to distinguish the civil theology from the fabulous, the cities from
the theatres, the temples from the stages, the sacred things of the
priests from the songs of the poets, as honourable things from base
things, truthful things from fallacious, grave from light, serious
from ludicrous, desirable things from things to be rejected, we
understand what they do. They are aware that that theatrical and
fabulous theology hangs by the civil, and is reflected back upon it
from the songs of the poets as from a mirror; and thus, that theology
having been exposed to view which they do not dare to condemn, they
more freely assail and censure that picture of it, in order that
those who perceive what they mean may detest this very face itself of
which that is the picture,--which, however, the gods themselves, as
though seeing themselves in the same mirror, love so much, that it is
better seen in both of them who and what they are. Whence, also, they
have compelled their worshippers, with terrible commands, to dedicate
to them the uncleanness of the fabulous theology, to put them among
their solemnities, and reckon them among divine things; and thus they
have both shown themselves more manifestly to be most impure spirits,
and have made that rejected and reprobated theatrical theology a
member and a part of this, as it were, chosen and approved theology
of the city, so that, though the whole is disgraceful and false, and
contains in it fictitious gods, one part of it is in the literature
of the priests, the other in the songs of the poets. Whether it may
have other parts is another question. At present, I think, I have
sufficiently shown, on account of the division of Varro, that the
theology of the city and that of the theatre belong to one civil
theology. Wherefore, because they are both equally disgraceful,
absurd, shameful, false, far be it from religious men to hope for
eternal life from either the one or the other.
In fine, even Varro himself, in his account and enumeration of the
gods, starts from the moment of a man's conception. He commences
the series of those gods who take charge of man with Janus, carries
it on to the death of the man decrepit with age, and terminates
it with the goddess Nænia, who is sung at the funerals of the
aged. After that, he begins to give an account of the other gods,
whose province is not man himself, but man's belongings, as food,
clothing, and all that is necessary for this life; and, in the case
of all these, he explains what is the special office of each, and
for what each ought to be supplicated. But with all this scrupulous
and comprehensive diligence, he has neither proved the existence,
nor so much as mentioned the name, of any god from whom eternal life
is to be sought,--the one object for which we are Christians. Who,
then, is so stupid as not to perceive that this man, by setting forth
and opening up so diligently the civil theology, and by exhibiting
its likeness to that fabulous, shameful, and disgraceful theology,
and also by teaching that that fabulous sort is also a part of this
other, was labouring to obtain a place in the minds of men for none
but that natural theology which he says pertains to philosophers,
with such subtlety that he censures the fabulous, and, not daring
openly to censure the civil, shows its censurable character by simply
exhibiting it; and thus, both being reprobated by the judgment of men
of right understanding, the natural alone remains to be chosen? But
concerning this in its own place, by the help of the true God, we
have to discuss more diligently.
10. _Concerning the liberty of Seneca, who more vehemently
censured the civil theology than Varro did the fabulous._
That liberty, in truth, which this man wanted, so that he did not
dare to censure that theology of the city, which is very similar
to the theatrical, so openly as he did the theatrical itself, was,
though not fully, yet in part possessed by Annæus Seneca, whom we
have some evidence to show to have flourished in the times of our
apostles. It was in part possessed by him, I say, for he possessed
it in writing, but not in living. For in that book which he wrote
against superstition,[243] he more copiously and vehemently censured
that civil and urban theology than Varro the theatrical and fabulous.
For, when speaking concerning images, he says, "They dedicate
images of the sacred and inviolable immortals in most worthless and
motionless matter. They give them the appearance of man, beasts, and
fishes, and some make them of mixed sex, and heterogeneous bodies.
They call them deities, when they are such that if they should get
breath and should suddenly meet them, they would be held to be
monsters." Then, a while afterwards, when extolling the natural
theology, he had expounded the sentiments of certain philosophers, he
opposes to himself a question, and says, "Here some one says, Shall
I believe that the heavens and the earth are gods, and that some are
above the moon and some below it? Shall I bring forward either Plato
or the peripatetic Strato, one of whom made God to be without a body,
the other without a mind?" In answer to which he says, "And, really,
what truer do the dreams of Titus Tatius, or Romulus, or Tullus
Hostilius appear to thee? Tatius declared the divinity of the goddess
Cloacina; Romulus that of Picus and Tiberinus; Tullus Hostilius that
of Pavor and Pallor, the most disagreeable affections of men, the one
of which is the agitation of the mind under fright, the other that
of the body, not a disease, indeed, but a change of colour." Wilt
thou rather believe that these are deities, and receive them into
heaven? But with what freedom he has written concerning the rites
themselves, cruel and shameful! "One," he says, "castrates himself,
another cuts his arms. Where will they find room for the fear of
these gods when angry, who use such means of gaining their favour
when propitious? But gods who wish to be worshipped in this fashion
should be worshipped in none. So great is the frenzy of the mind when
perturbed and driven from its seat, that the gods are propitiated by
men in a manner in which not even men of the greatest ferocity and
fable-renowned cruelty vent their rage. Tyrants have lacerated the
limbs of some; they never ordered any one to lacerate his own. For
the gratification of royal lust, some have been castrated; but no
one ever, by the command of his lord, laid violent hands on himself
to emasculate himself. They kill themselves in the temples. They
supplicate with their wounds and with their blood. If any one has
time to see the things they do and the things they suffer, he will
find so many things unseemly for men of respectability, so unworthy
of freemen, so unlike the doings of sane men, that no one would
doubt that they are mad, had they been mad with the minority; but now
the multitude of the insane is the defence of their sanity."
He next relates those things which are wont to be done in the Capitol,
and with the utmost intrepidity insists that they are such things as
one could only believe to be done by men making sport, or by madmen.
For, having spoken with derision of this, that in the Egyptian sacred
rites Osiris, being lost, is lamented for, but straightway, when found,
is the occasion of great joy by his reappearance, because both the
losing and the finding of him are feigned; and yet that grief and that
joy which are elicited thereby from those who have lost nothing and
found nothing are real;--having, I say, so spoken of this, he says,
"Still there is a fixed time for this frenzy. It is tolerable to go
mad once in the year. Go into the Capitol. One is suggesting divine
commands[244] to a god; another is telling the hours to Jupiter;
one is a lictor; another is an anointer, who with the mere movement
of his arms imitates one anointing. There are women who arrange the
hair of Juno and Minerva, standing far away not only from her image,
but even from her temple. These move their fingers in the manner of
hair-dressers. There are some women who hold a mirror. There are some
who are calling the gods to assist them in court. There are some who
are holding up documents to them, and are explaining to them their
cases. A learned and distinguished comedian, now old and decrepit,
was daily playing the mimic in the Capitol, as though the gods would
gladly be spectators of that which men had ceased to care about. Every
kind of artificers working for the immortal gods is dwelling there in
idleness." And a little after he says, "Nevertheless these, though they
give themselves up to the gods for purposes superfluous enough, do not
do so for any abominable or infamous purpose. There sit certain women
in the Capitol who think they are beloved by Jupiter; nor are they
frightened even by the look of the, if you will believe the poets, most
wrathful Juno."
This liberty Varro did not enjoy. It was only the poetical theology he
seemed to censure. The civil, which this man cuts to pieces, he was
not bold enough to impugn. But if we attend to the truth, the temples
where these things are performed are far worse than the theatres where
they are represented. Whence, with respect to these sacred rites of the
civil theology, Seneca preferred, as the best course to be followed
by a wise man, to feign respect for them in act, but to have no real
regard for them at heart. "All which things," he says, "a wise man will
observe as being commanded by the laws, but not as being pleasing to
the gods." And a little after he says, "And what of this, that we unite
the gods in marriage, and that not even naturally, for we join brothers
and sisters? We marry Bellona to Mars, Venus to Vulcan, Salacia to
Neptune. Some of them we leave unmarried, as though there were no match
for them, which is surely needless, especially when there are certain
unmarried goddesses, as Populonia, or Fulgora, or the goddess Rumina,
for whom I am not astonished that suitors have been awanting. All this
ignoble crowd of gods, which the superstition of ages has amassed, we
ought," he says, "to adore in such a way as to remember all the while
that its worship belongs rather to custom than to reality." Wherefore,
neither those laws nor customs instituted in the civil theology that
which was pleasing to the gods, or which pertained to reality. But this
man, whom philosophy had made, as it were, free, nevertheless, because
he was an illustrious senator of the Roman people, worshipped what he
censured, did what he condemned, adored what he reproached, because,
forsooth, philosophy had taught him something great,--namely, not to
be superstitious in the world, but, on account of the laws of cities
and the customs of men, to be an actor, not on the stage, but in the
temples,--conduct the more to be condemned, that those things which
he was deceitfully acting he so acted that the people thought he was
acting sincerely. But a stage-actor would rather delight people by
acting plays than take them in by false pretences.
11. _What Seneca thought concerning the Jews._
Seneca, among the other superstitions of civil theology, also
found fault with the sacred things of the Jews, and especially the
sabbaths, affirming that they act uselessly in keeping those seventh
days, whereby they lose through idleness about the seventh part of
their life, and also many things which demand immediate attention
are damaged. The Christians, however, who were already most hostile
to the Jews, he did not dare to mention, either for praise or blame,
lest, if he praised them, he should do so against the ancient custom
of his country, or, perhaps, if he should blame them, he should do so
against his own will.
When he was speaking concerning those Jews, he said, "When,
meanwhile, the customs of that most accursed nation have gained such
strength that they have been now received in all lands, the conquered
have given laws to the conquerors." By these words he expresses his
astonishment; and, not knowing what the providence of God was leading
him to say, subjoins in plain words an opinion by which he showed
what he thought about the meaning of those sacred institutions:
"For," he says, "those, however, know the cause of their rites,
whilst the greater part of the people know not why they perform
theirs." But concerning the solemnities of the Jews, either why or
how far they were instituted by divine authority, and afterwards, in
due time, by the same authority taken away from the people of God, to
whom the mystery of eternal life was revealed, we have both spoken
elsewhere, especially when we were treating against the Manichæans,
and also intend to speak in this work in a more suitable place.
12. _That when once the vanity of the gods of the nations has been
exposed, it cannot be doubted that they are unable to bestow
eternal life on any one, when they cannot afford help even with
respect to the things of this temporal life._
Now, since there are three theologies, which the Greeks call
respectively mythical, physical, and political, and which may be
called in Latin fabulous, natural, and civil; and since neither from
the fabulous, which even the worshippers of many and false gods have
themselves most freely censured, nor from the civil, of which that is
convicted of being a part, or even worse than it, can eternal life be
hoped for from any of these theologies,--if any one thinks that what
has been said in this book is not enough for him, let him also add
to it the many and various dissertations concerning God as the giver
of felicity, contained in the former books, especially the fourth one.
For to what but to felicity should men consecrate themselves, were
felicity a goddess? However, as it is not a goddess, but a gift of
God, to what God but the giver of happiness ought we to consecrate
ourselves, who piously love eternal life, in which there is true and
full felicity? But I think, from what has been said, no one ought
to doubt that none of those gods is the giver of happiness, who are
worshipped with such shame, and who, if they are not so worshipped,
are more shamefully enraged, and thus confess that they are most
foul spirits. Moreover, how can he give eternal life who cannot
give happiness? For we mean by eternal life that life where there
is endless happiness. For if the soul live in eternal punishments,
by which also those unclean spirits shall be tormented, that is
rather eternal death than eternal life. For there is no greater or
worse death than when death never dies. But because the soul from
its very nature, being created immortal, cannot be without some kind
of life, its utmost death is alienation from the life of God in an
eternity of punishment. So, then, He only who gives true happiness
gives eternal life, that is, an endlessly happy life. And since those
gods whom this civil theology worships have been proved to be unable
to give this happiness, they ought not to be worshipped on account
of those temporal and terrestrial things, as we showed in the five
former books, much less on account of eternal life, which is to be
after death, as we have sought to show in this one book especially,
whilst the other books also lend it their co-operation. But since
the strength of inveterate habit has its roots very deep, if any one
thinks that I have not disputed sufficiently to show that this civil
theology ought to be rejected and shunned, let him attend to another
book which, with God's help, is to be joined to this one.
