neck a collar of iron. He took burning coals out of a chafing-dish, and
with them drew lines across his breast, the while crying out--'Jesus!
Jesus!' The people shouted--'This is not lawful! let us stone him!'
But he continued. Oh! those were unheard of marvels--things which
transported men who beheld them! Flowers broad as suns circled before
my eyes, and I heard in the spaces above me the vibrations of a golden
harp. Day died. My hands loosened their grasp of the window-bars; my
body fell back, and when he had led me away to his house...."
ANTHONY. "But of whom art thou speaking?"
PRISCILLA. "Why, of Montanus!"
ANTHONY. "Montanus is dead!"
PRISCILLA. "It is not true!"
A VOICE. "No: Montanus is not dead!"
(_Anthony turns; and sees upon the bench near him, on the opposite
side, another woman sitting; she is fair, and even paler than the
other; there are swellings under her eyes, as though she had wept a
long time. She speaks without being questioned_:)
MAXIMILLA. "We were returning from Tarsus by way of the mountains,
when, at a turn in the road, we saw a man under a fig tree.
"He cried from afar off: 'Stop! stop!' and rushed toward us, uttering
words of abuse. The slaves ran up; he burst into a loud laugh. The
horses reared; the molossi all barked.
"He stood before us. The sweat streamed from his forehead; his mantle
napped in the wind.
"And calling us each by our names, he reproached us with the vanity
of our work, the infamy of our bodies; and he shook his fist at the
dromedaries because of the silver bells hanging below their mouths.
"His fury now filled my very entrails with fear and yet there was a
strange pleasure in it which fascinated me, intoxicated me!
"First the slaves came. 'Master,' they said, 'our animals are weary.'
Then the women said, 'We are frightened,' and the slaves departed. Then
the children began to weep,--'We are hungry.' And as the women were not
answered, they disappeared also from our view.
"He still spoke. I felt some one near me. It was my husband; but I
listened only to the other. My husband crawled to me upon his knees
among the stones, and cried--'Dost thou abandon me,' and I replied:
'Yes! go thy way!' that I might accompany Montanus."
ANTHONY. "A eunuch!"
PRISCILLA. "Ah! does that astound thee, vulgar soul! Yet Magdalen,
Johanna, Martha and Susannah did not share the couch of the Saviour.
Souls may know the delirium of embrace better than bodies. That he
might keep Eustolia with impunity, the bishop Leontius mutilated
himself--loving his love more than his virility. And then, it was
no fault of mine. Sotas could not cure me; a spirit constrained me.
It is cruel, nevertheless! But what matter? I am the last of the
prophetesses; and after me the end of the world shall come."
MAXIMILLA. "He showered his gifts upon me. Moreover, no one loves him
as I, nor is any other so well beloved by him!"
PRISCILLA. "Thou liest! I am the most beloved!"
MAXIMILLA. "No: it is I!"
(_They fight. Between their shoulders suddenly appears the head of a
negro._)
MONTANUS (_clad in a black mantle, clasped by two cross-bones_):
"Peace, my doves! Incapable of terrestrial happiness, we have obtained
the celestial plentitude of our union. After the age of the Father,
the age of the Son; and I inaugurate the third, which is that of the
Paraclete. His light descended upon me during those forty nights when
the heavenly Jerusalem appeared shining in the firmament, above my
house at Pepuzza.
"Ah, how ye cry out with anguish when the thongs of the scourge
lacerate! how your suffering bodies submit to the ardor of my spiritual
discipline! how ye languish with irrealizable longing! So strong has
that desire become that it has enabled you to behold the invisible
world; and ye can now perceive souls even with the eyes of the body!"
ANTHONY. (_Makes a gesture of astonishment._)
TERTULLIAN (_who appears again, standing beside Montanus_):
"Without doubt; for the soul has a body, and that which is bodiless has
no existence."
MONTANUS. "In order to render it yet more subtle, I have instituted
many mortifications, three Lents a year, and prayers to be uttered
nightly by the mind only, keeping the mouth closed, lest breathing
might tarnish thought. It is necessary to abstain from second
marriages, or rather from all marriage! The Angels themselves have
sinned with women!"
THE ARCHONTICS (_wearing cilices of hair_):
"The Saviour said: 'I come to destroy the work of the Woman!'"
THE TATIANITES (_wearing cilices of reed_):
"She is the tree of evil. Our bodies are but garments of skin."
