Behold beloved brethren, peace has been restored to the Church, and, what
recently seemed difficult to the incredulous and impossible to the
perfidious, our security has by divine aid and retribution been
re-established. Our minds are returning to gladness, and with the passing
of the cloud and storm of oppression tranquillity and serenity have shone
forth again. Praises must be given to God, and His blessings and gifts
must be celebrated by the giving of thanks, although not even in the
persecution did our voice cease to give thanks. For it is not possible
even for an enemy to prevent us, who love God with our whole heart and
soul and power, from proclaiming His blessings and praises always and
everywhere with glory. The day longed for by the prayers of all of us has
come, and after the horrible and loathsome darkness of a long night the
world has shone forth illuminated by the light of the Lord.
Chapter 2
With happy countenances we look upon the confessors illustrious by the
proclaiming of a good name and glorious in the praise of virtue and the
faith; clinging to them with holy kisses we embrace them whom we have
desired with a divine and insatiable eagerness. The white-robed cohort of
Christ's soldiers is at hand, who by a steadfast formation have broken the
turbulent ferocity of an attacking persecution, prepared to suffer
imprisonment, armed to endure death. Bravely have you opposed the world,
a glorious spectacle have you furnished God, you have been an example to
your brethren who will follow you. Your religious voice uttered the name
of Christ, in whom it has once confessed that it believed; your
illustrious hands, which had been accustomed only to divine works, have
resisted the sacrilegious sacrifices; your mouths sanctified by heavenly
food after (receiving) the body and blood of the Lord have rejected the
profane contagion of the leavings of the idols; your head has remained
free from the impious and wretched veil with which the captive heads of
those performing the sacrifices were there veiled; your brow pure with the
sign of God could not endure the crown of the devil, it reserved itself
for the crown of the Lord. With what a joyful bosom does the Mother Church
receive you as you return from heaven! How happily, with what rejoicing
does she open her gates that with united forces, you may enter bringing
back trophies from a prostrate enemy! With the man in triumph women too
come, who in their struggle with the world have also overcome their sex.
Virgins come with the double glory of their warfare and boys surpassing
their years in virtue. Furthermore, the rest of the multitude of those
who stand follow your glory, accompany your footsteps with marks of
praise very close and almost joined with your own. The same sincerity of
heart is in these, the same integrity of a tenacious faith. Relying on
the unshaken foundation of heavenly precepts, and strengthened by the
evangelical traditions, no prescribed exiles, no destined torments, no
penalties as to property or body terrified them. The day for examining
their faith was set, but he who is mindful that he has renounced the world
knows no day in the world, nor does he now compute the earthly seasons who
hopes for eternity from God.
Chapter 3
Let no one, brethren, let no one cut short this glory, let no one by
malicious detraction weaken the uncorrupted firmness of those who stand.
When the time appointed for the recanters had passed, whoever had not
professed in that time to be a Christian confessed that he was. The first
title to victory is for him who has fallen in the hands of the Gentiles to
confess the Lord; the second step to glory is to make a cautious
withdrawal and then to keep himself for God. The one is a public
confession; the other private. The former conquers the judge of the world;
the latter satisfied with God as his judge guards a conscience pure by
integrity of heart. In the former case fortitude is quicker; in the latter
solicitude is more secure. The one, as his hour approached, was then found
ready; the other perhaps was delayed because he had left his estate and
had withdrawn, for he would not deny; surely he would have confessed, had
he also been seized.
Chapter 4
One grief saddens these heavenly crowns of the martyrs, these spiritual
glories of the confessors, these very great and illustrious virtues of the
brethren who stand--the violent enemy has torn away a part of our vitals
and has thrown it away in the ruin of his destruction. What shall I do in
this situation, dearest brethren? As I waver in the varying tide of
emotion, what or how shall I speak? There is need of tears rather than
words to express the grief with which the blow to our body is to be
mourned, with which the manifold loss of our once numerous people is to be
lamented. For who is so hard and without feeling, who so forgetful of
brotherly love that as he stands ;n the midst of the manifold destruction
of his people and their sad remains deformed by great squalor he can keep
his eyes dry and with a sudden burst of weeping not express his
lamentations with tears rather than with words? I grieve, brethren, I
grieve with you nor does my own integrity and sanity beguile me to soothe
my own grief, since the shepherd is wounded more by the wound of his
flock. I join my heart with each one; I share in the grievous burden of
sorrow and death. I wail with those who wail; I weep with those who weep;
I believe myself to be cast down with those who are cast down. At the same
time my limbs were pierced by the darts of the raging enemy; their cruel
swords have passed through my vitals. My mind was not able to remain
immune and free from the attacks of persecution; among my prostrate
brethren, my compassion has also prostrated me.
Chapter 5
Nevertheless, most beloved brethren, the cause of truth must be kept, and
the gloomy darkness of the cruel persecution ought not have so blinded our
senses that nothing of light and clarity has remained whereby the divine
precepts can be perceived. If the cause of the disaster is known, the
remedy for the wound also is found. The Lord wished his family to be
proved, and, because a long peace had corrupted the discipline divinely
handed down to us, a heavenly rebuke has aroused a prostrate and, I might
say, sleeping faith, and, although we deserved more on account of our
sins, the most merciful Lord has so moderated all things, that all that
has happened seemed an examination rather than a persecution.
