Perpetua. A Tale of Nimes in A.D. 213

by S. Baring-Gould

  CHAPTER XV

  "REVEALED UNTO BABES"

  On account of the death in the family of the timber merchant, AEmilius leftthe house and took a room and engaged attendance in the cottage of acordwainer a little way off. The house was clean, and the good woman wasable to cook him a meal not drowned in oil nor rank with garlic.

  He was uneasy because Callipodius did not return, and he obtained notidings concerning Perpetua. The image of this maiden, with a face oftransparent purity, out of which shone the radiance of a beautiful soul,haunted his imagination and fluttered his heart. He walked by the side ofthe flooded tract of land, noticed that the water was falling, and looked,at every turn he took, in the direction of Nemausus, expecting the arrivalof his client, but always in vain.

  He did at length see a boat approach, towards evening, and he paced thelittle landing-place with quick strides till it ran up against it; andthen only, to his disappointment, did he see that Callipodius was notthere. Castor disembarked.

  On the strength of his slight acquaintance AEmilius greeted the bishop. Thesuspense was become unendurable. He asked to be granted a few words inprivate. To this Castor gladly consented.

  He, the head of the Christian community, had remained unmolested. Hebelonged to a senatorial family in the town, and had relations among themost important officials. The duumvir would undoubtedly leave him aloneunless absolutely obliged to lay hands on him. Nemausus was divided intotwo towns, the Upper and the Lower, each with its own water-supply, itsown baths, and each distinct in social composition.

  The lower town, the old Gallic city, that venerated the hero-founder ofthe same name as the town, was occupied by the old Volcian population andby a vast number of emancipated slaves of every nationality, many engagedin trade and very rich. These freedmen were fused into one "order," as itwas termed, that of the _Liberti_.

  The upper town contained the finest houses, and was inhabited by the Romancolonists, by some descendants of the first Phocean settlers, and by suchof the old Gaulish nobility as had most completely identified themselveswith their conquerors. These had retained their estates and had enrichedthemselves by taking Government contracts.

  Such scions of the old Gaulish houses had become fused by marriage andcommunity of interest with the families of the first colonists, and theyaffected contempt for the pure-blooded old aristocracy who had sunk intopoverty and insignificance in their decayed mansions in Lower Nemausus.

  Of late years, slowly yet surely, the freedmen who had amassed wealth hadbegun to invade superior Nemausus, had built themselves houses of greatermagnificence and maintained an ostentatious splendor that excited the envyand provoked the resentment of the old senatorial and knightly citizens.

  The great natural fountain supplied the lower town with water, but wassituated at too low a level for the convenience of the gentry of UpperNemausus, who had therefore conveyed the spring water of Ura from a greatdistance by tunneling mountains and bridging valleys, and thus hadfurnished themselves with an unfailing supply of the liquid as necessaryto a Roman as was the air he breathed. Thus rendered independent of thenatural fountain at the foot of the rocks in Lower Nemausus, those livingin the higher town affected the cult of the nymph Ura, and spokedisparagingly of the god of the old town; whereas the inferior part of thecity clung tenaciously to the divine Nemausus, whose basin, full ofunfailing water, was presented to their very lips and had not to bebrought to them from a distance by the engineering skill of men and at agreat cost.

  Devotion to the god of the fountain in Lower Nemausus was confinedentirely to the inhabitants of the old town, and was actually a relic ofthe old Volcian religion before the advent of the colonists, Greek andRoman. It had maintained itself and its barbarous sacrifice intact,undisturbed.

  No victim was exacted from a family of superior Nemausus. The contributionwas drawn from among the families of the native nobility, and it was onthis account solely that the continuance of the septennial sacrifice hadbeen tolerated.

  Already, however, the priesthood was becoming aware that a strong feelingwas present that was averse to it. The bulk of the well-to-do populationhad no traditional reverence for the Gaulish founder-god, and many openlyspoke of the devotion of a virgin to death as a rite that deserved to beabolished.

  From the cordwainer AEmilius had heard of the mutilation of the statue andof the commotion it had caused. This, he conjectured, accounted for thedelay of Callipodius. It had interfered with his action; he had beenunable to learn what had become of the damsel, and was waiting till he haddefinite tidings to bring before he returned. AEmilius was indignant at thewanton act of injury done to a beautiful work of art that decorated one ofthe loveliest natural scenes in the world. But this indignation wasrendered acute by personal feeling. The disturbance caused by the rescueof the virgin might easily have been allayed; not so one provoked by suchan act of sacrilege as the defacing of the image of the divine founder.This would exasperate passions and vastly enhance the danger to Perpetuaand make her escape more difficult.

  As AEmilius walked up from the jetty with the bishop, he inquired of himhow matters stood with the Christians in the town and received a generalanswer. This did not satisfy the young lawyer, and, as the color suffusedhis face, he asked particularly after Perpetua, daughter of the deceasedHarpinius Laeto.

  The bishop turned and fixed his searching eyes on the young man.

  "Why make you this inquiry?" he asked.

  "Surely," answered AEmilius, "I may be allowed to feel interest in one whomI was the means of rescuing from death. In sooth, I am vastly concerned tolearn that she is safe. It were indeed untoward if she fell once more intothe hands of the priesthood or into those of the populace. The ignorantwould grip as hard as the interested."

