GM 40

English

The Christian who stood before a pagan who was sacrificing

There is great value in the name Christian, if you perform in deeds what you confess in faith. For as the apostle says: 'Faith without works is dead by itself' [James 2: 17, 20]. Just as it is not birth in the flesh but ratherfaith that makes sons of Abraham, so also not only the grace of the name but works distinguish true Christians. Through this name darkness is illuminated, serpents flee, idolatry is overturned, the soothsayer is unemployed, the fortune-teller declines, and worshipers of demons are repulsed.

So our Prudentius records in his book written against the Jews. An emperor advanced to offer a loathsome sacrifice to demons. After adoring the gods and kneeling before the images, he watched the priests of these images who were sacrificing flocks of animals, whose heads had been wreathed in laurel and crushed with axes. An old priest investigated parts of the internal organs with his blood-stained hands. After he attempted to detect something divine among the fibers of the liver and the hearts ofthe animals, he noted that everything was confused, and he was unable to discover for certain what he wished to learn. Distraught, he cried out and said: 'Alas, alas, I do not know what is happening that is thought to be hostile to our gods. For I see that our gods are scattering far away and accept nothing from the sacrifices we have prepared. The situation indicates that this is due to respect for some gods who are usually hostile to us. It would be surprising if a worshipper of the God Christ, who they claim was crucified, had not compelled our gods to flee. The censers ofincense are cooling, the fire ofthe altar wastes away, and the sword plunged into the victims is seen to become blunt. Look now, most sacred Augustus, for someone washed in water and anointed with balsam; and let him immediately depart, so that the gods whom we call might come.' As he said this, as if he had seen Christ himself threatening him for these remarks, he fell lifeless to the ground and called upon the offended divinities. Then the emperor himself removed his diadem and said: 'Who here opposes our divinities and supports the Christian religion? Whose forehead has been marked with the sign of the chrism and who worships the wood of the cross? Let there be no delay in speaking up.' One of the emperor's bodyguards came forward, threw his weapons to the ground, and said: 'I am the one whose God is Christ and who has been washed by baptism and redeemed by the cross. I have always invoked his name while your priests were offering to the demons these [animals] which have been set out. Your gods fled from his name and could not stay in the place where the name of such majesty had been invoked.' After his bodyguard said this, the emperor was amazed and afraid and left the temple of the demons. The bystanders were so afraid of God that no one followed the emperor. Instead everyone lifted their hands and turned their eyes to heaven and with one voice they together praised the Lord Christ. As suppliants they prayed that he assist them. Lest this account seem unbelievable to anyone, I have appended a few lines from the poem [of Prudentius].

Of all the emperors, however, there was one whom I remember from my childhood, a powerful leader in arms, a renowned lawgiver, in speech and in action a man who cared for his country. But he did not care for preserving [true] religion, since he loved innumerable gods. He would bow his emperor's head before the feet of Minerva, lick the clay sandals of Juno, grovel at the feet of Hercules, and leave petitions on wax tablets at the knees of Diana. By chance an old man wearing the ritual headbands was sacrificing to Hecate and appeasing her with much blood. With bloodstained hands he investigated the fibers still palpitating with the chill of death. As a skilled interpreter he counted, until they stopped, the final pulses of life in a heart that was becoming cold. Suddenly the priest paled and cried out in the middle of the ceremony: 'What do I do? 0 great king, a greater divinity that is unknown to me is interfering at our altars. I see the spirits we summoned scattered at a distance. Surely some unknown Christian young man has crept among us; for this sort of man causes the [priestly] headband and gods' couch to fear. Let any man who is washed and anointed depart far away. After the ceremony has restarted, let beautiful Persephone return.' He spoke, and he fell lifeless. As if he had seen Christ himself threatening him by brandishing a thunderbolt, the emperor turned pale as death and took off his diadem. He looked at the bystanders [to see] which child of the chrism had marked his brow with the sign of the cross that, on his forehead, had disrupted the Persian chants. One bodyguard out of the company of blond-haired youths, a guardian of the imperial person, was apprehended and did not deny. He threw away his two lances with the jeweled shafts and confessed that he bore the sign of Christ. The terrified priest was thrown aside. The emperor leapt up and fled the marble chapel with no one accompanying him. His frightened entourage forgot their master but bent their heads back, raised their faces to heaven, and called upon Jesus.

I have included these verses in this selection to confirm what I have described. I have shown what the name Christian and the banner of the cross offer to those who believe by faith and do in deeds what they have believed, as was said above.

