The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Eleven
SALVIANIUS |
SALVIAN, THE PRESBYTER |
| VII. Sed forsitan, cum de ludicris ac foeditatibus publicis diutissime dixerimus, in hoc tantum deteriores esse nos putes barbaris, quia illi haec non agant, nos agamus, ceterum ipsos carnalis libidinis scelere et fornicationis funestae caeno non ita pollui. Comparemus, si placet, ceteris nationibus etiam in hac parte Romanos. Et quidem nescio an ullis rectius comparentur quam his, quos deus in medio rei publicae sinu positos possessores fecit ac dominos soli esse Romani. Unde quamvis nihil disputari de iudicio dei possit, tamen cum ablatam nobis iuris nostri optimam partem barbaris dederit, videamus, an id, quod nobis tulit et illis tradidit, iusto iudicio tradidisse videatur. | 7. Perhaps you are thinking that, since I have spoken at length about public games and public immorality, in this respect only are we worse than the barbarians, because they do not commit the sins we commit and they are not stained in the same way with the sin of carnal lust and the filth of deadly fornication. If you will, let me also compare the Romans with the other nations in respect to the latter. Indeed, I do not know that they are more rightly comparable to any other than to those barbarians whom, placed as possessors in the very bosom of the State, God has made the masters of the Roman soil. Hence although God's judgment can in no way be disputed, since He has taken from us the best portion of our right and given it to the barbarians, let us see whether He apparently acted according to a just judgment in this removal and bestowal. |
| VIII. Nemini dubium est Aquitanos ac Novempopulos medullam fere omnium Galliarum et uber totius fecunditatis habuisse, nec solum fecunditatis, sed, quae praeponi interdum fecunditati solent, iucunditatis, pulchritudinis, voluptatis. Adeo illic omnis admodum regio aut intertexta vineis aut florulenta pratis aut distincta culturis aut condita pomis aut amoenata lucis aut inrigua fontibus aut interfusa fluminibus aut crinita messibus fuit, ut vere possessores ac domini terrae illius non tam soli istius portionem quam paradisi imaginem possedisse videantur. | 8. Nobody doubts that the Aquitainians and the Nine Peoples possessed the best part of all Gaul. It is a land productive in its fertility, and not only fertility, but pleasantness, beauty, and luxury, which are sometimes preferred to fertility. In that part of Gaul the whole region is, so to say, interwoven with vines. Its meadows are flowered. Its fields are ploughed, or planted with fruit trees, or filled with delightful woods. The land is well watered with fountains, interspread with rivers, and rich in harvests. Truly the holders and masters of that land seem to have possessed not so much a portion of that soil as an image of paradise. |
| IX. Quid ergo post ista omnia? Officiosiores absque dubio deo esse debuerant, quos peculiariter deus abundantissima beneficiorum suorum dote ditaverat. Quid enim rectius aut quid dignius, quam ut quibus per munera sua dominus quasi specialiter videbatur placere voluisse, idem quoque specialius domino cultu ac religione placuissent, praesertim cum a nobis deus nil onerosum, nil grave exigat. Non enim nos ad aratra aut ad ligones vocat, non ad scindendas terras neque ad vineas pastinandas, non denique illa exigit a servis suis, quae nos exigimus a nostris. | 9. With these blessings, what happened? Without doubt, the inhabitants should have been more dutiful to God, they whom God particularly enriched with the most abundant of His favors. What is more proper or what is more fitting than that they, whom the Lord by His gifts seemed to have wished to favor in a special manner, should also in like manner have more especially pleased the Lord by worship and religion, particularly since God demands nothing burdensome, nothing heavy from us. He does not call us to the plough or to the mattock, nor to digging the earth, nor to preparing the ground for planting the vines. In short, He does not demand those services from His slaves which we demand from ours. |
| X. Quid namque ait? Venite ad me omnes, qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego vos reficiam: tollite iugum meum super vos et discite a me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde, et invenietis requiem animabus vestris; iugum enim meum suave est et onus meum leve est. Non ergo nos ad laborem vocat dominus, sed ad refectionem. Quid namque a nobis exigit, quid praestari sibi a nobis iubet, nisi solam tantummodo fidem, castitatem, humilitatem, sobrietatem, misericordiam, sanctitatem? Quae utique omnia non onerant nos, sed ornant. | 10. What does He say? 'Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me because I am meek and humble of heart and you will find peace for your souls; for My yoke is sweet and My burden light.' Therefore, the Lord does not call us to labor, but to refresh ourselves. What does He demand from us, what does He order to be given to Him by us, but only faith, chastity, humility, sobriety, mercy, and holiness? All these requests do not burden us. They adorn us. |
| XI. Nec solum hoc, sed ideo vitam praesentem ornant, ut futuram ornare plus possint. O bonum, o pium, o inaestimabilis misericordiae dominum! Qui ad hoc nobis in praesenti religionis munera tribuit, ut ipsa in nobis postea quae nunc dat munera muneretur. Tales igitur etiam omnes absque dubio Aquitani esse debuerant, et quidem, ut diximus, specialius tales, quia specialia dei munera possidebant. | 11. Not only this, but they adorn our life in this world in order that they may adorn more our life in the next. O good, O holy, O Lord of inestimatable mercy! Who for this end gives us the gifts of religion in this life that He may later reward in us the gifts of religion in this life that He may later reward in us the gifts which He now gives. Such, without doubt, even all the Aquitainians should have been, and, indeed, as I have said, they should have been more especially such because they received special gifts from God. |
| XII. Et quid post haec omnia? Quid secundum est? Quid nisi cuncta quae e diverso sunt? In omnibus quippe Galliis, sicut divitiis primi fuere, sic vitiis; nusquam enim improvior voluptas, nusquam inquinatior vita, nusquam corruptior disciplina. Hanc pro muneribus sacris dederunt domino retributionem, ut in quantum eos beneficiis suis ille ad se inlexerat ad propitiandum, in tantum illi flagitiis suis laboraverint ad exacerbandum. | 12. What was the result of all these gifts? What was bound to be the result? What, unless all things are otherwise than they should be? Indeed, in all Gaul, just as men are first in riches, so they are first in vice. Nowhere is pleasure more evil; nowhere is life more vicious; nowhere is discipline more corrupt. For these sacred gifts they gave this recompense to the Lord, that in proportion as He drew them by His favors to Himself for his own appeasement, they labored to provoke Him for their excesses. |