You
know the John Lennon original, “Imagine.”He and his wife Yoko Ono wrote it and produced it in 1971.It’s a good song but one that irritates
me.While it imagines a world of peace
and materiality, it also imagines a world without religion, as if religion were
the cause of unrest.It has become an anthem
for atheists.Here are the lyrics.
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Aha-ah...
Imagine there's no
countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die
for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll
join us
And the world will be as
one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or
hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll
join us
And the world will live
as one
What’s
silly about the song is to expect that peace and disparity can only come by the
removal of religion from the culture.While it’s true there are some religions that promote violence and
selfishness, the only way that peace and prosperity can come is through
Christianity, true and self-sacrificing Christianity.We who are Christians know this.
Along
comes Fr. Francis Maple OFMCap, a Franciscan Capuchin friar from England who has recorded many Christian hymns
and written quite a few books which can be found on Amazon.Keeping with good Franciscan humility, Fr.
Francis doesn’t say much about himself on his website, which contains a wealth of
Catholic information and his homilies.If
you go to YouTube and search his name, you will come up with a whole host of
videos of his recordings.
I
came across Fr. Francis’s music from the Time for Reflections blog, authored by Victor S E Moubarak, who is a frequently comments on my blog
and I sometimes comment on his.I have
highlighted a couple of Victor’s books on my blog: The Priest and the Prostitute and his collection of short stories, Feline Catastrophes.Both are very funny.
Occasionally
Victor, who has known Fr. Francis for a long time, embeds Fr. Francis’s song
videos on Time for Reflections.I never thought about asking if Fr. Francis
was a real person.Victor is great at
creating characters (such as Fr. Ignatius, who is a fictional character in
several of Victor’s novels and stories) and I jumped to the erroneous conclusion
that Fr. Francis was another creation and that it was Victor himself singing in
those Fr. Francis’s videos.Well Victor
set me straight when he posted Fr. Francis’s version of John Lennon’s Imagine, and I asked about Fr.
Francis.Fr. Francis Maple is real!
So
I want to share Fr. Francis’s version of Imagine.Of course it is the opposite of an atheist’s
day dream.
Father
Francis changes are just in the first two stanzas.Here is what Fr. Francis did with the lyrics.
Imagine there's a heaven
It's easy if you try
There’s a hell below us
You’d better choose
before you die
Imagine all the people
Finding the right way...
Aha-ah...
Imagine there's no
countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die
for
The love of God shines
through
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You...
Now
that is so much more appealing than the original version.It eliminates the distasteful part of the
song and makes God shine through!Now
whenever I come across the original Imagine,
I will remember the Fr. Francis version.Thank you Father Francis!
We all recall the Road to Emmaus passage
where two disciples, on the road to Emmaus having just come from Jerusalem where
Christ was crucified, encounter the Risen Christ, do not recognize Him, walk
with Him while He explains the scriptural passages of the Messiah, and finally
recognize in the breaking of the bread whereupon He vanishes.That’s in Luke 24:13-34.Today’s Gospel reading continues that story
with what happens afterward.Those same two
disciples rush back to Jerusalem to tell the others what happened.
The two disciples recounted what
had taken place on the way,
and how Jesus was made known to
them
in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking
about this,
he stood in their midst and said
to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and
terrified
and thought that they were seeing
a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why
are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your
hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that
it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost
does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his
feet.
While they were still incredulous
for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you
anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked
fish;
he took it and ate it in front of
them.
He said to them,
"These are my words that I
spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me
in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms
must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the
Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third
day
and that repentance, for the
forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from
Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these
things."
~Lk
24:36-48
So Jesus appears to
all of them as the two from the road to Emmaus meetup with the other
disciples.And just as in last week’s
reading of Thomas being shown the wounds in the hands (Jn 20:19-31), Jesus
shows all the physical wounds of His physically resurrected body.What does this all mean?Bishop Robert Barron gets to the heart of it
this week.