FOOTNOTES:
[226] Ps. xl. 4.
[227] Plato, in the _Timæus_.
[228] Ch. xi. and xxi.
[229] See Virgil, _Ec._ iii. 9.
[230] Of the four books _De Acad._, dedicated to Varro, only a part
of the first is extant.
[231] Cicero, _De Quæst. Acad._ i. 3.
[232] In his book _De Metris_, chapter on phalæcian verses.
[233] Tarquin the Proud, having bought the books of the sibyl,
appointed two men to preserve and interpret them (Dionys. Halic.
_Antiq._ iv. 62). These were afterwards increased to ten, while the
plebeians were contending for larger privileges; and subsequently
five more were added.
[234] Ch. 31.
[235] _Fabulare._
[236] _Fabulosum._
[237] _Civile._
[238] _Timeri._
[239] _Vereri._
[240] _Intercido_, I cut or cleave.
[241] _Paranymphi._
[242] Comp. Tertullian, _Adv. Nat._ ii. 11; Arnobius, _Contra Gent._
iv.; Lactantius, _Inst._ i. 20.
[243] Mentioned also by Tertullian, _Apol._ 12, but not extant.
[244] _Numina._ Another reading is _nomina_; and with either reading
another translation is admissible: "One is announcing to a god the
names (or gods) who salute him."
BOOK SEVENTH.
ARGUMENT.
IN THIS BOOK IT IS SHOWN THAT ETERNAL LIFE IS NOT OBTAINED BY THE
WORSHIP OF JANUS, JUPITER, SATURN, AND THE OTHER "SELECT GODS"
OF THE CIVIL THEOLOGY.
PREFACE.
It will be the duty of those who are endowed with quicker and better
understandings, in whose case the former books are sufficient, and
more than sufficient, to effect their intended object, to bear with
me with patience and equanimity whilst I attempt with more than
ordinary diligence to tear up and eradicate depraved and ancient
opinions hostile to the truth of piety, which the long-continued
error of the human race has fixed very deeply in unenlightened minds;
co-operating also in this, according to my little measure, with the
grace of Him who, being the true God, is able to accomplish it, and
on whose help I depend in my work; and, for the sake of others, such
should not deem superfluous what they feel to be no longer necessary
for themselves. A very great matter is at stake when the true and
truly holy divinity is commended to men as that which they ought to
seek after and to worship; not, however, on account of the transitory
vapour of mortal life, but on account of life eternal, which alone is
blessed, although the help necessary for this frail life we are now
living is also afforded us by it.
1. _Whether, since it is evident that Deity is not to be found in
the civil theology, we are to believe that it is to be found in
the select gods._
If there is any one whom the sixth book, which I have last finished,
has not persuaded that this divinity, or, so to speak, deity--for
this word also our authors do not hesitate to use, in order to
translate more accurately that which the Greeks call θεότης;--if
there is any one, I say, whom the sixth book has not persuaded that
this divinity or deity is not to be found in that theology which
they call civil, and which Marcus Varro has explained in sixteen
books,--that is, that the happiness of eternal life is not attainable
through the worship of gods such as states have established to be
worshipped, and that in such a form,--perhaps, when he has read this
book, he will not have anything further to desire in order to the
clearing up of this question. For it is possible that some one may
think that at least the select and chief gods, whom Varro comprised
in his last book, and of whom we have not spoken sufficiently, are
to be worshipped on account of the blessed life, which is none other
than eternal. In respect to which matter I do not say what Tertullian
said, perhaps more wittily than truly, "If gods are selected like
onions, certainly the rest are rejected as bad."[245] I do not say
this, for I see that even from among the select, some are selected
for some greater and more excellent office: as in warfare, when
recruits have been elected, there are some again elected from among
those for the performance of some greater military service; and in
the church, when persons are elected to be overseers, certainly the
rest are not rejected, since all good Christians are deservedly
called elect; in the erection of a building corner stones are
elected, though the other stones, which are destined for other parts
of the structure, are not rejected; grapes are elected for eating,
whilst the others, which we leave for drinking, are not rejected.
There is no need of adducing many illustrations, since the thing is
evident. Wherefore the selection of certain gods from among many
affords no proper reason why either he who wrote on this subject,
or the worshippers of the gods, or the gods themselves, should be
spurned. We ought rather to seek to know what gods these are, and for
what purpose they may appear to have been selected.
2. _Who are the select gods, and whether they are held to be
exempt from the offices of the commoner gods._
The following gods, certainly, Varro signalizes as select, devoting
one book to this subject: Janus, Jupiter, Saturn, Genius, Mercury,
Apollo, Mars, Vulcan, Neptune, Sol, Orcus, father Liber, Tellus,
Ceres, Juno, Luna, Diana, Minerva, Venus, Vesta; of which twenty
gods, twelve are males, and eight females. Whether are these deities
called select, because of their higher spheres of administration in
the world, or because they have become better known to the people,
and more worship has been expended on them? If it be on account of
the greater works which are performed by them in the world, we ought
not to have found them among that, as it were, plebeian crowd of
deities, which has assigned to it the charge of minute and trifling
things. For, first of all, at the conception of a fœtus, from which
point all the works commence which have been distributed in minute
detail to many deities, Janus himself opens the way for the reception
of the seed; there also is Saturn, on account of the seed itself;
there is Liber,[246] who liberates the male by the effusion of the
seed; there is Libera, whom they also would have to be Venus, who
confers this same benefit on the woman, namely, that she also be
liberated by the emission of the seed;--all these are of the number
of those who are called select. But there is also the goddess Mena,
who presides over the menses; though the daughter of Jupiter, ignoble
nevertheless. And this province of the menses the same author, in his
book on the select gods, assigns to Juno herself, who is even queen
among the select gods; and here, as Juno Lucina, along with the same
Mena, her stepdaughter, she presides over the same blood. There also
are two gods, exceedingly obscure, Vitumnus and Sentinus--the one of
whom imparts life to the fœtus, and the other sensation; and, of a
truth, they bestow, most ignoble though they be, far more than all
those noble and select gods bestow. For, surely, without life and
sensation, what is the whole fœtus which a woman carries in her womb,
but a most vile and worthless thing, no better than slime and dust?
3. _How there is no reason which can be shown for the selection of
certain gods, when the administration of more exalted offices
is assigned to many inferior gods._
What is the cause, therefore, which has driven so many select gods
to these very small works, in which they are excelled by Vitumnus
and Sentinus, though little known and sunk in obscurity, inasmuch
as they confer the munificent gifts of life and sensation? For the
select Janus bestows an entrance, and, as it were, a door[247] for
the seed; the select Saturn bestows the seed itself; the select Liber
bestows on men the emission of the same seed; Libera, who is Ceres
or Venus, confers the same on women; the select Juno confers (not
alone, but together with Mena, the daughter of Jupiter) the menses,
for the growth of that which has been conceived; and the obscure
and ignoble Vitumnus confers life, whilst the obscure and ignoble
Sentinus confers sensation;--which two last things are as much more
excellent than the others, as they themselves are excelled by reason
and intellect. For as those things which reason and understand are
preferable to those which, without intellect and reason, as in the
case of cattle, live and feel; so also those things which have
been endowed with life and sensation are deservedly preferred to
those things which neither live nor feel. Therefore Vitumnus the
life-giver,[248] and Sentinus the sense-giver,[249] ought to have
been reckoned among the select gods, rather than Janus the admitter
of seed, and Saturn the giver or sower of seed, and Liber and Libera
the movers and liberators of seed; which seed is not worth a thought,
unless it attain to life and sensation. Yet these select gifts are
not given by select gods, but by certain unknown, and, considering
their dignity, neglected gods. But if it be replied that Janus has
dominion over all beginnings, and therefore the opening of the way
for conception is not without reason assigned to him; and that
Saturn has dominion over all seeds, and therefore the sowing of the
seed whereby a human being is generated cannot be excluded from his
operation; that Liber and Libera have power over the emission of
all seeds, and therefore preside over those seeds which pertain to
the procreation of men; that Juno presides over all purgations and
births, and therefore she has also charge of the purgations of women
and the births of human beings;--if they give this reply, let them
find an answer to the question concerning Vitumnus and Sentinus,
whether they are willing that these likewise should have dominion
over all things which live and feel. If they grant this, let them
observe in how sublime a position they are about to place them. For
to spring from seeds is in the earth and of the earth, but to live
and feel are supposed to be properties even of the sidereal gods.
But if they say that only such things as come to life in flesh, and
are supported by senses, are assigned to Sentinus, why does not that
God who made all things live and feel, bestow on flesh also life
and sensation, in the universality of His operation conferring also
on fœtuses this gift? And what, then, is the use of Vitumnus and
Sentinus? But if these, as it were, extreme and lowest things have
been committed by Him who presides universally over life and sense to
these gods as to servants, are these select gods then so destitute
of servants, that they could not find any to whom even they might
commit those things, but with all their dignity, for which they are,
it seems, deemed worthy to be selected, were compelled to perform
their work along with ignoble ones? Juno is select queen of the gods,
and the sister and wife of Jupiter; nevertheless she is Iterduca,
the conductor, to boys, and performs this work along with a most
ignoble pair--the goddesses Abeona and Adeona. There they have also
placed the goddess Mena, who gives to boys a good mind, and she is
not placed among the select gods; as if anything greater could be
bestowed on a man than a good mind. But Juno is placed among the
select because she is Iterduca and Domiduca (she who conducts one
on a journey, and who conducts him home again); as if it is of any
advantage for one to make a journey, and to be conducted home again,
if his mind is not good. And yet the goddess who bestows that gift
has not been placed by the selectors among the select gods, though
she ought indeed to have been preferred even to Minerva, to whom, in
this minute distribution of work, they have allotted the memory of
boys. For who will doubt that it is a far better thing to have a good
mind, than ever so great a memory? For no one is bad who has a good
mind;[250] but some who are very bad are possessed of an admirable
memory, and are so much the worse, the less they are able to forget
the bad things which they think. And yet Minerva is among the select
gods, whilst the goddess Mena is hidden by a worthless crowd. What
shall I say concerning Virtus? What concerning Felicitas?--concerning
whom I have already spoken much in the fourth book,[251] to whom,
though they held them to be goddesses, they have not thought fit to
assign a place among the select gods, among whom they have given a
place to Mars and Orcus, the one the causer of death, the other the
receiver of the dead.
Since, therefore, we see that even the select gods themselves work
together with the others, like a senate with the people, in all those
minute works which have been minutely portioned out among many gods;
and since we find that far greater and better things are administered
by certain gods who have not been reckoned worthy to be selected
than by those who are called select, it remains that we suppose that
they were called select and chief, not on account of their holding
more exalted offices in the world, but because it happened to them
to become better known to the people. And even Varro himself says,
that in that way obscurity had fallen to the lot of some father
gods and mother goddesses,[252] as it falls to the lot of men. If,
therefore, Felicity ought not perhaps to have been put among the
select gods, because they did not attain to that noble position
by merit, but by chance, Fortune at least should have been placed
among them, or rather before them; for they say that that goddess
distributes to every one the gifts she receives, not according to
any rational arrangement, but according as chance may determine.
