Lucifer of Cagliari, The Necessity of Dying for the Son of God
Lucifer of Cagliari The Necessity of Dying for the Son of God (Moriundum esse pro dei filio) Lucifer of Cagliari 1 It had certainly seemed right, Emperor Constantius, not to discuss the holy Scriptures again with you, with the very man whom we have found to be a corruptor of the truth, with you whom we have recognised from your actions actually to be one of those people who are called wise by themselves although they are actually following the path of foolishness. As we have said, it had seemed right after we brought such important matters to your attention to remain silent now, especially since we remember that it is written: Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him,1 and again: Speak not in the ears of a fool, lest, when he has heard, he mocks your intelligent words.2 But because I have found you still boasting of the power of your arms and the hollow authority of your rule, that you are able to destroy those whom you ought by reason to have established in the position that you had decided upon, I wanted by this book especially to make it known to your polluted and sacrilegious mind that, in all these matters where you think yourself mighty, you are actually wretched, and that all the fury of your torture is dismissed by the servants of God. For we want it clearly established in your mind that you will pass away together with your temporal, tottering, fragile and corruptible kingdom and you will come to eternal punishment, unless you look out for yourself while the opportunity exists, but Christians will assuredly reach eternal rest and will receive an incorruptible kingdom. Will you attempt to argue that you will attain the kingdom of heaven through this heresy of yours, you who, along with your equally pernicious Arians, being afraid lest one day you will be refuted by us Christians and will be forced to surrender by the exclaiming
1 Proverbs 26.4.
2 Proverbs 23.9. The opening of the text is quite similar to Cyprian's Ad Demetrianum, especially in its use of these two passages from Proverbs to justify not having written to a representative of imperial authority. See also the opening of Hilary's In Constantium, where there is also a statement of justification for now speaking out against the emperor.
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truth itself, have abandoned discussion and resolved to take refuge in the power of your brittle arms?3 As though you, an enemy of divine religion equipped with fragile weapons, could overcome men who will receive immortal rewards; as though you, the precursor of the Antichrist, could defeat devout servants of Christ, soldiers of God whom his only Son deemed worthy to invite to enjoy the everlasting bonds of friendship of his divinity, saying: Blessed are you, when men shall revile you and, insulting you, will persecute and reproach you and speak all manner of evil against you. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.4
Impotent in every way, you thought that you could drive these men from their fixed position and overthrow those whom you see prepared to die for the only Son of God, since they have chosen not to be tortured in the underworld alongside you unbelievers, but to attain the heavenly kingdom; you had thought that through the worthless authority of your rule you could overcome men who shine forth as temples of God through the very confession of their faith.5 For just as you Arians, by denying the Son of God, are marked out by the words of the prophets, apostles and sacred
Gospels as the abodes of an unclean spirit, so we who confess the Son of God show ourselves to be temples of God.6 Your cruel and sacrilegious mind was taken in by the advice of your fellow heretics and had expected that we, the soldiers of God, could have given in to your butchery, we
3 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.1.3: 'They fear lest one day they will be refuted by us and will be forced to surrender by the exclaiming truth itself.' As with many of the other passages from Lactantius reused by Lucifer, the objects of criticism here are persecuting pagans. The actions and punishments of 'tyrants', as well as the brave resistance of true Christians, are a common theme in Lactantius, and particularly in book 5 of the Divine Institutes. It can be seen throughout the passages from Lactantius employed by Lucifer in this work.
4 Matthew 5.11–12. The word 'only' here in the phrase 'only Son' translates the Latin term unicus, which was central to Lucifer's understanding of Christ and which he used widely throughout his works. The Old Latin version of the Bible, which Lucifer employed, used this term to render the Greek monogenes (as in the quotation from John 3.18 at Lucifer,
De Ath. II 23), although Jerome later translated it as unigenitus in his Vulgate. See Pizzani
(2001) 232–3, 244. See also Hilary, In Const. 4, where unigenitus is also employed for this purpose.
5 The concept of Christians as 'temples of God' comes from 2 Corinthians 6.16.
6 The word 'confess' here translates the verb confiteor. For early Christians it was associated particularly with maintaining and proclaiming one's faith in opposition to persecution, and the term confessor came to be applied to those who had remained steadfast under torture. See, for example, Lact. Mort. pers. 35.2; Cyp. Ep. passim.
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whom God describes as his temples thus: I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.7 You had decided that you could defeat these people, whom the apostle urges to exalt
God and carry him in their bodies;8 you had actually believed that you could subdue these people with the brittle weapons of your empire. But you know that, although I was standing in your palace within the curtain, the response you got from me was that your worthless authority had been trampled underfoot and all the servants of God agreed in mind, desire, purpose, strength and voice for the preservation of salvation.9
2 You see that, however much your tottering authority sees fit to rage against us, so much is it judged to be weak, despicable, hollow, feeble and base; for whenever your hand, roused by madness and villainy for our destruction, has prevailed, we recall that each time we have grown and emerged even more prominently as victors. You committed the greatest massacre in Alexandria, you ripped apart other individuals throughout the whole world, you destroyed those who were resisting you in many different locations; but, even though you are loath to hear it, they are all martyrs.10
Believe me that we, who have faith that all these most blessed men, slain by your sword, are now in paradise, have resolved to be killed by you, because we have seen that it is better to have God as a devoted friend for all time than to be punished alongside you, who are the imitator of Judas
Iscariot and the Jews. So it is in short, Constantius, that, fearless against the gnashings of the serpent that you have introduced, we have been prepared
7 2 Corinthians 6.16.
8 See 1 Corinthians 6.20.
9 The phrase intra uelum ('within the curtain') appears in Leviticus 16.15 and 21.23, as well as Numbers 18.7, in prescriptions for Jewish Temple practice, although here it refers to approaching the inner sanctum of the imperial court, as the uelum (Greek: βῆλον) was the curtain that screened off the chamber in which visitors entered the emperor's presence: see Lampe s.v. βῆλον 1. The episode described here is probably either Lucifer's embassy to Constantius on behalf of Liberius of Rome in 354 to ask for the convening of a council or a meeting in the aftermath of that council, which took place at Milan in 355: see Barnes (1993)
116–17. The passage also employs the common trope within Christian martyr literature of the confrontation between confessor/martyr and persecuting official, which often harked back, in turn, to the paradigmatic account of Christ before Pilate in Matthew 27.11–14; Mark
15.1–5; Luke 23.1–7, 13–16; John 18.33–8.
10 This is probably a reference to the imperial action that caused Athanasius to flee from Alexandria in 356, thereby starting his third period of exile. On these events, see
Introduction p. 24. A detailed account of this is given at Ath. Hist. Ar. 47–63, 81, as well as being mentioned in Hilary, In Const. 11 and chapter 8 below.
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to face any death.11 We can never repent of our decisions, even if we, who are seen to have resisted your cruel hands thus far, are slaughtered by you.
For the death that you threaten to inflict on us has been prepared for all; but without doubt, as we see, no one else has ever achieved such great blessedness as the holy martyrs attained, except those who have conquered death by dying for the only Son of God.12
You torture, kill and eradicate men who have been consecrated to God, yet are unable to explain the causes of your hatred in performing these actions. Because you stray, you even grow angry with us, since we follow the true path, and although you could correct yourself through our salutary advice, you heap up your errors on top of cruel deeds, wrenching minds consecrated to God out from our eviscerated bodies because we have resolved to maintain our faith in God right up to the final laps of life.13 You see that the situation is thus and this is certainly not without the greatest anguish for you when you realise that you cannot turn us from the only true religion, or from this course, which we steer to retrieve the prize of the heavenly calling;14 not when you openly make yourself an enemy, nor when you pretend to be a friend (for you are seen to have in you he who deceived Eve),15 nor when you concoct your words, by which you spread like a ulcer,16 with a false and fabricated tumour of learning, by claiming
11 The serpent here is a reference to the Devil, who is frequently described in this way in early Christian literature.
12 Lucifer here makes the forthright claim that dying for the unicus Son of God (i.e. in the defence of 'Nicene' theology) is the only suffering that receives the same reward as those who were martyred under pagan persecutors. This forms part of his wider presentation of his contemporary circumstances as analogous to earlier attacks on the true faith.
13 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.1.6–7: 'They torture, kill and eradicate just men, yet are unable to explain the causes of their hatred because they have such vehement hatred. Because they stray they grow angry with those who follow the true path and although they could correct themselves, they heap up their errors on top of cruel deeds, staining themselves in the blood of the innocent and wrenching minds consecrated to God out from eviscerated bodies.'
14 See Novat. De cibis iudaicis 1.5: 'Aiming for the prize of the heavenly calling in Christ' and Philippians 3.14. The possible allusion to the third-century theologian Novatian here is not certain, especially as it would be the only one in the whole text. It is possible that Lucifer is merely making use of the same Latin translation of Philippians as Novatian. The word brauium/brabium ('prize') in this passage originally referred to the award given for victory in a competition. On athletic imagery in Christian persecution literature, see n. 297 to Ath. Hist. Ar. 79.4 on p. 110.
15 The Devil/serpent: see Genesis 3.1–6.
16 See 2 Timothy 2.17. This comparison appears again at chapter 11.1–2 below.
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that you, with all your infamies, are revoking every error with your defiled edict, even though you are the font of all error, announcing that you are the bearer of light, although you are actually besieged by every shadow.17
Despite your complete lack of understanding, by realising that you are despised you can to some extent, however, finally comprehend that for this reason there is no way to deflect us from the way of truth, most brutal emperor Constantius.18
For we Christians know that the proper activity of faith is not to be dislodged from a position by either favourable or adverse circumstances, nor ever to be diverted from a resolved course. We see that every reproach is shut out by this one devout exclamation: 'I am a Christian and I refuse to be an apostate like you, Constantius';19 by this one exclamation the defence of salvation and the bond of liberty and honour are bestowed;20 we see that through this confession the shield of protection, a weapon against 17 It is unclear exactly which 'edict' is being referred to here, or even whether Lucifer is actually discussing an edict in the technical legal sense, as opposed to an imperial instruction conveyed via another medium, such as a letter to an official. Lucifer may here be alluding to the outcome of the Councils of Seleucia and Ariminum in 359, as well as the Council of Constantinople in January 360, which promoted the 'Homoian' creed. See Introduction pp. 16–18.
18 For the term 'way of truth', see 2 Peter 2.2. The use of a negative superlative vocative
(immanissime – 'most brutal') here is an inversion of the standard panegyrical practice of addressing emperors with exaggerated references to their virtues: see Introduction p. 36. On justice and clemency as important virtues in panegyrics (and the use of their corresponding vices of injustice and brutality in the invectives against Constantius), see Flower (2013)
101–2.
19 The phrase Christianus sum ('I am a Christian'), or the female equivalent, Christiana sum, appeared regularly in early Christian literature as a statement that was attributed to those who remained defiant in the face of persecution: see, for example, Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 3.2, 6.4; Acts of Cyprian 1.2; Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs 9, 10, 13; Acts of Maximilian 1.2, 1.3, 2.6, 2.8, 2.9 (see Musurillo (1972) for editions and translations of these texts). Bremmer (1991) 16 n. 13 provides a list of examples of this phrase (and the Greek cognate Χριστιανός εἰμι) in martyr acta, commenting that it appears in all but two of the early texts that he examines. On the use of this phrase and the role of direct speech in martyr acta more generally, see Elliott (1987) 20–26.
20 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 2: 'By this the reward can be increased and reproach shut out. This is the foundation of life and faith, the defence of salvation, the bond of liberty and honour.' The pseudo-Cyprianic De laude martyrii is filled with statements about the salutary power of Christian martyrdom and the glory that comes with bravely opposing persecution, making it a very useful text for Lucifer's theme in this work. The word 'liberty' is here translating the term libertas, which also carries connotations of freedom of speech in the face of oppression: see n. 21 to Hilary, In Const. 3 at p. 118.
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the Devil, who now rages against us through you, is bestowed on us; and in fact you say 'Deny that you are Christians.'21 That knowledge, which recalls that the only Son of God provides the presence of his divinity to protect his own and make them victorious, ensures that we hold out firm against the looming danger, do not shudder at the savagery of your torturer and are revived rather than afflicted;22 so it is ensured that we are restored to life by the very punishment by which you believe us to be obliterated.
For we believe that he, for whom we suffer, is with us, and so the thing which you our punisher hoped would be useful for torture, we take upon ourselves to increase our strength.23 So we are not broken by your buffeting evils and, however variedly we are tormented by your continual cruelty, so much more firmly are we strengthened.24 For he is with us, he who protected the young Hebrews who believed in him in the fiery furnace;25 he fortifies our minds, he directs our judgement, he inflames our hearts with his divine love and inspires them to tolerate the holy suffering; and so none of us believes that it is death which you threaten to impose, but rather immortality, not that a temporary punishment has been inflicted through you, but eternal glory.26 For thus the sacred Scriptures reveal that martyrs of God are consecrated through torments and are crowned by the very trial
21 It was common in persecutions for Christians to be offered the opportunity to deny their faith and to be released if they did so: see Pliny, Ep. 10.96–7. Lucifer is here continuing to present his encounter with Constantius in terms reminiscent of confrontations with persecuting officials in martyr literature, just as he did with his statement 'I am a Christian.'
