was addressed to the Roman Senate. (H. E. v. 5.) S. Jerome says of it, (Ep. 70. ad Magnum, §. 5.) "What more learned than Tertullian, what more acute? His Apology and his Books against the Gentiles comprise the whole range of secular learning."]
I. If it be not allowed you, Lords of the Roman empire, sitting above all, to
judge, in an open and exalted spot, at the very summit almost of the city, openly
to look about you, and publicly to examine what there be of very truth in the
cause of the Christians; if in this instance alone your authority be either
afraid 1 or ashamed to make enquiry in public, touching the diligent
use of justice; if finally, as hath just now happened, the enmity against this
sect, having too much exercised itself in private condemnations 2,
formeth an obstacle to their defence, let the truth be permitted to reach your
ears even by the secret way of silent writings 3. She asketh no favour
for her cause, because she feeleth no |2 wonder at her condition.4 She knoweth that she liveth a stranger upon earth,
that among aliens she easily findeth foes; but that she hath her birth, her
home, her hope, her favour, and her worth in the heavens 5. One thing
meanwhile she earnestly desireth, that she be not condemned unknown. If she
be heard, what loss cometh thereby to the laws, supreme within their own dominion?
Will not their power boast the more in this, that they will condemn Truth even
when she hath been heard? But if they condemn her unheard, besides the ill-repute
of injustice, they will merit also the suspicion of a certain consciousness,
as being, namely, unwilling to hear that, which when heard, they could not condemn 6. This therefore we lay before you as the first argument for the
injustice of your hatred towards the name of Christians. Which injustice the
same plea, namely, ignorance, which seemeth to excuse it, aggravateth and convicteth.
For what more unjust than that men should hate that of which they know nothing,
even if the thing deserve their hatred? For then doth it deserve, when it be
known whether it do deserve. But when knowledge of the desert be wanting, whence
is the justice of the hatred maintained? which ought to be approved, not by
the event, but by previous conviction! When then men hate for this reason, because
they know not what manner of thing that, which they hate, is, why may it not
be of such a sort as that they ought not to hate it? Thus from either point
we prove either against them, that they are both ignorant, in that they hate,
and hate unjustly, in that they are ignorant. It is an evidence of that ignorance,
which, while it is made the excuse, is the condemnation of injustice, when all,
who aforetime hated because they were ignorant what it was which they hated 7,
as soon as they cease to be ignorant, cease also to hate. From being such, they
become Christians, to wit from conviction, and begin to hate what they were,
and to profess what they hated, and are as numerous as indeed we are publicly
declared to be. Men cry out that the state is beset, that the Christians are
in their fields, in their forts, in their |3 islands 8. They mourn, as for a loss, that every sex, age,
condition, and now even rank is going over to this sect 9. And yet
they do not by this very means advance their minds to the idea of some good
therein hidden: they allow not themselves to conjecture more rightly, they choose
not to examine more closely. Here alone is the curiosity of man dull: they love
to be ignorant, where others rejoice to know. How much more would Anacharsis 10 have condemned these, the uninformed judging the informed, than
the unmusical the musical! They had rather be ignorant, because they already
hate. Thus they determine in the outset that that which they know not, is such
as, if they knew, they could not hate; since if no due cause of hatred be found,
surely it were best to cease to hate unjustly; but if it be clear that it is
deserved, not only is their hatred nothing diminished, but stronger ground is
gained for persevering in it, even with the sanction of justice itself. 'But,'
saith one, 'it is not therefore at once determined 11 to be good because
it converteth many, for how many are remoulded 12 to evil! how many
are deserters to the worse cause!' Who denieth it? Nevertheless, that which
is really evil not even those, whom it carrieth away, dare to defend as a good.
Nature hath cast over every evil either fear or shame. Finally, evil-doers delight
in hiding themselves; shun appearing 13; are bewildered when discovered;
being accused deny; not even when tortured, readily or always confess; certainly
mourn when |4 condemned; sum up against themselves, impute either to fate or to the stars the
impulses of a wicked mind 14: for they will not have that to be their
own, which they acknowledge to be evil 15. But what doth the Christian
like this? None is ashamed, none repenteth, save indeed that he was not such
long ago. If he be marked down, he glorieth; if accused, maketh no defence;
being questioned, confesseth even of his own accord; being condemned, giveth
thanks 16. What manner of evil is this, which hath not the natural
marks of evil, fear, shame, shrinking, penitence, sorrow? What manner of evil
is this, whereof he that is accused, rejoiceth? whereof to be accused is his
prayer, and its punishment his happiness 17? Thou canst not call that madness,
of which thou art proved to know nothing.
II. If finally it be certain that we are never so guilty, why even by you are we treated otherwise than our fellows, that is than other guilty men, since for the same guilt the same treatment ought to be introduced? Whatever we be called, when others are called the same, they employ both their own tongue, and hired advocates, to commend their innocency: the liberty of answering, of disputing, is open to them, since it is not even lawful that they should be condemned, undefended and altogether unheard. But the Christians alone are allowed to say nothing which may clear them, which may defend the truth, which may make the judge not unjust: but that alone is looked to, which is needed for the public hatred, a confession of the name 18, not an examination of the charge: whereas, when ye take cognizance of any criminal, although he confess to the name of a murderer, or a sacrilegious or an incestuous person, or a public enemy 19, (to speak of our own titles,) ye are not content at once to pronounce him such, without enquiring out also attendant circumstances, the quality of |5 the act, the number 20 of acts 21, the place, the manner, the time, the accessories, the accomplices. In our case there is nothing like this, although it were equally right that the fact be extorted, whatsoever charge be falsely thrown out; how many murdered infants each hath tasted, how many incests he hath shrouded in darkness 22; what cooks, what dogs 23, were present. Oh! how great the glory of that magistrate, if he should hunt out one who hath already eaten an hundred infants! But we find even enquiry into our case forbidden: for the second Pliny 24, while governor of a province, when some Christians had been condemned, some degraded, being nevertheless troubled by their very numbers, asked of Trajan, then Emperor, what he should do for the future, alleging that, excepting their obstinacy in not sacrificing, he had discovered nothing else touching their religious mysteries, save meetings before day-break to sing to Christ as God 25, and to form a common bond of discipline, forbidding murder, adultery, fraud, perfidy, and other crimes. Then wrote Trajan back that this sect should not indeed be enquired after, but, when brought before him, must be punished 26. O sentence necessarily confounding itself! He forbiddeth that they should be enquired after, as though they were innocent, and commandeth that they should be punished, as though guilty! He spareth and rageth, winketh and punisheth! Why, O sentence, dost thou overreach thyself? If thou condemnest, why dost thou not also enquire? if thou enquirest not, why dost thou not also acquit 27? For tracking robbers through all the provinces, |6 military stations are allotted 28. Against men accused of treason, and public enemies, every man is a soldier. The enquiry is extended to the accomplices, even to the accessories. The Christian alone may not be enquired after, but may be brought before the court; as though enquiry had any other object than to bring him thither! Ye condemn him therefore when brought before you, whom none would have enquired after, who, I suppose, hath already deserved punishment, not because he is guilty, but because, when not to be enquired after, he was found! So then neither in this do ye act towards us according to the rule of judging malefactors, namely, that to others ye apply tortures, when they deny, to make them confess; to the Christians alone, to make them deny 29; whereas, if it were a sin, we indeed should deny it, and ye by your tortures would compel us to confess it. Nor could you think that our crimes were therefore not to be enquired of by examinations, because ye were assured by the confession of the name, that they have been committed, seeing that to this day from one who hath confessed himself a murderer, though ye know what murder is, ye nevertheless extort the whole train of circumstances touching the act. Wherefore it is with the greater perverseness that, when ye presume our guilt from the confession of our name, ye compel us by tortures to go back from our confession, that by denying the name we may of course equally deny the crimes also, of which ye presumed us guilty from the confession of the name. But, I suppose, ye do not wish us, whom ye deem the worst of men, to die! For thus (doubtless) ye are wont to say to a murderer, 'Deny the fact;' to order the sacrilegious person to be torn with scourges if he persevere in his confession! If ye act not thus towards us as criminals, ye therefore judge us to be most innocent, since, as though we were most innocent, ye will not have us persevere in that confession, which ye know must be condemned by you of necessity, not of right. One crieth out, 'I am a Christian.' He sayeth what he is: thou |7 wouldest hear what he is not. Sitting in authority to draw out the truth, from us alone do ye labour to draw out falsehood. 'I am,' saith he, 'that which thou askest, if I am. Why torture me to unsay it? I confess, and thou torturest me: what wouldest thou do if I denied?' Certainly ye do not easily lend credit to others when they deny: us, if we deny, ye forthwith credit. Let this perverseness be cause of suspicion to you that there may be some power 30 lurking in secret, which maketh you its ministers against all rule, against the very nature of judicial trial, against even the laws themselves. For, if I mistake not, the laws command that malefactors be hunted out, not concealed, prescribe that such as confess be condemned, not acquitted. This the acts of your senate, this the mandates of your princes, this the government, whose servants ye are, determineth. Your rule is civil, not despotic. For with tyrants tortures were used 31 for punishment also: with you they are tempered down to the examination alone. Observe therein your own law as necessary up to the time of confession 32. Now then, if they be anticipated by confession, they will be superfluous: sentence must needs be given. The culprit must discharge, the penalty due, not be discharged from it. Finally, none desireth to acquit him: it is not lawful to wish it: therefore neither is any compelled to a denial 33. A Christian, thou deemest a man guilty of every crime, an enemy of the Gods, of the Emperors, of Law, of Morals, of all Nature 34; and thou compellest to deny that thou mayest acquit, whom thou wilt not be able to acquit, unless he deny. Thou quibblest with the laws. Thou wilt have him therefore deny himself guilty, that thou mayest make him not guilty, unwilling too as he now is, and not accounted guilty for the past. Whence this perverseness, not to consider this also, that more credit should be given to one that of his own will confesseth, than to one who from compulsion denieth, or that when compelled to deny, he may not deny in earnest, |8 and being acquitted, may, on the spot, behind the judgment-seat, laugh at your rivalry, a Christian for the second time? Seeing then that in all things ye deal with us otherwise than with other criminals, in striving for this one thing, that we be debarred from this name, (for debarred we are, if we do what those who are no Christians do,) ye may perceive that it is no crime which is called in question, but a name, which a sort of plan of rival agency 35 persecuteth, aiming first at this, that men may be unwilling to know for certain that, which they know for a certain that they know not. Therefore also they believe of us things which are not proved, and will not have them enquired into, lest those things be proved not to be, which they had rather should be believed to be; so that the name opposed to that rival plan may, by its own confession alone, be condemned, on the presumption, not on the proof, of crimes. Wherefore we are tortured when we confess, and punished when we persevere, and acquitted when we deny, because it is a war about a name. Finally, why read ye that man a Christian from the tablet 36? why not a murderer also, if a Christian be a murderer 37? Why is he not also a committer of incest, or whatever else ye believe us to be? In our case alone ye are ashamed or loth to proclaim the very names of our crimes. If 'Christian' be the name of no crime, it is very absurd that there should be crime in the name alone 38.
III. What when the generality run upon an hatred of this name with eyes so closed, that in bearing favourable testimony to any one, they mingle with it the reproach of the name. 'A good man Caius Seius, only he is a Christian.' So another, 'I marvel that that wise man Lucius Titius 39 hath suddenly become a Christian.' No one reflecteth whether Caius be not therefore good, and Lucius wise, because a Christian, or therefore a Christian because wise and good. They praise that which they know, they revile that which they know not; and that which they know, they spoil through that which they know not: whereas it were more |9 just to prejudge things unseen by things seen, than to pre-condemn the seen through the unseen. Others condemn in the very thing, wherein in fact they praise, those whom in time past, before they had this name, they knew as vagabonds, worthless, wicked. In the blindness of their hatred they fall upon commending them. What a woman! how voluptuous! how gay! What a youth! what a rake! what a man of pleasure! They have become Christians. Thus is this name applied to their reformation. Some even barter their own interests for this hatred, being content to suffer injury, so that they have not at home that which they hate. The husband now no longer jealous hath turned out of doors his wife now chaste. The father, patient before, hath disowned his now obedient son. The master, once lenient, hath banished from his sight his now faithful servant. As each is reformed by this name, he offendeth. Virtue is not in such account as hatred of the Christians. Now then if the hatred be of the name, what guilt is there in names? what charge against words? unless it be that any word which is a name have either a barbarous, or an ill-omened, or a scurrilous, or an immodest sound. But the word 'Christian,' as far as its meaning is concerned, is derived from 'anointing.' And even when it is by you wrongly pronounced, 'Chreestian 40,' (for not even of the name is there any certain knowledge among you,) it is made from 'sweetness,' or from 'kindness.' Wherefore in innocent men a name, also innocent, is hated. But in truth the sect is hated in the name of its Head. What new thing is it, if any School bring upon its followers a name from its master? Are not Philosophers named from their founders, as Platonists, Epicureans, Pythagoreans? Even from the places of their meetings and stations, as Stoics, Academics? So too Physicians from Erasistratus, and Grammarians from Aristarchus, |10 and even Cooks from Apicius? And yet the profession of a name, handed down together with the institution, from its founder, doth not offend any. Clearly if any hath proved the sect bad, and thus the founder also bad, he will prove the name likewise bad, deserving of hatred from the guilt of the sect and of its founder. And therefore, before hating the name, it were meet, first to judge of the sect from the founder, or of the founder from the sect. But now, all examination and knowledge of either set aside, the name is laid hold of, the name is attacked, and a word alone pre-condemneth a sect unknown, and its founder also unknown, because they bear a name, not because convicted.
IV. And so, having as it were premised these things, that I might set a mark upon the injustice of the public hatred against us, I will now take my stand on the ground of our innocence, and not only refute the charges which are brought against us, but even retort them upon the very men who bring them; that in this also all may know that those things exist not in Christians which they are not ignorant do exist in themselves; and at the same time may blush in accusing----I will not say the best, themselves being the worst, but----those who are now, on their own shewing, their compeers. We will answer touching all the things severally, which we are said to commit in secret, which are openly discovered against us, in which we are accounted wicked, in which foolish, in which to be condemned, in which to be laughed at. But since, when the truth of our cause meeteth you at every turn, the authority of the laws is at last set up against it, so that it either is said that nothing must be reconsidered after the laws 41 have decided, or the necessity of obedience is unwillingly preferred to truth, I will first contend with you about the laws as with the guardians of the laws. And first, when ye harshly determine, saying, 'It is not lawful that ye should exist 42,' and prescribe this law without any gentler |11 reconsideration, ye avow violence, and an unjust despotism from within your strong hold, if ye therefore say it is unlawful because ye will have it, not because it ought to be, unlawful. But if, because it ought not to be, therefore ye will not have it lawful, doubtless that ought not to be lawful, which is ill done, and surely it is, even hereby, already determined that what is well done is lawful. If I shall find that to be good, which your law hath forbidden, is it not by this previous determination, disabled from forbidding me 43 that which, if it were evil, it would justly forbid? If your law hath erred, it was devised, methinks, by man; for it hath not dropped down from the sky. Do we wonder that man could either err in framing a law, or that he should, become wiser in disallowing it? Why! did not the amendments by the Lacedaemonians in the laws of Lycurgus himself inflict such pain upon their author, that in retirement he condemned himself to starve to death? Do not even ye, as experience throweth light upon the darkness of antiquity, lop 44 and cut down, with the new axes of imperial rescripts and edicts, all that old and slovenly forest of laws? Did not Severus, the steadiest 45 of princes, repeal but yesterday, after an old age of such high authority, those most foolish laws of Papius, which enforce the bringing up of children before that those of Julius do the contracting of marriage 46? but there were laws too aforetime, that men cast in a suit might be cut in pieces 47 by the creditors: yet was this cruelty afterwards erased 48 by public consent, the punishment of death being exchanged for a mark of disgrace. The confiscation of goods resorted to would |12 rather have the suffusion than the effusion of a man's blood. How many laws still lurk behind needing to be purified! It is not length of years, nor the worth of their founders, which commendeth them, but equity alone; and therefore when they are acknowledged to be unjust, they are justly condemned, although condemning. Why call we them unjust? yea, if they punish a name, we call them foolish also; but if doings, why in our case do they punish doings, on the score of a name alone, which in others they maintain must be proved by the act, not by the name? "I am guilty of incest,"----why do they not examine me? "of child-murder,"----why do they not extort the proof? "I commit some act against the gods, against the Caesars,"----why am I not heard, who 49 have whereby to clear myself? No law forbiddeth that to be thoroughly sifted, which it forbiddeth to be done; for neither doth a judge punish justly, unless he know that an act, which is not lawful, hath been committed; nor doth a citizen obey the law honestly, not knowing what sort of thing it be which he punisheth. No law ought to satisfy itself merely of its own justice, but those also from whom it expecteth obedience. But the law is suspicious, if it will not have itself proved, and reprobate, if unapproved it domineereth.
V. To treat somewhat of the origin of the kind of laws, there was an ancient decree, that no god should be consecrated by the Emperor 50, unless approved by the Senate. Witness Marcus Aemilius in the case of his own god Alburnus 51. This also maketh for our cause, that with you deity is measured according to the judgment of man 52. A god, unless he please man, shall not be a god. Man will now be obliged to be propitious to a god. Tiberius therefore, in whose time the name of Christ entered into the world, laid before the Senate, with his own vote to begin with, |13 things announced to him from Palestine in Syria, which had there manifested the truth of the Divinity of that Person 53. The Senate, because they had not themselves approved it, rejected it 54. Caesar held by his sentence, threatening peril to the accusers of the Christians. Consult your Annals: there ye will find that Nero was the first to wreck the fury of the sword of the Caesars upon this sect, now springing up especially at Rome. But in such a first founder of our condemnation we even glory. For whoever knoweth him, can understand that nothing save some great good was condemned by Nero.55 Domitian too, who was somewhat of a Nero 56 in cruelty, had tried it, but forasmuch as he was also a human being, be speedily stopped 57 the undertaking, even restoring those whom he had banished. Such have ever been our persecutors; unjust, impious, infamous, whom even yourselves have been wont to condemn, by whom whosoever were condemned ye have been wont to restore. But out of so many princes thenceforward to him of the present day, who had any savour of religion and humanity, shew us any destroyer of the Christians. But we on the other hand have one to shew who protected them, if the letters of that most august Emperor Marcus Aurelius be enquired of, wherein he testifieth of that drought in Germany removed by the shower obtained by the prayers of the Christians who chanced to serve in his army 58. As he did not |14 openly take off the penalty from the men of that sect 59, so in another way he openly made away with it by adding a sentence, and that a more horrid one, against the accusers also. What sort of laws then be those which only the impious, the unjust, the infamous, the cruel, the foolish, the insane, execute against us? which Trajan in part foiled by forbidding that the Christians should be enquired after 60; which no Adrian, though a clear searcher into all things curious 61, no Vespasian, though the vanquisher of the Jews, no Pius, no Verus 62, hath pressed against us? Surely the worst of men, it might be thought, ought to be more readily rooted out by the best, as being their antagonists, than by their own fellows.
VI. Now I would have these most religious guardians and avengers 63 of the laws and institutions of their fathers answer touching their own fealty, and their respect and |15 deference towards the decrees of their ancestors, whether they have fallen off from none, whether they have deviated in none, whether they have not annulled such as are necessary, and in proportion as they are the best fitted, to good discipline. Whither have gone those laws which checked extravagance and ambition? which enacted that an hundred asses, and no more, should be allowed for a supper 64; and that not more than one fowl, and that not a fatted one 65, should be introduced? which expelled from the Senate a Patrician on grave proof of ambition, because he possessed ten pounds of silver 66? which forthwith pulled down the theatres as they rose for the corruption of morals 67? which suffered not the badges of dignities and honourable birth to be assumed without cause or without a penalty? For I see centenarian suppers, which must now be so named from an hundred sesterces 68, and silver mines wrought out into dishes, (it were a small matter if only for Senators, and not for freed men 69, or those who are even now having the whip broken upon them.) I see too that it is not enough that theatres should be single or uncovered. For it was for the games forsooth that the Lacedaemonians first invented their odious cloak 70, that immodest pleasure might not be chilled even in the winter. I see too no distinction left in dress between matrons and harlots 71. Touching women indeed, even those rules of their forefathers have dropped, which supported modesty and sobriety, when no woman knew ought of gold, save on the one finger on which her husband had placed the pledge of the nuptial ring 72; when women were so entirely kept from wine, that her own friends starved a matron to death for unsealing the stores of a wine |16 cellar 73; and under Romulus one who had touched wine was slain 74 with impunity by her husband Mecenius. Wherefore also they were obliged to offer kisses to their nearest kinsfolk, that they might be judged by their breath 75. Where is that happiness in marriages, favoured doubtless by good morals, through which, during nearly six hundred years 76 from the founding of the city, no one family wrote a writing of divorcement? In the women, now, owing to their gold, no limb is light 77, owing to their wine, no kiss is free: and for divorce, it is now even the object of a wish, as though it were the proper fruit of matrimony 78. As touching even your gods themselves, the decrees, which your fathers had providently enacted, ye, these same most obedient persons, have rescinded. Father Bacchus, with his mysteries, the Consuls by the authority of the Senate, banished not only from the city, but from the whole of Italy 79. Serapis, and Isis, and Harpocrates with his dog-headed monster, having been forbidden the Capitol 80, that is, turned out of the palace of the gods, the Consuls Piso and Gabinius (certainly not Christians) renounced, overturning even their altars, thus checking the vices of base and idle superstitions. These ye having bestowed, have conferred the highest dignity upon them. Where is your religion? Where is the reverence due from you to your ancestors? In dress, food, establishment, income, finally in your very language, ye have renounced your forefathers. Ye are ever lauding the ancients, yet fashioning your lives anew every day. By which it is manifest, that, while ye fall back from the good customs of your ancestors, ye retain and guard those things which ye ought not, while ye guard not those which ye |17 ought. Besides 81 that very thing, which being handed down from your fathers ye seem most faithfully to observe, in which ye mark out the Christians as specially guilty of transgression,----I mean diligence in worshipping the gods, wherein antiquity hath mostly erred,----although ye have rebuilt the altars of the now Roman Serapis, although ye offer 82 your frantic orgies to the now Italian Bacchus, I will shew in the proper place 83 to have been just as much despised and neglected and destroyed by you, contrary to the authority of your ancestors. For I shall now make answer to the evil report touching secret crimes, that I may clear my way to such as are more open.
VII. We are said to be the most accursed of men, as touching a sacrament of child-murder, and thereon a feast, and incest after the feast, where the dogs that overturn the candles, our panders forsooth, procure darkness and an absence of all shame besides, for impious lusts. Yet 'said to be' is ever the word, and ye take no care to expose that which we have been so long said to be. Wherefore either expose it, if ye believe it, or be unwilling to believe it, seeing ye have not exposed it. Through your own connivance it is ruled against you, that that hath no existence which even yourselves dare not expose. Far other is the task which ye impose on your executioner against the Christians, not that they should confess what they do, but deny what they are 84. This religion dateth, as we have already set forth 85, from Tiberius. Truth set out with being herself hated; as soon as she appeared, she is an enemy 86. As many as are strangers to it, so many are its foes 87: and the Jews indeed appropriately from their rivalry, the soldiers from their violence, even they of our own household from nature 88. Each day are we beset, each day betrayed; in our very meetings and assemblies are we mostly surprised. Who hath ever in this way come upon a screaming infant? Who hath kept for the judge the mouths of these Cyclopses and Sirens, bloody as he found them? Who hath discovered any marks of impurity even in our wives? Who hath concealed such crimes, |18 when he hath discovered them, or hath taken a bribe to do so, while haling the men themselves 89? If we be always concealed, when was that, which we commit, divulged? Yea, by whom could it be divulged? By the criminals themselves forsooth! Nay, verily: since the fidelity of secresy is, by the very rule of all mysteries 90, due to them. The Samothracian and Eleusinian are kept secret; how much more such as, being divulged, will in the mean time provoke even the vengeance of man, while that of God is kept in store! If themselves then be not their own betrayers, it followeth that strangers must be. And whence have strangers the knowledge, when even holy mysteries ever exclude the profane, and beware of witnesses? unless it be that unholy men have the less fear! The nature of fame is known to all. It is your own saying,
"Fame is an ill, than which more speedy none." (VIRG.) .
Why "Fame an ill?" because "speedy?" because a telltale? or because mostly false? who, not even at the very time when she beareth any thing true, is without the vice of falsehood, detracting, adding, changing from the truth! What, when her condition is such, that she endureth only while she lieth, and liveth only so long as she proveth not her words? for when she hath proved them, she ceaseth to be; and, as having discharged her office of talebearer, delivereth up a fact. And thenceforward the fact is laid hold of, the fact is named, and no one saith, (for instance,) 'They say that this happened at Rome,' or 'The report is that he hath obtained the province,' but, 'He hath obtained the province,' and 'This happened at Rome.' Fame, a name for uncertainty, hath no place when a thing is certain. But would any, but an inconsiderate man, believe Fame? since a wise man believeth not that which is uncertain. All may judge that, over whatever extent it be spread, with whatever assurance framed, it must needs have at some time sprung from some one author, and thence creep into the channels of tongues and ears. And a fault in the first little seed doth so darken the rest of the tale, that none enquireth whether that |19 first tongue have not sown a falsehood 91, which often happeneth either from the spirit of rivalry, or the wanton humour of suspicion, or that taste for falsehood which in some is not new, but inborn. But it is well that "time revealeth all things," which even your own proverbs and sayings testify, according to the general law of nature which hath so ordained that nothing long remaineth hidden, even that which fame hath not spread abroad. With good cause then hath Fame been so long the only witness of the crimes of the Christians 92. This informer ye produce against us, who even to this time hath not been able to prove that which she once threw out, and in so long a period hath strengthened into an opinion.
VIII. That I may appeal to the authority of Nature herself against those who presume that such things are to be believed, lo! we set before you the reward of these crimes. They promise eternal life. Believe it for the moment: for I ask this, whether even thou, who dost believe it, thinkest it worth while to attain to it by such a conscience 93? Come plunge thy knife into an infant, the foe of none, the accused of none, the child of all. Or, if this be the office of another, only stand by this human being, dying before it hath lived; wait for the young soul's flight; catch the scarce-matured blood; soak thy bread in it; freely feed upon it. Meanwhile as thou sittest at the meal, calculate the places where thy mother, where thy sister is; note them diligently, so that when the darkness caused by the dogs shall fall upon thee, thou mayest not err; for thou wilt incur pollution if thou commit not incest. Thus initiated and sealed thou livest for ever. I desire thee to answer whether Eternity be worth such a price; or if not, therefore it ought not to be believed to be so. Even if thou shouldest believe it, I say that thou wouldest not do it; even if thou wouldest, I say that thou couldest not. And why should others be able, if ye are not able? Why should ye not be able, if others are able? We, |20 I suppose, are of another nature! Are we Cynopeans or Sciapodes 94? Have we other rows of teeth? other nerves for incestuous lust? Thou that canst believe these things of a man, canst also do them 95. Thou thyself also art a man, as is a Christian. Thou that canst not do them, oughtest not to believe them, for a Christian also is a man, and all that thou also art. But (say ye) men while in ignorance are cheated and practised on 96. Because forsooth they knew not that any such thing was asserted of the Christians, a thing doubtless to have been looked to by them, and investigated with all diligence! But it is the custom, methinks, for those who desire to be initiated, first to go to the master of the mysteries, and to note down what things must be prepared 97. Then saith he, 'An infant thou must needs have, still of tender age, who knoweth not what death is, who can smile under thy knife: bread too, with which thou must take up the mess of blood: candlesticks moreover, and candles, and certain dogs, and sops, which may make them stretch forward to overturn the candles: above all, thou wilt be bound to come with thy mother and sister.' What if they will not come, or if thou hast none? What, in short, must solitary Christians do? A man, I suppose, will not be a regular Christian, unless he be a brother or a son! What now, even if all these things be prepared for men ignorant of them? Surely they know them afterwards, and bear with and pardon them. They fear to be punished! men, who, if they publish them, will deserve to be defended; who should rather even die voluntarily, than exist under such a conscience. Well! grant that they do fear. Why do they still go on? for it followeth that thou canst not wish any longer to be that, which, if thou hadst known it before, thou wouldest not have been.
IX. To refute these charges the more, I will shew that that is done by you, partly in public and partly in secret, through which perchance ye have come to believe them of us also. In the bosom of Africa, infants were publicly |21 sacrificed to Saturn 98, even to the days of a proconsul under Tiberius, who on the very trees of their temple which shaded their crimes, as on consecrated crosses 99, hung up, alive 100, to public view the priests themselves; witness the soldiery of my own country who executed that very office for that proconsul. But even now this consecrated crime is continued in secret. It is not the Christians only who defy you; nor is any crime rooted out for ever, nor doth any god change his character. Since Saturn did not spare his own sons, doubtless he persisted in not sparing those of others, whom indeed their own parents offered of themselves, and willingly paid their vow, and fondled the infants, lest they should be slain weeping 101. And yet murder by a parent differeth much from manslaying. Among the Gauls a riper age was sacrificed to Mercury. I leave to their own theatres the fables of Tauri 102. Lo! in that most religious city of the pious descendants of Aeneas there is a certain Jupiter 103, whom, in his own games, they drench with human blood. But, say ye, 'the blood of one condemned to the beasts:' and therefore, I suppose, not so bad as that of a man. Is it not therefore worse, because the blood of a bad man 104? Still in any case it is shed by manslaying. O Christian Jupiter! and 'the only son of his father'----through cruelty! But since as touching child murder it mattereth not whether it be done from Religion or of mere wanton will, though in the case of murder by a parent there is a difference, I will appeal to the people. Of these who stand around and pant for Christian blood, of your own |22 selves, magistrates most just and most severe against us, how many will ye that I smite in their consciences, as slayers of the children born unto them? If indeed there be a difference too as to the manner of death, surely it is with greater cruelty that ye force out their breath in the water, or expose them to cold and hunger and dogs 105. For even those of riper age would desire to die by the sword 106. But to us, manslaying having once been forbidden, it is not lawful to undo even what is conceived in the womb, while the blood is as yet undetermined to form a man. Prevention of birth is a precipitation of murder 107: nor doth it matter whether one take away a life when formed, or drive it away while forming. He also is a man, who is about to be one. Even every fruit already existeth in its seed. Touching the eating of blood, and such like tragic dishes, read whether it be not somewhere related, (it is in Herodotus 108, I think,) that certain nations have ordained for the making of a treaty the shedding of blood from their arms, and the drinking it the one from the other 109. Under Catiline 110 also there was some drinking of the same sort. They say too that among some tribes of the Scythians every one that dieth is eaten by his relations 111. I am travelling too far. In this age, in this country, blood from a wounded thigh, caught in the palm of the hand, and given to eat, sealeth those consecrated to Bellona 112. They too, who in the games in the theatre have drunk 113 with greedy thirst the fresh blood streaming from the neck 114 of the butchered criminals to cure the falling sickness, where are they 115? they too, who from the stage sup on the meat of wild beasts, who fetch it from the boar, from the stag 116? That boar hath |23 from the man, whom he hath covered with blood, in struggling with him, wiped it off. That stag hath lain in the blood of a gladiator. The paunches of the very bears are in request, reeking yet with undigested human entrails 117. The flesh which hath been fed on a man forthwith riseth in the stomach of a man. Ye that eat these things, how far removed are ye from the feasts of the Christians? And they too, who with brutal appetite seize on human bodies, do they do the less because they devour the living? Are they the less consecrated to filthiness by human blood, because what they take up hath yet to become blood? They feed not indeed on infants, but on those of riper age. Let your sin blush before us Christians, who do not reckon the blood even of animals among meats to be eaten 118, who for this cause also abstain from things strangled, and such as die of themselves,119 that we may not be defiled by any blood even buried within their entrails. Finally, among the trials of the Christians, ye offer them also pudding-skins stuffed with blood, as being well assured that that, whereby ye would have them transgress, is unlawful among them. Moreover what manner of thing is it to believe that they, who ye are assured abhor the blood of beasts, pant for human blood? unless perchance ye have found it sweeter! Which very blood too it were meet should be applied as a test of Christians, in like manner as the altar, as the censer. For they would be proved Christians 120 by desiring human blood, as by refusing to sacrifice, and would be to be slain on another ground if they tasted, in the same way as if they had not sacrificed 121. And surely ye would have no lack of blood in your examination and condemnation of prisoners. Moreover, who are more incestuous than those whom Jupiter himself hath taught? Ctesias relateth that the Persians are connected with their mothers 122. And the Macedonians also are suspected, because when they first heard the Tragedy of Oedipus, laughing at |24 the grief of the incestuous man they said, h!laune th_n mh&tera. Now consider what an opening there is to involuntary sin for the commission of incest, the promiscuousness of your debauchery supplying the materials. In the first place ye expose your children 123 to be taken up by the compassion of any passing stranger, or resign them to be adopted by nobler parents. Of a stock thus alienated, it must needs be that the memory is sometimes lost; and when once 124 a mistake shall have chanced upon them, thenceforward it will go on transmitting the incest, the generation creeping on with the crime 125. Then, secondly, in whatever place ye be, at home, abroad, across the seas, lust is your companion, whose promiscuous sallies may any where easily make children for men unawares, so that the stock thus scattered, as it were, out of some portion at least of the seed 126, doth through the intercourse of man meet with its own reflected images, and knoweth them not for mixtures of incestuous blood. Us a most careful and most faithful chastity 127 hath fenced from such a consequence; and in proportion as we are safe from adulteries, and from all transgression after marriage, so are we also from the chance of incest. Some men, much more secure, beat off by a pure continency the whole power of such error, little children to their old age 128. If ye would consider that these things exist among you, ye would perceive forthwith that they exist not among the Christians. The same eyes would have testified of both. But two sorts of blindness easily unite, so that they who see not things which are, think also that they see things which are not. So I might shew it to be in every case. Now for the open sins.
