finally, without a monitor, because it is from the heart we supplicate. Without ceasing, for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray for life prolonged; for security to the empire; for protection to the imperial house; for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest, whatever, as man or Caesar, an emperor would wish. These things I cannot ask from any but the God from whom I know I shall obtain them, both because He alone bestows them and because I have claims upon Him for their gift, as being a servant of His, rendering homage to Him alone, persecuted for His doctrine, offering to Him, at His own requirement, that costly and noble sacrifice of prayer' de- • Heb. X. 22, [See cap, xlii, infra p. 49,] spatched from the chaste body, an unstained soul, a sanctified spirit, not the few grains of incense a farthing buys - — tears of an Arabian tree, — not a few drops of wine, — not the blood of some worthless ox to which death is a re- lief, and, in addition to other offensive things, a polluted conscience, so that one wonders, when your victims are examined by these vile priests, why the examination is not rather of the sacrificers than the sacrifices. With our hands thus stretched out and up to God, rend us with your iron claws, hang us up on crosses, wrap us in flames, take our heads from us with the sword, let loose the wild beasts on us, — the very attitude of a Christian praying is one of preparation for all punishment. ^ Let this, good rulers, be your work: wring from us the soul, beseeching God on the emperor's behalf. Upon the truth of God, and devotion to His name, put the brand of crime.
CHAP. XXXI.
CHAP. XXXI.
But we merely, you say, flatter the em- peror, and feign these prayers of ours to es- cape persecution. Thank you for your mis- take, for you give us the opportunity of prov- ing our allegations. Do you, then, who think that we care nothing for the welfare of Caesar, look into God's revelations, examine aur sacred books, which we do not keep in hiding, and which many accidents put into the hands of those who are not of us. Learn from them that a large benevolence is enjoined upon us, even so far as to supplicate God for our ene- mies, and to beseech blessings on our perse- cutors,'* Who, then, are greater enemies and persecutors of Christians, than the very par- ties with treason against whom we are charged? Nay, even in terms, and most clearly, the Scripture says, " Pray for kings, and rulers, and powers, that all may be peace with you," ^ For when there is disturbance in the empire, if the commotion is felt by its other members, surely we too, though we are not thought to be given to disorder, are to be found in some place or other which the calamity affects.
CHAP. XXXIl.
CHAP. XXXIl.
There is also another and a greater neces- sity for our offering prayer in behalf of the emperors, nay, for the complete stability of j the empire, and for Roman interests in gene- ral. For we know that a mighty shock im- 2 [Once more this reflection on the use of material incense, which is common to early Christians, as in former volumes noted.]
3 [A reference to kneeling, which see the de Corona cap. 3, iti' fra. Christians are represented as standing at prayer, in the de- lineations of the Catacombs. But, see Nicene Canon, xx. ] CHAP. XXXV.j APOLOGY.
pending over the whole earth — in fact, the very end of all things threatening dreadful woes — is only retarded by the continued exist- ence of the Roman empire.' We have no desire, then, to be overtaken by these dire events; and in praying that their coming may be delayed, we are lending our aid to Rome's duration. More than this, though we decline to swear by the genii of the Csesars, we swear by their safety, which is worth far more than all your genii. Are you ignorant that these genii are called " D^emones," and thence the diminutive name " Dsemonia " is applied to them? We respect in the emperors the ordi- nance of God, who has set them over the nations. We know that there is that in them which God has willed; and to what God has willed we desire all safety, and we count an oath by it a great oath. But as for daemons, that is, your genii, we have been in the habit of exorcising them, not of swearing by them, and thereby conferring on them divine honour.
CHAP. XXXIII.
But why dwell longer on the reverence and sacred respect of Christians to the emperor, whom we cannot but look up to as called by our Lord to his office? So that on valid grounds I might say Caesar is more ours than yours, for our God has appointed him. Therefore, as having this propriety in him, I do more than you for his welfare, not merely because I ask it of Him who can give it, or because I ask it as one who deserves to get it, but also because, in keeping the majesty of Caesar within due limits, and putting it under the Most High, and making it less than divine, I commend him the more to the favour of Deity, to whom I make him alone inferior. But I place him in subjection to one I regard as more glorious than himself. Never will I call the emperor God, and that either because it is not in me to be guilty of falsehood; or that I dare not turn him into ridicule; or that not even himself will desire to have that high name applied to him. If he is but a man, it is his interest as man to give God His higher place. Let him think it enough to bear the name of emperor. That, too, is a great name of God's giving. To call him God, is to rob him of his title. If he is not a man, emperor he cannot be. Even when, amid the honours of a triumph, he sits on that lofty chariot, he is reminded that he is only human. A voice at his back keeps whispering in his ear, " Look behind thee; remember thou art but a man." And it only adds to his exultation, • [Cap. xxxix. infra. And see Kaye, •f which more hereafter.]
