Works 5

In many ways and by many means I give thanks, Fortunatus most dear to me in the Lord, to the divine goodness, both because it stirred up your piety to spur on my office, that in a single little book I might supply to our fellow-soldiers the material from which, with the grace of the Spirit helping, they might fashion for themselves fortifications and weapons against the onslaughts of persecutions; and because, when I attempted what you asked, it did not disdain to be present to me; and because it did not suffer the labor of us both to be barren—this is what has well prospered the devout desire of my Fortunatus, and willed that the office of his minister should be the benefit of his flock.

For you write that from that book much strength and eagerness has come to the vigorous, and that so much has been added to the more timid and weak in courage, that from these too, by the grace of God, we ought to promise ourselves a sure victory. And therefore the more gladly did I comply with your later letters, in which your charity begs that, since this has succeeded well under the auspices of our Lord Jesus Christ, I should add another volume concerning the twofold kind of martyrdom: of which the one is exhibited when the savagery of the torturers rages, the other is indeed more hidden, but nonetheless demands a brave soul and one fortified by much armor from on high.

Would that the Spirit of Christ might deign to bestow this gift also, through me, upon our brothers and fellow-soldiers, and might well prosper what he has granted. For just as nothing is holy unless he sanctifies it, nothing powerful unless he strengthens it: so nothing is happy, nothing auspicious, unless he prospers it. Truly, relying both on your prayers and on the goodness of the Lord, I shall set to. A martyr—as is known even to those who do not know Greek—signifies a witness. Yet after the light of evangelical truth had arisen, the custom of the Church assigned the honor of this title properly to those who, amid torments even unto death, persevered in the profession of the name of Jesus Christ and sealed, as it were, the evangelical instrument with their own blood before unbelievers:

yet the whole life of the pious renders testimony to God—not that he needs anyone's testimony, who is of himself the fount of eternal glory, so that he can be made neither more honored by any honors of men nor more obscure by any ignominies of mortals: but nevertheless so it seemed good to his eternal and divine counsel, that he wills his goodness, wisdom, and power to be made illustrious among men through men, just as he willed the world to be governed through angels, though he has no need of the ministry of angels, and bestows on men through men many things which he could have given by himself, who can do by a nod whatever he wills, and for whom to have willed is to have done.

And although, as I have said, no ignominy reaches that ineffable Majesty, yet in the Scriptures he so speaks as if he were honored or afflicted with ignominy through us. For in Deuteronomy he expostulates with Moses, that among the people murmuring for lack of water at Cades in the desert of Sin, at the waters of contradiction, he did not sanctify him among the children of Israel; and on account of this offense it was not granted to him, nor to Aaron, to enter the promised land awaited for so many years, but only from the summit of the mountain was it permitted to look upon it from afar. Furthermore, that what is said 'to sanctify' stands for 'to glorify,' those who are versed in the letters of the Hebrews affirm to be a property of that language.

Yet this very thing can be made clear from other passages of the Scriptures, even if we trust less to their testimony, since also in the Lord's Prayer 'hallowed be thy name' is said for 'glorified' or 'made illustrious be thy name.' So too he exhorts the Corinthians, that they should glorify and bear God in their body. For just as the name of God is glorified by the life of pious men, in whom he himself works through his Spirit whatever good they do: so, on the contrary, it is polluted and defamed by the misdeeds of those who profess themselves worshipers of God.

Just as the valor of a soldier or the honesty of a servant redounds to the glory of the commander or the master, so the cowardice of a soldier or the wickedness of a servant is a disgrace to the commander or the master, because the morals of these depend in great part upon the morals of those in whose power they are. And even if the masters are wholly free from all blame, yet popular opinion is wont to estimate the morals of masters from the morals of servants. Whence here too we see divine Scripture frequently speaking in accordance with the affections of mortals, as in Leviticus concerning him who had given of his seed to the idol Moloch, it says: because he has polluted my holy name. But what has been sanctified by men can be polluted:

the name of God, however, is in itself ever glorious; among men only is it contaminated, just as a lying slander does not pollute an upright man. So too in Ezekiel he cries out that his name had been polluted among the nations by the impious morals of the Israelites. Nay, the most blessed Paul, writing to the Romans on the authority of the prophet, addressing the Jews who profess the law but do the things the law forbids, says: the name of God is blasphemed among the nations. And in the Lord's Prayer, as I have touched upon in a measure, on the authority of the Redeemer we pray that the name of God the Father may be sanctified, that is, that it may become renowned and be made illustrious among men—indeed through men, or rather in men.

It is made manifest, moreover, if His Spirit reigns in us and if His will is obeyed on earth even as in heaven there is no rebellion. But since men of themselves possess nothing of virtue, whatever is rightly done through us redounds to the glory of God; and therefore He at times brings forth the treasure of the divine power out of earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be God's and not from us. Therefore, although the whole life of the pious glorifies God and Christ His Son by its martyrdom, yet there is no more illustrious witness among men than that of blood, that is, of a life despised for God's sake and of death bravely endured.

Miracles too rendered testimony to the divine power, especially among unbelievers; for to these signs were properly given, as the blessed Apostle writes: but the testimony of blood poured out has always been more efficacious. How many incurable diseases had the Lord healed by a word, how many blind had He given sight, how many maimed, paralytic, and feeble had He restored, how many lifeless had He recalled to life? And yet few believed in Him, and He heard: 'By Beelzebub He casts out demons.' But when it came to blood, there Satan's kingdom was overthrown, there the world was subdued. John the Evangelist also records a threefold testimony on earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood, reckoning last that which is most efficacious.