She ought to have held the uppermost place among the select gods,
for among them chiefly it is that she shows what power she has. For
we see that they have been selected not on account of some eminent
virtue or rational happiness, but by that random power of Fortune
which the worshippers of these gods think that she exerts. For that
most eloquent man Sallust also may perhaps have the gods themselves
in view when he says: "But, in truth, fortune rules in everything;
it renders all things famous or obscure, according to caprice rather
than according to truth."[253] For they cannot discover a reason
why Venus should have been made famous, whilst Virtus has been
made obscure, when the divinity of both of them has been solemnly
recognised by them, and their merits are not to be compared. Again,
if she has deserved a noble position on account of the fact that she
is much sought after--for there are more who seek after Venus than
after Virtus--why has Minerva been celebrated whilst Pecunia has been
left in obscurity, although throughout the whole human race avarice
allures a far greater number than skill? And even among those who are
skilled in the arts, you will rarely find a man who does not practise
his own art for the purpose of pecuniary gain; and that for the sake
of which anything is made, is always valued more than that which is
made for the sake of something else. If, then, this selection of gods
has been made by the judgment of the foolish multitude, why has not
the goddess Pecunia been preferred to Minerva, since there are many
artificers for the sake of money? But if this distinction has been
made by the few wise, why has Virtus been preferred to Venus, when
reason by far prefers the former? At all events, as I have already
said, Fortune herself--who, according to those who attribute most
influence to her, renders all things famous or obscure according to
caprice rather than according to the truth--since she has been able
to exercise so much power even over the gods, as, according to her
capricious judgment, to render those of them famous whom she would,
and those obscure whom she would; Fortune herself ought to occupy the
place of pre-eminence among the select gods, since over them also she
has such pre-eminent power. Or must we suppose that the reason why
she is not among the select is simply this, that even Fortune herself
has had an adverse fortune? She was adverse, then, to herself, since,
whilst ennobling others, she herself has remained obscure.
4. _The inferior gods, whose names are not associated with infamy,
have been better dealt with than the select gods, whose
infamies are celebrated._
However, any one who eagerly seeks for celebrity and renown, might
congratulate those select gods, and call them fortunate, were it not
that he saw that they have been selected more to their injury than to
their honour. For that low crowd of gods have been protected by their
very meanness and obscurity from being overwhelmed with infamy. We
laugh, indeed, when we see them distributed by the mere fiction of
human opinions, according to the special works assigned to them, like
those who farm small portions of the public revenue, or like workmen
in the street of the silversmiths,[254] where one vessel, in order
that it may go out perfect, passes through the hands of many, when
it might have been finished by one perfect workman. But the only
reason why the combined skill of many workmen was thought necessary,
was, that it is better that each part of an art should be learned by
a special workman, which can be done speedily and easily, than that
they should all be compelled to be perfect in one art throughout all
its parts, which they could only attain slowly and with difficulty.
Nevertheless there is scarcely to be found one of the non-select
gods who has brought infamy on himself by any crime, whilst there
is scarce any one of the select gods who has not received upon
himself the brand of notable infamy. These latter have descended to
the humble works of the others, whilst the others have not come up
to their sublime crimes. Concerning Janus, there does not readily
occur to my recollection anything infamous; and perhaps he was such
an one as lived more innocently than the rest, and further removed
from misdeeds and crimes. He kindly received and entertained Saturn
when he was fleeing; he divided his kingdom with his guest, so that
each of them had a city for himself,[255]--the one Janiculum, and the
other Saturnia. But those seekers after every kind of unseemliness
in the worship of the gods have disgraced him, whose life they found
to be less disgraceful than that of the other gods, with an image
of monstrous deformity, making it sometimes with two faces, and
sometimes, as it were, double, with four faces.[256] Did they wish
that, as the most of the select gods had lost shame[257] through the
perpetration of shameful crimes, his greater innocence should be
marked by a greater number of faces?[258]
5. _Concerning the more secret doctrine of the pagans, and
concerning the physical interpretations._
But let us hear their own physical interpretations by which they
attempt to colour, as with the appearance of profounder doctrine,
the baseness of most miserable error. Varro, in the first place,
commends these interpretations so strongly as to say, that the
ancients invented the images, badges, and adornments of the gods,
in order that when those who went to the mysteries should see them
with their bodily eyes, they might with the eyes of their mind see
the soul of the world, and its parts, that is, the true gods; and
also that the meaning which was intended by those who made their
images with the human form, seemed to be this,--namely, that the mind
of mortals, which is in a human body, is very like to the immortal
mind,[259] just as vessels might be placed to represent the gods,
as, for instance, a wine-vessel might be placed in the temple of
Liber, to signify wine, that which is contained being signified by
that which contains. Thus by an image which had the human form the
rational soul was signified, because the human form is the vessel,
as it were, in which that nature is wont to be contained which they
attribute to God, or to the gods. These are the mysteries of doctrine
to which that most learned man penetrated in order that he might
bring them forth to the light. But, O thou most acute man, hast thou
lost among those mysteries that prudence which led thee to form the
sober opinion, that those who first established those images for the
people took away fear from the citizens and added error, and that
the ancient Romans honoured the gods more chastely without images?
For it was through consideration of them that thou wast emboldened
to speak these things against the later Romans. For if those most
ancient Romans also had worshipped images, perhaps thou wouldst
have suppressed by the silence of fear all those sentiments (true
sentiments, nevertheless) concerning the folly of setting up images,
and wouldst have extolled more loftily, and more loquaciously,
those mysterious doctrines consisting of these vain and pernicious
fictions. Thy soul, so learned and so clever (and for this I grieve
much for thee), could never through these mysteries have reached its
God; that is, the God by whom, not with whom, it was made, of whom
it is not a part, but a work,--that God who is not the soul of all
things, but who made every soul, and in whose light alone every soul
is blessed, if it be not ungrateful for His grace.
But the things which follow in this book will show what is the nature
of these mysteries, and what value is to be set upon them. Meanwhile,
this most learned man confesses as his opinion that the soul of the
world and its parts are the true gods, from which we perceive that
his theology (to wit, that same natural theology to which he pays
great regard) has been able, in its completeness, to extend itself
even to the nature of the rational soul. For in this book (concerning
the select gods) he says a very few things by anticipation concerning
the natural theology; and we shall see whether he has been able in
that book, by means of physical interpretations, to refer to this
natural theology that civil theology, concerning which he wrote last
when treating of the select gods. Now, if he has been able to do
this, the whole is natural; and in that case, what need was there for
distinguishing so carefully the civil from the natural? But if it
has been distinguished by a veritable distinction, then, since not
even this natural theology with which he is so much pleased is true
(for though it has reached as far as the soul, it has not reached
to the true God who made the soul), how much more contemptible and
false is that civil theology which is chiefly occupied about what is
corporeal, as will be shown by its very interpretations, which they
have with such diligence sought out and enucleated, some of which I
must necessarily mention!
6. _Concerning the opinion of Varro, that God is the soul of the
world, which nevertheless, in its various parts, has many souls
whose nature is divine._
The same Varro, then, still speaking by anticipation, says that he
thinks that God is the soul of the world (which the Greeks call
κόσμος), and that this world itself is God; but as a wise man, though
he consists of body and mind, is nevertheless called wise on account
of his mind, so the world is called God on account of mind, although
it consists of mind and body. Here he seems, in some fashion at least,
to acknowledge one God; but that he may introduce more, he adds that
the world is divided into two parts, heaven and earth, which are
again divided each into two parts, heaven into ether and air, earth
into water and land, of all which the ether is the highest, the air
second, the water third, and the earth the lowest. All these four
parts, he says, are full of souls; those which are in the ether and
air being immortal, and those which are in the water and on the earth
mortal. From the highest part of the heavens to the orbit of the moon
there are souls, namely, the stars and planets; and these are not only
understood to be gods, but are seen to be such. And between the orbit
of the moon and the commencement of the region of clouds and winds
there are aerial souls; but these are seen with the mind, not with the
eyes, and are called Heroes, and Lares, and Genii. This is the natural
theology which is briefly set forth in these anticipatory statements,
and which satisfied not Varro only, but many philosophers besides. This
I must discuss more carefully, when, with the help of God, I shall have
completed what I have yet to say concerning the civil theology, as far
as it concerns the select gods.
7. _Whether it is reasonable to separate Janus and Terminus as
two distinct deities._
Who, then, is Janus, with whom Varro commences? He is the world.
Certainly a very brief and unambiguous reply. Why, then, do they
say that the beginnings of things pertain to him, but the ends to
another whom they call Terminus? For they say that two months have
been dedicated to these two gods, with reference to beginnings
and ends--January to Janus, and February to Terminus--over and
above those ten months which commence with March and end with
December. And they say that that is the reason why the Terminalia
are celebrated in the month of February, the same month in which
the sacred purification is made which they call Februum, and from
which the month derives its name.[260] Do the beginnings of things,
therefore, pertain to the world, which is Janus, and not also the
ends, since another god has been placed over them? Do they not
own that all things which they say begin in this world also come
to an end in this world? What folly it is, to give him only half
power in work, when in his image they give him two faces! Would it
not be a far more elegant way of interpreting the two-faced image,
to say that Janus and Terminus are the same, and that the one face
has reference to beginnings, the other to ends? For one who works
ought to have respect to both. For he who in every forthputting of
activity does not look back on the beginning, does not look forward
to the end. Wherefore it is necessary that prospective intention be
connected with retrospective memory. For how shall one find how to
finish anything, if he has forgotten what it was which he had begun?
But if they thought that the blessed life is begun in this world,
and perfected beyond the world, and for that reason attributed to
Janus, that is, to the world, only the power of beginnings, they
should certainly have preferred Terminus to him, and should not have
shut him out from the number of the select gods. Yet even now, when
the beginnings and ends of temporal things are represented by these
two gods, more honour ought to have been given to Terminus. For the
greater joy is that which is felt when anything is finished; but
things begun are always cause of much anxiety until they are brought
to an end, which end he who begins anything very greatly longs for,
fixes his mind on, expects, desires; nor does any one ever rejoice
over anything he has begun, unless it be brought to an end.
8. _For what reason the worshippers of Janus have made his image
with two faces, when they would sometimes have it be seen with
four._
But now let the interpretation of the two-faced image be produced.
For they say that it has two faces, one before and one behind,
because our gaping mouths seem to resemble the world: whence the
Greeks call the palate οὐρανός, and some Latin poets,[261] he says,
have called the heavens palatum [the palate]; and from the gaping
mouth, they say, there is a way out in the direction of the teeth,
and a way in in the direction of the gullet. See what the world has
been brought to on account of a Greek or a poetical word for our
palate! Let this god be worshipped only on account of saliva, which
has two open doorways under the heavens of the palate,--one through
which part of it may be spitten out, the other through which part of
it may be swallowed down. Besides, what is more absurd than not to
find in the world itself two doorways opposite to each other, through
which it may either receive anything into itself, or cast it out from
itself; and to seek of our throat and gullet, to which the world has
no resemblance, to make up an image of the world in Janus, because
the world is said to resemble the _palate_, to which Janus bears no
likeness? But when they make him four-faced, and call him double
Janus, they interpret this as having reference to the four quarters
of the world, as though the world looked out on anything, like Janus
through his four faces. Again, if Janus is the world, and the world
consists of four quarters, then the image of the two-faced Janus
is false. Or if it is true, because the whole world is sometimes
understood by the expression east and west, will any one call the
world double when north and south also are mentioned, as they call
Janus double when he has four faces? They have no way at all of
interpreting, in relation to the world, four doorways by which to go
in and to come out as they did in the case of the two-faced Janus,
where they found, at any rate in the human mouth, something which
answered to what they said about him; unless perhaps Neptune come to
their aid, and hand them a fish, which, besides the mouth and gullet,
has also the openings of the gills, one on each side. Nevertheless,
with all the doors, no soul escapes this vanity but that one which
hears the truth saying, "I am the door."[262]
9. _Concerning the power of Jupiter, and a comparison of Jupiter
with Janus._
But they also show whom they would have Jove (who is also called
Jupiter) understood to be. He is the god, say they, who has the power
of the causes by which anything comes to be in the world. And how
great a thing this is, that most noble verse of Virgil testifies:
"Happy is he who has learned the causes of things."[263]
But why is Janus preferred to him? Let that most acute and most
learned man answer us this question. "Because," says he, "Janus
has dominion over first things, Jupiter over highest[264] things.
Therefore Jupiter is deservedly held to be the king of all things;
for highest things are better than first things: for although first
things precede in time, highest things excel by dignity."
