To Scapula - Tertullian
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[431]
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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
We are not in any great perturbation or alarm about the persecutions we
suffer from the ignorance of men; for we have attached ourselves to this
sect, fully accepting the terms of its covenant, so that, as men whose very
lives are not their own, we engage in these conflicts, our desire being to
obtain God's promised rewards, and our dread lest the woes with which He
threatens an unchristian life should overtake us. Hence we shrink not from
the grapple with your utmost rage, coming even forth of our own accord to
the contest; and condemnation gives us more pleas-are than acquittal. We
have sent, therefore, this tract to you in no alarm about ourselves, but in
much concern for you and for all our enemies, to say nothing of our friends.
For our religion commands us to love even our enemies, and to pray for those
who persecute us, aiming at a perfection all its own, and seeking in its
disciples something of a higher type than the commonplace goodness of the
world. For all love those who love them; it is peculiar to Christians alone
to love those that hate them. Therefore mourning over your ignorance, and
compassionating human error, and looking on to that future of which every
day shows threatening signs, necessity is laid on us to come forth in this
way also, that we may set before you the truths you will not listen to
openly.
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Chapter II.
We are worshippers of one God, of whose existence and character Nature
teaches all men; at whose lightnings and thunders you tremble, whose
benefits minister to your happiness. You think that others, too, are gods,
whom we know to be devils. However, it is a fundamental human right, a
privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his own
convictions: one man's religion neither harms nor helps another man. It is
assuredly no part of religion to compel religion'to which free-will and not
force should lead us'the sacrificial victims even being required of a
willing mind. You will render no real service to your gods by compelling us
to sacrifice. For they can have no desire of offerings from the unwilling,
unless they are animated by a spirit of contention, which is a thing
altogether undivine. Accordingly the true God bestows His blessings alike on
wicked men and on His own elect; upon which account He has appointed an
eternal judgment, when both thankful and unthankful will have to stand
before His bar. Yet you have never detected us'sacrilegious wretches though
you reckon us to be'in any theft, far less in any sacrilege. But the robbers
of your temples, all of them swear by your gods, and worship them; they are
not Christians, and yet it is they who are found guilty of sacrilegious
deeds. We have not time to unfold in how many other ways your gods are
mocked and despised by their own votaries. So, too, treason is falsely laid
to our charge, though no one has ever been able to find followers of
Albinus, or Niger, or Cassius, among Christians; while the very men who had
sworn by the genii of the emperors, who had offered and vowed sacrifices for
their safety, who had often pronounced condemnation on Christ's disciples,
are till this day found traitors to the imperial throne. A Christian is
enemy to none, least of all to the Emperor of Rome, whom he knows to be
appointed by his God, and so cannot but love and honour; and whose
well-being moreover, he must needs desire, with that of the empire over
which he reigns so long as the world shall stand'for so long as that shall
Rome continue. [432] To the emperor, therefore, we render such reverential
homage as is lawful for us and good for him; regarding him as the human
being next to God who from God has received all his power, and is less than
God alone. And this will be according to his own desires. For thus'as less
only than the true God'he is greater than all besides. Thus he is greater
than the very gods themselves, even they, too, being subject to him. We
therefore sacrifice for the emperor's safety, but to our God and his, and
after the manner God has enjoined, in simple prayer. For God, Creator of the
universe, has no need of odours or of blood. These things are the food of
devils. [433] But we not only reject those wicked spirits: we overcome them;
we daily hold them up to contempt; we exorcise them from their victims, as
multitudes can testify. So all the more we pray for the imperial well-being,
as those who seek it at the hands of Him who is able to bestow it. And one
would think it must be abundantly clear to you that the religious system
under whose rules we act is one inculcating a divine patience; since, though
our numbers are so great'constituting all but the majority in every city'we
conduct ourselves so quietly and modestly; I might perhaps say, known rather
as individuals than as organized communities, and remarkable only for the
reformation of our former vices. For far be it from us to take it ill that
we have laid on us the very things we wish, or in any way plot the vengeance
at our own hands, which we expect to come from God.
Chapter III.
