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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

XXIV: Quod in ea uirtute, qua Regulus Catone praestantior fuit, multo magis emineant Christiani.

Nolunt autem isti, contra quos agimus, ut sanctum uirum Iob, qui tam horrenda mala in sua carne perpeti maluit quam inlata sibi morte omnibus carere cruciatibus, uel alios sanctos ex litteris nostris summa auctoritate celsissimis fideque dignissimis, qui captiuitatem dominationemque hostium ferre quam sibi necem inferre maluerunt, Catoni praeferamus; sed ex litteris eorum eundem illum M. Catoni Regulum praeferam. Cato enim numquam Caesarem uicerat, cui uictus dedignatus est subici et, ne subiceretur, a se ipso elegit occidi: Regulus autem Poenos iam uicerat imperioque Romano Romanus imperator non ex ciuibus dolendam, sed ex hostibus laudandam uictoriam reportauerat; ab eis tamen postea uictus maluit eos ferre seruiendo quam eis se auferre moriendo. proinde seruauit et sub Carthaginiensium dominatione patientiam et in Romanorum dilectione constantiam, nec uictum auferens corpus ab hostibus nec inuictum animum a ciuibus. nec quod se occidere noluit, uitae huius amore fecit. hoc probauit, cum causa promissi iurisque iurandi ad eosdem hostes, quos grauius in senatu uerbis quam bello armis offenderat, sine ulla dubitatione remeauit. tantus itaque uitae huius contemptor, cum saeuientibus hostibus per quaslibet poenas eam finire quam se ipse perimere maluit, magnum scelus esse, si se homo interimat, procul dubio iudicauit. inter omnes suos laudabiles et uirtutis insignibus inlustres uiros non proferunt Romani meliorem, quem neque felicitas corruperit, nam in tanta uictoria mansit pauperrimus, nec infelicitas fregerit, nam ad tanta exitia reuertit intrepidus. porro si fortissimi et praeclarissimi uiri terrenae patriae defensores deorumque licet falsorum, non tamen fallaces cultores, sed ueracissimi etiam iuratores, qui hostes uictos more ac iure belli ferire potuerunt, hi ab hostibus uicti se ipsos ferire noluerunt et, cum mortem minime formidarent, uictores tamen dominos ferre quam eam sibi inferre maluerunt: quanto magis Christiani, uerum deum colentes et supernae patriae suspirantes, ab hoc facinore temperabunt, si eos diuina dispositio uel probandos uel emendandos ad tempus hostibus subiugauerit, quos in illa humilitate non deserit, qui propter eos tam humiliter altissimus uenit, praesertim quos nullius militaris potestatis uel talis militiae iura constringunt ipsum hostem ferire superatum. quis ergo tam malus error obrepit, ut homo se occidat, uel quia in eum peccauit, uel ne in eum peccet inimicus, cum uel peccatorem uel peccaturum ipsum occidere non audeat inimicum?

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The City of God

Chapter 24.--That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished.

Our opponents are offended at our preferring to Cato the saintly Job, who endured dreadful evils in his body rather than deliver himself from all torment by self-inflicted death; or other saints, of whom it is recorded in our authoritative and trustworthy books that they bore captivity and the oppression of their enemies rather than commit suicide. But their own books authorize us to prefer to Marcus Cato, Marcus Regulus. For Cato had never conquered Caesar; and when conquered by him, disdained to submit himself to him, and that he might escape this submission put himself to death. Regulus, on the contrary, had formerly conquered the Carthaginians, and in command of the army of Rome had won for the Roman republic a victory which no citizen could bewail, and which the enemy himself was constrained to admire; yet afterwards, when he in his turn was defeated by them, he preferred to be their captive rather than to put himself beyond their reach by suicide. Patient under the domination of the Carthaginians, and constant in his love of the Romans, he neither deprived the one of his conquered body, nor the other of his unconquered spirit. Neither was it love of life that prevented him from killing himself. This was plainly enough indicated by his unhesitatingly returning, on account of his promise and oath, to the same enemies whom he had more grievously provoked by his words in the senate than even by his arms in battle. Having such a contempt of life, and preferring to end it by whatever torments excited enemies might contrive, rather than terminate it by his own hand, he could not more distinctly have declared how great a crime he judged suicide to be. Among all their famous and remarkable citizens, the Romans have no better man to boast of than this, who was neither corrupted by prosperity, for he remained a very poor man after winning such victories; nor broken by adversity, for he returned intrepidly to the most miserable end. But if the bravest and most renowned heroes, who had but an earthly country to defend, and who, though they had but false gods, yet rendered them a true worship, and carefully kept their oath to them; if these men, who by the custom and right of war put conquered enemies to the sword, yet shrank from putting an end to their own lives even when conquered by their enemies; if, though they had no fear at all of death, they would yet rather suffer slavery than commit suicide, how much rather must Christians, the worshippers of the true God, the aspirants to a heavenly citizenship, shrink from this act, if in God's providence they have been for a season delivered into the hands of their enemies to prove or to correct them! And certainly, Christians subjected to this humiliating condition will not be deserted by the Most High, who for their sakes humbled Himself. Neither should they forget that they are bound by no laws of war, nor military orders, to put even a conquered enemy to the sword; and if a man may not put to death the enemy who has sinned, or may yet sin against him, who is so infatuated as to maintain that he may kill himself because an enemy has sinned, or is going to sin, against him?