Now this would have been rightly said had the first parts of things
which are done been distinguished from the highest parts; as, for
instance, it is the beginning of a thing done to set out, the highest
part to arrive. The commencing to learn is the first part of a thing
begun, the acquirement of knowledge is the highest part. And so of
all things: the beginnings are first, the ends highest. This matter,
however, has been already discussed in connection with Janus and
Terminus. But the causes which are attributed to Jupiter are things
effecting, not things effected; and it is impossible for them to
be prevented in time by things which are made or done, or by the
beginnings of such things; for the thing which makes is always prior
to the thing which is made. Therefore, though the beginnings of
things which are made or done pertain to Janus, they are nevertheless
not prior to the efficient causes which they attribute to Jupiter.
For as nothing takes place without being preceded by an efficient
cause, so without an efficient cause nothing begins to take place.
Verily, if the people call this god Jupiter, in whose power are all
the causes of all natures which have been made, and of all natural
things, and worship him with such insults and infamous criminations,
they are guilty of more shocking sacrilege than if they should
totally deny the existence of any god. It would therefore be better
for them to call some other god by the name of Jupiter--some one
worthy of base and criminal honours; substituting instead of Jupiter
some vain fiction (as Saturn is said to have had a stone given to him
to devour instead of his son), which they might make the subject of
their blasphemies, rather than speak of _that_ god as both thundering
and committing adultery,--ruling the whole world, and laying himself
out for the commission of so many licentious acts,--having in his
power nature and the highest causes of all natural things, but not
having his own causes good.
Next, I ask what place they find any longer for this Jupiter among
the gods, if Janus is the world; for Varro defined the true gods to
be the soul of the world, and the parts of it. And therefore whatever
falls not within this definition, is certainly not a true god,
according to them. Will they then say that Jupiter is the soul of
the world, and Janus the body--that is, this visible world? If they
say this, it will not be possible for them to affirm that Janus is
a god. For even, according to them, the body of the world is not a
god, but the soul of the world and its parts. Wherefore Varro, seeing
this, says that he thinks God is the soul of the world, and that
this world itself is God; but that as a wise man, though he consists
of soul and body, is nevertheless called wise from the soul, so the
world is called God from the soul, though it consists of soul and
body. Therefore the body of the world alone is not God, but either
the soul of it alone, or the soul and the body together, yet so as
that it is God not by virtue of the body, but by virtue of the soul.
If, therefore, Janus is the world, and Janus is a god, will they say,
in order that Jupiter may be a god, that he is some part of Janus?
For they are wont rather to attribute universal existence to Jupiter;
whence the saying, "All things are full of Jupiter."[265] Therefore
they must think Jupiter also, in order that he may be a god, and
especially king of the gods, to be the world, that he may rule over
the other gods--according to them, his parts. To this effect, also,
the same Varro expounds certain verses of Valerius Soranus[266] in
that book which he wrote apart from the others concerning the worship
of the gods. These are the verses:
"Almighty Jove, progenitor of kings, and things, and gods,
And eke the mother of the gods, god one and all."
But in the same book he expounds these verses by saying that as the
male emits seed, and the female receives it, so Jupiter, whom they
believed to be the world, both emits all seeds from himself and
receives them into himself. For which reason, he says, Soranus wrote,
"Jove, progenitor and mother;" and with no less reason said that one
and all were the same. For the world is one, and in that one are all
things.
10. _Whether the distinction between Janus and Jupiter is a proper
one._
Since, therefore, Janus is the world, and Jupiter is the world,
wherefore are Janus and Jupiter two gods, while the world is but one?
Why do they have separate temples, separate altars, different rites,
dissimilar images? If it be because the nature of beginnings is one,
and the nature of causes another, and the one has received the name
of Janus, the other of Jupiter; is it then the case, that if one man
has two distinct offices of authority, or two arts, two judges or two
artificers are spoken of, because the nature of the offices or the
arts is different? So also with respect to one god: if he have the
power of beginnings and of causes, must he therefore be thought to be
two gods, because beginnings and causes are two things? But if they
think that this is right, let them also affirm that Jupiter is as
many gods as they have given him surnames, on account of many powers;
for the things from which these surnames are applied to him are many
and diverse. I shall mention a few of them.
11. _Concerning the surnames of Jupiter, which are referred not to
many gods, but to one and the same god._
They have called him Victor, Invictus, Opitulus, Impulsor, Stator,
Centumpeda, Supinalis, Tigillus, Almus, Ruminus, and other names
which it were long to enumerate. But these surnames they have given
to one god on account of diverse causes and powers, but yet have not
compelled him to be, on account of so many things, as many gods. They
gave him these surnames because he conquered all things; because he
was conquered by none; because he brought help to the needy; because
he had the power of impelling, stopping, stablishing, throwing on
the back; because as a beam[267] he held together and sustained the
world; because he nourished all things; because, like the pap,[268]
he nourished animals. Here, we perceive, are some great things and
some small things; and yet it is one who is said to perform them
all. I think that the causes and the beginnings of things, on account
of which they have thought that the one world is two gods, Jupiter
and Janus, are nearer to each other than the holding together of the
world, and the giving of the pap to animals; and yet, on account
of these two works so far apart from each other, both in nature
and dignity, there has not been any necessity for the existence of
two gods; but one Jupiter has been called, on account of the one
Tigillus, on account of the other Ruminus. I am unwilling to say
that the giving of the pap to sucking animals might have become Juno
rather than Jupiter, especially when there was the goddess Rumina to
help and to serve her in this work; for I think it may be replied
that Juno herself is nothing else than Jupiter, according to those
verses of Valerius Soranus, where it has been said:
"Almighty Jove, progenitor of kings, and things, and gods,
And eke the mother of the gods," etc.
Why, then, was he called Ruminus, when they who may perchance inquire
more diligently may find that he is also that goddess Rumina?
If, then, it was rightly thought unworthy of the majesty of the gods,
that in one ear of corn one god should have the care of the joint,
another that of the husk, how much more unworthy of that majesty is
it, that one thing, and that of the lowest kind, even the giving of
the pap to animals that they may be nourished, should be under the
care of two gods, one of whom is Jupiter himself, the very king of
all things, who does this not along with his own wife, but with some
ignoble Rumina (unless perhaps he himself is Rumina, being Ruminus
for males and Rumina for females)! I should certainly have said that
they had been unwilling to apply to Jupiter a feminine name, had he
not been styled in these verses "progenitor and mother," and had I
not read among other surnames of his that of Pecunia [money], which
we found as a goddess among those petty deities, as I have already
mentioned in the fourth book. But since both males and females have
money [_pecuniam_], why has he not been called both Pecunius and
Pecunia? That is their concern.
12. _That Jupiter is also called Pecunia._
How elegantly they have accounted for this name! "He is also called
Pecunia," say they, "because all things belong to him." Oh how grand an
explanation of the name of a deity! Yes; he to whom all things belong
is most meanly and most contumeliously called Pecunia. In comparison of
all things which are contained by heaven and earth, what are all things
together which are possessed by men under the name of money?[269] And
this name, forsooth, hath avarice given to Jupiter, that whoever was a
lover of money might seem to himself to love not an ordinary god, but
the very king of all things himself. But it would be a far different
thing if he had been called Riches. For riches are one thing, money
another. For we call rich the wise, the just, the good, who have either
no money or very little. For they are more truly rich in possessing
virtue, since by it, even as respects things necessary for the body,
they are content with what they have. But we call the greedy poor,
who are always craving and always wanting. For they may possess ever
so great an amount of money; but whatever be the abundance of that,
they are not able but to want. And we properly call God Himself rich;
not, however, in money, but in omnipotence. Therefore they who have
abundance of money are called rich, but inwardly needy if they are
greedy. So also, those who have no money are called poor, but inwardly
rich if they are wise.
What, then, ought the wise man to think of this theology, in which
the king of the gods receives the name of that thing "which no wise
man has desired?"[270] For had there been anything wholesomely
taught by this philosophy concerning eternal life, how much more
appropriately would that god who is the ruler of the world have been
called by them, not money, but wisdom, the love of which purges from
the filth of avarice, that is, of the love of money!
13. _That when it is expounded what Saturn is, what Genius is, it
comes to this, that both of them are shown to be Jupiter._
But why speak more of this Jupiter, with whom perchance all the
rest are to be identified; so that, he being all, the opinion as to
the existence of many gods may remain as a mere opinion, empty of
all truth? And they are all to be referred to him, if his various
parts and powers are thought of as so many gods, or if the principle
of mind which they think to be diffused through all things has
received the names of many gods from the various parts which the
mass of this visible world combines in itself, and from the manifold
administration of nature. For what is Saturn also? "One of the
principal gods," he says, "who has dominion over all sowings." Does
not the exposition of the verses of Valerius Soranus teach that
Jupiter is the world, and that he emits all seeds from himself, and
receives them into himself?
It is he, then, with whom is the dominion of all sowings. What
is Genius? "He is the god who is set over, and has the power of
begetting, all things." Who else than the world do they believe to
have this power, to which it has been said:
"Almighty Jove, progenitor and mother?"
And when in another place he says that Genius is the rational soul of
every one, and therefore exists separately in each individual, but
that the corresponding soul of the world is God, he just comes back
to this same thing,--namely, that the soul of the world itself is to
be held to be, as it were, the universal genius. This, therefore, is
what he calls Jupiter. For if every genius is a god, and the soul
of every man a genius, it follows that the soul of every man is a
god. But if very absurdity compels even these theologists themselves
to shrink from this, it remains that they call that genius god by
special and pre-eminent distinction, whom they call the soul of the
world, and therefore Jupiter.
14. _Concerning the offices of Mercury and Mars._
But they have not found how to refer Mercury and Mars to any parts
of the world, and to the works of God which are in the elements;
and therefore they have set them at least over human works, making
them assistants in speaking and in carrying on wars. Now Mercury,
if he has also the power of the speech of the gods, rules also over
the king of the gods himself, if Jupiter, as he receives from him
the faculty of speech, also speaks according as it is his pleasure
to permit him--which surely is absurd; but if it is only the power
over human speech which is held to be attributed to him, then we say
it is incredible that Jupiter should have condescended to give the
pap not only to children, but also to beasts--from which he has been
surnamed Ruminus--and yet should have been unwilling that the care of
our speech, by which we excel the beasts, should pertain to him. And
thus speech itself both belongs to Jupiter, and is Mercury. But if
speech itself is said to be Mercury, as those things which are said
concerning him by way of interpretation show it to be;--for he is
said to have been called Mercury, that is, he who runs between,[271]
because speech runs between men: they say also that the Greeks call
him Ἑρμῆς, because speech, or interpretation, which certainly belongs
to speech, is called by them ἑρμηνεία: also he is said to preside
over payments, because speech passes between sellers and buyers:
the wings, too, which he has on his head and on his feet, they say,
mean that speech passes winged through the air: he is also said to
have been called the messenger,[272] because by means of speech all
our thoughts are expressed;[273]--if, therefore, speech itself is
Mercury, then, even by their own confession, he is not a god. But
when they make to themselves gods of such as are not even demons, by
praying to unclean spirits, they are possessed by such as are not
gods, but demons. In like manner, because they have not been able
to find for Mars any element or part of the world in which he might
perform some works of nature of whatever kind, they have said that he
is the god of war, which is a work of men, and that not one which is
considered desirable by them. If, therefore, Felicitas should give
perpetual peace, Mars would have nothing to do. But if war itself is
Mars, as speech is Mercury, I wish it were as true that there were no
war to be falsely called a god, as it is true that it is not a god.
