The Chaplet, or De Corona - Tertullian
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Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.
Text edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson and
first published by T&T Clark in Edinburgh in 1867. Additional
introductionary material and notes provided for the American
edition by A. Cleveland Coxe, 1886.
Chapter I
Very lately it happened thus: while the bounty of our most excellent
emperors [366] was dispensed in the camp, the soldiers, laurel-crowned, were
approaching. One of them, more a soldier of God, more stedfast than the rest
of his brethren, who had imagined that they could serve two masters, his
head alone uncovered, the useless crown in his hand'already even by that
peculiarity known to every one as a Christian'was nobly conspicuous.
Accordingly, all began to mark him out, jeering him at a distance, gnashing
on him near at hand. The murmur is wafted to the tribune, when the person
had just left the ranks. The tribune at once puts the question to him, Why
are you so different in your attire? He declared that he had no liberty to
wear the crown with the rest. Being urgently asked for his reasons, he
answered, I am a Christian. O soldier! boasting thyself in God. Then the
case was considered and voted on; the matter was remitted to a higher
tribunal; the offender was conducted to the prefects. At once he put away
the heavy cloak, his disburdening commenced; he loosed from his foot the
military shoe, beginning to stand upon holy ground; [367] he gave up the
sword, which was not necessary either for the protection of our Lord; from
his hand likewise dropped the laurel crown; and now, purple-clad with the
hope of his own blood, shod with the preparation of the gospel, girt with
the sharper word of God, completely equipped in the apostles' armour, and
crowned more worthily with the white crown of martyrdom, he awaits in prison
the largess of Christ. Thereafter adverse judgments began to be passed upon
his conduct'whether on the part of Christians I do not know, for those of
the heathen are not different'as if he were headstrong and rash, and too
eager to die, because, in being taken to task about a mere matter of dress,
he brought trouble on the bearers of the Name, [368] 'he, forsooth, alone
brave among so many soldier-brethren, he alone a Christian. It is plain that
as they have rejected the prophecies of the Holy Spirit, [369] they are also
purposing the refusal of martyrdom. So they murmur that a peace so good and
long is endangered for them. Nor do I doubt that some are already turning
their back on the Scriptures, are making ready their luggage, are equipped
for flight from city to city; for that is all of the gospel they care to
remember. I know, too, their pastors are lions in peace, deer in the fight.
As to the questions asked for extorting confessions from us, we shall teach
elsewhere. Now, as they forth also the objection'But where are we forbidden
to be crowned?'I shall take this point up, as more suitable to be treated of
here, being the essence, in fact, of the present contention. So that, on the
one hand, the inquirers who are ignorant, but anxious, may be instructed;
and on the other, those may be refuted who try to vindicate the sin,
especially the laurel-crowned Christians themselves, to whom it is merely a
question of debate, as if it might be regarded as either no trespass at all,
or at least a doubtful one, because it may be made the subject of
investigation. That it is neither sinless nor doubtful, I shall now,
however, show.
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Chapter II.
I affirm that not one of the Faithful has ever a crown upon his head, except
at a time of trial. That is the case with all, from catechumens to
confessors and martyrs, [370] or (as the case may be) deniers. Consider,
then, whence the custom about which we are now chiefly inquiring got its
authority. But when the question is raised why it is observed, it is
meanwhile evident that it is observed. Therefore that can neither be
regarded as no offence, or an uncertain one, which is perpetrated against a
practice which is capable of defence, on the ground even of its repute, and
is sufficiently ratified by the support of general acceptance. It is
undoubted, so that we ought to inquire into the reason of the thing; but
without prejudice to the practice, not for the purpose of overthrowing it,
but rather of building it up, that you may all the more carefully observe
it, when you are also satisfied as to its reason. But what sort of procedure
is it, for one to be bringing into debate a practice, when he has fallen
from it, and to be seeking the explanation of his having ever had it, when
he has left it off? Since, although he may wish to seem on this account
desirous to investigate it, that he may show that he has not done wrong in
giving it up, it is evident that he nevertheless transgressed previously in
its presumptuous observance. If he has done no wrong to-day in accepting the
crown he offended before in refusing it. This treatise, therefore, will not
be for those who not in a proper condition for inquiry, but for those who,
with the real desire of getting instruction, bring forward, not a question
for debate, but a request for advice. For it is from this desire that a true
inquiry always proceeds; and I praise the faith which has believed in the
duty of complying with the rule, before it has learned the reason of it. An
easy thing it is at once to demand where it is written that we should not be
crowned. But is it written that we should be crowned? Indeed, in urgently
demanding the warrant of Scripture in a different side from their own, men
prejudge that the support of Scripture ought no less to appear on their
part. For if it shall be said that it is lawful to be crowned on this
ground, that Scripture does not forbid it, it will as validly be retorted
that just on this ground is the crown unlawful, because the Scripture does
not enjoin it. What shall discipline do? Shall it accept both things, as if
neither were forbidden? Or shall it refuse both, as if neither were
enjoined? But "the thing which is not forbidden is freely permitted." I
should rather say [371] that what has not been freely allowed is forbidden.
Chapter III.
And how long shall we draw the saw to and fro through this line, when we
have an ancient practice, which by anticipation has made for us the state,
i.e., of the question? If no passage of Scripture has prescribed it,
assuredly custom, which without doubt flowed from tradition, has confirmed
it. For how can anything come into use, if it has not first been handed
down? Even in pleading tradition, written authority, you say, must be
demanded. Let us inquire, therefore, whether tradition, unless it be
written, should not be admitted. Certainly we shall say that it ought not to
be admitted, if no cases of other practices which, without any written
instrument, we maintain on the ground of tradition alone, and the
countenance thereafter of custom, affords us any precedent. To deal with
this matter briefly, I shall begin with baptism. [372] When we are going to
enter the water, but a little before, in the presence of the congregation
and under the hand of the president, we solemnly profess that we disown the
devil, and his pomp, and his angels. Hereupon we are thrice immersed, making
a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord has appointed in the Gospel. Then
when we are taken up (as new-born children), [373] we taste first of all a
mixture of milk and honey, and from that day we refrain from the daily bath
for a whole week. We take also, in congregations before daybreak, and from
the hand of none but the presidents, the sacrament of the Eucharist, which
the Lord both commanded to be eaten at meal-times, and enjoined to be taken
by all alike. [374] As often as the anniversary comes round, we make
offerings for the dead as birthday honours. We count fasting or kneeling in
worship on the Lord's day to be unlawful. We rejoice in the same privilege
also from Easter to Whitsunday. We feel pained should any wine or bread,
even though our own, be cast upon the ground. At every forward step and
movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our our clothes and
shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on
couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the
forehead the sign. [375]
Chapter IV.
