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GIFT OF 
 JANE Ko;^ATHER 
 
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 1 * ' ' 
 
 '^^- 
 
 Tertullian and His 
 Apologetics 
 
 A Study of Early Christian Thought 
 
 B^ 
 
 Rev. John B. Delaunay, C S. C, PH. D., J. C D. 
 
 Professor of Church History and Canon Law 
 
 Holy Cross College 
 
 Washing-ton 
 
 D. C. 
 
 
 University Press 
 
 Notre Dame 
 Ind. 
 

 X^j^-t^U 
 
 SATHER 
 Imprimi permittitur: 
 
 A. MORRISSEY, C. S. C. 
 Sup. Prov. 
 
 Nihil obstat: 
 
 M. McGarry, C. S. C. 
 Censor deputatns 
 
 Imprimatur: 
 
 ►J^ Hermannus, 
 
 Episcopus Wayne-Castrensis 
 
 Wayne-Castris, 
 
 die 9 Sept. 1914. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The acknowledged value of recent publications 
 dealing with Tertullian makes it questionable whether 
 any further attempt to define his position as an 
 Apologist would not be superfluous — not to say pre- 
 sumptuous. In a field so carefully gone over by such 
 scholars as Noeldechen, Monceaux and d'Ales, would 
 any gleanings be left for less skillful and less author- 
 itative students? 
 
 In answer, a distinction is necessary: undoubtedly 
 Tertullian's life and every point of his writings 
 have been adequately and exhaustively described. 
 On the other hand, that there may not still be room 
 to offer a synthetic view of the author's mind and 
 soul is less certain. For instance: What is the 
 unexpressed sub-stratum of Tertullian's expressed 
 thought upon which he rears the stately edifice of 
 his apologetics? What are the relations of every 
 part of the work to this underlying principle? These 
 and like questions still demand solution and the 
 present essay is a modest attempt to solve these 
 difficult problems. 
 
 It is needless to state that in the fulfillment of the 
 task assumed, the works of the above-named scholars 
 were ever before the eyes of the writer, affording 
 sure guidance in the many difficulties of the under- 
 taking. Indeed, no higher claim is proffered here 
 than that of having adapted to a specific purpose 
 
 111 
 
 ^'84677 
 
iv ^ PREFACE 
 
 the materials so industriously gathered and skill- 
 fully arranged by more competent critics. 
 
 The main source of the essay, however, has been 
 the text itself of TertuUian. Poring closely over 
 its lines, I have tried to make it yield all the light 
 that it could throw on the question, mindful always 
 of the dangers of subjective criticism which would 
 read into a document personal prejudices and pre- 
 vailing ideas. 
 
 The text of TertuUian being exceedingly difficult 
 of translation, the writer felt diffident about offering 
 his own reading of many vexed passages and has in 
 the main followed verbatim the text of the Oxford 
 translation which makes up in literal accuracy for 
 what it sometimes lacks in smoothness of diction. 
 
 It is a pleasant duty to acknowledge my great 
 indebtedness to the Rev. Dr. John D. Maguire, 
 Professor of Latin Literature in the Catholic Univer- 
 sity of America, to the Rev. Dr. George M. Sauvage, 
 C. S. C, of Holy Cross College, Washington, D. C, 
 and to the Rev. Dr. J. Leonard Carrico, C. S. C, 
 Professor of Literature in the University of Notre 
 Dame, Ind., for their many helpful suggestions and 
 valuable assistance. 
 
TO MY 
 
 UNCLE AND BENEFACTOR 
 
 B. A. 
 
 THIS WORK IS 
 
 AFFECTIONATELY AND GRATEFULLY 
 
 DEDICATED. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 FORMATION OF HIS LEADING IDEA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Influence of His Age. 
 
 Influence of surroundings. — I. Pagan disorders: Anarchy 
 and corruption in politics; immorality in social life; multi- 
 plicity of cults exerts no moral influence; character of 
 contemporary literature (love of archaic forms, dilettantism, 
 immorality). — II. Opposing elements: Influence of Philos- 
 ophy; popularity of Philosophers; nature and form of their 
 teaching; its eff"ect upon morality and literature; upon 
 legislation, upon the dogmas of the pagan religion, upon 
 its cult; Apuleius, type of a Philosopher and devotee. — 
 III. These two tendencies blended in individuals: The 
 Christians alone unite purity of life with nobility of thought; 
 their opponents, — the law, the crowd, the Philosophers; 
 appealing character of their doctrine. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Influence of His Life and General Ideas. 
 
 Sources and purpose of the chapter. — I. Biography of 
 Tertullian: early literary impressions; influence of home 
 surroundings; the study of rhetoric, philosophy and law; 
 his moral failings a factor in his development; the weak 
 hold of religion on his mind and conduct; Philosophy 
 becomes the guiding principle of his life; early writings 
 
 vii 
 
^Ui"'. • ' • .. ; .CONTENTS 
 
 < < 
 
 .', ^rtdtSr tfnat 'mfl'dence-, Hi? first approach to the Christian 
 ' ' 'trtitli; eJcinehts .i>£''Ct:j-istianity which appealed to him; 
 steps of his conversion. — II. General ideas: hatred of 
 dilettantism; opinions on Greek ideals and morals; sim- 
 plicity a criterion of truth ; views on social and civic duties. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 His Leading Idea. 
 
 The new convert ready for action; groundwork of his 
 apologetics lies in his views on truth and error. — I. Two 
 mainsprings of truth: reason, or the soul naturally Christian; 
 faith, or the soul supernaturally Christian. — II. Error, the 
 enemy of truth: the reason perverted by the body, depraved 
 by surroundings, dragged down by passions; faith enjoys 
 but a limited field of vision, blinded by prejudices from 
 education; relations of philosophy to heresy. — Distinctive 
 marks of truth and error. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 t 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIS LEADING IDEA. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 His Apologetics against the Pagans. 
 
 Tertullian's confidence in the convincing power of truth 
 and realization of the obstacles to truth. — Choice of method 
 and progress in its application. — I. First step of develop- 
 ment in the Ad Nationes: removal of prejudices is the 
 purpose of the treatise; carrying out of purpose; relation 
 with leading idea. — II. Second step of development in the 
 Apologeticum: variety of opinions as to its purpose; inten- 
 tion of author to point out remedy for the state of pagan 
 society; fulfilling of intention; conclusion of the work. — 
 III. Third step in De Testimonio Animae: a new testimony; 
 value of that testimony; appeal to the soul freed from 
 prejudices. 
 
CONTENTS ix 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 His Apologetics against Heretics. 
 
 Christian truth persecuted by heretics; proper attitude 
 of Christians towards the truth must be taught. — I. The 
 truth in its fountain-head: the "regula fidei"; its origin; 
 its formula; contrary interpretations by the faithful and 
 heretics; appeal of heretics to Scripture. — II. The truth 
 in its transmission: from Christ to the Apostles; from the 
 Apostles to the Apostolic Churches; from the latter to our 
 day; objections of heretics exposed and answered. — III. The 
 tru-th in its actual state to be tested by certain criteria: 
 antiquity; immutability; unity; purity. — Strength of the 
 argument of prescription. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 His Change of Principle. 
 
 Nothing to be added to the rule of faith; the new prophecy 
 and the Paraclete. — I Tertullian's first deviation from his 
 leading idea: exegesis of John XVI., 13; revelation not 
 complete till Montanus; justification of his rigorism in the 
 new prophecies; private revelations versus Apostolic 
 customs. — II. External step towards schism : the Pallium 
 vindicated; the garb of a higher religion. — III. Further 
 steps into schism: the probative value of ecstasies; the new 
 light clears away all doubts; the Psychics and the Pneuma- 
 tics; denial of the right of the hierarchy to command; 
 attacks against the Roman Church. — The destiny of the 
 Tertullianistic sect. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 His Style. 
 
 Tertullian's ardent faith creative of his style. — I. How 
 he expressed God: proof of His existence; description of 
 His attributes; (omnipotence, grandeur, goodness and 
 justice, love). — II. The history of man: creation; fall; 
 promise of the Alessiah; the humanity of Christ; his life; 
 
X CONTENTS 
 
 Christ's lowliness is Tertullian's glory; Bossuet's com- 
 mentaries. — III. The life of the Church: characterization 
 of its members and its enemies; the last judgment. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 His Originality. 
 
 Tertullian little accredited for originality. — I. Influence 
 of previous literature: pagan sources,; Christian apologists; 
 the spirit of his apologetics in St. Paul, Justin, Tatian; the 
 argument of prescription in Paul, Papias and Irenaeus. — 
 II. Originality: of his thought; of his method; the argu- 
 ment of prescription strengthened; a style of his own. — 
 More original because more personal. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Tertullian and the Effects of His Apologetics. 
 
 I. General characterization of his life, thought and 
 writings: Christian with his whole soul. — II. His influence 
 on: the pagans, his contemporaries; Minucius Felix; 
 Cyprian; Arnobius; Lactantius; Novatian; Jerome; the 
 Christian poets; Augustine; Vincent of Lerins; temporary 
 oblivion during the Middle Ages; Duns Scotus; revival 
 of interest in Tertullian during the Rennaissance and the 
 Reformation; Bossuet and Pascal; modern interpretations 
 and misinterpretations of his thought; the School of 
 Immanence. — Conclusion. 
 
 Bibliography: Manuscripts. — Editions. — Translations. — 
 
 Literature 
 
PART I. 
 
 FORMATION OF HIS LEADING IDEA 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF HIS AGE. 
 
 Summary. — Influence of surroundings. — I. Pagan disorders: 
 Anarchy and corruption in politics; immoralit}' in social 
 life; multiplicity of cults exerts no moral influence; character 
 of contemporary literature (love of archaic forms, dilettantism, 
 immorality). — II. Opposing elements: Influence of Philos- 
 ophy; popularity of Philosophers; nature and form of 
 their teaching; its effect upon morality and literature, upon 
 legislation, upon the dogmas of the pagan religion, upon its 
 cult; Apuleius, type of a Philosopher and devotee. — III. These 
 two tendencies blended in individuals: The Christians alone 
 unite purity of life with nobility of thought; their opponents, 
 — the law, the crowd, the Philosophers; appealing character 
 of their doctrine. 
 
 There is in all human life a period during which 
 the mind is more receptive than active. The pressure 
 of the past in the form of tradition and the pressure 
 of the present, or social influence, have much to do 
 in determining the first stages of the soul's growth. 
 Is it not a very patent fact that personality often 
 developes in the direction of its first impulses? 
 "Qualis ab incepto" applies to very many people. 
 It is important, therefore, for our purpose to dis- 
 engage from the body of ideas current at the end of 
 the second century those main questions that seemed 
 most vital to every Roman mind and the answers 
 that were commonly given them. 
 
 Abundant documents serve our inquiry. Whether 
 a representative man voices the notions of his time 
 
2 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 or the complex movements of historical events 
 show forth the political, ethical or the religious 
 principles which are their ground work, the task 
 of the observer consists only in sifting and classifying 
 the evidences thus afforded him. 
 
 The last plaints of the dying Marcus Aurelius 
 contrast vividly with the hopeful aspirations of his 
 youth/ It had been his constant wish and effort 
 to make his government not only a material enforce- 
 ment of the law, but also a means towards the 
 inward betterment of his people.^ But from his 
 deathbed on the frozen bank of the Danube,^ the 
 unhappy Emperor saw how fruitless had been his 
 endeavors. While speaking the last words of advice 
 to his son Commodus, he sadly foresaw how unworthy 
 a successor he was to have."* The utter degradation 
 of the Roman aristocracy and the corrupt indifference 
 of the people, he fully realized. It had been beyond 
 the power of his wisdom and authority to stay the 
 consequences of the Roman conception of the im- 
 perial office. 5 After his death they manifested them- 
 selves but too clearly. Though for some time things 
 went on prosperously,^ circumstances soon prepared 
 the situation for a full display of the young Emperor's 
 passions. The Senate was by him debased more 
 
 ^ Meditations: x. 36 (English transl. George Long, London 
 1862). 
 
 ^ Id. IX. 29. 
 
 3 Aurelius Victor: Goes. 16; Epitome 16; Herod i, 2, 3. 
 
 '' Marcus Aurelius, op. cit. IX. 3; X. 36. 
 
 5 G. Kurth: Origines de la Civilization moderne, chap. I. 
 
 ^ Herod. I. ch. 5, 6. Gibbon: History of the Decline 
 and Fall of Roman Empire, ch. 1-3; Duruy: Histoire 
 Romaine ch. 79-81. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 3 
 
 than it had ever been before/ Whim and passion 
 became the law of the Empire. The people, absorbed 
 in the games, showed little or no interest in affairs 
 of state. Later, In the murder of Pertinax and other 
 Emperors, the army manifested a growing tendency 
 towards military despotism. How much of its 
 sacredness the Imperium Romanum had lost in 
 the Roman mind is evidenced by the public sale 
 of the Empire. 
 
 The family organization reflected the disorder 
 prevailing in political affairs. The patrician child, 
 no longer destined to serve his country either by 
 arms or by eloquence, received an education that 
 fitted him for a life of inaction and pleasure. Ter- 
 tullian was able to say that divorce had become the 
 fruit of marriage.^ Prostitution of every possible 
 kind had found its way into the heart of the once 
 pure home of the Romans. Had not the imperial 
 dwelling on the Palatine been a model which all 
 could copy?-5 It is clear that the moral reforms of 
 Marcus Aurelius had left but little trace. If we 
 are to believe the testimonies of Petronius,^ Juvenal^ 
 and Apuleius,*" corroborated by the indignant out- 
 cries of all the Christian apologists, at no previous 
 period of history had Roman society been so generally 
 corrupt. This fact, if borne in mind, will help us 
 to realize the influence which the prevailing depravity 
 exercised upon every heart, and to appreciate properly 
 
 ^ On the whole period cf. Capes: Roman Empire of 
 Second Century. (New York 1901). 
 
 ^ Apol. 6: " Repudium vero et votum est, quasi matri- 
 monii fructus." ^ Lampridius: c. 5. 
 
 ^ Satyricon. cc. 30 sq. ^ Juvenal: VI. 76. 
 
 ^ Metamorposes: passim. 
 
4 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 the efforts made by individuals to rise above this 
 wretched condition. 
 
 Roman society did not lack religion. Under 
 Nero's reign, Petronius could write w4th a touch 
 of humor that it was easier to find gods than men.^ 
 TertuUian said sarcastically that it w^as permitted 
 to worship every thing but the true God.^ Indeed 
 the number of temples built during that epoch 
 bespeaks a great religious revival. ^ In Africa, the 
 citizens who had taken as their motto: "venari, 
 ludere, lavari, ridere, hoc est vivere,""* were, as the 
 ruins of their cities bear witness, the very ones to 
 bind themselves to many and complicated religious 
 mysteries. They adored not only the divi, Rome 
 and Caesar, but foreign deities also, such as Heracles, 
 Isis, Serapis, Mithra. Even the Moorish gods, 
 Anthis, Anliswa, Baldir, and others were objects 
 of popular worship. 5 
 
 Yet these multifarious manifestations of religious 
 devotion were no sure indications of pure and moral 
 lives. The repeated sarcasms of the poets, ^ satirists" 
 and philosophers^ had obliterated in the hearts of 
 the people their respect for the old Gods of Rome. 
 Their temples no longer stirred the national feelings 
 as in the days of Cato. There remained but a collec- 
 
 ^ Satyricon: 35. ^ Apol. XXIV. 
 
 ^ Monceaux: Les Africains p. 29; Histoire de I'Afrique 
 chretienne. 
 
 4 Inscription quoted by Boissier: Afrique Romaine, p. 193 
 
 ^ Monceaux: Histoire de I'Afrique chretienne, p. 465; 
 Leclercq: Afrique chretienne. Vol. I., p. 105. 
 
 ^ Horac. Satyres, I. 5-97. 
 
 ' Juvenal: VII; Lucian : Dialogue of the gods, passim. 
 
 ^ TertuUian remarked that Seneca had teen even more 
 insulting than the Christians: Apol. XII; I. Ad Nat. 10. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 5 
 
 tion of rites without inner meaning. The people 
 found satisfaction for their religious aspirations in 
 the arts of magic and astrology/ which were widely 
 prevalent at that time. Even Marcus Aurelius did 
 not escape their influence.' Often, too, the Eastern 
 or provincial cults were without any moral dictates 
 whatever. A clean heart was not needed to win 
 the favor of the gods.^ The priests were notorious 
 for their licentiousness. ^ The temples were insecure. 
 Human sacrifices, although forbidden by the 'law, 
 were perpetrated in secret.^ Religion, in a word, 
 had turned into a fashionable practice not incom- 
 patible with vice. 
 
 As might be expected, the literature of the day was 
 the expression of an all-pervading individualism.^ 
 The fact that it professed a decided return to the 
 old Roman model does not prove its seriousness. '^ 
 In the archaic writings, the rhetoricians of the age 
 sought not lessons of patriotism, religion and moral- 
 ity, but rather strange forms of style. Their concep- 
 tion of the relations of art to life was directly opposed 
 to that of Livy and Vergil. Literature was no longer 
 looked upon as a step to higher things, but as an 
 end in itself. The most noted writers of the time 
 were either mere teachers of rhetoric like Fronto and 
 
 ^ Apuleius: de Magia. Cf: Bouche-Leclercq, la Divina- 
 nation dans I'antiquite; Baudrillard, la Religion Romaine 
 
 1905- 
 
 ^ Renan: Marc Aurele. p. 49. ^ Apol. XXV. 
 
 •^ Ibid. XXIII.; Apuleius, Metamorphoses XI, 8; Herod 
 I. 10. 
 
 ^ Apol. IX; Tatian, XII; Athenagoras, XIII. 
 
 ^ Pichon: Histoire de la litterature latine, livre III, ch. 
 I: Causes de la decadence. 
 
 ' Monceaux: les Africains, pp. 47-79. 
 
6 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 Apollinaris, or grammarians like Aulus Gellius. 
 More serious thinkers, such as Dion Chrysostom and 
 Apuleius, devoted much of their time to expatiating 
 on frivolous topics, — the dust, the parrot, tooth 
 powder and such trifles.' Add to this the craving for 
 corrupt literature. Only such a society could have 
 produced the Satyricon and the Metamorphoses.^ 
 The popular demand for amusement was answered 
 by the Mimes and the Atellanes, to the immorality 
 of which even pagan writers have borne testimony.^ 
 Indeed, to judge by these signs only, Marcus Aurelius' 
 dreams of moral progress were anything but realized. 
 Wherever we turn, we behold not the ideal republic 
 conceived in the mind of the philosopher, but a 
 degenerating organism, weak and crumbling in its 
 every part. 
 
 Appearances, however, are likely to deceive us; 
 they do not always reflect perfectly the complex 
 life of a nation. Below the surface there flow strong 
 undercurrents and countercurrents striving for mas- 
 tery. A close observation reveals other elements 
 and antagonizing tendencies, which must be reckoned 
 with before making up our summary of a general 
 condition. 
 
 In the first place, we must note the purifying 
 influence exercised by philosophy on the Roman 
 society of those days. During the reign of Aurelius, 
 
 ' Taylor: Classical Inheritance of the Middle Ages, 
 Phases of Pagan Decadence. 
 
 ^ Boissier: Opposition sous les Cesars. p. 268. 
 
 ^ Ovid: Trist. Ill, 501; Juvenal. VI. 66; Marcus 
 Aurelius, IX. Cf. Teuffel: History of Latin Literature, 
 Vol. I, p. 233. (English, transl.) 
 
■ TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 7 
 
 philosophers had thronged to the imperial court 
 where they received great favors.' Many of them 
 were raised to the consulship or the proconsulship.^ 
 They formed a part of the Emperor's council. 
 Though Commodus held in small esteem these wise 
 advisers of his father, he at least tolerated them. 
 They had won new disciples and were acquiring 
 influence over the popular mind and conscience. It 
 became the fashion among the aristocracy to confide 
 the education of their children to the philosophers, 
 as formerly they had done to the rhetoricians.^ 
 
 The nature and form of their instruction soon 
 won for these teachers wide and ever-growing 
 popularity. They taught no longer in the enclosed 
 school a few chosen disciples on subjects unsuited 
 to the ordinary mind.^ Their ambition was to be, 
 in a manner, popular preachers and directors of 
 conscience. 5 
 
 Before Marcus Aurelius left Rome to go to war 
 for the second time, he taught three lessons of philos- 
 ophy to the people assembled to hear him.^ In 
 Carthage, the cultured classes met in the amphi- 
 
 ' Herod, I. 2; Capitol: Anton. Pius II. 3; Dio Cassius, 
 
 71, 35- 
 
 ^ Herod, Atticus, Fronto, Claudius Severus, Oroculus. 
 Cf. Tillemont: Histoire des Empereurs II, p. 316, sqq.; 
 Boissier in his "Religion Romaine," vol. II. c. 3, shows how 
 philosophy was, on the contrary, ill received in the days of 
 the Republic. 
 
 ^ So for Commodus. Cf. also in the Satyricon the story 
 of Eumolpe. 
 
 4 Dio Chrysost. Orat. 32; Aul. Gell, V. I; Gallen: Meth. 
 medendi. 13, 15. cf. Boissier, op. cit. ch. 6. 
 
 5 Martha: Moralistes sous I'Empire, p. i-ioi. 
 ^ Vulcatius Cassio, III. 7. 
 
8 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 theatre to hear Apuleius discourse on philosophical 
 topics/ We learn also that some of the philosophers 
 disguised themselves in beggar's clothes in order to 
 get a stronger hold on the lower classes.^ Their 
 counsels and maxims found an echo in the mind 
 of the multitude. They passed into the literature 
 and into the morals of the nation. Here and there, 
 at times, protestations were raised against the 
 frivolous and degraded literature of the day.^ Some 
 of Juvenal's strongest verses breathe the spirit of 
 Stoicism. In the midst of the general decadence, 
 voices were heard reminding the wealthy of their 
 duties, of the higher ideal of life, and presenting to 
 the "plebs Romana" pictures of the ancient "Urbs" 
 with its polictial activity and genuine patriotism. ^ 
 Through the influence of these doctrines, less severe 
 treatment was inflicted upon the slaves. It is quite 
 a surprise to find in Trimalchion's mouth such words 
 as these: "We had better forgive them. Those 
 slaves are men as we are. They drink of the same 
 milk. "5 Such facts point out that certain philo- 
 sophical principles were gaining a widespread and 
 deep-seated influence in the minds of every class of 
 society at the end of the second century. 
 
 Nor was it a passing fad without consequences 
 for the future. The great lawyers of the day had 
 been educated by Stoic teachers.^ Though filled 
 
 ^ Apuleius: Florida i, 9. ^ ibid. I. 7. 
 
 3 Epictetus: Dissert. I. 21; III. 9-23; Aul. Cell, V. I; 
 Plutarch: de Auct. 13, 15. 
 
 ^ Renan: op. cit. ch. III. p. 32-53. 
 
 5 Satyricon. 28. 
 
 ^ Salvius Valens, Ulpius Marcellus Savolenus, Voluscius 
 Moecianus, Coecilius Africanus. Cf: Huscke: lurispru- 
 dentiae anteiustinianae fragmenta quae supersunt. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 9 
 
 with respect for what was just in the old code, they, 
 unconsciously perhaps, legislated on Stoic principles. 
 Their ideal was no longer a state restricted by 
 nationality and identity of race, but a larger concep- 
 tion of universal brotherhood.^ The result of these 
 tendencies was a more humane code of laws. The 
 rights of fathers were limited; abortion was looked 
 upon as murder;^ the abandonment of children 
 became a legal crime; the state considered the 
 children free. At the suggestion of the philosophers, 
 measures W'Cre taken by Marcus Aurelius to dis- 
 courage the profession of the gladiators. ^ The natural 
 rights of the slaves were recognized;-* the condition 
 of w^oman was somewhat improved. Nor was the 
 religious life of the Romans left unaffected by the 
 philosophical movement. Stoicism, as Ebert remarks, 
 had taken on a mystico-religious character. ^ Unable 
 to breathe life into the state worship, it, at least, 
 lifted up the Roman mind to higher conceptions of 
 the divinity. Theology had hitherto been managed 
 mainly by lawyers and grammarians.^ Philosophers 
 in their turn now^ began to deal w4th matters 
 theological. It became one of their great concerns 
 to reconcile philosophical monotheism wdth mytho- 
 logical polytheism. Eclectic in its speculation, ^ it 
 left free room to Platonic theories and, as a conse- 
 
 ^ Seneca: de Otio. dial. 8 c; Havet: Christianismne 
 et ses origines II., p. 15. 
 
 ^ Digest. VII. 38-39- 
 
 ■5 Capitol: Anton. Phil. 23; Dio Cass. 71, 29. 
 
 ■* Spartian.: Adrian. 18; Gaius I, 53; Digest I. VI, 2. 
 
 5 Ebert: pref. of Histoire de lahtterature dii Moyen — Age, 
 vol. I. p. 15. (French transl.) 
 
 ^ Boissier: op. cit. Vol. II. ch. VII. p. 113-119. 
 
 7 Zeller: Philosophic der Griechen, III., p. 492. 
 
lo TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 quence, the belief that the supreme authority 
 belonged to one God began to gain ground. The 
 divine functions, however, were distributed among 
 many.' Hence, there was a facile transition to the 
 explanation of mythology. "The only God which 
 filled and animated the universe received different 
 nam.es according to the diverse elements which He 
 penetrates";^ or, as Apuleius held, "below this 
 superior God there exists a hierarchy of inferior 
 deities who act as servants and ministers to His 
 will." Owing to these theological speculations, it 
 became the prevailing opinion of the multitude that 
 the number of gods was to be reduced to one.^ 
 
 Moral in its main tendency, it was natural that 
 Stoicism should also inject into religion its ethical 
 tenets and practices. The apologists of this epoch 
 acknowledge the attempts to find a deep and pure 
 meaning in the most corrupt fables. Such attempts 
 are evidences of the fact that God was no longer 
 conceived as capable of human and sinful passions. 
 This notion drew with it the consequent idea that 
 the worshippers must be good in order to gain 
 access to the divinity. The words "bonus intra, 
 melior exi,"4 were even written on the threshold 
 of a temple in Africa. Apuleius is a typical example 
 of a philosopher who is at the same time a devotee. ^ 
 
 ' Apol. XVII, XXIV, XXVI; Apuleius. Met. XI. 2, 
 sqq; Diogen. Laert. VII. i, 147; Athenagoras, VII. 
 
 ^ Apul. de Deo Socr. 19. Cf. Boissier, op. cit. vol. II. p. 
 
 367- 
 
 •5 The same effort is evidenced in Greece, Cf. Piat. Socrate 
 
 p. 8, sqq. 
 
 '' Renier: Inscriptions de I'Algerie, p. 165. 
 
 5 Boissier: op. cit. vol. II. p. 105 sq; Afrique Romaine 
 p. 236. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICvS ii 
 
 Such a combination was unknown in the time of 
 Cicero. The great orator belonged, it is true, to a 
 college of priests, and regularly fulfilled the duties 
 of his office; yet he and his friends were thoroughly 
 indifferent.' But the works of the African writer 
 give expression in sundry places to mystical aspira- 
 tions. His Metamorphoses contain, besides frivolous 
 stories, some very fervent and earnest prayers to 
 the gods."* He prided himself upon his position as 
 priest of Echmoun.^ In his travels, he always carried 
 about him a little statue of the god, and on feast days 
 never failed to offer it wine and incense. ^ He gives 
 us curious details about the mysteries into which 
 he was initiated. From him, we learn that regular 
 sermons were preached in the temples. ^ The days 
 of the Republic never witnessed such scenes. The 
 fragments he quotes show also to what degree 
 Stoicism was identified with religious worship. 
 Boissier says a little flippantly: "On croirait vrai- 
 ment entendre un predicateur chretien dans une 
 prise d'habit."^ 
 
 Such, in outline, was the influence of philosophy in 
 Tertullian's time. On the whole, it ran counter to 
 the general direction, to the current individualism, 
 and in opposition to universalism.^ 
 
 In the complexity of facts, however, these two 
 contrary tendencies were not rarely found harmonized 
 
 ^ Boissier. Ciceron et ses Amis. 
 
 2 Apul. Florida. IV. i8. 
 
 •5 ibid. id. III. i6. ^ Apul. de Magia. 63. 
 
 5 ibid: Metam. XI. 25. 
 
 ^ Boissier: op. cit. Vol. I. p. 357. 
 
 ^ Cf. Ebert. op. cit. p. 15. 
 
1 
 
 12 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 in single individuals. Contemporary literature offers 
 striking examples of this strange mixture. Philosophy 
 was then defined as the art of living and speaking 
 well.' But too often the philosophers, while aiming 
 at the second, forgot the first element of their art. 
 Not unfrequently did the pallium cloak passions and 
 vices hard to reconcile with the teaching of wisdom.^ 
 It was no secret that some who could make eloquent 
 exhortations to poverty and detachment knew also 
 how to fashion florid appeals to the imperial treasury.^ 
 One class of men, however, claimed to live strictly 
 up to their doctrine: they were called ckristiani 
 or chrestiani by those who did not know them.^ 
 They were to be found everywhere, at the court, 
 in the Senate, in city and country, even in the army. 
 Though the necessities of industry and circumstance 
 brought them into contact with general society, 
 there was something exclusive in their attitude. 
 None saw them in the temple burning incense 
 before the gods.^ They stood aloof from the noisy 
 demonstrations of pubHc joy.^ Their conduct, 
 naturally, was the object of much comm.ent among 
 their neighbors."? There even clung to their name 
 rumors of awful crimes perpetrated in the occult 
 celebrations of their religious mysteries.^ The secrecy 
 characteristic of their cult had drawn upon them 
 the severity of the lawmakers. In i8o, twelve of the 
 the Christians of Scillium had been beheaded in 
 Carthage because they refused to return to the 
 
 ^ " Disciplina regalis tam ad bene dicendum quam ad 
 bene vivendum reperta" Apul. Florida i. 17. 
 
 2 Apol. I, IvVI. ^ lul. Capitol. V. 
 
 4 Apol. I. ^ Apol. XXIX. 
 
 ^ Apol. XXXV. 7 I Ad Nat. 7. ^ Apol. VI. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGRTICS 13 
 
 religion of Rome/ Their name was their only crime. 
 However exalted might be their social standing, 
 they did not escape the rigors of the law. Apol- 
 lonius, the Senator, had been tried by his peers in 
 Rome and sentenced to death. ^ The common 
 people charged them with abandoning and even 
 despising the national traditions.^ This accusation 
 was grave at a time when the frontiers of the Empire 
 were being frequently invaded, especially on the 
 African side. Nor were they unmolested by the 
 Sophists and the philosophers with whom the 
 Christians disclaimed all relations.^ Their influence 
 on the lower classes caused them to be considered 
 as rivals by those who, in that troublous period, sought 
 to control and direct the populace. The simplicity 
 of their means of persuasion was in complete contrast 
 to the pompous verbosity of the philosophers. It is 
 with little surprise that we hear of Crescens' violent 
 opposition to Justin, ^ or of Fronto's giving voice to 
 the most outrageous calum.nies.^ Marcus Aurelius 
 himself could see in the long-suffering of the Christians 
 nothing but affectation and obstinacy.'' 
 
