Minucius Felix, Octavius 28
How unjust it is to judge unknowns unexplored — which you do — believe us who now repent. For we too were the same and once felt with you, still blind and dull, as if Christians worshipped monsters, ate infants, mixed incestuous banquets, and we did not understand that these tales are always aired by them and never investigated or proved, nor that in so long a time anyone appears who would betray them — to gain not only pardon for the deed but even thanks for the tip — yet the evil is so not that a Christian defendant neither blushed nor feared, and only regretted one thing he had not been before. We, however, when we took up defending even temple-robbers and the incestuous and parricides, thought these not to be heard at all, so that we might torture confessors into denying — namely lest they perish — working on them a perverse inquiry that would not dig out truth but force a lie. And if some weaker one, pressed and beaten by evil, denied he was a Christian, we favored him, as if by renouncing the name he already purged all his deeds by that denial.
Do you recognize that we felt and did the same things you feel and do? — when, if reason and not a demon’s goad were judging, they ought rather to be pressed not to deny they are Christians but to confess incestuous lusts, unholy rites, infants sacrificed. For with these and like tales the same demons stuffed the ears of the unskilled against us unto horror of cursing. Yet it is no wonder, since rumor of all, which always feeds on scattered lies and is consumed when truth is shown, is also the demons’ business; for from them false rumor is both sown and fostered. Hence comes what you say you hear — that an ass’s head is a divine thing to us. Who is so stupid as to worship this? Who stupider as to believe this is worshipped? Except that you consecrate whole asses in stables with your or their Epona and religiously deck the same asses with Isis, likewise sacrifice and worship ox-heads and wether-heads, and even dedicate gods mixed of goat and man with faces of lions and dogs. Do you not also adore and feed Apis the ox with the Egyptians? Nor do you condemn their rites set among serpents, crocodiles, and other beasts and birds and fish, any one of which gods if someone kills, he is even punished by death.
Latin
XXVIII. "Quam autem iniquum sit, incognitis et inexploratis iudicare, quod facitis, nobis ipsis paenitentibus credite. Et nos enim idem fuimus et eadem vobiscum quondam adhuc caeci et hebetes sentiebamus, quasi Christiani monstra colerent, infantes vorarent, convivia incesta miscerent, nec intellegebamus ab his fabulas istas semper ventilari et numquam vel investigari vel probari, nec tanto tempore aliquem existere, qui proderet, non tantum facti veniam, verum etiam indicii gratiam consecuturum: malum autem adeo non esse, ut Christianus reus nec erubesceret nec timeret, et unum solummodo, quod non ante fuerit, paeniteret. Nos tamen cum sacrilegos aliquos et incestos, parricidas etiam defendendos et tuendos suscipiebamus, hos nec audiendos in totum putabamus, ut torqueremus confitentes ad negandum, videlicet ne perirent, exercentes in his perversam quaestionem, non quae verum erueret, sed quae mendacium cogeret. Et si qui infirmior malo pressus et victus Christianum se negasset, favebamus ei, quasi eierato nomine iam omnia facta sua illa negatione purgaret. Adgnoscitisne eadem nos sensisse et egisse, quae sentitis et geritis? cum, si ratio, non instigatio daemonis iudicaret, essent urguendi magis, non ut diffiterentur se Christianos, sed ut de incestis stupris, de inpiatis sacris, de infantibus immolatis faterentur. His enim et huiusmodi fabulis idem daemones ad execrationis horrorem imperitorum aures adversus nos referserunt. Nec tamen mirum, cum omnium fama, quae semper insparsis mendaciis alitur, ostensa veritate consumitur, sit et negotium daemonum; ab ipsis enim rumor falsus et seritur et fovetur.
"Inde est quod audire te dicis, caput asini rem nobis esse divinam. Quis tam stultus, ut hoc colat? Quis stultior, ut hoc coli credat? Nisi quod vos et totos asinos in stabulis cum vestra vel sua Epona consecratis et eosdem asinos cum Iside religiose decoratis, item boum capita et capita vervecum et immolatis et colitis, de capro etiam et homine mixtos deos leonum et canum vultu deos dedicatis. Nonne et Apin bovem cum Aegyptiis adoratis et pascitis? Nec eorum sacra damnatis instituta serpentibus, crocodillis, beluis ceteris et avibus et piscibus, quorum aliquem deum si quis occiderit, etiam capite punitur. Idem Aegyptii cum plerisque vobis non magis Isidem quam ceparum acrimonias metuunt, nec Serapidem magis quam strepitus per pudenda corporis expressos contremescunt. "Etiam ille, qui de adoratis sacerdotis virilibus adversum nos fabulatur, temptat in nos conferre quae sua sint. Ista enim impudicitiae eorum forsitan sacra sint, apud quos sexus omnis membris omnibus prostat, apud quos tota inpudicitia vocatur urbanitas, qui scortorum licentiae invident, qui medios viros lambunt, libidinoso ore inguinibus inhaerescunt, homines malae linguae etiam si tacerent, quos prius taedescit impudicitiae suae quam pudescit. Pro nefas! id in se mali facinoris admittunt, quod nec aetas potest pati mollior nec cogi servitus durior.