X. 'You do not,' say ye, 'worship the Gods 129, and you offer |25 not sacrifices for the Emperors.' It followeth that we sacrifice not for others for the same reason for which we do not even for ourselves, simply from not worshipping the gods. It is for sacrilege, therefore, and treason that we are arraigned. This is the chief point in the case: nay it is the whole, and certainly worthy of being considered, if neither presumption nor injustice are to judge it, the one despairing to find, the other rejecting, truth. We cease to worship your gods from the time when we discover that they are no gods. This therefore ye ought to require, that we prove that they be no gods, and therefore not to be worshipped, because then only ought they to have been worshipped, if they had been gods. Then also ought the Christians to be punished, if it were proved that those are gods, whom they worshipped not, because they thought them not to be so. 'But to us,' ye say, 'they are gods.' We challenge this, and appeal from yourselves 130 to your conscience. Let that judge us: let that condemn us, if it shall be able to deny that all these gods of yours were men. If she too herself would go about to deny it, she shall be convicted out of her own documents of Antiquity, from whence she hath learned to know them, which bear witness, to this day, both to the cities in which they were born, and to the countries wherein, having wrought any thing, they have left traces of themselves, nay even those in which they are proved to have been buried 131. Nor shall I run through all separately, so many as they are and so great, new, old, barbarian, Grecian, Roman, foreign, taken in war, adopted, peculiar, common, male, female, of the country, of the town, of the fleet, of the army. It is idle to go over their very titles. Let me sum up all in brief: and that, not that ye may learn, but be reminded of them; for certainly ye act as though ye had forgotten them. Before Saturn there is, according to you, no god 132. From him is |26 the date of all Deity, though better or better known than himself. Whatever therefore shall be proved of the origin, the same will also follow of the line. Touching Saturn, therefore, as far as books teach, neither Diodorus the Greek 133, nor Thallus 134, nor Cassius Severus 135, nor Cornelius Nepos, nor any of that class of writers on antiquities, have pronounced him to be ought else than a man. If we measure by the evidence of facts, I nowhere find any more trust-worthy than in Italy itself, wherein Saturn, after many travels, and after his entertainment in Attica, settled, being received by Janus or Janes as the Salii will have it 136. The mountain, which he had dwelt in, was called Saturnius 137: the city which he had planted, is even to this day Saturnia 138: finally, the whole of Italy, after being called Oenotria, was surnamed Saturnia 139. From him first came your tablets, and coin stamped with an image 140, and hence he presideth over the treasury. But if Saturn be a man, surely he is born of a man 141, and, because of a man, surely not of Heaven and Earth. But it easily came to pass that one, whose parents were unknown, should be called the son of those, of whom we may all be thought to be sons 142. For who may not call Heaven and Earth his father and mother, in the way of reverence and respect, or according to the custom of men, whereby persons unknown, or unexpectedly appearing, are said to have dropped down upon us from the skies 143? In like manner it happened to Saturn, coming unexpected every where, to be called heaven-born. For even the vulgar call those, whose birth is uncertain, "sons of Earth 144." I say nothing of men being as yet in so rude a condition, that they might be |27 moved by the appearance, as though divine, of any strange man, when even polished as they are at this day, men consecrate as gods those whom a few days before they acknowledged by a public mourning to be dead 145. Enough now, little as it is, of Saturn. I shall shew that Jupiter also was as well a man as born of a man; and so, in order, that the whole swarm of his descendants were as mortal as they were like the seed whence they sprung.
XI. And since, as ye dare not deny these to have been men 146, so ye have determined to affirm that they became gods after their death, let us treat of the causes which have worked out this effect. In the first place indeed ye must needs allow that there is some superior God, and some dispenser of Deity, who hath made gods out of men. For neither could they have assumed to themselves that Deity which they had not, nor could any give it to them which had it not, save one who in his own proper right 147 possessed it. But if there were no one to make them gods, in vain do ye presume that they were made gods, when ye refuse them a maker. Surely if they could have made themselves, they would never have been men, to wit as possessing in themselves the power of belonging to an higher state of being. Wherefore if there be one who maketh gods, I return to examine the reasons for making gods out of men, and I find none, unless it be that that great God lacked their services and aid in divine functions. First it is unworthy of Him that He should need the aid of any man, and that a dead one, seeing that He, who was about to lack the aid of a dead man, might more worthily have made some god from the first. But I do not even see any room for such aid: for all this body of the universe, whether, according to Pythagoras, without beginning and without a maker, or, according to Plato, having a beginning and a maker, in any case being once for all, in the very act of its conception 148,disposed, and furnished, and ordered, was found with a government of perfect reason 149. That could not be imperfect, which perfected 150 all things. |28 Nothing awaited Saturn and the race of Saturn. Men must be fools, if they be not assured that from the beginning rain hath fallen from heaven, and stars have beamed, and light hath shot forth, and thunders have roared, and Jupiter himself hath feared those bolts which ye place in his hands; that all fruit likewise sprang abundantly from the earth before Bacchus, and Ceres, and Minerva, yea before that first man whosoever he was; because nothing provided, for the maintenance and support of man, could have been introduced after man. Finally they are said to have discovered these necessaries of life, not to have made them 151: but that which is discovered, was, and that which was, will not be accounted his who discovered, but his who made it: for it was, before it was discovered. Further, if Bacchus be therefore a god, because he first made known the vine, Lucullus, who first introduced cherries generally into Italy, hath been hardly dealt with, because, being the 152 pointer out, he was not thereupon deified as the author of a new fruit. Wherefore if the universe hath existed from the beginning, both ordered and dispensed by fixed laws for the exercise of its functions, there lacketh a cause in this particular for admitting man to the Godhead, because the posts and powers which ye have assigned to them, have existed just as much from the beginning as they would have, even if ye had not created these gods. But ye betake yourselves to another reason, and answer that the conferring Deity upon them was a means of rewarding their merits, and hence ye grant, I suppose, that this god-making God is excellent in justice, one who would not rashly, nor unworthily, nor lavishly, dispense so great a reward. I would therefore recount their merits, whether they be such as should raise them to heaven, and not rather sink them down 153 into "the nethermost hell," which, when ye choose, ye affirm to be the prisonhouse of eternal punishments 154. For thither are the wicked wont to be thrust, and such as are unchaste towards their parents, and their sisters, and the debauchers of wives, and the ravishers of virgins, and the corrupters of boys, and they who are of angry passions, and they who kill, and they who steal, and they who deceive, and whosoever are like some |29 god of yours 155, not one of whom will ye be able to prove free from crime or vice, unless ye shall deny that he was a man. But as ye cannot 156 deny that they were men, ye have, besides, these marks which do not either allow it to be believed that they were afterwards made gods. For if ye sit in judgment for the punishment of such men, if all who among you are honest refuse the intercourse, the conversation, the company, of the evil and the base, and if that God hath admitted their compeers to a fellowship in his own majesty, why then condemn ye those whose fellows ye worship? Your justice is a stigma upon heaven. Make all your worst criminals gods, that ye may please your gods. The deifying of their fellows is an honour to them. But to omit farther discussion of this their unworthiness, grant that they be honest, and pure, and good. Still how many better men have ye left in the shades below! in wisdom a Socrates, in justice an Aristides, in warlike arts a Themistocles, in greatness of soul an Alexander, in good fortune a Polycrates, in wealth a Croessus, in eloquence a Demosthenes! Which of these gods of yours was more grave and wise than Cato? more just and warlike than Scipio? Which more great of soul than Pompey? more fortunate than Sylla? more wealthy than Crassus? more eloquent than Tully? How much more worthily would he have waited for these to be adopted as gods, foreknowing, as he must, the better men! He was hasty I trow, and shut up heaven once for all, and now blusheth doubtless to see better men grumbling in the shades below.
XII. I say no more now of these, as knowing that, when I have shewn what they are, I shall by the very force of truth shew what they are not. As touching your gods therefore, I see names only, the statues 157 of certain dead men of olden time, and 1 hear fables, and in their fables I read their mysteries. But as touching the images themselves I find nothing else than 158 materials akin to vessels and instruments of common use, or from these same vessels and instruments, as though changing their destiny by their consecration, the wantonness of art transforming them, and that too most insultingly, and in the work itself sacrilegiously: so that in very truth it may be a |30 consolation to us in our punishments, especially since we are punished on account of these very gods, that they themselves also suffer the same things in order that they may be made. Ye put the Christians upon crosses and stakes 159. What image doth not the clay first form, moulded upon a cross and a stake 160? It is on the gibbet that the body of your god is first consecrated! Ye tear the sides of the Christians with claws 161: but upon your gods hatchets, and planes, and files, are more stoutly laid over all their limbs. We lay down our necks: until lead and glue and pegs have been used, your gods are headless. We are driven to the beasts; those surely which ye attach to Bacchus, and to Cybele, and to Caelestis 162. We are burned with fire: so too are they in their original mass. We are condemned to the mines: it is thence that your gods are derived. We are banished to islands: in an island also one or other of your gods useth to be born or to die 163. If by such means any deity is formed, then those who are punished are deified, and your condemned criminals ought to be called gods. But clearly your gods feel not these injuries and insults in the forming of them; as neither do they the honours paid to them. O impious words! O sacrilegious revilings! Gnash your teeth and foam upon us. Ye are the same men who approve of a Seneca declaiming against your superstition in more copious and bitter words 164. Wherefore if we worship not statues 165 and cold images, very like their dead originals, which the kites, and the mice, and the spiders, well know 166, did not the renouncing of the discovered error deserve praise rather than punishment? For can we think that we injure those, who we are sure have no being at all? That which is not, suffereth nothing from any, because it is not. |31
XIII. 'But,' sayest thou, 'they are gods to us.' And how is it that ye on the other hand are found to be impious, and sacrilegious, and irreligious, towards those 167 gods? neglecting those, whom ye presume to exist; destroying those, whom ye fear, and even mocking those, whom ye avenge! Mark whether I speak falsely. First in that 168, when ye worship, some one, some another, of course ye offend those whom ye worship not 169. The preference of one cannot go on without the slight of another, because there is no choice without rejection. Ye despise then at once those whom ye reject; whom ye fear not, by rejecting, to offend. For as we have before shortly hinted, the case of each god depended upon the judgment of the Senate. He was not a god, whom man, after consultation, had refused, and, by refusing, had condemned. Your household gods, whom ye call Lares, ye deal with according to your household rights, by pledging, selling, changing them, sometimes from a Saturn into a chamber vessel, sometimes from a Minerva into a pan, as each hath become worn and battered by being long worshipped, as each man hath found his household need the more sacred god. Your public gods ye equally profane by public right, whom ye have in the register as a source of revenue. Thus the capitol, thus the herb-market is bid for 170. Under the same proclamation of the crier, under the same spear, in the same catalogue of the quaestor, Deity is consigned and hired. But in truth lands charged with a tribute are of less value: men assessed for a poll-tax are less noble. For these are the marks of villenage. But the gods who pay the highest tribute are the most holy; yea, rather, they who are the most holy pay the highest tribute. Their majesty is made a source of gain: Religion goeth about the taverns begging 171. Ye exact payment for a footing in the temple, for access to the sacred rite. Ye may not know the gods for nothing: they have their price. What do ye at all to honour them, which ye do not bestow on your dead men also? |32 Temples all the same, altars all the same,----the same dress and badges on the statues. As the dead man hath his age, hath his profession, hath his occupation, so hath the god. How doth the funeral feast differ from the feast of Jupiter? a bowl from a chalice 172? an embalmer from a soothsayer? for a soothsayer also attendeth on the dead. But rightly do ye offer divine honours to your deceased Emperors, to whom even when living ye assign them. Your gods will count themselves your debtors, yea will be thankful because their masters are made their equals. But when among your Junos, and Cereses, and Dianas, ye worship Larentina 173, a public harlot, (I would at least it had been Lais or Phryne;) when ye instal Simon Magus 174 with a statue and the title of an holy god; when ye make I know not whom out of the court pages a god of the synod 175; although your ancient |33 gods be not more noble, yet they will account it a slight on your part that that hath been allowed to others also, which they alone had from the earliest ages preengaged.
XIV. I am unwilling 176 to recount also your sacred rites. I say not what your behaviour is in sacrificing, when ye offer up all your dying, and rotting, and scabbed animals; when from those that are fat and sound ye cut off all the superfluous parts, the heads and the hoofs, which, even in your own houses, ye would have set aside for your slaves and your dogs; when of the tithe due to Hercules ye lay not even one third part upon his altar. I will rather praise 177 your wisdom, for that ye save somewhat of that which is thrown away. But turning to your books, by which ye are instructed in prudence and in honourable duties, what mockeries do I find! gods fighting, on account of the Trojans and Greeks, matched against each other like pairs of gladiators 178! Venus wounded with an arrow by a man, because she would fain deliver her own son Aeneas, lest he should be slain by the same Diomede 179! Mars almost wasted to death by imprisonment in chains for thirteen months 180! Jupiter delivered by the aid of a kind of monster 181, lest he should suffer the same violence from the rest of the gods! and now weeping for the fall of Sarpedon 182, now foully lusting after his own sister, and recounting to her his mistresses, not loved, for a long time past, so much as her 183. Thenceforward what poet is not found to be a degrader of the gods, after the example of his master? One assigneth Apollo to King Admetus for feeding his cattle 184: another letteth out to Laomedon the services of Neptune as a builder 185: and there is that one among the Lyric Poets, Pindar I mean, who singeth of Aesculapius 186 being punished by a thunderbolt, as the reward of his covetousness, because he had practised medicine sinfully. Wicked Jupiter, if the bolt be his! unnatural towards his grandson! jealous |34 towards his craftsman! These things ought neither to be disclosed if true, nor invented if false, amongst the most religious of all people. Not 187 even the tragic and comic writers spare them; or forbear to cite in their prologues the distresses and the frailties of the family of some one of the gods. Of the philosophers I say nothing, content with Socrates, who, in mockery of the gods, swore by an oak, and a goat, and a dog 188. But (say ye) Socrates was on that account condemned, because he disparaged the gods. Verily, of old time, indeed at all times, truth is hated. Nevertheless when, in repenting of their sentence, the Athenians both punished afterwards the accusers of Socrates, and set up a golden 189 statue of him in a temple, the reversal of his condemnation bore testimony in behalf of Socrates. But Diogenes 190 too has some jest upon Hercules: and the Roman Cynic Varro introduceth three hundred Joves, or perhaps I should say Jupiters, without heads.
XV. The rest of your licentious wits work even for your amusement through dishonour of the gods. Consider the pretty trifles of the Lentuli 191 and Hostilii, whether in those jokes and tricks ye are laughing at the buffoons, or at your own gods; 'The adulterer Anubis,' 'The male Luna 192,' 'Diana 193 scourged,' and 'The will of the deceased Jupiter' read aloud, and 'The three starved Herculeses 194' turned to ridicule. But the writings also of the stage shew up all their baseness 195. The Sun mourneth for his son cast down |35 from Heaven, and ye are delighted: and Cybele sigheth for her scornful shepherd, and ye blush not; and ye suffer lampoons on Jupiter to be sung, and Juno, Venus, and Minerva to be judged by the shepherd. Take the very fact 196, that the mask, representing your god, covers an ignominious 197 and infamous head 198? of a person impure, and brought to this point of skill by being unmanned, acting a Minerva or a Hercules? Is not their majesty insulted and their divinity defiled, amidst your applause? of a verity ye are more religious in the theatre, where your gods dance forthwith upon human blood, upon the stains of capital punishments, furnishing arguments and stories to wicked wretches, except that those wretches assume the characters of your gods themselves. We have ere now seen Atys, your 199 god from Pessinus, mutilated; and he who was burnt alive, was acting Hercules. We have smiled too, amidst sportive atrocities of the noonday men 200, at Mercury examining the dead with his red-hot bar. We have seen likewise the brother of Jupiter conducting the dead bodies of the gladiators with his hammer 201. If these several things, and others which any man might search out, disturb the honour of their divinity, if they level to the ground the crown of their majesty, they must surely be imputed to the contempt both of those who do them, and of those for whom they do them. But let these be mere jests. Nevertheless if I shall add, (what the consciences of all will no less admit,) that adulteries are committed in the temples 202, that debaucheries are carried on about the altars, chiefly in the very abodes of the ministers and priests, that under the same fillets and caps and purple robes, lust is satisfied while the incense is burning, I know not whether your gods may not complain more of you than of the Christians. Certainly the committers of sacrilege are ever found to be of your party; for the Christians have no dealings with the temples even in the day-time; they too perchance might rob them, if they too worshipped in them. |36 What then do they worship, who worship not such things? Already indeed it is easy to be inferred that they are the worshippers of the Truth, who worship not that which is false; and that they err no longer, in that, by discovering their error in which, they have ceased from it. Receive this first: and hence ye may draw the whole order of our sacred rites, certain false opinions being however first refuted.
XVI. For as some of you 203 have dreamed of an ass's head being our God 204; a suspicion of this sort Cornelius Tacitus hath introduced. For in the fifth of his Histories 205, having begun the account of the Jewish war from the origin of the nation, having also discussed what questions he chose, as well touching the origin itself, as the name and the religion, of the nation, he telleth us that the Jews being delivered, or, as he supposed, banished, from Egypt, when they were pining with thirst in the wastes of Arabia, places most destitute of water, took as their guides to the springs wild asses, which, it was supposed, would perhaps, after feeding, go to seek water, and that for this service they consecrated the image of a like creature. And so, I suppose, it was thence presumed that we, as bordering on the Jewish Religion 206, were taught to worship such a figure. But yet the same Cornelius Tacitus, (that most un-tacit man forsooth in lies,) relateth in the same history 207, that Cneius Pompeius, when he had taken Jerusalem, and thereupon had gone up to the temple to examine the mysteries of the Jewish religion, found no image therein. And without doubt, if that were worshipped, which was under any visible image |37 represented, it would be no where more seen than in its own holy place, the rather because the worship, however vain, had no fear of strangers to witness it; for itwas lawful for the priests alone to approach thither; the very gaze of the rest was forbidden by a veil spread before them. Yet ye will not deny that beasts of burden and whole geldings 208, with their own Epona, are worshipped by yourselves. On this account perchance we are disapproved, because, amidst the worshippers of all beasts and cattle, we are worshippers of asses alone. But he also who thinketh us superstitious respecters of the Cross, will be our follow worshipper 209, when prayer is made to any wood. No matter for the fashion, so long as the quality of the material be the same; no matter for the form, so long as it be the very body of a god. And |38 yet how doth the Athenian Minerva differ from the body of the Cross? and the Ceres of Pharos, who appeareth in the market, without a figure, made of a rude stake and a shapeless log? Every stock of wood, which is fixed in an upright posture, is a part of a cross; we, if we worship him at all, worship the god whole and entire. We have said that the origin of your gods is derived from figures moulded on a cross. But ye worship victories also, when, in your triumphs, crosses form the inside of the trophies 210. The whole religion of the camp is a worshipping of the standards 211, a swearing by the standards 212, a setting up of the standards above all the gods 213. All those rows of images 214 on your standards 215 are the appendages of crosses; those hangings on your standards and banners are the robes 216 of crosses. I commend your care: ye would not consecrate your crosses naked and unadorned. Others certainly, with greater semblance of nature and of truth, believe the sun to be our God. If this be so, we must be ranked with the Persians; though we worship not the sun painted on a piece of linen, because in truth we have himself in his own hemisphere. Lastly, this suspicion ariseth from hence, because it is well known that we pray towards the quarter of the east 217. But most of yourselves too, with an affectation of sometimes worshipping the heavenly bodies also, move your lips towards the rising of the sun. In like manner, if we give up to rejoicing the day of the sun, for a cause far different from the worship |39 of the sun, we are only next to those, who set apart the day of Saturn 218 for rest and feasting, themselves also deflecting from the Jewish custom, of which they are ignorant. But now a new report of our God hath been lately set forth in this city, since a certain wretch, hired to cheat the wild beasts 219, put forth a picture with some such, title as this, "The God of the Christians conceived of an ass." This was a creature with ass's cars, with a hoof on one foot 220, carrying a book, and wearing a gown. We have smiled both at the name and the figure. But they ought instantly to adore this two-formed god, because they have admitted gods made up of a dog's 221 and a lion's head 222, and with the horns of a goat 223 and a ram 224, and formed like goats from the loins 225, and like serpents from the legs, and with wings on the foot 226 or the back 227. Of these things we have said more than enough, lest we should have passed over any rumour unrefuted, as though from a consciousness of its truth. All which charges we have cleared, and now turn to shew you what our Religion is.
XVII. That which we worship is the One God, Who through the Word by Which He commanded, the Reason by Which He ordained, the Power by Which He was able 228, hath framed out of nothing this whole material mass with all its furniture of elements, bodies, and spirits, to the honour of His Majesty; whence also the Greeks have applied to the universe the name Ko&smoj. He is invisible though seen, |40 incomprehensible though present through His grace, inconceivable though conceived by the sense of man. Therefore He is true; and such is His greatness. Now that which can ordinarily be seen, which can be comprehended, which can be conceived, is less than the eyes by which it is scanned, and the hands by which it is profaned, and the senses by which it is discovered: but that which is immeasurable is known to itself alone. This is it which causeth God to be conceived of, while He admitteth not of being conceived: thus the force of His greatness presenteth Him to men, as both known and unknown. And this is the sum of their offending, who will not acknowledge Him of Whom they cannot be ignorant. Will ye that we prove Him to be, from His own works, so many and such as they are, by which we are maintained, by which we are supported, by which we are delighted, by which also we are made afraid? Will ye that we prove it by the witness of the soul itself, which although confined by the prison of the body, although straitened by evil training, although unnerved by lusts and desires, although made the servant of false gods, yet when it recovereth itself as from a surfeit, as from a slumber, as from some infirmity, and is in its proper condition of soundness 229, it nameth GOD, by this name only, because the proper name of the true God. 'Great God,' 'Good God 230,' and 'which God grant 231,' are words in every mouth. It witnesseth also that He is its Judge. 'God seeth 232,' 'I commend to God,' 'God shall recompense me.' O testimony of a soul, by nature Christian! Finally, in pronouncing these words, it looketh not to the Capitol, but to Heaven; for it knoweth the dwelling-place of the true God: from Him and from thence it descended. |41
XVIII. But that we might approach more fully and with deeper impressions, as well to Himself as His ordinances and His counsels, He hath added the instrument of Scripture, if any desireth to enquire concerning God, and having enquired, to find Him, and having found, to believe in Him, and having believed, to serve Him. For He hath from the beginning sent forth into the world men, worthy, by reason of their righteousness and innocency, to know God and to make Him known, overflowing with the Divine Spirit, whereby they might preach that there is One God Who hath created all things, Who hath formed man out of the ground, (for this is the true Prometheus 233,) Who hath ordered the world by the appointed courses and issues of the seasons; Who hath next put forth the signs of His Majesty in judgment by waters and by fires 234; Who, for the deserving of His love, hath determined those laws, which ye are ignorant of or neglect, but hath appointed rewards for these who obey 235 them; Who, when this world shall have been brought to an end, shall judge His own worshippers unto the restitution 236 of eternal life, the wicked unto fire equally perpetual and continual; all that have died from the beginning being raised up, and formed again, and called to an account for the recompense of each man's deservings. These things we also once laughed to scorn. We were of you. Christians are made, not born such 237. Those, whom we have called preachers, are named Prophets from their office of foretelling. Their words, and the miracles also, which they worked in witness of their being of God, remain in the treasures of writings: nor are those writings now hidden. The most learned of the Ptolemies, whom they surname Philadelphus, and right well skilled in all lore, when, in his zeal for libraries, he was vying, as I think, with Pisistratus, amongst others of those records, which either antiquity or a curious taste recommended to fame, on the advice of Demetrius Phalereus, the most approved, in that day 238, of grammarians, to whom he had committed the chief care |42 of these things, demanded of the Jews also their books, writings peculiar to themselves and in their own vulgar tongue, which they alone possessed. For the prophets were of that people, and had ever addressed themselves to that people as to the people and family of God, according to the grace given to their forefathers. They who are now Jews were formerly Hebrews: therefore are their writings Hebrew, and their language. But that the understanding of them might not be lacking, this also was granted to Ptolemy by the Jews, by allowing him seventy-two interpreters, whom Menedemus also the philosopher 239, the assertor of a Providence, looked up to for the agreement of their opinion. This moreover hath Aristeas affirmed unto you, and so hath he left a public record of it in the Greek language. At this day the collections of Ptolemy are shewn in the temple of Serapis with the very Hebrew writings. But the Jews also read them openly; a taxed licence 240. All have access to them every sabbath day. Whoso heareth shall find God: whoso moreover desireth to understand shall be compelled also to believe,
XIX. Extreme antiquity then 241 in the first place claimeth an authority for these documents. Even with yourselves there is a sort of sacredness in a claim to credit from antiquity. And so all the substances, and all the materials, antiquities, arrangements, veins of each of your ancient writings, most nations moreover, and famous cities, hoary histories and monuments 242, finally even the forms of letters, those witnesses and guardians of things,----methinks I still am saying too little;----I say your very gods themselves 243, your very temples, and oracles, and sacred rites; all these, the while, doth the record of a single prophet surpass by centuries, laid up in which are seen the treasures of the Jewish religion, and in |43 like manner consequently 244 of ours also. If ye have ever heard of a certain Moses, he is of the same age with Inachus of Argos 245; he precedeth by almost four hundred years, (for it is seven years less than this 246,) Danaus, himself also a very ancient among you: he goeth before the overthrow of Priam by about a thousand years 247; I could say also, having some authorities with me 248, that he was five hundred years more before Homer. Our other prophets also, although they come after Moses, yet are not, even the very last of them, found to be later than your first philosophers, and lawgivers, and historians 249. For me to expound by what train of proofs these things may be established, is a task not so much out of reach as out of compass, not difficult, but at the same time tedious. We must apply closely to many documents and many calculations: unlock the archives of even the most ancient nations, the Egyptians, the Chaldaeans, the Phoenicians: call in the aid of their countrymen, by whom such knowledge is supplied, a Manetho from Egypt, a Berosus from Chaldaea, an Iromus king of Tyre moreover from Phoenicia; their followers also, Ptolemy the Mendesian, and Menander of Ephesus, and Demetrius Phalereus, and king Iuba 250, and Appion, and Thallus, and if any 251 confirmeth or refuteth these, as Josephus 252 the Jew, the native champion of Jewish antiquities. The Greek annalists likewise must be compared with them, and the transactions of the various periods, that the mutual connection of dates may be unfolded, through which the order of the annals may be made |44 clear. We must travel into the histories and literature of the world. And yet we have, as it were, already produced a part of our proof, in dropping these hints of the means by which the proof may be made. But it were better to defer this, lest through haste we pursue it not far enough, or, in pursuing it, stray too far from our course.
XX. To make up for this postponement, we now proffer the more; the majesty of our Scriptures, instead of their antiquity. If it be doubted that they are ancient, we prove them divine. Nor is this to be learned by tedious method, or from foreign sources. The things which shall teach it you, are before your eyes, the world, and time, and its events. Whatsoever is doing was foretold; whatsoever is seen was before heard of 253: that the earth swalloweth up cities, that the sea stealeth away islands, that wars within and without tear asunder; that kingdoms dash against kingdoms, that famine, and pestilence, and all the special plagues of countries, and deaths for the most part ever haunting 254, make havoc well nigh of every thing; that the humble are exalted, and the lofty ones abased; that righteousness groweth scant 255, iniquity increaseth; that the zeal for all good ways waxeth cold: that the offices of the seasons, and the proper changes of the elements are out of course; that the order of natural things is disturbed by monsters and prodigies----all these things have been written of foreknowledge. While we suffer them, we read of them; while we review them, they are proved to us. The truth of the divination is, methinks, sufficient proof that it is divine 256. Hence therefore we have a sure confidence in the things to come also, as being in truth already proved, because they were foretold at the same time with those things which are proved every day 257: the same voices utter them, the same writings note them, the same spirit moveth within them. To prophecy, time is but one, the time of foretelling things to come: with men (if they deal with it) it is divided, while it is fulfilling, while from the future it cometh to be reckoned the present, and then from the present the past. What do we amiss, I pray |45 you, in believing in the future also, who have already learned to believe the same things through two stages of time?
