Callista : a Tale of the Third Century

by John Henry Newman

  CHAPTER XXII.

  JUCUNDUS PROPOUNDS HIS VIEW OF THE SITUATION.

  For thirty-six hours Agellius had been confined in his undergroundreceptacle, light being almost excluded, a bench and a rug being his meansof repose, and a full measure of bread, wine, and olives being his dole.The shrieks and yells of the rioters could be distinctly heard in hisprison, as the day of his seizure went on, and they passed by the templeof Astarte; but what happened at his farm, and how it fared with Caecilius,he had no means of conjecturing; nor indeed how it was to fare withhimself, for on the face of the transaction, as was in form the fact, hewas in the hands of the law, and only indulged with the house of arelative for his prison. On the second night he was released by hisuncle's confidential slave, who brought him up to a small back closet onthe ground floor, which was lighted from the roof, and next morning, beingthe second day after the riot, Jucundus came in to have his confidentialconversation with him.

  His uncle began by telling him that he was a government prisoner, but thathe hoped by his influence in high places to get him off and out of Siccawithout any prejudice to his honour. He told him that he had managed itprivately, and if he had treated him with apparent harshness up to theevening before, it was in order to save appearances with the apparitorswho had attended him. He then went on to inform him that the mob hadvisited his cottage, and had caught some man there; he supposed someaccomplice or ally of his nephew's. They had seized him, and were bringinghim off, but the fellow had been clever enough to effect his escape. Hedid not know more than this, but it had happened very fortunately, for thegeneral belief in the place was, that it was Agellius who had been taken,and who had managed to give them the slip. Since it could not any longerbe safely denied that he was a Christian, though he (Jucundus) did notthink so himself, he had encouraged or rather had given his confirmationto the report; and when some persons who had means of knowing had assertedthat the culprit was double the age of his nephew and more, and not at allof his make or description, but a sort of slave, or rather that he was theslave of Agellius who had belonged to his father Strabo, Jucundus hadboldly asserted that Agellius, in the emergency, had availed himself ofsome of the remarkably powerful charms which Christians were known topossess, and had made himself seem what he really was not, in order toescape detection. It had not indeed answered the purpose entirely, for hehad actually been taken; but no blame in the charm, which perhaps, afterall, had enabled him to escape. However, Agellius was gone, he toldpeople, and a good riddance, and he hoped never to see him again. "But yousee, my dear boy," he concluded, "this was all talk for the occasion, forI hope you will live here many years in respectability and credit. Iintend you should close my eyes when my time comes, and inherit whatever Ihave to leave you; for as to that fellow Juba, he inspires me with noconfidence in him at all."

  Agellius thanked his uncle with all his heart for his kind and successfulefforts on his behalf; he did not think there was a word he had said, inthe future he had sketched for him, which he could have wished altered.But he thought Jucundus over-sanguine; much as he should like to live withhim and tend him in his old age, he did not think he should ever bepermitted to return to Sicca. He was a Christian, and must seek someremote corner of the world, or at least some city where he was unknown.Every one in Sicca would point at him as the Christian; he wouldexperience a thousand rubs and collisions, even if the mob did not riseagainst him, without corresponding advantage; on the other hand, he wouldhave no influence. But were he in the midst of a powerful andwidely-extended community of Christians, he might in his place do work,and might extend the faith as one of a number, unknown himself, and strongin his brethren. He therefore proposed as soon as possible to sell hiseffects and stock, and retire from the sight of men, at least for a time.

  "You think this persecution, then, will be soon at an end?" askedJucundus.

  "I judge by the past," answered Agellius; "there have been times of trialand of rest hitherto, and I suppose it will be so again. And one place hashitherto been exempt from the violence of our enemies, when another hasbeen the scene of it."

  "A new time is coming, trust me," said Jucundus, gravely. "Those popularcommotions are all over. What happened two days ago is a sample of whatwill come of them; they have received their _coup-de-grace_. The State istaking up the matter, Rome itself, thank the gods! a tougher sort ofcustomer than these villain ratcatchers and offal-eaters, whom you had todo with two days since. Great Rome is now at length in earnest, my boy,which she ought to have been a long time back, before you were born; andthen you know," and he nodded, "you would have had no choice; you wouldn'thave had the temptation to make a fool of yourself."