Chapter 6
Everyone was eager to increase his estate, and, forgetful of what the
believers in apostolic times either had done before or always should have
done, with the insatiable ardor of covetousness they applied themselves to
increasing their possessions. Among the priests there was no devout
religion; in their ministries no sound faith, in their works no mercy, in
their morals no discipline. Among men the beard was defaced; faces were
painted among women, eyes were falsified after God's hands had completed
them, hair was colored in deception. There were crafty frauds to deceive
the hearts of the simple, subtle schemes for circumventing the brethren.
They joined with infidels in the bond of matrimony; they prostituted the
members of Christ to the Gentiles. They not only swore rashly, but
committed perjury also; they looked down with haughty arrogance upon those
placed over them; they maligned one another with an envenomed tongue; they
quarreled with one another with stubborn hatred. Many bishops, who ought
to be a source of encouragement and an example to the rest, contemning
their divine charge came under the charge of secular kings; after
abandoning their thrones and deserting the people, they wandered through
foreign provinces and sought the market places for gainful business; while
their brethren in the Church were starving, they wished to possess money
in abundance; they seized estates by crafty deceits; they increased their
capital by multiplying usuries. What do not such as we deserve to suffer
for such sins, when already long ago divine censure warned us and said:
'If they forsake my law and walk not in my precepts, if they violate my
statutes, and keep not my commandments, I will punish their crimes with a
rod, and their sins with stripes.'
Chapter 7
These things were foreshadowed to us and predicted before. But we,
unmindful of the law handed down and of its observation, have brought it
about by our sins that while we contemn the mandates of the Lord we have
come by severer remedies to the correction of our sins and a probation of
our faith, and not indeed have we at last turned to the fear of the Lord
so as to undergo this reproof and divine probation of ours patiently and
bravely. Immediately at the first words of the threatening enemy a very
large number of the brethren betrayed their faith, and were laid low not
by the attack of persecution, rather they laid themselves low by their own
voluntary lapse. What so unheard of, I ask, what so new had come, that, as
if with the rise of unknown and unexpected circumstances, the pledged to
Christ should be dissolved with headlong rashness? Did not both the
prophets first and the apostles afterwards announce these events? Have not
they, filled with Holy Spirit, predicted the oppressions of the just, and
the injuries of the Gentiles always? Does not holy Scripture ever arming
our faith and strengthening the servants of God with its heavenly voice
say: 'The Lord thy God shalt thou worship and him only shalt thou serve'?
Does it not say again, pointing out the wrath of the divine indignation
and forewarning of the fear of punishment: 'They have adored those whom
their fingers have made, and man hath bowed himself down, and man hath
been debased, and I shall not forgive them.' And again God speaks, saying:
'He that sacrificeth to gods shall be put to death, save only to the
Lord.' Later in the gospel also did not the Lord, a teacher in words and a
consummator in deeds, teaching what would be done and doing whatever He
had taught, forewarn us first of what is now taking place and will take
place? Did He not before establish eternal punishments for those who deny
Him and salutary rewards for those who confess Him?
Chapter 8
For some, ah misery! all these things have fallen away and have receded
from memory. They did not wait at least to ascend when apprehended, to
deny when questioned. Many were conquered before the battle, were
prostrated without a conflict, and they did not leave this for themselves
--to seem to sacrifice to idols unwillingly. Moreover they ran to the
market place, of their own accord they hastened to death, as if they
formerly desired it, as if they were embracing an occasion granted to
them, which they had cheerfully desired. How many on that occasion were
put off by the magistrates as evening came on, how many also begged that
their destruction be not put off! What violence can such a one plead as an
excuse, with which to purge his crime, when he himself rather performed
the violence that brought about his ruin? When of their own accord they
came to the capitol, when they freely approached yielding to the dire
crime, did not their footsteps falter, their sight darken, their vitals
tremble, their limbs fail, their senses become dull, their tongues cleave,
their speech fail? Could the servant of God, who had already renounced the
devil and the world, stand there and speak and renounce Christ? Was that
altar, which he had approached to die, not a funeral pyre for him? And as
for the altar of the devil, which he had seen smoke and smell with a foul
fetor, ought he not to have shuddered at it as if the funeral and
sepulcher of his own life and to have fled from it? Why, oh wretch, do you
bring a sacrificial offering with you, why a victim for supplication? You
yourself have come to the altars as a sacrificial offering, you yourself
as a victim; you have immolated your salvation there, your hope; there you
have cremated your faith in those fires.
Chapter 9
But for many their own destruction was not enough. By mutual exhortations
people were driven to their destruction. Death was proposed for one and
another in the lethal cup. And that nothing might be lacking to cap the
crime, infants also, placed in the arms of parents or led by them, lost as
little ones what they had gained at the very first beginning of their
nativity.' When the day of judgment comes, will they not say: 'We have
done nothing; we have not abandoned the Lord's bread and cup and of our
own accord hastened to profane contaminations. The perfidy of others has
ruined us; we have found our parents parricides. They have denied us the
Church as Mother, God as Father, so that, while we still small and
improvident and unaware of so great a crime were joined through others
into a sharing in the crimes, we were caught in the deceit of others'?
