In Praise of Martyrdom

For there is assuredly, unless I am mistaken, even in the very strength of conscience an admirable dread which both agitates and inflames us; and the more deeply you have examined its power, the more does it send forth, from the very aspect of its venerable brightness, the awe of its own reverence. For you ought certainly to consider of how great glory it is to expiate by the remedies of a single blow the stain of a life however blemished, and the filth of a polluted body, and the contagion of vices long accumulated by lengthy corruption, and the guilt of the world contracted over so great a span of time—whereby both the reward may be increased and the guilt may be excluded. Hence all consummation and the standing of life is placed in martyrdom.

This is the foundation of life and faith, this the bulwark of salvation, this the bond of liberty and honor; and although there are other means by which the light may be attained, yet to the nearness of the promised gift one arrives more surely through the advocacy of sufferings.

For weigh how great is the glory of setting aside the desires of this life, and of a soul separated from all commerce with nature and the world, to set oneself against the peril of the adversary, and not to shudder at the cruelty of the torturer, for a man to be strengthened by the pain by which he is believed to be destroyed, and to take for himself as an increase of virtue that which he who punishes thinks to serve the purpose of torment. For though the claw, rebounding from ribs that endure, returns to the wound, and though the reed, as the scourges go and come, is drawn back with a torn-off portion of the body, yet he stands unmoved, made stronger by his own punishments, revolving within himself this one thought alone: that in that cruelty of the executioners, Christ Himself, for whom he suffers, suffers more.

For if he should deny the Lord, he would incur guilt against the one for whom he ought to have conquered; therefore he must be seen to endure all things, since victory awaits him if he conquers, and punishment if he denies.

Therefore, since martyrdom is the highest thing, there are three matters which we have proposed to speak of concerning it: what it is, how great it is, and to what purpose it serves. What then is martyrdom? The end of sins, the boundary of danger, the guide of salvation, the teacher of patience, the dwelling of life—wherein even those things die which in a future trial could have been reckoned as torments. Through this, testimony is rendered to the Name, and the majesty of the Name is further magnified; not that its greatness can be diminished of itself or broken by the wickedness of one who draws back, but because it overflows to the increase of glory, while the terror of the surrounding crowd gives fearless souls over to suffering, and the threats of gnashing envy add to the title of honor, inasmuch as the mind grows so much in the fight as he thought himself to conquer through whom Christ willed to crown the man.

Then therefore all the strength of faith is deployed, then belief is proved, when you have come into the words of the crowd and into reproach, and when you have steadied yourself with a devout mind against those popular frenzies, refuting and resisting whatever the profane tongue has cast forth under your person to the injury of Christ; as when a mass set against a contrary sea struggles back, though the waves may beat and the rolling water strike again and again, yet the strength holds immovable, nor does it yield, covered by the foaming waters around it, until the force, spent upon the rocks, suppresses itself, and the sea, overcome, passes over the rocks into the open spaces of the shore.

For what else is there in those people but empty speech and idle talk and the base pleasure of vain words, as it is written: They have eyes and see not, they have ears and hear not. The heart of their foolish ones is weighed down, lest at any time they should be converted and I should heal them. For there is no doubt that he said this of all those whose hard mind and the ever-stubborn ferocity of their breast, driven away from vital devotion, dissents, led by madness, swept along by fury, and finally vexed by every kind of lawlessness by which they are at once goaded and carried away; so that, whereas their own deeds would have sufficed for their punishment, the guilt of the persecution they stirred up would add to that punishment.

All this looks to the praise of martyrdom, all this illumines the glory of the passion; in which the hope of the time to come is discerned, in which Christ Himself works, whose examples we seek to follow, and whose power it is by which we resist. And because something fitting presents itself to be said at this point, this is assuredly the highest and most admirable condescension, and one which we are able neither to conceive in mind nor to express in words. For what more could He have bestowed upon us with generous piety than to show first in Himself what He would crown in others?

He became mortal that we might be able to be immortal, and He underwent the end of the human lot, by which human affairs are governed; and, that He might seem to have granted us what He suffered, He bestowed confession, set martyrdom before us, and finally turned into a saving remedy all those things by which the light could be oppressed, through the merits of His birth, with surpassing humility and divine power. Those who have deserved to be worthy of this have been freed from death, and, with the condition of death subdued, have conquered all this most foul corruption of the world.

