# On Apostate Kings - Author: [Lucifer of Cagliari](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/lucifer-of-cagliari/) - Latin title: *De regibus apostaticis* - Date: ca. 356–361 (approximate) - Source: Wilhelm von Hartel, ed., Luciferi Calaritani opuscula, CSEL 14 (Vienna: Gerold, 1886) (Latin text: W. von Hartel (CSEL 14, 1886), digitized by Open Greek and Latin (csel-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/ - Passages: 12 ## On Apostate Kings 1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/1/#p-1 - Source: CSEL 14:35–38 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Answering the emperor's claim that his long reign proves God's approval, Lucifer points to Gideon, who fell into idolatry yet ruled forty years. ### Latin text Vsitatum quia habere dignaris uerbum, quod enim nisi et integre crederes et haec quae geris circa nos deo essent placita, iam fuisses extinctus, paucorum tibi in apostasia atque crudelitate aequalium regum facta desideraui reserare, quo possit uox illa tua sepeliri quae dicat: nisi catholica esset fides Arrii, hoc est mea, nisi placitum esset deo quod illam persequar fidem quam contra nos scripserint apud Niciam, numquam profecto adhuc in imperio florerem. non illorum regum facio mentionem qui a dei notitia fuerunt alieni; de his solis tracto qui in Iudaea noscuntur regnasse. in libro Iudicum inuenimus Ierobabelem filium Iosiae electum a deo et dictum ei: uade in fortitudine tua, et saluum facies Israel de manu Madiae. nonne ecce mitto te? et infra: ego ero tecum, et percuties Madiam quomodo unum hominem. quem Madiam loquitur scriptura habuisse multitudinem tamquam arenam maris. at ubi impleta sunt cuncta quae deus Gedeoni promisit, ubi se exaltatum ex humili, locupletatum ex paupere, regem factum uidit ex plebeia conditione, quid statim facit? nempe dicit ad populum: date mihi unusquisque inaurem de praeda sua. qui cum accepisset pondus inaurium aureorum ad mille septingentos siclos praeter bracchialia et torques et operimenta et purpuram, quae super reges Madiam erant, et praeter torques aureas, quae in collo camellorum aduersariorum, quid dicit fecisse Gedeonem sacra scriptura? et fecit illa Gedeon in Ephod, et statuit illud in ciuitate sua Ephrath; et fornicati sunt filii Israel ibi et factum est Gedeoni et domui eius in scandalum. numquidnam distulit diebus aliquantis, et sic hanc est operatus contra deum malignam operam? numquidnam reminisci potuit, cum haec fuisset aggressus facere, quod dixisset ei deus: uade, ego ero tecum? ubi est illud, quod secundum praeceptum dei demolierit Baal et lucos eius exciderit et deo obtulerit sacrificium? ubi est illud quod dixit ad dei nuntium sibi dicentem? dominus tecum potens uirtute. in me, domine, et si est dominus nobiscum, et quid adprehenderunt nos omnia mala haec? et ubi sunt mirabilia eius, quae retulerunt nobis patres nostri dicentes: non ex Aegypto adduxit nos deus? et nunc spreuit nos et tradidit nos in manu Madiae dominus. numquid repetebat tempore quo contra deum facere temptauit, quod illa consecuti fuissent mala propter idololatriam? at ubi erepti sunt, ut uiuerent sine aduersariorum timore, ab omnibus illis malis quibus se dicebat cum omni praegrauatum populo, ilico facit rem, per quam et ipse et omnis pariter populus propter idololatriam fuisset traditus in manus aduersariorum. audierat deum, quod idolis seruissent derelicto deo, illis cuncta illa mala accidisse; meminerat prophetam locutum, et tamen ea die, qua nihil facti sunt ante eos inimici eorum, censuit rex ille in uecordia, cui dignaris esse similis, idolis quam deo qui illa sibi praestiterat fuisse famulandum. et fecerunt, inquit scriptura, filii Israel malignum ante dominum deum, et tradidit in manus Madiae annis septem, et praeualuit manus Madiae ualde super Israel. et fecerunt sibi Israel ante faciem Madiae cryptas in montibus et speluncas et monumenta. et factum est quando seminabat Israel, ascendebant Madiam et Amalech et filii Orientis et ascendebant super eum et committebant cum eis et corrumpebant fines terrae, usque dum uenias Gasam, et non relinquebant ad uitam huic Israel ouem nec uitulum nec asinum. quoniam ipsi et iumenta eorum ascendebant, et tabernacula sua adferebant et camelos suos ducebant et adueniebant sicut lucustae in multitudine, quoniam non erat numerus, et adueniebant super terram corrumpere eam. et pauper factus Israel a facie Madiae. et clamauerunt filii Israel ad dominum et factum est eo quod clamauerint filii Israel ad dominum propter Madiam, misit dominus uirum prophetam ad filios Israel et dixit illis: haec dicit dominus deus Israel: ego sum qui adduxi uos ex Aegypto et eduxi uos de domo seruitutis et abstuli uos de manu regis Aegypti et de manu omnium persequentium uos, et eieci illos a facie uestra et dedi uobis terram eorum. et dixi uobis: ego sum dominus deus uester, non timebitis deos Amorrhaeorum, in quibus uos inhabitatis in terra ipsorum, et non exaudistis uocis meae. quid post hanc increpationem domini facit Hierobabel, qui dicitur etiam Gedeon? mox ut inimicum suum uidet deductum ad nihilum, mox ut uniuersi illi aduersarii qui ut arena maris fuisse narrantur sunt mactati, et non ingenti numero Israelitarum, sed in trecentis uiris, mox ut omnes reges uidit alienigenas interfectos; fabricat eam rem per quam possint in deum delinquere filii Israel; et tamen quadraginta annis etiam post tantum facinus commissum regnasse hic in Israel inuenitur. non erit ergo mirandum, si et tu sacrilegus adhuc degas in corpore, quando uideas Gedeonem regem quadraginta annis uixisse post idololatriam commissam regnoque suo potitum; etenim quieuisse Israelitas quadraginta annis nec aduersarios in eos omnino permissos nec ullum eisdem fuisse dominatum ex alienigenis, propterea quod exclamassent ad deum, scriptura loquitur sacra. talia circa consacrilegos tuos fecit bona deus, ostendens se quidem totum potentem, illos tamen indignos ad consequendam requiem, qui nec una die quidem post receptam requiem tantorum periculorum illi, qui tantam praestiterat misericordiam, seruire delegissent. cum tales fuerint Israelitae, tamen pro sua pietate pepercit eis etiam post haec gerentibus idololatriam, nec statim reddidit, sed iterum tempore quo ei placuit tamen reddidit; non eis inpune idololatriae reatus cedere potuit. ita et tibi, Constanti, erit repraesentaturus, nisi tibi prouideris interea. si Israelitae seruientes daemonibus, derelinquentes deum, cum iam extranei fuissent a notitia effecti dei, tamen mox ut ascendit in corda illorum, quia ille sit deus totum potens qui eorum patres eduxisset de terra Aegypti, exauditi sunt et liberati de manu Madiae et ab omnibus persequentibus, quid sentis arbitrari nos posse Christianos eripi de manibus tuis? an negas nec, quod sciam, es peruidens nos tantum deum colere Abrahae Isaac et Iacob et omnium prophetarum apostolorum et martyrum? crede mihi, quia auditi sumus et audiemur, ut tu possis cum omni tua fragili sublimitate iacere sub omnium eius seruorum calce; sed et quod morulae aliquae fiant, ut non iam sanctae suae ecclesiae extinctis uobis Arrianis tribuat plenam securitatem pacis, est causa illa, quia sit dignum te aduersario saeuiente ad omnium ueniri probationem. ### English translation (Claude) Since you are pleased to have a saying always on your lips, that unless you believed soundly and unless what you are doing to us were pleasing to God, you would already have been destroyed, I have wished to lay open the deeds of a few kings who were your equals in apostasy and cruelty, so that that voice of yours may be buried which says: “Unless the faith of Arius, that is, mine, were catholic, unless it were pleasing to God that I persecute that faith which they wrote against us at Nicaea, I would certainly not still be flourishing in the empire.” I make no mention of those kings who were strangers to the knowledge of God; I deal only with those who are known to have reigned in Judaea. In the book of Judges we find that Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, was chosen by God and was told: “Go in your strength, and you shall save Israel from the hand of Midian. Do I not send you?” And further on: “I will be with you, and you shall strike Midian as one man.” Scripture says that this Midian had a multitude like the sand of the sea. But when all that God had promised Gideon was fulfilled, when he saw himself raised up from lowliness, enriched from poverty, made a king from the condition of a commoner, what does he do at once? He says to the people: “Give me each one an earring from his spoil.” And when he had received a weight of golden earrings up to one thousand seven hundred shekels, besides the bracelets and necklaces and garments and the purple that were on the kings of Midian, and besides the golden chains that were on the necks of the enemies' camels, what does holy Scripture say Gideon did? “And Gideon made them into an ephod and set it up in his city Ephrath; and the children of Israel prostituted themselves there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his house.” Did he wait some days and only then do this wicked work against God? When he set about doing this, could he not remember that God had said to him, “Go, I will be with you”? Where is that deed of his, when according to God's command he pulled down Baal and cut down his groves and offered sacrifice to God? Where is what he said to the messenger of God who told him, “The Lord is with you, mighty in strength”: “On me, Lord? If the Lord is with us, why then have all these evils seized us? And where are his wonders, which our fathers told us, saying, Did not God bring us up out of Egypt? And now the Lord has spurned us and handed us over into the hand of Midian.” When he attempted to act against God, did he call to mind that those evils had come upon them because of idolatry? But as soon as they had been rescued, so as to live without fear of their adversaries, from all those evils with which he said he and the whole people were weighed down, at once he does the thing through which both he himself and the whole people alike would be handed over into the hands of their adversaries because of idolatry. He had heard from God that all those evils had befallen them because they had served idols and forsaken God; he remembered that the prophet had spoken; and yet on the very day on which their enemies were made as nothing before them, that king, in his folly, whom you are pleased to resemble, decided that idols should be served rather than the God who had granted him those things. “And the children of Israel,” says Scripture, “did evil before the Lord God, and he handed them into the hands of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed greatly over Israel. And Israel made for themselves, because of Midian, caves in the mountains and dens and strongholds. And it came about that when Israel sowed, Midian and Amalek and the sons of the East came up, came up against him and fought with them and ruined the borders of the land as far as Gaza, and left nothing alive for Israel, neither sheep nor calf nor ass. For they and their cattle came up, and they brought their tents and led their camels, and they came like locusts in multitude, for there was no number to them, and they came upon the land to ruin it. And Israel was made poor before Midian. And the children of Israel cried to the Lord; and because the children of Israel had cried to the Lord on account of Midian, the Lord sent a man, a prophet, to the children of Israel, and he said to them: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: It is I who brought you up out of Egypt and led you out of the house of slavery and took you from the hand of the king of Egypt and from the hand of all who persecuted you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you: I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; and you did not listen to my voice.” What does Jerubbaal, who is also called Gideon, do after this rebuke of the Lord? As soon as he sees his enemy brought to nothing, as soon as all those adversaries, who are said to have been like the sand of the sea, have been slaughtered, and that not by a huge number of Israelites but by three hundred men, as soon as he saw all the foreign kings killed, he fashions the thing through which the children of Israel could sin against God; and yet this man is found to have ruled in Israel forty years even after committing so great a crime. It will not be surprising, then, if you too, a man of sacrilege, still live in the body, when you see that Gideon the king lived forty years after committing idolatry and kept his rule; for holy Scripture says that the Israelites had rest forty years and that no adversaries at all were let loose on them and no foreigner ruled over them, because they had cried out to God. Such good things God did for your fellows in sacrilege, showing that he is almighty, but that they were unworthy to obtain rest, since not even for one day after receiving rest from such great dangers did they choose to serve him who had shown them such mercy. Though the Israelites were such, he spared them in his kindness even when they practised idolatry after this, and did not repay them at once; but he did repay them again at the time that pleased him. The guilt of idolatry could not go unpunished for them. So he will repay you too, Constantius, unless you look out for yourself in the meantime. If the Israelites, serving demons and forsaking God, when they had already become strangers to the knowledge of God, were nevertheless heard and freed from the hand of Midian and from all their persecutors as soon as it entered their hearts that he is the almighty God who had brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, what do you think? Do you suppose that we Christians cannot be rescued from your hands? Or do you deny, or do you not see, as far as I know, that we worship the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of all the prophets, apostles and martyrs? Believe me, we have been heard and we will be heard, so that you, with all your fragile loftiness, may lie under the heel of all his servants. But that there are some little delays, so that he does not yet grant his holy church the full security of peace by destroying you Arians, the reason is this: it is fitting that, while you, the adversary, rage, all should come to their testing. ### Scripture references - Judg 6:14: quotation, high confidence - Judg 6:16: quotation, high confidence - Judg 7:12: allusion, high confidence - Judg 8:24–27: quotation, high confidence - Judg 6:25–28: allusion, high confidence - Judg 6:12–13: quotation, high confidence - Judg 6:1–10: quotation, high confidence - Judg 7:7: allusion, medium confidence - Judg 8:28: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The treatise On Apostate Kings (ca. 360) is addressed to Constantius II. Quotations and allusions in an Old Latin version: Judg 6:14, 16; 7:12; 8:24–27 (the Old Latin names Gideon's city “Ephrath”, Hebrew Ophrah); 6:25–28; 6:12–13; 6:1–10; 7:7; 8:28. The Old Latin calls Gideon's father “Iosias” (Joash). Lucifer's threats against the emperor are translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 1 (CSEL 14:35–38; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/1). ## On Apostate Kings 2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/1/#p-2 - Source: CSEL 14:38–41 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: From Saul, rejected for sparing Amalek yet left to reign and persecute David, Lucifer argues that a long reign does not prove that the emperor pleases God. ### Latin text Dicis: si male fecissem, si haeresim tenerem, iam in me deus uindicasset. audis sacram loquentem scripturam etiam alienigenae diu pepercisse dominum, et tamen postea con-. secutos merita factorum suorum. dixit Samuhel ad Saul: misit me dominus, ut ungerem te super Israel in regem, et nunc audi uocem uerbi domini: haec dicit dominus omnipotens: nunc defendam quae fecit Amalec tibi, Israel, quemadmodum obuiauit tibi in uia quam ascendisti de Aegypto. et nunc uade et percuties Amalec et omnia ipsius, et non concupisces ex illis aliquid, sed exterminabis illum et anathematisabis illum et omnia illius, et non parces illi et occides omnia illius a uiro usque ad mulierem et ab infante usque ad nutrientem. et infra: et uenit Saul usque ad ciuitatem Amalec, et accessit et obsedit Amalec in torrente. et dixit Saul ad Cinaeum: uade et declina e medio, et declina ab Amalec, et noli adponere te cum illo, quoniam tu fecisti misericordiam cum filiis Israel, cum