John the Baptist was granted to see the Spirit descending in the form of a dove upon Jesus; whether others saw it is uncertain. Assuredly this testimony was given to John, that he might cease to doubt concerning the Lord Jesus, whether He was the one who should baptize with the Spirit and with fire. The testimony of the water John the Evangelist saw, nor is it fully clear whether he alone saw it or together with many. This indeed was the great mystery of the sacred laver by which sins are blotted out: but he saw the water flow out together with the blood, which, had it not been present, the water would have been ineffective. For what does it profit that sins be abolished, unless there follow a life of righteousness which the blood confers? And yet these three are one:

For God is one, who through the spirit, the water, and the blood declares to the race of men His power and His goodness: or else they are said to be one because on every side the testimony is consistent with itself and in no part is discordant, just as those whom the closest friendship joins on account of the highest agreement of minds are said to be one soul. And according to a grosser sense, these three are the chief proofs and even instruments of life in man. For so long as, by the office of the lung, breath is by turns drawn in and given back, it is a sure sign of life: whence by common usage the living are said to breathe, and those who have ended life are said to have expired.

Indeed the soul too is by the Latins called 'breath' (flatus), in imitation of the Greek word, for they call the wind ánemon. Beyond these there are in man himself the most subtle spirits, which have their source in the heart and are scattered throughout the whole body, but pass chiefly through the arteries, though they are also mingled with all the other parts: if these suddenly fly out, they bring immediate death; but if they be shut in, they consume a man by lingering sickness. There is present also a certain natural humor, which, as I suppose, the physicians call phlegm, itself likewise scattered throughout the whole body. We never perceive its use more evidently than in the sense of taste: for unless this be mingled between tongue and palate, there will be no judgment of the palate.

And yet these are so mingled in man that there is no blood without spirit and phlegm, and all alike contribute to the preservation of life. We see any animal die as soon as the blood has flowed out, and when the humor which the physicians call radical is consumed, a man dies no otherwise than a lamp is extinguished when the oil is spent. But we linger overlong in the contemplation of nature, which nevertheless I think has not been done unprofitably by us, that the mystery may become clearer to your charity; in the contemplation of which we the more gladly dwell because it is the more wholesome. For according to the consideration of nature these things have great force when in a living body they perform their functions: but according to the mystical philosophy they at last avail most when they leave the body.

No one wondered at the Lord breathing in and out after the manner of men; but when on the cross He had sent forth His spirit with a loud cry, it was at once understood that He had been both true man and true God: man, because according to the order of nature, once He had sent forth the vital breath, He ceased to live; God, because He died together with a mighty cry, declaring that He laid down His life unwillingly compelled by none but of His own accord—which no one is ignorant is not within human powers. The centurion standing near perceived the efficacious testimony of the spirit; for thus the blessed Mark relates: 'And the centurion who stood over against Him, seeing that He so expired, said: Truly this man was the Son of God.' What is more abject than death according to the flesh? Yet nothing is more powerful than death according to the spirit.

There was also that thing beyond the course of nature, that from the side of the lifeless body blood and water flowed forth, so that the threefold testimony might be completed. He poured out His whole spirit that we might breathe again; whatever there was of watery humor remaining, He pressed out that we might be washed; whatever of blood had settled in the heart, He sent forth that we might be confirmed. And I know not whether I do wrong in comparing these three among themselves, since they are one not in nature but in mystery. If, however, there is any distinction, blood in the account of the testimonies is chiefly celebrated, because in it Scripture testifies the life of a living creature to be, and for that reason it was withdrawn from foods by the edict of the Law: besides, blood is more exposed to men's eyes than spirit or water.

The life of the Lord, who was the supreme martyr and who even today fights and conquers in His martyrs, was to very many a stumbling-block. I speak not now of the Pharisees and scribes; even to His own kinsfolk and brethren He was detestable, when they said that He was turned to madness: but His death was admirable not only to the pious but even to the impious, nor was it anywhere more true that the power of God is made perfect in weakness. There was Satan's tyranny broken, there hell was vanquished, there the devil was triumphed over, there the underworld was cast down, heaven opened. Doubtless this was what, with the time of death pressing on, the Lord prayed for: 'Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee.' What is more contemptible than a dead man?

For who would fear a dead Caesar? But what is more efficacious than the death of Christ? The veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom, the earth was shaken, the rocks were split, the tombs were opened, the bodies of the buried came to life again, the sun at midday veiled its face. Never through His whole life did He more declare His power: presently, when all the bars of death were broken, He showed Himself alive to His disciples. Doubtless this is that efficacious testimony of the most holy blood, which alone could break down the wall of partition which separated God from the race of men: which alone could with a single erasure blot out that whole handwriting which was against us and claimed for Satan a right over us. For neither could the blood of goats or of calves abolish sin:

those were shadows and types of things to come. Nor could the blood of any man take away the sin of the world save the blood of that one Lamb, to whom the Baptist bore witness saying: 'Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world.' It is more to take away sin than sins, and sin not of this man or that but of the world. For the body of sin had seized the whole world: that this has been taken away through Christ, His own blood poured out for us renders evident testimony, speaking better for us, as the Apostle says, than the blood of Abel. For that one, crying from the earth, spoke vengeance: but the blood of Christ, crying from the cross, speaks peace and reconciliation.

Nay, this same blood, since it is drunk by us—provided only it be drunk worthily—cries in our hearts words of peace and full of consolation. And there too the testimony is threefold, though in a certain spiritual manner. The Spirit cries, who has been given to us in the place of a pledge: 'Abba, Father,' bearing witness that we are the sons of God. The water cries, through which we have been born again, that all our sins have been forgiven us: and if anyone still doubts, there is added the testimony of the blood crying: Why do you still hesitate, why do you still tremble at the tyrant Satan? Behold the price by which the Son of God redeems you. Had God not willed you saved, He would not have delivered up His only-begotten unto death. No one has greater love than that he lay down his life for his friends.

