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The memorials against us and copies of the imperial edicts issued in
reply to them were engraved and set up on brazen pillars in the midst of
the cities, —a course which had never been followed elsewhere. The
children in the schools had daily in their mouths the names of Jesus
and Pilate, and the Acts which had been forged in wanton insolence.
It appears to me necessary to insert here this document of Maximinus
which was posted on pillars, in order that there may be made manifest
at the same time the boastful and haughty arrogance of the God-hating
man, and the sleepless evil-hating divine vengeance upon the impious,
which followed close upon him, and under whose pressure he not long
afterward took the opposite course in respect to us and confirmed it by
written laws.
The rescript is in the following words:
Copy of a translation of the rescript of Maxi-minus in answer to the
memorials against us, taken from the pillar in Tyre.
"Now at length the feeble power of the human mind has become able to
shake off and to scatter every dark mist of error, which before this
besieged the senses of men, who were more miserable than impious, and
enveloped them in dark and destructive ignorance; and to perceive that
it is governed and established by the beneficent providence of the
immortal gods. It passes belief how grateful, how pleasing and how
agreeable it is to us, that you have given a most decided proof of your
pious resolution; for even before this it was known to every one how
much regard and reverence you were paying to the immortal gods,
exhibiting not a faith of bare and empty words, but continued and
wonderful exampies of illustrious deeds. Wherefore your city may
justly be called a seat and dwelling of the immortal gods. At least,
it appears by many signs that it flourishes because of the presence of
the celestial gods. Behold, therefore, your city, regardless of all
private advantages, and omitting its former petitions in its own
behalf, when it perceived that the adherents of that execrable vanity
were again beginning to spread, and to start the greatest
conflagration—like a neglected and extinguished funeral pile when its
brands are rekindled,-immediately resorted to our piety as to a
metropolis of all religiousness, asking some remedy and aid. It is
evident that the gods have given you this saving mind on account of your
faith and piety.
"Accordingly that supreme and mightiest Jove, who presides over your
illustrious city, who preserves your ancestral gods, your wives and
children, your hearths and homes from every destructive pest, has
infused into your souls this wholesome resolve; showing and proving how
excellent and glorious and salutary it is to observe with the becoming
reverence the worship and sacred rites of the immortal gods.
For who can be found so ignorant or so devoid of all understanding as
not to perceive that it is due to the kindly care of the gods that the
earth does not refuse the seed sown in it, nor disappoint the hope of
the husbandmen with vain expectation; that impious war is not
inevitably fixed upon earth, and wasted bodies dragged down to death
under the influence of a corrupted atmosphere; that the sea is not
swollen and raised on high by blasts of intemperate winds; that
unexpected hurricanes do not burst forth and stir up the destructive
tempest; moreover, that the earth, the nourisher and mother of all,
is not shaken from its lowest depths with a terrible tremor, and that
the mountains upon it do not sink into the opening chasms. No one is
ignorant that all these, and evils still worse than these, have
oftentimes happened hitherto.
And all these misfortunes have taken place on account of the
destructive error of the empty vanity of those impious men, when it
prevailed in their souls, and, we may almost say, weighed down the
whole world with shame."
After other words he adds: "Let them look at the standing crops
already flourishing with waving heads in the broad fields, and at the
meadows glittering with plants and flowers, in response to abundant
rains and the restored mildness and softness of the atmosphere.
Finally, let all rejoice that the might of the most powerful and
terrible Mars has been propitiated by our piety, our sacrifices, and
our veneration; and let them on this account enjoy firm and tranquil
peace and quiet; and let as many as have wholly abandoned that blind
error and delusion and have returned to a right and sound mind rejoice
the more, as those who have been rescued from an unexpected storm or
severe disease and are to reap the fruits of I pleasure for the rest of
their life. But if they still persist in their execrable vanity, let
them, as you have desired, be driven far away from your city and
territory, that thus, in accordance with your praiseworthy zeal in
this matter, your city, being freed from every pollution and impiety,
may, according to its native disposition, attend to the sacred rites
of the immortal gods with becoming reverence. But that ye may know how
acceptable to us your request respecting this matter has been, and how
ready our mind is to confer benefits voluntarily, without memorials and
petitions, we permit your devotion to ask whatever great gift ye may
desire in return for this your pious disposition.
And now ask that this may be done and that ye may receive it; for ye
shall obtain it without delay. This, being granted to your city,
shall furnish for all time an evidence of reverent piety toward the
immortal gods, and of the fact that you have obtained from our
benevolence merited prizes for this choice of yours; and it shall be
shown to your children and children's children."
This was published against us in all the provinces, depriving us of
every hope of good, at least from men; so that, according to that
divine utterance, "If it were possible, even the elect would have
stumbled" at these things.
And now indeed, when the hope of most of us was almost extinct,
suddenly while those who were to execute against us the above decree had
in some places scarcely finished their journey, God, the defender of
his own Church, exhibited his heavenly interposition in our behalf,
well-nigh stopping the tyrant's boasting against us.
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