sooner put to death. And they are wroth with us, too, because we call each other brethren; for no other reason, as I think, than because among themselves names of consanguinity are assumed in mere pretence of affection. But we are your brethren as well, by the law of our common mother nature, though you are hardly men, because brothers so unkind. At the same time, how much more fittingly they are called and counted brothers who have been led to the knowledge of God as their common Father, who have drunk in one spirit of holi- ness, who from the same womb of a common ignorance have agonized into the same light of truth! But on this very account, perhaps, we are regarded as having less claim to be held true brothers, that no tragedy makes a noise about our brotherhood, or that the family possessions, which generally destroy brother- hood among you, create fraternal bonds among us. One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another.' All things are common among us but our wives. We give up our community where it is practised alone by others, who not only take possession of the wives of their friends, but most tolerantly also accommodate their friends with theirs, following the example, I believe.
4 [On ordinary Sundays, "they laid by in store," apparently: once a month they offered.]
5 \_h precious testimony, although the caviller asserts that after- wards the heathen used this expression derisively.]
CHAP.
XL.]
APOLOGY, 47 of those wise men of ancient times, the Greek Socrates and the Roman Cato, who shared with their friends the wives whom they had married, it seems for the sake of progeny both to them- selves and to others; whether in this acting against their partners' wishes, I am not able to say. Why should they have any care over their chastity, when their husbands so readily bestowed it away? O noble example of Attic wisdom, of Roman gravity — the philosopher and the censor playing pimps! What won- der if that great love of Christians towards one another is desecrated by you! For you abuse also our humble feasts, on the ground that they are extravagant as well as infamously wicked. To us, it seems, applies the saying of Diogenes: *' The people of Megara feast as though they were going to die on the mor- row; they build as though they were never to die! " But one sees more readily the mote in another's eye than the beam in his own. Why, the very air is soured with the eructa- tions of so many tribes, and airice, and de- curicB. The Salii cannot have their feast without going into debt; you must get the accountants to tell you what the tenths of Hercules and the sacrificial banquets cost; the choicest cook is appointed for the Apaturia, the Dionysia, the Attic mysteries; the smoke from the banquet of Serapis will call out the firemen. Yet about the modest supper- room of the Christians alone a great ado is made. Our feast explains itself by its name. The Greeks call it agape, i.e., affection. What- ever it costs, our outlay in the name of piety is gain, since with the good things of the feast we benefit the needy; not as it is with you, do parasites aspire to the glory of satisfying their licentious propensities, selling themselves for a belly-feast to all dfsgracefirl treatment, — but as it is with God himself, a peculiar respect is shown to the lowly. If the object of our feast be good, in the light of that consider its fur- ther regulations. As it is an act of religious service, it permits no vileness or immodesty. The participants, before reclining, taste first of prayer to God. As much is eaten as satis- fies the cravings of hunger; as much is drunk as befits the chaste. They say it is enough, as those who remember that even during the night they_have to worship God; they talk as those who know that the Lord is one of their auditors. ^ After manual ablution, and the bringing in of lights, each ' is asked to stand forth ^nd sing, as he can, a hymn to God, either one from the holy Scriptures or one of his own composing, — a proof of the measure • [Or, perhaps — " One is prompted to stand forth and bring to (iod. as every one can, whether from the Holy Scriptures, or of his own mind " — i.e. according to his taste.]
of our drinking. As the feast commenced with prayer, so with prayer it is closed. We go from it, not like troops of mischief-doers, nor bands of vagabonds, nor to break out into licentious acts, but to have as much care of our modesty and chastity as if we had been at a school of virtue rather than a banquet. Give the congregation of the Christians its due, and hold it unlawful, if it is like assemblies of the illicit sort: by all means let it be con- demned, if any complaint can be validly laid against it, such as lies against secret factions. But who has ever suffered harm from our as- semblies? We are in our congregations just what we are when separated from each other; we are as a community what we are indi- viduals; we injure nobody, we trouble no- body. When the upright, when the virtuous meet together, when the pious, when the pure assemble in congregation, you ought not to call that a faction, but a curia — [i.e., the court of God.]
