“REVEALED UNTO BABES”
On account of the death in the family of the timber merchant, Æmilius left
the house and took a room and engaged attendance in the cottage of a
cordwainer a little way off. The house was clean, and the good woman was
able to cook him a meal not drowned in oil nor rank with garlic.
He was uneasy because Callipodius did not return, and he obtained no
tidings concerning Perpetua. The image of this maiden, with a face of
transparent purity, out of which shone the radiance of a beautiful soul,
haunted his imagination and fluttered his heart. He walked by the side of
the flooded tract of land, noticed that the water was falling, and looked,
at every turn he took, in the direction of Nemausus, expecting the arrival
of his client, but always in vain.
He did at length see a boat approach, towards evening, and he paced the
little landing‐place with quick strides till it ran up against it; and
then only, to his disappointment, did he see that Callipodius was not
there. Castor disembarked.
On the strength of his slight acquaintance Æmilius greeted the bishop. The
suspense was become unendurable. He asked to be granted a few words in
private. To this Castor gladly consented.
He, the head of the Christian community, had remained unmolested. He
belonged to a senatorial family in the town, and had relations among the
most important officials. The duumvir would undoubtedly leave him alone
unless absolutely obliged to lay hands on him. Nemausus was divided into
two towns, the Upper and the Lower, each with its own water‐supply, its
own baths, and each distinct in social composition.
The lower town, the old Gallic city, that venerated the hero‐founder of
the same name as the town, was occupied by the old Volcian population and
by a vast number of emancipated slaves of every nationality, many engaged
in trade and very rich. These freedmen were fused into one “order,” as it
was termed, that of the _Liberti_.
The upper town contained the finest houses, and was inhabited by the Roman
colonists, by some descendants of the first Phocean settlers, and by such
of the old Gaulish nobility as had most completely identified themselves
with their conquerors. These had retained their estates and had enriched
themselves by taking Government contracts.
Such scions of the old Gaulish houses had become fused by marriage and
community of interest with the families of the first colonists, and they
affected contempt for the pure‐blooded old aristocracy who had sunk into
poverty and insignificance in their decayed mansions in Lower Nemausus.
Of late years, slowly yet surely, the freedmen who had amassed wealth had
begun to invade superior Nemausus, had built themselves houses of greater
magnificence and maintained an ostentatious splendor that excited the envy
and provoked the resentment of the old senatorial and knightly citizens.
The great natural fountain supplied the lower town with water, but was
situated at too low a level for the convenience of the gentry of Upper
Nemausus, who had therefore conveyed the spring water of Ura from a great
distance by tunneling mountains and bridging valleys, and thus had
furnished themselves with an unfailing supply of the liquid as necessary
to a Roman as was the air he breathed. Thus rendered independent of the
natural fountain at the foot of the rocks in Lower Nemausus, those living
in the higher town affected the cult of the nymph Ura, and spoke
disparagingly of the god of the old town; whereas the inferior part of the
city clung tenaciously to the divine Nemausus, whose basin, full of
unfailing water, was presented to their very lips and had not to be
brought to them from a distance by the engineering skill of men and at a
great cost.
Devotion to the god of the fountain in Lower Nemausus was confined
entirely to the inhabitants of the old town, and was actually a relic of
the old Volcian religion before the advent of the colonists, Greek and
Roman. It had maintained itself and its barbarous sacrifice intact,
undisturbed.
No victim was exacted from a family of superior Nemausus. The contribution
was drawn from among the families of the native nobility, and it was on
this account solely that the continuance of the septennial sacrifice had
been tolerated.
Already, however, the priesthood was becoming aware that a strong feeling
was present that was averse to it. The bulk of the well‐to‐do population
had no traditional reverence for the Gaulish founder‐god, and many openly
spoke of the devotion of a virgin to death as a rite that deserved to be
abolished.
From the cordwainer Æmilius had heard of the mutilation of the statue and
of the commotion it had caused. This, he conjectured, accounted for the
delay of Callipodius. It had interfered with his action; he had been
unable to learn what had become of the damsel, and was waiting till he had
definite tidings to bring before he returned. Æmilius was indignant at the
wanton act of injury done to a beautiful work of art that decorated one of
the loveliest natural scenes in the world. But this indignation was
rendered acute by personal feeling. The disturbance caused by the rescue
of the virgin might easily have been allayed; not so one provoked by such
an act of sacrilege as the defacing of the image of the divine founder.
This would exasperate passions and vastly enhance the danger to Perpetua
and make her escape more difficult.
As Æmilius walked up from the jetty with the bishop, he inquired of him
how matters stood with the Christians in the town and received a general
answer. This did not satisfy the young lawyer, and, as the color suffused
his face, he asked particularly after Perpetua, daughter of the deceased
Harpinius Læto.
The bishop turned and fixed his searching eyes on the young man.
“Why make you this inquiry?” he asked.
“Surely,” answered Æmilius, “I may be allowed to feel interest in one whom
I was the means of rescuing from death. In sooth, I am vastly concerned to
learn that she is safe. It were indeed untoward if she fell once more into
the hands of the priesthood or into those of the populace. The ignorant
would grip as hard as the interested.”