22 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 3: 'Consider what great glory it is … to oppose the looming danger and not shudder at the savagery of the torturer, so that a man can be believed to be revived rather than afflicted by suffering.'
23 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 3: 'The thing which the punisher thinks would be useful for torture, he [the confessor] takes upon himself to increase his strength.'
24 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.7.9: 'For, shaken by buffeting evils, [virtue] acquires stability and however often it is struck, so much more firmly is it strengthened.'
25 See Daniel 3.19–27, where king Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon put three young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, into the fiery furnace as a punishment. Not only were they miraculously unharmed, but they were also joined in the furnace by a fourth figure, referred to as 'like the Son of God'. This figure has traditionally been interpreted by Christians as Christ. The same exempla appear at Hilary, In Const. 4.
26 See Cyprian, Ep. 6.2: 'Do not let anything be turned in your hearts and minds now other than the divine instructions and heavenly orders, through which the Holy Spirit has always roused us to tolerate suffering. Let no one believe that this is death, but rather that it is immortality, not a temporary punishment but eternal glory.' In this letter Cyprian is addressing a group of confessors who are being held in prison by the Roman authorities and is exhorting them to stand firm.
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of suffering: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints27 and: Though they have suffered torments in the sight of men, their hope is full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded, for God proved them and found them to be worthy for himself.
As gold in the furnace has he tried them, and received them like a burnt offering, and there will be regard for them in due time. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over peoples, and their Lord shall reign for ever.28
3 Therefore those who look forward to attaining such great bliss through the greatness of God must rejoice and trample your present evils underfoot, instead contemplating the joys that are to come.29 For the divine words of the only Son of God are: He that loves his life in this world shall lose it, but he that hates his life because of me shall keep it unto life eternal.30
We Christians hold fast to this divine instruction; we stand, and will stand firm, Constantius, even though your hook tears through our limbs and repeatedly furrows our wounds.31 We are stronger than you, our torturer, and all your punishments, as our only thought is that this butchery of your cruelty will serve to bring us eternal glory.32 Barbarians often spare the defeated and there is a place for mercy in war, even amongst those who live like wild animals.33 But what you do to us is truly indescribable, for we have always wished you good fortune and are unfailing in our desires and constant prayers to God that this may come about.34 You despoil,
27 Psalms 116.15 (115.6 LXX). This quotation also appears in Cyprian, Ep. 6.2.
28 Wisdom 3.4–6, 8. This quotation (also with the omission of verse 7) similarly appears in Cyprian, Ep. 6.2.
29 See Cyprian, Ep. 6.2: 'You must rejoice and trample present sufferings underfoot with joy for what is to come.'
30 John 12.25 (with minor alterations). This quotation also appears in Cyprian, Ep. 6.2.
31 The word ungula means a hoof, claw or talon, but here refers to an instrument of torture: see Lewis & Short s.v., as well as the quotation in the next footnote.
32 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 3: 'Even though the hook tears through the hardening ribs and repeatedly furrows the wounds … he however stands firm, stronger than his punishments, as his only thought is that in this cruelty of the butchers Christ himself, for whom he endures, endures more.'
33 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.9.3: 'However the defeated are spared and there is a place for mercy in war.' In this passage, Lactantius is describing how the actions of persecutors are even worse than the treatment of enemies in wars.
34 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.9.4: 'But what they do to these people is indescribable, even though they do not know how to perform evil.' The phrase 'these people' refers to 'the just'
(i.e. Christians).
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proscribe, slaughter with the sword and punish in many ways; you deny burial to bodies that you decreed to be butchered; you ban almsgiving; you have filled the mines and all the places thought worthy of the name of exile with those of us who resist your cunning schemes; you never stop banishing the innocent and harassing them with hunger, thirst and nakedness.35 You heap these evils upon us, who seek eternal blessedness.
But, most cruel emperor, you should realise that whatever your savagery has inflicted on us, or will inflict in the future, is mere illusion; for the death you imposed on the holy martyrs who preceded us was not real death or any loss or deprivation, but an investment in faith.36 We Christians are always tortured with corrupt inquisitions by you tyrants during persecution.37 For the methods used to force the guilty to confess are now also used to make us deny Christ, the only and most true Son of God. Just as those who are guilty confess and are deservedly condemned, so we, because we do not deny the Son of God, are crowned, because condemnation imposed by you is victory for us;38 we are removed by you from public view because you do not dare blaspheme in our presence. For a single word from a soldier
35 The punishment of being sent to the mines could be regarded as tantamount to a death penalty. It is attested as having been used during the earlier persecutions under pagan emperors: see n. 221 to Ath. Hist. Ar. 60.1 at p. 91. The claim that Constantius used it against his theological opponents also appears at Hilary, In Const. 11 and Ath. Hist. Ar. 60.1–2, with the latter providing the specific example of a sub-deacon named Eutychius, who died on his way to the mines. The refusal of burial to the persecuted dead appears at Ath. Hist.
Ar. 72.6, while Eusebius of Vercelli, in his Ep. 2, claims that Patrophilus, 'Arian' bishop of Scythopolis in Palestine, prevented him and his clergy from distributing alms while he was in exile in the city. At Ep. 2.4, Eusebius also claims that Patrophilus and his associates were trying to starve him to death.
36 The word 'investment' translates the Latin technical term faeneratio, which means
'money lent at interest', while 'loss' translates damnum, which is frequently used to refer to a financial loss. Lucifer here suggested that his death would operate in the same way as such a loan, by bringing him greater rewards in heaven. For the use of financial terms by Lucifer in discussing these issues, see also n. 113 to chapter 7 below.
37 Lucifer's use of 'you' here argues strongly for continuity between Constantius and earlier (pagan) emperors who persecuted Christians, thereby placing his own circumstances within a long-running struggle between good and evil: see Introduction p. 37. On the use of tyrannus ('tyrant') in polemical literature in this period, see n. 40 to Hilary, In Const. 7 on p. 122 above.
38 This statement continues the theme of inversion in the condemnation of Christians.
Just as they are tortured to make them renounce their faith, while real criminals are being forced to confess their crimes, so the supposedly humiliating deaths of convicted Christians actually bring about their glorification.
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of Christ can strike down the one who has possessed you and who speaks against our holy profession of faith, the one who, through you, thirsts for our blood, the one who lays siege to your mind.39 He trembles at the presence of God's priests and cannot bear it when we oppose you who claim that the Son of God was created from nothing,40 nor when we stand firm in opposition and, aided and protected by God's power, trample your threats and all the cruelty of your butchery underfoot. Undoubtedly, you know that you are chastised by the brave constancy and fortitude of the servants of him who says: Fear not the one who is able to kill your body, but rather fear the one who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.41
We are also encouraged by the exhortations of his most blessed apostle Paul to trample you underfoot, tyrant of all tyrants: We are sons of God; but if sons, then heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if it so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.42 And again: I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us.43 Contemplating the glory of this splendour, it is fitting that we servants of Christ endure all the acts of oppression and persecution that the Devil inflicts, not only through you but also through all his minions.44 Since, although these troubles are many,
39 The image of the miles Christi, the 'soldier of Christ', was a common trope in early
Christian literature and drew upon several passages in the New Testament, particularly
Ephesians 6.10–18. For more on this topic, see von Harnack (1981) 27–64. Here Lucifer is claiming that Constantius is being controlled by the Devil.
40 Lucifer and other supporters of the Nicene theological position regularly claimed that their opponents thought Christ was a being created from nothing and thus not fully divine or eternal: see Introduction p. 3.
41 Matthew 10.28. Lucifer's text of this verse differs from both the Greek New Testament and the Old Latin Bible version of this passage, as preserved in Cyprian, Ep. 6.2, which states: Fear not those who are able to kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; rather fear the one who is able to destroy body and soul in hell. Lucifer appears to have altered the text to make the killer of the body singular, in order to enhance his image of Constantius as the archetypal persecutor. See also Hilary, In Const. 1, where the same change has been made. 'Hell' here translates 'Gehenna', which is the Latin form of the Greek name γεέννα.
This is the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, a place notable for the worship of the fire god
Moloch (2 Kings 23.10) and so associated with fire and slaughter (Jeremiah 7.32, 19.6). It is also used to mean Hell in Matthew 5.22 and later Christian literature.
42 Romans 8.16–17. This quotation also appears in Cyprian, Ep. 6.2.
43 Romans 8.18. This quotation also appears in Cyprian, Ep. 6.2.
44 See Cyprian, Ep. 6.2: 'Contemplating the glory of this splendour, it is fitting that we endure all the acts of oppression and persecution.'
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we are, however, freed from them all, we who believe that the Son of God is the true Son, and while we remember that the Father and the Son are two persons, we must nevertheless ascribe a single divinity to the Father and his only Son.45 When the one who lays siege to your mind hears our just and irrefutable statements, because he cannot bear the truth, he rouses your bestial spirit so that you torment us as violently as possible and inflict agony with refined forms of torture, because we refuse to abandon the road to salvation.46 Your excessive cruelty toys with our bodies, because we value the faith highly and do not deny that we are worshippers of God.47
You oppress us with the whole might of your butchery and think that you will harm us, not realising that we relish the opportunity of being put to the test, since we believe that it would bring us the greatest bliss if in this contest of justice it should fall to us to be slain by your butchering hands for the Son of God. We stand firm with a devout mind against your insanity, for undoubtedly through us he, for whom we suffer, overcomes whatever you, profane one, with your empty rhetoric, worthless chatter and depraved desire, throw against our body to harm his divine majesty.48 Your intransigent mind and stubborn cruelty of heart gives birth to all these things to destroy its salvation.
While you abandon the worship of God, led by your folly, seized by your rage and finally tormented by your whole savagery, which equally spurs you on and sweeps you away, we are protected against your savagery,
45 See Cyprian, Ep. 6.2: 'Although the troubles of the just are many, they are freed from them all because they believe in God.' Cyprian's simple criterion of faith was greatly extended by Lucifer to grant salvation only to those who assumed his particular theological stance. Lucifer sought here to stress that Christ was the 'true' Son of God, rather than simply being given the title of Son, as well as steering a middle course between both the Sabellian/'Monarchian' failure to distinguish adequately between the two persons of the Father and the Son and also the 'Arian'/'subordinationist' view that the Son did not possess fully the divinity of the Father. On these issues, see Introduction pp. 2–18 and the Glossary.
46 The one oppressing Constantius' mind here is the Devil.
47 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.9.10, 12: 'Therefore they torment and inflict agony with refined forms of torture and they regard it as insufficient simply to kill those whom they hate, unless cruelty toys with their bodies … But as for those who value the faith highly and do not deny that they are worshippers of God, they oppress them with the whole might of their butchery, as though they are thirsty for blood.'
48 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 4: 'We will be firm in our faith against these common insanities, undoubtedly overcoming and repelling whatever profane rhetoric throws against you to harm Christ.' and 5: 'For what is in them other than empty rhetoric, worthless chatter and the mind's depraved desire for words.'
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you monster, by the very one whom you deny, and so we resist it, just as a breakwater withstands the ocean.49 Although through you the diabolical waves crash upon us and the roving whirlpools of the world strike far and wide, our strength, firm as it is, will be ever firmer. Nor shall we succumb, overwhelmed by the waves of your attacks that boil around us,50 but will always stand upright against all dangers, for the Christian spirit is not downcast when laid low and thrown to vice, but is high-minded and noble to such an extent that it remains firm and triumphant against all temptations.
We Christians do not intend to savour the pleasures of this present, fragile life, but instead seek to attain the glory of eternal security and bliss, the possession of perpetual blessedness. This is the devout statement of the blessed apostle John, exhorting us to despise earthly things and to desire to pursue the heavenly: The world passes away, and the lust thereof; but he that shall do the will of God abides for eternity, as God himself abides for eternity.51
4 This being so, I want you to recognise that, with all your tricks and lies, and with the most enormous cruelty of your savagery, you lie beneath the feet of God's servants and we regard and consider all the glory of your hollow dominion as worthless; despite all the force and authority of your rule, we know that you are nothing but an insubstantial breeze. Perhaps one of your sycophants might say that we are only bragging. Do you not remember,
Constantius, that I said to the judges, while you listened with the curtain drawn,52 that even though you had ordered your whole army to direct all the weapons of your empire against us, who despise your blasphemy, so that your entire armament should strike against those who scorn your sacrilegious decree, yet we could never retreat from our resolved purpose?
But on account of your prudent judgement, you decided that your soldiers 49 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 5: 'Their intransigent mind and stubborn cruelty of heart is always driven away from life-giving devotion and abandons it, led by their folly, seized by their rage and finally tormented by their whole savagery, which equally spurs them on and sweeps them away.'
50 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 4: 'Just as a breakwater withstands and resists the ocean; although the waves crash upon it and the rolling sea repeatedly strikes it; however its strength remains firm and does not succumb, overwhelmed by the waves that boil around it.'
