By Water & Blood

Homily 14, Chapter 10: Faustus Explains His Narrative to Peter

Peter seeing this, said: Are you Faustus, the husband of this woman, and the father of her children? And he said: I am. And Peter said: How, then, did you relate to me your own history as if it were another's; telling me of your toils, and sorrow, and burial? And our father answered: Being of the family of Cæsar, and not wishing to be discovered, I devised the narrative in another's name, in order that it might not be perceived who I was. For I knew that, if I were recognised, the governors in the place would learn this, and recall me to gratify Cæsar, and would bestow upon me that former prosperity to which I had formerly bidden adieu with all the resolution I could summon. For I could not give myself up to a luxurious life when I had pronounced the strongest condemnation on myself, because I believed that I had been the cause of death to those who were loved by me.