 In spite of this opposition on the part of the 
 authorities, the intellectual class and the people 
 generally, the Christians saw their numbers grow 
 continually. Whole regiments, like those of Scillium, 
 joined their ranks, thus exposing themselve's to the 
 
 I 
 
 Leclerq. in Diet. d'Archeol. s. v.: Actes des Martyrs. 
 
 Eusebius: Hist. Eccles. XXI. 2-5. 
 
 H. Leclerq: op. cit. 
 
 Duchesne: Hist. Ancienne de I'Eglise. p. 199. 
 
 Justin: II Apol. 3; Tatian. V. 
 
 Minucius Felix: Octavius, 9, 31. 
 
 Medit. XI. 3; Apuleius, Metam. 9, 14. 
 
14 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 popular hatred which extended itself amply and 
 liberally to all those connected with the new religion. 
 Some philosophers even left their schools and dis- 
 putes in order to be taught the new doctrine. Some 
 of the earnest-minded, like Justin and Tatian, felt 
 the aimlessness of worthless speculation. The Roman 
 offered no other dogma than that of the divinity of 
 Rome and the Emperor, and this was not enough 
 to satisfy the religious aspirations of sincere men. 
 Those who sought for some truth in the old mytho- 
 logical fables were not rewarded with any surety 
 of having found it; and they found but momentary 
 satisfaction in the mysteries of the East. Mithra 
 appealed much to the feeling, but little to reason. 
 In Christianity, on the contrary, there were to be 
 found authority and a definite teaching. The truths 
 of which they had a presentiment in their individual 
 researches were offered under a determined form and 
 based on the authority of a divine Master. A 
 literature made by concerted philosophers facilitated 
 the first steps of inquiry. All doubts about the 
 origin of things, the destiny of man, and the problem 
 of evil, were one by one cleared up. The danger of 
 persecution had little power to break their per- 
 severance. They had seen the Christian martyrs 
 going joyfully to death with their eyes fixed on the 
 heavenl;^ realities, and this was a proof of the 
 divinity of their religion.^ 
 
 But few were the philosophers among the Christians 
 compared to the number of fairly educated converts. 
 Those who had an opportunity of observing closely 
 
 ^ Duchesne, op. cit. p. 196 sq; Harnack: Die Mission 
 und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den Ersten drei 
 lahrhunderten. (1902) p. 72-209. 
 
TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 15 
 
 the relations of the Christians among themselves 
 felt instinctively drawn towards their religion. A 
 strong bond of charity and fraternity united them.' 
 No distinction of rank or of race was observed. 
 They were truly "brothers" as they called themselves. 
 The poor were helped; the suffering were visited 
 and comforted. As Duchesne has well remarked, 
 each of them glorified in being a member of the 
 great people of God, of the universal Church and 
 an heir to the kingdom of Heaven. All this was new 
 and it strangely attracted many souls who had 
 not felt the same satisfaction of their aspirations 
 either in the collegia or in the religious associations 
 then so numerous.^ 
 
 To sum up, three main currents of ideas confronted 
 the mind of the Roman citizen during the reign of 
 Commodus (180): Paganism, Philosophy and 
 Christianity. 
 
 ^ Apol. L. 
 
 ^ Boissier: op. cit. \'ol. 2, p. 238-304. 
 
i6 TKRTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF HIS LIFE AND GENERAL IDEAS. 
 
 Summary. — Sources and purpose of the chapter. — I. Biog- 
 raphy of Tertullian: early literary impressions; influence 
 of home surroundings; the study of rhetoric, philosophy 
 and law; his moral failings a factor in his development; 
 the weak hold of religion on his mind and conduct; Philoso- 
 ophy becomes the guiding principle of his life; early writings 
 under that influence; his first approach to the Christian 
 truth; elements of Christianity which appealed to him; 
 steps in his conversion. — II. General ideas: hatred of 
 dilettantism; opinions on Greek ideals and morals; sim- 
 plicity a criterion of truth; views on social and civic duties. 
 
 Historical documents tell us little of the life and 
 character of Tertullian: a few words in S. Jerome/ 
 rare and accidental remarks in Eusebius^ and S. 
 Augustine, 3 are the only direct references that 
 throw light on the question. Yet, with the help of 
 these scanty materials and the information gathered 
 .from Tertullian's works themselves, the critics of 
 the XVI Ith century contrived to establish the 
 order of facts'*, and modern methods have cleared 
 
 -4-^ ^ De Vir. ill., 53; Chron. ad ann. 2224; Epist. 22. 22; 
 Adv. lov. I. 13. 
 
 ' Hist. Eccl. II. 2, 4; III, 23. 
 
 •5 De haeres. ad quodvultdeum, 86. 
 
 4 Tillemont, Memoires sur I'histoire eccles. Ill, p. 19^^: 
 Allix. in Oehler, III. p. 37-79; Kaye, ibid. p. 697-728. 
 
TKRTULIvIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 17 
 
 away many obscurities and placed the writer against 
 his proper historical background.' 
 
 The purpose of the present chapter is neither to 
 discuss nor merely to repeat the conclusions thus 
 reached. It is rather, in accordance with the general 
 plan of the essay, to detect under the outer actions 
 of Tertullian's life, the latent principles which in- 
 formed these actions with unity and consistency. 
 As the mind closely and steadily pores over the 
 Avritten words of the author and connects them with 
 what is known of his life, his soul is, as it were, 
 conjured up in its living and original personality. 
 Words glow as accurate portrayals of past experiences. 
 Their meaning is fraught with the reality and color of 
 human life. The birth and growth of ideas become tan- 
 gible and, though unknown circumstances and unre- 
 corded influences dim our mental vision, still a sketch of 
 the life of these ideas is not utterly beyond our reach. 
 
 The son of a proconsular centurion,^ Tertullian 
 probably was educated at Carthage.^ About 150,'' 
 this city was a great center of literary activity, ^ 
 a second Rome, as Salvianus called it.^ The reigning 
 literary fads naturally imposed upon the schools 
 
 ^ Noeldechen, Tertullian; Monceaux, Histoire de la 
 Litter. Chret. d'Afr., p. 177-193- 
 
 ^ Hieron., De Vir. ill. 53: " patre centurione proconsular!. " 
 ^ Hieron. ibid: "provinciae Africae, civitatis Carthage- 
 
 niensis". 
 
 •* According to Teuffel and Noeldechen, he was born 
 about 1.50; Tillemont, Ebert, Monceaux, and Krueger 
 rather favor 160. 
 
 ^ Apuleius, Florida, I. 7. 
 
 ^ De Gubernatione Dei, VII. 67. "In Africano orbe 
 quasi Romam." 
 
i8 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 their favorite methods and authors. As a consequence, 
 much of the teaching was tinged with the frivoHty, 
 artificiaUty and formahsm of contemporary writings. 
 On the Carthaginian school benches, therefore, 
 TertulHan learned to read and admire the archaic, 
 the quaint and the affected in Latin literature. He 
 studied Cato and Varro more than Cicero, Ennius 
 and Lucretius more than Vergil, Sallust more than 
 Livy and Caesar.' It was a ^ime when Fronto re- 
 proached Cicero with using but very few rare and 
 odd words. ^ 
 
 Naturally, he did not escape the influence of these 
 first literary impressions. His later works exhibit a 
 leaning towards quaint phraseology and, he too, like 
 Fronto, must have kept many a vigil, striving after 
 a mastery of the elocutio novella so much in honor 
 in his days. Even his most intimate thoughts will 
 be worded in the style of the time.^ 
 
 There is little doubt that his mind early assimilated 
 whatever was of educative value in the ancient 
 literatures. Both Greek and Latin authors became 
 well known to him and took strong hold of his 
 imagination and memory.^ Tf later, as a Christian, 
 he expelled Homer from the State, it was not without 
 calling him the "prince of poets" and, like Plato, 
 he did so only after having wreathed his brow with 
 flowers. 5 Some of Plutarch's, Livy's and Vergil's 
 heroes and heroines always remained for him types 
 of the highest virtues which he loved to proffer as 
 
 ' Monceaux, les Africains, p. 80. 
 
 ^ Teuffel, op. cit., II, p. 216. 
 
 ^ Monceaux, Histoire litterair«, p. 438-461. 
 
 '♦ I. ad Nation. 10; De Corona, 7-8; Adv. Prax., 3, 
 
 5 II. Ad Nat. 9. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOI.OGRTICS 19 
 
 examples to his correligionists.' Every day, while 
 the youth was lounging about the harbor, listening 
 to the free talk of the mariners,' his eyes could behold 
 the hillock where Dido had burnt herself. She was 
 a Carthaginian and, as such, won his fervent admira- 
 tion.^ Later on was he not to cite her to the 
 Christians as a monogamist? Eneas, on the contrary, 
 he candidly despised as an inglorious soldier and a 
 traitor to his country.^ But the fortitude of 
 Hasdrubal's wife,^ of Lucretia, of Cleopatra, of 
 Penelope, of Mucins, of Horatius Codes and Regulus 
 and of the vSpartans was never forgotten.^ He thus 
 reveals to us that his youthful sympathies went to 
 the strong-willed and brave-hearted men and women 
 of old. Literature was educating him in the direction 
 of his natural tendencies. 
 
 His home surroundings were such as to develop 
 and strengthen these dispositions in him. The 
 soldiers of his father were his first living models in 
 life. He watched their drilling and noted their 
 endurance both in time of war and of peace. ^ After- 
 wards boyhood memories were to come back to his 
 mind by way of association with the virtues of the 
 Christian soldier.^ Life, to him, was always more or 
 less of a warfare against visible and invisible enemies. 
 He w^as always a soldier in temperament. His 
 metaphors are taken from war. His opponent is 
 
 ^ Ad Martyr., 4; I. Ad Nat. 18; II. 9; de exhort, castit., 13. 
 
 ^ Ado. Valentin., 12; "Videmus quotidie nauticorum 
 lascivias gaudiorum." ^ De monogamia, 16. 
 
 4 II. Nat. 8. = I. Nat. 18; II. 19. 
 
 ^ Ad. Mart. 4; I. Nat. 18; Apol. 50. 
 
 7 Cfr. a description of manoeuvers in Ad Mart. 3. 
 * Apol. 49: "Verum eo more quo et bellum." 
 
20 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 always an enemy against whom he must spare neither 
 dart nor sword. 
 
 It may be admitted, therefore, that from the schools 
 of the primus magister and the grammaticus, he 
 brought something more than tablets decked with 
 centos and a certain skill in disserting upon frivolous 
 subjects. He also acquired deep-rooted ideals that 
 were never to forsake him and were important 
 factors in the development of his personality. 
 
 His curious mind, however, was not content with 
 the general and superficial culture of what we now- 
 adays call "college studies." To the ambitious 
 youth, Carthage opened a broad field of educational 
 opportunities. It was preeminently a city of scholars, 
 a home of literateurs.' Several of its renowned 
 masters had risen from humble professorial chairs 
 to take up high official positions in the state.'' Fronto 
 of Cirta, whose ingenious phrasing was the latest 
 literary craze, was then preceptor of the Emperor. 
 There were some in Carthage who had heard 
 Apollonius and Aulus-Gellius pursuing in public 
 their erudite, discussions. A chair of rhetoric was 
 an enviable government position, which led not in- 
 frequently to the proconsulship and, in one instance 
 at least, had lifted its occupant to the imperial 
 throne. 3 At the feet of such authoritative masters, 
 TertuUian imbibed the many-sided erudition in 
 poetics, geometry, dialectics, physiology and astrol- 
 ogy, which is so conspicuous in his writings.'* 
 
 ^ luvenal called Carthage a "nutricula causidicorum" Sat. 
 VIII. 148. 
 
 ^ Monceaux, Les africains, pp. 211 sq. 
 
 3 Monceaux, Les africains, p. 245. 
 
 '' Adv. Prax., 3; i. Nat. 10; de Corona, 7-8. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 21 
 
 Literature held a special place in his esteem: 
 *'Instrumentum ad omnem vitam literatura: quo- 
 modo repudiamus saecularia studia sine quibus 
 divina non possunt." In all these studies, the young 
 Tertullian was ardent, fond of details and especially 
 fond of discussion. 
 
 But the study which seems to have told more 
 deeply still on his mind and the general direction 
 of his life was the study of Philosophy. Philosophy 
 was taught at that time by one who possessed both 
 a style in harmony with the literary canons of the 
 time, and much skill and practice in metaphysical 
 speculation.^ The crowds that thronged the Odeon 
 and the amphitheatre to listen to his lectures de- 
 livered in Greek or Latin were drawn quite as much 
 by the desire to hear finely rounded sentences as 
 to imbibe wisdom.^ Many reasons lead us to believe 
 that Tertullian was an enthusiastic auditor of the 
 philosopher of Madaura. A comparison of their 
 respective styles has revealed numerous and sig- 
 nificant analogies.^ Moreover, the strong personality 
 of Apuleius, his deep mysticism, his brilliant expo- 
 sition of the Platonic doctrine, his theory of the 
 demons could not fail to attract TertuUian's atten- 
 tion and sympathy. 
 
 From other literary and philosophic stars of lesser 
 brilliancy, then so numerous in Carthage, our author 
 learned the various systems of Greek philosophy. "* 
 The impression left upon him, however, by these 
 teachers was far from being favorable. Like Tatian, 
 
 ^ Apuleius, Florida. III. 16. 
 ^ A description of the crowd in Florida, i, 7. 
 ^ Van der Vliet: Studia ecclesiastica. 1891. 
 '♦ He exposes most often in his writings. 
 
22 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 the Syrian/ he appears to have grown wearied of 
 their subtlety and their love of argumentation.^ 
 He also noticed that their conduct was onlv too 
 often in opposition to their teaching, ^ and that in 
 going from one teacher to another, he met with 
 nothing but inconsistencies. Greek speculation soon 
 became loathsome to him."* 
 
 His craving for knowledge found more satisfaclion 
 
 , in the study of law.s Whether or no+ he is the same 
 jurisconsult whose fragments are quoted in the 
 Digest,^ it is beyond doubt that he possessed a 
 marked competency in legal matters. As has been 
 seen, a new spirit was breathing through Roman 
 legislation. It was the age of Gains, who interpreted 
 Roman law by illustrations from foreign laws; of 
 Aemilius Papinianus, whose keen sense of right and 
 morality was renewing juridical knowledge and 
 methods. No doubt, a close stud}^ of the juris- 
 consults of the time, besides broadening his ideas, 
 had a strong influence on his style. From them, he 
 also got an insight into the old Roman spirit, the 
 ideal of his childhood days, and, at the sam.e time, 
 a deeper comprehension of those principles which 
 were making their way into the very foundation 
 of the code, and which implied a conception of life 
 
 . widely different from the one then in vogue. 
 
 Study, however, did not absorb all of Tertullian's 
 energy. He failed to resist the many temptations 
 that beset the Carthaginian students of his 
 
 ^ Oratio ad Graecos I sq. ^ Apol. 46. 
 
 ^ I. Nat. 4. 4 II. Nat. 6. 
 
 5 Eusebius. H. E., 11. 4. 
 
 ^ Digest. XXIX, 2, 30, 6. Labriolle, in Nouv. Rev. hist, 
 de droit fr. 1906. p. 5. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 23 
 
 day. Bad companionship, in which the African 
 metropolis abounded, stimulated his impetuous nature 
 and partly explains that great crisis of his life.' One 
 can not lay undue stress on this period of his life, 
 as many subsequent tendencies to the contrary 
 find their source in the same period. Like his country- 
 man Augustine, he found delight in the pleasures 
 of the amphitheatre which he describes so vividly 
 in his works.- There he beheld scenes, the memory 
 of which ever haimted him in after life.^ He gained 
 an experience of the pagan w^orld w^hich had no little 
 influence on the later development of his thought, 
 and on his judgments of contemporary literature. 
 Their immorality he loathed and regarded as 
 "honeyed things in the cup of death." Thus, ex- 
 periences of his w^eakness, of the weakness of others, 
 and of the seduction of the life around him, tinged 
 his views of life with a certain moral rigorism. He 
 had but to dip his pen into past memories to draw 
 pictures of a Juvenal-like realism. There he had 
 learned the obstacles to the virtues which he later 
 practiced and preached, and became anxious that others 
 should discern these obstacles in order to avoid them. 
 Religious principles had no very potent influence 
 over the heart of the pagan youth. It is not exactly 
 known at what altar Tertullian w^orshipped. The 
 military position of his father naturally bound him 
 to the official cult of the Empire, in which he found 
 but a collection of lifeless rites devoid of moral 
 value. -^ Perhaps he sought in the Eastern mysteries, 
 
 ^ De Resur. Carn. 60; Poenit,4; Augustinus, Confessiones. 
 1. Ill, 2. 2 Apol. 15; I Nat. 10. 5 ibid. id. 
 
 ■* About religion in the camps, cf . Boissier, Opposition sous 
 les cesars, p. 10. 
 
24 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 so numerous then in Carthage' and with which he 
 was well acquainted,^ the satisfaction of his mystical 
 cravings. No doubt, too, that Ceres of Africa had, for 
 a while, some attraction for him, on account of the 
 chastity of her priests, which he admired greatly. 
 In all these, however, he found no authoritative 
 rule that could bind down a wayward will to a strict 
 rule of life. 
 
 As far as we can discern, the unifying principle 
 of his life came from philosophy. For him, philosophy 
 was not so much a .body of doctrine as a code of 
 laws. Like many of his contemporaries, he favored 
 a broad eclecticism in theories. But it is likely that 
 he adhered to the Stoic tenets in morals. The sweet 
 unction of Seneca's writing, w^hom he will later 
 call "saepe penes noster,"^ and perhaps the personal 
 influence of one of those popular preachers who 
 united within himself purity of life with a highly 
 moral teaching, and especially the inner attractive- 
 ness of a doctrine that had made Marcus Aurelius 
 and Epictetus, wrought a deep and lasting change 
 in his ideals of life. For a time the soul of the young 
 man, disabused and humbled by his first experience 
 of vice, found temporary repose in Stoicism. His 
 conduct was regulated after a plan that embraced 
 his previous tendency towards the stern and the 
 heroic. He, like many of his contemporaries, prob- 
 ably took some and rejected others, of the meta- 
 ph^'sical tenets of the Porch, but its direction of life, 
 at least, he fully accepted. Thai, while yet in his 
 
 ' Monceaux les africains, p. 133; Eranz Cumont, Docu- 
 ments etc., Vol I., p. 338. ^ Apol. 16. 
 
 3 Martha, les Moralistes sous TEmpire Romain, ch I : 
 Seneqiic, directeur de conscience. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HLS APOLOGETICvS 25 
 
 minority, he busied himself in writing treatises on 
 matrimony and virginity, is a fact full of significance.' 
 They were addressed to some philosopher friend 
 of his. Seneca himself had written a book, " de 
 Matrhnonio" , which contained invectives against 
 women. ^ The theme was a commonplace one in 
 Stoic circles. Jt is not strange then that Tertullian 
 with the enthusiasm of a neophyte should burn 
 what he had worshipped and feel the desire to win 
 others to his philosophy of life. We may even believe 
 that there was more than rhetorical effort in the 
 work of his younger days, and the fact that S. Jerome 
 recommended it to the virgin Kustochium speaks 
 much in favor of the value and purity of its contents. 
 In 180, at the very time when TertuUian's mind 
 and soul were filled with these thoughts of moral 
 reform, the trial and execution of twelve martyrs 
 brought from Scillium to Carthage were the subject 
 of much comment in the town circles. Their un- 
 daunted courage in the face of death, their firm 
 answers to Vigellius Saturninus, the brutal consul, 
 had impressed the popular imagination. Though 
 stories were circulated of awful crimes charged against 
 them, nothing cer't'ain could be proved. -^ The very 
 character of the accusations made conviction all 
 but impossible. Tertullian, with most of the cultured 
 people including Trypho and Celsus, belonged to 
 the moderate class who refused to credit the charges.^ 
 A first examination had made him wonder at what 
 appeared to him the absurdity of their creed, ^ but 
 further intercourse with Christians, then very numer- 
 
 ^ Hieron. Epist. 22; adv. lovin. i. 13. 
 
 ^ See fragments in the Haase Edition. 
 
 ^ I Nat. 4; Apol. 6. 4 I Nat. 4. ^ Apol. 18. 
 
26 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 ous in Carthage, had convinced him of at least the 
 genuineness of their virtues.' In many respects 
 their lives were the very embodiment of the 
 principles which he himself had adopted. Love 
 for one another, strict chastity, patience, resignation 
 in trials,^ — these were all Stoic ideals. In their very 
 death there was a silent appeal.^ 
 
 These experiences together with divine grace wrought 
 a gradual change in the sceptical attitude of Ter- 
 tullian. To the man who in the wearisome search of a 
 law of life had wandered through the mazes of different 
 systems, a teaching productive of such results pos- 
 sessed a peculiar charm and persuasiveness. More 
 than this, he was brought face to face with a fact 
 which struck his mind forcibly. As a philosopher, 
 he had always believed that demons exercised a 
 deep mystical influence on human life.^ Such a belief 
 was prevalent among the pagans, and it can be 
 traced throughout his works as connected with con- 
 temporary opinions. He had several times wit- 
 nessed the power of the Christians over these occult 
 forces.5 Little by little, he came to associate their 
 religion with a higher world. ^ The mystery of the 
 evil spirits was solved by the Christian teaching. 
 
 No written document records all the steps of his 
 conversion. We may conjecture from his works, 
 however, that the sight of the gross immorality 
 reigning around him made him yearn for a school 
 of reformatory power. As he listened at Athens to 
 the voice of Attic sophistry,' his mind, imbued with 
 the spirit of the Porch and perhaps already inclined 
 
 ' I Nat. 5. ^ I Nat. 19. ^ Apol. 50. 
 
 •^ Apuleius: de Deo socr. 14. ^ Apol. 22. ^ ibid., id. 
 ' Apol. I. 6; II. Nat. 5. 6. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 27 
 
 by certain Christian sympathies, detected corrup- 
 tion beneath the brilHance, and poverty of thought 
 beneath the wealth of words.' The magnificence 
 and the kixuries of Rome conveyed to his mind the 
 impression of an over-poHshed society and of a 
 self-sufficient wisdom.- In such an hour, the seed 
 of the new doctrine, cast into his soul by some 
 obscure presbyter, found congenial soil, sprang up 
 and grew, soon to bloom and bear fruit. 
 
 Such appears, to this point, the evolution of Ter- 
 tullian's life and thought. He had emerged from 
 the pagan world, a product of centuries of glory 
 now in overripe corruption ; having inherited both 
 the strength and the vveakness of his ancestors, his 
 inborn vigor had assimilated certain elements of the 
 Romana Virtus, while the germs of the prevalent 
 contagion were injected from without into his moral 
 organism. The philosophical tenets grafted on his 
 mind at the time gave new life to his scattered and 
 wasted energies, until, finally, fresh and renovating 
 influences constrained that original sturdiness under 
 a solid discipline, at the same time allowing free room 
 for further growth. 
 
 It is but natural that characteristic tendencies 
 and general ideas should have been formed in the 
 process of his life. An inquiry into their nature 
 w^ill enable us to understand better the texture of 
 his apologetic thought. 
 
 The old Roman conception of life found its ex- 
 pression in the well-known saying " vivere primum, 
 deinde philosophari," which Cato had illustrated 
 by beginning his philosophical studies only at the 
 
 ^ ibid. id. ^ I, de cultu feminarum 7. 
 
28 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 close of a brilliant career in politics and statesman- 
 ship. In Tertullian's time, this maxim was in 
 every mouth, and never before had Cato's virtues 
 been so much held up for admiration and imitation. 
 Yet, at the same time, speculation, salaried by the 
 state,' free-thinking and free-speaking,- close to the 
 imperial throne, ^ seemed to deride the Rome of old. 
 The view of life which had created this state of 
 affairs was in open conflict with Tertullian's prin- 
 ciples. He had no patience with those who, "from 
 a drop of truth distilled a flood of arguments."'' 
 What had he to do with their vain theories P^ At 
 the root of it all were pride and a wicked life.^ 
 Philosophers were the very opposite of the Christians. 
 They talked, the Christians acted. ^ Yet they w4th 
 impunity assumed the name of wise men, and 
 their teachings were dictated as wisdom.^ In them 
 everything was tolerated;^ they could freely 
 criticize and decry all the institutions of the country, 
 and even bark at princes. Withal, they were loaded 
 with honors. Statues were even raised to their 
 memory.'" Every tim.e Tertullian mentions their 
 names, he can not refrain from bitter words. Much 
 light is thrown on his theory of life by this deter- 
 mined attitude towards those who were powerful 
 at the time. Nothing is more loathsome to him than 
 dillettantism, or aimless wandering of thought 
 without the sincere desire ultimately to reach the 
 truth.. That explains the impatience he m.anifests 
 in speaking of the Greeks. The very word rouses 
 
 ' lul. Capt., Ant. Pius, ii. ^ I Nat. 4. 
 
 3 Jul. Capt. ibid. id. -• II Nat. 4. 5 u Nat. 5. 
 
 ^ Apol. 46. 7 ibicl^ id. ^ I Nat. 4. 
 
 9 Apol. 46. '° Apol. 45. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 29 
 
 his temper. The philosopher is a disciple of Greece, 
 as the Christian is the disciple of heaven.' The 
 abominable crime of the Proconsul's son was accom- 
 plished by a "graeculus," and the deed was done 
 "graeculo more."^ Greece, for him, is synonymous 
 with corruption and futility. 
 
 From his repugnances, it is easy to judge his 
 likings. In intellectual matters, simplicity is a 
 criterion, or, at least, a sign of the truth. ^ Speculation 
 is nothing else but the creation of vain minds 
 that find no better employment, while simplicity 
 is the mark of earnest and useful people. Therefore, 
 in his opinion, the workingman knows more about 
 truth than do the greatest philosophers.^ In order 
 to possess truth and wisdom it is not necessary to 
 have passed through the schools :5 indeed the market 
 place and the shop are schools of more certain 
 learning. Tertullian prefers to err with the people 
 than be wise with the learned.^ 
 
 His judgments on society give evidence of like 
 dispositions. He remarks how everything is affected 
 in public life.^ Affectation i§ the very opposite of 
 simplicity. The past with its severe morality and 
 its wise laws has been abandoned by all for an 
 easier life and a licentiousness born of luxury. He 
 is jealous of his reputation as a loyal citizen, and 
 on this subject he delights in unmasking the duplicity 
 of the Romans.^ They wish long life to the princes, 
 and, at the very moment that their lips open to 
 utter the exclamation, their hearts desire to see the 
 Emperor dead. For him, his country and his ruler 
 
 ' Apol. 46. 2 J j^^j. j^. J J ^^^ g 
 
 ^ Apol. 46. -• II Nat. 4, 5. 5 cie test, an I. 
 
 ^ Apol. 7. 7 Apol. 35 sqq. ^ I Nat. 18; Apol. 35. 
 
30 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 are the greatest thing and person of earth. Family- 
 interests must be subordinated to the fatherland.^ 
 So Aeneas is a traitor for leaving Troy in flames 
 in order to save his father, wife and children. How 
 much more beautiful a pattern of patriotism is 
 the wife of Hasdrubal who sacrificed her children 
 and herself rather than leave her country.^ He has 
 great hopes in the destiny of Rome; the end of the 
 world is delayed only until her fall.^ She can not be 
 shaken but the whole world will feel the shock. 
 He respects the Emperor as the elect of God, and 
 hence his person is sacred. ^ It is the duty of all to 
 love him sincerely, to pray for a long life for him, 
 for he is the father of the country. 
 
 These feelings towards the Roman state and its 
 rule coexist with a wilful and conscious aloofness 
 from all public offices. Though the Christians are 
 in the Senate and the army, they take no trouble 
 to win distinction. It is not that they refuse their 
 services to their country, but they do not wish 
 to form in politics a Christian republic. They 
 recognize one Republi9, — the world. ^ 
 
 A firm belief in the seriousness of life, a strong 
 dislike for all that is mere speculation and needless 
 wrangling of words, a deep-seated respect for legit- 
 imately constituted authority, a singular love of 
 simplicity and sincerit}^ — such are TertuUian's general 
 ideas of life, ideas, the influence of which will be 
 felt in the trend of his thought and in the development 
 of his Apologetics. 
 
 ' II Nat. 6. ' II Nat. 6. 3 Apol. 31. ■» Apol. 35- 
 5 "Unam omnium rempublicam agnoscimus, mundum," 
 ibid. id. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICvS 31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS LEADING IDEA. 
 
 Summary. — The new convert ready for action; groundwork 
 of his apologetics lies in his views on truth and error. — I. Two 
 mainsprings of truth: reason, or the soul naturally Christian; 
 faith, or the soul supernaturally Christian. — II. Error, the 
 enemy of truth: reason perverted by the body, depraved 
 by surroundings, dragged down by passions; faith enjoys 
 but a limited field of vision, blinded by prejudices from 
 education; relations of philosophy to heresy. — Distinctive 
 marks of truth and error. 
 
 That the recent convert of Carthage had fully- 
 grasped the substance and spirit of his new religion 
 is made clear by the first written utterance of his 
 Christian mind, that vigorous, yet tender address 
 to his persecuted brethren. Beneath his fervid 
 exhortation to patience and inward peace, the 
 African martyrs could detect a deep understanding 
 of the Christian tradition, and especially a thorough 
 assimilation of the spirit of the great Apostle Paul, 
 whom Tertullian quotes so often in his short treatise.^ 
 
 Naturally, the combative and ardent nature of 
 Tertullian would soon demand a wider field of 
 action for the exercise of his natural and acquired 
 talents and would ambition to serve broader interests, 
 especially at a time when there was need of an 
 
 ^ De Test. an. passim. 
 
32 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 authoritative spokesman for the Christians of that 
 Church of Carthage, so young, but already so severely 
 tried. 
 
 Before following the successive steps of the new 
 defender of the Christian religion, it is well to search 
 for the master-idea that lies at the basis of his develop- 
 ment as an Apologist, and for the underlying principle 
 that explains his methods, the progress of his thoughts, 
 and even the particular mode of expression he devised 
 for them. 
 
 Since the cause Tertullian championed was that 
 of truth, and his enemy, error, clothed in its varioas 
 garb, it is natural that the groundwork of his Apolo- 
 getics should lie in his general ideas of trath and 
 error. How did he view the course of truth and error 
 in the human mind? What was for him the criterion 
 of certainty, and what attributes did he conceive of 
 as essential to any proposition presented to his mind 
 for assent? 
 
