The Octavius of Minucius Felix
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Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.
Text edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson and
first published by T&T Clark in Edinburgh in 1867. Additional
introductionary material and notes provided for the American
edition by A. Cleveland Coxe, 1886.
Chapter I. Argument: Minucius Relates How Delightful to Him is the
Recollection of the Things that Had Happened to Him with Octavius While He
Was Associated with Him at Rome, and Especially of This Disputation.
When I consider and mentally review my remembrance of Octavius, my excellent
and most faithful companion, the sweetness and charm of the man so clings to
me, that I appear to myself in some sort as if I were returning to past
times, and not merely recalling in my recollection things which have long
since happened and gone by. Thus, in the degree in which the actual
contemplation of him is withdrawn from my eyes, it is bound up in my heart
and in my most intimate feelings. And it was not without reason that that
remarkable and holy man, when he departed this life, left to me an unbounded
regret for him, especially since he himself also glowed with such a love for
me at all times, that, whether in matters of amusement or of business, he
agreed with me in similarity of will, in either liking or disliking the same
things. [1715] You would think that one mind had been shared between us two.
Thus he alone was my confidant in my loves, my companion in my mistakes; and
when, after the gloom had been dispersed, I emerged from the abyss of
darkness into the light of wisdom and truth, he did not cast off his
associate, but'what is more glorious still'he outstripped him. And thus,
when my thoughts were traversing the entire period of our intimacy and
friendship, the direction of my mind fixed itself chiefly on that discourse
of his, wherein by very weighty arguments he converted Caecilius, who was
still cleaving to superstitious vanities, to the true religion. [1716]
Chapter II. Argument: the Arrival of Octavius at Rome During the Time of the
Public Holidays Was Very Agreeable to Minucius. Both of Them Were Desirous
of Going to the Marine Baths of Ostia, with Caecilius Associated with Them
as a Companion of Minucius. On Their Way Together to the Sea, Caecillus,
Seeing an Image of Serapis, Raises His Hand to His Mouth, and Worships It.
For, for the sake of business and of visiting me, Octavius had hastened to
Rome, having left his home, his wife, his children, and that which is most
attractive in children, while yet their innocent years are attempting only
half-uttered words,'a language all the sweeter for the very imperfection of
the faltering tongue. And at this his arrival I cannot express in words with
how great and with how impatient a joy I exulted, since the unexpected
presence of a man so very dear to me greatly enhanced my gladness.
Therefore, after one or two days, when the frequent enjoyment of our
continual association had satisfied the craving of affection, and when we
had ascertained by mutual narrative all that we were ignorant of about one
another by reason of our separation, we agreed to go to that very pleasant
city Ostia, that my body might have a soothing and appropriate remedy for
drying its humours from the marine bathing, especially as the holidays of
the courts at the vintage-time had released me from my cares. For at that
time, after the summer days, the autumn season was tending to a milder
temperature. And thus, when in the early morning we were going towards the
sea along the shore (of the Tiber), that both the breathing air might gently
refresh our limbs, and that the yielding sand might sink down under our easy
footsteps with excessive pleasure; Caecilius, observing an image of Serapis,
raised his hand to his mouth, as is the custom of the superstitious common
people, and pressed a kiss on it with his lips.
Chapter III. Argument: Octavius, Displeased at the Act of This Superstitious
Man, Sharply Reproaches Minucius, on the Ground that the Disgrace of This
Wicked Deed is Reflected Not Less on Himself, as Caecilius' Host, Than on
Caecilius.
Then Octavius said: "It is not the part of a good man, my brother Marcus, so
to desert a man who abides by your side at home and abroad, in this
blindness of vulgar ignorance, as that you should suffer him in such broad
daylight as this to give himself up to stones, however they may be carved
into images, anointed and crowned; since you know that the disgrace of this
his error redounds in no less degree to your discredit than to his own."
With this discourse of his we passed over the distance between the city and
the sea, and we were now walking on the broad and open shore· There the
gently rippling wave was smoothing the outside sands as if it would level
them for a promenade; and as the sea is always restless, even when the winds
are lulled, it came up on the shore, although not with waves crested and
foaming, yet with waves crisped and cuffing. Just then we were excessively
delighted at its vagaries, as on the very threshold of the water we were
wetting the soles of our feet, and it now by turns approaching broke upon
our feet, and now the wave retiring and retracing its course, sucked itself
back into itself. And thus, slowly and quietly going along, we tracked the
coast of the gently bending shore, beguiling the way with stories. These
stories were related by Octavius, who was discoursing on navigation. But
when we had occupied a sufficiently reasonable time of our walk with
discourse, retracing the same way again, we trod the path with reverted
footsteps. And when we came to that place where the little ships, drawn up
on an oaken framework, were lying at rest supported above the (risk of)
ground-rot, we saw some boys eagerly gesticulating as they played at
throwing shells into the sea. This play is: To choose a shell from the
shore, rubbed and made smooth by the tossing of the waves; to take hold of
the shell in a horizontal position with the fingers; to whiff it along
sloping and as low down as possible upon the waves, that when thrown it may
either skim the back of the wave, or may swim as it glides along with a
smooth impulse, or may spring up as it cleaves the top of the waves, and
rise as if lifted up with repeated springs. That boy claimed to be conqueror
whose shell both went out furthest, and leaped up most frequently.
Chapter IV. Argument: Caecilius, Somewhat Grieved at This Kind of Rebuke
Which for His Sake Minucius Had Had to Bear from Octavius, Begs to Argue
with Octavius on the Truth of His Religion. Octavius with His Companion
Consents, and Minucius Sits in the Middle Between Caecilius and Octavius.
And thus, while we were all engaged in the enjoyment of this spectacle,
Caecilius was paying no attention, nor laughing at the contest; but silent,
uneasy, standing apart, confessed by his countenance that he was grieving
for I knew not what. To whom I said: "What is the matter? Wherefore do I not
recognise, Caecilius, your usual liveliness? and why do I seek vainly for
that joyousness which is characteristic of your glances even in serious
matters? "Then said he: "For some time our friend Octavius' speech has
bitterly vexed and worried me, in which he, attacking you, reproached you
with negligence, that he might under cover of that charge more seriously
condemn me for ignorance. Therefore I shall proceed further: the matter is
now wholly and entirely between me and Octavius. If he is willing that I, a
man of that form of opinion, should argue with him, he will now at once
perceive that it is easier to hold an argument among his comrades, than to
engage in close conflict after the manner of the philosophers. Let us be
seated on those rocky barriers that are cast there for the protection of the
baths, and that run far out into the deep, that we may be able both to rest
after our journey, and to argue with more attention," And at his word we sat
down, so that, by covering me on either side, they sheltered me in the midst
of the three. [1717] Nor was this a matter of observance, or of rank, or of
honour, because friendship always either receives or makes equals; but that,
as an arbitrator, and being near to both, I might give my attention, and
being in the middle, I might separate the two. Then Caecilius began thus:'
Chapter V. Argument: Caecilius Begins His Argument First of All by Reminding
Them that in Human Affairs All Things are Doubtful and Uncertain, and that
Therefore It is to Be Lamented that Christians, Who for the Most Part are
Untrained and Illiterate Persons, Should Dare to Determine on Anything with
Certainty Concerning the Chief of Things and the Divine Majesty: Hence He
Argues that the World is Governed by No Providence, and Concludes that It is
Better to Abide by the Received Forms of Religion.
"Although to you, Marcus my brother, the subject on which especially we are
inquiring is not in doubt, inasmuch as, being carefully informed in both
kinds of life, you have rejected the one and assented to the other, yet in
file present case your mind must be so fashioned that you may hold the
balance of a most just judge, nor lean with a disposition to one side (more
than another), lest your decision may seem not to arise so much from our
arguments, as to be originated from your own perceptions. Accordingly, if
you sit in judgment on me, as a person who is new, and as one ignorant of
either side, there is no difficulty in making plain that all things in human
affairs are doubtful, uncertain, and unsettled, and that all things are
rather probable than true. Wherefore it is the less [1718] wonderful that
some, from the weariness of thoroughly investigating truth, should rashly
succumb to any sort of opinion rather than persevere in exploring it with
persistent diligence. And thus all men must be indignant, all men must feel
pain, [1719] that certain persons'and these unskilled in learning, strangers
to literature, without knowledge even [1720] of sordid arts'should dare to
determine on any certainty concerning the nature at large, and the (divine)
majesty, of which so many of the multitude of sects in all ages (still
doubt), and philosophy itself deliberates still. Nor without reason; since
the mediocrity of human intelligence is so far from (the capacity of) divine
investigation, that neither is it given us to know, nor is it permitted to
search, nor is it religious to ravish, [1721] the things that are supported
in suspense in the heaven above us, nor the things which are deeply
submerged below the earth; and we may rightly seem sufficiently happy and
sufficiently prudent, if, according to that ancient oracle of the sage, we
should know ourselves intimately. But even if we indulge in a senseless and
useless labour, and wander away beyond the limits proper to our humility,
and though, inclined towards the earth, we transcend with daring ambition
heaven itself, and the very stars, let us at least not entangle this error
with vain and fearful opinions. Let the seeds of all things have been in the
beginning condensed by a nature combining them in itself'what God is the
author here? Let the members of the whole world be by fortuitous
concurrences united digested, fashioned'what God is the contriver? Although
fire may have lit up the stars; although (the lightness of) its own material
may have suspended the heaven; although its own material may have
established the earth by its weight; [1722] and although the sea may have
flowed in from moisture, [1723] whence is this religion? Whence this fear?
What is this superstition? Man, and every animal which is born, inspired
with life, and nourished, [1724] is as a voluntary concretion of the
elements, into which again man and every animal is divided, resolved, and
dissipated. So all things flow back again into their source, and are turned
again into themselves, without any artificer, or judge, or creator. Thus the
seeds of fires, being gathered together, cause other suns, and again others,
always to shine forth. Thus the vapours of the earth, being exhaled, cause
the mists always to grow, which being condensed and collected, cause the
clouds to rise higher; and when they fall, cause the rains to flow, the
winds to blow, the hail to rattle down; or when the clouds clash together,
they cause the thunder to bellow, the lightnings to grow red, the
thunderbolts to gleam forth. Therefore they fall everywhere, they rush on
the mountains, they strike the trees; without any choice, [1725] they
blast places sacred and profane; they smite mischievous men, and often, too,
religious men. Why should I speak of tempests, various and uncertain,
wherein the attack upon all things is tossed about without any order or
discrimination?'in shipwrecks, that the fates of good and bad men are
jumbled together, their deserts confounded?'in conflagrations, that the
destruction of innocent and guilty is united?'and when with the plague-taint
of the sky a region is stained, that all perish without distinction?'and
when the heat of war is raging, that it is the better men who generally
fall? In peace also, not only is wickedness put on the same level with (the
lot of) those who are better, but it is also regarded in such esteem,
[1726] that, in the case of many people, you know not whether their
depravity is most to be detested, or their felicity to be desired. But if
the world were governed by divine providence and by the authority of any
deity, Phalaris and Dionysius would never have deserved to reign, Rutilius
and Camillus would never have merited banishment, Socrates would never have
merited the poison. Behold the fruit-bearing trees, behold the harvest
already white, the vintage, already dropping, is destroyed by the rain, is
beaten down by the hail. Thus either an uncertain truth is hidden from us,
and kept back; or, which is rather to be believed, in these various and
wayward chances, fortune, unrestrained by laws, is ruling over us.
Chapter VI. Argument: the Object of All Nations, and Especially of the
Romans, in Worshipping Their Divinities, Has Been to Attain for Their
Worship the Supreme Dominion Over the Whole Earth.
"Since, then, either fortune is certain or nature is uncertain, how much
more reverential and better it is, as the high priests of truth, to receive
the teaching of your ancestors, to cultivate the religions handed down to
you, to adore the gods whom you were first trained by your parents to fear
rather than to know [1727] with familiarity; not to assert an opinion
concerning the deities, but to believe your forefathers, who, while the age
was still untrained in the birth-times of the world itself, deserved to have
gods either propitious to them, or as their kings. [1728] Thence,
therefore, we see through all empires, and provinces, and cities, that each
people has its national rites of worship, and adores its local gods: as the
Eleusinians worship Ceres; the Phrygians, Mater; [1729] the Epidaurians,
Aesculapius; the Chaldaeans; Belus; the Syrians, Astarte; the Taurians,
Diana; the Gauls, Mercurius; the Romans, all divinities. Thus their power
and authority has occupied the circuit of the whole world: thus it has
propagated its empire beyond the paths of the sun, and the bounds of the
ocean itself; in that in their arms they practise a religious valour; in
that they fortify their city with the religions of sacred rites, with chaste
virgins, with many honours, and the names of priests; in that, when besieged
and taken, all but the Capitol alone, they worship the gods which when angry
any other people would have despised; [1730] and through the lines of the
Gauls, marvelling at the audacity of their superstition, they move unarmed
with weapons, but armed with the worship of their religion; while in the
city of an enemy, when taken while still in the fury of victory, they
venerate the conquered deities; while in all directions they seek for the
gods of the strangers, and make them their own; while they build altars even
to unknown divinities, and to the Manes. Thus, in that they acknowledge the
sacred institutions of all nations, they have also deserved their dominion.
Hence the perpetual course of their veneration has continued, which is not
weakened by the long lapse of time, but increased, because antiquity has
been accustomed to attribute to ceremonies and temples so much of sanctity
as it has ascribed of age.
Chapter VII. Argument: that the Roman Auspices and Auguries Have Been
Neglected with ILL Consequences, But Have Been Observed with Good Fortune.
"Nor yet by chance (for I would venture in the meantime even to take for
granted the point in debate, and so to err on the safe side) have our
ancestors succeeded in their undertakings either by the observance of
auguries, or by consulting the entrails, or by the institution of sacred
rites, or by the dedication of temples. Consider what is the record of
books. You will at once discover that they have inaugurated the rites of all
kinds of religions, either that the divine indulgence might be rewarded, or
that the threatening anger might be averted, or that the wrath already
swelling and raging might be appeased. Witness the Idaean mother, [1731]
who at her arrival both approved the chastity of the matron, and delivered
the city from the fear of the enemy. Witness the statues of the equestrian
brothers, [1732] consecrated even as they had showed themselves on the
lake, who, with horses breathless, [1733] foaming, and smoking, announced
the victory over the Persian on the same day on which they had gained it.