What this means is that we Christians believe
in the bodily resurrection because Christ has shown us the way.
Sunday Meditation: "Then he opened their
minds to understand the Scriptures.
I have been listening to John Michael Talbot songs
again.He is just wonderful. This one connects with today’s Gospel reading,
“I am the Resurrection.”
Perhaps I will include a song with these
Sunday Meditations that coordinate themes.Is that something you would enjoy?
I
tried to get a good photograph of yesterday’s solar eclipse but I was
unsuccessful.If you live in a cocoon
and don’t know, yesterday we in the United States had a total solar eclipse.I tried to get photograph but I could not get any of the solar eclipse worthy
glasses that I could use to filter out the radiation, ultra violet light, and
infrared rays.You can read about such
glasses here.
In
2017, the last solar eclipse in the local area, I was able to use the glasses over
my camera phone and filter out the obscuring rays.Yesterday I tried taking pictures with just
the phone—I pointed the phone in the general direction of the sun without
looking into it and snapped—but all I got was a ball of flame with some weird
rays or odd shaped sun.Here are some
examples.These have all been photo
edited to try to make distinct the passing moon.
I
think there is a passing object in front of the sun, but it’s not very
distinct.If you want to see the neat
pictures I took of the solar eclipse in 2017, I shared them on this blog post.
If
you want to see video of yesterday's actual, full solar eclipse you can
see it in this YouTube clip.
All
this eclipse talk reminded me of a song by Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Tyler has a very distinct husky voice, which I think perfectly fits what this might
be called a torch song.The voice exudes the pain of the subject.
A
little history on “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”It was a song written by Jim Steinman, who was the composer of most of those great songs that the performer Meat Loaf
recorded.Steinman composed lots of great hits, but
“Total Eclipse of the Heart may be his biggest.I think it was so big because of the perfectly sung performance from
Bonnie Tyler.Her distinct voice
elevates this song to something special.According to Meat Loaf, he was supposed to record the song but the deal with
Steinman fell through.He might have
done a fine job singing it, but I can’t imagine it would have been better than
Bonnie’s performance.
The
song was recorded in 1983, spending four weeks on the charts as number
one.I did not know Bonnie Tyler is
Welch.Her voice sounds so American
country.Some lyrics.
Easter has passed and we like the apostles
are dazed with the events of the past week.Jesus has died, and some have seen the Risen Man.But we hide in fear and doubt.Until suddenly He appears with the word of
Peace.
We are now in the Easter season, and we come
to the Second Sunday of Easter, the first being Easter itself.The reading is the same for all three years
of the lectionary.We are asked to
believe.
On the evening of that first day
of the week,
when the doors were locked, where
the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their
midst
and said to them, "Peace be
with you."
When he had said this, he showed
them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they
saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again,
"Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I
send you."
And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are
forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are
retained."
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the
Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to
him, "We have seen the Lord."
But he said to them,
"Unless I see the mark of the
nails in his hands
and put my finger into the
nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I
will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples
were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors
were locked,
and stood in their midst and said,
"Peace be with you."
Then he said to Thomas, "Put
your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it
into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but
believe."
Thomas answered and said to him,
"My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you
come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not
seen and have believed."
Now Jesus did many other signs in
the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may
come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God,
and that through this belief you
may have life in his name.
~Jn
20:19-31
In the year 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter
has been observed as the Feast of Divine Mercy, authorized by Pope John Paul II, who had a devotion to St. Maria Faustina.Fr. Joseph Mary of the Capuchins Franciscan gives
a wonderful homily, capturing the fear and message of peace of the day.
I bet no one in the
whole world has used Orwell's 1984 as
part of a Divine Mercy Sunday homily.Well done!And that is the connection
to “Peace” or “Shalom,” or as Father explains, “Wholeness.”Christ brings wholeness to a fragmented
world.
Sunday Meditation: "Peace be with
you."