Chapter 10
There is not, alas, any just and serious reason which excuses so great a
crime. The fatherland should have been abandoned, the loss of personal
property suffered. For what man, who is born and dies, does not at some
time have to abandon his fatherland and suffer the loss of personal
property? Let not Christ be abandoned; let not the loss of one's salvation
and one's eternal home be the object of fear. Behold, the Holy Spirit
through the prophet cries out: 'Depart, depart, go ye out from thence,
touch no unclean thing, go out of the midst of her, be ye apart, you that
carry the vessels of the Lord.' And do not those who are the vessels of
the Lord and the temple of God, lest they be forced to touch the unclean
thing and be polluted and corrupted by deadly foods, go out from the midst
and withdraw? In another place also a voice from heaven is heard
admonishing what the servants of God should do and saying: 'Go out from
her, my people, that you may not share in her sins, and that you may not
receive of her plagues.' He who goes out and withdraws does not become a
sharer in the sin but he indeed who is discovered as a companion in the
crime is himself also seized by the plagues. And so the Lord commanded to
withdraw and flee in time of persecution, and He both taught that it
should be done and did it. For since the crown descends upon us according
to the good pleasure of God, and cannot be received unless the hour for
assuming it has come, whoever abiding in Christ withdraws for a time does
not deny the faith, but awaits the time; but he who, when he did not
withdraw, fell, remained to deny it.
Chapter 11
The truth, brethren, must not be concealed, nor must the matter and cause
of our wound be kept silent. Blind love of one's personal property has
deceived many; nor could they have been prepared or ready for departing,
when their possessions bound them like fetters. Those fetters were for
those who remained, those chains by which virtue was retarded, and faith
hard pressed, and mind bound, and the soul imprisoned, so that they who
clung to earthly things became as booty and food for the serpent who,
according to the words of God, devours the earth. Therefore, the Lord, the
teacher of good things, warning for the future, says: 'If thou wilt be
perfect, sell all thy possessions and give to the poor and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.' If the rich did this, they would
not perish by their riches; laying up a treasure in heaven they would not
now have an enemy and a domestic conqueror; their heart and mind and
feeling would be in heaven, if their treasure were in heaven; nor could he
be conquered by the world, who had nothing in the world with which to be
conquered. He would follow the Lord, loosed and free, as the Apostles and
many in apostolic times, and some others often did, who, abandoning their
possessions and their parents, clung to the undivided ties of Christ.
Chapter 12
But how can they follow Christ who are held back by the chain of their
personal property? Or, how can they seek heaven, and ascend to the sublime
and lofty, who are weighed down by earthly desires? They think that they
possess, who rather are possessed, slaves of their own property, not lords
as regards their money but rather the bond-slaves of their money. The
Apostle refers to this time, to these men, when he says: 'But those who
seek to become rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many harmful
desires which plunge men into destruction and damnation. For covetousness
is the root of all evils, and some seeking riches have strayed from the
faith and have involved themselves in many troubles.' But with what
rewards does the Lord invite us to contempt of personal wealth? With what
wages does He compensate for these small and trifling losses of this
present time? 'There is no one,' He says, 'who has left house, or land, or
parents, or brothers, or wife, or sons for the kingdom of God's sake who
does not receive a seven-fold in this present time, and in the world to
come life everlasting.' Since these things are known and have been
ascertained from the truth of God who makes the promise, not only is a
loss of this kind not to be feared but even to be desired, for the Lord
Himself again proclaims and gives warning: 'Blessed shall you be when men
persecute you, and separate you and shut you out and reject your name as
evil because of the Son of man. Rejoice on that day and exult, for behold
your reward is great in heaven.'
Chapter 13
But later torments had come, and severe sufferings threatened those who
resisted. He can complain about torments who was overcome by torments; he
can offer the excuse of pain who has been overcome by pain. Such a one can
ask and say: 'Surely I wished to contend bravely, and mindful of my oath I
took up the arms of devotion and faith; but as I found in the contest the
various tortures and extended punishments overcome me. My mind stood firm
and faith strong, and my soul struggled long and unshaken with the
excruciating pains. But when, as the cruelty of a most severe judge broke
forth afresh, fatigued as I was, the scourges now for the first time
slashed me, the cudgels now bruised me, the rack now stretched me, the
claw now dug into me, the flame now scorched me, my flesh deserted me in
the struggle, the weakness of my vitals gave way, not my soul but my body
yielded in the suffering.' Such a plea can quickly advance to forgiveness;
an excuse of this kind can be worthy of pity. Thus in these circumstances
the Lord once forgave Cestus and Aemilius; thus, although conquered in the
first encounter, he made them victorious in the second battle, so that
they became stronger than the fires who previously had yielded to the
fires, and in what they had been overcome, in this they overcame. They
made their entreaties by pity not of tears but of wounds, not with a
wailing voice alone, but with laceration and pain of body. Blood instead
of lamentations came forth, and instead of tears gore poured out from
their half burnt vitals.
