Arguments Of Celsus, Porphyry, And The Emperor Julian, Against The Christians Part 11

(v) Sueton. Nero. c. 16.

(vi) Plin. lib. 10. ep. 97. Nihil aliud inveni, quam superst.i.tionem pravam et immodicara. Tacit. Annal. 15. c.

44. Exitiabilis superst.i.tio.

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superst.i.tion. By which name also Nero triumphed over it in his trophies which he set up at Rome, when he had hara.s.sed the Christians with a most severe persecution. He gloried that he had purged the country of robbers, and those that obtruded and inculcated the new superst.i.tion*

upon mankind. By this, there can be no doubt he meant the Christians, whose religion is called the superst.i.tion in other inscriptions of the like nature. See that of Diocletian cited in Baronius, Ann. 304. from Occo. "Superst.i.tione Christianorum ubique deleta," &c.

Not much unlike this was that other name which Porphyry** and some others give it, when they call it the barbarous, new, and strange religion. In the acts of the famous martyrs of Lyons, who suffered under Antoninus Pius, the heathens scornfully insult it with this character.

For having burnt the martyrs to ashes, and scattered their remains into the river Rhone, they said, they did it 'to cut off their hopes of a resurrection, upon the

* Inscript. Antiq. ad Calcem Sueton. Oxon. NERONI. CLAUD.

CAIS. AUG. PONT. MAX. OB. PROVING. LATRONIB. ET. HIS. QUI.

NOVAM. GENERI. HUM. SUPERSt.i.tION. INCULCAB. PURGAT.

** Ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl, lib* 6, c 19, [--------]

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strength of which they sought to obtrude* the new and strange religion upon mankind. But now let us see whether they will rise again, and whether their G.o.d can help and deliver them out of our hands.'

Celsus gives them the name of Sibyllists**, because the Christians in their disputes with the heathens sometimes made use of the authority of Sibylla their own prophetess against them; whose writing they urged with so much advantage to the Christian cause, and prejudice to the heathen, that Justin Martyr*** says, the Roman governors made it death for any one to read them, or Hystaspes, or the writings of the prophets.

They also reproached them with the appellation of [--------], 'self-murderers,' because they readily offered themselves up to martyrdom, and cheerfully underwent any violent death, which the heathens could inflict upon them. With what eagerness they courted death, we learn not only from the Christian writers**** themselves, but from the testimonies

* Act. Mart. Lugd. ap. Euseb. lib. 5. c. 1. [--------]

** Origen. c. Cels. lib. 5. p. 272.

*** Just Apol. 2. p. 82.

**** See these collected in Pearson, Vind. Ignat. Par. 2. c.

9. p. 384.

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of the heathens* concerning them. Lucian** says they not only despised death, but many of them voluntarily offered themselves to it, out of a persuasion that they should be made immortal and live forever. This he reckons folly, and therefore gives them the name of [--------], 'The miserable wretches, that threw away their lives,' In which sense Porphyry*** also styles, the Christian religion, [--------] the barbarous boldness.' As Arrjus Antoninus**** terms the professors of it, [--------], The stupid wretches, that had such a mind to die; and the heathen in Minucius(v), homines deploratae ac desperate factionis, 'the men of the forlorn and desperate faction.' All which agrees with the name Biothanati, or Biaeothanati, as Baronius(vi) understands it* Though it may signify not only self-murderers, but (as a learned critic(xii) notes) men that expect to live after death. In which sense the heathens probably might use it likewise to ridicule the Christian doctrine of the resurrection; on which, they

* Arrius Antonin. ap. Tertul. ad Scap. c. 4. Tiberias, in Joh. Malela Chronic.

** Lucian. de Mort Peregrin.

*** Porphyr. ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl. 1. 6. c 19.

**** Tertul. ibid.

(v) Minuc. Octav. p. 25.

(vi) Baron, an. 138. n. 5.

(vii) Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast 1.1. p. 690.

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knew, all their fearless and undaunted courage was founded. For so the same heathen in Minucius endeavours to expose at once both their resolution and their belief: "O strange folly, and incredible madness!"

says he; "they despise all present torments, and yet fear those that are future and uncertain: they are afraid of dying after death, but in the mean time do not fear to die. So vainly do they flatter themselves, and allay their fears, with the hopes of some reviving comforts after death." For one of these reasons then they gave them the name of _Biothanati_,

which word expressly occurs in some of the acts of the ancient martyrs.

