Flight in Persecution

If iniquity is not from God but from the devil, and persecution consists of iniquity (for what is more iniquitous than that the ministers of the true God, all followers of truth, should be treated after the manner of the most wicked?), it therefore seems that persecution comes from the devil, by whom iniquity is wrought, out of which persecution is constituted: we ought to know that, inasmuch as persecution is not without the iniquity of the devil, nor the proving of faith without persecution, the iniquity necessary for the proving of faith does not furnish patronage to persecution but ministry; for the will of God concerning the proving of faith, which is the reason of persecution, goes before, while the iniquity of the devil follows as the instrument of persecution, which is the reason of the proving.

For also in other respects, inasmuch as iniquity is the rival of justice, to that same extent it is the material for the testimonies of that whose rival it is; so that justice is thus perfected in iniquity, just as virtue is perfected in weakness. For the weak things of the world are chosen by God to confound the strong, and the foolish things thereof to confound the wise. So also iniquity is employed that justice may be proved, confounding iniquity. Therefore, because the ministry is not of free choice but of servitude (for the free choice is the Lord's—persecution, for the proving of faith; the ministry however is the iniquity of the devil, for the equipping of persecution)—thus we believe that it comes through the devil, if perhaps, but not from the devil.

Satan will have no power over the servants of the living God, unless the Lord shall have permitted it, either to destroy him through the faith of the elect victorious in temptation: or to expose those who were his own, who have fallen away to him. You have the example of Job, upon whom the devil could inflict no temptation unless he had received power from God, not even against his substance, unless the Lord had said, Behold, all that he has I give into your hand, but upon himself do not stretch out your hand. And indeed he did not stretch it out, except after the Lord had also said to him when he asked, Behold, I deliver him to you; only preserve his life. So also against the Apostles he sought the power of temptation, not having it except by permission.

For indeed the Lord says in the Gospel to Peter: Behold, Satan has demanded to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail: that is, that so much might not be permitted to the devil as to endanger faith. By which it is shown that both things are with God—both the shaking of faith and its protection—since both are sought from Him: the shaking by the devil, the protection by the Son. And surely, since the Son of God holds the protection of faith in His own power, which He requests from the Father, from whom He receives all power in heaven and on earth, what manner of thing is it that the devil should hold the shaking of faith in his own hand?

But in the lawful Prayer when we say to the Father: Lead us not into temptation—and what temptation is greater than persecution?—we acknowledge that it comes from Him from whom we beg deliverance from it: for this is what follows: But deliver us from the evil one; that is, do not lead us into temptation by delivering us to the evil one. For then we are delivered from the hands of the devil when we are not handed over to him in temptation. Nor did the legion of the devil have power even over the herd of swine, unless it had obtained it from God—far less then does it have such power over the sheep of God. I can say that even the bristles of the swine were numbered at that time before God; how much more the hairs of the saints.

The devil seems to have his own power already, if perhaps over those who do not belong to God—once reckoned as a drop of a bucket, and as dust of the threshing-floor, and as spittle among the nations assigned by God, and thereby exposed to the devil as a kind of vacant possession. But over the household of God he has no power from his own authority; because when he is permitted, that is, for what reasons, the examples recorded in the Scriptures show. For either by reason of proving, the right of temptation is granted to him when provoked or when provoking, as in the cases above: or by reason of reproving, the sinner is handed over to him as to an executioner for punishment, as Saul: And the Spirit of the Lord, it says, departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him and choked him.

Or by reason of restraint, as the Apostle relates that a thorn, an angel of Satan, was given to him to buffet him: nor is even this kind permitted to the devil against the saints for the humbling of them through affliction of the flesh, except at the same time that the virtue of endurance may be perfected in weakness; for the Apostle himself also delivered Phygelus and Hermogenes to Satan, that they might be corrected, lest they blaspheme. You see now that the devil receives power even more readily from the servants of God—so far is he from possessing it as his own property.

Since therefore these examples occur more especially in persecutions—inasmuch as we are then more proved or reproved, and then more humbled or corrected—it must needs be that all these things are permitted or commanded universally by Him by whom they are permitted even in part, namely by Him who says: I am He who makes peace and creates evil, that is, war. For this is the opposite of peace. But what is war to our peace, if not persecution? If the outcomes of persecution above all either bring life or death, wound or healing, you have the author of the same: I will smite and I will heal; I will give life and I will kill. I will burn them, He says, as silver is burned; and I will prove them, He says, as gold is proved. For when we are burned by the fire of persecution, then we are proved by the tenor of faith.

