Scorpiace

Chapter I

The earth brings forth, .is if by suppura- tion, great evil from the diminutive scorpion. The poisons are as many as are the kinds of it, the disasters as many as are also the species of it, the pains as many as are also the colours of it. Nicander writes on /he subject of scor- pions, and depicts them. And yet to smite with the tail — which tail will be whatever is prolonged from the hindmost part of the body, and scourges — is the one movement which they all use when making an assault. Where- fore that succession of knots in the scorpion, which in the inside is a thin poisoned veinlet, rising up with a bow-like bound, draws tight a barbed sting at the end, after the manner of an engine for shooting missiles. From which circumstance they also call after the scor- pion, the warlike implement which, by its being drawn back, gives an impetus to the arrows. The point in their case is also a duct of extreme minuteness, to inflict the wound; and where it penetrates, it pours out poison^ The usual time of danger is the summer sea- son: fierceness hoists the sail vv^hen the wind is from the south and the south-west. Among cures, certain substances supplied by nature have very great efficacy; magic also puts on some bandage; the art of healing counteracts with lancet and cup. For some, making haste, take also beforehand a protecting draught; but sexual intercourse drains it off, and they are dry again. We have faith for a defence, if we are not smitten with distrust itself also, in immediately making the sign - and adjuring,^ and besmearing the heel with

' [Written about a.d. 205.]

^Of the cross over the wounded part. [This translation is fre- quently weakened by useless interpolations ; some of these destroy- ing the author's style, for nothing, I have put into footnotes or dropped.]

the beast. Finally, we often aid in this way even the heathen, seeing we have been endowed by God with that power which the apostle first used when he despised the viper's bite.* What, then, does this pen of yours offer, if faith is safe by what it has of its own ? That it may be safe by what it has of its own also at other times, when it is subjected to scor- pions of its own. These, too, have a trouble- some littleness, and are of different sorts, and are armed in one manner, and are stirred up at a definite time, and that not another than one of burning heat. This among Christians is a season of persecution. When, therefore, faith is greatly agitated, and the Church burn- ing, as represented by the bush,^ then tlie Gnostics break out, then the Valentinians creep forth, then all the opponents of martyr- dom bubble up, being themselves also hot to strike, penetrate, kill. For, because they know that many are artless and also inexperi- enced, and weak moreover, that a very great number in truth are Christians who veer about* with the wind and conform to its moods, they perceive that they are never to be approached more than when fear has opened the entrances to the soul, especially when some display of ferocity has already arrayed with a crown the faith of martyrs. Therefore, drawing along the tail hitherto, they first of all apply it to the feelings, or whip with it as if on empty space. Innocent persons undergo such suffer- ing. So that you may suppose the speaker to be a brother or a heathen of the better sort

? l.f. adjuring the part, in the name of Jesus, and besmearing the poisoned heel with the gore of the beast, when it has been crushed to death. [So the translator ; but the terse rhetoric of the original is not so circumstantial, and refers, undoubtedly, to the lingering influence of miracles, according to 3t. Mark, xvi.

■8] ,

4 Acts xxvm. 3.

5 Ex. iii. 2.

^34

[chap. II.

A sect troublesome to nobody so dealt with ! Then they pierce. Men are perishing with- out a reason. For that they are perishing, and without a reason, is the first insertion. Then they now strike mortally. But the un- sophisticated souls' know not what is written, and what meaning it bears, where and when and before whom we must confess, or ought, save that this, to die for God, is, since He preserves me, not even artlessness, but folly, nay madness. If He kills me, how will it be His duty to preserve me ? Once for all Christ died for us, once for all He was slain that we might not be slain. If He demands the like from me in return, does He also look for sal- vation from my death by violence? Or does God importune for the blood of men, especi- ally if He refuses that of bulls and he-goats ? ^ Assuredly He had rather have the repentance than the death of the sinner. ^ And how is He eager for the death of those who are not sinners ? Whom will not these, and perhaps other subtle devices containing heretical poi- sons, pierce either for doubt if not for de- struction, or for irritation if not for death ? As for you, therefore, do you, if faith is on the alert, smite on the spot the scorpion with a curse, so far as you can, with your sandal, and leave it dying in its own stupefaction ? But if it gluts the wound, it drives the poison inwards, and makes it hasten into the bowels; forthwith all the former senses become dull, the blood of the mind freezes, the flesh of the spirit pines away, loathing for the Christian name is accompanied by a sense of sourness. Already the understanding also seeks for itself a place where it may throw up; and thus, once for all, the weak- ness with which it has been smitten breathes out wounded faith either in heresy or in heathenism. And now the present state of matters is such, that lae are in the midst of an intense heat, the very dog-star of per- secution,— a state originating doubtless with the dog-headed one himself.* Of some Christians the fire, of others the sword, of others the beasts, have made trial; others are hungering in prison for the martyrdoms of which they have had a taste in the meantime by being subjected to clubs and claws ^ be- sides. We ourselves, having been appointed for pursuit, are like hares being hemmed in from a distance; and heretics go about accord- ing to their wont. Therefore the state of the times has prompted me to prepare by my pen, in opposition to the little beasts which trouble

' The opponents of martyrdoms arc meant. — Tr.

»Ps. 1. 13.

3 Ezek. xxxiii. 11.

<i.e. the devil.— Tr.

S An instrument of torture, so called. — Tr.

our sect, our antidote against poison, that I may thereby effect cures. You who read will at the same time drink. Nor is the draught bitter. If the utterances of the Lord are sweeter than honey and the honeycombs,* the juices are from that source. If the promise of God flows with milk and honey,' the in- gredients which go to make that draught have the smack of this. " But woe to them who turn sweet into bitter, and light into dark- ness."^ For, in like manner, they also who oppose martyrdoms, representing salvation to be destruction, transmute sweet into bitter, as well as light into darkness; and thus, by pre- ferring this very wretched life to that most blessed one, they put bitter for sweet, as well as darkness for light.

Chapter II

' But not yet about the good to be got from martyrdom must we learn, without our having ifirst //^ar^ about the duty of suffering it; nor |must we learn the usefulness of it, before we jhave heard about the necessity for it. The (question of the) divine warrant goes first — whether God has willed and also commanded ought of the kind, so that they who assert that it is not good are not plied with argu- ments for thinking it profitable save when they have been subdued. » It is proper that here- tics be driven" to duty, not enticed. Obsti- nacy must be conquered, not coaxed. And» certainly, that will be pronounced beforehand quite good enough, which will be shown to have been instituted and also enjoined by/ God. Let the Gospels wait a little, while I set forth their root the Law, while I ascertain the will of God from those writings from which I recall to mind Himself also: "/am," says He, "God, thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Thou shalt have no other gods besides me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a likeness of those things which are in heaven, and which are in the earth beneath, and which are in the sea under the earth. Thou shalt not worship them, nor , serve them. For I am the Lord thy God." " Likewise in the same book of Exodus: "Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make unto you gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold." '- To the following effect also, in Deuteromy: " Hear, O Israel; The Lord thy God is one: and thou shalt love the

* Ps. xix. 10.

7 Kx. iii. 17.

8 Isa. V. 20.

9 By those in favour of its having been divinely enjoinad. '" By argument, of course. — Tk.

" Ex. XX. 2.

" Ex. XX. 22, 2 j.

Chapter 11 ]

635

Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy might, and with all thy soul."' And again: " Neither do thou forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee forth from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him only, and cleave to Him, and swear by His name. Ye shall not go after strange gods, and the gods of the nations w'hich are round about you, because the Lord thy God is also a jealous God among you, and lest His anger should be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth."- But setting before them blessings and curses. He also says: "Blessings shall be yours, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, whatsoever I command you this day, and do not wander from the way which I have commanded you, to go and serve other gods whom ye know not." ^ And as to rooting them out in every way: " Ye shall utterly de- stroy all the places wherein the nations, which ye shall possess by inheritance, served their gods, upon mountains and hills, and under shady trees. Ye shall overthrow all their al- tars, ye shall overturn and break in pieces their pillars, and cut down their groves, and burn with fire the graven images of the gods themselves, and destroy the names of them out of that place." -* He further urges, when they (the Israelites) had entered the land of promise, and driven out its nations: " Take heed to thy self, that thou do not fol- low them after they be driven out from before thee, that thou do not inquire after their gods, saying. As the nations serve their gods, so let me do likewise." 5 But also says He: "If there arise among you a prophet himself, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and it come to pass, and he say. Let us go and serve other gods, whom ye know not, do not hearken to the words of that pro- phet or dreamer, for the Lord your God prov- eth you, to know whether ye fear God with all your heart and with all your soul. After the Lord your God ye shall go, and fear Him, and _ keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and serve Him, and cleave unto Him. But that prophet or dreamer shall die; for he has spoken to turn thee away from the Lord thy God."* But also in another section. ^ "If, however, thy brother, the son of thy father or of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who is as thine own soul, solicit thee, saying se-

•Deut. vi. 4. = Deut. vi. 12. 3 Dent. xi. 27. 4Deit. xii. 2, 3. SDeut. xii. 30. * Deut. xiii. i.

7 Of course our division of the Scripture by chapter and verse 4id not exist in the days of TertuUian. — Tr.

cretly. Let us go and serve other gods, which thou knowest not, nor did thy fathers, of the gods of the nations which are round about thee, very nigh unto thee or far off from thee, do not consent to go with him, and do not hearken to him. Thine eye shall not spare him, neither shalt thou pity, neither shalt thou preserve him; thou shall certainly inform upon him. Thine hand shall be first upon him to kill him, and afterwards the hand of thy people; and ye shall stone him, and he shall die, seeing he has sought to turn thee away from the Lord thy God."^ He adds likewise concerning cities, that if it appeared that one of these had, through the advice of unrighte- ous men, passed over to other gods, all its inhabitants should be slain, and everything belonging to it become accursed and all the spoil of it be gathered together into all its places of egress, and be, even with all the people, burned with fire in all its streets in the sight of the Lord God; and, says He, " it shall not be for dwelling in for ever: it shall not be built again any more, and there shall cleave to thy hands nought of its accursed plunder, that the Lord may turn from the ^ fierceness of His anger. "^ He has, from His abhorrence of idols, framed a series of curses too: " Cursed be the man who maketh a graven or a molten image, an abomination, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place." '° But in Leviti- cus He says: "Go not ye after idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God."" And in other passages: " The children of Israel are my household servants; these are they whom I led forth from the land of Egypt: " I am the Lord your God. Ye shall not make you idols fashioned by the hand, neither rear you up a graven image. Nor shall ye set up a remarkable stone in your land (to worship it): I am the Lord your God." '3 These words indeed were first spoken by the Lord by the lips of Moses, be- ing applicable certainly to whomsoever the Lord God of Israel may lead forth in like manner from the Egypt of a most superstitious world, and from the abode of human slavery. But from the mouth of every prophet in suc- cession, sound forth also utterances of the same God, augmenting the same law of His by a renewal of the same commands, and ini the first place announcing no other duty in sol special a manner as the being on guard against all making and worshipping of idols; as when

8 Deut. xiii. 6.

9 Deut. xiii. 16. 19 Deut. xxvii. 15. " Rev. xix. 4.

"The words in the Septua^int are: on efiol o'luioiT 'lo-patjA oiKCTdi flaiv, nalSU fiou ouTOt naiv ovi efijyayoi' e<c 7^9 AtyuiToi/. '3 Lev. XXV. 55, xxvi. i.

