4. What has Scripture interdicted?  Certainly it has forbidden gazing upon what it forbids to be done. It condemned, I say, all those kinds of exhibitions when it abrogated idolatry—the mother of all public amusements,8    Vid. Ovid’s Fasti, lib. v. whence these prodigies of vanity and lightness came. For what public exhibition is without an idol? what amusement without a sacrifice? what contest is not consecrated to some dead person? And what does a faithful Christian do in the midst of such things as these? If he avoids idolatry, why does he9    The Oxford text here has the reading, “Why does he speak of it? why does he,” etc. who is now sacred take pleasure in things which are worthy of reproach? Why does he approve of superstitions which are opposed to God, and which he loves while he gazes upon them? Besides, let him be aware that all these things are the inventions of demons, not of God. He is shameless who in the church exorcises demons while he praises their delights in public shows; and although, once for all renouncing him, he has put away everything in baptism, when he goes to the devil’s exhibition after (receiving) Christ, he renounces Christ as much as (he had done) the devil. Idolatry, as I have already said, is the mother of all the public amusements; and this, in order that faithful Christians may come under its influence, entices them by the delight of the eyes and the ears. Romulus was the first who consecrated the games of the circus to Consus as the god of counsel, in reference to the rape of the Sabine women. But the rest of the scenic amusements were provided to distract the attention of the people while famine invaded the city, and were subsequently dedicated to Ceres and Bacchus, and to the rest of the idols and dead men. Those Grecian contests, whether in poems, or in instrumental music, or in words, or in personal prowess, have as their guardians various demons; and whatever else there is which either attracts the eyes or allures the ears of the spectators, if it be investigated in reference to its origin and institution, presents as its reason either an idol, or a demon, or a dead man.  Thus the devil, who is their original contriver, because he knew that naked idolatry would by itself excite repugnance, associated it with public exhibitions, that for the sake of their attraction it might be loved.

0782D IV. Quid Scriptura interdixit? Prohibuit enim spectari quod prohibet geri. Omnia, inquam, ista spectaculorum genera damnavit quando idololatriam sustulit, 0783A ludorum omnium matrem, unde haec vanitatis et levitatis monstra venerunt. Quod enim spectaculum sine idolo? quis ludus sine sacrificio? quod certamen non consecratum mortuo? Quid inter haec Christianus fidelis facit? Si idololatriam fugit, quid qui jam sanctus sit de rebus criminosis voluptatem capit? Quid contra Deum superstitiones probat, quas amat dum spectat? Caeterum, sciat omnia haec inventa daemoniorum esse, non Dei. Impudenter in Ecclesia daemonia exorcizat quorum voluptates in spectaculis laudat; et cum semel illi renuntians, rescissa sit res omnis in Baptismate, dum post Christum ad diaboli spectaculum vadit, Christo tamquam diabolo renuntiat. Idololatria, ut jam dixi, ludorum omnium mater est; quae ut ad se Christiani fideles veniant, blanditur 0783B illis per oculorum et aurium voluptatem. Romulus Conso, quasi consilii deo, ob rapiendas Sabinas circenses, primus consecravit. Caeterum reliqui, dum Urbem fames occupasset, ad avocationem populi acquisiti sunt ludi scenici, Cereri et Libero dicati postmodum reliquisque idolis et mortuis. Graeca illa certamina vel in cantibus, vel in fidibus, vel in vocibus, vel in viribus praesides suos habent varia daemonia et quicquid est aliud quod spectantium aut oculos movet aut delinit aures, si cum origine sua et institutione quaeratur, causam praefert aut idolum aut daemonium aut mortuum. Ita diabolus artifex, quia idololatriam per se nudam sciebat horreri, spectaculis miscuit, ut per voluptatem posset amari.