Versie 41f0e7e6bcd159c3f0183b67d1de232cac10f239eb55b54b2d852ee4fe36175d
{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p><span class=\"smcap\">Chap. xcii.</span>—202. <span class=\"smcap\">Petilianus</span> said: \"But what have you\r\nto do with the kings of this world, in whom Christianity has\r\nnever found anything save envy towards her? And to teach\r\nyou shortly the truth of what I say: A king persecuted\r\nthe brethren of the Maccabees.<a id=\"FNanchor_933_933\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_933_933\">[933]</a> A king also condemned\r\nthe three children to the sanctifying flames, being ignorant\r\nwhat he did, seeing that he himself was fighting against God.<a id=\"FNanchor_934_934\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_934_934\">[934]</a>\r\nA king sought the life of the infant Saviour.<a id=\"FNanchor_935_935\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_935_935\">[935]</a> A king exposed\r\nDaniel, as he thought, to be eaten by wild beasts.<a id=\"FNanchor_936_936\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_936_936\">[936]</a> And the\r\nLord Christ Himself was slain by a king's most wicked judge.<a id=\"FNanchor_937_937\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_937_937\">[937]</a>\r\nHence it is that the apostle cries out, 'We speak wisdom\r\namong them that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this\r\nworld, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:\r\nbut we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the\r\nhidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto\r\nour glory; which none of the princes of this world knew:\r\nfor had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord\r\nof glory.'<a id=\"FNanchor_938_938\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_938_938\">[938]</a> But grant that this was said of the heathen kings\r\nof old. Yet you, rulers of this present age, because you desire\r\nto be Christians, do not allow men to be Christians, seeing\r\nthat, when they are believing in all honesty of heart, you\r\ndraw them by the defilement and mist of your falsehood\r\nwholly over to your wickedness, that with their arms, which\r\nwere provided against the enemies of the state, they should\r\nassail the Christians, and should think that, at your instigation,\r\nthey are doing the work of Christ if they kill us whom\r\nyou hate, according to the saying of the Lord Christ: 'The time<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_364\">[Pg 364]</a></span>\r\ncometh,' He says, 'that whosoever killeth you will think that\r\nhe doeth God service.'<a id=\"FNanchor_939_939\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_939_939\">[939]</a> It makes no matter therefore to you,\r\nfalse teachers, whether the kings of this world desire to be\r\nheathens, which God forbid, or Christians, so long as you\r\ncease not in your efforts to arm them against the family of\r\nChrist. But do you not know, or rather, have you not read,\r\nthat the guilt of one who instigates a murder is greater than\r\nthe guilt of him who carries it out? Jezebel had excited the\r\nking her husband to the murder of a poor and righteous man,\r\nyet husband and wife alike perished by an equal punishment.<a id=\"FNanchor_940_940\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_940_940\">[940]</a>\r\nNor indeed is your mode of urging on kings different from\r\nthat by which the subtle persuasion of women has often urged\r\nkings on to guilt. For the wife of Herod earned and obtained\r\nthe boon by means of her daughter, that the head of John\r\nshould be brought to table in a charger.<a id=\"FNanchor_941_941\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_941_941\">[941]</a> Similarly the Jews\r\nforced on Pontius Pilate that he should crucify the Lord\r\nJesus, whose blood Pilate prayed might remain in vengeance\r\nupon them and on their children.<a id=\"FNanchor_942_942\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_942_942\">[942]</a> So therefore you also\r\noverwhelm yourselves with our blood by your sin. For it\r\ndoes not follow that because it is the hand of the judge that\r\nstrikes the blow, your calumnies therefore are not rather guilty\r\nof the deed. For the prophet David says, speaking in the\r\nperson of Christ, 'Why do the heathen rage, and the people\r\nimagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,\r\nand the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord,\r\nand against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands\r\nasunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth\r\nin the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in\r\nderision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and\r\nvex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King\r\nupon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the\r\nLord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I\r\nbegotten Thee. Ask of me, and I shall give Thee the heathen\r\nfor Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for\r\nThy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;\r\nThou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.' And\r\nhe warned the kings themselves in the following precepts,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_365\">[Pg 365]</a></span>\r\nthat they should not, like ignorant men devoid of understanding,\r\nseek to persecute the Christians, lest they should themselves\r\nbe destroyed,—which precepts I would that we could\r\nteach them, seeing that they are ignorant of them; or, at\r\nleast, that you would show them to them, as doubtless you\r\nwould do if you desired that they should live; or, at any rate,\r\nif neither of the other courses be allowed, that your malice\r\nwould have permitted them to read them for themselves. The\r\nfirst Psalm of David would certainly have persuaded them\r\nthat they should live and reign as Christians; but meanwhile\r\nyou deceive them, so long as they entrust themselves to you.