636

SCORl'lACK.

[chap, iv:

by the mouth of David He says: *' The gods of the nations are silver and gold: they have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and hear not; they have a nose, and smell not; a mouth, and they speak not; hands, and they handle not; feet and they walk not. Like to them shall be they who make them, and trust in them."'

CHAP. HI

Nor should I think it needful to discuss whether God pursues a worthy course in for- bidding His own name and honour to be given '' over to a lie, or does so in not consenting that such as He has plucked from the maze of false religion should return again to Egypt, or does so in not suffering to depart from Him them whom He has chosen for Himself. Thus that, too, will not require to be treated by us, whether He has wished to be kept the rule which He has chosen to appoint, and whether He justly avenges the abandonment of the rule which He has wished to be kept; since He would have appointed it to no pur- pose if He had not wished it kept, and would have to no purpose wished it kept if He had ..'been unwilling to uphold it. My next step, ^indeed, is to put to the test these appoint- [ ments of God in opposition to false religions, i the completely vanquished as well as also the \ punished, since on these will depend the entire ' argument for martyrdoms. Moses was apart iwith God on the mountain, when the people, not brooking his absence, which was so need- ful, seek to make gods for themselves, which, for his own part, he will prefer to destroy.' Aaron is importuned, and commands that the earrings of their women be brought together, that they may be thrown into the fire. For the people were about to lose, as a judgment upon themselves, the true ornaments for the ears, the words of God. The wise fire makes for them the molten likeness of a calf, re- proaching them with having the heart where they have their treasure also, — in Egypt, to wit, which clothed with sacredness, among the other animals, a certain ox likewise. There- fore the slaughter of three thousand by their nearest relatives, because they had displeased their so very near relative God, solemnly marked both the commencement and the de- serts of the trespass. Israel having, as we are told in Numbers,^ turned aside at Sethim, the people go to the daughters of Moab to gratify their lust: they are allured to the idols, so that they committed whoredom with the spirit also: finally, they eat of their defiled sacrifices;

• Ps. cxxxv. 15, cxv. 4. ' Ex. xxxii. 3 Num. XXV, I.

\

then they both worship the gods of the nation, and are admitted to the rites of Beelphegor. For this lapse, too, into idolatry, sister to adultery, it took the slaughter of twenty-three thousand by the swords of their countrymen to appease the divine anger. After the death of Joshua the bon of Nave they forsake the God of their fathers, and serve idols, Baalim and Ashtaroth;" and the Lord in anger de- livered them up to the hands of spoilers, and they continued to be spoiled by them, and to be sold to their adversaries, and could not at all stand before their enemies. Whitherso- ever they went forth. His hand was upon them for evil, and they were greatly distressed. And after this God sets judges {critas), the same as our censors, over them. But not even these did they continue steadfastly to obey. So soon as one of the judges died, they proceeded to transgress more than their fathers had done by going after the gods of others, and serving and worshipping them. Therefore the Lord was angry. "Since, in- deed," He says, "this nation have trans- gressed my covenant which I established with their fathers, and have not hearkened to my voice, I also will give no heed to remove from before them a m.an of the nations which Joshua left at his death." ^ And thusj throughout almost all the annals of the judges and of the kings who succeeded them, while the strength of the surrounding nations was preserved. He meted wrath out to Israel by war and captivity and a foreign yoke, as often as they turned aside from Him, especially to idolatry.

Chapter IV

If, therefore, it is evident that from the beginning this kind of worship has both been forbidden — witness the commands so numer- ous and weighty — and that it has never been engaged in without punishment following, as examples so numerous and impressive show, and that no offence is counted by God so presumptuous as a trespass of this sort, we ought further to perceive the purport of both the divine threatenings and their fulfilments, which was even then commended not only by the not calling in question, but also by the enduring of martyrdoms, for which certainly He had given occasion by forbidding idola- try. For otherwise martyrdoms would not take place. And certainly He had supplied, as a warrant for these. His own authority, willing those events to come to pass for th'- occurrence of which He had given occasioti. At present (it is important), for we are getting severely stung concerning the will of God,

4 Judg. li. 8-13.

5 Judg. ii. 20, 21.

CHAl'. v.]

^o7

and the scorpion repeats the prick, denying jthe existence of this will, Anding fault with it, I so that he either insinuates that there is an- ', other god, such that this is not his will, or I none the less overthrows ours, seeing such is lliis will, or altogether denies /his will of God, if 'he cannot deny Himself. But, for our part, con- tending elsewhere about God, and about all the rest of the body of heretical teaching, we now ilraw before us definite lines' for one form of encounter, maintaining that this will, such as to have given occasion for martyrdoms, is that of not another god than the God of Israel, on the ground of the commandments relating to an always forbidden, as well as of the judg- ;,pients upon a punished, idolatry. For if the keeping of a command involves the suffering of violence, this will be, so to speak, a com- mand about keeping the command, requiring nie to suffer that through which I shall be able i() keep the command, violence namely, what- ever of it threatens me when on my guard gainst idolatry. And certainly (in the case supposed) the Author of the command extorts compliance with it. He could not, therefore, have been unwilling that those events should come to pass by means of which the compli- ance will be manifest. The injunction is given me not to make mention of any other god, not even by speaking, — as little by the tongue :jas by the hand, — to fashion a god, and not to M worship or in any way show reverence to an- W other than Him only who thus commands me, whom I am both bid fear that I may not be forsaken by Him, and love with my whole being, that I may die for Him. Serving as a soldier under this oath, I am challenged by .the enemy. If I surrender to them, I am as j';they are. In maintaining this oath, I fight i furiously in battle, am wounded, hewn in pieces, slain. Who wished this fatal issue to his soldier, but he who sealed him by such an oath?

CHAP, V

I You have therefore the will of my God.

.,We have cured this prick. Let us give good

'heed to another thrust touching the character

of His will. It w^ould be tedious to show that

my God is good, — a truth with which the Mar-

cionites have now been made acquainted by

.ns. Meanwhile it is enough that He is called

God for its being necessary that He should

\ be believed to be good. For if any one make

Hhe supposition that God is evil, he will not be

able to take his stand on both the constituents

thereof: he will be bound either to affirm that

he whom he has thought to be evil is not God,

I An allusion to what occur-ec in the games, there being lines to mark the space within which the contests were to be waged. — Tr.

or that he whom he has proclaimed to be God is good. Good, therefore, will be the will also of him who, unless he is good, will not be God. The goodness of the thing itself also which God has willed — of martyrdom, I mean — will show this, because only one who is good has willed what is good. I stoutly maintain that martyrdom is good, as required by the God by whom likewise idolatry is forbidden and punished. For martyrdom strives against and opposes idolatry. But to strive against and oppose evil cannot be ought but good. Not as if I denied that there is a rivalry in evil things with one another, as well as in good also; but this ground for it requires a different state of matters. For martyrdom contends with idolatry, not from some malice whicli they share, but from its own kindness; for it delivers from idolatry. Who will not proclaim that to be good which delivers from idolatry ? What else is the opposition between idolatry and martyrdom, than that between life and death ? Life will be counted to be martyr- dom as much as idolatry to be death. He who will call life an evil, has death to speak of as a good. This frowardness also apper- tains to men, — to discard what is wholesome, to accept what is baleful, to avoid all danger- ous cures, or, in short, to be eager to die rather than to be healed. For they are many who flee from the aid of physic also, many in folly, many from fear and false modesty. And the healing art has manifestly an apparent cruelty, by reason of the lancet, and of the burning iion, and of the great heat of the mustard; yet to be cut and burned, and pulled and bitten, is not on that account an evil, for it occasions helpful pains; nor will it be refused merely because it afflicts, but because it afflicts inevi- tably will it be applied. The good accruing is the apology for the frightfulness of the work. In short, that man who is howling and groan- ing and bellowing in the hands of a physician will presently load the same hands with a fee, and proclaim that they are the best operators, and no longer affirm that they are cruel. Thus martyrdoms also rage furiously, but for salvation. God also will be at liberty to heal for everlasting life by means of fires and swords, and all that is painful. But you will admire the physician at least even in that re- spect, that for the most part he employs like properties in the cures to counteract the prop- erties of the diseases, when he aids, as it were, the wrong way, succouring by means of those things to which the affliction is owing. For he both checks heat by heat, by laying on a greater load; and subdues inflammation by leaving thirst unappeased, by tormenting rather; and contracts tlie superabundance of

6:;8

[chap. VI.

bile by every bitter little draught, and stops hemorrhage by opening a veinlet in addition. But you will think that God must be found fault with, and that for being jealous, if He has chosen to contend with a disease and to do good by imitating the malady, to destroy death by death, to dissipate killing by killing, to dispel tortu'res by tortures, to disperse ' punishments by punishments, to bestow life by withdrawing it, to aid the flesh by injuring it, to preserve the soul by snatching it away. The wrongheadedness, as you deem it to be, is reasonableness; what you count cruelty is kindness. Thus, seeing God by brief (suffer- ings) effects cures for eternity, extol your God for your prosperity; you have fallen into His hands, but have happily fallen. He also fell into your sicknesses. Man always first provides employment for the physician; in short, he has brought upon himself the dan- ger of death -He had received from his own Lord, as from c. physician, the salutary enough rule to live according to the law, that he should eat of all indeed (that the garden produced) and should refrain from only one little tree which in the meantime the Physician Himself knew as a perilous one. He gave ear to him whom he preferred, and broke through self- restraint. He ate what was forbidden, and, surfeited by the trespass, suffered indigestion tending to death; he certainly richly deserving to lose his life altogether who wished to do so. But the inflamed tumour due to the trespass having been endured until in due time the medicine might be mixed, the Lord gradually prepared the means of healing — all the rules of faith, they also bearing a resemblance to (the causes of) the ailment, seeing they annul the word of death by the word of life, and diminish the trespass-listening by a listening of allegiance. Thus, even when that Physi- cian commands one to die, He drives out the lethargy of death. Why does man show re- luctance to suffer now from a cure, what he was not reluctant then to suffer from a dis- order? Does he dislike being killed for sal- vation, who did not dislike being killed for destruction ? — Will he feel squeamish with reference to the counter poison, who gaped for the poison ?