Chapter 14
But now, what wounds can the conquered show, what injuries to gaping
vitals, what tortures of the limbs, when faith did not fail in combat, but
perfidy arrived before the combat? Nor does the necessity of the crime
excuse him who was caught, where the crime is of the will. I do not say
this to burden the cases of the brethren, but rather to stimulate the
brethren to prayers of satisfaction. For since it is written: 'They that
call you blessed, send you into error, and destroy the way of your steps,'
he who consoles the sinner with flattering blandishments furnishes the
means for sinning, and does not check transgressions but nourishes them.
But he who rebukes at the same time that he instructs with firmer counsels
urges a brother on to salvation. 'Whom I love,' says the Lord, 'I rebuke
and chastise.' Thus also ought the priest of the Lord not to deceive by
deceptive submissions but to provide with salutary remedies. A physician
is unskilled who handles the swelling folds of wounds with a sparing hand,
and increases the poison inclosed within the deep recesses of the vital
organs as he cares for it. The wound must be opened and cut and treated by
a sterner remedy, by cutting out the corrupting parts. Although the sick
man, impatient by reason of his pain, cries out, shrieks, and complains,
he will give thanks afterwards, when he has experienced good health.
Chapter 15
For, very beloved brethren, a new kind of devastation has emerged and, as
if the storm of persecution had raged too little, there has been added to
the heap, under the title of mercy, a deceiving evil and an alluring
destruction. Contrary to the rigor of the Gospel, contrary to the law of
the Lord and God because of the temerity of certain persons communion with
the rash is related, an empty and false peace, dangerous to those who
grant it and of no benefit to those who receive it. They do not seek the
patience important for health, nor the true medicine derived from
satisfaction. Penance is excluded from their hearts; the memory of a most
serious and extreme sin is removed. The wounds of the dying are concealed,
and the deadly blow fixed in the deep and secret vitals is concealed by
dissimulated pain. Returning from the altars of the devil they approach
the holy place of the Lord with hands befouled and reeking with smell;
still almost belching forth the death-bearing food of idols, even now with
jaws breathing forth their crime and redolent with the fatal contagion
they invade the body of the Lord, when the divine Scripture stands in
their way, and cries out, saying: 'Everyone that is clean shall eat of the
flesh, and whatever soul shall eat of the flesh of the saving sacrifice
which is the Lord, and his uncleanness is upon him, that soul shall perish
from his people.' Let the Apostle likewise bear witness, saying: 'You
cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; you cannot be
partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of devils.' He
likewise threatens the stubborn and the perverse, and denounces them,
saying: 'Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily
will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.'
Chapter 16
Spurning and despising all these warnings, before their sins have been
expiated, before confession of their crime has been made, before their
conscience has been purged by the sacrifice and hand of the priest, before
the offense of an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, violence
is done to His body and blood, and they sin more against the Lord with
their hands and mouth than when they denied the Lord. They think that to
be peace which some truck with deceiving words. That is not peace but war,
nor is he joined with the Church who is separated from the Gospel. Why do
they call an injury a kindness? Why do they refer to impiety by the term
'piety'? Why do they interrupt the lamentation of penance and pretend to
communicate with those who ought to weep continually and to entreat their
Lord? This is of the same nature to the lapsed as hail to the harvests, a
violent storm to the trees, a destructive pestilence to cattle, a raging
tempest to ships. They destroy the solace of hope, they pull up the roots,
with their unwholesome words they creep on to deadly contagion, they dash
the ship upon rocks lest it arrive within the harbor. That kind of
facility does not grant peace but takes it away, nor does it bestow
communion but stands in the way of salvation. This is another persecution
and another temptation, by which a subtle enemy attacking the lapsed still
further approaches with a concealed devastation, so that lamentation is
hushed, grief is made silent, the memory of sin vanishes, the groaning of
the heart is repressed, the weeping of the eyes is halted, nor is the Lord
implored with a long and full penitence, although it is written: 'Remember
whence thou hast fallen and do penance.'
Chapter 17
Let no man betray himself; let no man deceive himself. The Lord alone can
have mercy. He alone can grant pardon for sins which were committed
against Him, who bore our sins, who grieved for us, whom God delivered up
for our sins. Man cannot be greater than God, nor can the servant by his
own indulgence remit or forego what has been committed against the Lord by
a more serious sin, lest to him still lapsed this too be added to his
crime, if he does not know that it has been proclaimed: 'Cursed be the man
that hath hope in man.' The Lord must be implored; the Lord must be
placated by our own satisfaction, who said that He denied him who denied
(Him), who alone received every judgment from the Father. We believe
indeed that the merits of the martyrs and the works of the righteous have
very great power with the Judge, but (this will be) when the day of
judgment shall come, when after the end of this age and of the world His
people shall stand before the tribunal of Christ.
Chapter 18
But if anyone with precipitate haste rashly thinks that he can grant
remission of sins to all or dares to rescind the precepts of the Lord, not
only is this of no advantage to the lapsed but it is even a hindrance. Not
to have observed the judgment of the Lord, and to think that His mercy is
not first to be implored, but after contemning the Lord to presume on
one's own power, is to have provoked His wrath. Under the altar of God the
souls of the slain martyrs cry out with a loud voice saying: 'How long, O
Lord holy and true, does Thou refrain from judging and from avenging our
blood on those who dwell on earth.' And they are ordered to be quiet and
to continue to have patience. Does someone think that anyone can wish to
become good by remitting and pardoning sins at random or that he can
defend others before he himself is vindicated? The martyrs order something
to be done; if just, if lawful, if not contrary to the Lord Himself, they
are to be done by the priest of God; let the agreement be ready and easy
on the part of the one obeying, if there has been religious moderation on
the part of him asking. The martyrs order something to be done. If what
they order is not written in the law of the Lord, we must first know, that
they have obtained from the Lord what they ask, then do what they order.