(_And continuing to advance along the same side, Anthony meets_:--)
THE VALESIANS (_extended upon the ground, with red wounds below their
bellies, and blood saturating their tunics. They offer him a knife._)
"Do as Origen did and as we have done! Is it the pain that thou
fearest, coward? Is it the love of thy flesh that restrains thee,
hypocrite?"
(_And while he watches them writhing upon their backs, in a pool of
blood_--)
THE CAINITES (_wearing knotted vipers as fillets about their hair, pass
by, vociferating in his ear_):--
"Glory to Cain! Glory to Sodom! Glory be to Judas!
"Cain made the race of the strong; Sodom terrified the earth by her
punishment, and it was by Judas that God saved the world! Yes! by
Judas: without him there would have been no death and no redemption!"
(_They disappear beneath the horde of the_--)
CIRCUMCELLIONES (_all clad in the skins of wolves, crowned with thorns,
and armed with maces of iron_).
"Crush the fruit! befoul the spring! drown the child! Pillage the rich
who are happy--who cat their fill! Beat the poor who envy the ass
his saddle-cloth, the dog his meal, the bird his nest,--and who is
wretched at knowing that others are not as miserable as himself.
"We, the Saints, poison, burn, massacre, that we may hasten the end of
the world.
"Salvation may be obtained through martyrdom only. We give ourselves
martyrdom. We tear the skin from our heads with pincers; we expose our
members to the plough; we cast ourselves into the mouths of furnaces!
"Out upon baptism! out upon the Eucharist! out upon marriage! universal
damnation!"
(_Then throughout all the basilica there is a redoubling of fury._
_The Audians shoot arrows against the Devil; the Collyridians throw
blue cloths toward the roof; the Ascites prostrate themselves before
a waterskin; the Marcionites baptise a dead man with oil. A woman,
standing near Appelles, exhibits a round loaf within a bottle, in order
the better to explain her idea. Another, standing in the midst of an
assembly of Sampseans distributes, as a sacrament, the dust of her
own sandals. Upon the rose-strewn bed of the Marcosians, two lovers
embrace. The Circumcellionites slaughter one another; the Valesians
utter the death-rattle; Bardesanes sings; Carpocras dances; Maximilla
and Priscilla moan; and the false prophetess of Cappadocia, completely
naked, leaning upon a lion, and brandishing three torches, shrieks the
Terrible Invocation._
_The columns of the temple sway to and fro like the trunks of trees in a
tempest; the amulets suspended about the necks of the Heresiarchs seem
to cross each other in lines of fire; the constellations in the chapels
palpitate; and the walls recoil with the ebb and flow of the crowd, in
which each head is a wave that leaps and roars._
_Nevertheless, from the midst of the clamor arises the sound of a song,
in which the name of Jesus is often repeated, accompanied by bursts of
laughter._
_The singers belong to the rabble of the people; they all keep time to
the song by clapping their hands. In their midst stands_--)
ARTUS (_in a deacon's vestments_):
"The fools who declaim against me pretend to explain the absurd; and in
order to confound them utterly, I have composed ditties so droll that
they are learned by heart in all the mills, in the taverns and along
the ports.
"No! a thousand times no!--the Son is not coeternal with the Father,
nor of the same substance! Otherwise he would not have said: 'Father,
remove this chalice from me! Why dost thou call me good? God alone is
good! I go to my God, to your God!'--and many other things testifying
to his character of creature. The fact is further demonstrated for
us by all his names:--lamb, shepherd, fountain, wisdom, son-of-man,
prophet; the way, the corner-stone!"
SABELLIUS. "I hold that both are identical."
ARIUS. "The Council of Antioch has decided the contrary."
ANTHONY. "Then what is the Word?... What was Jesus?"
THE VALENTINIANS. "He was the husband of Acharamoth repentant!"
THE SETHIANIANS. "He was Shem, the son of Noah!"
THE THEODOTIANS. "He was Melchisedech!"
THE MERINTHIANS. "He was only a man!"
THE APOLLINARISTS. "He assumed the appearance of one! He simulated the
Passion!"
MARCEL OF ANCYRA. "He was a development of the Father!"
POPE CALIXTUS. "Father and Son are but two modes of one God's
manifestation!"
METHODIUS. "He was first in Adam, then in man!"
CERINTHUS. "And He will rise again!"
VALENTINUS. "Impossible--his body being celestial!"
PAUL OF SAMOSATA. "He became God _only_ from the time of his baptism!"
HERMOGENES. "He dwells in the sun!"
