Chap. II.—To What an Extent the Christian Truth Has Been Assailed by Rash Men.

Therefore, because there have been wanting among us suitable and skilful teachers, who might vigorously and sharply refute public errors, and who might defend the whole cause of truth with elegance and copiousness, this very want incited some to venture to write against the truth, which was unknown to them. I pass by those who in former times in vain assailed it. When I was teaching rhetorical learning in Bithynia, having been called thither, and it had happened that at the same time the temple of God was overthrown, there were living at the same place two men who insulted the truth as it lay prostrate and overthrown, I know not whether with greater arrogance or harshness: the one of whom professed himself the high priest of philosophy;907    [Let us call him Barbatus; for one so graphically described by our author deserves a name worthy of his sole claim to be a philosopher.]      Elucere potest.   but he was so addicted to vice, that, though a teacher of abstinence, he was not less inflamed with avarice than with lusts; so extravagant in his manner of living, that though in his school he was the maintainer of virtue, the praiser of parsimony and poverty, he dined less sumptuously in a palace than at his own house. Nevertheless he sheltered908    Protegebat.      Nihil moderati aut pensi habent. The expression is borrowed from Sallust, Catiline, xii.   his vices by his hair909    It was the custom of the philosophers to wear a beard; to which practise Horace alludes, Serm., ii. 3, “Sapientem pascere barbam,” to nourish a philosophic beard. [The readers of this series no longer require this information: but it may be convenient to recur to vol. ii. note 9, p. 321; also, perhaps, to Clement’s terrible defence of beards, Ibid., pp. 276–277.]      Per dimotum populum.   and his cloak, and (that which is the greatest screen910    Velamentum.      Addicti et servientes voluptatibus.  ) by his riches; and that he might increase these, he used to penetrate with wonderful effort911    Ambitu. The word denotes the unlawful striving for a post.      [See book ii. cap. 2, p. 43, supra.]   to the friendships of the judges; and he suddenly attached them to himself by the authority of a fictitious name, not only that he might make a traffic of their decisions, but also that he might by this influence hinder his neighbours, whom he was driving from their homes and lands, from the recovery of their property. This man, in truth, who overthrew his own arguments by his character, or censured his own character by his arguments, a weighty censor and most keen accuser against himself, at the very same time in which a righteous people were impiously assailed, vomited forth three books against the Christian religion and name; professing, above all things, that it was the office of a philosopher to remedy the errors of men, and to recall them to the true way, that is, to the worship of the gods, by whose power and majesty, as he said, the world is governed; and not to permit that inexperienced men should be enticed by the frauds of any, lest their simplicity should be a prey and sustenance to crafty men.  

Therefore he said that he had undertaken this office, worthy of philosophy, that he might hold out to those who do not see the light of wisdom, not only that they may return to a healthy state of mind, having undertaken the worship of the gods, but also that, having laid aside their pertinacious obstinacy, they may avoid tortures of the body, nor wish in vain to endure cruel lacerations of their limbs. But that it might be evident on what account he had laboriously worked out that task, he broke out profusely into praises of the princes, whose piety and foresight, as he himself indeed said, had been distinguished both in other matters, and especially in defending the religious rites of the gods; that he had, in short, consulted the interests of men, in order that, impious and foolish superstition having been restrained, all men might have leisure for lawful sacred rites, and might experience the gods propitious to them. But when he wished to weaken the grounds of that religion against which he was pleading, he appeared senseless, vain, and ridiculous; because that weighty adviser of the advantage of others was ignorant not only what to oppose, but even what to speak. For if any of our religion were present, although they were silent on account of the time, nevertheless in their mind they derided him; since they saw a man professing that he would enlighten others, when he himself was blind; that he would recall others from error, when he himself was ignorant where to plant his feet; that he would instruct others to the truth, of which he himself had never seen even a spark at any time; inasmuch as he who was a professor of wisdom, endeavoured to overthrow wisdom. All, however, censured this, that he undertook this work at that time in particular, in which odious cruelty raged. O philosopher, a flatterer, and a time-server! But this man was despised, as his vanity deserved; for he did not gain the popularity which he hoped for, and the glory which he eagerly sought for was changed into censure and blame.912    [On the reference to these two adversaries, see Lardner, Credib., iii. cap. 65, p. 491; vii. cap. 39, p. 471; also vii. 207.]    

Another913    Hierocles is referred to, who was a great persecutor of the Christians in the beginning of the fourth century. He was the chief promoter of the persecution which the Christians suffered under Diocletian. [Wrote a work (Philalethes) to show the contradictions of Scripture. Acts xiii. 10.]   wrote the same subject with more bitterness, who was then of the number of the judges, and who was especially the adviser of enacting persecution; and not contented with this crime, he also pursued with writings those whom he had persecuted. For he composed two books, not against the Christians, lest he might appear to assail them in a hostile manner but to the Christians, that he might be thought to consult for them with humanity and kindness. And in these writings he endeavoured so to prove the falsehood of sacred Scripture, as though it were altogether contradictory to itself; for he expounded some chapters which seemed to be at variance with themselves, enumerating so many and such secret914    [Intima, i.e., of an esoteric character, known only to those within the school or sect.]   things, that he sometimes appears to have been one of the same sect. But if this was so, what Demosthenes will be able to defend from the charge of impiety him who became the betrayer of the religion to which he had given his assent,915    Cui fuerat assensus. Other editions read “accensus,” i.e., reckoned among.   and of the faith the name of which he had assumed,916    Induerat.   and of the mystery917    Sacramenti.   which he had received, unless it happened by chance that the sacred writings fell into his hands? What rashness was it, therefore, to dare to destroy that which no one explained to him! It was well that he either learned nothing or understood nothing. For contradiction is as far removed from the sacred writings as he was removed from faith and truth. He chiefly, however, assailed Paul and Peter, and the other disciples, as disseminators of deceit, whom at the same time he testified to have been unskilled and unlearned. For he says that some of them made gain by the craft of fishermen, as though he took it ill that some Aristophanes or Aristarchus did not devise that subject.  

