Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

4.

Aut si Moyses vobis et prophetae, cum escas diiudicant, dei legem sancire videntur et non daemoniorum, si Danihel in spiritu sancto observavit tres hebdomadas, si Ananias, Azarias et Misahel pueri divinae mentis instinctu oleribus uti maluerunt et leguminibus, si denique in vobis quotquot abstinent, non a daemoniis impulsi id faciunt, si quadragesima sine vino et carnibus non superstitiose a vobis, sed divina lege servatur: videte, quaeso, videte, ne summae dementiae hoc sit a Paulo dictum putare, quod daemoniorum doctrina sit abstinentia omnis ciborum, [et prohibentes nubere,] quemadmodum nec illud, quod dicit etiam virgines dicare Christo daemoniorum esse doctrinas, p. 750,24 quod vos perinde sine consideratione legentes ut cetera ad nos subinde respicitis nec videtis hinc et virgines vestras daemoniorum doctrina captas notari et vos esse antistites daemoniorum, qui certatim semper ad hanc eas incitetis professionem suasionibus vestris, ut paene iam maior in ecclesiis omnibus virginum apud uos quam mulierum numerositas habeatur? Quid ergo non et vos iam desistitis a talibus inceptis? Quid in fraudem miseras inducitis filias hominum, si non in eis Christi voluntas impletur, sed daemoniorum? Et tamen hoc nobis primo respondeatis velim, utrum omnino virgines facere doctrina sit daemoniorum, an solum per prohibitionem facere nubendi? Si per prohibitionem, nihil ad nos; nam et ipsi tam stultum iudicamus inhibere volentem quam nefas et impium satis nolentem cogere; p. 751,8 si vero favere huic quoque proposito et non reluctari volenti id quoque doctrinam putatis esse daemoniorum, taceo nunc vestrum periculum, ipsi iam timeo apostolo, ne daemoniorum doctrinam intulisse tunc Iconium videatur, cum Theclam oppigneratam iam thalamo in amorem sermone suo perpetuae virginitatis incendit. Quid vero et de magistro ipso dicemus ac sanctimoniae totius auctore Iesu et huius ipsius professionis puellarum caelite sponso, qui in evangelio tria genera taxans spadonum, unum nativum, alterum facticium, tertium voluntarium, eis tamen palmam attribuit, qui se ipsos inquit spadones fecerunt propter regnum caelorum, significans virgines et pueros, qui nubendi ipsa a cordibus suis exsecta cupiditate spadonum vice in eius ecclesia semper tamquam in domo regia conversentur? p. 751,21 Quid ergo? Et hoc vobis doctrina videtur esse daemoniorum et in seductorio spiritu dictum? Et quis erit alius in deo loquens, si Paulus et Christus daemoniorum probantur fuisse sacerdotes? Mitto enim ceteros eiusdem domini nostri apostolos, Petrum et Andream, Thomam et illum inexpertum Veneris inter ceteros beatum Iohannem, qui per diversa possessionem boni istius inter virgines ac pueros divino praeconio cecinerunt formam nobis atque adeo vobis ipsis faciundarum virginum relinquentes. p. 752,3 Sed hos quidem, ut dixi, praetereo, quia eos vos exclusistis ex canone facileque mente sacrilega vestra daemoniorum his potestis importare doctrinas. Num igitur et de Christo eadem dicere poteritis aut de apostolo Paulo, quem similiter ubique constat et verbo semper praetulisse nuptis innuptas et id opere quoque ostendisse erga sanctissimam Theclam? Quodsi haec daemoniorum doctrina non fuit, quam et Theclae Paulus et ceteri ceteris adnuntiaverunt apostoli, cui credi iam poterit hoc ab ipso esse memoratum, tamquam sit daemoniorum voluntas et doctrina etiam persuasio sanctimonii? Non ergo est interim, quod vos ‹solum› existimetis solis hortamentis virgines facere et non prohibitione nubendi; nobis enim quoque hoc ipsum insitum est. Et demens profecto ille, non tantum stultus putandus est, qui id existimet lege privata prohiberi posse, quod sit publica concessum; dico autem hoc ipsum nubere. p. 752,18 Quapropter et nos hortamur quidem volentes, ut permaneant, non tamen cogimus invitos, ut accedant. Novimus enim, quantum voluntas, quantum et naturae ipsius vis etiam contra legem publicam valeat, nedum adversus privatam, cui respondere sit liberum Nolo. Si igitur hoc modo virgines facere sine crimine est, extra culpam sumus et nos; sin quoquo genere virgines facere crimen est, rei estis et vos. Iam qua mente aut consilio hoc adversum nos capitulum proferatis, ego non video.

Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

4.

But if you think that in making a distinction in food, Moses and the prophets established a divine ordinance, and not a doctrine of devils; if Daniel in the Holy Spirit observed a fast of three weeks; if the youths Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael, under divine guidance, chose to live on cabbage or pulse; if, again, those among you who abstain, do it not at the instigation of devils; if your abstinence from wine and flesh for forty days is not superstitious, but by divine command,--consider, I beseech you, if it is not perfect madness to suppose these words to be Paul's that abstinence from food and forbidding to marry are doctrines of devils. Paul cannot have said that to dedicate virgins to Christ is a doctrine of devils. But you read the words, and inconsiderately, as usual, apply them to us, without seeing that this stamps your virgins too as led away by the doctrine of devils, and that you are the functionaries of the devils in your constant endeavors to induce virgins to make this profession, so that in all your churches the virgins nearly outnumber the married women. Why do you still adhere to such practises? Why do you ensnare wretched young women, if it is the will of devils, and not of Christ, that they fulfill? But, first of all, I wish to know if making virgins is, in all cases, the doctrine of devils, or only the prohibition of marriage. If it is the prohibition, it does not apply to us, for we too hold it equally foolish to prevent one who wishes, as it is criminal and impious to force one who has some reluctance. But if you say that to encourage the proposal, and not to resist such a desire, is all the doctrine of devils, to say nothing of the consequence as regards you, the apostle himself will be thus brought into danger, if he must be considered as having introduced the doctrines of devils into Iconium, when Thecla, after having been betrothed, was by his discourse inflamed with the desire of perpetual virginity. ¹ And what shall we say of Jesus, the Master Himself, and the source of all sanctity, who is the unwedded spouse of the virgins who make this profession, and who, when specifying in the Gospel three kinds of eunuchs, natural, artificial, and voluntary, gives the palm to those who have "made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven," ² meaning the youths of both sexes who have extirpated from their hearts the desire of marriage, and who in the Church act as eunuchs of the King's palace? Is this also the doctrine of devils? Are those words, too, spoken in a seducing spirit? And if Paul and Christ are proved to be priests of devils, is not their spirit the same that speaks in God? I do not mention the other apostles of our Lord, Peter, Andrew, Thomas, and the example of celibacy, the blessed John, who in various ways commended to young men and maidens the excellence of this profession, leaving to us, and to you too, the form for making virgins. I do not mention them, because you do not admit them into the canon, and so you will not scruple impiously to impute to them doctrines of devils. But will you say the same of Christ, or of the Apostle Paul, who, we know, everywhere expressed the same preference for unmarried women to the married, and gave an example of it in the case of the saintly Thecla? But if the doctrine preached by Paul to Thecla, and which the other apostles also preached, was not the doctrine of devils, how can we believe that Paul left on record his opinion, that the very exhortation to sanctity is the injunction and the doctrine of devils? To make virgins simply by exhortation, without forbidding to marry, is not peculiar to you. That is our principle too; and he must be not only a fool, but a madman, who thinks that a private law can forbid what the public law allows. As regards marriage, therefore, we too encourage virgins to remain as they are when they are willing to do so; we do not make them virgins against their will. For we know the force of will and of natural appetite when opposed by public law; much more when the law is only private, and every one is at liberty to disobey it. If, then, it is no crime to make virgins in this manner, we are guiltless as well as you. If it is wrong to make virgins in any way, you are guilty as well as we. So that what you mean, or intend, by quoting this verse against us, it is impossible to say.