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Tertullian 



LIBRARY OF FATHERS 



HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, 



ANTERIOR TO THE DIVISION OF THE EAST AND WEST. 



TRANSLATED BY MEMBERS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 




VET SHALL NOT THY TEACHERS BE REMOVED INTO A CORNER ANY MORE, HUT 
THINE EYES SHALL SEE THY TEACHERS. Isaiuh XXX. 20. 



OXFORD, 

JOHN HENRY PARKER; 

J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. 

MDCCCXLII. 



TO THE 

MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD 

WILLIAM 

LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 
PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND, 

FORMERLY REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORO, 

THIS LIBRARY 

OF 

ANCIENT BISHOPS, FATHERS, DOCTORS, MARTYRS, CONFESSORS. 
OF CHRIST'S HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, 

IS 

WITH HIS grace's PERMISSION 

RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 

IN TOKEN OF 

REVERENCE FOR HIS PERSON AND SACRED OFFICE, 

AND OF 

GRATITUDE FOR HIS EPISCOPAL KINDNESS, 



/ 

TERTULLIAN 



TRANSLATED BY THE 

REV. C. DODGSON, M.A. 

PERPETUAL CURATE OF DARESBURY, 

EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF RIPON, 

LATE STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH. 



VOL. I. 
APOLOGETIC AND PRACTICAL TREATISES. 



OXFORD, 

JOHN HENRY PARKER; 

J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. 

1842. 



BAXTER, PUINTEK, OXFORD. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface .... 

I Apology .... 

Note A, On the Apostolic decree Acts xv. 
Note B, Absence of images in the early Church 
Note C, On the doctrine of Paradise 
Note D, On the early views as to the Millennium 
II Of the Witness of the Soul 

III Address to Scapula 

IV Address to the Martyrs 
V Of the Crown 

Note E, Of the early views as to military service 
VI Of Public Shows 

VII Of Idolatry .... 

Note F, Of the human appearance of our Lord 
VIII Of Baptism .... 

Note G, Of the validity of heretical Baptism 
IX Of Prayer .... 

Note H, On the title " Spirit" used of the Divine Nature 

of our Lord 

Note I, On " The Son" being called « The Will" of the 
Father 
X Of Patience .... 

XI Of Repentance 

Note K, On the term " satisfaction" as used of works of 

repentance 
Note L, Exomologesis, the whole act of doing penance 
Note M, In what cases and for what ends Confession was 
required in the Ancient Church 
XII To his Wife, Book 1. . . . 

Note N, On the early views as to the meaning of 1 Tim. 3, 1 
XIII To his Wife, Book 2. . . . 

Note O, On the early views as to marriage after divorce 



Page 
i 

1 

107 
109 
116 
120 
131 
142 
150 
158 
184 
187 
220 
252 
255 
280 
298 

321 

324 
327 
349 

369 
376 

379 

409 
419 
421 
431 



viii CONTENTS. 

Pasre 
XIV On Prescription ag-ainst Heretics . . . 434 

Note P, On the early traces and variation» of the Apostles' 

Creed . . . . .480 

Note Q, On the title " Rock," Matt. 16, 18. . . 491 

Note R, " The keys of the kingdom of Heaven," Matt. 16, 

19. given to all the Apostles . . . 497 

Additional Notes • • . . 499 




PREFACE. 



Of the life of Tertullian little is known, except what is 
contained in the brief account of St. Jerome^. " Tertullian a 
presbyter, the first Latin writer after Victor and Apollonius, 
was a native of the province of Africa and city of Carthage, 
the son of a proconsular centurion : he was a man of a sharp 
and vehement temper^, flourished under Severus and Anto- 
ninus Caracalla, and wrote numerous works, which as they 
are generally known, T think it unnecessary to particularize. 
I saw at Concordia in Italy an old man named Paulus. He 
said that, when young, he had met at Rome with an aged 
amanuensis of the blessed Cyprian, who told him that 
Cyprian never passed a day without reading some portion 
of Tertullian's works, and used frequently to say, Give me 
my master^ meaning Tertullian. After remaining a presbyter 
of the Church until he had attained the middle age of life, 
Tertullian was by the envy and contumelious treatment of 
the Roman clergy driven to embrace the opinions of Mon- 
tanus, which he has mentioned in several of his works under 
the title of the New Prophecy ; but he composed, expressly 
against the Church, the Treatises de Pudicitia, de Perse- 
cutione, de Jejuniis, de Monogamia, and six books de 
Ecstasi, to which he added a seventh against Apollonius. 
He is reported to have lived to a very advanced age, and to 
have composed many other works which are not extant." 

^ Catal. Scriptt. Eccles. the words, however, appear to me in- 

^ " acria et vehementis ingenii." Bp. dicative of intellectual as well as of 
Kaye's translation has been retained \ moral qualities. 

b 



ii PREFACE. 

In addition'to these circumstances, it is known from his 
own writings that he was a convert from heathenism", and 
that he once despised the GospeP, which he afterwards 
embraced. As a Heathen, he had taken pleasure in the 
savage sports of the gladiators % and had fallen into the gross 
sins of Heathenism '\ but with these he contrasts his subse- 
quent state % although with a deep consciousness of abiding 
sinfulness^ and of his weakness of faith ^. Of special infirmi- 
ties, he^ takes occasion of writing upon patience, to mention 
his own impatience. His conversion was probably A.D. 196 ' ; 
his continuance in the Church can thus have been scarcely 
five years, since in A.D. 201'', it seems certain that he was a 
Montanist. He had then, at all events, reached middle age^ 
His Treatises addressed " to his wife," written while in the 
Church"", imply the likelihood of continued life; the whole 



» Apol. c. 18. p. 41. de Pcenit. init. 
p. 349. Two other passages quoted, de 
Fuga in Pers. c. 6. and adv. Marc. iii. 
21. only imply Gentile origin. 

*> Apol! 1. c. 

c de Spect. c. 19. 

d de Res. Carnis c. 59. 

e 1. e. 

' de Cult. Fern. ii. 1. de Pcenit. c. 4. 
and fin. 

g de Bapt. c. 10. p. 267. 

»' de Pat. c. 1. p. 327. 

i It seems clear, from the conclusion 
of the de Pallio, that it was written on 
his conversion to Christianity, the palli- 
um being the dress of Christians. " Thus 
far speaketh the Pallium. But as for me, 
I now transfer my life to that sect and 
discipline, which is [not merely philo- 
sophical but] Divine also. Rejoice, 
Pallium, and be glad ; a better philo- 
sophy hath accepted thee, from the 
time that thou becamest the Christian's 
dress." But the date of the de Pallio 
itself, in connection with Tertullian's 
other writings, then becomes fixed by 
the passage, in which he speaks of the 
peace consequent upon the harmony of 
the three Augusti, " How many cities 
hath the triple excellence of the existing 
rule either produced, or enlarged, or 
restored ? God favouring so many 
Augusti, making them as one, how 
many census have been formed ! how 
many people purified ! how many ranks 
pnnobled ! how manv barbarians driven 



out ! Of a truth, the world, that mos i 
cultivated demesne of this Empire, all 
the aconite of hostility having been 
rooted out, with the cactus and bram- 
bles of treacherous intimacy, is adorned 
and agreeable above the orchards of 
Alcinous, or the rose-gardens of Midas," 
c. 2. The chief events alluded to, seem 
to have been the suppression of the 
revolt of Niger, the victories over the 
Arabians, Parthians, Adiabenians, the 
capture of Byzantium. The three Au- 
gusti, Severus, Antoninus Caracalla, 
and Albinus. The only other date 
would be two years later, when after 
the revolt and death of Albinus, Geta 
was made Csesar ; but they of whom T. 
speaks were three Augusti, Geta was 
not entitled Augustus until A. 208. 
This is subsequent to the date of some 
of T.'s Apologetic writings. (Pamelius 
and Scaliger agree in the above.) 

^ The date (as it seems) of the de 
Corona, (see notice, below, p. 158.) 
He was certainly a Montanist in A.D. 
207. the date of the first book against 
Marcion. In the fifteenth year of Se- 
verus." (c. 15.) 

' S. Jerome above. 

" Tillemont (Note 3. sur TertuUien) 
on this ground infers that T. wrote these 
Treatises in the interval between his 
conversion and his ordination. In the 
absence of any marks of their precise 
date, the assumption cannot be dis- 
proved. 



PREFACE. li, 

tenor of the two books implies that he was living in the ordinary 
course of married life. Previous to his conversion, he seems 
to have been engaged in the practice of the law", his accurate 
acquaintance with which Eusebius has occasion distinctly to 
specify"; on his conversion he abandoned it^, and in the 
interval before his secession, was admitted to the Priesthood''. 
In this short interval, besides the works belonging to it now 
extant, he " detected, and as it seemed uprooted, the heresy 
of Praxeas," which had spread to Carthage, and brought 
Praxeas himself to sign a formal, though, it subsequently ap- 
peared, a hypocritical recantation, which was preserved in the 
Church ^ In the same period probably he wrote two treatises 
against Marcion, the first a sketch, the second a fuller work, 
lost through the treachery of an apostate Catholic '. A later 
author* mentions that he had " practised Rhetoric at Carthage 
for many years, with much distinction," and this is perhaps 
borne out by the very varied character of his learning ". An 
early work of his is also mentioned by S. Jerome ", written as 



° The passage, quoted by Pameliua, 
(de Pallio, c. 6.) does not directly 
prove this ; for it is spoken by the 
Pallium personified • it relates to other 



offices, judicial 2l\l ^litary, (" non 
judico, non milito/y, ^id declares that 
they which wore itha'u abandoned public 
life altogether. (" I have gone aloof 
from the people. My only business is 
within myself.") Yet, doubtless T. had 
reference to himself also, and the great 
prominence given to the law in the de- 
scription makes it probable that he was 
previously engaged in it. 

o H. E. ii. 2. " Tertullian, a man 
accurately acquainted with the Roman 
laws, and in other respects distin- 
guished, and among those in great 
repute at Rome." This is said on 
occasion of the history of Tiberius' 
proposal to rank our Lord among the 
deities of Rome. 

P de Pallio 1. c. 

q S. Jerome above. The way in 
which in the de An. c 9 he distin- 
guishes himself from the people, implies 
plainly that he was a priest. In the 
de Monog. c. 12. and the de Exh. Cast. 
c. 7. in which he includes himself among 



the laity, he must be speaking communi- 
cative. 

»• adv. Prax. c. 1. 

'^ adv. Marc. i. 1. 

' Trithemius Abbas, de Script. Eccl. 

" Especially in the Apology and the 
de Corona. Yet in the de Idol. c. 4. 
p. 224. he speaks of the weakness of 
his memory. 

^ adv. Jov. i. 7. " Here would be 
the place to descant on the straits of 
marriage, and to give full play to the 
language of Rhetoricians in their com- 
mon-places. Certainly Tertullian also, 
when yet young, disported in this sub- 
ject," and Ep. 22. ad Eustoch. §. 22. 
" Would you know from how many 
troubles the unmarried is free, by how- 
many the wife beset, you may read 
'Tertullian to a philosophic friend.'" 
Baronius, A. 197. §• 14. supposes that 
Tertullian was already a Christian, 
since S. Jerome in this very Epistle 
and elsewhere dissuades from reading 
Heathen writings. But this seems 
almost too large an inference, knowing, 
as we do, nothing of the circumstances 
of his conversion. Tertullian speaks of 
his own adult, but heathen, sins, (see 



b 2 



IV 



PREFACE. 



an exercise after the manner of Rhetoiicians. The greater 
part of his hfe was spent at Carthage, for although he mentions 
incidentally his having been at Rome % the chief allusions in 
his writings are Carthaginian'; the small sect which bore his 
name, lingered on, until S. Augustine's time, in Carthage \ 

Of his mental qualities, the Ancient Church seems to have 
been much impressed with his acuteness, energy, learning, 
and eloquence''; what we have left, are apparently but a 
small portion of the great number of w^orks which he com- 
posed ; and these indicate no ordinary fertiUty of mind, in 
that he so little repeats himself, or recurs to favourite 
thoughts, as is so frequently the case even with the great 
St. Augustine. His character of mind is thus vividly described 
by Vincentius ^: "As Origen among the Greeks, so is Tertullian 
among the Latins to be accounted far the first of all our 
writers. For who was more learned than he .? Who in 
divinity or humanity more practised } for by a certain 
wonderful capacity of mind, he attained to, and understood, 
all philosophy, all the sects of philosophers, all their founders 
and supporters, all their systems, all sorts of histories and 
studies. And for his wit, was he not so excellent, so grave, 
so forcible, that he almost undertook the overthrow of nothing, 
which either by quickness of wit or weight of reason he 
crushed not ? Further, who is able to express the praises 
which his style of speech deserves, which is fraught (I know 
not how) with tliat force of reason, that such as it cannot 
persuade, it compels to assent : whose so many words almost 
are so many sentences ; whose so many senses, so many 
victories. This know Marcion and Apelles, Praxeas and 
Hermogenes, Jews, Gentiles, Gnostics, and divers others: 

ab. not. d.) It seems m6re probable " S. Aug. de Hser. 

that he was not converted until middle b '' What more learned than Ter- 

age. Like S. Augustine, he may have tuUian? what more acute?" S.Jerome, 

long been lingering on the borders of Ep. 60. ad Magn. $. 5. " Tertullian of 

Christianity. ^ vrhom many Treatises, w^ritten most elo- 

y dc Cult. Fem. i. 7. quently, are commonly read." S. Aug. 

' In the de Palho, c. I. the Apology, de Har. " He published most eloquent 

c. 9. 46. fin. ad Scap. c. 3. ad Ux. i. 6. and fervid Treatises in defence of the 

de Prspscr. c. 36. adv. Marc. iv. 5. de truth." Auct. de Har. 

Key. Carni, c. 46. Soorp. c. 6. c e. 18. p. 54. Oxf. Tr. 



PREFACE. T 

whose blasphemous opinions he hath overthrown with his 
many and great volumes, as it had been with thunderbolts. 
And yet this man after all this, this Tertullian, I say, not 
holding the Catholic doctrine, that is, the universal and old 
faith, being far more eloquent than faithful, changmg after- 
wards his mind, at last did that which the blessed confessor 
Hilary in a certain place writeth of him ; * He discredited 
(quoth he) with his later error his worthy wi'itings :' and he 
also was a great temptation in the Church. But hereof I 
would not say more; only this I will add, that by his 
defending, against the precept of Moses, for true prophecies 
the new madness of Montanus springing up in the Church, 
and those mad dreams about new doctrine of frantic women, 
he deserved that we should also say of him and his writings, 
^ If a prophet shall rise up in the midst of thee,' and straight 
after, ' thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet.' Why 
so } * Because (quoth he) your Lord God doth tempt you, 
whether you love Him or no.' " 

. It is then the more strange, though the more solemn 
warning, that such an one, so gifted, so honoured, should not 
only have fallen into heresy, but into one, which would seem 
to have such little temptation; that he, who had seen his 
way clearly amid so much eiTor, should have fallen, where 
there was so little apparently to attract, so much to repel. 
For it came not in a state of relaxed discipline, as in these 
latter days, when one might readily suppose that a mind 
ardent as Tertullian's might be led by the appearance of 
holiness, amid the degeneracy of the Church ; he had not 
to advocate fasting when neglected or discountenanced, or 
the restoration of discipline, when sins the most grievous 
passed unnoticed. Tertullian himself even insists upon the 
slight difference between the Montanist fasts and those 
of the Church''; he does not even complain that the 



^ de Jejun. c. 15. " How very slight Sabbaths and Lord's Days being ex- 

among us is the prohibition of meats ! cepted, abstaining too from things, 

two weeks of dry -food do we offer unto which we do not reject bnt defer 

God, and those too not entire, the only." 



Ti PREFACE. 

Church discountenanced their optional use, but that she 
objected to their being imposed of necessity *= ; the picture 
which he himself gives of the penitence publicly imposed'^, 
and the nature of the offences which were visited by excom- 
munication, certainly imply no relaxation of discipline ; nor 
does it appear clearly that the Montanists followed out their 
own principles, so as to exclude all guilty of mortal sin from 
reconciliation with the Church. The only cases which he 
presses are sins of the flesh ^ Again, how few comparatively 
the cases of second marriages at all times, and then the 
widowed state which the Montanists would enforce was 
held in honour by the Church. Yet this slight increase in 
fasting, the prohibition of second marriages, the extension of 
a discipline already strict, and the denial of the right to flee 
in persecution, were the only outward temptations to forsake 
the Church. On the other hand, they for whom he forsook 
it, had early the reputation of " making a gain of godliness," 
systematically levying money on their followers, under the 
character of Oblations, and that even on the poor, the 
orphans, and the widows, and of other acts of luxury, pomp, 
avarice, dissipation ^ Tertullian himself also joined them 



' ib. c. 13. " Ye answer that these prophets have not received presents, 
things are to be done by choice, not by let them acknowledge this, that if con- 
command." victed of having received them, they 
de P^njt* c. 9. 11. see below, are no prophets; and then we will 
p. 364, 5. 367. bring proofs innumerable that they have 

« de Pudic. c. 19. 21. He declares received them. And since all the' fruits 

them unpardonable as being <' sins unto of a prophet must needs be put to the 

death." (1 John 5, 16.) " You have no test, tell me, does a prophet dye his 

choice left, but either to deny that adul- hair ? does a prophet blacken his eye- 

tery and fornication are mortal sins, or to brow.s? is a prophet fond of dress .f> 

confess that they are irremissible ; for does a prophet play with tables and 

which It IS not even permitted to pray." dice? does a prophet lend on usury.» 

He does not however specify other let them confess whether these things 

mortal sin. are lawful or not: and that the) have 

* ApoUoniuSjWhowroteabout A.211. taken place with them I will prove." 

ap. Eus. V. 18. says, " But who is this And of Priscilla and MaximiUa. '' We 

upstart teacher [Montanus]? His deeds shew then that these very first pro- 

and teaching shew one It was he phetesses from the time that they were 

who appointed people to levy money, filled with the Spirit, left their hus- 

who under the name of offerings devised bands." '< Thinkest thou not that 

the new way of getting bribes, who all Scripture forbids a prophet to re- 

supphes salaries to those that preach ceive giffs or money .? When then I 

his doctrine, that by gluttony the see that a prophetess has received both 

teaching of that doctrine may gain gold and silver and costly apparel, how 



Bupport." '• If they maintain that their shall I do else than reject her 



PREFACE. vii 

for a while only, and then rejected the authority of the 
founders of the sect^ notwithstanding that he seems to 
have put forward, to himself, the external authority of the 
spiritual gifts claimed by the Montanists, not the substance 
of their doctrine, as the ground of his secession*', and so long 
regarded the revelations they claimed, as the inspiration of 
the Holy Ghost. Yet, we know not on what ground, retain- 
ing those points of discipline, which had probably originally 
recommended themselves to him, he separated from the Mon- 
tanists, and formed a small local communion of his own'. If 
also, as seems probable, the Adversus omnes ha3reses be his, 
he had himself been alive to the blasphemies circulated 
among some sections of them; and we have external 
testimony, that he at the first wrote against them''. His 
strong perception also of the validity of the " rule of faith," 
or, as is now said, " Catholic truth," as a definite substantial 
body of truth not to be departed from ; his own well-recognised 
maxim that what was prior was Apostolic, that innovations 
branded themselves, as being such; his strong recognition of 
the Church, as the depository of Apostolic tradition ; — would 
have seemed strong safeguards against his falling into error, 
and declaring against the Church \ 

In the absence of fuller information, the source of that 
strange and lamentable fall can only be conjectured. Some- 
thing there may have been in Montanism, at the outset, more 
attractive than it now seems, when laid bare. Heresy, like 
all other sin, is attractive in the present, revolting when 
past, and the mask turned. Something there must have 



g " He discharged from him all the lusion to the adv. omn.Hser. ; possibly, 

idle pretence of Phrygia, and formed however, (as Tillemont perhaps means 

conventicles of Tertullianists. But in to suggest, art. 9.) it only signifies that 

doctrine he changed nothing." Prsedest. he '' overthrew" them by teaching the 

h " Ourselves, after that time, the truths opposed to their errors, the law- 
recognition and maintaining of the fulness of second marriage, (ad Ux. ii. 
Paraclete separated from the Carnal." 1. i. 3. de Pat. c. 13.) of flight in per- 
adv. Prax. c. 1. secution, (ad Ux. i. 3. de Pat. 1. c.) of 

» S. Aug. de Hseres. the Church's right to remit all mortal 

•^ S. Aug. de Hser. " passing over to sin, (de Pcen. c. 7.) 

the Cataphrygas whom he had before » See the de Prascr. and notice 

overthrown." This seems to be an al- below, p. 434, 5. 



/^' 



riii PREFACE. 

been, since even a Bishop of Rome " was on the point of 
acknowledging the prophecies of Montanus, Prisca, and 
Maximilla, even when they had been condemned by his 
predecessors, and by the Asiatic Churches; and actually 
restored communion with them. They seem also in a very 
short time to have found adherents in the parls of the world 
the most distant", and some even among those ready to 
endure martyrdom". It may be that at first they did not 
declare against the Church, and seemed only reformers within 
her''. The very rule of TertuUian may also have been, in 
some degree, the means of ensnaring him, both by leading 
him to a false security, and, in its application, fixing his 
mind exclusively on greater deviations from the Faith. For, 
if one may so judge of one so highly endowed, Tertullian's 
mind seems remarkable rather for its great acuteness, power, 
condensed strength, energy, than for its comprehensiveness. 
His characteristic seems to be the vivid and strong perception 
and exhibition of single truths or principles. These he 
exhausts, bares them of every thing extrinsic to them, and then 
casts them forth the sharper and the more penetrating. They 
seem to flash on his mind like lightning, and to go forth with 
its rapidity and clearness. As in the well-known description, 
" he flashed, he thundered, he shook Greece." But single 
powers of mind, the more vividly they are possessed and 
developed, the more, generally, do they impair the even 

° adv. Prax. c. 1. Episcopum Ro- them by Serapion Bp. of Antioch, 
manum, agnoscentem jam prophetias (Eus. H. E. v. 19.) and by the martyrs 
Miintani, Priscse, Maximillse, et ex ea of Lyons, (ib. v. 3.) as also from Ter- 
agnitione pacem Ecelesiis Asiso et tullian. Iheir subsequent extent is 
Phrygiae infereutem, falsa de ipsis pro- indicated by the frequent notice of them 
pbetis et Ecelesiis eorum adseverando, in the decisions on heretical Baptism, 
et prsecessorura ejus auctoritates de- (see above, Note G. on the de Bapt. 
fendendo, coegitetliteraspacisrevocare p.284,&c.)andthestatementinSozomen. 
jam emissas, et a proposito recipiendo- (ii. 32.) that they suflered by Con- 
rum charismatum concessare. stantine's laws against heretics except 

" They seem even to have displaced in Phrygia and the neighbouring pro- 

the Church in thrygia, (S. Hil. ad vinces, where from the time of Montanus 

Const, ii. §. 9.) in Thyatira, (Epiph. they had existed in great numbers, 

Hser. 51. c. 53.) Their early extent (Tillem. 1. c.) 

may also be perhaps inferred from the " ad Mart. c. 1. p. 151. and note c. 
notice of them in S. Clem. Alex. Strom. P They were excommunicated in 

vii. c. xvii. p. 900. the frequent mention Asia, did not separate themselves from 

of them in Origen, (see Tillemont, art. the Church, and would gladly have 

13.) from the letter written against been restored, see note m. 



PREFACE. ix 

balance of the whole. Men's very excellences, lest they 
forget their humility and " be as gods," are often purchased 
at the expense of other endowments. It is with God Alone 
to possess all things perfectly. Thus we see how strength 
of memory and learning are mostly bought by forfeiture of 
originality or even judgment ; inventiveness by want of pre- 
cision; imaginativeness by absence of accuracy in reasoning; 
clearness by want of depth ; what lies deep struggles to the 
surface, yet cannot reach it ; contemplativeness and practical 
wisdom are severed ; and so on. In this way the very 
intensity with which Tertullian's mind grasped single truths 
may have the rather hindered him from seeing their bearings 
upon other truth. While gazing intently upon one object, 
a person cannot for the time see others which surround it, or, 
at most, is only indistinctly conscious of their presence. On 
each occasion TertulHan seems to be wholly taken up with, 
and immersed in, the one truth which he is contemplating; 
and to see other things as they bear upon it, rather than its 
bearings upon others. It seems for the time the centre, 
around which his thoughts are revolving. This habit was 
perhaps augmented by his previous profession. To this 
habit of mind perhaps belong his frequent argumenta ad 
hominem ; they stop the mouth of an adversary, and with 
this he seems for the time content ; whether he have main- 
tained his position or silenced an adversary seems to him 
indifferenf^. One seems to see the habits of a mind, accustomed 
to bend all its energies to make out its case, — not, of course now, 
as in Heathenism and on secular subjects, irrespectively of 
truth or falsehood, — yet, even the more,because fully persuaded 
of the truth of what it advocates, seizing whatever will fortify its 
position, without fully considering whether it may not thereby be 
dismantling some other post, and pressing into its service what 
really does not belong thither. On different occasions, he seems 
to look on the same truth upon opposite sides, and each time 

1 It is perhaps out of reverence that (A pel. o. 16.) or the Sun because they 
he thus coutents himself with retorting prayed towards the East, Cib.) 
the charge of worshipping the Crosj:, 



X PREFACE. 

exclusively, so that from the different point of view, its form 
seems not only different, but inconsistent and contradictory. 
He seems at no pains to guard or qualify his statements 
either to his own mind or that of others ; rather he exhibits 
them unqualified, as being more effective. As an instance of 
this sort, it has been noticed in the body of the work, how he 
represents the end of the world, on different occasions, as 
the object exclusively of hope or fear, so that persons must 
needs pray for it or against it, long for its coming or its 
delay ^ 

One form in which this habit of mind shewed itself was his 
very mode of employing his wonted test of heresy — the "rule of 
faith." The " rule of faith" or body of Apostolic teaching 
committed to the Church, and concentrated in the Creeds, 
is as a whole inviolable, either by the Church or by in- 
dividuals. What has been " delivered once for all" must in 
its minutest details remain to the end. What is really 
Apostolical, admits neither of increase nor diminution, with- 
out blame. Other things may be true so that they contradict 
it not, but they cannot form part of it, nor may be ranked 
with it, because they did not originally belong to it; and 
what did once belong to it, must, of course, to the end remain 
a part of it. The doctrine of the Millennium may be true, but 
cannot be part of that body of truth, because it was not so 
at the first; the Roman doctrine of Purgatory cannot be 
true, because it is at variance with the Apostolical tradition 
of Paradise and a state of rest for those departed in the faith 
and fear of Christ; the value of almsdeeds or fasting, how- 
e\^er of late disparaged, must continue a part of Catholic 
truth, because it was such. But Tertullian's view of 
the " rule of faith" seems to have been narrowed by his 
exclusive consideration of those, to refute whose errors he 
applied it. These were such as violated it in very gross 
cases, denying the Creator of the world or the resurrection 
of the flesh. Against these he urged vividly the extent of 
their departure from the Apostolic rule, as using the Scriptures 

' Apol. c. :n. p. -21. note u. 



PREFACE. xi 

of God, but denying the God Whose they were; pre- 
supposing that, until themselves taught, Christians had not 
known. Who that Christ was. Whose Name they boreV 
But in this way, he seems to have habituated himself to 
regard Apostolic tradition as identical with the " rule of 
faith" or the Creed, so that what did not contradict this, 
might, although held by the whole Church, be contradicted 
or corrected. This he lays down after the summary of the 
Apostles' Creed, which he gives as a Montanist*. " This 
law of faith remaining, all other matters of faith and con- 
versation admit of the novelty of correciioii, the grace of 
God namely working and advancing, unto the end. For 
what a thing were it, that whereas the devil ever worketh 
and daily addeth to the inventions of iniquity, the work of 
God should either have ceased, or failed to advance !" and, 
again", he represents the Montanists as aggrieved, because 
blamed for new doctrines which did not touch on these 
points. " These raise disputes against the Paraclete ; for this 
are the new prophecies rejected, not because Montanus and 
Priscilla and Maximilla preach another God, or annul Christ 
Jesus, or overthrow any rule of faith or hope, but because 
they teach to fast oftener than to marry;" and, elsewhere % he 
distinctly lays down that no change in discipline can be 
heretical, except it flow from heresy in doctrine. " They 
reproach the discipline of single-mamage as a heresy. 
Nor are they reduced to deny the Paraclete so much on any 
ground, as that they think He is the Framer of a new 
discipline, and that most burdensome to them" — and then 

* de Prcescr. c. 29. then does it command duties to our 

* de Virg. vel. c. 1. see more below God, to be oftered to none but our 
in Notice on " Prescription against God ? Either maintain that the devil 
Heretics," p. 434. takes part with our God, or be Satan 

" de Jej. c. 1. add c. 11. '' Un- accounted the Paraclete." 

doubtedly heresy and false-prophecy "" de Monog. c. 2. see further p. 434. 

will among us, who are all ministers and init. where he distinguishes the 1) 

[antistitesfofOneGod, the Creator, and Catholics, 2) Montanists, 3) heretics, 

of His Christ, be judged such by dif- " The heretics take away, the Carnal 

faring as to the Godhead, and therefore I heap up marriages. — But among us, 

maintain this position unconcerned, whom the recognising of spiritual gifts 

leaving them to choose their own point rightly causes to be termed ' spi- 

of attack. Thou sayest, carnal one, ritual — 
' it is the spirit of the devil.' How 



xii PREFACE. 

having put the question quoted already, he objects to himself, 
" * In this way of arguing,' sayest thou, * any thing however 
novel and burdensome may be ascribed to the Paraclete, 
although it be from the opposing spirit.' Not so. For the 
opposing spirit would discover himself from the difference of 
teaching, first adulterating the rule of faith, and then adul- 
terating the order of discipline, because that must first be 
corrupted, which precedes in order, i. e. faith as going before 
discipline. A person must first be a heretic as to God, and 
then as to the institute of God." There may be truth in this 
observation of Tertullian, so far that, (could it be traced,) prac- 
tical heresy always implies doctrinal ; but his theory implies 
yet further, that unless the doctrinal heresy can be shewn, the 
received tradition as to Apostolic practice may not only be 
modified by the Church on grounds of expediency, but may 
on private revelation be con'ected as erroneous. Single- 
marriage was, according to the Montanists, not only an 
ordinance which might be imposed by the Church, restricting 
Christian liberty, but a point of faith ; so that second-marriage 
was not only a less excellent way, but was adultery ; a change 
analogous to that in the Council of Trent, which not only im- 
posed the necessity of private confession, but declared it to be 
de fide, that all mortal sins, even of thought, must be confessed. 
In this way, Tertullian facilitated his fall ; but its primary 
source, from within as from without, appears to have been 
the failing, over which he himself mourns, impatience. 
St. Jerome hints at this in the external circumstances, when 
he says^, that he " was by the envy and contumelious 
treatment of the Roman Clergy driven to embrace the 
opinions of Montanus." Internally, he seems to have been 
irritated at the refusal of the Church to recognise the spiritual 
claims of the Montanists, and what he deemed the mani- 
festation of the Paraclete. He seems to have regarded it as 
a rejection of the Spirit', and to have thought himself com- 

T See above, p. i. the recognition and maintaining of the 
» " On no other ground, are they Paraclete separated us from the Car- 
compelled so much to deny the Para- nal." adv. Prax. c. ]. 
clete." de Monog. c. 2. " Subsequently 



PREFACE. xiii 

pelled to remain outwardly separated from the body which 
so rejected It. Yet he may have persuaded himself that, the 
faith remaining entire, though visibly divided, they remained 
invisibly one Church, even as the several portions of the 
Church, whose communion is interrupted. Eastern, Western, 
our own, now do, — only that in the case of Tertullian, it was 
not merely a misunderstanding between Churches, each 
having the Apostolic constitution and succession, but the 
formation of a sect de novo, opposed to the Church. This 
at least seems the most natural meaning of a passage written 
by him as a Montanist, when, speaking of the agreement of the 
Eastern and Western Churches, he includes himself in the 
Western ". He may also in part have been carried away by his 
sympathies with an individual, Proculus, whose continency 
and eloquence he admired^. But the difference of his tone 
in and out of the Church, the remarkable expressions of deep 
self-abasement on many occasions, w^hile within it, the arro- 
gant and self-confident language after his secession % the calm 
and subdued tone, prevalent in the former, the irritated and 
impatient temper, visible in the latter period, seem to imply 
some moral fault, which his secession carried out into 

* " In Greece and some barbarous thou dividest the body." de Virg. vel. 

nations belonging toher, many Churches c. 2. 

keep their virgins concealed. This ^ " as Justin, Philosopher and Mar- 
same practice exists also in some parts tyr, Miltiades, Philosopher of the 
in these climates; that persons may Church, Irenseus, most careful ex- 
not ascribe that custom to Greek or arainer of all doctrine, our Proculus, of 
Barbarian heathenism. But I have virgin old-age and the glory of Chris- 
set before them Churches, [the Grecian] tian eloquence, all of whom (quos) I 
which the Apostles themselves or Apo- should wish to follow in every work of 
stolic men have founded, and I suppose the faith, as in this." adv. Val. c. 5. 
before certain [the Roman]. They This, however, does not imply any 
then also have the same authority of special preference for Proculus, (as 
custom; they oppose periods [of oh- Tillemont implies, Tertull. art. 8.) 
servance] and [practice of] predeces- although it is probable that he was the 
sors, more than those later. Which same as Proclus or Proculus the Moa- 
shall we observe ? which choose ? We tanist, as is thought by Baronius, 201. 
cannot reject that custom, which we §. 10. Tillemont 1. c. and Note 15. 
cannot condemn, not being alien, as <= S. Augustine seeips to refer to this 
not of aliens, inasmuch as we share changed tone where he says, (de bon. 
[communicamus] with them the rights vid. c. 4. §. 6.) " The Cataphrygian 
of peace and the name of brotherhood, and Novatian heresies, which Tertul- 
[comp. de Prsescr. c. 20.] We and they lian also filled out with swelling cheeks 
have one faith, One God, the Same not with wisdom's breath, cutting off, 
Christ, the same hope, the same sacra- as unlawful, with contumelious speech, 
ments of Baptism. (Eph. 4, 5.) To say second marriages, which the Apostle, 
all at once, we are one Church. So with calm judgment, concedes lo be 
then whatever is of ours, is ours. But wholly lawful." 



xiv PREFACE. 

action, and, as do decisive acts, fixed. A painful analogy has, 
before our own eyes, been furnished by the change of temper, 
and, as one should fear, judicial blindness, which secession 
from our own Church has, in some saddening cases, brought 
over persons' minds. Any way, it is a solemn warning, 
that one, who had possessed himself of a rule of faith against 
heresy, or, as we should say, of Cathohc truth, should, probably 
the rather through no unnatural misapplication of that rule, 
be betrayed into heresy; that the most powerful mind 
perhaps of antiquity should be ensnared by a heresy, in- 
tellectually the least attractive ; that a heresy, which soon 
shewed the characteristic of heresy, (as Tertullian himself 
had pointed out%) in dividing into lesser sects'', and which 
at no time numbered any eminent persons within it, should 
have been reserved to ensnare one, who was in other points on 
his guard, and but for this would have been a chief defender of 
the faith and Doctor in the Church ; that, as far as it seems, 
one single uncorrected fault should have been the chief in- 
strument of his fall. " The more," says Tillemont% " Tertul- 
lian seems to have been removed from the vices of men, the 
more reason had he to dread falling into those of devils," [pride 
and impatience, see de pat. c. 5.] Of a truth, the "deceivable- 
ness" of Satan and his cunning in adapting his snares, in 
doctrine as in life, to each man's peculiar temperament 
and failings, seem far greater than they probably suspect, 
who in these days fear it most. The fall of Tertullian was 
the one great triumph of Montanism. The warning seems to 
come the more providentially in an age, which on the one 
hand is so recklessly careless as to heresy on the highest 
doctrines, as though it were as difficult to fall into it, as the 
Church in the first ages, which knew what those doctrines 
were, found it to guard men against it ; on the other hand, 
patience seems, in many ways, the grace which God is 
especially forming in our Church, which they who keep will 
abide, they who lose will be driven away. Instructive is it, 



a de prsescr. c 42. bel. p. 477. Hsr. 48. c. 14. 49. 

^ adv. omn. h»r. c. 52. S. Epiph. ^ Tertull. art. 8. 



PREFACE. xv 

again, in another way, to observe how nearly Tertiillian, on 
other doctrine, was betrayed into heresy, while defending the 
truth ; how, contending against the heretic Praxeas, he so 
expressed himself, as to fall into suspicion of heresy, even on 
the doctrine of the Trinity, though indeed sound ; proving 
against Plato, that the soul has a beginning, he narrowly 
escaped materialism, and the doctrine of transmigi-ation of the 
soul^; arguing against those who denied Baptism, he so 
wrote, as to seem to deny original sin ^ 

To the right use of Tertullian, then, more care and judg- 
ment are required than for other fathers. His testimony to 
facts and doctrines, to the rites of the Church, is, of course, 
always of the highest value. Tn these respects he is of value 
even when writing against the Church, whereby some of his 
statements are elicited. Nor, in other respects, will any 
question his great instructiveness, whom S. Cyprian entitled 
his " Master." Still he requires a mature judgment ; and it 
is on this account, perhaps, that his influence upon the 
Church has rather been mediated through those whose 
minds were formed by his writings, than direct. Among 
these, we may count not S. Cyprian only, but Pacian and 
S. Jerome, in both of whom the sayings of Tertullian 
re-appear in a form, which shew how great an influence his 
writings must have had upon them. The more, however, 
this mediate influence increased, and his writings moulded 
other minds within the Church, the more did the apparent 
necessity for them cease, and the oflice once assigned them was 
suspended. The rareness of MSS. of his works, with the 
single exception of the Apologj^, (and even these are in no great 
number,) illustrates what S. Hilary ^ says on his Treatise on 
Prayer, that it was indeed " excellently to the pui-pose, but 
that the subsequent error of the man had taken from the 
authority even of what he had written well." And this, not 
without reason ; for the maxims of Tertullian are often so 



<l *' Some object to Tertullian, that of soul as body of bodies." Prsedest. 
he said that the soul came by trans- « ggeon thedeBapt.c. 18. p.277. n.o. 
mission, i. e. that soul was generated ^ in Matt. cap. 6. 



xvi PREFACE. 

fascinating from their very condensation, as readily to gain 
admission although involving unperceived consequences. 
Thus even S. Jerome admits the maxim, that what a man 
hath received, that he may impart S which, although it may, 
in cases of necessity, apply to the immediate subject, Holy 
Baptism, would equally justify presbyterian ordniation. In 
other instances, it is observable how Tertullian, as a Monta- 
nist, misapplies the principles which were perhaps just safe 
in a Catholic sense, as that " Three formed a Church ;" again, 
the maxim of the undeservedness of repentance becomes a 
ground why it should not be believed to be bestowed». 
Even on the ground of the evident maxim, that priority was 
in some sense the test of truth, since what was first in order 
would be truth, what was added subsequently was the error, 
he at least lightly hints that the Greek Church was more to 
be relied upon than the Roman, as being the prior ""j whereas 
both were Apostolic. 

Since, then, the abuse of Tertullian lies so very near the 
use, the young especially should be cautfoned, how they use 
or apply his maxims, and that they apply them not according 
to any private judgment. With this caution, however, it was 
thought that the energy and fervor of Tertullian might have 
their office in a relaxed age ; and that the more, since our 
dangers do not lie in the same direction. And with this 
caution he should be read for edification also, since it were 
manifestly a perverted use of any Christian writer to read 
him (as some seem to do) merely as bearing testimony to facts 
or doctrines, to the disregard of the moral effect which he 
ought to have upon our own minds. 

The Treatises in the present Volume, with the exception 
of the de Corona, have no traces of Montanism ; all the rest 
were also written probably before Tertullian's fall, (see 
Notices to each,) except the " address to Scapula," which 
furnishes no occasion for any allusion either way. 

e See on the de Bapt. c. 17. p. 275. * comp. de Poen. c. 7. and de Pudic. 
not. d. p. 10. 

h Cpg ^f. Bapt. c. t>. p. •2HH, not. p. ^ de Virg. Vel. quoted above, p. xiii. 



PREFACE. xvii 

With respect to the execution of the present work, the 
Editor found reason to adhere for the most part to the text 
of Rigaltius; the text accordingly, where not otherwise speci- 
fied, is his. The previous Editions and most existing MSS. 
have, however, been collated, and where Rigaltius made 
alterations on mere conjecture, the older text has been 
restored. It was intended that the present text should rest 
entirely upon authority. One exception, however, was un- 
avoidable. This relates to the readings, published by 
Wouwer, under the title, " Emendationes Epidicticse in 
Tertullianum," as having been taken fi*om ancient MSS. by 
F. Ursinus. These Rigaltius much relied upon and adopted 
into his text, there being no apparent gi'ound to doubt their 
genuineness. M. Heyse, however, after searching in vain 
in the Vatican, at the request of the Editor, for the more 
ancient MSS. which F. Ursinus is said to have used, with 
a happy ingenuity discovered at last the oiiginal, from which 
Wouwer had printed his Emendationes. From this it 
appeared that they were never intended for any thing else 
than conjectural emendations, except here and there, where 
a MS. was quoted. They are then only ingenious con- 
jectures of a good critic, often very probable, at other times 
mistaken, as applying classical criticism to TertuUian. This 
was not discovered until the treatise "on Idolatry" (p. 252.) 
had been printed ; in the subsequent treatises, the use of 
these coiTections was relinquished ; and certainly in the case 
of these, as of other conjectures, readings which one 
should at first be inclined to lay aside as desperate, have 
seemed to the Editor to have more of the character of 
TertuUian, than what at first sight seemed very preferable. 
And this may be satisfactory amid the great dearth of MSS. 
of TertulHan, that as little can bs done for rendering the 
text easier, so less is probably required than would at first 
sight appear to be the case. 

The object of the Translator has been to transfuse as 
faithfully as possible the whole and the precise meaning of 
the original : a task, as all know who arc acquainted with 

c 



xviii PREFACE. 

Tertullian, of exceeding difficulty, and in executing which 
the Translator has often sacrificed his own ideas of English 
style. Faithfulness and a conciseness which might follow as 
nearly on the condensed style of Tertullian, as the genius of 
the two languages would permit, appeared a prior object ; 
and the Editor cannot but hope that the work will thus become 
a good introduction to the study of the Author in the original, 
the very austerity and stem conciseness of whose style binds 
yet more to him those not deterred by its first exterior. With 
the same view of faithfully representing the original, the 
quotations from Holy Scripture have been rendered as they 
stand in Tertullian's version. The Translator has purposely 
abstained from the use of any previous translation, in order 
to give his own view of the meaning unbiassed. Of these, 
the translation of the Apology by the Rev. T. Chevallier 
might, from its elegance, almost have superseded any other ; 
yet, in exhibiting together the chief works of Tertullian, it did 
not seem right to omit what has been the most celebrated and 
the most popular. Of his other Treatises, the book of " pre- 
scription against heretics" and " the address to Scapula" alone 
(the Editor believes) have been hitherto translated into English. 
The notes (for vv^hich, as for the alterations in the text of 
Rigaltius, the immediate Editor is alone responsible) have been 
added more largely, partly, as once before, on account of 
the copious materials ready to hand in the collections of 
Pamelius and La Cerda, and, on the Apology, of Havercamp, 
partly on account of the allusive style of Tertullian, and to 
strengthen his authority as not making allusions at random ; 
again, partly to defend his statements, partly to guard against 
their abuse. In so doing, the Editor has freely used the 
existing materials, only verifying the references, (for aid in 
which on the Apology the Editor has to express his thanks 
to the Rev. J. B. Morris, Fellow of Exeter, to whom he is 
indebted for the Index, and the Rev. T. Morris, Student of 
Christ Church,) and since it would have been wearisome to 
note on every occasion the source or sources from which 
references were derived, these have mostly been omitted. 



preface: xix 

Thus guarded, it is hoped that the present volume, the 
first in which any number of the Treatises of Tertullian have 
been made accessible to English readers, may tend, under 
God's blessing, to form in them the earlier rather than the 
later character of that great mind, his sternness against self, 
and " boldness in rebuking sin," his uncompromising ad- 
herence to the lightest admonition of God's law, and ready 
submission of his will, at whatever cost, so that his very fall 
was in misdirected submission to an authority without him ; 

And Cyprian's Master, as in age high-soul'd 
Yet choosing as in youth the better part', 

may act alike as a fire to kindle, a light to guide, and a 
beacon to warn against what he now, his slough cast away, 
would most wish to warn, his own errors and the tempers in 
which they originated. So may the scandal caused by his fall 
be compensated, and he, with the rest of the holy company, 
from whom on earth he was disunited, be employed in 
*' preparing" for the coming of his Lord, for Whom he looked 
so ardently, '' by the preaching of repentance'"" in holy 
austerity and self-discipline. 

E. B. P. 



Feast of St. John the Baptist, 

1842. 



Lyra Apostolica, No. 91. ■» Collect for i^t. John Baptist's Day. 




THEOLOC 



BOOK OF APOLOGY 

AGAINST 

THE HEATHEN. 



[The Apology was written probably A.D. 198. It was under Severus, because under 
one of the better Emperors (c. v. p. 13.) before he became a persecutor, (ib. and 
T. praises him e. 4.) and as the result of old laws, (c. 2 — 4.) i. e. before A. 202 ; 
after the conspiracy of Albinus (c. 35.) A.D. 396, 7., while the remains of the 
conspirators were being gleanedup, public rejoicings held at Rome, and a largess 
given, (ib.) as did Severus, upon his victory over Albinus, A. 198. (Herodian, 
Hist. iii. 8.) upon which he set out on the w^ar against the Parthians (Spartian. 
in Sever, c. 14.) alluded to, probably, c. 37. (see Mosheim Disq. de a>t. Apol.) 
Lumper, (Hist. S. Patr. t. vi. c. 1. §. 16.) places it A. 199, imagining the 
" gleaning" c. 25. to be that of the adherents of Niger. S. Clement Al. 
mentions " copious streams of the blood of martyrs shed daily," at the same 
time, before the edict of Severus, (Strom, ii. p. 494.) another proof that the 
sufferings of the early Christians were not confined to the great persecutions ; 
they w^ere demanded" by the populace. Allix infers, from the way in which T. 
speaks of Eome and the Romans, (c. 9. 21. 35.) that the Apology was not 
written at Rome ; it is addressed to the executive (c. i. 2. 9. 50.) in a 
Proconsulate, (c. 45. see Bp. Kaye, Tert. p. 52.) so that Eusebius is probably 
mistaken in saying it was addressed to the Roman Senate. (H. E. v. 5.) 
S. Jerome says of it, (Ep. 70. ad Magnum, §. 5.) " What more learned than 
Tertullian, what more acute? His Apology and his Books against the 
Gentiles comprise the whole range of secular learning."] 



If it be not allowed you, Lords of the Roman empire, 
sitting above all, to judge, in an open and exalted spot, at 
the very summit almost of the city, openly to look about 
you, and publicly to examine what there be of very truth in 
the cause of the Christians ; if in this instance alone your 
authority be either afraid' or ashamed to make enquiry in 
public, touching the diligent use of justice ; if finally, as 
hath just now happened, the enmity against this sect, having 
too much exercised itself in private condemnations ", formeth 
an obstacle to their defence, let the truth be permitted to 
reach your ears even by the secret way of silent writings *=. 
She asketh no favour for her cause, because she feeleth "oJolmio 

io. 1:'. 

a On account of the popular eager- Others, indiciis' informations;' T com- 1 Jolui 

ness, inf. c. 35. 37- 40. 49. 50. Ep. of plains of treachery c. / . Add Justin M. 3 U 

Churches of Vienne, Eus. H. E. v. 1. Apol 2. § 12. Ong. c. Ccls. .. •>. leb. II, 

inf p 10 n k Theodoret, I. i. c. 6. v. 34. Rut. H. L. 13. 

b Judiciis, "i. e. having exercised v. 1. J« and m are in MSS. often 

severity against their own families, scarcely distmguishable, and often tran- 

(see 0. 3. and perhaps ad Scap. c. 3.) scribed wrongly, 
they were the less fitted to be judges. ^ Comp. ad bcap. 1. 



2 Christianity hated unheard. Implies suspicion of its truth. 

Apol. wonder at her condition. She knoweth that she liveth a 
stranger upon earth, that among aUens she easily findeth 



foes; but that she hath her birth, her home, her hope, her 
favour, and her worth in the heavens^. One thing mean- 
while she earnestly desireth, that she be not condemned 
unknown. If she be heard, what loss cometh thereby to the 
laws, supreme within their own dominion ? Will not their 
power boast the more in this, that they will condemn Truth 
even when she hath been heard ^ But if they condemn her 
unheard, besides the ill-repute of injustice, they will merit 
also the suspicion of a certain consciousness, as being, 
namely, unwilling to hear that, which when heard, they 
could not condemn \ This therefore we lay before you as 
the first argument for the injustice of your hatred towards 
the name of Christians. Which injustice the same plea, 
namely, ignorance, which seemeth to excuse it, aggravateth 
and convicteth. For what more unjust than that men should 
hate that of which they know nothing, even if the thing 
deserve their hatred ? For then doth it deserve, when it 
be known whether it do deserve. But when knowledge 
of the desert be wanting, whence is the justice of the 
hatred maintained ? which ought to be approved, not by 
the event, but by previous conviction ! When then men 
hate for this reason, because they know not what manner 
of thing that, which they hate, is, why may it not be of 
such a sort as that they ought not to hate it } Thus from 
either point we prove either against them, that they are 
both ignorant, in that they hate, and hate unjustly, in that 
they are ignorant. It is an evidence of that ignorance, 
which, while it is made the excuse, is the condemnation 
of injustice, when all, who aforetime hated because they 
•qunle were ignorant what it was which they hated^, as soon as 
Z\S^^ni ^^^y cease to be ignorant, cease also to hate. From being 
added such, they become Christians, to wit from conviction, and 
begin to hate what they were, and to profess what they 
hated, and are as numerous as indeed we are publicly 
declared to be. Men cry out that the state is beset, that 
the Christians are in their fields, in their forts, in their 

^ Aug. de Civ. Dei, i. \:>. v. fin. f Lact. v.init. Minuc. p. 2r)G, ap.Lac. 



Number of Christians, extent uf C/iristirinif^, ;] 

islands-. They mourn, as for a loss, that every sex, aj^e, 
condition, and now even rank is goin<^ over to this sect''. 
And yet they do not by this very means advance their minds 
to the idea of some good therein hidden : they allow not 
themselves to conjecture more rightly, they choose not to 
examine more closely. Here alone is the curiosity of man 
dull : they love to be ignorant, where others rejoice to know. 
How much more would Anacharsis ' have condemned these, 
the uninformed judging the informed, than the unmusical the 
musical ! They had rather be ignorant, because they already 
hate. Thus they determine in the outset that that wljich 
they know not, is such as, if they knew, they could not hate ; 
since if no due cause of hatred be found, surely it were best 
to cease to hate unjustly; but if it be clear that it is deserved, 
not only is their hatred nothing diminished, but stronger 
ground is gained for persevering in it, even with the sanction 
of justice itself. ' But,' saith one, ' it is not therefore at 
once determined^ to be good because it converteth many, for'prxju- 
how many are remoulded^ to evil ! how many are deserters 10^^,^^^^^^^ 
the worse cause!' Who denieth it.? Nevertheless, thatsrefor- 
which is really evil not even those, whom it carrieth away, '"^"'"'" 
dare to defend as a good. Nature hath cast over every evil 
either fear or shame. Finally, evil-doers delight in hiding 
themselves; shun appearing^; are bewildered when dis--^devi- 
covered; being accused deny; not even when tortured, ^^pparcc 
readily or always confess; certainly mourn when con-'""-"* 

Rig. 

K " There is no race of men, whether Lucian in Pseudom. " that Pontus was 

Barbarians, or Greeks, or by whatsoever filled with Atheists and Christians." 

name called, not even the wandering Ceecil. ap. Minuc. F. p. 80. Maximin. 

houseless tribes of Scythians, in which ap. Eus. ix. 7. rescript to Sabinus, ib. 

there are not prayers and Eucharists to 9. heathen ap. Aug. de Catech. rud, 

God the Creator of all things, through c. 25. and Christian, speaking of the 

the Name of the crucified Jesus." rapidity with which it spread, Arnoh. 

(Justin M. Dial. §.117. on Mai. 1,10.) 1. i. p. 33. ed. Lugd. ii. p. 50. Eus. 

See bel. c. 37. ad Scap. c. 2 and 5. adv. H. E. ii. 3. de Laud. Const, c. 16". of 

Jud. c. 7 and 12.deCor. c. 12. ad Nat. its extent, Clem. Al. Strom, vi. fin. 

i. 8. " Consider, whether they whom Orig. de Princ. iv. 1. Lact. v. 13. Eus. 

ye call ' a third race' hold not the chief H. E. viii. 1. Orig. c. Cels. i. 7. 67. ii. 

place, seeing there is no nation not 13. iii. 24. J. Firmicus, p. 42. in Dan. 

Christian; therefore whatever nation be 2. Eus. H. E. x. 4. de laud. Const, c. 

first, is nevertheless Christian." Origen. 17. its continual increase, Minuc. p.p. 

c. Cels. i. speaks of the " myriads among 312. see passages ap. Kortholt in Epp. 

barbarians," and that Christianity had Plin. et Tnij. p. 1()7_18(>. 

" gained possession of the greatest part '> Comp. Orig. c. Cels. iii. $. 0. Euseb. 

of Barbarism." Arnobius, 1. ii. p. 44. H. E. v. 21. of the times of Commodns. 

that " no barbarian was not softened." ' l^iog. Lacrt. in vit. ej. i. 103. td. 

On the multitude of Christians, see Meib. 
Heathen Testimonies, Tac. xv. 44. 

B 2 



4 Chrhtw7is treated differentli/ from other crwunals. The name liatcd. 

Apol. demiied; sum up against themselves, impute either to fate 
— ^— ^-or to the stars the impulses of a wicked mind"^: for they will 
not have that to be their own, which they acknowledge to be 
evil'. But what doth the Christian like this? None is 
ashamed, none repenteth, save indeed that he was not such 
long ago. If he be marked down, he glorieth ; if accused, 
maketh no defence; being questioned, confesseth even of his 
own accord; being condemned, giveth thanks"". What 
manner of evil is this, which hath not the natural marks of 
evil, fear, shame, shrinking, penitence, sorrow } What man- 
ner of evil is this, whereof he that is accused, rejoiceth } 
whereof to be accused is his prayer, and its punishment his 
happiness " } Thou canst not call that madness, of which 
thou art proved to know nothing. 

II. If iinally it be certain that we are never so guilty, why 
even by you are we treated otherwise than our fellows, that 
is than other guilty men, since for the same guilt the same 
treatment ought to be introduced ? Whatever we be called, 
when others are called the same, they employ both their 
own tongue, and hired advocates, to commend their in- 
nocency: the liberty of answering, of disputing, is open to 
them, since it is not even lawful that they should be 
condemned, undefended and altogether unheard. But the 
Christians alone are allowed to say nothing which may clear 
them, which may defend the truth, which may make the 
judge not unjust: but that alone is looked to, which is 
needed for the public hatred, a confession of the name", not 
an examination of the charge : wdiereas, when ye take 
cognizance of any criminal, although he confess to the 
name of a murderer, or a sacrilegious or an incestuous 
person, or a public enemy»', (to speak of our own titles,) ye 
are not content at once to pronounce him such, without 
enquiring out also attendant circumstances, the quality of 

^ See de Idol. e. 9. Jul. Firm. i. 1. 3. 301. §. 6. and Acta Mart. ap. Her. ad 

S. Aup:. de Civ. Dei, v. 10. Ep, 246. c. 50. 

(al. 243.) and others, ap. Herald, and " See ad Scap. c. 1. 

Hav. Aug. in Ps. 31. §. 16. o See Justin Apol. i. §. 4. Athenag. 

' Quinctil. iii. 8. §. 2: a remarkable fulfilment of the 

'" c. 46. 50. Justin M. Apol. ii. 2. letter of our Lord's prophecy, '' Ye 

11. "Thanksbeto God"(Deo Gratias) shall be hated of all men for My 

became a formula with which the sen- Name's sake." Matt. 10, 22. 24, 9. 

tence to martyrdom was received. See Luke 21, 12. 

S. Aug. Serm. i. in Natal. S. Cypr. P Arnob. 1. 1. init. 



Contradictor iiiess ofheaV.ien treatment of Christians. 5 

the act, the number of acts'! \ the phice, the manner, the time, ' numc 
the accessories, the accomplices. In our case there isl^^^^.^l 
nothing like this, although it were equally right that the 
fact be extorted, whatsoever charge be falsely thrown out; 
how many murdered infants each hath tasted, how many 
incests he hath shrouded in darkness'; what cooks, what 
dogs', were present. Oh ! how great the glory of that 
magistrate, if he shouUl hunt out one who hath already 
eaten an hundred infants ! But we find even enquiry into 
our case forbidden: for the second Pliny*, while governor 
of a province, when some Christians had been condemned, 
some degraded, being nevertheless troubled by their very 
numbers, asked of Trajan, then Emperor, what he should 
do for the future, alleging that, excepting their obstinacy in 
not sacrificing, he had discovered nothing else touching 
their religious mysteries, save meetings before day-break to 
sing to Christ as God", and to form a common bond of 
discipline, forbidding murder, adultery, fraud, perfidy, and 
other crimes. Then wrote Trajan back that this sect should 
not indeed be enquired after, but, when brought before him, 
must be punished^, O sentence necessarily confounding 
itself! He forbiddeth that they should. be enquired after, as 
though they were innocent, and commandeth that they 
should be punished, as though guilty 1 He spareth and 
rageth, winketh and punisheth ! Why, O sentence, dost 
thou overreach thyself? If thou condemnest, why dost thou 
not also enquire ? if thou enquirest not, why dost thou not 
also acquit^ ? For tracking robbers through all the provinces, 

1 The inventors of these calumnies some, who are by the like turned away 

were the Jews, see Tert. adv. Jud. c. from the simplest intercourse even of 

13. V. fin. and ad Nat. 1. 14. quodaliud speech with the Christians." Euseb. 

genus seminarium infamise nostrae ? 1. c. speaks of it, as not lasting long. 

Justin. M. Apol. i. 49. Dial. c. Trvph. In the persecution of Lyons and Vienne, 

§. 17. 108. Origen c. Cels. vi. 27. All the slaves were made by torture to confess 

Apologists had' to refer to them, Justin, it as true. 

M. Apol. i. §. 26. ii. §. 12. Dial. c. ^" Numerum ; ad Nat. i. 2. quotiens 

Tryph. §. 10. Theoph. ad Autol. iii. 4. csedem ederit. 
Atheuas. Legat. §. 3. Orig. c. Cels. ^ See below, c. 7. 8. 
1. e. Minucius F. Octavius cc. 9. 30. » Ep. x. 97. 

add also Euseb. H. E. iv. 7. Salvian de " Ut Deo, the ancient cod. Fuld. 

Provid. iv. v. fin. p. 39. ed. Manut. and Christo quasi Deo, Pliny 1. c. Most 

for the first, Tatian adv. Gra)c. §. 25. edd. carelessly, " et Deo." 
Origen 1. c. savs, that " absurd as this '^ Ap. Piin. Ep. x. 98. 
calumny was, 'of old it prevailed with / Athenag. Leg. §. 3. 
very many ; and even now it deceives 



6 lurtnres used to make Christians to deriij the truth ; 

apol. military stations are allotted*. Against men accused of 
-^-^— treason, and public enemies, every man is a soldier. The 
enquiry is extended to the accomplices, even to the ac- 
cessories. The Christian alone may not be enquired after, 
but may be brought before the court ; as though enquiry 
had any other object than to bring him thither! Ye 
condemn liim therefore when brought before you, whom 
none would have enquired after, who, I suppose, hath 
already deserved punishment, not because he is guilty, but 
because, when not to be enquired after, he was found ! So then 
neither in this do ye act towards us according to the rule of 
judging malefactors, namely, that to others ye apply tortures, 
when they deny, to make them confess; to the Christians 
alone, to make them deny^; whereas, if it were a sin, we 
indeed should deny it, and ye by your tortures would 
compel us to confess it. Nor could you think that our 
crimes were therefore not to be enquired of by examinations, 
because ye were assured by the confession of the name, that 
they have been committed, seeing that to this day from one 
who hath confessed himself a murderer", though ye know 
what murder is, ye nevertheless extort the whole train of 
circumstances touching the act. Wherefore it is with the 
greater perverseness that, when ye presume our guilt from 
the confession of our name, ye compel us by tortures to go 
back from our confession, that by denying the name we may 
of course equally deny the crimes also, of which ye presumed 
ns guilty from the confession of the name. But, I suppose, 
ye do not wish us, whom ye deem the worst of men, to die ! 
For thus (doubtless) ye are wont to say to a murderer, 
* Deny the fact ;' to order the sacrilegious person to be torn 
with scourges if he persevere in his confession ! If ye act not 
thus towards us as criminals, ye therefore judge us to be most 
innocent, since, as though we were most innocent, ye will 
not have us persevere in that confession, which ye know 
must be condemned by you of necessity, not of right. One 
crieth out, ' I am a Christian.' He sayeth what he is : thou 



^ By Augustus. Suut. in vit. c. 32. c. 7. p. 207. ed. Oxf. Minut. F. p. 25/. 
" See inf. c. 7. ad Scap. c. 4. Justin cd. Ouz. Arnob. 1. vii. (cit. ibid.) 
M. Apol. i. 4. S. Cyprian adDenietrian. 



other accused persons^ to confess it. 7 

wouldcst hear what he is not. Sitting in authority to draw 
out the truth, from us alone do ye labour to draw out 
falsehood. ' I am,' saith he, ' that which thou askest, if I 
am. Why torture me to unsay it? I confess, and thou 
torturest me: what wouldest thou do if I denied?' Certainly 
ye do not easily lend credit to others when they deny : us, if 
we deny, ye forthwith credit. Let this perverseness be cause 
of suspicion to you that there maybe some power ''lurking in 
secret, which maketh you its ministers against all rule, 
against the very nature of judicial trial, against even the 
laws themselves. For, if I mistake not, the laws command 
that malefactors be hunted out, not concealed, prescribe that 
such as confess be condemned, not acquitted. This the acts 
of your senate, this the mandates of your princes, this 
the government, whose servants ye are, determineth. Your 
rule is civil, not despotic. For with tyrants tortures were 
used^ for punishment also: with you they are tempered ';idl»il^e- 
dow^n to the examination alone. Observe therein your own 
law as necessary up to the time of confession ^ Now then, if-adconf. 
they be anticipated by confession, they will be superfluous : rjam. Kt 
sentence must needs be given. The culprit must discharge j-^'^ 
the penalty due, not be discharged from it. Finally, none 
desireth to acquit him : it is not lawful to wish it : therefore 
neither is any compelled to a denial". A Christian, thou 
deemest a man guilty of every crime, an enemy of the Gods, 
of the Emperors, of Law, of Morals, of all Nature '' ; and 
thou compellest to deny that thou mayest acquit, whom 
thou wilt not be able to acquit, unless he deny. Thou 
quibblest with the laws. Thou wilt have him therefore deny 
himself guilty, that thou mayest make him not guilty, un- 
willing too as he now is, and not accounted guilty for the 
past. Whence this perverseness, not to consider this also, 
that more credit should be given to one that of his own will 
confesseth, than to one who from compulsion denieth, or 
that when compelled to deny, he may not deny in earnest, 

b Satan, see c; 27. ad Nat. i. 3. «^^ Cypr. ad Deuietr. c. 7. 

^' The source of your hatred is the ^^ Inf. c. 32. .37. Christians were sai.l 

Name, which a certain hidden Power Z,h 'xu.^a.'Af/.ui (Porph. ap. Euseb. vi. 

warreth against by your ignorance." 19.) to return to heathenism was i-n to 

Lactant. Instt. ii. 1. Justin M. Apol. i. scktu. (^6<r.v r^irttr^cti. (/Emihan 1 ra't, ol 

3. ii. 1. Egypt, lb. vii. 11.) 



8 Enemies of CJiristians unlmoioing agents of Satan, 

Apol. and being acquitted, may, on the spot, behind the judgment- 
— 11-1- seat, laugh at your rivahy, a Christian for the second time ? 



Seeing then that in all things ye deal with us otherwise than 
with other criminals, in striving for this one thing, that we 
be debarred from this name, (for debarred we are, if we do 
what those who are no Christians do,) ye may perceive that 
it is no crime which is called in question, but a name, which 
a sort of plan of rival agency *" persecuteth, aiming first at 
this, that men may be unwilling to know for certain that, 
which they know for a certain that they know not. There- 
fore also they believe of us things which are not proved, 
and will not have them enquired into, lest those things be 
proved not to be, which they had rather should be believed 
to be ; so that the name opposed to that rival plan may, by 
its own confession alone, be condemned, on the presumption, 
not on the proof, of crimes. Wherefore we are tortured 
when we confess, and punished when we persevere, and 
acquitted when we deny, because it is a war about a name. 
Finally, why read ye that man a Christian from the tablet '? 
why not a murderer also, if a Christian be a murderer '' ? 
Why is he not also a committer of incest, or whatever else 
ye believe us to be ? In our case alone ye are ashamed or 
loth to proclaim the very names of our crimes. If ' Chris- 
tian' be the name of no crime, it is very absurd that there 
should be crime in the name alone". 

III. What when the generality run uj^on an hatred of 
this name with eyes so closed, that in bearing favourable 
testimony to any one, they mingle with it the reproach of 
the name. ' A good man Caius Seius, only he is a Chris- 
tian.' So another, ' I marvel that that wise man Lucius 
• Titium Titius^ hath suddenly become a Christian.' No one reflecteth 
whether Caius be not therefore good, and Lucius wise, be- 
cause a Christian, or therefore a Christian because wise and 
good. They ]naise that which they know, they revile that 
which they know not; and that which they know, they spoil 
through that which they know not: wiiereas it were more 

^ See above, p. 7. n. Attains the Christian," ib. t. 1. 

^ Containing the charge. Thus in g Punctuation changed. Cur non et 

the martyrdom of Polycarp, "Poly- horaicidam, si homicida Christianus •' 

carp hath confessed himself a Chris- cur non et inoestus ? 

tian."' Euseb. H. E. 1. iv. ].^. " This is h Cyprian ad Demetrian. I. c. 



Reformation in Christians owned but hated. j) 

just to prejudge things unseen by things seen, tlian to pre- 
condemn the seen through the unseen. Otliers condemn in 
the very thing, wherein in fact they praise, those whom in 
time past, before they had this name, they knew as vaga- 
bonds, worthless, wicked. In the bhndness of their hatred 
they fall upon com.mending them. What a woman! how 
voluptuous! how gay! What a youth! what a rake! what a 
man of pleasure ! They have become Christians. Thus is 
this name applied to their reformation. Some even barter 
their own interests for this hatred, being content to suffer 
injury, so that they have not at home that which they hate. 
The husband now no longer jealous hath turned out of doors 
his wife now chaste. The father, patient before, hath dis- 
owned his now obedient son. The master, once lenient, 
hath banished from his sight his now faithful servant. As 
each is reformed by this name, he ofFendeth. Virtue is not 
in such account as hatred of the Christians. Now then if 
the hatred be of the name, what guilt is there in names } 
what charge against words ? unless it be that any word 
which is a name have either a barbarous, or an ill-omened, 
or a scurrilous, or an immodest sound. But the word 
' Christian,' as far as its meaning is concerned, is derived 
from ' anointing.' And even when it is by you wrongly 
pronounced, ' Chreestian',' (for not even of the name is there 
any certain knowledge among you,) it is made from ' sweet- 
ness,' or from ' kindness.' Wherefore in innocent men a 
name, also innocent, is hated. But in truth the sect is 
hated in the name of its Head. What new tiling is it, if 
any School bring upon its followers a name from its master.^ 
Are not Philosophers named from their founders, as Platonists, 
Epicureans, Pythagoreans .? Even from the places of their 
meetings and stations, as Stoics, Academics } So too Phy- 
sicians from Erasistratus, and Grammarians from Aristarchus, 



i The heathen, to whom the name also in Lactant. Instt. iv. 7. Justin. 

Christus was unintelligible, substituted M. alludes to the same, Apol. i. 4. 

C/iresiifs, which was a name amon.o^ Theoph. ad Autol. i, 1. CMeni. Alex, 

themselves. (See instances in Hav.) Strom, ii. 4. "they who believe in Christ, 

Thus in the well-known passage of forthwith are, and are called, x^vfrei" 

Suetonius, (vit. Claud, c. 25.) impulsore [aood]. Clem. Alex, often .substitutes 

Chresto. Tac. Ann. xv. 44. (corrected '^oifrof for zi*i^^'f^ ^^ equivalent, see 

intoChristiani,)Lueian. in Fhilopatr. so ("oh. ad Gr. c. 9. and Potter ib. 



1 Charges against the Christians to be retorted on the Heathen. 

Apol. and even Cooks from Apicius ? And yet the profession of a 
name, handed down together with the institution, from its 
founder, doth not ofiend any. Clearly if any hath proved 
the sect bad, and thus the founder also bad, he will prove 
the name likewise bad, deserving of hatred from the guilt of 
the sect and of its founder. And therefore, before hating the 
name, it were meet, first to judge of the sect from the founder, 
or of the founder from the sect. But now, all examination 
and knowledge of either set aside, the name is laid hold of, 
the name is attacked, and a word alone pre- condemn eth a 
sect unknown, and its founder also unknown, because they 
bear a name, not because convicted. 

IV. And so, having as it were premised these things, that I 
might set a mark upon the injustice of the public hatred against 
us, I will now take my stand on the ground of our innocence, 
and not only refute the charges which are brought against 
us, but even retort them upon the very men who bring them ; 
that in this also all may know that those things exist not in 
Christians which they are not ignorant do exist in themselves ; 
and at the same time may blush in accusing — I will not say 
the best, themselves being the worst, but — those who are now, 
on their own shewing, their compeers. We will answer 
touching all the things severally, which we are said to 
commit in secret, which are openly discovered against us, 
in which we are accounted wicked, in which foolish, in 
which to be condemned, in which to be laughed at. But 
since, when the truth of our cause meeteth you at every turn, 
the authority of the laws is at last set up against it, so that it 
either is said that nothing must be reconsidered after the 
laws^ have decided, or the necessity of obedience is un- 
willingly preferred to truth, 1 will first contend with you 
about the laws as with the guardians of the laws. And first, 
when ye harshly determine, saying, ' It is not lawful that ye 
should exist**,' and prescribe this law without any gentler 



j Of Nero against the Christians, ad not the Christians be ; (Christiani non 

Nat. i. 7. " This institute of Nero sint;) away with the Atheists.'' See 

hath alone remained, when all others Acta Sabini ap Baron. A. 301. 18. 

have been reversed." See also c. 5. and Eus. H. E. iv. 15. "Which [the con- 

37. tagion of this superstition] seemeth as 

^ The common cry of the populace though it might be stopped and cor- 

was, " Away with the Christians; let rected." Justin M. Dial. §. 110. Aug. 



Other laws repealed ; only not those against Christians. 1 1 

reconsideration, ye avow violence, and an unjust despotism 
from within your strong hold, if ye therefore say it is un- 
lawful because ye will have it, not because it ought to be, 
unlawful. But if, because it ought not to be, therefore ye 
will not have it lawful, doubtless that ought not to be lawful, 
which is ill done, and surely it is, even hereby, already 
determined that what is well done is lawful. If I shall find 
that to be good, which your law hath forbidden, is it not 
by this previous determination, disabled from forbidding 
me^ that which, if it were evil, it would justly forbid ?' ex iiio 
If your law hath erred, it was devised, methinks, by man ; JJ^i"' 
for it hath not dropped down from the sky. Do we wonder P'"'^^i- 
that man could either err in framing a law, or that he should non 
become wiser in disallowing it ? Why ! did not the amend- P°^^^^ 
ments by the Lacedaemonians in the laws of Lycurgus 
himself inflict such pain upon their author, that in retire- 
ment he condemned himself to starve to death ? Do not even 
ye, as experience throweth light upon the darkness of 
antiquity, lop ^ and cut down, with the new axes of imperial "^ 'ruQ- 
rescripts and edicts, all that old and slovenly forest of laws ? 
Did not Severus, the steadiest' of princes, repeal but 
yesterday, after an old age of such high authority, those 
most foolish laws of Papius, which enforce the bringing up 
of children before that those of Julius do the contracting of 
marriage™? but there were laws too aforetime, that men cast 
in a suit might be cut in pieces" by the creditors : yet was 
this cruelty afterwards erased ° by public consent, the 
punishment of death being exchanged for a mark of 
disgrace. The confiscation of goods resorted to would 

in Ps. i. 90. p. 1. Kortholt ad Ep. Plin. i. 9.) probably refers to the Papian 

et Traj. p. 187. as the later, and so still in force under 

1 " Severus, an earnest-minded Em- Constantine, who repealed them, it 

peror, answering to his name." Lam- seems, wholly, as imposing disquahti- 

prid. in Comm. cations on religious celibacy. 

™ The first Julian law (they are ° " If there were many to wh<un the 

commonly called laws) was proposed by debtor was assigned, the laws of the 12 

Augustus, A. U. C. 73G, after the Tables allowed them to cut, if they 

desti-uctive civil war ; the Papian, which willed, and divide his body. Aul. Ciell. 

was an enforcement of them, 26 years Noct. Att.20. 1. quoting the law, ' At 

after, within 5 years of his death. The the third market-day, let them cut it in 

unmarried could not inherit, except pieces ; and if they cut more or less, let 

from the nearest relations ; but the age it be without any penalty, 

fixed by the Julian law is unknown; ° A. U. C.680. 
that of 25, named by Sozomen, (H. E. 



qui 



12 Tiberius attempt to place Christ among heathen yods. 

ApoL. rather have the suffusion than the effusion of a man's blood. 

— —— How many la\YS still lurk behind needing to be purified ! It 
is not length of years, nor the worth of their founders, which 
commendeth them, but equity alone; and therefore when 
they are acknowledged to be unjust, they are justly con- 
demned, although condemning. Why call we them unjust ? 
yea, if they ])unish a name, we call them foolish also ; but if 
doings, \^hy in our case do they punish doings, on the 
score of a name alone, which in others they maintain must 
be proved by the act, not by the name ? " I am guilty of 
incest,"— vvhy do they not examine me? " of child-murder," — 
why do they not extort the proof? " I commit some act 
against the gods, against the Caesars," — why am I not heard, 
who^ have whereby to clear myself? No law forbiddeth that 
to be thoroughly sifted, which it forbiddeth to be done ; for 
neither doth a judge punish justly, unless he know that an 
act, which is not lawful, hath been committed ; nor doth a 
citizen obey the law honestly, not knowing what sort of 
thing it be which he punishetli. No law ought to satisfy 
itself merely of its own justice, but those also from whom 
it expecteth obedience. But the law is suspicious, if it 
will not have itself proved, and reprobate, if unajoproved it 
domineereth. 

V. To treat somewhat of the origin of the kind of laws, there 
was an ancient decree, that no god should be consecrated by 
the Emperor^, unless approved by the Senate. Witness 
Marcus ^milius in the case of his own god Alburnus''. 
This also maketh for our cause, that with you deity is 
measured according to the judgment of man'. A god, 
unless he please man, shall not be a god. Man will now 
be obliged to be propitious to a god. Tiberius therefore, 
in whose time the name of Christ entered into the world, 
laid before the Senate, with his own vote to begin with, 



P " Let no one have gods of his own, Senate to appl)' through the City- 

or new gods ; nor let him privately Prsetor to the Senate. Liv. 1. xxxix. 8. 

worship even foreign gods, unless they add iv. 30. against foreign rites, " that 

be puhlicly received." Cic. de Legg. ii. none should be worshipped, but Roman 

14 and 27. In this law the Emperor gods, nor with other than the country's 

would be included. Any one who "felt rites." 

constrained to celebrate the Baccha- ^ See again adv. Marc. i. 18. 
nalia," was required by a decree of the r See inf. e. 13. Lact. lustt. i. 13. 



None of the Letter Ccesars persecuted rl-e ChrhtJrms. 1.3 

things aiinouDced to him from Palestine in Syria, which had 
there manifested the truth of the Divinity of that Person». 
The Senate, because they had not themselves approved it, 
rejected it'. Caesar held by his sentence, threatening peril 
to the accusers of the Christians. Consult your Annals : 
there ye will find that Nero was the first to wreck the fury 
of the sword of the Cassars upon this sect, now^ springing up 
especially at Eome. But in such a first founder of our 
condemnation we even glory. For whoever knoweth him, 
can understand that nothing save some great good was 
condemned by Nero. Domitian too, who was somewhat 
of a Nero '^ in cruelty, had tried it, but forasmuch as he was 
also a human being, he speedily stopped^ the undertaking, 
even restoring those whom he had banished. Such have 
ever been our persecutors; unjust, impious, infamous, whom 
even yourselves have been wont to condemn, by whom who- 
soever were condemned ye have been wont to restore. But 
out of so many princes thenceforward to him of the present 
'day, who had any savour of religion and humanity, shew us 
any destroyer of the Christians. But we on the other hand 
have one to shew who protected them, if the letters of that 
most august Emperor Marcus Aurelius be enquired of, 
wherein he testifieth of that drought in Germany removed 
by the shower obtained by the prayers of the Christians 
w^ho chanced to serve in his army^. As he did not 



8 Justin. M. (Apol. i. 35. and 48.) ' Bp. Pearson (Lect. iv. in Actt. n. 

also mentions incidentally that Pilate 14.) explains it, " because he ( T.) had 

sent an official account (Acta) of His not approved of it in his own case," as 

Death and miracles ; (as was usual to referring to Tiberius' refusal of divine 

transmit accounts of all important honours. (Suet. Tib. c. 26.) He is 

events, so that the omission had been followed by Tillemont, H. E. art. ^. 

very improbable;) nor does there seem Pierre, n, 19. and Lardner. It seems 

any ground to question this statement, safer, however, to adhere to the sense 

which rests on Tertullian's authority; given by Euseb. (H. E. ii. 2.) S. 

for the supposed improbability that the Chrysostom, (in 2 Cor. Hom. 26.) P. 

Senate would venture to reject the Orosius, (vii. 4.) and otherwise there 

proposal of Tiberius is met by the fact had been no ground for the mention of 

that they did so, on different occasions, the " ancient law'' just above, 

without displeasing Tiberius, (Suet. " See Scorp. c. 14. Euseb. H, E. ii. 

Tiber, c. 31.) This account, and those 25. Aug. de Civ. D. xviii. 52. Sueton. 

of Lampridius (a heathen) as to other Nero. c. 16. 

Emperors, who intended to associate ^ T. calls him " Subnero," de Pallio 

the Lord with the heathen gods, c. 4. 

mutually confirm each other, though / Euseb. H. E. iii. 20. 

the dishonour was, by God's providence, ^ See ad Soap. e. 4. The greatness 

averted. and unexpectedness of the deliverance 



14 Drought removed by jw ay ers of Christians. Antonines edict. 

Apol. openly take off the penalty from the men of that sect% 
— '-—^ so in another way he openly made away with it by 
adding a sentence, and that a more horrid one, against 
the accusers also. What sort of laws then be those which 
only the impious, the unjust, the infamous, the cruel, the 
foolish, the insane, execute against us? vYhich Trajan 
in part foiled by forbidding that the Christians should 
be enquired after"; which no Adrian, though a clear 
searcher into all things curious'", no Vespasian, though 
the vanquisher of the Jews, no Pius, no Verus^, hath 
pressed against us ? Surely the worst of men, it might 
be thought, ought to be more readily rooted out by 
the best, as being their antagonists, than by their own 
fellows. 

VI. Now I would have these most religious guardians and 

'uliore? avengers^ of the laws and institutions of their fathers 

answer touching their own fealty, and their respect and 



is confessed by the heathen also ; 
some referred toby Euseb. (H. E. v. b.S 
and by extant writers, Dio. Cass. Ixxi. 
8 sqq. Jul. Capitolin. (Marc. Ant. i. 
24.) Themistius (Or. 15.) Claudian (de 
sexto cons. Honor, v. 340 sqq.) and of 
these, Dio. §. 10. and Jul. Cap. mention 
the further fact stated in Euseb. from 
Apollinaris (Bp. of Hierapolis, a con- 
temporary) and others, that lightning 
discomfited the enemy, while rain re- 
freshed the Roman army, which is 
attested also by the Antonine column, 
according to the engraving in Baronius, 
A. 176. no. 23. The lightning alone is 
dwelt upon by Claudian ; the rain by 
Them, and visible on Antonine's medal 
(ap. Pagi ad A. C. 174.) The heathen 
differ only in ascribing it to the prayers 
of Antonine himself, (J. Cap. Them. 
Claud.) or (as was done in the first 
plagues of Egypt) to the incantations of 
Arnuphis, an Egyptian magician (so, 
Dio C. Claud.) invoking Mercury, (to 
whom the medal ascribes it, the column 
to Jupiter Pluvius,) Dio C. Though 
then there can be no doubt of a great 
interposition of Providence, obtained 
through the prayers of the Christians, 
Tertullian seems to have been mis- 
informed as to the ground of the letter 
of Antonine, whether as Euseb. states 
(H. E. iv. 12.) it was sent by Titus 



Antoninus, or (as the copies now bear) 
by Marcus, (ib. c. 13.) 

^ In the extant Rescript (Eus. 1. c.) 
it is taken off, " If any one persevere 
in troubling any such, as such, let him 
who is accused, be acquitted of the 
charge, though he appear to be such ; 
and let the accuser be subject to pu- 
nishment." This, however, m.ay have 
been local ; at Rome the old law was 
still enforced under Commodus, Apol- 
lonius martyred, his accuser's legs 
broken. (Eus. v. 21.) 

^ Ap. Plin. Ep. X. 98. 

c Spartianus in Adriano Hist. Rom. 
Scriptt. t. ii. p. 190 sqq. 

d The martyrdom of S. Poly carp 
and Justin, and many others in Asia 
Minor, took place under M. Aurelius 
Verus Antoninus, Eus. H. E. iv. 15 — 1 7. 
as also those at Vienne and Lyons, 
(ib. v. 1.) It is supposed then, that by 
Verus, T. means L. Verus, the brother 
of M. Aurelius, after whose death 
Paulus Diac. states the persecution 
under M. Aurelius to have taken place, 
or that he means that he passed no 
decrees against the Christians, though 
the persecutions were carried on under 
the old laws. This seems the more 
probable, on account of the character 
given to L. Verus; so Baronius, A. 
164 init. 



Romans respected not laivs opposed to their corruptions. 15 

deference towards the decrees of their ancestors, whether 
they have fallen off from none, whether they have deviated 
in none, whether they have not annulled such as are 
necessary, and in proportion as they are the best fitted, 
to good discipline. Whither have gone those laws which 
checked extravagance and ambition ? which enacted that an 
hundred assesy and no more, should be allowed for a 
supper*; and that not more than one fowl, and that not 
a fatted one ^, should be introduced ? which expelled from 
the Senate a Patrician on grave proof of ambition, because 
he possessed ten pounds of silver^? which forthwith pulled 
down the theatres as they rose for the corruption of morals''? 
w^hich suffered not the badges of dignities and honourable 
birth to be assumed without cause or without a penalty ? 
For T see centenarian suppers, which must now be so named 
from an hundred sesterces», and silver mines wrought out 
into dishes, (it were a small matter if only for Senators, and 
not for freed men '% or those who are even now having the 
whip broken upon them.) I see too that it is not enough 
that theatres should be single or uncovered. For it was for 
the games forsooth that the Lacedaemonians first invented 
their odious cloak', that immodest pleasure might not be 
chilled even in the winter. I see too no distinction left 
in dress between matrons and harlots'". Touching women 
indeed, even those rules of their forefathers have dropped, 
which sup})orted modesty and sobriety, when no woman 
knew ought of gold, save on the one finger on which her 
husband had placed the pledge of the nuptial ring"; when 
women were so entirely kept from wine, that her own friends 
starved a matron to death for unsealing the stores of a wine 



e And that on the great festivals ' £8072 18*. id. iEsop spent as 

only Lex Fannia, 11 years before the much on a single dish, Tert. de Pall, 

third Punic war, (" lex centussis" c. 5. See other instances ib. and in 

Lucilius,) renewed in the Lex Licinia. Adam's Horn. Ant. art. Money. 

(A. Geli. ii. 24. Macrob. Sat. ii. 13.) ^ Drusillanus, aslave ot Claudius, de 

f Lex Fannia, Plin. x. 50. (al. 71.) Pall. c. 6. Plin. xxxi.i .52. 

g i.e. wrought silver, A. U. C. 458. 1 Tiberius first used it to this end, 

The Censor was Fabric. Luscinius ; Dio. lvii.13. ^ .. ,^ , n n- 

the expelled, Corn. Rufinus, had been ^ De Cult. Fem ii 12. de Pallio, 

Dictator and twice Consul. (Val. Max. c. 4. " Varied and florid garments 

ii. 9. 4.) Five pounds only were allowed, harlots use for their trade rich women 

Plin. xxxiii. 50. for their hixury. Artemid. ,.. 3. 

h See de Spectac. c. 10. " See Phn. xxxni. 4. De Tdol. c. IG. 



• tiuci- 
data sit 



16 Bomaiis cham/cd in every thing ^ even in r/Iif/ion, 

Apol. cellar"; and under Romulus one who had touched wine 
was slain Mvith iinpunit}^:)}' her husband Mecenias. Where- 
fore also they were obliged to offer kisses to their nearest 
kinsfolk, that they might be judged by their breath •'. Where 
is that happiness in marriages, favoured doubtless by good 
morals, through which, during nearly six hundred years'^ 
from the founding of the city, no one family wrote a writing 
of divorcement ? In the women, now, owing to their gold, 
no limb is light*", owing to their wine, no kiss is free: and 
for divorce, it is now even the object of a wish, as though it 
were the proper fruit of matrimony '. As touching even 
your gods themselves, the decrees, which your fathers had 
providently enacted, ye, these same most obedient persons, 
have rescinded. Father Bacchus, with his mysteries, the 
Consuls by the authority of the Senate, banished not only 
from the city, but from the whole of Italy'. Serapis, and 
Isis, and Harpocrates with his dog-headed monster, having 
been forbidden the Capitol", that is, turned out of the palace 
of the gods, the Consuls Piso and Gabinius (certainly not 
Christians) renounced, overturning even their altars, thus 
checking the vices of base and idle superstitions. These ye 
having bestowed, have conferred the highest dignity upon 
them. Where is your religion.^ Where is the reverence 
due from you to your ancestors ? In dress, food, establish- 
ment, income, finally in your very language, ye have 
renounced your forefathers. Ye are ever lauding the 
ancients, yet fashioning your lives anew every day. By 
which it is manifest, that, while ye fall back from the good 
customs of your ancestors, ye retain and guard those things 
which ye ought not, while ye guard not those which ye 

° Plin. xiv. 13. (al. 12.) Val. Max. restored by XJ0P"^^r tnmult, but for- 

6. 3. 9. bidden by* Gabinius chie%, A. U. C. 

P lb. and Arnob. 1. ii. p. 91. ed. Lugd. 695. (Tert. ib.) Arnobius, ii. 95. men- 

q .520. Val. Max. ii. 1. 4. And that tions both. Afterwards M. ^i:mil. 

for barrenness. Paulus himself bvote down the walls of 

^- De Cult. Fern. i. fin. the temple, Val. Max. i. 3. fin. The 

^ See Senec. de Benef. iii. 16. Juv. worship was vix segreque admissum, 

vi. 20. Martial, vi. 7. ap. Hav. Macrob. 1. 7. in the triumvirate by 

t Liv. 1. xxxix. Val. Max.i. 3. Aug. Augustas, Dio. xlvii. 15. Lucan. vii. 

de Civ. D. vi. 9. 83. but even afterwards only without 

" And their altars destroyed (Varro the city, Dio. liii. 2. and a mile from 

ap. Tert. ad Nat. i. 10.) by the Senate, it, liv. 6. The worship appears to have 

and allowed only to be without the been that of the populace. (Tert. 1. c. 

walls, Dio. xl. 47. xlii. 26. they were Val. Max. 1. c.) 



Christians, so beset ivith enemies, rmist have been detected. 1 7 

ought. Besides^ that very thing, which being handed down ' ipsum 
from your fathers ye seem most faithiully to observe, in ^*^''"^ 
which ye mark out the Christians as specially guilty of 
transgression, — I mean diligence in worshipping the gods, 
wherein antiquity hath mostly erred, — although ye have 
rebuilt the altars of the now Roman Serapis, although ye 
offer^ your frantic orgies to the now Italian Bacchus, 1 will ' immo. 
shew in the proper place "" to have been just as much 
despised and neglected and destroyed by you, contrary to 
the authority of your ancestors. For I shall now make 
answer to the evil report touching secret crimes, that I may 
clear my way to such as are more open. 

VII. We are said to be the most accursed of men, as touching 
a sacrament of child-murder, and thereon a feast, and incest 
after the feast, where the dogs that overturn the candles, our 
panders forsooth, procure darkness and an absence of all 
shame besides, for impious lusts. Yet * said to be' is ever the 
word, and ye take no care to expose that which we have 
been so long said to be. Wherefore either expose it, if 
ye believe it, or be unwilling to believe it, seeing ye have 
not exposed it. Through your own connivance it is ruled 
against you, that that hath no existence which even your- 
selves dare not expose. Far other is the task which ye 
impose on your executioner against the Christians, not that 
they should confess what they do, but deny what they are^'. 
This religion dateth, as we have already set forth ^, from 
Tiberius. Truth set out with being herself hated ; as soon 
as she appeared, she is an enemy ^. As many as are strangers 'inimica 
to it, so many are its foes ^ : and the Jews indeed appro- / ^ 

' s * , . I'Uke 3, 

priately from their rivalry, the soldiers from their violence ^xa. 
even they of our own Itonsehold from nature. Each day ave^^^^* ' 
we beset, each day betrayed; in our very meetings and 
assemblies are we mostly surprised. Who hath ever in this 
way come upon a screaming infant ? Who hath kept for the 
judge the mouths of these Cyclopses and Sirens, bloody as 
he found them } Who hath discovered any marks of im- 
purity even in our wives ( Who hath concealed sucli crimes, 

X c, j3_ a Athenag. Leg. §. :•!. Orig. <■. ( >\<. 

y See above, c. 2. '• 3. 

* c. 5. 



1 8 Priwerbial falsehood of report. 

Apol. when he hath discovered them, or hath taken a bribe to do 

17 
— 1—1- SO, while haling the men themselves''? If we be always 



concealed, when w^as that, which we commit, divulged ? 

Yea, by whom could it be divulged ? By the criminals 

themselves forsooth ! Nay, verily : since the fidelity of 

^ vel ex secres}^ is, by the very rule of all mysteries', due to them. 

omnium The Samothracian and Eleusinian are kept secret ; how 

mysie- mucli more such as, being divulged, will in the mean time 

provoke even the vengeance of man, while that of God 

is kept in store ! If themselves then be not their own 

betrayers, it foUoweth that strangers must be. And whence 

have strangers the knowledge, when even holy mysteries 

ever exclude the profane, and beware of witnesses ? unless it 

be that unholy men have the less fear ! The nature of fame 

is know^n to all. It is your own saying, 

" Fame is an ill, than which more speedy none." (ViRG.) 

Why " Fame an ill ?" because " speedy ?" because a tell- 
tale .'' or because mostly false ? who, not even at the very 
time when she beareth any thing true, is without the vice of 
falsehood, detracting, adding, changing from the truth ! What, 
when her condition is such, that she endureth only while she 
lieth, and liveth only so long as she proveth not her words? 
for when she hath proved them, she ceaseth to be ; and, as 
having discharged her office of talebearer, delivereth up 
a fact. And thenceforward the fact is laid hold of, the fact 
is named, and no one saith, (for instance,) ' They say that 
this happened at Rome,' or ' The report is that he hath 
obtained the province,' but, ' He hath obtained the province,' 
and ' This happened at Rome.' Fame, a name for uncer- 
tainty, hath no place when a thing is certain. But would 
any, but an inconsiderate man, believe Fame ? since a wise 
man believeth not that which is uncertain. All may judge 
that, over whatever extent it be spread, with whatever 
assurance framed, it must needs have at some time sprung 
from some one author, and thence creep into the channels of 
tongues and ears. And a fault in the first little seed doth so 
darken the rest of the tale, that none enquireth whether that 

''i.e. had they heen bribed, they had let them go altogether 



Internal evidence of falsehood of charges. 19 

first tongue have not sown a falsehoo(P, which often hap- 
peneth either from the spirit of rivalry, or the wanton 
humour of suspicion, or that taste for falsehood which in 
some is not new, but inborn. But it is well that '' time 
revealeth all things," which even your own proverbs and 
sayings testify, according to the general law of nature which 
hath so ordained that nothing long remaineth hidden, even 
that which fame hath not spread abroad. With good 
cause then hath Fame been so long the only witness of 
the crimes of the Christians^. This informer ye produce 
against us, who even to this time hath not been able to 
prove that which she once threw out, and in so long a 
period hath strengthened into an opinion. 

VIII. That I may appeal to the authority of Nature herself 
against those who presume that such things are to be 
believed, lo ! we set before you the reward of these crimes. 
They promise eternal life. Believe it for the moment: for 
I ask this, whether even thou, who dost believe it^ thinkest 
it worth while to attain to it by such a conscience ^ } Come 
plunge thy knife into an infant, the foe of none, the accused 
of none, the child of all. Or, if this be the office of another, 
only stand by this human being, dying before it hath lived; 
wait for the young soul's flight; catch the scarce-matured 
blood ; soak thy bread in it ; freely feed upon it. Meanwhile 
as thou sittest at the meal, calculate the places where thy 
mother, where thy sister is; note them diligently, so that 
when the darkness caused by the dogs shall fall upon thee, 
thou mayest not err; for thou wilt incur pollution if thou 
commit not incest. Thus initiated and sealed thou livest for 
ever. I desire thee to answer whether Eternity be worth 
such a price ; or if not, therefore it ought not to be believed 
to be so. Even if thou shouldest believe it, I say that thou 
wouldest not do it; even if thou wouldest, I say that thou 
couldest not. And why should others be able, if ye arc not 
able .' Why should ye not be able, if others are able .? We, 

= Obscurat, i. e. the original false- of the tale so disguise the fault i^n the 

hood is so mixed up in all the parts first little seed, that none considereth 

of the story, as to make it impossible &c." 
to see clearly what the truth really is. '' Athenag. Leg. §.2. 
(Tr.) According to another reading, « Salvian, 1. iv. (ubi sup.) p. 39. ed. 

(obscurant) " And the other appendages M anut. 

c 2 



20 Those ivho joined Christians^ must have discovered them. 

Apol. I suppose, are of another nature ! Are we Cynopeans or 
— ' ' Sciapodes ^ ? Have we other rows of teeth ? other nerves for 
incestuous lust ? Thou that canst believe these things of a 
man, canst also do them'. Thou thj^self also art a man, as is 
a Christian. Tliou that canst not do them, oughtest not to 
believe them, for a Christian also is a man, and all that thou 
also art. But (say ye) men while in ignorance are cheated 
and practised on". Because forsooth they knew not that any 
such thing was asserted of the Christians, a thing doubtless 
to have been looked to by them, and investigated with 
all diligence ! But it is the custom, methinks, for those 
who desire to be initiated, first to go to the master of the 
mysteries, and to note down what things must be prepared'. 
Then saith he, ' An infant thou must needs have, still of 
tender age, who knoweth not what death is, who can smile 
under thy knife : bread too, with w^hich thou must take 
up the mess of blood : candlesticks moreover, and candles, 
and certain dogs, and sops, which may make them stretch 
forward to overturn the candles: above all, thou wilt be 
bound to come with thy mother and sister.' What if they 
will not come, or if thou hast none ? What, in short, must 
solitary Christians do } A man, I suppose, will not be a 
regular Christian, unless he be a brother or a son ! What 
now, even if all these things be prepared for men ignorant of 
them } Surely they know them afterwards, and bear with 
and pardon them. They fear to be punished ! men, who, if 
they publish them, will deserve to be defended ; who should 
rather even die voluntarily, than exist under such a conscience. 
Well ! grant that they do fear. Why do they still go on ? 
for it followeth that thou canst not wish any longer to be 
that, which, if thou hadst known it before, thou wouldest not 
have been. 

IX. To refute these charges the more, I will shew that 
that is done by you, partly in public and partly in secret, 
through which perchance ye have come to believe them of 
us also. In the bosom of Africa, infants were publicly 

* Lit. " dog-faced" and " feet-sha- ^ See details in Minut. F. p. 87. 
dowed," fabulous monsters, ap. Plin. * Apul. Milesiarum sive Metamorph. 

vii. 2. 1. xi. pp. 255 et 262. 
« Salvian,iv. p.93. Minut. F.p. 289. 



Heathen imputed icliat themselves did—bloodshed, 21 

sacrificed to Saturn '^, even to the days of a proconsul under 
Tiberius, who on the very trees of their temple which shaded 
their crimes, as on consecrated crosses', hung up, alive ^, to*vivo< 
public view the priests themselves ; witness the soldiery of '''^'^"^ 
my own country who executed that very office for that 
proconsul. But even now this consecrated crime is con- 
tinued in secret. It is not the Christians only who defy 
you ; nor is any crime rooted out for ever, nor doth any god 
change his character. Since Saturn did not spare his own 
sons, doubtless he persisted in not sparing those of others, 
whom indeed their own parents offered of themselves, and 
wilhngly paid their vow, and fondled the infants, lest they 
should be slain weeping •". And yet murder by a parent 
difFereth much from manslaying. Among the Gauls a riper 
age was sacrificed to Mercury. I leave to their own 
theatres the fables of Tauri ". Lo ! in that most religious 
city of the pious descendants of ^neas there is a certain 
Jupiter", whom, in his own games, they drench with human 
blood. But, say ye, ' the blood of one condemned to the 
beasts:' and therefore, I suppose, not so bad as that of a 
man. Is it not therefore worse, because the blood of a bad 
man»".? Still in any case it is shed by manslaying. O 
Christian Jupiter ! and ' the only sou of his father' — 
through cruelty ! But since as touching child murder it 
mattereth not whether it be done from Religion or of mere 
wanton will, though in the case of murder by a parent there 
is a difference, I will appeal to the people. Of these 
who stand around and pant for Christian blood, of your own 



^ Especially a Phcenician, and so, ix * Hung them, as it were ofterings, 

Punic idolatry, see Diod. Sic. xx. 14. on the trees, whereon they hung the 

The human sacrifices of Carthage and offerings to their God. 

the Phcenicians are spoken of by Plato, ™ Which was ill-omened, add. IVIinut. 

Politic, p. 315. Ennius, Ann. 7. Lact. F. 1. c. 

Instt. (1.21.) from Pescenius Festus. ° Eurip. Iphig, Taur. add. Minut. F. 

Silius Ital. iv. 767. Porjah. Ts^i «^«;t''f 5 1- ^- ^ug. de Civ. D. vii. 19. and 

1. 2. Euseb. Laud. Const. Athanas. adv. 26. &c. 

Gentes, c. 25. Orig. c. Cels. v. 27. and " Latiaris, Tert. adv. Gnost. c. 7. 

others quoted on Minut. F. p. 291. ed. Minut. F. p. 198. and 297. Lact. 1.21. 

Ouzel. Saturn is identified with Baal, Tatian. adv. Grac. §. 29. (whom it 

Procop. in Is. c. 46. ib. Athanas. 1. c. aided to alienate from Heathenism.) 

to whom human sacrifices were also Athanas. c. Gentes, c. 25. Porph. tio) 

offered, Gesen. Monumm. Phcen. 453. u.v^x'^s. 1. 2. p. 35. Plin. xxxiv. 7. and 

and who is perhaps the same as Moloch, others quoted, ib. 

id.Thes.v:-lbD. P Minut. F. p. 297. 



22 Heathen admit their tasting human blood ; 

Apol. selves, magistrates most just and most severe against us, how 
— ^— ^ many will ye that I smite in their consciences, as slayers of 



the children born unto them ? If indeed there be a differ- 
ence too as to the manner of death, surely it is with greater 
cruelty that ye force out their breath in the water, or expose 
them to cold and hunger and dogs^i. For even those of 
Lam. 4, riper age would desire to die by the sword. But to us, 
manslaying having once been forbidden, it is not lawful 
to undo even what is conceived in the womb, while the 
blood is as yet undetermined to form a man. Prevention of 
birth is a precipitation of murder': nor doth it matter 
whether one take away a life when formed, or drive it away 
while forming. He also is a man, who is about to be one. 
Even every fruit already existeth in its seed. Touching the 
eating of blood, and such like tragic dishes, read whether it 
be not somewhere related, (it is in Herodotus *, I think,) that 
certain nations have ordained for the making of a treaty the 
shedding of blood from their arms, and the drinking it the one 
from the other'. Under Catiline" also there was some drinking 
of the same sort. They say too that among some tribes of the 
Scythians every one that dieth is eaten by his relations '. I am 
travelling too far. In this age, in this country, blood fi-om a 
wounded thigh, caught in the palm of the hand, and given to 
eat, sealeth those consecrated to Bellonay. They too, who in 
> hause- the games in the theatre have drank • wdth greedy thirst 
^deju- the fresh blood streaming from the neck^ of the butchered 
gulo de- crhninals to cure the falling sickness, where are they'? they 

curren- ^ ' . 

tern too, who from the stage sup on the meat of wild beasts, who 
fetch it from the boar, from the stag*.? That boar hath 



1 Ad Nat. ii. 12. Plin. Ep. x. 71. " Sail. Catil. i. 23. speaking doubt- 

Lactant. vi. 20. Justin. M. Apol. 1. fully. L. Florus (iv. 1.) positively. 

§. 27. Aug. de Nupt. i. 15. Minut. F. Minut. F. p. 297, 8. 

p. 289. * Massagetce, adv. Mare. i. 1. Herod. 

' Exhort, ad Cast. c. 12. Athenag. i. ult. 

Leg. §. 35. Minut. F. p. 290. hence y " Signat Bellonse" corresponds 

the' Christian Canons, Basil. Can. 2 with Minut. F. p. 298, 9. Bellonam 

and 8, &c. ap. Bingh. 16. 10. 3. and 4. sacrum suum haustu humani cruoris 

• i. 74. of the Medes and Lydians, imbuere. add Lactant. i. 21. the cutting 

iv. 70. of the Scythians. of the arms is named by Lucan. i. Lam- 

' Tac. Ann, xii. 47. of the nations prid. in Comm. &c. Tib. Eleg. i. 6. ib, 

under Mithridates. Mela, ii. 1. ofse- ^ Plin. xxviii. 6. Corn. Celsus, iii. 

veral tribes, Val. Max. ix. 11. of the 23. Minut. F. p. 299. 

Armenians: among American tribes, » Minut. F. 1. e. 
Lips, ad Tac. 1. c. 



confess^ that Christians abhor that of animals. 23 

from the man, whom he hath covered with blood, in slriio-- 
gling wdth him, wiped it off. That stag hath lain in the 
blood of a gladiator. The paunches of the very bears are 
in request, reeking yet with undigested human entrails''. 
The flesh which hath been fed on a man forthwith risetli in 
the stomach of a man. Ye that eat these things, how far 
removed are ye from the feasts of the Christians } And they 
too, who with brutal appetite seize on human bodies, do they 
do the less because they devour the living } Are they the 
less consecrated to filthiness by human blood, because what 
they take up hath yet to become blood ? They feed not indeed 
on infants, but on those of riper age. Let your sin blush 
before us Christians, who do not reckon the blood even of 
animals among meats to be eaten % who for this cause also 
abstain from things strangled, and sitch as die of themselves, Acts 15, 
that we may not be defiled by any blood even buried within Levit, 
their entrails. Finally, among the trials of the Christians, "^"^' ^* 
ye offer them also pudding-skins stuffed with blood, as being 
well assured that that, whereby ye would have them trans- 
gress, is unlawful among them. Moreover what manner of 
thing is it to believe that they, who ye are assured abhor 
the blood of beasts, pant for human blood.? unless perchance 
ye have found it sweeter! Which very blood too it were 
meet should be applied as a test of Christians, in like manner 
as the altar, as the censer. For they would be proved 
Christians^ by desiring human blood, as by refusing to sacri-' proba- 
fice, and would be to be slain on another ground if they chns- 
tasted, in the same way as if they had not sacrificed''. And''^"' ^i"' 
surely ye would have no lack of blood in your examination 
and condemnation of prisoners. Moreover, who are more 
incestuous than those whom Jupiter himself hath taught.? 
Ctesias relate th that the Persians are connected with their 
mothers *". And the Macedonians also are suspected, because 
when they first heard the Tragedy of Qulipus, laughing at 

^ The wild beasts were so fed in the negandi si non gustassent, queinadmo- 

arena, Salvian. de Prov. vi. p. 121. ed. dum si immolassent, " otherwise to be 

Baluz. declared not to be Christians, if they 

•= The same argument was used by tasted not, in the same way as if they 

Biblias Ep. Lugd. et Vienn. ap. Euseb. had sacrificed." 

H. E. V. 1. see further Note A. at the «= Tatian. c. Grsec. §. 28. Brisson 

end of the Apology. gives many authorities, de reg. Pers. 

•* The older Editions read alioquin 1. 2 sqq. 



24 Heathen defilemen — textent of Christian purity, 

Apol. the grief of the incestuous man they said, ^Xauvs t^v jxjjre^a. 
— — ^ Now consider what an opening there is to involuntary sin for 



the commission of incest, the promiscuousness of your 
debauchery supplying the materials. In the first place ye 
expose your children * to be taken up by the compassion of 
any passing stranger, or resign them to be adopted by nobler 
parents. Of a stock thus alienated, it must needs be that 

1 semel the memory is sometimes lost; and when once^ a mistake 

shall have chanced upon them, thenceforward it will go on 
transmitting the incest, the generation creeping on with the 
crime ^. Then, secondly, in whatever place ye be, at home, 
abroad, across the seas, lust is your companion, whose 
promiscuous sallies may any where easily make children for 
men unawares, so that the stock thus scattered, as it were, 

2 ut vei out of some portion at least of the seed^, doth through the inter- 
gJ^V*^!^^ course of man meet with its own reflected images, and 
portione kuoweth them not for mixtures of incestuous blood. Us a 
a,per. most careful and most fa.ithful chastity ^ hath fenced from 
^"°^ such a consequence ; and in proportion as we are safe from 
" adulteries, and from all transgression after marriage, so are 

we also from the chance of incest. Some men, much more 
secure, beat off by a pure continency the whole power of 
such error, little children to their old age \ If ye would 
consider that these things exist among you, ye would 
perceive forthwith that they exist not among the Christians. 
The same eyes would have testified of both. But two sorts 
of blindness easily unite, so that they who see not things 
which are, think also that they see things which are not. 
So I might shew it to be in every case. Now for the open 
sins. 

X. ' You do not,' say ye, ' worship the Gods", and you offer 

f Justin M. Apoi. i. 27. Clem. Al. ^ Atheism was one of the three 

- Paedag. iii. 3. Lact. vi. 20. Minut. F. charges against Christians. Athenag. 

p. 305. c. 3. Justin, Dial. c. Tryph. c. 17- 

g Lact. 1. c. Apol. i. 6. Epist. Anton, ap. Euseh. 

*> Christian chastity is appealed to, H. E. iv. 13. Arnob. 1- i. init. and 

as a known fact, by Justin, Apol. i. p. 16. ed. Lugd. iii. p. 116. iv. p. l47. 

$. 15. add. §. 29. Tatian, c. 37- Athe- v. p. 178. Lact. v. 9. vii. 27. Cyril, 

nag. 0. 32, 33. Minut. F. p. 307. Al. c. Julian, 1. ii. p. 43. vii. p. 238. 

' Remaining to old age what they and p. 343. Prudent. Peri-Stephanon. 

were as children. Justin M. 1. c. Hymn 14. Dio Cass. 1. G7. $. 83. 

Athenag. e. 33. Orig. o. Cels. i. 26. quoted by Kortholt de Calumn. Pag. 

Minut. F. p. 310. r. 8. Elmenhorst ad Arnob. 1. i. p. 16. 



Charge of atheism — heathen gods dead men. 25 

not sacrifices for the Emperors.' It followeth that we sacri- 
fice not for others for the same reason for which we do not 
even for ourselves, simply from not worshipping the gods. 
It is for sacrilege, therefore, and treason that we are arraigned. 
This is the chief point in the case : nay it is the whole, and 
certainly worthy of being considered, if neither presumption 
nor injustice are to judge it, the one despairing to find, 
the other rejecting, truth. We cease to worship your gods 
from the time when we discover that they are no gods. 
This therefore ye ought to require, that we prove that they 
be no gods, and therefore not to be worshipped, because 
then only ought they to have been w^orshipped, if they had 
been gods. Then also ought the Christians to be punished, 
if it were proved that those are gods, whom they worshipped 
not, because they thought them not to be so. * But to us,' 
ye say, ' they are gods.' We challenge this, and appeal 
from yourselves^ to your conscience. Let that judge us: let J a vobis 
that condemn us, if it shall be able to deny that all these '''^'^ 
gods of yours were men. If she too herself would go about 
to deny it, she shall be convicted out of her own documents 
of Antiquity, from whence she hath learned to know them, 
which bear witness, to this day, both to the cities in which 
they were bom, and to the countries wherein, having wrought 
any thing, they have left traces of themselves, nay even those 
in which they are proved to have been buried '. Nor shall 
I run through all separately, so many as they are and so 
great, new, old, barbarian, Grecian, Roman, foreign, taken 
in war, adopted^ peculiar, common, male, female, of the 
country, of the town, of the fleet, of the army. It is idle to 
go over their very titles. Let me sum up all in brief: and 
that, not that ye may learn, but be reminded of them; for 
certainly ye act as though ye had forgotten them. Before 
Saturn there is, according to you, no god"". From him is 

The grounds were, not worshipping the translated and folloued by Ennius,) 

heathen gods, CAthenag. 1. c. and c. 13. Cie. de Nat. Deor. i. v. fin. c. 42. He 

Justin, Apol. 1. c. Arnob. i. p. 16.) and is also referred to by Euseb. Praep. Ev. 

that they had no known places of ii. 4. Minut. F. p. IGO. Arnob. I. iv. 

worship, [being obliged to conceal p. 14/. Aug. de Civ. Dei, vi. 7. vii. 26. 

them,] Arnob. vi. init. Hence the cry Lact. i. U. as also by many heathens, 

of the populace, " Awav with the See also Clem. Al. Cohort, c. 2. p./. 
Atheists," see Ep. Eccl. 'Smyrn. ap. ■" Ad. Nat. 1. 2. Macrob. Sat. i. 1. 

Eu« iv 15 Aug. de Civ. D. v. 8. Minut. F. p. 



Especially Euhemerus, (who was 209. 



26 Saturn^ the parent of heathen gods, a man. 

Apol. the date of all Deity, though better or better known than 
-^- ^^- himself. Whatever therefore shall be proved of the origin, 
the same will also follow of the line. Touching Saturn, 
therefore, as far as books teach, neither Diodorus the Greek", 
nor Thallus", nor Cassius SeverusP, nor Cornelius Nepos, nor 
any of that class of writers on antiquities, have pronounced 
him to be ought else than a man. If we measure by the 
evidence of facts, I no where find any more trust-worthy 
than in Italy itself, wherein Saturn, after many travels, and 
after his entertainment in Attica, settled, being received by 
Janus or Janes as the Salii will have it*». The mountain, 
which he had dwelt in, was called Saturnius'': the city 
which he had planted, is even to this day Saturnia ^ : finally, 
the whole of Italy, after being called (Enotria, was surnamed 
Saturnia*. From him first came your tablets, and coin stamped 
with an image ", and hence he presideth over the treasury. 
But if Saturn be a man, surely he is born of q^man", and, 
because of a man, surely not of Heaven and Earth. But it 
easily came to pass that one, whose parents were unknown, 
should be called the son of those, of whom we may all be 
thought to be sons^. For who may not call Heaven and 
Earth his father and mother, in the way of reverence and 
respect, or according to the custom of men, whereby persons 
unknown, or unexpectedly appearing, are said to have 
dropped down upon us from the skies ^? In like manner it 
happened to Saturn, coming unexpected every where, to be 
called heaven-born. For even the vulgar call those, whose 
birth is uncertain, " sons of Earth ^" I say nothing of men 
being as yet in so rude a condition, that they might be 



» Siculus, 1. 1. Prsep. Ev. x. 3. 

A writer of Syrian history, African. ^ Dionys. i.34. Varro de Ling. Lat. 
ap. Euseb. Prsep. Ev. x. 1. referred to iv. 7. Aurel. Victor. O. G. E.. 3. ap. 
by Lact. i. 13. Minut. F. 1. c. Heyne, Exc. 2. ad -^n. 1. 8. Aug. de 

P It should be Cassius Hemina, a Civ. D. vii. 2. 

writer of Italian history from the * Virg. ^En. 8. 358. Macrob. Sat. i. 

earliest times to his own, A. U. C. 608. 7 . 

Voss. de Hist. Lat. i. 21. He is quoted ' lb. 8. 319—29. 

by Lact. 1. c. Minat. F. 1. c. Pliny, vii. " Minut. F. 1. c. 

10. XXXV. 30. mentions Cassius Seve- * Minut. F. 1. c. Lact. i. 11. v. fin. 

rus, a celebrated orator, (under Au- X Aurel. Victor de Orig. Gentis Rom. 

gustus, Suet. Aug. 56.) but does not say i. 2. 

(as Pam. states) that he took much '^ Tib. Eleg. i. 3. Minut. F. 1. c. 

from him. » Cic. ad Att. 1. i. Ep. 10, &c. 

1 Lact. i. 14. Minut. F. 1. c. Euseb. 



Principles of heathen, against their being made gods. 27 

moved by the appearance, as though divine, of any strange 
man, when even polished as they are at this day, men con- 
secrate as gods those whom a iew days before they acknow- 
ledged by a public mourning to be dead". Enough now, 
little as it is, of Saturn. I shall shew that Jupiter also was 
as well a man as born of a man ; and so, in order, that the 
whole swarm of his descendants were as mortal as they were 
like the seed whence they sprung. 

XI. And since, as ye dare not deny these to have been men% 
so ye have determined to affirm that they became gods after 
their death, let us treat of the causes which have worked out 
this effect. In the first place indeed ye must needs allow- 
that there is some superior God, and some dispenser of 
Deity, who hath made gods out of men. For neither could 
they have assumed to themselves that Deity which they had 
not, nor could any give it to them which had it not, save 
one who in his own proper right * possessed it. But if there ^apudse 
were no one to make them gods, in vain do ye presume that 
they were made gods, when ye refuse them a maker. 
Surely if they could have made themselves, they would 
never have been men, to wit as possessing in themselves 
the power of belonging to an higher state of being. Where- 
fore if there be one who maketh gods, I return to examine 
the reasons for making gods out of men, and I find none, 
unless it be that that great God lacked their services and aid 
in divine functions. First it is unworthy of Him that He 
should need the aid of any man, and that a dead one, seeing 
that He, who was about to lack the aid of a dead man, 
might more worthily have made some god from the first. 
But I do not even see any room for such aid : for all this 
body of the vmiverse, whether, according to Pythagoras, 
without beginning and without a maker, or, according to 
Plato, having a beginning and a maker, in any case being once 
for all, in the very act of its conception »,disposed, and furnished, - in ipsa 
and ordered, was found with a government of perfect reason". J^^^^^P" 
That could not be imperfect, which perfected =» all things. 3pe,fecit 

'' On the deifying ofthe Emperors see with certain laws, and self-governed, 

Dio, 1. 59. c. 28. of Caligula. (according to their view,) it needeth 

" Athenag. c. 28. and above on c. 10. not the aid of Saturn and his race. 
'1 i. e. being provided once for all 



28 gods discoverers not creators of goods, themselves had. 

Apol. Nothing awaited Saturn and the race of Saturn. Men must be 
-ii-- fools, if they be not assured that from the beginning rain 
hath fallen from heaven, and stars have beamed, and light 
hath shot forth, and thunders have roared, and Jupiter 
himself hath feared those bolts which ye place in his hands ; 
that all fruit likewise sprang abundantly from the earth 
before Bacchus, and Ceres, and Minerva, yea before that 
first man whosoever he was ; because nothing provided, for 
the maintenance and support of man, could have been intro- 
duced after man. Finally they are said to have discovered 
these necessaries of life, not to have made them^: but that 
which is discovered, was, and that which was, will not be 
accounted his who discovered, but his who made it : for it 
was, before it was discovered. Further, if Bacchus be there- 
fore a god, because he first made known the vine, Lucullus, 
who first introduced cherries generally into Italy, hath been 
Miiven- hardly dealt with, because, being the ^pointer out, he was 
omUted not thereupon deified as the author of a new fruit. Where- 
fore if the universe hath existed from the beginning, both 
ordered and dispensed by fixed laws for the exercise of its 
functions, there lacketh a cause in this particular for ad- 
mitting man to the Godhead, because the posts and powers 
which ye have assigned to them, have existed just as much 
from the beginning as they would have, even if ye had not 
created these gods. But ye betake yourselves to another 
reason, and answer that the conferring Deity upon them was 
a means of rewarding their merits, and hence ye grant, I 
suppose, that this god-making God is excellent in justice, 
one who would not rashly, nor unworthily, nor lavishly, 
dispense so great a reward. I would therefore recount their 
merits, whether they be such as should raise them to heaven, 
2 demer-and not rather sink them down^ into '' the nethermost hell," 
which, when ye choose, ye afnrm to be the prisonhouse of 
eternal punishments ^ For thither are the wicked wont to 
be thrust, and such as are unchaste towards their parents, 
and their sisters, and the debauchers of wives, and the 
ravisliers of virgins, and the corrupters of boys, and they 
who are of angry passions, and they who kill, and they who 
steal, and they who deceive, and whosoever are like some 

'■ Lact. i. 18. f Ibid. 



Many men better than the pods, even though good. 29 

god of yours', not one of whom will ye be able to prove free 
from crime or vice, unless ye shall deny that he was a man. 
But as ye cannot^ deny that they were men, ye have, besides, 'potestis 
these marks which do not either allow it to be believed 
that they were afterwards made gods. For if ye sit in 
judgment for the punishment of such men, if all who 
among you are honest refuse the intercourse, the con- 
versation, the company, of the evil and the base, and if that 
God hath admitted their compeers to a fellowship in his 
own majesty, why then condemn ye those whose fellows ye 
worship ? Your justice is a stigma upon heaven. Make all 
your worst criminals gods, that ye may please your gods. 
The deifying of their fellows is an honour to them. But to 
omit farther discussion of this their un worthiness, grant that 
they be honest, and pure, and good. Still how many better 
men have ye left in the shades below ! in wisdom a Socrates, 
in justice an Aristides, in warlike arts a Themistocles, in 
greatness of soul an Alexander, in good fortune a Polycratcs, 
in wealth a Crcesus, in eloquence a Demosthenes ! Which 
of these gods of yours was more grave and wise than Cato } 
more just and warlike than Scipio ? Which more great 
of soul than Pompey } more fortunate than Sylla } more 
wealthy than Crassus ? more eloquent than Tully } How 
much more worthily would he have waited for these to be 
adopted as gods, foreknowing, as he must, the better men ! 
He was hasty I trow, and shut up heaven once for all, and 
now blusheth doubtless to see better men grumbling in the 
shades below^ 

XII. Isaynomorenowof these, as knowing that, when I have 
shewn what they are, I shall by the very force of truth shew 
what they are not. As touching your gods therefore, I see 
names only, the statues^ of certain dead men of olden time, and-; statuas 
1 hear fables, and in their fables I read their mysteries. But"*"^ 
as touching the images themselves I find nothing else than^^esse 
materials akin to vessels and instruments of connnon use, or 
from these same vessels and instruments, as though changing 
their destiny by their consecration, the wantonness of art 
transforming them, and that too most insultingly, and in the 
work itself sacrilegiously : so that in very truth it may be a 

f Athenag. e. 30. 



30 Process of image-making disgrace to image-icorship. 

Apol. consolation to us in our punishments, especially since we are 
1l}1l- punished on account of these very gods, that they themselves 
also suffer the same things in order that they may be made. 
Ye put the Christians upon crosses and stakes^. What 
image doth not the clay first form, moulded upon a cross and 
a stake ' ? It is on the gibbet that the body of your god is 
first consecrated ! Ye tear the sides of the Christians with 
claws'' : but upon your gods hatchets, and planes, and files, 
are more stoutly laid over all their limbs. We lay down our 
necks : until lead and glue and pegs have been used, your 
gods are headless. We are driven to the beasts; those 
surely which ye attach to Bacchus, and to Cybele, and to 
Caelestis'. We are burned with fire : so too are they in their 
original mass. We are condemned to the mines : it is 
thence that your gods are derived. We are banished to 
islands ; in an island also one or other of your gods useth 
to be born or to die'". If by such means any deity is formed, 
then those who are punished are deified, and your con- 
demned criminals ought to be called gods. But clearly your 
gods feel not these injuries and insults in the forming of 
them; as neither do they the honours paid to them. O 
impious words ! O sacrilegious revilings ! Gnash your teeth 
and foam upon us. Ye are the same men who approve of 
a Seneca declaiming against your superstition in more 
copious and bitter words". Wherefore if we worship not 
statues" and cold images, very like their dead originals, 
which the kites, and the mice, and the spiders, well knowP, 
did not the renouncing of the discovered error deserve praise 
rather than punishment.? For can w^e think that we injure 
those, who we are sure have no being at all ? That which is 
not, suffereth nothing from any, because it is not. 

^ By impaling, (Theod. de Cur. Gr. TYvej were pictured as drawn by lions, 

Aff. Disp. viii. init.) or when exposed tigers, or lynxes. 

to the wild beasts, Eus. H. E. v. 1. or ^ Jupiter in Crete, Apollo and Diana 

burnt alive, Lips, de Cruce. in Delos, Juno in Samos. 

' Justin M. Apol. i. 9, Ep. ad Diogn. " See in Aug, de Civ. D. vi, 10. 

c. 2. Clem. Al. Cohort, e. 4. p. 16. ° See note B. at the end of the 

Minut. F. p. 218. Arnob. vi. p. 200. Apology. 

k Cyprian, de Laps. c. 10. Auct. de P See Baruch vi. 19. Clem. Al. 

Laud. Mart. init. Prudent, in Roman. Cohort, c. iv. p. 15. Arnob. 1. vi. p. 

Mart. 451. They are still preserved at 202. Minut. F. p. 221. Lact. ii. 4. Aug. 

Rome. in Ps. 113. §. 2. 

