After many days Araches brought them to the king, and declared their
case. Then he set them before the bitterly incensed king: and he, when
he saw them, boiled over with fury and was like to one mad. He ordered
them to be beaten without mercy, and, when he saw them cruelly mangled
with scourges, could scarcely restrain his madness, and order the
tormentors to cease. Then said he unto them, "Why bear ye about these
dead men's bones? If ye carry these bones through affection for those
men to whom they belong, this very hour I will set you in their
company, that ye may meet your lost friends and be duly grateful to
me." The captain and leader of that godly band, setting at naught the
king's threats, showing no sign of the torment that he had undergone,
with free voice and radiant countenance that signified the grace that
dwelt in his soul, cried out, "We carry about these clean and holy
bones, O king, because we attest in due form our love of those
marvellous men to whom they belong: and because we would bring
ourselves to remember their wrestlings and lovely conversation, to
rouse up ourselves to the like zeal; and because we would catch some
vision of the rest and felicity wherein they now live, and thus, as we
call them blessed, and provoke one another to emulate them, strive to
follow in their footsteps: because moreover, we find thereby that the
thought of death, which is right profitable, lendeth wings of zeal to
our religious exercises; and lastly, because we derive sanctification
from their touch."
Again said the king, "If the thought of death be profitable, as ye say,
why should ye not reach that thought of death by the bones of the
bodies that are now your own, and are soon to perish, rather than by
the bones of other men which have already perished?"
The monk said, "Five reasons I gave thee, why we carry about these
relics; and thou, making answer to one only, art like to be mocking us.
But know thou well that the bones of them, that have already departed
this life, bring the thought of death more vividly before us than do
the bones of the living. But since thou judgest otherwise, and since
the bones of thine own body are to thee a type of death, why dost thou
not recollect thy latter end so shortly to come, and set thine house in
order, instead of giving up thy soul to all kinds of iniquities, and
violently and unmercifully murdering the servants of God and lovers of
righteousness, who have done thee no wrong, and seek not to share with
thee in present goods, nor are ambitious to rob thee of them?"
Said the king, "I do well to punish you, ye clever misleaders of the
folk, because ye deceive all men, counselling them to abstain from the
enjoyments of life; and because, instead of the sweets of life and the
allures of appetite and pleasure, ye constrain them to choose the
rough, filthy and squalid way, and preach that they should render to
Jesus the honour due unto the gods. Accordingly, in order that the
people may not follow your deceits and leave the land desolate, and,
forsaking the gods of their fathers, serve another, I think it just to
subject you to punishment and death."
The monk answered, "If thou art eager that all should partake of the
good things of life, why dost thou not distribute dainties and riches
equally amongst all? And why is it that the common herd are pinched
with poverty, while thou addest ever to thy store by seizing for
thyself the goods of others? Nay, thou carest not for the weal of the
many, but fattenest thine own flesh, to be meat for the worms to feed
on. Wherefore also thou hast denied the God of all, and called them
gods that are not, the inventors of all wickedness, in order that, by
wantonness and wickedness after their example, thou mayest gain the
title of imitator of the gods. For, as your gods have done, why should
not also the men that follow them do? Great then is the error that
thou hast erred, O king. Thou fearest that we should persuade certain
of the people to join with us, and revolt from thy hand, and place
themselves in that hand that holdeth all things, for thou willest the
ministers of thy covetousness to be many, that they may be miserable
while thou reapest profit from their toil; just as a man, who keepeth
hounds or falcons tamed for hunting, before the hunt may be seen to pet
them, but, when they have once seized the quarry, taketh the game with
violence out of their mouths. So also thou, willing that there should
be many to pay thee tribute and toll from land and water, pretendest to
care for their welfare, but in truth bringest on them and above all on
thyself eternal ruin; and simply to pile up gold, more worthless than
dung or rottenness, thou hast been deluded into taking darkness for
light. But recover thy wits from this earthly sleep: open thy sealed
eyes, and behold the glory of God that shineth round about us all; and
come at length to thyself. For saith the prophet, 'Take heed, ye unwise
among the people, and, O ye fools, understand at last.' Understand
thou that there is no God except our God, and no salvation except in
him."
But the king said, "Cease this foolish babbling, and anon discover to
me Barlaam: else shalt thou taste instruments of torture such as thou
hast never tasted before." That noble-minded, great-hearted monk, that
lover of the heavenly philosophy, was not moved by the king's threats,
but stood unflinching, and said, "We are not commanded to fulfil thy
hest, O king, but the orders of our Lord and God who teacheth us
temperance, that we should be lords over all pleasures and passions,
and practise fortitude, so as to endure all toil and all ill-treatment
for righteousness' sake. The more perils that thou subjectest us to
for the sake of our religion, the more shalt thou be our benefactor.
Do therefore as thou wilt: for we shall not consent to do aught outside
our duty, nor shall we surrender ourselves to sin. Deem not that it is
a slight sin to betray a fellow-combatant and fellow-soldier into thy
hands. Nay, but thou shalt not have that scoff to make at us; no, not
if thou put us to ten thousand deaths. We be not such cowards as to
betray our religion through dread of thy torments, or to disgrace the
law divine. So then, if such be thy purpose, make ready every weapon
to defend thy claim; for to us to live is Christ, and to die for him is
the best gain."
Incensed with anger thereat, the monarch ordered the tongues of these
Confessors to be rooted out, and their eyes digged out, and likewise
their hands and feet lopped off. Sentence passed, the henchmen and
guards surrounded and mutilated them, without pity and without ruth.
And they plucked out their tongues from their mouths with prongs, and
severed them with brutal severity, and they digged out their eyes with
iron claws, and stretched their arms and legs on the rack, and lopped
them off. But those blessed, shamefast, noble-hearted men went bravely
to torture like guests to a banquet, exhorting one another to meet
death for Christ his sake undaunted.
In such divers tortures did these holy monks lay down their lives for
the Lord. They were in all seventeen. By common consent, the pious
mind is superior to sufferings, as hath been said by one, but not of
us, when narrating the martydom of the aged priest, and of the seven
sons with their equally brave mother when contending for the law of
their fathers: whose bravery and lofty spirit, however, was equalled by
these marvellous fathers and citizens and heirs of Hierusalem that is
above.