These will be the fiery darts of the devil, through which the burning and refining of faith is administered; yet from the will of God. Who can doubt this, I know not, unless it be a plainly frivolous and cold faith, detecting those who come together timidly in the Church. For you say: Because we assemble in disorder, we assemble together, and we run together in great numbers to the Church, we are sought out by the nations, and we fear lest the nations be disturbed. Do you not know that God is Lord of all? And if God wills it, then you will suffer persecution; but if He wills it not, the nations will be silent. Believe it, at any rate—if indeed you believe in that God without whose will not a sparrow of a single farthing falls to the ground. But we, I think, surpass many sparrows.

What is good that is not divine? But if it seems otherwise to the sense of any individual, the sense of man does not prejudge the state of the matter, but the state prejudges the sense. For the state of each thing is something fixed, and gives to the sense its law—to perceive the state as it is. But if in state that which comes from God is good (for nothing from God is not good, because it is divine, because it is rational), yet to the sense it seems evil, the state will be secure, the sense at fault. In state, chastity and truth and justice are excellent things, which displease the sense of many. Is the state therefore surrendered to the sense? So also persecution is good in state, because it is a divine and rational dispensation; but it displeases the sense of those to whose harm it comes.

You see also that even that evil has a reason with God, when someone in persecution is overthrown from salvation—just as that good also comes about with reason, when someone through persecution advances in salvation? Unless someone perishes before the Lord or is saved irrationally: he will not be able to call persecution an evil, which even in its evil part is good, since it is administered with reason. Thus if persecution is good in every way, because it rests upon state, we rightly determine that what is good ought not to be avoided: because it would be a fault to refuse what is good; and all the more so since it has seemed good to God: and indeed it cannot be avoided, because it comes from God, whose will cannot be escaped.

Therefore those who think one ought to flee either reproach God with evil, if they flee persecution as an evil—for no one avoids a good—or they esteem themselves stronger than God, who think they can escape if God has willed that something of this kind should come to pass.

But, he says, What is mine to do, I do: I flee, lest I perish if I deny; it is His part, if He will, to bring me back even as I flee into the midst. Answer me this first: Are you certain that you will deny if you do not flee, or uncertain? For if you are certain, you have already denied; because by presuming that you will deny, you have pledged the very thing you presumed; and you flee in vain lest you deny, since if you are going to deny, you have already denied. But if you are uncertain, why, given the equal uncertainty of fear between either outcome, do you not also presume that you can confess, and be saved the more by not fleeing, just as you presume you will deny, so as to flee? Now then, either both outcomes are in our power, or the whole is in God's.

If it is in our power to confess or to deny, why do we not presume the better thing, that is, that we shall confess?—unless, while wishing to confess, you are unwilling to suffer. But to be unwilling to confess is to deny. If, however, the whole is in God, why do we not leave the whole to His judgment? Acknowledging His virtue and power, that He who can bring us back even as we flee into the midst, can likewise overshadow those who do not flee, yea even those who walk in the midst of the people. What manner of thing is it, that you render honour to God in the matter of fleeing—since He can bring you even as you flee into the midst—yet dishonour Him in the matter of bearing witness, despairing of the power of His protection?

Why do you not rather, from this side of constancy and trust in God, say: What is mine to do, I do; I do not depart: God, if He will, will Himself protect me—this is rather our part, to stand under God's judgment, than to flee under our own? Rutilius, a most holy martyr, who had so many times fled persecution from place to place, and had even redeemed his danger (as he supposed) with money, after all the security he had provided for himself, was seized unexpectedly, brought before the governor, torn by torments—in punishment, I believe, for his flight—and then given to the flames; and the passion which he had avoided he ascribed to the mercy of God. What else did the Lord wish to show us by this example, than that flight is not to be taken, because flight profits nothing if God wills otherwise?

