Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus.

Preface.

1. You have desired, beloved Fortunatus1    [In the Council of Carthage, a.d. 256, a bishop of Tucca is so named.] that, since the burden of persecutions and afflictions is lying heavy upon us, and in the ending and completion of the world the hateful time of Antichrist is already beginning to draw near,2    [Hippol., p. 242, supra.] I would collect from the sacred Scriptures some exhortations for preparing and strengthening the minds of the brethren, whereby I might animate the soldiers of Christ for the heavenly and spiritual contest. I have been constrained to obey your so needful wish, so that as much as my limited powers, instructed by the aid of divine inspiration, are sufficient, some arms, as it were, and defences might be brought forth from the Lord’s precepts for the brethren who are about to fight. For it is little to arouse God’s people by the trumpet call of our voice, unless we confirm the faith of believers, and their valour dedicated and devoted to God, by the divine readings.3    [Compare, On the Glory of Martyrdom, this volume, infra. This treatise seems a prescient admonition against the evils which soon after began to infect the Latin theology.]

2. But what more fitly or more fully agrees with my own care and solicitude, than to prepare the people divinely entrusted to me, and an army established in the heavenly camp, by assiduous exhortations against the darts and weapons of the devil? For he cannot be a soldier fitted for the war who has not first been exercised in the field; nor will he who seeks to gain the crown of contest be rewarded on the racecourse, unless he first considers the use and skilfulness of his powers. It is an ancient adversary and an old enemy with whom we wage our battle: six thousand years are now nearly completed since the devil first attacked man.4    [Note this chronological statement, and compare vol. ii. p. 334, note 5, and Elucidation XV. p. 346, same volume.] All kinds of temptation, and arts, and snares for his overthrow, he has learned by the very practice of long years. If he finds Christ’s soldier unprepared, if unskilled, if not careful and watching with his whole heart; he circumvents him if ignorant, he deceives him incautious, he cheats him inexperienced. But if a man, keeping the Lord’s precepts, and bravely adhering to Christ,5    Some read, “bravely abiding in the footsteps of Christ.” stands against him, he must needs be conquered, because Christ, whom that man confesses, is unconquered.

3. And that I might not extend my discourse, beloved brother, to too great a length, and fatigue my hearer or reader by the abundance of a too diffuse style, I have made a compendium; so that the titles being placed first, which every one ought both to know and to have in mind, I might subjoin sections of the Lord’s word, and establish what I had proposed by the authority of the divine teaching, in such wise as that I might not appear to have sent you my own treatise so much, as to have suggested material for others to discourse on; a proceeding which will be of advantage to individuals with increased benefit. For if I were to give a man a garment finished and ready, it would be my garment that another was making use of, and probably the thing made for another would be found little fitting for his figure of stature and body. But now I have sent you the very wool and the purple6    [Compare the paradox of Rev. vii. 14.] from the Lamb, by whom we were redeemed and quickened; which, when you have received, you will make into a coat for yourself according to your own will, and the rather that you will rejoice in it as your own private and special garment. And you will exhibit to others also what we have sent, that they themselves may be able to finish it according to their will; so that that old nakedness being covered, they may all bear the garments of Christ robed in the sanctification of heavenly grace.

4. Moreover also, beloved brethren, I have considered it a useful and wholesome plan in an exhortation so needful as that which may make martyrs, to cut off all delays and tardiness in our words, and to put away the windings of human discourse, and set down only those things which God speaks, wherewith Christ exhorts His servants to martyrdom. Those divine precepts themselves must be supplied, as it were, for arms for the combatants. Let them be the incitements of the warlike trumpet; let them be the clarion-blast for the warriors. Let the ears be roused by them; let the minds be prepared by them; let the powers both of soul and body be strengthened to all endurance of suffering. Let us only who, by the Lord’s permission, have given the first baptism to believers, also prepare each one for the second; urging and teaching that this is a baptism greater in grace, more lofty in power, more precious in honour—a baptism wherein angels baptize—a baptism in which God and His Christ exult—a baptism after which no one sins any more7    [“Baptisma post quod nemo jam peccat.” This gave “the baptism of blood” its grand advantage in the martyrs’ eyes.]—a baptism which completes the increase of our faith—a baptism which, as we withdraw from the world, immediately associates us with God. In the baptism of water is received the remission of sins, in the baptism of blood the crown of virtues. This thing is to be embraced and desired, and to be asked for in all the entreaties of our petitions, that we who are God’s servants should be also His friends.