If there is no greater testimony of surpassing goodwill than that a man impart his life to a friend, weightier is the testimony of the Lord's blood, which was poured out for enemies. Poured out for enemies, it made them friends and sons of God: and that we might consider this friendship to be everlasting, He left us His flesh to eat, left His blood to drink, that we might be nourished by the very things through which we have been redeemed. By the sprinkling of blood the old covenant was ratified, as the most blessed Paul, writing to the Hebrews, admirably teaches:

by the blood of Christ the new covenant was sealed and confirmed, that is, the covenant and pact of grace and of the remission of sins through the blood of the immaculate Lamb, who deigned to take upon Himself the sin of the whole world—the sin which all contract from Adam who come forth into this life, and by whose contagion all sin who sin. So great, moreover, is the sublimity of Christ, that perhaps it were not fitting to compare any of other men with Him, had He not Himself afforded us such confidence—He who did not disdain to call His disciples friends, to call His little servants brethren and co-heirs. As therefore He by His marvelous testimony glorified the Father in this world and even in the heavens:

so His testimony is in a certain manner completed by the testimony of the saints, as though the passion of the Lord and of His servants were one. And lest anyone think this too irreligiously said, the blessed Paul stands as our patron, writing thus to the Colossians: 'who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church.' For who does not know, brethren, how rich a harvest the standing crop of the Church has poured forth, watered by the blood of the apostles and of the other martyrs?

The more blood was poured out, the more the multitude of the faithful flourished, the more widely did that blessed vine spread its shoots, rising from Christ its stock and possessing the whole world wherever it lies open from east to west, from the north even to the south. Behold, most beloved brethren, from the times of the Lord the Redeemer there have flowed by more or less two hundred and forty years, and already the branches of this vine have spread themselves almost more widely than the Roman empire, intoxicating even savage nations with the new wine of the Spirit, and the blood of that white Lamb has softened those whom no force of iron could tame. Those who search out the causes of nature relate that the diamond, yielding to no hardness of steel, when steeped in the blood of a he-goat, flies apart at the blow of hammers:

but no diamond is harder than the stony heart of sinners. This iron heart, then, this stony heart, this heart harder than any diamond, the blood of Christ and of His martyrs softens—those who supplied what was lacking to His sufferings. By this argument that supreme shepherd, and, as Peter says, the prince of shepherds, testified that He was the good shepherd, because He laid down His life for the sheep, giving us an example, that we who in our own poor measure discharge His office in His stead may ourselves also be ready to shed our blood for the Lord's flock, unless we prefer to seem hirelings rather than shepherds. With the words of the Lord agree the words of the disciple.

For when he had said that he rejoiced in his sufferings, by which he would complete the sufferings of Christ, himself suffering also for the body of Christ, which is the Church, such things as the Lord had suffered, he added the reason why he willingly suffered them. 'Of which,' he says, 'I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me toward you, that I may fulfill the word of God.' And in another certain place he writes that he has fulfilled the gospel. As therefore the sufferings of Christ are completed by the deaths of the martyrs, so the promises of Christ are confirmed by the blood of the shepherds. For there is no more indubitable proof than that which has been sealed by the blood of so many martyrs. This surely is to fulfill the word of God, this is to fulfill the gospel.

But meanwhile a most grievous sorrow arises in my soul, beloved, when I reckon with myself that, though that blood of Christ, still fresh, ought to glow warm in the hearts of the faithful, there are so many in whom charity has grown cold; and by this I am the more grievously tormented, that the Church has not a few such shepherds who not only do not set their bodies against the incursions of the wolves, but themselves even play the wolves, while they slaughter and destroy the souls of the simple, themselves serving their own belly, gain, and ambition, and so far from fulfilling the word of God that they rather peddle it and adulterate it with impious doctrines:

nor do they consider that that prince of shepherds will with most severe judgment require back from their hands each single sheep, for the redeeming of which He had poured out His own blood. But their own punishment awaits those men: now it is better that, laying aside complaints, we exhort one another to the duty which we owe to Christ. A threefold testimony we have received from Christ; a threefold testimony we ought to render Him. Let us faithfully deliver the rudiments to those to be baptized, the more perfect things to the baptized. Let us confirm them by the fruits of the Spirit, calling them forth to the heavenly life, and if the matter demand it, let us willingly even spend our life for the flock committed to us, and by our death in turn glorify God.

And lest it seem strange to anyone that God is glorified by the death of men, hear the blessed John in the Gospel speaking thus of Peter, to whom the Lord had foretold that when he had grown old, he would be girded by another and led whither he would not: 'signifying by what death he should glorify God.' As many, therefore, as from the foundation of the world have died for God's sake, for righteousness' and piety's sake, have by their death glorified God. For alms, fastings, prayers, and other exercises of piety even hypocrites feign: but death no one takes up eagerly, save one who holds it for certain that nothing adverse can befall those who persevere in the charity of God. Nor yet is he straightway a martyr who is slain; assassins too and pirates are slain:

it is not the punishment that makes a martyr, but the cause. But if some are read to have bravely inflicted death upon themselves, it was either weakness seeking through death an end of pains, or ambition, or madness. Nor is it to render testimony to God to do that which both displeases God and is forbidden even by the laws of the nations. Very great is the difference between barbaric savagery and the most modest constancy of the martyrs, weak in themselves, strong in Christ. There are those who by certain arts stupefy the body, that they may not feel torments: in this way indeed evildoers fortify themselves against the hands of the executioners. There are also uncontrolled passions which take away sensation from the mind, so that men bear even death undismayed.

But that placid and gentle bearing, that humbly sublime and sublimely humble spirit, we do not see save in the martyrs of Christ. They do not glare at the executioner with fierce eyes, they do not threaten the tyrant: they grieve more over the blindness of their persecutors than over their own afflictions. Doubtless Christ cries even in them: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' They look upon nothing else but heaven, where they have all their hope laid up. So the Lord Himself, like a lamb without voice, was led to the slaughter: and if He uttered any voice, it declared rather a mild and placid spirit than any silence could have done.