51 1 John 2.17 (with minor amendments).
52 The phrase uelo misso ('with the curtain drawn') here appears to refer to an incident in which Lucifer was questioned, while the emperor listened from behind his curtain. On the curtain/veil, as well as the question of when this audience may have taken place, see n. 9 to chapter 1 above.
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must die for you in every war, yet ordained that Christians must live as deniers of God.53 Your men certainly feel the agony of their wounds, they feel anguish that they have perished, they feel anguish that they leave this light. But in fact we, first of all, cannot feel these tortures of punishments, in which Christ suffers, in which Christ toils for eternal salvation.54 Secondly, since we regard present circumstances as inconsequential and will live always in that everlasting light, how can it be that we would not choose to die at your hands, which are polluted with sacrilege, for the sake of Christ, the Son of God, the giver of eternal life? For we understand that we cannot please God the Father unless, having been brought together by you to deny that God's only Son is his Son, we have proclaimed, even unto death itself, that he is the true Son of God.55
Your hateful mind resents our declaration that Christ the Son of God is the Word of God, the wisdom of God, the virtue of God, true God from true God, begotten from the Father, that is, from the substance of the Father, light from light, begotten not created, of one substance with the Father, which they call in Greek 'homoousios', through whom all things were made, without whom the Father never was.56 You resent, worm
53 The reference to Constantius' 'prudent judgement' is a clear example of Lucifer's sarcastic employment of the terminology of imperial panegyric, as is also evident in his use of references to Constantius as 'most prudent' in phrases such as prudentissime imperator
(De Ath. I 6.20–1; De Ath. II 29.1), prudentissimus imperator (De Ath. I 36.36; De Ath. II 6.39) and rex prudentissime (De Ath. I 42.41): see Laconi (2001b) 32–3. On commonly invoked imperial virtues, including prudentia, see Wallace-Hadrill (1981); Nixon and Rodgers (1994)
23–4.
54 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 6: 'In which Christ himself toils.' The original context also refers to the suffering of Christians during persecution.
55 As elsewhere, Lucifer is keen to defend the statement that Christ is the 'true' Son, as opposed to merely being having acquired the name. He is claiming that the subordinationist views of the 'Arians' deny the 'truth' of Christ's position as the Son, since they deprive him of other characteristics of God, as the following sentence make clear. The reference here to Christians being brought together to deny their faith could refer to a number of councils in Constantius' reign, including that at Milan in 355, after which Lucifer was exiled, or the gatherings at Seleucia and Ariminum in 359: see Introduction pp. 11, 16–18.
56 Here Lucifer is using the Latin word substantia ('substance') to translate the Greek term ousia, which can also be rendered into Latin as essentia ('essence'). On these terms, see also n. 83 to Hilary, In Const. 12 at p. 128. Lucifer's resolutely anti-Arian theological statement is based largely on the Nicene Creed, particularly in its use of the key term homoousios (ὁμοούσιος), meaning 'of the same ousia'. On these terms, see the Glossary below. On the Nicene Creed, see the Introduction p. 5 and Kelly (1972) 205–62; Ayres (2004)
92–8.
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of Arius,57 that we maintain that there is a single splendour, power, majesty, eternity and divinity of both the Father and his only Son, and that this, which we declared as legates in your palace and do not stop asserting, is not a novelty, but is rather that which has always been and is still believed by Christians, just as the sacred faith is seen to have been written at Nicaea against your Arian heresy and all other errors.58 If you were to finally open the eyes of your heart,59 which have been pierced by the fangs of the serpent, you would discover that the Church holds this faith, the Church defends this faith, knowing that it was passed down to it through the blessed apostles.60 If you could travel through all the peoples of the world in an instant, you would discover, most ignorant emperor, that Christians everywhere hold the same faith as us, and, standing firm in this same defence of ours, they, like us, wish to die for the Son of God.61
But your novel preaching and upstart religion is a blasphemy ruinous to your salvation and introduced by you under the pretence of faith; not only is it too weak to reach the borders of the Roman empire, especially when you are hard pressed already, but also, wherever it had tried to fix roots, it withered and died, since naturally all the servants of God withdrew from both you and the few of your men who remained with you, whom the Lord had foretold as tares sown among the wheat.62 The creator of deceit and 57 On the Alexandrian presbyter Arius, treated as the founder of the 'Arian heresy', which Constantius' opponents accused him of following, see Introduction pp. 2–4. While Lucifer uses a variety of negative images from the animal kingdom to describe Constantius, the term
'worm of Arius' is likely to be a specific reference to the circumstances of the heresiarch's demise, at least as described gleefully by Athanasius in De morte Arii 3, which includes a comparison with the death of Judas. Having entered a public convenience during a visit to Constantinople, Arius supposedly expired in a gruesome fashion apparently involving some kind of severe intestinal problem. Soc. HE 1.38 provided a particularly graphic account. See also Introduction p. 6.
58 If the reference to the confrontation in the palace is true, then it probably relates to either the preliminaries to the Council of Milan or the council itself and its aftermath, since
Lucifer, the presbyter Pancratius and the deacon Hilarius acted as delegates for Liberius of Rome. Lucifer also defends the Nicene term homoousios against the charge of being novel and unscriptural, contrasting it with Constantius' faith later in this chapter. See n. 9 to chapter 1 above and Introduction p. 31 for more details.
59 Ephesians 1.18.
60 The serpent here is, of course, the Devil.
61 Here again, Constantius is being described as exemplifying the extreme opposite of an imperial virtue, in this case wisdom.
62 Matthew 13.25. The statement that Constantius is hard pressed may refer to Julian's
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death has given, and still gives, all these things to you; through you he lures and deceives many with twisted charms; although he stands accused of every crime, he whispers to your most bitter heart that you should punish us, as though we were accused of some crime.63 But look out at last, open the eyes of your heart,64 where there is no light for you, but total darkness and great shadows move, and you will find that the death which you inflict through your flimsy power actually remakes life more complete, that it leads us away rather to glory, through fires, through swords, through chains and wild beasts, through whatever your madness, most pious emperor, will choose finally as the instrument of our murder.65 With God watching over us, not only are we not destroyed but rather we are revived even more, for we remember that there is nothing above us except God; and so the mind dedicated and delivered up to God is ashamed to yield to you, who are dead already through your blasphemy, a dog barking against the truth, teeming with the worms of Arius.66
Whenever the souls of Christ's servants properly examine the real force of tortures, they observe that no torture is worse than a servant of Christ being defeated by you, a servant of our enemy. We recall that the Lord has said: If any man wishes to come after me, let him deny himself to himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life shall lose it; but whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?67 The dignity of martyrdom compels us Christians to spurn life through death, since through the Son of God a new form of salvation has been granted: usurpation in Gaul in February 360, but is probably a description of events on the troublesome Persian frontier in the final years of Constantius' reign: see Dignas and Winter
(2007) 88–90.
63 The 'creator of deceit and death' is another reference to the Devil acting as the emperor's nefarious puppeteer.
64 Ephesians 1.18.
65 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 7: 'For death makes life more complete, death leads away rather to glory.' Here is another example of Lucifer using panegyrical expressions in a sarcastic manner, addressing Constantius as 'most pious emperor'. On piety as a key virtue for both pagan and Christian emperors, and therefore a key theme in invective, see Flower
(2013) 98–106.
66 For the dog barking against the truth, see Tert. Adv. Marc. 2.5.1, as well as Revelation
22.15. On the worms of Arius, see n. 57 above.
67 Matthew 16.24–6.
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to be killed so that I do not perish.68 We know that this instruction was handed down to us divinely, so that we preserve the strength of so great a name without any fear of soldiers; since for a long time now the desire for an everlasting monument has turned us from longing for this life, while the fellowship of Christ has separated us so that we trample underfoot all earthly concerns.69 The assault of your cruelty increases, Constantius; but see that the glory of the soldiers of Christ increases also, and we are not in fact held back from the battle line by fear of tortures, but are rather called out to the battle line by your tortures themselves.70 You will not be able to deny that it is so, when throughout the whole world you see Christians inspired to take up the conflict with an equal and similar ardour of virtue,71 when you observe that your detestable flatteries cannot deceive the incorruptible stability of faith of the soldiers of Christ, nor can your insane threats terrify it, nor can the tortures of your butchery and the cruelty of your torments subdue it; for he clearly remains in us and is always stationed with us, he who said to the blessed apostles: I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.72 He is present everywhere,
68 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 7: 'Such is the fall of martyrdom at first, while afterwards comes the fruit, which spurns life through death so that it can preserve life through death'; and Greg. Ilib. Tract. Orig. 18.23: 'For through Christ a new form <of salvation> has been discovered: to be killed so that you do not perish, to die so that you live.' This and the other four passages from the Tractatus Origenis that appear to be alluded to by Lucifer are all from the end of chapter 18 of that work, where the discussion of prophecies from Daniel and Revelation is concluded with praise of martyrdom.
69 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 9: 'You are not ignorant that this is the instruction handed down to us, so that we can preserve the strength of so great a name without any fear of soldiers; since for a long time now the desire for an everlasting monument has led us away from longing for this life, while our hopes for the future have divorced us from this and the fellowship of Christ has separated us from desiring any vices.'
70 See Cyprian, Ep. 10.1.1: 'The assault has increased, but the glory of the fighters has also increased. Nor have you been held back from the battle line by fear of tortures, but have rather been called out to the battle line by the tortures themselves.' This is another of Cyprian's letters addressed to 'martyrs and confessors', encouraging them to remain strong in the face of persecution, and it discusses the support that they receive from Christ in their trials.
71 'Virtue' here translates uirtus, which can also mean 'strength'. Lucifer uses this ambiguity for rhetorical effect at 11.66–7.
72 Matthew 28.20. See Cyprian, Ep. 10.1.2: 'They are roused to take up the conflict with a similar ardour of virtue, just as is proper for soldiers of Christ in the divine camp, so that flatteries cannot deceive their incorruptible stability of faith, nor can threats terrify it, nor can tortures and torments subdue it, since he who is in us is greater than he who is in this world.' It is interesting that Cyprian's 'similar ardour' has become 'equal and similar ardour'
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for he is all-powerful, the Son of the omnipotent, and his eternity and divine power are one with the Father.
5 It is impossible to express how great a darkness of disbelief has enveloped you, how large a cloud of shadows and errors has engulfed your heart;73 although you pretend to be a Christian, you strive to eradicate this name from the world.74 In these circumstances you ought to realise that the readers will forgive me because my meagre capacity for eloquence has been insufficient to record the execration of you as much as your impiety deserves. For they have seen me give an example to all God-fearing people and provide material to those who will take up the cause, telling them how they can cut you down, since you are planted without the roots of eternal life. Do not say that we assail you with slanders if you happen to hear what you deserve, even though it is from uncultured Christians.
We know that one should not insult one's enemies, but should pray for them instead;75 for the Son of God, even though he is Lord of all things, did not utter insults when insulted.76 But if the Lord of all things were to utter an insult, everything would surely be destroyed by the force of his great majesty. You undoubtedly respond to these things thus: 'In fact the Lord wanted you, as his bishop, to be soft, but you show yourself stubborn towards me.' The prophets, apostles and the chorus of evangelists teach that thou shalt not kill, but on the contrary you think it right to kill those consecrated to God. We Christians understand that, in order to please him whom we worship, there is a need for the things which we know that he delights and rejoices in.77
So if your actions were judged capable of pleasing God, we would all have to become murderers, profaners and blasphemers. O Constantius, it in Lucifer's text. Hilary would probably be amused by this, since he argues at length (at In Const. 17–22) that 'similar' should be taken to mean 'equal' in the theological context of the Son's relationship with the Father.
73 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.10.11: 'How great a darkness, how large a cloud of shadows and errors has engulfed the hearts of men.' Lactantius is here referring to the ignorance of pagans, who mistake impiety for piety.
74 On Constantius falsely claiming the name of 'Christian', see Hilary, In Const. 9.
75 See Romans 12.14; Matthew 5.44.
76 See 1 Peter 2.23.
77 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.10.17: 'In order to please God whom you worship, there is a need for those things which you know that he delights and rejoices in.'
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is clear how deranged you are! Even though it is obvious that that subtle practitioner, the defrauder of innocents, has established himself in your mind, do you think that you have still not been exposed? You still shudder at a sheep, although you are a wolf,78 you, who are called a wild beast by the most sacred prophets,79 and a dog and a ravenous wolf by the most blessed apostles, you are dressed up like a minister of justice, although you are the instrument of injustice; do you really believe that you are a man, although you have nothing human except the outline and overall shape.80 It pains you to be called an inhuman monster, to have nothing human except the outlines and overall shape. Tell me then, I implore you, whether you, the slaughterer of innocents, could deservedly be called a Christian and not rather insane, stupid and deranged, truly an enemy of the worship of God; for that is where piety, humanity and all justice dwell, where people learn not to return evil for evil,81 where we are taught not to kill, but rather to be killed for the Son of God.