Witness the renewal of the games of the offended Jupiter, [1734] on
account of the dream of a man of the people. And an acknowledged witness is
the devotion of the Decii. Witness also Curtius, who filled up the opening
of the profound chasm either with the mass, or with the glory of his
knighthood. Moreover, more frequently than we wished have the auguries, when
despised, borne witness to the presence of the gods:, thus Allia is an
unlucky name; thus the battle of Claudius and Junius is not a battle against
the Carthaginians, but a fatal shipwreck. Thus, that Thrasymenus might be
both swollen and discoloured with the blood of the Romans, Flaminius
despised the auguries; and that we might again demand our standards from the
Parthians, Crassus both deserved and scoffed at the imprecations of the
terrible sisters. I omit the old stories, which are many, and I pass by the
songs of the poets about the births, and the gifts, and the rewards of the
gods. Moreover, I hasten over the fates predicted by the oracles, lest
antiquity should appear to you excessively fabulous. Look at the temples and
lanes of the gods by which the Roman city is both protected and armed: they
are more august by the deities which are their inhabitants, who are present
and constantly dwelling in them, than opulent by the ensigns and gifts of
worship. Thence therefore the prophets, filled with the god, and mingled
with him, collect futurity beforehand, give caution for dangers, medicine
for diseases, hope for the afflicted, help to the wretched, solace to
calamities, alleviation to labours. Even in our repose we see, we hear, we
acknowledge the gods, whom in the day-time we impiously deny, refuse, and
abjure.
Chapter VIII. Argument: the Impious Temerity of Theodorus, Diagoras, and
Protagoras is Not at All to Be Acquiesced In, Who Wished Either Altogether
to Get Rid of the Religion of the Gods, or at Least to Weaken It. But
Infinitely Less to Be Endured is that Skulking and Light-Shunning People of
the Christians, Who Reject the Gods, and Who, Fearing to Die After Death, Do
Not in the Meantime Fear to Die.
"Therefore, since the consent of all nations concerning the existence of the
immortal gods remains established, although their nature or their origin
remains uncertain, I suffer nobody swelling with such boldness, and with I
know not what irreligious wisdom, who would strive to undermine or weaken
this religion, so ancient, so useful, so wholesome, even although he may he
Theodorus of Cyrene, or one who is before him Diagoras the Melian, [1735]
to whom antiquity applied the surname of Atheist,'both of whom, by
asseverating that there were no gods, took away all the fear by which
humanity is ruled, and all veneration absolutely; yet never will they
prevail in this discipline of impiety, under the name and authority of their
pretended philosophy. When the men of Athens both expelled Protagoras of
Abdera, and in public assembly burnt his writings, because he disputed
deliberately [1736] rather than profanely concerning the divinity, why is
it not a thing to be lamented, that men (for you will bear with my making
use pretty freely of the force of the plea that I have undertaken)'that men,
I say, of a reprobate, unlawful, and desperate faction, should rage against
the gods? who, having gathered together from the lowest dregs the more
unskilled, and women, credulous and, by the facility of their sex, yielding,
establish a herd of a profane conspiracy, which is leagued together by
nightly meetings, and solemn fasts and inhuman meats'not by any sacred rite,
but by that which requires expiation'a people skulking and shunning the
light, silent in public, but garrulous in corners. They despise the temples
as dead-houses, they reject the gods, they laugh at sacred things; wretched,
they pity, if they are allowed, the priests; half naked themselves, they
despise honours and purple robes. Oh, wondrous folly and incredible
audacity! they despise present torments, although they i fear those which
are uncertain and future; and while they fear to die after death, they do
not fear to die for the present: so does a deceitful hope soothe their fear
with the solace of a revival. [1737]
Chapter IX. Argument: the Religion of the Christians is Foolish, Inasmuch as
They Worship a Crucified Man, and Even the Instrument Itself of His
Punishment. They are Said to Worship the Head of an Ass, and Even the Nature
of Their Father. They are Initiated by the Slaughter and the Blood of an
Infant, and in Shameless Darkness They are All Mixed Up in an Uncertain
Medley.
"And now, as wickeder things advance more fruitfully, and abandoned manners
creep on day by day, those abominable shrines of an impious assembly are
maturing themselves throughout the whole world. Assuredly this confederacy
ought to be rooted out and execrated. They know one another by secret marks
and insignia, and they love one another almost before they know one another.
Everywhere also there is mingled among them a certain religion of lust, and
they call one another promiscuously brothers and sisters, that even a not
unusual debauchery may by the intervention of that sacred name become
incestuous: it is thus that their vain and senseless superstition glories in
crimes. Nor, concerning these things, would intelligent report speak of
things so great and various, [1738] and requiring to be prefaced by an
apology, unless truth were at the bottom of it. I hear that they adore the
head of an ass, that basest of creatures, consecrated by I know not what
silly persuasion,'a worthy and appropriate religion for such manners. Some
say that they worship the virilia of their pontiff and priest, [1739] and
adore the nature, as it were, of their common parent. I know not whether
these things are false; certainly suspicion is applicable to secret and
nocturnal rites; and he who explains their ceremonies by reference to a man
punished by extreme suffering for his wickedness, and to the deadly wood of
the cross, appropriates fitting altars for reprobate and wicked men, that
they may worship what they deserve. Now the story about the initiation of
young novices is as much to be detested as it is well known. An infant
covered over with meal, that it may deceive the unwary, is placed before him
who is to be stained with their rites: this infant is slain by the young
pupil, who has been urged on as if to harmless blows on the surface of the
meal, with dark and secret wounds. Thirstily'O horror!'they lick up its
blood; eagerly they divide its limbs. By this victim they are pledged
together; with this consciousness of wickedness they are covenanted to
mutual silence. [1740] Such sacred rites as these are more foul than any
sacrileges. And of their banqueting it is well known all men speak of it
everywhere; even the speech of our Cirtensian [1741] testifies to it. On a
solemn day they assemble at the feast, with all their children, sisters,
mothers, people of every sex and of every age. There, after much feasting,
when the fellowship has grown warm, and the fervour of incestuous lust has
grown hot with drunkenness, a dog that has been tied to the chandelier is
provoked, by throwing a small piece of offal beyond the length of a line by
which he is bound, to rush and spring; and thus the conscious light being
overturned and extinguished in the shameless darkness, the connections of
abominable lust involve them in the uncertainty of fate. Although not all in
fact, yet in consciousness all are alike incestuous, since by the desire of
all of them everything is sought for which can happen in the act of each
individual.
Chapter X. Argument: Whatever the Christians Worship, They Strive in Every
Way to Conceal: They Have No Altars, No Temples, No Acknowledged Images.
Their God, Like that of the Jews, is Said to Be One, Whom, Although They are
Neither Able to See Nor to Show, They Think Nevertheless to Be Mischievous,
Restless, and Unseasonably Inquisitive.
"I purposely pass over many things, for those that I have mentioned are
already too many; and that all these, or the greater part of them, are true,
the obscurity of their vile religion declares. For why do they endeavour
with such pains to conceal and to cloak whatever they worship, since
honourable things always rejoice in publicity, while crimes are kept secret?
Why have they no altars, no temples, no acknowledged images? [1742] Why do
they never speak openly, never congregate freely, unless for the reason that
what they adore and conceal is either worthy of punishment, or something to
be ashamed of? Moreover, whence or who is he, or where is the one God,
solitary, desolate, whom no free people, no kingdoms, and not even Roman
superstition, have known? The lonely and miserable nationality of the Jews
worshipped one God, and one peculiar to itself; but they worshipped him
openly, with temples, with altars, with victims, and with ceremonies; and he
has so little force or power, that he is enslaved, with his own special
nation, to the Roman deities. But the Christians, moreover, what wonders,
what monstrosities do they feign!'that he who is their God, whom they can
neither show nor behold, inquires diligently into the character of all, the
acts of all, and, in fine, into their words and secret thoughts; that he
runs about everywhere, and is everywhere present: they make him out to be
troublesome, restless, even shamelessly inquisitive, since he is present at
everything that is done, wanders in and out in all places, although, being
occupied with the whole, he cannot give attention to particulars, nor can he
be sufficient for the whole while he is busied with particulars. What!
because they threaten conflagration to the whole world, and to the universe
itself, with all its stars, are they meditating its destruction?'as if
either the eternal order constituted by the divine laws of nature would be
disturbed, or the league of all the elements would be broken up, and the
heavenly structure dissolved, and that fabric in which it is contained and
bound together [1743] would be overthrown. [1744]
Chapter XI. Argument: Besides Asserting the Future Conflagration of the
Whole World, They Promise Afterwards the Resurrection of Our Bodies: and to
the Righteous an Eternity of Most Blessed Life; To the Unrighteous, of
Extreme Punishment.
"And, not content with this wild opinion, they add to it and associate with
it old women's fables: [1745] they say that they will rise again after
death, and ashes, and dust; and with I know not what confidence, they
believe by turns in one another's lies: you would think that they had
already lived again. It is a double evil and a twofold madness to denounce
destruction to the heaven and the stars, which we leave just as we find
them, and to promise eternity to ourselves, who are dead and extinct'who, as
we are born, so also perish! It is for this cause, doubtless, also that they
execrate our funeral piles, and condemn our burials by fire, as if every
body, even although it be withdrawn from the flames, were not, nevertheless,
resolved into the earth by lapse of years and ages, and as if it mattered
not whether wild beasts tore the body to pieces, or seas consumed it, or the
ground covered it, or the flames carried it away; since for the carcases
every mode of sepulture is a penalty if they feel it; if they feel it not,
in the very quickness of their destruction there is relief. Deceived by this
error, they promise to themselves, as being good, a blessed and perpetual
life after their death; to others, as being unrighteous, eternal punishment.
Many things occur to me to say in addition, if the limits of my discourse
did not hasten me. I have already shown, and take no more pains to prove,
[1746] that they themselves are unrighteous; although, even if I should
allow them to be righteous, yet your agreement also concurs with the
opinions of many, that guilt and innocence are attributed by fate. For
whatever we do, as some ascribe it to fate, so you refer it to God: thus it
is according to your sect to believe that men will, not of their own accord,
but as elected to will. Therefore you feign an iniquitous judge, who
punishes in men, not their will, but their destiny. Yet I should be glad to
be informed whether or no you rise again with bodies; [1747] and if so,
with what bodies'whether with the same or with renewed bodies? Without a
body? Then, as far as I know, there will neither be mind, nor soul, nor
life. With the same body? But this has already been previously destroyed.
With another body? Then it is a new man who is born, not the former one
restored; and yet so long a time has passed away, innumerable ages have
flowed by, and what single individual has returned from the dead either by
the fate of Protesilaus, with permission to sojourn even for a few hours, or
that we might believe it for an example? All such figments of an unhealthy
belief, and vain sources of comfort, with which deceiving poets have trifled
in the sweetness of their verse, have been disgracefully remoulded by you,
believing undoubtingly [1748] on your God.
Chapter XII. Argument: Moreover, What Will Happen to the Christians
Themselves After Death, May Be Anticipated from the Fact that Even Now They
are Destitute of All Means, and are Afflicted with the Heaviest Calamities
and Miseries.
"Neither do you at least take experience from things present, how the
fruitless expectations of vain promise deceive you. Consider, wretched
creatures, (from your lot) while you are yet living, what is threatening you
after death. [1749] Behold, a portion of you'and, as you declare, the
larger and better portion'are in want, are cold, are labouring in hard work
and hunger; and God suffers it, He feigns; He either is not willing or not
able to assist His people; and thus He is either weak or inequitable. Thou,
who dreamest over a posthumous immortality, when thou art shaken by
danger, [1750] when thou art consumed with fever, when thou art torn with
pain, dost thou not then feel thy real condition? Dost thou not then
acknowledge thy frailty? Poor wretch, art thou unwillingly convinced of
thine infirmity, and wilt not confess it? But I omit matters that are common
to all alike. Lo, for you there are threats, punishments, tortures, and
crosses; and that no longer as objects of adoration, but as tortures to be
undergone; fires also, which you both predict and fear. Where is that God
who is able to help you when you come to life again, since he cannot help
you while you are in this life? Do not the Romans, without any help from
your God, govern, reign, have the enjoyment of the whole world, and have
dominion over you? But you in the meantime, in suspense and anxiety, are
abstaining from respectable enjoyments. You do not visit exhibitions; you
have no concern in public displays; you reject the public banquets, and
abhor the sacred contests; the meats previously tasted by, and the drinks
made a libation of upon, the altars. Thus you stand in dread of the gods
whom you deny. You do not wreath your heads with flowers; you do not grace
your bodies with odours; you reserve unguents for funeral rites; you even
refuse garlands to your sepulchres'pallid, trembling beings, worthy of the
pity even of our gods! Thus, wretched as you are, you neither rise again,
nor do you live in the meanwhile. Therefore, if you have any wisdom or
modesty, cease from prying into the regions of the sky, and the destinies
and secrets of the world: it is sufficient to look before your feet,
especially for untaught, uncultivated, boorish, rustic people: they who have
no capacity for understanding civil matters, are much more denied the
ability to discuss divine.
Chapter XIII. Argument: Caecilius at Length Concludes that the New Religion
is to Be Repudiated; And that We Must Not Rashly Pronounce Upon Doubtful
Matters.
"However, if you have a desire to philosophize, let any one of you who is
sufficiently great, imitate, if he can, Socrates the prince of wisdom. The
answer of that man, whenever he was asked about celestial matters, is well
known: 'What is above us is nothing to us.' Well, therefore, did he deserve
from the oracle the testimony of singular wisdom, which oracle he himself
had a presentiment of, that he had been preferred to all men for the reason,
not that he had discovered all things, but because he had learnt that he
knew nothing. And thus the confession of ignorance is the height of wisdom.
From this source flowed the safe doubting of Arcesilas, and long after of
Carneades, and of very many of the Academics, [1751] in questions of the
highest moment, in which species of philosophy the unlearned can do much
with caution, and the learned can do gloriously. What! is not the hesitation
of Simonides the lyric poet to be admired and followed by all? Which
Simonides, when he was asked by Hiero the tyrant what, and what like he
thought the gods to be, asked first of all for a day to deliberate; then
postponed his reply for two days; and then, when pressed, he added only
another; and finally, when the tyrant inquired into the causes of such a
long delay, he replied that, the longer his research continued, the obscurer
the truth became to him. [1752] In my opinion also, things which are
uncertain ought to be left as they are. Nor, while so many and so great men
are deliberating, should we rashly and boldly give an opinion in another
direction, lest either a childish superstition should be introduced, or all
religion should be overthrown."
Chapter XIV. Argument: with Something of the Pride of Self-Satisfaction,
Caecilius Urges Octavius to Reply to His Arguments; And Minucius with
Modesty Answers Him, that He Must Not Exult at His Own by No Means Ordinary
Eloquence, and at the Harmonious Variety of His Address.