  "Well, then," answered Agellius, "if a new time is really coming, there isless chance than ever of my continuing here."

  "Now be a sensible fellow, as you are when you choose," said his uncle;"look the matter in the face, do. You cannot wrestle with impossibilities,you cannot make facts to pattern. There are lawful religions, there areillicit. Christianity is illicit; it is not tolerated; that's not yourfault; you cannot help it; you would, if you could; you can't. Now youhave observed your point of honour; you have shown you can stand up like aman, and suffer for your own fancy. Still Rome does not give way; and youmust make the best of it. You must give in, and you are far too good (Idon't compliment, I speak my mind), far too amiable, excellent, sweet aboy for so rascally a superstition."

  "There is something stronger than Rome," said the nephew almost sternly.

  Jucundus cut him short. "Agellius!" he said, "you must not say that inthis house. You shall not use that language under my roof. I'll not put upwith it, I tell you. Take your treason elsewhere.... This accursedobstinacy!" he said to himself; "but I must take care what I am doing;"then aloud, "Well, we both of us have been railing; no good comes ofrailing; railing is not argument. But now, I say, do be sensible, if youcan. Is not the imperial government in earnest now? better late thannever, but it is now in earnest. And now mark my words, by this day fiveyears, five years at the utmost,--I say by this day five years there willnot be a single ragamuffin Christian in the whole Roman world." And helooked fierce. "Ye gods! Rome, Rome has swept from the earth by her verybreath conspiracies, confederacies, plots against her, without everfailing; she will do so now with this contemptible, Jew-begotten foe."

  "In what are we enemies to Rome, Jucundus?" said Agellius; "why will youalways take it for granted?"

  "Take it for granted!" answered he, "is it not on the face of the matter?I suppose _they_ are enemies to a state, whom the state _calls_ itsenemies. Besides, why a pother of words? Swear by the genius of theemperor, invoke the Dea Roma, sacrifice to Jove; no, not a bit of it, nota whisper, not a sign, not a grain of incense. You go out of your way toinsult us; and then you come with a grave face, and say you are loyal. Youkick our shins, and you wish us to kiss you on both cheeks for it. A fewharmless ceremonies; we are not entrapping you; we are not using yourwords against yourselves; we tell you the meaning beforehand, the wholemeaning of them. It is not as if we tied you to the belief of the nursery:we don't say, 'If you burn incense, you profess to believe that oldJupiter is shivering atop of Olympus;' we don't say, 'You swear by thegenius of Caesar, therefore he has a genius, black, or white, or piebald,'No, we give you the meaning of the act; it is a mere expression of loyaltyto the empire. If then you won't do it, you confess yourself _ipso facto_disloyal. It is incomprehensible." And he had become quite red.

  "My dear uncle," said Agellius, "I give you my solemn word, that thepeople whom you so detest do pray for the welfare of the imperial powercontinually, as a matter of duty and as a matter of interest."

  "Pray! pray! fudge and nonsense!" cried Jucundus, almost mimicking him inhis indignation; "pray! who thanks you for your prayers? what's the goodof prayers? Prayers, indeed! ha, ha! A little loyalty is worth all thepraying in the world. I'll tell you what, Agellius; you are, I am sorry tosay it, but you are hand and glove with
a set of traitors, who shall andwill be smoked out like a nest of wasps. _You_ don't know; _you_ are notin the secret, nor the wretched slave, poor beast, who was pulled topieces yesterday (ah! you don't know of him) at the Flamen's, nor amultitude of other idiots. But, d'ye see," and he chucked up his headsignificantly, "there are puppets, and there are wires. Few know what isgoing on. They won't have done (unless we put them down; but we will) tillthey have toppled down the state. But Rome will put them down. Come, besensible, listen to reason; now I am going to put facts before my poor,dear, well-meaning boy. Oh that you saw things as I do! What a trouble youare to me! Here am I"----

  "My dearest uncle, Jucundus," cried Agellius, "I assure you, it is themost intense pain to me"----

