History of the Vandal Persecution 1 part 3/7

you see all the saints, how they proceed and hasten cheerfully to their crowns.' When we rebuked her, that she seemed importunate either to join men, against her sex, or to associate with the army of Christ, she answered: 'Bless me, bless me, and pray for me and for this my little grandson, because, though a sinner, I am the daughter of one who was once bishop of the city of Zura.' To her we said: 'And why do you walk so abjectly, or for what reason do you show yourself to be proceeding this way over so long a journey?' She answered: 'With this your little servant I go to exile, lest the enemy find him alone and call him back from the way of truth to death.' At these words, filled with tears, we could say nothing except that the will of God be done.

(II, 10) But when the adversary, who perchance was already saying: 'I will divide the spoils, I will fill my soul, I will slay with my sword, my hand shall have dominion,' could catch no one, he seeks out narrow and most foul places, in whose confines he might cram God's army. Then even the consolation of human visitation was denied them: guards too are set at the doorposts, and they are grievously afflicted; the confessors of Christ are thrown one upon another, the narrowness crowding them, one above another, like swarms of locusts, and — to speak properly — like the most precious grains of corn. In that crush there was no room at all for withdrawing to the natural office;

but, urged by necessity, they relieved themselves of excrement and urine in that same place, so that then that stench and horror surpassed all kinds of punishments. To whom, on a certain occasion — huge gifts having been given to the Moors, while the Vandals slept — we were scarcely admitted secretly to enter. Entering, as if into a whirlpool of mud, we began to sink up to our knees, beholding that then to have been fulfilled which Jeremiah said: 'Those who were nourished in saffron robes have embraced their own dung.' What more? They are commanded — the Moors making an uproar on all sides — to make ready for the journey to where they had been appointed. (II, 11) Going forth therefore on the Lord's day, having their garments, faces, and heads alike smeared with dung, yet cruelly threatened by the Moors, they chanted a hymn to the Lord with exultation:

'This is the glory of all his saints.' For there was then present the blessed pontiff Cyprianus, bishop of Unizibir, an excellent consoler, who cherished each one with pious and fatherly affection, not without rivers of running tears, ready to lay down his soul for the brethren and to give himself voluntarily, if he were permitted, to such sufferings — who spent all that he had on the needy brethren in that time of necessity; for he sought an occasion how he might be associated with the confessors, himself a confessor in soul and virtue. He afterward, through many struggles and the squalors of prison, proceeded with exultation to the exile that he desired.

How great then were the multitudes of peoples who hastened from various regions and cities to visit God's martyrs, the roads and pathways bear witness; which, in no way containing the throngs of those coming, the inestimable crowd of the faithful, streaming together over the summits of mountains and tracks, came down, carrying candles in their hands, and casting their little infants at the footsteps of the martyrs, they cried with this voice: 'To whom do you leave us wretched ones, while you proceed to your crowns? Who will baptize these little ones with the water of the everlasting font? Who will confer on us the gift of penance and loose us, bound by the chains of sins, by the indulgence of reconciliation? For it has been said to us: Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven.'

'Who will bury us with the solemn prayers, who will admonish us, by whom the customary rite of the divine sacrifice ought to be performed? Gladly would we too go on with you, if it were permitted, that in such a way no necessity might separate the sons from the fathers.' Amid these cries and tears no comforter was any longer allowed to go on with them; rather the multitude was driven to run, so that where the hut had been prepared they might take up a toilsome lodging. And when the old men gave out, and others perhaps as well, even if they were tender young men, they began to be struck with the points of spears and with stones to make them run; whereupon, fainting all the more, they were the more exhausted.

(II, 12) Afterward indeed it was commanded by the Moors that those who could not walk should be dragged with bound feet, like the carcasses of dead beasts, over the hard and rough places of stones, where first their garments and then their limbs one by one were torn away; for here the head was crushed against the sharp edges of the rocks, there the sides were split open, and so they breathed out their spirit in the hands of those dragging them. Their number we were by no means able to reckon, the multitude hindering us; yet the lowly burial of the saints, along the whole public causeway, exalts them with their speaking tombs. The rest, being more able-bodied, reach the places of the wilderness, where, settled there, they receive barley to eat like beasts of burden.