Latin

Magna est enim dignitas nominis christiani, si illa, quae confiteris fide, opere prosequaris. Nam, sicut ait apostolus: Fides sine operibus mortua est in semetipsa. Sicut enim filios Abraham non carnalis nativitas sed fides facit, ita et christianos veros non solum nominis gratia, sed opera praestat. Per hoc enim nomecn inluminantur tenebrae, serpentes fugiunt, idolatria prosternuntur, cessat hariolus, tabescit sortilegus, cultores daemonum propelluntur, sicut Prudentius noster in libro contra Iudaeos meminit, quod procedens imperator ad immolationem faetidam daemoniorum, adoratis diis atque coram sigillis prostratus, expectabat sacerdotes simulacrorum mactantes turbas pecodum, quorum frons revinicta lauro securibus caedebatur. Cumque senes cruentis manibus internorum tractaret viscerum partes, iocinoris tibras atque inter praecordia exta animalium investigare aliquid temptaret divinum, turbata omnia cernit nee ca quae cupiebat scire poterat certus agnoscere. Exclamat turbatus et ait: 'Heu, heu, nescio quid hic agitur, quod diis nostris contrarium esse putatur. Video enim deos nostros a longe discedere nec de praeparatis sacrificiis aliqua praelibare. Est hic, ut res ipsa docet, de officiis quorumpiam deorum, qui nobis adversari sunt soliti. Et mirum, si ad hanc fugam non aliquis de cultoribus dei Christi, quem crucifixum adserunt, deos nostros inpellat. Turibula timiamatis refrigescunt, arae tepescit ignis, et ipsum quoque ferrum iniectum victimis hebetare conspicitur. Require nunc, sacratissime auguste, quis adstet aquis ablutus, balsamo unctus; et abscedat protinus, ut accedant dii, quos invocamus'. Et hace dicens, acsi ipsum cerneret de his Christum ultorem, procidens ad terram exanimis, offensa proclamat numina. Tunc et ipse imperator, deposito diademate, ait: 'Quis est hic numinibus nostris contrarius ac religionis christianae socius, qui fronte chrysmatis inscriptione signatam ferat lignumque crucis adoret? Ne moretur edicere'. Tunc unus de armigeris augusti in medio positus, proiecit arma solo et ait: 'Ego sum, cuius deus Christus est, et qui eius baptismo ablutus et cruce redemptus sum; qui semper eius nomen invocabam, dum haec sacerdotes vestri daemoniis haec quae sunt adposita consecrarent. Eius nomen fugiunt dii vestri nec possunt in loco illo starc, ubi tantae maiestatis nomen fuerit invocatum'. Haec dicente puero, obstupefactus imperator et tremens, reliquit templum daemoninorum. tantusque omnes adstantes Dei timor accendit, ut nullus augustum ad palatium sequeretur, sed cuncti, erectis ad caelum palmis et oculis, dominum Christum uno ore unoque consensu laudabant atque, ut eisdem adiutor exsisteret, voce supplici invocabant. Quae relatio ne cui fortassis videatur incredula, paucos ex his subiciam versos: Principibus tamen e cunctus non fuit unus, Quem puero memini, ductor fortissimus armis Conditor et legum celeberrimus, ore manuque Consultor patriae, sed non consultor habendae Religionis, amans ter centum milia divum. Augustum caput ante pedes curvare Menevae Fictilis et soleas Iunonis lambere, plantis Herculis advolvi, genua incerare Dianae. Porte litans Achaten placabat sanguine multo Vittatus de more senex, manibusque cruentis Tractabat trepidas laetali frigore fibras Postremosque animi pulsos in corde taepenti Callidus interpres numeris et fine notabat; Cum subito exclamat media inter sacra sacerdos Pallidus: Έn quid ago? Maius, rex optime, maius' Numen nescio quod nostris intervenit aris. Accitas video lange dispergere umbras. Nescio quis certe subrepsit christicularum Hic iuvenum; genus hoc hominum tremit infula et omne Pulvinar divum. Lotus procul absit et unctus, Pulchra reformatis redeat Proserpina sacris'. Dixit et exsanguis conlabitur, ac velut ipsum Cerneret exerto minitantem fulmine Christum, Ipse quoque exanimis, posito diademate, princeps Pallet et adstantes circumspicit, equis alumnus Chrysmatis inscripto signaret timpora ligno, Qui Zoroastreos turbasset fronte susurros. Armiger e cuneo puerorum flavicomantum, Purpurei custus latent deprehenditur unus, Nec negat et gemino gemmata hastila ferro Proicit ac signum Christi se ferre fatetur. Prosiluit, pavido deiecto antistite, princeps, Marmoreum fugiens nullo comitante sacellum, Dum tremefacta cohors, domini oblita, supinas Eregit ad caelum facies atque vocat Iesum. Hos tantum versiculos ad haec quae narravi confirmanda inserui lectioni, ostendens, quid nomen christianum, quid crucis vixillum prosit his, qui fide credentes, opere perficiunt quae crediderunt, sicut superius dictum est.