CHAP. XL.
On the contrary, they deserve the name of faction who conspire to bring odium on good men and virtuous, who cry out against inno- cent blood, offering as the justification of their enmity the baseless plea, that they think the Christians the cause of every public disaster, of every affliction with which the people are visited. If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not send its waters up over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if there is an earthquake, if there is famine or pestilence, straightway the cry^ is, "Away with the Christians to the lion! " What! shall you give such multitudes to a single beast? Pray, tell me how many calamities befell the world and particular cities before Tiberius reigned — before the coming, that is, of Christ? We 'read of the islands of Hiera, and Anaphe, and Delos, and Rhodes, and Cos, with many thousands of human beings, having been swallowed up. Plato informs us that a region larger than Asia or Africa was seized by the Atlantic Ocean. An earthquake, too, drank up the Corinthian sea; and the force of the waves cut off a part of Lucania, whence it obtained the name of Sicily. These things surely could not have taken place with- out the inhabitants suffering by them. But where — I do not say were Christians, those despisers of your gods — but where were your gods themselves in those days, when the flood poured its destroying waters over all the world, or, as Plato thought, merely the level portion of it? For that they are of later date '^\Christianos ad leoncin. From what class, chieUy, see cap xx.w. supra. Elucidation VI 1 1.]
48 APOLOGY.
[chap. XLi.
than that calamity, the very cities in which they were born and died, nay, which they founed, \ bear ample testimony; for the cities could have no existence at this day unless as belong- ing to postdiluvian times. Palestine had not yet received from Egypt its Jewish swarm (of emigrants), nor had the race from which Christians sprung yet settled down there, when its neighbors Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed by fire from heaven. The country yet smells of that conflagration; and if there are apples there upon the trees, it is only a promise to the eye they give — you but touch them, and they turn to ashes. Nor had Tuscia and Campania to complain of Christians in ' the days when fire from heaven overwhelmed Vulsinii, and Pompeii was destroyed by fire from its own mountain. No one yet wor- shipped the true God at Rome, when Hannibal at Cannae counted the Roman slain by the pecks of Roman rings. Your gods were all objects of adoration, universally acknowl- edged, when the Senones closely besieged the very Capitol. And it is in keeping with all this, that if adversity has at any time befallen cities, the temples and the walls have equally shared in the disaster, so that it is clear to demonstration the thing was not the doing of the gods, seeing it also overtook themselves.
The truth is, the human race has always de- served ill at God's hand. First of all, as un- dutiful to Him, because when it knew Him in part, it not only did not seek after Him, but even invented other gods of its own to worship; and further, because, as the result of their willing ignorance of the Teacher of righteousness, the Judge and Avenger of sin, all vices and crimes grew and flourished. But had men sought, they would have come to know the glorious object of their seeking; and knowledge would have produced obedi- ence, and obedience would have found a gra- cious instead of an angry God. They ought then to see that the very same God is angry with them now as in ancient times, before Christians were so much as spoken of. It was His blessings they enjoyed — created be- fore they made any of their deities: and why can they not take it in, that their evils come from the Being whose goodness they have failed to recognize? They suffer at the hands of Him to whom they have been ungrateful. And, for all that is said, if we compare the calamities of former times, they fall on us more lightly now, since God gave Christians to the world; for from that time virtue put some restraint on the world's wickedness, and men began to pray for the averting of God's wrath. In a word, when the summer clouds give no rain, and the season is matter of anxiety, you indeed — full of feasting day by day, and ever eager for the banquet, baths and taverns and brothels always busy — offer up to Jupiter your rain-sacrifices; you enjoin on the people barefoot processions; you seek heaven at the Capitol; you look up to the temple-ceilings for the longed-for clouds — God and heaven not in all your thoughts. We, dried up with fastings, and our passions bound tightly up, holding back as long as possible from all the ordinary enjoyments of life, rolling in sackcloth and ashes, assail heaven with our importunities — touch God's heart — and when we have extorted divine compassion, why, Jupiter gets all the honour!