ascenderent ex Aegypto. et declinauit Cinaeus de medio Amalec, et percussit Saul Amalec ab Euilat usque Sur, quae est contra faciem Aegypti. et conprehendit Saul Agag regem Amalec uiuum et omnem populum eius occidit in ore gladii. uides quomodo, tarde licet, consecuti fuerint sceleris sui factum, et tu inquis: nisi bene agerem, numquam diu regnarem. ipsum etiam Saul inuenimus contra domini mandatum quia fecerit, quod fuerit reprobatus, et tamen diu regnauerit post reprobationem, posteaquam dixit ad Samuhel deus: paenitet me unxisse in regem Saul. et tu inquis: ego nisi recte fuissem credens, nisi quomodo est deo placitum uiuerem, numquam profecto nunc usque imperarem. et ut haec penitus possis haurire quae. dicimus propter Saul, accipe quae contra domini fecerit mandatum: et accepit Saul et omnis populus eius Agag regem et bona gregum et armentorum et escarum et uinearum et omnium bonorum, et noluerunt disperdere omnia bona, sed et omne opus pretiosum reseruauerunt et superuacua disperdiderunt. et factum est uerbum domini ad Samuhelem dicens: paenitet me quod constituerim regem Saul, quoniam auersus est a me et uerba mea non statuit. et contristatus est Samuhel et clamauit ad deum tota nocte et ante lucem, et Samuhel abiit in obuiam israel. et infra: et uenit Samuhel ad Saul, et ecce Saul offerebat holocaustum domino et initia praedarum quae attulit ex Amalec. et peruenit Samuhel ad Saul, et dixit illi Saul: benedictus es tu domino, statui omnia quae locutus est dominus. et dixit Samuhel: et quae est uox huius gregis in auribus meis et uox boum quam ego audio? et dixit Saul: de Amalec adtuli ea quae praedauit populus optima gregis et boum, ut inmolentur domino deo tuo regi; reliqua autem disperdidi et exterminaui. et dixit Samuhel ad Saul: nonne minimus eras in conspectu dux sceptrorum de tribu Israel, et unxit te dominus in regem super Israel, et immisit te dominus in uia et dixit tibi: uade et disperde illos qui peccant in me, Amalec, et expugnabis illos usque dum consumes illos? et quare non audisti uocem domini, sed impetiuisti ad praedam et fecisti quod malignum est coram domino? et dixit Saul: quoniam audiui populum, abii in uia quam misit me deus, et adduxi Agag regem Amalec, et Amalec disperdidi. et accepit populus praedam gregis et armenta primaria illorum quae disperdidi, ut sacrificem coram domino deo nostro in Galgala. et dixit Samuhel; numquid uult dominus holocausta et sacrificia magis quam exaudire uocem domini? et ecce dictoaudientia melior est quam sacrificium et oboedientia quam adipes arietum. quoniam peccatum abominatio est, dolores et gemitus ad te adduxisti. pro quibus nullius momenti fecisti uerbum domini, nullius momenti te faciet dominus ne. regnes. et dixit Saul ad Samuhel: peccaui quoniam praeteriui uerbum domini et uerbum tuum, quoniam timui populum, et audiui uocem illorum. et nunc aufers peccatum meum, reuertere mecum, adorabo dominum deum tuum. et dixit Samuhel ad illum: disrumpet dominus regnum tuum ex Israel de manu tua hodie, et dabit illud proximo tuo meliori te. et infra: et non adiecit Samuhel amplius uidere Saul usque ad diem mortis suae, quoniam lugebat Samuhel in Saul, et dominum paenituit quoniam regem fecit Saul super Israel. et dixit dominus ad Samuhel: quousque luges tu in Saul? ecce ego expello illum ne regnet super Israel, et imple cornu tuum oleo, et ueni, mittam te ad Iesse usque in Bethlehem, quoniam audiui in filiis Iesse mihi in regem. cognoscere iam poteris, Constanti, etiam reprobatos a domino, etiam ad aeternam destinatos mortem diu regnare post delictum graue commissum, quandoquidem uideas, posteaquam unctus fuerit in regem gloriosus filius Iesse Dauid, tamen Saul diu regnauerit et persequendi etiam eum, quem sibi deus in prophetam atque regem elegerat, habuerit potestatem; malus bonum, iniustus iustum, deo odibilis persequebatur eum quem diligebat deus. cum haec ita sint, ne glorieris, quia post tantum facinus perpetratum sis. uiuens hactenus ut uixerit Saul; sed aduerte, cuiusmodi uindicta processerit circa Saul quod et circa te possit procedere, nisi tibimet consulas. si enim circa illum sic est indignatus dominus, primo cur praedam contra interdictum acceperit, secundo cur eius hominem Dauid fuerit persecutus, quanto magis circa te indignationis eius procedat uindicta necesse est, circa te, cuius adeo ingentia sunt scelera, ut etiam in sacrilegii uenires reatum. ### English translation (Claude) You say: “If I had done evil, if I held a heresy, God would already have taken vengeance on me.” You hear holy Scripture saying that the Lord spared even foreigners for a long time, and yet afterwards they received the due reward of their deeds. Samuel said to Saul: “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over Israel; and now hear the voice of the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord almighty: Now I will avenge what Amalek did to you, Israel, how he met you on the way when you came up from Egypt. And now go and strike Amalek and all that is his, and you shall covet nothing of theirs, but you shall destroy him and devote him and all that is his to destruction; and you shall not spare him, and you shall kill all that is his, from man to woman and from infant to suckling.” And further on: “And Saul came to the city of Amalek, and approached, and laid siege to Amalek in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenite: Go, turn aside from the midst, and turn aside from Amalek, and do not join yourself with him, for you showed mercy to the children of Israel when they came up from Egypt. And the Kenite turned aside from the midst of Amalek. And Saul struck Amalek from Havilah as far as Shur, which is opposite Egypt. And Saul took Agag king of Amalek alive, and killed all his people with the edge of the sword.” You see how they received the due of their crime, though late; and you say: “Unless I were doing well, I would never reign for long.” We find that Saul himself, because he acted against the Lord's command, was rejected, and yet reigned for a long time after his rejection, after God had said to Samuel: “I repent that I anointed Saul king.” And you say: “Unless I believed rightly, unless I lived as is pleasing to God, I would certainly not be ruling until now.” And so that you may take in thoroughly what we are saying about Saul, hear what he did against the Lord's command: “And Saul and all his people took Agag the king and the best of the flocks and herds and of the food and the vineyards and of all good things, and they would not destroy all the good things, but kept back all that was precious and destroyed what was worthless. And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying: I repent that I made Saul king, for he has turned away from me and has not established my words. And Samuel was grieved, and cried to God all night and before dawn; and Samuel went to meet Israel.” And further on: “And Samuel came to Saul, and behold, Saul was offering a burnt offering to the Lord and the first of the spoils which he had brought from Amalek. And Samuel reached Saul, and Saul said to him: Blessed are you of the Lord; I have established all that the Lord spoke. And Samuel said: Then what is this voice of the flock in my ears, and the voice of oxen that I hear? And Saul said: I have brought them from Amalek, the best of the flock and the oxen which the people took as spoil, to be sacrificed to the Lord your God, the King; the rest I have destroyed and wiped out. And Samuel said to Saul: Were you not least in your own sight, the leader of the sceptres of the tribe of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on the way and said to you: Go and destroy those who sin against me, Amalek, and fight against them until you consume them? Why then did you not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rushed on the spoil and did what is evil before the Lord? And Saul said: Because I listened to the people; I went on the way on which God sent me, and brought Agag the king of Amalek, and destroyed Amalek; and the people took of the spoil the flock and the chief of the herds of those I destroyed, to sacrifice before the Lord our God in Gilgal. And Samuel said: Does the Lord want burnt offerings and sacrifices more than listening to the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and obedience than the fat of rams. For since sin is an abomination, you have brought sorrows and groans upon yourself. Because you have held the word of the Lord of no account, the Lord will hold you of no account, so that you shall not reign. And Saul said to Samuel: I have sinned, for I have transgressed the word of the Lord and your word, because I feared the people and listened to their voice. And now take away my sin; return with me, and I will worship the Lord your God. And Samuel said to him: The Lord will tear your kingdom from Israel out of your hand today, and will give it to your neighbour, who is better than you.” And further on: “And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, for Samuel mourned over Saul; and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. And the Lord said to Samuel: How long will you mourn over Saul? Behold, I am driving him out, so that he does not reign over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and come; I will send you to Jesse in Bethlehem, for I have seen among the sons of Jesse a king for me.” You can now recognize, Constantius, that even those rejected by the Lord, even those destined for eternal death, reign long after committing a grave sin, since you see that after the glorious son of Jesse, David, had been anointed king, Saul still reigned a long time and had the power to persecute even the man whom God had chosen for himself as prophet and king: the evil man persecuting the good, the unjust the just, the one hateful to God persecuting the one God loved. Since this is so, do not boast that after committing so great a crime you are still living as Saul lived; but consider what punishment came upon Saul, which can also come upon you, unless you take thought for yourself. For if the Lord was so angry with him, first because he took spoil against the prohibition, and second because he persecuted God's man David, how much more must the punishment of his anger come upon you, you whose crimes are so enormous that you have come into the guilt even of sacrilege. ### Scripture references - 1 Sam 15:1–3: quotation, high confidence - 1 Sam 15:5–8: quotation, high confidence - 1 Sam 15:9–28: quotation, high confidence - 1 Sam 15:35–16:1: quotation, high confidence - 1 Sam 18:10–12: allusion, low confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations in an Old Latin version: 1 Sam 15:1–3; 15:5–8; 15:11 and 15:9–11; 15:12–13 (abridged), 15:13–26, 15:28; 15:35–16:1 (Lucifer cites 1 Samuel as the first book of Kingdoms). Some Old Latin phrasing differs from the Hebrew (e.g. “since sin is an abomination, you have brought sorrows and groans upon yourself” for 15:23). Constantius's sayings are given as Lucifer reports them. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 2 (CSEL 14:38–41; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/2). ## On Apostate Kings 3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/1/#p-3 - Source: CSEL 14:41–43 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lucifer adds Solomon, Rehoboam and Jeroboam as kings who kept their thrones for years after turning to idols, so the emperor's survival proves nothing. ### Latin text Si male, inquis, egissem, si quomodo dicit Lucifer, essem haereticus, iam mihi abstulisset deus regnum. accipe etiam Salomonem superuixisse post idololatriam commissam et intellegere dignare te quoque talem esse, qualis ille post idololatriam fuerit. et suscitauit dominus satan Salomoni Ader Idumaeum et Esrom filium Anadeth in Bemathad, Adragas regem Saba dominum eius. et congregati sunt super eum uiri, et erat princeps congregationis, et praeoccupauit • Damasic ciuitatem et sedit in ea et regnauit in Damasic, et erant satanae Salomoni et Israel omnibus diebus Salomonis. probauimus tibi etiam Salomonem aliquot annis regnasse post idololatriam, et utique iam non deo sed diabolo seruientem, unde et diabolicis hominibus notatur haesisse; ita et tu haerens es consacrilegis tuis Arrianis, qui licet adhuc in corpore sis, licet in regno sis manens, tamen talis esse inueniris qualis fuerit Salomon, posteaquam deum dereliquerit et idola fuerit secutus. talibus nos adhaerere uolueras, qualibus Salomon fecerit adhaerere Israelitas. ubi fuit ille amor dei, qui fuisse narratur per sanctas scripturas apud Salomonem, tempore isto quo idola dignatus est sequi, derelinquere deum? unde hoc? nisi quia factus omnino fuerit homo alienus ab intellectu sobrio. nolo tibi plaudeas, quod, cum sis blasphemus et destructor dei religionis, tamen adhuc habeas regnum et sis superbiens post sacrilegium tuum, cum et Roboam filium Salomonis idololatriam facientem uixisse inueniamus in regno uiginti annis. dicit enim sacra scriptura de eo: et rex Salomon dormiuit cum patribus suis in ciuitate Dauid; et regnauit filius eius Roboam pro eo in Hierusalem, et erat sedecim annorum cum regnaret, et uiginti annis regnauit in Hierusalem. et infra: et fecit malignum ante conspectum domini et non abiit in uia Dauid patris sui. ut igitur tam Salomon, ex quo idolis semet dignatus est mancipare, quam eius filius Roboam, qui semper idolis fuit seruiens, cum non ambulauerint in Dauid itineribus, tamen uixerint in regno et utrique regnantes ad uitae ultimum diem peruenerint, quomodo tu miraris ad temet, cur post commissum piaculum in eo scelere degens rex superbias, quod neque tibi regnum neque uita auferatur a deo? quando uideas etiam Hieroboam domini religionem funditus uertere, ut tu, fuisse conatum, et tamen superuixerit annis quam plurimis et quidem in eo scelere manens, sicut scriptum est: et erat homo ex monte Ephraem seruus Salomonis, et nomen ei erat Hieroboam, et nomen matris eius erat Sariram, mulier fornicaria, et alio loco: et factum est ut audiuit omnis Israel, quoniam reuersus est Hieroboas ex Aegypto, et miserunt et uocauerunt eum in synagoga et regnificauerunt eum in Israel, et infra: et dixit Hieroboas in corde suo: nunc reuertetur regnum Dauid. si ascenderit populus hic sacrificium offerre in domo domini in Hierusalem, et conuertetur cor populi ad dominum suum Roboam regem Iuda. tunc igitur Hieroboas cogitauit et abiit. et fecit duas uitulas aureas et dixit ad populum: sufficiat uobis ascendisse in Hierusalem. ecce sunt dii tui Israel qui reduxerunt te de terra Aegypti. et posuit unam in Bethel et unam dedit in Dan. et factum est hoc uerbum in peccatum, et antecedebat populus ante faciem unius uitulae usque Dan. et fecerunt domos in excelsum, et fecit sacerdotes partem aliquam populi, qui non erant ex filiis Leui. et fecit Hieroboas diem festum in mense octauo in quinta decima mensis secundum diem festum Iuda, et ascendit in sacrario quod fecit in Bethel, ut sacrificaret ante uitulas quas fecit, et constituit in Bethel sacerdotes excelsorum quos fecit. et ascendit in sacrarium quod fecit in quinto decimo die mense octauo in die festo quem finxit a corde suo, et fecit diem festum filiis Israel. ### English translation (Claude) “If I had acted wickedly,” you say, “if I were a heretic as Lucifer says, God would already have taken the kingdom from me.” Hear, then, that Solomon too lived on after committing idolatry, and deign to understand that you are such as he was after his idolatry. “And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, and Rezon the son of Eliada in Bemathad, whose lord was Hadadezer king of Zobah. And men gathered to him, and he was the leader of the band, and he seized Damascus and settled in it and reigned in Damascus; and they were adversaries to Solomon and to Israel all the days of Solomon.” We have proved to you that Solomon too reigned for some years after his idolatry, serving by then not God but the devil; and so he is noted as having clung to devilish men. So you too cling to your fellows in sacrilege, the Arians; and though you are still in the body, though you remain on the throne, you are found to be such as Solomon was after he had forsaken God and followed idols. You wanted us to cling to such men as Solomon made the Israelites cling to. Where was that love of God which the holy Scriptures say was in Solomon, at the time when he was pleased to follow idols and forsake God? Whence this, unless he had become a man wholly estranged from sober understanding? I would not have you applaud yourself because, though you