About the spectacles

The book “On Spectacles” belongs to the number of dubious works of the Scheme. Cyprian of Carthage. The work was compiled by a bishop who was away from his flock. The author calls for abandoning pagan spectacles and paying attention to those spectacles that await Christians in the future. *The title of the work in Latin is De spectaculis. Cyprian wishes health to the people who remain steadfast in the gospel. How much I am sad and indignant in my soul at a time when there is no opportunity for me to write to you (because I consider it a loss for myself not to talk to you): so, on the other hand, nothing gives me so much pleasure and does not return me to complacency again as the opportunity that opens up for this. It seems to me that I am among you when I talk with you in writing. So, although you, as I know, are aware that this is really as I say, and do not at all doubt the justice of my words; however, here is new proof of the sincerity of what was said. (When they do not miss the slightest opportunity (to write), they thereby prove their disposition). So, although I am sure that you are as strict in life as you are firm in your vow; but precisely because there are flattering defenders and indulgers of vices who defend them and, what is even worse, direct the study of divine scriptures to the defense of crimes, recognizing as innocent the enjoyment of spectacles, which supposedly mean peace of mind (for the strictness of church decorum has already weakened so much and the evil of perfect indulgence to vices has reached such an extent that they no longer think about the excuse of vices, but about their dignity), therefore it is precisely for me This time, briefly, I wanted not to give you instructions, but to remind you of what you have been taught, so that, due to poor dressing of wounds, healed ulcers do not break through. For no disease is destroyed with such difficulty as that which is easy to return to, when it is supported by the sympathy of the crowd and softened by an apology. Faithful people who arrogate to themselves the right to be called Christians are not ashamed, I say, they are not ashamed to defend empty, pagan, superstitious rituals mixed with ideas from the divine scriptures, and to assimilate the divine importance of idolatry! In fact, when faithful Christians attend a spectacle performed by pagans in honor of some idol, are they not thereby defending pagan idolatry and are they not dishonestly trampling on the true and divine religion? I am ashamed to offer their apology and defense on this matter. “Where, they say, is it written about this? Where is it prohibited? After all, Elijah appears to be the charioteer of Israel, and David himself galloped before the ark. We also read about harps, trumpets, timbrels, pipes, harps and choirs. Yes, and the Apostle, arming us for battle, offers weapons against the spirits of evil, usually used by fighters; he, when he takes examples from the lists, places crowns between the awards. Why shouldn’t a believer, a Christian, look at what was permissible to write about in the divine scriptures?” To this I would say that it is much better for such people not to know the scripture at all than to understand it in this way; because the expressions and examples that are presented to encourage evangelical virtue turn by them to the defense of vices - then, as they are set out in scripture, not in order to lust after spectacles, but so that through them our soul will be inflamed with a greater desire for useful objects, recalling similar desires among the pagans for useless objects. So, the essence of the proof is stimulation to virtue, and not permission or freedom in contemplating pagan vices; the essence is that, as a result of this excitement, the soul is more ardent towards gospel virtue, meaning divine rewards, because due to the severity of labor and illness, eternal benefits can be achieved. And that Elijah appears to be the charioteer of Israel, there is no support for visiting circuses; because he did not perform in any circus. And the fact that David danced before the face of God does not in the least justify the faithful Christians present in the theater; because he did not use shameless body movements and his dance was not a Greek voluptuous dance. Psalteries, trumpets, pipes and harps (in David) sang to God, not to the idol. So, it is not prescribed to look at what is not allowed; and what is not allowed is changed by the cunning of the devil. Let shame teach them if the Holy Scriptures cannot teach them. Scripture, when taught, implies something more; sparing modesty, it especially prohibits something because it is completely silent about it. If the truth finally condescended to clarify everything, then it would have a very bad opinion of its faithful. In the commandments, for greater benefit, it is necessary to remain silent about certain subjects; otherwise they often get carried away with what is forbidden. That is why, when something is stated in Scripture, it is silent about something else, and about what is silent, reason and a strict view of the matter speaks, instead of commandments. Just let everyone think with himself, let him talk to his fellow believer; and - he will never do anything indecent, because his own opinion will then have more weight. What is prohibited in Scripture? It is forbidden to look at what is forbidden to do. I say that Scripture condemned all kinds of spectacles when it rejected the mother of all games - idolatry, from which all these monsters of vanity and frivolity arose. For what is a spectacle without an idol? What is a game without sacrifice? What competition is not dedicated to someone who died? What does a true Christian do when attending them? If he flees idolatry; then why, being a saint, does he find pleasure in forbidden things? Why, in opposition to God, does he approve of superstitions that he loves when he looks at them? Let him know that all this is a demonic invention, not