Martin of Braga c. 520–580 CE

 Your thoughtful comments welcome.

bishop of Saint Martin

to the polemic bishop

on the correction of the peasants

 

To the most blessed and most desirous of my brothers in Christ, Bishop Polemius, Bishop Martinus.

[1]

I have received the letter of your holy charity, in which you write to me that for the chastisement of the peasants, who are still held back by the ancient superstition of the pagans and pay more reverence to demons than to God, I should direct to you some of the origin of idols and their crimes, or a few of the many things written to you. But since it is necessary from the beginning of the world to extend to them even a little knowledge of reason, as if for a taste, it was necessary for me to touch upon the vast forest of past times and their actions in the language of abbreviated, thin accounts, and to prepare food for the peasants in the language of the peasants. Thus, then, with the help of God, will be the beginning of your preaching:

[2]

We desire, dearest children, to announce to you in the name of the Lord what you have either not heard at all, or, having heard, perhaps you have forgotten. We therefore ask your charity to listen more attentively to what is said for your salvation. It is indeed a long order directed by the divine scriptures, but in order that you may retain even a little of it in memory, we recommend to you a few of the several.

[3]

When God had made heaven and earth in the beginning, in that heavenly abode he made spiritual creatures, that is, angels, who stood before him and praised him. One of whom, who had become the first archangel of all, seeing himself shining in such glory, did not give honor to God his creator, but said he was like him; and for this pride he was thrown down with the other numerous angels who agreed with him from that heavenly seat in that air which is under heaven. and he who had previously been an archangel, having lost the light of his glory, became a dark and terrible devil. In the same way, those other angels who had agreed with him were cast out of heaven with him and, having lost their splendor, became demons. But the rest of the angels who were subject to God continue in the glory of their brightness in the presence of the Lord; and they themselves are called holy angels. For those who, with their prince Satan, were cast down because of their pride, are called fugitive angels and demons.

[4]

After this angelic fall it pleased God to form man from the clay of the earth, whom he placed in paradise; and he told him that if he had kept the commandment of the Lord, he would succeed without death in that heavenly place, whence those fugitive angels had fallen; but if he had transgressed the commandment of God, he would die death Seeing therefore that the devil had therefore become man, that he might succeed in the kingdom of God in his place, from whence he fell, he was led by envy to urge man to transgress the commandments of God. For this offense man was thrown from paradise into exile in this world, where he suffered many hardships and pains.

[5]

Now the first man was called Adam, and his woman whom God created from his own flesh was called Eve. From these two men sprang every race of men. Those who, forgetting their creator, the god, committed many crimes and provoked the god to anger. For this reason God sent a flood and destroyed them all, except one righteous man, named Noah, whom he reserved with his sons for the restoration of the human race. From the first man, Adam, until the flood, two thousand two hundred and forty-two years passed.

[6]

After the flood, the human race was again recovered by the three sons of Noah, who were saved with their wives. And when the growing population began to fill the world, men again forgetting God, the creator of the world, began to worship the creatures, forsaking the creator. Some worshiped the sun, others the moon or the stars, others fire, others deep water or fountains of water, believing that all these things were not made by God for the use of men, but that they themselves arose from God.

[7]

Then the devil, or his servants, the demons, who were cast down from heaven, seeing ignorant men, released by God their creator, wandering among the creatures, began to show themselves to them in different forms, and to speak with them, and to expect from them, as on high mountains and in leafy forests they offered sacrifices to him and worshiped him as a god, imposing on him the names of wicked men who had spent their lives in all crimes and crimes, so that another would say that he was Jupiter, who had been a sorcerer and incestuous in so many adulteries that he married his sister, who was called Juno , he corrupted his daughters Minerva and Venus, and disgraced his nieces and all his relatives. But another demon called himself Mars, who was the author of quarrels and discord. Then another demon chose to call himself Mercury, who was the cunning inventor of all theft and fraud; to whom men, eager as if to the god of gain, pass by at the cross-roads, throw stones and heaps of rocks as a sacrifice. Another demon also ascribed to himself the name of Saturn, who, living in all cruelty, even devoured his own children at birth. Another demon also confided herself to be Venus, who was a harlot. She was not only a prostitute with innumerable adulterers, but also with her father Jupiter and her brother Mars.