 He distinguished two sources of truth: the 
 testimony of the soul by nature Christian, and the 
 divine revelation to man. These two sources are 
 nothing else than reason and faith. The rational soul, 
 created to the image and likeness of God, is ill t- 
 mined by the Word "that enlighteneth every man 
 that Cometh into the world," and the faithful soul 
 gives its full assent to the revelation bestowed by 
 God and guaranteed by the most authentic titles. 
 "Would you," he says, "have the proof of the 
 existence of God by the testimony of the soul itself? 
 That soul though imprisoned in the body, perverted 
 by education, weakened by passions and lust, though 
 a slave to the false Gods, whenever it comes to itself. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 33 
 
 as out of a surfeit, or a sleep, or a sickness, and 
 attains something of its natural soundness, speaks 
 of God, using no other words because this is the 
 peculiar name of the true God. 'God is great and good , ' 
 'Which may God give,' are words on every lip. Also 
 it bears witness that God is a judge, exclaiming 
 that God sees, and, 'I commend myself to God,' and, 
 'God will repay me.' O noble testimony of the soul 
 by nature Christian! In using such words, it looks 
 not to the Capitol, but to the Heavens because it 
 knows that there is the throne of the Almighty, as 
 from Him and from thence itself came down."^ 
 "That light," Tertullian says in another treatise, 
 *'may be osbcured because it is not God, but it can 
 not be put out entirely because it is from God."- 
 
 But that we might attain an ampler and more 
 authoritative knowledge at once of Himself and of 
 His counsels and will, God has added a written 
 revelation wherein those who seek Him may find, 
 and finding believe, and believing, obey.^ 
 
 The ways of God are the same in what concerns 
 morality, that is, what we must do. He has written 
 these principles of morality in our souls but has 
 deemed wise to carve them also on the stone tables 
 which Moses brought down from the mountain. 
 Our obligations are proclaimed both by an inner 
 voice which speaks in the sanctuary of our soul, 
 and by outward words heard amidst thunder and 
 lightning. 4 
 
 Faith, then, is reason protected against itself by 
 an outward help; it is reason raised to the dignity 
 of the supernatural, widened, deepened and en- 
 
 ^ Apol. 17: De Test. an. I. ^ Anim. 41. 
 
 ^ Apol. 21. - '' Apol. 21. 
 
34 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 riched by God's goodness. These two powers exercise 
 their full activity and attain their perfection on con- 
 dition that each one know and acknowledge its 
 limitations. "Let curiosity yield to faith. Let 
 ambition give place to salvation, or, at least, let 
 them either relinquish their noisiness or else be 
 quiet. "^ 
 
 Both faith and reason have their enemies and, v/e 
 might say, the same enemies, for what benefits the 
 one benefits the other, what harms the one harms 
 the other, and what kills the one kills the other. 
 With a wonderful power of analysis, Tertdllian 
 describes the obstacles which hinder the soul, by 
 nature Christian, from bearing witness to the truth. 
 The soul lies in the prison of the body, in darkness 
 and in the midst of corruption. It can not take its 
 flight as high and as far as it would fain do. At 
 every m.oment it is stopped by the walls that compass 
 it round. ^ Instead of prudently retreating to recollect 
 itself and gather up its strength, it grows angry, flies 
 into a passion and blasphemes the obstacle.^ More- 
 over, that sodl is depraved by education.^ It was 
 born, it has grown and still lives amidst surroundings 
 in which error and a thousand prejudices lead an 
 untrammelled life. It breathes a poisonous atmos- 
 phere, it lives in it and on it, and all its faculties are 
 more or less weakened and corrupted by it. It is 
 enervated by passions and concupiscences which 
 lead it to sin, maintain and steep it in disorder. ^ 
 Thus constrained, poisoned and defiled, the soul, 
 naturally Christian, is the slave of false gods, of the 
 
 ^ Praeser. 33. ^ Mart. 2. ^ II. Nat. 2; Praesc. 28. 
 4 I. Nat. i; II. Nat. i. s Apol. passim. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 35 
 
 demons which seduce it more and more and make it 
 an enemy to truth and virtue/ In this lamentable 
 state, it becomes the born adversary of the soul 
 supernaturally Christian and communicates to it the 
 virus of corruption and depravity.^ 
 
 Faith indeed enjoys many lights which are a special 
 privilege, but it neither has nor can have, all the 
 light reserved to the state of glory. It enjoys but a 
 limited range of vision. Instead of waiting w4th 
 grateful humility for the day of full light, it grows 
 impatient and chafes at what it has not. It becomes 
 curious and throws itself at random into every road 
 that it sees and from Vvhich it can not but be led 
 astray. 3 
 
 Then, too, faith allows itself to be perverted by* 
 education. It frequents the philosophers and those 
 who love and admire them. It loves to see and hold 
 intercourse with them. It enamors itself of their sot 
 called principles ; it studies their methods ; it approves 
 their hopes and ambition ; it believes in their deceitful 
 promises; it envies the glory which is their lot here 
 below. It is seduced and overtaken. It soon busies 
 itself wdth religious truths in the very same 
 manner that philosophy wrangles about truths of 
 the natural order. It discusses, argues, grows subtle, 
 punctilious, Tiair-splitting; it doubts, denies this and 
 that, chooses among truths, searches endlessly, and 
 never tires in the search, as if something essential 
 were lacking its knowledge.-" 
 
 TertuUian has very often pointed out in lively 
 terms this relationship of philosophy and heresies. 
 "These heresies are the doctrines of men, born of 
 
 ^ De Test. an. 3; Apol. 22. ^ II. Nat. 2; Apol. 46. 
 •3 Apol. a6. ■* Praesc. 7. 
 
36 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 the spirit of worldly wisdom for itching ears. . . For 
 philosophy it is, which is the material part of the 
 world's wisdom, the rash interpreter of the nature 
 and the dispensation of God. Indeed, the heresies 
 are themselves instigated by philosophy."^ He then 
 gives some very clear examples of this filiation, show- 
 ing that all the heretics had been disciples of some 
 noted philosophers. He handles very roughly Aris- 
 totle and his method, which was later adopted by the 
 heretics: "Unhappy Aristotle, who invented for 
 these men dialectics, the art of building up and 
 pulling down; an art so evasive in its propositions, 
 so far-fetched in its conjectures, so harsh in its 
 arguments, so productive of contentions, embarass- 
 ing even to itself, retracting every thing and really 
 treating of nothing. Whence spring those fables, 
 and endless genealogies, and unprofitable questions, 
 and words which eat up like a cancer."^ 
 
 Faith having thus, through contact with philos- 
 ophy, become impatient and curious, has lost the 
 best part of the moral strength which made it 
 conquer sin: passion and concupiscence win back 
 their dominion over the soul and drag it to its per- 
 dition through shameful and lamentable falls. "So 
 true is it," says Tertullian, after having detailed the 
 evil life of the heretics, "that from the nature of 
 their conduct may be estimated the quality of their 
 faith. In their discipline, we have an index of their 
 doctrine."-^ 
 
 Finally, faith, under this outward and inward 
 pressure, is troubled in many ways, and precipitated 
 to its ruin by the hateful action of the demon. 
 "These wiles of heretics," he says after having 
 
 ^ Ibid. id. ^ Praesc. 7. ^ Praesc. 43. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS* APOLOGETICS 37 
 
 • 
 
 enumerated the corruptions of the vSacred Scripture, 
 "are the ingenious arts of spiritual wickedness."' 
 And if any one asks by whom is to be interpreted 
 the sense of the passages which make for heresies, 
 he answers: "By the devil, of course, to whom 
 pertain those wiles which pervert the truth. "^ 
 
 Such appears to be the central idea around which 
 most of Tertullian's ideas converge: the testimony 
 of the soul naturally Christian, listened to attentively 
 and w^ith the proper dispositions and the faith of this 
 soul supernatural ly Christian, fortified by the Holy 
 Scripture. These two fountainheads are poisoned, 
 the one by philosophy, the other by heresy. Philoso- 
 phy and heresy are the two names for one and the 
 same thing. 
 
 These two wicked pov^ers have their character 
 branded upon their foreheads where it may be 
 read by all. Order, -^ unity, ^ immutabihty,^ author- 
 itv,^ simplicity," light, '^ repose,^ such are the true 
 fruit and infallible signs of truth. On the contrary, 
 ever-growang disorders,'" divisions which become 
 manifold with them," complications and entangle- 
 ments of systems,'^ an obscurity which pervades all, '3 
 restlessness,'-* and agitation, changes and novelties 
 without end, such are the characteristics and fruits 
 of error in its twofold shape, of worldly wisdom and 
 heresy. 
 
 HoW' will this leading idea under the double pressure 
 
 ' Praesc. 39. ' Praesc. 40. ^ Apol. 38; Praesc. 41. 
 
 ^ Apol. 38; Praesc. 38; Poen. 10. ^ Apol. 39; Praesc. 41. 
 ^ Apol. 39; Praesc. 43. ^ An. 2, 3; 11, Nat. 4. 
 
 ^ Apol. 24. ^ Praesc. 33. '" Praesc. 41. " Praesc. 7. 
 '^ Praesc. 8, Apol. 35. ^^ An. 24. '-' Praesc. 42. 
 
38 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 of the time unfold itself into his system of Apologetics? 
 How will he interpret the soul naturally Christian to 
 the darkened and prejudiced minds of the pagans? 
 What arguments will convince heretics that they 
 are perverting and leading astray their souls super- 
 naturally Christian? Will he himself adhere consist- 
 ently to his master-idea or will he, out of fresh 
 materials, build unto himself a ne\Y frame of thought, 
 and with what results? 
 
 These and cognate questions remain to be answered 
 in the second part of this essay. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
 LEADING IDEA 
 
THRTULLIAN AND HIvS APOLOGlvTICS 41 
 
 CHAPTER I\'. 
 
 HIS APOLOGETICS AGAINST THE PAGANS. 
 
 Summary — Tertullian's confidence in the convincing power 
 of truth and realization of the obstacles to truth. Choice 
 of method and progress in its application. — I. First step 
 of development in the Ad Nationes: removal of prejudices 
 is the purpose of the treatise; carrying out of purpose; 
 relation with leading idea. — II. Second step of develop- 
 ment in the Apologeticnm; variety of opinions as to its 
 purpose; intention of author to point out remedy for the 
 state of pagan society; fulfilling of intention; conclusion 
 of the work. — III. Third step in De Testimonio Animae; 
 a new testimony; value of that testimony; appeal to the 
 soul freed from prejudices. 
 
 The violence of the persecution then raging against 
 the Christians (197) catised no surprise to TertuUian. 
 He knew that the world was a relentless enemv 
 of the truth, and, as he himself puts it, that the truth 
 was a wayfarer upon earth who found but foes 
 among strangers, and that her origin, her dwelling- 
 place, her hope and her reward were in Heaven.' 
 On the other hand, his trust in the conquering power 
 of that truth which had conquered him, made him 
 desire that at least she should not be condemned 
 imknown and unheard. "Who is not forced by con- 
 templating her to seek her inner worth? Who has 
 
 ^ I Nat., I, Apol. I, 
 
42 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 not approached her as soon as he has inquired? 
 Let truth only be known and she will be followed 
 and obeyed."' Why then not put to this noble task 
 of making known the truth the talents of mind 
 and heart hitherto made use of in less worthy pursuits ? 
 
 His keen intellect quickly discerned the under- 
 lying motives of this hostility to the truth. The 
 first of them was blindness. Under the influence of 
 education, of social environment, of worldly interests 
 and passions, man was shutting his eyes to the inward 
 and outward light bestowed upon his soul by his 
 Maker, and was forgetting God. Enthralled by his 
 senses, he gave no thought to what he did not see, 
 and, in time, forgot entirely what had no place in 
 his thoughts. "His eyes are open and yet he sees 
 not; his ears are unstopped, yet he hears not; though 
 his heart is beating yet it is dull."' The moment he 
 heeds the truth, in that very moment he ceases to 
 hate it. 3 The malignant character of this blindness 
 is made worse by the inconceivable pride that swells 
 the human heart. Against the wisdom of God, 
 man has set up the wisdom of the world which is 
 a corruption, an affectation of the former. ^ Knowing 
 but little, he aims at knowing all; and as a m.eans 
 to that end, he drags down to his gross ideal what- 
 ever lies beyond his grasp. Truth, indeed, fares ill 
 at the hands of proud and blind mankind. 
 
 Thus both the consciousness of the subduing 
 attractiveness of truth and the clear realization of 
 the obstacles that barred its entrance to the hearts 
 and minds of men, suggested TertuUian's method 
 
 ' Apol. i8; 50. "" I Nat. 1; Apol. i. 
 
 ^ "Simul desinunt ignorare, cessant et odisse" Apol. i. 
 "• Praesc. 1 1 . 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HKS APOLOGETICS 43 
 
 of Apologetics. He felt that his purpose would be 
 achieved if his readers were lead so near to the truth 
 that their wills would be moved to a change of 
 attitude and life. 
 
 The fight was to be directed against the insti- 
 tutions of the ancients, against the authority of 
 tradition, against the prevailing laws and the subtlety 
 and learning of the Philosophers.' In the face of 
 so many and so powerful opponents could Tertullian 
 present the truth directly, as he knew it? Such a 
 method he had followed in his address to the Martyrs, 
 when he had spoken to them of the freedom of their 
 dungeons and the grandeur of their torments.^ But 
 those to whom he penned this eloquent exhortation 
 were bound with chains for their faith and were 
 therefore capable of realizing the significance of 
 the truths that were offered them. The same 
 method, if applied to prejudiced unbelievers, would 
 necessarily fail of its purpose, for "did they not 
 more easily believe the evil that was false than the 
 good which was true?"' 
 
 It was quite as much out of the question to employ 
 the m.eans used by the foes of truth themselves, 
 who, in their assaults upon the truth, availed them- 
 selves liberally of the art of words and sophistical 
 argumentation. Nothing, in the mind of Tertullian, 
 was smaller than this and nothing more unworthy 
 of truth, w^hich needed no such device.^ Nor was it 
 practical to use Christian literature as an instrument 
 of persuasion. Justin, the Philosopher, it is true, 
 had done so in his Apology, but how fruitlessly! Very 
 
 ^ II Nat. I. 2 Mart, passim. 
 
 •^ "FaciHus falso malo quam vero bono creditur." I Nat. 7. 
 4 II Nat. 4; I Nat. i. 
 
44 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 few knew the Christian books and those who perchance 
 had read them deemed their testimiony worthless.^ 
 Indeed none but the Christian profited by them/ 
 There remained the method of the Greek Apolo- 
 gists. They had tried to meet the pagans on their 
 own grounds, displaying extensive erudition in the 
 search of the poets' and philosophers' testimonies 
 to the Christian truths It was thus proved that 
 the Christians held nothing new or dangerous. 
 Unhappily the unbelieving hardness of the human 
 heart blunted the sharpness of these weapons. 
 Aristides, Ariston, Rhodon, Miltiades and Athena- 
 goras had wasted their strength in a barren labor. 
 Their arguments were met with the rejoinder: 
 "The poets are fools when they picture the Gods 
 with human passions and the philosophers are with- 
 out reason when they knock at the gates of truth. "'^ 
 Until then they were looked upon as wise; after 
 that, they were branded as Christians. 
 
 Tertullian had carefully weighed these various 
 methods. s Experience had taught him their ineffi- 
 ciency upon the pagan minds of his time and while 
 he gave credit to the early apologists who had de- 
 fended the Christian religion before him, he had 
 made up his mind to follow a plan of his own. But 
 although such an intention from the beginning lay 
 foremost in his mind, in the practical carrying out 
 of his ideal, a sort of progress and a growing reali- 
 zation of its practical adaptability to the situation 
 are evident. At first his leading tendency had to 
 struggle against the unconscious influences of edu- 
 cation and environment. Hence in his work, details 
 
 ' I Apol. 15. 2 De Test. an. I. 
 
 ^ I Apol. 24 sqq. -* De Test. an. i. ^ Ibid. id. 
 
TRRTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 45 
 
 are found which cannot be reconciled with that 
 he primarily intended. One feels for instance that 
 the writer has long listened to the Rhetors of his 
 native city, when he refutes the accusation of 
 tertium genus, "^ that of adoring a cross^ and of impiety 
 towards the gods.^ It is noteworthy, however, 
 that this defect is less common and less prominent 
 in the Apologeticum than in ''Ad Nationes", and that 
 it is altogether absent from " De testimonio anhnae." 
 Likewise, many ideas expressed in the early Christian 
 writers had clung to his mind and consequently 
 certain assertions of his could not enter into the 
 pagan view of things. Thus, for instance, when he 
 describes the part played by the demons in daily 
 life, 4 or when he affirms their identification with 
 the statues of the gods,s or when he states that the 
 philosophers had known the Old Testament and had 
 drawn from it the truths w^hich they gave out as 
 their own.^ All these ideas were commonplace 
 with the Greek apologists and, though there was 
 nothing in them that sounded strange to the mind 
 of the author, it would not be so with the pagans. 
 The sharp wit of Lucian of Samosata would have 
 made easy game of what Tertullian viewed as true 
 beyond doubt. We even find him invoking the theories 
 of the philosophers as proofs of certain points of 
 Christian doctrine. Thus in Ad Nationes he 
 justified his belief in the future life by parallel 
 opinions found in pagan literature', and in the 
 Apologeticum he quotes the philosophical theories 
 
 ^ I Nat. 8; Apol. 15. ^ I Nat. 9; Apol. 16. 
 
 ^ Apol. 12. '' Apol. 12; 24. "^ Apol. 12. 
 
 ^ II Nat. 2; Apol. I, 44, 49. ' I Nat. 19. 
 
46 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 explaining the Logos/ the demon, ^ the future life^ 
 and the immortality of the soul as presumptions 
 to support the Christian doctrine on those subjects. 
 However, when, com.paring Tertullian's treatment 
 of the same question with that of Justin and Anthena- 
 goras, we note the relative brevity with which these 
 testim^onies are dismissed in Tertullian, it is natural 
 to conclude that this particular method of apolo- 
 getics was no essential part of his psychology but 
 rather a remnant of the early education which shaped 
 his judgements and to a great extent his whole mind. 
 There were in him deeper tendencies and desires, 
 which, woven into the very texture of his intellect, 
 would gradually unfold his apologetical thought 
 according to a preconceived order and plan. 
 
 The two books Ad Nationes are the first step 
 of this development. As Monceaux has well remarked, 
 we do not find in them a direct defence of the Christian 
 religion, though many details tend to that purpose. + 
 Tertullian's aim is not so much to exculpate his 
 brethren as to open the eyes of his enemies, to force 
 them to know themselves, with the ultim.ate design 
 of bringing them to acknowledge his religion as the 
 one to be embraced. If he protests the innocence 
 of the Christians, "^ if he emphasizes the moral worth 
 of their doctrine of a future life,*" he does not primarily 
 m.ean to illustrate or prove the Christian doctrine 
 but to cast light on the guilty ignorance and stu- 
 pidity of the pagans.' This is why he does not 
 refute the calumnies but rather contends that the 
 pagans are guilty of the very same crimes that 
 
 ^ Apol. 21. - Ibid. 22. ^ Ibid. 47. ^ Op. cit. p. 213. 
 5 I Nat. I, 7-9. ^' I Nat. 19. ^ j Nat. i. 
 
TERTILIJAN AND HIS APOLOGIvTICS 47 
 
 are charged against the Christians. Tertullian him- 
 self was conscious of such a purpose: "Pour out 
 now all your venom, fling against our name all the 
 shafts of your calumny. I shall stay no longer to 
 refute them, but they shall by and by be blunted 
 when we come to explain our v/hole discipline. 
 I shall content myself now indeed vv'ith plucking 
 the shafts out of our own body and hurling them 
 back on yourselves. The same wounds which you 
 have inflicted on us by your charges, I shall show 
 to be imprinted on yourselves, that you may fall 
 by your own sword and javelin."^ 
 
 The general plan and conclusion of the two works 
 give evidence of such an intention. The culpably 
 blind ignorance of the pagans is first emphasized 
 as a proof of the conscious iniquity which is back 
 of the persecution. 2 Another illustration of the same 
 ill-will is found in the shocking irregularity of the 
 legal procedure employed against the Christians.^ 
 In order to satisfy their fanatical and unnatural 
 hatred the pagans do not hesitate to violate all 
 the common laws of court and equity. Their calum- 
 nies which are the outgrowth of the same hatred 
 are also against all common sense: "Under the same 
 natural form, malice and folly have always been 
 associated in one body and growth and have ever 
 opposed the truth under the one instigator of error. "^ 
 And how low and degraded the ideal of the pagans 
 in the excerise of their religion, ^ in their domestic 
 observance'' and even in the performance of civic 
 duties.^ They daily commit the very faults of which 
 thev maliciouslv accuse the Christians. It is evident 
 
 ' I Nat. 10. 2 I Nat. 2. ^ i ^at. ^. ^ I Xat. 4. 
 
 s I Nat. 10, II, 14. ^ I Nat. 15, 16. ' I Xat. 17. 
 
48 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 that for Tertullian the inspection of error is the 
 beginning of the recognition of truth. He invited 
 his adversaries to examine their own consciences 
 before they examine the consciences of the Chris- 
 tians/ The result of such an act cannot fail to bring 
 home the realization that the Christians must be 
 known before they can be condemned, and on this 
 point his conclusion is worth quoting: "You indulge 
 to the full that fault of human nature that those 
 things which you do not disallow in yourselves 
 you condemn in others, or you boldly charge against 
 others those things the guilt of which you retain a 
 lasting consciousness of in yourselves. The course 
 of life in which 3^ou will choose to occupy yourselves 
 is different from ours: whilst chaste in the eyes of 
 others, you are unchaste towards your own selves; 
 whilst vigorous against vice out-of-doors, you suc- 
 cumb to it at home. This is the injustice which we 
 have to suffer, that, knowing truth, we are con- 
 demned by those who know it not; free from guilt, 
 we are judged by those who are implicated in it. 
 Remove the mote, or rather the beam out of your 
 own eye, that you may be able to extract the mote 
 from the eyes of others. Amend your own lives 
 first, that you may be able to punish the Christians. 
 Only so far as you shall have effected your own 
 reformation, will you refuse to inflict punishment 
 on them^ — nay so far, you will have become Christians 
 yourselves; and as far as you will have become 
 Christians, so far you will have compassed your 
 own amendment of life. Learn what that is which 
 you accuse in us, and you will accuse no longer; 
 search out what that is which you do not accuse in 
 ' I Nat. 19. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 49 
 
 • 
 
 yourselves, and you will become self-accusers. From 
 these very few and humble remarks, so far as we 
 have been able to open out the subject to you, you 
 will plainly get some insight into your own error 
 and some discovery of our truth. Condemn that 
 truth if you haye the heart, but only after you have 
 examined it; and approve the error still, if you are 
 so minded, only first explore it. But if your pre- 
 scribed rule is to love error and hate truth, why, 
 let me ask, do you not prove to a full discovery the 
 objects both of your love and of your hatred?"' 
 
 A vehement appeal is thus made to the soul 
 naturally Christian of the pagan to remove from its 
 own heart all the obstacles that impede the ingress 
 of truth into it. It must first know itself and acknow- 
 ledge its own monstrous disorders, that it may look 
 upon the light and the truth with fairness and the 
 dispositions required by the God of Light and of 
 Truth. 
 
 A further step is taken in the second book Ad 
 Nationes. "Our defence requires that we should 
 at this point discuss with you the character of your 
 Gods, O ye heathen, fit objects of our pity, appealing 
 even to your own conscience to determ.ine whether 
 they be truly gods, as you would have it supposed, 
 or falsely, as you are unwilling to have it proved, 
 for this is the material part of error that it is never 
 free from the ignorance of error, whence your guilt 
 is greater."- Here again the soul is bidden to go 
 into itself to test the basis of its own beliefs. Lender 
 normal circumstances a demurrer could be advanced 
 and would convince the minds of the pagans: "As 
 
 ^ I Nat. 19. ' II. Nat. i 
 
50 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 • 
 
 all the pagan gods have been instituted by man, 
 all belief in the true deity is by this circumstance 
 brought to nought, because, of course, nothing 
 which some time or other had a beginning can rightly 
 seem to be divine."^ But this argument which the 
 Greek apologists had already used is too exterior and 
 would have no power against the prejudices of the 
 pagans. Their callous consciences must be shaken 
 by a vivid description of the stupidity and unreason- 
 ableness of the pagan deities. In order to meet the 
 adversaries on their own ground TertuUian takes for 
 the basis of his treatise the work of Varro on Divine 
 Things, knowing that the authorit}^ of literature 
 goes farther with them than the nature of things 
 themselves. 3 He shows that in reality the pagans are 
 worshipping gods made up by the proud and all 
 •sufficient wisdom of the philosophers, ^ of that wis- 
 dom "which attests its own weakness mainly by 
 that variety of opinions which proceeds from the 
 ignorance of the truth." According to him, even that 
 which the said philosopher's discovered degenerated 
 into uncertainty^ and there arose from one or two 
 drops of perfect truth a perfect flood of argumen- 
 tation. s For after they had found simply God, they 
 did not expose Him as they found Him, but rather 
 disputed about His quality, and His nature and 
 even about His abode. "Vain indeed are those 
 supports of human learning, which by their artful 
 method of weaving conjectures, belie both wisdom 
 and truth."'' The author goes on to prove that the 
 gods invented by the poets are even more vicious 
 than the men who worship them,' and that the 
 
 ' Ibid. id. ' Ibid. id. ^ II Nat. i. ^ ibid. id. 
 
 5 Ibid. id. ^ II Nat. 7. ^ n ^at. 8. 
 
TKRTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGKTICS 51 
 
 national deities are nothing more than abstractions, 
 or allegories, or men long since dead, or even inani- 
 mate things.' As to the shameful gods of Rome, 
 thev cannot exercise any influence on the destiny 
 and growth of the Roman Empire, since they have 
 never existed.' "It is the fortune of time that has 
 thus constantly shaken kingdoms with revolutions. 
 Inquire who has ordained these changes in the times. 
 It is the same great Being w^ho dispenses kingdoms, 
 and has now put the suprem.acy of them into the 
 hands of the Romans, very much as if the tribute 
 of many nations were after its exaction amassed 
 in our vast coffer. What He has determined con- 
 cerning it, they know who are near Him."' Thus 
 the author, after having forced the soul naturally 
 Christian to a minute inspection of the prejudices 
 and the follies that blind and dishonor it, concludes 
 by an exhortation to seek the truth in Him who 
 rules the world and makes the Roman great, and 
 thus leaves his readers under the influence of his 
 proud assertion that they who serve Christ are 
 possessors of the truth. Having shaken the trust 
 of the pagans in themselves and their false gods, 
 he may hope to bring them to a knowledge of the 
 One and only true God. 
 
 It is easy to perceive how the general conception 
 of the tw^o works together with all the details of 
 development and elaboration are the outgrov^th 
 of wliat we have termed the leading idea of Ter- 
 tullian. It is the presence of evil and of pride 
 which causes ignorance and hatred of the truth. 
 
 ' II Nat. 9-17. 
 ' II Nat. 17. 
 
52 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 Folly and vice conspire for ill-doing^ and not only 
 does the proud soul ignore the truth latent within 
 itself but also its own corruption. Naturally its 
 judgements are infected by the source whence they 
 spring. It is, therefore, necessary to show the soul 
 its actual state under the most vivid and realistic 
 colors so that, realizing how far it is from the truth 
 and the good, it may be shamed to efforts at im- 
 provement and search the truth which will make 
 it free. 
 
 In the Apologeticum there is seen a progress in the 
 development of his leading idea. Much of the 
 material gathered for the Ad Nationes was meant to 
 be used in this second treatise.^ We know that even 
 at the time the author had in his mind to write a 
 second book with a purpose of its own yet con- 
 nected with the one upon which he was then at 
 work and completing it.^ In order to follow the 
 logical evolution of his ideas, it is most important 
 to find out the precise kind of relation which he 
 meant to establish between the two. This question 
 has given birth to the most divergent theories. 
 Critics who look at the problem from a literary 
 viewpoint note the progress of the style manifested 
 in the Apologeticum. Their conclusion was that the 
 Ad Nationes was designed to be a sort of rough 
 cop}^ of the Apologeticum.^ Others whose examination 
 is even more superficial observed merely that the 
 vrorks have much in common and that the Ad 
 
 ^ "Ex forma natural! concorporata et concreta intercessit 
 malitia et stultitia." Apol. 9. 
 
 ' I Nat. 7-8; II, 14; Apol. 3, 7-8, 16. 
 3 II Nat. 7, 10, 13, 15. 
 '♦ Freppel, op. cit. cap. 2. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 53 
 
 Nationes is much shorter than the Apologeticuyn: 
 hence they say, the former is an abridged edition of 
 the latter.' These are the main sokitions proposed 
 b}^ the ecclesiastical writers of the seventeenth 
 century and followed by most historians of the 
 last half of the nineteenth century. 
 
 M. Monceaux, however, has put forth a new 
 explanation. Though taking into account the pre- 
 vious suggestions, he goes farther. His study of the 
 inner structure of the Apologeticum revealed to him 
 that all the arguments, even those already put 
 forward in the Ad Nationes, were subordinated to a 
 dominant idea and that much of their real m.eaning 
 and strength was due to this subjection. In his 
 opinion, ever}^ thing is reducible to the positive 
 concept of law and right. Therefore, in spite of 
 seeming analogies and of mau}^ borrowed details, 
 there is a wide difference between the Apologeticum 
 and the Ad Nationes.^ Tertullian purposed to wage 
 war against paganism and at the samx time to find 
 a sort of modus vivendi for his religion. As the two 
 programs could hardly be realized at the same 
 time without sacrificing a portion of each, he devoted 
 to each of them separate works. The first conception 
 fills the Ad Nationes, while the juridical discussion 
 prevails in the Apologeticum. 
 
 However much of an improvement this theory 
 seems to be, it may be thought not to explain 
 everything in the book. M. Monceaux has felt 
 this himself, for in his analysis of the work, while 
 tracing the development of the idea of legal revendi- 
 
 ' Tillemont, op. cit. Vol. Ill gives the various theories. 
 ^ Ibid. id. p. 217: "II y a un abime entre I'Apologetique 
 et le Ad Nationes." 
 
54 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 cation, he meets with many chapters which can not 
 possibly enter into his hypothesis.'' The difficulty 
 becomes greater when the author refutes the philo- 
 sophers and shows that his religion is superior to 
 their speculation in its discipline and dogmas. M. 
 Monceaux is then forced to say that the logical 
 order is destroyed and the harmony of the compo- 
 sition broken. When one thinks of TertuUian's 
 care in the arrangement of his ideas, it is reasonable 
 to shrink from such a supposition. Moreover, as 
 we have seen, the chief objection to the theory lies 
 in the fact that it tears the most important chapters 
 from the body of the work. 
 
 Does not the solution of the difficulty lie within 
 what we know of TertuUian's intention in writing 
 the Apologeticum? He had just published a treatise, 
 the purpose of which was not to defend directly his 
 religion but rather to remove the cause of prejudices 
 against it, to make known to the pagans what they 
 themselves were, to show them that they might 
 with advantage take a more favorable view of the 
 Christian religion. Once this task performed, the 
 next logical step was to point out the remedy which 
 should be applied to all the wounds and sores so 
 vividly described. In order, therefore, that the 
 contrast between the two religions ma}^ appear 
 more striking, the author will repeat certain of his 
 attacks against paganism but this time with the 
 specific purpose of placing an unmistakable anti- 
 thesis between the true and the false. The conclusion 
 will be evident that beliefs and practices productive 
 of such perfect men and perfect citizens as make up 
 the great majority of the Ch^ istian body are certainly 
 
 ' Apol. 17, 24, 26, 27, 30, 39, 44. 
 
