Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

8.

How do you suffer persecution and enmity for righteousness' sake, when, according to you, it is righteous to preach and teach these impieties? The wonder is, that the gentleness of Christian times allows such perverse iniquity to pass wholly or almost unpunished. And yet, as if we were blind or silly, you tell us that your suffering reproach and persecution is a great proof of your righteousness. If people are just according to the amount of their suffering, atrocious criminals of all kinds suffer much more than you. But, at any rate, if we are to grant that suffering endured on account of any sort of profession of Christianity proves the sufferer to be in possession of true faith and righteousness, you must admit that any case of greater suffering that we can show proves the possession of truer faith and greater righteousness. Of such cases you know many among our martyrs, and chiefly Cyprian himself, whose writings also bear witness to his belief that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. For this faith, which you abhor, he suffered and died along with many Christian believers of that day, who suffered as much, or more. Faustus, when shown to be a Manichaean by evidence, or by his own confession, on the intercession of the Christians themselves, who brought him before the proconsul, was, along with some others, only banished to an island, which can hardly be called a punishment at all, for it is what God's servants do of their own accord every day when they wish to retire from the tumult of the world. Besides, earthly sovereigns often by a public decree give release from this banishment as an act of mercy. And in this way all were afterwards released at once. Confess, then, that they were in possession of a truer faith and a more righteous life, who were accounted worthy to suffer for it much more than you ever suffered. Or else, cease boasting of the abhorrence which many feel for you, and learn to distinguish between suffering for blasphemy and suffering for righteousness. What it is you suffer for, your own books will show in a way that deserves your most particular attention.

Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

8.

Quomodo persecutiones et odia sustinetis propter iustitiam, quibus haec sacrilegia praedicare et persuadere iustitia est? Pro qua impia perversitate propter christianorum temporum mansuetudinem quam parva et prope nulla patiamini, cur non cogitatis? Sed tamquam caecis fatuisque loquamini, iustitiae vestrae velut magnum esse vultis indicium, quod opprobria sustinetis persecutionemque patimini. Porro si tanto est quisque iustior, quanto graviora perpetitur – omitto dicere, quod videre facillimum est, quam multo graviora vobis patiantur aliis atque aliis quibusque facinoribus flagitiisque polluti – illud dico: p. 280,5 Si pro nomine Christi quoquo modo usurpato atque suscepto quisquis patitur persecutionem iam etiam veram fidem iustitiamque tenere dicendus est, concedite, ut ille sit fidei verioris maiorisque iustitiae, quem multo vobis graviora perpessum potuerimus ostendere, et milia iam vobis nostrorum martyrum occurrant atque ipse praecipue Cyprianus, cuius etiam litteris edocetur, quod in Christum crediderit natum ex virgine Maria. Pro hac ille fide, quam vos detestamini, usque ad gladium mortemque pervenit cum gregibus christianorum tunc ita credentibus atque ita graviusque morientibus. p. 280,15 Faustus autem convictus vel confessus, quod Manichaeus esset, cum aliis nonnullis secum ad iudicium proconsulare productis, eis ipsis christianis, quibus perducti sunt, intercedentibus levissima poena, si tamen illa poena dicenda est, in insulam relegatus est, quod sua sponte cotidie servi dei faciunt se a turbulento strepitu populorum removere cupientes, et unde publica terrenorum principum uota per indulgentiam solent relaxare damnatos. Denique non multo post inde omnes eadem sollemni sorte dimissi sunt. Fatemini ergo illos fidem tenuisse veriorem iustioremque vitam, qui pro ea multo quam vos atrociora sustinere meruerunt, aut desinite vos inde iactare, quod multis detestabiles sitis. p. 280,26 Sed discernite, quid sit persecutionem pati pro blasphemia et persecutionem pati pro iustitia; et pro qua istarum patiamini, in vestris libris etiam atque etiam diligenter advertite!