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| He defends his Flight.
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32. He defends his Flight.
Hearing, nay almost seeing, these things, through
the mournful representations of the messengers, I confess I turned back
again into the desert, justly concluding, as your Piety will perceive,
that if I was sought after, that I might be sent as soon as I was
discovered to the Prefects1375
, I should be
prevented from ever coming to your Grace; and that if those who would
not subscribe against me, suffered so severely as they did, and the
laity who refused to communicate with the Arians were ordered for
death, there was no doubt at all but that ten thousand new modes of
destruction would be devised by the calumniators against me; and that
after my death, they would employ against whomsoever they wished to
injure, whatever means they chose, venting their lies against us the
more boldly, for that then there would no longer be any one left who
could expose them. I fled, not because I feared your Piety (for I know
your long-suffering and goodness), but because from what had taken
place, I perceived the spirit of my enemies, and considered that they
would make use of all possible means to accomplish my destruction, from
fear that they would be brought to answer for what they had done
contrary to the intentions of your Excellency. For observe, your Grace
commanded that the Bishops should be expelled only out of the cities
and the province. But these worthy persons presumed to exceed your
commands, and banished aged men and Bishops venerable for their years
into desert and unfrequented and frightful places, beyond the
boundaries of three provinces1376
| 1376 Egypt
was divided into three Provinces till Hadrian’s time, Egypt,
Libya, and Pentapolis; Hadrian made them four; Epiphanius speaks of
them as seven. Hær. 68. i. By the time of Arcadius they had
become eight. vid. Orlendini Orbis Sacer et Prof. vol. i. p.
118. vid. supr. Encyc. §3, n. 2, Apol. Ar.
§83. | . Some of them were
sent off from Libya to the great Oasis; others from the Thebais to
Ammoniaca in Libya1377
. Neither was it
from fear of death that I fled; let none of them condemn me as guilty
of cowardice; but because it is the injunction of our Saviour1378
that we should flee when we are persecuted,
and hide ourselves when we are sought after, and not expose ourselves
to certain dangers, nor by appearing before our persecutors inflame
still more their rage against us. For to give one’s self up to
one’s enemies to be murdered, is the same thing as to murder
one’s self; but to flee, as our Saviour has enjoined, is to know
our time, and to manifest a real concern for our persecutors, lest if
they proceed to the shedding of blood, they become guilty of the
transgression of the law, ‘Thou shalt not kill1379
.’ And yet these men by their calumnies
against me, earnestly wish that I should suffer death. What they have
again lately done proves that this is their desire and murderous
intention. You will be astonished, I am sure, Augustus, most beloved of
God, when you hear it; it is indeed an outrage worthy of amazement.
What it is, I pray you briefly to hear.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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