Ante-Nicene Fathers • VOLUME 3
Tertullian — Latin Christianity
SECTION 1
ANTE-NICENE FATHERS
ANTE-NICENE FATHERS VOLUME 3. Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian I. Apologetic; II. Anti-Marcion; III. Ethical Edited by Allan Menzies, D.D. T&T CLARK EDINBURGH WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN LATIN CHRISTIANITY: ITS FOUNDER, TERTULLIAN THREE PARTS: I. APOLOGETIC; II. ANTI-MARCION; …
2,528 wordsSECTION 2(II.) Tertullian's work against Marcion, as it happens, is, as to its date, the best authenticated--perhaps the only well authenticated--par
(II.) Tertullian's work against Marcion, as it happens, is, as to its date, the best authenticated--perhaps the only well authenticated--particular connected with the author's life. He himself [13] mentions the fifteenth year of the reign of Severus as the time when he was writing the work: "Ad xv. jam Severi imperatoris." This …
2,220 wordsSECTION 34. Once more. In the tract de Monogamia (c. 3) the author says that since the date of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians "about 160
4. Once more. In the tract de Monogamia (c. 3) the author says that since the date of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians "about 160 years had elapsed." Here, again, did we only know with certainty the precise date of that epistle, we could ascertain "about" the date of the tract. But (a) the date of the epistle is itsel…
2,212 wordsSECTION 4It remains briefly to notice the confessedly spurious works which the editions of Tertullian generally have appended to them. With these Kay
It remains briefly to notice the confessedly spurious works which the editions of Tertullian generally have appended to them. With these Kaye does not deal. The fragment, adv. omnes Hæreses, Oehler attributes to Victorinus Petavionensis, i.e., Victorinus bishop of Pettaw, on the Drave, in Austrian Styria. It was once thought he …
2,206 wordsSECTION 5Chapter I.
[52] It being from that book that the quotations are taken which make up the remainder of the tract, as Semler, worthless as his theories are, has well shown. [53] "Sæculi" or "of the world," or perhaps "of heathenism." [54] Catal. Scrippt. Eccles. c. 18. [55] P. 952, tom. iii. Opp. ed. Bened. [56] De Ecclesiæ dogmatibus, c.…
1,410 wordsSECTION 6Chapter II.
Chapter II. If, again, it is certain that we are the most wicked of men, why do you treat us so differently from our fellows, that is, from other criminals, it being only fair that the same crime should get the same treatment? When the charges made against us are made against others, they are permitted to make use both of their…
1,684 wordsSECTION 7Chapter III.
Chapter III. What are we to think of it, that most people so blindly knock their heads against the hatred of the Christian name; that when they bear favourable testimony to any one, they mingle with it abuse of the name he bears? "A good man," says one, "is Gaius Seius, only that he is a Christian." So another, "I am astonished…
1,584 wordsSECTION 8Chapter V.
Chapter V. To say a word about the origin of laws of the kind to which we now refer, there was an old decree that no god should be consecrated by the emperor till first approved by the senate. Marcus Æmilius had experience of this in reference to his god Alburnus. And this, too, makes for our case, that among you divinity is al…
1,354 wordsSECTION 9Chapter VII.
Chapter VII. Monsters of wickedness, we are accused of observing a holy rite in which we kill a little child and then eat it; in which, after the feast, we practise incest, the dogs--our pimps, forsooth, overturning the lights and getting us the shamelessness of darkness for our impious lusts. This is what is constantly laid to…
912 wordsSECTION 10Chapter VIII.
Chapter VIII. See now, we set before you the reward of these enormities. They give promise of eternal life. Hold it meanwhile as your own belief. I ask you, then, whether, so believing, you think it worth attaining with a conscience such as you will have. Come, plunge your knife into the babe, enemy of none, accused of none, ch…
2,030 wordsSECTION 11Chapter X.
Chapter X. "You do not worship the gods," you say; "and you do not offer sacrifices for the emperors." Well, we do not offer sacrifice for others, for the same reason that we do not for ourselves,--namely, that your gods are not at all the objects of our worship. So we are accused of sacrilege and treason. This is the chief gro…
814 wordsSECTION 12Chapter XI.
Chapter XI. And since, as you dare not deny that these deities of yours once were men, you have taken it on you to assert that they were made gods after their decease, let us consider what necessity there was for this. In the first place, you must concede the existence of one higher God--a certain wholesale dealer in divinity, …
1,048 wordsSECTION 13Chapter XII.
Chapter XII. But I pass from these remarks, for I know and I am going to show what your gods are not, by showing what they are. In reference, then, to these, I see only names of dead men of ancient times; I hear fabulous stories; I recognize sacred rites founded on mere myths. As to the actual images, I regard them as simply pi…
1,150 wordsSECTION 14Chapter XIV.
Chapter XIV. I wish now to review your sacred rites; and I pass no censure on your sacrificing, when you offer the worn-out, the scabbed, the corrupting; when you cut off from the fat and the sound the useless parts, such as the head and the hoofs, which in your house you would have assigned to the slaves or the dogs; when of t…
1,104 wordsSECTION 15Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVI. For, like some others, you are under the delusion that our god is an ass's head. [96] Cornelius Tacitus first put this notion into people's minds. In the fifth book of his histories, beginning the (narrative of the) Jewish war with an account of the origin of the nation; and theorizing at his pleasure about the ori…
902 wordsSECTION 16Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVII. The object of our worship is the One God, [101] He who by His commanding word, His arranging wisdom, His mighty power, brought forth from nothing this entire mass of our world, with all its array of elements, bodies, spirits, for the glory of His majesty; whence also the Greeks have bestowed on it the name of Kosm…
1,022 wordsSECTION 17Chapter XIX.
Chapter XIX. Their high antiquity, first of all, claims authority for these writings. With you, too, it is a kind of religion to demand belief on this very ground. Well, all the substances, all the materials, the origins, classes, contents of your most ancient writings, even most nations and cities illustrious in the records of…
830 wordsSECTION 18Chapter XXI.
Chapter XXI. But having asserted that our religion is supported by the writings of the Jews, the oldest which exist, though it is generally known, and we fully admit that it dates from a comparatively recent period--no further back indeed than the reign of Tiberius--a question may perhaps be raised on this ground about its stan…
2,307 wordsSECTION 19Chapter XXII.
[104] [That is, by the consummation of her marriage with Joseph.] [105] [Language common among Christians, and adopted afterwards into the Creed.] [106] Isa. vi. 10. [107] Elucidation V. [108] Proculus was a Roman senator who affirmed that Romulus had appeared to him after his death. [109] [Chapter l. at close. "The blood o…
875 wordsSECTION 20Chapter XXIII.
Chapter XXIII. Moreover, if sorcerers call forth ghosts, and even make what seem the souls of the dead to appear; if they put boys to death, in order to get a response from the oracle; if, with their juggling illusions, they make a pretence of doing various miracles; if they put dreams into people's minds by the power of the an…
1,393 wordsSECTION 21Chapter XXIV.
Chapter XXIV. This whole confession of these beings, in which they declare that they are not gods, and in which they tell you that there is no God but one, the God whom we adore, is quite sufficient to clear us from the crime of treason, chiefly against the Roman religion. For if it is certain the gods have no existence, there …
1,791 wordsSECTION 22Chapter XXVI.
Chapter XXVI. Examine then, and see if He be not the dispenser of kingdoms, who is Lord at once of the world which is ruled, and of man himself who rules; if He have not ordained the changes of dynasties, with their appointed seasons, who was before all time, and made the world a body of times; if the rise and the fall of state…
940 wordsSECTION 23Chapter XXIX.
Chapter XXIX. Let it be made clear, then, first of all, if those to whom sacrifice is offered are really able to protect either emperor or anybody else, and so adjudge us guilty of treason, if angels and demons, spirits of most wicked nature, do any good, if the lost save, if the condemned give liberty, if the dead (I refer to …
895 wordsSECTION 24Chapter XXXI.
Chapter XXXI. But we merely, you say, flatter the emperor, and feign these prayers of ours to escape persecution. Thank you for your mistake, for you give us the opportunity of proving our allegations. Do you, then, who think that we care nothing for the welfare of Cæsar, look into God's revelations, examine our sacred books, w…
783 wordsSECTION 25Chapter XXXIV.
Chapter XXXIV. Augustus, the founder of the empire, would not even have the title Lord; for that, too, is a name of Deity. For my part, I am willing to give the emperor this designation, but in the common acceptation of the word, and when I am not forced to call him Lord as in God's place. But my relation to him is one of freed…
1,169 wordsSECTION 26Chapter XXXVI.
Chapter XXXVI. If it is the fact that men bearing the name of Romans are found to be enemies of Rome, why are we, on the ground that we are regarded as enemies, denied the name of Romans? We may be at once Romans and foes of Rome, when men passing for Romans are discovered to be enemies of their country. So the affection, and f…
896 wordsSECTION 27Chapter XXXVIII.
Chapter XXXVIII. Ought not Christians, therefore, to receive not merely a somewhat milder treatment, but to have a place among the law-tolerated societies, seeing they are not chargeable with any such crimes as are commonly dreaded from societies of the illicit class? For, unless I mistake the matter, the prevention of such ass…
1,754 wordsSECTION 28Chapter XL.
