Minucius Felix

Footnotes

^[1708] Possibly as late as a.d. 230. Comp. Wordsworth, Hippol., p. 126.

^[1709] A condensed and valuable view of this matter may be seen in Dr. Schaff’s History, etc., vol. iii. pp. 834–841.

^[1710] See Bishop Jewell, Works, vol. i. pp. 386, 441. Cambridge, 1845.

^[1711] Vol. I. of this series, pp. 23, 24. See also Bunsen, Hippol., i. p. 244.

^[1712] De Viris Illustribus, c. 58.

^[1713] [His connection with the Roman courts is inferred from cap. ii. infra.]

^[1714] Milman’s Hist. of Christianity, vol. iii. book iv. ch. iii.

^[1715] [Dr. Wallis, the learned translator of the Octavius, is described in the Edinburgh edition as “Senior Priest-Vicar of Wells Cathedral, and incumbent of Christ Church, Coxley, Somerset.”]

Chapter I.—Argument: Minucius Relates How Delightful to Him is the Recollection of the Things that Had Happened to Him with Octavius While He Was Associated with Him at Rome, and Especially of This Disputation.

^[1716] [Sallust, Catiline, “Idem facere atque sentire,” etc. Also, Catiline’s speech, p. 6 of The Conspiracy.]

^[1717] [Beautiful tribute to Christian friendship, in a primitive example. We must bear in mind that the story is of an earlier period than that of the work itself, written at Cirta.]

Chapter IV.—Argument: Cæcilius, Somewhat Grieved at This Kind of Rebuke Which for His Sake Minucius Had Had to Bear from Octavius, Begs to Argue with Octavius on the Truth of His Religion. Octavius with His Companion Consents, and Minucius Sits in the Middle Between Cæcilius and Octavius.

^[1718] “Ita ut me ex tribus medium lateris ambitione protegerent."

Chapter V.—Argument: Cæcilius Begins His Argument First of All by Reminding Them that in Human Affairs All Things are Doubtful and Uncertain, and that Therefore It is to Be Lamented that Christians, Who for the Most Part are Untrained and Illiterate Persons, Should Dare to Determine on Anything with Certainty Concerning the Chief of Things and the Divine Majesty: Hence He Argues that the World is Governed by No Providence, and Concludes that It is Better to Abide by the Received Forms of Religion.

^[1719] The ms. and first edition read “more;” Ursinus suggested minus instead of magis.

^[1720] This clause is otherwise read: “Therefore we must be indignant, nay, must be grieved.”

^[1721] Otherwise for “even,” “except.”

^[1722] The reading of the ms. is “stuprari,” as above. “Scrutari,” “sciari,” or “lustrare” and “suspicari,” are proposed emendations.

^[1723] Or, “although its weight may have established the earth.”

^[1724] Or, “although the moisture may have flowed into the sea.”

^[1725] Variously read, “is raised up,” or “and is raised up.” The ms. has “attollitur,” which by some is amended into “et alitur,” or “et tollitur.”

^[1726] Either “delectu” or “dilectu.”

^[1727] Or, “it is extolled.”

Chapter VI.—Argument: The Object of All Nations, and Especially of the Romans, in Worshipping Their Divinities, Has Been to Attain for Their Worship the Supreme Dominion Over the Whole Earth.

^[1728] “To think of rather than to know” in some texts.

^[1729] Neander quotes this passage as illustrating the dissatisfied state of the pagan mind with the prevailing infidelity at that time.

^[1730] Or, “the great mother” [i.e., Cybele. S.].

^[1731] Or, “which another people, when angry, would have despised.”

Chapter VII.—Argument: That the Roman Auspices and Auguries Have Been Neglected with Ill Consequences, But Have Been Observed with Good Fortune.

^[1732] Otherwise, “the goddess mother.”

^[1733] Scil. Castor and Pollux.

^[1734] Otherwise, “who breathless with horses foaming,” etc.

^[1735] Otherwise, “the offence of Jupiter, the renewal of the games,” etc.

