36. But this crime is not
enough: the persons of the most sacred gods are mixed up with
farces also, and scurrilous plays. And that the idle onlookers
may be excited to laughter and jollity, the deities are hit at in
jocular quips, the spectators shout and rise up, the whole pit resounds
with the clapping of hands and applause. And to the debauched
scoffers4265
| 4265
Lit., “debauched and scoffers.” |
at the gods
gifts and presents are
ordained, ease,
freedom from
public burdens,
exemption and
relief, together with triumphal garlands,—a
crime
for which no amends can be made by any apologies. And after this
do you
dare to wonder whence these ills come with which the human race
is deluged and overwhelmed without any interval, while you
daily both
repeat and
learn by
heart all these things, with which are mixed up
libels upon the gods and slanderous sayings; and when
4266
| 4266 So
Orelli, reading et quando; ms. and
other edd. et si—“and if ever.” |
you wish your inactive minds to be
occupied with useless dreamings, demand that days be given to you, and
exhibition made without any interval? But if you felt any real
indignation on behalf of your
religious beliefs, you should rather long
ago have
burned these writings,
destroyed those books of yours, and
overthrown these theatres, in which
evil reports of your deities are
daily made
public in shameful tales. For why, indeed, have our
writings deserved to be given to the
flames? our meetings to be cruelly
broken up,
4267
| 4267
Arnobius is generally thought to refer here to the persecution
under Diocletian mentioned by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., viii.
2. |
in which
prayer is made to the
Supreme God,
peace and pardon are asked for all
in
authority, for
soldiers, kings,
friends,
enemies, for those still in
life, and those freed from the
bondage of the
flesh;
4268
| 4268
The service in which these prayers were offered was presided over
by the bishop, to whom the dead body was brought: hymns were then
sung of thanksgiving to God, the giver of victory, by whose help and
grace the departed brother had been victorious. The priest next
gave thanks to God, and some chapters of the Scriptures were read;
afterwards the catechumens were dismissed; the names of those at rest
were then read in a clear voice, to remind the survivors of the success
with which others had combated the temptations of the world. The
priest again prayed for the departed, at the close beseeching God to
grant him pardon, and admission among the undying. Thereafter the
body was kissed, anointed, and buried.—Dionysius, Eccl. Hier., last chapter quoted by
Heraldus. Cf. Const. Apost., viii. 41. With the
Church’s advance in power there was an accession of pomp to these
rites. [Elucidation IV.] |
in which all that is said is such as
to make
men humane,
4269
gentle, modest, virtuous, chaste,
generous in dealing with their substance, and inseparably united to all
embraced in our brotherhood?
4270
| 4270
Lit., “whom our society joins
together,” quos solidet germanitas.
[Lardner justly argues that this passage proves our author’s
familiarity with rites to which catechumens were not admitted.
Credibil., vol. iii. p. 458.] |
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