CHAPTER IV
Tertultian's Apology for the Christians.
physicians glory in the title of their Erasistratus,! and grammarians in that of Aristarchus ?2 And are not even cooks themselves not a little proud of the name of Apicius?'
Nor in any of these instances are you offended with the name transmitted from the founder of the sect; but if you could prove any sect to be vicious in principle, and consequently the author of it to be so too, there is reason enough to hate the name upon the account of both.
In a word, before we give entertainment to hatred against any sect whatever, upon account of its name, we ought in the first place to have competently examined the nature of the institution, and traced out its qualities from the author, or the author from them; but both these ways of inquiry are quite neglected, and our enemies storm and fire at a word only.
Our heavenly Master and His heaverily religion are both unknown, and both condemned, without any other consideration but that of the bare name of Christian.
CHAPTER IV.
THAT HUMAN LAWS MAY ERR, AND THEREFORE MAY
BE MENDED.
Tuus far I have been something severe, as it were, by way of preface, to make men sensible if I could of the injustice of the 1 Erasistratus.
This physician is mentioned by ourTertullian, lib. de an. cap. 15; Pliny fixes his life, 47. u7b. cond. 450, lib, xiv. cap. 7, and mentions his school, lib. xx. cap. 9, and again, lib. xxix. cap. 2, makes him the disciple of Chrysippus, and Aristotle's daughter's son, who for the cure of King Antiochus
- had of his son Ptolemy a fee of an hundred talents.
2 Aristarchus.
A noted grammarian of Alexandria, Aristotle's contemporary, tutor to the son of Ptolemy Philometer, celebrated by Tully, ad Appium
Pulchrum, Nib. iii. epist. 11, for distinguishing the genuine verses of Iiomer, and so likewise by Ovid :— Corrigere at res est tanto magis ardua, quanto
Magnus Aristarcho major Homerus erat, Ov. Pont.
And so again by Horace, ad Pisones, — Arguet ambigue dictum, mutanda notabit, poke Fiet Aristarchus, '
3 Apicius.
An epicure of famous memory, styled by Pliny Méepotum omnium altissimus Gurges ; and so again by Juvenal :—
P Quid enim majore cachinno Excipitur vulgi, quam pauper Apicius ? a
Tertullian''s Apology for the Christians. public odium against us; and now I shall stay awhile upon the subject of our innocence.
And here I shall not only refute the objections against us, but retort those very objections against the objectors themselves, to let the world see that Christians are not the men they take them to be, nor sullied with those crimes they are conscious of in themselves; and to see also whether I can make our accusers blush, not by charging them in general, as the worst of men accusing the best, but supposing us both upon the level of iniquity, I shall touch upon all the particulars we are taxed with for committing in private, and for which we are publicly
~_ branded as immoral, superstitious, damnable, and ridiculous ; these very crimes, I say, which you grant we have not the forehead to do without the protection of darkness, we find our enemies hardy enough to commit in the face of the sun.
But. because we meet you with unanswerable truth at all your turnings, your last resort is to the authority of the laws, as more inviolable than truth itself; and it being so frequently in your mouths, either that nothing ought to be revoked after once condemned by law; or that your sworn obedience is a necessity upon your actions, weightier than that of justice.
I shall first' enter upon the obligation due to human laws with you who are the sworn protectors of them.
'First then, when you rigidly insist upon this, that Christianity is against law, and prescribe against dispensing one jot with the letter. upon any considerations of equity, this, I say, is acting iniquity by law; and you sit rather like tyrants than judges of a court, willing a thing to be unlawful, because you will, and not because it is so. But if your will is regulated by the measures of good and evil, and you forbid a thing because it ought to be forbidden, then certainly, by this rule of right reason, you cannot license evil, nor forbid the obligations of doing good.
If I find a prohibition issued out against the laws of nature, do not I conclude such a prohibition to be invalid?
Whereas, if the matter — of it be lawful, I never dispute my obedience,! nor think it strange
1 Quod sxmalum esset, jure prohiberet.
Here we have the measures of obedience ~ due to human Jaws briefly stated by Tertullian:
'' For," says he, '' where nothing is commanded, either against the law of nature, or the positive law of God, I hever dispute my obedience."
Had the primitive Christians refused obedience to the civil magistrate, in matters indifferent, Christianity, humanly speaking, had never been a national religion, and if our dissenting brethren would be decided by this rule, and, according to Tertullian, comply with the magistrate's commands, in everything not unlawful in itself, or with respect to the plain
Tertullian's A [pology for the Christians.
———oe. if your laws are sometimes in the wrong, since they are but the composures of men, and not the commands of God.
Is it so strange to see mortals out of the way in making laws, and wiser upon experience, and repealing what they once approved?
