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Ad Demetrianum [CSEL]

§ 12

Et ecce id ipsum quale est unde nobis cum maxime sermo est, quod nos infestatis innoxios, quod in contumeliam Dei inpugnatis adque opprimitis Dei seruos? parum est quod furentium uarietate uitiorum, quod iniquitate feralium criminum, quod cruentarum conpendio rapinarum uita uestra maculatur, quod superstitionibus falsis religio uera subuertitur, quod Deus omnino nec quaeritur nec timetur: adhuc insuper Dei seruos et maiestati ac numini eius dicatos iniustis persecutionibus flagitatis. satis non est quod ipse tu Deum non colis: adhuc insuper eos qui colunt sacrilega infestatione persequeris. Deum nec colis ¹²[P. 360] nec coli omnino permittis, et cum ceteri qui non tantum³ ista inepta idola et manu hominis facta simulacra sed et portenta quaedam et monstra uenerantur tibi placeant, solus displicet Dei cultor. fumant ubique in templis uestris hostiarum⁴ busta et rogi pecorum, et Dei altaria uel nulla sunt uel occulta. crocodili et cynocephali et lapides et serpentes coluntur, et Deus solus in terris aut non colitur aut non est inpune quod colitur. innoxios, iustos, Deo caros domo priuas⁵, patrimonio spolias, catenis premis [carcere includis], bestiis, gladio, ignibus punis. nec saltim contentus es dolorum nostrorum conpendio et simplici ac ueloci breuitate poenarum: admoues⁶ laniandis corporibus longa tormenta, multiplicas lacerandis uisceribus numerosa supplicia, nec feritas adque immanitas tua usitatis potest contenta esse tormentis: excogitat nouas poenas ingeniosa crudelitas⁷.

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An Address to Demetrianus

12.

Look what that very matter is of which is chiefly our discourse--that you molest us, although innocent; that, in contempt of God, you attack and oppress God's servants. It is little, in your account, that your life is stained with a variety of gross vices, with the iniquity of deadly crimes, with the summary of all bloody rapines; that true religion is overturned by false superstitions; that God is neither sought at all, nor feared at all; but over and above this, you weary ¹ God's servants, and those who are dedicated to His majesty and His name, with unjust persecutions. It is not enough that you yourself do not worship God, but, over and above, you persecute those who do worship, with a sacrilegious hostility. You neither worship God, nor do you at all permit Him to be worshipped; and while others who venerate not only those foolish idols and images made by man's hands, but even portents and monsters besides, are pleasing to you, it is only the worshipper of God who is displeasing to you. The ashes of victims and the piles of cattle everywhere smoke in your temples, and God's altars are either nowhere or are hidden. Crocodiles, and apes, and stones, and serpents are worshipped by you; and God alone in the earth is not worshipped, or if worshipped, not with impunity. You deprive the innocent, the just, the dear to God, of their home; you spoil them of their estate, you load them with chains, you shut them up in prison, you punish them with the sword, with the wild beasts, with the flames. Nor, indeed, are you content with a brief endurance of our sufferings, and with a simple and swift exhaustion of pains. You set on foot tedious tortures, by tearing our bodies; you multiply numerous punishments, by lacerating our vitals; nor can your brutality and fierceness be content with ordinary tortures; your ingenious cruelty devises new sufferings.