Chapter XL. On the contrary, they deserve the name of faction who conspire to bring odium on good men and virtuous, who cry out against innocent blood, offering as the justification of their enmity the baseless plea, that they think the Christians the cause of every public disaster, of every affliction with which the people are…
860 wordsSECTION 29Chapter XLI.
Chapter XLI. You, therefore, are the sources of trouble in human affairs; on you lies the blame of public adversities, since you are ever attracting them--you by whom God is despised and images are worshipped. It should surely seem the more natural thing to believe that it is the neglected One who is angry, and not they to whom…
1,057 wordsSECTION 30Chapter XLIII.
Chapter XLIII. I will confess, however, without hesitation, that there are some who in a sense may complain of Christians that they are a sterile race: as, for instance, pimps, and panders, and bath-suppliers; assassins, and poisoners, and sorcerers; soothsayers, too, diviners, and astrologers. But it is a noble fruit of Christ…
779 wordsSECTION 31Chapter XLVI.
Chapter XLVI. We have sufficiently met, as I think, the accusation of the various crimes on the ground of which these fierce demands are made for Christian blood. We have made a full exhibition of our case; and we have shown you how we are able to prove that our statement is correct, from the trustworthiness, I mean, and antiqu…
1,159 wordsSECTION 32Chapter XLVII.
Chapter XLVII. Unless I am utterly mistaken, there is nothing so old as the truth; and the already proved antiquity of the divine writings is so far of use to me, that it leads men more easily to take it in that they are the treasure-source whence all later wisdom has been taken. And were it not necessary to keep my work to a m…
997 wordsSECTION 33Chapter XLVIII.
Chapter XLVIII. Come now, if some philosopher affirms, as Laberius holds, following an opinion of Pythagoras, that a man may have his origin from a mule, a serpent from a woman, and with skill of speech twists every argument to prove his view, will he not gain acceptance for and work in some the conviction that, on account of t…
1,251 wordsSECTION 34Chapter XLIX.
Chapter XLIX. These are what are called presumptuous speculations in our case alone; in the philosophers and poets they are regarded as sublime speculations and illustrious discoveries. They are men of wisdom, we are fools. They are worthy of all honour, we are folk to have the finger pointed at; nay, besides that, we are even …
2,201 wordsSECTION 35Plautianus put to death (circa) 205.
Plautianus put to death (circa) 205. Geta called Augustus 208. War in Britain 208. Wall of Severus 210. Death of Severus 211. IV. (Tiberius, capp. v. and xxiv., pp. 22 and 35.) A fair examination of what has been said on this subject, pro and con, may be found in Kaye's Tertullian, [156] pp. 102-105. In his abundant cando…
1,599 wordsSECTION 36Chapter I.--Wide Scope of the Word Idolatry.
Chapter I.--Wide Scope of the Word Idolatry. The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry. [163] For, although each single fault retains its own proper feature, although it is destined to judgment under its own proper name also, yet it is mar…
1,095 wordsSECTION 37Chapter III.--Idolatry: Origin and Meaning of the Name.
Chapter III.--Idolatry: Origin and Meaning of the Name. Idol in ancient times there was none. Before the artificers of this monstrosity had bubbled into being, [173] temples stood solitary and shrines empty, just as to the present day in some places traces of the ancient practice remain permanently. Yet idolatry used to be prac…
981 wordsSECTION 38Chapter V. [185] --Sundry Objections or Excuses Dealt with.
Chapter V. [185] --Sundry Objections or Excuses Dealt with. We will certainly take more pains in answering the excuses of artificers of this kind, who ought never to be admitted into the house of God, if any have a knowledge of that Discipline. [186] To begin with, that speech, wont to be cast in our teeth, "I have nothing else…
946 wordsSECTION 39Chapter VI.--Idolatry Condemned by Baptism. To Make an Idol Is, in Fact, to Worship It.
Chapter VI.--Idolatry Condemned by Baptism. To Make an Idol Is, in Fact, to Worship It. If no law of God had prohibited idols to be made by us; if no voice of the Holy Spirit uttered general menace no less against the makers than the worshippers of idols; from our sacrament itself we would draw our interpretation that arts of t…
1,152 wordsSECTION 40Chapter IX.--Professions of Some Kinds Allied to Idolatry. Of Astrology in Particular.
Chapter IX.--Professions of Some Kinds Allied to Idolatry. Of Astrology in Particular. We observe among the arts [207] also some professions liable to the charge of idolatry. Of astrologers there should be no speaking even; [208] but since one in these days has challenged us, defending on his own behalf perseverance in that pro…
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Source & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.