If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive
Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to
you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as
their observer. That reason will support tradition, and custom, and faith,
you will either yourself perceive, or learn from some one who has. Meanwhile
you will believe that there is some reason to which submission is due. I add
still one case more, as it will be proper to show you how it was among the
ancients also. Among the Jews, so usual is it for their women to have the
head veiled, that they may thereby be recognised. I ask in this instance for
the law. I put the apostle aside. If Rebecca at once drew down her veil,
when in the distance she saw her betrothed, this modesty of a mere private
individual could not have made a law, or it will have made it only for those
who have the reason which she had. Let virgins alone be veiled, and this
when they are coming to be married, and not till they have recognised their
destined husband. If Susanna also, who was subjected to unveiling on her
trial, [376] furnishes an argument for the veiling of women, I can say
here also, the veil was a voluntary thing. She had come accused, ashamed of
the disgrace she had brought on herself, properly concealing her beauty,
even because now she feared to please. But I should not suppose that, when
it was her aim to please, she took walks with a veil on in her husband's
avenue. Grant, now, that she was always veiled. In this particular case,
too, or, in fact, in that of any other, I demand the dress-law. If I nowhere
find a law, it follows that tradition has given the fashion in question to
custom, to find subsequently (its authorization in) the apostle's sanction,
from the true interpretation of reason. This instances, therefore, will make
it sufficiently plain that you can vindicate the keeping of even unwritten
tradition established by custom; the proper witness for tradition when
demonstrated by long-continued observance. [377] But even in civil matters
custom is accepted as law, when positive legal enactment is wanting; and it
is the same thing whether it depends on writing or on reason, since reason
is, in fact, the basis of law. But, (you say), if reason is the ground of
law, all will now henceforth have to be counted law, whoever brings it
forward, which shall have reason as its ground. [378] Or do you think that
every believer is entitled to originate and establish a law, if only it be
such as is agreeable to God, as is helpful to discipline, as promotes
salvation, when the Lord says, "But why do you not even of your own selves
judge what is right? " [379] And not merely in regard to a judicial
sentence, but in regard to every decision in matters we are called on to
consider, the apostle also says, "If of anything you are ignorant, God shall
reveal it unto you; " [380] he himself, too, being accustomed to afford
counsel though he had not the command of the Lord, and to dictate of
himself [381] as possessing the Spirit of God who guides into all truth.
Therefore his advice has, by the warrant of divine reason, become equivalent
to nothing less than a divine command. Earnestly now inquire of this
teacher, [382] keeping intact your regard for tradition, from whomsoever
it originally sprang; nor have regard to the author, but to the authority,
and especially that of custom itself, which on this very account we should
revere, that we may not want an interpreter; so that if reason too is God's
gift, you may then learn, not whether custom has to be followed by you, but
why.
Chapter V.
The argument for Christian practices becomes all the stronger, when also
nature, which is the first rule of all, supports them. Well, she is the
first who lays it down that a crown does not become the head. But I think
ours is the God of nature, who fashioned man; and, that he might desire,
(appreciate, become partaker of) the pleasures afforded by His creatures,
endowed him with certain senses, (acting) through members, which, so to
speak, are their peculiar instruments. The sense of hearing he has planted
in the ears; that of sight, lighted up in the eyes; that of taste, shut up
in the mouth; that of smell, wafted into the nose; that of touch, fixed in
the tips of the fingers. By means of these organs of the outer man doing
duty to the inner man, the enjoyments of the divine gifts are conveyed by
the senses to the soul. [383] What, then, in flowers affords you
enjoyment? For it is the flowers of the field which are the peculiar, at
least the chief, material of crowns. Either smell, you say, or colour, or
both together. What will be the senses of colour and smell? Those of seeing
and smelling, I suppose. What members have had these senses allotted to
them? The eyes and the nose, if I am not mistaken. With sight and smell,
then, make use of flowers, for these are the senses by which they are meant
to be enjoyed; use them by means of the eyes and nose, which are the members
to which these senses belong. You have got the thing from God, the mode of
it from the world; but an extraordinary mode does not prevent the use of the
thing in the common way. Let flowers, then, both when fastened into each
other and tied together in thread and rush, be what they are when free, when
loose'things to be looked at and smelt. You count it a crown, let us say,
when you have a bunch of them bound together in a series, that you may carry
many at one time that you may enjoy them all at once. Well, lay them in your
bosom if they are so singularly pure, and strew them on your couch if they
are so exquisitely soft, and consign them to your cup if they are so
perfectly harmless. Have the pleasure of them in as many ways as they appeal
to your senses. But what taste for a flower, what sense for anything
belonging to a crown but its band, have you in the head, which is able
neither to distinguish colour, nor to inhale sweet perfumes, nor to
appreciate softness? It is as much against nature to long after a flower
with the head, as it is to crave food with the ear, or sound with the
nostril. But everything which is against nature deserves to be branded as
monstrous among all men; but with us it is to be condemned also as sacrilege
against God, the Lord and Creator of nature.
Chapter VI.
