The Treatment
of Children:
Select
Primary Sources from Antiquity
for Theological Studies
Rollin G. Grams
This post provides some quotations regarding the treatment
of children from select primary sources in antiquity taken from three contexts:
Jewish, Graeco-Roman, and Early Church. Biblical
references are not included. For further
resources on abortion per se, see Rollin
G. Grams, ‘The Christian Church’s Stance on Abortion,’ Bible and Mission (4 May, 2017).
Jewish
Sources
Letter of Aristeas 248: And
on the next day, when the opportunity offered, the king asked the next man,
What is the grossest form of neglect? And he replied, 'If a man does not care
for his children and devote every effort to their education. For w always pray
to God not so much for ourselves as for our children that every blessing may be
theirs. Our desire that our children may possess self-control is only realized
by the power of God.' (‘The Letter
of Aristeas,’ trans. Herbert T. Andrews, in The
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Vol. II: Pseudepigrapha,
ed. R. H. Charles, (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1913).)
Wisdom of Solomon 3:16-19: But children of adulterers will not come to
maturity, and the offspring of an unlawful union will perish. 17 Even if they live long they
will be held of no account, and finally their old age will be without
honor. 18 If they die young,
they will have no hope and no consolation on the day of judgment. 19 For the end of an unrighteous
generation is grievous. (Trans.: New
Revised Standard Version)
Sirach
16:1-3 Do not desire a multitude of
worthless children, and do not rejoice in ungodly offspring. 2 If they multiply, do not rejoice
in them, unless the fear of the Lord is in them. 3 Do not trust in their survival,
or rely on their numbers; for one can be better than a thousand, and to die
childless is better than to have ungodly children. (Trans.: New Revised
Standard Version)
Josephus, Against Apion
2:202, 204 202 The law, moreover, enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and
forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to kill it afterward;
and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child,
by killing a living creature, and diminishing human kind; if anyone, therefore,
proceeds to such fornication or murder, he cannot be clean…. 204 Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us
to make festivals at the births of our children, and thereby afford occasion of
drinking to excess; but it ordains that the very beginning of our education
should be immediately directed to sobriety. It also commands us to bring those
children up in learning and to exercise them in the laws, and make them
acquainted with the acts of their predecessors, in order to their imitation of
them, and that they might be nourished up in the laws from their infancy, and
might neither transgress them, nor have any pretence for their ignorance of
them.
Philo, On Mating with the Preliminary Studies/A
Treatise on the Meeting for the Sake of Seeking Instruction (De Congreg.). 1:136-137. The
Works of Philo Judeus, rans. Charles Duke Yong (London: H. G. Bohn,
1854-1890). [Philo compares the
conception of an idea and its full formation to that of an embryo and its full
formation. He cites Exodus 21.22 to
argue that the unformed is of less worth than the fully formed.]
(136) therefore an
indistinct and not clearly manifested conception resembles an embryo which has
not yet received any distinct character or similitude within the womb: but that
which is clear and distinctly visible, is like one which is completely formed,
and which is already fashioned in an artistic manner as to both its inward and
its outward parts, and which has already received its suitable character. (137)
And with respect to these matters the following law has been enacted with great
beauty and propriety: "If while two men are fighting one should strike a
woman who is great with child, and her child should come from her before it is
completely formed, he shall be muleted in a fine, according to what the husband
of the woman shall impose on him, and he shall pay the fine deservedly. But if
the child be fully formed, he shall pay life for Life."{35}{#ex 21:22.}
For it was not the same thing, to destroy a perfect and an imperfect work of
the mind, nor is what is only likened by a figure similar to what is really
comprehended, nor is what is only hoped for similar to what really exists.
(138) On this account, in one case, an uncertain penalty is affixed to an
uncertain action; in another, a definite punishment is enacted by law against
an act which is perfected, but which is perfected not with respect to virtue,
but with reference to what is done in an irreproachable manner, according to
some act. For it is not she who has just received the seed, but she who has
been for some time pregnant, who brings forth this offspring, professing
boasting rather than modesty. For it is impossible that she who has been
pregnant some time should miscarry, since it is fitting that the plant should
be conducted to perfection by him who sowed it; but it is not strange if some
mishap should befall the woman who was pregnant, since she was afflicted with a
disease beyond the art of the physician.
