Carmen Adversos Gentes

ANTONIUS'S POEM AGAINST THE GENTILES. I have examined, I confess, all the sects of Antonius; I have sought out very many things, I have run through each and every one: But I have found nothing better than to believe in Christ. I have resolved to set these things down in smooth verse: And lest it displease that I unfold such poems; David himself, with modulated voice, asked for the lyre, By which example we shall sing of great things in small, Saying what things are to be shunned, followed, cultivated, Since in all things both the matter and the cause are approved. First, the Jewish people knew no grace of the wonderful God; for then, snatched from the unjust Pharaoh, And crossing the sea on foot, with a shining column, With a leader who saw the hostile horsemen drowned, And for whom in the deserts nothing at all was lacking, For whom manna came from heaven, and a spring flowed from the rock. After these things, the same man denied the God who bestows such great things: And while he sought another divinity in his mad heart, He lost the gold which he sent, kindled by fires. Likewise, the Pagan worships stones which he himself has carved, And he himself makes what he himself ought to fear. Then he worships images, which he fashions from bronze in such a way That, when it pleases him, he melts them down into coined money, Or often changes them into shameful forms. Hence he slaughters wretched beasts; and seeks the minds of the gods, Whom he thinks are angry, in the warm liver, And prays for a man's life from the death of a beast. What pardon does he ask to be granted, who demands it with blood? For what sort of thing is that? how foolish? how noteworthy? When God Almighty once formed man, Man dares to form a god.

Crimes are not lacking: the master even sells this man, the buyer buys him for himself. Should I believe that philosophers have any reason, who lack reason, whose wisdom is empty? The Cynics are like dogs, as their name reveals. There are also those who follow the uncertain dogma of Plato, whom the long-sought substance of the soul disturbs, always discussing it but never able to define it; hence they love to write Plato's book On the Soul, which contains nothing certain beyond the title. There are also the Physicists, named after Nature, whom an ancient, crude, and uncivilized way of life pleases. For one of them once carried a staff and a clay vessel, thinking that only what was useful should be possessed—that as an aid, and this as a means of drinking. When he saw a farmer standing and drawing water with cupped hands to drink, he broke the clay vessel, and having thrown it far away, said that superfluous things should be removed; the rustic taught him that he could also spurn that. These men drink no wine, nor are they nourished by bread; they do not rest on a bed, nor do they ward off cold with clothing; ungrateful to God, they reject what He has provided. What shall I say of the diverse rites? Shall I speak of temples built for gods and goddesses, which Capitols first? These people want a god, the god's wife, and the sister herself to be the same, as Vergil, their author, notes by saying: "And sister and wife.

It is also said of Jove that he raped his own daughter and gave her to his brother; and that to take others, he changed his own shape: now a serpent, now a bull, now a swan and a shower of gold. By transforming himself, he shows what he was: another’s form pleased him more than his own. More shamefully, he fashioned an eagle and came into the wicked embraces of a boy. What does the crowd of worshippers say? Either deny that Jove is Jove, or admit that shame. He certainly has a name, which is not proved by reason. They make sacrifices to Jove and call Jove “best,” and they pray to him, and they place Janus Pater in the first rank. This Janus was a king, who by his own name made the Janiculum, a prudent man; because he could look back at many future things, they painted him with two faces. And the ancient Latins called him “two-faced Janus.” Because he came to the Ausonian shores in a ship, a coin was first struck in his honor, so that one part bore a head, the other part carved a ship. In memory of this, they now stamp whatever coins they do. From this ancient deed, they call these “heads” and “ships.” What do they hope from Jove, who is second after the king, and who is placed in the prayers of those who sacrifice? He has a mother captured by a shepherd’s love: for the shepherd is older than Jove, or Jove himself; but the shepherd better chose to keep his chastity, who spurned the goddess, who cut off his own manly parts, lest he ever touch another’s marriage bed, who did not wish to approach hers. Yet this, this was done by the just judgment of the gods, that he who was not touched by adultery should not become a husband.

Now also they lament the foul mysteries of the half-man: nor are there lacking men whom these pollutions turn, and they adore some secret something as if greater: and they call it holy; if a chaste man wished to approach it, he would be profane. Thus the priest himself, more strict, avoids female intercourse, and endures male ones. O blind mind of man! Concerning their rites, the stage always stirs laughter, yet they do not withdraw from this error. They say that Saturn is the father of Jove, and that he devoured his own children, and soon vomited forth the unspeakable feast from his belly; but afterwards, by the craft of his wife, a stone was substituted for Jove and sunk into his entrails: which if it had not been done, Jupiter would have been consumed. And they call him Chronos, and falsely Chronos, because time consumes what it creates, and again promises back what has been consumed. Yet why do they obliquely fashion the name for time? Now also, that he often feared for his offspring, he was cast down from heaven by Jove and lay hidden through the fields of Italy, and Latium was then so called. Great is each god! One is hidden in the earth, the other could not know the hiding places of the lands. Hence the ancient Quirites established the Latiarian evil, that a sacrificed man might satisfy the empty name. What darkness of mind is this? what improvident hearts? What is worshipped is nothing, and bloody rites are performed. What of the fact that they also hide the unconquered one in a dark cave, and what they gather in darkness, they call the sun? Who would secretly worship light, and the highest star, in the underworld, unless he were the cause of evil things?

