Oration XXXIII.

 I.  Where are they who reproach us with our poverty, and boast themselves of their own riches who define the Church by numbers, and scorn the little

 II.  Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened?  “O my people what have I done unto thee, or wherein hav

 III.  What tumultuous mob have I led against you?  What soldiers have I armed?  What general boiling with rage, and more savage than his employers, an

 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

 V.  And to speak of older things, for they too belong to the same fraternity whose hands living or dead have I cut off—to bring a lying accusation ag

 VI.  Now since your antecedents are such, I should be glad if you too will tell me of my crimes, that I may either amend my life or be put to shame. 

 VII.  Why do you not also mention the convenience of the site, and what I may call the contest between land and sea as to which owns the City, and whi

 VIII.  Do you also find fault with the raggedness of my dress, and the want of elegance in the disposition of my face? for these are the points upon w

 IX.  But I am so old fashioned and such a philosopher as to believe that one heaven is common to all and that so is the revolution of the sun and the

 X.  I was deceived too by the Ramah of Samuel, that little fatherland of the great man which was no dishonour to the Prophet, for it drew its honour

 XI.  But perhaps some one who is very circumscribed and carnally minded will say, “But our herald is a stranger and a foreigner.”  What of the Apostle

 XII.  My friend, every one that is of high mind has one Country, the Heavenly Jerusalem, in which we store up our Citizenship.  All have one family—if

 XIII.  It is thus then and for these reasons that I, who am small and of a country without repute, have come upon you, and that not of my own accord,

 XIV.  And if I am doing wrong in this, that when tyrannized over I endure it, forgive me this wrong I have borne to be tyrannized over by others too

 XV.  Moreover this also I reckoned and still reckon with myself and do you see if it is not quite correct.  I have often discussed it with you before

 XVI.  These I call by name (for they are not nameless like the stars which are numbered and have names), and they follow me, for I rear them up beside

 XVII.  These words let everyone who threatens me to-day concede to me the rest let whoever will claim.  The Father will not endure to be deprived of

V.  And to speak of older things, for they too belong to the same fraternity; whose hands living or dead have I cut off—to bring a lying accusation against Saints,12    S. Athanasius was accused by the Arians of having murdered a Meletian Bishop named Arsenius, and cut off his hand to use for magical purposes; and at a Synod held at Tyre in 334 they produced the alleged hand in a box.  Athanasius, however, was able to produce Arsenius alive and unmutilated; but even so his accusers were not satisfied. and to triumph over the faith by bluster?  Whose exiles have I numbered as benefits, and failed to reverence even the sacred colleges of sacred philosophers, whence I sought their suppliants?  Nay the very contrary is the case; I have reckoned as Martyrs those who incurred anger for the truth.  Upon whom have I, whom you accuse of licentiousness of language, brought harlots when they were almost fleshless and bloodless?  Which of the faithful have I exiled from their country and given over to the hands of lawless men, that they might be kept like wild beasts in rooms without light, and (for this is the saddest part of the tragedy) left separated from each other to endure the hardships of hunger and thirst, with food measured out to them, which they had to receive through narrow openings, so that they might not be permitted even to see their companions in misery.  And what were they who suffered thus?  Men of whom the world was not worthy.13    Heb. xi. 38.  Is it thus that you honour faith?  Is this your kind treatment of it?  Ye know not the greater part of these things, and that reasonably, because of the number of these facts and the pleasure of the action.  But he who suffers has a better memory.  There have been even some more cruel than the times themselves, like wild boars hurled against a fence.  I demand your victim of yesterday14    The reference is perhaps to Eusebius of Samosata, who was killed by a tile thrown at him by an Arian woman.  In dying he bound his friends by an oath not to allow the murderess to be punished. the old man, the Abraham-like Father, whom on his return from exile you greeted with stones in the middle of the day and in the middle of the city.  But we, if it is not invidious to say so, begged off even our murderers from their danger.  God says somewhere in Scripture, How shall I pardon thee for this?15    Jer. v. 7.  Which of these things shall I praise; or rather for which shall I bind a wreath upon you?

Εʹ: Ἢ ἵνα τὰ παλαιότερα λέγωμεν καὶ ταῦτα γὰρ τῆς αὐτῆς φρατρίας), τίνας περιελὼν χεῖρας, ἢ τεθνηκότων, ἢ ζώντων ἁγίων, κατεψευσάμην, ἵνα τὴν πίστιν πολεμήσω διὰ τῆς ἐπηρείας; Τίνων ἐξορίας ὡς εὐεργεσίας ἠρίθμησα, καὶ οὐδὲ φιλοσόφων ἱερῶν ᾐδέσθην ἱερὰ συστήματα, ὅθεν τοὺς ἱκέτας ἐζήτουν. Τοὐναντίον μὲν οὖν, κἀκείνους ἐποίησα μάρτυρας, ὑπὲρ τοῦ καλοῦ κινδυνεύοντας. Τίσιν ἐπεισήγαγον πόρνας ἀσάρκοις μικροῦ καὶ ἀναίμοσι, τὴν περὶ τῶν λόγων ἀσέλγειαν ἐγκαλούμενος; Τίνας τῶν εὐσεβῶν τῆς πατρίδος ὑπερορίσας, ἀνδρῶν ἀνόμων χερσὶ παρέδωκα, ἵν' ὡς θῆρες εἰρχθέντες ἐν ἀφεγγέσιν οἴκοις, καὶ ἀλλήλων διαζευχθέντες (τοῦτο γὰρ δὴ τὸ τῆς τραγῳδίας βαρύτατον), λιμῷ καὶ δίψει κακοπαθήσωσι, τροφὴν μετρούμενοι, καὶ ταύτην διὰ στενῶν τῶν πόρων, καὶ οὐδὲ τοὺς συναλγοῦντας ὁρᾷν ἐώμενοι; Καὶ ταῦτα, τίνες; Ὧν οὐκ ἦν ἄξιος ὁ κόσμος. Οὕτω τιμᾶτε πίστιν ὑμεῖς; οὕτω ξενίζετε; Ἀγνοεῖτε τὰ πλείω τούτων: καὶ λίαν εἰκότως, διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν δραμάτων, καὶ τῆς ἐν τῷ ποιεῖν τρυφῆς: ἀλλὰ τὸ πάσχον μνημονικώτερον. Τί μοι τὰ πόῤῥω λέγειν; Ἀλλά τινες καὶ τοῦ καιροῦ γεγόνασι βιαιότεροι, καθάπερ οἱ κατὰ φραγμῶν ὠθούμενοι σύες. Ζητῶ μου τὸ χθὲς ὑμῶν σφάγιον, τὸν γέροντα, καὶ Ἀβραμιαῖον πατέρα, ὃν ἐκ τῆς ὑπερορίας ἀχθέντα, λίθοις ἐδεξιώσασθε, μεσούσης ἡμέρας, ἐν μέσῃ πόλει. Ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ τοὺς φονεῖς, εἰ μὴ φορτικὸν εἰπεῖν, ἐζητησάμεθα κινδυνεύοντας. Ποῖα τούτων ἵλεως ἔσομαί σοι; φησί που τῆς Γραφῆς ὁ Θεός. Τί τούτων ἐπαινέσω; μᾶλλον δὲ, ἐκ ποίων ὑμᾶς ἀναδήσομαι;