Chapter VIII.—Argument: The Impious Temerity of Theodorus, Diagoras, and Protagoras is Not at All to Be Acquiesced In, Who Wished Either Altogether to Get Rid of the Religion of the Gods, or at Least to Weaken It. But Infinitely Less to Be Endured is that Skulking and Light-Shunning People of the Christians, Who Reject the Gods, and Who, Fearing to Die After Death, Do Not in the Meantime Fear to Die.

^[1736] According to the codex, “the Milesian.” [See note in Reeve’s Apologies of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Minucius Felix, vol. ii. p. 59. S.]

^[1737] Some have corrected this word, reading “without consideration,” scil. “inconsulte;” and the four first editions omit the subsequent words, “concerning the divinity.”

^[1738] There are various emendations of this passage, but their meaning is somewhat obscure. One is elaborately ingenious: “Ita illis pavorum fallax spes solatio redivivo blanditur,” which is said to imply, “Thus the hope that deceives their fears, soothes them with the hope of living again.”

Chapter IX.—Argument: The Religion of the Christians is Foolish, Inasmuch as They Worship a Crucified Man, and Even the Instrument Itself of His Punishment. They are Said to Worship the Head of an Ass, and Even the Nature of Their Father. They are Initiated by the Slaughter and the Blood of an Infant, and in Shameless Darkness They are All Mixed Up in an Uncertain Medley.

^[1739] Otherwise read “abominable.”

^[1740] This charge, as Oehler thinks, refers apparently to the kneeling posture in which penitents made confession before their bishop.

^[1741] This calumny seems to have originated from the sacrament of the Eucharist.

^[1742] Scil. Fronto of Cirta, spoken of again in ch. xxxi. [A recent very interesting discovery goes to show that our author was the chief magistrate of Cirta, in Algeria, from a.d. 210 to 217. See Schaff, vol. iii. p. 841.]

Chapter X.—Argument: Whatever the Christians Worship, They Strive in Every Way to Conceal: They Have No Altars, No Temples, No Acknowledged Images. Their God, Like that of the Jews, is Said to Be One, Whom, Although They are Neither Able to See Nor to Show, They Think Nevertheless to Be Mischievous, Restless, and Unseasonably Inquisitive.

^[1743] Otherwise, “no consecrated images.”

^[1744] Otherwise, “we are contained and bound together.”

^[1745] [These very accusations, reduced back to Christian language, show that much of the Creed was, in fact, known to the heathen at this period.]

Chapter XI.—Argument: Besides Asserting the Future Conflagration of the Whole World, They Promise Afterwards the Resurrection of Our Bodies: and to the Righteous an Eternity of Most Blessed Life; To the Unrighteous, of Extreme Punishment.

^[1746] [1 Tim. iv. 7.]

^[1747] “And I have already shown, without any trouble,” is another reading.

^[1748] Otherwise, “without a body or with.”

^[1749] Otherwise, “too credulous.”

Chapter XII.—Argument: Moreover, What Will Happen to the Christians Themselves After Death, May Be Anticipated from the Fact that Even Now They are Destitute of All Means, and are Afflicted with the Heaviest Calamities and Miseries.

^[1750] Otherwise, “while you consider, while you are yet alive, poor wretches, what is threatening after death.”

^[1751] Some read, “with shivering.”

Chapter XIII.—Argument: Cæcilius at Length Concludes that the New Religion is to Be Repudiated; And that We Must Not Rashly Pronounce Upon Doubtful Matters.

^[1752] This is otherwise read, “Academic Pyrrhonists.”

^[1753] Cicero, de Natura Deorum, i. 22.

Chapter XIV.—Argument: With Something of the Pride of Self-Satisfaction, Cæcilius Urges Octavius to Reply to His Arguments; And Minucius with Modesty Answers Him, that He Must Not Exult at His Own by No Means Ordinary Eloquence, and at the Harmonious Variety of His Address.

^[1754] “Plautinæ prosapiæ.” The expression is intended as a reproach against the humble occupations of many of the Christian professors. Plautus is said, when in need, to have laboured at a baker’s hand-mill. Cæcilius tells Octavius that he may be the first among the millers, but he is the last among the philosophers. Stieber proposes “Christianorum” instead of “pistorum”—“Christians” instead of “millers.”