15. _Concerning certain stars which the pagans have called by the
names of their gods._
But possibly these stars which have been called by their names are
these gods. For they call a certain star Mercury, and likewise a
certain other star Mars. But among those stars which are called by the
names of gods, is that one which they call Jupiter, and yet with them
Jupiter is the world. There also is that one they call Saturn, and yet
they give to him no small property besides,--namely, all seeds. There
also is that brightest of them all which is called by them Venus,
and yet they will have this same Venus to be also the moon:--not to
mention how Venus and Juno are said by them to contend about that most
brilliant star, as though about another golden apple. For some say
that Lucifer belongs to Venus, and some to Juno. But, as usual, Venus
conquers. For by far the greatest number assign that star to Venus, so
much so that there is scarcely found one of them who thinks otherwise.
But since they call Jupiter the king of all, who will not laugh to see
his star so far surpassed in brilliancy by the star of Venus? For it
ought to have been as much more brilliant than the rest, as he himself
is more powerful. They answer that it only appears so because it is
higher up, and very much farther away from the earth. If, therefore,
its greater dignity has deserved a higher place, why is Saturn higher
in the heavens than Jupiter? Was the vanity of the fable which made
Jupiter king not able to reach the stars? And has Saturn been permitted
to obtain at least in the heavens, what he could not obtain in his own
kingdom nor in the Capitol?
But why has Janus received no star? If it is because he is the world,
and they are all in him, the world is also Jupiter's, and yet he has
one. Did Janus compromise his case as best he could, and instead of
the one star which he does not have among the heavenly bodies, accept
so many faces on earth? Again, if they think that on account of the
stars alone Mercury and Mars are parts of the world, in order that
they may be able to have them for gods, since speech and war are not
parts of the world, but acts of men, how is it that they have made
no altars, established no rites, built no temples for Aries, and
Taurus, and Cancer, and Scorpio, and the rest which they number as
the celestial signs, and which consist not of single stars, but each
of them of many stars, which also they say are situated above those
already mentioned in the highest part of the heavens, where a more
constant motion causes the stars to follow an undeviating course? And
why have they not reckoned them as gods, I do not say among those
select gods, but not even among those, as it were, plebeian gods?
16. _Concerning Apollo and Diana, and the other select gods whom
they would have to be parts of the world._
Although they would have Apollo to be a diviner and physician, they
have nevertheless given him a place as some part of the world. They
have said that he is also the sun; and likewise they have said that
Diana, his sister, is the moon, and the guardian of roads. Whence
also they will have her be a virgin, because a road brings forth
nothing. They also make both of them have arrows, because those two
planets send their rays from the heavens to the earth. They make
Vulcan to be the fire of the world; Neptune the waters of the world;
Father Dis, that is, Orcus, the earthy and lowest part of the world.
Liber and Ceres they set over seeds,--the former over the seeds of
males, the latter over the seeds of females; or the one over the
fluid part of seed, but the other over the dry part. And all this
together is referred to the world, that is, to Jupiter, who is called
"progenitor and mother," because he emitted all seeds from himself,
and received them into himself. For they also make this same Ceres
to be the Great Mother, who they say is none other than the earth,
and call her also Juno. And therefore they assign to her the second
causes of things, notwithstanding that it has been said to Jupiter,
"progenitor and mother of the gods;" because, according to them, the
whole world itself is Jupiter's. Minerva, also, because they set
her over human arts, and did not find even a star in which to place
her, has been said by them to be either the highest æther, or even
the moon. Also Vesta herself they have thought to be the highest of
the goddesses, because she is the earth; although they have thought
that the milder fire of the world, which is used for the ordinary
purposes of human life, not the more violent fire, such as belongs to
Vulcan, is to be assigned to her. And thus they will have all those
select gods to be the world and its parts,--some of them the whole
world, others of them its parts; the whole of it Jupiter,--its parts,
Genius, Mater Magna, Sol and Luna, or rather Apollo and Diana, and so
on. And sometimes they make one god many things; sometimes one thing
many gods. Many things are one god in the case of Jupiter; for both
the whole world is Jupiter, and the sky alone is Jupiter, and the
star alone is said and held to be Jupiter. Juno also is mistress of
second causes,--Juno is the air, Juno is the earth; and had she won
it over Venus, Juno would have been the star. Likewise Minerva is the
highest æther, and Minerva is likewise the moon, which they suppose
to be in the lowest limit of the æther. And also they make one thing
many gods in this way. The world is both Janus and Jupiter; also the
earth is Juno, and Mater Magna, and Ceres.
17. _That even Varro himself pronounced his own opinions regarding
the gods ambiguous._
And the same is true with respect to all the rest, as is true with
respect to those things which I have mentioned for the sake of
example. They do not explain them, but rather involve them. They
rush hither and thither, to this side or to that, according as they
are driven by the impulse of erratic opinion; so that even Varro
himself has chosen rather to doubt concerning all things, than to
affirm anything. For, having written the first of the three last
books concerning the certain gods, and having commenced in the second
of these to speak of the uncertain gods, he says: "I ought not to
be censured for having stated in this book the doubtful opinions
concerning the gods. For he who, when he has read them, shall
think that they both ought to be, and can be, conclusively judged
of, will do so himself. For my own part, I can be more easily led
to doubt the things which I have written in the first book, than
to attempt to reduce all the things I shall write in this one to
any orderly system." Thus he makes uncertain not only that book,
concerning the uncertain gods, but also that other concerning the
certain gods. Moreover, in that third book concerning the select
gods, after having exhibited by anticipation as much of the natural
theology as he deemed necessary, and when about to commence to
speak of the vanities and lying insanities of the civil theology,
where he was not only without the guidance of the truth of things,
but was also pressed by the authority of tradition, he says: "I
will write in this book concerning the public gods of the Roman
people, to whom they have dedicated temples, and whom they have
conspicuously distinguished by many adornments; but, as Xenophon of
Colophon writes, I will state what I think, not what I am prepared to
maintain: it is for man to think those things, for God to know them."
It is not, then, an account of things comprehended and most certainly
believed which he promised, when about to write those things which
were instituted by men. He only timidly promises an account of things
which are but the subject of doubtful opinion. Nor, indeed, was it
possible for him to affirm with the same certainty that Janus was the
world, and such like things; or to discover with the same certainty
such things as how Jupiter was the son of Saturn, while Saturn was
made subject to him as king:--he could, I say, neither affirm nor
discover such things with the same certainty with which he knew such
things as that the world existed, that the heavens and earth existed,
the heavens bright with stars, and the earth fertile through seeds;
or with the same perfect conviction with which he believed that this
universal mass of nature is governed and administered by a certain
invisible and mighty force.
18. _A more credible cause of the rise of pagan error._
A far more credible account of these gods is given, when it is said
that they were men, and that to each one of them sacred rites and
solemnities were instituted, according to his particular genius,
manners, actions, circumstances; which rites and solemnities, by
gradually creeping through the souls of men, which are like demons,
and eager for things which yield them sport, were spread far and
wide; the poets adorning them with lies, and false spirits seducing
men to receive them. For it is far more likely that some youth,
either impious himself, or afraid of being slain by an impious
father, being desirous to reign, dethroned his father, than that
(according to Varro's interpretation) Saturn was overthrown by his
son Jupiter; for cause, which belongs to Jupiter, is before seed,
which belongs to Saturn. For had this been so, Saturn would never
have been before Jupiter, nor would he have been the father of
Jupiter. For cause always precedes seed, and is never generated from
seed. But when they seek to honour by natural interpretation most
vain fables or deeds of men, even the acutest men are so perplexed
that we are compelled to grieve for their folly also.
19. _Concerning the interpretations which compose the reason of
the worship of Saturn._
They said, says Varro, that Saturn was wont to devour all that
sprang from him, because seeds returned to the earth from whence
they sprang. And when it is said that a lump of earth was put before
Saturn to be devoured instead of Jupiter, it is signified, he says,
that before the art of ploughing was discovered, seeds were buried in
the earth by the hands of men. The earth itself, then, and not seeds,
should have been called Saturn, because it in a manner devours what
it has brought forth, when the seeds which have sprung from it return
again into it. And what has Saturn's receiving of a lump of earth
instead of Jupiter to do with this, that the seeds were covered in
the soil by the hands of men? Was the seed kept from being devoured,
like other things, by being covered with the soil? For what they
say would imply that he who put on the soil took away the seed, as
Jupiter is said to have been taken away when the lump of soil was
offered to Saturn instead of him, and not rather that the soil, by
covering the seed, only caused it to be devoured the more eagerly.
Then, in that way, Jupiter is the seed, and not the cause of the
seed, as was said a little before.
But what shall men do who cannot find anything wise to say, because
they are interpreting foolish things? Saturn has a pruning-knife. That,
says Varro, is on account of agriculture. Certainly in Saturn's reign
there as yet existed no agriculture, and therefore the former times
of Saturn are spoken of, because, as the same Varro interprets the
fables, the primeval men lived on those seeds which the earth produced
spontaneously. Perhaps he received a pruning-knife when he had lost
his sceptre; that he who had been a king, and lived at ease during
the first part of his time, should become a laborious workman whilst
his son occupied the throne. Then he says that boys were wont to be
immolated to him by certain peoples, the Carthaginians for instance;
and also that adults were immolated by some nations, for example the
Gauls--because, of all seeds, the human race is the best. What need
we say more concerning this most cruel vanity? Let us rather attend
to and hold by this, that these interpretations are not carried up to
the true God,--a living, incorporeal, unchangeable nature, from whom a
blessed life enduring for ever may be obtained,--but that they end in
things which are corporeal, temporal, mutable, and mortal. And whereas
it is said in the fables that Saturn castrated his father Cœlus, this
signifies, says Varro, that the divine seed belongs to Saturn, and
not to Cœlus; for this reason, as far as a reason can be discovered,
namely, that in heaven[274] nothing is born from seed. But, lo! Saturn,
if he is the son of Cœlus, is the son of Jupiter. For they affirm
times without number, and that emphatically, that the heavens[275] are
Jupiter. Thus those things which come not of the truth, do very often,
without being impelled by any one, themselves overthrow one another. He
says that Saturn was called Κρόνος, which in the Greek tongue signifies
a space of time,[276] because, without that, seed cannot be productive.
These and many other things are said concerning Saturn, and they are
all referred to seed. But Saturn surely, with all that great power,
might have sufficed for seed. Why are other gods demanded for it,
especially Liber and Libera, that is, Ceres?--concerning whom again,
as far as seed is concerned, he says as many things as if he had said
nothing concerning Saturn.
20. _Concerning the rites of Eleusinian Ceres_.
Now among the rites of Ceres, those Eleusinian rites are much famed
which were in the highest repute among the Athenians, of which Varro
offers no interpretation except with respect to corn, which Ceres
discovered, and with respect to Proserpine, whom Ceres lost, Orcus
having carried her away. And this Proserpine herself, he says,
signifies the fecundity of seeds. But as this fecundity departed at
a certain season, whilst the earth wore an aspect of sorrow through
the consequent sterility, there arose an opinion that the daughter
of Ceres, that is, fecundity itself, who was called Proserpine, from
_proserpere_ (to creep forth, to spring), had been carried away by
Orcus, and detained among the inhabitants of the nether world; which
circumstance was celebrated with public mourning. But since the same
fecundity again returned, there arose joy because Proserpine had been
given back by Orcus, and thus these rites were instituted. Then Varro
adds, that many things are taught in the mysteries of Ceres which
only refer to the discovery of fruits.
21. _Concerning the shamefulness of the rites which are celebrated
in honour of Liber_.