XXI. But since we have declared that this sect is supported by the most ancient records of the Jews, although almost all know, and we ourselves also profess, that it is somewhat new, as being of the age of Tiberius, perchance on this account a question may be mooted touching its state, as though it sheltered somewhat of its own presumption under the shadow of a most famous, at least a licensed, religion; or because, besides the point of age, we agree not with the Jews, neither touching the forbidding of meats, nor in the solemnities of days, nor even in their "sign" in the flesh, nor in community of name, which surely we ought to do, if we served the same God; but even the common people knoweth Christ as one among men, such as the Jews judged Him to be, whence one might the more easily suppose us worshippers of a man 258. But neither are we ashamed of Christ, seeing that we rejoice to be ranked, and condemned, under His Name, nor do we judge otherwise than they, respecting God. We must needs therefore say a few words concerning Christ as God. The Jews alone had favour with God, because of the excellent righteousness and faith of their first fathers; whence the mightiness of their race and the majesty of their kingdom flourished, and so great was their blessedness, that they were forewarned by words of God, whereby they were taught 259 to deserve the favour of God, and not to offend. But how greatly they sinned, puffed up, even to doting260, with a vain confidence in their fathers, turning their course 261 from their Religion after the way of the profane, though they themselves should not confess it, the end of them at this day would prove. Scattered abroad, wanderers, banished from their own climate and land, they roam about through the world, with neither man nor God for their king, to whom it is not permitted, even in the right of strangers, to greet their native land so much as with the sole of their foot 262. |46 While holy voices threatened them aforetime with these things, all the same voices ever added this besides, that it should come to pass, in the ends of the world's course, that God would henceforward out of every nation, and people, and country, choose unto Himself worshippers much more faithful than they, to whom He should transfer His grace, and that, more abundantly according to the measure of His greatness, Who is the Author of their religion. Of this grace therefore and religion the Son of God was proclaimed the Dispenser and the Master, the Enlightener and the Guide of the human race, not indeed so born as that He should be ashamed of the name of "Son," or of His descent from His Father; not from the incest of a sister 263, nor the defilement of a daughter; nor had He for His father a god, the lover of another's wife, with scales, or horns, or feathers, or transformed into gold; for these are the godheads of your Jupiter 264. But the Son of God hath no mother, no not of pure wedlock 265: even she, whom He seemeth to have, had not known her husband. But first I will declare His substance, and then the quality of His birth will be understood. We have already set forth, that God formed this universal world by His Word, and His Reason, and His Power. Among your own wise men also it is agreed, that Lo&goj, that is, 'Word' and 'Reason,' should be accounted the Maker of all things. For Zeno determineth that this Maker, who hath formed all things and ordered them, should also be called Fate, and God, and the Mind of Jupiter 266, and the Necessity of all things. These titles doth Cleanthes confer upon the Spirit which, he affirmeth, pervadeth the universe. And we also ascribe, as its proper substance, to the Word, and the Reason, and the Power also, through Which we have said that God hath formed all things, a Spirit, in Which is the Word when It declareth 267, |47 and with Which is the Reason when It ordereth, and over Which is the Power when It executeth. This, we have learned, was forth-brought from God, and by this Forth-bringing, was Begotten, and therefore is called the Son of God, and God, from being "of one substance with" Him; for that God also is a Spirit. Even 268 when a ray is put forth from the sun, it is a part of a whole; but the sun will be in the ray because it is a ray of the sun, and the substance is not divided, but extended. So cometh Spirit of Spirit and "God of God," as "light" is kindled "of light 269," the parent matter 270 remaineth entire and without loss, although thou shouldest borrow from it many channels of its qualities 271. |48 So likewise that which hath come forth from God is God, and the Son of God, and Both are One. And so this Spirit of Spirit, and God of God, hath become 'the second 272' in mode not in number 273, in order not in condition 274, and hath gone forth, not gone out, of the original Source 275. Therefore this ray of God 276, as was ever foretold before, entering into a certain virgin, and in her womb endued with the form of flesh, is born Man joined together with God 277. The flesh |49 stored with the Spirit is nourished, groweth to manhood, speaketh, teacheth, worketh, and is CHRIST. Receive for the moment this tale, (it is like your own,) whilst we shew you whereby Christ is attested. They also among yourselves, who fore-ministered rival tales of this sort for the overthrow of this truth, knew 278 that Christ was to come: the Jews too knew it, since it was to them that the prophets spake. For even now they look for His coming 279; nor is there any other greater cause of contention betwixt us and them, than that they do not believe that He hath already come. For seeing that two advents of Him are declared, the first, which hath been already fulfilled in the lowliness of the human nature, the second which remaineth yet to come to close this world, in the majesty of the Divine Nature then shewn forth, through not understanding the first, they have regarded, as the only one, the second, for which, being more clearly foretold, they now hope 280. For their sins deserved 281 that they should not understand the former, since they would have believed, had they understood, and would have obtained salvation, had they believed.282 They themselves |50 read that it is so written, that they were punished by the taking away of their sense and understanding, and of the use of their eyes and of their ears. Whom therefore they had presumed from His lowliness to be only a man, it followed that they should from His power account a magician 283; when by a word He cast out devils from men, recovered the sight of the blind, cleansed the lepers,284 strengthened anew the sick of the palsy, finally by a word restored the dead to life, made the very elements 'obey Him,'285 stilling the storms and walking on the waters, shewing Himself to be the Lo&goj of God, that is, the Word, which was in the beginning,286 the First-Begotten, accompanied by His Power and His Reason, and upheld by His Spirit, the Same Who by a word both did and had done all things 287. But whereas the rulers and chief men of the Jews were confounded at His doctrine, they were so filled with indignation, chiefly because a great multitude had turned aside after Him, that at length, they brought Him before Pontius Pilate, then governor of Syria on behalf of the Romans, and by the violence of their voices, wrung from him that He should be delivered up unto them to be crucified. He had Himself also foretold that they would do this. This were but a small thing, if the prophets also had not done so before 288; and at length being nailed to the cross, He shewed many special signs to mark that death 289. Of Himself 290 He with a word gave up the ghost, preventing the office of the executioner. At the same moment the light of mid-day 291 was withdrawn, the sun veiling his orb. They thought it forsooth an eclipse, who knew not that this also had been foretold 292 concerning Christ: when they discovered not its cause, they denied it; and yet ye have this event, that befel |51 the world, related in your own records 293. Him being taken down from the cross, and buried in a sepulchre, they caused moreover to be surrounded with great diligence by a guard of soldiers, lest, because He had foretold that He should rise on the third day from the dead, the disciples removing the body by stealth should deceive them, though suspecting it. But, lo! on the third day, the earth being suddenly shaken, and the massive body being rolled away which had closed the sepulchre, and the watch being scattered through fear, and no disciples being to be seen, nothing was found in the sepulchre save the grave clothes only of the buried 294. Yet the chief men notwithstanding, whom it concerned to spread a wicked tale, and to draw back from the faith 295 the people, their tributaries and dependents, reported that He was stolen away by the disciples. For neither did He shew Himself to all the people,296 lest the wicked should be delivered from their error, and that the faith which was reserved unto no mean reward should cost some difficulty. But He continued forty days with certain disciples in Galilee, a region of Judaea, teaching them what things they should teach. After that, having ordained them to the office of preaching throughout the world, He was taken from them |52 into Heaven in a cloud which covered Him; an account far better than that which your Proculi 297 are wont to affirm of your Romuli. These things concerning Christ did Pilate, himself also already in his conscience a Christian 298, report to Tiberius the Caesar of that day. But the Caesars also would have believed on Christ, if either Caesars had not been necessary for the age, or if Christians also could have been Caesars. Moreover the disciples, spread throughout the world, obeyed the commandment of their Divine Master; who, themselves also, having suffered many things from the persecuting Jews, with good will assuredly, in proportion to their confidence in the truth, did finally at Home, through the cruelty of Nero, sow the seed of Christian blood 299. But we will shew 300 that the very beings whom ye worship, are sufficient witnesses to you of Christ. It is a great thing if I can employ, in order that ye may believe the Christians, those very beings on whose account ye believe not the Christians, Meanwhile such is the system of our Religion; such an account have we set forth both of our sect and name with its Founder. Let no man now charge us with infamy, let no one imagine aught besides this, since it is not lawful for any to speak falsely concerning his own Religion. For in that he saith that aught else is worshipped by him than that which he doth worship, he denieth that which he worshippeth, and transferreth his worship to another, and, in transferring it, he already ceaseth to worship that, which he hath denied. We say, and we say openly, and while ye torture us, mangled and gory we cry out, 'We worship God through Christ:' believe Him a man: it is through Him and in Him that God willeth Himself to be known and worshipped. To answer the Jews, they themselves also learned to worship God through the man Moses: to meet the Greeks, Orpheus in Pieria, Musaeus at Athens, Melampus at Argos, Trophonius in Boeotia, bound mankind by their rites: to look to you also, the masters of the world, Numa Pompilius was a man, who loaded the Romans with the most burthensome superstitions. Let Christ also be permitted to pretend to the divine nature, as a thing proper |53 to Himself, Who did not, as Numa, soften to a state of gentler culture rude and as yet barbarous men, by confounding them with so great a multitude of gods to be propitiated; but Who opened to a knowledge of the truth the eyes of men already polished, and blinded through their very refinement. See then whether this Divine Nature of Christ be real: if it be such that by the knowledge of it any one be changed unto that which is good, it followeth that any other, which is found to be contrary to it, must be pronounced false; specially that, by all means 301, which, hiding itself under the names and images of the dead, doth by certain signs, and miracles, and oracles, work out the proof of a divine character.
XXII. And therefore we say that there are certain spiritual substances: nor is the name new. The Philosophers acknowledge daemons, and Socrates himself looked unto the will of a daemon. Why not? since it is said that a daemon clave unto him from childhood, dissuading him 302: doubtless----from good. The poets acknowledge daemons 303; and now the untaught vulgar oft putteth them to the use of cursing. For even Satan the chief of this evil race, doth it, as though from a special consciousness of the soul, name in the same word of execration 304. Moreover Plato 305 denied not that there |54 be angels also. Even the Magi 306 are at hand to bear witness of both names. But how from certain angels corrupted of their own will a more corrupt race of daemons proceeded, condemned by God together with the authors of their race, and with that prince of whom we have spoken, is made known in order in the Holy Scriptures 307. It will suffice at this time to explain the nature of their work. Their work is the overthrow of man. Thus hath spiritual wickedness begun to act from the first for the destruction of man. Wherefore they inflict upon the body both sicknesses and many severe accidents, and on the soul, perforce, sudden and strange extravagances. Their own wondrous 308 subtle, and slight nature furnisheth to them means of approaching either part of man. Much is permitted to the power of spirits, so that, being unseen and unperceived, they appear rather in their effects than in their acts: as when some lurking evil in the air blighteth the fruit or grain in the blossom, killeth it |55 in the blade, woundeth it in its full growth, and when the atmosphere tainted in some secret way poureth over the earth its pestilential vapours 309. By the same unseen course of contagion therefore doth the blast of daemons and of angels hurry onward the corruptions of the mind, through foul madness and foolishness, or 310 fierce lusts, with manifold delusions, of which that is the chief, by which it commendeth those gods to the captive and narrowed understandings of men, that they may procure for themselves as their own, the food of sweet savour and of blood offered to statues and images 311; and what food is more cared for by them, than to turn aside man from the thoughts of the true Divinity by the delusions of a false divination 312? touching which very delusions I will shew how they work. Every spirit is winged: in this both angels and daemons agree: therefore in a moment they are every where: the whole world is one spot to them: whatever is done any where they know as easily as they report it. Their swiftness is believed to be divinity, because their substance is unknown 313. So also they would sometimes be thought the authors of those things which they report; and manifestly of evil things they sometimes are so, but of good never. The counsels also of God they both snatched, at the times when the Prophets were proclaiming them 314, and now also they cull in the readings which echo them. And so taking from hence also certain of the allotted courses of the future, they ape the power, while they steal the oracles, of God. But in the oracles, with what |56 cunning they shape their double meanings to events, witness the Croesi 315, witness the Pyrrhi 316. But it was in the manner in which I have before spoken of, that the Pythian god sent back the message that a tortoise was being stewed with the flesh of a sheep 317. They 318 had been in a moment in Lydia. By dwelling in the air, and by being near the stars, and by dealing with the clouds, they are able to know the threatenings of the skies, so that they promise also the rains, which they already feel. They are sorcerers 319 also about the cures of sicknesses; for they first inflict the disease, and then prescribe remedies wonderfully new or of a contrary nature, after which they cease to afflict, and so are believed to have cured 320. Why then should I speak at large touching the other subtleties or even the powers of spiritual delusion? the apparitions of Castor and Pollux 321, and the water carried in a sieve 322, and the ship drawn forward by a girdle 323, and the beard turned red by a touch 324, that both stones might be believed to be gods, and the true God not be sought after.
XXIII. Moreover if magicians also produce apparitions and disgrace the souls of the departed; if they entrance children to make them utter oracles 325; if, by means of juggling tricks, they play off a multitude of miracles; if they even send dreams to men, having, to assist them, the power of angels and daemons, when once invoked, (through whom both goats 326 and tables 327 have been accustomed to |57 prophesy;) how much the rather would that power study with all its might to work of its own will, and for its own business, that service, which it rendereth to the business-making of another! Or if angels and daemons do the same works as your gods, where then is the excellence of the Godhead? which we must surely believe to be higher than every power? Will it not then be a more worthy presumption that it is they who make themselves gods, since they shew forth the same works which cause the gods to be believed, than that the gods are on a level with angels and daemons? A difference of places maketh, I suppose, a distinction, so that ye count those for gods from their temples, whom elsewhere ye call not gods: so that he who rusheth over sacred towers seemeth to be mad after another sort from him who leapeth across the roofs of neighbouring houses, and one kind of influence is declared to be in him who woundeth his secrets or his arms, another in him who cutteth his throat. The end of the madness is alike in both, and the manner of incitement is one. But hitherto it hath been all words: now shall follow a proof of the thing itself, whereby we will shew that the quality of both these classes is the same. Let some one be brought forward here at the foot of your judgment-seat, who, it is agreed, is possessed of a daemon. When commanded by any Christian to speak, that spirit shall as truly declare itself a daemon, as elsewhere falsely a god 328. In like manner let some one |58 be brought forward of those who are believed to be acted upon by a god, who drawing their breath over the altar conceive the deity from its savour, who are relieved 329 by vomiting wind, and prelude their prayer with sobs 330. That very virgin Caelestis 331 herself who promiseth rains, that very Aesculapius that discovereth medicines, that supplied life to Socordius, and Thanatius, and Asclepiodotus, doomed to die another day----unless these confess themselves to be daemons, not daring to lie unto a Christian, then shed upon the spot the blood of that most impudent Christian. What can be plainer than this fact? what more to be trusted than this proof? The simplicity of Truth is before you: her own virtue supporteth her. Here will be no room for suspicion. |59 Will ye say that it is done by magic, or some cheat of that sort? Aye! if your eyes and your ears will permit you! But what can be insinuated against that which is shewn forth in undisguised sincerity? If on the one hand they be truly gods, why feign they themselves daemons? is it to humour us? Then is your deity at once made subject to the Christians, nor can that be accounted Deity, which is subjected to man, and (if this contribute aught to shame) to its own rivals. If on the other hand they be daemons or angels, why do they take upon themselves elsewhere to act as gods? For as they, who are accounted gods, would not call themselves daemons, if they were truly gods, lest forsooth they should put themselves down from their majesty, so they also, whom ye plainly acknowledge for daemons, would not dare elsewhere to act for gods, if those whose names they use, were any gods at all; for they would fear to abase the majesty of beings, without doubt higher than themselves and to be feared. So utterly nought is that deity to which ye hold; for if it were aught, it would neither be affected by daemons, nor denied by gods. Seeing then that both sides agree in one declaration, affirming that they are no gods, ye must allow that there is but one sort of such beings, namely daemons. True on both sides. Now look for gods 332, for, whom ye took to be such, ye find to be daemons. But by the same help from us, from these same gods of yours, who discover not this only, that neither they themselves nor any others are gods, ye immediately learn this also, Who is really God, and whether it be He, and He Alone, Whom we Christians confess, and whether He ought to be believed and worshipped according to the rule of the faith and discipline of the Christian. Here they will say, "And who 333 is this Christ with His tale of wonders? is He a man of common condition? is He a magician 334? was He stolen away after His crucifixion 335 from the sepulchre by His disciples? is He even now in hell? is He not in Heaven? and to come quickly 336 from thence also with a quaking of the whole universe, with a shuddering of the world, amidst the wailings of all men save the Christians, as the Power of God, |60 and the Spirit of God, and the Word, and the Wisdom, and the Reason, and the Son of God?" In all your scoffings let them also scoff with you: let them deny that Christ shall judge every soul from the beginning, the body being restored to it. Let them say that Minos and Rhadamanthus (if it be so), as Plato and the poets have agreed, are appointed to fulfil this office from their seat of judgment. Let them at least contradict the stigma of their own disgrace and condemnation. Let them deny that they are unclean spirits, which ought to be concluded even from their food, blood and smoke, and putrifying burnt sacrifices of beasts, and the most filthy tongues of the prophets themselves. Let them deny that they are for their wickedness fore-ordained to condemnation at the same day of judgment, with all their worshippers and agents. But all this rule and power of ours over them standeth in naming the Name of Christ, and in making mention of those things which they look for as hanging over them from God through Christ the Judge 337. Fearing Christ in God, and God in Christ, they are subjected unto the servants of God and Christ. From our touch therefore and our breath 338, seized by the thought and lively image of that fire, they even come forth from the bodies of men at our command, unwilling, and grieved, and ashamed, before your presence. Believe these, when they speak the truth of themselves, ye that believe them when they speak falsely. None lieth to abase, but rather to honour, himself. Credit is more readily given to those, who confess against themselves, than to those who deny for themselves. Finally, these testimonies of your own gods are wont to make men Christians, because by believing them to the utmost, we believe in Christ the Lord. They themselves kindle our faith in our Scriptures: they themselves build up the confidence of our hope. Ye worship them, as I know, |61 even with the blood of Christians. If then it were possible for them to speak falsely under the hands of a Christian desiring to prove the truth unto you, they would be unwilling to lose you, so profitable and so serviceable to them, even from the fear of being driven out one day by yourselves perhaps, made Christians.
XXIV. All this confession of theirs whereby they deny themselves to be gods, and whereby they make answer that there is no other God, save this One, Whose servants we are, is quite sufficient to refute the charge of sinning against the public, and 339 especially the Roman, Religion. For if they be certainly no gods, neither certainly is the Religion aught; and if the Religion be nought, because the gods are nought, neither certainly are we guilty of sinning against Religion. But on the contrary your reproach hath really 340 recoiled upon yourselves, who worshipping a lie, not only by neglecting, but moreover by warring against, the true Religion of the true God, commit against the True One the crime of true irreligion. Now 341 then although it were allowed that these were gods, do ye not grant, according to the common belief, that there is some One higher and mightier, as the King of the universe, of perfect power and majesty? For the most part of men also do so apportion the Divine Nature, that they will have the power of chief dominion to belong to One, its offices to many: even as Plato 342 describeth the great Jupiter as accompanied in heaven by an army of gods as well as of daemons, and therefore that his officers, and his praefects, and his governors, should be alike respected. And yet what crime doth he commit, who directeth rather his labour and his hope to earn the favour of the king 343 himself, and alloweth not the name of god, as he doth not that of emperor, to belong to any save the prince alone? seeing that it is judged to be a capital crime to call any, or to suffer any to be called, Caesar, save Caesar himself. Let one worship God, another Jupiter: let one raise his suppliant hands to Heaven, another to the altar of Fides 344: let one in his prayer, (if ye |62 think this of us,) tell the clouds 345, another the ornaments of the ceiling: let one devote his own life to his God 346, another that of a goat 347. For beware lest this also contribute to the charge of irréligion, to take away the liberty of religion and to forbid a choice of gods, so that I may not worship whom I will, but be constrained to worship whom I will not. No one, not even a mortal, will desire to be worshipped by any against his will; and therefore even to the Egyptians hath been allowed the free use of a superstition, vain as theirs, in consecrating birds and beasts, and in condemning to death those who slay any god of this sort 348. Every province also and state hath its own god; as, Syria, Atargatis 349; Arabia, Dusares 350; the Norici, Belenus 351; Africa, Caelestis 352; Mauritania, her own Princes 353. I have named, methinks, Roman provinces, and yet no Roman gods belonging to them, because they are not more worshipped at Rome than those, who, through Italy itself, are from municipal consecration ranked as gods, as Delventinus the god of the Casinienses; Visidianus, of the Narnienses; Ancharia, of the Aesculani; of the Voisinienses, Nortia 354; of the Ocriculani, Valentia; of the Sutrini, Hostia 355, of the Falisci, Juno, who, in honour of her father Curis, hath also received her surname 356. But we alone are forbidden to have a religion of our own 357. We offend the Romans, and are not held to be Romans, because we worship not the god of the Romans, It is well that God is the God of all, Whose we all are, whether we will or no. But with you it is lawful to worship any thing except the |63 true God, as though He were not rather the God of all, of Whom we all are.
XXV. Methinks I have proved enough concerning false and true Deity, when I have shewn how the proof consisteth not in discussions only and arguments, but in the testimony of those very beings, whom ye believe to be gods, so that there is now nothing in this question which needs to be treated of again. Yet since the authority of the Roman name specially cometh across us 358, I will not pass by the controversy which the presumption of those provoketh, who say that the Romans have been raised to such a height of greatness as to be masters of the world, for the merit of their very diligent devotion to Religion 359; and that they are so fully gods, that those flourish above all others, who above all others render service to them. These forsooth are the wages paid in gratitude by the Roman gods. Sterculus 360, and Mutunus, and Larentina, have advanced the empire! For I cannot suppose that foreign gods would have wished that favour should be shewn to a foreign nation rather than to their own 361, and that they would have given up to men beyond the seas the land of their country, in which they were born, grew up, were ennobled, and buried. No matter for Cybele if she loved the Roman city as the memorial of the Trojan race,----her own native race forsooth; which she protected against the arms of the Greeks,----if she foresaw that it would pass to those avengers, who she knew would subdue Greece, the conqueror of Phrygia. A mighty proof hath she thereupon put forth, even in our age, of her majesty conferred upon the city, when, Marcus Aurelius having been, at Syrmium, removed from the state by death on the sixteenth day before the Calends of April, that most holy of arch-eunuchs, on the ninth day before the same Calends, on which he made a libation of impure blood by mutilating his arms also, issued, as before, his accustomed orders on behalf of the health of Marcus, who had been already cut off. O slothful messengers! O sleepy despatches! through |64 whose fault Cybele did not before learn the death of the Emperor! Verily the Christians would laugh at such a goddess. But neither would Jupiter at once have suffered his own Crete to be shaken by the Roman fasces, forgetting that cave of Ida, and the Corybantian cymbals, and the most pleasing odour of his own nurse 362 there. Would not he have preferred this his own tomb to all the Capitol, so that that land should rather be the first in the world, which covered the ashes of Jupiter? Would Juno too 363 be willing that the city of Carthage, which she loved even in preference to Samos 364, should be utterly destroyed, by the race of Aeneas forsooth? Whereas I know,
"Here were her arms,
"Here was her chariot, here e'en now she cherished,
"(So might Fate will,) the empire of the world."
This wretched wife and sister of Jupiter prevailed nothing against the Fates. Clearly,
"by Fate e'en Jove himself doth stand 365."
And yet the Romans have not offered to those Fates, which gave up Carthage to them contrary to the intent and vow of Juno, as much honour as to that most abandoned she-wolf Larentina. That many gods of yours have reigned, is certain. Wherefore if they hold the power of bestowing empire, from whom, when they reigned themselves, had they received that gift? whom had Saturn and Jupiter worshipped? Some Sterculus, I presume; but that, at Rome 366 afterwards, together with their own 367 native gods. Even if there were any that reigned not, yet was the kingdom ruled by others, not as yet their worshippers, because they were not as yet held to be gods. Wherefore it belongeth to others to bestow the kingdom, seeing that there were kings long before these |65 were inscribed gods. But how vain is it to ascribe the eminence of the Roman name to the merit of their religious zeal! since it was after the establishment of the imperial, or call it still the regal, power, in an advanced state of prosperity, that Religion made progress. For although an exceeding nicety in superstition was adopted by Numa, yet the religious system among the Romans did not as yet consist in images or temples. Religion was thrifty, and her rites needy: and no Capitols were there, vying with the Heavens 368, but altars of turf thrown together as it chanced,369 and vessels still of Samian ware, and but scant savour 370, and the god himself no where 371; for at that time the talents of the Greeks and Tuscans 372 in framing images had not as yet over-flooded the city. The Romans then were not religious before they were great, and therefore were not great for this cause, because religious. But how could they be great because of their religion, whose greatness proceeded from irreligion? For, if I mistake not, every empire or kingdom is gained by wars, and extended by conquests. Moreover wars and conquests consist for the most part in the taking and overthrow of cities. This business is not without injury to the gods. The same ruin embraceth walls and temples, like massacres citizens and priests, nor doth the plunder of sacred treasures differ from that of the profane 373. As many therefore as are the trophies of the Romans, so many are their acts of sacrilege; as many as are their triumphs over nations, so many are they over the gods; as many have been their captures, as there yet remain images of captive gods. And therefore do they bear to be worshipped by their enemies, and decree to them an empire without end, whose insults, rather than their fawnings 374, they ought to have repaid. But they who have no sense of any thing, are as safely injured as they are uselessly worshipped. |66 Surely it cannot consist with belief that they should be thought to have increased in greatness through the merits of their Religion, who, as we have suggested, have either grown great by injuring Religion, or have injured it by growing great. They too, whose kingdoms have together made up the sum of the Roman empire, were not, at the time when they lost those kingdoms, without religions.
XXVI. See then whether He be not the Disposer of kingdoms, Whose is both the world which is ruled, and man himself who ruleth; whether He have not ordered the changes of dominions with their times, in the course of the world, Who was before all time, and made that world, the universe of times. See whether it be not He Who exalteth and putteth down states, under Whom the race of men once lived without states. Why do ye err? Rome in her rude state is more ancient than certain of her own gods; she reigned before so large a compass of Capitol was erected 375. The Babylonians 376 too reigned before the High Priests, and the Medes before the Fifteen 377, and the Egyptians before the Salii, and the Assyrians before the Luperci, and the Amazons before the Vestal Virgins. Finally, if the religious rites of Rome procure kingdoms, never would Judaea have reigned aforetime, that despiser of those common deities, whose God too ye Romans 378 for some time honoured with sacrifices, and her temple with offerings 379, and her people with treaties 380: nor would ye ever have ruled over her, had she not at the last sinned against Christ.
XXVII. A sufficient answer this to the charge of sinning against the gods, because we cannot be thought to sin against that, which we shew does not exist. Wherefore when we are called upon to sacrifice, we take our stand against it on the strength of our conscience, whereby we are assured who those be, to whom these services are paid, under |67 the images which ye publicly expose 381, and the human names which ye consecrate. But some think it madness that, when we are able at once to sacrifice for the moment and to escape unhurt, our fixed purpose remaining stedfast in our own mind, we prefer to our safety a perverse resistance 382. Ye give us forsooth counsel whereby we may cheat yourselves! But we know whence such counsels are suggested, who it is that setteth all this in motion, and how at one time by cunning persuasion 383, at another by harsh violence, he worketh for the overthrowing of our constancy. It is in truth that spirit of demoniac and angelic properties, who rivalling us because of oar separation from him 384, and envying us because of the grace of God bestowed upon us, maketh war against us out of your minds 385, which, by the secret influence of his spirit, are disposed and prompted to all that perverseness in your judgments, and that injustice in your wrath, to which we began at the first to speak 386. For although all the power of daemons and spirits 387 of that sort were made subject to us, yet, like naughty servants, they sometimes mingle contumacy with their fear, and delight to injure those, whom at other times they reverence 388: for even fear inspireth hatred. Besides, also, their desperate state, arising from their previous condemnation, counteth on the comfort of enjoying meantime |68 their malice, while their punishment is yet delayed. And yet, when seized, they are subdued, and submit to their own condition, and entreat, when near at hand, those whom they attack, when afar off. Therefore when, like rebels from the workhouses, or the prisons, or the mines, or any penal service of that sort, they break out against us, in whose power they are, being well assured that they are unequal to us, and thereby the more undone, we are forced to resist them as equals 389, and we fight against them by persevering in that which they attack; and never do we triumph over them more, than when we are condemned for stedfastness in our faith.
XXVIII. But as it would readily seem unjust for free men to be forced against their will to sacrifice, (for elsewhere also, in doing religious service, a willing mind is enjoined 390,) assuredly, for any one to be compelled by another to honour gods, whom, for his own sake, he ought of his own accord to appease, would be thought absurd, lest, (in the right of free choice) he have his answer ready; "I will not have Jupiter propitious to me 391: who art thou? let Janus meet me in wrath with whichever of his faces he will: what have I to do with thee?" Ye are framed, of course by these same spirits to compel us to do sacrifice for the health of the Emperor; and the necessity of compelling us is as much forced on you, as is the duty of perilling ourselves 392 on us. We come then to the second count in the charge of offending against more august majesty, if indeed ye respect Caesar with greater dread and with a more trembling ardour 393 than Jupiter of Olympus himself. And with good cause, if ye know why. For who 394 is he? is not any one among the living better than any 395 dead? But neither do ye this on the score of reason so much as from respect to a presentaneous 396 power, and thus |69 in this also ye are found to be irreligious towards your gods, seeing that ye shew more of awe towards a human power, Finally, among you, men more readily swear falsely by all the gods than against the single Genius of Caesar 397.
XXIX. Let it then first appear whether those, to whom sacrifice is offered are able to impart health to the Emperor 398, or to any human being, and so adjudge us guilty of high treason 399. If angels or daemons, in substance the worst of spirits, work any good deed, if the lost save, if the condemned deliver, if finally, as is within your own knowledge, the dead defend the living, then assuredly would each first defend his own statues, and images, and temples, which, as I think, the soldiers of the Caesars keep in safety through their watches 400. But methinks these very materials too 401 come from the mines of the Caesars, and the entire temples stand according to the nod of Caesar 402. Finally many gods have had Caesar in wrath with them; it maketh for my argument if some too have found him propitious, when he conferreth any bounty or privilege upon them. How then shall they, who are in Caesar's power 403, whose also they wholly are, have the health of Caesar within their power, so that they may be thought to bestow that which they more readily themselves obtain from Caesar? For 404 therefore do we sin against the majesty of the Emperors, because we subject them not to their own creatures! because we make not a mockery of our services for their health's sake, not thinking it to be in hands soldered with lead! But ye are religious 405, who seek it where it is not, ask it of those by whom it cannot be given, passing Him by, in Whose power it is! moreover ye put down by force those who know how to ask it, and, in that they know how to ask it, are able also to obtain it.
XXX. For we pray for the health of the Emperors to the |70 eternal God, the true God, the living God, Whom even the Emperors themselves would rather have propitious to them than all the rest. They know Who hath given them their kingdom 406: they know, as human beings, Who hath given them also their life. They feel that this is the only God, in Whose power alone they are, to Whom they are the second in power, after Whom they are the first, before all, and above all gods. And why not? since they are above all men, who, as living, surely stand before the dead. They reflect how far the powers of their empire avail, and thus they understand God 407. They acknowledge that they prevail through Him, against Whom they cannot prevail. In a word let the Emperor conquer Heaven, carry Heaven captive in his triumph, send his guards to Heaven, lay on Heaven his taxes. He cannot. Therefore is he great because he is less than Heaven; for he himself is of Him, of Whom is both Heaven and every creature. Thence is he an Emperor, whence he was also a man, before he was an Emperor; thence cometh his power, whence also came his breath. Thither we Christians, looking up with hands spread open 408, because without guilt, with head uncovered 409, because we are not ashamed, finally without a prompter 410, because we pray from the heart; are ever praying 411 for all kings, that they may have a long |71 life, a secure dominion, a safe home, valiant armies, a faithful senate, a righteous people, a world at peace, and whatever be the desire both of the man and of the king. These things I cannot ask of any other than Him, from Whom I know that I shall obtain them; since it is He Who alone giveth them, and it is I to whom the obtaining of them is due, I His servant who alone give Him reverence, who for His Religion am put to death, who offer to Him a sacrifice rich and of the highest rank 412, which He Himself hath commanded, the prayer that proceedeth from a chaste body, from a soul that sinneth not, from the Holy Spirit; not a single penny's worth 413 of grains of frankincense, 414 the droppings of an Arabian tree, nor two drops of wine, nor the blood of a discarded beast that longeth to die, and after all these foul things a filthy conscience also, so that I marvel, when the victims are being tried before you by the most wicked priests, why the heart of the beasts rather than of the sacrificers themselves are examined. Whilst then we are thus spread forth before God, let your claws of iron pierce us, your crosses hang us up, your fires play about us, your swords cut off our necks, your beasts trample on us; the very posture of the praying Christian is prepared for every punishment 415. This do 416, ye worthy rulers, tear from us that breath which is praying to God for your Emperor. Here will be the crime, where is truth and devotion to God 417.
XXXI. Now (ye will say) we have been flattering the Emperor, and have feigned these prayers, of which we have spoken, that we may escape forsooth your violence. Much profit clearly doth the deceit bring us! for ye allow us to prove whatsoever we maintain. Thou therefore, that thinkest that we care nothing for the health of Caesar, look into the oracles of God, our writings, which we do not ourselves suppress, and which very many accidents transfer to the hands of strangers. Learn from them, that it is commanded us, in the overflowing of kindness, to entreat God even for our |72 enemies 418, and to pray for blessings on our persecutors 419. And who more the enemies and persecutors of us Christians, than those, concerning whose majesty we are charged with guilt? But even by name, and in plain words: Pray, saith the Scripture, for kings, and for princes, and for powers, that ye may have all things in quietness 420. For when the kingdom is shaken, all its other members being shaken with it, surely we also, although we stand aloof from tumults, are found to have some place in the misfortune.
XXXII. We have also another and a greater need to pray for the Emperors, and moreover for the whole estate of the Empire, and the fortunes of Rome, knowing, as we do, that the mighty shock which hangeth over the whole world, and the end of time itself, threatening terrible and grievous things, is delayed because of the time allowed to the Roman Empire 421. We would not therefore experience these things, and while we pray that they may be put off, we favour the long continuance of Rome. But moreover as we swear not by the Genii of the Caesars 422, so we do swear by their health 423, |73 which is of greater dignity than all Genii. Ye know not that Genii are called "Daemones," and hence by a diminutive title, "daemonia." We in the Emperors reverence the judgment of God, Who hath set them over the nations. We know that in them is that which God hath willed, and therefore we would have that safe which God hath willed, and this we hold to be a great oath; but as to the daemons, that is, the genii, we are wont to adjure them that we may cast them out of men, not to swear by them, so as to confer on them the honour pertaining to God.