TKRTULLIAN AND HLS APOLOGETICS 5.5 
 
 true and should claim the whole-hearted assent of 
 all right-minded men. 
 
 From the beginning of the work, there are evi- 
 dences of this general intention. As the objection 
 is raised against the widespread propagation of Christi- 
 anity that large multitudes not unfrequently turn 
 from good to bad, the author replies that one of the 
 infallible signs of conversion to his religion is a change 
 of life in the convert. " 'A good man, says one, is 
 Gains Seius, only that he is a Christian.' So another: 
 ' I am astonished that a wise man like Lucius should 
 have suddenly become a Christian. ' Nobody considers 
 whether Gaius is not good and Lucius wise on the 
 very account that he is a Christian, or a Christian 
 for the reason that he is wise and good."^ In vain is 
 the authority of the law invoked against the 
 Christians^ "If you would have it unlawful to be 
 a Christian, because it ought not to be lawful, without 
 doubt that should have no permission of law which 
 does harm and on this ground, in fact, it is already 
 determined that whatever is beneficial is lawful."-^ 
 Do we not see here Tertullian's application of the 
 jurisconsults of his age to the general idea of his 
 apologetics^ Further, he urges: Is it not a well- 
 known fact that the law^s directed against the 
 Christians are nothing more than vicious enact- 
 ments of vicious emperors? "It should surely be 
 judged more natural for bad men to be eradicated 
 by good princes as being their natural enemies, 
 than by those of spirit kindred to their own."^ 
 
 ^ Apol. 3. 
 
 ^ Apol. 4: " Quodsi, quia non debet, ideo non vultis licere, 
 sine dubio id non debet licere quod male fit, et utique hoc 
 ipso praeiudicatur licere quod bene fit." ^ Ibid. id. 
 
56 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 Against the infamous .calumnies hurled at the 
 Christians, TertuUian appeals to the soul in its 
 natural state: "I confidently appeal to nature 
 herself ever true, against those who groundlessly. 
 hold that such things ought to be credited."' And 
 indeed how can believers in the promise of an eternal 
 life be thought to strive after it with a conscience 
 such as they are accused, of having P^ " If the pagans 
 would only take notice that such sins prevail among 
 them, that would lead them to see that they have 
 no existence among the Christians. The same fact 
 would tell them both facts. "^ Nor are the Christians 
 guilty of impiety towards the Gods. "We protest 
 and appeal from yourselves to 3^our knowledge: 
 let that judge or let that condemn us, if it can deny 
 that all these gods of yours were but men. "4 "As 
 to the object of their worship, it is implied as the 
 corollary of their rejection of the lie that renders 
 homage to the truth." "The object of our worship 
 is the One God, He who by His commanding word, 
 His arranging wisdom. His mighty power, brought 
 forth from nothing this entire mass of the world, 
 with all its array of elements, bodies, spirits, for 
 the glory of His majesty. . . .The eye can not see 
 Him, though He is spiritually visible. He is incom- 
 prehensible, though in grace He is manifested. 
 He is beyond our utmost thought, though our human 
 faculties conceive of Him. He is therefore equally 
 real and great. . . .Our very incapacit}^ of fully 
 grasping Him affords us the idea of what He really 
 is. He is presented to our minds in His transcen- 
 dent greatness, as at once known and unknown. 
 And this is the crowning guilt of men that they will 
 
 ' Apol. 7. ^ ibid. id. ^ Apol. 9. '' Apol. 10. 
 
TERTVLUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 57 
 
 not recognize One of whom they can not possibly 
 be ignorant."' "His existence can be proved from 
 the work of His hands, so numerous and so great; 
 and from the testimony of the soul itself which is 
 naturally Christian.^ In addition to what the soul 
 knows naturally, God vouchsafed to man a written 
 revelation through men whose stainless righteousness 
 made them worthy to know the Most High and to 
 reveal Him, men abundantly endowed with the 
 Holy Ghost. These men proved the authority of 
 their mission by the miracles which they performed.^ 
 The vScriptures themselves which they wrote are 
 stamped with divine characteristics. They foretold 
 the future and any one may now see the fulfilment 
 of these prophecies. "^ "Your instructors, the world 
 and the age, and the events are all before you. 
 All that is taking place among you was foretold, 
 all that you see with your eyes was previously heard 
 by the ear."s Such are the grounds of the belief of 
 the Christian, some internal and inborn in him, 
 others added to his nature, raising him above 
 himself. 
 
 As to Christ whom the Christians worship as God, 
 let not the pagans think that He is but a human 
 being. The characteristics of His life and death 
 mark Him as divine. His coming was foretold; 
 He was born of a mother, in a sense which involved 
 no impurity; He performed miracles, suffered 
 torments and died a death which He Himself had 
 predicted in all their details. He arose from the 
 dead, wes taken into heaven and, to proclaim Him, 
 His disciples scattered over the whole world as the 
 
 ' Apol. 17. ^ Ibid. id. 5 Apol. 18. 
 
 ^ Apol. 19. 5 Ibid. id. 
 
58 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 Master had bidden them do, and sowed the seed of 
 the Christian faith/ The present generation, Hke 
 the Apostles, is ready to die in its confession of 
 Him: "We say and before all men we repeat, and 
 torn and bleeding under torture we cry out: 'We 
 worship God through Christ. ' Let the pagans 
 only search whether the divinity of Christ be true: 
 "If it be of such a nature that the acceptance of it 
 transforms a man and makes him truly good, there 
 is implied in it the duty of renouncing what is 
 opposed to it as false. "^ Another proof that Christ 
 is divine is found in the very confession of the 
 enemies of Christ, the demons: "Fearing Christ in 
 God and God in Christ, they become subjects to 
 the servants of God and of Christ."^ 
 
 This belief in Christ based on such testimonies is 
 found to color the lives of the Christians in all its 
 details. They do not lack devotedness nor loyalty 
 to the Empire and the Emperor as they are accused 
 of doing; there is even a vivid contrast between the 
 conduct of the Christians and that of the pagans 
 in that regard. The Christians . pray for the 
 Emperor, for Roman interests and they do so at 
 the command of their sacred book.^ Their social 
 relations with their pagan brethren and their 
 Christian neighbors are blameless. ^ They seek no 
 revenge on their enemies. Their life is one of singular 
 perfection: "We are a body knit together as such 
 by a common religious profession, by unity of disci- 
 pline and the bond of a common hope."^ They love 
 one another. They are one in mind and soul. They 
 do not hesitate to share their earthly goods one 
 
 ^ Apol. 21. ^ Apol. 21. ^ Apol. 22. 
 
 ■^ Apol. 30-36. 5 Apol. 37. ^ Apol. 3S. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 59 
 
 with another. Their religious feasts are true love 
 feasts, not meetings of debauchery as are those of 
 the pagans.^ They are faithful citizens and scru- 
 pulous in the fulfilment of their last civic duties.^ 
 No Christian's name is ever found on the prison 
 register.^ When the basis of this moral perfection 
 is sought, it is found that it rests not on accident but 
 on necessity. 4 "Taught of God Himself what good- 
 ness is, we have both a perfect knowledge of it as 
 revealed to us by a perfect Master and faithfully 
 we do His will, as enjoined on us by an incentive to 
 virtue and a preventive of vice: No doubt about it, 
 they who receive awards under the judgment of 
 an all-seeing God and who look to Him for eternal 
 punishment for their sins, they alone make real 
 efforts to attain a blameless life."^ 
 
 Unbelief, at this point would fain shake the divine 
 foundation of Christian morality productive of such 
 mortal grandeur, asserting that it is not really a 
 thing divine, but rather a kind of philosophy.^ 
 Tertullian takes occasion to mark the sharp antag- 
 onism between the Christian and the Philosopher: 
 *'The truth which the philosophers, these mockers 
 and corrupters of it with hostile ends, merely effect 
 to hold, and in doing so deprave, caring naught for 
 but glory. Christians both intimately and sincerely 
 long to maintain in its integrity, as those who have 
 a real concern for salvation."' There is no Christian 
 workman who does not know more about God than 
 Plato himself.^ As to chastity, humility, temperance, 
 equanimity, trustworthiness and sincerety, these 
 virtues exist in the Christian, not in the philosopher.*^ 
 
 ^ Apol. 40. ^ Apol. 43. ^ Apol. 44. •* Apol. 45. 
 sApol.45. 6 Apol. 46. Mbid.id. « Ibid. id. ^ ibid. id. 
 
6o TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 "Where is there any likeness between the Christian 
 and the Philosopher? between the disciple of Greece 
 and of heaven? between the man whose object is 
 fame and the man whose object is life? between the 
 talker and the doer? between the man who builds 
 up and the man who pulls down? between the foe 
 and the friend of truth? between one who corrupts 
 the truth and one who restores it and teaches it?"' 
 Indeed the pride of the philosophers and their 
 desire to ignore beyond the boundaries that God had 
 set, had made them corrupt the truth: "If the truth 
 was distinguished by its simplicity, the more on that 
 account the fastidiousness of man too proud to 
 believe, set to altering it, so that even what they 
 found certain, they made uncertain by their 
 admixtures."^ As a consequence of the fact that 
 they do not hold the truth in its integrity they are 
 left unmolested. This consideration d aws from 
 Tertullian the proud declaration: "Let things 
 which are the defence of virtue, if you will, have no 
 foundation and give them duly the name of fancy, 
 yet still they are necessary: let them be absurd, if 
 you will, yet they are of use; they make all who 
 believe better men and women. "^ 
 
 The moral superiority of the Christian soul over the 
 pagan soul is shown in the former attitude before 
 death: "It conquers while dying and goes forth 
 victorious at the very time that it is subdued." 
 Cruelty, however exquisite, avails the pagans 
 nothing. The oftener the Christians are mowed 
 down, the more they grow in number: "the blood 
 of Christians is a seed."^ The very courage and obsti- 
 nacy of the Christians in presence of the most cruel 
 
 ^ Ibid. id. ^ Apol. 47. ^ Apol. 49. "< Apol. 50. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HKS APOLOGETICS 6i 
 
 torments is a fact that reveals the latent virtue of 
 Christian truth: "Who that contemplates it is 
 not excited to inquire what is at the bottom of it? 
 Who after inquiry does not embrace our doctrine? 
 As the human and the divine are ever opposed to 
 each other, when we are condemned by you, we are 
 acquitted by the Highest."' 
 
 Thus the work closes with a shout of victory in 
 the name of Christian truth, itself a convincing 
 appeal to the soul freed from the corruption of the 
 surrounding life and no longer the slave to prejudices, 
 an appeal to the soul naturally Christian to search 
 after the truth, and to find in the ideas and facts of 
 Christianity the truth which, once found, must be 
 revered and obeyed. 
 
 In these succesive steps of Tertullian's Apolo- 
 getics, the appeal to the soul is rather indirect. 
 The soul is brought face to face with some outward 
 facts and bidden to decide for itself where the truth 
 lay. Something further was implied in Tertullian's 
 leading idea: he planned to go straight to the soul 
 in its simplicity and candor without any interme- 
 diary, and to wrest from it the truths which are 
 inborn in it. It is a testimony which in his mind is 
 higher and nobler than any other testimony: "I 
 call in a new testimony, yea, one which is better 
 known than all publications, greater than the whole 
 man, I mean all which is man's. "^ The soul of man 
 
 ' Ibid, id.: "Ut est aemulatio divinae rei et humanae, 
 cum damnamur a vobis, a Deo absolvimur." 
 
 ' "Novum testimonium advoco, immo omni literatura 
 notius, omni doctrina agitatius, omni editione vulgatius, 
 toto homine maius, id est totum quod est hominis." 
 
62 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 is thus summoned to a tribunal where the whole 
 world can hear its testimony. The scene is pregnant 
 with pathos and dramatic interest: "Stand forth, 
 
 soul whether thou art a divine or eternal sub- 
 stance or whether thou art the very opposite of 
 divine; whether thou art received from heaven or 
 spring from earth; from whatever source and in 
 whatever way, thou makest man a rational being, 
 and in the highest degree capable of thought and 
 knowledge, stand forth and give thy witness."^ 
 The author warns that soul that it must be itself, 
 pure and simple, free from all influences from out- 
 side: "But I call thee not as when fashioned in 
 schools, trained in libraries, fed in Attic wisdom 
 and porticoes, thou belchest wisdom. I address thee 
 simple, rude uncultured and untaught, such as they 
 have they who have thee only, that very thing of 
 the roadr of the street and the workshop wholly .... 
 
 1 want thine inexperience since in thy small experi- 
 ence no one feels any confidence.' ^ This soul, the 
 soul of man and of mankind, the soul of the Pagan 
 as well as of the Christian solemnly affirms that 
 God exists, that He is One, that He sees all, that He 
 is good and just, that there are evil spirits. ^ 
 Questioned about its destinies, it unhesitatingly 
 declares that it is immortal and it will survive the 
 body. It yearns to live beyond this life in the memory 
 of men. 4 
 
 When he has drawn all these testimonies from the 
 soul, Tertullian would have us put our whole-hearted 
 confidence in them, for they are as simple as true, 
 
 ' De Test. an. i,. 
 
 ' Ibid. id. 
 
 ^ De Testim. an. i, 2, 3, 4. '' Ibid. id. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 63 
 
 commonplace as simple, universal as commonplace, 
 natural as universal, divine as natural;' they arc 
 of all times, of all climes and of all circumstances. 
 They come from God, the Master of the natural 
 order and the teacher of the supernatural soul/ 
 He calls the soul "the disciple of God who knows 
 how to sing the marvels revealed by God to His 
 own people;"^ he calls it the "infallible voice of 
 nature, a power older than speech, as speech is older 
 than literature, as thought is older than style and 
 man is older than the philosopher."'' 
 
 The book closes with an appeal to the soul thus 
 enlightened to be true to its knowledge, to heed that 
 inward voice above the din of prejudice and passion: 
 "Most justly then every soul is a culprit as well as 
 a witness and in the measure that it testifies to the 
 truth, the guilt of error lies on it/'s His last word to 
 the pagan soul to whom the truth has been shown 
 to lie within itself and outside of itself is a threat: 
 "On the last da}' of judgment, it will stand before 
 the court of heaven without a word to say. Thou 
 hast a savor of Christianity and withal thou wert 
 the persecutor of the Christians."^ No appeal could 
 be more direct, no apologetics fraught with more 
 convincing elements. 
 
 ' " Haec testimonia animae quanto vera, tanto simplicia; 
 quanto simplicia, tanto vulgaria; quanto vulgaria. tanto 
 communia; quanto communia, tanto naturalia ; quanto 
 naturalia, tanto divina." De Testim. an. 5. ' Ibid. id. 
 
 ^ Ibid, id.: "A Deo data eadem canit quae Deus suis 
 dedit nosse." 
 
 •^ Ibid, id.: " Certe prior anima quam littera, et prior 
 sermo quam liber, et prior sensus quam stilus, et prior homo 
 ipse quam philosophus et poeta." 
 
 ^ De Testim. an. 6. ^ De Testim. An. 6. 
 
64 TERTULLIAN AND HIS 'APOLOGETICS 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HIS APOLOGETICS AGAINST HERETICS. 
 
 Summary — Christian truth persecuted by heretics; proper 
 attitude of Christians towards the truth must be taught. — 
 
 I. The truth in its fountain-head: the "regula fidei"; 
 its origin; its formula; contrary interpretations by the 
 faithful and heretics; appeal of heretics to Scripture. — 
 
 II. The truth in its transmission: from Christ to the Apostles 
 from the Apostles to the Apostolic Churches; from the 
 jatter to our day; objections of heretics exposed and an- 
 swered. — III. The truth in its actual state to be tested by 
 certain criteria: antiquity; immutability; unity; purity'.— 
 Strength of the argument of prescription. 
 
 About the year 200, a persecution more severe 
 than any previous one was afflicting the Christian 
 Church.^ While the illegal cruelty of the pagans 
 had made martyrs, the wiles of the heretics was 
 productive rather of apostates.^ Many were the 
 victims: today a bishop, to-morrow a deacon or 
 a widow or a doctor, or even a martyr.^ It enervated 
 the faith when it did not destroy it. Tertullian 
 whose zeal was well known and had already been 
 
 ^ On Gnosticism : Harnack, Zur Quellenkritik des Gnos- 
 ticismus (1873); Kunze, De historiae Gnosticismi fontibus 
 (1894); Monceaux, op. cit. p. 303. 
 
 ^ Praesc. i. 
 
 ^ Ibid. 3: "Quid ergo? Si episcopus, si diaconus, si 
 vidua, si virgo, si doctor, si etiam martyr lapsus a regula 
 fuit. . . ?" 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIvS APOLOGETICS 65 
 
 tried in the defence of truth, could not but spring 
 to the combat and make an onslaught against these 
 new enemies of his faith. 
 
 His view of the situation was clear and suggestive 
 of the remedies. In his opinion the cause of this 
 great upheaval against the faith was due to curiosity, 
 the mother of heresies. "There is some one and 
 therefore definite thing taught by Christ, which 
 the Gentiles are by all means bound to believe, and 
 for that purpose, to seek, in order that they may 
 be able, when they have found it, to believe. How- 
 ever there can be no indefinite seeking for that 
 which has been taught as one only definite thing. 
 You must seek until you find and believe when you 
 have found; nor have you anything further to do 
 but to keep what you have believed, provided you 
 believe this besides, that nothing else is to be believed, 
 and therefore nothing else is to be sought, after vou 
 have found and believed w^hat has been taught by 
 Him who charges you to seek no other thing than 
 that which He has taught."^ This is why the Christian 
 attitude of mind should not be one of curiosity and 
 this is why the Christian should wish to know but 
 few things, since things certain are few in number. - 
 He should rest satisfied with the truth which God 
 has revealed to men. What God did not reveal, he 
 ought to deem it wise not to know and he should 
 loathe that empty knowledge which the world 
 patronizes and should love that ignorance which 
 the divine law demands. To know nothing in oppo- 
 sition to the rule of faith is to know all things.^ 
 
 Quite contrary are the dispositions of the heretics. 
 
 ^ Praesc. 9. ^ An. 
 
 ^ Praesc. 14: "Nihil ultra scire, omnia scire." 
 
 -7 
 
66 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 They have chosen the philosophers as their models 
 rather than their Christian brethren.^ From this 
 source came the Aeons and I do not know what 
 infinite forms and the trinity of m.an in the system 
 of Valentuus, who was of Plato's school. From the 
 same source came Marcion's better god with all his 
 tranquiiit}^ ; he cam-e of the Stoics. Then again 
 the opinion that the soul dies is held by the , Epi- 
 cureans, while the denial of the restoration of the 
 body is taken from the aggregate schools of all the 
 Philosophers; also when matter is made equal to 
 God, then you have the teaching of Zeno; and when 
 any doctrine is alleged concerning a God of fire, 
 then Heraclitus comes. The same subject matter 
 is discussed over and over again by the heretics 
 and the philosophers: the same arguments are 
 involved. These are the doctrines of men and of 
 demons, produced for itching ears of the spirit of 
 this world's wisdom. "^ 
 
 The outcome of all this speculation about revealed 
 data is very sad. Human wisdom, while it pretends 
 to know the truth, only corrupts it and is itself 
 divided into manifold heresies, by the variety of 
 its mutually repugnant sects. ^ The heretics are 
 punished for having violated that most fundamental 
 law: "Amplius quaerere non licet, quod inveniri 
 non licet. "4 
 
 The mJnds of the Christians, therefore, must be 
 kept away from this danger, must be taught the 
 true attitude toward revealed truth. As the starting 
 point in this task, Tertullian gives at length the 
 formula of the rule of faith; that formula "taught 
 by Christ, which raises no other questions than those 
 
 ^ Praesc. lo. ^ Praesc. 7. ^ Praesc. 7. ^ Praesc. 7. 
 
TKRTULIJAN AND HIS AP0L0G1<:TICS 67 
 
 which heresies introduce and which make men 
 heretics."^ So long as this rule of faith exists in its 
 proper order, the Christian may seek and discuss 
 to his heart's content and give full rein to his 
 curiosity, in whatever is doubtful or seems to be 
 shrouded in obscurity.^ No doubt he will find 
 at hand some learned brother, gifted with the grace 
 of knowledge, some one of the experienced class, 
 though it is better to remain in ignorance, lest he 
 should com.e to know what he ought not, because he 
 had acquired the knowledge of what he ought not 
 to know.' "Faith has been deposited in a rule; it 
 has its law and salvation in the observance of this 
 rule."'' There the Christian finds what he is to 
 believe and what he is to do. After that, if even an 
 angel cam.e down from heaven to preach another 
 Gospel, he should be accursed. ^ 
 
 The rule of faith is given by Christ; which, having 
 found, the Christian must accept and obey without 
 any further curiosity.^ But how is one to acquire 
 the certitude of the heavenly origin of a belief which 
 is submitted to his assent? 
 
 The method followed by the heretics in this 
 matter is the outgrowth of their perverse curiosity. 
 They take up the Scriptures and, by a series of 
 skilful manoeuvers against their true meaning, seduce 
 many to their false doctrines. ^ The discussion with 
 heretics on Scriptural ground is very dangerous and 
 
 « 
 
 ^ Praesc. 13. • ^ Praesc. 14. ^ Praesc. 14. 
 
 '^ Praesc. 14. "Fides in regula posita est, habet legem, 
 et salutem de observatione legis." 
 
 ^ Praesc. 6. ^ Praesc. 13. 
 
 ' Praesc. 15: "Scripturas obtendunt, et hac sua audacia 
 statim qiiosdam movent." 
 
68 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOIvOGETICS 
 
 rarely useful. Some books they accept, others they 
 reject. Those they receive they make to fit in with 
 their system by liberal additions and suppressions. 
 If they leave the text stand as it is, at least they 
 falsify it by many different interpretations. In 
 their frivolous conjectures they are naturally loath 
 to acknowledge the true meaning of the passages 
 which condemn them. They put their trust in those 
 Avhich they have selected and falsely put together 
 because of their ambiguity. Any one who attempts 
 to discuss with them will make no progress what- 
 soever, for everything which he maintains is denied 
 by the other side and whatever he denies is main- 
 tained. Indeed, he will waste his breath in the 
 dispute and gain nothing but vexation from hearing 
 the blasphemies of the heretics.^ 
 
 The appeal for a criterion of certitude is therefore 
 not to be made to the Scriptures. There the victory 
 is either impossible or uncertain or at least not certain 
 enough. 2 Certitude will be found rather in the answer 
 to these questions : What is the origin of the Christian 
 doctrine? Through whom has it been transmitted? 
 To whom confided? and how has it reached us at 
 the present time^ For whenever it shall be manifested 
 where the Christian rule of faith is, there will like- 
 wise be the true Scriptures, the true exposition 
 thereof and all the Christian tradition. 
 
 The source of Christian doctrine is no other than 
 Our Lord Jesus Himself, who received it from His 
 
 ^ Praesc. i6: "Nihil proficit congressio scripturarum 
 nisi plane ut aiit stomachi quis ineat eversionem aut cerebri.' 
 
 ^ Praesc. 19: "Nee in his constituendum certamen in 
 quibus aut nulla aut incerta victoria est aut parum certa." 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETlCvS 69 
 
 heavenly Father.' While He was on earth, He 
 explained the whole faith either to the whole people 
 in public or in private conversations to His disciples 
 gathered around Him.-. Out of these disciples He 
 selected twelve whom He wished to live in His 
 intimacy so as to prepare them to be the teachers 
 of the world. These Apostles, as they were called, 
 scattered through the nations, preaching a doctrine 
 which was everywhere the same and founding 
 churches in the cities. From these Churches, the 
 plant of faith and the seed of doctrine were grafted 
 on and sown into the new Churches which were 
 founded later and which are still being founded every 
 day. 3 
 
 Thus these other Churches are themselves looked 
 upon as apostolic since they are the daughters of 
 apostolic churches. A common origin necessarily 
 implies a principle of unity. All the churches which 
 arose from the primitive churches, however large 
 or numerous, they may be, are one and the same 
 church. All Churches are therefore apostolic, as 
 long at least as they preserve the bond of unity, 
 that is, as long as they send to each other greetings 
 of peace, call each other sister and practice towards 
 each other the duties of hospitality — all of which 
 duties are a necessary consequence of unity of 
 doctrine.^ 
 
 These principles are pregnant with momentous 
 corollaries. Since Our Lord sent the Apostles alone 
 to preach the faith, other preachers than those 
 
 ^ Praesc. 20. ^ Praesc. 20. ^ Praesc. 20. 
 
 "• Praesc. 20: "Sic omnes primae et omnes apostolicae, 
 dum una omnes probant unitatem communicatio pacis et 
 appellatio fraternitatis et contesseratio hospitalitatis." 
 
70 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 instituted by Christ are not to be given a hearing/ 
 Indeed the Father is known only to the Son and to 
 those to whom that knowledge was revealed.^ Nor 
 has Christ communicated this revelation to others 
 than to the Apostles since to them and to no others 
 was entrusted the mission of preaching what had 
 been revealed.^ 
 
 Moreover, in order to find out what the Apostles 
 preached or, what amounts to the same thing, what 
 Christ revealed to them, there is no other means 
 than to turn to the churches founded by the 
 Apostles, taught by them first through the living 
 voice and later through their letters/ It is evident, 
 therefore, that any doctrine born of the apostolic 
 churches which are the actual m_ain springs of truth 
 is conformable to the truth/ It consists of what 
 the Churches received from the Apostles, of what 
 the Apostles received from Christ, and what Christ 
 received from God.^ On the contrary, suspected of 
 deception must be any doctrine which goes against 
 the truth received from the Churches, the Apostles, 
 Christ and God/ "We communicate with the 
 Apostolic Churches because our doctrine differs in 
 
 ^ Praesc. 21. ^ Preasc. 21. ^ Praesc. 21. 
 
 ^ Praesc. 21: "Quid autem praedicaverint, id est, quid 
 illis Christus revelaverit, et his praescribam non aliter 
 probari debere nisi per easdem ecclesias quas ipsi apostoli 
 condiderunt, ipsi eis praedicando tarn viva voce quam per 
 epistulas postea." 
 
 ^ Praesc. 21. 
 
 ^ Praesc. 21: ''Constat proinde omnem doctrinam quae 
 cum illis ecclesiis apostolicis matricibus et originalibus 
 ^dei conspiret veritati deputandam, id sine dubio tenetem, 
 quod Ecclesiae ab Apostolis, Apostoli a Christo, Christus 
 a Deo accepit." ^ Praesc. 21: 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETlCvS 71 
 
 no way from theirs: that is the criterion of truth. "^ 
 The heretics object to this that the Apostles may 
 not have known the truth in its entirety; or 
 that, having known it, they may have commun- 
 icated only part of it to the churches and dispensed 
 to a few an esoteric doctrine; or thirdly, that the 
 Churches did not transmit in its integrity and purity 
 the deposit committed to their care.^ 
 
 The first two objections which are contradictory 
 of each other, accuse Christ of having sent out 
 Apostles either too ignorant or of too subtle mind. 
 Who can reasonably accuse of ignorance on any 
 question of doctrine those whom Christ established 
 as teachers, who were His life com.panions, His dis- 
 ciples, and His bosom friends, they to whom He 
 explained in private all obscurities, telling them 
 that to them was granted to know secrets which 
 the people could not know.^ 
 
 It is equally absurd to suppose that the Apostles 
 held back any thing of their deposit, that they 
 ga\-e out certain teaching in public and confided 
 other truths to a few close friends. The texts upon 
 which the heretics base such a claim merely purpose 
 to warn the faithful against false Apostles. Christ 
 in fact preached the Gospel openly and commanded 
 His Apostles to preach it in broad day-light and to 
 proclaimi it from the house-tops, and this command 
 the Apostles certainly obeyed. They preached to 
 the world the same faith; they did not present one 
 God and one Christ for the Church at large and 
 another God and another Christ for a favored few." 
 
 ^ Praesc. 21: " Communicamus cum Ecclesiis Apostolicis 
 quod nulla doctrina diversa: hoc est testimonium veritatis." 
 ^ Praesc 22. ^ Praesc. 22. '' Praesc. 23, sq. 
 
72 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 The insinuation that the Churches falsified the 
 doctrine in transmitting it, is Hkewise without 
 foundation.^ Some churches it is true, are known 
 to have been imperfect in their faith, ^ but on the 
 other hand others are found worthy to be praised 
 by the Apostles.^ If both these classes of churches 
 go hand in hand, must we not conclude that these 
 imperfections later disappeared? Moreover, how- 
 can one explain the agreement of all the churches 
 in the same error ?4 The concord of all these churches 
 in the same belief bespeaks a primitive tradition: 
 "Error of doctrine in the churches must necessarily 
 have produced various issues. When, however, that 
 which is deposited among us is found to be one and 
 the same, it is not the result of error but of 
 tradition. "5 
 
 There can be, therefore, no doubt as to the purity 
 and integrity of the teaching of the Apostles and 
 the faithfulness of the churches in keeping whole 
 and untouched the deposit of faith that was handed 
 down to them by the messengers of Christ. 
 
 This question naturally occurs to every mind: 
 granting that Apostolicity is true in principle, how 
 about its application to the present case? How 
 can it become certain that the actual Church with 
 its body of doctrine, its system of morality and its 
 wonderful organization is the identical Church 
 which Christ gave to the Apostles and which the 
 Apostles founded, and by what standard may the 
 
 ^ Praesc. 27 ^ Praesc. 27. ^ Praesc. 27. '^ Praesc. 28. 
 
 5 Praesc. 28: "acquid verisimile est ut tot ac tantae in 
 unam fidem erraverint. Nullus inter multos eventus unus 
 est exitus; variasse debuerat error doctrinae ecclesiarum." 
 
TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGKTICS 73 
 
 present be gauged, in relation to the past which 
 made it? 
 
 The first mark that the present Church is the one 
 given by Christ to His Apostles and transmitted 
 by them to the other churches is foimd in her an- 
 tiquity. In all cases truth precedes its counterfeit, 
 the likeness succeeds the reality.^ In Our Lord's 
 parable, the good seed was sowed first. It is only 
 later that the crop was spoiled by the demon with 
 the useless weed of wild oats. It is clear that that 
 which was delivered first is of the Lord and is true, 
 while that is strange and false which was afterwards 
 introduced.^ In the history of recent heresies, Ter- 
 tullian finds ready examples of the application of 
 this principle. "At the time of the preachin.; of 
 truth by Christ, where was Marcion, that ship- 
 master of Pontus, the zealous student of Stoicism? 
 Where was Valentinus, the disciple of Platonism? It 
 is well known that they were first believers in the 
 Catholic doctrine in the Church of Rome, under the 
 episcopate of the blessed Eleutherus until on account 
 of their restless curiosity, they were more than 
 once expelled. The same is true of Marcion, Apelles, 
 Nigidius and Hermogenes who are still alive and 
 still pursuing their course of perversion of the ways 
 of the Lord. "3 Error is born of truth as the rough 
 wild olive rises from the germ of the fruitful, rich 
 and genuine olive. -^ In the priority of truth over 
 
 ^ Praesc. 29: "In omnibus Veritas imaginem antecredit : 
 post vero similitude succedit." 
 
 ^ Praesc. 29. ^ Praesc. 30. 
 