For what has been assured by man's promise cannot be seen at once to have
been granted by the divine majesty.
Chapter 19
For Moses also sought pardon for the sins of the people and yet did not
receive it when he sought it for those sinning. 'I beseech Thee, O Lord,'
he said, 'this people hath sinned a heinous sin, and now, if you forgive
their sin, forgive; but if not, strike me out of the book that thou hast
written. And the Lord said to Moses: If anyone hath sinned against me, him
will I strike out of my book.' That friend of God, that one who had often
spoken face to face with the Lord was unable to obtain what he sought, nor
did he placate the displeasure of an indignant God by his intercession.
God praises Jeremias, and proclaims, saying: 'Before I formed thee in the
womb, I knew thee; and before thou comest forth out of the womb, I
sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations,' and He said to
him as he frequently interceded and prayed for the sins of the people: 'Do
not pray for this people and do not take up praise and prayer for them,
for I will not hear them in the time of their cry to me, in the time of
their affliction.' Who was more righteous than Noe, who, when the earth
was replete with sins was alone found righteous upon the earth? Who more
glorious than Daniel? Who stronger in firmness of faith for enduring
martyrdom, happier in God's favors, who when he fought so often conquered
and when he conquered survived? Who was more diligent in good works than
Job, stronger in temptations, more patient in suffering, more submissive
in fear, more true in faith? And yet God said that, if they should ask, He
would not grant. When the prophet Ezechiel interceded for the sins of the
people, God said: 'Whatever land shall sin against me, so as to transgress
grievously, I will stretch forth my hand upon it, and will break the staff
of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will destroy man and
beast out of it. And if these three men, Noe, Daniel, and Job, shall be in
it, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be
delivered.' Therefore, not all that is sought is in the prejudgment of the
seeker, but in the decision of the giver, and human opinion takes or
assumes nothing to itself unless the divine pleasure also assents.
Chapter 20
In the Gospel the Lord speaks saying: 'Everyone who acknowledges me before
men, him will I also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but
whoever denies me, even I shall deny him.' If he does not deny him who
denies, neither does he acknowledge him who acknowledges. The Gospel
cannot be firm in part and waver in part. Either both must be strong or
both must lose the force of truth. If those who deny will not be guilty of
a crime, neither do those who acknowledge receive the reward of virtue.
Furthermore, if the faith which has conquered is crowned, the perfidy also
which has been conquered must be punished. Thus the martyrs either can be
of no avail, if the Gospel can be broken, or if the Gospel cannot be
broken, they who become martyrs according to the Gospel cannot act
contrary to the Gospel. Let no one, most beloved brethren, no one defame
the dignity of the martyrs; let no one destroy their glories and crowns.
The strength of an uncorrupted faith remains sound, and no one can say or
do anything against Christ whose hope and faith and virtue and glory is
entirely in Christ, so that they who have performed the mandates of God
Himself cannot be the authors of anything being done by the bishops
contrary to the mandate of God. Is anyone greater than God or more
merciful than divine goodness, who either wishes that undone which God
suffered to be done, or, as if He had too little power to protect His
Church, thinks that we can be saved by his own help?
Chapter 21
But if these things have been accomplished with God's knowledge or all
these have come to pass without His permission, let divine Scripture teach
the unteachable and admonish the forgetful as it speaks in these words:
'Who hath given Jacob for a spoil and Israel to those who plundered him?
Hath not God against whom they have sinned and were unwilling to walk in
His ways and to hear His law? And He hath poured out upon them the
indignation of fury.' And elsewhere it testifies saying: 'Indeed does not
the hand of God prevail to save, or, has He burdened His ear that He does
not hear? But your sins make a division between you and your God, and
because of your sins he hath turned away His face from you lest He have
pity.' Let us consider our sins, and reviewing the secrets of our action
and mind let us weigh the merits of our conscience. Let it return to our
hearts that we have not walked in the ways of the Lord, have rejected the
law of God, have never been willing to keep His precepts and saving
counsels.
Chapter 22
What good do you feel with respect to him, what fear, what faith do you
believe there was in him whom fear was unable to correct, whom persecution
itself has not reformed. His high and erect neck has not been bent because
he has fallen; his puffed up and proud mind has not been broken because he
has been conquered. On his back and wounded he threatens those who stand
and are sound, and because he does not immediately receive the Lord's body
in his sullied hands or drink of the Lord's blood with a polluted mouth,
he rages sacrilegiously against the priests. And, oh that excessive
madness of yours, frenzied one, you rage at him who struggles to avert
God's anger from you; you threaten him who beseeches the Lord's mercy for
you, who feels your wound which you yourself do not feel, who pours forth
tears for you which you yourself perhaps do not pour forth. You pile up
and increase your crime still more, and, when you yourself are implacable
towards the bishops and priests of God, do you think that the Lord can be
placated about you?