XXXIII. But why should I say more of the Religion and the reverential affection of the Christians towards the Emperor, whom we needs must look up to as the man whom our Lord hath chosen? I might even say with good cause, Caesar is rather ours, being appointed by our God. Wherefore in this also I do him more service towards his welfare, not only because I ask it from Him, Who is able to grant it, nor because I that ask it am such an one as to deserve to obtain it 424, but also because, by keeping down the majesty of Caesar beneath God, I commend him the more unto God to Whom alone I subject him. But I subject him to one to whom I make him not equal. For I will not call the Emperor a god, both because I cannot speak falsely, and because I dare not mock him, and because he himself will not desire to be called a god. If he be a man, it concerneth a man to yield to a god. He hath enough in being called an Emperor: this also is a great name which is given him of God. He who calleth him a god, denieth that he is an Emperor. Unless he be a man, he is not an Emperor. Even when triumphing in that most lofty chariot, he is warned that he is a man, for he is prompted from behind, "Look behind thee----remember that thou art a man 425." And, in truth, his joy is on this very account the greater, for that he glittereth with so much glory, as to need reminding of his proper nature. He were not so great, if he were then called a god, because he would not be truly called so; he is greater, in that he is reminded not to think himself a god.
XXXIV. Augustus, the founder of the Empire, would not |74 even have himself called Lord 426; for this also is a name of God 427. I will by all means call the Emperor lord, but only when I am not compelled to call him lord in the stead of God. Nevertheless to him I am a freeman, for there is One that is my Lord, the Almighty and eternal God, the Same who is his Lord also. He that is the father of his country, how is he its lord? But a title of natural affection is more pleasing also than one of power. Even of a family men are rather called the fathers than the lords 428. So far is it from being due to the Emperor to be called a god, (which cannot be believed 429,) with a flattery not only most disgraceful, but dangerous also, as though when thou hast one Emperor, thou wert to call another so. Wilt thou not incur the highest and most implacable displeasure of him whom thou hadst for thine Emperor, a displeasure to be feared even by him to whom thou gavest the title? Be religious towards God, thou that wouldest have Him propitious to the Emperor. Cease to believe any other to be God, and so likewise to call him god who hath need of God. If flattery of such sort blusheth not for its falsehood in calling a man a god, let it at least fear for its evil omen: it is ill-augured to call Caesar a god before he be deified 430.
XXXV. It is on this account then that the Christians are public enemies, because they offer to the Emperors neither vain, nor lying, nor unconsidered honours; because, being men of true religion, they celebrate even their solemn days with honest hearts rather than wanton acts. A mighty service truly! to drag out into public view fireplaces and couches 431, to feast from street to street, to bury the whole city under the disguise of a tavern 432, to make mud with wine, to |75 run about in companies 433 to violent and shameless deeds, to the enticements of lust. Is it thus that public joy is expressed by public disgrace? do these things become the holydays of princes, which become not other days? shall they who observe the right rules of life out of respect for Caesar, abandon them for Caesar's sake, and shall piety be a licence for immorality? shall Religion be deemed an occasion of wantonness 434? and how justly do we deserve condemnation! for why do we discharge our vows and our rejoicings for the Caesars, in chastity and sobriety and righteousness? Why do we not on the festal day overshadow our door-posts with laurels 435, and encroach on the day with our candlelight 436? It is a righteous act, when a public solemnity requireth it, to dress up your house in the guise of some new brothel 437!
I would, however, touching this reverencing a secondary 438 majesty also, concerning which we Christians are called to answer a second charge of sacrilege, for not celebrating with you the holydays of the Caesars in a manner in which neither modesty, nor shame, nor decency permit, but the opportunity of pleasure rather than any fitting reason hath advised 439, I would give proof of your own faithfulness and truth, in case they should in this instance also perchance be found worse than the Christians, who would not that we should be accounted Romans, but enemies of the kings of Rome. I call on the Romans themselves, on the native populace of the seven hills themselves, to answer whether that Roman tongue of theirs spareth one of their own Caesars 440. The Tiber is my witness and the theatre of the beasts. Now if nature had covered the breasts of men 441 with some transparent material, so that they might shine through, whose heart would not be found graven with the picture of another and another new Caesar presiding over the division |76 of the royal donative 442? even in that hour in which they cry
"Jove, multiply thy years by lessening ours."
These words a Christian is as incapable of pronouncing as of wishing for a new emperor. "But these be mobs," sayest thou? Mobs let them be; they are Romans notwithstanding, and none are more noisy clamourers for the punishment of the Christians than the mob. The other classes no doubt are, in proportion to their authority, sincere in their pious reverence; no hostile spirit is breathed from the senate itself, from the knighthood, from the camp, from the very palace! Whence pr'ythee came your Cassii, and your Nigers, and your Albini 443? whence come they, who beset a Caesar between two laurels 444? whence they, who exercise their art of wrestling in strangling him 445? whence they, who break into the palace in arms 446 with more boldness than all the Sigerii and Parthenii 447? From the Romans, if I mistake not, that is from men not-Christians. And so all these, even when their wickedness was on the point of bursting forth, were both offering their sacrifices for the health of the Emperor, and swearing by his Genius, one kind of men without, another within, and doubtless were giving to the Christians the name of public enemies. But even they who are every day 448 detected as accomplices or abettors of wicked parties, the gleaning that still remaineth after the gathering in of the vintage of parricides 449, how did they face their doors with the freshest and the most luxuriant laurels! how did they overcast their porches with vapour of candles, the tallest and the brightest! how did they portion out the forum among them, filling it with the richest and most superb couches! not that they might solemnize the public rejoicings, but that they might even now utter their own private vows in another's solemnity, |77 and, by changing mentally the name of the prince, might enthrone a proxy and a representative of him for whom they hoped. The same services do they also pay, who consult astrologers, and soothsayers, and augurs, and magicians, touching the life of Caesar 450; which arts, as being put forth by rebel angels, and forbidden by God, the Christians do not employ, even in their own behalf. But who hath need of such curious enquiry about the life of Caesar, unless it be one, who is plotting or desiring something against it, or is hoping and waiting for something after it? For men consult not with the same feelings about their friends and their masters: the anxiety of the kinsman is busy on other grounds than that of the slave.
XXXVI. If these things be so, that those are proved to be enemies, who were wont to be called Romans, why are we who are but thought to be enemies denied to be Romans? May we not both be Romans and not be enemies, when those are found to be enemies, who were accounted Romans? The piety then, and religious reverence, and faith due to the Emperors standeth not in such services as these, which even enmity may more zealously perform as a cloak for itself, but in that moral course of life, by which a kindly feeling must needs be as truly shewn towards the Emperor as towards all mankind. For these works of good-will are not due from us to Emperors alone. In doing good to others we make no exception of persons, for we do it at the same time to ourselves, seeking our measure of praise or reward not from man, but from God, Who requireth and recompenseth an impartial charity. We are the same to the Emperors that we are to our neighbours, for we are equally forbidden with respect to every one, to wish ill, to do ill, to speak ill, to think ill. That which we may not do to an Emperor, neither may we do to any man: that which we may do to no man, the less, perhaps, may we to him, who, through God, is so great a man.
XXXVII. If, as we have said above, we are commanded |78 to love our enemies, whom have we to hate? And if again 451 when injured we are forbidden to repay the injury, lest we ourselves be equally guilty, whom have we power to hurt? For reflect, yourselves, on this matter. How often do ye spend your fury on the Christians, partly from your own proper inclinations, partly in obedience to the laws 452! How often also, passing you by, doth the hostile mob attack us 453, on its own score, with stones and fire! With the very phrenzy of Bacchanals, they spare not the Christians even when dead; but they must needs drag them out from the repose of the grave, the sanctuary in some sort of death, and cut and tear them in pieces, no longer what they were, no longer even entire 454. And yet what retaliation for injury have ye ever marked in men so banded together, so bold in spirit even unto death? though a single night might with a few torches work out an ample vengeance, if it were lawful, with us that evil should be balanced by evil. But God forbid that the divine character of the sect 455 should be vindicated by human fire, or should grudge to suffer that wherein it is tried. For if we wished to act the avowed enemy, not the secret avenger only, would strength of numbers and forces be wanting to us? The Moors and the Marcomans 456, and the Parthians themselves, or any other people, however great, yet a people nevertheless of one spot, and of their own boundaries, are, I suppose, more numerous than one of the whole world! We are a people of yesterday, and yet we have filled every place belonging to you, cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum 457! We leave you your temples only. We can count your armies: our numbers in a single province will be greater 458. For what war should we not be sufficient and ready, even |79 though unequal in numbers, who so willingly are put to death, if it were not in this Religion of ours more lawful to be slain than to slay? We could fight against you even unarmed and without rebelling, but only disagreeing with you, by the mere odium of separation. For if so large a body of men as we, were to break away from you into some remote corner of the globe, surely the loss of so many citizens, of whatever sort they might be, would cover your kingdom with shame, yea, and would punish you by their very desertion of you. Doubtless ye would tremble at your own desolation, at the silence of all things, at the death-like stupor of the whole world. Ye would have to seek whom to govern. More enemies would remain to you than citizens: for now ye have fewer enemies by reason of the multitude of Christians, almost all, citizens, yea having almost all your citizens Christians. But ye have preferred to call us enemies of the human race 459. And who would snatch you from those hidden foes, who are every where making havoc of your minds and your bodily health, from the inroads, I mean, of daemons, which we drive away from you without reward, without pay? This alone would be enough, for our vengeance, that ye should henceforth lie open 460, a vacant tenement for unclean spirits 461. And now not even thinking of compensation for so great a protection, ye have preferred judging as enemies a race not only harmless, but even necessary to you, who are in truth enemies, yet not of men but of their errors.
XXXVIII. Wherefore it were meet that this sect should be accounted (and that with much more kindly feelings) among lawful factions 462, a sect, by which no such thing is done, as is wont to be apprehended from unlawful factions. For, if I mistake not, the cause of prohibiting factions is to |80 be found in a provident care for the temperate condition of the public, lest the state be divided into parties, a thing which might easily disquiet your assemblies, your councils, your courts, your public meetings, even your public shows, by the rival conflicts of party zeal, when men had already begun to make a trade of selling and hiring out their services for acts of violence. But we who are insensible to all that burning for glory and greatness, have no need of banding together, nor is any thing more foreign to our taste than public affairs. We acknowledge one commonwealth of all mankind, the world 463. Equally do we renounce your spectacles, as much as the matters which gave rise to them, which we know to be conceived of superstition, in that 464 we have got clear of the very things about which these performances are concerned. We have no concern, in speaking, seeing, hearing 465, with the madness of the circus 466, with the immodesty of the theatre 467, with the cruelty of the arena, with the folly of the wrestling gallery 468. The Epicureans were permitted to determine for themselves certain pleasures to be real. Wherein do we offend you if we take other than yours to be pleasures? If we will not know how to be pleased, the loss, if it be one, is our's not your's. But we reject those things which please you, nor are ye delighted with our pleasures 469.
XXXIX. I will now set forth on my own part the employments of the Christian society, that since I have disproved that which is evil, I may shew somewhat that is good, if so be I have also unfolded the truth 470. We. are a body formed by our joint cognizance of Religion, by the unity 471 of discipline, by the bond of hope. We come together in a meeting and a congregation as before God 472, as though we would in one body sue Him by our prayers. This violence is pleasing unto God. We pray also for Emperors, for their ministers and the powers, for the condition of the world, for the quiet of all things, for the delaying of the end 473. We |81 come together to call the sacred writings to remembrance, if so be that the character of the present times compel us either to use admonition or recollection in any thing. In any case, by these holy words we feed our faith, raise our hopes, establish our confidence, nor do we the less strengthen our discipline by inculcating precepts. Here too are exercised exhortations, corrections, and godly censure. For our judgment also cometh with great weight, as of men well assured that they are under the eye of God; and it is a very grave forestalling of the judgment to come, if any shall have so offended as to be put out of the communion of prayer, of the solemn assembly, and of all holy fellowship. The most approved elders 474 preside over us, having obtained this honour not by money, but by character; for with money is nothing pertaining unto God purchased. Even if there be with us a sort of treasury, no sum is therein collected, discreditable to Religion as though she were bought. Every man placeth there a small gift on one day in each month 475, or whensoever he will, so he do but will, and so he be but able; for no man is constrained, but contributeth willingly. These are as it were the deposits of piety; for afterwards they are not disbursed in feasting and in drinking, and in disgusting haunts of gluttony, but for feeding 476 and burying the poor, for boys and girls without money and without parents, and for old men now house-ridden, for the shipwrecked also, and for any who in the mines 477, or in the islands, or in the prisons, become their Creed's pensioners 478, so that it be only for the sake of the way of God. But it is the exercise |82 of this sort of love which doth, with some, chiefly brand us with a mark of evil. 'See,' say they, 'how they love each other 479;' for they themselves hate each other: and 'see how ready they are to die for each other;' for they themselves are more ready to slay each other. But whereas we are denoted by the title of 'The Brethren,' on no other ground, as I think, do they brand this name, than because among themselves every title of consanguinity is, from affectation 480, falsely assumed. But brethren we are even of your own, by the law of Nature, our one mother, although ye have but little of the man in you because ye are ill brethren. Now 481 how much more worthily are they both called and esteemed brethren, who acknowledge one Father, that is God, who have drunk of One Spirit of holiness 482, who from the one womb of their common ignorance have started at the one light 483 of Truth! But perchance we are on this account thought to be not true-born brothers, because no tragedy noiseth abroad our brotherhood, or because we are brethren in our family property, which with you mostly dissolveth brotherhood 484. We therefore, who are united in mind and soul, doubt not about having our possessions in common. With us all things are shared promiscuously, except our wives 485. In that alone do we part fellowship, in which alone others exercise fellowship; who not only use the wives of their friends, but most patiently also lend to their friends their own, according, I suppose, to the rule of those ancient and exceeding wise men, Socrates the Greek, and Cato the Roman, who shared with their friends the wives whom they had married, for the sake of having children, even elsewhere begotten: whether indeed against the will of the wives, I know not; for what could they care for that chastity, which their husbands had so readily resigned? O example |83 of Attic wisdom and of Roman steadiness! A Philosopher and a Censor 486 turned pimp 487! What wonder then if such our love be social? for even our little suppers ye revile as extravagant also 488, besides being disgraced by vice. It was of us, I suppose, that the saying of Diogenes 489 was spoken, "The Megarians feast, as though they were to die to-morrow, and build, as though they were never to die." But each beholdeth the mote in another's eye, rather than the beam in his own 490. The whole air is turned sour with the crude breathings of so many tribes, and curiae, and decuriae. When the Salii are about to feast, one must needs lend money for it. Your accomptants will calculate the expenses of the tithes and the feasts dedicated to Hercules. For the Apaturian and Bacchanal festivals, and for the Athenian mysteries, a levy of cooks is ordered; at the smoke of the feast of Serapis the firemen will be aroused. It is the supping-room of the Christians alone that men carp at. Our feast sheweth its nature in its name. It is named by the word by which 'love 491' is among the Greeks. Whatever expense it costeth. expense incurred in the name of piety is a gain; if we aid every poor man by this refreshment, not, according as the parasites among you, aspire to the glory of enslaving their liberty, and, for their hire, filling their bellies in the midst of insults, but, according as with God, more thought is taken for men of low degree. If the cause of the feast be good, judge ye what the rest of the course of our rules is, according to the duties of Religion. It alloweth nothing vile, nothing immodest. Men sit not down to meat before tasting, in the first place, of prayer to God 492. They eat as much as hungry men desire; they drink as much as is profitable for chaste men; they are so filled, as men who remember that during the night also they must pray 493 to God; they so discourse, as |84 those who know that God heareth. After that water for the hands and lights 494 are brought, according as each is able, out of the Holy Scriptures, or of his own mind, he is called upon to sing publicly to God 495. Hence it is proved in what degree he hath drunken! In like manner prayer breaks up the feast 496. Thence they separate, not into bands for violence 497, nor into groups for running to and fro, nor for the outbreakings of lasciviousness, but to be as chary as before of modesty and chastity, as men who have fed not so much upon meats as upon instruction in righteousness. This coming together of Christians would deservedly be unlawful, if it were like those things which are unlawful; deservedly to be condemned, if it were not at variance with those things which are to be condemned 498. If any complain of it on the ground that factious parties are complained of, for whose hurt have we at any time assembled? We are the same when gathered together as when scattered, the same in the mass as single, offending no one, vexing no one. When the honest, when the good come together, when the pious, when the chaste meet, it must not be called a faction, but a court. |85
XL. But on the contrary the name of faction must be applied to those, who are banded together in enmity against the good and the honest, who join together their cry against the blood of the innocent, pretending forsooth, in defence of their enmity, that vain excuse also, that they think the Christians to be the cause of every public calamity, of every national ill 499. If the Tiber cometh up to the walls, if the Nile cometh not up to the fields, if the heaven hath stood still 500, if the earth hath been moved, if there be any famine, if any pestilence, "The Christians to the lion," is forthwith the word. What! so many to one? Before the age of Tiberius, that is before the coming of Christ, how many calamities, I pray you, afflicted the world and the City 501? We read that Hiera, Anaphe 502, and the islands Delos, and Rhodes, and Cos, were with many thousand men utterly destroyed. Even Plato 503 relateth that a land larger than Asia and Africa was snatched away by the Atlantic ocean. An earthquake moreover hath drained the Corinthian sea 504; and the force of the waves hath separated Lucania from Italy, and banished it, to bear the name of Sicily 505. Surely these things could not happen without harm to the inhabitants. But where were, I will not say the Christians the despisers of your gods, but your gods themselves at that time, when the flood overwhelmed the whole world, or, as Plato supposed 506, the plain country 507 only; for that they were of later date than the catastrophe of the deluge the very cities bear witness, in which they were born and died, and those also which they |86 founded; for they would not otherwise have remained unto this day, if they themselves also had not been of later date than that catastrophe. Palestine had not yet received that swarm of Jews from Egypt, nor had that seminary of the Christian sect, as yet settled there, when the shower of fire burnt up Sodom and Gomorrah, places on its borders. The land still smelleth of the burning; and, if any fruits of the trees there struggle into life, so as to be seen by the eyes, nevertheless, when touched, they crumble into ashes 508. But neither did Tuscany nor Campania complain of the Christians, at that early day, when fire was poured over Vulsinii from Heaven, and over Tarpeii 509 from its own mountain. No one at Rome as yet worshipped the true God, when Hannibal at Cannae, in the slaughter which himself had made, measured out by the bushel the rings of the Romans. All your gods were worshipped by all, when the Senones seized upon the Capitol itself 510. And it is well, that when any adverse accident befalleth cities, there hath been the same overthrow of the temples as of the walls 511, so that I may at once prove against you that the evil cometh not from the gods, because it cometh upon themselves as well as others. Mankind hath even deserved ill of God, first in that they were undutiful towards Him, Whom though they knew in part, they not only sought not after Him to fear Him512, but devised for themselves others besides, to worship them; next because, by not seeking after the Teacher of good, and the Judge and Avenger of evil, they grew in all trespasses and sins. But if they had sought after Him, it followed of necessity, that Whom they sought 513, they should know, and Whom they knew, honour, and Whom they honoured, find rather propitious than wrathful. They ought therefore to know that the same God is now also angry with them, Who was ever so in times past, before that any bore the name of Christians. He, Whose good gifts, produced before they |87 devised gods for themselves, they enjoyed, why can they not understand that evils also come from Him, Whose they perceived not that the good things were? To Him they are amenable, to Whom also they are ungrateful. And yet if we compare the former catastrophes, lighter evils 514 now occur since the world hath received the Christians from God. For from that time, their innocence hath tempered the wickednesses of the age, and they have begun to be intercessors with God. Finally, when summer hindereth winter of its showers 515, and the year is in anxious plight, ye indeed, daily fed to the full and about forthwith to dine 516, with your baths, and your taverns, and your brothels, all at work, offer to Jupiter sacrifices for rain, order your people to go barefoot 517, seek Heaven in the Capitol, look for clouds from your ceilings 518, turning yourselves away from God Himself and from Heaven 519. But we, dried up with fasting, and pinched by every sort of abstinence 520, kept from every enjoyment of life, prostrating ourselves in sackcloth and ashes 521, put Heaven to shame by our importunity, touch God 522, and when we have painfully obtained mercy, Jupiter is honoured by you, God neglected 523!
XLI. Ye therefore are they that trouble the world 524, ye are guilty of the national calamities, ye that are ever inviting evils 525, among whom God is despised, images worshipped. For surely 526 it must be thought more credible that He should be angry Who is neglected, than they who are worshipped 527; or else they must indeed be most unjust, if, on account of the Christians, they injure their own worshippers also, whom |88 they ought to except from the deserts of the Christians. This, say ye, is to make the argument recoil upon your own God also, seeing that He also suffereth His own worshippers to be harmed on account of the wicked. Learn first His counsels, and ye will not thus retort. For He, Who hath once ordained an everlasting judgment after the end of the world, hasteneth not the separation, which is a necessary part of that judgment, before the end of the world 528. Meanwhile He is without partiality towards the whole human race, both in blessing and in chastening them; He hath willed that good things should be shared by the wicked, and evil things by His own people, that by an equal participation we all might know both His kindness and His severity. Because we have been thus taught by Himself, we love kindness, we fear severity. Ye on the other hand despise both, and it followeth therefore that all the afflictions of the age come from God upon us (if they do so) for our admonition, upon yon for your punishment. But in truth we are in no wise harmed; for we have in this world no concern but to depart out of it as quickly as we may. Next because if any evil be inflicted, it is ascribed to your deservings. But although some evils slightly touch us also, as being joined together with you, we rather rejoice in acknowledging therein the divine prophecies, as confirming our assurance and the confidence of our hope 529. But if all your misfortunes come upon you from those whom ye worship, for our faults, why persist ye in worshipping beings so ungrateful, so unjust, who ought rather to assist and abet you in afflicting the Christians?
XLII. But we are called to account on another charge of wrong, and are said to be unprofitable in the common concerns of life 530. How can this be said of men who live with you, have the same food, dress 531, furniture, the same wants of daily life? For we are not Brachmans, or the |89 naked philosophers of the Indians, dwelling in the woods, and outcasts from life. We remember that we owe gratitude to God our Lord and our Maker. We put not away from us any enjoyment of His works; certainly we refrain from using them immoderately 532 or wrongfully. Wherefore we live with you in this world 533, not without a forum, not without shambles, not without your baths, taverns, shops, inns, markets, and other places of traffic. We voyage moreover with you, serve in your armies, labour with you in the fields, and trade with you. Besides this, we join our crafts with yours. Our acquirements, our services, we lend to the public for your profit. How we can be thought to be unprofitable to you in your concerns, you with whom and by whom we live, I know not. But if I attend not the solemnities of your holyday, I am nevertheless on that day also a man. I do not wash at nightfall 534, or at the Saturnalian festival, lest I should waste both night and day 535; yet I wash at a proper and a wholesome hour, such as may save both my warmth and my colour; cold and pale after bathing I can be, when dead. On the feast of Bacchus I sit not down to meat in public, as is the custom of those who are condemned to the beasts, when they take their last meal 536: but wheresoever I do eat, I eat of your abundance. I buy no garland for my head 537: nevertheless, since I do buy flowers, how doth it concern you in what manner I use them? I use them, as I think, more agreeably when free, and loose, and straying out of all order. But if we must have them gathered together in a wreath, we have our wreath for the nose. Let those please themselves who smell with their hair! We come not together to your public shows; but if I need any things that are sold at those meetings, I would procure them more freely 538 at their proper places. We buy certainly no frankincense: if the Arabias complain of this, the Sabaeans will witness that more, and more costly, merchandise of theirs is |90 lavished in the burials of Christians 539 than in burning incense to the gods. 'Without doubt,' say ye, 'they are daily melting away the revenues of our temples: how few now throw in their offering 540! Why! we cannot afford to relieve men and your begging 541 gods too, nor do we think that we ought to give, save to those that ask: briefly, let Jupiter put out his hand and take of us, while mean time our compassion expendeth more in each street 542 than your religion doth in each temple. But your other taxes will be grateful to the Christians 543, who pay their dues with that faithfulness with which we abstain from defrauding others, so that if an account were taken, how much is lost to the taxes through the deceitfulness and falsehood of your declarations, the reckoning might easily be made, the complaint under one head being compensated by the profit gained to the other accounts.
XLIII. I will fully admit that there are some, who may, if any may, justly complain of the unfruitfulness of the Christians. First then will be the pimps, the procurers, and their bath-furnishers. Next, the assassins, the poisoners, the magicians; after them, the soothsayers, the diviners, the astrologers 544. To be unprofitable to these, is a great profit. And yet whatever loss to your finances come from this our sect, may be balanced by at least some protection from them. At what price do ye value, I do not now say those who cast out devils from you 545, I do not say those who fall down |91 before the true God in prayer for you as well as for themselves, but those of whom ye can have no fear?
XLIV. Yet here there is a loss to the state, great as it is real, which no one turneth to look upon; here is an injury to the citizens, which no one weigheth, when in our persons so many righteous men are expended, when so many innocent men are squandered away. For now we call to witness your own acts, you who preside daily at the trials of prisoners, and dispose of the charges by your sentences. So many criminals are reckoned up by you under various charges of guilt. What assassin among them, what cut-purse, what sacrilegious person, or seducer, or plunderer of bathers, is entitled also a Christian? In like manner 546 when the Christians are brought to trial under their own head, who even of these is such as all these criminals are? It is ever from your own people that the prison is steaming: it is ever from your own people that the mines are breathing sighs; it is ever on your own people that the beasts are fattened; it is ever of your own people that the masters of the shows find flocks of criminals to feed. No Christian is there, unless it be only as a Christian; or if he be any thing else, he is forthwith no longer a Christian 547.
XLV. We alone then are innocent? What wonder if this be so of necessity? and truly of necessity it is so. Taught innocence by God, we both know it perfectly, as being revealed by a perfect Master; and we keep it faithfully, as being committed to us by an Observer that may not be despised. But to you human opinion hath handed down the rule of innocence, and human authority hath commanded it. Hence ye belong to a discipline which for the attaining of true innocence is neither perfect nor so greatly to be feared. What is the wisdom of man in shewing what is really good? What his authority in exacting it? The one is as readily deceived, as the other disregarded. And hence, which is the more full commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," or, "Be not even angry?" Which the more perfect, to forbid adultery, or to keep men even from the secret lust of |92 the eyes? which the more refined, to forbid evil doing, or even evil speaking? which the more complete, not to permit an injury, or not to suffer even the requital of an injury? Meanwhile, however, know that even your own laws, which seem to tend to innocence, are borrowed from the law of God, as the more ancient. I have already spoken of the age of Moses 548. But what is the authority of human laws, when it is in the power of man both to evade them, being generally undiscovered in his misdoings, and sometimes to set them at nought, as sinning from chance or necessity? Consider it also in respect of the shortness of the punishment inflicted, which, whatever it be, nevertheless continueth not after death. So also Epicurus holdeth cheap all torment and pain, by pronouncing slight ones despicable, and great ones shortlived 549. But we of whom an account is taken by the God Who looketh upon all, and who see before us an eternal punishment at His hands 550, we are with good cause the only men who attain unto innocence, both from the fulness of our knowledge, and the difficulty of concealment, and the greatness of the punishment, which continueth, not for a long time, but for ever; fearing Him Whom even that man, who judgeth those that fear, will himself be obliged to fear----fearing God and not the Proconsul.
XLVI. We have maintained our ground, methinks, against all that criminal charge, which calleth for the blood of the Christians. We have shewn you, our whole condition, and by what means we can prove it to be such as we have shewn----by the truth 551, that is, and the antiquity 552 of the Divine Scriptures, and moreover by the confession 553 of the spiritual powers. Let him come forth who 554 shall venture to refute us. He will be bound to strive against us on the ground of truth, not by skill of words, but in the same form in which we have established our proof. But while our truth is made manifest to every man 555, unbelief meantime, confounded as it is by the goodness of this sect, (which hath now become well known to experience 556 of it, and by |93 intercourse with it,) regardeth it forsooth not as a work of God, but rather as a kind of philosophy 557. 'The philosophers,' it saith, 'advise and profess the same things, innocence, justice, patience, sobriety, chastity.' Why then, when we are likened to them in discipline, are we not made equal to them in the freedom and impunity of their discipline? Or why are not they also, as being our equals, forced to the same offices, which we, not fulfilling, are put in peril? For who compelleth a philosopher to sacrifice, or to take an oath 558, or at noon-day to parade abroad useless candles 559? Nay they even openly demolish your gods, and in treatises accuse your superstitions, with your own approbation 560: most of them likewise bark against your princes 561, and ye suffer it, and they are more readily rewarded by statues 562 and pensions 563, than sentenced to the beasts. And with good cause, for they bear the name of philosophers, not of Christians. This name of philosophers putteth not the daemons to flight: why should it, seeing that the philosophers rank the daemons next to the gods 564? It is the saying of Socrates, "If the daemon so please." And he also, even when he savoured somewhat of truth in denying the gods, yet just at the close of life ordered a cock to be sacrificed to Aesculapius 565, I suppose in honour of his father, because Apollo declared Socrates to be the wisest of all men 566. O ill-advised Apollo! he hath borne testimony to the wisdom of that man, who denied the being of the gods! Whatever hatred the truth kindleth against itself, so much doth he incur, who faithfully setteth it forth, while he who corrupteth and affecteth 567 it, gaineth favour on this account especially, from those that attack the truth. Philosophers affect, inasmuch as they are both its mockers and despisers 568, the truth in mimicry, and, in affecting, corrupt it, as men who catch at praise. The Christians both seek |94 it as of necessity, and fulfil it entirely, as men who care for their own salvation. Wherefore neither in respect of knowledge, nor, as ye imagine, in respect of discipline, are we on a level. For what certain report did Thales, that earliest of natural philosophers 569, give to Croesus, when he questioned him concerning the nature of the gods, after being oft allowed in vain farther time for deliberation 570? Every Christian labourer both findeth out God and sheweth Him 571, and hence really ascribeth to God all that in God is looked for, notwithstanding that Plato 572 affirmeth that the Maker of the world is both hard to be found out, and, when found out, hard 573 to be declared unto all. But if we be challenged 574 on the ground of chastity, I read a part of the sentence given at Athens against Socrates; he is declared to be a corrupter of young men 575: the Christian doth not even change the natural use of the woman 576, I know also that the harlot Phryne ministered to the lustful embraces of Diogenes. I hear too that a certain Speusippus of the school of Plato died in the act of adultery 577. The Christian is by nature a lover to his wife alone. Democritus by putting out his eyes because he could not look upon women without desire, and was pained if he possessed them not, doth, by this very self-correction, make confession of incontinence. But the Christian, still keeping his eyes, looketh not at all upon women. It is in his heart that he is blinded against lust. If I must defend our cause as touching righteous dealing, behold Diogenes, his feet soiled with mud, trampling with a pride of his own on the proud couches of Plato 578. The Christian doth not vaunt himself against even a poor man. If I am to contend as touching modesty, behold Pythagoras at Thurium, and Zeno at Priene, aspiring to the tyranny. But the Christian doth not aspire even to the aedileship 579. If I am to join issue as touching evenness of mind, |95 Lycurgus chose obstinately to starve himself to death because the Lacedaemonians had amended his laws 580. The Christian, even when condemned, giveth thanks. If I am to make a comparison as touching good faith, Anaxagoras refused to restore a pledge to his guests; the Christian is called faithful even to strangers 581. If I am to take my stand on the ground of simplicity, Aristotle basely displaced his own familiar friend Hermias; the Christian doth not hurt even his enemy. The same Aristotle flatlereth 582 Alexander, who ought rather to have been directed by him, as unbecomingly 583 as Plato was sold by Dionysius 584 for his belly's sake. Aristippus in his purple 585, under a vast surface of outward gravity, liveth the life of a profligate; and Hippias is put to death while laying a snare for the state. This hath no Christian ever attempted on behalf of his own friends, though scattered abroad with every sort of cruelty. But some men will say that certain even of our own people depart from our rule of discipline. Then do they cease to be accounted Christians amongst us 586. But these philosophers, with such deeds upon their hands, continue to hold among you the name and the honour of wisdom. What likeness then is there between the philosopher and the Christian? the disciple of Greece and of Heaven? the trafficker for fame and for salvation? the doer of words and of works? the builder and the destroyer of things? the foister in of error, and the restorer of truth? its plunderer and its guardian?
