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Apologeticum

XI.

[1] Et quoniam sicut illos homines fuisse non audetis negare, ita post mortem deos factos instituistis adseverare, causas quae hoc exegerint retractemus. [2] Inprimis quidem necesse est concedatis esse aliquem sublimiorem deum et mancipem quendam divinitatis, qui ex hominibus deos fecerit. Nam neque sibi illi sumere potuissent divinitatem, quam non habebant, nec alius praestare eam non habentibus nisi qui proprie possidebat. [3] Ceterum si nemo esset qui deos faceret, frustra praesumitis deos factos auferendo factorem. Certe quidem si ipsi se facere potuissent, nunquam homines fuissent, possidentes scilicet condicionis melioris potestatem.

[4] Igitur si est qui faciat deos, revertor ad causas examinandas faciendorum ex hominibus deorum, nec ullas invenio, nisi si ministeria et auxilia officiis divinis desideravit ille magnus deus. Primo indignum est, ut alicuius opera indigeret, et quidem mortui, cum dignius ab initio deum aliquem fecisset qui mortui erat operam desideraturus. [5] Sed nec operae locum video. Totum enim hoc mundi corpus sive innatum et infectum secundum Pythagoram, sive natum factumve secundum Platonem, semel utique in ista constructione dispositum et instructum et ordinatum cum omni rationis gubernaculo inventum est. Imperfectum non potuit esse quod perfecit omnia. [6] Nihil Saturnum et Saturniam gentem expectabat. Vani erunt homines, nisi certi sint a primordio et pluvias de caelo ruisse et sidera radiasse et lumina floruisse et tonitrua mugisse et ipsum Iovem quae in manu eius inponitis fulmina timuisse, item omnem frugem ante Liberum et Cererem et Minervam, immo ante illum aliquem principem hominem de terra exuberasse, quia nihil continendo et sustinendo homini prospectum post hominem potuit inferri. [7] Denique invenisse dicuntur necessaria ista vitae, non instituisse. Quod autem invenitur, fuit, et quod fuit, non eius deputabitur qui invenit, sed eius qui instituit; erat enim antequam inveniretur. [8] Ceterum si propterea Liber deus quod vitem demonstravit, male cum Lucullo actum est, qui primus cerasia ex Ponto Italiae promulgavit, quod non est propterea consecratus ut frugis novae auctor, qui ostensor. [9] Quamobrem si ab initio et instructa et certis exercendorum officiorum suorum rationibus dispensata universitas constitit, vacat ex hac parte causa adlegendae humanitatis in divinitatem, quia quas illis stationes et potestates distribuistis, tam fuerunt ab initio quam et fuissent etiamsi deos istos non creassetis.

[10] Sed convertimini ad causam aliam, respondentes conlationem divinitatis meritorum remunerandorum fuisse rationem. Et hinc conceditis, opinor, illum deum deificum iustitia praecellere, qui non temere nec indigne nec prodige tantum praemium dispensarit. [11] Volo igitur merita recensere, an eiusmodi sint, ut illos in caelum extulerint et non potius in imum tartarum merserint, quem carcerem poenarum infernarum cum vultis adfirmatis. [12] Illuc enim abstrudi solent impii quique in parentes et incesti in sorores et maritarum adulteri et virginum raptores et puerorum contaminatores et qui saeviunt et qui occidunt et qui furantur et qui decipiunt et quicunque similes sunt alicuius dei vestri, quem neminem integrum a crimine aut vitio probare poteritis, nisi hominem negaveritis. [13] Atquin ut illos homines fuisse non possitis negare, etiam istae notae accedunt quae nec deos postea factos credi permittunt. Si enim vos talibus puniendis praesidetis, si conmercium, colloquium, convictum malorum et turpium probi quique respuitis, horum autem pares deus ille maiestatis suae consortio adscivit, quid ergo damnatis quorum collegas adoratis? [14] Suggillatio est in caelo vestra iustitia. Deos facite criminosissimos quosque, ut placeatis deis vestis. Illorum est honor consecratio coaequalium. [15] Sed ut omittam huius indignitatis retractatum, probi et integri et boni fuerint. Quot tamen potiores viros apud inferos reliquistis! aliquem de sapientia Socratem, de iustitia Aristiden, de militia Themistoclem, de sublimitate Alexandrum, de felicitate Polycraten, de copia Croesum, de eloquentia Demosthenen. [16] Quis ex illis deis vestris gravior et sapientior Catone, iustior et militarior Scipione? quis sublimior Pompeio, felicior Sulla, copiosior Crasso, eloquentior Tullio? Quanto dignius istos deos ille adsumendos expectasset, praescius utique potiorum? Properavit, opinor, et caelum semel clusit, et nunc utique melioribus apud inferos musitantibus erubescit.