Chapter VI

But if, for the contest's sake, God had ap- pointed martrydoms for us, that thereby we might make trial with our opponent, in order that He may now keep bruising him by whom man chose to be bruised, here too generosity rather than harshness in God holds sway. For He wished to make man, now plucked

' Literally, " disperse in vapour." — Tr.

from the devil's throat by faith, trample upon him likewise by courage, that he might not merely have escaped from, but also completely vanquished, his enemy. He who had called to salvation has been pleased to summon to glory also, that they who were rejoicing in consequence of their deliverance may be in transports when they are crowned likewise. With what good-will the world celebrates those games, the combative festivals and superstitious contests of the Greeks, involving forms both of worship and of pleasure, has now become clear in Africa also. As yet cities, by sending their congratulations sever- ally, annoy Carthage, which was presented with the Pythian game after the racecourse had attained to an old age. Thus, by the world ^ it has been believed to be a most proper mode of testing proficiency in studies, to put in competition the forms of skill, to elicit the existing condition of bodies and of voices, the reward being the informer, the public exhibition the judge, and pleasure the decision. Where there are mere contests, there are some wounds: fists make reel, heels kick like butting rams, boxing-gloves mangle, whips leave gashes. Yet there will be no one reproaching the superintendent of the contest for exposing men to outrage. Suits for injuries lie outside the racecourse. But to the extent that those persons deal in dis- coloration, and gore, and swellings, he will design for them crowns, doubtless, and glory, and a present, political privileges, contribu- tions by the citizens, images, statues, and — of such sort as the world can give — an eter- nity of fame, a resurrection by being kept in remembrance. The pugilist himself does not complain of feeling pain, for he wishes it; the crown closes the wounds, the palm hides the blood: he is excited more by victory than by injury. Will you count this man hurt whom you see happy ? But not even the vanquished himself will reproach the super- intendent of the contest for his misfortune. Shall it be unbecoming in God to bring forth kinds of skill and rules of His own into pub- lic view, into this open ground of the world, to be seen by men, and angels, and all powers ? — to test flesh and spirit as to sted- fastness and endurance ?- — to give to this one the palm, to this one distinction, to that one the privilege of citizenship, to that one pay ? — to reject some also, and after punishing to remove them with disgrace ? You dictate to God, forsooth, the times, or the ways, or the places in which to institute a trial con- cerning His own troop (of competitors) as if it were not proper for the Judge to pronounce

•Literally, "aye." — Tk.

Chapter VII ]

^39

the preliminary decision also. Well now, if He had put forth faith to suffer martyrdoms not for the contest's sake, but for its own benefit, ought it not to have had some store of hope, for the increase of which it might restrain desire of its own, and check its wish, in order that it might strive to mount up, see- ing they also who discharge earthly functions are eager for promotion ? Or how will there be many mansions in our Father's house, if not to accord with a diversity of deserts? How will one star also differ from another star in glory, unless in virtue of disparity in their rays ? ' But further, if, on that account, some increase of brightness also was appropriate to loftiness of faith, that gain ought to have been of some such sort as would cost great effort, poignant suffering, torture, death. But consider the requital, when flesh and life are paid away — than which in man there is nought more precious, the one from the hand of God, the other from His breath — that the very things are paid away in obtaining the benefit of which the benefit consists; that the very things are expended which may be ac- quired; that the same things are the price which are also the commodities. God had foreseen also other weaknesses incident to the condition of man, — the stratagems of the enemy, the deceptive aspects of the creatures, the snares of the world; that faith, even after baptism, would be endangered; that the most, after attaining unto salvation, would be lost again, through soiling the wedding-dress, through failing to provide oil for their torch- lets — would be such as would have to be sought for over mountains and woodlands, and carried back upon the shoulders. He therefore appointed as second supplies of comfort, and the last means of succour, the fight of martyrdom and the baptism — there- after free from danger — of blood. And con- cerning the happiness of the man who has partaken of these, David says: " Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."^ For, strictly speaking, there cannot any longer be reckoned ought against the martyrs, by whom .in the baptism (of blood) life itself is laid down. Thus, " love covers the multitude of sins;" 3 and loving God, to wit, with all its strength (by which in the endurance of mar- tyrdom it maintains the fight), with all its life (which it lays down for God), it makes of man a martyr. Shall you call these cures, counsels, methods of judging, spectacles,

1 1 Cor. XV. 41.

^Ps. xxxii. I ; Rom. iv. 7, etc.

3 I Pet. iv. 8.

* Matt. xxii. 37.

(illustrations of) even the barbarity of God ? I)oes God covet man's blood ? And yet I might venture to affirm that He does, if man also covets the kingdom of heaven, if man covets a sure salvation, if man also covets a second new birth. The exchange is displeas- ing to no one, which can plead, in justifica- tion of itself, that either benefit or injury is shared by the parties making it.

If the scorpion, swinging his tail in the air, still reproach us with having a murderer for our God, I shall shudder at the altogether foul breathof blasphemy which comes stinking from his heretical mouth; but I will embrace even such a God, with assurance derived from rea- son, by which reason even He Himself has, in the person of His own Wisdom, by the lips of Solomon, proclaimed Himself to be more than a murderer: Wisdom [Sophia), says He has slain her own children. ^ Sophia is Wis- dom. She has certainly slain them wisely if only into life, and reasonably if only into glory. Of murder by a parent, oh the clever form ! Oh the dexterity of crime ! Oh the proof of cruelty, which has slain for this rea- son, that he whom it may have slain may not die ! And therefore what follows ? Wisdom is praised in hymns, in the places of egress; for the death of martyrs also is praised in song. Wisdom behaves with firmness in the streets, for with good results does she murder her own sons.* Nay, on the top of the walls she speaks with assurance, when indeed, ac- cording to Esaias, this one calls out, " I am God's;" and this one shouts, " In the name of Jacob;" and another writes, " In the name of Israel."' O good mother! I myself also wish to be put among the number of her sons, that I may be slain by her; I wish to be slain, that I may become a son. But does she merely murder her sons, or also torture them? For I hear God also, in another passage, say, " I will burn them as gold is burned, and will try them as silver is tried." ^ Certainly by the means of torture which fires and punish- ments supply, by the testing martyrdoms of faith. The apostle also knows what kind of God he has ascribed to us, when he writes: " If God spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us, how did He not with Him also give us all things ? " ^ You see how divine Wisdom has murdered even her own proper,

5 Prov. ix. 2 : " She hath killed her beasts.'" The correspond- ing words in the Septuagint are c(T<^af « to. tauTijs flu/oiaTo. Augus- tine, in his De Civ. Dei, xvi. 20, e.xplains the victims (Cv,-taTa) to be Martyrntn iiictimas. — Tk.

6 Prov. i. 20, 21 ; see the Septuagint version.

7 Isa. xliv. 5. "^Zech. xiii. 9. 9 Rom. viii. 32

64.0

[chap. VIII,

first-born and only Son, who is certainly about to live, nay, to bring back the others also into life. I can say with the Wisdom of God; It is Christ who gave Himself up for our offen- ces.' Already has Wisdom butchered herself also. The character of words depends not on the sound only, but on the meaning also, and they must be heard not merely by ears, but also by minds. He who does not understand, believes God to be cruel ; although for him also who does not understand, an announcement has been made to restrain his harshness in understanding otherwise than aright. " For who," ?,3.ys the apostle,''' has known the mind of the Lord ? or who has been His counsellor, to teach Him ? or who has pointed out to Him the way of understanding ? " - But, indeed, the world has held it lawful for Diana of the Scythians, or Mercury of the Gauls, or Saturn of the Africans, to be appeased by human sacrifices; and in Latium to this day Jupiter has human blood given him to taste in the midst of the city; and no one makes it a mat- ter of discussion, or imagines that it does not occur for some reason, or that it occurs by the will of his God, without having value. If our God, too, to have a sacrifice of His own, had required martyrdoms for Himself, who would have reproached Him for the deadly religion, and the mournful ceremonies, and the altar- pyre, and the undertaker-priest, and not rather have counted happy the man whom God should have devoured ?

Chapter VIII

We keep therefore the one position, and, in respect of this question only, summon to an encounter, whether martyrdoms have been commanded by God, that you may believe that they have been commanded by reason, if you know that they have been commanded by Him, because God will not command ought without reason. Since the death of His own saints is precious is His sight, as David sings, 3 it is not, I think, that one which falls to the lot of men generally, and is a debt due by all (rather is that one even disgraceful on account of the trespass, and the desert of con- demnation to 7vhlch it is to be traced), but that other which is met in this very work — in bear- ing witness for religion, and maintaining the fight of confession in behalf of righteousness and the sacrament. As saith Esaias, " See how the righteous man perisheth, and no one layeth it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no one considereth it: for from before the face of unrighteousness the

» Rom. iv. 25. » Rom. xi. 34. 3 Ps. cxvi. 15.

righteous man perisheth, and he shall l«ve honour at his burial." " Here, too, you have both an announcement of martrydoms, and 0/ the recompense they bring. From the begii> ning, indeed, righteousness suffers violence.' Forthwith, as soon as God has begun to be worshipped, religion has got ill-will for her portion. He who had pleased God is slain, and that by his brother. Beginning with kin- dred blood, in order that it might the more easily go in quest of that of strangers, ungod- liness made the object of its pursuit, finally, that not only of righteous persons, but even of prophets also. David is persecuted; Elias put to flight; Jeremias stoned; Esaias cut asunder; Zacharias butchered between the altar and the temple, imparting to the hard stones lasting marks of his blood. ^ That person himself, at the close of the law and the prophets, and called not a prophet, but a messenger, is, suffering an ignominious death, beheaded to reward a dancing-girl. And cer- tainly they who were wont to be led by the Spirit of God used to be guided by Himself to martyrdoms; so that they had even already to endure what they had also proclaimed as requiring to be borne. Wherefore the brother- hood of the three also, when the dedication of the royal image was the occasion of the citizens being pressed to offer worship, knew well what faith, which alone in them had not been taken captive, required, — namely, that they must resist idolatry to the death.* " For they remembered also the words of Jeremias writing to those over whom that captivity was impending: "And now ye shall see borne upon (men's) shoulders the gods of the Baby- lonians, of gold and silver and wood, causing fear to the Gentiles. Beware, therefore, that ye also do not be altogether like the foreigners, and be seized with fear while ye behold crowds worshipping those gods before and behind, but say in your mind, Our duty is to worship Thee, O Lord."^ Therefore, hav- ing got confidence from God, they said, 'when with strength of mind they set at defiance the king's threats against the disobedient: " There is no necessity for our making answer to this command of yours. For our God whom we worship is able to deliver us from the furnace of fire and from your hands; and then it will be made plain to you that we shall neither serve your idol, nor worship your golden image which you have set up."" O martyr- dom even without suffering perfect! Enougb did they suffer ! enough were they burned,

4 Isa. Ivii. I.

5 Matt. xiv. 3.

6 Dan. iii. 12.

7 Baruch vi. 3.

8 Dan. iii. 16.

CHAr,

IX.J

641

whom on this account God shielded, that it might not seem that they had given a false representation of His power. For forthwith, certainly, would the lions, with their pent-up and wonted savageness, have devoured Daniel also, a worshipper of none but God, and therefore accused and demanded by the Chal- tleans, if it had been right that the worthy anticipation of Darius concerning God should iiave proved delusive. For the rest, every preacher of God, and every worshipper also, such as, having been summoned to the serv'^ice of idolatry, had refused compliance, ought to have suffered, agreeably to the tenor of that argument too, by which the truth ought to have been recommended both to those who were then living and to those following in succession, — (namely), that the suffering of its defenders themselves bespeak trust for it, because nobody would have been willing to be slain but one possessing the truth. Such commands as well as instances, remounting to earliest times, show that believers are under obligation to suffer martyrdom.