For there is no doubt how greatly those are rewarded by the Lord who have preferred the name of God to their own salvation, so that on that day of judgment the blood would make them better, and the blood poured forth would show them to be without stain. For death makes life more whole, death leads more surely to glory. So whenever, with the straw rejoicing, the grain swollen with rains swells and the fertile harvests are gathered in summer, so whenever the vine is cut with iron, the grape is better clothed with bursting tendrils. For whatever injury draws forth goes to the increase of the time to come. It has often helped to send flames into fields, so that by the heat of the wandering fire the blind passages of the earth may be opened. It has helped to scorch the light straw with crackling fire, so that the heavy crop might raise itself higher and a denser ear of grain might flower on the teeming stalks.

Such therefore is both the first fall and the subsequent fruit of martyrdom, which so despises death as to preserve life by death.

For what is so excellent and sublime as, amid so many instruments of the executioners, to preserve with robust devotion the whole power of faith? What so great and most beautiful as, amid so many surrounding swords, to profess with voice repeated again and again the Lord of one's liberty and the Author of one's salvation? And especially if you set before your eyes that nothing is more detestable than disgrace, nothing more foul than servitude, and that you ought now to seek nothing else, to desire nothing else, than to be snatched from the calamities of the age, to be stripped of the evils of the world, and amid the ruins of a world now on the very point of perishing to dwell apart from earthly contagion? For what have you to do with this light, to whom eternal light is promised? What with this commerce of life and nature, whom the vastness of heaven claims?

Let that desire of living hold those whom a raging fire with inexpiable evil will torment with the eternal vengeance of their crimes. Let that desire of living hold those for whom both to die is a punishment and to endure is a torment. For you now the world itself yields and the earth gives way, you who amid the universal dying have been reserved for this, that you might be able to be a martyr. Do we not daily behold funerals, do we not behold the novel deaths of a body long drawn out, the destruction of some unknown calamity raging with diseases, and the slaughter of depopulated cities—whence we may recognize how great the dignity of martyrdom must be held, to the glory of which even pestilence has begun to compel us.

And indeed, dearest brethren, look upon this, I beseech you, more fully, wherein both salvation is at stake and sublimity is reckoned—though I am not unaware that you yourselves also know most fully that we are held in the judgment of all who stand firm, and that you are not ignorant that this discipline has been handed down to us, that without any fear of warfare we should guard the force of so great a name; seeing that those whom the desire of eternal remembrance has long since drawn away from the longing for this present light, whom the vows of things to come have torn away, and whom the desirable fellowship of Christ has separated from all vices—unless we hesitate to succumb to destruction, to offer our soul to death, and we are no longer to retain and embrace the divine benefits, whose reward beyond the ardor of earthly things is so great that human mediocrity can scarcely express it in speech.

Heaven lies open to our blood, to our blood hell yields its habitation, and among all glories the more beautiful title of blood is inscribed and the more perfect crown is marked.

So, whenever a soldier laden with triumphal spoils from the enemy makes his entry, he rejoices in his wounds. So, whenever a sailor long wearied by storms has reached a safe shore, he derives his happiness from the danger he has weighed. For there is assuredly, unless I am mistaken, a joyful labor through which security is found. Therefore all things must be endured, all things suffered, nor should one seek how to rejoice for a brief time and be punished in everlasting fire. For you ought to remember that you are bound as by a certain covenant compact, from which either the just condition of attaining salvation follows, or the fearful desert of punishment—amid adversity and prosperity alike, amid arms and weapons; and on this side worldly ambition admonishes you, on that side heavenly greatness.

If you fear to lose salvation, know that you can die. Moreover, death is to be despised by you, for whom Christ was slain. Let the examples of the Lord's passion, I beseech you, come together before your eyes, let the offered rewards and the prepared dangers come together, and behold how great a difficulty each of the two things holds between them. For you will not be able to confess unless you know how greatly you harm yourself if you deny. Martyrs rejoice in heaven, fire will consume the enemies of truth. Paradise of God blooms for His witnesses, eternal fire will blaze upon those who deny, embraced by hell. And, to say nothing of the rest, this ought certainly to move us the more, that the confession of a single voice is preserved by the perpetual confession of Christ, as it is written: Whoever shall have confessed me on earth before men, I also will confess him before my Father and before His angels.

