* When Ulfilas came to translate the OT for the warlike Goths in the latter half of the 4th cent., he is said by Philostorgius {Ht! ii. 5) to have left out the books of the Kings, 'since they are merely a story of military deeds, and since the Gothic tribes, who were particularly fund of fighting, required to have their militant passions checiied rather than spurred on to war- like exploits.'
t Including, as we learn from Amobius (adv. Gent. iv. 36), prayers for the army.
t If a'Roman had taken this seriousl.v, he might have allowed the exemption of the Christian clergy, for the same reason as not only pagan priests but rhetoricians, philosophers, and physicians were not obliged to serve against their will. The notion of all Christians being priests would not have been intelligible to him.
supreme Deity.' This course of reasoning would naturally have seemed evasive to Celsus. and he would have heen still more disappointed with the plea (viii. (iSf.)that the wild barbarians would not bring Roman civilization to ruin, because, if they were converted to Christianity, they would make excellent citizens, law-abiding and humane. Origen recalls the pre<iie- tion of Zeph 3'-^-*, but he is not very certain about its meaning, though he actually brings it forward in all seriousness against the remark of Celsus that an.v wholesome agreement between the barbarians and the Romans was in the last degree unlikely.
Origen, in fact, falls back u|)on fatalism. He propounds a holy experiment, whith had no rela- tion to the moral order or to the actual situation of the empire. He declares that, if the Komans ^^■ould all accept Christianity, their prayers woukl enable them to overcome their foes — or rather, he adds, they would not require to fight at all, since the divine power which promised to save live cities for the sake of fifty just men woukl be their safe- guard. One can imagine how chilling and unreal these airy excuses would sound to Roman patriots who were celebrating with a glow of enthusiasm in A.D. 248 the thousandth anniversary of the founding of Rome.* Besides, to suggest disarma- ment as the only alternative to militarism was worse than folly to any serious citizen of the Empire in tlie 3rd cent. ; it suggested an unhealthy conscience. But the plea of Celsus was as nmch beside the point as Origen's answer. Neitherdealt witli realities. When Celsus asked Christians to serve in the army, he did not realize that the religious rites associated with military and civil service were a genuine stumbling-block to Chris- tians. He forgot, as Renan [Mai-c-Aurile, p. 370 f.) says, that in upholding the established religion he was asking Christians to agree to absurdities greater than those which he attacked in Christians them- selves. Celsus had an Epicurean's healtliy scorn for superstition and a Roman's inability to see how any religion could be real or reasonable apart from nationality. Both of these traits prevented him from doing justice to Christianity. Origen's main position is sound, but then he weakens it by letting himself be drawn oti' into doctrinaire opinions and speculations about politics. It is true that in one passage he incidentally (c. Cels. iv. 82, Philocalia, xx. 9) appears again to admit that war in certain circumstances might be justi- fied for non-Christians. He lias been speaking of bees, which obey a sovereign and engage in wars. ' Perhaps,' he acids, ' the so-called wars of the bees suggest how just and regular wars (if such must be — el TTOTe Se'oi) should be prosecuted bj' men.' But this is an obiter dictum, although, as we have just seen, he contemplates Christians praying for a righteous cause and army.
So far as the straight issue went, Origen answers Celsus on this point with a blunt ' Non possumus ' ; he is not so defiant as Tertullian, but he is equally decided. The reasons added to his decision are less convincing ; they remind us too vividly of the ingenuous philosophy of war which his fellow- Alexandrian had propounded two centuries earlier. Philo's simple scheme of things (de Prcem. et Pcen. 15-16) divides the enemies of m.an into two classes, animals and human beings. Wild beasts are our natural enemies (tows <j>vaeL iroKeiMlovs) ; war against them has no ending, for their nature is alien to ours. The only prospect which Plulo sees of any improvement in man's relations to the beasts — and it is a dim prospect — lies in the taming of the human passions ; ' is it not silly to imagine that we can avoid injury from wild beasts external to tis, when all the while we are training the wild beasts within to awful savagery? Hence, we must not give up hope that, once our wild passions of the soul are subdued, animals also will be broken in.'
* For this dating of Origen's treatise see K. J. Neumann, Der romi.-icke Staai: utid din atlgemeine Kirche bis a%f Dioclitiant Leipzig, 1890, pp. 265-273.
In this way riiilo hopes furlher that the wars of man ajiainst man will be ended ; once the wild beasts are overcome by human •gentleness anil self- command, men will feel ashamed to pursue wars of aggression whith make tliem lower than the brutes.* ' It will seem most disgraceful if venom- ous, carnivorous, unsociable, and ferocious animals have become on good terms witli man, and if man himself, who is naturally gentle, and endoweil with a sociable and harmonious disposi- tion, is truculent and bent on <lestroying his fellow- creatures.' For an idealist like I'bilo to write in such terms was harmless, if it was useless. His dream comin-omiscd nobody. But, when Origen talked about the possibility of the barbarians becoming Christians, at a time when Konie was face to face with the wild Goths on the northern frontiers, lie forgot that there is a time and a season for everything, even for dreaming dreams. To suggest, as lie did, that the barbarians were not really so dangerous as (Y'Isus had niaile out was to run the risk of giving Roman citizens a false and poor impression of Christian sagacity, to say nothing of Christian loyalty. TertuUian's out- burst was less likely to do harm ; it was meant for Christians. But Origen's utterances would reach the outside public more readily than his predecessor's.