(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all mistakes found.)
CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE
Translated by the Rev. Ernest Wallis, Ph.D.
ON THE VANITY OF IDOLS: SHOWING THAT THE IDOLS ARE NOT GODS, AND THAT GOD
IS ONE, AND THAT THROUGH CHRIST SALVATION IS GIVEN TO BELIEVERS.
ARGUMENT.--THIS HEADING EMBRACES THE THREE LEADING DIVISIONS OF THIS
TREATISE. THE WRITER FIRST OF ALL SHOWS THAT THEY IN WHOSE HONOUR TEMPLES
WERE FOUNDED, STATUES MODELLED, VICTIMS SACRIFICED, AND FESTAL DAYS
CELEBRATED, WERE KINGS AND MEN AND NOT GODS; AND THEREFORE THAT THEIR
WORSHIP COULD BE OF NO AVAIL EITHER TO STRANGERS OR TO ROMANS, AND THAT THE
POWER OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE WAS TO ATTRIBUTED TO FATE RATHER THAN TO THEM,
INASMUCH AS IT HAD ARISEN BY A CERTAIN GOOD FORTUNE, AND WAS ASHAMED OF ITS
OWN ORIGIN. (5)
1. That those are no gods whom the common people worship, is known from
this. They were formerly kings, who on account of their royal memory
subsequently began to be adored by their people even in death. Thence
temples were founded to them; thence images were sculptured to retain the
countenances of the deceased by the likeness; and men sacrificed victims,
and celebrated festal days, by way of giving them honour. Thence to
posterity those rites became sacred which at first had been adopted as a
consolation. And now let us see whether this truth is confirmed in
individual instances.
2. Melicertes and Leucothea are precipitated into the sea, and
subsequently become sea-divinities. The Castors, die by turns, that they
may live. AEsculapius is struck by lightning, that he may rise into a god.
Hercules, that he may put off the man, is burnt up in the fires of Oeta.
Apollo fed the flocks of Admetus; Neptune founded walls for Laomedon, and
received--unfortunate builder--no wages for his work. The cave of Jupiter
is to be seen in Crete, and his sepulchre is shown; and it is manifest
that Saturn was driven away by him, and that from him Latium received its
name, as being his lurking-place. (2) He was the first that taught to print
letters; he was the first that taught to stamp money in Italy, (3) and
thence the treasury is called the treasury of Saturn. And he also was the
cultivator of the rustic life, whence he is painted as an old man (4)
carrying a sickle. Janus had received him to hospitality when he was driven
away, from whose name the Janiculum is so called, and the month of January
is appointed. He himself is portrayed with two faces, because, placed in
the middle, he seems to look equally towards the commencing and the closing
year. The Mauri, indeed, manifestly worship kings, and do not conceal their
name by any disguise.
3. From this the religion of the gods is variously changed among
individual nations and provinces, inasmuch as no one god is worshipped
by all, but by each one the worship of its own ancestors is kept peculiar.
Proving that this is so, Alexander the Great writes in the remarkable
volume addressed to his mother, that through fear of his power the doctrine
of the gods being men, which was kept secret, (5) had been disclosed to him
by a priest, that it was the memory of ancestors and kings that was
(really) kept up, and that from this the rites of worship and sacrifice
have grown up. But if gods were born at any time, why are they not born in
these days also?--unless, indeed, Jupiter possibly has grown too old, or
the faculty of bearing has failed Juno.
4. But why do you think that the gods can avail on behalf of the
Romans, when you see that they can do nothing for their own worshipers in
opposition to the Roman arms? For we know that the gods of the Romans are
indigenous. Romulus was made a god by the perjury of Proculus, and Picus,
and Tiberinus, and Pilumnus, and Consus, whom as a god of treachery Romulus
would have to be worshipped, just as if he had been a god of counsels, when
his perfidy resulted in the rape of the Sabines. Tatius also both invented
and worshipped the goddess Cloacina; Hostilius, Fear and Paleness. By and
by, I know not by whom, Fever was dedicated, and Acca and Flora the
harlots. (6) These are the Roman gods. But Mars is a Thracian, and Jupiter
a Cretan, and Juno either Argive or Samian or Carthaginian, and Diana of
Taurus, and the mother of the gods of Ida; and there are Egyptian monsters,
not deities, who assuredly, if they had had any power, would have preserved
their own and their people's kingdoms. Certainly there are also among the
Romans the conquered Penates whom the fugitive AEneas introduced thither.
There is also Venus the bald,--far more dishonoured by the fact of her
baldness in Rome than by her having been wounded in Homer.