CHAP. XLI.
You, therefore, are the sources of trouble in human affairs; on you lies the blame of public adversities, since you are ever attract- ing them — you by whom God is despised and images are worshipped. It should surely seem the more natural thing to believe that it is the neglected One who is angry, and not they to whom all homage is paid; or most unjustly they act, if, on account of the Chris- tians, they send trouble on their own devotees, whom they are bound to keep clear of the punishments of Christians. ' But this, you say, hits your God as well, since He permits His worshippers to suffer on account of those who dishonour Him. But admit first of all His providential arrangings, and you will not make this retort. For He who once for ail appointed an eternal judgment at the world's close, does not precipitate the separation, which is essential to judgment, before the end. Meanwhile He deals with all sorts of men alike, so that all together share His favours and reproofs. His will is, that outcasts and elect should have adversities and prosperities in common, that we should have all the same experience of His goodness and severity. Having learned these things from His own lips, we love His goodness, we fear His wrath, while both by you are treated with contempt; and hence the sufferings of life, so far as it is our lot to be overtaken by them, are in our case gracious admonitions, while in yours they are divine punishments. We indeed are not the least put about: for, first, only one thing in this life greatly concerns us, and that is, to get quickly out of it; and next, if any adversitv befalls us, it is laid to the door of your transgressions. Nay, though we are likewise involved in troubles because of our close connection with you, we are rather gl.ul of it, because we recognize in it divine fon.-- tellings, which, in fact, go to confirm the con- fidence and faith of our liope. But if ail the: CHAP XLIV.]
APOLOGY.
49 evils you endure are inflicted on you by the gods you worship out of spite to us, why do you continue to pay homage to beings so un- grateful, and unjust; who, instead of being angry with you, should rather have been aid- ing and abetting you by persecuting Christians — keeping you clear of their sufferings?
CHAP. XLII.
But we are called to account as harm-doers on another' ground, and are accused of being useless in the affairs of life. How in all the world can that be the case with people who are living among you, eating the same food, wearing the same attire, having the same habits, under the same necessities of exist- ence? We are not Indian Brahmins or Gym- nosophists, who dwell in woods and exile themselves from ordinary human life. We do not forget the debt of gratitude we owe to God, our Lord and Creator; we reject no creature of His hands, though certainly we exercise restraint upon ourselves, lest of any gift of His we make an immoderate or sinful use. So we sojourn with you in the world, abjuring neither forum, nor shambles, nor bath, nor booth, nor workshop, nor inn, nor weekly market, nor any other places of com- merce. We sail with you, and fight with you,' and till the ground with you; and in like manner we unite with you in your trafifick- ings — even in the various arts we make public property of our works for your benefit. How it is we seem useless in your ordinary busi- ness, living with you and by you as we do, I am not able to understand. But if I do not frequent your religious ceremonies, I am still on the sacred day a man. I do not at the Saturnalia bathe myself at dawn, that I may not lose both day and night; yet I bathe at a decent and healthful hour, which preserves me both in heat and blood. I can be rigid and pallid like you after ablution when I am dead. I do not recline in public at the feast of Bacchus, after the manner of the beast- fighters at their final banquet. Yet of your resources I partake, ^uherrccr I may chance to eat. I do not buy a crown for my head. What matters it to you how I use them, if nevertheless the flowers are purchased? I think it more agreeable to have them free and loose, waving all about. Even if they are woven into a crown, we smell the crown with our nostrils: let those look to it who scent the perfume with their hair. We do not go to your spectacles; yet the articles that are sold there, if I need them, I will ob- ' [Elucidation IX. See Kaye, p. 361. J 2 [The occupation of a soldier was regarded as lawful therefor*. But see, afterwards, the De Corona cap. xi.'\ 4 tain more readily at their proper places. We certainly buy no frankincense. If the Arabias complain of this, let the Sabaeans be well assured that their more precious and costly merchandise is expended as largely in the burying of Christiansens in the fumigating of the gods. At any rate, you say, the tem- ple revenues are every day falling off: ♦ how few now throw in a contribution! In truth, we are not able to give alms both to your human and your heavenly mendicants; nor do we think that we are required to give any but to those who ask for it. Let Jupiter then hold out his hand and get, for our com- passion spends more in the streets than yours does in the temples. But your other taxes will acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Chris- tians; for in the faithfulness which keeps us from fraud upon a brother, we make con- science of paying all their dues: so that, by ascertaining how much is lost by fraud and falsehood in the census declarations — the cal- culation may easily be made — it would be seen that the ground of complaint in one de- partment of revenue is compensated by the advantage which others derive.
