A Type Of Murder

Petilianus dixit: Falsidicos et mendaces sic identidem obiurgat:  Filii diaboli estis, et ab initio enim ille accusator fuit, et in veritate non stetit. Augustinus respondit: Non solemus legere: Ille accusator fuit; sed: Ille homicida fuit. Quaerimus autem unde fuerit diabolus homicida ab initio; et invenimus, quod primum hominem occiderit, non gladium stringendo, aut aliquam vim corporaliter inferendo; sed persuadendo peccatum, et a paradisi felicitate deiiciendo. Quod tunc paradisus, hoc nunc Ecclesia. Diaboli ergo filii sunt, qui homines ab Ecclesia seducendo interficiunt. Sicut autem per verba Dei novimus ubi sit plantatus paradisus, sic per verba Christi ubi sit Ecclesia didicimus: Per omnes, inquit, gentes, incipiens ab Ierusalem. Ab isto universo ad partem quamlibet quisquis separat hominem, ille diaboli filius et homicida convincitur. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Contra Litteras Petiliani Donatistae, Liber II, Caput XIII Source: Migne PL 24.266

Petilianus said: Again and again the Lord reproaches false speakers and liars: 'You are the children of the devil, for he also was a slanderer from the beginning, and did not remain in the truth.' Augustine answered: We are not accustomed to say, 'He was a slanderer,' but 'He was a murderer.' 1 But we ask how it was that the devil was a murderer from the beginning; and we find that he killed the first man, not by drawing a blade, or by bringing upon him any physical violence, but by persuading him to sin, and so casting him out from the happiness of Paradise. What then was Paradise is now the Church. Therefore they are the sons of the devil who kill men by seducing them from the Church. But as by the words of God we know how things were in Paradise, so now by the words of Christ we have learned where the Church is: 'Throughout all nations,' He says, 'beginning at Jerusalem.' 2 Because of this whoever separates a man from that complete whole to place him in any single part, is proved to be a son of the devil and a murderer. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Against Petilianus The Donatist, Book 2, Chapter 13 1 John 8.44 2 Lk 24.47

The Little Ones

Quaestio 1 Quod dictum est: Occisos infantes a bimatu et infra, significatum est humiles habentes geminam caritatem, tamquam parvulos bimos posse mori pro Christo. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Quaestionum Septendecim In Evangelium Secundum Matthaeum Source: Migne PL 35.1365

Question 1 When it is said, 'Killing the babes two years old and less,' 1 here is signified those humble ones who have the twofold love, 2 just as those two year old little ones who were able to die for Christ. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Seventy Questions On The Gospel Of Matthew 1 Mt 2.16 2 Mt 22.37-40

A Violent Man Chastised

Ὅτι βδελύσσεται Χριστὸς τοὺς ἄνδρας τῶν αἱμάτων, οὐκ αὐτοὺς δὲ μόνους φημι, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντας τοὺς οἰκοῦντας σὺν αὐτοῖς, ὡς οὐκ ἐπεξιόντας ταῖς αὐτῶν κακουργίαις, δείκνυσιν ἐπὶ Ἡρώδου. Μετὰ γὰρ τὴν τοῦ Βαπτιστοῦ μιαιφονίαν καταλιπὼν ἀνεχώρησωεν. Εἰ τοίνυν μη καὶ σαυτὸν καὶ πάντας τούς ἐν τῇ πόλει τῆς Ἡρώδου βούλει τυχεῖν τελευτῆς, μεθ' ὦν καὶ οἶκός σου καὶ παῖδες ἀφανισθήσονται, παῦσαι τῆς ἀνηκέστου μανίας. Τί μάτην ἐπείγῃ κακῶς ἐξολέσθαι; Ἅγιος Ἰσιδορου Του Πηλουσιωτου, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΣΛΓ', Ἀναστασιῳ

Christ detests men of blood and I say He detests not only them but everyone who associates with them, for their evil deeds will not be unpunished, as was seen with Herod. For after the wicked murder of the Baptist He withdrew. If then not only yourself but all your people do not wish for Herod's end, with those of your house, even your children being destroyed, stop this fatal madness. Why should you make haste to a wretched end? Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 233, to Anastasius

The Murder of Children

Convertar ad populum. Quot vultis ex his circumstantibus et in Christianorum sanguinem hiantibus, ex ipsis etiam vobis justissimis et severissimis in nos praesidibus apud conscientias pulsem, qui natos sibi liberos enecent? Siquidem et de genere necis differt utique crudelius in qua spiritum extorquetis, aut frigori et fami et canibus exponitis; ferro enim mori aetas quoque maior optaverit. Nobis vero, homicidio semel interdicto, etiam conceptum utero, dum adhuc sanguis in hominem delibatur, dissolvere non licet. Homicidii festinatio est prohibere nasci; nec refert natam quis eripiat animam, an nascentem disturbet: homo est, et qui est futurus; etiam fructus omnis jam in semine est. Tertullianus, Apologeticum

