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Minucius Felix

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Introductory Note

[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.”

 

 

 

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