Seeing that your hollow authority has been spurned after your attempted sacrilege, you resort to torture; but the one whom you compel us to deny, the guardian of faith, the helmsman of salvation, the governor of souls, is always with us, is always present in our struggle, rousing the warriors and champions of his divine name.82 So we stand firm, stronger than the slaves and ministers of your injustice, this is, stronger than your torturing, butchering thugs; we are inspired so that our beaten and torn limbs overcome your hook.83 For how could the endless repetition of savage blows overcome the indestructible faith, since every soldier of Christ knows that he, for whom he suffers, is present with him, rejoicing in the 78 'Shudder' translates the Latin perfrigescis. On the imagery, see Matthew 7.15, as well as Hilary, In Const. 10–11.
79 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.11.1: 'Deservedly are they called wild beasts by the prophets.'
Here and in the next passage used by Lucifer, Lactantius is referring to vicious and impious people.
80 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.11.3: 'So they are pleased that they were born humans, as they have nothing except the outlines and overall shape.'
81 See Romans 12.17.
82 See Cyprian, Ep. 10.3: 'How willingly the guardian of faith fought and won in these his servants … He was present in their struggle, rousing the warriors and champions of his name.' This is a reference to the support given by Christ to tortured Christians. Note that 'his name' in Cyprian has become 'his divine name' in Lucifer's version, thereby underscoring the divinity of the Son.
83 On the hook, or ungula, see n. 31 to chapter 3 above.
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fortitude of his servants?84 Without doubt we, the servants of Christ, stand firm, strengthened by his majesty, with a free voice and a pure mind; yes, we are naked before your brittle weapons, but we are clothed in those arms which the blessed apostle exhorted us to put on, saying: Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. And put on the arms of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the wiles of the Devil; for you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavens. Wherefore accept the arms of God, that you may be able to withstand on the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm, having your loins girt about with truth, clothed in the breastplate of justice and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one, and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto.85
So because your cruelty, and that of your father,86 cannot possibly overcome those who have been armed in this way, those who are defended by so great a power, as has often been said, we have stood firm, do stand firm and, until you devour our bodies, will stand firm, defended by the salutary shield of Christ, girt with the breastplate of his piety, guided by the Holy Spirit, steadfast and, above all, speaking out more and more, repelling any suggestion of servitude.87 For we are secure and have faith that we
84 See Cyprian, Ep. 10.2.2: 'The tortured have stood stronger than the torturers and the beaten and torn limbs have defeated the beating and tearing hooks. The endless repetition of savage blows could not overcome the indestructible faith.'
85 Ephesians 6.10–18. See Cyprian, Ep. 10.2.2: 'His servants stood firm with a free voice, a pure mind and divine strength; certainly they were naked before earthly weapons, but, as believers, they were armed with the arms of the faith.'
86 This may be a reference to Constantine as a cruel and persecuting emperor, or possibly a description of the Devil, as Lucifer uses pater ('father') to refer to both in his descriptions of Constantius. Certainly, elsewhere in his writings he gives a negative portrayal of Constantine, which is highly unusual in orthodox literature and forms a marked difference from Hilary and Athanasius, both of whom treat Constantine highly favourably, contrasting him with his heretical son. See also 7.4–5 below, as well as De non parc. 13.19–20; De non conu. 9.60–5. Diercks (1978) 475 regards all uses of pater that are not obviously about Constantine to be references to the Devil. On this issue, see also Tietze (1976) 187–8;
Humphries (1997) 457–8; Flower (2013) 93–4.
87 In reading auctores (translated as 'speaking out') here, I am following Laconi (1998) and the manuscript tradition, rather than Diercks, who reads auctiores ('more intensified').
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cannot be drawn from our resolved course by any of your traps, or your cunning, sophistry or tricks, since we know that death is the end of sins, and next follows the life which is forever; let us embrace the instructions of his blessed apostle and seek to be recognised as imitators and allies of him, who stated that, though our old humanity perish, the inward is renewed and if the earthly house of our body were dissolved, a heavenly one would be built and that having been placed in the body, we are absent from the Lord.88 We will not be able to bring abundant praises to God with the apostle in the heavenly kingdoms unless first, having purged death, we come to claim the immortal prizes.89
6 Therefore when our bodies have been shattered and utterly destroyed by you, let us accept that we are more whole; when death has been inflicted by you, then let us believe rather that we can live. Why do you Constantius, an emperor temporarily but an egregious idiot forever, still presume to inflict torments that annihilate you and, in contrast, resurrect us? An evil and depraved policy drives you to extinguish us, and you are swift to spill the blood of the servants of God's only Son, not knowing that heaven is laid open by our blood and the fires of Gehenna are extinguished by our blood.90 You are guided by earthly ambition, we by heavenly majesty, for we shudder at the thought of losing eternal salvation.91 We know that we must die for God; for while the fires of Tartarus will hold you for eternity, unless you make the journey from the camp of the Devil to the army drawn up in the heavenly camp, so we will rejoice in heaven if we disregard your threats and tortures and choose to be sacrificed for the Son of God by you, most savage beast and inhuman monster.92 For blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the 88 2 Corinthians 4.16, 5.1, 5.6.
89 The apostle referred to here is Paul, author of the preceding biblical quotations.
Lucifer's image is of the destruction of the earthly body through martyrdom, and the attainment of the 'prize' or 'reward' of eternal life through victory in this conflict.
90 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 9: 'Heaven is opened by our blood and the dwellingplace of Gehenna gives way to our blood.' On Gehenna, which is often translated as 'Hell', see above n. 41 to chapter 3 above.
91 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 10–11: 'On one side you are guided by earthly ambition, on the other by heavenly majesty. If you fear to lose salvation, know that you can die.' The original passage refers to the choice faced by the potential martyr.
92 Tartarus was the name given to the lowest regions of the underworld in classical mythology.
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kingdom of heaven.93 But he did not say, 'blessed are those who inflict persecution'.
We Christians know that we have been made soldiers of Christ so that, having confessed our commander in this theatre of war that you have proclaimed, we might attain victorious triumphs and die in arms.94 So the more you rage against us, the more merciful you are seen to be when you deign to kill one who confesses himself to be a Christian.95 But you are judged to be most accursed when under the pretence of affection and a desire for discussion you flatter us in order to destroy us, as though it could be to our advantage to be driven from our position and preserved by you, but condemned by God.96 We know that you are afraid lest, despite all the punishments devised by your abominable ingenuity, we die still steadfast in our faith; but nonetheless you inflict various pitiless tortures. At every moment you persecute us so violently and desire to butcher us in every different way, but you have resolved that we must not be killed,97 as though it is only death that makes the soldiers of Christ blessed and not rather the case that as the tortures become more grievous, so they bestow a greater glory for virtue.98 For we who know that the life of justice is richer and longer do not turn our backs on this field of battle, nor do we cross over to your camp of God's enemy;99 but placed instead among these executions
93 Matthew 5.10.
94 See Greg. Ilib. Tract. Orig. 18.21: 'Without fear we follow our commander in this theatre of war.'
95 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.11.11: 'The more savage he is, the more merciful is he found to be.' Lactantius, like Lucifer, is here contrasting obvious persecutors with the more deceptive kind who pretend to be merciful and do not actually kill Christians, but rather try to make them deny their faith. See above n. 19 to chapter 2 on the importance of the exclamation
Christianus sum ('I am a Christian') in martyr literature.
96 On this theme of Constantius as a flattering and, therefore, more destructive persecutor, see Hilary, In Const. 5.
97 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.11.11: 'He is the more savage butcher who has resolved to kill no one.'
98 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.11.16: 'As though it is only death that makes them blessed and not rather the case that as the tortures become more grievous, so they bestow a greater glory for virtue.'
99 See Greg. Ilib. Tract. Orig. 18.22: 'Backs must not be turned on this field of battle … and the camp of the enemy must not be sought.' In the Tractatus Origenis, this passage is followed by the declaration sed magis pro deo, pro sacris legibus moriendum est ('but rather it is necessary to die for God, for the sacred laws'), which may have influenced Lucifer's choice of title for this work.
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inflicted by you, we seek to be brought back to God's sheepfold, whence the Devil snatched you and made you his minion.
But I do not say this so that you will spare us. For just as you have discovered with the people you have already killed, you will discover that we Christians are firm in our faith, enduring in pain, victors in the interrogation,100 through him who certainly does not abandon his confessors; acknowledging that we are his soldiers, as you see, we struggle bravely and fight resolutely.101 For we know that great is the glory, immense the exaltation and unique the sanctity that adorn the life of eternal salvation through the honour of suffering; greatest is the nobility to disregard, rather than dread, the torments inflicted by your power, to trample underfoot, rather than be terrified by, your madness;102 for you rage so savagely against innocents and, although you are the teacher of blasphemy, injustice and all cruelty, you actually believe that you can pass for a pious, prudent and just Christian, when you are blind, stupid and ignorant of the truth.103 Realise, devourer of innocents, that he whom Christ watches over can never be defeated by your tortures: he defeats hunger, he has no regard for thirst; he conquers the squalor of the cell and the horror of the prison's punishments through the force of his inner strength; he tramples every punishment underfoot, crushes all tortures and does not fear any death that you, with such great effort, threaten to impose.104 You think that you can overcome one who remembers that it is written: What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints:105
100 See Cyprian, Ep. 10.4.4: 'They were firm in their faith, enduring in pain, victors in the interrogation.'
101 See Cyprian, Ep. 10.4.4: 'Struggle bravely, fight resolutely.'
102 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 12: 'For great is the glory, most beloved brothers, that adorns the life of eternal salvation through the honour of suffering; great before the face of the Lord and in the sight of Christ is the grandeur to disregard, rather than dread, torments inflicted by the greatest power.'
103 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.12.1: 'What should you say to those who deem as lawful the butchery of old tyrants raging savagely against innocents.'
104 See Cyprian, Ep. 37.3.1–2: 'You defeat hunger, you have no regard for thirst, you trample underfoot the squalor of the cell and the horror or the punishing prison through the force of inner strength; here punishment is conquered, torture is crushed and death is not feared.' This letter of Cyprian is addressed to a group of imprisoned confessors, including the presbyters Moyses and Maximus.
105 Psalms 116.12–13, 15 (115.3–4, 6 LXX).
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and: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter; but in all these things we overcome through him that loved us.106
7 In fact I cannot see how you could lure us away from these salutary teachings. For although you never stop raising up those who agree with your heresy with all your impious favours in order to entice us, just as you turned
Epictetus and the others from servants of God into lackeys for you and your father, nevertheless let that madness be absent from us, lest we prefer lies to truth, or the prosperity of your kingdom, offered by you, entices us.107 Keep your worthless glory for yourself and preserve all the prudent judgement of your most ignorant heart for yourself and your comrades, to whom you have been bound by a likeness of manners. Leave us our folly when we confess that Christ the Son of God is the true Son, when we defend him as being of one substance with the Father and when we proclaim that we wish to be killed for his sake, rather than deny his divinity; leave us this sort of folly.108 Why do you devote effort to making us abandon this? Why do you think you can dislodge the truth, ignoring the fact that it is strong by its own power?109 Why do you see God's people resisting your terrible growls and pitiless tortures with an unbroken spirit, if not because it is the faith of the apostles and Gospels that we are defending?110 They resist your cruelty, they trample your frenzy underfoot, for in them there is the hope of everlasting immortality and the heavenly life, and in them is kindled the 106 Romans 8.35–7.
107 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.12.10: 'Let that madness be absent from us, lest we prefer lies to truth … Will any prosperity ever entice us?' For Epictetus, bishop of Centumcellae, see
PCBE II.1 634–6 (Epictetus 2) and Ath. Hist. Ar. 75.2 with n. 278 at p. 105. On Lucifer's references to Constantius' 'father', see n. 86 to chapter 5.
108 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.12.11: 'Let them leave us our folly.' The description of orthodoxy as 'folly' here is, of course, deeply sarcastic. Here Lucifer explains key aspects of his theological disagreement with the 'Arians': that Christ is the true Son of God, rather than merely receiving this as a title; that he is homoousios (unius substantiae) with the Father, as stated in the Nicene Creed; and therefore that he really has full, true divinity. On these theological issues, see Introduction pp. 2–18 and the Glossary. On the use of substantia as a Latin translation of the Greek term ousia, see n. 56 to chapter 4.
109 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.13.1: 'For the truth is strong by its own power.'
110 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 15: 'We must resist with spirit all the terrible and pitiless growls of the attackers of this world.'
