Jerome, Saint, Vita Sancti Hilarionis

20. Maleficium dissolutum in Circensibus. — Sed et Italicus ejusdem oppidi municeps Christianus, adversus Gazensem Dunmv(??)irum, Marnae idolo dedi- tum, Circenses equos [Al. circi equos curules] nu- triebat. Hoc siquidem in Romanis urbibus jam inde servabatur a Romulo 4, ut propter felicem Sabina- rum raptum, Conso 5, quasi consiliorum Deo, quadrigae septeno currant circumitu; et equos partis adversae fregisse, victoria sit. Hic itaque aemulo suo habente maleficum, qui daemoniacis quibusdam imprecationibus et hujus impediret [Al. praecantationibus et hujus praeparet] equos, et illius concitaret ad cursum, venit ad beatum Hilarionem, et non tam adversarium laedi, quam se defendi obsecravit. Ineptum visum est venerando seni in hujuscemodi nugis orationem perdere. Cumque subrideret et diceret : Cur non magis equorum pretium pro salute animae tuae pauperibus erogas? ille respondit, functionem esse publicam; et hoc se non tam velle, quam cogi, nec posse hominem Christianum uti magicis artibus; sed a servo Chri- sti potius auxilium petere, maxime contra Gazen- ses adversarios Die : et non tam sibi quam Eccle- siae Christi insultantes. Rogatus ergo a fratribus qui aderant, scyphum fictilem quo bibere consue- verat. aqua jussit impleri, eique tradi. Quem cum accepisset Italicus, et 23 stabulum, et equos, et aurigas suos, rhedam 6, carcerumque repagula aspersit. Mira vulgi exspectatio : nam et adversa- rius hoc ipsum irridens, diffamaverat; et fautores Italici sibi certam victoriam pollicentes exsultabant. Igitur dato signo hi advolant, illi praepediuntur. Sub horum curru rotae fervent, illi praetervolan- tium terga vix cernunt. Clamor fit vulgi nimius [Codd. nimius attollitur] : ita ut Ethuici quoque ipsi concreparent : Manias victus est a Christo. Porro furentes adversarii, Hilarionem maleficum Chri- stianum 1 ad supplicium poposcerunt. Indubitata ergo victoria et illis, et multis retro Circensibus’ plurimis fidei occasio fuit.

20. A spell undone at the circus games. — Italicus, too, a citizen of the same town and a Christian, kept circus horses against a duumvir of Gaza who was devoted to the idol Marnas. For this custom had been kept in Roman cities ever since Romulus, that, in memory of the happy rape of the Sabine women, four-horse chariots run seven laps in honour of Consus, as the god of counsels; and to have worn out the horses of the opposing side is victory. So, since his rival had a sorcerer who by certain demonic imprecations would hinder this man's horses and spur on the other man's to the race, he came to blessed Hilarion and begged not so much that his adversary be harmed as that he himself be protected. It seemed absurd to the venerable old man to waste prayer on trifles of this kind. And when he smiled and said, “Why do you not rather give the price of the horses to the poor for the salvation of your soul?”, he replied that it was a public duty, that he did this not so much from choice as under compulsion, and that a Christian man could not use magic arts, but would rather seek help from a servant of Christ, especially against the people of Gaza, adversaries of God, who were insulting not so much him as the Church of Christ. So, at the request of the brothers who were present, he ordered the earthenware cup from which he usually drank to be filled with water and given to him. When Italicus had received it, he sprinkled his stable and horses and charioteers, his chariot and the bars of the starting-gates. The crowd's expectation was extraordinary: for his adversary too, mocking this very thing, had spread it abroad, and Italicus's supporters were exulting, promising themselves sure victory. So the signal is given: these fly forward, those are held back. Under these men's chariot the wheels glow hot; those barely catch sight of the backs of the ones flying past them. The crowd's shouting becomes enormous, so that even the pagans themselves cried out together: “Marnas is conquered by Christ!” Then the opponents in their fury demanded Hilarion, the Christian sorcerer, for execution. That undoubted victory, therefore, both at those games and at many circus games afterwards, was an occasion of faith for very many.