that he shines with a glory so surpassing as to require an admonitory reference to his condition. =■ It adds to his greatness that he needs such a reminiscence, lest he should think himself divine.
CHAP. XXXIV, Augustus, the founder of the empire, would not even have the title Lord; for that, too, is a name of Deity. For my part, I am willing to give the emperor this designation, but in the common acceptation of the word, and when I am not forced to call him Lord as in God's place. But my relation to him is one of freedom; for I have but one true Lord, the God omnipotent and eternal, who is Lord of the emperor as well. How can he, who is truly father of his country, be its lord? The name of piety is more grateful than the name of power; so the heads of families are called fathers rather than lords. Far less should the emperor have the name of God. We can only profess our belief that he is that by the most unworthy, nay, a fatal flattery; it is just as if, having an emperor, you call another by the name, in which case will you not give great and unappeasable offence to him who actually reigns? — an offence he, too, needs to fear on whom you have bestowed the title. Give all reverence to God, if you wish Him to be propitious to the emperor. Give up all worship of, and belief in, any other being as divine. Cease also to give the sacred name to him who has need of God himself. If such adulation is not ashamed of its lie, in addressing a man as divine, let it have some dread at least of the evil omen which it bears. It is the invocation of a curse, to give Caesar the name of god before his apotheosis.
CHAP. XXXV.
This is the reason, then, why Christians are counted public enemies: that they pay no vain, nor false, nor foolish honours to the em- peror; that, as men believing in the true re- ligion, they prefer to celebrate their festal days with a good conscience, instead of with the common wantonness. It is, forsooth, a notable homage to bring fires and couches out before the public, to have feasting from street to street, to turn the city into one great tavern, to make mud with wine, to run in troops to acts of violence, to deeds of shamelessness to lust allurements! What! is public joy manifested by public disgrace? Do things unseemly at other times beseem the festal days of princes? Do they who observe the rules of virtue out of reverence for Caesar, for 2 [A familiar story of Alexander is alluded lo.J 44 APOLOGY.
[chap. XXX ffl.
his sake turn aside from them? Shall piety be a license to immoral deeds, and shall re- ligion be regarded as affording the occasion for all riotous extravagance? Poor we, worthy of all condemnation! For why do we keep the votive days and high rejoicings in honour of the Caesars with chastity, sobriety, and virtue? Why, on the day of gladness, do we neither cover our door-posts with laurels, nor intrude upon the day with lamps? It is a proper thing, at the call of a public festivity, to dress your house up like some new brothel.' However, in the matter of this homage to a lesser majesty, in reference to which we are accused of a lower sacrilege, because we do not celebrate along with you the holidays of the Caesars in a manner forbidden alike by modesty, decency, and purity, — in truth they have been established rather as affording op- portunities for licentiousness than from any worthy motive, — in this matter I am anxious to point out how faithful and true you are, lest perchance here also those who will not have us counted Romans, but enemies of Rome's chief rulers, be found themselves worse than we wicked Christians! I appeal to the inhabitants of Rome themselves, to the native population of the seven hills: does that Roman vernacular of theirs ever spare a Caesar? The Tiber and the wild beasts' schools bear witness. Say now if nature had covered our hearts with a transparent substance through which the light could pass, whose hearts, all graven over, would not betray the scene of another and another Caesar presiding at the distribution of a largess? And this at the very time they are shouting, '* May Jupiter take years from us, and with them lengthen like to you," — words as foreign to the lips of a Christian as it is out of keeping with his character to desire a change of emperor. But this is the rabble, you say; yet, as the rabble, they still are Romans, and none more frequently than they demand the death of Christians.'' Of course, then, the other classes, as befits their higher rank, are religiously faithful. No breath of treason is there ever in the senate, in the equestrian order, in the camp, in the palace. Whence, then, came a Cassius, a Niger, an Albinus? Whence they who beset the Caesar ^ between the two laurel groves? Whence they who practised wrestling^ that they might acquire skill to strangle him? Whence they who in full armour broke into the palace,^ more audacious than all your Tigerii and Parthe- > [Note this reference to a shameless custom of the heathen in Rome and elsewhere.]