are a blasphemer and a destroyer of God's religion, you still hold the kingdom and are proud after your sacrilege, since we find that Rehoboam the son of Solomon, practising idolatry, lived twenty years on the throne. For holy Scripture says of him: “And King Solomon slept with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place in Jerusalem; he was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty years in Jerusalem.” And further on: “And he did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not walk in the way of David his father.” Since, then, both Solomon, from the time he was pleased to enslave himself to idols, and his son Rehoboam, who always served idols, did not walk in the paths of David and yet lived on the throne, and both reached the last day of their lives reigning, why do you marvel to yourself that, after committing an abomination and living in that crime, you are proud as king because neither the kingdom nor life is taken from you by God? For you see that Jeroboam too tried, as you have, to overthrow the religion of the Lord from its foundations, and yet he lived on for very many years, and that while remaining in that crime, as it is written: “And there was a man from Mount Ephraim, a servant of Solomon, and his name was Jeroboam, and his mother's name was Sarira, a harlot”; and in another place: “And it came about, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king in Israel”; and further on: “And Jeroboam said in his heart: Now the kingdom will return to David. If this people goes up to offer sacrifice in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, the heart of the people will turn back to their lord Rehoboam king of Judah. Then Jeroboam took counsel and went and made two golden heifers and said to the people: Let it be enough for you to have gone up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. And he set one in Bethel and put one in Dan. And this thing became a sin, and the people went before one of the heifers as far as Dan. And they made houses on the high places, and he made priests from a part of the people who were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast in Judah, and he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel, to sacrifice before the heifers he had made, and he appointed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. And he went up to the altar which he had made on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, on the feast day which he had devised in his own heart, and made a feast for the children of Israel.” ### Scripture references - 1 Kgs 11:14: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 11:23–25: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 11:4–8: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 12:24: quotation, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 14:21–22: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 11:26: quotation, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 12:20: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 12:26–33: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations in an Old Latin version made from the Greek (3 Kingdoms): 1 Kgs 11:14, 23–25 (names much garbled in transmission: “Ader Idumaeum”, “Esrom filium Anadeth in Bemathad, Adragas regem Saba”; translated by the Hebrew names); the accounts of Rehoboam (aged sixteen, reigning twenty years; the Greek has twelve) and of Jeroboam's mother “Sarira, a harlot” come from the long Greek addition after 1 Kgs 12:24 (3 Kgdms 12:24a–b), not in the Hebrew; 1 Kgs 12:20; 12:26–33. “Heifers” follows the Greek (δαμάλεις). Lucifer's comparison of the emperor to these kings is his own. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 3 (CSEL 14:41–43; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/3). ## On Apostate Kings 4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/1/#p-4 - Source: CSEL 14:43–45 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lucifer charges that Jeroboam, raised by God's promise through Ahijah, repaid him with idolatry, and warns the emperor that the same ingratitude will be punished. ### Latin text Nolo ergo glorieris quod, cum idololatriam sis gerens, tamen uiuas regni possidens gloriam, quando uideas hunc Hieroboam uitulas fecisse aureas, populum Israelitarum conuertisse ad idololatriam et tamen non solum non statim ut deliquerat extinctum, sed et diu uiuere permissum. numquid non potuerat deus eosdem reges idololatres remouere? sed ostensum est quam sitis ingrati deo uos, qui cum tantum exaltemini, tamen ipsum qui uos exaltat non solum obliuiscamini, sed et adhuc eundem in seruis eius persequamini, religionem eius tollere cupientes e medio. quod ita esse ei istius regis cognosce facto Hieroboae, qui cum fuerit filius ancillae, cum se meminisset ortum de meretrice, cum regnum acceperit domini sui Salomonis in obprobrium eiusdem Salomonis, cur de(re)linquens deum ad idola semet uerterit, cum, inquam, sciuerit sibi regnum datum a deo Hieroboas, propterea quod Salomon dominus eius idola fuisset secutus, tamen haec omnia ducens pro nihilo cogitauit idola facere, et ipsis cum omni populo qui deo seruiebat esse mancipatus quam deo uiuo, qui illum ex mulieris meretricis filio fecerat regnum habere Salomonis domini sui. ne itaque mireris quod uobis. ingratis in ipsum delinquentibus parcat, sed illud hortor uideas, quod, tarde licet, si in hac tua manseris nequitia, sis percepturus ea quae omnes in sacrilegio perceperunt praedecessores tui. hortamur ut temet tantis a malis eripere digneris. et es habens insuper, non tu primus facis. uidemus etiam istum Hieroboam commonitionem domini duxisse pro nihilo. et factum est, inquit, in tempore illo, et Hieroboas exiit de Hierusalem, et inuenit eum Achias Silonites prophetes in uia, et Achias opertus erat uestimento nouo, et ambo erant in campo. et adprehendit Achias uestimentum suum nouum quod super se habebat et dirupit illud duodecim scissuris et dixit ad Hieroboam: accipe tibi decem scissuras, quoniam haec dicit dominus deus Israel: ecce ego disrumpo regnum de manu Salomonis, et dabo tibi decem sceptra; et duo sceptra erunt illi propter seruum meum Dauid et propter Hierusalem ciuitatem, quam elegi ex omnibus tribubus Israel, pro quibus dereliquit me Salomon, et fecit Astarte idolo inmundo Sydoniorum et Cama idolo Moab et regi eorum religioni filiorum Ammon, et non abiit in uias meas, ut faceret quod rectum est coram me, sicut fecit Dauid pater eius. et non accipiam regnum totum de manu eius in diebus uitae eius propter Dauid seruum meum quem elegi, quoniam contra faciam illi per omnes dies uitae eius. et accipiam regnum de manu fili eius, et dabo tibi sceptra decem, filio autem eius dabo duo sceptra, ut sit positio seruo meo Dauid omnibus diebus coram me in Hierusalem ciuitate, quam elegi mihi, ut ponerem nomen meum ibi. et accipiam te et regnabis in quibus concupiscit anima tua, et tu eris rex in Israel. et erit si custodieris omnia quaecumque praecepero tibi et ieris in uias meas et feceris quod rectum est in conspectu meo et custodieris praecepta mea et mandata meas sicut fecit Dauid seruus meus, et ero tecum et aedificabo tibi domum fidelem, sicut aedificaui Dauid. cum audierit haec a deo homo ortus qui fuerit ex meretrice, homo qui se meminerat natum de genere seruili, numquid, posteaquam impleta sunt omnia quae promiserat dominus, illi qui sibi tanta promiserat est obsecundatus? et non statim ut exaltatum se uidit, contra ipsum auspicatus est? non statim, quomodo fuisset deus derelictus ab omnibus cultoribus suis, opera est data per Hieroboam? ### English translation (Claude) I would not have you boast, then, that while practising idolatry you still live in possession of the glory of the kingdom, when you see that this Jeroboam made golden heifers and turned the people of Israel to idolatry, and yet not only was not destroyed as soon as he had sinned, but was even allowed to live a long time. Could God not have removed those idolatrous kings? But it has been shown how ungrateful to God you are, who, though you are so greatly exalted, not only forget him who exalts you but even persecute him still in his servants, desiring to take his religion out of the way. Recognize that this is so from the deed of this king Jeroboam. He was the son of a slave woman; he remembered that he was born of a harlot; he received the kingdom of his lord Solomon to Solomon's disgrace; why did he forsake God and turn himself to idols? Though Jeroboam knew, I say, that the kingdom had been given him by God because Solomon his lord had followed idols, yet, counting all this as nothing, he planned to make idols, and to be enslaved to them with the whole people that served God, rather than to the living God, who from the son of a harlot had made him possess the kingdom of his lord Solomon. Do not marvel, then, that he spares you, ungrateful men who sin against him; but I urge you to see this: that, though late, if you remain in this wickedness of yours, you will receive what all your predecessors in sacrilege received. We exhort you to deign to rescue yourself from such great evils. And you have examples besides; you are not the first to do this. We see that this Jeroboam too held the Lord's warning as nothing. “And it came about at that time,” it says, “that Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the Shilonite, the prophet, found him on the way; and Ahijah was clothed with a new garment, and the two of them were in the field. And Ahijah took hold of the new garment that he had on and tore it into twelve pieces and said to Jeroboam: Take ten pieces for yourself, for thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I am tearing the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten sceptres; and two sceptres shall be his, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel; because Solomon has forsaken me and has made Astarte, the unclean idol of the Sidonians, and Chemosh, the idol of Moab, and their king, the religion of the sons of Ammon, and has not walked in my ways, to do what is right before me, as David his father did. And I will not take the whole kingdom from his hand in the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I have chosen; for I will act against him all the days of his life. And I will take the kingdom from the hand of his son, and I will give you ten sceptres, but to his son I will give two sceptres, so that my servant David may have a place before me all his days in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself, to put my name there. And I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires, and you shall be king in Israel. And if you keep all that I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my sight and keep my precepts and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and build you a sure house, as I built for David.” When a man born of a harlot, a man who remembered that he was born of servile stock, had heard these things from God, did he, after all that the Lord had promised was fulfilled, obey him who had promised him so much? Did he not, as soon as he saw himself exalted, begin to act against him? Did not Jeroboam at once take pains to see that God should be forsaken by all his worshippers? ### Scripture references - 1 Kgs 11:29–38: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 12:24: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 12:28–30: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotation: 1 Kgs 11:29–38 in an Old Latin version (Moloch, the god of the Ammonites, appears as “their king”, a literal rendering of the name). Jeroboam's birth from a slave woman and harlot comes from the Greek addition at 1 Kgs 12:24b. “” is the editor's supplement, translated. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 4 (CSEL 14:43–45; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/4). ## On Apostate Kings 5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/1/#p-5 - Source: CSEL 14:45–48 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lucifer recounts how Jeroboam, though warned by Ahijah's prophecy and by his withered hand at Bethel, persisted in idolatry until death, and warns the emperor not to do the same. ### Latin text Dicitur tibi a nobis, quod nisi te correxeris, nisi in uiis deo placitis esse coeperis, sis nouo periturus exemplo; et tu in tua manens es iniquitate, in tuo es perseuerans sacrilegio. non nouum, siquidem isti Hieroboae regi et deus per hominem suum illa quae iam dicta sunt perferri fecerit et cum ingenti detinetur filius eius infirmitate, miserit ad dei domesticum et audierit futura, et tamen cum ea quae sibi fuerant etiam mala promissa uideret impleri, ille magis atque magis contra deum fecerit, dei uoluerit destrui domum. et homo, inquit, erat ex Silo et nomen ei Achiab, et hic erat sexaginta annorum et uerbum domini erat cum illo. et dixit Hieroboam ad uxorem suam: surge et accipe in manu tua homini dei panes et collyrides filiis eius et uuas et uas mellis. et surrexit mulier et fecit sicut dixit ei uir eius. et Achiab homo senex erat ualde et oculi eius caliginabantur uidere. et surrexit mulier ex Baria et abiit. et factum est, cum intrasset ipsa in ciuitate ad Achiab Selonitem, et dixit Achiab puero suo: exi nunc in obuiam Annae uxori Hieroboam et dices ei: intra et noli stare, quoniam haec dicit dominus: dura ego mitto in te. et intrauit Anna ad hominem dei, et dixit ei Achiab: ut quid mihi adtulisti panes et uuam et collyrides et uas mellis? haec dicit dominus: ecce tu ibis a me, et erit cum intraueris portam ciuitatis Arira, et puellae tuae exient in obuiam et dicent tibi: puer mortuus est. quoniam haec dicit dominus: ecce ego disperdo huius Hieroboam mingentem ad parietem; et erunt mortui eius Hieroboam in ciuitatem et comedent eos canes, et mortui erunt ei in agro et comedent eos uolucres caeli. non est, inquam, nonum, si tu in hac pertinacia sis perstans, cum cognoscas istum Hieroboam his omnibus non deterritum rebus; statim etenim, ut fuerat dictum ab homine dei, ut ingressa est mulier ciuitatem, filius eorum mortuus est; et tamen non conspexit Hieroboas quid ei deus, propterea quod eum dereliquisset et populum secum perire fecisset, fuisset repraesentaturus, nec timuit ex morte filii sui, quod et cetera illum possint subsequi, sed in sua senuit uersutia; usque adeo etenim inpos mentis fuerat factus Hieroboas, ex quo recesserat ab eo qui regnum tradiderat illi, ut cum dixisset: uade ad dei hominem et disce an moriturus sit filius noster, et didicerit per dei hominem, quod non solum filius eorum esset moriturus, sed et in cuncto eius regno imminerent pericula, ille tamen, ut semel statuerat, diabolo seruire maluit. ad hominem dei sciscitandum mittit de futuris, et eum ad cuius hominem mittit despuit et facit in contumeliam maiestatis eius uitulas et has adorare secum facit populum. haec egit, et tamen non ilico est extinctus, sed diu in regno superfuit. et tu dicis: si fuissem haereticus, si, ut dicunt Lucifer, Pancratius et Hilarius, dei inpugnarem religionem, iam in me fuisset uindicatum. accipe adhuc quid huic contigerit Hieroboam regi, et tamen quomodo nec sic conuertatur ad deum, sed magis in suo perseuerans mortuus fuerit scelere, in suo defecerit sacrilegio: et fecit Hieroboam diem festum in mense octauo in die festo quinto decimo mensis secundum diem festum Iuda, et ascendit in sacrificium quod fecit in Bethel, ut sacrificarent uitulis quas fecit, et constituit in Bethel sacerdotes excelsorum quos fecit, et ascendit in sacrarium quod fecit in quinto decimo die mense octauo in die festo quem finxit a corde suo, et fecit diem festum filiis Israel et ascendit in sacrarium ut sacrificaret. et ecce homo dei ex Iuda aduenit in uerbo domini in Bethel, et Hieroboam stabat super aram suam sacrificare; et propheta inuocauit ad aram in uerbo domini dicens: o sacrarium, sacrarium, haec dicit dominus: ecce filius nascetur in domo Dauid, et Iosias erit nomen illi, et sacrificabit in te sacerdotes excelsorum qui sacrificant in te, et ossa hominum conburet in te. et dabit in illa die prodigium quod locutus est dominus: ecce sacrarium disrumpetur et effundetur pinguedo quae est in eo. et factum est, ut audiuit uerba hominis dei inuocantis in aram quae in Bethel erat, et extendit manum suam ad aram dicens: adprehendite eum. et arida facta est manus regis quam extendit in eum, et non potuit reducere eam ad se. et sacrificium ruptum est, et effusa est pinguedo eius a sacrario secundum prodigium quod dixit. homo dei in uerbo domini. et respondit rex et dixit homini dei: roga faciem domini dei