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OCTAVIUS

XXIX.

« Je voudrais bien parler avec ceux qui disent ou qui croient que le meurtre d'un enfant est la cérémonie de l'introduction à nos mystères. Qui aurait le courage de répandre le sang d'un petit innocent qui ne fait encore que de naître? Personne ne peut croire un si grand crime, que ceux qui le peuvent commettre. C’est vous qui exposez vos enfants aux bêtes farouches et aux oiseaux, au sortir du rentre de la mère, et qui les étranglez et les étouffez. Il y en a même qui, par des breuvages cruels, les meurtrissent dans les entrailles de leur mère et les font mourir avant que de naître; c'est ce que vous avez appris de vos dieux? car Saturne n'exposait pas ses enfants, mais il les dévorait. C'est pourquoi dans quelques endroits de l'Afrique on lui immolait ces petites créatures, qu'on empêchait de crier par des caresses, pour ne point sacrifier aux dieux des victimes tristes et éplorées. C'était aussi la coutume des Scythes d'immoler les étrangers qui logeaient chez eux; un roi d'Egypte pratiquait cet usage. Les Gaulois sacrifiaient à Mercure des victimes humaines, ou plutôt des victimes inhumaines. Les Romains enterraient tout vifs en de certaines cérémonies un Grec et une Grecque, un Gaulois et un Gauloise. Encore aujourd'hui on adore Jupiter Latiaris en lui égorgeant un homme; et ce qui est digne du fils de Saturne, c'est qu'il se veut repaître du sang d'un criminel. Je crois que ce fut de là que Catilina apprit à boire du sang humain dans sa conjuration, et que c'est pour cela que Bellone en fait boire à ceux qui lui sont consacrés ; on guérit même l'épilepsie par ce remède cruel, et pire mille fois que le mal. Ceux-là ne sont pas encore fort éloignés de ce crime, qui se nourrissent des bêtes farouches au sortir de l'amphithéâtre, encore toutes sanglantes et toutes pleines de ceux qu'elles viennent de dévorer. Pour nous il ne nous est permis ni de voir des meurtres, ni de les entendre, et le sang nous fait tant d'horreur, que nous ne mangeons pas seulement de celui des bêtes.

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The Octavius of Minucius Felix

Chapter XXIX.

--Argument: Nor is It More True that a Man Fastened to a Cross on Account of His Crimes is Worshipped by Christians, for They Believe Not Only that He Was Innocent, But with Reason that He Was God. But, on the Other Hand, the Heathens Invoke the Divine Powers of Kings Raised into Gods by Themselves; They Pray to Images, and Beseech Their Genii.

"These, and such as these infamous things, we are not at liberty even to hear; it is even disgraceful with any more words to defend ourselves from such charges. For you pretend that those things are done by chaste and modest persons, which we should not believe to be done at all, unless you proved that they were true concerning yourselves. For in that you attribute to our religion the worship of a criminal and his cross, ¹ you wander far from the neighbourhood of the truth, in thinking either that a criminal deserved, or that an earthly being was able, to be believed God. Miserable indeed is that man whose whole hope is dependent on mortal man, for all his help is put an end to with the extinction of the man. ² The Egyptians certainly choose out a man for themselves whom they may worship; him alone they propitiate; him they consult about all things; to him they slaughter victims; and he who to others is a god, to himself is certainly a man whether he will or no, for he does not deceive his own consciousness, if he deceives that of others. "Moreover, a false flattery disgracefully caresses princes and kings, not as great and chosen men, as is just, but as gods; whereas honour is more truly rendered to an illustrious man, and love is more pleasantly given to a very good man. Thus they invoke their deity, they supplicate their images, they implore their Genius, that is, their demon; and it is safer to swear falsely by the genius of Jupiter than by that of a king. Crosses, moreover, we neither worship nor wish for. ³ You, indeed, who consecrate gods of wood, adore wooden crosses perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners; and flags of your camp, what else are they but crosses glided and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it. We assuredly see the sign of a cross, ⁴ naturally, in the ship when it is carried along with swelling sails, when it glides forward with expanded oars; and when the military yoke is lifted up, it is the sign of a cross; and when a man adores God with a pure mind, with hands outstretched. Thus the sign of the cross either is sustained by a natural reason, or your own religion is formed with respect to it.