장음표시 사용
81쪽
APOLOGETICUS. 65surely be judged something more natural sor bad men to boeradicated by good princes as Ming their natural enemies, than by thoso os a spirit hindred with their own.
6. I Would noW have these most religious protectore and vindieators of the laws and institutions of their sathors, tellme, in regard to their own fideli , and the honour and su mission themselves stloK to ancestrat institutions, ii they havo departed from nothin is they have in nothing gono out os the old paths-is they have not put aside Whalaoever is most esui and necessary as rules of a virtuous lila. What hasbecome of the laws' repressing expensive and ostentatious ways os living whicli sorbado moro than a hundred assesto be expended on a supper, and more than ono fowl to boset on the table at a time, and that not a fatted one; whieli expelled a patrician hom tho senate on the serious ground, as it Was counted, of aspiring to be too great, because he had acquired ten pounds of silver; Whicli put down tho theatresas quichly as they a se to debauch the manners of the people;
whicli did not permit tho insignia of ossiciat dignities or of nobis birili to bs rashly or Willi impunity usurpedi For Iseo the Centenarian suppem must noW bear the name, notiram the hundred asses, but from the hundred sestertia e pended on them; and that mines of silver are mado into dishes it mere litile is this applied only to senators, and not to freed-men or even mere Whi inspollers . I see, too, that neitheris a single theatre enough, nor are theatres unsheltered: nodoubi it was that immodest pleasure might not bo torpid in the winis time, the Lacedaemonians invented their woollencloalis for tho plays. I see now no differendo belWeenthe dress of matrons and prostitutos. In regard lo Women, iudeed, those laws of your fathers, which used to bo such aneneouragement to modesty and sobriely, have also salien into desuetude, When a Woman had yet known no gold upon her
82쪽
opening the compariments of a Wine cellar, Was starVed todeath by her frienti, whils in the times of Romulus, formerely tasting Wine, Mecenius hilled his mite, and suffored nothing for tho deed. With referendo to this also, it Was thoe tom of Women to kim their relatives, that they might bodotected by their breath. Where is that happiness of maresed
common among them, that the riss is never offered with thoirWili; and as for divorce, they long for it M though it mere thenatural consequence of marriage. The laWs, too, Dur sathersin thoir mladom had enacted concerning the very gods them-selves, Fou their most loyal children have roscinded. Thoconsula, by the authority of tho senato, banished Fastor Bacchus and his mysteries not merely hom the ci , buthom tho whese of Italy. Tho consuis Piso and Gabinius, no Christians s ely, sorbade Serapis, and Isis, and Arpocrates, with their doghoadod friend,y admission into tho Capitol-in the aci casting them out from the assembly of the gωs-
overthreW their altars, and expellod them hom the count :they Were anxious to prevent the vices of their bras and lascivious religion trom spreading. But you have restored them, and conferred highest hono A on them. What has come of your religion-of the veneration duo by you to your
83쪽
expiscate. You impose on the executioner, in the eam ofChristians, a duty the very opposite os expiscation: ho isnot in mae them confess What they do, but to mine themdeny What they are. Wo date the origin os our religion, as me havo mentioned betore, hom the reim es Tiberius. Truth and the hatred of truth coma into our Worid together. mon as truth appeare, it is regataed as an euemy. Ithas as many Des as there are strangere is it: the Jens, as mas is M looked sor, irom a spirit os rivalay; the soldiere, out os a desim in extori money ; our very domestim, by their nature. - are datly beset by foes, me are datly betrved;
me are ostentimes a prised in o meetings and congregations.
84쪽
causo it is fleet Is it because it carries information Τ oris it beeauso it is in tho highest degreo mendacious ' a thing
Ap ad abroad, on Whatever stren h os asseveration it resis, that some time or other from somo ono fountain it has iis
85쪽
osten happens, hom a spirit os opposition, or hom a suspicious judment, or from a confirmed, nari in the case of
lias been alone aware of tho crimes os Christians. This is tho itness you bring against us-one that has never been ableto prove tho accusation it somo time or oster sent abroad, and at last is mero continuance mado into a sevied opinion in the world; so that I confidently appeat in naturo heraeli,eVer true, against thoso Who groundlessty hold that suehthings aro to be credit . 8. See no , We set besors you the re ard os these enormi
86쪽
70 TERTULLIANUS. tian: is Du cannot do it, Du ought not to belleve it os othera.
For a Christian is a man as meli as you. But the ignorant, fors th, Me deceived and imposed on. They mere quite un-
or they mould certainly have looked into it for themsolves, and searched the matter oui. Instead of that, it is tho custom for persons Wishing initiation into sacred rites, Ithin to go firat os an to the master of them, that he may explain What preparations are to bo made. Then, in this case, no doubi he would say, - Υou must havo a child stillos tendor age, that knows not What it is to die, and can smilo
in addition to theso, candiestichs, and lamps, and dον-withtitatis to dram them on to the extinguishing of the lighis: ove ali things, you Will require to bring yοur mollier andyour sister mith you.' But What ii mollier and sister aronnwillingi or is there bo nolinor the one nor the other What ii thoro ars Christians mitti no Christian relatives Ηe Will not be counted, I suppose, a true follo er of Christ, Who has not a brother or a son. And what no , is thesethings are ali in stora sor tham Without their knowlων ' At least stematas they come to know them; and they bear
they Will rather in that case have every claim to protection ;
no destre to continue What Du Would never have been, ityou had had previous knowledge os it. s. That I may refute more thoroughly these chames, Imill inom stat in pari openly, in pari secretiy, practices preVail among you Which have led yοu perhaps to credit similis things about us. Children Were openly sacrificed in Africa in Saturn as latoly as tho proconsulfhip of Tiberius, Who ex sed to public gage the priesis suspended on the
87쪽
crimes, as tho soldiers of our count stili can testisy Whodid that very Work for that proconsul. And even noW that sacrin crime stili continues in be dono in secret. It is not
cateri nor does any of yοur gods reform his Ways. When Saturn did not sparo his own children, he was not lihely tospare the children os othera; Whom indeed the very parendi themaelves mero in tho habit os offering, gladiy respondingto the calt which was mado on them, and heeping tho littisones pleased On the occasion, that they might not die in tears. At tho fame time, there is a vast differenco belWeen homicide and parricide. Α moro advanced age mas sacrificod toΜercvry in Gaul. I hand over tho Tauric fabies to theirois theatres. Why, even in that most religious city os theptous descendanis of AEneas, there is a certain Jupiter Whom
88쪽
and tasted by both parties, has been the treaty bond among
criminals flain in the arena, as it flows fresti hom the wound,
89쪽
demnation os prisonem. Then who are more given to thocrimo of incest stan those Who have enjoyed the instruction
geny must be lost; and When orice a mistahe has been made, the transmission os incest thenco mill stili go on-the raco and tho crime creeping on together. Then, further, Wherever
tendant, Whose generat indulgence, or even ita indulgetico in the most limited scale, may easi ly and unWittingly any herebeget chilhen, so that in this Way a progeny scatteredabout in tho commerce of liso may havo intercourse Miththose Who are their own hin, and have no notion stat thereis au incest in the case. Λ persevering and stediast chastityhas protected us from anything like this : heeping as Wo do fram adulteries and ali post-matrimonial unfiathsesness, Wo
90쪽
matters Whicli are more clear.
do nes offer sacrifices sor the emperora.' Well, me do notoster sacrifice for ostera, sor the fame remon that me do notior Ourseives, amely, that yonr gods aro not at ali thoobjecta of our Worship. So me are accused os sacrilege and