Now as to the rites of Liber, whom they have set over liquid seeds,
and therefore not only over the liquors of fruits, among which
wine holds, so to speak, the primacy, but also over the seeds of
animals:--as to these rites, I am unwilling to undertake to show
to what excess of turpitude they had reached, because that would
entail a lengthened discourse, though I am not unwilling to do so
as a demonstration of the proud stupidity of those who practise
them. Among other rites which I am compelled from the greatness
of their number to omit, Varro says that in Italy, at the places
where roads crossed each other, the rites of Liber were celebrated
with such unrestrained turpitude, that the private parts of a man
were worshipped in his honour. Nor was this abomination transacted
in secret, that some regard at least might be paid to modesty,
but was openly and wantonly displayed. For during the festival of
Liber, this obscene member, placed on a car, was carried with great
honour, first over the cross-roads in the country, and then into
the city. But in the town of Lavinium a whole month was devoted to
Liber alone, during the days of which all the people gave themselves
up to the most dissolute conversation, until that member had been
carried through the forum and brought to rest in its own place; on
which unseemly member it was necessary that the most honourable
matron should place a wreath in the presence of all the people. Thus,
forsooth, was the god Liber to be appeased in order to the growth of
seeds. Thus was enchantment to be driven away from fields, even by a
matron's being compelled to do in public what not even a harlot ought
to be permitted to do in a theatre, if there were matrons among the
spectators. For these reasons, then, Saturn alone was not believed
to be sufficient for seeds,--namely, that the impure mind might find
occasions for multiplying the gods; and that, being righteously
abandoned to uncleanness by the one true God, and being prostituted
to the worship of many false gods, through an avidity for ever
greater and greater uncleanness, it should call these sacrilegious
rites sacred things, and should abandon itself to be violated and
polluted by crowds of foul demons.
22. _Concerning Neptune, and Salacia, and Venilia_.
Now Neptune had Salacia to wife, who they say is the nether waters of
the sea. Wherefore was Venilia also joined to him? Was it not simply
through the lust of the soul desiring a greater number of demons to
whom to prostitute itself, and not because this goddess was necessary
to the perfection of their sacred rites? But let the interpretation
of this illustrious theology be brought forward to restrain us from
this censuring by rendering a satisfactory reason. Venilia, says
this theology, is the wave which comes to the shore, Salacia the
wave which returns into the sea. Why, then, are there two goddesses,
when it is one wave which comes and returns? Certainly it is mad
lust itself, which in its eagerness for many deities resembles the
waves which break on the shore. For though the water which goes is
not different from that which returns, still the soul which goes and
returns not is defiled by two demons, whom it has taken occasion by
this false pretext to invite. I ask thee, O Varro, and you who have
read such works of learned men, and think ye have learned something
great,--I ask you to interpret this, I do not say in a manner
consistent with the eternal and unchangeable nature which alone is
God, but only in a manner consistent with the doctrine concerning the
soul of the world and its parts, which ye think to be the true gods.
It is a somewhat more tolerable thing that ye have made that part of
the soul of the world which pervades the sea your god Neptune. Is
the wave, then, which comes to the shore and returns to the main,
two parts of the world, or two parts of the soul of the world? Who
of you is so silly as to think so? Why, then, have they made to you
two goddesses? The only reason seems to be, that your wise ancestors
have provided, not that many gods should rule you, but that many
of such demons as are delighted with those vanities and falsehoods
should possess you. But why has that Salacia, according to this
interpretation, lost the lower part of the sea, seeing that she was
represented as subject to her husband? For in saying that she is the
receding wave, ye have put her on the surface. Was she enraged at her
husband for taking Venilia as a concubine, and thus drove him from
the upper part of the sea?
23. _Concerning the earth, which Varro affirms to be a goddess,
because that soul of the world which he thinks to be God
pervades also this lowest part of his body, and imparts to it a
divine force._
Surely the earth, which we see full of its own living creatures, is
one; but for all that, it is but a mighty mass among the elements,
and the lowest part of the world. Why, then, would they have it to
be a goddess? Is it because it is fruitful? Why, then, are not men
rather held to be gods, who render it fruitful by cultivating it;
but though they plough it, do not adore it? But, say they, the part
of the soul of the world which pervades it makes it a goddess. As
if it were not a far more evident thing, nay, a thing which is not
called in question, that there is a soul in man. And yet men are not
held to be gods, but (a thing to be sadly lamented), with wonderful
and pitiful delusion, are subjected to those who are not gods, and
than whom they themselves are better, as the objects of deserved
worship and adoration. And certainly the same Varro, in the book
concerning the select gods, affirms that there are three grades of
soul in universal nature. One which pervades all the living parts of
the body, and has not sensation, but only the power of life,--that
principle which penetrates into the bones, nails, and hair. By this
principle in the world trees are nourished, and grow without being
possessed of sensation, and live in a manner peculiar to themselves.
The second grade of soul is that in which there is sensation. This
principle penetrates into the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and the
organs of sensation. The third grade of soul is the highest, and is
called mind, where intelligence has its throne. This grade of soul no
mortal creatures except man are possessed of. Now this part of the
soul of the world, Varro says, is called God, and in us is called
Genius. And the stones and earth in the world, which we see, and
which are not pervaded by the power of sensation, are, as it were,
the bones and nails of God. Again, the sun, moon, and stars, which we
perceive, and by which He perceives, are His organs of perception.
Moreover, the ether is His mind; and by the virtue which is in it,
which penetrates into the stars, it also makes them gods; and because
it penetrates through them into the earth, it makes it the goddess
Tellus, whence again it enters and permeates the sea and ocean,
making them the god Neptune.
Let him return from this, which he thinks to be natural theology,
back to that from which he went out, in order to rest from the
fatigue occasioned by the many turnings and windings of his path.
Let him return, I say, let him return to the civil theology. I wish
to detain him there a while. I have somewhat to say which has to do
with that theology. I am not yet saying, that if the earth and stones
are similar to our bones and nails, they are in like manner devoid
of intelligence, as they are devoid of sensation. Nor am I saying
that, if our bones and nails are said to have intelligence, because
they are in a man who has intelligence, he who says that the things
analogous to these in the world are gods, is as stupid as he is who
says that our bones and nails are men. We shall perhaps have occasion
to dispute these things with the philosophers. At present, however, I
wish to deal with Varro as a political theologian. For it is possible
that, though he may seem to have wished to lift up his head, as it
were, into the liberty of natural theology, the consciousness that
the book with which he was occupied was one concerning a subject
belonging to civil theology, may have caused him to relapse into the
point of view of that theology, and to say this in order that the
ancestors of his nation, and other states, might not be believed to
have bestowed on Neptune an irrational worship. What I am to say is
this: Since the earth is one, why has not that part of the soul of
the world which permeates the earth made it that one goddess which he
calls Tellus? But had it done so, what then had become of Orcus, the
brother of Jupiter and Neptune, whom they call Father Dis?[277] And
where, in that case, had been his wife Proserpine, who, according to
another opinion given in the same book, is called, not the fecundity
of the earth, but its lower part?[278] But if they say that part of
the soul of the world, when it permeates the upper part of the earth,
makes the god Father Dis, but when it pervades the nether part of the
same the goddess Proserpine; what, in that case, will that Tellus be?
For all that which she was has been divided into these two parts,
and these two gods; so that it is impossible to find what to make or
where to place her as a third goddess, except it be said that those
divinities Orcus and Proserpine are the one goddess Tellus, and that
they are not three gods, but one or two, whilst notwithstanding they
are called three, held to be three, worshipped as three, having
their own several altars, their own shrines, rites, images, priests,
whilst their own false demons also through these things defile the
prostituted soul. Let this further question be answered: What part of
the earth does a part of the soul of the world permeate in order to
make the god Tellumo? No, says he; but the earth being one and the
same, has a double life,--the masculine, which produces seed, and
the feminine, which receives and nourishes the seed. Hence it has
been called Tellus from the feminine principle, and Tellumo from the
masculine. Why, then, do the priests, as he indicates, perform divine
service to four gods, two others being added,--namely, to Tellus,
Tellumo, Altor, and Rusor? We have already spoken concerning Tellus
and Tellumo. But why do they worship Altor?[279] Because, says he,
all that springs of the earth is nourished by the earth. Wherefore do
they worship Rusor?[280] Because all things return back again to the
place whence they proceeded.
24. _Concerning the surnames of Tellus and their significations,
which, although they indicate many properties, ought not to have
established the opinion that there is a corresponding number of
gods._
The one earth, then, on account of this fourfold virtue, ought to
have had four surnames, but not to have been considered as four
gods,--as Jupiter and Juno, though they have so many surnames, are
for all that only single deities,--for by all these surnames it
is signified that a manifold virtue belongs to one god or to one
goddess; but the multitude of surnames does not imply a multitude of
gods. But as sometimes even the vilest women themselves grow tired of
those crowds which they have sought after under the impulse of wicked
passion, so also the soul, become vile, and prostituted to impure
spirits, sometimes begins to loathe to multiply to itself gods to
whom to surrender itself to be polluted by them, as much as it once
delighted in so doing. For Varro himself, as if ashamed of that crowd
of gods, would make Tellus to be one goddess. "They say," says he,
"that whereas the one great mother has a tympanum, it is signified
that she is the orb of the earth; whereas she has towers on her head,
towns are signified; and whereas seats are fixed round about her, it
is signified that whilst all things move, she moves not. And their
having made the Galli to serve this goddess, signifies that they
who are in need of seed ought to follow the earth, for in it all
seeds are found. By their throwing themselves down before her, it is
taught," he says, "that they who cultivate the earth should not sit
idle, for there is always something for them to do. The sound of the
cymbals signifies the noise made by the throwing of iron utensils,
and by men's hands, and all other noises connected with agricultural
operations; and these cymbals are of brass, because the ancients used
brazen utensils in their agriculture before iron was discovered.
They place beside the goddess an unbound and tame lion, to show that
there is no kind of land so wild and so excessively barren as that it
would be profitless to attempt to bring it in and cultivate it." Then
he adds that, because they gave many names and surnames to mother
Tellus, it came to be thought that these signified many gods. "They
think," says he, "that Tellus is Ops, because the earth is improved
by labour; Mother, because it brings forth much; Great, because it
brings forth seed; Proserpine, because fruits creep forth from it;
Vesta, because it is invested with herbs. And thus," says he, "they
not at all absurdly identify other goddesses with the earth." If,
then, it is one goddess (though, if the truth were consulted, it is
not even that), why do they nevertheless separate it into many? Let
there be many names of one goddess, and let there not be as many
goddesses as there are names.
But the authority of the erring ancients weighs heavily on Varro, and
compels him, after having expressed this opinion, to show signs of
uneasiness; for he immediately adds, "With which things the opinion
of the ancients, who thought that there were really many goddesses,
does not conflict." How does it not conflict, when it is entirely a
different thing to say that one goddess has many names, and to say
that there are many goddesses? But it is possible, he says, that the
same thing may both be one, and yet have in it a plurality of things.
I grant that there are many things in one man; are there therefore in
him many men? In like manner, in one goddess there are many things;
are there therefore also many goddesses? But let them divide, unite,
multiply, reduplicate, and implicate as they like.
These are the famous mysteries of Tellus and the Great Mother, all of
which are shown to have reference to mortal seeds and to agriculture.
Do these things, then,--namely, the tympanum, the towers, the
Galli, the tossing to and fro of limbs, the noise of cymbals, the
images of lions,--do these things, having this reference and this
end, promise eternal life? Do the mutilated Galli, then, serve this
Great Mother in order to signify that they who are in need of seed
should follow the earth, as though it were not rather the case that
this very service caused them to want seed? For whether do they, by
following this goddess, acquire seed, being in want of it, or, by
following her, lose seed when they have it? Is this to interpret or
to deprecate? Nor is it considered to what a degree malign demons
have gained the upper hand, inasmuch as they have been able to exact
such cruel rites without having dared to promise any great things
in return for them. Had the earth not been a goddess, men would
have, by labouring, laid their hands on _it_ in order to obtain seed
through it, and would not have laid violent hands on themselves in
order to lose seed on account of it. Had it not been a goddess, it
would have become so fertile by the hands of others, that it would
not have compelled a man to be rendered barren by his own hands;
nor that in the festival of Liber an honourable matron put a wreath
on the private parts of a man in the sight of the multitude, where
perhaps her husband was standing by blushing and perspiring, if there
is any shame left in men; and that in the celebration of marriages
the newly-married bride was ordered to sit upon Priapus. These things
are bad enough, but they are small and contemptible in comparison
with that most cruel abomination, or most abominable cruelty, by
which either set is so deluded that neither perishes of its wound.