CHAP, TX

It remains for us, lest ancient times may perhaps have had the sacrament ' (exclus- ively) their own, to review the modern Christian system, as though, being also from God, it might be different from ivhat pre- ceded, and besides, therefore, opposed there- to in its code of rules likewise, so that its Wisdom knows not to murder her own sons ! Evidently, in the case of Christ both the di- vine nature and the will and the sect are dix^tx- entfrom any previously knoivn ! He will have commanded either no martyrdoms at all, or those which must be understood in a sense different from the ordinary, being such a per- son as to urge no one to a risk of this kind, as to promise no reward to them who suffer for Him, because He does not wish them to suffer; and therefore does He say, when set- ting forth His chief commands, " Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."^ The following statement, indeed, applies first to all without restriction, then specially to the apostles themselves : " Blessed shall ye bewhen men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, since very great is your reward in heaven; for so used their fathers to do even to the prophets." So that He likewise foretold their having to be themselves also slain, after the example

' TertuUian means martyrdom. *iMatt. V. 10 ; Luke vi. 23. 41

-Tr.

of the prophets. Though, even if He had appointed all this persecution in case He were obeyed for those only who were then apostles, assuredly through them along witli the entire sacrament, with the shoot of the name, with the layer of the Holy Spirit, the rule about enduring persecution also would have had respect to us too, as to disciples by inheritance, and, (as it were,) bushes from the apostolic seed. For even thus again does He address words of guidance to the apostles: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves;" and, " Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles," etc.^ Now when He adds, " But the brother will deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death," He has clearly announced with reference to the others, (that they would be subjected to) this form of unrighteous conduct, which we do not find exemplified in the case of the apostles. For none of them had experience of a father or a brother as a betrayer, which very many of us have. Then He returns to the apostles: "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." How much more shall we, for whom there exists the necessity of being delivered up by parents too ! Thus, by allotting this very betrayal, now to the apostles, now to all, He pours out the same destruction upon all the possessors of the name, on whom the name, along with the con- dition that it be an object of hatred, will rest. But he who will endure on to the end — this man will be saved. By enduring what but persecution, — betrayal, — death ? For to en- dure to the end is nought else than to suffer the end. And therefore there immediate- ly follow, " The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his own lord;" because, seeing the Master and Lord Him- self was stedfast in suffering persecution, betrayal and death, much more will it be the duty of His servants and disciples to bear the same, that they may not seem as if superior to Him, or to have got an immunity from the assaults of unrighteousness, since this itself should be glory enough for them, to be con- formed to the sufferings of their Lord and Master; and, preparing them for the endur- ance of these, He reminds them that they must not fear such persons as kill the body only, but are not able to destroy the soul, but that they must dedicate fear to Him rather

3 Matt. X. 16.

64:

[chap. X.

who has such power that He can kill both body and soul, and destroy them in hell. Who, pray, are these slayers of the body only, but the governors and kings aforesaid — men, I ween ? Who is the ruler of the soul also, but God only ? Who is this but the threatener of fires hereafter, He without whose will not i even one of two sparrows falls to the ground; that is, not even one of the two substances of man, fiesh or spirit, because the number of our hairs also has been recorded before Him ? Fear ye not, therefore. When He adds, *' Ye are of more value than many sparrows," He makes promise that we shall not in vain — that is, not without profit — fall to the ground if we choose to be killed by men rather than by God. " Whosoever therefore will confess in me before men, in him will I confess also before my Father who is in heaven;' and whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny also before my Father who is in heaven." Clear, as I think, are the terms used in announcing, and the way to explain, the confession as well as the denial, although the mode of putting them is different. He who confesses himself a Christian, beareth witness that he is Christ's; he who is Christ's must be in Christ. If he is in Christ, he cer- tainly confesses in Christ, when he confesses himself a Christian. For he cannot be this without being in Christ. Besides, by confess- ing in Christ he confesses Christ too: since, by virtue of being a Christian, he is in Christ, while Christ Himself also is in him. For if you have made mention of day, you have also held out to view the element of light which gives us day, although you may not have made mention of light. Thus, albeit He has not expressly said, " He who will confess me," (yet) the conduct involved in daily confession is not different from what is meant in our Lord's declaration. For he who confesses himself to be what he is, that is, a Christian, confesses that likewise by which he is it, that is, Christ. Therefore he who has denied that he is a Christian, has denied in Christ, by de- nying that he is in Christ while he denies that lie is a Christian; and, on the other hand, by denying that Christ is in him, while He de- nies that he is in Christ, he will deny Christ too. Thus both he who will deny in Christ, will deny Christ, and he who will confess in Christ will confess Christ. It would have been enough, therefore, though our Lord had made an announcement about confessing merely. For, from His mode of presenting confession, it might be decided beforehand with reference

» The words in the Greek, though correctly rendered in our

authorized version, arc, when translated literally . what TertuUian rcjiresents tbem to be, — Tk.

to its opposite too — denial, that is — that de- nial is repaid by the Lord with denial, just as confession is with confession. And therefore, since in the mould in which the confession has been cast the state of (the case with refer- ence to) denial also may be perceived, it is evident that to another manner of denial be- longs what the Lord has announced concern- ing it, in terms different from those in which He speaks of confession, when He says, " Who will deny me," not " Who will deny in me." For He had foreseen that this form of violence also would, for the most part, im- mediately follow when any one had been forced to renounce the Christian name, — that he who had denied that he was a Christian would be compelled to deny Christ Himself too by blaspheming Him. As not long ago, alas, we shuddered at the struggle waged in this way by some with their entire faith, which had had favourable omens. Therefore it will be to no purpose to say, " Though I shall deny that I am a Christian, I shall not be denied by Christ, for I have not denied Him- self." For even so much will be inferred from that denial, by which, seeing he denies Christ in him by denying that he is a Chris- tian, he has denied Christ Himself also. But there is more, because He threatens likewise shame with shame (in return): "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me before men, of him will I also be ashamed before my Father who is in heaven." For He was aware that denial is produced even most of all by shame, that the state of the mind appears in the forehead, and that the wound of shame precedes that in the body.

Chapter X

But as to those who t'nink that not here, that is, not within this environment of earth, nor during this period of existence, nor before men possessing this nature shared by us all, has confession been appointed to be made, what a supposition is theirs, being at variance with the whole order of things of which we have experience in these lands, and in this life, and under human authorities! Doubtless, when the souls have departed from their bodies, and begun to be put upon trial in the several stories of the heavens, with reference to the engagement (under which they have come to Jesus), and to be questioned about those hidden mysteries of the heretics, they must then confess before the real powers and the real men, — the Teleti,^ to wit, and the Abascanti,- and the Acineti* of Valentinus!

= The perfect. 3The spell-resisting. 4 1'hc steadfast.

-ciiAr. X

]

SCORriACE.

64:

For, say they, even the Demiurge himself did not uniformly approve of the men of our world, whom he counted as a drop of a bucket,' and the dust of the threshing-floor, and spittle and locusts, and put on a level even with brute beasts. Clearly, it is so writ- ten. Yet not therefore must we understand that there is, besides us, another kind of man, which — for it is evidently ilnis (in the case proposed) — has been able to assume without invalidating a comparison between the two kinds, both the characteristics of the race and a unique property. For even if the life was tainted, so that condemned to contempt it might be likened to objects held in contempt, the nature was not forthwith taken away, so that there might be supposed to be another under its name. Rather is the nature pre- served, though the life blushes; nor does Christ know other men than those with refer- ence to whom He says, " Whom do men sav

that I am ? do

And,

., 'As ye would that men should do to you, do ye likewise so to them. ' ' ' Consider whether He may not have preserved a race such that He is looking for a testimony to Himself from them, as well as ■c-onsisting of those on whom He enjoins the interchange of righteous dealing. But if I ,should urgently demand that those heavenly men be described to me, Aratus will sketch more easily Perseus and Cepheus, and Erigo- ne, and Ariadne, among the constellations. But who prevented the Lord from clearly prescribing that confession by men likewise has to be made where He plainly announced that His own would be; so that the statement might have run thus : ' ' Whosoever shall confess in me before men in heaven, I also will con- fess in him before my Father who is in hea- ven ? " He ought to have saved me from this mistake about confession on earth, which He would not have wished me to take part in, if He had commanded one in heaven; for I knew no other men but the inhabitants of the earth, man himself even not having up to that time been observed in heaven. Besides, what is the credibility of the things (alleged), that, being after death raised to heavenly places, I should be put to the test there, whither I would not be translated without be- ing already tested, that I should there be tried m reference to a command where I could not come, but to find admittance ? Heaven lies open to the Christian before the way to it does; because there is noway to heaven, but to him to whom heaven lies open; and he who reaches it will enter. What powers, keeping

' Isa. xl. m.

» Matt. xvi. 13.

J Matt. vii. 12 and Luke vi. 31.

guard at the gate, do I hear you affirm to exist in accordance with Roman superstition, with a certain Carnus, Forculus, and Limentinus? What powers do you set in order at the rail- ings ? If you have ever read in David, " Lift up your gates, ye princes, and let the ever- lasting gates be lifted up; and the King of glory shall enter in;" * if you have also heard from Amos, " Who buildeth up to the heavens his way of ascent, and is such as to pour forth his abundance (of waters) over the earth;" 5 know that both that way of ascent was there- after levelled with the ground, by the foot- steps of the Lord, and an entrance thereafter opened up by the might of Christ, and that no delay or inquest will meet Christians on the threshold, since they have there to be not discriminated from one another, but owned, and not put to the question, but received in. For though you think heaven still shut, re- member that the Lord left here to Peter and through him to the Church, the keys of it, which every one who has been here put to the question, and also made confession, will carry with him. But the devil stoutly afifirms that we must confess there, to persuade us that we must deny here. I shall send before me line documents, to be sure,* I shall carry with me excellent keys, the fear of thero who kill the body only, but do nought against the soul: I shall be graced by the neglect of this com- mand: I shall stand with credit in heavenly places, who could not stand in earthly: I shall hold out against the greater powers, who yielded to the lesser: I shall deserve to be at length let in, though now shut out. It read- ily occurs to one to remark further, " If it is in heaven that men must confess, it is here too that they must deny." For where the one is, there both are. For contraries always go together. There will need to be carried on in heaven persecution even, which is the' occasion of confession or denial. Why, then, do you refrain, O most presumptuous heretic, from transporting to the world above the whole series of means proper to the intimida- tion of Christians, and especially to put there the very hatred for the name, where Christ rules at the right hand of the Father ? Will you plant there both synagogues of the Jews — fountains of persecution — before which the apostles endured the scourge, and heathen assemblages with their own circus, forsooth, where they readily join in the cry. Death to the third race ? ^ But ye are bound to pro-

4Ps. xxiv. 7.

5 Amos ix. 6. 1

o In support of my cause. *

7 More literally, " How loni; shall we suffer the third race ! " The Christians are meant ; the first race being the heathen, and the second the Jews. — Tk.