tui, ut reuertatur manus mea ad me. et rogauit homo dei faciem domini, et reuersa est manus regis ad eum, et facta est quemadmodum primum. inpleta cum uiderit et prodigia quae fuerant ore hominis prolata dei et brachium impium porrectum ad dei hominis necem repente aridum factum pro metu, illico etiam per dei cultoris precem factum incolume, numquid idololatriam quam ipse constituerat dissipauit? numquid diem festum quem ipse finxerat ex corde suo tandem tollit e medio? minime; sed in ea pertinacia praesumptionis suae inuenitur mortis suscepisse diem. non ergo mirari poterimus, si, quod deus auertat a te, in haeresi tua censueris mortis diem suscipere, quandoquidem etiam signis ac prodigiis non potuerint priores consacrilegi tui reuocari ad solum deum colendum. dicit enim de Hieroboam sancta scriptura: et post hoc non est reuersus Hieroboas a malitia sua, sed reuersus est et fecit ex parte populi sacerdotes excelsorum. qui enim uolebat adleuabat manum suam, et fiebat sacerdos in excelsis. et factum est hoc uerbum in peccatum in domum Hieroboam et in interitum et in exterminium a facie terrae. ### English translation (Claude) We tell you that unless you correct yourself, unless you begin to walk in ways pleasing to God, you will perish as a new example; and you remain in your iniquity, you persevere in your sacrilege. This is nothing new, since God had what has been told above delivered to this king Jeroboam through his man; and when his son was held by a grave illness, Jeroboam sent to a member of God's household and heard the future; and yet, though he saw the evils promised him being fulfilled, he acted more and more against God and wanted God's house destroyed. “And there was a man,” it says, “from Shiloh, and his name was Ahijah; he was sixty years old, and the word of the Lord was with him. And Jeroboam said to his wife: Arise and take in your hand loaves for the man of God, and cakes for his children, and grapes and a jar of honey. And the woman arose and did as her husband told her. And Ahijah was a very old man, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see. And the woman arose from Sarira and went. And it came about, when she had entered the city to Ahijah the Shilonite, that Ahijah said to his servant: Go out now to meet Ano, the wife of Jeroboam, and say to her: Come in and do not stand there, for thus says the Lord: I am sending hard things upon you. And Ano went in to the man of God, and Ahijah said to her: Why have you brought me loaves and grapes and cakes and a jar of honey? Thus says the Lord: Behold, you will go from me, and when you enter the gate of the city of Sarira, your maids will come out to meet you and will say to you: The boy is dead. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will destroy of this Jeroboam everyone who urinates against the wall; and those of Jeroboam who die in the city the dogs shall eat, and those who die in the field the birds of the sky shall eat.” It is nothing new, I say, if you persist in this obstinacy, since you know that this Jeroboam was not deterred by all these things. For at once, as the man of God had said, as soon as the woman entered the city, their son died; and yet Jeroboam did not see what God would repay him for having forsaken him and having made the people perish with him, nor did he fear from his son's death that the rest could follow him too; but he grew old in his cunning. For Jeroboam had become so senseless from the time he withdrew from him who had given him the kingdom that, although he had said, “Go to the man of God and learn whether our son will die,” and had learned through the man of God that not only would their son die but dangers threatened his whole kingdom, he nevertheless, as he had once determined, preferred to serve the devil. He sends to the man of God to inquire about the future, and he spurns him to whose man he sends, and to the insult of his majesty he makes heifers and makes the people worship them with him. This he did, and yet he was not destroyed on the spot but survived long on the throne. And you say: “If I were a heretic, if, as Lucifer, Pancratius and Hilarius say, I were attacking the religion of God, vengeance would already have been taken on me.” Hear further what happened to this king Jeroboam, and yet how not even so was he converted to God, but rather died persevering in his crime and perished in his sacrilege: “And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast of Judah, and he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel, that they might sacrifice to the heifers he had made; and he appointed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made; and he went up to the altar which he had made on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, on the feast day he had devised in his own heart, and made a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar to sacrifice. And behold, a man of God came from Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel, and Jeroboam was standing by his altar to sacrifice; and the prophet cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, saying: O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Behold, a son will be born to the house of David, and Josiah shall be his name, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who sacrifice upon you, and shall burn men's bones upon you. And he will give on that day the sign which the Lord has spoken: Behold, the altar will be broken and the fat on it will be poured out. And it came about, when he heard the words of the man of God crying against the altar that was in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand towards the altar, saying: Seize him. And the king's hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, and he could not draw it back to himself. And the altar was broken, and its fat was poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had spoken by the word of the Lord. And the king answered and said to the man of God: Entreat the face of the Lord your God, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the face of the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before.” When he had seen the signs fulfilled that had been uttered by the mouth of the man of God, and his impious arm, stretched out to kill the man of God, suddenly dried up as a warning and then at once made whole again by the prayer of the worshipper of God, did he break up the idolatry which he himself had set up? Did he at last take away the feast day which he had devised in his own heart? Not at all; he is found to have met the day of his death in the obstinacy of his presumption. We shall not be able to wonder, then, if (may God turn it from you) you decide to meet the day of your death in your heresy, since even by signs and wonders your earlier fellows in sacrilege could not be called back to worship God alone. For holy Scripture says of Jeroboam: “And after this Jeroboam did not turn from his wickedness, but turned again and made priests of the high places from part of the people; whoever wished, raised his hand and became a priest of the high places. And this thing became a sin to the house of Jeroboam, to its ruin and destruction from the face of the earth.” ### Scripture references - 1 Kgs 12:24: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 14:1–12: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 12:32–13:6: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 13:33–34: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations in an Old Latin version made from the Greek: the story of Ahijah and Jeroboam's wife here follows the long Greek addition after 1 Kgs 12:24 (3 Kgdms 12:24g–n), which names the wife Ano and the city Sarira, makes Ahijah sixty years old, and differs from the Hebrew account in 1 Kgs 14:1–12; then 1 Kgs 12:32–13:6 and 13:33–34. The digital text gives the city as “Baria” and “Arira”; translated as Sarira (the Greek form). Lucifer's report that Constantius names Lucifer, Pancratius and Hilarius places the treatise after their mission of 354–355. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 5 (CSEL 14:45–48; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/5). ## On Apostate Kings 6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/6/#p-6 - Source: CSEL 14:48–51 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lucifer lists further idolatrous kings of Judah and Israel (Abijam, Baasha, Omri, Jehoshaphat, Ahab) who reigned long, to show that the emperor's prosperity is no proof of right faith, and begs him to return to the church. ### Latin text Quae ne dicantur etiam de te, quaeso temet eripias a nefando Arrianorum coetu, quaeso sis Christianus ut ante eras ex Arriano, nec nobis indigneris quod actus tuos et Hieroboae aequemus; sed magis obsecro conspicias has omnes instructiones potius quam increpationes nuncupandas sospitatis tuae me bono ingerere. conpararis etenim a nobis Hieroboae. nostris temporibus quia sic cunctos a deo fueris conatus uertere, sicut ille populum fuerit conatus Israel facere apostatam ex dei cultore. nolo adhuc hinc tibi aliquid spei promittas, quod enim male sis faciens et tamen regnes, cum uideas et Hieroboam diu regnasse in scelere suo, sed et filium Salomonis totidem et idololatriam gerentem in eodem defunctum scelere, item eius filium Abiud, de quo scriptum inuenio: et abiit in peccatis patris sui, quae fecit in conspectu eius, et non erat cor eius consummatum cum domino deo suo, sicut erat cor Dauid patris eius, et tamen cum seruirent idolis, fuerint in regno et mortui sint in ea dignitate, et tradiderint filiis suis auctoritatem regni. ne itaque etiam in eo plaudeas, quod enim pater uester uobis tradiderit regnum, dicens: nisi pater meus bene fecisset conferre se ad Arrianos, um eius fiMi regnaremus. nolo dicas: si haereticus essem, numquam tantum imperarem, numquam me permitteret deus adhuc in regno esse, quando uideas uiginti quatuor annis regnasse Basiam filium Achiae super Israel, de quo scriptum inuenisti in Regnorum libro terti???: et, fecit malignum coram domino et abiit in uiam Hieroboam filii Nabath; eb in pescatis eius quemadmodum peccauit in Israel. qui Basis re-x debuerat utique metuere ne fuisset percussus ut Hieroboas, si a uiis recessisset domini. sed ita. estis qui a deo declinatis, ut cum uobis fuerit libitum in iniuriam, dei suscipere officium idololatriae, non possetis nec illorum qui iam iudicati fuerint terreri exemplo, conuerti ad deum. scriptum est etiam de Iambre. rege: et fecit malignum in conspectu domini, et maligne fecit super- omnes qui fuerunt ante eum et abiit in omnem uiam Hieroboam filii Nabath in peccatis eius; et tamen hic quii dicitur super omnes peccasse, qui ante illum fuerant reges, non statim ut dereliquit deum exstinctus est nec per aliquam grauem ualitudinem est uexatus, ut grauiori poena fuisset nisus interemptus qui grauius describitur deliquisse.aides, Constanti, tametsi contingat tibi in summa felicitat» in hac temporaria uersari uita, tamen magis te timere debere, quod dei reserueris iudicio; et licet etiam quii statim extinguuntur; quibus hic aliqua. diuinitus inrogatur poenarum, post descensum semper torque-. antur, tamen tu si in summa uiuens felicitate fueris hinc raptus, aduerte qualiter in te uindicta sit processura, qui in tanto inueniaris scelere. ne hinc itaque quicquam tibi adscripseris felicitatis, quod cum sis negans filium unicum dei, quod cum eius familiam persequaris, tamen adhuc spiritus tuus in corpore illo carnifice sit manens, quando consideres etiam filium Asab annis triginta quinque, cum fuerit ut tu sacrilegus, regnasse apud ludaeos; de quo scriptum esse legisti: abiit in uias Asab patris sui, et non declinauit ab illis, ut faceret quod rectum erat in conspectu domini, sed ab excelsis non abstinuerunt et sacrificabant in excelsis et incendebant. ecce etiam hic describitur rex in pace dormisse. cum itaque fuerit triginta quinque annis idololatriam gerens, ne tibi adscribas ad gloriam et dicas: idcirco non aliqua uulneror plaga, idcirco non iam extinctus sum, sed adhuc ųiuo regnum imperii Romani possidens, quia sim bene credens; quia Arrii recta sit fides, quia fecerim bene remouere episcopos et alios tales instituerim quales concupierit Arrius. noli, inquam, hinc tibi gloriari, quod cum haec sis faciens, tamen superbias, quando uideas istam regem. triginta quinque annis tenuisse regnum, in pace fuisse exemptum. si igitur potuit illis, quia ita exempti sint, inpune idololatriae crimen cedere, poterit et tibi, Constanti. conuerte te itaque ad. dominum, ne talis inueniaris qualis est inuentus Achab, de quo scriptum inuenio: et fecit Achab malignum in conspectu domini, et maligne fecit super omnes qui fuerunt ante eum. et non fuit illi satis ut ambularet in peccatis Hieroboam filii Nabath, sed et accepit uxorem Iesabel filiam Basan et Hela regis Sidoniorum. et abiit et seruiuit Baali et adorauit eum et statuit sacrarium Baali in domo religionum suarum, quam aedificauit in Samaria; et fecit Achab lucum, ut faceret exacerbationem, ut exacerbaret deum et animam suam disperderet, et malignum fecit super omnes reges Israel qui fuerunt ante eum. noli adhuc te sinere esse apud Arrianos, sed fac transitum ad nos Christianos, quibus sunt ita cunctae haereses ut est Baal. sic uos nunc nobis estis haeretici, ut illis illorum temporum dei cultoribus fuerint illi qui idolis immolabant; per hanc haeresim tuam mihi crede quod talis sis nostris temporibus, qualis fuerit et Achab. ### English translation (Claude) So that these things may not be said of you too, I beg you to rescue yourself from the abominable assembly of the Arians; I beg you to become a Christian again, as you were before, instead of an Arian; and do not be indignant with us for comparing your acts with Jeroboam's, but rather, I beseech you, see that all these things I press upon you for the good of your welfare should be called instructions rather than rebukes. For you are compared by us to Jeroboam because in our times you have tried to turn all away from God, as he tried to make the people of Israel apostate instead of worshippers of God. I would not have you promise yourself any hope from the fact that you do evil and still reign, when you see that Jeroboam reigned long in his crime, and also that Solomon's son reigned as many years and, practising idolatry, died in the same crime; likewise his son Abijam, of whom I find it written: “And he walked in the sins of his father, which he had done before him, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father was”; and yet, though they served idols, they remained on the throne, died in that dignity, and handed on the authority of the kingdom to their sons. Do not applaud yourself, then, in this either, that your father handed the kingdom on to you all, saying: “Unless my father had done well to join the Arians, we his sons would never be reigning.” I would not have you say, “If I were a heretic, I would never rule so widely; God would never allow me still to be on the throne,” when you see that Baasha the son of Ahijah reigned twenty-four years over Israel, of whom you have found it written in the third book of Kingdoms: “And he did evil before the Lord and walked in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sins, with which he made Israel sin.” This king Baasha surely ought to have feared being struck down as Jeroboam was, if he withdrew from the ways of the Lord. But such are you who turn aside from God, that when it has pleased you to take up, to God's injury, the service of idolatry, you cannot be frightened even by the example of those who have already been judged into turning to God. It is also written of King Omri: “And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil than all who were before him, and walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat in his sins”; and yet this man, who is said to have sinned more than all the kings before him, was not destroyed as soon as he forsook God, nor afflicted by any grave illness, so that he who is described as sinning more gravely might be killed by a heavier punishment. You see, Constantius, that even if it is your lot to spend this temporal life in the greatest prosperity, you ought all the more to fear that you are being reserved for God's judgment. And though even those who are destroyed at once, on whom some punishment is inflicted by God here, are always tormented after their descent, yet if you are snatched away from here while living in the greatest prosperity, consider how vengeance will proceed against you, who are found in so great