[8]

Behold, what were these lost men like at that time, whom the ignorant countrymen honored most wretchedly by their inventions, whose names the devils therefore attributed to themselves, that they might worship them as if they were gods, and offer sacrifices to them, and imitate their deeds, whose names they invoked. The demons also persuaded them to make temples for them and to place there images or statues of wicked men and to set up altars for them, on which they would pour out for them the blood not only of animals but also of men. In addition to these, many demons from among those who have been expelled from heaven preside over the sea, or rivers, or springs, or forests, whom likewise men, ignorant of God, worship as if they were gods, and sacrifice to them. And indeed they call Neptune in the sea, Lamias in the rivers, Nymphs in the fountains, Dianas in the woods, all of which are evil demons and wicked spirits, who harm and harass unbelieving men, who do not know how to defend themselves with the sign of the cross. However, they do not harm without God's permission, because God is angry with them and do not believe with all their heart in the faith of Christ, but they are so doubtful that they name the very names of demons every day, and call the day Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturn, which have no they made the day, but they were the worst and most wicked men in the Greek nation.

[9]

But God Almighty, when He made the heavens and the earth, He then created light, which, through the distinction of God's works, has been turned seven times. For first God made light, which was called day; secondly, the firmament of heaven was made; thirdly, the land is divided by the sea; in the fourth, the sun, the moon, and the stars were made; on the fifth quadrupeds and birds and birds; the sixth man was fashioned; and on the seventh day, when he had completed all his world and his ornaments, the god called rest. The one light, therefore, which was first made in the works of God, by the distinction of the works of God, having passed seven times, is called a week. What kind of madness is it, then, that a man baptized in the faith of Christ, does not worship the Sunday on which Christ rose, and says that he worships Jupiter, and Mercury, and Friday, and Saturn, which have no day, but were adulterers, and magicians, and wicked men, and who died evilly in the province his own! But, as we have said, under the guise of these names veneration and honor are offered to demons by foolish men.

[10]

In the same way, this error creeps in on the ignorant and rustic, so that they think that January is the beginning of the year, which is absolutely false. For, as the Holy Scripture says, 8 Cal. The beginning of the first year was made in April at the very equinox. For it is read thus: And God divided between light and darkness . But every right division has equality, as in 8 Cal. April has as many hours in the day as in the night. And therefore it is false that the calendar of January is the beginning of the year.

[11]

Now, what is to be said about that most foolish mistake with pain, because they observe the days of moths and mice, and if it is true that a Christian man worships mice and moths instead of God? If, by way of protection, a cup or an ark is not brought to them, or bread or cloth, they will by no means spare what they have found for the holidays presented to them. But without reason the miserable man himself makes these prefigurations, so that, as if at the beginning of the year he is satisfied and happy with everything, so it may happen to him throughout the whole year. All these observations of the pagans are elaborated by the inventions of demons. But woe to that man who has not had the mercy of God and has not been given by him the fullness of bread and the security of life! Behold, you make these vain superstitions either secretly or openly, and never cease from these sacrifices to demons. And why do they not guarantee you that you are always satisfied and secure and happy? Why, when the god is angry, do not vain sacrifices protect you from locusts, mice, and many other tribulations, which an angry god sends you?

[12]

Do you not clearly understand that the demons are lying to you in these observations of yours which you hold in vain, and in the omens which you attend to, they often play tricks on you? For as the wisest Solomon says: divination and omens are vain ; and the more a man fears them, the more his heart is deceived. Do not give your heart to them, because they have offended many . Behold, the Holy Scripture says this, and it is most certainly so, because for so long unhappy men persuade demons with the voices of birds, until they lose the faith of Christ through frivolous and vain things, and they themselves fall unexpectedly into the destruction of their own death. God did not command man to know the future, but that, always living in fear of him, he should seek from him the guidance and help of his life. It is only for God to know before anything happens, but men play with vain demons with different arguments, until they lead them to offend God and drag their souls with them into hell, as they did from the beginning through their envy, lest man should enter the kingdom of heaven, from which they were cast out.