  "Very well, very well," interrupted the uncle in turn, "I believe it, ofcourse I believe it; but listen, listen. Every now and then," he continuedin a more measured and lower tone, "every now and then the secret isblabbed--blabbed. There was that Tertullianus of Carthage, some fifty yearssince. He wrote books; books have done a great deal of harm before now;but _read_ his books--read and ponder. The fellow has the insolence to tellthe proconsul that he and the whole government, the whole city andprovince, the whole Roman world, the emperors, all but the pitiful_clique_ to which he belongs, are destined, after death, to flames forever and ever. There's loyalty! but the absurdity is greater than themalevolence. Rightly are the fellows called atheists and men-haters. Oursoldiers, our statesmen, our magistrates, and judges, and senators, andthe whole community, all worshippers of the gods, every one who crowns hishead, every one who loves a joke, and all our great historic names,heroes, and worthies,--the Scipios, the Decii, Brutus, Caesar, Cato, Titus,Trajan, Antoninus,--are inmates, not of the Elysian fields, if Elysianfields there be, but of Tartarus, and will never find a way out of it."

  "That man, Tertullianus, is nothing to us, uncle," answered Agellius; "aman of great ability, but he quarrelled with us, and left us."

  "_I_ can't draw nice distinctions," said Jucundus. "Your people havequarrelled among themselves perhaps on an understanding; we can't splithairs. It's the same with your present hierophant at Carthage, Cyprianus.Nothing can exaggerate, I am told, the foulness of his attack upon thegods of Rome, upon Romulus, the Augurs, the Ancilia, the consuls, andwhatever a Roman is proud of. As to the imperial city itself, there'shardly one of their high priests that has not died under the hands of theexecutioner, as a convict. The precious fellows take the title of PontifexMaximus; bless their impudence! Well, my boy, this is what I say; be, ifyou will, so preternaturally sour and morose as to misconceive and mislikethe innocent, graceful, humanising, time-honoured usages of society; beso, for what I care, if this is all; but it isn't all. Such misanthropy iswisdom, absolute wisdom, compared with the Titanic presumption andaudacity of challenging to single combat the sovereign of the world. Goand kick down Mount Atlas first."

  "You have it all your own way, Jucundus," answered his nephew, "and so youmust move in your own circle, round and round. There is no touching you,if you first assume your premisses, and then prove them by means of yourconclusion."

  "My dear Agellius," said his uncle, giving his head a very solemn shake,"take the advice of an old man. When you are older than you are, you willsee better who is right and who is wrong. You'll be sorry you despised me,a true, a prudent, an experienced friend; you will. Shake yourself, comedo. Why should you link your fortunes, in the morning of life, withdesperate men, only because your father, in his last feeble days, wasentrapped into doing so? I really will not believe that you are going tothrow away hope and life on so bad a bargain. Can't you speak a word? Hereyou've let me speak, and won't say one syllable for yourself. I don'tthink it kind of you."

  Thus adjured, Agellius began. "Well," he said, "it's a long history; yousee, we start, my dear uncle, from different points. How am I possibly tojoin issue with you? I can only tell you my conclusion. Hope and life, yousay. Why, my only hope, my only life, my only joy, desire, consolation,and treasure is that I am a Christian."

  "Hope and life!" interrupted Jucundus, "immortal gods! life and hope inbeing a Christian! do I hear aright? Why, man, a prison brings despair,not hope; and the sword brings death, not life. By Esculapius! life andhope! you choke me, Agellius. Life and hope! you are beyond threeAnticyras. Life and hope! if you were old, if you were diseased, if youwere given over, and had but one puff of life left in you, then you mightbe what you would, for me; but your hair is black, your cheek is round,your limbs are strong, your voice is full; and you are going to make allthese a sacrifice to Hecate! has your good genius fed that plump frame,ripened those goods looks, nerved your arm, bestowed that breadth ofchest, that strength of loins, that straightness of spine, that vigour ofstep, only that you may feed the crows? or to be torn on the rack,scorched in the flame, or hung on the gibbet? is this your gratitude tonature? What has been your price? for what have you sold yourself? Speak,man, speak. Are you dumb as well as dement? Are you dumb, I say, are youdumb?"

  "O Jucundus," cried Agellius, irritated at his own inability to expresshimself or hold an argument, "if you did but know what it was to have theTruth! The Christian has found the Truth, the eternal Truth, in a world oferror. That is his bargain, that is his hire; can there be a greater? CanI give up the Truth? But all this is Punic or Barbar to you."