a crime. So do not ascribe any happiness to yourself because, though you deny the only Son of God, though you persecute his household, your spirit still remains in that butchering body of yours, when you consider that the son of Asa too, though he was a man of sacrilege like you, reigned thirty-five years among the Jews; of whom you have read that it is written: “He walked in the ways of Asa his father and did not turn aside from them, so as to do what was right in the sight of the Lord; but they did not abstain from the high places, and they sacrificed on the high places and burned incense.” See, this king too is described as having slept in peace. Since, then, he practised idolatry for thirty-five years, do not ascribe it to your glory and say: “That is why I am not wounded by any plague, that is why I am not yet destroyed but still live, possessing the kingdom of the Roman empire: because I believe rightly, because the faith of Arius is right, because I did well to remove bishops and to install others such as Arius would have wished.” Do not boast of this, I say, that while you do these things you are still proud, when you see that this king held the kingdom thirty-five years and was taken away in peace. If, then, the crime of idolatry could pass unpunished for them because they were taken away thus, it could also for you, Constantius. Turn, therefore, to the Lord, so that you may not be found such as Ahab was found, of whom I find it written: “And Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil than all who were before him. And it was not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, but he also took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. And he went and served Baal and worshipped him and set up an altar for Baal in the house of his religions, which he built in Samaria; and Ahab made a grove, to provoke, so as to provoke God and destroy his own soul; and he did more evil than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” Do not let yourself remain any longer among the Arians, but go over to us Christians, for whom all heresies are as Baal was. You heretics are to us now what those who sacrificed to idols were to the worshippers of God in those times; believe me, through this heresy of yours you are in our times what Ahab was. ### Scripture references - 1 Kgs 15:3: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 15:33–34: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 16:25–26: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 22:42–43: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 22:50: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 16:30–33: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations in an Old Latin version: 1 Kgs 15:3 (Abijam, “Abiud”); 15:33–34 (Baasha, called son of Ahijah, the Hebrew's son of Ahijah being his father); 16:25–26 (Omri, “Iambre” after the Greek Ambri); 22:43 (Jehoshaphat son of Asa; the Hebrew gives 25 years, Lucifer 35); 16:30–33 (Ahab; “Iesabel filiam Basan et Hela”, garbled for Ethbaal). Lucifer counts Jehoshaphat among the sacrilegious kings because the high places remained, though Scripture praises him (1 Kgs 22:43); translated as written. The words attributed to Constantius about his father Constantine joining the Arians are Lucifer's report; the clause “um eius fiMi” is damaged and translated by sense. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 6 (CSEL 14:48–51; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/6). ## On Apostate Kings 7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/6/#p-7 - Source: CSEL 14:51–54 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lucifer argues that Ahab, though an idolater and killer of prophets, was given victory over Ben-hadad to call him to repentance, and that the emperor's victories likewise prove God's patience, not his approval. ### Latin text Ne tibi itaque placeas, quod non statim tibi reddiderit deus, quando uideas huic Achab et uxori eius Iezabel, qui etiam prophetas occiderint domini, qui in tanto scelere fuisse inueniantur uersati, ut nullum in terra Israel dei se hominem confitentem permiserint demorari, pepercitum fuerit diutissime. noli hoc intueri quod, cum sis malefaciens, superbias tamen in sceleribus tuis; sed illud, obsecro te, uideas quod, nisi te conuerteris, ut illis sero licet reddita sunt merita operum suorum, ita et tibi posse repraesentari. ne dixeris: diu hinc in regno sum, hinc potens sum, quod enim bonam fidem teneam, quod faciam recte persequendo eos qui credunt, quomodo sese continet illa fides descripta apud Niciam.: haec, inquam, ne dixeris, sed illa precor te uideas, quod enim ad hoc sis post tanta funera tua superbiens, ut aut audiens nos dei sacerdotes temet conuertas ad deum aut certe percipias digna factorum tuorum tunc, quando dicere non ualebis inscium te errasse. haec ita esse aduerte exemplo admonitus Achab et prophetarum domini interfectoris et omnium daemonum cultoris. hunc tam sceleratum intellege ideo post tanta scelera fuisse in regno diu reseruatum, ut tandem se si uelit conuerteret, cui non solum non repraesentantur malorum factorum suorum merita, sed et in angustiisjiuuatur ad hoc sine dubio, ut possit conicere non se per Baal et reliquos daemones, quos ethnici deos nuncupant, uindicatum, sed per deum Israel, cuius prophetam secum uideret loquentem atque sibi declarantem, quonam modo deus fuisset inimicos Israelitarum ad nihilum redacturus. obsederat enim filius Ader rex Samariam cum aliis triginta duobus regibus, iactitans adeo tamquam nihil se habere Israelitas, ut unum se hominem omnem multitudinem Israelitarum superaturum. hunc alienigenam fecit nihil ante Israel deus. cui uicit deus regi? nempe Achab, ei qui eum dereliquerat, qui Baali et omnibus daemoniis seruire Israel fecerat, cui propterea auxiliatus est, nempe ut crederet quia sit deus solus iste cuius erat populus Israel et non alius praeter ipsum, qui ei uicerat, ut uideret Achab, quia fuisset aequum tandem corrigeret errores suos. mox ut aedificare aduersarius coepit obsidionem ad ciuitatem Israelitarum, et ecce, inquit scriptura sacra, prophetes unus accessit ad regem Israel et dixit: haec dicit dominus, si audisti sonum magnum istum? ecce ego hodie tradam eum in manus tuas, et scies quoniam ego sum dominus. et dixit rex: in quo?et dixit prophetes: in pueris principum regionum, et dixit rex: quis committet pugnam? et dixit prophetes: tu. et infra: et exierunt pueri de ciuitate principum regionum et exercitus qui post illos, et percussit unusquisque quem inuenit secus se, et fugerunt Syri, et persecutus est Israel. quomodo dicis, Constanti: si non bene seruirem deo, si non recte credens fuissem, numquam regnum Romanorum in mea uidissem potestate conlocatum aut sic diu fuissem uiuens in regno? quando uideas Achab regi Israel more gentilium uiuenti et populum dei, sicuti et tu auertis, uertenti a deo dictum ab eo, in quem delinquebat, cuius praecepta docebat pro nihilo: trado. eum in manus tuas, ut scias quoniam ego sum deus. qu igitur ilium eripuit a filio Iaderis Syriae regis, sic etiam te ab omnibus perimere cupientibus eripuit atque eripit, ad hoc utique, ut possis cognoscere quia ipse sit deus patriarcharum ac martyrum, ad hoc ut conicere possis non pro meritis fidei tuae ac uitae tibi uictoriam tributam, quando sis Achab m omnibus regi similis, sed sic tibi contra merita tua exhibitam misericordiam ab eo, quem dereliquisti, ut fuerit Achab exhibita. si enim dixeris propterea te uincere aduersarios tuos, quia bene sis credens, potuit et Achab dixisse idolerum cultor et prophetarum sanctorum interemptor. ad hoc ergo te reser. uatum, ut errores corrigeres tuos, non uides? ilico ut occupasti Italiam, ecclesiam eius temptasti uertere; dixisti deum patrem non esse uerum -deum patrem, unicum negans eius filium, adfirmans non esse illum uerum filium. adstruxisti etiam sanctum paracletum spiritum fabricatum esse ex nihilo, defendere temptasti, quod unicus dei filius fuerit quando non fuerit; apostolicam atque euangelicam traditionem quo potuisses tollere e medio, operam totis tuis dedisti uiribus, episcopos dei iudicio ordinatos tua amon-eri fecisti auctoritate* haereticos locis eorundem constituendos duxisti; qui possint tuam praedicare haeresem; manu militari pugnasti contra ecclesiam in Alexandria, quam plurimos episcoporum relegasti in exiliis, in metallis, coniecisti in carcerem, certum etiam numerum interfecisti ex omnibus dei cultoribus. cum haec egeris, tamen dicis: nisi bene essem faciens et integre essem credens, numquam adhuc me deus regnare permitteret, tamquam idcirco et circa Achab ac ceteros coidololatres tuos fuerit deus patiens, quia fuerint rectam tenentes uiam. tu ergo, quia sit peccatis tuis patiens pro sua infatigabili pietate sicuti fuerit et Achab regi, arbitraris non te delinquere, sed pro meritis tuis tibi parci, quem Achab etiam in hoc imitaris quod enim sis eos diligens qui tibi mala suadeant, eos uero perdens qui tibi salutis tuae causa quae sunt uera dicant. ut enim ad Achab quadringenti illi pseudoprophetae quod possent illum omnia felicia consequi loquebantur, contra uero dei dicebat propheta Michaeas, quod essent illum cuncta consecutura mala, et ille magis diligebat eos pseudoprophetas quam uerum domini prophetam, ita et tu amas cohaereticos tuos Arrianos, ipsorum dictis obtemperas, nos omnes domini sacerdotes execraris, primo omnium, cur dei filium uerum dei filium confiteamur, secundo cur non tibi adulemur, cur te in periculo esse asseueramus et dicamus, nisi te conuerteris ad deum, quod sis in aeternam poenam uenturus. ### English translation (Claude) Do not please yourself, then, that God has not repaid you at once, when you see that this Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who even killed the prophets of the Lord, who are found to have been engaged in so great a crime that they allowed no man confessing himself a man of God to remain in the land of Israel, were spared for a very long time. Do not look at this, that while doing evil you are still proud in your crimes; but see this, I beseech you, that unless you turn, just as the reward of their works was repaid to them, though late, so it can be repaid to you. Do not say: “That is why I have been long on the throne, that is why I am powerful: because I hold a good faith, because I do right in persecuting those who believe as that faith written at Nicaea holds.” Do not say this, I say, but see this, I pray you: that you are still proud after so many deaths of your doing for this purpose, that either, listening to us, the priests of God, you may turn to God, or at least you may receive what your deeds deserve at the time when you will not be able to say that you erred in ignorance. Observe that this is so, warned by the example of Ahab, the killer of the prophets of the Lord and worshipper of all the demons. Understand that this man, so wicked, was kept on the throne a long time after such great crimes so that at last he might turn if he would; and not only was the reward of his evil deeds not repaid to him, but he was even helped in his straits, doubtless so that he could infer that he had been avenged not by Baal and the other demons, whom the heathen call gods, but by the God of Israel, whose prophet he saw speaking with him and declaring to him how God would bring the enemies of the Israelites to nothing. For Ben-hadad the king had besieged Samaria with thirty-two other kings, boasting that he held the Israelites as nothing, as if one man of his would overcome the whole multitude of the Israelites. This foreigner God made nothing before Israel. For which king did God win the victory? For Ahab, of course, the man who had forsaken him, who had made Israel serve Baal and all the demons; and he helped him for this reason, namely that he might believe that he alone is God whose people Israel was, and no other besides him, who had won the victory for him, so that Ahab might see that it was right for him at last to correct his errors. As soon as the adversary began to build siegeworks against the city of the Israelites, “behold,” says holy Scripture, “a prophet came to the king of Israel and said: Thus says the Lord: Have you heard this great noise? Behold, today I will hand him over into your hands, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And the king said: By whom? And the prophet said: By the young men of the governors of the districts. And the king said: Who shall begin the battle? And the prophet said: You.” And further on: “And the young men of the governors of the districts came out of the city, and the army behind them, and each struck down the man he found beside him; and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them.” How do you say, Constantius, “If I were not serving God well, if I had not believed rightly, I would never have seen the kingdom of the Romans placed in my power, nor have lived so long on the throne,” when you see that to Ahab, king of Israel, who lived after the manner of the Gentiles and turned the people of God away from God, as you also turn them away, it was said by him against whom he sinned and whose commandments he taught men to count as nothing: “I hand him over into your hands, so that you may know that I am God”? As, then, he rescued him from the son of Hadad, king of Syria, so he has rescued and rescues you from all who long to destroy you, for this purpose surely, that you may know that he is the God of the patriarchs and martyrs; for this purpose, that you may infer that victory was granted to you not for the merits of your faith and life, since you are like Ahab the king in all things, but that mercy has been shown you, against your merits, by him whom you have forsaken, as it was shown to Ahab. For if you say that you defeat your adversaries because you believe rightly, Ahab too, the worshipper of idols and slayer of the holy prophets, could have said it. Do you not see that you have been kept for this, to correct your errors? As soon as you had taken possession of Italy, you tried to overturn its church; you said that God the Father is not the true God the Father, denying his only Son, asserting that he is not his true Son. You maintained too that the holy Spirit, the Paraclete, was fashioned from nothing; you tried to defend the claim that there was when the only Son of God was not; you gave your whole strength to the effort to take away the apostolic and evangelical tradition; you had bishops ordained by the judgment of God removed by your authority, and decided that heretics be installed in their places, who could preach your heresy; you fought with armed force against the church in Alexandria; you banished very many bishops into exile and to the mines, threw them into prison, and even killed a certain number of all the worshippers of God. Though you have done these things, you nevertheless say: “Unless I were doing well and believing soundly, God would never still allow me to reign”; as though God had been patient with Ahab and your other fellow idolaters because they kept to the right way. Because he is patient with your sins in his tireless kindness, as he was with King Ahab, you think that you do not sin but are spared for your merits; you imitate Ahab in this too, that you love those who urge evil on you and destroy those who tell you the truth for the sake of your salvation. For as those four hundred false prophets told Ahab that he would attain every success, while Micaiah, the prophet of God, said on the contrary that every evil would befall him, and Ahab loved those false prophets more than the true prophet of the Lord, so you love your fellow heretics the Arians and obey their words, and you curse all of us priests of the Lord: first of all, because we confess the Son of God to be the true Son of God; secondly, because we do not flatter you, because we assert that you are in danger and say that unless you turn to God you will come into eternal punishment. ### Scripture references - 1 Kgs 18:4: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 20:1 (3 Kgdms 21:1 LXX): allusion, high confidence - 1 Kgs 20:10 (3 Kgdms 21:10 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 20:13–14 (3 Kgdms 21:13-1Kgs LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 20:19–20 (3 Kgdms 21:19-1Kgs LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 20:28 (3 Kgdms 21:28 LXX): allusion, medium confidence - 1 Kgs 22:6–28: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions in an Old Latin version: 1 Kgs 18:4, 13; 1 Kgs 20:1, 10, 13–14, 19–20; 1 Kgs 22:6–28. Lucifer charges Constantius with the Arian claims that the Father is not a true Father, that the Spirit was made from nothing, and that “there was when the Son was not”, and with violence at Alexandria (356) and against bishops; these are his accusations, translated as written. “Taken possession of Italy” refers to Constantius's victory over Magnentius (351–352). ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 7 (CSEL 14:51–54; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/7). ## On Apostate Kings 8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/6/#p-8 - Source: CSEL 14:54–57 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: From Ahab's hatred of Micaiah, and the long reigns of Jeroboam II, the leprous Uzziah, and the idolater Manasseh, Lucifer argues that God's patience is no sign of approval and calls Arianism a leprosy of the soul. ### Latin text Et ut credere possis dei semper odio habitos homines ab hominibus apostaticis, amatos uero inimicos dei religionis, hoc est diaboli cultores, accipe quos amauerit Achab et quem odio habuerit. et dixit Iosafat rex Iuda ad regem Israel: interrogate nunc hodie dominum. et conuocauit rex Israel omnes prophetas quasi quadringentos uiros, et dixit illis rex Achab: si ibo in Remma ad Galaath in pugnam aut cessabo? et dixerunt: ascende. et infra: et dixit Iosafat ad regem Israel: non est hic prophetes domini, et interrogabimus dominum? et dixit Achab rex Israel ad Iosafat regem: unus est per quem interrogemus dominum, sed ego odi illum, quoniam non loquitur de me bona. item, posteaquam dixisset propheta domini ad illum Michaeas ne ascenderet, quoniam si ascendisset, non esset reuersurus: dixit rex Israel ad Iosafat regem Iuda: nonne dixi ad te, quoniam prophetat mihi hic non bona, sed magis mala? uidebantur mala et excordi ei quem iam obsederat diabolus, mala ea quae a dei dicebantur seruo et illa bona iudicabantur quae a seruis dicebantur diaboli. nec mirandum itaque, si illos audiebat Achab, quos ut audiret faciebat diabolus, mancipia uidelicet sua, et si illos audire nollet, quos deus suos esse seruos et ipsa tolerantia passionum et ipsa constantia adseuerationis manifestabat illis. pseudoprophetae ditati honoratique dimissi sunt a rege, Michaeas uero propheta domini recluditur in carcerem, et dicitur: manducet panem doloris donec redeam; et tamen iuxta serui dei dictum reuersus minime est. ita et ipse agis, Constanti; diligis eos qui trahunt temet secum ad mortem perpetuam, qui ad omnem interitum tuam ducunt animam, odio habere dignaris contra eos qui te sunt optantes dei fieri amicum. ne tibi glorieris quod, cum tanta sis faciens, tamen regni gloria pollens hanc adhuc possideas fragilem uitam, quando et Hieroboam filius Ioas quod regnauerit in Israel quadraginta et unum annis in Samaria narrent sacrae litterae, et quidem derelicto deo seruiens idolis et quidem non recedens de Achab regis Israel malitiis atque Hieroboam sacrificiis. male, inquis, si fecissem, iam me deus amouisset de regno, quasi non filius Amasiae propterea quod non recesserit a superuacuis, inpletus lepra quidem fuerit, sed tamen quinquaginta duo annis regnauerit in Hierusalem. sed tu in eo potior Oziae regis, quia tu non elefantiam habeas, quae cum temet omnes consumere possit artus, sed illam quae animam ualeat penitus maculare. dole tibi nobiscum et mitte lacrimas pro te; conspice quomodo maculet corpus haec uidetur elefantia, quomodo consumat membra leprae uirus. intellege quod sic Arriana haeresis, elefantia uestra, interna illa omnia tua maculet; aduerte, quod enim sic efficiat hominem tuum interiorem sicuti et haec, quae conprehenderit hos quos uideas elefantiam infusos. ne dixeris: nisi bene agerem, numquam tanto tempore imperarem, numquam adhuc uiuere fuissem permissus, quando et Manassem cernas filium Ezechiae regis regem Iudae sedecim annorum suscepisse regnum et quinquaginta septem annis regnasse; de quo quae sint scripta cum audieris, inuenies profecto eiusdem te imitatorem esse, et non incipies mirari quod, malefaciens cum sis, tamen adhuc parcatur tibi, cernens Manassem, cuius tu in crudelitate et.sacrilegio non minor es, quod tanta agentem regnum tenuerit quinquaginta septem annis. et dermiuit, inquit scriptura.Escchias cum patribus suis, et sepultus est in ciuitate dexid, et regnauit Manasses filius eius pro eo. eum esset rex sedecim annorum Manasses cum regnaret, et quinquaginta septem annis regnauit in Hierusalem, et nomen erat matris eius Ebsibas. et fecit quod malignum est ante conspectum domini secundum abominationes gentium, quos eiecit dominus a faeie filiorum Israel. et aedificauit excelsa quae destruxerat Escchias pater ipsius, d aedificauit sacrarium Baal et fecit lucos sicut fecit Achab rex Israel, et adorauit omnem militiam caeli et seruiuit illis. et aedificauit sacrarium in ducbus aedibus domus domini et induxit filios suos in ignem et augurabatur et fecit pythones et diuinos multos, ut faceret quod malignum est im oculis animae suae, ut exacerbaret dominum deum. et fecit sculptilia lucorum quae fecit in domo, quam dixit dominus ad dauid et ad Salomonem filium eius: in domo ista et i. Hierusalem, quam elegi et omnibus tribubus Israel, ponere nomen meum i. acternum, et non adponam pedem in Israd monere a terra quam dedi, sed si audierint me per omnia. quae mandaui eis, et secundum legem, quam mandauit eis puer meus Moyses. et non audierunt. et quoniam ualide aspernatus est Manasses et seduxit eos Manasses, ut facerent quod malignum est super omnes gentes quas abstulit dominus a facie Israel. et locutus est dominus in manu puerorum suorum prophetarum quae fecit Manasses rex Iuda simulacra, secundum omnia quae fecit Amorrhaeus qui erat ante faciem eius, et peccare fecit Iuda in idolis suis; propter hoc haec dicit dominus deus Israel: ecce ego adduco mala in Hierusalem et in Iuda; omnes qui audierint haec tinnibunt aures eorum utraeque. et extendam im Hierusalem mensuram Samariae et pondus domus Achab et deleam Hierusalem quemadmodum deletur buxum de poste ante faciem eius. et dabo eos in manus inimicorum ipsius, et erunt in direptionem et conbustionem omnibus inimicis eorum, quoniam proiecti sunt de post me, et erant de post me et erant exacerbantes me, ex qua die exierunt patres eorum de terra Aegypti usque in hunc diem. et cetera uerborum Manasse et omnia quae fecit, quemadmodum peccare fecit Israel, nonne haec scripta sunt in libro uerborum dierum regum Iuda et quemadmodum sanguinem innocentium fudit multum ualde, usque dum impleret Hierusalem super os, extra peccatum, quae peccare fecit Iuda, ut faceret quod malignum est in conspectu domini dei? et dormiuit Manasses cum patribus suis, et regnauit filius eius pro eo, cum esset annorum uiginti duo Amos. ### English translation (Claude) And so that you may believe that the men of God have always been held in hatred by apostate men, while the enemies of God's religion, that is, the worshippers of the devil, have been loved, hear whom Ahab loved and whom he hated: “And Jehoshaphat king of Judah said to the king of Israel: Inquire now today of the Lord. And the king of Israel called together all the prophets, about four hundred men, and King Ahab said to them: Shall I go to Ramoth in Gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And they said: Go up.” And further on: “And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel: Is there not a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord? And Ahab king of Israel said to King Jehoshaphat: There is one by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he does not speak good of me.” Likewise, after Micaiah the prophet of the Lord had told him not to go up, because if he went up he would not return: “The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: Did I not tell you that this man prophesies no good for me, but rather evil?” To that senseless man, whom the devil had already besieged, the things said by God's servant seemed evil, and the things said by the devil's servants were judged good. It is no wonder, then, if Ahab listened to those whom the devil made him listen to, his own slaves, and if he refused to listen to those whom God showed to be his servants by their very endurance of sufferings and their very constancy of assertion. The false prophets were dismissed by the king enriched and honoured, but Micaiah the prophet of the Lord was shut up in prison, and it was said: “Let him eat the bread of affliction until I return”; and yet, as the servant of God had said, he did not return. So you too act, Constantius: you love those who drag you with them to everlasting death, who lead your soul to every ruin; you are pleased to hate those who long for you to become a friend of God. Do not boast that, though you do such things, you still possess this fragile life, strong in the glory of the throne, when the sacred writings relate that Jeroboam the son of Joash reigned in Israel forty-one years in Samaria, and that while serving idols, having forsaken God, and not departing from the wickedness of Ahab king of Israel and the sacrifices of Jeroboam. “If I had done evil,” you say, “God would already have removed me from the throne”; as though the son of Amaziah, because he did not depart from vain things, was not indeed filled with leprosy, but nevertheless reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. But you are worse off than King Uzziah in this, that you do not have the elephantiasis that can consume all your limbs, but the one that is able to stain the soul through and through. Grieve for yourself with us, and shed tears for yourself; see how this visible elephantiasis stains the body, how the poison of leprosy consumes the limbs. Understand that the Arian heresy, your elephantiasis, stains in the same way all your inner parts; observe that it makes your inner man like those whom you see seized and steeped in elephantiasis. Do not say, “Unless I acted well, I would never rule so long, I would never have been allowed to live until now,” when you see that Manasseh, the son of King Hezekiah, received the kingdom of Judah at sixteen and reigned fifty-seven years. When you have heard what is written of him, you will surely find that you are his imitator, and you will cease to wonder that, though you do evil, you are still spared, seeing that Manasseh, whom you do not fall short of in cruelty and sacrilege, held the kingdom fifty-seven years while doing such things. “And Hezekiah slept,” says Scripture, “with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place. Manasseh was a king of sixteen years when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-seven years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did what is evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the children of Israel. And he built the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and built an altar for Baal and made groves as Ahab king of Israel had made, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built an altar in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and made his sons pass through the fire, and practised augury, and made many necromancers and diviners, to do what is evil in the eyes of his soul, to provoke the Lord God. And he made the carved images of the groves, which he set in the house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son: In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever; and I will not again make the foot of Israel move from the land which I gave, if only they listen to me in all that I have commanded them, and according to the law which my servant Moses commanded them. And they did not listen. And Manasses greatly despised, and Manasses led them astray to do what is evil beyond all the nations which the Lord took away before Israel. And the Lord spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets of the images which Manasseh king of Judah made, according to all that the Amorite did who was before him, and he made Judah sin with his idols. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing evils upon Jerusalem and upon Judah; all who hear of them, both their ears shall ring. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the weight of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe out Jerusalem as boxwood is wiped from the doorpost before his face. And I will give them into the hands of their enemies, and they shall be plunder and burning for all their enemies, because they have been cast out from behind me, and they were behind me and were provoking me from the day their fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day. And the rest of the words of Manasseh and all that he did, how he made Israel sin, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah? And how he shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from end to end, besides the sin with which he made Judah sin, to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord God. And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and his son Amon reigned in his place, being twenty-two years old.” ### Scripture references - 1 Kgs 22:5–8: quotation, high confidence - 1 Kgs 22:17–18: allusion, high confidence - 1 Kgs 22:27: quotation, high confidence - 2 Kgs 14:23–24: allusion, high confidence - 2 Kgs 15:1–5: allusion, high confidence - 2 Chr 26:3: allusion, medium confidence - 2 Kgs 21:1–19: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations in an Old Latin version: 1 Kgs 22:5–8, 17–18, 27; 2 Kgs 14:23–24 (Jeroboam II); 2 Kgs 15:1–5 and 2 Chr 26:3, 19–21 (Uzziah, “son of Amaziah”); 2 Kgs 21:1–19 (Manasseh), with some Old Latin readings (e.g. “boxwood is wiped from the doorpost”). Elephantiasis was the ancient name of a severe form of leprosy; Lucifer uses it as a figure for heresy. The text of the Manasseh quotation has many digitization slips; translated by sense. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 8 (CSEL 14:54–57; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/8). ## On Apostate Kings 9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/6/#p-9 - Source: CSEL 14:57–59 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lucifer calls Constantius a second Manasseh who has brought heresy into the church, and says that denying the Son of God is the sacrifice the devil now prefers to the burning of children. ### Latin text Quid dicis, Constanti, ad haec? credo iam desinere te dicere: si non bene agerem, non essem tanto tempore regnans, quando uideas et alterum istum Manassem talia agentem quinquaginta septem annis regnasse; et quia diximus te alterum esse Manassem, omnia ipsius te habere conspice. ille in dei domo idololatriam constituit, totidem ipse fecisti in templo et aedibus domini; ille idola fecit adorari, usurpauit sibi quod domini dicebatur, ut deinceps dici possit idolorum; omnia haec et tu fecisti, quia Arrianam haeresem introduxisti in ecclesiam et qui blasphemiam tuam tamquam fidem catholicam statuisti suscipiendam, illam uero apud Niciam scriptam, quam nos scimus apostolicam euangelicamque, despuendam mandaris. ut tu nunc haec fieri concupisti, ita et Manasses omnibus idolis seruiendum esse mandauit, recedendum uero a deo. non ergo erit mirandum si tibi uindicasti aedes, quas colligere sumus soliti dei populum, et te idololatrem dixisti esse catholicum, quando uideas et Manassem fecisse istud quod tu nunc feceris; sic denique et tibi parcet dominus uiam tenenti Manasse, quomodo illi pepercerit et quousque pepercerit, ut scriptum sit dormisse illum cum patribus suis et sepultum in Hierusalem et suscepisse loco illius regnum filium eius. numquid legis in bello illum interisse (a)ut aliqua ualitudine praegrauatum? minime; sed quid sentis? credo, pro tua illa prudentia dicis inpune omnia illa cessisse Manasse regi. talis es tu, ut ita sentias de Manasse, quod enim, quia quinquaginta septem annis regnans filio tradidit regnum et ipse in pace defecerit, potuerint inpune ei cessisse tanta admissa. noli tibi ipse misereri ut temet ad deum uertas, noli corrigere nefarios actus tuos, et inuenies te torqueri cum Manasse, quem Manasses in eo uideris tu praecedere, quod enim ille tantum intra terminos Hierusalem sanguinem iustorum fuderit, tu autem toto fudisti ac fundis in regno Romano. sed, inquis, ille filios suos ante simulacra deorum suorum concremauit uel consecrauit; et tibi si fuissent, fecisses sine dubio eosdem Arrianam suscipere blasphemiam. an ignoras quia, sicut tunc placebant diabolo hi qui filios suos comburebant, quoniam quidem una esset illis mens derelinquendi creatorem et seruire creaturae, ita nunc nihil exigat diabolus a te, nisi ut neges unicum filium dei? hoc est illi acceptissimum sacrificium, ut sis credens quomodo et Arrius crediderit; plus est illi nostris temporibus hoc, ut dei neges filium, quam si temet in honore omnium daemonum ignibus uolueris concremari. uidet enim ab omnibus idolorum culturam despectam, quod uana fuerit inuentio; nunc est cupiens per uos suos famulos haereticos decipere nos dei seruos. quomodo, inquis, decipere? quomodo et te iam deceperit, ita et nos uult decipi. cum sis Arrianus, ad hoc te fingis Christianum, donec ueneno haeresis tuae possis inermes sauciare, quo possint deinceps non esse Christiani, quod nos sumus, sed quod uos estis Arriani. haec est sagina officiorum tuorum, quae per te exhibetur daemoniis. qui etenim nisi diabolus et eius filii dicere possunt de unico dei filio: filius est et non est uerus filius; deus est et non est uerus deus? ergo tu cum dicis, Christianus sum sed non credo deum uerum habere filium, non credo unam potentiam patris et filii, cum dicis filium creaturam, factum illum ex nihilo, cum dicis fuisse, quando non fuerit, melius tu sacrificas diabolo quam tunc Manasses, quando filios suos aut per ignem omnibus consecrabat daemoniis aut cum concremabat. ### English translation (Claude) What do you say to this, Constantius? I believe you will now stop saying, “If I were not acting well, I would not be reigning so long,” when you see that this other Manasseh too reigned fifty-seven years while doing such things. And since we have said that you are another Manasseh, see that you have all his traits. He set up idolatry in the house of God; you yourself have done just as much in the temple and courts of the Lord. He had idols worshipped and claimed for himself what was called the Lord's, so that thereafter it could be called the idols'; all this you too have done, for you have brought the Arian heresy into the church and decreed that your blasphemy be received as the catholic faith, and ordered that the faith written at Nicaea, which we know to be apostolic and evangelical, be spat upon. As you have now desired this to be done, so Manasseh too commanded that all the idols be served and God be forsaken. It will not be surprising, then, that you have claimed for yourself the buildings in which we are accustomed to gather the people of God, and that you, an idolater, have called yourself catholic, when you see that Manasseh too did what you have now done. So, in short, the Lord will spare you too, as you hold to the way of Manasseh, as he spared him, and as long as he spared him, so that it is written that he slept with his fathers and was buried in Jerusalem and that his son received the kingdom in his place. Do you read that he perished in war, or was weighed down by some illness? Not at all. But what do you think? I believe that, with that prudence of yours, you say that all those things went unpunished for King Manasseh. You are such that you think of Manasseh that, because he reigned fifty-seven years, handed the kingdom on to his son and died in peace himself, so many crimes could have gone unpunished for him. Do not have pity on yourself so as to turn yourself to God; do not correct your wicked acts; and you will find yourself tormented with Manasseh, whom you are seen to surpass in this, that he shed the blood of the righteous only within the bounds of Jerusalem, while you have shed and are shedding it in the whole Roman realm. But, you say, he burned or consecrated his sons before the images of his gods. If you had sons, you would doubtless have made them accept the Arian blasphemy. Or do you not know that, as those who burned their sons pleased the devil then, since they had one mind, to forsake the Creator and serve the creature, so now the devil demands nothing of you except that you deny the only Son of God? This is the most acceptable sacrifice to him, that you believe as Arius believed; in our times it is more to him that you deny the Son of God than if you chose to burn yourself in the fire in honour of all the demons. For he sees that the worship of idols is despised by all, because it was an empty invention; now he desires through you, his servants the heretics, to deceive us, the servants of God. How, you say, deceive? As he has already deceived you, so he wants us to be deceived. Though you are an Arian, you pretend to be a Christian until you can wound the unarmed with the poison of your heresy, so that thereafter they may not be what we are, Christians, but what you are, Arians. This is the fattening fare of your services, offered to the demons through you. For who but the devil and his sons can say of the only Son of God, “He is a Son and is not a true Son; he is God and is not true God”? So when you say, “I am a Christian, but I do not believe that God has a true Son, I do not believe in one power of the Father and the Son,” when you say that the Son is a creature, made from nothing, when you say that there was when he was not, you sacrifice to the devil better than Manasses did then, when he consecrated his sons through fire to all the demons or burned them. ### Scripture references - 2 Kgs 21:3–6: allusion, high confidence - 2 Kgs 21:16: allusion, medium confidence - 2 Kgs 21:18: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 1:25: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Allusions: 2 Kgs 21:3–6, 16, 18 (Manasseh's idolatry, shedding of innocent blood, burial); Rom 1:25 (serving the creature rather than the Creator). The Arian formulas are those Lucifer attributes to the emperor. Constantius II had no son; Lucifer's remark presupposes this. His charges are translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 9 (CSEL 14:57–59; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/9). ## On Apostate Kings 10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/6/#p-10 - Source: CSEL 14:59–61 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lucifer says God bears with Constantius as with Manasseh only to test and crown the faithful, quotes the psalm on the sinner praised by flatterers, and cites Wisdom on God's slow judgment of the Canaanites. ### Latin text Doleo tibi, imperator, cum tantae sis insipientiae et cum sis tanta faciens mala, digneris tamen dicere: si non bene facerem, non adhuc in regno essem; iam me deus extinxisset. non conspicis istum Manassem in sacrilegio et in. crudelitate tibi comparandum, quod quinquaginta septem annis, ut saepe dixi, regnum tenuerit in Iudaea? hic utique qui fecerit derelinquere populum deum et seruirė idolis, hic utique qui in templo domini et in aedibus dei simulacra collocauerit, qui domum dei, qui sacrarium eius maiestatis idolorum fecerit sacrarium. sic et te patitur deus, sic sustinet quoad usque et familiam probet suam et dignos coronet et indignos tecum, nisi te correxeris, ad aeternam puniat poenam. ceterum crede quod possit sic et tunc Manassem et nunc te, in uno atomo exstinguere oculorum, sed parcit, non quia non possit, sed quia dignum sit et eius coronari cultores contra uestram manentes crudelitatem immobiles et uos inimicos eius clementiae, si tales ut estis durare censueritis, ad poenam damnet sempiternam. tu ut dicas: si non bene agerem, numquam adhuc imperarem, faciunt illi qui te errantem non solum corrigi nolunt, sed ut et pereas inpellunt. non mirum; scriptum est enim et te et illos tales futuros: laudatur peccator in desideriis animae suae, et qui iniqua gerit benedicetur. exacerbauit dominum peccator, secundum multitudinem irae. suae non inquiret; non est deus in conspectu eius, inquinat.ae sunt uiae eius in omni tempore; auferuntur iudicia eius a. facie eius. cum igitur tu dicis: bene facimus tollere episcopos illos qui confitentur se tenere fidem apud Niciam scriptam et constituere eos qui confiteantur, sicuti confitebatur Arrius; et illi dicant: recte utique tu es peccator ille qui laudaris iniuste pro desideriis animae tuae; et tu es iniquus, qui, cum sis derelictus pro blasphemiis tuis a deo, tamen cum adulatoribus tuis quodcumque delinquis non reprehendatur, sed magis dicatur bene te agere. cum dicis: bene feci ad Alexandriam mittere militem ad auferendum Athanasium, et illi rectissime dicunt: tu cui conparandus eris, nisi illi qui per psalmographum notatur a spiritu sancto, quod enim, cum gerat iniqua, cum sit pessimus et execrabilis, tamen cupiens sit laudari? dicis: nisi bene agerem, non adhuc mihi pepercisset deus; et inuenio dictam ad deum; propterea quod hos qui exerrarint partibus corripis, et eos qui peccant admonens adloqueris, ut derelicta malitia credant in te, domine. et illos enim antiquos inhabitatores terrae tuae odiens, quoniam odibilia tibi opera faciebant per medicamina et sacramenta iniusta, et filiorum necatores sine misericordia uoluisti perdere per manus parentum nostrorum, ut dignam percipiat peregrinationem filiorum dei quae tibi omnium carior est terra. sed et his tamquam hominibus pepercisti et misisti antecessores exercitus uespas, ut illos partibus exterminarent. numquid inpotens eras inpugnare, impios iustis subicere aut bestiis saeuissimis aut uerbo duro simul perdere? sed partibus iudicans dabas locum paenitentiae, non ignorans quoniam nequam est natio eorum et naturalis malitia illorum et quoniam non poterat mutari cogitatio illorum in perpetuo; semen enim erat maledictum ab initio nec timens aliquem ueniam dabas peccatis eorum. quis enim dicet tibi: quid fecisti? aut quis stabit contra iudicium tuum? ### English translation (Claude) I grieve for you, emperor, that, though you are so foolish and are doing such evils, you are nevertheless pleased to say: “If I were not doing well, I would not still be on the throne; God would already have destroyed me.” Do you not see that this Manasseh, who is to be compared to you in sacrilege and cruelty, held the kingdom in Judaea fifty-seven years, as I have often said? He certainly was the one who made the people forsake God and serve idols; he certainly was the one who placed images in the temple of the Lord and in the courts of God, who made the house of God, the sanctuary of his majesty, a sanctuary of idols. So God bears with you too, so he endures you, until he tests his household, crowns the worthy, and, unless you correct yourself, punishes the unworthy with you with eternal punishment. For the rest, believe that he could destroy both Manasseh then and you now in the twinkling of an eye; but he spares you, not because he cannot, but because it is fitting that his worshippers, remaining unmoved against your cruelty, should be crowned, and that he should condemn you, the enemies of his mercy, to everlasting punishment, if you resolve to persist as you are. That you say, “If I were not acting well, I would never still be ruling,” is the work of those who not only do not want you corrected in your error but even push you to perish. No wonder; for it is written that both you and they would be such: “The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does wicked things will be blessed. The sinner has provoked the Lord; according to the greatness of his wrath he will not seek; God is not before his eyes; his ways are defiled at all times; his judgments are taken away from his sight.” So when you say, “We do well to remove those bishops who confess that they hold the faith written at Nicaea and to install those who confess as Arius confessed,” and they say, “Certainly, you do rightly,” you are that sinner who is unjustly praised for the desires of his soul; and you are the wicked man who, though you have been forsaken by God for your blasphemies, nevertheless are not reproved by your flatterers for whatever wrong you do, but rather are told that you act well. When you say, “I did well to send soldiers to Alexandria to carry off Athanasius,” and they say, “Quite rightly,” to whom will you be compared, if not to the one marked out by the Holy Spirit through the psalmist, who, though he does wicked things, though he is most evil and accursed, nevertheless longs to be praised? You say, “Unless I were acting well, God would not still have spared me”; and I find it said to God: “Therefore you correct little by little those who go astray, and you speak to those who sin, warning them, so that, leaving their wickedness, they may believe in you, Lord. For those ancient inhabitants of your land you hated, because they did works hateful to you through sorceries and unjust rites, and you willed to destroy, by the hands of our fathers, those merciless murderers of children, so that the land most precious to you of all might receive a worthy colony of the children of God. But even these, as men, you spared, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army to destroy them little by little. Were you unable to subject the ungodly to the righteous in battle, or to destroy them at once by the fiercest beasts or by a harsh word? But judging them little by little you gave them room for repentance, not unaware that their nation was evil and their wickedness inborn, and that their way of thinking could never be changed; for they were a seed accursed from the beginning; and fearing no one, you granted pardon to their sins. For who will say to you, What have you done? Or who will stand against your judgment?” ### Scripture references - Ps 10:3–5 (9:24-Ps LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 15:52: echo, low confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Wis 12:2-12 (Wisdom of Solomon): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: Ps 10:3–5 (9:24–26 LXX), in an Old Latin version; Wis 12:2–12 (abridged, an Old Latin version). “In the twinkling of an eye” echoes 1 Cor 15:52. The soldiers sent to Alexandria to seize Athanasius refers to the events of 356. The words of the flatterers are Lucifer's dramatization. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 10 (CSEL 14:59–61; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/10). ## On Apostate Kings 11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/11/#p-11 - Source: CSEL 14:61–63 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: From Wisdom and from Job's complaint that the wicked prosper, Lucifer argues that God's long patience with the persecuting emperor reserves him for judgment unless he repents. ### Latin text Similiter et tibi parcitur, Constanti, ut agas paenitentiam aat eorum intereas exemplo, qui cum. sciti fuissent a deo, quod non essent acturi paenitentiam, quod non fuissent semet conuersuri ad deum, propterea (quod aem$n> fuerit ab initio malignum, tamen pepercerit eis et non statim ut deliquerunt eos puniuerit. ae igitur dicas: si non bene agerem, numquam profecto mihi deus pepercisset, quando uideas consceleratis tuis diu paenitentiae locum exhibitum, ut tandem malorum factorum suorum uiderent causas et satis pro delicto fecissent deo. eris ergo et tu, si minime conuersus fueris ad deum, unus ex illo maledicto genere, de quo ad deum dicitur: nota ignorans quoniam est nequam natio illorum et naturalis malitia eorum d quoniam non potuerit mutari cogitatio eorum in perpetuo; semen enim erat maledictum ab initio. quam igitur te gloriosum esse uidebis, quando cum talibus esse coeperis, cum inter tales te uidebis iudicatum, cum inter tales inuentus missus fueris in flammas inextinguibiles? tu utique prior omnibus et maior etiam illic futurus in illis poenis; neque enim quisquam in nequitiis tibi conpar inueniri poterit, nisi solus, diabolus, ut te aliquis in illis poenis possit conspici melior. audes dicere: si non bene uiuerem, si non mea essent recta opera, si non fides mea, hoc est Arriana, fuisset catholica, si non recte egissem tollere illos episcopos qui fidem praedicant descriptam a trecentis apud Niciam et eo amplius, numquam diu regnarem, numquam m eo usque fulgerem in regno, ut, et pauco licet tempore, tamen solus intra limitem Romanum imperassem. å ita est, ut dicis. cur dicit iustissimus dei cultor lob ad eos, qui eius iustitiam falsis allegationibus lacessebant? audite me quoniam dolores uulneris mei cogunt me loqui: ut quid impii uiuunt et domus illorum non dissipatae sunt et timor ab illis longe est? uacca illorum numquam abortauit, semper tulit uentrem suum; ipsi uero permanent tamquam oues in perpetuo et filii eorum accepto organo ludunt cum delectamento, ut uitam degerant in bonis, cum dicat dominus: recedite a me, iniqui, uias illorum nolo nosse, quoniam lucerna impiorum extinguetur et gemitu dolebunt in uita sua. erunt tamquam palea, quae a uento rapitur, aut tamquam puluis, qui a tempestate uoluitur; uideant autem oculi illorum mortem. cum haec sciam dominum de illis dixisse, scitote quia nemo uestrum