Traduction Masquer
Defence before Constantius

34.He expostulates with Constantius.

Now when such enormities as these were again perpetrated by the Arians, I surely was not wrong in complying with the direction of Holy Scripture, which says, ‘Hide thyself for a little moment, until the wrath of the Lord be overpast ¹.’ This was another reason for my withdrawing myself, Augustus, most beloved of God; and I refused not, either to depart into the desert, or, if need were, to be let down from a wall in a basket ². I endured everything, I even dwelt among wild beasts, that your favour might return to me, waiting for an opportunity to offer to you this my defence, confident as I am that they will be condemned, and your goodness manifested unto me. O, Augustus, blessed and most beloved of God, what would you have had me to do? to come to you while my calumniators were inflamed with rage against me, and were seeking to kill me; or, as it is written, to hide myself a little, that in the mean time they might be condemned as heretics, and your goodness might be manifested unto me? or would you have had me, Sire, to appear before your magistrates, in order that though you had written merely in the way of threatening, they not understanding your intention, but being exasperated against me by the Arians, might kill me on the authority of your letters, and on that ground ascribe the murder to you? It would neither have been becoming in me to surrender, and give myself up that my blood might be shed, nor in you, as a Christian King, to have the murder of Christians, and those too Bishops, imputed unto you.

Traduction Masquer
Apologie de Saint Athanase à l'Empereur Constance

34.

Quand les ariens se livraient à tant et de tels crimes, je n’ai point failli en obéissant à la divine Ecriture: Cache-toi, dit-elle, pour un moment, jusqu’à ce que passe la colère du Seigneur. Tel fut le nouveau motif de ma retraite, Auguste très ami de Dieu ; je n’ai refusé ni de partir pour le désert, ni, s’il l’eût fallu, de descendre du haut du rempart dans une corbeille. J’ai tout supporté et j’ai habité avec les bêtes sauvages, jusqu’à ce que vous fussiez passés. J’attendais l’occasion d’un tel discours et j’avais la confiance que les calomniateurs seraient convaincus, que ton Humanité se montrerait. O bienheureux et très pieux Auguste, qu’eusses-tu préféré? que je vinsse, quand mes calomniateurs me cherchaient, ardents de fureur? ou, selon ce qui est écrit, que je me cachasse un moment, afin que, ce pendant, les sycophantes fussent convaincus d’hérésie et que ton Humanité se manifestât? Eusses-tu voulu, ô empereur, que je comparusse devant tes juges, afin que, quand tu n’avais écrit qu’en vue d’une simple menace, sans comprendre ta pensée et excités par les ariens, ils me fissent périr en vertu de ta lettre, et, à cause de cette lettre, t’imputassent ma mort? Il ne me convenait, ni de me présenter de moi-même, ni de me livrer pour qu’on versât mon sang; il ne convenait pas qu’un empereur, ami du Christ, prît à son compte des meurtres de chrétiens, des meurtres d’évêques.