There too is said to be so great a multitude of venomous beasts and scorpions that to those who do not know it it might seem incredible, beasts which by their mere breath pour out the poison of their venom even upon those set far off; and from the sting of the scorpion they say none ever escaped. Yet their venomous fierceness, even to the present time, by Christ's protection, is shown to have harmed none of His servants. But although they were there sustained with grains of barley, afterward even this was taken away; as if God, who had rained down manna for the fathers, could not also now feed those consigned to such an exile. (II, 13) He plots harsher measures against the Church of God, so that he who had cut off certain members might, by tearing it, destroy the whole body.

For on the day of the Lord's Ascension, in the presence of Regmus, the envoy of the emperor Zeno, he had a decree read aloud in the midst of the church to bishop Eugenius, drawn up in the following terms, which he also dispatched throughout all Africa by swift couriers: 'King Huneric of the Vandals and Alans, to all the Homoousian bishops. It is established that it has been forbidden, not once but often, that your priests should hold any assemblies in the territories of the Vandals, lest by their seduction they should subvert Christian souls. Spurning this, very many have been found to have celebrated Masses in the Vandal territories against the prohibition, asserting that they hold the whole rule of the Christian faith intact. And because in the provinces granted to us by God.

we do not wish there to be scandal; therefore know that, by God's providence and with the consent of our holy bishops, we have decreed this: that on the day of the coming Kalends of February, every excuse of fear being laid aside, you all come to Carthage, so that you may be able to enter into a disputation concerning the rule of faith with our venerable bishops, and that concerning the faith of the Homoousians, which you defend, you may prove it properly from the divine Scriptures, so that it may be recognized whether you hold the faith intact. The tenor of this edict we have directed to all your fellow-bishops appointed throughout all Africa. Given on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of June, in the seventh year of Huneric.'

(II, 14) When therefore we who were present, reading it together, understood it, our heart was at once crushed and our eyes were darkened; and truly then our feast days were turned into mourning and our songs into lamentation, while the tenor of the edict revealed the fury of the persecution to come, and especially where it said, 'in our provinces granted to us by God we do not wish there to be scandal,' as though it said, 'in our provinces we do not wish there to be Catholics.' It was deliberated what should be done. The looming calamity found no remedy, save that by the holy Eugenius a reasonable plea, in case the barbarian heart might be softened, should be offered, drawn up in the following text.

'As often as the cause of the soul, or of eternal life, or of the Christian faith is treated, it is necessary that, fearlessly and as the royal providence has promised, what is fitting be set forth. Recently the royal power, through the notary Vitarit, deigned to admonish my littleness; and he, on account of religion and faith, read out His precept to us in the church, in the presence of the clergy and people. From its tenor we learned that the royal precept had likewise gone forth to all my fellow-bishops, that on the appointed day they should come for a disputation of the faith; which we have suggested that we received with reverence.

To the aforesaid notary my humility suggested that all from across the seas as well, who are with us partners in one religion and communion, ought to take cognizance, since everywhere all submit to His reign; especially because it is a cause of the whole world, not of the African provinces only in particular. And because in a second reply I promised that I would present what should be suggested, I rightly and humbly beg your Magnificence that you deign to bring my aforesaid suggestion to the ears of our lord the most clement king, so that his clemency may graciously recognize that we in no way decline or flee the disputation of the law with God's help, but that without the consent of the whole body we ought not to undertake the pleading of the causes of our faith.

This we ask that, in his greatness of kindness and in the justice of his wisdom, he deign to grant. Given by Eugenius, bishop of the Catholic Church of Carthage.' (II, 15) But when this suggestion was offered by the blessed Eugenius, he who had already conceived grief was driven to bring forth iniquity more grievously; and so he seems to have sent word to the holy man, bishop Eugenius, through Obadus, the steward of his kingdom: 'Subdue to me the whole circle of the lands, that the whole world may be brought under my power, and I will do, O Eugenius, what you say.' To which the blessed Eugenius replied as he was able: 'What has no reason,' he said, 'ought not to be said: this is as if it were said to a man that he should be borne through the air and fly, which is not the manner of human nature.

For I said: if the king's power desires to know our faith, which is one and true, let him send to his friends; and I too will write to my brethren, that my fellow-bishops may come who are able to demonstrate to you, together with us, our common faith, and especially the Church of Rome, which is the head of all the churches.' To this Obadus said: 'Are you, then, and my lord the king equals?' Bishop Eugenius said: 'I am not the equal of the king, but I said: if he desires to know the true faith, let him write to his friends, that they may send our Catholic bishops, and I will write to my fellow-bishops, since the cause of the whole Catholic Church is one.'