Nay, he says, he fulfilled the commandment by fleeing from city to city. For thus a certain person—himself also a fugitive—wished to argue, and those who likewise refuse to understand the meaning of that pronouncement of the Lord, so as to use it as a cloak for their own timidity, although it had its own persons and times and causes: When they begin, He says, to persecute you, flee from city to city. We maintain that this pertains properly to the persons of the Apostles, and to their times and causes, as the preceding and following senses will prove, which apply to none but the Apostles: Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into a city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But for us, the way of the Gentiles lies open, in which we were even found, and along which we travel to the end; and no city is excepted, throughout the whole world in which we preach; nor is the care of Israel enjoined upon us as a special charge, except insofar as we ought to preach to all nations as well. Even if we are arrested, we shall not be brought before their councils, nor shall we be scourged in their synagogues, but we shall be subjected to Roman authorities and tribunals. Thus, therefore, the condition of the Apostles also required the precept of flight, since the preaching had first to be made to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

So that the preaching might be accomplished among those with whom it was first to be accomplished—that the children might take the bread before the dogs—He therefore commanded them to flee for a time: not for the purpose of evading danger in the proper name of persecution (for indeed He foretold that they would suffer persecutions, and taught that they were to be endured); but for the sake of advancing the proclamation, lest, if they were immediately overwhelmed, the dissemination of the Gospel should also perish. For they were not to take refuge silently in some city, but as those who would proclaim everywhere, and would on that account everywhere undergo persecutions, until they had filled all with their teaching. Finally: Ye shall not have gone through, He says, the cities of Israel. So strictly was the precept of flight confined within the borders of Judaea. But for us no limitation of Judaea applies to our preaching, now that the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh.

And so Paul, and the Apostles themselves, mindful of the Lord's precept, bear witness to it before Israel, whom they had already filled with their teaching: To you it was necessary that the word of God should first be delivered. But since you have rejected it, and have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations. And from that point, having turned, they themselves, as their predecessors had established, went into the way of the Gentiles, and entered into the cities of the Samaritans; so that, namely, their sound might go out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. If, therefore, the exception of the way of the Gentiles and the entry into the cities of the Samaritans has ceased, why should not the precept of flight, issued at the same time, likewise have ceased? Finally, from the time when, Israel being satisfied, the Apostles turned to the nations, they neither fled from city to city, nor hesitated to suffer.

And indeed Paul, who had let himself down through the wall to escape from the persecution which existed up to that time of the precept; the same man, now at the close of his ministry and at the completion of the precept, when the disciples earnestly entreated him not to commit himself to Jerusalem, where he was to suffer what Agabus had prophesied, did not yield to their concern; but on the contrary said: What do ye, weeping and troubling my heart? For I not only desire to endure bonds, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ. And so all said: The will of the Lord be done. What was the will of the Lord? Assuredly, that persecution was no longer to be fled. Otherwise, those who had preferred that he avoid persecution could also have put forward the earlier will of the Lord by which He had commanded flight.

Therefore, since even under the Apostles themselves the precept of flight was temporary, as were the rest of the prescriptions, it cannot persist among us when it has ceased among our teachers, even if it had not been issued specifically for them: or if the Lord wished it to persist, the Apostles sinned who did not take care to flee to the very end.

Let us now see whether the other edicts of the Lord also accord with a perpetual precept of flight. First of all, if persecution is from God, what manner of thing is it that He who also inflicts it should command that it be fled? If He wished it to be escaped, He would better not send it, lest He seem to act contrary to His own will. For either He wished us to suffer persecution, or to flee. If to flee, how to suffer? If to suffer, how to flee? And indeed, how great is the inconsistency of the sentences of one who commands flight and at the same time invites to suffering, which is contrary to flight? Whosoever shall confess me, him will I also confess before my Father. How shall he confess who flees? How shall he flee who confesses? Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, him will I also be ashamed of before the Father. If I avoid suffering, I put confession to shame.

Blessed are they who shall have suffered persecution for my name's sake. Unhappy, therefore, are those who, by fleeing according to the precept, shall not have suffered. He who shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved. Why then, by commanding me to flee, do you wish me to endure to the end? Such great diversity of sentences, if it does not accord with divine gravity, it is apparent from these also that the precept of flight had its own rationale at that time, which we have shown. But, he says, the Lord, foreseeing the weakness of certain persons, out of His own humanity nonetheless also pointed out the harbour of flight: for He was not capable, even without so base and unworthy and servile a refuge as flight, of saving in persecution those whom He knew to be weak. And yet He never fosters but always rejects the weak; first teaching that persecutors are not to be fled but rather not to be feared.