5. Kingdoms do not rise to supremacy through merit, but are varied by
chance. Empire was formerly held by both Assyrians and Medes and Persians;
and we know, too, that both Greeks and Egyptians have had dominion. Thus,
in the varying vicissitudes of power, the period of empire has also come to
the Romans as to the others. But if you recur to its origin, you must needs
blush. A people is collected together from profligates and criminals, and
by founding an asylum, impunity for crimes makes the number great; and that
their king himself may have a superiority in crime, Romulus becomes a
fratricide; (7) and in order to promote marriage, he makes a beginning of
that affair of concord by discords. They steal, they do violence, they
deceive in order to increase the population of the state; their marriage
consists of the broken covenants of hospitality and cruel wars with their
fathers-in-law. The consulship, moreover, is the highest degree in Roman
honours, yet we see that the consulship began even as did the kingdom.
Brutus puts his sons to death, that the commendation of his dignity may
increase by the approval of his wickedness. The Roman kingdom, therefore,
did not grow from the sanctities of religion, nor from auspices and
auguries, but it keeps its appointed time within a definite limit.
Moreover, Regulus observed the auspices, yet was taken prisoner; and
Mancinus observed their religious obligation, yet was sent under the yoke.
Paulus had chickens that fed, and yet he was slain at Cannae. Caius Caesar
despised the auguries and auspices that were opposed to his sending ships
before the winter to Africa; yet so much the more easily he both sailed and
conquered.
6. Of all these, however, the principle is the same, which misleads and
deceives, and with tricks which darken the truth, leads away a credulous
and foolish rabble. They are impure and wandering spirits, who, after
having been steeped in earthly vices, have departed from their celestial
vigour by the contagion of earth, and do not cease, when ruined themselves,
to seek the ruin of others; and when degraded themselves, to infuse into
others the error of their own degradation. These demons the poets also
acknowledge, and Socrates declared that he was instructed and ruled at the
will of a demon; and thence the Magi have a power either for mischief or
for mockery, of whom, however, the chief Hostanes both says that the form
of the true God cannot be seen, and declares that true angels stand round
about His throne. Wherein Plato also on the same principle concurs, and,
maintaining one God, calls the rest angels or demons. Moreover, Hermes
Trismegistus speaks of one God, and confesses that He is incomprehensible,
and beyond our estimation.
7. These spirits, therefore, are lurking under the statues and
consecrated images: these inspire the breasts of their prophets with their
afflatus, animate the fibres of the entrails, direct the flights of birds,
rule the lots, give efficiency to oracles, are always mixing up falsehood
with truth, for they are both deceived and they deceive;(1) they disturb
their life, they disquiet their slumbers; their spirits creeping also into
their bodies, secretly terrify their minds, distort their limbs, break
their health, excite diseases to force them to worship of themselves, so
that when glutted with the steam of the altars and the piles of cattle,
they may unloose what they had bound, and so appear to have effected a
cure. The only remedy from them is when their own mischief ceases; nor have
they any other desire than to call men away from God, and to turn them from
the understanding of the true religion, to superstition with respect to
themselves; and since they themselves are under punishment, (they wish) to
seek for themselves companions in punishment whom they may by their
misguidance make sharers in their crime. These, however, when adjured by us
through the true God, at once yield and confess, and are constrained to go
out from the bodies possessed. You may see them at our voice, and by the
operation of the hidden majesty, smitten with stripes, burnt with fire,
stretched out with the increase of a growing punishment, howling, groaning,
entreating, confessing whence they came and when depart, even in the
hearing of those very persons who worship them, and either springing forth
at once or vanishing gradually, even as the faith of the sufferer comes in
aid, or the grace of the healer effects. Hence they urge the common people
to detest our name, so that men begin to hate us before they know us, lest
they should either imitate us if known, or not be able to condemn us.(2)
8. Therefore the one Lord of all is God. For that sublimity cannot
possibly have any compeer, since it alone possesses all power. Moreover,
let us borrow an illustration for the divine government from the earth.
When ever did an alliance in royalty either begin with good faith or end
without bloodshed? Thus the brotherhood of the Thebans was broken, and
discord endured even in death in their disunited ashes. And one kingdom
could not contain the Roman twins, although the shelter of one womb had
held them. Pompey and Caesar were kinsmen, and yet they did not maintain
the bond of their relationship in their envious power. Neither should you
marvel at this in respect of man, since herein all nature consents. The
bees have one king, and in the flocks there is one leader, and in the herds
one ruler. Much rather is the Ruler of the world one; who commands all
things, whatsoever they are, with His word, disposes them by His wisdom,
and accomplishes them by His power.
