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The Life of Antony
82.
Being known to be so great a man, therefore, and having thus given answers to those who visited him, he returned again to the inner mountain, and maintained his wonted discipline. And often when people came to him, as he was sitting or walking, as it is written in Daniel 1, he became dumb, and after a season he resumed the thread of what he had been saying before to the brethren who were with him. And his companions perceived that he was seeing a vision. For often when he was on the mountains he saw what was happening in Egypt, and told it to Serapion the bishop 2, who was indoors with him, and who saw that Antony was wrapped in a vision. Once as he was sitting and working, he fell, as it were, into a trance, and groaned much at what he saw. Then after a time, having turned to the bystanders with groans and trembling, he prayed, and falling on his knees remained so a long time. And having arisen the old man wept. His companions, therefore, trembling and terrified, desired to learn from him what it was. And they troubled him much, until he was forced to speak. And with many groans he spake as follows: ‘O, my children, it were better to die before what has appeared in the vision come to P. 218 pass.’ And when again they asked him, having burst into tears, he said, ‘Wrath is about to seize the Church, and it is on the point of being given up to men who are like senseless beasts. For I saw the table of the Lord’s House, and mules standing around it on all sides in a ring, and kicking the things therein, just like a herd kicks when it leaps in confusion. And you saw,’ said he, ‘how I groaned, for I heard a voice saying, “My altar shall be defiled.”’ These things the old man saw, and after two years the present 3 inroad of the Arians and the plunder of the churches took place, when they violently carried off the vessels, and made the heathen carry them; and when they forced the heathen from the prisons to join in their services, and in their presence did upon the Table as they would. Then we all understood that these kicks of the mules signified to Antony what the Arians, senselessly like beasts, are now doing. But when he saw this vision, he comforted those with him, saying, ‘Be not downcast, my children; for as the Lord has been angry, so again will He heal us, and the Church shall soon again receive her own order, and shall shine forth as she is wont. And you shall behold the persecuted restored, and wickedness again withdrawn to its own hiding-place, and pious faith speaking boldly in every place with all freedom. Only defile 4 not yourselves with the Arians, for their teaching is not that of the Apostles, but that of demons and their father the devil; yea, rather, it is barren and senseless, and without light understanding, like the senselessness of these mules.’
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Dan. iv. 19 (v. 16 (LXX). ↩
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Of Thmuis, the friend and correspondent of Athanasius: see below, §91. ↩
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Cf. below, ‘what the Arians arenowdoing.’ This incidental notice of time fixes the date of the present passage. Weingarten in vain attempts to extract some other sense from the Greek, which is plainness itself. It also fixes the date of Antony’s death to within two years of the troubles in question. The Benedictines refer the troubles to the intrusion of Gregory ‘in 341’ (really 339), and the apparently unprecedented character ascribed to the outrages by Antony is in favour of this, as well as the fact (Encyc. 3) that in 339 the heathen are said to have offered sacrifice in the churches. But the latter is only in superficial agreement with the Greek text of the present passage, which speaks ofArianσυνάξεις at which heathen were impressed to be present, apparently to make some show of a congregation. The Evagrian version, indeed, adds that the Gentiles on this occasion also carried on idolatrous rites in the Church and polluted the baptisteries; but Evagrius is in the habit of interpolating little details from his own knowledge or opinion (e.g. 16, ‘Ita exorsus,’ &c., 26, ‘qui vinctas hominum linguas solvebat,’ 58, ‘qui effosso pro Christo oculo sub Maximiano,’ &c.), and in this case appears to borrow fromEncycl.3. Again, the writer of theVitawas not present (‘the bystanders’supra;‘theytroubled him;’ ‘theyasked him;’…andinfr.‘those with him’) when the Vision took place: but when, two years later, it was interpreted by events, he was in the company of those who had been with Antony at the time (infr.