書信與論戰集（CSEL） 第 30 章 第 2/14 段

Thus He both took away the kingdom and priesthood of that prophetic nation, because He who was promised through them had now come, and subjected to His own name, through Christ the King, the Roman empire by which that nation was conquered; and He converted it, by the strength and devotion of the Christian faith, to the overthrowing of the idols for whose honour His sacred rites had not been received. I think, therefore, that it was not by magical arts that Christ brought it about — before He was born among men — that the things to come about Himself should be foretold through so many prophets, and through the kingdom and priesthood of a certain nation as well. For the people of that kingdom, now destroyed, dispersed everywhere by the marvellous providence of God, though without any anointing of king or priest —

in which anointing (chrism) the name of Christ appears — yet still retains the relics of certain of their observances; while the Roman world, neither conquered nor subjugated, has not received those sacred rites of idol worship, so that it might carry the prophetic books as a testimony to Christ, and thus from the books of enemies the truth of the prophesied Christ might be proved. Why then do the wretched men still, by praising Christ ill, betray themselves? If any magical writings have been composed under His name, since Christ's teaching is vehemently hostile to these arts, let them rather understand from this how great is that Name, by adding which even those who live contrary to His precepts try to lend honour to their nefarious arts.

For just as, through the diverse errors of men, many have even founded various heresies against the truth under His name, so even the enemies of Christ perceive that, in persuading what they put forward against Christ's teaching, they have no weight of authority for themselves unless it bears the name of Christ. What of the fact that these empty praisers of Christ and crooked disparagers of the Christian religion do not dare to blaspheme Christ, because certain of their philosophers — as Porphyry the Sicilian sets forth in his books — consulted their gods as to what they should answer concerning Christ, and those gods were compelled by their own oracles to praise Christ? And no wonder, since we read even in the Gospel that the demons confessed Him; and it is written in our prophets:

'For the gods of the nations are demons.' And by this, lest they should strive against the responses of their own gods, they hold back their blasphemies from Christ and pour them out upon His disciples. But it seems to me that those gods of the nations, whom the philosophers of the pagans were able to consult, would also — if they were questioned about the disciples of Christ — themselves likewise be compelled to praise them.

Nevertheless these men argue thus: that this overthrow of temples and condemnation of sacrifices and breaking of idols is brought about not by the teaching of Christ, but by that of His disciples, whom they contend taught something other than what they had learned from Him — thus wishing, while honouring and praising Christ, to pull down the Christian faith; because indeed it was through the disciples of Christ that both the deeds and the words of Christ were announced, on which the Christian religion rests — a religion still hostile to these very few men, who now no longer assail it, but nevertheless still mutter against it.

But if they refuse to believe that Christ taught such things, let them read the prophets, who not only commanded that the superstitions of idols be overthrown, but also foretold that this overthrow would come to pass in Christian times. If these prophets deceived, why is it fulfilled with such great manifestation? If they spoke the truth, why is so great a divinity resisted? Yet these things must be more diligently inquired of them: whom do they think the God of Israel to be? Why did they not receive Him to be worshipped, like the gods of other nations which the Roman empire subdued — especially since it is their own opinion that all gods are to be worshipped by the wise man? Why then was He alone rejected from the number of the rest? If He is of very great power, why is He alone not worshipped by them?

If He is of little or no power, why, when their idols are crushed, is He alone now worshipped by almost all nations? They will never be able to free themselves from the bond of this question — men who, while worshipping greater and lesser gods (whom they think to be gods), do not worship this God who has prevailed over all whom they worship. For if He is of great virtue, why was He judged worthy of rejection? If He is of little or no virtue, why, though rejected, could He do so much? If He is good, why is He alone separated from the other good ones? If He is evil, why is He alone not overcome by so many good ones? If He is truthful, why are His precepts spurned? If He is a liar, why are His predictions fulfilled? In the end, let them think of Him what they will.

Do not the Romans think that even evil gods are to be worshipped, they who made shrines to Pallor and Fever? Who advise that the good demons are to be invited and the evil demons to be appeased? Whatever, then, they may suppose about Him, why did they judge that He alone was neither to be invoked nor to be propitiated? Who is this God, either so unknown that among so many gods He alone is still not found, or so well known that by so many men He alone is now worshipped? Nothing therefore remains for them to say as to why they refused to receive this God's sacred rites, except that He willed Himself alone to be worshipped, but forbade those gods of the nations, whom these men were already worshipping, to be worshipped. But this very thing is rather to be required of them: whom, or of what kind, they think —

this God to be — He who refused that other gods be worshipped, to whom these men made temples and idols, and who had such power that His will was stronger for overthrowing their idols than theirs was for preventing His sacred rites from being received. Certainly the opinion of that philosopher of theirs is betrayed, whom they affirmed to have been, even by an oracle, the wisest of all men. For it is the opinion of Socrates that each single god ought to be worshipped in such a manner as he himself has prescribed himself to be worshipped. Accordingly the utmost necessity was laid upon these men not to worship the God of the Hebrews; because, if they wished to worship Him in another manner than He Himself had said He was to be worshipped, they would certainly not be worshipping Him, but what they themselves had invented.