Finally, I embedded Annie Karto’s “Divine
Mercy Flood My Soul” some 11 years ago for Divine Mercy Sunday.I love it so I will post it again, only a
different video with the lyrics.
Upon
hearing that Rome is ablaze, Vinicius gathers a few of his slaves and a horse
and heads for Rome in the dark of night.While riding furiously and with great haste, his thoughts are with
Lygia’s safety.He remembers things that
Nero had said in court about trying to describe a burning city.He comes to the conclusion that Caesar had
ordered the city to burn.The general
traffic on the road is heading in the opposite direct, as people are trying to
flee Rome.At one moment Vinicius prays
to God, the God of the Christians, that if He saves Lygia he will offer himself
in sacrifice.As he approaches the city
he finds a detachment of praetorians and having a rank of tribune commands them
to help him through the crowd.He meets
a Senator, Junius, who tells him their homes are burnt, and that this is no
ordinary fire but a deliberate one.Vinicius decides to go around the city to come through a different
entrance.
When
he approaches the wall at the Appian Way, masses of people have encamped or
settled in some sort of shelter.People
are trampling and fighting and robbing others.Gangs have formed to exploit and victimize refugees.All levels of society have become blurred and
languages from all over the world could be heard.The city is burning so bright that the sky
seems like daylight but smoke moving with the shifting winds adds to the
chaos.The heat from the fire is
overwhelming, and so Vinicius decides to head back out and down to the
Trans-Tiber.He finds another detachment
of soldiers and orders them to fight through the crowd.He is convinced that Nero has started the
fire and needs to be overthrown, and he even imagines himself becoming
emperor.The crowds at Trans-Tiber are
in violent disorder, fighting with each other.His horse is wounded and so he jumps on foot and heads toward Linus’s
house.The smoke and the heat are
overwhelming but he perseveres.When he
reaches Linus’s house, which had not burned, he calls for Lygia, but no one is
home.Falling from exhaustion and his
tunic smoldering, two men with water come to him.The two are Christians.Suddenly the familiar voice of Chilo comes
before him.Chilo tells him he knows
where Linus is staying.
The
terrible light of a burning city fills the night sky.Fire spreads and starts anew in every
neighborhood.Thousands of people are
encamped or fleeing.Violence and
looting is everywhere while others implore the gods for mercy.Hundreds of burnt bodies lay about.Hardly a family is unaffected; women could be
heard screaming in despair, and people do not know where to run.The fire continues to rage and spread, and
the city has turned into pandemonium.
Macrinus,
one of the Christians who had saved Vinicius, tells him that Linus and the
other Christians have gone to Ostrianum.This meant that most of the Christians had been saved from the fire, and
he hurries toward Ostrianum.With two
mules, he and Chilo go around the city to minimize the clutter from the
crowds.Still it is difficult and the
conflagration beyond them looks like the end of the world.Vinicius asks Chilo where he was when the
fire broke out, and Chilo says by the Circus Maximus, “meditating on
Christ.”Chilo tells him that he saw Lygia
and the other Christians in Ostrianum before the fire.With suspicion, Vinicius asked him what was
he doing there, and Chilo claims he is half Christian now, and the Christians
were giving him food.Through the hills,
and away from the Jews who had been persecuting the Christians, Chilo leads
Vinicius to the Christians where he finds them kneeling and singing hymns.He finds the congregation in prayer and in
expectation of Christ’s return as judge.When a roar shakes the earth, the congregation falls to their knees, and
at that moment Peter walks in.With
Peter’s reassuring words, a calmness pervades, and Vinicius falls to Peter’s
knees in supplication.