Fear not them who can kill the body, but can do nothing against the soul. But fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. And what does He then prescribe for the timid? He who shall have valued his own life more than me is not worthy of me; and: He who does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Finally, in the Apocalypse He offers the timid not flight, but, among the other reprobates, a portion in the lake of sulphur and fire, which is the second death.

He Himself also at times avoided violence, but for the same reason for which He had commanded the Apostles to flee; namely, until He had completed His teaching; which being accomplished, I do not say He stood firm, but He did not even desire the aid of a host of angels from the Father, having rebuked even the sword of Peter; and He Himself also confessed that His soul was sorrowful even unto death and the flesh weak; in order to show you, first, that both human substances were in Him, from the characteristic of the soul's anguish and the weakness of the flesh; lest you should interpret the flesh or the soul of Christ as something other (as certain persons have now introduced); and then, in order that, having shown the conditions of each, you might know that they avail nothing of themselves without the spirit.

And therefore He sets first: The spirit is willing, so that, looking upon both conditions of each substance, you may understand that there is in you also the strength of the spirit, just as there is also the weakness of the flesh; and that from this you may know what to do from what source, and what to subject to what; namely, the weak to the strong: lest, as you now do, you plead the weakness of the flesh as an excuse, while dissembling the firmness of the spirit. He also asked of the Father: If it were possible, let the cup of suffering pass from Him. Ask you also, but standing as He stood, but only asking, but adding also the rest: Yet not what I will, but what thou wilt. But fleeing, how will you ask this, yourself procuring the removal of the cup, and doing not what the Father wills, but what you will?

The Apostles taught all things according to God, they wished to proclaim all things. Where do you show that they restored the precept of fleeing from city to city? For neither could they have established any such thing so contrary to their own examples, as to enjoin flight; they who were writing to the Churches most especially from bonds or islands, in which they were confined on account of their confession, not on account of flight from the Name. Paul bids us bear with the weak; assuredly not those who flee (for how could those who are absent be borne with?). Or does he mean that those who have stumbled somewhere through the weakness of their faith are to be borne with in patience? So also the fainthearted are to be consoled, yet not sent into flight. But when he admonishes: Give no place to the devil, he does not suggest the counsel of flight, but teaches the restraint of anger.

And if he says that time is to be redeemed, because the days are evil; it is not through flight, but through the wisdom of our conduct, that he wishes us to gain our opportunity. Moreover, he who commands us to shine as children of light does not command us to hide ourselves by flight as children of darkness. He commands us to stand immovable—assuredly not movable by flight—and to be girded: for flight, or for the encounter of the Gospel? He also points out arms, which would not be necessary for those about to flee, among which is also the shield, with which ye can quench the darts of the devil, resisting without doubt, and receiving every assault of his. Likewise John also teaches that souls are to be laid down for the brethren, let alone for the Lord. This cannot be fulfilled by those who flee. Finally, mindful of his own Apocalypse, in which he had heard the end of the timid, he himself also admonishes from his own understanding that fear is to be rejected.

Fear, he says, is not in love. But indeed perfect love casts out fear; because fear has torment—assuredly the fire of the lake. But he who fears is not perfect in the love of God, that is. Furthermore, who will flee persecution, except he who fears? Who will fear, except he who has not loved? But if you consult the Spirit, what does the Spirit prove more by that utterance? For He exhorts almost all to martyrdom, not to flight, that we may also recall that utterance of His: You are made public, it is good for you. For he who is not made public among men is made public before the Lord. Be not ashamed; justice brings you into the midst. Why are you ashamed, sowing praise? Power is gained when you are seen by men. So also elsewhere: Desire not to depart in beds, nor in miscarriages and soft fevers, but in martyrdoms; that He may be glorified who suffered for you.

But setting aside the divine exhortations, certain persons apply to themselves rather that Greek verse of secular sentiment: He who fled will fight again; so that he may perhaps flee again as well. And when will he conquer, who, having fled, is already conquered? Does he render good service as a soldier to Christ his commander, who, so fully armed by the Apostle, upon hearing the trumpet of persecution, deserts the day of persecution? I too will answer something from the secular world: Let him die in whatever manner, whether conquered or conqueror. For even if he has fallen by denying, he has nonetheless fought through torments. I prefer one who is pitied to one who is put to shame. A soldier lost in battle is more glorious than one saved in flight.