[13]

For which reason also, when God saw the wretched men so deceived by the devil and his evil angels that, forgetting their creator, they worshiped demons instead of God, he sent his son, that is, wisdom and his word, to bring them back to the worship of the true God from the error of the devil . And because the divinity of the Son of God could not be seen by men, he took human flesh from the womb of the virgin Mary, conceived not by the marriage of a man, but by the Holy Spirit. Born therefore in human flesh, the Son of God, an invisible God hidden within, but a visible man outside, preached to men: he taught them, leaving idols and evil works, to get out of the power of the devil and to return to the worship of their Creator. After teaching, he wanted to die for the human race. He suffered death willingly, not unwillingly; He was crucified by the Jews under the judge Pilate Pontius, who was born in the province of Pontus and presided over the province of Syria at that time. He was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb. on the third day he rose alive from the dead, and for forty days he conversed with his twelve disciples, and, in order to show that his true flesh had risen, he ate after the resurrection in front of his disciples. After forty days had passed, he commanded his disciples to announce to all the nations the resurrection of the Son of God, and to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit for the remission of sins, and to teach those who had been baptized to depart from evil works, that is, from idols, from murders. from theft, from perjury, from fornication, and what they would not do to others they would not do to themselves. And after he had commanded these things, in the sight of the disciples himself, he ascended into heaven, and there sits at the right hand of the Father, and from there he will come at the end of this world with the very flesh which he took up with him into the heavens.

[14]

But when the end of that world comes, all the nations and every man who traces his origin from those first men, that is, from Adam and Eve, will all rise again, both good and evil; and all will come before the judgment of Christ, and then those who have been faithful and good in their lives will be separated from the bad and will enter the kingdom of God with the holy angels, and their souls will be with their flesh in eternal rest, never to die again, where there will no longer be anyone for them neither toil nor pain, neither sadness, nor hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor cold, neither darkness nor night, but always happy, full, in light, in glory, they will be like the angels of God, because they have already deserved to enter into that place from where the devil came. He fell with the angels who agreed with him. All those who have been faithful to God will remain there for eternity. For those who have been unbelieving, or have not been baptized, or certainly, if they have been baptized, after their baptism have returned again to idols and murders or adulteries, or to perjury and other evils, and have died without repentance, all who are found to be such are damned with the devil and together with all the demons whom they worshiped and whose works they did, and are sent into eternal fire with their flesh in hell, where that unquenchable fire lives forever, and that flesh, now recovered from the resurrection, is tormented eternally. He longs to die again, that he may not feel the punishments, but he is not permitted to die, that he may endure eternal torments. Behold, the law speaks this, the prophets speak this, the gospel of Christ says this, the apostle says this, all holy scripture testifies to this; which we have simply told you, or a few of the many. It is yours from now on, dearest children, to remember what has been said by us, and either by doing well to hope for a future rest in the kingdom of God, or (which is far from it!) to wait for a future eternal fire in hell by doing evil. For both eternal life and eternal death are placed at the discretion of man. Each one will have what he chose for himself.

[15]

You therefore, the faithful, who in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit have come to Christ's baptism, consider what kind of covenant you have made with God in baptism itself. For when each of you gave your name to the fountains, for example, Peter or John or any other name, you were asked by the priest: "How are you called?" Either you answered, if you were already able to answer, or at least he who made faith for you, who received you from the fountain, and said, for example: "It is called John." And the priest asked: "John, do you deny the devil and his angels, his cults and idols, his thefts and frauds, his fornications and drunkenness, and all his evil works?" And you answered: "Abandonment." After this renunciation of the devil, you were asked again by the priest: "Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?" You answered: "I believe." "And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our God and Lord, who was born of the Holy Spirit from the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified and buried, descended into hell, rose alive from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, from thence shall He come to judge the living and the dead? Do you believe?" And you answered: "I believe." And you were asked again: "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the forgiveness of all sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life?" And you answered: "I believe." Behold, then, consider what kind of covenant you made with God in baptism. You have promised to renounce the devil and his angels and all his evil works, and you have confessed that you believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and that you hope for the resurrection of the flesh and eternal life at the end of the world.

[16]

