IV.  What wild beasts have we let loose upon the bodies of Saints,—like some who have prostituted human nature,—on one single accusation, that of not consenting to their impiety; or defiled ourselves by communion with them, which we avoid like the poison of a snake, not because it injures the body, but because it blackens the depths of the soul?  Against whom have we made it a matter of criminal accusation that they buried the dead, whom the very beasts reverenced?  And what a charge, worthy of another theatre and of other beasts!  What Bishop’s aged flesh have we carded with hooks in the presence of their disciples, impotent to help them save by tears, hung up with Christ, conquering by suffering, and sprinkling the people with their precious blood, and at last carried away to death, to be both crucified and buried and glorified with Christ; with Christ Who conquered the world by such victims and sacrifices?  What priests have those contrary elements fire and water divided, raising a strange beacon over the sea, and set on fire together with the ship in which they put to sea?11    Socrates (H. E. IV. 16) gives an account of the murder of eighty Priests by order of Valens.  The Prefect of Nicomedia, being afraid to execute the Emperor’s commands by a public action, put these men on board a ship, as if to send them into exile, but gave orders to the crew to set the vessel on fire on the high seas, and leave the prisoners to their fate.   Billius, however, thinks that the reference is to the martyrdom of a single Priest, whose death in this way is described by S. Gregory in his panegyric on Maximus (Or. xxv. 10, p. 461, 462).  Who (to cover the more numerous part of our woes with a veil of silence) have been accused of inhumanity by the very magistrates who conferred such favour on them?  For even if they did obey the lusts of those men, yet at any rate they hated the cruelty of their purpose.  The one was opportunism, the other calculation; the one came of the lawlessness of the Emperor, the other of a consciousness of the laws by which they had to judge.

Δʹ. Τίνας ἐπαφήκαμεν θῆρας ἁγίων σώμασιν, ὥς τινες τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν φύσιν δημοσιεύσαντες, ἓν ἐγκαλέσαντες μόνον, τὸ μὴ τῇ ἀσεβείᾳ συνθέσθαι, μηδὲ τῇ κοινωνίᾳ χρανθῆναι, ἢν ὡς ἱὸν ὄφεως φεύγομεν, οὐ σῶμα βλάπτουσαν, τὰ δὲ βάθη μελαίνουσαν τῆς ψυχῆς; τίσι καὶ τὸ θάψαι νεκροὺς ἔγκλημα γέγονεν, οὓς καὶ θῆρες ᾐδέσθησαν; καὶ τὸ ἔγκλημα πόσον; Ἄλλου θεάτρου καὶ θηρῶν ἄλλων ἄξιον. Τίνων ἐπισκόπων γηραιαὶ σάρκες τοῖς ὄνυξι κατεξάνθησαν, παρόντων τῶν μυηθέντων καὶ βοηθεῖν οὐκ ἐχόντων, πλὴν τοῦ δακρύειν: μετὰ Χριστοῦ κρεμασθεῖσαι, τῷ παθεῖν νικήσασαι, καὶ τῷ τιμίῳ αἵματι τὸν λαὸν ῥαντίσασαι, καὶ τέλος ἀπαχεῖσαι τὸν ἐπὶ θάνατον, Χριστῷ καὶ συσταυρωθησόμεναι, καὶ συνταφησόμεναι, καὶ συνδοξασθησόμεναι, Χριστῷ τῷ τὸν κόσμον νικήσαντι διὰ τοιούτων σφαγίων τε καὶ θυμάτων; Τίνας πρεσβυτέρους ἐναντίαι φύσεις, ὕδωρ καὶ πῦρ, ἐμερίσαντο, πυρσὸν ἄραντας ξένον ἐπὶ θαλάσσης, καὶ τῇ νηὶ συμφλεχθέντας ἐφ' ἧς ἀνήχθησαν; Τίνες (ἵνα τὰ πλείω συγκαλύψω τῶν ἡμετέρων κακῶν) καὶ ὑπ' αὐτῶν τῶν ἀρχόντων ἀπανθρωπίαν ἐνεκλήθησαν, τῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα χαριζομένων; Καὶ γὰρ εἰ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις ὑπηρέτουν, ἀλλ' οὖν ἐμίσουν τῆς προαιρέσεως τὸ ὠμόν. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἦν τοῦ καιροῦ, τὸ δὲ τοῦ λογισμοῦ: καὶ τὸ μὲν τῆς τοῦ βασιλέως παρανομίας, τὸ δὲ τῆς τῶν νόμων, οἷς δικάζειν ἐχρῆν, συναισθήσεως.