But if they wished to worship Him in that manner which He Himself prescribed, they saw that others were not to be worshipped by them, whom He forbade to be worshipped. And on this account they spurned the worship of the one true God, lest they should offend the many false ones — judging rather that the wrath of these would harm them than that His benevolence would profit them. But let that necessity have been vain and that timidity ridiculous: now we ask what these men think about this God — men to whom it is pleasing that all gods should be worshipped. For if this God is not to be worshipped, how are all worshipped, when this one is not worshipped? But if He is to be worshipped, then not all are to be worshipped, since, unless He alone is worshipped, this God is not worshipped.

Or will they perhaps say that this one is not a god, since they call those gods who — as we believe — can do nothing except what they are permitted by His judgement, not so as to profit anyone, but so that they cannot even harm any except those whom He judges ought to be so harmed, who can do all things? But, as they themselves are compelled to confess, they certainly could do less than He. For if they are gods whose seers, when consulted by men — though I would not say they deceived — nevertheless gave close answers about private affairs, how is He not a God whose seers not only answered fittingly the things which were consulted for the moment, but also foretold, from what was not consulted, so long beforehand, concerning the whole human race and all nations, those things which we now both read and see?

If they call him a god by whom Sibylla, being filled, chanted the fates of the Romans, how is He not a God who exhibited what He foretold — that both the Romans and all nations would, through the Gospel of Christ, believe in Him the one God, and would overthrow all the idols of their fathers? Finally, if they call those gods who never dared through their seers to say anything against this God, how is He not a God who through His seers not only commanded that their idols be overthrown, but also foretold that they would be overthrown among all nations by those who, forsaking those idols, would be commanded to worship the one God, and, being so commanded, would serve Him?

Or let them read, if they can, that any of the Sibyls, or any others of their own seers, foretold this as future: that the God of the Hebrews, the God of Israel, would be worshipped by all nations; and that whereas the worshippers of other gods had rightly before spurned Him, the future writings of His prophets would also stand in authority so lofty that, in obedience to them, even the Roman empire would order the idols to be destroyed; and that they also warned that such precepts should not be obeyed. Let them read these things, if they can, out of any of the books of their own seers.

For I forbear to say that the things which are read in their books speak testimony on behalf of our religion, that is, the Christian religion — things which they could have heard from the holy angels and from our very prophets, just as even the demons were compelled to confess Christ present in the flesh. But I forbear these things, which, when we bring them forward, they contend have been fabricated by our own people. It is they, wholly they, who must be pressed to bring forth from the seers of their own gods anything prophesied against the God of the Hebrews, just as we cite from the books of our prophets so many and such great things against their gods, and observe His commands, and recite His predictions, and demonstrate the accomplished facts.

Those very few who now remain prefer to grieve that these things are fulfilled rather than to acknowledge that God who was able to foretell the things to be fulfilled — although in their own false gods, which are truly demons, they seek nothing else as a great thing than that they may learn from their responses that something is to come to pass for them. Since these things are so, why do the wretched men not rather understand that He is the true God, whom they see so separated from the fellowship of their gods that, whereas they who profess that all gods are to be worshipped are compelled to confess Him a god, they are not permitted to worship Him along with the rest? Since therefore they cannot be worshipped together, why is not He chosen who forbids these to be worshipped, forsaking these who do not forbid Him to be worshipped? Or, if they do forbid it, let it be read.

For what ought rather to be recited to their peoples in their temples, where nothing of the kind ever resounded? And surely the prohibition of so many against one ought to be more widely known and more powerful than that of one against so many. For if the worship of this God is impious, the gods are useless who do not restrain men from impiety; but if the worship of this One is pious, since in it it is enjoined that those be not worshipped, then the worship of those is impious.

