Octavius 11.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Christians reject cremation, though every body decays anyway.

Latin text · CSEL 2:15

inde uidelicet et execrantur rogos et damnant ignium sepulturas, quasi non omne corpus, etsi flammis subtrahatur, annis tamen et aetatibus in terram resoluatur, nec intersit, utrum ferae diripiant an maria consumant an humus contegat an flamma subducat, cum cadaueribus omnis sepultura, si sentiunt, poena sit, si non sentiunt, ipsa conficiendi celeritate medicina.

English · Claude translation

Hence, of course, they curse funeral pyres and condemn burial by fire, as if every body, even if withdrawn from the flames, were not nevertheless dissolved into earth by years and ages; and it makes no difference whether wild beasts tear it apart or seas consume it or the ground covers it or flame takes it away, since for corpses every burial, if they feel, is a punishment, and if they do not feel, is a remedy in the very speed of its consuming.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:15 · Karl Halm, ed., M. Minucii Felicis Octavius; Iulii Firmici Materni Liber de errore profanarum religionum, CSEL 2 (Vienna: Gerold, 1867), 1–56 · Latin text: K. Halm (CSEL 2, 1867), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in CSEL 2. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 2; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Divided there by chapter only.

Topics

Eschatology

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 11.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/11/4/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 11.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/11/4/).