Orations (other than the Theological Orations) 4.28–4.59

For if the God of the martyrs did not check his impiety, nor at once dry up and cut off, like an evil stream, the vice that was being devised and hidden, it was for reasons he alone knew, according to his wisdom and governance, by which he also arranged that the iniquities of the Amorites should be filled up; but the malice had to be hated and the honour rejected for the sake of the many, and God’s impartiality and purity toward all that is offered to him had to be shown. [29] For he said to Israel when it was impious: “If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me”; and he did not accept their new moons and sabbaths and great day (for he needs nothing, being full, of things human and small, so as to delight even in what is offered unworthily); he abhors the sacrifice of the lawless, even if it is a calf, as if it were a dog’s, and the frankincense as blasphemy; he banishes and shakes off from the temple the hire of a harlot; and he honours only that sacrifice which pure hands and a mind lofty and purified offer to the Purest. What wonder, then, if he did not accept that man’s honour either, offered wickedly and with wicked intent, he who does not look as man looks, nor at the appearance, but at the hidden man and the inner workshop of vice or virtue? Such, then, was this; and if anyone disbelieves it, we call as witnesses those who saw it; there are many who have handed this wonder down to us and to those after us, and will hand it down.

When, advancing to manhood, they took up the doctrines of philosophy (would they never had!) and acquired the power that comes from reason, which becomes for the decent a weapon of virtue and for the more wicked a goad to vice, he could no longer contain the whole disease, nor keep the deceit of his impiety entirely to himself; but like fire smouldering in fuel, which, even if it has not yet risen into a bright flame, gives signs from the depth by some sparks that catch or by smoke; or, if you like, like springs that run under caverns with a draught of wind, and then, having no room and no free outlet, blow up and rumble from below in many parts of the earth, pushed up by the force of the wind and held down and checked by the weight from above: so he too hid most of his impiety because of the times and the training given by the ruler (for impiety was not yet safe), but here and there he laid bare the secret of his mind to those who were sharper at perceiving impiety; in his debates with his brother, contending more than was right on behalf of the Greeks, on the pretext, if you please, of exercising the weaker argument (but in reality it was an exercise against the truth), and delighting in everything by which an impious character is marked.

When the emperor’s kindness proclaimed his brother Caesar and entrusted him with no small part of the world, he himself had great licence and freedom to associate with the most pernicious arguments and teachers (Asia was his school of impiety: all the wonder-mongering about astronomy and nativities and the pretence of foreknowledge, and the sorcery that goes with them). One thing was still lacking: that power should be added to his impiety. Not long after, this too was given him, against us, by the lawlessness of the many, which had multiplied, and by the extreme well-being, as one might call it, of Christians, which sought the opposite change, and by our power and honour, and the surfeit through which we became insolent.

[32] For in truth it is perhaps harder to keep good things than to acquire them when they are lacking, and easier to recall by diligence a prosperity that has gone than to preserve it while it lasts. “Before destruction goes pride,” as the Proverbs well say, “and before glory humility”; or, to say it more clearly, destruction follows pride, and good repute humility. For “the Lord resists the proud but gives grace to the humble,” and brings opposites in exchange for opposites, measuring out all things justly. Knowing this, the divine David counts being humbled among the good things, and gives thanks to the one who humbled him, since from this he came to learn the ordinances; and “Before I was humbled,” he says, “I went astray; therefore I kept your word,” setting humiliation between going astray and correction, as born from the one and giving birth to the other: for sin is the mother of humiliation, and humiliation of conversion. We, then, who were exalted when we were decent and moderate, and grew little by little so as to advance, under God’s guidance, to our present state and numbers, when we grew fat, we kicked; when we were enlarged, we were straitened; and the glory and power that we gathered in persecutions and afflictions we destroyed in prosperity; the rest of the discourse will show it. [33] The Caesar’s reign and life come to an end; I shall keep silent about what lay between, sparing both the doer and the sufferer; respecting the piety of both, I do not praise their rashness. Since, being men, they had to err in something, this is what one might perhaps not praise in either of them; unless here too, by the very things for which we shall accuse the one, we shall free the other from blame. And he at once becomes heir of his brother’s rule, though not of his piety, and a little later also of the one who had made him emperor: the first willingly, the second forced by the common end, and defeated with a defeat evil and ruinous for the whole world. [34] What was this, most divine and most Christ-loving of emperors? (For I am led to blame you as though you were present and listening, even though I know that you are far above our blame, ranked with God, having inherited the glory there, and having moved so far as to have exchanged your kingdom.) What counsel was this that you took, you who far surpassed all in understanding and shrewdness, not only the emperors of your own time but those before; who cleared away the barbarians on every side, and subdued the tyrants at home, some by words, some by arms, and each so as not to be hindered at all by the other; whose trophies won by arms and battle were great, but those won without bloodshed greater and more glorious; to whom came embassies and supplications from every side; to whom some things were already subject and others about to be, and all that was hoped for was equal to what was conquered; who was guided by the hand of God in every counsel and deed; whose understanding was admired more than his hand, and his hand more than his understanding, and more than his renown in both, his piety? [35] How then did you appear ignorant and inconsiderate here alone? What was the haste of this inhuman kindness? Which of the demons entered into the deliberation? How did you take the great inheritance and the ancestral ornament (I mean those named after Christ, the nation that has shone out everywhere in the world, the royal priesthood, increased by much toil and many sweats), and in so short a time, in a brief moment, hand it over to the common murderer? [36] Perhaps I seem to you, brothers, to be impious and ungrateful in these words, and because I do not quickly add the words of truth to those of accusation. And yet I have made a sufficient defence through the very things I have charged, if you pay attention to the accusation: here alone the accusation carries acquittal, for in saying “kindness” I declared the defence. For who of those who know him even moderately does not know that for the sake of piety and his love for us, and his wish for every good thing for us, he would have overlooked not only that man, or the honour of a whole family, or an addition to the empire, but the empire itself, and all that exists, and his very soul, than which nothing is more precious to anyone, and would readily have given them in exchange for our safety and salvation?

