CHAPTER IX
30 ~©= Tertullian's A pology Jor the Christians.
CHAPTER IX.
THAT THE PAGANS ARE GUILTY BOTH IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC
OF THE SAME CRIMES THEY CHARGE UPON CHRISTIANS.
- Bur for a fuller confutation I come now to prove that the heathens are guilty both in the dark, and in the face of the sun, of acting the same abominations they charge upon Christians, and their own _ guiltiness, perhaps, is the very thing which disposes them to believe
— the like of others.
Infants have been sacrificed to Saturn publicly in Africa,! even to the proconsulship of Tiberius, who devoted the very trees about Saturn's temple to be gibbets for his priests, as accomplices in the murder, for contributing the protection of their shadow to such wicked practices.
For the truth of this I appeal to the militia of my own country, who served the proconsul in the execution of this order.
But these abominations are continued to this day in private.
Thus you see that the Christians are not the only men who act in defiance of your laws; nor can all your severity pull up this wickedness by the roots, nor will your immortal
. alter his abominable worship upon any consideration; for since Saturn could find in his heart to eat up his own children, you may
~ be sure he would continue his stomach for those of other people ~~ who are obliged to bring their own babes, and sacrifice them with ~ their own hands, giving them the tenderest of words, when they are just upon cutting their throats, not out of any bowels of compassion, but for fear they should unhollow the mystery, and spoil the sacrifice with tears.
And now, in my opinion, this parricide of 1 Infantes penes Africam Saturno palam immolabantur, etc.
The heathens had a notion (however they came by it is not tomy present purpose to conjecture) that repentance alone was not sufficient to atone the Divine wrath without a bloody sacrifice, and therefore the blood of man and beast was brought in to supply the deficiency.
Accordingly among the Phcenicians and Carthaginians it had been an ancient custom to choose by lot some children of the best quality for a sacrifice, and for those upon whom the lot fell there was no redemption.
And they were likewise dressed according to their quality in the richest apparel to make the sacrifice more splendid.
And having omitted these human sacrifices for some time, and during that omission being overcome by Agathocles, they offered two hundred sons of the nobility upon their altars to atone the deity for the neglect
~ of human sacrifices.
Ved. Plat. dzal. entitled Minos Dionys. Halicar. lib. i., Diodor. Sic. lib. xx., Lactan. lib, i. cap. 21, Euseb. Prepar. Evang. lib. iv., and Silius Ital. at the end of the fourth book speaks thus of Carthage :—
~ Mos fuit in populis, guos conditit advena Dido.
(Lnfandum dictu) Parvos imponere natos.
4 yo Tertullian's A polog ) for the Christians.
Af yours, or slaughtering your own children, outdoes the simple homicide charged upon us by many degrees of barbarity.
But infants are not the only offerings, for the Gauls cut a man to pieces upon the altars of Mercury,! in the flower of his strength.
I omit the human sacrifices at Diana's Temple? in Taurica Chersonesus, which are the arguments of your tragedies, and which you seem to countenance by being so often at the theatres.
But behold! in ao wy pret) ' that most religious city of the pious descendants of pious Aineas,
_ there is a certain Jupiter,? whom at your religious games you pro- — fitiate with human blood in abundance.
But these, say you, are _ bestiarian men, criminals already condemned to die by beasts.
_ Alas-a-day! these are not men, I warrant ye, because they are _ condemned men; and are not your gods wonderfully beholden to _ you for offering to them such vile fellows?
However that be; this.c): is certain, it is human blood.
O brave Christian Jove! your father's only son and heir in cruelty, worshipped with human blood,
~ as the God of the Christians is falsely reported to be.
But because, if you kill a child, it is not a farthing difference whether you kill it foy a sacrifice, or for your own will (for killing a child will 'be always a crime, though not always equal, parricide being worse than mere homicide), since this, I say, is so, I shall now apply myself upon this subject unto the people of all ranks and conditions.