Demanding then a law of God, you have that common one prevailing all over
the world, engraven on the natural tables to which the apostle too is wont
to appeal, as when in respect. of the woman's veil he says, "Does not even
Nature teach you? " [384] 'as when to the Romans, affirming that the
heathen do by nature those things which the law requires, [385] he
suggests both natural law and a law-revealing nature. Yes, and also in the
first Chapter of the epistle he authenticates nature, when he asserts that
males and females changed among themselves the natural use of the creature
into that which is unnatural, [386] by way of penal retribution for their
error. We first of all indeed know God Himself by the teaching of Nature,
calling Him God of gods, taking for granted that He is good, and invoking
Him as Judge. Is it a question with you whether for the enjoyment of His
creatures, Nature should be our guide, that we may not be carried away in
the direction in which the rival of God has corrupted, along with man
himself, the entire creation which had been made over to our race for
certain uses, whence the apostle says that it too unwillingly became subject
to vanity, completely bereft of its original character, first by vain, then
by base, unrighteous, and ungodly uses? It is thus, accordingly, in the
pleasures of the shows, that the creature is dishonoured by those who by
nature indeed perceive that all the materials of which shows are got up
belong to God, but lack the knowledge to perceive as well that they have all
been changed by the devil. But with this topic we have, for the sake of our
own play-lovers, sufficiently dealt, and that, too, in a work in Greek.
[387]
Chapter VII.
Let these dealers in crowns then recognize in the meantime the authority of
Nature, on the ground of a common sense as human beings, and the
certifications of their peculiar religion, as, according to the last
Chapter, worshippers of the God of nature; and, as it were, thus over and
above what is required, let them consider those other reasons too which
forbid us wearing crowns, especially on the head, and indeed crowns of every
sort. For we are obliged to turn from the rule of Nature, which we share
with mankind in general, that we may maintain the whole peculiarity of our
Christian discipline, in relation also to other kinds of crowns which seem
to have been provided for different uses, as being composed of different
substances, lest, because they do not consist of flowers, the use of which
nature has indicated (as it does in the case of this military laurel one
itself), they may be thought not to come Under the prohibition of our sect,
since they have escaped any objections of nature. I see, then, that we must
go into the matter both with more research, and more fully, from its
beginnings on through its successive stages Of growth to its more erratic
developments. For this we need to turn to heathen literature, for things
belonging to the heathen must be proved from their own documents. The little
of this I have acquired, will, I believe, be enough. If there really was a
Pandora, whom Hesiod mentions as the first of women, hers was the first head
the graces crowned, for she received gifts from all the gods whence she got
her name Pandora. But Moses, a prophet, not a poet-shepherd, shows us the
first woman Eve having her loins more naturally girt about with leaves than
her temples with flowers. Pandora, then, is a myth. And so we have to blush
for the origin of the crown, even on the ground of the falsehood connected
with it; and, as will soon appear, on the ground no less of its realities.
For it is an undoubted fact that certain persons either originated the
thing, or shed lustre on it. Pherecydes relates that Saturn was the first
who wore a crown; Diodorus, that Jupiter, after conquering the Titans, was
honoured with this gift by the rest of the gods. To Priapus also the same
author assigns fillets; and to Ariadne a garland of gold and of Indian gems,
the gift of Vulcan, afterwards of Bacchus, and subsequently turned into a
constellation. Callimachus has put a vine crown upon Juno. So too at Argos,
her statue, vine-wreathed, with a lion's skin placed beneath her feet,
exhibits the stepmother exulting over the spoils of her two step-sons.
Hercules displays upon his head sometimes poplar, sometimes wild-olive,
sometimes parsley. You have the tragedy of Cerberus; you have Pindar; and
besides Callimachus, who mentions that Apollo, too when he had killed the
Delphic serpent, as a suppliant, put on a laurel garland; for among the
ancients suppliants were wont to be crowned. Harpocration argues that
Bacchus the same as Osiris among the Egyptians, was designedly crowned with
ivy, because it is the nature of ivy to protect the brain against
drowsiness. But that in another way also Bacchus was the originator of the
laurel crown (the crown) in which he celebrated his triumph over the
Indians, even the rabble acknowledge, when they call the days dedicated to
him the "great crown." If you open, again, the writings of the Egyptian Leo,
you learn that Isis was the first who discovered and wore ears of corn upon
her head'a thing more suited to the belly. Those who want additional
information will find an ample exposition of the subject in Claudius
Saturninus, a writer of distinguished talent who treats this question also,
for he has a book on crowns, so explaining their beginnings as well as
causes, and kinds, and rites, that you find all that is charming in the
flower, all that is beautiful in the leafy branch, and every sod or
vine-shoot has been dedicated to some head or other; making it abundantly
clear how foreign to us we should judge the custom of the crowned head,
introduced as it was by, and thereafter constantly managed for the honour
of, those whom the world has believed to be gods. If the devil, a liar from
the beginning, is even in this matter working for his false system of
godhead (idolatry), he had himself also without doubt provided for his
god-lie being carried out. What sort of thing, then, must that be counted
among the people of the true God, which was brought in by the nations in
honour of the devil's candidates, and was set apart from the beginning to no
other than these; and which even then received its consecration to idolatry
by idols and in idols yet alive? Not as if an idol were anything, but since
the things which others offer up to idols belong to demons. But if the
things which others offer to them belong to demons how much more what idols
offered to themselves, when they were in life! The demons themselves,
doubtless, had made provision for themselves by means of those whom they had
possessed, while in a state of desire and craving, before provision had been
actually made.
Chapter VIII.
