Nor have you excluded those of that sentiment from
honours, but have conferred upon them the highest offices, and have
given them access to your table, to eat and drink with you.
honours, but have conferred upon them the highest offices, and have
given them access to your table, to eat and drink with you.
Tacitus
They who pull down a temple
have done no wrong if the Emperor has ordered it to be done. Therefore
they who pulled it down did not do wrong by doing what the Emperor
approved of. But he who does that which is not approved by the Emperor,
does Wrong; does he not? You, then, are the men who have nothing of this
to say for what you have done. Tell me why this temple of Fortune is
safe? and the temple of Jupiter, and of Minerva, and of Bacchus? Is it
because you would have them remain? No, but because no one has given
you power over them; which, nevertheless, you have assumed against those
which you have destroyed. How, then, are you not liable to punishment?
or how can you pretend that what you have done is right, when the
sufferers have done no wrong? Of which charge there would have been some
appearance, if you, O Emperor, had published an edict to their purpose:
'Let no man within my empire believe in the gods, nor worship them, nor
ask any
{95}
good thing of them, neither for himself, nor for his children, unless it
be done in silence and privately: but let all present themselves at the
places where I worship, and join in the rites there performed. And let
them offer the same prayers which they do, and bow the head at the hand
of him who directs the multitude. Whoever transgresses this law, shall
be put to death. ' It was easy for you to publish such a law as this; but
you have not done it; nor have you in this matter laid a yoke upon the
souls of men. But though you think one way better than the other, yet
you do not judge that other to be an impiety, for which a man may be
justly punished.
Nor have you excluded those of that sentiment from
honours, but have conferred upon them the highest offices, and have
given them access to your table, to eat and drink with you. This you
have done formerly, and at this time; beside others, you have associated
to yourself (thinking it advantageous to your government) a man, who
swears by the gods, both before others, and before yourself: and you are
not offended at it; nor do you think yourself injured by those oaths:
nor do you account him a wicked man who placeth his best hopes in the
gods. When, therefore, you do not reject us, as neither did he who
subdued the Persians by arms reject those of his subjects who differed
from him in this matter, what pretence have these to reject us?
{96}
How can these men reject their fellow-subjects, differing from them in
this matter? By what right do they make these incursions? How do they
seize other men's goods with the indignation of the countries? How do
they destroy some things, and carry off others? adding to the injury of
their actions the insolence of glorying in them. We, O Emperor, if
you approve and permit these things, will bear them; not without grief
indeed; but yet we will show that we have learned to obey. But if you
give them no power, and yet they come and invade our small remaining
substance, or our walls: Know, that the owners of the countries will
defend themselves. "
EXTRACTS FROM BINGHAM'S ANTIQUITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH*,
OF THE NAMES OF REPROACH WHICH THE JEWS, INFIDELS, AND HERETICS CAST
UPON THE CHRISTIANS.
"Besides the names already spoken of, there were some other reproachful
names cast upon them by their adversaries, which it will not be improper
here to mention. The first of these was Nazarens, a
* The edition from which these Extracts are taken it in one
vol. 8vo, London, 1708, and begins at p. 13.
{97}
name of reproach given them first by the Jews, by whom they are styled
the sect of the Nazarens, Acts xxiv.
have done no wrong if the Emperor has ordered it to be done. Therefore
they who pulled it down did not do wrong by doing what the Emperor
approved of. But he who does that which is not approved by the Emperor,
does Wrong; does he not? You, then, are the men who have nothing of this
to say for what you have done. Tell me why this temple of Fortune is
safe? and the temple of Jupiter, and of Minerva, and of Bacchus? Is it
because you would have them remain? No, but because no one has given
you power over them; which, nevertheless, you have assumed against those
which you have destroyed. How, then, are you not liable to punishment?
or how can you pretend that what you have done is right, when the
sufferers have done no wrong? Of which charge there would have been some
appearance, if you, O Emperor, had published an edict to their purpose:
'Let no man within my empire believe in the gods, nor worship them, nor
ask any
{95}
good thing of them, neither for himself, nor for his children, unless it
be done in silence and privately: but let all present themselves at the
places where I worship, and join in the rites there performed. And let
them offer the same prayers which they do, and bow the head at the hand
of him who directs the multitude. Whoever transgresses this law, shall
be put to death. ' It was easy for you to publish such a law as this; but
you have not done it; nor have you in this matter laid a yoke upon the
souls of men. But though you think one way better than the other, yet
you do not judge that other to be an impiety, for which a man may be
justly punished.
Nor have you excluded those of that sentiment from
honours, but have conferred upon them the highest offices, and have
given them access to your table, to eat and drink with you. This you
have done formerly, and at this time; beside others, you have associated
to yourself (thinking it advantageous to your government) a man, who
swears by the gods, both before others, and before yourself: and you are
not offended at it; nor do you think yourself injured by those oaths:
nor do you account him a wicked man who placeth his best hopes in the
gods. When, therefore, you do not reject us, as neither did he who
subdued the Persians by arms reject those of his subjects who differed
from him in this matter, what pretence have these to reject us?
{96}
How can these men reject their fellow-subjects, differing from them in
this matter? By what right do they make these incursions? How do they
seize other men's goods with the indignation of the countries? How do
they destroy some things, and carry off others? adding to the injury of
their actions the insolence of glorying in them. We, O Emperor, if
you approve and permit these things, will bear them; not without grief
indeed; but yet we will show that we have learned to obey. But if you
give them no power, and yet they come and invade our small remaining
substance, or our walls: Know, that the owners of the countries will
defend themselves. "
EXTRACTS FROM BINGHAM'S ANTIQUITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH*,
OF THE NAMES OF REPROACH WHICH THE JEWS, INFIDELS, AND HERETICS CAST
UPON THE CHRISTIANS.
"Besides the names already spoken of, there were some other reproachful
names cast upon them by their adversaries, which it will not be improper
here to mention. The first of these was Nazarens, a
* The edition from which these Extracts are taken it in one
vol. 8vo, London, 1708, and begins at p. 13.
{97}
name of reproach given them first by the Jews, by whom they are styled
the sect of the Nazarens, Acts xxiv.
