To Donatus 10
Summary: Even the law courts are corrupt: advocates cheat, judges take bribes, and the innocent are condemned.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:11–12
Sed tibi post insidiosas uias, post dispersas orbe toto multiplices pugnas, post spectacula uel cruenta uel turpia, post libidinum probra uel lupanaribus prostituta uel domesticis parietibus obsaepta, quorum quo secretior culpa, maior audacia est, forum fortasse uideatur immune, quod ab iniuriis lacessentibus liberum nullis malorum contactibus polluatur. illuc aciem tuam flecte: plura illic quae detesteris inuenies, magis oculos tuos inde deuertes. incisae sint licet leges duodecim tabulis et publico aere praefixo iura. proscripta sint: inter leges ipsas delinquitur, inter iura peccatur, innocentia nec illic, ubi defenditur, reseruatur. saeuit inuicem discordantium rabies et inter togas pace rupta forum litibus mugit insanum. hasta illic et gladius et carnifex praesto est, ungula effodiens, eculeus extendens, ignis exurens, ad hominis corpus unum supplicia plura quam membra. quis inter haec uero subueniat? patronus? sed praeuaricatur et decipit. iudex? sed sententiam uendit. qui sedet crimina uindicaturus admittit, et ut reus innocens pereat, fit nocens iudex. flagrant ubique delicta et passim multiformi genere peccandi per improbas mentes nocens uirus operatur. hic testamentum subicit, ille falsum capitali fraude conscribit: hic arcentur hereditatibus liberi, illic bonis donantur alieni: inimicus insimulat, calumniator inpugnat, testis infamat. utrubique grassatur in mendacium criminum prostitutae uocis uenalis audacia, cum interim nocentes nec cum innocentibus pereunt. nullus de legibus metus est, de quaesitore, de iudice pauor nullus: quod potest redimi non timetur. esse iam inter nocentes innoxium crimen est: malos quisquis non imitatur offendit. consensere iura peccatis et coepit licitum esse quod publicum est. quis illic rerum pudor, quae esse possit integritas, ubi qui damnent improbos desunt, soli tibi qui damnentur occurrunt?
English · Claude translation
But after the treacherous roads, after the manifold battles spread over the whole world, after the shows either bloody or shameful, after the disgraces of lust, whether prostituted in brothels or hedged in by domestic walls, where the more secret the guilt, the greater the boldness, perhaps the forum may seem to you exempt, as being free from provoking injuries and polluted by no contact with evils. Turn your gaze there: you will find more there to detest; you will turn your eyes away from it the more. Though the laws be engraved on the Twelve Tables, and the statutes be publicly posted on bronze set up before all, there is wrongdoing amid the laws themselves, sin amid the statutes; innocence is not preserved even where it is defended. The rage of those at odds with one another is savage, and among the togas, peace broken, the mad forum bellows with lawsuits. There the spear and the sword and the executioner are at hand, the claw that digs, the rack that stretches, the fire that burns: for one human body more punishments than limbs. Who amid these things will truly help? The advocate? But he colludes and deceives. The judge? But he sells his verdict. He who sits to punish crimes commits them, and so that the innocent defendant may perish, the judge becomes guilty. Sins blaze everywhere, and on all sides, by a manifold kind of sinning, the guilty poison works through wicked minds. This man forges a will, that one writes a false one by a capital fraud; here children are shut out from inheritances, there strangers are given the property; an enemy accuses falsely, a slanderer attacks, a witness defames. On both sides the venal boldness of a prostituted voice rushes into lying charges, while meanwhile the guilty do not perish even with the innocent. There is no fear of the laws, no dread of the investigator or the judge: what can be bought off is not feared. To be innocent among the guilty is now a crime: whoever does not imitate the wicked offends them. The laws have come to terms with sins, and what is public has begun to be lawful. What shame can there be there, what integrity, where those who would condemn the wicked are lacking, and you meet only those who should be condemned?
About this passage
Notes
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR: "«" for "c".): «alumniator → calumniator.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Don. 10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-donatum/10/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Don. 10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-donatum/10/).
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