You fear man, O Christian, who ought to be feared by angels, since you are to judge angels; who ought to be feared by demons, since you have also received power over demons; who ought to be feared by the whole world, since the world is also judged in you. You have put on Christ, since you were baptized into Christ. You who flee the devil have made Christ, who is in you, of no account. You have made yourself a fugitive together with the devil. But in fleeing the Lord, you reproach all fugitives with the vanity of their counsel. A certain bold prophet also fled the Lord; he had crossed from Joppa to Tarsus, as though he were sailing away from God; but I find him not only in the sea and on the land, but even in the belly of a beast, in which he could not even die for three days, nor in that way escape God. How much better is the servant of God?

Who, whether an enemy of God threatens, does not flee him, but rather despises him, trusting of course in the protection of the Lord; or whether he stands in awe of God, how much more does he stand before His eyes, saying: He is the Lord, He is mighty; all things are His; wherever I shall be, I am in His hand; let Him do what He will, I will not depart; and if He shall wish me to perish, let Him destroy me Himself, while I keep myself for Him. I prefer to provoke His displeasure by perishing according to His own will, than His wrath by escaping through my own.

Every servant of God, even of lesser rank, ought to think and do this, so that he may be made of greater rank, if he shall have ascended any degree through the endurance of persecution. But when the leaders themselves, that is, the deacons, presbyters, and bishops themselves flee, how will a layman be able to understand in what sense it was said, Flee from city to city? And so when the commanders flee, who from the rank of common soldiers will endure those who urge that a stand be made in the line of battle? Certainly a good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep; as Moses, before the Lord Christ had yet been revealed, though also prefigured in himself, says: If thou destroyest this people, destroy me equally along with them.

But, with Christ confirming His own prefigurations, he is a bad shepherd who, seeing the wolf, flees and abandons the flock to be scattered: a shepherd of this kind shall be cast out from the estate; the wages of his ministry shall be withheld in compensation; nay, even from his former savings the restitution of the master's loss shall be exacted from him. For to him who has, it shall be given; but from him who has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken away. Thus Zechariah threatens: Arise, O sword, against the shepherds, and pluck away the sheep; I will turn my hand against the shepherds. Against whom also Ezekiel and Jeremiah declaim with the same threats, that not only do they feed shamefully upon the flock, feeding rather themselves, but also that they cause the scattered flock to become prey for all the beasts of the field, while there is no shepherd for them. This never happens more than when the Church is abandoned by the Clergy in persecution.

If anyone has also acknowledged the Spirit, he will hear it denouncing fugitives as well. Furthermore, if it is neither fitting nor lawful for those who preside over the flock to flee when wolves rush in (for he who pronounced such a shepherd bad has certainly condemned him, and everything that is condemned has without doubt been made unlawful), therefore it will not be right for the leaders of the Church to flee in persecution. Otherwise, if the flock ought to flee, the leader of the flock ought not to stand, standing without purpose as guardian of the flock, which would not need him, by reason of the permission to flee.

As regards your problem, brother, you have the response and exhortation of our opinion. Furthermore, he who asks whether persecution is to be fled must of necessity also look ahead to the following question, whether, if it is not to be fled, it is at least to be ransomed. I will therefore also offer you my thoughts on this matter, defining persecution, which it is agreed is not to be fled, as likewise not to be ransomed. The price makes the difference. Otherwise, just as flight is a free ransom, so a monetary ransom is flight. Certainly this too is a counsel of cowardice. What you fear, you ransom; therefore you flee. You stood on your feet, you ran with your coins. The very fact that you stood through ransom means you fled.

But to ransom your person with money, whom Christ redeemed with His own blood—how unworthy of God and of His dispensation, who spared not His own Son for you, that He might become a curse for us; because cursed is he who has hung upon a tree; who was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer, so opened not His mouth; but gave His back to stripes, and His cheeks to blows, and turned not His face from spitting, and was reckoned among the wicked, and was delivered unto death, even the death of the cross: all this, that He might gain us from our sins! The sun withdrew from the day of our purchase. In the underworld is our emancipation, and our bond is in the heavens. The everlasting gates were lifted up, that the king of glory might enter, the Lord of hosts, who purchased man from the earth, nay from the underworld, into the heavens.