With how gentle a speech does He address the traitor Judas, how calmly does He answer when struck with a blow, how utterly without fierceness does He speak to Annas and Caiaphas, how tranquilly does He answer Pilate. Finally, when the Pharisees, as though victors, wagged their heads, raving against Him with most bitter revilings, He, most gentle, cries: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' Not therefore to die of itself is testimony, but so to die is to render testimony to God. Stephen the young man stood among murderers as a lamb among wolves, with placid and angelic countenance, and after the Lord's example prays for those stoning him, nor has he his eyes anywhere but toward heaven. There he was granted to see Him by whose protection he was superior to his persecutors.

But he who fears God does not dread the savageries of men. He who from his soul loves the heavenly life easily holds his own life cheap, and to him, with the blessed Paul, to live is truly Christ, and to die is gain. And is it not an immense gain to exchange this life, both brief and defiled with countless evils, for everlasting happiness? Here the Lord, as in all other things also, showed Himself a pattern to us.

For when the last act of martyrdom—which in the fables they say ought to be the best—was pressing upon Him, He withdrew, cast Himself upon the ground, at length and even repeatedly, and dripping with a bloody sweat, He expressed in Himself the weakness of our nature, having first testified to weariness of soul and sadness even unto death, lest we should fall into despair, if, when all things threaten present death, we feel the horror of nature. For unless there were a sense of pains, martyrdom would have nothing admirable; but to overcome pain is worthy of a crown. To shudder at death belongs to nature; to conquer nature by the fortitude of soul belongs to grace. Paul can do all things, but in Him who strengthens him. But by what aids is the weakness of nature overcome?

If we prostrate ourselves wholly upon the ground, that is, if we attribute nothing at all to our own strength; if we watch and pray earnestly; if we submit our will to the divine will and say from the soul, from the whole heart, those words: 'Let this cup pass if it be possible, yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt.' I have known and wept over certain men endowed with great fortitude of soul, who, when already close to the crown, failed and denied Him whom they had long professed. What was the cause? They had turned their eyes away from Him who alone gives strength to the weak: they had left off prayer and had begun to look to human aids.

They contemplated the little strength of their own nature, they considered the goads, the claws, the glowing plates, the iron and fire and the rest of the executioner's apparatus, horrible even to the sight, and compared the atrocity of the torments with their own strength, and therefore lost the victory out of their hands. Where anyone thus reasons, 'this I can do, that I cannot endure,' he will never happily accomplish martyrdom. But he who delivers himself wholly to the divine will, looking to nothing else but to His help, he at last is firm and unconquered. This, however, cannot come to pass unless there be present a true and living faith, hesitating at nothing, questioning at nothing:

Do not think how great is the savagery of the tyrant, how great the weakness of man, but how great is the power of the Lord, who strives and has conquered in His members. Therefore, that we may bend back from our digression to that which had been proposed: even as the death of the Lord was more powerful than His life, so He willed the death of His martyrs to be powerful. For what is weaker than to be bound, condemned, beaten, tortured, killed, and to offer the body to the executioner's will? This appearance sometimes moves to mercy even the most savage tyrants. But when now at the monuments of the martyrs diseases are driven off, demons roar, monarchs are terrified, miracles flash forth, idols fall: then it appears how efficacious and powerful is the blood of the martyrs.

'His bodily presence weak, his letters weighty,' the most blessed teacher of the nations heard said of him. This also will be rightly applied to the martyrs: their life weak and despised, their death weighty and powerful. Now the eagerness of all martyrs in torments is not equal, just as they do not all die by the same kind of death. Those three blessed youths found refreshment in the midst of the flames and, hedged about by the harmless element, sang a hymn to the Lord as though in a chamber. Daniel likewise, without harm, made use of the fellowship of lions. Blessed Andrew, as human history—but of sufficiently approved fidelity—has it, rejoicing and congratulating himself, went to the cross. Others die again and again by long and varied torments, nor yet is it granted them to end their pain by death.

It is therefore part of a true martyr to commit this also wholly to the judgment of God. He knows what is expedient for us and what is most conducive to His own glory. Only this must be assiduously considered: whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. Nor let anyone be displeased with himself if he feel in body and soul alike a heavy and long-lasting trouble; only let him trust in Him for whom he strives. He will not suffer anyone to be tempted beyond that which he is able, but will make even with the temptation a way of escape. Certain elect ones He sometimes allows to fail in torments, that they may recognize their own weakness, and the same He afterwards renders most brave in the contest.

By this dispensation Peter thrice denied the Lord, that, having been taught how nothing he could do by his own strength, he might confirm his brethren. And how should he confirm them? That, distrusting themselves, they might place all their confidence in the Lord. But now it is time that we discourse to your charity concerning the other kind of martyrdom, about which too there must be more careful disputation, because it is hidden and common to all times: for the Neroes, the Diocletians, the Deciuses, and the Maximins do not always rage; yet the devil never ceases to harass those who have professed the warfare of Christ. And perhaps there will be hereafter, by Christ's granting, times in which no persecutions of tyrants shall afflict the Church: yet never will contests be lacking, never martyrdoms by which pious men may glorify God.

The Church indeed, still warring in this exile, applauds with peculiar joys those who in the profession of the name of Jesus have faithfully laid down their souls, and to their memorials there is a gathering with great eagerness: but the heavenly theater, the myriads of angels and the innumerable people of the just reigning with Christ, applaud all who by the integrity and innocence of their life testify to the sincere faith and unconquered charity which they have toward the Lord Jesus. Nor is God glorified only by the profession of faith, which, according to Paul, is made with the mouth unto salvation: but also by the confession of things committed. And lest we seem to speak this rashly of ourselves, the testimonies of the Scriptures must be adduced.