 •* Praesc. 30: " Ita et haereses de nostro fructice, non 
 nostro de genere, veritatis grano, sed mendacio silvestres." 
 
74 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 error, we find a test at the very moment of its 
 appearance.^ 
 
 Another criterion guarantees that the truth thus 
 born before error has remained what it was in its 
 original state when it fell from the lips of Christ, 
 viz, an apostolic Episcopate. To certain heresies 
 which claimed an apostolic episcopate, we say: 
 "Make us know the origin of your episcopate. 
 Unroll before us the list of your Bishops. Prove 
 that the Bishop who heads the list was placed there 
 either by an Apostle, or by an Apostolic man who 
 remained in communion with the Apostles or that 
 he is the successor of one of these. Thus the Apostolic 
 churches prove their apostolicity. The Church of 
 Smyrna brings forth Polycarp instituted by John; 
 the Church of Rome proves that Clement was placed 
 at its head by Peter; the other Churches show in 
 their beginning men who received the episcopate 
 from the Apostles who thus handed them the 
 Apostolic succession. Let the heretical churches 
 dare to submit themselves to the same test. Their 
 attempts would end in disgraceful failure. The 
 absence of an Apostolic Episcopte is a supreme mark 
 of error. Every doctrine must be rejected as false 
 which has not been transmitted by the Apostles 
 and it may be concluded that a doctrine does not 
 come from the Apostles, when the sect which teaches 
 it is not governed by an Apostolic Bishop.^ 
 
 Lastly, as truth is found located somewhere in 
 
 ^ Preasc. 31: "Ita ex ipso ordine manifestatur, id esse 
 dominicum et verum quod sit prius traditum id autem 
 extraneum et falsum quod sit posterius immissum." 
 
 ^ Praesc. 35: "Apostolis utique (nostra doctrina) non 
 damnatur, immo defenditur: hoc erit indicium proprietatis." 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 75 
 
 space, a third mark of its existence is the agreement 
 of a given teaching with the teaching of the Apostolic 
 Churches. There are certain Churches in which 
 the pulpit occupied by the Apostles is still held 
 in great honor. There are churches which have read 
 in the original the letters by which the Apostles 
 honored them of old.' The voice of these holy men 
 is thus heard in those churches as an echo and their 
 portrait is thus placed, as it were, before the eyes 
 of the faithful. Such are Corinth, Philippi, Thes- 
 salonica, Hphesus^ and lastly Rome. "Happy 
 Church to whom the Apostles handed down with 
 their blood the fulness of the truth, in which Peter 
 suffered torments like those of Our Lord; in which 
 Paul received the same crow^n as John the Baptist, 
 in which John was condemned to boiling oil and came 
 out of it unscathed. See what she has learned, 
 what taught, what fellowship she has had even 
 with our churches in Africa. One Lord God does 
 she acknowledge the Creator of the Universe, and 
 Christ Jesus born of the Virgin Mary, the Son of 
 God the Creator; and the resurrection of the flesh; 
 the law and the prophets she united in one volume 
 with the writings of evangelists and apostles, from 
 which she drinks in her faith. This she seals with 
 the water of baptism, arrays with the Holy Ghost, 
 feeds with the Eucharist, cheers with martyrdom 
 and against such a discipline thus maintained she 
 admits no gainsayer."^ Heresies are not of this 
 Church since they are opposed to her. Consequently, 
 any doctrine in any way in disagreement with the 
 
 ' Praesc. 36. ^ Praesc. 36. 
 
 ^ Praescr. 36: " Habes Romam unde nobis quoque auc- 
 toritas praesto est. 1st aquam felix ecclesia." 
 
76 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 doctrines held in honor by these Apostolic Churches 
 and especially by the Church of Rome which Ter- 
 tullian regards as having a sort of primacy, must 
 be rejected as heresy.^ 
 
 A fourth criterion of truth is found in the neces- 
 sary relation of moral with dogma. The quality 
 can be appreciated from the kind of life, and conduct 
 is a sure criterion of truth. ^ The heretics deny that 
 God should be feared: in consequence, everything 
 with them is free and without rule.^ Where is God 
 not to be feared, except where He is not? And where 
 He is not, there is no truth. Where the truth is 
 not, one finds the kind of life that they lead. Indeed 
 their conduct is singularly frivolous, earthly, purely 
 without gravity, without authority, without dis- 
 cipline and quite in harmony with their faith.'* 
 They admit any one to their meetings, give the 
 "Pax" to all indiscriminately. Catechumens are 
 received into their churches without fitting prepara- 
 tion. Orders are conferred indiscriminately and 
 without observance of the canons. Their preaching 
 is directed not to the conversion of pagans but to 
 the perversion of Christians. They respect not 
 even their own superiors. They frequent magicians, 
 mountebanks, astrologers and philosophers, and the 
 reason is that they are men who devote themselves 
 to curious investigation. 5 
 
 ^ Preasc. 37: "Ego sum haeres Apostolorum. Sicut 
 caverunt testamento suo, sicut fidei commiserunt, sicut 
 adiuraverunt, ita teneo." 
 
 ^ Praesc. 43: "Adeo et de genere conversationis qualitas 
 fidei aestimari potest: doctrinae index disciplina est." 
 
 •^ Praesc. 43: "Haeretici negant Deum timendum: itaque 
 libera sunt illis omnia et soluta." 
 
 ^ Preasc. 42. s Praesc. 43. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 77 
 
 On the contrary, where God is, there is found the 
 fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom; 
 and where there is the fear of God, there also dwell 
 gravity, honesty, simplicity, an anxious carefulness 
 in admitting to the sacred ministry, a safely-guarded 
 communion and promotion after good service, a 
 scrupulous submission to authority, and a modest 
 demeanor, a united church and God in all things.^ 
 
 Such are the general trend and the most important 
 details of the well known argument, usually termed 
 the "argument of Prescription." It is meant to 
 offer a safe criterion to discern true from false 
 doctrine. The Church is teaching the doctrine 
 which she received from the Apostles; the Apostles 
 taught it, after it was made known to them in its 
 integrity and entirety by Christ Himself; and lastly 
 Jesus Christ preached it in the name of God the 
 Father. The "Church" here means the true Church, 
 the Church which in every century, in every genera- 
 tion and in every day is linked directly and without 
 interruption to the Apostles; it is the Church that 
 can exhibit unmistakable titles proving the genuine- 
 ness of this filiation. The Apostles here m.ean the 
 true Apostles, those chosen officially by Christ, 
 those who were the witnesses of His life during three 
 years, who were taught by Him, and having been 
 further enlightened by the pure light of the Holy 
 Ghost, were sent by Him to teach the world. Jesus 
 is the true Christ, Son of God and Son of man, the 
 true Messias foretold by the prophets and figured 
 in every page of the Old Testament. In other words, 
 the links in the chain are these: the true Church, 
 or the Church of the Apostles; the true Apostles, 
 
 ^ Praesc. 44. 
 
78 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 or the Apostles of Christ, the true Christ, or Christ 
 the Son of God"^ Kcclesia ab apostolis; apostoli 
 a Christo, Christus a Deo tradidit."^ Quoting this 
 passage of Tertullian, Bossuet can not hold back 
 the expression of his enthusiasm in presence of such 
 beautiful order and of a series of truths so simple 
 and so clear: "O beautiful chain," he exclaims, 
 "O holy concord, O divine texture, which new 
 doctors have broken." These new doctors are the 
 heretics of Tertullian's time as well as of Bossuet's 
 and of all times. This argument will forever be 
 their confusion and will forever be urged against 
 them: "Your Church is not the Church of the 
 Apostles, your Apostles are not the Apostles of 
 Christ, your Christ is not the Son of God, you are 
 not of God, you are of man." 
 
 No one can deny the invincible strength of this 
 argument. In order to feel its worth and be ready 
 to accept its conclusions with all their practical 
 consequences, it is enough to be of good faith, and 
 of good will, and to listen to the true voice of reason, 
 or what is the same, to the voice of true reason. 
 Indeed what is more reasonable than for man, a 
 being full cf limitations, to bow before the authority 
 of God who thus speaks through Christ, through 
 His Apostles and through the Churches of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 ' Praesc. 2i. 
 
 * Oeuvres Oratoires, Edit. Lebarcq. Vol. Ill, p. 235. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICvS yy 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HIS CHANGE OF PRINCIPLE. 
 
 Summary: — Nothing to be added to the rule of faith; the 
 new prophecy and the Paraclete. — I. Tertullian's first 
 deviation from his leading idea: exegesis of John XVI. 13; 
 revelation not complete till Montanus; justification of his 
 rigorism in the new prophecy; private revelations versus 
 apostolic customs. — II. External steps towards schism; 
 the Pallium vindicated; the garb of a higher religion. — 
 III. Further steps into schism; the probative value of 
 ecstasies; the new light clears away all doubts; the Psychics 
 and the Pneumatics; denial of the right of the hierarchy 
 to command; attacks against the Roman Church. — The 
 destiny of the Tertullianistic sect. 
 
 Tertullian had written in his de Praescriptione: 
 "No one is wise, no one is faithful, no one excels 
 in dignity but the Christian. No one is a Christian 
 but he who perseveres even to the end."^ Perse- 
 verance, as he meant it, consisted in holding to the 
 rule of faith given by God to Christ, by Christ to 
 his Apostles, by the Apostles to the Church. Faith 
 and the salvation were in that rule, which contained 
 both dogma and moral. ^ Even if an angel came down 
 from heaven to reveal new truths, the m.ind of 
 the Christian should not be shaken from that rule.^ 
 
 ^ "Nemo sapiens, nemo fidelis, nemo maior, nisi chris- 
 tianus; nemo autem christianus, nisi qui ad finem usque 
 perseveraverit." Praesc. 3. 
 
 ^ Praesc. 14. ^ Praesc. 29. 
 
8o TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 Tertullian ironically defied the heretics to prove 
 that they were new Apostles, that Christ came 
 down from heaven a second time, that He was crucified 
 and rose from the dead once more.^ 
 
 About the sam.e time, the Christian communities 
 of Carthage were stirred up by preachers, whose 
 teachings were in sharp contrast with the doctrines 
 of the de Praescriptione. Montanus, a Phr3^gian, 
 who had died a few years before, was regarded as 
 the master of the new sect. He claimed to have 
 received from the Paraclete private revelation, a 
 collection of which was being circulated by his 
 adherents. The Paraclete, he claimed, had revealed 
 to him the near return of Christ and the approaching 
 advent of the new Jerusalem. In the feverish waiting 
 for the last day, there could be no question of familv 
 ties, nor of earthly comforts and interest in public 
 afi'airs. The strictest asceticism, was made the 
 law of Montanism. Though the Church had been 
 at first rather tolerant, yet in the first 3'ears of the 
 third centur}^ one had to choose between com- 
 munion with the Church and adhesion to the recent 
 prophecies.^ 
 
 The Montanistic tenet which appealed most to 
 Tertullian was the belief in the new prophecy of the 
 Paraclet e. It had always been thus.^ The Montanists 
 
 ^ Praesc. 30. 
 
 ^ Eusebius, H. E. 5, 3, 14-19; Epiphanitis, Haeres. 
 38. Cf. Ermoni, La crise Montaniste, in Revue des Questions 
 historiques. Vol. 72 (1902). p. 61 sqq.; Ales. op. cit. p. 
 435; Monceaux, op. cit. p. 399. 
 
 3 According to St. j^ugustine, he had even combated 
 their influence: "Tertullianus . . . transiens ad Cataphrygas, 
 quos ante destruxerat." De Hacrcs. 86. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 8i 
 
 had recourse to John XVI. 1.3: "When He, the 
 Spirit of truth is come, He will teach you all truth," 
 to justify their confidence in the new Prophecy, 
 and upon that text they based their claim that 
 Christ had promised the new revelation to Plis 
 Church. The time, they said, had at last come 
 for this new revelation; and they themselves were 
 the new prophets, the new messengers of the 
 Paraclete. TertuUian, who quoted this text twice 
 in the de Praescriptione, each time gave a strict 
 Catholic interpretation of it. Indeed, he could not 
 have done otherwise without upsetting the whole 
 thesis of his works. "No doubt, Christ had once 
 said, ' I have yet many things to say unto you, 
 but ye can not bear them nov,',' but even then He 
 added, 'When the Spirit of truth shall come. He 
 will lead vou unto all truth.' He thus shows that 
 there is nothing of which they were ignorant, to 
 whom He had promised the future attainment of 
 all truths by the help of the Spirit of truth; and 
 assuredly He fulfilled His promise since it is proved 
 in the Acts of the Apostles that the Holy Ghost 
 did come dov/n."^ He could not state m,ore clearly 
 that the entire body of truth to be believed had been 
 revealed, and that nothing further should be added 
 to tradition. 
 
 Six or seven years later, hovv'evcr, he was heard 
 voicing quite a different opinion. Though he still 
 spoke with his wonted respect and eloquence of the 
 immutability of the rule of faith and the union with 
 the apostolic churches,' he nevertheless held that 
 
 ^ Praescr. 8, 22, 28. 
 
 ^ De Virg. vel. 2: "T'na nobis et illis fides, unus Deus, 
 idem Christus, eadem spes, eadem lavacri sacramenta, seinel 
 dixerim: Una ecclesia sumus." 
 
82 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 revelation was not closed till the time of Montanus: 
 "The law of faith being constant, the other succeed- 
 ing points of discipline and conversation admit the 
 novelty of correction. The reason why the Lord 
 sent the Paraclete was, that, since hum.an m.ediocrity 
 was unable to take in all things at once, discipline 
 should little by little be directed and ordained and 
 carried on to perfection by that Vicar of the Lord, 
 the Holy vSpirit. What, then, is the Paraclete's 
 administrative office, but this: the direction of 
 discipline, the revelation of the vScriptures, the 
 reformation of the intellect, the advancement to 
 better things? Nothing is without stages of growth: 
 all things have their season. Look how creation itself 
 advances little b}'^ little to fructification. First 
 combes the seed, and from^ the seed rises the shoot 
 and from the shoot struggles out the shrub; there- 
 after boughs and leaves gather strength and the 
 whole that Vv^e call a tree expands; there follows a 
 swelling of the bud, and from the bud bursts the 
 flower, and from the flower the fruit opens: that 
 fruit itself, rude for a while and unshapely, little 
 by little, keeping the straight course of its develop- 
 ment, is trained to the m.ellowness of its flavor. So 
 too, righteousness — for the God of righteousness and 
 the God of creation is the same, — was first in an em^- 
 bryonic stage, having natural fear of God; from that 
 stage it advanced through the Law and the Prophets 
 to infancy; from thence it passed through the 
 Gospel to the fervor of youth; now through the 
 Paraclete it is settling into maturity. He will be, after 
 Christ, the only one to be called and revered as 
 Master; for He speaks not from Himself, but what 
 is commanded by Christ. He is the one Prelate, 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 83 
 
 because He alone succeeds Christ. They who have 
 received Him set truth befonj custom. They who 
 have heard Him prophecy even to the present time, 
 not of old, bid virgins to be wholly covered."^ He 
 could not have stated more clearly that traditions, 
 for centuries in vogue in the Church, or "customs" 
 as he calls them, were to give way to the new 
 revelation, the "truth," and that the supreme ruler 
 of the Church in the details of her moral system 
 and her administration, was not an episcopate 
 transmitted by the Apostles and instituted by 
 Christ, guardian of the practice as well as of the 
 faith, but the Paraclete whose dominion meant the 
 maturity of the Church and was a guarantee of the 
 moral perfection of her members. 
 
 This principle is to become for TertuUian a service- 
 able justification of his rigoristic views on morals. 
 Whatever he will not find in the motherly indulgence 
 of the Church, he will triumphantly take from the 
 book of the new prophecy, or gather from the lips 
 of the Montanistic ecstatics. Thus, although local 
 customs of a Church already declared to be in 
 obedience to an Apostolic Church, permit the 
 Christian Virgins to go about the churches unveiled, 
 still, since the vSpirit forbade it, that practice should 
 be abandoned.^ In a work, which chronologically 
 foUows close upon the De Virginihus velandis, the 
 authority of the Holy Ghost is adduced to command 
 that Christians marry only once.^ About the same 
 time the reality and the supernatural character of 
 the Montanists ecstasies are vindicated: "When 
 man is under the influence of the Spirit, especially 
 when he is beholding the glory of God or when God 
 ^ De Virg. vel. i. ^ De Virg. vel. i. ^ I. Uxor. 2. 
 
84 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 is speaking through his mouth, he must necessarily 
 lose feeling, since the divine overshadows him. 
 That is a great debate between ourselves and the 
 Psychics."^ Here the rising antagonism of the 
 African writer against the rest of his correligionists 
 and his swerving from his leading idea and his 
 past literary life, are most in evidence. He no 
 longer believes one definite and certain rule of 
 faith, which, being found, nothing further must 
 be sought.^ Whenever an overpowering ecstasy 
 comes upon him like the shadow of the Almighty, 
 it is given him to see new truths that enrich his 
 mind with lights that are neither in the vScripture 
 nor in the deposit of the Church. Thus, in his 
 mind, two armies stand face to face: on the one 
 side, the Pneumatici or the Spirituales, who place 
 a boundless faith in private revelations and guide 
 their life accordingly ; and on the other, the Psychics, 
 who, content v/ith the deposit of faith, shut their 
 eyes to the new light. Tertullian unhesitatingly 
 takes sides with the Pneumatici. 
 
 As the Spirituales professed a more austere asceticism 
 than their opponents and systematically set them- 
 selves apart and above the rest of the Christian com- 
 munity, it was proper that some exterior sign should 
 distinguish them from the mass of the faithful. ^ 
 Tertullian who never did things half-heartedly, 
 allowed hardly a year to elapse after his first mani- 
 festation of sympathy with the new prophets, before 
 he ostentatiously put on a special garb as a symbol 
 
 ^ IV. Adv. Marc. 22. ^ Praesc. 35. 
 
 ^ Monceaux, op. cit. p. 405. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 85 
 
 of his new mode of life/ In vain did people rail at 
 him, voicing their surprise at seeing him wrapped 
 in the mantle of those philosophers whom, he had 
 so often derided; in vain did this garb point him 
 out in the street to pagans and to Christians alike, 
 as odd and affected.^ TertuUian had a set purpose 
 in wearing his new costume. Criticisms about his 
 pallium aiTorded him an opportunity of expounding 
 his new ideal of a life completely detached from 
 worldly interests. "I owe no duty to the Forum, 
 the election ground or the Senate House; I keep no 
 obsequious vigils, occupy no platforms, hover about 
 no pretorian residences. I am not odorant of the 
 canals, am not adorant of the lattices, am no constant 
 wearer out of benches, no wholesale router of laws, 
 no barking leader, no judge, no soldier, no king: 
 I have withdrawn from the populace, my only 
 business is with myself. Except that other care 
 I have none, save ^ not to care. You would enjoy 
 the better life more in seclusion than in publicity. 
 But you will decry me as indolent. Forsooth, ' We 
 are to live for our country and Empire and State.' 
 v^uch used, of old, to be the sentiment. None -is 
 born for another being destined to do for himself."^ 
 We find him here expressing another conception 
 of a Christian life than that found in the Apologeticiim. 
 The Christian life, by its body of principles and 
 tenets, no longer makes him an active citizen. The 
 new prophecy, on the contrary, bids him break 
 with the world, and it is for the very purpose of 
 manifesting his intention to keep aloof from worldlv 
 interests that TertuUian had put on the Pallium. 
 
 ^ Pall, i; ibid. 5: "Ita a toga ad pallium." 
 
 Pall. .V 3 Pall. 5. 
 
 2 -Dr 
 
86 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 The closing lines of the treatise are characteristic 
 and to the point: "So speaks the mantle: 'But 
 I confer on it likewise a fellowship with a divine 
 sect and discipline. Rejoice, mantle and exult. 
 A better philosophy has now deigned to honor thee, 
 even since thou hast begun to be a Christian 
 vesture."^ The better philosophy, whose emblem 
 the Pallium is to be, is not, in his eyes, the con- 
 ciliatory Christianity of the Psychics, but the rigorous 
 and austere life which the Pneumatics advocate. 
 The work is purposedly a justification of the new 
 doctrine and a profession of montanistic faith. 
 
 The influence of this new philosophy is seen to 
 sink deeper into the apologetical method of Tertullian. 
 For him., visions, dreams and ecstasies have ceased 
 to be exceptional facts. They become a normal 
 mode of God's intercourse with m.an. He gees so 
 far as to admit that most men know^ God by \ision.^ 
 A woman of his acquaintance is often ravished in 
 the Spirit during the common prayer on Sunday. 
 She converses with the Angels, with the Lord Himself, 
 sees and hears things hidden, reads hearts and 
 suggests remedies to any one who consults her. Her 
 testim^ony is strong enough in Tertullian' s rrind to 
 afford a basis for his views on the corporality of 
 the soul.^ He proves also the doctrine of Purgatory 
 from the authority of the Paraclete: "This point, 
 the Paraclete has also pressed home on our attention 
 
 ^ Pall. 6: "Melior iam te philosophia dignata est 
 ex quo christianum vestire coepisti." 
 
 ^ An. 47. "Maior poene vis hominum ex visionibus 
 Deum discunt." 
 
 ^ Re.surr. Carn. 63. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 87 
 
 in the most frequent admonitions, whenever any 
 of us has admitted the force of His words from a 
 knowledge of His promised spiritual disclosure."' 
 Thus, little by little, the new prophecy does not 
 merely aim at reforming the discipline of the Church, 
 but m.eddles with the revelation of dogm.atic truth. 
 This tendency is most evident in the de Resurrec- 
 tione Carnis. There the ardent Montanist speaks 
 with enthusiasm of the new revelation that confounds 
 all heresies: "Almighty God, in His most gracious 
 Providence by the pouring out of His Spirit in these 
 last days upon all flesh, on His servants and on 
 His handmiaids, has checked the imposture of unbelief 
 and perverseness, reanimating m.en's faltering in 
 the resurrection of the flesh and clearing all obscurities 
 and equivocations by the light of His sacred words 
 and meanings."- Tertullian now foregoes his favorite 
 argum.ent of prescription as a proof of this most 
 fundam.ental dogma. He no longer cares whether 
 a doctritie is in conformity with the teaching of 
 Mother Church and countenanced by the Apostolic 
 Episcopate. Nay more, the sacred obscurities of 
 faith seem to him. to be illumined by the bright 
 light which is now^ flooding the Church. "It was 
 fit and proper that the Holy Ghost should no longer 
 withhold, the effusion of His gracious light from 
 the inspired wTitings, thai they miight disseminate 
 the seeds of truth with no admixture of heretical 
 subleties, and pluck out from it their tares. He 
 has, accordingly, now dispersed all the perplexities 
 of the times and their self-chosen allegories and 
 parables by the clear and perspicuous explanation 
 of the entire mystery through the new prophecy, 
 ' An. 58. ' ^ Resurr. Carn. 53. 
 
88 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 which descends in copious streams from the Paraclete. 
 If yon will only draw water from His fountain, you 
 will never thirst for other doctrines."' 
 
 As tim.e goes on, Tertullian becomes not only an 
 ardent champion of the new prophecy, but also a 
 most obstinate enem.y and critic of that part of the 
 Church which withstands the progress of Montanistic 
 ideas. The more his system of thought is reshaped 
 under the influence of the new prophecy, the more 
 the harmony of his previous id^as is lost, and the 
 closer he comes to the heresy which he had so valor- 
 ously combated. The writer, who once had praised 
 the solid organization of the Christian hierarchy, 
 now hurls insults at its members: "It is plain that, 
 as they have rejected the prophecy of the Holy 
 Spirit, they are also purposing the refusal of martyr- 
 dom."^ "I know, too, that their pastors are lions 
 in peace, deers in war."-5 Nay, he lays down the 
 principle subversive of all discipline and authority, 
 that every one is m.aster of his own conduct. "Is 
 not every believer 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? The 
 Lord says: 'Why did you not of your own self 
 judge what is right?" In regard to every decision 
 we are called upon to consider, the Apostle also 
 says: 'If of anything you are ignorant, God shall 
 reveal it to you."^ How far has he not strayed from 
 
 ' Resurr. Carn. 53. 
 
 ^ Fiiga I. 
 
 ^ Fuga 2: " Novi et pastores eorum, in i>ace leones, in 
 proelio cervos." 
 
 ^ Fuga i: "Paracletum non recipiendo deductorem 
 omnis veritatis." 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HKS APOLOGr<:TICS 89 
 
 the rule of faith, which he had so eloquently defended 
 in the de Praescriptione haereticorum? 
 
 Circumstances, too, afforded his aggressiveness and 
 hostile spirit an opportunity to display themselves 
 still more openly. Persecutions were then threatening 
 the Church. Favius, a Christian, had asked him 
 w^hether it was licit to flee before the persecution. 
 The tone of the answer is rough and unsympathetic: 
 "The examination of the question concerns you 
 only, for having refused the Paraclete, the messenger 
 of all truth, you have put yourselves in trouble 
 about other questions."^ And he comes back to 
 the idea at the end of his treatise: "Those w^ho have 
 received the Paraclete know neither how to flee 
 from persecution nor how^ to buy their safety, for 
 they have the Lord Himself, one w^ho will stand b\' 
 us and aid us in suffering as well as to be our mouth 
 when we are put to the question." He considers 
 the bravery and the moral fortitude of the Pneu- 
 matics in face of persecutions a proof of the necessity 
 of the Paraclete.^ On the contrary, the cowardice 
 of the Psychics and their cold faith are consequences 
 of their denial of the ^ new prophecy. ^ Thus, bereft 
 of the help of the heavenly light, they are governed 
 by an Episcopate im.bued with the most worldly spirit. 
 Tertullian exclaims ironically: "Apparently th? 
 Apostles have founded and, in their foresight, 
 organized the Episcopate so that the Bishops may 
 enjoy in peace the revenues of their kingdoms under 
 the pretext of administering them."-* "It is not 
 asked who is ready to follow the broad path, but 
 
 ^ Fuga 14. 2 piiga j^ 
 
 3 Fuga 3: "Plane frivola et frigida fides." 
 '' I'^uga 13. 
 
90 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 the narrow, and therefore, the Comforter is required 
 to guide unto all truth and to animate to all 
 endurance."^ 
 
 The extremism and violence of Tertullian's opinions 
 as well as his adherence to the new prophecy, had 
 at this time attached to his name the epithet of 
 heretic.^ It was more especially his rigoristic views 
 on second marriage that branded him, in the eyes 
 of Christians, as a novelty-seeker.^ The Paraclete, 
 whose spokesman he was, was thus accused of 
 being the originator of a new doctrine, of beliefs 
 and practices opposed to those of previous ages.-* 
 The opportunity was at hand to lay down the 
 fundamental principles. Can the Holy Ghost reveal 
 anything new? Yes, answers Tertullian, taking for 
 his basis the text of St. John he had so often inter- 
 preted in the Catholic sense : "I have yet many things 
 to say to you, but you can not bear them now; 
 when He, the Spirit of Truth, is com.e. He will 
 teach you all truth." In these words. Our Lord 
 clearly tells us that the Paraclete will bring new 
 teachings which have never before been revealed. 
 Why can not the same Spirit, i6o years after the 
 Apostles, impose a final bridle upon the flesh, no 
 longer indirectly calling us away from marriage, 
 but openly. Even though the Apostles had allowed 
 such marriages, it was a concession to the needs 
 of the times since abrogated by the Paraclete.^ 
 
 Not only was Tertullian looked upon askance by 
 the Christian community, but even the living 
 authority of the Church had taken steps to condemn 
 
 ^ Fuga 14. 
 
 ^ De Monog. 2, 15; St. Augustine, de Haeres, 86. 
 
 ^ Monog. 2, 15. "• Monog. 2, 15. ^ jMonog. 10-14. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 91 
 
 the doctrine of those who imposed insupportable 
 burdens upon the people.' In the matter of fasts 
 the Montanists went much farther than the Church. 
 They were accused of attaching more importance 
 to fasting than to faith, and of apeing the practices 
 of the heretics.^ A decree had been issued by Pope 
 Callistus against any arbitrary innovation. Ter- 
 tullian, springing to the fore, denied that the Epis- 
 copate, the teaching and governing authority of 
 the Church, had the right to limit the mortifications 
 of individuals and to be the interpreter of the law: 
 "You again set up boundaries to God as with regard 
 to grace, so with regard to discipline."^ When Catholics 
 objected the text which he had so often commented 
 upon (Luke 16, 16) making the ancient prophecy 
 end with John the Baptist, he answered boldly: 
 "Even if the Holy Ghost had not spoken through 
 the mouth of Montanus, the Phrygian prophet, 
 the Montanists would have been their own prophets 
 about such clear duties. "■♦ This assertion allow^s us 
 to measure the distance from Tertullian, the author 
 of de Praescriptione, to Tertullian, the author of 
 de leiunio; the one upholding the regulafidei as the sole 
 source of faith and morals, the other setting the 
 individual up as a law^maker to himself against the 
 authority of tradition. 
 
 About this time, our author wrote his seven books 
 on Ecstasy, which are now lost.^ They were, probably> 
 
 ^ M. Rolffs: Urkunden aus dem antimontanistischen 
 Kampfe, 1895. ^ leiun, r, 2, 9-10, 15, 16. 
 
 ^ leiun. II. " Palos terminales figitis Deo." 
 
 "* leiun, 2, 12. 
 
 ^^ Bardenhewer, op. cit. vol. II, p. 383; P. de LabrioUe, 
 Antimontanisme et la prophetic extatique in Revue Hist, 
 et litt. relig. 1906, p. 122. 
 
92 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 a systematic justification of his new plan of Apolo- 
 getics. Were these books still extant, instead of 
 gleaning here and there accidental references to 
 his Montanisrrx and placing them in an artificial order, 
 we would have the fuU expression of the principles 
 which made him swerve from the leading idea of 
 his previous life and thought.' 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that the last manifestation 
 of Tertullia^n's heresy was directed against the 
 Rom.an Church, the most Apostolic of all Churches, 
 one which he had so eloquenty proclaimed to 
 heretics as a fountainhead and mainspring of the 
 truth of Christ.^ "I hear that there has been an edict 
 sent forth, and a peremptory one too. The Pontifex 
 Maximus, that is, the Bishop of bishops, issues an 
 edict : • ' I remit to those who have discharged the 
 requirements of repentance the sins both of adultery 
 and of fornication.' And where shall this liberality 
 be posted? On the very spot, I suppose, on the 
 very gates of the sensual appetites, beneath the very 
 titles of the sensual appetites? No? It is in the 
 Church that the edict is read, and in the Church 
 that it is pronounced — and the Church is a virgin. 
 Far, far, from Christ's spouse, be such a proclamation I 
 vShe, the true, the chaste, the holy, must keep even 
 her ears free from pollution."^ Thence Tertullian 
 imposes, so to speak, upon the Church of Christ, 
 the choice between the rule of a lax Pontifex Maximus 
 and the rigorous tenets of the new prophets. 
 
 His evident intention is to attack the. Roman 
 
 Church and her Episcopus episcoporum, whose 
 
 authorit}^ he reluctantly and bitterly acknowledges. 
 
