I.
Apology.
[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall,
Late Scholar of Christ’s College, Cantab.]
————————————
The Apology.77
| 77 [Great diversity
exists among the critics as to the date of this Apology; see Kaye, pp.
xvi. 48, 65. Mosheim says, a.d. 198, Kaye
a.d. 204.] |
Chapter I.
Rulers of the Roman
Empire, if, seated for the administration of justice on your lofty
tribunal, under the gaze of every eye, and occupying there all but the
highest position in the state, you may not openly inquire into and sift
before the world the real truth in regard to the charges made against
the Christians; if in this case alone you are afraid or ashamed to
exercise your authority in making public inquiry with the carefulness
which becomes justice; if, finally, the extreme severities inflicted on
our people in recently private judgments, stand in the way of our being
permitted to defend ourselves before you, you cannot surely forbid the
Truth to reach your ears by the secret pathway of a noiseless
book.78
She has no appeals to make to you in regard of
her condition, for that does not excite her wonder. She knows that she
is but a sojourner on the
earth, and that among
strangers she naturally
finds foes; and more than this, that her origin, her dwelling-place,
her
hope, her recompense, her honours, are above. One thing, meanwhile,
she anxiously desires of earthly
rulers—not to be
condemned
unknown. What harm can it do to the
laws,
supreme in their domain, to
give her a hearing? Nay, for that part of it, will not their
absolute supremacy be more conspicuous in their
condemning her, even
after she has made her plea? But if, unheard, sentence is pronounced
against her, besides the odium of an
unjust deed, you will incur the
merited suspicion of doing it with some idea that it is
unjust, as not
wishing to hear what you may not be able to hear and
condemn. We
lay this before you as the first ground on which we urge that your
hatred to the name of
Christian is
unjust. And the very reason
which seems to excuse this
injustice (I mean ignorance) at once
aggravates and
convicts it. For what is there more unfair than to
hate a thing of which you know nothing, even though it deserve to be
hated?
Hatred is only merited when it is
known to be
merited. But without that
knowledge, whence is its
justice to be
vindicated? for that is to be
proved, not from the mere fact that an
aversion exists, but from acquaintance with the subject. When men,
then, give way to a dislike simply because they are entirely ignorant
of the
nature of the thing disliked, why may it not be precisely the
very sort of thing they should not dislike? So we maintain that they
are both ignorant while they
hate us, and
hate us unrighteously while
they continue in ignorance, the one thing being the result of the other
either way of it. The
proof of their ignorance, at once
condemning and
excusing their
injustice, is this, that those who once
hated
Christianity because they knew nothing about it, no sooner come to know
it than they all lay down at once their enmity. From being its
haters they become its
disciples. By simply getting acquainted with it,
they begin now to
hate what they had formerly been, and to profess what
they had formerly
hated; and their numbers are as great as are laid to
our charge. The outcry is that the
State is filled with
Christians—that they are in the
fields, in the citadels, in the
islands: they make lamentation, as for some calamity, that both sexes,
every age and condition, even high rank, are passing over to the
profession of the
Christian faith; and yet for all, their minds are not
awakened to the thought of some good they have
failed to notice in it.
They must not allow any truer suspicions to
cross their minds; they
have no desire to make
closer
trial. Here alone the curiosity of human
nature slumbers. They
like to be ignorant, though to others the
knowledge has been
bliss. Anacharsis reproved the rude venturing to criticise the
cultured; how much more this judging of those who know, by men who are
entirely ignorant, might he have denounced! Because they already
dislike, they want to know no more. Thus they prejudge that of
which they are ignorant to be such, that, if they came to know it, it
could no longer be the object of their aversion; since, if inquiry
finds nothing worthy of dislike, it is certainly proper to cease from
an
unjust dislike, while if its bad character comes plainly out,
instead of the detestation
entertained for it being thus diminished, a
stronger reason for
perseverance in that detestation is obtained, even
under the
authority of
justice itself. But, says one, a thing is not
good merely because multitudes go over to it; for how many have the
bent of their
nature towards whatever is bad! how many go
astray into
ways of error! It is undoubted. Yet a thing that is thoroughly
evil,
not even those whom it carries away venture to
defend as good.
Nature
throws a
veil either of
fear or
shame over all
evil. For instance, you
find that criminals are eager to conceal themselves,
avoid appearing in
public, are in trepidation when they are caught, deny their guilt, when
they are
accused; even when they are put to the rack, they do not
easily or always confess; when there is no doubt about their
condemnation, they
grieve for what they have done. In their
self-communings they admit their being impelled by
sinful dispositions,
but they lay the
blame either on fate or on the
stars. They are
unwilling to acknowledge that the thing is theirs, because they own
that it is
wicked. But what is there like this in the
Christian’s
case? The only
shame or
regret he feels, is at not having been a
Christian earlier. If he is pointed out, he glories in it; if he is
accused, he offers no defence;
interrogated, he makes voluntary
confession;
condemned he renders thanks. What sort of
evil thing is
this, which wants all the ordinary peculiarities of
evil—
fear,
shame, subterfuge, penitence, lamenting? What! is that a
crime in
which the criminal rejoices? to be accused of which is his ardent wish,
to be punished for which is his felicity? You cannot call it madness,
you who stand convicted of knowing nothing of the matter.
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