There are added still further to the increase of glory the ornaments of the virtues. For He says: The just shall shine as sparks running through a reed-bed, they shall judge nations, and shall have dominion over peoples.

For it is a great glory, dearest brethren, to adorn the life of eternal salvation with the honor of suffering, a great sublimity to despise before the face of the Lord and the sight of Christ's power the torments of human authority and not to shudder at them. So Daniel conquered the threats of the king and the rage of roaring lions through the constancy of his faith, believing that no other was to be adored but God. So for the boys placed in the furnace the fire burned within itself, while the just endure flames which, by believing in the Lord, they feared from hell. Wherefore they also received fitting recompense, not drawn out to a later time, not reserved for the reward of eternal salvation. God saw their faith, so that what they had promised themselves to see after their departure they deserved to see in the body. Nor indeed can it be estimated how great the reward in present tribulation may be, if cruelty flees, if the flame has yielded.

For there was one mind in them all, which neither violence could break, nor anger overthrow, nor the fear of death restrain from the service of devotion. Hence it came to pass through the grace of the Lord that in them the king himself seemed rather to have been punished, while those whom he had believed himself to be killing escaped.

Now, dearest brothers, I shall come to that matter by which I may sufficiently show how great is the virtue of martyrdom; which, although it is known to all and is to be sought after for the marks of its innate glory, yet the necessity of the time has added more to the desire of the will. For it is among great gifts, if one is crowned at that time when he thinks himself crowned, if perchance he dies. Therefore, since martyrdom is sublime and lofty, it is now more necessary when the world itself is being overturned, and when nature, failing as the earth is shaken, bears witness to the moments of the final departure.

For even when rain presses upon the sky, the air stretches forth a gloomy shower, and as often as a dark storm threatens the bristling sea, lightning flashes gleam through the open spaces between the clouds in the coruscating night; but also when the sea is rolled by great waves, the wave raises itself little by little, and little by little the surface whitens, until you may see it thereafter rush down so that the swelling deep casts its foam higher against those rocks upon which it is broken than the wave it had spewed forth. You read that it is written that we must render the last farthing. But this part alone has been taken away from martyrs. For those who, relying on the desires of eternal salvation, have overcome the longings of this present life, the precepts of the Lord have made free from all pain. Therefore from this point first, dearest brothers, we shall be able to set forth how great is the virtue that martyrdom can fulfil.

And, to pass over all else, we ought to remember how great is the glory of coming to Christ undefiled, of being made a sharer in his passion, and of reigning with the Lord in everlasting eternity, of being free from the impending calamities of the age, and of not being mingled in the common lot with others amid the bloody slaughter of ravaging diseases. And, to say nothing of the crown, if in these slippery evils of nature, with your departure from life set before you, departure were promised to you, would you not rejoice with your whole mind? If, I say, when you are tossed about in the storms of this world, a nearby rest were to summon you, would you not reckon death as a remedy? When you stand amid the weapons of executioners and the probing instruments of inquisitions, upright and strong, consider how great the punishment is for denying at a time when you cannot enjoy the world for whose sake you would deny.

For indeed the Lord was accustomed to arm grievous torments and the harmful arts of punishment against our destruction, in order to make the strong ready for all endurance. Scripture says: My son, when you draw near to the service of God, stand in righteousness and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation. But also the most blessed apostle Paul cried out and said: For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Wherefore, dearest brothers, with firm faith and robust devotion, we must resist with opposing virtue against the fierce threats of the age and the harsh roarings of persecutors, and those must not fear whose hope is eternity and heavenly life, and whose ardour is kindled into a longing for light, and who rejoice in salvation from the promised immortality. But the fact that hands bound by tightening chains are constrained, and that heavy fetters wound about the neck press down with solid weight, or that the body stretched on the rack creaks as it falls upon the burning plates, is not for the sake of seeking blood but for the purpose of trial. For in what way could we recognise the very dignity of martyrdom, unless we were compelled to desire it even at the cost of our body's harm?

