| Keywords |
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| ID |
5876 |
| Text |
Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII (417 - 418) Orosius |
| Quotation |
Multa nunc mihi de huiuscemodi rebus loquendi facultas foret, si non secundum omnes homines apud unius cuiusque mentem conscientia secreta loqueretur. 2 Inruptae sunt Hispaniae, caedes uastationesque passae sunt: nihil quidem nouum, hoc enim nunc per biennium illud, quo hostilis gladius saeuiit, sustinuere a barbaris, quod per ducentos quondam annos passae fuerant a Romanis, quod etiam sub Gallieno imperatore per annos propemodum duodecim Germanis euertentibus exceperunt. 3 Verumtamen quis non se, qui sui suorumque actuum uel etiam cogitationum conscius iudicia Dei metuit, iuste omnia passum uel etiam parua sustinuisse fateatur? aut qui se non intellegit Deumque non metuit, quomodo non iuste ista et quidem parua sustinuit? 4 Quae cum ita sint, illud tamen clementia Dei eadem pietate, qua dudum praedixerat, procurauit, ut secundum euangelium suum, quo incessabiliter commonebat: cum uos persecuti fuerint in una ciuitate, fugite in aliam, quisque egredi atque abire uellet, ipsis barbaris mercennariis ministris ac defensoribus uteretur. 5 Hoc tunc ipsi ultro offerebant; et qui auferre omnia interfectis omnibus poterant, particulam stipendii ob mercedem seruitii sui et transuecti oneris flagitabant. et hoc quidem a plurimis factum est. 6 Qui autem non crediderunt euangelio Dei quasi contumaces, uel si etiam non audierunt dupliciter contumaces, non dederunt locum irae, iuste a superueniente ira conprehensi et oppressi sunt. 7 Quamquam et post hoc quoque continuo barbari exsecrati gladios suos ad aratra conuersi sunt residuosque Romanos ut socios modo et amicos fouent, ut inueniantur iam inter eos quidam Romani, qui malint inter barbaros pauperem libertatem, quam inter Romanos tributariam sollicitudinem sustinere. 8 Quamquam si ob hoc solum barbari Romanis finibus inmissi forent, quod uulgo per orientem et occidentem ecclesiae Christi Hunis Suebis Vandalis et Burgundionibus diuersisque innumeris credentium populis replentur, laudanda et adtollenda misericordia Dei uideretur, quandoquidem, etsi cum labefactione nostri, tantae gentes agnitionem ueritatis acciperent, quam inuenire utique nisi hac occasione non possent. 9 Quid enim damni est Christiano ad uitam aeternam inhianti, huic saeculo quolibet tempore et quoquo pacto abstrahi? quid autem lucri est pagano in medio Christianorum aduersus fidem obdurato, si paulo diutius diem protrahat, quandoque morituro, cui desperata conuersio est?
10 Et quia ineffabilia sunt iudicia Dei, quae nec scire omnia nec explicare quae scimus possumus, breuiter expresserim, correptionem iudicis Dei, quoquo pacto accidat, iuste sustinere qui sciunt, iuste sustinere qui nesciunt. |
| Translation |
1. I would now have the opportunity of saying a great deal about matters
of this kind, save that, according to all men, the secret voice of conscience
speaks only to each man’s mind individually. 2. The Spanish provinces were
invaded and suffered devastation and slaughter. But this is nothing new. For
during these two years while the enemy’s sword raged, they endured from
barbarians what they had suffered at the hands of the Romans for some
200 years and what, indeed, they had received at the hands of rampaging
Germans for nearly twelve years in the reign of the emperor Gallienus.
3. Still, what man who fears God’s judgment and knows himself, his deeds,
and, indeed, his thoughts, would not confess that everything he has suffered,
he has suffered justly, and, in fact, endured little? Or, on the other hand, if
he does not know himself or fear God, how could he argue that these things
were not justly done and of little account?
4. Since this is so, God’s clemency through the same piety, which He
had long foretold, brought it about, in accordance with His Gospel where
He continually gives the advice: When they persecute you in one city, flee
to another, that anyone who wished to go out and leave could use the
barbarians themselves as paid helpers and defenders. 5. The barbarians
themselves willingly offered to do this and, although they could have killed
everyone and carried off all their belongings, they demanded a paltry fee to
pay for their services and the task of carrying over the goods. Very many
took advantage of this, 6. but those who insolently disbelieved the Gospel of
God or, with twice as much insolence, did not even listen to It, and did not
give way to God’s wrath, were rightly seized and destroyed by that wrath
when it fell upon them. 7. However, immediately after these events, the
barbarians foreswore their swords and turned to the plough, and cherished
the remaining Romans as allies of a kind and friends, with the result that
some Romans who prefer freedom in poverty to trouble and taxation under
Rome can be found among them.
8. Even if the barbarians were sent into the territory of Rome for this
purpose alone – that the Churches of Christ throughout the east and west
alike should be filled with Huns, Sueves, Vandals, Burgundians, and a countless
host of believers of different races – God’s mercy should be praised and
extolled, seeing that, albeit with some loss on our part, so many peoples
came to recognise the Truth Which they would have been unable to find
without this opportunity. 9. For what loss is it to the Christian who yearns
for the life eternal to be taken from this world at any time or in any way?
Or what gain is it for a pagan who has hardened himself against the Faith in
the midst of Christians, if he drags out his days a little longer, since he who
gives up hope of conversion will be doomed to die in the end?
10. Now because God’s judgments are ineffable and we are neither
able to know them all nor explain what we know of them, I would briefly
state that the chastisements of God’s judgment, in whatever way they are
inflicted, are rightly suffered by those who know Him and rightly suffered
by those who know Him not. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 7, Cap. 41, 1-10 (Vol. III, pp. 120-3, trans. Fear, pp. 406-7) |
| Temporal Coverage |
409 - 411 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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