1 The tutelary goddess of Carthage. 



Profanations in heathenism toward their oiim r/ods. 31 

XIII. ' But; sayest thou, ' they are gods to us.' And 
how is it that ye on the other hand are found to be impious, 
and sacrilegious, and irreligious, towards those ^ gods ? ' Reos 
neglecting those, whom ye presume to exist; destroying negHg'a- 
those, whom ye fear, and even mocking those, whom ye*'''^c. 
avenge ! Mark whether I speak falsely. First in that% when^ qui 
ye worship, some one, some another, of course ye offend 
those whom ye worship not<i. The preference of one cannot 
go on without the slight of another, because there is no 
choice without rejection. Ye despise then at once those 
whom ye reject; whom ye fear not, by rejecting, to offend. 
For as we have before shortly hinted, the case of each god 
depended upon the judgment of the Senate. He was not a 
god, w^hom man, after consultation, had refused, and, by 
refusing, had condemned. Your household gods, whom ye 
call Lares, ye deal with according to your household rights, 
by pledging, selling, changing them, sometimes from a 
Saturn into a chamber vessel, sometimes from a Minerva 
into a pan, as each hath become worn and battered by being 
long worshipped, as each man hath found his household need 
the more sacred god. Your public gods ye equally profane 
by public right, whom ye have in the register as a source of 
revenue. Thus the capitol, thus the herb-market is bid for'. 
Under the same proclamation of the crier, under the same 
spear, in the same catalogue of the quaestor. Deity is con- 
signed and hired. But in truth lands charged with a tribute 
are of less value : men assessed for a poll-tax are less noble. 
For these are the marks of villenage. But the gods who pay 
the highest tribute are the most holy ; yea, rather, they who 
are the most holy pay the highest tribute. Their majesty is 
made a source of gain : Religion goeth about the taverns 
begging*. Ye exact payment for a footing in the temple, 
for access to the sacred rite. Ye may not know the gods for 
nothing : they have their price. What do ye at all to honour 
them, which ye do not bestow on your dead men also.? 

q Athenag. c. 14. Aug. de Civ. D. Mater, whence the term f^vr^etyu^ra, ; 

Yij. 1_ fitjT^ctyv^evvTi;^ Dioiiys. Hal. ii. 20. 

' The fees for visiting the capitol p.2/ei.ed.iteisk. Aristot. Rhet.iii.2. 10. 

were let by auction every five years Clem. Al. Cohort, p. 20. ed. Pott, 

(ad Nat. i. 10.) like the tolls of the Minut. F. p. 224. Aug. de Civ. D. vii. 

herb market. 26. see below, c. 42. 

» Chiefly the Dea Syria, Magna 



32 Degraded objects of Roman icorship — Simon Magus, 



Apol. Temples all the same, altars all the same, — the same dress 
' ^^' and badges on the statues. As the dead man hath his age, 
hath his profession, hath his occupation, so hath the god. 
How doth the funeral feast differ from the feast of Jupiter ? 
a bowl from a chalice ^ } an embalmer from a soothsayer } 
for a soothsayer also attendeth on the dead. But rightly do 
ye offer divine honours to your deceased Emperors, to whom 
even when living ye assign them. Your gods will count 
themselves your debtors, yea will be thankful because their 
masters are made their equals. But when among your 
Junos, and Cereses, and Dianas, ye worship Larentina", a 
public harlot, (I would at least it had been Lais or Phryne ;) 
when ye instal Simon Magus'" with a statue and the title of 
an holy god ; when ye make I know not whom out of the 
court pages a god of the syuod^; although your ancient 

'toritatepublica,") that discovered, is by 
an individual : 2. that the words are not 
the same, nor the order: 3. that Justin 
speaks of it, as a single case, and asks 
for one statue to be removed, whereas 
there were many statues of Simon ; (so 
Baronius, v>"ho mentions one on the 
Quirinal:) 4. that S. Augustine, who 
makes the same statement, knew of the 
Sabine Semo (de Civ. D. xviii. 19.) [as 
did Lact. i. \5.] 5. that Theodoret, 
Hser. Fab. i. I. says, that the statue was 
of brass, that this was of stone, [but it 
does not seem that any statue was 
found, but the base only, Baron. 1. c] 
There is then to set against the 
authority of Justin, only a similarity 
of inscription and the identitj' of the 
place, which however was full of temples, 
and was hence called the sacred island, 
(Liv. ii.5. Plut. 1. c.) Another contrast 
would be suggested by Baronius A. 44. 
§. 55. who says on the authority of S. 
Irenseus, i. 20. [23, 4.] Epiph. xxi. 3. 
that Simon's statue was in the form of 
Jupiter, while that of Semo represented 
Hercules. But these fathers are not 
here speaking of the Roman statue, but 
of that which his followers had and 
worshipped, of which S. Ireneeus speaks 
positively, of the Roman, as a report. 
(ib.§.l.) 

y The degraded Antinous, by the 
Emp. Adrian, see Orig. c. Cels. iii. 36. 
Hegesippus ap. Eus. H. E. iv. 8. Spar- 
tian. in Adriano. An ancient inscription 
calls him " enthroned" {avi6^ovu) " with 
the Egyptian gods." 



* Out of which libations to the dead 
were poured. The sameness of the 
rites argues that the gods also were but 
dead men. 

" Area Larentia, the nurse of Romu- 
lus, Plin. xviii. 1. Licinius Macer ap. 
Macrob. Sat. i. 10. A. Gell. vi. 7. 

^ Justin M. Apol. i. c. 26, gives the 
inscription " Simoni Deo Sancto," and 
says that the statue with this inscription 
^' "stood by the Tiber hettceen the two 
bridges." This was the title of the 
Island of vEsculapius, (Plutarch, in 
Poplic. p. 221. ed. Bryan.) where A.D. 
1572 was dug up a statue with the 
inscription, " Semoni Sanco"(or " San- 
go") Deo Fidio sacrum Sex. Pom- 
peius, &c. whence some have thought 
that he confounded Semo [the Sabine 
Hercules] with Simon Magus, and that 
the more, since the i and e are inter- 
changed in inscriptions, e. g. Mircurius, 
Gimina, and that the Sabine god is 
called Sanctus, Ov. Fast. vi. 214. 
Grabe ad Euseb. H. E. ii. 13. [This 
however is doubtful. Sancto is thought 
to be a corrupt reading, derived from 
the abbreviation SCO. Yet he is called 
Sanctus in the edd. of Sil. Ital. viii.422. 
and in a second inscription it is used as 
an epithet " Sango Sancto Semoni 
Deo," which comes nearer to the use 
in Justin, see Comm. in Ovid. 1. c. ed. 
Burmann.] Tillemont, on the other 
hand, remarks, (t. ii. Notes sur Simon 
le Mag.) 1. that Justin implies (ib. c. 
56.) that the statue was erected by 
Claudius and the Senate, (and S. 
Augustine affirms it, Hser. i. 6. " auc- 



Heathen neylected, their poets degraded, their gods, 3.'3 

gods be not more noble, yet they will account it a slight on 
your part that that hath been allowed to others also, which 
they alone had from the earliest ages preengaged. 

XIV. I am unwiUing* to recount also your sacred rites. I > Nolo 
say not what your behaviour is in sacrificing, when ye ofier 
up all your dying, and rotting, and scabbed animals ; when 
from those that are fat and sound ye cut off all the super- 
fluous parts, the heads and the hoofs, wdiich, even in your 
own houses, ye would have set aside for your slaves and 
your dogs; when of the tithe due to Hercules ye lay not 
even one third part upon his altar. I wull rather praise^ your- Lau- 
wasdom, for that ye save somewhat of that which is thrown 
away. But turning to your books, by which ye are in- 
structed in prudence and in honourable duties, what mock- 
eries do T find 1 gods fighting, on account of the Trojans 
and Greeks, matched against each other like pairs of 
gladiators M Venus wounded with an arrow by a man, 
because she w^ould fain deliver her own son ^neas, lest 
he should be slain by the same Diomede ^ ! Mars almost 
wasted to death by imprisonment in chains for thirteen 
months'*! Jupiter delivered by the aid of a kind of monster "^, 
lest he should suffer the same violence from the rest of the 
gods ! and now weeping for the fall of Sarpedon"*, now foully 
lusting after his own sister, and recounting to her his 
mistresses, not loved, for a long time past, so much as her^ 
Thenceforward what poet is not found to be a degrader of 
the gods, after the example of his master } One assigneth 
Apollo to King Admetus for feeding his cattle ^• another 
letteth out to Laomedon the services of Neptune as a 
builder^: and there is that one among the Lyric Poets, 
Pindar I mean, who singeth of xEsculapius ^ being juniished 
by a thunderbolt, as the reward of his covetousness, because 
he had practised medicine sinfully. Wicked Ju]ntcr, if 
the bolt be his! unnatural towards his grandson! jealous 

I II. T. 66 sqq. found together in Justin Cohort, init. 

=> II' E 335 sqq. Rig- omits this see also Athenag. c. 21. 2D. Clem. Al. 

sentence, *" quod filium suum iEnean, Strom, i. 21. t. i. p. 383. ed. Pott, 
ne interimeretur ab eodem Diomede, " H. 3-314 sqq. 

rapere vellet." ' ^^""P• Ale Prol. Athenag. c. 21. 

b II E 385 sqq ^ Lurip. froad. Prol. 

c Bria^eus, II. A. 399 sqq. "^ t\vth. iii- 96. Athenag. c. 29. 

«I II. n. 433 sqq. The instances are 



34 Heathen gods alike degraded hy their philosophers^ comediavi 

Apoi,. towards his craftsman ! These things ought neither to be 
' disclosed if true, nor invented if false, amongst the most 



1 

nee 



ne/ur religions of all people. Not^ even the tragic and comic 
writers spare them ; or forbear to cite in their prologues the 
distresses and the frailties of the family of some one of the 
gods. Of the philosophers I say nothing, content with 
Socrates, who, in mockery of the gods, swore by an oak, and 
a goat, and a dog'. But (say ye) Socrates was on that 
account condemned, because he disparaged the gods. Verily, 
of old time, indeed at all times, truth is hated. Nevertheless 
when, in repenting of then* sentence, the Athenians both 
punished afterwards the accusers of Socrates, and set up 
a golden" statue of him in a temple, the reversal of his 
condemnation bore testimony in behalf of Socrates. But 
Diogenes^ too has some jest upon Hercules: and the Roman 
Cynic Varro introduceth three hundred Joves, or perhaps I 
should say Jupiters, without heads. 

XV. The rest of your licentious wits work even for your 
amusement through dishonour of the gods. Consider the 
pretty trifles of the Lentuli"* and Hostilii, whether in those 
jokes and tricks ye are laughing at the buffoons, or at your 
own gods ; * The adulterer Anubis,' ' The male Luna ",' 
' Diana ° scourged,' and ' The will of the deceased Jupiter' 
read aloud, and ' The three starved HerculesesP' turned to 
ridicule. But the writings also of the stage shevv^ up all 
their baseness i. The Sun mourneth for his son cast do'.vn 



^ Theoph. ad Autol. iii. 2. Philostr. infers that Socrates meant symbolically 

de vit. Apoll. vi. 9. Lucian in Icarome- his " genius" as a " guardian." 

nipp. (ap. Her.) mention " a dog, goose, ^ Probably "brazen ;" "auream" for 

i^xvva, Ko.) x/iva. by a sort of alliteration " eeream." 

probably,) and plane." t^-hol, on Aris- ^ The Cynics continually jested on 
toph. " a goose, dog, ram, and the like." Hercules, whose followers they pro- 
It seems to have been a sort of protest fessed to be in their coarseness. Lucian 
against perjury and swearing by the Vit. Auct. c. 8. Cynic. 13. and in part 
gods at all : so the Schol. 1. c. Porph. Apuleius, Apol. p. 288. ed. Elm. 
de Abstin. iii. Suidas ; saying that it "^ De Pallio, e. 4. Hieron. adv. E,uf. 
was in imitation of Rhadamanthus. Apol. 2. 

S. Augustine de Vera Rel. c. 2. inter- " The moon was a god in the East, 

prets as Tert., that Socrates meant to (in Heb. and Arab, it is masc.) 

imply that they were better gods, than ° Horn. II. «U. 481—494. 

the works of men's hands, or that Pan- p On the jests on Hercules' gluttony, 

theists must think these to be gods or see in Athenaeus, x. I. xiv. 72. Eurip. 

parts of God. add. Lact. iii. 20. P. Petit Ale. 747—802. 

Misc. Obss, iv. 7. remarks that the <1 Arnob. 1. iv. fin. 
" dog" only is mentioned by Plato, and 



on the stage and arena ; hy actors and temple-robbers. 35 

from Heaven, and ye are delighted : and Cjbele sigheth for 
her scornful shepherd, and ye blush not; and ye suffer 
lampoons on Jupiter to be sung, and Juno, Venus, and 
Minerva to be judged by the shepherd. Take the very fact»,' ipsum 
that the mask, representing your god, covers an ignominious^ ?""^^ 
and infamous head"? of a person impure, and brought to this '"''••- 
point of skill by being unmanned, acting a Minerva or a 
Hercules ? Is not their majesty insulted and their divinity 
defiled, amidst your applause ? of a verity ye are more 
religious in the theatre, where your gods dance forthwith 
upon human blood, upon the stains of capital punishments, 
furnishing arguments and stories to wicked wretches, except 
that those wretches assume the characters of your gods 
themselves. We have ere now seen Atys, your^ god from^vestium 
Pessinus, mutilated; and he who was burnt alive, was acting" 
Hercules. We have smiled too, amidst sportive atrocities of 
the noonday men *, at Mercuiy examining the dead with his 
red-hot bar. We have seen likewise the brother of Jupiter 
conducting the dead bodies of the gladiators with his 
hammer ^ If these several things, and others which any 
man might search out, disturb the honour of their divinity, if 
they level to the ground the crown of their majesty, they 
must surely be imputed to the contempt both of those who 
do them, and of those for whom they do them. But let 
these be mere jests. Nevertheless if I shall add, (what the 
consciences of all will no less admit,) that adulteries are 
committed in the temples ", that debaucheries are carried on 
about the altars, chiefly in the very abodes of the ministers 
and priests, that under the same fillets and caps and purple 
robes, lust is satisfied while the incense is burning, I know 
not whether your gods may not complain more of you than 
of the Christians. Certainly the committers of sacrilege are 
ever found to be of your party; for the Christians have no 
dealings with the temples even in the day-time; they too 
perchance might rob them, if they too worshipped in them. 

' See de Spect. c. 22. Minut. F. armour. Seneca (Ep. 7.) calls them 

p. 345. Arnob. 1. vii. p. 239. Aug. de "mere murders," see Lips. Sat. ii. 15. 
Civ. D. ii. 14. 27. ^ i- ^- ^he one, to trj- if any life were 

» The gladiators, who had escaped left, the other to destroy it. 
with their lives in the morning, were " Minut. F. p. 237. 
made to fight at noon, without defensive 

D 2 



36 Calumnies against Christians — laorship of ass's head ; 

Apol. What then do they worship, who worship not such things ? 
— — - Already indeed it is easy to be inferred that they are the 



worshippers of the Truth, who worship not that which is 
false ; and that they err no longer, in that, by discovering 
their error in which, they have ceased from it. Receive 
this first: and hence ye may draw the whole order of our 
sacred rites, certain false opinions being however first 
refuted. 
» Nam, XVI. For as some of you ' have dreamed of an ass's head 
dam"' being our God * ; a suspicion of this sort Cornelius Tacitus 
hath introduced. For in the fifth of his Histories ^, having 
begun the account of the Jewish war from the origin of the 
nation, having also discussed what questions he chose, as 
well touching the origin itself, as the name and the religion, 
of the nation, he telleth us that the Jevt^s being delivered, or, 
as he supposed, banished, from Egypt, when they were 
pining with thirst in the wastes of Arabia, places most 
destitute of water, took as their guides to the springs wild 
asses, which, it was supposed, would perhaps, after feeding, 
go to seek water, and that for this service they consecrated 
the image of a like creature. And so, I suppose, it was 
thence presumed that we, as bordering on the Jewish 
Religion^, were taught to worship such a figure. But yet 
the same Cornelius Tacitus, (that most un-tacit man forsooth 
in lies,) relateth in the same history *, that Cneius Pompeius, 
when he had taken Jerusalem, and thereupon had gone up 
to the temple to examine the mysteries of the Jewish 
religion, found no image therein. And without doubt, if 
that were worshipped, which was under any visible image 



* Csecil. ap. Minut. F . p. 83. Severus thinks that Adrian's measures 

y c. 3. He had it probably from against the Jews were directed against 

Appion, see Joseph, c. Ap. ii. 10. It the Christians, Hist. S. 1. ii. p. 951. ed. 

is repeated by Plutarch, Symp. iv. 5. Galesin. see Haverc. ad Apol. p. 8. 

Democritus ap. Suid. v. 'loutds. All have much in common ; the Chris- 

^ The Christians are called Jews by tians of the circumcision much more ; 

Arrian, Diss. Epist. ii. 9. and meant the Jews further diligently circulated, 

under the title by Dio Cass. 1. 67. c. 14. that the Christians were an ungodly 

(of Clemens and Domitilla,) and 1. 68. " sect," who had risen in Galilee : 

c. 1. (of Nerva's edict forbidding any (Just. M. Dial. c. 17. 108.) and so 

to be " accused for impiety on a Jewish connected them with themselves. Kor- 

tenor of life.") by Seneca ap. Aug. de tholt refers to the de Persecutt. EccL 

Civ. D. vi. 11. and confused with themby prooem. iii. sect. ii. 6. v. 33. 

Sueton. Claud. 25. Ulpian. de Procons. * c. 9. 
Off, 1. 3. (ap. Lac. ad c. 3.) Sulpitius 



Worship of the Cross; retorted not admitted by Tertulliaji. 37 

represented, it would be no where more seen than in its own 
holy place, the rather because the worship, however vain, 
had no fear of strangers to witness it ; for it was lawful for 
the priests alone to approach thither; the very gaze of the 
rest was forbidden by a veil spread before them. Yet yc 
will not deny that beasts of burden and whole geldings", 
with their own Epona, are worshipped by yourselves. On 
this account perchance we are disapproved, because, amidst 
the worshippers of all beasts and cattle, we are worshippers 
of asses alone. But he also who thinketh us superstitious 
respecters of the Cross, will be our fellow worshipper ', when 
prayer is made to any wood. No matter for the fashion, so 
long as the quality of the material be the same ; no matter 
for the form, so long as it be the very body of a god. And 



^ i. e. the whole animal, not his head 
only. 

<= Ten. does not imply that the 
Christians worshipped the Cross, but 
the contrary. Here, and in the charges, 
as to the ass's head, and the ovokoiti;, 
in all which there was no foundation in 
fact, he answers by mere irony ; where 
there was plausible ground for a heathen 
so to think, as in the worship of the 
Sun, he says so, and names the ground. 
The irony too is such, as one would 
not have used, who paid reverence to 
the figure of the Cross. Minut. F.p. 284, 
imitating the passage, says, " Crosses 
we neither worship nor wish for," in 
allusion to the charge of the heathen, 
p. 86. " so that they worship what they 
deserve:" and p. 105. " so here are 
Crosses for you, not to be worshipped, 
but to be undergone." Julian (ap. Cyril 
Al. vi, p. 19.5.) grounds the same charge 
on their painting the figure of the 
Cross, " Ye worship the wood of the 
Cross, painting (ffKiuyoaccpovvrss) figures 
thereof on the forehead and before the 
doors," (i'y'y^ix(povTis t^o rZv olKrif^aruv.) 
S. Cyril states, at great length, that it 
was a memorial only of the mercies and 
duties of the Cross; to the same end 
that they signed themselves with it. (de 
Cor. c. 3. ad Uxor. ii. 5.) Of instances, 
later than Tertullian's age, of homage 
to the visible Cross, the followingplainly 
prove nothing. Ambr. de ob. Theod. 
«. 48. '' Helena raised and placed the 
Cross of Christ upon the head of Icings, 
that the Cross of Christ might in kings 
be adored," i. e. that the reverence paid 



to kings might rather be paid to the 
Cross over their brow. Id. de Inc. Dom. 
Sacr. c. 7. §. 75. " Do we, when in 
Christ we venerate the Image of God 
and the Cross, divide Him?" not the 
visible Cross, but the doctrine ; it stands 
paralled to " His Divinity and His 
flesh ;" as Euseb. Emis. (de adv. Joann. 
Opusc. p. 9.) " But although they [the 
Jews] declined that healing, we, the 
Heathen, who have become worshippers 
of the Cross (ol •r^offxwna'ocvTSi to» arau- 
^ov) have received it, as said Isaiah (5y, 
5)." Jerome in Vita Paulse, Ep. 108. 
$. 9. of her visit to the holy Sepulchre, 
" Prostrate before the Cross she wor- 
shipped, as tho7(gh she saw the Lord 
hanging thereon." Not the Cross, 
but the crucifix, is the temptation to 
idolatry. Sedulius (A. 434.) carni. 
Pasch. iv. " And that no one might 
be ignorant that the form of the Cross 
is to be venerated," (speciem Crucis 
esse colendam) is not speaking of the 
material Cross ; for he goes on to speak 
of the Cross formed by the four quarters 
of the Heavens, and that " Christ rules 
the world compassed by the Cross." 
The earliest instance then alleged is 
that of Pseudo-Lactantiiis, de Pass. 
Dom. (the other poem ' de Pascha,' 
found with it, is of the age of Charle- 
magne.) These are lines in the mouth 
ofthe Redeemer, depicted in the Church, 
and bidding to " bow the knee, and 
adore with tears the venerable wood of 
the Cross." It the more illustrates the 
previous silence. See further, Note V> 
at the end of the Apology. 



38 Chri.stianF, prayimj toicai^di^ Easf^ tjioaght to icorship su n. 

Apol. yet hovv doth the Athenian Minerva differ from the body of 
— ^ — - the Cross ? and the Ceres of Pharos, who appeareth in the 
market, without a figure, made of a rude stake and a shape- 
less log ? Every stock of wood, w^hich is fixed in an upright 
posture, is a part of a cross ; w^e, if we worship him at all, 
worship the god whole and entire. We have said that the 
origin of your gods is derived from figures moulded on a 
cross. But ye worship victories also, when, in your 
triumphs, crosses form the inside of the trophies ''. The 
whole religion of tlie camp is a worshipping of the stand- 
ards % a swearing by the standards % a setting up of the 
standards above all the gods^. All those rows of images'' on 
linsigDisyour Standards* are the appendages of crosses; those hangings 
on your standards and banners are the robes ' of crosses. I 
commend your care : ye w^ould not consecrate your crosses 
naked and unadorned. Others certainly, with greater sem- 
blance of nature and of truth, believe the sun to be our God. 
If this be so, we must be ranked with the Persians ; though 
w^e worship not the sun painted on a piece of linen, because 
in truth we have himself in his own hemisphere. Lastly, 
this suspicion ariseth from hence, because it is well known 
that we pray towards the quarter of the east ''. But most of 
yourselves too, with an affectation of sometimes worshipping 
the heavenly bodies also, move your lips towards the rising 
of the sun. In like manner, if we give up to rejoicing 
the day of the sun, for a cause far different from the worship 

^ Justin M. Apol. i. §. 55. Minut. F. were toward the East.(Tert. e. Valent. 

p. 286. c. 3. Const. Ap. ii. 57. so that other 

« Claudian. in Rufin. 5. 366. Dionys. positions were rare exceptions, Socr. v. 

Hal. vi. 45. p. 1142. They sacrificed 22. Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Sever.) as the 

to them, Joseph, de B. J. vi. 32. place of our lost Paradise ; (Cyril Jerus. 

f Liv. xxvi. 48. Lect. xix. 6. p. 261. ed. Oxf. S. Basil. 

&" Follow the Roman hirds [Eagles], de Sp. S. c. 27. Const. Ap. ii. 67. Greg, 

the special deities of the legions," Nyss. Horn. 5. de Or. Dom. t. i. p. 755. 

Germanicus, ap. Tac. Ann. ii. 17- Qusestt. ad Antioch.q.37. Bamasc.l.c.) 

" turning to the standards and gods of as the more eminent part of the world, 

wars." Id. Hist. iii. 10. (unde ccelum surgit, Aug. de serm. 

^ Of the gods and emperors. They Dom. in Monte, ii. 5. Qusestt. ad 

were of gold and silver. Orthod. ap. Justin. M. q. 118.) It is 

' The banner was of silk and gold. instanced as an Apostolic tradition by 

^ Christians prayed to the East, as S, Basil. 1. c. and so called in the 

the type of Christ the Sun of righteous- Qusestt. ad Orthod. 1. c. Origen (Hom. 

ness, (S. Clem. Al. Strom, vii. 7. p. 856. 5. in Num.) instances it as a rite in 

Damasc.iv. 12.) whence alsoin Baptism universal practice, but the ground of 

they turned to the East to confess Christ, which was not clear and obvious to 

(S. Jer. in Am. vi. 14. Ambros. de iis most, 
qui initiantur c. 2.) and their Churches 



Other calumny — 7? horn they did wursliip. 3«) 

of the sun, we are only next to those, who set apart the day 
of Saturn' for rest and feastmg, themselves also deflecting 
from the Jewish custom, of which they are ignorant. But 
now a new report of our God hath been lately set forth in 
this city, since a certain wretch, hired to cheat the wild 
beasts"", put forth a picture with some such title as this, 
" The God of the Christians conceived of an ass." This 
was a creature with ass's ears, with a hoof on one foot", 
carrying a book, and wearing a gown. We have smiled both 
at the name and the figure. But they ought instantly to 
adore this two-formed god, because they have admitted gods 
made up of a dog's " and a lion's head p, and w ith the horns 
of a goat^ and a ram'', and formed like goats from the loins', 
and like serpents from the legs, and with wings on the foot ' 
or the back ^ Of these things we have said more than 
enough, lest we should have passed over any rumour un- 
refuted, as though from a consciousness of its truth. AW 
which charges we have cleared, and now turn to shew you 
what our Religion is. 

XVU. That which we worship is the One God, Who 
through the Word by W^hich He commanded, the Reason by 
Which He ordained, the Power by Which He was able^, 
hath framed out of nothing this wdiole material mass with all 
its furniture of elements, bodies, and spirits, to the honour of 
His Majesty ; whence also the Greeks have applied to the 
universe the name KoVjxo^ He is invisible though seen, 

1 The seventh day of the month, Mithra, c. 3. p. 128. c. 5. p.202. Porph. 

sacred to Saturn, as the seventh planet, also de Abstin. 1. iv, p. 54. ap. Elmenh. 

was regarded as an ill-omened day for ad Minuc. p. 261. mentions in Egyptian 

business, and so spent in idleness and idolatry, human figures " with the head 

dissipation. Little reason had they of a bird or a lion/' (whence the Noraos 

then to reproach the Christians. On Leontopolites) and Arnob. 1. vi. p. 

the seventh day among the Heathen, 116. ib. 

see at great length, SeldendeJur. Nat. <1 Sispita or Lanuviana, Pan, and 

et Gent. 1. iii. c. 15 sqq. Satyrs, see Spanheim. de Usu Numism. 

"An apostate Jew, ad Nat. i. 14. p. 354. The Mendesians worshipped the 

n The Empusa, or mid-day Hecate, goat. Strab. 1. c. Herod, ii. Clem. Protr. 

had one ass's foot. Philostr. de vit. I.e. Minuc.p. 261. " de capro et honune 

Apollon. ap. Hav. mixtos Deos." 

o ''The Hermopolitse worship a dog- ■■ Jupiter Amnion, 

headed animal." Strabo, 1. 17. ap. Ouz. « Pan. Porph. de Abstm. 1. 3. 

ad Minuc. p. 263. also Athan. c. Gent. * Mercury, and sun-images. Macr. 

Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 13. Clem. Protr. Sat. i. 19. " pennata vestigia" Martian. 

2. 39. of the Cynopolitse. The dog was Capell. de Nupt. Philol. p. 20. 

wcrshippid throughout Egypt. Strabo, " Cupido, &c. 

1. c.&c. X Mimic, p. 141. 14«. 

P Probably Mithra. Ph. a Turre de 



40 Natural language of Heathen attested Christian truths. 
A POL. incomprehensible though present through His grace^ incon- 



ceivable though conceived by the sense of man. Therefore 
He is true ; and such is His greatness. Now that which can 
ordinarily be seen, which can be comprehended, which can 
be conceived, is less than the eyes by which it is scanned, 
and the hands by which it is profaned, and the senses by 
w^hich it is discovered: but that which is immeasurable is 
known to itself alone. This is it which causeth God to 
be conceived of, while He admitteth not of being conceived : 
thus the force of His greatness presenteth Him to men, 
as both known and unknown. And this is the sum of their 
offending, who will not acknowledge Him of Whom they 
cannot be ignorant. Will ye that we prove Him to be, from 
His own works, so many and such as they are, by which we 
are maintained, by which we are supported, by which we 
are delighted, by which also we are made afraid ? Will ye 
that we prove it by the witness of the soul itself, which 
although confined by the prison of the body, although 
straitened by evil training, although unnerved by lusts and 
desires, although made the servant of false gods, yet when it 
recovereth itself as from a surfeit, as from a slumber, as from 
1 sani- some infirmity, and is in its proper condition of soundness *, 
tatera ^^ nameth God, by this name only, because the proper name 
patitur of the tme God. ' Great God,' ^ Good God ^,' and ^ which 
God grant»,' are words in every mouth. It witnesseth also 
that He is its Judge. ' God seeth %' ' I commend to God,' 
* God shall recompense me.' O testimony of a soul, by 
nature Christian ! Finally, in pronouncing these words, it 
looketh not to the Capitol, but to Heaven ; for it knoweth 
the dwelling-place of the true God: from Him and fi'om 
thence it descended. 

y " O bone Deus," Seribon. Larg. c.6. and by S.Cyprian, de Idol. Vanit. 

compos. 84. in fine ap. Facciol. v. bonus, c. 6. p. 18. ed. Oxf. Arnob. 1. ii. init. 

^ h &ih '^a^a.ffxoi, passim ap. Her. Lactant. ii. 1. Minut. F. p. 144. Cyrill 

h Qios fikri. Xenoph. Cyrop. iv. ii. 13. c. Julian, ii. 36. Hieron. in Malach. ii. 

Aristoph. Plut. 347- 405. " But how 14. Breviarium in Ps. 95. v. 10. 

must we speak?" Socr. " If God a " There is a God (est Deus) in 

will," on lav Qibs i6'iXri Plato Alcib. 1. Heaven, who both heareth and seeth 

p. 135. Steph. ^vv TA! Qiu traj ko.) yiXZ what we do." Plautus Captiv. ap. Her. 

»«JSyg£Ta<. Soph. Aj. 383. ^yvGsft) §' ti^mi' " Be of good cheer, of good cheer, my 

rat. Arist. Plut. 114. quoted by Herald, child, there is a great God in Heaven 

Advers. ii. 5. see more fully de Testim. who beholdeth and ruleth all things." 

Animse, c. 2. 3. 4. 5. The argument is Soph. El. 175. (ib.) 
repeated, de Res. Cam. c. 3. de Corona, 



Character and office of Hebrew Prophets. 41 

XVIII. But that we might approach more fully and with 
deeper impressions, as well to Himself as His ordinances 
and His counsels, He hath added the instrument of Scripture, 
if any desireth to enquire concerning God, and having 
enquired, to find Him, and having found, to believe in Him, 
and having believed, to serve liim. For He hath from the 
beginning sent forth into the world men, worthy, by reason 
of their righteousness and innocency, to know God and 
to make Him known, overflowing with the Divine Spirit, 
whereby they might preach that there is One God Who 
hath created all things, Who hath formed man out of the 
ground, (for this is the true Prometheus'',) Who hath ordered 
the world by the appointed courses and issues of the seasons ; 
Who hath next put forth the signs of His Majesty in judg- 
ment by waters and by fires *=; ^Vho, for the deserving of 
His love, hath determined those laws, which ye are ignorant 
of or neglect, but hath appointed rewards for these who obey ' ' obser- 
them ; Wlio, when this world shall have been brought to an JJfs"^'^"^ 
end, shall judge His own worshippers unto the restitution ^ ^ restitu- 
of eternal life, the wicked unto fire equally perpetual and^'^^^"* 
continual ; all that have died from the beginning being raised 
up, and formed again, and called to an account for the 
recompense of each man's deservings. These things we also 
once laughed to scorn. We were of you. Christians are 
made, not bom such''. Those, whom we have called 
preachers, are named Prophets from their office of fore- 
telling. Their words, and the miracles also, which they 
worked in witness of their being of God, remain in the 
treasures of writings: nor are those writings now hidden. 
The most learned of the Ptolemies, whom they sm-namc 
Philadelphus, and right well skilled in all lore, when, in his 
zeal for libraries, he was vying, as I think, with Pisistratus, 
amongst others of those records, which either antiquity or a 
curious taste recommended to fame, on the advice of 
Demetrius Phalereus, the most approved, in that day*, of =' tunc 
grammarians, to whom he had committed the chief care""" 

•> Adv. Marcion. i. 1. de came birth, but re-birth maketh Christians." 

Christi e. 9. S. Aug. de Pece. Mer. iii. 9. Jerome, 

c The Flood, and Sodom, as joined Ep. 60. ad Heliod. de Nepotian. §. 8. 

2 Pet. 2, 5. 6. Cyril, Cat. i. 2. 

d De Testim. Animse, c. 1. " Not 



42 Oriyinal, whence LXX translated^ still preserved. 

Apol. of these things, demanded of the Jews also their books, 
— : — !- writings peculiar to themselves and in their own vulgar 
tongue, which they alone possessed. For the prophets 
w^ere of that people, and had ever addressed themselves to 
that people as to the people and family of God, according to 
the grace given to their forefathers. They who are now 
Jews were formerly Hebrews : therefore are their writings 
Hebrew, and their language. But that the understanding of 
them might not be lacking, this also was granted to 
Ptolemy by the Jews, by allowing him seventy-two 
interpreters, whom Menedemus also the philosopher^, the 
assertor of a Providence, looked up to for the agreement of 
their opinion. This moreover hath Aristeas affirmed unto 
you, and so hath he left a public record of it in the Greek 
language. At this day the collections of Ptolemy are shewn 
in the temple of Serapis with the very Hebrew writings. 
But the Jew^s also read them openly ; a taxed licence ^ All 
have access to them every sabbath day. Whoso heareth 
shall find God : whoso moreover desireth to understand 
shall be compelled also to believe, 
itur XIX. Extreme antiquity then ' in the first place claimeth 
an authority for these documents. Even with yourselves there 
is a sort of sacredness in a claim to credit from antiquity. 
And so all the substances, and all the materials, antiquities, 
arrangements, veins of each of your ancient writings, most 
nations moreover, and famous cities, hoary histories and 
monuments ", finally even the forms of letters, those witnesses 
and guardians of things, — methinks I still am saying too 
memo- Httle ; — 1 say your very gods themselves^, your very temples, 
and oracles, and sacred rites ; all these, the while, doth the 
record of a single prophet surpass by centuries, laid up in 
which are seen the treasures of the Jewish religion, and in 



^ Menedemus was a disciple of Plato. 1. e. c. 7. 

The context in Josephus (Ant. xii. 2. ^ The poll-tax, paid from the time of 

12.) and Aristeas (p. xxiii. ap. Hody Vespasian, for free use of their wor- 

de LXX Intt.) plainly shews that the ship. Xiphilin. in Vespasian. Suet, 

reference is to the skill of the LXX in Domit. c. 12. Juv. iii. 14. Appian. in 

answering the questions proposed to Syriac. (ap. Casaub. ad Suet.) Martial, 

them, not to the story of the exact vii. 54. 

agreement of their translation, of which 8 Clem. Al. Strom, i. 21. p. 139. 

Pam. understands it. The anachronism Tatian. c. Gentes, §. 40. Euseb. Chron. 

as to Menedemus is noticed by Hody, Prsf. Prsep. Ev. x. 8. 



idded 



• insto- 
ri trum 
et carias 



narum 



Superior antiquity of Moses and the ProjjJiets. i:^ 

like manner consequently^ of ours also. If ye have ever 'pro- 
heard of a certain Moses, he is of the same age with Inachus •"'^^ 
of Argos'; he precedeth by almost four hundred years, (for it 
is seven years less than this^) Danaus, himself also a very 
ancient among you : he goeth before the overthrow of Priam 
by about a thousand years ; I could say also, having some 
authorities with me"*, that he was five hundred years more 
before Homer. Our other prophets also, although they come 
after Moses, yet are not, even the very last of them, found to 
be later than your first philosophers, and lawgivers, and 
historians". For me to expound by what train of proofs 
these things may be established, is a task not so much out 
of reach as out of compass, not difficult, but at the same 
time tedious. We must apply closely to many documents 
and many calculations: unlock the archives of even the most 
ancient nations, the Egyptians, the Chaldaeans, the Phoe- 
nicians : call in the aid of their countrymen, by wiiom such 
know-ledge is supplied, a Manetho from Egypt, a Berosus 
from Chaldasa, an Iromus king of Tyre moreover from 
Phoenicia ; their followers also, Ptolemy the Mendesian, and 
Menander of Ephesus, and Demetrius Phalereus, and king 
Iuba% and Appion, and Thallus, and if any' confirmeth or 2 si qui 
refuteth these, as Josephus ^ the Jew^, the native champion of-''"^ '^"' 
Jewish antiquities. The Greek annalists likewise must be 
compared w^ith them, and the transactions of the various 
periods, that the mutual connection of dates may be un- 
folded, through which the order of the annals may be made 



' Polerao Hellen. 1. i. Appion. c. Clem. Al. Strom, i. 21. p. 141. " some" 

Jud. i. Hist. iv. ap. Justin. Cohort. §. 9. ap. Tatian. §. 31. who names other 

Porph. adv. Christian. 1. iv. Africanus dates assigned, viz. 80, above 100, 140, 

Ann. 1. V. ap. Euseb. 1. c. Ptolemy 180, 240, 317, after the Trojan war. 

Mendes. ap. Clem. Al. Strom, i. 21. The expression shews that Tertullian 

init. p. 138. Eusebius himself places was not anxious about the facts : his 

Inachus 300 years prior to Moses, he is concern was but to arrest attention by 

followed by S. Aug. de Civ. D. xviii. 8. shewing the impression which their own 

•c Joseph, c. Ap. i. 16. writers had of the superior antiquity of 

J Joseph. 1. c. " nearly 1000." Euseb. Moses. 

Prsep Ev 1. c. fiom Porph. "above " Justin. Dial. c. Tryph.§. 7. Theoph. 

800.'' Theoph. ad Autol. iii. 21. " 900 iii. 23. Clem. Al. 1. c. p. 143. Euseb. 

or even 1000." Tatian. §. 38, 39. and Prsp. Ev. 1. c. Lact. iv. 5. Aug. de 

Clem. Al.l. c. more correctly " twenty Civ. D. xviii. 37- 

generations," or, " 400 years." Cyril. ° He wrote an Assyrian history 

c. Jul. 1. i. " 410." Eusebius himself (Tatian, I. c.c.36.)and is often quoted 

Chron. " 228." ^}' PI»"- ^- H. 

'" Theopompus and Euphorion ap. r Ap. 1. 13 sqq. 



44 Present fulfilment of prophecy guarantee of the future, 

Apoi.. clear. We must travel into the histories and literature of 

— ^ — '- the world. And yet we have, as it were, already produced 

a part of our proof, in dropping these hints of the means by 

which the proof may be made. But it were better to defer 

this, lest through haste we pursue it not far enough, or, in 

pursuing it, stray too far from our course. 

XX. To make up for this postponement, we now proffer 

the more; the majesty of our Scriptures, instead of their 

antiquity. If it be doubted that they are ancient, we prove 

them divine. Nor is this to be learned by tedious method, 

or from foreign sources. The things which shall teach it 

you, are before your eyes, the world, and time, and its events. 

Whatsoever is doing was foretold ; whatsoever is seen was 

Matt, before heard of: that the earth swalloweth up cities, that 
24 7. 
' ' the sea stealeth away islands, that wars within and without 

tear asunder; that kingdoms dash against kingdoms, that 

famine, and pestilence, and all the special plagues of 

1 fre- countries, and deaths for the most part ever haunting *, 

pi^e^rum^ make havoc well nigh of every thing ; that the humble are 

que exalted, and the lofty ones abased : that righteousness 

mortium o . . . . , 

Ezek. groweth scant , iniquity mcreaseth ; that the zeal for all 
21, 26. good ways waxeth cold : that the offices of the seasons, and 
omimd the proper changes of the elements are out of course ; that 
Mat.24,|^|^g order of natural thhigs is disturbed by monsters and 
prodigies — all these thingshave been written of foreknowledge. 
While we suffer them, we read of them ; while we review 
them, they are proved to us. The truth of the divination is, 
methinks, sufficient proof that it is divine "^. Hence therefore 
we have a sure confidence in the things to come also, as 
being in truth already proved, because they were foretold at 
the same time with those things which are proved every 
day': the same voices utter them, the same writings note 
them, the same spirit moveth within them. To prophecy, 
time is but one, the time of foretelling things to come : with 
men (if they deal with it) it is divided, while it is fulfilling, 
while from the future it cometh to be reckoned the present, and 
then from the present the past. What do we amiss, I pray 



«1 De Anima, c. 28. Orig. c. Cels. ' Justin M. Apol. i. 30; 52. Dial, 
vi. 10. ' c. Tryph. c. 7. Theoph. ad Autol. ii. 9. 



Endof Jews proof they sinned, not Christians fell away from them. 4 5 

you, in believing in the future also, Avho have already learned 
to believe the same things through two stages of time ? 

XXI. But since we have declared that this sect is sup- 
ported by the most ancient records of the Jews, although 
almost all know, and we ourselves also profess, that it is 
somewhat new, as being of the age of Tiberius, perchance 
on this account a question may be mooted touching its state, 
as though it sheltered somewhat of its own presumption 
under the shadow of a most famous, at least a licensed, 
religion; or because, besides the point of age, we agree 
not with the Jews, neither touching the forbidding of meats, 
nor in the solemnities of days, nor even in their " sign" in 
the flesh, nor in community of name, which surely we 
ought to do, if we served the same God ; but even the 
common people knoweth Christ as one among men, such 
as the Jews judged Him to be, whence one might the 
more easily suppose us worshippers of a man*. But neither 
are we ashamed of Christ, seeing that we rejoice to be 
ranked, and condemned, under His Name, nor do we judge 
otherwise than they, respecting God. We must needs therefore 
say a few words concerning Christ as God. The Jews 
alone had favour with God, because of the excellent 
righteousness and faith of their first fathers; whence the 
mightiness of their race and the majesty of their kingdom 
flourished, and so great was their blessedness, that they were 
forewarned by words of God, whereby they were taught ' to ' quibus 
deserve the favour of God, and not to offend. But howi,antur 
greatly they sinned, puffed up, even to doting^, with a vain ^''^'"'"'''^ 
confidence in their fathers, turning their course' from their ^.^j^j^^ '* 



mm 



Religion after the way of the profane, though they them-3deri- 
selves should not confess it, the end of them at this day^'^"'^^ 
would prove. Scattered abroad, wanderers, banished from 
their own climate and land, they roam about through the 
world, with neither man nor God for their king, to whom it 
is not permitted, even in the right of strangers, to greet 
their native land so much as with the sole of their foot'. 

» Trypho ap. Justin. Dial. c. 10. and 13. Justin M. Apol. ••62. and 

t Adrian's decree after the rebellion Hieron. Chron. Euseb. MMCXL. 

of Barcbocbebas, Euseb. iv. 6. from Hilary (in Ps. 58.) speaks of the 

Aristo Pellseus. see adv. Jud. c. 1 1 , 12, prohibition as continuing, and S. Jerome 



dicitia 



46 Immaculate conception. — The Word oioned by Heathen. 

Apol. While holy voices threatened them aforetime with these 
— — ^things, all the same voices ever added this besides, that 
it should come to pass, in the ends of the world's course, 
that God would henceforward out of every nation, and 
people, and country, choose unto Himself worshippers much 
more faithful than they, to whom He should transfer His 
grace, and that, more abundantly according to the measure 
of His greatness, Who is the Author of their religion. Of 
this grace therefore and religion the Son of God was 
proclaimed the Dispenser and the Master, the Enlightener 
and the Guide of the human race, not indeed so born as 
that He should be ashamed of the name of " Son," or of 
His descent from His Father; not from the incest of a 
sister", nor the defilement of a daughter ; nor had He for 
His father a god, the lover of another's wife, with scales, or 
horns, or feathers, or transformed into gold ; for these are 
the godheads of your Jupiter''. But the Son of God hath no 
1 de pu- mother, no not of pure wedlock * : even she, whom He 
seemeth to have, had not known her husband. But first 
I will declare His substance, and then the quality of His 
birth will be understood. We have already set forth, that 
God formed this universal world by His Word, and His 
Reason, and His Power, Among your own wise men also 
it is agreed, that Aoyo$, that is, ' Word' and 'Reason,' should 
be accounted the Maker of all things. For Zeno determineth 
that this Maker, who hath formed all things and ordered 
them, should also be called Fate, and God, and the Mind of 
Jupiter^, and the Necessity of all things. These titles 
doth Cleanthes confer upon the Spirit which, he affirmeth, 
pervadeth the universe. And we also ascribe, as its proper 
substance, to the Word, and the Reason, and the Power 
also, through Which we have said that God hath formed all 
things, a Spirit, in Which is the Word when It declareth% 

in Soph, c, 2. except that on the day of Fate, and Jupiter, were one," Cic, de 

the destruction of Jerusalem, they paid Nat, Deor. i. 14. describes both as 

for the permission, Seal. Anim. ad Pantheists, as Tatian (of Zeno) c. 3. 

Eus. Chron. p. 216, Minut, F, p. 150, Yet, in as far as 

" Justin M. ad Graec. c. 2, Apol, i, they spake of God, as a Spirit, they 

21, Athenag, c. 32, Tatian, c, 8, 10. witnessed to the truth, which they 

Theodoret, de cur, Gr, Affect. Disp. iii. perverted. 

» Cypr. ad Donat. c. 7. ^2 Sam. 23, 2. " The Spirit of 

y See Lact. iv. 9. Diog. Laert. God spake by me ; and His Word 

Zenon. "That God, and Mind, and was upon my tongue." 



God the Soi^, God of God^ Light of Light. 



47 



and with Which is the Reason when It ordereth, and over 
Which is the Power when It executeth. This, we have 
learned, was forth-bronght from God, and by this Forth- 
bringing, was Begotten, and therefore is called the Son of 
God, and God, from being " of one substance with" Him ; 
for that God also is a Spirit. Even ' when a ray is put forth ' Kt'a"i 
from the sun, it is a part of a whole ; but the sun will be in 
the ray because it is a ray of the sun, and the substance is 
not divided, but extended. So cometh Spirit of Spirit and 
" God of God," as '' light" is kindled " of lightV the 
parent matter' remaineth entire and without loss, although -'"•^^.'^''^ 
thou shouldest borrow from it many channels of its qualities'*. 



^ Tertullian here uses the very words 
adopted in the Nicene Creed, " God 
of God, Light of Light, 'Of^ooutrtov ;'' his 
object, in the further application of the 
metaphor, is, to shew the Heathen, that 
they could not consistently object a priori 
totheChristiaxT doctrine; these analogies, 
though, as physical, imperfect, at least 
silence objections. If in earthly things, 
the same substance might exist, distinct 
in some way but united, and procession 
implied no diminution of the substance 
whence it proceeded, how little were 
they entitled to argue against the truth, 
thus shadowed forth ! Tertullian else- 
where distinctly asserts the Consub- 
stantiality of the Father and the Son, 
(" of one individual Substance," adv. 
Prax. c. 13. " Christ and the Spirit are 
both of the Substance of the Father, and 
they who acknowledge not the Father, 
neither can they acknowledge the Son, 
through the Oneness of Substance." 
c. Marc. iii. 6. " In the Spirit is The 
Trinity of One Divinity, Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit." de Pudic. c.2. "I every 
where hold One Substance in Three 
Conjoined." c. Prax. c. 12. add. c. 4, 
and 8. ap. Bull. Def. Fid. Nic. ii. 7. 1 , 2.) 
and His Coequality, (c. Marc. iv. 25. de 
Res. Carn. c. 6. adv. Prax. c. 7, and 
22. ib. §. 4. and adv. Herm. c. 7. 18.) 
w-hence it is the more hard that Petavius 
should press these analogies, as though 
they implied that, as the whole sun 
does not exist in the ray, neither does 
the whole Divinity in the Son, (de 
Trin. i. 5. 3.) In Bp. Bull's words (1. c. 
§. 5.) " such comparisons are not to be 
pressed too close, but to be taken 
candidly, attending to the mind of the 
author, as explained elsewhere more 



clearly and unfiguratively. In some 
things the likeness holds ; in some, not. 
It agrees herein, 1. That as a ' portion' 
does not alone and by itself constitute 
the whole, so also the Son is not All 
which is God ; but beside the Son, other 
Hypostases, namely, the Father and 
the Holy Spirit subsist in the Divine 
Essence. 2. That as a portion is taken 
from the sum or whole, and the whole 
is by nature anterior to its portions or 
parts, so also is the Son derived from 
the Substance of the Father, and the 
Father, as the Father, is, as it were, by 
Nature anterior to the Son. But the 
likeness fails in this ; 1. By ' portion' we 
understand what is divided and sepa- 
rated from the whole ; but the Son is and 
ever was undivided from the Father. 
This Tertullian every where and uni- 
formly asserts, (adv. Prax. c. 8. 9. 19.) 
2. A ' portion' is less than that whence 
it is taken, but the Son is in all things 
(save that He is the Son) like and 
equal to the Father, and hath and 
possesseth all the things of the Father. 
Which also Tertullian clearly teaches 
in the places just adduced. Add to this, 
that adv. Marc. iii. 6., after he had said 
that the Son was a portion out of the 
fulness of the Divine Substance, he 
presently subjoins expressly that that 
Portion was *' a sharer in His fulness." 
b Justin M. Dial. c. Tryph. §. 128. 
" I said this Power was begotten of the 
Father — butnotby severant e, as though 
the Essence of the Father were divided 
off, as all things besides, when divided 
and cut, are not the same as before they 
.were cut; and, as an example, I took, 
how from fire we see other fires kindled, 
that being nothing minished, whence 



48 Relation of the Son to the Father.— He took our flesh of the Virgin. 

Apol. So likewise that which hath come forth from God is God, 
l-^i- and the Son of God, and Both are One. And so this Spirit 
of Spirit, and God of God, hath become ' the second^' in 
mode not in number'', in order not in condition "^, and hath 
Mic.5.l.gone forth, not gone out, of the original Source'. Therefore 
this ray of God% as was ever foretold before, entering into 
a certain virgin, and in her womb endued with the form of 
flesh, is born Man joined together with God^ The flesh 



many may be kindled, but remaining 
tbe same." §. 61. " As in iire, we see 
other fire produced, that not being 
minished, whence the kindling was 
produced, but remaining the same ; 
and that which was kindled from it, 
itself also manifestly existeth, not mi- 
nishing thatfrom which it was kindled." 
The came likeness is used by Tatian, 
§. 5. (Bull, ii. 4. 4.) Athenag. Legat. §. 
24. (of the Holy Ghost.) Bull, ii. 4. 9. 
Hippolytus in Noet. ap. Fabr. t. ii. 
p. 13. (Bull, ii. 8. 5.) Origen. e. g. de 
Princ. i. 4. (see Bull, ii. 9. 14.) 
Theognostus (ap. Athanas. Ep. 4, ad 
Scrap. §. 25. Bull, ii. 10. 7.) Dionysius 
Alex. Apol. 1. 3. ap. Athanas. Ep. 
de Sent. Dionys. 118. (Grabe. ad Bull, 
ii. 11. fin.) K-espons. ad queestt. Paul. 
Sam. t. i. p. 240. (Bull, iii. 4. 3.) 
Lact. iv. 29. (Bull, ii. 14. 4.) Carm. 
adv. Marc. v. 9. ap. Tert. ' genitum 
de lumine lumen.' (Bull, iii. 10. 19.) 
Aug. de Trin. vi. init. 

« Hippol. M : Hom. de Deo trino et 
uno, " When I speak of ' another,' I 
speak not of two Gods, but as Light 
from Light, and water from the source, 
or a ray from the Sun." 

d i. e. in mode of existence, as The 
Son, not The Father, but not as to be 
numerically distinct. 

• i. e. in the " Order" of Persons, 
within the Divine Unity, not in any 
difference of Being. " Three, not in 
Condition, but in Order ; not in Sub- 
stance, but in Form; not in Power, 
but Property ; but of One Substance, 
and One Condition, and One Power; 
because One God, from Whom both 
those Orders, and Forms, and Pro- 
perties are reckoned in the Name of 
the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit." 
Adv. Prax. c. 2. 

' Adv. Prax. c. 8. "We say that 
the Son was forth -brought (prolatus) 
from the Father, not separated." 

8 Heb. 1 , 3. k'Xtt.vya.irfji.a, riis ^o^f}S 
AiiTou. Theognostus 1. c. founds the 



language upon this passage, Ix tjJj rod 
riar^oj ehffiai i<pv, ui rov (paros to u,<^av- 
yaafia.: and Origen de Princ. iv. 28. 
p. 190. ed. de la E-ue. Dionys. Al. 
Apol. ap. Ath. de Sent. Dionys. §. 15. 
Greg. Nyss. de Deit. Fil. et Sp. S. iii. 
468. 

h Homo Deo mixtus ; lit. '' mingled, 

commingled with God," comp. de cam. 

Chr. c. 15. c. Marcion. 1. ii. 27. The 

same word is used by S. Cyprian, 

de Idol. Van. c. 6. [concretus Id. 

Test. ii. 10.] Zeno Veron. [1. ii. 

Tr. 6. §. 1. ad 1 Cor. 15, 24. Tr. 8. §. 2. 

S. 2. de Nativ. " there, unimpaired 

what He w^s. He meditateth to become 

what He was not. So then mingled 

with human flesh, &c ;" Leo, S. 3. de 

Nativ. c. 1. (where a MS. substitutes 

uniretur,) " immixtus," S. 4. in Epiph. 

c. 4. Novatian deTrin. c. 11. Divinitate 

Sermonis in ipsa concretione permixtam, 

add. c. 20. 21. Vigilius c. Eut. 1. 1. c. 24. 

" commixtio." The translator of S. 

Irenseus (iii. 19. ed. Mass.) commixtus, 

(where the original ap. Theodoret. has 

avS^uTOi Tov tioyov ^eo^rtffai, and (4. 37.) 

commixtio et communio Dei et hominis. 

S. Aug. de Trin. iv. 20. " Yerbo Dei 

quodammodo commixtus est homo." 

Lact. iv. 13. " et Deum fuisse et 

hominem ex utroque genere permix- 

tum." Chrysol. S. 142. de Annune. 

" misceri," In like way, xguffi?, f^i^if, 

fiiyvvrxt, are used by Greg. Naz. Or. 

42. de Pasch. [p. 682. ed. Morell.] 

ffvyK^eiffts, Or. 51. p. 739. trvyx^afA», Or. 

52. p. 747. (see Nicetas col. 1186.) 

xiKt^a<r/jcivos , by S. Cyril. Alex. Thes. 

1. 20. p. 197. and uvuK^uffis, Pasch. 8. 

p. 103. avax^cthh , by S. Athanasius, 

Or. c. Arian. iv. 33. ffwavtK^uh, by S. 

Greg. Nyss. c Eunom. 1. 1. t. ii. p. 45. 

avKx^etiris, id. Cat. c. 11. t. ii. p. 498. 

ffvveivccx^affis , C. 17. p. 5l7, 518. fci^is, 

was originally used of the juxta-position 

of solids, x^oia-ts, of the union of liquids 

which were yet thought to be separable, 

(Philo de conf. ling. p. 347. ap. Petav.de 



Jeios overlook humility of the first Advent in glories of the second. 49 

stored with the Spirit is nourished, groweth to manhood, 
speaketh, teacheth, worketh, and is Christ. Receive for the 
moment this tale, (it is like your own,) whilst we shew you 
whereby Christ is attested. They also among yourselves, 
who fore-ministered rival tales of this sort for the overthrow 
of this truth, knew^ that Christ was to come : the Jews too , s^j. 
knew it, since it was to them that the prophets spake. Foret>ant€t 
even now they look for His coming' ; nor is there any other penes 
greater cause of contention betwixt us and them, than ^*'^ V""' 
that they do not believe that He hath already come. fab. 
For seeing that two advents of Him are declared, the first, 
which hath been already fulfilled in the lowliness of the 
human nature, the second which remaineth yet to come to 
close this world, in the majesty of the Divine Nature then 
shewn forth, through not understanding the first, they have 
regarded, as the only one, the second, for which, being more 
clearly foretold, they now hope\ For their sins deserved' 
that they should not understand the former, since they 
would have believed, had they understood, and would have is, e, 9. 
obtained salvation, had they believed. They themselves ^^* 



Incara.iii.2.9.from whom, and Ballerini 
ad Zeno (0pp. p. xci. Diss. 2. e. 3.) 
5§. 14. 15. these instances are taken. 
S. Augustine says, Ep. 137. (ol. 3.) 
§.11. (ib. §. 14.) " As in the unity of 
person, soul is united to body, that so 
man may be; so in unity of person, 
God is united to man, that so Christ 
may be. Tn the one person there is a 
mingling of soul and body ; in the other, 
is a mingling of God ; so that, when 
any heareth this said, he must abstract 
himself from that observation of the 
senses, that two fluids are wont so to be 
commingled, that neither should retain 
its character unaltered ; (though even 
in corporeal substances light is mingled 
with air, and uninjured.) The person of 
man then is a mingling of soul and 
body ; the person of Christ a mingling 
of God and man. For when the Word 
of God was commingled with a soul 
having a body. It took at once both soul 
and body." Leporiusde libello emendat. 
c. 4. " He could, without injury and 
in very deed, be mingled." And S. 
Cyril in answer to INestorius, 1. 1. t. 6. 
p. 15. (ib. §. 16.) " Some of the holy 
fathers also have used the word ' min- 



gling,' {K^eiffis). Whereas you say you 
fear, lest some confusion (uvcipc^varti) 
shall be thought to have taken place, as 
in liquids when mingled together, I free 
you from this fear. For they use this 
word in other than its proper sense, 
anxious to express the extreme union 
of the Natures, which came together.' 
After the heresy of ApoUinaris had 
sprung up, 'ivuffis, unitio, was preferred, 
x^airii having been abused by these, as 
ffvvd.<pita, sociatio, by the IVestorians. 
In like way, (as has been pointed out 
to me) S. Ephraem uses the words, 
«aIIa/ and ^po; the latter of which 
i.s the same vvord as ''misceo;" the 
former, used in older Syriac of any 
"junction, "came to signify "mingling," 

whence /j,*v " Thou unitedst," 
/^ >^/j " was united," was substi- 
tuted for it, (as in Leo above.) see 
Assem.Bibl.Or.t.i.p.80— 82.add.p.l07. 

i Adv. Jud. c. 7. 

^ Adv. Jud. c. 14. 

1 Adv. Jud. c. 11. Orig. c. Cels. ii. 
5.6.8. Minut. F.p.319. Chrys. Horn. 
77. in Matt. 24. Hieron. in Is. 1. 17. 
c. 63. Aug. de Cons. Ev. i. 2. and 13. 



50 Sanmiary of our Lord's Minhtry and Death. 

Apol. read that it is so written, that they were punished by the 
taking away of their sense and understanding, and of the 



use of their eyes and of their ears. Whom therefore they 
had presumed from His lowliness to be only a man, it 
followed that they should from His power account a 
magician "' ; when by a word He cast out devils from men, 
Matt, recovered the sight of the blind, cleansed the lepers, 
^^'^' strengthened anew the sick of the palsy, finally by a word 
Mark 4. restored the dead to life, made the very elements ' obey Him,' 
^^' stilling the storms and walking on the waters, shewing 
John 1, Himself to be the Aoyoj of God, that is, ihc JVord, which 
'' icas in ilie heghuiing^ the First-Begotten, accompanied by 

Ps. 33, His Power and His Reason, and upheld by His Spirit, the 
John 1 Same Who by a word both did and had done all things". 
3. But whereas the rulers and chief men of the Jews were 

confound d at His doctrine, they were so filled with indig- 
nation, chiefly because a great multitude had turned aside 
after Him, that at length, they brought Him before Pontius 
Pilate, then governor of Syria on behalf of the Romans, and 
by the violence of their voices, wrung from him that He 
should be delivered up unto them to be crucified. He had 
Himself also foretold that they would do this. This were 
but a small thing, if the prophets also had not done so 
1 Is. 65. before' ; and at length being nailed to the cross. He shewed 
16 s e'^^^^^'^' special signs to mark that death". Of Himself* He 
adv. with a word gave up the ghost, preventing the office of the 
"13' ' executioner. At the same moment the light of mid-day ^ 
^sponte^yas withdrawn, the sun veiling his orb. They thought 
it forsooth an eclipse, who knew not that this also had been 
3 Am. 8, foretold^ concerning Christ: when they discovered not its 
^j^^^^ cause, they denied it ; and yet ye have this event, that befel 
jud'.l.c. 

"" Cels. ap. Orig. c. Cels. i. c. 6. 28. nia et faceret et fecisset, with the 

38. viii. 9. ; the then Jews, ap. Orig. c. Fulda MS. It has however a good 

Cels. iii. 1. Eecog. 1. 1. c. 68. Talm. sense, that " He shewed Hiras^elf to be 

Schahb. f. 104.p. aut. WagenseiljConfa. the Word, in that He did, or He had 

Tol. Jesch. p. IG. 17. of the Heathen done, all things by a word." Comp. 

(apparently from the Jews) Arnob. i. Heb. ] , 3. 

p. 2i3. c. 4. Pseudo-Ignat. Ep. ad Ph.l. ° " Multa mortis illius propria osten- 

Just. M. Apol. i. 30. Aug. de Cons, dit insignia ; nam" restored. 

Ev. i. 8. 9. 10. 14. Eus. Dtm. iii. 6. P Dies media, orbem signante sole. 

The miracles were confessed. Others medium. Comp. adv. Jud. c, 10. 

" Rig. oinit\: Eundem qui verbo oni- 



Miraculons dar/ificss at the Crucifixion recorded J»/ Heathens. .jI 

the world, related in your own records -i. llim being taken 
down from the cross, and buried in a sepulchre, they caused 
moreover to be surrounded with great diligence by a guard 
of soldiers, lest, because He had foretold that He should 
rise on the third day from the dead, the disciples removing 
the body by stealth should deceive them, though suspecting 
it. But, lo ! on the third day, the earth being suddenly 
shaken, and the massive body being rolled away which had 
closed the sepulchre, and the watch being scattered through 
fear, and no disciples being to be seen, nothing was found hi 
the sepulchre save the grave clothes only of the buried^. ^ sepulti 
Yet the chief men notwithstanding, whom it concerned to*^^**^^ 
spread a wicked tale, and to draw back from the faith ' the 
people, their tributaries and dependents, reported that He 
was stolen away by the disciples. For neither did He shetv Acts lo. 
Himself to all the people, lest the wicked should be 
delivered from their error, and that the faith which was 
reserved unto no mean reward should cost some difficulty. 
But He continued forty days with certain disciples in Galilee, 
a region of Judoea, teaching them what things they should 
teach. After that, having ordained them to the office of 
preaching throughout the world, He was taken from them 



*1 " archivis" or " arcanis." Probably rities quoted by Eusebius, make it 

tbe account sent by Pilate, spoken of probable that "they referred to the 

c. 5. : at all events, public documents, events at the Crucifixion. This pro- 

So Lucian Martyr (ap.Ruf. H. E. ix. 6. bability would be diminished, if it be 

p. 149.) refers to their own annals. This correct that there was a great eclipse of 

statement then is independent of the the Sun in the same Olympiad. (Kepler, 

question whether Phle^on (Orig. c. Cels. Eclogee Cbronica3, p. 87. 126,) Origen's 

ii.33. 59.Euseb.Chron. p.202.ed.Scal.) argument (in Matt. Tr. 35. p. 922, 3. 

in speaking of a very great eclipse ed. de la Rue) is, that no heathen 

about this time, or Thalliis, as sup- author (and especially not Phlegon) had 

posed by Africanus. (Chron. ap. Routh explicitly related the darkness to have 

Reliq. S. t. ii. p. 1 83.) alluded to that been produced by an eclipse, (as some 

event. Ensebius mentions also other Christians thought that it had, miracu- 

Greek memoirs, which he clearly dis- lously,)he does not imply that Phlegon's 

tinguishes from that of Phlegon, giving account might not refer to it, as him- 

also the words of each (a.eti h a,\Xoii self had supposed it might, (c. Cels. 

^£w 'EXXvivi>io7s ii'raf^vrifAxiriv iv^ofjiiv itrro- and, if it be his, Fragm. in Matt, in 

^ovfjt.iva. Kccra. As^/v recvrK — y^itpu li App. Biblioth. Gall, quoted Routh, 1. c. 

Ku)'i>Xiya>y) which Lardner (Test. P. ii. p. 337.) Tillemont, Note 3.5. sur J. C. 

0.13.) overlooked. With regard to these and Dr. Routh, 1. c. think, (it seems, 

latter statements, the Heathen, not rightly,) that the mention of Phlrf^on 

knowing the circumstances, might very in Africanus did not origmally stand in 

naturallyhaveconcludedthat the dark- the text. ^ 

ness was produced bv an eclipse, and ' A fide, others " ad fidem, to 

the combined mention'of the earthquake their allegiance to themselves, 
and the eclipse in the several autho- 

E 2 



52 " God to be icorshipped inand through Christ^^^ substance of Faith. 

Apol. into Heaven in a cloud which covered Him ; an account far 
I. 21, , , 

— — ^better than that which your Proculi* are wont to affirm of 



your Roniuh. These things concerning Christ did Pilate, 
himself also already in his conscience a Christian ', report to 
Tiberius the Caesar of that day. But the Caesars also would 
have believed on Christ, if either Caesars had not been 
necessary for the age, or if Christians also could have been 
Caesars. Moreover the disciples, spread throughout the 
world, obeyed the commandment of their Divine Master ; 
who, themselves also, having suffered many things from the 
persecuting Jews, with good will assuredly, in proportion to 
their confidence in the truth, did finally at Rome, through 
the cruelty of Nero, sow the seed of Christian blood ". But 
1 mon- ^ e will shew ' that the very beings whom ye worship, are 
mus sufficient witnesses to you of Christ. It is a great thing if 
I can employ, in order that ye may believe the Christians, 
those very beings on whose account ye believe not the 
Christians. Meanwhile such is the system of our Religion ; 
such an account have we set forth both of our sect and 
name with its Founder. Let no man now charge us with 
infamy, let no one imagine aught besides this, since it is not 
lawful for any to speak falsely concerning his own Religion. 
For in that he saith that aught else is worshipped by him 
than that which he doth worship, he denieth that which he 
worshippeth, and transferreth his worship to another, and, in 
transferring it, he already ceaseth to worship that, which he 
hath denied. We say, and we say openly, and while ye 
torture us, mangled and gory we cry out, ' We worship God 
through Christ:' believe Him a man: it is through Him 
and in Him that God willeth Himself to be known and 
worshipped. To answer the Jews, they themselves also 
learned to worship God through the man Moses: to meet 
the Greeks, Orpheus in Pieria, Musaeus at Athens, Melam- 
pus at Argos, Trophonius in Boeotia, bound mankind by 
their rites: to look to you also, the masters of the world, 
Numa Pompilius was a man, who loaded the Romans with 
the most burthensome superstitions. Let Christ also be 
permitted to pretend to the divine nature, as a thing proper 

• Liv. i. 16. also above, c. 5. 

» In that he held Him guiltless. See " See c. ult. 



DcBmons acknowledged by philosophers, jjoets, human nature. .53 

to Himself, Who did not, as Numa, soften to a state of 
gentler culture rude and as yet barbarous men, by con- 
founding them with so great a multitude of gods to be 
propitiated; but Who opened to a knowledge of the truth 
the eyes of men already polished, and blinded through their 
very refinement. See then whether this Divine Nature of 
Christ be real : if it be such that by the knowledge of it any 
one be changed unto that which is good, it followeth that 
any other, which is found to be contrary to it, must be 
pronounced false; specially that, by all means ^, which, hiding i omni 
itself under the names and images of the dead, doth by'^^*'^"^. 
certain signs, and miracles, and oracles, work out the proof 
of a divine character. 

XXII. And therefore we say that there are certain spiritual 
substances: nor is the name new. The Philosophers acknow- 
ledge daemons, and Socrates himself looked unto the will of 
a dtemon. Why not ? since it is said that a daemon clave 
unto him from childhood, dissuading him^: doubtless — from 
good. The poets acknowledge daemons^; and now the 
untaught vulgar oft putteth them to the use of cursing. For 
even Satan the chief of this evil race, doth it, as though 
from a special consciousness of the soul, name in the same 
word of execration ^. Moreover Plato" denied not that there 



^ The Daemon of Socrates dissuaded not to act, the dsemon fore-signify- 

him only. Plato puts this assertion re- ing," is obviously a less precise ac- 

peatedly in Socrates' own mouth, and count. Tertullian gives it an ironical 

that in words so similar, that there turn. 

seems no doubt that they are those of / " Of the Greeks, Homer appears 

Socrates. " With me this hath been, to use both names [gods and da'mons] 

beginning from a child that a certain in common, sometimes calling the gods, 

voice hath come, which, when it daemons. But Hesiod clearly and defi- 

cometh, ever turneth me away from nitely first set forth four kinds of being, 

what I may be about to do, but im- having reason, gods, then d:cmons, then 

pelleth me never (as/ a5roT^£?r£/ ^s fT^a- heroes, lastly men." ('Efy. x. 'Hft. 

r^iTu Ti cu ToTi)." Apol. Socr. §. 19. ed. 107—199.) Plut. de Orac. Def. p. 4;U. 

Bekk. " There is wont to follow me, E. quoted by Euseb. Pra?p. Ev. v. 4. 

by the Divine appointment, a certain On Hesiod, see Plato Cratyl. (§. 32. 

dsmon, beginning from a child. And ed. Bekk.) Rep. v. $. 15. Prochis. 

this is, a voice, which when it cometh Schol. ad Hesiod. 1. c. 1. 121. p. 119. 

ever signifieth to me to turn away ed. Gaisf. Lnct. ii. 15. 
from what I may be about to do, but ^ See de Testini. Anim. c. '.i. 
impelleth me n( ver." <r»^am/-a5r<jr^»- " Sympos. t. v. p. 72. §. 28. ed. Bekk. 

irhv, Tocr/i^uTi ohVt^aTi. Thea^es, §. K). " All Diemon-nature is be. ween God 

add Phaedrus, §. 43. and in part Apol. and mortal. Endued with what pouer:' 

§. 31. Xenophon's account (Mem. i. 1.) said T. Interpreting and transmitting 

that " whereas others were withheld to the gods the things from men, and to 

and impelled from action by omens, men those from the gods; of the one, the 

and Socrates was directed to act or prayers and sacrifices; of the other, tlir 



54 



Second, more corrupt, race ofdcemons. 



Apol. be angels also. Even the Magi ^ are at hand to bear 
— - — '- witness of both names. But how from certain angels cor- 
rupted of their own will a more corrupt race of daemons 
proceeded, condemned by God together with the authors of 
their race, and with that prince of whom we have spoken, is 
made knov.n in order in the Holy Scriptures*^. It will 
suffice at this time to explain the nature of their work. 
Their work is the overthrow of man. Thus hath spiritual 
wickedness begun to act from the first for the destruction of 
man. Wherefore they inflict upon the body both sicknesses 
and many severe accidents, and on the soul, perforce, sudden 
and strange extravagances. Their own wondrous ' subtle, and 
slight nature funiisheth to them means of approaching either 
pai't of man. Much is permitted to the power of spirits, 
so that, being unseen and unperceived, they appear rather in 
their effects than in their acts : as when some lurking evil in 
the air blighteth the fruit or grain in the blossom, killeth it 



mira 



addeJ 



commands and requitals of the sacri- 
fices. But being in the midst betv/een 
both, it fills up, so that the whole is 
mutually bound together." Iheodoret, 
Orat. 4. de Nat. et Mund. " Plato 
calls them gods and deemons, whom we 
entitle angels, and said that they were 
the ministers of the God of the universe." 
Minuc. F. p. 246. Cypr. de Idol, Van. 
c. 4. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, ix. 9. quotes 
Labeo as affirming the same. 

b Cypr. 1. c. Arnob. 1. p. 35. Lact. 
ii. 15, Minuc. p. 245. 

<= Gen. 6, 2. It is so interpreted also 
by Justin M. Apol. i. 21, ii. 6. S. 
IrenEeus, adv. Heer. iv. 36. 4. v. 29. 2. 
Athenag, c. 24. (followed by Methodius 
de Eesurr. p. 307. ed. Paris from 
Photius.) Clem. Al. Psed, iii, 2, fin. 
Strom, iii, 7. p. 193. v. 1. p. 235. 
S. Cyprian, de Hab. Virg. c. 9. de 
Patientia, c. 11. Lact. ii. 15. Euseb. 
Preep. Ev. v. 4. Ambr. de Noe, c. 4. 
§. 8. 9. de Virginib. i. 8. §. 53. Apol. 
David, c. 1. §. 4. in Ps. 118. v. 64, 
Serm. 8, ^. 58, Naz, Carm, 3, p. 64. 
by Tert. again, de Idol. c. 9. de Cult. 
Fern. c. 10. de Hab. Mul. c. 2. de Vel. 
Virg. c. 7. c. Marc. v. 18. It occurs 
also in the Clement. Hom, 8. c. 13— 
15. and in Philo de Gigant. t. 1, p. 262. 
ed, Mang, Joseph. Antiq. i, 43. in the 
book of Enoch, Grab, Spicil. i.347. and 
the Test, xii Patr, ib, 150, 213. Origen 



c, Cels. V. ,55. mentions the spiritual 
interpretation which he adopts, as de- 
vised by one before him, and so, con- 
trary to the received opinion, fxct) rS/v 
Too •nfji.ut Tig TKorot uvriyayiv tis roy srs^i 
■^v^uv x'oyov.) it is net Lovvever a 
Catnolic interpretation, (see on S, 
Cyprian, xi. 12, p. 261, n, a. ed. Oxf.) 
S. August, also, who (Quaestt. ad Gen. 
1. 1. qu. 3.) speaks doubtingly as on a 
point " difficult to be decided," main- 
tains what is now the ordinary view, 
de Civ. D. XV. 23. (rejecting however 
in both places abstract arguments :) and 
S. Ambrose seems so to take it in Ps. 
118,25. Serm. 4. $. 8. S. Cyril Alex. 
c. Julian, 1. ix. init. and adv. Anthrop. 
c. 17. Theodoret (Qu. 47. in Gen.) S. 
Chrysostome (Hom. 22. in Gen.) and 
S. Ephraem (Serm. 19. adv. Heer. 0pp. 
Syr. t. 2. p. 478. add. ad loc. t. 1. where 
he gives that now received,) speak 
strongly against the other. S. Jerome 
(Qucestt. in Gen. ad loc.) seems to leave 
it doubtful, " Decs intelligens Sanctos 
sive Angelos." " Et angelis — et sanc- 
torum liberis convenit nomen caden- 
tium." The context would lead the 
one way, that those who called on God 
were called '' the sons of God ;' on the 
other hand CD*n/'N *3Il is a title given 
to the Angels, Job 1,6. 2, 1 . 38, 7. no 
where in the O. T, to man. 



Power, simftiicss, scjisnalif^, of dcemons — the?/ ape God. 55 

in the blade, woundeth it in its full growth, and when the 
atmosphere tainted in some secret way poureth over the 
earth its pestilential vapcurs''. By the same nnseen course 
of contagion therefore doth the blast of da3mons and of 
angels hurry onward the corruptions of the mind, through 
foul madness and foolishness, or^ fierce lusts, with manifold ' aut 
delusions, of which that is the chief, by which it commendeth 
those gods to the captive and narrowed understandings of 
men, that they may procure for themselves as their own, the 
food of sweet savour and of blood offered to statues and 
images*; and what food is more cared for by them, than 
to turn aside man from the thoughts of the true Divinity 
by the delusions of a false divination ^? touching which very 
delusions I will shew how they work. Every sj^irit is 
w^inged : in this both angels and daemons agree : therefore in 
a moment they are every where : the whole world is one spot 
to them : whatever is done any where they know as easily as 
they report it. Their swiftness is believed to be divinity, 
because their substance is unknown ". So also they would 
sometimes be thought the authors of those things which 
they report; and manifestly of evil things they sometimes are 
so, but of good never. The counsels also of God they both 
snatched, at the times when the Prophets were proclaiming 
them", and now also they cull in the readings which echo 
them. And so taking from hence also certain of the allotted 
courses of the future, they ape the power, while they steal 
the oracles, of God. 13ut in the oracles, with what 



d Orig. c. Cels. viii. 31. c. G. Lact. ii. 15. 16. Minuc. F. p. 248. 

e See Cypr. de Id. Van. c. 4. The Chrys. in Ps. 113. §. 4. 134. §.7. 

lurking of 'dsemons in images and their ' Plato, Sympos. 1. e. '' Through 

sensual delightin.fj in the idol-sacri- this (the JJamon-agenc y) dotli the 

fices are mentioned by Athenag. Leg. whole of divining art hold its course ; 

c. 27. That they fed on the sacrifices and the skill of the priests, and ot those 

is the opinion of Justin M. Apol. ii. engaged about the sacrifices and initia- 

$. 5. Tatian. c. 12. Tert. again, c. 23. de tions and incantations, and the whole 

Idol. c. 7. ad Scap. c. 2. Orig. c. Cels. of divination, and sorcery, i.'it CtocI 

iii 28 37 iv 32. vii. .5. 6. 35. 56. 64. doth not mingle with man, but through 

viii. 18. Minut. F. p. 250. Chrys. de this is all intercourse of the gods with 

S. Babyla, c. 14. Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 4. men, whether waking or sleeping. 

Greg. Naz. Orat. 5. in Jul. 24. de ? Athanas. vit. Ant. §. 31. ..2. 

S. Cvpr. §. 10. The same was held by " Justin, Apol. i. o4. (.4. 00. Dial. 

Celsus, ap. Ori^. c. C. viii. 00-62. §. 70. 7>^. S. Cyril. Jer. xv. 11. speaks 

Proph. de Abstin. 1. 2. (de Orac. ap. of Satan's spreading abroad semblances 

Theod. c. Gra'c. Disp. 3.) On their of the truth, to prevent the truth itselt 

presence in statues, Bel and the Drag, from being received. 



5() Chicanery of dcemons. 

Apol. cunning they shape their double meiinings to events, witness 
— '- — - the Croesi', witness the Pyrrhi". But it was in the manner 
in which I have before spoken of, that the Pythian god sent 
back the message that a tortoise was being stewed with the 
» fuerantflesh of a sheep '. They' had been in a moment in Lydia. By 
dwelling in the air, and by being near the stars, and by 
dealing with the clouds, they are able to know the threaten- 
ings of the skies, so that they promise also the rains, which 
Heneficithey already feel. They are sorcerers^ also about the cures 
of sicknesses ; for they first inflict the disease, and then 
prescribe remedies wonderfully new or of a contrary nature, 
after which they cease to afflict, and so are believed to have 
cured '". Why then should I speak at large touching the 
other subtleties or even the powers of spiritual delusion ? 
the apparitions of Castor and Pollux ", and the water carried 
in a sieve", and the ship drawn forward by a girdle^, and 
the beard turned red by a touch '^, that both stones might be 
believed to be gods, and the true God not be sought after. 

XXIII. Moreover if magicians also produce apparitions 
and disgrace the souls of the departed ; if they entrance 
children to make them utter oracles^; if, by means of 
juggling tricks, they play off a multitude of miracles ; if 
they even send dreams to men, having, to assist them, the 
power of angels and daemons, when once invoked, (through 
whom both goats* and tables' have been accustomed to 

* Herod, i. 53. 55. 91. children," ((i^i<pofiavTua,) in which the 

^ Ennius, ap. Cic. de Div. 1. ii. 56. children were slain and their entrails 

1 Herod, i. 46 — 48. inspected ; and this, which is more 

"* Justin M. Apol. ii. 6. Dial. §.30. frequently mentioned, (Eus. H. E. vii. 

and 76. Ircn. ii. 32. Orig. c. Cels. vii. 10. viii. 14.Socr. H. E. iii. 13. Recogn. 

4. p. 325. Tatian, c. 18. Cypr. 1. e. ii. 13.) suits better with the more 

c. 4. Minuc. F. p. 251. Lact. ii. 16. obvious meaning of " elidunt," "slay ;" 

Jerome in Nah. c. 7. Aug. de Div. but the context is here of chicanery, 

Dsem. c. 5. de Trin. iii. 9. not of cruelty. For this inspection of 

° Announcing victories, Plin. ii, 37. them, inspection li/ them in mirrors 

Florup, ii. 12. iii. 3. &c. was afterwards substituted. Peucer de 

By a Vestal Virgin, Val. Max. Mag. p. 155. The reading " eliciunt" 
viii. 1. Plin. xxviii. 3. Lact. ii. 17. is, probably, a comment on " elidunt," 

P Claudia Quinta Liv. xxix. 14. and as such, favours the sense given 

1 Domitius iEnobarbus,Suet. Ner. 1. in the text. 

•■ Apuleius describes this, Apol. t. ii. • See Bulenger, 1. 3. de Divin. c. 22. 

p. 497, 8, ed. Ehnenhorst. The first p. 215. Euseb. Prtep. Ev. 1. ii. Clem, 

words of the returning soul (as it were) Protrept. p. 9. quoted by Fabr. Bibl. 

were regarded as oracular. See further Antiq. p. 416. Amm. Marc. 1. 29. 

Peucer de Div. p. 166. and Elmenh. ad Sozom. vi. 35. ap. Buleng. de Sort, 

loo. Justin M. Apol. i. c. 18- (whom 1. ii. p. 30. 

Tert. apparently had here in view,) ' The oracular Tripods, see Hofmann 

speaks of the " inspection of immaculate Lex. v. Tripus. 



Heathen goda, dcemoiis; dcBinons own themselves such to Christians, 'u 

prophesy;) how much the rather would that power study 
with all its might to work of its own will, and for its own 
business, that service, which it rendereth to the business- 
making of another ! Or if angels and daemons do the same 
works as your gods, where then is the excellence of the God- 
head ? w^hich we must surely believe to be higher than 
every power? Will it not then be a more worthy presumption 
that it is they who make themselves gods, since they shew 
forth the same works which cause the gods to be believed, 
than that the gods are on a level with angels and daemons ? 
A difference of places maketh, I suppose, a distinction, so 
that ye count those for gods from their temples, whom 
elsewhere ye call not gods: so that he who rusheth over 
sacred towers seemeth to be mad after another sort from 
him who leapeth across the roofs of neighbouring houses, 
and one kind of influence is declared to be in him who 
woundeth his secrets or his arms, another in him who 
cutteth his throat. The end of the madness is alike in 
both, and the manner of incitement is one. But hitherto it 
hath been all words: now shall follow a proof of the thing 
itself, whereby we will shew that the quality of both these 
classes is the same. Let some one be brought forward here 
at the foot of your judgment- seat, who, it is agreed, is 
possessed of a daemon. When commanded by any Christian 
to speak, that spirit shall as truly declare itself a daemon, 
as elsewhere falsely a god". In like manner let some one 



" It may be that Tertullian looked time, e. Cels. i. 25. names them with 
for some special intervention on such a other miracles, ib. 4G. Q7- viii. 08. 
trial, or he may not have meant his which himself hnd seen, (add of these 
words " by any Christian" to be taken ii. 8. and generally iii. 24. 28.) and 
to the letter, but only to assert the apparently as wrought by a certain 
frequency of the gift. The frequency class among Christians, (ib. i. 6.) but also 
and notoriety of these miraculous cures that " no few among the Cliristians" 
he asserts again, ad Scap. c. 2. 4. as still wrought them, (vii. 4.) and that, 
peculiar to Christians, de Test. Anim. although for the most part holy, yet, 
c. 3. Their commonness is implied also through the miglit of the Name of 
de Spect. c. 29. de Idol. c. ll.de Cor.c. Jesus evrn " bad men," (afcording to 
11. andbelow c. 37.43. Justin M. speaks Matt. 7, 22.) Ib. i. 6. Heraldus quotes 
of many having been and being cured, from c. Cels. viii. a statement, cone- 
generally and at Rome, Apol. ii. 6 and sponding tothis of Tertullian, "ordinary 
8. add Dial. c. Tryph. §. 30. 7(5. 84. individuals (/S/aJra/) work snniewhat of 
121. Tatian, c. IG. Theoph. ad Autol. this kind, the grace which is in the won! 
ii. 8. S.Irena5us,ii. 32. mentions (among of Christ enabling them." They are 
other miracles) that many so healed named as frequent by Minut. Felix, 
were in the Church. Origen speaks of p. 2,02, 254. by S. Cyprian, (Ep. 7G. ad 
the vast number of such cures up to his Magn. v. fin. add. ad Donat. 4. p. 4. 



tur 



58 gods also oion themselves dcemons — miraculous powers in Church. 
A POL. be broujjrht forward of those who are believed to be acted 

T. 23 

-^ — ^iipon by a god, who drawing their breath over the altar 
conceive the deity from its savour, who are relieved* by 
vomiting wind, and prelude their prayer with sobs". That 
very virgin Caelestis'' herself who promiseth rains, that very 
^sculapius that discovereth medicines, that supplied life to 
Socordius, and Thanatius, and Asclepiodotus, doomed to die 
another day — unless these confess themselves to be daemons, 
not daring to lie unto a Christian, then shed upon the spot 
the blood of that most impudent Christian, What can be 
plainer than this fact .^ what more to be trusted than this 
proof.? The simplicity of Truth is before you : her own 
virtue supporteth her. Here will be no room for suspicion. 



ed. Oxf. de Idol. Van. 4. ib. p. 17. ad 
Demetrian, $. 8. ib. p. 208.) by Arnobius 
i. p. 27. b}' Lactantius,Instt. ii. IG. iv. 27. 
V. 22. init. 23 fin. by Eusebius (Dem. 
Ev. iii. 6. p. 132,3. who says also, "our 
Lord is wont to display, even to this day, 
to those to whom He judgeth right, some 
little portions of His [miraculous] power 
by manifest and ascertained deeds," v. ib. 
c. 5. p. 109.) by Eustathius A. 320. in 
very large terms, (" all who sincerely 
mind the things of Christ," -Travrts ol ra, 

T9U X^;/7T0t/ V^OVOUVTtS il /.itC^IV&'S , de Eu- 

gastnmytho, p. 368. ed. Leo Allat. add. 
p. 352.) Athanasius Orat. i. e. Arian. 
c. 50. Julius Firmieus, p. 29. 30. and v. 
fin. p. 61. Greg. Naz. Or. 2. §. 86. 
Epiphanius relates one such case Hser. 
30. c. 10. as also, earlier, Eirmilian 
Ep. 75. ad Cypr. S. Augustine again 
single cases, de Civ. D. 1. xxii. e. 8. 
$. 7. 8. Paula and Eustochium, (ap. 
Jerome, Ep. 46. §. 8. at our Lord's 
sepulchre.) The fulness and confidence 
of these early statements, and the 
gradual limitation of these cures, (as 
Christianity was more established, and 
perhaps as love waxed cold,) is the 
more illustrated by the later explicit 
statements of the cessation of miracles ; 
as by S. Chrysostom repeatedly, (in 
Ps. 142. §. 5. hom. 1. de S. Pentec. §. 4. 
in inscript. Actr. hom. 2. §. 3. t. iii. in 
Joh. Hom. 24. (23.) §. 1. Hom. 72. (71.) 
§. 4. in 1 Cor. Hem. 29. init. Hom. 36. 
§. 4. 5. Theodoret in I Cor. xii. 7. 9. 
Junilius de part. Div. Leg. ii. 29. Op. 
Imp. in Matt. Hom. 49. p. cciv. ed. 
Ben. Greg. M. in Job. 1. xxvii. c. 18. 
C for the most part, except when the 
occa.sion required,') Damascene, (de Fid. 



Orthod. i. 3. in contrast with early 
successors of the Apostles, though 
chiefly of himself, see the passages ap. 
Lardner.) S. Chrys. speaks of the dread 
and shrinking of daemons from the 
sepulchres of martyrs, not of their ex- 
pulsion, (^aTtkavvti not 5x/3aXAi/, t. ii. 
93. 623. 6/4. 680. 691.) or of the 
moral cures wrought by visiting them, 
(p. 555.) to which he, probably, again 
alludes, when he says, that many 
of the " wonders," ^aviu.ara, of the 
Apostolic times had ceased, Horn. 14. 
in Rom. §. 7.) S. Hilary, (in Ps, 64. (^. 
10.) S. Athanasius, (de Incarn. §. 48.) of 
the silencing of oracles or soothsaying, 
as, earlier, S. Dionys. Alex. (ap. Eus. 
vii. 10.) of the bringing to nought 
Satanic assaults. Else, cures wrought at 
the sepulchres of martyrs, (Greg. Naz. 
de S. Cyprian, Or. 24. §. 18. p. 449. 
Ephr. S. Opp. Syr. t. ii. p. 349.) had 
been but a testimony the more, in that 
God still continued to honour " the 
death of His sainls," even when He had 
withdrawn these gifts from the di- 
minished faith of His Church militant. 
S. Cyprian, (de Idol. Van.) Minuc. F. 
and Lactantius, make the same state- 
ment as Tertullian, that the daemons 
were thus put to shame " in the pre- 
sence of their worshippers.' The modern 
assumption then, that miraculous gifts 
ceased with the last disciple on whom 
the Apostles laid their hands, as it is 
an a priori theory, so it is contrary to 
all rules of evidence. 

^ Those possessed with a spirit of 
divination, Pythonissff", as in Acts. 

y See above, c. 12. below, c. 24. 



These confessions prove at once that gods arc dcijnons, C 'ii rist Go d.59 

"Will ye say that it is done by magic, or some cheat of that 
sort? Aye I if your eyes and your ears will permit you! 
But what can be insinuated against that which is shewn 
forth in undisguised sincerity ? If on the one hand they be 
truly gods, why feign they themselves daemons? is it to 
humour us ? Then is your deity at once made subject to the 
Christians, nor can that be accounted Deity, which is 
subjected to man, and (if this contribute aught to shame) to 
its own rivals. If on the other hand they be da3mons or 
angels, why do they take upon themselves elsewhere to act 
as gods ? For as they, who are accounted gods, w^ould not 
call themselves daemons, if they were truly gods, lest forsooth 
they should put themselves down from their majesty, so they 
also, whom ye plainly acknowledge for daemons, would not 
dare elsewhere to act for gods, if those whose names they 
use, were any gods at all ; for they would fear to abase the 
majesty of beings, without doubt higher than themselves and 
to be feared. So utterly nought is that deity to which ye 
hold ; for if it were aught, it w^ould neither be affected by 
daemons, nor denied by gods. Seeing then that both sides 
agree in one declaration, affirming that they are no gods, ye 
must allow that there is but one sort of such beings, namely 
daemons. True on both sides. Now look for gods', for, 'Verum, 
w^hom ye took to be such, ye find to be daemons. But by q^g 
the same help from us, from these same gods of yours, who-J^"^ 
discover not this only, that neither they themselves nor any quaerite 
others are gods, ye immediately learn this also, Who is 
really God, and whether it be He, and He Alone, Whom 
we Christians confess, and whether He ought to be believed 
and worshipped according to the rule of the fiiith and 
discipline of the Christian. Here they will say, "And who' - nicent 
is this Christ with His tale of wonders ? is He a man of ^ '^"'^ 
common condition.? is He a magician'"*.? was He stolon 
away after His crucifixion ^ from the sepulchre by Ilis'cmcem 
disciples } is He even now in hell } is He not in Heaven .? 
and to come quickly* from thence also with a (juaking of the^ocyus 
whole universe, with a shuddering of the world, amidst the 
waiHngs of all men save the Christians, as the Power of Cod, 

* See above, c. 21. 



60 Dcemom cast out hij the Name of Christ. 

Apol. and the Spirit of God, and the Word, and the Wisdom, and 
Jl^ the Reason, and the Son of God ?" In all your scoffings let 
them also scoff with you : let them deny that Christ shall 
judge every soul from the beginning, the body being restored 
to it. Let them say that Minos and Rhadamanthus (if it be 
so), as Plato and the poets have agreed, are appointed to 
fulfil this office from their seat of judgment. Let them at 
least contradict the stigma of their own disgrace and 
condemnation. Let them deny that they are unclean spirits, 
which ought to be concluded even from their food, blood and 
smoke, and putrifying burnt sacrifices of beasts, and the 
most filthy tongues of the prophets themselves. Let them 
deny that they are for their wickedness fore-ordained to 
condemnation at the same day of judgment, with all their 
worshippers and agents. But all this rule and power of 
ours over them standeth in naming the Name of Christ, and 
in making mention of those things which they look for as 
hanging over them from God through Christ the Judge*». 
Fearing Christ in God, and God in Christ, they are 
subjected unto the servants of God and Christ. From our 
touch therefore and our breath'^, seized by the thought and 
lively image of that fire, they even come forth from the 
bodies of men at our command, unwilling, and grieved, and 
ashamed, before your presence. Believe these, when they 
speak the truth of themselves, ye that believe them when 
they speak falsely. None lieth to abase, but rather to 
honour, himself. Credit is more readily given to those, who 
confess against themselves, than to those who deny for 
themselves. Finally, these testimonies of your own gods are 
wont to make men Christians, because by believing them to 
the utmost, we believe in Christ the Lord. They themselves 
kindle our faith in our Scriptures : they themselves build up 
the confidence of our hope. Ye worship them, as I know, 

^ In the Exorcisms in the Ancient 7. ed. 1. 
Latin, Greek, and Syriac Liturgies, <= The insufflation or exsufflation fol- 

the evil spirit is adjured by the Name lowed upon the exorcism, see Ass. 1. c. 

of the Holy Trinity, and mention made Bingham, x. 2. 8. S. Cyril Introd. $. 9. 

of his final sentence to everlasting fire p. 4. xvi. §. 19. p. 213. ed. Oxf. see also 

at the Day of Judgment. See them de Anima, c. 11. S. Iren. i. 9. Euseb. 

in Assemani Cod. Liturg. t. i. ii. or H. E. vii. 10. Prudentius Perist. Pass. 

collected in " Scriptural Views of Holv Rom. 10. 920. Brisson. comm. ad tit. 

Baptism," Note M. at the end, p. 266, cod. Theod. de feriis. 



One supreme God owned hy Heathens. 61 

even with the blood of Christians. If then it were possible 
for them to speak falsely under the hands of a Christian 
desiring to prove the truth unto you, they would be 
unwilling to lose you, so profitable and so serviceable to them, 
even from the fear of being driven out one day by yourselves 
perhaps, made Christians. 

XXIV. All this confession of theirs whereby they deny 
themselves to be gods, and whereby they make answer that 
there is no other God, save this One, Whose servants we are, 
is quite sufficient to refute the charge of sinning against the 
public, and ^ especially the Roman, Religion. For if they be 'publicae 
certainly no gods, neither certainly is the Religion aught; and ^^^J^j 
if the Religion be nought, because the gods are nought, neither 
certainly are we guilty of sinning against Religion. But on 
the contrary your reproach hath really^ recoiled upon your-^reisia 
selves, who worshipping a lie, not only by neglecting, but"^^^^ 
moreover by warring against, the true Religion of the 
true God, commit against the True One the crime of true 
irreligion. Now^ then although it were allowed that these -^ Nunc 
were gods, do ye not grant, according to the common belief, 
that there is some One higher and mightier, as the King of 
the universe, of perfect power and majesty ? For the most 
part of men also do so apportion the Divine Nature, that they 
will have the power of chief dominion to belong to One, its 
offices to many : even as Plato ^ describeth the great Jupiter 
as accompanied in heaven by an army of gods as well as of 
daemons, and therefore that his officers, and his praefects, and 
his governors, should be alike respected. And yet what 
crime doth he commit, who directeth rather his labour and 
his hope to earn the favour of the king* himself, and alloweth * Ca^sa- 
not the name of god, as he doth not that of emperor, to belong'"^"" 
to any save the prince alone .? seeing that it is judged to be 
a capital crime to call any, or to suffer any to be called, 
Ctesar, save Caesar himself. Let one worship God, another 
Jupiter: let one raise his suppliant hands to Heaven, 
another to the altar of Fides ^ let one in his prayer, (if ye 

^ In Phfpdro, §. 56. ed. Bekk. " Jupi- and daemons, fitly ordered in eleven parts, 

ter the great Lord and Guider (^yt^^v) See Arnob. iii. p. 117. Athenag. Leg. 

in heaven, driving a viringed chariot, c. 23. r- • i 

goeth first, fitly ordering and calling for <= This was close to the Capitol, 

all things ; him followeth an army of gods Plin. xxxv. 



6-2 Ilomans tohratcd all false relif/ions in prnvmce.% not the trnr. 

Apol. think this of us,) tell the clouds', another the ornaments of 
^' ^^' the ceiling: let one devote his own life to his God^, another 
that of a goat''. For beware lest this also contribute to the 
charge of irreligion, to take away the liberty of religion and 
to forbid a choice of gods, so that I may not worship whom 
I will, but be constrained to worship whom I will not. No 
one, not even a mortal, will desire to be worshipped by any 
against his will ; and therefore even to the Egyptians hath 
been allowed the free use of a superstition, vain as theirs, in 
consecrating birds and beasts, and in condemning to death 
those who slay any god of this sort'. Every province also 
and state hath its own god; as, Syria, Atargatis*"; Arabia, 
Dusares'; the Norici, Belenus'" ; Africa, Cselestis"; Mauri- 
tania, her own Princes^. I have named, metliinks, Roman 
provinces, and yet no Roman gods belonging to them, 
because they are not more worshipped at Rome than those, 
who, through Italy itself, are from municipal consecration 
ranked as gods, as Delventinus the god of the Casinienses ; 
Visidianus, of the Narnienses; Ancharia, of the ^sculani ; of 
the Volsinienses, Nortia^; of the Ocriculani, Valentia; of the 
Sutrini, Hostia^, of the Falisci, Juno, who, in honour of her 
father Curis, hath also received her surname'. But we 
alone are forbidden to have a religion of our own ^ We 
offend the Romans, and are not held to be Romans, because 
we worship not the god of the Romans. It is well that God 
is the God of all. Whose we all are, whether v, e will or no. 
But with you it is lawful to worship any thing except the 

f Juv. xiv. 97. (of the .Jews chiefly,) the Greets " Derceto ;" Plin. v. 23. it 

Nilprseternuheset coeli nureen adorant. was half-female, half-fish. Diod. Sic. 

Cels. ap. Orig. c. Cels. v. 6. Diod. Sic. ii. 4. p. 14. : in other parts, it was the 

1. xi. Eclog. p. 217. ed. Wess. Straho, god, Dagon. JA.. j? for jA . » Gesen. 

1 xvi. p. 761. ed Casauh see Kortholt ^^^^^ ^, ^^^ ^^ ^^ lengl^Ouzeley 

^%^a -A /••''; fi"'P? -11 o^ Minue F. p. 273. Others " As- 

g " And in truth whosoever will ^^^^^ „ ^ 

reflect what he vows to God, and what ' , ^^^^^^ ^^^ ._ ^_ ^ 

vows he IS to pay let him vow himself, „, ^^^ ^^^^^^J ^ ^^ ^ fj^;^ ^a- 

let him pay himself. This is demanded ; .^^^.^ .^ Maximin. ap. Hav. 

this owed :_his^own image is rendered „ ^^ ^^ Cypr.de Idol. Van. lib. de 

to Caesar; and be His own image p^^^^^ ^^ Pr^d Dei (ap. Prosper.) iii. 

rendered to God. Aug. in Ps. 115. ^o tj 

x Q •'o. ap. xlav. 

^" h'-n r^ ^ ^ ° Lact. i. 15. Minuc. F. p. 214. 

h De Idol. c. 6. n T • •• o 

Herod, u bfy. ,.,,.. ^ '' ^o F. others Nortia again. 

» So t. Adargatis, ad Nat. ii. 8. ^ ^ ... ^ 

Argatis. Strabo, 1. xvi. fin. called by , Athenag. c. 14. 



Roman empire advanced not by, hut arjuhist^ their chief (jods. (53 

true God, as though He were not rather tlie God of all, of 
Whom we all are. 

XXV. Methinks I have proved enough concerning false 
and true Deity, when I have shewn how the proof consisteth 
not in discussions only and arguments, but in the testimony 
of those very beings, whom ye believe to be gods, so that 
there is now nothing in this question which needs to be 
treated of again. Yet since the authority of the Roman 
name specially cometh across us*, I will not pass by theMnter- 
controversy which the presumption of those provoketh, whoaucto- 
say that the Romans have been raised to such a height of"'"^^ 
greatness as to be masters of the world, for the merit of their 
very diligent devotion to Religion'; and that they are so 
fully gods, that those flourish above all others, who above all 
others render service to them. These forsooth are the 
wages paid in gratitude by the Roman gods. Sterculus", 
and Mutunus, and Larentina, have advanced the empire ! 
For I cannot suppose that foreign gods would have 
wished that favour should be shewn to a foreign nation 
rather than to their own*, and that they would have given up to 
men beyond the seas the land of their country, in which 
they were born, grew up, were ennobled, and buried. No 
matter for Cybele if she loved the Roman city as the 
memorial of the Trojan race, — her own native race forsooth, 
which she protected against the arms of the Greeks, — if she 
foresaw that it would pass to those avengers, who she knew 
would subdue Greece, the conqueror of Phrygia. A mighty 
proof hath she thereupon put forth, even in our age, of her 
majesty conferred upon the city, when, Marcus Aurelius 
having been, at Syrmium, removed from the state by death on 
the sixteenth day before the Calends of April, that most holy 
of arch-eunuchs, on the ninth day before the same Calends, 
on which he made a libation of impure blood by mutilating 
his arms also, issued, as before, his accustomed orders on 
behalf of the health of Marcus, who had l^cen already cut 
off. O slothful messengers! O sleepy despatches! through 

t Cic. Orat. XXX. de Harusp. Resp. Macr. Sat. i. 7. Lact. i. 20. Aujr. Civ. 

c. 19. Polyb. vi. 54. Valer. i. 1 . 8. Prud. D. viii. 15. 

c. Symm.'l. ii. 489. Minuc F. p. 228.^^ « Prud. 1. c. 1. 532. 

" Aa though named from " manuring," 



01 Gods subject to Fates ; fates had only secondary worshijh 

Apol. whose fault Cybele did not before learn the death of the 
— '- — - Emperor ! Verily the Christians would laugh at such a 
goddess. But neither would Jupiter at once have suffered 
his own Crete to be shaken by the Roman fasces, forgetting 
that cave of Ida, and the Corybantian cymbals, and the most 
pleasing odour of his own nurse^ there. Would not he have 
preferred this his own tomb to all the Capitol, so that that 
land should rather be the first in the world, which covered 

1 the ashes of Jupiter? Would Juno too^ be willing that the city 
added of Carthage, which she loved even in preference to Samos', 

should be utterly destroyed, by the race of yEneas forsooth ? 
Whereas I know, 

" Here were her arms, 
" Here was her chariot, here e'en now she cherished, 
'* (So might Fate will,) the empire of the world." 

This wretched wife and sister of Jupiter prevailed nothing 
against the Fates. Clearly, 

" by Fate e'en Jove himself doth stand»." 

And yet the Romans have not offered to those Fates, which 
gave up Carthage to them contrary to the intent and vow of 
Juno, as much honour as to that most abandoned she-wolf 
Larentina. That many gods of yours have reigned, is 
certain. Wherefore if they hold the power of bestowing 
empire, from whom, when they reigned themselves, had they 
received that gift ? whom had Saturn and Jupiter worshipped } 
Some Sterculus, I presume ; but that, at Rome ^ afterwards, 

2 ., together with their own ^native gods. Even if there were any 
restored that reigned not, yet was the kingdom ruled by others, not as 

yet their worshippers, because they were not as yet held to 
be gods. Wherefore it belongeth to others to bestow the 
kingdom, seeing that there were kings long before these 

7 The goat Amalthsea. shipped.elsewhere, their native gods also. 

» Virg. Mn. i. 18. Others understand by " cum indigenis 

» See Pythian oracle, Herod, i, 91. suis," " together with their native wor- 

Lact. ii. 17. iEsch. Prom. v. 518. shippers," these non-Italian gods being 

^ To be made gods, they must have as it were foreigners, joining with the 

worshipped the gods who made them native worshippers. This interpretation 

such; and so, to be gods at Rome, has produced a reading, "cum indi- 

Sterculus and the like ; but they were genis cultoi'ibus suis." 

gods before, and so must have wor- ^ Prud. 1. c. 1. 346. 



Poverty of early Roman rites — they eonqurred their qods. 65 

were inscribed gods. But how vain is it to ascribe the 
eminence of the Roman name to the merit of their rehgious 
zeal ! since it was after the establishment of the imperial, or 
call it still the regal, power, in an advanced state of pros- 
perity, that Religion made progress. For although an 
exceeding nicety in superstition was adopted by Numa, yet 
the religious system among the Romans did not as yet 
consist in images or temples. Religion was thrifty, and her 
rites needy: and no Capitols were there, vying with the 
Heavens'^, but altars of turf thrown together as it chanced, 
and vessels still of Samian ware, and but scant savour*, and 
the god himself no where ^; for at that time the talents 
of the Greeks and Tuscans ^ in framing images had not as 
yet over-flooded the city. The Romans then were not 
religious before they were great, and therefore were not great 
for this cause, because religious. But how could they be 
great because of their religion, whose greatness proceeded 
from irreligion } For, if I mistake not, every empire or 
kingdom is gained by wars, and extended by conquests. 
Moreover wars and conquests consist for the most part 
in the taking and overthrow of cities. This business is not 
without injury to the gods. The same ruin embraceth walls 
and temples, like massacres citizens and priests, nor doth 
the plunder of sacred treasures differ from that of the pro- 
fane ^. As many tlierefore as are the trophies of the Romans, 
so many are their acts of sacrilege; as many as are their 
triumphs over nations, so many are they over the gods; as 
many have been their captures, as there yet remain images 
of captive gods. And therefore do they bear to be wor- 
shipped by their enemies, and decree to them an empire 
without end, whose insults, rather than their fawnings^ they' ndoia- 
ought to have repaid. But they who have no sense of anyj'""^j^^ 
thing, are as safely injured as they are uselessly worshipped, lationes 

«^ Id. 1. 343. Euseb. Prsep. Ev. ix. 3. They were 

^ Martial x. 51. of wood or clay until the conquest of 

« Exilis. Other Edd, and the ad Asia, Plin. xxxiv. 7. 

Nat. ii. ult. ex illis, " and the savour e De Spect. c. 7. Plin. 1. c. 

all from these," but there some word is »> From the capture of Syracuse, 

omitted, nidor ex illis. foreign temples were despoiled to orna- 

' Eome had no images for 170 years, ment Rome, Liv. xxv. 40. add Minur. 

Varro, ap. Aug. de C. D. iv. 9. Plu- p. 229. 
tarch. Num. Clem. Al. Strom, i. 15. 



66 States older than their pods; the true God before states and time. 

Apol. Surely it cannot consist with belief that they should be 
1. 26 ^ -^ 



thought to have increased in greatness through the merits of 
their Religion, who, as we have suggested, have either grown 
great by injuring Religion, or have injured it by growing 
great. They too, whose kingdoms have together made up 
the sum of the Roman empire, were not, at the time when 
they lost those kingdoms, without religions. 

XXVI. See then whether He be not the Disposer of 
kingdoms. Whose is both the world which is ruled, and man 
himself who ruleth ; whether He have not ordered the 
changes of dominions with their limes, in the course of the 
world. Who was before all time, and made that world, the 
universe of times. See whether it be not He Who exalteth 
and putteth down states, under Whom the race of men once 
lived without states. Why do ye err.? Rome in her rude 
state is more ancient than certain of her own gods; she 

» ambi- reigned before so large a compass of Capitol was erected*. 
rneut ) The Babylonians ' too reigned before the High Priests, and 
extru- the Medes before the Fifteen "^, and the Egyptians before the 
Salii, and the Assyrians before the Luperci, and the Amazons 
before the Vestal Virgins. Finally, if the religious rites of 
Rome procure kingdoms, never would Judaea have reigned 
aforetime, that despiser of those common deities, whose God 
Ro- too ye Romans' for some time honoured with sacrifices, and 
her temple with offerings', and her people with treaties'": 
nor would ye ever have ruled over her, had she not at the 
last sinned against Christ. 

XXVII. A sufiicient answer this to the charge of sinning 
against the gods, because we cannot be thought to sin 
against that, which we shew does not exist. Wherefore 
when we are called upon to sacrifice, we take our stand 
against it on the strength of our conscience, whereby we are 
assured who those be, to whom these services are paid, under 



i Minuc. p. 238. under SimoD. Again, Jos. A. xiv. 16 or 

^ Who had the charge of the Sybil- 17, 17 or 19, are decrees of the Roman 

line books. senate as to amity with the Jews, under 

^ Joseph. Ant. xvii. 2. (of Agrippa.) J. Caesar, and John Hyrcanus, (comp. 

•« " Mace. i. 8. ii. 11. Jos. Ant. xii. c. App. 1. ii.) and ibid, and c. 22 or 20, 

17. under Judas Maccab. ; Mace. i. 12. are Epistles of M. Antony, and P. 

Jos. A, xiii. 8. or 9. under Jonathan ; Dolabella to Hyrcanus." Pam. 
Mace. i. 15. Jos. A. xiii. 12 or 9. 



2 

mani 
restored 



Heathen blind agents of Satan to seduce or terrify Christians. (M 

the images which ye publicly expose", and the human 
names which ye consecrate. But some think it madness 
that, when we are able at once to sacrifice for the moment 
and to escape unhurt, our fixed purpose remaining stedfast 
in our own mind, we prefer to our safety a perverse resist- 
ance". Ye give us forsooth counsel whereby we may cheat 
yourselves ! But we know whence such counsels are sug- 
gested, who it is that setteth all this in motion, and how at 
one time by cunning persuasion p, at another by harsh 
violence, he worketh for the overthrowing of our constancy. 
It is in truth that spirit of dsemoniac and angelic pro- 
perties, who rivalling us because of our separation from 
him '', and envying us because of the grace of God bestowed 
upon us, maketh war against us out of your minds'^, which, 
by the secret influence of his spirit, are disposed and 
prompted to all that perverseness in your judgments, and 
that injustice in your wrath, to which we began at the first 
to speak \ For although all the power of daemons and 
spirits ' of that sort were made subject to us, yet, like naughty ' spi- 
servants, they sometimes mingle contumacy with their fear, 
and delight to injure those, whom at other times they 
reverence ' : for even fear inspireth hatred. Besides, also, 
their desperate state, arising from their previous con- 
demnation, countetli on the comfort of enjoying meantime 

" Above, on c. 13. mouth of the ungodly judge possessed 
o The refusal to abandon their faith by him seemed to advise, saying, ' Con- 
was sometimes called ^'obstinacy." suit for thyself.' " The like forms " Con- 
(Plin. Ep. to Trajan, Diocletian, ap. suletibi,"''Misereretui,"&c.wereused; 
Hermogen, 1. vii. in Collat. legg, Jud. in Agon. Macr. V., Vincentii ; comp. 
et Rom.tit. xiv. Tert. ad Nat. i. 17. 18. the persuasions in Eus. H. E. iv- 15. 
Lact. V. 2. Prud. Hymn. ii. 17. de bis (Germanicus and Polycarp), viii. 7. 
Agon. Kom. xiv. 63. 581. " a rash (Philoromus, Phileas) de^ Mart. Pal. 
desperateness." below, c. 50. Arnob. vi. c. x. (Pet. Apselamus) Tert. Scorp. 
init. Lact. v. 9. Ceecil. ap. Minuc. e. xi. Her. 
p. 71. edict of Maximin. ap. Eus. H. E. i Justin, Apol. i. 14. 
ix. 1. quoted by Kortholt, in Plin. et "^ Above, c. 2. ->, •■ ^ 
Traj. Epp. p. 57—59. or madness, » o. 1. see Justin, Ap. i. 5. 57. n. 1. 
Plin. 1. c. edict of Maxim, ap. Eus. 8. 12. Dial. c. 39. 131. Cypr. de Idol, 
viii. 17. Just. Apol. ii. Cypr. ad Van. Orig. c. Cels. iii. iv. viii. Euseb. 
Demetr. Minuc. F. 1. c. &c. Lact. 1. c. iv. 16. of the martyrdom of 1 olyearp, 
(see Kortholt in Plin. et Traj. Epp. v. 1. Martyrs of Lyons, v. 21. JNlartyr- 
p. 74. who observes that the Christians dom of Apollonius, Lact. iv. 2/ . v. 21. 
with reason retorted the charge of mad- Prud. Perist. ii. 7(J. Hymn. x. 22.^ de 
ness. See Authorities, ib.) Agon. Rom. xiv. 36. c. Symm. n. Oba. 
P Aug. Hom. 309. in Nat. Cypr. M. Chrys. Horn. 44. de /. Mace. Horn. 46. 
i.§.5. "Thus—the most faithful Martyr in S.^Lucian, &c. (Kortholt, 1. c. p. 
consulted for himself, not as the deceit- 49 — 57. 
ful tongue of the devil through the ' Orig. c. Cels. viii. 44. 

F 2 



68 Dcemoiusiibjectto Christians; rebels; vanquishedhy perseverance. 

Apol. their malice, while their punishment is yet delayed. And 

1. 28 . ./ 



■ yet, when seized, they are subdued, and submit to their own 
condition, and entreat, when near at hand, those whom they 
attack, when afar off. Therefore when, like rebels from the 
workhouses, or the prisons, or the mines, or any penal 
service of that sort, they break out against us, in whose 
power they are, being well assured that they are unequal to 
us, and thereby the more undone, we are forced to resist 
them as equals ", and we fight against them by persevering 
in that which they attack; and never do we triumph over 
them more, than when we are condemned for stedfastness in 
our faith. 

XXVIII. But as it would readily seem unjust for free 
men to be forced against their will to sacrifice, (for else- 
where also, in doing religious service, a willing mind is 
enjoined %) assuredly, for any one to be compelled by 
another to honour gods, whom, for his own sake, he 
ought of his own accord to appease, would be thought 
absurd, lest (in the right of free choice) he have his answer 
ready ; " t will not have Jupiter propitious to me ^ : who 
art thou? let Janus meet me in wrath with whichever 
of his faces he will : what have I to do with thee V Ye 
are framed, of course by these same spirits to compel us 
to do sacrifice for the health of the Emperor; and the 
necessity of compelling us is as much forced on you, as is 
the duty of perilling ourselves^ on us. We come then to the 
second count in the charge of offending against more august 
majesty, if indeed ye respect Caesar with greater dread and 
with a more trembling ardour'* than Jupiter of Olympus 
• quis himself. And with good cause, if ye know why. For who^ 
'-' omni ig }^e ? ig not any one among the living better than any^ 
Eccl. 9, dead ? But neither do ye this on the score of reason so 
^* much as from respect to a presentaneous " power, and thus 

" ingratis ( = ingratiis) resistimus ut * In the formula used in heathen 

;equales i.e. as he had said, " thev are sacrifice, " Favete linguis." 

in fact our slaves, but if they break out y De Idol. c. 21. 

in rebellion against us, they leave us no ^ De Idol. c. 13. de Cor. c. 12. 

choice, but force us to tate up arms ^ Calidiore timiditate Hav. from F. 

against them as equals, though we and Aid. others, callidiore, " a more 

know and they know too, that they cunning fear." 

fight on most unequal terms." Tr. ^ reprEesentaneaepotestatis. Casaubon 

Lacerda lays down that ingratis is = ad Suet. v. p. 179. explains this in an 

gratuito, but without authorit)'. active sense, ^' exacting at once," sc. 



gods dependent on Ccesars, not Ccesars on fjods. 69 

in this also ye are found to be irreligious towards your gods, 
seeing that ye shew more of awe towards a human power. 
Finally, among you, men more readily swear falsely by all 
the gods than against the .single Genius of Caesar ". 

XXIX. Let it then first appear whether those, to whom 
sacrifice is offered are able to impart health to the Emperor',' impe 
or to any human being, and so adjudge us guilty of high'^^^^" 
treason ^ If angels or daemons, in substance the worst of-: maje 



s- 

tatis ' 



spirits, work any o-ood deed, if the lost save, if the con- 

. i ... restored 

demned deliver, if finally, as is within your own knowledge, 
the dead defend the living, then assuredly would each first 
defend his own statues, and images, and temples, which, as 
I think, the soldiers of the Caesars keep in safety through 
their watches*'. But methinks these very materials too'^et 
come from the mines of the Caesars, and the entire temples ^*^''*'^' 
stand according to the nod of Caesar^. Finally many gods 
have had Caesar in wrath with them ; it maketh for my 
argument if some too have found him propitious, when he 
conferreth any bounty or privilege upon them. How then 
shall they, who are in Caesar's power *^, whose also they 
wholly are, have the health of Caesar within their power, so 
that they may be thought to bestow that which they more 
readily themselves obtain from Caesar? For* therefore do^enim 
we sin against the majesty of the Emperors, because we 
subject them not to their own creatures ! because we make 
not a mockery of our services for their health's sake, not 
thinking it to be in hands soldered with lead ! But ye are 
religious^, who seek it where it is not, ask it of those by 
whom it cannot be given, passing Him by, in Whose power 
it is! moreover ye put down by force those who know how 
to ask it, and, in that they know how to ask it, are able also 
to obtain it. 

XXX. For we pray for the health of the Emperors to the 

punishment; as in Val. Max. viii. 5. tit. 1. ap. Elmeuh. ad Minue. p. 284. 

poenam reprsesentare maliiit ; and Sue- Ulpian, de Jurejur. 1. VS. 

tonius 1. c. pcenasque parricidarum re- " Ep. ad Diopn. c 2. Cypr. ad De- 

prsesentabat. So also Hav. ad loc. ; and metrian. c. 8. Ambros de Vu g. 1. 2. (ap 

words in aneus are mostly neuters, only Lac.) Lac-t. n. 4. Jul. tirm. p. 31. (ot 

because derived from neuters. Here, the Palladium) ap. Hav. 

punishment not being expressed, a « As in the impieties of Caligula, 

middle term has been adopted. Suet. Cal. c. 22. 

<: The one were left unpunished, the f Ad Scap. c. 2. 

other beaten with staves. Dig. 13. §. 5. « Ab^vo. <•. (>. 
de Jurej. Harmenop. Prompt. J. C. 1. 7. 



70 Emperors above man, therefore feel themselves under God. 

Apol. eternal God, the true God, the living God, Whom even the 

-ll^ Emperors themselves would rather have propitious to them 
than all the rest. They know Who hath given them their 
kingdom": they know, as human beings. Who hath given 
them also their life. They feel that this is the only God, in 
Whose power alone they are, to Whom they are the second in 
power, after Whom they are the first, before all, and above all 
gods. And why not ? since they are above all men, who, as 
living, surely stand before the dead. They reflect how far the 
powers of their empire avail, and thus they understand God*. 
They acknowledge that they prevail through Him, against 
Whom they cannot prevail. In a word let the Emperor con- 
quer Heaven, carry Heaven captive in his triumph, send his 
guards to Heaven, lay on Heaven his taxes. He cannot. 
Therefore is he great because he is less than Heaven ; for 
he himself is of Him, of Whom is both Heaven and every 
creature. Thence is he an Emperor, whence he was also 
a man, before he was an Emperor; thence cometh his 
power, whence also came his breath. Thither we Christians, 
looking up with hands spread open^, because without guilt, 
with head uncovered'', because we are not ashamed, finally 

'Pre- \^-ithout a prompter', because we pray from the heart; 

sumus are ever praying' for all kings, that they may have a long 

semper 

reitored ^ Plin- Paneg. Traj. i. init. lii. init. to recall the names of those whom they 
i i. e. how He can rule afar off, were to salute, Nomenclator,) and to re- 
whole lands, and unseen : in part also, hearse the words which they were to 
from his own power being limited repeat, (de scripto praeire,) lest any 
though so great, he feels that there is word should be missed, or their order 
one unlimited. transposed, (Plin. xxxviii. 2.) which 
j Expansie, (not merely, as the had been ill-omened. Tertullian is ob- 
Heathen, tendens ad sidera palmas) the viously contrasting the free glowing 
attitude betokening openness; also as devotion of the Christians with this 
the figure of the Cross, de Orat. mechanical service ; it " comes from 
c. 11. Minuc. F. p. 288. Aster ap. the heart," as exh. ad cast. c. 10. " it 
Phot. cod. 271. Paulin. Vit. Ambros. comes forth from the conscience." It 
p. 12. Prudent. Perist. Hymn 6 in was plainly a mistake of Tertullian 's 
Fructuos. 1. 106. Chrys. quod Christus style, that the words were ever pressed 
sit Deus, c. 8. fin. t. i. p. 569. ap, as an argument that prayer was ex- 
Bingh. 13.8. 10. (as Moses, S. Barnab. tempore only ; and the more, since T. 
Ep. c. 12. Maximus Hom. 2. de Pass, recognizes forms of prayer, besides 
Dom. Justin M. Dial. §. 90. 111. other contemporary evidence. See Bing- 
Tert. c. Jud. c. 10. Cypr. Test. ii. 21. ham 13. 5. 5. It is, like the preceding, 
Chrys. Synops. S. Script. inExod. t. vi. an ironical argumentum ad hominem; 
p. 320.) the heathen claimed, alone to pray for 
^ As the heathen did, and then only, the emperors, while their very attitude 
1 As the heathen had, to remind and garb were emblems of their guilt, 
them of the names of their gods, (alius their rites of their indifference. The 
nomina Deo subjicit," Senec. ap. Aug. following words of Tertullian have very 
de superst.) lest they should ask any much the character of a form of 
thing of the wrong god, (Arnob. ii. prayer, 
p. 89. as their great men had a prompter 



Christians prayers fur Emperors. 71 

life, a secure dominion, a safe home, valiant armies, a faithful 
senate, a righteous people, a world at peace, and whatever 
be the desire both of the man and of the king. These 
things I cannot ask of any other than Him, from Whom I 
know that I shall obtain them ; since it is He Who alone 
giveth them, and it is I to whom the obtaining of them is 
due, I His servant who alone give Him reverence, who for 
His Religion am put to death, who offer to Him a sacrifice 
rich and of the highest rank"', which He Himself hath com- 
manded, the prayer that proceedeth from a chaste body, 
from a soul that sinneth not, from the Holy Spirit; not 
a single penny's worth" of gi'ains of frankincense, ^the'non 
droppings of an Arabian tree, nor two drops of wine, nor 
the blood of a discarded beast that longeth to die, and after 
all these foul things a filthy conscience also, so that I 
marvel, when the victims are being tried before you by 
the most wicked priests, why the heart of the beasts rather 
than of the sacrificers themselves are examined. Whilst 
then we are thus spread forth before God, let your claws of 
iron pierce us, your crosses hang us up, your fires play 
about us, your swords cut off our necks, your beasts trample 
on us ; the very posture of the praying Christian is prepared 
for every punishment". This do^, ye worthy rulers, tear 
from us that breath which is praying to God for your 
Emperor. Here will be the crime, where is truth and 
devotion to God*". 