Mishnah
m.Ketuboth 3.8: Wherever there is right of sale no fine is
incurred, and whenever no fine is incurred there is no right of sale. She that is a minor is subject to right of
sale and no fine is incured through her; but through a girl [that is of age] a
fine is incurred and she is not subject to right of sale. If she is past her girlhood she is not
subject to right of sale nor can a fine be incurred through her. (Herbert Danby, The Mishnah from the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory
Notes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1933).)
Sotah 3.8: A man may sell his daughter, but a woman may not
sell her daughter; a man may give his daughter in betrothal, but a woman may
not give her daughter in betrothal….
(Herbert Danby, The Mishnah from
the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1933).)
Graeco-Roman
Sources
Aeschines, Against Timarchus:
182:
I will make mention of our ancestors also. For so stern were they toward all
shameful conduct, and so precious did they hold the purity of their children,
that when one of the citizens found that his daughter had been seduced, and
that she had failed to guard well her chastity till the time of marriage, he
walled her up in an empty house with a horse, which he knew would surely kill
her, if she were shut in there with him. And to this day the foundations of
that house stand in your city, and that spot is called "the place of the
horse and the maid." (Aeschines, trans. Charles Darwin Adams (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1919); available
at: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/pwh/aeschines.html.)
P. Oxy. 744 (H.E. 105). 1 B.C.
A letter from Hilarion to his wife, Alis:
…
Know that I am still in Alexandria. And
do not worry if they all come back and I remain in Alexandria. I ask and beg you to take good care of our
baby son, and as soon as I receive payment I will send it up to you. If you are delivered of child [before I get
home], if it is a boy keep it, if a girl discard it. You have sent me word, ‘Don’t forget
me.’ How can I forget you. I beg you not to worry. (Trans. Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under
Roman Rule (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), p. 54; http://www.basarchive.org/bswbSearch.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=17&Issue=4&ArticleID=2&UserID=2263&)
P. Oxy. 275 (H.E. 13), lines
1-15.
A.D. 66 Agreement of
apprenticeship
Tryphon son of Dionysius
son of Tryphon and of Thamounis daughter of Onnophris, and Ptolemaeus son of
Pausirion son of Ptolemaeus and of Ophelous daughter of Theon, weaver, both
being inhabitants of Oxyrhynchus, mutually acknowledge that Tryphon has
apprenticed to Ptolemaeus his son Thoonis, whose mother is Saraeus daughter of
Apion, and who is not yet of age, for a period of one year from the present
day, to serve and to follow all the instructions given to him by Ptolemaeus in
the art of weaving as far as he himself knows it, the boy to be fed and clothed
for the whole period by his father Tryphon, who will also be responsible for
all the taxes on im, on the condition that Ptolemaeus will pay of the whole
period on account of clothing twelve drachmae, nor shall Tryphon have the right
to remove the boy from Ptolemaeus until the completion of the period….
B.G.U. 1052 (H.E. 3), lines
.
13 B.C. A contract of marriage
To
Protarchus from Thermion daughter of Apion, with her guardian Apollonius son of
Chaereas, and from Apollonius son of Ptolemaeus. Thermion and Apollonius son of Ptolemaeus
agree that they have come together to share a common life, and the said
Apollonius son of Ptolemaeus acknowledges that he has received from Thermion by
hand from the house a dowry of a pair of gold earrings weighing three quarters
and … silver drachmae
Aristotle, Politics 7.XVI Women who are with child should be careful of themselves;
they should take exercise and have a nourishing diet. The first
of these prescriptions the legislator will easily carry into
effect by requiring that they shall take a walk daily to some
temple, where they can worship the gods who preside over birth.
Their minds, however, unlike their bodies, they ought to keep quiet,
for the offspring derive their natures from their mothers as plants do from the earth.
As to the exposure and rearing of children, let there be a law that
no deformed child shall live, but that on the ground of an excess in
the number of children, if the established customs of the state forbid this (for in our state population has a limit), no child is to be
exposed, but when couples have children in excess, let abortion
be procured before sense and life have begun; what may or may
not be lawfully done in these cases depends on the question of
life and sensation.
And now, having determined at what ages men and women are to begin their
union, let us also determine how long they shall continue to beget and
bear offspring for the state; men who are too old, like men who are too young, produce children who are defective in body and mind;
the children of very old men are weakly. The limit then, should
be the age which is the prime of their intelligence, and this
in most persons, according to the notion of some poets who
measure life by periods of seven years, is about fifty; at four
or five years or later, they should cease from having families;
and from that time forward only cohabit with one another for the
sake of health; or for some similar reason.
