(Concerning the gods of the heathen)
Touching the Gods of the Heathen,most reverend Father,thou art not ignorant that even now,as in the time of thy probation on earth,there is great dissension.That these feigned Deities and idols,the work of men's hands,are no longer worshipped thou knowest;neither do men eat meat offered to idols.Even as spake that last Oracle which murmured forth,the latest and the only true voice from Delphi,even so "the fair-wrought court divine hath fallen;no more hath Phoebus his home,no more his laurel-bough,nor the singing well of water;nay,the sweet-voiced water is silent."The fane is ruinous,and the images of men's idolatry are dust.
Nevertheless,most worshipful,men do still dispute about the beginnings of those sinful Gods:such as Zeus,Athene,and Dionysus:and marvel how first they won their dominion over the souls of the foolish peoples.Now,concerning these things there is not one belief,but many;howbeit,there are two main kinds of opinion.One sect of philosophers believes--as thyself,with heavenly learning,didst not vainly persuade--that the Gods were the inventions of wild and bestial folk,who,long before cities were builded or life was honourably ordained,fashioned forth evil spirits in their own savage likeness;ay,or in the likeness of the very beasts that perish.To this judgment,as it is set forth in thy Book of the Preparation for the Gospel,I,humble as I am,do give my consent.But on the other side are many and learned men,chiefly of the tribes of the Alemanni,who have almost conquered the whole inhabited world.These,being unwilling to suppose that the Hellenes were in bondage to superstitions handed down from times of utter darkness and a bestial life,do chiefly hold with the heathen philosophers,even with the writers whom thou,most venerable,didst confound with thy wisdom and chasten with the scourge of small cords of thy wit.
Thus,like the heathen,our doctors and teachers maintain that the gods of the nations were,in the beginning,such pure natural creatures as the blue sky,the sun,the air,the bright dawn,and the fire;but,as time went on,men,forgetting the meaning of their own speech and no longer understanding the tongue of their own fathers,were misled and beguiled into fashioning all those lamentable tales:as that Zeus,for love of mortal women,took the shape of a bull,a ram,a serpent,an ant,an eagle,and sinned in such wise as it is a shame even to speak of.
Behold,then,most worshipful,how these doctors and learned men argue,even like the philosophers of the heathen whom thou didst confound.For they declare the gods to have been natural elements,sun and sky and storm,even as did thy opponents;and,like them,as thou saidst,"they are nowise at one with each other in their explanations."For of old some boasted that Hera was the Air;and some that she signified the love of woman and man;and some that she was the waters above the Earth;and others that she was the Earth beneath the waters;and yet others that she was the Night,for that Night is the shadow of Earth:as if,forsooth,the men who first worshipped Hera had understanding of these things!And when Hera and Zeus quarrel unseemly (as Homer declareth),this meant (said the learned in thy days)no more than the strife and confusion of the elements,and was not in the beginning an idle slanderous tale.
To all which,most worshipful,thou didst answer wisely:saying that Hera could not be both night,and earth,and water,and air,and the love of sexes,and the confusion of the elements;but that all these opinions were vain dreams,and the guesses of the learned.
And why--thou saidst--even if the Gods were pure natural creatures,are such foul things told of them in the Mysteries as it is not fitting for me to declare."These wanderings,and drinkings,and loves,and seductions,that would be shameful in men,why,"thou saidst,"were they attributed to the natural elements;and wherefore did the Gods constantly show themselves,like the sorcerers called werewolves,in the shape of the perishable beasts?"But,mainly,thou didst argue that,till the philosophers of the heathen were agreed among themselves,not all contradicting each the other,they had no semblance of a sure foundation for their doctrine.