Hold fast in the meantime this persuasion, while I examine a question which
comes in our way. For I already hear it is said, that many other things as
well as crowns have been invented by those whom the world believes to be
gods, and that they are notwithstanding to be met with both in our present
usages and in those of early saints, and in the service of God, and in
Christ Himself, who did His work as man by no other than these ordinary
instrumentalities of human life. Well, let it be so; nor shall I inquire any
further back into the origin of this things. Let Mercury have been the first
who taught the knowledge of letters; I will own that they are requisite both
for the business and commerce of life, and for performing our devotion to
God. Nay, if he also first strung the chord to give forth melody, I will not
deny, when listening to David, that this invention has been in use with the
saints, and has ministered to God. Let Æsculapius have been the first who
sought and discovered cures: Esaias [388] mentions that he ordered
Hezekiah medicine when he was sick. Paul, too, knows that a little wine does
the stomach good. [389] Let Minerva have been the first who built a ship:
I shall see Jonah and the apostles sailing. Nay, there is more than this:
for even Christ, we shall find, has ordinary raiment; Paul, too, has his
cloak. [390] If at once, of every article of furniture and each household
vessel, you name some god of the world as the originator, well, I must
recognise Christ, both as He reclines on a couch, and when He presents a
basin for the feet of His disciples, and when He pours water into it from a
ewer, and when He is girt about with a linen towel [391] 'a garment
specially sacred to Osiris. It is thus in general I reply upon the point,
admitting indeed that we use along with others these articles, but
challenging that this be judged in the light of the distinction between
things agreeable and things opposed to reason, because the promiscuous
employment of them is deceptive, concealing the corruption of the creature,
by which it has been made subject to vanity. For we affirm that those things
only are proper to be used, whether by ourselves or by those who lived
before us, and alone befit the service of God and Christ Himself, which to
meet the necessities of human life supply what is simply; useful and affords
real assistance and honourable comfort, so that they may be well believed to
have come from God's own inspiration, who first of all no doubt provided for
and taught and ministered to the enjoyment, I should suppose, of His own
man. As for the things which are out of this class, they are not fit to be
used among us, especially those which on that account indeed are not to be
found either with the world, or in the ways of Christ.
Chapter IX.
In short, what patriarch, what prophet, what Levite, or priest, or ruler, or
at a later period what apostle, or preacher of the gospel, or bishop, do you
ever find the wearer of a crown? [392] I think not even the temple of God
itself was crowned; as neither was the ark of the testament, nor the
tabernacle of witness, nor the altar, nor the candlestick crowned though
certainly, both on that first solemnity of the dedication, and in that
second rejoicing for the restoration, crowning would have been most suitable
if it were worthy of God. But if these things were figures of us (for we are
temples of God, and altars, and lights, and sacred vessels), this too they
in figure set forth, that the people of God ought not to be crowned. The
reality must always correspond with the image. If, perhaps, you object that
Christ Himself was crowned, to that you will get the brief reply: Be you too
crowned, as He was; you have full permission. Yet even that crown of
insolent ungodliness was not of any decree of the Jewish people. It was a
device of the Roman soldiers, taken from the practice of the world,'a
practice which the people of God never allowed either on the occasion of
public rejoicing or to gratify innate luxury: so they returned from the
Babylonish captivity with timbrels, and flutes, and psalteries, more
suitably than with crowns; and after eating and drinking, uncrowned, they
rose up to play. Neither would the account of the rejoicing nor the exposure
of the luxury have been silent touching the honour or dishonour of the
crown. Thus too Isaiah, as he says, "With timbrels, and psalteries, and
flutes they drink wine," [393] would have added "with crowns," if this
practice had ever had place in the things of God.
Chapter X.
So, when you allege that the ornaments of the heathen deities are found no
less with God, with the object of claiming among these for general use the
head-crown, you already lay it down for yourself, that we must not have
among us, as a thing whose use we are to share with others, what is not to
be found in the service of God. Well, what is so unworthy of God indeed as
that which is worthy of an idol? But what is so worthy of an idol as that
which is also worthy of a dead man? For it is the privilege of the dead also
to be thus crowned, as they too straightway become idols, both by their
dress and the service of deification, which (deification) is with us a
second idolatry. Wanting, then, the sense, it will be theirs to use the
thing for which the sense is wanting, just as if in full possession of the
sense they wished to abuse it. When there ceases to be any reality in the
use, there is no distinction between using and abusing. Who can abuse a
thing, when the precipient nature with which he wishes to carry out his
purpose is not his to use it? The apostle, moreover, forbids us to abuse,
while he would more naturally have taught us not to use, unless on the
ground that, where there is no sense for things, there is no wrong use of
them. But the whole affair is meaningless, and is, in fact, a dead work so
far as concerns the idols; though, without doubt, a living one as respects
the demons [394] to whom the religious rite belongs. "The idols of the
heathen," says David, "are silver and gold." "They have eyes, and see not; a
nose, and smell not; hands, and they will not handle." [395] By means of
these organs, indeed, we are to enjoy flowers; but if he declares that those
who make idols will be like them, they already are so who use anything after
the style of idol adornings. "To the pure all things are pure: so, likewise,
all things to the impure are impure; " [396] but nothing is more impure
than idols. The substances are themselves as creatures of God without
impurity, and in this their native state are free to the use of all; but the
ministries to which in their use they are devoted, makes all the difference;
for I, too, kill a cock for myself, just as Socrates did for Æsculapius; and
if the smell of some place or other offends me, I burn the Arabian product
myself, but not with the same ceremony, nor in the same dress, nor with the
same pomp, with which it is done to idols. [397] If the creature is
defiled by a mere word, as the apostle teaches, "But if any one say, This is
offered in sacrifice to idols, you must not touch it," [398] much more
when it is polluted by the dress, and rites, and pomp of what is offered to
the gods. Thus the crown also is made out to be an offering to idols;
[399] for with this ceremony, and dress, and pomp, it is presented in
sacrifice to idols, its originators, to whom its use is specially given
over, and chiefly on this account, that what has no place among the things
of God may not be admitted into use with us as with others. Wherefore the
apostle exclaims, "Flee idolatry: " [400] certainly idolatry whole and
entire he means. Reflect on what a thicket it is, and how many thorns lie
hid in it. Nothing must be given to an idol, and so nothing must be taken
from one. If it is inconsistent with faith to recline in an idol temple,
what is it to appear in an idol dress? What communion have Christ and
Belial? Therefore flee from it; for he enjoins us to keep at a distance from
idolatry'to have no close dealings with it of any kind. Even an earthly
serpent sucks in men at some distance with its breath. Going still further,
John says, "My little children, keep yourselves from idols," [401] 'not
now from idolatry, as if from the service of it, but from idols'that is,
from any resemblance to them: for it is an unworthy thing that you, the
image of the living God, should become the likeness of an idol and a dead
man. Thus far we assert, that this attire belongs to idols, both from the
history of its origin, and from its use by false religion; on this ground,
besides, that while it is not mentioned as connected with the worship of
God, it is more and more given over to those in whose antiquities, as well
as festivals and services, it is found. In a word, the very doors, the very
victims and altars, the very servants and priests, are crowned. You have, in
Claudius, the crowns of all the various colleges of priests. We have added
also that distinction between things altogether different from each
other'things, namely, agreeable, and things contrary to reason'in answer to
those who, because there happens to be the use of some things in common,
maintain the right of participation in all things. With reference to this
part of the subject, therefore, it now remains that the special grounds for
wearing crowns should be examined, that while we show these to be foreign,
nay, even opposed to our Christian discipline, we may demonstrate that none
of them have any plea of reason to support it, on the basis of which this
article of dress might be vindicated as one in whose use we can participate,
as even some others may whose instances are cast up to us.