Therefore, unless the life of the pious redounded to the glory of God, Christ would not say in the Gospel: 'that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.' Nor would the apostle Paul write to the Galatians: 'and they glorified God in me.' This is confirmed also by contraries from the things we have said. For if the name of God is polluted and dishonored by the impious life of His own people, surely by their good life it is honored. There is condemned by the Apostle also the impious wisdom of the philosophers, who, though they had known God, yet did not glorify Him as God. They professed wisdom and displayed the utmost folly. And so, whereas they professed God

—though they professed God to exist—yet, living basely and sacrificing to idols, they in a certain manner by false testimony obscured the glory of God, as though He were neither just nor truthful, or as though there were not one but many, or as though He were like unto stones. But this the most blessed Paul testifies still more evidently, writing to the Corinthians: 'You are bought,' he says, 'with a great price; glorify and bear God in your body.' Therefore God redeemed us with the price of His blood, that, once purged from sins, we might thereafter lead a life worthy of Him. And we bear the emblem of the Emperor stamped upon our foreheads. What if, bearing the sign of Christ, one performs the works of Belial? Is not He dishonored whose insignia we bear?

On the contrary, just as the emperor is pleased with a most valiant soldier, esteeming his valor to be to himself an honor and ornament: so God glories in those whom He has redeemed, whom He has washed, whom He has sanctified, whom He has deigned to grace with the gift of the Spirit, if by the holiness of their life they declare that the Lord's grace in them has not been void. If Paul glories in the piety of his disciples, calling them his joy and his crown, he who was nothing but the steward of another's gift: shall not the Lord the more glory over those for whom He died? Now that which in the book of Job the Lord speaks to Satan after this manner:

'Hast thou considered my servant Job, how there is none like him upon the earth, a man simple and upright and fearing God and departing from malice?' Does He not utter speech as of one glorying in His worshipper? But the blessed Paul used even a more splendid word, writing his second epistle to the Corinthians: 'Now thanks be to God, who always triumphs us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odor of His knowledge through us in every place, for we are the good odor of Christ unto God.' Better is a good name than precious ointments. Scripture is wont to call glorious fame 'fragrances.' Yet God does not glory after the manner of men, pleasing Himself and exulting, but He reckons our salvation His glory; and therefore the Apostle added:

'in those who are saved and in those who perish.' How is God glorified in those who are saved? Because in them His mercy is made manifest. How in those who perish? Because in them His justice is declared. Now the very course of the discourse has led us to this point, that we may also teach that God is glorified by the confession of sins. Here immediately there occurs from the book of Joshua son of Nun, Achan, who, because contrary to the divine edict he had taken from the accursed thing a splendid scarlet cloak and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels, the people of Israel turned their backs to the enemy. And so Joshua said to Achan: 'My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and confess, and tell me what thou hast done; hide it not.'

Having confessed, he paid the penalty, and the wrath of the Lord was turned away. That confession glorified the justice and wisdom of God. His wisdom, because to His eyes nothing was hidden: His justice, because not without cause had He suffered the enemies to prevail against Israel, and because no man violates His laws with impunity. It was nothing great that Achan had pilfered: yet it was a great lesson to the whole people, how great a danger it is to neglect the commands of God and to wish to impose upon Him, as though anything could escape Him, or as though He favored transgressors. And that man indeed, though he was a Jew, for a single sin which seemed to himself trifling paid most severe penalties, stoned by the whole people, redeeming by the destruction of the body the salvation of the soul.

For God does not judge twice for the same thing. But what punishment awaits those who, after so great a light and grace of the gospel, after they were once enlightened, have also tasted the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, have likewise tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, yet relapse into many and monstrous crimes, crucifying to themselves the Son of God and holding Him up to mockery? These are the more miserable in this, that although they are such, they nevertheless spurn the saving remedy of repentance, despise the Church offering her maternal bosom and inviting them to the restoration of health. How great an ignominy, do you think, does such defection brand upon the Church?

Nor can that disgrace fail to touch Christ, who is the head of the Church and accounts as his own in all things whatever belongs to his body and its members. Conversely, how great is the rejoicing of the whole Church when one who has fallen is reconciled to the Church through penance! And lest we suppose that this joy is only among you, let us hear the Lord speaking in the Gospel according to Luke: 'I say to you, that there shall be greater joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance than over ninety-nine just persons who need no penance.' For this clause concludes the parable of the shepherd who, leaving the ninety-nine sheep, sought with great labour the one that had strayed from the flock, and at last, having found it, laid it upon his shoulders and restored it to the fold.

With a like sentence he closes the parable of the woman who had found the lost drachma: 'So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God over one sinner doing penance.' Yet this is not to be so understood as though it were more pleasing to God and his angels that a man should return to piety after a fall than that he should persevere in innocence without falling. Rather, Scripture speaks after its own manner, according to human affections, wishing to attest that the conversion of sinners is most pleasing to God. For he does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live. And at times the falls of pious men, however great, are turned by divine dispensation to the highest advantage of the Church.

Thus fell the chief of the apostles, thus Paul the teacher of the Gentiles, thus Mary Magdalene, in whom the Church now especially glories, whose falls turned into the strengthening and consolation of the house of God. Moreover, here he does not speak of the truly just, but of Pharisaic justice, just as he says elsewhere: 'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' Yet those to whom the Lord said this were not whole; rather, puffed up by some observance of the law, they seemed to themselves whole and therefore did not desire a physician. Since these matters stand in this way, longed-for brother, let us strive with unremitting exhortations to rouse the souls of the faithful, so that our whole life too may render martyrdom, that is, testimony, to God.

This is so far from being negligible that, unless it comes first, the martyrdom which is borne by blood is no martyrdom. For in vain would you offer your neck to the executioner, unless you first put to death the members which are upon the earth, that is, the affections which war against the spirit—hatred, envy, avarice, lust; whoever serves these has in a manner denied God, and while professing Christ with his mouth confesses Satan as his god by his life. Nor ought this saying to seem too harsh to anyone, since it is both true and wholesome: whatever a man sets before God, he makes his god, and we cannot serve two masters; for there is one God, to be loved with the whole heart, the whole soul, and all one's strength. Whoever, therefore, says with his mouth:

'I believe in one God,' and yet serves avarice or lust or luxury, lies to himself and contradicts himself, sounding one thing with the tongue while concealing another in the heart, bearing testimony to God with the voice only, while his life worships Satan. But the testimony of life is more effective than that of the tongue. 'Not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom, but he that does the will of the heavenly Father.' Works too have their tongue, they have their eloquence even while the tongue is silent. Therefore the Lord speaks thus in the Gospel of John: 'The works which the Father hath given me to perfect, the very works which I do, bear witness of me.' As, therefore, good works profess God, so evil works in a manner say: 'There is no God, nor knowledge in the Most High.'

