Apology 12
12 Chapter XII PL 1, 337
But I pass from these remarks, for I know and I am going to show what your gods are not, by showing what they are. In reference, then, to these, I see only names of dead men of ancient times; I hear fabulous stories; I recognize sacred rites founded on mere myths. As to the actual images, I regard them as simply pieces of matter akin to the vessels and utensils in common use among us, or even undergoing in their consecration a hapless change from these useful articles at the hands of reckless art, which in the transforming process treats them with utter contempt, nay, in the very act commits sacrilege; so that it might be no slight solace to us in all our punishments, suffering as we do because of these same gods, that in their making they suffer as we do themselves. You put Christians on crosses and stakes: what image is not formed from the clay in the first instance, set on cross and stake? The body of your god is first consecrated on the gibbet. You tear the sides of Christians with your claws; but in the case of your own gods, axes, and planes, and rasps are put to work more vigorously on every member of the body. We lay our heads upon the block; before the lead, and the glue, and the nails are put in requisition, your deities are headless. We are cast to the wild beasts, while you attach them to Bacchus, and Cybele, and Cælestis. We are burned in the flames; so, too, are they in their original lump. We are condemned to the mines; from these your gods originate. We are banished to islands; in islands it is a common thing for your gods to have their birth or die. If it is in this way a deity is made, it will follow that as many as are punished are deified, and tortures will have to be declared divinities. But plain it is these objects of your worship have no sense of the injuries and disgraces of their consecrating, as they are equally unconscious of the honours paid to them. O impious words! O blasphemous reproaches! Gnash your teeth upon us—foam with maddened rage against us—ye are the persons, no doubt, who censured a certain Seneca speaking of your superstition at much greater length and far more sharply! In a word, if we refuse our homage to statues and frigid images, the very counterpart of their dead originals, with which hawks, and mice, and spiders are so well acquainted, does it not merit praise instead of penalty, that we have rejected what we have come to see is error? We cannot surely be made out to injure those who we are certain are nonentities. What does not exist, is in its nonexistence secure from suffering.
ARGUMENTUM.-- Jam porro ostendit, Numina illa nihil esse, nisi inania mortuorum nomina, quorum simulacra, respectu materiae fabricaeque, maxime contemni mereantur, ut adeo in solatium sint ipsis Christianis, qui propter illa puniuntur. Ut enim Dii fiant, crucibus, velut Christiani, figuntur, asciis edolantur, truncantur denique. Leonibus etiam cinguntur, et in lapicidinis habitant, atque ex insulis proveniunt. Quae sicut ipsi non sentiunt, ita nec honores, qui ipsis fiunt. Non itaque magis damnandi Christiani, qui illos respuunt, quam ipse olim Seneca, qui similiter inanes superstitiones improbavit: Ridiculos enim esse Deos, qui injuriae vilissimarum etiam bestiolarum pateant, imo qui, cum non sint, nec illis qui sunt benefacere, nec ab illis laedi possunt.
Gesso jam de istis, ut qui sciam me ex ipsa veritate demonstraturum quid non sint, quum ostendero quid sint. Quantum igitur de diis vestris, nomina solummodo video quorundam veterum mortuorum, et fabulas audio, et sacra de fabulis recognosco; quantum autem de simulacris ipsis, nihil aliud deprehendo, quam materias sorores esse vasculorum instrumentorumque communium, vel ex iisdem vasculis et instrumentis quasi fatum consecratione mutantes, licentia artis transfigurante, et quidem contumeliosissime et in ipso opere sacrilege, ut revera nobis maxime, qui propter deos ipsos plectimur, solatium poenarum esse possit, quod eadem et ipsi patiuntur, ut fiant. Crucibus et stipitibus imponitis christianos: quod simulacrum non prius argilla deformat cruci et stipiti superstructa? In patibulo primum corpus dei vestri dedicatur. Ungulis deraditis latera christianorum; at in deos vestros per omnia membra validius incumbunt asciae, et runcinae, et scobinae. Cervices ponimus: ante plumbum et glutinum et gomphos sine capite sunt dii vestri. Ad bestias impellimur, certe quas Libero, et Cybele, et Coelesti applicatis. Ignibus urimur: hoc et illi a prima quidem massa. In metalla damnamur: inde censentur dii vestri. In insulas relegamur: solet et in insulis aliquis deus vester aut nasci aut mori. Si per haec constat divinitas aliqua, ergo qui puniuntur consecrantur, et numina erunt dicenda supplicia. Sed plane non sentiunt has injurias et contumelias suae fabricationis dii vestri, sicut nec obsequia. O impiae voces, o sacrilega convicia! infrendite, inspumate! iidem estis, qui Senecam aliquem pluribus et amarioribus de vestra superstitione perorantem reprehendistis. Igitur si statuas et imagines frigidas mortuorum suorum simillimas non adoramus, quas milvi et mures et araneae intelligunt, nonne laudem magis, quam poenam, merebatur repudium agniti erroris? Possumus enim videri laedere eos, quos certi sumus omnino non esse? Quod non est, nihil ab ullo patitur, quia non est.