However, as we have already remarked, it cannot but distress us that no
state shall bear unpunished the guilt of shedding Christian blood; as you
see, indeed, in what took place during the presidency of Hilarian, for when
there had been some agitation about places of sepulture for our dead, and
the cry arose, "No areæ'no burial-grounds for the Christians," it came that
their own areæ, [434] their threshing-floors, were a wanting, for they
gathered in no harvests. As to the rains of the bygone year, it is
abundantly plain of what they were intended to remind men'of the deluge, no
doubt, which in ancient times overtook human unbelief and wickedness; and as
to the fires which lately hung all night over the walls of Carthage, they
who saw them know what they threatened; and what the preceding thunders
pealed, they who were hardened by them can tell. All these things are signs
of God's impending wrath, which we must needs publish and proclaim in every
possible way; and in the meanwhile we must pray it may be only local. Sure
are they to experience it one day in its universal and final form, who
interpret otherwise these samples of it. That sun, too, in the metropolis of
Utica, [435] with light all but extinguished, was a portent which could not
have occurred from an ordinary eclipse, situated as the lord of day was in
his height and house. You have the astrologers, consult them about it. We
can point you also to the deaths of some provincial rulers, who in their
last hours had painful memories of their sin in persecuting the followers of
Christ. [436] Vigellius Saturninus, who first here used the sword against
us, lost his eyesight. Claudius Lucius Herminianus in Cappadocia, enraged
that his wife had become a Christian, had treated the Christians with great
cruelty: well, left alone in his palace, suffering under a contagious
malady, he boiled out in living worms, and was heard exclaiming, "Let nobody
know of it, lest the Christians rejoice, and Christian wives take
encouragement." Afterwards he came to see his error in having tempted so
many from their stedfastness by the tortures he inflicted, and died almost a
Christian himself. In that doom which overtook Byzantium, [437] Cæcilius
Capella could not help crying out, "Christians, rejoice!" Yes, and the
persecutors who seem to themselves to have acted with impunity shall not
escape the day of judgment. For you we sincerely wish it may prove to have
been a warning only, that, immediately after you had condemned Mavilus of
Adrumetum to the wild beasts, you were overtaken by those troubles, and that
even now for the same reason you are called to a blood-reckoning. But do not
forget the future.
Chapter IV.
We who are without fear ourselves are not seeking to frighten you, but we
would save all men if possible by warning them not to fight with God. [438]
You may perform the duties of your charge, and yet remember the claims of
humanity; if on no other ground than that you are liable to punishment
yourself, (you ought to do so). For is not your commission simply to condemn
those who confess their guilt, and to give over to the torture those who
deny? You see, then, how you trespass yourselves against your instructions
to wring from the confessing a denial. It is, in fact, an acknowledgment of
our innocence that you refuse to condemn us at once when we confess. In
doing your utmost to extirpate us, if that is your object, it is innocence
you assail. But how many rulers, men more resolute and more cruel than you
are, have contrived to get quit of such causes altogether,'as Cincius
Severus, who himself suggested the remedy at Thysdris, pointing out how the
Christians should answer that they might secure an acquittal; as Vespronius
Candidus, who dismissed from his bar a Christian, on the ground that to
satisfy his fellow-citizens would break the peace of the community; as
Asper, who, in the case of a man who gave up his faith under slight
infliction of the torture, did not compel the offering of sacrifice, having
owned before, among the advocates and assessors of court, that he was
annoyed at having had to meddle with such a case. Pudens, too, at once
dismissed a Christian who was brought before him, perceiving from the
indictment that it was a case of vexatious accusation; tearing the document
in pieces, he refused so much as to hear him without the presence of his
accuser, as not being consistent with the imperial commands. All this might
be officially brought Under your notice, and by the very advocates, who are
themselves also under obligations to us, although in court they give their
voice as it suits them. The clerk of one of them who was liable to be thrown
upon the ground by an evil spirit, was set free from his affliction; as was
also the relative of another, and the little boy of a third. How many men of
rank (to say nothing of common people) have been delivered from devils, and
healed of diseases! Even Severus himself, the father of Antonine, was
graciously mindful of the Christians; for he sought out the Christian
Proculus, surnamed Torpacion, the steward of Euhodias, and in gratitude for
his having once cured him by anointing, he kept him in his palace till the
day of his death. [439] Antonine, too, brought up as he was on Christian
milk, was intimately acquainted with this man. Both women and men of highest
rank, whom Severus knew well to be Christians, were not merely permitted by
him to remain uninjured; but he even bore distinguished testimony in their
favour, and gave them publicly back to us from the hands of a raging
populace. Marcus Aurelius also, in his expedition to Germany, by the prayers
his Christian soldiers offered to God, got rain in that well-known thirst.
[440] When, indeed, have not droughts been put away by our kneelings and our
fastings? At times like these, moreover, the people crying to "the God of
gods, the alone Omnipotent," under the name of Jupiter, have borne witness
to our God. Then we never deny the deposit placed in our hands; we never
pollute the marriage bed; we deal faithfully with our wards; we give aid to
the needy; we render to none evil for evil. As for those who falsely pretend
to belong to us, and whom we, too, repudiate, let them answer for
themselves. In a word, who has complaint to make against us on other
grounds? To what else does the Christian devote himself, save the affairs of
his own community, which during all the long period of its existence no one
has ever proved guilty of the incest or the cruelty charged against it? It
is for freedom from crime so singular, for a probity so great, for
righteousness, for purity, for faithfulness, for truth, for the living God,
that we are consigned to the flames; for this is a punishment you are not
wont to inflict either on the sacrilegious, or on undoubted public enemies,
or on the treason-tainted, of whom you have so many. Nay, even now our
people are enduring persecution from the governors of Legio and Mauritania;
but it is only with the sword, as from the first it was ordained that we
should suffer. But the greater our conflicts, the greater our rewards.
Chapter V.