But if they so confidently forbid this One to be worshipped that they fear more to be heard than they dare to forbid, who from this very fact would not be wise enough to perceive that He is rather to be chosen, who so publicly forbids those to be worshipped, who commanded their idols to be overthrown, foretold it, and overthrew them — rather than those, whom we do not know to have commanded that He be not worshipped, whom we do not read to have foretold anything, and whom we do not see to have had any power? I ask, let them answer: who is this God, who so persecutes all the gods of the nations, who so betrays and so extinguishes all their sacred rites? Why should I interrogate men who have vanished away in their thinking as to who He may be? Some say: He is Saturn — I believe on account of the sanctifying of the sabbath, because these men assigned that day to Saturn.

But their own Varro, than whom they find no one more learned among themselves, supposed the God of the Jews to be Jupiter, judging it to make no difference by what name He is called, so long as the same thing is understood — deterred, I believe, by His supreme height. For since the Romans are not accustomed to worship anything higher than Jupiter, which their Capitol testifies clearly enough, and they hold him to be the king of all the gods, when Varro observed that the Jews worship the supreme God, he could suspect nothing other than Jupiter. But whether they think Saturn or Jupiter to be the God of the Jews, let them say: when did Saturn dare to forbid another god to be worshipped — not even Jupiter himself, who is reported to have expelled him from his kingdom, the son his father?

And if this Jupiter, as being the more powerful and the victor, pleased his worshippers, let them not worship Saturn, the conquered and expelled. But neither did this one forbid Jupiter to be worshipped, and the very god whom he was able to conquer he nevertheless permitted to be a god. 'These,' they say, 'are fables, either to be interpreted by the wise or to be laughed at; but we worship Jupiter, of whom Maro says: All things are full of Jove' — that is, the spirit that gives life to all things. Rightly then did Varro too suppose that Jupiter is worshipped by the Jews, because He says through the prophet: 'I fill heaven and earth.' What of that which the same poet calls the aether? How do they take it? For thus he says: 'Then the almighty Father, the aether, descends in fruitful showers into the lap of his glad spouse.'

For they say the aether is not spirit, but a lofty body, by which the sky is stretched out above the air. Or is it granted to the poet now to speak according to the Platonists, so that God is not a body but a spirit, and now according to the Stoics, so that God is a body? What, then, do they worship in the Capitol? If a spirit, if indeed the corporeal sky itself, what is that shield of Jupiter doing there, which they call the Aegis? For the origin of this name is thus given: that a she-goat (capra) nourished Jupiter when he was hidden from his mother. Or do the poets lie about this too? Are the Capitols of the Romans, then, the works of poets? But what does that variety mean — not poetic but plainly mimic — of seeking the gods among the philosophers in books, and of adoring them among the poets in the temples?

But was that Euhemerus also a poet, who set forth most plainly that both Jupiter himself and Saturn his father and Pluto and Neptune his brothers were men — so that their worshippers ought rather to give thanks to the poets, because the many things the poets invented were not to dishonour them but rather to adorn them? Although Cicero records that this very Euhemerus was translated into the Latin tongue by the poet Ennius. Was Cicero himself too a poet, who admonishes the man with whom he disputes in the Tusculans, as one privy to secrets, saying: 'But if I should try to scrutinize things ancient and to dig out from those things which the writers of Greece have handed down, those very gods of the greater nations will be found to have set out from here into heaven'?

'Inquire whose tombs are pointed out in Greece; recollect, since you have been initiated, the things that are handed down in the mysteries; then at last you will understand how widely this extends.' Here certainly he confesses plainly enough that these men's gods were men, but he benevolently conjectures that they attained to heaven. And yet that even this honour of reputation was conferred upon them by men, he did not hesitate to say publicly, when speaking of Romulus: 'He who founded this city,' he says, 'Romulus, we have raised up to the immortal gods by benevolence and fame.' What wonder is it, then, if the men of more ancient times did concerning Jupiter and Saturn and the rest what the Romans did concerning Romulus — what, finally, in more recent times they even wished to do concerning Caesar?

To these Virgil also added the flattery of his verse, saying: 'Lo, the star of Dionaean Caesar has come forth.' Let them therefore see to it, lest perchance historical truth should show the tombs of the false gods on earth, while poetic vanity does not fix, but feigns, their stars in heaven. For in truth that star is not Jupiter's, nor that one Saturn's; but after their death men imposed these names upon the constellations, established since the beginning of the world, men who wished those dead ones to be held as it were for gods. Concerning which — what such great evil did chastity, or what such great good did pleasure, deserve, that among the stars which revolve with the sun and moon, Venus should have a star and Minerva should not?