21. Virginem ab incantatione amatoria liberat. De eodem Gazensis emporii oppido, virginem Dei 2 vicinus juvenis deperibat. Qui eum frequenter tactu, jocis, mitibus, sibilis, et caeteris hujusmodi, quae solent moriturae virginitatis esse principia, nihil profecisset, perrexit Memphim 3, ut confesso vul- nere suo, magicis artibus rediret armatus ad virgi- nem. Igitur post annum doctus ab AEsculapii vati- bus 4, non remediantis animas, sed perdentis, venit praesumptum animo stuprum gestiens, et subter limen domus puellae portenta quaedam verborum, et portentosas figuras sculptas in aeris Cyprii lamina defodit. Illico insanire virgo, et amictu capitis ab- jecto, rotare crinem, stridere dentibus, inclamare nomen adolescentis. Magnitudo quippe amoris se in furorem verterat. Perducta ergo a parentibus ad monasterium, seni traditur : ululante statim et confitente daemone. Vim sustinui, invitus abductus sum : quam bene Memphis somniis homines delu- debam! Q cruces! 24 o tormenta quae patior! Exire me cogis, et ligatus subter limen teneor. Non exeo, nisi me adolescens qui tenet, dimiserit. Tunc se- nex : Grandis, ait, fortitudo tua, qui licio et la- mina strictus teneris. Dic, quare ausus es ingredi puellam Dei? Ut servarem, inquit, eam virginem. Tu servares, proditor castitatis? Cur non potius in eum qui te mittebat, es ingressus? Ut quid, respondit, intrarem in cum, qui habebat collegam meum amoris daemonem? Noluit autem Sanctus antequam purgaret virginem, vel 5 adolescentem, vel signa jubere perquiri, ne nut solutus incanta- tionibus recessisse daemon videretur, aut ipse ser- moni ejus accommodasse fidem : asserens fallaces esse daemones, et ad simulandum esse callidos; et magis reddita sanitate increpuit virginem, cur fe- cisset talia, per quae daemon intrare potuisset.

21. He frees a virgin from a love spell. — From the same town, Gaza's port of trade, a young man who lived nearby was dying of love for a virgin of God. When he had got nowhere by frequent touches, jests, nods, whistles and other things of this kind, which are usually the beginnings of a virginity about to perish, he went to Memphis, so that, having confessed his wound, he might come back to the virgin armed with magic arts. So after a year, taught by the prophets of Asclepius, who does not heal souls but destroys them, he came, eager for the defilement he had already resolved on in his mind, and under the threshold of the girl's house he buried certain monstrous words and monstrous figures engraved on a plate of Cyprian copper. At once the virgin went mad, and throwing off the covering of her head, she whirled her hair, gnashed her teeth, cried out the young man's name. For the greatness of her love had turned into frenzy. So she was brought by her parents to the monastery and handed over to the old man; at once the demon howled and confessed: “I suffered force, I was carried off against my will: how well I used to delude men at Memphis with dreams! O crosses! O the torments I suffer! You force me to go out, and I am held bound under the threshold. I do not go out unless the young man who holds me lets me go.” Then the old man said: “Great is your strength, held bound as you are by a thread and a plate! Tell me, why did you dare to enter a girl of God?” “To keep her a virgin,” it said. “You keep her, you betrayer of chastity? Why did you not rather enter the one who sent you?” “Why,” it answered, “should I enter one who had my colleague, the demon of love?” But the saint did not wish to have either the young man or the signs searched for before he had cleansed the virgin, lest the demon should seem to have departed because released from the incantations, or he himself to have given credit to its words; asserting that demons are deceitful and cunning at pretence; and once her health was restored he rather rebuked the virgin for having done things through which a demon could have entered.