Did not the laws even of Lycurgus suffer amendments?
_ Was not their severity sweetened by the Spartans, and better accommodated to civil use?
And did not this alteration go so near the great lawere ey "= ale a giver's heart that he quitted his country in a pet, and pined himself to death, being his own judge and his own executioner?
Does not your experience light you every day to the mistakes and rubbish of antiquity?
And have you not cut down a huge and horrid wood of old laws, and planted the new edicts and rescripts of the emperors
~ in their stead?
Did not Severus, of all the emperors least given to change, lately alter the Papian law,! vainly solicitous about the propagation of children before the time allowed for matrimony by the Julian law without any respect to the venerableness of antiquity ?
And insolvent debtors, by the laws, were.to be chopped in pieces by their creditors ;2 but these sanguinary statutes were by succeeding ages repealed, and the capital punishment commuted into a mark of infamy, together with the sale of their goods, it being
~ Word of God, they would then, and not till then, fulfil the apostle's injunction of doing all that is possible, and as much as lieth in them to live peaceably with all men.
But if the magistrate cannot lawfully command in things where neither the natural nor the positive law of God interpose to the contrary, he can command in nothing, because such things only can be subject to his disposal.
1 Vanissimas Papias leges que ante liberos suscipit cogunt, quam Jul. Matr. contr.
Concerning these laws, see Rigaltius and Pamelius upon this place.
* But that which I remark is, that Scaliger would infer from the following words that this Apology was not composed till a little after the death of Severus, because it is said, here Severus, etc., exclusit ; but I confess I cannot see why lately repealing may not agree to a living prince as well as a dead one.
But I shall show this opinion to be evidently a mistake of Scaliger in the sequel of this
Apolopy.s -~ > :
2 Judicatos retro in partes secavi a Creditoribus Leges erant.
Here he evidently alludes to the law of the twelve tables, cap. viii. de mex7s; for thus it runs, Zertiis nundints capite panas luito, aut trans Tiberim peregré ito, est st plures erunt rei, tertits nundinis. Partis. secanto. st. plus minus, ve. secuerunt.
Se. fraude, esto.
The meaning of which, as it is explained by A. Gellius, Aoct. Ai. lib. xx., is this: Debt was a captital crime by law, and the creditor might either have the life of the insolvent, or send him beyond Tibur to be sold for a slave;
— but if the insolvent was indebted to more than one, the creditors might eut him
- into pieces in proportion to every one's debt.
And this barbarity he justifies — only by the end and design of the lawgivers, which was not so much to punish as to prevent men from running into debt by the severity of the punishment, for he tells us he never read of one-debtor dissected, Quoniam sevitia ista Teme contemni non quita est ; but for bonds and imprisonment rogues value them not, and run in debt continually.
B men ; erik
Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. looked upon better to put the offender to open shame than to let _ out his blood for debt.
And how many laws think you are still behind which want revising, that are not valuable for their number of years, or the dignity of their founder, but upon the account of justice only?
And therefore if they are found not to be according to this standard are deservedly condemned, although we are condemned by them.
And if they punish for a mere name, they are not' only to be exploded for their iniquity, but to be hissed off the world for their folly.
But if the laws are to take cognizance of actions only, why are we punished for the name of our sect, when
© no others are so punished?
I am guilty of incest, or have killed a ~ child, suppose, why don't you make inquiry after my crimes, and extort them from me by confession upon the rack?
I have injured the gods or emperors,why am I not to be heard on these points ?
Surely no law can forbid the discussion of what it is to condemn, because no judge can justly proceed to sentence before he is -well apprised of the illegality of the fact; nor can a-citizen justify his obedience to a law, while he apprehends not the quality of the action it is to punish ; for it is by no means sufficient that a law be good in itself, but that goodness also must be made appear to him who is to put it-in execution ; and that law is much to be suspected that does not care to be looked into, but is notoriously tyrannical, if after it is looked into would reign a law still in defiance of reason.
— Oe
CHAPTERLNV.
he?
THAT THE WISEST OF THE EMPERORS HAVE BEEN PROTECTORS
OF THE CHRISTIANS.
_ Bur to see the rashness and injustice of the laws against us, let us _ €ast an eye back upon their original, and we shall find an old
_ decree,' whereby the emperor himself was disabled from consecrat- ®, ihe : tes oy oe Fe 1 Vetus erat Decretum ne qui Deus ab Imperatore consecraretur nist a Senatu probatus.
Rigaltius mentions something like this extant in the fragments of Ulpian, and Pamelius gives the decree itself from Crinitus de hon. discipl: lib.
— 'X, cap. 3.
Separatim nemo sit habens Deos novos sive Advenas, nisi publice adscitos privatim colunto, By virtue of this ancient decree it was that the people, notwithstanding any edicts of the emperors to the contrary, persecuted
__ the Christians. Vid. Euseb. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 2, Where upon the account given by Pontius Pilate, Tiberius applied to the senate to make him a god,
re es = (ae x Tertullian's A pology for the Christians.
_ ing a new god, without the approbation of the senate.
M. A'milius learnt this with a witness, in the case of his god Alburnus.!~ And this makes not a little for the honour of Christianity, to see the heathens in consult about making gods; and if the god is not such a deity as they like, he is like to be no God for them.
Strange!
That the god is first to pray the man to be propitious, before the man will allow of his godship.
By virtue of this old decree it was that Tiberius,? in whose reign Christianity came into ee Oe eee ' the world, having received intelligence from Judea about the 'a. o> miracles of Christ, proposed it to the senate, and used_his prerogative for getting Him enrolled among the number of their gods.
The senate, indeed, refused the proposal, as having not maturely weighed His qualifications for a deity; but Cesar stood to his resolution, and issued out severe penalties against all who should accuse the worshippers of Christ: i ee Consult your annals, and there you will find Nero* the first emperor who dyed his sword in Christian blood, when our religion was but just arising at Rome ; but we glory in being first dedicated to destruction by such a monster: for whoever knows that enemy of all goodness will have the greater value for our religion, as knowing that Nero could hate nothing exceedingly, but what was exceedingly good.
A long time after, Domitian, a limb of this ~ bloody Nero, makes some like attempts against the Christians ; but being not all Nero, or cruelty in perfection, the remains of struggling humanity stopped the enterprize, and made him recall the Christians he banished.
The Christian persecutors have been always men of this complexion, divested. of justice, piety, and common shame ; > , '1 De Deo suo Alburno.
This Alburnus is mentioned, lib. adv. Marcion, cap.
18, and seems to have been consecrated in the consulship of M. Atmilius, az.
Mites
ea - urb. cond. 638. He was called Alburnus from a mountain in Lucania of the same name.
= Est Lucus silari circum, tlictbusg.; virentem Plurimus Alburnum volitans, etc. Virg. Geo. 3.
_ 2 Tiberius ergo, cujus tempore nomen Christianum in feculum introivit.
This * is to be understood of the resurrection of Christ, when the Christian faith first began to be published to the Gentile world.
° Consulite commentarios vestros.He alludes to the annals of Tacitus, lib. xv., or rather to Suetonius in the Life of Nero.
4 Cesariano gladio primum ferocisse.
It is agreed-upon by all writers, that the first general persecution began under Nero, as likewise that the second did under Domitian; for. that in Judea and Samaria, mentioned in the Acts, cap. viii., was but a particular persecution in some parts only, and not set on foot by the Gentiles but the Jews. ram ." aa
(Sch aes ertullian's Apology for the Christeans.
| upon whose government you yourselves have set a brand, and rescinded their acts,! by restoring those whom they condemned.
But of all the emperors down to this present reign, who understood anything of religion or humanity, name me one who persecuted the Christians.
On the contrary, we show you the excellent M. Aurelius for our protector and patron ; for if you look into his. letters,? you will find him there testifying that his army in Germany being just upon perishing with thirst, some Christian soldiers which happened to be in his troops, did by the power of prayer fetch down a prodigious shower to the relief of the whole army; for which the grateful prince, though he could not publicly set aside the penal laws, yet he did as well, he publicly rendered them ineffectual another' way, by discouraging our accusers with the last of punishments, viz. burning alive.
Reflect a little now, I pray you, upon the nature of these laws, which only the most consummate villains in impiety, injustice, filthiness, folly,.and madness ever put in execution against us ; which laws Trajan? in part evacuated by his edict against searching for Christians ; and neither Hadrian' the inquisitive, whose genius
1 Quos et ipsi damnare consuestis.
The edicts of Nero and Domitian both were rescinded by the senate, and Nerva their successor.
But the old law was still in forcé, which forbade the worshipping of any new god, without the approbation of the senate.
* Si Litere Marci Aurelii requirantur.
This rescript of Marcus Aurelius you will find annexed to Justin's First A [pology ; and though it is disputable whether that rescript be genuine, yet it is evident beyond dispute, both from Justin and Tertullian, that there was such a rescript in favour of the Christians. i ° Quas Trajanus ex parte frustratus est.
Tt is not without good reason that Tertullian says in part evacuated, for the third persecution commenced under Trajan.
It is true, indeed, he published no general edict against the Christians, but the manner of his answer to Pliny (vd. Plin. lib. x. ep. 103, p. 633; wherein, as Tertullian smartly remarks, the rescript did combat, and contradict itself, in forbidding Christians to be searched after, and yet punished when found) was abundantly sufficient to reinflame magistrate and people, who were ready to take fire upon the least encouragement against the Christians,
Besides, he issued out solemn edicts to his officers to Suppress all private cabals and associations ; and this occasioned fresh searches after Christians, and prevented their ordinary assemblies.
Vd. Plin, ep. 35, 99, 123; ep. 104, p. 632.
In this reign, strict inquisition was made after all the descendants from David, and Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, was therefore taken up and murdered.
Euseb., lib. lil. cap. 32, p. 104.
And though this was a very grievous persecution, yet was it not universal.
Euseb. lib. iii. Cap. 33, Pp. 105, cap. 32, p. 103.
{ * Quas nullus Adrianus.
Sulpicius Severus, and he alone, places the fourth persecution under Adrian.
Vd, Sulp. lib. ii, cap. 45, p. 150.
But whatever this persecution was, it is plain from Tertullian and Melito, bishop of Sardis,
tech oN oer.
7, ertullian's Apology for the Christians.
no doubt led him into the curiosities of our religion, nor Vespasian,! who must know something of it too by conquering the Jews, nor a Pius," nor Verus® ever took the advantage of the laws against us ; and therefore were we Christians, in truth, the worst of men, you cannot think we should have been thus spared, and protected vid, Euseb. lib. iv. cap. 26, p. 148, that it was not occasioned by any imperial edict.
Adrian was initiated in all the Greecian rites, and especially in the Eleusinian Mysteries, which St. Jerome remarks as the principal cause of this persecution, Ady. vit. p. 11.
He was extremely addicted to judicial astrology, and to all sorts of divination, even to magic, Dio, lib. 69, p. 793, insomuch that he is. severely censured by the heathens themselves for his extravagant superstition, Amm. lib. xxv. p. 294.
And if magic raised a persecution under Valerianus, who in the beginning of his reign was so great a friend to Christians, and whose family so abounded with men of piety, that his house seemed to be the church of God, Euseb. lib. vii. cap. 10, we need not wonder that this black art should have the same influence upon Adrian.
But this persecution was happily put an end to, by the Apologies of Quadratus and Aristides, Euseb, lib. iil. cap. 37, p209.
The eloquence and reason of these two apologists was _seconded by a letter from Serenius Granianus, proconsul of Asia, Euseb. lib. iv. cap. 8, p. 122, and many other governors followed this example, Euseb. lib. iv. cap. 13, p. 127.
Adrian, unable to resist these just and pressing solicitations, wrote to Minucius Fundanus, Granianus's successor, not to punish a Christian
'but upon good proof of some crime against the public; and to punish the false 'accuser just as the Christian should have been had he been found guilty.
This rescript was very famous among the ancients; it is celebrated as very advantageous to the Christian cause, not only by Eusebius in his Chronic., but by S. Severus lib. ii. cap. 45, p. 150, by Orosius, lib. vii. cap. 12, and annexed by Justin to his
Apology, and translated into Greek by Eusebius, lib. iv. cap. 9, p. 123.
1 Nullus Vespasianus.
Vid. Joseph. de Bell. Jud. lib. iii. iv. v. vi. vil.
2 Nullus Pius.
This was Antoninus, to whom Justin Martyr addresses his rst Apology, and whose rescript to the commons of Asia he annexes to it, and is translated into Greek by Euseb. lib. cap. 13.
And though there was no edict of 'Pius out against the Christians, yet by the authority of the old decree, they suffered very much in many places, which occasioned Justin's First Apology.
3 Nullus Verus.
It is a matter of some difficulty to determine who this emperot was, for the cognomen Verus was given to M. Aurelius as well as to Lucius.
Vid. Jul. Capitol. in vit. M. Aurelii, But it is most probable that M.
Aurelius was the emperor, especially if Lucius Verus was dead before the persecution, as some imagine, Nicephor. lib. iii. cap. 14.
And it is observable, that Athenagoras dedicates his Apology to M. Aurelius and Lu. Commodus, and not to Lucius Verus.
However this be, certain it is that this was a most bloody persecution, in which Polycarp and Justin, and the martyrs of Vienna and Lyons were put to death; the reading of the prophets, and the sibyls, and whatever else might serve the Christian cause was forbidden, says Justin, upon pain of death, Afol. i. sec.
59.
This is counted the fourth persecution by all but S. Severus, who calls it the fifth.
But then it is observed by Eusebius, lib. v. cap. I, that it was set on foot, not by any edict of Aurelius, but by popular
= tw ae ae tumult.
If we read Severus instead of Verus, as Pamelius is most inclined to, then is it evident that when this Apology was written, Severus had issuedout no edict against the Christians.