(_And all the Heresiarchs form a circle about Anthony, who weeps,
covering his face with his hands._)
A JEW (_with a red beard, and spots of leprosy upon his shin,
approaches close to Anthony, and, with a hideous sneer, exclaims_):
"His soul was the soul of Esau! He suffered from the Bellephorentian
sickness. Was not his mother, the seller of perfumes, seduced by a
Roman soldier, one Pantherus?.......................... [6]
ANTHONY (_suddenly raising his head, looks at them a moment in silence;
then advancing boldly upon them, exclaims_):
"Doctors, magicians, bishops, and deacons, men and phantoms, away from
me! begone! Ye are all lies!"
THE HERESIARCHS. "We have martyrs more martyrs than thine, prayers
that are more difficult, outbursts of love more sublime, ecstasies as
prolonged as thine are."
ANTHONY. "But ye have no revelation! no proofs!"
(_They all at once brandish in the air their rolls of papyrus, tablets
of wood, scrolls of leather, rolls of woven stuff bearing inscriptions;
and elbowing; and pushing each other, they all shout to Anthony._)
THE CERINTHIANS. "Behold the Gospel of the Hebrews!"
THE MARCIONITES. "Behold the Gospel of the Lord!"
THE MARCOSIANS. "The Gospel of Eve!"
THE EUCRATITES. "The Gospel of Thomas!"
THE CAINITES. "The Gospel of Judas!"
BASILIDES. "The Treatise upon the Destiny of the Soul!"
MANES. "The Prophecy of Barkouf!"
(_Anthony struggles, breaks from them, escapes them; and in a shadowy
corner perceives_--)
THE AGED EBIONITES
(_withered as mummies, their eyes dull and dim, their eyebrows white as
frost._
_In tremulous voices they exclaim_:--)
"We have known him, we have seen him! We knew the Carpenter's Son! We
were then the same age as he; we dwelt in the same street. He used to
amuse himself by modelling little birds of mud; aided his father at his
work without fear of the sharp tools, or selected for his mother the
skeins of dyed wool. Then he made a voyage to Egypt, from whence he
brought back wondrous secrets. We were at Jericho when he came to find
the Eater of Locusts. They talked together in a low voice, so that no
one could hear what was said. But it was from that time that his name
began to be noised abroad in Galilee, and that men began to relate many
fables regarding him."
(_They reiterate, tremulously_:)
"We knew him! we others, we knew him!"
ANTHONY. "Ah, speak on, speak! What was his face like?"
TERTULLIAN. "His face was wild and repulsive; forasmuch as he
had burthened himself with all the crimes, all the woes, all the
deformities of mankind."
ANTHONY. "Oh! no, no! I imagine, on the contrary, that his entire
person must have been glorious with a beauty greater than the beauty of
man!"
EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA. "There is indeed, at Paneades, propped up against
the walls of a crumbling edifice surrounded by a wilderness of weeds
and creeping plants, a certain statue of stone which, some say, was
erected by the Woman healed of the issue of blood. But time has gnawed
the face of the statue, and the rains have worn the inscription away."
(_A woman steps forward from the group of the Carpocratians._)
MARCELLINA. "I was once a deaconess at Rome, in a little church, where
I used to exhibit to the faithful, the silver images, of Saint Paul,
Homer, Pythagoras and Jesus Christ.
"I have only kept that of Jesus."
(_She half opens her mantle._)
"Dost thou desire it?"
A VOICE. "He reappears himself when we call upon him! It is the
hour!--come!"
(_And Anthony feels a brutal hand seize him by the arm, and drag him
away._
_He mounts a stairway in complete darkness; and after having ascended
many steps, he finds himself before a door._
_Then the one who is leading him--(is it Hilarion?--he does not
know)--whispers in the ear of another_: "The Lord is about to
come!"--_and they are admitted into a chamber, with a very low ceiling,
and without furniture._
_The first object which attracts his attention is a long blood-colored
chrysalis, with a human head surrounded by rays, and the word_ Knouphus
_inscribed all around it in Greek characters. It is placed upon the
shaft of a column, which is in turn supported by a broad pedestal.
Hanging upon the walls of the chamber are medallions of polished iron
representing the heads of various animals:--the head of an ox, the head
of a lion, the head of an eagle, the head of a dog, and the head of an
ass--again!_
[Illustration: ... a long blood-colored chrysalis]
_Earthen lamps, suspended below these images, create a vacillating
light. Through a hole in the wall, Anthony can see the moon shining
far off upon the waves; he can even hear the feeble regular sound of
lapping water; together with the heavy thud occasionally caused by the
bumping of a ship's hull against the stones of the mole._
_There are men crouching down, with their faces hidden by their
mantles. From time to time they utter sounds resembling a smothered
bark. There are women also, sleeping with their foreheads resting upon
their arms, and their arms supported by their knees; they are so hidden
by their garments as to resemble heaps of cloth piled up at intervals
against the wall. Near them are half naked children, whose persons
swarm with vermin. They watch with idiotic stare the burning of the
lamps; and nothing is done: all are waiting for something._
_They talk in undertones about family matters, or recommend to each
other various remedies for their ailments. Some of them must embark
at earliest daylight; the persecution is becoming too terrible to be
endured. Nevertheless, the pagans are easily enough deceived_:--"The
fools imagine that we are really adoring Knouphus!"
