Chapter 24
TERTULLIAN
Chapter 24 (1) In how many ways are we expected to prove that none of the things connected with the spectacles is pleasing to God?
Or, because it is not pleasing to God, befits His servant? (2) If we have shown that all these things have been instituted for the Devil's sake, and furnished from the Devil's stores (for everything which is not God's or which displeases God is the Devil's), then this represents the pomp of the Devil which we renounce in the 'seal' of faith. (3) No share, however, ought we to have, whether in deed or word, whether by beholding or watching, in what we renounce. Moreover, if we ourselves renounce and rescind the 'seal' by making void our testimony to it, does it remain, then, for us to seek an answer from the heathen? Yes, let them tell us whether it be permitted for Christians to attend a spectacle. Why, for them this is the principal sign of a man's conversion to the Christian faith, that he renounces the spectacles. (4) A man, therefore, who removes the mark by which he is recognized, openly denies his faith. What hope is there left for such a man? No one deserts to the camp of the enemy without first throwing away his weapons, deserting his standards, renouncing his oath of allegiance to his leader, and without pledging himself to die with the enemy.
Chapter 25 (1) Will the man, seated where there is nothing of God, at that moment think of God? He will have peace in his soul, I
SPECTACLES
suppose, as he cheers for the charioteer; he will learn purity as he gazes with fascination at the mimic actors. (2) No, indeed, in every kind of spectacle he will meet with no greater temptation than that overcareful attire of women and men.
That sharing of feelings and that agreement or disagreement over favorites fan the sparks of lust from their fellowship.
(3) Finally, no one going to a spectacle has any other thought but to see and be seen. But, while the tragic actor is ranting, our good friend will probably recall the outcries of some prophet! Amid the strains of the effeminate flute-player, he will no doubt meditate on a psalm! And while the athletes are engaged in combat, he is sure to say that a blow must not be struck in return for a blow!1 (4) He will, therefore, also be in a position to let himself be stirred by pity, with his eyes fixed on the bears as they bite, and the net-fighters as they roll up their nets. May God avert from His own such a passion for murderous delight! (5) What sort of behavior is it to go from the assembly of God to the assembly of the Devil, from sky to sty, as the saying goes?2 Those hands which you have lifted up to God, to tire them out afterwards applauding an actor? To cheer a gladiator with the same lips with which you have said 'Amen' over the Most Holy?3 To call out 'for ever and ever'4 to anyone else but to God and Christ?
1 Cf. Matt. 5.39; Luke 6.29.
2 Cf. A. Otto, Die Sprichworter und sprichwortlichen Redensarten der Romer (Leipzig 1890) 61.
3 Probably the 'Amen' pronounced by the Christian at receiving the Holy Eucharist; cf. Ambrose, De sacramentis 4.5: 'The priest says to you; "The Body of Christ," and you answer: "Amen".'
4 'For ever and ever!' were the words with which victorious gladiators and athletes were cheered.
TERTULLIAN
Chapter 26 (1) Why, then, should such people not also be susceptible to demoniac possession? For we have the case of that woman
-—the Lord is witness—who went to the theater and returned home having a demon. (2) So, when in the course of exorcism the unclean spirit was hard pressed with the accusation that he had dared to seize a woman who believed, he answered boldly: 'I was fully justified in doing so, for I found her in my own domain.'1 (3) It is well known, too, that to another woman, during the night following the very day on which she had listened to a tragic actor, a shroud was shown in a dream, and a rebuke called out to her, mentioning the tragic actor by name; nor was that woman still alive after five days.2 (4)
Indeed, how many other proofs can be drawn from those who, by consorting with the Devil at the spectacles, have fallen away from the Lord. For 'no man can serve two masters.'3
'What fellowship has light with darkness?'4 What has life to do with death?
1 The passage allows us an insight into Tertullian's demonology. He believes that the theater belongs to the very sphere of action of the Devil, who can take possession of a Christian going there to look at the performances. It must be borne in mind that in the days of the early Christians the air was thought dangerously full of demons, a belief that led a number of early Christian writers to adopt peculiar doctrines in this matter.
2 In De idololatria 15.7-8, Tertullian tells another similar story. A Christian was severely chastised through a nocturnal vision because his servants had wreathed the gates of his house at the sudden announcement of a public festivity. Though he himself, being absent, had been unaware of it and had reproved the servants after the event, he was nevertheless rebuked. In view of the fact that the Roman state was especially wedded to thfe state religion, any action as the above-mentioned could be interpreted as a participation in idolatry.
3 Matt. 6.24.
4 2 Cor. 6.14.
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Chapter 27 (1) We ought to hate those gatherings and meetings of the heathen, seeing that there the name of God is blasphemed, there the cry to set the lions upon us is raised every day,1 there persecutions have their source, thence temptations are let loose. (2) What will you do when you are caught in that surging tide of wicked applause? Not that you are likely to suffer anything there at the hands of men (no one recognizes you as a Christian), but consider how you would fare in heaven. (3) Do you doubt that at the very moment when the Devil is raging in his assembly, all the angels look forth from heaven and note down every individual who has uttered blasphemy, who has listened to it, who has lent his tongue, who has lent his ears to the service of the Devil against God?
(4) Will you, therefore, not shun the seats of Christ's enemies, that 'chair of pestilences',2 and the very air that hangs over it and is polluted with sinful cries? I grant you that you have there some things that are sweet, pleasant, harmless, and even honorable. No one flavors poison with gall and hellebore; it is into spicy, well-flavored, and mostly sweet dishes that he instils that noxious stuff. So, too, the Devil pours into the deadly draught he prepares the most agreeable and most welcome gifts of God. (5) Everything, then, you find there, whether manly or honorable or sonorous or melodious or tender, take it for drippings of honey from a poisoned cake, and do not consider your appetite for the pleasure worth the danger you run from its sweetness.
1 Cf. Tertullian, Apology 40.1: 'If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile doe's not rise to the fields, if the weather will not change, if there is an earthquake, a famine, a plague—straightway the cry is heard: "Toss the Christians to the lion!" '
2 Ps. 1.1.
TERTULLIAN
Chapter 28 (1) Let the Devil's own guests stuff themselves with sweets of that sort: the places, the times, and the host who invites are theirs. Our banquet, or marriage feast, has not yet come.
We cannot recline with them at table, as they cannot with us.
Things in this matter run their course in succession. Now they rejoice, and we are afflicted. (2) 'The world,' holy Scripture says, 'will rejoice, you will be sad.'1 Let us mourn therefore, while the heathen rejoice, that, when they have begun to mourn, we may rejoice: lest sharing their joy now, then we may be sharing their mourning too. (3) You are too dainty,
O Christian, if you desire pleasure also in this world; nay, more, you are a fool altogether if you deem this pleasure.
(4) The philosophers at least have given the name 'pleasure' to quiet and tranquility;2 in it they rejoice, they find their diversion in it, they even glory in it. But you—why, I find you sighing for goal posts, the stage, dust, the arena.3 (5) I wish you would say plainly: 'We cannot live without pleasure!' Whereas we ought to die with pleasure. For what other prayer have we but that of the Apostle—'to leave the world and find our place with the Lord'?4 Our pleasure is where our prayer is.
1 Cf. John 16.20.
2 Tertullian means the Epicureans. Cf. Apology 38.5: 'The Epicureans were allowed to decide upon a different truth regarding the nature of pleasure, namely, tranquility of mind.'
3 Cf. ibid. 38.4: 'Our tongues, our eyes, our ears have nothing to do with the madness of the circus, the shamelessness of the theater, the brutality of the arena, the vanity of the gymnasium.'
4 Cf. Phil. 1.23.
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Chapter 29 (1) And finally, if you think that you are to pass this span of life in delights, why are you so ungrateful as not to be satisfied with so many and so exquisite pleasures given you by God, and not to recognize them? For what is more delightful than reconciliation with God, our Father and Lord, than the revelation of truth, the recognition of errors, and pardon for such grievous sins of the past? (2) What greater pleasure is there than distaste of pleasure itself, than contempt of all the world can give, than true liberty, than a pure conscience, than a contented life, than freedom from fear of death? (3) To trample under foot the gods of the heathen, to drive out demons, to effect cures,1 to seek revelations,2 to live unto God3
-—these are the pleasures, these are the spectacles of the Christians, holy, everlasting, and free of charge. In these find your circus games: behold the course of the world, count the generations slipping by, bear in mind the goal of the final consummation, defend the bonds of unity among the local
1 Casting out of demons and healing of the sick belonged together, inasmuch as it was commonly assumed that diseases were sometimes caused by demoniac influences.
2 Though the treatise belongs to Tertullian's early writings, the phrase 'to seek revelations' shows a trait in his character which carried him later from the Church into the sect of the Montanists, who contended that divine revelation had by no means come to a close with Christ and His Apostles, but had reached the stage of full maturity with Montanus and his associates. Tertullian felt himself attracted by this view on ecstatic prophecy, which insisted on the necessity of pro gressive revelation. 'To seek revelations' was, therefore, something highly commendable. Montanism was proud of the ecstatic experiences of its followers.
3 Cf. Rom. 6.10.