Gregory Nazianzen's Second Invective Against Julian The Emperor.

 1. THUS, then, the first portion of my task has now been completed and brought to an end for I have shown up the wickedness of that personage, both i

 2. Diseases justly sent upon the impious, rendings that cannot be concealed, plagues and scourges of divers kinds, corresponding to the atrocities the

 3. He [Julian] was daily growing more infuriated against us, as though raising up waves by other waves, he that went mad first against himself, that t

 4. And when he had formed this plan, and made them believe it (for whatever suits one's wishes is a ready engine for deceiving people), they began to

 5. What will those gentlemen say of these events----they who are wise, as this world goes, and make a fine show of their own cause, smoothing down the

 6. Thus much is taken from things celestial and sympathizing with our fortunes, in accordance with the mighty harmony and disposition of the universe.

 7. Was it then only earth and heaven, and did not air likewise give a sign on that occasion, and was hallowed with the badges of the Passion? Let thos

 8. So passed that affair but he, infatuated and urged on as he was by his furies in detail, advances to meet the finishing stroke of his crimes: for,

 9. But, as already said, such was his determination----and he was full of eagerness, bringing into one every jugglery of divination, of imposture, of

 10. From this point, however, like sand slipping from beneath the feet, or a great wave bursting upon a ship, things began to go back with him for Ct

 11. For a man, one of no little consideration amongst the Persians, following the example of. that Zopyrus employed by Cyrus in the case of Babylon, o

 12. And when he had said this, and gained credence to his story (for rashness is credulous, especially when God drives it on), everything that was dre

 13. Up to this point, such is the universal account but thenceforward, one and the same story is not told by all, but different accounts are reported

 14. One action of this person deserves not to be passed over in silence, as it contains, to wind up many others, the strongest exemplification of his

 15. When that man had received the imperial power immediately after him, who was elected for his successor in the very camp, and in the extremity of d

 16. What then remained but for the corpse of the impious one to be carried home by the Romans, although he had closed his career in this manner? For w

 17. We, however, more commonly out of regard for his father (who had laid the foundation of the imperial power and the Christian religion) as well as

 18. But as for the other, the circumstances attending his departure to the war were disgraceful (for he was pursued by mobs and townsfolk with vulgar

 19. And these things I have related as forming the greatest and most important of the charges against him, though I am not ignorant that to two or thr

 20. What shall I say of his revisals and alterations of sentences, frequently changed and upset at midnight, like the tides? For my fine fellow though

 21. That part, too, is certainly to be commended in the training of our philosopher, that he was so very free from anger, and superior to all the pass

 22. But the puffings and blowings of the fire (in which this wonderful man, who reviles our rites, set an example to all old ladies) when he was kindl

 23. This character of his was made known by experience to others, and by his coming to the throne which gave him free scope to display it. But it had

 24. Why should I go into particulars? I saw the man before his actions exactly what I afterwards found him in

 25. These are the tales of us Galileans----of us, the vile and abject these are told by us who worship the Crucified One, the disciples of the uned

 26. Now the King of Judah, Hezekiah, when a certain king of the foreigners had come against him with a great force, and had encompassed Jerusalem with

 27. Is this the recompense from thee to the Christians, in return for having been saved (unluckily) by their means? Didst thou thus repay the Lord thy

 28. These things therefore did I think and cry aloud unto God, but now for what expressions, and in place of what, do I exchange them? Henceforth, I b

 29. Let these things therefore take their course in what way soever is well-pleasing to God! Who knows whether He who looseth those that be bound, an

 80. Give me thy reasons, both as an emperor, and as a sophist, thy conclusive arguments and syllogisms: let us see what our own fishermen and vulgar f

 31. Let thy herald hush his disgraceful proclamation let my

 32. No more does the Oak speak no more does the Cauldron thou is

 33. Men and women, young and old, all ye that have been admitted to this tribunal, and all ye that are set in the lower place, all ye whom the Lord ha

 34. Wherefore let us be really corrected by this divine correction let us show ourselves deserving, not only of what we have suffered at first, but o

 35. First, therefore, brethren, let us keep a festival, not with cheerfulness of face, nor changes and sumptuousness of apparel, nor with revellings a

 36. Secondly, the words I am about to utter will be unpleasant and hard of acceptation, I well know, to the generality (for man when placed in a posit

 37. Let us conquer those that have oppressed us, with clemency and above all let humanity be our director, and the force of that commandment which pr

 38. I pass over the inspired, and our own denouncements, and the punishments that, according to us, are in store in the world to come: turn, pray, to

 39. Here is a keepsake for thee in return for a kick, thou best and wisest of men! (to address thee in thy own words) this words, thy  

 40. For we two were not less courageous than the youths who were cooled with dew in the furnace and who overcame the wild beasts through Faith and w

 41. This is the meaning of the lies and ravings of thy Porphyry (of which ye all boast as divinely-inspired words), and of thy Misopogon, or rather

 42. Here is a pillar for thee, raised by our hands, more lofty and more conspicuous than the Pillars of Hercules for they this