How many about me might I justly reproach upon this head, not only of the mobcontinually blooded with Christians, and continually
* Major atas apud Gallos Mercurio prosecatur.
Cicero in Orat. pro M. Fonteio, 'speaking of the Gauls, has these words :—Quzs enim zenorat eos usgue ad hance
_ diem retinere illam immanem ac barbaram consuetudinem hominum immo_ landorum?
And in his third book,. de Divinat., he mentions five Mercurys _ and makes Mercury Theutates the fifth who slew Argos, and for that flew into _ Egypt, and there instructed the Egyptians in laws and letters, from which _ 'Theutates the first. month of their year, that is September, was called Theuth. a This was the Mercury the Gauls sacrifice to, and which Lucan in his first book
_ refers to. vs Lx guibus immitis placatur sanguine diro
Lin ; Theutates, horrensque feris Altaribus Hesus.
_ See more in Lactantius, lib. i. sec. 21, 50, Liv. 3, dec. lib. vi., Cuesar, lib. Vi., de bell, Gall.
*Remitto Tauricas Fabulas.
Herodotus in his fourth book says it was a "custom among the Tauri to sacrifice every year the hundredth captive to Diana ; and Lucan having spoken of Theutates and Hesus, adds :—
Et Taranis Scythice non mitior ara Diane.
See P. Orosius in his preface to his fifth book, and Lactan. lib. i, sec. 21, p. 50, concerning the bloody rite of sacrificing strangers to Diana Taurica.
_ _ 3 Jupiter quidam.
Vid. Lactan. lib. i, sec.
21, p. 50.
This was Jupiter Latiaris. m
Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. gaping for more, but also of you, presidents of cities and provinces, who have been the severest against us upon this very score?
How many, I say, of both sorts might I deservedly charge with intantmurder?
And not only so, but among the different kinds of death, for choosing some of the cruellest for their own children, such as drowning, or starving with cold or hunger, or exposing to the mercy of dogs, dying by the sword being too sweet a death for children, ~ and such as a man would choose to fall by sooner than by any other ways of violence.
But Christians now are so far from homicide, that with them it | is utterly unlawful to make away a child in the womb, when nature is in deliberation about the man; for to kill a child before it is born is to commit murder by way of advance; and there is no difference whether you destroy a child in its formation, or after it_ is formed and delivered.
For we Christians look upon him as a man, who is one in embryo; for he is in being, like the fruit in~ blossom, and in a little time would have been a perfect man, had nature met with no disturbance.
As for the inhuman customs of banqueting upon blood, and such tragical dishes, you may read (for it is related by Herodotus,' I think) how that certain nations having opened a vein in their arm, solemnly drank of each other's blood for the confirmation of treaties ; and something like this Catiline? put in practice in his conspiracy.
1 Est apud Herodotum opinor, etc.
Herodotus in his first book reports that it was the solemn way among the Medes and Lydians in making of leagues to strike each other on the shoulders with a naked sword, and then for the parties mutually to lick up the blood; and in his fourth book he tells us that the Scythian rite of entering into league was to fill a large cup of blood and wine mixed together (the blood of both the parties confederating), and having dipped their swords and arrows into it, to pledge each other in it, and so by turns drink it off.
And Possidonius, and from him Athenceus, lib. ii. cap. 2, relates that the Germans at their banquets opened a vein in their face, and the parties mutually drinking up each other's blood, mixed with wine, was the ratification of the treaty.
. So much human blood was there spilt, especially in sacrificing to devils, till Christ came and redeemed us from the powers of darkness, and put an end to all bloody sacrifices, by that of Himself once made upon the cross.
RS 2 Nescio quid et sub Catilina degustatum est.
The words of Sallust concerning Catiline are these—/wére ed Tempestate, gui dicerent Catilinam oratione habita cum ad jusjurandum Populares sceleric sut addicerent, Humant Corporis sanguinem vino permistum in pateres circumtulisse ; inde cum post execrationem omnes degustdssent, sicuti in solemnibus sacris fiert consuevit, dicitur aperuisse consilium, etc.
I have set down this of Sallust at large, because as it stands in the notes of Pamelius it is printed or quoted false in two places, and the last part quite omitted, which shows it to be a customary rite in some countries.
> =" oY I 4 i ty T. ertullian's Apology for the Christians. er) xh ms 3a It is likewise reported that in some Scythi
Vir, ci c an families the surviving _ friends eat up the dead ones,!
But I need for we have now at this day as barbarou Bellona's priests 2 lancing their thighs, not go so far as Scythia, S ceremonies at home; and taking up their own sacred A X¥ wed theatres for the cure of their disease, intercept the reeking blood as it comes gushing from the gladiators'
greediness.
What shall we say of those who gorge themselves with ___ the beasts they kill upon the stage, who demand a piece of the boar,
___ or the stag that is covered over with their own blood in the combat > Nay, the very paunches * of boars stuffed with the crude indigested
entrails of men are dishes much in vogue ; and so man belches up _. man by surfeiting upon beasts fed with men.
You who eat thus, bless me, how differently do you eat from Christians?
But what i can we think of men so perfectly brutish as to lick up the very first principles of life and blood, and so diet upon child and parent both
_ _ atthe same time?
For shame therefore blush when you meet a — throats, and swill it off with oa a - €hristian, who will not endure a drop of the blood of any animal among his victuals, and therefore for fear any should be lodged
> among the entrails, we abstain from things strangled, and such as die of themselves.
Lastly, among other experiments for the discovery of Christians this is one, to present them with blood puddings, as very well knowing our opinion about the unlawfulness of eating blood. "
This, I say, is the stumbling-block and offence you lay in the way of | Christians ; and what a strange thing is it, that you who are confi_ dent that the Christians are so religiously averse to the blood of ; beasts, should imagine them so sharp set upon the blood of men?
} Apud gquosdam gentiles Scytharum.
Vid, Alex. ab Alex. tom, i, lib, iii, cap. 2,_ And the notes of Tiraquell upon him.
2 Hodie isthic Bellone sacratus sanguis de femore proscisso, In allusion to which Lucan, lib. i.— ; Diraque per populum Cumane Carmina vatis
Vulgantur, tum quos sectis Bellona lacertis Seva monet, etc.
See more upon this in Beroaldus, and Lactan, lib. i. sec, 21, cate ss 5 Ursorum alvei appetuntur crudit antes adhuc de wesceribus humanis.
To such a degree of luxury, or rather bestiality, were the Romans grown, that a bear's
_ paunch stuffed with the reeking viscera or guts of gladiators was reckoned a rare dish, and by the sumptuary laws against luxury I find that Verrina and Abdomina
(which I take to be the same with these alvet) were forbidden at feasts.
Vd.
Plin. lib. viii-cap, 51.
Tertullian's Apology for the Christians.
This could never be, unless you had tasted the blood of both, and found that of men to be the sweeter temptation ; which therefore you should make like the censer of incense, to be another touchstone of a Christian; and so he might be detected as well by - ; accepting the blood as refusing the sacrifice, and in like manner be put to death for tasting as he is now for sacrificing.
And you the judges of life and death, need never fear the want of human blood to make the experiment.
As for incest, where can you look to find such human monsters so likely as among the worshippers of an incestuous Jove?
We have the authority of Ctesias+ for the Persians mixing with their mothers.
And the Macedonians are . suspected, because when they first heard the tragical lamentations
— of CEdipus for this sin with his mother Jocasta, they cried out in ridicule—éAavve eis tiv pytrépa,—Courage, noble warrior, and go on bravely against your mother.
Recollect now with yourselves, and you will see what a licence there is for incest, from some errors which must necessarily seduce into it, by the help and fuel of lust and luxury.
For, first, you expose your sons to be taken up by the next passenger who happens to come by with more bowels than yourselves, or you emancipate them from all relation to you, in order to be adopted into nobler families ; and by both these -kinds of alienation it cannot well be, but that the knowledge of your children in some time must wear out and vanish; and for want of this knowledge, when the un- "natural mixture has once taken root, it spreads continually, and the original stain diffuses itself from generation to generation.
And _ then.also you have an inseparable companion of your lust in every place ; it sticks to you at home, and travels with you by land, and takes shipping with you at sea; and by this ubiquitarian lust, brothers and sisters may easily come together like the scattered seed in a wide field, and as travellers often do by the help of commerce,
~ and mix in strange confusions, without the parties knowing anything of the relation.
But as for Christians, their inviolable chastity is a hedge about them against such unhappy accidents; and by how
1 Persas cum Matribus misceri Ctesias refert.
Some fragments of Ctesias — were published by Henry Stephens; but for the incest of the Persians it is notorious.
See Strabo, lib. v. ad fin., Curtius, lib, vii., and Catullus in Gel/ium sings thus :— en Nascatur Magus ex Gelli Matrisque nefando
Concubitu, et discat Persicum aruspicium, Nam Magus ex Matre et Nato gignatur oportet,
St vera est Persarum impia Religio.
Tertullian's Apology for the Christians.
much the purer they keep themselves from fornication and adultery, by so much the more, no doubt, are they preserved secure from the chance of incest.
N ay, Some among us, for fear of such disorders, have put themselves beyond the possibility of this sin, by a perpetual virginity, by preserving the innocence of a child to the extremity of age.
If now, therefore, you would turn your eyes inward, and see the guilt in yourselves, you would see innocence in us, for contraries are best seen together ; but you labour under a twofold blindness, which is, not to see things that are, and to seem to see things which really are not; the truth of this I will show in its proper place by an induction of particulars, but at present I shall pass to matters of 'more notorious evidence.
' ES CHAPTER IX
THAT THE GODS OF THE GENTILES ARE NO GODS.
' You say we are atheists, and will not be at the expense of a sacrifice for the life of the emperors ; and if the first be true, the consequence is just, for if we will not offer to the gods for ourselves, it is not likely we should do it for others.
It is upon this _account, therefore, that we are convened as guilty of sacrilege and treason; this I take to be the main article, and may be looked upon as the sum of the charge against us, and therefore deserves: a particular discussion ; and we doubt not to acquit ourselves in this
_ point, if prejudice and injustice be not our judges ; prejudice, I say, which presumes things that are false to be true, and injustice, which rejects evident truth when heard.
We profess, then, to have laid aside the worship of your gods, from the time we knew them to be no gods ; that therefore which you are to expect from us is, that we disprove them to be gods,
-and consequently not to be worshipped ; for if they are gods, wate. ha ae as RE ae devotion no doubt is their due, and the Christians ought to be punished for deserting the gods, out of an opinion that they are not gods, if it can be made appear that they are.
But gods they are, say you; for the truth of this we appeal from your words to your conscience, let that be our judge, and let that condemn us, if
> a et Soe
EG Tertullian's A pology for the Christians. you can deny all those you now worship for gods once to have been men.
If you can be hearty in this denial, you shall be convinced of the mistake from your own antiquities testifying against them to this day, from the cities where they were born, and the countries where they left impressions of frailty; and alas! where the very tombs of the immortals are shown.
But I will not presume to run over the whole inventory of deities, their numbers. are formidable ; there are your new and old gods,!
Greeks and Barbarians, Romans, strangers, captives, adoptives, proper, common, male and female, country, city, sea and camp gods.
A man must have wondrous little to do with his time to give out their titles by retail, and so I shall lump them together, and speak of them only in gross; and this not to improve your knowledge, but only to quicken your memories, for you seem much inclined to forget many of your gods.
First, then, Saturn with you is the eldest deity in worship; from him we are to begin our reckoning of all your gods, of the most noted especially, and most in vogue, and he being the original god, we may judge of all his posterity from him.
As much therefore as we can learn from history, we find that neither Diodorus the Greek, or Thallus, or Cassius Severus, or Cornelius Nepos, or any other commentator of antiquities speak of Saturn any otherwise than as ofa man.