644

[chap. XI.

duce in the same place both our brothers, fathers, children, mothers-in-law, daughters- in-law and those of our household, through whose agency the betrayal has been appointed; likewise kings, governors, and armed authori- ties, before whom the matter at issue must be contested. Assuredly there will be in heaven a prison also, destitute of the sun's rays or full of light unthankfully, and fetters of the zones perhaps, and, for a rack-horse, the axis itself which whirls the heavens round. Then, If a Christian is to be stoned, hail-storms will be near; if burned, thunderbolts are at hand; if butchered, the armed Orion will exercise his function; if put an end to by beasts, the north will send forth the bears, the Zodiac the bulls and the lions. He who will endure these assaults to the end, the same shall be saved. Will there be then, in heaven, both an end, and suffering, a killing, and the first con- fession? And where will be the flesh re- quisite for all this ? Where the body which alone has to be killed by men ? Unerring reason has commanded us to set forth these things in even a playful manner; nor will any one thrust out the bar consisting in this objec- tion (we have offered), so as not to be com- pelled to transfer the whole array of means proper to persecution, all the powerful instru- mentality which has been provided for deal- ing with this matter, to the place where he has put the court before which confession should be made. Since confession is elicited by persecution, and persecution ended in con- fession, there cannot but be at the same time, in attendance upon these, the instrumentality which determines both the entrance and the exit, that is, the beginning and the end. But both hatred for the name will be here, perse- cution breaks out here, betrayal brings men forth here, examination uses force here, tor- ture rages here, and confession or denial com- pletes this whole course of procedure on the earth. Therefore, if the other things are here, confession also is not elsewhere; if con- fession is elsewhere, the other things also are not here. Certainly the other things are not elsewhere; therefore neither is confession in heaven. Or, if they will have it that the manner in which the heavenly examination and confession take place is different, it will certainly be also incumbent on them to devise a mode of procedure of their own of a very dif- ferent kind, and opposed to that method which is indicated in the Scriptures. And we may be able to say, Let them consider (whether what they imagine to exist does so), if so be that this course of procedure, proper to exam- ination and confessfon on earth — a course which has persecution as the source in which

it originates, and which pleads dissension in the state — is preserved to its own faith, if so be that we must believe just as is also written, and understand just as is spoken. Here I endure the entire course (in question), the Lord Himself not appointing a different quarter of the world for my doifig so. For what does He add after finishing with con- fession and denial? "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, but a sword," — undoubtedly on the earth. " For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."' For so is it brought to pass, that the brother delivers up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the chil- dren rise up against the parents, and cause them to die. And he who endureth to the end let that man be saved. ^ So that this whole course of procedure characteristic or the Lord's sword, which has been sent not to heaven, but to earth, makes confession also to be there, which by enduring to the end is to issue in the suffering of death.

Chapter XI

In the same manner, therefore, we maintain that the other announcements too refer to the condition of martyrdom. " He," says Jesus, "who will value his own life also more than me, is not worthy of me," ^ — that is, he who will rather live by denying, than die by con- fessing, me; and " he who findeth his life shall lose it; but he who loseth it for my sake shall find it."* Therefore indeed he finds it, who, in winning life, denies; but he who thinks that he wins it by denying, will lose it in hell. On the other hand, he who, through confessing, is killed, will lose it for the present, but is also about to find it unto everlasting life. In fine, governors themselves, when they urge men to deny, say, " Save your life; " and, " Do not lose your life." How would Christ speak, but in accordance with the treat- ment to which the Christian would be sub- jected ? But when He forbids thinking about what answer to make at a judgment-seat,^ He is preparing His own servants/c'r what awaited them, He gives the assurance that the Holy Spirit will iu\?,\\er by them; and when He wishes a brother to be visited in prison,* He is com- manding that those about to confess be the object of solicitude; and He is soothing their

' Matt. X. 34. 2 Matt. X. 21. .1 Luke xiv. 26

4 Matt. X. 39.

5 Matt. X. 19.

6 Matt. XXV. 36,

Chapter XII ]

^45

sufferings when He asserts that God will avenge His own elect." In the parable also of the withering of the word = after the green blade had sprung up, He is drawing a picture with reference to the burning heat of persecu- tions. If these announcements are not un- derstood as they are made, without doubt they signify something else tlian the sound indi- cates; and there will be one thing in the words, another in their meanings, as is the case with allegories, with parables, with rid- dles. Whatever wind of reasoning, therefore, these scorpions may catch (in their sails), with whatever subtlety they may attack, there is now one line of defence:^ an appeal will be made to the facts themselves, whether they occur as the Scriptures represent that they would; since another thing will then be meant in the Scriptures if that very one (which seems to be so) is not found in actual facts. For what is written, must needs come to pass. Besides, what is written will then come to pass, if something different does not. But, lo ! we are both regarded as persons to be hated by all men for the sake of the name, as it is written; and are delivered up by our nearest of kin also, as it is written; and are brought before magistrates, and examined, and tortured, and make confession, and are ruthlessly killed, as it is written. So the Lord ordained. If He ordained these events other- wise, why do they not come to pass otherwise than He ordained them, that is, as He or- damed them ? And yet they do not come to pass otherwise than He ordained. Therefore, as they come to pass, so He ordained; and as He ordained, so they come to pass. For neither would they have been permitted to occur otherwise than He ordained, nor for His part would He have ordained othenvise than He would wish them to occur. Thus these passages of Scripture will not mean ought else than we recognise in actual facts; or if those events are not yet taking place which are announced, how are those taking place which have not been announced ? For these events which are taking place have not been announced, if those which are announced are different, and not these which are taking place. Well now, seeing the very occurrences are met with in actual life which are believed to have been expressed with a different mean- ing in words, what would happen if they were found to have come to pass in a different manner than had been revealed 1 But this will be the waywardness of faith, not to believe what has been demonstrated, to assume the

I Luke xviii. 7. ^ Matt. xiii. 3. 3 See note i, cap. iv. p. 637, supra.

truth of what has not been demonstrated. And to this vvaywardness I will offer the fol- lowing objection also, that if these events, which occur as is written, will not be the very ones which are announced, those too (which are meant) ought not to occur as is written, that they themselves also may not, after the example of these others, be in danger of ex- clusion, since there is one thing in the words and another in the facts; and there remains that even the events which have been an- nounced are not seen when they occur, if they are announced otherwise than they have to occur. And how will those be believed (to have come to pass), which will not have been announced as they come to pass ? Thus here- tics, by not believing what is announced as it has been shown to have taken place, believe what has not been even announced.

Who, now, should know better the marrow of the Scriptures than the school of Christ it- self ? — the persons whom the Lord both chose for Himself as scholars, certainly to be fully instructed in all points, and appointed to us for masters to instruct us in all points. To whom would He have rather made known the veiled import of His own language, than to him to whom He disclosed the likeness of His own glory — to Peter, John, and James, and afterwards to Paul, to whom He granted par- ticipation in (the joys of) paradise too, prior to his martyrdom ? Or do they also write differently from what they think — teachers using deceit, not truth ? Addressing the Chris- tians of Pontus, Peter, at all events, says, " How great indeed is the glory, if ye suffer patiently, without being punished as evil- doers I For this is a lovely feature, atid even hereunto were ye called, since Christ also suffered for us, leaving you Himself as an ex- ample, that ye should follow His own steps." ♦ And again: " Beloved, be not alarmed by the fiery trial which is taking place among you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. For, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, do ye rejoice; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; because glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you: if only none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters; yet (if any man suffer) as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf." ^ John,

4 I Pet. ii. 20.

5 I Pet. iv. la.

646

[chap. XIII.

in fact, exhorts us to lay down our lives even for our brethren,' affirming that there is no fear in love: " For perfect love casteth out fear, since fear has punishment; and he who fears is not perfect in love."'' What fear would it be better to understand (as here meant), than that which gives rise to denial ? What love does he assert to be perfect, but that which puts fear to flight, and gives cour- age to confess ? What penalty will he appoint as the punishment of fear, but that which he who denies is about to pay, who has to be slain, body and soul, in hell ? And if he teaches that we must die for the brethren, how much more for the Lord, — he being sufficiently prepared, by his own Revelation too, forgiv- ing such advice ! For indeed the Spirit had sent the injunction to the angel of the church in Smyrna : " Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." ^ Also to the angel of the church in Pergamus (mention was made) of Antipas, * the very faithful martyr, who was slain where Satan dwelleth. Also to the angel of the church in Philadelphia ^ (it was signified) that he who had not denied the name of the Lord was delivered from the last trial. Then to every conqueror the Spirit promises now the tree of life, and exemption from the second death ; now the hidden manna, with the stone of glistening whiteness, and the name unknown ( to every man save him that receiveth it) ; now power to rule with a rod of iron, and the brightness of the morning star; now the being clothed in white raiment, and not having the name blotted out of the book of life, and being made in the temple of God a pillar with the inscription on it of the name of God and of the Lord, and of the heavenly Jerusalem; now a sitting with the Lord on His throne, — which once was persistently refused to the sons of Zebedee. * Who, pray, are these so blessed conquerors, but martyrs in the strict sense of the word ? For indeed theirs are the victories whose also are the fights; theirs, however, are the fights whose also is the blood. But the souls of the martyrs both peacefully rest in the meantime under the altar, ^ and support their patience by the assured hope of revenge; and, clothed in their robes, wear the dazzling halo of brightness, until others also may fully share in their glory. For yet again a countless throng are revealed, clothed in white and distinguished by palms

' I John iii. 16. 2 1 John iv. i8.

3 Rev. ii. lo.

4 Rev. ii. 13.

5 Rev. iii. 10. *Matt. XX. 20-23. f Rev. vi. 9.

of victory, celebrating their triumph doubtless over Antichrist, since one of the elders says, " These are they who come out of that great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. " * For the flesh is the clothing of the soul. The uncleanness, indeed, is washed away by bap- tism, but the stains are changed into dazzling whiteness by martyrdom. For Esaias also promises, that out of red and scarlet there will come forth the whiteness of snow and wool. 9 When great Babylon likewise is rep- resented as drunk with the blood of the saints, '° doubtless the supplies needful for her drunkenness are furnished by the cups of mar- tyrdoms; and what suffering the fear of mar- tyrdoms will entail, is in like manner shown. For among all the castaways, nay, taking pre- cedence of them all, are the fearful. " But the fearful, " says John — and then come the others — "will have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone." " Thus fear, which, as stated in his epistle, love drives out, has pun- ishment.

Chapter XIII

But how Paul, an apostle, from being a per- secutor, who first of all shed the blood of the church, though afterwards he exchanged the sword for the pen, and turned the dagger into a plough,beingyfr.f/araveningwolf of Benjamin, then himself supplying food as did Jacob," — how he, (I say,) speaks in favour of martyr- doms, now to be chosen by himself also, when, rejoicing over the Thessalonians, he says, " So that we glory in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in all your perse- cutions and tribulations, in which ye endure a manifestation of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be accounted worthy of His kingdom, for which ye also suffer ! "'' As also in his Epistle to the Romans: " And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, being sure that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed." '^ And again: "And if children, then heirs, heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."'* And therefore he afterward says: "Who shall separate us from the love of God ? Shall

8 Rev. vii. 14.

9lsa. i. i8. ic Rev. .xvii. 6. " Rev. xxi. 8. •2 Gen. XXV. 34, xxvii. 25. '3 2 Thess. 1. 4. '* Rom. V. 3. 'i Rom. viii. 17.