I have perceived it, and the truth does not deceive me: when the savage hands of those pressing upon us were tearing the limbs apart, and the raging torturer was furrowing the lacerated joints, and yet did not prevail, those standing around said, "This is truly something great, something beyond words: not to be subdued by pains, not to be broken by increasing torments." Others were saying, "I think he has children; he has a wife as companion in his home." And yet he neither yields to the bond of pledges, nor, drawn away by the duty of affection, does he fail in his purpose. The matter must be known and the virtue must be searched out in its inmost depths. For that confession is not a light thing, on account of which a man suffers and is able to die.

For indeed, dearest brothers, so great is the virtue of martyrdom that through it even he who wished to kill you is compelled to believe. It is written and we read: In sorrow endure, and in your humility have patience, for gold and silver are proved through fire. Since therefore the Lord proves us by earthly trials, and Christ as searcher weighs us in these evils of the age, we ought to give thanks and rejoice that he does not reserve us for those everlasting calamities, but rejoices that we are purged from all contagion. Moreover, from those whom he admits as sharers of his inheritance and willingly receives into the kingdoms of heaven, what else does he seek but the compass of integrity? He himself declared all things his own, both what spreads out over the plains that lie below, and what rises up into sloping hills, and also what the vastness of heaven encompasses, and what the slippery surface encloses, surrounded by the flowing sea.

But if all things are adjacent to him, and he demands from us nothing but sincere deeds, we ought to be like gold, as he himself said. For when you see gold gleaming with a trembling light in the shining earth and being dissolved into liquid by the rushing flames—for such too is the craft of the artificer—as often as the glowing fire is breathed out from the panting furnaces, the rich flame is drawn forth through the narrow channel of an earthen passage; and the sand is retained as the lumps flow back. Wherefore it is necessary to endure all things, so that we may be free from all wickedness, as he said through his Prophet: And if they suffered torments in the sight of men, yet their hope is full of immortality, and having been afflicted in a few things, they shall be well rewarded in many, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself, and as a burnt offering he received them.

But if ambitious rank deters you, and the great mass of money heaped up in treasuries admonishes you—which always turns aside the purpose of a good mind and drives the soul devoted to its Lord with frenzied dread—I pray you, recall the heavenly words. For the very voice of Christ speaking is this: Whoever shall lose his soul for my name's sake, shall receive in this age a hundredfold, and in the age to come shall possess eternal life, than which assuredly we ought to reckon nothing greater, nothing more profitable. For although purple may run in patterns after the manner of precious garments, and gold may wander into appearance through softened threads, nor may heavy metals be lacking from the treasuries of mines upon which you rest, yet these things will be reckoned empty and vain, if I am not mistaken, if, with all things lying beside you, salvation alone seems to be wanting, as the Holy Spirit declares that we can give nothing in exchange for our soul.

For he says: If you gain the whole world and lose your soul, what will it profit you, or what exchange will a man give for his soul? For all things that we behold are empty, and those set upon weak roots cannot sustain the force of their own solidity. For what is taken from the world is frustrated by the oldness of time. Wherefore, lest anything should be sweet or dear that could be preferred to the desires of eternal salvation, these things have been cut off by the Lord's precepts and deprived of their own right and private law, lest, namely, a son should break a father placed in torments, or lest affection should change into another will a breast bound fast with hardened strength. Christ by his own right established that amid great tortures truth alone and salvation alone are to be embraced in him, and that in him wife, children, grandchildren, and every offspring of the inmost heart are to be claimed by a happy victory.

For Abraham also thus pleased God; who, being tried by God, spared not his own son; for whom he might perhaps have been forgiven, had he hesitated to kill him. Religious devotion armed his hands, and fatherly piety neglected all the affections of natural love at the command of the Lord commanding. He shuddered not at shedding the blood of his son, nor trembled at the voice, and Christ had not yet been slain for him. For what is more dear than he who, lest you should today unwillingly endure anything, first suffered what he might teach? What sweeter than he who, though he himself is our God and Lord, yet makes the man who suffers for him a co-heir of the heavenly kingdom?

O something great beyond words, whether because the account of conscience can scarcely sustain to grasp it, though it always marvels at great gifts, or because the majesty of God is so abundant that it offers even to all who despair those things which it had been wrong for us to desire in contemplation of our deeds. For indeed, if only eternal salvation were given, we should hold it in gratitude for the very perpetuity of living. But now, since he bestows heaven and the faculty of judging others in the everlasting age, in what respect can human mediocrity not find itself equal to all these things? If you are driven by injuries, that act came first. If you are pressed by insults, you imitate the gift of God. Wherefore also whatever you have endured for him is little, since you can do nothing more, except that in this all salvation consists, because he promised all things through martyrdom.

