Iberian Fathers, Volume 1

Reforming the Rustics

REFORMING THE RUSTICSl (De correctione rusticorum) Bishop Martin to my most blessed and most beloved lord, brother in Christ, Bishop Polemius. Chapter 1 I have received your kind letter, in which you write me that I should send you something on the origin of idols and their sins, or, if I like, a few selections from the abundant material available, in order to chastise the rustics who are still bound by the old pagan superstition and offer more veneration to demons than to God. Since it is necessary to offer them some small explanation for these idols' existence from the beginning of the world to whet the appetite, as it were, I have had to touch upon a vast forest of past times and events in a treatise of very brief compass and to offer the rustics food seasoned with rustic speech. With God's aid, this is the way in which you will begin your sermon. Chapter 2 We desire, my dearest children, to report to you in the name of the Lord things which you have never heard or perhaps have heard and forgotten. We ask your favor, that you 1 Cf. Introduction pp. 10-11. 71 72 MARTIN OF BRAGA listen with greater attention to matters which are spoken for your salvation. It would take a long time to go completely through the divine Scriptures, but let us touch upon a few of many points, in order that you may keep at least a little in your memories. Chapter 3 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,! in His celestial habitation He created spiritual creatures , that is, angels, who should stand in His presence and praise Him. One of these, who had been appointed archangel, chief of them all, seeing himself so radiant and glorious, did not pay honor to God his Creator, but said that he was equal to Him; and for this act of pride he, along with many other angels who had agreed with him, was cast from that celestial abode into the air which is beneath the heavens; and he who had formerly been the archangel lost the light of his glory and became the devil, full of gloom and horror. Likewise, the other angels who had agreed with him were thrown out of heaven with him, lost their splendor, and became demons, while the rest of the angels, who had remained subject to God, still persevere in the glory of their brightness in the Lord's presence; and they are called holy angels, while those who were thrown out with their leader, Satan, because of their pride are called rebellious angels and demons. Chapter 4 After this fall of the angels, it pleased God to form man from the mud of the earth and place him in paradise; and He said to him that if he obeyed the precept of the Lord, he I Cf. Gen. l.l. REFORMING THE RUSTICS 73 might succeed without death to that celestial region from which those rebellious angels had fallen, but if he acted COI1trary to the precept of God, he should suffer death. Then the devil, seeing that man had been created to succeed to the place in the kingdom of God from which he had fallen, was induced by envy to persuade man to disobey the commands of God. For this offense man was cast from paradise into the exile of this world, where he should endure many labors and paII1S. Chapter 5 The first man was called Adam and his wife, whom God created from his flesh, was called Eve. From these two beings the whole human race was propagated. Then they forgot God their Creator and performed many sins and provoked God to wrath, as a result of which God sent a flood and destroyed them all with the exception of a single just man named Noe, whom he saved with his sons to reestablish the human race. From the first man, Adam, to the flood, there was a passage of 2242 years. Chapter 6 After the flood, the human race was again restored through the three sons of Noe, who had been saved with their wives. And when the multitude began to increase and fill the world, again men forgot God the Creator of the world and when they had abandoned the Creator they began to worship creatures.1 Some paid homage to the...