Chapter 23
Accept and admit what we say. Why do your deaf ears not hear the salutary
precepts which we advise? Why do your blind eyes not see the way of
penitence which we place before you? Why does your closed and insane mind
not perceive the vital remedies which we both learn and teach from the
heavenly Scriptures? If certain incredulous ones have less faith in the
future events, let them at least have fear for the present. Behold, what
punishments we perceive of those who have denied, what sad deaths of those
do we mourn! Not even here can they be without punishment, although the
day of punishment has not yet come. Meanwhile certain ones are punished,
that the rest may be guided aright. The torments of a few are examples for
all.
Chapter 24
One of these who of his own accord went up to the capital to deny became
mute after he had denied Christ. The punishment began there where the
crime also began, so that he could no longer ask who did not have words
for prayers of mercy. Another was stationed in the baths--for this was
lacking to her crime and evils, so that she proceeded at once even to the
baths, who had lost the grace of the life-giving laver--but there she who
was unclean being seized by an unclean spirit lacerated with her teeth the
tongue which had either fed or spoken impiously. After the polluted food
had been consumed, the madness of the mouth worked its own destruction.
She herself was her own executioner and was not able to survive long
thereafter; being tortured by the pain of her belly and vitals she died.
Chapter 25
Hear what took place in my very presence and with me as a witness. Some
parents in hasty flight, with little consideration because of their fear,
left their little daughter in the care of a nurse. The nurse handed the
abandoned girl over to the magistrates. There before the idol where the
people were gathering, because she was unable as yet to eat meat because
of her age, they gave her bread mixed with wine, which itself had been
left over from the immolation of those who were being destroyed.
Afterwards the mother recovered her daughter. But the girl was unable to
mention and point out the crime that had been committed as she was unable
previously to understand and prevent it. Through ignorance, therefore, it
came about that the mother brought the child with her to us as we were
offering the Sacrifice. Moreover, the girl having mingled with the holy
people, being impatient of our supplication and prayer, was now shaken
with weeping and was now tossed about by the vacillating motion of her
mind; as if under the compulsion of a torturer the soul of the girl still
of tender years was trying to confess with such signs as she was able a
consciousness of the deed. But when the solemnities were completed and the
deacon began to offer the cup to those present, and when, as the rest were
receiving, her turn came, the little girl with an instinct of divine
majesty turned her face away, compressed her mouth with tightening lips,
and refused the cup. The deacon, however, persisted and poured into the
mouth of the child, although resisting, of the sacrament of the cup. Then
there followed sobbing and vomiting. In the body and mouth which had been
violated the Eucharist could not remain; the draught consecrated in the
blood of the Lord burst forth from the polluted vitals. So great is the
power of the Lord, so great His majesty. The secrets of the shades are
detected under His light, nor did hidden crimes deceive the priest of God.
Chapter 26
So much about the infant who as yet did not have the years of speaking of
a crime committed by others against herself. But that lady of advanced age
and settled in more advanced years, who crept stealthily upon us as we
sacrificed, taking food and a sword for herself, and admitting, as it
were, a kind of deadly poison, within her jaws and body, began presently
to be tormented by frenzy of soul, and suffering the misery no longer of
persecution but of her sin, fell quivering and trembling. The crime of her
hidden conscience was not long unpunished and concealed. She who had
deceived man felt God as an avenger. And when a certain women tried with
unclean hands to open her box, in which was the holy (body) of the Lord,
thereupon she was deterred by rising fire from daring to touch it. And
another man who, himself defiled, after the celebration of the sacrifice
dared secretly to take a part with the rest, was unable to eat or handle
the holy of the Lord, and found when he opened his hands that he was
carrying a cinder. By the evidence of one it was shone that the Lord
withdraws when He is denied, and that what is received is of no benefit to
the undeserving, when the grace of salvation is changed as the holy
escapes into a cinder. How many are daily filled with unclean spirits; how
many are shaken out of their minds by the fury of madness even to
insanity! It is not necessary to go over the death of each one, when over
the varied ruins of the world the punishment of sins is as varied as the
multitude of sinners is numerous. Let everyone consider not what another
has suffered but what he himself deserves to suffer, and let him not
believe that he has escaped, if in the meantime punishment has put him
off, since he should fear the more whom the wrath of God the Judge has
reserved for Himself.
Chapter 27
Let them not persuade themselves that they should not do penance, who,
although they have not contaminated their hands by impious sacrifices, yet
have defiled their consciences with certificates. That profession is of
one who denies; the testimony is of a Christian who rejects what he had
been. He said that he had done what another actually did, and, although it
is written: 'You cannot serve two masters,' he served a secular master, he
submitted to his edict, he obeyed human authority rather than God. He
should have seen whether he published what he committed with less scandal
or less guilt among men; however, he will not be able to escape and avoid
God as his judge, for the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms: 'Thine eyes have
seen my imperfection and all will be written in thy book,' and again: 'Man
looks upon the face, but God upon the heart.' Let the Lord Himself also
forewarn and instruct you with these words: 'And all the churches shall
know that I am He who searches the desires and hearts.' He perceives the
concealed and the secret, and considers the hidden, nor can anyone evade
the eyes of God who says: 'Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off?