[37] For never did a hot love of anything strike anyone as that man’s longing that Christians should grow and advance to the height of glory and power; and neither the subduing of nations, nor the good order of the commonwealth, nor abundance of money, nor surplus of glory, nor being and being called king of kings, nor anything else by which human happiness is recognized, nothing of all these so gladdened him as that we through him, and he through us, should be in good repute with God and men, and that our power should remain indissoluble for all time. For besides the rest he knew this clearly, since he thought about these things more loftily and royally than most: that the Roman state grew together with Christian affairs, and that its sovereignty came in together with the coming of Christ, never before having fully achieved monarchy; and for this reason, it seemed to me, he was the more eager to do good to our affairs. And if he grieved us at all, it was not through contempt or insult, nor by favouring others before us; but he grieved us so that all might be one and of one mind, and not cut up and divided by schisms. [38] But, as I said, simplicity is unguarded, and kindness goes along with what is unsound, and what is free from vice is least suspicious of vice. For this reason the future was not seen precisely, and the pretence was not detected, and impiety crept in little by little, and two kindnesses came in together: the one toward the pious race and the one toward the most impious and godless of all men. He (finding what fault with Christians? What of ours unable to praise? Thinking what of the doctrines of the Greeks extraordinary and hard to refute by argument? Following what example?) made himself most notorious for impiety, and rivalled in a novel way the one who had raised him up: since it was not possible to surpass him in virtue and in better things, he strove to make himself conspicuous by the opposite, by excess of impiety and ambition for the worse. Such, then, is the defence of the man on behalf of Christians and before Christians, and so just, at least to those who have sense.

[39] But there are some who, even if they acquit us of this charge, do not let go of others, but accuse him of simplicity, because he handed the rule to his most hostile and inimical enemy, and made the same man first an enemy and then strong, laying the ground for his enmity by the slaughter of his brother and adding power to it through the empire. I must therefore also go briefly through this, and show that his kindness was not wholly unreasonable, nor outside imperial magnanimity and foresight; for I should be ashamed if, having received such honour from him and being convinced that he so excelled in piety, we did not plead his just cause, which we owe even to those who have done us no good, we who are servants of the Word and of the Truth; and this after his departure from here, when we have escaped the appearance of flattery, and our word is free from evil suspicion. … what could the one entrusted with it have been to that man? And if not to have foreseen his character is blameworthy, where shall we place the vice itself? But truly wickedness is a thing beyond reckoning, and there is nothing by which one could make the wicked better; since he too, from the very things by which he ought to have shown himself better disposed and to have removed any spark of malice he had, was kindled to greater hatred and considered how to retaliate against his benefactor. These things he was taught by Platos and Chrysippuses, and the brilliant Peripatos, and the august Stoa, and those who warble elegant phrases; these things by the equality of geometry, and the discourses on justice, and the doctrine that one should choose to be wronged rather than to do wrong; these things by his noble teachers, the fellow champions and lawgivers of his reign, whom he gathered to himself from the crossroads and the pits; whose character he did not praise, but whose eloquence he admired; or perhaps not even this, but only their impiety, as a sufficient counsellor and teacher of what to do and what not to do.