Thus far Caecilius; and smiling cheerfully (for the vehemence of his
prolonged discourse had relaxed the ardour of his indignation), be added
"And what does Octavius venture to reply to this, a man of the race of
Plautus, [1753] who, while he was chief among the millers, was still the
lowest of philosophers? ""Restrain," said I, "your self-approval against
him; for it is not worthy of you to exult at the harmony of your discourse,
before the subject shall have been more fully argued on both sides;
especially since your reasoning is striving after truth, not praise. And in
however great a degree your discourse has delighted me by its subtile
variety, yet I am very deeply moved, not concerning the present discussion,
but concerning the entire kind of disputation'that for the most part the
condition of truth should be changed according to the powers of discussion,
and even the faculty of perspicuous eloquence. This is very well known to
occur by reason of the facility of the hearers, who, being distracted by the
allurement of words from attention to things, assent without distinction to
everything that is said, and do not separate falsehood from truth; unaware
that even in that which is incredible them is often truth, and in
verisimilitude falsehood. Therefore the oftener they believe bold
assertions, the more frequently they are convinced by those who are more
clever, and thus are continually deceived by their temerity. They transfer
the blame of the judge to the complaint of uncertainty; so that, everything
being condemned, they would rather that all things should be left in
suspense, than that they should decide about matters of doubt. Therefore we
must take care that we do not in such sort suffer from the hatred at once of
all discourses, even as very many of the more simple kind are led to
execration and hatred of men in general. For those who are carelessly
credulous are deceived by those whom they thought worthy; and by and by, by
a kindred error, they begin to suspect every one as wicked, and dread even
those whom they might have regarded as excellent. Now therefore we are
anxious'because in everything there may be argument on both sides; and on
the one hand, the truth is for the most part obscure; and on the other side
there is a marvellous subtlety, which sometimes by its abundance of words
imitates the confidence of acknowledged proof'as carefully as possible to
weigh each particular, that we may, while ready to applaud acuteness, yet
elect, approve, and adopt those things which are right."
Chapter XV. Argument: Caecilius Retorts Upon Minucius, with Some Little
Appearance of Being Hurt, that He is Foregoing the Office of a Religious
Umpire, When He is Weakening the Force of His Argument. He Says that It
Should Be Left to Octavius to Confute All that He Had Advanced.
"You are withdrawing," says Caecilius, "from the office of a religious
judge; for it is very unfair for you to weaken the force of my pleading by
the interpolation of a very important argument, since Octavius has before
him each thing that I have said, sound and unimpaired, if he can refute
it." "What you are reproving," said I, "unless I am mistaken, I have brought
forward for the common advantage, so that by a scrupulous examination we
might weigh our decision, not by the pompous style of the eloquence, but by
the solid character of the matter itself. Nor must our attention, as you
complain, be any longer called away, but with absolute silence let us listen
to the reply of our friend Januarius, [1754] who is now beckoning to
us."
Chapter XVI. Argument: Octavius Arranges His Reply, and Trusts that He Shall
Be Able to Dilute the Bitterness of Reproach with the River of Truthful
Words. He Proceeds to Weaken the Individual Arguments of Caecilius. Nobody
Need Complain that the Christians, Unlearned Though They May Be, Dispute
About Heavenly Things Because It is Not the Authority of Him Who Argues, But
the Truth of the Argument Itself, that Should Be Considered.
And thus Octavius began: "I will indeed speak as I shall be able to the best
of my powers, and you must endeavour with me to dilute the very offensive
strain of recriminations in the river [1755] of veracious words. Nor will
I disguise in the outset, that the opinion of my friend Natalis [1756] has
swayed to and fro in such an erratic, vague, and slippery manner, that we
are compelled to doubt whether your [1757] information was confused, or
whether it wavered backwards and forwards [1758] by mere mistake. For he
varied at one time from believing the gods, at another time to being in a
state of hesitation on the subject; so that the direct purpose of my reply
was established with the greater uncertainty, [1759] by reason of the
uncertainty of his proposition. But in my friend Natalis'I will not allow, I
do not believe in, any chicanery'far from his simplicity is crafty
trickery. [1760] What then? As he who knows not the right way, when as it
happens one road is separated into many, because he knows not the way,
remains in anxiety, and dares neither make choice of particular roads, nor
try them all; so, if a man has no stedfast judgment of truth, even as his
unbelieving suspicion is scattered, so his doubting opinion is unsettled. It
is therefore no wonder if Caecilius in the same way is cast about by the
tide, and tossed hither and thither among things contrary and repugnant to
one another; but that this may no longer be the case, I will convict and
refute all that has been said, however diverse, confirming and approving the
truth alone; and for the future he must neither doubt nor waver. And since
my brother broke out in such expressions as these, that he was grieved, that
he was vexed, that he was indignant, that he regretted that illiterate,
poor, unskilled people should dispute about heavenly things; let him know
that all men are begotten alike, with a capacity and ability of reasoning
and feeling, without preference of age, sex, or dignity. Nor do they obtain
wisdom by fortune, but have it implanted by nature; moreover, the very
philosophers themselves, or any others who have gone forth unto celebrity as
discoverers of arts, before they attained an illustrious name by their
mental skill, were esteemed plebeian, untaught, half-naked. Thus it is, that
rich men, attached to their means, have been accustomed to gaze more upon
their gold than upon heaven, while our sort of people, though poor, have
both discovered wisdom, and have delivered their teaching to others; whence
it appears that intelligence is not given to wealth, nor is gotten by study,
but is begotten with the very formation of the mind. Therefore it is nothing
to be angry or to be grieved about, though any one should inquire, should
think, should utter his thoughts about divine things; since what is wanted
is not the authority of the arguer, but the truth of the argument itself:
and even the more unskilled the discourse, the more evident the reasoning,
since it is not coloured by the pomp of eloquence and grace; but as it is,
it is sustained by the rule of right.
Chapter XVII. Argument: Man Ought Indeed to Know Himself, But This Knowledge
Cannot Be Attained by Him Unless He First of All Acknowledges the Entire
Scope of Things, and God Himself. And from the Constitution and Furniture of
the World Itself, Every One Endowed with Reason Holds that It Was
Established by God, and is Governed and Administered by Him.
"Neither do I refuse to admit what Caecilius earnestly endeavoured to
maintain among the chief matters, that man ought to know himself, and to
took around and see what he is, whence he is, why he is; whether collected
together from the elements, or harmoniously formed of atoms, or rather made,
formed, and animated by God. And it is this very thing which we cannot seek
out and investigate without inquiry into the universe; since things are so
coherent, so linked and associated together, that unless you diligently
examine into the nature of divinity, you must be ignorant of that of
humanity. Nor can you well perform your social duty unless you know that
community of the world which is common to all, especially since in this
respect we differ from the wild beasts, that while they are prone and
tending to the earth, and are born to look upon nothing but their food, we,
whose countenance is erect, whose look is turned towards heaven, as is our
converse and reason, whereby we recognise, feel, and imitate God, [1761]
have neither right nor reason to be ignorant of the celestial glory which
forms itself into our eyes and senses. For it is as bad as the grossest
sacrilege even, to seek on the ground for what you ought to find on high.
Wherefore the rather, they who deny that this furniture of the whole world
was perfected by the divine reason, and assert that it was heaped together
by certain fragments [1762] casually adhering to each other, seem to me
not to have either mind or sense, or, in fact, even sight itself. For what
can possibly be so manifest, so confessed, and so evident, when you lift
your eyes up to heaven, and look into the things which are below and around,
than that there is some Deity of most excellent intelligence, by whom all
nature is inspired, is moved, is nourished, is governed? Behold the heaven
itself, how broadly it is expanded, how rapidly it is whirled around, either
as it is distinguished in the night by its stars, or as it is lightened in
the day by the sun, and you will know at once how the marvellous and divine
balance of the Supreme Governor is engaged therein. Look also on the year,
how it is made by the circuit of the sun; and look on the month, how the
moon drives it around in her increase, her decline, and decay. What shall I
say of the recurring changes of darkness and light; how there is thus
provided for us an alternate restoration of labour and rest? Truly a more
prolix discourse concerning the stars must be left to astronomers, whether
as to how they govern the course of navigation, or bring on [1763] the
season of ploughing or of reaping, each of which things not only needed a
Supreme Artist and a perfect intelligence, nor only to create, to construct,
and to arrange; but, moreover, they cannot be felt, peceived and understood
without the highest intelligence and reason. What! when the order of the
seasons and of the harvests is distinguished by stedfast variety, does it
not attest its Author and Parent? As well the spring with its flowers, and
the summer with its harvests, and the grateful maturity of autumn, and the
wintry olive-gathering, [1764] are needful; and this order would easily be
disturbed unless it were established by the highest intelligence. Now, how
great is the providence needed, lest there should be nothing but winter to
blast with its frost, or nothing but summer to scorch with its heat, to
interpose the moderate temperature of autumn and spring, so that the unseen
and harmless transitions of the year returning on its footsteps may glide
by! Look attentively at the sea; it is bound by the law of its shore.
Wherever there are trees, look how they are animated from the bowels of the
earth! Consider the ocean; it ebbs and flows with alternate tides. Look at
the fountains, how they gush in perpetual streams! Gaze on the rivers; they
always roll on in regular courses. Why should I speak of the aptly ordered
peaks of the mountains, the slopes of the hills, the expanses of the plains?
Wherefore should I speak of the multiform protection provided by animated
creatures against one another?'some armed with horns, some hedged with
teeth, and shod with claws, and barbed with stings, or with freedom obtained
by swiftness of feet, or by the capacity of soaring furnished by wings? The
very beauty of our own figure especially confesses God to be its artificer:
our upright stature, our uplooking countenance, our eyes placed at the top,
as it were, for outlook; and all the rest of our senses as if arranged in a
citadel.
Chapter XVIII. Argument: Moreover, God Not Only Takes Care of the Universal
World, But of Its Individual Parts. That by the Decree of the One God All
Things are Governed, is Proved by the Illustration of Earthly Empires. But
Although He, Being Infinite and Immense'And How Great He Is, is Known to
Himself Alone'Cannot Either Be Seen or Named by Us, Yet His Glory is Beheld
Most Clearly When the Use of All Titles is Laid Aside.
"It would be a long matter to go through particular instances. There is no
member in man which is not calculated both for the sake of necessity and of
ornament; and what is more wonderful still, all have the same form, but each
has certain lineaments modified, and thus we are each found to be unlike to
one another, while we all appear to be like in general. What is the reason
of our being born? what means the desire of begetting? Is it not given by
God, and that the breasts should become full of milk as the offspring grows
to maturity, and that the tender progeny should grow up by the nourishment
afforded by the abundance of the milky moisture? Neither does God have care
alone for the universe as a whole, but also for its parts. Britain is
deficient in sunshine, but it is refreshed by the warmth of the sea that
flows around it. The river Nile tempers the dryness of Egypt; the Euphrates
cultivates Mesopotamia; the river Indus makes up for the want of rains, and
is said both to sow and to water the East. Now if, on entering any house,
you should behold everything refined, well arranged, and adorned, assuredly
you would believe that a master presided over it, and that he himself was
much better than all those excellent things. So in this house of the world,
when you look upon the heaven and the earth, its providence, its ordering,
its law, believe that there is a Lord and Parent of the universe far more
glorious than the stars themselves, and the parts of the whole world.
Unless, perchance'since there is no doubt as to the existence of
providence'you think that it is a subject of inquiry, whether the celestial
kingdom is governed by the power of one or by the rule of many; and this
matter itself does not involve much trouble in opening out, to one who
considers earthly empires, for which the examples certainly are taken from
heaven. When at any time was there an alliance in royal authority which
either began with good faith or ceased without bloodshed? I pass over the
Persians who gathered the augury for their chieftainship from the neighing
of horses; [1765] and I do not quote that absolutely dead fable of the
Theban brothers. [1766] The story about the twins (Romulus and Remus), in
respect of the dominion of shepherds, and of a cottage, is very well known.
The wars of the son-in-law and the father-in-law [1767] were scattered
over the whole world; and the fortune [1768] of so great an empire could
not receive two rulers. Look at other matters. The bees have one king; the
flocks one leader; among the herds there is one ruler. Canst thou believe
that in heaven there is a division of the supreme power, and that the whole
authority of that true and divine empire is sundered, when it is manifest
that God, the Parent of all, has neither beginning nor end'that He who gives
birth to all gives perpetuity to Himself'that He who was before the world,
was Himself to Himself instead of the world? He orders everything, whatever
it is, by a word; arranges it by His wisdom; perfects it by His power. He
can neither be seen'He is brighter than light; nor can be grasped'He is
purer than touch; [1769] nor estimated; He is greater than all
perceptions; infinite, immense, and how great is known to Himself alone. But
our heart is too limited to understand Him, and therefore we are then
worthily estimating Him when we say that He is beyond estimation. I will
speak out in what manner I feel. He who thinks that he knows the magnitude
of God, is diminishing it; he who desires not to lessen it, knows it not.
Neither must you ask a name for God. God is His name. We have need of names
when a multitude is to be separated into individuals by the special
characteristics of names; to God, who is alone, the name God is the whole.
If I were to call Him Father, you would judge Him to be earthly; if a King,
you would suspect Him to be carnal; if a Lord, you will certainly understand
Him to he mortal. Take away the additions of names, and you will behold His
glory. What! is it not true that I have in this matter the consent of all
men? I hear the common people, when they lift their hands to heaven, say
nothing else but Oh God, and God is great, and God is true, and if God shall
permit. Is this the natural discourse of the common people, or is it the
prayer of a confessing Christian? And they who speak of Jupiter as the
chief, are mistaken in the name indeed, but they are in agreement about the
unity of the power.
Chapter XIX. Argument: Moreover, the Poets Have Called Him the Parent of
Gods and Men, the Creator of All Things, and Their Mind and Spirit. And,
Besides, Even the More Excellent Philosophers Have Come Almost to the Same
Conclusion as the Christians About the Unity of God.
"I hear the poets also announcing 'the One Father of gods and men; 'and that
such is the mind of mortal men as the Parent of all has appointed His day.
