V. And to speak of older things, for they
too belong to the same fraternity; whose hands living or dead have I
cut off—to bring a lying accusation against Saints, S. Athanasius was
accused by the Arians of having murdered a Meletian Bishop named
Arsenius, and cut off his hand to use for magical purposes; and at a
Synod held at Tyre in 334 they produced the alleged hand in a
box. Athanasius, however, was able to produce Arsenius alive and
unmutilated; but even so his accusers were not satisfied. and to triumph over the faith by
bluster? Whose exiles have I numbered as benefits, and failed to
reverence even the sacred colleges of sacred philosophers, whence I
sought their suppliants? Nay the very contrary is the case; I
have reckoned as Martyrs those who incurred anger for the truth.
Upon whom have I, whom you accuse of licentiousness of language,
brought harlots when they were almost fleshless and bloodless?
Which of the faithful have I exiled from their country and given over
to the hands of lawless men, that they might be kept like wild beasts
in rooms without light, and (for this is the saddest part of the
tragedy) left separated from each other to endure the hardships of
hunger and thirst, with food measured out to them, which they had to
receive through narrow openings, so that they might not be permitted
even to see their companions in misery. And what were they who
suffered thus? Men of whom the world was not worthy. Heb. xi. 38. Is it thus that you honour
faith? Is this your kind treatment of it? Ye know not the
greater part of these things, and that reasonably, because of the
number of these facts and the pleasure of the action. But he who
suffers has a better memory. There have been even some more cruel
than the times themselves, like wild boars hurled against a
fence. I demand your victim of yesterday The reference is
perhaps to Eusebius of Samosata, who was killed by a tile thrown at him
by an Arian woman. In dying he bound his friends by an oath not
to allow the murderess to be punished.
the old man, the Abraham-like Father, whom on his return from exile you
greeted with stones in the middle of the day and in the middle of the
city. But we, if it is not invidious to say so, begged off even
our murderers from their danger. God says somewhere in Scripture,
How shall I pardon thee for this? Jer. v. 7. Which of
these things shall I praise; or rather for which shall I bind a wreath
upon you?