CHAP. XLIII.
I will confess, however, without hesitation, that there are some who in a sense may com- plain of Christians that they are a sterile race: as, for instance, pimps, and panders, and bath-suppliers; assassins, and poisoners, and sorcerers; soothsayers, too, diviners, and astrologers. But it is a noble fruit of Chris- tians, that they have no fruits for such as these. And yet, whatever loss your interests suffer from the religion we profess, the pro- tection you have from us makes amply up for it. What value do you set on persons, I do not here urge who deliver you from demons, I do not urge who for your sakes present prayers before the throne of the true God, for perhaps you have no belief in that — but from whom you can have nothing to fear?
CHAP. XLIV.
Yes, and no one considers what the loss is to the common weal, — a loss as great as it is real, no one estimates the injury entailed upon the state, when, men of virtue as we are, we are put to death in such numbers; when so many of the truly good suffer the last penalty. And here we call your own acts to witness, you who are daily presiding at the trials of prisoners, and passing sentence ujx)n crimes. Well, in your long lists of those ac- 3 [An interesting fact as to the burial-rites of F.arly Christians. As to incense, see cap. x.xx. supra p. 42.] < An index of the growth of Christianity.
;o APOLOGY.
[chap, xlvl cused of many and various atrocities, has any assassin, any cutpurse, any man guilty of sacrilege, or seduction, or stealing bathers' clothes, his name entered as being a Chris- tian too? Or when Christians are brought before you on the mere ground of their name, is there ever found among them an ill-doer of the sort? It is always with your folk the prison is steaming, the mines are sighing, the wild beasts are fed: it is from you the exhibit- ors of gladiatorial shows always get their herds of criminals to feed up for the occa- sion. You find no Christian there, except simply as being such; or if one is there as something else, a Christian he is no longer.'
CHAP. XLV.
We, then, alone are without crime. Is there ought wonderful in that, if it be a very necessity with us? For a necessity indeed it is. Taught of God himself what goodness is, we have both a perfect knowledge of it as revealed to us by a perfect Master; and faith- fully we do His will, as enjoined on us by a Judge we dare not despise. But your ideas of virtue you have got from mere human opinion; on human authority, too, its obliga- tion rests: hence your system of practical morality is deficient, both in the fulness and authority requisite to produce a life of real virtue. Man's wisdom to point out what is good, is no greater than his authority to exact the keeping of it; the one is as easily de- ceived as the other is despised. And so, which is the ampler rule, to say, " Thou shalt not kill," or to teach, " Be not even angry? " Which is more perfect, to forbid adultery, or to restrain from even a single lustful look? Which indicates the higher intelligence, inter- dicting evil-doing, or evil-speaking? Which is more thorough, not allowing an injury, or not even suffering an injury done to you to be re- paid? Though withal you know that these very laws also of yours, which seem to lead to virtue, have been borrowed from the law of God as the ancient model. Of the age of Moses we have already spoken. But what is the real authority of human laws, when it is in man's power both to evade them, by generally managing to hide himself out of sight in his crimes, and to despise them sometimes, if inclination or necessity leads him to offend? Think of these things, too, in the light of the brevity of any punishment you can inflict — never to last longer than till death. On this ground Epicurus makes light of all suffering and pain, maintaining ' [An appeal so defiant that its very boldness confirms this trib- ute to the character of our Christian fathers, p. 42.]
that if it is small, it is contemptible; and if it is great, it is not long-continued. No doubt about it, we, who receive our awards under the judgment of an all-seeing God, and who look forward to eternal punishment from Him for sin, — we alone make real effort to attain a blameless hfe, under the influ- ence of our ampler knowledge, the impossi- bihty of concealment, and the greatness of the threatened torment, not merely long-en- during but everlasting, fearing Him, whom he too should fear who the fearing judges, — even God, I mean, and not the proconsul.