Chapter XV.—Argument: Cæcilius Retorts Upon Minucius, with Some Little Appearance of Being Hurt, that He is Foregoing the Office of a Religious Umpire, When He is Weakening the Force of His Argument. He Says that It Should Be Left to Octavius to Confute All that He Had Advanced.

^[1755] Scil. “Octavius.”

Chapter XVI.—Argument: Octavius Arranges His Reply, and Trusts that He Shall Be Able to Dilute the Bitterness of Reproach with the River of Truthful Words. He Proceeds to Weaken the Individual Arguments of Cæcilius. Nobody Need Complain that the Christians, Unlearned Though They May Be, Dispute About Heavenly Things Because It is Not the Authority of Him Who Argues, But the Truth of the Argument Itself, that Should Be Considered.

^[1756] Some read, “in the light.”

^[1757] Cæcilius.

^[1758] Otherwise “his.”

^[1759] Some read “cavillaverit” instead of “vacillaverit,” which would give the sense, “make captious objections.”

^[1760] This is otherwise given “certainty,” which helps the meaning of the passage.

^[1761] Otherwise, “Far from his guileless subtlety is so crafty a trickery.” But the readings are very unsettled.

Chapter XVII.—Argument: Man Ought Indeed to Know Himself, But This Knowledge Cannot Be Attained by Him Unless He First of All Acknowledges the Entire Scope of Things, and God Himself. And from the Constitution and Furniture of the World Itself, Every One Endowed with Reason Holds that It Was Established by God, and is Governed and Administered by Him.

^[1762] Some read, “the Lord God.”

^[1763] Scil. “atoms.”

^[1764] According to some, “point out” or “indicate.”

^[1765] Olives ripen in the month of December.

Chapter XVIII.—Argument: Moreover, God Not Only Takes Care of the Universal World, But of Its Individual Parts. That by the Decree of the One God All Things are Governed, is Proved by the Illustration of Earthly Empires. But Although He, Being Infinite and Immense—And How Great He Is, is Known to Himself Alone—Cannot Either Be Seen or Named by Us, Yet His Glory is Beheld Most Clearly When the Use of All Titles is Laid Aside.

^[1766] [In the case of Darius Hystaspes.]

^[1767] Eteocles and Polynices.

^[1768] Pompey and Cæsar.

^[1769] According to some, “one fate.”

^[1770] These words are omitted by some editors.

Chapter XIX.—Argument: Moreover, the Poets Have Called Him the Parent of Gods and Men, the Creator of All Things, and Their Mind and Spirit. And, Besides, Even the More Excellent Philosophers Have Come Almost to the Same Conclusion as the Christians About the Unity of God.

^[1771] Homer, Odyss., xviii. 136, 137.

^[1772] Virgil, Æneid, vi. 724.

^[1773] Some read, “For these things are true.”

^[1774] Virgil, Georgics, iv. 221; Æneid, i. 743.

^[1775] Otherwise, “Speusippus.”

^[1776] The ms. here inserts, “Aristoteles of Pontus varies, at one time attributing the supremacy to the world, at another to the divine mind.” Some think that this is an interpolation, others transfer the words to Theophrastus below.

^[1777] Otherwise, “Aristo the Chian.”

^[1778] [See note on Plato, chap. xxvi.]

Chapter XX.—Argument: But If the World is Ruled by Providence and Governed by the Will of One God, an Ignorant Antipathy Ought Not to Carry Us Away into the Error of Agreement with It: Although Delighted with Its Own Fables, It Has Brought in Ridiculous Traditions. Nor is It Shown Less Plainly that the Worship of the Gods Has Always Been Silly and Impious, in that the Most Ancient of Men Have Venerated Their Kings, Their Illustrious Generals, and Inventors of Arts, on Account of Their Remarkable Deeds, No Otherwise Than as Gods.

^[1779] Some editors read, “mere wonders,” apparently on conjecture only.

^[1780] Otherwise, “was pleased.”

^[1781] Four early editions read “instantius” for “in statuis,” making the meaning probably, “more keenly,” “more directly.”

