Re: The Early Christians - The State, Society and Martyrs

They form a rabble of profane conspiracy. Their alliance consists in 
meetings at night with solemn rituals and inhuman revelries. They replace 
holy rites with inexpiable crimes. They despise temples as if they were 
tombs. They disparage the gods and ridicule our sacred rites. They look 
down on our priests although they are pitiable themselves. They despise 
titles of honor and the purple robe of high government office though 
hardly able themselves to cover their ****dness.

Just like a rank growth of weeds, the abominable haunts where this 
impious confederacy meet are multiplying all over the world, due to the 
daily increase of immorality. Root and branch, it should at all costs be 
exterminated and accursed. They recognize each other by secret signs and 
symbols. They love one another before being acquainted, so to speak. 
Everywhere they practice a kind of religious cult of lust, calling one 
another “brother” and “sister” indiscriminately. Thus, under the cover of 
these hallowed names, ordinary fornication becomes *****.

They consecrate and wor****p the head of a donkey, the meanest of all 
animals. They even reverence the genitals of their president and priest, 
adoring in this the creative power of their father. This suspicion may be 
false, but at any rate it fits the character of their secret nocturnal 
rites. To venerate an executed criminal and the gallows, the wooden cross 
on which he was executed, is to erect altars which befit lost and 
depraved wretches. The blood of the infant – oh, how abominable – they 
lap up greedily, they distribute its limbs with passionate eagerness.

Their feastings are notorious. Even Cornelius Fronto, the teacher of 
Emperor Marcus Aurelius [about 175] testifies to this…After a surfeit of 
feasting, when the blood is heated and drinking has inflamed impure 
passions, a dog which has been tied to the lamp stand upsets and 
extinguishes the tale-telling light. Darkness covers their shamelessness, 
and lustful embraces are indiscriminately exchanged. All single acts 
correspond to the will of all…Otherwise why do they have no altars, no 
temples, no images? Why do they not speak in public? Why do they never 
meet in the open? Is it not simply because what they wor****p and conceal 
is criminal and shameful?

Minucius Felix, Octavius 8.4; 9.1–6; 10.2.

Megan R. wrote:

> Jim wrote:
> 
>> In every country there is a throng of females, hermaphrodites, and
>> perverts ready for wicked acts, and you [the Roman State] accept
>> rent, taxes, and tribute from them instead of eradicating them from
>> your Empire. What is done in public by you and recognized by the
>> State, you hold against us as if we practiced it in darkness after
>> overturning the light. 
>> 
>> Justin, First Apology 27.
>> 
> 
> Our accusers impute godless feasts and indiscriminate intercourse to
> us. They do this on the one hand to convince themselves that there are
> good reasons for hating us; on the other hand, they do it in the hope
> of drawing us away from our way of life by intimidation, or they do it
> to influence the authorities against us and to incite them to treat us
> harshly and implacably because of the enormity of the accusations.
> 
> Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians 31.
>