XXXI. Now (ye will say) we have been flattering the 
Emperor, and have feigned these prayers, of which we have 
spoken, that we may escape forsooth your violence. Much 
profit clearly doth the deceit bring us ! for ye allow us to prove 
whatsoever we maintain. Thou therefore, that thinkest that 
we care nothing for the health of Caesar, look into the oracles 
of God, our writings, which we do not ourselves suppress, 
and which very many accidents transfer to the hands of 
strangers. Learn from them, that it is commanded us, in 
the overflowing of kindness, to entreat God even for our 

°» De idol. c. 6. liis Lord. . ^ ^ ^, 

» Lact. i. 20. V. 19. Jerome, Ep. 28. ad PA proclamation appointed by Nu- 

Heliod. §. 5. Lucian. in Jov. Trag. c.l 5. ma at religious rites. 

v.2.p.659.Asin.c. 12.p.580.Hemsterh. «1 Hie erit crimen, ubi veritas ct Dei 

» In that it represented the Cross of devotio est, omitted by Rig. 



Apol. 
1.32. 

Mat, 5, 
44.lCor, 
4,12.13 
1 Pet. 
3,9. 
1 Tim. 
2, 2. 



72 Christians interested in Rome, as state, and letter of Anti-Christ ; 

enemies*, and to pray for blessings on our persecutors. And 
who more the enemies and persecutors of us Christians, than 
.those, concerning whose majesty we are charged with guilt? 
But even by name, and in plain words: Pray, saith the 
Scripture, for kings, and for princes, and for powers, that 
ye may have all things in quietness '. For when the kingdom 
is shaken, all its other members being shaken with it, surely 
we also, although w^e stand aloof from tumults, are found to 
have some place in the misfortune. 

XXXII. We have also another and a greater need to pray 
for the Emperors, and moreover for the whole estate of the 
Empire, and the fortimes of Rome, knowing, as we do, that 
the mighty shock which hangeth over the whole world, and 
the end of time itself, threatening terrible and grievous things, 
is delayed because of the time allowed to the Koman Empire". 
We would not therefore experience these things, and while 
w^e pray that they may be put off", we lav our the long con- 
tinuance of Rome. But moreover as we swear not by the 
Genii of the Caesars ^, so we do swear by their health ^ 



s Just. Apol. i. 14. Dial. c. 133. 

Athenag. Leg. c. 11. 

* See Arnob.iv. fin. Cypr. ad Demetr. 

$. 11. p. 211. ed. Oxf. Orig. c. Cels. 

viii. Dionysius ap. Eus. H. E. vii. 11. 

Maximin's edict, viii, 17. App. ad viii. 8. 

de vit. Const, i. 15, 17. Prudent, in 

Roman, xiv. 426. ap. Kortholt, Coinm. 

in Plin. et Traj. Epp. p. 149. Athenag. 

Leg. fin. ad b'cap. 2. Chrys. Horn. 6. 

in l Tim. Constt. Ap. viii.'l2, 13. 
" The belief that the Roman Empire 

was " that which letteth," 2 Thess. ii. 

6, 7. that which delayed the coming of 

Anti-Christ, occurs in S. Cyrill. (Cat. 

XV, 11, 12.) Jerome (Ep. 121*. ad i\lgas. 

qu. 11.) Chrysostome and Ambrosiaster 

ad loc. Lactantius vii, 25. Damasc. iv, 

28. Theodoret ad loc. snys, " some say 

the Roman Empire, some the grace 
of the Spirit," " but this last," he 
argues, " will not cease." S. Augustine 
speaks doubtfully, Ep. 199. §. 11. "We 
who know not what they [the Thess.] 
knew, desire to attain laboriously to the 
Apostle's meaning, and are unable ;" 
somewhat more confidently in the de 
Civ. D. XX. 19. " it is not without 
reason [non absurde] believed to be 
spoken of the Roman Empire itself," 
Tertulli an repeats this statement, below 
c. 39. and ad Scap. c. 2. he views the 



subject on the opposite side, De Orat. 
c. 5. de Res. Carn. c. 24, that the end of 
the world should be longed for ; both 
are consistent, thou9rh belonging to dif- 
ferent frames of mind ; the Christian 
should long for the coming of his Lord, 
and the consummation of all things, 
and j^et may shrink from the terrible 
period which is to precede it. So Lac- 
tantius, 1. c. " She, she is the city, 
which yet upholds all things, and the 
God of Heaven is to be prayed by us, 
(if so be that His pui'poses and decrees 
may be delayed,) that that hateful 
tyrant should not come sooner than we 
think, who shall essay so great an 
offence, and extinguish that light, 
through whose destruction the world 
itself shall fall to pieces." 

^ See c. 28. fin. It was refused as 
idolatry, Eus. H. E. iv. 15. (martyrdom 
of Polycarp.) See ad Nat. i. 17. ad 
Scap. 2. Orig. c. Cels. viii. 65. Act. 
Mart. Scillit. ap. Baron A. 202. n. 2. 

y Perhaps in conformity with Gen. 
42, 15. See Basil in Ps. 14. and Rescr. 
Arcad. et Honor. Impp. 1. 41. in fin. 
cod. in transact, ap. Westhen. ad Orig. 
Exh. Mart. 7. Athanas. Ep. ad 
Monach. t. i. p. 866. Veget. de re 
Milit. i. 5. ap. Bingham, 16. 7. 4. 



honour Em'per or most, and most safely, hy honour lv(j him truly. 73 

which is of greater dignity than all Genii. Ye know not 
that Genii are called " Daemones," and hence by a diminutive 
title, " dsemonia." We in the Emperors reverence the 
judgment of God, Who hath set them over the nations. We 
know that in them is that which God hath willed, and 
therefore we would have that safe which God hath willed, 
and this v»e hold to be a great oath ; but as to the daemons, 
that is, the genii, we are wont to adjure them that we may 
cast them out of men, not to swear by them, so as to confer 
on them the honour pertaining to God. 

XXXIII. But why should I say more of the Religion and 
the reverential affection of the Christians towards the 
Emperor, whom we needs must look up to as the man whom 
our Lord hath chosen ? I might even say with good cause, 
Caesar is rather ours, being appointed by our God. Where- 
fore in this also I do him more service towards his welfare, 
not only because I ask it from Him, Who is able to grant it, 
nor because I that ask it am such an one as to deserve to 
obtain it% but also because, by keeping down the majesty of 
Caesar beneath God, I commend him the more unto God to 
Whom alone I subject him. But I subject him to one to 
whom I make him not equal. For I will not call the 
Emperor a god, both because I cannot speak falsely, and 
because I dare not mock him, and because he himself will 
not desire to be called a god. If he be a man, it concerneth 
a man to yield to a god. He hath enough in being called 
an Emperor: this also is a great name which is given him 
of God. He who calleth him a god, denieth that he is an 
Emperor. Unless he be a man, he is not an Emperor. 
Even when triumphing in that most lofty chariot, he is 
warned that he is a man, for he is prompted from behind, 
" Look behind thee — remember that thou art a man "." And, 
in truth, his joy is on this very account the greater, for that 
he glittereth with so much glory, as to need reminding of his 
proper nature. He were not so great, if he were then called 
a god, because he would not be truly called so; he is 
greater, in that he is reminded not to think himself a god. 

XXXIV. Augustus, the founder (jf the Empire, would not 

* in that, as a Christian, I worship « Ju^^ x 42. Plin. 33. 1. Jerom. 
Him, see above, c. 29, 30. Ep. ad Paulam de ob. Blesills. 



74 Christians use titles of affection and respect to Emperors ; 

Apol. even have himself called Lord " ; for this also is a name of 
-ii^ God^ I will by all means call the Emperor lord, but only 
when 1 am not compelled to call him lord in the stead of God. 
Nevertheless to him I am a freeman, for there is One that is 
my Lord, the Almighty and eternal God, the Same who is 
his Lord also. He that is the father of his country, how is 
he its lord ? But a title of natural affection is more pleasing 
also than one of power. Even of a family men are rather 
called the fathers than the lords ^*. So far is it from being 
due to the Emperor to be called a god, (which cannot be 
^ quod believed*,) with a flattery not only most disgraceful, but 
potest dangerous also, as though when thou hast one Emperor, 
credi thou wert to call another so. Wilt thou not incur the 
highest and most implacable displeasure of him whom thou 
hadst for thine Emperor, a displeasure to be feared even by 
him to whom thou gavest the title ? Be religious towards 
God, thou that wouldest have Him propitious to the 
Emperor. Cease to believe any other to be God, and so 
likewise to call him god who hath need of God. If flattery 
of such sort blusheth not for its falsehood in calling a man 
a god, let it at least fear for its evil omen : it is ill-augured to 
call Caesar a god before he be deified ^. 

XXXV. It is on this acconnt then that the Christians are 
public enemies, because they ofl"er to the Emperors neither 
vain, nor lying, nor unconsidered honours ; because, being 
men of true religion, they celebrate even their solemn days 
with honest hearts rather than wanton acts. A mighty 
service truly 1 to drag out into public view fireplaces and 
couches \ to feast from street to street, to bury the whole city 
under the disguise of a tavern", to make mud with wine, to 



b Suet. Aug. c. 53. Tertullian gives ^ Pater-familias. 

a further interpretation to Augustus' ^ " For divine honours are not given 

act, which was in itself political ; as to the prince, before he ceases to live 

Orosius points out another bearing, among men." Tac. Ann. xv. 74. add 

which it had; ''he allows himself not Minuc. F. p. 216. Vespasian in his 

to be called Lord, in whose reign the last sickness, " I am about to be a 

true Lord of the whole human race was god." Suet. Vesp. 23. 

born among men." f Lectisternia, see below, c.42. Tac. 

«^ Martial, x. 72. uses them as Ann. xv. 37. tota urbe quasi domo uti. 

equivalent, of Nerva, " I will not call ib. 44. sellisternia. 

him Lord and God," and Philo ad e Mart. vii. 60. Nunc Roxna est ; 

Caium, of Augustus, " he willed not to nuper magna taberna fuit. 
be called Lord or God." 



Christians condemnedfor keeping from licence of heathen holy days. 7 5 

run about in companies ^ to violent and shameless deeds, to 
the enticements of lust. Ts it thus that public joy is ex- 
pressed by public disgrace ? do these things become the 
holydays of princes, which become not other days ? shall 
they who observe the right rules of life out of respect for 
Cassar, abandon them for Caesar's sake, and shall piety be a 
licence for immorality? shall Religion be deemed an 
occasion of wantonness ' ? and how justly do we deserve 
condemnation ! for why do we discharge our vows and our 
rejoicings for the Caesars, in chastity and sobriety and righte- 
ousness ? Why do we not on the festal day overshadow our 
door-posts with laurels "^, and encroach on the day with our 
candlelight'? It is a righteous act, when a public solemnity 
requireth it, to dress up your house in the guise of some new 
brothel '" ! 

I would, however, touching this reverencing a se- 
condary" majesty also, concerning which we Christians are 
called to answer a second charge of sacrilege, for not cele- 
brating with you the holydays of the Caesars in a manner in 
which neither modesty, nor shame, nor decency pennit, but 
the opportunity of pleasure rather than any fitting reason 
hath advised °, I would give proof of your own faithfulness 
and truth, in case they should in this instance also perchance 
be found worse than the Christians, who would not that we 
should be accounted Romans, but enemies of the kings of 
Rome. I call on the Romans themselves, on the native 
populace of the seven hills themselves, to answer wliether 
that Roman tongue of theirs spareth one of their own 
Caesars P. The Tiber is my witness and the theatre of the 
beasts. Now if nature had covered the breasts of men * with ' huma- 
some transparent material, so that they might shine through, ajj^ci 
whose heart would not be found graven with the picture of 
another and another new Caesar presiding over the division 

li Below, c. 39. Juv. iii. 278. Suet, next to sacrilege is that designated as 

Nerv. c 26 against the majesty" [of the Emperor]. 

i De idol', init. Ulp. 1. c. ad leg. Jul. majest. ap. Her. 

^ Tac. Ann. xv. 17. " " Sed occasio voluptatis niagis 

I De Idol, c' 15. Greg. Naz. Orat. 2. quam digna ratio persuasit," omitted 

in Julian, prop, fin, by Rig. . , „ -^ ^ 

m Ad Uxor. ii. 6. de Idol. c. 15. P Ad Nat. i. 1/. De Spect. c. lb. 

•» Above, c. 28. ad Nat. i. 17. Treason On their petulance, see Tac. Hist. ii. 

to the Emperors was accounted impiety, 88. iii. 32. 
as towards a sort of god. " The crime 



76 Hypocrisy of those., icho charged Christians icith disloyalty. 
Apol. of the royal donative''? even in that hour in which they 

1.35. 

cry 

" Jove, multiply thy years by lessening ours." 

These words a Christian is as incapable of pronouncing as 
of wishing for a new emperor. " But these be mobs," say est 
thou? Mobs let them be; they are Romans notwithstand- 
ing, and none are more noisy clamourers for the punishment 
of the Christians than the mob. The other classes no doubt 
are, in proportion to their authority, sincere in their pious 
reverence; no hostile spirit is breathed from the senate itself, 
from the knighthood, from the camp, from the very palace ! 
Whence pr'ythee came your Cassii, and your Nigers, and 
your Albini^f' whence come they, who beset a Caesar 
between two laurels*? whence they, who exercise their art of 
wrestling in strangling him'? whence they, who break into 
the palace in arms " with more boldness than all the Sigerii 
and Parthenii "" ? From the Romans, if I mistake not, that is 
from men not-Christians. And so all these, even when their 
wickedness was on the point of bursting forth, were both 
offering their sacrifices for the health of the Emperor, and 
swearing by his Genius, one kind of men without, another 
within, and doubtless were giving to the Christians the name 
of public enemies. But even they who are every day^ detected 
• as accomplices or abettors of wicked parties, the gleaning 
that still remaineth after the gathering in of the vintage of 
parricides '^, how did they face their doors with the freshest 
and the most luxuriant laurels ! how did they overcast their 
porches with vapour of candles, the tallest and the brightest! 
how did they portion out the forum among them, filling it 
with the richest and most superb couches! not that they 
might solemnize the public rejoicings, but that they might 
even now utter their own private vows in another's solemnity, 

<1 at their accession. Aur. Victor. Lamprid. in ^it. 

' Ad Scap. 2. and (in general terras) " Murder of Pertinax, Capitohn. in 

ad Nat. i. \7. ad Mart. c. 6. Cassius vit. Herodian. L 2. 
conspired against Antoninus, Niger ^ benefitted hy, and murderers of 

and Alhinus against Severus. Domitian. Xiphihn. p. 237. C. 239. B. 

• Commodus was nearly surprised y The remains of the conspiracy of 

by the populace in the suburbs, whither Niger. Spartianus ap. Gotofred. Prol. ad 

he had retired on account of the healthi- lib. ad N at. p. 11. 
ness of the laurel-groves. Herodian. 1. i. ^ The Emperor being entitled " Fa- 

ap. Her. ther of his country." 

» Murder of Commodus by a wrestler. 



Christians did good to all, andbV to Emperor y looking for reivard. 77 

and, by changing mentally the name of the prince, might 
enthrone a proxy and a representative of him for whom they 
hoped. The same services do they also pay, who consult 
astrologers, and soothsayers, and augurs, and magicians, 
touching the hfe of Caesar t ; which arts, as being put forth 
by rebel angels, and forbidden by God, the Christians do 
not employ, even in their own behalf. But who hath need 
of such curious enquiry about the life of Caesar, unless it be 
one, who is plotting or desiring something against it, or is 
hoping and waiting for something after it ? For men consult 
not with the same feelings about their friends and their 
masters : the anxiety of the kinsman is busy on other 
grounds than that of the slave. 

XXXVI. If these things be so, that those are proved to 
be enemies, who were wont to be called Romans, why are 
we who are but thought to be enemies denied to be 
Romans ? May we not both be Romans and not be enemies, 
when those are found to be enemies, who were accounted 
Romans ? The piety then, and religious reverence, and faith 
due to the Emperors standeth not in such services as these, 
which even enmity may more zealously perform as a cloak for 
itself, but in that moral course of life, by which a kindly 
feeling must needs be as truly shewn towards the Emperor 
as towards all mankind. For these works of good-will are 
not due from us to Emperors alone. In doing good to 
others we make no exception of persons, for we do it at the 
same time to ourselves, seeking our measure of praise or 
reward not from man, but from God, Who requireth and 
recompenseth an impartial charity. We are the same to 
the Emperors that we are to our neighbours, for we are 
equally forbidden with respect to every one, to wish ill, 
to do ill, to speak ill, to think ill. That which we may 
not do to an Emperor, neither may we do to any man : that 
which we may do to no man, the less, perhaps, may we to 
him, who, through God, is so great a man. 

XXXVII. If, as we have said above, we are commanded 

q " He (Severus) put to death many, quent ground of punishment. Tac. Ann. 

as having consulted Chaldfeans and xii. 52. xvi. 30. Severus himselt had 

Magi about his life." Spartianus ap. been falsely charged with it. hpartia- 

Gotofr. 1. c. The practice was a fre- nus. 



78 Fury of heathen populace ; patience of Christians ; 

Apol. to love our enemies, whom have we to hate ? And if again* 
A^when injm-ed we are forbidden to repay the injury, lest 
\dder we ourselves be equally guilty, whom have we power to 
hurt? For reflect, yourselves, on this matter. How often 
do ye spend your fury on the Christians, partly from your 
own proper mclinations, partly in obedience to the laws' ! 
How often also, passing you by, doth the hostile mob attack 
us*, on its own score, with stones and fire ! With the very 
phrenzy of Bacchanals, they spare not the Christians even 
when dead; but they must needs drag them out from the 
repose of the grave, the sanctuary in some sort of death, 
and cut and tear them in pieces, no longer what they were, 
no longer even entire*. And yet what retaliation for injury 
have ye ever marked in men so banded together, so bold 
in spirit even unto death ? though a single night might 
with a few torches work out an ample vengeance, if it were 
lawful, with us that evil should be balanced by evil. But 
1 (livini- Qod forbid that the divine character of the sect^ should 
be vindicated by human fire, or should grudge to suffer 
that wherein it is tried. For if we wished to act the 
avowed enemy, not the secret avenger only, would strength 
of numbers and forces be wanting to us ? The Moors and 
the Marcomans", and the Parthians themselves, or any other 
people, however great, yet a people nevertheless of one 
spot, and of their own boundaries, are, I suppose, more 
numerous than one of the whole world ! We are a people of 
yesterday, and yet we have filled every place belonging to 
you, cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your very 
camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum'' ! We 
leave you your temples only. We can count your armies : 
our numbers in a single province will be greater^. For 
what war should we not be sufl^icient and ready, even 

"■ Above, c. 1. 4. Vienne.) 

• Eusebius speaks of many local " These had harassed the Empire 

persecutions being raised by the popu- under M. Antoninus ; and with the 

lace, even when there was no general Parthians Severus was then at war. 

persecution, H. E. iii. 32. (under Tra- Gotof. Prol. ad Lib. ad Nat. p. 11. 

jan) v. 1. (under M. Antonius) vi. 32. ^ See above on c. 1. p. 3. n. g. 

(under Decius, at Alexandria.) / Possumus dinumerare exercitus 

t Partly out of savageness, partly in vestros; unius provincise plures erunt. 

contumely of the doctrine of the Re- omitted by Rig. 
surrection, Eus. v. 1. fiu. (Martyrs of 



notwithstanding their great numbers and power to avenge. 79 

though unequal in numbers, who so willingly are put to 
death, if it were not in this Religion of ours more lawful 
to be slain than to slay ? We could fight against you 
even unarmed and without rebelling, but only disagreeing 
with you, by the mere odium of separation. For if so large 
a body of men as we, were to break away from you into 
some remote corner of the globe, surely the loss of so 
many citizens, of whatever sort they might be, would cover 
your kingdom with shame, yea, and would punish you by 
their very desertion of you. Doubtless ye w^ould tremble 
at your own desolation, at the silence of all things, at the 
death-like stupor of the whole world. Ye would have to 
seek whom to govern. More enemies would remain to 
you than citizens : for now ye have fewer enemies by 
reason of the multitude of Christians, almost all, citizens, 
yea having almost all your citizens Christians. But ye 
have preferred to call us enemies of the human race^ And 
who would snatch you from those hidden foes, who are 
every where making havoc of your minds and your bodily 
health, from the inroads, I mean, of daemons, which we drive 
away from you without reward, without pay ? This alone 
would be enough, for our vengeance, that ye should hence- 
forth lie open^, a vacant tenement for unclean spirits^ And* pate- 
now not even thinking of compensation for so great a pro-^^^'^ 
tection, ye have preferred judging as enemies a race not only 
harmless, but even necessary to you, who are in truth 
enemies, yet not of men but of their errors. 

XXXVIII. Wherefore it were meet that this sect should 
be accounted (and that with much more kindly feelings) 
among lawful factions'', a sect, by which no such thing is 
done, as is wont to be apprehended from unlawful factions. 
For, if I mistake not, the cause of prohibiting factions is to 



civium. 



(Cbristianorum) pasne omnium « Above on c. 23. Orig. c. Cels, viii. 

w..am, psene omnes cives Christianos 73. " But we, moreover, removing by 

habendo; sed hostes maluistis vocare our prayers all dcrmons, who stir up 

generis humani, omitted by Rig. By wars, and break oaths, and disturb 

the first clause, Tert. seems to mean peace, aid those who rule, more than 

that almost all the Christians were such as seem to war." 

citizens, (i. e. not slaves or foreigners ** T. adopts the word " factio" used 

only,) in the second, that almost all as a term of reproach by the Heathen, 

the citizens were Christians, and if not, Minuc. F. p. 70. 
would be their enemies. 



80 Christians not factious^ as not concerned about things offactions> 

apol. be found in a provident care for the temperate condition of 
— :-?-Lthe public, lest the state be divided into parties, a thing 
which might easily disquiet your assemblies, your councils, 
your courts, your public meetings, even your public shows, 
by the rival conflicts of party zeal, when men had already 
begun to make a trade of selling and hiring out their services 
for acts of violence. But we who are insensible to all that 
burning for glory and greatness, have no need of banding 
together, nor is any thing more foreign to our taste than 
public affairs. We acknowledge one commonwealth of all 
mankind, the world''. Equally do we renounce your 
spectacles, as much as the matters which gave rise to them, 

1 cum which we know to be conceived of superstition, in that^ we 

have got clear of the very things about which these per- 
formances are concerned. We have no concern, in speaking, 

2 dictu, seeing, hearing^, with the madness of the circus'', with the 
audhu i^^^iiodesty of the theatre^, with the cruelty of the arena, 
restored with the folly of the wrestling gallery''. The Epicureans 

were permitted to determine for themselves certain pleasures 
to be real. Wherein do we offend you if we take other 
than yours to be pleasures ? If we will not know how to be 
pleased, the loss, if it be one, is our's not your's. But we 
reject those things which please you, nor are ye delighted 
with our pleasures^. 

XXXIX. I will now set forth on my own part the employ- 
ments of the Christian society, that since I have disproved 
that which is evil, I may shew somewhat that is good, if 
^sietiaraso be I have also unfolded the truth^. We are a body 
^em^ne- foi'™^<^^ ^Y ^^"^ joint cognizaucc of Religion, by the unity" 
vela- of discipline, by the bond of hope. We come together in a 
added meeting and a congregation as before God', as though we 
would in one body sue Him by our prayers. This violence 
is pleasing unto God. We pray also for Emperors, for their 
ministers and the powers, for the condition of the world, for 
the quiet of all things, for the delaying of the end^. We 

e Philo de Josepho ap. Her. S De Spectac. c. 28. 

«1 De Spect. c. 16. Prudent. Hamartig. ^ The Divinity of our Religion, F. 
1. 362. Hieron. in vit. Hilar. Cyr. * (Coimus) in csetum et congrega- 

Cat. xix. 4. tionem, ut (ad D.) omitted by Rig. 

« Adv. Marc. i. 28. Lact. vi. 20. j Above on c. 32. 

i De Pudic. c. 7. de Spect. e. 18. 



Christian icorship, discipline, alms. 81 

coine together to call the sacred writings to remembrance, il" 
so be that the character of the present times compel us 
either to use admonition or recollection in any thing. In 
any case, by these holy words we feed our faith, raise our 
hopes, establish our confidence, nor do we the less strengthen 
our discipline by inculcating precepts. Here too are exercised 
exhortations, con-ections, and godly censure. For our judg- 
ment also Cometh with great weight, as of men well assured 
that they are under the eye of God ; and it is a very grave 
forestalling of the judgment to come, if any shall have so 
offended as to be put out of the communion of prayer, of the 
solemn assembly, and of all holy fellowship. The most 
approved elders •* preside over us, having obtained this honour 
not by money, but by character; for with money is nothin»^ 
pertaining unto God purchased. Even if there be with us a 
sort of treasury, no sum is therein collected, discreditable to 
Religion as though she were bought. Every man placeth 
there a small gift on one day in each month ', or whensoever 
he will, so he do but will, and so he be but able ; for no man 
is constrained, but contributeth willingly. These are as it 
were the deposits of piety; for afterwards they are not 
disbursed in feasting and in drinking, and in disgusting 
haunts of gluttony, but for feeding "' and burying the poor, 
for boys and girls without money and without parents, and 
for old men now house-ridden, for the shipwrecked also, and 
for any who in the mines", or in the islands, or in the 
prisons, become their Creed's pensioners", so that it be 
only for the sake of the way of God. But it is the exercise 



k T. here probably speaks of the i. 67. Perhaps however (as Her. siig- 
Bishops under the title of " Elders," gests) he is only alluding to the mouthly 
" prsesides" being for the most part a meetings of other societies, (as his man- 
term appropriated to Bishops, de Pudic. ner is to blend his own statements wifh 
c. 21. Cypr. de Ecel. Unit. c.4. Ep. 72. his allusions to others' customs,) " in 
ad Steph. Tert. uses it de Jejun. cult, the monthly day (of meeting) or when 
de Pudic.c.14. de Prsescr. c. 42. Pra?- he wi\h, each," &c. Monthly alUw- 
sidentes, de Cor. c. 3. includes the ances are mentioned, ap. Eus. H. K. 
presbyters. He mentions the three v. ult. 

orders, de Bapt. c. 17. de Fug. in Pers. «" Cypr. Ep. 2. Fell. (61. I am.) ad 

c. 11. and de Prsescr. c. 41. The cor- Eucrat. Ep. 5. ad clerum suum. 

responding ^gaJ^^aj is used in the Cone. " Dionys. Cor. ap. Eu.s. iv. 23. men- 

Chalc. Act. 4. Ep. ad Impp. Val. et tions this as a characteristic liberality 

Marcian. ap. Lac. of the Roman Church, fhe Emperor 

1 If T. is speaking of a fact, this is Licinius forbad it, Eus. H. E. x. H. 

different from the Eucharistic collec- ° Ad Mart. c. 1. Cypr. Ep. 6. 
tions, which were weekly ; Justin, Apol. 



82 Christian brotherhood, as horn of One Father. 

Afoi,. of this sort of love which doth, with some, chiefly brand us 
— '—^^ with a mark of evil, ' See,' say they, ' how they love each 
other P;' for they themselves hate each other: and ' see how 
ready they are to die for each other;' for they themselves 
are more ready to slay each other. But whereas w^e are 
denoted by the title of ' The Brethren,' on no other ground, 
as I think, do they brand this name, than because among 

1 afftc themselves every title of consanguinity is, from affectation \ 

falsely assumed. But brethren we are even of your own, by 
the law of Nature, our one mother, although ye have but 

2 Nunc little of the man in you because ye are ill brethren. Now^ 

how much more worthily are they both called and esteemed 

brethren, who acknowledge one Father, that is God, who 

1 Cor. have drunk of One Spirit of holiness, wdio from the one 

12 13 . . 

' * w^omb of their common ignorance have started at the one 
light 'I of Truth ! But perchance we are on this account 
thought to be not true-born brothers, because no tragedy 
noiseth abroad our brotherhood, or because we are brethren 
in our family property, which with you mostly dissolveth 
brotherhood'. We therefore, who are united in mind and 
soul, doubt not about having our possessions in common. 
Yv^ith us all things are shared promiscuously, except our 
wives'. In that alone do we part fellowship, in which alone 
others exercise fellov^ship ; who not only use the wives 
of their friends, but most patiently also lend to their friends 
their own, according, I suppose, to the rule of those ancient 
and exceeding wise men, Socrates the Greek, and Cato the 
Roman, who shared with their friends the wives whom they 
had married, for the sake of having children, even elsewhere 
begotten : whether indeed against the will of the wives, 
I know not; for what could they care for that chastity, 
which their husbands had so readily resigned } O example 

P It is ridiculed by Lucian in Pere- p. 3. ed. Oxf. Clem. Strom, ii. 9. p. 163. 

grino, and ap. Prudent, in Agon. " We call brethren those re-born by 

Vincent. Perist. ii. 73. The heathen the same Word," and that " for our 

abused the names, "brother, sister," mutual love and good will's sake," Opt. 

to a bad sense, and then cnst the re- 1. i. p. 34. " Let no one wonder that I 

proach on the Christians, Minuc. F. call them brethren, who cannot but be 

p. 81. The title is explained, Minuc. brethren. V\'e and they haA^e one 

F. p. 312. Athenag. c. 32. Lact.v.l6. spiritual birth." 
Jerome, adv. Helvid. c. 8. ■" Pet. Chrysol. Serm. 1. ap. Lac. 

T (p«i;T;(7-^,of, illumination, as a title of ^ Justin M. Apol. i. 14. Athenag. 

Baptism, see also Cypr. ad Donat.§. 3. c. 33. 



Simplicity, charity, temperance, of Christian feasts. 83 

of Attic wisdom and of Roman steadiness ! A Philosopher 
and a Censor^ turned pimj:) ' ! AVliat wonder then if such our' lenon 
love be social? for even our little suppers ye revile as extra- ^^^ 
vagant also', besides being disgraced by vice. It was of us,2quoquc 
I suppose, that the saying of Diogenes" was spoken, " The"''''^^ 
Megarians feast, as thougli they were to die to-morrow, and 
build, as though they were never to die." 13 ut each heholdelh M^'t- 7, 
the mote in another^s eye^ rather than the beam iii his oicn. 
The whole air is turned sour with the crude breathings of so 
many tribes, and curia?, and decurias. When the Salii are 
about to feast, one must needs lend money for it. Your 
accomptants will calculate the expenses of the tithes and 
the feasts dedicated to Hercules. For the Apaturian and 
Bacchanal festivals, and for the Athenian mysteries, a levy of 
cooks is ordered ; at the smoke of the feast of Serapis the 
firemen will be aroused. It is the supping-room of the 
Christians alone that men carp at. Our feast sheweth its 
nature in its name. It is named by the word by which 
' love''' is among the Greeks. Whatever expense it costeth, 
expense incurred in the name of piety is a gain ; if we aid 
every poor man by this refreshment, not, according as the 
parasites among you, aspire to the glory of enslaving their 
liberty, and, for their hire, filling their bellies in the midst of 
insults, but, according as with God, more thought is taken for 
men of low degree. If the cause of the feast be good, judge 
ye what the rest of the course of our rules is, according to 
the duties of Religion. It alloweth nothing vile, nothing 
immodest. Men sit not down to meat before tasting, in the 
first place, of prayer to God^. They eat as much as hungry 
men desire; they drink as much as is profitable for chaste 
men ; they are so filled, as men who remember that during 
the night also they must pray' to God; they so discourse, as 

t T. ioins together the two Cato's, (against those who despised and would 

the great-grandtather the Censor, with not partake of theni,) Jerome [1 elag.] 

the Philosopher, whose the act was. ad 1 Cor. xi. (Kortholt ) 

" The same was said by Stratonicus >' Jerome, Ep. 22. ad Lustoch. 
of the Rhodians, Plut. de Amore Divit. ^ On the practice of nightly prayer, 

Casaub. in Athen. iv. 10. public and private besides the ^ug,ls, 

^ Orig.c.Cels.i.l.Minuc.F.p.308. see ad Lxor ii. 4. 5. Chrys. Horn. 

Chrys. Horn. 27. in I Cor. et Serm. de 49. in Matt. ^ Cypnan, de Orat. 

Verb. Ap. 1 Cor. xi. 19. [§. 3. t. iii. Dom^§. 19. p. 193. and §• "'t- p. 198. 

p. 244.1 Aug. C.Faust. XX. 20. Constt. ed. Oxf. Ong. c. Cels. v, de Orat. 

Ap. ii. 28. Cone. Gangr. Can. xi. c. 12. fin. Cscil. ap. Minuc. F. 

G 2 



84 Psalms, hymns, prayer^ close Christian feasts, 

APOL. those who know that God heareth. After that water for the 

I 39 

—- — '- hands and lights' are brought, according as each is able, out 
of the Holy Scriptures, or of his own mind, he is called 
upon to sing publicly to God^ Hence it is proved in what 
degree he hath drunken ! In like manner prayer breaks 
up the feast ^ Thence they separate, not into bands for 
violence ", nor into groups for running to and fro, nor for the 
outbreakings of lasciviousness, but to be as chary as before 
of modesty and chastity, as men who have fed not so much 
upon meats as upon instruction in righteousness. This 
coming together of Christians would deservedly be unlawful, 
if it were like those things which are unlawful; deservedly 
to be condemned, if it were not at variance with those things 
which are to be condemned''. If any complain of it on the 
ground that factious parties are complained of, for whose 
hurt have we at any time assembled } We are the same 
when gathered together as when scattered, the same in the 
mass as single, offending no one, vexing no one. When the 
honest, when the good come together, when the pious, when 
the chaste meet, it must not be called a faction, but a court. 

p. 72. Ambr. de Virg. iii. 4. Serm. 7. Gallic.) and of His coming to judgment, 

in Ps. 118, 55 and 62. Hil. in Ps. 118, (Prud. 1, c.) and as a time of spiritual 

Tr. 7. §. 6. Hieron. Ep. 107. ad Lset. danger, (Ambr. ad Ps. 119, 1. c.) Celsus, 

§. 9. Ep. 108. ad Eustoch. de Paulee ap. Orig. c. Cels. i. init. mentions also 

Epitapb. §. 15. Ep. 22. ad Eustoch. de the outward ground, of persecution; to 

Custod. ^irg. §. 17. 18. 37. Pelag. ad which Origen also refers, ibid. andTer- 

Demetriad., c. 23. Cassian. de Instt. tullian, de fug. in Pers. fin. see texts 

Csenob. ii. 3. 4. 6. 13-. iii. 2. other and passages, ap. Kortholt de Cal. 

prayers in the evening are mentioned, Pag. c. 16. 

Basil de Sp. S. c. 29. Socr. v. 22. * Hence certain prayers were called 

Hieron. Ep. 107. ad Laet. §. 9, Cassian. lucernarise, Justinian ad 1 Cor. xi. 21. 

de Instt. Ceenob. ii. 3. 5. 6. iii. 2. p. 562. quoting Jerome, Cassiodorus, 

others before day-break, Plin. Ep. ad Socrates, Epiphanius, Cassian, &e. 

Traj. Basil, Ep. 63. ad Cler. Eccl. ^ Cypr. ad Donat. fin. p. 12. ed. Oxf. 

Neo-Cses. Cassian. de Instt. Csenob. Auct. Lib. de Spectac. ap. Cypr. fin. 

iii. 5. Sidon. Ep. 1. 2. The grounds Jerome, Ep. 31. ad Eustoch. fin. '' So 

chiefly alleged are, the authority of Holy must thou ever eat, as that prayer and 

Scripture mentioning prayer at such reading [H. Scripture] may follow food," 

times, (Auct. de Virgin, ap. Athanas. also Ep. 107- ad I-set. §. 9. and Ep. 5^. 

c. 2. Basil Regg. fus. Explic. qu. 67. ad Furiam, §.11. 

Ambros. in Ps. 119, 1. c. Hieron. in ^ Clem. Al. Psedag. ii. 9. Ambr. de 

Matt. 25. Ep. ad Riparium, adv. Vigi- Virg. iii. 4. Jerome, Ep. 22. ad Eustoch. 

lant. Cassian. de Instt. Csenob. iii. 3.) $. 37. Chrys. Orat. de Bapt. Christi, 

our Lord's example, (Cypr. de Orat. t. ii. p. 375. ed. Montf. Amphiloch. in 

Dom. (J. 19. Ambr. 1. c. Jerome, 1. c.) vit. Basilii, c. 3. 

and others in the N. T. ; also that of the ^ Above, c. 3o. 

Holy Angels, (Clem. Al. Psedag. ii. 9. ^ Interpunction altered, " merito 

Jerome ad Dan. iv. 10.:) that it was the damnanda, si non dissimilis damnandis. 

hour of the Resurrection of our Lord, Si quis de ea queritur eo titulo, &c. in 

( Ath. de Virginit. Prudent. Hymn, ad cujus perniciem, &c." 



Charge that Christians brought down public calamities, refuted. 85 

XL. But on the contrary the name of faction must be 
applied to those, who are banded together in enmity against 
the good and the honest, who join together their cry against 
the blood of the innocent, pretending forsooth, in defence of 
their enmity, that vain excuse also, that they think the 
Christians to be the cause of every public calamity, of every 
national ill^. If the Tiber cometh up to the walls, if the 
Nile Cometh not up to the fields, if the heaven hath stood 
still*", if the earth hath been moved, if there be any famine, 
if any pestilence, " The Christians to the lion," is forthwith 
the word. What ! so many to one ? Before the age of 
Tiberius, that is before the coming of Christy how many 
calamities, I pray you, afflicted the world and the City ^ ? 
We read that Hiera, Anaphe **, and the islands Delos, and 
Rhodes, and Cos, were with many thousand men utterly 
destroyed. Even Plato' relateth that a land larger than Asia 
and Africa was snatched away by the Atlantic ocean. An 
earthquake moreover hath drained the Corinthian sea ^ ; and 
the force of the waves hath separated Lucania from Italy, 
and banished it, to bear the name of Sicily'. Surely these 
things could not happen without harm to the inhabitants. 
But where were, I will not say the Christians the despisers of 
your gods, but your gods themselves at that time, when the 
flood overwhelmed the whole world, or, as Plato supposed ", 
the plain country" only; for that they were of later date than 
the catastrophe of the deluge the very cities bear witness, in 
w^hich they were born and died, and those also which they 



« See Cypr. ad Demetr. and others, variously corrupted in the MSS., Hie- 

ib. p. 200. not. a. ed. Oxf. also Firmilian, rennape, &c. 

Ep. 75. ad Cypr. Edict. Anton, ap. » Atlantis. Plin. ii. 90. Plato in 

Justin M. Aug. in Ps. 80. Serm. 59. Timseo, §. 6. p. 24. Steph. 

and Ep. 5. ad MarceU. ap. Kortholt. de ^ Ad Nat. i. 9. " cum terra motu 

Calumn. Pag. c. 22. ad Scap. c. 2. de mare C. ereption est," determines the 

Pall. e. 2. ad Nat. i. 9. Martyrol. in meaning; else Hav.'s explanation were 

vit. Porphyr. ap. Elmenh. ad Arnob. good, " drank in, i. e. drew in the sea 

p. 3. to what is now called the C. sea." 

'Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 3. "From Strab. viii. fin. Ovid. Met. xy. Plin. 

whose ignorance hath arisen also that ii. 94. mention the overthrow of Helice 

common proverb, ' The rain hath failed ; by that sea through an earthquake. See 

the Christians the cause.'" Authorities at length in Gataker ad 

g urbem, Rome. Antonin. iv. 48. 

h Gothofred's correction, ad Nat. 1 Plin. iii. 8. 

i. 9. from Plin. ii. 87. who mentions "» De Legg. in. p. (u7. 

these islands as having reappeared, " De Pall. c. 2. 
Ammian. Marc. xvii. The name is 



86 Calamities from neglect of God, not from gods they tcorshipped; 
Apol. founded ; for they would not otherwise have remained unto 

I. 40. . 

— — - this day, if they themselves also had not been of later date 
than that catastrophe. Palestine had not yet received that 
swarm of Jews from Egypt, nor had that seminary of the 
Christian sect, as yet settled there, when the shower of fire 
burnt up Sodom and Gomorrah, places on its borders. The 
land still smelleth of the burning ; and, if any fruits of the 
trees there struggle into life, so as to be seen by the eyes, 
nevertheless, when touched, they crumble into ashes". But 
neither did Tuscany nor Campania complain of the Chris- 
tians, at that early day, when fire was poured over Vulsinii 
from Heaven, and over Tarpeii^ from its own mountain. 
No one at Rome as yet worshipped the true God, when 
Hannibal at Cannoe, in the slaughter which himself had 
made, measured out by the bushel the rings of the Romans. 
All your gods were worshipped by all, when the Senones 
seized upon the Capitol itself. And it is well, that when 
any adverse accident befalleth cities, there hath been the 
same overthrow of the temples as of the walls', so that I may 
at once prove against you that the evil cometh not from the 
gods, because it cometh upon themselves as well as others. 
Mankind hath even deserved ill of God, first in that they 
were undutiful towards Him, Whom though they knew in 
' non part, they not only sought not after Him to fear Him*, but 
tinien~ ^^viscd for themselvcs others besides, to worship them ; next 
dum because, by not seeking after the Teacher of good, and the 
Rom. 1 Jndge and Avenger of evil, they grew in all trespasses and 
21- sins. But if they had sought after Him, it followed of 
2 rcriui- necessity, that Whom they sought*, they should know, and 
siium v/hom they knew, honour, and Whom they honoured, find 
rather propitious than wrathful. They ought therefore to 
know that the same God is now also angry with them. Who 
was ever so in times past, before that any bore the name of 
Christians. He, Whose good gifts, produced before they 

" Tac. Hist. V. 7. and itineraries under Nero, A.D. 64 or 65. In the de 

ap. Hav. Pallio, c. 2. (as it now stands) Vulsinii 

P So Gothofr. from the ad Nat. i. 9. and Pompeii are again joined ; yet 

observing that the Eclog. Stephani transcribers are more likely to have 

mentions, " Tarpc a city of Italy and substituted the better known, Pompeii, 

a mons Tarpeius." The MSS. here for the less known, than the reverse. 

have Pompeii, which would be an over- H Aug. de Civ. D. ii, 22. 

sight, since Pompeii was destroyed ^ Above, c. 25. 



mitigated by innocence, fastings, prai/eni, ahasement of Christians. 87 

devised gods for themselves, they enjoyed, why can they not 
understand that evils also come from Him, AVliose they 
perceived not that the good things were? To Him they are 
amenable, to Whom also they are ungrateful. And yet if we 
compare the former catastrophes, lighter evils' now occur 
since the world hath received the Christians from God. For 
from that time, their innocence hath tempered the wicked- 
nesses of the age, and they have begun to be intercessors 
with God. Finally, when summer hindereth winter of its 
showers', and the year is in anxious plight, ye indeed, daily 
fed to the full and about forthwith to dine ", with your baths, 
and your taverns, and your brothels, all at work, offer to 
Jupiter sacrifices for rain, order your people to go barefoot", 
seek Heaven in the Capitol, look for clouds from your 
ceilings-'', turning yourselves away from God Himself and 
from Heaven. But we, dried up with fasting, and pinched Ps. io9, 
by every sort of abstinence ^, kept from every enjoyment of" " 
life, prostrating ourselves in sackcloth and ashes", put Heaven 
to shame by our importunity, touch God*, and when we have» Deum 
painfully obtained mercy, Jupiter is honoured by you, God |^[Jf ' 

neglected' ! restored 

XLI. Ye tlierefore are they that trouble the world'', ye are ratii")"a" 
guilty of the national calamities, ye that are ever inviting 'j^^^'^» 
evils^, among whom God is despised, images worshipped, nrgiigi- 
For surely* it must be thought more credible that He should J" '^'^'l^l^'' 
be angry Who is neglected, than they who are worshipped '^;loium 
or else they must indeed be most unjust, if, on account ofYl^'!^^ 
the Christians, they injure their own worshippers also, whom '-ni:-» 



» Arnob. 1. i. p. 5. prayer," he praises, Or. 21. in S. 
^ i.e. summer upon winter withhold- Athanas. §. 10. He speaks of Christians 
eth showers; summer cometh ere yet again as seeking to be '■ not even flesh." 
the winter have discharged its showers, Or. in Jul. iv. §. 123. (see Hav.) 
and itself has none, Cypr. ad Demetr. ^ De Pa>nit. c. 9. de Patient, e. 13. 
c. 1. de Mortal, c. 5. of penitents, and, of public intercessions, 
u Quotidie pransi, statimque pran- Cone. Mog. [A.D. 813.] c. 4. ap. Lac. 
suri, omitted by Rig. " It hath seemed good to us that the 
X De Jejun. e. 16. greater Intercession (Litania) be ob- 
y Above 0.24. served by all Christians for three days, 
z Greg. Naz. Orat. in Julian (Or. as we find from reading, and as our holy 
iv. §. 71.) speaks of Christians gene- fathers have instituted; not riding, nor 
rally, as being " well-nigh without clothed with rich garments, but bare- 
flesh and blood ;" and again, Orat. 33. c. foot and clothed in sackcloth and ashes, 
Ariann. et de se ipso, §. 5. of S. Atha- unless weakness of health prevent, 
nasius ; whose " disembodiedness, as it b Lact. v. 8. Arnob. 1. i. p. 2. 
were, and immateriality in fasting and <^ Cypr. ad Demetr. c. 3. 



88 Kindness and severity of God to all — severity^ kindness to good. 

A POL. they ought to except from tlie deserts of the Christians. 

'- This, say ye, is to make the argument recoil upon your own 

God also, seeing that He also suffereth His own worshippers 
to be harmed on account of the wicked. Learn first His 
counsels, and ye will not thus retort. For He, Who hath 
once ordained an everlasting judgment after the end of the 
world, hasteneth not the separation, which is a necessary 

Mat. 13, part of that judgment, before the end of the world. Mean- 
* while He is without partiality towards the whole human 
race, both in blessing and in chastening them ; He hath 
willed that good things should be shared by the wicked, and 
evil things by His own people, that by an equal participation 
we all might know both His kindness and His severity. 
Because we have been thus taught by Himself, we love 
kindness, we fear severity. Ye on the other hand despise 
both, and it followeth therefore that all the afflictions of the 
age come from God upon us (if they do so) for our admo- 
nition, upon you for your punishment. But in truth we are 
in no wise harmed ; for we have in this world no concern but 
to depart out of it as quickly as we may. Next because if 
any evil be inflicted, it is ascribed to your deservings. But 
although some evils slightly touch us also, as being joined 
together with you, we rather rejoice in acknowledging therein 
the divine prophecies, as confirming our assurance and the 
confidence of our hope ^. But if all your misfortunes come 
upon you from those whom ye worship, for our faults, why 
persist ye in worshipping beings so ungrateful, so unjust, 
who ought rather to assist and abet you in afflicting the 
Christians } 

XLTI. But we are called to account on another charge of 
wrong, and are said to be unprofitable in the common 
concerns of life ^ How can this be said of men who live 
with you, have the same food, dress ^, furniture, the same 
wants of daily life .^ For we are not Brachmans, or the 



^ '' Clem. Strom, iv. 11. p. 216. ed. i. 29. Kortholt de Cal. Pag. c. 23. 

Sylb. The argument from the suffer- « Thus Suetonius calls Clemens, the 

ingsof Christians is answered by Justin Christian nephew of Vespasian, a 

M. Apol. 1. 34. Galliean Churches, person " of the most contemptible in- 

(Eus. V. 1.) Cypr. ad Demetr. c. 11. action," Domit. c. 15. 

Arnob. J. 2. fin. Lact. v. 21. 22. Minuc. ^ Cypr. de Pat. c. 2. p. 251. Oxf. 
F. p. 337 sqq. V. fin. Aug. de Civ. D. 



Ckristiansnotunprqfitable to state; usedsame things to other ends. H9 

uaked philosophers of the Indians, dwelling in the woods 
and outcasts from life. We remember that we owe gratitude 
to God our Lord and our Maker. We put not away from us 
any enjoyment of His works ; certainly we refrain from using 
them immoderately « or wrongfully. Wherefore we live with 
you in this world ", not without a forum, not without sham- 
bles, not without your baths, taverns, shops, inns, markets, 
and other places of traffic. We voyage moreover with you, 
serve in your armies, labour with you in the fields, and trade 
w^ith you. Besides this, we join our crafts with yours. 
Our acquirements, our services, we lend to the public for 
your profit. How we can be thought to be unprofitable to 
you in your concerns, you with whom and by whom we live, 
I know not. But if I attend not the solemnities of your 
holy day, I am nevertheless on that day also a man. I do 
not wash at nightfall ', or at the Saturnalian festival, lest 
I should waste both night and day"; yet I wash at a proper 
and a wholesome hour, such as may save both my warmth 
and my colour; cold and pale aftei bathing I can be, when 
dead. On the feast of Bacchus I sit not down to meat in 
public, as is the custom of those who are condemned to the 
beasts, when they take their last meal': but wheresoever I do 
eat, I eat of your abundance. I buy no garland for my 
head'": nevertheless, since I do buy flowers, how doth it 
concern you in what manner I use them } I use them, as I 
think, more agreeably when free, and loose, and straying out 
of all order. But if we must have thenf gathered together in 
a wreath, we have our wreath for the nose. Let those 
please themselves who smell with their hair ! We come not 
together to your public shows ; but if I need any things that 
are sold at those meetings, I would procure them more • liberius 
freely at their proper places. We buy certainly no frankin- 
cense : if the Arabias complain of this, the Saba3ans will 
witness that more, and more costly, merchandise of theirs is 

g Above, c. 39. ' Apuleius, Miles, iv. p. 72. ap. Her. 

h See de Idol. c. 14. 16. The refusal and of other ma'efactors, Suid. v. uirtit 

of all intercourse is made a charge <rk r^ia ap. Hav. 

against the Jews, Euphrat. ap. Philostr. »" de Cor. c. 5. Clem. Al. Psed. ii. 8. 

de Vit. ApoUon. v. 11. It is blamed by Ccpcil. ap. Minuc. F. 

i As heathen did, that they might (p. 107.) who foUowg T. in his answer, 

fe ast the earlier. P* 346. 

k By serving an idol. 



90 Ttmpk-re venues, sinful trades^ injured ; states henejitied. 



A POL. 



lavished in the burials of Christians" than in burning incense 
-LlL to the gods. ' Without doubt,' say ye, ' they are daily melting 
away the revenues of our temples: how few now throw in their 
offering °! Why! v/e cannot afford to relieve men and your 
begging'' gods too, nor do w^e think that we ought to give, 
save to those that ask : briefly, let Jupiter put out his hand 
and take of us^ while mean time our compassion expendeth 
more in each street^ than your religion doth in each temple. 
But your other taxes will be grateful to the Christians'", who 
pay their dues with that faithfulness with which we abstain 
from defrauding others, so that if an account were taken, 
how much is lost to the taxes through the deceitfulness and 
falsehood of your declarations, the reckoning might easily 
be made, the complaint under one head being compensated 
by the profit gained to the other accounts. 

XLIII. I will fully admit that there are some, who may, 
if any may, justly complain of the unfruitfulness of the 
Christians. First then will be the pimps, the procurers, 
and their bath-furnishers. Next, the assassins, the poisoners, 
the magicians ; after them, the soothsayers, the diviners, the 
astrologers \ To be unprofitable to these, is a great profit. 
And yet w^hatever loss to your finances come from this our 
sect, may be balanced by at least some protection from them. 
At what price do ye value, I do not now say those who cast 
out devils from you\ I do not say those who fall down 



" The Romans anointed as well as hitherto very seldom was found a 

burnt their dead; the Christians em- purchaser." Arnob. 1. i. p. 13. " The 

balraed exclusively, as more in har- augurs, diviners, &c. — lest their arts 

inony with the doctrine of the resur- should come to an end, and they 

rection and natural piety. It is men- now extract but petty fees from the 

tioned, de Res. Carn. c. 27. de Idol. c. now-seldom enquirers, — cry aloud, ' the 

II. Lact. ii. 4. Cassian. CoUat. xv. 3. gods are neglected,' and now there is 

Greg. Nyss. in Fun. Melet. ap. Lac. the extremest thinness in the temples. 

It is ridiculed by CltjcII. ap. Minuc. F. The ancientritesexistbutfor scorn, &c." 

p. 107. " Ye reserve unguents for See also on the decay of Heathenism, 

funerals," add Prud. de Exeq. Def. x. Lact. v. 9. Firm, de err. Prof. Eel. p. 43. 

51. 2. Acta Pharaci, ap. Bar. A. 209. Prud. de Mart. Cresar — aug. vii.b'5. in 

n. 21. Acta Euplii, ib. A. o03. n. 129. pass. Laur. iii. 49/. 

o Plin. Ep. ad Traj. " Certainly it P Above, c. 13. 

is very plain, that the temples ivhich *1 " The Galilceans, in addition to 

were almost left desolate have begun their own, support our people too," 

[since the persecution] to be frequented, Julian. Ep. ad Arsac. 

and the sacred rites, of a long time ^ Justin. Apol. i. 17. Tatian c. 4. 

intermitted, to be renewed, and the ^ Arnob. 1. 1. 

victims to be commonly sold, for which t Above, on c. 23. 



fVaste of life in persecutions ; Christians condemned only as such, i) I 

before the true God in prayer for you as well as lor 
themselves, but those of whom ye can have no fear ? 

XLIV. Yet here there is a loss to the state, great as it 
is real, which no one turneth to look upon ; here is an 
injury to the citizens, w^hich no one weigheth, when in 
our persons so many righteous men are expended, when 
so many innocent men are squandered away. For now we 
call to witness your own acts, you who preside daily at the 
trials of prisoners, and dispose of the charges by your 
sentences. So many criminals are reckoned up by you 
under various charges of guilt. What assassin among them, 
what cut-purse, what sacrilegious person, or seducer, or 
plunderer of bathers, is entitled also a Christian .? In like 
manner* when the Christians are brought to trial under their' Pro- 
own head, who even of these is such as all these criminals '"^^® 
are.? It is ever from your own people that the prison is 
steaming : it is ever from your own people that the mines 
are breathing sighs ; it is ever on your own people that the 
beasts are fattened ; it is ever of your own people that the 
masters of the shows find flocks of criminals to feed. No 
Christian is there, unless it be only as a Christian ; or if he 
be any thing else, he is forthwith no longer a Christian". 

XLY. We alone then are innocent ? What wonder if this 
be so of necessity ? and truly of necessity it is so. Taught 
innocence by God, we both know it perfectly, as being 
revealed by a perfect Master ; and we keep it faithfully, as 
being committed to us by an Observer that may not be 
despised. But to you human opinion hath handed down 
the rule of innocence, and human authority hath commanded 
it. Hence ye belong to a disciphne which for the attaining 
of true innocence is neither perfect nor so greatly to be 
feared. What is the wisdom of man in shewing what is 
really good .? What his authority in exacting it i The one is 
as readily deceived, as the other disregarded. And hence, 
which is the more full commandment, " Thou shalt not 
kill," or, " Be not even angry ?" Which the more perfect, to 
forbid adultery, or to keep men even from the secret lust of 

u Above, c. 46. ad Scap. 2. Justin Gra^c. uiV. Disp. xii. circ. med. p. 1021 
M. Apol. i. §. 44. Athenag. §. 2. sqq. ed. Schutz. l.act. v. 9 
Minuc. F. p. 333. Theodoret. de cur. 



9*2 Human laivs lacking in authority — solemn sanction of Christian. 

Apol. the eyes ? which the more refined, to forbid evil doing, or 
-^—-- even evil speaking? which the more complete, not to 
permit an injury, or not to suffer even the requital of an 
injury ? Meanwhile, however, know that even your own laws, 
which seem to tend to innocence, are borrowed from the law 
of God, as the more ancient. I have already spoken of the 
age of Moses*. But what is the authority of human laws, 
when it is in the power of man both to evade them, being 
generally undiscovered in his misdoings, and sometimes to 
set them at nought, as sinning from chance or necessity ? 
Consider it also in respect of the shortness of the punishment 
inflicted, which, whatever it be, nevertheless continueth not 
after death. So also Epicurus holdeth cheap all torment 
and pain, by pronouncing slight ones despicable, and great 
ones shortlived ^ But we of whom an account is taken by 
the God Who looketh upon all, and who see before us an 
eternal punishment at His hands % we are with good cause 
the only men who attain unto innocence, both from the 
fulness of our knowledge, and the difficulty of concealment, 
and the greatness of the punishment, which continueth, not 
for a long time, but for ever ; fearing Him Whom even that 
man, who judgeth those that fear, will himself be obliged to 
fear — fearing God and not the Proconsul. 

XL VI. We have maintained our ground, methinks, against 
all that criminal charge, which calleth for the blood of the 
Christians. We have shewn you, our whole condition, and 
by what means we can prove it to be such as we have 
shewn — by the truth ^, that is, and the antiquity'* of the 
Divine Scriptures, and moreover by the confession *" of the 

1 Ex- spiritual powers. Let him come forth who^ shall venture to 

istat qui j.gf^|^g yg jjg ^'^11 y^Q bouud to Strive against us on the 
ground of truth, not by skill of words, but in the same form 
in which we have established our proof. But while our 
truth is made manifest to every man**, unbelief meantime, 
confounded as it is by the goodness of this sect, (which hath 

•^ USUI now become well known to experience' of it, and by inter- 

» Above, c. 19. ^ c. 19. 

y Senec. Ep. 94. c c. 23. 

2 Athenag. c. 12. d Dum unicuique manifestatur veri- 

3 c. 20. tas nostra, omitted by Rig. 



Philosoph2/,powerless,asvainfflorioiisaJidcorrupt;oiilt/fnithhafedAy3 

course with it,) regardeth it forsooth not as a work of God, 
but rather as a kind of philosophy®. ' The philosophers,' it 
saith, ' advise and profess the same things, innocence, 
justice, patience, sobriety, chastity.' Why then, when we are 
likened to them in discipline, are w^e not made equal to them 
in the freedom and impunity of their discipline ? Or why are 
not they also, as being our equals, forced to the same offices, 
which we, not fulfilling, are put in peril ? For who compelleth 
a philosopher to sacrifice, or to take an oath', or at noon-day 
to parade abroad useless candles'^ ? Nay they even openly 
demolish your gods, and in treatises accuse your super- 
stitions, with your own approbation *' : most of them likewise 
bark against your princes', and ye suffer it, and they are 
more readily rewarded by statues** and pensions', than 
sentenced to the beasts. And with good cause, for they 
bear the name of philosophers, not of Christians. This 
name of philosophers putteth not the daemons to flight: 
why should it, seeing that- the philosophers rank the 
daemons next to the gods".? It is the saying of Socrates, 
" If the daemon so please." And he also, even when he 
savoured somewhat of truth in denying the gods, yet 
just at the close of life ordered a cock to be sacrificed to 
^sculapius", I suppose in honour of his father, because 
Apollo declared Socrates to be the wisest of all men°. O 
ill-advised Apollo ! he hath borne testimony to the wisdom 
of that man, who denied the being of the gods ! Whatever 
hatred the truth kindleth against itself, so much doth he 
incur, who faithfully setteth it forth, while he who cor- 
rupteth and aff'ecteth it, gaineth favour on this account J.^et^af- 
especially, from those that attack the truth. Philosophers .^."^^or^i 
affect, inasmuch as they are both its mockers and 
despisersP, the truth in mimicry, and, in affecting, corrupt 
it, as men who catch at praise. The Christians both seek 

e Cels. ap. Orig. c. Cels. i. 4. ^ Tatian c. 25 Capitolin. de Anton. 

f Above, c. 32 end. Pio. Lucian. in Eunuch, (ap. Hav.) 

g Above c 35 ™ Above, c. 24. de Anim. c. 1. 

h Above', c". 12. Justin M. Apol. i. " Plat. Phaed. §. \i>5 p 118 Staph. 

20. 24. Tatian. c. 27. Athenag. c. 7. Socrates meant probably that life was 

24 a long illness, death the cure, (Hav.) 

1 Sueton. in Vesp. (de Demetr. « Val. Max. iii. 4. Plin. vii. 34. 
Cynico.) Neron. (de Isidor. Cyn.) p Qua et illusores, et contemptx^res. 

^ Juv 2 4 Mimice (philosr.phi) omitted by Rig. 



94 Contrast of ■philosophic and Christian practice^ 

Apol. it as of necessity, and fulfil it entirely, as men who care 

I. 4G. 



for their own salvation. Wherefore neither in respect of 
knowledge, nor, as ye imagine, in respect of discipline, 
are we on a level. For what certain report did Thales, 
that earliest of natural philosophers'', give to Croesus, when 
he questioned him concerning the nature of the gods, after 
being oft allowed in vain farther time for deliberation ' .'' 

Jer. 31, Every Christian labourer both findeth out God and shew^eth 
Him, and hence really ascribeth to God all that in God is 
looked for, notwithstanding that Plato' afiirmeth that the 
Maker of the world is both hard to be found out, and, when 
found out, hard' to be declared unto all. But if we be 
challenged" on the ground of chastity, I read a part of the 
sentence given at Athens against Socrates ; he is declared to 
be a corrupter of young men "^ : the Christian doth not even 

^om.\, change the natural use of the woman. I know also that 
the harlot Phryne ministered to the lustful embraces of 
Diogenes. I hear too that a certain Speusippus of the 
school of Plato died in the act of adultery y. The Christian 
is by nature a lover to his wife alone. Democritus by 
putting out his eyes because he could not look upon women 
without desire, and was pained if he possessed them not, 
doth, by this very self-correction, make confession of in- 
continence. But the Christian, still keeping his eyes, looketh 
not at all upon women. It is in his heart that he is blinded 
against lust. If I must defend our cause as touching 
righteous dealing, behold Diogenes^ his feet soiled with mud, 
trampling wqth a pride of his ow^n on the proud couches of 
Plato^. The Christian doth not vaunt himself against even a 
poor man. If I am to contend as touching modesty, behold 
Pythagoras at Thurium, and Zeno at Priene, aspiring to the 
tyranny. But the Christian doth not aspire even to the gedile- 
ship^ If I am to join issue as touching evenness of mind, 

^ Cic. Quaestt. Acad. iv. 118. Lact. Tranq. c. 15. Cassian. Coll. xiii. 5. ap. 

iii. 14. Lac. 

"■ Ad Nat. ii. 2. Cicero de Nat. D. i. / Sp. presided over the school for 

22. relates this of Hiero and Simonides; eight years. The character, not the 

and so Minut. F. p. 114. fact, is true, according to Laevt. in vit. 

» In TimaBo, §. 9. p. 28. Steph. 1. iv. and see generally Senec. Ep. 59. 

t " Impossible," Plat. Minuc. F. v. fin. 

" Above, beg. of c. p. 93. * Laert. in vit. 

^ Lucian. in Vit. Auct. ; Eunuch. ; =' As an office open to the lower 

Dial. Meretr. x. ap. Hav. Senec. de people. 



loherein they were alleged to teach alike. o/) 

Lycurgus chose obstinately to starve himself to death because 
the Lacedaemonians had amended his laws^. The Christian, 
even when condemned, giveth thanks. If I am to make a 
comparison as touching good faith, Anaxagoras refused to 
restore a pledge to his guests ; the Christian is called faithful 
even to strangers \ If I am to take my stand on the ground 
of simplicity, Aristotle basely displaced his own familiar 
friend Hermias; the Christian doth not hurt even his enemy. 
The same Aristotle flattereth" Alexander, who ought rather 
to have been directed by him, as unbecomingly ^ as Plato was' '"Re- 
sold by Dionysius*= for his belly's sake. Aristippus in his 
purple '', under a vast surface of outward gravity, liveth the 
life of a profligate; and Hippias is put to death while laying 
a snare for the state, lliis hath no Christian ever attempted 
on behalf of his own friends, though scattered abroad with 
every sort of cruelty. But some men will say that certain 
even of our own people depart from our rule of discipline. 
Then do they cease to be accounted Christians amongst us ^ 
But these philosophers, with such deeds upon their hands, 
continue to hold among you the name and the honour of 
wisdom. What likeness then is there between the philo- 
sopher and the Christian ? the disciple of Greece and of 
Heaven .? the trafficker for fame and for salvation ? the doer 
of words and of works.? the builder and the destroyer of 
things.? the foister in of error, and the restorer of truth.? its 
plunderer and its guardian .? 

XLVII. For the antiquity of the Holy Scriptures, already 
established ^, yet again serveth me in making it very credible 
that this w as the store-house of all the wisdom of later times. 
And were it not that I now desire to moderate the bulk of 
my book, I would go at large into the proof of this also. 
Which of the poets, which of the sophists is there, who have 
not drunk from the fountain of the Prophets ^? Hence, thcrc- 

z Above, c. 4. o"t the " a," " selleth himself to Dio- 

a Ad Scap. c. 4. Plin. Ep. ad Traj. nysius." .. . . t, -. -r- 

b Lucian. in Parasit. ^ Luc.aii. m vit Auct. Parasit. Bis 

e Dionysio. MSS. and Edd. Tertul- accusat. Lact. m. 8. ap. Hav. 

lian must then mean that Plato put «^ See^above, on c. 44. l.n. 

himself in Dionvsius's power for the ^^;^5J: . r t .• at r,,i, 

sake of the luxuries of the court, and / ^e Tes . An. c 5 ..ustm M Coh. 

so was sold by him. Lucian. in Parssit. ad Gra;c. 14 sqq. Apol. i. 54. Iheoph. 

brings the same charge. Rig. strikes ad Aut. .. 14. latian. o. Gnvc. c. 40. 



96 Philosophers^ knowing of God, dispute irreverently ^ and so, err. 

Apol. fore, have the philosophers also watered the dryness of their 
—I — '- own understanding. For because they have certain things 



of ours, therefore they liken us to them^ Hence also 
' oplnor methinks' hath philosophy been by law** cast out by some, 
Meglbus^^^^ Thebans, for example, the Spartans, and the Argives». 
added While they strive to come at what is ours, being men, 
who (as we have said) lust after fame and eloquence 
only, if they have met with any thing in the sacred 
writings, they have straightway re-written it according 
to the bent of their nice research, and have perverted it to 
their own purpose, neither sufficiently believing them to be 
divine, not to corrupt them, nor sufficiently understanding 
them, as being, even then, somewhat obscure, and seen 
darkly even by the Jews themselves, whose own they seemed 
to be. For even where the truth was in simple form, the 
more on that account did that cavilling spirit of men, which 
despiseth faith, waver, whence they confounded in uncertainty 
even that which they had found certain. For having found 
only that there was a God, they questioned of Him not as 
they had found Him, but so as to dispute about His 
character, and His nature, and His dwelling-place '\ Some 
affirm that He is without body, some that He hath a body, 
as do the Platonists and the Stoics ; some that He cometh 
of atoms, some of numbers, as Epicurus and Pythagoras; 
some of fire, as was thought by Heraclitus. Again the 
Platonists hold that He careth for the world, the Epicureans 
on the other hand that He is inactive, unemployed, and, if I 
may say so, a non-entity as respecteth the affairs of men ; 
the Stoics "" again, that He is placed without the universe, 



Clem. Al. Strom, i. 16. p. 366. ed. Pott, (contaminantur Rig.) 

ii. init. Euseb. Prsep. Ev. x. 1. xi. xii. ^ Civ. de Nat. Deor. i. 103, 104. (of 

Aug. de Doct. Christ, ii. 28. de Civ. D. the Epicureans.) 

viii. 11. Theod. Or. 2. c. Grsec. p. 736 ' " Whether God sitting beholdeth 

sqq. ed. Schutz. ap. Elmenh. et Wouvv. his work or handleth it? whether he 

ad Minuc. F. p. 323. Ambr. Ep. 37. be, from without, spread around it, or 

ad Simplic. Cyrill. in Julian. 1. x. infused into the whole? whether the 

Chrys. [Cyrill] in Joann. [v. p. 733.] world be immortal, or to be accounted 

ap. Lac. among things perishable and born for a 

h Nam quia quaedam de nostris ha- time." Senec. de vit. Beat. c. 31. ap. 

bent, eapropter nos comparant illis. The Hav. 

sentence, slightly varied in Edd. and °' The Stoics placed their god xvithin 

MSS., is omitted by Rig. the world, as the anima mundi ; the 

^ Interpunction altered with Hav. Epicureans, without^ but inactive. 



Argivis. Dum ad nostra conantur. 



disagree; distort truth, then deride it, as like tJtcir fictions. <J7 

turning about, like a potter, this mass of matter from without; 
the Platonists, that he is placed within the universe, abiding 
like a pilot within that which he directeth. So also con- 
cerning the world itself, they are not agreed, whether it had 
or had not a beginning, whether it shall have an end, or 
abide for ever. So also of the state of the sotd, which some 
contend is divine and eternal, others that it can be dis- 
solved : each hath, according to his own sentiment, brouglit 
in a new doctrine, or reformed the old. And no wonder if 
the wit of philosophers hath perverted the ancient document". 
Some of their race have by their own opinions corrupted 
this our novel body of writings" also, after the views of the 
philosophers, and from the one way have cut out^ many>excide- 
devious and inextricable mazes. Which remark I have"^""^ 
offered for this reason, lest the notorious variety of opinions 
in this our sect should seem to any one to place us in this 
respect also on a level v, ith the philosoj^hers, and condenm 
truth, because variously defended. But for those who 
corrupt our doctrines we briefly rule, that the canon of truth 
is that which cometh from Christ, handed down through 
those who have companied with Him, long after whom these 
different commentators will be proved to have existed ^\ All 
contradictions to the truth have been framed out of the truth 
itself, the spirits of error thus exercising their rivalry. By 
them have the corruptions of this wholesome kind of dis- 
cipline been privily introduced*^; by them also have certain 
fables been let in, which, from their likeness to it, might 
weaken the credit of the truth, or rather gain it over to their 
own side ; so that a man may think that he must put no 
faith in the Christians, because he can put none in poets or 
philosophers; or suppose that he ought to put the more faitli 
in poets and philosophers, because he can put none in the 
Christians. Therefore we are laughed at, when we preach 
that God shall judge the world, for so do the poets also, and 
the philosophers feign a judgment-seat in tlie shades below; 
and if we threaten men with Hell, which is a store-house of 

^ The Old Testament. and the imputation of novelty on the 

o Novitiola paratura. The exprcs- part of the Heathen, 
sion is ironical, embodying at onee the P De Pra'scr. H^ret. c. 31. 
Christian title, " the New Testament," i Above, on c. 22. 

H 



98 Resurrection justified by belief in Transmigration^ but derided. 
Apol. hidden fire beneath the earth, for the punishing of men, we 



are forthwith borne down by jeers, for so is there also ^ river 
among the dead called Pyriphlegethon. And if we speak of 
Paradise', a place of heavenly pleasantness appointed to 
receive the spirits of the saints, separated from the knowledge 
of the world in general by a sort of wall formed by the zone 
of fire% the Elysian plains have preoccupied their belief. 
Whence, I pray you, have your poets and philosophers these 
doctrines so like to ours ? it can only be from our mysteries. 
If it be from our mysteries, as being older than their own, 
then are ours more to be trusted and believed than theirs, 
seeing that even the copies of them gain belief. If it be 
from their own minds, then must our mysteries be regarded 
as the copies of things later than themselves, ^vhich the law 
of nature sufFereth not, for never doth the shadow go before 
the substance, or the image before the reality. 

XLVIII. Come now, if any philosopher affirmeth (as 
doth Laberius ' after the opinion of Pythagoras) that a man 
is made out of a mule, a serpent out of a woman, and shall, 
by the force of eloquence, wrest eveiy argument to this 
opinion, will he not gain the consent of men, and fixedly 
persuade them ever to abstain from animal food } and will 
not each on this account be persuaded, lest in supping on 
ox-flesh he eat one of his own ancestors ? But the Christian, 
if he promiseth that man shall be made again of man, and 
that of Caius the very same Caius shall be refashioned, 
will be driven out by the people, not merely by blows, but 
rather by stones, as though" whatever be the governing 
argument for the restoration of human souls to material 
bodies, do not itself require, that they return to the same 
bodies, seeing that this it is to be restored, to become what 
it was before. For if they be not what they were, endued, 
that is, with a human, and that the self-same, body, then 

"■ See note C at the end of this Book, sunt quod fuerant, id est humanum et 

* The fiery sword of the Cherubim. id ipsum corpus indutce, jam non ipsse 

t See in C'rinit. de Honest. Diseipl. erunt quce fuerant, quia non potuerunt 

ii. 3. esse quod non erant, nisi desinant esse 

» Quasi non quaeeunque ratio prseest quod fuerant. Porro quae jam non 

animarum humanarum in corpora reei- erunt ipsse, quomodo redisse dicentur? 

procandarum, ipsaexigatillas ineadem Aut aliud facta non erunt ipsee, aut 

corpora revoeari, cum hoc sit restitui, manentes ipsae non enmt aliunde, added 

id esse quod fuerat. Nam si non id for the most part from F. 



Resurrection of the hodtj implied hij future Jud(jment. 1)0 

will they not be the very same which they were, because 
they could not be what they were not, without ceasing to be 
what they had been. Moreover, how shall they be said to 
be restored, which are no longer to be the same ? Either, 
being made another thing, they will not be themselves, or, 
remaining themselves, will not be from another source. We 
should need many jests and much leisure, if we chose to 
sport with this question, into what beast each man may be 
thought to have been changed. But let us rather keep to 
the defence of ourselves, who lay it down as a thing certainly 
more worthy of belief, that a man should be refashioned 
from a man, (who jou will coming in place of whom you 
will, so it be only a man,) so that the same sort of soul may 
be restored to the same rank of beings, though not to the 
same likeness^. Surely, since the cause of the restoration is 
the appointed future judgment, each will of necessity be 
presented the very same man that he was before, that he 
may receive judgment from God for his good deservings or 
the contrary. And therefore will the bodies also be again \ 
presented, both because the soul can suffer nothing by itself \ 
without connection with a material substance, that is the 
fleshy and because what thing soever souls are doomed to 
suffer from the judgment of God, they have deserved it, not 
without the flesh, within which they have done all things y. 
But, thou sayest, how can matter, which hath been dissolved, 
be made to appear ? Consider thyself, O man, and thou wilt 
find how to believe this thing. Think what thou wast before 
thouhadsta being: simply nothing: forhadst thou been any 

•^ Because ^' after the image of the 1. e.) though apparently not enough so, 

Heavenly." 1 Cor. 15, 49. to be capable of corporeal torments. 

^ De Testim. An. c. 4. beg. (so also In the de Res. C,. T. attests incitlentally 

Amob. ii. p. 62.) T. modifies "this state- that the immateriality of the soul was 

ment in the de Res. Carn. c. 17. stating the general belief. S. Aug. (deCiv. D. 



that the soul can suffer as well as act, xxi. 10.) adduces the ease of Dives in 

alone, but both partially, and infers illustration of the sutfenng of d;Bmons 

from the history of Dives, (de Anima, supposing that they be not, though of 

c. 7.) that the soul of the wicked shall aerial, yet of corporeal substance, as 

suffer before the day of judgment, alone, learned men had thoiight. 
asitdevisesitsdeedsalone,andthenmore / This argument '^ "^^'i^'y ^a*'^"' 

fully with the body with which it com- c. 6 Athenag 18_22. de Res 14 6. 

pletedthem. And this seems his mean- Ambros. de Fid. l^»-'^- l§- . ^^ J!P; 

ing here, as he goes on to use the same Pearson on the Creed, Art. xi. The 

ariumen't, that sinning with the flesh, laws, ' Athen argues, (c 23.) were 

thfy shall be punished with the flesh, "ot given to the soul ^\ «"^'/^ "f ^er 

He held the soul moreover to be, in therewards." Add Cyril. Jer. xvni. 1 J. 

a degree corporeal, (see on de Res. C. Ambr. Exh. Virg. c. 9. §. o9. 



H 



1 
rum 



100 Creation makes Resurrection credible — Analogies of Nature. 
Apol. thing thou wouldest have remembered it. Thou therefore that 

I. 48. 

wast nothing before thou didst exist, and that becomest also 

nothing when thou ceasest to exist, why canst thou not 
begin to exist again from nothing, by the Will of that self- 
same Creator Who hath \villed that thou shouldest come into 
being out of nothing. What new thing will happen unto 
thee.? thou that wast not, wast made: when again thou shalt 
not be, thou shalt be made. Declare, if thou canst, the 
manner in which thou wast made, and tlien seek to know 
how thou shalt be made. And yet surely thou shalt be 
more easily made that which thou once hast been, seeing 
that thou wast made, equally without difficulty, that which 
thou never hadst at any time been^ There will be a doubt, 
I suppose, as to the power of God, Who hath framed out of 
that which was not before, not less than out of a death-like 
void and nothingness, this vast body of the universe, animated 
anima-bythat Spirit which animateth all souls ^, stamped'' too by 

reitored Himself as an emblem of the resurrection of man, for a 
testimony unto you. The light which is extinct every day, 
shineth forth again, and the darkness in like manner de- 
parteth and succeedeth in its turn ^ ; the stars that have died 
away, revive again ; the seasons when they end, begin anew ; 
the fruits are consumed and again return ; the seeds assuredly 
spring not up with new^ fruitfulness, except they be first 

1 Cor. corrupted and dissolved*^; all things are by dying preserved; 
all things are formed again from death. Shalt thou a man, 
(a name so great.) thou who (if thou knowest thyself, as 

'^ The same argument is urged by in Symb. Ap. Serm. 59. Athenag. Leg. 

Tert. de Res. Carn. c. 11. Justin M. p. 43. Theodoret. Orat. 9. de Prov. p. 

Apol. i. §. 19. Iren. v. 3. Tatian. c. 6. 21 G sq. Prudent. 1. 2. c. Symm. Ma- 

Theophil. ad Aut. i. 8. Athenag. de carius, Hom. 5. Ambr. Hexaem, iii. 8. 

Res. §. 3. Hil. in Ps. Q3. Ambr. de Fid. Nilus ap. Phot. fol. 836. Chrys. Hom. 

Res. §. 64. Apost. Constt, v. 7. p. 308. 4. in 1 Cor. xv. ap. Elmenhorst. ib. 

Lact. vii. 23. Cyril Jer. iv. §. 30. xviii. Ambr. de Fid. Res. §. oS. Zeno 1. c. §. 8. 
§. 9. Pnident. adv. Symm. ii. 194. ^ Greg. Nyss. de Anim. et Res. v. 

Greg. Nyss. de Opif. Hom. c. 26 sqq. fin. Ambr. de Fid. Res. 1. e. Minue. 1. c. 

Aug. in Ps. 62. de Catech. Rud. c. 25, Chrysost. Hom. de Res. 1. c. Chrysol. 

27. Minuc. F. p. 326. Rufftn. in Expos. 1. c.* Cyril. 1. e. Max. in Tradit. Symb. 

Symb. Art.de Res. v. fin. Chrys. Hom. Epiph. Haer. Ixiv. 37. Prud. e. Symm. 

deRes.§.7.ZenodeRes.l.l.2.tr.l6.§.7. 1.2.1. 196. Zeno I.e. §. 10. Ruffin. I.e. 

a Interpunction changed, animatore; Theoph. 1. c. and of the monthly resur- 

signatum et per Ipsum, &c. rection of the moon, ib.andii. 15. Cyril, 

"b De Res. Carn. c. 12. Theoph. ad Jer. xviii. §. 10. Zeno 1. e. §. 8. of 

Aut. i. 13. Epiph. in Ancor. §. 84. (ap. the yearly resurrection of nature. Cyril. 

Pears. 1. c. whose own language is iv. 30. xviii. §. 6, 7. 
eloquent.) Minuc. F. p. 328. Chrysol. 



15. 36. 



Things created in and of pairs — Time and Eternity. 101 

thou raayest learn to do even from the Pythian inscription ^) 
art the lord of all things that die and rise again, shalt thou 
die to perish for ever ? Wheresoever thy elements shall be 
scattered, whatsoever matter shall destroy, absorb, abolish, 
waste thee to nothing, it shall restore thee again *=. " Nothing" 
itself is in the hands of Him, in Whose hands is ''The 
Whole." ' Then,' say ye, ' we must be ever dying and ever 
rising again !' If the Lord of all things had so determined, 
thou wouldest experience, even against thy will, this law of 
thy creation. But now He hath not determined otherwise 
than He hath declared unto us. The same Mind which from 
diversity of parts hath framed one whole, so that all things 
consist of rival substances in unity, of the void and the solid, 
of the animate and the inanimate, of the comprehensible and 
the incomprehensible, of light and darkness, yea even of life 
and death, hath made time also to consist of two states so 
determinate and distinct, that the first part of it, measured 
from the beginning of all things, in which we now live, 
runneth out to its end in this mortal life, but the next, which 
w^e wait for, is continued to a never-ending eternity. When 
therefore the end, and that middle space of time, which lietli 
open between \ shall have come, so that the visible face of 
the universe itself is removed, which is equally temporal, 
and hath been spread like a curtain before that eternal dis- 
pensation, then shall the whole human race be restored, to 
deteimine the account of their good or evil deservings in 
this world, and then to pay the debt through the boundless 
series of everlasting ages. Therefore, there shall neither be 
an absolute death, nor another and another resurrection, but 
we shall be the same that we now are, and no other there- 
after ; the worshippers of God ever with God, <^^^^^'^^^2 Cor 
upon with their proper substance of eternity, but the 5^ 4. 
wicked, and they who live not entirely unto God, for the 
punishment of an equally eternal fire, receiving from the 
very nature of that fire, being, as it is, divine, the supply of 

J u j^now thyself" ^^- 62- ^- ^- ^^ ^'^'^' ^- ^^"- ^O- ap- 

e ^' Thouah 1 be consumed in rivers, Pearson, 1. c. Ambr . de Horn. Opif. c. 

in seas or be torn bv wild beasts, I am 2G. Constt. Ap. v. / . Kul in. 1. c. 

laid up' in ^heTorel of a rich Lord." ^ Probably the Millennnnn, see Note 

Tatian. c. 6. Athena??, de Res. e. 2 D at the end of this bool.. 
Aug. in 



10*2 Analogies of unxcasting fire — Influence of Judgment to come. 

A?oL. their own incomiption -. The philosophers also know the 
difference between the hidden and the common fire. So that 



Mark 9, 

49. which ministereth to the uses of men is widely different from 
that which ministereth to the judgment of God, whether 
drawn out in lightning from Heaven, or bursting up from 
the earth through the tops of mountains ^ ; for it consumeth 
not that which it bumeth, but reneweth while it destroveth. 
WTierefore the mountains, though ever buTDing, still remain, 
and he who is stricken by fire from Heaven, is thenceforth 
safe from being consumed by any other fire \ And this will 
be a witness of the eternal fire, this an example of that 
everlasting judgment, which feedeth its own pains. Moun- 
tains are burned and yet endare. ^Miat shall we say of 
wicked men and the enemies of God ? 

XLIX. These are the things which in us alone are called 
vain presumptions', in the poets and philosophers con- 
summate knowledge and notable genius. They are wise, 
we foohsh'; they to be honoured, we derided, yea more 
than this, to be punished likewise. Let now the doctrines 
which we maintain be false, and justly styled presumptions, 
yet are they necessary; let them be foolish, yet are they 
profitable, if those who believe them are constrained to 
become better men'", by the fear of eternal punishment, and 
the hope of eternal refreshment. It is not therefore ex- 
pedient that those things should be called false, or accounted 
foolish, which it is expedient should be presumed to be 

\ Pro- true. In like manner^, on no ground whatsoever may those 
things be condemned, which are profitable. In you then 
is this very presumption, which condemneth things useful. 
"V^'herefore neither can they be foolish. Assuredly, thou<?h 
they be both false and foolish, yet they are hurtful to none ; 
for they are like many other things, to which ye award no 

« Minuc. F. p. 331. Laet. tu, 21. (see ap. Hav.) T. may have looted on 

Ambrosiast. in Thess. e. 2- Anct. de this as a sort of image; Minncias how- 

Bec-t. Cath. Conr. L TdS. cited ib. erer, L c. simpir kiterprets it, that the 

Casdod. in Ps. ap. Lac. lightning itself destroTed without con- 

^ Minxic-. L c. Greg. Naz. in .Julian, suming, " as the fires of lightning? 

Or. 1. p. 291. Cvril. «•£*) L|»3»t> '4^yc'^s. touch bodies, hut consume not.'" 

Isid. Hisp. de Nat. Ker. c. 46. cited ib. k See on de Testim. Anim. c. 4. 

Paeian. de pcenit. et conL ap. Lac. * Arn. 1. i. p. 15. ii. p. 45. Celsti? ap. 

* It was foihidden by the laws of Orig. iii. c. 24 and 49. Lact iv. 13. 

Nrana to give funeral rites to, and so » Athenag. c. 31. Chrrs. Horn, de 

to bam. those struck by lightning, Ee«. init. 



Sufferings for truth, very grievous for the time.joyous in the end. 1 03 

punishments, things vain and fabulous, unaccused and 
impunished, because harmless. But in things of this sort, if 
ye must needs punish, ye ought to punish by derision, not 
by swords, and fires, and crosses, and wild beasts ; in the 
iniquity of which cruelty, not only doth this blind mob 
exult and insult, but even some of yourselves, who through 
iniquity catch at the favour of the mob", boast of it. As if 
all that ye can do against us were not of om- own free 
choice ! Assuredly I am, only if I will, a Christian. Thou 
wilt therefore only condemn me, if I will to be condemned. 
But since whatever thou canst do to me, thou canst not do 
unless I will, that which thou canst do is necessarily of my 
own will, not of thy power. Wherefore also the mob vainly 
rejoiceth in our hurt, for the joy, which they claim to 
themselves, is ours, who would rather be condemned than 
fall away from God. On the contrary, they who hate us 
ought to grieve, and not to rejoice, at our gaining that 
which we have ourselves chosen. 

L. ' Why then,' ye say, * do ye complain that we per- 
secute you, if it be your own will to suffer, seeing that yc 
ought to love us, through whom ye suffer that which ye 
will?' Certainly it is our will to suffer, but in the same 
manner in which, though no one willingly sufTereth the ills 
of war, (since he must needs be harassed and endangered,) 
yet he fighteth with all his strength, and he w ho complained 
of the battle, rejoiceth, when he conqucrcth in the battle, 
because he gaineth both the glory and the spoils. We have 
a battle, in that we are summoned to the tribunals, that we 
may then, at the hazard of our life, contend for the truth. 
But to obtain that for which thou hast contended, is victory. 
This victory hath both the glory of pleasing God, and tlie 
spoils of eternal life. Yet still we are crushed ! yea, after 
that we have won the battle. Therefore when we are slain, 
we conquer, and in fine when we are crushed ^ve escape'. \ e 
may now call us faggot-men and half-axle-men, because 
being bound to the wood of half-an-axle we are burnt by 
a circle of faggots enclosing us''. This is the garb of our 
conquest, this our robe of victory ; in such a chariot do wo 

" Above, c. 1. 42. below, c. 50. ap. Laic, ail c. 37. 

® Comp. Lucif. Calar. ad Constant. P De Pmlic. c. ult. 



\(j i Suffering for eai^t.hly ghrij, praised ; for God, accounted madness, 
Apol. triumph. With good cause tlierefore are we displeasing to 

I. 50. 



the conquered, for therefore are we worthily thought des- 
perate and reckless men'' ! But this desperation and reck- 
lessness in the cause of glory and fame doth, even in your 
own eyes, exalt the standard of virtue. Mucius of his own 
act left his right hand upon the altar. Oh ! loftiness of 
spirit ! Empedocles freely gave his whole body to the flames 
of ^tna at Catana. Oh ! strength of mind ! Some woman, 
who founded Carthage, gave herself to the funeral pile, her 
second marriage. Oh ! proclamation of chastity ! Regulus, 
that he might not save his life, — a single man exchanged for 
many enemies, — suffereth crucifixion in every part of his 
body. Oh ! brave man, and a conqueror even in captivity ! 
Anaxarchus, when he was brayed with a pestle like barley, 
said% ' Pound, pound the shell of Anaxarchus, for thou 
poundest not Anaxarchus himself O the greatness of the 
philosopher's soul, who even jested on his own death, and 
such a death ! I pass over those, w^ho with their own sword, 
or some other milder kind of death, have bartered life for 
glory ; for, lo ! even those who overcome in the trial of 
1 (iiKc- tortures are crowned by you. A certain^ Athenian harlot, 

dam "^ ' 

when the torturer was now wearied, at last spit out her 
tongue, which she had bitten off, into the face of the furious 
tyrant, that she might spit out her voice too, and be unable 
lo betray the conspirators, even though, at length overcome, 
she should wish it\ Zeno of Elea being asked by 
Dionysius" v/hat philosophy could give him, and having 
'.' "J P^^' answered, "to become insensible to sufFeriuGr^ through 

Eibileni ' , o o 

fieri contempt of death," being put under the lash of the tyrant, 
sealed his doctrine even by his death. Assuredly the 
scourgings of the Lacedaemonians, embittered even under 
the eyes of their encouraging friends, confer on their house 

Mole- as much honour for endurance^ as they shed blood. Oh ! 

domuT S^o^T? licensed because of earthly mould ! to which no 

relayed rccklcss prcsumptiou, no desperate determination is attri- 
buted, in despising death and every sort of cruelty ; which 

4 Above, on c. 27. Max. iii. 3. relates the story of Anax- 

"T Ad Mart. c. 4. de Monogam. fin. archus. 

3 Laert. 1. ix. in vit. " Nearchus or Diomedon, Laert. 

t Ambros. de Virginit. i. 4. Val. 1. ix. 



Christian blood harvest-seed. 105 

hath a privilege for men to suffer for country, for lands ^, for' pro 
empire, for friendship, that which they may not for God'/^?, 

., ^ J added 

And yet lor all these ye cast statues, and inscribe images, 
and carve titles to continue for ever. xA.s far as ye can by 
means of monuments, ye yourselves in some sort grant a 
resurrection to the dead^, while he, who hopeth for the 
true resun-ection from God, if he suffer for God, is mad. 
But go on, ye righteous rulers, — much more righteous in the 
eyes of the people ^ if ye sacrifice the Christians to them — 
rack, torment, condemn, grind us to powder : for your injustice 
is the proof of our innocence. It is for this that God 
permitteth us to suffer these things. For, in condemning 
just now a Christian woman to the bawd^ rather than the 
lion, ye have confessed that the stain of chastity upon us is 
accounted more dreadful than any punishment, and any 
death. Nor yet doth your cruelty, though each act be more 
refined than the last, profit you any thing. It is rather the 
allurement to our sect. We grow up in greater number as 
often as we are cut down by you. The blood of the 
Christians is their harvest seed"*. Many among yourselves 

^ The statues exhibiting the figure, §. 3. The growth under persecution is 

as though alive; likened also to the increased fertility- of 

Non incisa notis marmora puhlicis, trees on pruning ; (Justin M. Dial. c. 

Per quee spiritus et vita redit bonis 110. Theodoret. de Cur. Gr. AjRF. 1. ix. 

Post mortem ducibus. p. 613 ;) the blood of martyrs to water- 

Hor. Od. iv. 8. add Plin. xxxv. 2. Eus. ing;(Theod.l.c.Chrys.Hom>in Juvent. 

de Vit. Const, i. 2. ap. Hav. et Max. init. t. i. p. 579. Aug. in Ps. 

y Above, c. i. 42. 49. 39. init. Ps. 58. §. 1. §. 5. Ps. 134. §. 24. 

2 This also was a cry of the populace, Ps. 141. §. 21. Serm.301. in Solemn. S. 

Ferrar. de vet. acclam. vii. 18 ap. Hav. Marc. ii. init. in Nat. Mart. Perp. et 

a See ad Scap. fin. Aug. de Civ. D. Pel. i. fin.;) persecution to pouring oil 

xxii. 7. "The Christian faith, amid on aflame. (Theod. 1. c.) add Justin Ep. 

the terrors and opposition of so many ad Diogn. c. 7. Auct. Qucestt^et Resp. 

and so great persecutions, sent out the ad Orthod. qu. 74. Clem. Al. Strom, yi. 

more abundant shoots throughout the fin. Arnob. 1. 2. p. 45. Anton, in Vit. 

whole world, as beina: sown in the ej. ap. Athan. c. 79. " We the servants 

blood of martyrs." Serm. 22. in Ps. of Christ, the more we are pressed down, 

67, 3. $. 4. t. V. p. 118. " The seed of the more we rise up and flourish, &c. 

blo'od was scattered; arose the harvest Aug. Ep. 137. ad Volus. §. 16. Expos, 

of the Church." Leo, Serm. 1. in Nat. Ps. 90. p. 1. " The more suffered, the 

App. Pet. et Paul. " The Church is more believed in Christ; de Civ. JJ. 

not diminished by persecutions, but xxii. 6. The Christians " were bound, 

increased, and the field of the Lord imprisoned, scourged, tortured, burnt, 

is even clothed with the richer harvest, mangled, slain, and were multiphed 

in that the seeds, which fall singly, and de Ag. Christ, c. 12. '' The Church, 

arise multiplied." Prud. in Mart, shivering the assaults of the Pj^ans 

Csesar -Vu^^ vii 85. " The numbers of was more and more strengthened, not 

martyrVeven groweth under every hail- by resisting but by enduring." Lact. 

storm." Add S. Aug. in Ps. 70. S. 2.$. 4. v. 19. " Our side groweth da.Iy-For 

Serm. 286. in Nat. Mart. Prot.etGerv. the religion of God is increased, the 



106 



Martyrdom fiill remission of sins. 



Apol. 
1.50. 



exhort men to endure pain and death, as Cicero in his 
Tusculans, Seneca in his treatise '' on chances," Diogenes, 
Pyrrho, Callinicus; and yet their words do not gain as 
many disciples, as the Christians do in teaching by their 
acts. That very obstinacy, with which ye upbraid us, is the 
teacher. For who is not stirred up by the contemplation of 
it to enquire what there is in the core of the matter ? who, 
when he hath enquired, doth not join us ? when he hath 
joined us, doth not desire to suffer, that he may purchase the 
whole grace of God, that he may gain from Him perfect 
forgiveness at the price of his own blood ? for all crimes are 
pardoned for the sake of the work''. Therefore is it that we, 
at the same time that we are judged, thank you for your 
judgment. Such enmity is there between the things of God 
and the things of men; when we are condemned by you, we 
are absolved by God. 



more it is oppressed." Add c. 23. Orig. 
de Princ. iv. I. " You may see how in 
a brief time the religion itself grew, 
advancing through the deaths and suf- 
ferings of many," c. Cels. iv. 32. " The 
Word of God, more powerful than all, 
and when hindered, making this hin- 
dering as it were the very nourishment 
to its growth, advancing, took posses- 
sion of yet more minds," and 1. vii. 26. 
" The more that kings, and rulers of 
nations, and people, every where laid 
them low, the more were they increased 
and prevailed exceedingly," whence he 
says, 1. iii. 8. p. 452. " Inasmuch as 
having been taught not to resist, they 
kept this gentle and loving law, there- 
fore they accomplished, what they had 
not, had they, mighty as they were, 
received permission to war." See the 
passages ap. Kortholt in Plin. et Traj. 
Epp. p. 1/3 — 186. Jerom. in vit. 
Malchi. " By persecutions the Church 
grew, was crowned by martyrdoms." 
ad Is. viii. 9, 10. that the heathen were 
conquered in the martyrs, add Aug. de 
C. D. xviii. 53. xxii. 9. Chrys. S. de 



Drosid. §. 2. Horn. 33. (ol. 34.) in S. 
Matt. Hom. 4. in 1 Cor. §. 10. ad eos 
qui scandaliz. 1. i. c. 23. (quoted ib.) 

^ On martyrdom, as a second 
Baptism, seede Bapt. c. 16. de Patient, 
c. 13. Scorp. c. 6. Cyprian Exhort, ad 
Mart. Prffif, de Orat. Dom. c. 16. Ep. 

73. ad Jubaian. Auct. de rebapt. ap. 
Cypr. p. 364. Hil. in Ps. 118. lit. 
3. §. 5. Greg. Naz. Or. 39. in S. Lum. 
§. 17. and Pelag. in Hom. 6. (in con- 
nection with Luk. xii. 50.) Cypr. ap. 
Aug. de Bapt.iv. 22. (with the penitent 
Thief.) CyrilJer.iii. 10. (coll. Markx. 
38.) Origen Tr. 12. in Matt. p. 85. and 
Aug. de Civ. D. xiii. 7. (coll. Matt. x. 
32.) Orig. ap. Eus. H. E. vi. 4. (as 
" baptism of fire.") S. Chrys. Serm. de 
S. Lucian. (Bapt. with the Holy Ghost.) 
Constt. Ap.v. 6. and Basil de Sp. S. c. 15. 
(dies really with his Lord, coll. Rom. 
vi. 3.) Jerome Ep. 69. ad Ocean. §. 6. 
t. i. p. 418. Gennad. de Eccl. Dogm. e. 

74. (with other grounds.) (as sanctified 
by the Blood from His Side.) Ambros. 
de Virginit. iii. 7. 34. Jerome Ep. 84. 
ad Pamm. et Ocean, v. fin. 



AjjostoUc decree^ Acts xv, hindiny upon later times. 107 



NOTES TO THE APOLOGY. 



Note A, p. 23. chap. ix. 

The use of blood as food, is spoken of as prohibited to Christians, in all 
Churches, from the earliest to the latest times. The early authorities are, 
Ep. Lugd. et Vienn. 1. c. Clem. Ptedag-. iii, 3. fin. Strom, iv. 15. Tert. 
here and de Monogam. c. 5. Orig. c. Cels. viii. 30. p. 763. ed. de la Rue 
in Num. Horn. 16. v. fin. p. 334. Can. Ap. 63. Minut. F. p. 300. Cyril 
Jer. iv. 28. xvii. 29. S. Ambrose, (apparently) in Ps. 118. Senn. 13. §. 6. 
Gaudentius (de Maccab. Tr. 15. Bibl. Patr. jNIax. t. v. p. 967.) Ambrosi- 
aster (ad Gal. ii. 3.) even while arguing against the Greeks, as if rut -rnKruf 
had been interpolated by them, " it having," he says, " been already 
expressed," [i. e. things strangled were virtually comprised in the 
prohibition of blood ; quia jam supra dictum erat, quod addiderunt.] 
Jerome (in Ezek. xliv. 31. which, he says, *' according to the letter, is 
properly referred to all Christians, as being a royal priesthood," and that 
" the letter of the Apostles from Jerusalem directs" that these things 
" are of necessity to be observed," et quae necessario observanda. . . .monet) 
the Author of the Qusestt. et Respons. ad Orthod. qu. 145. Vigilius Taps. 
(A.D. 484.) employs the text (Acts xv.) as a proof of the Divinity of the 
Holy Spirit, " the Holy Spirit having promulgated these things, all the 
Churches of Christ have kept them," whereas " nO created thing had been 
allowed to give law to the world," (de Trin. 1. xii. fin.) S. Chrysostom 
(Horn. 33. in Actt. §. 3.) says the Apostles "shew that it was no matter of 
condescension to infirmity (ffvyxeiTa^ciirius), nor because they spared them as 
weak, but the contrary ; for these had a great reverence for their teachers ; 
but that that [i. e. all beside] was a superfluous [as opposed to a necessary] 
burthen." 

Of Councils, that of Gangra (A. D. 364.) seems to assume that it is not 
used. Can. 2. " If any condemn one who with reverence and faith eats 
flesh, save blood and things oftered to idols and strangled," (Cone. t. ii. 
p. 496. ed. Reg.) In the second Council of Orleans (A. D, 533.) Catholics 
are excommunicated, " who should use food offered to idols, or feed on what 
had been slain by beasts, or died of any disease or accident." Can. 20. 
(Cone. t. xi. p. 164.) The Council of Trullo, (Quiui-Sext.) A. D. 692. 
Can. 67. rehearses, " Divine Scripture hath commanded to abstain from 
blood, and strangled, and fornication, wherefore wo punish proportionably 



] 08 Things strangled — African deviation sanctions the principle. 

Notes those who for appetite's sake, hy any act prepare the blood of any animal 
^^ whatsoever, so as to be eatable. If then henceforth any essay to eat the 

i. blood of an animal in any way soever, if a clerk, let him be deposed, if 

lay, excommunicated." Balsamon (ad Can. G7. p. 444.) notes that this 
Canon was directed against such as maintained that they observed the 
injimction of Holy Scripture in that they did not eat mere blood, but food 
prepared of other things with it ; against which he says the Novell. 58. of 
the Emperor Leo, the philosopher, (A. D. 886.) was also directed, severely 
punishing all such. 

" Things strangled" are either mentioned with blood, (as in Clem. 
Strom. 1. c. Orig. c. Cels. 1. c. Minut. F. 1. c. CjrW J. 1. c. &c. or are 
counted as included in it, as in Ambrosiaster 1. c. and Aug. c. Faust. 32. 
13. " ' and from blood,' i. e. that they should not eat any flesh, the blood 
whereof was not poured out." There would however be the difference, 
that blood was forbidden by a law antecedent to the Mosaic (whick ground 
is given in the Const. Ap. vi. 22.) and it may have an inherent sacredness, 
or there may be an inherent impropriety in eating it. Some distinction, 
accordingly, seems to be made ; as when S. Augustine, controverting Faustus, 
maintains the Apostolic decree to be temporary only, and appeals to the 
practice of Christians, he instances " things strangled" only, and of these 
the smaller animals, in which the blood would not be perceptible. " Who 
among Cliristians now observes this, as not to touch thrushes, or other birds 
however small, (jninutiores avicidas,') unless their blood had been poured 
out, or a hare, had it been struck on the back of the neck with the hand, not 
killed so as to let out blood?" (1. c.) S. Augustine's principles go further, 
but he seems to have been restrained by a sort of instinct : the instances, 
which he gives of the violation of the Apostolic decree, are such as 
scarcely touch upon the use of " blood;" in which there would be the least 
possible blood, and that imknown to those who used the food. 

Tn like way, Balsamon (1. c. A. D. 1124.) speaking of the Latin practice 
as opposed to the Greek, names " things strangled" only. " The Latins 
eat things strangled as being a matter indifferent." 

As to the later practice, in the Eastern Churches, Balsamon notes, "the 
Adrianopolitans, as I hear, use the blood of animals with some food ; else 
they rmiformly abstain." The Canonists, Zonaras, Alexius Aristenus, 
(A.D. 1166.) Matt. Blastarius, (A.D. 1335.) ap. Beveridg. Pandectee, 
Canon, i. 41. 237- agree with Balsamon: Leo Allatius, de Eccl. Or. et Occ. 
consensu, iii. 14. p. 1167. adds Macarius Hieromonachus, and cites Leo Abp. 
of Bulgaria, Ep. 1. (A.D. 1051.) Joann. Citrius, (A. D. 1203.): Cureellseus 
de esu Sang. c. 13. quotes, "as to the Greeks, Nilus, Abp. of Thessalonica 
(A.D. 1360.) de primatu papee; on the Muscovites and Russians, Her- 
berstein ; on the Abyssinians, a Gorr. de ]\Ior. ^th. ; on the JNIaronites of 
Syria, Brerewood de divers. Ling, et Relig. The practice of the iEthiopians 
is attested by Scaliger, de Emend. Temp. 1. vii. p. 683. (quoted by Bev.) 

In the West, it is noticed that Zacharia, Bishop of Rome, (A.D. 741.) 
in a letter to Boniface, the Abp. of Germany, (Cone. t. xvii. p. 413.) forbids 
several animals, probably on the ground of their being things strangled. 



Apostolic decree obeyed very long in West; in the East until jiow. 109 

Humbert, Cardinal under Leo IX. (A. D. 1054.) in answering the charge of 
the Greeks, that they ate " things strangled," limits the defence to cases of 
necessity. " Nor, so saying, do we claim to ourselves, against you, the 
use of blood and things strangled. For, diligently following the ancient 
practice or tradition of our ancestors, we also abhor these things, so that 
a heavy penance is, among us, from time to time, imposed upon such as, 
without extreme risk of this life, eat blood, or any thing which hath died of 
itself, or been strangled in water, or by any carelessness of man ; chiefly, 
because, in things not against the faith, we deem ancient customs, and the 
traditions of ancestors, to be Apostolic rules. For as to the rest, wliich 
die either by hawking, or by dogs or snares, [smaller animals, according to 
S. Augustine's distinction,] we follow the Apostle's precept, 1 Cor. x. 
(cont. Gra-c. Calumn. Bibl. P. t. xviii. p. 403.) In A.D. 1124, Otto, 
with the sanction of Callistus II. among other rules delivered to the newly 
converted Pomeranians, ordains "that they should not eat any thing unclean, or 
which died of itself, or was strangled, or sacrificed to idols, or the blood of 
animals," (Urspergensis Abbas ap. Baron. A. E. t. xii. p. 156. who adds, 
'* more after the Greek, than the Roman, practice.") The imposition of 
penance is mentioned in Greg. 3. Can. pcenit. c. 30. Bede de Remed. 
Pecc. 4. (ap. Bev. Vindic. Can. Ap. 63. p. 342. ed Cotel.) the Capitula 
Theodori, xv-xix. and others there quoted, Poenitentiale Theodori, t. i. p. 26. 
Richard Wormaciensis, Ep. Decret. 1. 19. cap. 85. &c. (ap. Elmenhorst. ad 
Minut. F. 1. c.) and the Concil. Wormac. c. 64, 65. (though not accounted 
genuine). Beveridge sums up the account, " so that what is sanctioned by 
this Canon, the Western Church also very long observed, the Eastern ever," 
(Cod. Can. Vind. ii. 6.) see further his notes on the Ap. Can. ; Curcellseus, 
1. c. Leo Allat. 1. c. Natalis Alex. H. E. t. i. Diss. xi. Suicer, v. «7^» 
Elmenhorst 1. c. 

The application of this Apostolic injunction, which S. Augustine men- 
tions, to designate the three heaviest sins, murder, adultery, and idolatry, 
does not exclude the literal sense, as appears from a trace of it in Tertullian 
himself, (de Pudicit. c. 32.) It occurs also in S. Cyprian Testim. iii. 119. 
Pacian, Parsen. ad Poenit. init; perhaps inTheophilus Ant. quoted by Mill, 
ad loc. and in some ap. Pseudo-Euchcrium ad loo. 



Note B, p. 37. 

The same distinct statement of the entire absence of images among the 
early Christians, and that, as a reproach made against them by the heathen, 
occurs in Origen, (c. Cels. viii. 17.) " after this, Celsus says that we ab- 
stain from setting up altars, images, temples." Caecilius ap. ISIinuc. F. 
p. 91. " Why have they no altars, no temples, no known images?" 
Arnobius, 1. vi. " Ye are wont to charge us, as with the greatest impiety, 
that we neither erect sacred buildings for the offices of worship, or set up 
the images or likeness of any of the gods, or make altars, &c." Lact. 
de Mortib. Persec. 12. " an image of God is sought for," (as it is implied, 



110 Principles of early Christians on image-worship. 

Notes in vain ; for had any image been found, the heathen would have thought 
/^^ it to be of God.) The assertions in Tertullian, Origen, and Minucius 

'- especially, are too distinct to be evaded ; they attest a state of the Church 

very different from that of modern Rome ; so could not men have spoken, had 
the use of images been such as the Deutero-Nicene Council would have it. 
The modem Romanist excuse (e. g. Feuardent, ad Iren. Pamel. ad loc.) 
that the ancient Christians were denying that they employed latria, though 
they did shew reverence, or that they had images of the dead, inasmuch 
as the saints were alive, certainly cannot in any way be made to fit to the 
passages which speak of their having no statues. 

Over and above these positive statements of facts, the Benedictine 
editor of Origen thus sums up the principles of the early Christians. 
L " They held that no image of God was to be made." Clem, Al. Strom, vi. 
[vii. 5.] Orig. c. Cels. 1. c. Minuc. F. p. 313. " Why should I form 
an image to God, when, if thou thinkest rightly, man himself is the image 
of God?" Lactantius ii. 2., who also argues like Tertullian, " what avail, 
lastly, images, which are the monuments either of the dead or the 
absent? images are superfluous, they [the Gods] being every where 
present; because they are the images of the dead: they are like the 
dead ; for they are devoid of all sensation." This was continued, as to The 
Father, Cone. Nic. ii. Actt. 4. 5. G. and Greg. 2 Ep. ad Leon. Isaur. ap. 
Petav. 15. 14. 1. add Aug. de Fid. et Sj-mb. c. 7. 2. The second command- 
ment extends to Christians. Clem. Al. Strom, vi. [v. 5.] Orig. c. Cels. iv. [v. 
6.] vi. [14. vii. 64.] Tert. de Spect. 23. de Idol.' 3, 4. [add Cypr. Test. iii. 
59.] S. Augustine says, that all the decalogue is binding except as to the 
sabbath, c. Faust, xv. 4. 7. xix. 18. c. 2 Epp. Pelag. iii. 4.] 3. Painting 
and sculpture are forbidden to Christians as to Jews. Clem. Al. Protr. 
[§. 4. p. 18. ed. Sylb.] Orig. c. Cels. iv. [31.] TertuU. de Idol. 1. c. 
c. Hermog. [init.] 4. They blamed the Encratites for having images of 
Christ, which they venerated after the manner of the Gentiles. Iren. 1. 25. 
6. and from him Epiph. Haer. 27. c. 6. Romanists answer, (e. g. Bellarm. 
de Eccl. Triumph. 1. ii. c. 16. t. i. p. 2143,) that what S. Irenaeus is 
here blaming, is the using heathenish rites, towards these images and 
those of the philosophers which they set up with them, as sacrificing, 
burning incense : (which S. Augustine adds, de Heer. c. 7. " worshipping 
and burning incense,") S. Irenseus, however, says nothing of this, but 
only, " And they crown them, and set them up with the images of the 
philosophers of the world, and shew other signs of reverence to them, 
in like way as the Gentiles," and S. Epiphanius expressly singles out for 
censure, the outward act of reverence, " With whom (the philosophers) 
they place other images of Jesus, and having set them up, they fall down 
before them (worship, -r^ttrxwovft) and in other ways do after the customs of 
the heathen." Epiph. (if it be not a gloss) adds " sacrifices" to the account 
of Irenseus, but it seems, on a conjecture only ; " what are customs of the 
heathen, but sacrifices and the rest?" 

To this statement, however, he subjoins that there was some allowed 
use of images in the three first centuries, alleging Euseb. vii. 18. Philost. 



Scanty traces of pictures in four first centuries. \ 1 1 

vii. 3. Niceph. vi. 15. Sozom. v. 21. Aug. de Cons. Ev, i. §. 16. Tcrtull. de 
Pudic. §. 7. Photius, cod. 271. and the amount of this supposed testimony 
in favour of their use confirms the argument against it. For that of 
Eusehius, (followed by the other Greek historians,) and Photius, relates 
chiefly to the fact of the statue at Paneas, which Eus. supposes to have 
been that of our Lord, and set up in gratitude by the Syro-Phoenit-ian 
woman, " after the heathen manner of honouring deliverers," (ihixn fwnfiia, 
trurri^us vifzai) SO that this has no relation to Christians at all. Modem 
Romanists, however, (as Bellarm. 1. c. c. Petav. de Incarn. 15. 13. 4.) lay 
stress on the fact mentioned by Sozomen, (1. c.) that " when the heathen 
had insulted it and broken it in pieces, the Christians gathered up the 
fragments and laid them up in a Church, where they remain to this day." 
" Whence," Petavius infers, " we see that Christians at that time, so 
far from disliking images, prized and honoured their very fragments, when 
broken in pieces by the heathen." Yet since they were persuaded that 
this statue, though the work of a heathen, was a likeness of their Lord, 
how could they but lay up the fragments safe from further insult ? This is 
very different from setting it up in a place of worship as an object of 
reverence. 2. Eusehius mentions that he had learnt {i(rr$^weifitt) that 
paintings of Paul, Peter, nay, of Christ himself, had been preserved. 
(The expression implies their rareness and obscurity.) S. Augustine 
speaks of them, as commonly existing, but with disapprobation ; " so did 
they deserve to err," he says of those imposed upon by Apocryphal books, 
" who sought for Christ and His Apostles, not in the sacred volumes, but 
on painted walls." Tertullian speaks of the symbol of the good shepherd 
on the Eucharistic cup, (c. 7. coll. c, 10.) not of images or statues; but 
the use of symbols has ever been recognized among us. This last is the 
only instance of any sacred use, or any recognized by the Church; and in it 
there is no question even of the human figure, much less of worship, or 
of outward obeisance. 

The instances adduced by Pamelius on this place, Feuardent on Irontpus, 
Bellarmine, 1. ii. c. 10. t. i. p. 2113, are also instructive, as evincing the 
absence of any genuine testimony. They adduce the story of the image at 
Paneas, the later fables of the picture of Christ sent to Abgarus, that 
made by Nicodemus, the picture sent to the king of Persia, the ])irture of 
S. Mary, and again of S. Peter and S. Paul, by S. Luke. Their other 
authorities are not even said to belong to these times. Paulinus in 
speaking of those with which he had adorned the oratory of S. Felix, finds 
it necessary to account for having so done, by an unusual practice [ raro more) 
in order to withdraw the rude multitude who assembled thitber cii Hie 
festival, from excess. The introduction oi any paintings into Churcbcs may 
date about his time, the close of the fourth century. The probibiti.m 
of them, however, by the Council of Eliberis, at the beginning of the same 
century,' (Can. 38.) implies a disposition to introduce them. That Coimoil 
prohibits all pictures; " We will not have pictures placed in Churches;" 
although the reason which they assign only extends (as Romanists argue) 
to thos^e representing the Holy Trinity, " lest That to wbich our worship 



112 Pictures, when introduced, of histories, not of individuals. 

Notes is paid, be seen on the walls." A little earlier than Paullinus, Epiphanius 
ON in Palestine, in a Church, which he had entered to pray, with John, 

— ^2L: Bishop of Jerusalem, destroyed a hanging representing " Clurist or some 
saint ;" " abhorring, that contrary to the authority of the Scriptures, the 
image of a man should be suspended in the Church of Christ." He gave 
it for a winding sheet for some poor, himself replacing the hanging 
by one from C}^rus; the only objection made to the action was the 
loss of the hanging. (Ep. ad Joann. Ep. Hieros. translated by S. 
Jerome^, Ep. 51.) Contemporary with Paullinus, S. Augustine denies 
that Christians had any images in their Churches, (in Ps. 113. §. 6. see 
below, p. 116.) 

Coming then to later times, we find the first sacred use in Churches, 
not of statues but of pictures, and those not of Martyrs, but of Martj^rdoms^. 
They are not memorials of individuals, but painted histories of sufferings 
for Christ's sake, to animate Christians ; such as the martyrdom of S. 
Cassianus, (Prudentius, Perist. ix. 5 sqq. where he says expressly 
Historiam pictura refert, v. 19.) of S. Hippolytus, (ib. xi. 126,) of S. Felix, 
(Paullinus Poem. 25. v. 20 sqq.) Barlaam the Martyr, (S. Basil, S. 
in Barlaam v. fin. if indeed there be any reference of actual painting at 
all. S. Basil seems rather to be speaking of the hymns of others, who 
could paint more vividly what he had depicted faintly.) S. Theodorus, 
(Greg. Nyss. Orat. in Theod. t. iii. p. 579.) S. Euphemia (Asterius ep. 
7. Sjn. Act. 4, p. 617- quoted by Petav. 1. c.) This is the more illustrated 
by the account of other pictures in Churches; the most common was 
Abraham sacrificing Isaac, (again a history.) Greg. Nyss. Orat. 44. de 
Fil. at Sp. Div. t. iii. p. 476, [he is quoted as proving the existence of 
images of the Passion of Christ, whereas he only says he had seen u»ova rod 
vrd&ovs, either a jncture of the sufferings of Isaac, or if it relates to the 
Passion, then it means that offering of Isaac, as a type of the Passion ; 
in neither case, any direct representation of the Passion.] Aug. c. Faust, 
xxii. 73. ("tot locis pictum.") Or again, the histories of Job, Tobit, 
Judith, Esther, mentioned by Paullinus, 1. c. together with those of the 
Martyrdoms, and Cif genuine) recommended by Nilus, a disciple of 
S. Chrysostom, 7 Syn. Act. 4. p. 628. ap. Petav. 1. c. This differ- 
ence is important. 1. As shewing the object* to be not to set forth 
the individual, but to instruct by the history. 2. The risk of idolatry is 
towards the individual saints; a history could not be the object of worships. 

^ Bellarmine (1. c.) argues the para- an ancient city shall be cast down." 

graph to be supposititious, but it is in all (a-wxciTin^^^'^ffiTcct.) They were then the 

]\ISS. statues on the buildings of the city, which 

^ S. Gregory of Nazianzum Ep. 49. would be overthrown with it. Besides 

ad Olymp. is manifestly speaking of since the Greeks to this day do not set 

statues, wherewith the cities, not up statues, how much less then ! Bellar- 

Churches, were adorned. He contrasts mine, I.e. alleges the passage; Petav. de 

the destruction of the statues with the Inc. 15. 14. 3. gives it up. 
destruction of the whole city, " for if <^ It is remarkable, on the same ground, 

the statues shall be cast down, (xarsv- that even where pictures were used, 

i;^;;^»5rovTa/,) this is not so grievous though statues were avoided, as the Greek 

it is otherwise grievous — but if with them Church continues to do, though forgetting- 



X 



Mistaken evidence — contrast of genuine and spurious worhs. 1 1 3 

3, The martyrdoms were depicted in no other way, than histories of the 
O. T. which were never the objects of outward reverence. 4. Pictures also 
of the living, as well as of the departed, were placed in the Churches, as 
that of Paullinus himself, with S. Martin, (Epist. 32. ad Severum,) y.'t 
since the pictures of the livinsr were not placed to have any sort of worsliii) 
paid them, so neither those of the departed. 

Though it makes no difference in principle, whether there be mere 
or fewer of such instances, it is worth noticing, how eagerly proof has been 
grasped at, even where there is none, so that we may be the more 
satisfied that no real proof has been neglected. Thus S. Augustine, (quoted 
by Petav. 1. c. §. 0.) 8erm. 2. de S. Steph. is not referring to a picture of 
S. Stephen, but to his own discourse, in which he tells his hearers, that 
they had seen, i. e. had set before their eyes, his martyrdom. S. Chry- 
sostom in Encom. Melet. is speaking of engravings on rings, cups, &c. 
not of Churches; Theodoret, in vit. Symeon, mentions only a report that 
in Italy the picture of that saint was set over workshops as a safeguard. 
This fact (strangely enough) is seriously alleged by Bellarra. 1. c. ii. 9. 

Other mistakes have been more serious, as when Eusebius, de vit. 
Const, iii. 40, is quoted in proof that images of Christ were set up in 
Churches, whereas he only says, " that the symbol of the Savin? Pai^sion 
[the Cross] was set up, formed of precious stones, (ifiv.'r'n^iKi xl toZ truTn^leu 
•riSovi ffvfjt.(ioXov.) Or iii. 3, that there were a number of gold and silver 
images in Constantine's Churches, (Bellarm. 1. c. ii. 9.) while he only men- 
tions treasures [sacred utensils] (rerj l| oc^yu^ov xai x^virov KUf/,-y]Xiais ): Or PauHinus 
of the use of the crucijicr, where he is distinctly speaking of the cro.ss oulv, — 
the ancient symbol of the cross with the crown of thorns over, (coronatara, 
vers, in Ep. 32. [ol. 12,] ad Sev. §. 12. crucibus minio superpictis, 

It is remarkable also to contrast the distinct statements of later works, 
now acknowledged to be spurious, with the absence of such statements 
in the germine works. Thus in the spurious Ep. to Julian attributed, in 
the Deutero-Nicene Council, to S.Basil, [Ep. 3G0,] "whence I honour also 
and reverence ^ exceedingly the likenesses of their images [the Blessed 
Virgin's, Apostles, Prophets, and Martyrs,] those having been delivered 
down from the holy Apostles, and not forbidden, but painted in all our 
Churches." In the de Visit. Infirm, ii. 3, in S, Augustine's works, is an 
account of a crucifix ; the treatise is spurious, and its author wholly unknown. 
In the spurious Epistle of S. Ambrose, (de Invent. Gerv. et Protas,) 
(quotedby Damasc. p. 755,and Petav. I.e.) he is made to speak of a vision 
of S. Paul, whom he recognized by the likeness to a picture of the Ajtosth' 

the reason. Thus the author of the dictine, omitted this cJause. 
QuEesit. et Resp. ad Antioch. (ap. •' t^oitkvvu. It is not here to be 

Athan.) qu. 39, says, " Whence [to used ol" outward reverence, nor is it 

prevent idolatry] frequently taking off so understood by the Henedu-tine 

the surface, wherein the likeness consists editors, who render " honoro et osculor 

(tou ;^aga«T>;^(jj XuavSUros) we burn eximie." They acknowledge the spu- 

what was formerly the image, as useless riouiness of the Epistle, 
wood." The editions, before the Bene- 



114 Irreletance of iWutraticms urged in defence of image-war itajt ; 

Notes whirh he had by him ; in the genuine Epi=tle, ^Ep. xxii. ad Sororem,) he 
. °' speaks of a certain presaging glo-w. In the celehrated passage alleged 

^ from S, GregoTV, CEp. ix. 52.) mention i* made of a picture of ChrL=t, and 

of reference paid to it, and the principle is laid doini, " we prosmrate not 
oure^es before it, as before the Divinity, but we worAip Him ^Mio w 
represiented in the pictnre." The passage is certainly sporiixis, for the 
letter had already been brought to a close, and, according to the adniaekm 
of the Benedictine Editor, it is absent from all MSS. The modem 
Romanist plea for image worship is strikingly at variance with S. Gregory's 
sentiments in his gentiine works, as in his Epp. to Serenns, Bp. of 
Marseilles, Epp. ix- 105. xL 13. He =ay= he had heard that " his brother 
Seremis, seeing certain wor=hippers of images, had broken those same 
images in the Chnrch, and cast them out ; — and I praise this, that yoo were 
zealoas, that nothings made with hands should be worshipped." He then 
draws the distinction between the nse of pictures as means of instructing 
the unlettered, and the abuse of worshipping them ; advises that they be 
retained to the former end, and care be taken " that the people sin not in 
worshipping a picture," Gussanville admits candidly that this is somewhat 
harshly (dunnsenle) spoken ; another commentator explains it away by 
reference to the distinction of absolute and relative worship of the images 
of the saints, (Thom. 2. 2. qu. ^ art. 2. ad 1*»«). Yet die same peisoa 
would never have used both sorts of language. 

On such authorities hf>w**veT, and the then received practice, was the 
Deutero-Xicene Ciundl determined, in which unhappily the two distinct 
<juestio«is of the lawfulness of pictures in Churches, (which we fully admit,} 
and the outward reverence to them, were blended together. 