\r\nFor you represent to them things that are evil, and you hide\r\nfrom them what is good. Let them then at length read this,\r\nwhich they should have read already long ago. For what does\r\nhe say, 'Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye\r\njudges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice\r\nwith trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye\r\nperish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.\r\nBlessed are all they that put their trust in Him.'<a id=\"FNanchor_943_943\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_943_943\">[943]</a> You urge\r\non emperors, I say, with your persuasions, even as Pilate,\r\nwhom, as we showed above, the Jews urged on, though he\r\nhimself cried aloud, as he washed his hands before them all,\r\n'I am innocent of the blood of this just person,'<a id=\"FNanchor_944_944\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_944_944\">[944]</a>—as though\r\na person could be clear from the guilt of a sin who had himself\r\ncommitted it. But, to say nothing of ancient examples,\r\nobserve, from instances taken from your own party, how very\r\nmany of your emperors and judges have perished in persecuting\r\nus. To pass over Nero, who was the first to persecute\r\nthe Christians, Domitian perished almost in the same way as\r\nNero, as also did Trajan, Geta,<a id=\"FNanchor_945_945\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_945_945\">[945]</a> Decius, Valerian, Diocletian;\r\nMaximian also perished, at whose command that men should\r\nburn incense to their gods, burning the sacred volumes, Marcellinus\r\nindeed first, but after him also Mensurius of Carthage,\r\nand Cæcilianus, escaped death from the sacrilegious<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_366\">[Pg 366]</a></span>\r\nflames, surviving like some ashes or cinders from the burning.\r\nFor the consciousness of the guilt of burning incense involved\r\nyou all, as many as agreed with Mensurius. Macarius\r\nperished, Ursacius<a id=\"FNanchor_946_946\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_946_946\">[946]</a> perished, and all your counts perished in\r\nlike manner by the vengeance of God. For Ursacius was\r\nslain in a battle with the barbarians, after which birds of prey\r\nwith their savage talons, and the greedy teeth of dogs with\r\ntheir biting, tore him limb from limb. Was not he too a\r\nmurderer at your suggestion, who, like king Ahab, whom we\r\nshowed to have been persuaded by a woman, slew a poor and\r\nrighteous man?<a id=\"FNanchor_947_947\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_947_947\">[947]</a> So you too do not cease to murder us,\r\nwho are just and poor (poor, that is, in worldly wealth; for in\r\nthe grace of God no one of us is poor). For even if you do\r\nnot murder a man with your hands, you do not cease to do\r\nso with your butcherous tongues. For it is written, 'Death\r\nand life are in the power of the tongue.'<a id=\"FNanchor_948_948\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_948_948\">[948]</a> All, therefore, who\r\nhave been murdered, you, the instigator of the deed, have\r\nslain. Nor indeed does the hand of the butcher glow save\r\nat the instigation of your tongue; and that terrible heat of\r\nthe breast is inflamed by your words to take the blood of\r\nothers,—blood that shall take a just vengeance upon him who\r\nshed it.\"</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK SECOND."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-631"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b2ff1972c59c26ea43edf4c62b030eeba279c4402cc49c33b20fe897b546bef4","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_946_946","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Title leaves identify J. R. King, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1872; catalog identifies translator John Richard King (1835-1907). Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/American Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_946_946","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_946_946\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_946_946\"><span class=\"label\">[946]</span></a> Optatus defends the cause of Macarius at great length in his third book\r\nagainst Parmenianus. Of Ursacius he says in the same place: \"You are offended\r\nat the times of a certain Leontius, of Ursacius, Macarius, and others.\" And\r\nAugustine, in his third book against Cresconius, c. xx., introduces an objection\r\nof the Donatists against himself: \"But so soon as Silvanus, bishop of Cirta,\r\nhad refused to communicate with Ursacius and Zenophilus the persecutors, he\r\nwas driven into exile,\" Usuardus, deceived by a false story made up by the\r\nDonatists, enters in his Martyrology that a pseudo-martyr Donatus suffered on\r\nthe 1st of March, under Ursacius and Marcellinus, to this effect: \"On the same\r\nday of the holy martyr Donatus, who suffered under Ursacius the judge and the\r\ntribune Marcellinus.\"</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_946_946","text_sha256":"4f190cf4a356a07098181f7f948cbd6ce1cd9257c8d7a1850724195e048a46ea","verified":false,"work_id":null}references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_946_946