Finally the Apostle, to whom all things were always at heart, when he marvelled deeply at the likeness of the promised gifts, said: I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory which shall be revealed in us. For he was revolving within himself how great a reward it would be that to him for whom it would suffice to be free from death, not only the prize of salvation should be given, but also to ascend to heaven, that heaven which no banished light compels into night, nor does day open alternately into light, but the serene mildness of clear air unfolds pure brightness glowing with fiery splendour through the cloudless sky.

Now it remains, dearest brothers, that we ought to show to what purpose martyrdom is profitable, and, that we may truly teach what it is that the fear of future things stirs us to this title of glory. For to those to whom great things are promised, greater are the things that seem to be feared by them. For neither does a soldier inflame himself for arms before the enemy has set hostile weapons in motion: nor does anyone draw a ship from its moorings unless the dread of the sea has gripped his mind: but also the farmer, intent upon his resources as an explorer, does not sooner stir the earth with the fruitful ploughshare than the crumbling clod is dissolved into dust when the rain has been received. Such is all this natural practice, not to know what profits unless you have recognised what destroys. Wherefore also a reward is given to all the saints, while torments are inflicted on the unjust for their deeds.

Therefore what the Lord has promised to his own is doubtful to no one, nor is it doubtful what great fires of punishment he threatens. And since the discourse has so presented itself that account is to be taken of both, I shall set forth briefly in a few words, as I said, concerning both.

The raging place, whose name is Gehenna, breathes out through the dreadful darkness of thick night with great murmuring and groaning of those lamenting and with belching flames the fierce and ever-burning fires of a smoking furnace; a mass of compressed flames is blocked in and released into various exits of punishment. Then there are very many kinds of raging, while the devouring flame tortures within itself whatever of emitted heat it has consumed. It confines with unequal destructions those by whom the voice of the Lord was refused and his commands were despised; and according to the merit of the salvation exacted it supplies its own forces, while it assigns a distinction to each part of wickedness. And some indeed an intolerable mass bends down, others a savage force hurls headlong down the steep slope of a precipitous path, and the heavy weight bends the link of clanking chains.

There are also those whom a wheel drives in a tight and unceasing spin, and those whom bodies clinging together in dense and tenacious closeness enclose, so that the fire both consumes and the iron weighs down and the crowd of many torments itself.

But for those by whom God was always sought or known, the place of Christ never fails; where grace abides, where the earth, luxuriant with verdant fields, clothes itself in its nurtured grass, and is fed on fragrant flowers; where groves are raised to a lofty summit, and where a denser foliage clothes the tree with whatever the overhanging scene has shaded with bending boughs. All things there are of neither cold nor heat, nor do the fields rest as in autumn, nor does the fertile earth bring forth again in the new spring. All things are of one season, the fruits of one summer are borne; since neither does the moon then serve its own months, nor does the sun run through the moments of the hours, nor does the banished light yield into night.

A joyful rest holds its peoples, a peaceful dwelling is maintained, where a springing fountain emerges in the midst from the bosom of a bursting channel, and glides with a hoarse circling at intervals in winding bends, so as to be divided at the mouths of the rivers born from it. Hence therefore is the great praise of martyrs, hence the noble crown of the victors, to whom greater things than these are promised, to whom more abundant are the rewards. But the fact that the body is cast to wild beasts, or that the threatening sword is not feared, shows the manner of the divine favour, and manifests the election. For it would have been incongruous that he who had judged someone worthy of so great a gift should retain him amid earthly vices and defilements.

Rightly indeed is nothing denied to you, O good martyrs, whom the hope of eternity and of light nourishes, and whose entire devotion and mind is seen to be given over to heavenly service. Rightly, I say, rightly is nothing unlawful for you to will, in whose souls this world has been despised and the face of the age, estranged, has bristled as though with the confused blindness of darkness—to whom this world has always been in the place of a prison, its roofs as bars, and life itself ever held as a journey's passage. For in this way, with victory triumphant over these evils, he is snatched away whom vain ambition did not subject with pompous step, nor popular greatness exalt, but whom Christ, burning with heavenly desire, added to his own kingdom.

