Apology 33
33 Chapter XXXIII PL 1, 448
But why dwell longer on the reverence and sacred respect of Christians to the emperor, whom we cannot but look up to as called by our Lord to his office? So that on valid grounds I might say Cæsar is more ours than yours, for our God has appointed him. Therefore, as having this propriety in him, I do more than you for his welfare, not merely because I ask it of Him who can give it, or because I ask it as one who deserves to get it, but also because, in keeping the majesty of Cæsar within due limits, and putting it under the Most High, and making it less than divine, I commend him the more to the favour of Deity, to whom I make him alone inferior. But I place him in subjection to one I regard as more glorious than himself. Never will I call the emperor God, and that either because it is not in me to be guilty of falsehood; or that I dare not turn him into ridicule; or that not even himself will desire to have that high name applied to him. If he is but a man, it is his interest as man to give God His higher place. Let him think it enough to bear the name of emperor. That, too, is a great name of God’s giving. To call him God, is to rob him of his title. If he is not a man, emperor he cannot be. Even when, amid the honours of a triumph, he sits on that lofty chariot, he is reminded that he is only human. A voice at his back keeps whispering in his ear, “Look behind thee; remember thou art but a man.” And it only adds to his exultation, that he shines with a glory so surpassing as to require an admonitory reference to his condition. It adds to his greatness that he needs such a reminiscence, lest he should think himself divine.
ARGUMENTUM.-- Imo necessario illos Imperatorem suspicere, utpote quem a Deo suo sibi datum sciant, adeoque vere suum ducant. Quem si Deum non vocent, quia mentiri illumve deridere nolunt, id faciant, quia ipse Deo subjectus, sub illo imperat, cujus etiam intersit Deo cedere, quique ut id faciat in triumphi invidioso honore admoneatur, tanta coruscans gloria ut revocari, ne falso se Deum existimet, necesse habeat.
Sed quid ego amplius de religione atque pietate christiana in imperatorem? quem necesse est suspiciamus ut eum, quem dominus noster elegerit. Et merito dixerim, noster est magis Caesar, ut a nostro Deo constitutus. Itaque et in eo plus ego illi operor in salutem, non solum quod eam ab eo postulo, qui potest praestare, aut quod talis postulo, qui merear impetrare, sed etiam quod temperans majestatem Caesaris infra deum magis illum commendo deo, cui soli subjicio. Subjicio autem, cui non adaequo. Non enim deum Imperatorem dicam, vel quia mentiri nescio, vel quia illum deridere non audeo, vel quia nec ipse se deum volet dici. Si homo sit, interest hominis deo cedere; satis habeat appellari imperator. Grande et hoc nomen est, quod a deo traditur. Negat illum imperatorem, qui deum dicit. Nisi homo sit, non est imperator. Hominem se esse etiam triumphans in illo sublimissimo curru admonetur. Suggeritur enim ei a tergo: Respice post te, hominem memento te. Et utique hoc magis gaudet tanta se gloria coruscare, ut illi admonitio conditionis suae sit necessaria. [Minor erat, si tunc deus diceretur, quia non vere diceretur.] Major est qui revocatur, ne se deum existimet.