Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/580

 TERTULLIAN

522

TERTULLIAN

with this title. With liis usual eloquence he enlarges on the idea that common speech bids us use expres- sions such as "God grant", or "If God will", "God bless", "God sees", "May God repay". The soul testifies also to devils, to just vengeance, and to its own immortality.

Two or three years later (about 200) TertuUian as- saulted heresy in a treatise even more brilliant, which, unlike the " Apologeticus", is not for his own day only but for all time. It is called "Liber de pra-scriptione ha^reticorum ". Prescription now means the right ob- tained to something by long usage. In Roman law the signification was wider; it meant the cutting short of a question by the refusal to hear the adversary's ar- guments, on the ground of an anterior point which must cut away the ground under his feet. So Ter- tuUian deals with heresies: it is of no use to Usten to their arguments or refute them, for we have a number of antecendent proofs that they cannot deserve a hearing. Heresies, he begins, must not astonish us, for they were prophesied. Heretics lu^ge the text, "Seek and ye shall find", but this was not said to Christians; we have a rule of faith to be accepted without question. "Let curiosity give place to faith and vain glory make way for salvation", so Tertul- lian parodies a line of Cicero's. The heretics argue out of Scripture; but, first, we are forbidden to con- sort with a heretic after one rebuke has been de- livered, and secondly, disputation results only in blas- phemy on the one side and indignation on the other, while the listener goes away more puzzled than he came. The real question is, "To whom does the Faith belong? Whose are the Scriptures? By whom, through whom, when and to whom has been handed down the disciphne by which we are Christians? The answer is plain: Christ sent His apostles, who founded churches in each city, from which the others have bor- rowed the tradition of the Faith and the seed of doc- trine and daily borrow in order to become churches; so that they also are Apostolic in that they are the off- spring of the Apostolic churches. AU are that one Church which the Apostles founded, so long as peace and intercommunion are observed [dum est illis com- municatio pads et appellatio fraternitatis et conlessera- tio hospitalitatis]. Therefore the testimony to the truth is this: We communicate with the apostoUc Churches". The heretics will reply that the Apostles did not know aU the truth. Could anything be un- known to Peter, who was called the rock on which the Church was to be built? or to John, who lay on the Lord's breast? But they will say, the churches have erred. Some indeed went wrong, and were corrected by the Apostle; though for others he had nothing but praise. "But let us admit that all have erred: — is it credible that all these great churches should have Btrayed into the same faith"? Admitting this ab- surdity, then all the baptisms, spiritual gifts, miracles, martyrdoms, were in vain until Marcion and Valen- tinus appeared at last! Truth will be younger than error; for both these heresiarchs are of yesterday, and were still Catholics at Rome in the episcopate of Eleu- therius (this name is a sUp or a false reading). Any- how the heresies are at best novelties, and have no continuity with the teaching of Christ. Perhaps some heretics may claim Apostolic antiquity: we re- ply : Let them pubhsh the origins of their churches and unroll the catalogue of their bishops till now from the Apostles or from some bishop appointed by the Apostles, as the SmjTnteans count from Polycarp and John, and the Romans from Clement and Peter; let heretics invent something to match this. Why, their errors were denounced by the Apostles long ago. Finally (36), he names some Apostolic churches, pointing above all to Rome, whose witness is near- est at hand, — happy Church, in which the Apostles poured out their whole teaching with their blood, where Peter suffered a death like his Master's, where

Paul was crowned with an end like the Baptist's, where John was plunged into fierj' oil without hurt! The Roman Rule of Faith is summarized, no doubt from the old Roman Creed, the same as our present Apostles' Creed but for a few small additions in the latter; much the same summary was given in chapter xiii, and is found also in "De virginibus velandis" (chapter i). TertuUian evidently avoids giving the exact words, which would be taught only to cate- chumens shortly before baptism. The whole lumi- nous argument is founded on the first chapters of St. Irena-us's third book, but its forceful exposition is not more TertuUian's own than its exhaustive and com- peUing logic. Never did he show himself less violent and less obscure. The appeal to the Apostolic churches was unanswerable in his day; the rest of his argument is stiU valid.

A series of short works addressed to catechumens belong also to TertuUian's Cathohc days, and faU be- tween 200 and 206. "De spectaculis" explains and probably exaggerates the impossibihty for a Christian to attend any heathen shows, even races or theatrical performances, without either wounding his faith by participation in idolatry or arousing his passions. "De idololatria" is by some placed at a later date, but it is anyhow closely connected with the former work. It explains that the making of idols is for- bidden, and similarly astrology, seUing of incense, etc. A schoolmaster cannot elude contamination. A Chris- tian cannot be a soldier. To the question, "How am I then to five?", TertuUian repUes that faith fears not famine; for the Faith we must give up our Ufe, how much more our Uving? "De baptismo" is an in- struction on the necessity of baptism and on its ef- fects; it is directed against a female teacher of error belonging to the sect of Gaius (perhaps the Anti- Montanist). We learn that baptism was conferred regularly by the bishop, but with his consent could be administered by priests, deacons, or even laymen. The proper times were Easter and Pentecost. Prep- aration was made by fasting, vigils, and prayers. Confirmation was conferred immediately after by imction and laying on of hands. "De paenitentia" wiU be mentioned later. "De oratione" contains an exposition of the Lord's Praj'er, totius evangdii bre- viarium. "De cultu feminarum" is an instruction on modesty and plainness in dress; TertuUian enjoys de- tailing the ex-travagances of female toUet and ridiculing them. Besides these didactic works to catechumens, TertuUian wrote at the same period two books, "Ad uxorem", in the former of which he begs his wife not to marry again after his death, as it is not proper for a Christian, while in the second book he enjoins upon her at least to marry a Christian if she does marry, for pagans must not be consorted with. A little book on patience is touching, for the ^\Titer admits that it is an impudence in him to discourse on a virtue in which he is so conspicuously lacking. A book against the Jews contains some curious chronologj-, used to prove the fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks. The latter half of the book is nearly identical with part of the third book against Marcion. It would seem that TertuUian used over again what he had written in the earliest form of that work, which dates from this time. " Adversus Hermogenem " is against a cer- tain Hermogenes, a painter (of idols?) who taught that God created the world out of pre-existing matter. TertuUian reduces his view ad absurdum, and estab- lishes the creation out of nothing both from Scripture and reason.

The next period of TertuUian's literan,' activity shows distinct evidence of Montauist opinions, but he has not yet openly broken with the Church, which had not as yet condenmed the new prophecy. Mont anus and the prophetesses Priscilla and iNIaximilla had been long dead when TertuUian was converted to belief in their inspiration. He hekl the words of Montaniis to