[1770] What says the Mantuan Maro? Is it not even more plain, more apposite,
more true? 'In the beginning, 'says he, 'the spirit within nourishes, and
the mind infused stirs the heaven and the earth, 'and the other members 'of
the world. Thence arises the race of men and of cattle, ' [1771] and every
other kind of animal. The same poet in another place calls that mind and
spirit God. For these are his words: [1772] 'For that God pervades all the
lands, and the tracts of the sea, and the profound heaven, from whom are men
and cattle; from whom are rain and fire.' [1773] What else also is God
announced to be by us, but mind, and reason, and spirit? Let us review, if
it is agreeable, the teaching of philosophers. Although in varied kinds of
discourse, yet in these matters you will find them concur and agree in this
one opinion. I pass over those untrained and ancient ones who deserved to be
called wise men for their sayings. Let Thales the Milesian be the first of
all, for he first of all disputed about heavenly things. That same Thales
the Milesian said that water was the beginning of things, but that God was
that mind which from water formed all things. Ah! a higher and nobler
account of water and spirit than to have ever been discovered by man. It was
delivered to him by God. You see that the opinion of this original
philosopher absolutely agrees with ours. Afterwards Anaximenes, and then
Diogenes of Apollonia, decide that the air, infinite and unmeasured, is God.
The agreement of these also as to the Divinity is like ours. But the
description of Anaxagoras also is, that God is said to be the motion of an
infinite mind; and the God of Pythagoras is the soul passing to and fro and
intent, throughout the universal nature of things, from whom also the life
of all animals is received. It is a known fact, that Xenophanes delivered
that God was all infinity with a mind; and Antisthenes, that there are many
gods of the people, but that one God of Nature was the chief of all; that
Xeuxippus [1774] acknowledged as God a natural animal force whereby all
things are governed. What says Democritus? Although the first discoverer of
atoms, does not he especially speak of nature, which is the basis of forms,
and intelligence, as God? Strato also himself says that God is nature.
Moreover, Epicurus, the man who feigns either otiose gods or none at all,
still places above all, Nature. Aristotle varies, but nevertheless assigns a
unity of power: for at one time he says that Mind, at another the World, is
God; at another time he sets God above the world. [1775] Heraclides of
Pontus also ascribes, although in various ways, a divine mind to God.
Theophrastus, and Zeno, and Chrysippus, and Cleanthes are indeed themselves
of many forms of opinion but they are all brought back to the one fact of
the unity of providence. For Cleanthes discoursed of God as of a mind, now
of a soul, now of air, but for the most part of reason. Zeno, his master,
will have the law of nature and of God, and sometimes the air, and sometimes
reason, to be the beginning of all things. Moreover, by interpreting Juno to
be the air, Jupiter the heaven, Neptune the sea, Vulcan to be fire, and in
like manner by showing the other gods of the common people to be elements,
he forcibly denounces and overcomes the public error. Chrysippus says almost
the same. He believes that a divine force, a rational nature, and sometimes
the world, and a fatal necessity, is God; and he follows the example of Zeno
in his physiological interpretation of the poems of Hesiod, of Homer, and of
Orpheus. Moreover, the teaching of Diogenes of Babylon is that of expounding
and arguing that the birth of Jupiter, and the origin of Minerva, and this
kind, are names for other things, not for gods. For Xenophon the Socratic
says that the form of the true God cannot be seen, and therefore ought not
to be inquired after. Aristo the Stoic [1776] says that He cannot at all
be comprehended. And both of them were sensible of the majesty of God, while
they despaired of understanding Him. Plato has a clearer discourse about
God, both in the matters themselves and in the names by which he expresses
them; and his discourse would be altogether heavenly, if it were not
occasionally fouled by a mixture of merely civil belief. Therefore in his
Timaeus Plato's God is by His very name the parent of the world, the
artificer of the soul, the fabricator of heavenly and earthly things, whom
both to discover he declares is difficult, on account of His excessive and
incredible power; and when you have discovered Him, impossible to speak of
in public. The same almost are the opinions also which are ours. For we both
know and speak of a God who is parent of all, and never speak of Him in
public unless we are interrogated. [1777]
Chapter XX. Argument: But If the World is Ruled by Providence and Governed
by the Will of One God, an Ignorant Antipathy Ought Not to Carry Us Away
into the Error of Agreement with It: Although Delighted with Its Own Fables,
It Has Brought in Ridiculous Traditions. Nor is It Shown Less Plainly that
the Worship of the Gods Has Always Been Silly and Impious, in that the Most
Ancient of Men Have Venerated Their Kings, Their Illustrious Generals, and
Inventors of Arts, on Account of Their Remarkable Deeds, No Otherwise Than
as Gods,
"I have set forth the opinions almost of all the philosophers whose more
illustrious glory it is to, have pointed out that there is one God, although
with many names; so that any one might think either that Christians are now
philosophers, or that philosophers were then already Christians. But if the
world is governed by providence, and directed by the will of one God,
antiquity of unskilled people ought not, however delighted and charmed with
its own fables, to carry us away into the mistake of a mutual agreement,
when it is rebutted by the opinions of its own philosophers, who are
supported by the authority both of reason and of antiquity. For our
ancestors had such an easy faith in falsehoods, that they rashly believed
even other monstrosities as marvellous wonders; [1778] a manifold Scylla,
a Chimaera of many forms, and a Hydra rising again from its auspicious
wounds, and Centaurs, horses entwined with their riders; and whatever Report
was allowed [1779] to feign, they were entirely willing to listen to. Why
should I refer to those old wives' fables, that men were changed from men
into birds and beasts, and from men into trees and flowers?'which things, if
they had happened at all, would happen again; and because they cannot happen
now, therefore never happened at all. In like manner with respect to the
gods too, our ancestors believed carelessly, credulously, with untrained
simplicity; while worshipping their kings religiously, desiring to look upon
them when dead in outward forms, anxious to preserve their memories in
statues, [1780] those things became sacred which had been taken up merely
as consolations. Thereupon, and before the world was opened up by commerce,
and before the nations confounded their rites and customs, each particular
nation venerated its Founder, or illustrious Leader, or modest Queen braver
than her sex, or the discoverer of any sort of faculty or art, as a citizen
of worthy memory; and thus a reward Was given to the deceased, and an
example to those who were to follow.
Chapter XXI. Argument: Octavius Attests the Fact that Men Were Adopted as
Gods, by the Testimony of Euhemerus, Prodicus, Persaeus, and Alexander the
Great, Who Enumerate the Country, the Birthdays, and the Burial-Places of
the Gods. Moreover He Sets Forth the Mournful Endings, Misfortunes, and
Deaths of the Gods. And, in Addition, He Laughs at the Ridiculous and
Disgusting Absurdities Which the Heathens Continually Allege About the Form
and Appearance of Their Gods.
"Read the writings of the Stoics, [1781] or the writings of wise men, you
will acknowledge these facts with me. On account of the merits of their
virtue or of some gift, Euhemerus asserts that they were esteemed gods; and
he enumerates their birthdays, their countries, their places of sepulture,
and throughout various provinces points out these circumstances of the
Dictaean Jupiter, and of the Delphic Apollo, and of the Pharian Isis, and of
the Eleusinian Ceres. Prodicus speaks of men who were taken up among the
gods, because they were helpful to the uses of men in their wanderings, by
the discovery of new kinds of produce. Persaeus philosophizes also to the
same result; and he adds thereto, that the fruits discovered, and the
discoverers of those same fruits, were called by the same names; as the
passage of the comic writer runs, that Venus freezes without Bacchus and
Ceres. Alexander the Great, the celebrated Macedonian, wrote in a remarkable
document [1782] addressed to his mother, that under fear of his power
there had been betrayed to him by the priest the secret of the gods having
been men: to her he makes Vulcan the original of all, and then the race of
Jupiter. And you behold the swallow and the cymbal of Isis, [1783] and the
tomb of your Serapis or Osiris empty, with his limbs scattered about. Then
consider the sacred rites themselves, and their very mysteries: you will
find mournful deaths, misfortunes, and funerals, and the griefs and wailings
of the miserable gods. Isis bewails, laments, and seeks after her lost son,
with her Cynocephalus and her bald priests; and the wretched Isiacs beat
their breasts, and imitate the grief of the most unhappy mother. By and by,
when the little boy is found, Isis rejoices, and the priests exult,
Cynocephalus the discoverer boasts, and they do not cease year by year
either to lose what they find, or to find what they lose. Is it not
ridiculous either to grieve for what you worship, or to worship that over
which you grieve? Yet these were formerly Egyptian rites, and now are Roman
ones. Ceres with her torches lighted, and surrounded [1784] with a
serpent, with anxiety and solicitude tracks the footsteps of Proserpine,
stolen away in her wandering, and corrupter. These are the Eleusinian
mysteries. And what are the sacred rites of Jupiter? His nurse is a
she-goat, and as an infant he is taken away from his greedy father, lest he
should be devoured; and clanging uproar [1785] is dashed out of the
cymbals of the Corybantes, lest the father should hear the infant's wailing.
Cybele of Dindymus'I am ashamed to speak of it'who could not entice her
adulterous lover, who unhappily was pleasing to her, to lewdness, because
she herself, as being the mother of many gods, was ugly and old, mutilated
him, doubtless that she might make a god of the eunuch. On account of this
story, the Galli also worship her by the punishment of their emasculated
body. Now certainly these things are not sacred rites, but tortures. What
are the very forms and appearances (of the gods)? do they not argue the
contemptible and disgraceful characters of your gods? [1786] Vulcan is a
lame god, and crippled; Apollo, smooth-faced after so many ages; Aesculapius
well bearded, notwithstanding that he is the son of the ever youthful
Apollo; Neptune with sea-green eyes; Minerva with eyes bluish grey; Juno
with ox-eyes; Mercury with winged feet; Pan with hoofed feet; Saturn with
feet in fetters; Janus, indeed, wears two faces, as if that he might walk
with looks turned back; Diana sometimes is a huntress, with her robe girded
up high; and as the Ephesian she has many and fruitful breasts; and when
exaggerated as Trivia, she is horrible with three heads and with many hands.
What is your Jupiter himself? Now he is represented in a statue as
beardless, now he is set up as bearded; and when he is called Hammon, he has
horns; and when Capitolinus, then he wields the thunderbolts; and when
Latiaris, he is sprinkled with gore; and when Feretrius, he is not
approached; [1787] and not to mention any further the multitude of
Jupiters, the monstrous appearances of Jupiter are as numerous as his names.
Erigone was hanged from a noose, that as a virgin she might be glowing
[1788] among the stars. The Castors die by turns, that they may live.
Aesculapius, that he may rise into a god, is struck with a thunderbolt.
Hercules, that he may put off humanity, is burnt up by the fires of Oeta.
[1789]
Chapter XXII. Argument: Moreover, These Fables, Which at First Were Invented
by Ignorant Men, Were Afterwards Celebrated by Others, and Chiefly by Poets,
Who Did No Little Mischief to the Truth by Their Authority. By Fictions of
This Kind, and by Falsehoods of a Yet More Attractive Nature, the Minds of
Young People are Corrupted, and Thence They Miserably Grow Old in These
Beliefs, Although, on the Other Hand, the Truth is Obvious to Them If They
Will Only Seek After It.
"These fables and errors we both learn from ignorant parents, and, what is
more serious still, we elaborate them in our very studies and instructions,
especially in the verses of the poets, who as much as possible have
prejudiced [1790] the truth [1791] by their authority. And for this
reason Plato rightly expelled from the state which he had founded in his
discourse, the illustrious Homer whom he had praised and crowned. [1792]
For it was he especially who in the Trojan was allowed your gods, although
he made jests of them, still to interfere in the affairs and doings of men:
he brought them together in contest; he wounded Venus; he bound, wounded,
and drove away Mars. He relates that Jupiter was set free by Briareus, so as
not to be bound fast by the rest of the gods; and that he bewailed in
showers of blood his son Sarpedon, because he could not snatch him from
death; and that, enticed by the girdle of Venus, he lay more eagerly with
his wife Juno than he was accustomed to do with his adulterous loves.
Elsewhere Hercules threw out dung, and Apollo is feeding cattle for Admetus.
Neptune, however, builds walls for Laomedon, and the unfortunate builder did
not receive the wages for his work. Then Jupiter's thunderbolt is
fabricated [1793] on the anvil with the arms of Aeneas, although there
were heaven, and thunderbolts, and lightnings long before Jupiter was born
in Crete; and neither could the Cyclops imitate, nor Jupiter himself help
fearing, the flames of the real thunderbolt. Why should I speak of the
detected adultery of Mars and Venus, and of the violence of Jupiter against
Ganymede,'a deed consecrated, (as you say,) in heaven? And all these things
have been put forward with this view, that a certain authority might be
gained for the vices [1794] of men. By these fictions, and such as these,
and by lies of a more attractive kind, the minds of boys are corrupted; and
with the same fables clinging to them, they grow up even to the strength of
mature age; and, poor wretches, they grow old in the same beliefs, although
the truth is plain, if they will only seek after it. For all the writers of
antiquity, both Greek and Roman, have set forth that Saturn, the beginner of
this race and multitude, was a man. Nepos knows this, and Cassius in his
history; and Thallus and Diodorus speak the same thing. This Saturn then,
driven from Crete, by the fear of his raging son, had come to Italy, and,
received by the hospitality of Janus, taught those unskilled and rustic men
many things,'as, being something of a Greek, and polished,'to print letters
for instance, to coin money, to make instruments. Therefore he preferred
that his hiding-place, because he had been safely hidden (latent) there,
should be called Latium; and he gave a city, from his own name, the name of
Saturnia, and Janus, Janiculum, so that each of them left their names to the
memory of posterity. Therefore it was certainly a man that fled, certainly a
man who was concealed, and the father of a man, and sprung from a man. He
was declared, however, to be the son of earth or of heaven, because among
the Italians he was of unknown parents; as even to this day we call those
who appear unexpectedly, sent from heaven, those who are ignoble and
unknown, sons of the earth. His son Jupiter reigned at Crete after his
father was driven out. There he died, there he had sons. To this day the
cave of Jupiter is visited, and his sepulchre is shown, and he is convicted
of being human by those very sacred rites of his.
Chapter XXIII. Argument: Although the Heathens Acknowledge Their Kings to Be
Mortal, Yet They Feign that They are Gods Even Against Their Own Will, Not
Because of Their Belief in Their Divinity, But in Honour of the Power that
They Have Exerted. Yet a True God Has Neither Rising Nor Setting. Thence
Octavius Criticises the Images and Shrines of the Gods.