  "She is not in the power of either," answered Castor. "But where she is,that God knows, not I. Her mother is distracted, but we trust the maidenhas found a refuge among the brethren, and for her security is keptclosely concealed. The fewer who know where she is the better will it be,lest torture be employed to extort the secret. The Lady Quincta believeswhat we have cause to hope and consider probable. This is certain: if shehad been discovered and given up to the magistrate the fact would be knownat once to all in the place."

  "To break the image of the god was a wicked and a wanton act," saidAEmilius irritably. "Is such conduct part of your religion?"

  "The act was that of a rash and hot-headed member of our body. It wascontrary to my will, done without my knowledge, and opposed to theteaching of our holy fathers, who have ever dissuaded from such acts. Butin all bodies of men there are hot-heads and impulsive spirits that willnot endure control."

  "Your own teaching is at fault," said AEmilius peevishly. "You denounce thegods, and yet express regret if one of you put your doctrine in practice."

  "If images were ornaments only," said the bishop, "then they would beendurable; but when they receive adoration, when libations are poured attheir feet, then we forbid our brethren to take part in such homage, forit is idolatry, a giving to wood and stone the worship due to God alone.But we do not approve of insult offered to any man's religion. No," saidCastor emphatically; "Christianity is not another name for brutality, andthat is brutality which insults the religious sentiment of the people, whomay be ignorant but are sincere."

  They had reached the rope-walk. The cordwainer was absent.

  "Let us take a turn," said the bishop; and then he halted and smiled andextended his palm to a little child that ran up to him and put its handwithin his with innocent confidence.

  "This," said Castor, "is the son of the timber merchant." Then to the boy:"Little man, walk with us, but do not interrupt our talk. Speak only whenspoken to." He again addressed the lawyer: "My friend, if I may so callthee, thou art vastly distressed at the mutilation of the image. Why so?"

  "Because it is a work of art, and that particular statue was the finestexample of the sculpture of a native artist. It wa
s a gift to his nativetown of the god Marcus Antoninus (the Emperor Antoninus Pius)."

  "Sir," said Castor, "you are in the right to be incensed. Now tell methis. If the thought of the destruction of a statue made by man and thegift of a Caesar rouse indignation in your mind, should you not be moremoved to see the destruction of living men, as in the shows of thearena--the slaughter of men, the work of God's hands?"

  "That is for our entertainment," said AEmilius, yet with hesitation in hisvoice.

  "Does that condone the act of the mutilator of the image, that he did itout of sport, to amuse a few atheists and the vulgar? See you how from hismother's womb the child has been nurtured, how his limbs have grown insuppleness and grace and strength; how his intelligence has developed, howhis faculties have expanded. Who made the babe that has become a man? Whoprotected him from infancy? Who builds up this little tenement of animmortal and bright spirit?" He led forward and indicated the child ofFlavillus. "Was it not God? And for a holiday pastime you send men intothe arena to be lacerated by wild beasts or butchered by gladiators! Doyou not suppose that God, the maker of man, must be incensed at thiswanton destruction of His fairest creation?"

  "What you say applies to the tree we fell, to the ox and the sheep weslaughter."

  "Not so," answered the bishop. "The tree is essential to man. Without ithe cannot build himself a house nor construct a ship. The use of the treeis essential to his progress from barbarism. Nay, even in barbarism herequires it to serve him as fuel, and to employ timber demands the fall ofthe tree. As to the beast, man is so constituted by his Creator that heneeds animal food. Therefore is he justified in slaying beasts for hisnourishment."

  "According to your teaching death sentences are condemned, as also arewars."

  "Not so. The criminal may forfeit his right to a life which he is given toenjoy upon condition that he conduce to the welfare of his fellows. If,instead thereof, he be a scourge to mankind, he loses his rights. As tothe matter of war: we must guard the civilization we have built up bycenturies of hard labor and study after improvement. We must protect ourfrontiers against the incursions of the barbarians. Unless they be rolledback, they will overwhelm us. Self-preservation is an instinct lodged inevery breast, justifying man in defending his life and his acquisitions."

  "Your philosophy is humane."

  "It is not a philosophy. It is a revelation."

  "In what consists the difference?"

  "A philosophy is a groping upwards. A revelation is a light falling fromabove. A philosophy is reached only after the intellect is ripe andexperienced, attained to when man's mind is fully developed. A revelationcomes to the child as his mind and conscience are opening and shows himhis way. Here, little one! stand on that _cippus_ and answer me."

  Castor took the child in his arms and lifted him to a marble pedestal.

  "Little child," said he, "answer me a few simple questions. Who made you?"

  "God," answered the boy readily.

  "And why did He make you?"

  "To love and serve Him."

  "And how can you serve Him?"

  "By loving all men."

  "What did the Great Master say was the law by which we are to direct ourlives?"

  "'He that loveth God, let him love his brother also.'"

  "Little child, what is after death?"

  "Eternity."

  "And in eternity where will men be?"

  "Those that have done good shall be called to life everlasting, and thosethat have done evil will be cast forth into darkness, where is weeping andgnashing of teeth."

  The bishop took the child from the pedestal, and set him again on theground.

  Then, with a smile on his face, he said to AEmilius, "Do we desire to knowour way _after_ we have erred or _before_ we start? What was hidden fromthe wise and prudent is revealed unto babes. Where philosophy ends, thereour religion begins."