Your cruelty is our glory. Only see you to it, that in having such things as
these to endure, we do not feel ourselves constrained to rush forth to the
combat, if only to prove that we have no dread of them, but on the contrary,
even invite their infliction. When Arrius Antoninus was driving things hard
in Asia, the whole Christians of the province, in one united band, presented
themselves before his judgment-seat; on which, ordering a few to be led
forth to execution, he said to the rest, "O miserable men, if you wish to
die, you have precipices or halters." If we should take it into our heads to
do the same thing here, what will you make of so many thousands, of such a
multitude of men and women, persons of every sex and every age and every
rank, when they present themselves before you? How many fires, how many
swords will be required? What will be the anguish of Carthage itself, which
you will have to decimate, [441] as each one recognises there his
relatives and companions, as he sees there it may be men of your own order,
and noble ladies, and all the leading persons of the city, and either
kinsmen or friends of those of your own circle? Spare thyself, if not us
poor Christians! Spare Carthage, if not thyself! Spare the province, which
the indication of your purpose has subjected to the threats and extortions
at once of the soldiers and of private enemies.
We have no master but God. He is before you, and cannot be hidden from you,
but to Him you can do no injury. But those whom you regard as masters are
only men, and one day they themselves must die. Yet still this community
will be undying, for be assured that just in the time of its seeming
overthrow it is built up into greater power. For all who witness the noble
patience of its martyrs, as struck with misgivings, are inflamed with desire
to examine into the matter in question; [442] and as soon as they come to
know the truth, they straightway enrol themselves its disciples.
Elucidations.
I
Scapula, cap. i., p. 105.
Scapula was Proconsul of Carthage, and though its date is conjectural (a.d.
217), this work gives valuable indices of its time and circumstances. It was
composed after the death of Severus, to whom there is an allusion in chapter
iv., after the destruction of Byzantium (a.d. 196), to which there is a
reference in chapter iii.; and Dr. Allix suggests, after the dark day of
Utica (a.d. 210) which he supposes to be referred to in the same chapter.
Cincius Severus, who is mentioned in chapter iv, was put to death by
Severus, a.d. 198.
II
Caractacus, cap. ii., note 2, p. 105.
Mr. Lewin (St. Paul, ii. 397), building on the fascinating theory of
Archdeacon Williams, thinks St. Paul's Claudia (Qu. Gladys? ) may very well
have been the daughter of Caradoc, with whose noble character we are made
acquainted by Tacitus. (Annals xii. 36.) And Archdeacon Williams gives us
very strong reason to believe he was a Christian. He may very well have
lived to behold the Coliseum completed. What more natural then, in view of
the cruelty against Christians there exercised, for the expressions with
which he is credited? In this case his words contain an eloquent ambiguity,
which Christians would appreciate, and which may have been in our author's
mind when he says'"quousque sæculum stabit." To those who looked for the
Second Advent, daily, this did not mean what the heathen might suppose.
Bede's version of the speech (See Du Cange, II., 407., ) is this: "Quandiu
stabit Colyseus'stabit et Roma: Quando cadet Colysevs'cadet et Roma: Quando
cadet Roma'cadet et mundus."
Footnotes
[431] [See Elucidation I. Written late in our author's life, this tract
contains no trace of Montanism, and shows that his heart was with the common
cause of all Christians. Who can give up such an Ephraim without recalling
the words of inspired love for the erring?'Jer. Xxxi. 20; Hos. xi. 8.]
[432] [Kaye points out our author's inconsistencies on this matter. If
Caractacus ever made the speech ascribed to him (Bede, or Gibbon, cap.
lxxi.) it would confirm the opinion of those who make him a convert to
Christ: "Quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus." Elucidation II.]
[433] [On this sort of Demonology see Kaye, pp. 203-207, with his useful
references. See De Spectaculis, p. 80, supra.]
[434] [An obvious play on the ambiguity of this word.]
[435] [Notes of the time when this was written. See Kaye, p. 57.]
[436] [Christians remembered Herod (Acts. xii. 23.) very naturally; but we
may reserve remarks on such instances till we come to Lactantius. But see
Kaye (p. 102) who speaks unfavourably of them.]
[437] [Notes of the time when this was written. See Kaye, p. 57.]
[438] [Our author uses the Greek but not textually of
Acts v. 39.]
[439] [Another note of time. a.d. 211. See Kaye, as before.]
[440] [Compare Vol. I., p. 187, this Series.]
[441] [Compare De Fuga, cap. xii. It is incredible that our author could
exaggerate in speaking to the chief magistrate of Carthage.]
[442] [Mosheim's strange oversight, in neglecting to include such
considerations, in account for the growth of the church, is justly censured
by Kaye, p. 124.]
[443] [As a recapitulation I insert this here to close this class of
argument for the reasons following.] This treatise resembles The Apology,
both in its general purport as a vindication of Christianity against heathen
prejudice, and in many of its expressions and statements. So great is the
resemblance that this shotrer work has been thought by some to have been a
first draft of the longer and perfect one. Tertullian, however, here
addresses his expostulations to the general public, while in The Apology it
is the rulers and magistrates of the empire whom he seeks to influence. [Dr.
Allix conjectures the date of this treatise to be about a.d. 217. See Kaye,
p. 50.]
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