Chapter XVI.240    Comp. The Apology, c. ix.—Other Charges Repelled by the Same Method. The Story of the Noble Roman Youth and His Parents.

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 must succumb to you; for what similar accusation shall I have to bring against you? But you should at once commend the cleverness with which we make our incest look modest, in that we have devised a spurious night,241    Adulteram noctem. to avoid polluting the real light and darkness, and have even thought it right to dispense with earthly lights, and to play tricks also with our conscience. For whatever we do ourselves, we suspect in others when we choose (to be suspicious). As for your incestuous deeds, on the contrary,242    Ceterum. men enjoy them at full liberty, in the face of day, or in the natural night, or before high Heaven; and in proportion to their successful issue is your own ignorance of the result, since you publicly indulge in your incestuous intercourse in the full cognizance of broad day-light. (No ignorance, however, conceals our conduct from our eyes,) for in the very darkness we are able to recognise our own misdeeds. The Persians, you know very well,243    Plane. according to Ctesias, live quite promiscuously with their mothers, in full knowledge of the fact, and without any horror; whilst of the Macedonians it is well known that they constantly do the same thing, and with perfect approbation: for once, when the blinded244    Trucidatus oculos. Œdipus came upon their stage, they greeted him with laughter and derisive cheers. The actor, taking off his mask in great alarm, said, “Gentlemen, have I displeased you?” “Certainly not,” replied the Macedonians, “you have played your part well enough; but either the author was very silly, if he invented (this mutilation as an atonement for the incest), or else Œdipus was a great fool for his pains if he really so punished himself;” and then they shouted out one to the other, ῝Ηλσυνε εἰς τὴν μητέρα. But how insignificant, (say you,) is the stain which one or two nations can make on the whole world! As for us, we of course have infected the very sun, polluted the entire ocean!  Quote, then, one nation which is free from the passions which allure the whole race of men to incest! If there is a single nation which knows nothing of concubinage through the necessity of age and sex—to say nothing of lust and licentiousness—that nation will be a stranger to incest. If any nature can be found so peculiarly removed from the human state as to be liable neither to ignorance, nor error, nor misfortune, that alone may be adduced with any consistency as an answer to the Christians. Reflect, therefore, on the licentiousness which floats about amongst men’s passions245    Errores. as if they were the winds, and consider whether there be any communities which the full and strong tides of passion fail to waft to the commission of this great sin. In the first place, when you expose your infants to the mercy of others, or leave them for adoption to better parents than yourselves, do you forget what an opportunity for incest is furnished, how wide a scope is opened for its accidental commission? Undoubtedly, such of you as are more serious from a principle of self-restraint and careful reflection, abstain from lusts which could produce results of such a kind, in whatever place you may happen to be, at home or abroad, so that no indiscriminate diffusion of seed, or licentious reception thereof, will produce children to you unawares, such as their very parents, or else other children, might encounter in inadvertent incest, for no restraint from age is regarded in (the importunities of) lust. All acts of adultery, all cases of fornication, all the licentiousness of public brothels, whether committed at home or perpetrated out of doors,246    Sive stativo vel ambulatorio titulo. serve to produce confusions of blood and complications of natural relationship,247    Compagines generis. and thence to conduce to incest; from which consummation your players and buffoons draw the materials of their exhibitions. It was from such a source, too, that so flagrant a tragedy recently burst upon the public as that which the prefect Fuscianus had judicially to decide. A boy of noble birth, who, by the unintentional neglect of his attendants,248    Comitum. had strolled too far from home, was decoyed by some passers-by, and carried off. The paltry Greek249    Græculus. who had the care of him, or somebody else,250    “Aliquis” is here understood. in true Greek fashion, had gone into the house and captured him. Having been taken away into Asia, he is brought, when arrived at full age, back to Rome, and exposed for sale. His own father buys him unawares, and treats him as a Greek.251    Utitur Græco, i.e., cinædo, “for purposes of lust.” Afterwards, as was his wont, the youth is sent by his master into the fields, chained as a slave.252    Or, “is sent into the country, and put into prison.” Thither the tutor and the nurse had already been banished for punishment. The whole case is represented to them; they relate each other’s misfortunes: they, on the one hand, how they had lost their ward when he was a boy; he, on the other hand, that he had been lost from his boyhood. But they agreed in the main, that he was a native of Rome of a noble family; perhaps he further gave sure proofs of his identity.  Accordingly, as God willed it for the purpose of fastening a stain upon that age, a presentiment about the time excites him, the periods exactly suit his age, even his eyes help to recall253    Aliquid recordantur. his features, some peculiar marks on his body are enumerated. His master and mistress, who are now no other than his own father and mother, anxiously urge a protracted inquiry. The slave-dealer is examined, the unhappy truth is all discovered. When their wickedness becomes manifest, the parents find a remedy for their despair by hanging themselves; to their son, who survives the miserable calamity, their property is awarded by the prefect, not as an inheritance, but as the wages of infamy and incest. That one case was a sufficient example for public exposure254    Publicæ eruptionis. of the sins of this sort which are secretly perpetrated among you. Nothing happens among men in solitary isolation. But, as it seems to me, it is only in a solitary case that such a charge can be drawn out against us, even in the mysteries of our religion. You ply us evermore with this charge;255    Intentatis. yet there are like delinquencies to be traced amongst you, even in your ordinary course of life.256    Vestris non sacramentis, with a hyphen, “your non-mysteries.”