Nothing therefore is so great and venerable as that which frees from death and causes one to live and grants one to reign perpetually. This is fitting for the saints of God, necessary for the wretched, welcome to all; by it the good rejoice, the downcast are relieved, the elect are crowned. For God, the cultivator of all, gave martyrdom as a certain remedy of life, when he granted it to some according to their merit, and delivered it to others according to his mercy. For we have seen many come to this title of the name, noble in faith, so that death might honour the service of their devotion. But we have also frequently beheld others standing undaunted, so that, redeeming sins committed, they might be washed in their own blood and be held cleansed in that blood, and that those slain might revive who, while living, were reckoned as dead. For death makes life more whole; death finds again the glory that was lost. For by this, hope already lost is recovered; by this, all salvation is restored.

So when, with the fields parched and the seeds having failed, the earth has sweltered with its grasses dying, it has helped to draw forth a river from the hills above and to temper the thirsty fields with bubbling streams, so that the famished barrenness of the land might pour itself out into rich stalks, and the crop, denser, might bristle as though with a counterfeit shower of rain.

What then, dearest brethren, shall I chiefly recount, or what shall I say? As the titles of dignity thus converge into one, the mind is confounded, the sense is led astray, and in the very effort of striving speech the unequal word vanishes. For what can be said that might suffice, when, if you have expressed the force of eternal salvation, ambition presents itself, and if you have spoken of ambition, greatness forestalls it? The things agree together and rush together at once; nor is there anything that seems worthy to be brought forth. Thus the examples of martyrdom, as though entangled and ensnared, held back the onrush of daring speech from the opposite side. What voice, what lungs, what strength could bear to sustain the likeness of so great a gift? By the confession of a single voice, adversities are overcome, joys come forth, kingdoms are opened, empires are made ready, punishment is vanquished, death is subjected, life is brought forward, and the resisting arms of the assailing enemy are dissolved.

If there is a fault, it slays it; if a crime, it withdraws it. Wherefore, I beseech you, weigh this in your minds, and receive from our discourse as much as you know you are able to perceive.

Let there come before your eyes what that day is like when, with the people looking on and all beholding, an unshaken devotion struggles against earthly crosses and the threats of the age—how the suspended souls and anxious minds of those rejoicing are shaken with the trembling dread of fearful anxiety over the doubtful outcome, what anguish is there, what longing of prayers, what vows are offered up, when, with victory still shifting and the outcome uncertain, the conquering crown hangs over the head by chance, and when that pestilent and furious rage is kindled against the confession, madness is inflamed, and it is scorched at last by all the frenzy of the breast and by gnashing threats.

For who does not know how great a thing it is that our frailty, as though despised, and the unexpected courage of human virtue should not yield to the pains of wounds, nor to the blows of torments—that a man should stand and not be moved, be tortured and yet not be conquered, but rather be armed by the very punishment by which he is tormented.

Consider, dearest brethren, what it is; set before your senses and souls all the steadfastness of martyrdom. For behold, in the passion of any one who is called, the martyrs long since summoned from the world rejoice, the heralds of all honours rejoice, the elect likewise rejoice. There the Lord rejoices in his soldier, Christ rejoices in the witness of his name. Little is what I say, dearest brethren, little it is. So great a matter and so wondrous a weight has been undertaken by me in this kind of speaking; but let the gravity of judgment, I beseech you, not be wanting in its proper intention, knowing that only so much can be said of martyrdom as can be estimated. Wherefore also this alone was the reason for undertaking its praise—not that I judged myself equal and adequate to its glory, but because I discerned so great a virtue in it that, even if I said little of it, I would profess to have said very much.

For though the keeping of faith may be set before goodness, and justice, and immaculate virginity may know itself to be better among the praises of all, yet it must needs yield to blood and submit itself to gore. Those chose the good; these imitated Christ.

But now, dearest brethren, lest anyone think that I have placed all salvation in no other state than in martyrdom, let him first consider this: that neither am I so great as I appear to speak, nor does the order of things stand such that the promised hope of immortality strives less on the other side of the portion. But, since the Lord has testified with his own mouth that there are many dwelling-places with the Father, I have believed nothing greater than that glory by which those men are approved who are unworthy of worldly life. Therefore, dearest brethren, striving in emulous devotion, stirred as by a certain incentive of reward, let us undergo the full store of our strength and endurance. For transitory things ought not to move us, which are always pressed toward their own overthrow, not only by the law set forth, but also by the very end of time itself.

