Tfhio - JScholarship - Johns Hopkins University

APOLOGETICVS 1, 2 7
against themselves, or ascribe to their destiny or their star the
outbursts of an evil mind. For they are unwilling to acknowledge
as their own what they recognise to be bad. But the
Christian does nothing of the kind. No (Christian) feels shame,
or regret, except of course that he was so late in becoming
one. If he is defamed, he rejoices; if he is prosecuted, he does
not defend himself; if he is questioned, he at once confesses,
if he is condemned, he returns thanks. What evil can there be
in this which has none of the characters of evil, either fear,
or shame, prevarication, regret, or despair ? What ? is there evil
in that, which causes pleasure to the person accused of it,
whose prosecution is his dearest wish, and who finds his
happiness in his punishment? You cannot call it madness,
since you are proved to know nothing about it.
CHAP. II. Again, supposing it to be true that we are
•criminals of deepest dye, why are we treated differently by
you from our fellows, I mean all other criminals, since the same
guilt ought to meet with the same treatment? When others
are called by whatever name is apphed to us, they employ both
their own voices and the services of a paid pleader to set forth
their innocence. They have every opportunity of answering
and cross-questioning, since it is not even legal that persons
should be condemned entirely undefended and unheard. But
the Christians alone are not permitted to say anything to clear
themselves of the charge, to uphold the truth, to prevent injustice
in the judge. The one thing looked for is that which
is demanded by the popular hatred, the confession of the name,
not the weighing of a charge. Whereas, if you were inquiring
into the case of some criminal, you would not be satisfied to
give a verdict, immediately on his confession of the crime of
homicide or sacrilege or incest or treason, to speak of the charges
levelled against us, unless you also demanded an account of the
accessory facts, the character of the act, the frequency of its
repetition, the place, the manner, the time, who were privy to
it, who were accomplices in it. In our case no such procedure
is followed, although there was an equal necessity to sift by
investigation the false charges that are bandied about, how
many slaughtered babes each had already tasted, how many
times he had committed incest in the dark, what cooks, what
dogs had been present (on the occasion). Oh what fame would
that governor have acquired, if he had ferreted out some one,
who had already eaten up a hundred infants! But we find
that in our case even such inquiry is forbidden. For Plinius
Secundus, when he was in command of a province, after con-