Chapter XXI.—Argument: Octavius Attests the Fact that Men Were Adopted as Gods, by the Testimony of Euhemerus, Prodicus, Persæus, and Alexander the Great, Who Enumerate the Country, the Birthdays, and the Burial-Places of the Gods. Moreover He Sets Forth the Mournful Endings, Misfortunes, and Deaths of the Gods. And, in Addition, He Laughs at the Ridiculous and Disgusting Absurdities Which the Heathens Continually Allege About the Form and Appearance of Their Gods.

^[1782] Otherwise, according to some, “of the historians.”

^[1783] This treatise is mentioned by Athenagoras, Legat. pro Christ., ch. xxviii. [See vol. ii. p. 143, this series.] Also by Augustine, de Civ. Dei., lib. viii. ch. iii. and xxvii. In the fifth chapter Augustine calls the priest by the name of Leo.

^[1784] This passage is very doubtful both in its text and its meaning.

^[1785] Otherwise, “carried about.”

^[1786] Otherwise, “his approach is drowned.”

^[1787] Otherwise, “do they not show what are the sports and the honours of your gods?”

^[1788] These words are very variously read. Davis conjectures that they should be, “When Feretrius, he does not hear,” and explains the allusion as follows: that Jupiter Feretrius could only be approached with the spolia opima; and Minucius is covertly ridiculing the Romans, because, not having taken spolia opima for so long a time, they could not approach Feretrius.

^[1789] Otherwise, “pointed out,” or “designated.”

^[1790] Otherwise corrupted into Ætna.

Chapter XXII.—Argument: Moreover, These Fables, Which at First Were Invented by Ignorant Men, Were Afterwards Celebrated by Others, and Chiefly by Poets, Who Did No Little Mischief to the Truth by Their Authority. By Fictions of This Kind, and by Falsehoods of a Yet More Attractive Nature, the Minds of Young People are Corrupted, and Thence They Miserably Grow Old in These Beliefs, Although, on the Other Hand, the Truth is Obvious to Them If They Will Only Seek After It.

^[1791] Some read, “and it is marvellous how these have prejudiced,” etc.

^[1792] Some read, “the truth itself.”

^[1793] Plat., de Rep., lib. iii.

^[1794] Otherwise, “Then Vulcan fabricates,” etc.

^[1795] Otherwise, “judgments.”

Chapter XXIII.—Argument: Although the Heathens Acknowledge Their Kings to Be Mortal, Yet They Feign that They are Gods Even Against Their Own Will, Not Because of Their Belief in Their Divinity, But in Honour of the Power that They Have Exerted. Yet a True God Has Neither Rising Nor Setting. Thence Octavius Criticises the Images and Shrines of the Gods.

^[1796] “Be created” is a more probable reading.

^[1797] Otherwise, “that he had rashly been so deceived by the artificer in the material, as to make a god.”

^[1798] [Footbaths. See vol. ii., Theophilus, p. 92, and Athenagoras, p. 143.]

Chapter XXV.—Argument: Then He Shows that Cæcilius Had Been Wrong in Asserting that the Romans Had Gained Their Power Over the Whole World by Means of the Due Observance of Superstitions of This Kind. Rather the Romans in Their Origin Were Collected by Crime, and Grew by the Terrors of Their Ferocity. And Therefore the Romans Were Not So Great Because They Were Religious, But Because They Were Sacrilegious with Impunity.

^[1799] Parricidium.

^[1800] Virg., Æneid, viii. 635.

^[1801] Some read “probra” for “morbos,” scil. “reproaches.”

Chapter XXVI.—Argument: The Weapon that Cæcilius Had Slightly Brandished Against Him, Taken from the Auspices and Auguries of Birds, Octavius Retorts by Instancing the Cases of Regulus, Mancinus, Paulus, and Cæsar. And He Shows by Other Examples, that the Argument from the Oracles is of No Greater Force Than the Others.

^[1802] Reipublicæ; but it is shrewdly conjectured that the passage was written, “cum majore R. P. parte”—“with the greater part of the Roman people,” and the mistake made by the transcriber of the ms.

^[1803] Otherwise Hostanes.

^[1804] [Octavius and Minucius had but one mind (see cap. i. supra), and both were philosophers of the Attic Academy reflecting Cicero. See my remarks on Athenagoras, vol. ii. p. 126, this series.]

^[1805] According to some editors, “warns us that the desire of love is received.”