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The Apology

Chapter XI.

And since, as you dare not deny that these deities of yours once were men, you have taken it on you to assert that they were made gods after their decease, let us consider what necessity there was for this. In the first place, you must concede the existence of one higher God--a certain wholesale dealer in divinity, who has made gods of men. For they could neither have assumed a divinity which was not theirs, nor could any but one himself possessing it have conferred it on them. If there was no one to make gods, it is vain to dream of gods being made when thus you have no god-maker. Most certainly, if they could have deified themselves, with a higher state at their command, they never would have been men. If, then, there be one who is able to make gods, I turn back to an examination of any reason there may be for making gods at all; and I find no other reason than this, that the great God has need of their ministrations and aids in performing the offices of Deity. But first it is an unworthy idea that He should need the help of a man, and in fact a dead man, when, if He was to be in want of this assistance from the dead, He might more fittingly have created some one a god at the beginning. Nor do I see any place for his action. For this entire world-mass--whether self-existent and uncreated, as Pythagoras maintains, or brought into being by a creator's hands, as Plato holds--was manifestly, once for all in its original construction, disposed, and furnished, and ordered, and supplied with a government of perfect wisdom. That cannot be imperfect which has made all perfect. There was nothing waiting on for Saturn and his race to do. Men will make fools of themselves if they refuse to believe that from the very first rain poured down from the sky, and stars gleamed, and light shone, and thunders roared, and Jove himself dreaded the lightnings you put in his hands; that in like manner before Bacchus, and Ceres, and Minerva, nay before the first man, whoever that was, every kind of fruit burst forth plentifully from the bosom of the earth, for nothing provided for the support and sustenance of man could be introduced after his entrance on the stage of being. Accordingly, these necessaries of life are said to have been discovered, not created. But the thing you discover existed before; and that which had a pre-existence must be regarded as belonging not to him who discovered it, but to him who made it, for of course it had a being before it could be found. But if, on account of his being the discoverer of the vine, Bacchus is raised to godship, Lucullus, who first introduced the cherry from Pontus into Italy, has not been fairly dealt with; for as the discoverer of a new fruit, he has not, as though he were its creator, been awarded divine honours. Wherefore, if the universe existed from the beginning, thoroughly furnished with its system working under certain laws for the performance of its functions, there is, in this respect, an entire absence of all reason for electing humanity to divinity; for the positions and powers which you have assigned to your deities have been from the beginning precisely what they would have been, although you had never deified them. But you turn to another reason, telling us that the conferring of deity was a way of rewarding worth. And hence you grant, I conclude, that the god-making God is of transcendent righteousness,--one who will neither rashly, improperly, nor needlessly bestow a reward so great. I would have you then consider whether the merits of your deities are of a kind to have raised them to the heavens, and not rather to have sunk them down into lowest depths of Tartarus,--the place which you regard, with many, as the prison-house of infernal punishments. For into this dread place are wont to be cast all who offend against filial piety, and such as are guilty of incest with sisters, and seducers of wives, and ravishers of virgins, and boy-polluters, and men of furious tempers, and murderers, and thieves, and deceivers; all, in short, who tread in the footsteps of your gods, not one of whom you can prove free from crime or vice, save by denying that they had ever a human existence. But as you cannot deny that, you have those foul blots also as an added reason for not believing that they were made gods afterwards. For if you rule for the very purpose of punishing such deeds; if every virtuous man among you rejects all correspondence, converse, and intimacy with the wicked and base, while, on the other hand, the high God has taken up their mates to a share of His majesty, on what ground is it that you thus condemn those whose fellow-actors you adore? Your goodness is an affront in the heavens. Deify your vilest criminals, if you would please your gods. You honour them by giving divine honours to their fellows. But to say no more about a way of acting so unworthy, there have been men virtuous, and pure, and good. Yet how many of these nobler men you have left in the regions of doom! as Socrates, so renowned for his wisdom, Aristides for his justice, Themistocles for his warlike genius, Alexander for his sublimity of soul, Polycrates for his good fortune, Croesus for his wealth, Demosthenes for his eloquence. Which of these gods of yours is more remarkable for gravity and wisdom than Cato, more just and warlike than Scipio? which of them more magnanimous than Pompey, more prosperous than Sylla, of greater wealth than Crassus, more eloquent than Tullius? How much better it would have been for the God Supreme to have waited that He might have taken such men as these to be His heavenly associates, prescient as He must have surely been of their worthier character! He was in a hurry, I suppose, and straightway shut heaven's gates; and now He must surely feel ashamed at these worthies murmuring over their lot in the regions below.