A POET OF THE COUNTER- REFORMATION
SIR,—Your correspondent Mr. T. U. Taylor, in writing of Robert Southwell, inspires me to a similar essay in the emotive use of language.
That lovely character Ignatius of Antioch, when being led from overseas to the Roman amphitheatre, wrote ahead to his fellow- Christians in Rome, to dissuade them from interceding for him: Leave me to become the fodder of the beasts, for by them shall I come to God.
I am the wheat of God and have yet to be ground by the teeth of the beasts, in order to become the pure bread of Christ. . . . Have pity on me, my brothers, and do not stand in the way of my gaining life. . . .
It is clear from the above that Ignatius, who was at best a second-rate exponent of the Greek language, was at worst a religious fana- tic with a desire for martyrdom, trained abroad to canalise his whole personality into the ser- vice of his Church. And no serious student of Roman history can fail to agree with Tacitus and Suetonius that he and his fellow-Christians were mostly traitors and fifth columnists. Indeed, it has even been adduced against him that he was nearer to Southwell than to Latimer in his views on freedom as against the authoritarian claims of the Papacy.—Yours
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