"It is needless to go through each individual case, and to develope the
entire series of that race, since in its first parents their mortality is
proved, and must have flowed down into the rest by the very law of their
succession, unless perhaps you fancy that they were gods after death; as by
the perjury of Proculus, Romulus became a god; and by the good-will of the
Mauritanians, Juba is a god; and other kings are divine who are consecrated,
not in the faith of their divinity, but in honour of the power that they
exercised. Moreover, this name is ascribed to those who are unwilling to
bear it. They desire to persevere in their human condition. They fear that
they may be made gods; although they are already old men, they do not wish
it. Therefore neither are gods made from dead people, since a god cannot
die; nor of people that are born, since everything which is born dies. But
that is divine which has neither rising nor setting. For why, if they were
born, are they not born in the present day also?'unless, perchance, Jupiter
has already grown old, and child-bearing has failed in Juno, and Minerva has
grown grey before she has borne children. Or has that process of generation
ceased, for the reason that no assent is any longer yielded to fables of
this kind? Besides, if the gods could create, [1795] they could not
perish: we should have more gods than all men together; so that now, neither
would the heaven contain them, nor the air receive them, nor the earth bear
them. Whence it is manifest, that those were men whom we both read of as
having been born, and know to have died. Who therefore doubts that the
common people pray to and publicly worship the consecrated images of these
men; in that the belief and mind of the ignorant is deceived by the
perfection of art, is blinded by the glitter of gold, is dimmed with the
shining of silver and the whiteness of ivory? But if any one were to present
to his mind with what instruments and with what machinery every image is
formed, he would blush that he had feared matter, treated after his fancy by
the artificer to make a god. [1796] For a god of wood, a portion perhaps
of a pile, or of an unlucky log, is hung up, is cut, is hewn, is planed; and
a god of brass or of silver, often from an impure vessel, as was done by the
Egyptian king, [1797] is fused, is beaten with hammers and forged on
anvils; and the god of stone is cut, is sculptured, and is polished by some
abandoned man, nor feels the injury done to him in his nativity, any more
than afterwards it feels the worship flowing from your veneration; unless
perhaps the stone, or the wood, or the silver is not yet a god. When,
therefore, does the god begin his existence? Lo, it is reeked, it is
wrought, it is sculptured'it is not yet a god; lo, it is soldered, it is
built together'it is set up, and even yet it is not a god; lo, it is
adorned, it is consecrated, it is prayed to'then at length it is a god, when
man has chosen it to be so, and for the purpose has dedicated it.
Chapter XXIV. Argument: He Briefly Shows, Moreover, What Ridiculous,
Obscene, and Cruel Rites Were Observed in Celebrating the Mysteries of
Certain Gods.
"How much more truly do dumb animals naturally judge concerning your gods?
Mice, swallows, kites, know that they have no feeling: they gnaw them, they
trample on them, they sit upon them; and unless you drive them off, they
build their nests in the very mouth of your god. Spiders, indeed, weave
their webs over his face, and suspend their threads from his very head. You
wipe, cleanse, scrape, and you protect and fear those whom you make; while
not one of you thinks that he ought to know God before he worships Him;
desiring without consideration to obey their ancestors, choosing rather to
become an addition to the error of others, than to trust themselves; in that
they know nothing of what they fear. Thus avarice has been consecrated in
gold and silver; thus the form of empty statues has been established; thus
has arisen Roman superstition. And if you reconsider the rites of these
gods, how many things are laughable, and how many also pitiable! Naked
people run about in the raw winter; some walk bonneted, and carry around old
bucklers, or beat drums, or lead their gods a-begging through the streets.
Some fanes it is permitted to approach once a year, some it is forbidden to
visit at all. There is one place where a man may not go, and there are some
that are sacred from women: it is a crime needing atonement for a slave even
to be present at some ceremonies. Some sacred places are crowned by a woman
having one husband, some by a woman with many; and she who can reckon up
most adulteries is sought after with most religious zeal. What! would not a
man who makes libations of his own blood, and supplicates (his god) by his
own wounds, be better if he were altogether profane, than religious in such
a way is this? And he whose shameful parts are cut off, how greatly does he
wrong God in seeking to propitiate Him in this manner! since, if God wished
for eunuchs, He could bring them as such into existence, and would not make
them so afterwards. Who does not perceive that people of unsound mind, and
of weak and degraded apprehension, are foolish in these things, and that the
very multitude of those who err affords to each of them mutual patronage?
Here the defence of the general madness is the multitude of the mad people.
Chapter XXV. Argument: Then He Shows that Caecilius Had Been Wrong in
Asserting that the Romans Had Gained Their Power Over the Whole World by
Means of the Due Observance of Superstitions of This Kind. Rather the Romans
in Their Origin Were Collected by Crime, and Grew by the Terrors of Their
Ferocity. And Therefore the Romans Were Not So Great Because They Were
Religious, But Because They Were Sacrilegious with Impunity.
"Nevertheless, you will say that that very superstition itself gave,
increased, and established their empire for the Romans, since they prevailed
not so much by their valour as by their religion and piety. Doubtless the
illustrious and noble justice of the Romans had its beginning from the very
cradle of the growing empire. Did they not in their origin, when gathered
together and fortified by crime, grow by the terror of their own fierceness?
For the first people were assembled together as to an asylum. Abandoned
people, profligate, incestuous, assassins, traitors, had flocked together;
and in order that Romulus himself, their commander and governor, might excel
his people in guilt, he committed fratricide. [1798] These are the first
auspices of the religious state! By and by they carried off, violated, and
ruined foreign virgins, already betrothed, already destined for husbands,
and even some young women from their marriage vows'a thing unexampled
[1799] 'and then engaged in war with their parents, that is, with their
fathers-in-law, and shed the blood of their kindred. What more irreligious,
what more audacious, what could be safer than the very confidence of crime?
Now, to drive their neighbours from the land, to overthrow the nearest
cities, with their temples and altars, to drive them into captivity, to grow
up by the losses of others and by their own crimes, is the course of
training common to the rest of the kings and the latest leaders with
Romulus. Thus, whatever the Romans hold, cultivate, possess, is the spoil of
their audacity. All their temples are built from the spoils of violence,
that is, from the ruins of cities, from the spoils of the gods, from the
murders of priests. This is to insult and scorn, to yield to conquered
religions, to adore them when captive, after having vanquished them. For to
adore what you have taken by force, is to consecrate sacrilege, not
divinities. As often, therefore, as the Romans triumphed, so often they were
polluted; and as many trophies as they gained from the nations, so many
spoils did they take from the gods. Therefore the Romans were not so great
because they were religious, but because they were sacrilegious with
impunity. For neither were they able in the wars themselves to have the help
of the gods against whom they took up arms; and they began to worship those
when they were triumphed over, whom they had previously challenged. But what
avail such gods as those on behalf of the Romans, who had had no power on
behalf of their own worshippers against the Roman arms? For we know the
indigenous gods of the Romans'Romulus, Picus, Tiberinus, and Consus, and
Pilumnus, and Picumnus. Tatius both discovered and worshipped Cloacina;
Hostilius, Fear and Pallor. Subsequently Fever was dedicated by I know not
whom: such was the superstition that nourished that city,'diseases and ill
states of health. Assuredly also Acca Laurentia, and Flora, infamous
harlots, must be reckoned among the diseases [1800] and the gods of the
Romans. Such as these doubtless enlarged the dominion of the Romans, in
opposition to others who were worshipped by the nations: for against their
own people neither did the Thracian Mars, nor the Cretan Jupiter, nor Juno,
now of Argos, now of Samos, now of Carthage, nor Diana of Tauris, nor the
Idaean Mother, nor those Egyptian'not deities, but monstrosities'assist
them; unless perchance among the Romans the chastity of virgins was greater,
or the religion of the priests more holy: though absolutely among very many
of the virgins unchastity was punished, in that they, doubtless without the
knowledge of Vesta, had intercourse too carelessly with men; and for the
rest their impunity arose not from the better protection of their chastity,
but from the better fortune of their immodesty. And where are adulteries
better arranged by the priests than among the very altars and shrines? where
are more panderings debated, or more acts of violence concerted? Finally,
burning lust is more frequently gratified in the little chambers of the
keepers of the temple, than in the brothels themselves. And still, long
before the Romans, by the ordering of God, the Assyrians held dominion, the
Medes, the Persians, the Greeks also, and the Egyptians, although they had
not any Pontiffs, nor Arvales, nor Salii, nor Vestals, nor Augurs, nor
chickens shut up in a coop, by whose feeding or abstinence the highest
concerns of the state were to be governed.
Chapter XXVI. Argument: the Weapon that Caecilius Had Slightly Brandished
Against Him, Taken from the Auspices and Auguries of Birds, Octavius Retorts
by Instancing the Cases of Regulus, Mancinus, Paulus, and Caesar. And He
Shows by Other Examples, that the Argument from the Oracles is of No Greater
Force Than the Others.
"And now I come to those Roman auspices and auguries which you have
collected with extreme pains, and have borne testimony that they were both
neglected with ill consequences, and observed with good fortune. Certainly
Clodius, and Flaminius, and Junius lost their armies on this account,
because they did not judge it well to wait for the very solemn omen given by
the greedy pecking of the chickens. But what of Regulus? Did he not observe
the auguries, and was taken captive? Mancinus maintained his religious duty,
and was sent under the yoke, and was given up. Paulus also had greedy
chickens at Cannae, yet he was overthrown with the greater part of the
republic. [1801] Caius Caesar despised the auguries and auspices that
resisted his making his voyage into Africa before the winter, and thus the
more easily he both sailed and conquered. But what and how much shall I go
on to say about oracles? After his death Amphiaraus answered as to things to
come, though he knew not (while living) that he should be betrayed by his
wife on account of a bracelet. The blind Tiresias saw the future, although
he did not see the present. Ennius invented the replies of the Pythian
Apollo concerning Pyrrhus, although Apollo had already ceased to make
verses; and that cautious and ambiguous oracle of his, failed just at the
time when men began to be at once more cultivated and less credulous. And
Demosthenes, because he knew that the answers were feigned, complained that
the Pythia philippized. But sometimes, it is true, even auspices or oracles
have touched the truth. Although among many falsehoods chance might appear
as if it imitated forethought; yet I will approach the very source of error
and perverseness, whence all that obscurity has flowed, and both dig into it
more deeply, and lay it open more manifestly. There are some insincere and
vagrant spirits degraded from their heavenly vigour by earthly stains and
lusts. Now these spirits, after having lost the simplicity of their nature
by being weighed down and immersed in vices, for a solace of their calamity,
cease not, now that they are ruined themselves, to ruin others; and being
depraved themselves, to infuse into others the error of their depravity and
being themselves alienated from God, to separate others from God by the
introduction of degraded superstitions. The poets know that those spirits
are demons; the philosophers discourse of them; Socrates knew it, who, at
the nod and decision of a demon that was at his side, either declined or
undertook affairs. The Magi, also, not only know that there are demons, but,
moreover, whatever miracle they affect to perform, do it by means of demons;
by their aspirations and communications they show their wondrous tricks,
making either those things appear which are not, or those things not to
appear which are. Of those magicians, the first both in eloquence and in
deed, Sosthenes, [1802] not only describes the true God with fitting
majesty, but the angels that are the ministers and messengers of God, even
the true God. And he knew that it enhanced His veneration, that in awe of
the very nod and glance of their Lord they should tremble. The same man also
declared that demons were earthly, wandering, hostile to humanity. What said
Plato, [1803] who believed that it was a hard thing to find out God? Does
not he also, without hesitation, tell of both angels and demons? And in his
Symposium also, does not he endeavour to explain the nature of demons? For
he will have it to be a substance between mortal and immortal'that is,
mediate between body and spirit, compounded by mingling of earthly weight
and heavenly lightness; whence also he warns us of the desire of love,
[1804] and he says that it is moulded and glides into the human breast, and
stirs the senses, and moulds the affections, and infuses the ardour of lust.
Chapter XXVII. Argument: Recapitulation. Doubtless Here is a Source of
Error: Demons Lurk Under the Statues and Images, They Haunt the Fanes, They
Animate the Fibres of the Entrails, Direct the Flights of Birds, Govern the
Lots, Pour Forth Oracles Involved in False Responses. These Things Not from
God; But They are Constrained to Confess When They are Adjured in the Name
of the True God, and are Driven from the Possessed Bodies. Hence They Flee
Hastily from the Neighbourhood of Christians, and Stir Up a Hatred Against
Them in the Minds of the Gentiles Who Begin to Hate Them Before They Know
Them.
"These impure spirits, therefore'the demons'as is shown by the Magi, by the
philosophers, and by Plato, consecrated under statues and images, lurk
there, and by their afflatus attain the authority as of a present deity;
while in the meantime they are breathed into the prophets, while they dwell
in the shrines, while sometimes they animate the fibres of the entrails,
control the flights of birds, direct the lots, are the cause of oracles
involved in many falsehoods. For they are both deceived, and they deceive;
inasmuch as they are both ignorant of the simple truth, and for their own
ruin they confess not that which they know. Thus they weigh men downwards
from heaven, and call them away from the true God to material things: they
disturb the life, render all men [1805] unquiet; creeping also secretly
into human bodies, with subtlety, as being spirits, they feign diseases,
alarm the minds, wrench about the limbs; that they may constrain men to
worship them, being gorged with the fumes of altars or the sacrifices of
cattle, that, by remitting what they had bound, they may seem to have cured
it. These raging maniacs also, whom you see rush about in public, are
moreover themselves prophets without a temple; thus they rage, thus they
rave, thus they are whirled around. In them also there is a like instigation
of the demon, but there is a dissimilar occasion for their madness. From the
same causes also arise those things which were spoken of a little time ago
by you, that Jupiter demanded the restoration of his games in a dream, that
the Castors appeared with horses, and that a Small ship was following the
leading of the matron's girdle. A great many, even some of your own people,
know all those things that the demons themselves confess concerning
themselves, as often as they are driven by us from bodies by the torments of
our words and by the fires of our prayers. Saturn himself, and Serapis, and
Jupiter, and whatever demons you worship, overcome by pain, speak out what
they are; and assuredly they do not lie to their own discredit, especially
when any of you are standing by. Since they themselves are the witnesses
that they are demons, believe them when they confess the truth of
themselves; for when abjured by the only and true God, unwillingly the
wretched beings shudder in [1806] their bodies, and either at once leap
forth, or vanish by degrees, as the faith of the sufferer assists or the
grace of the healer inspires. Thus they fly from Christians when near at
hand, whom at a distance they harassed by your means in their assemblies.
And thus, introduced into the minds of the ignorant, they secretly sow there
a hatred of us by means of fear. For it is natural both to hate one whom you
fear, and to injure one whom you have feared, if you can. Thus they take
possession of the minds and obstruct the hearts, that men may begin to hate
us before they know us; lest, if known, they should either imitate us, or
not be able to condemn us.