Chapter XIV ]

647

tribulation, or distress, or famine, or naked- ness, or peril, or sword? (As it is written: For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we have been counted as sheep for the slaugh- ter.) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him who loved us. For we are persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."' But further, in recounting his own sufferings to the Corinthians, he certainly decided that suffering must be borne: " In labours, (he says,) more abundant, in prisons very frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one; thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned," " and the rest. And if these severi- ties will seem to be more grievous than mar- tyrdoms, yet once more he says: " Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake." ' He also says, in verses occurring in a previous part of the epistle: " Our condition is such, that we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; and are in need, but not in utter want; since we are har- assed by persecutions, but not forsaken; it is such that we are cast down, but not de- stroyed; always bearing about in our body the dying of Christ."* "But though," says he, "our outward man perisheth" — the flesh doubtless, by the violence of persecutions — " yet the inward man is renewed day by day " — the soul, doubtless, by hope in the promises. " For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal" — he is speaking of trou- bles; " but the things which are not seen are eternal" — he is promising rewards. But writing in bonds to the Thessalonians, ^ he certainly affirmed that they were blessed, since to them it had been given not only to believe on Christ, but also to suffer for His sake. "Having," says he, "the same con- flict which ye both saw in me, and now hear to be in me."^ " For thou grh I am offered upon the sacrifice, I joy and rejoice with you all; in like manner do ye also joy and rejoice with me." You see what he decides the bliss of martyrdom to be, in honour of which he is providing a festival of mutual joy. When at length he had come to be very near the at-

• Rom. viii. 35.

2 a Cor. xi. 23.

3 2 Cor. xii. 10.

4 2 Cor. iv. 8.

5 Should be Philippians : i.e. Phil. i. 29, 30. ePhil. ii. 17.

tainment of his desire, greatly rejoicing in what he saw before him, he writes in these terms to Timothy: " For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; there is laid up for me the crown which the Lord will give me on that day " ' — doubtless of his suffering. Admonition enough did he for his part also give in preceding passage.s: " It is a faithful saying: For if we are dead with Christ, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we believe not, yet He is faithful: He cannot deny Him- self." ^ " Be not thou, therefore, ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner; "9 for he had said before: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." '* For we suffer with power from love toward God, and with a sound mind, when we suffer for our blamelessness. But further, if He anywhere enjoins endurance, for what more than for sufferings is He providing it ? If any- where He tears men away from idolatry, what more than martryrdoms takes the lead, in tearing them away to its injury ?

No doubt the apostle admonishes the Ro- mans " to be subject to all power, because there is no power but of God, and because (the ruler) does not carry the sword without reason, and is the servant of God, nay also, says he, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. For he had also previ- ously spoken thus: " For rulers are not a terror to a good work, but to an evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of it. Therefore he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid." Thus he bids you be sub- ject to the powers, not on an opportunity oc- curring for his avoiding mart)''rdom, but when he is making an appeal in behalf of a good life, under the view also of their being as it were assistants bestowed upon righteousness, as it were handmaids of the divine court of justice, which even here pronounces sentence beforehand upon the guilty. Then he goes on also to show how he wishes you to be sub- ject to the powers, bidding you pay "tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom cus- tom," " that is, the things which are Caesar's

7 2 Tim. iv. 6.

82 Tim ii. 11.

9 2 Tim. i. 8. '"2 Tim. 1. 7. " Rom. .xiii, I. »- Rom. xiii. 6.

648

[chap. XV.

to Caesar, and the things which are God's to God;' but man is the property of God alone. Peter,'' no doubt, had likewise said that the king indeed must be honoured, yet so that the king be honoured only when he keeps to his own sphere, when he is far from assuming divine honours; because both father and mother will be loved along with God, not put on an equality with Him. Besides, one will not be permitted to love even life more than God.

Chapter XV

Now, then, the epistles of the apostles also are well known. And do we, (you say), in all respects guileless souls and doves merely, love to go astray ? I should think from eager- ness to live. But let it be so, that meaning departs from their epistles. And yet, that the apostles endured such sufferings, we know: the teaching is clear. This only I perceive in running through the Acts. I am not at all on the search. The prisons there, and the bonds, and^,the scourges, and the big stones, and the swords, and the onsets by the Jews, and the assemblies of the heathen, and the in- dictments by tribunes, and the hearing of i causes by kings, and the judgment-seats of pro-consuls and the name of Caesar, do not need an interpreter. That Peter is struck,' that Stephen is overwhelmed by stones,* that James is slain ^ as is a victim at the altar, that Paul is beheaded has been written in their own blood. And if a heretic wishes his con- fidence to rest upon a public record, the ar- chives of the empire will speak, as would the stones of Jerusalem. We read the lives of the Caesars: At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood the rising faith. Then is Peter girt by another,* when he is made fast to the cross. Then does Paul obtain a birth suited to Roman citizenship, when in Rome

' Matt. xxii. 21.

2 I Pet. ii. 13.

3 It has bef.n thought that the allusion is to the breaking of the legs of the crucified to hasten their death, not to the beating to which the apostles were subjected by the Jewish council : Acts v. 40. — Tr.

4 Acts vii. 59.

5 James the brother of our Lord, not the James mentioned Acts xii. 2.

^John xzL zS.

he springs to life again ennobled by martyr- dom. Wherever I read of these occurrencer so soon as I do so, I learn to suffer; nor does it signify to me which I follow as teachers of martyrdom, whether the declarations or the deaths of the apostles, save that in their deaths I recall their declarations also. For they would not have suffered ought of a kind they had not previously known they had to suffer. When Agabus, making use of corresponding action too, had foretold that bonds awaited Paul, the disciples, weeping and entreating that he would not venture upon going to Jeru- salem, entreated in vain.' As for him, hav- ing a mind to illustrate what he had always taught, he says, " Why weep ye, and grieve my heart ? But for my part, I could wish not only to suffer bonds, but also to die at Jerusa- lem, for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ." And so they yielded by saying, " Let the will of the Lord be done;" feeling sure, doubt- less, that sufferings are included in the will of God. For they had tried to keep him back with the intention not of dissuading, but to show love for him; as yearning for (the pres- ervation of) the apostle, not as counselling against martyrdom. And if even then a Pro- dicus or Valentinus stood by, suggesting that one must not confess on the earth before men, and must do so the less in truth, that God may not (seem to) thirst for blood, and Christ for a repayment of suffering, as though He besought it with the view of obtaining sal- vation by it for Himself also, he would have immediately heard from the servant of God what the devil had from the Lord: " Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me. It is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."* But even now it will be right that he hear it, seeing that, long after, he has poured forth these poisons, which not even thus are to injure readily any of the weak ones, if any one in faith will drink, before being hurt, or even immediately after, this draught of ours,

7 Acts xxi. II.

8 Matt. xvi. 23 and iv, 10,— '» mixing up of two passages of Scripture.

IX APPENDIX

AGAINST ALL HERESIES.'

[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. THELWALL.]

Chapter I EARLIEST HERETICS:' SIMON MAGUS,

MENANDER, SATURNINUS, BASILIDES, NICO- LAUS. [the work begins AS A FRAGMENT.]

Of which heretics I will (to pass by a good deal) summarize some few particulars. For of Judaism's heretics I am silent — Dositheus the Samaritan, I mean, who was the first who had the hardihood to repudiate the prophets, on the ground that they had not spoken under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Of the Sad- ducees I am silent, who, springing from the root of this error, had the hardihood to adjoin to this heresy the denial likewise of the resur- rection of the flesh. ^ The Pharisees I pre- termit, who were "divided" from the Jews by their superimposing of certain additaments to the law, which fact likewise made them worthy of receivmg this very name;* and, together with them, the Herodians likewise, who said that Herod was Christ. To those I betake myself who have chosen to make the gospel the starting-point of their heresies.

Of these the first of all is Simon Magus, who in the Acts of the Apostles earned a con- dign and just sentence from the Apostle Peter.5 pje had the hardihood to call himself the Supreme Virtue, * that is, the Supreme God; and moreover, (to assert) that the uni- verse' had been originated by his angels; that he had descended in quest of an erring dge-

« |_On p. 14, this volume, see nearly all that need be said, of this spurious treatise. I add a few references to Routh, O/mscu/a, Vol. 1. p. 160 etc.. His honouring it with a place in his work must be my apology for not relegating it to the collection of spurious Tertulliana,sub/ine.']

■ = [Routh says he inadvertently changed his title to reaA Advs, Uiereticos^ but that it is better after all, in view of the opening sentence.]

3 See Acts xxiii. 8, and the references there.

•• Pharisees = Separatists.

5 See Acts viii. 9-24.

6 [ «se Virtue in this and similar cases ia its Miltonic sense.

7 Mundum.

mon,' which was Wisdom; that, in a phantas- mal semblance of God, he had tiot suffered among the Jews, but was as if he had suffered. »

After him Menander, his disciple''(likewise a magician '°), saying the same as Simon. Whatever Simon had affirmed himself to be, this did Menander equally affirm himself to be, asserting that none could possibly have salva- tion without being baptized in his name.

Afterwards, again, followed Saturninus: he, too, affirming that the innascible " Virtue, that is God, abides in the highest regions, and that those regions are infinite, and in the re- gions immediately above us; but that angels far removed from Him made the lower world;" and that, because light from above had flashed refulgently in the lower regions, the angels had carefully tried to form man after the sim- ilitude of that light; that man lay crawling on the surface of the earth; that this light and this higher virtue was, thanks to mercy, the salvable spark in man, while all the rest of him perishes; '^ that Christ had not existed in a bodily substance, and had endured a quasi- passion in a phantasmal shape merely; that a resurrection of the flesh there will by no means be.

Afterwards broke out the heretic Basilides. He affirms that there is a supreme Deity, by name Abraxas, '* by whom was created Mind, which in Greek he calls Nw?; that thence sprang the Word; that of Him issued Provi- dence, Virtue, '5 and Wisdom; that out of

8 Or, " intelligence."

9 Or, *' but had undergone a ^Kaw-ZawiVw." 10 Magus.

" Innascibilem ;" but Fr. Junius' conjecture, "jnn«»3cibilem," is agreeable to the Greek " oyi'Mo-Tos."