Still weaker, if p^^sible, is the evidence of outward reverence; on the croee, 
see above, p. 37- n. c. but besides this, no one genuine do<mmeTit is quoted 
in behalf of any sort of outward reverence ; the quotatioriS from the genuine 
works of the Fathers on the head of worship in the Deutero-Nicene Council, 
relate only to the principle of the hcaiour paid to the type being referred to 
die prototype, where they are not speaking of images made with hands. 
Thus S. Ambrose in Ps. 118. Serm. x. §, 25, " God is honoured in good 
men. His image, as the emperor in his statue; the Gentiles worship wood 
as the image of GrA ; the image of the invisible God is in that which is 
imseen,** [i. e, the spirits of good men]. In like way S, Augustine de Doetr, 
Christ, iii 9. "he who reverences any sign [signum] divinely instituted, 
venerates not what is seen and transitory, but that whereto they are all 
referred;" add S. Athanas. 1, iii. c. Ariann. c. 5. where to illustrate how 
" the Divinity of the Father is seen in the Son," [the Image of the 
invisible God] he uses the likeness of an Emperor being seen in the image, 
«o that he who sees the image, in it sees the Emperor. " So then he who 
worships the image, in it worships the king ako; for the image is his form 
and likeness. Since then the Scai is the Image of the Father, we must 
needs understand that the Divinity and Property of the Father is the Being 
of the Son. And this is the meaning of * Who being in the Form of God,' 
and, ' the Father is in Me.' In like way, S. Basil, de Sp. S. c. 18. 



not so used by Fathers; would prove loorshipnot merely relativtf. i 10 

answers the question, " If the Father be God and the Son God, how arc 
there not two Gods?" " because the image of the king is also called the 
king, for the power is not severed, nor the glory divided. For as the rule and 
power which controlleth us is one, so is our glorifying one, and not many. 
Wherefore the honour to the image passeth to the prototype. What then 
in the one case the image is by imitation, the Son is in the other by Nature." 
add Horn. 14. c. Sabell. §. 4. Now it is observable that the very object of 
these illustrations implies that the reverence is not merely relative, but is 
paid to the image in itself, only not distinct ; as the reverence paid to the Son 
is not simply relative to the Father. The inversion then of thece com- 
parisons proves nothing, unless it could be shewn that as ':he Son is 
worshipped in Himself, although with the Father as being One with the 
Father, so the image made with hands may be worshipped in itself. This 
also the language of S. Athanasius implies; he says, "worships the king 
or/.s-o," the worship then rf the image is again nothing merely relative; for 
had it been so, it had been an unfit illustration. Lastly, to justify the 
application of these illustrations, used in the Ancient Church, to image- 
worship, it ought to have been shewn that the Fathers so applied them; for 
they sanction only the application which they themselves make. But, so 
applied to a subject wholly foreign to what they had in view, these 
illustrations would become the very excuses of the Heathen, against 
which the early Christians argued, and against which they could not have 
argued, as they did, had they, with the modem Romanists, had an image- 
worship which they excused in the same way. The heathen excuse in 
Lactantius, (ii. 2. see also Athenag. §. 18.) "they say, we do not fear 
them, (the images,) but those (the gods) after whose likeness they are 
formed and in whose names they are consecrated," is exactly the same as 
the distinction of the Pseudo- Gregory (see above), or S. Thomas 1. c. " the 
images of saints may not be worshipped with an absolute though but 
inferior adoration, but with a relative only may they and ought they to be 
worshipped." In like way, it is inconceivable that S. Augustine should 
argue in the way he does (in Ps. 113.) against the images of the heatben, 
had they been used in Christian worship. He could not have thus nakedly 
censured arguments so like what Romanists now use. " Holy Scripture 
guards in other places, that no one, when images were mocked, should say, 
I worship not this visible thing, but the Deity which invisibly dweUeth 
there," [S. 2, §. 3.] if the Heathen should have retorted, that so " Chris- 
tians worshipped not that visible thing, but the Deity, God and man, 
thereby represented:" or again, (§. 4.) " Th^-y deem themselves of a purer 
religion who say, * I worship neither image nor daemon ; but I gaze on the 
bodily image of that which I ought to worship.' " Again, both here ($. 5.) 
and Ep. 102. ad Deogratias, (qu. 3. §. 18.) he speaks of thee special danger 
of images, when the mind in prayer was directed towards them, " Who 
worships or prays, hokiivj upon an imaye, and does not become so affected 
as to think that he is heard by it, as to hope that what he longs for will be 
granted him by it? — Against thi« feeling, whereby human and carnal 
infirmity may easily be ensnared, the Scripture of CJo*! utters things well 

I -2 



Apol. 



1 16 Intermediate state held by the Fathers as distinct from Heaven ; 

Notes kno^Yn, whereby it reminds and rouses as it were the minds of men, 
^^ slumbering in the accustomed things of the body; ' The images of the 
heathen,' it says, ' are silver and gold.' " He then (§. 6.) meets the objection, 
that the Christians too had vessels of silver and gold, the works of men's 
hands, for the service of the Sacraments. " But," he asks, " have they 
mouths, and speak not? have they eyes, and see not? do we pray to them, in 
that through them, we pray to God ? This is the chief cause of that frantic 
ungodliness, that a form, like one living, has more power over the feelings 
of the unhappy beings, causing itself to be worshipped, than the plain fact 
that it is not living, so that it ought to be despised by the living. For 
images are of more avail to bow down the unhappy mind (in that they have 
mouth, have eyes, have ears, have nostrils, have hands, have feet,) than it 
hath to correct it that they speak not, see not, hear not, smell not, touch 
not, walk not." It seems impossible that S. Augustine could so have 
written, had the Church in his day permitted the use of images, whereon 
Christians might gaze while they prayed. 

To sum up the historical statement ; 1 . in the three first centuries it is 
positively stated that the Christians had no images. 2. Private individuals 
had pictures, but it was discouraged. (Aug.) 3. The Cross, not the 
Crucifix, was used ; the first mention of the Cross in a Church is in the 
time of Constantine. 4. The first mention of pictures in Churches (except 
to forbid them) is at the end of the fourth century ; and these, historical 
pictures from the O. T. or of martyrdoms, not of individuals. 5. No 
account of any picture of our Lord being publicly used occurs in the six first 
centuries, (the first is in Leontius Neap. 1. v. Apol. pro Christian. A.D. 
600.) 6. Outward reverence to pictures is condemned. (Greg.) 

Note C. on c. xlvii. p. 98. 

The ancient Fathers "^ uniformly speak of the intermediate state under 
the Scriptural name of " Paradise," (Tert. de Paradiso, in Lib. de 
Anima, c. 55. Orig. de Princ. 1. ii. v. fin. Chrys. Hom. i. and ii. de 
Cruc. et Latron. §. 2. Prudent, pro Exeq. def. Cathem. x. 151.) or 
" Abraham's bosom,'" (Tert. adv. Marc. iii. 24. iv. 34. de Anima, c. 7- 55.) 
[in the " refreshment of awaitmg the Resurrection," de An. c. 55, 
distinguishing it from Paradise, or the dwelling beneath the Altar, as 
open to Martyrs (de Res. Cam. c. 43.) only, and the Patriarchs, (de An. 
c. 55. Scorp. c. 12.)] Auct. Carm. de Judic. Dom. ap. Tert. Orig. de 
Princ. 1. iv. 23. Qusestt. et Resp. ap. Just. M. q. 75. 76. Greg. Naz. Orat. 
in S. Csesar. Greg. Nyss. Orat. 2. in 40. Mart. fin. t. i. p. 513. (even of 
Martyrs) Chrys. Hom. 7. in Heb. iv. Hom. ii. de Lazaro, t. i. p. 726. ed. 
Ben,; Hom. 53. in Matt.; Hom. 40. in Gen.; Pseudo-Dionys. Eccl. Hier. 
vii. 4. Athanas. Expos. Fid. §. 1. Auct. Qusestt. ad Antioch. q. 19. Hil. in 
Ps. 2. fin. and Ps. 120. fin. Ambrosiast. in Phil. 1. Prudent. 1. c. Aug. in 

•^ Most of these passages are collected xi. §. 15. Bellarm. de Sanct. Beat. i. 4. 
by Sixt. Senens. Biblioth. S. 1. vi. Adn. Pearson Expos, of Creed, Art. v. 
264. and 345. Huet Origenian. 1. ii. qu. 



stateof rest and joy; heinrj icitJi Christ ; yet short of Heaven^ 117 

Ps. 36, 10. (see on Conf. ix. §. C. ed. Oxf.) Arcthas. in Apoc. vi. 10. Theoph. 
ad Heb.xi.add Liturg of S, James. They speak of those <;one before, as "at 
rest in a hidden receptacle," Aug. Knch. c. 108. de Civ.D.xii.9. "in eternal 
rest," Hil. in Ps. 57- §. 6. " in the keeping of the Lord," Id, in Ps. 53. §. 10. 
120. §. 16. "in an invisible place appointed them by (iod," S. Iren. v. 31. 
** somewhere in a better place, as the bad in a worse, awaiting the day of 
Judgment," Justin M. Dial. §. 5. " cherished in peaceful abodes," Zeno 
de Res. 1. i. Tr. 6. §. 2. of the Martyrs as being " under the altar," 
Prud. Hymn, de 18. Mart. Csesaraug. Perist iv. 190. Pseudo-Victorinus 
in Apoc. c. G. of a " place where the souls of the righteous and the 
ungodly are carried, feeling the anticipations of the judgment to come." 
Novatian de Trin. c. 1. They say mostly, that the very Apostles and 
Patriarchs are not yet crowned, Chrys. Hom. 28. in Heb. xi. Hom. 39. 
in 1 Cor. §. 4. Theodoret in Heb. xi. Orig. in Lev. Hom. vii. Euthym. in 
Luc. 23.; they teach that they ** wait for us," (Heb. xi. 40.) Orig. in Lev. 
1. c. Ambros. de Bono Mort. c. 10. Greg. Nyss. de Hom. Opif. c. 22. 
Theod. and Theoph. ad loc. Arethas. 1. c. that the reward is not before 
the resurrection; Tert. de An. c. 55. adv. Marc. iv. 34. that " they now, 
beholding their way to immortality more clearly, as being near it, praise 
the gifts of the Godhead, and exult with a Divine joy; not now 
fearing that they should turn aside to evil, but well knowing that they 
shall have safely and for ever the good things laid up," Pseudo-Dionys. 
Eccl. Hier. i. 7- that " the judgment is not at once after death," 
Ambr. de Cain et Abel, ii. 2. Tert. de An. c. ult. Hil. in Ps. 2. fin. Lact. vii. 
21 ; Novat. de Trin. c. 2. that " the heavens are not open, until the earth 
pass away," Tert. de An. c. 55 that they " see not the unchangeable Good, 
as the holy Angels see Him," Aug. de Gen. ad lit. xii. 35. " that they see 
the good things" [laid up for them] " only through faith and hope," Greg. 
Nyss. 1. c. S. Aug. assumes, as known to all, that they are not in heaven ; 
** after this life, thou wilt not yet be there, where the saints will be, to whom 
it will be said. Come ye blessed of My Father, &c.; thou will not yet be 
there, who knows not? but thou mayest already be there where that proud 
rich man in the midst of torments saw the poor, once full of sores, 
resting afar off. In that rest assuredly thou wilt, without anxiety, await 
the day of judgment," in Ps. 36. (comp. Hil. in Ps. Q2. §. /. Retr. i 14.) 
that they will not see the face of God until after the resurrection, 
Jerome, ap. Aug. 148. ad Fortunian. §. 8. Yet they say also that they 
*' see Christ face to face," Chrys. Hom. 4. ad Phil. Quiestt. et Resp, ap, 
Justin M. q. ']b. " are with Christ," S. Chrys. Hom. 16. in Rom. 
And thus S Hilary distinguishes between the " kingdom of the Lord," 
in which the saints shall be with the Lord until the Resurrection, and the 
*• kingdom of God," " the eternal kingdom," (in Ps. H4. §. \(^. Ps. 148. 
§. 8.) " the heavenly kingdom," " kingdom of heaven," " the eternal and 
blessed kingdom," in (Ps. 120. § 16.) into which they are to enter after 
the Resurrection, advancing to the kingdom of God the Father by the 
kingdom of the Son, (Prol. in Ps. §. 1 1 . in Ps. 1 19. Lit. 12. §. 14. and more 
fully in Ps. 148. §. 7. 8.) so that then shall they see God. (see Benedict, 



I \8 presence of angels; sight of God; where Paradise is, unknown ; 

Notes Pref. to St. Hil. §. vi, p. Ixi sqq.) Even as late as S. Bernard, it was held 
. °^ that, in the intermediate state, tlie saints see the Humanity of our Lord, 

not His Divinity until after the Resurrection : (Serm. 3. in Fest. Omn. 

Sanct.) Again since it seems probahle that S. Paul (2 Cor. xii. 2. 4.) 
spealcs of " Paradise," and " the third heaven," as the same, they speak 
of this " place of rest," as being in heaven, without implying that the 
saints are in heaven, in the same way, as they shall be after the Resur- 
rection; thus S. Basil, 1. c. speaks in the same sentence of Heaven and 
Paradise; S. Cyprian, (de Mort. §. ult.) and S. Ambrose, (de Bono Mort. 
c. 12.) of ** paradise and the heavenly kingdom." S. Chrys. (de Cruc. 
et Latr ii. .'^. t. ii. p. 416.) of the thief ** mounting instantly from 
the Cross to heaven;" S. Antony sees the soul of Amus borne through 
the air, [not heaven, as Bell, de Sanct. Beat. i. 4] Athanas. de Vit. 
Ant. §. 60. S. Greg. Nyss. Orat. in S. Ephrem. (v. fin. t. 3. p. 614.) 
speaks of S. Ephrem's being " in the heavenly tabernacles, where are 
the orders of Angels, and choirs of the Patriarchs," &c. and (fin. p. 616.) 
of his " standing by the Divine altar, and together with the Angels, 
offering oblations to the life-giving and All-holy Trinity." The Angels, 
however, may be in Paradise whither they conduct souls, and of this 
S. Jerome speaks, Ep. 23. ad Marcell. de Ob. Leje; " she is received 
by the choirs of Angels, is cherished in Abraham's bosom," and also of 
their enjoying the intercourse of Angels, Ep. 39. ad Paulam de Ob. Biaes. 
Epiphanius, Hter. /B. fin. of their being at rest in glory, exulting with 
the Angels, living in heaven; S. Augustine of their being " able in that 
heaven ineffably to see and hear the very Substance of God, and God the 
Word, by Whom all things were made, in the Love of the Holy Spirit," 
de Gen. ad Litt. xii. 34. §. 67- where he thinks it likely that Abraham's 
bosom. Paradise, the third heaven, are different names for the one place 
where are the souls of the blessed, ib. §. 66. With this passage of 
S. Augustine agrees S. Gregory of Nazianzum, who supposes that 
departed saints contemplate the Blessed Trinity wholly, Orat. 43. in 
Basil, fin. Or. 8. in Gorgoniam, fin.: to this, however, S. Augustine held 
that they were admitted in Paradise. More commonly, however, the 
Fathers confine themselves to the words of Holy Scripture, and speak of 
" being with Christ," and in Him seeing God. 

Another difference of language arises from our uncertainty, where 
Paradise is. Hence S. Ambrose says, that the Latins used " infernum,'* 
the " place below," for the Greek, ** Ades," as the place of departed 
spirits, de Bono Mortis, c. 10.; and S. Jerome, 1. 3. in Os. 13, 14. The 
infernus " is a place in which souls are laid up, either in a state of 
refreshment, or in punishment, according to their deserts." The Author 
of the Ancient work, de universi natura, says that the souls of all are 
contained in the same place, until the time which God shall appoint ; 
that " the righteous are contained in Ades, but not in the same place as 
the unrighteous, but in Abraham's bosom," Galland. Bibl. PP. t. 2- p. 451. 
add Novatian, 1. c. Pseudo-Victorin. in Apoc. 6. S. Greg. Nyss. de An. et 
Res. t. iii. p. 209. attests that " all think that the souls are removed hence 



in Ades, or in Heaven ; change in doctrine at Florence. 1 I [) 

to Ades as a receptacle," (although he himself thinks that ** Adas designates 
not any place so called, but a certain unseen and incorporeal state of life," 
ib. p. 219, 20, yet will he not contend with those who hold a definite place 
under the earth to be extended by St. Paul, Phil. 2, 10. as the receptacle 
of departed souls;) as the author of the Definitt. ap. Athan. t. ii. c. 9. says 
that *• Christ rose from Ades, in like way as we also shall rise at the second 
Advent ;" then we must be there. (To the same end, Colomesius {vlu/a. lit. 
c. 28.) cites Theodoret as saying that " there was one Ades to all, but light 
to some, dark to others;" and an author in Suidas, that " in Ades it must 
needs be well with some, worse with others." Olympiodorus in Eccl. 3. 
speaks of both opinions, that Paradise was in inferno and in heaven, 
as being held by previous writers.) Others speak of Paradise as above, and 
distinct, and say that the spirits of the righteous, Abraham and the 
Patriarchs, were removed thither by our Lord. Thus S. Chrysostom, 
that the penitent thief was admitted to Paradise '* before Abraham, 
before the v/hole human race," (de Cruce et Latr. ii. §. 2.) and S. Cyril 
Jer. says, " The faithful Abraham had not yet entered, but the robber 
enters," (xiii. 15. §. 31.) and S. Jerome in another place (Ep. 39. ad 
Paul, de Ob. Blaes. §. 3.) says that the Patriarchs were in a state of 
refreshment in the ** inferi," because Christ had not yet opened the gate 
of Paradise; (v.- hence he explains the parable of Lazarus.) So that he 
must have thought that they were no longer there; (comp. S. Aug. de Civ. 
D. XX. 15;) but they do not speak, as though they knew where Paradise 
was, nor (as the modern Romanists,) as though the Patriarchs were in 
heaven, as they shall be after the resurrection. On the contrary, S. Aug. 
says he knows not where Paradise is. TertuUian, on the other hand, (de 
Anima, c. 55. de Res. Carn. c. 43.) supposes the Martyrs only to be 
admitted to Paradise, (see below,) the rest to be kept safe in a place 
of refreshment (Abraham's bosom) or of torment, as in the parable of 
Dives, (adv. Marc. iii. 24. de An. c. 7- de Res. Carn. c. 17.) TertuUian, 
however, infers from the words " lift up his eyes and saw Abraham 
afar off," that " Abraham's bosom" was, relatively to the place where the 
wicked awaited their doom, far on high ; so that he comes to much the 
same as S. Ambrose. S. Aug. again says, that if the promise to the dying 
thief, " To-day thou slialt be with Me in Paradise," related to our Lord's 
human nature, then Paradise must be the same as " Abraham's bosom" 
in the Inferi, since His soul was there, not in heaven, but he thinks 
it more easily explained of His Divine Nature, since the Inferi, he thinks, 
are not used in Scripture in a good sense. He concludes " wherever 
then Paradise may be, whoever of the blessed is there, is with Him, Who 
is every where," Ep. 187. ad Dard. §. 5. 7- add Ep. 164. ad Euod. §. 7- 8. 
In the main, then, all this harmonizes together; that they are at rest; 
with the Lord; in His keeping; seeing Him; (though we know not 
the place which Scripture designates as " Paradise," or '* Abraham's 
bosom," or " the Altar,") yet not seeing God as they shall see Him after 
the Resurrection, nor having as yet their full reward. The Council of 
Florence, however, defined, that the ** souls which have either contracted 
no spot of sin after Baptism, or which after contracting it, have been, 



120 Bliss of martyrs ; not yet perfect. 

Notes either in or out of the body, cleansed, are received presently into heaven, 
ON and clearly behold the Triune Lord, differently according to their merits; 

* those, who die in actual mortal sin, or in original sin, descend presently 

into hell, yet are differently punished." It places departed souls then either 
in Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell, and has no room for this teaching of the 
Fathers, which Romanists accordingly reject''. 

Whether the Martyrs had a special privilege of being at once admitted into 
the higher heaven, as some have inferred, is a distinct question. S, Ignatius 
(ad Rom. §. 7-) speaks in one word as though he knew that he was going 
to " the Father;" (** There is a living w^ater, speaking in me, which saith 
to me v.'ithin, * hither to the Father,'") although in the rest of the Epistle, 
he dwells upon being *' with Christ" only. Moyses et Max. Ep. ad Cyprian, 
Ep. 31. *' to obtain the kingdom of heaven without any delay," Cypr. 
Ep. 55. ad Antonian. " to be crowned at once by the Lord," [unless this 
means that their course is finished at once, in contrast with those who 
remain to struggle through a whole life.] Tert assigns them an especial 
reward, but only the admission into Paradise: Dionysius Alex. (ap. Eus. 
vi. 42.) speaks of them as " assessors with Christ, and partakers of His 
kingdom." Yet even of them S. Augustine strongly says, *' This life, 
which the blessed Martyrs now have, although it cannot be compared 
Avith any happiness or enjoyment of this world, is but a slight particle of 
the promise, nay, rather a consolation for the delay. For the day 
of retribution will come, when the body being restored, the whole man 
will receive his reward. For as there is much difference between the 
gladness and sorrow of people dreaming or waking, so is there much 
between the torments or joys of the dead or the risen, — because the rest of 
the souls without the bodies is one thing, the brightness and bliss of 
Angels with celestial bodies, to which the multitude of the risen faithful 
*' shall be equal," is another. Serm. in Nat. Mart. Perp. et Felic. i. §. 5. 
add Serm. 32S. in Nat. Mart. fin. where he speaks of them, (as, before, of 
the other dead,) that the things which eye hath not seen, &c. are 
*' prepared for them at the Resurrection," and Serm. 298. in Nat. Apost. 
Pet. et Paul. iv. he states his ignorance where they are, as he does of the 
other departed, as not knowing where Paradise is, " Where are those 
saints, think we? There where it is well. What seekest thou more? 
Thou knowest not the place, but think on their desert. Wherever 
they are, they are with God. ' The souls of the just are in the hand of 
God.'" 

Note D on c. xlviii. p. 101. 
Tertulliau alludes to the doctrine of the JVIillennium in the de Spectac. c. 
ult., in the de Res. Carn. c. 25. and more explicitly, (though mingled with 
Montanist errors,) adv. Marc. iii. 24. where he refers also to a work, " De spe 

^ Tertulliai/s statement that the souls Fathers is excused by Romanists on the 

of the saints remain in Abraham's bosom ground that the Church had not then 

or Paradise or some place short of heaven, decided on the question, so that it might 

until the Day of Judgment, is placed by be held before the Council of Florence, 

Pamelius among his Paradoxa (n. 9.); (A.D. 1439.) not since, see €. g. Para. 

and the corresponding doctrine in other 1. c. 



Doctrine of Millennium traditionary^ rests not on Paplas ; 1 «j 1 

fidelium," in which he had treated of it more fully. Before him, both 
S. Irenseus and Justin M. speak of it, as belonging to the full soundness of 
faith. S. Iren^eus speaks of those who " he'mg thought to believe rightly, pass 
over the order of the advancement of the righteous, and know not the gra- 
dations by which they are practised for incorruption," as "admitting heretical 
sentiments;" (5.31. 1.) of" sentiments, borrowed from heretical discourses, 
in ignorance of the dispensations of God, and the mystery of the resurrection 
of the just, and of the kingdom, which is the beginning of incorruption, by 
which kingdom, they who are accounted worthy, are gradually habituated 
to receive God." (capere Deum, 5. 32. 1.) He speaks of it as something 
undoubted, questione<;l only by " some of those accounted orthodox," and 
the opposed views, as novel apparently in the Church, " transplanted 
(transferuntur) from heretical discourses." He speaks also of 307710, 
" essaj-ing to transfer the prophecy of Isaiah," (5. 31. 4.) of" so777£, essay- 
ing to allegorize" other prophecies. (5. 35. 1.) The traditionary saying of 
our Lord, which he alleges from Papias, and other presbyters, relates but 
to a subordinate point, and is manifestly not the ground upon which he 
rests his doctrine. He quotes it only in connection with his exposition of 
the blessing of Isaac upon bis younger son, Jacob. The estimate then of 
the judgment of Papias, (who however is praised by S. Jerome, [Ep. 71. 
ad Licinium,] and his writings accounted of value,) does not affect the 
question; nor though this parable be not our Lord's, (as it is unlike His 
words in the Gospel,) is support withdrawn from the doctrine, which is 
not indeed contained in the parable. The words are, " The days shall 
come in which vines shall grovr, each having 10000 boughs, and on each 
bough 10000 branches, and to each branch 10000 switches, and on each 
switch 10000 clusters, and on each cluster 10000 grapes, and each grape, 
when pressed, shall yield 25 measures of wine. And when one of the 
saints shall take hold of a cluster, another shall cry out, ' I am a better 
cluster, take me; through me bless the Lord.' " Irenseus subjoins, " And 
that in like manner a grain of wheat should produce 10000 ears, and each 
ear shall have 10000 grains, and each grain ten pounds of fine clean flour; 
and the other fruits and herbs according to the proportion befitting them, and 
that all animals, using this food which is obtained from the earth, shall be 
at peace and harmony, subject to men with all subjection." The words, 
though not from our Lord'', no more exclude a spiritual interpretation than 
Is. XXV. 6. and so many others. The doctrine itself S. Irenseus states to be 
traditionary, as also he implies it to have been that received in the 
Church. The doctrine in S. Irenseus is briefly this, that after the resur- 
rection, the saints should also, in different degrees of nearness according to 
their deserts, in the holy City, in Paradise, or in Heaven, enjoy the sight 
of the Lord; " for every where shall the Saviour be seen, as they who see 
Him, shall be worthy." (5. 36. 1.) And for this he quotes the Presbyters 
before-mentioned, who had seen and heard from St. John, and whom 

d It may still be that the basis of the lest one should be pronouncing on a priori 
parable may be from Him, though not grounds, against what might be from 
the form. One v/ould not like to judge, Him. 



12*2 preparation to receive God : parahlc cited Evcharistic ; 

Notes he distinguishes from Papias. This, both from the frequency with 
ON -^Jiich he repeats it, and the place which it occupies as opposed to the 

'- Gnostics, who denied the resurrection of the body, appears to have been 

the centre of the doctrine, that, during this 1000 years, the Christians were 
to be prepared to bear the sight of God. Thus again, " All these and other 
sayings [of Isaiah] are without controversy spoken of the resurrection of 
the just, which takes place after the coming of Anti- Christ, and the 
destruction of all nations who are under him, in which the Christians 
shall reign in the earth, growing by the sight of the Lord, and through 
Him shall they be habituated to receive the Glory of God the Father, and 
shall in ' the kingdom' receive a conversation and communion and unity of 
spiritual things with the holy Angels." (5. 35, 1.) And, " As God who 
raiseth men from the dead, really is, so also doth man really, and not 
allegorically, rise from the dead, as we have shewn at such length. And 
as he truly riseth, so also shall he truly be practised for incorruption, and 
shall be enlarged and strengthened in the periods of ' the kingdom,' so as to 
become capable of receiving the Glory of the Father." (5, 35. 2.) And 
again, (5. 36. 1.) " In this new heaven and new earth, men shall abide 
ever new, and having intercourse with God." And again, (5, 36. 2.) after 
speaking of the threefold habitations of the saints, as they had brought 
forth thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold, '* That then shall those who are 
saved, be ranked and ordered, (the Presbyters, the disciples of the Apostles 
say,) and by gradations such as these shall they advance ; and that by the 
Spirit do they ascend to the Son, and by the Son to the Father, the Son 
thereupon giving up His work to the Father, as it is written, 1 Cor. 15, 
25. 26." 

The sort of parable also, which Irengeus mentions on the authority of 
Papias and the Presbyters, and which is the only ground for Gennadius' 
statement, that Papias and the others " looked for things pertaining to 
meat and drink," relates only to the vine and wheat, both of which are 
throughout the Old Testament, singled out as symbolical of the Eucharist. 
(Iren.v. 33. 3 and 4.) And this is the more confirmed by Irenseus' citation 
of our Lord's words, as being then to be fulfilled. " I will not drink hence- 
forth of this fruit of the vine, until I drink it new with you in the kingdom of 
God%" (JMatt. 26, 29. Mark 14, 25.) The miraculous nature of the food, 
further, leads us the more to think of a sacramental eating and drinking. 
" He hath promised to drink of the fruit of the vine wnth His disciples; 
shewing both, as well the inheritance of the earth, in which the new fruit 
of the vine is drunk, as a resurrection of His disciples in the flesh. For 
the new flesh which riseth, is the same which also receiveth the new Cup." 
(v. 33. 1.) S. Irenseus argues that it must take place " in the flesh;" that 
" drinking" is an olftce of the flesh, as the vine is a product of the earth; yet 
it needed not (one should have hoped) to say that he looked not for any thing 
earthly and fleshly, who looked to share it with his risen Lord. In like way, 
S. Irenaeus says, that the righteous shall in this their true sabbath have 

«^ Origen himself (as has been pointed a real and sacramental eating and 
out to me) uoderstands these words of drinking. Comm. in Matt. $. 86, Lat, 



notlting earthly looked for : agreement of Justin Martyr. 123 

" a table prepared for them by God;" (ib. §. 2.) yet that were no earthly 
feast. 

Together, however, with the risen saints, S. Irenseus supposed that those 
who had resisted Anti-Christ, would live on; these would be multiplied by 
a natural birth (v. 35. 1 and 34, 2. quoting Is. vi. 12.) : yet the curse being 
removed, " the seed," Lactantius says, (vii. 34.) *' will be holy and dear to 
God." Even for these, then, what they look for is a restoration of Paradise ; 
so that, although not yet " like the angels of God in heaven," the defile- 
ment entailed by the fall would be removed. But since this did not belong 
to the risen sahits, it is not even imputed to him that he looked to marriage 
as one of the joys of the INIillemiium. (See Gennadius below, p. 124.) 

S. Ireneeus expected also that Jerusalem would be rebuilt, (" the earth 
being restored by Christ, and Jerusalem rebuilt," v. 35. 2.) and he quotes 
the prophecies of the restoration of the children of Israel ; but these he 
understands of the Christian Church. " We have shewn a little before, 
that the Church is the seed of Abraham, and therefore that we may know 
that in the New Testament, after the Old, He shall out of all nations 
gather together those who shall be saved, ' raising up from the stones 
children to Abraham,' Jeremiah says, &c. (xxiii. 7. 8.)" There is then no 
proof, that he looked for a restoration of the yet unconverted Jews to their 
own land. He insists on Isaac's blessing not having been literally fulfilled 
in himself, and therefore as awaiting a literal completion, and in this 
prophecy he specifies the promise, " Nations shall serve thee, &c." as 
having received no literal fulfilment, whence, (since from the whole he infers 
that " this blessing, without contradiction, belongs to the times of the 
kingdom, when the just rising from the dead shall reign," v. 32. 2.) he 
must have looked for some literal fulfilment of it then : but whether he 
looked for more than is implied by the very word " reign," or in what way 
those who had not yet died were to serve the risen saints, he does not 
specify. There is then no reason to say that he thought of any subjection, 
after the manner of men, or that they were to " minister to their delights." 
(Orig. de Princ. ii. 10 ) 

Justin M. although prior to, and so independent of Irenaeus, agrees with 
him, in those points wherein he expresses himself. He too looked upon a 
belief in the Millennium, as a part of the entireness of faith ; for, though 
he states that " many of pure and godly Christian sentiments did not 
acknowledge this," [the Millennium,] he says, '' I and whosoever are, m 
all things, of sound Christian doctrine, know that there shall l)e both a 
resurrection of the flesh, and 1000 years in Jerusalem, built, and adonied, 
and enlarged, as the prophet Ezekiel and Isaiah and the rest confess." 
(Dial. §. 80.) It is plain that Justin M. here contrasts those " who are 
in all things sound," with those whom he had described generally as " of 
pure and godly sentiments," not with the heretics who denied the Resur- 
rection, and to whom he had just denied the name of Christians. " If ye 
meet with some called Christians, but who confess not this, but even dare 
to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob, who say also that there is no resurrection of the dead, but that 



1-4 Doctrine held hy Melito; 

Notes immediately upon death, their souls are received up into heaven, think not 
. °^^ these to be Christians." 

As to his views of the jMillennium, he assents to the statement in Tr}TDho's 

question, " do 5'e confess that this place of Jerusalem shall he rebuilt, and j^our 
people gathered together, and he in joy with Christ, together with the 
Patriarchs and the Prophets, and those of our race, and even those who 
become proselytes before your Christ came?" (Dial. §. 80.) But this joy 
he expressly states to be spiritual; " They from every nation, slaves or free, 
who believe in Christ and know the truth in His words and in those of His 
prophets, know that they shall be with Him in that land, and shall inherit 
the thiugs eternal and incorruptible." (ib. § 139.) He also looked to it, as 
a fulfilment of our Lord's words; " He said, that He should come again to 
Jerusalem, and then again eat and drink with His disciples;" (§. 51.) and 
so, when he quotes Is. Ixv. 1 7 — 25 as a prophecy of the JMillennium, the 
words therein comprised, " they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of 
themf," will be to be understood in the same way as in S. Ireneeus. Of the 
conversion of the Jews, Justin M. says nothing decisive. Trypho asks him, 
" ^Vhat sayest thou? that no one of us shall inherit any thing in the holy 
mount of God?" Justin answers, " I say not so ; but they who persecuted 
and do persecute Christ, and repent not, shall inherit nothing in the holy 
mount; but the Gentiles which have believed in Him, and repented for their 
sins, these shall inherit with the patriarchs, and the prophets, and the 
righteous, who are sprung from Jacob, though they sabbatize not, nor are 
circumcised, nor keep the feasts. Assuredly shall they inherit the holy 
inheritance of God." (§. 26.) He seems here to speak only of such lineal 
descendants of Jacob as had embraced the Faith. Again, when he says, 
(§. 40.) " Ye shall in the same place of Jerusalem acknowledge Him, Who 
was put to shame by you;" it does not appear whether he means this of 
the converted, or of the unconverted who should be compelled to acknowledge 
Him (as in Matt. xxvi. 64.) In neither case is any general return of the 
unconverted Jews implied. 

Similar is the view of Melito, Bp. of Sardis, (A.D. 170,) a man, whom 
many Catholics, according to Tertullian, accounted " a Prophet," (ap. 
Hieron. de Virr. 111. in vit ) of whom it was said, " he had his whole 
conversation in the Holy Ghost," (Polycrates, Ep. ad Victor, ap. Ens. H. E. 
V. 24.) He took a journey to Palestine to ascertain the Canon of the O. T. 
(Ep. ej. ap Eus. H. E. iv. 27.) and wrote on the Apocalypse, as Bishop of 
one of the seven Churches addressed in it. The meaning of S. John may 
well be thought to have been yet preserved there, within seventy years of 
his decease. Gennadius places Melito apparently as the most spiritual of 



f Dr. Whitby, as, in his " Treatise on the words of the Fathers themselves. 

the IVlillennium" he is altogether unfair Thus, iv. 1. note o. he quotes Jerem. 

towards the Fathers who held it, so in xxvii. 8. as Irenaeus ; and again, Is. vi. 

this, that, where the Fathers have 12. in note u, on iv. 5. ; thus again (iv. 

quoted passages of Scripture, without 3.) he singles this verse, on which Justin 

dwelling upon them, he affixes his own M. does not comment, out of a long 

meaning to them, aii'l quotes them as pas-^age which he qrofes. 



hy great majority in three first centuries — Tertullian. 1-25 

the maintaiuers of the Millennium ; at least, he charges him with nothing 
except expecting what should he in time, not eternal; as the JNlillennium 
must necessarily he. " In the divine promises, we look for nothing earthly 
or transitory, as the Melitans hope ; no marriage-union, according to the 
phrensy of Cerinthus and Marcus; nothing pertaining to meat or to drink, 
as Irenpeus, Tertullian, and Lactantius, assenting to Papias; nor do we hope 
that, for 1000 years after the Resurrection, the reign of Christ will he on 
the earth, and that the saints will reign with Him amid delights, as Nepos 
taught, who feigned a first resurrection of the righteous, and a second of 
the ungodly, and that hetween these two, the nations who know not God, 
will he kept in the flesh in the corners of the earth. ^Vhich after the 
1000 years of the reign of the righteous upon earth, are to be excited hy 
the instigation of the devil to war against the righteous reigning, and to 
be restrain d by the Lord fighting for the righteous with a shower of fire, 
and thus dying are, together with the rest who before died in ungodliness, 
to be raised in an incorruptible body to eternal punishments." (de Dogm. 
Eccles. c. 52.) It is observable also that as Gennadius detaches Melito 
from the followers of Papias, so neither does Jerome any where mention 
him among them, so that he seems to stand as an independent witness. 

This doctrine Eusebius states to have been the prevailing doctrine in 
the Church, owing, as he thinks, to the respect for the antiquity ot Papias. 
" Among which'' [things approaching to the fabulous] " be said that there 
would be a period of 1000 years after the Resurrection from the dead, 
during which the kingdom of Christ should subsist in the boily upon this 
earth. Which I think that he supposed, having misunderstood the Apo- 
stolic relations, not comprehending what was by them mystically uttered 
in similitudes. For he appears to have been a person of very confined 
mind, to judge from his sayings. Nevertheless he was the occasion that 
by far the greatest number of Church-writers after him {-rXnv ««' volt fjnr 
avTov •tXj/Vto/j otrois ruv ixxkyKrtxffrixZv) held the like doctrine, pleading the 
antiquity of the man ; such as Irenseus, and whoever besides has openly 
maintained the same things." (H, E. iii, 39.) 

In this statement also, no account is given of any thing eartlily in the 
doctrine, except that the kingdom was looked for upon the earth. 

Tertullian himself, as might be expected from his character, distinctly 
limits the joys of the Millennium to spiritual joys. " Tins [Jerusalem] we 
say is provided by God for receiving the saints upon the resurrection, and 
refieshing them with the abundance of all, (only spiritual S,) good things, in 
compensation for those which in the world we have either despised, or 
lost." (adv. Marc. iii. 24.) He admits also (which is to be observed) a 
spiritual fulfilment of these same prophecies in the Churcli. " As to the 
restoration of Judsea, which the Jews themselves, led by the mention of 
names of places and countries, hope for, as it is described, [i. e. to the 
letter;] how the allegorical interpretation spiritually belongs to Christ and 

g Dr. Whitby says, (iv. 4.) ** Of this lian in his book De spe Fidelium; " yet 
opinion" (viz. of the earthly delights of without evidence, and against it. 
the Millennium) " doubtless was Tertul- 



126 'Doctrine first opposed by Origen, as adhering to the letter. 

Notes the Church and its character and fruits, it were long to follow out, and has 
°^' heen already set in order in another work which we have entitled, * On the 

hope of the Faithful ;' and it were for the present superfluous, when the 

question relates to things promised in heaven, not on earth. For we 
confess also a kingdom promised to us upon the earth, hut hefore heaven, 
hut in a different state of heing; namely, after the resurrection, for 1000 
years, in the city of Jerusalem, divinely huilt, ' brought down from heaven,' 
which the Apostle also calls, ' our mother from above.' This both Ezekiel 
knew and the Apostle John saw." Tertullian supposed that all the 
righteous would " rise within the Millennium," only, " sooner or later, 
according to their deserts." (adv. Marc. 1. c.) 

Such was the state of the doctrine until the early part of the third 
centm-y; held by most^, questioned by some, but by none, whose name has 
been preserved. The first whom we know of, who openly impugned the 
doctrine, was Origen. His charges are founded not on the language of its 
maintainers, but on the passages of Scripture, whose literal meaning they 
contended for. And thus he blames them as " disciples of the letter 
alone," as " refusing the labour of understanding, and as following a 
certain surface of the letter of the law;" (de Princ. ii. 11. 2. as on the 
other hand, S, Irenseus blames some for " attempting to allegorize," Nepos 
wrote " a confutation of the Allegorists." Ens, H. E. vii. 24.) In this way, 
Origen charges them with thinking, that " strangers should be given 
to them as ministers of their delights, whom they .were to have as plough- 
men, or builders of the walls, by whom their destroyed city should be built 
up," in reference to Is. 61, 4. 5., whereas they speak of a heavenly city 
which shall come down from heaven; or again that " thej' shall receive the 
riches of the Gentiles to eat, and that the camels of jNIidian and Kedar 
should come to them, &c." from Is. 60, 5 sqq. 61, 6. (other references are 
Rev. 21, 18 sqq. Is. ^^b, 13. 14.) He charges them also with *' looking for 
promises consisting in bodily pleasure and luxury," and that " they there- 
fore chiefly long to have again after the resurrection such flesh, as shall 
never fail in the power of eating and drinking, and doing all which belongeth 
to flesh and blood" — with holding that there would be " even after the 
resurrection, marriage-union, and begetting of children," — a manifest 
misconception of the doctrine, if he means to speak of that held in the 
Church. 

It may have been owing to his influence, that his great disciple, 

h Du Pin adds to the above the the words referred to, (" Now the very 
names of S. Aihenajioras and S. Cle- servants of the enemies shall rebuild it," 
ment of Alexandria, (Nouvelle Biblioth. c. 16.) are explained by S. Barnabas 
Art. Papias, not. c, t. i. p. 146.) but himself, within a few lines, of the build- 
without references, and apparently with- ing up of the Christian Church, wherein 
out authority. The statement as to S. they who were " the house of devils," 
Clement is probably founded on the having " received remission of sins, and 
spurious Eclogae Theodoti, i. c. 63. placed their hope in the name of the 
Whitby adds S. Barnabas. " S. Barna- Lord, became new men, built again from 
by is very positive, ' That the very the beginning, wherefore God is truly in 
temple which was destroyed by their our dwelling, dwelleth in us." 
enemies shall be rebuilt gloriously,'" but 



Exaggerated form of doctrine in Egypt opposed by Dionysius. 1 -27 

S. Dionysius of Alexandria, (A. 247.) set himself so earnestly to withstand 
the doctrine. He brings the same charged as Origen, that they understood 
the Scriptures in a Jewish way, and held forth unworthy views of the 
Divine truth. It is not clear, what form of the doctrine Dionysius opposed. 
He himself speaks with much respect of Nepos, Bishop of Egypt, against 
whose work he wrote and argued. " In many other things I accept and 
love Nepos, both for his faith and laboriousness and his study in the 
Scriptures, and for his copious psalmody, wherewith many of the brethren 
are cheered until now ; and altogether I reverence the man, so much the 
more, as he is gone before to rest.'' It is unlikely that one, of whom 
Dionysius so spoke, should have had gross and carnal notions of the 
Millennium ; and so it may be, that his work was only abused by certain 
teachers, who for a time made divisions in the Church. These at all events 
exaggerated the doctrine of the ^[illennium, perhaps perverted it. Diony- 
sius says, that they disparaged the Scriptures, and "held out the expectation 
of this book as of some great and hidden mystery, and allow our simpler 
brethren to have no great and lofty thoughts, either of the glorious and 
truly Divine Appearing of our Lord, nor of our resurrection from the 
dead, nor of our gathering together to Him, and conformity with Him ; 
but persuade them to hope, in the kingdom of God, for petty and mortal 
things, and such as they now are." He speaks cf these doctrines having 
been ** of long time, spread widely in the Arsenoitis, so that there had 
been divisions and fallings away of whole Churches." He held a 
disputation for three days, at the close of which, ** Coracion, the chief 
upholder of these views, publicly protested thp.t he would for the future 
neither hold, nor discuss, nor mention, nor teach, these things, as having 
been sufficiently convinced by what had been said against them," and so 
harmony was restored, (ap. Eus. 1. c.) Dionysius' own words 7n'ight apply 
to the doctrine, as set forth by the previous fathers. In this case one 
must suppose that he, like Origen, misconceived the doctrine ; for, in that 
it relates only to an intervening state, it does not affect any of the 
doctrines, which he says it occasioned to be held in a low sense. If we 
might have taken to the letter what S. Jerome says, it would be clear 
that it was not the doctrine of the earlier fathers, but one very different, 
which Dionysius opposed. S. Jerome, however, begins with an inac- 
curacy, saying that the book was written against S. Irensus ; the tone 
also in which he describes it as having been written is very different from 
(Praep. ad lib. 18. in Is.) " Against whom" (Irenaeus) " Dionysius. Bp. of 
Alexandria, writes an elegant book, ridiculing the fable of 1000 years, 
what would seem likely from Dionysius' own words, S. Jerome says, 

h Origen thus sums up : " They thus says, that " Nepos taught that the pro- 
think who, believing indeed in Christ, mises in the Divine Scriptures would be 
but understanding the Scriptures in a realized rather after Jewish notions, 
certain Jewish sense, looked for nothing C''"^"'**^'?") ^^'^ '*^*^ ^^"^ *"^''^, ^^ 
worthy of the Divine promises." 1. c. a certain spate of 1UOO> ears, pas-vedip 
Eusebius (but it does not appear whether bodily enjoyment on this earth. H. h. 
he is here using Dionysius' own words) vii. 24. 



1 28 Doctrine jiopiihir in time ofS. Jerome ; held once hy S. Augustine. 

Notes and the Jerusalem of gold and gems upon the earth, the restoration of 

o^ the temple, the blood of sacrifices, the rest of the sabbath, the mutilation 
Apol 
. — - — '- of circumcision, marriages, childbearings, bringing up of children, 

delights of banquetings, and servitude of all nations ; and again wars, 

armies and triumphs, and deaths of the vanquished, and the death of the 

sinner a hundred years old." It seems however certain that these details 

are not taken from Dionysius, but are only his own way of expanding the 

charge of Judaism, since in other places (in Ezek. 36.) speaking in his 

own person, he uses the same language as to all who hold the doctrine, 

and as he says ' especially Tertullian,' although we know from Tertullian's 

own words that he looked only for joys purely spiritual, (see also in 

Joel 1 and 3.) 

The ancient doctrine, however, of the Millennium equally suffered, 
whether Dionysius opposed it in itself, or as disguised in a new form ; 
they who abandoned it, abandoned it altogether. Yet it still continued, 
even in the East, until the time of S, Jerome, and was held by many. 
S. Jerome writes, " Apollinarius answered him [Dionysius] in two 
volumes; whom not only those of his own sect, but a very great 
multitude [plurima multitude] of our people follows in this single 
question ;" so that he anticipates much odium from opposing it. (1. c.) 
He speaks of it also as a question still undecided, and one in which it 
was apparently perplexing even to himself, to have to go against the 
opinions of so many of the ancients. " I am not ignorant what diversity 
of opinions there is among men, I speak not of the mystery of the 
Trinity, (the right confession whereof is to be ignorant of [human] 
knovvledge,) but of other Church doctrines ; of the Resurrection namely, 
and of the state of souls, and of the human flesh, of the promises of the 
things to come, how they are to be taken, and in what way the Revelation 
of John is to be understood, which if we take according to the letter, we 
must judaize; if we discourse spiritually, as it is written, we shall seem 
to go contrary to the sentiments of many ancients, of the Latins, Tertul- 
lian, Victorinus, Lactantius; of the Greeks, to pass over others, I will 
mention only Irenseus, Bp. of Lyons." (1. c.) To these he elsewhere adds 
Severus, a contemporary, '* which things many of ours have held out, 
and lately, our Severus in the dialogue, which he entitled Gallus.'* 
S. Jerome speaks also of a chain of Greek writers, when he adds, ** And 
to name Greeks also, and join the first and tlie last, Irenaeus and Apollina- 
rius." (in Ezek. 36.) 

It is remarkable, also, that S. Augustine at one time looked for a 
spiritual Millennium, and delivers it as an undoubted truth. ** That 
eighth day (Joh. xx. 26.) signifies the new life at the end of the world ; 
the seventh the rest of the saints, which shall be on the earth- For the 
Lord will reign on the earth with His saints, as the Scriptures say, 
and will have a Church here, where no evil shall enter. For the Church 
shall appear first in great brightness and dignity and righteousness." 
(Serm. 259, in die Dom. octav. Pasch. §. 1. 2.) He differs from Irenaeus, 
in that he supposes the Millennium to succeed the Judgment; ** After the 



Form ofdudrine held unobjectionable bi/ S. Auyusf.inc. \'2\) 

sifting of the Day of Judgment, the mass of the saints will appear 
[separated from the chaff] resplendent in dignity, very mighty in good 
deeds, and shewing forth the mercy of their Redeemer. And this shall 
be the seventh day. When that sixth day" [of the reformation of men 
after the image of our Creator in Christ] " shall have passed away, then 
shall come the rest after that sifting, and the saints and righteous of God 
shall have their sabbath. Tint after the sabbath, we shall pass into that 
life and that rest of which it is written, '* That eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard." (ib.) S. Augustine, even when he hud changed his view, speaks 
very tenderly of the spiritual Millennium. ** They who on account of the 
first words in this book [Rev. xx. 1 sqq.] have imagined that there will 
be a first corporeal resurrection, have among other things been chiefly 
moved by the number of * 1000 years/ as though there ought thus to be 
fulfilled in the saints as it were a sabbath of such duration, a holy rest 
namely after the labours of 6000 years since man's creation, and ejection 
from the bliss of paradise, entailed by that great sin, into the sorrows of 
this mortal life : so that, since it is written, 'One day is with the Lord as 
a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,' the (iOOO years [of the 
duration of the world] being accomplished, as it were six days, there 
should follow as it were the seventh day of the sabbath in the last 1000 
years, the saints namely rising again to celebrate their sabbath. Which 
opinion would be at all events imobjectionable, if it were believed that 
the saints should in that sabbath have spiritual joys through the presence 
of the Lord. For we too so thought once. But since they say that they 
who shall then rise again, shall be wholly given up to most immoderate 
carnal feasts [epulis vacaturos], in which there shall be so nmch eating 
and drinking, as not only to preserve no moderation, but even to pass the 
bounds of Heathenism [incredulitatisj itself, these things cannot be 
believed except by carnal men. But they who are spiritual call those 
who believe these things by a Greek term, Chiliasts, whom we, rendering 
literally, may term Millarians." (de Civ. D. xx. 7.) 

In like way Epiphanius says (Hser. 77. §. 26.) that he had heard it 
confidently affirmed of Apollinarius, (though he did not believe it,) that 
he said that in the first resurrection, we shall pass a space of 1000 years, 
in the same manner of life as now, keeping the law and otlier things, 
making use of the same things as now, partaking of marriage, circum- 
cision, and the rest." 

If the doctrine of the Millennium had thus degenerated, it is not 
surprising that it sunk, even independently of the influence of three such 
names as S. Dionysius, S. Augustine, and S. Jerome; nor need these, on 
the other hand, be necessarily supposed to object to the doctrine as set 
forth by S. Irenseus, to which S. Augustine at least sees no objection, 
even while he prefers another interpretation. In later times, the doctrine 
of purgatory took the place of this as well as of that of the intermediate 
state; the characteristic of both these doctrines being the inculcation of 
the gradual preparation of, the soul (in S. Iren^us' words) to - receive 
God;" for this the Church of Rome has substituted the fierce purifying 

K 



130 Difficulties of the question — moihsty due either way. 

Notes fire of purgatory, so that these have no place in her system ; and the 
. ^^ doctrine of the Millennium also is, by her writers, generally treated as 

contrary to sound faith'. The teaching of the early fathers has however 

been well cleared by a Romanist writer, Le P. Lambert, Exposition des 
predictions et des promisses faites a I'Eglise, &c. (Paris, 1806.) c. 16. 

The subject has many difficulties. If the Millennium be placed (as by 
S. Ireneeus) before the Day of Judgment, (and one sees not how the 
Apocalypse (c. 20.) admits of its being placed otherwise,) and include (as 
in him) all those who shall then be accepted, it seems to forestall the 
sentenceof that Day; but it maybe safe perhaps to separate what S Ireuceus 
declares to be traditionary, from what he gives as his own exposition of 
Holy Scripture, to anticipate that there may be a Millennium, without 
defining whom it shall include. The doctrine of the Millennium depends 
upon the book of the Revelations, and so is independent of the question 
whether the latter parts of Isaiah'' and Ezekiel are then to find a more com- 
plete fulfilment. It cannot be doubted that they have received a large fulfil- 
ment in the Church and its gifts, its privileges, holiness and peace ; a 
larger fulfilment of the same kind, though fuller in degree, may yet be in 
store for her. The more modest way seems to be, not peremptorily to decide 
either way; either way we may be prescribing to the Wisdom of the All- 
Wise ; it may be that the prophecies, after their first partial temporal ful- 
filment, are to have no other than their spiritual fulfilment, which is their 
highest meaning; and we should not require more, ^s if God must be a debtor 
to our interpretations : on the other hand, one should not decide peremptorily 
that it may not please Him to give them a second literal fulfilment; it 
were but analogous to an expectation, which is found in the Fathers, that 
Elias may yet come personally before the second advent of our Lord, 
although we know, on Divine authority, that the prophecy of his coming 
was fulfilled (i. e. had one complete fulfilment, so as to require no other) 
before His first Advent. 



J Hence (as Feu-ardent admits) to the doctrine, in Origen, (see p. 126.) 

the five last chapters of S. Irena^us and S. Jerome, (p. 127.) are almost 

were omitted in most JNISS. and in those entirely founded on the literal application 

from which his work was first published, of the prophecies of Isaiah, not of the 

Feu- ardent restored tliem. Revelations. 

k It is remarkable, that the objections 



Insufficimaj of learned arguments tu/aiiisf the Heathen. 1 ■?, 1 



OF THE WITNESS OF THE SOUL 



[The De Testimonio Anim» is the expansion of an argument, touched upon i 
the Apology, e. 17. to which it contains an allusion, c. 5. It was written there 
fore somewhat, probably not much, later ; as being a supplement to it. It i 
perhaps the most original and acute of Tertullian's works.] 



I. It is a work, which tieedeth to be laboured al with 
much nicety of research, and far more of memory, if one 
would call the testimonies to Christian Truth out of all the 
most received writings of philosophers, or poets, or any 
teachers whatever of the learning and wisdom of this world, 
so that its rivals and persecutors may, by their own peculiar 
documents, be proved guilty both of error in themselves, and 
of injustice tovrards us. Some indeed, in whom, as respect- 
eth ancient writings, both the diligence of curious research 
and the retentiveness of their memory hath held out to the 
last, have composed books to the heathen, which are in our 
hands % declaring and attesting, to their disgrace'', both the 
origin, andhanding-down, and proofs, of our opinions, whereby 
it may be seen that we have taken up nothing new or 
strange, in which even the common and popular books do 
not give us the countenance of their support, wheresoever 
we have cast out what is wrong, or admitted what is right. 
But that hardness, arising in unbelief, which belongeth to 
man, hath inclined them not to trust even their own 
teachers, (on other points most approved and choice 
authorities,) if they any where fall upon arguments tending 

a " Quadratus, Aristides, Justin, Athe- »> In suggillationem. Rig. (apparently 

nagoras, Melito, Theophilus, Antioch., from conjecture) has " in singula 

Apollinarius, Tatian, Irenseus, Clem, rationem," " attesting on each separate 

Al., Miltiades." Pam. point, the nature, &c." 

k2 



132 Testimony of soul, independent of its origin and culture. 

De to the vindication of the Christian Faith. Then are the 
^An^* poets foohsh, when they make the gods the subjects of 
11. 1. human sufferings and fables : then are the philosophers hard 
to be believed, when they knock at the door of truth. So 
long only shall a man be esteemed wise and prudent, who 
Acts 26, teacheth that which is almost Christian, whereas, if he 
affect prudence or wisdom, either in rejecting heathen 
ceremonies or in convicting the world, he is branded as a 
Christian. Now*^ therefore, we will have nothing to do with 
books, and with doctrine, whose success is on the wrong 
side, which is more believed in falsehood than in truth. 
No matter whether any have taught One God and One only. 
Yea let them be thought to have declared nothing which a 
Christian can allow of, lest he be able to upbraid them with 
it. For even that which is declared, all do not know, and 
they who do know it, are not assured that it is true. So far 
are men from assenting to our writings, to which no one 
cometh, unless he be already a Christian ! I call a new 
witness : yea one more known than all writings, more a-stir 
than all doctrine, more pubhc than all ]3ublications, greater 
than the whole of man, in other words that which is the 
whole of man. Soul, stand thou forth in the midst, whether 
thou art a thing divine and eternal according to most philo- 
sophers, and therefore the less able to speak falsely, or, as 
seemeth to Epiciu'us only, in no wise divine, because mortal, 
and therefore the less to be expected to speak falsely «^; whether 
thou art received from Heaven% or conceived of the earth, or 
fitly framed together of parts or of atoms ^; whether thou hadst 
thy beginning with the body, or art sent into the body after 
that it is formed » ; from whatever source, and in whatever 
manner, thou makest man a reasonable creature more capable 
than any of understanding and of knowledge. But I 
summon thee not such as when, formed in the Schools, 
exercised in libraries, nourished" in the academies and 
porches of Athens, thou utterest thy crude wisdom. I 

c in contrast with the Apology. h pasta, cod. Ag. Rig. supposes that 

^ because, as it were, an independent T. refers to the notion, which (de Anim. 

witness, when attesting to God. Rig. c. 6.) he attributes to the Stoics, that 

^ Plato, see de Anim. c. 23. " " the arts are corporeal;" the context 

f Plato, ib. c. 14. implies irony. 
B The Stoics, ib. c. 26. 



Soul attests Unity, and goodness of God ; evil of man. 133 

address thee as simple, and rude, and unpolished, and 
unlearned, such as they have thee who have nothing else 
but thee, the very and entire thing that thou art in the 
road, in the highway, in the shop of the artizan. I have 
need of thy inexperience ; since in thy experience, however 
small, no one puttetli faith. I demand of thee those truths 
which thou carriest with thyself into man, which thou hast 
learnt to know either from thyself, or from the author, 
whosoever he be, of thy being. Thou art not, as I know, a 
Christian soul, for thou art wont to be made Christian not to 
be born so'. Yet now the Christians demand a testimony 
from thee, who art a stranger, against thine own friends, 
that they may blush even before thee, for hating and scoffing 
at us on account of those very things, which now charge 
thee as a party to them. 

II. We give oifence, in preaching God as the One God, 
under the one Name of God, from Whom are all things, and i Cor. 
imder Whom is the whole body of things. Bear witness to ' 
this, if thou knowest it to be so, since we hear thee also 
saying openly and with full liberty, not allowed to us, at 
home and abroad, "Which God grant^" and, " If God will;" 
by which word thou both declarest that there is some God, 
and confessest that all power is His, to Whose will thou 
lookest ; and at the same time thou deniest that the rest are 
gods, in that thou callest them by their proper names, 
Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Minerva. Thou affirmest that He 
Alone is God, Whom Alone thou namest God, so that even 
when thou dost sometimes call these gods, thou seemest to 
use the name as a foreign and, as it were, a borrowed one. 
Neither art thou in ignorance concerning the nature of God, 
which we preach. " God is good," " God doeth good," is 
thine own word. Clearly thou impliest besides, " But man 
is evil," uttering, that is, indirectly and covertly in the 
contrary proposition, the reproach, that man is therefore evil, 
because he hath departed from the good God. Again, 
whereas with us every blessing pronounced in the name of 
the God of goodness and kindness is a thing of the highest 
sacredness in our discipline and conversation, thou sayest as 

i See on Apol. c. 18. p. 41. n. d. J See on Apol. c. 17. p. 40. n. z. 



131 Soul, ay ainst philosopher Si attests Providence, and 

De readily as any Christian need, " God bless thee." But when 
^^ ' thou turnest the blessing of God» into a curse, thou dost in 
II- 2' like way by the very word confess, according to our doctrine, 
that His power is altogether over us. There are some who, 
though they deny not God, do not at all regard Him as One 
that considereth, and witnesseth, and judgeth, (wherein 
indeed chiefly they set us aside ^, who flee to that doctrine 
through fear of the judgment which is preached,) thus 
honouring God, while they make Him free from the cares 
of watching and the trouble of regarding them, not even 
attributing anger to Him. * For,' say they, ' if God be 
angry. He is corruptible and subject to passions. Moreover, 
that which is passive and corruptible admitteth also of being 
destroyed, of which God admitteth not.' But the same 
persons confessing elsewhere that the soul is divine, and 
bestowed by God, fall upon a testimony of the soul itself to 
be retorted against the above opinion ; for if the soul be 
either divine or given by God, doubtless it knoweth Him, 
Who gave it, and if it knoweth, assuredly it also feareth 
Him ; Him moreover Who hath so largely endowed it. Doth 
it not fear Him, Whom it would rather have favourable to it, 
than wrathful against it ? Whence then cometh this natural 
fear of the soul towards God, if God hath no mind to be 
angry ? How can He be feared Who cannot be offended ? 
What is feared except anger? How shall one be angry 
except he mark w^hat is done amiss ? Why should he mark 
except to judge ? how shall he judge, except he have powder? 
to whom belongeth the chief power, except to God alone ? 
Hence cometh it then, O soul, that, from the knowledge that 
is within thee, thou declarest, at home and abroad, no man 
scoffing at, nor forbidding thee, ' God seeth all things ",' and 
' I commend to God,' and ' God shall repay,' and ^ God 
shall judge between us.' Whence hast thou this, not being 
a Christian, and, moreover, ofttimes crowned with the fillet of 
Ceres, and clothed in the scarlet ' cloak of Saturn, or the linen 
one of Isis.? Finally, in the very temples themselves thou 

^ Interpunction altered, " in male- ^ See on Apol. c. 17. n. a. 

dictum convertis benedictionem Dei/' ^ as the colour of blood, Lips. Sat. 
&c. i. 5. coll. de Pall. c. 4. fin. 

J Apol. c. 48. 



Judgment of God, and existence of an evil one. 135 

callest upon God as thy Judge, standing under zEsculapius, 
praying™ to the brazen statue of Juno, capping Minerva with 
her hehnet of dark figures", and thou callest to witness 
not one of the gods who are present with thee: in thine own 
forum thou appealest to a judge in another place ; in thine 
own temples thou allowest a foreign God. O testimony of 
Truth, which amongst the very demons niaketh thee a witness 
for the Christians ! 

III. But vvhen we affirm that there are demons — as if 
forsooth we did not prove it also, seeing that we alone cast 
them out of the bodies of them" — some sujiporter of Chry- 
sippus mocketh us. Thine own execrations make answer 
both that there are demons, and that they are objects of 
malediction. Thou callest a man a demon, who vexeth thee 
either by his uncleanness, or his wickedness, or his pride, or 
by some ill mark or other which we assign to demons, or for 
the cravings of thy hatred. Finally, thou namest the name 
of Satan P in every expression of dislike, and scorn, and 
detestation, whom we call the angel of wickedness, the 
contriver of all error, the corrupter of the whole world, 
through whom man, being from the beginning beguiled, so 
that he transgressed the commandment of God, and on that 
account being given over unto death, hath thenceforth made 
his whole race, that is infected of his seed, the transmitters 
of his condemnation also. Thou perceivest therefore thine 
own destroyer, and although the Christians alone, or what- 
ever sect there be on the Lord's side, know him, yet even 
thou acknowledgest him in hating him. 

IV. But now as touching an opinion which more essen- 
tially belongeth to thee, inasmuch as it regardcth thine owii 
proper condition, we affirm that thou continuest after the 
consummation of life, and that thou waitest for a day ol 
judgment, and that thou art doomed according to thy 
deservings either to be tormented or to be comforted, in 
either case eternally. For the receiving of which things we 
say that thy former substance must of necessity return unto 

m exorans. Edd. exoras Ag. Rig. con- p When they exclaimed '' M:|liini," 

jectures"exaurans,"" gilding," which Rig. i. e. th<;y spoke of evil m the 

would rather be inaurans or deaurans. abstract, as existing separately froiri 

n The snates from the .l^gis. evils, and so, in fact, spoke of the evil 

• Apol. c. 23. one. 



1 30 Future rctrihution scoffed at in Christians as dogmatism 



De 

Test. 

An, 

11.4. 



' suum 
restored 
- snli 
restored 



■' Don 
uUque 
quod 



thee, and the material part, and the memory of the self-same 
human behig, both because thou canst feel nothing either 
evil or good without the faculties of the sensible flesh '^, and 
because there is no mode of judgment without the pre- 
sentation of the actual person, who hath deserved to suffer 
judgment. This Christian opinion, though much more noble 
than that of Pythagoras in that it doth not transfer thee to 
beasts, although more enlarged than that of Plato, in that it 
restoreth to thee the possession of the body also, although of 
greater dignity than that of Epicurus, in that it preserveth 
them from death, yet, because of its^ name*", it is set down 
to mere'' vanity, and stupidity', and, as it is expressed, 
presumption '. But we are not ashamed if our presumption 
agreeth with thee. For first v/hen thou makest mention of 
any one that is dead, thou callest him ' poor man,' not 
assuredly^ because he is taken away from the blessing of 
life, but because he is now appointed unto punishment and 



1 See on Apol. c. 48. 

^ Christian, Apol. c. 2. 

s " Folly, vanit}'," are among the 
most ordinary titles given by the hea- 
then to Christianity, unwittrmgly con- 
firming 1 Cor. 1,"23. Kortholt has 
the following list, (de Cal. Pag. e. 10.) 
" folly,'" Theoph. ad Aut. 1. ii and iii. 
''■ folly and vanity," Lact. vii. 27. 
" empty vanity, execrable vanity, vain 
folly, blind error, pernicious error," 
edict of Maximin. ap. Ens. H. E. ix. 7. 
" vain and mad superstition," Csecil. 
ap. Minuc. " vain superstition," Agon. 
S. Marcelli ; " old wives' superstition," 
Ca^c. 1. e. and ap. Lact. v. 2. " old 
wives' fables," ib. c. 1. and Minuc. 
" womanly superstition," ib. c. 13. 
'' old wives' doctrines," Prud. Hymn. 
X de Fructuos. " old wives' inventions 
and absurdities," Auct. Philopatris ; 
" puerile frenzies," Plin. vii. 55. 
" puerile follies," Arn. 1. 2. " things 
ridiculous," Oriir. c. Cels. iii. " foolish 
trifles,'" Hist. Barl. c. 23. 

t Praesuniptio ; almost a technical 
term of reproach against the Christians, 
as requiring assent on authority-, Apol. 
49. and bel. end of c. ad Nat. i. 19. in 
Agon. Montan. et soc. " they would 
persuade him, laying aside this pre- 
sumed opinion (praesumptio) to sacri- 
fice;" (ap. Her. ad Minuc. p. 79.) in 
Galen, " undenionstrated way," itu- 



r^ifih avvrohitiref, Apul. INIetam. 1. ix, 
so in Eus. Prsep. Ev. i. 2. " unreason- 
able, [because unreasoning] ay^oyo;., 
belief," and the charge of " credulity;" 
Theod. adv. Grsec. Procem. and 1. i. and 
Amob. 1. ii. Cels. ap. Orig. c. Cels. 
i. and vi. Naz. Or. i. c. Julian. The 
resurrection of the body was a special 
subject of ridicule, (Acts 17, 32. Orig. 
e. Cels. 1. Arnob. 1. ii. p. 42.) or of the 
charge of madness, (Lucian. in Peregr, 
cp. Plin. vii. 55. Minuc. F. p. 96. 7.) 
Aug. in Ps. 88. "In nothing is the 
Christian faith so vehemently, so ob- 
stinately, so determinately, and so con- 
tentiously spoken against, as on the 
resurrection of the flesh. For as to the 
immortality of the soul, many heathen 
philosophers also have disputed much, 
and have in many and manifold vrorks 
left it stated that the soul of man is 
immortal. But when they come to the 
resurrection of the flesh, they do not err 
simply, but most flatly contradict, and 
that after this sort, that they say that it 
cannot be, that this earthly flesh can 
ascend into heaven." Kortholt, 1. c. 
c. 1 1 . Tert. retorts the word prsesumpsit 
on Hermogenes, de Anima, init. et 
c. 1. fin. " It is better to be ignorant 
through God, because He hath not 
revealed, than through man to know 
because he hath assumed," prsesump- 
serit. ap. Her. 



acknowledged in sjjontaneous language and fear of death. 187 

judgment. But elsewhere thou callest the dead free iVom 
care". Thou declarest the misery of life, and the benefit of 
death. Moreover thou callest them free from care, whenso- 
ever thou retirest without the gate to the tombs witli thy 
meats and feasts ^, making an offering rather to thyself than 
to them, or returnest somewhat drunken from the tombs. 
But I ask for thy sober opinion. Thou callest the dead, 
* poor men,' when thou speakest from thine own mind, when 
thou art far distant from them ; for in their* feast, when they' eorum 
are as it were present and sitting down with thee, thou canst ^^^'"'"^'^ 
not reproach them with their lot, thou art bound to flatter 
those on whose account thou farest so sumptuously. Dost 
thou then call him ' poor man,' who feeleth nothing.? what 
when thou cursest him as a sentient being, wliom tliou 
rememberest with some sting of ill-will .? thou prayest that 
the " earth may lie heavy on him," that his ashes may be 
tormented in the shades below. In the same manner thou 
prayest in good part for him, to whom thou owest favour, 
that his bones and ashes may be comforted, and desirest that 
he may rest happily in the shades below. If thou hast no 
sense of suffering after death, if no continuance o^ feeling, if, 
in a word, thou art thyself nothing when thou hast left the 
body, why dost thou lie against thyself, as though thou 
couldest suffer something hereafter.? nay, why dost thou 
fear death at all, if thou hast nothing to fear after death, 
inasmuch as thou hast nothing to feel after death .? For 
although it may be said that death is feared, not because 
it threateneth any thing for the future, but because it cutteth 
off the blessings of life, yet since the far more numerous ills 
of life equally depart, it putteth an end to the fear by the 
preponderance of the good gained ; nor is the loss of good 
any longer to be feared, which is recompensed by another 
good, a rest from evil. That is not to be feared, which 
delivereth us from all that is fearful. If thou fearcst to 
depart out of life, because thou knowest life to be very good, 
at all events thou oughtest not to fear death, which thou 
dost not know to be evil. But in that thou fearest it, thou 
knowest it to be evil. But thou wouldest not know this, for 

'f Memorise et Securitati perpetuac, y De Re.s. Cam. c. 1. 
Ipscr. Vet. ap. Lac. 



1 38 Natural dictates of soul come from Author of Nature, i. e. God. 

De thou wouldest not fear it, unless thou knewest that there 
]^^' is something after death, which maketh it an evil, such that 
II- 5- thou mayest fear it. Let us say nothing now of the in- 
stinctive habit of fearing death. Let no one fear that which 
he cannot escape. I will meet thee on the opposite question 
of the hope of greater happiness after death. For the desire 
of fame after death is naturally implanted in almost all men*. 
It would be tedious to rehearse the Cnrtii, and the Reguli, 
or those Grecian heroes of whose contempt of death, for the 
sake of posthumous fame, we have innumerable accounts. 
Who at this day doth not so study to make his memory rife 
after death, as to preserve his name either by works of 
literature, or by the simple reputation of his character, or by 
the ambitious pomp of his very tomb ? Whence cometh it, 
that the soul at this day aspireth to something w^hich it 
would have after death, and diligently prepareth those things 
which it is to enjoy after death ? Surely it w^ould care 
nothing for the future, if it knew nothing of the future. 
But perhaps thou art more fully assured that thou shalt feel 
after thy departure than that thou shalt ever rise again, 
which we are charged with maintaining presumptuously. 
But this also is declared by the soul. For if any man 
maketh enquiry of one already dead as though he were 
alive, the answer is ready at hand; " He is gone;" then, he 
is to return^. 

V. These testimonies of the soul are as simple as they are 
true, as trite as they are simple, as common as they are 
trite, as natural as they are common, as divine as they are 
natural. T think that they cannot appear to any one to be 
'ridicula trifling and ridiculous^, if he considereth the majesty of 
Nature, whence the authority of the soul is derived. What- 
soever thou alio west to the mistress, thou wdlt assign to the 
disciple. Nature is the mistress, the soul is the discii^le: 
whatsoever the one hath taught, or the other hath learned, 
hath been delivered to them by God, ^Vlio is, in truth, the 
Master even of the mistress herself What notion the soul is 



» Cic. Tusc. i. 14. 16. as an argu- implies " returning." The heathen said 

ment of the immortality of the soul. " abiit," " abiit ad plures," " he de- 

" Interpunetiou altered; "Abiit;" parted," for, " he died." 
jam et reverti debet; " going away" 



Soulyfrom God, knowsGod ; thoughts notfrom,for before, ktten. \i)9 

able to conceive respecting its first Teacher, it is in thy 
power to judge, from that soul which is within thee. Feel 
thou that which maketh thee to feel. Think upon that 
which is in forebodings, thy prophet; in omens, thy augur; 
in the events which befal thee, thy fore-seer. Strange if, 
being given by God, it knoweth how to divine unto men! 
Equally strange if it knoweth Him by Whom it hath been 
given ! Even when compassed about by its adversary, it 
remembereth its Author, and His goodness, and His decree, 
and its own end, and its adversary himself. So it is a 
strange thing if, being given by God, it teacheth those self- 
same things, which God hath given unto His people to 
know ! But he who doth not think that such utterances of 
the soul are the teaching of a congenial nature, and the 
silent deposits of an innate conscience'', will say rather tliat 
the habit, and as it were the evil, of such fonns of speech, 
hath now become confirmed by the doctrines of published 
books being wafted abroad among the people. Surely the 
soul existed before letters^ and discourse before books, and 
the thought which is written, before the writing of it, and the 
man himself before the Philosopher and the Poet. Is it 
then to be believed that before letters and the publication of 
them, men lived without utterance of speech upon such 
matters ? No one, I suppose, spoke of God and His good- 
ness ! no one spoke of death nor of the shades below ! 
discourse went a begging, nay, could not exist at all, for 
lack, at that time, of those subjects, without which even 
at this day it can gain neither in fulness, nor richness, nor 
wisdom, if those things which at this day are so obvious, so 
continually present, so near at hand, being in a manner bred 
in the very lips, had no being in former times, before letters 
had sprung up in the world, before IMercury, methinks, was 
born. And whence cometh it that letters themselves were 
ordained, to know, and spread abroad for the use of speech, 
things which no mind had ever conceived, nor tongue 
pronounced, nor ear heard .? But in truth since the Divine 

^ " Hence, then, by the silent con- which we may perhaps elsewhere shew 
sciousness of nature, hath the Divine to be commonly done and said, con- 
nature of the soul, of itself, unawares to formably to Scripture." Tert. de Virg. 
men, brought forth into the use of Vel. c. 6. „. ^ , , ^^ 
speech, this as well as much beside, <= See Athan. Vit. S. Anton. §. 73. 



140 Heathen, from Scripture, truth ; and, with the soul, attests it» 

De Scriptures, which are in our hands, or in the hands of the 
An^ J^ws, into whose oHve-tree we have been grafted from a wild 
II- 6. olive '^, precede secular writings by a long period, not merely 
by a moderate space of time, (as we have shewn in the 
proper place, in order to prove their authority^,) even if the 
soul hath taken these declarations from books, surely we 
must needs believe that it hath taken them from ours and 
not from yours, because the former things are better for the 
instruction of the soul than the latter, which themselves also 
waited to be instructed by the former; and even should 
we allow that it was instructed out of yours, still tradition 
belongeth to its first origin; and that is altogether ours, 
whatsoever ye have chanced to take and to deliver out of our 
writings. And since this is so, it mattereth little whether 
this consciousness of the soul be formed by God or by the 
writings of God. 

VI. Why then, O man, wilt thou have it that these truths 

have proceeded forth from human opinions in thine own 

writings, so as to come to be hardened by common use ? 

Believe therefore thine own writings ; and, as concerning our 

records, believe so much the more those which are of God ; 

but, as concerning the judgment of the soul itself, by all 

means believe Nature. Choose whichever of these thou 

notest to be the most faithfully a sister to Truth. If thou 

doubtest concerning thine own writings, neither God nor 

Nature speaketh falsely. That thou mayest believe both 

Nature and God, believe the soul: thus it will come to pass, 

that thou believest thine own self. At all events it is that 

soul of which thou makest great account, in proportion as 

she maketh thee great ; whose thou art entirely, who is thine 

all, without whom thou canst neither live nor die, for whose 

sake thou neglectest God. For when thou fearest to become 

a Christian, call upon her to answer why, while she wor- 

shippeth another, she nameth the name of God? Why, 

when she proscribeth spirits as to be accursed, doth she 

proclaim them daemons } Why uttereth she protestation 

^ The older Edd. and Cod. Ag. have seems, " olea ex oleastro," appears ne- 

" in quorum oleastro insiti sumus ;" cessary, and the similarity of the first 

but "oleastro" is used only of the letters may have caused the omission of 

" wild olive," (as in the dePrsescr.Haer. " olea." 

c. 36.) Rig.'s conjecture then, as it <* Apol. c. 19. 



Language of soul universal; attests truths will condemn unbelief. 1 4 1 

heaven-wards, and detestation earth-wards? why in one 
place doth she serve Him, in another call upon Him as 
an avenger^? why doth she judge concerning the dead? 
why doth she use the words of the Christians, whom she 
would fain neither hear nor see ? why hath she either given 
us those words, or received them from us? why hath she 
been either our teacher or our disciple ? Distrust (if thou 
canst) this agreement of doctrine amid so great an incon- 
sistency of conversation. Thou art a fool if thou ascribest 
such things to this language only or to the Greek, (which arc 
held to be nearly akin to each other,) so as to deny the 
universal language of Nature. The soul descendeth not 
from Heaven upon the Latins or the Greeks alone. Througli- 
out the world man is one, though his names be various ; the 
soul is one, though its language be various; the spirit is one, 
though its voice be various. Every nation hath its own 
proper speech ; but the matter of all speech is the same in 
all. God is every where, and the goodness of God is every 
where: the demon is every where, and the curse upon 
the demon is every where : the calling down of the divine 
judgment is every where : death is every where, and the 
consciousness of death is every where, and the witness 
thereof is every where. Every soul of its own right pro- 
claimeth aloud those things, which we are not permitted 
even to whisper. With good reason then is every soul both 
a culprit and a witness, as much a culprit in respect of error, 
as it is at the same time a witness of the truth ; and in the 
day of judgment it shall stand before the courts of God, 
having nothing to answer to the charge — " Thou didst 
preach God, and didst not seek after Him : thou didst 
detest demons, and didst worship them : thou didst appeal 
to the judgment of God, and didst not believe in its being: 
thou didst anticipate punishments in a world below, and 
didst take no heed against them : thou didst savour of the 
name of Christ, and didst persecute the Christian !" 

« Above, c. 2. 



1 42 Expostulation with Heathen^not for Christians' sake^hut their own. 



THE ADDRESS TO SCAPULA. 



[The ad Scapulam is placed at the very beginning of the reign of Caracalla, 
A. D. 214, on the ground that Sevenis is spoken of " as the father of 
Antoninus," so that the latter probably was the then Emperor; (Severus is 
also spoken of in the past, c. 4.) but Caracalla at the beginning of his reign 
recalled those whom his father had banished, (Dio Cass. 1. 77. c. 3,) and so, we 
may suppose, stopped persecutions. Nor are persecutions spoken of in his 
reign. The " defect of the sun's light in the district of Utica," c. 3. is 
supposed to have been an eclipse, A. 210. Hilarian (ib.) was the President 
of Africa, under whom Perpetua and Felicitas became martja-s, A.D. 203. 
see Lumper, 1. c. §. 14. The beginning of this Treatise is an epitome almost 
of the Apology.] 



Ad !• It is not that we are terrified; it is not that we have any 
TTT^^V §^'^^^ dread of those things which we suffer from ignorant 

men; seeing that we have joined om-selves unto this way, 

taking, of course, upon ourselves its conditions, and covenant- 
ing that we would encounter these conflicts, pledged in the 
service even to our very lives; desiring to obtain those 
things which God promiseth in return, and fearing to suffer 
those things which He threateneth to a contrary course of 
life. Finally, we battle with all your cruelty, even of our 
own accord rushing to the charge, and rejoice more when 
condemned than when acquitted ^ We have sent you this 
letter then, as fearing not for ourselves but for you, and for 
all our enemies, not to say our friends. For so are we 
JNiatt. 5, commanded by the law of our Religion, to love even our 
enemies, and to pray for them which persecute us, that 
this our goodness may be perfect, and specially our own, 
V. AQ. not the goodness of the world in general ''. For to love their 
fi'iends, belongeth to all; but to love their enemies, to the 

a Apol. c. 1.21. 49. 50. b lb. c. 31. 



Christians charged as impious and disloyal; found amonn neither. 1 43 

Christians only. We then who grieve for your ignorance, 
and have compassion for human error, and look forward unto 
things to come, and behold the signs thereof daily threaten- 
ing *", we must of necessity force our way even in this manner, 
that we may set before you those things which ye choose 
not to hear openly. 

IT. We worship one God, Whom ye all by nature know, 
at Whose lightnings and thunders ye tremble, in Whose 
benefits ye rejoice. The rest ye also think to be gods, 
whom we know to be demons'". Nevertheless it appertaineth 
to man's proper right and natural privilege, that each should 
worship that which he thinketh to be God; nor doth the 
Religion of one man harm or profit another. But neither is 
it the part of Keligion to compel men to Keligion, which 
ought to be taken up voluntarily, not of compulsion, seeing 
that sacrifices also are required of a willing mind. Thus 
even if ye compel us to sacrifice, ye shall render no service 
thereby to your gods ; for they will not desire sacrifices from 
unwilling givers, unless they be contentious ; but a God is 
not contentious. Finally, He that is the true God bestoweth 
equally all His gifts on unholy men, and on His o^^^l people. Matt. 5, 
And therefore hath He appointed an eternal judgment for 
the thankful and the unthankful''. Yet us, whom ye think 
to be sacrilegious, ye have never taken even in theft, much 
less in sacrilege. But all they, who spoil your temples, botli 
swear by the gods, and worship the same, and are not 
Christians, and yet are convicted of sacrilege ^. It would be 
tedious to recount in what other ways all the gods are 
mocked and despised, even by their own worshippers ''. So 
too we are defamed as touching the majesty of the Emperor'; 
yet no disciples of Albinus, or of Niger, or of CassiusS 
could be found among the disciples of Christ. Nevertheless 
those very men, who even up to the day before had sworn 
by the gods of the Emperors, who had both oflercd and 
vowed sacrifices for their health, who had often condemned 
the Christians, were found to be their enemies. The Chris- 

^ Ih c. 20, ^ lb. c. 16. 44. 

d lb. (i,2S. " lb. c. 12. 14. 16. 

« lb. c. 24. 28. * lb. c. 28. 

f lb. e. 41. '' lb. c. 36. 



1 A4:Loyalty ofChristians;couldavenf/e; knoiim but for peace andpiety. 

Ad tian is an enemy to no man, much less to an Emperor, 
IIL 3. whom knowing to be ordained by his own God ', he must 
" needs by the same rule love, and reverence, and honour, and 

wish him well, with the whole Roman empire, as long as the 
world shall stand, for so long shall it stand "". In such wise 
therefore do we honour the Emperor, as is both lawful for us 
and expedient for him, as a man next in place to God, and 
having from God received whatsoever he be, and inferior to 
God alone °. This too he himself will desire, for thus is he 
greater than all, in being less than the true God only ; thus 
is he greater even than the gods themselves, in that they 
also are within his power °. Wherefore also we offer sacrifice 
for the health of the Emperor, but only to Him Who is our God 
and his, and only as God hath commanded us, with pure 
prayer p. For God, the Maker of all things, needeth not the 
savour or the blood of any creature, seeing that these are the 
food of demons ; but demons we not only reject, but we also 
prevail against them, and daily expose them, and cast them 
out of man, as is well known to very many ^ Therefore we 
pray more than others for the health ' of the Emperor, in 
asking it of Him, Who is able to give it*. And surely it 
may be sufficiently clear to you that we live according to 
the rule of godly patience, when being so vast a multitude of 
men, almost the greater portion of every state', we live 
silently and modestly, known perhaps more as individuals 
than as a body, and to be known by no other sign than the 
reformation of our former sins. For far be it from us to be 
angry because we suffer those things which we desire, or to 
contrive of ourselves any of that vengeance which we look 
for from God". 

III. Notwithstanding, (as we have said before,) we must 
needs grieve, because no state will bear unpunished the guilt 
of shedding our blood''. As it was also under the president 
Hilarian ; when they had cried out concerning the courts of 



' lb. c. 33. ' lb c. 23. 32. 37. 

"» lb. c. 32. • lb. c. 30. 33. 

" lb. c. 30. 33. 34. ' lb. c. 37. 

° lb. c. 13. 29. 30. " Cypr. ad Demetr. c. 10. 

P lb. c. 30. X li). 

q lb. c. 22. 23. 



Present judgments, ti/pe.^ of future: confessions of Persecutors. 145 

our burying places, Let there be no '' areoey," there were 
no " areas ^" — to themselves, for tho}^ gathered not their 
harvest. Moreover in the rain also of the past year it was 
made manifest, ^Hhat mankind hath deserved, because that 
the flood of old also was on account of the unbelief and the 
iniquities of men : and what the fires threatened, which 
lately hung over the walls of Carthage through the night, 
they know^ who saw them ; and what the former thunderings 
uttered, they know who hardened themselves against them. 
All these are the signs of the w^rath of God hanging over us, 
which we must of necessity, in whatever way wg may, both 
proclaim and teach, and in the meanwhile pray that it may 
be only local ; for the universal and final, they shall feel at 
the appointed time, who in any other way interpret the 
ensamples of it. For that sun too, wdiich in the district" of 
Utica had its light all but extinguished, was such a prodigy, 
that it could not have suffered this effect from an ordinary 
eclipse, being situate in its own altitude and house. \e 
have astrologers to enquire of. We can in the same way 
set before j^ou the ends also of certain Presidents, who, at 
the close of their lives, remembered that they had sinned, in 
that they had persecuted the Christians ''. Vigellius Saturni- 
nus, who first drew the sword against us in this countr}^ lost 
his eyes. Claudius Herminianus in Cappadocia, when, being 
angry because his wife had gone over to this sect, he had 
treated the Christians cruelly, and when in the solitude of 
his palace, being wasted with disease, he had broken out, 
while alive, with worms, said, ' Let no one know it, that the 
Christians rejoice not in hope.' Afterwards, when he came to 
know his sin in causing some, by means of torture, to fall 
away fi'om their purpose, he died, almost a CJiristiau. 



y The open spaces before the cities he had "deposited his sons in aheatheu 

used as burial grounds; S. Cyprian College, after the manner of those 

was buried in the " area" of Macrobius without, in profane sepulchres, and 

Candidus the Procurator, (life by Pon- buried them with aliens." Ep. 67. (al. 

tius.) By Statius it is used of the place 68.) de Basil, et Martial, 

of the funeral pile. Theb. vi. b7 . The ^ The open spaces used for thresh- 

Christians had burial places distinct ing. 

from the heathen ; a Synodical letter ^ conventus. The tract subject to 

of S. Cyprian to some Spanish Clergy its jurisdiction, civil and subsequently 

and people, mentions it as a very heavy ecclesiastic, 

charge against Martial, a Bishop, that ^ Eus. i. oO. iv. 12. 



146 Mildness shewn to Christians hy individual governors ; 

Ad Caecilius Capella at this catastrophe of Byzantium •", cried 
HL 4. o^t' " Christians, rejoice ''." But even they, who seem to 
thee to be without punishment, shall come unto the day of 
Divine judgment. To yourself also we wish that it may be 
only a warning, that, after your condemnation of Mavilus of 
x\drumetum to the beasts, this your affliction immediately 
followed, and nowcometh again from the^same cause*, as the 
cry of blood for justice. But remember the future. 

lY. V/e who fear thee not, would not alarm thee ; but I 
would that we could save you all, by warning you not to 
Aci% bijigjit against God. Thou canst discharge the duties of 
thine office, and at the same time remember those of 
humanity, if it be only because ye yourselves also live under 
the sword. For what more is committed unto thee than to 
condemn the guilty when they have confessed, and to bring 
to the torture those who deny? Ye see then how ye your- 
selves act against your own instructions, to compel those 
who have confessed, to deny. Thus ye confess that we are 
innocent, whom ye will not condemn at once on our own 
confession ; but when ye strain every point to stifle us, it must 
needs be innocence that ye are striving to storm us out of ^ 
But how many presidents, more determined and more cruel 
than thee, have from such reasons used dissimulation s, as 
did Cincius Severus, who at Thysdris himself furnished a 
plan of escape, through which the Christians might make 
such an answer that they might be set at liberty: as did 
Vespronius Candidus, who dismissed a Christian on the 
pretence that it would be a breach of the peace to satisfy 
the wishes of his people : as did Asper, who when one was 
but slightly tortured, and straightway fell from his faith, did 
not even force him to offer sacrifice, and who had before 
publicly declared, in the midst of advocates and assessors, 
that he was very sorry to have chanced upon this case. 
Pudens also, when a Christian was sent before him, per- 
ceiving at once from the indictment that the charge was 

= Its recent capture, by Severus, ap. E,ig. '' Gaudete Romani." 
after a three years siege ; having taken ' renewed attacks of some sickness, 

the part of Pescenninus Niger. Hero- Rig. conjectures, 
dian, M. Glycas, ap. Pam. ^ Apol. c. 2. 

d A congratulatory formula, used on i Tatian, c. 27. 
victory ; so, on a gold coin of Maximian, 



or in gratitude for miraculous cures and inter cei^sions. 147 

vexatious, tore that same indictment and dismissed him, 
refusing, according to his instructions'', to hear the man 
without an accuser. All these things might be suggested to 
thee, both by thine o\yn duty, and by those very advocates, 
who themselves feel the good services of the Christians, 
though they cry out against us as they list : for the secretary 
of a certain man, when he was thrown down by a devil, 
was delivered from it, as was also a kinsman and a 
little boy belonging to certain others. And how many 
honourable persons (for I speak not of common men) have 
been healed either of devils or of infirmities ! Even Severus 
himself, the father of Antoninus, was mindful of the 
Christians. For he sought out also Proculus a Christian, 
who was sumamed Torpacion, the steward of Euodia, who 
had once cured him by means of oil, and kept him in his 
own palace even to his death : whom also Antoninus very well 
knew, nursed as he was upon Christian milk». But more- 
over Severus, knowing that certain most illustrious women 
and most illustrious men were of this sect, not only did not 
harm them, but even honoured them by his own testimony, 
and openly withstood the people, when they were mad 
against us. Marcus Aurelius also in his German expedition, 
when prayer had been made to God by his Christian 
soldiers, obtained rain in that drought which he was 
suffering''. When have even droughts failed to be removed 
by our kneelings and fastings ' i Then too the people crying 
out " to the God of Gods Who Alone is mighty," hath, under 
the name of Jupiter, borne witness to our God. Besides 
these things, we deny not the deposit committed to our 
charge", we defile the marriage of none', we treat our wards 
righteously "^, we refresh the needy ", we recompense io no man Eom.l2 
evil for evil°. As for those who falsely pretend to our 
Religion, and whom we ourselves disown, let them see to 
that P. Finally who complaineth of us on any other score ? 

f Trajan, Ep. ad Plin. "" Contrast .Juvenal's warniug,vi. 028. 

5 Spartian mentions his playmate Vo« ego, pupilli, moneo, quibus amplior 

being a Jewish [Christian, see on Apol. est res, 

c. 16. p. 36. note g 1 boy. Custodifeanima?,etnullicredite mensse. 

^ Apol. c. 5. " See Apol. c. 39. p. 81. 

* lb. c. 40. « Apol. c. 36. 37. 

^ Plin. Ep. ad Traj. P lb. c. 44. 46. 

I See on Apol. e. 9. n. h. i. 

L 2 



U. 



IAS Hopelessness of exterminating CJiristians, from their number, 

Ad What other trouble doth the Christian suffer than that 
III. 5. which Cometh of his Religion ? which Religion no one in 



all this time hath ever proved to be incestuous or cruel". 
For so much innocence, for so much goodness, for our 
justice, for our chastity, for our faith, for our truth, for the 
living God, we are cast to the flames, a thing which neither 
' veil men guilty of sacrilege nor those true ' enemies of the public 
weal, nor the many guilty of treason, are wont to suffer. 
For now also the Christian name is persecuted by the 
president of Leon and the president of Mauritania, but only 
by the sword, as it w^as from the first also commanded that 
such should be punished. But the greater the conflict the 
greater the rewards which follow. 

V. lour cruelty is our glory. Only take heed and consider 
whether in this our very endurance of such things, we do not 
shew that we burst out, for the single purpose of proving this 
very point, that we do not fear these things, but of our own 
accord invite them. While Arrius Antoninus ° in Asia was 
earnestly persecuting us, all the Christians of that state 
presented themselves in one body before his judgment- seat, 
when he, having ordered a few to be led away'', said to the 
rest, ' Wretched men ! if ye wish to die, ye have precipices 
and halters.' If it should be determined that the same 
thing should be done here also, what v/ilt thou do with so 
many thousands of human beings, so many men and women, 
of every sex, of every age, of every degree "*, giving them- 
selves up to thee ? Of how many fires, of how^ many swords 
will there be need ! W^hat will Carthage itself, which thou 
must needs decimate, endure, when every man recognizeth 
there his own kinsmen and comrades, when he beholdeth 
perchance, in the number, the men and matrons even of thine 
own degree, and all the chief persons, and even the kinsmen 
and friends of their own friends } Spare then thyself, if not 

" lb. c. 2. 7. 8. under Commodus, who having put him 

° There were two proconsuls of Asia to death on false accusation, was 

of this name; the one under Adrian, obliged to give up his accuser to popu- 

" maternal grandfather to Antoninus lar justice, Lamprid. in Comm. Hist. 

Pius, twice Consul ;" Capitolin. in An- Aug. Scriptt. p. 48. see Casaub. ad 

tonin.init. who callshim " virsanctus;" Capitolin. 

he publicly compassionated Nerva for P to execution. 

having come to a throne ; (Pliny pane- i See Apol. c. 1. p. 2, 3. and 

gyrizes him,Ep. 1. iv. ep. 3.) the other note g. 



and as gaining converts through endurance. 149 

us: spare Carthage, if not thyself: spare the province, 
which, as soon as thy design was perceived, became exposed 
to false accusations both from the soldiery and from each 
man's private foes. We have no master save God alone ^ 
He is before thee, and cannot be hidden, but He is one to 
Whom thou canst do nothing. But those, whom thou 
thinkest to be thy masters, are men, and must themselves 
one day die. Notwithstanding, this our sect shall never fail; 
for know that it is then the more built up, when it seemeth 
to be stricken down^ For every man that beholdeth so 
much endurance, being struck with some misgiving, is 
kindled with the desire of enquiring \vhat is the cause of 
this, and, as soon as he discovereth the truth, himself also 
immediately folio weth it. 

' Apol. c. 34. » lb. c. 50. 



150 To suffer for Christ givm hy the Spirit; yet diligence still needed. 



AN ADDRESS TO THE MARTYRS. 



[The Ad Martyras is probably Tertullian's earliest work, as being written at the 
very coramencement of the persecution, before any had actually suffered martyr- 
dom; for had any so suffered, Tertullian would naturally, in his exhortation to 
the rest, have referred to them. The allusion, then, c. 6. fin. to the deaths on 
occasion of Albinus, fixes it A.D. 197. See above, notice on the Apology.] 



Ad 1. Amongst the aliments of the flesh, which both our 
jy Y* Lady Mother the Church from her own bosom, and the 
~ brethren singly from their private storey supply to you in 

your prison, blessed martyrs elect, accept somewhat from 
me likewise, which may serve to nourish your spirit also. 
For that the flesh be made fat, and the spirit hunger, is not 
good. Yea, if that which is weak be cared for, that which is 
yet weaker ought as well not to be neglected. Nor am I 
such an one as am worthy to speak unto you. Nevertheless 
not only their own masters, and superiors, but even private 
persons, and whosoever will, from a distance needlessly 
exhort even the most perfect gladiators, so that oftentimes 
advice suggested even by the vulgar crowd hath been pro- 
Eph. 4, fitable. First therefore, blessed men, grieve not the Holy 
Spirit, Who hath entered with you into the prison; for if 
He had not now entered in with you, neither would ye 
have been there this day. And therefore give diligence 
that He may abide there with you continually; so may He 
bring you from thence unto the Lord. Even the prison is 

* opibus, cod. W. Others " operibus," ribus" to mean, each of his own handi- 

" from the labour of their hands; "the two craft, clothes, &c. but T. speaks only of 

readings differ in MSS. only by a stroke food. 

through the p; but "opibus" agrees ^ Cypr. Ep. 12. ad Clerum, ed. Fell, 

better with the preposition " de" and (37. Pam.) Orig. Hem. U. in Lev. 
with S. Cyprian. Pam. supposes " ope- 



To give peace^ he at peace — nature of Martyrs' dissensions. 151 

in truth the house of the Devil, wherein he keepeth his own 
household. But therefore have ye come into the prison, 
that ye may tread him under foot even in his own house: 
for ye have already wrestled with him abroad, and trodden 
him under foot. Let him not therefore say, " They are in 
my own place : I will tempt them with mean enmities'^ and 
passions, or dissensions among themselves." Let him flee 
from your sight, and hide himself in his inmost recess, 
coiled up and listless''', like a serpent that hath been 
charmed or fumigated away. And let him not so prosper 
in his own kingdom, as to set you at variance : but let him 
find you guarded and armed with concord, because your 
peace is war against him ; which peace some, not finding 
in the Church, have been wont to entreat of the martyrs 
in prison^. And therefore ye ought, were it only for this, to 
have, and to cherish, and to keep it among yourselves, that 
ye may be able, if need be, to give it unto others also. 

IL In like manner may all other hindrances of the soul 
have accompanied you even to the threshold of the prison, 
just so far as did your parents also. Thenceforth ye were 
separated from the world itself: how much more from the 
life of the world, and its concerns ! Nor will this dismay 

•= odiis 2 Vat. MSS. oediis MS. Div. Eumenea." This strong language then, 

whence Rig. conjectures " scidiis" and the placing both upon a level, per- 

which he explains " chips" and so, haps betrays a disposition, even thus 

' trifles, things of no account,' regarding early, to look favourably on Montanism. 

*' odiis" as too strong a term for those S. Cyprian, perhaps, imitates this 

expecting martyrdom. It is probable, warning against dissensions, Ep. 13. 

however, that Tertullian refers to what Fell. (7. Pam.) ad Rogat. Older Edd. 

at least took place elsewhere, that the have " inediis" " poor scanty fare;" 

Montanist martyrs, as being severed and it is implied c. 2. that the food was 

from the Church, were disowned by of things necessary only ; yet the word 

the Church. An older author, quoted ' saginati' (init.) implies that of these 

by Euseb, H. E. v. 17. says, " Whence there was an adequate supply ; and, as 

also, whenever those who out of the a Montanist, T. reproaches the Church 

Church are called to martyrdom for with supplying the martyrs too freely 

that which is indeed the faith, fall in Jn prison, (de Jejun. c. 12.) 

with some of those who out of the ^ See adv. Valent. c. 3. 

Phrygian heresy are called Martyrs, e The lapsed — those who had sacri- 

they both are at variance with them, ficed to idols, or bought themselves off, 

and are themselves perfected [by Mar- and who were restored the readier to 

tyrdom] without holding communion the peace, i. e. communion of the 

with them, not willing to join them- Church, at the request of those awaiting 

selves to the spirit, which spake through martyrdom. See Cypr. de Laps. c. 12. 

Montanus and the women." Eusebius p. 164. ed. Oxf. (and Bingham quoted 

(it seems) subjoins, " The truth of this ib.) Fell. Epp. 15—20. Fell. (10—15. 

is manifest, and happened in our times Pam.) 22, 23. (22. 17.) 26, 27. 30, 31. 

in Apamea on the Meander, in the (31 , 26.) 33. (27.) 35. (29.) 
martyrdoms of Gains and Alexander of 



\b2WorldthcicorEe prison; prhonanescapefrom sight afworld^ssins; 

Ad you, that you are severed from the worlds For if we con- 
lY. 2. sider that the world itself rather is a prison, we shall 
perceive that ye have rather gone forth from prison than 
gone into prison. The world hath the greater darkness, 
which blindeth the hearts of men. The world putteth on 
the heavier bonds, which bind the very souls of men. The 
world breatheth forth the worse uncleanness, even the lusts 
of men. Finally the world containeth the greater number 
of criminals, to wit the whole race of man : it awaiteth 
moreover the judgment, not of the Proconsul, but of God. 
Wherefore, blessed men, consider that ye have been trans- 
lated li-om a prison to a place, it may be, of safe keeping, 
lipi». 5, It hath darkness, but ye yourselves are light^. It hath 
/ . ^ bonds, but ye ha\'te been made free by God. An evil breath 
1. is uttered there, but ye «re a sweet savour. A judge is 

2 Cor. looked for : but ye shall judge even the judges themselves^. 
I'cor. Let him be sad there, who sigheth for the enjoyment of the 
6, 2. vv^orld } The Christian, even when out of prison, hath 
renounced the world; but, when in prison, a prison also'. 
It mattereth not where ye are in the world, who are without 
the world : and if ye have lost any of the joys of life, it is a 
goodly traffic to lose somewhat, that you may gain the 
more. I say nothing yet of the reward to which God 
calleth martyrs. Let us for the moment compare the very 
conversation of the world and of the prison, and see whether 
in the prison the spirit doth not gain more than the flesh 
loseth. Yea and such things as be right, the flesh loseth 
» ft not, through the care of the Church, and' the love of the 
brethren; and besides this, the spirit gaineth such things 
as are ever profitable to the Faith. Thou seest there no 
strange gods : thou comest not upon their images : thou 
partakest not in the solemn days of the heathen'', even by 
mingling with them. Thou art scourged, but not with 
filthy savours from the sacrifice: thou art beaten, but not 

^ Rig. omits " ab ipso nmndo, Serg. Rogatian. &c. init. Ep. 37. (16.) 

Quarito magis a seculo, rebusque ejus ! ad Moys. et Max. §. 2. 

Nee hoc vos consternet, quod segregati ^ Cypr. Ep. 6. $. 2. 

estis, &c." If this were on the authority i i. e. conquereth Satan in his own 

of any MS,, the omission was doubtless place, as in c. 1. 

occasioned by the o^o;arix»wT<jv. k ad Uxor. c. 6. init. 

g Cypr. Ep. 6. Fell. (81. Pam.) ad 



restored 



retirement^ not conjinement ; toil in peace to Jit for all loar, 153 

by the shouts of the public shows, the cruelty, or the 
madness, or the lewdness' of the beholders. Thine eyes 
fall not upon the places of public lust. Thou art free from 
offences, from temptations, from evil recollections, and now 
too from persecution. The prison affordeth to the Christian 
that which the wilderness did to the Prophets. The Lord 
Himself ofttimes lived in retirement, that He might pray the 
more freely, that He might withdraw from the world. It 
was moreover in a solitary place that He shewed His glory Mat. 17, 
to His disciples. Away with the name of a prison ! let us ^ • 
call it a retirement. Though the body be shut up, though 
the flesh be confined, all is open to the spirit. Koam freely, 
thou spirit^ ; walk to and fro, thou spirit^ ; not setting before ^ spiritus 
thee shady walks, or long cloisters, but that ttaij which j^j^^^^ 
leadeth unto God. As oft as thou shalt walk herein in the 6. 
spirit, so oft shalt thou not be in prison. The leg sufFereth 
nothing in the stocks, while the mind is in Heaven. The mind 
carrieth about with it the whole man, and removeth him 
whither it listeth. But where thy heart is, there will thy Mat. 6, 
treasure he also. Let therefore our heart be there, where we " 
would have our treasure. 

III. Be it^ now, blessed men, that a prison is grievous^ Sit 
even to Christians. We were called to the warfare of the 
living God, even then when we made om* answer according 
to the words of the Sacrament"'. No soldier" cometh with 
luxuries to the war, nor goeth forth from his chamber to the 
field of battle, but from slight tents, unfolded and tied down, 
wherein are found together every hardship, and every 
opposite of what is good and pleasant. Even in peace they 
are already learning by labour and distresses to endure war, 
by marching under arms, running over the plain, working at 
the fosse, forming the close ' testudo.' All their doings are 
made up of toil, lest their bodies and their minds should be 
terrified in passing from the shade to the sun, fi:-om the sun 
to the open air°, from the vest to the coat of mail, fi'om 

1 Inthe amphitheatre, circuSjtheatre, " sacramentuni/' " oath," is here pre- 

respectively, see Apol. c. 38. served. 

" in Sacramenti verba respondimus. ° Imitated by S. Jerome, Ep. 14. ad 

The Baptismal vow of obedience to Heliodor. §. 2. as is c. 2. in §. 10. 

Christ, (see Bingham 11. 7. 6.); so ° i. e. the chill sky. 
that the original force of the word 



154 Crowns won hy previous endurance — iceahnessofjiesh ?io excuse. 

Ad silence to clamour, from rest to tumult. Wherefore do \'e, 
Mart . . . 

lA". 4! blessed women p, whatsoever hardship there be in this, 



6, 12. 



account it an exercise of the virtues of your mind and body. 
Ye are about to undergo a good fight "^^ wherein the 
President is the living God; the Trainer the Holy Spirit; 
Phil. 3, the crown, Eternity ; the prize, of angelic being \ the citizen- 
^^' ship of the Heavens; the glory for ever and ever. Wherefore 
1 Joliii your Master Christ Jesus, Who hath given you the iinctioti 
^' ^^' of the Spirit, and hath brought you forth unto this wrestling- 
ground, hath willed, before the day of the contest, to set you 
apart from a free manner of living unto a severer training, 
that your powers might be strengthened within you. For the 
wrestlers also are set apart for a stricter discipline, that 
they may have time for building up their strength. They 
are kept from luxury, from the richer sorts of food, from the 
pleasanter kinds of drink : they are constrained, harassed, 
tired : the more they have toiled in their exercises, the more 
1 coi. tbey hope for the victory. And theg^ saith the Apostle, that 
^' ^"^" they may obtain a corruptible crown. Let us, that are to 
obtain an eternal one, consider our prison as a wrestling- 
groundj that, having been daily exercised in all kinds of 
hardships, we may be brought forth to the course before the 
judgment-seat; for virtue is built up by hardness, but by 
softness is destroyed. 
Mat, 26, IV. We know, from the Lord's precept, that the flesh is 
ueak^ the spirit ready. Let us not therefore flatter ourselves, 
because the Lord hath allowed that the flesh is weak. For 
for this cause He first said that the spirit is ready^ that He 
might shew whicli ought to be subject to the other, to wit, 
that the flesh should serve the spirit, the weaker the stronger, 

P Benedictee. Tert. uses the same covered portico, among the Latins, the 

word, de Cuk. Fem. ii. 4. 5. 9. 13. Xystum was an open space ; with both 

S. Cyprian, Ep. 6. [81.] ad Serg. &c. it was a place where the gladiators 

" I salute the blessed women, who are were practised in winter^ (see Hoff- 

set with you in the same glory of Con- mann, Lex. v. Xysti. Xysta. Xystici.) 

fessors;" he speaks of female martyrs, and so an emblem of severe training, 

de Laps. 0. 2. They are also addressed On the necessity of preparation for 

below, c. 2. E,ig. corrects " Benedicti." martyrdom, see S. Cypr. de Laps. 

1 Xystarches. He who had exercised, c. 4 sqq. p. 56. ed. Oxf. 
disciplined, them beforehand, so that "■ Substantias; i.e. their substance, 

when the time came, they should not being, should be that of the Angels, 

fail ; as above, " Had He not been (see Mark 12, 26.), as in the de Res. 

with you, ye had not been there." Carn. c. 26. angelificata oaro. 
Among the Greeks the Sy<rr«; was a 



41. 



Endurance in Heathen of either sex for mere glory. 155 

that from it it may itself also receive strength. Let the 
spirit confer with the flesh about the common salvation of 
both, not now thinking of the grievances of the prison, but 
of the contest and light itself. The flesh perchance will fear 
the heavy sword, and the lofty cross, and the fury of the 
beasts, and the extreme punishment of the fire, and all the 
cunning of the executioner in tortures '. But let the spirit 
on the other hand set this before itself and the flesh, that 
these things, however bitter, have been nevertheless received 
by many wdth an even mind, yea and voluntarily sought 
after for the sake of fame and glory ; and not by men only, 
but even by women, that ye also, O blessed w^omen, may 
match your own sex. It were a long tale to name each of 
those who, led only by their own spirit', have slain them- 
selves with the sword. Of women, Lucretia is a ready 
example, who having suffered violation, thrust a knife into 
herself in the sight of her kinsfolk, that she might obtain 
glory for her chastity. Mutius burned his right hand upon 
the altar, that fame might lay hold on this his deed. Philo- 
sophers have done but little ; (Heraclitus, who having be- 
smeared himself with the dung of oxen ", burnt himself to 
death; and Empedocles'' who leaped down into the fires of 
Mount ^tna ; and Peregrinus ", w^ho, not long since ^, threw 
himself upon a funeral pile,) since even women have despised 
fire : Dido, that she might not be compelled to marry after 
the loss of a most beloved husband : the wife of Asdrubal 
too, who, while Carthage was now burning, when she saw 
her ow^n husband a suppliant before Scipio, rushed with her 
children into the flames of her native city^. Pegulus, a 
general of the Romans, taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, 
when he would not have his single self ransomed at the price 
of many Carthaginian prisoners, preferred being given back 
to the enemy, and being crammed into a sort of chest, and 



• Cypr.de Laps.c. 10. p. 161. Oxf. Tr. Peregr.) who says, that he imposed on 
ad Demetr. e. 6. p. 207. the Christians, as though he were one, 

^ not led and upheld by the Holy Spirit, and was largely relieved by them, being 

" to avoid the sufferings of a dropsy, cast into prison, as such : his death is 

Laert. in vit. mentioned by Athenag. §. 26. Aram. 

^ To be accounted a god. Laert. in vit. Marc. 1. c. 

* A Cynic philosopher, praised by / A. 165. Basnage in Anno, §. 4. 
Aul. Gell. (xii. 1 1 .) Amm. Marc. (xxix. p. 126. 

1.) ridiculed by Lucian, (de Mort. "^ Val. Max. 3. 2. Flor. 2. 15. 



156 Tortures endured for earthly glory or mere display; 

Ad pierced on every side with nails from without, experienced 
IV. 5, ^o many crucifixions. A woman hath of her own will 
eagerly encountered beasts, yea even asps, reptiles more 
horrid than the bull or the bear, which Cleopatra set upon 
herself, that she might not come into the hands of the enemy. 
But the fear of death is not so great as that of tortures ! 
And so^ the Athenian harlot yielded to the executioner, 
who, being privy to a conspiracy, when on that account she 
was put to the torture by the tyrant, did not betray the 
conspirators, and at last having bitten off her tongue '' spat it 
in the tyrant's face, that the torturers might know that they 
availed nothing, even though they should persist yet farther ! 
Moreover, that which is at this day the chief solemnity 
among the Lacedaemonians, the duxixaa-rlycocng, that is the 
scourging, is not unknown: in which solemn ceremony all 
the noble youths are lashed with scourges before the altar'', 
their parents and kinsfolk standing by and exhorting them to 
endure to the end. For it will be accounted a grace and a glory 
of an higher character in truth, if the soul rather than the 
body yield itself to scourgings. Wherefore if earthly glory 
hath so great power over the strength of body and mind, 
that men despise the sword, the fire, the cross, the beasts, 
the tortures, for the reward of the praise of men, 1 may say, 
these sufferings are trifling in the gaining of heavenly glory 
and a divine reward ! Is the glass bead of such value .? of 
Mat. 13, how much the real pearVK Vvlio then is not bound to spend 
most willingly for that which is true, as much as others do 
for that which is false } 

V. I pass over for the moment, the motive of glory. All 
these same conflicts of cruelty and torture even mere display^ 
among men, and a sort of disease of the mind, hath ere now 
trampled on. How many idlers doth a display of feats hire 
to the service of the sword ! Verily they go down even to 
the beasts from display, and seem to themselves more comely 

* Ironical. Tr. Rig. inserts an in- margaritum ! as in Pam. 

terrogation," Did then &c.?" Latinius « Affectatio, i.e. not human glory 

and Junius needlessly alter the text, only, though vain, hut the mere 

inserting " non." semblance and spurious imitation of it ; 

*> Apol. c. 50. and that in the sight of, and animated 

^ of Diana Orthia. Plutarch, de by the presence of, men, whereas Chris- 

Lacon. Instt. c. 4. et al. ap. Lac. tians acted under the eye of God. 

«l Tanti vitreum? quanti verum 



will be a luitness afjainst faint-hearted— -suffering^ lot of man. 157 

from their bites and their scars. Some also have ere now 
hired themselves to the flames, to run over a certain space of 
ground in a burning shirt ^. Others have walked with most 
enduring shoulders amidst the lashes of the hunters. These VI. 
things, blessed men, the Lord hath suffered to come into the 
world, not without a cause : but both for our encouragement 
now', and for our confusion in that Day, if we shall be' nunc 
afraid to suffer for the Truth's sake unto salvation those o^^iinj" 
things, which others have made a display of suffering for '^» ^* 
vanity's sake unto perdition. 

But let us pass over these examples of constancy arising from 
mere display. Let us turn to the actual contemplation of the 
condition of man, that those things too may instruct us, whatever 
they be, which, accustomed to befall men even against their 
will, must be endured with constancy. For how often have the 
flames burned men alive ! tlow often have wild beasts, both 
in their own woods and in the middle of cities, having 
escaped from their dens, devoured men ! How many have 
been slain by robbers with the sword, and by their enemies 
even on the cross, having first been tortured, yea and having 
received, in full, every sort of indignity 1 There is no one 
who may not suffer even for the sake of man, what he 
scrupleth to suffer in the cause of God. For this let even the 
present times be a proof to us, how^ many persons, and of what 
quality, meet with deaths not to be expected either from 
their birth, or their rank, or their persons, or their age, for 
the sake of man^, either from himself, if they act against him, 
or from his enemies, if they take part with him. 

' The tunica molesta, one of the c. 12, " After ha\ang slain numberless 

punishments of Christians. Martial, x. persons on the side of Albinus, among 

25. Juvenal, i. 155 sqq. Tac. Ann. whom were many chiefs in the state, 

XV. 44. many women of rank, all their goods 

e Severus, in and after the con- were confiscated — then many nobles of 

spiracy of Albinus. Spartian. in vit. the Spaniards and Sualli were slain." 



158 Occasion of the Treatise, 



OF THE CROWN. 



[The " de Corona" was written probably A.D. 201, when Severus gave a 
" very large donative to his soldiers, the whole booty of Ctesiphon," on 
occasion of their saluting his son Caracalla as Augustus, and Geta as Caesar. 
Spartian in Severe, c. 16. Of two other liberalities of Severus, the first, A. 198, 
was to the people, (see Notice on Apol.) the last, A. 202, was an increase of 
pay, not a largess, Spart. 1. c. The date A. 201 of this largess is obtained, 
1. From Eusebius, who places the victories over the Parthians, A. 200 ; 
(Chron. 1. 2.) but Ctesiphon was taken at the approach of winter, (Spart. 1. c.) 
and so at the end of that year. 2. Caracalla was then in his thirteenth year, 
(Spart. 1. c.) but he was killed after six years' reign, A. 217, aged 29. (Dio 
Cass. 1. 77.) 3. A Coin, A. 200, 1. gives Severus the title Parthicus Max., one 
A. 201, 2. exhibits Caracalla as Augustus, Geta as Csesar. See Lumper, 1. c. 
c. 2. Art. ii. §. 1. and Art. i. $. 5. It is probably the earliest treatise containing 
any trace of Montanism, see c. 1. The mention of the " long peace" which 
Christians had enjoyed, (c. 1.) may be accounted for, in that the scene lay 
not in Africa but in the East.] 



De I. It came to pass the other day, the bounty of the most 
y"j' illustrious Emperors» was being paid off at the camp. The 
soldiers were coming up wearing their laurel crowns. A 
certain man there, more the soldier of God, more firm of 
purpose, than the rest of his brethren who had presumed 
that they could serve tico masters, stood conspicuous, his 
single head untrammelled, his crown hanging idle in his hand, 
the Christian being already, by this very ordering of himself, 
proclaimed. Every man began to point at him ; the distant 
•eludereto mock', the near to gnash their teeth upon him. The 
om. et i-nm'jjiur reacheth the ears of the Tribune, and the person had 
now quitted his place. Immediately the Tribune saith, '' Why 
so different from the rest in thy dress .?" He answered that 
he might not act with the rest. Being asked his reasons, he 
answered, * I am a Christian.' O ' soldier boastful *" of God ! 
Straightway the votes were taken, and the business re- 

* Severus and Caracalla; see above, *> Alluding to the title of a play of 
Notice. Plautus, Miles gloriosus. 



Current complaints — dread of persecution. 159 

manded*=, and the accused sent for trial before the Prefects. 
On the spot he laid down the cloak, wherewith he was so 
heavy laden, now beginning to receive his rest: heMat. ii, 
put off his shoe'^, so troublesome, fro?n his feet, now^^* 
beginning to stand upon holy ^ ground: he delivered up\sanctJB 
the sword, not needed even for the defence of the Lord: the^\jat,2Gi 
laurel crown fell even from his hand: and now, his robe ^2- 
empurpled with the earnest expectation of his own blood, his 
feet sliod with the preparation of the Gospel, girt with theEph. 6, 
sharper word of God, his whole armour put on according to jj^i^ 4 
the Apostle, and looking for a better crown, in the white rohe 12. 
of martyrdom, he awaiteth in his prison the free gift ® of {^^ ' ' 
Christ. Opinions were then pronounced upon him, (whether 
those of Christians I know not, for none other are those of 
Heathens,) as though he had been headlong, and hasty, and 
too eager to die, in that, because questioned touching his 
dress, he brought trouble upon the Christian name. As 
though he alone were brave ; among so many brethren and 
fellow-soldiers alone a Christian ! Clearly nothing remains 
but that those intend to refuse martyrdom also, who have 
rejected the prophecies ^ of the same Holy Spirit. Finally 
they murmur that so long and happy a peace hath been 
endangered ; and I doubt not that some are removing their 
Scriptures, making ready their baggage, preparing to flee Mat. V), 
from one city to another; for they care not to remember ^*^- 
any other part of the Gospel. I know their shepherds also : 
lions in peace, stags in fight ^. But on the questions re- 

* Older Edd. " apud Acta" " was set by Praxeas, when he recalled them, 

down in the public Acts, documents." (adv. Prax. c. 1.) The Montanists were 

^ Speculate riam, the heavy military excommunicated by a Council of 

boot. Hierapolis, under S. Apollinarius with 

^ Lit. the donative ; the bounty of twenty-six other Bishops ; (Cone. t. i. 

Christ for that of the Emperors. p. 599.) the martyrs of Lyons wrote 

f Those of Montanus, de Fug. in warnings against them to the Bishop of 

Pers. c. 1. Eome,[Eleutherus,]andtotheChristians 

& Baronius A. 173. supposes Victor, in Asia, (Eus. v. 3.) Serapion, Bishop 

Bp. of Rome, to be intended. But of Antioch, also sent (apparently a 

Victor took no prominent part against synodical) Epistle against them, in 

the Montanists ; on the contrary, he which there were the subscriptions of 

sided with them against the Asiatic several other Bishops; among them, 

Bishops, whose communion he had one of Thrace. (Eus. H. E. v. 19.) see 

renounced, about the keeping of Easter, Tillemont, H. E, Art. Montanists, Art. 

acknowledged the prophecies of Mon- 2 — 4. t. ii. p. 193 sqq. The Church 

tanus, Prisca, Maximilla, communi- then, having thus generally declared 

cated with them, giving them letters against the Montanists, this taunt is 

of peace, until he was better informed probably directed against the Bishops 



160 Grounds of Church* s practice to he sought, while obeyinr/ it. 

De specting the avowal of our Faith I shall sj^eak in another 

V. 2.' place '' : on this occasion, inasmuch as they advance this 

objection also, ^ Where are we forbidden to wear crow^ns ?' 

I shall attack this " where ;"-the more specific shape of the 

present question,-that both those, who ask it from the anxiety 

of ignorance, may be instructed, and those, who argue it 

in excuse of the sin, may «be refuted, (and that especially 

by this very man's example',) — laurel-crowned Christians 

' quibus w^hom this question serveth to sooth ^ as though that may be 

tium thought to be either no sin, or a doubtful one, which admitteth 

quaestio of a question. But that it is neither no sin, nor a doubtful 

est i: ' 

one, I shall now^ in the meanwdiile shew. 

II. I say that no believer allow'eth a crown upon his 
head^ at any other time, except the time of this sort 
of temptation. All observe this rule from their novitiate 
up to their confession and martyrdom, or their apostasy. 
Whence the authority for this rule, which is now" made the 
chief question, is for thee to look to. Moreover, when it is 
made a question why a thing is observed, it is meanwdiile 
granted that it is observed. Wherefore that cannot be 
thought to be no sin, or no certain sin, which is committed 
against a rule, w^hich, as such, ought to be maintained for its 
own sake, and is sufficiently authorized by the support of 
2 Plane ; general consent. Doubtless; yet in such wise ^, of course, 
Jt ^g"'^" that the reason may be enquired into*^! — yes, but without 
stored hindrance of its observance, and not to overthrow, but 
rather to build it up, in order that thou mayest the more 
observe it, when thou art easy even w4th respect to the 
reason of it. But what sort of thing is it for a man then to 
call the observance of the rule into question, when he hath 
abandoned it, and to ask why he is bound to the observance, 
when he hath ceased from it } since although he may wdsh it 

generally, on the ground of their with- j Apol. c. 42. 

drawing in persecution, when their ^ Plane ; sic tamen ut ratio qnse- 

lives alone were sought. See S. Cypr. renda sit ; sed salva observatione ; the 

de Laps. c. 8. p. 159. Oxf. Tr. not. g. words Plane; sic tamen &c. seaii to be 

*■ Scorpiace. those of an opponent ; T. " You must 

' ipsius vel maxime exemplo from obey what general consent establishes." 

Cod. Gorz. Rig. (from Cod. Ag.) has 0pp. " But that does not preclude en- 

ipsi vel maxime Christian!, " very spe- quiry." T. " Provided you enquire, while 

cially the laurel-crowned Christians;" obeying, not when you have ceased to 

it is difficult to decide whether A. has obey." 
taken from, or G. added to, the text. 



Actions Jiot prohibited in H. Scr., are not therefore pcnnitted. 161 

to be thought that he therefore calleth it in question, that he 
may shew that he hath not done wrong in ceasing to observe 
it, yet nevertheless he sheweth that he did wrong before, in 
taking upon himself to observe it. For if he hath not done 
wrong in wearing the crown to-day, he hath at some time 
done wrong in refusing ii. And therefore this treatise is not 
for them, to whom the question doth not belong, but for 
those who, from a desire to learn, proffer the question, not to 
dispute it, but to ask advice upon it. For the question on 
this point is endless, and I commend the faith which 
believeth^ that the rule ought to be observed, before it hath' credit 
learned why'. It is easy moreover to ask on the instant 
where it is written that we may not be crowned. But where 
is it written that we may be crowned } for they who demand 
the support of Scripture on the other side, already judge 
that their own side also ought to have the support of 
Scripture. For if it shall be said that we may be crowned 
because Scripture forbiddeth it not, it may be equally 
retorted that we may not be crowned, because Scripture 
commandeth it not". What shall Religion do .? shall it 
admit both, because neither is forbidden } or refuse both, 
because neither is commanded .? But (thou wilt say) that 
which is not forbidden is freely permitted. Nay, but that is 
forbidden, which is not freely permitted. 