Shall a man be hid in secret places and I not see him? He sees the hearts
and breasts of each one, and, when about to pass judgment not only on our
deeds but also on our words and thoughts, He looks into the minds and the
wills conceived in the very recess of a still closed heart.
Chapter 28
Finally, of how much greater faith and better fear are they who, although
bound by no crime of sacrifice or of certificate, since however they have
even thought of this, confessing this very thing with grief and simply
before the priests of God, make a conscientious avowal, remove the weight
of their souls, seek the saving remedy for their wounds however small and
slight knowing that it is written: 'God is not mocked.' God cannot be
mocked and deceived, nor can He be deluded by any treacherous cunning.
Rather does he sin more who, thinking of God as if human, believes that he
is escaping the punishment of his crime, if he has not admitted the crime
openly. Christ in His precepts says: 'Whoever is ashamed of me, of him
shall the Son of man be ashamed.' Does he think himself a Christian who is
either ashamed or fears to be a Christian? How can he be with Christ, who
either blushes or fears to belong to Christ? Clearly he might have sinned
less by not looking upon idols, and by not profaning the sanctity of the
faith under the eyes of a populace that stood about and cast insults, by
not polluting his hands with the deadly sacrifices, and by not defiling
his mouth with the wretched food. This is of benefit to this extent, that
the fault is less, not that the conscience is without guilt. He can more
easily arrive at a forgiveness of his crime, but he is not free from
crime. Let him not cease doing penance and beseeching the mercy of the
Lord, lest what seems less in the quality of his sin be increased by his
failure to give satisfaction to it.
Chapter 29
Let each one confess his sin, I beseech you, brethren, while he who has
sinned is still in this world, while his confession can be admitted, while
the satisfaction and remission effected through the priest is pleasing
with the Lord. Let us turn to the Lord with our whole mind, and,
expressing repentance for our sin with true grief, let us implore God's
mercy. Let the soul prostrate itself before Him; let sorrow give
satisfaction to Him; let our every hope rest upon Him. He Himself tells
how we ought to ask. He says: 'Be converted to me with all your hearts, in
fasting and in weeping, and in mourning, and rend your hearts and not your
garments.' Let us return to the Lord with a whole heart; let us placate
His wrath and displeasure by fastings, weepings, and mournings, as He
Himself admonishes.
Chapter 30
Do we think that he laments with a whole heart, implores the Lord with
fastings, weepings, and mournings, who from the first day of his crime
daily frequents the baths, who, feeding on rich banquets and distended by
fuller dainties, belches forth the undigested food on the next day, and
does not share his food and drink with the needy poor? How does he, who
goes forth joyous and happy, weep over his death, and, although it is
written: 'You shall not change the form of your beard,' plucks his beard
and adorns his face? And is he eager to please anyone who displeases his
God? Or does she groan and moan who has time to put on the elegance of
pricely garments but not to think of the robe of Christ which she has
lost; to receive precious ornaments and costly necklaces, but not to weep
over the loss of the divine and heavenly ornament? Although you put on
foreign robes and silken dresses, you are naked. Although you decorate
yourself with gold and pearls and gems, without the adornment of Christ
you are unsightly. And you who dye your hair, now at least cease in the
midst of your sorrows, and you who paint the edges of your eyes by lines
of black powder, now at least wash your eyes with tears. If you had lost
any dear one of yours by his passing away in death, you would grieve and
mourn sorrowfully; with a disordered countenance, changed dress, unkempt
hair, gloomy countenance, dejected face you would show the signs of
sorrow. Wretched woman, you have lost your soul; spiritually dead you
have begun to live on here, and although yourself walking about you have
begun to carry your own death. And do you not groan bitterly; do you not
mourn continually; do you not go in hiding either because of the shame of
your crime or for the continuing of your lamentation? Behold still worse
are the wounds of sinning, behold, greater the transgressions--to have
sinned and not to give satisfaction, to have transgressed and not to
bemoan transgressions.
Chapter 31
Ananias, Azarias, and Misahel, illustrious and noble youths, did not
refrain from making confession to God not even midst the flames and fires
of a raging furnace. Although possessed of a good conscience and often
well deserving of the Lord by obedience of faith and fear, they did not
cease to retain their humility and to give satisfaction to God not even
midst the glorious martyrdoms themselves of their virtues. Divine
Scripture speaks in these words: 'Azarias standing prayed and opened his
mouth and made confession to God together with his companions in the midst
of fire.' Daniel also after the manifold grace of his faith and innocence,
after the esteem of the Lord often repeated with regard to his virtues and
praises, strives still further by fastings to merit God; wraps himself in
sackcloth and ashes as he sorrowfully makes confession, saying: 'Lord God,
great and strong and terrible who keepest the covenant and mercy to them
that love thee and keep thy commandments, we have sinned, we have
committed iniquity, we have been ungodly, we have transgressed and gone
aside from thy precepts and thy judgments, we have not hearkened to thy
servants in what they have spoken in thy name to our kings and to all the
nations and to the whole world. To thee, O Lord, to thee is justice, but
to us confusion.'