Who is there now who struggles against Him, nay who depreciates Him, and defiles the price purchased at so great a cost, namely by His most precious blood? Now therefore it is better to flee than to become of lesser worth, if man shall not cost himself as much as he cost the Lord. And the Lord indeed redeemed him from the angels who hold dominion over the world, from the spiritual powers of wickedness, from the darkness of this age, from eternal judgment, from everlasting death. But you make terms for him with an informer, or a soldier, or some petty thieving governor, under cloak and in the fold (as they say) as if by stealth—him whom Christ bought before the whole world, nay also set free! Will you then value this free man at a price, and possess him at a price, unless at the same price (as we have said) at which he cost the Lord, namely His own blood? Why then do you redeem Christ from man in the man in whom Christ dwells?

Not otherwise did Simon also attempt to do, when he offered money to the Apostles for the Spirit of Christ. He therefore shall also hear, who in ransoming himself has ransomed the Spirit of Christ: Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the grace of God is to be obtained for a price. Who would despise such a denier? For what does that extortioner say? Give me money. Certainly lest he betray him; since he sells nothing other than what he is about to provide in exchange for your payment. When you give, you certainly wished not to be betrayed. But not having been betrayed, you were going to be exposed. Therefore, while in not wishing to be betrayed you do not wish to be exposed, in not wishing it you denied what you did not wish to be exposed as. Nay, you say, while I do not wish to be exposed as what I am, I have confessed that to be what I do not wish to be exposed as, that is, a Christian.

Can you therefore claim the title of martyr? That you showed Christ steadfastly? By ransoming yourself, you did not show it. If perhaps you confessed before one person, then by refusing to confess before many, you denied. Safety itself will judge that the man has fallen while escaping. He therefore has fallen who preferred to have escaped. The refusal of martyrdom is also a denial. The Christian is saved by money; and in this he has coins so that he need not suffer, while he shall be rich against God. Yet Christ was rich in blood for him: Blessed therefore are the poor, for theirs is, he says, the kingdom of heaven, who have only their soul in what is confiscated. If we cannot serve God and mammon, can we be redeemed by God and by mammon? For who will serve mammon more than he whom mammon has redeemed? Finally, what example do you use in support of ransoming from betrayal? The Apostles, harassed by persecutions, when did they free themselves by handling money?

Which certainly was not lacking to them, from the prices of estates laid at their feet; certainly with many wealthy believing men and women, who also supplied them with refreshments in these circumstances. When did Onesiphorus, or Aquila, or Stephanas assist them in this manner during persecution? Paul indeed, when Felix the governor had hoped to receive money for him from the disciples, about which he also treated with him privately, neither did Paul himself pay for himself, nor did the disciples pay for him. Those disciples certainly, who weeping because he persisted in going to Jerusalem and did not take precaution against the persecutions foretold there, finally say: The will of God be done. What is this will? Certainly that he should suffer for the name of the Lord, not that he should be ransomed. For it is necessary, just as Christ laid down His life for us, that the same be done for Him by us; and not only for Him, but also for our brethren on His account.

Which John, in teaching, declared must be done not by paying money to brethren, but rather by dying. It makes no difference whether you ought not to ransom or to purchase any Christian. And so the will of God is thus. Consider the condition of kingdoms and empires, certainly disposed by God, in whose hand is the heart of the king: so many remedies of taxes, revenues, contributions, and stipends are daily provided for the enrichment of the treasury: and never up to this point has any such thing been devised from Christians, to reduce them to some ransom of their persons and sect, when an immense profit could be reaped from so great a multitude unknown to no one. Purchased by blood, rewarded by blood, we owe no coin for our persons, because our head is Christ. It is not fitting that Christ should cost money. How could martyrdoms also come to pass in the glory of the Lord, if we were to compensate the license of our sect by a tribute?

Therefore he who makes terms for it by payment acts against the divine dispensation. Since therefore Caesar has imposed nothing upon us in this manner of a tributary sect, nor could any such thing ever be imposed, with Antichrist now at hand, and thirsting for the blood, not the money, of Christians, how can anyone propose to me that the Scripture says: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's? A soldier, or an informer, or an enemy extorts from me, demanding nothing for Caesar, nay acting against him, when he dismisses a Christian, guilty under human laws, for a reward. The coin which I owe to Caesar is another matter, which pertains to him, about which the question was then raised, the tributary coin; owed by tributaries, not by free men. Or how shall I render to God the things that are God's? Certainly likewise His own image and coin, inscribed with His name, that is, the Christian man.