But grant that Cicero the Academic was more uncertain than the poets, who dared to record the tombs of the gods and commit them to writing — though he did not presume this on the strength of his own opinion, but reported it from the very tradition of their sacred rites. Does Varro too either invent it like a poet or lay it down doubtfully like an Academic, when he says that the rites of such gods were composed out of the life or death of each of them, according to how they lived among men or how they died? And was Leon, that Egyptian priest, either a poet or an Academic — he who disclosed to Alexander of Macedon an origin of these gods indeed different from the Greeks' opinion, yet in such a way that he declared them to have been men? But what is this to us?

Let them say that they do not worship Jupiter as a dead man, nor dedicated the Capitol to a dead man, but to the life-giving spirit that fills the world; and let them interpret his shield, made of goat-skin in honour of his nurse, however they please. What do they say of Saturn? What Saturn do they worship? Is it not he who 'first came from Olympus, fleeing the arms of Jove and exiled from his realm now taken away, who gathered together a race untaught and scattered on the high mountains, and gave them laws, and chose that it be called Latium, since in these shores he had lain hidden in safety'? Is not his very image, which is fashioned with the head covered, a sign of one, as it were, in hiding? Did he not himself teach agriculture to the Italians, as the sickle he holds shows? 'No,' they say;

'for see now — even if there was such a man and some king of whom these things are told, we nevertheless interpret Saturn as "universal time," as even his Greek name shows; for he is called Cronos, which, with an aspirate added, is also the word for time (chronos), whence in Latin too he is called Saturnus, as though sated (saturetur) with years.' What is now to be done with these people, I do not know, who, while trying to interpret the names and images of their gods in a better sense, confess that their greater god and the father of the rest is time. For what else do they indicate than that all their gods are temporal, whose very father they make out to be time itself?

At this their more recent Platonist philosophers, who lived already in Christian times, were ashamed, and attempted to interpret Saturn differently, saying that he was called Cronos as if from the fullness (satiety) of intellect, because in Greek satiety is coros and intellect or mind is nous. To this the Latin name too seems to lend support, as though composed of a first Latin part and a later Greek one, so that it should be spoken as Saturnus, as if satur nous ('sated mind'). They saw how absurd it would be if Jupiter, whom they thought or wished to be thought an eternal god, were held to be the son of Time.

But according to this novel interpretation — which, had their ancients held it, it would be strange had it escaped Cicero and Varro — they call Jupiter, the son of Saturn, a spirit as it were flowing forth from that supreme Mind, which they hold to be like the soul of this world, filling all celestial and terrestrial bodies. Whence comes that line of Maro which I mentioned a little before: 'Of Jupiter all things are full.' Would not these men, if they could, change not only the interpretation but also the superstition of men, and set up either no images at all, or Capitols to Saturn rather than to Jupiter?

For they argue that no rational soul becomes wise except by participation in that supreme and unchangeable Wisdom — not only the soul of any man, but even the soul of the world itself, which they call Jupiter. Now that there is a certain supreme Wisdom of God, by participation in which whatever soul becomes truly wise is made wise, we not only grant, but even most emphatically proclaim. But whether this whole corporeal mass which is called the world has a certain soul, or as it were its own soul, that is, a rational life by which it is governed just as every animal is governed, is a great and hidden question; and this opinion ought neither to be affirmed unless it has been found to be true, nor refuted unless it has been found to be false.

But what does this matter to man, even if it forever remains hidden from him, since no soul becomes wise or blessed from any other soul whatsoever, but only from that sole supreme and unchangeable Wisdom of God? Yet the Romans, who founded the Capitol not for Saturn but for Jupiter, and the other nations that thought Jupiter above all was to be worshipped over the rest of the gods, did not hold what these men held. For these, according to their new opinion, if they had had any power in these matters, would rather have dedicated the highest citadels to Saturn, and would above all have destroyed the astrologers and casters of nativities, who set Saturn — whom these men call the maker of the wise — among the other stars as a maleficent god.

This opinion so prevailed against them in the minds of men that they are unwilling even to name him, calling him 'the Old Man' rather than Saturn, with so timid a superstition that even the Carthaginians almost changed the name of their own street, more frequently calling it 'the Street of the Old Man' than 'the Street of Saturn.' It is therefore plain what the worshippers of images are convicted of worshipping and what they attempt to gloss over. But from these new interpreters of Saturn it must also be asked what they think of the God of the Hebrews. For it pleased even them to worship all the gods along with the nations, since it shamed them, proud as they were, to be humbled under Christ for the remission of sins. What then do they think of the God of Israel?

If they do not worship Him, they do not worship all the gods; but if they do worship Him, they do not worship Him as He commanded Himself to be worshipped, for they also worship others whom He forbade to be worshipped. For through those prophets He forbade these things — the very prophets through whom He foretold that these things themselves, which their images now suffer at the hands of Christians, would come to pass.