Chapter XXVII.—Argument: Recapitulation. Doubtless Here is a Source of Error: Demons Lurk Under the Statues and Images, They Haunt the Fanes, They Animate the Fibres of the Entrails, Direct the Flights of Birds, Govern the Lots, Pour Forth Oracles Involved in False Responses. These Things Not from God; But They are Constrained to Confess When They are Adjured in the Name of the True God, and are Driven from the Possessed Bodies. Hence They Flee Hastily from the Neighbourhood of Christians, and Stir Up a Hatred Against Them in the Minds of the Gentiles Who Begin to Hate Them Before They Know Them.

^[1806] Some read “slumbers” for “all men.”

^[1807] “Cling to” is another reading.

Chapter XXVIII.—Argument: Nor is It Only Hatred that They Arouse Against the Christians, But They Charge Against Them Horrid Crimes, Which Up to This Time Have Been Proved by Nobody. This is the Work of Demons. For by Them a False Report is Both Set on Foot and Propagated. The Christians are Falsely Accused of Sacrilege, of Incest, of Adultery, of Parricide; And, Moreover, It is Certain and True that the Very Same Crimes, or Crimes Like to or Greater Than These, are in Fact Committed by the Gentiles Themselves.

^[1808] Otherwise read, “But how great a fault it is.”

^[1809] “To urge them” is the reading in some text.

^[1810] “Of all men” is another reading.

^[1811] Otherwise, “Hippona.”

^[1812] Otherwise, “devote,” and other readings.

Chapter XXIX.—Argument: Nor is It More True that a Man Fastened to a Cross on Account of His Crimes is Worshipped by Christians, for They Believe Not Only that He Was Innocent, But with Reason that He Was God. But, on the Other Hand, the Heathens Invoke the Divine Powers of Kings Raised into Gods by Themselves; They Pray to Images, and Beseech Their Genii.

^[1813] [A reverent allusion to the Crucified, believed in and worshipped as God.]

^[1814] [Jer. xvii. 5-7.]

^[1815] [See Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, chap. lxxxix. et seqq. vol. i. p. 244. S.]

^[1816] [See Reeves’s Apologies (ut supra), vol. ii. p. 144, note. S.]

Chapter XXX.—Argument: The Story About Christians Drinking the Blood of an Infant that They Have Murdered, is a Barefaced Calumny. But the Gentiles, Both Cruelly Expose Their Children Newly Born, and Before They are Born Destroy Them by a Cruel Abortion. Christians are Neither Allowed to See Nor to Hear of Manslaughter.

^[1817] By medicaments and drinks.

Chapter XXXI.—Argument: The Charge of Our Entertainments Being Polluted with Incest, is Entirely Opposed to All Probability, While It is Plain that Gentiles are Actually Guilty of Incest. The Banquets of Christians are Not Only Modest, But Temperate. In Fact, Incestuous Lust is So Unheard Of, that with Many Even the Modest Association of the Sexes Gives Rise to a Blush.

^[1818] [Fronto is called “our Cirtensian” in cap. ix. supra; and this suggests that the Octavius was probably written in Cirta, circaa.d. 210. See supra, p. 178.]

Chapter XXXII.—Argument: Nor Can It Be Said that the Christians Conceal What They Worship Because They Have No Temples and No Altars, Inasmuch as They are Persuaded that God Can Be Circumscribed by No Temple, and that No Likeness of Him Can Be Made. But He is Everywhere Present, Sees All Things, Even the Most Secret Thoughts of Our Hearts; And We Live Near to Him, and in His Protection.

^[1819] According to some editions, “conscience.”

Chapter XXXIII.—Argument: That Even If God Be Said to Have Nothing Availed the Jews, Certainly the Writers of the Jewish Annals are the Most Sufficient Witnesses that They Forsook God Before They Were Forsaken by Him.

^[1820] [Minucius is blamed for not introducing more Scripture! He relates his friend’s argument with a scoffing Pagan. How could Octavius have used the Scriptures with such an antagonist?]

^[1821] [Wars of the Jews, b. v. cap. 9, etc.]