potest me conpescere ut taceam, cur haec gloriosissimus dicit Iob? nisi quia sciret quam plurimos quidem male agere et tamen certis non statim reddi, sed seruari eos ad hoc, ut aut se corrigant aut certe post obitum sentiant delictorum suorum poenas, sentiant quid fuerit non quaesisse deum, non ei seruisse, dum facultas erat, credendo in eum solum famulandoque ei eum promereri. iam credo conuictus tanti uiri testimonio desinas dicere te iuste fecisse, quod amoueris domini sacerdotes et ordinaueris etiam Arrianae fidei homines et iusseris fidem praedicari Arriani dogmatis, quod proscripseris et deportaueris et tormenta admoueris atque interfeceris credentes in unicum dei filium; desines, inquam, dicere propterea te uiuere et sic in regno florere, quod illa egeris ac sis gerens, quando audias dicentem iustum uirum Iob, quem deus sine querela dixerit sibi seruisse, quem uerum suum cultorem narrauerit, quod enim, cum sint impie quam plurimi agentes, tamen in hac uita uiuant quam iucundissime. adhuc dignare accipere quae infra dicat de uobis impiis et cognosce quomodo, cum male agatis, interim uobis parcatur et temet deo repraesenta per paenitentiam. nesciebam quoniam tales tenebrae uenturae essent ante faciem meam. quare ergo, domine, non potui una hora latere; impii autem transeunt in finibus alienis, et greges ouium cum pastoribus rapuerunt et pecora orphanorum adflixerunt et bouem uiduae pignerauerunt. agrum non suum ante tempus demessi sunt, et coegerunt homines in uineis suis gratis operari. et multos despoliauerunt et esurientibus panem abstulerunt, et in faucibus multis obsederunt, et non intellexerunt uiam iustitiae. maledicatur pars illorum in terris. quae est enim spes impiis hominibus aut quem aditum possunt habere apud dominum? sed et si corroborauerint, ad egentiam uenient, et qui remanserint ex illis mala morte morientur, et uiduis illorum nemo miserebitur, et si collexerint aurum aut argentum tamquam lutum, haec omnia iusti possidebunt. ne itaque iam digneris iniuste tibi blandiri, imperator, quia enim sis talis, qualem adseuerauimus, et arbitreris te homicidam ac sacrilegum propterea diutissime degere in hac uita, quod enim tua opera sint deo accepta. talia sunt opera tua, qualia et illorum, in quos inuehitur ore Isaiae spiritus sanctus dicens: sic dicit dominus qui liberauit te, sanctus Israel: ego sum deus, ostendi tibi uiam in qua ambules; et si audisses mandata mea, facta fuisset ut fluuius pax tua et iustitia ut fluctus maris, et factum esset sicut arena maris semen tuum et nati uentris tui. ### English translation (Claude) In the same way you too are spared, Constantius, so that you may repent or perish by the example of those who, though God knew that they would not repent, that they would not turn to God, because their seed had been evil from the beginning, he nevertheless spared and did not punish as soon as they sinned. Do not say, then, “If I were not acting well, God would certainly never have spared me,” when you see that your fellow criminals were given room for repentance for a long time, so that they might at last see the causes of their evil deeds and make satisfaction to God for their sin. You too, then, if you do not turn to God, will be one of that accursed race of which it is said to God: “not unaware that their nation is evil and their wickedness inborn, and that their way of thinking could never be changed; for they were a seed accursed from the beginning.” How glorious, then, will you see yourself to be, when you begin to be with such as these, when you see yourself judged among such, when, found among such, you are sent into the unquenchable flames? You will certainly be first of all, and greater even there in those punishments; for no one can be found your equal in wickedness except the devil alone, so that anyone could be seen in those punishments to be better than you. You dare to say: “If I were not living well, if my works were not right, if my faith, that is, the Arian, were not catholic, if I had not done right in removing those bishops who preach the faith set down by the three hundred and more at Nicaea, I would never reign long, I would never shine on the throne to such a degree that, if only for a short time, I alone would have ruled within the Roman frontier.” If it is as you say, why does Job, that most righteous worshipper of God, say to those who were attacking his righteousness with false charges: “Hear me, for the pains of my wound compel me to speak: Why do the ungodly live, and their houses are not scattered, and fear is far from them? Their cow has never miscarried; she has always carried her young. They remain like sheep for ever, and their children take up the instrument and play with delight, so that they spend their life in good things, while the Lord says: Depart from me, you wicked; I do not wish to know their ways. For the lamp of the ungodly will be put out, and they will grieve with groaning in their life. They will be like chaff that is carried off by the wind, or like dust that is whirled by the storm; and let their eyes see death. Since I know that the Lord has said these things of them, know that none of you can restrain me so that I keep silent.” Why does the most glorious Job say this, unless because he knew that very many do evil and yet are not at once repaid, but are kept for this purpose: either to correct themselves, or at least to feel after death the punishments of their sins, to feel what it was not to have sought God, not to have served him, not to have earned his favour while there was opportunity by believing in him alone and serving him? Now, I believe, convinced by the testimony of so great a man, you will stop saying that you acted justly in removing the priests of the Lord, ordaining men of the Arian faith, ordering the faith of the Arian doctrine to be preached, proscribing, deporting, applying tortures to, and killing those who believe in the only Son of God. You will stop saying, I say, that you live and flourish on the throne because you have done and are doing these things, when you hear the righteous man Job, whom God said had served him without complaint and whom he declared his true worshipper, say that, though very many act ungodly, they nevertheless live most pleasantly in this life. Deign further to receive what he says below about you ungodly men, and learn how, though you act wickedly, you are spared for a time; and present yourself to God through repentance. “I did not know that such darkness would come before my face. Why then, Lord, could I not hide for one hour? But the ungodly pass over into others' borders, and they have carried off flocks of sheep with their shepherds, and have afflicted the cattle of orphans, and have taken the widow's ox in pledge. They have reaped a field not their own before its time, and have forced men to work in their vineyards without pay. And they have stripped many, and taken bread from the hungry, and lain in wait in many narrow places, and have not understood the way of righteousness. Let their portion be cursed on the earth. For what hope is there for ungodly men, or what access can they have to the Lord? But even if they grow strong, they will come to want, and those of them who remain will die an evil death, and no one will pity their widows; and if they gather gold or silver like mud, the righteous will possess all these things.” Do not, then, deign any longer to flatter yourself unjustly, emperor, because you are such as we have asserted, and do not think that you, a murderer and a man of sacrilege, live so very long in this life because your works are acceptable to God. Your works are such as those of the men against whom the Holy Spirit inveighs by the mouth of Isaiah, saying: “Thus says the Lord who redeemed you, the Holy One of Israel: I am God; I have shown you the way in which you should walk. And if you had listened to my commandments, your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea, and your seed would have been like the sand of the sea, and the offspring of your womb.” ### Scripture references - Job 21:2–18: quotation, high confidence - Job 23:17: quotation, medium confidence - Job 24:2–6: quotation, high confidence - Job 24:18: quotation, medium confidence - Job 27:8: quotation, medium confidence - Job 27:13–17: quotation, high confidence - Job 1:8: echo, low confidence - Isa 48:17–19: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Wis 12:10-11 (Wisdom of Solomon): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations in an Old Latin version made from the Greek: Wis 12:10–11; Job 21:2–18 (with “the Lord says: Depart from me” where the Greek has the wicked saying to the Lord “Depart from us”, 21:14) and 21:3; Job 23:17; Job 24:2–6, 18; Job 27:8, 13–17; Isa 48:17–19. The digital text of this chapter has many slips (“aat”, “aem$n>”, “nota ignorans”, “å ita est”); translated by sense. “Without complaint” echoes Job 1:1, 8. “The three hundred and more at Nicaea” is the traditional count of the bishops of 325. “Alone within the Roman frontier” refers to Constantius's sole rule after 353. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 11 (CSEL 14:61–63; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/11). ## On Apostate Kings 12 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/11/#p-12 - Source: CSEL 14:63–65 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lucifer ends by urging Constantius to repent, confess the true Son of God, and receive pardon, citing the prophets, Sirach, the Psalms and Romans on God's patience. ### Latin text Sed, inquis, haec ad Iudaeos dicta sunt, nempe ad eos quorum te fecisti imitatorem. et nunc, ut est crebro dictum, muta malignas uias tuas, crede ut credit sancta ecclesia, et in omnibus tibi propitiabitur. dicit enim ipse: reuertimini ad me ex toto corde uestro simulque et ieiunio et fletu et planctu et discindite corda uestra et non uestimenta. reuertere toto corde ad deum, adquiesce his salubribus remediis ad criminis tui intellegentiam conspiciendam, aperi cordis oculos, ingemisce toto corde tam te grauiter deliquisse colligens; tunc tui miserebitur ille qui dicit: cum conuersus ingemueris, tunc saluus eris et scies ubi fueris. reminiscere deo dicatum dixisse prophetam: nolo mortem morientis, dicit dominus, quantum ut reuertatur et uiuat. noli iam sentire quod, cum mala sint opera tua, ut bene te agere existimes, cur non statim pro factis poenas receperis tuis, sed conspice scriptum dominum patientem esse. ut paenitearis. ne dixeris: peccaui, et quid accidit mihi triste? est enim altissimus patiens redditor. audi etiam paulum beatum inuitantem te ad deum, circa te placandum aperientem tibi, quod enim idcirco sit patiens et non ilico sint repraesentata merita operum tuorum, quia uelit te tandem a malis emergere per paenitentiam, per ueram satisfactionem. numquid sustinentiam bonitatis eius et patientiam contemnis, ignorans quoniam bonitas dei ad paenitentiam te adducit? tu autem secundum duritiam tuam et cor inpaenitens thesaurizas tibi iram in die irae et reuelationis iusti iudicii dei, qui reddet unicuique secundum operam eius. redi, Constanti, ad deum, contra interni tui hostis latrocinium sume paenitentiae arma, fuge adulatorum, qui tibi non fuerint dig.. nati quae (in) se habent dicere, perniciosam laudem, memento ore Isaiae dixisse dominum: qui uos felices dicunt in errorem uos mittunt et semitam pedum uestrorum turbant. crede in unicum dei filium, accipe ueniam tuorum scelerum, repete dicere psalmographum: apud inferos quia confitebitur tibi? et iterum: numquid exomologesim faciet tibi puluis? reuertere ad deum, ingemesce pro criminibus tuis, per Hieremiam domini dicentis audi uocem: numquid qui cadit non resurget, aut qui auertitur non conuertetur? cecidisti die qua negasti dei filium; resurges hora qua fueris confessus. quia te plaga hostilis insedit, trade te curandum medicinae, ipse tibi adhibe medellam. uulnerasti temet dicens: non est uerus dei filius, iterum temet sanaturus, si dicas ut nos dicimus et credimus esse illum uerum dei filium. reuertimini, dicit Iohel, ad dominum deum uestrum, quoniam misericors et pius et patiens et multae miserationis et qui sententiam flectat aduersus malitiam inrogatam. si hanc tibi promissam indulgentiam funerum tuorum repudiandam duxeris, illic hanc consequi desideraturus, ubi nihil eris praeter cruciamenta percepturus poenarum. ### English translation (Claude) But, you say, these things were said to the Jews; to those, that is, whose imitator you have made yourself. And now, as has often been said, change your wicked ways, believe as the holy church believes, and he will be gracious to you in all things. For he himself says: “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to God with your whole heart; agree to these healing remedies so as to see and understand your crime; open the eyes of your heart; groan with your whole heart, reflecting how gravely you have sinned. Then he will have mercy on you who says: “When you have turned and groaned, then you will be saved and will know where you were.” Remember that the prophet said, speaking for God: “I do not desire the death of the dying, says the Lord, so much as that he turn and live.” Do not think any longer, though your works are evil, that you are acting well because you have not at once received punishment for your deeds; but see that it is written that the Lord is patient, so that you may repent. “Do not say: I have sinned, and what sad thing has happened to me? For the Most High is a patient repayer.” Hear also blessed Paul inviting you to God and showing you how to appease him: that he is patient, and the reward of your works has not been repaid at once, because he wants you at last to come up out of your evils through repentance, through true satisfaction. “Do you despise the forbearance of his goodness and his patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But by your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will repay each one according to his work.” Come back to God, Constantius; against the robbery of your inner enemy take up the weapons of repentance; flee the ruinous praise of flatterers, who have not deigned to tell you what they hold within themselves. Remember that the Lord said by the mouth of Isaiah: “Those who call you happy lead you into error and confuse the path of your feet.” Believe in the only Son of God, receive pardon for your crimes; repeat the words of the psalmist: “In the underworld who will confess to you?” and again: “Will the dust make confession to you?” Return to God, groan for your crimes; hear the voice of the Lord speaking through Jeremiah: “Does he who falls not rise again, or he who turns away not turn back?” You fell on the day you denied the Son of God; you will rise again in the hour you confess him. Since an enemy's wound has lodged in you, give yourself to be healed by medicine; apply the remedy to yourself. You wounded yourself by saying, “He is not the true Son of God”; you will heal yourself again if you say, as we say and believe, that he is the true Son of God. “Return,” says Joel, “to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and kind and patient and of great compassion, and one who turns back his sentence against the evil threatened.” If you decide to reject this pardon promised you for the deaths you have caused, you will long to obtain it there where you will receive nothing but the torments of punishment. ### Scripture references - Joel 2:12–13: quotation, high confidence - Isa 30:15: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 18:32: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 33:11: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 2:4–6: quotation, high confidence - Isa 3:12: quotation, high confidence - Ps 6:5 (6:6 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 30:9 (29:10 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Jer 8:4: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sir 5:4 (Sirach): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations in an Old Latin version: Joel 2:12–13; Isa 30:15 (Greek form, “when you have turned and groaned, you will be saved”); Ezek 18:32 and 33:11; Sir 5:4; Rom 2:4–6; Isa 3:12; Ps 6:5 (6:6 LXX); Ps 30:9 (29:10 LXX); Jer 8:4; Joel 2:13. “Repentance” (paenitentia) here is personal repentance; “satisfaction” is the church's term for making amends. “” and “(in)” are the editor's supplements, translated. ### Citation (SBL) Lucifer, Reg. apost. 12 (CSEL 14:63–65; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/lucifer-regibus-apostaticis/12).