The
city continues to crumble under the flames, and the fire rages further.Tigellinus has been sent to Rome to do what
he could.He has houses torn down to try
to halt the spreading fire.Whole
neighborhoods are destroyed and so are food provisions.Hunger is beginning to spread through the
refugees.Tigellinus organizes food to
be brought in, but fights start by those trying to loot it.Days continue with thick smoke in the air; the
fire is still uncontrolled.Tigellinus
sends word to Nero to come since the fire is still a spectacle, and Nero decides
to delay so that he could enter at night to better see the fury of the
fire.All the while Nero is composing
lines of verse describing the burning city.Some of the people along the way cheer him, but most curse him.Clothed in his actor’s wardrobe, he sings his
versus to the crowd, and though unmoved by the tragic circumstances of the
masses before him, he is delighted with his performance.Both Petronius and Seneca counsel him that he
needs to pacify the people.Petronius volunteers
to speak to the rabble.After he quiets
the crowd, he promises them that Caesar will provide food and games for
everyone.
With
Peter’s calming words and the fire, while not burnt out, at least ceasing to advance,
the Christians return to their temporary dwellings.Vinicius and Chilo follow Peter toward
Linus’s house, but Chilo in possession of the mules is directed to take them
back to Macrinus.On the way Vinicius
asks Peter what else he must do to be ready for baptism, and Peter says “Love
men as thy own brothers, for only with love mayest thou serve Him.”As the two approach Linus’s house, Vinicius spots
Ursus and Lygia, who is preparing to cook fish.They embrace in another reunion.(How many reunions are we up to now, four?) They exchange informal
marriage vows, per the Roman custom.Vinicius then turns to the others and advises to seek safety.Mobs are killing people within the city and
Nero may bring troops to establish order.Peter gives permission for others to escape Rome but he must stay with
his sheep, the Christians.
Meanwhile
back at Rome, it has been a six days and provisions have begun to come in to at
least feed the encamped masses.But
robbery and violence is still unchecked.The fire is still burning in places, but at least the night sky no
longer reflects blood red.The
provisions did not appease the masses as they continued to curse Caesar.Of the aristocracy, only Petronius continues
to be respected.At Caesar’s court, the
aristocrats look to deflect blame for the fire, but to deflect blame from
themselves they must also clear Nero. Petronius advises that Nero keep his
planned trip to Greece to get out until the Roman anger has subsided.Tigellinus advises the opposite; the Roman
senate might declare another emperor.Nero declares that to satisfy vengeance, a victim must be provided.He looks about the room for volunteers.Tigellinus suggests that the Pretorian guard
would avenge aristocratic deaths, which shuts Nero up. Just when Nero agrees to go to Greece, Poppaea
and Tigellinus propose to blame the Christians.Their deaths can be a spectacle for the public’s blood revenge.In this Petronius saw the danger to his
beloved nephew and risks his very life to propose otherwise.He says the truth is the truth and Nero will
be blamed by history not just for the fire but for cowardice to live up to
it.Tigellinus jumps on this and points
Petronius as a traitor.All the
aristocrats call to punish Petronius, but Nero holds his hand.
Later,
Tigellinus leads Nero over to Poppaea’s section of the palace.With her are two rabbis and Chilo.The rabbis and Chilo agree that the
Christians are enemies of the state and started the fire.Chilo speaks of how the philosophy of the
Christians leads them exterminate all people and destroy the earth.He gives details how they had done him wrong,
particularly one named Glaucus, and how he has now been acquainted with their
chief priests.He speaks of how
Christians kill children to sprinkle their blood in ceremonies and how they
bewitched Nero’s daughter into illness and death.He tells them that Vinicius has become a
Christian through Lygia.Tigellinus adds
that perhaps Petronius is a Christian too.Chilo tells them he can lead them to where they are all hiding and all
their places of worship.Tigellinus
proposes to have nephew and uncle immediately killed, but Nero says not
now.Chilo is given soldiers to round up
the Christians.
###
Some
thoughts on these chapters.
These
were such an intense set of chapters.The burning of Rome was so well described that it felt I was there.Nero wants to see a burning city so he can
describe it better than Virgil’s description.But Nero’s description is a complete failure.But Sienkiewicz’s description in these
chapters was truly magnificent, comparable to Virgil’s of Troy.So the irony is that Sienkiewicz does in the
novel what Nero wanted to do but couldn’t.