CHAP. XLVI.
We have sufficiently met, as I think, the accusation of the various crimes on the ground of which these fierce demands are made for Christian blood. We have made a full exhibition of our case; and we have shown you how we are able to prove that ot»ir statement is correct, from the trustworthi- ness, I mean, and antiquity of our sacred writings, and from the confession likewise of the poweis of spiritual wickedness themselves. Who will venture to undertake our refutation; not with skill of words, but, as we have man- aged our demonstration, on the basis of real- ity? But while the truth we hold is made clear to all, unbelief meanwhile, at the very time it is convinced of the worth of Chris- tianity, which has now become well known for its benefits as well as from the intercourse of life, takes up the notion that it is not really a thing divine, but rather a kind of philosophy. These are the very things, it says, the philosophers counsel and profess — innocence, justice, patience, sobriety, chas- tity. Why, then, are we not permitted an equal liberty and impunity for our doctrines as they haf^ with whom, in respect of what we teach, we are compared? or why are not they, as so like us, not pressed to the same offices, for declining which our lives are imperilled? For who compels a philosopher to sacrifice or take an oath, or put out useless lamps at midday? Nay, they openly over- throw your gods, and in their writings they attack your superstitions; and you applaud them for it. Many of them even, with your countenance, bark out against your rulers, and are rewarded with statues and salaries, instead of being given to the wild beasts. And very right it should be so. For they are called philosophers, not Christ'ans. This name of philosopher has no power to put demons to the rout. Why are they not able to do that too? since philosophers count demons inferior to gods. Socrates used to say, " If the demon grant permission." Yet CHAP. XLVII.]
APOLOGY.
51 lie, too, though in denying the existence of your divinities he had a gUmpse of the truth, at his dying ordered a cock to be sacrificed to y^tsculapius, T believe in honour of his father, ' for Apollo pronounced Socrates the wisest of men. Thoughtless Apollo! testify- insr to the wisdom of the man who denied the existence of his race. In proportion to the enmity the truth awakens, you give offence by faithfully standing by it; but the man who corrupts and makes a mere pretence of it precisely on this ground gains favour with its persecutors. The truth which philosophers, these mockers and corrupters of it, with hos- tile ends merely affect to hold, and in doing so deprave, caring for nought but glory. Chris- tians both intensely and intimately long for and maintain in its integrity, as those who have a real concern about their salvation. So that we are like each other neither in our knowledge nor our ways, as you imagine. ■For what certain information did Thales, the first of natural philosophers, give in reply to the inquiry of Croesus regarding Deity, the delay for further thought so often proving in vain? There is not a Christian workman but finds out God, and manifests Him, and hence assigns to Him all those attributes which go to constitute a divine being, though Plato affirms that it is far from easy to discover the Maker of the universe; and when He is found, it is difficult to make Him known to all. But if we challenge you to comparison in the vir- tue of chastity, I turn to a part of the sentence passed by the Athenians against Socrates, who was pronounced a corrupter of youth. The Christian confines himself to the female sex. I have read also how the harlot Phryne kindled in Diogenes the fires of lust, and how a certain Speusippus, of Plato's school, per- ished in the adulterous act. The Christian husband has nothing to do with any but his own wife. Democritus, in putting out his eyes, because he could not look on women without lusting after them, and was pained if his passion was not satisfied, owns plainly, by the punishment he inflicts, his incontinence. But a Christian with grace-healed eyes is sightless in this matter; he is mentally blind against the assaults of passion. If I maintain our superior modesty of behaviour, there at once occurs to me Diogenes with filth-covered feet trampling on the proud couches of Plato, under the influence of another pride: the Christian does not even play the proud man to the pauper. If sobriety of spirit be the virtue in debate, why, there are Pythagoras