SPECT.

50.

192 Script. gives rules of duty, when speaking directly on other points.

De that just man, that he had no part in the council and VI. 3. the sitting of the Jews, when consulting about denying' the Luke23, Lord, yet Divine Scripture hath always a wide bearing; every where there is, after the sense of the immediate subject, a rule of duty also supported'; so that even this passage is not foreign from the purpose of forbidding the public shows. For if he then called a few only of the Jews the council of the ungodly, how much rather so great an assemblage of Heathen people! Are the Heathen less ungodly, less sinners, less enemies of Christ, than were then the Jews? What if the rest also agreeth herewith? For at the shows men stand' in the way; for they call both the cardinal passages of the barriers" going round the circus, and the divisions separating the commons going down it,' the ways:' and the place itself for sitting down in the circle is called 'the seat.' Wherefore on the contrary, Wretched is the man that hath gone into any council of the ungodly, and hath stood in any way of sinners, and hath sat in any seat of pestilences.' Let us understand it as spoken generally, although a thing admit also of a special interpretation; for in some instances, where the terms are special, the sense is general. When God putteth the Israelites in mind of their law or duty, or reproveth them, surely it concerneth all men: when He threateneth destruction to Egypt and Æthiopia, He fore

4 Joseph of Arimathea. adv. Marc. iv. ult. In the Breviarium in Psalt. ap. Hieron. (Opp. t. vii. App.) this interpretation is cited as peculiar to T.

negando Edd. and Cod. Ag. Rig. corrects"necando," "putting to death," which is the more obvious word, and which may be intended by "negando," the g being substituted for the c in MSS. Still it was the final act of "denying the Holy One and the Just," Acts 3, 13. 14. so "negando" has been retained.

si. e. besides, and presupposing the particular application of any passage in H. Scripture, it involves certain principles of moral duty, looking every way. The people stood, the knights sat; hence below," the seat."

" The "barriers," balthei, "belts," seem to have been a solid fence round the part of the circus where the spectator stood, (cunei,) and to have been the same as the " præcinctiones," Vitruv.

iii. 5. Calpurn. in Amphith. Carini (ap. Lips. de Amphith. c. 13.) speaks of their being ornamented with gems, (Baltheus en gemmis, en illita porticus auro,) whence it appears that they were solid. The "cardines," according to T. here, were the ways round them; perhaps so called from being the chief ways; else, in dividing land in colonies, the cardo maximus was a line at right angles to the Decumanus (the line drawn from E. to W.) and the other Cardines parallel to it, (Salmas. ad Solin. p. 675 sqq.) Salmasius (ib. p. 919.) supposes that the Cardines were so called, as not simply encircling, but intersecting, the "wedges," (cunei); but T. seems to speak of the "ways per proclivum," going down the steps of the amphitheatre," as distinct.

99.66

* Women's seats, "foemineæ cathedræ", are mentioned by Calpurnius ap. Lips. c. 13.

Shows idolatrous in all their circumstances; line of proof. 193

judgeth every sinful nation'; and so, ascending from special to general, Egypt and Ethiopia are every nation that sinneth; as also with respect to the origin of the public shows, He calleth every show the council of the ungodly, descending from general to special.

IV. Lest any one should think that we are cavilling, I will turn to our chief authority, that of our very seal. When, having entered into the water, we profess the Christian Faith according to the words of its own appointment, we bear witness with our mouth that we have renounced the devil, his pomp, and his angels. Now what will be the chief and principal thing in which the devil and his pomp and his angels' are accounted to be? what but idolatry? from whence (so to speak, for I shall dwell no longer on this point) cometh every unclean and evil spirit. Wherefore if it shall be proved that the whole apparatus of the shows consisteth in idolatry, without doubt it will be already determined that the renouncement which we profess at our washing pertaineth to the shows" also, which are put in Tit.3, 5. subjection to the devil, and his pomp, and his angels,' to wit, through idolatry. We will declare the origin' of each, in what cradles they have grown up in the world; next the titles' of some, by what names they are called; next the equipments,' with what superstitions they are fitted. out; then the places,' to what patrons they are dedicated; the performances,' to what authors they are attributed. If there be any of these things which appertaineth not to an idol, this will neither appertain to idolatry, nor to our abjuration.

V. Touching the 'origin,' as being somewhat obscure and unknown amongst the greater part of our brethren, we must carry our search higher, and to no other source than the materials of Heathen writings. There are many authors in our hands, who have put forth notices on this matter. By these the origin of games is thus handed down to us.

y See adv. Jud. c. 9.

See on de Cor. c. 3. Auct. de Spect. ap. Cypr. c. 5. S. Chrys. (Hom. 3. c. Ignav. init. t. ii. p. 265.) calls them "the pomp of the devil."

a

Apol. c. 38. "idolatry, the mother
of all games," de Spect. c. 3.
b Chrys. and Salvian, de Gub. 1. 6.
ap. Lac.

DE SPECT.