_But one of the brethren, feeling himself suddenly inspired, takes his
place before the column, where a basket has already been placed, filled
with fennel and aristolochia. On the top of the basket is placed a
loaf._)
THE INSPIRED BROTHER
(_unrolling a placard covered with designs representing cylinders
blending with and fitting into one another, commences to pray_:)
"The ray of the Word descended upon the darknesses; and there arose a
mighty cry, like unto the voice of Light."
ALL (_swaying their bodies in unison, respond_):
"Kyrie eleison!"
THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "Then was Man created by the infamous
God of Israel, aided by those who are these (_pointing to the
medallions_)--Astophaios, Oraios, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloi, Iao!
"And Man, hideous, feeble, formless and thoughtless, lay upon the slime
of the earth."
ALL (_in plaintive accents_):
"Kyrie eleison!"
THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "But Sophia, compassionating him, vivified him
with a spark of her own soul.
"Then God, beholding Man so beautiful, waxed wroth; and imprisoned him
within His own kingdom, forbidding him to touch the Tree of Knowledge.
"Again did the other succor him. She sent to him the Serpent, who, by
many long subterfuges, made him disobey that law of hate.
"And Man, having tasted knowledge, understood celestial things."
ALL (_raising their voices_):
"Kyrie Eleison!"
THE INSPIRED BROTHER. "But Iabdalaoth through vengeance cast down man
into the world of matter, and the Serpent with him."
ALL (_in a very low tone_):
"Kyrie Eleison!"
(_Then all hold their peace, and there is silence._
_The odors of the port mingle with the smoke of the lamps in the warm
air. The lamp-wicks crepitate; their flames are about to go out, long
mosquitoes flit in rapid circlings about them. And Anthony groans
in an agony of anguish, as with the feeling that a monstrosity is
floating about him, as with the fear of a crime that is about to be
accomplished._
_But_--)
THE INSPIRED BROTHER (_stamping his heel upon the floor, snapping his
fingers, tossing his head wildly, suddenly chants to a furious rhythm,
with accompaniment of cymbals and a shrill flute_:--)
"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern!
"O swift one, who runneth without feet, captor who seizeth without hand!
"Sinuous as the rivers, orbicular as the sun, black, with spots of
gold, like the firmament star-besprinkled! Like unto the intertwinings
of the vine, and the circumvolutions of entrails!
"Unengendered! eater of earth! immortally young! unfailing
perspicacious! honored at Epidaurus! Kindly to man! thou who didst heal
King Ptolemy, and the warriors, of Moses, and Glaucus, son of Minos!
"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern!"
ALL (_repeat_):
"Come! come! come!--issue from thy cavern!"
(_Nevertheless, nothing yet appears._)
"Why? What aileth him?"
(_And they concert together, devise means._
_An old man presents a clod of turf as an offering. Then something
upheaves within the basket. The mass of verdure shakes; the flowers
fall, and the head of a python appears._
[Illustration: ... the flowers fall and the head of a python
appears]
_It passes slowly around the edge of the loaf, like a circle moving
around an immovable disk;--then it unfolds itself, lengthens out; it is
enormous and of great weight. Lest it should touch the floor, the men
uphold it against their breasts, the women support it upon their heads,
the children hold it up at arms' length; and its tail, issuing through
the hole in the wall, stretches away indefinitely to the bottom of the
sea. Its coils double; they fill the chamber; they enclose Anthony._)
THE FAITHFUL (_press their mouths against its skin, snatch from one
another the loaf which it has bitten, and cry aloud_:--)
"It is thou! it is thou!
"First raised up by Moses, broken by Ezechias, re-established by the
Messiah. He drank thee in the waters of baptism; but thou didst leave
him in the Garden of Olives; and then indeed he felt his own weakness!
"Writhing about the arms of the cross, and above his head, while
casting thy slime upon the crown of thorns, thou didst behold him die!
For thou art not Jesus, thou!--thou art the Word! thou art the Christ!"