Who would not tremble, who would not shudder, who would not rend his garments, who would not stop up his ears, if he should hear such utterances from a Christian? What great horror, what great grief seizes our souls when someone, overcome by torments and ordered to deny Christ, denies him and burns incense before the statue of Jupiter? How we quake, fearing lest God in his wrath should hurl against us the thunderbolt of his anger, lest the earth, gaping open, should swallow us up—so that at times the impiety of one man may involve many in the fellowship of punishment; and there are crimes so monstrous that even to have seen or heard of them is detestable. But why in other cases, in a like offense, are we so indulgent? Why do we flatter both ourselves and others? Yet see what the Apostle says of such men, writing to Titus:

'They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny him.' Likewise in the first letter to Timothy, concerning the widow who neglects her household: 'But if any man have not care of his own, and especially of those of his house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.' If she has denied the faith who too negligently cares for her household, what do you think he will say of those who have given themselves wholly to Mammon and the belly? Certainly Paul speaks of Christians when, writing to the Philippians, he says: 'Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly.' The same men he censures writing to the Romans: 'Such serve not Christ the Lord, but their own belly.' He used 'to serve' after the manner of the Scriptures for 'to worship.' They worship the belly as him whom they hold for their God.

Now concerning avarice he pronounces even more plainly, writing to the Colossians: 'Mortify,' he says, 'your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and avarice, which is the service of idols.' We execrate those who prostrate themselves before the image of Diana: how much more justly do we execrate those who with their whole heart serve Mammon, who daily sacrifice to it? And if he is an idolater who, held by the love of money, is greedy—who hoards what comes by inheritance or is gained by industry and does not dispense it to the needy—what must be thought of those who pile up wealth by pandering, by usury, by robbery, by fraud, by false accusations, by oppressing the poor?

And this service of idols is found not only among the laity of Christians, but also—what must be lamented—among bishops. Furthermore, drunkenness is so common in our Africa that they scarcely reckon it a crime. Do we not see that at the memorials of the martyrs a Christian is driven by a Christian to intoxication? Or do we deem this a lighter crime than to immolate a goat to Bacchus? To me it seems far graver, if we are willing to weigh the matter by right reason. When the tyrant says, 'Deny Christ and offer sacrifice to Jupiter, and be our friend, or die,' often the tongue denies while the heart protests, and the hand burns incense while the mind within adores Christ.

Although this too is a most grievous crime, yet the weakness of human nature somewhat lightens the guilt of the impiety. There Satan speaks to you by the voice of the tyrant; but what does the same Satan say to you through your own concupiscence? 'Deny Christ, and be rich; sacrifice to Mammon and send Christ away.' What does he promise? Gold and silver, useless material unless you put it to use. Nor does he say 'die,' but 'delight your eyes'—nay rather, he says this: 'Gain money which you will possess for a short time, and lose your soul forever.' And yet here you willingly bend your knees to Satan and, having denied Christ, hand yourself over wholly to him. But what does Christ say? 'Be mine and live forever;

despise these temporal riches, and I will repay you a hundredfold in this world and eternal life in the world to come. Leave the earth and receive heaven.' And God, promising these things, is forsaken, and the devil, promising things so worthless and those falsely, is adored. O foul defection! O base idolatry! O iniquitous exchange! With what reward did he solicit the first parents of the human race? He showed an apple and gave death. He deceived them with a lie: 'You shall not die, but you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.' And they, thus deluded—what a Lord did they forsake, and to whom did they defect? From what happiness did they fall, and into what miseries did they cast themselves?

But that same prince of darkness who spoke to Eve through the serpent speaks to us through his satellites and ministers, through procuresses and pimps, through those who allure us to the love of money, to ambition, to pleasure, drawing us away from the sincerity that is in Christ Jesus. That same one speaks to us through our own concupiscences which live in our members. Nor does he say, as the human tyrant does, 'Either obey me or die,' nor does he display prisons, chains, hooks, frying-pans, or blazing furnaces, no crosses, nooses, or swords, but only this: 'Despise God, renounce the inheritance of the heavenly life, and commit adultery, and you will seize pleasure.' But what kind? Momentary and of the body only:

but how seasoned with bitterness! With infamy, with danger, and above all with the secret torment of conscience. This is the devil's bait, this his hire. And what sort is the wage that follows? Let the blessed Apostle declare it with greater faith: 'The wages of sin is death.' What death? Of the body, which alone the human tyrant threatens and can inflict? No, but the death of hell, which knows no end. The human tyrant can do more than the devil. He in a manner compels man's nature; the devil can do nothing but solicit; he cannot cast down unless you consent; to have despised him is to have conquered. Greater pardon, therefore, is owed to one who denies Christ under torments than to one who willingly consents to the devil, for whom to have believed is to have denied Christ.

He is a liar and the father of every lie, and his promises, however they flatter with their outward show, are nothing but illusions luring men to destruction. Let no one, therefore, flatter himself thus: 'I am a sinner, I love money, I serve lust, I am eager for honors, I indulge in vengeance, I am given over to pleasures—but I have not denied Christ.' But the Lord himself cries out against you: 'You cannot worship two masters.' And meanwhile you shudder at the abominable name of one who has offered incense or purchased a certificate, though you yourself are perhaps worse than those who have burned incense or taken certificates. Human fear, too violent for man's nature to overcome, drove them to utter impious words with the conscience protesting in the tongue:

You, solicited by so cheap a wage, willingly defect to him from whose tyranny Christ redeemed you by his own blood—you who have now become wholly his, as the Apostle says: 'You are bought with a great price, and are no longer your own.' You professed his warfare at the saving font, to him you gave your name, in his sacraments you were initiated, you received the largess and the pledge of the Spirit, that you might have no doubt about the promised wage; and at the same time you declared perpetual enmity against the devil, you renounced all his pomps and pleasures, you blew and hissed him away, you swore upon the words of the Redeemer; and yet, while you serve so many vices, you please yourself because you have not yet burned incense or purchased a certificate.