But what do I owe to God, as the coin to Caesar, if not the blood which His Son shed for me? But if I owe to God both man and my blood; and now I am in that time when what I owe to God is being demanded; certainly I commit fraud against God by acting so as not to pay what I owe. Have I well observed the commandment, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, while denying to God the things that are God's?

But also to every one who asks of me I will give. In the matter of almsgiving, not of extortion. To him who asks, he says. But he who extorts does not ask. He who threatens if he does not receive does not petition, but extorts. He does not await almsgiving who comes not to be pitied but to be feared. I will give therefore in the name of my mercy, not of my cowardice; where he who receives honors God, and returns a blessing to me; not where he believes himself to have rendered a greater service, and looking upon his prey says: "It is on account of a charge."

I will feed even my enemy. But enmities have other titles. Yet he did not say betrayer, or persecutor, or extortioner. For upon this one, how much more shall I heap coals upon his head, if I do not ransom myself? Likewise, he says, to him who takes your tunic, or even your cloak, yield it—this pertains to one who seeks to take my property, not my faith. I will yield even my cloak to one who does not threaten betrayal. If he has threatened it, I will demand back even my tunic. All the Lord's pronouncements now have their own causes and rules and limits; they do not extend to infinity, nor do they apply to all things. And indeed he who commands that something be given to every one who asks, does not himself give a sign to those who ask for one.

Otherwise, if you think something must be given to all who ask indiscriminately, you seem to me to be the sort who would give wine to a feverish man—not to mention poison, or a sword to one who desires death. But make for yourselves friends of mammon—let the parable set before it teach how this is to be understood; it was spoken to the Jewish people, who, having badly administered the account of the Lord entrusted to them, ought rather to seek friends for themselves from among the people of mammon, which is what we were, than enemies; and to release us from the debts of sins by which we were held bound to God, if they would share with us from the Lord's account; so that when they began to fall away from his grace, taking refuge in our faith, they might be received into the eternal tabernacles.

Although now suppose another interpretation of the parable and of that saying, so long as you know it is not plausible that our extortioners, brought into friendship through mammon, should then receive us into the eternal tabernacles. But what will not timidity persuade? As though Scripture both permits flight and commands ransom. It is little enough if one or another is thus ransomed. Wholesale, entire churches have imposed a tribute upon themselves. I know not whether one should grieve or blush, when in the registers of beneficiaries and spies, among tavern-keepers, and butchers, and bath-house thieves, and gamblers, and pimps, Christians too are listed as tributaries. This form the Apostles more prudently established for the episcopate that they might enjoy their kingdom in security under the pretext of administration. For of course such is the peace which Christ, on returning to the Father, commanded to be purchased from soldiers by means of Saturnalia gifts.

But how shall we assemble, you say, how shall we celebrate the Lord's solemnities? Surely in the same way as the Apostles: made safe by faith, not by money; which faith, if it can move a mountain, can much more move a soldier. Be prudent through wisdom, not through a bribe. For you will not immediately be safe from the populace either, if you have bought off military duties. You need, therefore, one and the same thing—faith and wisdom—for your protection: without these applied, you can even lose your ransom payment; with them applied, you will have no need of ransom at all. Finally, if you cannot assemble by day, you have the night, luminous with the light of Christ against it. You cannot go about to each individual: let the Church be for you even in three. It is better that you sometimes not see your crowds, than that you sell them. Keep the virgin bride for Christ. Let no one make profit from her. These things perhaps seem harsh and intolerable to you, brother.

But recite that God has said: He who receives it, let him receive it; that is, he who does not receive it, let him depart. He who fears to suffer cannot belong to him who suffered. But he who does not fear to suffer, he will be perfect in love—of God, assuredly. For perfect love casts out fear. And therefore many are called, few are chosen. It is not sought who is ready to follow the broad way, but who follows the narrow. And therefore the Paraclete is the necessary guide into all truths, the exhorter unto all endurances; those who have received him have known neither how to flee persecution nor how to purchase exemption from it, having him who will be for us, as he is to speak in our behalf at examination, so also to aid us in suffering.