Chapter II.

We are worshippers of one God, of whose existence and character Nature teaches all men; at whose lightnings and thunders you tremble, whose benefits minister to your happiness. You think that others, too, are gods, whom we know to be devils.  However, it is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his own convictions: one man’s religion neither harms nor helps another man. It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion—to which free-will and not force should lead us—the sacrificial victims even being required of a willing mind. You will render no real service to your gods by compelling us to sacrifice. For they can have no desire of offerings from the unwilling, unless they are animated by a spirit of contention, which is a thing altogether undivine. Accordingly the true God bestows His blessings alike on wicked men and on His own elect; upon which account He has appointed an eternal judgment, when both thankful and unthankful will have to stand before His bar. Yet you have never detected us—sacrilegious wretches though you reckon us to be—in any theft, far less in any sacrilege. But the robbers of your temples, all of them swear by your gods, and worship them; they are not Christians, and yet it is they who are found guilty of sacrilegious deeds. We have not time to unfold in how many other ways your gods are mocked and despised by their own votaries. So, too, treason is falsely laid to our charge, though no one has ever been able to find followers of Albinus, or Niger, or Cassius, among Christians; while the very men who had sworn by the genii of the emperors, who had offered and vowed sacrifices for their safety, who had often pronounced condemnation on Christ’s disciples, are till this day found traitors to the imperial throne. A Christian is enemy to none, least of all to the Emperor of Rome, whom he knows to be appointed by his God, and so cannot but love and honour; and whose well-being moreover, he must needs desire, with that of the empire over which he reigns so long as the world shall stand—for so long as that shall Rome continue.1    [Kaye points out our author’s inconsistencies on this matter.  If Caractacus ever made the speech ascribed to him (Bede, or Gibbon, cap. lxxi.) it would confirm the opinion of those who make him a convert to Christ: “Quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus.” Elucidation II.] To the emperor, therefore, we render such reverential homage as is lawful for us and good for him; regarding him as the human being next to God who from God has received all his power, and is less than God alone. And this will be according to his own desires. For thus—as less only than the true God—he is greater than all besides. Thus he is greater than the very gods themselves, even they, too, being subject to him. We therefore sacrifice for the emperor’s safety, but to our God and his, and after the manner God has enjoined, in simple prayer. For God, Creator of the universe, has no need of odours or of blood. These things are the food of devils.2    [On this sort of Demonology see Kaye, pp. 203–207, with his useful references. See De Spectaculis, p. 80, supra.] But we not only reject those wicked spirits: we overcome them; we daily hold them up to contempt; we exorcise them from their victims, as multitudes can testify. So all the more we pray for the imperial well-being, as those who seek it at the hands of Him who is able to bestow it. And one would think it must be abundantly clear to you that the religious system under whose rules we act is one inculcating a divine patience; since, though our numbers are so great—constituting all but the majority in every city—we conduct ourselves so quietly and modestly; I might perhaps say, known rather as individuals than as organized communities, and remarkable only for the reformation of our former vices. For far be it from us to take it ill that we have laid on us the very things we wish, or in any way plot the vengeance at our own hands, which we expect to come from God.

CAPUT II.

Nos unum deum colimus, quem omnes naturaliter nostis, ad cujus fulgura et tonitrua contremiscitis , ad cujus beneficia gaudetis. Caeteros et ipsi putatis deos esse, quos nos daemonas scimus. Tamen humani juris et naturalis potestatis est unicuique, quod putaverit, colere; nec alii obest aut prodest, alterius religio. Sed nec religionis est cogere religionem , quae sponte suscipi debeat, non vi: cum et hostiae ab animo libenti expostulentur. Ita etsi nos compuleritis ad sacrificandum, nihil praestabitis diis vestris: ab invitis enim sacrificia non desiderabunt; nisi si contentiosi sunt; contensiosus autem 0699B deus non est. Denique qui est verus, omnia sua ex aequo et profanis et suis praestat. Ideoque et judicium constituit aeternum de gratis et ingratis. Tamen nos, quos sacrilegos existimatis, nec in furto unquam deprehendistis, nedum in sacrilegio. Omnes autem qui templa despoliant , et per deos jurant, et eosdem colunt, et christiani non sunt, et sacrilegi tamen deprehenduntur. Longum est si retexamus, quibus aliis modis et derideantur et contemnantur omnes dii, ab ipsis cultoribus suis. Sic et circa majestatem Imperatoris infamamur , tamen nunquam albiniani , nec nigriani, vel cassani inveniri potuerunt 0700A christiani: sed idem ipsi qui per genios eorum in pridie usque juraverunt , qui pro salute eorum hostias et fecerant et voverant, qui christianos saepe damnaverant, hostes eorum sunt reperti. Christianus nullius est hostis, nedum Imperatoris: quem sciens a Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut et ipsum diligat, et revereatur, et honoret, et salvum velit, cum toto romano imperio, quousque saeculum stabit. Tamdiu enim stabit. Colimus ergo et Imperatorem sic, quomodo et nobis licet, et ipsi expedit, ut hominem a Deo secundum, et quicquid est a Deo consecutum , solo Deo minorem. Hoc et ipse volet. Sic enim omnibus major est, dum solo vero Deo minor est: sic et ipsis diis major est, dum et ipsi in potestate sunt ejus. Itaque et sacrificamus pro salute Imperatoris , sed Deo nostro et ipsius: sed quomodo 0700B praecepit Deus, pura prece. Non enim eget Deus, conditor universitatis, odoris aut sanguinis alicujus . Haec enim daemoniorum pabula sunt. Daemones autem non tantum respuimus, verum et revincimus, et quotidie traducimus, et de hominibus expellimus, sicut plurimis notum est. Ita nos magis oramus pro salute Imperatoris, ab eo eam postulantes, qui praestare potest. Et utique ex disciplina patientiae divinae agere nos, satis manifestum esse vobis potest, cum tanta hominum multitudo, pars pene major civitatis cujusque , in silentio et modestia agimus, singuli forte noti magis quam omnes: nec 0701A aliunde noscibiles quam de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum. Absit enim ut indigne feramus ea nos pati quae optamus, aut ultionem a nobis aliquam machinemur, quam a Deo exspectamus.