•2 Mundum. .,

'3 The text here is partially conjectural, and if correct, clumsy. For the sense, .see de Anima, c. xxiii. ad init,

'* Or, Abraxes, or Abrasax. 'S Or, Power.

r^

050

AGAINST ALL HERESIES

[chap. II.

these subsequently were made Principalities, Powers,' and Angels; that there ensued in- finite issues and processions of angels; that by these angels 365 heavens were formed, and the world, ^ in honour of Abraxas, whose name, if computed, has in itself this number. Now, among the last of the angels, those who made this world, = he places the God of the Jews latest, that is, the God of the Law and of the Prophets, whom he denies to be a God, but affirms to be an angel. To him, he says, was allotted the seed of Abraham, and accord- ingly he it was who transferred the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt into the land of Canaan; affirming him to be turbulent above the other angels, and accordingly given to the frequent arousing of seditions and wars, yes, and the shedding of human blood. Christ, moreover, he affirms to have been sent, not by this maker of the world, ^ but by the above- named Vbraxas; and to have come in a phantasm, and been destitute of the substance of flesh: that it was not He who suffered among the Jews, but that Simon '• was cruci- fied in His stead: whence, again, there must be no. believing on him who was crucified, lest one confess to having believed on Simon. Maityrdoms, he says, are not to be endured. The resurrection of the flesh he strenuously impugns, affirming that salvation has not been promised to bodies.

A brother heretic ^ emerged in Nicolaus. He was one of the seven deacons who were appointed in the Acts of the Apostles.* He affirms that Darkness was seized with a con- cupiscence— and, indeed, a foul and obscene one — after Light: out of this permixture it is a shame to say what fetid and unclean (com- binations arose). The rest (of his tenets), too, are obscene. For he tells of certain ^ons, sons of turpitude, and of conjunctions of execrable and obscene embraces and per- mixtures,? and certain yet baser outcomes of these. He teaches that there were born, moreover, daemons, and gods, and spirits seven, and other things sufficiently sacrilegious alike and foul, which we blush to recount, and at once pass them by. Enough it is for us that this heresy of the Nicolaitans has been con- demned by the Apocalypse of the Lord with the weightiest authority attaching to a sen- tence, in saying " Because this thou boldest, thou hatest the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which I too hate."*

.See Matt, xxvii. 32 ;

> Potestates. 3 Mundum.

3 Mundum.

4 i.e. probably " Simon the Cyrenian. Mark xv. 21 ; Inke xxiii. 26.

5 Alter hareticus. But Fr. Junius suggests " ahter. * See Acts vi. 1-6. [But the identity is doubtful.]

7 So Oebler gives in his text. But his suggestion, given in

Chapter II OPHITES, CAINITES, SETHITES

To these are added those heretics likewise who are called Ophites:^ for they magnify the serpent to such a degree, that they prefer him even to Christ Himself; for it was he, they say, who gave us the origin of the knowl- edge of good and of evil." His power and majesty (they say) Moses perceiving, set up the brazen serpent; and whoever gazed upon him obtained health." Christ Himself (they say further) in His gospel imitates Moses' serpent's sacred power, in saying: " And as Moses upreared the serpent in the desert, so it behoveth the Son of man to be upreared." '- Him they introduce to bless their eucharistic (elements). '3 Now the whole parade and doctrine of this error flowed from the follow- ing source. They say that from the supreme primary ^on 7vho7n meyi speak qf^^ there ema- nated several other inferior ^ons. To all these, however, there opposed himself an ^on who name is laldabaoth.^^ He had been conceived by the permixture of a second .^on with inferior ^ons; and afterwards, when he '* had been desirous of forcing his way into the higher regions, had been disabled by the permixture of the gravity of matter with him- self to arrive at the higher regions; had been left in the midst, and had extended himself to his full dimensions, and thus had made the sky. '7 laldabaoth, however, had descended lower, and had made him seven sons, and had shut from their view the upper regions bv self-distension, in order that, since (these) angels could not know what was above,'* they might think him the sole God. These in- ferior Virtues and angels, therefore, had made 7nati; and, because he had been originated by weaker and mediocre powers, he lay crawl- ing, worm-like. That /Eon, however, out of which laldaboath had proceeded, moved to the heart with envy, had injected into man as he lay a certain spark; excited whereby, he was through prudence to grow wise, and be able to understand the things above. So, again, the laldaboath aforesaid, turning indignant, had emitted out of himself the Virtue and similitude of the set pent; and this had been

note, is perhaps preferable: "and of execrable embraces and permixtures, and obscene conjunctions." * See Rev. ii. 6. 9 Or, " Serpenlarians," from 6<^is. a serpent.

'° See Gen. iii. 1-7.

" See Num. xxi. 4-9.

■= John iii. 14.

'3 Eucharistia (neut. pi.) = eVi;(api(rT«ia (Fr. Junius in Oehler) : perhaps " the f>lace in ivliiilt they celebrate the cucharist."

'4 These words are intended 10 give the force of the " ilki " itf the original.

•5 Roberston (Ch. /fist. i. p. 30, note 2, ed. 2. 1858) seems to take this word to mean " Son of liarkness or Chaos."

•6 " Seque" Oehler reads here, which appears bad enough Latin, unless his " se" after " extendisse " is an error.

'7 Or, "heaven."

'8 Or, " what the upper regions were."

Chapter III J

AGAINST ALL HERESIES

6:; I

the Virtue in paradise — that is, this had been the serpetit — whom Eve had believed as if he had been God the Son.' He= plucked, say they, from the fruit of the tree, and thus con- ferred on mankind the knowledge of things! good and evil.^ Christ, moreover, existed not in substance of flesh: salvation of the flesh; is not to be hoped for at all. ;

Moreover, also, there has broken out an- other heresy also, which is called that of the Cainitcs.* And the reason is, that they mag- nify Cain as if he had been conceived of some potent Virtue which operated in him; for Abel had been procreated after being conceived of an inferior Virtue, and accordingly had been found inferior. They who assert this likewise defend the traitor Judas, telling us that he is admirable and great, because of the advantages he is vaunted to have conferred on mankind; for some of them think that thanksgiving is to be rendered to Judas on this account: viz., Judas, they say, observing that Christ wished to subvert the truth, be- trayed Him, in order that there might be no possibility of truth's being subverted. And others thus dispute against them, and say: Because the powers of this worlds were un- willing that Christ should suffer, lest through His death salvation should be prepared for mankind, he, consulting for the salvation of mankind, betrayed Christ, in order that there might be no possibility at all of the salvation being impeded, which 7tias being impeded through the Virtues which were opposing Christ's passion; and thus, through the pas- sion of Christ, there might be no possibility of the salvation of mankind being retarded.

But, again, the heresy has started forth which is called that of the Sethi fes. ^ The doctrine of this perversity is as follows. Two human beings were formed by the angels — Cain and Abel. On their account arose great contentions and discords among the angels; for this reason, that Virtue which was above all the Virtues — which they style the Mother — when they said^ that Abel had been slain, willed this Seth of theirs to be conceived and born in place of Abel, in order that those angels might be escheated who had created those two former human beings, while this pure seed rises and is born. For they say that there had been iniquitous permixtures of two angels and human beings; for which reason that Virtue which (as we have said) they style

' Filio Deo.

2 Or, " she ;" but perhaps the text is preferable.

3 See Gen. lii. 1-7.

4 See de Ba/>t. c. i. SMundi.

*0r, Sethoites.

7 " Dicerent ;" but Routh (I think) has conjectured " discerct '

" when she learned^' etc., which ^is very simple and apt.

the Mother brought on the deluge even, for the purpose of vengeance, in order that that seed of permixture might be swept away, and this only seed which was pure be kept entire. But (in vain): for they who had originated those of the former seed sent into the ark (secretly and stealthily, and unknown to that Mother-Virtue), together with those '* eight souls, "^ the seed likewise of Ham, in order that the seed of evil should not perish, but should, together with the rest, be preserved, and after the deluge be restored to the earth, and, by example of the rest, should grow up and diffuse itself, and fill and occupy tlie whole orb.' Of Christ, moreover, their senti- ments are such that they call Him merely Seth, and say that He was instead of the actual Seth.

C.x.'VP. in. CARPOCRATES, CERINTHUS, EBIOK.

Carpocrates, futhermore, introduced the following sect. He affirms that there is one Virtue, the chief among the upper (regions): that out of this were produced angels and Virtues, which, being far distant from the upper Virtues, created this world '° in tlie lower regions: that Christ was not born of the Virgifi Mary, but was generated — a mere human being — of the seed of Joseph, superior (they admit) above all others in the practice of righteousness and in integrity of life; that He suffered among the Jews; and that His soul alone was received in heaven as having been more firm and hardy than all others: whence he would infer, retaining only the salvation of souls, that there are no resurrec- tions of the body.

After him brake out the heretic Cerinthus, teaching similarly. For he, too, says that the world '° was originated by those angels;" and sets forth Christ as born of the seed of Josepii, contending that He was merely human, with- out divinity; affirming also that the Law was given by angels;'- representing the God of the Jews as not the Lord, but an angel.

His successor was Ebion, '^ not agreeing with Cerinthus in every point; in that he affirms the world '^ to have been made by God, not by angels; and because it s written, " No disciple above his master, nor servant above his lord, " '^ sets forth likewise the law

8 See I Pet. iii. 20.

9 Cf. Gen. i.x. i, 2, 7, 19. 10 Mundum.

" " Ab illis " is perhaps an error for " ab angelis," by absf)rp- tion of the first syllable. So Routh had conjectured before me.

^^" Ab angelis :" an erroneous notion, which professed probably to derive support from John i. 17, Acts vii. 53, Gal. iii. 19, where, however, the Greek prepositions should be carefully noted, and ought in no case to be rendered by " ab."

'3W/. Hebion.

'4 See Matt. .\. 24 ; Luke vi. 40; John xiii. lej.

6^2

[chap. IV.

■tis binding^'' of course for the purpose of ex- cluding the gospel and vindicating Judaism.

Chapter IV VALENTINUS, PTOLEMY AND SECUN

DUS, HERACLEON

Valentinus the heretic, moreover, intro- duced many fables. These I will retrench and briefly summarize. For he introduces the Pleroma and the thirty ./Eons. These yEons, moreover, he explains in the way of syzygies, that is, conjugal unions * of some kind. For among the first, ^ he says, were Depth* and Silence; of these proceeded Mind and Truth; out of whom burst the Word and Life; from whom, again, were created Man^ and the Church. But (these are not all); for of these last also proceeded twelve ^ons; from Speech, * moreover, and Life proceeded other ten -^ons: such is the Triacontad of ^ons, which is made up in the Pleroma of an ogdoad, a decad, and a duodecad. The thirtieth -^on, moreover, willed to see the great Bythus; and, to see him, had the hardihood to ascend into the upper regions; and not being capable of seeing his mag- nitude, desponded, ^ and almost suffered dis- solution, had not some one, — he whom he calls Horos, to wit, — sent to invigorate him, strengthened him by pronouncing the word *'Iao."^ This .^on, moreover, which was thus reduced to despondency, he calls Acha- moth, (and says) that he was seized with certain regretful passions, and out of his pas- sions gave birth to material essences. ^ For

• i.e., as Rig.'s quotation from Jerome's hidiculiis (in Oehler) shows, " because in so far as, Christ observed it."

= Conjugationes. Cowper uses our word " conjugation " in this sense in one of his humorous pieces. [" Pairing-time."] The " syzygies " consisted of one male and one female ..ton each.