‘thenwe allunderstood’). This (on the assumption of Athanasian authorship) excludes the year 339, when Athanasius fled to Italy, and compels us to refer the Vision to the troubles of 356 (Apol. Fug.6, 7.Hist. Ar. 55, 56,Ep. ad Lucif.), after which Athanasius fled to the desert and was in the company of the monks. This conclusion is in independent agreement with (1) the fact, decisive by itself, that Antony is still alive in 345, when Nestorius became Prefect of Egypt (§86, note 3), i.e. six years after the troubles of 339; (2) the evidence that Antony was still living about 353 a.d. (Epist. Ammon. de Pachom. et Theod.20, 21, inAct. SS. Mai.tom. iii. Appendix 70 C E, Tillemont vii. 123), and (3) the statement of Jerome (Chron.) that Antony died in 356. Against it Weingarten urges the prophecy of restored peace to the Church (infr.) as pointing to a time after the overthrow of Arianism. This is of little weight, for the prophecy expresses only what must have been the hope and belief of all. The prologue, which Tillemont (viii. 227) thinks must have been written in a time of peace at Alexandria, is not sufficiently explicit on the point to weigh against the plain sense of the present passage. ↩
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Cf. the Second Letter to monks (Letter 53). ↩
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La vie de sainte Antoine
Chapitre LXXXII
Antoine était ainsi connu de tous et il répondait comme je l’ai dit à ceux qui venaient le voir. Il retourna encore dans la montagne la plus reculée où il continuait à vivre dans ses austérités ordinaires. Souvent, étant assis ou se promenant avec ceux qui étaient avec lui, il demeurait comme hors de soi, ainsi qu’il est écrit de Daniel (4, 16), et quelques heures après il reprenait son discours là où en était resté et continuait ainsi à parler à ses frères. Ils s’apercevaient qu’il avait eu quelque révélation. Souvent aussi, quand il était sur la même montagne, il voyait ce qui se passait en Egypte, ainsi qu’il l’avoua à l’évêque Sérapion qui, étant venu le visiter, le vit occupé par une semblable vision.
Un jour, étant assis, il entra en extase et demeura longtemps dans la contemplation de Dieu en jetant de grands soupirs. Une heure après, soupirant encore, il se tourna vers ceux qui étaient présents, et tout tremblant se releva pour prier encore Dieu. Puis il se jeta à genoux et il y resta fort longtemps, et se releva en pleurant. Cela remplit d’étonnement et d’effroi tous ces solitaires qui le supplièrent et pressèrent tellement de leur faire savoir ce que c’était, qu’il leur dit enfin avec un profond soupir, car il y était contraint : Ô mes enfants, la mort me serait beaucoup plus douce que de voir arriver ce que j’ai vu. Entendant cela, ils le pressèrent encore. Il ajouta en versant quantité de larmes : la colère de Dieu doit tomber sur son Eglise et elle sera livrée entre les mains de gens égaux en humanité à des bêtes. Car j’ai vu la table du Seigneur environnée de tous côtés de mulets qui, à grands coups de pied renversaient tout ; et ces coups de pied étaient comme font des bêtes qui sautent et qui ruent. Et quant à ce pourquoi vous m’avez vu soupirer, c’est que j’ai entendu une voix qui disait : Mon autel sera profané. Antoine eut cette vision et deux ans après, arriva ce débordement des Ariens et le ravage qu’ils ont fait dans nos églises, d’où ils ont emportés par la force les vases sacrés et ils les ont fait emporter par les païens qu’ils ont contraints de venir avec eux, dans les boutiques où, en leur présence, ils ont traité comme il leur a plu la table du Seigneur. Et alors nous avons tous jugé que, par les coups de pied de ces mulets, Dieu avait fait voir à Antoine par avance ce que les Ariens, comme des bêtes brutes, font maintenant dans l’Eglise.
Mais, après avoir eu cette vision, il consola ceux qui étaient présents, en leur disant : Mes enfants, ne perdez pas courage néanmoins. Car, comme le Seigneur s’est mis en colère, il aura compassion de nos maux ; il nous délivrera ; l’Eglise retrouver ses premiers ornements et reluira avec sa splendeur accoutumée. Vous verrez ceux qui auront souffert persécution, être rétablis avec honneur. Vous verrez l’impiété retourner se cacher dans ses antres et dans ses cavernes ordinaires et la foi orthodoxe se rétablir de tous côtés avec une pleine confiance et une entière liberté. Prenez garde seulement à ne pas vous laisser infecter par le venin des Ariens dont la doctrine, au lieu d’être apostolique, est la doctrine des démons et du diable qui est leur père, ou plutôt est une doctrine impertinente et brutale : une doctrine folle et extravagante, ainsi que les mulets sont sans esprit et sans connaissance.