Chapter 32
These things the meek, these the simple, this the innocent have done in
meriting well of the majesty of God; and those who have denied the Lord
refuse to satisfy the Lord and to entreat Him! I beseech you, brethren,
acquiesce in the remedies of salvation, obey the better counsels, join
your tears with our tears, write your groans with ours. We implore you
that we may be able to implore the Lord for you; we turn our very prayers
to you first, with which we pray to God for you, that He may be merciful.
Do full penance, prove the sorrow of a soul that sorrows and laments.
Chapter 33
Let neither the imprudent error nor the vain stupidity of some move you,
who, although they were involved in so grave a crime were struck by such
blindness of soul that they neither realized their sins nor lamented them.
This is the greater plague of an angry God, as it is written: 'And God
gave them a spirit of rebellion,' and again: 'For they have not received
the love of truth that they might be saved. Therefore, God sends them a
misleading influence that they may believe falsehood, that all may be
judged who have not believed truth, but have taken pleasure in injustice.'
Taking pleasure unjustly and mad by the alienation of a damaged mind, they
contemn the precepts of the Lord, neglect the medicine of their wound, are
unwilling to do penance. Improvident before their sin was committed,
obstinate after their sin, neither steadfast before nor suppliant
afterwards, when they ought to have stood fast, they fell, when they ought
to fall down and prostrate themselves before God, they think that they
stand. Of their own accord they assumed peace for themselves, although no
one granted it, seduced by false promises and linked with apostates and
infidels they accept error for truth; they regard communion with those who
are not communicants as valid; they believe men against God, who have not
believed God against men.
Chapter 34
Flee from such men with all your power; and with wholesome caution those
who cling to pernicious contacts. Their speech spreads like a cancer;
their speech leaps over barriers like a pestilence; their harmful and
poisoned persuasion kills worse than persecution itself. Repentance
remains there for giving satisfaction. Those who do away with repentance
for crime, close the way to satisfaction. So it happens that, when by the
rashness of some a false salvation is either promised or believed, the
hope of true salvation is taken away.
Chapter 35
But do you, brethren, who are inclined toward fear of the Lord and whose
minds, although set in destruction, are mindful of their evils, repenting
and grieving view your sins, recognize the very serious crime of your
conscience, open the eyes of your hearts to an understanding of your
shortcomings, neither despairing of the mercy of the Lord nor yet already
laying claim to pardon. As God by reason of His affection as father is
always indulgent and good, so by reason of His majesty as judge He is to
be feared. Let us weep as greatly as the extent of our sinning. For a deep
wound let there not be lacking a careful and long cure; let the repentance
be no less than the crime. Do you think that God can be easily placated,
whom you denied with perfidious words, above whom you set your property,
whose temple you violated with sacrilegious contamination? Do you think
that He easily has mercy on you, whom you have said was not yours? You
ought to pray and beseech more intently, to pass the day grieving, to
spend your nights in wakefulness and weeping, to spend all your time in
mournful lamentation, to cling to ashes prone on the ground, to wallow in
sackcloth and squalor, to wish for no garment now after losing the cloak
of Christ, to prefer fasting after the food of the devil, to devote
yourself to just works by which sins are purged, to enter frequently upon
alms-giving, by which souls are liberated from death. What the adversary
tried to take away, let Christ receive; your property ought not to be
retained now or to be cherished, by which one has been both deceived and
conquered. Wealth is to be avoided as an enemy, as a thief to be fled, as
a sword to be feared by those who possess it, and as a poison. To this
extent only might that which has remained be of benefit, that by means of
it crime and sin may be redeemed. Let your works be done without delay and
in abundance; let every means be evoked for the healing of the wound; let
the Lord, who is to be our judge, be put in our debt by our resources and
faculties. Thus did faith flourish under the Apostles; thus did the first
people of the believers keep the mandates of Christ--they were ready; they
were generous. They gave all to be distributed by the Apostles and they
were not redeeming such sins.
Chapter 36
If anyone performs prayer with his whole heart, if he groans with genuine
lamentations and tears of repentance, if by continuous just works he turns
the Lord to the forgiveness of his sin, such can receive His mercy, who
has offered His mercy with these words: 'When you turn and lament, then
you shall be saved and shall know where you have been'; and again: I
desire not the death of the dying, says the Lord in the Lord's own words:
'Turn,' he says, 'to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful,
patient and rich in mercy and who turns his thought toward the evil that
has been done.' He can grant mercy; He can turn aside His judgment. He can
with indulgence pardon him who is repentant, who performs good works, who
beseeches; He can regard as acceptable whatever the martyrs have sought
and the priests have done for such. Or, if anyone has moved Him more by
his own atonements, has placated His wrath, His rightful indignation by
just supplication. He gives arms again with which the vanquished may be
armed. He repairs and invigorates his strength so that his restored faith
may flourish. The soldier will seek his contest again; he will repeat its
fight; he will provoke the enemy; he has become indeed stronger for the
battle through suffering. He who has thus satisfied God, who by repentance
for his deed, who by shame for his sin has conceived more of both virtue
and faith from the very sorrow for his lapsing, after being heard and
aided by the Lord, will cause the Church to rejoice, which he recently had
saddened, and will merit not alone the pardon of God but a crown.
