Compositions

To Scapula

Translated by N.N. Shcheglov

I

In fact, we do not fear or dread what we endure from those who do not know; for we, desiring to attain what God promises, and fearing to endure what He threatens a depraved life, have joined this sect, accepting, of course, the condition of its covenant, to wage this battle at the sacrifice of our lives. Therefore we fight against all your cruelty, even voluntarily speaking out against it, and we rejoice more when we are condemned than when we are justified. So we send this book, fearing not for ourselves, but for you and all our enemies, not to mention our friends. For our doctrine commands us to love even our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us, that our goodness may be perfect, and that it may be our property, and not that it may belong to all. After all, to love friends is characteristic of everyone, and to love enemies is characteristic only of Christians. Therefore, we, both grieving for your ignorance, and regretting your error, and seeing the future, and seeing that its signs daily threaten, must resolve at least in this way to declare to you what you do not want to hear openly.

II

We worship the one God, whom you all know by nature, at whose lightning and thunder you tremble, at whose blessings you rejoice. And you think that there are other gods of whom we know to be demons. However, according to human law and natural authority, everyone can honor what he wants, and the worship of God of one does neither harm nor benefit to another. Therefore it is not fitting for the worship of God (religion) to compel worship of God, since it must be accepted voluntarily, and not by force, since sacrifices are also required of the spirit of the will. Therefore, although you would compel us to sacrifice, you would not thereby grant anything to your gods, for they do not require sacrifices from those who do not want to offer them, unless they are ambitious. But God is not ambitious. Moreover, Who is the true God, He equally gives all His own to both His worshippers and non-worshippers, and therefore He has determined eternal judgment for those who are pleasing to Him and those who are displeasing to Him. However, we, whom you consider sacrilegious, you have never been caught in a simple theft, not just in the robbery of a temple. All the robbers of temples swear by the gods, and worship the gods, and are not Christians, and yet they are exposed in sacrilege. It would be long to speak of the other ways in which all your gods are both ridiculed and despised by their own worshippers, if I wished to do so. We are also accused of insulting the majesty of the Emperor; However, Christians were never to be found among the Albinians, nor among the Nigrians, nor among the Cassinians. But those who even the day before swore by the geniuses of the emperors, who often condemned Christians, turned out to be their enemies. A Christian is not an enemy of any man, much less of an emperor, of whom he knows to be appointed by his God, whom he must love, and fear, and revere, and desire his well-being, together with the well-being of the whole Roman Empire, as long as the world exists, for until then it will exist. Therefore we revere the emperor as we are permitted and as useful to him, as a man who is above all after God, who has received from God all that he is, who is inferior to God alone. This is what he himself must desire. For He is greater than all because He is inferior to the true God alone. He is greater than the gods themselves, because the gods themselves are in his power, Therefore we offer sacrifices for the health of the emperor, but to our God, and in the form of a pure prayer addressed to Him, as He Himself commands. For God, the creator of the universe, does not need any incense or any blood. This, of course, is the food of demons. As for the demons, we not only despise, but we also tame them, and daily reveal them, and cast them out of people, as very many know. Therefore we pray more for the health of the emperor, asking him of Him who can grant it. And in general, what we do in following the doctrine of divine patience may be clear enough to you, when we, forming such a crowd of people, almost the greater part of every city, live quietly and modestly, when we are better known individually than in the masses, when we are known for no other reason than because we are abandoning our former vices. Let it not be that we endure with vexation what we wish to endure, or that we on our part plot any vengeance: we expect it from God.