Aelian, Historical
Miscellanies V. 18. When the Areopagus had arrested a witch and were
about to impose the death penalty on her, they did not execute her until she
had given birth; for she was pregnant when arrested. Exempting the child from
responsibility and punishment they inflicted the death penalty on the guilty
party alone. (Aelian, Historical Miscellanies, trans. Nigel G.
Wilson (Loeb Classical Library 486; Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1997).
Plutarch, Moralia Ch. 3 *: For
just as it is necessary, immediately after birth, to begin to mould the limbs
of the children’s bodies in order that these may grow straight and without
deformity, so, in the same fashion, it is fitting from the beginning to
regulate the characters of children.
(Trans. F. C. Babbit, Plutarch’s Moralia, V. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Univ. Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1927), p. 15.)
Plutarch, ‘Lycurgus’, The Parallel Lives, Vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard,
1914).
This excerpt is taken from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lycurgus*.html. Plutarch is describing the customs of
Sparta. The text shows that strong,
healthy children were favoured, while others could be put to death.
16.1
Offspring was not reared at the will of the father, but was taken and carried
by him to a place called Lesche, where the elders of the tribes officially
examined the infant, and if it was well-built and sturdy, they ordered the
father to rear it, and assigned it one of the nine thousand lots of land; but
if it was ill-born and deformed, they sent it to the so‑called Apothetae, a
chasm-like place at the foot of Mount Taÿgetus, 2 in the
conviction that the life of that which nature had not well equipped at the very
beginning for health and strength, was of no advantage either to itself or the
state. On the same principle, the women used to bathe their new-born babes not
with water, but with wine, thus making a sort of test of their constitutions.
For it is said that epileptic and sickly infants are thrown into convulsions by
the strong wine and loose their senses, while the healthy ones are rather
tempered by it, like steel, and given a firm habit of body. 3 Their
nurses, too, exercised great care and skill; they reared infants without
swaddling-bands, and thus left their limbs and figures free to develop;
besides, they taught them to be contented and happy, not dainty about their
food, nor fearful of the dark, nor afraid to be left alone, nor
given to contemptible peevishness and whimpering. This is the reason why
foreigners sometimes brought Spartan nurses for their children. Amycla, for
instance, the nurse of the Athenian Alcibiades, is said to have been a Spartan.
Regarding
harsh treatment, diet, and teaching children to fend for themselves, including
learning to steal, Plutarch says the following:
16.4
But Lycurgus would not put the sons of Spartans in charge of purchased or hired
tutors, nor was it lawful for every father to rear or train his son as he
pleased, but as soon as they were seven years old, Lycurgus ordered them all to
be taken by the state and enrolled in companies, where they were put under the
same discipline and nurture, and so became accustomed to share one another's
sports and studies. 5 The boy who excelled in judgement
and was most courageous in fighting, was made captain of his company; on him
the rest all kept their eyes, obeying his orders, and submitting to his
punishments, so that their boyish training was a practice of obedience.
Besides, the elderly men used to watch their sports, and by ever and anon
egging them on to mimic battles and disputes, learned accurately how each one
of them was naturally disposed when it was a question of boldness and
aggressiveness in their struggles.
6 Of
reading and writing, they learned only enough to serve their turn; all the rest
of their training was calculated to make them obey commands well, endure
hardships, and conquer in battle. Therefore, as they grew in age, their bodily
exercise was increased; their heads were close-clipped, and they p259were
accustomed to going bare-foot, and to playing for the most part without
clothes. When they were twelve years old, they no longer had tunics to wear,
received one cloak a year, had hard, dry flesh, and knew little of baths and
ointments; only on certain days of the year, and few at that, did they indulge
in such amenities. 7 They slept together, in troops and
companies, on pallet-beds which they collected for themselves, breaking off
with their hands — no knives allowed — the tops of the rushes which grew along
the river Eurotas. In the winter-time, they added to the stuff of these pallets
the so‑called "lycophon," or thistle-down, which was thought to have
warmth in it.
