Chapter 1
TO THE MARTYRS
Chapter 1 lessed martyrs elect,1 along with the nourishment for the body which our Lady Mother the Church2 from her breast, as well as individual brethren from their private resources, furnish you in prison,3 accept also from me some offering that will contribute to the sustenance of the spirit. For it is not good that the flesh
1 'Blessed' (benedicti) was an appellation given especially to catechu mens and neophytes. The addressees are headed for martyrdom, hence
Tertullian calls them 'martyrs elect' (martyres designati) ; the more common title for those awaiting martyrdom was 'confessors.'
2 The notion of the Church as a mother occurs here for the first time in early Latin Christian literature. Two earlier instances of 'Mother' as a direct appellative for the Church are found in Greek Christian literature, namely, in a letter written in 177 or the year following by the Christian communities of Lyons and Vienne to their brethren in Asia Minor and Phrygia (Eusebius,
Hist. eccl. 5.1.1-2.8) . Cf. J. Plumpe, Mater Ecclesia. An Inquiry into the Concept of the Church as Mother in Early Christianity
(Washington, D. C. 1943) 35-62.
3 In his Montanist period Tertullian bitterly denounced the custom of sending food to brethren awaiting martyrdom in prison, on the ground that this practice only weakened their preparedness for the final conflict. Cf. De ieiunio 12.2-3.
TERTULLIAN
be feasted while the spirit goes hungry. Indeed, if care is bestowed on that which is weak, there is all the more reason not to neglect that which is still weaker.4 (2) Not that I am specially entitled to exhort you. Yet, even the most accomplished gladiators are spurred on not only by their trainers and managers but also from afar by people inex perienced in this art and by all who choose, without the slightest need for it, with the result that hints issuing from the crowd have often proved profitable for them.
(3) In the first place, then, O blessed, 'do not grieve the Holy Spirit55 who has entered prison with you. For, if He had not accompanied you there in your present trial, you would not be there today. See to it, therefore, that He remain with you there and so lead you out of that place to the Lord.6 (4) Indeed, the prison is the Devil's house, too, where he keeps his household. But you have come to the prison for the very purpose of trampling upon him7 right in his own house. For you have engaged him in battle already outside the prison and trampled him underfoot.
(5) Let him, therefore, not say: 'Now that they are in my domain, I will tempt them with base hatreds, with defections or dissensions among themselves.' Let him flee from your presence, and let him, coiled and numb, like a snake that is driven out by charms or smoke, hide away in the depths
Cf. Matt. 26.41; Mark 14.38.
Eph. 4.30.
In fhY'r CJrifian literature death is often referred to as a going to the Lord (migratio ad Dommum). Cf. A. C. Rush, Death and £wna/ m Christian Antiquity (Washington, D.C. 19411 54-7]
Sr ihst°vSonPeZeTle gt Felicitatuis 4' where Perpetua describes her first vision In her ascent to heaven on a golden ladder on torture she st a Were fi*ed a11 kinds instruments of torture, she saw a dragon crouching under the first step and frightening those who ascended, but, invoking the Lord? Tesus
Christ, she trampled upon the dragon's head' and went up ^