III. And how long shall we go on, sawing backwards and 
fonvards upon this line, when we have an old established 
observance, which, in preventing the question, hath decided 
it ? If no Scripture hath determined this, assuredly custom 
hath confirmed it, which, doubtless, hath been derived from 
tradition ", For how can a thing be used unless it be first 
delivered to us ? But, thou sayest, even where tradition is 
pleaded, written authority ought to be required. Wherefore 
let us enquire w^hether none, save a written tradition, ought 

1 according to the words Nisi credi- permission will, to a dutiful mind, be 

deritis, non intelligetis. Is. 7,9. LXX. decisive against it. 
adv. Marc. iv. 21. 25. 27. v. 11. Cypr. " " First of all, which is of greatest 

Test. i. 5. iii. 42. moment in things of this sort, the 

*" S. Basil uses the same argument practice amongst us, which we can 

against the marriage of a wife's sister; produce, hath the form of law, because 

(Ep. 160. ad Diodor.) and it seems, on our rules have been handed down to us 

the ground, that if an action be in any by holy men." Basil. 1. c. 
wise doubtful, the absence of positive 

M 



162 



Enumerations of unwritten traditions. 



De 
Cor. 
V. 3. 



to be received". Certainly we shall deny that it ought to be 
received, if there be no precedents to determine the contrary 
in other observances, which, without any Scripture document, 
we defend on the ground of tradition alone, and by the supports 
of consequent custom. In fact, to begin with Baptism, when 
we are about to come to the water, in the same place, but at a 
somewhat earlier time'', we do in the Church testify, under 
the hand of a chief minister, that we renounce the Devil and 



** The duty of observing ecclesiastical 
ordinances, (the reason of which is not 
apparent,) because transmitted, is stated 
by Orig. Horn. 5. in Num. §. 1. S. 
Jerome, (adv. Lucif. §. 8.) adopts the 
instances and even the words of Tert. 
S. Basil has a like enumeration, in sup- 
port of the traditional doxology, " To 
the Father — ivith the Holy Spirit," to 
which the heretics objected, (de Sp. S. 
c. 27.) S. Cyprian, Ep. 63. [Fell and 
Pam.] ad Csecil. init. contends that 
the older universal and Divine tradition 
[in mingling water with the wine in 
the Holy Eucharist] is to be retained 
against the " human and novel." S. 
Augustine (Ep. 54. ad Januar. init.) 
declares the rites received by the uni- 
versal Church to be binding, as being 
Apostolic or having the authority of 
CEcumenieal Councils ; (de Bapt. c. Don. 
ii. 7. §. 12. iv. 24. init. add v. 23.) that 
things, neither mentioned in Scripture 
nor Councils, but universally received, 
were accounted Apostolic ; (ib. iv. 6. 
§. 9.) that what those of older date 
knew not to have been introduced by 
those subsequent to the Apostles, was 
Apostolic ; (de Unit. Feci. c. 22. §. 63.) 
that where Scripture was silent, the 
universal Church was to be obeyed, as 
being accredited by the Lord Christ; 
(c. (Jresc. Don. i. 33.) that a practice 
so supported had the authority of 
Scripture. The traditions for which 
this authority is claimed are, 1. primi- 
tive, 2. universal ; not modern, nor of 
a branch of a Church, as those of 
Home. When traditions vary, S. 
Augustine, (Ep. 54.) on the authority 
of S. Ambrose, and S. Jerome, (Ep. 71. 
ad Lucian. v. fin.) lay down that those 
of the local ('hurch are to be observed. 
P The renouncing of Satan is part 
of the service for making Catechumens 
in the Gelasian Liturgy, (Assem. Cod. 
Lit. i. 17.) and it is there marked that 
an interval was to take place before 



Baptism was to be bestowed; in another 
form, (ib. p. 21.) this is not marked. 
There is a trace of the same separation 
in the Gellone Sacramentary, (ib. ii. 
53.) Rheims, (ii. 58.) It is equally 
part of the same service in the Gre- 
gorian, (ib. p. 22.) although this la 
directly united with the Baptismal 
Servace. In the Greek Liturgy it also 
occurs in the Service for Catechu- 
mens, (ib. p. 114. and 137, 8.) which 
was originally distinct but is also joined 
on to the Baptismal. (It is so adapted 
in a MS. quoted ib. ii. 129.) Also in 
the Coptic, (ib. 158.) Armenian, (i. 172. 
add ii. 2(T3.) in the revised Syriac, 
(i. 237. which is used as introductory 
to the Antiochene and Jerusalem 
Baptismal liturgies, ii. 214. note 1.) 
and the Apostolic translated from the 
Greek by James of Edessa, (i. 250.) 
All these are now practically joined on 
to the Baptismal service, (see Coptic, 
ii. 150. Armen. ii. 194. Syr. ii. 214 and 
226. Apostolic by Severns, ii. 280.) since 
none are now admitted as Catechumens. 
Hence in the old Galilean, ib. ii. 39. 
42. Jerus. Syriac, for Infants, (ii. 251.) 
in the Roman Office for Infants by 
Paul V. (as in our own,) it is inserted 
in the Baptismal office; (ib. ii. 17.) in 
theirs for Adults, it remains as part of 
the service of Catechumens, though 
blended in one with the Baptismal, (ib. 
p. 22.) In the Malabar, (as there 
given,) it is not specified, although 
referred to in a prayer, (i. 183.) Bing- 
ham, however, (11. 7- 1.) speaks of this 
statement as something peculiar to 
Tertullian, and in the de Spect. c. 13. 
T. says explicitly, " we who have twice 
renounced idols," (i. e. both when made 
Catechumens, and when about to be 
baptized.) In S, Cyril. Jer. Lect. 19. 
Myst. 1. the Renunciation is spoken 
of as having taken place at the 
Baptism. 



Unwritten traditions universally observed in Baptism. 163 

his pomp and his angels^. Then are we thrice' dipped, 
pledging ourselves to something more than the Lord hath 
prescribed in the GospeP : then, some undertaking the 
charge of us', we first taste a mixture of honey and milk", 
and from that day we abstain for a whole week from our 
daily washing. The Sacrament of the Eucharist, commanded 



^ Tertullian repeats this form of 
Renunciation, de Idol. c. 6. and de 
Spect. c. 4. and refers to it de Cult. 
Fein. i. 2. The " angels" of Satan 
are also renounced in the Greek 
liturgy, " I renounce Satan and all 
his works, and all his service, and all 
his angels, and all his pomp; (Ass. i. 
114. 137, 8.) and in a different order 
Constt. Ap. Tii. 41. " I renounce 
Satan, and his works, and his pomps, 
and his services, and his Angels, and 
his inventions, and all which are under 
him;" in the Coptic, " I renounce thee, 
Satan, and all thy unclean works, and 
all thy wicked daemons, and thy evil 
ministers, and all thy might, and thy 
defiled service, and all thy malicious 
crafts and seductions, and all thy armj^, 
and all thy power, and all other thy im- 
pieties; (ib. 158.) in the Armenian, 
" We renounce thee, Satan, and all 
thy crafts, and all thy snares, and thy 
ministers, and thy angels, and thy 
steps ;" (ib. 172. and ii. 203.) and in 
the Apostolic Syriac, " I, N. who am 
to be baptized, renounce Satan, and all 
his hosts, and all his works, and all his 
doings, and all his might, and all his 
worldly error, and all those who follow 
him and his vile counsels," (ib. i. 
250, 1.) and the revised Syriac, (Ass. 
1. 237.) also in S. Basil de Sp. S. c. 27. 
where the renunciation of the Devil and 
his angels is instanced as an unwritten 
tradition. They are omitted by S. Cyril 
of Jerusalem, (Lect. 19. Myst. 1.) 
Chrys. Catech. ad Ilium, ii. §. 4. 5. 
t. ii. p. 242, 3. The Gelasian and 
Gregorian yet briefer, " Dost thou 
renounce Satan ? I renounce. And all 
his works? I renounce. And all his 
pomps ? I renounce." (i. 17. 21. 22.) 
add Gellone(ii.52.57.) Chelles, (ii. G2.) 
In the Malabar, (i. 183.) " renouncing 
Satan and all his works." Old Gallican, 
(ii. 39.) " Dost thou renounce Satan, 
the pomps of the world, and the 
pleasures of the flesh," or ii. 42. 
" Satan, his pomps, his luxuries, this 
world?" Ambrosian, (ii. 44.) " Dost 



M 'Z 



thou renounce the Devil? I renounce. 
Dost thou renounce the world and its 
pomps ? I renounce." 

»■ Adv. Prax. e. 26. Can. A p. 49. 
Basil de Sp. S. c. 27. Ambr. de Sacr. ii. 
7 and 21. Jerome adv. Lueif. c. 8. Greg. 
Nyss. de Bapt. Christi, t. iii. p. 372. 
Cyril Jer. Cat. Myst. ii. 4. Leo Ep. 4. 
ad Episc. Sic. c. 3. Gelasian Sacra- 
mentary. Ass. ii. 5. 7. Gregorian, (ib. 
9.) Ambrosian, ii. 46. Gellone, (ii. 54.) 
Rheims, (ii. 59.) Chelles, (ii. QS.) S. 
Germain des Pres, (ii. GQ.) Moisac (ii. 
68.)Gladbach.dioc. Coln.(ii.72.)Pontif. 
Apam. Syr. (ii. 7Q.) Lodi Ital. (ii. 78.) 
Vienne, (ii. 81.) Limoges, (ii. 83, 87.) 
Old Rom. altered, (ii. 91.) Greek, (ii. 
145.) Coptic, (ii. 180.) Armenian, (ii. 
200.) Malabar, (ii. 212.) Antioch and 
Jerus. (ii. 225.) Jerus. (ii. 236.) abridged 
form by Severus, (ii. 304.) La Cerda 
says that " this tradition is continued 
among the Greeks, but among the 
Latins almost disused, for they are 
mostly content with single immersion." 
This, however, must be individual 
neglect, for the ti'ine immersion is pre- 
scribed in the ritual of Paul V. ; (ii. 17.) 
only, in case of emergency, single is 
allowed, (ii. 19.) 

' the whole Creed, not the single 
confession of the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost. Matt. 28, 19. 

t suscepti, received by the susceptores, 
God-parents; the word " suscipere" 
being used first of the adoption on the 
natural birth, then, by analogy, on the 
spiritual. 

u Jerome adv. Lucif. c. 8. adding to 
Tertullian's words, "to signify infancy." 
Tert. says, adv. Marc. i. 14. that the 
Marcionites retained the practice. 
It is mentioned by Clem. Al. Padag. 
i. 6. They were placed on the altar on 
Easter Eve, Cone. Carth. 3. can. 24. 
and consecrated v/ith a peculiar bene- 
diction, (see Bingham 12. 4. 6.) and in 
the Ordo Romanus in Sabb. Pascha;. 
In Syn. Trull. Can. 57. it is forbidden 
to place them on the Altar, which 
implies the continuance of the custom. 



164 Traditions on the Holy Eucharist, fastinr/^ postures of prayer, 

T'E by the Lord at the time of supper, and to all, we receive 
V. 3' even at our meetings before dav-break^, and from the hands 



Mat. 26, of no others than the heads •' of the Church. We offer, on one 
^^' day every year, oblations^ for the dead as birth-day^ honours. 
On the Lord's day we account it unlawful to fast or to 
worship upon the knees ^. We enjoy the same freedom from 
Easter Day even unto Pentecost*^. We feel pained if any of 
the wine, or even of our bread "^, be spilled upon the ground. 



* Apol. 2. and on c. 39. Cypr. ep. 
63. [Fell and Pam.] ad Csecil. fin. 
S. Aug. speaks of the rite of receiving 
the Eucharist fasting, as universal. Ep. 
54. ad Januar. c. 6. and =0 implied hv 
S. Chrys. Horn. 27 in 1 Cor. Ep. 125. ad 
Cyriac. It is prescribed in ihe third 
Council of Carthage, Can. 29. S. Greg. 
Naz. Or. 40. de Bapt. speaks as Tert. 
see further Bingham. 15. 7. S. 

y Apol c. 39. 

* The Eucharistic oblation, for the 
enlargement of their bliss, deliverance 
from hell, that they may att^iin to the 
resurrection, have a merciful judgment 
at the last day, not for their deliverance 
from purgatory, for they were held to 
be at rest. '' this oblation, which we 
humbly offer unto Thee for the com- 
memoration of the souls that sleep in 
peace, we beseech Thee, O Lord, 
receive graciously : and of Thy good- 
ness, grant that both the affection of 
this piety may profit us. and obtain for 
them everlasting bliss," Offic. Greg. 
0pp. t. 5. col. 235, 6. ed. Par. 1605. 
and (Sacr. Greg. p. 227. ed. Menard.) 
'' For them, O Lord, and for all who 
are at rest in Christ, we pray for a place 
of refreshment, and the gracious grant 
of light and peace.' See at length 
Abp. Usher, Answer to Challenge of a 
Jesuit, c. 7. in Tracts for the Times, 
No. 72. Even in the Roman ^lissal, in 
the Missa pro defunctis, the prayers are 
for '' attaining to everlasting rest," 
" that they be not delivered into the 
hands of the Enemy, not forgotten for 
ever, not suffer eternal punishment, but 
obtain everlasting joy,'" '"' escape the 
judgment of vengeance, and enjoy the 
bliss of everlasting light." '' obtain for- 
giveness and eternal life,*" or '• refresh- 
ment.-?," " a sha-^e with the saints and 
the elect, and the perpetual dew of 
Thy mercy," " that if any spot of 
earthly contagion cleave to them, it be 
effaced by the mercy of Thy remission,'" 
" that they be p'aced in the bosom of 



Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob, that when 
the day of Thy appearing cometh. 
Thou may est command them to be 
raised among Thy saints and elect,"' 
'■ that by Thy mercy, they may receive 
an everlasting participation of Him in 
"\^'hom they hoped and believed." *' that 
God would give them their reward,'' 
" make them partakers of eternal bliss 
in the congregation of the righteous ;" 
'• Absolve the soul of Thy servant from 
every bond of sin. that, raised to life 
among Thy saints and elect, he may 
have refreshment in the glory of the 
resurrection,"' " that to those to whom 
Thou hast given the merit of Christian 
Faith. Thou wouldest give also a 
reward.*" To 63 such prayers, which 
have no aUusion to purgatory, but 
when they refer to punishment, pray 
against that of hell, has been joined 
one only. praA-ing the Blessed Tir- 
gin, that her '• compa.=?ion may aid 
those languishing in purgatory, -who 
are purged by exceeding heat, and 
tormented without remedy." Its rhyth- 
mical character in itself marts its 
modern date ; it ends, " Blessed 
through thy merits, we pray thee, raise 
the dead, and forgiving their debts, be 
to them the way to rest,*' In the 
Koman Breviary also, the only prayer 
against suffering in the *' Officium 
Defunctorum," is, '' From the gates 
of hell, O Lord, reserve their souls.*' 

* the dav of their departure from this 
life, see Bingh. 20. 7. 2. 

^ Iren. in Qusestt. ad Orth. q. 115. 
Jerome adv. Lucif., Prol. Comm. in 
Eph. Aug. Ep. 119. ad Januar. c. 15. 
17. Bingham 13. 8. 3. 

c as one continued festival of the 
resurrection, Iren. 1. c. Hil. Prsef. in 
Ps. Aug. 1. c. Bingham 1. c. 

d The consecrated elements, as in 
the Lord's prayer " our daily bread." 
Komanists (Rhen. Pam. La C.) ex- 
plain it of common food, which 
was treated reverentlv, as a sort 



d^ Ckm^-'Jiacs mb9 hoi mtAtr^aiim twm£iimts. 165 



In all our tm^ds mad nmrementSyin all our condngin and 
ffKMMg oat, in putting on oar shoes, aft the batb, aft the table, 
in hgliting oar candles, in bring donn, in sitting down, 
whai^ver emplojwmeat occnpieth ns, we niaik oor forehead 
with ihe sign* of fthe cross'. 

TV. For these and socli like roles if tiioa leqoirest a law 
in the Scxiptmes, ihaa £halt find none. 'Rrafitian will be 
^eaded to thee as originating tihesi, cnston as oonfiming 
tiieni, and &idi as observing diem. Tliaft reason will sopport 
tEa£tian, and costom, and iti&y thou wilt either thrsctf 
poceive, or leain fioaa some odg wlio hath peic^Ted it. 
Meanwhile thou wilt believe that scnne leasm there is, to 
wiii<^ submir^i -«D ir^ doe. I will add jet one eTampIp^ if it 
be fiidi:^ . by exam^^ of the c^den tinies also. 

An 7 n the head ftithear women is so 

V- . .. _. .„--. .; -- iher may be disdngnished. I 

- a \rriiten law for this. The ATXXstle I lav for the i cm. 
ofthec liebdiddher"-^ 

i]. --:.-. distance, ...^ _:r her inAiidual 

modesty could notmake this law. ; : her own case : 

' Let virgins al(»e be ooTened, ai-.. ._ .. rn thej come to 
be manied, and not b^re Tney - . _l t : >:^aases.' If 

also, in unTeili::^ . : _isheth anstt.33. 

fiw wearing il :- .:»a the 

Tcil was of her own ci. ..:. ^-^ . — - — -^ ^censed 
woman, blodbing lor the dishonour cast upon her, with good 
cause hiding her beauty, or : - now afraid of ple a sing . 

Bat in her husband's walks 1 . ' iliink a woman who 

attracted a dmir ers conld have ■ riled. Be it now 

tiiat she was always vf sc». or in any 

other, Idemand the wri;;.!. -._ - - r-^- IfTno 

whoe find soch andiority. it followeth '^ 

given this rule to castor: e ihe 

authority of an .Apostle. — - — - — - -on erf 



tf sne «f die TMtHiiC ^ S^ea. xm. 3Sw p. 161. ei- Oxf. (a _ 

II II iilBlii fciiiftiiira liirr ilriwi %. 9. lita bw FmL » 7. A^g. 

< « ii^lTi^. '^iiBTii^ ^ «i& Ae Tr. 11& i» Mk. fia. is Ps. aft. |. L 

aeai."'B(er.^TLS.ix.4, P&.141.§.9. 

* See «■ Ctt. JerasuiT. IX p. 4^. 



166 Customs^ civile religious, written or no, based on reason,from God. 

De reason ^ By these examples therefore it will be declared, 
Y ^ that even an unwritten tradition may be maintained in its 



observance, being confirmed by custom, a sufficient witness 
of a tradition at the time approved by the continuance of the 
observance^. But even in civil matters custom is taken for 
law, where there is no law\- nor is there any difference 
whether it be founded on any writing or on reason, since it 
is reason which commandeth even written authority*. 
Moreover if law be founded in reason, then will all 
that is founded in reason, by whomsoever first brought 
forward^ be law^ Dost thou not think that any believer 
may have the power to conceive and to establish a 
thing, so it be agreeable to God, conducive to true Religion, 

Luke 12, profitable to salvation, when the Lord saith, Aiid why even 
of yourselves judge ye not ivhat is right ? and this not as 
touching judgment only, but every opinion also on things 

Phil. 3, coming under examination. So also saith the Apostle : If 
ill any thing ye he ignorant, God shall reveal it unto you ; 
he himself having been accustomed to supply counsel, when 

1 Cor. 7, he had no commandment of the Lord, and to ordain certain 

2o 17 

^\q' things of himself, yet himself also having the Spirit of God, 
John 16, That guideth into all truth* Wherefore his counsel and his 
ordinance have now obtained the likeness of a Divine 
command, because supported by the reason which cometh 
of God'. Question now this reason, saving however thy 
respect for tradition, from whomsoever dated as having 
delivered it: and regard not the author, but the authority, 
and chiefly that of custom itself, which ought for this cause 
to be respected, because it may be the witness of reason : so 
that if it be God, Who hath given reason also, thou 
mayest learn, not, whether the custom ought to be observed 

^ i.e. himself appealing to the ground as in Divine law, of the Divine Mind, 

of the custom in reason, which made it and not cognizable always by men, or 

a law of nature. in human reason, as far as it is sound, 

8 i. e. the Church, by continuing the derived from the Divine. 
custom, attests its approval of the ^ as having its authority in itself, 

tradition, whence the custom is derived, independent of the accidents which 

h Common law. Ulp, 1. xxxiii. de elicited it. 
leg. ap. Her. Digr. ii. 3. <' ancient • i. e. being guided by the Spirit of 

custom is wont to be observed as law God, to see the reasons in the Divine 

and right in those things, which come Mind, which gave a fitness to these 

not down in written law." things, his counsel became, as it w^ere, 

• » i. e. all good law, written or un- a transcript of the Divine Mind, and so 

written, Divine or human, is founded a command of God. 
jn some principle or reason, whether, 



Use ofchaplets contrary to nature, as not adapted to its organs. 167 

by thee, but why the reason of Christian observances 
becometh greater than that of others, seeing that even nature, 
which is the first rule of all, defendeth them ■". 

V. And therefore it is this which first prescribeth that a 
crown is not meet for the head. But methinks our God is 
the Lord of nature. Who formed man, and for the seeking, 
judging, and obtaining the enjoyment of things, hath disposed 
within him certain senses through those members which are 
in some sort their proper instruments. He hath formed a 
passage for hearing in the ears, hath kindled vision in the 
eyes, hath shut up taste in the mouth, hath wafted smell 
into the nostrils, hath placed touch in the extremities of the 
hands. Through these ministers of the outer man, the 
perceptions of the gifts of God are derived from the soul. 
Wherein then consisteth the enjoyment of flowers } for the 
projDer, at all events the chief, material of crowms is the 
flow^ers of the field. Either in the scent, thou sayest, or in 
the colour, or in both together. What will be the senses 
concerned with colour and scent ? sight, methinks, and 
smell. What parts of the body have these senses allotted to 
them } the eyes, if I mistake not, and the nose. Use 
therefore flowers by the sight and smell, in w^iich senses 
their enjoyment lieth : use by means of the eyes and nose 
those senses of which they are the members. The thing 
itself was given thee by God : the fashion by the world ; 
although an extraordinary fashion doth not oppose the 
ordinary use of the material. Let flowers be to thee, when 
set in a garland and bound either by thread or by rush, 
what they are when fi^ee and unconfined, — things, that is, to 
be looked at and inhaled. If perchance thou regardest a 
crow^n as a bunch of flowers gathered together in a certain 
order, in order that thou mayest carry the more at once, that 
thou mayest use all together, then stick them in thy bosom, 
if such be their neatness ; strew them on thy bed, if such be 
their delicacy ; commit them to thy cup", if such be their 
harmlessness. Enjoy them in as many ways as thou hast 

™ i. e. holding fast the tradition, " which was encircled with them, 

examine into its principles, not as the de Res. Carn.c. 16, &c. hence the phrase 

ground of its observance, but to see its " coronas bibere," see Hoffm. v. Flos. 

wisdom, as founded in nature itself, and Plin. xxi. 3. ib. where Cleopatra 

which when, as in Christianity, purified tinges the tips of the flowers with 

from error, is the gift of God. poison. 



168 St Paul refers to law of nature; safeguard against its corruption» 

senses. But what savour is there in the flower, what per- 
ception of the crown (except only as a bandage) on the head, 
whereby colour is not perceived", nor scent inhaled, nor 
softness commended ? It is as much against nature to follow 
after flowers by the head, as to follow after food by the ear, 
sound by the nose. But every thing which is against nature, 
deserveth to be noted as a monstrous thing among all men ; 
but among us to be styled also sacrilege against God, the 
Lord and Author of nature. 

y I. Dost thou look then for a law from God ? thou hast 
that universal one, in the public record of the world, in 
the tables of Nature, to which even the Apostle is wont 
to appeal. As when he saith touching the veil of the 
1 Cor. woman, Doth not even nature teach you F as when he writeth 
|^« 1^- to the Romans, saying that the Gentiles do by nature the 
14. ' things contained in the laiv, and putteth them in mind that 
there is a law given by nature, and a nature which is law. 
But in the former part of this Epistle also, when he declareth 
Rom. 1, that men and women had changed amongst themselves the 
natural use of their being, into that which is against nature, 
their sin being by a just recompense turned into their punish- 
ment, he manifestly advocateth the natural use. Even God 
Himself we first begin to know by nature, both when we 
call Him tJie God of gods, and assume that He is good, and 
call upon Him as our Judge". Dost thou question whether, 
in the enjoyment of His creatures, nature ought to be our 
guide, lest we be carried away by that way, by which the 
enemy of God hath corrupted, together with man himself, the 
whole creation put in subjection to man for certain uses; 
Rom. 8, whence also the Apostle saith that it was made subject to 
vanity, not willingly^, being subverted first through vain 

n Clem. Al. Paedag. ii. 8. Minuc. F. Ixiv. 31.) GEcumenius, (ad 2 Pet. iv.) 

p. 347. Gaudentius, (Serm. 3. init. Bibl. P. v. 

° See de Test. An. c. 2. p. 948.) S. Jerome, (in Is. 24. fin. 51, 

P Comp. adv. Herm. c. 11. The 6 sqq.) Maximus Taur. (Bibl. Pat.t. vi. 

Apostle is understood to speak of a p, 48.) Ambrosiaster, (ad loc.) Auct. 

restoration of the natural creation by de Prom. Dimid. Temp. (ap. Prosper. 

5. IrentEus, (5.32. 1.) S. Hilary, (in c. 20.) the later Sedulius, (Collectanea, 
Ps. 148. §. 2.) S. Ambrose, (Prol. in ad loc. B. P. vi.p.518.) This liberation 
Expos. Ev. sec. Luc. Hexaem. i. 7. of the creature they state, according to 
§. 22. but including the human soul. Scripture, will take place through its 
Ep. 34. ad Horont.) Origen, (Hom. 4. destruction. " For good will He destroy 
in Ezek. §. 2.) S. Gregory Naz. (Orat. the world. For there will be a new 
1. in Julian, iv. 15.) S. Chrysostome, heaven, and there shall be no more 
(in loc.) Theodoret, (in loc. and Gal. night." Ambr. de Elia, c. 21. fin. §.80. 

6, 16.) Proclus ap. Epiphan. (Heer. " From which (Ps. 102, 26.) it appears 



20 



Adherence to nature, wisdom in Heathen, religion in Christians, 169 

uses, and then through such as were vile, and unrighteous, 
and ungodly ? It is thus that, as touching the pleasures of 
the shows, the creation hath been dishonoured by those, who 
by nature indeed know that all the things, wherewith the 
shows are furnished, are of God, but lack knowledge to 
understand this also, that all these things have been changed 
by the Devil '^. But on this subject, I have, for the sake of 
our play -lovers, written fully in Greek also. 

VII. Let then these advocates of crowns meanwhile 
acknowledge the authority of nature, under the name of 
common wisdom, in that they are men, but as the tokens of 
their own religion, in that they are the nearest worshippers 
of the God of nature. And so let them, as over and above, 
examine the other reasons also, which forbid crowns, and 
those of every sort, to our heads especially. For indeed we 
are now compelled to turn from the rule of nature, which all 
have in common, to maintain all the specialties of the 
Christian rule, by considering other kinds of crowns also, 
which seem to be provided for other uses, as being framed of 
other materials ; lest, because they are not made of flowers, 
the use of which nature hath pointed out, (as, for instance, 
this laurel crown of the soldiers,) they may be thought not 
liable to the prohibition of our sect, because they fall 
without the preclusive rule of Nature. I see therefore that 
we must deal more nicely and more fully with the 
question, from the first beginnings to the progress and the 



thatthe perishing of the heavens denotes in Job 3, 18.) and Gelasius i. (Tr. 3. c. 

not their utter destruction, but change Pelag. ap. Labbe Cone. t. i. p. 1248.) 

for the better," Jerome in Is. 61, 6. Origen (ad loc.) seems, in like way, to 

Comp. S. Aug. de Civ. D. xx. 16. suppose it chiefly to relate to the soul 

Chrys. ad loc. Method, de Ees. §. 32. sympathizing with the body ; but also 

S. CyrilJer. XV.2. S. Athanas., Euseb., (wherein he is followed by Sedulius, 

Prosper., Cassiodorus, in Ps. 101, 26. 1. c.) to include Angels and even Arch- 

Proclus, 1. c. and §. 32. CEcumen. 1. c. angels, in that they "fight" for us. 

Gandentius, 1. e. Greg. M. Moral, xvii. (Dan. 10.) S. Hilary (de Trin. xii. 5.) 

9. in Job 25, 24. Auct.de Prom. Dimid. and S. Cyril Alex. (Thes. xiv. 1. t. v. 

Temp. 1. c. Hesychius also, 1. v. in p. 170. ed. Par.) employ the text against 

Lev. (c. 18.) understands by " the the Arians, since the Son, if created, 

creature," the natural creation. On the must have been liable to all here spoken 

other hand, S. Augustine understands of; they must then have held all crea- 

it to be " human nature," in those tures even the highest, to be included; 

who actually, or who shall hereafter, the holy Angels are also regarded by 

believe, (Queestt. 83. qu. Q7 . Propos. de Theodoret (ad loc.) as included in the 

Ep. ad Rom. Prop. .53. in Prise, et " ivhole creation," and apparently by 

Orig. c. 8. in Ps. 125. §. 2.) in which S. Greg. Naz. 1. c. 

he is followed by Greg. M. (Mor. iv. 34. q De Spect. c. 2. 



170 Earliest account of crovms^ fabulous or historical. 

De end of the matter. For this some worldly learning will be 
y^7' necessary, for worldly things must be shewn by their own 

documents. What little I have attained unto will, I believe, 

be sufficient. If there was ever a certain Pandora, whom 
Hesiod mentions as the first of woman-kind, her's was the 
first head that was crowned by the Graces, when she 
received gifts from all the gods, whence her name Pandora. 
But to us Moses, a proj^hetic, not a poetic ^, shepherd, 
describeth the first woman Eve, as having her loins girt with 
leaves rather than her head with flowers. Pandora therefore 
there was none. But the origin of the crown is a thing to 
be ashamed of, even for its false history; yea, and it will soon 
appear, for its true one also. For of the rest^ it is known 
for certain that they were the originators or illustrators of the 
thing. Pherecydes relateth that Saturn was crowned before 
all others: Diodorus that Jupiter was, after conquering the 
Titans. The same writer giveth to Priapus also fillets for 
the head, and to Ariadne a garland of gold and Indian 
jewels, the work of Vulcan, the gift of Bacchus, and after- 
wards a constellation. Callimaclms hath put the vine- 
branch upon Juno. So also her statue at Argos, crowned 
with vine-leaves, with the skin of a lion placed beneath its 
feet, displayeth the step-mother boasting over the spoils of 
both her step-sons ^ Hercules carrieth on his head the 
leaves sometimes of the poplar % sometimes of the wild 
olive', sometimes of parsley". Thou hast the tragedy of 
Cerberus : thou hast Pindar : and Callimachus, who relateth 
that Apollo also, after killing the serpent at Delphi, put on 
a laurel crown, in that he was a suppliant; for among the 
ancients suppliants wore crowns'': Harpocration argueth that 

P Hesiod, who speaks of Pandora, " hence used at the Nemean games, 

calls himself a shepherd, Theog. init Id. xix. 8, 

so Ovid, and Dio Chrys. ap. Lac. » As an expiatory rite. Kig. rejects the 
1 cfflteros, MSS. or certos. Grsecos words " qua supplicem. Erant enim sup- 
is a conjecture of Rigaltius. The mean- plices coronarii apud veteres," against 
ing seems, " whereas the story of Pan- authority. Fur the fact, Livy, xl. 37. 
dora is a fable, as contradicted by says, on occasion of a solemn suppli- 
Scripture, it is known that ' the rest,' cation for the removal of an epidemic, 
those which follow, Saturn, &c. were " all, above twelve, became suppliants 
real men, and originated or improved (supplicabant), crowned and holding 
upon the making of garlands. laurel in their hands." Hoffmann, v. 
' Hercules and Bacchus. Corona, p. 992. says, suppliants used 
• Plin, xii. 1. crowns of myrtle. The infulaj were 
I Id. xvi. 44. crowns, which suppliants bore in their 



Connection of crowns with idolatry. 171 

Bacchus, the same who among the ^Egyptians is Osiris, is 
purposely crowned with ivy, because it is the nature of ivy 
to protect the brain ^ from stupor. But besides this, even 
the vulgar acknowledge that Bacchus is the author without 
doubt of the laurel crown, in which he triumphed after his 
Indian wars, in that they call his solemn feast days, " the 
Great Crown." If thou turnest over the writings of Leo the 
^Egyptian^ also, Isis first carried on her head the ears of 
corn, her own discovery, a thing rather pertaining to the 
belly. To those who seek for more examples, Claudius 
Saturninus, the very best commentator on this as on other 
subjects, will furnish all that can be had. For he hath 
a book upon crowns so fully treating of their origins, and 
their causes, and their varieties, and the solemnities pertain- 
ing to them, that there is not one beautiful flower, not one 
luxuriant leaf, not one sod or tendril which thou mayest not 
find consecrated to the head of some one. Whereby w^e are 
sufficiently taught, how foreign a thing from us we ought to 
consider the custom of crowning the head, first brought 
forward by those, and afterwards employed to the honour of 
those, whom the world hath believed to be gods*. For if 
the Devil, who was a liar from the beginning, doth in this John 8, 
thing also work out his lying pretensions to divinity, without 
doubt he had himself also provided those, who might 
become his agents in pretending to divinity. What then 
must be thought among the people of the true God of a 
thing, which, being introduced by the Devil's suitors, hath 
been also dedicated to the same from the beginning'', and 
which even then was initiated into the service of idolatry by 

idols, and those idols yet alive } Not as thouorh the idol i Cor. 
^ *=• 10,19. 

hands, see Hofifm, in v. Lac. also (c. 5.) that, afraid of the disclosure, he 

refers to Appianin Ibericis, where sup- bega^ed Alexander, after he had con- 

pliants are introduced, " ci'owned." veyed what he had written to his 

\ffTi(pavu<ra.fjt.ivii.) mother, to have it burnt. This book -r^oi 

y Plin. xxiv. 10. t^v fiTiri^ec is quoted by the Schol. on 

» A contemporary of Alexander, Apoilon. iv. 262. see Fabric. Bibl. Gr. 

(Aug. de Cons. Ev. i. 23.) quoted by t. vi. p. 380. who thinks him the same 

Clem. Al. Strom, i. 21. p. 139. as a as LeoPelleeus,ap. Arnob.[l,iv.p. 147.] 

writer about the Egyptian Gods; S. which is the more likely, since he too 

Aug. calls him " a priest," (de Civ. D. is quoted among authors proving the 

viii. 27. 2.) a chief priest, (ib, c. 5.) human origin of gods, 
and states that he made known to * Plin. xvi. 4. xxi. 3. 
Alexander that even the Dii majorum ^ Clem. Al. Psedag. ii. 8. 
gentium had been men. S. Aug. adds, 



172 Things abused or attributed to idols, may be used, if necessaries, 

De was any thing, but because the things, which others do unto 
Y^g' idols, pertain to devils. Moreover if the things, which 



others do unto idols, pertain to devils, how much more that 
which the idols, while yet alive, have done unto themselves ! 
In truth the devils themselves have provided for themselves 
through those, in whose persons they before hungered for 
that which they have provided. 

VIII. Do thou maintain then this belief in the mean 
time, while I sift an objection which meeteth me. For 
already I hear it said that many other things also, which 
were first brought to light by those whom the world hath 
believed to be gods, are nevertheless found in daily use, both 
among ourselves and the ancient saints, and in the things of 
God, and in Christ Himself, Who lived the life of a man, 
through no other than the common means of human life. 
Be it so by all means : nor will I enquire any farther back 
into the origin of these things. Let Mercury have been the 
first teacher of letters : I shall allow that they are necessary 
for our intercourse with the world, and in our services 
towards God. And if it be he also who tuned the strings of 
instruments to music, I must not deny, while I listen to 
David, that the saints had the same talent on their side, and 
that it ministered unto God. Let ^sculapius be the first 
that invented medicines : I remember that Esaias also pre- 
is. 38, scribed something medicinal to Hezekiah, when he was sick. 
iTim 5 ^^^ ^^^ knoweth that a little wine is profitable for the 
23. stomach. But let Minerva too be the first who built a 
ship : I cannot but see Jonah and the Apostles sailing in 
ships. And more than this — even Christ must have His 
Mat. 27. roi^ ; even Paul must have his cloak. If they name 
2 Tim. 4, some one of the gods of the world as the inventor of every 
single article of furniture, and of each particular vessel, they 
must needs remember Christ, both when He sat upon a 
couch, and when He proffereth the basin for the feet of His 
disciples, and when He poureth water therein out of a 
pitcher, and when He girdeth Himself with a linen towel, 
the very clothing proper to Osiris •=. To this sort of argu- 
ment I can answer thus : I allow indeed the common use of 

« The Egyptian Priests wore linen Schweigh. ib. 
only, Herod, ii. 37. and others ap. 



or comforts,not if vanities — no crowns in Jeioish ritual or idolatry, 173 

such implements, but demand that it shall be tested by the 
rule of distinction between things reasonable and things not 
reasonable, because this generalizing of the subject is falla- 
cious, keeping out of sight the corruption of the creature^ i^om. 8, 
whereby it is made subject to vanity. For we say, in 
a word, that those things are meet both for our own uses, and 
for those of our fathers, and for the things of God, and 
for Christ Himself, which provide mere benefits, and certain 
helps, and honourable comforts in things necessary to human 
life : so that they may be thought to have been first inspired 
by God Himself, Who first prepared provision, and in- 
struction, and, if you will, pleasure for His own creature, 
man : while the things, which transgress this line, are not 
meet for our uses, especially such things as are, for this 
reason I mean, not to be found either in the world, or in the 
things of God, or in the conversation of Christ. 

IX. Finally, what Patriarch, what Prophet, what Levite, 
or Priest, or Ruler, what Apostle in after times, or Evangelist, 
or Bishop is found to have been crowned ? Nor, methinks, 
was even the temple of God, nor the ark of the covenant, nor 
the tabernacle of the testimony, nor the altar, nor the candle- 
stick, which it would have surely been meet should be 
crowned, both in the solemnity of their first dedication, and 
next in the rejoicings at their restoration, if this had been 
worthy of God. But if they were figures of ourselves, (for 
we are both temples of God, and His altars, and lights, and lCor.3, 
vessels,) this also they foreshewed in a figure, that the men Rom. 
of God ought not to be crowned. The reality ought toj,^'^- 
answer to the image. If so be thou objectest that Christ 15. ' ' 
was crowned, to this thou shalt now hear a short answer : S'"^'/' 
^ Be thou also crowned in like manner : it is lawful for thee.' 
Nevertheless the people did not contrive even this crown of 
impious mockery. It was a device of the Roman soldiers, 
according to the custom of the world, which the people 
of God have never allowed either under the name of public 
rejoicing or of inborn luxury: that people, which returned 
fi'om the captivity in Babylon with cymbals and pipes andi<ieh.i2, 
psalteries rather than with crowns, and who after eating and ^^' 
drinking rose tip to play without crowns. For neither Ex. 32, 
the description of their rejoicing, nor the reproof of their ^' 
wantonness, would have been silent concerning either the 



174 Heathen rite of crowning dead illustrates idolatry of crowns. 

De honour or the dishonour of the crown. So also Esaias saith, 
Y 10 si7ice they drink wine with cymbals and pipes and psal- 

ls.5,\2Jeries, he would have said also ' with crowns,' if this 
custom had ever been used in the things of God. 

X. Wherefore, in alleging that the ornaments of the gods 
of this world are found to pertain also to the true God, in 
order that thou mavest claim for common use, among these 
ornaments, a crown also for the head, in this thou layest 
down a rule for thyself, that whatsoever is not found in the 
things of God must not be applied to common use. For 
what is so unworthy of God, as that which is worthy of an 
idol } and what so worthy of an idol, as that which is worthy 
also of a dead man ? for it belongeth to the dead also to be 
so crowned ^, since they themselves also immediately become 
idols, both in their dress and in the worship paid in their 
consecration, which with us is but a second sort of idolatry. 
It will be therefore the part of those, who are without sense, 
so to use that of which they have no sense, as though they 
would abuse it if they were not without sense. For when 
the real use of a thing ceaseth, from the ceasing of the 
natural sense, there is nothing between this and its abuse. 
Let any one abuse a thing as he will, when he hath not 
wherewith to use it. But for us it is not lawful to abuse 
things, according to the Apostle, who teacheth us rather not 

1 Cor.7, to use them : miless we say that they who have no sense do 
not even abuse them, but that the whole work is nothing, 
and is itself also dead as regardeth the idols, though clearly 
not dead as regardeth the daemons, to whom the superstition 

Ps. 115, appertaineth. The idols of the nations, saith David, are 
silver and gold. They have eyes^ and see not; noses, and 
smell not; hands, and handle not. For it is by these 
members that one must enjoy flowers. But if he declareth 

Ts. 115, that they that make idols shall be like unto them, then 
are they like unto them, who use any thing according to the 

Tit. 1, fashion of idols. To the pure all things are pure ; so also 
to them that are defiled all things are impure. Now nothing 
is more defiled than idols. But all substances are pure, as 
being the creatures of God, and, in this their character, meet 



^ An institution of Lycurgus, which given them, as having gone through 
offm. V. Corona. " Tlie crown was 



passed to Athens, thence to Rome, the struggle of life." Suidas ib 



Things not used in God's service^ hut in idolatry, to he avoided, 175 

for the use of all: but the application of this very use maketh 
the difference. For even I kill a fowl for myself, no less 
than Socrates did for ^sculapius : and if the savour of any 
place offendeth me, T burn something from Arabia, but not 
with the same ceremony, nor in the same dress, nor with the 
same outward show with which men deal with idols. For if 
the creature is defiled by a bare word, (as the Apostle 
teach eth. But if any man say this is offered in sacrifice to i Cor. 
idols, touch it 7iot;) much more is it defiled, when thou ' ' 
dancest in the dress, and with the ceremony and the outward 
show pertaining to things offered unto idols. Thus the 
crown also becometh a thing offered to idols ; for it is with 
this dress, and ceremony, and outward show, that the offering 
is made to the idol by those who first invented it, to whom, 
on this account especially, the use thereof properly belongeth, 
that nothing may be allowed for common use, which is not 
found in the things of God. For this reason the Apostle 
crieth out, flee from idolatry, of every kind, doubtless, and l Cor. 
altogether. Examine all the branches of the matter, and see ' ' 
how many thorns lurk therein. Nothing must be given to 
an idol; so neither must any thing be taken from an idol. 
If to sit in the idol's temple, be foreign to the faith, what is it i Cor. 
to be seen in the idol's dress ? What communion hath Christ 2'^^^' q 
with Belial? Wherefore flee therefrom. For he commandeth 15. 
that we be far separate from idolatry : in nothing must we 2 Cor. 6, 
come nigh unto it. Even an earthly serpent sucketh in men ^^* 
from a distance with its breath. John proceedeth still 
farther: Little children, saith he, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 
He saith not now, from idolatry, as from a service, but from^' ^^' 
idols, that is from their veiy likeness. For it is not meet 
that thou, being the image of the living God, shouldest 
become the image of an idol and a dead man. Thus far do 
we claim for idols the sole property in this dress, both 
because of the origin, to which it is traced, and because of 
the superstitious use of it; and moreover from this also, that 
since it is not numbered among the things of God, it is 
reckoned more and more the representation of those, in whose 
ancient and solemn rites and services it is met with. Of 
these even the very doors, and the very victims and altars, 
and the very ministers and priests are crowned. Thou hast 
in Claudius the crowns of all the various colleges of priests. 



176 Grounds against serving in armies under Heathen Emperors. 

De But we have inteiposed this distinction of the difference 
V. 11. between things reasonable and things unreasonable, to meet 



those who by occasion of some particular instances maintain 
a communion in all. With a view therefore to this part of 
our subject, it remaineth that the causes for wearing crowns 
be now themselves examined, that, whilst we shew that they 
are foreign, yea, contrary to true Religion, we may prove 
that not one of them is so supported by the voice of Reason, 
that any dress of this kind can be claimed for the use of all ; 
although there be some whose examples are objected to us. 

XI. For to begin with the cause of the military crown 

itself, I think we must first enquire whether military service 

generally be meet for Christians*'. Otherwise what availeth 

to treat of incidental circumstances, when there is a fault in 

first principles } Do we believe that a human sacrament 

may supersede a Divine one^ , and that a man may pledge his 

faith to another lord after Christ ? and renounce father and 

mother*' and all that are nearest to him, whom the Law 

teacheth should be honoured and loved next to God, whom 

the Gospel also hath in like manner honoured, only not 

Mat. 10, valuing them more than Christ } Shall it be lawful for him to 

^^' deal with the sword, when the Lord declareth that he that 

^2^' 'useth the sword shall perish hy the sword^? And shall the 

I Cor. 6, son of peace act in battle, whom it will not befit even to go 

to latv ? Shall he administer bonds and imprisonment, and 

Rom. tortures, and punishments, who may not avenge even his 

12,19. Q^yj^ injuries^. Again, shall he keep his station either for 

any others rather than for Christ ', *or on the Lord's Day, 

when he doth it not even for Christ*^? And shall he keep 

watch before those temples' which he hath renounced 1 And 

1 Cor. 8, shall he sit at meat where the Apostle would not have him ? 

And shall he defend by night those, whom in the day-time 

he hath put to flight by his exorcisms *', leaning and resting 

bSeeNoteE.endofthisTreatise,p.l84. their pay, swear to prefer the safety 

^ the " oath of fealty" or promise in of the Emperor to all things." 

Baptism, to " keep His will and com- * De Idol. c. 19. 

mandments," &c. ' Soldiers heing also executioners. 

^ Suetonius Calig, c. 15. has the S De Orat. c. 14. Statio 1. military 

formula of the oath, " nor will I ac- duty, 2. Christian stationary-days, so 

count myself and my children dearer called from the long continuance of the 

than Caius." Arrian. 1. 1. c. 14. ap. service, until 3 in the afternoon. 

Lac. " We also ought to swear to God ^ As being fasts. 

the oath which the soldiers do to the ' Apol. c. 29. 

Emperor. For they, when they receive k lb. c. 23. 



10. 



Converts may remain in military service^ keepimj from its sins, 177 

upon a spear, wherewith the side of Christ was pierced? 
shall he also carry the standard, the rival of Christ ? and 
shall he ask a sign from his general, who hath already 
received one from God'? Shall he also when dead be 
disturbed by the trumpet of the trumpeter, who waiteth to be 
awakened by the trump of the Angel ? and shall the Chris- 
tian be burned, according to the rules of the camp, to whom 
it was not lawful to burn '" any thing ? to whom Christ hath 
give remission of the fire which he hath deserved? How 
many other things may we see around us, among those com- 
mitted in the service of the camp, which must needs be 
construed as sin ! The very transferring his enrolment from 
the army of light to the army of darkness is sin. Clearly if 
their after-conversion to the Faith findeth any preoccupied 
in military service, their case is a different one, as was that 
of those whom John admitted to baptism, as was that of 
those most true believers the Centmions, him whom Chiist 
approved, and him whom Peter instructed : though notwith- 
standing, when the Faith hath been embraced and sealed, a 
man must either straightway quit the service, as hath been 
done by many, or must in every way demur to doing any 
thing against God, which things are not allowed, no, not on 
the ground of military service, or finally he must suffer for 
God's sake, to which also the faith of one who is not a 
soldier" hath pledged him. For the service of war will not 
promise him either impunity in sinning or immunity from 
martyrdoms. A Christian is no where any thing but a 
Christian. The Gospel is one, and Jesus is the Same ; Who 
will deny every one that deuieili God, and icill confess every Mat. lo 
one tliat confesseth Him : and Who will save that life, ^-* '^^* 
which hath been lost for His Name's sake; but on the other Mat.16, 
hand will destroy that, which hath been gained against His 
Name. In His sight, the believer who is no soldier is as 
much a soldier, as the unbeliever who is a soldier is no 
soldier. A state of faith alloweth no pleas of necessity. 

1 The Cross in Baptism. as a heathen," i. e. he is bound to 

" Incense to idols, de Res. Carnis God as a Christian, as to the Emperoi 

beg. Martial, x. 35. In matutina nuper as a heathen ;" but this lies not in the 

spectatus arena, &c. words, and this sense of " paganus" 

" Fides pagana, as below, fidelis be'ongs to a later time, when the only 

paganus, i, e. there is one faith, whether heathen were villagers (pagani). 

soldier or citizen. Others " his fcnlty 

N 



178 Necessity no plea in any case ; else, in all sin. 

pE They have no necessity for sinning who are under the single 
Y. 12. necessity of not sinning. For a man is urged by the 
" necessity imposed by tortures or penalties, both to sacrifice 

and directly to deny his faith. But our Religion doth not 
even wink at this necessity; because the necessity of fearing 
to deny the faith, and of undergoing martyrdom, is stronger 
than that of escaping suffering and fulfilling the required 
task. But an excuse of this sort overthroweth the whole 
substance of our sacramental vow in loosening the check 
even upon wilful sins. For even the will may be maintained 
to be necessity, in that it admitteth of being compelled". I 
might, as a first step, set up this very necessity in bar of all 
other reasons for crowns of office, in which the plea of 
necessity is most common. Since there is a necessity that 
the offices be shunned for this reason, that we fall not into 
sins, or else that martyrdoms be endured that we may break 
through the offices. On the first head of the question, 
whether even military service in itself be not unlawful, I 
shall say no more, in order that the second may be brought 
forward : lest, if, using my whole strength, I put military 
service out of the question, I should then be uselessly 
challenging a dispute touching the military crown. Suppose 
then that military service is lawful even to the point of its 
being the cause for wearing the crown. 

XII. But let us first speak of the crown itself This 
laurel is sacred to Apollo or to Bacchus : to the one as the 
God of arrows, to the other as the God of triumphs. So 
teacheth Claudius, when he saith that soldiers are wont to 
be crowned with the myrtle also: for that the myrtle belongeth 
to Venus the mother of the race of ^Eneas, the mistress also 
of Mars, who, through Ilia and the twin Romuli, is of 
Roman kin. But I do not believe that Venus is, like Mars, 
attached to Rome, through the quarter in which her grievance 
as his mistress lieth p. Since the soldiery are crowned with 
the olive also, this is idolatry to Minerva, who is equally the 
goddess of arms, but crowned with this tree for the peace 
also which she made with Neptune. In these respects the 
1 ubique superstition of the military wreath will be every where * 

restored 

'^ " Want of will is the cause ; want ap. Lac. 
of power is pleaded." Senec Ep. 116. P Ilia. 



Crown, part of heathen rites, involves wearer in the rest; andblood. 1 79 

defiled and defiling; and so the whole will be directly defiled 
in the very source. Behold now ! what think ye of the 
yearly recitation of vows, first in the head-quarters, secondly 
in the Capitoline temples ? Next to the ' places,' hear what 
are the * words' used : ' Then have we vowed, O Jupiter, that 
an offering shall be made to thee wdth an ox having his horns 
crowned' with gold.' What do the -svords import? surely ^ deco- 
a denial of the Faith. Although in such a case the Christian '^""^^^^ 
be silent witli the mouth, yet by wearing the crown on his 
head he hath responded. The same laurel, in the distribution 
of the bounty-money, is denounced as idolatry, certainly not 
without hire, since it selleth Christ for certain pieces of gold, 
as Judas did for /)/^6*6'S o/'s//u(?/-. Shall this be the meaning 
of, Ye cannot serve God and Mammon, to give the hand to Mat. 6, 
Mammon and to forsake God } Shall this be the meaning of * 
Render unto C<Bsar the thimjs that are Ccesars, and unto lUt. 22, 
God the things that are God's, not to render the man to God, 
and to take the penntj from Caesar ? Is the triumphal laurel 
crow^n strew^ed with leaves, or with corpses } Is it adorned 
with plates of metal, or with tombs ? Is it bedew^ed with 
ointments, or with the tears of waves and mothers ? perhaps 
even of some Christians, for Christ is among barbarians also. 
Hath not he, who w^eareth on his head the cause of all this, 
himself also assailed them ? There is also another kind of 
soldiery in the royal households '^ ; they are called also ' of the 
camp,' being moreover themselves bound to do service at the 
imperial solemnities. But thou also art henceforth the 
soldier and the servant of another : and if of two, of God and 
of Caesar, thou art surely not Caesar's at the time when thou 
owest thyself to God, the greater Master of the two, methinks, 
even in things not sacred. 

XIII. There are also state-occasions for crowning orders of 
the state with laurel, and magistrates moreover with golden 
crowns, as at Athens, as at Horned Above even these are'^utAthe- 
placed the Tuscan : this is the name of those crowns, which, ^^'^^"^ 
distinguished by jewels and oak-leaves of gold, in honour ofm/or^rf 
Jupiter, they use, together with striped cloaks, in accom- 
panying the procession of the cars. There are also provincial 
crowns of gold which now require the larger heads of statues 

1 See on S. Aug. Conf. viii. 6. 
N -2 



1 80 Ci'oims relate to honours, pomps Jo2/s of world, not the Christianas. 

De and not of men^ But thy order, and thy magistracies, and 
V.^13. the very name of thy court, is the Church of Christ. His 



thou art, being enrolled in the books of life. There is thy 

purple, the Blood of the Lord, and thy broad ' clavus *' in His 

Mat. 3, Cross : there is the axe, laid unto the root of the tree, — there 

J^'ji 1 are the rods, out of the root of Jesse. No matter also for the 

public horses with their crowns. Thy Lord, when He would 

enter Jerusalem according to the Scriptures, had not even an 

Ps.20,7. ass of His own. These in chariots, and these in horses, but we 

will call on the name of the Lord our God. In the Revelation 

c. 18,4. of John we are withheld even from dwelling in this Babylon; 

much more from her pomp. The common people also are 

crowned, sometimes out of joy for the prosperity of their 

princes, sometimes according to the special custom of the 

solemnities of their cities: and extravagance layeth hold of 

Heb.ll,all public rejoicing. But thou art a stranger in this world, 

i?', A a citizen of Jerusalem which is above. Our citizenship, 

Oal. 4, ^ ' 

2fi saith he, is in Heaven. Thou hast thine own enrol- 
2o"Eph.ment, thine own solemn days. Thou hast no conceni with 
2j 19- the rejoicings of the world, yea thou oughtest to do the 
Johnie, contrary ; for the tvorhl shall rejoice, and ye shall lament. 
Mat 5 ^^^ methinks He saith, Blessed are they that mourn, not 
4. ' they that are crowned.' Marriage also crowneth the be- 

trothed ' : wherefore let us not marry with heathens, lest 
they bring us even to idolatry, with which marriage among 
Gen. 24, them begimieth. Thou hast a law even from the Patriarchs: 

2.28,1, 

' A sort of tax or fine on the con- Horn. 1. de Orat. Dom. t. 1. p. 724, 5. 

quered ov those who needed Koman Basil Seleue. Vit. S. Theclse. [1. 1. 

aid ; at first, " of slight weight," Liv. p. 250. ed. Par. but this may be 

3, 57. afterwards they weighed 100, (ib. Heathen.] Palladius Hist. Lans. c. 7. 

36, 25.) 246, fib. 32, 27.) 900, or even (ol. 8.) Bibl. Patr. t. 7. p. 1534. (ap. P. 

1000 lb. Lips, de Rom. Magn. c. 9. Sherlog. Cantic. Yestig. 27. §. 16.) 

124 crowns were borne in one triumph and a prayer on the imposition of the 

over Spain. Liv. 40, 43. It was after- Crown by the priest enters into the 

wards called aurum coronarium. Greek Ritual, (Selden Uxor. Ebr. ii. 

s The hiticlave, as the Heathen's 24. p. 172. at length.) In the Greek 

badge of honour; and the " nails" of Church, it is still continued, (see 

the Cross, as the Christian's. Thelatus Bingham 22. 4. 6.) In the Latin 

clavus had some reference to the form of Church, a trace of it occurs about 430, 

the " nail," but, whether as studded, (Sidonius ApoUin. 1. 1. Ep. 5. and ad 

or otherwise, is uncertain. See Hoffm. Anthem, ii. 503. ap. Bingham 1. c.) 

pacciol. and the blessing of the Crown occurs in 

t Adopted by Christians, as a symbol the Latin liturgies, (Selden ii. 25. 

of previous chastity. S. Chrys. ap. p. 182.) The rite occurs later (A. D. 860.) 

liingh. 22. 4, 6. hence it was properly in the answer of Nicolas T. to the Bul- 

confincd to the first marriage. Allusions garians, (Seld. p. 179 sqq.) and among 

ti» (he same rite occur in S. Greg. Nyss. tl.e Swiss in the 16th century, when it 



Human freedom no cause for crowns for th ings of the world unreal. 181 

thou hast an Apostle commanding thee to marry in the Lord, l Cor. 7, 
The making also a freeman in this world is an occasion of ^^* * 
crowning. But thou art already redeemed by Christ, and 
that at a great price. How shall the world set free another's v. 23. 
servant? Although it seemeth to be freedom, yet was it 
seen also to be a state of service. In the world all things 
are imaginary, and nothing real : for even then, when thou 
wert redeemed by Christ, thou wert free from man, and now 
altliough made free by man, thou art Christ's servant. If v. 22. 
thou thinkest that the freedom of this world is true liberty, 
so that thou even distinguishest it by a crown, thou hast 
returned to the service of man, which thou thinkest to be 
liberty: thou hast lost the liberty of Christ, which thou 
thinkest to be service. Will the occasions furnished by the 
games also be disputed, which their own titles at once 
condemn .'' as pertaining, that is, to sacred and funereal rites. 
For it remaineth only that the Olympian Jupiter, and the 
Nemean Hercules, and the poor little Archemorus ", and the 
unhappy Antinous* be crowned in the Christian, that he 
himself may become the spectacle, where he ought to be the 
spectator. We have, methinks, enumerated all the occasions: 
and not one of them are our concern : all are foreign to us, 
profane, unlawful, renounced once for all in our sacramental 
profession. For these were the pomps of the Devil and his 
angels y, the offices of the world, its honours, its solemnities, 
its popular arts, its false vows, its human services, its vain 
praises, its shameful glories. And in all these things there Pi-ii. 3, 
is idolatry, if only in the character of the crovvns, with which ' 
all these things are adorned. Claudius will begin by telling 
us that, in the verses of Homer, even the Heaven is crowned 11. :s. 

485. 

was praised by P. MartjT " as a laud- God or in idolatry, (and his words go 

able ceremony, for the reason given by no further,) or, (since the Talmud says 

S. Chrys." Traces of it in the Old that the use of crowns was forbidden 

Testament are Cant. 3, 11. (in the after the war of Vespasian ; see Selden 

literal sense, so S. Greg. Nyss. ad loc. ii. 15.) must have overlooked these 

t. i. p. 675.) Is. 6] , 10. ("IKD beins? the allusions to a discontinued rite, 

ornament of the head, and interpreted " 'Hie infant son of Lycurgus, m 

" a crown" by the LXX, Aq. Theod. memory of whom the Nemean games 

Symm. Jer. &c.) and probably Lam. 5, were said to have been instituted. 

15. (coll. V. 14.) Ezek. 16, l2. Where "" See Apol. c. 13. Hence is coronse 

then T. says (above, c. 9. p. 1 73, 4.) that Antinoe^ of the "lotus rosea " Athen. 

there is no mention of any sacred use of 1- 3. ap. balm, ad bohn. pp. 975, 6. 

crowns in the Old Testament, he must ^" ^ee on c. 3. 
have meant in the direct worship of 



1 8*2 Heathenism croicns the ex;dtedSf debased : Xt the XtiavJs crown. 

r>E with stars: certainly by God; certainly for man : wherefore 
V. 15. man himself also ought to be crowned by God. But by the 



1 door 
- thresh 
hold 



world are crowned brothels, and baths, and the mill, and the 
prison, and the schooP, and the very amphitheatres, and the 
very places for stripping the slain, and the very funerals 
themselves. How doubly sacred, how honourable and pure 
is this dress, judge not from the " heaven" of the Poet alone, 
but by the conversation of the whole world ! But the Chris- 
tian will not dishonour even his door with laurels*, if he 
knoweth how many gods the Devil hath fabricated even 
for doors ; Janus, from ' janua^,' Limentinus, from ' limenV 
Forculus and Carda, from * fores ^' and 'cardines*;' and 

3 doors among the Greeks, Apollo ' Thyrseus,' * of the door,' and 

4 hinges the Daemons called Antelii, ' facing the sun.' 

XIV. So far must the Christian be from putting this work 

of idolatry upon his own head, yea, I might even say, upon 

1 Cor. Christ, if so be that Christ is the head of the man. which head 

113.. 

V. 7. ' is as free as Christ Himself, not obliged to wear even a veil, 

far less a bandage. Moreover also the head which is obliged 

to wear a veil, the head of the woman, being already occupied 

by the veil, hath not room for the bandage also : she beareth 

the burden of her own subjection. If she ought not to be 

1 Cor. seen with her head uncovered, because of the Angels, much 

' * more, having her head crowned, will she offend those who 

Rev. 4, are perhaps at the same time wearing their crowns. For 

^' what is a crown on the head of a woman but the pander of 

her beauty, the highest mark of lewdness, the extreme denial 

of modesty, the contriver of allurement ? Wherefore also the 

woman will not be too carefully adorned, according to what 

the Apostle provideth, that she be not crowned even by the 

I Pet. 2^pi(iifiiW ^f ^^'^ hair. But He that is both the Head of the man, 

3.1 Tim. and the Beauty of the woman, the Husband of the Church, 

I'cor. Christ Jesus, what sort of crown, I pray thee, did He put on 

\ '^,^^- for both man and woman ^ } 'Twas one, methinks, of thorns and 

11,2. briers, as a figure of those sins, which the earth of our flesh 

Is. 54, 5. ^ 

Gen. 3, z here, of gladiators; the places here wfth thorns, should, insulting the holy 
17, 18. named are of sin, or punishment, or Passion of the Lord, he encircled with 
cruelty, or death. Else, schools were flowers. For the crown of the Lord, pro- 
crowned, de Idol. c. 10. phetically designated us, aforetime un- 
" See Apol. c. 35. fruitful, who are placed around Him 
b " It were devoid of reason that we, through the Church, whereof He is the 
disciples of the Lord "Who was crowned Head." Clem. Al. Peed. ii. 8. 



Chrisfscrown, of thorns ;(jloriuuscroic as worn in, heptforJierwoiASo 

hath brought forth unto us, but the power of the Cross hath 
taken away, overcoming the sharpness of every sting of death, 
in the sufferings of the head of the Lord. Surely, setting aside 
the figure, there is on the face of it mockery, and debase- 
ment, and dishonour, and mixed with these cruelty, which 
then defiled and tore the brow of the Lord, that thou mayest 
now be crowned with thy laurel, and thy myrtle, and thy 
olive, and every famous branch, and what is of more frequent 
use, with roses also of an hundr d leaves culled from the 
garden of Midas, and lilies of either kind, and every sort of 
violets, even with jewels perchance and gold, that thou 
mayest rival also that crown of Christ, which came unto 
Him afterwards, because it was after the gall that He tasted 
the honey also, nor was He saluted as the King of Glory by Ps. 24, 
the hosts of Heaven, before He had been proscribed iipon Jj^^^ 2V 
the cross as tlie King of the Jews. Being first made by 37. 
the Father a little lower titan the angeh, and so crowned Ps. 8, 5. 
with glory and worship. If for these things thou owest 
thy head to Him, pay Him if thou canst with such an 
head as His own was, when He offered it up for thine : or 
w'ear not a crown of flowers, if thou art not able to wear 
one of thorns ; for thou art able not to wear one of flowers. 

XV. Preserve undefiled for God that thing which is His 
own. He shall crown it, if He will*=. Yea and He doth 
will: He even inviteth thee thereto. To him thai overcometJi. Rev. 2, 

7 10 

saith He, I will give a crown of life. Be thou also faithful 
unto death. Fight thou also, the good fight, whereof the 
Apostle likewise with good cause trusteth that there is laid 2 Tim. 
up for him a crown. The Angel also receiveth a crown of'^' * ^* 
victory, going forth on a white horse to conquer. And ^"'^^- ^? 
another is adorned with a rainbow encircling him, like a Rev. 10, 
meadow in the Heavens. The elders also sit wearing crowns; J{ ^ 4 
and with a like crown of gold the Son of man Hiraself4. 
shineth above the cloud. If such be the images in the 24^7* ' 

■^ Thorns are a type of sin in S. Greg. Wherefore being such, thou art weighed 

Nyss. de Vit. Mos. i. 20/. and indeed down by the multitude of thorns, that is, 

in Horace Ep. 1. 14. 4. Moreau (t. 2. of sins." See also Clem. 1. c. p. 79. ed. 

p. 348.) quotes from a sermon given to Sylb. Orig. in Matt. §. 12i5. ed.de la Rue. 
S. Aug. t. 9. " Wilt thou answer that ^ " Neither is the living image of God 

thou art not a thorny land ? hadst thou to be crowned like dead idols. For the 

not thorns, thou wouldest not place a beautiful crown of amaranth is laid up 

crown of thorns on thy Creator's head, for the well-doer." Clem. 1. c. 



184 Chrutianiuho accejyts crown hut from God, shamed bt/ Heathen. 

De vision, what will be the realities when truly presented ? 

V. 15. These be thy sights, these thy sweet savours ! Why con- 
demnest thou to the garland and the wreath, that head 

Rev. 5, which is designed for a kingly crown ? for Christ Jesus hath 
made us even kings inito God and His Father. What hast 

Is. 11,2. thou to do with a flower that dieth t Thou hast a flouer" out 
of the rod of Jesse ^ on which all the grace of th.e Spirit of 
God hath rested; a flower incon'uptible, unwithering, ever- 
lasting, by choosing which, this good soldier hath been 
promoted to honour in the ranks of Heaven. Blush ye, his 
fellow-soldiers, who shall now stand condemned, not by him, 
but even by any soldier of Mithra, who, when he is enrolled 
in the cavern, the camp, in very truth, of darkness, when the 
crown is offered him, (a sword being placed between him and 
it, as if in mimicry of martyrdom,) and then fitted upon his 
head, is taught to put it aside from his head, meeting it with 
his hand, and to remove it. it may be, to his shoulder, saying 
that Mithra is his crown. And thenceforth he never weareth 
a crown, and he hath this as a sign whereby he is approved, 
if at any time he is tried touching his military oath : and he 
is forthwith believed to be a soldier of Mithra, if he throweth 
down his crown, if he declareth that he hath it in his God. 
See we the wiles of the Devil, who pretendeth to some of the 
ways of God for this cause, that, through the faithfulness of 
his own servants, he may put us to shame and condemn us. 

c The LXX. haA-e avGosy which d This is alluded to by Lamprid. vit. 

Hesyeh. explains (iXdiTTtKris, our Comm. " He defiled by real homicide 

" branch ;" the Latin fathers and Vul- the Mithriae rites, wherein something 

gate render " flos." Other? suppose is wont to be said or feigned after a 

the LXX rendered as though it were form of fear." 



Note E, on c. xi. p. 176. 

Tertullian, for the most part, in this chapter, rests his objections to 
military service, upon its involving offices inconsistent with the character 
of a Christian. Elsewhere, he directly approves of it. Apol. 5. 37« 42. 
ad Scap. c. 4. There can also be no doubt that war in itself is unbefitting 
Christians, implies a state of things miserably imperfect, and short 
of the promises of the Gospel. It seems questionable then, whether in 
those arguments, which go against military service altogether, he means 
more than to shew its contradiction to the Christian character in the 
abstract; and the more, since at the close of the argument he permits 



Fathers did not hold war forbidden. 185 

Christians to remain in it, if already in it, when called to be Christians, 
only sutfering martyrdom rather than do any thing unlawful; which he 
would not have tolerated, had he thought it wholly forbidden. It is the 
free choice of such a profession which he condemns ; and serious persons 
could not have chosen it amid such perils to the Faith. 

In like way, Origen, in the passages in which he is supposed to 
pronounce the service illegal, is mostly speaking of its inconsistency 
with the character of the Gospel ; it was not contrary to that of the Law, 
which, under certain circumstances, enjoined it, and established a polity 
which needed it ; it was to that of the Gospel, which increased through 
suffering, (c. Cels. vii, 26.) and in which they were to " beat their 
swords into pruning-hooks." (ib. v. 33.) In the same spirit, (viii. 73.) 
he claims for the Christians, as a spiritual priesthood, the same exemp- 
tion as some of the Heathen Priesthoods had, not to defile themselves 
with blood; and says truly (withTertullian,Apol c.30.33.)that they availed 
more with their prayers for the Empire than others with their arms ; since 
too there were at all times Christians in the Roman armies, it is not to be 
taken to the letter, when he says, (ib.) " and we war not with the Emperor, 
though he constrain us; but we war for him, banded into an army of piety, 
peculiar to ourselves, by intercessions unto God." At the same time, both 
the objection of Celsus, and the answer of Origen, imply the fact, which 
was to be expected, that fewer Christians in proportion were to be found in 
the armies. Origen, however, no where maintains war to be lawful for 
Christians, for which Grotius (de Jur. Bell.etPac.i.2.§.9.n.2.) andSpencer 
(in I. viii. c. Cels. 73.) charge him vvith inconsistency. In iv. 82, where 
he says, that " the wars of bees are an instruction how just and due wars 
might, if needs be, take place among men,^' there is no reference to 
Christians, in whom alone he held it was inconsistent; i. I. is plainly 
an argumentum ad hominem only, that it was lawful for Christians to 
unite in a way unallowed by the state, to overthrow the tyranny of Satan, 
as it was " to remove a tyrant^ who had taken possession of a city." 
On the other hand, it does not appear that in speaking against the literal 
sense of Luke 22, 35. 36. (toni. xv. in Matt. §. 2.) he means to speak 
against more than private requital of injuries. Lactantius, vi. 20. seems 
peremptorily to exclude all war. S. Basil also, Ep. 188. ad Amphiloch. 
(Canon, i.) Can. 13. recommends hesitatingly that such as have actually 
shed blood in war, be kept from the communion for three years, as 
having unclean hands. 

On the other hand, S. Basil himself attests in the same Canon, " our 
fathers did not account man-slaying in wars, as man-slaying," adding, ** in 
my opinion, having compassion on those who fought in behalf of chastity 
and piety," thus. bearing witness to the Catholic practice, while coun- 
selling a restriction of it. (And of such voluntary self-restriction 
Theodosius furnishes an instance ; " What, when having gained a 
splendid victory [over Eugenius], yet because the enemies were slain 
in the battle, he deprived himself of the participation of the Sacraments," 
&c. S. Ambr. de Ob. Valent. §. 34. In either case, out of reverence, not 
to approach ths Holy Eucharist, with hands which had recently any how 



186 Christian soldier may obey even in unjust war. 

Note shed man's blood. S. Basil himself, in his Homily on the Forty Martj'rs, both 
^ attests the fact of soldier-martyrs, and praises them, as *' having acquired 

the highest honours with kings, for military experience, and valour 

of soul celebrated witli all, for courage," §• 2. as S, Greg. Naz. (Orat. iv. 
c. Jul. §. 83 sqq.) implies without disapprobation that there were many 
Christians in Julian's army. He also (Or. xix. ad Jul. Trib. Exaeq. §.11.) 
addresses soldiers on their duties, (cp. Ap. Const, viii. 32.) S. Ambrose, (de 
Off. i. 40. 41.) panegyrizes the valour of the mighty men of the Old Testament 
and of the Maccabean period ; though among Christians he instances only 
the firmness of martyrs : he praises also the pious valour of Theodosius, (de 
Ob. Theod. §. 7-) as does S. Augustine, (de Civ. D. v. 26.) S. Augustine 
argues, (Ep. 138. (ol. 6.) ad Marcell.§. 14.) that wars against the evil were 
not inconsistent with charity; (§. 15. and ad Bonif. §. 5.) that if military 
service had been forbidden to Christians, the advice, to be ** content with 
their wages," would not have been given in the Gospel. He tells 
Boniface, himself a soldier, " Think not, no one can please God, who 
serves in arms of war," appealing to David and the two Centurions, 
(Ep. 189. ol. 95.) and gives him practical rules, §. 6. e. g. " Peace should 
be in will, vvar, of necessity." He defends it further, c. Faust, xxii. /4. "Jb, 
and shews that soldiers may lawfully carry on what, in those who 
declare it, is an unjust war. " But if war is waged out of the cupidity of 
man, this hurts not the saints — for there is no power, but of God, either 
commanding or permitting. A just man then, if perchance he be in 
military service under a king, who is even a sacrilegious man, may 
rightly war at his command, keeping the due order of internal peace, (to 
which what is commanded is either certain that it is not against the 
command of God, or not certain whether it be,) so that perchance the 
injustice of the command may make the king guilty, but the due order 
of obeying may prove the soldier innocent." 

The sayings of S. Aug. alleged on the other side, are such as these; 
** We are not to pray that our enemies should die," (in Ps. 3/. §• 14.) 
therefore, it is inferred, those of the land may not be killed in war; '* we 
obtain this from the clemency of the Emperors, lest the sufferings of the 
servants of God, which ought to be glorious in the Church, should be dis- 
honoured by the blood of their adversaries," (Ep. 139. ol. 158. ad Marcell. 
§. 2. so Ep. 133. ad Marcellin. fin. 134. ad Apring. §. 3. quoted by Barclay,) 
therefore, the enemies of the state are not to be repelled by force. 
So Erasmus. In like way, Barclay (Apology, Prop. 15.) adduces several 
passages in which the Fathers speak against private resistance, as 
S. Ambr. in Luc 22. [v. 36. 1. x. §. 63.] S. Cyrill Al. 1. xi. in Joann. S. 
Chrys. Horn. 18. in Matt. 5. Horn. 85. in Matt. 26. S. Jerome, Ep. p. 3. 
t. i. ep. 2. [123. ad Ageruch. §. 13] or contentions in the Church, as Ep. 
ill.] ad Ocean. §. 8. 

On such authorities. Gibbon says, (c. 15. §. 4.) " nor could their 
humane ignorance be convinced that it was lawful on occasion to shed the 
blood of our fellow-creatures, either by the sword of justice or of that of 
war, even thouj^ii their criminal or hostile attempt should threaten 
the peace or the safety of the whole community." 



OF PUBLIC SHOWS'. 



[The '' De Spectaculis" was written previously to the " De Corona" and the 
'■'■ De Idololatria ;" in the latter of which T. expressly refers to it, (e. 13.) and, 
by implication, in the former also ; since, saying that he had written on shows 
" in Greek also,'' (c. 8.) he implies that he had written in Latin. The " De 
Corona" fixes it before A.D. 201 : (see Notice to it:) the " De Idololatria," 
probably, in an earlier part of A.D. 198, (see Notice, below.) It is quoted also 
in the De Cultu Fem. i. 7. which books were written during a severe persecu- 
tion, (ii. 13.) probably that under Severus, (Lumper 1. c. Art. ii. §. 6.) Of 
internal evidence, it has been noticed, that it was probably written when 
some great shows were being given, the chief occasion of which, about 
this period, was Severus's return to Rome, after his victory over Albinus, 
A.D. 198. (see Notice on Apol.) The " secular games," A.D. 204, fell too late. 
It was also written apparently before the edict of Severus against the Christians, 
since T. ascribes the persecution to the populace only, (c. 26.) or the governors 
of the provinces, (c. 30.) (see Lumper 1. c. Art. i. §. xiv.) Neander also, (Tertul- 
lian S. 22.) supposes it to have been written on occasion of this victory of 
Severus. It has no trace of Montanism ; for not the expectation of a " new 
Jerusalem," (cult.) of which the Apocalypse also speaks, is Montanistic ; but 
the affirmation that such a city had been actually seen in the air for forty days, 
adv. Marc. iii. ult.] 



I. What state of faith, what argument of truth, what rule 
of discipline, barreth, among other errors of the world, the 



» Pamelius (drawing, as he says, in 
much from the Author of the Obss. 
Div. etHum. Jur.) shews at length that 
T. almost uniformly combines the con- 
demnation of the four sorts of shows, 

1. racing, in the Circus, 2. plays, in the 
Theatre, 3. gymnastics, in the Stadium, 
4. gladiators and fighting with beasts, 
in the Amphitheatre ; thus c. 2. he 
instances the things abused, 1. the horse, 

2. melody of voice, 3. bodily strength, 
4. the lion. The places are named in the 
same order, c. 20. 21 . 28. the actors, c. 22. 
23. 25. ult. the games, c. 3. circus, 
theatrum, agon, (gymnastics,) munus, 
(sc. gladiatorium,) and 29. and Apol. 
c. 38. Isidor. Etym. xviii. 16. (copy- 
ing T.) : in a different order, de Pudic. 
c. 7. and perhaps ad Mart. c. 2. auct. 
de Spect. ap. Cypr. c. 3 — 6. In the de 
Cult. Fem. i. 7. and adv. Marc. i. 7. 



T. only mentions the 1st, 2d, and 4th, 
as do the later writers, Arnob. ii. after 
mid. iv and vii. end. Lact. vi. 20. 
Jerome in Yit. Hilar, and Ep. 69. ad 
Ocean. §. 9. The 1st and 2d are spoken 
against for the most part by S. Chry- 
sostom and S. Augustine, (imitating 
TertuUian); by S. Chrysostome in almost 
all his writings ; the 1st bv S. Aug. de 
Civ. D. ii. 6. the 2d de Cons. Ev. i. 
37. de Civ. D. ii. 4—8. 10— 14. yet also 
the 4th, Conf. vi. 8. The same two 
were prohibited by Thcodosius the 
younger (on the Lord's day, the Festi- 
vals of our Lord, and between Easter and 
"Whitsunday, de Spect.in Cod. Theodos.) 
as though the others were disused ; and 
Zeno, in forbidding the theatre and the 
circus on the Lord's day, adds only the 
" pitiable spectacles of the wild beasts," 
ex ult. cod. de Feriis, ib. 



De 

Spect. 

VI. 1. 



188 Rejection of pleasure traiimig to Christian Jinn^iess, 

pleasures'' also of the public shows, hear, ye servants of 
God, who are coming "^ ver\' uigh unto God ; hear again, ye 
who hare witnessed and professed that ye have already come 
unto Him'^, that none may sin either from real or pretended 
ignorance. For so great is the influence of pleasures, that it 
maketh ignorance linger to take advantage of it, and bribeth 
knowledge to dissemble itself In either case to some, per- 
chance, the opinions of those heathens have still a charm, 
who, on this question, have been accustomed to argue 
against us thus : ' that these great refreshments of the eyes 
or the ears from vrithout are no hindrance to religion in the 
mind and in the conscience ; and that God is not offended 
by such gratincation of a man as there is no sin in his 
enjoying at its proper time and in its proper place, saving 
always the fear and the honour due unto God.' But this is what 
we are prepared especially to prove, how it is that these 
things do not accord with true religion, and with the true 
service of the ti-ue God. There are who think that the 
Christians, a people ever ready ^ for death, are trained up to 
this obstinacy ^ by the renouncement of pleasures, so that 
they may the more easily despise life, having, as it were, cut 
its bonds asunder ; and may not pine after that, which they 
have already rendered superfluous to themselves ; that so 



^ The term '' pleasures" was almost 
technically applied to the '' shoves," 
Trebell. in Gailien. " public pleasures," 
Caecilius ap. Minuc. F. "ye abstain 
from lawful pleasures ;"' in Ixke way in 
Greek, '"the phrenzied pleasures («3«»«) 
of the theatres," Horn, de Semeute,§.ll. 
ap. Athanas. t. ii. p. (i^. see La C. On 
the strange fascination even of the gladia- 
torial shows, see S. Aug. Conf. 1. c. who 
complains, Horn, in Ps. 80. " how many 
baptized persons have preferred to-day 
to throng the Circus, rather than this 
Basilica." (see Rig.) add Auct.de Spect. 
ap. S. Cypr. §. -i, 5. In later times, 
there was even a ''tribunusvoluptatum,' 
Cassiod. 1. vii. ep. 10. ap. Lips, de 
Aiijphith. c. 15. 

^ The Catechamens, candidates for 
Baptism. 

^ The baptized. 

• " A man may, by phrenzy, be so 
disposed thereto [to death], and the 
Galilaeans hy habit." Arr. ad Epict. iv. 
7. ap. Rig. 

^ T. Uses the received heathen term 



of reproach, "obstinacy," see ad Xat. i. 
17, IS, Apol. c. 27. Plin. Ep. ad Trajan, 
" For I doubted not that, whatever 
they might be, contumacy and inflexible 
obstinacy ought to be punished," add 
Diocletian Edict, ap, Hermog. Coll. 
Legg. Jud. etRom. vii. lit. 14, heathen 
ap. Lact. V. 9, 11. Prudent, hymn, de 
Vincent, ii. 17. in ag, Rom. xiv. 63. 
581. Am. 1. vi. beg. ap. Kortholt. ad 
Epp. Traj, et Plin. p. 57 sqq. The 
charge chiefly related (as here) to their 
suffering rather than abjuring the faith ; 
but their uniform stedfastness is at- 
tested by the proverb, " Sooner might 
one unteach the disciples of Moses and 
Christ,"' ap. Galen, de Diff. Puis. 1. 3. 
and the Pythian oracle given to Por- 
phyry," Sooner may you write, stzimping 
letters on the water, or filling Ught 
wings fly as a bird through the air, 
than recall the mind of the defiled, 
impious woman." Porph. i* /ayiatt 
ipiXef. ap. Aug. de Civ. D. xix. 23. 
quoted by Rig. 



Actions not therefore good, became using rjood things of God. IsQ 

this rule may be thought to be laid do^^ii rather by man's 
wisdom and provision, than by the law of God. It was 
grievous forsooth to them, while they yet continued in 
pleasures, to die for God. And yet even were it so, to a 
counsel so fitting, ' obstinacy' in such a religion ought to 
make us obedient^. 

II. But besides there is not a man who putteth not forth 
this pretence likewise : " that all things were formed by 
God and given unto man, (as we teach,) and so are good, as 
comiug all from a good Author: that among such are to be 
reckoned all those by which the public shows are furnished, 
the horse for instance, and the lion, and the powers of the 
body, and the sweet music of the voice": that therefore 
nothing can be deemed foreign from nor hateful to God, 
which is a part of His own creation, and that that must not 
be reckoned as a sin, which is not hateful to God, because 
not foreign from Him. Clearly also even the buildings of 
these places, as the stones, the mortar, the marble, the 
columns, are things of God, ^Mio hath given them to be the 
furniture of the earth : nay, the veri- performances themselves 
are enacted under God's own Heaven. How wise a reasoner 
doth human ignorance seem to herself to be ! especially 
when she feareth to lose any of these delights and enjov- 
ments of the world ! In brief, you may find very many whom 
the risk of losing pleasure, more than that of losing life, 
keepeth back from this religion. For even the fool dread eth 
not death, being a debt which he oweth ; and even the wise 
man despiseth not pleasure, being a thing of so great value, 
because botli to the fool and the wise man there is no other 
charm in life save pleasure. Xo one denieth, because no one 
is ignorant of that which nature of herself teacheth, that God 
is the Maker of the whole world, and that that world is both 
good, and placed under the dominion of man. But because 
they know not God thoroughly, save by the law of Nature, 
not as being also of His household; beholding Him at a 
distance, not nigh ; they must needs be ignorant in what 
manner, when He made His works. He commanded that 
they should be used ; and also, what rival force from the 

5 i. e. it were well worth the cost. c. I. n. a. 

h De Cult. Fem. i. 7. and above, 



190 Every creature of God ^ and man himself, abused by man to sin, 
De other side acleth in corruptins- the uses of the creatures of 

Spect r o 

VI. 2. G^od • for thou canst not know either the will, or that which 
resisteth the will, of Him of Whom thou knowest nothing. 
We must therefore consider not only by Whom all things 
were made, but from what they are turned away; for so will 
it be seen to what use they were, if it be seen to what they 
were not, made. There is much difference between a 
corrupt and an uncorrupt state of things, because there is 
much difference between the Maker and the corrupter. 
Again, evils of every sort, such as even the heathens forbid 
and guard against, as undoubted evils, are made up of the 
works of God. Wouldest have murder committed by steel, 
by poison, by magic spells ? Steel is a creature of God, as 
are herbs, as are angels. And yet did the Maker provide 
these things for the death of man } on the contrary, He doeth 
away with every sort of manslaying by one chief command- 
ment, TJtou shall not kill. Then again gold, brass, silver, 
ivory, wood, and whatever material is laid hold of for making 
idols, Who hath placed these in the world save the Maker of 
the world, God } But did He make these things that they 
might be worshipped in opposition to Himself? on the 
contrary, idolatry is the highest offence in His sight. What 
is there that offendeth God which is not of God ? but when 
it offendeth, it hath ceased to be of God, and when it hath 
ceased, it offendeth. Man himself, the author' of all crimes. 
Gen. 1, is not only the work, but also the image of God, and yet both 
in body, and spirit, he hath fallen away from his Maker. 
For we received not the eyes for lust, nor the tongue for 
evil-speaking, nor the ears for a receptacle of evil-speaking, 
nor the gorge for gorging, nor the belly to abet the gorge, 
nor the loins for excess of uncleanness, nor the hands for 
violence, nor the feet for a vagabond life : nor was the spirit 
therefore implanted in the body that it might become a 
mental storehouse for snares, for deceits, for iniquities : I 
trow not. For if God, that requireth innocency, hateth all 
wickedness and malice, when only conceived in the thoughts, 
doubtless it followeth, that whatsoever He hath created He 
created not to end in such works as He conderaneth, 
although these same works be done through the things 

' actor, " the enacter," cod. Angl. ap. Pam., Satan ])eing the author. 



27. 



Demand of express prohibition of shows in Scr. cannot be met. 191 

which He hath created, seeing that the whole ground of 
the condemnation is the wrong use of the creature by the 
created^. We therefore who, knowing God, have seen also i a con- 
His adversary, who having found out the Maker have found ^^^'^ , 

1 .1 ,.-. • -, -, restored 

at the same time the corrupter likewise, ought not to wonder 
nor doubt in this matter \ When the power of that cor- 
rupting and adverse angel in the beginning cast down from 
his innocency man himself, the work and the image of God, 
the lord of the whole world, he changed like himself, into 
perverseness against his Maker, the whole substance of man, 
made, like himself, for innocency : so that in that very 
thing, which it had grieved' him should be granted to man 
and not to himself, he might make man guilty before God, 
and establish his own dominion. 

III. This our consciousness being aiTayed against the 
opinion of the Heathen, let us turn more particularly to the 
discussions of our own brethren. For the faith of certain 
persons, being either more simple or more cautious than 
common, demandeth authority from the Scriptures for this 
renouncing of the public shows, and standeth upon doubts, 
because abstinence of this sort is not plainly and by name 
commanded to the servants of God ". Without question we 
do not find it any where set out in exact terms, * Thou shalt 
not go to the circus, nor to the theatre ; thou shalt not wait 
upon the exercise" or the service",' in the same way in which 
it is plainly laid down. Thou shalt not kill; ' thou shalt not 
worship an idol ;' thou shalt not commit adultery, * nor theft.' 
But we find that the very first words of David relates to this 
kind of thing amongst others. Blessed is the man, saith he, Ps. 1, i. 
who hath not gone into the council of the ungodly, and hath 
not stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of 
pestilences'^. For although he seemeth to have foretold of 

^ According to another reading:, Horn. C. de Poenit. t. ii. p. 317. as does 

" We ought not to doubt but that, S. CIcm. Alex. Pijed. iii. 11. v. fin. p. 

when the power, &c. he changed, &c." 109. ed. S3'rD. and S. Basil, Horn, in 

1 See on S. Cyprian, de Patient, c. 12. Gord. Mart. $. 3. 

p. 261. not. a. Oxf. Tr. and de Zelo, c. 3, "i.e. gymnastic. 

p. 268. ° " munus" the special name for 

^ The same objection is quoted in shows of gladiators, though used to 

the de Spectac. ap. S. Cypr. §. 2. Pam. include fighting with beasts. On the 

alleges S. Chrysostome as meeting the origin of the name, see c. 12. 

same argument with the same Ps. ; p as in LXX. Xfl/^wi». 
which he applies also to the theatre, 



19*2 Script, gives rules of duty, loheii apeaking directly on other points. 

I>E that just man"^, that he had no part in the council and 
VI. 3. the sitting of the Jews, when consulting about denying*" the 
Luke23, Lord, yet Divine Scripture hath always a wide bearing; 
every where there is, after the sense of the immediate subject, 
a rule of duty also supported*; so that even this passage is 
not foreign from the purpose of forbidding the public shows. 
For if he then called a few only of the Jews the council of 
the luigodly, how much rather so great an assemblage of 
Heathen people ! Are the Heathen less ungodly, less sinners, 
less enemies of Christ, than were then the Jews ? What 
if the rest also agreeth herewith ? For at the shows men 
sIoikV in the way; for they call both the cardinal passages 
of the baiTiers" going round the circus, and the divisions 
separating the commons going down it, * the ways:' and the 
place itself for sitting down in the circle is called ' the seat".' 
Wherefore on the contrary, ' Wretched is the man that hath 
gone into any council of the ungodly^ and hath stood in any 
way of sinners, and hath sat in any seat of pestilences.'' 
Let us understand it as spoken generally, although a thing 
admit also of a special interj^retation ; for in some instances, 
where the terms are special, the sense is general. When 
God putteth the Israelites in mind of their law or duty, or 
reproveth them, surely it concerneth all men : when He 
threateneth destruction to ^gypt and .Ethiopia, He fore- 

*! Joseph of Arimathea. adv. Marc. iii. 5. Calpiirn. in Amphith. Carini (ap. 

iv. ult. In the Breviarium in Psalt. ap. Lips, de Amphith. e. 13.) speaks of 

Hieron. (0pp. t. vii. App.) this inter- their being ornamented with gems, 

pretation is cited as peculiar to T. (Baltheus en gemmis, en illita porticus 

< ■■ negando Edd. and Cod. Ag. Hig. auro,) whence it appears that they were 

corrects "necando," "putting to death," solid. The " cardines,'' according to 

which is the more obvious word, and T. here, were the ways round them ; 

which may be intended by " negando," perhaps so called from being the chief 

the g being substituted for the c in ways; else, in dividing land in colonies, 

MSS. Still it was the final act of the cardo maximus was a line at right 

" denying the Holy One and the Just," angles to the Decumanus (the line 

Acts 3, 13. 14. so " negando" has been drawn from E. to W.) and the other 

retained. Cardines parallel to it, (Salmas. ad 

s i. e. besides, and presupposing the Solin.p. 675 sqq.) Salmasius(ib.p.919.) 

particular application of any passage in supposes that the Cardines were so 

H. Scripture, it involves certain prin- called, as not simply encircling, but 

ciples of moral duty, looking everyway, intersecting, the" wedges," (cunei); but 

^ The people stood^ the knights sat; T. seems to speak of the " ways per 

hence below, " the seat." proclivum," " going dov.n the steps of 

" The " barriers," balthei, " belts," the amphitheatre," as distinct, 

seem to have been a solid fence round * Women's seats, " fceminege cathe- 

the part of the circus where the specta- drge", are mentioned by Calpurnius ap. 

tor stood, (cunei,) and to have been the Lips. c. 13. 
same as the " preecinctiones," Vitruv. 



Shows idolatrous in all their circumstances ; line of proof. 19:5 

judgeth every sinful nation ^ ; and so, ascending from special 
to general, .Egypt and Ethiopia are every nation that 
sinneth ; as also with respect to the origin of the j)iiblic 
shows, He calleth every show the council of the luigodly^ 
descending from general to special. 

IV. Lest any one should think that we are cavilling, I 
will turn to our chief authority, that of our very seal. When, 
having entered into the water, we profess the Christian 
Faith according to the words of its own appointment, we 
bear witness with our mouth that we have renounced the 
devil, his pomp, and his angels^. Now what will be the 
chief and principal thing in which ' the devil and his pomp 
and his angels' are accounted to be? what but idolatry? 
from whence (so to speak, for I shall dwell no longer on this 
point) Cometh every unclea.n and evil spirit. Wherefore if it 
shall be proved that the whole apparatus of the shows 
consisteth in idolatry % without doubt it will be already 
determined that the renouncement which we profess at our 
leashing pertaineth to the shows" also, which are put in Tit. 3,5- 
subjection to ' the devil, and his pomp, and his angels,' 

to wit, through idolatry. We will declare the ' origin' of 
each, in what cradles they have grown up in the world; 
next the ' titles' of some, by what names they are called; 
next the ' equipments,' with what superstitions they are fitted 
out; then the ' places,' to what patrons they are dedicated; 
the ' performances,' to what authors they are attributed. If 
there be any of these things which appertaineth not to 
an idol, this will neither appertain to idolatry, nor to our 
abjuration. 

V. Touching the ' origin,' as being somewhat obscure and 
unknown amongst the greater part of our brethren, we must 
carry our search higher, and to no other source than the 
materials of Heathen writings. There are many authors 
in our hands, who have put forth notices on this matter. 
By these the origin of games is thus handed down to us. 



y See adv. .Tud. c. 9. * Apol. c. 38. " idolatry', the mother 

* See on de Cor. c. 3. Auct. de Spect. of all games," de Spect. c. 3. 

ap, Cypv. c. 5. S. Chrys. (Hom. 3. c. *> Chrya. and Salvian, de Gub. 1. 6. 

Ignav. init. t. ii. p. 265.) calls them ap. Lac. 

" the pomp of the devil." 



194 Idolatrous ^ origin^ of shows. 

De Timaeus*^ relateth that the Lydians, passing over from Asia, 
Y] 5* settled in Etruria under their leader Tyrrhenus'', who had 
yielded to his brother in the contest for the kingdom. 
Wherefore they establish in Etruria, among other rites 
of their own superstition, public shows also, in the name of 
Religion. Thence the Romans'" fetch and borrow their 
players, the season of their games, and their name, so that 
they were called from the Lydians ' ludi.' And although 
Varro deriveth the sense of ' ludi' from ' Indus,' that is from 
sport, as also they were wont to call the Lupercal rites 
' games,' because they ran about in game, yet he accounteth 
this sport of the young men^ as belonging to holy days, and 
temples, and solemnities. Nothing need now' be said of the 
reason of the name, so long as the reason of the thing is 
idolatry. For whereas games were called, in the mass, 
' Liberalia,' they manifestly in their name spoke of honour 
done to father Liber; for they were first established in 
honour of Bacchus by the countrymen, in return for the 
benefit which they ascribe to him in discovering^ to them 
the gift of wine. Next were games calied Consualia, which 
in the beginning were in honour of Neptune ; for him they 
call also Consus. After that a certain Romulus appointed 
the Equiria in honour of Mars, though they claim the 
Consualia also for Romulus, because he dedicated them to 
Consus, the God, as they will have it, of counsel''; to wit, 
that counsel* whereby he devised at that time the rape of 
the Sabine virgins, as wives for his soldiers. A righteous 
counsel truly ! and even at this day a thing just and lawful 
in the eyes of the Romans themselves; I would not say 
in the eyes of God. For this also helpeth to stain the 
* origin,' so that thou canst not deem that good which took 
its rise from evil, from shamelessness, from violence, from 
hatred, from a fratricide, from a son of Mars, as its author. 
And at this day there is in the Circus, at the head of the 



« Sieulus ; " longe eruditissimus," ^ Arnob. iii. p. 113. Aug. de Civ. D. 

Cic. de Orat. ii. 14. iv. 11. 

<» Herod, i. 94. Plin. iii. 5. ^ Liv. i. 9. Plut. in Rom. Varro de 

e Liv. vii. 2. Ling- Lat. 1. v. Cypr. de Tdol. Van. 

f Plutarch in Cses. ap. Her. Digr. c. 2. p. 14. Oxf. Tr. Jerome in Vit. 

i. 19. Hilar. §.20. 

8 Apol. c. 11. 



Titles nf shows idolatrous, as derived from r/ods or dead me?]. 11>5 

course, an altar to this Consus buried under grounds with an 
inscription to this effect: ' Consus lord of counsel, Mars of 
war', the I.ares of the inmost chambers.' At this altar the 
public priests sacrifice on the nones of July, the priest of 
Romulus and the virgins on the twelfth day before the 
kalends of September. Next, this same Romulus established 
games for Jupiter Feretrius on the Tarpeian hill, which Piso 
saith w^ere called the Tarpeian and the Capitoline games. 
After him, Numa Pompilius did the same for Mars and 
Rubigo "', for they feigned that even Rust" was a goddess. 
Next, Tullus Hostilius, then Ancus Martins, and the rest. 
Who they w^ere, and how many, that one after another esta- 
blished games, and in honour of what idols, is set forth 
in Suetonius Tranquillus, or those from whom Tranquillus 
had his story. But this will be enough to convict the 
' origin' of idolatry. 

VI. To this testimony of ancient times, is added that of 
the posterity following in its turn; shewing the character of 
the ' origin' on the very face of the ' titles' used even in the 
present day, by which it is stamped upon them to what idol, 
and to w^hat superstition, the games of either sort" were 
distinguished as belonging. For the Megalensian, the Apol- 
linarian, the Cerealian also, and the Neptunalian, the 
Latiarian and the Floralian are celebrated in common; the 
rest of the games owe their superstitious observance to the 
birth-days and other solemn days of kings, and public suc- 
cesses'', and municipal festivals; among which, the exhi- 
bitions enjoined by wills pay funeral honours to the memories 
even of private men, and this too according to ancient 
custom; for from the very beginning the games were 
reckoned of two sorts, the sacred and the funereal, in honour, 
that is, of the gods of the nations and of the dead. But as 
touching idolatry it maketh no difference to us, under what 

^ Plut. in Eom. de L. L. 1. 5. A. Gell. v. 12. 

1 duello, the old name (as being in an " The Theatre and the Circus, see 

inscription) for helium Varro de L. L. c.lO.beg. They are joined by S.Chrys. 

1. vi. Horn. 15. ad Pop. Ant, iait.t. li. p. 152. 

^ Plin. xviii. 29. Salvian de Gub. 1. 6. Juv. Sat. 8, 118. 

*» Eobigo; supposed to affect iron as ap. Lac. 

well as corn, Ov. Fast. iv. 923 sqq. P Suet, in Vesp. " extraordinary 

[Tr.] Lact. i. 20. Aug. de Civ. D. iv. games for his German victory." 
22. a god Eobigvis is named by Varro 

o 2 



196 Idolatiy in outfit of the games^ lohefher splendid or poo?', 

De name and ' title' it is, so long as it appertaineth to the same 
VI. 7. spii'its, which we renounce, although dead. They may pay 
honours to their gods, just as well as they pay them to their 
dead. The real nature of the two cases is the same, the 
idolatry is the same, and our renouncement of the idolatry is 
the same. 

VII. The games of either sort have a common ' origin' 
and common ' titles,' as arising from common causes ; for 
the same reason they must needs have common ' equipments,' 
derived from the general guilt of the idolatry w^hich founded 
them. But to whom belongeth the somevvhat more pompous 
outfit of the games of the Circus, (which the name of 
* pomp"*' well befitteth,) the pomp which goeth before them 
doth in itself prove ■■, by the long line of images % by the 
host of statues, by the chariots, by the sacred carriages, by 
the cars, by the chairs', by the crowns, by the robes". 
What rites besides, what sacrifices go before, come between, 
and follow after ; how many colleges, how many priesthoods, 
how many offices are set in motion, the men of that city 
know, in which the council of the diiimons sitteth''. If these 
things are performed in the provinces with inferior pains, in 
proportion to their inferior means, yet are all the games of 
the Circus every where to be accounted of, according to the 
source whence they are derived ; they are defiled by that 
from which they are taken. For the narrow streamlet from 
its own fountain, the little twig from its own tree, containeth 
the quality of its source. No matter for its grandeur or its 
cheapness ; the pomp of the Circus, be it what it may, 
offendeth God. Though there be but few images carried 

1 Probat, a conjecture, seemingly, of " proving of itself by the long line," &c. 

Rig. The Edd. have " Circ. sugges- "■ Ov.Fast. iv. 391. Varro de L. L. 

tiis, quibus proprie hoc nomen ' pompa,' iv. p. 37. ed. Var. Cic. Off. 1. 1. 36. 

praece^/i^, quorum sit in semet ipsa pro- Suet. Aug. c. lU. ap. Lac. see also, 

bans." " But the somewhat more pom- very fully, Onesiphor. Panvin. de ludis 

pons apparatus of the games of the Cii'c. ii. 2. ap. Grav. t. ix. Bulenger 

circus, (to w^hich this name 'pomp' de Circo Rom. c.38. Facciol. v. pompa. 

speciallybelongeth,)holds the first place, « of the gods, Dion. Hal. 1. vii. 

proving whose it is, by the long line," t of the gods, Appian. de Bell. Civ. 

&c. Prsecedit, however, can scarcely be 1. 3. c. 28. Dio. 1. 43. 44. ap. Her. 1. c. 

so used, when nothing foUoweth. A. has " exuvia^. T. uses it of more splendid 

" Tpradccf/ens" with Rig. but " ^robans" apparel, (de Pall.c. 4.) and peculiarly of 

with the Edd. This might be ren- the gods. Festus v. Tensa. Apul. Miles, 

dered; "butsomewhat more pompous is xi. ap. Her. 

the apparatus, &c. — a pomp preceding,'' ^ Rome and the Capitol, see Apol. 

(i. e. before the games themselves,] c. 6. p. 16. c. 13. fin. p. 32. 



All the fabrics of the Circus, idolatrous in origin. 197 

about in it, there is idolatry in even one : though there be 
but one sacred carriage drawn ^ it is nevertheless the carriage 
of Jupiter. Every idolatrous show, however meanly or 
frugally furnished, is sumptuous and gorgeous in the amount 
of its sinfulness. 

VIII. To treat of 'places' also', according to my plan,iUtet 
the Circus is chiefly dedicated to the Sun, whose temple is*'^*'^^^ 
in the midst of the ground \ and whose image riseth con- 
spicuous above the roof of the temple, because they did not 
think that he, whom they have in the open air, ought to 
have his image consecrated under a covering \ Those who 
derive the first of these shows from Circe", affirm that it was 
celebrated in honour of her own father the Sun ; from her 
also they contend that the name of Circus cometh. Well 
then, the enchantress did, under the name, the work of those 
surely whose priestess she was; to wit, the daemons and the 
angels. How many idolatries then dost thou observe in the 
fashion of the place itself.? each single ornament of the 
Circus is in itself a temple. The eggs "* those assign to the 
honour of Castor and Pollux, who blush not in believing 
that these were born of an egg from a swan which was 
Jupiter. The pillars vomit forth their dolphins ^ in honour 
of Neptune ; they support their Sessise, so called from the 
sowing of the seed, their Messiae from the harvest, their 
Tutelinae from the protection of the fruits'*. In front of 
these appear three altars to three gods, mighty and powerful^: 
these they consider to be of Samothrace. The enormous 
obelisk, as Hermateles affirmeth, is publicly exposed in 
honour of the Sun^: its inscription is a superstition from 
^gypt, whence also its origin. The council of the gods 
were dull without their Great Mother: she therefore pre- 
sideth there over the Euripus ". Consus, as we have said, 
lieth buried beneath the earth at the Murcian goal: even 

y Tac. I. XV. fin. J Plin. xviii. 2. Macrob. Sat. i. 16. 

* Vitruv. i. 2. Aug. de Civ. D. iv. 8. ib. 

« The Greeks; the Romans from ^ Macr. Sat. iii. 4. Varro de Ling, 

the " circuit." Isidor. xviii. 28. Lat. iv. p. 37. ib. 

b Whereby the close of the course ^ Plin. xxxvi. 9. Cassiod. 1. iii. Ep. 

was marked (Yarro de Ee Rust. i. 2. 61. Amm. Marc. 1. xvii. ib. 

Dio xlix. fin. ap. Lac.) introduced S An artificial lake for naval games. 

A. U.C. 581. Liv. 41, 27. Cassiod. 1. c. Spartian in Heliog. ib. 

c Dio 1. c. Juv. vi. 580. 



198 All places fall ofidoh ; any may he entered^ if not for idolatry. 

De this goal he maketh an idol, for they will have it that 
VT. 9. Murcia is the Goddess of languor ^, to whom they have 
devoted a temjde in that spot. Think, O Christian, how 
many unclean names possess the Circus ! Foreign to thee is 
that religion, which so many spirits of the Devil have taken 
unto themselves. The subject of places we have here a 
place for discussing, in anticipation of a question from 
certain persons. For thou sayest, ' Well : if I should go to 
the Circus at any other time, shall I be in danger of defile- 
ment ?' There is no prescription against particular places : 
for the servant of God can approach not only these meeting- 
places for the shows, but even the temples themselves, with- 
out peril to his religion, so that the cause which calleth him 
thither be an honest one, and one which appertaineth not to 
the proper business or duties of the place. Besides, the 
streets*, the forum'', the baths', the stables ™, nay our very 
dwellings ", are not altogether free from idols. Satan and his 
angels have filled the wliole world. It is not however be- 
cause we are in the world, that we fall from God, but when 
we touch aught of the sinful things of the world. Where- 
fore, if I enter the Capitol, or the temple of Serapis, as a 
sacrificer or a w^orshipper, I shall fall from God, as also if I 
enter the Circus or the theatre as a spectator. It is not the 
places in themselves that defile, but the things which are 
done in the places, by which we have argued that the places 
are themselves defiled : i\\ej are denied by the defiled. It 
is for this reason that we declare, to whom such places are 
dedicated, that we may shew that the things which are done 
in those places appertain to those to whom the places are 
dedicated. 

IX. Now for the ' performances' wherewith the games of 

the Circus are exhibited. In older times equestrian exercise 

' de i\ox- was practised simply on horseback ^, and certainly the 

stored common use thereof was without guilt. But when it was 

'' Aug. de Civ. D. iv. 16. Aruob. iv. ^ S. Ainbr. Ep. 18. ad Valentin. 

p. 182. §.31. " Suffice them not, the baths, the 

* Lucian in Prometh. (ap. Her. Digr. porticoes, the streets thronged with 

i. 1-1.) " All the streets are full of images?" 
Jove." ™ See Apol. c. 17. as to the Goddess 

^ " Tlie gods — the guardians of the Hippona or Kpona. 
forum." ^sch. Sept. e. Theb. 2.58. ed. " See de Idol. c. 15. 
J3iomf. and others in the note ib. n. 



^Performances' in the Circus idolatrous. 199 

pressed into the games, from being a gift of God it passed 
over to the service of devils. Wherefore this department is 
assigned to Castor and Pollux", to whom Stesichorus teacheth 
that horses were given by Mercury. But Neptune is also a 
god of horses, whom the Greeks call Hippius. Chariots with 
four horses they have consecrated to the Sun, those with 
two to the Moon. Verily also 

" First P to his chariots Ericthonius dared 
" To yoke four horses, and on rapid wheels 
" Upborne, to ride a victor." 

Ericthonius, the son of Minerva and Vulcan, engendered too 
by mishap upon the earth, is a devilish monster, yea a very 
devil himself, and not a serpent*^. But if Trochilus of Argos 
be the inventor of the chariot, he hath consecrated this his 
work to Juno, the guardian of his country. If Romulus first 
shewed at Rome the carriage with four horses, methinks he 
also is enrolled among the idols, if he be the same as 
Quirinus. Chariots, being by such inventors brought into 
use, with good reason caused the charioteers also to be 
clothed in the colours of idolatry. For at the first there 
were two horses only, white and red^ The white was 
sacred to the winter because of the white snow, the red to 
the summer because of the redness of the Sun. But after- 
wards, when luxury as well as superstition had advanced in 
growth, some consecrated the red to Mars, others the white 
to the Zephyrs, and a green one moreover to the Mother 
Earth or to the Spring, an azure one to the Heaven and the 
Sea or to the Autumn. But seeing that every sort of 
idolatry is condemned of God, surely this also is condemned, 
which is the unhallowed offering to the elements of the 
universe. 

X. Pass we now to the stage, which we have already 
shewn to have the same * origin' and like ' titles,' according 
as the names and the performance of the games were from 

o Virg. Georg. iii. 89. Solin. p. 902.) Cedrenus, p. 231, Isido- 

P Virg. Georg. iii. 113 sq. rus xviii. 41. says that the four colours 

q He was represented with serpents had reference to the four elements ; so 

for feet; emblems, T.imphes,of Satan, the Chron. Alex. ap. Lac. Cassiodoras, 

' The colours were those of the trap- 1. 3. Ep. 51. mentions the reference to 

pings of the horses. the seasons, (ib.) 
• Joannes Antioch. (ap. Salmas. ad 



' vitio 
retitored 



200 Romans ivitjiesscs against their theatres — temples of Venus. 

De the beginning conjoined with the exercises of horsemanship, 
YI. 17. The ' equipments' also are of the same sort in that depart- 
ment which belongeth to the stage. For men go from the 
temples and the altars and that unhappy scene of incense 
and blood, amid pipes and trumpets, and with those two 
most filthy masters of funeral rites and sacrifices, the 
undertaker' and the soothsayer. Wherefore as from the 
' origin' of games we pass to the games of the circus, so 
now we bend our course to the plays of the stage, beginning 
with the eviP of the * place.' The theatre is especially the 
shrine of Venus. In fact it was in this manner that this 
sort of performance came up in the world. For the censors " 
were often wont to destroy, in their very birth, the theatres 
more than any other thing, consulting for the morals of the 
people, as foreseeing a great peril accruing to them from 
licentiousness. So that from this very fact their own 
opinion, which maketh for us, may serve as a testimony 
to the Gentiles, and this precedent of even a human rule 
of dut^f may serve to strengthen our own. And therefore 
Pompey the Great, less only than his own theatre, when 
he had built up that strong-hold of every vice, fearing that 
the censors might one day cast reflections on his memory, 
placed over it a tem.pie of Venus", and summoning the 
people by a proclamation to the dedication ^, called it not a 
theatre, but a temple of Venus, ' under which,' said he, 
* we have put rows of seats for the shows.' Thus did he 
cloak this damned and damnable work under the name of a 
temple, and by the aid of superstition eluded the rule. 
But there is fellowship between Venus and Bacchus : these 
two daemons of drunkenness and lust have conspired and 
leagued together. Wherefore the theatre of Venus is also 
the house of Bacchus. For they called by the special name 
' Liberaiia' others also of the sports of the stage, besides 
those which were consecrated to Bacchus, (as there are 



^ The designator (designator Prsetor, men, see Apol. c. 13. below, c. 10. 13. 

Plaut. Psenul. Prol.) in the theatre " Val. Max. ii. 4. Aug. de Civ. D. 

kept order and assigned the seats ; T. ii. 5. 

takes occasion of the other use of the ^ Venus Victrix, Phit. in Vit. Plin. 

term in funeral rites (see Hor. Ep. i. 7. viii. 7. Suet. Claud, c 21. ap Lac. 

6.) to hint that the gods in whose X Plin. 1. c. 
honour the games were, were dead 



^ Performance.^' of stage dedicated to^ and invented hy^ daemons. 201 

also the Dionysia among the Greeks,) those namely which 
were instituted by Bacchus. And clearly the patronage of 
Bacchus and of Venus is likewise over the ' performances' of 
the stage. Whatever there be peculiar and proper to the 
stage, with respect to the dissoluteness^ and postures of the' 
body, they consecrate to the soft nature of Venus and of 
Bacchus, the one dissolute through her sex, the other 
through his wantonness; while such things as are done by 
the voice, by music, by wind and stringed instruments, have 
for their patrons Apollos and Muses and Minervas and 
Mercuries. Thou must hate. Christian, those things, the 
inventors whereof thou canst not but hate. We would now 
subjoin somewhat concerning the ' performances,' and the 
things, the inventors whereof we detest even in their names. 
We know that the names of the dead are nothing, as are 
their images ; but we are not ignorant who those are, that, 
when images are set up under these names, w^ork, and 
rejoice, and pretend to a divine nature, namely wicked 
spirits, daemons. V^'e see therefore that the ' performances' 
also are dedicated to the honour of those vvho occupy the 
names of the inventors, and are not free from idolatry, seeing 
that even those who instituted them are on that account 
esteemed gods. Indeed as concerning the ' performances,' 
we ought to have taken our rule from an earlier source, and 
to have said that the daemons, from the beginning, providing 
for themselves, among other appurtenances of idolatry, the 
delilements also of the shows, whereby they might draw 
away man from God, and bind him to their own service, 
inspired him also with the genius for this sort of handiwork. 
For that which was to belong to them, would not have been 
provided by any others ; nor would they at the time have 
brought them into the world by means of any other men, 
than those very persons in whose names, images, and 
histories, they had, with the view of trafficking for them- 
selves, set up the cheat of a consecration. 

XL To proceed in order, let us enter upon an ex- 
amination of the agonistic games likewise. Their ' origin' 
is akin to that of the games afore-mentioned, wherefore these 
also are either sacred or funeraP institutions, and consecrated 

« See above, c. 6. 



1 tiuxu 
eittixed 



'202 Shoics of gladiators, human sacrifices to appease the dead; 

De either to the gods of the nations or the dead. Hence their 
YT. 12. ^ titles:' the Olympian, (which at Rome are the Capitoline) 
to Jupiter : likewise the Nemean to Hercules, the Isthmian 
to Neptune : the rest of the games, to the dead. What 
wonder then if idolatry defile the ' equipments' of the 
games with its profane crowns, with its j)residing priests, 
with its collegiate ministers, and lastly with the blood of 
bulls itself. Let me add also as touching the ' place,' — used as 
it is as the common place, in the stead of a college of the Arts, of 
the Muses, and of Minerva, and of Apollo ; of Mars likewise, 
by means of the battle and the trumpet, — they strive to 
imitate the circus in their stadium, which in fact is itself 
also a temple, of that idol whose solemn rites it celebrate th. 
Moreover the rites of their Castors, their Hercules's, and 
their Mercuries have brought gymnastic ' performances' also 
into practice. 

XII. It remaineth to consider the show, the most 
^munus acceptable to the most illustrious. It is called a ' service^' 
2officiumfrom the ' office' performed, since ^ office^' is another v/ord 
for ' service ;' and the ancients considererd that in this show 
they performed an office towards the dead, after that they 
had tempered it by a more humanized cruelty. For 
formerly, since it was believed that the souls of the dead 
were propitiated by human blood, they bought and sacri- 
ficed, during their funeral rites, captives or slaves of a bad 
description. Afterwards it was thought fit to disguise this 
impiety under the cloak of pleasure. Those therefore whom 
they had prepared, trained up in such arms and in such 
manner as they were then able, provided only they learned 
how to be killed *", on the appointed day of the funeral — 
sacrifices they consumed at the place of burial. Thus they 
consoled themselves for death by murders. Such is the 
' origin' of this service. But by degrees they advanced to 
that which was charming in proportion as it was cruel, for 
beasts could not be sufficiently pleased, unless it were by 
beasts too that the bodies of men were torn in pieces. 

* Interpunction changed; " quod dered yet more so by the imitation of 

iitique templum est et ipsum, ejus the Circus, 

idoli." T. means that the " stadium" ^ Cypr. ad Don. §. 6. 
was itself a place of idolatry, but ren- 



ichcii in honor of the living^ atill idolatrous; temples ofdce.mons. 203 

What therefore was offered to appease the dead, was put 
forsooth to the account of funeral obsequies, which kind of 
thing is idolatry, since idolatry also is a kind of funeral 
obsequy'': the one ministereth as much as the other to the 
dead. But in the images of the dead, if we consider the 
' titles' too, daemons exist : although this kind of public 
exhibition hath passed from the honours of the dead to the 
honours of the living, — I mean to Qusestorships'' and 
Magistracies, and the offices of Flamens and Priests : yet 
since the dignity of the name lieth under the charge of 
idolatry^, it must needs be that whatsoever is performed 
in the name of that dignity, shares also the defilements of 
that from which it taketh its rise. We will take the same 
view of the ' equipments,' which are to be accounted among 
the appendages of these very honours, since their purple 
robes, their bands, their fillets, their crowns, finally their 
speeches'^ and edicts^, and their messes the day before'', are 
not without the pomp of the Devil, and the bidding of 
daemons. Why should I speak at length of the horrid"' 
* place' of the show, which even false oaths cannot abide "* ? 
For the ampliitheatre is consecrated to deities more numerous 
and more barbarous than the Capitol. It is the temple of all 
daemons. As many unclean spirits there sit together as the 
place containeth men. To speak finally of the ' per- 
formances' also, we know that Mars and Diana are the 
presiding deities of each game. 

c since the idols were of the dead, Sat. ii. 18. 

as above, c. 10. ^ i. e. the day before the show, when 

d iu that shows of gladiators were those who fought with beasts supped 

given on the appointment to the QucPS- publicly, see Apol. c. 42. Pultes, the 

torship, (Capitol, in Anton. Spartiau in ancient food of the Romans, were 

Get., by law, Tac. Ann. xi. 22. specially used in the funeral feasts, see 

abolished, ib. xiii. 5.) and the other Arn. vii. v. fin. p. 24-2. 

of&ces, see in Lips. Sat. i. 9. quoted * i. e. (as note d,) (p^ixahs, whereat 

by Lac. nien would shudder. 

« since all these dignities were in ^ i. e. as follows, on account of the 

some way subservient to idolatry. Lac. number and dreadfulness of the daemons 

f in which notice was given of the then assembled, it being the custom of 

shows, perhaps with some'reference to false-swearers to heap up the names of 

the occasion, as in Suet, in Jul. c. 26. the gods^ and the most aweful invoca- 

" he solemnly announced (pronuntiavit) tions, (ras (p^ixuhjTTaTaf xXmt's, Philo 

a show to the people in m'emory of his in Decal. ap. Her. Uigr. i. 5.) The 

dauo-hter." dreadfulness of the da-mons T. infers 

e°in which the details of the show from the dreadfulness of the sins con- 
were given, " edictum et ludorum centrated there ; their number from the 
ordiuem," Sen. Ep. 119. ap. Lips, number of those whom they beset. 



204 Shows more directly pollute the soul than things offered to idols. 

De XTIT. We have, methinks, sufficiently completed our 
Spect. course of proof, in how many and in what ways the shovvs 

are guilty of idolatry, in respect of their ' origins,' ' titles,' 

' equipments,' ' places,' * sacrifices,' whereby ' we are well 
assured that they do in no wise assort with us, who have 
1 Cor twice™ renounced idols: ??ot that an idol is any tiling, (as 
10, 19. saith the Apostle,) hut that the things ivhich they sacrifice^ 
tliey sacrijice to devils, who dwell (that is) in the consecrated 
images, v.hether of dead men, or, as they suppose, of gods. 
On this account therefore, since both kinds of idols are of 
one class, seeing that their dead and their gods are one, we 
abstain from both kinds of idolatry, and abominate temples 
no less than monuments: we acknowledge neither altar; 
adore neither image ; offer no sacrifice ; make no oblation to 
the dead : nay we eat not of that which hath been sacrificed 
or offered to the dead, because we cannot eat of the Supper 
ver. 21. of God and the supper of devils. If therefore we keep the 
throat and the belly free from defilements, how^ much rather 
do we refrain our more honourable parts, the eyes and the 
ears, from the pleasures dedicated to idols and to the dead, 
w^hich are not carried through us by the stomach, but are 
digested within the very spirit and soul, the cleanness of 
which pertaineth more to God than doth that of the 
stomach ! 

XIV. Having thus introduced the name of idolatry, the 
suggestion of which alone ought to be enough to make us 
renounce these show^s, let us now treat the question super- 
fluously, in another w^ay, for the sake of those especially, 
who flatter themselves on the ground that such abstinence is 
not enjoined by name, as though sufficient declaration were 
1 John ^^^^ made touching the shows, when the lusts of the tvorld 
2' 16- are condemned. For as there is a lust of money, or of 
honour, or of gluttony, or of lasciviousness, or of glory, so 
likewise is there a lust of pleasure. But the shows are 
a kind of pleasure. Methinks the general name of lusts 

^ " de sacrificiis, quo" Edd. " quod" (the ' artes' being omitted,) and sacri- 

A. whence Rig. conjectures, "desacrifi- fiees had been mentioned, c. 7. 10. and 

ciisquidem," " As to sacrifices indeed." indeed the shows of gladiators (c. 12.) 

The preceding however is no precise were founded on human sacrifices, 

enumeration of the heads, to which he ^ when admitted as Catechumens, 

had referred the idolatry of the shows, and at Baptism, see de Cor. c. 3. 



Peace andgentlenessdiie^iohcreHolySjnritis ; disturbed by sJioR-!>;^{)'y 

containeth in itself pleasures also : in like manner pleasures, 
generally understood, embrace the special division of shows. 
But we have before made mention of the character of the 
' places' for the shows, that they do not of themselves 
defile us, but by reason of the things which are done 
therein, through which as soon as they have drank in 
defilement, they straightway cast it forth again in the other 
direction. 

XV. To speak no more then (as we have before said) of 
their chief title, idolatry, let us contrast the other qualities 
of the things themselves with all those of God. God hath 
taught us to deal with the Holy Spirit,-as being according to Eph. 4, 
the goodness of His Nature, tender and delicate-tranquilly, and * ' 
gently, and quietly, and peaceably : not to disquiet Him by 
madness, nor by wrath, nor by anger, nor by grief. How 
shall this possibly accord with the shows ? For there is no 
show" without disturbance of spirit. For where there is 
pleasure there is also partiality, through means of which, 
in fact, pleasure hath its relish. Where there is partiaHty, 
there is also rivalry, through which partiality hath its relish. 
Moreover also where there is rivalry, there is both madness, 
and wrath, and anger, and grief, and all the rest that cometh 
of these, which, like these, assort not with the rule of religion. 
For even though one enjoy the shows moderately and 
virtuously, according to the character of his rank, or age, 
or even natural disposition, yet is he not of an imperturbable 
mind and without some hidden passion of the spirit. No 
one cometh unto pleasure without affection. No one feeleth 
affection without its incidents. These very incidents are the 
incitements of the affection. But if the affection faileth, 
there is no pleasure, and he is now guilty of trifling in 
going thither where he gaineth nothing : and I think that 
wdth us, even trifling hath no place. What if he himself 
judge himself in sitting amongst those, whom, not wishing 
to be like them, he, without doubt, confesseth that he doth 
abominate ! It is not enough for us that we ourselves do no 
such thing, unless we shun the conversation of those who do 
such things. When thou saicest a thie/\ saith the Scripture, 
thou conseutedst tin to him. I would that we did not even 
dwell witli such in the world ; but yet in the things of the world i John 

*, 15. 



*>0(> * Madness' specially belongs to the shows, 

De we are separate from them ; for the world is of God, but the 

Spfpt 

VI. 16. things of the world are of the Devil. 

XVI. When therefore madness is forbidden us, we are 
prohibited every show, even the Circus, where madness 
peculiarly presideth". Behold the people coming to the 
show, already full of madness, already tumultuous, already 
blind, already agitated about their wagers". The Praetor is 
too slow for them. Their eyes are ever rolling with the lots 
within his urn. Then they are in anxious suspense for the 
signal. The common madness hath a common voice. I 
perceive their madness from their trifling. ^ He hath thrown 
il,' they say, and announce to each other what was seen at 
once by sM, I possess the evidence of their blindness. 
They see not what is thrown: they think it a handkerchief; 
but it is the gullet of the Devil cast down from on high. 
From thence therefore they go on to fury, passions, and 
dissensions, and whatsoever is unlawful for priests^ of peace. 
Then come cursings, revilings, without just cause of hatred; 
and so too approving voices without just cause of favour. 
For what good can those, who are therein engaged, gain to 

" ^' Madness" became a technical because they cursed the faction, which 

term in designating the Circus. Thus, he favoured, (Suet. Vit.c. 14.) Caraealla 

Apol. c. 38. &c. Minut. F. p. 344. did the same for some jest on a favourite 

Salvian, 1. vi. Jer. Ep. 43. (ol. 18.) ad charioteer, (Herodian, iv. p. 95. ed. 