What of the fact that they do not hide the Isiac sistrum and the dog's head any more, but place them in public places? Certainly they seek some unknown thing, and rejoice when it is found; and again they lose it, so that they may seek it again. Who could bear this, that wise men should as it were shut up the sky, while these men openly display the monstrosities of their own gods? What has Serapis deserved, that he is so mangled by them through various and shameful places? Here finally he always becomes a beast, becomes a dog, becomes the foul corpse of an ass, now a man, now bread, now weak in body with disease. While they do such things, they confess that he feels nothing. What shall I say also of Vesta, whom the priest himself denies knowing what she is? And yet within the innermost shrines, an unquenched fire is always feigned to be kept. Why is she not a god? Why is a woman said to bear fire? That woman indeed, as Hyginus relates, once wove a garment with new thread, named from her own name, which she herself gave to Vulcan, who had then shown her the hidden hearths to guard. He, joyful in turn at this gift, offered it to the Sun, through whom he had earlier detected the adultery of Mars. Now the whole credulous crowd hang garments for the Sun during the Vulcanalia: and to mark Venus, then Adonis is also carried; then they throw dung; they cast it as if it were dung itself. If you examine everything, they seem more laughable. Here is added another thing: of Vesta—!

They say that the Quinquatrian maidens carry feasts to the Dragon, which, however, either does not exist, or, if it does, is the Devil himself, the former tempter of the human race. And they venerate him, who now, in the name of Christ, both trembles and hangs, and confesses all his deeds. What is the mind of men, that they speak falsehoods instead of truths, who cultivate what should be abandoned, and abandon what should be cultivated? It will now be enough for us to recount empty fears. I myself once experienced all these things, before I attained the clear light; nor was I long uncertain, and after being driven by so many storms, the holy Church received me in a saving harbor. And after the wandering waves, she settled me in a tranquil seat, so that now it is permitted to me, the cloud of evils wiped away, to hope for serene light in the promised time. That former salvation, which forgetful Adam lost, then indeed by the persuasion of evil, now with Christ as oarsman, rescued from the rocks, will rise again to remain forever. For our Ruler so governs all things from every side, that he who has now removed the error from our mind, by a better path may open the lights of paradise. Blessed is our Faith, dedicated to one and certain. For God is one, the Son is one substance, one is in each, one is the vigor, one the power. For the Word of God, Christ, shone forth from the paternal breast, and always existed, who, not as if born, but issued from the mouth, removed that empty chaos, and took away the gaping void of formless night; and distributed to their places sea, lands, air, and sky. And to these he gave a twin light, after driving away the darkness.

But where all things were astonished that a new sun was rising, it drew these four beginnings from various sources. There are men on the lands, stars are added to the sky, a bird hangs in the air, a fish swims in the liquid sea. Thus it adorned each element with its own forms, wove these together though diverse, joined what was separate, and separated what was joined, which now, though divided, cohere. For the ocean encloses the land, the sea is enclosed, and the air itself is enclosed in the middle under the ethereal axis. This heaven also, which we see high above, is below six others rising at equal intervals, and after seven thrones, after so many celestial realms, all the remaining part, which stands out beyond all, which exceeds above, which stretches everywhere into the height, which lies open without end, which no mind can grasp, is the house of inaccessible light and the seat of the mighty God, far from which he sees the subject things he made. All things thus stand firm, while the spirit encircles all. These same things, whose use is granted to us, which the lower pole embraces in a great City, though all things are distant, are held together by a single peace. Finally, they have one name, they are all the World. This the Greeks earlier called Cosmos: hence each language distinguishes the composite: Cosmos from adornment, Mundus from light. For where the sun shines, all this was foul in shadow, and an example remains, whenever night defiles all things, and teaches from the darkness what grace of light has been given.

All these goods He made, who worked thus everywhere—this God from the heart of God, this Spirit of the mouth, the holy Father's Word, the fabric of such great things. Let no pagan boast, if he avoids idols and thinks it enough to believe in one deity. What worship will he offer to God who does not worship His Word? Who does not honor the Power with like reverence? And whoever confesses that God is invisible and incomprehensible, let him also consider Christ, and he will find the same. For no one can comprehend the Word, no one can see it; we see only His works. The Son in the Father, the Father in the Son, made all things, and whatever He gave by power, He guards by mercy. Thus the Savior was and will stand forever, who removed errors, who made truth appear, and restored the perishing world to the appeased Father. Nor is it strange that He rules all things, who created all things, who gave the whole from nothing, preferred light to darkness, and ordered day to succeed night; and, being in the flesh, He remits the sins of the flesh. For He sees that fragile men easily fall into slips, and yet, while reproving, He will grant one pardon to all (I shall say a new thing, nor will I regret saying it): He will be more merciful than just. Finally, if He wished to be just, no one would escape punishment without crime; for justice condemns evils, mercy grants all. This He does so that the gifts of the coming life may be assured, and that what fault took away, indulgence may restore; if these are not granted to the people who ask, then almost no one will be free from every sin.

Who could be worthy to be polished by the promised light? Then it will be permitted to touch the joyful realms of the heavens with delight; then death itself will be able to die, when throughout all time life will be everlasting, because in that blessed seat there is no place for sinning, where there is no desire. Such great glory remains for the faithful people preserved. He has granted this more, He has given this greater gift as well, that a sinner who repents, having previously fallen, is not made to be counted among the crowd of sinners. Indeed, the punishment is enough when one’s own fault is a grief to him; fear is its own penalty; the torments of guilt he then suffers, as it were, who confesses that he has deserved them. What could be better, or what more moderate? He judges, investigates, chastises, spares, honors—He who conquers all, and is not conquered by anger itself. We now see that what is present will be future; for often when He gathers threatening, bristling clouds and flashes with pious terror in too fiery a gleam, and thunders with gloomy rains and dark clouds, every kind fears destruction; but the power of life will cease, and equally He calms the sky and the mind. This too He then bids us hope for, He who now proves that He can destroy all things, if He refuses to destroy. Thus salvation, to be repeated, is shown for the coming age, and the eternal mercy of the eternal God will remain.