 He knows that the "peremptory edict" of Callistus 
 
 ^ Praescr. 36. ^ Pudic. ,1 6-9. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 93 
 
 is destined to influence the whole Church and afi"ect 
 his own African community. How will he attack 
 this "potentior principalitas " which irritates him 
 to such an extent? 
 
 First of all he distinguished between "discipline" 
 and "power." Power is something supernatural. 
 "It is the Spirit, and the Spirit is God."' The 
 Apostles had power, the power to remit sin. The 
 Pope's only business, on the contrary, is to see that 
 discipline is observed. All the other rights which 
 the Pope claims as his ow^n, are, according to Ter- 
 tullian, wanton usurpations. The powers conferred 
 upon the Apostles, when they received the Holy 
 Ghost, have passed to those only who have received 
 the Holy Ghost, viz., to the vSpirituals. It belongs, 
 of course, to the Church, for, where the Church is, 
 there is also the Spirit. But the ministers of the 
 Spirit are the Spirituals, and not those who are 
 merely invested with disciplinary functions.^ 
 
 The Bishops, therefore, have no power whatsoever, 
 unless they believe in the new prophecy. Tertullian 
 had once spoken to the heretics with born indigna- 
 tion: " Laicis sacerdotalia munera iniungunt."'^ Now 
 he boldly declares that the priesthood belongs to 
 all.^ Force of circumstances has thus led him to 
 become the spokesman of the lay element in revolt 
 against the Church. The Episcopate looms before 
 his eyes as the tyranny of a mere man, setting up 
 his authority against the Holy Spirit and as a 
 hateful counterfeit of the Apostolic institutions. 
 His last word is a denial of the hierarchv of the 
 Church : Ecclesia quidem delicta donabit, sed Ecclesia 
 
 ' Piidic. XXI. - Pudic. XXI. ^ Praesc. 41. 
 
 ^ De Exhort, cast. 7; Alonog. 7, 12; Pudic. XXI. 
 
94 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 spiritus per spiritalem hominem — non Ecclesia numerus 
 Episcoponim.''^ vSuch a declaration is the logical 
 corollary of the principle of the new prophecy which 
 has slowly overturned in Tertullian's rrind the long- 
 established and solidly-prescribed ecclesiastical system 
 and organization. The ever-changing rule of private 
 inspiration is substituted for the immutable and 
 complete rule of faith given by Christ to His Apostles, 
 by the Apostles to Christ's Church, by His Church 
 to us. 
 
 In his orthodox works, he had denounced both 
 the never-ending variety of opinions, which charac- 
 terized the doctrine of the heretics, and the dis- 
 sensions which soon split the heretical bodies into 
 many parts and finally precipitated them to utter 
 destruction. The truth of the assertion was to be 
 realized in his own case. He lived to a very old age 
 and wrote many other treatises in defence of his 
 new creed. ^ In spite of the services rendered to the 
 Montanistic cause, he separated from his former 
 friends in the course of time, and founded a sect 
 of his own, the Tertullianist sect.^ It must have had 
 but a few adherents. St. Optatus speaks of their 
 conversion. "» Thus, after 200 years, disappeared the 
 last vestiges of a schism founded by one who had 
 spoken so forcefully and convincingly of unity and 
 doctrine and discipline in the one Church — the 
 Church cf Christ and His Apostles. 
 
 ^ Pudic. XXI. 
 
 ^ Hieron. de \'ir. 111. "Ferturque vixisse usque ad 
 decrepitam aetatem, et multa quae non exstant opuscula 
 condidisse." 
 
 ^ August, de Haer. 86: " Tertullianistae a Tertulliano." 
 
 "' Optatus, de Schismate Uonat. I, 9. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 95 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HIS STYLE. 
 
 Summary. — Tertullian's ardent faith creative of his style. — 
 I. How he expressed God: proof of His existence; description 
 of His attributes; (omnipotence, grandeur, goodness and 
 justice, love). — II. The history of man: creation; fall; 
 promise of the Messiah; the humanity of Christ; his life; 
 Christ's lowliness is Tertullian's glory; Bossuet's com- 
 mentaries. — III. The life of the Church: characterization 
 of its members and its enimies; the last judgment. 
 
 In the opening lines of his short treatise on 
 Patience, TertulHan writes: "I fully confess unto 
 the Lord my boldness, not to say my impudence, 
 in daring to write a v/ork on patience — I who can 
 not be patient in my own life. . . . May my shame 
 in not practicing what I am teaching others help 
 me to acquire this virtue ! Like a sick man ever 
 talking of the benefits of health at a time when he 
 least enjoys them, T hope it will be a comfort to 
 me to speak of a blessing which I am sorry not to 
 possess. . . . Alas, burning as I am with the fires 
 of impatience, I must pray for patience and leave 
 nothing undone till I obtain it."^ 
 
 From this humble avowal it is plain that 'Ter- 
 tullian's was a lofty mind and a delicate conscience. 
 The quotation serves also this other important 
 
 " De Patientia, I. 
 
96 TERTULLTAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 purpose — it gives a clear insight into the style of 
 the great Apologist. In his ardent soul, thoughts 
 and feelings are continually welling up and clamoring 
 for expression. Sometimes these thoughts and 
 these feelings are too broad and too deep for their 
 channel; then the pressure becomes double and 
 quadruple till its full activity has been spent and 
 the channel broadened and deepened to its necessary 
 proportion. 
 
 The style of Tertullian follows his thouglit so 
 closely, or rather is so one with it; his thought is 
 so faithful an image of his soul; his soul expresses 
 itself with such spontaneity and sincerity, that 
 we shall be studying throughout the entire chapter 
 only his thought from another view-point. Therefore, 
 it will be necessary to treat this subject at some 
 length. 
 
 On the existence of God, he writes with his ready 
 pen: "Would you have proof that God exists from 
 the testimony of the soul itself? This soul invokes 
 God under the only name that befits Him. 'Great 
 God!' 'Good God!' are words on every lip.""^ To 
 convince his reader of the oneness of God, he is not 
 content with an indirect appeal to the human soul. 
 He summons it to the witness-stand; he makes it 
 appear before us and draws the truth from its own 
 lips: "We give offence by preaching that there 
 is one God who made and governs the Universe. 
 Speak, then, and tell what thou knowest of the 
 matter. The very thing which people object to 
 our proclaiming, we have often heard thee speak 
 aloud and freely. Thou sayest: "What has God 
 
 ^ Apol. 17- 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 97 
 
 given us?' or 'If God will!' Undoubtedly, by the 
 word God thou meanest any being from whom thou 
 receivest power and to whose will thou dost look. 
 At the same time, thou deniest the divinity of all 
 those thou callest Saturn, Jupiter, Mars or 
 Minerva. . . ."' Only a part of this colloquy is 
 quoted here. It goes on with a logic fraught with 
 life and light. He .paints the Omnipotence of 
 this One God with a single stroke of the brush. 
 We behold the picture, and this thought flashes 
 into our minds: "Even nothingness is His, Who 
 is Lord of all."^ This idea of a sovereign dominion 
 over nothingness is powerfully rendered. How can 
 the grandeur of God be conceived? How expressed? 
 Tertullian feels a torturing desire to make us feel, 
 to give us, as it were, the sensation of it. "Hence," 
 says Bossuet, "in search of glorious words to express 
 the incommunicable excellence of God, he calls 
 Him 'the Supreme Greatness.' Unable to find 
 aught equal to Himself, He fills a solitude with the 
 uniqueness of His perfections."-' "This is a peculiar 
 saying," continues Bossuet, "but this writer, used 
 to strong expression, seems to seek new words to 
 speak fittingly of the matchless greatness of God. 
 Note especially his wonderful expression ' the solitude 
 of God' — a sublime and awe-inspiring solitude."-' 
 
 The same lofty thought and the same striving 
 after an adequate rendering of what he sees and 
 
 ' De Test. an. 2. 
 
 ^ ApoL 38: " Eius est nihilum ipsum cuius est totum.'' 
 
 ^ I Adv. Marc. 4: "Summum magnum ex defectione 
 aemuli solitudinem quamdam de singularitate praestantiae 
 suae possidetis. " 
 
 ^ Bossuet. Oeuvrcs Oratoires, ed. Lebarq. vol. Ill, p. 6. 
 
98 TERTULLTAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 experiences within are displayed in the treatment 
 of the goodness of God. He shows us that goodness 
 in a peerless light: "In the beginning God was only 
 good."^ Thus he isolates this infinite goodness of 
 God from His other attributes. Tertullian explains 
 wh}/ it did not remain thus alone, why we have 
 known something more than God's goodness, and 
 the reason he gives brings out very clearly this 
 goodness he is trying to have us realize: "But 
 since wickedness arose, since this infinite goodness 
 met with foes, it was necessary that the divine 
 justice should avenge the goodness thus scorned."^ 
 Justice thus shown side by side with goodness will 
 not replace, destroy, belittle or diminish it, but 
 preserve and defend it in our behalf. How. tersely 
 and luminoush^ the latter idea is put ! " Omne justitiae 
 opus procuratio bonitatis." According to Bossuet's 
 paraphrase: "Justice acts in behalf of goodness, 
 works for it, defends its interests." Tertullian does 
 not tire of maintaining the goodness and the justice 
 of God, the one with its benefits, the other with 
 its sword, not only side by side but face to face. 
 This bold contrast, which he delights in repeating 
 and expressing in many wa3^s, is quite in favor of 
 divine goodness: "Ilia ingenita, haec accidens; ilia 
 edita, haec adhibita; ilia propria, haec accomodata."^ 
 He insists again in different words as though he 
 feared not to have said enough, or not well 
 enough: "Prior bonitas secundum naturam; 
 severitas posterior secundum causam."'^ Might we 
 
 ^ II. Adv. Marc, ii: " Deus a primordio tantum bonus." 
 ^ Ibid, id.: "At enim ut malum postea erupit, atque 
 inde iam coepit bonitas Dei cum adversaria agere. . . ." 
 3 Adv. Marc. ii. ^ Adv. Marc. ii. 
 
THRTULLIAN AND HLS APOLOGETICvS 99 
 
 not l)e led to coiichide that Tertiillian's soul, the 
 thought of that soul, and the expression thereof, 
 have arrived at a perfect union and form a harmonious 
 whole? Yet liis sturdy genius which brooks none 
 but the strongest expression, an expression fully 
 proportionate to his breadth and depth of soul, 
 is still unsatished. It forces him to condense his 
 idea still more and in six words, two of which are 
 prepositions, his whole idea is comprehended: 
 " De suo optimus, de nostro Justus."^ "When He is 
 good, it is of Himself, of His own essence; when He 
 is just, it is because of us." These are supstantial 
 words, words full of meaning, simple, expressive, 
 eloquent, which easily sink into our memory and 
 remain imprinted there. Thus Tertullian paints, 
 carves and engraves on our minds God, such as 
 reason can conceive Him, such as it sees Him in 
 the inner depths of that human soul into whose 
 secrets he has gone so deep, and whose testimony 
 he has so successfully invoked in behalf of truth. 
 
 He will use strokes no less strong but softened 
 and more tender to picture to us the same God, 
 as revealed faith places Him before us. That this 
 great God brought much love to the creation of 
 man, Tertullian makes us feel vividl^^ He avoids 
 all tone of command and employs only what is 
 tender, caressing and friendly. " Non imperial! 
 verbo, sed familiari manu, et jam verbo blandienti 
 praemisso, faciamus hominem."^ "Not with a word 
 of command does God set His hand to the work but 
 with great mildness and even in caressing and 
 flattering accents. He says: 'Let us make man.'" 
 
 ^ Resiir. Carn. 14. ^ Resur. Carn. 6. 
 
loo TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICvS 
 
 The thought of God busied in creating us out of 
 this love is a great and touching one. Its greatness 
 grows on us and fills us with religious emotion when 
 TertulHan, beholding the Divine Artisan at work, 
 and penetrating the depths of the divine thought, 
 says simpty: "Ouodcumque limus exprimebatur, 
 Christus cogitabatur, homo futurus."' "All that 
 the slime was shaped into by His lingers was, in 
 His thought, the Christ- Who one day should be 
 Man." In a few words, we find condensed and 
 harmoniously grouped all the details worthy of our 
 attention: the Workman, His material (Hmus, the 
 slime of the earth, vilest of all materials), the very 
 process of creation with all its steps (quodcumque 
 exprimebatur), the Thought or Ideal of this subHme 
 Artisan, the nam.e of this great Thought (Christus), 
 and, in the distant future of the fulfillment of time, 
 the unspeakable mystery of the Incarnation (homo 
 futurus). What a thought! What theology in this 
 thought ! What a wonderful sentence, comprehending, 
 as it does, all the theology of this whole idea. 
 
 Man, a w^ork of love and a figure of Christ, is 
 placed in the earthly paradise. The demon appears 
 to lead him to ruin. The words in which Tertullian 
 paints vSatan are characteristic and never to be 
 forgotten: "The devil is the envier of God, His 
 rival. "^ These two words explain the accursed one's 
 history, both in heaven and on earth. His activity 
 here below centers about the ruin of man— " Operatio 
 eorum est hominis eversio."^ His hatred is like a 
 devouring fire. " Plurimum accenditur, cum extin- 
 guitur"^ the more you try to extinguish it, the 
 more it burns. Our first parents' fall into the snare 
 
 ^ Resur. Carn. 6. ^ Apol. 22. ^ Apol. 22. ^ Poen. 7. 
 
TKRTULLIAN AND HLS APOLQGjrfiCfi ibi 
 
 ' ' ' , ' > 
 of this evil one was lamentable. Te ptjjllian, in rirdcr 
 to depict the first moment and the first consequence 
 of this fall, finds a thought exquisitely delicate: 
 "Nihil primum senserunt quam erubescendum"' — 
 "the first feeling they experienced was the blush of 
 shame." This shame is a vivid picture of their 
 wretchedness and ours. 
 
 After the Fall, the destinies of the world follow 
 a course different from the primitive plan. They 
 may be summed up in the strife and struggle of the 
 two powers which seem to take possession of man- 
 kind — the Saviour promised to man, and vSatan, 
 the rival, the envier of God. Tertullian describes 
 this dramatic situation in a few words. He calls 
 the demons the "magistrates of this age."-" The 
 word "magistrates" is significant; without need 
 of further explanation, it indicates the mastery of 
 the evil spirits and the servitude of man. To 
 wretched man there remained his soul, fallen, it is 
 true, but still adorned with some of the features 
 of the divine image and likeness, and bearing within 
 itself the testimony of the essential truths. Had 
 he only known how to heed this testimony, but 
 "every soul is at once a culprit and a witness."^ 
 Bossuet comments thus: "criminal by the corrup- 
 tion of* its will, witness by the light of its reason ; 
 criminal by the hatred of justice, witness by the 
 certitude of its sacred laws."^ There remained to 
 him specially the hope of the promised Messiah, 
 the faith in His advent and in the sovereign virtue 
 
 ^ De Virg. vel i i . 
 
 ^ " Daemones sunt magistratus saeculi." 
 
 ^ De test. an. 6: "Merito omnis anima et rea et testis." 
 
 4 Op. cit. Vol. IV. p. 557. 
 
I02 TBRTT?2^t;iAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 
 of nis' action, hilt thfere was also one needed to open 
 his eves to see, and his ears to hear. While the 
 demon was thus tramphng the world under his feet, 
 while mankind was groaning under this hard servi- 
 tude, what v/as this Messiah and Saviour doing, 
 this man of the future — "homo futurus"? Tertullian 
 tells us in very sweet and touching words: " Kdiscens 
 iam inde a primordio, iam inde, hominem quod erat 
 futurus in fine."^ This beautiful thought goes straight 
 to our hearts. "Jam inde" — from that time, that 
 is from the moment of our fall, and of the promise 
 of the Messiah; without the least interval; "a 
 primordio" — from the origin of things. Tertullian 
 thus repeats the idea in different words to lay stress 
 upon the prom^ptness of the help. " Ediscens homi- 
 nem" — These two words translate and interpret 
 the whole of the Old Testament in each of its pages 
 •with the truest, the highest, and the most eloquent 
 piety. "Ediscens hominem" — learning to be Man, 
 taking delight in practicing what He would be in 
 the fulness of time. It is because he had thus followed 
 the Saviour step by step from the beginning of 
 His career, with the Hoty Patriarchs and Prophets, 
 that Tertullian at sight of Him in the sublime pages 
 of the Gospel allowed his heart to burst forth in 
 this pious exclamation: "O Christum et in novis 
 veterem"-— O Christ, so old in the newness of His 
 Gospel. This is also wh}- he calls Jesus by this great 
 and true name "Illuminator antiquitatum"^ — Jesus 
 the illuminer of past ages. 
 
 Besides serving His apprenticeship in our human- 
 ity, what was the expected Savior doing? Tertullian 
 shows Him to us fighting with the demon for the 
 
 ^ III. Adv. Marc. 5. ^ IV. Marc. ci. ^ i^id. id. 
 
THRTULLIAX AND HIS APOLOGETICS 103 
 
 redemption and restoration of our nature. The 
 expressions which he uses to describe this struggle 
 should be analysed one after the other since they 
 contain such deep meaning. " Deus imaginem suam 
 a diabolo captam aemula operatione recuperavit"'^ 
 the devil having captured man, the image of God, 
 God wages war against him to reconquer His image. 
 The Messiah comes at the appointed time. 
 He is made flesh in the womb of the Virgin through 
 the ineffable operation of the Holy Ghost; He is 
 born like one of us; He becomes a little child; He 
 grows according to our fashion; He earns His daily 
 bread in obscurity and poverty. Tertullian is not 
 afraid to term all this "pusillitates Dei"^ — "the 
 weaknesses of God." Far from being ashamed of 
 them, he proclaims them loudly before his enemies. 
 With Christian pride and a simplicity that reveals 
 the depth of his thought, the Apologist explains 
 them and proves them by triumphant reasoning. 
 In this newborn Child, he sees the Victim of Calvary: 
 "the swaddling-clothes of the Son of God are the 
 beginning of His burial."^ "vSee this Sovereign 
 Majesty at which the Angels dare not gaze," says 
 Bossuet, translating and commenting upon Ter- 
 tullian, "It comes down, lowers Itself, deals with 
 us as with equals, and, still more wonderful, permits 
 that we in turn should deal with It as an equal." 
 "Ex aequo agebat Deus cum homine, ut homo vel 
 ex aequo agere cum Deo posset. "^ "God desires 
 to act as a man," Tertullian goes on to say," that 
 man mav learn to act as a God," — " Ut homo divine 
 
 ^ De Carn. Christi, 17. ^ II. Marc. 27. 
 
 ^ IV. Marc. 21: " Pannis iam sepuUurae involucrum 
 initiatus." ^ II. Marc. 27. 
 
I04 TKRTULLIAN AND IIKS APOLOGETICS 
 
 agere doceretur."^ When the enemies of Christ 
 persist in their scorn and maintain that what is 
 told of the Word made Flesh is unworthy of his 
 God, Tertullian does not gainsa}^ them but gives 
 a trenchant answer which perfectly exposes the 
 heart of God and the heart of man: " Ouodcumque 
 Deo indignum est mihi expedit"- — Anything un- 
 worthy of God is to my advantage. "Nihil enim 
 tam dignum quam salus hominis"^ — For nothing 
 is so worthy of God than the salvation of man. 
 These are admirable words, a joy for the mind, for 
 the heart and for the soul. Tertullian finds even 
 better when reproached with the opprobrium of 
 the Gospel. Assuming a warlike attitude, together 
 with the sacred audacity of the martyrs and the 
 whole-hearted initiative of simple thought and 
 illumined faith, he accepts this opprobrium and 
 claims it as the highest good, as his dearest posses- 
 sion with which he would not part for aught in 
 the world. The spirit of Bossuet and that of Ter- 
 tullian are so alike and so one in the expression of 
 these noble sentiments that a page of the former 
 may here be pertinently quoted: "The grave 
 Tertullian boasts that the cross of Jesus by making 
 him despise opprobrium, has made him prudently 
 imprudent and wisely foolish. 'I rejoice,' exclaims 
 this great man when the shame of the Gospel was 
 thrown at him, ' I rejoice at the ignominy of my 
 Master and that necessary dishonor of faith — neces- 
 sarium dedecus fidei. . . . The Son of Man hung 
 on the Cross; I am not ashamed of it, precisely 
 because it is shameful. The Son of God died; 
 
 ' Ibid, id., Bossuet, Op. cit. vol. II., p. 279. 
 ^ Carn. Christi, 5. ^ II. Marc. 27. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGKTICS 105 
 
 it is credible for the ver}^ reason that it is absurd. 
 The Son of Man is risen from the dead; I believe 
 the more certainly because according to poor human 
 reason it appears wholly impossible."' Thus writes 
 in another place the Bishop of Meaux: "In union 
 with the grave Tertullian, I say with my whole 
 soul: 'Alihi vindico Christum, mihi defendo 
 Christum, quodcumque illud corpusculum sit.'^ 
 That innocent man opposed by the whole world 
 is Christ Whom I seek; I hold that this Christ is 
 m.ine; I protest that He is my own. If He be 
 disgraced, if He be scorned, if He be wretched, 
 nay, if He be a stumbling block to the unfaithful, 
 He is my Christ. 'vSi inglorius, si ignobilis, si 
 inhonorabilis, mxcus erit Christus.' For such He 
 was promised by the Prophets — 'Talis enim habitu 
 et aspectu annuntiabatur'".^ 
 
 Christ wished to live only in order to suffer, 
 or, to use the beautiful words of Tertullian, "Before 
 His death He desired to be sated with the voluptu- 
 ousness of suffering" — " saginari voluptate pati- 
 entiae discessurus volebat."^ Moreover, Tertullian 
 explains why Christ lacks the glory which the 
 world seeks, and the reason he gives is that very 
 glory which is proper to Christ, a peerless glory 
 compared to which all human glory pales into 
 insignificance. Without dilating profusely on this 
 glory, he gives an idea of the royalty of his Master, 
 comparing its power with that of the kingdoms 
 
 ^ Carn. Christi, 5: " Crucifixus est Dei fiHus: non pudet, 
 quia pudendum est. Kt mortuus est Dei filius: prorsus 
 credibile est, quia ineptum est. Et sepultus resurrexit : 
 certum est, quia impossibile est." 
 
 ^ III. Marc. 16-17. ^ Ibid. id. ^ Pat. 3. 
 
io6 TERTULLTAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 of earth. "Regem se fieri, conscius regni sui, 
 refugit"' — Knowing His Own kingdom, He refuses 
 the one offered Him. It would be. difficult to find 
 elsewhere so many ideas condensed in such narrow 
 compass. The writer places vividly before our eyes 
 Christ, infinitely wise (conscius), standing between 
 the kingdom of earth (regem se fi.eri) and the 
 kingdom which is His Own (regni sui). The word 
 "refugit" at the end of the sentence has the ring 
 of a kingly utterance, of a refusal given with its 
 motives. 
 
 This solemn and dignified thought is an act of 
 defence, but Tertullian is not of those who content 
 themselves with being always on the defensive. 
 Because his temper is violent, because being the son 
 of a Roman centurion, soldier's blood courses through 
 his veins, he prefers the offensive. He loathes that 
 human glory which was wanting to Christ and 
 which is a pretext for the world's scorn and abuse 
 upon His life. He has just stated that Christ refused 
 that glory for a motive which singularly belittles 
 it and gives it an inferior rank. He now attacks 
 it by a sudden onslaught: " Gloriam saeculi alienam 
 et sibi et suis judicavit"' — "Worldly glory He 
 thought to be' foreign to Himself and to His own." 
 "Ouam noluit, rejecit; quam rejecit, damnavit; 
 quam damnavit in pompa diaboli deputavit"^ — 
 "Because He did not want it. He rejected it; since 
 He rejected it. He condemned it; His condemnation 
 is a sign that He ranked it amongst the pomps of 
 the demon." Do not these serried words, these three 
 phrases following close upon each other, give the 
 
 ' Idol. i8. 
 
 2 Ibid. id. 3 Ibid. id. 
 
TKRTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGimCS 107 
 
 impression of so many blows beating human glory- 
 down into the dust? 
 
 The Church of Christ starts from the Cross. She 
 issues from His heart pierced by the lance of the 
 Roman soldier. From the beginning she has her 
 faithful whom she must teach and direct in the 
 way of Christian virtues; she has her virgins, her 
 martyrs, her repentant sinners, her lukewarm and 
 indifferent members, her persecutors, or foes from 
 without, her heretics, or foes from within. Tertullian 
 characterizes each class in terms that comprehend 
 his whole thought. He uses words that are pithy, 
 vigorous, alive and leave an impression on the 
 soul's inner depths. They are the secret of his genius, 
 the unveiling of his soul of fire. 
 
 He warns the faithful that "their faith admits of 
 no necessity, necessity to please men, to keep their 
 fortunes, to preserve their lives, since there is for 
 them only one necessity which is not to sin."- He 
 warns them that "martyrdom is a debt of their 
 faith ";^ that "they must buy with their blood the 
 freedom to profess Christianity";^ that "penance 
 is the science of humbling man";-* that fear is the 
 instrument of penance; that gravity is the com- 
 panion and the necessary protection of modesty;^ 
 
 ^ Coron. 11: " Non admittit status fidei necessitates. 
 Nulla est necessitas delinquendi, quibus una est necessitas 
 non deliquendi."v 
 
 ^ Scorp. 8: " Debitricem martyrii fidem." 
 
 ^ Fug. 12. 
 
 ^ Poenit. 9: "Prosternendi et humilificandi disciplina." 
 
 ^ II De cult. fern. 8: "Quo pacto pudicitiam sine instru- 
 ment© suo, id est, sine gravitate tractabimus." 
 
io8 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICvS 
 
 that charity is the only treasure of Christians.' 
 To the virgins he says: "It is not without reason 
 that a veil is given you. It is a rampart of modesty 
 which must keep back your eyes and exclude those 
 of others."^ To the Martyrs confined in prison he 
 shows that the world itself is a great prison and the 
 worst of all. "There is no darker prison than the 
 world where so many errors dispel the light; none 
 that contains more criminals, since there are as 
 many criminals as there are men. No irons are 
 heavier than the world's, since souls themselves 
 are chained by them; no dungeon is littered with 
 more filth by the uncleanliness of so many sins 
 and beastly lusts. So it is, O Martyrs, that those 
 who snatch you away from the world, while deeming 
 that they are imprisoning you, are freeing you from 
 the most unbearable captivity. "^ This thought and 
 its expression are noteworthy for they illustrate 
 clearly the method of TertuUian's style. He leads, 
 or rather drives, his thought by sharp and virorous 
 strokes. He stops only when he has reached the 
 goal; nay, sometimes even carried away by his 
 own impetus and speed, he overruns the limits. 
 What is true of his thought must also be true of the 
 words which express and the conclusions which flow 
 from it. In the present case, he presents first dark- 
 ness, then chains, and lastly filth and dirt. Darkness 
 is a painful privation; chains are an acute suffering 
 
 ' Pat. II : " Christianni hominis thesaurus." 
 ^ De Virg. vel. i6: "Vallum verecundiae quod nee tuos 
 emittat oculos, nee admittat alienos." 
 
 3 Mart. 2: "Maiores tenebras habet mundus quae 
 hominum praecordia excaecant; graviores catenas induit 
 mundus quae ipsas animas hominum constringunt; peiores 
 immunditias expirat mundus, libidines hominum, etc." 
 
TKRTULIJAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 109 
 
 and humiliation. Note the verbs which characterize 
 these three phases of his thought. " Habet . . . prae- 
 cordia excaecant" — darkness encircles the world, 
 blinding the heart; "induit . . . ipsas animas con- 
 stringunt" — chains, like a garment rough and tight- 
 fitting bind the very soul; "immunditias expirat 
 mundus" — this filth lies in the world like an infec- 
 tious abcess in the body and exhales unbearable 
 odors. Mark, moreover, the conclusion, or rather 
 the conclusions: "the persecutors believe they have 
 imprisoned you; in very truth they have freed you."' 
 Our only business in this world is to get out of it 
 as soon as possible.^ To the Martyrs he says that 
 they are Christians, and that Christians are a class 
 of men destined to death ;^ that the blood they are 
 going to shed is the seed of Christians;-^ that there is 
 a crown for each of their wounds, a palm for every 
 drop of their blood, and more victories than blows. ^ 
 This impetuous genius Ifinds sweet and tender 
 w^ords of advice to encourage repentant sinners. 
 Rugged souls like his, when moved, find accents of 
 peculiar tenderness. In his treatise on Penance, he 
 depicts Jesus lifting the poor stray sheep to His 
 shoulders, and this is the reason given by Divine 
 Charity: "For wandering away, the poor sheep 
 has grown exceeding weary" — " Multum enim 
 errando laboraverat."^ When he addresses the soul 
 
 ^ Mart. 2. 
 
 ^ Apol. 41: "Nihil nostra refert in hoc aevo, nisi de eo 
 
 « 
 
 quam celeriter excedere." 
 
 ^ Spect. i: "Christiani, destinatum morti genus." 
 
 ^ Apol. 50: "Semen est sanguis christianorum." 
 
 ^ vScorp. 6: "Corona premit vulnera; palma sanguinem 
 
 obscurat; plus victoriarum quam iniuriarum." 
 ^ Pocnit. 8. 
 
iro TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 in the state of sin, he becomes tender: "Be of good 
 cheer, penitent soul, think well of the place (heaven) 
 where there is rejoicing over thy conversion."^ 
 That converted souls fear to offend God again, he 
 describes with exquisite pathos. "It does not wish 
 once more to burden the divine mercy. "^ The luke- 
 warm and the indifferent are branded: "Creatures 
 blown about by every wind, Christians, if you will 
 call them so; men ever wavering, tossed by contrary 
 winds and ever changing because lacking conviction. "^ 
 
 To Scapula, Proconsul of Africa, and, in his 
 person, to all the persecutors of the Christian name 
 who employ threats, chains, prisons, v/ild beasts, 
 fire and the sword to make apostates, he addresses 
 words sublime, humble and simple. "Non te 
 terremus, qui nee timemus."^ — We are not thinking 
 of frightening thee, who fear thee not. 
 
 His indignation bursts out vehement, sincere and 
 deep against the heretics who are destroying the 
 unity of the Church and belittling the truth. To 
 Marcion he says: "Jesus is all wisdom; all light 
 all truth, why do you halve Him with a lie?"^ 
 
 The Catholic Church, who follows her course 
 amidst persecutions and heresies, and who will follow 
 it unimpeded to the end of ages, he calls: "the true 
 temple of God, for she is the only temple where 
 
 ^ Poenit. 8: "Heu, tu peccator, bono animo sis: vides 
 ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur." 
 
 ^ Poenit. 7: "Nolunt iterum divinae misericordiae oneri 
 esse. 
 
 • 3 Scorp. i: "Plerosque in ventum, et si placuerit, 
 christianos." 
 
 '* Scap. 4. 
 
 ^ Carn. Christi, 5: "Quid dimidias mendacio Christum? 
 Totus Veritas fuit." 
 
TKRTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS in 
 
 Christ is worshipped according to his will in spirit 
 and truth. "^ 
 
 Christ will one day judge the living and the dead. 
 If divine Providence is thought by men to delay 
 this judgment too much, to postpone the rewarding 
 of the just and the punishment of the wicked, Ter- 
 tullian gives an answer, every word of which is 
 worth pondering over. "He who once for all 
 appointed an eternal judgment at the world's close, 
 does not precipitate the separation which is essential 
 to judgment. Meanwhile, he deals with all sorts 
 of men alike, so that all together may share His 
 favors and reproofs. His will is that the outcast 
 and the elect should have adversity and prosperity 
 in common. The last judgment will come in its own 
 time."^ How can such a scene be described? Such 
 a description is beyond the writer's power. The 
 only thing he remarks is that God will speak and 
 man will listen. He says so in simple w^ords which 
 contrast vividly with the solemn grandeur of the 
 closing of time and the opening of eternity. "Alan 
 will stand before the courts of God without a word 
 to say. "3 
 
 Such is the soul of Tertullian, such is his thought, 
 such is his style — a soul, a thought and a style of 
 fire; a soul, a thought and a style Christianly warlike. 
 For the first time the Latin language gave voice to 
 Christian ideas with such force and with such depth. 
 
 ^ "CathoHcon Dei templum." 
 
 ^ Apol. 41: "Qui semel aeternum iudicium destinavit 
 post saeculi finem, non praecipitat discretionem iudicii, 
 ante saeculi finem. Aequalis est interim super omne hominum 
 genus, et indulgens et increpans; communia voluit esse et 
 commoda profanis et incommoda suis." 
 ^ Test. An 6: "Rt stabit ante aulas Dei, nihil habens dicere." 
 
112 TKRTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HIS ORIGINALITY. 
 
 Summary — Tertullian little accredited for originality. — I. 
 Influence of previous literature: pagan sources; Christian 
 apologists; the spirit of his apologetics in St. Paul, Justian, 
 Tatian; the argument of prescription in Paul, Papias and 
 Irenaeus. — II. Originality: of his thought; of his method, 
 the argument of prescription strengthened; a style of his 
 own. — More original because more personal. 
 
 Tertullian is, as a rule, given little credit for origi- 
 nality. "His special gift," says Harnack, "lies in the 
 power to make impressive what he had received form 
 tradition, to give it its proper form and to gain for 
 it new currency."' While this is meant to apply 
 to the theological works of Tertullian as a whole, 
 it reflects to a certain extent the prevailing im- 
 pression that the apologist added but little if any 
 to the body of thought already existing. It is, 
 however, readily conceded that he invigorated the 
 traditional by giving it the glow and warmth of his 
 inimitable style. No doubt, the writings of Tertullian 
 embody to a great extent the ideas afloat in his time — 
 a fact observed even by his contemporaries. St. 
 Jerome tells us that Tertullian's Apologeticum and 
 his Ad Nationes contain all the erudition of the 
 
 ^ Encyclop. Britann. s. v. Tertullian 
 
TERTULLTAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 113 
 
 age/ Vincent of Lerins admires the great facility 
 with which TertiilHan had assimilated the numerous 
 systems of philosophy which he sets forth in his 
 works;- and according to Lactantius, he was versed 
 in all kinds of literature.' 
 
 Numerous, indeed, are the sources from which 
 he quotes or to which he refers in his writings. He 
 was well acquainted with all that was of value in 
 the poets, the historians and the philosophers of 
 Greece and Rome.-^ Varro's treatises on religious 
 and historical antiquities, which Aulus Gellius cites 
 often as authoritative, were of much use also to 
 Tertullian. It was natural, therefore, that in setting 
 forth the systems of the pagan religion, then much 
 discussed, Tertullian should choose a ground which 
 his -adversaries would consider common. "I have 
 taken and abridged the works of Varro, he says, 
 "for he, in his treatise 'Concerning Divine Things,' 
 collected out of ancient digests, has shown himself 
 to be a serviceable guide. "^ He is also referred to 
 in the Apologeticum/' Chapter XLVI containing a 
 great variety of details concerning the life of the 
 Philosophers. These same stories are found in 
 Tatian, and it is commonly held that Tertullian 
 borrowed them from Tatian's address to the Greeks. 
 It is not necessary, however, to have recourse to 
 this hypothesis.^ In the philosophical schools there 
 had arisen a plentiful biographical literature, and, 
 although these primitive attempts have not been 
 
 ^ Epist. 70, 5. ^ Common. 18, 47. ^ Inst. V, i, 23. 
 ■' Apol. 2; 7, 9, 12, 16, 21, 25, 46, 50. 
 5 I Nat. 10; II, i; 11,3; II, 9; II, 12-13; Apol. 14. 
 ^ Puech, Recherches sur Tatien, p. 40. 
 
114 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 preserved, we know their nature from the works of 
 Suetonius and Diogenes Laertius/ Tertullian, who 
 possessed a wide knowledge of all that concerned 
 Philosophy, could not have ignored these details 
 which would certainly have appealed to his inquiring 
 disposition. Likewise, there is little doubt that, in 
 his attacks on Mythology, he is dependent on pagan 
 writers. He asserts that Seneca had been even more 
 bitter against the Gods than against the Christians.^ 
 Though not one source can be precisely determined, 
 these authors could not have been passed unnoticed 
 or have left *no trace on his mind. 
 
 The subject he had to treat brought him naturally 
 into contact with the Christian literature of his 
 time. 3 He had known Justin, the Philosopher, ^ 
 Miltiades,5 and Irenaeus,^ and the very calumnies 
 that had been urged in their time against the 
 Christians were urged now. In setting forth Christian 
 doctrine, he was bound to follov,^ tradition. Tatian, 
 who em.ancipated himself from the influence of 
 Justin, had fallen into heresy. These conditions 
 made it incumbent on Tertullian to read the preceding 
 Apologists and, in a sense, to follow them. He often, 
 however, developes wiiat is merely indicated in Justin, 
 as, for example, the latter's assertion that the Pagan 
 condemnation of the Christians was the condemna- 
 tion of a name only.' He borrows from him the theory 
 
 ^ Leo, Die griechische romische Biographie nach ihrer 
 
 Titerarischen Form. 
 
 ^ I Nat. lo. lo; Apol. 12. 
 
 ^ De Test. an. i . 
 
 ^ Valentin. 5: "lustinus, philosophus et martyr." 
 
 5 Ibid. "Miltiades, ecclesiartim sophista." 
 
 ^ Ibid: "Ireneus, omnium doctrinarum curiossimus 
 
 explorator." 7 lustin., I. Apol. 2; TertulL 2 sqq. 
 
TKRTl"LLIAN AND HIS APOLOGIvTiCvS 115 
 
 of tiie Logos/ Justin before him had asked for 
 regular legal procedure and had insisted that an 
 internal religion was the sign of a true religion.^ 
 
 It must be added that from tradition he took more 
 than details. Even the very spirit of his Apologies 
 may be found in the writers of the primitive Church. 
 At that time, no sacred book, besides the Gospels, 
 was more read than St. Paul. In 180, when the 
 poor people of Scillium were brought to Carthage 
 for trial and execution, they had with them the 
 Gospel Books and the Epistles of Paul, the Just.^ 
 It is probable that soon after his conversion these 
 works became the favorite reading of Tertullian. 
 I'hey were then what Seneca's treatises had been 
 for him while he was a neophyte in philosophy. The 
 imperative nature of the Apostle could not fail to 
 affect a strong and impressionable character like 
 our Apologist. Neander has suggestively recalled 
 the influence of Paul's paradoxes on Tertullians 
 mind.^ Not only his later works, written after he 
 had acquired a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, ^ 
 but even his first Christian writings, show a perfect 
 assimilation of Paul's ideas. There is observable 
 in both the same disdain for dialectics, the same 
 confidence in the demonstrative pow r of deeds 
 and an equal diffidence in words. Tertul ian, like 
 St. Paul, excels in emphasizing the natural energy 
 contained in the mysteries qf his religion. 
 
 The same tendencies are easily noticeable in Justin, 
 
 ^ lustin., I Apol. 4; Tertull. Apol. 21. 
 
 ^ Harnack, Geschichte dcr altchr. Liter., I, p. 100 
 
 ^ Passic Scillitan. (edit. Robinson). 
 
 '^ Antignosticus, p. 174. 
 
 5 Oehler's Index Scripturarum. 
 
/ 
 
 2- 
 
 ri6 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 another converted Jew, though he was a man of 
 very different nature. Renan has gone so far as to 
 say that Justin's system of apologetics rests entirely 
 on moral proofs. Though this opinion is undoubtedly 
 exaggerated, it remains true that many of Tertullian's 
 ideas are found in the Greek Apologist.^ Thus, Justin 
 attributes the persecutions to the wicked lives of 
 the Pagans;^ he claims that worthy interior dis- 
 positions are necessary for understanding the truth 
 of the Christian religion;^ that intellect, without 
 uprightness and integrity of life, can not comprehend 
 the truth. The conversion of the world, ^ the con- 
 stancy of the martyrs, 5 the virtuous lives of 
 Christians,^ are used to prepare the minds of his 
 readers. He also insists on the change of life which 
 his religion can produce upon those who embrace it.' 
 
 Tatian explains the origin of error in a way some- 
 what similar to that of Tertullian. It is because man 
 is so attached to the things of earth that he forgets 
 or ignores the things of heaven.^ Truth abides 
 with those who live according to the laws of God, 
 and is communicated by them to all who are dis- 
 posed to receive it.^ 
 
 The argument of prescription itself is delineated 
 in St. Paul — a fact which adds not a little to its 
 authority. Indeed, is not the essence of the whole 
 argument condensed in this personal appeal? "If 
 you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet 
 not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus by the Gospel 
 I have begotten you: wherefore I beseech you, be 
 
 ^ Renan, Kglise Chretienne, p. 306. 
 
 ^ I Apol. 57. ^ I Apol. 53. 4 I Apol. 14. 5 I Apol. 27. 
 
 ^ I Apol. 28. Cf. Athenagoras, 4-10, 37; Theophilus, 1,2, 7. 
 
 ' I Apol. 13. ^ Oratio ad Graecos, 5. ' Ibid. 22. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 117 
 
 ye followers of me as I also am of Christ."' "If 
 any man seem to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him 
 know the things that I write to you, that they are 
 the commandments of the Lord."' This is the very 
 test of truth that TertuUian found infallible and 
 taught so eloquently until a change in his leading 
 idea made him forget "the commandments of the 
 Lord." Finally, is this not Tertullian's impatience 
 with novelties and useless wrangling: "If any man 
 seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, 
 nor the Church of God."^ 
 
 The same line of ideas was later adopted by 
 Papias, a disciple of the Apostle John.^ While 
 preparing a work on the meaning of the Lord's 
 sayings, Papias made diligent inquiries "about the 
 utterances of Andrew or Peter or Philip or Thomas 
 or James or any other of the Disciples of Jesus." 
 The truth contained in books were in his opinion, 
 of much less value than those transmitted by the 
 living voice. Some years later, when, in order 
 successfully to refute the Gnostics, it became 
 necessary to search again into the motives of faith 
 and agree upon infallible criteria of truth, we find 
 Hegesippus, on a trip to Rome, conducting a sort 
 of doctrinal inquiry and joyfully bearing testimony 
 to the unity of teaching among all the Churches. ^ 
 
 Before Tertullian's time, how^ever, no one had 
 conceived more clearly and expressed more forcibly 
 the idea of Catholic tradition than Irenaeus, whom 
 TertuUian had studied most carefully.^ "What need 
 
 ' I Cor. IV, 15. 'I Cor. XIV, 37 ^ I Cor. XI, 16. 
 
 '' Eusebius, H. E. HI, xxxix, 4. 
 
 5 Ibid. id. IV, xxii. 
 
 ^ Labriolle, Tertullien, de Praesc. Haeret. p. xxi. 
 
ii8 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 is there to seek for truth without the Church when 
 it is so easy to find within. As a rich man lays his 
 money into a bank, so the Apostles have deposited 
 in the Church the perfect fulness of truth. Who- 
 soever desires it, needs but draw from her the life- 
 cjving draught; all outside of her are deceivers and 
 robbers. If any question become a source of dissen- 
 sion, recourse must be had to the oldest Churches, 
 those in which the Apostles lived, and the debate 
 should be settled by the light which these Churches 
 afford. Had they left us no written tests, ought 
 we not to have followed the order of tradition 
 bequeathed by the Apostles to those into whose 
 hands they committed the Churches?"' Irenaeus 
 also wrote: "We can trace the list of Bishops 
 instituted by the Apostles, and of their successors 
 down to our days. They knew and taught nothing 
 like the follies of heretics. For if the Apostles had 
 possessed hidden mysteries which they would have 
 taught to a select few without imparting them to 
 the rank and file of Christians, undoubtedly they 
 would have transmitted these secrets in preference 
 to those to whom they confided the Churches."^ 
 He farther showed that the tradition of the Apostles 
 lived in all the Churches, especially those of Rome, 
 of Smyrna and of Ephesus. No doubt, long before 
 Tertullian, there was current in the Christian com- 
 munity the idea of a depositum fidei, consisting of a 
 few basic principles ever and everywhere the same 
 in the Catholic world, handed down unchanged by 
 the Apostles, the direct heirs of Christ, to the 
 Bishops who succeeded them. 
 
 ' Adv. Haer. Ill, iv, i. 
 ' Adv. Haer. III. 3- 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 119 
 
 Notwithstanding these and other less important 
 similarities between Tertullian's ideas and the ideas 
 of the writers who had preceded him, no one can 
 fail to recognize the genuine originality of his thought. 
 His method, his style, the development of his thought 
 in his life as well as in his writings, give him a place 
 above the Greek Apologists. What had converted 
 Justin was the inner satisfaction of finding in the 
 Christian religion not only life but also a plausible 
 and complete system of answers to the many questions 
 about God and the w^orld which he had asked himself. 
 Accordingly, in his endeavors to draw others to the 
 truth, and, perhaps, to meet at the same time the 
 demands of those whom he addressed, he had 
 attempted to present his convictions respecting the 
 established order as in harmony with reason, the 
 data of which it confirmed and completed.' He 
 had set forth the doctrines which could be recon- 
 ciled with those of the great schools of Philosophy: 
 the unity of God, the immortality of the soul, the 
 moral law and its sanction in another life. If, per- 
 chance, he spoke at all of Christian mysteries, it 
 was to show them as being but little different from 
 certain beliefs of paganism. Christianity set forth 
 in this light appeared as a good expression of 
 exalted human wisdom, as an expurgated religion 
 similar in many points to other well known religions. 
 When the pagans had been thus intellectually 
 prepared, the proofs of the prophecies, of Christian 
 morality, and of the cult were set before them. 
 
 Tertullian may be said to have followed the 
 reverse process. Instead of starting with the expo- 
 sition of objective truths and endeavoring to force 
 
 ' I Apol. 1 1 -13. 
 
I20 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 them upon unwilling minds, he appeals directly 
 to the very heart of man. He lays bare before him 
 all the wildness of his passions so fierce and nat 
 controlled, in fact wholly unimproved by the pagan 
 religion. He shows him disorder rampant in every 
 phase of his life, and thus forces him to acknowledge 
 that something is radically wrong in his interior, 
 that he is suffering from maladies which the remedies 
 he is using can not cure. When he is thus disposed 
 to learn, Tertullian shows him how in other men 
 remedies are applied the healing power of which 
 is sovereign. He describes, in glowing terms, the 
 health, the strength, the beauty and the peace 
 which prevail in souls governed by a God-given 
 law. The consciousness of his own wretchedness 
 and the recognition of the happier state of the 
 Christian impel the pagan to look more closely 
 into the worth of what is presented to him as the 
 true, and the only true, religion. This effort of mind 
 and soul is the beginning of conversion. As soon 
 as he begins to examine what he has hated, he 
 ceases to hate it.^ When he is free from the preju- 
 dices of the schools and from the tyranny of passion, 
 he is bidden to look into his own soul, and there 
 he finds, wrought into its very texture, the beliefs 
 and aspirations which constitute the essence of the 
 Christian religion. So, whether he studies his own 
 life or the lives of those who live in the order of 
 nature, he is confronted with the body of beliefs 
 proper to Christians. Powerful are the voices which 
 call him to the truth. Those from without lead 
 him to listen to those within, and the response is 
 felt in his life. It is hardly necessary to insist on 
 ^ Apol. I. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 121 
 
 the solid originality of these thoughts at the time of 
 Tertullian. We shall understand it better still if 
 we consider the mentality to which these thoughts 
 were directed. The pagans of those days were not 
 generally given to Metaphysics/ We have good 
 reason to think that Justin would have achieved 
 more good had he written for the common people, 
 but, no doubt, in his personal intercourse with the 
 ordinary citizen, he altered somewhat the tendency 
 of his Apologetics. As it was his task to appeal to 
 philosophers, he had to use philosophical methods. 
 Yet the masses of the people at that time wanted 
 and needed a religion of the heart as well as, or more 
 than, one of the intellect. Moreover, their minds 
 were weary with the problems that had busied their 
 fathers and their forefathers.^ We have in Coecilius, 
 one of the personages in the Octavius of Minutius 
 Felix, a typical pagan of that period. Reason for 
 him is powerless; man can not know the truth ;^ 
 the world seems to be a fortuitous composition of 
 unknowable things. -> Yet he clings to tradition. 
 As he passes before a statue of vSerapis, he salutes 
 it and bestows the customary kiss.^ Thus two 
 dispositions meet in him: an utter scepticism, and 
 an apparently baseless mysticism. It is not reason 
 that convinces him that Serapis is a true God. He 
 pays him his daily homage because the gods are 
 recognized by the common consent of all people 
 and by practical necessity, for to them the Romans 
 owe their grandeur and their power. The Roman 
 Stoics themselves knew well that such was the 
 common feeling in the Empire. Unlike the Platonists, 
 
 ^ Ebert, op. cit. pref. 
 
 ' Ebert, 1. c. 3 Octav. V, 4. ^ Ibid. V, 5. ^ ibid. II, 4. 
 
122 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 of whom Apuleius is an example, or even unlike the 
 Greek Stoics, they talk but little metaphysics.^ 
 Nothing is more wavering than Seneca's doctrine 
 about the gods and the future life.^ Their efforts 
 aimed at teaching morality, and at teaching it not 
 by abstract principles, but, as much as possible, 
 by showing its naturalness to the human heart. ^ 
 Such was the secret of their influence. It was an 
 affair of practice, not of speculation. The great 
 originality of Tertullian consists in this, that he 
 understood this fact and labored to satisfy the needs 
 and yearnings of those whom he addressed. 
 
 He is no less original in the choice of a method 
 which should exactly suit the minds of his readers 
 and w^hich would thus serve to diffuse his ideas. 
 Assertions of an abstract nature like those of Justin 
 could produce but little effect upon intellects wearied 
 of philosophical speculation. Series of arguments 
 might delight some but would convince none. The 
 best and only way of changing hearts was to give 
 facts and to present them in the manner in which 
 they would make the strongest appeal. Since there 
 is in us the desire for precise and well proven 
 statements, nothing should be advanced without 
 the authority which guarantees its existence and 
 value. As, of all facts, those which take place within 
 the sanctuary of the soul have a more persuasive 
 virtue than others, Tertullian endeavored to find 
 in the life of his adversaries glimpses of motives, 
 of feelings and of desires to which they would not 
 think of giving expression. To his readers, dis- 
 
 ^ Picavet, in Grande Encyclopedie, s. v. Stoiques a Rome. 
 ^ Boissier, La Religion Romaine, vol. II, p. 65. 
 ^ Picavet, Les philosophies Medievales, p. 53. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGKTICvS 123 
 
 abused of the notion that metaphysics can solve 
 everything, and deeply convinced that their mere 
 intelligence could not attain to all truth, he proved 
 that the soul of man, by its very nature, needs and 
 seeks the truth. How much fuller is this appeal 
 than Justin's, or Tatian's constant reference to the 
 seminal principles which pervade the world and 
 which are found in the writings of certain philosophers 
 
 Nor is Tertullian's treatment of the argument 
 of prescription purely a rehearsing of ideas current 
 in his day. It is true that he does not discard the 
 arguments already used by previous Apologists, but 
 his personal skill and method inform these with new 
 solidity and brilliancy. Simple comparison of the 
 above-cited texts of Ireneus with the De Praescriptione 
 Haereiicorum" will bear this out. The Greek author 
 indeed has original views, but they are like glimpses 
 of a truth the depths of which he does not seem 
 anxious to sound and which, after a bare statement, 
 he abandons to follow again the trodden path. 
 Tertullian on the contrary, brings to the expressing 
 and reinforcing of that thought all the resources of 
 his patient and searching dialectics; he digs down 
 to its root, views it in all its various aspects, and 
 strengthens it with reasonings that do not fail to 
 carry full conviction to the minds of the readers.^ 
 
 The originality of Tertullian's style has rarely 
 been questioned. Being the expression of a living 
 and energetic soul, it mirrors faithfully all the 
 stirrings and passions of that soul. Even when 
 compared with pagan writings of the same century, 
 his apologetic w^orks occupy the place of honor as 
 a literary effort, and they surpass by far all previous 
 
 ^ Labriolle, 1. c. p. xxiii. 
 
124 TERTULLIAN AND HIvS APOLOGETICvS 
 
 Christian writings in rigorous logic, oratorical 
 movement and imaginative power/ 
 
 Tertullian may be said to have created the language 
 and the style into which Christian thought was to 
 be moulded for centuries after him. St. Cyprian, 
 St. Augustine, St. Ambrose and St. Jerome will 
 merely adapt their peculiar traits to the sturdy 
 originality of the African Polemist.^ 
 
 The great source of all his gifts and the secret 
 of his superiority is his personality. From it flow 
 naturally his life, his thought and that vivid form 
 .in which they are presented. No writer of the same 
 century, and few Christian writers after him, can 
 be said to have been more personal — more originaK 
 
 ' Moiiceaux, op. cit. vol. I, passim. - Ibid, id., p. 560. 
 
TKRTULLIAN AND HIvS APOLOGETICS 125 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TERTULLIAN AND THE EFFECTS OF HIS APOLOGETICS. 
 
 Summary — I. General characterization of his life, thought 
 and writings: Christian with his whole soul. — IT. His 
 influence on: the pagans, his contemporaries; Minucius 
 Felix; Caprian; A.rnobius; Lactantius; Novatian; Jerome; 
 the Christian poets; Augustine; Vincent of Lerins; tempo- 
 rary oblivion during the Middle Ages; Duns Scotus; revival 
 of interest in Tertullian during the Renaissance and the 
 Reformation; Bossuet and Pascal; modern interpretations 
 and misinterpretations of his thought; the School of 
 Immanence. — Conclusion. 
 
 Harnack has in a few words happily characterized 
 the personality of Tertullian. "What he was, he 
 was with his whole being. Once a Christian, he 
 was determined to be so with all his soul." This is 
 quite as true of his thought as of his life. His apolo- 
 gies and his treatise De Praescriptione Hereticorum, 
 written while he was yet free from the extreme 
 of a later period, perfectly illustrate this harmony. 
 His whole life, intellectual and social, centres around 
 his religion. In truth, he does not conceive the 
 possibility of a perfect life outside of the religion 
 of Christ. For him the soul is naturally Christian. 
 This general conception is fostered and enriched by 
 the very dissimilar qualities which blend in his 
 soul: the deepest pathos with an extraordinary 
 harshness; the gift of intuition, and a singular 
 
126 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 talent for serried reasoning; fervent mysticism, and 
 a burning desire to influence other men; a spon- 
 taneous flow of language, and the love of stylistic 
 devices. All these may be said to have been em- 
 ployed solely in the defence of his religious belief. 
 His mind passed through several phases determined 
 by these natural qualities and by the circumstances 
 into which he was thrown. In his early years, he 
 was influenced by opposing currents; one of corrupt 
 individualism, the other of staunch Romanism. 
 Literature left in his mind certain impressions and 
 ideals which were not to be obliterated. Later on 
 vv^hen the life of his times allured him, his early 
 notions of the true and the good saved him from 
 utter degradation. When disgust both of sensual 
 and intellectual pleasures mastered him, he took 
 a transient interest in the philosophy of the Stoics. 
 But it was in the Christian religion that he found 
 his full and permanent satisfaction. There he dis- 
 covered a unifying principle for his life and for the 
 life of his fellowmen. His personal evolution and the 
 needs of the times brought him to defend his religion. 
 He did so by seeking in man the true religion. He 
 came to the conclusion that life was not the corollary 
 of religion, but rather religion the corollary of life. 
 If questioned about the foundation of his teaching, 
 he would say: "the most eloquent and credible 
 witness of the truth is the Christian himself. Con- 
 version to the truth, then, does not consist in the 
 mere adhesion of the mind to a doctrine, but in the 
 emendation of life. Philosophy, as Philosophers 
 practice it, is lifeless and worthless. By severing 
 itself from virtue and humility, it turns from truth. 
 Life suffices to go to God. Life and truth once found 
 
TKRTULIJAN AND HIS APOLOGKTICS 127 
 
 are not to be further sought for. Curiosity and pride 
 pride are the born enemies of life and truth. Tradition 
 sufl:ces for the Christian, and outside of it lie heresy, 
 uncertainty, moral disorder and death." 
 
 The language and the method in which TertuUian 
 couched such ideas were shaped according to the end 
 in view. He intended to awaken the minds of his 
 readers to the truth, to bring them out of the darkness 
 of pride and vice into the bright light of his religion. 
 His style and method are carefully adapted to his 
 purpose. On the one hand, a subtle analysis of the 
 soul, biting irony, graphic imagery move the imagin- 
 ation and force the soul to see itself as it really is. 
 On the other hand, enthusiasm, penetrating axioms, 
 glowing descriptions of interior states win the 
 feelings to the truth. Lastly, all the just demands of 
 the intellect, are satisfied by the irresistable logic that 
 binds the several arguments into a compact whole. 
 
 TertuUian is thus essentially a Christian. In his 
 efforts to win others to his conviction, he does not 
 resort to dialectics for their intrinsic strength, but 
 his ideal of life, realized in himself and those who 
 think and live as he does, is his chief and strongest 
 argument. All his life and thought converge to that 
 idea and draw from it their originality and vitality. 
 
 His strictly apologetical writings occupy a rather 
 limited place in the catalogue of his works. From 
 common consent, his Apologeticum and De Prae- 
 scriptione remain his chief efforts.' Written in the 
 
 ' Encyc. Britann. s. v. TertuUian; cf. also d'Ales, op. cit. 
 p. 495: "II fut Chretien, au vrai sens du mot, par le coeur 
 et par I'esprit: on n'en pent douter, quand on le voit, dans 
 I'Apologetique, se faire avec tant de plenitude et de verite 
 
128 TKRTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 fulness of his manhood and talent, they express a 
 man's life lived for the truth. Unmarred by the faults 
 which chacterize his later literary productions, they 
 were destined to exercise a potent influence on 
 subsequent writers. The dogmatic and ethical tenets 
 peculiar to him won few disciples. Not so with his 
 defence of Christianity.^ 
 
 We are warned not to overestimate the importance 
 of the early apologetical writings as a means of 
 spreading Christianity. "After all, that which made 
 it possible for the Church to keep alive under perse- 
 cuting laws, to triumph over indifference, disdain and 
 calumny, was neither reasonings nor discourses, it 
 was that interior strength revealed and shining forth 
 in the virtue, the charity, the ardent faith of the 
 Christians of the heroic age."^ If this be true, then 
 of all apologies that of TertuUian was the most 
 effective precisely because it lays stress on the 
 inner virtue of the Christian religion and thus 
 prepares the mind for correct judgment of the facts. 
 That the Vv^ork influenced Christian circles is evi- 
 denced by the rare privilege of translation into 
 Greek that was granted it.^ As Greek was at that 
 
 ^ His influence on Patristic literature has been studied 
 by Harnack in "Sitzungberichte der Konigl. Preuss. Aka- 
 demie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (1895), p. 54.5-579J 
 Monceaux, op. cit. p. 459. 
 
 ^ Duchesne, op. cit. p. 213. 
 
 ^ Eusebius, H. E., II, 2. 4. 
 
 I'echo de la conscience chretienne, dans le traite de la 
 Prescription revendiquer si energiquement le magistere 
 de I'Eglise, et dans ses ecrits ascetiques precher le detache- 
 ment du monde avec une onction si persuasive." 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETlCvS 129 
 
 time the language of the Christian Church,' a much 
 wider circulation was thus given to the work. The 
 fact that subsequent Apologists seldom quoted him, 
 that he was ordinarily spoken of as a dangerous man, 
 as one outside the Church, must lead no one to 
 conclude that Tertullian"s writings exercised little 
 influence on later Christian literature. 
 
 The question of his attitude towards the apolo- 
 getical effort of Minucius Felix is a very obscure one.^ 
 However, the dependence of the Octavius upon the 
 Apologeticum seems to be the more likely hypothesis. 
 Both works exhibit a singularly similar treatment 
 of certain subjects such as Providence,^ God and the 
 demons, 4 the life of the faithful, ^ the unfair dealings 
 of judges,^ the alleged secret crimes of the Christians,^ 
 the persecutions viewed in the light of trials,^ martyr- 
 dom and the resurrection, ^ the national deities of 
 Rome,^° the worship of Saturn and the human 
 sacrifices in Africa," the Gods of Homer and the 
 old legends," the making of statues,'^ the ass's head^^ 
 
 ^ Renan, op. cit. p. 454: Boissier, Afrique Romaine, p. 
 247; Leclercq, Afrique Chretienne, vol. T, p. 91. 
 
 ^ Monceaux, op. cit. p. 468; Harnack, Chronologic, vol. 
 II, p. 324-330. 
 
 ^ Apol. 26; Octav. 25. 
 
 ^ Apol. 17, 22, 23 — Octav. 18, 26, 27. 
 
 ^ Apol. 39; Octav. 31, 32. 
 
 ^ Apol. 2; Octav. 28. 
 
 ' Apol. 7, 8, 9; Octav. 9, 30, 31. 
 
 * Apol. 41 ; Octav. 36. 
 
 9 Apol. 48, 49, 50; Octav. 34, 37. 
 
 ^° Apol. 25; Octav. 25. 
 
 " Apol. 9, 10; Octav. 21, 30. 
 
 " Apol. 14; Octav. 23. 
 
 ^^ Apol. 12; Octav. 23, 24. ^-^ Apol. 16; Octav. 28. 
 
I30 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 and the standard in the shape of a cross.' In 
 all these passages, the same ideas are found, the same 
 illustrations, the same words and, very often, the 
 same method of argument. No doubt, Minucius 
 Felix followed his model very closely, adding to the 
 work his more graceful imagination and his more 
 classical mode of expression. 
 
 The veneration of Cyprian for TertuUian is well 
 known. ^ From the works of his "master," as he 
 often calls him, Cyprian drew many of his ideas. 
 His treatise Quod idola dii non sint is in parts a 
 mere summary of the three chapters of the Apolo- 
 geticum which deal with the mission of Christ and 
 the prophecies. 3 In places even the very phrases 
 of the original are taken bodily and incorporated 
 into the new work. The same dependence is ob- 
 servable in the De Bono Patientiae, written in 256. 
 Therein the Philosophers are attacked; the differ- 
 ence is pointed out between the patience they preach 
 and that which the Christians practice; the patience 
 of God and of Christ are proposed as ideals. ^ Like- 
 wise, the De Oratione Dominica and the De Habitu 
 Virginum differ very little from the works of the 
 master on the same topics. ^ Nay, St. Cyprian 
 borrowed from TertuUian almost his whole doctrine 
 and his method of presentation, his system of Apolo- 
 getics, as is evident from his Ad Demetrianum, and 
 
 ^ Apol. 16; Octav. 29. 
 