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fire of longing for eternal light and in them the security of the promised blessedness rejoices.111 For as we are completely secure, knowing that we will come to enjoy eternal life, we tolerate everything gladly, since we declare that we do not think these tortures to be our own, but rather the punishments of you, our torturer.112 We Christians weigh the losses of the body against the profits of the soul;113 we calculate a crown in wounds and from the tortures and pains inflicted by you we triumph most joyful in Christ.114
8 Call to mind from the recent record of your crimes, Constantius, how you put your brand on the city of Alexandria, how many people a single mark of your signature suddenly struck down, how many it caused to be mown down with the sword, how many to be consumed by hunger and thirst or slaughtered in prison, how many it caused to be throttled with their breath cut off.115 Even though you have raged against the blessed martyrs, whom your gladiatorial spirit has killed, with all these cruelties, you rage even more cruelly against us, for you hold your sword back and you strive so that the release of death does not come to relieve us too quickly. We suffer our whole body being shredded and burned, thereby proving that nothing so befits the dignity and constancy of the wise as not being driven from their opinion and purpose by any terrors, and that being tortured and dying for the sake of God is extremely beneficial and those dedicated to God cannot be defeated by your tortures, and that it is you instead who are laid low and reduced to nothing.116 Hear what is
111 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 15: 'For in us there is the hope of eternity and the heavenly life, and in us is kindled the fire of longing for light and in us the security of the promised immortality rejoices.'
112 See Cypr. Ad Fortunatum 11: 'How great a solace it is in his torments not to think the tortures to be his own, but to look forward to the punishments due to his torturer.' In the original passage Cyprian is discussing a comment made to the persecuting second-century
BC king Antiochus IV by one of the martyrs in 2 Maccabees 7.16–17. This biblical passage is one of the ones quoted by Hilary at In Const. 6 as part of his own presentation of Constantius as behaving like a number of earlier villains from Scripture.
113 Lucifer again uses financial terms – damna ('losses') and lucra ('profits') – to describe his situation: see n. 36 to chapter 3 above.
114 For a crown of triumph as the achievement of the martyr: see n. 297 to Ath. Hist. Ar.
79.4 at p. 110.
115 On the events in Alexandria when Athanasius was expelled in 356, see n. 10 to chapter
2 above.
116 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.13.14–15: 'Tender age endures the whole body being shredded and burned … nothing so befits the dignity and constancy of the wise man as not being able
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written in the twenty-sixth psalm: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers come upon me to eat up my flesh, my persecutors and my enemies, they were weakened and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise up against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of God all the days of my life.117
Therefore, since the strength of justice is perfected in these sufferings, since we do not feel the punishment, because Christ suffers in us, and because where there is no blame, there is no penalty, how did you think that you could defeat by these actions those who are dedicated and devoted to God, in whom the unconquered faith provides an increase of strength?118 I believe (and of course the truth does not deceive me) that, even though you still bear down on us with all your forces of butchery so that you rip apart our limbs and plough up our lacerated joints, a torturer raging continually against our blood, you can never defeat the household of God or be able to overpower the army of Christ; you will never be able to conquer us with pains or bend us with agonising punishments.119 We
Christians do not refuse any punishments or any death; we cannot tremble at your tyrannical orders or the swords of your judges, because we stand against you, armed with the sword of God.120 The blessed apostle says to the Ephesians: Finally you are strengthened in the Lord, and in the power of his might, clothed in the arms of God, that you may be able to to be driven from his opinion and purpose by any terrors, but rather to be tortured and die.'
The first part of this passage from Lactantius describes the constancy of young Christians during persecution, while the second refers to the notion of virtue shared by both pagan philosophers and Christian. In the final third of this sentence I have followed the readings in Laconi (1998) in both changing the punctuation and amending perpetua ('perpetual') to per tua ('by your').
117 Psalms 27.1–4 (26.1–4 LXX).
118 Both uses of 'strength' in this sentence are translations of uirtus. On this term, see n. 71 to chapter 4 above.
119 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 15: 'I have seen it happen (and the truth does not deceive me) that, even though the savage hands of the attackers ripped apart his limbs and the raging torturer ploughed up his lacerated joints, he did not defeat the martyr … he [the martyr] is not conquered by pains or broken by agonising punishments.'
120 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.13.17: 'They do not refuse any punishments or any death, lest they turn away from faith and justice; they do not tremble at tyrannical orders or the swords of officials.'
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stand firm against the wiles of the Devil; for you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits of wickedness.121 Since you, through whom all the demons rage for our death, cannot overcome men clothed in the arms of God, we encourage you to give yourself over to us finally, lest you be tortured for all eternity together with those whom the apostle describes.
So even amongst the shadows of your prison, the sons of light could not be defeated by the son of shadows;122 as if those in whom the originator of light thought fit to reside could even feel the shadows! Virtue must endure what mortal nature has taught must be endured; for, if you try to consume our limbs with fire, we will perceive that it is you rather than us who will be incinerated in our bodies; for since we hurry willingly and eagerly to die for the faith, we take it for granted that we cannot lose life, but that instead we actually seek out the eternal life after the fragile. Undoubtedly the edge of your sword always stands drawn ready to murder Christians; however, the point of your sword appears to us blunter than all lead, just like the sharpness of your spirit. We endure everything, secure in our suffering, as though we were inflicting the punishments that we suffer, because the one who rages against us through you is laid low by our faith.
For we know that we cannot be destroyed by the death inflicted through your malice,123 since we have believed in Christ the giver of eternal life, the one true Son of God, and we believe and know well that the bodies which you now burn, wrench and lacerate will also be resurrected to eternal light and life. For if we knew that we would become nothing after being killed by you, we would certainly be incredibly stupid if we did not take care of this life so that it might be as long as possible and filled with all benefits; this action could be appropriate for us, if we had decided to be ruled by you rather than by the commands of God.124 But in the current situation, since, if our current life were to be taken away by you,
121 Ephesians 6.10–12.
122 For the expression 'sons of light', see 1 Thessalonians 5.5.
123 The translation follows the text in Laconi (1998) here, reading non enim morte per tuam malignitatem inlata deleri nos posse nouimus, as opposed to Diercks' non enim mortem
<in> perpetuam malignitate inlata deleri nos posse nouimus ('for we know that we cannot be destroyed into eternal death, with malice having been inflicted').
124 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.18.2: 'For if we become nothing after death, it is certainly the action of an incredibly stupid man not to take care of this life so that it might be as long as possible and filled with all benefits.' This is, obviously, a position that Lactantius does not support.
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an immortal one would be taken up, so, for the sake of the Son of God, his servants must spurn this present life with all its good things, since all loss of this sort is outweighed by immortality.125
9 See, Constantius, what great courage,126 what great strength of mind, what certainty of faith was present in those whom you killed and is still present in those who continue to resist your sacrilege; see that those blessed martyrs, who we see already established in the heavenly kingdom through God's power, and these others, whom you have not yet been able to kill, have all stood firm against you, inhuman beast, who never stops threatening us with acts speakable and unspeakable, because you have always preferred and still do prefer to hear with greater tolerance that rival emperors are rising up against you than that victors stand firm, confessing that Christ is the Son of God.127 For your heart, besieged by the shadows of every error, and your mind, blinded by a thick gloom, had decided to turn us all away from God through your heresy, and to make us first your clients and then your fellow lackeys.128 But the truth has defeated you, along with the one who is in you, the one who strove to devise these things;129 for the truth possesses its own power.130 In fact, on top of those tortures you
125 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.18.3: 'The wise man must spurn this present life with all its good things, as all of its loss is outweighed by immortality.'
126 'Courage' here translates uirtus, which has been rendered as 'strength' and 'virtue' elsewhere: see nn. 71 and 118 to chapters 4 and 8 above. This term can represent a range of positive, 'masculine' qualities.
127 See Cyprian, Ep. 55.9.1: 'What great courage there is in his assumption of the episcopate, what great strength of mind, what certainty of faith … He sat fearless on the priestly throne at Rome while a hostile tyrant threatened the priests of God with acts speakable and unspeakable, because he would be able to hear with greater patience and tolerance that a rival emperor was being raised up against him than that a priest of God was established at Rome.' This and the following passage from the same letter form part of Cyprian's description of the bravery of Cornelius, bishop of Rome, and the response to it by the third-century emperor Decius. On Lucifer's use of this letter, see Flower (2013) 171–3.
On the use of the word tyrannus ('tyrant') by Cyprian in this passage, see Barnes (1996) 58.
128 The word conuerte in this sentence, found in manuscript V, is clearly corrupt, although the overall sense of the passage is clear, and some form of the verb conuertere ('turn') is needed here. Laconi (1998) (along with Ugenti (1980) and Ferreres (1982)) prints conuertens, which is found in manuscript G, and argues (at 335–6) for a form of 'nominative absolute' clause here, to explain the fact that the present participle does not agree with cordi and animo. Hartel (1886) suggests conuertere (although the passage would be clearer if et were also added after this infinitive). Another possible emendation would be conuertenti.
129 This is, of course, the Devil.
130 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.13.1: 'For the truth possesses its own power.'
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have already inflicted, at every moment we wait for you still to add to them by appointing more savage butchers, more ferocious punishers, who can slaughter with the sword or crucify or scorch with fire or hack at our bowels and limbs through some form of punishment as yet unknown, inflicting these on the soldiers who are devoted to God and who resist your monstrous edicts, so that we trample your threats and tortures and torments through the power of faith and the compassion of God.131 We will always stand firm through the Lord, as we stand now, since it is not us who defeat the gnashing of your teeth, but rather him in us, him by whose help we are guided, by whose strength we are preserved.132
For how mighty are you, and what kind of man, that you can strip us of the good things that have been divinely granted to us?133 You seize us, you torment us, you make us destitute, you condemn, bind, burn and even kill us in pitiful ways, but, nevertheless, you cannot conquer the unconquered faith of the Christians.134 Because of this you ought to have realised that you will pay the price for your heresy and cruelty, and, in contrast, since the narrowest track leads sublimely through this difficult obstruction to the prize of immortality, we cannot give in to your cruelty, for we know that martyrdom is an individual imitation of the Lord's courage.135 The road of the martyrs is so arduous and packed with trials and difficulties that no one can complete it through human strength; but we, who are aided by the assistance of divine favour, must always trample you underfoot, just as we trample you now. So it is our pleasure not only not to fear you,
131 See Cyprian, Ep. 55.9.2: 'For he [Cornelius] sat at that time waiting for the butchers of his own body and the executioners of the ferocious tyrant to slaughter with the sword or crucify or scorch with fire or hack at his bowels and limbs through some form of punishment as yet unknown, inflicting these on Cornelius who was resisting monstrous edicts and trampling threats and tortures and torments through the power of faith.'
132 'Strength' here translates another occurrence of the term uirtus. For the gnashing of teeth as a characteristic of villains, see n. 264 to Ath. Hist. Ar. 72.5 at p. 103.
133 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.18.7: 'Who can be so ungrateful, so envious, so powerful that they can strip virtue of the good things that have been divinely granted to it?'
134 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.18.9: 'It [virtue] is seized, tormented, destroyed, made destitute, it is deprived of its hands, its eyes are removed, it is condemned, bound, burned and even killed in pitiful ways.' The original passage in Lactantius is itself a slight adaptation of a quotation from Cicero that he had already introduced at Diu. Inst. 5.12.5–6.
135 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.18.11: 'With a difficult obstruction, the narrowest track leads sublimely to the prize of immortality.' For the image of the narrow track to salvation, see
Matthew 7.14.
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enemy of the worship of God, but to deliberately provoke you as well.136
You are provoked, even though you are always expected not to show pity, pitiless as you are, but to kill. And so our good fortune cannot be divided, because, even when we are killed for the Son of God, he lives in us with love, he who raises us up in adversity and is our strength in the battles of persecution. For you could set forth against the worshippers of God by whatever methods you like, but you would never be able to purge their imprinted virtue, since worldly matters cannot lure them, nor tortures terrify them.
10 Since this is the case, what can I call you, persecutor of God's house, other than wretched, since you obey the behests of your plundering demons, whose goads have driven you to plot to perpetrate these actions, and through whom you gladly err in your sacrilege with this false conviction fixed in your heart. Indulge your congenital stupidity.137 If only you were willing simply to be ignorant and stray from the truth with only your fellow blasphemers the Arians! You also try to drag us in as partners in your crimes and you proscribe and you despoil;138 but we know that poverty acquired for Christ's sake is a form of the utmost happiness. You inflict death, you butcher; but not only do we not pull our neck away, we even hold out our hands so that we can be sacrificed for the only Son of God.139 Why have I recounted these details? So you know that your punishments have
136 See Cyprian, Ep. 31.5.1: 'Not only do we not fear the enemies of truth, we provoke them as well.' This passage is taken from a letter sent to Cyprian by Moyses, Maximus and other confessors, responding to a message that they had received from him. On these figures, see n. 104 to chapter 6 above.
137 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.19.2: 'What can I call them other than wretched, since they obey the behests of their plunderers … and, with a false conviction fixed, they gladly err and indulge their stupidity?' Lactantius is describing persecuting pagans in this and the following passage from the Divine Institutes. 'Congenital' here translates tibi insitae (an emendation suggested by Diercks) as a description of Constantius' stupidity. The manuscripts read tibi ignit(a)e ('kindled for you'). Laconi (1998) suggests amending the text to <e>t ibi ignorantiae ('and ignorance here').
138 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.19.4: 'If only they were willing simply to be ignorant and stray from the truth alone! They also try to drag others in as partners in their crime.'
139 The translation here follows Laconi's text, which prints manus protendimus ('hold out our hands'), which is transmitted in manuscript G. Diercks gives the emendation damus ('we offer [our neck]'). The statement would have more force and make better sense if manus were omitted, so that it read 'but not only do we not pull our neck away, we even hold it out so that we can be sacrificed for the only Son of God'.