Chapter XXXIV.—Argument: Moreover, It is Not at All to Be Wondered at If This World is to Be Consumed by Fire, Since Everything Which Has a Beginning Has Also an End. And the Ancient Philosophers are Not Averse from the Opinion of the Probable Burning Up of the World. Yet It is Evident that God, Having Made Man from Nothing, Can Raise Him Up from Death into Life. And All Nature Suggests a Future Resurrection.

^[1822] This passage is very indefinite, and probably corrupt; the meaning is anything but satisfactory. The general meaning is given freely thus: “Further, it is a vulgar error to doubt or disbelieve a future conflagration of the world.”

^[1823] This passage is very variously read, without substantial alteration of the sense.

^[1824] Otherwise, “to God Himself alone, the artificer.”

^[1825] This is otherwise read, “the work of the mimic or buffoon.”

^[1826] Scil. “by burning.”

^[1827] [1 Cor. xv. 36, Job xiv. 7-15.]

Chapter XXXV.—Argument: Righteous and Pious Men Shall Be Rewarded with Never-Ending Felicity, But Unrighteous Men Shall Be Visited with Eternal Punishment. The Morals of Christians are Far More Holy Than Those of the Gentiles.

^[1828] πῦρ σωφρονοῦν is an expression of Clemens Alexandrinus, so that there is no need for the emendation of “rapiens” instead of “sapiens,” suggested by one editor.

^[1829] “Are known as” is another reading.

Chapter XXXVI.—Argument: Fate is Nothing, Except So Far as Fate is God. Man’s Mind is Free, and Therefore So is His Action: His Birth is Not Brought into Judgment. It is Not a Matter of Infamy, But of Glory, that Christians are Reproached for Their Poverty; And the Fact that They Suffer Bodily Evils is Not as a Penalty, But as a Discipline.

^[1830] Fatus.

^[1831] Otherwise read, “both more truly.”

^[1832] Some read, “I will speak at length.”

^[1833] Probably a better reading is “strive for them.”

Chapter XXXVII.—Argument: Tortures Most Unjustly Inflicted for the Confession of Christ’s Name are Spectacles Worthy of God. A Comparison Instituted Between Some of the Bravest of the Heathens and the Holy Martyrs. He Declares that Christians Do Not Present Themselves at Public Shows and Processions, Because They Know Them, with the Greatest Certainty, to Be No Less Impious Than Cruel.

^[1834] “Arridens,” but otherwise “arripiens,” scil. “snatching at,” suggesting possibly the idea of the martyrs chiding the delays of the executioners, or provoking the rush of the wild beasts.

^[1835] Otherwise, “unhoped-for.” [This chapter has been supposed to indicate that the work was written in a time of persecution. Faint tokens of the same have been imagined also, in capp. 29 and 33, supra.]

^[1836] This passage is peculiar; the original is, “Ut ingenium eorum perditæ mentis licentiæ potestatis liberæ nundinentur,” with various modifications of reading.

Chapter XXXVIII.—Argument: Christians Abstain from Things Connected with Idol Sacrifices, Lest Any One Should Think Either that They Yield to Demons, or that They are Ashamed of Their Religion. They Do Not Indeed Despise All the Colour and Scent of Flowers, for They are Accustomed to Use Them Scattered About Loosely and Negligently, as Well as to Entwine Their Necks with Garlands; But to Crown the Head of a Corpse They Think Superfluous and Useless. Moreover, with the Same Tranquillity with Which They Live They Bury Their Dead, Waiting with a Very Certain Hope the Crown of Eternal Felicity. Therefore Their Religion, Rejecting All the Superstitions of the Gentiles, Should Be Adopted as True by All Men.

^[1837] The probable reading here is, “You apply to a lifeless person, either if he has feeling, a torch; or, if he feels not, a garland.”

^[1838] “We who do not,” etc., is a conjectural reading, omitting the subsequent “we.”

Chapter XL.—Argument: Then Cæcilius Exclaims that He is Vanquished by Octavius; And That, Being Now Conqueror Over Error, He Professes the Christian Religion. He Postpones, However, Till the Morrow His Training in the Fuller Belief of Its Mysteries.

^[1839] Otherwise read, “and I believe concerning God.”

^[1840] [i.e., he will become a catechumen on the morrow.]

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