God’s. He recklessly conjures demons in the church, who praises their amusements at shows; whoever, having renounced the devil once for all and having made amends for everything in baptism, goes from Christ to the sight of the devil, rejects Christ, just as he rejected the devil. Idolatry, as I have already said, is the mother of all games; in order to attract Christians to itself, it deceives them with the pleasures of sight and hearing. Romulus was the first, when he set out to kidnap the Sabine women, and dedicated the games to Cons, as it were, to the god of advice. Then others, when there was a famine in Rome, in order to return the people there, they invented public games, which they then dedicated to Ceres, Bacchus and other idols, as well as the dead. The competitions of the Greeks in singing, in playing musical instruments, in eloquence, or in strength, have patrons in various demons - and if you look for the beginning and reason for establishing what either attracts the eye or flatters the ear, then the cause will turn out to be either an idol, or a demon, or the dead. Thus, the cunning devil, knowing that idolatry in itself could seem disgusting, combined it with spectacles in order to make people love it for the sake of pleasure. Is it necessary to continue even more? Or - is it still necessary to describe those terrible types of sacrifices, in which sometimes, through the deception of the priest, a person becomes a victim - in which warm, so to speak, boiling blood, taken from the throat into a cup and splashed on the idol, as if thirsty, in the face, is barbarously presented for drinking - in which, finally, among the pleasures of the spectators, the death of some is offered, in order to learn cruelty through a bloody spectacle, As if a person doesn’t have enough of his own fury if he doesn’t learn it publicly? To execute a person, a wild animal is fed so that it can rage as ferociously as possible before the eyes of the spectators: the artist teaches the animal, which, perhaps, would be much more subdued if the owner had not taught him to rage. I will remain silent about other items praised by idolatry. But how much emptiness is there in the competition itself? Arguing over flowers, bickering in chariot races, seeking honors, rejoicing that the horse was fast, lamenting when he was very lazy, counting the years of cattle according to the times of the consuls, studying its ages, designating a generation, recalling one’s grandfathers and great-grandfathers - what a waste of time in all this? or better - how, I will say, it is disgusting and dishonorable to listen to someone listing from memory the entire generation of a horse breed, and retelling all this without error with great speed! But ask him first about the ancestors of Christ: he does not know them, and knowing them would be a great misfortune for him. Again, if I ask him which way he came to the spectacle; then he admits that he came through an indecent house, through the naked bodies of harlots, through public debauchery, through public dishonor, through base lust, through general disgrace. Let's assume that he did this by accident; but he saw what should not have been done, and yet he turned his gaze to the idolatrous spectacle as a result of lust: he dared, if it were possible, to bring with him to the obscene house everything that was holy in it; hastening to the spectacle upon leaving the church and, as usual, still carrying the Eucharist with him, this infidel brought the holy body of Christ into the midst of the icy bodies of harlots, earning for the path through which he passed a worse condemnation than for enjoying the spectacle. But when I touch on the shameless jokes of the stage, then I am ashamed to convey what is said there, ashamed to condemn what is done there - to condemn verses from fables, the cunning of adulterers, the shamelessness of women, buffoon games, vile buffoons, even the most honorable fathers of families, now falling into a stupor, now showing lust - stupid in everything, in everything shameless. And despite the fact that the scoundrels, regardless of origin or position, do not give anyone mercy in their words, despite this they all rush to the spectacle. They find pleasure in seeing general ugliness, becoming familiar with idleness and becoming accustomed to it. They gather in this house of public shamelessness, in this school of obscenity, so that only what is studied in public will be done in secret; among the laws themselves they learn what is prohibited by the laws. What does a Christian, a believer, who is not allowed to even think about vices, do at these spectacles? What pleasure does he find in images of lust that can lead him to the point where he himself, having lost his shame here, becomes more courageous in committing crimes? By learning to look, he also learns to do. Even those women whom misfortune has brought to slavery to lewdness hide their debauchery in a public place and indulge in the pleasure of lust only secretly: even those who have sold their shame are ashamed to show themselves openly! Meanwhile, this public disgrace is committed in the eyes of everyone, and those who commit it are ahead of the lewdness of dishonest women. They even tried to find out how to commit fornication in the eyes of others!.. To the above-mentioned shamelessness belongs another of equal dignity. Here is a man whose all his limbs are broken, here is a husband, more pampered and relaxed than a woman, adept at communicating with gestures; - and because of him alone, either a man or a woman, the whole city comes into motion: he will act out on stage the fabulous debauchery of antiquity. This is how they love what is not allowed, they love that even that which has been hidden by time be brought before their eyes again! For lust, it is not enough to enjoy real evil - no, through the spectacle it wants to assimilate for itself what they sinned in ancient times. I say: it is not permissible for faithful