III

However, as we said above, we must grieve, because no city will shed our blood with impunity. So it was in the reign of Hilarian, when they cried out about the places (de areis) of our burials: areae non sint, let there be no cemeteries, areae ipsorum non fuerunt, and there were no currents among them, because they had not made the harvest. But the rains of last year reminded people of this is clear. They reminded, of course, that there had been a flood before for the unbelief and injustices of the human race. And what threatened the fires which had so recently hung over the walls of Carthage during the night, those who saw them know. And what the former thunders pointed to, those who were deaf to them know. All these are signs of the terrible wrath of God. We need to proclaim it, as far as we can, and predict it, and pray that it will now be local. Of course, in due time the general and final wrath will be known by those who interpret its signs differently. Of course, the cessation of sunlight in the Utica District was an unusual phenomenon, because the sun, standing at its height and in its place, could not make it its usual eclipse. However, you have astrologers. We can also tell you about the death of certain rulers, who before their death confessed that they had sinned in torturing the Christians. Vigellius Saturninus, who was the first to raise his sword against us here, lost his sight. Claudius Lucius Herminianus, when, indignant that his wife had gone over to this sect, treated the Christians in Cappadocia cruelly, and when, being sick alone in his palace, he was eaten alive by worms, he said: Let no one know about this, so that the Christians do not rejoice and the Christian women do not hope. Then, realizing his error, since he had done what some had fallen away from their faith through torture, he died almost a Christian. Caecilius Capella, at the time of the well-known destruction of Byzantium, exclaimed: Rejoice, Christians! But even those who have not suffered any punishment will come to be punished on the day of divine judgment. And we wish you that the blow to which you suffered immediately after you condemned Mavilus of Adrumet for the beasts will serve as the only reminder for you, and now for this reason there has been a blood injury. But remember this for the future.

IV

Thou dost not instill fear in us, for we are not afraid of thee. But I wish that we could save all of you by urging you not to fight with God. You can do the duty of your judiciary and remember humanity, even if you are under the sword. What, of course, commands you more than that you condemn those criminals who confess, and that you torture those who deny it? Therefore you see how you yourselves act against the laws, forcing those who have confessed to renounce. Therefore, you recognize us as innocent, not wishing to condemn us immediately after our consciousness. But if you seek to kill us, then you destroy innocence. And how many rulers, both very strict and very cruel, ignored these cases. Such was Cincius Severus, who at Tisdra himself gave advice on how the Christians should respond so that they might be released. Such was Vespronius Candide, who, in order to appease the citizens, dismissed the Christian, as a man capable of causing a rebellion. Such was Asper, who did not compel a man who immediately fell away after a few tortures, to offer sacrifices, and declared in the presence of lawyers and judges that he regretted having fallen into this case. Pudent also released the Christian sent to him, having learned from the accusation the greed of the denunciation. Tearing up the accusation, he said that, according to the law, he would not listen to anyone without an accuser. All this can be communicated to you both by officials and by those lawyers who themselves enjoy their beneficence, although they say what they want. For someone's scribe, being possessed by a demon, was freed from it, and someone's relative and slave were also freed from him. And how many noble people (I am not talking about ordinary people) were cured either of demons or of disease? Even Severus himself, Antonin's father, remembered the Christians. For he sought out Proculus the Christian, who was called Torpation, the procurator of Evedia, who had once healed him with oil, and kept him in his palace until his death. He was also very well known to Antoninus, who was brought up on Christian milk. Further, Severus, knowing that both the noblest women and the noblest men belonged to this sect, not only did not persecute them, but even gave them testimony and clearly defended them against the people who attacked them. And Marcus Aurelius during the German campaign received rain thanks to the prayers of Christian soldiers turned to God when there was a strong thirst. When droughts were also not eliminated by kneeling and our poets? Then the people, crying out to the God of gods, Who alone is able, gave thanks to our God under the name of Jupiter. In addition, we do not renounce what is given to us as collateral, we do not defile anyone's marriage, we treat orphans with love, we help the needy, we do not repay evil for evil to anyone. Let those who deceive the sect and whom we ourselves renounce see this. Who finally brings a complaint against us under a different name? For what other cause does a Christian suffer, except the cause of his sect? And for such a long time, no one has proven that she is a criminal, that she is cruel. For such great innocence, for such great honesty, for justice, for chastity, for faith, for truth, for the living God, we are burned, to which neither sacrilegers, nor real public enemies, nor criminals against the emperor are usually subjected. For even now the governor of the Legion and the governor of Mauritania are tortured for this name, but only by the sword, as in the beginning it was commanded to punish for deeds of this kind. But big battles, big rewards.