Emperor, we are your soldiers, but we are servants of God. To you we owe military service; to God we owe the innocence of our souls. (…) We first swore an oath to God, then we swore an oath to the sovereign. Be assured that the second no longer has any value for us if we have broken the first.

Saint Maurice († 286?)
Martyr

“Under the empire of Diocletian, towards the end of the third century, there was in the Roman army a whole legion of Thebans who professed the Christian faith. Maurice was the leader of this legion, which had 6,660 soldiers in its ranks: they were, by all accounts, the best men in the army. Now, the commander of the expedition, Maximilian Hercules, already associated with imperial dignity, wanted to force the Thebans to sacrifice to idols, and impose on them the oath to persecute the Christians as enemies of the Empire. At this proposition, the entire legion felt its honor and religion were compromised: “Emperor, we are your soldiers, but we are servants of God. To you we owe military service; to God we owe the innocence of our souls. Order anything that does not offend the honor of our Creator, which is also yours; we will obey you. As for making us apostates from our faith and murderers of our brothers, the servants of Christ, you will never succeed. We have weapons, we lay them down; we will allow ourselves to be slaughtered without defense.” And the entire legion was sacrificed; this act left to future generations the following great and memorable maxim: if Christian soldiers always show themselves the first to obey orders, it is on the condition, however, of not disobeying their conscience. “To the emperor: our warrior hearts; to God: the integrity of our faith.” Pagan despotism took this for granted.”

Cardinal Pie (1815-1880)
Bishop of Poitiers, Cardinal of the Holy Church