'■' [See cap. 1. and Note on cap. xl. infra.'\ i Comrnfidus.
4 To murder PertiTiax.
nii.s If I mistake not, they were Romans; that is, they were not Christians. Yet all of them, on the very eve of their traitorous outbreak, offered sacrifices for the safety of the emperor, and swore by his genius, one thing in profes- sion, and another in the heart; and no doubt they were in the habit of calling Christians enemies of the state. Yes, and persons who are now daily brought to light as confederates or approvers of these crimes and treasons, the still remnant gleanings after a vintage of traitors, with what verdant and branching laurels they clad their door-posts, with what lofty and brilliant lamps they smoked their porches, with what most exquisite and gaudy couches they divided the Forum among them- selves; not that they might celebrate public rejoicings, but that they might get a foretaste of their own votive seasons in partaking of the festivities of another, and inaugurate the model and image of their hope, changing in their minds the emperor's name. The same homage is paid, dutifully too, by those who consult astrologers, and soothsayers, and au- gurs, and magicians, about the life of the Caesars, — arts which, as made known by the angels who sinned, and forbidden by God, Christians do not even make use of in their own affairs. But who has any occasion to inquire about the life of the emperor, if he have not some wish or thought against it, or some hopes and expectations after it? For consultations of this sort have not the same motive in the case of friends as in the case of sovereigns. The anxiety of a kinsman is something very differ- ent from that of a subject.
CHAP. XXXVI.
If it is the fact that men bearing the name of Romans are found to be enemies of Rome, why are we, on the ground that we are regarded as enemies, denied the name of Romans? We may be at once Romans and foes of Rome, when men passing for Romans are discovered to be enemies of their country. So the affec- tion, and fealty, and reverence, due to the emperors do not consist in such tokens of homage as these, which even hostility may be zealous in performing, chiefly as a cloak to its purposes; but in those ways which Deity as cerainl}'^ enjoins on us, as they are held to be necessary in the case of all men as well as emperors. Deeds of true heart-goodness are not due by us to emperors alone. We never do good with respect of persons; for in our own interest we conduct ourselves as those who take no payment either of praise or premium S Tigerius and Parthenius were among the murderers of Com* modus.
CHAP. XXXVIII.]
APOLOGY.
45 from man, but from God, who both requires and remunerates an impartial benevolence.' We are the same to emperors as to our ordi- nary neighbors. For we are equally forbidden to wish ill, to do ill, to speak ill, to think ill of all men. The thing we must not do to an em- peror, we must not do to any one else: what we would not do to anybody, a fortiori, per- haps we should not do to him whom God has been pleased so highly to exalt.
CHAP, XXXVII.
If we are enjoined, then, to love our ene- mies, as I have remarked above, whom have we to hate? If injured, we are forbidden to retaliate, lest we become as bad ourselves: who can suffer injury at our hands? In regard to this, recall your own experiences. How often you inflict gross cruelties on Christians, partly because it is your own inclination, and partly in obedience to the laws! How often, too, the hostile mob, paying no regard to you, takes the law into its own hand, and assails us with stones and flames! With the very frenzy of the Bacchanals, they do not even spare the Christian dead, but tear them, now sadly changed, no longer entire, from the rest of the tomb, from the asylum we might say of death, cutting them in pieces, rending them asunder. Yet, banded together as we are, ever so ready to sacrifice our lives, what sin- gle case of revenge for injury are you able to point to, though, if it were held right among us to repay evil by evil, a single night with a torch or two could achieve an ample vengeance? But away with the idea of a sect divine avenging itself by human fires, or shrinking from the sufferings in which it is tried. If we desired, indeed, to act the part of open enemies, not merely of secret avengers, would there be any lacking in strength, whether of numbers or resources? The Moors, the Mar- comanni, the Parthians themselves, or any single people, however great, inhabiting a dis- tinct territory, and confined within its own boundaries, surpasses, forsooth, in numbers, one spread over all the world! We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you— cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, com- panies, palace, senate, forum, — we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods. For what wars should we not be fit, not eager, even with unequal forces, we who so willingly yield ourselves to the sword, if in our religion it were not counted better to be slain than to slay? Without arms even, and raising no in- ' [Cap. ix. p. 25, note i supra. 'boDouring all men."]