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no force against the servants of Christ and that we cannot take fright at that which we always expect to come.
You resent being called a heretic, but, however, you dare to say that the Son cannot be compared or made equal with the Father; we, who defend the single divinity of the Father and the Son, say that the Son is equal to the Father.140 We believe what the blessed apostle Paul believed, who says about the Son: Who, since he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God.141 What is Who, since he was in the form of God except that the Son, like God the Father, is changeless, immutable, inestimable, indescribable, eternal and perfect? What is Who, since he was in the form of God except that the Son dwells in the same unattainable light as the Father, except that there is a single divine exaltation of the Father and the Son? The Holy Spirit, abiding in the blessed apostle and already then seeing the hearts of all you heretics, added the explanation that the Son is in the form of God: Who, since he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God. The blessed apostle says that the Son is equal to the Father, making it clear that there is a single divinity of the Father and the Son; but you, together with the lackeys of your blasphemous audacity and the comrades of your blasphemy, dare to say: 'We cannot equate or compare the Son with the Father.' But why do you think the Lord said, he that has seen me has also seen the Father and the Father and I are one, unless because there is a single power of the Father and the Son?142
You say that the Son has a beginning; however, we say that he is without beginning, since everything that has a beginning must also be able to have an end.143 Therefore, since we believe that the only Son of God is eternal,
140 Lucifer here defends the doctrine of the equality of Father and Son, in opposition to 'subordinationist' views and the 'Homoian' view that the Son is 'like' the Father: see
Introduction pp. 3, 15, as well as Hilary, In Const. 17–22.
141 Philippians 2.6. This passage is also used by Hilary at In Const. 19.
142 John 14.9, 10.30. The latter passage is also used at Hilary, In Const. 22.
143 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 7.1.6: 'Since whatever has a solid and weighty body and had a beginning at some point must also have an end.' In the original passage Lactantius is describing the creation of the world. The resemblance between Lucifer's text and this line in the Divine Institutes is relatively minor in comparison to the others noted here, and this particular borrowing from Lactantius is also something of an outlier, since almost all the rest are drawn from book 5 or the first four chapters of book 6. It should, therefore, be regarded as doubtful, but I have included it here for the sake of completeness. The
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that is coeternal with the Father, and you enemies of God deny this, do we not absolutely rightly label you sons of pestilence, deranged and stuffed with all insanity? The blessed apostle proclaims this about you, just as he did then about the Jews: As they did not choose to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not proper;144 and to the Philippians: Brethren, be imitators together of me, and mark them which walk in this way, as you have our model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, men whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory lies in their shame; who mind earthly things;145 and also to Timothy about you, Constantius, and your most beloved fraternity of the damned: Now the Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.146
The Holy Spirit further strikes and destroys you through the voice of the same blessed apostle Paul: In the last days perilous times shall come.
For there will be men who will be lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, haughty, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, wicked, without natural affection, without faith, false accusers, intemperate, fierce, without kindness, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures more than of God, having the appearance of piety, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away;147 and below: Now as Jannes and Mambres withstood Moses,148 so will these also resist the truth in the same way,149
'Homoian' creed put forward at Seleucia in 359 stated that the Son was begotten from the Father 'before all ages' (Ath. De synodis 29.6), but for Lucifer such a statement still implied a lack of eternity on the part of the Son. The creed agreed at Constantinople in January 360 also incorporated the phrase 'before every beginning' to describe the begetting of the Son: see Ath. De synodis 30.2.
144 Romans 1.28.
145 Philippians 3.17–19.
146 1 Timothy 4.1–2.
147 2 Timothy 3.1–5.
148 2 Timothy 3.8–9. Jannes and Mambres (usually called Jambres) are the names traditionally given to the Egyptian sorcerers who advised Pharaoh when the plagues struck and were defeated by Moses: see Exodus 7.11, 8.19, 9.11.
149 The biblical text has the present tense of the verb 'resist', but Lucifer's use of the future tense ('will resist') in his quotation better suits his treatment of it as a prophecy about Constantius.
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men of corrupt minds and reprobates concerning the faith; but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was; and below: For there will be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.150
11 Abandoning the apostolic faith and having been turned unto fables, since the Holy Spirit foretold through the voice of the apostle that your speech is able to spread like an ulcer,151 you call the orthodox heretics and a little later you denounce as blasphemy the faith which you called orthodox and which you compelled us to adopt. In the same way a little later still you now again confirm as orthodox the faith that you had deemed blasphemous when acting against Adoxius at Antioch.152 After that you ordered Adoxius to be established at Constantinople, because you approved him as orthodox.153 So may you know from this example how great a gulf separates truth and falsehood, since although you are yourself an expert, or so you think, and you have an appointed number of functionaries,154 nevertheless we know that you have been unable to persuade anyone except those who have been terrified by your butchery. So we, for whom nature
150 2 Timothy 4.3–4. In this chapter, Lucifer has moved from theological argument, based mostly on discussion of Philippians 2.6, and is now quoting a sequence of biblical statements about the coming of people who would oppose the true faith, identified here as prophecies specifically concerning Constantius and his theological allies.
151 See 2 Timothy 2.17. See also n. 16 to chapter 2 above.
152 Lucifer here makes a (punning) reference to Eudoxius, bishop (successively) of Germanicia, Antioch and Constantinople. Eudoxius means 'of good faith', while Lucifer calls him Adoxius, meaning 'faithless'. Lucifer here presents Constantius as repeatedly changing his mind, as Hilary also does at In Const. 25. The action against Eudoxius at Antioch is probably a reference to the letter that Constantius sent to the Antiochene church denouncing
Eudoxius, in response to the views presented by the Council of Ancyra in 358: see Soz. HE
4.14; Barnes (1993) 140. In this letter, Constantius also supported the view that the Son is homoiousios ('of like substance') with the Father, which was then rejected, along with all use of ousia in theological statements, at Seleucia and Ariminum in 359 and Constantinople in 360: see Ath. De synodis 29–30. On all these events, see Introduction pp. 14–18.
153 Eudoxius was installed as bishop of Constantinople at the council held in that city in January 360: see Barnes (1993) 148–9.
154 The word 'functionaries' here translates Lucifer's term dictatores. These would seem to be imperial officials of some sort, put in place to espouse Constantius' theological beliefs: see the note at Laconi (1998) 361. Lucifer may here be referring pejoratively to those bishops with whom he disagrees.
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suffices for eloquence and who are strangers to all knowledge of pagan literature, have the power to destroy every heresy, because the truth and the matter itself speak.155 You and your henchmen have swallowed the whole art of pagan letters; we know only sacred Scripture. Our speech is common, while yours is polished, embellished, even deserving to be called eloquent;156 but your studied speech, sweet through artifice, cannot persuade any Christian, except one is not really a Christian, but is merely called it, like you, since, although you are a wolf, you are judged to be one of the sheep by the ignorant.157
Who is that stupid except those who, like you, have drunk every folly? Who of God's servants does not desire to be honoured by death in the service of devotion?158 Who does not long to pour out his own blood for Christ when a death of this sort makes life more whole and acquires everlasting glory?159
As you see, we stand firm protected by the strength of God, shod in the teachings of the Gospel,160 in a fixed and immovable position, so that our feet cannot be carried off in a headlong fall by you. We stand firm holding the shield of faith, so that the fiery darts of the enemy, thrown by you, are utterly unable to find their mark, since they always rebound against you.161
Our heads are protected by the helmet of salvation, and the word of the Lord is on our lips, so that the enemy who is established in you is dispatched by the spiritual sword and is equally laid low and scattered.162 You will see that the holy faith, which you have been compelling us to abandon, is the shield
155 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.19.16: 'And so let them know from this how great a gulf separates truth and falsehood; since although they are eloquent, they are unable to persuade. The unskilled and the inelegant can persuade, because the truth and the matter itself speaks.' The figures being criticised here are learned pagans. The phrase res ipsa et ueritas echoes Cicero,
Pro Roscio 15.44. The claim to be employing a simple sermo piscatorius (fisherman's speech), in contrast to 'cunning' pagan learning, was a common trope in early Christian literature, as well as drawing on earlier classical criticism of 'sophistry'. On Lucifer's education, see
Introduction p. 31.
156 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.1.15–16: 'The prophets spoke with common and simple speech as to ordinary people. They are therefore rejected by those who wish to hear and read nothing except what is polished and eloquent.'
157 See Matthew 7.15, as well as the use of this imagery in Hilary, In Const. 10–11.
158 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 23: 'So that death honours the service of devotion.'
159 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 23: 'Undoubtedly death make life more whole and acquires lost glory.'
160 See Ephesians 6.15.
161 See Ephesians 6.16.
162 See Ephesians 6.17; 1 Thessalonians 5.8.
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of our soul and a strong, impenetrable and unbroken breastplate, which no weapons of the Devil, brought in by you, can pierce.163
Seeing such great resolution by the Christians, you say, 'The dogma of the Arians, once adopted by me, must be defended'. You say such things while wandering from the truth with good intentions.164 For you recognise that there is nothing more important in human affairs than religion and that it must be defended with the greatest force.165 You defend it with the sword, but we know that religion must be defended not by killing, but by dying for God and by enduring all these evils that you inflict.166 What cruelty of yours will be able to defeat those who defend religion in such a way?
For if any of your soldiers in the flimsy army of your dominion keeps his pledge to you, a mortal to a mortal king, in some outstanding deed, he becomes dearer and more beloved; if he dies he achieves the greatest glory in your eyes, worthless man, because he met his death for the sake of you, his commander. How much more important then must it be for the pledge to God, the eternal emperor, to be preserved by us, the soldiers of his clemency.167 Although the duty of devotion that we have undertaken compels us to perform these tasks, because you are blind, not believing that Christ is true God, the son of true God, and because you are ignorantly wretched, as you have not escaped the shadows of everlasting death, you had wanted to return us also to that ancient blindness, so that we would seem to have abandoned prudence along with sight, not ignorantly, but 163 See 1 Thessalonians 5.8; Ephesians 6.14. The sancta fides ('holy faith') here could also be a specific reference to the Nicene Creed, since fides can mean a written statement of faith.
164 This comment is bitterly sarcastic.
165 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.19.20–1: 'They say, "The sacred rites, adopted publicly, must be defended". With what good intentions the wretched wander from the truth! For they recognise that there is nothing more important in human affairs than religion and that it must be defended with the greatest force, but they are just as wrong in the manner of their defence as in their religion.' Here Lucifer has reworked a passage from Lactantius concerning the religious activities and persecutions by pagan rulers, adapting it to refer to 'the dogma of the Arians'.
166 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.19.22: 'Religion must be defended not by killing, but by dying.'
167 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.19.25: 'For if anyone in the army of an earthly king keeps his pledge in some outstanding deed, if he lives afterwards he becomes dearer and more beloved; if he dies he would achieve the greatest glory, because he met his death for the sake of his commander. How much more important then must it be for the pledge to God, the emperor of all, to be preserved?' This passage makes use of the dual meaning of fides as both the pledge of loyalty made by a soldier and also the Christian faith or a creed.
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abominably.168 For since we know well that there is only a single damnation of death for you, since you refuse to believe, but our sufferings would be doubled if we rejected our faith and preferred to return to destruction, how did you think that we could be separated from the love of God either by your false flatteries, which actually kill while they entice, or by every type of cruel torture? Who would reject such great joy that has been offered to him, except someone even more wretched than you, when he realises that through the confession of that one phrase 'I am a Christian', troubles recede, joys arise, kingdoms are laid open and eternal empires are prepared?169
You say, 'Deny the Son of God, or the power of my rule will destroy you.'170 How much better it is to be destroyed by Christ's enemy than by Christ! How brilliant is it to be slain by you, the friend of the Antichrist, and so resurrected by Christ! Who does not wish to be revealed to be a comrade and ally of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs and all just men, rather than of Judas, whose imitator you have clearly been? John the Baptist was executed in prison by your pestilential companion Herod:171 the savagery of Herod killed James;172 the apostle John was exiled to an island;173 the blessed Peter was crucified;174 the blessed apostle Paul was bound, shut away in prisons, scourged, repeatedly stoned and finally killed.175 We, who see that they all became friends of God by enduring these things most joyfully, ourselves prefer to be slaughtered by your cruel hand than to yield to your butchery. Why do you regard us with hatred; why do you persecute us with such savagery? Surely it is because we profess ourselves Christians. The blessed men whom we just mentioned
168 'Ancient blindness' in this passage is a reference to traditional Greco-Roman religion.
Lucifer here stresses the concept of the Son as 'true God from true God', which appears in the Nicene Creed, but not in the Homoian statements supported by Constantius: see chapter
4 above.
169 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 24: 'Through the confession of one voice troubles recede, joys arise, kingdoms are opened, empires are prepared.' For the phrase Christianus sum, which is particularly associated with martyrs, see n. 19 to chapter 2 above.