Chapter XI.
To begin with the real ground of the military crown, I think we must first
inquire whether warfare is proper at all for Christians. What sense is there
in discussing the merely accidental, when that on which it rests is to be
condemned? Do we believe it lawful for a human oath [402] to be superadded
to one divine, for a man to come under promise to another master after
Christ, and to abjure father, mother, and all nearest kinsfolk, whom even
the law has commanded us to honour and love next to God Himself, to whom the
gospel, too, holding them only of less account than Christ, has in like
manner rendered honour? Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the
sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword shall perish by
the sword? And shall the son of peace take part in the battle when it does
not become him even to sue at law? And shall he apply the chain, and the
prison, and the torture, and the punishment, who is not the avenger even of
his own wrongs? Shall he, forsooth, either keep watch-service for others
more than for Christ, or shall he do it on the Lord's day, when he does not
even do it for Christ Himself? And shall he keep guard before the temples
which he has renounced? And shall he take a meal where the apostle has
forbidden him? [403] And shall he diligently protect by night those whom
in the day-time he has put to flight by his exorcisms, leaning and resting
on the spear the while with which Christ's side was pierced? Shall he carry
a flag, [404] too, hostile to Christ? And shall he ask a watchword from
the emperor who has already received one from God? Shall he be disturbed in
death by the trumpet of the trumpeter, who expects to be aroused by the
angel's trump? And shall the Christian be burned according to camp rule,
when he was not permitted to burn incense to an idol, when to him Christ
remitted the punishment of fire? Then how many other offences there are
involved in the performances of camp offices, which we must hold to involve
a transgression of God's law, you may see by a slight survey. The very
carrying of the name over from the camp of light to the camp of darkness is
a violation of it. Of course, if faith comes later, and finds any
preoccupied with military service, their case is different, as in the
instance of those whom John used to receive for baptism, and of those most
faithful centurions, I mean the centurion whom Christ approves, and the
centurion whom Peter instructs; yet, at the same time, when a man has become
a believer, and faith has been sealed, there must be either an immediate
abandonment of it, which has been the course with many; or all sorts of
quibbling will have to be resorted to in order to avoid offending God, and
that is not allowed even outside of military service; [405] or, last of
all, for God the fate must be endured which a citizen-faith has been no less
ready to accept. Neither does military service hold out escape from
punishment of sins, or exemption from martyrdom. Nowhere does the Christian
change his character. There is one gospel, and the same Jesus, who will one
day deny every one who denies, and acknowledge every one who acknowledges
God,'who will save, too, the life which has been lost for His sake; but, on
the other hand, destroy that which for gain has been saved to His dishonour.
With Him the faithful citizen is a soldier, just as the faithful soldier is
a citizen. [406] A state of faith admits no plea of necessity; they are
under no necessity to sin, whose one necessity is, that they do not sin. For
if one is pressed to the offering of sacrifice and the sheer denial of
Christ by the necessity of torture or of punishment, yet discipline does not
connive even at that necessity; because there is a higher necessity to dread
denying and to undergo martyrdom, than to escape from suffering, and to
render the homage required. In fact, an excuse of this sort overturns the
entire essence of our sacrament, removing even the obstacle to voluntary
sins; for it will be possible also to maintain that inclination is a
necessity, as involving in it, forsooth, a sort of compulsion. I have, in
fact, disposed of this very allegation of necessity with reference to the
pleas by which crowns connected with official position are vindicated, in
support of which it is in common use, since for this very reason offices
must be either refused, that we may not fall into acts of sin, or martyrdoms
endured that we may get quit of offices. Touching this primary aspect of the
question, as to the unlawfulness even of a military life itself, I shall not
add more, that the secondary question may be restored to its place. Indeed,
if, putting my strength to the question, I banish from us the military life,
I should now to no purpose issue a challenge on the matter of the military
crown. Suppose, then, that the military service is lawful, as far as the
plea for the crown is concerned. [407]
Chapter XII.