Marcell. fin. Lact. vi. 20. ap. Lac. and Steph.) Gibbon also relates the savage- 

Arnob. vii. " insaniam ;" Sil. Ital. ness of the period which led to the 

Fluctuat sequoreo fremitu rabieque. abolition of the '^ factions," in his pain- 

faventum, ful way, c. 40. §. 2. 

Carceribus nondum resolutis, mobile *> Amm. Marc. 1. 28. " On the 

vulgus . longed-for day of the Equestrian games, 

S. Ambr. in Ps. 39. §. 4. *' False phren- ere the clear ray of the sun yet shine, 

zies are, either — or the dissensions in all hurry headlong, outpoured, as 

the theatrical contests, or the party- though they would out-speed the very 

eagerness of the games of the Circus, chariots which are to contend, on the 

full of fury," [furoris.] Dio Chrys. issue of which their eager longings 

ad Alex. (ap. Panvin. ii. 16.) '' But being torn different ways, very many 

we leaping, /nad (fittivo/xsvet)^ striking from anxiety pass sleepless nights," &c. 
each other, speaking things not to P All Christians being a " royal 

be uttered, and often railing against priesthood." 1 Pet. 2, 9. Rev. 1,6. to 

the very gods, and sometimes going which T. refers, de Monog. c. 7. de 

naked from the show." So S. Greg. Exh. Cast. c. 7. (comp. adv. Marc. iii. 

Naz. Or. 36. (al. 27.) de se-ipso fin. 7. adv. Jud. c. 14.) The promotion of 

ftifittvivat Instances are given by " peace" being one object of their 

Onuphr. Panvin. de Lud. Circ. i. 10, office, he may call them '' priests of 

11. from the times of the first Em- peace" as Christian women, " priest- 

perors; and Bulenger de Circ. Eom. esses of chastity," (de Cult. Fem. ii. 

c. 47 — 4i>. (ap. Grsev. Thes. t. ix.) 12.) without excluding the priestly cha- 

The author of de Spect. ap. Cypr. c. 6. racter of all Christians, as distinct from 

speaks of the " lites in coloribus." the priestly office, (de Virg. Vel. c. 9. 

Vitellius massacred some of the people de Prjescr. c. 41. fin.) 



Immodesty of theatres too shuckinrj to be spoken of. «207 

themselves, who are not themselves, unless perchance it be 
that alone, by means of which they are not themselves ? By 
the ill fortmie of another are they grieved : by the good 
fortune of another are they rejoiced. All that they desire, 
all that they abominate, is foreign to themselves: so that 
with them love is idle, and hatred unjust. Can it haply ^ be^forsitan 
as lawful to love without a cause, as to hate without a cause? ^^*'^'^ 
Of a surety, God, Who commaudeth that enemies be loved, Mat. 5, 
forbiddeth to hate even with a cause : God, Who teacheth ' 
that those who curse should be blessed, sufFereth not to 
curse even with a cause. But what is more bitter than the 
Circus, wherein they spare not even their rulers nor their 
own citizens''.? If any of those doings, wherewith the Circus 
hath gone mad, be elsewhere fitting for the saints, it vrill be 
lawful in the Circus also : but if no where, therefore not in 
the Circus. 

XVII. In like manner also we are commanded to love no 
immodesty. By this means therefore we are cut off from the 
theatre' likewise, which is the private council-chamber of 
immodesty, wherein nothing is approved save that which 
elsewhere is disapproved. Wherefore its chief grace is for 
the most part finely framed out of filthy lewdness, such as 
the Atellan acteth, such as the buffoon representeth even 
under the character of women, banishing their distinctive 
modesty, so that they may blush at home more easily than at 
the theatre; such as finally the pantomime submitteth to 
in his own body from his childhood, that he may be able to 
be an actor. The very harlots also, the victims of the public 
lust, are brought forward on the stage, more wretched in the 
presence of women, from whom alone they were \^'ont to 
conceal themselves, and are bandied about by the mouths of 
every age and every rank: their abode, their price, their 
description, even in matters of which it is not good to speak, 
is proclaimed. I pass over the rest in silence*, which indeed 

1 Apol. c. 35. Lact. 1. vi. Theodoric things, those obscenities of words, those 

Ep. ad Specios. ap. Cassiod. Variar. revolting motions, that foulness of ges- 

1. 1. (quoted by Panvin. c. 11.) " Cato"s tures ? Whose exceeding sinfulness 

come not to shows. — The place pleads may be collected even from this, that 

for excess, whose garrulity if they bear they preclude even their being spoken 

patiently, it is a glory to princes them- of! The impurities of the theatres 

selves." alone are such, that they admit not 

' Apol. 0. 38. even of being censured with purity." 

• " Who without violating modesty Salvian, 1. 6. comp. de Spect. ap. Cypr. 

could speak of those imitations of foul c. 8. 



208 Wiat may not he done, sfiGuld not he looked on, or listened to. 

De it were fitting should remain hid in its own darkness and 
^j^ jg- dens, lest it pollute the day. Blush the senate ! Blush all 

ranks ! let the very women, the destroyers of their own 

modesty, shudder^ at their doings before the light and the 

public, and blush this once within the year''. But if all 

immodesty is to be abominated by us, why should it be 

Eph. 5, lawful to hear those things, which it is not lanfid to speak, 

]^'^ . when we know that even foolish jestljig and every rain word 

Mat. 12, {^judged by God ? Why in like manner should it be lawful 

to behold the things, which it is sin to do ? Wby are those 

Mark?, things, which when coming forth from the moiitli, defde the 

man, thought not to defile the man when entering in by the 

eyes and the ears ? seeing that the eyes and the ears wait 

upon the spirit, and one cannot be presented clean, whose 

attendants are unclean. 

XVIII. Thou hast therefore, in the prohibition of immo- 
desty, the prohibition of the theatre also. But if we despise 
likewise the teaching of this world's learning, as being 
1 Cor. accounted foolishness before God, we have here a sufficient 
3, 19. j.^|g concerning those kinds of shows also, which, by means 
of the writings of this world, make up the plays or the 
games of the stage. But if tragedies and comedies are the 
originators* of crimes and lusts, bloody and lascivious, 
impious and extravagant, that which commemorateth a thing 
atrocious and vile, is itself in no wise better. That which is 
rejected in the doing, ought not to be listened to in the 
recital. But if thou contendest that the race course is even 
1 Cor. named in the Scriptures, thou shalt have that indeed granted: 
' ■ but thou wilt not deny that the things are unfit for thee 
to behold, which are enacted in the race course, the blows, 
and the kicks, and the buffets, and all the wantonness of the 
hand, and all the battering of the face of man, that is, of the 
image of God. Thou wilt not approve in any case of vain 
runnings, and yet vainer shootings and leapings: strength 
used for an hurtful purpose, or for no purpose, will in no 
case please thee ; nor again the training of an artificial body, 
as over-stepping the workmanship of God. And thou wilt 

' de Spect. ap. Cypr. c. 9. apparently) actrices " enacters." comp. 

" because so produced once in the Theoph. ad Autol. iii. 16. Auct, de 

year at the Floralia. Spect. ap. Cypr. c. 7. Lact. vi. 20. 

* auctrices. Rig. (from conjecture Arnob. iv. fin. 



Good^ that the bad he punished; not, to see their punishment. 209 

hale men wha are fattened upy, because of the idleness of 
Greece. Moreover the art of wrestling is a work of the 
Devil. It was the Devil who hugged the first human beings 
to death. The very attitude is the power of the serpent, 
firm for taking hold, tortuous for binding fast, supple for 
gliding a^'f ay. Thou hast no need of crowns. Why seekest 
thou thy pleasures in crowns ? 

XIX. We will now look for a reproof of the amphitheatre also 
from the Scriptures, If we maintain that cruelty, that impiety % 
that brutality is permitted us, let us go to the amphitheatre. If 
we be such as we are reported to be ', let us delight ourselves with 
human blood. ^ It is a good thing when the guilty are punished.' 
Who but a guilty man will deny this ? And yet an innocent 
man cannot rejoice in the punishment of another, for it more 
befitteth the innocent to grieve, because that a man like unto 
himself hath become so guilty as to be so cruelly punished. 
But who shall be my warrant that the guilty are always 
sentenced to the beasts or whatever the pvmishment be, so 
that no violence is done to innocence also, either from the 
vengeance of the judge, or the weakness of the advocate, or 
the urgency of the torture ? How much better therefore is it 
not to know when the wicked are punished, lest I should 
know also when the good perish, if indeed there be any 
savour of good among them. At all events unconvicted 
gladiators come to the sports, that they may become the 
victims of public amusement. But even as respecteth those 
who are condemned to the sport, what manner of thing 
is this that, from a lesser fault, they go on, in the way of 
correction, to be murderers .? But this is my reply to 
Heathens. Far be it from my wish that the Christian should 
be taught at greater length how to hate this show. Although 
no one is able to describe all these things more completely 
than myself^, unless it be one who is still a spectator, I 
would rather not complete the tale than call it to mind. 

XX. How vain therefore, yea, how desperate, is the 

y See Cypr. ad Donat. §. 6. " Apol. c. 9. 

* lb. p. 6. ed. Oxf. " Fathers are ^ as having been born a Heathen, 

spectators of their own sons ; a brother see Apol. c. 18. and prohabiy de Pcenit. 

is in the ring, his sister close by." c. 1. as also of Gentile sins, de Refi. 

Impietas includes want of natural af- Carn. c. 59. 
fection, natural pietj'-. 



^IO Ifphrenzi/, cruelty ^immodesty, sin outofshoics, then in shoiosaho. 

De reasoning of those, who, hanging back doubtless to gain 
TX 21! admission*' for their pleasure, plead that no mention of such 
abstinence is specially marked out in the Scriptures, which 
directly forbiddeth the servant of God to mix with assem- 
blages of this kind. I heard lately a new defence of a 
certain play-lover. ' The sun,' saith he, ' yea, even God 
Himself, is a spectator from Heaven, and is not defiled.' In 
truth the sun carrieth his rays even into the common sewer 
and receiveth no pollution : and would that God beheld 
none of the crimes of men, that we might all escape His 
judgments ! But He beholdeth even robberies ; He be- 
holdeth also falsehoods, and adulteries, and deceits, and 
idolatries, and these very shows themselves ! And therefore 
it is that we will not behold them, lest we be seen by Him, 
Who beholdeth all things. Thou distinguishest, O man, 
between the accused and the judge: the accused, who is 
accused because he is seen, the judge, who is the judge 
because he seeth. Do we therefore give our minds to mad- 
ness beyond the boundaries of the circus also, and bend our 
thoughts to immodesty beyond the doors of the theatre, and 
to insolence beyond the race-course, and to merciless cruelty 
beyond the amphitheatre, because God hath His eyes also 
beyond the chambers, and the tiers, and the curtains ? We 
do err : in no place and at no time is that excused which 
God condemneth : in no place and at no time is that lawful, 
which is not lawful at all times and in all places. Herein is 
the perfectness of Truth, and hence the complete subordi- 
nation, and the uniform reverence, and the constant obedi- 
ence which is due to it, that it changeth not its opinion, nor 
varieth its judgment. That, which in real truth is either 
good or bad, cannot be otherwise. But all things are 
determined by the Truth of God. 

XXI. The Heathens, with whom there is no perfection of 
truth, because God is not their teacher of truth, define good 
and evil according to their own will and pleasure, making 
that in one case good, wdiich in another is bad, and that in 
one case bad, which in another is good. Thus therefore it 
hath come to pass, that the very man who would hardly lift 

p adtnittcndip Cod. Ag. Edd. Rig. conjectures '' amittendae," needlessly. 



Inconsistent to endure in theatres, things shunned in private life. 2 1 1 

u]) his cloak in public for his bodily necessity, cannot in the 
circus disport himself in any other way than by obtruding 
all his shame upon the eyes of all : and he, who guardeth 
the ears of his virgin daughter from every lewd word, doth 
himself carry her to the theatre to such words and actions : 
and the very man, who in the streets restraineth or protesteth 
against one that carrieth on a quarrel by blows, doth in the 
race-course give his voice in favour of more serious battles : 
and he who shuddereth at the corpse of a man that hath died 
in common course, doth in the amphitheatre bend dovi^n most 
enduring eyes upon bodies mangled and torn in pieces and 
begrimed with their own blood : nay he who cometh to the 
show to testify his approval of the punishment of a murderer, 
doth himself with whips and rods urge on the gladiator to 
murder against his will : he too who demandeth the lion for 
each more notable murderer, demandeth for the atrocious 
gladiator the staff and the haf: while he sendeth for him 
back again who is slain, for a near view of his countenance, 
more pleased to examine him closely whom he wished to 
put to death at a distance; so much the more cruel if he 
wished it not. 

XXII. What wonder are these inconsistencies in men, 
who confound and interchange the nature of good and evil, 
through the inconstancy of their feelings, and the variable- 
ness of their judgment? The very patrons and managers of 
the shows degrade % on account of the very profession for 
which they honour them, the charioteers, the players, the 
wrestlers, and those most loving men of the arena, to whom 
men surrender their souls, women, or even men, their persons, 



<l The " staff" (rudis) freeing from prived of honours, degraded from the 

the necessity of fighting; the " cap" tribes, acknowledged as foul, made in- 

(pileus) if slaves, freeing them wholly, famous." This seems to have been 

The staff might be given after 3, the relaxed as to the " wrestlers" and 

cap after 5, years. Ulpian ap. Lips. " charioteers," on the very ground of 

Sat. ii. 23. These being demanded by their not being players ; they were 

the people for distinguished gladiators, " inhonestee personse," not " infames." 

were, as T. says, the rewards of blood- Ulp. ib. A soldier, who acted, was 

shedding. capitally punished, (ib.) see also Bu- 

e See Ulpian ap. Bulenger de lenger de Circo, c. 50. de venat. circi 
Theatro i. 50. (de infamia theatri) c. ult. They were mostly slaves ; 
Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 14. " The Romans whence Adrian refused the people's re- 
reject players from all honours." and quest to set one free, as unjust to his 
27. " The actors whereof the praise- master. Dio ap. Onuphr. Panvin. de 
worthy temper of Roman virtue de- Lud. Circ. i. 11. 

p 2 



21t2 Infamy of players condemns play x ; unreality displeases God. 

De and for the sake of whom they commit the things which they 

Vi^23' condemn : yea they openly sentence them to disgrace and 

degradation, exckiding them from the comicil-ch amber, from 

the rostra, from the senate, from the knighthood, and from 

all other honours, and some outward adornings^ What 

perverseness ! Ihey love those whom they punish, they 

degrade those whom they approve ; they honour the craft, 

they disgrace the craftsman. What sort of a judgment is 

this, that one should be blackened for the things whereby he 

hath his merit ? nay, what a confession is it of the evil of a 

thing, when the authors of it, even when they are most 

approved, are not without disgrace ! 

XXIII. Seeing then that the reflecting mind of man, even 

in spite of the opposing interest of pleasure, judgeth that 

such persons ought to be condemned to a sort of rack of 

infamy, with the forfeiture of the advantages of worldly 

honours, how much more doth the justice of God punish the 

workers of such things! Shall that charioteer please God, 

the disquieter of so many souls, the minister to so many evil 

1 statu- passions, to so many humours * : crowned like a i:)riest, or 

siwed coloured like a pimp, whom the Devil hath dressed up to be 

caught away, in rivalry of Elias, in a chariot". Shall that 

man please Him, who with a razor changeth his features, an 

infidel towards his own countenance, which, not content with 

making it approximate to Saturn and Isis and Bacchus, he 

so submitteth to the insults of buffets, as though he were 

Matt. 5,]jiocking the commandment of the Lord? Even the Devil, 
£9. . . 

forsooth, teacheth men to give their cheek patiently to be 

smitten. So too he hath, by means of shoes, made the 

Malt. 6, Tragoedians taller, because no man can add one cuhit to his 

stature. He would make Christ a liar. But again I ask, 

whether the very use of masks can be pleasing to God, Who 

Ex.20, forbiddeth the likeness of any thing^\ how much more of 

^" His own image\ to be made .^ The Author of Truth loveth 

not that which is false. Every thing which is feigned is 

adultery in His sight. Wherefore He, Who condemneth all 

* Insignia of rank. c. 2. 3. 

K The history of Elijah seems to *> See note B. on Apol. p. 110. 

have been used as a serious defence of * The human countenance, 
the «hows. See de Spect. ap. Cypr. 



^ quam 
restored 



ChrisfAan converts known to Heathen hy renouncing nhows, 218 

hypocrisy, will not approve of one that counterfeiteth a voice, 
different sexes or ages, or that maketh a show of loves, 
passions, groanings, tears. But when He declare th in the 
law that he is accursed who putteth on a woman's ganneiits, Deut. 
how shall He judge the pantomime, who is also trained in all^^'^- 
things pertaining to a woman ! And shall that boxer forsooth 
escape unpunished ? those scars from the caestus, those 
lumps on his fists, those swellings on his ears, he received 
from God when he was formed ! God committed those eyes 
to him in order that they might be put out with blows ! I 
say nothing of him, who putteth another man in the lion's 
way before himself, lest he be less a murderer than^ he who 
afterwards slayeth the same. 

XXIV. In how many more ways must we go on to argue, 
that not one of those things, which come under the head of 
shows, is pleasing to God, and that that which is not pleasing 
to God doth not befit the servant of God } If we have shewn 
that all these things have been ordained for the sake of the 
Devil, and have been furnished forth from the things of the 
Devil, (for all things, whatsoever are not of God, or are dis- 
pleasing to God, are of the Devil,) this will be that ' pomp of 
the Devil,' against which we make our vow in receiving the 
sign of Faith": and of that, which we abjure, we ought not to 
be partakers neither in deed, nor in word, nor in beholding 
nigh nor afar off. But do we not renounce and rescind that 
sign in rescinding the testimony thereof? Doth it therefore 
remain that we demand an answer from the Heathens them- 
selves } Let these now tell us in their turn, whether it be law- 
ful for Christians to deal with a show. But hereby do they 
chiefly discover that a man hath become a Christian, from his 
renouncing the shows. He therefore clearly denieth himself 
to be such, who taketh away the mark whereby he is known. 
And what hope remaineth in a man of this sort } No one 
goeth over to the camp of the enemies, unless he hath thrown 
down his own arms, unless he hath deserted the standard of 
his ow^i chief and his oaths to him, unless he hath made a 
covenant to perish together with them. 

XXV. Will he at that season think upon God, seated 
where there is nothing that cometh of God .'' He will 

^ See above, c. 4. 



^214 Shoivs opposed to and drive out all subjects of Christian thought. 

De have, I suppose, peace in his mind, while battling for the 
VL25! charioteer! He will learn modesty while gaping upon the 
buffoons ! Nay in all the show, no offence will more meet us, 
than that very over-careful adorning of the men and women. 
The very community of feeling, their very agreement or dis- 
agreement in party-spirit, doth, by their intercourse, fan the 
sparks of carnal lusts. Finally, no one in entering the show, 
thinketh of any thing more than to be seen and to see. But 
while the tragoedian is ranting, will he be considering the 
crying aloud of some Prophet ? And amidst the music of 
the effeminate player will he be meditating a psalm within 
himself? and when the wrestlers shall be acting, will he be 
ready to say that a man must not strike again } will he 
moreover be able to be moved with pity, whose eyes are 
fastened on the bites of bears, and the sponges ' of them 
that fight with nets .^ God avert from His people so great 
a desire after murderous pleasure ! for what manner of 
thing is it to go from the Church of God into the Church 
of the Devil.? from the sky (as they say) to the stye'"? 
to weary afterward, in applauding a player, those hands, 
which thou hast lifted up to God ? to give thy testimony 
for the gladiator out of the mouth, with which thou hast 
uttered Amen to That Holy Thing'' ^ to say, for ever 

1 Probably to staunch the blood. turn" is inserted before " Sanctum" 

*" De cffilo, ut aiunt, in canum. " bearing with him the Holy Spirit, if 

"= Sanctum. The holy Eucharist, he could," and " Christi Sanctum Cor- 

derived probably (as has been suggested pus" omitted. This may have been 

to me) from S, Matt. 7, 5. as a reverent occasioned by a difficulty in the 

title, which should be understood only words, " if he could;" in that the 

by Communicants, not by sti'angers. Holy Eucharist would remain with him, 

The name occurs, with the addition whereas the Holy Spirit might depai't 

" Sanctum Domini" in S. Cyprian, de from him. The author may mean. 

Unit. c. 7. de Lapsis, c. 11. and 16 however, that although he bore about 

bis. In the de Spectac. ap. Cypr. c. 7. with him " That Holy Thing," it 

ed. Bened., " Sanctum" occurs alone, ceased to be such to him.) S. Cyprian 

explained shortly afterwards by " Eu- ad Demetr. c. 1. uses " Sanctum" ab- 

charistiam, Christi sanctum Corpus." solutely, in reference to S. Matt, but 

And this is a sort of comment on T. not to the Eucharist. S. Augustine 

since the author imitates him through- (quoted by Rig.) speaks of the " Amen" 

out. The words are, " daring to bear in reference to the Holy Eucharist, 

with him, if he could, That Holy Thing Serm. ad Inf. ante Altare de Sacr. 

into a brothel [the Theatre], who when [Serm. 272. in die Pent, postrem.] " If 

dismissed from the Church hastening then ye are the Pody and Members of 

to the show, and yet bearing with him, Christ, your mystery is placed on the 

after his wont, the Eucharist, carried Table of the Lord; ye receive your own 

around the Holy Body of Christ amidst mystery. To that which ye are, ye 

the impure bodies of harlots." (In Fell's answer Amen, and by answering, «ub- 

edition, (which is here altogether less scribe. For thou hearest, The Body 

accurate,) and in some MSS. " Spiri- OF Christ, and answerest, Amen. 



Visitations on Xtianplay-goers ; pei^secutions require earnestness.^ 1 5 

and ever to any being whatsoever, save to God and 
Christ ° ? 

XXVI. Why may not such men be in danger of devils 
entering into them ? for the case hath happened, the Lord is 
witness, of that woman who went to the theatre, and returned 
thence with a devil. Wherefore when the unclean spirit, in 
the exorcism P, was hard pressed because he had dared to 
attack a believer, he boldly said, ' and most righteously 1 
did it, for I found her in mine own place.' It is well known 
also that there v»as shewn to another in her sleep, on the 
night of the day in which she had heard a tragedian, a linen 
cloth'' upbraiding her with that tragedian by name, and 
that this woman at the end of five days was no longer in the 
world. How many other examples also have been furnished 
in those, who by communion with the Devil in the shows, 
have fallen away from the Lord 1 For no inan can serve two Mat. 6, 
masters. What communion hath light icith darkness ? ^ ^^^ 
What hath life with death ? We ought to hate these 6, 14.' 
assemblies and meetings of the Gentiles, were it only that 
the name of God is there blasphemed, that the lions are 
there every day called for against us', that it is thence that 
persecutions are decreed, thence that temptations are sent 
forth. 

XXYII. What wilt thou do, when discovered in this 
estuary of impious voices } not that thou canst suffer any 
thing there from men : no one knoweth thee for a Christian : 
but think what becometh of thee in Heaven. Doubtest 
thou that in this crisis, in which the Devil is raging against 
the Church, all the Angels are looking down from Heaven, 
and marking, every man, whosoever hath spoken blasphemy, 
whosoever hath listened to it, whosoever hath ministered 

Be thou a member of the Body of taxerxes, reign for ever." {V alu-voi) 

Christ, that true be thy Amen." [add ^lian. Var. Hist. i. 32. (ap. Lac. ad 

Serm. 334. in Nat. Mart. " To His Apol. c. 34.) The words, " O king, live for 

Pledge thou sayest daily, Amen,"] and ever," would have a different meaning, 

S. Ambrose de Sacr. iv. 5. " The priest as spoken by Laniel, who believed in 

saith to thee. The Body of Christ, a " life everlasting." 
and thou sayest. Amen, that is. True. P See on Apol. c. 23. p. 57 and 60. 
"What the tongue confesses, let the af- 1 perhaps, as a windiug-sheet. 
fections retain." ^ See Apol. c.35. 40.terrar. deVet. 

° " Conquests shalt thou conquer Acclam. et plausu, 1. 8. c. 18. (ap. 

from everlasting," exclamation to Com- Hav.) 
modus, Dio 1. 72. (Rig.) " O king Ar- 



216 Good in plays drugspoison ; XtiarCsjoy and grief notioifh world. 

De with his tongue, or with his ears, to the Devil against God ? 
VI. 23! ^^'i^^ thou not then flee from these chairs of the enemies of 
Ps. 1, I.Christ, this seat of pestilences^ and the very air which 
resteth upon it, defiled with the voices of the wicked ? It 
may be that sweet things are there, and such as be pleasing, 
and sincere, and some which are even good. No one 
mixeth poison with gall and hellebore, but throweth in 
the evil thing amidst seasoned dainties, and things of 
exceeding sweet savour. So also, whatsoever deadly thing 
the Devil contriveth, he mixeth with the things of God, 
such as are most pleasing and acceptable. All things 
therefore which are therein, whether they be brave, or 
honest, or high-sounding, or melodious, or refined, account 
of them forthwith as of drops of honey from a venomous 
reptile; and deem not thy greediness after pleasure of 
so much moment as the danger which cometh by its 
sweetness. 

XXVIII. On such sweets let his own guests be 
fattened: the places, and the times, and the bidder to 
the feast, are their own. Our feasts, our marriage, are 
not yet ; we cannot sit down witli them, for neither can 
they with us. The thing is ordered by turns. Now are 
John 16, they glad, we afflicted : the uwrld, He saith, sJtall rejoice ; 
ye sltall he sorrowful. Let us moum therefore, whilst the 
heathen rejoice, that we may rejoice, when they shall begin 
to mourn ; lest if we now rejoice together with them, we 
may then mourn together with them likewise. Thou art 
- too nice, O Christian, if thou desirest pleasure in this world 
also ; nay thou art exceeding foolish if thou thinkest this 
pleasure. Certain philosophers have given this name to 
peace and quietness^; herein is their joy, herein their 
avocation', herein also their boast. Dost thou breathe me a 
sigh for goals and theatres, and dust and sand ? Prithee tell 
me : cannot we live without pleasure, who are to die with 
pleasure ? for what else is our desire but that which is the 
Phil. ], Apostle's also, to depart from the world and to he received 
nitlt the Lord? Here is our pleasure, where is also our 
desire. 

' Apol. c. 38. being " called away" from the world, 

* including, by the force of the term, 



ChristiaVLSJoys and q)ectacles. 217 

XXIX. But now suppose that thou art to pass this life in 
delights. Why art thou so ungrateful as not to be content 
with, and not to acknowledge, the pleasures, so many and 
such as they are, which God bestoweth upon thee } For 
what can be more delightful than reconciliation with God Rom. 6, 
the Father and our Lord? than the revelation of the Truth ? 

than the discov^ery of errors ? than the forgivenesss of so 
many past sins ? What greater pleasure than a disgust for 
pleasure itself ? than a contempt for the whole world ^ than 
true liberty ? than a pure conscience ? than a sufficiency of 
life ? than the absence of all fear of death ? to beat down, 
as thou dost, under thy feet the gods of the nations } to cast 
out devils.'* to do cures? to seek for revelations"? to live 
unto God ? These are the pleasures, these the shows of the 
Christians^, holy, everlasting, free. In these, view thy games 
of the Circus : behold the courses of the world, the seasons 
gliding by ; count the spaces of time ; look to the goal of the 
consummation of all things; defend the companies of the 
Churches; bestir thyself at the signal of God; rise up at 
the trumpet of the Angel ; glory in the palms of the martyrs. 
If knowledge, if learning delight thee, we have enough of 
books, we have enough of verses, enough of sentences, 
enough also of songs, enough of voices; not fables, but 
verities ; not cunningly wrought, but simple strains. Wouldest 
thou both fightings and wrestlings ? Cases are at hand, not 
slight but manifold*. Behold uncleanness thrown down 'nonpar- 
by chastity, perfidiousness slain by faithfulness, cruelty J„*J^^ 
beaten by mercy, wantonness overlaid by modesty: awd^'eitored 
such are our games, in which we ourselves are crowned. 
Wouldest thou also somewhat of blood ? thou hast Christ's. 

XXX. But what sort of show is that near at hand" ? 
the Coming of the Lord, now confessed, now glorious, 
now triumphant. What is that joy of the Angels ? what 
the glory of the rising saints ? what the kingdom of the 

" 1 Cor. 12, 9. 10. " To another, the has the Evening Prayer, " Visit m& 

gifts of healing, — to another the work- with the visitation of Thine own ; re- 

ing of miracles, to another, prophecy." veal to me wisdom in the visions of the 

See on Apol. c. 23. p. 57- S. Cyprian night. If not, fori am not worthy, &c." 
speaks of revelations to himself after " imitated in the de Spect. ap. Cypr. 

this ; AUix singularly finds in this c. penult. 

mention of " revelations" a trace of ^ the end of the world being looked 

Montanism. Our own Bp. Andrews for as at hand. 



218 Terrors of the Day of Judgment. 

De righteous which followethy ? what the city of the new 
Speot. 
VI. soiJ^nisalem? And yet there remain other shows: that last 

and eternal Day of Judgment, the unlooked for, the scorned^ 
of the Nations, when all the ancient things of the world, 
and all that are rising into life, shall be consumed in 
one fire? what shall then be the expanse of the show? 
Is^i4, whereat shall I wonder" ? whereat laugh ? whereat rejoice ? 
Ps 52,6. ^^^^'^^^ exult? beholding so many kings, who were 
Ps. 58, declared to be admitted into Heaven, with Jupiter himself 
^' and all that testify of him^, groaning together in the lowest 
20. ' darkness ? those rulers too, the persecutors of the Name 
of the Lord, melting amid insulting fires more raging than 
those wherewith themselves raged against the Christians : 
those wise philosophers moreover reddening before their own 
disciples, now burning together with them, whom they 
persuaded that there was nothing which appertained to 
God*^, before whom they afrirmed that there were either 
no souls, or that they should not return again to their 
former bodies^: poets too trembling before the judgment- 
seat, not of Rhadamanthus, not of Minos % but of the 
unlooked-for Christ. Then will the tragic actors be the 
more to be heard, because more loud in their cries amidst 
real affliction of their own : then the players to be recog- 
nized, more dissolute by far when dissolved by fire : then 
the charioteer to be gazed on, all red*' upon his fiery 
wheel : then the wrestlers to be viewed tossing about, not in 



y probably the Millennium, as in which they must stand in awe, and to 

Apol. e. 48. expand hints, which are given for their 

^ See on de Test. An. c. 4. p. 136. own warning. There appears, however, 

n. s and t. throughout these treatises, an intention 

* A truth lies at the basis of the to act upon the minds of the heathen, 

following painful description, since (as even Gibbon implies in this case,) 

Scripture says, " The righteous shall so that he may have used this unsubdued 

rejoice when he seeth the vengeance ;" and fearfully vivid description, in order 

Tertullian, however, seems to have to impress them the more, 

been hurried away by his imagination, ^ Apol. c. 21. 

and (as happens not uncommonly to <= i. e. that He was unconcerned 

people) in the vehemence of his de- about the things of this world, Apol. 

scription to have forgotten what he c 47. 

was describing — endless misery. Cer- d Apol. C. 48. 

tainly, the righteous will " rejoice" ^ Apol. c. 23. 

in God's vengeance upon His enemies, * In allusion to the colours worn by 

(Ps. 58, 10, &c. Rev. 18, 20. xix. 1—3.) the different factions, of which red was 

but it is not for the uninspired, to joy one. 
beforehand in the justice of God of 



Sight of the Lord: if things future such, lohat when come? 219 

the theatre, but in the fire— unless perchance I may even 
then not desire to see them, as wishing rather to fix my 
gaze, never to be satisfied, on those who have /wWoi^s/?/ l's.2,12. 
raged against the Lord. This, I shall say, is He, the son "l"*^" '^* 
of the carpenter or the harlot', the destroyer of the Sabbath, joim 3, 
the Samaritan and Who had a devil. This is He, Whom'^^- 
ye bought of Judas: this is He, Who was smitten with 
a reed and with buffetings, dishonoured with spittings, 
drugged with gall and vinegar. This is He, Whom the 
disciples stole secretly away, that it might be said that He Mat. 28, 
had risen again, or Whom the gardener removed, lest his^j.^^ ^7 
lettuces should be injured by the crowds of visitors ". Such 64. 
shows as these, such triumphs as these, what praetor, or 
consul', or quaestor, or priest, shall of his own bounty 
bestow upon thee .? and yet we have them even now in 
some sort present to us, through Faith, in the imagination 
of the spirit. But what are those things which eye hath 1 Cor. 
tiot seen., nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 



Of man 



? Greater joys, methinks, than the circus, and 
both the theatres % and any race-course. 

? Alluding to the .Jewish blasphemy TertuUian's. 

under the tttle of Panthera, Orig. c. i " This is a spectacle, which not 

Cels. i. 28. 32. Schabbat fol. 104, b. preetor or consul exhibiteth to them, 

and Sanhedrin f. Q7. a. ap. Wagenseil but He Who is Alone both before all 

conf. lib. Toled. Jesch. p. 15. ubi pi. things, and above all things, yea and 

S. Jerome Ep. 14. (al. 1.) ad Heliod. of Whom are all things, the Father of 

§. ult. in part imitates this passage, and our Lord Jesus Christ." de Spect. ap. 

retains the word. Cypr. fin. 

h This last seems to be irony of ^ Theatre and Amphitheatre. 



220 Idolatry the sum of all sin. 



OF IDOLATRY. 



[Lumper (1. c. Art. 15.) places the '' De Idololatria" in A.D. 198, on the following 
grounds. It was written during a period of great public rejoicings at Rome, 
(c. 15.) and so probably A.D. 198, on Severus's victory over Albinus ; since, 
of the two other occasions recorded, Severus's accession, after the death of 
Julian, A.D. 193, (Xiphilin. Ixxiv. 2.) is too early, that on his return from 
the East, A.D. 203, (Xiph. Ixxvi.l. Herodian. iii. 10.) too late. 2. It appears 
(c. 17.) that Christians might then hold office, which is very unlikely after the 
commencement of Severus's persecution. 3. The expulsion also of the sooth- 
sayers from Italy (c 9.) was probably on occasion of their being consulted 
about the life of Severus, just before the Parthian war, when he put many of 
them to death, A.D. 198. (Spartian in Sever, c. 15.)] 



De I. The principal sin of mankind, the chief guilt of the 
Til. i'. ^^^orld, the whole cause of its judgment, is idolatry. For 
though each separate crime hath its own special character, 
and is marked out for judgment under its own proper name 
also, yet is it summed up under the sin of idolatry. Set 
aside names: consider operations. An idolater is also a 
murderer. Askest thou whom he hath slain .? If it addeth 
any thing to the comprehensiveness of the title, I answer, 
not a stranger, nor an enemy, but himself. By what snare } 
by that of his own error. By what weapon } by sin against 
God. By how many blows.? by as many as are his idola- 
tries. He who denieth that the idolater perisheth, will 
deny that the idolater committeth murder. In like manner 
thou mayest discover in the same man adultery and 
fornication ; for he that serveth false gods, is without doubt 
an adulterer of the Truth, because every falsehood is an 
adultery. So also is he sunk in fornication : for who that 
dealeth with unclean spirits doth not go about defiled and 
corrupted .? And therefore is it that the holy Scriptures use 
the word " whoredom" in reproach of idolatry. It con- 



Idolatry may he committed manifoldly^ not hy overt act only. *2'2l 

stituteth fraud, methinks, if any take that which is another's, 
or deny to another his due ; and in truth fraud committed 
against man is a sin of the highest rank. But idolatry 
defraudeth God, denying Him His own honours, and 
bestowing them upon others, so that with fraud it joineth 
insult likewise. But if fraud, as well as whoredom and 
adultery, bring death, then in these ways also is idolatry 
equally unacquitted of the crime of murder. After such 
sins, thus deadly, thus swallowing up salvation, all the 
rest also in some measure, and each in its separate place, 
have their proper character represented in idolatry. In 
this is likewise the covetousness of this world. For whatCol.3,5. 
solemnity of idolatry is there without the trappings of 
dress and ornament } Tn this are all kinds of lasciviousness 
and drunkenness ; seeing that these solemnities are chiefly 
frequented for the sake of feasting and gluttony and lust. 
In this is unrighteousness ; for what is more unrighteous 
than that which knoweth not the Father of righteous- 
ness? In this also is vanity; for all the manner of 
it is vanity. In this is lying ; for its whole substance 
is a lie. So it is that all are found in idolatry, and 
idolatry in all. But besides this, since all sins whatsoever 
are in their spirit contrary to God, and there is nothing 
contrary in its spirit to God, which is not accounted to 
belong to devils and unclean spirits, whose servants the 
idols are, without doubt whosoever committeth sin com- 
mitteth idolatry; for he doeth that which pertaineth to 
the masters of idols. 

II. But let all the various names of sins separate them- 
selves unto their own proper acts, and idolatry remain for 
that, in w^hich it itself consisteth ; sufficient in itself is a 
name so much at enmity with God, a groundwork of crime 
so abundant, which putteth forth so many branches, diffuseth 
so many channels, that f^om hence is most fully derived the 
substance of the many shapes in which idolatry in all its 
breadth must be foreshunned. For in many ways it over- 
throweth the servants of God, and that not only when 
unrecognized, but also when disguised. Men for the most 
part imagine that idolatry is to be simply understood in 
these ways only ; if a man either burn incense, or offer 



22*2 Avoid idolatry in lesser shades, as adidtery and murder ; 

De sacrifice, or keep a feast, or bind himself to any sacred rites 

Vii^s ^^ pnestly offices: just as though one should suppose that 

adultery should be accounted to consist in kisses, and in 

embraces, and in actual carnal intercourse ; or that murder 

should be counted to lie only in the shedding of blood and 

the taking away of life. But we know of a surety how 

much more widely the Lord disposeth these things, when He 

Mat. 5, noteth adultery even in desire, if a man shall throw his eye 

^^" lustfully and excite his mind immodestly; while He judgeth 

v.22sqq. murder to consist e\^en in a word of evil-speaking or railing, 

and in all violence of anger, and in neglect of charity 

1 John towards a brother, as John teacheth that whosoever haieth 

^' '^' Ms hrother is a murderer. Otherwise both the wisdom of 

the Devil in his evil designs, and that of the Lord God 

I altitu- in the rule whereby He guardeth us against the depths of 

reswred ^^^ DevH, would lie within narrow compass, if we were 

iiith A judged for those sins only, which even the Heathens have 

24. ' ' determined should be punished. How shall our righieousness 

f^^at. 5, ahound above the Scribes and Pharisees, as the Lord hath 

20. 

commanded, unless we shall have thoroughly perceived the 
abundance of that which is opposed to it, that is, of unrighte- 
ousness ? But if the head of unrighteousness be idolatry, 
we must first be fore-armed against the abundance of idolatry, 
whilst we discover it not only in those things which are 
manifest. In former days there was for a long time no idol. 
Before that the contrivers of this monstrous thing burst 
forth, the temples were solitary, and the shrines empty % even 
as there remain unto this day, in some places, the traces of 
ancient times. Yet was there carried on, not nominally, but 
practically, idolatry. For even at this day it can be carried 
on, away from a temple, and without an idol. But when the 
Devil brought into the world the makers of statues and 
images and every kind of similitude, the handy-work of this 
curse of mankind, yet in its infancy, obtained both its name 
and advancement from the idols. Henceforth every craft, 
which in any manner produceth an idol, became the source 
of idolatry. For it mattereth nothing whether the moulder 
form, or the sculptor carve, or the embroiderer work it, for 

^ See on Apol. c. 25. 



IdoIs,as not to be worshipped^notto hemade^of any substance orform'i^S 

neither doth it matter for the material, whether the idol 
be formed of plaster, or of colours, or of stone, or of brass, or 
of silver, or of needle-work. For since even without an idol 
there can be idolatry, surely when there is an idol, it 
mattereth not of what sort it be, of what material, of what 
form, lest any should suppose that that only is to be 
accounted an idol, which is consecrated under a human 
form. To shew this, the interpretation of the word eldog 
is necessary : in the Greek it signifieth ' form,' hence the 
word eT^coAov, being made as a diminutive, hath in the same 
manner in our language produced ' formula.' Wherefore 
every form or formula claimeth to be called an idol. Hence 
idolatry is every office and service concerned with any idol. 
Hence also every maker of an idol is in one and the same 
sin, unless the people w^ere guiltless of idolatry, because 
they consecrated for themselves the image of a calf and not 
of a man. 

IV. God forbiddeth an idol to be made as well as to be 
worshipped. As a thing, to be capable of being worshipped, 
must first be made, so, if it may not be worshipped, the first 
care must be that it be not made. For this cause the Divine 
law, in order to the rooting out of the materials of idolatry, 
proclaimeth, Thou shalt not make any image, adding like- Ex. 20, 
wise, 7ior the likeness of those things which are in heaven,'^' 
and which are in the earth, and which are in the sea. Such 
crafts as these hath it wholly forbidden to the servants of 
God**. Enoch *" had before foretold that " the daemons and 

b See Note B. on Apol. p. 110. spurious Theodoti, Eel. Proph. $. 2. 

^ The book of Enoch is quoted again, Origen quotes it, de Princ. i.3. 3.iv.35. 
de Cult. Fern. i. 3. T. there attests " by and with the clause, " if any like to 
some it is not received, since neither is receive it as holy," torn. 6. in Joann. 
it admitted into the Jewish code :" he §. 25. but says that "the books so 
suppose? that Noah may have pre- inscribed were not reputed Divine in 
served it orally, or have been inspired the Church," c. Cels. v. 54. nor by the 
to restore it ; receives it because it con- Jews, on which account he says he will 
tains prophecies of our Lord, and so not dwell upon it, but on undoubted 
belongs to us ; because " all Scripture Scripture, Hom. ult. in Num. §. 2. 
useful to edification is divinely in- and by S. Hilary, in Ps. 132. §. 6. 
spired," and as being attested by the as " nescio cujus liber." Abp. Lau- 
Apostle Jade : the Jews may have re- rence shews (Prel. Diss. p. xxix sqq.) 
jected it because speaking of Christ that it is quoted in the Zohar, and so 
whom Himself speaking they rejected, was extant in Chaldee among the Jews, 
S. Irenseus says on its authority, that before the time of our Lord. The re- 
Enoch discharged a mission to the ferences to it in the Fathers are col- 
Angels, (4. 16. 2.) By S. Clement lected by Fabricius, Cod. Pseudep. V. 
Alex, it is not quoted; only in the T. p. 160 sqq.; only that he and others, 



224 Makers of idols equally condemned loith ivorshippers. 

De the spirits of the angels that fell away, would change into 
VII. 4. idolatry all the elements, the whole gear of ihe world, the 



things which are contained in heaven, in the sea, in the 
earth, so that they should be consecrated in the stead of 
God, in opposition to the Lord"^." Human error therefore 
worshippeth all things, save the Creator Himself of all 
things. The images of these are idols : the consecration of 
those images, idolatry. Whatsoever idolatry doth, must 
needs be charged upon every maker of every idol. Finally, 
the same Enoch fore-condemneth, in his commination, Ijoth 
the worshippers of the idol and its makers together. And 
again% " I swear unto you, O sinners, that a just perdition is 
prepared against the day of blood. Ye that serve stones, 
and that make images of gold, and silver, and wood, and 
stone, and earthenware, and that serve phantoms, and devils, 
and spirits of ill name, and all false things not according to 
knowledge, ye shall find no help from them." But Esaias 
Is. 44, saith. Ye are My witnesses ivhether there he any God besides 
Me. And they that fashion and carve images at that time 
were not. They are all vain, who do, according to their own 
pleasure, things ivhich shall not profit them. And so after- 
wards the whole of that declaration testifieth against the 
makers as well as the worshippers, the close of which is, 
Is. 44, Know ye that their heart is ashes ; and they do err^, and no 
'el errant ^'^^''^ c«?i deliver his own soul. On which head David in like 
restored manner saith of the makers : Let them that make them be 
LXX. li^ke unto them. And what shall I, a man with an indifferent 
Ps. ll5,jnemoiy, say? what farther proof can J supply.? what can I 
repeat from the Scriptures } as though either the word of the 
Holy Spirit were not enough, or there were need of con- 



suppose (it seems without authority) not rely on it; which is the view of 

that the statements in Justin M.&c. as S. Jerome, (in Tit. i. 12 sqq.) and 

to the fallen angels are derived thence, apparently of S. Augustine, 1. c. 
see ah. p. 54. n. c. on Apol. c. 22. It ^ This is a quotation from the Book 

is classed among apocryphal books in of Enoch, only cited in the oblique form 

the Constt.' Ap. (vi. 16.) so spoken of of narration; for T. introduces the next 

by S. Jerome, (de Virr. 111. c. 4.) as quotation with " Denique idem Enoch," 

also by S. Augustine strongly, (;e Civ. and a third, with " Et rursus." I do 

D. XV. 23. 4. (and again, xviii. 38.) not however find the two first in Abp. 

Out of this book, however, S. Jude was Laurence's Translation, 
guided to select what was a true pro- ^ c. xcvii. 7. 8. Abp. Laurence's 

phecy of Enoch's, although they who Translation. 



have not his infallible guidance, may 



Necessity of a living no excuse for unlawful trades. 225 

sidering farther, vvlielher the Lord hath first cursed and 
condemned the makers of those things, whose worshippers 
He cm'seth and condemneth ! 

V. We will surely reply with more pains to the excuses 
of craftsmen of this sort, who never ought to be received 
into the House of God, did men but know the law of that 
House. Now this saying which is wont to meet us, ' I 
have nought else whereon to live,' may be retorted somewhat 
sharply, ' Therefore thou must live — if according to thine 
own laws, what hast thou to do with God ?' Then as to the 
proof which they dare to bring from Scripture, that the 
Apostle hath said, Afi every man liatli heen foand, so let him i Cor. 
abide. According to that interpretation then we may all ' 
abide in sin ; for there is not one among us who hath not 
been found a sinner, since Christ came down for no other 
cause than to deliver sinners. Likewise they say, that the 
same Apostle hath taught, according to his own example, 
that every one should work with his own. hands for his living, i Cor. 
If this precept be maintained in respect of every sort of "^' ^^* 
hands, methinks that thieves about the baths * live by their i fures 
own hands, and even robbers work icith their hands that^^^"^^" 
whereby they may live: likewise that forgers execute false 
writings — not surely with their feet, but — with their hands: 
and that players labour for their living not with their hands 
only, but with all their members. Let the Church then be 
open to all who support themselves by their own hands and 
their own labour, if no exception be made of those crafts 
which the law of God alloweth not. 

But some man saith, in answer to our assertion that it is for- 
bidden to jnake the likeness of any thing, ' Why then did Moses 
in the wilderness make the likeness of a serpent in brass^?' 
Those figures are of a distinct character, which j^repared the 
way for any hidden dispensation, not in abrogation" of the law, 2 erogi- 
but as an emblem of that which causeth them to be made. Other- ^^"^"^^"^^ 
wise, if we interpret these things, as the enemies of the law, 
do we also ascribe, as do the Marcionites, inconsistency to 
the Almighty ? Whom they in this manner annul as being 
changeable, in that He in one place forbiddeth a thing, in 

' See adv. Jud. c. 10. adv. Marc. ii. in Justin M. Dial. $. 94. 
22- S. Barn. c. 12. Jewish interlocutors 

Q 



226 Brazen Serpent excepted case ; type of sin slain by Cross of Christ. 



Spect. 
VI. 6. 



1 Cor. 
10, 11. 



another commandeth it. But if any one feigneth not to see 
that that image of the brazen serpent, after the manner of one 
hanging, signified a type of the Cross of the Lord, which 
was to deliver us from serpents, that is from the angels of 
the Devil, while it hanged up the Devil, that is the serpent, 
which had been slain by its means ^, (or whatever other 
interpretation of that figure hath been revealed to more 
worthy men,) so long as the Apostle declareth that all tilings 
happened at that time to the people in ajiyure, I am content 
that the same God, Who in the law forbad any likeness to 
be made, should by a special precept have interposed His 
command ^ that the likeness of a serpent should be made. 
If thou obeyest the same God, thou hast His law, Thou 
shall not make the likeness of any thing^ if thou regardest 



8 See adv. Jud. 1. e. adv. Marc. iii. 
18. T. here seems to develope the full 
meaning of the type, how it at once 
represented sin and the author of sin 
destroyed and nailed to the Cross, and 
Him also who knew no sin, but was 
made sin for us. S. Greg. Naz. Or. 45. 
in Pasch. §. 22. looks on it as the 
emblem of sin and Satan slain bv the 
Cross. So S. Aug. Tr. 12. in S.'joh. 
§.11. " What is the serpent lifted up ? 
The Death of the Lord on the Cross. 
For because death was by the ser- 
pent, death was figured by the likeness 
of a serpent. The bite of serpents is 
deadly; the Death of the Lord life- 
giving; the serpent is hung up, that 
the serpent may be powerless ; death is 
hung up, that death may be powerless." 
c. A dim. c. 21. " Upon the wood hung 
that death, which through the woman 
came to the man by the persuasion of the 
serpent, whence also Moses raised up 
the serpent on the wood to signify His 
death." And Theodorus Prodromus(in 
Expl. Can. Cosmse Hieros. ap. Lac.) 
exclusively so. In another point of view, 
S. Aug. and other fathers regard it, as 
a type of Him, Who " came in the 
likeness of sinful flesh ;" as the brazen 
serpent was the likeness only of the 
serpent; so Theodoret (qu. 38. ad 
Num. yet apparently combining both 
as Tert.) S. Cyril Alex. 1. ii. in Job. 
0. 10. S. Greg. Nyss. de Vit. Mos. v. fin. 
t. i. p. 246. Ambr. de Sp. S. iii. 8. 
Aug. de Pecc. Mer. et Rem. i. 31. 
Chrys. ad Job. 3. The two views are 
combined in a striking passage of 



Origen in reference to a different sub- 
ject, the hanging of the kiug of Ai. Horn. 
8. in Jos. 63. " The Cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ was two-fold; i. e. consists 
of a two-fold character, because visibly 
the Son of, God was crucified in the 
flesh ; invisibly on that Cross the Devil 
with his principalities and powers was 
nailed to the Cross. (Col. ii. 14, 15.) 
So then the character of the Lord's 
Cross was two-fold ; one of which the 
Apostle Peter says, that Christ cruci- 
fied left us an example, (I Pet. ii. 22.) 
and this secondly, in which that Cross 
was the trophy, set up of the Devil, 
whereon he was to be cnicified and 
triumphed over. Therefore, lastly, the 
Apostle Paul (Gal. 6, 14.) gave a two- 
fold character of the Cross ; for he 
said that two contraries were crucified, 
himself being holy and the world sinful, 
no doubt after the same pattern as we 
said before, of Christ and the Devil." 
Even Philo remarkably connects this 
event with the fall, de Agr. p. 315. ed. 
Mangey. " These things seem strange, 
a serpent speaking with human voice 
deceived Eve, and again a serpent to 
others brought deliverance by the sight 
alone." 

^ Interdixit restored with A. Lac. 
quotes also from Isidor. Etymol. 1. v. 
a passage in which " interdixit" is 
said to be = " interim dixit ;" " that is 
' interdictum,' which is by the judge 
pronounced not in perpetuit)', but for 
correction at the moment, for a time, 
in the mean season." 



Making idols, a worshipping Satan in act 227 

also the coraniand touching the likeness made afterwards, 
do thou also follow Moses' example, and not make any 
image contrary to .the law, unless God command thee 
likewise. 

VI. If no law of God had forbidden idols to be made by 
us ; if no voice from the Holy Spirit had denounced the 
makers of idols, no less than their worshippers; we might 
conclude for ourselves, from our own Sacrament, that such 
crafts are contrary to the Faith. For how have we renounced 
the Devil and his angels ', if we make them } what sort of a 
putting aw^ay have we professed of those — I do not say with 
w^hom, but — by whom we live ? Into what sort of enmity 
have we entered with those, to whom we are bound for the 
sake of our own maintenance } Canst thou deny with the 
tongue, what thou confessest wdth the hand.? destroy by 
words, what thou buildest up by deeds ? preach One God, 
w^ho makest so many? preach the true God, w^ho makest 
false gods ? * I make them,' saith one, ' but I worship them 
not.' As if there w^ere any reason why he dare not worship 
them, other than that for which he ought likewise not to 
make them, namely, the sin committed in either case against 
God ! But verily thou dost worship them, wdio providest 
that they may be worshipped. And thou worshippest them 
not with the spirit of any worthless savour of sacrifice ", but 
with thine own ; nor at the cost of the life of a beast, but of 
thine own life. To these thou offerest up thy mind: for 
these thou makest libations of thy sweat; for these thou 
kindlest thy wisdom. Thou art to them more than a priest, 
since it is through thee that they have a priest. Thy 
diligence is their glory. Deniest thou that thou worshippest 
that which thou makest? but they deny it not, to whom 
thou sacrificest that richer, better gilded, and more perfect 
victim', thine own salvation ! 

VH. The zeal of Faith might speak on this head all the 
day long, mourning that the Christian should come from the 
idols into the Church, from the workshop of the enemy into 
the house of God : that he should raise to God the Father 

i See on the de Cor. c. 3. victim, and opposed to yuXa^ves 

^ Apol. e. 22. 23. Herod, i. 183. as major is to lactens, 

^ liXiies. Denoting a full-grown Liv. xxii. 1. [Tr.] Apol. c. 30. 

Q2 



228 Hands to he pure, that give or receive the Body of Christ. 

Db hands that are the mothers of idols: shouUl worship Him 
Spect 
VI. 8. ^'ith those hands, which are themselves worshipped "' out of 

the Church in enmity to God : that he should approach 
those hands to the Body of the Lord ", which bestow bodies 
on daemons. Nor is this enough. It were a small matter 
that they should receive from other hands That Which they 
defile, but they themselves also deliver to others That Which 
they have defiled. Makers of idols are chosen into the 
ministry of the Church. Homd sin ! The Jews laid violent 
hands but once upon Christ: these every day assault His 
Bod5^ O hands worthy of being cut off! Let them now con- 
Mark 9, sider whether it were said only in a figure, If thine hand 
offend tJiee^ cut it off? What hands ought more to be cut 
off than those by which the Body of the Lord is offended? 

Vni. There are also many other kinds of crafts, which, 
although they pertain not to the making of idols, do never- 
theless, with the same sinfulness, make ready those things, 
without which idols can do nothing. For it mattereth 
nothing whether thou baildest or adornest; if thou furnishest 
a temple, an altar, or its chapel : if thou beatest out the 
gold leaf, or makest the ornaments, or even the niche : 
a work of this sort is the greater of the two, which giveth 
to the idol not its form but its dignity. If the necessity 
of a livelihood is so strongly pleaded, they have other sorts 
of work, which, without transgressing the line of religious 
duty, that is, without helping to form an idol, may help 
towards a living. The plasterer knoweth how to repair 
roofs, and to pat on coats of plaster, and to dress a cistern, 
to form mouldings in relief, and to wreathe walls with 



™ In that what they make is wor- giving, and saving mysteries of Thy 

shipped, de Res. Carnis, c. 6. All-holy Body and Thy precious Blood;" 

" See Bingham, 15. 5. 6. for other and in the Homily " Of the vrorthy re- 
instances of the primitive custom of ceiving and reverent esteeming of the 
receiving the holy elements into the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of 
communicant's own hand, and the Chrit»t." P. I. fin. " Take thou this 
appeals founded thereon. Our own lesson, O thou that art desirous of this 
Divines express themselves in the Table, of Emissenus, a godly father, 
same way, as TertuUian here, e. g. that when thou goest up to the reverend 
Bp. Andrews' Devotions, " As Thou Communion, thou look up with faith 
didst not disdain that harlot, like me, upon the Holy Body and Blood of Thy 
who was a sinner, coming to Thee and God, thou marvel with reverence, thou 
touching Thee, — so me too — deign to touch it with the mind, thou receive it 
receive to the touch and partaking of with the hand of thy heart, and thou 
the immaculate, supernatural, life- take it fully with thy inward man." 



Idolatrous trades not needed even for support of this Ufe. 229 

many other ornaments besides images. The painter also, 
and the worker in marble and in brass, and every carver 
knoweth much easier branches of his own art. For he 
that formeth a statue, how much more easily doth he polish 
a slab ! He that out of a linden tree carveth a Mars, how 
much more quickly doth he build a closet ! There is no art 
which is not the mother or the sister of some other art. 
There is no one thing not dependent on another. The 
arts have as many branches as men have wants. But 
(thou wilt say) there is a difference in respect of wages 
and the price of labour. So is there also in the labour 
itself The lesser pay is made up by the greater frequency 
of the work. How many walls are in want of statues ? 
how many temples and shrines are built for idols } but 
what abundance of dwelling-houses, and courts, and baths, 
and insulated buildings". The sock and woman's shoe are 
gilded every day ; Mercury and Serapis not every day. 
Let luxury and pride suffice for the gains of handicraft: 
they are more abundant than all superstition. Pride will 
want, sooner than superstition, dishes and goblets''. Luxury 
consumeth crowns also more than religious observance 
doth. Since therefore we exhort men to such kinds of 
craft, as touch not an idol, nor the things which belong 
to an idol, and since the same things are common both 
to man and idols, we ought to take care of this also, that 
nothing be required by any at our hands, with our know- 
ledge, for the use of idols. Which thing if we allow of, 
and use not the means, so^ common, of hindering it, * tam 
I do not think that we are free from the contagion of 
idolatry, whose hands are found employed, not in ignorance, 
in the service or for the honour and the use of devils. 

IX. We observe among the trades certain professions 
also, which minister to idolatry. Of astrologers I need 
not even speak. But since one in these days hath chal- 

» insulae; here, in its original usage, detached, (lb. xv. 43.) it came to be 

" palaces," such as were separated the common name, especially for large 

from the continuous lines of houses by buildings, which in the decay of the 

gardens, courts, &c. and so distinct city, were let out by floors to different 

from " domus," Tac. Ann. vi. 45. persons : see Hoffinann v. Insularii 

Nero, having enjoined, after he burnt Facciol. in v. 

the city, that houses should be built P Apol. c. 6. 



230 Magians who sought Christ no plea for Magicians who deny Him ; 

De lenged me to it, by defending his adherence to that 
yjj 9 profession, I will say a few words. I allege not that 
he honoureth idols, whose names he hath written in the 
heavens, to whom he hath assigned all the power of God, 
nor that on this account men think that God is not to 
be sought after, presuming that we are led by the un- 
changeable will of the stars '^. One thing only I advance, 
that those angels who forsook God, who were lovers of 
womenr, were also the discoverers of this curious art*, and 
on that account were condemned by God. O Divine 
sentence, that standeth fast even on the earth, to which 
even those who know it not, bear witness ! The astrologers 
are cast out as are their angels. Kome and Italy are 
closed against astrologers, as Heaven is against their 
angels'. The same penalty of banishment belongeth both 
to disciples and masters. But wise men [Magi] and 
Matt. 2, astrologers came from the east : (we know the connection 
of Magian wisdom and astrology with each other:) the 
interpreters of the stars therefore were the first to announce 
the birth of Christ: the first to bring Tiim gifts: on this 
account (methinks) they bound Christ unto them ! What 
then ? Will therefore the religion of those Magi, in these 
days also, plead for astrologers ? Their science in these 
days forsooth concerneth Christ ! watcheth for and fore- 
telleth the star of Christ, not of Satan and of Mars and 
of every other of the same class of dead men ! But in 
truth that science was allowed even to the days of the 
Gospel, that, Christ being bom, none should thenceforth 
read the nativity of any man in the heavens. For therefore 
did they then offer to the infant Lord the frankincense, 
and the gold, and the myrrh, as the close of the sacrifices 
and of the glory of this world, which Christ was to take 
Malt. 2, away. That therefore whereof the dreamy no doubt by 
the will of God, warned these same wise men, namely 
that they should return to their 02vn country, but hy another 
way, not by that whereby they had come, was that they 

1 See Apol. c. 1. Egyptian magiciany, i. 69.) S. Aiigus- 

' See on Apol. c. 22. tine, de Civ. Dei, iii. 7- also attributes 

* De Anim. c. 57. de Cult. Fern. i. 2. the correct answers of astrologers to the 

Justin M. Apol. ii. §. 5. (and of their agency of daemons ; see also Lact. ii. 17. 

continued agency, Apol. 1. 14. in the » Tac. Ann. ii. Suet. Vitell. c. 14. 



12. 



had thenceforth to walk another way; i. e. forsake the old. 231 

should not walk according to their former sect", and not 
lest Herod should pursue them, who did not pursue them, 
who did not even know that they departed by another 
way, since he did not even know the way by which they 
had come. And so we ought to understand it to mean 
the right way and the right religion. Wherefore it was 
the rather commanded that they should thenceforward 
* walk' by another way. So also that other kind of Magic, 
which worketh by miracles'", and set itself up in rivalry 
even against Moses, prolonged its day through the patience' ' pati- 
of God up to the times of the Gospel. For after that, j-gj^^^^^ 
Simon Magus, now become a believer ^, because he had 
still some thoughts remaining of the sect of sorcerers, 
namely, that, among the other miracles of his craft, he 
might sell the Holy Ghost also through the imposition of 
hands, was accused by the Apostles, and cast out from 
the faith. The other sorcerer, who was vv^ith Sergius Paullus, 
because he withst9od the same Apostles, was punished by 
the loss of his eyes. And this the astrologers also, I 
believe, would have brought on themselves, if any had 
met with the Apostles. But when sorcery is punished, of 
which astrology is a species, surely the particular case is 
condemned in the general one. After the Gospel, thou 
canst no where find sophists^, or Chaldaeans, or enchanters, 
or diviners, or sorcerers, who were not manifestly punished. 
Where is the wise? ivhere is the scribe? ichere is the \ Cor. 
inquirer of this icorld'^? Hath not God made foolish the^^ 
wisdom of t] lis icorld ? Thou knowest nothing, O astrologer, 
if thou didst not know that thou wert to become a Christian: 
if thou didst know it, thou oughtest to have known this 
also, that thou couldest afterwards have nought to do with 

" This second and typical sense of / See on Simon Magus, S. Cyril Intr. 

the words, whether in reference to the 2. p. 1. and not, a. Scriptural Views of 

Magi or ourselves, is given by S. Holy Baptism, p. 229 sqq. ed. 2. 

Ambrose, Exp. Ev. see Luc. 1. ii. §. 45. = A title given to the Chaldaean 

S. Hilary in Matt. c. i. ^. 5. S. Jerome soothsayers, de Jejun. c. 7. here, in 

ad loc. S. Aug. Serm. 220. de Epiph. iv. reference to the rot^ot-, 1 Cor. 1, 20. So 

§. ult. Leo Serm. 33. (al. 32.) in Epiph. Clem. Al. Strom, i. The name is used 

iii. §. 4. who however unites with it the by Philo also, de Josepho, and by Jul. 

literal sense, which T. seems, in his Firm. Mathes. ii. 12. " Vates demum, 

strong mode of speaking, to reject. The magos, sophistas," Herald. Digr. i. 17. 

literal sense is given by Justin M. ^ Ambrosiaster ad loc. explains the 

Dial. §. 78. passage in the same way. 

* Apol. c. 23. 



232 Idolatries involved in office of schoolmaster ; 

Bb that art. That art would teach thee thine own dano^er, 

YIX, 10. which foretelleth the climacterics of others. Thou hast 

Acts 8, neither part nor lot in this matter. He cannot hope for 

^^* the kingdom of Heaven, whose finger or whose rod abuseth 

Heaven. 

X. We must enquire also concerning schoolmasters, and 
the other professors of learning. Or rather we cannot doubt 
that they are akin to idolatry in many shapes. First, because 
they must needs proclaim the gods of the Gentiles, declare 
their names % genealogies, fables, and all such things as 
adorn and honour them : then must they observe also their 
solemn rites and festivals, as men whose own revenues are 
thereby supplied. What schoolmaster without a table of the 
seven idols".? Yet will he attend the five days' festival". 
The very first payment from a new scholar he devoteth both 
to the honour and the name of Minerva*^; so that, though he 
be unprofaned by any idol, yet in word he may be said 
to eat of that which is offered to an idol. ^ Why is there less 
of defilement in this than in that which a trade presents 
which is openly called after the name and honours of an 
idol ? The Minervalia are as much sacred to Minerva, as 
the Saturnalia to Saturn, which at the time of the Saturnalia 
must of necessity be celebrated even by menial servants. 
Likewise must he catch at new years' gifts, and the feasts of 
the seven hills'", and of the winter solstice, and must demand 
all the presents pertaining to that of Caristia*^. On the feast 
of Flora the schools must be hung with garlands. The 
flamens' wives and the sediles oifer sacrifice : the school 
is honoured by presents on the holidays specially appointed. 
The same thing is done on the birthday of an idol: every 
' pomp of the Devil' is attended. Who will suppose that 
these things befit a Christian, save he who shall think 
that they are fitting also for one who is not a schoolmaster ? 

* those belonging to each god. quinqaatria tamen frequentabit, i. e. 

'<^ The Planets, ad Nat. i. 13. even if he have not the one, he will do 

'' Quinquatria, the same as the the other. 

Panathensea. The attendance brought ^ Minerval. 

fresh pupils, " di&cipulos attrahit ilia ^ of Rome. The Agonalia, a Decem- 

novos." Ovid. Fast. iii. 830. ap. Rig. ber festival. 

Rig. suggests the interpunction, and ^ li'.es connected with the comme- 

the adherence to the MS. reading ; Quis moration of the Heathen dead, 
ludimagister sine tabula vii idolorum? 



yet heathen science may he Icaimt, rejecting its idolatries. 23cJ 

We know it may be said, 'If it be not lawful for the 
servants of God to teach literature, neither will it be lawful 
for them to learn it: and how then could any one be 
instructed in human wisdom, or be taught at all to think 
or to act, when literature is an implement for all the con- 
cerns of life? How can we set aside worldly studies, with- 
out which there can be no divine ones ?' Let us enquire 
therefore into the necessity of a literary education. Let us 
consider that in part it cannot be allowed, in part cannot be 
avoided. The believer is more capable of learning literature 
than of teaching it: for the nature of learning is different from 
that of teaching. If the believer teacheth literature, then 
while he teacheth the praises of idols therein introduced, 
without doubt he commendeth them; while he delivereth,he 
afFinneth them ; while he mentioneth, he beareth testimony 
to them. The very gods he denoteth by that name, whereas 
the law forbiddeth (as we have said) that tJte names of Ex. 23 
gods be uttered, and that that fiame sliould he put upon '^" _ 
a vain tiling^. Hence faith in the Devil first beginneth to 
be built up from the first beginnings of education. Ask 
whether he committeth idolatry, who catechizeth concerning 
idols ! But w hen the believer learneth these things, if he 
already understandeth what he is, he neither receiveth them, 
nor alloweth them ; much more if he hath long understood. 
And even where he hath but begun to understand, he must 
needs first understand that which he hath first learned, that is, 
the things concerning God and the Faith. Wherefore he will 
cast away these things, and receive them not, and will be as 
safe as one w^ho knowdngly receiveth poison from one who 
knoweth it not, and doth not drink it. Necessity is ac- 
counted an excuse for such an one, because he cannot learn 
in any other way. But it is as much more easy not to 
teach than not to learn letters, as it is more easy for the 
believing scholar not to approach all the other defilements of 
the schools belonging to public and private solemnities, than 
for the master not to frequent them. 

' Tert. applies this commandment in Plagis et x Prseo.) §. 3. S. 9. (de x 

the same way, c. Prax. c. 7. S. Aug. Chordis) $. 3. S. Cyprian, Test. iii. 12. 

(with the same construction) to false and S. Jerome, ad Zach. 8, 16. take it 

belief in our Lord, Serm. 8. (de x in the usual way. 



234 All trade hazardous; in things used in idolatry, idolatry. 

Db XI. Suppose we consider all its other sins as touching 
Yiii'i ^^^"' origins'; — in the first place covetousness, the root of 
1 (jg (,g, all evil; whereby some being ensnared, have made sliip- 
nerati- wreck coucemiiuj Jiilth ; (though covetousness is by the same 
sire-' Apostle called also idolatry;) next, lying, the servant of 
*'"[5'^ covetousness; (of false swearing, I say nothing, since it is not 
6, 10.* lawful to swear at all;) — doth commerce befit the servant of 
1 19" ^^^ -^ ^^^ ^^ covetousness be away, which is the cause 
CuJ. 3, of getting gain, when the cause of getting gain ceaseth, there 
Mat. 5 ^^'^^^ ^® ^^ longer need of commerce. But be it that there is 
3'i- some honesty in the trade, free from the anxiety of watchfulness 
against covetousness and falsehood ; I think that that falleth 
into the sin of idolatry, which pertaineth to the very soul and 
spirit of idols, which pampereth every daemon. Is not this, 
in very truth, the chief of all idolatries ? No matter whether 
the same merchandize (I speak of frankincense, and other 
foreign productions used in sacrifice to idols) be used also 
by men for unguents in medicine, by us- also as aids more- 
over in the burial of the dead. In truth, when the pro- 
cessions, when the priesthoods, when- the sacrifices per- 
taining to idols are furnished by means of your dangers, your 
losses, your inconveniences, your anxieties, your journeyings 
to and fro, and your traffic, what else art thou proved to be 
than a purveyor to idols. Let no one argue that in this 
manner one might dispute against every kind of commerce. 
All sins of a graver cast, in proportion to the greatness of the 
danger, open a wider field for diligent watchfulness, that we 
not only abstain from them, but from those things through 
which they are committed. For though a thing be done by 
others, it maketh no difference, if it be done through me. 
In nothing ought I to be necessary to another, when he 
doeth that which is not lawful for me to do. Inasmuch as 
I am forbidden to do it, I ought to understand that I must 
take care that it be not done through me. Finally, in 
another case, wherein the guilt is no fighter, I abide by 
the same predetermination. For, whereas I am forbidden to 
commit fornication, I lend neither assistance nor connivance 
in this thing to others; for in that I have sej)arated mine 

K in that Christians did not burn their dead, see Apol. c. 42. 



All share in forbidden things, forbidden^ and so sale of incense. 235 

own flesh from brothels, I acknowledge that 1 cannot 
possibly exercise the trade of pandering, or any such gainful 
craft, for the sake of another. So likewise the prohibition 
against murder sheweth me that the master-gladiator also 
must be shut out from the Church ; nor will he be guiltless 
of doing himself that which he helpeth others to do. But 
here, is a decision more in point. Suppose that the con- 
tractor for the public victims should come over to the faith, 
will you allow him to continue in that trade } or if a man 
already a believer should begin to drive the trade, will you 
think that he ought to be retained in the Church '' } I trow 
not; unless one is also to wink at the seller of frankincense, 
for to one trade it belongeth to supply the blood, to another 
the incense. If, before idols were in the world, idolatry, as 
yet unembodied in a shape, was carried on by means of such 
merchandize ; if even now the work of idolatry is chiefly 
wrought without an idol by the burning of incense', doth 
not the seller of frankincense do the better service even to 
the daemons ^ for idolatry can go on more easily without an 
idol than without the wares of the seller of frankincense. 
Let us appeal to the conscience of the believer himself 
With what face w^ill a Christian seller of frankincense, if 
he shall pass through the temples, spit or blow*" upon the 
smoking altars, for which he hath himself provided .? with 

h On the employments which ex- Prud. Perist. ix. 121 ;) or, through the 

eluded from the Sacraments, see Bing- absence of the idol, Christian soldiers 

ham, 11.5. 7. 10. 4. 10. were imposed upon by Julian to burn it, 

i Arnobius (1. vii. p. 232.) speats of and then treated as apostates, Greg, 

frankincense as " taking the first place Naz. Or. iv. in Jul. (i.) $. 80. Comp. 

in the ceremonies," and that the hea- Chrys. Horn, de S. Barlaam, §. 2. and 

then " services were maimed without Basil, Hom. 17. de eod. (ap. Kortholt 

it." Hence the burning incense was a ad Plin. Ep. p. 88 sqq. who furnishes 

chief test in the persecutions of Chris- the above.) 

tians; and to this it was the more ^ Both, actions, used to express 

adapted, the outward, essential, act of aversion and non- communion with the 

burning it being so slight, two or three thing so rejected : as to the first, see 

grains (turis granum. Plant. Psen, ii. 1. ad Uxor. ii. 5. Prudent. Perist. x. 920. 

mica turis, Ov. Trist. iii. 12. Tib. El. 1. the second, Apol. c, 23. p. 60, and n, c. 

4. ap. Brisson de Form. i. p. 20. ap. add Caecil. ap. Minut. F. p. 77. deos 

Apol. c. 30.) with two or three fingers, despuunt, Prud. c. Symm. i. 580, "who 

" It seems to them absurd to be tor- in the city spitteth not at the gore- 

tured and slain rather than throw into stained altar of Jove?" Martyrol. Vet. 

the fire incense taken with three fin- ap. Elmenhorst, ad Minut. "Despising 

gers," " with two little fingers," " duo- them and spitting upon the images they 

bus digitulis," Jer. Ep. 14. (al. 1.) ad are dragged to the theatres. After 

Heliod. §.5. digitis tribus, Ov. Fast, ii, being led to sacrifice, spitting on the 

573. (comp, Apol. c. 30. p. 71.) This idol itself, they fortified their foreheads 

is urged as a ground of compliance ; (ap. with the Cross." 



236 Our Lord ivamed against all pleas of necessity. 

De what consistency will he exorcise' his own foster-children, to 
Vll"i2 whom he hath given his own home as a store-house ? If 
indeed he cast out a devil", let him not hug himself upon his 
faith, for he hath not cast out an enemy. He ought to 
prevail easily upon one whom he feedeth every day. No 
craft therefore, no calling, no trade, which supplieth any 
thing either for the furnishing or the making of idols, can be 
free from the name of idolatry, unless we understand idolatry 
to be something altogether different from the service and 
worship of idols. 

XIT. In vain we flatter ourselves about the necessity of 

man's subsistence, if, after having sealed our faith", we say, 

' I have not whereon to live ;' for I will now answer this 

abrupt statement more at large. It is spoken too late. For 

thou oughtest to have considered this beforehand, after the 

Luke 14, example of that most prudent hiiilder, who first coiuitetli the 

cost of the work, and his own powers, lest^ failing when he 

hath hegun^ he be afterwards put to shame. But even now 

thou hast the words of the Lord, and ensamples which take 

from thee all excuse. For what sayest thou } ' I shall 

Luke 6, be poor.' But the liOrd calleth the poor, blessed. ' I shall 

Mat. 6 "°^ have food.' But, saith He, Take no thought for food. 

31- And for clothing we have a pattern, the lilies. ' I had need 

ver. 28. ^ , 

Mat. 19, of worldly substance.' But ' Thou must sell all things and 

^^- distribute to the poor.' ' But I must provide for my chil- 

Liike 9, dren, and for them that come after them.' No one putting 

'" his hand to the plough and looking back is Jit for the work. 

Mat. 6, ' But I had entered into engagements to serve.' No man 

Mat 16 '^^'''^ serve two masters. If thou wilt be the disciple of the 

24. Lord, thou must take up thy cross and follow the Lord : that 

is, thou must take up thy afflictions and crosses, or merely 

Mat. 19, thy body which is after, the fashion of a cross". Parents, 

wives., children., will be to be left for the sake of God. Dost 

thou doubt concerning trades, and business, and professions, 

even for the sake of children and parents? It w^as plainly 

shewn to us that pledges, and crafts, and business must 

be abandoned for the Lord's sake, at the very time when 

' see Apol. c. 23. p. 60. n. b. ° see on Apol. c. 30. and Justin M. 

*" ib. p. 57. and note u. Apol. i. 55. 

" in Baptism, see de Spect. c. 24. 



Breath of Idolatry to be shunned afar off, like jjestilence. 237 

James atid John, being called by the Lord, left both their Msit. 4, 
father and the ship: when Matthew was made to rise from ' '^^* 
the receipt of custom : when even for a man to bury his 
father was too much tardiness for Faith. No one of those, Luke 9, 
whom the Lord chose to Himself, said, ' I have not whereon 
to live.' Faith feareth not hunger^; it knoweth that it 
must despise even hunger for the sake of God, not less than 
every sort of death. It hath learned not to regard the life; 
how much more the meat. How iew have fulfilled these Mat. 6, 

25 

things! but the things which are hard with men, are ^'^^^V i^^^^^ 
with God, 27. 

XIII. Nevertheless we must so comfort ourselves con- 
cerning the kindness and the mercy of God, as not to 
indulge our wants even to the borders of idolatry, but to 
shun like a pestilence every breath of it even afar off, not 
only in those things of which we have before spoken, but 
in the whole range of human superstition, (whether in the 
service of its own gods, or of dead men, or of kings,) as 
of a thing which pertaineth to the same unclean spirits, 
sometimes by means of sacrifices and priestly ministrations, 
sometimes by shows and the like, sometimes by festivals. 
But of sacrifices and priesthoods what need have I to 
speak ? and as touching shows and such like pleasures, 
we have already filled a book specially about them''. In 
this place it is meet that we treat of festivals, and other 
extraordinary solemnities, in which we allow sometimes 
our wantonness, sometimes our fear, having fellowship with 
the Heathens in things pertaining to idols, contrary to the 
rule of our Faith. I shall first dispute this question, 
whether the servant of God ought to have fellowship in 
such matters even with the Heathens themselves, whether 
in respect of dress, or of meat, or any other particular of 
their rejoicing. The precept to rejoice with them that^^"^- 
do rejoice, and weep with them that weep, was spoken ' 
by the Apostle concerning his brethren, when he exhorted 
them to he of one mind. But in these things Vujht hath v. 16. 
no fellowship with darkness, nor life with death': otherwise 2 Co^r. 

P Copied by S. Jerome, Ep. 14. ad 1 The De Spectaculis. 
Heliod. §. 10. ' De Spect. c. 26. 



238 Xtians at heathen rites, knoivn, ensnare the m,unknown,themselves. 

De we annul that which is written : The world shall rejoice, 

VII. 14. ^^^'^ y^ shall lament. If we rejoice with the world, we 

John 16, must fear lest we lament also with the world. But let 

^^* us lament while I he ivorld rejoiceih, and then shall we 

hereafter rejoice while the world lament eth. So also 

Lazarus, when in hell he obtained comfort in Ahrahamh 

bosom, and the rich man on the other hand, when placed 

in the torment of the flame, did, by a rival retribution, 

make equal their vicissitudes of evil and good. 

There are certain days for the dispensing of gifts which 
are the payment, with some of an honour due, with others 
of a debt for hired service. ' Now then,' thou sayest, ' I shall 
receive mine own, or repay that which is another's.' If men 
have, through superstition, consecrated this custom among 
them, why dost thou, a stranger to all their vanities, take part 
in ceremonies devoted to idols } as if the rule concerning 
the day were fixed for thee also, so that thou canst not, 
except thou observe the day, either pay that which thou 
owest to a man, or receive that which is owed unto thee 
by a man ! Tell me the form in which thou wouldest be 
sued'. For why conceal thyself too', when by another's 
1 Cor. ignorance thou dejilest thine own conscience ? If thou art 
' ' not unknown to be a Christian, then thou art tempted, 
and thou actest, contrary to the knowledge of the other, 
as though thou wert not a Christian. But then again" thou 
wilt be winked at ! Thou hast been tried, and yielded up. 
Surely whether in the one way or the other thou art guilty 
Mat. 10, of being ashamed of God. But whosoever shall be ashamed 

33 

Mark 8 ^f ^^^ before men, of him will I also he ashamed before 
38. ]\j^y Father which is in Heaven. 

XIV. But most men have now begun to think that it 
is pardonable if they do sometimes as the Heathen do, that 



' i. e. is the Heathen whom thou when it rather gives occasion to defile 

joinest in these ohservances, to know thyself? 

thee to be a Christian, or no ? If he " Plea of opponent, " He will not 

know thee not, what gain ? seeing it notice me, whether Christian or no. 

avails only to defile thy own conscience. He will regard me simply as debtor or 

If he kiiow thee, then thou sinnest creditor." T. " Whatever thou art in 

against his too, teaching him that there man's sight, it is a trial, and thou wilt 

is no difference between Heathen and have failed." Addictus, is probably 

Christian. used as a law-term, " made over" into 

' i. 6. what gain in concealment, Satan's power, condemned. 



World's blasphemy not to be caused nor avoided by sin. 209 

tlte Name be not blasphemed'^. But the blasphemy, which 
is by all means to be avoided by us, is, methinks, this: 
If any one of us lead an Heathen to blaspheme with good 
cause, either by deceiving, or by injuring, or by despitefuUy 
using another, or by any other cause of just complaint, 
for which our Name is deservedly attacked, so that the 
Lord also is deservedly wroth. But, if it be said of every 
blasphemy, I\Iy Name is blasphemed through you, then is. 52,5. 
are we all utterly lost; since the whole circus doth byj^°™' 
wicked voices attack that Name for no fault. Let us 
cease y, and the Name will not be blasphemed. Rather 
let it be blasphemed, whilst we are abiding in, not falling 
out of, our course of duty ; whilst we are approved, not 
whilst we are reprobates. O blasphemy akin to martyrdom ! 2 Cor. 
which attesteth that I am a Christian, at the very time ' ' 
when it for that cause protesteth against me ! To speak 
evil of our observance of the Religion is to speak well 
of our Name. //, he saith, / desired, to please men, /Gal. 1, 
should not be the servant of Christ. But the same elsewhere ^\ 
commandeth that we should take care to please all men, 10, 32. 
everi as I, saith he, please all men in all things. Did he'^'^- 
forsooth please men by keeping the feast of Saturn, or 
the Kalends of January.? or by patience and meekness, lTva\.i, 
by gravity, by gentleness, by sincerity'? In like manner ^^.jj 2 7 
when he saith, / am made all things to all men, that /iCor. 
may gain all, was he made an idolater to idolaters ? an ^' ^^* 
heathen to heathens } a worldly man to worldly men ? 
For although he forbiddeth us not to company with 
idolaters, and adulterers, and other wicked persons, saying. 
For then must ye needs go out of the world, he doth not l Cor. 5, 
surely so change* the restraints upon our conversation, 
that, because we must needs live and mingle with sinners, 
we may therefore also sin with them. It is one thing to 
live together, which the Apostle alloweth : another to sin 
together, which no one alloweth. We may live with the 
heathen : we may not die with them. Let us live with 
all men : let us rejoice with them in that we have a common 

* by the Heathen, when provoked * '' immutat habenas." Lac. '' im- 
by the opposition of Christians. mittit," " give the reins." 

y i. e. to be Christians. 



240 Christians need not Heathen festivals ^having more of their own. 

De nature, not a common superstition. We have tlie like 
VII^15 ^^^^^ w'lXh them, not the like Religion : we share the same 



world, not the same error. But if we have no right of 
fellowship in such matters with aliens, how much more 
sinful is it for brethren to assort together therein ! Who 
can endure or maintain this ? The Holy Spirit reproacheth 
Is. 1,14. the Jews for their feast daj^s. Your sabbaths, saith He, 
a?id your new moons, and your ordinances. My soul hateth. 
And do we, to whom these sabbaths belong not, nor the 
new moons, nor the feast days once beloved of God, 
celebrate the feasts of Saturn, and of January, and of the 
Winter solstice, and the feast of Matrons? For us shall 
ofTerings flow in ? presents jingle } sports and feasts roar ? 
Oh ! truer fealty of the Heathen to their own religion ; 
which taketh to itself no rite of the Christians ! No Lord's 
Day, no Pentecost, even had they known, would they 
have shared with us! For they would be afraid, lest they 
should be thought Christians : we are not afraid lest we 
be openly declared to be heathens ! If thou must needs 
have some indulgence for the flesh too", thou hast it; and 
thou hast not only as many days as they, but even more. 
For the heathen festival is on but one day in every year ; 
thine upon every eighth day. Gather out the several 
solemn feasts of the Heathen, and set them out in order: 
they will not be able to make up a Pentecost. 
Mat. 5. XV. But, saith the Scripture, let your works shine: yet 
now-a-days it is our taverns and our gates that shine. In 
these times thou wilt find more doors of Heathen than of 
Christian men without their lamps and laurels ^ And of this 
kind of doings hkewise what thinkest thou? If it be in 
honour of an idol, doubtless honour done to an idol is 
idolatry. If it be for the sake of a man, let us remember 
that all idolatry is committed for man's sake ; let us remem- 
ber that all idolatry is worship paid to man, seeing that it is 
allowed even by their own worshippers % that the gods of 
the Heathens themselves were formerly men. Therefore it 
mattereth nothing whether that superstitious worship be 
paid to the men of a former or of the present age. Idolatry 

> During the Pentecostal season ^ Apol. c. 35. 
there was no fast. De Cor. c. 3. = Apol. c. 10. 11. 



IVIiataChristian has^may he pfhhdfo Ccesar; whatJie is^isGocTsMA i 

is condemned not on account of the persons who are set up 
hi rivahy", but because of the services performed, which ' cppo- 
appertain unto demons. We must render unto Cmsar ihe^l^^^^l^ 
things which are CcBsar^s: well that He hath added, and 
unto God the tilings which are God's. What then are //«eMat.22, 
things which are C<Bsars? They are those, for instance, 
concerning which the question was then raised, whether 
trihute was to be given to Caesar or not. Wherefore also 
the Lord required that tlie tribute money should be shewn to 
Him, and asked concerning tJie image, whose it was. And 
when He had heard that it was Ccesar''s, He said. Render 
untG Ccesar tJte ihings that are C(Bsa7\^, and unto God the 
ihinys whicli are God^s. That is, render unto Ccesar the 
image of Ccesar, which is on the money, and unto God, the 
image of God, which is in ma.n ; so that thou givest unto 
Ca3sar money, unto God thine own self. Otherwise, if all 
things be Cfesar's, what will be God's ? Sayest thou then, 
' The lamps before my doors and the laurel on my door-posts 
are in honour of God ?' Surely it is not because they are an 
honour to God, but to him, who, in the stead of God, is 
honoured by such-like services, as far, that is, as they are 
seen, and saving those their effects, which are unseen, and 
appertain unto devils. For we ought to know of a surety, 
if there be any to whom, through ignorance of this world's 
learning, it is not known, that the Romans had gods even of 
their doors \ Cardea so called from ' cardines ^,' and Forculus ^ hinges 
from ' fores ^,' and Limentinus from ' limen *,' and Janus him- 3 doors 
self from ^janua^:' and surely we know^ that, although these J ^|*!:^^*^* 
be empty and feigned names, still when they are drawn aside - gate 
to superstition, daemons and every unclean spirit take them to 
themselves, as bound to them, by consecration; otherwise 
the daemons have no individual names; but wherever they 
find a token of themselves, there also they find a name. 
Among the Greeks also we read of Apollo Thyrseus, and the 
daemons called Antelii, the guardians of doors. The Holy 
Spirit therefore, foreseeing these things from the beginning, 
foretold by the most ancient of the Prophets, Enoch, that even 
doors ^ would become matters of superstition. For we see 

^ De Cor. c. 13. Scorp. c, 10. Cypr. ^ See above, on c, 4. 
de Idol. Van. c. 2. 



242 Obedience to magistrates to he short of idolatry. 

De that other doors also, those in the baths \ are worshipped, 

VII.15. If therefore those things which are worshipped in the doors 
belong to these da3mons, then will both the lamps and the 
laurels belong to them. Whatsoever thou doest to the door, 
thou doest to the idol. In this place I bring a testimony 
from the authority even of God ; for it is not safe to withhold 
whatsoever is revealed to one man alone, for the sake doubt- 
less of all. I know a brother s, who, because his servants 
had, on the sudden announcement of public rejoicings, hung 
a garland on his door, was in the same night grievously 
chastised in a vision. And yet he had neither himself hung 
the garland, nor ordered it to be hung, for he had beforehand 
gone abroad, and had blamed '' the act on his return. Thus 
are we in these matters judged in the sight of God accordiug 
to the religious conduct of our households also. Wherefore 
as respects the honour due to kings or emperors, we have 
the rule sufficiently laid down that we ought to be, according 

Tit.3, l.to the precept of the Apostle, subject to magistrates and 
princes and powers, with all obedience; but this within the 
bounds of religious duty, and so long as we are separated 

Uan. 3, from idolatry. For for this cause hath that example of the 

* ^' three brethren gone before, who being in other things obedient 

to King Nebuchadnezzar, most perseveringly refused honour 

to his image, proving that whatsoever exalteth the measure of 

human honour to the likeness of the Divine Majesty, is 

Dan. 6, idolatry. So also Daniel, in other things leaning on ' Darius, 
continued so long in his obedience as he avoided peril to his 
religion. For, that he might not submit to that, he feared 
no more the king's lions, than those did the king's fiery 
furnace. Let those therefore who have no light, light their 
lamps daily: let those over whom fires are hanging fix to 
their door posts laurels, hereafter to be burnt. To them 
such things are fitting, as proofs of darkness, and omens of 

' See de Spect. c. 8. and n. household. Comp. Clem. Al. Psedag. iii. 
S See similar visions, de Spect. c. 26. 11. (ap. Lac.) " the dissoluteness of the 
^ Reprehenderat, A. &c. Others maid returns back upon the mistress." 
correct " deprehenderat, discovered," ' Subnixus, here and de Patient, c. 4. 
the two words are elsewhere inter- signifies " subjection." It may be 
changed in MSS. of TertuUian. In that T. had in his mind the use of 
neither case is it implied that the " genibus nixus," and used " sub- 
master allowed the act ; he was, in nixus" as " bowed under," but in the 
either, chastised for the disorder of his de Pa:, it is joined with an abl. 



Innocent customs need not he shunned, for otliers' idolatry. 243 

punishment. Thou art the light of the tvorkU and a tree Mat. 5, 
that ever flourisheth. If thou hast renounced temples, make pg] 1^3. 
not thine own door a temple. I have said too little. If 
thou hast renounced brothels, give not to thine own house 
the appearance of a new brothel ". 

XVI. But as touching the duties which belong to private 
or domestic solemnities, those of putting on the plain gown ', 
or those of espousals, or of nuptials, or of giving a name to 
a child, I cannot think that any danger need be guarded 
against, from the taint of the idolatry which is concerned in 
them. For we must consider the causes, for which the 
service is performed ; these I think to be in themselves clean, 
because neither the manly dress, nor the ring, nor the 
nuptial union, is derived from the honour paid to any idol. 
Finally, I do not find any dress cursed by God, save that of 

a woman upon a man. Cursed is every one, saith He, that Deut. 
putteth on a woman' s garment. But the gown, by its very 
name, is that of a man "". Nor doth God forbid a marriage 
to be celebrated, any more than a name to be given. ' But 
there are sacrifices attached to these things.' Let me be 
summoned thither, and let not the fulfilment of my office and 
service be any sign of aiding at the sacrifice, and they may 
do just what pleaseth themselves. Would it were just what 
pleaseth themselves" ! and that we might not see those things, 
which it is unlawful for us to do. But since the Evil one 
hath so beset the world with idolatry, it will be permitted us 
to be present in certain matters, which admit us to do service 
to a man, not to an idol. Assuredly, if invited to act as a 
priest and to do sacrifice, I will not go, for this service 
properly pertaineth to the idol, nor will I ever act in such a 
matter by my counsel, by my purse, or by any other aid. If, 
being invited for the sake of the sacrifice, I stand by the 
sacrifice, I shall be a partaker in the idolatry. If any other 
cause attacheth me to him who is sacrificing, I shall be only 
a spectator of the sacrifice. 

XVII. But what shall slaves and faithful freedmen do ? 



k Apol. c. 36. "> toga virilis. 

' The white garment, taken on " For, as it ia does not please usy 

arriving at manhood or 17, toga pura we should be exempt from attendance, 

or virilis. if this rule were followed. [Tr.] 

r2 



244 Difficulties hesettinrf a Christian in the magistracy. 

De and officers attending upon their lords, or their patrons, or 
Vins c^^^^ magistrates when offering sacrifice ? Even if one 
delivereth the wine to him who sacrificeth, nay if he assisteth 
even hy a single word proper to the sacrifice, he will be 
accounted a minister of idolatry. Mindful of this rule, we 
can render our services even to magistrates and powers, like 
the patriarchs and others before us", who attended upon 
idolatrous kings up to the l)orders^ of idolatry. Hence the 
question arose but the other day, whether a servant of God 
may take upon himself the ministration of any dignity or 
authority, if, eilher through some favour, or even by cunning, 
he can keep himself pure from every sort of idolatry, according 
as Joseph and Daniel, who were pure from idolatry, had the 
ministration both of dignity and authority, stood conspicuous 
in the badge and the purple "^ of all Egypt and Babylon. 
Let us allow then that a man may successfully contrive to 
move in any honourable office, and bear the name only of 
the office, and neither sacrifice, nor lend his authority to 
sacrifices, nor contract for victims, nor commit to others the 
care of temples, nor look after their revenues, nor exhibit 
shows at his own or the public expense, nor preside over 
their exhibition, nor make proclamation or edict for any 
solemnity, nor even take any oath ; nor again, as respects acts 
of power, pass judgment on the life"" or honour of any, (for 
thou mightest allow of his doing so witli regard to their 
money,) nor sentence to punishment, nor enact the sentence 
beforehand, nor put any man in bonds, nor shut up any in 
prison, nor inflict torture upon any, if indeed it be credible 
that such things can be done. 

XVIII. But we must now treat of the appendages alone, 
and the outward pomp of such office '. Each hath his own 



° .Joseph and Daniel, as below. should adjudge to them. Yet he speaks 
P Not so as to set a foot within it. of justice even in capital punishments 
*1 '■'■ Et purpura exstitere" restored, by secular authority, as exerted " in 
for which Rij?. conjectured " prtefec- man's behalf," and " religious in its 
turae," the Cod. A», having exturse severity," (de An. c. 33.) and contrasts 
only. " violent ends, decreed by justice, the 
"■ Lac. interprets this of enforcing the avenger of violence" with the " savage- 
laws against Christians ; but TertuUian nes.s of tortures." (ib. c. 6G.) It may 
speaks as explicitly against the execu- then only be that he held it unlawful 
tion of personal punishments by a unless necessary, not to be discharged 
Christian, de Cor. c. 1 1 . and so probably by a Christian, of free choice, 
equally deprecated that a Christian * » De Spect. c. 12. 



Dress (f^f civil ranh may he icorn, not of idolatrous office, 245 

proper dress, as well for daily use, as for the honour and 
dignity of his office. Wherefore the purple, and the gold, 
the ornaments of the neck, were marks of dignity among the 
Egyptians and Babylonians, in the same manner as in 
these days, the bordered, and the striped, and the palm- 
embroiderpd robes, and the golden crowns of the provincial 
priests ; but not under the same conditions : for they were 
bestowed on those, who deserved the familiar friendship of 
kings, only for the sake of honour ; (whence also they were 
called the ' empurpled* of kings', from ' purpura,' as men are 
called with us ^ candidates' from ' toga Candida;') but not 
that this appendage should be attached to priesthoods also, 
or any other offices pertaining to idols. For had it been so, 
surely men of such sanctity and constancy would at once 
have refused the polluted garments ; and it would have 
appeared at once, as it did appear long afterwards, that 
Daniel had not served idols, and did not worship Bel and 
the dragon. The mere purple dress therefore was not even 
a mark of high office among the Barbarians, but of high 
birth : even as Joseph also, who had been a slave, and 
Daniel, who through captivity had changed his condition, 
obtained the rights of free-men in Babylon and .Egypt, 
wearing the dress of barbarian nobility. So to the believer 
among us, if need be, the bordered gown of boyhood, and 
the lady's robe might be allowed, as marks of birth not of 
power; of family not of honour; of rank not of superstition. 
But the purple or other marks of dignity and power, being 
from the beginning devoted to the idolatry engrafted on 
dignity and power, bear the stain of their own profanation ; 
since moreover these bordered and striped robes and laticlavi 
are put even upon the idols themselves ", and the fasces and 
rods are carried before them. And with good cause: for 
devils are the rulers of this world : they bear the ensigns of 
one ' and the same body, the fasces and the purple robes, i unius 
What point then wilt thou gain, if thou usest the dress, ^^^*'^''^^ 
though thou do not the works of the office .? No man can 
be accounted clean in unclean things. If thou put on a 

t e. g. Liv. 30. 42. Sopatrum ex (ix. 3().) says, " purple was used for 
purpuratis et propinquis regis esse. propitiating the gods." 

" Vopisc. in vit. Firmi ap. Lac. Plin. 



246 Our Lord^ hy rejectm^, condemned pomp. 

De garment, which of itself is defiled, it may perchance not be 

VII.17. defiled ^^I'ough thee, but thou canst not, through it, be clean. 
Moreover now thou that arguest concerning Joseph and 
Daniel, know that old things are not always to be compared 
with new, barbarous with civilized customs, things begun 
with things completed, things pertaining to slaves with things 
pertaining to free-men. For these men also were, in their 
estate, servants; but thou, who art no man's servant, inas- 

1 Cor. much as thou art Christ's alone, Who hath also freed thee 

• * from the captivity of the world, oughtest to live according to 

the rule of the Lord. That Lord walked in humility and 

Matt. 8, lowliness, having no certain home, for He saith. The Son of 
Man hath not where to lay His head: in dress unadorned. 

Mat. 11, for else He would not have said, Behold, they that wear soft 
clothing are in king's houses: finally in visage and aspect 

Is. 53, 2. without beauty^, as also Esaias had foretold. If He exercised 
no right of power even over His own people, to whom He 
rendered the mean oflSce of a servant; if finally He avoided 
being made a king, though knowing that He was a King; He 
gave most fully a rule to His people, in thus melting away 
the loftiness and pomp as well of dignity as of power. For 
who should more have used these honours than the Son of 
God ? what fasces, and how many, would attend Him forth ! 
what purple glisten from His shoulders ! what gold gleam 
from His head, if he had not determined that the glory of this 
world was foreign to Him and to His people ! That glory 
therefore, which He would not have. He hath rejected; 
that which He rejected He hath condemned; that which 
He condemned He hath concluded under the ^ pomp of the 
Devil.' For He would not have condemned, save what were 
not His own; but the things which are not of God could 
not be of any other save the Devil, [f thou hast * renounced 
the pomp of the Devil,' know that whatsoever thereof thou 
touchest, is idolatry; let even this admonish thee, that all 
the powers and dignities of the world are not only foreign, 
but likewise hostile to God, because through these are 
punishments devised against the servants of God, through 

' igiio- these even the penalties prepared for the wicked, unknown *. 

reLrfrf -^^^^ ^VI birth and thy fortune are an hindrance to thee in 

^ See note F. at the end of this treatise. 



Risk of idolatry in icords. 247 

resisting, idolatry.' To avoid this there can be no lack of 
remedies, for, though they be wanting, the single one ■ at 
least remaineth, whereby ^ thou art thus promoted to a richer ' quo 
dignity, not in earth but in Heaven. restored 

XIX. Under this head we might seem to have determined 
the rule concerning the profession of the soldier^ also, which 
is something between dignity and power. But now ariseth 
this question, whether a believer can turn himself to the 
profession of a soldier, and whether a soldier can be admitted 
to the Christian Faith, even from the ranks, or one of a still 
lower grade, who is not obliged to deal with sacrifices or 
capital punishments. There is no agreement between the 
divine and human sacrament, the standard of Christ and the 
standard of the Devil, the camp of light and the camp of 
darkness. One soul cannot be bound to two masters, to 
God and to Caesar. Even Moses carried a rod % and Aaron 
wore a clasp'', and John was girt with a leather girdle*", and 
Joshua the son of Naue led an army, and the people made 
war, if we choose to sport with the subject. But how will 
they make war, yea how will they be soldiers in peace'', 
without the sword, Avhich the Lord hath taken away? For 
even though soldiers came to John and received their rule of 
duty, even though a centurion was a believer, the Lord, Luke 3, 
in disarming Peter, thenceforth disarmed every soldier. No ', 
dress is lawful for us, which is assigned to an unlawful ii. 
action. 

XX. But seeing that the conversation, which is according 
to the Divine law, is put in peril not only by acts but even 
by words, (for as it is written. Behold the man and his deeds, 

so is it also written. Out of thy mouth thou shall bejuslijied,) Mat. 12, 
we ought to remember that the inroads of idolatry, whether * 
through the fault of evil habit or of cowardice, must be 
guarded against even in words. The law forbiddeth the 
gods of the Heathens to be named, not indeed that we may 
not pronounce their names, which our daily converse com- 



y Martyrdom. ^ de cor. c. 12. 

<= de cor. c. 11. ^ The same text is c]U(^ted in the 

^ Which the centurion also bore. Meditations, ap. S. Aug. c. 39. Per- 

'' As the soldiers on the shoe. haps it is taken from 2 Kings ix. 11. 
' Answerinar to the soldier's belt. 



vere 



248 Names of goda may he pronounced hut not as gods, 

De pelleth us to mention. For we must often say : * Thou wilt 

VII 21.^"^ him in the temple of yEsculapius ;' or ^ I live in the 

street of Isis ;' and ' he hath been appointed a priest of 

Jupiter ;' and many other things of like sort, since names of 

this kind are introduced even amongst men. For I honour 

voca- not Saturn, if they have so called' any by his name; I 

honour him do more than I honour Mark, if I call a man 

Exod. Mark. But it saith, The name of otiier gods shall not be 

^"^' metitioned, neither shall it he heard out of thy mouth. This 

hath it commanded, that we should not call them gods. For 

Exod. in the first part of the law also it is said, Thou shall not take 
20 7 
' * the name of the Lord thy God /or a vain thing, that is, ' for 

an idol.' He therefore that hath honoured an idol with the 

Name of God, hath fallen into idolatry. But if I must needs 

speak of these gods, I must add somewhat, whereby it may 

appear that I do not call them gods. For even Scripture 

nameth the gods, but addeth the words, their or of the 

nations; as David doth, when he had named the gods, when 

Ps. 96, he saith, All the gods of the nations are devils. This, how- 

^* ever, I have advanced, rather as preparatory to future 

remarks. But it is the fault of an evil habit to say, " by 

Hercules," " so help me Jupiter's son," besides the ignorance 

of some who know not that they are swearing by Hercules. 

Moreover what else will an oath be, sworn by ihein whom 

thou hast forsworn, than a juggling of faith with idolatry I 

for who honoureth not those, by whom he sweareth ? 

XXI. Bat it is the fault of cowardice, when another 

bindeth thee by his own gods, through an oath or any 

other form of testimony, and thou, lest thou be discovered, 

remainest silent; for by remaining silent thou dost equally 

affirm that majesty of theirs, for the sake of which thou wilt 

seem to be bound. What doth it matter whether thou affirm 

the t^ods of the Heathens to be gods, by calling them, or by 

hearing them called so ? whether thou swear by idols, or, 

being adjured by another, consent by thy silence.'* Why do 

we not recognize the devices of Satan, who taketh care to 

accomplish by the mouth of his own people, that, which he 

cannot accomplish by our mouth, instilling idolatry into 

us through our ears } Surely whosoever he be, in thus 

binding thee, he closeth with thee either as a friend or as an 



Curse in name of gods not to be feared^ nor hlesshir/ aacpted. 249 

enemy : if as an enemy, then thou art summoned to do 
battle, and knowest that thou hast a fight to fight: if as 
a friend, how much more safely wilt thou turn thine answer 
to the Lord, so as to break the bond of the man, through 
whose means the Evil one sought to bind thee to the honour 
of idols, that is, to idolatry ! All patience of this sort is 
idolatry. Thou honourest those to whom, when forced upon 
thee, thou hast yielded compliance. I know that a man, 
(whom God forgive,) when it was said to him in public 
during a dispute, ' The wrath of Jupiter be upon thee,' 
answered, ' and upon thee also^' What else could an 
Heathen have done, who believed Jupiter to be a god? 
Even if he had not retorted the curse in the name of the 
same god, nor of any one like unto Jupiter, he had affirmed 
that Jupiter was a god, through whom being cursed he had, 
by cursing again, shewn himself to have been angered 
thereby. For why shouldest thou be angry, when cursed 
in the name of one whom thou knowest to be nought? For 
if thou art made furious, thou at once provest him to be 
something, and the confession of thy fear will be idolatry. 
How much more, when thou cursest again by the god 
himself, dost thou do honour to Jupiter by the same means 
as he who provoked thee ! But the believer ought in such a 
case to laugh, not to become furious: yea, according to the 
commandment, thou oughtest not to curse again even by 
God, but altogether to bless in God's Name, that thou 
mayest both overthrow the idols, and proclaim God, and 
fulfil the law of righteousness. 

XXn. In like manner he that hath been admitted into the 
Faith of Christ, will not endure to be blessed in the name of 
the gods of the Heathen, so that he will ever refuse the 
unclean blessing, and, by turning to God, will make it clean 
unto himself. To be blessed in the name of the gods of the 
Heathen is to be cursed in God's name. If I shall give 
alms to any one, or do him any kindness, and he shall pray 
that his gods, or the presiding Genius of the colony, may be 
propitious to me, immediately my oblation or my work will 
be an honour to those idols, in whose name he repayeth me 

^ imo tibi ; apparently a formula used, tolinus Jupiter ; imo tibi. Martial, 1. v, 
" faciet tibi sic bene Csesar, Sic Capi- ap. Lac. 



250 Oaths by gods in money -contracts not to he signed. 

De by the return of his blessing. But why should he not know 
viL23. *^^^ ^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ *^^ Godi, that both God may he the 
1 Pet. 4, rather glorified^ and devils not be honoured by that which I 
"• did for the sake of God ? But ' God seeth that I did it for 
His sake.' Yea, and He likewise seeth that I was unwilling 
to shew that I did it for His sake, and that I have in some 
measure rendered that, which He hath commanded, an 
offering to an idol. Many say, no one is bound openly to 
avow himself: nor, as I think, to disown himself; for 
disown himself he doth, whosoever being treated in any 
matter as an Heathen dissembleth. And indeed all dis- 
owning is idolatry, even as all idolatry is disowning, either 
in deeds or in words. 

XXITI. But there is a certain kind of such idolatry, both 
in deeds and in words, two-edged and hurtful on both sides, 
though it win upon thee, as though it were clear in both 
respects, nothing appearing to be done, because nothing is 
laid hold of as said. They who borrow money from the 
Heathen, bound by the faith of pledges, being adjured, give 
a bond of security, and so deny that they have knowledge of 
the oath. They want forsooth a time of persecution, and 
a seat of judgment, and the presence of the magistrate. 
Mat. 5, Christ teacheth that we must swear not at all. ' I have 
written,' saith one, ' but I have spoken nothing : it is the 
tongue, not the writing, which killeth.' Here I appeal to 
Nature and to Conscience : to Nature, because although the 
tongue, being unmoved and silent, have no part in dictating, 
still the hand can write nothing, which the mind doth not 
dictate : though even to the tongue itself the mind dictateth 
either that which is conceived in itself, or that which hath 
been delivered by another. Now, let it be said, ' another 
dictated ;' I here appeal to the Conscience, whether or no 
the mind conceiveth that which another hath dictated, and 
(be the tongue partaking or quiescent) transmitteth it to the 
hand.? And well is it that the Lord hath said that sin is 
cf. Mat. committed in the mind and in the conscience. " If," saith 
5, 21 et jjg^ u ^]^g g^^j desire or the evil thought come up into the 
heart of a man, thou art held guilty of the act." Thou 
therefore hast given a bond of security, which surely hath 
come up into thine heart, since thou canst neither contend 



Faith safi while in awe, guided by Holy Spirit -25 1 

that thou didst not know, nor that thou didst not will it. 
For when thou gavest the bond, thou hadst knowledge of it, 
and when thou knewest, thou didst assuredly also will it; 
and thou art guilty as well in deed as in thought ; nor canst 
thou, by the lighter charge, bar the graver one, so as to say 
that it is altogether rendered false, by thy giving a bond for 
that which thou dost not actually perform. * Yet I have 
made no denial, because I have sworn no oath.' Nay, but 
notwithstanding thou hadst done nothing of this kind, yet 
thou wouldest be said to have sworn, if thou hast consented. 
Hath not a word understood in writing, and a mute sound in 
letters, its force ? Again, Zacharias when he was punished 
by the loss of his voice for a season, having conferred with 
his mind, passeth over his useless tongue, dictateth from his 
heart to his hands, and pronounceth without a mouth the 
name of his son. In his pen there speaketh, and in his 
waxen tablet there is heard, a hand clearer than any sound, 
a writing more vocal than any mouth. Ask whether he hath 
spoken, who is found to have uttered words. Let us pray to 
the Lord that the necessity of such a contract as this may 
never press upon us: and should it chance to do so, may He 
give to our brethren the means of doing good to us, or 
to ourselves boldness to rid ourselves of all such necessity, 
lest these writings which deny our Religion, standing in the 
place of our words, be brought forward against us in the day 
of judgment, sealed with the seals no longer of advocates 
but of angels. 

XXIV. Amidst these rocks and bays, amidst these shoals 
and straits of idolatry, Faith wafted onwards by the Spirit of 
God holdeth her course: safe while on her guard, secure 
while in amazement. But for those who are cast overboard, 
there is an abyss whence none can swim; for those who 
strike upon a rock, there is a wreck whence none can 
escape ; for those who are swallowed up there is in idolatry 
a whirlpool where none can breathe : every wave thereof 
choketh, every eddy sucketh down to hell. Let no man say, 
* Who shall so safely guard himself? we must needs go out i Cor. 5^ 
of the world.'' As if it were not as good to go out, as to * 
remain an idolater in the world. Nothing can be easier 
than to guard against idolatry, if the fear of it be our chief 



252 Christian law liylitencd^ that it may he obeyed cowpleidy. 

De fear; even- necessity is of secondary account when com- 
Yjj 24. pared with so great a peril. For this cause the Holy Spirit, 
Acts 15, when the Apostles in their days considered of the matter^ 
^' loosened the bond and yoke which was upon ns, that we 

might have nought to do, save to avoid idolatry. This shall 
be our law. The lighter its burden, the more perfectly 
should it be administered ; a law proper to Christians, by 
which we are known and examined by Heathens. This 
must be propounded to such as are approaching towards the 
Faith, and inculcated on such as are entering upon the 
Faith, that they may deliberate while yet approaching, but 
when in the service may deny themselves. For it mattereth 
not whether, after the figure of the ark, the raven ^ and the 
kite, and the wolf, and the dog, and the serpent shall be in 
the Church : the idolater is assuredly not contained within 
the figure of the ark. No animal was made an emblem of 
the idolater. That which was not in the ark, may not be in 
the Church. 



f The " raven" was regarded as the ' kite' of rapacity ; the ' wolf of cruelty ; 

type of those, generally, who fell back (feritate lupos, rapacitate milvos vin- 

to the world; (S. Hil. 'in Ps. 146. §. 11. cere, Jer. Ep. Q^. ad Castrut. §. 1. 

12. S. Aug. c. Faust, xii. 20 S. Ambr. quoted by Lac.) the ' dog' of unclean- 

de Myst. e. 3- see Scriptural Views of ness, (2 Pet. 2, 22. Chrys. Orat. 2. in 

Holy Baptism, p. 307. 309. ed. 2) the Jud. [iv. §. 6. ed. Ben.] ap. Lac.) 



Note F, on c. xviii. p. 246. 

Tertullian seems to understand the words of Tsaiah 53, 3. literally, as 
though the absence of everything highly accounted of among men were part 
of His humiliation, (c. JNIarciii. 7. and adv. Jud. c. 14. "necadspectu quideni 
lionestus;" c. Marc. iii. 17. at length; de carne Christ! c. 9. very explicitly;) 
T. however speaks of lowliness, of absence of any outward dignity or 
majesty to command respect, of what might readily be despised, not as 
M. Medina and others (ap. Moreau t. 1. Hsereses Tert. p. 54. Christus 
indecorus) say, that He was." non speciosus forma, sed foedus et deformis."' 
Thus in the de c. C. *' These, Matt. 13, 54. were the words of persons 
despising His appearance. So that He had not a body even of human 
dignity (honestatis) much less of heavenly brightness." It is also true, 
(as Moreau contends) that T. uses these terms, partly, in reference to His 
suflferings and indignities at the hands of men ; as 1. c. " Were even the 
prophets silent as to the absence of dignity (ignobili) in His aspect, 



Absence of dignity ascribed to our Lord^ of earthly beauty only. t253 

His very sufferings, His very indignities, speak ; the sufferings, of a human 
flesh, the indignities, of one undignified"' (inhonestam), but not exclusively, 
since he argues that had He had the dignity of a heavenly countenance, 
they had not dared this ; and adv. Jud. he distinguishes the " nee 
adspectu, &c." from the rest. T., on the other hand, explains Ps. 45, 2. 
exclusively of " spiritual beauty," adv Marc. iii. 17. The passages of 
S. Clem. Alex. Psed. iii. 1. rh* o^pt» u'fp^^iv in reference to Is. 53. (coll. 
Strom, ii. 5.) will from the contrast, have the same meaning, of contrast with, 
and absence of, human beauty. So again, very plainly, Strom, vi. 1 7- (p. 293. 
ed. Sylb.) zuTtXr,} is opposed to a beautifulness, which would fix the mind on 
itself; " Not without purpose did the Lord will to emplo}' a lowly form of 
body, lest any praising the comeliness and admiring the beauty, should be 
distracted from the things said;" and Strom, iii. 17. p. 202. " He Himself, 
the Head of the Church, passed the life in the flesh, unattractive and 
without form {ari^hs xa) afji.o^<pos) teaching us to look up to the invisible {LuTts) 
and incorporeal of the Divine Cause." Inlikeway when Celsus had said, that 
whereas it was "impossible that whoso had something Divine above others, 
should not differ from others," but that His form '•' was, as they say, small 
and 'tvauTis and abject" (aysvjj), Origen admits the 'hv^iiTis, " but not, as 
Celsus explains it, abject, nor is it clearly shewn that it was small," (c. Cels. 
vi. §. 65.) S. Basil, again, (in Ps. 44.) says only negatively that it " does 
not celebrate beauty of person, for we have seen Him and He hath no 
beauty, &c." Is. 53. So S. Aug. in Ps. 43. §. 16. " As man He had neither 
beauty nor comeliness ; but He was beautiful in form in That, wherebv He 
is ' above the sons of men.' " Ps. 45. " Therefore manifesting that forma 
deformis of the flesh,'" &c. and on Ps. 118. " The Bridegroom Himself, 
lovely not in outward form but in excellency." 

It appears, further, that these writers do not rest on any tradition (for 
Celsus', " they say," implies, at most, only a current notion in his day,) but 
on an exposition of a prophecy ; and, therefore, their words are not to be 
taken further than the prophecy bears, if interpreted of the outward form, 
" absence of outward comeliness." 

This same passage of Isaiah is by others interpreted of the " marring of 
His countenance" through His sufferings; (whence the Jews thought that 
He was near " fifty years old;") and this is evidently the meaning of 
Thaddseus in the document jfrom the Syriac, ap. Eus. i. 13. " of the power 
of His works and the mysteries which He spake in the world — of thelowness 
and meanness and humiliation of the ^lan. Who appeared visibly, and hoAv 
He humbled Himself and died and minished His Divinit}-." This T. himself 
joins with the other meaning, and S. Aug. gives it as ^Ai? meaning, in Ps.44. 
§. 3. and in Ps. 127. §• 8. '' That Bridegroom than "W'hom nothing is more 
beautiful, of WhomEsaias said a little before, ' We saw Him, and He had 
no beauty nor comeliness.' Is then our Bridegroom unlovely? (foedus) — He 
seemed unlovely to those who persecuted Him, and unless they had deemed 
Him unlovely, they had not assaulted, had not scourged, had not crowned 
with thorns, had not dishonoured Him with spittings; but because He 
seemed to them unlovely, they did those things unto Him, for they had not 



354 Dignity of our Lojrl visihle to those worthy to behold if. 

Note the eyes to which Christ would appear lovely — Those eyes are to be 
Idol^ cleansed, that they may be able to see that light;" which gives a sort of 

comment on T.'s stronger language de came Christi, 1. c. Theodoret 

explains Is. 53. 2, 3. of His sufferings (in Ps. 44.) 

This passage of S. Aug. further shews that these Fathers did not think of 
what we should mean by "meanness of countenance" and the like, but only 
a lowliness of the outward form, which (as is the case often now in such 
degrees of moral dignity as men may reach unto) had nothing attractive 
except for those who had a certain sympathy with it, and whose eyes were 
purified to see the hidden Majesty. Thus Origen, who admitted the 
WwJif imputed by Celsus, says, (Comm.in Matt. §. 100. t. iii. p. 906. ed. de 
la Rue al. Tr. 35.) " A tradition has come down to us of Him, that there 
were not only two forms in Him, one according to which all saw Him, 
another, according to which He was transfigured before His disciples in the 
mount, when His countenance also shone as the sun, but that He appeared 
to each according as he was worthy. And being the Same, He appeared 
as though He were not the Same to all;" (which O. likens to the Manna, 
Wisd. 16, 20. 21.) " And this tradition does not appear to me incredible, 
whether as relates to the body, on account of Jesus Himself, that He 
appeared in different ways to men, or on account of the very nature of the 
Word, which does not appear alike to all." And S. Jerome (in Ps. 44. 
Ep. 65. ad Princip. §. 8.) having explained Is, 53, 2. of His sufferings, 
and Ps. 45. of the " beauty of His excellencies in a sacred and Adorable 
Body," subjoins, " for had He not had in His countenance and eyes a sort 
of starry lustre, neither had the Apostles instantly followed Him, nor 
they who had come to seize Him fallen to the ground," and this, (on 
S. Matt. 9, 9.) he explains not to belong to the human countenance, but 
the Divinity gleaming through. " Certainly the very brightness and 
majesty of the hidden Divinity, which shone through in His human 
countenance, could at first sight draw beholders to Himself. For if the 
magnet and amber are said to have the power to join to themselves rings 
and straws, how much more could the Lord of all creatures draw to Himself 
whom He would !" 



OF BAPTISM. 



[The De Baptismo seems to have been written before Tertullian's fall ; in that 
he says, c. 15, " the very privation of communion testifieth that they [heretics] 
are aliens," which he would hardly have said, had he himself been out of com- 
munion with the Church. Lumper (c. 3. art. 3. §. 4.) infers the same from 
the Bishops being placed first, whereas according to S. Jerome (Ep. 41. ol. 
213. ad Marcell. c. Montan. §. 3.) the Montanists (like a modern sect) had 
two orders above them ; he notices also a different tone in speaking of Bishops, 
here and in the de Pudicit. e. i. ; and that the Acta TheclcE, against which 
TertuUian speaks, (c. 17.) were probably written by Leucius, whom Pacian 
says, (Ep. i. ad Sympr. init.) that the Montanists said falsely that they 
derived their origin " animates a Leucio mentiuntur."] 



I. Happy the Sacrament of our water ! whereby being\ 
cleansed from the sins of om' former blindness, we are made J 
free unto eternal life ^* ! A discussion of this matter will not 
be idle, as instructing both those who are most perfectly 
informed, and those also, who content with simply believing, 
without examining the bearings of traditions, carry about 
with them through ignorance a belief which recommendeth 
itself, yet untried. And therefore a certain most venomous 
serpent of the heresy of the Cainites ^, lately dwelling in 
these parts, hath carried away very many with her doctrine, 
beginning with the overthrow of Baptism ; plainly according 
to her nature; for vipers, and asps, and king-serpents % 

^ See below, e. 2. 3. 5. Clem, per who had once perished lifteth up 

Pad. i. 6. [p. 41. 2 ed. Sylb.] S. Ambr. her bruised head and overthroweth the 

de El. et jejun. fin. Ep. [63] ad Yerc. Sacrament of Christ, not in part, as 

Eccl. [§. 11.] S. Chrys. ap Aug. c. formerly, [i. e. as to the matter,] but 

Jul. i. ^. 21. [Pam.] Chrys. in Matt, wholly ;" in that it was denied that all 

Hom. 12. sin was forgiven in it. add S. Cypr. Ep. 

b See on this sect de Prsescript. c. ad Magn. fin. 
33. adv. omn. Hseret. c. 3. They, as c xhe Basilisk, basiliscus, regu- 

well as the Manichseans, (see S. Aug. ,„^ ^ , s „ . , ..<^» 

Conf. iv. $. 8. note, Oxf. Transl.) fol- ^"'' ^'"'"■'"'' ^-^'^"^««^. *U^. '^ a 

lowed out the tenet of the impurity of specially deadly serpent, and peculiar 

matter, so as to reject Baptism with to Africa, see Bochart- (Hieroz. p. ii. 1. 

water. S. Jerome alludes to this re- ^. c. 9. 10.) who identifies it with the 

jection, (Ep. 69. ad Ocean, init.) using V^}i, *3yDJf of H. Scr. ; add S. Jerome, 

the same metaphors. " The Cainite Ep. 69. ad Ocean. §. 6. 
heresy ariseth against me, and the vi- 



256 Things of God the more to be believed, because beyond belief, 

De themselves mostly seek after places that are dry and without 
Yiii{ water. But we poor fishes, following after our IXQT^'*/^ 
■ Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor are we safe, except by^ 
I abiding in the water. Therefore that most monstrous 
^^woman Quintilla% who had not the right to teach *^ even pure 
1 Tim. doctrine, knew excellently well how to kill the fishes, by 
^' ^^' taking them out of the water. 

II. But now how great is the force of perverseness in 
overthrowing the Faith, or in preventing its being received 
at all, when it impugneth it by the very arguments by which 
it is established ! In truth there is nothing which so hard- 
eneth the minds of men, as the simplicity of the Divine 
works as visible in the act, and their greatness promised in 
the effect : so that in this case also, because a man going 
down into the water, and being with few words washed 
therein, with so much simplicity, without pomp, without any 
novel preparation, and finally without expense, riseth again 
not much or not a whit the cleaner, therefore his gaining 
Eternity is thought incredible. I am much mistaken if the 
rites and mysteries pertaining to idols on the contrary build 
not their credit and authority on their equipments and their 
outward show and their sumptuousness. O wretched un- 
belief! who deniest to God His own proper qualities, sim- 
nlicity and power! What then? Is it not wonderful tha^'N^ 
X death should be washed away ~ by a mere bath ? Yea, but if, 
/ because it is wonderful, it be therefore not believed, it ought 
on that account the rather to be believed '\ For what else 
should the works of God be but above all wonder? We 
ourselves also wonder, but because we believe : while un- 

^ See S. Aug. Conf. xiii. c. 21. the Montanists was Maximilla : then 

note. Priscilla. 

^ S. Epiphanius mentions a female ^ " A woman is not permitted to 

so named, as the authoress of an ob- speak in the Church ; neither to teach 

scure subdivision of the Montanists nor to baptize, nor to make the ob- 

called Quintillians, (Hcer. 49. c. 1.2.51. lation, nor dare she claim any single 

c. 33.) She is not named in Eusebius, man's, much less any priestly, office." 

V. 16. and 18. nor is there any ground de Virg. vel. c. 9. add inf. c. 17. de 

to identify her with this person. The Prsescr. c. 41, 

Montanists did not reject Baptism. e Below, c. 5. adv. Marc. i. 8. 