4. And when he had formed this plan, and made them believe it (for whatever suits one's wishes is a ready engine for deceiving people), they began to debate about rebuilding the Temple, and in large number and with great zeal set about the work. For the partisans of the other side report that not only did their women strip off all their personal ornaments and contribute it towards the work and operations, but even carried away the rubbish in the laps of their gowns, sparing neither the so precious clothes nor yet the tenderness of their own limbs, for they believed they were doing a pious action, and regarded everything of less moment than the work in hand. But they being driven against one another, as though by a furious blast 3 of wind, and sudden heaving of the earth, some rushed to one of the neighbouring sacred places to pray for mercy; others, as is wont to happen in such cases, made use of what came to hand to shelter themselves; others were carried away blindly by the panic, and struck against those who were running up to see what was the matter. There are some who say that neither did the sacred place (το ἱερὸν) 4 admit them, but that when they approached the folding doors that stood wide open, on coming up to them they found them closed in their faces by an unseen and invisible power 5 which works wonders of the sort for the confusion of the impious and the saving of the godly. But what all people nowadays report and believe is that when they were forcing their way and struggling about the entrance a flame issued forth from the sacred place [church] and stopped them, and some it burnt up and consumed so that a fate befell them similar to the disaster of the people of Sodom, or to the miracle about Nadab and Abiud, who offered incense and perished so strangely: whilst others it maimed in the principal parts of the body, and so left them for a living monument of God's threatening and wrath against sinners. Such then was this event; and let no one disbelieve, unless he doubts likewise the other mighty works of God! But what is yet more strange and more conspicuous, there stood in the heavens a light circumscribing a Cross, and that which before on earth was contemned by the ungodly both in figure and in name is now exhibited in heaven, and is made by God a trophy of His victory over the impious, a trophy more lofty than any other!

Δʹ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ ταῦτα καὶ διενοήθη καὶ ἔπεισεν (εὔκολον γὰρ εἰς ἀπάτην τὸ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἅπαν), οἱ μὲν ὡς ἀναστήσοντες διενοοῦντο τὸ ἱερὸν, καὶ χειρὶ πολλῇ καὶ προθυμίᾳ περὶ τὸ ἔργον ἐταλαιπώρουν: φασί γέ τοι καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας αὐτῶν οἱ τὰ ἐκείνων θαυμάζοντες, οὐ μόνον ἅπαντας τοὺς περὶ τὸ σῶμα κόσμους περιελομένας ἑτοίμως συνεισφέρειν τῷ ἔργῳ καὶ τοῖς πονουμένοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς κόλποις τὸν χοῦν ἐκφερούσας, καὶ οὔτε πολυτελοῦς ἐσθῆτος, οὔτε μελῶν ἁπαλότητος φειδομένας, εὐσεβεῖν οἴεσθαι καὶ πάντα ἐλάττω νομίζειν τοῦ ἐγχειρήματος. Ὡς δὲ ὑπὸ ἀγρίας λαίλαπος καὶ βρασμοῦ γῆς ἄφνω συνελαθέντες, ἐπί τι τῶν πλησίον ἱερῶν, οἱ μὲν ὡς ἱκετεύσοντες, ὥρμησαν, οἱ δὲ, ὅπερ ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις φιλεῖ συμβαίνειν, τῷ παρόντι χρώμενοι πρὸς βοήθειαν, οἱ δὲ ἄλλως τῇ ταραχῇ συμφερόμενοι, καὶ τοῖς θέουσι συνεισπίπτοντες. Εἰσὶ μὲν οἳ λέγουσιν, ὡς οὐδὲ τὸ ἱερὸν αὐτοὺς προσεδέξατο, ἀλλ' ἀναπεπταμέναις προσελθόντες ταῖς πύλαις, ἐπικλεισθείσαις ἐνέτυχον ἔκ τινος ἀοράτου καὶ ἀφανοῦς δυνάμεως, ἣ τὰ τοιαῦτα τερατουργεῖ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀσεβῶν κατάπληξιν, καὶ τῶν εὐσεβῶν ἀσφάλειαν: ὃ δὲ ἅπαντες ἤδη καὶ λέγουσι καὶ πιστεύουσιν, ὅτι βιαζομένους αὐτοὺς καὶ φιλονεικοῦντας περὶ τὴν εἴσοδον, πῦρ ἔστησεν ἀπαντῆσαν ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ, καὶ τοὺς μὲν κατέφλεξε καὶ ἀνήλωσεν (ὡς ὅμοιόν τι περὶ αὐτοὺς συμβῆναι τοῖς Σοδομιτῶν πάθεσιν, ἢ τῷ περὶ Νάδαβ καὶ Ἀβιοὺδ θαύματι ξένως καὶ θυμιάσασι καὶ κινδυνεύσασι), τοὺς δὲ τῶν καιρίων ἀκρωτηριάσαν, στήλην ἀφῆκεν ἔμψυχον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ κατὰ τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν ἀπειλῆς καὶ κινήσεως. Τοῦτο μὲν δὴ τοιοῦτο, καὶ ἀπιστείτω μηδεὶς, ὅτι μηδὲ ταῖς ἄλλαις τοῦ Θεοῦ δυνάμεσιν: ὃ δὲ ἔτι τούτου παραδοξότερον καὶ περιφανέστερον, ἔστη φῶς ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ τὸν σταυρὸν περιγράφον, καὶ τὸ πρότερον ἐπὶ γῆς ἀτιμαζόμενον τοῖς ἀθέοις καὶ σχῆμα καὶ ὄνομα νῦν ἐν οὐρανῷ δείκνυται πᾶσιν ἐπίσης, καὶ γίνεται τρόπαιον τῷ Θεῷ τῆς κατὰ τῶν ἀσεβῶν νίκης, τροπαίου παντὸς ὑψηλότερον.