But I first say a word also about the crown itself. This laurel one is
sacred to Apollo or Bacchus'to the former as the god of archery, to the
latter as the god of triumphs. In like manner Claudius teaches; when he
tells us that soldiers are wont too to be wreathed in myrtle. For the myrtle
belongs to Venus, the mother of the Æneadæ, the mistress also of the god of
war, who, through Ilia and the Romuli is Roman. But I do not believe that
Venus is Roman as well as Mars, because of the vexation the concubine gave
her. [408] When military service again is crowned with olive, the idolatry
has respect to Minerva, who is equally the goddess of arms'but got a crown
of the tree referred to, because of the peace she made with Neptune. In
these respects, the superstition of the military garland will be everywhere
defiled and all-defiling. And it is further defiled, I should think, also in
the grounds of it. Lo the yearly public pronouncing of vows, what does that
bear on its face to be? It takes place first in the part of the camp where
the general's tent is, and then in the temples. In addition to the places,
observe the words also: "We vow that you, O Jupiter, will then have an ox
with gold-decorated horns." What does the utterance mean? Without a doubt
the denial (of Christ). Albeit the Christian says nothing in these places
with the mouth, he makes his response by having the crown on his head. The
laurel is likewise commanded (to be used) at the distribution of the
largess. So you see idolatry is not without its gain, selling, as it does,
Christ for pieces of gold, as Judas did for pieces of silver. Will it be "Ye
cannot serve God and mammon" [409] to devote your energies to mammon, and
to depart from God? Will it be "Render unto Cæsar the things which are
Cæsar's, and unto God the things which are God's," [410] not only not to
render the human being to God, but even to take the denarius from Cæsar? Is
the laurel of the triumph made of leaves, or of corpses? Is it adorned with
ribbons, or with tombs? Is it bedewed with ointments, or with the tears of
wives and mothers? It may be of some Christians too; [411] for Christ is
also among the barbarians. [412] Has not he who has carried (a crown for)
this cause on his head, fought even against himself? Another son of service
belongs to the royal guards. And indeed crowns are called (Castrenses), as
belonging to the camp; Munificæ likewise, from the Cæsarean functions they
perform. But even then you are still the soldier and the servant of another;
and if of two masters, of God and Cæsar: but assuredly then not of Cæsar,
when you owe yourself to God, as having higher claims, I should think, even
in matters in which both have an interest.
Chapter XIII.
For state reasons, the various orders of the citizens also are crowned with
laurel crowns; but the magistrates besides with golden ones, as at Athens,
and at Rome. Even to those are preferred the Etruscan. This appellation is
given to the crowns which, distinguished by their gems and oak leaves of
gold, they put on, with mantles having an embroidery of palm branches, to
conduct the chariots containing the images of the gods to the circus. There
are also provincial crowns of gold, needing now the larger heads of images
instead of those of men. But your orders, and your magistracies, and your
very place of meeting, the church, are Christ's. You belong to Him, for you
have been enrolled in the books of life. [413] There the blood of the Lord
serves for your purple robe, and your broad stripe is His own cross; there
the axe is already laid to the trunk of the tree; [414] there is the
branch out of the root of Jesse. [415] Never mind the state horses with
their crown. Your Lord, when, according to the Scripture, He would enter
Jerusalem in triumph, had not even an ass of His own. These (put their
trust) in chariots, and these in horses; but we will seek our help in the
name of the Lord our God. [416] From so much as a dwelling in that Babylon
of John's Revelation [417] we are called away; much more then from its
pomp. The rabble, too, are crowned, at one time because of some great
rejoicing for the success of the emperors; at another, on account of some
custom belonging to municipal festivals. For luxury strives to make her own
every occasion of public gladness. But as for you, you are a foreigner in
this world, a citizen of Jerusalem, the city above. Our citizenship, the
apostle says, is in heaven. [418] You have your own registers, your own
calendar; you have nothing to do with the joys of the world; nay, you are
called to the very opposite, for "the world shall rejoice, but ye shall
mourn." [419] And I think the Lord affirms, that those who mourn are
happy, not those who are crowned. Marriage, too, decks the bridegroom with
its crown; and therefore we will not have heathen brides, lest they seduce
us even to the idolatry with which among them marriage is initiated. You
have the law from the patriarchs indeed; you have the apostle enjoining
people to marry in the Lord. [420] You have a crowning also on the making
of a freeman; but you have been already ransomed by Christ, and that at a
great price. How shall the world manumit the servant of another? Though it
seems to be liberty, yet it will come to be found bondage. In the world
everything is nominal, and nothing real. For even then, as ransomed by
Christ, you were under no bondage to man; and now, though man has given you
liberty, you are the servant of Christ. If you think freedom of the world to
be real, so that you even seal it with a crown, you have returned to the
slavery of man, imagining it to be freedom; you have lost the freedom of
Christ, fancying it is slavery. Will there be any dispute as to the cause of
crown-wearing, which contests in the games in their turn supply, and which,
both as sacred to the gods and in honour of the dead, their own reason at
once condemns? It only remains, that the Olympian Jupiter, and the Nemean
Hercules, and the wretched little Archemorus, and the hapless Antinous,
should be crowned in a Christian, that he himself may become a spectacle
disgusting to behold. We have recounted, as I think, all the various causes
of the wearing of the crown, and there is not one which has any place with
us: all are foreign to us, unholy, unlawful, having been abjured already
once for all in the solemn declaration of the sacrament. For they were of
the pomp of the devil and his angels, offices of the world, [421] honours,
festivals, popularity huntings, false vows, exhibitions of human servility,
empty praises, base glories, and in them all idolatry, even in respect of
the origin of the crowns alone, with which they are all wreathed. Claudius
will tell us in his preface, indeed, that in the poems of Homer the heaven
also is crowned with constellations, and that no doubt by God, no doubt for
man; therefore man himself, too, should be crowned by God. But the world
crowns brothels, and baths, and bakehouses, and prisons, and schools, and
the very amphitheatres, and the chambers where the clothes are stripped from
dead gladiators, and the very biers of the dead. How sacred and holy, how
venerable and pure is this article of dress, determine not from the heaven
of poetry alone, but from the traffickings of the whole world. But indeed a
Christian will not even dishonour his own gate with laurel crowns, if so be
he knows how many gods the devil has attached to doors; Janus so-called from
gate, Limentinus from threshold, Forcus and Carna from leaves and hinges;
among the Greeks, too, the Thyræan Apollo, and the evil spirits, the
Antelii.
Chapter XIV.
