Sacred Texts  Christianity  Early Church Fathers  Index  Previous  Next 

Chapter XXXI.—Paganism, Its Enormities.

“But some say, These things are instituted for the sake of joy, and for refreshing our minds; and they have been devised for this end, that the human mind may be relaxed for a little from cares and sorrows.  See now what a charge you yourselves bring upon the things which you practise.  If these things have been invented for the purpose of lightening sorrow and affording enjoyment, how is it that the invocations of demons are performed in groves and woods?  What is the meaning of the insane whirlings, and the slashing of limbs, and the cutting off of members?  How is it that mad rage is produced in them?  How is insanity produced?  How is it that women are driven violently, raging with dishevelled hair?  Whence the shrieking and gnashing of teeth?  Whence the bellowing of the heart and the bowels, and all those things which, whether they are pretended or are contrived by the ministration of demons, are exhibited to the terror of the foolish and ignorant?  Are these things done for the sake of lightening the mind, or rather for the sake of oppressing it?  Do ye not yet perceive nor understand, that these are the counsels of the serpent lurking within you, which draws you away from the apprehension of truth by irrational suggestions of errors, that he may hold you as slaves and servants of lust and concupiscence and every disgraceful thing?