Chapter XXVIII. Argument: Nor is It Only Hatred that They Arouse Against the
Christians, But They Charge Against Them Horrid Crimes, Which Up to This
Time Have Been Proved by Nobody. This is the Work of Demons. For by Them a
False Report is Both Set on Foot and Propagated. The Christians are Falsely
Accused of Sacrilege, of Incest, of Adultery, of Parricide; And, Moreover,
It is Certain and True that the Very Same Crimes, or Crimes Like to or
Greater Than These, are in Fact Committed by the Gentiles Themselves.
"But how unjust it is, [1807] to form a judgment on things unknown and
unexamined, as you do! Believe us ourselves when penitent, for we also were
the same as you, and formerly, while yet blind and obtuse, thought the same
things as you; to wit, that the Christians worshipped monsters, devoured
infants, mingled in incestuous banquets. And we did not perceive that such
fables as these were always set afloat by those (newsmongers), and were
never either inquired into nor proved; and that in so long a time no one had
appeared to betray (their doings), to obtain not only pardon for their
crime, but also favour for its discovery: moreover, that it was to this
extent not evil, that a Christian, when accused, neither blushed nor feared,
and that he only repented that he had not been one before. We, however, when
we undertook to defend and protect some sacrilegious and incestuous persons,
and even parricides, did not think that these (Christians) were to be heard
at all. Sometimes even, when we affected to pity them, we were more cruelly
violent against them, so as to torture them [1808] when they confessed,
that they might deny, to wit, that they might not perish; making use of a
perverse inquisition against them, not to elicit the truth, but to compel a
falsehood. And if any one, by reason of greater weakness, overcome with
suffering, and conquered, should deny that he was a Christian, we showed
favour to him, as if by forswearing that name he had at once atoned for all
his deeds by that simple denial. Do not you acknowledge that we felt and did
the same as you feel and do? when, if reason and not the instigation of a
demon were to judge, they should rather have been pressed not to disavow
themselves Christians, but to confess themselves guilty of incests, of
abominations, of sacred rites polluted, of infants immolated. For with these
and such as these stories, did those same demons fill up the ears of the
ignorant against us, to the horror of their execration. Nor yet was it
wonderful, since the common report of men, [1809] which is, always fed by
the scattering of falsehoods, is wasted away when the truth is brought to
light. Thus this is the business of demons, for by them false rumours are
both sown and cherished. Thence arises what you say that you hear, that an
ass's head is esteemed among us a divine thing. Who is such a fool as to
worship this? Who is so much more foolish as to believe that it is an object
of worship? unless that you even consecrate whole asses in your stables,
together with your Epona, [1810] and religiously devour [1811] those
same asses with Isis. Also you offer up and worship the heads of oxen and of
wethers, and you dedicate gods mingled also of a goat and a man, and gods
with the faces of dogs and lions. Do you not adore and feed Apis the ox,
with the Egyptians? And you do not condemn their sacred rites instituted in
honour of serpents, and crocodiles, and other beasts, and birds, and fishes,
of which if any one were to kill one of these gods, he is even punished with
death. These same Egyptians, together with very many of you, are not more
afraid of Isis than they are of the pungency of onions, nor of Serapis more
than they tremble. at the basest noises produced by the foulness of their
bodies. He also who fables against us about our adoration of the members of
the priest, tries to confer upon us what belongs really to himself. (Ista
enim impudicitaeeorum forsitan sacra sint, apud quos sexus omnis membris
omnibus prostat, apud quos iota impudicitia vocatur urbanitas; qui scortorum
licentiaeinvident, qui medios viros lambunt, libidinoso ore inguinibus
inhaerescunt, homines malae linguae etiam si tacerent, quos prius tae descit
impudicitiae suae quam pudescit.) Abomination! they suffer on themselves
such evil deeds, as no age is so effeminate as to be able to bear, and no
slavery so cruel as to be compelled to endure.
Chapter XXIX. Argument: Nor is It More True that a Man Fastened to a Cross
on Account of His Crimes is Worshipped by Christians, for They Believe Not
Only that He Was Innocent, But with Reason that He Was God. But, on the
Other Hand, the Heathens Invoke the Divine Powers of Kings Raised into Gods
by Themselves; They Pray to Images, and Beseech Their Genii.
"These, and such as these infamous things, we are not at liberty even to
hear; it is even disgraceful with any more words to defend ourselves from
such charges. For you pretend that those things are done by chaste and
modest persons, which we should not believe to be done at all, unless you
proved that they were true concerning yourselves. For in that you attribute
to our religion the worship of a criminal and his cross, [1812] you wander
far from the neighbourhood of the truth, in thinking either that a criminal
deserved, or that an earthly being was able, to be believed God. Miserable
indeed is that man whose whole hope is dependent on mortal man, for all his
help is put an end to with the extinction of the man. [1813] The Egyptians
certainly choose out a man for themselves whom they may worship; him alone
they propitiate; him they consult about all things; to him they slaughter
victims; and he who to others is a god, to himself is certainly a man
whether he will or no, for he does not deceive his own consciousness, if he
deceives that of others. "Moreover, a false flattery disgracefully caresses
princes and kings, not as great and chosen men, as is just, but as gods;
whereas honour is more truly rendered to an illustrious man, and love is
more pleasantly given to a very good man. Thus they invoke their deity, they
supplicate their images, they implore their Genius, that is, their demon;
and it is safer to swear falsely by the genius of Jupiter than by that of a
king. Crosses, moreover, we neither worship nor wish for. [1814] You,
indeed, who consecrate gods of wood, adore wooden crosses perhaps as parts
of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners; and flags of
your camp, what else are they but crosses glided and adorned? Your
victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but
also that of a man affixed to it. We assuredly see the sign of a cross,
[1815] naturally, in the ship when it is carried along with swelling sails,
when it glides forward with expanded oars; and when the military yoke is
lifted up, it is the sign of a cross; and when a man adores God with a pure
mind, with hands outstretched. Thus the sign of the cross either is
sustained by a natural reason, or your own religion is formed with respect
to it.
Chapter XXX. Argument: the Story About Christians Drinking the Blood of an
Infant that They Have Murdered, is a Barefaced Calumny. But the Gentiles,
Both Cruelly Expose Their Children Newly Born, and Before They are Born
Destroy Them by a Cruel Abortion. Christians are Neither Allowed to See Nor
to Hear of Manslaughter.
"And now I should wish to meet him who says or believes that we are
initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant. Think you that it can be
possible for so tender, so little a body to receive those fatal wounds; for
any one to shed, pour forth, and drain that new blood of a youngling, and of
a man scarcely come into existence? No one can believe this, except one who
can dare to do it. And I see that you at one time expose your begotten
children to wild beasts and to birds; at another, that you crush them when
strangled with a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by
drinking medical preparations, [1816] extinguish the source of the future
man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring
forth. And these things assuredly come don from the teaching of your gods.
For Saturn did not expose his children, but devoured them. With reason were
infants sacrificed to him by parents in some parts of Africa, caresses and
kisses repressing their crying, that a weeping victim might not be
sacrificed. Moreover, among the Tauri of Pontus, and to the Egyptian
Busiris, it was a sacred rite to immolate their guests, and for the Galli to
slaughter to Mercury human, or rather inhuman, sacrifices. The Roman
sacrificers buried living a Greek man and a Greek woman, a Gallic man and a
Gallic woman; and to this day, Jupiter Latiaris is worshipped by them with
murder; and, what is worthy of the son of Saturn, he is gorged with the
blood of an evil and criminal man. I believe that he himself taught Catiline
to conspire under a compact of blood, and Bellona to steep her sacred rites
with a draught of human gore, and taught men to heal epilepsy with the blood
of a man, that is, with a worse disease. They also are not unlike to him who
devour the wild beasts from the arena, besmeared and stained with blood, or
fattened with the limbs or the entrails of men. To us it is not lawful
either to see or to hear of homicide; and so much do we shrink from human
blood, that we do not use the blood even of eatable animals in our food.
Chapter XXXI. Argument: the Charge of Our Entertainments Being Polluted with
Incest, is Entirely Opposed to All Probability, While It is Plain that
Gentiles are Actually Guilty of Incest. The Banquets of Christians are Not
Only Modest, But Temperate. In Fact, Incestuous Lust is So Unheard Of, that
with Many Even the Modest Association of the Sexes Gives Rise to a Blush.
"And of the incestuous banqueting, the plotting of demons has falsely
devised an enormous fable against us, to stain the glory of our modesty, by
the loathing excited by an outrageous infamy, that before inquiring into the
truth it might turn men away from us by the terror of an abominable charge.
It was thus your own Fronto [1817] acted in this respect: he did not
produce testimony, as one who alleged a charge, but he scattered reproaches
as a rhetorician. For these things have rather originated from your own
nations. Among the Persians, a promiscuous association between sons and
mothers is allowed. Marriages with sisters are legitimate among the
Egyptians and in Athens. Your records and your tragedies, which you both
read and hear with pleasure, glory in incests: thus also you worship
incestuous gods, who have intercourse with mothers, with daughters, with
sisters. With reason, therefore, is incest frequently detected among you,
and is continually permitted. Miserable men, you may even, without knowing
it, rush into what is unlawful: since you scatter your lusts promiscuously,
since you everywhere beget children, since you frequently expose even those
who are born at home to the mercy of others, it is inevitable that you must
come back to your own children, and stray to your own offspring. Thus you
continue the story of incest, even although you have no consciousness of
your crime. But we maintain our modesty not in appearance, but in our heart
we gladly abide by the bond of a single marriage; in the desire of
procreating, we know either one wife, or none at all. We practise sharing in
banquets, which are not only modest, but also sober: for we do not indulge
in entertainments nor prolong our feasts with wine; but we temper our
joyousness with gravity, with chaste discourse, and with body even more
chaste (divers of us unviolated) enjoy rather than make a boast of a
perpetual virginity of a body. So far, in fact, are they from indulging in
incestuous desire, that with some even the (idea of a) modest intercourse of
the sexes causes a blush. Neither do we at once stand on the level of the
lowest of the people, if we refuse your honours and purple robes; and we are
not fastidious, if we all have a discernment of one good, but are assembled
together with the same quietness with which we live as individuals; and we
are not garrulous in corners, although you either blush or are afraid to
hear us in public. And that day by day the number of us is increased, is not
a ground for a charge of error, but is a testimony which claims praise; for,
in a fair mode of life, our actual number both continues and abides
undiminished, and strangers increase it. Thus, in short, we do not
distinguish our people by some small bodily mark, as you suppose, but easily
enough by the sign of innocency and modesty. Thus we love one another, to
your regret, with a mutual love, because we do not know how to hate. Thus we
call one another, to your envy, brethren: as being men born of one God and
Parent, and companions in faith, and as fellow-heirs in hope. You, however,
do not recognise one another, and you are cruel in your mutual hatreds; nor
do you acknowledge one another as brethren, unless indeed for the purpose of
fratricide.
Chapter XXXII. Argument: Nor Can It Be Said that the Christians Conceal What
They Worship Because They Have No Temples and No Altars, Inasmuch as They
are Persuaded that God Can Be Circumscribed by No Temple, and that No
Likeness of Him Can Be Made. But He is Everywhere Present, Sees All Things,
Even the Most Secret Thoughts of Our Hearts; And We Live Near to Him, and in
His Protection.
"But do you think that we conceal what we worship, if we have not temples
and altars? And yet what image of God shall I make, since, if you think
rightly, man himself is the image of God? What temple shall I build to Him,
when this whole world fashioned by His work cannot receive Him? And when I,
a man, dwell far and wide, shall I shut up the might of so great majesty
within one little building? Were it not better that He should be dedicated
in our mind, consecrated in our inmost heart? Shall I offer victims and
sacrifices to the Lord, such as He has produced for my use, that I should
throw back to Him His own gift? It is ungrateful when the victim fit for
sacrifice is a good disposition, and a pure mind, and a sincere judgment.
[1818] Therefore he who cultivates innocence supplicates God; he who
cultivates justice makes offerings to God; he who abstains from fraudulent
practices propitiates God; he who snatches man from danger slaughters the
most acceptable victim. These are our sacrifices, these are our rites of
God's worship; thus, among us, he who is most just is he who is most
religious. But certainly the God whom we worship we neither show nor see.
Verily for this reason we believe Him to be God, that we can be conscious of
Him, but cannot see Him; for in His works, and in all the movements of the
world, we behold His power ever present when He thunders, lightens, darts
His bolts, or when He makes all bright again. Nor should you wonder if you
do not see God. By the wind and by the blasts of the storm all things are
driven on and shaken, are agitated, and yet neither wind nor tempest comes
under our eyesight. Thus we cannot look upon the sun, which is the cause of
seeing to all creatures: the pupil of the eye is with drawn from his rays,
the gaze of the beholder is dimmed; and if you look too long, all power of
sight is extinguished. What! can you sustain the Architect of the sun
Himself, the very source of light, when you turn yourself away from His
lightnings, and hide yourself from His thunderbolts? Do you wish to see God
with your carnal eyes, when you are neither able to behold nor to grasp your
own soul itself, by which you are enlivened and speak? But, moreover, it is
said that God is ignorant of man's doings; and being established in heaven,
He can neither survey all nor know individuals. Thou errest, O man, and art
deceived; for from where is God afar off, when all things heavenly and
earthly, and which are beyond this province of the universe, are known to
God, are full of God? Everywhere He is not only very near to us, but He is
infused into us. Therefore once more look upon the sun: it is fixed fast in
the heaven, yet it is diffused over all lands equally; present everywhere,
it is associated and mingled with all things; its brightness is never
violated. How much more God, who has made all things, and looks upon all
things, from whom there can be nothing secret, is present in the darkness,
is present in our thoughts, as if in the deep darkness. Not only do we act
in Him, but also, I had almost said, we live with Him.
Chapter XXXIII. Argument: that Even If God Be Said to Have Nothing Availed
the Jews, Certainly the Writers of the Jewish Annals are the Most Sufficient
Witnesses that They Forsook God Before They Were Forsaken by Him.
"Neither let us flatter ourselves concerning our multitude. We seem many to
ourselves, but to God we are very few. We distinguish peoples and nations;
to God this whole world is one family. Kings only know all the matters of
their kingdom by the ministrations of their servants: God has no need of
information. We not only live in His eyes, but also in His bosom. But it is
objected that it availed the Jews nothing that they themselves worshipped
the one God with altars and temples, with the greatest superstition. You are
guilty of ignorance if you are recalling later events while you are
forgetful or unconscious of former ones. For they themselves also, as long
as they worshipped our God'and He is the same God of all'with chastity,
innocency, and religion, as long as they obeyed His wholesome precepts, from
a few became innumerable, from poor became rich, from being servants became
kings; a few overwhelmed many; unarmed men overwhelmed armed ones as they
fled from them, following them up by God's command, and with the elements
striving on their behalf. Carefully read over their Scrip- tures, or if you
are better pleased with the Roman writings, [1819] inquire concerning the
Jews in the books (to say nothing of ancient documents) of Flavius
Josephus [1820] or Antoninus Julianus, and you shall know that by their
wickedness they deserved this fortune, and that nothing happened which had
not before been predicted to them, if they should persevere in their
obstinacy. Therefore you will understand that they forsook before they were
forsaken, and that they were not, as you impiously say, taken captive with
their God, but they were given up by God as deserters from His discipline.