This Eugenius was doing, not because there were lacking in Africa those who could refute the objections of the adversaries, but so that those might come who, being strangers to their domination, would have greater confidence of liberty, and likewise would announce to all lands and peoples the slanders of our oppression. (II, 16) But he who was weaving snares would not hear reason, pressing on with frequent argumentations, so that whatever bishops he had heard to be learned he might harry with various persecutions. Already he had sent into exile at Vibiana bishop Secundianus, after a hundred and fifty cudgel-blows had been laid on him, and likewise Praesidius of Sufetula, a man quite shrewd. Then too he had the venerable Mansuetus, Germanus, Fusculus, and many others cudgeled.

While these things were going on, he commanded that none of our religion should share a common table with them, nor eat at all with the Catholics. This thing brought them no benefit, but conferred upon us the greatest gain. For if their word, as the Apostle says, is wont to creep like a canker, how much more could a common table of foods defile, since the same Apostle says that with the wicked one should not even take food in common. (II, 17) But when the fire of persecution was now kindled and the flame of the assailing king burned everywhere, our God showed forth a certain miracle through His faithful servant Eugenius, which I ought not to pass over.

There was in the same city, that is Carthage, a certain blind citizen, very well known to the city, named Felix. He was visited by the Lord, and it was said to him by night in a vision—for the day of the Epiphany was dawning—: 'Rise, go to my servant bishop Eugenius, and say to him that I have directed you to him. And at that hour in which he blesses the font, that those coming to the faith may be baptized, he will touch your eyes; they will be opened and you will see the light.' He, being admonished by such a visitation, thinking that he was being deluded, as often happens, through a dream, the blind man would not rise; but when again he was sunk in sleep, he was likewise compelled to go to Eugenius, that he might recover his sight. Again he neglected it, and a third time he was hastily and severely rebuked.

He roused the boy who was accustomed to lend him a hand, and went with swift nimbleness to the basilica of Faustus; coming, he prayed with mighty tears, and suggested to a certain deacon named Peregrinus that he should announce him to the bishop, indicating that he had some secret matter to make known. The bishop, hearing this, ordered no one to enter; for already, because of the solemnity of the feast, the nocturnal hymns were resounding throughout the whole church as the people sang. The blind man made known to the prelate the order of his visitation, and said to him: 'I will not let you go, unless, as you were commanded by the Lord, you restore my eyes to me.' To him the holy Eugenius said: 'Depart from me, brother;

I am a sinner and unworthy and an offender above all men, inasmuch as I have been preserved even unto these times.' But he, holding his knees, said nothing else than what he had already said: 'As you were commanded, restore my eyes to me.' Eugenius, also taking heed of his reverent faith, and because the time was now pressing, went with him, the office of the clergy escorting him, to the font. There, with knees fixed and with mighty groaning, beating heaven with his sobs, he blessed the rippling basin of the font; and when, the prayer completed, he had risen, he thus answered the blind man: 'I have already told you, brother Felix, that I am a sinful man; but may He who has deigned to visit you grant to you according to your faith and open your eyes.'

And at the same time, signing his eyes with the standard of the cross, immediately the blind man, the Lord restoring his sight, received it. Him he detained there with himself until all should be baptized, for this reason: lest the people, roused by so great a miracle, should crush the man who had received the light. Afterward it became manifest to the whole church. He who had been blind went forward to the altar with Eugenius, as is the custom, to render to the Lord the offering of his own salvation; which the bishop, receiving, placed upon the altar. There arose an irrepressible din of the peoples' joy. Immediately a messenger went to the tyrant; Felix was seized, and inquiry was made of him what had been done and in what manner he had received his sight. He told him the whole in order, and the bishops of the Arians said: 'Eugenius did this by sorceries.'

And because, oppressed by confusion, they could not becloud the light—since Felix was manifest and known to the whole city—nevertheless they wished, if it were lawful, to kill him, just as the Jews desired to slay the raised-up Lazarus. (II, 18) Now that slanderous day of the Kalends of February, appointed by the same man, was drawing near. There assembled not only the bishops of all Africa, but also those of many islands, worn out with affliction and grief. There was silence for many days, until he should separate out from there each one of the skilled and most learned men, to be done to death by slanders laid against them. For one from that very choir of teachers, named Laetus, a vigorous and most learned man, he burned in a fire after long squalors of imprisonment,

reckoning that by such an example, striking fear, he would crush the rest. At last they came to the conflict of the disputation, namely to the place which the adversaries had chosen. Our men, therefore, avoiding the tumults of clamor, lest perchance the Arians should afterward say that the multitude of our number had overwhelmed them, chose from among themselves ten who should answer on behalf of all. Cyrila, with his attendants, set up for himself in a lofty place a most haughty throne, while our men stood; and our bishops said: 'That conference is ever pleasing where proud arrogance does not lord it, but where it is approached by common consent, so that—with judges discerning and the parties pleading—what is true may be recognized.'