  It certainly did pose Jucundus for half a minute, as if he was trying totake in, not so much the sense, as the words of his nephew's speech. Helooked bewildered, and though he began to answer him at once, it tookseveral sentences to bring him into his usual flow of language. After oneor two exclamations, "The truth!" he cried, "_this_ is what I understandyou to say,--the truth. The _truth_ is your bargain; I think I'm right, thetruth; Hm; what is truth? What in heaven and earth do you mean by truth?where did you get that cant? What oriental tomfoolery is bamboozling you?The truth!" he cried, staring at him with eyes, half of triumph, half ofimpatience, "the truth! Jove help the boy!--the truth! can truth pour meout a cup of melilotus? can truth crown me with flowers? can it sing tome? can it bring Glyceris to me? drop gold into my girdle? or cool mybrows when fever visits me? Can truth give me a handsome suburban withsome five hundred slaves, or raise me to the duumvirate? Let it do this,and I will worship it; it shall be my god; it shall be more to me thanFortune, Fate, Rome, or any other goddess on the list. But _I_ like tosee, and touch, and feel, and handle, and weigh, and measure what ispromised me. I wish to have a sample and an instalment. I am too old forchaff. Eat, drink, and be merry, that's my philosophy, that's my religion;and I know no better. To-day is ours, to-morrow is our children's."

  After a pause, he added, bitterly, "If truth could get Callista out ofprison, instead of getting her into it, I should have something to say totruth."

  "Callista in prison!" cried Agellius with surprise and distress, "what doyou mean, Jucundus?"

  "Yes, it's a fact; Callista _is_ in prison," answered he, "and onsuspicion of Christianity."

  "Callista! Christianity!" said Agellius, bewildered, "do I hear aright?She a Christian! oh, impossible, uncle! you don't mean to say that she isin prison. Tell me, tell me, my dear, dear Jucundus, what this wonderfulnews means."

  "You ought to know more about it than I," answered he, "if there is anymeaning in it. But if you want my opinion, here it is. I don't believe sheis more a Christian than I am; but I think she is over head and ears inlove with you, and she has some notion that she is paying you acompliment, or interesting you in her, or sharing your fate--(_I_ can'tpretend to unravel the vagaries and tantarums of the female mind)--bysaying that she is what she is _not_. If not, perhaps she has done it outof spite and contradiction. You can never answer for a woman."

  "Whom should she spite? whom contradict?" cried Agellius, thrown for themoment off his balance. "O Callista! Callista in prison for Christianity!Oh if it's true that she is a Christian! but what if she is not?" he addedwith great terror, "what if she's not, and yet in prison, as if she were?How are we to get her out, uncle? Impossible!
no, she's not aChristian--she is not at all. She ought not to be there! Yet howwonderful!"

  "Well, I am sure of it, too," said Jucundus; "I'd stake the best image inmy shop that she's not a Christian; but what if she is perverse enough tosay she _is_? and such things are not uncommon. Then, I say, what in theworld is to be done? If she says she is, why she is. There you are; andwhat can you do?"

  "You don't mean to say," exclaimed Agellius, "that that sweet delicatechild is in that horrible hole; impossible!" and he nearly shrieked at thethought. "What is the meaning of it all? dear, dear uncle, do tell mesomething more about it. Why did you not tell me before? What _can_ bedone?"

  Jucundus thought he now had him in his hand. "Why, it's plain," heanswered, "what can be _done_. She's no Christian, we both agree. It'scertain, too, that she chooses to say she is, or something like it.There's just one person who has influence with her, to make her tell thetruth."

  "Ha!" cried Agellius, starting as if an asp had bitten him.

  Jucundus kept silence, and let the poison of the said asp work awhile inhis nephew's blood.

  Agellius put his hands before his eyes; and with his elbows on his knees,began moving to and fro, as if in intense pain.

  "I repeat what I have said," Jucundus observed at length; "I do reallythink that she imagines a certain young gentleman is likely to be introuble, and that she is determined to share the trouble with him."

  "But it isn't true," cried Agellius with great vehemence; "it's nottrue.... If she really is not a Christian, O my dear Lord, surely theywon't put her to death as if she was?"

  "But if she has made up her mind to be in the same boat with you, and_will_ be a Christian while you are a Christian, what on earth can we do,Agellius?" asked Jucundus. "You have the whole matter in a nutshell."