17 When
the boys reached this age, they were favoured with the society of lovers from
among the reputable young men. The elderly men also kept close watch of them,
coming more frequently to their places of exercises, and observing their
contests of strength and wit, not cursorily, but with the idea that they were
all in a sense the fathers and tutors and governors of all the boys. In this
way, at every fitting time and in every place, the boy who went wrong had
someone to admonish and chastise him. Nor was this all; 2 one
of the noblest and best men of the city was appointed paedonome, or inspector
of the boys, and under his directions the boys, in their several companies, put
themselves under the command of the most prudent and warlike of the so‑called
Eirens. This was the name given to those who had been for two years out of the
class of boys, and Melleirens, or Would‑be Eirens, was the name for the oldest
of the boys. This eiren, then, a youth of twenty years, commands his
subordinates in their mimic battles, and in doors makes them
serve him at his meals. 3 He commissions the larger ones
to fetch wood, and the smaller ones potherbs. And they steal what they fetch,
some of them entering the gardens, and others creeping right slyly and
cautiously into the public messes of the men; but if a boy is caught stealing,
he is soundly flogged, as a careless and unskilful thief. They steal, too,
whatever food they can, and learn to be adept in setting upon people when
asleep or off their guard. 4 But the boy who is caught
gets a flogging and must go hungry. For the meals allowed them are scanty, in
order that they may take into their own hands the fight against hunger, and so
be forced into boldness and cunning. …
…. 18 The boys make such a serious matter of their stealing, that one
of them, as the story goes, who was carrying concealed under
his cloak a young fox which he had stolen, suffered the animal to tear out his
bowels with its teeth and claws, and died rather than have his theft detected.
And even this story gains credence from what their youths now endure, many of
whom I have seen expiring under the lash at the altar of Artemis Orthia.
Early Church Sources
Athenagoras, A Plea for Christians 34 (paederasty)
Clement
of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians
21.8: Our children must have their
share of a Christian upbringing; they must learn how effective with the Lord is
a humble frame of mind, what holy love can accomplish with God, how honorable
and excellent is the ear of Him, and how it brings salvation to all who in this
fear lead holy lives, with a conscience undefiled. (James A. Kleist, The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch
(New York: Newman Press, 1946).)
Didache 2.2 ‘… thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor
kill them when born…’ (Lightfoot trans.)
Didache 5.1, 2 ‘… But the way of death is this … murderers of
children…’ (Lightfoot trans.).
Ignatius to the Philadelphians (long) 4:3 Children, obey your parents,
and have an affection for them, as workers together with God for your birth
into the world.
Ignatius to the Philadelphians (long) 4:3 Husbands, love your wives, as
fellow-servants of God, as your own body, as the partners of your life, and
your co-adjutors in the procreation of children.
Ignatius to the Philadelphians (long) 4:5 Fathers, "bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord;" and teach them the holy Scriptures, and also trades, that they
may not indulge in idleness. Now the Scripture says, "A righteous father
educates his children well; his heart shall rejoice in a wise son."
Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans (long) 13:1 CONCLUSION I salute the families of my brethren, with their wives and
children, and those that are ever virgins, and the widows. Be ye strong, I
pray, in the power of the Holy Ghost.
Ignatius to Polycarp (long) 8:2 I
salute all by name, and in particular the wife of Epitropus, with all her house
and children. I salute Attalus, my beloved.
Epistle of Barnabas 19:5 Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring
abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born. Thou shalt not
withdraw thy hand from thy son, or from thy daughter, but from their infancy
thou shalt teach them the fear of the Lord.
Epistle of Barnabas 20:2 In this
way, too, are those who persecute the good, those who hate truth, those who
love falsehood, those who know not the reward of righteousness, those who
cleave not to that which is good, those who attend not with just judgment to
the widow and orphan, those who watch not to the fear of God, but incline to
wickedness, from whom meekness and patience are far off; persons who love
vanity, follow after a reward, pity not the needy, labor not in aid of him who
is overcome with toil; who are prone to evil-speaking, who know not Him that
made them, who are murderers of children, destroyers of the workmanship of God;
who turn away him that is in want, who oppress the afflicted, who are advocates
of the rich, who are unjust judges of the poor, and who are in every respect
transgressors.
Epistle to Diognetus 5:6 They marry, as do all others; they beget
children; but they do not destroy their offspring.
Polycarp to the Philippians 4:2
Next, teach your wives to walk in the faith given to them, and in love and
purity tenderly loving their own husbands in all truth, and loving all others
equally in all chastity; and to train up their children in the knowledge and
fear of God.
