Indeed, in the midst of the cities—a thing that had never happened at any other time—decrees of the cities against us, and rescripts of imperial ordinances in answer to these, engraved on bronze tablets, were set up; while the children throughout the schools had on their lips every day the names of Jesus and Pilate and the Memoirs forged for our insult. Here it seems necessary to me to insert this very document of Maximin that was set up on the tablets (so that at once there may be made manifest both the boastful and arrogant insolence of this God-hating man, and the sleepless hatred of evil, on the part of the divine Justice that followed close upon his heels against the impious—by which, being driven, he not long afterwards both took counsel to the contrary concerning us and decreed it by laws in writing), the document being in its own words to the following effect: A copy of a translation of Maximin's rescript in answer to the decrees against us, transcribed from the tablet at Tyre.
「At length the feeble boldness of the human mind has gained strength to shake off and scatter all the dimness and mist of error, that error which before this beset the senses—enwrapped in the deadly darkness of ignorance—not so much of the impious as of the wretched, and to recognize that it is governed and made stable by the benevolent providence of the immortal gods.
It is past belief to tell how welcome, how exceedingly pleasant and dear to us it has become, that you have given so great a proof of your god-loving disposition;
since even before this it was unknown to no one of what manner of observance and reverence toward the immortal gods you were wont to be, in whom is recognized a faith not of bare and empty words, but of continual and admirable deeds of distinction.
Wherefore your city might worthily be called both a foundation and a dwelling-place of the immortal gods; for by many examples it appears that it flourishes through the sojourning there of the heavenly gods.
Behold, therefore, your city, having disregarded all things that pertain to its own private advantage and having passed over its former petitions concerning its own affairs, when once again it perceived that the followers of that accursed folly were beginning to creep forth, and like a neglected and slumbering pyre, when its torches are rekindled, were filling up the greatest conflagrations, immediately and without any delay had recourse to our piety, as to a mother-city of all reverence toward the gods, demanding some healing and help.
It is plain that the gods have put into your heart this saving thought on account of the faith of your reverence toward the gods. He therefore, even he, the most high and greatest Zeus, who presides over your most illustrious city, who delivers your ancestral gods and your wives and children and hearth and homes from all destruction and ruin, breathed into your souls this saving resolve, showing and making manifest how excellent and splendid and saving a thing it is to draw near, with the reverence that is due, to the worship and the sacred rites of the immortal gods.
For who can be found so senseless, or so bereft of all understanding, as not to perceive that it is by the benevolent zeal of the gods that it comes to pass that the earth does not refuse the seeds entrusted to it, baffling the husbandmen's hope with empty expectation; nor again that the spectre of impious war fixes itself unhindered upon the earth, so that, the wholesome temper of heaven being corrupted, parched bodies are dragged down to death; nor that the sea, swelling under the blasts of immoderate winds, is heaped up into crests; nor that hurricanes, bursting forth unexpectedly, raise a deadly tempest; nor, further, that the nourishing mother earth, sinking from her lowest depths in fearful trembling, and the mountains lying upon her, are swallowed up as chasms open—all of which evils, and evils yet more grievous than these, no one is ignorant have happened many a time before this.
And all these things together came to pass through the ruinous error of the empty folly of those unlawful men, when it spread abroad in their souls, and, one might almost say, oppressed wellnigh everywhere with deeds of shame.」
To these things, after other remarks, he adds: 「Let them behold in the broad plains the crops already flourishing and waving with their ears of corn, and the meadows, thanks to seasonable rains, gleaming with plants and flowers, and the condition of the air restored temperate and most gentle;
let all rejoice that, through our piety and through the sacrifices and honour rendered to the power of the most mighty and most steadfast Ares, having been propitiated, they accordingly enjoy securely and in tranquillity the most serene peace and are gladdened; and let as many as, having altogether departed from that blind error and wandering, have returned to a right and most noble mind, rejoice indeed the more, as men delivered from an unexpected tempest or grievous sickness, and reaping the sweet enjoyment of life for the time to come.
But if they persist in their accursed folly, let them be separated and driven far away from your city and its environs, even as you requested; that so, in accordance with your praiseworthy zeal in this matter, your city, being purged of all pollution and impiety, may, according to its inborn purpose, render obedience with the reverence that is due to the sacred rites of the immortal gods.
And that you may know how dear to us this your request concerning this matter has become—even apart from decrees and apart from petition, of our own free will and most ready beneficence of soul—we permit your Devotedness to ask whatever great gift you may wish, in return for this your god-loving disposition.
And now let it be your resolve to do this and to receive it; for you shall obtain it without any delay. This, when granted to your city, will furnish for all time a testimony of your god-loving piety toward the immortal gods, and will be displayed to your sons and descendants as proof that you have met with worthy rewards from our beneficence on account of these your principles of life.」
These things, then, were set up on pillars against us throughout every province, shutting off our affairs from all good hope, so far at least as it lay with men; so that, according to that very divine oracle, 「if it were possible, hereat even the elect themselves should be made to stumble.」
Indeed, when the expectation of most men was now well-nigh fainting away, all at once, while those who were ministering the aforesaid writing against us were still accomplishing their journey along the road in certain districts, the God who is the Champion of His own Church, all but bridling the tyrant's vaunting against us, displayed His heavenly alliance on our behalf.