Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
imagine we are without a God, and without his worship. And such
conclusion may in them be excused. For, till they are instructed, it may
not be easy for them to conceive of one God, filling Heaven and earth
with his presence. But in others it is hard to see how they think us
atheists on the same ground, since nothing can be plainer than that
among you, the intelligent, and the philosophers especially, believe as
we do in a great pervading invisible spirit of the universe. Plato
worshipped not nor believed in these stone or wooden gods; nor in any of
the fables of the Greek religion; yet who ever has charged him with
atheism? So was it with the great Longinus. I see before me those who
are now famed for their science in such things, who are the teachers of
Rome in them, yet not one, I may venture to declare, believes other than
as Plato and Longinus did in this regard. It is an error or a calumny
that has ever prevailed concerning us; but in former times some have had
the candor, when the error has been removed, to confess publicly that
they had been subject to it. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius, to name no
other, when, in the straits into which he was fallen at Cotinus, he
charged his disasters upon the Christian soldiers, and, they praying
prostrate upon the earth for him and his army and empire, he forthwith
gained the victory, which before he had despaired of--did then
immediately acknowledge that they had a God, and that they should no
longer be reviled as atheists; since it was plain that men might believe
in a God, and carry about the image of him in their own minds, though
they had no visible one. It is thus we are all believers. We carry about
with us, in the sanctuary of our own bosoms, our image of the great and
almighty God whom we serve; and before that, and that only, do we bow
down and worship. Were we indeed atheists, it were not unreasonable that
you dealt with us as you now do, nay and much more severely; for, where
belief in a God does not exist, it is not easy to see how any state can
long hold together. The necessary bond is wanting, and, as a sheaf of
wheat when the band is broken, it must fall asunder.
'The first principle of the religion of Christ is this belief in God; in
his righteous providence here on earth, and in a righteous retribution
hereafter. How then can the religion of Christ in this respect be of
dangerous influence or tendency? It is well known to all, who are
acquainted in the least with history or philosophy, that in the religion
of the Jews, the belief and worship of one God almost constitutes the
religion itself. Every thing else is inferior and subordinate. In this
respect the religion of Jesus is like that of the Jews. It is exceeding
jealous of the honor and worship of this one God--this very same God of
the Jews; for Jesus was himself a Jew, and has revealed to us the same
God whom we are required to worship, only with none of the ceremonies,
rites, and sacrifices, which were peculiar to that people. It is this
which has caused us, equally to our and their displeasure, frequently to
be confounded together, and mistaken the one for the other. But the
differences between us are, excepting in the great doctrine I have just
named, very great and essential. This doctrine therefore, which is the
chief of all, being so fundamental with us, it is not easy, I say, to
see how we can on religious accounts be dangerous to the state. For
many things are comprehended in and follow from this faith. It is not a
barren, unprofitable speculation, but a practical and restraining
doctrine of the greatest moral efficiency. If it be not this to us, to
all and every one of us, it is not what it ought to be and we wrongly
understand or else wilfully pervert it.
'We believe that we are everywhere surrounded by the presence of our
God: that he is our witness every moment, and everywhere conscious, as
we are ourselves, of our words, acts, and thoughts; and will bring us
all to a strict account at last for whatever he has thus witnessed that
has been contrary to that rigid law of holy living which he has
established over us in Christ. Must not this act upon us most
beneficially? We believe that in himself he is perfect purity, and that
he demands of us that we be so in our degree also. We can impute to him
none of the acts, such as the believers in the Greek and Roman religions
freely ascribe to their Jove, and so have not, as others have, in such
divine example, a warrant and excuse for the like enormities. This one
God too we also regard as our judge, who will in the end sit upon our
conduct throughout the whole of our lives, and punish or reward
according to what we shall have been, just as the souls of men,
according to your belief, receive their sentence at the bar of Minos and
Rhadamanthus. And other similar truths are wrapt up with and make a part
of this great primary one. Wherefore it is most evident, that nothing
can be more false and absurd than to think and speak of us as atheists
and for that reason a nuisance in the state.
'But it is not only that we are atheists, but that, through our atheism,
we are to be looked upon as disorderly members of society, disturbers
of the peace, disaffected and rebellious citizens, that we hear on every
side. I do not believe that this charge has ever been true of any, much
less of all. Or if any Christian has at any time and for any reason
disobeyed the laws, withheld his taxes when they have been demanded, or
neglected any duties which, as a citizen of Rome, he has owed to the
Emperor, or any representative of him, then so far he has not been a
Christian. Christ's kingdom is not of this world--though, because we so
often and so much speak of a kingdom, we have been thought to aim at one
on earth--it is above; and he requires us while here below to be
obedient to the laws and the rulers that are set up over us, so far as
we deem them in accordance with the everlasting laws of God and of
right; to pay tribute to whomsoever it is due; here in Rome to Caesar;
and, wherever we are, to be loyal and quiet citizens of the state. And
the reception of his religion tends to make such of us all. Whoever
adopts the faith of the gospel of Jesus will be a virtuous, and holy,
and devout man, and therefore, both in Rome, in Persia, and in India,
and everywhere, a good subject.