There the enchantment of fields is feared; here the amputation of
members is not feared. There the modesty of the bride is outraged,
but in such a manner as that neither her fruitfulness nor even her
virginity is taken away; here a man is so mutilated that he is
neither changed into a woman nor remains a man.
25. _The interpretation of the mutilation of Atys which the
doctrine of the Greek sages set forth._
Varro has not spoken of that Atys, nor sought out any interpretation
for him, in memory of whose being loved by Ceres the Gallus is
mutilated. But the learned and wise Greeks have by no means been silent
about an interpretation so holy and so illustrious. The celebrated
philosopher Porphyry has said that Atys signifies the flowers of
spring, which is the most beautiful season, and therefore was mutilated
because the flower falls before the fruit appears.[281] They have not,
then, compared the man himself, or rather that semblance of a man they
called Atys, to the flower, but his male organs,--these, indeed, fell
whilst he was living. Did I say fell? nay, truly they did not fall, nor
were they plucked off, but torn away. Nor when that flower was lost
did any fruit follow, but rather sterility. What, then, do they say is
signified by the castrated Atys himself, and whatever remained to him
after his castration? To what do they refer that? What interpretation
does that give rise to? Do they, after vain endeavours to discover
an interpretation, seek to persuade men that that is rather to be
believed which report has made public, and which has also been written
concerning his having been a mutilated man? Our Varro has very properly
opposed this, and has been unwilling to state it; for it certainly was
not unknown to that most learned man.
26. _Concerning the abomination of the sacred rites of the Great
Mother_.
Concerning the effeminates consecrated to the same Great Mother, in
defiance of all the modesty which belongs to men and women, Varro has
not wished to say anything, nor do I remember to have read anywhere
aught concerning them. These effeminates, no later than yesterday,
were going through the streets and places of Carthage with anointed
hair, whitened faces, relaxed bodies, and feminine gait, exacting from
the people the means of maintaining their ignominious lives. Nothing
has been said concerning them. Interpretation failed, reason blushed,
speech was silent. The Great Mother has surpassed all her sons, not
in greatness of deity, but of crime. To this monster not even the
monstrosity of Janus is to be compared. His deformity was only in his
image; hers was the deformity of cruelty in her sacred rites. He has a
redundancy of members in stone images; she inflicts the loss of members
on men. This abomination is not surpassed by the licentious deeds of
Jupiter, so many and so great. He, with all his seductions of women,
only disgraced heaven with one Ganymede; she, with so many avowed and
public effeminates, has both defiled the earth and outraged heaven.
Perhaps we may either compare Saturn to this Magna Mater, or even set
him before her in this kind of abominable cruelty, for he mutilated his
father. But at the festivals of Saturn men could rather be slain by the
hands of others than mutilated by their own. He devoured his sons, as
the poets say, and the natural theologists interpret this as they list.
History says he slew them. But the Romans never received, like the
Carthaginians, the custom of sacrificing their sons to him. This Great
Mother of the gods, however, has brought mutilated men into Roman
temples, and has preserved that cruel custom, being believed to promote
the strength of the Romans by emasculating their men. Compared with
this evil, what are the thefts of Mercury, the wantonness of Venus, and
the base and flagitious deeds of the rest of them, which we might bring
forward from books, were it not that they are daily sung and danced in
the theatres? But what are these things to so great an evil,--an evil
whose magnitude was only proportioned to the greatness of the Great
Mother,--especially as these are said to have been invented by the
poets? as if the poets had also invented this, that they are acceptable
to the gods. Let it be imputed, then, to the audacity and impudence of
the poets that these things have been sung and written of. But that
they have been incorporated into the body of divine rites and honours,
the deities themselves demanding and extorting that incorporation,
what is that but the crime of the gods? nay more, the confession of
demons and the deception of wretched men? But as to this, that the
Great Mother is considered to be worshipped in the appropriate form
when she is worshipped by the consecration of mutilated men, this is
not an invention of the poets, nay, they have rather shrunk from it
with horror than sung of it. Ought any one, then, to be consecrated to
these select gods, that he may live blessedly after death, consecrated
to whom he could not live decently before death, being subjected to
such foul superstitions, and bound over to unclean demons? But all
these things, says Varro, are to be referred to the world.[282] Let
him consider if it be not rather to the unclean.[283] But why not
refer that to the world which is demonstrated to be in the world?
We, however, seek for a mind which, trusting to true religion, does
not adore the world as its god, but for the sake of God praises the
world as a work of God, and, purified from mundane defilements, comes
pure[284] to God Himself who founded the world.[285]
27. _Concerning the figments of the physical theologists, who
neither worship the true divinity, nor perform the worship
wherewith the true divinity should be served._
We see that these select gods have, indeed, become more famous than
the rest; not, however, that their merits may be brought to light,
but that their opprobrious deeds may not be hid. Whence it is more
credible that they were men, as not only poetic but also historical
literature has handed down. For this which Virgil says,
"Then from Olympus' heights came down
Good Saturn, exiled from his throne
By Jove, his mightier heir;"[286]
and what follows with reference to this affair, is fully related
by the historian Euhemerus, and has been translated into Latin by
Ennius. And as they who have written before us in the Greek or in the
Latin tongue against such errors as these have said much concerning
this matter, I have thought it unnecessary to dwell upon it. When I
consider those physical reasons, then, by which learned and acute men
attempt to turn human things into divine things, all I see is that
they have been able to refer these things only to temporal works and
to that which has a corporeal nature, and even though invisible still
mutable; and this is by no means the true God. But if this worship
had been performed as the symbolism of ideas at least congruous
with religion, though it would indeed have been cause of grief that
the true God was not announced and proclaimed by its symbolism,
nevertheless it could have been in some degree borne with, when
it did not occasion and command the performance of such foul and
abominable things. But since it is impiety to worship the body or the
soul for the true God, by whose indwelling alone the soul is happy,
how much more impious is it to worship those things through which
neither soul nor body can obtain either salvation or human honour?
Wherefore if with temple, priest, and sacrifice, which are due to
the true God, any element of the world be worshipped, or any created
spirit, even though not impure and evil, that worship is still evil,
not because the things are evil by which the worship is performed,
but because those things ought only to be used in the worship of
Him to whom alone such worship and service are due. But if any one
insist that he worships the one true God,--that is, the Creator of
every soul and of every body,--with stupid and monstrous idols, with
human victims, with putting a wreath on the male organ, with the
wages of unchastity, with the cutting of limbs, with emasculation,
with the consecration of effeminates, with impure and obscene plays,
such a one does not sin because he worships One who ought not to be
worshipped, but because he worships Him who ought to be worshipped
in a way in which He ought not to be worshipped. But he who worships
with such things,--that is, foul and obscene things,--and that not
the true God, namely, the maker of soul and body, but a creature,
even though not a wicked creature, whether it be soul or body, or
soul and body together, twice sins against God, because he both
worships for God what is not God, and also worships with such things
as neither God nor what is not God ought to be worshipped with.
It is, indeed, manifest how these pagans worship,--that is, how
shamefully and criminally they worship; but what or whom they worship
would have been left in obscurity, had not their history testified
that those same confessedly base and foul rites were rendered in
obedience to the demands of the gods, who exacted them with terrible
severity. Wherefore it is evident beyond doubt that this whole civil
theology is occupied in inventing means for attracting wicked and
most impure spirits, inviting them to visit senseless images, and
through these to take possession of stupid hearts.
28. _That the doctrine of Varro concerning theology is in no part
consistent with itself_.
To what purpose, then, is it that this most learned and most acute
man Varro attempts, as it were, with subtle disputation, to reduce
and refer all these gods to heaven and earth? He cannot do it. They
go out of his hands like water; they shrink back; they slip down and
fall. For when about to speak of the females, that is, the goddesses,
he says, "Since, as I observed in the first book concerning places,
heaven and earth are the two origins of the gods, on which account
they are called celestials and terrestrials, and as I began in the
former books with heaven, speaking of Janus, whom some have said to be
heaven, and others the earth, so I now commence with Tellus in speaking
concerning the goddesses." I can understand what embarrassment so
great a mind was experiencing. For he is influenced by the perception
of a certain plausible resemblance, when he says that the heaven is
that which does, and the earth that which suffers, and therefore
attributes the masculine principle to the one, and the feminine to
the other,--not considering that it is rather He who made both heaven
and earth who is the maker of both activity and passivity. On this
principle he interprets the celebrated mysteries of the Samothracians,
and promises, with an air of great devoutness, that he will by writing
expound these mysteries, which have not been so much as known to his
countrymen, and will send them his exposition. Then he says that he
had from many proofs gathered that, in those mysteries, among the
images one signifies heaven, another the earth, another the patterns of
things, which Plato calls ideas. He makes Jupiter to signify heaven,
Juno the earth, Minerva the ideas. Heaven, by which anything is made;
the earth, from which it is made; and the pattern, according to which
it is made. But, with respect to the last, I am forgetting to say
that Plato attributed so great an importance to these ideas as to
say, not that anything was made by heaven according to them, but that
according to them heaven itself was made.[287] To return, however,--it
is to be observed that Varro has, in the book on the select gods, lost
that theory of these gods, in whom he has, as it were, embraced all
things. For he assigns the male gods to heaven, the females to earth;
among which latter he has placed Minerva, whom he had before placed
above heaven itself. Then the male god Neptune is in the sea, which
pertains rather to earth than to heaven. Last of all, father Dis, who
is called in Greek Πλούτων, another male god, brother of both (Jupiter
and Neptune), is also held to be a god of the earth, holding the
upper region of the earth himself, and allotting the nether region to
his wife Proserpine. How, then, do they attempt to refer the gods to
heaven, and the goddesses to earth? What solidity, what consistency,
what sobriety has this disputation? But that Tellus is the origin
of the goddesses,--the great mother, to wit, beside whom there is
continually the noise of the mad and abominable revelry of effeminates
and mutilated men, and men who cut themselves, and indulge in frantic
gesticulations,--how is it, then, that Janus is called the head of
the gods, and Tellus the head of the goddesses? In the one case error
does not make one head, and in the other frenzy does not make a sane
one. Why do they vainly attempt to refer these to the world? Even if
they could do so, no pious person worships the world for the true God.
Nevertheless, plain truth makes it evident that they are not able even
to do this. Let them rather identify them with dead men and most wicked
demons, and no further question will remain.
29. _That all things which the physical theologists have referred
to the world and its parts, they ought to have referred to the
one true God_.
For all those things which, according to the account given of those
gods, are referred to the world by so-called physical interpretation,
may, without any religious scruple, be rather assigned to the true
God, who made heaven and earth, and created every soul and every
body; and the following is the manner in which we see that this may
be done. We worship God,--not heaven and earth, of which two parts
this world consists, nor the soul or souls diffused through all
living things,--but God who made heaven and earth, and all things
which are in them; who made every soul, whatever be the nature of its
life, whether it have life without sensation and reason, or life with
sensation, or life with both sensation and reason.