Behold, what kind of warning and confession is held by God! And how come some of you, who renounced the devil and his angels and his cultures and his evil works, just return to the devil's cultures again? For to set fire to rocks and to trees and to fountains and by paths, what is else but the culture of the devil? To observe divinations and auguries and the days of idols, what else is it but the culture of the devil? To observe the Vulcans and the Kalends, to decorate the tables, and lay the laurels, and to observe the feet, and to pour grain and wine in the hearth upon the trunk, and to cast bread into the spring, what else but the culture of the devil? For women to name Minerva in their cloths, and to observe Friday as the day of marriage, and to attend to the day on which she goes out on the road, is this anything else but the culture of the devil? Enchanting herbs to do evil and invoking the names of demons by incantation, what else is the culture of the devil? And many other things that take a long time to say. Behold, you do all these things after renouncing the devil, after baptism, and, returning to the culture of demons and the evil works of idols, you have crossed your faith and broken the covenant you made with God. You have given up the sign of the cross, which you received in baptism, and other signs of the devil, by birds and sneezes, and by many other things attended to you. Why does the augury not harm me or any righteous Christian? For where the sign of the cross has preceded, there is no sign of the devil. Why does it hurt you? Because you despise the sign of the cross, and fear that which you set as a sign for yourselves. Similarly, you let go of the holy incantation, that is the symbol that you received in baptism, which is I believe in God the Father Almighty , and the Sunday prayer, that is our Father who art in heaven , and you hold diabolical incantations and songs. Whoever, therefore, despising the sign of the cross of Christ, looks at other signs, has lost the sign of the cross which he received in baptism. Similarly, he who holds other charms found by magicians and evildoers, has lost the charm of the holy symbol and of the Lord's prayer, which he received in faith in Christ, and has inculcated faith in Christ, because God and the devil cannot be worshiped at the same time.

[17]

If, therefore, my beloved children, you have recognized all these things that we have said, if anyone realizes that after receiving baptism he has done these things and broken the faith of Christ, he will not despair of himself, nor say in his heart: "Because I have done so many evils after baptism, perhaps God will not forgive my sins my." Do not doubt the mercy of God. Only make a covenant with God in your heart, that you will no longer worship the cults of demons, nor worship anything other than the God of heaven, nor commit murder, nor commit adultery or fornication, nor commit theft, nor destroy. And when you have promised God this with all your heart, and you will not commit these sins any more, trust in God's forgiveness, because thus says God through the prophetic scripture: On whatever day the unjust has forgotten his iniquities and done justice, and I will forget all his iniquities . God therefore waits for the repentance of the sinner. But this repentance is true, so that a man no longer does the evils he has done, but asks for forgiveness for past sins, and for the future he is careful not to return to them again, but rather, on the contrary, performs good works, so as to give alms to the hungry poor, to refresh the weary guest. and whatever he wishes to be done to him by another, he must do to another, and what he does not wish to be done to him, he must not do to another, because in this word the commandments of God are fulfilled.

[18]

We beseech you therefore, dearest brothers and children, that these precepts, which God deigns to give you through us humble and little ones, keep in memory and think how you can save your souls, so that you do not only deal with this present life and the transitory benefits of this world, but remember that which in the symbol you promised to believe, that is, the resurrection of the flesh and eternal life. If, therefore, you have believed and continue to believe that there will be a resurrection of the flesh and eternal life in the kingdom of heaven among the angels of God, as we have already told you above, then think as much as you can about this, and not always about the miseries of this world. Prepare your way in good works. Frequent to pray to God in the church or through the holy places. Do not despise Sunday, which is therefore called Sunday, because the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, rose from the dead in him, but worship it with reverence. Do not do servile work, that is, field, meadow, vineyard, or any other heavy work, on Sunday, except so much as it pertains to the necessity of restoring the body for cooling food and the necessity of a long journey. And in nearby places it is permissible to make a way on Sunday, not for bad occasions, but rather for good ones, that is, either to walk to holy places, or to visit a brother or friend, or to console the sick, or to bring advice or help to someone in trouble for a good cause. In this way, then, it is proper for a Christian man to honor Sunday. For it is quite unjust and disgraceful that those who are pagans and do not know the Christian faith, worshiping the idols of demons, worship the day of Jupiter or any other demon and abstain from work, when certainly no day was created or possessed by demons. And we, who worship the true God and believe that the Son of God rose from the dead, the day of his resurrection, that is Sunday, we have not come at all! Do not, therefore, do wrong to the resurrection of the Lord, but honor it and worship it with reverence because of our hope which we have in it. For just as our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is our head, rose from the dead on the third day, so we, who are his members, hope to rise again in our flesh at the end of the age, so that each one may either have eternal rest or eternal punishment. as he did in his body in this world, so let him receive.

[19]

Behold, we, under the testimony of God and the holy angels who hear us, just speaking, we discharge our debt to your charity, and we have lent you the Lord's money, as we have commanded. It is your duty to think carefully and take care how each one will represent what he has received to the coming lord with interest on the day of judgment. And we pray for the mercy of the Lord himself, that he may keep you from all evil, and make you worthy companions of his holy angels in his kingdom, by the excellency of him who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.