And if you would argue from things T cannot think of a place that can supply you with arguments so well as"
Italy ; for there you may trace Saturn in the most expressive prints of man.
After many expeditions from Greece, you will find him' landed in your own country, and there by the consent of Janus or Janes (as the Salii call him) taking up his seat, the hill he inhabited called after his own name Saturninus, and the city he founded, —
Saturnia, to this day; and at length all Italy succeeded to this title, — after that of CEnotria.
The invention of writing,? and' coining the 1 Novos Veteres, Barbaros, etc:
After the most diligent collection, Varro hasmustered up an army -of gods to the tune of above thirty thousand.
The. explanation of the titles, and some instances of each of the sort of gods mentioned, you may see in Pamelius upon this place; but for a fuller and more distinct ~ account I refer to Alex. ab Alex. lib. ii, p. 379, and lib, vi. cap. 4, PP: 433
— and 436.
* Ab ipso primum Tabule, et Imagine signatus nummus et inde Afrario presidet, This /Erarium or treasure-house, of which Saturn was president, was not only the public exchequer, but in it likewise were kept the Acts of the Senate, the books of records, and the Libri Elephantini, so called from their bigness, in, which all the names of the citizens were registered, and from fhese books, —
Te ertullian's A pology for the Christians.
money with the king's image, you ascribe to Saturn; and for that Treason you make him patron of the public treasury, which is placed in his temple.
But now if Saturn was a man, and consequently the son of a man, he could not properly be the son of heaven and earth, And it was very natural for a person of an unknown race to be fathered upon these two, whose children in some sense we may be all said to be; for, considering how much our lives are all owing to the concurrent influences of heaven and earth, who does not by way of respect honour them with the title of common parents?
Or it might come to pass from a custom of saying a person dropped from the skies, when he stepped in, unknown and unexpected by those about him.
And so Saturn, from his surprising _ appearance in Italy, might be said to come from heaven,
Besides, @ person of an uncertain family had usually the denomination of a son of earth ;! not to mention the rudeness of those times when the people were struck with the sight of a stranger as at the presence
_ of a god; since the refined spirits of this polished age have made Improvements of the folly, and raised them up into gods whom the other day they solemnly attended to the funeral.
This is enough In reason to say about Saturn, though it is but little.
I shall now _ do as much for Jove, and show him to be a mere man, as well as entituled Zasule publica, the treasury was called Tabularium.
See Servius upon that of Virgil, lib. ii. Georg.
Aut Populi Tabularia vidit.
Imagine Signatus, Macrobius, Saturn. lib. i. cap. 7, reports that Janus having entertained Saturn, who came to him by ship, and having made him co-partner of his kingdom for the good instructions he received from him, the first money
_ he stamped (which was brass) he impressed on one side the image of himself, and on the other the fore-deck of a ship, in memory of Saturn, according to that of Ovid. i. fast.
Multa quidem didicd ; sed cur navalis in ere Altera signata est, altera Forma biceps?
At bona Posteritas puppem formavit in are flospitis adventum testificata Dei.
= _ Pliny in lib. xxxiii. cap. 3, says that Servitis Tullius was the first who stamped
Pee Tee brass money with the image of beasts, and so from fecude the word pecunia.
Afterwards the images of the Czesars, with inscriptions and titles, were impressed upon the coin; so Nero in the habit of a harper.
Sueton. zz wit. Wer. and Alexander Severus in the habit of Alexander the Great, etc.
YS) Aue 1 Terre filios vulgus vocat, quorum genus est incertum.
Thus is Tytius called both-by Homer and Virgil, *"Hyov txoWopevar cirvdv yeimioy viov,
Odyss. lib. vii., and so again, lib. xi., Ka) rirudy eidov yains tpinddeos vidv.
Nec non et Tytium Terre omnipotentis Alumnum.
- a est, Filium, according to Servius.
- Virgil, 4nezd, lib. vi.