Christians, it is absolutely not permissible either to attend the spectacles or to be with those whom Greece, to amuse the ears, sends everywhere, teaching them various empty arts. Here is one of them imitating the rough military noise of a trumpet; another, blowing up a flute, extracts sad sounds from it; and he, with an effort, catching his breath in his lungs and competing with the choirs and the sonorous human voice, moves through the holes of the organ and, now holding back his breath, now drawing it in and then releasing it into the air through certain cracks of the instrument, and then interrupting the sound on a certain knee - ungrateful to the artist who gave him the tongue - he intensifies speaking with his fingers! And what can we say about the comical useless efforts - about the great furies of tragic speech - about the tension of the nerves during a cry? Even if all this was not dedicated to idols, then faithful Christians should neither attend these spectacles nor look at them: because even though there was no direct crime in all this, there is still a great emptiness here that is completely indecent for the faithful. Is it not the obvious madness of those who give idle people the occupation of beating themselves, and whose first victory is to show a hunger unusual for the human stomach, as if to honor the crowned gluttony of the dissolute Nundina? 2 The unfortunate face is exposed to blows just to satisfy an even more unhappy belly! Besides this, what shame is there in the competition itself? The man lies beneath the man, shamelessly embracing and clutching each other. They are looking out to see who will win; but first of all, shame has already been defeated. Here is one naked galloping in front of you, another with intense effort throws up a copper ball: this is not glory, but madness! Remove the viewer, and you will present nothing but emptiness. That is why believers, Christians, as I have already said several times, must run away from these so empty, destructive and wicked spectacles: we must guard both our sight and hearing from them. We soon become accustomed to what we hear and what we see. The human mind itself is prone to vices; What will he do to himself if he has slippery samples of a bodily nature that willingly indulges in vice - what will he do if it is even encouraged to do so? Yes, you need to remove your soul from all this. A Christian, if he wishes, has much better sights - he has true and completely useful pleasures - if only he recognizes himself. I will not mention what cannot yet be contemplated: but he has before him that beauty of the world that can be seen and marveled at. Let him look at the rising and setting of the sun, which alternately brings back days and nights; on the circle of the moon, which by its increase and decline signifies the passage of time; on hosts of sparkling stars, constantly pouring light from above with extraordinary mobility; let him successively contemplate the individual parts of the whole year and the very days and nights, distributed according to the times of the hours, - let him contemplate the balanced thickness of the earth with its mountains, and the continuously flowing rivers with their sources, - the vast seas with their waves and shores, - the constant air, with the greatest proportionality, spread everywhere, enlivening everything with its benevolence and, sometimes pouring out rain from the condensed clouds, then, after the thinning of the clouds, the weather again returns clear - and in all these parts of nature let him contemplate the inhabitants characteristic of each part: in the air - birds, in the water - fish, and on earth - man. These, I say, and other works of God should form a spectacle for faithful Christians. What theater built by human hands can compare with these works? It may be built from great piles of stones, but the crests of the mountains are higher than it; let its ceilings shine with gold, but the brilliance of the stars completely darkens them. Thus, he who recognizes himself as the son of God will never be surprised at human deeds! He casts himself down from the height of his nobility who can be surprised at anything other than the Lord. A faithful Christian, I say, must adhere to the divine scriptures: in them he will find sights worthy of faith. He will see God there creating his world and, after the creation of all animals, creating man in an amazing and best way. He will see the world in its sins and then the righteous drowning of everyone: the rewards of the pious and the punishments of the wicked. He will see the seas dried up for a people, and the waters bursting out of stone for the same people. He will see bread coming down from heaven, and not from barns; he will see rivers, after the flow of water has been stopped, providing dry passages for many people. He will see in some faith that overcomes the flames of fire - animals tamed by faith and made tame. He will also contemplate souls returned from the bonds of death; he will even see how life miraculously returned to the most decayed bodies; at the end of everything he will see another special sight - the same devil who triumphed throughout the whole world, cast down at the feet of Christ. How decent, brothers, this is a spectacle! How pleasant and how necessary it is to always contemplate your hope and open your eyes to your salvation! Neither the praetor nor the consul will present such a spectacle; but only One, who is before all things, who is above all, and from whom are all things, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory forever and ever. I wish you, brothers, always to be in good health. Amen. The book on spectacles and the following one, Praise of Martyrdom, are among the dubious works of St. Cyprian. It is difficult to prove their authenticity, but there are no sufficient grounds to definitively recognize them as fraudulent. The Romans have a goddess of gluttony and mercantile activity. You might be interested in: