Ad Nationes.

 Book I.

 In this case you actually conduct trials contrary to the usual form of judicial process against criminals for when culprits are brought up for trial,

 Since, therefore, you who are in other cases most scrupulous and persevering in investigating charges of far less serious import, relinquish your care

 But the sect, you say, is punished in the name of its founder. Now in the first place it is, no doubt, a fair and usual custom that a sect should be m

 As to your saying of us that we are a most shameful set, and utterly steeped in luxury, avarice, and depravity, we will not deny that this is true of

 Whenever these statements and answers of ours, which truth suggests of its own accord, press and restrain your conscience, which is the witness of its

 Whence comes it to pass, you will say to us, that such a character could have been attributed to you, as to have justified the lawmakers perhaps by it

 We are indeed said to be the “third race” of men. What, a dog-faced race? Or broadly shadow-footed? bread

 But why should I be astonished at your vain imputations?  Under the same natural form, malice and folly have always been associated in one body and gr

 Pour out now all your venom fling against this name of ours all your shafts of calumny: I shall stay no longer to refute them but they shall by and

 In this matter we are (said to be) guilty not merely of forsaking the religion of the community, but of introducing a monstrous superstition for some

 As for him who affirms that we are “the priesthood of a cross,” we shall claim him all cross

 Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact

 Report has introduced a new calumny respecting our God. Not so long ago, a most abandoned wretch in that city of yours, a man who had deserted indeed

 Since we are on a par in respect of the gods, it follows that there is no difference between us on the point of sacrifice, or even of worship, if I ma

 I am now come to the hour for extinguishing the lamps, and for using the dogs, and practising the deeds of darkness. And on this point I am afraid I m

 As to your charges of obstinacy and presumption, whatever you allege against us, even in these respects, there are not wanting points in which you wil

 The rest of your charge of obstinacy against us you sum up in this indictment, that we boldly refuse neither your swords, nor your crosses, nor your w

 Here end, I suppose, your tremendous charges of obstinacy against the Christians. Now, since we are amenable to them in common with yourselves, it onl

 Chapter XX.—Truth and Reality Pertain to Christians Alone. The Heathen Counselled to Examine and Embrace It.

 Book II

 Chapter I.—The Heathen Gods from Heathen Authorities. Varro Has Written a Work on the Subject. His Threefold Classification. The Changeable Character

 Chapter II.—Philosophers Had Not Succeeded in Discovering God. The Uncertainty and Confusion of Their Speculations.

 Chapter III.—The Physical Philosophers Maintained the Divinity of the Elements The Absurdity of the Tenet Exposed.

 Chapter IV.—Wrong Derivation of the Word Θεός. The Name Indicative of the True Deity. God Without Shape and Immaterial. Anecdote of Thales.

 Chapter V.—The Physical Theory Continued. Further Reasons Advanced Against the Divinity of the Elements.

 Chapter VI.—The Changes of the Heavenly Bodies, Proof that They are Not Divine.  Transition from the Physical to the Mythic Class of Gods.

 Chapter VII.—The Gods of the Mythic Class. The Poets a Very Poor Authority in Such Matters. Homer and the Mythic Poets. Why Irreligious.

 Chapter VIII.—The Gods of the Different Nations. Varro’s Gentile Class. Their Inferiority. A Good Deal of This Perverse Theology Taken from Scripture.

 Chapter IX.—The Power of Rome. Romanized Aspect of All the Heathen Mythology. Varro’s Threefold Distribution Criticised. Roman Heroes (Æneas Included,

 Chapter X.—A Disgraceful Feature of the Roman Mythology. It Honours Such Infamous Characters as Larentina.

 Chapter XI.—The Romans Provided Gods for Birth, Nay, Even Before Birth, to Death. Much Indelicacy in This System.

 Now, how much further need I go in recounting your gods—because I want to descant on the character of such as you have adopted? It is quite uncertain

 Manifest cases, indeed, like these have a force peculiarly their own.  Men like Varro and his fellow-dreamers admit into the ranks of the divinity tho

 Chapter XIV.—Gods, Those Which Were Confessedly Elevated to the Divine Condition, What Pre-Eminent Right Had They to Such Honour? Hercules an Inferior

 Chapter XV.—The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as

 Chapter XVI.—Inventors of Useful Arts Unworthy of Deification. They Would Be the First to Acknowledge a Creator. The Arts Changeable from Time to Time

 In conclusion, without denying all those whom antiquity willed and posterity has believed to be gods, to be the guardians of your religion, there yet

Book I.

Chapter I.1    Compare The Apology, c. i.—The Hatred Felt by the Heathen Against the Christians is Unjust, Because Based on Culpable Ignorance.

One proof of that ignorance of yours, which condemns2    Revincit. “Condemnat” is Tertullian’s word in The Apology, i. whilst it excuses3    Defendit. “Excusat” in Apol. your injustice, is at once apparent in the fact, that all who once shared in your ignorance and hatred (of the Christian religion), as soon as they have come to know it, leave off their hatred when they cease to be ignorant; nay more, they actually themselves become what they had hated, and take to hating what they had once been. Day after day, indeed, you groan over the increasing number of the Christians. Your constant cry is, that the state is beset (by us); that Christians are in your fields, in your camps, in your islands. You grieve over it as a calamity, that each sex, every age—in short, every rank—is passing over from you to us; yet you do not even after this set your minds upon reflecting whether there be not here some latent good.  You do not allow yourselves in suspicions which may prove too true,4    Non licet rectius suspicari. nor do you like ventures which may be too near the mark.5    Non lubet propius experiri. This is the only instance in which human curiosity grows torpid. You love to be ignorant of what other men rejoice to have discovered; you would rather not know it, because you now cherish your hatred as if you were aware that, (with the knowledge,) your hatred would certainly come to an end. Still,6    At quin. if there shall be no just ground for hatred, it will surely be found to be the best course to cease from the past injustice.  Should, however, a cause have really existed there will be no diminution of the hatred, which will indeed accumulate so much the more in the consciousness of its justice; unless it be, forsooth,7    Nisi si. that you are ashamed to cast off your faults,8    Emendari pudet. or sorry to free yourselves from blame.9    Excusari piget. I know very well with what answer you usually meet the argument from our rapid increase.10    Redundantiæ nostræ. That indeed must not, you say, be hastily accounted a good thing which converts a great number of persons, and gains them over to its side. I am aware how the mind is apt to take to evil courses. How many there are which forsake virtuous living!  How many seek refuge in the opposite!  Many, no doubt;11    Bona fide. nay, very many, as the last days approach.12    Pro extremitatibus temporum. But such a comparison as this fails in fairness of application; for all are agreed in thinking thus of the evil-doer, so that not even the guilty themselves, who take the wrong side, and turn away from the pursuit of good to perverse ways, are bold enough to defend evil as good.13    Or perhaps, “to maintain evil in preference to good.” Base things excite their fear, impious ones their shame. In short, they are eager for concealment, they shrink from publicity, they tremble when caught; when accused, they deny; even when tortured, they do not readily or invariably confess (their crime); at all events,14    Certe. they grieve when they are condemned.  They reproach themselves for their past life; their change from innocence to an evil disposition they even attribute to fate. They cannot say that it is not a wrong thing, therefore they will not admit it to be their own act. As for the Christians, however, in what does their case resemble this? No one is ashamed; no one is sorry, except for his former (sins).15    Pristinorum. In the corresponding passage (Apol. i.) the phrase is, “nisi plane retro non fuisse,” i.e., “except that he was not a Christian long ago.” If he is pointed at (for his religion), he glories in it; if dragged to trial, he does not resist; if accused, he makes no defence. When questioned, he confesses; when condemned, he rejoices. What sort of evil is this, in which the nature of evil comes to a standstill?16    Cessat.

0559B 1. Testimonium ignorantiae vestrae, quae iniquitatem dum defendit, revincit, in promptu est, quod omnes, qui vobiscum retro ignorabant et vobiscum oderant, simul eis contigit scire, desinunt odisse qui desinunt ignorare, imo fiunt et ipsi quod oderant, et incipiunt odisse quod fuerant. Adeo quotidie adolescentem numerum Christianorum ingemitis. Obsessam vociferamini civitatem; in agris, in castellis, in insulis Christianos; omnem sexum, omnem aetatem, omnem denique dignitatem transgredi a vobis quasi detrimento doletis. Nec tamen hoc ipso ad aestimationem alicujus latentis boni animos promovetis; non licet rectius suspicari, non libet propius experiri; hic tantum curiositas 0559C humana torpescit. Amatis ignorare, quod alii gaudeant invenisse; mavultis nescire, quia jam odistis, quasi certe non odituros vos sciatis. Atquin, si nullum erit odii, reperietur optimum utique ab injustitia priore discedere; sin vero caussa constiterit, nihil odio detrahetur, quod adeo amplius justitiae scientia cumulabitur, nisi si emendari pudet aut excusari piget. Scio plane, qua responsione soletis redundantiae nostrae testimonium convenire: non utique eo bonum praejudicari, quia plerosque convertat et sibi rapiat, inquitis. Novi demutationem mentis et malas partes. Quot desertores bonae vitae? quot transfugae in perversum? Multi bona fide, imo jam plures pro extremitatibus temporum. Verum deficit adaequatio comparationis istius. Nam de malo ita constat 0559D apud omnes, ut ne ipsi quidem rei, qui ad malum transeunt et a vobis in perversa divertunt, defendere malum pro bono audeant. Turpia timori, pudori impia habent; denique gestiunt latere, devitant apparere, trepidant deprehensi, negant accusati; ne torti quidem facile aut semper confitentur, certe damnati moerent; exprobrant etenim quod erant in semetipsos: 0560B malae mentis ab innocentia transitum vel fato imputant; adeo nolunt suum esse, quia malum negare non possunt. Christiani vero quid tale consequuntur? Neminem pudet, neminem poenitet, nisi tantum pristinorum. Si denotatur, gloriatur: si trahitur, non subsistit. Si accusatur, non defendit; interrogatus, confitetur; damnatus, gloriatur. Quod hoc malum est, in quo mali natura cessat?