9. He cannot be seen--He is too bright for vision; nor comprehended--He
is too pure for our discernment; nor estimated--He is too great for our
perception; and therefore we are only worthily estimating Him when we say
that He is inconceivable. But what temple can God have, whose temple is the
whole world? And while man dwells far and wide, shall I shut up the power
of such great majesty within one small building? He must be dedicated in
our mind; in our breast He must be consecrated. Neither must you ask the
name of God. God is His name. Among those there is need of names where a
multitude is to he distinguished by the appropriate characteristics of
appellations. To God who alone is, belongs the whole name of God; therefore
He is one, and He in His entirety is everywhere diffused. For even the
common people in many things naturally confess God, when their mind and
soul are admonished of their author and origin. We frequently hear it said,
"O God," and "God sees," and "I commend to God," and "God give you," and
"as God will," and "if God should grant;" and this is the very height of
sinfulness, to refuse to acknowledge Him whom you cannot but know.(3)
10. But that Christ is, and in what way salvation came to us through
Him, after this manner is the plan, after this manner is the means. First
of all, favour with God was given to the Jews. Thus they of old were
righteous; thus their ancestors were obedient to their religious
engagements. Thence with them both the loftiness of their rule flourished,
and the greatness of their race advanced. But subsequently becoming
neglectful of discipline, proud, and puffed up with confidence in their
fathers, they despised the divine precepts, and lost the favour conferred
upon them. But how profane became their life, what offence to their
violated religion was contracted, even they themselves bear witness,
since, although they are silent with their voice, they confess it by their
end. Scattered and straggling, they wander about; outcasts from their own
soil and climate, they are thrown upon the hospitality of strangers.(1)
11. Moreover, God had previously foretold that it would happen, that as
the ages passed on, and the end of the world was near at hand, God would
gather to Himself from every nation, and people, and place, worshippers
much better in obedience and stronger in faith,(2) who would draw from the
divine gift that mercy which the Jews had received and lost by despising
their religious ordinances. Therefore of this mercy and grace(3) the Word
and Son of God is sent as the dispenser and master, who by all the prophets
of old was announced as the enlightener and teacher of the human race. He
is the power of God, He is the reason, He is His wisdom and glory; He
enters into a virgin; being the holy Spirit,(4) He is endued with flesh;
God is mingled with man. This is our God, this is Christ, who, as the
mediator of the two, puts on man that He may lead them to the Father. What
man is, Christ was willing to be, that man also may be what Christ is.
12. And the Jews knew that Christ was to come, for He was always being
announced to them by the warnings of prophets. But His advent being
signified to them as twofold--the one which should discharge the office and
example of a man, the other which should avow Him as God--they did not
understand the first advent which preceded, as being hidden in His passion,
but believe in the one only which will be manifest in power.(5) But that
the people of the Jews could not understand this, was the desert of their
sins. They were so punished by their blindness of wisdom and intelligence,
that they who were unworthy of life, had life before their eyes, and saw it
not.
13. Therefore when Christ Jesus, in accordance with what had been
previously foretold by the prophets, drove out from men the demons by His
word, and by the command of His voice nerved up the paralytics, cleansed
the leprous, enlightened the blind, gave power of movement to the lame,
raised the dead again, compelled the elements to obey Him as servants, the
winds to serve Him, the seas to obey Him, the lower regions to yield to
Him; the Jews, who had believed Him man only from the humility of His flesh
and body, regarded Him as a sorcerer for the authority of His power. Their
masters and leaders--that is, those whom He subdued both by learning and
wisdom--inflamed with wrath and stimulated with indignation,(6) finally
seized Him and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate, who was then the procurator
of Syria on behalf of the Romans, demanding with violent and obstinate
urgency His crucifixion and death.
14. That they would do this He Himself also had foretold; and the
testimony of all the prophets had in like manner preceded Him, that it
behoved Him to suffer, not that He might feel death, but that He might
conquer death, and that, when He should have suffered, He should return
again into heaven, to show the power of the divine majesty. Therefore the
course of events fulfilled the promise. For when crucified, the office of
the executioner being forestalled,(7) He Himself of His own will yielded up
His spirit, and on the third day freely rose again from the dead. He
appeared to His disciples like as He had been. He gave Himself to the
recognition of those that saw Him, associated together with Him; and being
evident by the substance of His bodily existence, He delayed for forty
days, that they might be instructed by Him in the precepts of life, and
might learn what they were to teach. Then in a cloud spread around Him He
was lifted up into heaven, that as a conqueror He might bring to the
Father, Man whom He loved, whom He put on, whom He shielded from death;
soon to come from heaven for the punishment of the devil and to the
judgment of the human race, with the force of an avenger and with the power
of a judge; whilst the disciples, scattered over the world, at the bidding
of their Master and God gave forth His precepts for salvation, guided men
from their wandering in darkness to the way of light, and gave eyes to the
blind and ignorant for the acknowledgment of the truth.
15. And that the proof might not be the less substantial, and the
confession of Christ might not be a matter of pleasure, they are tried by
tortures, by crucifixions, by many kinds of punishments. Pain, which is the
test of truth, is brought to bear, that Christ the Son of God, who is
trusted in as given to men for their life, might not only be announced by
the heralding of the voice, but by the testimony of suffering. Therefore we
accompany Him, we follow Him, we have Him as the Guide of our way, the
Source of light, the Author of salvation, promising as well the Father as
heaven to those who seek and believe. What Christ is, we Christians shall
be, if we imitate Christ.
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 5, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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