And how are these men not worthy of wonder, who fashion in words cities that cannot be established in fact, and all but worship august tyrannies, and with lofty brows set the obol above the gods; some of whom teach that there is no God at all, others that he takes no thought for things here, but that everything is borne along at random and by chance, others that things are led by the stars and the configurations of necessity, though led I know not by whom or whence, others that everything tends to pleasure and that this is the end of human life? Virtue is to them merely a fair-seeming name, reaching no further than the present life, nor is there any later examination of the things lived here to restrain injustice. For either none of their wise men saw these things, but was enveloped in deep mire, as the saying goes, and in the lightless darkness of error and ignorance, not cleansed in mind even enough to look at the rays of the truth, but wallowing in things below and in sensation, unable to imagine anything beyond the demons or to be lifted up as befits the Maker; or, if anyone saw through a little, using reason and not God as his guide, he was swept away by what was more plausible and by what draws the many because it is near at hand.

[45] What wonder, then, that one who started from such doctrines and was steered by such pilots should have proved so wicked, the one entrusted toward the one who entrusted him, the one honoured toward the one who honoured him? For if I must make some defence through accusation, it seems to me that he was not so much grieving over his brother (whom he knew to be his enemy because of religion) as unable to bear the growth of Christian affairs, and raging against piety, so that he dared to attack the established order and sought freedom for his madness; for philosophy and kingship, as their saying goes, must come together, not so that cities may cease from evils, but so that they may be filled with them. [46] And the first act of his arrogance and madness was to crown himself and to honour himself with the great title (which is not a prize to be snatched by fortune but a reward of virtue, granted by time, or by the emperor’s vote, or, as of old, by the judgment of the senate), and not to make the lord of the empire master of the measure of honour. And second (for he knew that by what he had already dared he had made his madness necessary for himself), what does he plan? To what lengths of impiety and rashness does he go? O that frenzied soul! He marches against him himself, and sets out from the West, on the pretext of making a defence concerning the diadem (for he still seemed to hide his madness), but in truth to transfer all power to himself and to be admired for his ingratitude; and he was not disappointed of his hope.

Let them not wonder, those who do not know the untraceable depth of the reasons of God by which the universe is borne along, and do not yield to the craftsman of its governance, who is altogether wiser than we, and leads what is his own where and how he wills, but altogether toward the better and toward healing, even if those being treated are annoyed. By these reasons that man was not lifted up into vice (for the divine is wholly guiltless of evils, being good by nature, and vice belongs to the one who chooses it), yet he was not restrained from his impulse; but running with great speed through his own territory and part of the barbarian bank, and seizing the passage by stealth more than by force, he comes near the palace. As his partisans say, he set out on the campaign by foreknowledge, by the prompting of demons who promised the future and presided over a change in affairs; but, as the account of those who tell the truth has it, he arrived at a set time, though a more secret and deeper one, and hastening toward a death of which he himself was the author, having secretly arranged the attempt through someone of the household; so that what happened was not foreknowledge but knowledge, a work of wickedness and not a benefit from demons. How well they hit the mark in such matters Persia clearly showed. And let those cease who ascribe his speed to the demons, unless we are to add this very evil to their account.

If, then, the emperor’s end had not come before the tyrant’s attack, and the invisible war had not prevailed over the visible hand, the wretch would perhaps have learned that he was hastening against himself; and before his folly was chastened by the Persians, he would have paid the penalty within the bounds of Rome for what he had wickedly dared. Here is the proof: while he was still advancing and, as he thought, unnoticed, he was surrounded by an army of the most noble emperor, which had already cut off his retreat, as became clear from later events; for even when he already held power, mastering this army was no small task. But as it was, the emperor, boiling against his madness and his impiety alike, and having the wisest of men in his nets, ends his life (O our wickedness!) in the midst of his march, having made a full defence before God and men for his kindness, and having shown Christians by his zeal how he was moved on behalf of piety.

How shall I not weep for the wretch? How shall I not lament, more than those who were persecuted, those who ran over to him; and, more than those who deserted to vice, the one who snatched them away? Or rather, for the one group it is nothing terrible to suffer for Christ, but the most blessed thing of all, not only because of what is there, but also because of the good repute and boldness here which they won for themselves through their dangers; while for the others what they have already suffered is a prelude to what is stored up and threatened; and it would have been better for them to be punished longer here than to be kept for the tribunals there. These things I say because of the law that bids us not rejoice at the fall of an enemy and requires sympathy from those who stand; but I must bring my discourse back again to him.