I shall turn to the people. How many do you think, of those crowding around and gaping for the blood of Christians, how many even of your rulers, most just to you and most severe to us, may I strike in their own consciences with the killing of their own children? As to any difference in the kind of killing, it is certainly the more cruel way to wrench out the spirit by either exposure to cold, or hunger, or dogs; a superior age has always preferred death by the blade. We in truth, murder being once forbidden, even that conceived in the womb, a man being fashioned in blood, we may not destroy. To prevent a birth is a swift murder. Nor does it matter whether the life born is snatched away, or that which is coming to the birth is undone, for a man it is which is going to be one; every fruit is already in the seed. Tertullian, The Apology

Children Good and Bad

Bethlehem, id est, Judaea, martyrum sanguine redundante. Herodis vero furor et infantium interfectio, populi Judaici in Christianos saevientis est forma: existimantis se beatorum Martyrum caede posse in omnium fide et professione Christi nomen exstinguere. Sed gloriosus per prophetam neci eorum honor redditur, dicentem, Vox in Rama audita est, ploratus et ululatus multus, rachel plorans filios suos: et noluit consolari, quia non sunt. Rachel Jacob uxor fuit diu sterilis; sed nullum ex his quos genuit amisit. Verum haec in Genesi Ecclesiam typum praetulit. Non igitur illius vox et ploratus auditur, quae nullum habuit amissorum filiorum dolorem, sed hujus Ecclesiae diu sterilis, nunc vero fecundae. Hujus ploratus ex filiis, non idcirco quia peremptos dolebat, auditur; sed quia ab his perimebantur, quos primum genitos filios retinere voluisset. Denique consolari se noluit quae dolebat. Non enim non erant ii, qui mortui putabantur: in aeternitatis enim profectum per martyrii gloriam efferebantur.   In Evangelium Matthaei Commentarius, Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis

Bethlehem, that is, Judea, overflows with the blood of martyrs. Indeed the fury of Herod and the murder of infants is a form of the savagery of the Jews against the Christians, thinking that by the slaughter of blessed martyrs it is possible to extinguish the faith and the profession of Christ in everyone. But a glorious honour is given to the slain through the prophet, who says, 'A voice in Rama is heard, weeping and crying out greatly, Rachel weeping for her children, and she will not be comforted because they were not.' Rachel wife of Jacob was for a long time barren, but she did not lose those born. In Genesis she is brought forth as a type of Church. It is not therefore her voice and weeping that is heard, since she had no sorrow for lost children, but it is the voice of the Church, long barren, now in truth fertile. This weeping for her children was heard not because they were killed but because they were killed by those first born whom she wished to retain as sons. This is why she did not want to be comforted in her grief. And indeed it is not that the first mentioned should be thought not to have died, for from eternity they were marked to bring forth the glory of martyrdom Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Prayer and Anger

Memoria praeceptorum uiam orationibus sternit ad caelum, ne prius ascendamus ad altare Dei quam si quid discordiae uel offensae cum fratribus contraxerimus resoluamus . Quale est enim ad pacem Dei accedere sine pace? Ad remissionem debitorum cum retentione? Quomodo placabit Patrem iratus in fratrem, cum omnis ira ab initio interdicta sit nobis? Nam et Ioseph dimittens fratres suos ad perducendum patrem Et ne, inquit , irascimini in via. Nos scilicet monuit, alias enim uia cognominatur disciplina nostratum, ne in uia orationis constituti ad Patrem cum ira incedamus. Exinde aperte Dominus amplians legem iram in fratrem homicidio superponit: ne uerbo quidem malo permittit expungi; et iam si irascendum est, non ultra solis receptum , ut apostolus admonet. Quam autem temerarium est aut diem sine oratione transigere, dum cessas fratri satisfacere, aut orationem perseuerante iracundia perdere.  Tertullianus, De Oratione

The memory of His precepts stretches out for our prayers the way to heaven, that we do not step up unto God's altar before we be rid of whatever of discord or offense we have contracted with others. What sort of deed is it to approach the peace of God without peace? To seek remission of debts while retaining them? How will anger against a brother be pleasing to the Father, since from the beginning all anger is forbidden us? When Joseph sent off his brothers to bring their father, he said, 'And be not angry in the way.'1 He warned us, evidently, for our discipline is also called the Way, that in the way of prayer, we do not go to the Father with anger. After, the Lord, amplifying the Law, openly adds the prohibition of anger against a brother to that of murder. Not even by an evil word does He permit it to be discharged; and if one must be angry, it must not be maintained beyond sunset, as the Apostle admonishes. But how inconsiderate it is either to pass a day lacking prayer, while you refuse to make satisfaction to your brother, or else, by perseverance in anger, to destroy prayer. Tertullian, On Prayer 1 Gen 45.24