170 'Power' here translates uirtus, which, as mentioned above, can also mean 'virtue'. As such, the statement that Lucifer places in Constantius' mouth is also a snide remark about the emperor's inversion of the qualities and actions expected of a ruler.
171 Matthew 14.3–10; Mark 6.17–27.
172 Acts 12.1–2.
173 Revelation 1.9.
174 Eus. HE 3.25.5.
175 Acts 21.33, 22.24–5; Eus. HE 3.25.5.
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were also killed for the only Son of God by your fellow tyrants, because they said that they were his servants. The Holy Spirit, speaking through the mouth of the devout David, says this on behalf of our people: If we have forgotten the name of our God and if we have stretched out our hands to a strange God, does not God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart; since for your sake are we killed all the day long, we have been counted as sheep for the slaughter.176 But you Constantius, temporary emperor, have been enslaved by Arian idolatry and say, 'I gnash my teeth in my resurgent madness and desire your death; be afraid and become apostates with me.'177
12 Hearing these words, you do not wish to heal your wounds, but instead continue in a blind and irrational rage through the instigation of those who work themselves into your mind and rouse ignorant you to fury.178 These are spirits, to which you are known to sacrifice, because you deny the only
Son of God,179 and, because they cannot do us any harm themselves – for we are protected by God's majesty – through you, their lackey, they persecute us, whom they perceive to be their most hostile foes, and through you, their lover, they practise their savagery as violently as they can, believing that they will violate our faith through your butchering intervention.180
The doctrine of all the sacred Scriptures is that the principal and perfect form of justice is to believe in the Son of God. So it is that with you, our interrogator,181 having been defeated, these demons within you are also defeated, because it is not the strength of our fragile bodies that gives us victory, but rather his [Christ's] clemency. He gives us strength to remain steadfast among every instrument of your butchery, so that rather than being broken by the agonies of our wounds or the blows of interrogation, we
176 Psalms 44.20–2 (43.20–2 LXX).
177 On the gnashing of teeth, see n. 132 to chapter 9 above.
178 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.21.2–3: 'It is led by a blind and irrational rage … Those spirits … work themselves into their minds and rouse these ignorant men to fury.' Lactantius is here discussing what is behind the persecution of Christians.
179 The pagan gods were often described by Christian authors as demons or spirits that had tricked men into worshipping them. Here Lucifer continues to equate Constantius' rejection of Nicene Christology with acceptance of paganism.
180 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.21.6: 'Since they [the spirits] cannot do any harm to those men
[Christians] themselves, through public hatred they persecute them, whom they perceive to be their opponents, and they practise they savagery as violently as they can.'
181 The term 'interrogator' translates quaestionarius, which refers to the person who questions people within a quaestio ('judicial inquiry'), often through torture.
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are exalted instead.182 This is the true worship of God, in which the minds of the worshippers offer themselves as immaculate victims for God.183
But do you really think that any worshipper of God is so slow and stupid that the fire of such great desire does not rouse and arm him, that it does not urge him, incite him and finally inflame him with those torches of love, by which the holy prophets, apostles and martyrs were inflamed? Which of us, I ask you, would our mind not drive to die for Christ at your cruel hands? Which of us would it not rouse to persevere to the heights and glory of martyrdom not only through the things that you inflict but also through even crueller ones? For undoubtedly these punishments are easily overcome if the glory of the punishments themselves is placed before the eyes. For the instruments of torture are disregarded when so great a reward is provided for suffering.184 Your torments are defeated by indestructible rewards, Constantius, and torture is crushed, and death, which actually restores life when it is imposed, is subjugated.185 The wounds inflicted by you would have caused us pain, emperor, if they had not immediately made us friends of God; for since we are confident that we will be truly victorious, that we will lose nothing of salvation, if we are punished by you for the sake of the Son of God, how could we yield to your impotent gnashing of teeth?186
You believed, and I think you still vainly believe, that we could and can be subjugated by your force. How long will you abuse God's patience,
Constantius?187 In fact I urge you instead to drive these matters from your 182 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 25: 'Not by the agonies of wounds or the blows of interrogation.' The original passage also refers to how martyrs are not broken by these torments.
183 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.2.13: 'This is the true worship, in which the mind of the worshipper offers itself as an immaculate victim for God.' Lactantius' original passage is not referring specifically to martyrdom, but rather to virtuous Christian piety more generally.
184 See Greg. Ilib. Tract Orig. 18.23: 'So it is that all torments are easily overcome if the glory of the punishments themselves is placed before the eyes, and the instruments of torture are disregarded when a great reward is provided for suffering'.
185 See [Cypr.] De laude martyrii 24: 'Punishments are defeated, death is subjugated, life is brought in' (referring to the power of the martyr's confession) and Greg. Ilib. Tract Orig.
18.24: 'Let us give up a brief life, so that an eternal one is restored to us when we die.'
186 On the gnashing of teeth, see n. 132 to chapter 9 above.
187 A modification of the opening of Cicero, In Catilinam 1.1: 'How long will you abuse our patience, Catiline?' This is one of only a few allusions to 'classical' literature in the works of Lucifer.
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shadowy faculties and let your thick skull accept these ideas, since they can set you on the road that leads to the kingdom of God. Take up at last the route that leads you to the feast of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the friends of God. For you, a man of utter injustice,188 dared to think yourself just, placing yourself above all the bishops appointed to the holy Church by the judgement of God and condemning the holy faith which the Church holds and has always held; and you strove to preach the blasphemy brought forth from the mouth of your fellow heretic Arius, now through your lackeys, now by your edict, now by your own mouth stuffed with unclean spirits.189 Yet you want to call yourself an unblemished worshipper of God, performing every action piously, but not one can be found, out of all those kings who are called tyrants, who was ever crueller, most detestable or a greater blasphemer than you. Because I have already made clear to your ignorance, in the book entitled 'On Apostate Kings',190 that this is the situation, I now want you to know that unless you change your course quickly, unless you believe, as we do, that the only Son of God has reigned with the Father always and that the Father never existed without the Son, and also that there is one kingdom of the Father and his only Son and that the Father and the Son possess one divinity, you will perish for eternity, because your master Arius said that the Son of God is a creature and you have raised his blasphemy to heaven with your praises.191
We urge you, we beg you, we implore you to become most dear to God, but you complain that you suffer injury at our hands. So you look to the worthless judgement of your rank, as though this could rescue you from eternal tortures. You hold your haughty head above the priests of the Lord, not heeding what is written: Whosoever exalts himself shall be humbled,
188 On this inversion of imperial virtues, see n. 18 to chapter 2 above.
189 On the Alexandrian presbyter Arius, after whom 'Arianism' is named, see Introduction pp. 2–6. On the identification of this 'edict', see n. 17 to chapter 2 above.
190 This is Lucifer's extant work De regibus apostaticis, which surveys the Old Testament to find examples of rulers who abandoned the true faith so that he could compare them with Constantius. For the exempla used in this text, see Tietze (1976) 95–7, as well as Laconi
(2002) 243–6; (2004) 129–32, 140–42. The Latin text can be found in Diercks (1978) 135–61, while there is an Italian translation in Ugenti (1980) 83–113.
191 On the co-eternity of the Father and the Son, see n. 143 to chapter 10 above. Lucifer's complaint here also incorporates the common criticism that 'Arian' theology made the Son into part of the created order, rather than acknowledging his full divinity. On these issues, see Introduction p. 3.
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and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.192 The apostle says about the only Son of God, whom you persecute in us: Who, since he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God; but he emptied himself, taking upon him the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man; he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross.193
He always was and is and will be in the form of the Father, being the true Son, changeless and immutable, because the Son of the omnipotent is all-powerful God, yet he deigned to humble himself for the sake of our salvation, to transform us from abject and base to upright and exalted.194
This holy humility of his has caused you, a rabid dog, to bark against his divine majesty, seeing only what is written in the Holy Scriptures about the humility that he took up and ignoring that which describes his eternal divinity.195
13 How do you respond to these points, Constantius, you whom the bishops of your Arian dogma frequently acclaim as bishop of bishops: do you believe or don't you believe that those who die for the sake of the only
Son of God will possess the kingdom of heaven?196 If you believe it, why do you compel us to deny his eternity? Why do you not stop persecuting his believers? Why do you not leave them in peace? Why are you always restless and always hostile towards us, showing yourself to be a violent persecutor, a treacherous enemy, but under the name of peace? It pains me that you have stocked up such great evils for yourself; I lament that you have put yourself completely outside any hope of eternal life. But although you not only hack at us with swords but are also grinding us with your teeth, be sure, however, that we, protected by God, will overcome your madness, and so do not think to look down on us because you see that our bodies are fragile; for what is most powerful is that we remain strong, uplifted and fortified by wisdom and carrying equipment and defences in our hearts and minds. How do we now see ourselves equipped? How do we perceive ourselves to be safe and fortified? How do we know that we are wise unless because we both shun your blasphemy and gladly give
192 Luke 14.11, 18.14.
193 Philippians 2.6–8 (with minor omissions).
194 For the theological statements made here from exegesis of Philippians 2.6, see chapter
10 above.
195 On the 'barking dog' metaphor, see n. 66 to chapter 4 above.
196 Some modern scholars have taken at face value Lucifer's claim that the 'Arians' addressed Constantius as 'bishop of bishops'. On this issue, see Flower (2013) 21 n. 70.
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our mortal bodies over to your sword for the sake of the only Son of God, knowing that, although you have the strength to destroy our earthly domicile, you cannot destroy the heavenly abode that we have? For we know, therefore, that benefits and evils have been offered to us, so that our entire capacity for prudence is directed to distinguishing between benefits and evils.197
What is stupider than to fear you and to deny God? What is wiser than to trample your heinous head underfoot and, through this act, to please
God? Thus you see that we stand firm prepared with all our strength in the contest of justice, with inviolate faith, devoted strength and an uncorrupted mind, prepared to stand firm against the battle-line that has been assembled by you, as fearless soldiers of the living God.198 For we bravely carry the shield of faith by which, protected also by God, whatever the Devil throws by your hands is extinguished.199 Since our feet are shod and protected by the teaching of the Gospel, you are trampled underfoot, even though you are the emperor,200 and the serpent in you, which roars for the slaughter of us innocents, is crushed, since through you, its butcher, it is not strong enough to bite and trip.201 For God wants us to be oppressed by you, not so that we desert the faith and the road of the patriarchs, apostles and martyrs but so that, pressured by you to deny the only Son of God, we do not even refuse to undergo death. Unlike you, we are not so stupid and misguided that we would choose to cast off that which leads to salvation, but take up what is mortal. We do not flee from the remedy of heavenly medicine. For we perceive that, even though a doctor cuts with a knife, cauterises with an 197 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 7.4.15: 'Therefore benefits and evils have been offered to him
[man], because he has received wisdom and his whole capacity is directed to distinguishing between benefits and evils.' See also 1 Kings 3.9.
198 See Cyprian, Ep. 58.8.2: 'Let us arm ourselves, most beloved brothers, with all strength and let us prepare for the contest with an uncorrupted mind, inviolate faith and devoted strength. Let the camp of God proceed against the battle-line that is assembled against us.'
This letter was written by Cyprian to the Christian laity at Thibaris and contains the advice that they should resist persecution by the Roman authorities.
199 See Cyprian, Ep. 58.9.1: 'Let us bravely carry the shield of faith, so that, protected by it, whatever the enemy throws can be extinguished.' See also Ephesians 6.16.
200 The term 'emperor' here translates augustus, which means the senior emperor (as opposed to the lesser title of caesar, which was held by Julian in the last years of Constantius' reign).
201 See Cyprian, Ep. 58.9.1: 'Let our feet be shod and protected by the teaching of the Gospel, so that when the serpent begins to be trampled underfoot and crushed by us, it will not be able to bite and trip.'
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hot iron and leads the sick man to every pain through the fire of mustard, it is not, however, harmful to be cut, burned, consumed and sliced, but rather it is beneficial, since it removes detrimental pains through pains administered for the sake of healing.202
God wants us to destroy death through death, to dispel eternal tortures through temporary torments, to abolish the everlasting punishments to come through your punishments. Although you might take life from us, we certainly believe that it can be granted instead, and in fact an eternal life in place of the temporary, an everlasting and incorruptible life in place of the fragile and crumbling.203 You deem it insufficient for those confessing themselves Christians to simply be executed with the sword, unless you have inflicted all manner of punishments on their bodies. It makes no difference with what kind of death you decide to punish us, since through this we are admitted to enjoy eternal life, through this your madness is extinguished, while we, in contrast, are brought to life. For even if you think me wretched because I would rather be killed by absolutely any cruel punishment for the sake of the Son of God than lose the eternal glory of the blessed martyrs, I know that I must die in some way or other. In fact
I will give you examples of many who perish more agonisingly in their beds, distended by some internal abscess and contorted by the pain of their writhing sinews.204 It matters for what cause, not from what tree, I hang.
