% ' He was covered by his helmet and breastplate at all parts of the body where he coiild be mortally wounded '(Jos. BJ\■^.8S).
** One of Tertullian's daring metaphors, in this line, is of the church, as it were, besieging God by prayer ('ad deuni, quasi manu facta, precationibus ambiaraus orantes ' [Apol. 39]).
WAR
WAR
cr)5
The inilitarv allusions in the rastornl epistles are of liiirh iin'iwrtimce. One is n.l.lmed to i lus- tiate the un.livided attention leiiuirea of a true evangelist and leader in the ehureh : Join the rankS of those who bear sull.-rin-, like a lova suklier of Christ Jesus. No soldier ^'cts entangled in civil pursuits ; his aim is to satisly his loiu- maiidir ' ■> 'I'i •^^'■)-' T'le special vocation demands absorption, and hardships are to he borne as jmrl of one's duty in the ranks (<:f. beneca, hp. ./-". cxx • ' Civein esse se universi et niilitem cretlens, labores velut imperatos suhiit'). The writer mi"ht have chosen other metaphors— c.ff. that ot priests, as St. Paul does in another connexion 1 Co 9")— but he prefers the military to the sacei- dotal (cf., e.g., Servius' comment on Verg. //■-». vi ()()1 • ' Hi qui sacra maxima accipiebaut re- nunciabant omnibus rebus, nee ulla in his nisi numinum cura remanebat ') hgure, "> order to gu e the idea of undivi.led attention. It is the same conception which .lesus sets in uiimilitary lan-uage, in Lk 'I"'- The otlier allusion, to ' the good ligUt (1 Ti !'*• 'I transmit tliese instructions to you, Timotheus my son, . . light the goodt light on these lines, keeping hold of faith and a good cmi- sclence'-as weapons which cannot be dropped without danger to life), proves afresh that .rrpareu. .ffSai is practi.ally an equivalent for living up to the Christian position in this world. ■ „, „f
It is in a KoMian document, like the Epistle of Clemens Romanus (xxxvii.), however, that we find the organization and discipline of the army he .1 up definiiely as a pattern to the Christian church ci. DAcT.hn ^-batSt. P=uil bad expressed. ntlu, metaphor of the body and its members (1 Co I- Clement puts in military language befo.e . echoes the I'auliue metaphor. _ ' My brothers et us serve with all earnestness in our army, afti^r His faultless commands. Let us consider those who serve our [i.e. the Roman] generals. ^\ it. ^vhat excellent order, how readily how subnnssiv e y thev discharge their appointed duties ! >ot .lU ot them arc prefects, nor tribunes, nor centuri<,ns, or in cm.mand of lifty men, or the ike, but each „ his own rank executes the orders ot the Kmperor .and the generals. The great cannot live witlumt the smaU, nor the small without the great ;t tlieie is a blending g of all ranks and one makes use o the other.' The moral is that rich and poor, wise and humble, asceti,-s, ami all ,,tber vanet.es in the chur.h must learn to render ...utual help and axo.d insubordination ; the dutiful member n.ust not decline to help if be is not promoted-an ide.i akeadv put in military language by Cicero ad Aitic.'iv.iS: 'Immoetiam in bellum et in eastra. Erco erimus iwaoot (jui rayoi esse noluimus? b.c faciendum est ') and still more aj.tly by Seneca {</c TranquUl. Aninm, 4 : ' (Juid si mi itare nolis nisi impeiator aui; tribunus? etiamsi ah. primum frontem tenebunt, te sors inter triarios posuerit, inde voce, adhortatione, exemplo. ammo luilita .
Similarly, there is quite a military tinge in the advice "ivbn by Ignatius to the church or clergy of Smyrna (ad PoUjk. vi. 2) : ' Give satisfaction to
• This tc-ct and military paniUel became a^ecial tavrairite
(,■ „Ori. en Pr.:»cm. iv. 24, i,l Sum. Horn. 25. etc.), l>artic«-
;K.Vvhrntl.V ascetic or cleri.ral ideal l.ad to bo deten.led m
he-calv church It is quoted, ..?., i.. 8th cent Barlaam
n^d !/" oia;./. (xxxix. 851 ; cf. also xviii. 100 : o. ,r»va<r«nTac ^ov
the medf^au'cnoh Vrud'Aomino, which sometimes is not very distant from it in meanrng. oi„~>.
J Cf. Sophocles, Ajax, 161) ff. (tr. F. Storr) : ' Without tlie great tlic small 111 cnuld iruanl the eit.v wall ; LeaKUcd tou'ctlier small and great Best defend the common stale. S Perhaps a reminiscence of the fragment from the .-Eohui of EuriiiidesI which is cited by Stob=eu8. Ft„rileg. xhn. 20.
Him whom you serve [■rrporf.Jf.rfle ; cf. 2 Ti . ], and from whom you receive your pay [i^u^.a, as above, ,,. (l.-,-l]-let mme of you be lound a (h'serter. Vhi^ supieme reproach of cowaiMicc in tl.e ( 1 had been the word ot' I's 78" : ' Tbe children of F.nl.ra.m, being armed and carrying 1k)Ws. turned back in the day of battle.' Ignatius, like the early Clmstians l.referied to take the contemporary illuslration ol llesertion from the legions. Then he proceeds : ' Let your baptism remain as your sluelil, your faith as helmet, your love .us spear [an iten. never mentio..ed in 1 'I'h r.» or in Eph 0"'], your patient endurance as armour ; let you. works be your de- posits, that you may receive the arrears due to you.'
The latter allusion is to the custom of payment 'n V";""""'". -4 (cf. q-teli. Hunt, and Hogar«.^<u;..;»'.-" «»"
Iiu;;itiiii, • H|*""- ~
»;,"> /■«,.!;«■; London, iVmO, p. 2.'.2 i.). Soldiers at the moment rV-eived onl ■ half of the dinaliva.' or bounties awarded lo thc^arin°on any special occasion: the other half ol these g atmti« was deposited in the bank or co.n.non P"rf« C/"''''') °^, the ,TL'imenl, together with any sums which the soldieni cIiotm Jo de no t 0, 'tlieiV own accord, 'm the conclusion of H'C'r "■" of service they were entitled to receive these arrears and what- ever stood w their credit in the bank. It was the.r own pro- perty, exempt even from the patna poU-slas.