Vinicius’s
trek through the burning city for Lygia was a passion procession of suffering
akin to Christ’s passion.He even offers
himself in sacrifice.It was through
this suffering that he earned his initiation into the faith.
Christian
compassion is contrasted distinctly against the pagan looting and violence
during the burning fire.
I
found the drama of Nero’s court as they sought a fall man to blame for the fire
just as intense as the description of the burning city.The power play between Tigellinus and
Petronius was gripping as they vied for Nero’s approbation.It was a life and death battle.
The
love of Petronius for his nephew is a rudimentary—or perhaps a better word
would be natural—love akin to Christian love.It is love written in the heart according to natural law.He even puts himself at sacrificial risk of
death for Vinicius.If I were to start
reading the novel over, I would look for all the bonds of love that hold people
together, and all those who like Nero or Poppaea reject those bonds.Chilo has many instances of building a
relationship of mutual love and he rejects it.Could we look at the characters as receiving grace to cooperate with
God’s love?Again I would look for
implications of this on a second read.Vinicius’s
conversion is built on the his love for Lygia.I think Peter’s words to Vinicius in chapter 47 is the central theme of
the novel: “Love men as thy own brothers, for only with love mayest thou serve
Him.”
Chilo
is the Judas character.Interestingly Sienkiewicz
is playing with a Roman sterotype about never trusting the Greeks.It goes back to Homer who used the Greek’s
charade of the Trojan Horse to sack Troy.It continued through the Roman Empire, and indeed into the Middle
Ages.During the Crusades, the Latin west
routinely claimed the Greeks were untrustworthy.Chilo reminds me of the mestizo character who
betrays the Whiskey Priest in Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory.We
read that just over two years ago in 2021 for those that participated in that
read.That discussion is in our history
boards.
###
Michelle
Comment:
Thank you for this great
summary! Chilo was a great source of frustration for me up to this point. I
mean, I expected vile behavior from Nero, Poppaea and Tigellinus, but
opportunistic Chilo liked the Christians. I liked the way Petronius became so
very protective of Vinicius, too.
I hadn't thought of Chilo
as a Judas character, but I see that now. Judas also must have cared for and
liked his fellow apostles but still betrayed.
Kerstin
Comment:
These are very gripping
and intense chapters. The descriptions of the mass chaos were masterfully done.
Sienkiewicz focuses for long chapters on the common people, something we don't
get out of history books. The juxtaposition to the mad behavior of the singing
Nero couldn't be more surreal.
Michelle
Reply:
I was also very impressed
with the realism in those chapters--very easy to imagine what that must have
been like. I imagine it may have been very like the recent conflagration in
Maui.
###
An
excerpt from Chapter 42, Vinicius dashes to the burning city of Rome, and along
the way has the epiphany that Nero was behind the fire..
Vinicius had barely time
to command a few slaves to follow him; then, springing on his horse, he rushed
forth in the deep night along the empty streets toward Laurentum. Through the
influence of the dreadful news he had fallen as it were into frenzy and mental
distraction. At moments he did not know clearly what was happening in his mind;
he had merely the feeling that misfortune was on the horse with him, sitting
behind his shoulders, and shouting in his ears, "Rome is burning!"
that it was lashing his horse and him, urging them toward the fire. Laying his
bare head on the beast's neck, he rushed on, in his single tunic, alone, at
random, not looking ahead, and taking no note of obstacles against which he
might perchance dash himself.
In silence and in that
calm night, the rider and the horse, covered with gleams of the moon, seemed
like dream visions. The Idumean stallion, dropping his ears and stretching his
neck, shot on like an arrow past the motionless cypresses and the white villas
hidden among them. The sound of hoofs on the stone flags roused dogs here and
there; these followed the strange vision with their barking; afterward, excited
by its suddenness, they fell to howling, and raised their jaws toward the moon.