(_Anthony faints with horror, and falls prostrate in front of his hut
upon the splinters of wood, where the torch that had slipped from his
hand, is burning low._
_The shock arouses him. Opening his eyes again, he perceives the Nile,
brightly undulating under the moon, like a vast serpent winding over
the sands; so that the hallucination returns upon him again; he has not
left the company of the Ophites; they surround him, call him; he sees
them carrying baggage, descending to the port. He embarks along with
them._
_An inappreciable time elapses._
_Then the vaults of a prison environ him. Iron bars in front of him
make black lines against a background of blue; and in the darkness
beside him people are praying and weeping surrounded by others who
exhort and console._
[Illustration: ... and in the darkness beside him people are
praying]
_Without, there is a murmur like the deep humming of a vast crowd, and
there is splendour as of a summer's day._
_Shrill voices announce watermelons for sale, iced drinks, and cushions
of woven grass to sit upon. From time to time there are bursts of
applause. He hears the sound of footsteps above his head._
_Suddenly a long roar is heard, mighty and cavernous as the roar of
water in an aqueduct._
_And he sees, directly opposite, behind the bars of another compartment
across the arena a lion walking to and fro, then a line of sandals,
bare legs, and purple fringes. Beyond are the vast circling wreaths
of people, in symmetrical tiers, enlarging as they rise, from the
lowest which hems in the arena to the uppermost above which masts
rise to sustain a hyacinth-colored awning, suspended in air by ropes.
Stairways radiating toward the centre, divide these huge circles of
stone at regular intervals. The benches disappear under a host of
spectators--knights, senators, soldiers, plebeians, vestals, and
courtesans--in woollen hoods, in silken maniples, in fallow-colored
tunics; together with aigrettes of precious stones, plumes of feathers,
the fasces of lictors; and all this swarming multitude deafens and
stupefies Anthony with its shoutings, its tumultuous fury, as of an
enormous boiling vat. In the middle of the arena, a vase of incense
smokes upon an altar._
_Anthony thus knows that the people with him are Christians condemned
to be thrown to the wild beasts. The men wear the red mantle of the
pontiffs of Saturn; the women, the bandellettes of Ceres. Their friends
divide among themselves shreds of their garments, and rings. To obtain
access to the prison, they say, costs a great deal of money. But what
matter! They will remain until it is all over._
_Anthony notices among these consolers, a certain bald-headed man,
in a black tunic: Anthony has seen that face somewhere before. The
consoler discourses to them concerning the nothingness of this world,
and the felicity of the Elect. Anthony feels within him a transport of
celestial love; he longs for the opportunity to lay down his life for
the Saviour--not knowing as yet whether he himself is to be numbered
among the martyrs._
_But all--except a certain Phrygian, with long hair, who stands with
his arms uplifted--have a look of woe. One old man is sobbing upon a
bench; a youth standing close by, with drooping head, abandons himself
to a reverie of sorrow._
THE OLD MAN _had refused to pay the customary contribution before the
statue of Minerva, erected at the angle of the cross-roads; and he
gazes at his companions with a look that signifies_:--)
"Ye ought to have succored me! Communities can sometimes so arrange
matters as to insure their being left in peace. Some among ye also
procured those letters which falsely allege that one has sacrificed to
idols."
(_He asks aloud_:--)
"Was it not Petrus of Alexandria who laid down the rule concerning what
should be done by those who have yielded to torture?"
(_Then, to himself_:--)
"Ah! how cruel this at my age! My infirmities make me so weak!
Nevertheless, I might easily have lived until the coming winter, or
longer!"
(_The memory of his little garden makes him sad, and he gazes toward
the altar._)
THE YOUNG MAN (_who disturbed the festival of Apollo by violence and
blows, murmurs_:--)
"Yet it would have been easy for me to have fled to the mountains!"
(_One of the brothers answers_:--)
"But the soldiers would have captured thee!"
THE YOUNG MAN. "Oh! I would have done as Cyprian did--I would have
returned, and the second time I would surely have had more force!"
(_Then he thinks of the innumerable days that he might have lived, of
all the joys that he might have known, but will never know; and he
gazes toward the altar._
_But_--)
THE MAN IN THE BLACK TUNIC (_rushes to his side._)
"What scandal! What! Thou! a victim of God's own choice! And all these
women here who are looking at thee! Nay, think what thou art doing!
Moreover, remember that God sometimes vouchsafes to perform a miracle.
Pionius numbed and made powerless the hands of his executioners; the
blood of Polycarp extinguished the fire of the stake."
(_Then he turns to the Old Man_:--)