VI. 5.

Timæus relateth that the Lydians, passing over from Asia.
settled in Etruria under their leader Tyrrhenus", who had
yielded to his brother in the contest for the kingdom.
Wherefore they establish in Etruria, among other rites
of their own superstition, public shows also, in the name of
Religion. Thence the Romans" fetch and borrow their
players, the season of their games, and their name, so that
they were called from the Lydians ludi.' And although
Varro deriveth the sense of ludi' from ' ludus,' that is from
sport, as also they were wont to call the Lupercal rites
'games,' because they ran about in game, yet he accounteth
this sport of the young men' as belonging to holy days, and
temples, and solemnities. Nothing need now be said of the
reason of the name, so long as the reason of the thing is
idolatry. For whereas games were called, in the mass,
'Liberalia,' they manifestly in their name spoke of honour
done to father Liber; for they were first established in
honour of Bacchus by the countrymen, in return for the
benefit which they ascribe to him in discovering to them
the gift of wine. Next were games called Consualia, which
in the beginning were in honour of Neptune; for him they
call also Consus. After that a certain Romulus appointed
the Equiria in honour of Mars, though they claim the
Consualia also for Romulus, because he dedicated them to
Consus, the God, as they will have it, of counsel"; to wit,
that counsel' whereby he devised at that time the rape of
the Sabine virgins, as wives for his soldiers. A righteous
counsel truly! and even at this day a thing just and lawful
in the eyes of the Romans themselves; I would not say
in the eyes of God. For this also helpeth to stain the
origin,' so that thou canst not deem that good which took
its rise from evil, from shamelessness, from violence, from
hatred, from a fratricide, from a son of Mars, as its author.
And at this day there is in the Circus, at the head of the

e Siculus; longe eruditissimus,"

Cic. de Orat. ii. 14.

d Herod. i. 94. Plin. iii. 5.

e Liv. vii. 2.

i Liv. i. 9. Plut. in Rom. Varro de Ling. Lat. 1. v. Cypr. de Idol. Van.

f Plutarch in Cæs. ap. Her. Digr. c. 2. p. 14. Oxf. Tr. Jerome in Vit.

i. 19.

Apol. c. 11.

Hilar. §. 20.

Titles of shows idolatrous, us derived from gods or dead men. 195

course, an altar to this Consus buried under ground, with an inscription to this effect: Consus lord of counsel, Mars of war', the Lares of the inmost chambers.' At this altar the public priests sacrifice on the nones of July, the priest of Romulus and the virgins on the twelfth day before the kalends of September. Next, this same Romulus established games for Jupiter Feretrius on the Tarpeian hill, which Piso saith were called the Tarpeian and the Capitoline games. After him, Numa Pompilius did the same for Mars and Rubigo", for they feigned that even Rust" was a goddess. Next, Tullus Hostilius, then Ancus Martius, and the rest. Who they were, and how many, that one after another established games, and in honour of what idols, is set forth in Suetonius Tranquillus, or those from whom Tranquillus had his story. But this will be enough to convict the 'origin' of idolatry.

VI. To this testimony of ancient times, is added that of the posterity following in its turn; shewing the character of the origin' on the very face of the titles' used even in the present day, by which it is stamped upon them to what idol, and to what superstition, the games of either sort" were distinguished as belonging. For the Megalensian, the Apollinarian, the Cerealian also, and the Neptunalian, the Latiarian and the Floralian are celebrated in common; the rest of the games owe their superstitious observance to the birth-days and other solemn days of kings, and public successes", and municipal festivals; among which, the exhibitions enjoined by wills pay funeral honours to the memories. even of private men, and this too according to ancient custom; for from the very beginning the games were reckoned of two sorts, the sacred and the funereal, in honour, that is, of the gods of the nations and of the dead. But as touching idolatry it maketh no difference to us, under what

SPECT.

196 Idolatry in outfit of the games, whether splendid or poor.

DE name and 'title' it is, so long as it appertaineth to the same VI. 7. spirits, which we renounce, although dead. They may pay honours to their gods, just as well as they pay them to their dead. The real nature of the two cases is the same, the idolatry is the same, and our renouncement of the idolatry is the same.

6

VII. The games of either sort have a common origin' and common titles,' as arising from common causes; for the same reason they must needs have common equipments,' derived from the general guilt of the idolatry which founded them. But to whom belongeth the somewhat more pompous outfit of the games of the Circus, (which the name of pomp well befitteth,) the pomp which goeth before them doth in itself prove', by the long line of images, by the host of statues, by the chariots, by the sacred carriages, by the cars, by the chairs', by the crowns, by the robes". What rites besides, what sacrifices go before, come between, and follow after; how many colleges, how many priesthoods, how many offices are set in motion, the men of that city know, in which the council of the dæmons sitteth. If these things are performed in the provinces with inferior pains, in proportion to their inferior means, yet are all the games of the Circus every where to be accounted of, according to the source whence they are derived; they are defiled by that from which they are taken. For the narrow streamlet from its own fountain, the little twig from its own tree, containeth the quality of its source. No matter for its grandeur or its cheapness; the pomp of the Circus, be it what it may, offendeth God. Though there be but few images carried

Probat, a conjecture, seemingly, of Rig. The Edd. have "Circ. suggestus, quibus proprie hoc nomen pompa,' præcedit, quorum sit in semet ipsa probans." "But the somewhat more pompous apparatus of the games of the circus, (to which this name 'pomp' specially belongeth,)holds the first place, proving whose it is, by the long line," &c. Præcedit, however, can scarcely be so used, when nothing followeth. A. has "præcedens" with Rig. but "probans" with the Edd. This might be rendered; "but somewhat more pompous is the apparatus, &c.-a pomp preceding," [i. e. before the games themselves,]

"proving of itself by the long line," &c.

Ov. Fast. iv. 391. Varro de L. L. iv. p. 37. ed. Var. Cic. Off. 1. 1. 36. Suet. Aug. c. 16. ap. Lac. see also, very fully, Onesiphor. Panvin. de ludis Circ. ii. 2. ap. Græv. t. ix. Bulenger de Circo Rom. c. 38. Facciol. v. pompa.

of the gods, Dion. Hal. 1. vii. t of the gods, Appian. de Bell. Civ. 1. 3. c. 28. Dio. l. 43. 44. ap. Her. l. c.

exuviæ. T.uses it of more splendid apparel, (de Pall. c. 4.) and peculiarly of the gods. Festus v. Tensa. Apul. Miles. xi. ap. Her.

Rome and the Capitol, see Apol. c. 6. p. 16. c. 13. fin. p. 32.