Again, Christian democracy, surrectionary banner, but simply in enmity to you, we could carry on the contest with you by an ill-willed severance alone. F'or if such multitudes of men were to break away from you, and betake themselves to some remote corner of the world, why, the very loss of so many citizens, whatever sort they were, would cover the empire with shame; nay, in the very forsaking, vengeance would be inflicted. Why, you would be horror-struck at the soli- tude in which you would find yourselves, at such an all-prevailing silence, and that stupor as of a dead world. You would have to seek subjects to govern. You would have more enemies than citizens remaining. For now it is the immense number of Christians which makes your enemies so few,— almost all the inhabitants of your various cities being fol- lowers of Christ.^ Yet you choose to call us enemies of the human race, rather than of human error. Nay, who would deliver you from those secret foes, ever busy both de- stroying your souls and ruining your health? Who would save you, I mean, from the attacks of those spirits of evil, which without reward or hire we exorcise? This alone would be re- venge enough for us, that you were henceforth left free to the possession of unclean spirits.
But instead of taking into account what is due to us for the important protection we afford you, and though we are not merely no trouble to you, but in fact necessary to your well- being, you prefer to hold us enemies, as in- deed we are, yet not of man, but rather of his error.
CHAP, XXXVIII.
Ought not Christians, therefore, to receive not merely a somewhat milder treatment, but to have a place among the law-tolerated socie- ties, seeing they are not chargeable with any such crimes as are commonly dreaded from societies of the illicit class? For, unless I mistake the matter, the prevention of such as- sociations is based on a prudential regard to public order, that the state may not be divided into parties, which would naturally lead to disturbance in the electoral assemblies, the councils, the curios, the special conventions, even in the public shows by the hostile collis- ions of rival parties; especially when now, in pursuit of gain, men have begun to consider their violence an article to be bought and sold. But as those in whom all ardour in the pursuit of glory and honour is dead, we have no press- ing inducement to take part in your public meetings; nor is there aught more entirely foreign to us than affairs of state. We ac- = [Elucidation VI.]
46 APOLOGY.
[chap, XXXIX.
knowledge one all-embracing commonwealth — the world. We renounce all your specta- cles, as strongly as we renounce the matters originating them, which we know were con- ceived of superstition, when we give up the very things which are the basis of their repre- sentations. Among us nothing is ever said, or seen, or heard, which has anything in com- mon with the madness of the circus, the im- modesty of the theatre, the atrocities of the arena, the useless exercises of the wrestling- ground. Why do you take offence at us because we differ from you in regard to your pleasures? If we will not partake of your enjoyments, the loss is ours, if there be loss in the case, not yours. We reject what pleases you. You, on the other hand, have no taste for what is our delight. The Epicureans were allowed by you to decide for themselves one true source of pleasure — I mean equanimity; the Christian, on his part, has many such en- joyments— what harm in that?
CHAP. XXXIX.
I shall at once go on, then, to exhibit the peculiarities of the Christian society, that, as I have refuted the evil charged against it, I may point out its positive good.' We are a body knit together as such by a common re- ligious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our suppli- cations. This violence God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation.^ We as- semble to read our sacred writings, if any peculiarity of the times makes either fore- .varning or reminiscence needful. ^ However It be in that respect, with the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more stedfast; and no less by inculcations of God's precepts we confirm good habits. In the same place also exhortations are made, rebukes and sa- cred censures are administered. For with a great gravity is the work of judging carried on among us, as befits those who feel assured that they are in the sight of God; and you have the most notable example of judgment to come when any one has sinned so griev- ously as to require his severance from us in prayer, in the congregation and in all sacred Elucidation VII.] Chap, xxxii. supra p. 43 s of the like] An argument for Days of Public Thanksgiving, Fasting and intercourse. The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase, but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure- chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. On the monthly day,* if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are, as it were, piety's deposit fund. For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking- bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or ban- ished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, haiv they love otie^ another, for themselves are animated by mutual hatred; how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves will