Chapter Xxxiil :
Tertullian's Apology for the Christians.
' wh spectators of dissolving nature; and while we pray for it to be deferred, we pray for the subsistence of the Roman Emprre.
But then as to your other objection concerning oaths ; to this I answer, that swear we do,! and if not by the geniuses of the Caesars, yet by their life, which is of more veneration to us than all the genii put together.
But you seem to be ignorant that the genul are called demons, and from thence by a diminutive word demonia, that is, little devils.
We reverence the providence of God in the persons of the emperors, who has made choice of them for the government of the world.
We know that the power they have, they have by the will of God; and therefore we wish well to that which _
God has willed to be ; and we look upon that as a very sacred oath which is made by so sacred a person; but as for demons, that is genii, we are used to exercise them, and not to swear by them, for fear of giving that honour to devils which is due only to God.
——0 CHAPTER XXXIIL :
A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF CHRISTIAN LOYALTY, AND THEIR REFUSING
TO CALL THE EMPEROR
BY THE TiTLE OF GOD.
Bur what need I say more to show the sacred tie which binds on the duty of allegiance upon Christian subjects?
It is enough to so again St. Jerome—W2s?, cngudt, fuerit Romanum Inmperiun ante desolatum, et Antichristus precessarit, Christus non ventet.
Hieron.
Epist. ad Algas.
Qu. 11, f. 60.
1 Sed et juramus, sicut non per Genios Cesarum, ita per Salutem eorum, etc.
Here we have the lawfulness of an oath expressly asserted by our Tertullian, though now gainsaid by some new-fashioned Christians
(if the Quakers may be called Christians), and an oath too by the life of the emperors; and a very sacred oath too it is, says our author, when so-sacred a person is sworn by.
They would not swear by their genii indeed, because they looked upon that as swearing by the devil and his angels ; and thus we find that Joseph swore by the life of Pharaoh.
Some are of opinion that this custom of swearing by the safety _ of the emperor was introduced by Augustus, from that of Horace,
Presenti tibt maturos largimur honores, JSurandasg. ; tuum per numen ponimus aras.
However this be, it is certain from Suetonius 2% V2ta Tiberiz, and from Cornelius
Tacitus, lib. i,, that Tiberius forbade all, such swearing either by his life or genius.
V2d, Dion. Rom, Hist. lib, lvii.
an Tertullian's A [pology for the C hristians.
say that we look upon ourselves under a necessity to honour the ~ emperor as a person of God's election; so that I may very _ deservedly say that we have much the greatest share in Ceesar, as __ being made emperor by'our God.
And therefore it is I who more _ effectually recommend him to God,! because I not only earnestly ask it of Him who can give it, or because I am such a petitioner as have the most reason to obtain it, but also because by setting Czesar below his god, I set him higher in his affection, to which God alone I subject him; and I subject him to God, by not making him his equal.
~ I will not give the title of god to the emperor,? either because I dare not speak against my conscience, nor ridicule him; or because
$ he himself will not endure the title.
If he be a man, it is the interest of 2 man to give place to God; let him content himself with the name of emperor, for this is the most majestic name upon earth, and it is the gift of God.
He lays aside the emperor who takes upon him the God; he must be a man to be an emperor.
When he is in the very prime of his glory sitting in his triumphal chariot, even then he is admonished to know himself a man, by one speaking from behind in these words, " Look back, and remember yourself to be but man ;" and he is then the more contented to find
1 Plus ego illi operor in Salutem.
''It is I who more effectually recommend 'him to God,"'
This word oferor I take to be very significative and emphatical in this place; for as facere often is used for Rem sacram facere, to sacrifice ; so operari, when applied to religious matters, is the same with the Greek évepysiv, by sacrifice or prayer to work upon God with energy, or efficaciously.
2 Non enim Deum Imperatorem dicam.
'1 will not call the emperor God."
Antiochus, king of Syria, arrived to the extravagant blasphemy of taking upon him this title of God.
Vd. Appian. zz Syr.
So likewise among the Romans, Caligula commanded himself to be called Optimus Maximus and Jupiter Latialis.
See Sueton. i vita ipsius, cap. 22, and Philo in his Legatzone ad Caium.
And thus Tacitus, lib. ili., speaks of Domitian, MWox imperium adeptus, Jovi Custodi templum ingens, seq. ; in sinu Det sacravit.
Vide etiam, Sueton. cap. 13.
Hence that of Martial, lib. v. Epigr. 8— Edictum Domini, Detg. ; nostri.
And so again, lib. viii. Epigr. 2— Terrarum Domino, Deog. ; rerum.
3 Suoveriter enim ei a tergo, Respice post te, Hominem memento te.
In the ~ same chariot, behind him who triumphed, was the public servant carried, who held up a huge heavy crown above the head of the triumpher, both to express his merits and his weakness by a glorious weight he could not bear, and with the mortifying words just now mentioned.
In allusion to this is that of Juvenal, -Sat. 1o— Quippe tenet sudans hance Publicus, et stbi Consul.
Ne placeat, curru Servus portatur codem.
Tertullian''s Apology jor the Christians. himself on such a dazzling height of glory as to make it necessary for him to be advised of his humanity.
He is the weakest of princes who can feel himself a man, and 'would be flattered as Almighty; and he the Cesar truly great, that will bear the truth that is designed to keep him within the bounds of mortality.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
CONCERNING AUGUSTUS CSAR.
Aucustus,! the founder of the Roman Empire, would by no means admit of the style of Dominus, or lord, for this is the surname of God.
Nevertheless, I should not scruple to call the emperor lord ;? but then it must be when I am not compelled to do it in a sense peculiarly appropriated to God; for I am Ceesar's free-born subject, and we have but one Lord, the Almighty and Eternal God, who is his Lord as well as mine.
But why should you call him lord, who is styled the father of his country?
Surely that name of affection sounds sweeter much than that of power ; and they had rather be called fathers of great, families, than lords of slaves.
But if Augustus would never assume the title of lord, he would much less have thought it Czesar's due
1 Augustus, ne'Dominum quidem dici se volebat.
Suetonius in the life of Augustus writes thus of his refusiug the title of Dominus, or lord, cap. 53—
" Domini appellationem, ut maledictum et opprobrium semper exhorruit.
Cum spectante eo Iudos, pronunciatum esset in mimo, O Dominum zquum et bonum ; et universi quasi de ipso dictum exultantes comprobassent : statim manu vultuque indecoras adulationes repressit, et insequenti die gravissimo corripuit edicto, Dominumque se posthac appellari, ne a liberis quidem aut nepotibus puny serio vel joco, passus est ; atque hujusmodi blanditias etiam inter ipsos prohibuit.""
* Dicam plane Imperatorem Dominum, sed more communt, etc.
If the Quakers would be determined by Tertullian, a person of great mortification, a mighty stickler for anything which had the least appearance of extraordinary piety, and withal an exceeding admirer of Montanus, and the false pretenders to the spirit of that age, they might hear him in this place frankly declaring that he should make no scruple to call the emperor Dominus, or lord, to own him supreme, or as he in the foregoing chapter expresses it, subject to God only, provided this term Dominus might be taken in the common sense, and noways intrench upon the prerogative of God.
And this proviso he had reason to make, because the adoration of emperors was then grown into fashion. x :