'We defend not nor abet, great Emperor, the act of that holy but
impetuous and passionate man, who so lately, in defiance of the imperial
edict and before either remonstrance or appeal on our part, preached on
the very steps of the capitol, and there committed that violence for
which he hath already answered with his life. We defend him not in that;
but neither do we defend, but utterly condemn and execrate the
unrighteous haste, and the more than demoniac barbarity of his death.
God, we rejoice in all our afflictions to believe, is over all, and the
wicked, the cruel, and the unjust, shall not escape.
'Yet it must be acknowledged that there are higher duties than those
which we owe to the state, even as there is a higher sovereign to whom
we owe allegiance than the head of the state, whether that head be king,
senate, or emperor. Man is not only a subject and a citizen, he is first
of all the creature of God, and amenable to his laws. When therefore
there is a conflict between the laws of God and the king, who can doubt
which are to be obeyed?--'
'Who does not see,' cried Porphyrius vehemently, 'that in such
principles there lurks the blackest treason? for who but themselves are
to judge when the laws of the two sovereigns do thus conflict? and what
law then may be promulged, but to them it may be an offence?'
'Let not the learned Porphyrius,' resumed Probus, 'rest in but a part of
what I say. Let him hear the whole, and then deny the principle if he
can. I say, when the law of God and the law of man are opposite the one
to the other, we are not to hesitate which to obey and which to break;
our first allegiance is due to Heaven. And it is true that we ourselves
are to be the judges in the case. But then we are judges under the same
stern laws of conscience toward God, which compel us to violate the law
of the empire, though death in its most terrific form be the penalty.
And is it likely therefore that we shall, for frivolous causes, or
imaginary ones, or none at all, hold it to be our duty to rebel against
the law of the land? To think so were to rate us low indeed. They may
surely be trusted to make this decision, whose fidelity to conscience in
other emergences brings down upon them so heavy a load of calamity. I
may appeal moreover to all, I think, who hear me, of the common faith,
whether they themselves would not hold by the same principle? Suppose
the case that your supreme god--"Jupiter greatest and best"--or the god
beyond and above him, in whom your philosophers have faith--revealed a
law, requiring what the law of the empire forbids, must you not, would
you not, if your religion were anything more than a mere pretence, obey
the god rather than the man? Although therefore, great Emperor, we blame
the honest Macer for his precipitancy, yet it ought to be, and is, the
determination of us all to yield obedience to no law which violates the
law of Heaven. We having received the faith of Christ in trust, to be by
us dispensed to mankind, and believing the welfare of mankind to depend
upon the wide extension of it, we will rather die than shut it up in our
own bosoms--we will rather die, than live with our tongues tied and
silent--our limbs fettered and bound! We must speak, or we will die--'
Porphyrius again sprang from his seat with intent to speak, but the
Emperor restrained him.
'Contend not now, Porphyrius; let us hear the Christian. I have given
him his freedom. Infringe it not.'
'I will willingly, noble Emperor,' said Probus, 'respond to whatsoever
the learned Tyrian may propose. All I can desire is this only, that the
religion of Christ may be seen, by those who are here, to be what it
truly is; and it may be, that the questions or the objections of the
philosopher shall show this more perfectly than a continued discourse.'
The Emperor, however, making a sign, he went on.
'We have also been charged, O Emperor, with vices and crimes, committed
at both our social and our religious meetings, at which nature revolts,
which are even beyond in grossness what have been ever ascribed to the
most flagitious of mankind.'--Probus here enumerated the many rumors
which had long been and still were current in Rome, and, especially by
the lower orders, believed; and drew then such a picture of the
character, lives, manners, and morals of the Christians, for the truth
of which he appealed openly to noble and distinguished persons among the
Romans then present,--not of the Christian faith, but who were yet well
acquainted with their character and condition, and who would not refuse
to testify to what he had said--that there could none have been present
in that vast assembly but who, if there were any sense of justice within
them, must have dismissed forever from their minds, if they had ever
entertained them, the slanderous fictions that had filled them.
To report to you, Fausta, this part of his defence, must be needless,
and could not prove otherwise than painful. He then also refuted in the
same manner other common objections alleged against the Christians and
their worship; the lateness of its origin; its beggarly simplicity; the
low and ignorant people who alone or chiefly, both in Rome and
throughout the world, have received it; the fierce divisions and
disputes among the Christians themselves; the uncertainty of its
doctrines; the rigor of its morality, as unsuited to mankind; as also
its spiritual worship; the slowness of its progress, and the little