Athenagoras, Apology 304b-305: Again, we call it murder
and say it will be accountable to God if women use instruments to procure
abortion: how shall we be called murderers ourselves? The same man cannot regard that which a woman
carries in her womb as a living creature, and therefore as an object of value
to God, and then go about to slay the creature that has come forth to the light
of day. The same man cannot forbid the
exposure of children, equating such exposure with child murder, and then slay a
child that has found one to bring it up.
No, we are always consistent, everywhere the same, obedient to our rule
and not masters of it. (Trans. and ed.
Joseph Hugh Crehan, S.J., Ancient
Christian Writers—The Works of the Fathers in Translation (*).)
Justin, Apology I, XXVII: but as for us, we have
been taught that to expose newly-born children is the part of wicked men; and
this we have been taught lest we do anyone an injury, and lest we should sin
against God, first because we see that almost all so exposed (not only the
girls, but also the males) are brought to prostitution…. And anyone who uses such persons, besides the
godless and infamous and impure intercourse, may possibly be having intercourse
with his own child, or relative, or brother. And there are some who prostitute
even their own children and wives and some are openly mutilated for the purpose
of sodomy; and refer these mysteries to the mother of the gods…. (Trans?**, Alexander Roberts and James
Donaldson, The Writings of the Fathers
Down to A.D. 325: Volume One, The Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 1994).)
[There is more to this section—review and change. The section is actually 27.191-193.]
Hermas, The Shepherd of Hermas 1.3.2 But now the mercy of the Lord has taken pity on you and your house, and
will strengthen you, and establish you in his glory. Only be not easy-minded,
but be of good courage and comfort your house. For as a smith hammers out his
work, and accomplishes whatever he wishes, so shall righteous daily speech
overcome all iniquity. Cease not therefore to admonish your sons; for I know
that, if they will repent with all their heart, they will be enrolled in the
Books of Life with the saints." (BibleWorks edition: THE PASTOR of HERMAS,
trans. by the Rev. F. Crombie, M.A. (in vol. 2: Fathers of the Second Century:
Hermas, ... Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885, Hendrickson
Publishers, Inc. 1994 reprint) in Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by Alexander
Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D. American Edition, by A. Cleveland
Coxe, D.D. )
Hermas, Shepherd, Similitude 7 1:6 Only continue humble, and serve
the Lord in all purity of heart, you and your children, and your house, and
walk in my commands which I enjoin upon you, and your repentance will be deep
and pure; and if you observe these things with your household, every affliction
will depart from you. And affliction," he added, "will depart from
all who walk in these my commandments."
[This is one of several such sayings in Hermas that includes instructing
children and the whole household in righteousness.]
Hermas, Shepherd, Similitude 9 29:3 All of you, then, who shall
remain steadfast, and be as children, without doing evil, will be more honored
than all who have been previously mentioned; for all infants are honorable
before God, and are the first persons with Him. Blessed, then, are ye who put
away wickedness from yourselves, and put on innocence. As the first of all will
you live unto God."
Minucius Felix, Octavius 9: Thirstily--O horror!--they lick up its blood; eagerly they divide its
limbs. By this victim they are pledged together; with this consciousness of
wickedness they are covenanted to mutual silence. Such sacred rites as these
are more foul than any sacrileges. And of their banqueting it is well known all
men speak of it everywhere; even the speech of our Cirtensian testifies to it.
On a solemn day they assemble at the feast, with all their children, sisters,
mothers, people of every sex and of every age. There, after much feasting, when
the fellowship has grown warm, and the fervour of incestuous lust has grown hot
with drunkenness, a dog that has been tied to the chandelier is provoked, by
throwing a small piece of offal beyond the length of a line by which he is
bound, to rush and spring; and thus the conscious light being overturned and
extinguished in the shameless darkness, the connections of abominable lust
involve them in the uncertainty of fate. Although not all in fact, yet in
consciousness all are alike incestuous, since by the desire of all of them
everything is sought for which can happen in the act of each individual. (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/octavius.html)
Minucius Felix, Octavius 30-31: "And now I should wish to meet him who says or
believes that we are initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant. Think
you that it can be possible for so tender, so little a body to receive those
fatal wounds; for any one to shed, pour forth, and drain that new blood of a
youngling, and of a man scarcley come into existence? No one can believe this,
except one who can dare to do it. And I see that you at one time expose your
begotten children to wild beasts and to birds; at another, that you crush them
when strangled with a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by
drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their
very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these
things assuredly come down from the teaching of your gods. For Saturn did not expose his children, but devoured them.