For whether angels were sent to those prophets, to show them figuratively, through the fitting appearance of sensible things, the one Creator God of all, the one true God to whom all things are subject, and to declare in what manner He commanded Himself to be worshipped; or whether the minds of some among them were so exalted by the Holy Spirit that they beheld these things with that vision by which the very angels behold them — it stands firm nonetheless that they served that God who forbade other gods to be worshipped, and that they served Him with the faith of piety, in the kingdom and priesthood of their commonwealth, and in the sacred rites that signified Christ, the King and Priest who was to come.

Furthermore, among the gods of the nations — whom these men, while unwilling to worship Him who cannot be worshipped together with them, are unwilling to worship — let them say what is the reason that not one of them is found who forbids another to be worshipped, seeing that they set them over diverse offices and functions, and would have them to be presidents over the things that properly pertain to each.

For if Jupiter does not forbid Saturn to be worshipped — because Saturn is not that man who drove out his father from the kingdom, but either the body of heaven or a spirit filling heaven and earth, and therefore cannot forbid worship to be paid to that supernal Mind from which he is said to have emanated — and if for the same reason Saturn does not forbid Jupiter to be worshipped, because he was not overcome by him rebelling, as Saturn himself was by that one I know not whom whose arms he fled when he came into Italy, but rather favours the first Mind of the soul begotten from himself: then at least Vulcan should forbid the worship of Mars, the adulterer of his wife; Hercules should forbid the worship of Juno, his persecutor. What is this so foul concord among them, that not even the chaste virgin Diana forbids the worship — I will not say of Venus, but of Priapus?

For if one man wished to be both a hunter and a farmer, he would be the servant of both — yet gods who are ashamed to build even neighbouring temples for such a man. But let them interpret Diana as whatever virtue they please, and let them interpret Priapus too as the god of fecundity, in such a way, forsooth, that in the impregnation of women it should shame them to have Juno for such a helper. Let them say what they please, let them interpret as they think fit — provided that the God of Israel confounds all their arguments; who, since He forbade all those gods to be worshipped, and was forbidden by none of them to be worshipped, and commanded, foretold, and effected the overthrow of their images and rites, has sufficiently shown that they are false and deceitful, and that He is the true and truthful God.

But how should one not marvel that these now-few worshippers of the many false gods are unwilling to obey Him — concerning whom, when they are asked who indeed this God is, they may answer by opining whatever they please, yet they dare not deny that He is God, because, if they should deny it, they are most easily convicted by His works and by His predictions both foretold and fulfilled? For I do not adduce those things which they think themselves free not to believe — that He in the beginning made heaven and earth and all that is in them; nor those very ancient things: that He translated Enoch; that He destroyed the impious by the flood; that He delivered righteous Noah and his household by the wood; but from Abraham I begin His deeds among men.

For to him was made, through an angelic oracle, a manifest promise which we now see fulfilled. To him indeed it was said: 'In thy seed shall all nations be blessed' — from whose seed came the people of Israel, whence came the Virgin Mary, who bore Christ, in whom let them now dare to deny that all nations are blessed, if they can. This promise was made also to Isaac, Abraham's son; this also to Jacob, Abraham's grandson, who was also called Israel, from whom the whole people was both propagated and named, so that the God of this people was called the God of Israel — not that He is not the God of all nations, whether not yet knowing Him or now knowing Him, but because in this people He willed the power of His promises to appear more manifestly.

For that people, first multiplied in Egypt and delivered from that bondage through Moses with many signs and wonders, having subdued very many nations, received also the land of promise, in which it reigned through its own kings sprung from the tribe of Judah. This Judah was one of the twelve sons of Israel, the grandson of Abraham; and thence they were surnamed Jews. Many things they did with God Himself aiding them; many things they endured for their sins with Him Himself scourging them, until there should come the Seed to whom it was promised, in whom all nations should be blessed and should of their own accord break in pieces the images of their fathers. For it was not in Christian times, but so long before, that what is now fulfilled through the Christians was foretold.

The very Jews who have remained enemies of the name of Christ — concerning whose future faithlessness even those prophetic writings are not silent — these same possess and read a prophet who says: 'O Lord my God and my refuge in the day of evils, to Thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and shall say: Truly our fathers worshipped lies, images, and there is no profit in them.' Behold, now it comes to pass; behold, now the nations come from the ends of the earth to Christ, saying these very things and breaking the images. For this too is a great thing which God has bestowed upon His Church spread abroad everywhere.