Chapter XXXIV. Argument: Moreover, It is Not at All to Be Wondered at If
This World is to Be Consumed by Fire, Since Everything Which Has a Beginning
Has Also an End. And the Ancient Philosophers are Not Averse from the
Opinion of the Probable Burning Up of the World. Yet It is Evident that God,
Having Made Man from Nothing, Can Raise Him Up from Death into Life. And All
Nature Suggests a Future Resurrection.
"Further, in respect of the burning up of the world, it is a vulgar error
not to believe either that fire will fall upon it in an unforeseen way, or
that the world will be destroyed by it. [1821] For who of wise men
doubts, who is ignorant, that all things which have had a beginning perish,
all things which are made come to an end? The heaven also, with all things
which are contained in heaven, will cease even as it began. The nourishment
of the seas by the sweet waters of the springs shall pass away into the
power of fire. [1822] The Stoics have a constant belief that, the
moisture being dried up, all this world will take fire; and the Epicureans
have the very same opinion concerning the conflagration of the elements and
the destruction of the world. Plato speaks, saying that parts of the world
are now inundated, and are now burnt up by alternate changes; and although
he says that the world itself is constructed perpetual and indissoluble, yet
he adds that to God Himself, the only artificer, [1823] it is both
dissoluble and mortal. Thus it is no wonder if that mass be destroyed by Him
by whom it was reared. You observe that philosophers dispute of the same
things that we are saying, not that we are following up their tracks, but
that they, from the divine announcements of the prophets, imitated the
shadow of the corrupted truth. Thus also the most illustrious of the wise
men, Pythagoras first, and Plato chiefly, have delivered the doctrine of
resurrection with a corrupt and divided faith; for they will have it, that
the bodies being dissolved, the souls alone both abide for ever, and very
often pass into other new bodies. To these things they add also this, by way
of misrepresenting the truth, that the souls of men return into cattle,
birds, and beasts. Assuredly such an opinion as that is not worthy of a
philosopher's inquiry, but of the ribaldry of a buffoon. [1824] But for
our argument it is sufficient, that even in this your wise men do in some
measure harmonize with us. But who is so foolish or so brutish as to dare to
deny that man, as he could first of all be formed by God, so can again be
re-formed; that he is nothing after death, and that he was nothing before he
began to exist; and as from nothing it was possible for him to be born, so
from nothing it may be possible for him to be restored? Moreover, it is more
difficult to begin that which is not, than to repeat that which has been. Do
you think that, if anything is withdrawn from our feeble eyes, it perishes
to God? Every body, whether it is dried up into dust, or is dissolved into
moisture, or is compressed into ashes, or is attenuated into smoke, is
withdrawn from us, but it is reserved for God in the custody of the
elements. Nor, as you believe, do we fear any loss from sepulture, [1825]
but we adopt the ancient and better custom of burying in the earth. See,
therefore, how for our consolation all nature suggests a future
resurrection. The sun sinks down and arises, the stars pass away and return,
the flowers die and revive again, after their win-try decay the shrubs
resume their leaves, seeds do not flourish again. unless they are rotted:
[1826] thus the body in the sepulchre is like the trees which in winter hide
their verdure with a deceptive dryness. Why are you in haste for it to
revive and return, while the winter is still raw? We must wait also for the
spring-time of the body. And I am not ignorant that many, in the
consciousness of what they deserve, rather desire than believe that they
shall be nothing after death; for they would prefer to be altogether
extinguished, rather than to be restored for the purpose of punishment. And
their error also is enhanced, both by the liberty granted them in this life,
and by God's very great patience, whose judgment, the more tardy it is, is
so much the more just.
Chapter XXXV. Argument: Righteous and Pious Men Shall Be Rewarded with
Never-Ending Felicity, But Unrighteous Men Shall Be Visited with Eternal
Punishment. The Morals of Christians are Far More Holy Than Those of the
Gentiles.
"And yet men are admonished in the books and poems of the most learned poets
of that fiery river, and of the heat flowing in manifold turns from the
Stygian marsh,'things which, prepared for eternal torments, and known to
them by the information of demons and from the oracles of their prophets,
they have delivered to us. And therefore among them also even king Jupiter
himself swears religiously by the parching banks and the black abyss; for,
with foreknowledge of the punishment destined to him, with his worshippers,
he shudders. Nor is there either measure termination to these torments.
There the intelligent fire [1827] burns the limbs and restores them,
feeds on them and nourishes them. As the fires of the thunderbolts strike
upon the bodies, and do not consume them; as the fires of Mount Aetna and of
Mount Vesuvius, and of burning where, glow, but are not wasted; so that
penal fire is not fed by the waste of those who burn, but is nourished by
the unexhausted eating away of their bodies. But that they who know not God
are deservedly tormented as impious, as unrighteous persons, no one except a
profane man hesitates to believe, since it is not less wicked to be ignorant
of, than to offend the Parent of all, and the Lord of all. And although
ignorance of God is sufficient for punishment, even as knowledge of Him is
of avail for pardon, yet if we Christians be compared with you, although in
some things our discipline is inferior, yet we shall be found much better
than you. For you forbid, and yet commit, adulteries; we are born [1828]
men only for our own wives: you punish crimes when committed; with us, even
to think of crimes is to sin: you are afraid of those who are aware of what
you do; are even afraid of our own conscience alone, without which we cannot
exist: finally, from your numbers the prison boils over; but there is no
Christian there, unless he is accused on account of his religion, or a
deserter.
Chapter XXXVI. Argument: Fate is Nothing, Except So Far as Fate is God.
Man's Mind is Free, and Therefore So is His Action: His Birth is Not Brought
into Judgment. It is Not a Matter of Infamy, But of Glory, that Christians
are Reproached for Their Poverty; And the Fact that They Suffer Bodily Evils
is Not as a Penalty, But as a Discipline.
"Neither let any one either take comfort from, or apologize for what happens
from fate. Let what happens be of the disposition of fortune, yet the mind
is free; and therefore man's doing, not his dignity, is judged. For what
else is fate than what God has spoken [1829] of each one of us? who,
since He can foresee our constitution, determines also the fates for us,
according to the deserts and the qualities of individuals. Thus in our case
it is not the star under which we are born that is punished, but the
particular nature of our disposition is blamed. And about fate enough is
said; or if, in consideration of the time, we have spoken too little, we
shall argue the matter at another time more abundantly [1830] and more
fully. But that many of us are called poor, this is not our disgrace, but
our glory; for as our mind is relaxed by luxury, so it is strengthened by
frugality. And yet who can be poor if he does not want, if he does not crave
for the possessions of others, if he is rich towards God? He rather is poor,
who, although he has much, desires more. Yet I will speak [1831]
according as I feel. No one can be so poor as he is born. Birds live without
any patrimony, and day by day the cattle are fed; and yet these creatures
are born for us'all of which things, if we do not lust after, we possess.
Therefore, as he who treads a road is the happier the lighter he walks, so
happier is he in this journey of life who lifts himself along in poverty,
and does not breathe heavily under the burden of riches. And yet even if we
thought wealth useful to us, we should ask it of God. Assuredly He might be
able to indulge us in some measure, whose is the whole; but we would rather
despise riches than possess them: [1832] we desire rather innocency, we
rather entreat for patience, we prefer being good to being prodigal; and
that we feel and suffer the human mischiefs of the body is not punishment'it
is warfare. For fortitude is strengthened by infirmities, and calamity is
very often the discipline of virtue; in addition, strength both of mind and
of body grows torpid without the exercise of labour. Therefore all your
mighty men whom you announce as an example have flourished illustriously by
their afflictions. And thus God is neither unable to aid us, nor does He
despise us, since He is both the ruler of all men and the lover of His own
people. But in adversity He looks into and searches out each one; He weighs
the disposition of every individual in dangers, even to death at last; He
investigates the will of man, certain that to Him nothing can perish.
Therefore, as gold by the fires, so are we declared by critical moments.
Chapter XXXVII. Argument: Tortures Most Unjustly Inflicted for the
Confession of Christ's Name are Spectacles Worthy of God. A Comparison
Instituted Between Some of the Bravest of the Heathens and the Holy Martyrs.
He Declares that Christians Do Not Present Themselves at Public Shows and
Processions, Because They Know Them, with the Greatest Certainty, to Be No
Less Impious Than Cruel.
"How beautiful is the spectacle to God when a Christian does battle with
pain; when he is drawn up against threats, and punishments, and tortures;
when, mocking [1833] the noise of death, he treads under foot the horror
of the executioner; when he raises up his liberty against kings and princes,
and yields to God alone, whose he is; when, triumphant and victorious, he
tramples upon the very man who has pronounced sentence against him! For he
has conquered who has obtained that for which he contends. What soldier
would not provoke peril with greater boldness under the eyes of his general?
For no one receives a reward before his trial, and yet the general does not
give what he has not: he cannot preserve life, but he can make the warfare
glorious. But God's soldier is neither forsaken in suffering, nor is brought
to an end by death. Thus the Christian may seem to be miserable; he cannot
be really found to be so. You yourselves extol unfortunate men to the skies;
Mucius Scaevola, for instance, who, when he had failed in his attempt
against the king, would have perished among the enemies unless he had
sacrificed his right hand. And how many of our people have borne that not
their right hand only, but their whole body, should be burned'burned up
without any cries of pain, especially when they had it in their power to be
sent away! Do I compare men with Mucius or Aquilius, or with Regulus? Yet
boys and young women among us treat with contempt crosses and tortures, wild
beasts, and all the bugbears of punishments, with the inspired [1834]
patience of suffering. And do you not perceive, O wretched men, that there
is nobody who either is willing without reason to undergo punishment, or is
able without God to bear tortures? Unless, perhaps, the fact has deceived
you, that those who know not God abound in riches, flourish in honours, and
excel in power. Miserable men! in this respect they are lifted up the
higher, that they may fall down lower. For these are fattened as victims for
punishment, as sacrifices they are crowned for the slaughter. Thus in this
respect some are lifted up to empires and dominations, that the unrestrained
exercise of power might make a market of their spirit to the unbridled
licence that is Characteristic of a ruined soul. [1835] For, apart from
the knowledge of God, what solid happiness can there be, since death must
come? Like a dream, happiness slips away before it is grasped. Are you a
king? Yet you fear as much as you are feared; and however you may be
surrounded with abundant followers, yet you are alone in the presence of
danger. Are you rich? But fortune is ill trusted; and with a large
travelling equipage the brief journey of life is not furnished, but
burdened. Do you boast of the fasces and the magisterial robes? It is a vain
mistake of man, and an empty worship of dignity, to glitter in purple and to
be sordid in hind. Are you elevated by nobility of birth? do you praise your
parents? Yet we are all born with one lot; it is only by virtue that we are
distinguished. We therefore, who are estimated by our character and our
modesty, reasonably abstain from evil pleasures, and from your pomps and
exhibitions, the origin of which in connection with sacred things we know,
and condemn their mischievous enticements. For in the chariot games who does
not shudder at the madness of the people brawling among themselves? or at
the teaching of murder in the gladiatorial games? In the scenic games also
the madness is not less, but the debauchery is more prolonged: for now a
mimic either expounds or shows forth adulteries; now nerveless player, while
he feigns lust, suggests it; the same actor disgraces your gods by
attributing to them adulteries, sighs, hatreds; the same provokes your tears
with pretended sufferings, with vain gestures and expressions. Thus you
demand murder, in fact, while you weep at it in fiction.
Chapter XXXVIII. Argument: Christians Abstain from Things Connected with
Idol Sacrifices, Lest Any One Should Think Either that They Yield to Demons,
or that They are Ashamed of Their Religion. They Do Not Indeed the Colour
and Scent of Flowers, for They are Accustomed to Use Them Scattered About
Loosely and Negligently, as Well as to Entwine Their Necks with Garlands;
But to Crown the Head of a Corpse They Think Superfluous and Useless.
Moreover, with the Same Tranquillity with Which They Live They Bury Their
Dead, Waiting with a Very Certain Hope the Crown of Eternal Felicity.
Therefore Their Religion, Rejecting All the Superstitions of the Gentiles,
Should Be Adopted as True by All Men.
"But that we despise the leavings of sacrifices, and the cups out of which
libations have been poured, is not a confession of fear, but an assertion of
our true liberty. For although nothing which comes into existence as an
inviolable gift of God is corrupted by any agency, yet we abstain, lest any
should think either that we are submitting to demons, to whom libation has
been made, or that we are ashamed of our religion. But who is he who doubts
of our indulging ourselves in spring flowers, when we gather both the rose
of spring and the lily, and whatever else is of agreeable colour and odour
among the flowers? For these we both use scattered loose and free, and we
twine our necks with them in garlands. Pardon us, forsooth, that we do not
crown our heads; we are accustomed to receive the scent of a sweet flower in
our nostrils, not to inhale it with the back of our head or with our hair.
Nor do we crown the dead. And in this respect I the more wonder at you, in
the way in which you apply to a lifeless person, or to one who does not
feel, a torch; or a garland [1836] to one who does not smell it, when
either as blessed he does not want, or, being miserable, he has no pleasure
in, flowers. Still we adorn our obsequies with the same tranquillity with
which we live; and we do not bind to us a withering garland, but we wear one
living with eternal flowers from God, since we, being both ate and secure in
the liberality of our God, are animated to the hope of future felicity by
the confidence of His present majesty. Thus we both rise again in
blessedness, and are already living in contemplation of the future. Then let
Socrates the Athenian buffoon see to it, confessing that he knew nothing,
although boastful in the testimony of a most deceitful demon; let Arcesilaus
also, and Carneades, and Pyrrho, and all the multitude of the Academic
philosophers, deliberate; let Simonides also for ever put off the decision
of his opinion. We despise the bent brows of the philosophers, whom we know
to be corrupters, and adulterers, and tyrants, and ever eloquent against
their own vices. We who [1837] bear wisdom not in our dress, but in our
mind, we do not speak meat things, but we live them we boast that we have
attained what they have sought for with the utmost eagerness, and have not
been able to find. Why are we ungrateful? why do we grudge if the truth of
divinity has ripened in the age of our time? Let us enjoy our benefits, and
let us in rectitude moderate our judgments; let superstition be restrained;
let impiety be expiated; let true religion be preserved.