“She is not in the power of either,” answered Castor. “But where she is,
that God knows, not I. Her mother is distracted, but we trust the maiden
has found a refuge among the brethren, and for her security is kept
closely concealed. The fewer who know where she is the better will it be,
lest torture be employed to extort the secret. The Lady Quincta believes
what we have cause to hope and consider probable. This is certain: if she
had been discovered and given up to the magistrate the fact would be known
at once to all in the place.”
“To break the image of the god was a wicked and a wanton act,” said
Æmilius irritably. “Is such conduct part of your religion?”
“The act was that of a rash and hot‐headed member of our body. It was
contrary to my will, done without my knowledge, and opposed to the
teaching of our holy fathers, who have ever dissuaded from such acts. But
in all bodies of men there are hot‐heads and impulsive spirits that will
not endure control.”
“Your own teaching is at fault,” said Æmilius peevishly. “You denounce the
gods, and yet express regret if one of you put your doctrine in practice.”
“If images were ornaments only,” said the bishop, “then they would be
endurable; but when they receive adoration, when libations are poured at
their feet, then we forbid our brethren to take part in such homage, for
it is idolatry, a giving to wood and stone the worship due to God alone.
But we do not approve of insult offered to any man’s religion. No,” said
Castor emphatically; “Christianity is not another name for brutality, and
that is brutality which insults the religious sentiment of the people, who
may be ignorant but are sincere.”
They had reached the rope‐walk. The cordwainer was absent.
“Let us take a turn,” said the bishop; and then he halted and smiled and
extended his palm to a little child that ran up to him and put its hand
within his with innocent confidence.
“This,” said Castor, “is the son of the timber merchant.” Then to the boy:
“Little man, walk with us, but do not interrupt our talk. Speak only when
spoken to.” He again addressed the lawyer: “My friend, if I may so call
thee, thou art vastly distressed at the mutilation of the image. Why so?”
“Because it is a work of art, and that particular statue was the finest
example of the sculpture of a native artist. It was a gift to his native
town of the god Marcus Antoninus (the Emperor Antoninus Pius).”
“Sir,” said Castor, “you are in the right to be incensed. Now tell me
this. If the thought of the destruction of a statue made by man and the
gift of a Cæsar rouse indignation in your mind, should you not be more
moved to see the destruction of living men, as in the shows of the
arena—the slaughter of men, the work of God’s hands?”
“That is for our entertainment,” said Æmilius, yet with hesitation in his
voice.
“Does that condone the act of the mutilator of the image, that he did it
out of sport, to amuse a few atheists and the vulgar? See you how from his
mother’s womb the child has been nurtured, how his limbs have grown in
suppleness and grace and strength; how his intelligence has developed, how
his faculties have expanded. Who made the babe that has become a man? Who
protected him from infancy? Who builds up this little tenement of an
immortal and bright spirit?” He led forward and indicated the child of
Flavillus. “Was it not God? And for a holiday pastime you send men into
the arena to be lacerated by wild beasts or butchered by gladiators! Do
you not suppose that God, the maker of man, must be incensed at this
wanton destruction of His fairest creation?”
“What you say applies to the tree we fell, to the ox and the sheep we
slaughter.”
“Not so,” answered the bishop. “The tree is essential to man. Without it
he cannot build himself a house nor construct a ship. The use of the tree
is essential to his progress from barbarism. Nay, even in barbarism he
requires it to serve him as fuel, and to employ timber demands the fall of
the tree. As to the beast, man is so constituted by his Creator that he
needs animal food. Therefore is he justified in slaying beasts for his
nourishment.”
“According to your teaching death sentences are condemned, as also are
wars.”
“Not so. The criminal may forfeit his right to a life which he is given to
enjoy upon condition that he conduce to the welfare of his fellows. If,
instead thereof, he be a scourge to mankind, he loses his rights. As to
the matter of war: we must guard the civilization we have built up by
centuries of hard labor and study after improvement. We must protect our
frontiers against the incursions of the barbarians. Unless they be rolled
back, they will overwhelm us. Self‐preservation is an instinct lodged in
every breast, justifying man in defending his life and his acquisitions.”
“Your philosophy is humane.”
“It is not a philosophy. It is a revelation.”
“In what consists the difference?”
“A philosophy is a groping upwards. A revelation is a light falling from
above. A philosophy is reached only after the intellect is ripe and
experienced, attained to when man’s mind is fully developed. A revelation
comes to the child as his mind and conscience are opening and shows him
his way. Here, little one! stand on that _cippus_ and answer me.”
Castor took the child in his arms and lifted him to a marble pedestal.
“Little child,” said he, “answer me a few simple questions. Who made you?”
“God,” answered the boy readily.
“And why did He make you?”
“To love and serve Him.”
“And how can you serve Him?”
“By loving all men.”
“What did the Great Master say was the law by which we are to direct our
lives?”
“‘He that loveth God, let him love his brother also.’”
“Little child, what is after death?”
“Eternity.”
“And in eternity where will men be?”
“Those that have done good shall be called to life everlasting, and those
that have done evil will be cast forth into darkness, where is weeping and
gnashing of teeth.”
The bishop took the child from the pedestal, and set him again on the
ground.
Then, with a smile on his face, he said to Æmilius, “Do we desire to know
our way _after_ we have erred or _before_ we start? What was hidden from
the wise and prudent is revealed unto babes. Where philosophy ends, there
our religion begins.”