20. Mark xv. 25.
304 ST. AUGUSTINE held him back from the crime. But now he could not set Caesar, who was the author of his own power, at nought, in the same way as the law ot another nation.
As yet, however, the evangelist proceeds to say: "But when Pilate heard these sayings, he brought
Jesus forth, and sat down before the tribunal, in a place that is called the Pavement,^® but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation^* of the passover, and about the sixth hour." The question, at what hour the Lord was crucified, because of the testimony supplied by another evangelist, who says, "And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him," ^^ we shall consider as we can, if the Lord please, when we are come to the passage itself where His crucifixion is recorded. When Pilate, therefore, had sat down before the tribunal, "he saith unto the Jews, Behold y«ir king! But they cried out. Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said unto them.
Shall I crucify your king?" As yet he tries to overcome the terror with which they had inspired him about Caesar, by seeking to break them from their purpose on the ground of the ignominy it brought on themselves, with the words, "Shall I crucify your king?" when he failed to soften them on the groimd of the ignominy done to Christ; but by and by he is overcome by fear.
For "the chief priests answered. We have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified." For he would have every appearance of acting against Caesar if, on their declaration that they had no king but Caesar,
18. "Lithostrotos." 19. "Parasceve." 20. Mark xv. 25.
POLITICAL WRITINGS 305 he were wishing to impose on them another king by releasing without punishment one whom for these very attempts they had deUvered unto him to be put to death. "Therefore he delivered Him unto them to be crucified." But was it, then, anything different that he had previously desired when he said, "Take ye him, and crucify him;" or even earlier still, "Take ye him, and judge him according to your law"? And why did they show so great reluctance when they said, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death," and were in every way urgent to have Him slain not by themselves, but by the governor, and therefore refused to receive Him for the purpose of putting Him to death, if now for the same purpose they actually do receive Him? Or if such be not the case, why was it said, "Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified"? Or is it of any importance? Plainly it is. For it was not said, "Then delivered he Him therefore unto them" that they might crucify Him, but "that He might be crucified," that is, that He might be crucified by the judicial sentence and power of the governor. But it is for this reason that the evangelist has said that He was delivered to them, that he might show that they were implicated in the crime from which they tried to hold themselves aloof; for Pilate would have done no such thing, save to implement what he perceived to be their fixed desire.
B. Subject unto the Higher Powers
know what persecutions the body of Christ, that is, the holy Church, suffered from the kings of the earth. Let us therefore here also recognize the words of the Church: Princes have persecuted a. Enarr. in Ps., CXVm (Lat.), xxxi, 1.