Now who shall be the judge, who the examiner, so that the scale of justice may either confirm what is rightly brought forward or refute what is wrongly assumed? And when such things and others were being said, the king's notary answered: 'The patriarch Cyrila has said some things.' Detesting the name proudly and unlawfully usurped for himself, our men said: 'Let it be read to us by whose grant Cyrila has assumed this name for himself.' And thereupon, stirring up an uproar, the adversaries began to slander. And because our men had asked this—that at least, if it was not permitted to examine the matter with a prudent multitude, they might at least be allowed to wait—all the sons of the Catholic Church who were present were ordered to be beaten with a hundred cudgel-blows. Then the blessed Eugenius began to cry out:

'May God behold the violence we suffer, may He take note of the affliction of the persecutions which we endure from our persecutors.' And our men, turning to Cyrila, said: 'Set forth what you propose.' Cyrila said: 'I do not know Latin.' Our bishops said: 'We manifestly know that you have always spoken Latin; now you ought not to make excuse, especially because you have stirred up the fire of this affair.' And seeing that the Catholic bishops were rather prepared for the conflict, he wholly evaded the hearing with various cavils. Foreseeing this beforehand, our men had drawn up a booklet concerning the faith, composed quite fittingly and sufficiently, saying: 'If you desire to know our faith, this is the truth which we hold.'

(III, 1) By royal command we are bidden to render an account of the Catholic faith which we hold; and therefore, according to the modest measure of our strength, supported by divine help, we undertake briefly to set forth what we believe and preach. First, then, we recognize that we must expound concerning the unity of substance of the Father and the Son, which the Greeks call homoousion.

We therefore profess the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Godhead in such a way that, by a faithful confession, we acknowledge that the Father subsists in the person of His own propriety, that the Son no less exists in His own person, and that the Holy Spirit retains the propriety of His own person—not asserting that the Father is the same as the Son, nor confessing that the Son is He who is the Father or the Holy Spirit, nor do we so receive the Holy Spirit as that He should be either Father or Son; but we believe that the unbegotten Father, and the Son begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father, are of one substance or essence, because of the unbegotten Father and the begotten Son and the proceeding Holy Spirit there is one Godhead, but three proprieties of persons.

And because, against this Catholic or apostolic faith, a heresy that had arisen had introduced a certain novelty, asserting that the Son was not begotten of the Father's substance, but subsisted out of things non-existent, that is, out of nothing—in order to refute and utterly abolish this profession of impiety which had emerged against the faith, the Greek word homoousion was set down, which is interpreted 'of one substance or essence,' signifying that the Son was born neither out of things non-existent nor out of another substance, but of the Father. He, therefore, who thinks homoousion is to be removed, wishes to assert that the Son came into existence out of nothing. But if He is not out of nothing, He is without doubt out of the Father, and rightly is homoousion, that is, of one substance with the Father, the Son.

(III, 2) That He is of the Father, that is, of one substance with the Father, is proved by these testimonies, the Apostle saying: 'Who, being the splendor of the glory and the figure of His substance, upholding also all things by the word of His power.' And again, God the Father Himself, rebuking the perfidy of the unbelieving, who would not hear the voice of the Son preaching through the prophets and abiding in His own substance, said: 'They did not hear the voice of substance.' Which voice of substance, despised, rebuking with a terrible attestation, He speaks to the same prophet, saying: 'Upon the mountains take up a wailing, and upon the paths of the desert a lamentation, because they have failed, in that there are no men: they have not heard the voice of substance, from the birds of heaven even unto the cattle.'