With reason were infants sacrificed to him by parents in some parts of Africa,
caresses and kisses repressing their crying, that a weeping victim might not be
sacrificed. Moreover, among the Tauri of Pontus, and to the Egyptian
Busiris, it was a sacred rite to immolate their guests, and for the Galli to
slaughter to Mercury human, or rather inhuman, sacrifices. The Roman
sacrificers buried living a Greek man and a Greek woman, a Gallic man and a
Gallic woman; and to this day, Jupiter Latiaris is worshipped by them with
murder; and, what is worthy of the son of Saturn, he is gorged with the blood
of an evil and criminal man. I believe that he himself taught Catiline to
conspire under a compact of blood, and Bellona to steep her sacred rites with a
draught of human gore, and taught men to heal epilepsy with the blood of a man,
that is, with a worse disease. They also are not unlike to him who devour the
wild beasts from the arena, besmeared and stained with blood, or fattened with
the limbs or the entrails of men. To us it is not lawful
either to see or to hear of homicide; and so much do we shrink from human
blood, that we do not use the blood even of eatable animals in our food.
31
"And of the incestuous banqueting, the plotting of demons has falsely
devised an enormous fable against us, to stain the glory of our modesty, by the
loathing excited by an outrageous infamy, that before inquiring into the truth
it might turn men away from us by the terror of an abominable charge. It was
thus your own Fronto acted in this respect: he did not produce testimony, as
one who alleged a charge, but he scattered reproaches as a rhetorician. For
these things have rather originated from your own nations. Among the Persians,
a promiscuous association between sons and mothers is allowed. Marriages with
sisters are legitimate among the Egyptians and in Athens. Your records and your
tragedies, which you both read and hear with pleasure, glory in incests: thus
also you worship incestuous gods, who have intercourse with mothers, with
daughters, with sisters. With reason, therefore, is incest frequently detected
among you, and is continually permitted. Miserable men, you may even, without
knowing it, rush into what is unlawful: since you scatter your lusts
promiscuously, since you everywhere beget children, since you frequently expose
even those who are born at home to the mercy of others, it is inevitable that
you must come back to your own children, and stray to your own offspring. Thus
you continue the story of incest, even although you have no consciousness of
your crime. But we maintain our modesty not in appearance, but in our heart we
gladly abide by the bond of a single marriage; in the desire of procreating, we
know either one wife, or none at all.
Tertullian, An Exhortation to
Chastity 12: The fact that children are a troublesome burden,
especially in our times, should be a sufficient argument for widows and widowers
to remain unmarried…. But suppose that,
in spite of this reluctance of yours, you do cause your wife to conceive. What will you do? Will you interrupt her pregnancy by the use
of drugs? I rather imagine that we have
no more right to murder a baby before birth than after it. (William P. Le Saint, Tertullian Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To His Wife An
Exhortation to Chastity Monogamy (New York: Newman Press, 1951).)
Tertullian, Apology, 9
But
in regard to child murder, as it does not matter whether it is committed for a
sacred object, or merely at one’s own self-impulse—although there is a great
difference, as we have said, between parricide and homicide—I shall turn to the
people generally. How many, think you, of those crowding around and gaping for
Christian blood,—how many even of your rulers, notable for their justice to you
and for their severe measures against us, may I charge in their own consciences
with the sin of putting their offspring to death? As to any difference in the
kind of murder, it is certainly the more cruel way to kill by drowning, or by
exposure to cold and hunger and dogs. A maturer age has always preferred death
by the sword. In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not
destroy even the fœtus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood
from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a
speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is
born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going
to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed.
Origen, De Principiis (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/origen123.html.)
[Origen
affirms God’s just judgement by arguing that people and creatures, including
children, are judged in accordance with their acting out according to their
created natures—I think! The text or
translation poses some obstacles….*]
9.7.
But even holy Scripture does not appear to me to be altogether silent on the
nature of this secret, as when the Apostle Paul, in discussing the case of
Jacob and Esau, says: "For the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of Him who calleth, it was said, The elder shall serve
the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."