If some soldier, sworn upon the words of Caesar, should flee to the Turk and at his bidding do the things he knew to be most hateful to Caesar, would he not, when caught, be haled off to punishment as a deserter, a perjurer, a runaway? And who would listen to him defending himself thus: 'I am no deserter, I have not denied Caesar'? Would he not straightway hear: 'What does it matter if your tongue was silent? By the deed itself you have denied him, and more than denied him, you who have not only abandoned the service but have even gone over to the tyrant and irreconcilable enemy of your emperor'? Rightly do the ears of the faithful abominate the word 'apostate':

But this is to be execrated not only there, when by burning a grain of incense or by a written certificate one renounces the profession of the name of Christ, but wherever, with contempt for the laws of Christ, obedience is rendered to Satan. For it matters not what the tongue sounds: if it sounds Christ while the mind is given over to crimes, it is not profession but hypocrisy, ready to deny Christ if fear should press—the fear that oppresses those who burn incense or take certificates. And in these matters which so war against each other that neither can bear the company of the other, whenever we embrace the one, we have renounced the other; whenever we reject the one, we acknowledge the other. Of such kind are light and darkness, war and peace, death and life, God and Belial, as the blessed Paul also attests in the second letter to the Corinthians:

'For what participation has justice with iniquity, or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial?' To have cleaved to Belial is to have denied Christ, though you profess Christ with tongue or dress. If any of the simpler sort should doubt this, I will give a coarse and evident argument. Let us imagine a tyrant thus speaking to a Christian: 'Burn incense to Jupiter,' adding nothing and demanding nothing further that he deny Christ: if he burns it, will it not be manifest to all that by this very act he has denied Christ, in that he has made an offering of incense to Jupiter, even though he utter nothing impious against Christ?

Just as those who practice magic arts—from which evil the mercy of the Lord has freed us, as from all the rest by which, walking according to the old man, we were once held—silently deny Christ while they have a covenant with demons. Now if the Maccabee brothers, together with their mother, chose rather to be done to death by so many torments than to eat swine's flesh, deeming that thereby they would deny that God who was the author of the law, then whoever knowingly and willingly violates the precepts of the law—on what grounds does he flatter himself who grows old in luxury, drunkenness, avarice, robberies, adulteries, and other crimes which even the laws of the Gentiles have not wished to leave unpunished? And while they deny Christ in so many ways, while they so often sacrifice to demons, do they demand to be reckoned as Christians?

And among these are some who commit such things openly and almost even glory in the vilest deeds: so far are they from being ashamed or grieved at their misdeeds. And yet they dare to come into the Church of the saints, they dare to mingle with the Lord's flock. Such the Church at times tolerates, lest, being provoked, they disturb the people of God still more; but what does it profit not to be cast out from the assembly of the pious, if you have deserved to be cast out? For to be cast out is a remedy and a step toward recovering health; to have deserved expulsion is the height of evils. And in vain does he mingle with the assembly of the saints in a temple made by hands, if he is removed from the fellowship of God and from the whole mystical body of Christ.

It is fitting also to consider how greatly Christians shrink from meats offered to idols, from entering shrines, and even from the idols themselves. Though the blessed Paul cries out that an idol is nothing, and that meat offered to idols is nothing, much less is a shrine built of stones anything: and yet the minds of very many are held by such scruple that they would sooner meet death than taste what has been immolated to idols, and they reckon it an inexpiable offense if they should enter a shrine of Jupiter or Apollo or Diana, and they think themselves grievously defiled by the touch of an idol. Indeed I approve the religion of such men, if it be consistent in all things.

But now, alas, one may see certain people almost superstitiously timid in these matters, while in others, where there was graver cause for fear, they are excessively secure. The touch of an idol does not of itself defile the soul, nor does entering a shrine, nor eating what is offered to idols; but of itself the love of money, incest, rapine, hypocrisy, and monstrous things like these pollute the conscience. How fitting indeed is it to shrink from entering a shrine, and not to shrink from immolating victims to demons in the temple consecrated to the Holy Spirit? Holy Paul cries out, writing to the Corinthians: 'Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy.' Again in the same epistle:

'Or know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in us, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?' Now if God has consecrated to himself the breasts of Christians that he may dwell in them through his Spirit, there he takes delight and walks about, there he loves to have a pure victim offered to him in every place. And he who into this temple sacred to God, having cast out the Holy Spirit, brings the abominations which Ezekiel beheld in a mystic vision, who there makes a seat for Mammon, Venus, Comus, Bacchus, and other monsters, who there immolates to demons the foulest victims—does he fear to enter a shrine of the Gentiles lest he be contaminated? Wherefore let no one flatter himself in vain: God is not mocked.

Let our religion be consistent with itself, and let us not execrate others while we ourselves are liable to graver crimes; nor let us be religiously timid in one place and shamelessly impious in another. But having once professed Christ, let us render him testimony throughout our whole life, and glorify him on every side by obeying his precepts, so that by this men may know that we truly trust in him, that we love him from the heart, and that we have not feignedly bound ourselves to his warfare at the sacred font. The blessed Apostle foretold that persecution would not be lacking to any who is unwilling to live piously in Christ Jesus. If the tyrant is absent, if the torturer, if the despoiler: concupiscence will not be absent, presenting us with daily material for martyrdom.