 ^ Hieron. de Vir. ill., 53; Bpist. 84, 2: "Beatus Cyprianus 
 Tertulliano magistro utitur, ut eius scripta probant." 
 
 3 Apol. 21-23; Quod idola dii non sint, 10-15; Monceaux, 
 op. cit. vol. II, p. 351: "Le Quod idola dii non sint est en 
 partie une mosaique de morceaux pris dans rApologetique." 
 
 4 De Patientia, i, 2, 3; de Bono patientiae, 2-10. 
 ^ Monceaux, 1. c., p. 310-31 1. 
 
TKRTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGKTICvS 131 
 
 his tactics againsts the heretics, as may be observed 
 in the De Laps is and the De Unitate Ecclesiae.^ The 
 wonder of it all is that, although in the extent of 
 his imitation he is free from the scruples experienced 
 by modern authors, still throughout all his works 
 there is not a single reference to TertuUian. It has 
 been said that he did this out of delicacy.^ TertuUian 
 having died out of his Church, Cyprian, the champion 
 of Catholic orthodoxy, could not have quoted his 
 master without condemning his memory — so he 
 chose to be reticent about his imitation. Whether 
 this explanation explains or not, it remains true 
 that TertuUian pursued his work as an Apologist 
 even after his pen was stilled and his voice was 
 hushed. 
 
 Arnobius, another African writer, has been fre- 
 quently compared to TertuUian. ^ It is chiefly of 
 the latter that he speaks in his Adversus Nationes, 
 "These accusations, or rather curses, have already 
 been met fully one after the other by eminent writers 
 of our party, who merited to know the truth. Not 
 one point of any question has been left unanswered, 
 the refutation being made in a thousand ways and 
 by solid reasoning. "^ In fact, both writers have much 
 in common. Arnobius seems to have inherited from 
 his predecessor a natural disposition to belittle the 
 part of pure reason in the acquiring of truth. He, 
 too, emphasizes the philosophers' doubts and con- 
 tradictions, their pride and their self-sufficiency. 
 He humbles them before Christ. ^ Like TertuUian, 
 he can not forgive them for reducing everything 
 
 "■ Ibid. p. 352. ^ Ibid, id. 
 
 3 Pichon, Hist, de la litter, lat. p. 763. 
 
 4 Adv. Nat., Ill, I. 5 II, 9- 10, 11; II, 50. 
 
132 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 to reason and disregarding the simple fact of human 
 ignorance and the need of faith. All the arguments 
 of the Apologeticum and the Ad Nationes against 
 pagan Mythology are reproduced in the Adversus 
 Nationes.^ 
 
 Lactantius, noted for his severity towards previous 
 Apologists,^ criticized TertuUian's style as harsh, 
 incorrect and obscure, and thought that, although 
 he had ably defended the Christians, he had but 
 poorly explained their tenets. ^ He, nevertheless, 
 made a more liberal use of TertuUian's writings 
 than he himself confessed. His favorite thesis, that 
 Christianity was at once the true religion and the 
 true philosophy, had many a time been defended 
 by Tertullian.4 Both writers used like arguments 
 in their campaign against Polytheism. ^ Finally, 
 Lactantius' expose of the Christian doctrine and 
 morality was, in its outlines, the very one that he 
 had found weak, — TertuUian's.^ A close study of 
 the two authors reveals that the Institutiones owes 
 a great deal to the Apologeticum. 
 
 Novatian in propounding the doctrine of the 
 Trinity did not disdain to epitomize TertuUian.^ 
 St. Jerome, who praised him with enthusiasm and 
 to whom we owe whatever particulars we know of 
 his life, borrowed from him most unscrupulously 
 in his treatise Adversus Jovinianum.^ Rufinus knew 
 
 ^ Monceaux, op. cit. vol. Ill, p. 263. ^ Ibid. p. 312. 
 
 ^ Divin. Instit. V, i, 2, 3; V, 4. 3. 
 
 4 I Nat., 19-20; Apol. 3, 21, 22, 47, 48, 49; de test. an. i; 
 de Pall. 6. 
 
 ^ Apol. lo-ii; I Nat. 10-16. ^ Apol. 17-21; 39-49. 
 
 ^ Hieron. de vir. ill. 70. 
 
 ^ Ibid. id. 24, 40, 53, 70; Rpist. 22, 58, 64, 70; Schultzen, 
 Die Benutzung der Schriften Tertullians de Monogamia unci 
 
TERTULLTAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 133 
 
 the Apologeticum which he sometimes quoted from 
 the original.^ Isidore of Seville in his Origines, 
 reproduced textually many passages of TertuUian, 
 especially from the Apologeticum and the Ad 
 Nationes.^ Even the poets found inspiration and 
 material in his treatises. Thus, the Apotheoses and 
 the Hamartigenia of Prudentius are too often but a 
 paraphrase of the Adversus Praxeas and the Contra 
 Aiarcionem.^ Strangely enough, his admiration for 
 his African master led him to refute heresies long 
 ago extinct. Commodianus, in the first book of 
 his Instructiones, drew from TertuUian many argu- 
 ments and illustrations tending to prove the false 
 divinity of the idols. He versified his sarcastic 
 remarks against Polytheism, the attributes and the 
 adventures of the Gods, the temples and the 
 statues. 4 
 
 Like Cyprian, and perhaps for the same reason, 
 Augustine never quoted TertuUian, and did not even 
 give him a rank in his list of the great Latin writers. ^ 
 Nevertheless, the main idea of the De Civitate Dei 
 is already in Tertullians Apologeticum and in the 
 Ad Nationes.^ Moreover, the nature of his personal 
 evolution created in him dispositions and tendencies 
 
 ^ Hieron. II Adv. Rufin. 8: Epist. 5. 
 
 ^ Klussman, Excerpta Tertullianea in Isidor. Hisp. 
 Etymol. (Hamburg, 1892). 
 
 •^ Puech, Prudence, (Paris, 18S8) pp. 174, 245. 
 
 "^ Gennadius, de vir. ill. 15; Instructiones, I, 2-21; cf. 
 Monceaux, op. cit. vol. Ill, p. 473-476. 
 
 ^ August. De Doctrin. Christ., 40; Epist. 190, 15 (Cf. 
 Prax. 7); de Genes, ad litt. 25, 41 (Cf. An. 6, 7). 
 
 ^ Civit. Dei, 7, I (Cf. II Nat. 9). 
 
 de leiiifiio bei Hieronymus adversus lovinianum, in Neue 
 lahrb. fiir deutsche Theol., 1894, p. 485-502. 
 
J3+ TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 akin to those of Tertullian. In his De Utilitate 
 Credendi he caught something of Tertullian's spirit. 
 His religion was all in all to him. 
 
 Vincent of Lerins did not care to be looked upon 
 as an innovator. His ambition was to be guided 
 by the "Majores," and he found safety in following 
 them step by step.^ This disposition made him a 
 favorable judge of Tertullian, though he deplored 
 his end. "Among the Latins, he may be considered 
 easily as the prince of authors ... in him there are 
 as many ideas almost as words; a victory lies in 
 every sentence."^ He owed many of his ideas to 
 the De Praescriptione; truth comes before error 
 and, therefore, any newly-born doctrine must be 
 branded as false ;^ the common agreement on many 
 a point of teaching is in itself a sign of lavv^ful 
 tradition, for untruth naturally splits into a hundred 
 varieties of opinion ;4 it is dangerous to discuss with 
 heretics on the Scriptures ;s the falling off of indi- 
 viduals should by no means scandalize anyone.^ 
 The beautiful metaphor of the chaff separated from 
 the Vv^heat has its origin in Tertullian. ^ Entire 
 chapters of the Comnionitorinm are evidently inspired 
 by the De Prescriptioyie Hereticoriim^ 
 
 About that time the works of Tertullian were 
 
 ^ Brunetiere et Labriolle, Vincent de Lerins, Tntrod. p. 
 
 LXIII. 
 
 ^ Commonit. i8: "Apud Latinos nostrorum omnium 
 facile princeps iudicandus est . . . quot paene verba, tot 
 sententiae sunt; quot sensus, tot victoriae." 
 
 3 De Praescr. 21; Common. XXXV. 3. ^ Praescr. 28. 
 
 5 Praescr. 16-19; Commonit. i, 2-4. 
 
 ^ Praescr. 3; Common. XXVIII, 8. 
 
 7 Praescr. 3; Commonit. XX, 4. 
 
 ^ Brunetiere et Labrir.llc, op. cit. p. LXV-LXVI. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 13.5 
 
 condemned by the decree De Libris recipiendis et 
 non recipiendis attributed to Pope Gelasius/ His 
 doctrines were considered dangerous and he seemed 
 to be entirely forgotten.'' 
 
 The Middle Ages seem to ignore Tertullian. St. 
 Bernard, who sought the principles of Christian 
 life in the Fathers, in Ambrose, Augustine and 
 Gregory, for his spiritual treatises, never mentions 
 his name. 3 This fact is significant. Yet in the 
 Middle Ages, we meet with apologetical efforts 
 that, in a way, are not unlike Tertullian's. Duns 
 Scotus restricted the part of reason in the conquest 
 of religious truth. He maintained the superiority 
 of the will over the intellect. ^ Though it can not 
 be said that there was in any sense dependence of 
 the Mediaeval theologian on the Apologist of the 
 third century, yet it is interesting to note the sim- 
 ilarity of tendencies in systems of thought emanating 
 from conditions so little alike. 
 
 The literary Renaissance and the so-called religious 
 Reformation brought Tertullian again to the front. 
 Both humanists and theologians read the writings 
 of the oldest of the Latin Fathers, some to satisfy 
 their literary curiosity, others to find weapons for 
 the impending doctrinal battle. In 1597 the Codex 
 Fuldensis, the best manuscript of the Apologeticnm, 
 was copied by Junius, ^ and the large number of 
 
 ^ Migne, Patrol. Latin, vol. LIX. col. 163. 
 ^ Monceaux, op, cit. vol. I., p. 459. 
 3 Vacandard, Vie de Saint Bernard, vol. I, p. 456. 
 •^ James Fox, Scotus Redivivus, in New York Review, 
 June, 1905, pp. 33-47- 
 
 5 Callewaert, loc. cit. p. 322. 
 
136 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 editions issued during that period speaks eloquently 
 of the interest then taken in his work.^ 
 
 Bellarminus quoted him in support of the antiquity 
 of the Church, of her uninterrupted duration, of her 
 indefectibility, of the decisive authority of her 
 magisterium, of the true meaning of the text "super 
 hanc petram," and of the Roman Primacy.^ There 
 was a tendency among polemists to apply to the 
 doctrines of Luther and Calvin the epithets with 
 which Tertullian had branded the Gnostics. Thus 
 was denounced the high-handed freedom of the 
 Protestants in regard to the Scriptures; thus was 
 condemned the intellectuality of the novators.^ 
 
 The argument of prescription itself was revived 
 towards the middle of the XVI I th century. Catholic 
 polemists found it a potent weapon against the 
 Protestants who, not unlike the Gnostjcs of old, 
 claimed to interpret the Scriptures with a systematic 
 disregard of traditional exegesis. Cardinal Richelieu 
 seems to have been the first to test the power of 
 this argument in a little controversial work published 
 after his death. — Traite qui contient la Methode la 
 plus facile et la plus assuree pour convertir ceiix qui 
 se sont separes de I'Eglise, Paris, 1651. What appealed 
 most to Richelieu was the easy grasp which the average 
 mind, unfamiliar with theological disputation, could 
 have on a criterion as readily perceived as the 
 permanence of the Church since its divine Founder.'* 
 
 ^ Cf. Bibliography (Editions). 
 
 ^ Turmel, Histoire de la Theologie Positive du Concile 
 de Trente au Concile du Vatican (Paris, 1906) pp. 49, 66, 
 126, 127, 141, 163, 224, 226. 
 
 ^ Labriolle, Tertullien, de Praescr. p. XXXVIII, to whom 
 we are greatly indebted for the last part of this chapter. 
 
 4 Labriolle, loc. cit. p. XXXVIII. 
 
TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICvS 137 
 
 Bossuet himself was wont to search in the Fathers 
 for the substance of rehgion and the sap of 
 Christianity. The writings of TertulHan from the 
 first won his genuine admiration. He, too, could 
 have called Tertullian "master." There were, 
 indeed, between the Latin Apologist of the early 
 Church and the elegant theologian of the 17th 
 century, cognate tendencies and, as it were, intel- 
 lectual affinities which made Bossuet very frequently 
 look for and find in Tertullian the perfect expression 
 of his own thought. He used to call him "ce grand 
 homme, " "ce merveilleux personnage," "ce docte 
 ecrivain," "ce celebre auteur ecclesiastique." He 
 repeatedly spoke of his "beautiful doctrine," of his 
 "sublime theology" and of his "learned principles." 
 The work he quoted most was the Apologeticum.^ 
 
 In the summer of 1643, Blaise Pascal, then in the 
 solitude of Port Royal, was, like Bossuet at Metz, 
 studying the Fathers.^ It is difficult to determine 
 whether Tertullian exerted a direct influence upon 
 the progress of his thought, but there is no doubt 
 that Paschal' s system of defence of the Christian 
 doctrine presents numerous analogies with the apolo- 
 getical method of Tertullian. He, too, had to convince 
 those who, diffident of all sentiment and mysticism, 
 pretend to arrive at the truth by the intellect alone. 
 To such his answer was: " Le coeur a ses raisons que 
 la raison ne connait point. . . . Je dis que le coeur 
 aime I'toe universel naturellement, et soimeme 
 naturellement, selon qu'il s'y adonne; et il se durcit 
 contre I'un ou I'autre a son choix."^ His opponents 
 
 ^ Lebarcq. oeiivres Oratoires de Bossuet, passim. 
 ^ Boutroux, Pascal,. Paris, 1900, p. 91. 
 3 Pensees, edit, Louandre, p. 200. 
 
138 TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICvS 
 
 told him: "I would lead a good life if I had faith." 
 "You would have faith," was the reply, "if you led 
 a good life."' This idea and the complex organism 
 of truths which foster it in the mind of Paschal 
 exhibit significant sympathies of thought between 
 the Apologist of the second century and that of the 
 seventeenth.^ Their styles, too, have something in 
 common: vividness and passion blend with subtlety 
 of reasoning and vigorous logic. 
 
 The progress of historical science in the latter 
 part of the nineteenth century aroused a new interest 
 in the thought of Tertullian. Each writer, of course, 
 studied his text from a single point of view and 
 attempted to find in it the verification of his 
 own preoccupations — hence so many diverse inter- 
 pretations of the same object of study. Renan did 
 not think that any compromise could be made 
 between Philosophy and Christianity. The influence 
 of this principle is felt in his appreciation of Ter- 
 tullian. He likes to oppose two apologetical methods 
 in the Church: the method of which Justin was 
 the founder, and that other first employed by Tatian. 
 The first, according to Renan, proclaimed that 
 Greek Philosophy was the preparation for Chris- 
 tianity, the ladder which led to Christ. ^ The other, 
 to which Tertullian adhered, the real Christian 
 method, as he calls it, was antagonistic to the lifeless 
 foibles of the Hellenic Apologists and dismissed 
 them with the disdainful "Credo quia absurdum."4 
 
 ' Pensees, p. 522. ^ Ibid. p. 349. 
 
 ^ Renan, op. cit. p. 108. 
 
 ^ The formula Credo quia ahsurdum is not found in Ter- 
 tullian. Its equivalent, however, can be found: " Credihile 
 est, quia ineptum; certum est quia impossibile (Carn. Chr. 5). 
 
TERTUIXIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 139 
 
 Such is for Renan the essence of TertulUan's thought. 
 Absurdity is his criterion of truth; absurd, he con- 
 cludes, is Christian truth. All those who were 
 imbued with these same ideas adopted Kenan's 
 interpretation — for example V. Courdaveaux,' and, 
 lately, Guignebert.^ 
 
 A closer examination of the text has led other 
 scholars to a widely different interpretation. M. 
 Boissier, in his beautiful work La Fin dit Paganisme, 
 is authority for the opinion that the Apologetics of 
 Tertullian are mainly juridical and political.^ This 
 is commonly accepted today. For M. Monceaux 
 the dominant note of the Apologeticum is the juridical 
 discussion; the attacks against paganism and the 
 apology of the doctrines only strengthen the legal 
 justification.^ 
 
 The late years have not seen wonderful progress 
 in the historical sciences only; under the pressure 
 of new needs, new apologetical methods have been 
 tried. Strange to say, they bear remarkable resem- 
 blance to that of Tertullian. With Brunetiere, we 
 find ourselves on sociological ground. ^ He discovers 
 actual reasons for belief in the satisfaction which 
 Christianity gives to the complex social aspirations 
 of his time.^ It was this consideration which brought 
 about his own conversion, and ever since he labored 
 to show that society has no solid foundation outside 
 
 ^ In Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, vol. XXIII, (1891) 
 
 P- 1-35- 
 
 ^ Tertullien, Etude sur ses sentiments a I'egard de I'Empire 
 
 et sur la societe civile (Paris 1901) p. 256. 
 
 •5 Vol. I. p. 221. 4 Op. cit. p. 221. 
 
 5 Sorel, Crise du Catholicisme, in Rev. de IMet. et Mor. 
 May, 1 901. 
 
 ^ Discours de Combat, (Nouvelle Serie) p. 44. 
 
I40 TERTULLIAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 
 
 of Christianity.^ There is no great difference between 
 his point of view and that of TertulHan. Both 
 Apologists are confronted by the same opinion, 
 though not expressed in the same manner, that the 
 social question is to be solved by politics. As the 
 Roman power was grounded on this principle, so 
 are the systems of the philosophers whom Brunetiere 
 aims to influence. Their answer to these respective 
 claims is that the social question is a religious one 
 and that it can be solved only by the doctrine of 
 Christ.^ 
 
 The short-lived school of Immanence once 
 cherished the hope of finding in Christian tradition 
 the germs of its favorite ideas. TertuUian was then 
 hailed as the first Apologist of the Immanentist 
 School, and not infrequently was the text testimonium 
 animae naturaliter christianae cited as the character- 
 istic formula of what was then called the New 
 Apologetics. 3 It is, indeed, a strange fate for a thinker 
 of Tertullian's mettle that he should be claimed by 
 men whose rationalistic principles and subtle and 
 shadowy reasonings he would have fiercely combated. 
 
 We may legitimately conclude that the influence 
 of Tertullian's Apologetics has been profound, 
 widespread and powerful in the Christian world. 
 He drew from the soul by nature Christian and 
 from the soul supernaturally Christian, accents so 
 true, so deep and so stirring that his work will always 
 
 ^ Utilisation dii Positivisme, (1905) ch. III. 
 
 ' Ibid, ch. IV. 
 
 ^ Turmel, TertuUian (1Q05, ) p. 39; Tyrrell, Lex Orandi, 
 Introd. p. VIII, 
 
TERTULUAN AND HIS APOLOGETICS 141 
 
 live and hold an honorable place in Patristic 
 literature. 
 
 Valiant soldier of Christianity though he was, 
 the defects of his qualities led him astray. No 
 Christian heart can help hoping that he came back 
 to the fold of unity to end in peace a life whose better 
 part was spent in the cause of truth. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 I. Manuscript.^ 
 
 (i.) The first class of MSS. is represented by a codex 
 of the IXth century commonly called the Agohardinus 
 {Parisinus 1622). MSS. of the same family were used by 
 Gangneius, Gelenius and Pamelius in their respective 
 editions. The Index of the Agohardinus shows that it 
 originally contained some treatises which are found in no 
 other MSS. Today, however, the leaves are torn at the 
 de Came Christi. Although this class of MSS. is not 
 altogether free from glosses and interpolations, it is acknowl- 
 edged to be the most reliable text for the treatises which it 
 has preserved. 
 
 (2.) The second class of MSS. dates back to the Xlth 
 century. To it belong the Montis pessulanus 307, the Pater- 
 niacensis 439, the Hirsaugiensis (now lost but known from 
 the first edition of Rhenanus) and lastly the Gorziensis 
 (also lost but used in the third edition of Rhenanus). These 
 codices offer but too frequently an intentionally altered 
 text of Tertullian. 
 
 (3.) The most recent class of MSvS. is made up of various 
 Italian codices of the XVth century, all of which are re- 
 reducible to two types: the 5. Marco VI. 9, and the 5. 
 Marco VI. 10. Closely allied to the latter are the Vindo- 
 
 Oehler, Tertulliani quae supersunt omnia, Vol. I. Praefatio. — Reiffer- 
 scheid. Corpus scriptorum ecclesiaslicorum, Vol. XX, Praefatio. — E. Kroy- 
 man. Die Tertullians Ueherlieferung in Italian, in the Sitzungsberichte der 
 Kaiserlichen Akademie der Weissenschaften; Vol. 138, 3. (1898). — C. Calle- 
 vraert, Le meilleur, manuscrit de I'Apologeticum, in the Revue d'histoire et 
 de litterature religieuse. Vol. 7 (1902) pp. 322-353. — d'Ales, Theologie de 
 Terlullien, Introduction, pp. 12 sq. 
 
144 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 honensis 4196 and the Leydensis 2. They teem with arbitrary- 
 corrections. 
 
 (4.) The text of the de Jejunio, the de Pudicitia and the 
 de Baptismo can be gathered only from the editions of 
 Gangneius, Gelenius and Pamelius who had access to the 
 MSS. no longer extant. 
 
 (5.) The fundamental MSS. for the Apologeticum is now 
 thought to be the Fuldensis, the text of which has been 
 preserved by the edition of F. Junius. Other available codices 
 are the various Parisini (especially the Parisinus 1623, 
 Xth century; the Parisinus 1656, Xllth century; and the 
 Parisinus 2616, XVth century; all copies of the same 
 architype). 
 
 II. Editions. 
 
 (A.) Editions of the complete works: — Beatus Rhenanus, 
 Basileae, ist ed. 1521; 2nd ed. 1528; 3rd ed. 1539. Joannes 
 Gangneius, Parisiis; 1545; Sigismundus Gelenius, Basileae, 
 1550,* Jacobus Pamelius, Antwerpiae, 1579; Renatus de 
 la Barre, Parisiis, 1580; Franciscus Junius, Franekerae, 
 1597; Nicolaus Rigaltius, Parisiis, 1634; Semler, Plalle, 
 1769-1776; Migne, in Pntr. Lai. Vol. I, II., 1844; Oehler, 
 Lipsiae, 1 853-1 854; Reifferscheid and Kroyman in Corpus 
 scriptorum latinorum ecclesiasticorum, Vindobonae, Vol. 
 III., XX. 
 
 (B.) Special editions of the Apologeticum: — S. Haver- 
 camp, IvCyden, 17 18; Reprints — J. Keyser, Paderborn, 
 1865; H. Hurter, Innsbruck, 1877; new recension — P. de 
 Lagarde, Gottingen, 1891. 
 
 (C.) Special editions of the de Praescriptione: — H. 
 Hurter, Innsbruck, 1870; E. Preuschen, Freiburg, 1892; 
 T. H. Bindley, Oxford, 1894; Rauschen, in the Florilegium 
 Patristicum, fas. IV., Bonn, 1906. 
 
 III. Translations, 
 
 Into English: Oxford Translation; Holmes and Thidnall 
 in the Ante Nicene Fathers (ed. Coxe, III., pp. 17-697; 
 707-717; IV., 3-1 21). 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 145 
 
 IV. Literature. 
 
 Adam, Der Kirchenbegriff Tertullians, Paderborn, 1907. 
 
 d'Ales, Theologie de Tertullien, Paris, 1905. 
 
 Allard, Christianisme et rEmpire Romain, Paris, 1898. 
 
 Alston, Stoic and Christian in the 2nd Century, London, 
 1906. 
 
 Aube, Les Chretiens dans I'Empire romain, Paris, 1881; 
 L'eglise et I'etat dans la seconde moitie du seme siecle, 
 Paris, 1886. 
 
 Audollent, Carthage Romaire, Paris, 1901. 
 Bardenhewer, Geschichte der Altkirchlichen Litteratur, 
 Muenchen, 1903.; English translation by Shahan, Fribourg, 
 1908. 
 
 Bayard, Le Latin de S. Cyprien, Paris, 1902. 
 
 Bigg, Journal of Theol. T. 1. p. 468, April, 1904. 
 
 Boehringer, Tertullianus, 2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1873. 
 
 Boissier, Religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins, Paris, 
 1 881; Fin du Paganisme, Paris, 1891; Afrique Romaine, 
 Paris, 1893. 
 
 Bouedron, Quid senserit de natura animae Tertullianus, 
 Nantes, 1861. 
 
 Burckardt, Die Seelenlehre des Tertullian, Budissin, 1857. 
 
 Cabrol, Science Catholique, t. 5, i, Paris, 1891. 
 
 Caucanas, Tertullien et le Montanisme, Geneva, 1876. 
 
 Ceilier, Hist, des Auteurs Sacres et eccl., Paris, 1750. 
 
 Coenen, De Tertulliano, L'^trccht, 1S25. 
 
 Condamin, S. J., De Tertulliano christianae linguae 
 artifice, Lyons, 1877. 
 
 Courdaveaux, Revue de I'histoire des religions, Paris, 1S91. 
 
 Diels, Doxographi Graeci, Berlin, 1879. 
 
 Duchesne, Hist. Ancienne de l'eglise, Vol. I., Paris, 1906. 
 
 Ebert, Histoire de le litterature latine chretienne, trad. 
 Aymeric, Paris, 1883. 
 
 Esser, Die vSeelenlehre Tertullians, Paderborn, 1893. 
 
 Freppel, Tertullien, 3rd ed., Paris, 1887. 
 
 Fuller, in Dictionary of Christian Biography — Smith, 
 s. V. Tertullian, 
 
 Grotemeyer, Ueber Tertullians Leben und Schriften, 
 Kempen, 1863. 
 
 Gu'gnebert, Tertullien, Paris, 1901. 
 
146 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 IV. Literature. 
 
 Hall, Tertullian als Schriftsteller in Preussische Jahr-" 
 buecher, t. 88, p. 266, — 1897. 
 
 Hoppe, Syntax und Stil des Tertullian, Leipsic, 1903. 
 
 Harnack, Sitzungsb. der Acad, des Wiss. zu Berlin, (1895), 
 p. 561-579, 1894; Chronologie der Altchr. Literr:, Leipsic, 
 1904; Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 3 ed., 1905; Die 
 Missioii und Ausbreitung, 2 ed., 1906. 
 
 Hauck, Tertullians Leben und vSchriften, Hrlangen, 1877. 
 
 Hauschild, Die Grundsaetze und Mittel der Wortbildung 
 bei Tertullian, Leipsic, 1876; Ration, Psychologic und 
 Erkenntniss Theorie Tertullians, Frankfurt, 1880 
 
 Hesselberg, Tertullians Lehre a.us seinen Schriften ent- 
 wickelt, Hamburg, 1851. 
 
 Knaake, Die Predigten des Tertullian und Cyprian in the 
 Theol. Studien pp. 606-639., 1903. 
 
 Kolberg, Verfassung, Kultus und Disziplin der Christ- 
 lichen Kirchenach den Schriften Tertullians, Braunsberg,i885 
 
 Labriolle, Tertullien jurisconsulte, in the Nouv. Rev. 
 Hist, de droit francais et etranger, Jan. p. 5-27., Paris, 1906. 
 De praescriptione hereticorum, Paris, 1907; L'argument de 
 prescripcion in the Rev. d'histoire et de litterature religieuse, 
 Vol. XI., p. 631, Paris, 1906; Vincent de Lerins, Paris, 1906. 
 
 Leblanc, I.e materialisme de Tertullien in the Annales de 
 Philosophic Chretienne, pp. 415-423, July, 1903, 1903. 
 
 Leclerq, Afrique chretienne, Paris, 1906. 
 
 Le Nourry, Dissertatio in Tertulliani Apologeticum, in 
 Migne P. L. II., 
 
 M'argerie, De Tertulliano — Opusculum philosophicum, 
 Orleans, 1855. 
 
 Mason, Tertullian and Purgatory, in the Journal of 
 Theol. Studies, Vol. Ill p. 598-601., 1902. 
 
 Milman, History of Latin Christianity, London, 1884. 
 
 Monceaux, Apulee, Paris, 1889; Les Africains, Paris, 
 1894; Histoire litteraire de 1' Afrique chretienne, I. Ter- 
 tullien et les origines, Paris, 1901. 
 
 Morcelli, Africa Christiana, Brixiae, 1817. 
 
 Neander, Antignosticus, Geist des Tertullian und Ein- 
 leitung in dessen Schriften, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1849. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 147 
 
 IV. Literature. 
 
 Neumann, Die Rocmische Stadt und die aligemeine 
 Kirche, I., 1890. 
 
 Noeldechen, Tertullian, Gotha, 1890; Tertullian als 
 Mensch und als Buerger, Historische Zeitschrift, t. 54, 
 p. 225, 1885. 
 
 Norden, Die Antike Kunstprosa, II., 606-615, Leipsic, 1898 
 
 Pagenstecher, De Jurisprudentia Tertulliani, Harderoviae, 
 
 1743- 
 
 Pichon, Lactance, Paris. 1901. 
 
 Rabeau, Culte des Saints dars I'Afrique chretienne, Paris, 
 1903. 
 
 Renan, Marc Aurele, Paris, 
 
 Reville, La Religion a Rome sous les Severes, Paris, 1886. 
 Riviere, S. Justin et les Apologistes du 2eme siecle, Paris, 1907 
 
 Ronsch, Das Neue Testament des Tertullian, Leipsic, 1871. 
 
 Schanz, Geschichte der rom. Litt. Ill, 2nd ed., 1905. 
 
 Schlossman, Tertullian im Lichte der Jurisprudenz, in 
 the Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, t. XXVIIt, pp. 251- 
 275, 1906. 
 
 Schmitt, Die Apologie der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, 
 Mayence, 1890, 
 
 Stier, Die Gottes und Logos Lehre Tertullians. Gottin- 
 gen, 1889. 
 
 Stockl, TertuUianus: de animae humanae natura; et 
 de Tertulliani doctrina psychologica, Muenster, 1863. 
 
 Teuffel, Geschichte der roemischen Litt., Leipsic, 1890. 
 
 Tillemont, Memoires sur I'histoire eccles. t. 3, Paris, 1698. 
 
 Tixeront, Jlistoire des dogmes. Vol. I., Paris, 1905. 
 
 Turmel, Tertullien, Paris, 1905; Hist, de la Theologie, 
 Vol. I., Paris, 1904. 
 
 Uhlhorn, Fundamenta Chronologiae Tertull., Gottingen, 
 1852. 
 
 Winkler, Der Traditions begrifl des Urchristenthums bis 
 Tertullian, Munich, 1897. 
 
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