The Western Church Toward The En

Heathenism lingered as a force in society longer in the West than in the

East, not merely among the peasantry, but among the higher classes. This

was partly due to the conservatism of the aristocratic classes and the

superior form in which the religious philosophy of Neo-Platonism had been

presented to the West. This presentation was due, in no small part, to the

work of such philosophers as Victorinus, who translated the earlier w rks

of the Neo-Platonists so that it escaped the tendencies, represented by

Jamblichus, toward theurgy and magic, and an alliance with polytheism and

popular superstition. Victorinus himself became a Christian, passing by an

easy transition from Neo-Platonism to Christianity; a course in which he

was followed by Augustine, and, no doubt, by others as well.





Augustine, Confessiones, VIII, 2. (MSL, 32:79.)





The conversion of Victorinus.





To Simplicianus then I went--the father of Ambrose,(164) in receiving Thy

grace,(165) and whom he truly loved as a father. To him I narrated the

windings of my error. But when I mentioned to him that I had read certain

books of the Platonists, which Victorinus, formerly professor of rhetoric

at Rome (who died a Christian, as I had heard), had translated into Latin,

he congratulated me that I had not fallen upon the writings of other

philosophers, which were full of fallacies and deceit, "after the

rudiments of this world" [Col. 2:8], whereas they, in many respects, led

to the belief in God and His word. Then to exhort me to the humility of

Christ, hidden from the wise and revealed to babes, he spoke of Victorinus

himself, whom, while he was in Rome, he had known intimately; and of him

he related that about which I will not be silent. For it contained great

praise of Thy grace, which ought to be confessed unto Thee, how that most

learned old man, highly skilled in all the liberal sciences, who had read,

criticised, and explained so many works of the philosophers; the teacher

of so many noble senators, who, also, as a mark of his excellent discharge

of his duties, had both merited and obtained a statue in the Roman Forum

(something men of this world esteem a great honor), he, who had been, even

to that age, a worshipper of idols and a participator in the sacrilegious

rites to which almost all the nobility of Rome were addicted, and had

inspired the people with the love of "monster gods of every sort, and the

barking Anubis, who hold their weapons against Neptune and Venus and

Minerva" [Vergil, AEneid, VIII, 736 ff.], and those whom Rome once

conquered, she now worshipped, all of which Victorinus, now old, had

defended so many years with vain language,(166) he now blushed not to be a

child of Thy Christ, and an infant at Thy fountain, submitting his neck to

the yoke of humility, and subduing his forehead to the reproach of the

cross.



O Lord, Lord, who hast bowed the heavens and come down, touched the

mountains and they smoked [Psalm 144:5], by what means didst Thou convey

Thyself into that bosom? He used to read, Simplicianus said, the Holy

Scriptures and most studiously sought after and searched out all the

Christian writings, and he said to Simplicianus, not openly, but secretly

and as a friend: "Knowest thou that I am now a Christian?" To which he

replied: "I will not believe it, nor will I rank you among the Christians

unless I see you in the Church of Christ." Whereupon he replied

derisively: "Do walls then make Christians?" And this he often said, that

already he was a Christian; and Simplicianus used as often to make the

same answer, and as often the conceit of the walls was repeated. For he

was fearful of offending his friends, proud demon worshippers, from the

height of whose Babylonian pride, as from the cedars of Lebanon, which the

Lord had not yet broken [Psalm 29:5], he seriously thought a storm of

enmity would descend upon him. But after that he had derived strength from

reading and inquiry, and feared lest he should be denied by Christ before

the holy angels if he was now afraid to confess Him before men [Matt.

10:33], and appeared to himself to be guilty of a great fault in being

ashamed of the sacraments of the humility of Thy word, and not being

ashamed of the sacrilegious rites of those proud demons, which as a proud

imitator he had accepted, he became bold-faced against vanity and

shamefaced toward the truth, and suddenly and unexpectedly said to

Simplicianus, as he himself informed me: "Let us go to the Church; I wish

to be made a Christian." And he, unable to contain himself for joy, went

with him. When he had been admitted to the first sacrament of instruction

[i.e., the Catechumenate], he, not long after, gave in his name that he

might be regenerated by baptism. Meanwhile Rome marvelled and the Church

rejoiced; the proud saw and were enraged; they gnashed with their teeth

and melted away [Psalm 92:9]. But the Lord God was the hope of Thy

servant, and He regarded not vanities and lying madness [Psalm 40:4].



Finally the hour arrived when he should make profession of his faith,

which, at Rome, they, who are about to approach Thy grace, are accustomed

to deliver from an elevated place, in view of the faithful people, in a

set form of words learnt by heart. But the presbyters, he said, offered

Victorinus the privilege of making his profession more privately, as was

the custom to do to those who were likely, on account of bashfulness, to

be afraid; but he chose, rather, to profess his salvation in the presence

of the holy assembly. For it was not salvation that he had taught in

rhetoric and yet he had publicly professed that. How much less, therefore,

ought he, when pronouncing Thy word, to dread Thy meek flock, who, in the

delivery of his own words, had not feared the mad multitudes! So then,

when he ascended to make his profession, and all recognized him, they

whispered his name one to the other, with a tone of congratulation. And

who was there among them that did not know him? And there ran through the

mouths of all the rejoicing multitude a low murmur: "Victorinus!

Victorinus!" Sudden was the burst of exultation at the sight of him, and

as sudden the hush of attention that they might hear him. He pronounced

the true faith with an excellent confidence, and all desired to take him

to their hearts, and by their love and joy they did take him to them; such

were the hands with which they took him.