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crying out through the ages: The wicked will seek me, and will not find me. Do you despise this one as an infant? He is much older than Abraham according to his divinity; and not only older than Abraham, but also the creator of Adam. He is not clothed in cowardice, but pursues a divine plan. Why then, Herod, are you rashly enraged? The gain of untimely anger is a fall. Why do you do the same things as Pharaoh? He in Egypt commanded the male children of the Hebrews to be cast into the river, and you in Bethlehem command the male infants of the Jews to be murdered. O, like-minded anger! O, equally-weighted mercilessness! O, wickedness living together! rather one must now speak more truly, that Herod is much more bestial than Pharaoh. And likewise the guards of Herod are much harsher than the attendants of Pharaoh. Pharaoh, even if he commanded the male infants of the Jews in Egypt to be murdered, nevertheless attempted this as one of a different nation, fearing lest this race of the Israelites should prevail and ravage the Egyptians. Out of concern for the Egyptians he slaughters the children of the Israelites; he makes war out of fear, 61.701 he does not kill out of envy. For in this way Pharaoh was more humane than Herod, because he also annulled the law which he had decreed, and became the dissolver of his own decree. For he only found Moses being carried in an ark in the river; he took him up through his daughter, and not only did he not kill him, but he also raised him as a son, annulling the law out of pity for the infant.

What do you say, Herod? Pharaoh saves Moses, and you have chosen to pursue the Lord Christ? He preserves the one who is about to scourge Egypt, and you wish to murder the one who saves the world? So again, the attendants of Pharaoh were more reverent than the guards of Herod. For the midwives, having been ordered to strangle the male children of the Hebrews at the very time of the infants' birth, did not carry this out, being God-loving, and this though they were Egyptian by race; for their bowels were stirred within them, knowing what mothers suffer when deprived of their male infants by a violent death. Therefore they chose rather to offend the temporal king, than to set themselves against the greater king and God. But Herod did not show his wickedness towards another nation, but contrived his madness against his own people. And Pharaoh indeed unleashed such anger only on Egypt, and no further; but Herod commanded the infants to be cut down not only in Bethlehem, but also in all its surrounding districts.

O that unjust decree, which then fell suddenly upon city and villages and fields and streets! There was nowhere for the mothers to hide their children; for they could not bear to remain outside their mothers' arms. And if ever a mother wished to hide her own child, it would give itself away by crying, its love for the breast drawing death upon it. For just as a fish cannot bear to live out of the water, so also an infant deprived of its mother's breasts does not long endure before perishing. O that universal lamentation! I do not find how I might describe the forms of the mothers' wailings. If an attack of barbarians had occurred, the mothers would have borne the pain more lightly; for a disaster, when shared, knows how to bite the sufferer more moderately. It was not an attack of barbarians, 61.702 but a civil war; it was violence that had no recourse, it was lawlessness that had law as its advocate. The mothers were crying out, and there was no one to hear; the infants were wailing in response, and there was no one present to pity; the breasts flowed with milk upon the ground, and Herod was all the more hardened like a stone. The guards, more savage than the king, dealt with the infants in various ways, some of them dashing them against the walls, others smashing them on the rocks, and others leaving them strangled. For the taskmaster, the devil, was stirring them up for such a drama. At these things, therefore, and similar ones, the mothers grew weak, and being intoxicated with suffering, they had no thought for decency. They were tearing their tunics, the

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χρόνων βοήσας· Ζητήσουσί με κακοὶ, καὶ οὐχ εὑρήσουσιν. Ὡς νηπίου καταφρονεῖς τούτου; Πολὺ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ παλαιότερός ἐστι κατὰ τὴν θεότητα· οὐ μόνον δὲ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ παλαιότερος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ δημιουργός. Οὐ δειλίαν ἠμφίεσται, ἀλλ' οἰκονομίαν μετέρχεται. Τί οὖν προπετῶς, Ἡρώδη, θυμοῦσαι; Ἀκαίρου θυμοῦ τὸ κέρδος πτῶσις. Τί τὰ ὅμοια Φαραὼ διαπράττῃ; Ἐκεῖνος ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τὰ ἄῤῥενα τῶν Ἑβραίων ποταμοῤῥιφῆναι προσέταξε, καὶ σὺ ἐν Βηθλεὲμ τὰ ἄῤῥενα τῶν Ἰουδαίων βρέφη φονοκτονεῖσθαι προστάττεις. Ὢ ὁμόθυμος θυμός! ὢ ἰσοτάλαντος ἀσπλαγχνία! ὢ ὁμοδίαιτος πονηρίας! μᾶλλον δεῖ ἤδη τἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, ὅτι ὁ Ἡρώδης τοῦ Φαραὼ πολὺ θηριωδέστερος. Ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ οἱ δορυφόροι τοῦ Ἡρώδου τῶν ὑπασπιστῶν τοῦ Φαραὼ πολὺ χαλεπώτεροι. Ὁ Φαραὼ, εἰ καὶ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τὰ ἄῤῥενα τῶν Ἰουδαίων βρέφη φονοκτονεῖσθαι προσέταξεν, ἀλλ' ὅμως ὡς ἀλλοεθνὴς ἐπεχείρει τοῦτο, δεδιὼς μὴ κατισχύσῃ τοῦτο τὸ τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν γένος, καὶ πορθήσῃ τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους. Φειδοῖ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων τοὺς Ἰσραηλιτῶν παῖδας κατασφάζει· διὰ φόβον πολεμεῖ, 61.701 οὐ διὰ φθόνον ἀναιρεῖ. Οὕτω γὰρ ὁ Φαραὼ τοῦ Ἡρώδου φιλανθρωπότερος ἦν, ὅτι καὶ ὃν ἐθέσπισε νόμον ἀνέλυσε, καὶ διαλυτὴς ἐγένετο τοῦ ἰδίου θεσπίσματος. Μόνον γὰρ εὗρε τὸν Μωϋσῆν ἐν θήκῃ τῷ ποταμῷ φερόμενον· ἀνείλατο τοῦτον διὰ τῆς θυγατρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἐφόνευσεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς υἱὸν ἀνέθρεψε, φειδοῖ τοῦ βρέφους τὸν νόμον καταλύσας.