Much less may the Christian put the service of idolatry on his own head'nay,
I might have said, upon Christ, since Christ is the Head of the Christian
man'(for his head) is as free as even Christ is, under no obligation to wear
a covering, not to say a band. But even the head which is bound to have the
veil, I mean woman's, as already taken possession of by this very thing, is
not open also to a band. She has the burden of her own humility to bear. If
she ought not to appear with her head uncovered on account of the angels,
[422] much more with a crown on it will she offend those (elders) who
perhaps are then wearing crowns above. [423] For what is a crown on the
head of a woman, but beauty made seductive, but mark of utter wantonness,'a
notable casting away of modesty, a setting temptation on fire? Therefore a
woman, taking counsel from the apostles' foresight, [424] will not too
elaborately adorn herself, that she may not either be crowned with any
exquisite arrangement of her hair. What sort of garland, however, I pray
you, did He who is the Head of the man and the glory of the woman, Christ
Jesus, the Husband of the church, submit to in behalf of both sexes? Of
thorns, I think, and thistles,'a figure of the sins which the soil of the
flesh brought forth for us, but which the power of the cross removed,
blunting, in its endurance by the head of our Lord, death's every sting.
Yes, and besides the figure, there is contumely with ready lip, and
dishonour, and infamy, and the ferocity involved in the cruel things which
then disfigured and lacerated the temples of the Lord, that you may now be
crowned with laurel, and myrtle, and olive, and any famous branch, and which
is of more use, with hundred-leaved roses too, culled from the garden of
Midas, and with both kinds of lily, and with violets of all sorts, perhaps
also with gems and gold, so as even to rival that crown of Christ which He
afterwards obtained. For it was after the gall He tasted the honeycomb
[425] and He was not greeted as King of Glory in heavenly places till He had
been condemned to the cross as King of the Jews, having first been made by
the Father for a time a little less than the angels, and so crowned with
glory and honour. If for these things, you owe your own head to Him, repay
it if you can, such as He presented His for yours; or be not crowned with
flowers at all, if you cannot be with thorns, because you may not be with
flowers.
Chapter XV.
Keep for God His own property untainted; He will crown it if He choose. Nay,
then, He does even choose. He calls us to it. To him who conquers He says,
"I will give a crown Of life." [426] Be you, too, faithful unto death, and
fight you, too, the good fight, whose crown the apostle [427] feels so
justly confident has been laid up for him. The angel [428] also, as he
goes forth on a white horse, conquering and to conquer, receives a crown of
victory; and another [429] is adorned with an encircling rainbow (as it
were in its fair colours)'a celestial meadow. In like manner, the elders sit
crowned around, crowned too with a crown of gold, and the Son of Man Himself
flashes out above the clouds. If such are the appearances in the vision of
the seer, of what sort will be the realities in the actual manifestation?
Look at those crowns. Inhale those odours. Why condemn you to a little
chaplet, or a twisted headband, the brow which has been destined for a
diadem? For Christ Jesus has made us even kings to God and His Father. What
have you in common with the flower which is to die? You have a flower in the
Branch of Jesse, upon which the grace of the Divine Spirit in all its
fulness rested'a flower undefiled, unfading, everlasting, by choosing which
the good soldier, too, has got promotion in the heavenly ranks. Blush, ye
fellow-soldiers of his, henceforth not to be condemned even by him, but by
some soldier of Mithras, who, at his initiation in the gloomy cavern, in the
camp, it may well be said, of darkness, when at the sword's point a crown is
presented to him, as though in mimicry of martyrdom, and thereupon put upon
his head, is admonished to resist and east it off, and, if you like,
transfer it to his shoulder, saying that Mithras is his crown. And
thenceforth he is never crowned; and he has that for a mark to show who he
is, if anywhere he be subjected to trial in respect of his religion; and he
is at once believed to be a soldier of Mithras if he throws the crown
away'if he say that in his god he has his crown. Let us take note of the
devices of the devil, who is wont to ape some of God's things with no other
design than, by the faithfulness of his servants, to put us to shame, and to
condemn us.
Elucidations.
I
Usages, p. 94.
Here a reference to Bunsen's Hippolytus, vol. III., so often referred to in
the former volume, will be useful. A slight metaphrase will bring out the
sense, perhaps, of this most interesting portrait of early Christian usages.
In baptism, we use trine immersion, in honour of the trinal Name, after
renouncing the devil and his angels and the pomps and vanities of his
kingdom. [430] But this trinal rite is a ceremonial amplification of what
is actually commanded. It was heretofore tolerated in some places that
communicants should take each one his portion, with his own hand, but now we
suffer none to receive this sacrament except at the hand of the minister. By
our Lord's own precept and example, it may be received at the hour of
ordinary meals, and alike by all the faithful whether men or women, yet we
usually do this in our gatherings before daybreak. Offerings are made in
honour of our departed friends, on the anniversaries of their deaths, which
we esteem their true birthdays, as they are born to a better life. We kneel
at other times, but on the Lord's day, and from the Paschal Feast to
Pentecost we stand in prayer, nor do we count it lawful to fast on Sundays.
We are concerned if even a particle of the wine or bread, made ours, in the
Lord's Supper, fails to the ground, by our carelessness. In all the ordinary
occasions of life we furrow our foreheads with the sign of the Cross, in
which we glory none the less because it is regarded as our shame by the
heathen in presence of whom it is a profession of our faith.
He owns there is no Scripture for any of these usages, in which there was an
amplifying of the precepts of Christ. Let us note there was yet no
superstitious usage even of this sign of the Cross. It was an act by which,
in suffering "shame for Jesus' name," they fortified themselves against
betraying the Master. It took the place, be it remembered, of innumerable
heathen practices, and was a protest against them. It meant'" God forbid
that I should glory, save in the Cross." I express no personal opinion as to
this observance, but give the explanation which the early Christians would
have given. Tertullian touched with Montanism, but not yet withdrawn from
Catholic Communion, pleads the common cause of believers.
II
Traditions, cap. iv., p. 95.
The traditions here argued for respect things in their nature indifferent.
And as our author asserts the long continuance of such usages to be their
chief justification, it is evident that he supposed them common from the
Sub-apostolic age. There is nothing here to justify amplifications and
traditions which, subsequently, came in like a flood to change principles of
the Faith once delivered to the Saints. Even in his little plea for
Montanistic revelations of some possible novelties, he pre-supposes that
reason must be subject to Scripture and Apostolic Law. In a word, his own
principle of "Prescription" must be honoured even in things indifferent; if
novel they are not Catholic.