Tertullian, when a Montanist, says, ^ Such is, doubtless, the meaning of 

'' Among us also, the heretic too, as on the saying "■ Credo, quia impossibile 

a footing with, yea, worse than a he a- est," i. e. with man, and in man's 

then, is admitted, cleansed from the old sight, and to man's reason. Tertullian 

man of both (heathenism and heresy) speaks,just below, of " impossibilia,"aiJ 

by Baptism." The chief prophetess of the materials of the Divine working. 



Dignity intended for water, marked at the Creation. 257 

belief wondereth and believeth not, for it wondereth at 
simple things, as foolish, and at great things, as impossible. 
And be it altogether as thou thinkest, yet hath the de- 
claration of God sufficiently prevented thee in both points. 
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound^ Cor. 
the wisdom thereof and, the things which are exceeding i^ukeis 
difficult with men., are easy with God. For if God be both^"- 
wise and powerful, which even those who pass Him by deny 
not, with good cause placeth He the materials of His opera- 
tions in the contraries of wisdom and power, that is in foolish- 
ness and impossibility, since every excellence taketh its rise 
from those things by which it is called forth '. 
/- III. Remembering this declaration, as one precludingX 
/farther question, let us nevertheless consider this mighty \ 
I foolishness and impossibility that man should be re-formed J 
by water. How, in fact, hath this material thing deserved 
an office of so much dignity ? We must, I suppose, demand 
the authority of the liquid element. But of this there is 
abundance, and that from the beginning. For it is one 
of those things which, before the world was furnished with 
any thing, remained as yet in a rude form, quiescent in the 
hands of God. In the hegifining (he saith) God created the Gen. iT 
heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and 
without form, and darkness was over the deep, and the 
Spirit of God tvas borne over the waters. Thou hast first, 
O man, to reverence the jLge^^^o£ (/i£ waiters, in that they arej 
an ancient substance, next their dignity, in that they were! 
the seat of the Spirit of God^, to wit, because more pleasing] 
to Him, even then, than the rest of the elements. For there 
was as yet a total shapeless darkness ', without the adorning 
of the stars, and there was the gloomy deep, and the earth 
unprepared, and the heaven unformed: water alone, a matter | 
ever perfect, cheerful, simple, pure of its own nature, sup-' 
plied a vehicle worthy of God. What shall T say of the 
disposition of the world having been thereupon based in 

* i. e. His wisdom and power are " Scriptural Views of Holy Baptism," 

the more seen in bringing wisdom out p. 369, 60. ed. 2. (Tracts for the Times, 

of what seems foolishness, and working vol. 2. No. 67.) 

by means which seem impossible. ^ Imitated by S. Jerome, Ep. 69. ad 

^ See S. Ambrose, S. Jerome, S. Ocean, ib. 
Cyril Jerus. S. Hippolytus, quoted 



258 JVater source of life in creation and re-creation. 

De a manner by God upon water as its regulating principle? 
Yl\^ji"4 For that He might suspend the Jir?nament of Heaven in the 
Gen. 1, midst y He did so by dividing the waters ; and that He might 
^•J-jQ suspend the dry land, He set it free by separating the 
' 'tvaters'^. When, the world being afterwards disposed 
according to its elements, inhabitants were given unto it, 
V. 20. /it was commanded to the waters first to bring forth living\ 
f creatures; water first brought forth that which had life, so I 
/ that there might be no wonder, if in Baptism the waters/ 
should be able to give life ". For even the work of forming 
man himself was accomplished by the waters joining their 
aid. The material was formed of the earth, yet not fit\ 
for use unless moist and full of juice, which, in fact, the \ 
waters, separated before the fourth day to their own place, j 
had, through the moisture which remained behind, made, 
by their admixture, clay. If after this I were to go on to 
all or to any more of what I can say of the authority of this 
element, how great its power or its grace, how many con- 
trivances, how many services, how mighty an instrument 
it furnisheth to the world, I am afraid lest I should seem 
rather to have collected together praises of water than argu- 
ments for baptism, although I should thus more fully shew, 
that we ought not to doubt whether God hath made that 
matter to obey° Him in His own Sacraments also, which He 
hath disposed through all things and all His works; whether 
that, which ruleth the earthly life, minister also in the heavenly. 
IV. But it will be sufficient to have briefly premised these 
things, among which is also recognized that first notice of 
5 qua Baptism, whereby • even at that time it was, by the very 
posture'', fore-signified as a figure of Baptism, that the Spirit 
of God, Which, in the beginning, was borne above the waters, 
will still abide upon the waters as the Baptizer''. But an 

'" See Fathers ib. p. 358. note 1. P See note r, p. 259. 

Liturgies ib. p. 364. note. q Intinctorem ; in like way as S. 

" ib. p. 358. note 2. S. Cypr. ad Augustine so frequently insists that all 

Donat. §. 2. p. 2. Oxf. Transl. Baptism is not man's (not Peter's, nor 

o if parere (and then it stands in Paul's, as John's was his) but Christ's. 

contrast with " gubernat," " ruleth the (see Scriptural Views, p. 192 sqq. ed. 

earthly life," which, however, is more 2.) Rig. has intinctorum, " abide 

immediately contrasted with "procurat," upon tbe waters of the baptized," i. e. 

"?«m?s/erin,")or if parere, "hath made wherein men are baptized; but this is 

to be the source of life," as a little before, either conjecture or an erratum. Gel. 



All icater then obtained Jitnes^s to he sanctified and sanctify, 259 

Holy Thing was surely borne above an holy, or that which 
bore borrowed holiness from that which was borne above it ; 
since every substance lying beneath*^ must needs catch the 
quality of that which lieth above : specially the bodily that 
of the spiritual, which, by the subtlety of its own nature, can 
easily penetrate and sink into it. Thus the nature of water v 
/sanctified by the Holy One, itself also received the power of j 
J sanctifying. Let no one say, ' Are we then washed in the ' 
same waters which were then, in the beginning V Assuredly 
not in the same, unless so far as the genus is the same, while 
the species are many : and whatever is attributed to the 
genus appeareth again in the species' also. And therefore 
there is no difference whether a man be washed in the sea 
or in a pool, in a river or in a fountain, in a lake or in a 
canal: nor is there ^ any distinction between those whom 
John baptized in the Jordan, and those whom Peter baptized 
in the Tiber, unless that eunuch too, whom Philip baptized \ 
on his journey, in the water on which they chanced, received 
thereby more or less saving benefit. Wherefore all waters, 
from the ancient privilege of their origin, obtain, after prayer 
to God", the sacrament of sanctification. For the Spirit 
straightway cometh down from the Heavens' above, and is 
over the waters, sanctifying them from Himself; and so 
sanctified they imbibe the power of sanctifying. Besides, 
for the simple act the similitude of the things may suffice, 
so that since we are defiled by sins, as though by dirt, we 
should be cleansed by water. But as our sins do not appear 
upon the flesh, (for no man carrieth upon his skin the stain ot 
idolatry, or adultery, or theft",) so persons of this sort are 
filthy in the spirit, which is the author of sin. For the spirit 



and Pam. have, intinctosreformaturum, element as atFecting the Baptisms, not 

*' to re-form the baptized ;" bat the au- of the Baptisms 5 it is an argument a 

thority does not seem so good. fortiori ; had the Jordan any special 

■^ T. perhaps uses subjecta in a two- sacredness, John 'shad been better than 
fold sense ; " lying beneath," and, as Christian Baptism, whereas the con- 
implied by the position, " subject." trary is strongly stated, c. 10. 

» " in specie redundat," as Cic. pro " On the consecration of the water 

Balb, c. 25. " ut sermones — etiam ad of Baptism, see authorities in Bingham, 

vestras aures permanarent, et in judicio 11 . 10. 

ipso redundarent," [Tr.] else it might "^ Instanced as deadly sins in the de 

be, specie (=speciem) " passeth over Idol. c. 1. Murder is omitted, as having 

to the species." mostly some stains, c, 1. 

£ i. e. thus far ; T. is speaking of the 

S 2 



260 Cleansing "power ofioater attested by heathen expiations. 

De rulethjthe flesh serveth; nevertheless each shareth the guilt, 

YHl 5 the one with the other, the spirit for commanding, the flesh 

for obeying. Wherefore, the waters being in a certain 

Ananner endued with power to heal by the intervention of the 

/ Angela the spirit is washed in the w^ater after a carnal 

j manner, and the flesh cleansed in the same after a spiritual 

\ manner. 

V. But then the heathen, who are stranger's to the under- 
ipotesta-gi^anding of .spiritual things, give to their own idols a power* 
restored of cqual efficacy : but they deceive themselves wdth mere 
solitary water. For they are admitted by washing^ to certain 
sacred rites, of a certain Isis, or Mithra. Even the gods them- 
selves they exalt by washings'. For the rest, water every 
where carried about, maketh expiation, by sprinkling, for 
town and country houses, temples and entire cities''. Certainly 
they are baptized at the games of Apollo and those at 
Eleusis ; and this they suppose that they do unto regenera- 
tion'^, and impunity in their perjuries. So also among the 
ancients, whosoever had stained himself with murder was 
wont to make expiation for himself by the water of purifica- 
tion'^. Wherefore if men make much of water, as ominous 



y See below, c. 6. and note. not the expressions of nature itself,) and 

^ De PrsRScr. c. 40. Aug. c. Don. vi. so, anticipations of the Christian Sacra- 

25." In many sacrilegious rites of idols, ments, (in part, also, as suggested by 

persons are reported to be baptized." Satan in conformity with the intima- 

Clem. Strom, v. 11. p. 248. ed. Sylb. tions of prophecy, see above, on Apol. 

" Not without ground then are the c. 22.) seems himself to have applied, 

purifications (ra xxdi^iria) the com- in his energetic way of speaking, the 

mencement of the mysteries of the Christian term to them ; for " regen era - 

Greeks, as among the Barbarians [i. e. tion" is no where ascribed to the 

Christians], also the bath," add vii. 4. heathen rite; he explains his own 

p. 303. Justin M. Apol. i. 62. Apul. meaning, by what follows when he 

Metam. ix. p. 394. Polyasn. Strateg. instances the expiation of great crimes. 

1. V. in Heracl. Diod. Sic. 1. i. ap. They looked also for a happier future. 

Marsham Chron. Ssec. 9. p. 191. (Bapt. The Schol. on Aristoph. Pax. (ap. 

Ebr.) Gyrald. Syntagm. 17. t. i. p. 523. Warburton Div. Leg. ii. 4.) says, " An 

Telemachus, and Penelope, in Homer, opinion prevailed among the Athenians, 

wash before praying, see Hoffm. v, that whoso was taught the mysteries 

Lotio. after his departure hence obtained 

^ Minerva at the Ply nteria ; see Aug. Divine honour ; wherefore also all eagerly 

de Civ. D. ii. 24. Cybele on the iv Kal. hasted to the mysteries." See others 

Apr. see Hoffm. v. Lavatio Matris ibid. Marsham Chron. Ssec. xi. c. a^>j?. 

Deum. d e. g. Virg. ^En. ix. 818. " Apollo 

^ in the Ambarvale ( = arva ambire) ap. Paus. 1. x Hercules ap. Diod. Sic. 

amburbale (=urbem ambire) Lucan. i. 1. iv. Theseus ap. Plut. in eo. Bel- 

692. ap. Hoffm. in v. lerophon ap. Apollod. 1. 2. alii." Hoffm. 

•= T. looking upon the heathen rites, v. lustratio. Marsham Ssec. xi. e. 

as copied from the Jewish, (as, doubt- xcc^x^ftof. 
less, they were, in as far as they were 



Satan^s imitations believed, if God's truth rejected. 261 

of inward cleansing, solely from its nature, because it is the 
proper matter for washing outwardly, how much more truly 
will water perform this office by the authority of God, by 
Whom its whole nature is framed ! If they think that water 
receiveth an healing power from Religion, what Religion is ] 
better than that of the living God? Which being acknow->/ 
ledged, we here also recognize* the zeal of the Devil, rivalling* recog- 
the things of God, when even he performeth baptism u^on ^g^tored 
his own people. What resemblance is there ? The unclean 
cleanseth, the destroyer delivereth, the condemned absolveth 1 
He will destroy forsooth his own work, washing away those 
sins which he himself inspireth ! These things indeed are 
set down for a testimony against those who refuse the Faith, 
if they in no wise believe in those things of God, in the 
pretended imitations of which by the rival of God they do 
believe. But do not unclean spirits in other ways also, and 
without any religious rite, brood over the waters, pretending 
to imitate the up-bearing of the Divine Spirit at the begin- 
ning? Witness all shady fountains, and all unfrequented 
streams^, and the pools at the baths, and all the conduits and 
cisterns in houses, and the wells which are said to carry men 
off, to wit, by the power of the noxious spirit^ For they call 
men stifled*, and water-stricken, and hydrophobic, whom^enectos 
water hath killed, or hath worked upon by madness or fear^. '^*'"^^ 
To what purpose have we related these things ? that none may 
think it too hard a thing that the holy Angel of God should be 
present to prepare the waters for the salvation of man, when 
the bad angel hath ofttimes unholy dealings with the same 
element for the destruction of man. If it seemeth a strange 
thing, that an Angel should interpose in the waters, an ex- 
ample of what was to be hath gone before. An angel inter- 
posing troubled the pool at Bethsaida''. They who complained John 5, 

e aviis; or, according to the ety mo- reading which has several, (though 

logy, it might have been, " w^anting a inadequate) authorities, both East and 

passage ;" in the one case, correspond- West, (see Scholz. ad loc.) It oceurs 

ing with what precedes, in the other, also in the very ancient Gothic liturgy, 

with what follows. (edited by Thomasius,) which also 

f See Psellus de Deemon. Porph. Resp» refers to the pool of Bethesda as a type 

ex Orac. A poll. ap. Pam. of Baptism in TertuUian's language, 

g De Anim.c. 50. Plin. ii. 103. xxxi. "Thou Who, through an Angel, 

2. ap. Pam. gavest to the waters of Bethsaida power 

h for " BiBthesda," according to a to heal." " Angelo medicante." Tert. 



26-2 Man re-created in GocVs image note, in His likeness eternally. 



De 
Bapt. 
VIII.6, 



lin 
restored 



2 restitu- 
etur 
restored 
Gen. i, 
26. 27. 
Wisd.2, 
23. 

Gen. 2, 
7. 



of ill health watched for him : for whosoever Jirst stepped down 
thither, after washing ceased to complain. This figure of 
bodily medicine spake of a spiritual medicine, according to 
that rule whereby carnal things ever go before as the figures 
of spiritual. Wherefore, when the grace of God increased 
among* men, more was added to the waters and to the 
Angel. They that did cure the ills of the body, now heal 
the spirit : they that did work out the temporal health, now 
frame anew the eternal : they that did deliver one man once 
in the year', now save whole nations every day, death being 
abolished through the washing away of sins. For the guilt 
being taken away, the punishment is taken away also. Thus 
man, who aforetime had been in the image of God, will be" 
restored^ to God after His likeness. The image is con- 
sidered to be in his form, the likeness in his eternity : for he 
receiveth again that Spirit of God, which he had then 
received by His breathing upon him, but had afterwards lost 
by sin'. 

VI. Not that we obtain the Holy Spirit"^ in the water, but 



c. 4, '' rnedicatis quodammodo aquis 
per Angeli interventum." The angel 
of Baptism is also named there, " Let 
the Angel of Thy blessing descend upon 
these waters." (Ass. t. ii. p. 34, 5.) 

i so xccra xai^of (Joh. 5, 4.) is ex- 
plained by S. Chrysost. S. Cyril Alex. 
S. Ambrose ; see Script. Views, p. 350. 
note 1. 

^ It may be that T. uses the future to 
mark that the restoration is but com- 
menced here, to be perfected in eternity, 
as he says, " the likeness is his eter- 
nity." Thus Orig. de Princ. iii. 6 init. 
" Moses in that he thus relates the 
first creation of man, ' And God said, 
Let Us make man after Our image and 
likeness,' and then adds, ' And God 
made man, in the image of God made 
He him' — in that he said, ' In the 
image of God made He him,' but is 
silent as to the ' likeness,' indicates 
nothing else, than that at his first 
creation he received the dignity of the 
* image," but that the perfection of the 
likeness is reserved for the consumma- 
tion ; but the Apostle John defines this 
much more clearly, ' We do not yet 
know what we shall be — we shall be 
like Him.' Whereby he most certainly 
points both to the end of all things, 



which he saith is yet unknown to him, 
and that a likeness of God is to be 
looked for, which shall be bestowed 
according to the perfectness of deserts ;" 
and S. Aug. de i'rin. xv. §. 24. quoting 
also 1 Joh. 3, 2. " hence it appears 
that in that image of God (Col. 3, 9.) 
the full ' likeness' of Him will then take 
place, when it shall receive the full 
vision of Him — That image of which it 
is said, ' Let Us make man after Our 
image and likeness,' since it is not said 
' My' or ' Thy' [but ' Our'] we believe 
that man was made in the image of 
the Trinity. And therefore thus also 
will that rather be to be understood, 
which the Apostle John says, ' we 
shall be like Him, for we shall see 
Him as He is,' because he said it of 
him of whom he had said, ' we are 
sons of God." 

^ see the Fathers cited by Bp. Bull 
in his Discourse 5. " The state of man 
before the fall," espec. p. 82 sqq. 
99—111. ed. Burton. 

■" i. e. not fully ; His complete gifts 
being bestowed through the Anointing 
c. 7. and imposition of hands as part of 
Baptism, (see Scriptural Views, p. 153. 
note.) For since Tertullian (with all 
other Fathers) believed Baptism to be 



The Trinity loitnesses of faith, sureties of salvation. 263 



being cleansed in the water, under the Angel", we are 
prepared for the Holy Spirit. Here also hath a figure gone 
before. For thus was John aforetime the forerunner of the 
Lord, jireparing His way : and so also for the Holy Spirit, Mai. 3, 
about to come upon us, doth the Angel, the witness of^' 
i3aptism, make the paths straight, \)j the washing away ofls.40,3. 
sins, which Faith obtaineth, being sealed in the Father, and^^^^' "^' 
in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. For if in three MAt.28 
witnesses every word shall be established, how much more 2 Cor. 
doth the Number also of the Divine Names suffice for the ' 
assurance of our hope, when we have, through the blessing 
pronounced, the same for witnesses of our faith, whom we 
have also as sureties for our salvation ! But since both the 
testimony of faith and the promise of salvation is pledged 
under three ", there is necessarily a mention made besides of 
the Church, seeing that where three are, that is, the Father 
and the Son and the Holy Ghost, there is the Church, which comp. 
isabody of three". ^^l^\^l^' 



the birth " of water and the Spirit," 
those so born could not be without the 
Spirit, see below, e. 13. and de Anima 
c. 41. " re-formed by the second birth 
of water and the power from above," 
de Pudic. e. 6. " whatsoever flesh hath 
in Christ put off its former defilements, 
is now wholly another thing ; it cometh 
up [out of the water] new, born of pure 
water aud the cleansing Spirit." In 
like way, Pam. remarks that S. Cyprian 
says Ep. 62. ad Ceecil. §. 5. " By 
Baptism the Holy Spirit is received," 
and yet Ep. 69. ad Januar. " Whoso 
has been baptized must also needs be 
anointed, that having received the 
Chrism, i. e. the anointing, he may be 
the anointed of God, and have within 
him the grace of God." 

° see above, p. 261. note h. The 
mention of an Angel of Baptism is 
evidently in part suggested by the 
ministry of an Angel at the pool of 
Bethesda, which is spoken of as a type 
of Baptism by S. Chrys. ad loc. adv. 
ebr. et de Res. §. 4. 5. in Paral. et de 
Christi Divin. c. anom. xii. §. 1, S. 
Cyril Alex, ad loc. S. Ambrose de 
Myst. c. 4. de Sacr. ii. c. 2. S. Greg. 
Naz. Orat. xli. 33. see Scriptural 
Views, p. 349 sqq. Tertullian speaks 
also of an angel of prayer, (de Orat. 
c. 12.) the angel who " calleth forth 



the soul" at death, (de Anim. c. 53 
fin.) and those employed to form man in 
the womb, ib. c. 37. 

° i. e. both " under three" witnesses, 
and these being, in this case, the Bless- 
ed Trinity, " under," i. e. subject to 
'' the Three," under Whose authority 
Salvation is pledged. 

P i. e. When our Lord promises His 
presence to " two or f/tree gathered 
together in His Name," and so consti- 
tutes them in some sense a Church, 
He had, (Tert. supposes) reference to 
the mystery of the Trinity into Whose 
Name the Church is baptized. This 
passage has been looked upon as a 
token of Montanism. The error, how- 
ever, did not lay in this statement, but 
in its abuse. T. uses the argument 
rightly de Pcenit. c. 10. ; after his fall, 
he on this ground claimed for the laity, 
in cases of emergency , priestly functions, 
(de fuga in Pers. c. 14. de exhort. Cast, 
c. 7.) and at last maintained that three 
spiritual persons constituted the Church, 
even over-against the Church, (de Pu- 
dic. c. 21.) an abuse, which S. Cyprian 
refutes, de Unit. Eccl. c. 11. The text 
is quoted as a blessing of our Lord upon 
imity by S. Hil. in S. Matt. 18. §. 9. 
and by S. Ambrose de Cain et Ab. c. 2. 
and de Myst. c. 5. especially of the 
priesthood. But for the correspondence 



264 Unction and layimj-on of hands, bodily in act, spiritual in effect. 

De VIT. After this, having come out from the bath, we are 
villus anointed thoroughly with a blessed unction ■*, according to 
the ancient rule ', by which they were wont to be anointed 
for the priesthood with oil out of an horn. Wherefore 
Aaron was anointed by Moses; whence Christ"" is named 
from Chrism, which is " anointing," which, being made 
spiritual, furnished a name for the Lord, because He was 
anointed with the Spirit by God the Father": as it is said 
4, 27. in the Acts, Fa?- of a truth against Thy Holy Child, Whom 
Thou hast anointed, they were gathered together in that 
city. So in us also the anointing runneth over us bodily, 
but profiteth spiritually", as likewise in Baptism itself the 
act is carnal, that we are dipped in the water, the effect 
spiritual, that we are delivered from our sins. 

VIII. Next to this, the hand is laid upon us, calling upon 
and inviting the Holy Spirit, through the blessing. Shall 
the wit of man forsooth be allowed to summon a spirit into 
water, and, by adjusting his hands above, to animate the 
compound of the two with another spirit of such dulcet 
sound'', and shall not God be allowed,- by means of holy 
hands, to tune on his own instrumental the lofty strains of 
the Spirit ? But this also cometh of an ancient mystery, 
wherein Jacob blessed his grandsons born of Joseph, 
Ephraim and Manasseh, his hands being laid upon their 
heads, and interchanged, and turned indeed crosswise, the 
one over the other, so that, representing Christ in a figure ■", 
they might even then foreshew the blessing to be accom- 
plished in Christ*. Then that most Holy Spirit cometh 

of this language, (Ecclesiam, — quam son, " the priest, the anointed, who is 

Dominus in tribus posuit,) it might instead of him." [Tr.] 

have been rendered, " which is the " see adv. Marc. iii. 15. adv. Prax. 

body of the Three," (coll. Col. i. 24.) c. 28. S. Aug. de Cons. Ev. iii. 8. adv. 

i. e. in which the Holy Trinity indwells Jud. c. 4. c. adv. Leg. et Proph. §. 12. 

through the Spirit ; and probably T. de Trin. xv. §. 46. 

meant to convey both at once, as he ° See S. Cyril, Lect. 21. (Myst. 3.) 

does de Pudic. 1. c. '' For the Church p An hydraulic organ described by 

properly and mainly consists in the Vitruvius, 1. x. 

Spirit Himself, in Whom is the Trinity *1 Man. 

of the One Godhead, Father, and Son, "■ The Cross; in part also the Greek 

and Holy Spirit." X. The mystical meaning of this action 

^ see Bingham, 12. 1. of the Patriarch is spoken of, S. Aug. 

' i. e. the Old Testament. Conf. x. §. 62. Novatian de Trin. c. 27. 

*" " or possibly ' whence he (i. e. fin. 

Aaron) was called Christus,' see Lev. » "jam tunc portenderent benedic- 

6, 22. LXX. where however the term tionem in Christum futuram;" one 

Xf<(rr«f is applied not to Aaron but to his should have expected " in Christo ;" 



Types of the Flood and the Red Sea. 265 

down willingly from the Father upon the bodies that have 
been cleansed and blessed, and resteth upon the waters 
of Baptism, as though remembering His ancient abiding 
place, Who in the forin of a dove descended upon the Lord, 
that the nature of the Holy Spirit might be shewn forth by a 
creature of simplicity and innocence. For the dove wanteth 
the very gall ' even in the body : and therefore He saith, 
Be ye harmless as doves. And even this w^as not without Mat. lo, 
the token of a figure which had gone before. For as, after ' 
the waters of the flood, whereby the former iniquity was 
purged, after the baptism (so to speak) of the world, the 
herald dove" sent forth from the ark, and returning with 
an olive branch, — a sign, which even among the Gentiles 
foretokeneth peace, — announced to the world the appease- 
ment of the wrath of Heaven; by the same ordering of 
spiritual effect, doth the Dove of the Holy Spirit fly dow^n 
upon our earth, that is, our flesh, when it cometh forth from 
the laver after its former sins, bringing to us the peace 
of God, sent forth from the Heavens, wherein is the Church, 
the prefigured ark. But the world sinneth a second time, 
(wherein Baptism can ill be compared to the flood): and 
therefore it is reserved unto fire, as is also the man, who, 2 Pet. 
after Baptism, reneweth his sins "^, so that this also ought to ' * 
be received as a token of warning to us. 

IX. How many pleas therefore of nature in its behalf, how 
many privileges of grace, how many rites of religious dis- 
cipline, figures, preparatory forms, prayers, have ordained 
the religious use of water ! First indeed when the people 
being at large * and set free from Egypt, escaped the violence " Jibere 
of the king of Egypt by passing over the water, the water ^^^^"''^^' 
utterly destroyed the king with all his armies. What figure 
more manifest in the Sacrament of Baptism ? The nations are 
delivered from the world, to wit by water, and leave the 



perhaps T. had reference to porten- nion, mentioned also by Horus Hierogl. 

derent, and meant to include the two see Suicer v. ^i^itrTtga,. 

senses, " pointed to Christ," and to " See on this type, S. Jerome, 

" the blessing in Him ;" or he may S. Ambrose, S. Chrysostom, Script, 

have thought of the Holy Spirit de- Views, p. 398, 9. 

scending upon Him, and, through Him, ^ manifestly, if unrepented of; neither 

upon the Church. then is this any proof of Montanism. 
' This was a common ancient opi- 



266 Water honoured in O, and N. T.for confirming of Baptism. 

De devil, their former master, overwhelmed in the water ^. Like- 
Bapt. 
viit. 10. wise was the water cured of its fault of bitterness, unto its 

Exod. own good state ^ of sweetness, by the wood of Moses \ That 

15 25 ' .' 

' ■ wood was Christ, curing, to wit, through His own Self, the 
streams of nature once poisoned and bitter, unto the most 
wholesome waters of Baptism. This is the water which 
1 Cor. flowed for the people from that rock that followed them. 
ib.' ' For if that rock was Christ, without doubt we see Baptism 
blessed by the water ^ in Christ. How great, for the con- 
firming of Baptism, is the grace of water in the sight of God 
and of His Christ ! Never is Christ without water. Foras- 
John 2, much as He Himself is baptized in water : called to the 
marriage, He commenceth the first beginnings of His power 
in water. When He discourseth. He inviteth the thirsty to 
John 7, His everlasting water : when He teacheth concerning charity, 
He approveth among the works of love, a cup of uater 
Mat. 10, offered to a poor man : He refresheth His strength at a well : 
John 4, He walketh upon the water: readily fassetli over the 
M 14 '^^^ * ^^i^i^t^^'^th water to His disciples. The testimony to 
25. Baptism continueth even to His Passion. When He is 
g ^" ' delivered to he crucified, water cometh in between : witness 
Mat. 27, the hands of Pilate: when He is wounded, water breaketh 

24. . 

John 19, forth from His Side : witness the spear of the soldier. 

^^' X. I have spoken, as far as to my poor wit hath been 

permitted, concerning those things in general which lay the 
foundation of the Sacrament of Baptism. I shall now pro- 
ceed equally, as I may be able, to treat of certain particular 
questions respecting what remains to be said of its character. 

Acts 10, 77/6' baptism which John preached^, was, even in those days, 
the subject of a question, proposed indeed by the Lord 

Mat.2i, Himself to the Pharisees, whether it were a baptism /rowi 
heaven or of the earth. About which they were not able to 
answer consistently, as not understanding because not be- 

* See S. Aug., S. Basil, S. Greg. ^ See Justin M., S. Ambrose, S. 

Nyss., S. Jerome, S. Hilary, S. Am- Jerome, ib. p. 355. note 1. 
brose, S. Cyril Jerus., Theodoret, ^ aqua restored^ '' Aqua in Christo. 

Script. Views, p. 317, 8. note 2. p. 315. If Christ be the rock, the water in the 

note 5. rock is in Christ, and therein we see 

y " in suum coramodum" restored ; that Baptism is blest." [Tr.] 
i. e. its original state of sweetness from l> On the Baptism of John, the state- 

which it had been corrupted (vitio), as raents of the Fathers are collected, 

man by sin. Scriptural Views, p. 242—271. 



non 
restored 



Johns baptism fore-ministered to, hut gave not The Spirit. 267 

lieving^ But we with the same pittance of understanding 
as we have of Faith, are able to judge that that baptism was 
divine, but this in respect of the command, not in respect of 
its power also ; (for we read that even John was sent by the 
Lord unto this office,) being nevertheless in its nature 
human ; for it bestowed no heavenly thing, but fore- ministered 
imto heavenly things, being in tnith set over the work of 
repentance, which is in the power of man. Finally, the 
teachers of the law and the Pharisees, who would not believe, 
would ' also not repent. But if repentance be of men, the i agere 
baptism of repentance also must needs be of the same nature ; ^"''^'"'^^ 
otherwise it would give the Holy Spirit also, and remission 
of sins, if it were from heaven. But none forgiveth sins or 
granteth the Spirit, but God only. Even the Lord Himself Mark 2 
said, that the Spirit would not otherwise descend except Hej^j^^jg 
first ascended to the Father. What the Lord did not as yet''- 
bestow. His servant surely would not ^ be able to give. - 
Indeed we find afterwards in the Acts of the Apostles, that 
they who had John's baptism had not received the Holy Acts 19, 
Ghost, Whom they knew not, not having so much as heard ' 
of Him. Wherefore this was not an heavenly thing, which 
gave not forth heavenly things, seeing that even that heavenly 
thing which was in John, the spirit of prophecy, did, after 
that the whole Spirit had passed to the Lord, so fall away 
from him, that of Him, Whom he had preached beforehand, 
Whom when yet coming'' he had pointed out, he sent after- 
wards to ask whether it were really He^. The baptism of 



c Alluding to Is. 7, 9. LXX. " Un- S. Ambrose, lib. v. in Luc. $. 93 sqq; 

less ye believe, ye shall not understand." yet though they say mostly that the 

See S. Cypr. Test. i. 5. S. Aug. end of enquiry was for the sake of his disciples, 

note on Manichees, Conf. p. 346. Oxf. many add some other result ; Origen, 

Tr. that his faith was strengthened for 

'^ not yet fully come. martyrdom ; S. Ambrose (1. c. et de 

c Tert. repeats this statement de fide iv. 1. §. 4.) and S. Hilary, think 

Prsescr. c. 10, adv. Marc. iv. 18. he that he was a type of the law, sending 

stands alone in the notion that S. John's to contemplate Christ; S. Jerome and 

enquiry was owing to any withdrawal S. Gregory (in Ezek. 1. i. Hom. 1.) 

of the Spirit (so soon before his Mar- that he wished to know whether our 

tyrdom) or any diminution of his faith; Lord were " coming" to the place of 

the contrary "is expressed by Origen, departed spirits whither himself was 

Hom. 27. in Luc. (vii) S. Chrys. in going ; in later times S. Thomas Aq. 

Matt. xi. Auct. Op. Imp. in Matt. (Dist. 2. p. 2. q. 2. art. 7. ad 2.) supposes 

Hom. 27. S. Aug. Serm. QQ. de Verb, that he wished to know the mystery of 

Matt. &c. S. Hil. in Matt. S. Jerome in the Incarnation. 
Matt, and Ep. 121. ad Algas. q. 1. 



268 JohrCs baptism imperfect^ as precursorial ; confessed such; 

De repentance therefore was employed as aspiring unto the 

vm^ Ti. ^'^ii^ission and the sanctification about to follow in Christ. 

Mark 1, For in that he preached the baptism of repentance for the 

remission of sins, the declaration was made in respect of a 

future remission. Indeed since repentance goeth before, 

remission folio weth after ; and this it is to prepare the way ; 

for he that prepareth the ivay doth not himself also perfect, 

but procureth it to be perfected by another. He himself 

confesseth that the heavenly things are not his, but Christ's, 

Johns, when he saith, He that is of the earth, speaketh of the earth, 

He that cometh from above, is above all: and likewise that 

he himself baptized unto repentance alone, but that One 

Mat. 3, should presently come, Who should baptize with the Spirit 

^^' and icith fire: to wit, because a true and stedfast faith is 

concerned with water, whereby it is baptized ^ unto salvation, 

but a pretended and a weak one is baptized with fire unto 

judgment ^. 

XI. But behold, say they, the Lord came and baptized 
John 4, not: for we read, nevertheless He baptized not, but His dis- 
ciples. As if John had preached that he should Himself 
actually baptize with His own hands ! Surely it ought 

f Vera et stabilis aquae fides, qua understands " the fire of love" (comp. 

tinguitur in salutem. Rig. proposes the Veni Creator Sp.) which S. Aug. 

the very probable correction, stabilis also (and after him Bede) combine (1. c.) 

fides aqua," a — stedfast faith is bap- as a " fruit of the Spirit;" and again 

tlzed with water unto salvation." the " tribulations of the faithful for the 

S The " fire," S. Matt. 3, 11. is ex- Name of Christ;" (as does the author 

plained as referring to the miracle of the of the Op. Imp. in Matt.) From the 

day of Pentecost, by S. CyrilJer.(iii. 9. connection with v. 12. the "fire" is 

xvii. 8.) by S. Jerome in Matt, (with further interpreted of a fire, to be passed 

other applications) by Euthymius in S. through at the Day of Judgment, which 

Matt, as " the prominent meaning," by should destroy the wicked, purify the 

Theophylact in S. Luc. Auct. de Bapt. righteous, S. Hil. in S. Matt. c. 3. and 

heeret. ap. Cypr. v. fin.: more frequently in Ps. 118. lit. 3. §. 5. 12. and the au- 

(or combined with this,) of the invisible thor of the Homilies on Isaiah ap. Basil 

" fire" which in Christian Baptism con- t. 1. p. 475. (this, Origen followed by 

sumeth sins, S. Ambrose de Elia et S. Ambrose in Ps. 118. lit, 3. §. 14. 

jej. c. 22. Auct. de Bapt. heeret. 1. c. 15. places at the entrance of Para- 

S. Cyprian Test. i. 12. S. Leo. Ep. 16. dise, coll. Gen. 3. 24. Matt. 19. 28. in 

c. 6. S. Chrysostome Hom. xi. in Matt. tom. 15. §. 23. ed. de la Rue 

S. Matt. Theodoret, Eusebius, S. Je- and Hom. 24. in Luc. c. 3.) or hell-fire, 

rome, and S.Cyril Alex. (1. 1. Orat. 3.) as Tertullian here, S. Irenseus, iv. 4. 

in Is. 4. Euthym. and Theoph. in (al. 7.) 3. S.Basil adv. Eunom. 1. v. 

S. Matt. S. Augustine, (Serm. 71. de p. 308. ed. Ben. Euthym. ad Luc. 3. in 

Verb. Ev, Matt. 12. §. 19.) S. Basil marg. S. Jerome also gives it as a 

Seleuc. Or. 34. the liturgies of Antioch, possible meaning, that " in this life we 

Jerusalem, and S. James of Sarug. (Ass. are baptized with the spirit, in the 

ii. 225. 226. 258. 326. Juvencus. 1. 1. other with fire." 
S. Ambrose (de Isaac et an. §. 77-) 



2. 



ivhy our Lord baptized not; Apostles baptized with John's. 269 

not to be so understood, but as having been spoken simply 
by a common form of speech. As we have, for instance, 
' The Emperor propounded a decree,' or, ' The Praefect 
beat him with clubs.' Doth the one propound, or the 
other beat, in person ? He is always said to do the thing, 
for whom it is ministerially done. Wherefore, He shall 
baptize yoii, must be taken to signify the same as, ' ye 
shall be baptized through Him, or into Him.' But let 
it not move any that He Himself baptized not For where- 
unto should He baptize } Unto repentance ? to what purpose 
then His forerunner } Unto remission of sins } which 
He gave by a word! Into Himself? Whom in humility 
He hid ! Into the Holy Ghost .^ Who had not as yet 
descended from the Father ! Into the Church .? which 
the Apostles had not as yet founded ! Wherefore His 
disciples baptized as ministers, as John His forerunner 
did before, with the same baptism of John : for let no one 
suppose that it was with any other, because there doth 
not exist any other, save that of Christ afterwards, which 
surely could not then be given by His disciples, seeing 
that the glory of the Lord was not as yet made perfect, 
nor the effectual power of the laver established by His 
Passion and ResuiTection ; for neither could our death 
be abolished, save by the Passion of the Lord, nor our life 
restored, without His Resurrection*'. 

XII. But since the rule is laid down that salvation cometh 
to none without Baptism, chiefly from that declaration 
of the Lord, Who saith, Except a man be born of water, John 3, 
he hath not life; up come, on the part of certain men, * 
questions too scrupulous, yea rather too unscrupulous, 
how, according to that rule, salvation cometh to the 
Apostles, whom we do not find to have been baptized in 
the Lord, except Paul. Nay, that, since Paul alone among 
them ptit on the Baptism of Christ, either the peril of Gal. 3, 
the rest, who are without the water of Christ, is already * 
determined, that the rule may be maintained, or the rule 
is made void, if salvation be appointed even for men un- 

•> On the connection of Baptism with Sci-iptural Views, p. 104.) and S. 
the Resurrection of our Lord, see S. Jerome adv. Lucif. §. 7. (ib. p. 248.) 
Leo, Ep. 16. c. 3. ad Episc. Sic. (quoted 



*270 The Apostles probably received Johns baptism; 

De baptized. I have heard, the Lord is my witness, sayings 
VIII. 12. of this sort, lest any should think me so abandoned as to 
moot of mine own accord, in the wantonness of my pen, 
questions which may excite a doubt in others. And now I 
will, as well as I am able, make answer to those who deny 
that the Apostles were baptized. For suppose they had 
undergone the human baptism of John, and were without 
that of the Lord, according as the Lord Himself had de- 
termined that baptism is one', when He said to Peter, 
John 13, who was unwilling to be washed. He that is once washed, 
v.* 10. 'iie^d^th it not again ; which He surely would not have said 
to one unwashed, and this is a proof put forward against 
those who deprive the Apostles of even the baptism of 
John, that they may overthrow the sacrament of water ^ Can 
it be thought credible that the ivay of the Lord, that is, 
the baptism of John, was not at that time prepared in 
these persons, who were designed to open the way of 
the Lord throughout the whole world? Was the Lord 
Himself, Who owed no repentance, baptized ; and was 
it not necessary for sinners ? Well ! but others were 
not baptized. Yea, but these were not the companions 
of Christ, but the adversaries of the Faith, the teachers of 
the Law and Pharisees. Whereby also it is suggested, 
that, since the enemies of the Lord would not be bajotized, 
those who followed the Lord were baptized, and were not of 
the same mind with their adversaries, especially when the 

* This text, John 13, 10. is quoted his grounds, 1. The same text John 

against re-baptizing by Optatus iv. [v. 3, 5. 2. The fact that they themselves 

3.] S. Aug. de bapt. ii. 14. and ad loc. baptized. 3. The words " he which 

S. Ambrose de myst. c. 6, Pacian. Ep. hath been washed." John 13, 10. 

1. ap. Voss. Disp. 17. de Bapt. $. 7. Whence it appears that Peter had 

so also Auct. Prom. Dimid. Temp. c. been baptized. This last text is al- 

14. leged also in a homily in Ascens. et in 

'^ S. Chrysostom agrees with Ter- Princ. Act. 2. ap. Chrys. t. iii. p. 
tullian, that the Apostles were baptized 770, 1. ed. Bened. S. Chrys. also hints 
with water by John, " for if the pub- that there were other acts, which 
licans and harlots came to that baptism, served as water-baptism to them, 
much more they who were afterwards '' Moreover it may be shewn that 
to be baptized by the Spirit ; — with us, they were baptized with water, and 
both [the baptism of water and the at different times." It appears then. 
Spirit] take place in one, but then se- that on this which in Tertullian's time 
parately." Hom. i. in Actt. j. 5. S. was a novel question, there was no de- 
Augustine, Ep. 265, ad Seleucian. §. 5. finite view, and T.'s answer may be 
thinks it most probable that they were the safest, that their nearness to our 
baptized by our Lord, yet that they Lord may have made the baptism with 
were baptized with water, not with the water superfluous to them. 
Holy Ghost, ib. $. 3. S. Aug. gives 



no other related; dispensed with throuah nearnesa to the Lord. -27 1 

Lord, to Whom they clave, had by His testimony exalted 
John, saying, Among those that are horn of ic omen there /s- Mat. 11, 
not a greater than John the Baptist. Some drop a hint, ' 
sufficiently forced surely, that the Apostles supplied the 
place of Baptism, at the time when they were sprinkled and Mat. 8, 
covered with the waves in the ship ; and that Peter himself 
also, when walking upon the sea, was sufficiently dipped. 
But to my thinking it is one thing to be sprinkled' and 
caught by the violence of the sea, and another to be washed 
according to the rite of Religion. Nevertheless that ship 
set forth a figure of the Church "", inasmuch as it is tossed in 
the sea, that is in the world, by the waves, that is by per- 
secution and temptations, while the Lord is, as it w^ere, 
patiently sleeping, until, being awakened in the last ex- 
tremity by the prayers of the saints". He stilleth the world, 
and giveth again a calm to His own. Now whether they 
were, by whatever lueans, baptized, or whether they continued 
unbaptized, so that that saying of the Lord touching the one 
washing pertaineth only to us under the person of Peter, 
nevertheless it is sufficiently rash to judge concerning 
the salvation of the Apostles, as though even the privilege 
of their being first chosen unto Christ, and of their in- 
separable and familiar companionship with Him afterwards, 
could not bestow upon them at once all the benefit of 



1 A trace of the rite of Baptism by one comfort left, that although the 

adspersion. Lord slept, yet was He sleeping in the 

™ comp. S. Hil. ad loc. Baronius, of same ship ; He abode in that same 
the melancholy state of the see of ship, which bore a type of the Church, 
Rome in the beginning of the tenth nor did He depart from it, but ever 
century. (Ann. 912. n. 14. t. 10. p. remained in the Church," &c. 
G63.) " Then was Christ altogether "» Rig. says, " by that petition, 
asleep, as it seemed, in a deep slumber, namely, 'Thy kingdom come,'" he 
in the ship, when these mighty winds seems then to understand it of " the 
blowing, the ship itself was covered end ;" "• until awakened at the end — 
with waves. He was asleep, I say. He subdueth the world, and giveth 
Who making as though He saw not peace to His own," i. e. in Heaven, 
these things, allowed them to take The words might perhaps bear this, 
place, in that He arose not to avenge, (donee orationibus sanctorum in ultimis 
And what seemed yet worse, there suscitatus coinpescat sa^culum, et tran- 
were no disciples by their cries to quillitatem suis reddat ;) it is also T.'s 
arouse the Lord thus sleeping, all habit of mind to look at once to the 
being in a heavy sleep : and that all end ; but he is here speaking in the 
these had one wish, that the Lord were present, not the future, and so, pro- 
asleep for ever, and might never arise bably, of our Lord's giving " rest," 
to judgment, never awake to take know- from time to time, to the Church, types 
ledge and punish their abominations, and earnests of its final rest, 
who sees not P Yet the godly had this 



272 Faith sufficed before Death of Christ; since, with Baptism, 

De Baptism, seeing that they, as I think, followed Him Who 
VOL 13. promised salvation to every believer. Tlnj faith, said He, 
Luke 7, haih saved thee, and thy siiis he forgiven thee : and this 
v^48. ^^ ^^^ believing, yet not baptized. If this were wanting 
to the Apostles, I know not to whom belongeth faith ! 
Matt. 9, Stirred up ° by a single word of the Lord, a man left the 
receipt of custom, abandoned father and ship, and the trade 
Mark 1, by which he supported life; disregarded the burial of a 
Matt. 8 father ; fulfilled, even before he heard, the chief com- 
22-. mandment of that * Lord, He that pref err eih father or mother 
restored. ^0 Me, is 71 ot worthy of Me. 

Mat. 10, XIIL Here then these most wicked men provoke ques- 
tions. Indeed they say, ' Baptism is not necessary for those 
for whom Faith is sufficient: for Abraham also pleased 
God by a sacrament wherein was no water, but only faith.' 
But in all cases, the things which come last determine the 
question, and the things which follow overrule those which 
go before. Be it that salvation was once through bare faith, 
before the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord : but when 
faith grew up to a belief in His Birth, Passion, and Resur- 
rection, an enlargement was added to the sacrament, the 
sealing of Baptism p, the clothing, in a manner, of that Faith 
which before was naked. Nor doth it now avail without its 
own condition : for the condition of Baptism was imposed. 
Mat. 28, and the form prescribed. Go, saith He, teach the nations, 
baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost. When with this law is compared 
John 3, that limitation. Except a man he born of water and of the 
^' Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven, this 

hath bound down faith to the necessity of Baptism ''. Where- 
fore from that time all believers were baptized. Then also 
was Paul, as soon as he believed, baptized : and this it was 
which the Lord had commanded during that afflicting 
Acts 22, bereavement, saying, Arise, and go into Damascus : there it 

10. 

° Id si Apostolis defuit, nescio quo- without authority ; *' Whether this 
rum fides. Uno verbo Domini suscitatus were wanting to Apostles, I know not ; 
teloneum dereliquit, &c. Rig. adopts whose faith stirred up, &e." 
Ursini's conjecture, suscitata, and P De Pcenit. c. 6. 
points, nescio ; quorum fides uno ver- *! On the universality of this inter- 
bo Domini suscitata," an easier read- pretation, see Scrip. Views, p. 28 — 53. 
ing, and the irony is like T., but ed. 2. 



Baptism not duparaged hi/y ^ Christ sent me not to baptize.'' 273 

shall he shewn thee what thou oughtest to do, to wit, to 
be baptized, which was the only thing wanting to him. For 
the rest, he had learned enough, and had believed that He of 
Nazareth was the Lord, the Son of God. 

XIV. But they turn back upon us the case of the Apostle 
himself, in that he said, for Christ sent me 7wt to baptize, as ^ ^or. 
if Baptism were overthrown by this argument'! For why ' 
did he baptize Gains and Crispus, and the household of 
Stephanas? Besides, although Christ had not sent him to 
baptize, yet He had commanded the other Apostles to 
baptize. But these words were written to the Corinthians 
according to the circumstances of that time, because* that^ quo- 
divisions and dissensions were stirred up among them, when^jj^^™^^ 
07ie called hmi?,e\i of Paul, a7iother of Apollos. Wherefore i Cor. 3, 
the peace-making Apostle, that he might not seem to claim ' 
every thing to himself, saith that he was not sent to baptize 

hut to preach. For preaching moreover cometh first, Bap- 
tism afterwards. But be it that he first preached, I suppose 
that he, who was permitted to preach, was permitted also to 
baptize. 

XV. I know not whether any farther show be made of 
calling Baptism into question. For my own part, I shall go 
through what I have hitherto omitted, lest I should seem to 
break off the train of thoughts immediately pressing. To us, 

in any case, there is one Baptism, as well according to the John 13. 
Gospel of the Lord, as the letters of the Apostle : seeing Eph! 4, 
that there is one God, and one Baptism^, one Church in the J- 
Heavens. But certainly one may well enquire what on^i omiited 
to be maintained about heretics ; for this saying was directed 
to ourselves. Now heretics have no fellowship in our disci- 
pline, of whom indeed the very privation of Communion 
testifieth that they are aliens. I am not bound to admit 
in their case that which hath been taught to me, because we 

r See S. Chrys. ad loc. Horn. 3. p. 28. same, " because the words pronounced 

Oxf. Tr. Theodoret says also, "But in Baptism are a fixed form:" and 

He commanded both, [Mat. 28, 19.] Bede ad loc. (the whole context is from 

but to preach is more honourable than S. Aug.) that the saying the more 

to baptize. For to baptize is easy to exalts Baptism, " since Baptism given 

all who have been counted worthy of by one of no account is of the same 

the priesthood ; but to preach belongs avail as by an Apostle, it is known not 

to few, who have received this gift of to be his but Christ's." 
God," ad loc. Ambrosiaster alleges the 

T 



274 Heretical baptism Jiull ; Baptism one; Mar lijrdom second; 

De and they have not the same God, nor One, that is the same, 
\^n^^6. Christ. And therefore neither have we one, because not the 
same, Baptism with them, which, since they have it not 
rightly, without doubt they have not at all % nor can that be 
counted, which is not there : and so also they cannot receive 
it, since they have it not'. But this hath been already more 
fully discussed by me in Greek. We enter then the laver 
but once : our sins are washed away once, because these 
ought not to be repeated. But Jewish" Israel washeth 
daily'', because he is daily defiled : and that this may not be 
practised amongst us also, on this very account is the rule 
laid down about the one washing. Happy the water which 
washeth once for all, which is not a mockery unto sinners, 
which doth not, being stained by continual filth, defile again 
those whom it hath washed ! 

XVI. We have indeed, besides, a second washing, itself 
Luke 1'2, also one, to wit that of blood, whereof the Lord saith, / have 

a Baptism to he baptized icitJt, when He had been already 

1 John baptized. For He had come by water and Blood, as John 

John 13 liath written, that He might be washed by wnler, glorijied 

31.32. ]^y Blood. Wherefore that He mighf make us to be called 

Mat 20 . 

16, 'by water, chosen by blood, He sent forth these two Baptisms 

from the wound of His pierced Side; so far as that those 

who believed in His Blood might be washed with water, 

and that those who had been washed with water, might also 

drink His Blood ^ This is that Baptism which both stand- 

eth in the place of the laver, when not received, and restoreth 

it when lost\ 

XVII. To conclude my little work, it remaineth that I 
give an admonition also concerning the right rule of giving 
and receiving Baptism. The right of giving it indeed hath 
the chief Priest, which is the Bishop : then the Presbyters 

s See note G. at the end of this book, ceding, and stops at electos. It would 

t i. e. to give. then be, " glorified by Blood, and 

" as opposed to the true, i. e. Chris- thereafter make us ' called' by water, 

tian, Israel. ' chosen' by blood. These two," &c. 
^ see de Orat. c. 11. Constt. Ap. vi. * On this two-fold meaning of the 

IS.fin. 23. 30. S. Ambr. de Sacr. ii. 1. Blood which flowed from our Lord's 

§. 2. and on it as a type, Script. Views, Side, see Script. Views, p. 294 sqq. 

p. 340 sqq. " not. 4. 

y Proinde ut nos faceret aqua voca- ^ see on Apol. c. 50. p. 106. not. b. 

tos, sanguine electos, hos &c. U. Rig. add de Pudic. e. 22. S. Ambr. in Ps. 

omits "ut,"joins the clause with the pre- 118. lit. 3. §. 14. 



hay- not female- Baptism alhnoed in cases of necessity. 275 

and Deacons*', yet not without the authority of the Bishops'^, 
for the honour of the Church, which being preserved, peace 
is preserved. Otherwise laymen have also the right, for that 
which is equally received may equally be given'', unless the 
name disciples^ denote at once Bishops or Priests or John 4, 
Deacons. The word of God ought not to be hidden from 
any : wherefore also Baptism, which is equally derived from 
God, may be administered by all. But how much more 
incumbent on laymen is the duty of reverence and modesty ! 
Seeing that these things belong to those of higher estate, 
let them not take upon themselves the office of the Bishop- 
rick set apart for the Bishops. Emulation is the mother of 
divisions. A most holy Apostle hath said that all tilings are i Cor. 6, 
lawful^ hilt all things are not expedient. Let it in truth * 
suffice thee to use such things in thy necessities, w^hen- 
soever the circumstances of place, or time, or person compel 
thee. For then is a boldness, in him that aideth, admissible, 
when the case of him that is in danger is urgent. For he 
will be guilty of destroying a man, if he shall forbear to 
do that for him which he had free power to do. But the 
wantonness of woman ^ which hath taken upon itself to « muli- 
teach, will not surely bring forth for itself the right of bap- ^.^J^,"J.^^; 
tizing also, unless some new monster shall arise like unto 
the former^, so that, as one hath taken away Baptism, in like 
manner some other may of her own self confer it". But 
if they claim those writings, which have been wrongly 
ascribed to Paul, the writing of Tecla'', as giving licence 

^' On the power of Deacons to bap- add Constt. Ap. viii. 46. 
tize, see Bingham, 2. 20. 9. ^ " discentes" for '' dicentes," is a 

*= see S. Cypr. ad Fortunat. Pref. conjecture of Latinius, adopted by Rig. 

p. 280. Oxf. Tr. and not. but required. 

d S. Jerome (adv. Lucif. §. 9. ed. f Quintilla. 
Vail.) repeats this whole statement, in k see ab. on c. 1. Constt^ Ap. iii. 9. 

nearly the words, and even the maxim, Epiph. Hser. 42. c. 4. H. 79. c. 3. 7. 

" Ut enim accipit quis, ita et dare Chrys. Horn, de Bernic. &c. [§. 6. t. 2. 

potest." The extract from the Ep. ad p.G43.ed.Ben.] quoted by Cot. 1. c.This 

Fortunat. given to S. Aug. by Gratian, isnowallowedby boththe Roman (Ritu- 

Pars 3. de Consecr. Dist. 4. c. 21. also al. Eom. jussu Pauli v. edit. ap. Ass. ii. 

retains it, " etiam laicos solere dare 11.) and Greek Churches. (Confession of 

sacramentum, quod acceperiint, solemus Faith, printed 1662, ap. Smith Account 

audire." S. Augustine himself speaks of Greek Church, p. 110.) It was pro- 

more doubtingly, " it is either no, or a hibitcd by Statutt. Eccl. Ant. quoted as 

venial fault." c. ep. Parm. ii. 13. Cone. Carth. iv. ap. Gratian. 1. c. c. 20. 

Gelasius (Ep. ad Episc. per Lucan. to which Gratian added of his own 

c. 9. 10.) as being " generally allowed" " nisi necessitate cogente." 
when " extreme necessity compels." ^ '^ scriptum Teclee," Ga. U. " ex- 

T 2 



276 Baptism not to he given hastily. 

De to women to teacli and to baptize, let them know that 

vm. 18. tlie Presbyter in Asia, who framed that writing, heaping up, 

as it were, from his own store unto the name of Paul', 

having been convicted", and having confessed that he did 

this out of love for Paul, yielded up his place ; for how near 

would it seem to approach to a thing credible, that he should 

give to a woman the power of teaching and of baptizing, 

who suffered not a woman to be bold even in learning ? 

1 Cor. Let them, saith he, keep silence, and ask their husbands at 

"' ^**- home. 

1 sciunt XVIII. But they, to whom the office belongeth, know* 
Luk^G ^^^ Baptism must not be rashly entrusted. Give to every 
30. fnan that asketh of thee, cometh under its own proper head, 
which in truth pertaineth to almsgiving. Nay rather we 
Mat. 7, should consider this saying, Give not that which is holy unto 
1 Tim ^^*^ dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine : and, Lay 
5, 22. hands suddenly on no man, lest thou be partaker of other 
Acts 8, inenLS sins. If Philip so suddenly baptized the eunuch, let 
'■ ^^' us remember that the sanction of the Lord, clear and dis- 
tinctly put forward, had intervened. The Spirit had com- 
manded Philip to turn his course that way : the eunuch 
himself also was not found in a state of listlessness, nor one 
desirous on a sudden of being baptized, but he had gone up 
to the Temple /br to worship, was intent upon the Divine 
Scriptures : so ought he to be found, to whom God had of 
His own will sent an Apostle, whom the Spirit a second 
time commanded to join himself to the chariot of the 
eunuch : a Scripture falleth in with the man's own faith : 
being in due season exhorted, he is received as a disciple : 
the Lord is shewn to him : Faith delayeth not : water is not 
to seek: the Apostle having fulfilled his task is caught away. 

emplum T." Ge. Pa. Rig. omits it as Grabe Spicileg. t. i. p. 91. 2. 114—166. 
a gloss, but without authoi'ity. In the This passage of T. is quoted by S. 
extant Acta Pauli et Theclse, S. Paul Jerome, (de Virr. 111. c. 7.) as eon- 
is made to say to her, " Go and preach demning the -Tri^i'^oi Pauli et Theclee. 
the word of God," and she is related to * quasi de suo cumulans. "sarcastic; 
have " enlightened many by the word ' in order to enhance the Apostle's re- 
ef God," (which is explained in the putation, he must, forsooth, give him 
de Vita S. Theclte, 1. 1. fin. ap. Basil, some of his own.' " [Tr.] T. by choos- 
Seleuc. " having preached the saving ing the word " cumulans," probably 
word, and instructed many and sealed also meant to convey that it was a load 
and enrolled them to Christ," i. e. upon the Apostle, 
baptized.) She also baptizes herself, ^ " before John," S. Jerome, 1. c. 



Infant Baptism to he delayed ^ nnlc.s.s nccesi^ari/. "211 

But Paul too was really baptized suddenly. Yes: for bis 
host Simon I had come suddenly to know that he was 
appointed a chosen vessel, God's good pleasure ushereth Acts 9, 
itself in by its own special claims : in every petition there 
may be both deceit and self-deception"'. Wherefore the 
delaying of Baptism is more profitable according to the 
condition, and disposition, and moreover the age of each 
person, but especially in the case of children. For why is 
it necessary", if the things be not so necessary, that the'sinon 
sponsors also be brought into danger? for both they them- cesse est 
selves may, from their mortal nature, fail of their promises, '"^''"'''^ 
and they may be disappointed by the growing up of a bad 
disposition. The Lord indeed saith, Forbid them not to^^^'^^ 
come unto Me. Let them come then when they are of riper\ ' 



years : let them come when they are disciples, when they 
are taught whither they are coming : let them become 
Christians when they are able to know Christ. Why is the 
age of innocence ° in haste for tJie remission of sins? Men 
will act more cautiously in worldly matters, so that to one, 
to whom no earthly substance is committed, that which is 
Divine is committed ! Let them know how to ask for 
salvation, that thou mayest seem to give to him that asketh. 
With no less reason unmarried persons also should be put 

i put for Ananias, who was also not by night, by day £.]so the innocent age 

his host but Judas, Acts ix. 11. of children is, amongst us, filled with 

"' i. e. when God specially vouchsafes the Holy Ghost." T. had in this same 

(as in the cases of S. Paul and the treatise (c. 5.) spoken of the loss of the 

Eunuch) He speciui'y provides also; Holy Spirit by the fall, its restoration 

and manifest tokens of His Power and by Baptism ; and so perhaps ventured 

Providence usher in His Will ; when it the rather on unguarded language ; he 

is man's desire only, he may deceive or seems to mean that it was time enough 

be deceived. to have recourse to Baptism as a pre- 

« i. e. if very early Baptism be not servative against sin, when they were 

so exceeding urgent, what need that capable of it. T. speaks of original sin, 

sponsors, &c. T. had already said (c. 12.) de Pudic. c. 9. de Anima c. 41; he 

that Baptism was essential to salvation, speaks also of its transmission, de Test, 

and (de Anim. c. 39.) he speaks of An. c. 3. ab. p. 13o.de Jej. c. 3. and d^ 

children of Christian parents, as " born Patient, e. 5. (below,) and that, as an 

unclean, as it were candidates for '" infection" of nature (de Test. An.) 

holiness." through the natural birth of '' the 

*> i. e. having no actual sins, in which offspring of Adam," (ib. de Exh. Cast, 

sense it occurs also, adv. Marc. iv. 23. c. 2. de Pudic. c. 6. iin.) of the soul's 

^' an age still innocent" as opposed to being " accounted in Adam," (de An. 

" pueri, which had obtained the power c. 40 bog.) of our being '< by nature 

of judging, and could revile, not to say children of wrath," (c. Marc. 5, 17 

blaspheme," (2 Kings 2, 23.) S.Cyprian mid.) in the same way as S. Augustine, 

uses the very words in the same way. See the passages in Bp. Kaye, Tertull, 

{Ep.l6. Fell; 10 Pam.)" besides visions on Art. ix. 



278 Easter and Pentecost most fitting seasons for Baptism. 

De off", within whom temptation is ah'eady prepared, as well in 
vitS. virgins by reason of their ripe age, as in widows by reason 
of their icandering about ", until they either marry or be 
confirmed in continency. They that understand the weighty 
nature of Baptism will fear its attainment rather than its 
postponement. Faith unimpaired'' is assured of salvation. 
/ XIX. Easter furnisheth the most solemn day for Baptism, 
y^t which time likewise the Passion of the Lord, into which 
Rorn^ we are baptized, was finished ^ Nor would any one interpret 
^- / it unsuitably as a figure, that when the Lord was about to 
keep His last Passover, in sending His disciples to ^nake 
L\ike2^, read (/, He saith, Ye sltall find a man hearing icater. He 
^^' sheweth the place for celebrating the Passover by the sign 
of water. Next the Pentecost is a very large space of time 
for the appointment of Baptisms, during which the Resur- 
rection of the Lord was frequently manifested among the 
disciples, and the grace of the Holy Spirit was solemnly 
consigned to them^ and the hope of the coming of the Lord 
suggested, because at that time when He was received up 
into Heaven, the Angels said to the Apostles that He should 
Acts 1, so come in like manner as He icent up to Heaven, that is, at 
^ ■ ^, the Pentecost. But moreover when Jeremiah saith, And I 

Jer. ^i\, 

8. ^cill gather them from the utterynost parts of the earth on an 

holy day, he signifieth the day of the Passover and that of 
the Pentecost, which is specially an holy day. But every 
day is the Lord's: every hour, every season, is meet for 
Baptism'. If there be a difference as touching its solemnity, 
there is none as touching its grace. 

XX. They who are about to enter upon Baptism ought to 

P vagationeiTi from 1 Tim. 5, 13. Rig. by deferring Baptism, died unbaptized^ 

adopts Ursini's conjecture " vaca- as thov.gh " fides integra" " perfect, 

tionem" " widowhood." The reference sincere, faith," were assured of salvation, 

will still be to the same passage of whether baptized or no. 

S. Paul. The g is often put for the c in ^ See above, on c. 11. S. Greg. Naz. 

MSS. " Vacant," moreover, is the adds the Epiphany (see Bingham 11. 

specific term used by T. G, 7.) and the Sicilian Bishops, whom 

<1 fides integra; i. e. the remission of Leo reproves (Ep. ad Episc. Sic. c. 1.) 

sins, then received by faith, if unim- Walafr. Strabo de reb, Eccl. c. 26. (ap. 

paired by subsequent life, is secure of Voss. Disp. 16, §. 6.) quotes the Council 

salvation ; see S. Aug. Conf. i. 11. The of Gironne (A. 41 7-) as sanctioning the 

Fathers had often to meet this excuse Nativity of our I^ord (though excluded 

for delaying Baptism. S. Basil Exh. ad bv its canons (c. 4.) as it now stands). 

Bapt. §. 7. S. Greg. Naz. Or. 40. $.17. ' » S. Basil Exh. ad Bapt. init. 
Rig. explains the passage of those who 



Prayers, fasting^ loatcJihv/ , coiife fusion, before Baptism, 279 

pray with frequent prayers, fastings^, and bowings of the 
knee, and long watchings, and with confession of all their 
past sins", that they may shew forth even the baptism of 
John. They were hapiized, saith the Scripture, confessing Matt. :j, 
their sins. Vv^e have cause to be thankful, if we do not 
confess in public our iniquities or our infamies : for, by the 
afflictings of flesh and the spirit we at the same time both make 
satisfaction for things past, and build up beforehand a barrier 
against temptations to come. JVatch and pray, saith He, Mat. 26, 
that ye fall not into temptation. And it was, I think, be-"*^' 
cause they slept that they were so tempted that they forsook 
the Lord when He was seized, and that he who continued 
with Him, and used his sword, denied Him also thrice : for 
this saying had gone before, that no one should gain the 
kingdom of Heaven without temptations. Temptations beset f-"''^^-'^ 
the Lord Himself immediately after Baptism, after that He 
had passed forty days in fasting''. ' It is after Baptism 
then rather,' some men will say, ' that we too ought to fast ^ ?' 
And who hindereth, pray, save the necessity of rejoicing, and 
thanksgiving for our salvation } But the Lord, to my poor 
thinking^ taking occasion of the type of Israel, cast a re- 1 quan- 
proach upon himy. For the people having passed over the^"'^"" 

restored 

t Prayers and fasting are mentioned (ap. Aug". §. 267. App.) (quoted by 

as preparations for Baptism by Justin Bingham, 11. 8. 14.) imply it not to be 

Martyr, (Apol. i. §. 61. the Apostol. necessary. 

Constt. xii. 22. Recog. iii.67. vi.ult. vii. ^ " The Lord was not baptized into 

34-37. &e. S. Cyril Jerus. (iii. 7. 16. His own Passion, or Death, or Resur- 

iv. 37.) O'^ith watchings, tears, lying on recticn; for none of these had yet 

the ground,) S. Greg. Naz. Or. 40. §. 31. taken place, but for another ordinance. 

S. Aug. de fide et op. c. 6. (especially for Wherefore also, as a mark of power, 

the40daysof Lent S.Cyril, i. 5, S.Greg. He fasts after Baptism, as the Lord of 

Naz. 1. c. §. 30. S. Aug. Ep. 118. ad John, but he who is entered into His 

Januar. fin. Serm. 210 in Quadr. 6. §. 2. Death, ought first to fast, then to be 

S. Leo Ep. ad Episc. Sic. c. 6. S. Greg, baptized. For it is not right that he 

M.Ep. viii. 23.) S. Augustine also speaks who hath been buried with, and hath 

of a formal act of repentance before risen with. Him, should be downcast at 

Baptism, (Ep. 265. ad Seleucian. §. 7.) the very Resurrection. For man is not 

Ambrosiaster (ad Rom. xi. 29.) viewing lord of the ordinance of the Saviour, for 

it in another way, says, "■ The grace of He is the Master, man the subject." 

God in Baptism seeketh not groans or Apost. Const, vii. 22. 

mourning, or any act, but only profes- y i. e. our Lord's fasting after His 

sion from the heart — for the gift of God Baptism was not a pattern for us to 

freely remitteth sins in Baptism." follow to the letter, (His Baptism and 

" S. Cyril (i. 5.) and S. Greg. Naz. ours being wholly different,) but a stigma 

(1. c. $. 27.) exhort to confession of sins upon the sins into which Israel fell 

before Baptism; itis alluded to by S.Basil after the deliverance, which was a tj'pe 

Exh. ad Bapt. §. 5. S. Chrys. (Cat. 2. of our Baptism, and a warning how we 

ad Ilium. §. 4. ed. Ben.) and C»sarius, might escape them. comp. de jej. c. 8. 



280 Chir LoriJC s fasting commends it as remedy for temptation, 

sea, and being carried about in the wilderness for forty years, 

while they were there nourished with divine stores, thought 

no less of their belly and their gluttonous throat than of God. 

After this the Lord being alone in the wilderness after His 

Baptism, having measured out a fast of forty days, shewed 

Luke 4, that the man of God doth not live by bread alone, but hy the 

tvord of God; and that the temptations which attend upon 

fulness and excessive indulgence of the belly are stifled by 

abstinency\ Do ye therefore, blessed men, for whom the 

grace of God waiteth, when ye arise out of that most holy 

laver of your new birth, and spread your hands for the first 

time together with your brethren in your mother's presence, 

ask of the Father, ask of the Lord, Who supplieth goods, 

1 Cor. graces, diversities of gifts. Ask, saith He, and ye shall 

Matt 7 '^'^^^^^^') foi' ys have sought, and ye h.2ive found ; ye have 

7. 8. knocked, and it hath been opened unto you. Only I beseech 

you that, when ye ask, ye remember also the sinner Ter- 

tullian. 



* " It is not to be thought that like strife of tetnptation is brought upon 
C'hrist because He fasted immediately man, he must fast, that both the body 
after receiving John's baptism, gave it may accomplish its w^arfare by chasten- 
as a rule that we must needs fast imme- ing, and the mind obtain victory from 
diately after receiving the Baptism of humiliation. In that example then of 
Christ; but He taught by that example the Lord, not the Baptism in Jordan but 
that we should fast, vsrhenever we engage the temptation of the devil was the 
in any sharper conflict with the tempter, cause of His fast." S. Aug. Serm. 210. 
Whether therefore immediately after de Quadr. 6. $. 3. 
Baptism, or at any interval, when the 



Note G. on c. xv. p. 274. 

Tertullian lays down two grounds, why the baptizing of those already 
baptized out of the Church is no second Baptism, the one excluding' all 
schismatical baptism, the second, that of heretics who rejected the true 
faith as to any of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity: the first, that 
the non-communicating with the Church shewed them to be aliens; the 
second, that they had not the same God nor the same Christ. Heretical 
baptism is excluded, not as using a wrong form of words, but as not having 
the same Object of Faith. They had not " One Lord," and so neither 
*' one Baptism." 



Three views as to heretical or schismatical baptism. ogl 

The Baptism then of the Church was no second Baptism, because there 
had been no first. On this question there were three views in the ancient 
Church ; first, that of the early African Church and of Asia Minor, in the 
time of Firmilian, which rejected all baptism out of the Church, schisma- 
tical as well as heretical ; second, that of the Greek Church generally, 
stated fully by S. Basil, which accepted schismatical, but rejected heretical 
baptism ; third, that first mentioned by Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who ac- 
cepted all baptism, even of heretics, which had been given in the name of the 
Trinity. The second continues to be the rule of the Greek, the third (with 
some modifications) of the Latin, Church. (In both, it was presupposed 
that the Minister had at one time received the commission to baptize ; the 
case of schismatical baptism, as it is now found among us, not occurring.) 

Of these three, the two views which lasted, were founded on the re- 
spective traditions, or ancient practice of the East and West; that which 
excluded schismatical baptism seems, as it were, an ofishoot of the original 
Greek tradition. The point at issue between the two views was, whether 
a wrong belief in the Object of Faith vitiated the Baptism conferred 
in Their Name, although the words were sound, (which the Greeks 
held,) or whether the Baptism, deriving its efficacy from the Name 
of the Blessed Trinity being pronounced over the baptized, was valid 
although understood in an heretical sense by the baptizing priest, and 
by the baptized. This was the view of Stephen, and afterwards adopted 
by the Council of Aries, and developed and defended by S. Augustine. 

The Greek view first occurs in the Apostolical Canons. Canon 46. 
" A Bishop, or Presbyter, or Deacon, who admitteth the baptism or 
sacrifice of heretics, we command to be deposed. For what concord has 
Christ with Belial, or what part has a believer with an infidel?" Canon 
47. " Let a Bishop or Presbyter, who baptizes anew one who hath 
true Baptism, or does not baptize one defiled by the ungodly, be deposed, 
as mocking the Cross and the Death of the Lord, (Rom. 6, 3.) or [in the 
second case] not distinguishing priests from false priests." Canon 68. " If 
any Bishop, or Presbyter, or Deacon, receive a second imposition of 
hands from any one, let both him, and he who laid on hands, be deposed ; 
unless he shew that he had imposition of hands from heretics ; for 
neither can those baptized by such be believers, nor those who have 
imposition of hands from them be Clergy." Heretical baptism is ac- 
cordingly rejected in the Greek Churches by S. Clement of Alexandria, 
(Strom, i. 19. fin. p. 137. ed. Sylb.) " * strange waters,' i. e. heretical 
baptism, not regarding it water belonging to herself [Wisdom] or 
genuine." In the third century S. Dionysius of Alexandria (ap. Euseb. 
H. E. vii.) speaks of the rejection of heretical baptism as an ancient 
tradition in Egypt or the East altogether; he states that he had " received 
from Heraclas, their Bishop of blessed memory," that those who having 
been baptized in the Church, fell away into heresy, " needed no second 
Baptism, for they had before received the Holy Spirit through it;" and 
subjoins, (after a fuller discussion which Eusebius omits,) " I have learnt 
this also, that not they in Africa only have now brought in this practice, 



282 llcjection of hevelical baptism traditional in the East^ 

Note but that it was approved of, and that long ago, under the Bishops 
ON De amongst us, in the most populous Churches, and in the Synods of 

'- brethren at Iconium and Synnada, and among many others, whose decrees 

I cannot endure to subvert, so casting strife and contention among them ; 
for it is written, ' thou slialt not remove the land-mark of thy neighbour, 
which thy fathers have set.'" It is plain from this on which side S. 
Dionysius was, both from the ground alleged for not baptizing those, who 
having fallen into heresy, had recovered, viz, because these (having been 
baptized in the Church) had received the Holy Ghost, (implying that in 
heretical baptism It would not have been conveyed) and in that he main- 
tains the custom of baptizing heretics as the ancient usage of the Eastern 
Church. S. Jerome also distinctly asserts that he agreed with S. C3^prian 
and Firmilian*. In his letter to Xystus, successor of Stephen, S. Diony- 
sius mentions that Stephen had " rejected the communion of Helenus 
and Firmilian, and all those of Cilicia, and Cappadocia, and Galatia, 
and all the neighbouring nations, in succession ; on the ground, as he 
alleged, that they re-baptized heretics." " Consider," he subjoins, " the 
greatness of this matter. For indeed decrees, as I hear, have been made 
thereon in the largest Synods of Bishops, to the effect that they who come 
over from heresy, having been first instructed, should then wash and 
purge away the defilement of the old impure leaven." (ib. c. 6.) Fir- 
milian, at the same time, states it to have been an Apostolic tradition, 
and that there was no trace of any other practice. " We [in the East], 
to the ground of truth," [the tenor of Scripture on which the African 
Church rested,] " add that of received custom, and to the Roman custom 
we oppose custom, but the custom of truth, holding this from the beginning 
W"hich hath been delivered by Christ and the Apostles. Nor have we 
any memory of this custom having begun among us, inasmuch as it has 



* De Virr. 111. c. 69. " Agreeing Eucharist, and joined in the Amen, 
with the doctrine of Cyprian and the and stood by the Table, and stretched 
African Synod on the re-baptizing of forth his hands to receive the Holy 
heretics, he wrote to different persons Food, and had received It, and been 
many Epistles, which are extant to long time partaker of the Body and 
this day." The Romanists, in order Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, I 
to get rid of his authority allege chiefly could not dare now wholly to remould;" 
two things; 1. his own letter (ap. (as indeed it would be very shocking 
Eus. vii. 9.) stating that he had re- to treat as wholly unregenerate, and seek 
fused to baptize one, who had been to have re-made the whole self of one, 
many years a communicant, who dis- who, one might hope, had been in some 
covered that his own baptism b}^ degree, one with his Lord.) 2. S. 
heretics had been full of ungodliness Basil's statement, that he had ad- 
and blasphem'es. But this is wholly a mitted Montanist baptism, (whom they 
different case; Dionysius lays the whole represent, accordingly, as directly con- 
ground of his refusal on his not daring tradicting S. Jerome.) But the sur- 
to treat as unregenerate one who had prise which S. Basil expresses (see 
been so long a communicant. " Which below) that it had escaped Diony,-;ius, 
I did not dare to do, saying that his implies the direct contrary, that he 
Communion for so long a period had was misinformed as to the Montanists ; 
become in itself sufficient thereto [to otherwise, he had not admitted their 
" cleanse," and " bestow adoption and baptism, 
grace."] For he who had heard the 



perhaps extended to schismafical in later sijnods. 283 

ever been observed there, that we recognize one only Church of GocT, 
and account Baptism to belong only to the Holy Church. Of a truth, 
because some doubted of the baptism of such as, although they do not 
receive the prophets as we, yet seem to acknowledge the same Father and 
Son with us, very many of us, meeting together at Iconium, treated 
thereon most diligently, and set firm that all baptism whatever, out of 
the Church, was to be rejected." (Ep. ap. Cypr. §. 19.) In an earlier 
part of the Epistle §. 6. he speaks of this Synod as having been held 
" some time before;" " all which, (some being in doubt on this matter,) 
we some time since (jampridem) being collected together in Iconium, 
a place in Phrygia, out of Galatia and Cilicia, and the other neighbouring 
provinces, established was to be held firmly and maintained against 
heretics." If Firmilian, in using the first person in each place, means 
that the Synod of Iconium was in his own time, and that he assisted 
in its decrees, (which seems probable,) it seems also, as though a dis- 
tinction were to be made between the decrees of that Synod, and the 
tradition upon which it was founded. Its decree would then seem to be a 
particular application of the ancient practice ; heretical baptism had never 
been acknowledged in the Eastern Church; butsince the line between heresy 
and schism is sometimes indistinct, a doubt had arisen in the minds of some, 
as Firmilian states, and the Synod decided against all baptism given out 
of the Church. And this is, perhaps, the more probable, on account 
of the very grievous nature of the heresies, which harassed the Eastern 
Church, so that the lasting rents from her seem to have been caused 
l)y heresy rather than by schism. And Firmilian himself, toAvards the 
close of his Epistle, does seem to consider schismatical, a less clear case than 
heretical, baptism; " We have judged that those also are to be accounted 
mibaptized, whom these have baptized, who were once Bishops in the 
Catholic Chuj-ch, and afterwards claimed to themselves the power of their 
clerical ordination. And this is observed among us, that whosoever come 
from them to us having been dipped, are, as being aliens and having 
obtained nothing, baptized among us with the one true Baptism of the 
Catholic Church, and obtain the regeneration of the lifegiving laver. 
And yet there is much difference between him who sunk unwilling and 
overpowered by the constraining of persecution, (alluding perhaps to the 
occasion of the Novatian schism,) and him who, with sacrilegious Avill, 
daringly rebels against the Church, or with impious voice blasphemes the 
Father and God of Christ, and the Creator of the whole world." If this 
were so, S. Dionysius and Firmilian in speaking of the Synod as " long 
ago," {-T^o ^oXXoZ, jampridem,) would mean, long before this present 
question, was raised by Stephen, at the begiiming of Firmilian's Epis- 
copate. Firmilian was distinrjuished as a Bishop, in the tenth year of 
Alexander Severus, i. e. 232, (Eus. vi. 26.) and so, twenty-four years 
before the question on Baptism was raised by Stephen in the West (256.) 
Firmilian's statement of the Eastern tradition would thus agree with the 
more explicit one of S. Basil in the same Diocese. (Ep. 188. ad Amphil. 
[Can. i.] can. i.) He says " those of old decided to admit such Baptism, 



284 Eastern tradition^ as stated hy S. Basil. 

Note as no ways departed from the Faith. Whence they called some heresies, 
Rapt^ some schisms, some conventicles. — Heresies, such as were wholly broken 

off, and estranged from the Faith itself; schisms, such as disagree as 

to certain ecclesiastical matters, and questions which may he healed ; 
conventicles, congregations formed by insubordinate Presbyters or Bishops, 
and undisciplined laity. Thus, if one convicted of a fall, were suspended 
from officiating, and would not submit to the Canons, but claimed to 
himself preeminence and the right to officiate, and certain leaving the 
Catholic Church went off with him, this were a conventicle ; a schism were 
to hold differently from the Church as to Repentance ; heresies are such 
as of the Manichees, Valentinians, Marcionites, and these same Pepuzenes ; 
for their difference relates directly to the Faith itself toward God. It 
seemed good then to those from the beginning, wholly to annul the bap- 
tism of heretics, but admit that of those who separate, as being yet of the 
Church*^, but those in conventicles to join on again to the Church, when 
amended by adequate repentance and conversion, and that so as oftentimes 
to admit to the same rank, after repentance, such as having order in the 
Church, went off with the insubordinate." In the same place, S. Basil 
distinguishes from this tradition the decision of Firmilian as something of 
his own; " Nevertheless it seemed good to the ancients, Cyprian and his 
colleagues and our Firmilian, to subject all these to one sentence — on the 
ground that the beginning of the separation took place through schism ; 
but they who fell away from the Church, had no longer the grace of the 
Holy Spirit with them; for that by cutting off the connection, the transmis- 
sion failed ; they then who first departed received the laying on of hands 
from the fathers, and tlirough the imposition of their hands, had the 
spiritual gift; but they who were rent off having become lay, had neither 
the power of baptizing, nor of ordaining, being unable any longer to impart 
the grace of the Holy Spirit to others, out of which they had fallen them- 
selves." It is remarkable in this respect, that Firmilian throughout his 
letter refers to " heretics," except in the passages above cited, relating 
not to the tradition, but to the acts of the S3Tiods ; his principles extend 
further ; but that which seems chiefly on his mind, (and in that of S. Cyprian 
also,) is, that Stephen had maintained the validity of all " heretical" 
baptism : that which he speaks against, even in the passage apparently 
alluded to by S. Basil, is " heretical." " Nay, all other heretics if they 
cut themselves off from the Church, [not the Cataphrygians, or Mon- 
tanists only] can have no power or grace, inasmuch as all power and grace 
is deposited in the Church, where the elders preside, who have the power 
both of baptizing, and of laying on of hands, and of ordaining. For as a 



^ This expression is explained by strife, the Sacraments have no strife." 
passages of S. Augustine and Optatus, S. Aug. De Bapt. i. 3. " They then 
quoted by the Benedictine editor of S. (heretics and schismatics) in some 
Basil. Opt. iii. 9. coll. iv. 2. "That which things are with us ; and wherein they 
is rent, is divided in part, not wholly; are not with us, we exhort them that 
because we and you have one Church- coming they would receive, or re- 
life; though the minds of men are at turning, receive back." 



Rejection of Jieretical baptism after Council of Nice. 285 

heretic may not ordain or lay on hands, so neither may he baptize, 
nor do any holy or spiritual act, as being an alien from the spiritual 
and deifying holiness." This looks as if what Firmilian chiefly had 
been accustomed to and had most in his mind was " heretical" baptism; 
as it will often happen that the principles upon which we maintain 
a traditional truth, being our own, will go beyond the truth which we 
maintain. 

Further witnesses for the rejection of heretical baptism in the Eastern 
Church, are, in the Church of Jerusalem, S. Cyril, its Bishop, (Catech. 
Introd, Lect. §. 7. p. 4. Oxf. Transl.) S. Athanasius and S. Epiphanius, 
and even in the Western Church, (the practice of Milan in other points 
differing from that of Rome,) S. Ambrose ^, Bishop of Milan. 

S. Athanasius thus speaks, (Orat. 2. c. Ariann. §. 42. t. i. p. 510. ed. 
Ben.) " But these [the Arians] risk the very fulness of Mystery, I mean 
of Baptism. For since this perfecting is conferred ' into the Name of the 
Father and the Son,' but these acknowledge not the true Father because 
they deny That Which is derived of, and Consubstantial with Him ; and 
deny again the true Son, and feign to themselves another, created out of 
things which were not, and name Him ; how should not what they admin- 
ister be wholly vain and profitless, having a semblance but nothing real as 
an aid to holiness ; for the Arians impart not Baptism into the Father and 
the Son, but into Creator and creature, Maker and made? But as their 
* created' is different from the Son, so would that which they are thought 
to give, be from the reality, although, on account of what is written, 
they affect to name the Name of the Father and the Son. For not he who 
merely saith * Lord,' imparteth also, but he who with the Name, has 
also the right Faith. For this cause did the Saviour also not merely com- 



« Launoy, who alleges the above, (de it. But what seems to put it beyond 
Notione Concil. Plenar. Diss. Confirm, all question is, that the language is 
p. 43 — 51.) cites also S. Ambrose, de borrowed apparently from S. Cyprian, 
Initiandis [de Myster.] c. 4. "The where he is speaking of heretical bap- 
baptism of the misbelieving (perfi- tism, (Ep. 72. ad Jubaianum, §. 
dorum) does not heal, does not cleanse, 5.) '' The Holy Spirit makes raen- 
but defiles." This is questioned by tion by the prophet (Jer. 15, 18.) 
the Benedictine Editor, who supposes of ' deceitful water and which hath no 
that S. Ambrose is speaking of Jewish faith.' What is this deceitful and 
baptisms, of which he does go on to faithless water .p (mendax et perfida.) 
speak, and of which he speaks again in That surely which falsely assumes the 
the de Sacr. ii. 1. §. 2. In that likeness of Baptism, and by the sha- 
place, however, it is remarkable that dowy pretence annulleth the grace of 
S. Ambrose uses the past^ alluding to faith." Just before, he had used the 
the washings of the Jewish ritual, term of the Marcionites and other here- 
and those blamed in the New Tes- tics ; " Very different (from the Faith 
tament, whereas here he employs the of the Creed) is the faith with Marcion 
present. " There were Jewish bap- and the other heretics, yea, there is 
tisms, but some superfluous," (those in among them nothing but faithlessness 
the New Testament, Mark 7, 3 — 8.) (perfidia) and blasphemy," &c. S. 
" some in a figure," (the Old Tes- Ambrose uses S. Cyprian's word " per- 
tament.) The word " perfida," also fida" in explanation of the same pas- 
belongs more appropriately to falsifi- sage of Jeremiah (aqua mendax) in 
cation of the faith than to rejection of reference also to false baptism. 



286 S, Athanasius and Epiphanius hold with S. Basil. 

Note mand to baptize, but saitb first, * teach,' then on this wise, 'baptize in the 
^ JJE jvj^jjjg of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost;' that through the teaching 

the Faith may be right, and with the Faith the perfecting of Baptism may 

be added. Many other heresies, moreover, which pronounce the Names 
only, but are not right-minded, as was said, nor have the sound Faith, 
make unprofitable the water which they also bestow, as wanting in 
godliness, so even that whoso is sprinkled by them, is rather defiled 
by them in ungodliness, than redeemed. Thus also the Heathen, al- 
though with the lips speaking of God, are charged with ungodliness, because 
they know not Him Who is indeed the True God, the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Thus the Manicheeans and Phrygians, and the disciples 
of him (Paul) of Samosata, naming the Names, are not the less heretics: 
thus also in their order they also who think with Arius, although they 
rehearse what is written and say the Names, they, too, mock those 
who receive (Baptism) from them, being more ungodly far than other 
heresies." 

The Romanist editor of S, Athanasius attempts to conform this with 
the Western view, in that S. Augustine says that Baptism out of the 
Church is profitless, tending only to condemnation; but it is distinctly 
the Greek view as opposed to the Western; for, 1. the Western held that 
all in which the sacred Names were pronounced was valid Baptism, 
though unprofitable out of the Church, whether in heresy or schism; 
the Eastern held, that Baptism, even if administered in the Sacred Names, 
was invalid and empty, if administered with a wrong belief as to Them, 
which is just what S. Athanasius here insists upon : 2. the instances which 
he gives, at least the Phrygians and Paulianists, are those rejected, as 
invalid, as being heretical. 

The same is evinced by the principle upon which Epiphanius admits 
Arian Baptism. He speaks against the rashness of those, who " without 
the decision of an CEcumenical Council, venture to rebaptize those who 
come to them from the Arians, the matter not having been as yet, as I 
said, decided by the judgment of a Council, because the people continue 
unseparated until now, and that many are orthodox, but are feignedly 
joined to those who exercise the priesthood until a separation of such 
a blasphemous heresy take place, and then it will be decided concerning 
it." (adv. Haer. 1. 3. t. 2. Expos. Fid. Eccl. c. 13.) 

S. Epiphanius, then, blames the rejection of Arian baptism as being a 
private imauthorized act, and because the Arians were not yet formally put 
out of the Church, and many who were accounted such, were sound in the 
Faith, so that if their baptism were rejected, there would be risk of 
rejecting valid Baptism along with it; thereby, as well as by the last hint, 
shewing that if they were altogether separated, so as to be purely heretics 
and deriving no benefit from what connection they still had with the 
Church, he v.'ould have thought their baptism altogether invalid. And 
this corresponds with S. Athanasius' expression, " they risk the very 
fulness of the Mystery," leaving some doubt, though expressing his own 
conviction, whereas of the other sects, who had been severed altogether as 



Extent of Eastern rule^ and so difficulties in oiyphjimj it. 287 

heretics, the JMontanists, Paulianites, Manichees,' he declares the baptism 
altogether void. 

The Greek rule, which rejected heretical Baptism, extended very 
widely, including under the term, " difference of Faith in God" not only 
such misbelief as involved the rejection of the very doctrine of the Trinity, 
in Whose Name they were baptized, but serious error as to the several 
Persons in the Trinity. Thus S, Basil declares that the baptism of the 
Encratites and others was to be rejected, because, although they used the 
form of sound words, by condemning wine and marriage they made God the 
author of evil. " The Encratites, and Saccophori, and Apotactites" [names 
assumed as if they were eminently ascetics, " the Abstinent," " Sackcloth- 
wearers," " Renouncers,"] are [not] subjected to the same rule, as the 
Novatiaus, because as to these a canon has been published, though 
variously; but silence kept as to the others. We then rebaptize all such 
equally; and if among you rebaptizing is forbidden, as among the Romans 
for some reason of convenience (otxavtuias r/vaj), yet let our rule prevail, for, 
since their heresy is a sort of off- shoot of the Marcionites, who abhor 
marriage and reject wine, and say that the creature of God is defiled, we 
do not receive them into the Church, unless they be baptized with our 
Baptism. For let them not say, ' We have been baptized into Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost,' who under this form imderstand God to be the 
author of evil, according to the Marcionite and other heresies." (Ep. 199. 
[Can. 2.] can. 47.) In like way he rejects Montanist baptism, because they 
gave to Montanus and Priscilla the title of " The Paraclete," and so 
virtually baptized to Montanus instead of the Third Person of the Blessed 
Trinity. " The Pepuzenes then are manifestly heretics. For they 
blasphemed against the Holy Ghost, wickedly and shamefully ascribing to 
Montanus and Priscilla the appellation of * The Paraclete.' \'\liether 
then as making of men a god, they are condemned ; or as guilty of con- 
tumely against the Holy Ghost, by comparing Him with men, and thus 
subject to eternal condemnation, in that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost 
is impardonable. What reason then hath it, that their baptism should be 
accounted of, who baptize to the Father, the Son, and Montanus or 
Priscilla? For they who baptize into what has not been delivered to us, 
baptize not." 

The Eastern rule, in consequence of this very extent, had some difficulty; 
S. Dionysius' distinction is indeed clear, in that heresy implied blasphemy 
against God, as in the case of Marcion against the Father, or the Arians 
against the Son, or the Montanists against the Holy Ghost, whereas the 
Novatian doctrine did not change men's thoughts of God, but only their 
views of His dealings with men ; yet the lines would often approach very 
close, for S. Cyprian accounts the Novatians heretics, as going against an 
article of the Creed; and when the doctrine (as in the case of the 
Encratites) did not so directly relate to the very Being of God, doubt 
might arise whether it were heresy or schism. The rule, then, was 
differently applied in different Bishoprics, and the Greek Church held 
that it had the power of enforcing re-baptizing or accepting the previou?! 



288 Discretion vested in Church as to enforcing re-haptizing . 

Note baptism, as it saw best for the good of the whole. Thus S. Basil expresses 
ON De his surprise that the <' nullity of Montanist baptism" should have " escaped 

*. the great Dionysius," " being well versed in the canons ;" [probably, as being 

at a distance from the seat of the heresy;] " still," he adds, " we must 
guard against imitating his mistake. For how unreasonable it is, is at 
once manifest and evident to all, who have ever so little reasoning power." 
Even as to the Cathari or Novatians, although schismatics only, S. Basil 
does not speak decisively, but, at the outset, adopts the suggestion of Amphi- 
lochius, " thou hast well suggested, that the practice of each country 
should be followed, because they who then decided these points, held 
differently as to their baptism;" afterwards he says, " since it seemed 
good to some of those in Asia, out of a kindly regard to the people 
(oiKevo/iias ivixa ruv ToXXuv) that their baptism should be received, be it 
received." With regard to the Encratites, S. Basil says, " since nothing 
has been publicly decided about them, we ought to annul their baptism ; 
and if any have received it of them, to baptize him when he comes to the 
Church. Should this however be likely to be injurious to the well-being of 
the whole, the practice must be adhered to, and the fathers who ordered 
things among us, be followed. For I have some fear lest, while we wish 
to make them more slow to baptize, we may by the rigidness of our sentence 
place hindrance in the way of the saved. But if they respect our Baptism ^, 
let not this shame us out of our rule. For we are not bound to requite 
them with the like, but to follow the canons precisely. But in any case, be 
it enacted, that they who come from their baptism receive the Chrism in 
presence of the faithful, and so approach to the Mysteries. I know we 
have received the brethren, Izoin and Satuminus, out of their orders to the 
Episcopal chair ; so that we can no longer separate from the Church those 
joined to their orders, in that we have set forth a sort of Canon of com- 
munion with them, by receiving their Bishops." 

S. Basil himself, then, in all cases leans to the stricter side as the side 
of propriety, but thinks that in these lighter cases, the strictness, in itself 



^ S. Basil says a little before, " We /SarT/V/^aT/ does not imply that they 

ought to be aware of an evil device of used any peculiar or wrong form of 

the Encratites. For, in order that they Baptism, which would have been no 

may not be admissible in the Church, hindrance to their being baptized in the 

they have undertaken to anticipate it Church ; and Stephen Bishop of Rome 

by a baptism of their own ; whence also uses the corresponding term " proprie 

they have violated their own practice." baptizent" of baptism into any sect. 

This corresponds with what Tilleniont " If any then come to you from what- 

says from the Cod. Theod. (16. t. 5. 1. 7. ever heresy, let no innovation be made 

9. p. 121. 124.) that the Encratites were other than has been handed down, that 

a name of the Manichees, since these, hands be laid on to repentance, since 

according to their own principles, re- the heretics themselves do not give any 

jected Baptism altogether, (see on S. baptism of their own to each other, when 

Aug. Confessions iv. 8. note a, Oxf. they come to them, but only admit them 

Tr.) as S. Basil here says, " they to communion," (ap. Cypr. ep. 73. ad 

violated their own practice" in hopes Pomp.) i. e. they accepted each other's 

that the Church, which regarded real baptism as valid, and did not themselves 

re-baptizing as profanation, would not baptize; a fortiori therefore, argues 

admit them. At all e^'ents, the tim Stephen, ought not the Church. 



FirmiUan and Cyprian mawly object to heretical baptism. 2>^9 

desirable, may be dispensed with for some greater good. This may 
account perhaps for the apparent want of distinct rule in the I^astern 
Church, in their rejection or admission of the baptism of different heretics. 
Thus the baptism of the Cathari or Novatians was admitted by the Councils 
of Laodicea (can. 7.)> Constantinople 1. (can. ?.), as was also the Quarto- 
deciman at Laodicea and Constantinople; which last also admitted the 
Arian, Macedonian, and Apollinarian ; rejecting that of " all other heretics," 
and by name that of the Montanists and Sabellians ; the Montanists were also 
rejected at Laodicea (can. 8.) and the Paulianistsi at Nice (can. 19.) The 
Council in Trullo (A.D. 692.) instances the Eunomians, Montanists, 
Sabellians, and Paulianists as among those who were to be baptized, 
without specifying whose baptism it accounted valid, (can. 95.) 

S. Cyprian and Firmilian both have traces of the Greek rule, though they 
extend it further. Thus Firmilian uses the same instance as S. Basil, of the 
Montanist heretics : " It suffices to say briefly that they who hold not the 
true God the Father, cannnot hold the truth of the Son or the Holy Spirit, 
according to which they also who are called Cataphryges, and essay to 
maintain new prophecies, can have neither the Father nor the Son; of 
whom if we ask what Christ they preach, they will answer that they preach 
Him Who sent the Spirit by Montanus and Prisca. In whom when we 
perceive that there is a spirit not of truth but of error, we know that they 
who maintain a false prophecy against the foith of Christ, cannot have 
Christ." §. 6. 

In like way S. Cjj-prian, although he joins schismatics and heretics 
together, in the detail of his arguments dwells chiefly on heretical 
baptism, and his great earnestness in this question seems to have been 
called out by Stephen's broad declaration in favour not of schismatical, but 
of all heretical, baptism; " from whatever heresy." Thus to Jubaianus, §. 4. 
" Since I found it written in an Epistle, of which you transmitted a copy 
to me, that no enquiry is to be made who baptized, since the baptized 
person may receive remission of sins according to his belief, I thought this 
topic not to be passed over, especially when in the same Epistle, I observed 
mention to be made of Marcion also, saying that not even such as came 
from him were to be baptized, as appearing to have been already baptized 
in the Name of Jesus Christ. We ought therefore to consider the faith of 
those who believe out of the Church, whether according to that same faith 
they can obtain any grace. For if ive have one Faith ivith heretics, there 
may he otw grace also. If the same Father, the same Son, the same Holy 
Ghost, the same Church, is confessed by Patripassians, Anthropians, 
Valentinians, Appelletians, Ophites, Marcionites, and the other pests and 
swords and poisons for the destruction of the truth, then also may there 



i S. Augustine conjectures (" unde them and keep it." Innocent, Bishop of 

credendum est") that the Paulianist Rome, asserts it, (Ep. 22. ad Episc. 

baptism was rejected "because they did Maced. c, ,5.) This is however only 

not retain the form of Baptism, which applying the Latin rule to the Greek 

many other heretics, when departing Church, and arguing that they acted 

from the Catholic Church, took with upon it. 



t290 S. CypriajCs ohjectmis chiefly to maxim of Stephen. 

Note be ' one Baptism,' if there is ' one Faith.' Of these S. Cyprian takes 
^ ^ the case of JNIarcion mentioned in the letter, and having laid down as the 

rule, the Form of Baptism given by our Lord after the Resurrection, 

he says, "He conveys the Trinity, in Whose sacrament the nations were 
to he baptized. Does then JNIarcion hold this Trinity? Does he maintain 
the same Father, the Creator, as we? Does he know the same Son, 
Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, Who being 'the Word, was made flesh,' 
\A"ho ' bore our sins,' Who by dying overcame death. Who first by 
Himself commenced ' the Resurrection of the flesh,' and shewed His 
disciples, that He had risen in the same flesh? Far other is the faith with 
Marcion, yea and with the other heretics. — How then can he who is 
baptized among them seem to have obtained remission of sins and the 
grace of the Divine pardon through his faith, who hath not the truth of the 
Faith itself? For if, as some think, one could receive any thing out of the 
Church according to his faith, he hath assuredly received that which he 
believed. But believing what is false, he could not receive the true, but 
rather things adulterous and profane, like his belief?" and later, (§. 16.) 
" What then is it other than to become partaker with blaspheming heretics, 
to undertake to maintain, that he can "receive remission of sins in the Name 
of Clirist, who blasphemes and sins heavily against the Father and Lord 
and God of Christ? What then, what sort of thing is, that he who 
* denieth the Son' of God, < hath not the Father,' and he who denieth the 
Father hath the Son, when the Son Himself solemnly pronounceth, ' No 
one can come unto Me unless it were given him of the Father?' — Believest 
thou that Christ giveth remission to the impious and sacrilegious and 
blasphemous against His Father, and in Baptism remitteth sins to them, 
who are known, when baptized, to heap up the same blasphemies against 
the Person of the Father? — It is an execrable and detestable thing, which 
is by some asserted, that He Who threateneth that whoso blasphemeth 
against the Holy Ghost shall be guilty of an eternal sin, should be said to 
sanctify in saving Baptism blasphemers against God the Father;" and a 
little later, (§. 18.) " ^Vherefore Ave and heretics cannot have a common 
Baptism, since we have neither God the Father, nor the Son Christ, nor 
the Holy Ghost, nor the faith, nor the Church in common." In like way 
in the Epistle to Pompeius, (Ep. 73. §. 7.) " Whereas then no heresy 
whatever, nor even any schism can know the sanctification of saving 
Baptism out of the Church, how is it that the harsh obduracy of our 
brother Stephen has burst forth so vehemently, as to affirm that even of 
the baptism of Marcion, of Valentinus again and Apelles and the other 
blasphemers against God the Father, sons of God are born, and that 
remission of sins is given them in the Name of Jesus Christ, when they 
blaspheme against the Father and the Lord God Christ?" [? " of Christ," 
as before.] 

Thus far S. Cyprian speaks quite according to the tenor of the Greek 
rule; and even the rejection of Novatian baptism seems rather an 
extension of the application of that rule, than the adoption of a new one. 
" Heresy," according to S. Basil, was misbelief in the Blessed Trinity; 



S. Cypj'ian ads on Greek rule, extending the term heresy. 29 1 

according to S. Cj-prian, it seems to have been rejection of any article of 
the Creed, and so obstinate rejection of the Church became heresy as well 
as schism. Thus the Council argues, (Ep. 69. ad Januar. &c. de Bapt. 
Hseret.) " But the very interrogatory in Baptism is a witness of the truth. 
For when we say, * Believest thou in everlasting life and remission of sins 
through the holy Church?' we mean that remission of sins is not given 
except in the Church, but that among heretics, where there is no Church, 
sins cannot be forgiven. They then who affirm that heretics can baptize, 
let them either change the interrogatory, or maintain the truth, unless they 
ascribe also a Church to those, whom they contend to have a baptism;" and 
of Novatian himself, (Ep. 75. ad Magn. §. 6.) " But if any object that 
Novatian holds the same rule as the Catholic Church, baptizes with the 
same Creed as we, knoweth the same God the Father, the same Son 
Christ, the same Holy Spirit, and on that account may claim the power of 
baptizing, because in the interrogatory of Baptism he seemeth not to differ 
from us, whosoever objecteth this, let him know, in the first instance, that 
we and schismatics have not one rule of the Creed, nor the same interro- 
gatory. For when they say, ' Believest thou remission of sins and life 
eternal through the holy Chm-ch?' they lie in the interrogatory, since they 
have not a Church. Then further by their own words, themselves confess 
that remission of sins cannot be given save through the holy Church ; 
which not having, they shew that sins cannot be remitted among tliem." 

The origin of this modification of the Greek view ^ (as it may be con- 
sidered) is not known; we see it to be as old as Tertullian; S. C'yprian 
only states it to have been settled many years before him by a Council under 
Agrippinus ; his date or the grounds upon which he went we know not. 
" This did Agrippinus, a man of excellent memory, with the rest of his 
co-Bishops, who at that time governed the Church of the Lord in the 
provinces of Africa and Numidia, set fast and establish by the well- 
weighed investigation of a common Council;" (Ep. 70. ad Quint. §. 4.) and 
again, (Ep. 72. ad Jub. §. 3.) " Among us it is no new or sudden thing, 
that we hold that they who from the heretics come to the Church, should 
be baptized, since it is now many years and a long period, since the 
Bishops assembling together with Agrippinus, a man of excellent memory, 
established this, and thenceforward to the present day have so many 
thousands of heretics in our provinces, being converted to the Church, not 
disdained or hesitated, yea rather have reasonably and readily embraced 
the reception of the grace of the life-giving Washing and saving Baptism." 

S. Cyprian does not, however, appeal to tradition; rather he is so fully 
persuaded that the African practice was that required by Holy Scripture, 
that he hesitates not to call that alleged by Stephen a '' human tradition," 
as, of course, any must be which really opposed Holy Scripture. And 
herein we may see again, how the question of schismatical baptism was in 

h Perhaps it is to this modification of those converted /ro;;/ am/ heresy whatao- 

the Greek rule that Eusebins refers, ever (i| o7a<rS' oU a/^e«wf) should be 

(H. E. vii. 2.) "no small question cleansed by Baptism." Eus. is «-peaking 

having been stirred at this time, whether of S. Cyprian only. 

u 2 



29*2 Scripture appealed to hy S. Cyprian relate to heresy not schism. 

Note S. Cyprian's mind incidental and subordinate to that of heretical; for the 
tT pt P^s^^o^*^ of Scripture, on which he maintains the rejection of the baptism, 

are those in which Scripture strongly rejects the heretics themselves, " If 

heretics are no otherwise named than as adversaries and antichrists, and 
are pronounced persons to be avoided, and perverse, and condemned of 
themselves, what manner of thing is this, that it is not to he thought good 
that they be condemned by us, of whom it is certain by the Apostolic 
witness, that they are condemned of themselves? So that no one ought to 
impute to the Apostles, as though they had approved of the baptism of 
heretics or received them to communion without the Baptism of the 
Church, when the Apostles wrote such things of heretics, and this, when 
the more grievous heretical plagues had not burst out; for not as yet had 
JNIarcion of Pontus raised his liead from Pontus — who, more shamelessly 
and rudely than the rest, formed his blasphemies against God the Father, 
the Creator. — Since then it is certain that more and worse heresies 
arose afterwards, and since in times past, it was no where commanded that 
the heretics receive imposition of hands only to repentance, and since 
* Baptism' is ' one' only, that with us, and within, and by the Divine 
mercy vouchsafed to the Church, what is that obduracy or that presumption 
of preferring a human tradition to the Divine ordinances?"' (Ep. 73. ad 
Pomp. §. 2. 3.) and again, (ad Jubaian. §. 13.) " But if we consider what 
the Apostles thought of heretics, we shall find that in all their Epistles they 
execrated and abhorred the sacrilegious pravity of heretics. For when 
they say that ' their word creepeth as doth a cancre,' how can that ' word' 
give remission of sins, which ' like a cancre' creepeth to the ears of the 
hearers? And when they say that ' righteousness hath no fellowship 
with unrighteousness, light no communion with darkness,' how can either 
'darkness' enlighten, or 'unrighteousness' justify? And when they 
say that they are ' not of God,' but are of the ' spirit of Anti- Christ,' 
how do they bear spiritual and Divine things, who are enemies of God, and 
whose breast the ' spirit of Anti-Christ' has possessed? Wherefore if, 
laying aside the errors of human contention, we go back with pure and holy 
faithfulness to the authority of the Gospel and tradition of the Apostles, we 
shall understand that they have no power as to the saving grace in the 
Church, who, scattering and opposing the Church of Christ, are by Christ 
Himself called ' adversaries,' by His Apostles, Anti-Christs." 

S. Cyprian then, declares the claim of Stephen for the Roman practice 
to be an Apostolic tradition to be erroneous; he speaks of it as "a practice 
which had crept in among certain," (ad Pomp. §. 9.) as FirmiHan adverts 
to other points in which the practice of Rome was no proof of genuine 
tradition, (§. 5.) S. Cyprian also seems to account for the absence of a 
tradition strictly Apostolic, in that the case itself would scarcely occur 
in Apostolic times. (Ep. 70. ad Quint. §. 2.) " And they say that in this 
they follow ancient practice when among the ancients heresy and schism 
were yet in their first beginnings, so tliat those involved therein were such 
as departed from the Church, and had been baptized in her, whom when 
they returned to the Church and performed penitence, there was then yet 



Itoman vieio, as staled hy Stephen, 293 

no need to baptize." " This we also," subjoins S. Cyprian, " observe to 
this day, so that for those, of whom it is known that they were baptized in 
the Church, and went over from us to the heretics, if afterward perceiving 
their sin — they return to the truth and to their original, imposition of hands 
to repentance sufficeth ; so that, because it had been a sheep, the Shepherd 
may receive back this estranged and wandering sheep into His fold. But 
if he who cometh from the heretics, was not before baptized in the Church, 
but comes, being altogether an alien and profane, he is to be baptized that 
he may become a sheep, because there is one water in the holy Church, 
which maketh sheep." This is the same principle as Dionysius states that 
he had received from Heraclas, and this may have been, as S. Cyprian 
seems to suggest, the origin of the Roman practice, that it continued 
to apply to all cases what was the practice in all cases, so long as heresy 
was in its infancy, and the only heretics were such as had " gone out" 
(1 John 2, 19.) from the Church. 

The principle of the Roman practice is contained in the few fragments of 
the Epistle of Stephen, Bp. of Rome, preserved in Firmilian and S. 
Cyprian; it is the same as that developed by S. Augustine, though its 
known date is much more modern than the Greek view, A. 256. It is, as 
before said, that the invocation of the Sacred Names with the use of water, 
constitutes valid Baptism, whatever may have been the mind of the 
officiating Priest; (a view at variance with their modern doctrine, that the 
" intention" of the Priest is essential to the efficacy of the Sacrament.) 
Firmilian says, (§. 8.) " That also is unreasonable that they hold that no 
enquiry is to be made who is the baptizer, because the baptized may 
obtain the grace, by the invocation of the Names of the Trinity, Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost." And this by virtue of that Invocation, (ib. §. 18.) 
" But, he saith, the Name of Christ availeth much to faith and the 
sanctification of Baptism, so that whosoever is wheresoever, baptized in the 
Name of Christ forthwith obtains the grace of Christ." And S. Cyprian 
meets the same statement, " Or if they ascribe the effect of Baptism to the 
majesty of the Name, so that they who are wheresoever and howsoever 
baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, are judged to be renewed and sanc- 
tified," (ad Pomp. §. 5.) And this is again probably the meaning of 
Stephen, in the saying quoted by Firmilian, (§. 11.) " Of what sort is that 
which Stephen will have to be, that to those who are baptized by heretics, 
there cometh the Presence and Holiness (sanctimoniam) of Christ?" 

Two limitations of this view, which are afterwards found in S. Augus- 
tine, seem fairly to be supplied in this statement of Stephen. 1. That 
where he insists, that persons shall be received " from whatever heresy," 
he meant that the greatness of the heresy did not alone preclude their 
reception, provided that the holy words had been used; so that there is no 
ground for thinking that he would have admitted baptism, not in the Name 
of the Trinity, from which he derived its validity. 2. That he did not 
hold that the baptism was sufficient without being received into the Church, 
but that birth was then given, yet in order that it might grow up into life, 
those so born must be brought up in the Church. On this Firmilian says, 



^9i Itomau view established in IVestby Council of Aries; 



Note (§. 13.) '•'• Unless indeed, as Steplieu thinks, heresy gives 



birth 



ON De 

Bapt. 



exposes 



her children, and when exposed the Church adopts, and nourishes as her own, 
those whom she hare not, seeing she cannot he the mother of alien children." 

The Roman view was established in the West^^ by the Council of Aries, 
(A. 314.) Can. 8. " With regard to t!ie Africans, who act on a rule of 
their own, in rebaptizing, it hath seemed good, that if any come to the 
Church out of heresy, he be asked the Creed, and if they see that he was 
baptized in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, let him receive 
imposition of hands, that he may receive the Holy Ghost; but if when 
interrogated, he answer not this Trinity, let him be baptized." 

To this Council it seems most probable i that S. Augustine refers, in the 
many places, when he speaks of the question having been settled by a 
full Council of the whole Church; at least, the Council of Aries is the only 
Council which speaks directly upon \t. If we supposed S. Augustine to 
refer to the Council of Nice, we must have concluded that he made the 
same inference as S. Jerome'*, that in that the Council (Can. 19.) only 
commanded the Paulianists to be rebaptized, the Fathers there meant that 
all other heretics might be admitted by laying on of hands only, which is 
contrary to the Greek practice, both before and after. 

The Council of Carthage' (A. 349.) enforced (against the Dona- 



h Bellarmine (de ?acram. i. 26.) 
quotes S. Augustine, Ep. 48, (93. §. 38.) 
ad Vincent, as saying that S. Cyprian 
changed his views ; S. Augustine only 
conjectures that he may so have done, 
but that at all events he did not (like 
the Donatists) make a schism. S. 
Jerome (c. Lueif. c. 25.) says that the 
Bishops of the Council of Carthage 
changed their practice and reversed 
their decree ; but S. Augustine, on 
the spot, could not have been ignorant 
of this, nor, if true, would have failed 
to urge it. 

J See Launoy, Diss, de vera plenarii 
apud Augustinum Concilii notione, 
and his defences of it. Before him, 
Sirmond took the same view Prajf. ad 
Concil. Gall. T. 1. He is followed by 
the Benedictines on S. Au?. de Bapt. 
c. Donat. ii. 9. noteb. Tilleinont(H. E. 
t. 4. Notes sur S. Cyprian Note 44.) 
states the difficulties fairly on both 
sides, and inclines to the opinion of " a 
very enlightened and v/ise person," 
that the Council of Aries was very little 
known in S. Augustine's time except in 
the practice founded on its decisions, 
that he being educated in the African 
Church, which acted in obedience to it, 
thought that the authority to which the 
African Church deferred, was that of a 
General Council, and that the more, 
since it was not disputed by the Dona- 
tists, but without any definite know- 



ledge of it. And certainly it is remark- 
able, as he observes, that S. Augustine, 
in general so precise, no where names 
this Council, though he does the Coun- 
cil of Nice (Ep. 110.) nor alleges its 
words, but quotes it vaguely as a Council 
" after the martyrdom of Cyprian, but 
before himself was born." de Bapt. c. 
Don. ii. 9. S. Augustine also quotes 
the Nicene Council by name on the 
very Canon in question as to the Pauli- 
anists. de Hser. c. 44. 

^ c. Lucif. fin. " The Nicene Coun- 
cil, which we have just mentioned, ad- 
mitted all heretics except the disciples 
of Paul of Samosata," i.e. commanded 
no others to be baptized but these. Siri- 
cius Bp. of Rome seems to have made 
the same inferences, (Ep. ad Himer. 
Can. \. Concil. t. 2. p. 1018, quoted by 
Tillemont. 1. c.) " whom [the Arians] 
with the Novatians and other heretics, 
we, as was established in the Council, 
receive into the congregation of the 
Catholics, through the invocation alone 
of the seven-fold Spirit, by the laying- 
on of the hands of the Bishop," but the 
8th Canon, to which this seems in part 
to refer, says nothing of any other 
heretics, nor of the baptism of the 
Novatians, but only of their Orders ; 
and S. Basil, well acquainted with its 
Canons, does not speak decisively about 
it. 

1 Can.l. That whoso was baptized. 



subsequently modified ; Greek retained. 295 

tists) the decisiou of that of Aries; the adherence of that Church 
became the more fixed, through the misapplication made by the Donatists 
of S. (yyprian's rule and authority: nor would she be tempted to violate 
the principles she had adopted, by the advantage taken by the Donatists, 
who represented that it v,^as the safer side to receive their baptism, since 
the Church, by not rebaptizing, acknowledged its validity, whereas the 
Donatists, by rebaptizing, disallowed that of the Church. Adherence to 
her rule under this disadvantage would strengthen the Church's stedfast- 
ness in it. The validity then of all Baptism, wherein the right " matter" 
and " words" had been used, became thenceforth the rule of the Latin 
Church, except that in the later times, the Roman Church has left it to her 
Bishops to dispense with her rule, when there seems to them " reasonable 
cause""," and virtually (among ourselves at least) has adopted conditional 
rebaptizing as her rule; the Scotch branch of our Church has formally 
sanctioned " conditional Baptism, wherever the parties themselves entertain 
doubts of their schismatical baptism ; and such is the growing practice in 
our own. 

The Greek Church continued their rule, retaining the tradition both of 
the rule, and of the cases in which it had been enforced, without defining it 
in the same formal way as the Latin Church. The Council in Trullo 
(Quini-sextum) formally acknowledged as part of its code, not the Apostolic 
Canons only, but those of S. Basil, (Can. 2.) while in a subsequent Canon, 
(95) it speaks generally of " heretics whose Baptism is accounted valid," 
i. e. according to the tradition of the Chiirch, and of others " whose Bap- 
tism is not accounted valid," but of these it mentions only some cases °, 
(see ab. p. 289,) The same is observable in the lists given by Timotheus 
Presbyter, (A. 500.) afterwards Patriarch of Const^mtinople P, who divides 
heretics into three classes, according as they were ') baptized on returning 

having been interrogated as to the that the Council adopted and rejected 

Trinity, according to the faith of the S. Basil's Canon at the same time : so 

Gospel and doctrine of the Apostles, Bingham, " Remarks on the author of 

and confessed a good conscience toward the second part of Lay-Baptism in- 

God as to the Resurrection of Jesus vahd." Works, t. 2. p. 595. 6. 

Christ, might not again be interrogated P Nicephorus ap. Voss. de Bapt. 

as to that faith, nor again baptized." Addend. \. 7. ad Disp. 20. who cites 

^ " Heretics coming to the Catholic the following authors also. 

Church, in whose Baptism the due The letter, published by Balsamon, 

* form' or 'matter' has not been t. i. p. 1098, 9, andfilledupby Possevini 

retained, are to be duly baptized — but (Apparatus S. t. 2. v. Timotheus) 

where the due '■ form' and ' matter' classes heretics thus, ^ Tascodrugi 

have been retained, let only those Marcionites, Saccophori, Apotactites 

things be supplied which were omitted, [Encralites,] (see S. Basil, sup. p. 287.) 

unless for a reasonable cause it seem Valentinians, or Basilidians, or Her- 

otherwise to the Bishop.^' Rubric on meeans, Nicolaitans, Montanists, Pepu- 

Baptism of Adults in Roman Ritual, zenes, Manichseans, Eunomians or 

set forth bv Paul v. ap. Ass. ii. 20. Anomceans, Paulianists, Photinians, 

" Synod of 1838, Can. 17. Sabellians, [MarceUians,! Cerinthians, 

o Writers, who assume that the Menandrians, Ebionites, Simonians 

Greek Church acted upon the Latin (from Simon M.),Carpocratians, Satur- 

rule, (of which there is no trace in the nians [SaturniUans, Epiph.], and those 

Greek Church, but the contrary,) regard derived from the impious Marcus, and 

these Canons as contradictory ; and Apelles, and Theodotus the tanner, 



296 Greek rale and apjjlicatiou alike traditionary. 

Note to the Church, or 2) received the Chrism only, or ^) only anathematized their 
B\PT ^^^*^'^^- Yet we cannot see for the most part on what principle they are so 
distrihuted, but Timotheus asserts it to be traditionary. " We then, con- 
sidering all these things with the wise fathers, have been taught by them, 
that as the Catholic Church of old received, and as our practice is preserved 
in the patriarchates and metropolitan Churches, so we also ought to follow.' 
And this traditionary character of the rule is the more implied, in that 
heresies are enumerated, as falling under the different heads, which have 
for many centuries been extinct in the Church, and which would have been 
forgotten, had the Greek, like the Roman Church, proceeded on a precise 
well-defined line, and not rather on what had been done in former times. 

The same classification is retained, and the same persons ranked in each 
class by Theodorus Studites, (A.D. 817.) who is less accurate however in 
details ^3. 

In later times, we find the Romanists complaining (Cone. Lat. iv. Can. 
43.) that in times past " the Greeks presumed, with a rash boldness, even 
to re-baptize those who had been baptized by Latins, and some (as we have 
heard) still do not fear to do this." This the Greeks did, in conformity 
with their old practice, regarding the Latins as heretical as to the Third 
Person of the Blessed Trinity, in that they added Filioque to the Nicene 
Creed. 

Possibly, the difference of the Greek and Roman practice may be 
accounted for (as far as conjecture may be allowed in a point so obscure) by 
the more grievous character of the heresies, with which the Greek Church 
was harassed; so that the original rule may have been to reject heretical, 
accept schismatical Baptism, (as S. Basil states it to have been in the East,) 
and this having been acted upon with regard to heretics in the East, 



the Helcesaites, those from Nepos, which seems to be a continuance of the 

and Pelagius, and Celestius, [as agree- same dispensing power, implied by S. 

ing with Nestorius,] and the Melehise- Basil. 

dekites. - The Tessaresdekitae, Kova- '\ He says the Marcionites, Tasco- 

tians or Sabbatians, Arians, Macedo- drugi, Manichees, and those who rank 

nians, and Apollinarians. ^ Xhe Mele- with them down to the Melchisedekites, 

tians, (schismatics) Nestorians, Euty- twenty-five heresies, are baptized. The 

chians, and their companion Dioscorus, "JessarescaidekatiteSjNovatians, Arians, 

Severus, Jacobus, and the rest of the Macedonians, and Apollinarians, to- 

Acephali, [i.e. Theodosians, Tritheites, gether five, receive the holy Chrism. 

Gaianites or Julianites, Anthropomor- But they who are neither baptized, nor 

phites, Barscnuphites, Esaianites, Pe- receive the Chrism, but only anathe- 

trians, Damianites, Sergians,] Mar- matizetheirownandevery other heresy, 

cionites, (from Marcion the Trapezite,) are the Meletians, INestorians, Euty- 

Messalians or Euchites, Enthusiastee, chians, and those classed with these 

Choreutse, Lampetians, Adelphians, down to the present heresy, which for 

Eustathians, Aposehistffi or Dosarii. the present is not numbered by me, on 

Timotheus subjoins that "in the Patri- account of the many divisions of the 

urchate or Metropolitan Churches, the Acephali." Theodorus, however, ap- 

Armenians, Jacobites, and Nestorians, plies the Latin rule, " the Apostolic 

and the rest of the Acephali and those Canon calls them heretics, wlio are not 

like them, who were converted to the baptized or baptize not in the Name of 

orthodox faith, received the Chrism not the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," 

Baptism, and that this had been re- instead of S. Basil's of the absence of 

cently introduced for good reasons," sound faith in Them. 



Benefits of conditional form. 297 

schismatics in the West, the one practice may have heen extended to 
heretics by Stephen, as the other to schismatics by the Bishops in the time 
of Firmihan, when the validity of schismatic baptism was a novel question. 
The practice now adopted by the Scotch Church and in our own, with 
regard to persons baptized by such as are not only in schism, but never 
received any commission to baptize, (a case to which there is no parallel in 
the early Church,) unites the advantages of the Latin and Greek practice ; 
of the Latin, in that it avoids the risk of real re-baptizing, which the 
ancients regarded as a profanation of the Sacred Names ; of the Greek, in 
that it does what it in us lies, to provide that none of the blessings and 
grace of Baptism be lost through our omission, and is an act of piety towards 
God, desiring that whatever may have hitherto been lacking, be supplied. 



298 In the Gospd^ all tilings new. 



OF PRAYER 



[The different tone in which TeituUian speaks on the Shepherd of Hermas and 
on fasting in the De Oratione, (c. 16. 18.) and in his Montanist works, (De 
Pudic. e. 10. 20. and De Jej. c. 2.) is decisive that it was written before his 
fall, (see Lumper, c. 2. art. 3. §, 2. who adds other grounds not so valid ; he 
thinks also that T. calls Hermas " Scripture," " almost Scripture," but 
wrongly, see e. 10.) S. Hilary also speaks of it, as written, while sound in the 
faith. " On the Sacrament of prayer, Cyprian, of holy memory, has freed us 
from the need of writing. Although Tertullian also wrote a most suitable 
treatise thereon ; but the subsequent error of the man, deprived of authority 
even his approved writings." in Matt. c. 5. init."] 



De I- The Spirit^ of God, and the Word of God, and the 
ix^i R^^s^^ ^f ^^^ — Word of Reason, and Reason of Word, 

^and Spirit of both" — Jesus Christ our Lord hath ordained 

for us, the disciples of the New Testament, a new form 
of Prayer. For it was meet that, in this kind also, new 
nine should be laid np in neiv bottles, and a new piece sewn 
Mat. 9, to a neiv garment. But whatever had been in time past, 
hath been either changed, as circumcision ; or fulfilled, 
as the rest of the law ; or accomplished, as prophecy ; or 
perfected, as Faith itself. The new grace of God hath 
fashioned anew all things from carnal to spiritual, in 
bringing in, over all, the Gospel, the abolisher of all 
the ancient bygone things. In which our Lord Jesus 

" See note H, at the end of this sponds to the preceding. Muratori, 

treatise. (Anecdota, t. iii. p. 6.) joins utrumque 

^ i. e. our Lord is not only The with what follows, but then " et spi- 

Spirit and the Word and the Reason ritus" stands unconnected. Muratori 

of God, but, when contemplated as supposes this to be a passage in which 

The Reason, He is also The Word ; as the Father is called Ratio and Sermo, 

The Word, He is also The Reason; as though " Sermo Rationis" were the 

and as Both, Spirit, i. e. of the V'ery same as S. Ambrose's " Verbum de 

Essence of the Father, Who "is a Verbo," (see note H,) but the identity 

Spirit." The words are " Sermo Ra- of the words " Verbum de Verbo, ' is 

tionis et Ratio Sermonis et Spiritus the A^ery peculiarity which, according 

utrumque"( =utrorumquesc.Rationis'et to S. Ambrose, Justifies the mode of 

Sermonis.) Thus each clause corre- speech. 



Divine icisdom in brevity and fulness of the Lord's Prayer, 299 

Christ hath been approved as the Spirit of God, and the 
Word of God, and the Reason of God : the Spirit, by which 
He prevailed ; the Word, by which He taught ; the Reason, 
by which He earned Thus, therefore, the Prayer framed 
by Christ hath been framed out of three things — the Word, 
by which it is expressed ; the Spirit, by w^hich alone it hath 
power ^; the Reason, by which it is conceived. JohnJoimG, 
also had taught his disciples to pray ; but all that was of ' 
John ^vas a preparing of the way for Christ, until when 
Himself should have increased, (as the same John foretold 
that He must increase hut himself decrease,) the whole work John 3, 
of the forerunner together with the Spirit Itself, should j^'i 33^ 
pass to the Lord*". And therefore it doth not appear in what 
w^ords John taught them to pray, because that earthly things 
have given place to heavenly. He that is of the earth, 
he saith, speaketh tlie things of the earth; and He that 
is of Heaven speaketh the things lohich He hath 5(?e«.ib.3,3i. 
And what is there that is of the Lord Christ, as is this * 
instruction in prayer also, which is not heavenly } Let 
us consider then, blessed sirs, first. His heavenly wisdom 
in the commandment to pray in secret, wherein He both Matt. 6, 
exacted the faith of man, in surely believing that the eye 
and the ear of Almighty God are present under coverings, 
and even in secret places •", and required also a modesty 
in faith, in offering his religious service to Him alone, 
Who, he trusteth, heareth and seeth every where : next, 
His wisdom in the next commandment, which though v. 7. 
it pertain eth in like manner to Faith and the modesty of 
Faith, that we should not think that God must be ap- 
proached with a multitude of words. Who, we are sure, 
provideth for His own of His own accord, yet is this brevity v. 8. 
(and this formeth the third step in the said wisdom) upheld 
by the support of a large and blessed interpretation, and 
is as much expanded in meaning as it is compressed in 
words. For it hath embraced not only the proper offices of 

c i. e. as He, " in Whom dwelt all Wisdom of God," (1 Cor. 1, 24.) &c. 

the fulness of the Godhead bodily," " ratio qua venit" seems a necessary 

" Who manifested the Name of the correction for " quo venit." 

Father," (John 17, 6.) in Whom" were <• see c. 9. 

hid all the treasures of wisdom and « See de Bapt. c. 10, and note, 

knowledge," (Col. 2, 3.) Who is " the f S. Cyprian de Orat. $. 2. 



300 ' OarFathei^^ confesses God as aFatlier and TkeSon and theCh urcli, 

De Prayer, or ' reverence of Gocl^ or the petition of man, but 
ixfs! ^lii^^ost every discourse of the Lord, every record of His 
T^l rule of life, so that, in truth, there is comprehended in the 
Prayer a summary of the whole Gospel. 

II. It beginneth with a testimony to God, and with 
the reward of Faith, when we say. Our Father, which 
ART IN IIp:aven. For herein we both pray to God, and 
commend the Faith whose reward it is thus to entitle Him. 

John 1, It is written. To them that believed on Him gave He power 
to he called the sons of God. And, indeed, the Lord hath 
very frequently proclaimed God to us as a Father; yea, 

Mat.23,and hath taught us to call no man father upon earth, 
but Him only Whom ice have in Heaven. Wherefore in 
thus praying we obey also a commandment. Happy they 
who acknowledge Him as a Father ! This it is with 
which Israel is reproached, when the Spirit calleth Heaven 

Is. 1,2. and eartJi to witness, saying, / ]tave begotten children, 
and they have not acknowledged me. But, in calling Him 
Father, we entitle Him also God. This title is one both 
of affection and authority. Moreover, in the Father, the 

John 10, Son also is called upon; for, saith He, / and the Father 

30 

are one. Nor is even our Mother Church passed by, 
that is, if in the Father and the Son be recognized the 
mother also, of whom it is that the names both of Father 
and Son exist ". Under one kind then, or indeed one word, 
we both honour God with His own '', and remember a 
commandment, and set a mark upon those that forget the 
Father '. 

III. The Name of God the Father had been disclosed to 

none. Even Moses, who had asked it of Himself, had heard 

in truth another name. To us it hath been revealed in the 

John 5 Son. For now is the Son a new Name of the Father. / am 
43. 



Z i. e. in Himself, the Name of God " Father of those who being sanctified 

the Father implies the Son, Who is by Him, and made again by a na- 

One with Him ; with relation to us, it tivity of spiritual grace, have begun to 

implies a mother, i. e. the Church ; be the sons of God." 

whence in S. Cypr. de Unit. c. 5. " he '' suis. His Son and His Church, 

can no longer have God for a Father ' S. Cyprian 1. c. explains this of the 

who had not the Church for a mother," Jews, with i-eference to S. John 8, 

and he paraphrases this passage, de 44. 
Orat. Dom. $. 6. p. 182. Oxf. transl. 



^ HalloioedheTliy Name,'' jyraiseof God ^prayer for us and for all. 301 

come, saith He, in the Fathers Name. And again: 
Father, glorify Thy Name: and more plainly: / have Sohn\2, 
manifested Thy Name unto men. We ask therefore ^^' 
that this Name may be hallowed : not that it becometh ' 
men to wish well to God, as though there were Any Other^ ' al'us 
from Whom it could be wished for Him, or He were 
hindered of it unless we wished. Meet indeed is it that 
God should be blessed in every place and time by every 
man, for the remembrance, ever due, of His benefits. But 
this too standeth in the place of blessing. And yet when hath 
not the Name of God been holy and sanctified by Himself, 
seeing that of Himself He sanctifieth all others ? to Whom 
that company of angels round about rest not saying, Holy, Rev. 4, 
Holy, Holy ! In like manner therefore we also, looking to 
be angels, if we so deserve", even from hence' learn that 
heavenly address to God, the oflSce also of future glory. 
Thus much as respecteth the glory of God. On the other 
hand, as respecteth our own petition, when we say, 
Hallowed be Thy Name, we pray that It may he hallowed 
in us, who are in Him, and at the same time in all others 
also, whom the grace of God yet awaiteth, that we may in 
this also obey a commandment in praying for all, even for Mat. 5, 
our enemies. And therefore stopping short in our expres- * 
sion, and not saying, be It hallowed " in us," we say (in effect) 
be It hallowed " in all." 

IV. Next to this clause we add. Thy will be done in 
Heaven and in earth : not that any can hinder the doing 
of His will, and that we pray for Him that His will may have 
success, but we ask that His will may be done in all men. 
For, by a figurative interpretation of the flesh and the spirit, 
we are the Heaven and the Earth"". Although even if it be 
to be understood simply, yet is the sense of the petition the 
same, that in us, the will of God may he done in earth, to 
wit, that it may hereafter be done in Heaven also. And 
what doth God will, but that we should walk according to His 
rule ? We ask therefore that He supply us with the substance 
and power of His will, that we may be saved" both in Heaven 

^ meruerimus A. meminerimus Gel. '" S. Cypr. 1. cell. Greg. Naz. 

Rig. Mur. " if we be mindful" i. e. of Or. 1. [2.] ap Lao. 

our calling. " S. Greg. Nyss. de Orat. Dom. c. 4. 

1 i. e. from this earth. " The will of God is the salvation of 



302 The ' WilV of God, our salvation ; wroiLcjIif in ?(s, and on us, 

De and in earth, seeing that the sum of His will is the salvation 

ixts*. o^ *^ose whom He hath adopted. That also is the will of 

God, which the Lord hath executed in preaching, in working, 

in suffering". For so hath He Himself declared, that He 

John 6, did not His own will, hut the will of the Father. Without 

op . C, '' 

3o/ ' doubt the things which He did, they were the ivill of the 
Father, to the which, as to ensamples, are we now called 
forth, that we may both preach, and work, and suffer, even 
unto death. The which that we may be able to fulfil, we 
have need of the will of God^. Likewise when we say. 
Thy will be done, even in this we wish well to ourselves, 
because there is no evil in the will of God, even though there 
be somewhat contrariwise inflicted according to the deserts 
of each. By the very saying of this we premonish ourselves 
unto patience. The Lord also, when, by the reality'' of His 
Passion, He had now willed to shew in His own flesh the 

Luke 22, weakness of the flesh, saith. Father, remove this cup, — and 
then remembering Himself — nevertheless, not My will hut 
Thine he done. He was Himself the Will"^ and the Power' 
of the Father, and yet, for the shewing forth of the patience 
which He owed. He committed Himself to the will of the 
Father. 

V. Thy Kingdom come, likewise hath the same reference 
as hath also Thy Will be done ; to wit, in ourselves. For 

Prov.2l, when is God not a King, in Whose hand is the heart of all 
kings ? But whatsoever we wish for ourselves, we divine to 
be His, and to Him attribute, what from Him we expect. 
AVherefore, if the present coming of the Lord's Kingdom 

Rom. 8, pertain to the will of God, and to our earnest exiiectation, 
how pray some for a sort of prolonging of the world', when 



man." Cassian Coll. ix. 19. " or thus, ^ See Note I, at the end of this 

the will of God is the salvation of all. Treatise. 

according to the saying of the blessed s 1 Cor. 1, 24. Clem. Al. Strom, vii. 

Paul, 1 Tim. 2, 4.'' p. 703. ap. Bull iv. 2. 1. " But the 

^ S. Cypr. 1. c. e. 10. whole operation of the Son hath refer- 

P S. Cypr. 1. c. c. 9. enee to the Almighty, and the Son is, 

1 cum substantia restored. This as it were, an Operation of the Father," 

may be tacitly opposed to the Gnostics. (Tur^ixn r/g hi^yua.) 

Rig. substitutes " sub instantiam" " at ^ See on Apol. e. 32. p. 72. n. u.Rig. 

the Instant approach of;" a conjecture with A. omits " in" " a prolonged exist- 

of Ursini's. S. Cypr. 1. c. " The Lord, ence in the world;" and T. in the 

manifesting the infirmity of that human other places is speaking of the delay of 

nature, which He bare," the consummation of all things, not of 



' Thy Kingdom come, ^tke end; ^" DaUyBread^'' Xt.inH.Euchnrist. oOo 

the Kingdom of God, which we pray may come, looketh to 
the consummation of the world ? We desire to reign the sooner, 
and not to serve the longer. Even were it not prescribed 
in the Prayer about praying for the coming of the Kingdom, 
we should of our own accord put forth His word, pressing 
forward towards the apprehending of our hope. The souls 
of the martyrs cry unto the Lord reproachfully" under the 
altar, How long, O Lord, dost Thou not avenge our blood o?i Kev. 6, 
them that divell on the earth ? For doubtless the avenging" 
of these is regulated by the end of the world. Yea, with all 
speed, O Lord, TJiy Kingdom come ! the prayer of the 
Christians, the confusion of the Heathen, the joy of the 
Angels-^', for which we strive, yea rather for which we pray. 

VI. But how^ choicely hath Divine Wisdom drawn up the 
order of the Prayer, that after heavenly things, that is, after 
the Name of God, the Will of God, and the Kingdom of 
God, it should give to the petition a place for earthly wants 
likewise ! For the Lord had also declared, v^eek ye Jirst the J^^^t. Q, 
Kingdom, and tit en these things also shall be added unto yon. 
Although we may rather understand spiritually. Give us this 
DAY OUR DAILY BREAD. For Christ is our Bread, because 
Christ is life, and bread is life. I am, saith He, tlte Bread John 6, 

35 

of life : and a little above, The Bread is the Word of the ^^'^^ 
living God Which comet h doun from Heaven. Then again 
because in the Bread is understood His Body^: This is My Luke 22, 
Body. Wherefore in praying for daily bread, we pray to be ^^* 

the close, a little sooner or later, of our that the Greeks could not so understand 

own lives, S. Cyprian (de Mortal, c. 13. it, since they did not receive It 

p. 225, 6. Oxf. Tr.) uses the same daily,) Jerome adv. Pel. 1. 3. §. 15. 

language of individual continuance in Marius Victorin. 1. i. ii. iii. adv. Arian. 

life. Pet. Chrysol. Serm. 67. 68. 70. 72. 

" so Rig. with A. Gel. and others ad Orat. Dom. Greg. Mor. 1. 33. c. 5. 

" in visu" " in the vision." Sedul. 1. 2. Op. Pasch. c. 11. p. 480. 

^ S. Cypr. de Bono Pat. c. 15. 16. Chromat. and Juvencusadloc.Theophyl. 

p. 263, 4. Oxf. Tr. ad loc. Procop. ad Levit. Damasc. de 

y See de Spect. fin. Fid. Orth. iv. 13. It is interpreted of our 

"^ This petition is understood of the Lord without further explanation by S. 

Holy Eucharist by S. Cyprian also 1. c. Jerome ad loc. in Ep. ad Tit. 2, 11. 12. 

c. 13.S. Cyril Jer. xxiii. 15. S. Athanas. Orig. Horn. 14 in Ezek. fin. Maximus 

de Incarn.' et c. Arian. §. 16. t. i. p. 883. Taur. in Caten. Niceta^, Cassian Coll. 

S. Ambrose de Sacr. v. 4. §. 24. 25. ix. 20. Isidor. Pel. Ep. 281. S. Cyril of 

S. Chrys. in Cat. Niceta, S. Aug. Ep. Alex. 1. 13. de Adorat. p. 471. says 

130. ad Prob. (as one meaning) Serm. 58. "all is divine and spiritual." See 

in Matt. 6. c. 4. (but in the de Serm. Suicer v, sjr/9v<r/9f, Pfeifferde v. sT/otJo'/of, 

Dom. in Mont. ii. 7. he rejects this and Thes. Theol. Phil. App. ad Crit. S. 

takes one meaning only, inferring also t. ii. p. 122. 



304 ^ Daily Bread,' as to the body, excludes luxuries and the morroio . 

De perpetually in Christ, and undivided from His Body\ But 
ixf 7. because this word also hath a carnal meaning, this cannot 

be without a religious regard for a spiritual rule likewise. 

For He commandeth bread to be prayed for, which thing 
Mat. 6, alone is necessary "^ for the faithful, For after the rest do the 

32 *^ ^ 

Gentiles seek. i\nd this again He impresseth by examples, 

cf. Mat. and treateth of in parables, when He saith, Doth a father 

' ' take bread from his children, and give it unto dogs ? And 

Mat. 7, again : When a son asketh bread, doth he give him a stone ? 

For He sheweth w^hat sons may expect from a father. 

Luke Moreover also that one, that knocked at the door by night, 

' * asked for bread. But with good cause hath He added. 

Mat. 6, Give us this day, seeing that He had said before. Take no 

Luke thought for the morrow"^ what ye shall eat. To which 

12, 22. matter He hath also applied the parable of that man, who, 

ver. 16. when his fruits were coming in, thought uitltin himself of 

builcVmg greater barns, and of times for long taking his ease: 

on that very night he dieth. 

VII. It followed that, having noted the bounty of God, we 

should pray for His mercy also. For what will meats profit, if 

we be reckoned, as touching them ^, in ver^^ deed as a bull for 

Heb. 4, the slaughter } The Lord knew that Himself only was without 

sin. He teacheth therefore that we pray that our debts be 

FORGIVEN us. Prayer for forgiveness is confession, for he 

that asketh forgiveness confesseth sin. Thus also is repent- 

Ezek. ance manifested, acceptable to God, because He willeth this 

' * rather than tJie death of a sinner. But a debt is, in the 

Scriptures, a figure for a sin, because payment is in like 

manner by just sentence due, and by the same demanded, 

nor can it evade the justice of the demand, unless the demand 

Mat. 18, be remitted, as the Lord forqave that servant the debt. For 
27 ^ 

the example of the whole parable looketh this way. For, 

whereas the same servant, when loosed by his lord, doth not 

in like manner spare his own debtor, and, being on that 

account accused before his lord, is delivered to the tormentor 

' S. Cypr. 1. c. d illi^j restored vf\t\ A. i. e. if food is 

^ S. Greg. Nyss. Serm. 4. in Orat. only given us as to animals fed to be 

Dom. S. Cypr. 1. e. S. Aug. Ep. 130. slaughtered, if all be but indulgence 

S. Chrys. for a time, to end in Death. Rig. 

^ S. Greg. Nyss. 1. c. S. Cypr. 1. c. corrects illi " in His sightj^' needlessly. 

c. ]4. 



God tries, Satan tempts : * deliver from evil,' i. e.from Satan. 305 

till he should pay the uttermost farthing, that is, the very 
least sin, with this agreeth that we also profess to forgivf, ^ 

OUR DEBTORS. Moreover He saith also in another place, 
according to this kind of Prayer, Forgive, and it shall J^Lukee, 
forgiven you. And when Peter had asked whether he should 
forgive his brother until seven times, Yea, saith He, nntil^^^^-^^. 
severity times seven, that He might remould the law for the 
better; because in Genesis the avenging of Cain is reckoned ^^^^- 4, 
at sevenfold, but that of Lamech at seventy and seven fold"^. 

Vni. For the completing of this so brief Prayer, that 
we might pray, not only for the forgiveness, but also for the 
entire turning away of sins, He hath added, lead us not 
INTO temptation: that is, suffer us not to be led, to wit 
by him who tempteth. But God forbid that the Lord should James i, 
be thought to tempt, as though He were ignorant concerning 
the faith of any man, or were consenting' to its overthrow. 
Both infirmity and malice are of the Devil. For even 
Abraham He had commanded to make an offering of his son, 
for the sake not of tempting, but of proving, his faith; that 
through hi'm He might set forth an example of His own 
precept, wherein He would afterwards command that not Mat. lo, 
even children must be accounted dearer than God. He 
Himself being tempted of the Devil, shewed who was the Luke 4, 
head and contriver of temptation. This passage He con- 
firmeth by His after words, when He saith. Pray lest ye JeMat.26, 
tempted. And so they were tempted, in forsaking the Lord, ver. 56. 
who had given themselves to sleep ^ rather than to prayer, ver. 40. 
With this correspondeth the clause, which interpreteth the 
meaning of Lead us not into temptation ; for this is, But 
deliver us from Evil'*. 



* Orig. and S. Hilary in Matt, and uses " malus ille"-a rronft^ii , of Satan 

Tbeoph. Aut. ap. Huet. ad Orig. ex- de Cult. Fern. ii. 6. and " malus" de 

plain the passage of S. Matt, also with Idol. c. 16. and 21. de Pat. c. 11. 14. 

reference to Lamech. andsointerprets " malum," de Test. An. 

' dejicere sit consentiens. editt. ante- c. 3. n. p. comp. S. Greg. Nyss. Orat. 5. 

Rig. In A. there remains deicere fin. S. Cyril Jer. xxiii. (Myst. 6.) §. 18. 

nstiens, (i. e. [cojnsentiens) the inter- S. Chrys.Hom. 19. in S. Matt. S.Jerome 

mediate letters being worn out. Rig.'s adv. Jov. §. 3. Cassian, Coll. ix. 23. 

'' autdejicere gestiens" is a conjecture. Chromat. ad loc. S. Ambrose de Sacr. 

S see de Bapt. c. ult. v. j. pen. gives both '• from the Enemy, 

h i. e. " from the evil one," Satan, from sin," S. Cyprian includes both in 

«ee de Fuga in Pers. c. 2. where T. one, c, 18. p. 192. Oxf. Tr, 
uses the word " malignus," but he also 



306 Iulj2essa7id depth of the Lord' sPrai/er; heard as The Soiisicords. 

De IX. In the brief summary of a few words, how many 
ix.^u i^aymgs of the Prophets, Gospels, Apostles, discourses of the 
Lord, parables, examples, precepts, are touched upon' ! 
How many duties are at once discharged ! The honouring 
of God in the Father, the testimony of Faith in the Name, 
the offering of obedience in the Will, the remembrance of 
hope in the Kingdom, the petition for life in the Bread, the 
confession of debts in the prayer to forgive, the anxious 
care about temptations in the call for defence. What 
wonder? God alone could teach how He would have 
Himself prayed to. The sacred duty therefore of Prayer, 
ordained by Himself, and animated by His own Spirit, even 
at the time when it proceeded from the Divine mouth, 
ascendeth, of its own right, unto Heaven, commending to 
the Father what the Son hath taught. 

X. Yet since the Lord, Who foreseeth human wants, after 
Mat. 7, delivering the rule of Prayer, saith separately. Ask, and ye 

shall receive, and since there are things which be desired 
according to the case of each, after that the regular and set 
form of prayer hath been first used, there is a liberty allowed 
to desires^ added as it were to the foundation, there is a 
liberty to build thereupon extraneous petitions, yet with 
remembrance of the commandments, lest the farther from the 
commandments, the farther we be from the ears of God. 

XI. The remembrance of the commandments paveth the 
way to Heaven for prayers, of which commandments the 
chief is, that we go not up to the altar of God before that we 
undo whatever quarrel or enmity we may have contracted 

Mat. 5, with our brethren. For what is it to retire' unto the peace 
of God, without peace t unto the remission of debts, 
retaining debts ? How shall he appease the Father, who is 
angry with his brother, seeing that all anger is, from the 
beginning, forbidden us } For Joseph also, when he sendeth 
away his brethren to bring their father to him, saith, and fall 

Gen A5,7iot out bf/ the ivay. Verily he admonished us, for our 

' S. Cypr. de Or. Dom. c. 5. derived from the same source. 

^ quasi fundamento accedentium de- ^ i. e. from a brother, and so ap- 

«ideriorum, cod. Mediol. (containing the proach to God, recedere A. although 

de oratione only) which so corresponds the same hand corrects " accedere'' 

with the cod, A gob. that it is probably " approach unto." 



To he offered in holiness, as to and throng fi The Holy. 307 

Religion is elsewhere called a way : and again that, when 
set in the way of Prayer, we should not approach the Father 
with anger. Next, the Lord, when enlarging the Law, doth 
in plain words add to murder anger against a brother, Mat. 5, 
alloweth not that it should quit itself even by an ill-word. 
Even if one must needs be angry, it must not be beyond 
the going down of the sim, as the Apostle admonisheth. Eph. 4, 
But how rash a thing is it either to pass a day without 
prayer, while thou delayest to make satisfaction to a brother, 
or by persisting in wrath, to undo prayer ! 

XII. Nor ought the intention of Prayer to be fi'ee from 
anger only, but from all disorder of the mind whatever, being 
sent forth from such a spirit, as is The Spirit to Whom it is 
sent. For the defiled spirit cannot be acknowledged by The 
Holy Spirit, nor the gloomy by the joyful, nor the thralled 
by the free. No one entertaineth an adversary : no one 
admitteth any, save his own compeer. 

XIII. But again what reason is there in entering upon 
Prayer with the hands indeed washed", but the spirit foul.? 
whereas even to the hands spiritual cleanness is necessary, 
that they may be lifted up pure from deceit, from murder, 
from cruelty, from witchcrafts, from idolatry, and the rest of 
those defilements, which, conceived by the spirit, are wrought 
by the operation of the hands. This is the true cleanness, 
not such as most men superstitiously care for, using water 
before all prayer, even to the washing of the whole body. 
This when I scrupulously enquired into, and sought after 
the reason of it, I found it to be a commemoration of the 
delivering up " of the Lord. We adore the Lord, not deliver 
Him up. Nay, we ought even to act contrary to the 
example of him who delivered Him up, and not therefore 
to wash the hands, unless, for conscience sake, we wash 
away the defilement of the conversation of men. 



™ Tho rite of earlv washing before also Baron. Ann. t. i. p- 4.19. 
private prayer is mentioned in the Ap. " by Pilate to be crucified. The cod. 
Constt. 8, 32. of washing the hands Med. adds " Pilatum manus abluisse" 
before public prayer by S. Chrysostom '' a commemoration of Pilate's having 
frequently ; Paalinus, Eusebius, &c. washed his hands, for the delivering up 
see Bingham 8, 3. 6. S. Chrys. also of the Lord" [i. e. with a safe con- 
speaks against it, lite Tert., without science]. It seems a gloss, 
inward purity, (Horn. G in 1 Tm.) -ee 

x2 



008 Superstitions practices of some in prayer, 

De XIV. But the hands are clean enough, which we have 
Orat 
IX. ii,j(^'aslted once° for all, with the whole body, in Christ. 

cf. John Although Israel wash daily in every member, yet is he never 

^ ' ^*^' clean. Surely his hands are ever unclean, stained eternally 

with the blood of the Prophets and of the Lord Himself 

And therefore sinners by inheritance, through consciousness 

cf. Mat. of their fathers, they dare not so much as lift them up unto 

23 31 7 .' i 

Is.'] 15 ^^® Lord, lest some Isaiah cry out, lest Christ shudder. 
But we not only lift them up, but even spread them out, 
modelling them after the Lord's Passion ^, and, while we pray, 
confess Christ. 

XV. But since we have touched upon one point of empty 
ceremony, we shall not think it ill to note the rest also, 
which may justly be upbraided with vanity, if, that is, they 
be done without the authority of any command either of the 
Lord or the Apostles. For such like things are set down 
not to Religion but to superstition, being affected, and 
forced, and pertaining rather to an over-carious, than to a 

Vcom.\2, reasonable service ; certainly to be restrained, if only because 
they level us with the Gentiles. As for instance, it is the 
way with some to make their prayer with their cloaks put 
off, for thus approach the Heathen their idols ''. Which, 
were it meet to be done, the Apostles surely, who teach 
concerning the habit befitting Prayer, would have included, 

2 Tim. unless any think that Paul left his cloak with Carpus during 

' ' prayer. God forsooth may not hear men in their cloaks, 

Who heard three Saints in the furnace of the king of Babylon 

Dan. 3, praying in their coats and their hats ! 

^'- XVI. Moreover I see not clearly the reason why it is the 

custom with some, prayer being concluded, to sit down: 
unless, if that Hennas, whose writing is commonly entitled 
' The Shepherd,' having finished his prayer, had not set 
down upon his bed, but had done something else, we might 
insist on the observance of this also. Surely not : for even 
here " When I had prayed and set down upon my bed"' 
is put simply in the course of narration, not as a 
model of discipline. Otherwise one must pray no where 

'■ See on de Bapt. c. 12. n. i. Her. Digr. 

P See on Apol. c. 30. Naz. Or. iv. 71. ' Herm. Past. 1. 2. Procem. 

'J iEsch. Sept. c. Theb. 98. ap. 



Humility in gesture^ voice, countenance, hejitting prayer. 300 

save where there is a bed : nay one will act contrary 
to the writing', if he sit down on a chair or a bench. 
Moreover seeing that the Heathen do likewise, in sitting 
down after^ praying to their puppets, it deserveth to be 
blamed in tis, were it only that it is observed in the case of 
idols. To this is added a charge of irreverence also, to be 
understood even by the Gentiles, if they had any under- 
standing. If indeed it be irreverent to sit under the eye, 
and directly in the eye, of him, whom thou especially 
reverest and veneratest, how much more exceedingly ir- 
religious is that act under the eye of the Living God, the 
Angel of Prayer still staiiding by, unless we are reproaching Luke 1 
God for that our prayer hath wearied us ! 

XVII. But in praying with modesty and humility, we 
shall the rather commend our prayers unto God, not even 
our hands being lifted up too high, but being lifted up with 
moderation and seemliness ; not even our face being raised 
upward with boldness. For that Publican, who prayed ^uke 
humbled and abased, not only in his prayer but even in 
his countenance, went a,W6,y justijied rather than that most 
impudent Pharisee. Meet it is also that we do it subduing 
the tone of the voice: otherwise of what windpipes have we 
need, if we be heard according to our loudness^'! But not of 



* Scripturse. i. e. the Pastor itself, divinely," Clem. Al. Strom, i. fin. 

uponwhichtheyprofessedtoact. Origen, p. 356. S. Athanasius de Incarn. §. 3. 

in the same way, says, "provided however (though not canonical, de Deer. Nic. 

persons think that writing (scriptura) Syn. ^. 18.) It was read in Churches 

ought to be received," (Horn. 8. in (Eus. H. E. iii. 3.) in the East (S. 

Num.) In a corresponding place, (Hom. Jerome Script. Eccl. Cat.) 
1. in Ps. 37.) he substitutes the word * Pind. Isthm. 6. 81. It was a law of 

" libellus," Hom. 35. in Luc. he has Numa (Plutarch, in vit.) still followed 

" hujusmodi scripturam." S. Irenaeus in Plutarch's time. Id. Qupestt. Rom. 

indeed does quote it as Scripture (iv. 3.) ap. Cotel. ad Herm. see also La Card, 

probably ascribing to it the same degree in Mn. ix. 4. 

of secondary inspiration, as the fathers v " Hence the fathers observe that 

and our homilies do to the Apocryphal the ' loud crying' which the prophets 

books of the Old Testament. It is, in a sent forth to God was not of the lips 

remarkable way, joined with those but the eagerness of the soul." Theo- 

books as of the same character, by doret ap. Murat. add S. Cypr. de Orat. 

Origen de Princ.ii. 1. (where bespeaks c. 2. Basil in Ps. 33, 16. Macarius 

of both as Scripture) iii. 2. in Job. t. 1. Hom. 6. S. Aug. in Ps. 30. Enarr. 4. 

(as " divinely inspired") ; by S. Atha- §, 10. " Loud crying to God is not 

nasius Epist.Fest. 39. t. i. p. 693. ed. with the voice but the heart. Many 

Ben.; Rufinus Expos. Symb. Ap. ; S. silent with their lips have cried aloud 

Jerome Prol. Galeat. In the same with their heart; many, noisy with 

sen«e, it is spoken of as "speaking their lips, could with heart turned away 



310 Kiss of peace ; fasting concealed abroad, known at home, 

De the voice but of the heart is God the hearer, as He is the 
IX. 18. s^^r. The demon of the Pythian oracle" saith, ' I both under- 
stand the dumb, and hear him that speaketh not.' Do the 
ears of God wait for sound } How then could the prayer of 
Jonah from the inmost belly of the whale, through the bowels 
of so great a creature, out of the very bottomless depths, 
through so great a mass of waters, make its way to Heaven ? 
What more shall they gain, who pray more loudly than 
others, save that they stun their neighbours"? Nay, in 
publishing abroad their prayers, what do they less than if 
they should pray in public ? 

XVni. Another custom hath now gained strength. They 
that are fasting, having prayed with their brethren, withdraw 
the kiss of peace, which is the seal of Prayer. For at what 
time should peace rather be exchanged with the brethren, 
than when prayer, the rather thereby commanded, ascendeth 
up, so that they, being made partakers of our deed, may now 
dare to treat with a brother touching their own peace^? What 
prayer is perfect when severed from the holy kiss ? Whom 
doth peace hinder in rendering his service to God? What 
sort of sacrifice is that, from which one retumeth without 
Matt. 6, peace ? Of whatever sort be the action, it will not be better 
^^ than the observance of that precept, wherein we are com- 
manded to have our fasts in secret. For, by abstaining from 
the kiss, we are at once known to be fasting. But even if 
there be any reason in it, yet, that thou be not guilty 
touching this commandment, thou canst at home, if so it 
chance, delay thy peace with those amongst whom it is not 
possible that thy fast should be altogether secret. But in 
what other place soever thou canst hide thy action, thou 
oughtest to remember the commandment: so shalt thou 
satisfy both thy rule abroad, and thy custom at home. So 

obtain nothing. If then thou criest, y i. e. as Herald, explains it (Digr. 
cry within, where God heareth." conip. ii. 3,) that our brethren partaking of the 
in Ps. 3. §. 4. Ps. 4. §. 5. Ps. 5. §. 2. benefit of our prayer (and that, the 
&e. S. Hil. in Ps. 129. §. 2. " Prayer more acceptable to God through fast- 
is intercourse with God. Wherefore ing, coll. S. Cypr. de Orat. c. 27.) 
whether in whisper, or not even open- as sealed to them with the kiss of 
ing the lips, we speak with silence, we peace, may be the more encouraged 
^■ry aloud within." Clem. Al. Strom, to be at peace with others. Operatio 
vii. 7. p. 306. is used of the f.'st immediately after- 

" Herod, i. 47. wards and in the de Jejtin. c, 8. 9. and 

" Cassian, Coll. ix. 34. by S. Cypr. 1. c. 



Fast of Good-Friday, weekly fast of Wednesday and Friday. 3 1 1 

also on the Paschal Day^, on which the strict observance of 
the fast is general, and as it were public, with good cause 
we lay aside the kiss, caring nothing about hiding that, 
which we are doing in common with all. 

XIX. In like manner also most think, that on the days of 
stations ^ they ought not to attend the prayers at the sacri- 
fices, because, when the Body of the Lord hath been re- 



' i. e. of the Passion ; Good-Friday ; 
adv. Jud. c. 10. " the Pascha is the 
Passion of the Lord," the srafr;^;» o-rau- 
^uefiuov as opposed to the •rciffx«- «>"»- 
(rraaifjLQ^ or Easter-Day, see Suicer v. 
'xuffx''- ii. 1. P- 621 sqq. The ynaTua 
Tov faay^a is used also of the whole of 
Passion-week, Constt. Ap. v. 14. Berno, 
c. 7. ap. Murat. assigns the reason 
" we abstain from the kiss on account 
of the act of the traitor Judas, who by 
a kiss of pretended peace betrayed the 
Lord Jesus Christ." Muratori is in- 
clined to infer from this passage and 
the de Jej. c. 2, that the two days of 
the Crucifixion and Burial of our Lord 
were alone observed as fasts in the 
African Church in Tertullian's time. 
But T. himself in the de Jejuniis c. 13. 
attests that " the Catholics" [and this 
must have been not individuals among 
them but the whole Church] " did fast 
besides the Paschal times, beyond those 
days in which the Bridegroom was 
taken away, both interposing the half- 
fasts of the stationary days, and some- 
times living on bread and water, [the \n- 
^o<pa.y\a,'\ as to each seemed good." The 
differences then were, 1. That this fast 
was looked upon as most directly com- 
manded by the Lord; this and Easter 
Even were the days on which the 
Bridegroom was taken away : 2. They 
were stricter fasts, of entire abstinence, 
continuing to the evening, whereas on 
the stationary days, food might be 
taken at 3. (And this falls in with 
T.'s argument here, that the kiss 
seemed to dissolve the fast, as others 
he says in like way imagined that the 
receiving of the Holy Eucharist did 
on the stationary days : so that he 
contemplated a longer and stricter 
fast.) 3. It may have been also that 
persons were left to their own dis- 
cretion, such as omitted to fast being 
free from ecclesiastical censures, whence 
T. in the de Jej. 1. c. goes on to repre- 
sent the Catholics as arguing, '' Lastly 



ye say that this is to be done of choice 
not of command," and replies that 
whether of choice or command, they 
did observe these further fasts, and so 
had nothing to urge against the Mon- 
tanists. " Ye have shifted your ground 
then, by exceeding the tradition, when 
ye observe what has not been ap- 
pointed." Bp. Beveridge has shewn 
that the forty-days of Lent are pre- 
supposed by the Council of Nice, Can. 
5. [and also Can. 1.] were kept in the 
time of S. Athanasius ; were held to be 
an Apostolic institution by Eusebius as 
well as S. Jerome, S. Augustine, S. 
Basil, Theophilus, and S. Cyril Alex. 
&c. ; were accounted by S. Irenseus as 
the accurate way of observing it, and 
also as ancient, (although he also men- 
tions that of keeping one or two days 
only,) and are mentioned by Origen 
(contemporary with T.) Hom. x. in 
Levit. Bev. Can. Cod. 1.3. de Jej.Qua- 
drag. add Bp. G. Hooper, Hist. Ac- 
count of Lent. 

2 The Wednesday and Friday of 
each week, so called from lOJ/Q (see 
Buxt. Lex. Talm. in v.) They are 
alluded to again de Jej. c. 14. in the 
Ap. Can. 69. Hermas Pastor. 1. 3. sim. 
5. S. Clem. Al. Strom, vii. $. 12. p. 
316. Origen Hom. 10 in Lev. ; and 
the Friday c. Cels. 1. viii. 22. Peter 
Alex. Can. 15. Victorinus Mart, de 
Fabr. Mundi. S. Basil, Ep. 289, ad 
Caesar. S. Jerome in Gal. c. 4. S. 
Epiphanius Expos. Fid. Constt. Ap. 
v. 15. vii. 33. S. Aug. Ep. 36 ad 
Casulan. The Holy Communion is 
mentioned to have been celebrated on 
these same days by S. Basil, S. Epi- 
phanius, Prudentius, Cathem. Hymn. 
8. S. Ambrose, Hom. 8. in Ps. 118, 
62. see Bev. 1. c. c. 10. Bingham, 21. 
3. There is perhaps here a trace of 
a wish to lengthen out the fast of these 
days, upon which, as a Montanist, T. 
insisted, de Jej. c. 10. 



312 H. Eucharist breaks not fast — icomen veiled at prayer. 

De ceived, the station must be broken up. Doth then the 
ix!^^ Eucharist break up a service devoted to God ? Doth it not 
the more bind to God ? Will not thy station be the more 
solemn, if thou standest also at the altar of God ? When 
the Body of the Lord hath been received and reserved ", both 
are saved, both the partaking of the sacrifice, and the fulfil- 
ment of the service. If the station taketh its name from the 
2 Tim. 2, model of war, (for we are also the soldiers of God,) surely no 
^' * joy, or sorrow, that cometh upon the camp, cutteth short the 
stations of the soldiers. For joy will the more willingly, 
sorrow the more painfully, attend to discipline. 

XX. But on the single point of the dress of women, the 
variety of observance maketh me act shamelessly in treating 
of it — a man, as T am, so utterly of no account — after the 
most holy Apostle, save that it is not shamelessly, if I treat 
it according to the Apostle. Touching modesty of dress and 
ornament, the rule of Peter is also plain, who forbiddeth with 

1 Tim. 2. the same voice, because with the same Spirit also, as Paul, 
1 Pet 3 ^^^ ^^ ^'^i" gloiy of apparel, and the pride of gold, and 
3. the meretricious pains-taking with the hair. 

XXI. But that which is commonly observed throughout 
the Churches, must needs be treated as a point undeter- 
mined, whether virgins ought to be veiled or no. For they 
who allow virgins to have the head uncovered, seem to lean 
upon this, that the Apostle hath not particularly specified* 

1 Cor. that virgins, but that women should he covered, not the sex, 
^^'^' as though he said * females,' but a class of the sex by saying 
women. For had he named the sex by saying ' females,' he 
would have laid down the rule absolutely for every woman. 
Again, when he nameth one class of the sex, he excepteth, 
by his silence, another. For, say they, he might have named 
either ' virgins' specially, or, by a comprehensive term, 
' females' generally. 

XXII. They who allow this, ought to consider the case 



*> See ad Ux. ii. 5. The Communion be received with less reverence because 

being a daily duty as well as privilege (see with less solemnity, whence probably 

ab.onc. 6. n.z.) the Holy Eucharist was in later and less reverent times, the 

taken home by such as could not come custom was abolished: see Bingham 15, 

to the daily assemblies, that they mi/ht 4. 13. 

partake of it in private. This practice ^ Comp. de Virg. vel. c. 4. 
had the obvious danger that it would 



Virgins included in " loomen'' 1 Cor. 1 1, (i. 313 

of the word itself, what is a ' woman' from the earliest writ- 
ings of the Sacred Records ; for they there find that it is a 
name for the sex, not a class of the sex ; if so be that God 
called Eve, who had not yet known a man, both woman and 
female'^. Wherefore Eve, while yet unmarried, was already Gen. i, 
entitled woman : this title was made common to the virgin " ' ' * 
also. And no wonder, that the Apostle, moved surely by 
the same Spirit by Which, as all Divine Scripture, so also 2 Tim. 
that Book of Genesis was composed, hath, in putting woman, ' 
used the same word which, because of the instance of Eve 
unmarried, belongeth to the virgin also. All the other 
passages moreover sound not like it ^ \ for, by the very fact 
of his not having named virgins, (as in another place ", where 
he teacheth concerning marriage,) he sufficiently declareth 
that the thing is said of every woman, and of the whole sex, 
and that there is no distinction made of the virgin : he dpth 
not name her at all. For he, who elsewhere remembereth 
to make a distinction, to wit when the difference requireth 
it, (and he distinguisheth each class by denoting them by 
their proper titles,) where he distinguisheth not, in not 
naming each, wisheth no difference to be understood. What 
if it be the practice in the Greek language, in which the 
Apostle wrote his letters, to call women as well as females, 
that is yuvaixej, as fiyjXg/ai". Wherefore if this word be often 



<* The words feminam qua sexum turn, et ilia Genesis, may be construed; 
generaliter, mulierem qua gradus but Dr. Routh's neat correction ' with 
sexus specialiter, " ' female' for the the same sense' seems much more pro- 
sex generally, ' woman' for the class bable, cum omnis Scriptura Divina, 
of the sex specially," have been omit- turn et ilia. 

ted, as being probably a gloss, in that ^ i. e. like the idea of virgins being 

in their plainest sense they contradict excepted. [Tr.] 

the context, in which T. is shewing S i. e. since in 1 Cor. 7, 34. where he 

that " mulier" is used of the sex gene- meant to distinguish between a " wo- 

rally. Eve also did not at that time man" (i. e. a wife) and a " virgin," he 

belong to the class, intended by '' mu- names the " virgin;" here, where he 

lier" in its specific sense '^ woman," does not name her, he means no such 

comp. de Virg. vel. c. 5. In the same distinction. 

book c. 4. T. speaks of both as generic h usui est roulieres vocare tarn foe- 

terms, and contrasted with the specific minas id est yuf»7Ktii quam Sn^-i'mt. 

terms, "virgin," "married," "widow." T.'s meaning is clear, that the Greek 

" Naturalevocabulumestfemina. Na- word which the Apostle used, ^t/»^, is 

turalis vocabuli generale mulier. Gene- taken both in the specific sense of a 

ralis etiam speciale, virgo vel nupta, " married woman" and the more gene- 

vel vidua, vel quot etiam jctatis nomina ral " female." But unless he has used 

accedunt." the words vaguely, there must be some 

* quo cum omnis Scriptura divinita- transposition, since mulier and yuih are 



314 " Every woman''' include maidens, as " m«rz" boys. 

De used for the name of the sex, which is by interpretation used 

IX 22 ^°^ ^^^ which is a female, in saying ' yuv^,' he hath named 

the sex. And in the sex the virgin also is touched upon. 

I Cor. But there is also a clear declaration : Every woman, saith 

II 5. .J ' 

he, that prayeth and prophesieth with her head uncovered, 

dishonoureth her head. What is every woman, but of every 

age, of every rank, of every condition ? In saying every, 

he excepteth nothing of ' womankind,' as neither doth he of 

* man' who is not to be veiled, for he saith in like manner 

ver. 4. every man. As therefore, in the male sex, under the name 

of man, the boy also is forbidden to be veiled', so also, in 

the female, under the name of ivoman, the virgin also is 

commanded to be veiled. In either sex equally let the 

younger age follow the rule of the elder: let the virgin 

males too be veiled, if the virgin females be unveiled, for 

neither are these included by name. Let the man and the 

boy be distinct, if the woman and the virgin be distinct. It 

ver. 10. is in truth because of the Angels that he saith they ought to 

Gen. 6, be veiled, since the Angels fell from God ^ because of the 

^* daughters of men. Who then would contend that women 

alone, that is already married, and dead to the virgin state, 

were objects of desire', except it be that virgins cannot 

excel in beauty and find lovers ? Yea, I am considering 

> vide- whether' they did not desire virgins alone, when the Scrip- 

5J"g "® ture saith the daughters of men, because it could have called 

Med. them the wives of men, or women indifferently. That too 

which it saith, And they took them for wives, maketh for 

this, because such are taken for wives, to wit, such as are 

the more specific names, signifying the desit. '' The translator has hazarded the 

married state as well as the sex, conjecture ' viri/ which is in some de- 

foemina and 6rt\uec the more general, gree favoured by an almost identical 

Mur. comments as though it had stood passage, where the words correspond- 

" quam foeminas," " to use the specific ing to ' sicut nee vir nee velandi' are 

term ' mulier' more than ' fcemina,' i. e. ' seque et de viro nee velando.' The 

yvvh more than ^»)Xt/a ;" i. e. to use in words ' nee velandi' may then be 

the general sense of " woman" the term paraphrased ' qui cum vir sit, idcirco 

which is specifically used of the " mar- non velandus est." The form of the 

tied woman,'' 7«vw rather than the more negative is illative as in Soph. Ant. 

general term ^»?X£/a ; which is so. In ;^^^ yuvxlKas tTvai To-ffhi ^»»»5' ant/^Uxi .' ' 

the de Virg. vel. c. 5. T. says, " The [Tr.j 

Greelcs, who more [than we] use the ^ gee on Apol. c. 22. n. c. de Virg. 

word mulier, yi/v«, of a wife." vel. c. 7. 

* The MS. h<'is Nihil mulieris exci- ' " concupiscentifp" rendered as 

pit, dicendo omnis, sicut nee vir [viri] though it were '' e.sse concupisc." 
nee velandi ; proinde enim ' omnis vir' 



Virgins included in 1 Cor. II, 14; 'icomen all adult females. 315 

free: whereas it would have expressed it otherwise con- 
cerning such as are not free. They are free then as well 
through widowhood as through virginity ; and so, by calling 
the sex generally daughters, it hath also mixed together the 
species in the genus. Also when he saith that nature itself^ Cor. 
teacheth that women should be veiled, in that it hath given 15] " 
hair to women for a covering and an ornament, hath not the 
same covering and the same glory of the head been assigned 
to virgins also } If it be a shame for a woman to be shoj-n, ver. 6. 
it is equally so for a virgin"'. For those therefore, to whom 
one condition of the head is reckoned, one law also for the 
head is required, even for those virgins, whom their child- 
hood excuseth, for from the first she is called a female. 
Finally, Israel also thus observeth the law". But if he 
observed it not, our lavv^ enlarged and completed, would 
justify itself in the addition, in imposing the veil on virgins 
also. Let now that age be excused, which knoweth not its 
own sex : let it keep the privilege of its simplicity. For 
both Adam and Eve, when knowledge came to them, forth- 
with made coverings for themselves, because they had come 
to know. Yet surely in those, in whom childhood hath ^^^- ^' 
passed away, age ought to fulfil its duty, as to Nature, so 
also to Discipline. For both in their bodies and their 
functions they are transferred to the class of women. None 
is a virgin from the time when she is able to marry, since 
age, in her, hath already married its own husband, that is, 
time. But ' some one hath devoted herself to God.' Forth- 
with from that moment she both refashioneth her hair, and 
changeth all her dress to the way of women". Let her 
therefore assert the whole character, and perform the whole 
part of a virgin. That which she hideth for the sake of 
God, let her completely cover over. It concerneth us to 
commend that, which the grace of God worketh, to the 
knowledge of God alone, lest we get from man the amends 
which we hope from God. Why barest thou before God 
what thou hidest before men .? Wilt thou be more bashful 
in the public way than in the Church } If it be the grace 

of Godj and thn?t didst recfirr if, fvht/ dost thou f/lor»/^ saith 1 Cox. 

4, 7. 

^" Comp. fie Viig. vei. c. 7. ° i- t- the matronly habit, iiustead of 

^ See de Cor. c. 4. de Virg. vel. c. I ) • the flowing locks of the unmarried. 



3 1(3 Consecrated virgins to he veiled, as married to Christ, 

15e he, as if thou hadst not received it ? Why, by vaunting of 
IX. 22. thyself, dost thou judge others ? Dost thou, by thy glorying, 
invite others to good .? Nay, but thou thyself art in peril of 
losing it, if thou gloriest, and thou drivest others upon the 
same perils. That is easily plucked away, which is taken 
up through vain-glorious display. Be veiled, O virgin, if 
virgin thou art, for thou oughtest to be ashamed. If thou 
art a virgin, subject not thyself to many eyes. Let none 
wonder at thy face: let none discover thy feint. Thou 
feignest well the married woman, if thou veilest thy head. 
Nay, thou art not thought to feign, for thou hast wedded 
Christ P.- to Him thou hast delivered up thy body. Act 
according to the rule of thy Husband. If He commandeth 
the married of others to be veiled, much more surely His 
own. But let no man think that she ought to be influenced 
by the rule of a predecessor''. Many' surrender to the 
custom of others their own sober judgment, and the strict- 
ness of it, so far as that these should not be compelled to 
be veiled. In any case it is fit that they who are so ' of their 
own accord be not prevented, who now cannot deny them- 
selves to be virgins, content to be misrepresented in the 
report of them, through the confidence of their conscience 
before God. Nevertheless as touching those who are 
assigned to their betrothed husbands', I can affirm and 
testify resolutely, above vay measure, that they ought to 
be veiled from that day on which they trembled at the 



P See de vel. Virg. c. 3. 9. 11. 16. mean nothing more than some indi- 

ad Ux. i. 4. de Exh. Cast. fin. de Res. vidual Bishop who preceded. 

Cam. e. 8. de Monog. c. 13. S. Am- "^ multi. Many, who have the power 

brose remarks on the number of conse- of regulating, i. e. the Bishops, give up 

crated virgins in Africa and the East, their own better judgment to a con- 

de Virginit. c. 7. §. 36. " Learn how trary practice. 

many the Church of Alexandria and ^ i. e. veiled; at least, virgins, who 
of the whole East and Africa is wont take the better course should not be 
to consecrate yearly. Fewer of the hindered. So Dr. E.outh. Mur. under- 
human race are born here, than vir- stands by " voluntarise" " they who of 
gins are consecrated there," see on their own accord are virgins," which 
S. Aug. Conf. viii. 16. n. p. he explains to be such as are neither 

1 T. has the same argument on the married in the world or to Christ, but 

same subject in the de Virg. vel. c. 1. were waiting for earthly marriage ; 

where he contends (in favour of the but these are less " voluntarise" than 

Montanist revelations) that the arti- those they are supposed to be opposed 

cles of the Creed alone are immutable, to, those who of tiirir own will remain 

in all other points, improvement is ad- virgins altogether, 

missible, prescription no argument of ^ De Virp:. vel. c. 11. 
truth. " Antecessoris" however need 



nmi- 
nicae 



No prayer kneeling at Easter and Pentecost ; on fast-days^ all. 3 1 7 

first bodily touch of a man, in the kiss and the right hand. 
For in them, all hath already married, age through ripeness, 
and flesh through age, and spirit through consciousness, and 
modesty through trial of the kiss, and hope through expecta- 
tion, and mind through will. And Rebecca is sufficient 
instance for us, who, her spouse being shewn her, veiled 
herself, married by the mere knowledge of him. 

XXIII. As touching kneeling also, Prayer is subjected to 
a variation in the observance, through certain, a scanty few, 
who keep from their knees on the Sabbath ". Which dis- 
agreement being exceedingly criminated in the Churches, 
the Lord will give grace that they may either yield, or hold 
their own opinion without offence to others. But we, as we 
have received, ought, on the day of the Lord's^ Resurrection i d 
alone, to keep from not only that', but every posture of pain- ^^^ 
fulness, and to forbear offices, deferring even our business, Med. 
that we give no place to the Devil. Equally in the Epl». 4, 
period of Pentecost also, which is expended in the same"^'' 
solemnity of rejoicing ^. But on every day who would 
hesitate to prostrate himself before God at least in that first 
prayer, with which we enter upon the dawn ? But on the 
Fasts and Stations no prayer must be observed without 
kneeling, and the other usual modes of humiliation. For 

we are not only praying, but deprecating, and making satis- 
faction unto God our Lord. Concerning the times of prayer 
there is nothing prescribed at all, save simply, to pray Luleis, 
always and every ivhere. i Tim 

XXIV. But how every where, when we are forbidden 2, 8. 
in public ? Every where, he saith, where opportunity, or 
even necessity, hath given occasion. For it is not accounted 

an act contrary to the commandment in the Apostles, who in 

the prison prayed and sang to God, the prisoners hearing \as \6, 

25. 

° Joann. Monach. Canonarium ap. which however is a mistake. 
Morinus de Poenit. " On all sabbaths, ^ see de Cor. c. 3. 
Lord's Days, and festivals of the Lord, X The MS. has " pentecostes quae 

and the twelve days, and likewise eadem exultationis solemnitateni dis- 

during the days from Easter to All- pungimur." This being corrupt. Dr. 

Saints, not to kneel in prayer," and in Routh's slight change has been adopted, 

the Jur. Gr. Rom. 1. 3. de Luc. Patri- " solemnitate dispungitur." Muratori's 

arch. §. 9. ap. Murat. " The Apostolic is less neat, " q, e. ex. solemnitas est, 

Canons punish whoso kneels or fasts on dispungimus." 
any Sabbath or on the Lord's day," 



318 Prayer thrice a day to the Trinity^ beside morning and evening. 

De them; in the case of Paul, who in the ship celebrated 

IX. 26.^^^ Eucharist in the presence of all. 

Acts 27, XXV. But as touching the time, the outward^ observance 

'^^' of certain hours besides will not be idle : I mean of those 
common ones, which mark the divisions of the day, the third, 
the sixth, the ninths which we may find more solemnized 
than the rest in the Scriptures. The first pouring of the 

Acts 2, Holy Spirit on the assembled disciples was at the third hour. 
Peter on the day, in which he experienced the vision of 

Acts 10, every sort of common thing in that vessel, had gone up into 
the housetop to pray at the sixth hour'^. He again, with 

ActsS, I.John, went into the temple at the ninth hour, when he 

ver. 16. restored the paralytic to his soundness. And though they 
stand simply without any precept for their observance, yet 
let it be thought good to establish any sort of presumption, 
which may both render more strict the admonition to pray, 
and, as it were by a law, force us away sometimes from our 
business to this service, (even as we read was the custom of 
Daniel also'', according, no doubt, to the rule of Israel,) that 
so we should pray at least not seldomer than three times a 
day, we who are debtors to the Three ^, the Father, and the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost, exclusive, that is, of the regular 
prayers, which are due, without any admonition, at the 
beginning of day and night''. But it becomelh the faithful 
neither to take food, nor to go to the bath, without first inter- 
posing a prayer. For the refreshment and food of the spirit 
must be esteemed before those of the flesh, and the things of 
Heaven before those of earth. 

XXVI. A brother, that hath entered thine house, dismiss 

cf. Mat. not without a prayer. ' Thou hast seen,' saith He, ' thy 
10,40. ^ ^ ^ 

^ as contrasted with the inward ^ i.e. even under the Old Testament; 

" praying always," end of c. 23. Maimon. de Free, et Bened. Sacerd. 

» see de Jejun. c. 10. S. Cypr. de c. 1. (Yad Chazaka lib. T\'2r\)!< §. 2.) 

Orat. Dom. Constt. Ap. vm. 24. Clem, speaks of them as an institution of 

Al. Strom, vii. 7. p. 306. S. Basil Reg. E^j-a. On sabbaths and other festivals, 

Fus. Tract. Int. 37. S. Jerome, Ep. they were four times a day; on the 

107. ad Lset. $. 9. day of Atonement, five. 

b S. Cypr. 1. c. also as the hour of ; Trium added from Cod. Med. The 

the Crucifixion, Id. 1. c. Const. Ap. observationofthe third, sixth, and ninth 

"^'"- ^'*- hours in honour of the Blessed Trinity 

^- S. Basil, Reg. Fus. Tract. Int. 37. ig mentioned by S. Cypr. 1. c. 
also as the hour of the Death of our i g Cvpr de Orat. c ult 
Lord, Const. Ap. 1. c. S. Cypr. 1. c. 



Sf.rangci's to be greeted with prayer — prayer a sacrifice. 819 

brother: Ihou hast seen thy Lords.' Specially a stranger, W^hAi, 
lest perchance he be an angel. But neither do thou, when'"'* 
thyself entertained by the brethren'', * put earthly refresh- 
ments before heavenly.' For straightway thy faith will be 
judged. Or how wilt thou say, according to the command- 
ment, Peace be to this house, unless thou interchangest peace Lnkeio, 
with those also, who are in the house ? 

XXVII. The more diligent in praying are wont in their 
prayers to subjoin Alleluia, and Psalms of that class*, in 
the closing words of which those present respond. And 
most excellent, surely, is every custom, which by setti7igP^A6,8. 
God before^ us and honouring Him, helpeth to bring unto 
Him, as our best victim, a well-enriched prayer. 

XXVIII. For this is the spiritual victim which hath 
abolished the former sacrifices. To what purpose, saith He, is. i, 
is the multitude of your sacrijices unto Me ? / am full of 
the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs, and I will 
not have the blood of bulls and he-goats. For ivho hath 
required these things at your hands .^ What therefore God 
hath required, ihe Gospel teacheth. The hour shall come, 5o\\n^, 
saith He, whe)t the true worshippers shall worship the'^^''^^' 
Father in spirit and in truth. For God is a Spirit, and 
therefore He seeketh such to worship Him. We are the true 
worshippers, and the true priests, who praying in spirit, 

in spirit would offer up the prayer of God, His own and 
acceptable, as that which He hath required, which He hath 
provided for Himself. This, devoted from the whole heart, 
fed by Faith, adorned by Truth, through innocence un- 

s S. Clem. Alex, quotes the same M. Ep. 1. ix. Ind. 2. Ep. 62. 

words with the formula <pttir), Strom, i. ^ Et est optimum utique institutum 

18. p. 136. ed. Sylb. xii. 16. p. 168. omne, quod proponendo et honorando 

Grabe supposes the allusion to be to Deo, competit saturatam orationem — 

Ex. 4, 16. Abp. Potter to Gen. 33, 10. admovere, i. e. the use of the Alleluia 

or some apocryphal book. or the Alleluiatic Psalms, as a sub- 

*» Dr. Routh's corrections " excep- ordinate part of de-votion, are yet excel- 

tus" for " exemtis," and " feceris" for lent, in so far as they contribute, by 

" fecerit," have been adopted. setting God before us, to devouter 

> Psalmi Alleluaticiji. e. those which prayer. The construction however of 

close with the word Alleluia, a.s Ps. " compete" with an inf. wants au- 

104 106. 113. 115—118. 135. 146 — thority. Muratori then stops " Deo 

150. They were obviously used at competit," in the sense " and most 

Festivals, forbidden in Fasts. On their excellently truly does any rite, which 

use in different Churches, see Bingham, contributes to set God before us, and 

14-. 2. 4. The use of the " alleluia" in honour Him, serve to bring Him," &c. 

the Communion Service came to Rome making " admovere" to depend on " op- 

from the Church of Jerusalem, S. Greg, timum est." 



3*20 Prayer in 0. T, frees from ^ inflicts^ ill; in N. bears ill, does good. 

De blemished, through chasteness clean, crowned by Love — we 
IK^^4 ought to lead up to the altar of God, amid Psalms and 
Hymns, with the (rain of good works, for that it shall obtain 
for us all things from God. 

XXIX. For what hath God, Who requireth it, denied to 

the prayer that cometh of spirit and truth? We read, and 

we hear, and we believe how great are the proofs of its 

efficacy. Ancient Prayer indeed was wont to deliver both 

from fires, and from beasts, and from famine : and yet it had 

not received its form from Christ. But how much more 

largely doth the Christian Prayer — not place the angel of the 

Sonor of moist wind in the midst of the fires, nor shut the lions' 

Cbif- tnouths, nor carry over to the hungry the dinner of the 

dren countrymen, nor by a deputed grace turn aw^ay any sense of 

Dan^ 6, suffering, but — furnish with patience men while suffering, and 

^2- feeling, and grieving; enlarge grace through virtue, that 

the Dra- Faith may know what it obtaineth of the Lord, by under- 

|on 33. standing what it suffereth for the Name of God. Moreover, 

in time past. Prayer was wont to bring down plagues, rout 

James5,the armies of enemies, hinder the blessing of rain. But now 

the prayer of righteousness tumeth aside all the wrath of 

Mat. 5, God, keepeth watch for enemies, entreateth for persecutors. 

'*'*• Is it wonderful that that knoweth how to wrest the waters* 

2 Kings from Heaven, which could obtain even its fires } It is 

^' *"• Prayer alone which overcometh God. But Christ hath 

determined that it worketh no ill. All its power He hath 

bestowed on it from good. Wherefore it knoweth nothing, 

save to call back the souls of the departed from the very 

pathway of death, to recover the weak, heal the sick, cleanse 

Acts 16, those possessed by devils, open the gates of the prison, loose 

25. 26. the bands of the guiltless. It is this which washeth away 

sins, repelleth temptations, quencheth persecutions, com- 

forteth the weak-hearted, rejoiceth the strong of heart, 

bringeth home travellers, stilleth the weaves, confoundeth 

robbers, feedeth the poor, guideth the sick,raiseth the fallen, 

supporteth the stumbling, keepeth fast them that stand ■". 

Prayer is the wall of Faith, our armour and weapons against 

' See Apol. c. 5. p. J 3. and note z. weak-hearted, to raise up them that 
'" comp. Litany, " to strengthen such fall." 
as da stand, to comfort and help the 



All Creation prays ; even our Lord prayed as Man. S2l 

man", who watcheth us on every side. Wherefore never let 
us walk unarmed. By day let us remember our station, by 
night our watch. Under the arms of prayer let us guard 
the standard of our Captain : in Prayer let us await the 
trumpet of the Angel". Even the Angels pray all. Every 
creature prayeth. The cattle and the wild beasts pray, and 
bend their knees, and going forth from their stalls and dens 
look up to Heaven, not listless ^ with their mouth, with 
quivering effort to move it with their own breath. Nay, 
even the birds, now as they soar, lift up themselves to 
Heaven, and stretch out the cross of their wings for hands, 
and utter somewhat, which may seem a prayer. What more 
then of the duty of Prayer ? Even the Lord Himself hath 
prayed "", to Whom be honour and power for ever and ever. 



" Muratori supposes this may mean a vere os suum spiritu suo. [Tr.] so 

persecuting Emperor; Oberthur's con- Muratori, if the text be sound, " co- 

jecture " hostem," i. e. Satan, for "ho- nantes spiritu suo ora ad laudendum 

minem" (except as an easier reading) Deum atque orandummovere," or taken 

is more probable, coll. S. Cypr. de as an asyndeton, " beating [the air] 

Zelo et liv. init. with their breath [spirit] they move 

° by night. onward," " the sending forth their 

P otiosi ore perhaps otiosiores, Tr. breath," corresponds with what he says 

Muratori proposes otioso or otiosee, a of " the birds uttering somewhat like 

fem. having preceded. prayer;" " movere" may stand con- 

1 vibrantes spiritu suo movere, sc. trasted with " egredientes." In either 

OS or caelum, " movere," depending case, T. interprets first the action of 

upon " vibrantes" as an Hellenism. As the animals, then their voice; " spiritxi" 

the mouth of the Christian is moved by is chosen probably as a purposely strong 

the Holy Spirit, so the animal makes a word, comp. Eccl. 3, 21. 

sort of quivering effort, (vibrantes) mo- "■ S. Cypr. 1. c. c. 19. 



Note n. p. 298. 

The Divine Nature of our Lord is called " the Spirit"' by many of tlu" 
fathers, not as confusing Him with God the Holy Ghost, but because " God 
is a Spirit." Again, God the Word took unto Him the human nature, and 
became flesh, through the Operation of the Holy Ghost, so that the man 
Christ Jesus was bom, it may he said, by the Word through the Holy 
Ghost. Thirdly, we are told in the Old Testament that " the Word of the 
Lord came" to the Prophets, as well as that they " spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost ;"' and these are both united in the words, " the 
Spu-it of Christ which was in them ;" so that the fathers spake indifferently 
of the Word or the Spirit speaking in or by the Prophets. Fourthly, the 

y 



S22THESpiRiT,oiirLorcrsDii'ine,opposedtoHishuma7ifNature 

Notes word may have been chosen purposely in order to express the Consuh- 
ON i)E stantiality of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity '. Under some of these 

heads fall the different passages '>, in which the fathers speak of the Divine 

Nature of our Lord being " a'' or *' the Spirit." 

1. Thus it is used of a " Spiritual Nature," as opposed to flesh, by 
S. Ignatius (Ep. ad Smyrn. Init. p. 34. see Bull def. Fid. Nic. i. 2. 5.) " in 
the immaculate Spirit, the Word of God, greeting," and S. Hermas, (Simil. 
3. §. 5. p. 105. ib. and ii. 2. 3.) " The Son is the Holy Spirit," [i. e. the 
Divine Nature,] but the servant [the human nature] " is the Son of God;" 
and S. Barnabas, (c. 7- p. 21. ib.) " Since He was about to offer up for our 
sins the vessel of the Spirit," i. e. His human nature. S. Clement Rom. 
(Ep. 2. §. 9. p. 187. ib. ii. 3. 5.) « being Spirit, He became flesh." Tatian, 
c. 7. " That Heavenly Word, having been begotten a Spirit of the Father, 
and being the Word from the Power of the Word, made man the image of 
immortality." S. Iren. (5. 1. 2.) " For if, not being man. He seemed man. 
He neither remained what He in truth was. Spirit of God, (Uvtv/utu, 0s*«.) since 
the Spirit is invisible," and (§. 3.) " In the end, the Word of God and 
Spirit of God, united with the ancient substance of the formation of Adam, 
formed a living and perfect Man, receiving the perfect Father." S. Athanas. 
(de Incarn. Christi ap. Prsef. Bened. ad Hil. §. 63.) " God the Word is a 
Spirit," and the author of the " de Communi Essentia Patris et Fil. et Sp. 
S. (§. 49. ap. Athanas. T. 2. p. 26. ib.) " Christ Himself calleth the Divinity 
of the Word Holy Spirit, (as He said to the Sapiaritan woman that God is 
a Spirit,) but His humanity the Son of man;" and S. Greg. Naz. (Or. 45. 
ol. 42. §. 9.) " And God coming forth with that He had taken, was One out 
of two contraries, flesh and Spirit, whereof One deified, the other was 
deified:" and S. Hilary, (de Trin. ix. 14.) " Who when He had emptied 
Himself that remaining the Spirit Christ He the Same might be the man 
Christ:" and Gregory de Fide Orthod. (c. 8. ap. S. Ambr. App. T. 2. p. 355. 
quoted by S. Aug. Ep. 148. §. 10.) " when He deigned to put on man. He 
brought not corruption into His Eternal Nature, so as to change Spirit into 
flesh." The author of the de Mont. Sina et Sion adv. Jud. ap. Cypr. §. 3. 
" On which Mount [Sion] the Holy Spirit, the Son of God." To tliis class 
belongs, in Tertullian himself, Apol. c. 21. and adv. Prax. c. 27. and adv. 
Marc. iii. 6. " unwilling to admit that heretofore also the Word and Spirit, 
i. e. The Christ of the Creator, was despised by them. — For if thou deniest 
not that the Son and Spirit and Essence of the Creator is His Christ," &c. 
adv. Prax. c. 14. " For we say that the Son also was in Himself so far 
invisible, as the Word and Spirit of God:" and c. 27. "Of these Jesus con- 
sisted, of flesh as man, of Spirit as God, Whom then the Angel, in that He 



* Bp. Ball refers to Holy Scripture Marc. 2, 8. (who observes that this way 

itself for the Divine Nature in Christ of speaking was continued even after 

being spoken of as " the Spirit," Mark the Arian and Macedonian heresies, as 

2, 8. Rom. 1,3. 4. 1 Tim. 3, 16. Heb. bv Phcebadius and Epiphanius,) the 

9, 14. 1 Pet. 3, 18—20. John 6, 63. Benedictine Editors of S. Hilary, Prsef. 

coll. 56. [add 1 Cor. 15, 45.] §. 57 sqq. p. xviii — xx. and Bp. Kaye, 

^ The following passages are chiefly Tertullian, and Justin Martj-r. 
supplied by Bp. Bull, 1. c. Grotiu.s ad 



His human nature horn from the Word and the Spirit. 328 

was Spirit, declared the Son of God, reserving to the flesh to he called the 
Son of man. — Thou who explainest the Son of God of the flesh, say who is 
the Son of man: or, will He he Spirit? hut thou wiliest that the Spirit 
is the Father Himself; hecause God is a Spirit, as though there were not 
also a Spirit of God, as God is the Word and there is the Word of God," 
de Came Christi, c. 18. " If He had flesh as well as Spirit, when He pro- 
nounces (Joh. 3, 6.) as to the nature of the two suhstances, which Himself 
also hears. He cannot seem to have ruled as to His Spirit, and not as to 
His flesh. So then, since He is of the Spirit of God, and God is a Spirit, 
and He is God, horn of God, He is also of the flesh of man, horn man in 
the flesh." S. Greg. Nyss. also says, (Orat. 2. c. Eunom. t. 2. p. 485. ap. 
Bull i. 2. 5,) " To the Father and the Son alike is the title both of * The 
Spirit' and of ' The Holy,' adapted by Holy Scripture ; for ' God is a 
Spirit,' and * The Spirit before our face is Christ the Lord,' (Lam. 4, 20.) 
and ' The Lord God is holy,' and there is * One holy, One Lord Jesus 
Christ,' " &c. 

2. The second chief class is where the Word is said to be cause of the 
bu-th of the Man Christ Jesus, as Holy Scripture itself says, " The Word 
became flesh" by taking it, or " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and 
the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee;" and these must be one 
and the same; whence diflferent fathers suppose that by the " Holy Spirit" 
in S. Luke also is meant the Word, or by this the Third Person, and the 
Second by the " Power of the Highest," our Lord being called "the Power 
of God," 1 Cor. 1, 24. 

Thus Justin M. (Apol. i. 33.) " That Spirit and that Power from God 
we may not conceive of as any thing else than the Word :" and Hermas, 
1. c. §, 6. " That Holy Spirit, which was infused first of all in the body, 
in which God should dwell;" and perhaps S. Ireneeus (5. 1.3.) " not willing 
to understand that the Holy Spirit came to Mary and the Power of the 
Highest overshadowed her, wherefore also what was born is holy and 
the Son of the Most High God, the Father of all, Who operated His 
Incarnation and set forth a new generation." Tertullian himself (according 
to the right reading cum virgo Maria a Verbo Dei prsegnans) says, " When 
the Virgin Mary was found with child from the Word of God," (adv. Jud. 
c. 12.) as Zeno (1. 2. Tr. 9. 1.) " Mary conceives of Him Whom she bears;" 
and (1. 2. Tr. 8.) " the womb of Mary is enlarged not with seed but with 
the Word;" and on the text in S. Luke, (adv. Prax. c. 26.) " this Spirit 
of God will be the Word. For as when John saith, ' the Word was made 
flesh,' we understand the ' Spirit' also, when the * Word' is mentioned, so 
here also we acknowledge the Word also, under the Name of the Spirit." 
S. Cyprian (de Idol. Van. §. 6. p. 19. Oxf. Tr.) " He enters into the Virgin 
and puts on flesh, being the Holy Spirit." S. Hilary, (do Trin. ii. 20.) " The 
Holy Spirit coming from above sanctified the Virgin's womb, and breathing 
therein (' for the Spirit breatheth where it listeth') mingled Itself with the 
nature of human flesh." S. Gregory, (ap. Ambr. 1. c. p. 356.) " Thou seest 
that the Spirit, i. e. the Son of God, came to the Virgin, and came forth 
thence Son of God and of man." The same doctrine (though not in the 

Y -2 



324 Xt^ The Spirit, as inspiring prophetSyConsuhstantial with 

Notes same words) is contained in S. Athanasius (de Incarn. §. 8.) " He, being 
ON De powerful and Creator of all, formeth for Himself as a Temple, a body in 

^the Virgin." Probably from tbe same passage Tbeophilus of Antioch 

speaks of" the Word" being " the Spirit of God, and the Beginning, and 
the Wisdom, and the Poiver of the Highest.'''' (ad Aut. ii. 10.) 

3. Justin M. speaks indifferently of the inspiration of the Prophets as 
derived from the hoyos or from the Holy Spirit, — the S.oyes Apol. i. 33. and 
35, joining ifJi,'ri<rvivfffji.ivoi. and Kivovvroi Qttev Aoyeu, Apol. ii. 10. Dial. ^. 49. 
87. the Holy Spirit, ib. §. 25. 32. 52. 55, &c. In like way Tertullian, adv. 
Marc. iv. 33. " For since in Esaias even then Christ, being the Word and 
Spirit of the Creator, had foretold of John," iii. 6. " We being certain, 
that Christ always spake in the prophets, being the Spirit of the Creator, 
as the prophet attests, " the Spirit of His Person, Christ the Lord," &c. 
and 16, " For Who spake but the Spirit of the Creator which is Christ?" 
add S. Cyprian de Orat. Dom. init. p. 177, Oxf. Tr. 

4. The title seems to have been chosen to express the Consubstan- 
tiality of the Father and the Son. Thus S. Ambrose de Fil. Div. c. 5. 
(ap. Murat.) " But this is the meaning of the Name, that you may 
believe an Unity of Substance in the Father and the Son, although you 
cannot explain the thing itself which is unutterable ; so that whether you 
say Light of Light, or Word of Word, or Spirit of Spirit, or Lord of Lord, 
whatever you may say of Him, you may believe the Father and Sou of One 
Essence." And S. Epiphanius (Hser. 73. §. 18.) •*' Wherefore through the 
Epistle to the Philippians, he taught us how the Person of the Son is 
like to the Person of the Father. For He is a Spirit of the Father. Yet 
not the same but like, because the Spirit, which the Son is, is not the 
Father." In like way S. Ireneeus (2. 48. [28. 5] ib.) speaks of the title, 
" the Word," as in some way belonging to the Father. " God existing all 
as Mind, and existing all as Word, what He thinks that He also speaks, 
and what He speaks that He also thinks. For His thought is Word and 
Word Mind, and the all- containing Mind, that is the Father." Again, in 
speaking of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, it is not unusual with them to 
insist on the title " Spirit" being applied to the Three Persons; to The 
Father, John iv. 24; to The Son, Lam. iv. 40. So S. Cyril, Jems. Cat. 
xvii. 34. S. Basil c. Eunom. iii. 3. de Sp. S. c. 19 init. S. Cyril Alex. 
Thes.xiii.c. 1. Anastas. Sinait. de Rect. Fid. dogm. Bibl. Patr. t. i. p. 298. 
ed. de La Bigne, quoted by Ruyz, 1. c. Disp. 65. S. 2. §. 2. 

Note I. on e. iv. p. 302. 

The fathers, after the Council of Nice also, often speak of The Son as 
the BevXh, Voluntas, of The Father, chiefly in answer to the sophism of 
Eunomius, that The Son was begotten with or without the will of The 
Father; if without, this would subject The Father to necessity; if with, 
then that will of The Father preceded The Son, and He was not coeternal. 
The fathers answered (among other things) that Himself was the Will of 
The Father. Thus S. Athanas. Orat. 2. §. 2. " If the Father hath a will. 



The Father— The Son the Living Will of the Father. 3-25 

and His will is effective, and His will sufficeth to the being of things 
which receive being, but the Word is Effective and Creator, it hath no 
doubt that He is the Hving Will of The Father and His Substantial 
Energy, and true Word, in Whom all things have their being and are 
well-ordered." And Orat. 3. §. 61. (ap. Petav. de Trin. 6. 8. 14.) that the 
Will of The Father is in The Son, according to that, " ' Of His will begat 
He us in the Word of truth.' Therefore the Will of God, as to all things 
whether formed once for all or regenerated, is in the Word, in Whom He 
maketh and regenerateth what He hath determined. And this the Apostle 
signifies again, (1 Thess. 5, 14.) ' This is the Will of God in Christ Jesus 
towards you.' But if His Will also is in Him, in Whom He maketh, how 
can He Himself also be in will and choice? For if He also, as ye say, is 
in Will, the Will concerning Him must needs be in some other Word, by 
Whom Himself also is, for it hath been shewn that the Will of God is not 
in things created, but in Him in Whom and through Whom all created 
things are." And more explicitly §. 63. " Being the Very Word of the 
Father, He excludeth any act of Will {(iovktjcns^ before Himself, being 
Himself the living Will (BowX^) of the Father, and Power and Worker 
of what seemeth good to the Father. And this Himself saith of Himself 
in Proverbs ; ' Coimsel (Bevxh) is Mine and safety; Mine is wisdom. Mine 
also strength !' For as. Himself being * Wisdom,' in which He ' prepared 
the heavens' and Himself being ' strength' and power, (for Christ is ' the 
Power of God, and the Wisdom of God,') He saith here, altering it a 
little, ' Mine is prudence. Mine also strength.' So when He saith, 
* Mine is Counsel,' it is that He is the Living Counsel of the Father, 
as also we have learnt from the prophet, that He was called the ' Angel of 
mighty Counsel' (Is. 9. 6. LXX) and the Will of the Father." And 
S. Greg. Nyss. Or. 12. c. Eunom. t. 2. p. 773, quoted by Petav. 6. 8. 21. 
" Hath The Father willed any thing, The Son also being in The Father, 
hath seen the will of The Father, yea rather Himself was the Will of The 
Father, For He Who hath all the things of The Father in Himself, there 
is nothing of The Father's, which He hath not ; But if He hath in 
Himself all the things of The Father, yea rather hath The Father 
Himself also, assuredly with The Father and the things of the Father, 
He hath in Himself the whole will of The Father." S. Aug. de Trin. xv. 
20. (ib. §. 21.) " Some, to avoid calling the Only-Begotten Word the Son 
of the Counsel or the Will of God, have said that the same Word is 
Himself the Counsel or Will of The Father. Better in my judgment to 
call Him Counsel of Counsel, and Will of Will, like as Substance of 
Substance, Wisdom of Wisdom ; lest according to that absurdity which we 
have already refuted, the Son be said to make The Father to have wisdom 
and will, if The Father have not in His own substance wisdom or will ;" 
which was followed by the Council of Toledo (A.D. 633), who said that 
<' The Son is Will of Will" and that " secundum essentiam Voluntas 
genuit Voluntatem. Faustinus (c. Arian. c. 1. Bibl. PP. t. iv. ib.) " It is 
then piously said that the Son is the Will of The Father, as He is also 
' the Wisdom of God'— what is the Will of God, but the Wisdom of God? 



326 The Son is and hath the Will of Tfie Father. 

Notes For in God Will is not one thing, Wisdom another." S. Cyril Alex. 
Chil^r^ Thes. Ass. 7. t. 5. c. 1. p. 51. " If then the Word Who is in and of The 

'- Father is the wisdom and power of The Father, He it is in Whom 

He willeth, and through Whom He worketh all things, how then was He 
begotten by will, in Whom the will of The Father is? For we must 
either feign another Wisdom, as ye say, or if there is no other, hut He 
alone is the Wisdom of the Father, then He is the Will (fiovXr^tris) also. 
For the Will of God is in Wisdom," p. 55. (ap. Petav. de Trin. 2. 5. 9.) 
" He had not then His being by will, as created things, but He was, as 
the WiU of The Father, in Him, being the very Essence of Him Who 
begat Him ;" and de Trin. Dial. 5. ib. p. 555. '< If then the will {Sixriffti) 
be in these different things, and no right-minded person could think that 
it was thus with the Divine Nature, the Father is not Will, but being 
conceived of in His own Essence, hath His own Son, as His Coessential 
and Coeternal Will;" add Marius Victorinus (1. 1. adv. Arium. Bibl. Patr. 
t. 4. col. 200. 212. ap. Petav. 6. 8. 2.) S. Ambrose (de Fide, v. 17. §. 224. 
ib. §. 21.) prefers the form that the Son hath the Will of the Father; 
" Neither did Will nor Power precede The Son; for in what is He 
inferior. Who hath all things which The Father hath? For He both 
received all things from The Father by virtue of the Generation, and 
expresseth The Father wholly by the glory of His Majesty." 

Muratori, who cites or alludes to the above, (out of Petavius,) adds 
S. Clement, Origen, [ap. Pamph. Apol. pro. Orig. t. iv. p. 34. ed. de la 
Rue.] S. Jerome. Petavius himself cites also Cerealis (lib. adv. Max. c. 9. 
Bibl. PP. t. 4.) inferring thence, that The Father is neither greater nor 
anterior to The Son, " since The Father could not be without WiU."' 
Ruyz in 1 S. Thomae (from whom Petavius drew largely) adds Qusestt. 
ad Orthod. ap. Just. M. q. 144. (Disp. 8. s. 7. n. 16.) Damascen. de Fide 
i. 18. (ib. n. 19.) Greg. Bsetic. de Trin. (Disp. 58. s, 5, n. 14.) 



OF PATIENCE. 



[Tillemont (H. E. T. 3. p. 262.) seems rightly to have inferred, that the " do 
Patientia" was written by Tertullian while in the Church; 1) from its 
general calm subdued tone, so different from that of his Montanistic treatises ; 
2) from his allowing flight in persecution, c. 13. Lumper (art. iv.) contends 
that it is Montanistic on the following inadequate grounds; 1) that " the 
grace of the Divine Spirit" is the Paraclete ; but it is only His ordinary aid to 
faithful Christians ; 2) that he prefers widowhood to second marriage, c. 13 ; 
but so do all the Fathers except in case of necessity ; 3) that he calls a second 
marriage adultery, c. 12 ; a wrong interpretation, see ib. 4) that he praises 
voluntary fasting, c. 13, but see ib. The peculiarity of the Montanists were 
not voluntary, but compulsory, additional fasts. The Catholics objected to 
them, that they did not leave them voluntary. 5) L. compares c. 12, " this 
patience waiteth for," &c. with the de Pudic. c. 1 . extr. ; but there T. is speaking 
of second marriages as adultery in such sort as, to the last, to exclude from 
the Church those who contract them. There is no point of resemblance.] 



I. I CONFESS to the Lord God it is with sufficient rashness, 
if it be not even shamelessness, that I venture to write con- 
cerning Patience, for the practice of which I am altogether 
unfit, being a man in whom is no good thing : whereas it is 
fitting that they who take in hand to set forth and commend 
any thing, should first be found themselves living in the 
practice of that thing, and should direct the energy, earnest- 
ness, boldness, of their admonitions by the example of their 
own conversation, so that their words blush not for the lack 
of their deeds. And I could wish that such blushing might 
bring its own remedy, so that the shame of not shewing forth 
in ourselves that which we go about to advise for others 
might school us into shewing it forth, were it not that the 
greatness of some good things, as well as of evils, so over- 
beareth our powers, that the grace of the Divine Spirit alone 
can work in us effectually for the comprehension and the 
performance of them. For that which is the most good is 
the most in the hands of God, and no other than He Who 



S2SHeathens attestvalue of patience, Xtian hasGodfo7' its rule. 

De possesseth '^ dispenseth it to each" as He seeth fit. Where- 
X^! fo^*^ it ^'ill be a sort of comfort to reason about that which it 
is not permitted us to enjoy, like sickly persons, who, while 
they lack health, know not how to be silent about its 
blessings. In like manner I, wretched man that 1 am, ever 
sick with the fever of impatience, must needs sigh for, and 
call upon, and speak all my thoughts upon, that healthy 
state of patience which I possess not, when I call to mind, 
and, in the contemplation of mine own weakness, ruminate 
on the thought that the good health of Faith and soundness 
in the Lord's Religion do not easily result to any one, unless 
Patience sit at his side. Such an object is it made to the things 
of God, that no one, who is a stranger to patience, can obey 
any commandment or do any work pleasing to the Lord. 
ca.H a Its good quality even they, who live blindly *, honour with 
the title of the highest virtue. Philosophers indeed, who 
are accounted creatures'' of some wisdom, ascribe so much 
' to it, that, while they disagree among themselves in the 
various humours of their SQCts, and the strife of rival 
opinions, yet having a common regard for patience alone, 
in respect of this one alone of their pursuits they are joined 
in peace : in this they conspire together : in this they are 
confederate: this they pursue with one mind in^ aspiring 
after virtue : it is in patience that they set up the whole 
display of their wisdom. There is strong testimony on its 
side, when it advanceth even the vain sects of worldly 
philosophy unto praise and glory. Or is there not rather 
an injury done to it, when a divine thing is made to grovel 
amongst the doings of this world ? But no matter for them, who 
shall presently be ashamed of their own wisdom, when it is, 
together with the world, destroyed and brought to dishonour. 
II. To us it is no human affectation of cynical indifference, 
schooled by a stupid apathy, which giveth authority for the 
exercise of patience, but the divine ordering of a lively and 
heavenly rule, setting forth God Himself as the example of 
patience ^, first as the Being Who scattereth the dew of this 
Mat. 5, light over the just and the unjust equally. Who suffereth the 
offices of the seasons, the services of the elements, the 

* Aniinaliii.U.conjecture8''aniinali!j, ' wisdom.'" 
'' who are accountedto have some fleshly b Cypr. de Bono Pat. c. 2. 



- in 



45 



Patience in the Incarnation, childhood and Ministry ofXt.S29 

tributes of the whole creation, to come alike to the worthy 
and the unworthy; bearing with those most unthankful 
nations, who worship the follies of their own craft, and 
the works of their own hands, and persecute His name, 
His household ^ ; bearing with covetousness, with iniquity, • nomen 
with wantonness, with the maliciousness which daily waxeth ^^^' 
insolent^, so that by His own patience He robbeth Himself ; ^'^A-^om/ 
seeing that the greater part believe not in the Lord for this scentem 
reason, because that for so long a time they have not known ^"^*^^^^^ 
that He is wroth with the world. Eccles. 

in. And this instance indeed of Divine patience, being ^' i^- 
as it were afar off, may perchance be reckoned among those 
things which be too high for us. But what shall we say of 
that which hath in a manner been handled among men i John 
openly in the world *^? God suffereth Plimself to be con- ' ' 
ceived in the womb of a mother, and abideth the time**, 
and being born waiteth to grow up, and being grown up 
is not eager to be acknowledged, but putteth a further 
slight upon Himself, and is baptized by His own servant, 
and repelleth the attacks of the tempter by words only. 
When from the Lord He became the Master, teaching 
man to escape death, having well learned, for salvation's^ sake, 
the forgiving spirit of offended patience, He strove not, He Is. 42, 2. 
cried not; neither did any hear His voice in the streets: 
the shattered reed He did not break, the smoking Jiax 
He did not quench. For there was no lying voice in the 
Prophet, yea rather in the testimony of God Himself, Who 
put His own Spirit in His Son with perfection of patience. 
None that desired to cleave unto Him did He not receive ; 
no man's table or house did He despise; yea^. Himself 
ministered to the washing of His disciples' feet. He scorned 
not the sinners nor the publicans. He was not angry even 
with that city which would not receive Him, when even His 
disciples would have desired that fires from heaven should 
presently appear against a town so scornful. He healed the Luke 9, 



e Cypr. c. 4. fensse patientife eruditus. Rig. conjec- 

d Jerome, Ep. 22, ad Eustoch. §. tures evadere ad salutein, scilicet. 

39, f Atquin. U. conjectures " aquam" 

^ i. e. man's, docens hominem evadere as in the de Bapt. c. 9. aquam discentibus 

mortem, ob salutem scilicet veniam of- ministrat. 



330 Patience of Christ a witness of His Divinity. 

De unthankful ; He gave place to those that laid snares for Him. 

xt 4* This were but little, if He had not had in His own company 

even His own betrayer, and yet did not determinately make 

Is. 53, 7. him known. But when He is delivered up, when He is led 
as a sheep to the slaughter, for so He openeth not His mouth 
more than the lamh when in the power of his shearer : He 

Mat. 26, at whose side, if He had desired it, legions of angels from 
Heaven would at one word have been present, approved not 
the avenging sword of even a single disciple^. In Malchus 

ver. 52. the patience of the Lord was wounded. Wherefore also He 
cursed the works of the sword for ever after **, and, by the 
restoration of soundness to him whom He had not Himself 
hurt, He made satisfaction through Patience the mother of 
Mercy. I pass in silence the Crucifixion, for it was for that 
that He had come into the world; yet was there need of 
insults also that He might undergo death ? But being 
about to depart. He desired to be filled to the full with 
the pleasure of patience. He is spit upon, is beaten, is 
mocked, is foully clothed, still more foully crowned. Won- 
drous constancy in patience ! He Who' had purposed to hide 
Himself in the form of man, followed none of the example of 
man's impatience ! In this especially ought ye, O Pharisees, 
to have acknowledged the Lord; none among men could 
have worked patience such as this. Such and so great 
proofs, — whose greatness is with the nations indeed a dimi- 
nishing, but with us is the cause and building up of Faith, — 
manifest clearly enough to those, to whom it is given to 
believe, not only by the discourses of the Lord ' in teaching, 
but by His sufferings in enduring, that patience is the nature 
of God, the effect and excellency of a sort of innate pro- 
perty. 

IV. Wherefore if we see all good and well-disposed 
servants having their conversation according to the dis- 
position of their Lord, (if indeed the art of deserving favour 
be obedience, and the rule of obedience a tractable sub- 
jection,) how much more ought we to be found in our 

8 others " educentis" " of one who endo sed etiam passionibus Domini sus- 

drew the sword." tinendo. Big. conjectures passionibus 

h See de Cor. c. 11. p. 176. in sustinendo, the cod, P. having Dni. 
* non sermonibus modo in pracipi- 



Patience essential to obedience, and so to salvation. 331 

behavionr according to the Lord ! we, that is, who are the 
servants of the Living God, Whose judgment upon His 
people turneth not on the question between a sltachle and 
a hat *", but on that between eternity of punishment and of 
salvation. For escaping which severity, or inviting which 
free goodness, there is need of a diligence in obedience 
great as are the things themselves which that severity 
threateneth, or that free goodness promiseth. And yet it 
is not only from men supported by their slavery, or owing 
us service in any other right, that we exact obedience, 
but even from the cattle, even from the beasts, knowing 
that they have been provided and given over for our use 
by the Lord. Shall these therefore, which God hath put 
in subjection to us, be better than ourselves in the rule 
of obedience ? Finally these acknowledge those whom they 
obey: do we hesitate to listen to the Lord, to Whom Alone we 
are put in subjection ? But how unjust, yea how unthankful 
is it, not to repay from thyself that, which through another's 
kindness thou gainest from others, unto Him through W^hom 
thou gainest it ! And no more will I say of the exercise of 
obedience due from us unto the Lord God. For a knowledge 
of God bringeth with it a sufficient understanding of the 
duties incumbent on it. Still that we may not seem to have 
thrown in this concerning obedience as a motive foreign to 
our subject, even obedience itself is derived from patience. 
An impatient man doth never obey, nor a patient man resist. 
Who therefore can treat too much at large of the goodness 
of that, which God the Lord of all good things, and the 
Manifester and Accepter of them, carried about with Him 
in His own self? to whom again can it be matter of doubt 
that every good thing ought, because it belongeth to God, 
to be followed after with all their mind by those who belong 
to God } whereby the question of patience is determined in 
brief, and as it were within the short summary of a rule. 

V. Nevertheless the farther proceeding of a discussion on 
things necessary to the faith, is not idle, because not un- 
profitable. Much speaking, if indeed it be ever bad, is 
never bad in edifying. Wherefore if our discourse be of 
any good thing, the matter rcquireth that we should also 

•* The fast the badge of slavery, the second of freedom. [Tr.] 



332 Impatience entered into fall of Satan and of man 

De review the contrary of that good thing. For thou wilt throw 
X. 5* more light on the question, what ought to be follow^ed, if 
thou in like manner discussest what ought to be avoided. 
Let us consider therefore about impatience ' ; whether, as 
patience is bom and found in God, so its adversary be in 
our adversary ; so that it may hence appear how in its very 
origin it is opposed to the Faith. For that which is con- 
ceived by the rival of God is surely not in friendship with 
the things of God. There is the same disagreement between 
the things, as between their authors. Seeing moreover that 
God is the best, the devil on the contrary the worst of 
beings, they testify by their very diversity that neither 
worketh for the other ; so that any good thing can no more 
be thought by us to be produced out of the evil one, than 
can any evil out of the good. It is in the Devil himself 
therefore that I discover the birth of Impatience, at that 
moment when he did not patiently bear that the Lord God 
should put all the works which He had made, in subjection 
to His own image, that is, to man •". For had he borne it, 
he would not have grieved, and had he not grieved, he 
would not have envied man. Therefore he deceived him, 
because he had envied him ; but he had envied him because 
he had grieved ; he had grieved because forsooth he had not 
borne the thing with patience. Which of the two, wicked 
or impatient, that angel of perdition was at the first, I care 
not to enquire, since it is evident that his impatience began 
with his wickedness, or his wickedness from his impatience, 
then that they conspired together, and grew up inseparably 
in the one bosom of their father. But that which he had 
been the first to feel, by w^hich he had entered first ° on the 
course of sin, taught by his own experience what an help 
it was to sin, that same did he call to his aid for driving 
man into sin. The woman forthwith on meeting him, I 
may say without rashness, was by her very converse with 
him breathed upon by a spirit infected with impatience; 
so that she w^ould never have sinned at all, if she had 
preserved to the end her patience towards the Divine 
prohibition. What of this too, that she bore not to have 
been met alone, and had not even patience to be silent 

' Cypr. c. 12. ed. Oxf. 

"> See on S, Cypr. c. 12. p. 261, n. a. " primus deliuquere intravtrat. 



caused Cain^s fratricide — Patience of God then first seen. 333 

before Adam, not yet her husband, not yet bound to give 
ear to her? and so she maketh him aid in transmitting^ that' adtra- 
which she had derived from the Evil One. Wherefore a ^"^ 
second human being also perisheth through the impatience 
of the other, and presently he perisheth of himself through 
his own impatience likewise exercised in both cases, both 
as touching the warning of God and the craft of the Devil, 
not having patience to observe the one or to repel the 
other. Hence the judgment had its source from the same 
point as the crime : hence God began to be angry in that 
whereby man was first led to sin: hence patience first 
began in God in that whence His anger first arose, Who 
then, content with pronouncing a curse only, refrained from 
the violent execution of punishment against the Devil. 
Otherwise what sin is imputed to man as committed by 
him before that of impatience ? He was innocent, and in 
the closest friendship with God, and the inhabitant of 
Paradise. But when once he yielded to impatience, he 
ceased to have his savour pleasing unto God: he ceased 
to be able to bear heavenly things. From thenceforward 
man given to the earth, and cast out from the sight of God, 
began to be an easy tool of Impatience for every thing 
which could offend God. For she, on being conceived 
of the seed of the Devil, straightway, through the fruitful- 
ness of wickedness, brought forth Anger as her son, and 
trained him up, when brought forth, in her own arts. For 
the very thing, which had sunk Adam and Eve in the 
depths of death, taught their son also to begin with mur- 
der. I should without cause ascribe this to impatience, 
if that first slayer of a man, and first slayer of a brother, 
Cain, had borne with even mind, and without impatience, 
the rejection of his offerings by God : if he had not been 
angry with his brother: if in brief he had slain no one. 
Since therefore he could not kill unless he were angry, nor 
be angry unless he were impatient, he sheweth that that 
which he did through anger must be referred to that Im- 
patience, by whom the anger was prompted. Through these 
things" was the cradling, in a manner, of Impatience then 

" Per heec Impatientise [est L. H,] Et hsc qnidem Imp. Rh. conjectured 
tunc infantis quodammodo incunabula. Ser/hsec, &c. 
P. Rh. Gel. Rig. adopts U.'s conjecture 



334 All sin from impatience of enduring temptation. 

I^E an infant. But how great her growth afterwards ! and no 
X. e'. wonder: for if she were the first to sin, it followeth that 
because she was the first, she is therefore the single, womb 
of all sin, pouring forth from her own spring the various 
streams of crime. As concerning murder I have done : but 
being at the first brought forth by anger, it layeth all other 
motives also, whatsoever it afterwards desired for itself, on 
impatience as its origin. For whether a man worketh this 
wickedness from enmity, or for the sake of gain, he must 
first become impatient of hatred or of covetousness. What- 
ever forceth men to act, unless they be impatient of it, 
cannot be wrought out in action. Who hath given way 
to adultery, without being impatient of lust ? But even if 
the sale of their chastity is in women compelled by the price 
proffered, surely here is, according to the rule, a lack of 
patience for the contempt of gain. These are mentioned as 
, the chief sins in the eyes of the Lord**, for, to speak briefly, 
every sin is to be ascribed to impatience. Evil is the impa- 
tience of good. Every immodest man is impatient of modesty, 
and the wicked of virtue, and the impious of piety, and 
the turbulent of peace. In order that each man may 
become evil, he must become unable to continue patiently 
in good. Such is the hydra of our sins ! How can it but 
offend the Lord that hateth iniquity ? Is it not plain that 
e.ven Israel also ever sinned against God through impatience; 
from the time when forgetful of the heavenly arm, whereby 
they had been brought out from their afl3ictions in Egypt, 
they desired of Aaron gods to go before them ; when they 
poured forth the offerings of their gold for the idol, because 
they bore impatiently the delay, so necessary, of Moses 
while conferring with God.? After the raining down of 
1 Cor. manna for food, after the flowing of the water from the rock 
' ' which followed them, they despair of the Lord, not enduring 
thirst for three days ; for with this impatience also they are 
reproached by the Lord. And not to travel over each 
particular, they never perished otherwise than by sinning 
through impatience. But how came it that they laid hands 
upon the Prophets, but because they could not patiently 
bear to hear them ? They laid them on the liOrd Himself, 
because they could not even patiently bear to see Him. 

" ad uxor. i. 5. 



Putience ^characteristic of Abraham^ s and Christian faith. 335 

But if they had begun to be patient, they would have been 
delivered. 

VI. It is this then which both followeth and goeth before 
Faith. Briefly, Abraham believed in God, and by Him was 
accounted righteous, but it was his patience which proved Gen. 15, 
his Faith, when he was commanded to offer up his son, * 
I may not say for the trial but for the testimony, (in a 
figure,) of his Faith. But God knew him whom He had 
accounted righteous. A command so grievous, which even 
the Lord was not pleased to have fulfilled, he both heard 
with patience, and, if God had willed it, would have 
performed. With good reason therefore was he blessed, 
because he was also faithful: with good reason was he 
faithful, because he was also patient. Thus Faith illumined 
by Patience, having been sown among the nations through 
the Seed of Abraham, Which is Christ, and having brought 
in grace over the Law, appointed Patience as her helper for 
enlarging and fulfilling the Law, because this alone had 
been before wanting to the teaching of righteousness. For 
in times past they were wont to demand eye for eye andEx.2\, 
tooth for tooth, and rendered with usury evil for evil ; for 
Patience was not as yet, because neither was Faith, upon 
the earth. In fact, Impatience in the mean time availed 
itself of the opportunities of the Law. It was easy to do so, 
while the Lord and Master of Patience was away. But 
when He came afterwards and joined in one the grace of 
Faith with Patience, from that time it hath not been lawful 
to provoke even by a word, nor even to say thou fool, 
without danger of the judgment. Anger was forbidden. Mat. 5, 
passions restrained, the wantonness of the hand checked, ^"'^* 
the poison of the tongue taken away. The Law gained 
more than it lost, when Christ said. Love your enemies, bless Mat. 5, 
them which curse you, and pray for them which persecute 
you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in 
Heaven. Seest thou what a Father Patience gaincth for 
us ? In this main commandment the whole rule of Patience 
is briefly comprehended, since it is not permitted to do evil 
even w^hen it is deserved. 

VII. But now while we are going through the causes of 
impatience, the other commandments also will fall into 



6. 10. 



336 Patience under losses taught by povei^ty of our Lord; 

De their proper places. If the mind be disturbed by the loss 
^^I' of property, it is warned in almost every place in the 
Scriptures of the Lord to despise the world : nor is there 
added any more powerful exhortation to despise money, 
than the fact that the Lord Himself is found with no riches : 
He ever justifieth the poor and condemneth beforehand 
Luke 6, the rich. Thus did contempt of riches foreminister unto 
patience of losses", shewing by the rejection of wealth that 
the damage of it also ought not to be regarded. That 
therefore which we have no manner of need to seek after, 
because the Lord also sought not after it, we ought to bear 
the diminution of, or even its privation, without disquiet. 
The Spirit of the Lord hath declared by the Apostle, that 
Tim. covetousness is the root of all evil. This let us understand 
as consisting not in the desire of that only which is 
another's, for even that which seemeth to be our own is 
another's; for nothing is our own, since all things are 
God's, Whose also are we ourselves. Wherefore if, when 
we suffer loss, we take it impatiently, we shall be found, 
in grieving for a loss in that which is not ours, to border 
upon covetousness. We covet that which is another's, 
when we bear impatiently the loss of that which is another's. 
He that is disturbed by impatience under loss, by preferring 
earthly to heavenly things, sinneth immediately against 
God: for he disturbeth that spirit which he hath received 
from God for the sake of a thing of this world. Let us 
therefore willingly lose the things of earth, and keep the 
things of Heaven. Let the whole world perish so that 
I gain Patience. Now I know not whether the man who 
hath not determined to bear with firmness the loss of any 
of his goods either by theft, or by violence, or even by 
slothfulness, could, easily or with his whole heart, himself 
lay hands on his own goods for the sake of almsgiving. 
For who that cannot at all bear to be cut by another, applieth 
the steel himself to his own body ? Patience under losses 
is an exercise in the act of giving and communicating. 

" Ita detrimentorum patientise fasti- Patience in the loss of it," i. e. taught 

dium opulentige prEeministravit ; or if man by anticipation how to bear its 

detrimentum, " thus did a contempt of loss, [Tr.] or" foreministered to Patience 

wealth furnish beforehand matter for its loss," i. e. how to lose it. 



y 



essential to almsgiving ; to Christian endurance. 337 

He is not unwilling to give, vvho fearetli not to lose. Iksides, 
how shall lie that hath two coats impart one of them to Luke 3, 
him that hath none, unless he be also one, who if a man take ^^' 
away his coat, can offer unto him his cloak also ? How Matt. 5, 
shall we 7nake to ourselves friends of Mammon, if we lovef^', ,^ 

•^ • ' Luke 16, 

him so much that we cannot bear to lose him .^ With the 9. 

loss of him we shall be lost also. Why in this world do 
vi^ find where we ought to lose"? To exercise impatience Mat. lo, 
under all losses is the part of Heathens, who perchance ^^* 
prefer money to the soul : for indeed they do so when 
from the lust of lucre they engage in the gainful perils 
of merchandize by sea ; when, for the sake of money, they 
hesitate not even in the forum to attempt what condemna- 
tion ° itself must dread; finally, when they hire themselves 
out for the games and for the camp ; when, after the 
manner of brute beasts'', they plunder in the highway. But 
it is meet that we, according to the difTerence which is 
betwixt us and them, lay dow^n not our souls for money, 
but money for our souls' sake, either willingly in giving, 
or patiently in losing. 

VIII. In this world we carry about us our very souls 
and bodies exposed to injury from all men, and under this 
injury we submit to be patient. Shall we be grieved by 
taking thought for things of lesser moment? Away with 
such defilement from the servant of Christ, that his patience, 
made ready for greater temptations, should fall away in 
trifling ones ! If any shall try to provoke thee by open 
violence, the admonition of the Lord is at hand : To him Matt. 5^ 
that smiteth thee on the faccj saith He, turn the other cheek ^ ' 
also. Let his wickedness be wearied out by thy patience. 
Be the blow what it may, bound up with pain and insult, 
he will suffer an heavier one from the Lord. Thou bcatest 

that wicked man the more by bearintj with him, for hecf.Rom. 

. 12 ''O 

shall be beaten by Him, for Whose sake thou bearest with ' " 



« i. e. they who know certainly that even at thejudgment-'Seat, where would 

they shall be condemned, (abstr. for he not?'" 

concr.) Lac. Aristotle (Rhet. i. 14.) P The conjecture of Rhen. and Rig. 

instances it as an aggravation of an has been admitted "in mores bestiuruni" 

offence, if it were committed " where for " immemores bestiarum," P. and 

they who do wrong are punished ; as cod. Patern, 
do false-witnesses, ' for if one do wrong 

Z 



3o8 Patience avoids and revenges the sins it endiwes. 

1)E him. If the bitterness of the tongue should break out in 

-j^^g' cursing or railing, reflect on that which hath been said : 

iNJattTs" l^ejoice when men shall curse you. The Lord Himself 

11. 12. ^j^g cursed under the Law, and yet is the only Blessed. 

21, 23. Wherefore let us His servants follow our Lord, and let 

Gal. 3, ug ^^Q cursing patiently, that we may be able to be 

blessed. If I hear not with unruffled mind any wanton 

or naughty word spoken against me, I must needs myself 

also render bitter speech in my turn, or I shall be tortured 

by silent impatience. When therefore I have smitten 

another with evil speaking, how shall I be found to have 

followed the teaching of the Lord, wherein it is delivered 

unto us that a man is defiled not by the pollutions of 

¥Lm\i ^vessels ^ but of those things which proceed out of the 

' mouth ? And again : that there remaineth an account to 

Mat. 12, be given by us for every vain and idle word. It followeth 

therefore that what God forbiddeth us to do, He also 

admonisheth us to bear patiently from another. Here I 

would now say a word of the pleasure of Patience. For 

every wrong, whether inflicted by the tongue or by the 

hand, w^hen it hath encountered Patience, will be finally 

disposed of in the same manner as any weapon launched 

and blunted against a rock of most enduring hardness. For 

it will fall upon the spot, its labour rendered vain and 

unprofitable, and sometimes recoiling backward will wreak 

its fury, by a violent reaction, upon him who sent it forth. 

For a man injureth thee on purpose that thou mayest be 

pained ; for the gain of the injurer lieth in the pain of the 

injured. When therefore thou hast overthrown his gain by 

not being pained, he must himself needs be pained in 

' ibis missing his gain : and then thou wilt come ofF^ not only unhurt, 

restore ^j^j^h even in itself is sufficient for thee, but besides this 

both pleased by the disappointment of thine adversary, and 

avenged by his pain. Such is the profit and the pleasure of 

Patience. 

IX. Nor is even that kind of impatience excused, 

which is felt on the loss of our friends^, when a certain 

2adsertio claim ^ of grief pleadeth in its behalf. For the con- 

resfored 

1 See S. Ambrose de exeessu Satyri fratris, 1. 2. 



Impatietice under loss of friends, want of faith. 339 

sideration of the Apostle's warning must be prefen-ed', who* pr^po. 
saith, Sorrow not for the sleep of any one, even as the J!^J)J?^^^/ 
Gentiles which have no hope. And with good cause. For if^ ihess. 
we believe that Christ rose again, we believe also in our own I'xhess. 
resurrection, for whose sakes He both died and rose again.^^ ^^' 
Wherefore since the resurrection of the dead is certain, 
grief for death is idle, and impatience in that grief is idle 
also. For why shouldest thou grieve, if thou believest 
not that he hath perished ? Why shouldest thou take it 
impatiently that he is withdrawn for a time, who, thou 
believest, will return again ? That which thou thinkest to 
be death is but a departing on a journey. He that goeth 
before us is not to be mourned, but altogether to be longed 
for : and even this longing must be tempered with patience. 
For why shouldest thou not bear with moderation that he 
hath departed, whom thou shalt presently follow ? But 
impatience in such a matter augureth ill for our hope, and 
is a double dealing with our faith. Besides, we injure 
Christ, when, as each is called away by Him, we bear it 
impatiently, as though they were to be pitied. / have,v\\\\.\, 
saith the Apostle, a desire to be taken and to be with Christ. 
How much better doth he shew the desire of the Christians 
to be ! Wherefore, if we impatiently mourn for others who 
have obtained this desire, we are unwilling to obtain it 
ourselves. 

X. There is also another chief incentive to impatience, the 
lust of revenge, which busieth itself in deeds either of glory or 
of malice. But glory also is every where the same \ and malice 
never otherwise than hateful to the Lord, and in this instance 
especially so, when, being provoked by the malice of another, 
it carrieth itself beyond it in following out its revenge, and, 
by returning evil, doubleth that which hath been already 
once committed. Revenge, in the eyes of Error, seemeth to 
be the solace of pain ; in the eyes of assured ^ Truth is 2 certam 
convicted of maliciousness. For what difference is there 
between him that provoketh and him that is provoked, except 
that the one is convicted of evil-doing first, and the other 



' i. e. every where bad; as there adopts Urs.'s conjecture, -'sedet gloria 
follows, " nunq^uam non odiosa." Rig. utique vana" for " ubique una." 

z 2 



340 Patience, foregoing revenge, pious, obedient, rewarded. 

De afterwards ? Nevertheless, each is guilty of injuring a man 
xAa l^efore the Lord, Who forbiddeth and condemneth all wicked- 



ness. In evil doing, no account is taken of the order of 
actions, nor doth a different place [in that order] separate 
what a like nature maketh one. Wherefore the command is 

Rom. absolute, that evil must not be recompensed for evil. A like 
' ' deed hath a like merit. How shall we observe this com- 

^ fasti- mand, if, in our disdainfulness ', we shall not disdain revenge ? 

re^m^ed ^^^ what honour shall we pay to the Lord God, if we shall 
take unto ourselves the free power of revenging ourselves ? 

2putres We, creatures of corruption'' and earthen vessels that we are, 

restored ^^^ grievously offended with our own servants, who take upon 
themselves to avenge themselves on their fellow-servants ; 
and those who offer their patience as a gift to ourselves, as 
remembering their own lowly and servile condition, and 
loving the right of masters to receive honour, we not only 
approve of, but render them even larger satisfaction than 
they would have claimed for themselves. And is our cause 
in any danger when thus committed to the Lord, so righteous 
in judgment, so powerful in execution? Why then do we 
believe that He is our judge, if not also our avenger.? This 

Rom. He promiseth us that He will be, saying, Leave vengeance 

^^' ^ • unto Me, and I will repay; that is, * Leave your patience to 
me, and I will reward your patience.' For when He saith, 

M.zx.l,\. Judge not, that ye he 7iot judged, doth He not require 
patience? For who is he that will not judge another, save 
he who will be patient in not avenging himself? Who 
judge th in order that he may pardon? And if he shall 
pardon, yet hath he taken care to have the impatience of 

James 4, judging, and hath taken away the honour of the One and 
only Judge, that is, God. But with how many miscarriages 
is impatience of this sort wont to find fault' ! How often hath 
Revenge repented! How often hath its violence become 
worse than the things which caused it ! For there is nothing 
undertaken with impatience which can be effected without 
violence ; and there is nothing effected with violence which 
hath not met either a stumbling-block, or an overthrow, or 
hath gone headlong. Now, if thou avenge thyself too slightly, 

i. e. as brought upon it by itself, jecture of Rhen. adopted by Pam. and 
'^'^ '^ ■ ■ Rig. 



Patience under chastening ; enters into all the beatitudes. 341 

thou wilt be mad : if too abundantly, thou wilt be overbur- 
dened. What have I to do with revenge, the measure of 
which, through impatience of my pain, I am not able to 
regulate? But if I shall keep a guard over my patience, 
I shall suffer no pain ; and if I shall suffer no pain, I shall 
desire no revenge. 

XT. After having treated in order, according to my ability, 
these principal subjects of impatience, why should I ramble 
among the rest, such as are to be found at home and abroad ? 
Wide and widely spread is the working of the Evil One, who 
darteth forth manifold excitements of the spirit, and these 
sometimes small, sometimes very great : but the small ones 
despise for their littleness ; to the great ones, in proportion to 
their exceeding greatness, submit. Where the hurt is small, 
there is no need of impatience : but where the hurt is greater, 
there the medicine of patience * is the more necessary for the ' pati- 
hurt. Let us therefore strive to endure those things which are restored 
inflicted by the Evil one, that the rival zeal of our patience 
may mock the zeal of our adversary. But if there be some 
things which we ourselves bring upon ourselves, either 
through imprudence or even of our own accord, let us 
undergo with equal patience those things which we impute 
to ourselves. And if there be some things which we believe 
to be inflicted by the Lord, to Whom can we render our 
patience better than to the Lord ? Nay, He teacheth us to 
rejoice moreover and to be glad, in that we are thought 
worthy of divine chastisement. As many as I love, saith He, Rev. 3, 
/ chasten. Oh ! blessed is that servant, on whose amend- 
ment the Lord is bent; with whom He deigneth to be angry; 
whom He deceiveth not by hiding His admonitions from 
him ! On every side therefore we are bound to the duty 
of exercising patience. Because^ wherever we come in 2 quia 
the way of either our own sins, or the snares of the|^"j.^g_ 
Evil one, or the admonitions of the Lord, great is thenimus 
reward of this duty, to wit, our happiness. For whom hath Mat. 5, 
the Lord called happy save those which are patient, when 12. 
He saith. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Mat. 5, 
kingdoin of heaven ? Surely no one is poor in spirit, except^* 
he be humble. And who can be humble except he be 
patient ? because no one can abase himself without patience 



SA^Patience needed tofii Ifil our Lord's commands; to penitence; 

De first, to bear the very act of abasement. Blessed, saith He, 
X. 12. «^'^ i^^^y i^^^f iveep and mourn. Who beareth such things 



without patience } Wherefore to such it is promised that 
Mat. 5, they shall he comforted, and that they shall laugh. Blessed 
?uke6 ^^^ ^^'^ meek. Under this title it may not be that the 
21. impatient can at all be numbered. Likewise when He 
5. * ' denoteth the peacemakers, under the same title of blessed. 
Mat. 5, and calleth them the children of God, are the impatient akin 
to peace ? A fool may understand this. But when He saith, 
Mat. 5, Rejoice, and he exceeding glad, when men shall revile you 
ver 11 and persecute you, for very great is your reward in Heaven^ 
ver, 12. He surely doth not promise this exceeding gladness to impa- 
tience, for no one will he exceeding glad in adversity, except 
he have first despised it: no one will despise it, except 
he have exercised patience. 

XII. As respecteth the rule of that peace, which is so 

pleasing unto God, who is there at all, that is of his own 

nature impatient, who will forgive his brother even once, 

Mat. 18, not to say seven times, and still less seventy times seven? 

^^' Who, whiles he is in the way with his adversary to the 

^ a,d^\i- judge ^, will end the matter by agreeing with him, except 

resided ^^ ^^^^ sever from himself that vexation, that harshness, 

M^*- ^j that bitteiTiess, which are in fact the venom of impatience ? 

Luke 6, How wilt thou forgive and it shall he forgiveii thee, if, for 

^^' lack of patience, thou be retentive of an injury } No man 

divided in spirit against his brother will offer his gift upon 

Mat. 5, the altar, except first by being reconciled with his brother, 

Eph. 4, he return to patience } If the sun go down upon our wrath, 

^^' we are in clanger. We may not continue for even one day 

without patience. And since it directeth every kind of 

wholesome discipline, what wonder if it administer also to 

repentance, which is wont to come to the succour of the 

fallen ! when, in a separation between man and wife, (for 

some cause, that is, for which it is lawful either for a man or 

a woman to persevere in continuing in a state of widowhood,) 

2 cxhor- this Patience waiteth for, desireth, urgeth^, their salvation, 

restored ^s for those who will one day begin to repent. How much 

good doth it confer on both ! the one it hindereth from 

' Edd. and P. have nisi prius jam dolorem has been kept, as probable and 
dolcret. U. corrects animi dolorem : necessary. 



set forth in oar Lord's parables; essential to all cltarily. 843 

adultery*, the other it amendeth. In the same manner it is 
present also in those holy examples of patience in the Lord's 
parables. It is the patience of the shepherd which seeketh 
and findeth the sheep which was gone astray: for Impa- 
tience might easily despise that one sheep. But through 
Patience he undertaketh the labour of the search, yea, and 
moreover carrieth on his shoulders the deserted offender, a 
patient bearer of his burden. Again, it is the patience of the 
Father which both receiveth, and clotheth, and feedeth the 
prodigal son, and excuseth him to the impatience of his 
angry brother. He therefore which had been lost is saved, Lukei 
because he began to repent. His repentance is not lost, '^'^ 
because it meeteth with patience. For by whose rules save 
those of Patience, is Charity instructed, that chief mystery of 
the Faith, that treasure of the Christian name which the 
Apostle commendeth with all the power of the Holy Spirit ? 
Charity, saith he, sujfereth long : therefore she useth i ("or. 
Patience. She is kind: Patience doeth no unkindness. 
She envieth not : this indeed properly belongeth to Patience. 
She savoureth not of wantonness: she hath derived her 
modesty from Patience. She is not puffed iip, doth not 
insult : for this belongeth not to Patience. And she seeketh 
not her oivn, she beareth with her own ", so she may profit 
another. Nor is she easily provoked: for otherwise what 
would she have left for Impatience to do } Wherefore, saith 
he, Charity beareth all things, endureth all things : that is, 
because she is patient. With good cause therefore she shall 
never fail: for all other things shall be cleared away, brought 
to a close. Tongues, Knowledge, Prophecies, are exhausted ; 
Faith, Hope, Charity, abide: Faith, which the patience of 

* T. calls marriage with the heathen Eig. corrects (as he says, from " anti- 

in itself adultery, (see ad Uxor. ii. 2,3.) quissima exemplaria,") " alterum ad 

Abstinence from it then on the Chris- alterum non facit," " sendeth the other 

tian side was keeping from adultery, (the party sinned against) not to an- 

while the heathen was by the endurance other," i. e. causes not him or her to 

amended. So apparently E,hen. (fol- marry again. " Adulterum" cannot be 

lowed by Pam.) ; only they speak of understood of such marriages, since T. 

the Christian's doing penance, accord- admits of them, (see Note at the end of 

ing to later Canons, (see Bingham, 22. ad Uxor, ii.) 

2. 1.) but this does not explain adulte- " i. e. ills. Sutfert is the reading of 

rum. Lac. explains it of the case for the Edd. and P. Latinius conjectured 

which our Lord allows divorce, and ex- " sed offert;" Rig. corrects '' si offert," 

plains " adulterum non facit" " alter, which gives an easier sense, " seeketh 

qui adulterum a se repulit facit Pati- not her own, since she offereth up her 

entiaut non adulteretur sed caste vivat." own, so she may" &c. 



344 Uses of hodily endurance in penitence^ continency, 

De Christ hath produced; Hope, which the patience of man 
X. ]3. waiteth for; Charity, which Patience accompanieth, God 

' being its Master. 

XIII. Thus far then I have spoken of Patience, as simple 
and uniform, and situate only in the mind, while 1 labour for 
it in many ways in the body also, that I may win the Lord, 
seeing that it hath been shewn forth by the Lord Himself in 
the holy exercise of the body also, if indeed the master mind 
easily shareth with that wherein it dwelleth, the inspirations 
of the Spirit. What then is the working of Patience in the 
body } In the first place the afflicting of the flesh, an 
oflering propitiating the Lord by the sacrifice of humiliation, 
when it offereth up to the Lord filthy garments with scanti- 
ness of food, being content with simple victuals, and a pure 
draught of water % when with this it joineth fasting^, when it 
groweth familiar with ashes and sackcloth. This patience of 
the body commendeth our prayers, strengtheneth our entrea- 
ties for mercy: this openeth the ears of Christ our God, 
scattereth abroad His severity, draweth forth His mercy. So 
that king of Babylon, when, having offended God, he lived 
deprived of the form of a man in filthiness and dirt for seven 
years, as soon as he had offered as a sacrifice the patience of 
his body, he both recovered the kingdom, and, which is more 

Dan. 4, to be desired for a man, made satisfaction to God. Now, if 

' ■ we discuss the higher and more blessed stages of bodily 

patience, it procureth also, on behalf of holiness, the conti- 

nency of the body. It is this which both keepeth one a 

widow, and sealeth another as a virgin, and exalteth him 

Mat. 19, that hath made himself an eunuch unto the kingdom of 

* the ^yi^opayia, " bread, salt, and three, four, or five days, which they 
water," the only food used in the Holy passed in perfect abstinence, eating no- 
week, Bingham, 21. 1. 25.; according thing all the week until the morning of 
to the Council of Laodicea, can. 50. the Resurrection," Bingham, 21. 1. 25. 
during all Lent ; see also Suicer sub v. Dionysius and Epiphanius use the cor- 
Tertullian attests this to have been at responding term, iifi^rJiaffrj {eitrtroi 
times the practice of the Church, oiocrskouvris) see Cotel. on the Apost. 
" sometimes also living on bread and Constt. v. 18. and the Cone. Elib. can. 
water," (de Jej. e. 13.) only not com- 26. " jejuniorum superpositionem." The 
pulsory. The Xerophagiae objected to Ap. Constt. have rat ^vu ffuvcc-rni* ouov, 
the Montanists, were additional compul- Sozoni. (ib.) l-TriTwu-rTuv. S. Jerome, 
sory periods of fasting, ib. c. 15. Ep. 24. (ol. 15.) ad Marcell. retains 

y i. e. adds the fast of one day to an- T.'s word " omnes pene hebdomadas 

other. This was chiefly done in the Great conjungens;" see others ap. Bingh. I.e. 

Week before Easter, in which " some Tert. speaks of it as a practice of the 

added to the sabbath one, some two, Church in the holy week, de Jej. c. 14. 



persecution^martyrdom. Patience of Isaiah, ^iephenyJoh. 345 

Heaven. That which cometh of the excellence of the spirit 
is accomplished in the flesh, by the patience of the flesh. 
Finally, this patience warreth in persecutions. If flight 
press us, the flesh fighteth against the hardships of flight. 
If even the prison prevent* us, the flesh is in bonds, the flesh ' prseve- 
is in the stocks, the flesh is on the earth, and in that"^^^^^^^ 
lack of light, and that endurance^ of all things. But when at'^ pati- 
last it is brought forth to the blessed trial, to the opportunity ^^J^^m/ 
of the second baptism, to the very ascending up to the seat 
of God, there no patience is of more value than that of the 
body, lithe spirit is willing, yet the jiesh is weak without Mat. 26, 
patience, wherein lieth the safety of the spirit, as also of the'*'' 
flesh itself. But when the Lord saith this concerning the 
flesh, declaring that it is weak. He sheweth ivhat is needful 
for strengthening it, namely, patience against the whole array 
of evils contrived for the overthrow of faith, or for its punish- 
ment, in order that it may bear, with all perseverance, the 
stripes, the fire, the cross, the wild beasts, the sword, 
which things the Prophets and Apostles by enduring over- 
came. 

XIV". In this strength of patience Esaias is sawn asunde7',Ueh.ii, 
and ceaseth not to speak concerning the Lord : Stephen is ^ ' 
stoned, and asketh forgiveness for his enemies. Oh ! how Acts 7, 
exceeding blessed is he also, who against the whole power of 
the Devil worked o