16. Quanquam quid minus, imo quid non amplius facitis? parum scilicet humanis visceribus inhiatis, quia vivos et puberes devoratis? parum humanum sanguinem lambitis, quoniam futurum sanguinem 0580C elicitis? parum infante vescimini, quia infantem totum praecoquum perhauritis? Ventum est ad horam lucernarum et caninum ministerium et ingenia tenebrarum. Quo in loco metuo ne cedam. Quid enim tale in vobis detinebo? Verum jam laudate consilium incesti verecundi, quod adulteram noctem commenti sumus, ne aut lucem, aut veram noctem contaminaremus, 0581A quod etiam luminibus terrenis parcendum existimavimus, quod nostram quoque conscientiam ludimus; quodcumque enim facimus, si volumus, suspicamur. Caeterum incesta vestra pro sua libertate et luce omni et nocte omni et tota coeli conscientia fruuntur, quodque felicius proveniat, cum palam misceatis incesta toto conscio coelo, soli ipsi ignoratis; nos vero etiam in tenebris scelera nostra recognoscere possumus. Plane Persae, Ctesias edit, tam scientes quam non horrentes cum matribus libere fiunt. Sed et Macedones, id quod probaverunt, palam est factitare, siquidem cum primus scenam eorum Oedipus intravit trucidatus oculos, risu ac derisu exceperunt; tragaedus consternatus retracta persona: Numquid, ait, domini, displicui vobis? responderunt Macedones: Imo tu quidem pulchre. Aut scriptor 0581B vanissimus si finxit, aut Oedipus dementissimus si ita fecit; atque exinde alter ad alterum, ἤλαυνε dicebat εἰς τὴν μητέρα . Sed una vel alia gens quantula macula totius orbis? Nos enim omnem infecimus solem, omnem polluimus Oceanum! Date igitur aliquam nationem vacantem ab eis, quae omne hominum genus ad incestum trahunt. Si qua gens concubitu ipso et aetatis ac sexus necessitate, ne dixerim libidine et luxuria, caret, ea erit quae carebit incesto; si qua ab humana conditione privata quadam natura remota est, ut neque ignorantiae neque errori neque casui opposita sit, ea erit quae sola Christianis respondere constantius possit. Respicite igitur luxuriam inter errores et ventos fluctuantem, si desunt populi, 0581C quos ad hoc sceleris incursent lata vada et aspera erroris. Imprimis cum infantes vestros alienae misericordiae exponitis aut in adoptionem melioribus parentibus, obliviscimini, quanta materia incesti, subministratur, quanta occasio casibus aperitur? Plane 0582A ex aliqua disciplina severiores aut certo respectu ejusmodi eventuum a libidine temperatis quocumque loco domi aut peregre, ut non dispersio seminum et saltus ubique luxuriae nescientibus filios edat, quos aut ipsi postmodum parentes, aut alii. . . . . incursent, quando etiam aetatum moderatio libidine exclusa sit. Quotcumque adulteria, quotcumque stupra, quotcumque publicatae libidinis . . . . . sive stativo vel ambulatorio titulo, tot sanguinis mixtiones, tot compagines generis, tot inde traduces ad incestum; unde adeo mimis et comoedis argumentorum venae fluunt, unde ista quoque talis ante tragoedia erupit. Fusciano praefecto urbi, judicata punitione reatus, fortuita negligentia comitata ultra januam progressus iter, praetereuntibus tractus domo excidit. Graeculus vel a limine Graeculo more captaverat intrans , inde mutatus 0582B Asiae aetate Romam in venalicio refertur. Emit imprudens pater et utitur Graeco. Dehinc, ut vestra, adolescentem dominus in agrum et vincula legat. Illic jam dudum paedagogus et nutrix poenas dabant. Repraesentatur eis tota caussa, referunt invicem exitus suos: illi, quod alumnus in pueritia periisset; ille, se quoque a pueritia periisse, caeterum eodem eventu Romae natum honesta domo. Forsitan et signa quaedam retexuerit. Igitur Dei voluntate, ut tanta seculo macula exprobraretur, spiritus dei de die concutit: tempora cum aetate respondent, aliquid et oculi de lineamentis recordantur, proprietates nonnullae in corpore recensentur. Dominos, imo jam parentes tantum prolatae inquisitionis diligentia impellit. Investigatur 0582C venaliciarius , infeliciter invenitur. Revelato scelere, parentes sibi laqueo medentur. Bona filio male superstiti praefectus adscribit, non ad haereditatem, sed ad stipendium stupri et incesti. Satis erat unum istud exemplum publicae erubescentiae 0583A ejusmodi scelerum delitescentium in vobis. Nihil semel evenit in rebus humanis, semel plane erui potest. De sacramentis nostrae religionis opinor intentatis, et sunt paria vestris etiam non sacramentis.