11. Such was the philosophy of
Cæsarius, even at court: these were the ideas amidst which
he lived and died, discovering and presenting to God, in the hidden
man, a still deeper godliness than was publicly visible. And if I
must pass by all else, his protection of his kinsmen in distress, his
contempt for arrogance, his freedom from assumption towards friends,
his boldness towards men in power, the numerous contests and arguments
in which he engaged with many on behalf of the truth, not merely for
the sake of argument, but with deep piety and fervour, I must speak of
one point at least as especially worthy of note. The
Emperor The Emperor,
i.e., Julian the Apostate. of unhappy memory
was raging against us, whose madness in rejecting Christ, after making
himself its first victim, had now rendered him intolerable to others;
though he did not, like other fighters against Christ, grandly enlist
himself on the side of impiety, but veiled his persecution under the
form of equity; and, ruled by the crooked serpent which possessed his
soul, dragged down into his own pit his wretched victims by manifold
devices. His first artifice and contrivance was, to deprive us of
the honour of our conflicts (for, noble man as he was, he grudged this
to Christians), by causing us, who suffered for being Christians, to be
punished as evil doers: the second was, to call this process
persuasion, and not tyranny, so that the disgrace of those who chose to
side with impiety might be greater than their danger. Some he won
over by money, some by dignities, some by promises, some by various
honours, which he bestowed, not royally but in right servile style, in
the sight of all, while everyone was influenced by the witchery of his
words, and his own example. At last he assailed
Cæsarius. How utter was the derangement and folly which
could hope to take for his prey a man like Cæsarius, my brother,
the son of parents like ours!