XLVII. For the antiquity of the Holy Scriptures, already established 587, yet again serveth me in making it very credible that this was the store-house of all the wisdom of later times. And were it not that I now desire to moderate the bulk of my book, I would go at large into the proof of this also. Which of the poets, which of the sophists is there, who have not drunk from the fountain of the Prophets 588? Hence, |96 therefore, have the philosophers also watered the dryness of their own understanding. For because they have certain things of ours, therefore they liken us to them 589. Hence also methinks 590 hath philosophy been by law 591 cast out by some, the Thebans, for example, the Spartans, and the Argives 592. While they strive to come at what is ours, being men, who (as we have said) lust after fame and eloquence only, if they have met with any thing in the sacred writings, they have straightway re-written it according to the bent of their nice research, and have perverted it to their own purpose, neither sufficiently believing them to be divine, not to corrupt them, nor sufficiently understanding them, as being, even then, somewhat obscure, and seen darkly even by the Jews themselves, whose own they seemed to be. For even where the truth was in simple form, the more on that account did that cavilling spirit of men, which despiseth faith, waver, whence they confounded in uncertainty even that which they had found certain. For having found only that there was a God, they questioned of Him not as they had found Him, but so as to dispute about His character, and His nature, and His dwelling-place 593. Some affirm that He is without body, some that He hath a body, as do the Platonists and the Stoics; some that He cometh of atoms, some of numbers, as Epicurus and Pythagoras; some of fire, as was thought by Heraclitus. Again the Platonists hold that He careth for the world, the Epicureans on the other hand that He is inactive, unemployed, and, if I may say so, a non-entity as respecteth the affairs of men 594; the Stoics 595 again, that He is placed without the universe, |97 turning about, like a potter, this mass of matter from without; the Platonists, that he is placed within the universe, abiding like a pilot within that which he directeth. So also concerning the world itself, they are not agreed, whether it had or had not a beginning, whether it shall have an end, or abide for ever. So also of the state of the soul, which some contend is divine and eternal, others that it can be dissolved: each hath, according to his own sentiment, brought in a new doctrine, or reformed the old. And no wonder if the wit of philosophers hath perverted the ancient document 596. Some of their race have by their own opinions corrupted this our novel body of writings 597 also, after the views of the philosophers, and from the one way have cut out 598 many devious and inextricable mazes. Which remark I have offered for this reason, lest the notorious variety of opinions in this our sect should seem to any one to place us in this respect also on a level with the philosophers, and condemn truth, because variously defended. But for those who corrupt our doctrines we briefly rule, that the canon of truth is that which cometh from Christ, handed down through those who have companied with Him, long after whom these different commentators will be proved to have existed 599. All contradictions to the truth have been framed out of the truth itself, the spirits of error thus exercising their rivalry. By them have the corruptions of this wholesome kind of discipline been privily introduced 600; by them also have certain fables been let in, which, from their likeness to it, might weaken the credit of the truth, or rather gain it over to their own side; so that a man may think that he must put no faith in the Christians, because he can put none in poets or philosophers; or suppose that he ought to put the more faith in poets and philosophers, because he can put none in the Christians. Therefore we are laughed at, when we preach that God shall judge the world, for so do the poets also, and the philosophers feign a judgment-seat in the shades below; and if we threaten men with Hell, which is a store-house of |98 hidden fire beneath the earth, for the punishing of men, we are forthwith borne down by jeers, for so is there also a. river among the dead called Pyriphlegethon. And if we speak of Paradise 601, a place of heavenly pleasantness appointed to receive the spirits of the saints, separated from the knowledge of the world in general by a sort of wall formed by the zone of fire 602, the Elysian plains have preoccupied their belief. Whence, I pray you, have your poets and philosophers these doctrines so like to ours? it can only be from our mysteries. If it be from our mysteries, as being older than their own, then are ours more to be trusted and believed than theirs, seeing that even the copies of them gain belief. If it be from their own minds, then must our mysteries be regarded as the copies of things later than themselves, which the law of nature suffereth not, for never doth the shadow go before the substance, or the image before the reality.
XLVIII. Come now, if any philosopher affirmeth (as doth Laberius 603 after the opinion of Pythagoras) that a man is made out of a mule, a serpent out of a woman, and shall, by the force of eloquence, wrest every argument to this opinion, will he not gain the consent of men, and fixedly persuade them ever to abstain from animal food? and will not each on this account be persuaded, lest in supping on ox-flesh he eat one of his own ancestors? But the Christian, if he promiseth that man shall be made again of man, and that of Caius the very same Caius shall be refashioned, will be driven out by the people, not merely by blows, but rather by stones, as though 604 whatever be the governing argument for the restoration of human souls to material bodies, do not itself require, that they return to the same bodies, seeing that this it is to be restored, to become what it was before. For if they be not what they were, endued, that is, with a human, and that the self-same, body, then |99 will they not be the very same which they were, because they could not be what they were not, without ceasing to be what they had been. Moreover, how shall they be said to be restored, which are no longer to be the same? Either, being made another thing, they will not be themselves, or, remaining themselves, will not be from another source. We should need many jests and much leisure, if we chose to sport with this question, into what beast each man may be thought to have been changed. But let us rather keep to the defence of ourselves, who lay it down as a thing certainly more worthy of belief, that a man should be refashioned from a man, (who you will coming in place of whom you will, so it be only a man,) so that the same sort of soul may be restored to the same rank of beings, though not to the same likeness 605. Surely, since the cause of the restoration is the appointed future judgment, each will of necessity be presented the very same man that he was before, that he may receive judgment from God for his good deservings or the contrary. And therefore will the bodies also be again presented, both because the soul can suffer nothing by itself without connection with a material substance, that is the flesh 606, and because what thing soever souls are doomed to suffer from the judgment of God, they have deserved it, not without the flesh, within which they have done all things 607. But, thou sayest, how can matter, which hath been dissolved, be made to appear? Consider thyself, O man, and thou wilt find how to believe this thing. Think what thou wast before thou hadst a being: simply nothing: for hadst thou been any |100 thing thou wouldest have remembered it. Thou therefore that wast nothing before thou didst exist, and that becomest also nothing when thou ceasest to exist, why canst thou not begin to exist again from nothing, by the Will of that selfsame Creator Who hath willed that thou shouldest come into being out of nothing. What new thing will happen unto thee? thou that wast not, wast made: when again thou shalt not be, thou shalt be made. Declare, if thou canst, the manner in which thou wast made, and then seek to know how thou shalt be made. And yet surely thou shalt be more easily made that which thou once hast been, seeing that thou wast made, equally without difficulty, that which thou never hadst at any time been 608. There will be a doubt, I suppose, as to the power of God, Who hath framed out of that which was not before, not less than out of a death-like void and nothingness, this vast body of the universe, animated by that Spirit which animateth all souls 609, stamped 610 too by Himself as an emblem of the resurrection of man, for a testimony unto you. The light which is extinct every day, shineth forth again, and the darkness in like manner departeth and succeedeth in its turn 611; the stars that have died away, revive again; the seasons when they end, begin anew; the fruits are consumed and again return; the seeds assuredly spring not up with new fruitfulness, except they be first corrupted and dissolved 612; all things are by dying preserved; all things are formed again from death 613. Shalt thou a man, (a name so great,) thou who (if thou knowest thyself, as |101 thou mayest learn to do even from the Pythian inscription 614) art the lord of all things that die and rise again, shalt thou die to perish for ever? Wheresoever thy elements shall be scattered, whatsoever matter shall destroy, absorb, abolish, waste thee to nothing, it shall restore thee again 615. "Nothing" itself is in the hands of Him, in Whose hands is "The Whole." 'Then,' say ye, 'we must be ever dying and ever rising again!' If the Lord of all things had so determined, thou wouldest experience, even against thy will, this law of thy creation. But now He hath not determined otherwise than He hath declared unto us. The same Mind which from diversity of parts hath framed one whole, so that all things consist of rival substances in unity, of the void and the solid, of the animate and the inanimate, of the comprehensible and the incomprehensible, of light and darkness, yea even of life and death, hath made time also to consist of two states so determinate and distinct, that the first part of it, measured from the beginning of all things, in which we now live, runneth out to its end in this mortal life, but the next, which we wait for, is continued to a never-ending eternity. When therefore the end, and that middle space of time, which lieth open between 616, shall have come, so that the visible face of the universe itself is removed, which is equally temporal, and hath been spread like a curtain before that eternal dispensation, then shall the whole human race be restored, to determine the account of their good or evil deservings in this world, and then to pay the debt through the boundless series of everlasting ages. Therefore, there shall neither be an absolute death, nor another and another resurrection, but we shall be the same that we now are, and no other thereafter; the worshippers of God ever with God, clothed upon with their proper substance of eternity, but the wicked, and they who live not entirely unto God, for the punishment of an equally eternal fire, receiving from the very nature of that fire, being, as it is, divine, the supply of |102 their own incorruption 617. The philosophers also know the difference between the hidden and the common fire. So that which ministereth to the uses of men is widely different from that which ministereth to the judgment of God, whether drawn out in lightning from Heaven, or bursting up from the earth through the tops of mountains 618; for it consumeth not that which it burneth, but reneweth while it destroyeth. Wherefore the mountains, though ever burning, still remain, and he who is stricken by fire from Heaven, is thenceforth safe from being consumed by any other fire 619. And this will be a witness of the eternal fire, this an example of that everlasting judgment, which feedeth its own pains. Mountains are burned and yet endure. What shall we say of wicked men and the enemies of God?
XLIX. These are the things which in us alone are called vain presumptions 620, in the poets and philosophers consummate knowledge and notable genius. They are wise, we foolish 621; they to be honoured, we derided, yea more than this, to be punished likewise. Let now the doctrines which we maintain be false, and justly styled presumptions, yet are they necessary; let them be foolish, yet are they profitable, if those who believe them are constrained to become better men 622, by the fear of eternal punishment, and the hope of eternal refreshment. It is not therefore expedient that those things should be called false, or accounted foolish, which it is expedient should be presumed to be true. In like manner 623, on no ground whatsoever may those things be condemned, which are profitable. In you then is this very presumption, which condemneth things useful. Wherefore neither can they be foolish. Assuredly, though they be both false and foolish, yet they are hurtful to none; for they are like many other things, to which ye award no |103 punishments, things vain and fabulous, unaccused and unpunished, because harmless. But in things of this sort, if ye must needs punish, ye ought to punish by derision, not by swords, and fires, and crosses, and wild beasts; in the iniquity of which cruelty, not only doth this blind mob exult and insult, but even some of yourselves, who through iniquity catch at the favour of the mob 624, boast of it. As if all that ye can do against us were not of our own free choice! Assuredly I am, only if I will, a Christian. Thou wilt therefore only condemn me, if I will to be condemned. But since whatever thou canst do to me, thou canst not do unless I will, that which thou canst do is necessarily of my own will, not of thy power. Wherefore also the mob vainly rejoiceth in our hurt, for the joy, which they claim to themselves, is ours, who would rather be condemned than fall away from God. On the contrary, they who hate us ought to grieve, and not to rejoice, at our gaining that which we have ourselves chosen.
L. 'Why then,' ye say, 'do ye complain that we persecute you, if it be your own will to suffer, seeing that ye ought to love us, through whom ye suffer that which ye will?' Certainly it is our will to suffer, but in the same manner in which, though no one willingly suffereth the ills of war, (since he must needs be harassed and endangered,) yet he fighteth with all his strength, and he who complained of the battle, rejoiceth, when he conquereth in the battle, because he gaineth both the glory and the spoils. We have a battle, in that we are summoned to the tribunals, that we may then, at the hazard of our life, contend for the truth. But to obtain that for which thou hast contended, is victory. This victory hath both the glory of pleasing God, and the spoils of eternal life. Yet still we are crushed! yea, after that we have won the battle. Therefore when we are slain, we conquer, and in fine when we are crushed we escape 625. Ye may now call us faggot-men and half-axle-men, because being bound to the wood of half-an-axle we are burnt by a circle of faggots enclosing us 626. This is the garb of our conquest, this our robe of victory; in such a chariot do we |104 triumph. With good cause therefore are we displeasing to the conquered, for therefore are we worthily thought desperate and reckless men 627! But this desperation and recklessness in the cause of glory and fame doth, even in your own eyes, exalt the standard of virtue.628 Mucius of his own act left his right hand upon the altar. Oh! loftiness of spirit! Empedocles freely gave his whole body to the flames of Aetna at Catana. Oh! strength of mind! Some woman, who founded Carthage, gave herself to the funeral pile, her second marriage. Oh! proclamation of chastity! Regulus, that he might not save his life,----a single man exchanged for many enemies,----suffereth crucifixion in every part of his body. Oh! brave man, and a conqueror even in captivity! Anaxarchus, when he was brayed with a pestle like barley, said 629, 'Pound, pound the shell of Anaxarchus, for thou poundest not Anaxarchus himself.' O the greatness of the philosopher's soul, who even jested on his own death, and such a death .' I pass over those, who with their own sword, or some other milder kind of death, have bartered life for glory; for, lo! even those who overcome in the trial of tortures are crowned by you. A certain 630 Athenian harlot, when the torturer was now wearied, at last spit out her tongue, which she had bitten off, into the face of the furious tyrant, that she might spit out her voice too, and be unable to betray the conspirators, even though, at length overcome, she should wish it 631. Zeno of Elea being asked by Dionysius 632 what philosophy could give him, and having answered, "to become insensible to suffering 633 through contempt of death," being put under the lash of the tyrant, sealed his doctrine even by his death. Assuredly the scourgings of the Lacedaemonians, embittered even under the eyes of their encouraging friends, confer on their house as much honour for endurance 634 as they shed blood. Oh! glory, licensed because of earthly mould! to which no reckless presumption, no desperate determination is attributed, in despising death and every sort of cruelty; which |105 hath a privilege for men to suffer for country, for lands 635, for empire, for friendship, that which they may not for God! And yet for all these ye cast statues, and inscribe images, and carve titles to continue for ever. As far as ye can by means of monuments, ye yourselves in some sort grant a resurrection to the dead 636, while he, who hopeth for the true resurrection from God, if he suffer for God, is mad. But go on, ye righteous rulers,----much more righteous in the eyes of the people 637 if ye sacrifice the Christians to them----rack, torment, condemn, grind us to powder: for your injustice is the proof of our innocence. It is for this that God permitteth us to suffer these things. For, in condemning just now a Christian woman to the bawd 638 rather than the lion, ye have confessed that the stain of chastity upon us is accounted more dreadful than any punishment, and any death. Nor yet doth your cruelty, though each act be more refined than the last, profit you any thing. It is rather the allurement to our sect. We grow up in greater number as often as we are cut down by you. The blood of the Christians is their harvest seed 639. Many among yourselves |106 exhort men to endure pain and death, as Cicero in his Tusculans, Seneca in his treatise "on chances," Diogenes, Pyrrho, Callinicus; and yet their words do not gain as many disciples, as the Christians do in teaching by their acts. That very obstinacy, with which ye upbraid us, is the teacher. For who is not stirred up by the contemplation of it to enquire what there is in the core of the matter? who, when he hath enquired, doth not join us? when he hath joined us, doth not desire to suffer, that he may purchase the whole grace of God, that he may gain from Him perfect forgiveness at the price of his own blood? for all crimes are pardoned for the sake of the work 640. Therefore is it that we, at the same time that we are judged, thank you for your judgment. Such enmity is there between the things of God and the things of men; when we are condemned by you, we are absolved by God.
[Footnotes and marginalia moved to the end and renumbered]
1. a On account of the popular eagerness, inf. c. 35. 37. 40. 49. 50. Ep. of Churches of Vienne, Eus. H. E. v. 1. inf. p. 10. n. k.
2. b Judiciis, i. e. having exercised severity against their own families, (see c. 3. and perhaps ad Scap. c. 3.) they were the less fitted to be judges. Others, indiciis 'informations;' T. complains of treachery, c. 7. Add Justin M.. Apol. 2. §. 12. Orig. c. Cels. i. 3. Theodoret, 1. i. c. 6. v. 34. Ruf. H. E. v. 1. Ju and in are in M SS. often scarcely distinguishable, and often transcribed wrongly.
4. John 15, 18. 19. 1 John 3, 13. Heb. 11, 13.
5. e Aug. de Civ. Dei, i. 15. v. fin.
6. f Lact. v.init. Minuc. p. 256, ap.Lac.
7. 1 quale sit quod oderant added
8. g "There is no race of men, whether Barbarians, or Greeks, or by whatsoever name called, not even the wandering houseless tribes of Scythians, in which there are not prayers and Eucharists to God the Creator of all things, through the Name of the crucified Jesus." (Justin M. Dial. §. 117. on Mai. 1,10.) See bel. c. 37. ad Scap. c. 2 and 5. adv. Jud. c. 7 and 12. de Cor. c. 12. ad Nat. i. 8. "Consider, whether they whom ye call 'a third race' hold not the chief place, seeing there is no nation not Christian; therefore whatever nation be first, is nevertheless Christian." Origen. c. Cels. i. speaks of the "myriads among barbarians," and that Christianity had "gained possession of the greatest part of Barbarism." Arnobius, l. ii. p. 44. that "no barbarian was not softened." On the multitude of Christians, see Heathen Testimonies, Tac. xv. 44. Lucian in Pseudom. "that Pontus was filled with Atheists and Christians." Caecil. ap. Minuc. F. p. 80. Maximin, ap. Eus. ix. 7. rescript to Sabinus, ib. 9. heathen ap. Aug. de Catech. rud. c. 25. and Christian, speaking of the rapidity with which it spread, Arnob. l. i. p. 33. ed. Lugd. ii. p. 50. Eus. H. E. ii. 3. de Laud. Const, c. 16. of its extent, Clem. Al. Strom. vi. fin. Orig. de Princ. iv. 1. Lact. v. 13. Eus. H. E. viii. 1. Orig. c. Cels. i. 7. 67. ii. 13. iii. 24. J. Firmicus, p. 42. in Dan. 2. Eus. H. E. x. 4, de laud. Const. c. 17. its continual increase, Minuc. F. p. 312. see passages ap. Kortholt in Epp. Plin. et Traj. p. 167-186.
9. h Comp. Orig. c. Cels. iii. §. 9. Euseb. H. E. v. 21. of the times of Commodus.
10. i Diog. Laert. in vit. ej. i. 103. ed. Meib.
13. 3 devitant apparere om. in Rig.
14. k See de Idol. c. 9. Jul. Firm. i. 1. 3. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, v. 10. Ep., 246. (al. 243.) and others, ap. Herald. and Hav. Aug. in Ps. 31. §. 16.
16. m c. 46. 50. Justin M. Apol. ii. 2. 11. "Thanks be to God" (Deo Gratias) became a formula with which the sentence to martyrdom was received. See S. Aug. Serm. i. in Natal. S. Cypr. 301. §. 6. and Acta Mart. ap. Her. ad c. 50.
18. o See Justin Apol. i. §. 4. Athenag. §. 2: a remarkable fulfilment of the letter of our Lord's prophecy, "Ye shall be hated of all men for My Name's sake." Matt. 10, 22. 24, 9. Luke 21, 12.
21. q The inventors of these calumnies were the Jews, see Tert. adv. Jud. c. 13. v. fin. and ad Nat. 1. 14. quod aliud egenus seminarium infamiae nostrae? Justin. M. Apol. i. 49. Dial. c. Tryph. §. 17.108. Origen c. Cels. vi. 27. All the Apologists had to refer to them, Justin. M. Apol. i. §. 26. ii. §. 12. Dial. c. Tryph. §. 10. Theoph. ad Autol. iii. 4. Athenag. Legat. §. 3. Orig. c. Cels. l. c. Minueius F. Octavius ce. 9. 30. add also Euseb. H. E. iv. 7. Salvian de Provid. iv. v. fin. p. 39. ed. Manut. and for the first, Tatian adv. Graec. §. 25. Origen l. c. says, that "absurd as this calumny was, of old it prevailed with very many; and even now it deceives some, who are by the like turned away from the simplest intercourse even of speech with the Christians." Euseb. l. c. speaks of it, as not lasting long. In the persecution of Lyons and Vienne, slaves were made by torture to confess it as true.
22. r Numerum; ad Nat. i. 2. quotiens caedem ederit.
25. u Ut Deo, the ancient cod. Fuld. Christo quasi Deo, Pliny l. c. Most edd. carelessly, "et Deo."
28. z By Augustus. Suet. in vit. c. 32.
29. a See inf. c. 7. ad Scap. c. 4. Justin M. Apol. i. 4. S. Cyprian ad Demetrian. c. 7. p. 207. ed. Oxf. Minut. F. p. 257. ed. Ouz. Arnob. 1. vii. (cit. ibid.)
30. b Satan, see c. 27. ad Nat. i. 3. "The source of your hatred is the Name, which a certain hidden Power warreth against by your ignorance." Lactant. Instt. ii. 1. Justin M. Apol. i. 5. ii. 1.
32. 2 ad conf. necessariam. Et jam
34. d Inf. c. 32. 37. Christians were said Zh~n parano&mwj (Porph. ap. Euseb. vi. 19.) to return to heathenism was e0pi\ to_ kata_ fu&sin tre/pesqai. (Aemilian Praef. of Egypt, ib. vii. 11.)
36. f Containing the charge. Thus in the martyrdom of Polycarp, "Polycarp hath confessed himself a Christian." Euseb. H, E. 1. iv. 15. "This is Attalus the Christian." ib. v. 1.
37. g Punctuation changed. Cur non et homicidam, si homicida Christianus? cur non et incestus?
38. h Cyprian ad Demetrian. l. c.
40. i The heathen, to whom the name Christus was unintelligible, substituted Chrestus, which was a name among themselves. (See instances in Hav.) Thus in the well-known passage of Suetonius, (vit. Claud, c. 25.) impulsore Chresto. Tac. Ann. xv. 44. (corrected into Christiani,) Lucian. in Philopatr. so also in Lactant. Instt. iv. 7. Justin. M. alludes to the same, Apol. i. 4. Theoph. ad Autol. i. 1. Clem. Alex. Strom, ii.4. "they who believe in Christ, forthwith are, and are called, xrhstoi/" [good]. Clem. Alex, often substitutes xristo_j for xrhsto_j, as equivalent, see Coh. ad Gr. c. 9. and Potter ib.
41. j Of Nero against the Christians, ad Nat. i. 7. "This institute of Nero hath alone remained, when all others have been reversed." See also c. 5. and 37.
42. k The common cry of the populace was, "Away with the Christians; let not the Christians be; (Christiani non sint;) away with the Atheists." See Acta Sabini ap Baron. A. 301. 18. Eus. H. E. iv. 15. "Which [the contagion of this superstition] seemeth as though it might be stopped and corrected." Justin M. Dial. §. 110. Aug. in Ps. i. 90. p. 1. Kortholt ad Ep. Plin. et Traj. p. 187.
43. 1 ex illo praejudicio prohibere me non potest
45. l "Severus, an earnest-minded Emperor, answering to his name." Lamprid. in Comm.
46. m The first Julian law (they are commonly called laws) was proposed by Augustus, A. U. C. 736, after the destructive civil war; the Papian, which was an enforcement of them, 26 years after, within 5 years of his death. The unmarried could not inherit, except from the nearest relations; but the age fixed by the Julian law is unknown; that of 26, named by Sozomen, (H. E. i. 9.) probably refers to the Papian as the later, and so still in force under Constantine, who repealed them, it seems, wholly, as imposing disqualifications on religious celibacy.
47. n "If there were many to whom the debtor was assigned, the laws of the 12 Tables allowed them to cut, if they willed, and divide his body." Aul. Gell. Noct. Att.20. 1. quoting the law, "At the third market-day, let them cut it in pieces; and if they cut more or less, let it be without any penalty."
50. p "Let no one have gods of his own, or new gods; nor let him privately worship even foreign gods, unless they be publicly received." Cic. de Legg. ii. 14 and 27. In this law the Emperor would be included. Any one who "felt constrained to celebrate the Bacchanalia," was required by a decree of the Senate to apply through the City-Praetor to the Senate. Liv. 1. xxxix. 8. add iv. 30. against foreign rites, "that none should be worshipped, but Roman gods, nor with other than the country's rites."
51. q See again adv. Marc. i. 18.
52. r See inf. c. 13. Lact. Instt. i. 13.
53. s Justin. M. (Apol. i. 35. and 48.) also mentions incidentally that Pilate sent an official account (Acta) of His Death and miracles; (as was usual to transmit accounts of all important events, so that the omission had been very improbable;) nor does there seem any ground to question this statement, which rests on Tertullian's authority; for the supposed improbability that the Senate would venture to reject the proposal of Tiberius is met by the fact that they did so, on different occasions, without displeasing Tiberius, (Suet. Tiber. c. 3.1.) This account, and those of Lampridius (a heathen) as to other Emperors, who intended to associate the Lord with the heathen gods, mutually confirm each other, though the dishonour was, by God's providence, averted.
54. t Bp. Pearson (Lect. iv. in Actt. n. 14.; explains it, "because he (T.) had not approved of it in his own case," as referring to Tiberius' refusal of divine honours. (Suet. Tib. c. 26.) He is followed by Tillemont, H. E. art. S. Pierre, n. 19. and Lardner. It seems safer, however, to adhere to the sense given by Euseb. (H. E. ii. 2.) S. Chrysostom, (in 2 Cor. Hom. 26.) P. Orosius, (vii. 4.) and otherwise there had been no ground for the mention of the "ancient law" just above.
55. u See Scorp. c. 14. Euseb. H. E. ii. 25. Aug. de Civ. D. xviii. 52. Sueton. Nero. c. 16.
56. x T. calls him "Subnero," de Pallio c. 4.
58. z See ad Scap. c. 4. The greatness and unexpectedness of the deliverance
is confessed by the heathen also; some referred to by Euseb. (H. E. v. 5.) and by extant writers, Dio. Cass. lxxi. 8 sqq. Jul. Capitolin. (Marc. Ant. i. 24.) Themistius (Or. 15.) Claudian (de sexto cons. Honor. v. 340 sqq.) and of these, Dio. §. 10. and Jul. Cap. mention the further fact stated in Euseb. from Apollinaris (Bp. of Hierapolis, a contemporary) and others, that lightning discomfited the enemy, while rain refreshed the Roman army, which is attested also by the Antonine column, according to the engraving in Baronius, A. 176. no. 23. The lightning alone is dwelt upon by Claudian; the rain by Them. and visible on Antonine's medal (ap. Pagi ad A. C. 174.) The heathen differ only in ascribing it to the prayers of Antonine himself, (J. Cap. Them. Claud.) or (as was done in the first plagues of Egypt) to the incantations of Arnuphis, an Egyptian magician (so, Dio C. Claud.) invoking Mercury, (to whom the medal ascribes it, the column to Jupiter Pluvius,) Dio C. Though then there can be no doubt of a great interposition of Providence, obtained through the prayers of the Christians, Tertullian seems to have been misinformed as to the ground of the letter of Antonine, whether as Euseb. states (H. E. iv. 12.) it was sent by Titus Antoninus, or (as the copies now bear) by Marcus, (ib. c. 13.)
59. a In the extant Rescript (Eus. l. c.) it is taken off, "If any one persevere in troubling any such, as such, let him who is accused, be acquitted of the charge, though he appear to be such; and let the accuser be subject to punishment." This, however, may have been local; at Rome the old law was still enforced under Commodus, Apollonius martyred, his accuser's legs broken. (Eus. v. 21.)
61. c Spartianus in Adriano Hist. Rom. Scriptt. t. ii. p. 190 sqq.
62. d The martyrdom of S. Polycarp and Justin, and many others in Asia Minor, took place under M. Aurelius Verus Antoninus, Eus. H.E. iv. 15-17. as also those at Vienne and Lyons, (ib. v. 1.) It is supposed then, that by Verus, T. means L. Verus, the brother of M. Aurelius, after whose death Paulus Diac. states the persecution under M. Aurelius to have taken place, or that he means that he passed no decrees against the Christians, though the persecutions were carried on under the old laws. This seems the more probable, on account of the character given to L. Verus; so Baronius, A. 164 init.
64. e And that on the great festivals only Lex Fannia, 11 years before the third Punic war, ("lex centussis" Lucilius,) renewed in the Lex Licinia. (A. Gell. ii. 24. Macrob. Sat. ii. 13.)
65. f Lex Fannia, Plin. x. 50. (al. 71.)
66. g i. e. wrought silver, A. U. C. 458. The Censor was Fabric. Luscinius; the expelled, Corn. Rufinus, had been Dictator and twice Consul. (Val. Max. ii. 9. 4.) Five pounds only were allowed, Plin. xxxiii. 50.
68. i £8072 18s. 4d. Aesop spent as much on a single dish, Tert. de Pall, c. 5. See other instances ib. and in Adam's Rom. Ant. art. Money.
69. k Drusillanus, a slave of Claudius, de Pall. c. 5. Plin. xxxiii. 52.
70. l Tiberius first used it to this end, Dio. lvii. 13.
71. m De Cult. Fem. ii. 12. de Pallio, c. 4. "Varied and florid garments harlots use for their trade, rich women for their luxury." Artemid. ii. 3.
72. n See Plin. xxxiii. 4. De Idol. c. 16.
73. o Plin. xiv. 13. (al. 12.) Val. Max. 6. 3. 9.
75. p Ib. and Arnob. l. ii.p. 9l. ed. Lugd.
76. q 520. Val. Max. ii. 1. 4. And that for barrenness.
78. s See Senec. de Benef. iii. 16. Juv. vi. 20. Martial, vi. 7. ap. Hav.
79. t Liv. 1. xxxix. Val. Max. i. 3. Aug. de Civ. D. vi. 9.
80. u And their altars destroyed (Varro ap. Tert. ad Nat. i. 10.) by the Senate, and allowed only to be without the walls, Dio. xl. 47. xlii. 26. they were restored by popular tumult, but forbidden by Gabinius chiefly, A. U. C. 695. (Tert. ib.) Arnobius, ii. 95. mentions both. Afterwards M. Aemil. Paulus himself broke down the walls of the temple, Val. Max. i. 3. fin. The worship was vix aegreque admissum, Macrob. i. 7. in the triumvirate by Augustus, Dio. xlvii. 15. Lucan. vii. 83. but even afterwards only without the city, Dio. liii. 2. and a mile from it, liv. 6. The worship appears to have been that of the populace. (Tert. l. c. Val. Max. l. c.)
87. a Athenag. Leg. §. 3. Orig. c. Cels. i. 3.
89. b i. e. had they been bribed, they had let them go altogether
90. 1 vel ex forma omnium myste riorum
91. c Obscurat, i. e. the original falsehood is so mixed up in all the parts of the story, as to make it impossible to see clearly what the truth really is. (Tr.) According to another reading, (obscurant) "And the other appendages of the tale so disguise the fault in the first little seed, that none considereth &c."
93. e Salvian, l. iv. (ubi sup.) p. 39. ed. Manut.
94. f Lit. "dog-faced" and "feet-shadowed," fabulous monsters, ap. Plin. vii. 2.
95. g Salvian,iv.p.93. Minut. F.p. 289.
96. h See details in Minut. F. p. 87.
97. i Apul. Milesiarum sive Metamorph. l. xi. pp. 255 et 262.
98. k Especially a Phoenician, and so, a Punic idolatry, see Diod. Sic. xx. 14. The human sacrifices of Carthage and the Phoenicians are spoken of by Plato, Politic, p. 315. Ennius, Ann. 7. Lact. Instt. (1. 21.) from Pescenius Festus. Silius Ital. iv. 767. Porph. peri\ a)poxh~j l. 2. Euseb. Laud. Const. Athanas. adv. Gentes, c. 25. Orig. c. Cels. v. 27. and others quoted on Minut. F. p. 291. ed. Ouzel. Saturn is identified with Baal, Procop. in Is. c. 46. ib. Athanas. l. c. to whom human sacrifices were also offered, Gesen. Monumm. Phoen. 453. and who is perhaps the same as Moloch, id. Thes. v. [Hebrew]
99. l Hung them, as it were offerings, on the trees, whereon they hung the offerings to their God.
101. m Which was ill-omened, add. Minut. F. l. c.
102. n Eurip. Iphig. Taur. add. Minut. F. l. c. Aug. de Civ. D. vii. 19. and 26. &c.
103. o Latiaris, Tert. adv. Gnost. c. 7. Minut. F. p. 198. and 297. Lact. i. 21. Tatian. adv. Graec. §. 29. (whom it aided to alienate from Heathenism.) Athanas. c. Gentes, c. 25. Porph. peri\ a)poxh~j, 1. 2. p. 35. Plin. xxxiv. 7. and others quoted, ib.
105. q Ad Nat. ii. 12. Plin. Ep. x. 71. Lactant. vi. 20. Justin. M. Apol. 1. §. 27. Aug. de Nupt. i. 15. Minut. F. p. 289.
107. r Exhort. ad Cast. c. 12. Athenag. Leg. §. 35. Minut. F. p. 290. hence the Christian Canons, Basil. Can. 2 and 8, &c. ap. Bingh. 16. 10. 3. and 4.
108. s i. 74. of the Medes and Lydians, iv. 70. of the Scythians.