30. _How piety distinguishes the Creator from the creatures, so
that, instead of one God, there are not worshipped as many gods
as there are works of the one author._
And now, to begin to go over those works of the one true God, on
account of which these have made to themselves many and false gods,
whilst they attempt to give an honourable interpretation to their
many most abominable and most infamous mysteries,--we worship
that God who has appointed to the natures created by Him both the
beginnings and the end of their existing and moving; who holds,
knows, and disposes the causes of things; who hath created the virtue
of seeds; who hath given to what creatures He would a rational soul,
which is called mind; who hath bestowed the faculty and use of
speech; who hath imparted the gift of foretelling future things to
whatever spirits it seemed to Him good; who also Himself predicts
future things, through whom He pleases, and through whom He will
removes diseases; who, when the human race is to be corrected and
chastised by wars, regulates also the beginnings, progress, and ends
of these wars; who hath created and governs the most vehement and
most violent fire of this world, in due relation and proportion to
the other elements of immense nature; who is the governor of all the
waters; who hath made the sun brightest of all material lights, and
hath given him suitable power and motion; who hath not withdrawn,
even from the inhabitants of the nether world, His dominion and
power; who hath appointed to mortal natures their suitable seed and
nourishment, dry or liquid; who establishes and makes fruitful the
earth; who bountifully bestows its fruits on animals and on men; who
knows and ordains, not only principal causes, but also subsequent
causes; who hath determined for the moon her motion; who affords
ways in heaven and on earth for passage from one place to another;
who hath granted also to human minds, which He hath created, the
knowledge of the various arts for the help of life and nature; who
hath appointed the union of male and female for the propagation of
offspring; who hath favoured the societies of men with the gift of
terrestrial fire for the simplest and most familiar purposes, to burn
on the hearth and to give light. These are, then, the things which
that most acute and most learned man Varro has laboured to distribute
among the select gods, by I know not what physical interpretation,
which he has got from other sources, and also conjectured for
himself. But these things the one true God makes and does, but as
_the same_ God,--that is, as He who is wholly everywhere, included
in no space, bound by no chains, mutable in no part of His being,
filling heaven and earth with omnipresent power, not with a needy
nature. Therefore He governs all things in such a manner as to
allow them to perform and exercise their own proper movements. For
although they can be nothing without Him, they are not what He is.
He does also many things through angels; but only from Himself does
He beatify angels. So also, though He send angels to men for certain
purposes, He does not for all that beatify men by the good inherent
in the angels, but by Himself, as He does the angels themselves.
31. _What benefits God gives to the followers of the truth to
enjoy over and above His general bounty._
For, besides such benefits as, according to this administration
of nature of which we have made some mention, He lavishes on good
and bad alike, we have from Him a great manifestation of great
love, which belongs only to the good. For although we can never
sufficiently give thanks to Him, that we are, that we live, that we
behold heaven and earth, that we have mind and reason by which to
seek after Him who made all these things, nevertheless, what hearts,
what number of tongues, shall affirm that they are sufficient to
render thanks to Him for this, that He hath not wholly departed from
us, laden and overwhelmed with sins, averse to the contemplation of
His light, and blinded by the love of darkness, that is, of iniquity,
but hath sent to us His own Word, who is His only Son, that by His
birth and suffering for us in the flesh, which He assumed, we might
know how much God valued man, and that by that unique sacrifice
we might be purified from all our sins, and that, love being shed
abroad in our hearts by His Spirit, we might, having surmounted all
difficulties, come into eternal rest, and the ineffable sweetness of
the contemplation of Himself?
32. _That at no time in the past was the mystery of Christ's
redemption awanting, but was at all times declared, though in
various forms._
This mystery of eternal life, even from the beginning of the human
race, was, by certain signs and sacraments suitable to the times,
announced through angels to those to whom it was meet. Then the
Hebrew people was congregated into one republic, as it were, to
perform this mystery; and in that republic was foretold, sometimes
through men who understood what they spake, and sometimes through
men who understood not, all that had transpired since the advent of
Christ until now, and all that will transpire. This same nation, too,
was afterwards dispersed through the nations, in order to testify
to the scriptures in which eternal salvation in Christ had been
declared. For not only the prophecies which are contained in words,
nor only the precepts for the right conduct of life, which teach
morals and piety, and are contained in the sacred writings,--not
only these, but also the rites, priesthood, tabernacle or temple,
altars, sacrifices, ceremonies, and whatever else belongs to that
service which is due to God, and which in Greek is properly called
λατρεία,--all these signified and fore-announced those things which
we who believe in Jesus Christ unto eternal life believe to have been
fulfilled, or behold in process of fulfilment, or confidently believe
shall yet be fulfilled.
33. _That only through the Christian religion could the deceit of
malign spirits, who rejoice in the errors of men, have been
manifested._
This, the only true religion, has alone been able to manifest that
the gods of the nations are most impure demons, who desire to be
thought gods, availing themselves of the names of certain defunct
souls, or the appearance of mundane creatures, and with proud
impurity rejoicing in things most base and infamous, as though in
divine honours, and envying human souls their conversion to the
true God. From whose most cruel and most impious dominion a man is
liberated when he believes on Him who has afforded an example of
humility, following which men may rise as great as was that pride
by which they fell. Hence are not only those gods, concerning whom
we have already spoken much, and many others belonging to different
nations and lands, but also those of whom we are now treating, who
have been selected as it were into the senate of the gods,--selected,
however, on account of the notoriousness of their crimes, not on
account of the dignity of their virtues,--whose sacred things Varro
attempts to refer to certain natural reasons, seeking to make base
things honourable, but cannot find how to square and agree with
these reasons, because these are not the causes of those rites,
which he thinks, or rather wishes to be thought to be so. For had
not only these, but also all others of this kind, been real causes,
even though they had nothing to do with the true God and eternal
life, which is to be sought in religion, they would, by affording
some sort of reason drawn from the nature of things, have mitigated
in some degree that offence which was occasioned by some turpitude
or absurdity in the sacred rites, which was not understood. This
he attempted to do in respect to certain fables of the theatres,
or mysteries of the shrines; but he did not acquit the theatres
of likeness to the shrines, but rather condemned the shrines for
likeness to the theatres. However, he in some way made the attempt to
soothe the feelings shocked by horrible things, by rendering what he
would have to be natural interpretations.
34. _Concerning the books of Numa Pompilius, which the senate
ordered to be burned, in order that the causes of sacred rites
therein assigned should not become known._.
But, on the other hand, we find, as the same most learned man has
related, that the causes of the sacred rites which were given from
the books of Numa Pompilius could by no means be tolerated, and were
considered unworthy, not only to become known to the religious by
being read, but even to lie written in the darkness in which they had
been concealed. For now let me say what I promised in the third book
of this work to say in its proper place. For, as we read in the same
Varro's book on the worship of the gods, "A certain one Terentius had
a field at the Janiculum, and once, when his ploughman was passing
the plough near to the tomb of Numa Pompilius, he turned up from the
ground the books of Numa, in which were written the causes of the
sacred institutions; which books he carried to the prætor, who, having
read the beginnings of them, referred to the senate what seemed to
be a matter of so much importance. And when the chief senators had
read certain of the causes why this or that rite was instituted, the
senate assented to the dead Numa, and the conscript fathers, as though
concerned for the interests of religion, ordered the prætor to burn
the books."[288] Let each one believe what he thinks; nay, let every
champion of such impiety say whatever mad contention may suggest. For
my part, let it suffice to suggest that the causes of those sacred
things which were written down by King Numa Pompilius, the institutor
of the Roman rites, ought never to have become known to people or
senate, or even to the priests themselves; and also that Numa himself
attained to these secrets of demons by an illicit curiosity, in order
that he might write them down, so as to be able, by reading, to be
reminded of them. However, though he was king, and had no cause to
be afraid of any one, he neither dared to teach them to any one, nor
to destroy them by obliteration, or any other form of destruction.
Therefore, because he was unwilling that any one should know them,
lest men should be taught infamous things, and because he was afraid
to violate them, lest he should enrage the demons against himself, he
buried them in what he thought a safe place, believing that a plough
could not approach his sepulchre. But the senate, fearing to condemn
the religious solemnities of their ancestors, and therefore compelled
to assent to Numa, were nevertheless so convinced that those books were
pernicious, that they did not order them to be buried again, knowing
that human curiosity would thereby be excited to seek with far greater
eagerness after the matter already divulged, but ordered the scandalous
relics to be destroyed with fire; because, as they thought it was now
a necessity to perform those sacred rites, they judged that the error
arising from ignorance of their causes was more tolerable than the
disturbance which the knowledge of them would occasion the state.
35. _Concerning the hydromancy through which Numa was befooled
by certain images of demons seen in the water._
For Numa himself also, to whom no prophet of God, no holy angel
was sent, was driven to have recourse to hydromancy, that he might
see the images of the gods in the water (or, rather, appearances
whereby the demons made sport of him), and might learn from them
what he ought to ordain and observe in the sacred rites. This kind
of divination, says Varro, was introduced from the Persians, and
was used by Numa himself, and at an after time by the philosopher
Pythagoras. In this divination, he says, they also inquire at the
inhabitants of the nether world, and make use of blood; and this
the Greeks call νεκρομαντείαν. But whether it be called necromancy
or hydromancy it is the same thing, for in either case the dead are
supposed to foretell future things. But by what artifices these
things are done, let themselves consider; for I am unwilling to say
that these artifices were wont to be prohibited by the laws, and to
be very severely punished even in the Gentile states, before the
advent of our Saviour. I am unwilling, I say, to affirm this, for
perhaps even such things were then allowed. However, it was by these
arts that Pompilius learned those sacred rites which he gave forth
as facts, whilst he concealed their causes; for even he himself was
afraid of that which he had learned. The senate also caused the
books in which those causes were recorded to be burned. What is it,
then, to me, that Varro attempts to adduce all sorts of fanciful
physical interpretations, which if these books had contained, they
would certainly not have been burned? For otherwise the conscript
fathers would also have burned those books which Varro published
and dedicated to the high priest Cæsar.[289] Now Numa is said to
have married the nymph Egeria, because (as Varro explains it in the
forementioned book) he carried forth[290] water wherewith to perform
his hydromancy. Thus facts are wont to be converted into fables
through false colourings. It was by that hydromancy, then, that that
over-curious Roman king learned both the sacred rites which were
to be written in the books of the priests, and also the causes of
those rites,--which latter, however, he was unwilling that any one
besides himself should know. Wherefore he made these causes, as it
were, to die along with himself, taking care to have them written by
themselves, and removed from the knowledge of men by being buried in
the earth. Wherefore the things which are written in those books were
either abominations of demons, so foul and noxious as to render that
whole civil theology execrable even in the eyes of such men as those
senators, who had accepted so many shameful things in the sacred
rites themselves, or they were nothing else than the accounts of dead
men, whom, through the lapse of ages, almost all the Gentile nations
had come to believe to be immortal gods; whilst those same demons
were delighted even with such rites, having presented themselves to
receive worship under pretence of being those very dead men whom
they had caused to be thought immortal gods by certain fallacious
miracles, performed in order to establish that belief. But, by the
hidden providence of the true God, these demons were permitted to
confess these things to their friend Numa, having been gained by
those arts through which necromancy could be performed, and yet were
not constrained to admonish him rather at his death to burn than to
bury the books in which they were written. But, in order that these
books might be unknown, the demons could not resist the plough by
which they were thrown up, or the pen of Varro, through which the
things which were done in reference to this matter have come down
even to our knowledge. For they are not able to effect anything which
they are not allowed; but they are permitted to influence those whom
God, in His deep and just judgment, according to their deserts, gives
over either to be simply afflicted by them, or to be also subdued and
deceived. But how pernicious these writings were judged to be, or
how alien from the worship of the true Divinity, may be understood
from the fact that the senate preferred to burn what Pompilius had
hid, rather than to fear what he feared, so that he could not dare to
do that. Wherefore let him who does not desire to live a pious life
even now, seek eternal life by means of such rites. But let him who
does not wish to have fellowship with malign demons have no fear for
the noxious superstition wherewith they are worshipped, but let him
recognise the true religion by which they are unmasked and vanquished.
FOOTNOTES:
[245] Tert. _Apol._ 13, "Nec electio sine reprobatione;" and _Ad
Nationes_, ii. 9, "Si dei ut bulbi seliguntur, qui non seliguntur,
reprobi pronuntiantur."
[246] Cicero, _De Nat. Deor._ ii., distinguishes this Liber from
Liber Bacchus, son of Jupiter and Semele.
[247] _Januam._
[248] _Vivificator._
[249] _Sensificator._
[250] As we say, "right-minded."
[251] Ch. 21, 23.
[252] The father Saturn, and the mother Ops, _e.g._, being more
obscure than their son Jupiter and daughter Juno.
[253] Sallust, _Cat. Conj._ ch. 8.
[254] Vicus argentarius.
[255] Virgil, _Æneid_, viii. 357, 358.
[256] Quadrifrons.