CAPUT II. Quantum a temerariis hominibus impugnata fuit veritas 0552Bchristiana.

Ergo quia defuerunt apud nos idonei peritique doctores, qui vehementer, qui acriter errores publicos redarguerent, qui causam omnem veritatis ornate copioseque defenderent: provocavit quosdam haec ipsa penuria, ut auderent scribere contra ignotam sibi veritatem. Omitto eos, qui prioribus eam temporibus nequicquam lacessierunt. Ego cum in Bithynia oratorias litteras accitus docerem, contigissetque 0553A ut eodem tempore Dei templum 0553A everteretur: duo extiterunt ibidem, qui jacenti atque abjectae veritati, nescio utrum superbius, an importunius insultarent; quorum alter antistitem se philosophiae profitebatur: verum ita vitiosus, ut continentiae magister, non minus avaritia, quam libidinibus arderet, in victu tam sumptuosus, ut in schola virtutis assertor, parcimoniae paupertatisque laudator, in palatio pejus coenaret, quam domi. Tamen vitia sua capillis et pallio, et (quod maximum est velamentum) divitiis praetegebat; quas ut augeret, ad amicitias judicum miro ambitu penetrabat, eosque sibi repente auctoritate falsi nominis obligabat; non modo ut eorum sententias venderet, verum etiam ut confines suos, quos sedibus agrisque pellebat, a suo repetendo 0553B hac potentia retardaret. Hic vero, qui suas disputationes moribus destruebat, vel mores suos disputationibus arguebat, ipse adversus se gravis censor, et accusator acerrimus, eodem ipso tempore, quo justus populus nefarie lacerabatur, tres libros evomuit contra Religionem nomenque christianum: professus ante omnia philosophi officium esse erroribus hominum subvenire, atque illos ad veram viam revocare; id est, ad cultus deorum, quorum numine ac majestate (ut ille dicebat) mundus gubernetur, nec pati homines imperitos quorumdam fraudibus 0554A illici, ne simplicitas eorum praedae ac pabulo sit hominibus astutis.

Itaque se suscepisse hoc munus philosophia dignum, ut praeferret non videntibus lumen sapientiae, non modo ut susceptis deorum cultibus resanescant, sed etiam ut, pertinaci obstinatione deposita, corporis cruciamenta devitent, neu saevas membrorum lacerationes frustra perpeti velint. Ut autem appareret cujus rei gratia opus illud elaborasset, effusus est in principum laudes; quorum pietas et providentia (ut quidem ipse dicebat) cum in caeteris rebus, tum praecipue in defendendis deorum religionibus claruisset: consultum esse tandem rebus humanis, ut cohibita impia et anili superstitione, universi homines legitimis sacris vacarent, ac propitios sibi deos 0554B experirentur. Ubi autem religionis ejus, contra quam perorabat, infirmare voluit rationem, ineptus, vanus, ridiculus apparuit; quia gravis ille consultor utilitatis alienae, non modo quid oppugnaret, sed etiam quid loqueretur nesciebat. Nam si qui nostrorum affuerunt, quamvis temporis gratia conticerent, animo tamen derisere, utpote cum viderent hominem profitentem se illuminaturum alios, cum ipse caecus esset; reducturum alios ab errore, cum ipse ignoraret ubi pedes suos poneret; eruditurum alios ad veritatem, cujus ille ne scintillam quidem unam vidisset 0555A aliquando, quippe cum sapientiae professor, profligare sapientiam niteretur. Omnes tamen id arguebant quod illo potissimum tempore id operis esset aggressus, quo furebat odiosa crudelitas. 0555A O philosophum adulatorem, ac tempori servientem! Verum hic pro sua vanitate contemptus est; qui et gratiam, quam speravit, non est adeptus, et gloria quam captavit, in culpam reprehensionemque conversa est.

Alius eamdem materiam mordacius scripsit, qui erat tum e numero judicum, et qui auctor in primis faciendae persecutionis fuit: quo scelere non contentus, etiam scriptis eos, quos afflixerat, insecutus est. Composuit enim libellos duos, non contra Christianos, ne inimice insectari videretur, sed ad Christianos, 0555B ut humane ac benigne consulere putaretur. in quibus ita falsitatem Scripturae sacrae arguere conatus est, tanquam sibi esset tota contraria; nam quaedam capita, quae repugnare sibi videbantur, exposuit, adeo multa, adeo intima enumerans, ut aliquando ex eadem disciplina fuisse videatur. Quod si fuit, quis eum Demosthenes poterit ab impietate defendere? qui religionis cui fuerat assensus, et fidei cujus nomen induerat et sacramenti quod acceperat, proditor factus est? nisi forte casu in manus ejus 0556A divinae litterae inciderunt. Quae igitur temeritas erat id audere dissolvere, quod illi nemo interpretatus est? Bene, quod aut nihil didicit, aut nihil intellexit. Tantum enim abest a divinis litteris repugnantia, quantum ille abfuit a fide et veritate: praecipue tamen Paulum Petrumque laceravit, caeterosque discipulos, tanquam fallaciae seminatores, quos eosdem tamen rudes et indoctos fuisse testatus est; nam quosdam eorum piscatorio artificio fecisse quaestum: quasi aegre ferret, quod illam rem non Aristophanes aliquis aut Aristarchus commentatus sit.