109. t Tac. Ann. xii. 47. of the nations under Mithridates. Mela, ii. 1. of several tribes, Val. Max. ix. 11. of the Armenians: among American tribes, Lips. ad Tac. l. c.
110. u Sall. Catil. i. 23. speaking doubtfully. L. Florus (iv. 1.) positively. Minut. F. p. 297, 8.
111. x Massagete, adv. Marc. i. 1. Herod. i. ult.
112. y "Signat Bellonae" corresponds with Minut. F. p. 298, 9. Bellonam sacrum suum haustu humani cruoris imbuere. add Lactant. i. 21. the cutting of the arms is named by Lucan. i. Lamprid. in Comm. &c. Tib. Eleg. i. 6. ib.
114. 2 de jugulo decurrentem restored
115. z Plin. xxviii. 6. Corn. Celsus, iii. 23. Minut. F. p. 299.
117. b The wild beasts were so fed in the arena, Salvian. de Prov. vi. p. 121. ed. Baluz.
118. c The same argument was used by Biblias Ep. Lugd. et Vienn. ap. Euseb. H. E. v. 1. see further Note A. at the end of the Apology.
119. Acts 15, 20. Levit. 22, 8.
120. 1 probarentur Christiani qui
121. d The older Editions read alioquin negandi si non gustassent, quemadmodum si immolassant, "otherwise to be declared not to be Christians, if they tasted not, in the same way as if they had sacrificed."
122. e Tatian. c. Graec. §. 28. Brisson gives many authorities, de reg. Pers. l. 2 sqq.
123. f Justin M. Apol. i. 27. Clem. Al. Paedag. iii. 3. Lact. vi. 20. Minut. F. p. 305.
126. 2 ut vel ex aliqua seminis portione veluti asper sum genus
127. h Christian chastity is appealed to, as a known fact, by Justin, Apol. i. §. 15. add. §. 29. Tatian, c. 37. Athenag. c. 32, 33. Minut. F. p. 307.
128. i Remaining to old age what they were as children. Justin M. l. c. Athenag. c. 33. Orig. c. Cels. i. 26. Minut. F. p. 310.
129. k Atheism was one of the three charges against Christians. Athenag. c. 3. Justin, Dial. c. Tryph. c. 17. Apol. i. 6. Epist. Anton. ap. Euseb. H. E. iv. 13. Arnob. l. i. init. and p. 16. ed. Lugd. iii. p. 116. iv. p. 147. v. p. 178. Lact. v. 9. vii. 27. Cyril. Al. c. Julian, l. ii. p. 43. vii. p. 238. and p. 343. Prudent. Peri-Stephanon. Hymn 14. Dio Cass. 1. 67. §. 83. quoted by Kortholt de Calumn. Pag. c. 8. Elmenhorst ad Arnob. l. i. p. 16. The grounds were, not worshipping the heathen gods, (Athenag. l. c. and c. 13. Justin, Apol. l. c. Arnob. i. p. 16.) and that they had no known places of worship, [being obliged to conceal them,] Arnob. vi. init. Hence the cry of the populace, "Away with the Atheists," see Ep. Eccl. Smyrn. ap. Eus. iv. 15.
131. l Especially Euhemerus, (who was translated and followed by Ennius,) Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. v. fin. c. 42. He is also referred to by Euseb. Praep. Ev. ii. 4. Minut. F. p. 160. Arnob. l. iv. p. 147. Aug. de Civ. Dei, vi. 7. vii. 26. Lact. i. 11. as also by many heathens. See also Clem. Al. Cohort. c. 2. p. 7.
132. m Ad. Nat. l. 2. Macrob. Sat. i. 1. Aug. de Civ. D. v. 8. Minut. F. p. 209.
134. o A writer of Syrian history, African. ap. Euseb. Preep. Ev. x. 1. referred to by Lact. i. 13. Minut. F. l. c.
135. p It should be Cassius Hemina, a writer of Italian history from the earliest times to his own, A. U. C. 608. Voss. de Hist. Lat. i. 21. He is quoted by Lact. l. c. Minut. F. l. c. Pliny, vii. 10. xxxv. 30. mentions Cassius Severus, a celebrated orator, (under Augustus, Suet. Aug. 56.) but does not say (as Pam. states) that he took much from him.
136. q Lact. i. 14. Minut. F. l. c. Euseb. Praep. Ev. x. 3.
137. r Dionys. i. 34. Varro de Ling. Lat. iv. 7. Aurel. Victor. O. G. R. 3. ap. Heyne, Exc. 2. ad Aen. 1. 8. Aug. de Civ. D. vii. 2.
138. s Virg. Aen. 8. 358. Macrob. Sat. i. 7.
141. x Minut. F. l. c. Lact. i. 11. v. fin.
142. y Aurel. Victor de Orig. Gentis Rom. i.2.
143. z Tib. Eleg. i. 3. Minut. F. l. c.
144. a Cic. ad Att. l. i. Ep. 10, &c.
145. b On the deifying of the Emperors see Dio, 1. 59. c. 28. of Caligula.
146. c Athenag. c. 28. and above on c. 10.
149. d i. e. being provided once for all with certain laws, and self-governed, (according to their view,) it needeth not the aid of Saturn and his race.
159. h By impaling, (Theod. de Cur. Gr. Aff. Disp. viii. init.) or when exposed to the wild beasts, Eus. H. E. v. 1. or burnt alive, Lips. de Cruce.
160. i Justin M. Apol. i. 9. Ep. ad Diogn. c. 2. Clem. Al. Cohort, c. 4. p. 15. Minut. F. p. 218. Arnob. vi. p. 200.
161. k Cyprian, de Laps. c. 10. Auct. de Laud. Mart. init. Prudent. in Roman. Mart. 451. They are still preserved at Rome.
162. l The tutelary goddess of Carthage. They were pictured as drawn by lions, tigers, or lynxes.
163. m Jupiter in Crete, Apollo and Diana in Delos, Juno in Samos.
164. n See in Aug. de Civ. D. vi. 10.
165. o See note B. at the end of the Apology.
166. p See Baruch vi. 19. Clem. Al. Cohort. c. iv. p. 16. Arnob. l. vi. p. 202. Minut. F. p. 221. Lact. ii. 4. Aug. in Ps. 113. §, 2.
167. 1 Deos illos, ut negligatis, &c.
169. q Athenag. c. 14. Aug. de Civ. D. vii. 1.
170. r The fees for visiting the capitol were let by auction every five years (ad Nat. i. 10.) like the tolls of the herb market.
171. s Chiefly the Dea Syria, Magna Mater, whence the term mhtragu&rtai; mhtragurou~nteij, Dionys. Hal. ii. 20. p. 276. ed. Reisk. Aristot. Rhet.iii. 2.10. Clem. Al. Cohort. p. 20. ed. Pott. Minut. F. p. 224. Aug. de Civ. D. vii. 26. see below, c. 42.
172. t Out of which libations to the dead were poured. The sameness of the rites argues that the gods also were but dead men.
173. u Arca Larentia, the nurse of Romulus, Plin. xviii. 1. Licinius Macer ap. Macrob. Sat. i. 10. A. Gell. vi. 7.
174. x Justin M. Apol. i. c. 26. gives the inscription "Simoni Deo Sancto," and says that the statue with this inscription "stood by the Tiber between the two bridges." This was the title of the Island of Aesculapius, (Plutarch, in Poplic. p. 221. ed. Bryan.) where A.D. 1572 was dug up a statue with the inscription, "Semoni Sanco"(or "Sango") Deo Fidio sacrum Sex. Pompeius, &c. whence some have thought that he confounded Semo [the Sabine Hercules] with Simon Magus, and that the more, since the i and e are interchanged in inscriptions, e. g. Mircurius, Gimina, and that the Sabine god is called Sanctus, Ov. Fast. vi. 214. Grabe ad Euseb. H. E. ii. 13. [This however is doubtful. Sancto is thought to be a corrupt reading, derived from the abbreviation SCO. Yet he is called Sanctus in the edd. of Sil. Ital. viii. 422. and in a second inscription it is used as an epithet "Sango Sancto Semoni Deo," which comes nearer to the use in Justin, see Comm. in Ovid. l. c. ed. Burmann.] Tillemont, on the other hand, remarks, (t. ii. Notes sur Simon le Mag.) 1. that Justin implies (ib. c. 56.) that the statue was erected by Claudius and the Senate, (and S. Augustine affirms it, Haer. i. 6. "auc toritate publica,") that discovered, is by an individual: 2. that the words are not the same, nor the order: 3. that Justin speaks of it, as a single case, and asks for one statue to be removed, whereas there were many statues of Simon; (so Baronius, who mentions one on the Quirinal:) 4. that S. Augustine, who makes the same statement, knew of the Sabine Semo (de Civ. D. xviii. 19.) [as did Lact. i. 15.] 5. that Theodoret, Haer. Fab. i. 1. says, that the statue was of brass, that this was of stone, [but it does not seem that any statue was found, but the base only, Baron. l. c.] There is then to set against the authority of Justin, only a similarity of inscription and the identity of the place, which however was full of temples, and was hence called the sacred island, (Liv. ii.5. Plut. l. c.) Another contrast would be suggested by Baronius A. 44. §. 55. who says on the authority of S. Irenaeus, i. 20. [23, 4.] Epiph. xxi. 3. that Simon's statue was in the form of Jupiter, while that of Semo represented Hercules. But these fathers are not here speaking of the Roman statue, but of that which his followers had and worshipped, of which S. Irenaeus speaks positively, of the Roman, as a report. (ib.§. 1.)
175. y The degraded Antinous, by the Emp. Adrian, see Orig. c. Cels. iii. 36. Hegesippus ap. Eus. H. E. iv. 8. Spartian. in Adriano. An ancient inscription calls him "enthroned" (sunqrinw) "with the Egyptian gods."
179. a Il. E. 335 sqq. Rig. omits this sentence, "quod filium suum Aenean, ne interimeretur ab eodem Diomede, rapere vellet."
181. c Briareus, Il. A. 399 sqq.
182. d Il. P. 433 sqq. The instances are found together in Justin Cohort. init. see also Athenag. c. 21. 29. Clem. Al. Strom. i. 21. t. i. p. 383. ed. Pott.
184. f Eurip. Alc. Prol. Athenag. c. 21.
186. h Pyth. iii. 96. Athenag. c. 29.
188. i Theoph. ad Autol. iii. 2. Philostr. de vit. Apoll. vi. 9. Lucian in Icaromenipp.(ap. Her.) mention "a dog, goose, (ku&na kai\ xh~noj, by a sort of alliteration probably,) and plane." Schol. on Aristoph. "a goose, dog, ram, and the like." It seems to have been a sort of protest against perjury and swearing by the gods at all: so the Schol. l. c. Porph. de Abstin. iii. Suidas; saying that it was in imitation of Rhadamanthus. S. Augustine de Vera Rel. c. 2. interprets as Tert., that Socrates meant to imply that they were better gods, than the works of men's hands, or that Pantheists must think these to be gods or parts of God. add. Lact.iii.20. P. Petit Misc. Obss. iv. 7. remarks that the "dog" only is mentioned by Plato, and infers that Socrates meant symbolically his "genius" as a "guardian."
189. k Probably "brazen;" "auream" for "aeream."
190. l The Cynics continually jested on Hercules, whose followers they professed to be in their coarseness. Lucian Vit. Auct. c. 8. Cynic. 13. and in part Apuleius, Apol. p. 288. ed. Elm.
191. m De Pallio, c. 4. Hieron. adv. Ruf. Apol. 2.
192. n The moon was a god in the East, (in Heb. and Arab, it is masc.)
194. p On the jests on Hercules' gluttony, see in Athenaeus, x. 1. xiv. 72. Eurip. Alc. 747-802.
198. r See de Spect. c. 22. Minut. F. p. 345. Arnob. l. vii. p. 239. Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 14. 27.
200. s The gladiators, who had escaped with their lives in the morning, were made to fight at noon, without defensive armour. Seneca (Ep. 7.) calls them "mere murders," see Lips. Sat. ii. 15.
201. t i. e. the one, to try if any life were left, the other to destroy it.
204. x Caecil. ap. Minut. F. p. 83.
205. y c. 3. He had it probably from Appion, see Joseph, c. Ap. ii. 10. It is repeated by Plutarch, Symp. iv. 5. Democritus ap. Suid. v. 'Iouda&j.
206. z The Christians are called Jews by Arrian, Diss. Epist. ii. 9. and meant under the title by Dio Cass. l. 67. c. 14. (of Clemens and Domitilla,) and l. 68. c. 1. (of Nerva's edict forbidding any to be "accused for impiety on a Jewish tenor of life.") by Seneca ap. Aug. de Civ.D. vi. 11. and confused with them by Sueton. Claud. 25. Ulpian. de Procons. Off. 1. 3. (ap. Lac. ad c. 3.) Sulpitius Severus thinks that Adrian's measures against the Jews were directed against the Christians, Hist. S. l. ii. p. 251. ed. Galesin. see Haverc. ad Apol. p. 8. All have much in common; the Christians of the circumcision much more; the Jews further diligently circulated, that the Christians were an ungodly "sect," who had risen in Galilee: (Just. M. Dial. c. 17. 108.) and so connected them with themselves. Kortholt refers to the de Persecutt. Eccl. prooem. iii. sect. ii. 6. v. 33.
208. b i. e. the whole animal, not his head only.
209. c Tert. does not imply that the Christians worshipped the Cross, but the contrary. Here, and in the charges, as to the ass's head, and the o)no&koitij, in all which there was no foundation in fact, he answers by mere irony; where there was plausible ground for a heathen so to think, as in the worship of the Sun, he says so, and names the ground. The irony too is such, as one would not have used, who paid reverence to the figure of the Cross. Minut. F.p. 284, imitating the passage, says, "Crosses we neither worship nor wish for," in allusion to the charge of the heathen, p. 86. "so that they worship what they deserve:" and p. 105. "so here are Crosses for you, not to be worshipped, but to be undergone." Julian (ap. Cyril Al. vi, p. 195.) grounds the same charge on their painting the figure of the Cross, "Ye worship the wood of the Cross, painting (skiagrafou~ntej) figures thereof on the forehead and before the doors," (e0ggra&fontej pro_ tw~n oi0khma&twn). S. Cyril states, at great length, that it was a memorial only of the mercies and duties of the Cross; to the same end that they signed themselves with it. (de Cor. c. 3. ad Uxor. ii. 5.) Of instances, later than Tertullian's age, of homage to the visible Cross, the following plainly prove nothing. Ambr. de ob. Theod. c. 48. "Helena raised and placed the Cross of Christ upon the head of kings, that the Cross of Christ might in kings be adored," i. e. that the reverence paid to kings might rather be paid to the Cross over their brow. Id. de Inc. Dom. Sacr. c. 7. §. 75. "Do we, when in Christ we venerate the Image of God and the Cross, divide Him?" not the visible Cross, but the doctrine; it stands paralled to "His Divinity and His flesh;" as Euseb. Emis, (de adv. Joann. Opusc. p. 9.) "But although they [the Jews] declined that healing, we, the Heathen, who have become worshippers of the Cross (oi9 proskunh&santej to_n stauro_n) have received it, as said Isaiah (53, 5)." Jerome in Vita Paulae, Ep. 108. §. 9. of her visit to the holy Sepulchre, "Prostrate before the Cross she worshipped, as though she saw the Lord hanging thereon." Not the Cross, but the crucifix, is the temptation to idolatry. Sedulius (A. 434.) carm. Pasch. iv. "And that no one might be ignorant that the form of the Cross is to be venerated," (speciem Crucis esse colendam) is not speaking of the material Cross; for he goes on to speak of the Cross formed by the four quarters of the Heavens, and that "Christ rules the world compassed by the Cross." The earliest instance then alleged is that of Pseudo-Lactantius, de Pass. Dom. (the other poem 'de Pascha,' found with it, is of the age of Charlemagne.) These are lines in the mouth of the Redeemer, depicted in the Church, and bidding to "bow the knee, and adore with tears the venerable wood of the Cross." It the more illustrates the previous silence. See further, Note B at the end of the Apology.
210. d Justin M. Apol. i. §. 65. Minut. F. p. 286.
211. e Claudian. in Rufin. 5. 366. Dionys. Hal. vi. 45. p. 1142. They sacrificed to them, Joseph. de B. J. vi. 32.
213. g "Follow the Roman birds[Eagles], the special deities of the legions," Germanicus, ap. Tac. Ann. ii. 17. "turning to the standards and gods of wars." Id. Hist. iii. 10.
214. h Of the gods and emperors. They were of gold and silver.
216. i The banner was of silk and gold.
217. k Christians prayed to the East, as the type of Christ the Sun of righteousness, (S. Clem. Al. Strom. vii. 7. p. 856. Damasc. iv. 12.) whence also in Baptism they turned to the East to confess Christ, (S. Jer. in Am. vi. 14. Ambros. de iis qui initiantur c. 2.) and their Churches were toward the East. (Tert. c. Valent. c. 3. Const. Ap. ii. 57. so that other positions were rare exceptions, Socr. v. 22. Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Sever.) as the place of our lost Paradise; (Cyril Jerus. Lect. xix. 6. p. 261. ed. Oxf. S. Basil, de Sp. S. c. 27. Const. Ap. ii. 57. Greg. Nyss. Hom. 5. de Or. Dom. t. i. p. 756. Quaestt. ad Antioch. q. 37. Damasc. l. c.) as the more eminent part of the world, (unde coelum surgit, Aug. de serm. Dom. in Monte, ii. 5. Quaestt. ad Orthod. ap. Justin. M. q. 118.) It is instanced as an Apostolic tradition by S. Basil. l. c. and so called in the Quaestt. ad Orthod. l. c. Origen (Hom. 5. in Num.) instances it as a rite in universal practice, but the ground of which was not clear and obvious to most.
218. l The seventh day of the month, sacred to Saturn, as the seventh planet, was regarded as an ill-omened day for business, and so spent in idleness and dissipation. Little reason had they then to reproach the Christians. On the seventh day among the Heathen, see at great length, Selden de Jur. Nat. et Gent. l. iii. c. 15 sqq.
219. m An apostate Jew, ad Nat. i. 14.
220. n The Empusa, or mid-day Hecate, had one ass's foot. Philostr. de vit. Apollon. ap. Hav.
221. o "The Hermopolitae worship a dog-headed animal." Strabo, 1. 17. ap. Ouz. ad Minuc. p. 263. also Athan. c. Gent. Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 13. Clem. Protr. 2. 39. of the Cynopolitae. The dog was worshipped throughout Egypt. Strabo, l. c. &c.
222. p Probably Mithra. Ph. a Turre de Mithra, c. 3. p. 128. c. 5. p. 202. Porph. also de Abstin. 1. iv. p. 54. ap. Elmenh. ad Minuc. p. 261. mentions in Egyptian idolatry, human figures "with the head of a bird or a lion," (whence the Nomos Leontopolites) and Arnob. l. vi. p. 116. ib.
223. q Sispita or Lanuviana, Pan, and Satyrs, see Spanheim. de Usu Numism. p. 354. The Mendesians worshipped the goat. Strab. l. c. Herod, ii. Clem. Protr. l. c. Minuc. p. 261. "de capro et homine mixtos Deos."
225. s Pan. Porph. de Abstin. 1. 3.
226. t Mercury, and sun-images. Macr. Sat. i. 19. "pennata vestigia" Martian. Capell. de Nupt. Philol. p. 20.
230. y "O bone Deus," Scribon. Larg. compos. 84. in fine ap. Facciol. v. bonus.
231. z h2n Qio_j para&sxoi, passim ap. Her. h2n Qeo_j qe/lh, Xenoph. Cyrop. iv. ii. 13. Aristoph. Plut. 347. 405. "But how must we speak?" Socr. "If God will," o#ti e0a_n Qio_j e0qe/h|. Plato Alcib. l. p. 135. Steph. zu_n tw~| Qew~| pa~j kai\ gela~| kw)du&retai. Soph. Aj. 383. zu_n Qew~| d' ei0rh&sesai. Arist. Plut. 114. quoted by Herald. Advers. ii. 5. see more fully de Testim. Animae, c. 2. 3. 4. 5. The argument is repeated, de Res. Carn. c. 3. de Corona, c. 6. and by S. Cyprian, de Idol. Vanit. c. 6. p. 18. ed. Oxf. Arnob. l. ii. init. Lactant. ii. 1. Minut. F. p. 144. Cyrill c. Julian. ii. 36. Hieron. in Malach. ii. 14. Breviarium in Ps. 95. v. 10.
232. a "There is a God (est Deus) in Heaven, who both heareth and seeth what we do." Plautus Captiv. ap. Her. "Be of good cheer, of good cheer, my child, there is a great God in Heaven who beholdeth and ruleth all things." Soph. El. 175. (ib.)
233. b Adv. Marcion. i. 1. de carne Christi, c. 9.
234. c The Flood, and Sodom, as joined 2 Pet. 2, 5. 6.
237. d De Testim. Animae, c. 1. "Not birth, but re-birth maketh Christians." S. Aug. de Pecc. Mer. iii. 9. Jerome, Ep. 60. ad Heliod. de Nepotian. §. 8. Cyril, Cat. i. 2.
239. e Menedemus was a disciple of Plato. The context in Josephus (Ant. xii. 2. 12.) and Aristeas (p. xxiii. ap. Hody de LXX Intt.) plainly shews that the reference is to the skill of the LXX in answering the questions proposed to them, not to the story of the exact agreement of their translation, of which Pam. understands it. The anachronism as to Menedemus is noticed by Hody, l. c. c. 7.
240. f The poll-tax, paid from the time of Vespasian, for free use of their worship. Xiphilin. in Vespasian. Suet. Domit. c. 12. Juv. iii. 14. Appian. in Syriac. (ap. Casaub. ad Suet.) Martial, vii. 54.
242. 2 historiarum et canas memoriarum
243. g Clem. Al. Strom. i. 21. p. 139. Tatian. c. Gentes, §. 40. Euseb. Chron. Praef. Praep. Ev. x. 3.
245. i Polemo Hellen, l. i. Appion. c. Jud. i. Hist. iv. ap. Justin. Cohort. §. 9. Porph. adv. Christian. 1. iv. Africanus Ann. 1. v. ap. Euseb. l. c. Ptolemy Mendes. ap. Clem. Al. Strom. i. 21. init. p. 138. Eusebius himself places Inachus 300 years prior to Moses, he is followed by S. Aug. de Civ. D. xviii. 8.
247. l Joseph. l.c. "nearly 1000." Euseb. Praep. Ev. l. c. from Porph. "above 800." Theoph. ad Autol. in. 21. "900 or even 1000." Tatian. §. 38, 39. and Clem. Al. l. c. more correctly "twenty generations," or, "400 years." Cyril, c. Jul. l. i. "410." Eusebius himself Chron. "228."
248. m Theopompus and Euphorion ap. Clem. Al. Strom, i. 21. p. 141. "some" ap. Tatian. §. 31. who names other dates assigned, viz. 80, above 100, 140, 180, 240, 317, after the Trojan war. The expression shews that Tertullian was not anxious about the facts: his concern was but to arrest attention by shewing the impression which their own writers had of the superior antiquity of Moses.
249. n Justin. Dial. c. Tryph.§. 7. Theoph. iii. 23. Clem. Al. l. c. p. 143. Euseb. Praep. Ev. l. c. Lact. iv. 5. Aug. de Civ. D. xviii. 37.
250. o He wrote an Assyrian history, (Tatian, l. c. c. 36.) and is often quoted by Plin. N. H.
254. 1 frequentiae plerumque mortium. Ezek. 21,26.
255. 2 et omitted. Mat. 24, 12.
256. q De Anima, c. 28. Orig. c. Cels. vi. 10.
257. r Justin M. Apol. i. 30; 52. Dial, c. Tryph. c. 7. Theoph. ad Autol. ii. 9.
258. s Trypho ap. Justin. Dial. c. 10.
259. 1 quibus edocebantur restored
262. t Adrian's decree after the rebellion of Barchochebas, Euseb. iv. 6. from Aristo Pellaeus. see adv. Jud. c. 11,12, and 13. Justin M. Apol. i. 62. and Hieron. Chron. Euseb. MMCXL. Hilary (in Ps. 58.) speaks of the prohibition as continuing, and S. Jerome in Soph. c. 2. except that on the day of the destruction of Jerusalem, they paid for the permission, Scal. Anim. ad Eus. Chron. p. 216.
263. u Justin M. ad Graec. c. 2. Apol. i. 21. Athenag. c. 32. Tatian. c. 8. 10. Theodoret. de cur. Gr. Affect. Disp. iii.
266. y See Lact. iv. 9. Diog. Laert. Zenon. "That God, and Mind, and Fate, and Jupiter, were one." Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 14. describes both as Pantheists, as Tatian (of Zeno) c. 3. Minut. F. p. 150. Yet, in as far as they spake of God, as a Spirit, they witnessed to the truth, which they perverted.
267. z 2 Sam. 23, 2. "The SPIRIT of God spake by me; and His WORD was upon my tongue."
269. a Tertullian here uses the very words adopted in the Nicene Creed, "God of God, Light of Light, 9Omoou&sion;" his object, in the further application of the metaphor, is, to shew the Heathen, that they could not consistently object a priori to the Christian doctrine; these analogies, though, as physical, imperfect, at least silence objections. If in earthly things, the same substance might exist, distinct in some way but united, and procession implied no diminution of the substance whence it proceeded, how little were they entitled to argue against the truth, thus shadowed forth! Tertullian elsewhere distinctly asserts the Consubstantiality of the Father and the Son, ("of one individual Substance," adv. Prax. c. 13. "Christ and the Spirit are both of the Substance of the Father, and they who acknowledge not the Father, neither can they acknowledge the Son, through the Oneness of Substance." c. Marc. iii. 6. "In the Spirit is The Trinity of One Divinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." de Pudic. c.2. "I every where hold One Substance in Three Conjoined." c. Prax. c. 12. add. c. 4, and 8. ap. Bull. Def. Fid. Nic. ii. 7.1,2.) and His Coequality, (c. Marc. iv. 25. de Res. Carn. c. 6. adv. Prax. c. 7, and 22. ib. §. 4. and adv. Herm, c. 7. 18.) whence it is the more hard that Petavius should press these analogies, as though they implied that, as the whole sun does not exist in the ray, neither does the whole Divinity in the Son, (de Trin. i. 5. 3.) In Bp. Bull's words (l. c. §. 5.) "such comparisons are not to be pressed too close, but to be taken candidly, attending to the mind of the author, as explained elsewhere more clearly and unfiguratively. In some things the likeness holds; in some, not. It agrees herein, 1. That as a 'portion' does not alone and by itself constitute the whole, so also the Son is not All which is God; but beside the Son, other Hypostases, namely, the Father and the Holy Spirit subsist in the Divine Essence. 2. That as a portion is taken from the sum or whole, and the whole is by nature anterior to its portions or parts, so also is the Son derived from the Substance of the Father, and the Father, as the Father, is, as it were, by Nature anterior to the Son. But the likeness fails in this; 1. By 'portion' we understand what is divided and separated from the whole; but the Son is and ever was undivided from the Father. This Tertullian every where and uniformly asserts, (adv. Prax. c. 8. 9. 19.) 2. A 'portion' is less than that whence it is taken, but the Son is in all things (save that He is the Son) like and equal to the Father, and hath and possesseth all the things of the Father. Which also Tertullian clearly teaches in the places just adduced. Add to this, that adv. Marc. iii. 6., after he had said that the Son was a portion out of the fulness of the Divine Substance, he presently subjoins expressly that that Portion was "a sharer in His fulness."
271. b Justin M. Dial. c. Tryph. §. 128. "I said this Power was begotten of the Father----but not by severance, as though the Essence of the Father were divided off, as all things besides, when divided and cut, are not the same as before they were cut; and, as an example, I took, how from fire we see other fires kindled, that being nothing minished, whence many may be kindled, but remaining the same." §. 61. "As in fire, we see other fire produced, that not being minished, whence the kindling was produced, but remaining the same; and that which was kindled from it, itself also manifestly existeth, not minishing that from which it was kindled." The same likeness is used by Tatian, §. 5. (Bull, ii. 4. 4.) Athenag. Legat. §. 24. (of the Holy Ghost.) Bull, ii. 4. 9. Hippolytus in Noet. ap. Fabr. t. ii. p. 13. (Bull, ii. 8. 5.) Origen. e. g. de Princ. i. 4. (see Bull, ii. 9. 14.) Theognostus (ap. Athanas. Ep. 4, ad Serap. §. 25. Bull, ii. 10. 7.) Dionysius Alex. Apol. 1. 3. ap. Athanas. Ep. de Sent. Dionys. 118. (Grabe, ad Bull, ii. 11. fin.) Respons. ad quaestt. Paul. Sam. t. i. p. 240. (Bull, iii. 4. 3.) Lact. iv. 29. (Bull, ii. 14. 4.) Carm. adv. Marc. v. 9. ap Tert. 'genitum de lumine lumen.' (Bull, iii. 10. 19.) Aug. de Trin. vi. init.
272. c Hippol. M: Hom. de Deo trino et uno, "When I speak of 'another,' I speak not of two Gods, but as Light from Light, and water from the source, or a ray from the Sun."
273. d i. e. in mode of existence, as The Son, not The Father, but not as to be numerically distinct.
274. e i. e. in the "Order" of Persons, within the Divine Unity, not in any difference of Being. "Three, not in Condition, but in Order; not in Substance, but in Form; not in Power, but Property; but of One Substance, and One Condition, and One Power; because One God, from "Whom both those Orders, and Forms, and Properties are reckoned in the Name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit." Adv. Prax. c. 2.
275. f Adv. Prax. c. 8. "We say that the Son was forth-brought (prolatus) from the Father, not separated." Mic.5,1.
276. g Heb. 1, 3. a)pau&gasma th~j do&zhj Au)tou~. Theognostus l. c. founds the language upon this passage, e0k th~j tou~ Patro_j ou)si/aj e1fu, w(j tou~ Fwto_j to_ a)pau&-gasma: and Origen de Princ. iv. 28. p. 190. ed. de la Rue. Dionys. Al. Apol. ap. Ath. de Sent. Dionys. §. 15. Greg. Nyss. de Deit. Fil. et Sp. S. iii. 468.
277. h Homo Deo mixtus; lit. "mingled, commingled with God," comp. de carn. Chr. c. 15. c. Marcion. l. ii. 27. The same word is used by S. Cyprian, de Idol. Van. c. 6. [concretus Id. Test. ii. 10.] Zeno Veron. [l. ii. Tr. 6. §. 1. ad 1 Cor. 15, 24. Tr. 8. §. 2. S. 2. de Nativ. "there, unimpaired what He was, He meditateth to become what He was not. So then mingled with human flesh, &c;" Leo, S. 3. de Nativ. c. 1. (where a MS. substitutes uniretur,) "immixtus," S. 4. in Epiph. c. 4. Novatian de Trin. c. 11. Divinitate Sermonis in ipsa concretione permixtam, add. c. 20. 21. Vigilius c. Eut. l. l. c. 24. "commixtio." The translator of S. Irenaeus (iii. 19. ed. Mass.) commixtus, (where the original ap. Theodoret. has o9 a!nqrwpoj to_n Lo&gon xwrh&saj, and (4. 37.) commixtio et communio Dei et hominis. S. Aug. de Trin. iv, 20. "Verbo Dei quodammodo commixtus est homo." Lact. iv. 13. "et Deum fuisse et hominem ex utroque genere permixtum." Chrysol. S. 142. de Annunc. "misceri." In like way, xra~sij, mi/zij, mi/gnutai, are used by Greg. Naz. Or. 42. de Pasch. [p. 682. ed. Morell.] sugkra~sij, Or. 51. p. 739. su&gkrama, Or. 52. p. 747. (see Nicetas col. 1186.) kikerasme/noj, by S. Cyril. Alex. Thes. 1. 20. p. 197. and a)na&krasij, Pasch. 8. p. 103, a)nakraqei\j, by S. Athanasius, . Or. c. Arian. iv. 33. sunanekra&qh, by S. Greg. Nyss. c. Eunom. 1. 1. t. ii. p. 45. a)na&krasij, id. Cat. c. 11. t. ii. p. 498. sunana&krasij, c. 17. p. 517, 518. mi/zij, was originally used of the juxta-position of solids, xra~sij, of the union of liquids which were yet thought to be separable, (Philo de conf. ling. p. 347. ap. Petav.de Incarn.iii. 2.9.from whom, and Ballerini ad Zeno (Opp. p. xci. Diss. 2. e. 3.) §§. 14. 15. these instances are taken. S. Augustine says, Ep. 137. (ol. 3.) §. 11. (ib. §. 14.) "As in the unity of person, soul is united to body, that so man may be; so in unity of person, God is united to man, that so Christ may be. In the one person there is a mingling of soul and body; in the other, is a mingling of God; so that, when any heareth this said, he must abstract himself from that observation of the senses, that two fluids are wont so to be commingled, that neither should retain its character unaltered; (though even in corporeal substances light is mingled with air, and uninjured.) The person of man then is a mingling of soul and body; the person of Christ a mingling of God and man. For when the Word of God was commingled with a soul having a body, It took, at once both soul and body." Leporius de libello emendat. c. 4. "He could, without injury and in very deed, be mingled." And S. Cyril in answer to Nestorius, l. 1. t. 6. p. 15. (ib. §. 16.) "Some of the holy fathers also have used the word 'mingling,' (kra~sij). "Whereas you say you fear, lest some confusion (a)na&xusij) shall he thought to have taken place, as in liquids when mingled together, I free you from this fear. For they use this word in other than its proper sense, anxious to express the extreme union of the Natures, which carne together." After the heresy of Apollinaris had sprung up, e#nwsij, unitio, was preferred, kra~sij having been abused by these, as suna&feia, sociatio, by the Nestorians. In like way, (as has been pointed out to me) S. Ephraem uses the words, tLX and oDM; the latter of which is the same word as "misceo;" the former, used in older Syriac of any "junction,"came to signify "mingling," whence [Syriac] "Thou unitedst," [Syriac] "was united," was substituted for it, (as in Leo above.) see Assem.Bibl.Or.t.i.p.80-82.add.p.107.
278. 1 sciebant et qui penes vos ejus modi fab.
281. l Adv. Jud. c. 11. Orig. c. Cels. ii. 5.6.8. Minut. F.p.319. Chrys. Hom. 77. in Matt. 24. Hieron. in Is. 1. 17. c. 63. Aug. de Cons. Ev. i. 2. and 13.
283. m Cels. ap. Orig. c. Cels. i. c. 6. 28. 38. viii. 9.; the then Jews, ap. Orig. c. Cels. iii. 1. Recog. 1. l. c. 58. Talm. Schabb. f. 104. p. aut. Wagenseil, confa. Tol. Jesch. p. 16. 17. of the Heathen (apparently from the Jews) Arnob. i. p. 25. c. 4. Pseudo-Ignat. Ep. ad Phil. Just. M. Apol. i. 30. Aug. de Cons. Ev. i. 8. 9. 10. 14. Eus. Dem. iii. 6. The miracles were confessed.
287. n Ps. 33, 6. John 1, 3. Rig. omits Eundem qui verbo om nia et faceret et fecisset, with the Fulda MS. It has however a good sense, that "He shewed Himself to be the Word, in that He did, or He had done, all things by a word." Comp. Heb. 1, 3.
288. 1 Is. 65, 2. Ps.22, 16. see adv. Jud. c. 13.
289. o "Multa mortis illius propria ostendit insignia; nam" restored.
291. p Dies media, orbem signante sole. Others medium. Comp. adv. Jud. c. 10.
292. 3 Am. 8, 9. see adv. Jud. l.c.
293. q "archivis" or "arcanis." Probably the account sent by Pilate, spoken of c. 5.: at all events, public documents. So Lucian Martyr (ap. Ruf. H. E. ix. 6. p. 149.) refers to their own annals. This statement then is independent of the question whether Phlegon (Orig. c. Cels. ii. 33. 59. Euseb. Chron. p. 202. ed. Scal.) in speaking of a very great eclipse about this time, or Thallus, as supposed by Africanus. (Chron. ap. Routh Reliq. S. t. ii. p.183.) alluded to that event. Eusebius mentions also other Greek memoirs, which he clearly distinguishes from that of Phlegon, giving also the words of each ( kai\ e0n a!lloij me\n 9Ellhnikoi=j u(pomnh&masin eu#romen i9sto-rou&mena kata_ le/cin tau~ta - gra&fei de\ kai\ Fli/gwn) which Lardner (Test. P. ii. c. 13.) overlooked. With regard to these latter statements, the Heathen, not knowing the circumstances, might very naturally have concluded that the darkness was produced by an eclipse, and the combined mention of the earthquake and the eclipse in the several autho rities quoted by Eusebius, make it probable that they referred to the events at the Crucifixion. This probability would be diminished, if it be correct that there was a great eclipse of the Sun in the same Olympiad. (Kepler, Eclogae Chronicae, p. 87.126.) Origen's argument (in Matt. Tr. 35. p. 922, 3. ed. de la Rue) is, that no heathen author (and especially not Phlegon) had explicitly related the darkness to have been produced by an eclipse, (as some Christians thought that it had, miraculously,) he does not imply that Phlegon's account might not refer to it, as himself had supposed it might, (c. Cels. and, if it be his, Fragm. in Matt. in App. Biblioth. Gall, quoted Routh, l. c. p. 337.) Tillemont, Note 35. sur J. C. and Dr. Routh, l. c. think, (it seems, rightly,) that the mention of Phlegon in Africanus did not originally stand in the text.
295. r A fide, others "ad fidem," "to their allegiance to themselves."
298. t In that he held Him guiltless. See also above, c. 5.
302. x The Daemon of Socrates dissuaded him only. Plato puts this assertion repeatedly in Socrates' own mouth, and that in words so similar, that there seems no doubt that they are those of Socrates. "With me this hath been, beginning from a child that a certain voice hath come, which, when it cometh, ever turneth me away from what I may be about to do, but impelleth me never (a)si\ a)potre/pei me protre/pei de\ ou! pote)." Apol. Socr. §. 19. ed. Bekk. "There is wont to follow me, by the Divine appointment, a certain daemon, beginning from a child. And this is, a voice, which when it cometh ever signifieth to me to turn away from what I may be about to do, but impelleth me never." shmai/nei a)potroph_n, trotre/pei de\ ou)de/pote Theages, §. 10. add Phaedrus, §. 43. and in part Apol. §. 31. Xenophon's account (Mem. i. l.) that "whereas others were withheld and impelled from action by omens, and Socrates was directed to act or not to act; the daemon fore-signifying," is obviously a less precise account. Tertullian gives it an ironical turn.
303. y "Of the Greeks, Homer appears to use both names [gods and daemons] in common, sometimes calling the gods, daemons. But Hesiod clearly and definitely first set forth four kinds of being, having reason, gods, then daemons, then heroes, lastly men." ('Erg. k. 9Hm. 107-199.) Plut, de Orac. Def. p. 431. E. quoted by Euseb. Praep. Ev. v. 4. On Hesiod, see Plato Cratyl. (§. 32. ed. Bekk.) Rep. v. §. 15. Proclus. Schol. ad Hesiod. l. c. l. 121. p. 119. ed. Gaisf. Lact. ii. 15.
304. z See de Testim. Anim. c. 3.
305. a Sympos. t. v. p. 72. §. 28. ed. Bekk. "All Daemon-nature is between God and mortal. Endued with what power? said I. Interpreting and transmitting to the gods the things from men, and to men those from the gods; of the one, the prayers and sacrifices; of the other, the commands and requitals of the sacrifices. But being in the midst between both, it fills up, so that the whole is mutually bound together." Theodoret, Orat. 4. de Nat. et Mund. "Plato calls them gods and daemons, whom we entitle angels, and said that they were the ministers of the God of the universe." Minuc. F. p. 246. Cypr. de Idol. Van. c. 4. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, ix. 9. quotes Labeo as affirming the same.
306. b Cypr. l. c. Arnob. 1. p. 35. Lact. ii. 15. Minuc. p. 245.
307. c Gen. 6, 2. It is so interpreted also by Justin M. Apol. i. 21. ii. 6. S. Irenaeus, adv. Haer. iv. 36. 4. v. 29. 2. Athenag. c. 24. (followed by Methodius de Resurr. p. 307. ed. Paris from Photius.) Clem. Al. Paed. iii. 2. fin. Strom, iii. 7. p. 193. v. 1, p. 235. S. Cyprian. de Hab. Virg. c. 9. de Patientia, c. 11. Lact. ii. 15. Euseb. Praep. Ev. v. 4. Ambr. de Noe, c. 4. §. 8. 9. de Virginib. i. 8. §. 53. Apol. David. c. 1. §. 4. in Ps. 118. v. 64. Serm. 8. §. 58. Naz. Carm. 3. p. 64. by Tert. again, de Idol. c. 9. de Cult. Fem. c. 10. de Hab. Mul. c. 2. de Vel. Virg. c. 7. c. Marc. v. 18. It occurs also in the Clement. Hom. 8. c. 13-15. and in Philo de Gigant. t. 1. p. 262. ed. Mang. Joseph. Antiq. i. 43. in the book of Enoch, Grab. Spicil. i. 347. and the Test. xii Patr. ib. 150. 213. Origen c. Cels. v. 55. mentions the spiritual interpretation which he adopts, as devised by one before him, and so, contrary to the received opinion. (kai\ tw~n pro_ h(mw~n tij tau~ta a)nh&gagen ei0j to_n peri\ yuxw~n lo&gon.) It is not however a Catholic interpretation. (see on S. Cyprian, xi. 12. p. 261. n. a. ed. Oxf.) S. A.ugust. also, who (Quaestt. ad Gen. 1. 1. qu. 3.) speaks doubtingly as on a point "difficult to be decided," maintains what is now the ordinary view, de Civ. D. xv. 23. (rejecting however in both places abstract arguments:) and S. Ambrose seems so to take it in Ps. 118, 25. Serm. 4. §. 8. S. Cyril Alex. c. Julian, l. ix. init. and adv. Anthrop. c. 17. Theodoret (Qu. 47. in Gen.) S. Chrysostome (Hom. 22. in Gen.) and S. Ephraem (Serm. 19. adv. Haer. Opp. Syr. t. 2. p. 478. add. ad loc. t. 1. where he gives that now received,) speak strongly against the other. S. Jerome (Quaestt. in Gen. ad loc.) seems to leave it doubtful, "Deos intelligens Sanctos sive Angeles." " Et angelis----et sanctorum liberis convenit nomen cadentium." The context would lead the one way, that those who called on God were called " the sons of God;" on the other hand [Hebrew] is a title given to the Angels, Job 1, 6. 2, l. 38, 7. nowhere in the O. T. to man.
309. d Orig. c. Cels. viii. 31.
311. e See Cypr. de Id. Van. c. 4. The lurking of daemons in images and their sensual delighting in the idol-sacrifices are mentioned by Athenag. Leg. c. 27. That they fed on the sacrifices is the opinion of Justin M. Apol. ii. §. 5. Tatian. c. 12. Tert. again, c. 23. de Idol. c. 7. ad Scap. c. 2. Orig. c. Cels. iii. 28. 37. iv. 32. vii. 5. 6. 35. 56. 64. viii. 18. Minut. F. p. 250. Chrys. de S. Babyla, c. 14. Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 4. Greg. Naz. Orat. 5. in Jul. 24. de S. Cypr. §. 10. The same was held by Celsus, ap. Orig. c. C. viii. 60-62. Proph. de Abstin. l. 2. (de Orac. ap. Theod. c. Graec. Disp. 3.) On their presence in statues, Bel and the Drag. c.6. Lact. ii. 15. 16. Minuc. F. p. 248. Chrys. in Ps. 113. §. 4. 134. §. 7.
312. f Plato, Sympos. 1. c. "Through this (the Daemon-agency) doth the whole of divining art hold its course; and the skill of the priests, and of those engaged about the sacrifices and initiations and incantations, and the whole of divination, and sorcery. But God doth not mingle with man, but through this is all intercourse of the gods with men, whether waking or sleeping."
313. g Athanas. vit. Ant. §. 31. 32.
314. h Justin, Apol. i. 54. 64. 66. Dial. §. 70. 78. S. Cyril. Jer. xv. 11. speaks of Satan's spreading abroad semblances of the truth, to prevent the truth itself from being received.
316. k Ennius, ap. Cic. de Div. l. ii. 56.
320. m Justin M. Apol. ii. 6. Dial. §. 30. and 76. Iren. ii. 32. Orig. c. Cels. vii. 4. p. 325. Tatian. c. 18. Cypr. l. c. c. 4. Minuc. F. p. 251. Lact. ii. 16. Jerome in Nah. c. 7. Aug. de Div. Daem. c. 5. de Trin. iii. 9.
321. n Announcing victories, Plin. ii. 37. Florus, ii. 12. iii. 3. &c.
322. o By a Vestal Virgin, Val. Max. viii. 1. Plin. xxviii. 3. Lact. ii. 17.
323. p Claudia Quinta Liv. xxix. 14.
324. q Domitius Aenobarbus, Suet. Ner. 1.
325. r Apuleius describes this, Apol. t. ii. p. 497, 8. ed. Elmenhorst. The first words of the returning soul (as it were) were regarded as oracular. See further Peucer de Div. p. 166. and Elmenh. ad loc. Justin M. Apol. i. c. 18 (whom Tert. apparently had here in view,) speaks of the "inspection of immaculate children," (brefomantei/a) in which the children were slain and their entrails inspected; and this, which is more frequently mentioned, (Eus. H. E. vii. 10. viii. 14. Socr. H. E. iii. 13. Recogn. ii. 13) suits better with the more obvious meaning of "elidunt," "slay;" but the context is here of chicanery, not of cruelty. For this inspection of them, inspection by them in mirrors was afterwards substituted. Peucer de Mag. p. 155. The reading "eliciunt" is, probably, a comment on "elidunt," and as such, favours the sense given in the text.
326. s See Bulenger, 1. 3. de Divin, c. 22. p. 215. Euseb. Praep. Ev. 1, ii. Clem. Protrept. p. 9. quoted by Fabr. Bibl. Antiq. p. 416. Amm. Marc. l. 29. Sozom. vi. 35. ap. Buleng. de Sort. l. ii. p. 30.
327. t The oracular Tripods, see Hofmann Lex. v. Tripus.
328. u It may be that Tertullian looked for some special intervention on such a trial, or he may not have meant his words "by any Christian" to be taken to the letter, but only to assert the frequency of the gift. The frequency and notoriety of these miraculous cures he asserts again, ad Scap. c. 2. 4. as peculiar to Christians, de Test. Anim. c. 3. Their commonness is implied also de Spect. c. 29. de Idol. c. ll. de Cor. c. 11. and below c.37,43. Justin M. speaks of many having been and being cured, generally and at Rome, Apol. ii. 6 and 8. add Dial. c. Tryph. §. 30. 76. 84. 121. Tatian, c. 16. Theoph. ad Autol. ii. 8. S. Irenaeus, ii. 32. mentions (among other miracles) that many so healed were in the Church. Origen speaks of the vast number of such cures up to his time, c. Cels. i. 2.3. names them with other miracles, ib. 46. 67. viii. 58. which himself had seen, (add of these ii. 8. and generally iii. 24. 28.) and apparently as wrought by a certain class among Christians, (ib. i. 6.) but also that "no few among the Christians" still wrought them, (vii. 4.) and that, although for the most part holy, yet, through the might of the Name of Jesus even "bad men," (according to Matt. 7,22.) Ib. i. 6. Heraldus quotes from c. Cels. viii. a statement, corresponding to this of Tertullian, "ordinary individuals (i0diw~tai) work somewhat of this kind, the grace which is in the word of Christ enabling them." They are named as frequent by Minut. Felix, p. 202, 254. by S. Cyprian, (Ep. 76. ad Magn. v. fin. add. ad Donat. 4. p. 4. ed. Oxf. de Idol. Van. 4. ib. p. 17. ad Demetrian, §. 8. ib. p. 208.) by Arnobius i. p. 27. by Lactantius,Instt. ii. 16. iv. 27. v. 22. init. 23 fin. by Eusebius (Dem. Ev. iii. 6. p. 132,3. who says also, "our Lord is wont to display, even to this day, to those to whom He judgeth right, some little portions of His [miraculous] power by manifest and ascertained deeds," v. ib. c. 5. p. 109.) by Eustathius A. 320. in very large terms, ("all who sincerely mind the things of Christ," pa&ntej oi9 ta_ tou~ Xristou~ pronou~ntej ei0likrinai=j, de Engastrimytho, p. 368. ed. Leo Allat. add. p. 352.) Athanasius Orat. i. c. Arian. c. 50. Julius Firmicus, p. 29. 30. and v. fin. p. 61. Greg. Naz. Or. 2. §. 86. Epiphanius relates one such case Haer. 30. c. 10. as also, earlier, Firmilian Ep. 75. ad Cypr. S. Augustine again single cases, de Civ. D. l. xxii. c. 8. §. 7. 8. Paula and Eustochium, (ap. Jerome, Ep. 46. §. 8. at our Lord's sepulchre.) The fulness and confidence of these early statements, and the gradual limitation of these cures, (as Christianity was more established, and perhaps as love waxed cold,) is the more illustrated by the later explicit statements of the cessation of miracles; as by S. Chrysostom repeatedly, (in Ps. 142. §. 5. hom. 1. de S. Pentec. §. 4. in inscript. Actt. hom. 2. §. 3. t. iii. in Joh. Hom. 24. (23.) §. 1. Hom. 72. (71.) §. 4. in 1 Cor. Hom. 29. init. Hom. 36. §. 4. 5. Theodoret in 1 Cor. xii. 7. 9. Junilius de part. Div. Leg. ii. 29. Op. Imp. in Matt. Hom. 49. p. cciv. ed. Ben. Greg. M. in Job. l. xxvii. c. 18. ('for the most part, except when the occasion required,') Damascene, (de Fid. Orthod. i. 3. in contrast with early successors of the Apostles, though chiefly of himself, see the passages ap. Lardner.) S. Chrys. speaks of the dread and shrinking of daemons from the sepulchres of martyrs, not of their expulsion, (a)pela&unei not e0kba&llei, t. ii. 93. 623. 674. 680. 691.) or of the moral cures wrought by visiting them, (p. 555.) to which he, probably, again alludes, when he says, that many of the "wonders," qau&mata, of the Apostolic times had ceased, Hom. 14. in Rom. §. 7.) S. Hilary, (in Ps. 64. §. 10.) S. Athanasius, (de Incarn. §. 48.) of the silencing of oracles or soothsaying, as, earlier, S. Dionys. Alex. (ap. Eus. vii. 10.) of the bringing to nought Satanic assaults. Else, cures wrought at the sepulchres of martyrs, (Greg. Naz. de S. Cyprian. Or. 24. §. 18. p. 449. Ephr. S. Opp. Syr. t. ii. p. 349.) had been but a testimony the more, in that God still continued to honour "the death of His saints," even when He had withdrawn these gifts from the diminished faith of His Church militant. S. Cyprian, (de Idol. Van.) Minuc. F. and Lactantius, make the same statement as Tertullian, that the daemons were thus put to shame "in the presence of their worshippers." The modern assumption then, that miraculous gifts ceased with the last disciple on whom the Apostles laid their hands, as it is an à priori theory, so it is contrary to all rules of evidence.
330. x Those possessed with a spirit of divination, Pythonissae, as in Acts.
331. y See above, c. 12. below, c. 24.
332. 1 Verum, utrobique. Jam Deos quaerite
337. b In the Exorcisms in the Ancient Latin, Greek, and Syriac Liturgies, the evil spirit is adjured by the Name of the Holy Trinity, and mention made of his final sentence to everlasting fire at the Day of Judgment. See them in Assemani Cod. Liturg. t. i. ii. or collected in "Scriptural Views of Holy Baptism," Note M. at the end, p. 266, 7. ed. 1.
338. c The insufflation or exsufflation followed upon the exorcism, see Ass. 1. c, Bingham, x. 2. 8. S. Cyril Introd. §. 9. p. 4. xvi. §. 19. p. 213. ed. Oxf. see also de Anima, c. 11. S. Iren. i. 9. Euseb. H. E. vii. 10. Prudentius Perist. Pass. Rom. 10. 920. Brisson. comm. ad tit. cod. Theod. de feriis.
342. d In Phaedro, §. 50. ed. Bekk. "Jupiter the great Lord and Guider (h(gemw_n) in heaven, driving a winged chariot, goeth first, fitly ordering and calling for all things; him followeth an army of gods and daemons, fitly ordered in eleven parts. See Arnob. iii. p. 117. Athenag. Leg. c. 23.
344. e This was close to the Capitol, Plin. xxxv.
345. f Juv. xiv. 97. (of the Jews chiefly,) Nil praeter nubes et coeli numen adorant. Cels ap. Orig. c. Cels. v. 6. Diod. Sic. l. xi. Eclog. p. 217. ed. Wess. Strabo, l. xvi. p. 761. ed. Casaub. see Kortholt de Cal. Pag. c. 5. de nephelolatria.
346. g "And in truth whosoever will reflect, what he vows to God, and what vows he is to pay, let him vow himself, let him pay himself. This is demanded; this owed:----his own image is rendered to Caesar; and be His own image rendered to God. Aug. in Ps. 115. §. 8.
349. k So F. Adargatis, ad Nat. ii. 8. Argatis. Strabo, l. xvi. fin. called by the Greeks "Derceto;" Plin. v. 23. it was half-female, half-fish. Diod. Sic. ii. 4. p. 14.: in other parts, it was the god, Dagon. [Hebrew] for [Hebrew] Gesen. Thes. v. [Hebrew] see, at length, Ouzeley on Minuc. F. p. 273. Others "Astarte."
350. l Euseb. Praep. Ev. i. 7. (ap. Pam.)
351. m The tutelary god of Aquileia; Capitolin. in Maximin. ap. Hav.
352. n Above, c. Cypr. de Idol. Van. lib. de Prom, et Praed. Dei (ap. Prosper.) iii. 38. ap. Hav.
353. o Lact. i. 15. Minuc. F. p. 214.
355. q So F. others Nortia again.
359. t Cic. Orat. xxx. de Harusp. Resp. c. 19. Polyb. vi. 54. Valer. i. l. 8. Prud. c. Symm. l. ii. 489. Minuc. F. p. 228.
360. u As though named from "manuring," Macr. Sat. i. 7. Lact. i. 20. Aug. Civ. D. viii. 15.
365. a See Pythian oracle, Herod. i. 91. Lact. ii. 17. Aesch. Prom. v. 518.
366. b To be made gods, they must have worshipped the gods who made them such; and so, to be gods at Rome, Sterculus and the like; but they were gods before, and so must have wor shipped, elsewhere, their native gods also. Others understand by "cum indigenis suis," "together with their native worshippers," these non-Italian gods being as it were foreigners, joining with the native worshippers. This interpretation has produced a reading, "cum indigenis cultoribus suis." c Prud. l. c. l. 346.
370. e Exilis. Other Edd. and the ad Nat. ii. ult. ex illis, "and the savour all from these," but there some word is omitted, nidor.....ex illis.
371. f Rome had no images for 170 years, Varro, ap. Aug. de C. D. iv. 9. Plutarch. Num. Clem. Al. Strom, i. 15. Euseb. Praep. Ev. ix. 3. They were of wood or clay until the conquest of Asia, Plin. xxxiv. 7.
372. g De Spect. c. 7. Plin. l. c.
373. h From the capture of Syracuse, foreign temples were despoiled to ornament Rome, Liv. xxv. 40. add Minuc. p. 229.
374. 1 adolationes, i.q. adulationes
375. 1 arabi tum (neut.) extru eretur
377. k Who had the charge of the Sybilline books.
379. l Joseph. Ant. xvii. 2. (of Agrippa.)
380. m "Macc. i. 8. ii. 11. Jos. Ant. xii. 1.7. under Judas Maccab.; Macc. i. 12. Jos. A. xiii. 8. or 9. under Jonathan; Macc. i. 15. Jos. A. xiii. 12 or 9. under Simon, Again, Jos. A. xiv. 16 or 17, 17 or 19, are decrees of the Roman senate as to amity with the Jews, under J. Caesar, and John Hyrcanus, (comp. c. App. l. ii.) and ibid. and c. 22 or 20, are Epistles of M. Antony, and P. Dolabella to Hyrcanus." Pam.
382. o The refusal to abandon their faith was sometimes called "obstinacy." (Plin. Ep. to Trajan, Diocletian, ap. Hermogen. 1. vii. in Collat. legg. Jud. et Rom. tit. xiv. Tert. ad Nat. i. 17.18. Lact. v. 2. Prud. Hymn. ii. 17. de Agon. Rom. xiv. 63. 581. "a rash desperateness." below, c.50. Arnob. vi. init. Lact. v. 9. Caecil. ap. Minuc. p. 71. edict of Maximin. ap. Eus. H.E. ix. 1. quoted by Kortholt, in Plin. et Traj. Epp. p. 57-59. or madness, Plin. l. c. edict of Maxim. ap. Eus. viii. 17. Just. Apol. ii. Cypr. ad Demetr. Minuc. F. l. c. &c. Lact. l. c. (see Kortholt in Plin. et Traj. Epp. p. 74. who observes that the Christians with reason retorted the charge of madness. See Authorities, ib.)
383. p Aug. Hom. 309. in Nat. Cypr. M. i. §. 5. "Thus----the most faithful Martyr consulted for himself, not as the deceitful tongue of the devil through the mouth of the ungodly judge possessed by him seemed to advise, saying, 'Consult for thyself.' " The like forms "Consule tibi," "Miserere tui,"&c.were used; in Agon. Macr. V., Vincentii; comp. the persuasions in Eus. H. E. iv. 15. bis (Germanicus and Polycarp), viii. 7. (Philoromus, Phileas) de Mart. Pal. c. x. (Pet. Apselamus) Tert. Scorp. c. xi. Her.
386. s c. 1. see Justin, Ap. i. 5. 57. ii. 1. 8. 12. Dial. c. 39. 131. Cypr. de Idol. Van. Orig. c. Cels. iii. iv. viii. Euseb. iv. 15. of the martyrdom of Polycarp, v. 1. Martyrs of Lyons, v. 21. Martyrdom of Apollonius, Lact. iv. 27. v. 21. Prud. Perist. ii. 76. Hymn. x. 22. de Agon. Rom. xiv. 36. c. Symm. ii. 666. Chrys. Hom. 44. de 7. Macc. Hom. 46. in S. Lucian, &c. (Kortholt, l. c. p. 49-57.)
388. t Orig. c. Cels. viii. 44.
389. u ingratis ( = ingratiis) resistimus ut aequales i.e. as he had said, "they are in fact our slaves, but if they break out in rebellion against us, they leave us no choice, but force us to take up arms against them as equals, though we know and they know too, that they fight on most unequal terms." Tr. Lacerda lays down that ingratis is = gratuito, but without authority.
390. x In the formula used in heathen sacrifice, "Favete linguis."
392. z De Idol. c. 13. de Cor. c. 12.
393. a Calidiore timiditate Hav. from F. and Ald. others, callidiore, "a more cunning fear."
396. b repraesentaneae potestatis. Casaubon ad Suet. v. p. 179. explains this in an active sense, "exacting at once," sc. punishment; as in Val. Max. viii. 5. poenam repraesentare maluit; and Suetonius l. c. poenasque parricidarum repraesentabat. So also Hav. adloc.; and words in aneus are mostly neuters, only because derived from neuters. Here, punishment not being expressed, a middle term has been adopted.
397. c The one were left unpunished, the other beaten with staves. Dig. 13. §. 5. de Jurej. Harmenop. Prompt. J. C. 1.7. tit. 1. ap. Elmenh. ad Minuc. p. 284. Ulpian, de Jurejur. 1. 13.
400. d Ep. ad Diogn. c. 2. Cypr. ad Demetrian. c. 8. Ambros. de Virg. 1.2. (ap. Lac.) Lact. ii. 4. Jul. Firm. p. 31. (of the Palladium) ap. Hav.
402. e As in the impieties of Caligula, Suet. Cal. c. 22.
406. h Plin. Paneg. Traj. i. init. lii. init.
407. i i. e. how He can rule afar off, whole lands, and unseen: in part also, from his own power being limited though so great, he feels that there is one unlimited.
408. j Expansis, (not merely, as the Heathen, tendens ad sidera palmas) the attitude betokening openness; also as the figure of the Cross, de Orat. c. 11. Minuc. F. p. 288. Aster ap. Phot. cod. 271. Paulin. Vit. Ambros. p. 12. Prudent. Perist. Hymn 6 in Fructuos. 1. 106. Chrys. quod Christus sit Deus, c. 8. fin. t i. p. 569. ap. Bingh. 13.8. 10. (as Moses, S. Barnab. Ep. c. 12. Maximus Hom. 2. de Pass. Dom. Justin M. Dial. §.90. 111. Tert. c. Jud. c. 10. Cypr. Test. ii. 21. Chrys. Synops. S. Script. in Exod. t. vi. p. 320.)
409. k As the heathen did, and then only.
410. l As the heathen had, to remind them of the names of their gods, (alius nomina Deo subjicit," Senec. ap. Aug. de superst.) lest they should ask any thing of the wrong god, (Arnob. ii. p. 89. as their great men had a prompter to recall the names of those whom they were to salute, Nomenclator,) and to rehearse the words which they were to repeat, (de scripto praeire,) lest any word should be missed, or their order transposed, (Plin. xxxviii. 2.) which had been ill-omened. Tertullian is obviously contrasting the free glowing devotion of the Christians with this mechanical service; it "comes from the heart," as exh. ad cast. c. 10. "it comes forth from the conscience." It was plainly a mistake of Tertullian's style, that the words were ever pressed as an argument that prayer was extempore only; and the more, since T. recognizes forms of prayer, besides other contemporary evidence. See Bingham 13. 5. 5. It is, like the preceding, an ironical argumentum ad hominem; the heathen claimed, alone to pray for the emperors, while their very attitude and garb were emblems of their guilt, their rites of their indifference. The following words of Tertullian have very much the character of a form of prayer.
411. 1 Pre cantes sumus semper restored
413. n Lact.i. 20. v. 19. Jerome, Ep.28.ad Heliod. §. 5. Lucian. in Jov. Trag. c. 15. v.2.p. 659.Asin.c. 12. p. 580. Hemsterh.
415. o In that it represented the Cross of his Lord.
416. p A proclamation appointed by Numa at religious rites.
417. q Hic erit crimen, ubi veritas et Dei devotio est, omitted by Rig.
418. s Just. Apol. i. 14. Dial. c. 133. Athenag. Leg. c. 11.
419. Mat. 5, 44. 1 Cor 4,12.13 1 Pet. 3,9. 1 Tim. 2, 2.
420. t See Arnob. iv. fin. Cypr. ad Demetr. §. 11. p. 211. ed. Oxf. Orig. c. Cels. viii. Dionysius ap. Eus. H. E. vii. 11. Maximin's edict. viii. 17. App. ad viii. 8. de vit. Const. i. 15, 17. Prudent. in Roman. xiv. 426. ap. Kortholt, Comm. in Plin. et Traj. Epp. p. 149. Athenag. Leg. fin. ad Scap. 2. Chrys. Hom. 6. in 1 Tim. Constt. Ap. viii. 12, 13.
421. u The belief that the Roman Empire was "that which letteth," 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7. that which delayed the coming of Anti-Christ, occurs in S. Cyrill. (Cat. xv. 11,12.) Jerome (Ep. 121. ad Algas. qu. 11.) Chrysostome and Ambrosiaster ad loc. Lactantius vii. 25. Damasc. iv. 28. Theodoret ad loc. says, "some say the Roman Empire, some the grace of the Spirit," "but this last," he argues, "will not cease." S. Augustine speaks doubtfully, Ep. 199. §. 11. "We who know not what they [the Thess.] knew, desire to attain laboriously to the Apostle's meaning, and are unable;" somewhat more confidently in the de Civ. D. xx. 19. "it is not without reason [non absurde] believed to be spoken of the Roman Empire itself." Tertullian repeats this statement, below c. 39. and ad Scap. c. 2. he views the subject on the opposite side, De Orat. c. 5. de Res. Carn. c. 24. that the end of the world should be longed for; both are consistent, though belonging to different frames of mind; the Christian should long for the coming of his Lord, and the consummation of all things, and yet may shrink from the terrible period which is to precede it. So Lactantius, l. c. "She, she is the city, which yet upholds all things, and the God of Heaven is to be prayed by us, (if so be that His purposes and decrees may be delayed,) that that hateful tyrant should not come sooner than we think, who shall essay so great an offence, and extinguish that light, through whose destruction the world itself shall fall to pieces."
422. x See c. 28. fin. It was refused as idolatry, Eus. H. E. iv. 15. (martyrdom of Polycarp.) See ad Nat. i. 17. ad Scap. 2. Orig. c. Cels. viii. 65. Act. Mart. Scillit. ap. Baron A. 202. n. 2.
423. y Perhaps in conformity with Gen. 42, 15. See Basil in Ps. 14. and Rescr. Arcad. et Honor. Impp. 1. 41. in fin. cod. in transact. ap. Westhen. ad Orig. Exh. Mart. 7. Athanas. Ep. ad Monach. t. i. p. 866. Veget. de re Milit. i. 5. ap. Bingham, 16. 7. 4.
424. z in that, as a Christian, I worship Him, see above, c. 29, 30.
425. a Juv. x. 42. Plin. 33. 1. Jerome Ep. ad Paulam de ob. Blesillae.
426. b Suet. Aug. c. 53. Tertullian gives a further interpretation to Augustus' act, which was in itself political; as Orosius points out another bearing, which it had; ''he allows himself not to be called Lord, in whose reign the true Lord of the whole human race was born among men."
427. c Martial, x. 72. uses them as equivalent, of Nerva, "I will not call him Lord and God," and Philo ad Caium, of Augustus, "he willed not to be called Lord or God."
429. 1 quod non potest credi restored
430. e "For divine honours are not given to the prince, before he ceases to live among men." Tac. Ann. xv. 74. add Minuc. F. p. 216. Vespasian in his last sickness, "I am about to be a god." Suet. Vesp. 23.
431. f Lectisternia, see below, c. 42. Tac. Ann. xv. 37. tota urbe quasi domo uti. ib. 44. sellisternia.
432. g Mart. vii. 60. Nunc Roma est; nuper magna taberna fuit.
433. h Below, c. 39. Juv. iii. 278. Suet. Nerv. c. 26.
436. l De Idol. c. 15. Greg. Naz. Orat. 2. in Julian. prop. fin.
437. m Ad Uxor. ii. 6. de Idol. c. 15.
438. n Above, c. 28. ad Nat. i. 17. Treason to the Emperors was accounted impiety, as towards a sort of god. "The crime next to sacrilege is that designated as against the majesty" [of the Emperor], Ulp. l. c. ad leg. Jul. majest. ap. Her.
439. o "Sed occasio voluptatis magis quam digna ratio persuasit," omitted by Rig.
440. p Ad Nat. i. 17. De Spect. c. 16. On their petulance, see Tac. Hist. ii. 88. iii. 32.
443. r Ad Scap. 2. and (in general terms) ad Nat. i. 17. ad Mart. c. 6. Cassius conspired against Antoninus, Niger and Albinus against Severus.
444. s Commodus was nearly surprised by the populace in the suburbs, whither he had retired on account of the healthiness of the laurel-groves. Herodian. l. i. ap. Her.
445. t Murder of Commodus by a wrestler. Aur. Victor. Lamprid. in vit.
446. u Murder of Pertinax, Capitolin. in vit. Herodian. l. 2.
447. x benefitted by, and murderers of Domitian. Xiphilin. p. 237. C. 239. B.
448. y The remains of the conspiracy of Niger. Spartianus ap. Gotofred. Prol. ad lib. ad Nat. p. 11.
449. z The Emperor being entitled "Father of his country."
450. q "He (Severus) put to death many, as having consulted Chaldaeans and Magi about his life." Spartianus ap. Gotofr. l. c. The practice was a fre quent ground of punishment. Tac. Ann. xii. 52. xvi. 30. Severus himself had been falsely charged with it. Spartianus.
453. s Eusebius speaks of many local persecutions being raised by the populace, even when there was no general persecution, H. E. iii. 32. (under Trajan) v. 1. (under M. Antonius) vi. 32. (under Decius, at Alexandria.)
454. t Partly out of savageness, partly in contumely of the doctrine of the Resurrection, Eus. v. 1. fin. (Martyrs of Vienne.)
456. u These had harassed the Empire under M. Antoninus; and with the Parthians Severus was then at war. Gotof. Prol. ad Lib. ad Nat. p. 11.
457. x See above on c. 1. p. 3. n. g.
458. y Possumus dinumerare exercitus vestros; unius provinciae plures erunt. omitted by Rig.
459. z (Christianorum) paene omnium civium, paene omnes cives Christianos habendo; sed hostes maluistis vocare generis humani, omitted by Rig. By the first clause, Tert. seems to mean that almost all the Christians were citizens, (i. e. not slaves or foreigners only,) in the second, that almost all the citizens were Christians, and if not, would be their enemies.
461. a Above on c. 23. Orig. c. Cels. viii. 73. "But we, moreover, removing by our prayers all daemons, who stir up wars, and break oaths, and disturb peace, aid those who rule, more than such as seem to war."
462. b T. adopts the word "factio" used as a term of reproach by the Heathen, Mimic. F. p. 70.
463. c Philo de Josepho ap. Her.
465. 2 dictu, visu, auditu, restored
466. d De Spect. c. 16. Prudent. Hamartig. l. 362. Hieron. in vit. Hilar. Cyr. Cat. xix. 4.
467. e Adv. Marc. i. 28. Lact. vi. 20.
468. f De Pudic. c. 7. de Spect. c. 18.
470. 3 si etiam veritatem revelaverim added
471. h The Divinity of our Religion, F.
472. i (Coimus) in caetum et congregationem, ut (ad D.) omitted by Rig.
474. k T. here probably speaks of the Bishops under the title of "Elders," "praesides" being for the most part a term appropriated to Bishops, de Pudic. c. 21. Cypr. de Eccl. Unit. c.4. Ep. 72. ad Steph. Tert. uses it de Jejun. c.ult. de Pudic. c. 14. de Praescr. c. 42. Praesidentes, de Cor. c. 3. includes the presbyters. He mentions the three orders, de Bapt. c. 17. de Fug. in Pers. c. 11. and de Praescr. c. 41. The corresponding proe/droj is used in the Conc. Chalc. Act. 4. Ep. ad Impp. Val. et Marcian. ap. Lac.
475. l If T. is speaking of a fact, this is different from the Eucharistic collections, which were weekly; Justin, Apol. i. 67. Perhaps however (as Her. suggests) he is only alluding to the monthly meetings of other societies, (as his manner is to blend his own statements with his allusions to others' customs,) "on the monthly day (of meeting) or when he wills, each," &c. Monthly allowances are mentioned, ap. Eus. H. E. v. ult.
476. m Cypr. Ep. 2. Fell. (61. Pam.) ad Eucrat. Ep. 5. ad clerum suum.
477. n Dionys. Cor. ap. Eus. iv. 23. mentions this as a characteristic liberality of the Roman Church. The Emperor Licinius forbad it, Eus. H, E. x. 8.
478. o Ad Mart. c. 1. Cypr. Ep. 5.
479. p It is ridiculed by Lucian in Peregrino, and ap. Prudent. in Agon. Vincent. Perist. ii. 73. The heathen abused the names, "brother, sister," to a bad sense, and then cast the reproach on the Christians, Minuc. F. p. 81. The title is explained, Minuc. F. p. 312. Athenag. c. 32. Lact.v. 16. Jerome, adv. Helvid. c. 8.
483. q Fwtismo_j, illumination, as a title of Baptism, see also Cypr. ad Donat. §. 3. p. 3. ed. Oxf. Clem. Strom. ii. 9. p. 163. "We call brethren those re-born by the same Word," and that "for our mutual love and good will's sake," Opt. 1. i. p. 34. "Let no one wonder that I call them brethren, who cannot but be brethren. We and they have one spiritual birth."
484. r Pet. Chrysol. Serm. 1. ap. Lac.
485. s Justin M. Apol. i. 14. Athenag. c. 33.
486. t T. joins together the two Cato's, the great-grandfather the Censor, with the Philosopher, whose the act was.
489. u The same was said by Stratonicus of the Rhodians, Plut. de Amore Divit. Casaub. in Athen, iv. 10.
491. x Orig. c. Cels. i. 1. Minuc.F. p.308. Chrys. Hom. 27. in 1 Cor. et Serm. de Verb. Ap. 1 Cor. xi. 19. [§. 3. t. iii. p. 244.] Aug. c. Faust. xx. 20. Constt. Ap. ii. 28. Conc. Gangr. Can. xi. (against those who despised and would not partake of them,) Jerome [Pelag.] ad 1 Cor. xi. (Kortholt.)
492. y Jerome, Ep. 22. ad Eustoch.
493. z On the practice of nightly prayer, public and private, besides the vigils, see ad Uxor. ii. 4. 5. Chrys. Hom. 49. in Matt. 14. Cyprian, de Orat. Dom. §. 19. p. 193. and §. ult. p. 198. ed. Oxf. Orig. c. Cels. vi. de Orat. c. 12. fin. Caecil. ap. Minuc. F. p. 72. Ambr. de Virg. iii. 4. Serm. 7. in Ps. 118, 55 and 62. Hil. in Ps. 118, Tr. 7. §. 6. Hieron. Ep. 107. ad Laet. §. 9. Ep. 108. ad Eustoch. de Paulae Epitaph. §. 15. Ep. 22. ad Eustoch. de Custod. Virg. §. 17. 18. 37. Pelag. ad Demetriad., c. 23. Cassian. de Instt. Caenob. ii. 3. 4. 6. 13. iii. 2. other prayers in the evening are mentioned, Basil de Sp. S. c. 29. Socr. v. 22. Hieron. Ep. 107. ad Laet. §. 9. Cassian. de Instt. Caenob. ii. 3. 5. 6. iii. 2. others before day-break, Plin. Ep. ad Traj. Basil, Ep. 63. ad Cler. Eccl. Neo-Caes. Cassian. de Instt. Caenob. iii. 5. Sidon. Ep. 1. 2. The grounds chiefly alleged are, the authority of Holy Scripture mentioning prayer at such times, (Auct. de Virgin. ap. Athanas. c. 2. Basil Regg. fus. Explic. qu. 37. Ambros. in Ps. 119, l. c. Hieron. in Matt. 25. Ep. ad Riparium, adv. Vigilant. Cassian. de Instt. Caenob. iii. 3.) our Lord's example, (Cypr. de Orat. Dom. §. 19. Ambr. l. c. Jerome, l. c.) and others in the N. T.; also that of the Holy Angels, (Clem. Al. Paedag. ii. 9. Jerome ad Dan.iv. 10.:) that it was the hour of the Resurrection of our Lord, (Ath. de Virginit. Prudent. Hymn. ad Gallic.) and of His coming to judgment, (Prud. l. c.) and as a time of spiritual danger, (Ambr. ad Ps. 1.19, l. c.) Celsus, ap. Orig. c. Cels. i. init. mentions also the outward ground, of persecution; to which Origen also refers, ibid, and Tertullian, de fug. in Pers. fin. see texts and passages, ap. Kortholt de Cal. Pag. c. 16.
494. z Hence certain prayers were called lucernariae, Justinian ad 1 Cor. xi. 21. p. 562. quoting Jerome, Cassiodorus, Socrates, Epiphanius, Cassian, &c.
495. a Cypr. ad Donat. fin. p. 12. ed. Oxf. Auct. Lib. de Spectac. ap. Cypr. fin. Jerome, Ep. 31. ad Eustoch. fin. "So must thou ever eat, as that prayer and reading [H. Scripture] may follow food," also Ep. 107. ad Laet. §. 9. and Ep. 54. ad Furiam, §.11.
496. b Clem. Al. Paedag. ii. 9. Ambr. de Virg. iii. 4. Jerome, Ep. 22. ad Eustoch. §. 37. Chrys. Orat. de Bapt. Christi, t. ii. p. 375. ed. Montf. Amphiloch. in vit. Basilii, c. 3.
498. d Interpunction altered, "merito damnanda, si non dissimilis damnandis. Si quis de ea queritur eo titulo, &c. in cujus perniciem, &c."
499. e See Cypr. ad Demetr. and others, ib. p. 200. not. a. ed. Oxf. also Firmilian, Ep. 75. ad Cypr. Edict. Anton. ap. Justin M. Aug. in Ps. 80. Serm. 59. and Ep. 5. ad Marcell. ap. Kortholt. de Calumn. Pag. c. 22. ad Scap. c. 2. de Pall. c. 2. ad Nat. i. 9. Martyrol. in vit. Porphyr. ap. Elmenh. ad Arnob. p. 3.
500. f Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 3. "From whose ignorance hath arisen also that common proverb, 'The rain hath failed; the Christians the cause.'"
502. h Gothofred's correction, ad Nat. i. 9. from Plin. ii. 87. who mentions these islands as having reappeared, Ammian. Marc. xvii. The name is variously corrupted in the MSS., Hierennape, &c.
503. i Atlantis. Plin. ii. 90. Plato in Timaeo, §. 6. p. 24. Steph.
504. k Ad Nat. i. 9. "cum terra; motu mare C. ereptum est," determines the meaning; else Hav.'s explanation were good, "drank in, i. e. drew in the sea to what is now called the C. sea." Strab. viii. fin. Ovid. Met. xv. Plin. ii. 94. mention the overthrow of Helice by that sea through an earthquake. See Authorities at length in Gataker ad Antonin. iv. 48.
508. o Tac. Hist. v. 7. and itineraries ap. Hav.
509. p So Gothofr. from the ad Nat. i. 9. observing that the Eclog. Stephani mentions, "Tarpe a city of Italy and a mons Tarpeius." The MSS. here have Pompeii, which would be an oversight, since Pompeii was destroyed under Nero, A.D. 64 or 65. In the de Pallio, c. 2. (as it now stands) Vulsinii and Pompeii are again joined; yet transcribers are more likely to have substituted the better known, Pompeii, for the less known, than the reverse.
510. q Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 22.
512. 1 non solum timendum added Rom. 1, 21.
515. t i.e. summer upon winter withholdeth showers; summer cometh ere yet the winter have discharged its showers, and itself has none, Cypr. ad Demetr. c. 1. de Mortal, c. 5.
516. u Quotidie pransi, statimque pransuri, omitted by Rig.
520. z Greg. Naz. Orat. in Julian (Or. iv. §. 71.) speaks of Christians generally, as being "well-nigh without flesh and blood;" and again, Orat. 33. c. Ariann. et de se ipso, §. 5. of S. Athanasius; whose "disembodiedness, as it were, and immateriality in fasting and prayer," he praises, Or. 21. in S. Athanas. §. 10. He speaks of Christians again as seeking to be "not even flesh." Or. in Jul. iv. §. 123. (see Hav.)
521. a De Poenit. c. 9. de Patient. c. 13. of penitents, and, of public intercessions, Conc. Mog. [A.D. 813.] c. 4. ap. Lac. "It hath seemed good to us that the greater Intercession (Litania) be observed by all Christians for three days, as we find from reading, and as our holy fathers have instituted; not riding, nor clothed with rich garments, but barefoot and clothed in sackcloth and ashes, unless weakness of health prevent."
523. 2 (honoratur) a vobis, Deus negligitur added
524. b Lact. v. 8. Arnob. 1. i. p. 2.
529. d Clem. Strom, iv. 11. p. 216. ed. Sylb. The argument from the sufferings of Christians is answered by Justin M. Apol. 1. 34. Gallican Churches, (Eus. v. 1.) Cypr. ad Demetr. c. 11. Arnob. J. 2. fin. Lact. v. 21. 22. Minuc. F. p. 337 sqq. v. fin. Aug. de Civ. D. i. 29. Kortholt de Cal. Pag. c. 23.
530. e Thus Suetonius calls Clemens, the Christian nephew of Vespasian, a person "of the most contemptible inaction," Domit. c. 15.
531. f Cypr. de Pat. c. 2. p. 251. Oxf.
533. h See de Idol. c. 14. 16. The refusal of all intercourse is made a charge against the Jews, Euphrat. ap. Philostr. de Vit. Apollon, v. 11.
534. i As heathen did, that they might feast the earlier.
536. l Apuleius, Miles. iv. p. 72. ap. Her. and of other malefactors, Suid. v. ei1poij ta_ tri/a ap. Hav.
537. m de Cor. c. 5. Clem. Al. Paed. ii. 8. It is blamed by Caecil. ap. Minuc. F. (p. 107.) who follows T. in his answer, p. 346.
539. n The Romans anointed as well as burnt their dead; the Christians embalmed exclusively, as more in harmony with the doctrine of the resurrection and natural piety. It is mentioned, de Res. Carn. c. 27. de Idol. c. 11. Lact. ii. 4. Cassian. Collat. xv. 3. Greg. Nyss. in Fun. Melet. ap. Lac. It is ridiculed by Caecil. ap. Minne. F. p. 107. "Ye reserve unguents for funerals," add Prud. de Exeq. Def. x. 51. 2. Acta. Pharaei, ap. Bar. A. 209. n. 21. Acta Euplii, ib. A. 303. n. 129.
540. o Plin. Ep. ad Traj. "Certainly it is very plain, that the temples which were almost left desolate have begun [since the persecution] to be frequented, and the sacred rites, of a long time intermitted, to be renewed, and the victims to be commonly sold, for which hitherto very seldom was found a purchaser." Arnob. 1. i. p. 13. "The augurs, diviners, &c.----lest their arts should come to an end, and they now extract but petty fees from the now-seldom enquirers,---- cry aloud, 'the gods are neglected,' and now there is the extremest thinness in the temples. The ancient rites exist but for scorn, &c." See also on the decay of Heathenism, Lact. v. 9. Firm, de err. Prof. Rel. p. 43. Prud. de Mart. Caesar----aug. vii. 65. in pass. Laur. iii. 497.
542. q "The Galileans, in addition to their own, support our people too," Julian. Ep. ad Arsac.
543. r Justin. Apol. i. 17. Tatian c. 4.
547. u Above, c. 46. ad Scap. 2. Justin M. Apol. i. §. 44. Athenag. §. 2. Minuc. F. p. 333. Theodoret. de cur. Graec. aff. Disp. xii. circ. med. p. 1021 sqq. ed. Schutz. Lact. v. 9
555. d Dum unicuique manifestatur veritas nostra, omitted by Rig.
557. e Cels. ap. Orig. c. Cels. i. 4.
560. h Above, c. 12. Justin M. Apol. i. 20. 24. Tatian. c. 27. Athenag. c. 7. 24.
561. i Sueton. in Vesp. (de Demetr. Cynico.) Neron, (de Isidor. Cyn.)
563. l Tatian c. 25. Capitolin. de Anton. Pio. Lucian. in Eunuch. (ap. Hav.)
564. m Above, c. 24. de Anim. c. 1.
565. n Plat. Phaed. §. 155. p. 118. Steph. Socrates meant probably that life was a long illness, death the cure, (Hav.)
566. o Val. Max. iii. 4. Plin. vii. 34.
568. p Qua et illusores, et contemptores. Mimice (philosophi) omitted by Rig.
569. q Cic. Quaestt. Acad. iv. 118. Lact. iii. 14.
570. r Ad Nat. ii. 2. Cicero de Nat. D. i. 22. relates this of Hiero and Siinonides; and so Minut. F. p. 114.
572. s In Timaeo, §. 9. p. 28. Steph.
574. u Above, beg. of c. p. 93.
575. x Lucian. in Vit. Auct.; Eunuch.; Dial. Meretr. x. ap. Hav. Senec. de Tranq. c. 15. Cassian. Coll. xiii. 5. ap. Lac.
577. y Sp. presided over the school for eight years. The character, not the fact, is true, according to Laert. in vit. 1. iv. and see generally Senec. Ep. 59. Minuc. F. v. fin.
579. a As an office open to the lower people.
581. a Ad Scap. c. 4. Plin. Ep. ad Traj.
584. c Dionysio. MSS. and Edd. Tertullian must then mean that Plato put himself in Dionysius's power for the sake of the luxuries of the court, and so was sold by him. Lucian. in Parasit. brings the same charge. Rig. strikes out the "a," "selleth himself to Dionysius."
585. d Lucian. in vit. Auct. Parasit. Bis accusat. Lact. iii. 8. ap. Hav.
586. e See above, on c. 44. fin.
588. g De Test. An. c. 5. Justin M. Coh. ad Graec. 14 sqq. Apol. i. 54. Theoph. ad Aut. i. 14. Tatian. c. Graec. c. 40. Clem. Al. Strom. i. 16. p. 366. ed. Pott. ii. init. Euseb. Praep. Ev. x. 1. xi. xii. Aug. de Doct. Christ. ii. 28. de Civ. D. viii. 11. Theod. Or. 2. c. Graec. p. 736 sqq. ed. Schutz. ap. Elmenh. et Wouw. ad Minuc. F. p. 323. Ambr. Ep. 37. ad Simplic. Cyrill. in Julian. l. x. Chrys. [Cyrill] in Joann. [v. p. 733.] ap. Lac.
589. h Nam quia quaedam de nostris habent, eapropter nos comparant illis. The sentence, slightly varied in Edd. and MSS., is omitted by Rig.
592. i Interpunction altered with Hav. Argivis. Dum ad nostra conantur, (contaminantur Rig.)
593. k Civ. de Nat. Deor. i. 103, 104. (of the Epicureans.)
594. l "Whether God sitting beholdeth his work or handleth it? whether he be, from without, spread around it, or infused into the whole? whether the world be immortal, or to be accounted among things perishable and born for a time." Senec. de vit. Beat. c. 31. ap. Hav.
595. m The Stoics placed their god within the world, as the anima mundi; the Epicureans, without, but inactive.
597. o Novitiola paratura. The expression is ironical, embodying at once the Christian title, "the New Testament," and the imputation of novelty on the part of the Heathen.
599. p De Praescr. Haeret. c. 31.
601. r See note C at the end of this Book.
602. s The fiery sword of the Cherubim.
603. t See in Crinit. de Honest. Discipl. ii. 3.
604. u Quasi non quaecunque ratio praeest animarum humanarum in corpora reciprocandarum, ipsa exigat illas in eadem corpora revocari, cum hoc sit restitui, id esse quod fuerat. Nam si non id sunt quod fuerant, id est humanum et id ipsum corpus indutae, jam non ipsae erunt quae fuerant, quia non potuerunt esse quod non erant, nisi desinant esse quod fuerant. Porro quae jam non erunt ipsae, quomodo redisse dicentur? Aut aliud factae non erunt ipsae, aut manentes ipsae non erunt aliunde. added for the most part from F.
605. w Because "after the image of the Heavenly." 1 Cor. 15, 49.
606. x De Testim. An. c. 4. beg. (so also Arnob. ii. p. 52.) T. modifies this statement in the de Res. Cam. c. 17. stating that the soul can suffer as well as act, alone, but both partially, and infers from the history of Dives, (de Anima, c. 7.) that the soul of the wicked shall suffer before the day of judgment, alone, as it devises its deeds alone, and then more fully with the body with which it completed them. And this seems his meaning here, as he goes on to use the same argument, that sinning with the flesh, they shall be punished with the flesh. He held the soul moreover to be, in a degree corporeal, (see on de Res. C. l. c.) though apparently not enough so, to be capable of corporeal torments. In the de Res. C,. T. attests incidentally that the immateriality of the soul was the general belief. S. Aug. (de Civ. D. xxi. 10.) adduces the case of Dives in illustration of the suffering of daemons, supposing that they be not, though of aerial, yet of corporeal substance, as learned men had thought.
607. y This argument is used by Tatian, C. 6. Athenag. 18-22. de Res. 14, 5. Ambros. de Fid. Res. [§. 88.] ap. Pearson on the Creed, Art. xi. "The laws," Athen. argues, (c. 23.) "were not given to the soul alone, so neither the rewards." Add Cyril. Jer. xviii. 19. Ambr. Exh. Virg. c. 9. §. 59.
608. z The same argument is urged by Tert. de Res. Carn. c. 11. Justin M. Apol. i. §. 19. Iren. v. 3. Tatian. c. 6. Theophil. ad Aut. i. 8. Athenag. de Res. §. 3. Hil. in Ps. 63. Ambr. de Fid. Res. §. 64. Apost. Constt. v. 7. p. 308. Lact. vii. 23. Cyril Jer. iv. §. 30. xviii. §. 9. Prudent. adv. Symm. ii. 194. Greg. Nyss. de Opif. Hom. c. 26 sqq. Aug. in Ps. 62. de Catech. Rud. c. 25, 27. Minuc. F. p. 326. Ruffin. in Expos. Symb. Art. de Res. v. fin. Chrys. Hom. deRes. §. 7. Zeno de Res. l.1.2. tr. 16. §. 7.
610. a Interpunction changed, animatore; signatum et per Ipsum, &c.
611. b De Res. Carn. c. 12. Theoph. ad Aut. i. 13. Epiph. in Ancor. §. 84. (ap. Pears. l. c. whose own language is eloquent.) Minuc. F. p. 328. Chrysol. in Symb. Ap. Serm. 59. Athenag. Leg. p. 43, Theodoret. Orat. 9. de Prov. p. 216 sq. Prudent. 1. 2. c. Symm. Macarius, Hom. 5. Ambr. Hexaem. iii. 8. Nilus ap. Phot. fol. 836. Chrys. Hom. 4. in 1 Cor. xv. ap. Elmenhorst. ib. Ambr. de Fid. Res. §. 53. Zeno l. c. §. 8.
612. c Greg. Nyss. de Anim. et Res. v. fin. Ambr. de Fid. Res. l. c. Minuc. l. c. Chrysost. Horn, de Res. l. c. Chrysol. l. c. Cyril. l. c. Max. in Tradit. Symb. Epiph. user. lxiv. 37. Prud. c. Symm. 1. 2. 1. 196. Zeno l. c. §. 10. Ruffin. l. c. Theoph. l. c. and of the monthly resurrection of the moon, ib. and ii. 15. Cyril. Jer. xviii. §. 10. Zeno l. c. §. 8. of the yearly resurrection of nature. Cyril, iv. 30. xviii. §. 6, 7.
615. e "Though I be consumed in rivers, in seas, or be torn by wild beasts, I am laid up in the stores of a rich Lord." Tatian. c. 6. Athenag. de Res. c. 2 and 8. Minuc. F. p. 326, 7. Aug. in Ps. 62. §. 6. de Civ. D. xxii. 20. ap. Pearson, l. c. Ambr. de Hom. Opif. c. 26. Constt. Ap. v. 7. Ruffin. l. c.
616. f Probably the Millennium, see Note D at the end of this book.
617. g Minuc. F. p. 331. Lact vii. 21. Ambrosiast. in Thess. c. 2. Auct. de Rect. Cath. Conv. f. 798. cited ib. Cassiod. in Ps. ap. Lac.
618. h Minuc. l. c. Greg. Naz. in Julian, Or. 1. p. 291. Cyril. peri\ e0zo&dou yuxh~j. Isid. Hisp. de Nat. Rer. c. 46. cited ib. Pacian. de poenit. et conf. ap. Lac.
619. i It was forbidden by the laws of Numa to give funeral rites to, and so to burn, those struck by lightning, (see ap. Hav.) T. may have looked on this as a sort of image; Minucius however, l. c. simply interprets it, that the lightning itself destroyed without consuming, "as the fires of lightnings touch bodies, but consume not."
620. k See on de Testim. Anim. c. 4.
621. l Arn. l. i. p. 15. ii. p. 45. Celsus ap. Orig. iii. c. 24 and 49. Lact. iv. 13.
622. m Athenag. c. 31. Chrys. Hom. de Res. init.
624. n Above, c. 1. 42. below, c. 50.
625. o Comp. Lucif. Calar. ad Constant. ap. Lac. ad c. 37.
628. r Ad Mart. c. 4, de Monogam. fin.
631. t Ambros. de Virginit. i. 4. Val. Max. iii. 3. relates the story of Anaxarchus.
632. u Nearchus or Diomedon, Laert. l. ix.
634. 3 tolerantiae domui restored
636. x The statues exhibiting the figure, as though alive:
Non incisa notis marmora publicis,
Per quae Spiritus et vita redit bonis
Post mortem ducibus.
Hor. Od. iv. 8. add Plin. xxxv. 2. Eus. de Vit. Const. i. 2. ap. Hav.
638. z This also was a cry of the populace, Ferrar. de vet. acclam. vii. 18 ap. Hav.
639. a See ad Scap. fin. Aug. de Civ. D. xxii. 7. "The Christian faith, amid the terrors and opposition of so many and so great persecutions, sent out the more abundant shoots throughout the whole world, as being sown in the blood of martyrs." Serm. 22. in Ps. 67, 3. §. 4. t. v. p. 118. "The seed of blood was scattered; arose the harvest of the Church." Leo, Serm. 1. in Nat. App. Pet. et Paul. "The Church is not diminished by persecutions, but increased, and the field of the Lord is even clothed with the richer harvest, in that the seeds, which fall singly, arise multiplied." Prud. in Mart. Caesar. Aug. vii. 85. "The numbers of martyrs even groweth under every hailstorm." Add S. Aug. in Ps. 70. S. 2. §. 4. Serm. 286. in Nat. Mart. Prot. et Gerv. §. 3. The growth under persecution is likened also to the increased fertility of trees on pruning; (Justin M. Dial. c. 110. Theodoret. de Cur. Gr. Aff. 1. ix. p. 613;) the blood of martyrs to watering; (Theod. l. c. Chrys. Hom. in Juvent. et Max. init. t. i. p. 579. Aug. in Ps. 39. init. Ps. 58. §.1. §. 5. Ps. 134. §. 24. Ps. 141. §. 21. Serm. 301. in Solemn. S. Marc. ii. init. in Nat. Mart. Perp. et Fel. i. fin.;) persecution to pouring oil on aflame. (Theod. l. c.) add Justin Ep. ad Diogn. c. 7. Auct. Quaestt. et Resp. ad Orthod. qu. 74. Clem. Al. Strom. vi. fin. Arnob. 1. 2. p. 45. Anton. in Vit. ej. ap. Athan. c. 79. "We the servants of Christ, the more we are pressed down, the more we rise up and flourish, &c. Aug. Ep. 137. ad Volus. §. 16. Expos. Ps. 90. p. 1. "The more suffered, the more believed in Christ;" de Civ. D. xxii. 6. The Christians "were bound, imprisoned, scourged, tortured, burnt, mangled, slain, and were multiplied," and de Ag. Christ. c. 12. "The Church, shivering the assaults of the Pagans, was more and more strengthened, not by resisting but by enduring." Lact. v. 19. "Our side groweth daily----For the religion of God is increased, the more it is oppressed." Add c. 23. Orig, de Princ. iv. l. "You may see how in a brief time the religion itself grew, advancing through the deaths and sufferings of many," c. Cels. iv. 32. "The Word of God, more powerful than all, and when hindered, making this hindering as it were the very nourishment to its growth, advancing, took possession of yet more minds," and l. vii. 26. "The more that kings, and rulers of nations, and people, every where laid them low, the more were they increased and prevailed exceedingly," whence he says, 1. iii. 8. p. 452. "Inasmuch as having been taught not to resist, they kept this gentle and loving law, therefore they accomplished, what they had not, had they, mighty as they were, received permission to war." See the passages ap. Kortholt in Plin. et Traj. Epp. p. 173-186. Jerom. in vit. Malchi. "By persecutions the Church grew, was crowned by martyrdoms." ad Is. viii. 9,10. that the heathen were conquered in the martyrs. add Aug. de C. D. xviii. 53. xxii. 9. Chrys. S. de Drosid. §. 2. Hom. 33. (ol. 34.) in S. Matt. Hom. 4. in 1 Cor. §. 10. ad eos qui scandaliz. l. i. c. 23. (quoted ib.)
640. b On martyrdom, as a second Baptism, see de Bapt. c. 16. de Patient. c. 13. Scorp. c. 6. Cyprian Exhort. ad Mart. Praef. de Orat. Dom. c. 16. Ep. 73. ad Jubaian. Auct. de rebapt. ap. Cypr. p. 364. Hil. in Ps. 118. lit. 3. §. 5. Greg. Naz. Or. 39. in S. Lum. §. 17. and Pelag. in Rom. 6. (in connection with Luk. xii. 60.) Cypr. ap. Aug. de Bapt. iv. 22. (with the penitent Thief.) Cyril Jer.iii. 10. (coll. Mark x. 38.) Origen Tr. 12. in Matt. p. 85. and Aug. de Civ. D. xiii. 7. (coll. Matt. x. 32.) Orig. ap. Eus. H. E. vi. 4. (as "baptism of fire,") S. Chrys. Serm. de S. Lucian. (Bapt. with the Holy Ghost.) Constt. Ap.v. 6. and Basil de Sp. S. c. 15. (dies really with his Lord, coll. Rom. vi. 3.) Jerome Ep. 69. ad Ocean. §. 6. t. i. p. 418. Gennad. de Eccl. Dogm. c. 74. (with other grounds.) (as sanctified by the Blood from His Side.) Ambros. de Virginit. iii. 7. 34. Jerome Ep. 84. ad Pamm. et Ocean. v. fin.
This page has been online since 7th November 2003.