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 II.315

Chapter I.—The Heathen Gods from Heathen Authorities. Varro Has Written a Work on the Subject. His Threefold Classification. The Changeable Character of that Which Ought to Be Fixed and Certain.

Our defence requires that we should at this point discuss with you the character of your gods, O ye heathen, fit objects of our pity,316 appealing even to your own conscience to determine whether they be truly gods, as you would have it supposed, or falsely, as you are unwilling to have proved.317 Now this is the material part of human error, owing to the wiles of its author, that it is never free from the ignorance of error,318 whence your guilt is all the greater.  Your eyes are open, yet they see not; your ears are unstopped, yet they hear not; though your heart beats, it is yet dull, nor does your mind understand319 that of which it is cognizant.320 If indeed the enormous perverseness (of your worship) could321 be broken up322 by a single demurrer, we should have our objection ready to hand in the declaration323 that, as we know all those gods of yours to have been instituted by men, all belief in the true Deity is by this very circumstance brought to nought;324 because, of course, nothing which some time or other had a beginning can rightly seem to be divine. But the fact is,325 there are many things by which tenderness of conscience is hardened into the callousness of wilful error. Truth is beleaguered with the vast force (of the enemy), and yet how secure she is in her own inherent strength! And naturally enough326 when from her very adversaries she gains to her side whomsoever she will, as her friends and protectors, and prostrates the entire host of her assailants. It is therefore against these things that our contest lies—against the institutions of our ancestors, against the authority of tradition,327 the laws of our governors, and the reasonings of the wise; against antiquity, custom, submission;328 against precedents, prodigies, miracles,—all which things have had their part in consolidating that spurious329 system of your gods. Wishing, then, to follow step by step your own commentaries which you have drawn out of your theology of every sort (because the authority of learned men goes further with you in matters of this kind than the testimony of facts), I have taken and abridged the works of Varro;330 for he in his treatise Concerning Divine Things, collected out of ancient digests, has shown himself a serviceable guide331 for us. Now, if I inquire of him who were the subtle inventors332 of the gods, he points to either the philosophers, the peoples, or the poets. For he has made a threefold distinction in classifying the gods: one being the physical class, of which the philosophers treat; another the mythic class, which is the constant burden of333 the poets; the third, the gentile class, which the nations have adopted each one for itself. When, therefore, the philosophers have ingeniously composed their physical (theology) out of their own conjectures, when the poets have drawn their mythical from fables, and the (several) nations have forged their gentile (polytheism) according to their own will, where in the world must truth be placed? In the conjectures? Well, but these are only a doubtful conception. In the fables? But they are at best an absurd story. In the popular accounts?334 This sort of opinion,335 however, is only promiscuous336 and municipal. Now all things with the philosophers are uncertain, because of their variation with the poets all is worthless, because immoral; with the nations all is irregular and confused, because dependent on their mere choice.  The nature of God, however, if it be the true one with which you are concerned, is of so definite a character as not to be derived from uncertain speculations,337 nor contaminated with worthless fables, nor determined by promiscuous conceits. It ought indeed to be regarded, as it really is, as certain, entire, universal, because it is in truth the property of all. Now, what god shall I believe? One that has been gauged by vague suspicion? One that history338 has divulged? One that a community has invented? It would be a far worthier thing if I believed no god, than one which is open to doubt, or full of shame, or the object of arbitrary selection.339

0585D 1. Nunc de deis vestris, miserandae nationes, congredi vobiscum defensio nostra desiderat, provocans ipsam conscientiam vestram, ad censendum, an vere dei, ut vultis, an falso, ut scire non vultis. Haec enim materia est erroris humani per artificem ejus, ne 0586D ignorantia erroris . . . . quo magis rei sitis. Patent oculi, nec vident; hiant aures, nec audiunt: cor stupet saliens, nescit animus quod agnoscit. Denique, si tantam perversitatem una praescriptione discuti liceret, in expedito esset nuntiatio, cum omnes 0587A istos deos ab hominibus institutos, non . . . . hinc excidere fidem verae divinitatis, quo nihil utique aliquando coeptum divinum videri jure possit. Sed enim multa sunt, quibus teneritas conscientiae obduratur in callositatem voluntarii erroris. Ingenti manu veritas obsidetur; at ipsa de sua virtute secura est. Quidni? quoscumque vult, de ipsis adversariis socios protectoresque sibimet assumit, et omnem illam expugnatorum multitudinem prosternit. Adversus haec igitur nobis negotium est, adversus institutiones majorum, auctoritates receptorum , leges dominantium, argumentationes prudentium; adversus vetustatem, consuetudinem, necessitatem; adversus exempla, prodigia, miracula, quae omnia adulterinam istam divinitatem corroboraverunt. Quare secundum vestros commentarios, quos ex omni theologiae genere 0587B cepistis, gradum conferens, quoniam major in hujusmodi penes, vos auctoritas litterarum, quam rerum est, elegi ad compendium Varronis opera , qui rerum divinarum ex omnibus retro digestis commentatus, idoneum se nobis scopum exposuit. Hunc si interrogem, qui insinuatores deorum? aut philosophos designat aut populos ant poetas. Triplici enim genere deorum censum distinxit: unum esse physicum, quod philosophi retractant; aliud mythicum, quod inter poetas volutetur; tertium gentile, quod populi sibi quique adoptaverunt. Igitur cum philosophi physicum conjecturis concinnarint, poetae mythicum de fabulis traxerint, populi gentile ultro praesumpserint, ubinam veritas collocanda? in conjecturis? 0587C sed incerta conceptio est; in fabulis? sed foeda relatio est; in adoptionibus? sed passiva et muncipalis adoptatio est. Denique apud philosophos incerta, quia varia; apud poetas omnia indigna, quia turpia; apud populos passiva omnia, quia voluntaria. Porro divinitas, si veram retractes, ea definitione est, ut istud neque argumentationibus incertis colligatur, neque fabulis indignis contaminetur, neque adoptionibus passivis judicetur; haberi enim debet, sicut 0588A est, certa, integra, communis, quia scilicet omnium. Caeterum quem Deum credam? quem suspicio aestimavit, quem historia jactavit, quem civitas voluit? Dignius multo neminem credam, quam dubitandum aut pudendum aut adoptivum.