Chapter XXXIX. Argument: When Octavius Had Finished This Address, Minucius
and Caecilius Sate for Some Time in Attentive and Silent Wonder. And
Minucius Indeed Kept Silence in Admiration of Octavius, Silently Revolving
What He Had Heard.
When Octavius had brought his speech to a close, for some time we were
struck into silence, and held our countenances fixed in attention and as for
me, I was lost in the greatness of my admiration, that he had so adorned
those things which it is easier to feel than to say, both by arguments and
by examples, and by authorities derived from reading; and that he had
repelled the malevolent objectors with the very weapons of the philosophers
with which they are armed, and had moreover shown the truth not only as
easy, but also as agreeable.
Chapter XL. Argument: Then Caecilius Exclaims that He is Vanquished by
Octavius; And That, Being Now Conqueror Over Error, He Professes the
Christian Religion. He Postpones, However, Till the Morrow His Training in
the Fuller Belief of Its Mysteries.
While, therefore, I was silently turning over these things in my own mind,
Caecilius broke forth: "I congratulate as well my Octavius as myself, as
much as possible on that tranquillity in which we live, and I do not wait
for the decision. Even thus we have conquered: not unjustly do I assume to
myself the victory. For even as he is my conqueror, so I am triumphant over
error. Therefore, in what belongs to the substance of the question, I both
confess concerning providence, and I yield to God; [1838] and I agree
concerning the sincerity of the way of life which is now mine. Yet even
still some things remain in my mind, not as resisting the truth, but as
necessary to a perfect training [1839] of which on the morrow, as the sun
is already sloping to his setting, we shall inquire at length in a more
fitting and ready manner."
Chapter XLI. Argument: Finally, All are Pleased, and Joyfully Depart:
Caecilius, that He Had Believed; Octavius, that He Had Conquered; And
Minucius, that the Former Had Believed, and the Latter Had Conquered.
"But for myself," said I, "I rejoice more fully on behalf of all of us;
because also Octavius has conquered for me, in that the very great
invidiousness of judging is taken away from me. Nor can I acknowledge by my
praises the merit of his words: the testimony both of man, and of one man
only, is weak. He has an illustrious reward from God, inspired by whom he
has pleaded, and aided by whom he has gained the victory."
After these things we departed, glad and cheerful: Caecilius, to rejoice
that he had believed; Octavius, that he had succeeded; and I, that the one
had believed, and the other had conquered.
Elucidations
I
Editions, p. 171.
For an interesting account of the bibliographical history of this work, see
Dupin. It passed for the Eight Book of Arnobius until a.d. 1560, and was
first printed in its true-character at Heidelberg in that year, with a
learned preface Balduinus, who restored it to its true author.
II
The neighing of horses, note 1, p. 183.
It strikes me as singular that the Edinburgh edition, which gives a note to
each of the instances that follow, should have left me to supply this
reference to the case of Darius Hystaspes. The story is told, as will be
remembered by all who have ever read it, by Herodotus, and is certainly one
of the most extraordinary in history, when one reflects that a horse elected
a great monarch, and one whose life not a little affected the fortunes of
mankind. A knavish groom was indeed the engineer of this election, as often,
in such events, the secret springs of history are hidden; but, if the story
is not wholly a fable, the coincidence of thunder in the heavens is most
noteworthy. It seemed to signify the overruling of Providence, and the power
of God to turn the folly, not less than the wrath, of men, to God's praise.
See Herod., book iii. cap. lxxxvi.
III
From nothing, p. 194.
From this Chapter, if not from others, it had been rashly affirmed that our
author imagined that the soul perishes with the body, and is to be renewed
out of nothing. The argument is wholly ad hominem, and asserts nothing from
the author's own point of view, as I understand it. He gives what is
"sufficient for his argument," and professes nothing more. He was not a
clergyman, nor is his work a sermon to the faithful. He defies any one to
deny, that, if God could form man out of nothing, He can make him anew out
of nothing. The residue of the argument is a brilliant assertion of the
imperishability of matter, in terms which might satisfy modern science; and
the implication is, that the soul no more perishes to the sight of God than
does the body vaporized and reserved in the custody of the elements.
Footnotes
[1715] [Sallust, Catiline, "Idem facere atque sentire," etc. Also,
Catiline's speech, p. 6 of The Conspiracy.]
[1716] [Beautiful tribute to Christian friendship, in a primitive example.
We must bear in mind that the story is of an earlier period than that of the
work itself, written at Cirta.]
[1717] "Ita ut me ex tribus medium lateris ambitione protegerent."
[1718] The ms. and first edition read "more;" Ursinus suggested minus
instead of magis.
[1719] This clause is otherwise read: "Therefore we must be indignant, nay,
must be grieved."
[1720] Otherwise for "even," "except."
[1721] The reading of the ms. is "stuprari," as above. "Scrutari,"
"sciari," or "lustrare" and "suspicari," are proposed emendations.
[1722] Or, "although its weight may have established the earth."
[1723] Or, "although the moisture may have flowed into the sea."
[1724] Variously read, "is raised up," or "and is raised up." The ms. has
"attollitur," which by some is amended into "et alitur," or "et tollitur."
[1725] Either "delectu" or "dilectu."
[1726] Or, "it is extolled."
[1727] "To think of rather than to know" in some texts.
[1728] Neander quotes this passage as illustrating the dissatisfied state
of the pagan mind with the prevailing infidelity at that time.
[1729] Or, "the great mother" [i.e., Cybele. S.].
[1730] Or, "which another people, when angry, would have despised."
[1731] Otherwise, "the goddess mother."
[1732] Scil. Castor and Pollux.
[1733] Otherwise, "who breathless with horses foaming," etc.
[1734] Otherwise, "the offence of Jupiter, the renewal of the games,"
etc.
[1735] According to the codex, "the Milesian." [See note in Reeve's
Apologies of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Minucius Felix, vol. ii. p. 59.
S.]
[1736] Some have corrected this word, reading "without consideration,"
scil. "inconsulte;" and the four first editions omit the subsequent words,
"concerning the divinity."
[1737] There are various emendations of this passage, but their meaning
is somewhat obscure. One is elaborately ingenious: "Ita illis pavorum fallax
spes solatio redivivo blanditur," which is said to imply, "Thus the hope
that deceives their fears, soothes them with the hope of living again."
[1738] Otherwise read "abominable."
[1739] This charge, as Oehler thinks, refers apparently to the kneeling
posture in which penitents made confession before their bishop.
[1740] This calumny seems to have originated from the sacrament of the
Eucharist.
[1741] Scil. Fronto of Cirta, spoken of again in ch. xxxi. [A recent very
interesting discovery goes to show that our author was the chief magistrate
of Cirta, in Algeria, from a.d. 210 to 217. See Schaff, vol. iii. p. 841.]
[1742] Otherwise, "no consecrated images."
[1743] Otherwise, "we are contained and bound together."
[1744] [These very accusations, reduced back to Christian language, show
that much of the Creed was, in fact, known to the heathen at this period.]
[1745] [1 Tim. iv. 7.]
[1746] "And I have already shown, without any trouble," is another
reading.
[1747] Otherwise, "without a body or with."
[1748] Otherwise, "too credulous."
[1749] Otherwise, "while you consider, while you are yet alive, poor
wretches, what is threatening after death."
[1750] Some read, "with shivering."
[1751] This is otherwise read, "Academic Pyrrhonists."
[1752] Cicero, de Natura Deorum, i. 22.
[1753] "Plautinae prosapiae." The expression is intended as a reproach
against the humble occupations of many of the Christian professors. Plautus
is said, when in need, to have laboured at a baker's hand-mill. Caecilius
tells Octavius that he may be the first among the millers, but he is the
last among the philosophers. Stieber proposes "Christianorum" instead of
"pistorum" ' "Christians" instead of "millers."
[1754] Scil. "Octavius."
[1755] Some read, "in the light."
[1756] Caecilius.
[1757] Otherwise "his."
[1758] Some read "cavillaverit" instead of "vacillaverit," which would
give the sense, "make captious objections."
[1759] This is otherwise given "certainty," which helps the meaning of
the passage.
[1760] Otherwise, "Far from his guileless subtlety is so crafty a
trickery." But the readings are very unsettled.
[1761] Some read, "the Lord God."
[1762] Scil. "atoms."
[1763] According to some, "point out" or "indicate."
[1764] Olives ripen in the month of December.
[1765] [In the case of Darius Hystaspes.]
[1766] Eteocles and Polynices.
[1767] Pompey and Caesar.
[1768] According to some, "one fate."
[1769] These words are omitted by some editors.
[1770] Homer, Odyss., xviii. 136, 137.
[1771] Virgil, Aeneid, vi. 724.
[1772] Some read, "For these things are true."
[1773] Virgil, Georgics, iv. 221; Aeneid, i. 743.
[1774] Otherwise, "Speusippus."
[1775] The ms. here inserts, "Aristoteles of Pontus varies, at one time
attributing the supremacy to the world, at another to the divine mind." Some
think that this is an interpolation, others transfer the words to
Theophrastus below.
[1776] Otherwise, "Aristo the Chian."
[1777] [See note on Plato, chap. xxvi.]
[1778] Some editors read, "mere wonders," apparently on conjecture only.
[1779] Otherwise, "was pleased."
[1780] Four early editions read "instantius" for "in statuis," making the
meaning probably, "more keenly," "more directly."
[1781] Otherwise, according to some, "of the historians."
[1782] This treatise is mentioned by Athenagoras, Legat. pro Christ., ch.
xxviii. [See vol. ii. p. 143, this series.] Also by Augustine, de Civ. Dei.,
lib. viii. ch. iii. and xxvii. In the fifth Chapter Augustine calls the
priest by the name of Leo.
[1783] This passage is very doubtful both in its text and its meaning.
[1784] Otherwise, "carried about."
[1785] Otherwise, "his approach is drowned."
[1786] Otherwise, "do they not show what are the sports and the honours
of your gods?"
[1787] These words are very variously read. Davis conjectures that they
should be, "When Feretrius, he does not hear," and explains the allusion as
follows: that Jupiter Feretrius could only be approached with the spolia
opima; and Minucius is covertly ridiculing the Romans, because, not having
taken spolia opima for so long a time, they could not approach Feretrius.
[1788] Otherwise, "pointed out," or "designated."
[1789] Otherwise corrupted into Aetna.
[1790] Some read, "and it is marvellous how these have prejudiced," etc.
[1791] Some read, "the truth itself."
[1792] Plat., de Rep., lib. iii.
[1793] Otherwise, "Then Vulcan fabricates," etc.
[1794] Otherwise, "judgments."
[1795] "Be created" is a more probable reading.
[1796] Otherwise, "that he had rashly been so deceived by the artificer
in the material, as to make a god."
[1797] [Footbaths. See vol. ii., Theophilus, p. 92, and Athenagoras, p.
143.]
[1798]Parricidium.
[1799] Virg., Aeneid, viii. 635.
[1800] Some read "probra" for "morbos," scil. "reproaches."
[1801] Reipublicae; but it is shrewdly conjectured that the passage was
written, "cum majore R. P. parte" ' "with the greater part of the Roman
people," and the mistake made by the transcriber of the ms.
[1802] Otherwise Hostanes.
[1803] [Octavius and Minucius had but one mind (see cap. i. supra), and
both were philosophers of the Attic Academy reflecting Cicero. See my
remarks on Athenagoras, vol. ii. p. 126, this series.]
[1804] According to some editors, "warns us that the desire of love is
received."
[1805] Some read "slumbers" for "all men."
[1806] "Cling to" is another reading.
[1807] Otherwise read, "But how great a fault it is."
[1808] "To urge them" is the reading in some text.
[1809] "Of all men" is another reading.
[1810] Otherwise, "Hippona."
[1811] Otherwise, "devote," and other readings.
[1812] [A reverent allusion to the Crucified, believed in and worshipped
as God.]
[1813] [Jer. xvii. 5-7.]
[1814] [See Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, chap. lxxxix. et seqq.
vol. i. p. 244. S.]
[1815] [See Reeves's Apologies (ut supra), vol. ii. p. 144, note. S.]
[1816] By medicaments and drinks.
[1817] [Fronto is called "our Cirtensian" in cap. ix. supra; and this
suggests that the Octavius was probably written in Cirta, circa a.d. 210.
See supra, p. 178.]
[1818] According to some editions, "conscience."
[1819] [Minucius is blamed for not introducing more Scripture! He
relates his friend's argument with a scoffing Pagan. How could Octavius have
used the Scriptures with such an antagonist?]
[1820] [Wars of the Jews, b. v. cap. 9, etc.]
[1821] This passage is very indefinite, and probably corrupt; the
meaning is anything but satisfactory. The general meaning is given freely
thus: "Further, it is a vulgar error to doubt or disbelieve a future
conflagration of the world."
[1822] This passage is very variously read, without substantial
alteration of the sense.
[1823] Otherwise, "to God Himself alone, the artificer."
[1824] This is otherwise read, "the work of the mimic or buffoon."
[1825] Scil. "by burning."
[1826] [1 Cor. xv. 36, Job, xiv. 7-15.]
[1827] pur sōphronoun is an expression of Clemens Alexandrinus, so that
there is no need for the emendation of "rapiens" instead of "sapiens,"
suggested by one editor.
[1828] "Are known as" is another reading.
[1829] Fatus.
[1830] Otherwise read, "both more truly."
[1831] Some read, "I will speak at length."
[1832] Probably a better reading is "strive for them."
[1833] "Arridens," but otherwise "arripiens," scil. "snatching at,"
suggesting possibly the idea of the martyrs chiding the delays of the
executioners, or provoking the rush of the wild beasts.
[1834] Otherwise, "unhoped-for." [This Chapter has been supposed to
indicate that the work was written in a time of persecution. Faint tokens of
the same have been imagined also, in capp. 29 and 33, supra.]
[1835] This passage is peculiar; the original is, "Ut ingenium eorum
perditae mentis licentiae potestatis liberae nundinentur," with various
modifications of reading.
[1836] The probable reading here is, "You apply to a lifeless person,
either if he has feeling, a torch; or, if he feels not, a garland."
[1837] "We who do not," etc., is a conjectural reading, omitting the
subsequent "we."
[1838] Otherwise read, "and I believe concerning God."
[1839] [i.e., he will become a catechumen on the morrow.]
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