Τί λέγεις, Ἡρώδη; Φαραὼ τὸν Μωϋσέα διασώζει, καὶ σὺ τὸν ∆εσπότην Χριστὸν μετελθεῖν προῄρησαι; ἐκεῖνος τὸν μέλλοντα τὴν Αἴγυπτον μαστίζειν περιποιεῖται, καὶ σὺ τὸν σώζοντα τὴν οἰκουμένην φονεύειν θέλεις; Οὕτω πάλιν καὶ τῶν δορυφόρων τοῦ Ἡρώδου οἱ ὑπασπισταὶ τοῦ Φαραὼ αἰδεσιμώτεροι. Αἱ γὰρ μαῖαι ἅμα τῷ τοκετῷ τῶν βρεφῶν βροχῆσαι προσταχθεῖσαι τὰ ἄῤῥενα τῶν Ἑβραίων, οὐ μετῆλθον τοῦτο φιλόθεοι τυγχάνουσαι, καὶ ταῦτα Αἰγύπτιαι οὖσαι τῷ γένει· εἱλίσσετο γὰρ αὐτῶν ἔνδον σπλάγχνα, ἐπιστάμεναι τί πάσχουσι μητέρες ἀῤῥένων βρεφῶν βιαίῳ θανάτῳ στερούμεναι. ∆ιὸ εἵλαντο μᾶλλον τῷ προσκαίρῳ προσκροῦσαι βασιλεῖ, ἢ τῷ μείζονι βασιλεῖ καὶ Θεῷ ἀντιτάξασθαι. Ὁ δὲ Ἡρώδης οὐ πρὸς ἄλλο ἔθνος τὴν κακίαν ἐπεδείξατο, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τοὺς ὁμοφύλους τὴν μανίαν ἐτεκτήνατο. Καὶ Φαραὼ μὲν τῇ Αἰγύπτῳ μόνῃ τὸν τοιοῦτον θυμὸν ἐγύμνωσε, καὶ οὐ περαιτέρω· Ἡρώδης δὲ οὐ μόνον ἐν Βηθλεὲμ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ὁρίοις αὐτῆς χλωροκοπεῖσθαι τὰ βρέφη προσέταξεν.

Ὢ τοῦ ἀδίκου δόγματος ἐκείνου, τοῦ ἀθρόως ἐπισκηψαμένου τότε κατὰ πόλιν καὶ κώμας καὶ ἀγροὺς καὶ ῥύμας! Οὐκ ἦν ποῦ κρύψωσιν αἱ μητέρες τὰ τέκνα· ἔξω γὰρ τῶν μητρικῶν ἀγκαλῶν μένειν οὐκ ἠνείχοντο. Εἰ δέ ποτε μήτηρ ἠβουλήθη κρύψαι τὸ ἴδιον τέκνον ἐκεῖνο κλαυθμῷ ἑαυτὸ παρεδίδου, τῇ πρὸς τὸν μαστὸν φιλίᾳ τὸν θάνατον ἐφελκόμενον. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἰχθὺς ἔξω τοῦ ὕδατος ζῇν οὐκ ἀνέχεται, οὕτω καὶ βρέφος μητρικῶν μαστῶν στερούμενον οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν τὴν διαφθορὰν δέχεται. Ὢ τῆς καθολικῆς θρηνῳδίας ἐκείνης! οὐχ εὑρίσκω πῶς διαγράψω τῶν μητρικῶν ὀδυρμῶν τὰ σχήματα. Εἰ βαρβάρων ἔφοδος ἐγεγόνει, κουφότερον ἂν αἱ μητέρες τὴν ὀδύνην ἔφερον· συμφορὰ γὰρ μεριζομένη μετριώτερον οἶδε δάκνειν τὸν πάσχοντα. Οὐκ ἦν βαρβάρων ἔφοδος, 61.702 ἀλλ' ἐμφύλιος πόλεμος· βία ἦν ἐντυχίαν μὴ ἔχουσα, παρανομία ἦν νόμον ἔχουσα συνήγορον. Αἱ μητέρες ἐβόων, καὶ ὁ ἀκούων οὐκ ἦν· τὰ βρέφη ἀντεθρήνουν, καὶ ὁ ἐλεῶν οὐ παρῆν· οἱ μαστοὶ τῷ γάλακτι τὴν γῆν κατέῤῥεον, καὶ ὁ Ἡρώδης μᾶλλον ὡς λίθος ἐπεπήγει. Ὠμότεροι τοῦ βασιλέως οἱ δορυφόροι, ἀλληνάλλως τὰ βρέφη μετήρχοντο, τὰ μὲν αὐτῶν πρὸς τοὺς τοίχους σπαράττοντες, τὰ δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν πετρῶν ἐδαφίζοντες, τὰ δὲ καὶ μακρόπνικτα καταλιμπάνοντες. Ἐθορύβει γὰρ αὐτοὺς τοῦ τοιούτου δράματος ὁ ἐργοδιώκτης διάβολος. Ἐπὶ τούτοις οὖν καὶ τοῖς παραπλησίοις αἱ μητέρες ἠσθένουν, καὶ τῷ πάθει μεθύουσαι τῆς εὐπρεπείας οὐκ ἐφρόντιζον. Τοὺς χιτῶνας διεῤῥήγνυον, τοὺς