The vanity of stage music and plays

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Novatian is still describing the stage plays, now turning from their obscene dancing to their music and tragic performances, and concluding that even apart from idolatry they are vain and unfit for faithful Christians.

Lust is not satisfied with using its present evils; it must also make the public show its own, in which even an earlier age went astray. I say it is not permitted for faithful Christians to attend—not permitted at all, even for those whom Greece, trained in empty arts, sends everywhere to soothe the ears. One imitates the hoarse blasts of the war trumpet; another shapes mournful sounds by breathing into the pipe; another contends with choirs and with the human voice in song, and with the breath he has drawn from deep within his chest modulates the holes of the pipes—now releasing it, now holding it back and pressing it in, now sending it out through certain holes and pouring it into the air, then breaking the sound into notes, laboring to speak with his fingers, ungrateful to the Maker who gave him a tongue. Why should I speak of the useless follies of comedy, of those great frenzies of the tragic voice, of strings joined with shouting? Even if these things were not dedicated to idols, they still should not be attended or watched by faithful Christians, because even if they held no crime, they hold in themselves the greatest vanity, and one hardly fitting for the faithful.

Latin

Non est libidini satis malis suis uti praesentibus , nisi suum de spectaculo faciant in quo etiam aetas superior errauerat. non licet, inquam, adesse christianis fidelibus, non licet omnino nec illis quos ad delinimenta aurium ad omnes ubique Graecia instructos suis uanis artibus mittit. clangores tubae bellicos alter imitatur raucos, alter lugubres sonos spiritu tibiam inflante moderatur, alter cum choris et cum hominis canora uoce contendens spiritu suo quem de uisceribus suis superioribus nitens hauserat tibiarum foramina modulatur: nunc effuso et nunc intus recluso ac represso nunc certis foraminibus emisso atque in aerem profuso, item in articulos sonum frangens, loqui digitis elaborat, ingratus artifici qui linguam dedit. quid loquar comicas inutiles curas, quid illas magnas tragicae uocis insanias, quid neruos cum clamore commissos ? haec etiam si non essent simulacris dicata, obeunda tamen et spectanda non essent christianis fidelibus: quoniam etsi non habebant crimen, habent in ae maximam et parum congruentem fidelibus uanitatem.

About this text

Novatian warns Christians who quote Scripture to defend going to the public games and shows.

Novatian (fl. c. 250) was a Roman presbyter and Christian teacher who wrote this treatise to the faithful, whom he addresses as brothers. He composed it because some Christians were defending attendance at public spectacles by appealing to Scripture, and he feared that wounds poorly bound might break open again. His aim was to admonish those already instructed rather than to teach them anew.

The occasion is a dispute within the Christian community. Some believers argued that Scripture does not forbid the circus, theater, and athletic contests, and they cited examples such as Elijah, David, and an unnamed apostle whose athletic imagery matches Paul's epistles. Novatian quotes these opponents directly and refutes their appeals, showing that the biblical examples were written to stir virtue, not to permit spectacles. He also names Romulus, who first consecrated circus games to the god Consus, and Ceres and Liber, to whom stage plays were dedicated.

A reader should know that public shows means the circus games, stage plays, and athletic contests of the Roman world, all of which Novatian traces to idolatry and the devil. He argues that even apart from idolatry these shows are marked by vanity and immodesty, and that Christians have better spectacles in God's creation and in Scripture. The treatise cites Old Testament figures such as Elijah, David, and Daniel without formal book citations, and it alludes to the apostle's athletic imagery in the epistles. The term Eucharist refers to the consecrated body of Christ, which in Novatian's time a believer might carry home from church.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 3.3 (1871) (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.