14 What do you say, most idiotic king?205 Is it just or unjust that I am sent by you to these punishments, to a penalty of this sort? If unjust, the 202 See Tert. Scorpiace 5.5–6: 'This is the great perversity of men, to cast off that which leads to salvation, to take up pernicious matters, seek out dangers and shun cures … For there are many who flee from the remedy of heavenly medicine … This is clearly because of the savagery of medicine with its scalpel, hot iron and fire of mustard; it is not, however, detrimental to be cut, burned, consumed and sliced, since it inflicts beneficial pains.' In this and the following passage used by Lucifer Tertullian is discussing martyrdom and explaining how it might seem destructive, but is actually salutary. For an example of the use of mustard in Roman medicine, see Celsus, De medicina 4.2.9.
203 See Tert. Scorpiace 5.9: 'If he [God] wanted … to destroy death through death, dissolve killing through killing, dispel tortures through tortures, obliterate punishments through punishments and grant life by taking it away.'
204 For a graphic description of a painful death through illness, see, for example, Lact.
Mort. Pers. 33 on the grisly demise of the emperor Galerius.
205 On Lucifer's inversion of the conventionally exaggerated imperial virtues, including prudence and wisdom, see n. 18 to chapter 2 above.
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cross will be for you, the crucifier, not me, whom you will have crucified; if just, the guilt of my crime will begin to torture me, not your penalties.
But it makes absolutely no difference how I meet my end, whether you kill me with a nail or a lance, with my hands tied back behind my back or spread and stretched out, whether I am bent over or upright and raised high; it does not matter whether you kill me sleeping in my bed, whether you cut my neck with a sword while I am standing or shear my head off with an axe, whether you fix me to a stake or a cross, whether you roast me with fire or bury me alive, whether you cast me from a rock or submerge me in the sea, whether, having endeavoured with a labandago and great forces, you propel my head far from my body with one enormous blow, or whether you trifle with my body, piercing it for a long time with an arrow sharper than all sharpness; even though your cruelty devises a hundred thousand different forms of execution, the death that you inflict from any of them will bring me nothing except immortality.206 I can do nothing but rejoice when you inflict such things, since I know that through these punishments, all punishment can be ended. For I am aware that these things, which are external, can happen through your savagery, but I judge it wholly unimportant to me if birds and dogs rip apart my body, if they cling to my body, if wild beasts leap on me, while you stand watching with those cruel eyes, and lying on the ground I am reduced to nothing but bones by their teeth and claws, since after all these things I will be intact to God. For when you have devoured my body with these kinds of immense forces of your bestial inhumanity, the creator of all things will repair and remake it, and in fact it will be eternal and incorruptible, rather than destroyed.
But you ought to know that punishment without end will come to you, our most unjust persecutor, and nor should you think that you will escape unpunished, when you believed that the name of the only Son of God ought
206 Lucifer's extensive list incorporates many different forms of execution attested from the Roman world. There is no mention of being thrown to wild beasts, but Lucifer deals with that a couple of sentences later. Lucifer, like some other ancient authors of martyr literature, displays a rather disturbing glee for the details of judicial violence, in a phenomenon that has been described as 'a sacred pornography of cruelty': see Hopkins (1999) 114. Labandago is a hapax legomenon and so the identity of this instrument of torture is a mystery. Souter, in his
Glossary of Later Latin, speculates that it is a guillotine: Souter s.v. labandago. It is certainly clear from the context that it is some kind of device for facilitating violent and even explosive decapitation.
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to be placed beneath your feet and impiously and wickedly trampled.207
This is the statement of the blessed apostle: The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to come,208 which we will certainly attain, if we choose to be killed by you rather than to deny the Son of God. Since this revelation and splendour has shone upon all of us believers, his servants will be forever blessed and assembled in his kingdom; you, on the other hand, if you decide to remain in your unbelief, will remain in the shadows outside, being a deserter from the ranks and an enemy of the truth, because you have carried out the will of the Devil.209
So, unless you extricate yourself from his traps, you must be tormented by unquenchable fire alongside him, as it is written.210 We are not saying these things from ourselves at all; for we read it stated in the most holy prophet about you transgressors, about you blasphemers who deny that the only
Son of God is the true Son and about all those who refuse to believe in him:
Their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.211 If you persist in this madness, you will be forever in inescapable shadows. Just as we who confess the Son of God will achieve the prize of immortality and obtain eternal light, so you, who deny him, must be given over to destruction and eternal shadows.212 The road you follow will not lead you to heaven, as the Arians falsely tell you, but to the very citadel of the earth, to the left path of evil and impious Tartarus: this is the way of that apostate whose every whim you, his lackey, are found to fulfil;213 this is the way,
207 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 5.23.1: 'The most unjust persecutors … should not think that they will escape unpunished' and 5.23.2: 'They place his [God's] eternal name beneath their feet, to be impiously and wickedly trampled.'
208 Romans 8.18.
209 On the 'shadows outside', see Matthew 8.12.
210 See Cyprian, Ep. 58.10.2: 'When this revelation has come, when the splendour of God has shone upon us, we will be as blessed and happy, honoured by the Lord's esteem, as they who will be left behind will be wretched, who as deserters from God and rebels against him have carried out the will of the Devil and must be tormented by unquenchable fire along with him.' For the 'unquenchable fire', see the following quotation from Isaiah.
211 Isaiah 66.24. This statement comes from the end of the prophecy of Isaiah. As in chapter 10 above, Lucifer is here identifying a biblical prophecy as a specific prediction about Constantius. On the importance of the Son as true Son, see n. 108 to chapter 7 above.
212 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.3.17: 'He will achieve the prize of immortality and obtain eternal light' and 'He must be given over to destruction and eternal shadows.' In this and the following passages, Lactantius is discussing the paths of virtue and vice, which lead, respectively, to Heaven and Hell. He is here describing the contrasting fates of the men who walk on these two paths.
213 The apostate (refuga) here is the Devil.
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I tell you, of that serpent who turns you from the heavenly route to hold to the road of injustice.214 This is the wide and broad road that the Lord describes in the Gospel, saying: How wide and broad is the road that leads to destruction.215
So if you refuse to look after yourself then it cannot be doubted that you are among those whom the blessed John strikes, saying: But now the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; if any does not bring forth good fruit it will be cut down and cast into the fire.216 Therefore since you are exceedingly bitter trees bearing the fruit of death, namely sinning against God,217 unless you make the transition to the heavenly road, you and your comrades will be cut down so that you go headlong swifter than speech into a deep abyss, from where you will certainly see those whom you now persecute unjustly, just as then the rich man saw Lazarus in the lap of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the friends of God, and of all the prophets, apostles and martyrs.218 You will not avoid these punishments,
Constantius, unless you first believe that the only Son of God is the true Son of God and then confess, as has often been said, that he has always reigned and reigns now with the Father, that is without beginning or end, and you also transfer yourself from the wicked assembly of the Arians to the orthodox Church, that is from death to life, and confess, as we orthodox confess, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are a perfect trinity and possess a single divinity.219
214 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.4.1–2: 'But to the very citadel of the earth, and the left path inflicts punishments for evil and leads to impious Tartarus. This is the way of that accuser who with depraved religions turns men from the heavenly route and leads them onto the road of destruction.' The phrase at laeua malorum|exercet poenas, et ad impia Tartara mittit ('the left path inflicts punishments for evil and leads to impious Tartarus') is from Vergil, Aeneid
6.542–3. On Tartarus, see n. 92 to chapter 6 above.
215 Matthew 7.13.
216 Luke 3.9. These words are spoken by John the Baptist.
217 See Wisdom 4.5.
218 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.4.4: 'It [the left path] breaks off so suddenly that no one can see the trap before he falls headlong into a deep abyss.' See Luke 16.19–31 for the parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus; see also Luke 13.28.
219 On the importance of the Son as true Son and the doctrine of the co-eternity of the Father and the Son, see nn. 108 and 143 to chapters 7 and 10 above. The single divine ousia of the Father and the Son is important to Nicene opposition to 'Arianism', although the Holy
Spirit was not discussed as much in the 350s, since the main arguments revolved around
Christology. See Introduction pp. 2–18 and the Glossary.
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15 Thus you hate Christians and persecute them in every way, as though your malevolence could defeat those who have embarked on that hard and difficult road, although they are held in contempt, derision and hatred by you;220 however, through the whole of this present life they want to be poor, humble, ignoble and subjected to your injustices, believing that by enduring all those things that are known to be bitter for the sake of God they will achieve those exceptional rewards which the apostle says must come, rewards which the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard; nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which the Lord has prepared for them that love him.221 So, because God will reveal these things to those who love him, loving him we know that when we offend you, when we are punished by you, we are pleasing to God. And so your murderous judgement cannot possess any authority to punish us for eternity, since you who condemn must be condemned, in fact, to pay an eternal penalty.
But eternal joys will sustain us, whom you torture, tear, slaughter, and a great and immense happiness will hold us and perpetual blessedness will receive us.222 Understand therefore that power has been given to us divinely to condemn you instead, while you think that you condemn us, and to punish you, sacrilegious Constantius, while you believe that you can punish us, since he whom you deny saw fit to give authority to us, his bishops, so that whatever we bind on earth is also bound in heaven.223 For the sake of God we endure temporal evils so that we may attain eternal benefits;224 we flee the temporal things that you offer to us as benefits, since eternal evils follow these benefits of yours. Therefore we have chosen to endure these present troubles, which you think are injurious to us, in order that, because an illustrious confession persists in us, we may deserve to receive eternal and immortal benefits, just as you will incur immortal evils together with those who, fearing you, are discovered to have submitted to your will and to have forsaken the instructions of God because they saw fit
220 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.4.10: 'Therefore the just man, because he has embarked on that hard and difficult road, must be held in contempt, derision and hatred.' Lactantius is here describing the attitude of foolish people towards a man who is walking on the path of virtue.
221 1 Corinthians 2.9. See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.4.11: 'So he [the just man] will be poor, humble, ignoble, subject to injustice and yet enduring all those things that are bitter.'
222 The juxtaposition of terms in the phrase felicitas perpetuaque ('happiness and perpetual') may be an allusion to the famous North African martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas.
223 See Matthew 16.19, 18.18.
224 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.4.12: 'So that whoever chooses present evils with justice will achieve greater and more certain benefits.'
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to choose present benefits and spurn future ones.225 For more to be desired than gold are they, and many precious stones, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. For your servant keeps to them and in the keeping of them there is great reward.226
We know that this life, which you strive so hard to destroy, is extremely brief; we know that the benefits and evils of this life are fleeting, but that the benefits of that eternal life, which we desire to attain, are everlasting; for we know that, in place of those fleeting benefits, by which you are enticed and delighted, eternal evils will come to you, and that in place of these fleeting evils, eternal benefits will come to us Christians, whom you despise and whom you never stop lacerating with all the powers of your dominion.227
You have read that it is so in the 125th Psalm: The Lord has done great things among them;228 and below: They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going out they went out and wept, casting their seeds; but returning they shall return in exultation bringing their sheaves;229 and in the 128th:
Blessed is everyone that fears the Lord, that walks in his ways. You shall eat the labours of your fruit; you are blessed and it shall be well with you.230
Undoubtedly it shall be well unto eternity with those who have not denied the Son of God, those who will obtain the labours of his holy confession; in contrast, if you decide that you must always persist in this madness in which you now live, it shall be ill with you forever, receiving those rewards that Judas Iscariot now receives.231 Then we will see you as a suppliant, but, however, all the future lamentation of your penitence will be futile, since it is here, in fact, that either eternal life or eternal death is acquired.232
225 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.4.12: 'But whoever prefers present benefits to justice will fall into greater and longer lasting evils.'
226 Psalms 19.10–11 (18.10–11 LXX).
227 See Lact. Diu. Inst. 6.4.13–14: 'Because this physical life is fleeting, so its evils and benefits must also be fleeting; because the spiritual life, which contrasts with the earthly, is everlasting, so its benefits and evils are everlasting. Thus it is that in place of fleeting benefits, eternal evils will come, and in place of fleeting evils, eternal benefits will come.'
228 Psalms 126.3 (125.3 LXX).
229 Psalms 126.5–6 (125.5–6 LXX). The superfluous participles in this passage provide a good illustration of the literal translations of the Greek that appear frequently in the early
Latin translations of the Bible.
230 Psalms 128.1–2 (127.1–2 LXX).
231 This sentence echoes the language of the biblical quotation that precedes it.
232 Lucifer's point here is that it will do Constantius no good to repent in Hell. He needs to do so in this life, as that determines what happens it eternity.
IMPERIAL INVECTIVES AGAINST CONSTANTIUS II
We want you to know that we are always turning these following matters over in our heart and contemplating them day and night: your perpetual punishments and the eternal prizes and rewards of the servants of God; what he threatens as a punishment for you, who deny and are a persecutor of his name; and, in contrast, what he promises as everlasting glory to those who confess it.233
233 See Cyprian, Ep. 58.11: 'Let this consideration be daily and nightly, always holding before our eyes and turning over in our minds and thoughts what are the punishments of the unjust and the prizes and rewards of the just, what the Lord threatens as a punishment for those who deny and, in contrast, what he promises as everlasting glory to those who confess.'
This passage is taken from very close to the end of Cyprian's letter.