  "She does not love me," cried Agellius; "no, she has given me no reason tothink so. I am sure she does not. She's nothing to me. That cannot be thereason of her conduct. _I_ have no power over her; _I_ could not persuadeher. What, what _does_ all this mean? and I shut up here?" and he beganwalking about the little room, as if such locomotion tended to bring himout of it.

  "Well," answered Jucundus, "it is easy to ascertain. I suppose you _could_be let out to see her."

  But he was going on too fast; Agellius did not attend to him. "Poor, sweetCallista," he exclaimed, "she's innocent, she's innocent; I mean she's nota Christian. Ah!" he screamed out in great agony, as the whole state ofthe case unrolled itself to his apprehension, "she will die though not aChristian; she will die without faith, without love; she will die in hersins. She will die, done to death by false report of accepting that, bywhich alone she could be carried safely through death unto life. O myLord, spare me!" and he sank upon the ground in a collapse of misery.

  Jucundus was touched, and still more alarmed. "Come, come, my boy," hesaid, "you will rouse the whole neighbourhood. Give over; be a man; allwill be right. If she's not a Christian (and she's not), she shall not diea Christian's death; something will turn up. She's not in any hole at all,but in a decent lodging. And you shall see her, and console her, and allwill be right."

  "Yes, I will see her," said Agellius, in a sort of musing manner; "she iseither a Christian, or she is not. If she is a Christian ..." and hisvoice faltered; "but if she is not, she shall live till she is."

  "Well said!" answered Jucundus, "_till_ she is. She shall live _till_ sheis. Yes, I can get you to see her. You shall bring her out of prison; asmile, a whisper from you, and all her fretfulness and ill-humour willvanish, like a mist before the powerful burning sun. And we shall all beas happy as the immortal gods."

  "O my uncle!" said Agellius, gravely. The language of Jucundus had shockedhim, and brought him to a better mind. He turned away from Jucundus, andleant his face against the wall. Then he turned round again, and said, "Ifshe _is_ a Christian, I ought to rejoice, and I do rejoice; God bepraised. If she is not a Christian, I ought at once to make her one. Ifshe has already the penalty of a Christian, she is surely destined for theprivilege. And how should I go," he said, half speaking to himself, "howshould I go to tell her that she is not yet a Christian, and bid her swearby Jupiter, because that is her god, in order that she may escapeimprisonment and death? Am I to do the part of a heathen priest or infidelsophist? O Caecilius, how am I forgetting your lessons! No; I will go on nosuch errand. Go, I will, if I may, Jucundus, but I will go on noconditions of yours. I go on no promise to try to get her out of prisonanyhow, poor child. I will not go to make her sacrifice to a false god; Igo to persuade her to stay in prison, by deserving to stay. Perhaps I amnot the best person to go; but if I go, I go free. I go willing to diemyself for my Lord; glad to make her die for Him."

  Agellius said this in so determined a way, so calmly, with such a grasp ofthe existing posture of affairs, and of the whole circumstances of thecase, that it was now Jucundus's turn to feel surprise and annoyance. Fora time he did not take in what Agellius meant, nor could he to the lastfollow his train of feeling. When he saw what may be called the upshot ofthe matter, he became very angry, and spoke with great violence. Bydegrees he calmed; and then the strong feeling came on him again that itwas impossible, if a meeting took place between the two, that it could endin any way but one. He defied any two young people who loved each other,to come to any but one conclusion. Agellius's mood was too excited, tootragic to last. The sight of Callista in that dreadful prison, perhaps inchains, waiting, in order to be free, for ability to say the words, "I amnot a Christian;" and that ability waiting for the same words fromhimself, would bring the affair to a very speedy issue. As if he couldlove a fancy better than he loved Callista! Agellius, too, had alreadyexpressed a misgiving himself on that head; so far they were agreed. And,to tell the truth, it was a very difficult transaction for a young man;and giving our poor Agellius all credit for pure intention and firmresolve, we really should have been very sorry to see him involved in atrial, which would have demanded of him a most heroic faith and thedetachment of a saint. We, therefore, are not sorry that in matter of facthe gained the merit of so virtuous a determination, without being calledon to execute it. For it so happened, that a most unexpected eventoccurred to him not many hours afterwards, which will oblige us to take uphere rather abruptly the history of one of our other personages.