John cries out and says: Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree, showing plainly and making clear that the last old age of all things has come. But the Lord himself also says: Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you. And if he foretold that we must walk at that time, he showed assuredly that we should walk all the more.

And to return to the praise of martyrdom: it is the voice of the most blessed Paul saying: Do you not know that those who run in the race, many compete, but one receives the palm? But run so that you all may obtain it. But also elsewhere, in what can urge toward martyrdom, he called us co-heirs of Christ. Indeed, lest he omit anything, he says: If you have died with Christ, why do you decree as though living in this world? For indeed, dearest brethren, we who await the rewards of resurrection, who seek the day of judgment, who finally are confident that we shall reign with Christ, ought to be dead to the world. For you cannot desire martyrdom unless you first hate the world, nor arrive at God's reward unless you have loved Christ. But he who loves Christ does not love the world. For Christ was rejected by the world, just as the world also by Christ, as it is written: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

The world was lovable to no one whom the Lord had not first condemned, nor could he enjoy eternal salvation who gloried in the life of the world. This is the voice of Christ saying: He who in this world shall love his soul, in the world to come shall lose it; but he who in this world shall hate it, in the world to come shall find it. But also the apostle Paul says: Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. And elsewhere he himself says: I wish you all, if it can be, to be imitators of me.

This was said by him who suffered and who suffered to this end, that he might imitate the Lord—assuredly he also wished us to suffer to this end, that through him we might imitate Christ. If you are just and believe in God, why do you fear to shed blood for him whom you know to have suffered so many times for you? In Isaiah he was cut asunder, in Abel slain, in Isaac offered, in Joseph sold, in man crucified. And of the rest I am silent, things which neither speech can tell nor the mind sustain. The conscience is overcome by the example of humility; and as it considers how great were the things that came to pass while he suffered, it marvels at him who suffered on account of whom all things trembled.

The day fled into night, all light withdrew into darkness, and with the balance tilting by alternating turns, all the earth, shaken, burst apart; the shades were disturbed, the tombs were laid bare, and with the earth gaping open in the splitting of the sepulchres, bodies restored to the light stood forth. The world trembled at the flowing of blood, the veils that hung by their cords were rent, and the whole temple groaned. Wherefore it is a great thing to imitate him who by dying convicted the world. Therefore, when you lay down your soul after the example of the Lord's passion and in full witness to Christ, and fear not to shed blood, all things must needs yield to martyrdom. The glory of martyrdom is beyond reckoning, its measure infinite, its victory immaculate, its title beyond price, its triumph immense; inasmuch as it is set forth by the very praise of the one who confesses it, and is adorned, as it were, by the blood shared with Christ.

And so, dearest brethren, although this whole thing belongs to the Lord's promise and gift, and although it is granted from on high, and is not received except by his command, and cannot be conceived in the mind, nor expressed in words, nor traversed in speech, nor filled up by any powers of eloquence, yet this will be of your goodwill, this of your charity and love, if you shall be willing to be mindful of us while the Lord shall have begun to honour martyrdom in you. That holy altar encloses you within itself, that great seat of the venerable name encloses you within itself, as in a certain bosom of an embracing lap; the powers of everlasting time sustain you, and that realm in which you are to reign always and always to live. O blessed ones, and those whose sins are truly forgiven—if indeed those who are companions of Christ ever sinned.

O blessed ones whom the blood of the Lord has marked from the beginning of the world, and whom that splendour has rightly clothed with a snow-white garment, and the brightness of an encompassing robe has adorned. Finally I seem to myself already to behold, and by the judgment of the human mind there comes before my eyes and sight that divine and glorious vision, and I seem, I say, to myself already to behold how that truly noble company accompanies the glory of their Christ. The blessed band of victors will go before his face, and with ranks pressing close together, like an army wholly illumined by the rising of the sun, it will bring itself into the presence of power. And would that it might fall to me, utterly cast down as I am, to behold this! But this the Lord will be able to bring about, which is believed not to be denied to those who ask it of you.