Finally, these very evils which the life of mortals brings with it, and which are common to the pious with the impious, will win for us the crown of martyrdom, if we bear them calmly, if with thanksgiving. Nor are those deprived of the glory of martyrdom who have not been consummated by a violent death. Who would dare to remove either the patriarch Abraham, or his son Isaac, or blessed Job from the number of martyrs? What torturers racked the body more grievously than the affections of nature racked the patriarch's mind, when without hesitation, at God's command, he prepared to immolate his only and uniquely dear son, in whom lay all his hope of posterity?

What did Isaac lack of martyrdom, who without a murmur suffered himself to be bound and laid upon the pyre, and did not shrink from the sword brandished over his neck? And whose martyrdom shall we dare to compare with the things that Job suffered? But if anyone still distrusts our discourse, surely he will not be able to distrust the words of blessed Paul. Writing to the Hebrews, beginning from Abel down to Gideon, he recounts a vast catalogue of the saints, in which there are many who did not die by a violent death—nay, few are they who so died—and yet of all he pronounces: 'And these, being approved by the testimony of faith, were found,' plainly declaring that the martyrdom of faith is accomplished even by a good life.

The usage of the Church, indeed, distinguishes them by titles, calling martyrs those who departed by a violent death, and confessors those who steadfastly amid torments and threats of death professed the name of the Lord Jesus, prepared to meet death or rather aspiring to the supreme crown of martyrdom. Yet in God's sight, whoever have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences, whoever have truly died together with Christ and been buried with him in baptism, so that now they live no longer to themselves nor to the world to which they once died, but to him who died for them—these are martyrs and shall not be defrauded of the martyr's crown: and first of all, monks who are truly monks, and virgins who are truly virgins.

For neither a desert place, nor sackcloth for clothing, nor pulse for food, nor fasts, nor sleeping on the ground make a monk; beneath these wrappings there sometimes lurks a mind exceedingly worldly. This is detected thus, if they be called to some ecclesiastical office: there you may see certain of them very easily overcome by delights, more impatient of injuries, more eager for vengeance than any other man from the common crowd. What is the cause? Because they have exercised the body more than the mind: whereas the blessed Paul teaches that bodily exercise is profitable to little, but piety avails to all things. I would not say these things as though those are to be condemned who by such means chastise their body and bring it into servitude:

but because Satan, equipped with a thousand arts, sometimes mocks the incautious, transfiguring himself into an angel of light, and from such exercises of the body induces in them a false persuasion of holiness, and while inwardly they are steeped in spiritual vices, they are held both by themselves and by others to be pious. Such was the justice of the Pharisees, to which the publican's injustice was preferred by the judgment of Christ. So too are the foolish virgins, who deem it solid piety to keep the body untouched by man, while the mind is most corrupted by avarice, pride, envy, and detraction. There are also false widows, who while they live in delights are dead to Christ. In sum, however, whoever is truly Christian, of whatever state or order, has his own contests, has his own cross:

And if he patiently takes it up, if he steadfastly bears it, by his testimony he glorifies the Lord—only let him not claim for himself the praise of his good works: for this is not to glorify God, but to clarify oneself. Every one of the faithful has his own combats, has as adversary the devil, has as judge of the games God, has as theater not only the Church and the angels but also the unbelievers, as Paul says to the Corinthians: 'We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men.' If we conquer, the angels rejoice, the churches of the faithful rejoice, and Christ himself rejoices in his members. But if we are conquered through our own cowardice, Satan triumphs with his angels, the unbelievers insult us and afflict God with reproaches, saying:

'Behold those who boast that they are redeemed from the tyranny of Satan, who proclaim that they are dead to the world—and yet they are overcome by their own lusts no less than we, whom they say are still held under the reign of Satan. What profits them the baptism by which they say the old man with his deeds is put off and the new man put on, who is created according to God? What profits them the Holy Spirit, by whose governance they say they are ruled? Why do they always have the gospel, the gospel on their lips, while their whole life is at variance with the precepts of the gospel?' With how great shame, do you suppose, is the Church suffused, when these things are cast up by her enemies and she has nothing wherewith to refute the reproaches?

Do we not see the whole assembly of the Church cast down its countenance and blush, whenever some virgin who had wedded Christ, having slipped from the angelic fellowship, has defected to fornication or marriage? What great grief seizes the souls of us all, but especially of the pastors, if ever a soldier of Christ, proving inferior to torments, has renounced his emperor? And on the other side, how great is the triumph of Satan?

Therefore, most beloved brethren, if we truly love God, if daily we ask from the heart 'Hallowed be thy name,' let us with the utmost zeal keep watch, lest anywhere we defile his name, but let us glorify him both by death and by life, living according to the admonitions of blessed Paul without complaint as the guileless sons of God, without reproach in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, among whom let us shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life to the glory of Christ Jesus, our king and the judge of our games, who accounts as his own whatever is done in his members. Let us suffer with him, that with him we may be glorified in the day of the Lord.

Let us here glorify him before men, that he may glorify us with his splendor before his angels when, as the blessed Paul says, 'he shall come to be glorified in his saints.' 'No one is crowned unless he has striven lawfully.' And those who covet a corruptible crown abstain from all things, doing nothing that does not conduce to victory: what does it behove us to do, that we may attain that incorruptible and unfading crown of immortal life in the heavens? Here, if anyone should ask how a man can be a martyr without the shedding of blood: whoever with this mind follows justice, that he would sooner admit death than be willing to turn aside from justice, to him a ready will shall be reckoned for martyrdom.

For God does not judge anyone by the outcome of events, but by the disposition. For why should he be defrauded of the glory of martyrdom, through no fault of whom it stood that he did not accomplish martyrdom? So, on the contrary, whoever lives with this mind, that he would deny Christ if loss of goods or torments of the body or death were to be incurred, shall bear the wage of an apostate. He who for a little money perjures himself—will he fear to deny Christ, if his whole estate be endangered, if infamy, prison, and death be threatened? He who for a slight fever flees to the remedies of enchantresses—will he prefer to endure torments sadder than death rather than renounce Christ? Nay, he who so often for a brief little delight of the flesh, for momentary glory, defects from Christ—will he hold life cheap for Christ's sake?