What is this great rivalry in evil? What this love of impiety? What this race to destruction? Whence is the disciple of Christ such a hater of Christ, he who had conversed with so many words of truth, and spoken some and heard others of those that lead to salvation? For no sooner had he inherited the empire than he openly professed his impiety, as if he were ashamed of having once been a Christian, or bore a grudge against Christians on this account, whose name he had shared. And the first of his daring deeds (as those say who pride themselves on knowing his secrets: into what words am I forced to fall!) was that he washes off the bath of baptism with unholy blood, setting the consummation of abomination against our consummation, a pig rolling in the mud, as the proverb says; and he purifies his hands, cleansing them of the bloodless sacrifice through which we share with Christ both in his sufferings and in his Godhead; and he establishes the palace with victims and sacrifices, using evil counsellors for an evil reign.

But since I have mentioned entrails and the man’s superstition in such things (or, to say it more properly, his ill-starred demon-worship), I do not know whether I should commit to writing the wonder that is talked about, or disbelieve those who tell it. For I myself waver in judgment and cannot tell which way to lean, since things that would justly be believed are mixed with things not worthy of belief. That some sign should be given at so great an innovation of evil and impiety is not incredible, but has often happened at the greatest changes; and the manner of it too is very worthy of wonder, to me at least, and to all who wish and think that pure things should be shown purely.

What is said, then, is this: that as he was sacrificing, the entrails showed the cross with a crown around it; which brought shuddering and anguish to the others, and awareness of our power, but to the teacher of impiety, of course, courage, as though we were circumscribed and hemmed in; for so he improvised an interpretation of the cross and the circle. This is my wonder; and if it is false, let the winds carry it away; but if it is true, Balaam is prophesying again, and Samuel is brought up (or seems to be) through a ventriloquist, and demons confess Jesus against their will, and the truth is shown through its opposites, so that it may be the more believed; perhaps it was even arranged that he should be held back from impiety by these things, for the divine knows how to devise many strange ways of salvation, inclining toward love of mankind. And what is told by more people, and is not unreasonable to believe: … drivel), struck by the unexpected (for he was a late learner in such things), he takes refuge in the cross and the old remedy, and signs himself with it against his fears, and makes the one he was persecuting his helper; and what follows is more fearful still. [56] The seal prevailed; the demons are defeated; the fears are dispelled. Then what? The evil breathes again, grows bold again; again an onset, and the same fears; and the seal again, and the demons are quiet; and the initiate is at a loss; and the mystagogue, standing near, misinterprets the truth. “We disgusted them,” he says; “we did not frighten them; the worse is prevailing.” He says this, and saying it persuades, and having persuaded leads the disciple to the pit of destruction. And there is nothing strange in this; for wickedness is readier to follow evil than to be checked by the better. What he said or did, or by what deception he was sent back up, those who perform and undergo such rites would know; at any rate he comes up possessed by demons both in his soul and in his affairs, and showing by the madness of his eyes whom he had served; unless indeed he was filled with demons from that day on which he devoted himself to such wicked things; but then more conspicuously, so that he might not have gone down in vain, and might receive from the demons what they call “enthusiasm,” solemnly changing the names. Such, then, were the first things.

When his travail prevailed and the persecution broke out, he saw something, whether as a man wise in vice and extraordinary in impiety, or because he was taught it by those who anointed him for this contest: that to take up the war openly and to preside personally over impiety, besides being very rash and uncultivated, would also be altogether contrary to his aim; for we would become more contentious if we were forced, and would set our ambition for piety against his tyranny. For noble spirits tend to be stubborn against what rules by force, and, like a flame fanned by the wind, to be kindled the more, the more violently it blows upon them. And this he found not only by reasoning, but could also learn from the earlier persecutions, which made Christianity more honoured rather than weaker, strengthening souls for piety and tempering them by dangers as hot iron is tempered in water. But if he campaigned with art, and coloured force with persuasion, or wrapped his tyranny in gentleness like bait around a bronze hook, his contest would in this way become at once wise and powerful.

For besides other things he also begrudged the athletes the honour of the martyrs; and for this reason he contrived both to use force and not to seem to, and that they should suffer and yet not have the honour of suffering for Christ. O what simplicity! First, if he thought it would go unnoticed for what cause the dangers were faced, and that he would cover up the truth with sophistries; and did not see that the more he plotted against their honours, the greater and more brilliant he would make them.

Second, if he supposed that we face dangers from desire of glory and not for the truth. Let such games be played among them by Empedocleses and Aristaeuses and Empedotimuses and Trophoniuses and the whole number of such unfortunates: of whom the one, having deified himself, as he thought, in the Sicilian craters, and sent himself away from us to a better lot, was betrayed by his dearest sandal, spat out by the fire; and he was shown to be not a god after being a man, but a vainglorious man, unphilosophical after death, and not sensible even in common matters; while the others, hiding themselves in certain shrines from the same disease and self-love, and then being exposed, were not so much honoured for their stealth as insulted for not escaping notice.