Traduction Masquer
To Scapula

Chapter IV.

We who are without fear ourselves are not seeking to frighten you, but we would save all men if possible by warning them not to fight with God. ¹ You may perform the duties of your charge, and yet remember the claims of humanity; if on no other ground than that you are liable to punishment yourself, (you ought to do so). For is not your commission simply to condemn those who confess their guilt, and to give over to the torture those who deny? You see, then, how you trespass yourselves against your instructions to wring from the confessing a denial. It is, in fact, an acknowledgment of our innocence that you refuse to condemn us at once when we confess. In doing your utmost to extirpate us, if that is your object, it is innocence you assail. But how many rulers, men more resolute and more cruel than you are, have contrived to get quit of such causes altogether,--as Cincius Severus, who himself suggested the remedy at Thysdris, pointing out how the Christians should answer that they might secure an acquittal; as Vespronius Candidus, who dismissed from his bar a Christian, on the ground that to satisfy his fellow-citizens would break the peace of the community; as Asper, who, in the case of a man who gave up his faith under slight infliction of the torture, did not compel the offering of sacrifice, having owned before, among the advocates and assessors of court, that he was annoyed at having had to meddle with such a case. Pudens, too, at once dismissed a Christian who was brought before him, perceiving from the indictment that it was a case of vexatious accusation; tearing the document in pieces, he refused so much as to hear him without the presence of his accuser, as not being consistent with the imperial commands. All this might be officially brought under your notice, and by the very advocates, who are themselves also under obligations to us, although in court they give their voice as it suits them. The clerk of one of them who was liable to be thrown upon the ground by an evil spirit, was set free from his affliction; as was also the relative of another, and the little boy of a third. How many men of rank (to say nothing of common people) have been delivered from devils, and healed of diseases! Even Severus himself, the father of Antonine, was graciously mindful of the Christians; for he sought out the Christian Proculus, surnamed Torpacion, the steward of Euhodias, and in gratitude for his having once cured him by anointing, he kept him in his palace till the day of his death. ² Antonine, too, brought up as he was on Christian milk, was intimately acquainted with this man. Both women and men of highest rank, whom Severus knew well to be Christians, were not merely permitted by him to remain uninjured; but he even bore distinguished testimony in their favour, and gave them publicly back to us from the hands of a raging populace. Marcus Aurelius also, in his expedition to Germany, by the prayers his Christian soldiers offered to God, got rain in that well-known thirst. ³ When, indeed, have not droughts been put away by our kneelings and our fastings? At times like these, moreover, the people crying to "the God of gods, the alone Omnipotent," under the name of Jupiter, have borne witness to our God. Then we never deny the deposit placed in our hands; we never pollute the marriage bed; we deal faithfully with our wards; we give aid to the needy; we render to none evil for evil. As for those who falsely pretend to belong to us, and whom we, too, repudiate, let them answer for themselves. In a word, who has complaint to make against us on other grounds? To what else does the Christian devote himself, save the affairs of his own community, which during all the long period of its existence no one has ever proved guilty of the incest or the cruelty charged against it? It is for freedom from crime so singular, for a probity so great, for righteousness, for purity, for faithfulness, for truth, for the living God, that we are consigned to the flames; for this is a punishment you are not wont to inflict either on the sacrilegious, or on undoubted public enemies, or on the treason-tainted, of whom you have so many. Nay, even now our people are enduring persecution from the governors of Legio and Mauritania; but it is only with the sword, as from the first it was ordained that we should suffer. But the greater our conflicts, the greater our rewards.

Edition Masquer
Ad Scapulam

IV.

[1] Non te terremus, qui nec timemus; sed uelim, ut omnes saluos facere possimus, monendo mh_ qeomaxei=n. Potes et officio iurisdictionis tuae fungi et humanitatis meminisse, uel quia et uos sub gladio estis. [2] Quid enim amplius tibi mandatur quam nocentes confessos damnare, negantes autem ad tormenta reuocare? Videtis ergo quomodo ipsi uos contra mandata faciatis, ut confessos negare cogatis. Adeo confitemini innocentes esse nos, quos damnare statim ex confessione non uultis. Si autem contenditis ad elidendos nos, iam ergo innocentiam expugnatis. [3] Quanti autem praesides, et constantiores et crudeliores, dissimulauerunt ab huiusmodi causis! ut Cincius Seuerus, qui Thysdri ipse dedit remedium, quomodo responderent Christiani ut dimitti possent; ut Vespronius Candidus, qui Christianum quasi tumultuosum ciuibus suis satisfacere dimisit; ut Asper, qui modice uexatum hominem et statim deiectum, nec sacrificium compulit facere, ante professus inter aduocatos et adsessores, dolere se incidisse primum in hanc causam. Pudens etiam missum ad se Christianum, in elogio concussione eius intellecta, dimisit, scisso eodem elogio, sine accusatore negans se auditurum hominem secundum mandatum. [4] Haec omnia tibi et de officio suggeri possunt, et ab eisdem aduocatis, qui et ipsi beneficia habent Christianorum, licet acclament, quae uolunt. [5] Nam et cuiusdam notarius, cum a daemone praecipitaretur, liberatus est; et quorumdam propinquus et puerulus; et quanti honesti uiri (de uulgaribus enim non dicimus) aut a daemoniis aut ualetudinibus remediati sunt! Ipse etiam Seuerus, pater Antonini, Christianorum memor fuit. Nam et Proculum Christianum qui Torpacion cognominabatur, Euhodiae procuratorem, qui eum per oleum aliquando curauerat, requisiuit et in palatio suo habuit usque ad mortem eius; quem et Antoninus optime nouerat, lacte Christiano educatus. [6] Sed et clarissimas feminas et clarissimos uiros Seuerus, sciens huius sectae esse, non modo non laesit, uerum et testimonio exornauit, et populo furenti in nos palam restitit. Marcus quoque Aurelius in Germanica expeditione Christianorum militum orationibus ad Deum factis imbres in siti illa impetrauit. Quando non geniculationibus et ieiunationibus nostris etiam siccitates sunt depulsae? Tunc et populus acclamans Deo deorum, qui solus potens. In Iouis nomine Deo nostro testimonium reddidit. [7] Praeter haec depositum non abnegamus, matrimonium nullius adulteramus, pupillos pie tractamus, indigentibus refrigeramus, nulli malum pro malo reddimus. Viderint, qui sectam mentiuntur, quos et ipsi recusamus. Quis denique de nobis alio nomine queritur? Quod aliud negotium patitur Christianus, nisi suae sectae, quam incestam, quam crudelem tanto tempore nemo probauit? [8] Pro tanta innocentia, pro tanta probitate, pro iustitia, pro pudicitia, pro fide, pro ueritate, pro Deo uiuo, cremamur; quod nec sacrilegi, nec hostes publici, uerum nec tot maiestatis rei pati solent. Nam et nunc a praeside Legionis, et a praeside Mauritaniae uexatur hoc nomen, sed gladio tenus, sicut et a primordio mandatum est animaduerti in huiusmodi. Sed maiora certamina maiora sequuntur praemia.