EPISTOLA AD FORTUNATUM DE EXHORTATIONE MARTYRII .

PRAEFATIO.

0651C I. DESIDERASTI, Fortunate carissime, ut, quoniam persecutionum et pressurarum pondus incumbit, et in fine atque in consummatione mundi antichristi tempus infestum appropinquare jam coepit, ad praeparandas et corroborandas fratrum mentes de divinis Scripturis hortamenta componerem, quibus milites 0652C Christi ad coeleste et spiritale certamen animarem. Obtemperandum fuit desiderio tuo tam necessario, ut, quantum sufficit mediocritas nostra auxilio divinae inspirationis instructa, quasi arma ac munimenta quaedam pugnaturis fratribus de praeceptis Dominicis promerentur. Parum est enim quod Dei plebem 0653A classico nostrae vocis erigimus, nisi credentium fidem et dicatam Deo devotamque virtutem divina lectione firmemus.

II. Quid autem potius aut majus curae nostrae ac sollicitudini congruit, quam ut commissum nobis divinitus populum et exercitum in castris caelestibus constitutum adversus diaboli tela et jacula exhortationibus assiduis praeparemus ? Neque enim idoneus potest esse miles ad bellum qui non exercitatus prius in campo fuerit, aut qui agonisticam coronam quaerit adipisci in stadio coronabitur, nisi usum et peritiam virium ante meditetur. Adversarius vetus est et hostis antiquus cum quo praelium gerimus ; sex millia annorum jam pene complentur ex quo hominem diabolus impugnat. Omnia genera tentandi et artes atque insidias 0653B dejiciendi usu ipso vetustatis edidicit. Si imparatum invenerit militem Christi, si rudem, si non sollicitum ac toto corde vigilantem, circumvenit nescium, fallit incautum, decipit imperitum . Si vero quis Dominica praecepta custodiens et fortiter Christo adhaerens contra eum steterit, vincatur necesse est, quia Christus, quem confitetur, invictus est.

III. Ac, ne in longum sermonem meum extenderem, frater charissime, et audientem vel legentem styli latioris copia fatigarem, compendium feci; ut, propositis titulis, quos quis et nosse debeat et tenere, capitula Dominica subnecterem et id quod proposueram divinae lectionis auctoritate solidarem, ut non tam tractatum meum videar tibi misisse quam materiam tractantibus praebuisse. Quae res in usum 0653C singulis proficit utilitate majore. Nam, si confectam et paratam jam vestem darem, vestis esset mea, qua alius uteretur, et forsitan non pro habitudine staturae et corporis res alteri facta minus congruens haberetur. Nunc vero de agno per quem redempti ac vivificati sumus, lanam ipsam et purpuram misi; quam cum acceperis, tunicam tibi pro voluntate conficies, et plus ut in domestica tua atque in propria veste laetaberis, et caeteris quoque ut conficere et ipsi pro arbitrio suo possint quod misimus exhibebis, ut, vetere illa nuditate contecta, perferant omnes indumenta Christi, coelestis gratiae sanctificatione vestiti.

IV. Necnon et illud consilium, frater charissime, 0654A utile et salubre prospexi, in exhortatione tam necessaria quae martyres faciat, amputandas esse verborum nostrorum moras et tarditates, atque ambages sermonis humani subtrahendas, ponenda sola illa quae Deus loquitur, quibus servos suos ad martyrium Christus hortatur. Praecepta ipsa divina velut arma pugnantibus suggerenda sunt. Illa sint militaris tubae hortamenta, illa pugnantibus classica. Inde aures erigantur, inde instruantur mentes, inde et animi et corporis vires ad omnem passionis tolerantiam roborentur. Nos tantum qui, Domino permittente, primum Baptisma credentibus dedimus, ad aliud quoque singulos praeparemus, insinuantes et docentes hoc esse Baptisma in gratia majus, in potestate sublimius, in honore pretiosius, Baptisma in quo Angeli baptizant, 0654B Baptisma in quo Deus et Christus ejus exultant, Baptisma post quod nemo jam peccat, Baptisma quod fidei nostrae incrementa consummat, Baptisma quod nos de mundo recedentes statim Deo copulat. In aquae Baptismo accipitur peccatorum remissa, in sanguinis Baptismo corona virtutum. Amplectenda res est et optanda et omnibus postulationum nostrarum precibus expetenda, ut qui servi Dei sumus , simus et amici.