Chap. LXIII.—That Shows are Most Powerful to Corrupt the Minds.

It remains to speak of public shows, which, since they have a more powerful influence on the corruption of the mind, ought to be avoided by the wise, and to be altogether guarded against, because it is said that they were instituted in celebration of the honours of the gods. For the exhibitions of shows are festivals of Saturnus. The stage belongs to Father Liber; but the Circensian games are supposed to be dedicated to Neptunus: so that now he who takes part in these shows appears to have left the worship of God, and to have passed over to profane rites. But I prefer to speak of the matter itself rather than of its origin. What is so dreadful, what so foul, as the slaughter of man? Therefore our life is protected by the most severe laws; therefore wars are detestable. Yet custom finds how a man may commit homicide without war, and without laws; and this is a pleasure to him, that he has avenged guilt. But if to be present at homicide implies a consciousness of guilt, and the spectator is involved in the same guilt as the perpetrator, then in these slaughters of gladiators, he who is a spectator is no less sprinkled with blood than he who sheds it; nor can he be free from the guilt of bloodshed who wished it to be poured out, or appear not to have slain, who both favoured the slayer and asked a reward for him. What of the stage? Is it more holy,—on which comedy converses on the subject of debaucheries and amours, tragedy of incest and parricide? The immodest gestures also of players, with which they imitate disreputable women, teach the lusts, which they express by dancing. For the pantomime is a school of corruption,1565    Mimus corruptelarum disciplina est.   in which things which are shameful are acted by a figurative representation,1566    Per imaginem.   that the things which are true may be done without shame. These spectacles are viewed by youths, whose dangerous age, which ought to be curbed and governed, is trained by these representations to vices and sins. The circus, in truth, is considered more innocent, but there is greater madness in this, since the minds of the spectators are transported with such great madness, that they not only break out into revilings, but often rise to strifes, and battles, and contentions. Therefore all shows are to be avoided, that we may be able to maintain a tranquil state of mind. We must renounce hurtful pleasures, lest, charmed by pestilential sweetness, we fall into the snares of death.  

CAPUT LXIII, olim VI. (Div. Inst. lib. VI, c. 18 et 20.) Spectacula esse potentissima ad corrumpendos animos.

Superest de spectaculis dicere; quae, quoniam potentiora sunt ad corrumpendos animos, vitanda sapientibus, et cavenda sunt totaliter, quod ad celebrandos deorum honores inventa memorantur. Nam munerum editiones Saturni festa sunt. Scena Liberi patris est. Ludi vero Circenses Neptuno dicati putantur, ut jam qui spectaculis interest, relicto Dei cultu, ad profanos ritus transiisse videatur. Sed ego de re malo dicere quam de origine. Quid tam horribile, 1074B tam tetrum, quam hominis trucidatio? Ideo severissimis legibus vita nostra munitur; ideo bella execrabilia sunt. Invenit tamen consuetudo quatenus homicidium sine bello ac sine legibus faciat, et hoc sibi voluptas, quod scelus vindicavit. Quod si interesse homicidio, sceleris conscientia est, et eidem facinori spectator obstrictus est, cui et admissor, ergo et in his gladiatorum caedibus non minus cruore profunditur, qui spectat, quam ille qui facit: nec potest esse immunis a sanguine, qui voluit effundi, aut videri 1075A non interfecisse, qui interfectori et favit, 1075A et praemium postulavit. Quid scena? num sanctior? in qua comoedia de stupris et amoribus, tragoedia de incestis et parricidiis fabulatur. Histrionum etiam impudici gestus, quibus infames foeminas imitantur, libidines, quas saltando exprimunt, docent. Nam mimus corruptelarum disciplina est, in quo fiunt per imaginem, quae pudenda sunt, ut fiant sine pudore, quae vera sunt. Spectant haec adolescentes, quorum lubrica aetas, quae fraenari ac regi debet, ad vitia et peccata his imaginibus eruditur. Circus vero innocentior existimatur: sed major hic furor est; siquidem mentes spectantium tanta efferuntur insania, ut non modo in convitia, sed etiam in rixas, et praelia, et contentiones saepe consurgant. Fugienda igitur omnia spectacula, ut tranquillum mentis statum tenere possimus. 1075B Renuntiandum noxiis voluptatibus, ne deliniti suavitate pestifera, in mortis laqueos incidamus.