Baronius observes* out of Bede's Martyrology, that when the seven sons of Symphorosa were martyred under Hadrian, their bodies were all cast into one pit together, which the temple-priests named from them, _Ad Septem Biothanatos_, 'The grave of the seven Biothanati.'

For the same reasons they gave them the names of _Parabolarii and Desperati_, 'The bold and desperate men.' The Parabolarii, or Parabolani among the Romans were those bold adventurous men, who hired out themselves to fight with wild beasts upon the stage or amphitheatre, whence they had also the name of _Bestiarii, and Confectores_. Now because the

* Baron, an. 138. n. 5.

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Christians were put to fight for their lives in the same manner, and they rather chose to do it than deny their religion, they therefore got the name of _Paraboli and Parabolani_: which, though it was intended as a name of reproach and mockery, yet the Christians were not unwilling to take to themselves, being one of the truest characters that the heathens ever gave them. And therefore they sometimes gave themselves this name by way of allusion to the Roman Paraboli. As in the Pa.s.sion of Abdo and Senne* in the time of Valerian, the martyrs who were exposed to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, are said to enter, '_ut audacissimi Parabolani_,' as most resolute champions, that despised their own lives for their religion's sake. But the other name of _Desperati_ they rejected as a calumny, retorting it back upon their adversaries, who more justly deserved it. "Those," says Lactantius***, "who set a value upon their faith, and will not deny their G.o.d, they first torment and butcher with all their might, and then call them desperados, because they will not spare their bodies: as if any thing could be more desperate, than to torture and tear in pieces those whom you cannot but know to be innocent."

* Acta Abdon. et Sennes ap. Suicer.

** Lact. Instil, lib. 5. c. 9. Desperates vocant, quia corpori suo minime parc.u.n.t, &c.

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Tertullian mentions another name, which was likewise occasioned by their sufferings. The martyrs which were burnt alive, were usually tied to a board or stake of about six foot long, which the Romans called _semaxis_; and then they were surrounded or covered with f.a.ggots of small wood, which they called _sarmenia_. From this their punishment, the heathens, who turned every thing into mockery, gave all Christians the despiteful name of _Sarment.i.tii_ and _Semaxii_*.

The heathen in Minucius*** takes occasion also to reproach them under the name of the sculking generation, or the men that loved to prate in corners and the dark. The ground of which scurrilous reflection was only this, that they were forced to hold their religious a.s.semblies in the night to avoid the fury of the persecutions. Which Celsus**** himself owns, though otherwise p.r.o.ne enough to load them with hard names and odious reflections.

The same heathen in Minucius gives them one

* Tertul. Apol. t, 50. Licet nunc Sarment.i.tios et Semaxios appelletis, quia ad stipitem dimidii axis re-vincti, sarmentorum ambitu exurimur.

** Minuc. Octav. p. 25. Latebrosa et lucifugax natio, in public.u.m muta, in angulis garrula.

*** Origen. c. Cel. lib. 1. p. 5.

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scurrilous name more, which it is not very easy to guess the meaning of.

He calls them _Plautinians_*,--_homines Plautinae prosapiae_. Rigaltius**

takes it for a ridicule upon the poverty and simplicity of the Christians, whom the heathens commonly represented as a company of poor ignorant mechanics, bakers, tailors, and the like; men of the same quality with Plautus, who, as St. Jerome*** observes, was so poor, that at a time of famine he was forced to hire out himself to a baker to grind at his mill, during which time he wrote three of his Plays in the intervals of his labour. Such sort of men Coecilius says the Christians were; and therefore he styles Octavius in the dialogue, _h.o.m.o Plautinae prosapiae et pistorum praecipuus_, 'a Plautinian, a chief man among the illiterate bakers,' but no philosopher. The same reflection is often made by Celsus. "You shall see," says he****, "weavers, tailors,fullers, and the most illiterate and rustic fellows, who dare not speak a word before wise men, when they can get a company of children and silly women together, set up to teach strange paradoxes amongst

* Minuc. p. 37. Quid ad haec audet Octavius h.o.m.o Plautinae Prosapiae, ut Pistorum praecipuus ita postremus Philosophorum?

** Rigalt. in loc.

*** Hieron. Chronic, an. 1. Olymp. 145.