The slaves hastening after Vinicius soon dropped behind, as their horses were
greatly inferior. When he had rushed like a storm through sleeping Laurentum,
he turned toward Ardea, in which, as in Aricia, Bovillæ, and Ustrinum, he had
kept relays of horses from the day of his coming to Antium, so as to pass in
the shortest time possible the interval between Rome and him. Remembering these
relays, he forced all the strength from his horse.
Beyond Ardea it seemed to
him that the sky on the northeast was covered with a rosy reflection. That
might be the dawn, for the hour was late, and in July daybreak came early. But
Vinicius could not keep down a cry of rage and despair, for it seemed to him
that that was the glare of the conflagration. He remembered the consul's words,
"The whole city is one sea of flame," and for a while he felt that
madness was threatening him really, for he had lost utterly all hope that he
could save Lygia, or even reach the city before it was turned into one heap of
ashes. His thoughts were quicker now than the rush of the stallion, they flew
on ahead like a flock of birds, black, monstrous, and rousing despair. He knew
not, it is true, in what part of the city the fire had begun; but he supposed
that the Trans-Tiber division, as it was packed with tenements, timber-yards,
storehouses, and wooden sheds serving as slave marts, might have become the
first food of the flames.
In Rome fires happened
frequently enough; during these fires, as frequently, deeds of violence and
robbery were committed, especially in the parts occupied by a needy and
half-barbarous population. What might happen, therefore, in a place like the
Trans-Tiber, which was the retreat of a rabble collected from all parts of the
earth? Here the thought of Ursus with his preterhuman power flashed into
Vinicius's head; but what could be done by a man, even were he a Titan, against
the destructive force of fire?
The fear of servile
rebellion was like a nightmare, which had stifled Rome for whole years. It was
said that hundreds of thousands of those people were thinking of the times of
Spartacus, and merely waiting for a favorable moment to seize arms against
their oppressors and Rome. Now the moment had come! Perhaps war and slaughter
were raging in the city together with fire. It was possible even that the
pretorians had hurled themselves on the city, and were slaughtering at command
of Cæsar.
And that moment the hair
rose from terror on his head. He recalled all the conversations about burning
cities, which for some time had been repeated at Cæsar's court with wonderful
persistence; he recalled Cæsar's complaints that he was forced to describe a
burning city without having seen a real fire; his contemptuous answer to
Tigellinus, who offered to burn Antium or an artificial wooden city; finally,
his complaints against Rome, and the pestilential alleys of the Subura. Yes;
Cæsar has commanded the burning of the city! He alone could give such a
command, as Tigellinus alone could accomplish it. But if Rome is burning at
command of Cæsar, who can be sure that the population will not be slaughtered
at his command also? The monster is capable even of such a deed. Conflagration,
a servile revolt, and slaughter! What a horrible chaos, what a letting loose of
destructive elements and popular frenzy! And in all this is Lygia.
A
second excerpt is Chilo and the Rabbis before Nero and Poppaea betraying the
Christians through lies.This is such
marvelous dialogue with Chilo unctuously flattering Caesar and his wife to be
on their good side.
"Do ye accuse the
Christians of burning Rome?" inquired Cæsar.
"We, lord, accuse
them of this alone,—that they are enemies of the law, of the human race, of
Rome, and of thee; that long since they have threatened the city and the world
with fire! The rest will be told thee by this man, whose lips are unstained by
a lie, for in his mother's veins flowed the blood of the chosen people."
Nero turned to Chilo:
"Who art thou?"
"One who honors
thee, O Cyrus; and, besides, a poor Stoic-"
"I hate the
Stoics," said Nero. "I hate Thrasea; I hate Musonius and Cornutus.
Their speech is repulsive to me; their contempt for art, their voluntary
squalor and filth."
"O lord, thy master
Seneca has one thousand tables of citrus wood. At thy wish I will have twice as
many. I am a Stoic from necessity. Dress my stoicism, O Radiant One, in a
garland of roses, put a pitcher of wine before it; it will sing Anacreon in
such strains as to deafen every Epicurean."