… And in like manner it seems to me, that as he there says, "The children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil," so it might
also be said of all other things, "When they were not yet" created,
"neither had yet done any good or evil, that the decree of God according
to election may stand," that (as certain think) some things on the one
hand were created heavenly, some on the other earthly, and others, again,
beneath the earth, "not of works" (as they think), "but of Him
who calleth," what shall we say then, if these things are so? "Is
there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." As, therefore, when the
Scriptures are carefully examined regarding Jacob and Esau, it is not found to
be unrighteousness with God that it should be said, before they were born, or
had done anything in this life, "the elder shall serve the younger;" and
as it is found not to be unrighteousness that even in the womb Jacob supplanted
his brother, if we feel that he was worthily beloved by God, according to the
deserts of his previous life, so as to deserve to be preferred before his
brother; so also is it with regard to heavenly creatures, if we notice that
diversity was not the original condition of the creature, but that, owing to
causes that have previously existed, a different office is prepared by the
Creator for each one in proportion to the degree of his merit, on this ground,
indeed, that each one, in respect of having been created by God an
understanding, or a rational spirit, has, according to the movements of his
mind and the feelings of his soul, gained for himself a greater or less amount
of merit, and has become either an object of love to God, or else one of
dislike to Him; while, nevertheless, some of those who are possessed of greater
merit are ordained to suffer with others for the adorning of the state of the
world, and for the discharge of duty to creatures of a lower grade, in order
that by this means they themselves may be participators in the endurance of the
Creator, according to the words of the apostle: "For the creature was made
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the
same in hope." Keeping in view, then, the sentiment expressed by the
apostle, when, speaking of the birth of Esau and Jacob, he says, "Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid," I think it fight that this same
sentiment should be carefully applied to the case of all other creatures,
because, as we formerly remarked, the righteousness of the Creator ought to
appear in everything. And this, it appears to me, will be seen more clearly at
last, if each one, whether of celestial or terrestrial or infernal beings, be
said to have the causes of his diversity in himself, and antecedent to his
bodily birth. For all things were created by the Word of God, and by His
Wisdom, and were set in order by His Justice. And by the grace of His compassion
He provides for all men, and encourages all to the use of whatever remedies may
lead to their cure, and incites them to salvation.
Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies 9.7
[Regarding
the practices of a heretical group following a leader named Callistus,
Hippolytus writes:] For even also he permitted females, if they were unwedded,
and burned with passion at an age at all events unbecoming, or if they were not
disposed to overturn their own dignity through a legal marriage, that they might
have whomsoever they would choose as a bedfellow, whether a slave or free, and
that a woman, though not legally married, might consider such a companion as a
husband. Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for
producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being
conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or
by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth.
Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by inculcating
adultery and murder at the same time! And withal, after such audacious acts,
they, lost to all shame, attempt to call themselves a Catholic Church!
(Roberts-Donaldson trans.)
Constitutions
of the Holy Apostles, 4.1: When any Christian becomes an orphan, whether it be a
young man or maid, it is good that some of the brethren who is without a child
should take the young man, and esteem him in the place of a son. (Trans?*; ed. James Donaldson (New York: D.
Appleton and Co., 1847), p. 433.)
Lactantius,
Divine Institutes 6.20 (c. 250-c.
325)
Therefore let no one imagine that even this is allowed, to strangle newly-born
children, which is the greatest impiety; for God breathes into their souls for life, and not for death. But men, that there
may be no crime with which they may not pollute their hands, deprive souls as yet innocent and simple of the light which they
themselves have not given. Can any one, indeed, expect that they would abstain
from the blood of others who do not abstain even from their own? But these are
without any controversy wicked and unjust. What are they whom a false piety compels to expose their children? Can they be
considered innocent who expose their own offspring as a prey to dogs, and as
far as it depends upon themselves, kill them in a more cruel manner than if
they had strangled them? Who can doubt that he is impious who gives occasion for the pity
of others? For, although that which he has wished should befall the child—
namely, that it should be brought up— he has certainly consigned his own
offspring either to servitude or to the brothel? But who does not understand,
who is ignorant what things may happen, or are accustomed to
happen, in the case of each sex, even through error? For this is shown by the example of Oedipus alone,
confused with twofold guilt. It is therefore as wicked to expose as it is to kill. But truly parricides complain of the scantiness of their
means, and allege that they have not enough for bringing up more children; as
though, in truth, their means were in the power of those who possess
them, or God did not daily make the rich poor, and the poor rich. Wherefore, if
any one on account of poverty shall be unable to bring up children, it is
better to abstain from marriage than with wicked hands to mar the work of God (Translated by William Fletcher. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, trans.
William Fletcher, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland
Coxe (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886).
