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 TERTULLIAN

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TERTXJLLIAN

writing more virulently against the Church than even against heathen and persecutors, he separated from the Montanists and founded a sect of his own. The remnant of the Tertullianists was reconciled to the Church by St. .A\igustine. A number of the works of TertuUian are on special points of belief or discipUne. According to St. Jerome he lived to extreme old age. The year 197 saw the publication of a short address by TertulUan, "To the Martyrs", and of his great apologetic works, the "Ad nationes' and the "Apol- ogcticus". The former has been considered a finished sketch for the latter; but it is more true to say that the second work has a diflfcrent purpose, though a great deal of the same matter occurs in both, the same arguments being displayed in the same manner, with the same examples and even the same phrases. The appeal to the nations suffers from its transmission in a single codex, in which omissions of a word or sev- eral words or whole lines are to be deplored. Ter- tullian's style is difficult enough without such super- atldcd causes of obscurity. But the text of the "Ad nationes" must have been always rougher than that of the "Apologeticus", which is a more careful as well . as a more perfect work, and contains more matter be- cause of its better arrangement; for it is just the same length as the two books "Ad nationes".

The "Ad nationes" has for its entire object the refutation of calumnies against Christians. In the first place they are proved to repose on unreasoning hatred only; the procedure of trial is illogical; the offence is nothing but the name of Christian, which ought rather to be a title of honour; no proof is forth- coming of any crimes, only rumour; the first perse- cutor was Nero, t he worst of emperors. Secondly, the individual charges are met; TertuUian challenges the reader to believe in anything so contrary to nature as the accusations of infanticide and incest. Christians are not the causes of earthquakes and floods and fam- ine, for these happened long before Christianity. The pagans despise their own gods, banish them, forbid their worship, mock them on the stage; the poets tell horrid stories of them; they were in reality only men, and bad men. You say we worship an ass's head, he goes on, but you worship all kinds of animals; your gods are images made on a cross framework, so you worship cros.ses. You say we worship the sun; so do you. A certain Jew hawked about a caricature of a creature half ass, half goat, as our god; but you actu- ally adore half-animals. As for infanticide, you ex- pose your own children and kill the unborn. Your promiscuous lust causes you to be in danger of the in- cest of which you accuse us. We do not swear by the genius of Ca;sar, but we are loyal, for we pray for him, whereas you revolt. Ca?sar does not want to be a god; he prefers to be alive. You say it is through ob- stinacy that we despise death; but of old such con- tempt of death was esteemed heroic virtue. Many among you brave death for gain or wagers; but we, because we believe in judgment. Finally, do us jus- tice; examine our case, and change your minds. The second book consists entirely in an attack on the gods of the pagans; they are marshalled in classes after Varro. It was not, urges the apologist, owing to these multitudinous gods that the empire grew.

Out of this fierce appeal and indictment was de- veloped the grander ".Apologeticus", addressed to the rulers of the empire and the administrators of justice. The former work attacked popular prejudices; the new one is an imitation of the Greek Apologies, and was intended as an attempt to secure an amelioration in the treatment of Christians by alteration of the law or its administration. TertuUian cannot restrain his in- vective; yet he wishes to be conciUating, and it breaks out in spite of his argument, instead of being its es- sence as before. He begins again by an appeal to rea- son. There are no witnesses, he urges, to jjrove our crimes; Trajan ordered PUny not to seek us out, but

yet to punish us if we were known; — -what a paralo- gism! The actual procedure is yet more strange. In- stead of being tortured until we confess, we are tor- tured until we deny. So far the "Ad nationes" is merely developed and strengthened. Then, after a condensed summary of the second book as to the heathen gods, TertuUian begins in chapter xvii an ex- position of the belief of Christians in one God, the Creator, invisible, infinite, to whom the soul of man, which by its nature is inclined to Christianity, bears witness The floods and the fire have been His mes- sengers. We have testimony, he adds, from our sa- cred books, which are older than all your gods. Ful- filled prophecy is the proof that they are divine. It is then explained that Christ is God, the Word of God born of a virgin; His two comings, His miracles, pas- sion, resurrection, and forty days with the disciples, are recounted. The disciples spread His doctrine throughout the world; Nero sowed it with blood at Rome. When tortured the Christian cries, "We wor- ship God through Christ ". The demons confess Him and they stir men up against us. Ne.xt, loyalty to Caesar is discussed at greater length than before. When the populace rises, how easily the Christians could take vengeance: "We are but of yesterday, yet we fill your cities, islands, forts, towns, councils, even camps, tribes, decuries, the palace, the senate, the forum; we have left you the temples alone". We might migrate, and leave you in shame and in deso- lation. We ought at least to be tolerated; for what are we? — a body compacted by community of re- ligion, of discipline, and of hope. We meet together to pray, even for the emperors and authorities, to hear readings from the holy books and exhortations. We judge and separate those who fall into crime. We have elders of proved virtue to preside. Our common fund is replenished by voluntary donations each month, and is expended not on gluttony but on the poor and suffering. This charity is ciuoted against us as a disgrace; see, it is said, how they love one an- other. We call ourselves brethren; you also are our brethren by nature, but bad brethren. We are ac- cused of every calamity. Yet we live with you; we avoid no profession, but those of assassins, sorcerers, and such like. You spare the philosophers, though their conduct is less admirable than ours. They con- fess that our teaching is older than theirs, for nothing is older than truth. The resurrection at which you jeer has many parallels in nature. You think us fools; and we rejoice to suffer for this. We conquer by our death. Inquire into the cause of our con- stancy. We believe this martyrdom to be the remis- sion of all offences, and that he who is condemned be- fore your tribunal is absolved before God.

These points are all urged with infinite wit and pungency. The faults are obvious. The effect on the pagans may have been rather to irritate than to convince. The very brevity results in obscurity. But every lover of eloquence, and there were many in those days, will have rehshed with the pleasure of an epicure the feast of ingenious pleading and recondite learning. The rapier thrusts are so swift, we can hardly reahze their dcadliness before they are re- newed in showers, with sometimes a blow as of a bludgeon to vary the effect. The style is compressed like that of Tacitus, but the metrical closes are ob- served with care, against the rule of Tacitus: and that wonderful maker of phrases is outdone by liis Chris- tian successor in gemlike sentences which will be quoted while the world lasts. Who does not know tne anima naturaliler ChristiaiM (soul by nature Chris- tian) ; the Vide, inquiunt, ut mvicem se diligant (see, they exclaim, how they love one another), and the Semen est sanguis Chrislianorum (The blood of Christians is seed)? It was probably about the same time that TertuUian developed his thesis of the " Testimony of the soul " to the existence of one God, in his little book