And again, those who, declining from the profession of one substance, were unwilling to stand in the same substance of faith, He rebukes, saying: 'If they had stood in My substance, I would surely have turned them from their evil way and from their wicked thoughts.' And again, that the Son is to be confessed not outside the Father's substance, but is faithfully to be contemplated with the eyes of the mind within that same substance, it is most plainly declared when the prophet says: 'Who has stood in the substance of the Lord and has seen His Word?' That the Son, therefore, is the Father's substance was long ago designated by prophetic oracles, Solomon saying: 'For Thy substance and Thy sweetness, which Thou hast toward Thy sons, Thou didst show forth'—which, in the figure and image of heavenly bread, is shown to have flowed forth from heaven to the people of Israel.

Which the Lord Himself in the Gospel expounded, saying: 'Moses did not give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you bread from heaven,' surely designating Himself to be that bread, when He says: 'I am the living bread who came down from heaven'; of whom also the prophet David says: 'Man ate the bread of angels.' (III, 3) For, that the unity of substance and the equality of divinity of the Father and the Son may be shown still more evidently, He Himself in the Gospel says: 'I am in the Father and the Father in me,' and: 'I and the Father are one.' Which is referred not to a unity of will only, but to one and the same substance, because He did not say 'I and the Father will one thing,' but 'we are one.'

For from that which they are, not only from that which they will, the assertion of the paternal unity is declared. Likewise John the Evangelist says: 'Therefore the Jews sought to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also called His own Father God, making Himself equal to God.' Which is certainly not at all to be referred to the Jews, since the Evangelist said truthfully concerning the Son that He made Himself equal to God. Likewise it is written in the Gospel: 'Whatever the Father does, these things also the Son does likewise.' And: 'As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.' Likewise: 'That all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father'; for equal honor is shown to none but equals.

Likewise there the Son says to the Father: 'All mine are Thine, and Thine are mine.' Likewise: 'Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father also; how do you say, Show us the Father?' This He would not have said unless He were equal to the Father in all things. Likewise the Lord Himself says: 'Believe in God, and believe in me.' And further, that He might demonstrate the unity of equality, He says: 'No one knows the Son but the Father, neither does anyone know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son shall will to reveal Him.' And just as the Son reveals the Father to whom He wills, so also the Father reveals the Son, as He Himself said to Peter when he confessed Him to be Christ the Son of the living God: 'Blessed are you,' He said, 'Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.' And again the Son says:

'No one comes to the Father but by me,' and: 'No one comes to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him'; whence it is clear that they bring believers to the equality of the Father and the Son toward one another. Likewise He says: 'If you had known me, you would surely have known my Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.' (III, 4) But because we profess that there are two natures in the Son, that is, true God and true man, having body and soul: whatever, therefore, the Scriptures report of Him with surpassing power of sublimity, we judge is to be attributed to His admirable divinity; and whatever is told of the same Son more humbly, below the honor of heavenly power, we reckon not to the Word as God, but to the assumed man.

According to His divinity, therefore, is that which we said above, where He says: 'I and the Father are one,' and: 'He who has seen me has seen the Father also,' and: 'All things whatever the Father does, these things also the Son does likewise,' or the rest which are contained above. But those things which are reported of Him according to His humanity are these: 'The Father is greater than I,' and: 'I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me,' and: 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me'; or when He says from the cross: 'God, my God, why have You forsaken me?' And again, in the person of the Son, the prophet says: 'From my mother's womb You are my God,' or when He is indicated to be lesser than the angels, and very many things similar to these, which for the sake of brevity we have not inserted.

The Son of God, therefore, bound by no necessities of conditions, but by the free power of His divinity, so assumed by wonderful piety the things that are ours, that He in no way departed from His own things which are divine, because divinity admits no increase nor suffers any diminution. Whence we give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sake and for our salvation came down from heaven, redeemed us by His passion, gave us life by His death, glorified us by His ascension; who, sitting at the right hand of the Father, is to come to judge the living and the dead, about to bestow on the just the reward of eternal life, and to render to the impious and unbelieving their deserved punishments.

(III, 5) We profess therefore that the Father, of Himself, that is, of that which He Himself is, begot the Son eternally and ineffably: not from outside, not out of nothing, not out of another material did He beget, but that He was born of God. And He who is born of God is nothing other than that which the Father is, and therefore is of one substance, because the truth of the nativity admits no diversity of kind. For if He is of another substance than the Father, either He is not a true Son or—what it is impious to say—He was born degenerate. For He is a true Son, as John says: 'That we may be in His true Son.' Nor is He degenerate, because true God was born of true God, as the same John the Evangelist follows on, saying: 'This is the true God and eternal life';