6. Although you allege that
those wars which you speak of were excited through hatred of our
religion, it would not be difficult to prove, that after the name of
Christ was heard in the world, not only were they not increased, but
they were even in great measure diminished by the restraining of
furious passions. For since we, a numerous band of men as we are,
have learned from His teaching and His laws that evil ought not to be
requited with evil,3255
that it is better to
suffer wrong than to
inflict it, that we should
rather shed our own
blood than stain our
hands and our conscience with
that of another, an ungrateful
world is now for a long period enjoying
a benefit from
Christ, inasmuch as by His means the
rage of savage
ferocity has been softened, and has begun to withhold hostile
hands
from the
blood of a fellow-creature. But if all without
exception, who feel that they are men not in form of body but in
power
of reason, would
lend an
ear for a little to His salutary and
peaceful
rules, and would not, in the
pride and arrogance of enlightenment,
trust to their own senses rather than to His admonitions, the whole
world, having turned the use of steel into more peaceful occupations,
would now be living in the most placid tranquillity, and would unite in
blessed harmony, maintaining inviolate the sanctity of
treaties.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