Nero, who was pleased by
the title "Radiant," smiled and said,-"Thou dost please
me."
"This man is worth
his weight in gold!" cried Tigellinus.
"Put thy liberality
with my weight," answered Chilo, "or the wind will blow my reward
away."
"He would not
outweigh Vitelius," put in Cæsar.
"Eheu! Silver-bowed,
my wit is not of lead."
"I see that thy
faith does not hinder thee from calling me a god."
"O Immortal! My
faith is in thee; the Christians blaspheme against that faith, and I hate
them."
"What dost thou know
of the Christians?"
"Wilt thou permit me
to weep, O divinity?"
"No," answered
Nero; "weeping annoys me."
"Thou art triply
right, for eyes that have seen thee should be free of tears forever. O lord,
defend me against my enemies."
"Speak of the
Christians," said Poppæa, with a shade of impatience.
"It will be at thy
command, O Isis," answered Chilo. "From youth I devoted myself to
philosophy, and sought truth. I sought it among the ancient divine sages, in
the Academy at Athens, and in the Serapeum at Alexandria. When I heard of the
Christians, I judged that they formed some new school in which I could find
certain kernels of truth; and to my misfortune I made their acquaintance. The
first Christian whom evil fate brought near me was one Glaucus, a physician of
Naples. From him I learned in time that they worship a certain Chrestos, who
promised to exterminate all people and destroy every city on earth, but to
spare them if they helped him to exterminate the children of Deucalion. For
this reason, O lady, they hate men, and poison fountains; for this reason in
their assemblies they shower curses on Rome, and on all temples in which our
gods are honored. Chrestos was crucified; but he promised that when Rome was
destroyed by fire, he would come again and give Christians dominion over the
world."
"People will
understand now why Rome was destroyed," interrupted Tigellinus.
"Many understand
that already, O lord, for I go about in the gardens, I go to the Campus
Martius, and teach. But if ye listen to the end, ye will know my reasons for
vengeance. Glaucus the physician did not reveal to me at first that their
religion taught hatred. On the contrary, he told me that Chrestos was a good
divinity, that the basis of their religion was love. My sensitive heart could
not resist such a truth; hence I took to loving Glaucus, I trusted him, I shared
every morsel of bread with him, every copper coin, and dost thou know, lady,
how he repaid me? On the road from Naples to Rome he thrust a knife into my
body, and my wife, the beautiful and youthful Berenice, he sold to a
slave-merchant. If Sophocles knew my history—but what do I say? One better than
Sophocles is listening."
"Poor man!"
said Poppæa.
"Whoso has seen the
face of Aphrodite is not poor, lady; and I see it at this moment. But then I
sought consolation in philosophy. When I came to Rome, I tried to meet
Christian elders to obtain justice against Glaucus. I thought that they would
force him to yield up my wife. I became acquainted with their chief priest; I
became acquainted with another, named Paul, who was in prison in this city, but
was liberated afterward; I became acquainted with the son of Zebedee, with
Linus and Clitus and many others. I know where they lived before the fire, I
know where they meet. I can point out one excavation in the Vatican Hill and a
cemetery beyond the Nomentan Gate, where they celebrate their shameless
ceremonies. I saw the Apostle Peter. I saw how Glaucus killed children, so that
the Apostle might have something to sprinkle on the heads of those present; and
I saw Lygia, the foster-child of Pomponia Græcina, who boasted that though
unable to bring the blood of an infant, she brought the death of an infant, for
she bewitched the little Augusta, thy daughter, O Cyrus, and thine, O
Isis!"
"Dost hear,
Cæsar?" asked Poppæa.
"Can that be!"
exclaimed Nero.
"I could forgive
wrongs done myself," continued Chilo, "but when I heard of yours, I
wanted to stab her. Unfortunately I was stopped by the noble Vinicius, who
loves her."