Chapter IX.—Argument:  The Religion of the Christians is Foolish, Inasmuch as They Worship a Crucified Man, and Even the Instrument Itself of His Punishment.  They are Said to Worship the Head of an Ass, and Even the Nature of Their Father.  They are Initiated by the Slaughter and the Blood of an Infant, and in Shameless Darkness They are All Mixed Up in an Uncertain Medley.

“And now, as wickeder things advance more fruitfully, and abandoned manners creep on day by day, those abominable shrines of an impious assembly are maturing themselves throughout the whole world.  Assuredly this confederacy ought to be rooted out and execrated.  They know one another by secret marks and insignia, and they love one another almost before they know one another.  Everywhere also there is mingled among them a certain religion of lust, and they call one another promiscuously brothers and sisters, that even a not unusual debauchery may by the intervention of that sacred name become incestuous:  it is thus that their vain and senseless superstition glories in crimes.  Nor, concerning these things, would intelligent report speak of things so great and various,24    Otherwise read “abominable.” and requiring to be prefaced by an apology, unless truth were at the bottom of it.  I hear that they adore the head of an ass, that basest of creatures, consecrated by I know not what silly persuasion,—a worthy and appropriate religion for such manners.  Some say that they worship the virilia of their pontiff and priest,25    This charge, as Oehler thinks, refers apparently to the kneeling posture in which penitents made confession before their bishop. and adore the nature, as it were, of their common parent.  I know not whether these things are false; certainly suspicion is applicable to secret and nocturnal rites; and he who explains their ceremonies by reference to a man punished by extreme suffering for his wickedness, and to the deadly wood of the cross, appropriates fitting altars for reprobate and wicked men, that they may worship what they deserve.  Now the story about the initiation of young novices is as much to be detested as it is well known.  An infant covered over with meal, that it may deceive the unwary, is placed before him who is to be stained with their rites:  this infant is slain by the young pupil, who has been urged on as if to harmless blows on the surface of the meal, with dark and secret wounds.  Thirstily—O horror!—they lick up its blood; eagerly they divide its limbs.  By this victim they are pledged together; with this consciousness of wickedness they are covenanted to mutual silence.26    This calumny seems to have originated from the sacrament of the Eucharist.  Such sacred rites as these are more foul than any sacrileges.  And of their banqueting it is well known all men speak of it everywhere; even the speech of our Cirtensian27    Scil. Fronto of Cirta, spoken of again in ch. xxxi.  [A recent very interesting discovery goes to show that our author was the chief magistrate of Cirta, in Algeria, from a.d. 210 to 217.  See Schaff, vol. iii. p. 841.] testifies to it.  On a solemn day they assemble at the feast, with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of every sex and of every age.  There, after much feasting, when the fellowship has grown warm, and the fervour of incestuous lust has grown hot with drunkenness, a dog that has been tied to the chandelier is provoked, by throwing a small piece of offal beyond the length of a line by which he is bound, to rush and spring; and thus the conscious light being overturned and extinguished in the shameless darkness, the connections of abominable lust involve them in the uncertainty of fate.  Although not all in fact, yet in consciousness all are alike incestuous, since by the desire of all of them everything is sought for which can happen in the act of each individual.

CAPUT IX.

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ARGUMENTUM.---Christianorum religio stulta, hominem siquidem crucifixum, ipsumque hujus supplicii instrumentum venerantur. Asini caput colere, ipsamque parentis sui naturam adorare dicuntur. De caede infantis et sanguine initiantur, ac per impudentes tenebras incerta sorte omnes permiscentur.

Ac jam, ut foecundius nequiora proveniunt, serpentibus in dies perditis moribus, per universum orbem sacraria ista teterrima impiae coitionis adolescunt. 0261A Eruenda prorsus haec, et exsecranda consensio. Occultis se notis et insignibus noscunt, et amant mutuo pene antequam noverint: passim etiam inter eos velut quaedam libidinum religio miscetur; ac se promisce appellant fratres et sorores, ut etiam non insolens stuprum, intercessione sacri nominis, fiat incestum: ita eorum vana et demens superstitio sceleribus gloriatur. Nec de ipsis, nisi subsisteret veritas, maxima et varia maxime nefaria et honore praefanda, sagax fama loqueretur. Audio eos turpissimae pecudis caput asini consecratum, inepta nescio qua persuasione, venerari: digna et nata religio talibus moribus. Alii eos ferunt ipsius antistitis ac sacerdotis colere genitalia, et quasi parentis sui adorare naturam. 0261B Nescio an falsa , certe occultis ac nocturnis sacris 0262A apposita suspicio: et qui hominem, summo supplicio pro facinore punitum, et crucis ligna feralia, eorum caerimonias fabulantur, congruentia perditis sceleratisque tribuit altaria, ut id colant quod merentur. (VI) Jam de initiandis tirunculis fabula tam detestanda quam nota est: infans farre contectus, ut decipiat incautos, apponitur ei qui sacris imbuatur. Is infans a tirunculo, farris superficie, quasi ad innoxios ictus provocato, coecis occultisque vulneribus occiditur: hujus, proh nefas! sitienter sanguinem lambunt, hujus certatim membra dispertiunt: hac foederantur hostia; hac conscientia sceleris ad silentium mutuum pignerantur: haec sacra sacrilegiis omnibus tetriora. (VII) Et de convivio notum est, passim omnes loquuntur, id 0262B etiam Cirtensis nostri testatur oratio: ad epulas solemni 0263A die coeunt, cum omnibus liberis, sororibus, matribus, sexus omnis hominis et omnis aetatis: illic, post multas epulas, ubi convivium caruit [caluit], et incestae libidinis ebrietatis fervor exarsit, carnis [canis] qui candelabro nexus est, jactu offulae ultra spatium lineae qua vinctus est, ad impetum et saltum provocatur: sic everso et exstincto conscio lumine, impudentibus tenebris nexus infandae cupiditatis involvunt per incertum sortis; et, si non omnes opera, conscientia tamen pariter incesti, quoniam voto universorum appetitur quicquid accidere potest in actu singulorum.