Footnotes
[365] [Kaye, apparently accepting the judgment of Dr. Neander, assigns this
treatise to A.D. 204. The bounty here spoken of, then, must be that
dispensed in honour of the victories over the Parthians, under Severus.]
[366] "Emperors." The Emperor Severus associated his two sons with him in
the possession of the imperial power; Caracalla in the year 198, Geta in
208.'Tr.
[367] [A touch of our author's genius, inspired by the Phrygian enthusiam
for martydom. The ground on which a martyr treads begins to be holy, even
before the sacrifice, and in loosing his shoe the victim consecrates the
spot and at the same time pays it homage.]
[368] [The name of Christ: and the Antiochian name of Christians.]
[369] [Gibbon will have it that the De Corona was written while Tertullian
was orthodox, but this reference to the Montanist notion of "New Prophecy"
seems to justify the decision of critics against Gibbon, who, as Kaye
suggests (p. 53) was anxious to make Christianity itself responsible for
military insubordination and for offences against Imperial Law.]
[370] [Kaye (p. 231) notes this as a rare instance of classing Catechumens
among "the Faithful."]
[371] [This is said not absolutely but in contrast with extreme license; but
it shows the Supremacy of Scripture. Compare De Monogam, cap. 4.]
[372] [Elucidation I., and see Bunsen's Church and House Book, pp. 19-24.]
[373] [There is here an allusion to the Roman form of recognizing a lawful
child. The father, taking up the new-born infant, gave him adoption into the
family, and recognised him as a legitimate son and heir.]
[374] [Men and women, rich and poor.]
[375] i.e., of the Cross.
[376] Vulgate, Dan. xiii. 32. [See Apocrypha, Hist. of Susanna, v. 32.]
[377] [Observe it must (i.) be based on Apostolic grounds; (2.) must not
be a novelty, but derived from a time "to which the memory of men runneth
not contrary."]
[378] [I slightly amend the translation to bring out the force of an
objection to which our author gives a Montanistic reply.]
[379] Luke xii. 27.
[380] Phil. iii. 15.
[381] [See luminous remarks in Kaye, pp. 371-363.]
[382] [This teacher, i.e., right reason, under the guidance of the Holy
Ghost. He is here foisting in a plea for the "New Prophecy," apparently, and
this is one of the most decided instances in the treatise.]
[383] Kaye [p. 187,] has some valuable remarks on this testimony to the
sense in Christian Philosophy, and compares Cicero, I. Tusc. Cap. xx. or
xlvi.]
[384] 2 Cor. xi. 14.
[385] Rom. ii. 14.
[386] Rom. i. 26.
[387] [Plays were regarded as pomps renounced in Baptism.]
[388] Isa. xxxviii. 21.
[389] 1 Tim. v. 23.
[390] 2 Tim. iv. 13. [This is a useful comment as showing what this
was. Our author translates it by paenula. Of which more when we
reach the De Pallio.]
[391] John xiii. 1-5.
[392] [But see Eusebius, Hist. B. v., cap. 24, whose story is examined by
Lardner, Cred., vol. iv., p. 448.]
[393] Isa. v. 12.
[394] [Compare De Idololatria, cap. xv., p. 70, supra.]
[395] Ps. cxv. 4-8.
[396] Tit. 1. 15.
[397] [He seems to know no use for incense except for burials and for
fumigation.]
[398] 1 Cor. x. 28.
[399] [Kaye (p. 362) defends our author against Barbeyrac's
animadversions, by the maxim. "put yourself in his place" i.e. among the
abominations of Paganism.]
[400] 1 Cor. x. 14.
[401] 1 John v. 21.
[402] [He plays on this word Sacramentum. Is the military sacrament to be
added to the Lord's?]
[403] 1 Cor. viii. 10.
[404] [Vexillum. Such words as these prepared for the Labarum.]
[405] "Outside of the military service." By substituting ex militia for
the corresponding words extra militiam, as has been proposed by Rigaltius,
the sentence acquires a meaning such that desertion from the army is
suggested as one of the methods by which a soldier who has become a
Christian may continue faithful to Jesus. But the words extra militiam are a
genuine part of the text. There is no good ground, therefore, for the
statement of Gibbon: "Tertullian (de Corona Militis, c. xi.) suggests to
them the expedient of deserting; a counsel which, if it had been generally
known, was not very proper to conciliate the favour of the emperors toward
the Christian sect."'Tr.
[406] "the faithful," etc.; i.e., the kind of occupation which any one
has cannot be lpeaded by him as a reason for not doing all that Christ has
enjoined upon His people.'Tr.
[407] [He was not yet quite a Montanist.]
[408] i.e., Ilia.
[409] Matt. vi. 24.
[410] Matt. xxii. 21.
[411] [Such considerations may account for our author's abandonment of
what he says in the Apology; which compare in capp. xlii. And xxxix.]
[412] [Et apud barbaros enim Christus. See Kaye's argument, p. 87.]
[413] Phil.iIv. 3.
[414] Matt. iii. 10.
[415] Isa. xi. 1.
[416] Ps. xx. 7.
[417] Rev. xviii. 4. [He understands this of Rome.]
[418] Phil. iii. 20.
[419] John xvi. 20.
[420] 1 Cor. vii. 39.
[421] [A suggestive interpretation of the baptismal vow, of which see
Bunsen, Hippol., Vol. III., p. 20.]
[422] 1 Cor. xi. 10. [Does he here play on the use of the word angels in
the Revelation? He seems to make it = elders.]
[423] Rev. iv. 4.
[424] 1 Tim. ii. 9; 1 Pet. iii. 3.
[425] [A very striking collocation of Matt. xxvii. 34, and Luke xxiv.
42.]
[426] Rev. ii. 10; Jas. i. 22.
[427] 2 Tim. iv. 8.
[428] Rev. vi. 2.
[429] Rev. x. 1.
[430] See Kaye, pp. 408-415.
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