Minucius Felix — Octavius 37
How fair a spectacle for God, when a Christian engages with pain, when he sets himself against threats and punishments and torments, when laughing he treads down death’s noise and the executioner’s horror, when he raises his liberty against kings and princes and yields only to God whose he is, when as triumpher and victor he insults even the one who passed sentence against him! For he has conquered who obtained what he contended for. Who would not as a soldier under the emperor’s eyes provoke danger more boldly? No one receives the prize before the trial. And yet an emperor does not give what he does not have: he cannot prolong life; he can honor service. But God’s soldier is not deserted in pain nor finished by death. So a Christian can seem wretched; he cannot be found so. You yourselves exalt calamitous men to heaven — Mucius, who would have perished among enemies for missing the king had he not lost his right hand. And how many of ours have borne not the right hand only but the whole body burned and roasted without any wailing, when they especially had leave to be dismissed! Do I compare men with Mucius or Aquilius or Regulus? Our boys and little women mock crosses and torments, beasts and all the terrors of punishments with a patience of pain breathed into them. And you do not understand, O wretched ones, that there is no one who would either undergo punishment without reason or could endure torments without God.
Unless perhaps you are deceived that those who do not know God abound in riches, flower in honors, prevail in powers. The wretched are lifted higher in this so they may fall lower. For they are fattened like victims for punishment, crowned like sacrifices for penalty: some are raised to commands and dominions precisely so that the talent of their ruined mind may freely traffic in the license of power. For apart from the knowledge of God what solid happiness can there be, when there is death? Like a dream it slips away before it is held. Are you a king? But you fear as much as you are feared, and however much you are thronged by a great retinue, still toward danger you are alone. Are you rich? But fortune is trusted badly, and a short life’s journey is not equipped but burdened by a great travel-allowance. Do you glory in fasces and purples? Empty human error and vain cult of dignity — to shine in purple and be filthy in mind.
Latin
XXXVII. "Quam pulchrum spectaculum deo, cum Christianus cum dolore congreditur, cum adversum minas et supplicia et tormenta componitur, cum strepitum mortis et horrorem carnificis inridens inculcat, cum libertatem suam adversus reges et principes erigit, soli deo, cuius est, cedit, cum triumphator et victor ipsi, qui adversum se sententiam dixit, insultat! Vicit enim qui, quod contendit, obtinuit. Quis non miles sub oculis imperatoris audacius periculum provocet? Nemo enim praemium percipit ante experimentum. Et imperator tamen quod non habet, non dat: non potest propagare vitam, potest honestare militiam. At enim dei miles nec in dolore deseritur nec morte finitur. Sic Christianus miser videri potest, non potest inveniri. Vos ipsi calamitosos viros fertis ad caelum, ut Mucium Scaevolam, qui cum errasset in regem, perisset in hostibus, nisi dexteram perdidisset. Et quot ex nostris, non dextram solum, sed totum corpus uri, cremari sine ullis eiulatibus pertulerunt, cum dimitti praesertim haberent in sua potestate! Viros cum Mucio vel cum Aquilio aut Regulo comparo? Pueri et mulierculae nostrae cruces et tormenta, feras et omnes suppliciorum terriculas inspirata patientia doloris inludunt. Nec intellegitis, o miseri, neminem esse qui aut sine ratione velit poenam subire aut tormenta sine deo possit sustinere. "Nisi forte vos decipit, quod deum nescientes divitiis adfluant, honoribus floreant, polleant potestatibus. Miseri in hoc altius tolluntur, ut decidant altius.
Hi enim, ut victimae ad supplicium saginantur, ut hostiae ad poenam coronantur: in hoc adeo quidam imperiis ac dominationibus eriguntur, ut ingenium eorum perditae mentis licentiae potestatis libere nundinentur. Absque enim notitia dei quae potest esse solida felicitas, cum mors sit? Somnio similis, antequam tenetur, elabitur. Rex es? Set tam times quam timeris, et quamlibet sis multo comitatu stipatus, ad periculum tamen solus es. Dives es? Sed fortunae male creditur et magno viatico breve vitae iter non instruitur, sed oneratur. Fascibus et purpuris gloriaris? Vanus error hominis et inanis cultus dignitatis, fulgere purpura, mente sordescere. Nobilitate generosus es? Parentes tuos laudas? Omnes tamen pari sorte nascimur, sola virtute distinguimur. "Nos igitur, qui moribus et pudore censemur, merito malis voluptatibus et pompis vestris et spectaculis abstinemus, quorum et de sacris originem novimus et noxia blandimenta damnamus. Nam in ludis curulibus quis non horreat populi in se rixantis insaniam? in gladiatoriis homicidii disciplinam? In scenicis etiam non minor furor et turpitudo prolixior: nunc enim mimus vel exponit adulteria vel monstrat, nunc enervis histrio amorem dum fingit, infligit: idem deos vestros induendo stupra, suspiria, odia dedecorat, idem simulatis doloribus lacrimas vestras vanis gestibus et nutibus provocat: sic homicidium in vero flagitatis, in mendacio fletis.