3 Oehler separates " in primis ;" but perhaps they ought to be united^" inprimis," or " imprimis " — and taken as = " prime ab initio."

4 Bythus.

5 Hominem.

6 " Sermone :" he said " Verbum " before.

7 In defectione fuisse. *Cf. adv. Valctif. cc. .\. xiv.

note 8) is wanting in the older editions the Adv. I'a/enihi. to eke out a defect.]

9 Such appears to be the meaning of this sentence as Oehler gives it. P>ut the text is here corrupt ; and it seems plain there must either be sometliing lost relating to this " Achamoth," or else some capital error in the reading, or, thirdly, .some gross and unac- <:<mntuble confusion in the writer : for the sentence as it stands is wholly irreconcilable with what follows. It evidently makes " Ach- amoth " identical with " the thirtieth yEon " above-named; and yet, without introducing any fresh subject, the writer goes on to state that this despondent (Eon, who " conceived and bare," was itself the offspring <>f despondency, and made an infirm world out of the infirm materials whicli " Achamoth " supplied it with. Now it is apparent from other sources — as, for instance, from 'Jert. adi<. I'alentln. above referrfd to -that the "thirtieth .'F.oii " was sup- posed Xahe. female^ Sopliin (Wisdom) by name, and that she was said \.ohc the parent ui " Achamoth," or " Enthyniesis" (see rz^/?'. I'aleiitin. cc. ix. x. .\i. xiv. xxv.), while " Achamoth " herself ap- pears by some accounts to be also called narrio 2o</)ia. The name '■Achamoth" itself, which Tertullian {adv. Valentin, c. xiv. ad init.) calls an " uninterpretable name," is believed to be a repre- sentation of a Hebrew word meaning " wisdom ;" and hence, poss- ibly, some of the confusion may have arisen, -from a promiscuous use, namely, of the titles "Achamoth" and "Sophia." More- over, it would appear that some words lower down as to the pro- duction by " Achamoth " of " Demiurgus," must have dropped out. Unless these two oraiuions be supplied, the passage is

[Routh says that this lAO (see It was borrowed from

he was panic-stricken, he says, and terror- stricken, and overcome with sadness; and of these passions he conceived and bare. Hence he made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and whatever is in them: for which cause all things made by him are in- firm, and frail, and capable of falling, and mortal, inasmuch as he himself was conceived and produced from despondency. He, how- ever, originated this world '° out of those ma- terial essences which Achamoth, by his panic, or terror, or sadness, or sweat, had supplied. For of his panic, he says, was made darkness; of his fear and ignorance, the spirits of wicked- ness and malignity; of his sadness and tears, the humidities of founts, the material essence of floods and sea. Christ, moreover, was sent by that First-Father who is Bythus. He, moreover, was not in the substance of our flesh; but, bringing down from heaven some spiritual body or other, passed through the Virgin Mary as water through a pipe, neither receiving nor borrowing aught thence. The resurrection of our present flesh he denies, but (maintains that) of some sister-flesh." Of the Law and the prophets some parts he approves, some he disapproves; that is, he disapproves all in reprobating some. A Gos- pel of his own he likewise has, beside these of ours.

After him arose the heretics Ptolemy and Secundus, who agree throughout with Valen- tinus, differing only in the following point: viz., whereas Valentinus had feigned but thirty ^'Eons, they have added several more; for they first added four, and subsequently four more. And Valentine's assertion, that it was the thirtieth JEon which strayed out from the Pleroma. (as falling into despon- dency,) they deny; for the one which de- sponded on account of disappointed yearning to see the First-P'ather was not of the original triacontad, they say.

There arose, besides, Heracleon, a broth- er '^-heretic, whose sentiments pair with Val- entine's; but, by some novelty of terminology, he is desirous of seeming to differ in sentiment. For he introduces the notion that there existed first what he terms (a Monad) ;'3 and then out of that Monad (arose) two, and then the

wholly unintelligible. Can the fact that the Hebrew word which " Achamoth " represents isayVw.//. in any way explain this con- fused medley, or help to reconcile conflicting accounts ? The avia and (coT<o 2oiJ>ta seem to point in some degree to some such solution of some of the existing difficulties. " lao," again, is a word which has caused much perplexity. Can it possibly be connected with iao/uat, " to heal ?" [See note 8.]

'" Mundum.

" Oehler's suggestion is to vary the pointing so as to give this sense : " The resurrection of this flesh he denies. 15ut of a sister- Law and prophets," etc. But this seems even more harsh thao the other.

•'"'" Alter," i.e., perhaps another o////c sntite cla.ts.

't It seems almost necessary to supply some word here ; and as " Monade " follows, it seemed simple to supply " Monada."

CUAI'

vu]

AGAINST Al.l. HERESIES.

'OJ

rest of the -^ilons. Then he introduces the whole system of Valentine.

Chapter V MARCUS AND COLARBASUS

After these there were not wanting a Mar- cus and a Colarbasus, composing a novel lieresy out of the Greek alpha])et. For they affirm that without those letters truth cannot be found; nay more, that in those letters the whole plenitude and perfection of truth is comprised; for this was why Christ said, " I am the Alpha and the Omega."' In fact, they say that Jesus Christ descended, =" that is, that the dwe came down on Jesus; ^ and, since the dove is styled by the Greek name TrrpiaTepa — (peristera), it has in itself this number DCCCI.* These men run through their o, ■J', X, ^, T, T — through the whole alphabet, in- deed, up to A and B — and compute ogdoads and decads. So we may grant it useless and idle to recount all their trifles. What, how- ever, must be allowed not merely vain, but likewise dangerous, is this: they feign a second God, beside the Creator; they affirm that Christ was not in the substance of flesh; they say there is to be no resurrection of the flesh.

Chapter VI CERDO, MARCION, LUCAN, APELLES

To this is added one Cerdo. He introduces two first causes, 5 that is, two Gods — one good, the other cruel:* the good being the superior; the latter, the cruel one, being the creator of the world. ^ He repudiates the prophecies and the Law; renounces God the Creator; maintains that Christ who came was the Son of the superior God; affirms that He was not in the substance of flesh; states Him to have been only in a phantasmal shape, to have not really suffered, but undergone a quasi- passion, and not to have been born of a vir- gin, nay, really not to have been born at all. A resurrection of the soul merely does he ap-

' See Rev. i. 7, xxi. 6, xxii. i3.

2 Denique Jesum Christum descendisse. So Oehler, who does not notice any conjectural emendation, or various reading, of the words. If correct, his reading would refer to the views of a two- fold Jesus Christ — a real and a phantasmal one — held by docetic Gnostics, or to such views as Valentine's, in whose system, so far as it is ascertainable from the confused and discrepant accounts of it, there would appear to have been one .■Eon called Christ, anoth- er called Jesus, and a human person called Jesus and Christ, with whom the true Jesus associated Himself. Some such jumble of ideas the two heretics now under review would seem to have held, if Oehler's be the true reading. But the difficulties are some- what lessened if we accept the very simple emendation which nat- urally suggests itself, and which, I see, Semler has proposed and Routh inclines to receive, " in Jesum Christum descendisse," i. e. " that Christ descended on Jesus."

3 See Matt. iii. 13-17 ; Mark i. 9-1 1 ; I.uke iii. 21-22 ; John i. 29

"34-

< Habere secum numerum DCCCI. So Oehler, after Jos. Scal-

iger. who, however, seems to have read " secum /tunc numerum,"

for the ordinary reading, " habere secundum numerum," which

would mean, " represents, in the way 0/ numericai value,

CCCI."

5 Initia dno.

' Sajvum.

7 Mundi.

prove, denying that of the body. The Gosj)el of Luke alone, and that not entire, does he receive. Of the Apostle Paul he takes neither all the epistles, nor in their integrity. The Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse he rejects as false.

After him emerged a disciple of his, one ^L'lrcion by name, a native of Pontus,^ son of a bishop, excommunicated because of a rape committed on a certain virgin.' He, starting from the fact that it is said, " FLvery good tree beareth good fruit, but an evil evil,"'° attempted to approve the heresy of Cerdo; so that his assertions are identical with those of the former heretic before him.

After him arose one Lucan by name, a fol- lower and disciple of Marcion. He, too, wad- ing through the same kinds of blasphemy, teaches the same as Marcion and Cerdo had taught.

Close on their heels follows Apelles, a di.s- ciple of Marcion, who after lapsing, into his own carnality," was severed from Marcion. He introduces one God in the infinite upper regions, and states that He made many powers and angels; beside Him, withal, another Vir- tue, which he affirms to be called Lord, but represents as an angel. By him he will have it appear that the world" was originated in imitation of a superior world. '^ With this laiver world he mingled throughout (a princi- ple of) repentance, because he had not made it so perfectly as that superior world had been originated. The Law and the prophets he repudiates. Christ he neither, like Marcior affirms to have been in a phantasmal shape, nor yet in substance of a true body, as the Gospel teaches; but says, because He de- scended from the upper regions, that in the course of His descent He wove together for Himself a starry and airy'* flesh; and, in His resurrection, restored, in the course of His ascent, to the several individual elements whatever had been borrowed in His descent: and thus — the several parts of His body dis- persed— He reinstated in heaven His spirit only. This man denies the resurrection of the flesh. He uses, too, one only aposLle; but that is Marcion's, that is, a mutilated one. He teaches the salvation of souls alone.

8 " Ponticus genere," lit. " a Pontic by race" which of course may not necessarily, like our native, imply actual 6irt/t in Pontus. [Note — " son of a bishop :'' an inde.x of early date, though n<)l necessarily Ante-Nicene. A mere forgery of later origin would have omitted it.]

9 Rig., with whom Oehler agrees, reminds us that neither in the de Pmscr. nor in the adv. Marc, nor, apparently, in lrena;us, is any such statement brought forward.

'"See Matt. vii. 17,

" See de Prcescr, c. xxx., andcomp. with it what is said of Mar- cion above. j '= Mundum. ; '3 Mundi.

1 '4 " Aeream," i.e., composed of the air, the tower air, or atmos- phere ; not " aetheream," of the upper air, or ether.

654

AGAINST ALL HERESIES

[chap, vin.

He has, besides, private but extraordinary lections of his own, which he calls " Manifes- tations,"' of one Pliilumene,- a girl whom be follows as a prophetess. He has, besides, his own books, which he has entitled books of Syllogisms, in which he seeks to prove that whatever Moses has written about God is not true, but is false.

CHAP, VII. — TATIAN, CATAPHRVGIANS, CATA- PROCLANS, CAT.t:SCHINETANS.

To all these heretics is added one Tatian, a brother-heretic. This man was Justin Martyr's disciple. After Justin's death he l)egan to cherish different opinions from his. For he wholly savours of Valentinus; adding this, that Adam cannot even attain salvation : as if, when the branches become salvable,3 the root were not!

Other heretics swell the Ust who are called Cataphrygians, but their teaching is not uni- form. For there are (of them) sorne who are called Cataproclans;'' there are others who are termed Cataeschinetans.^ These have a blasphemy common, and a blasphemy not common, but peculiar and special. The com- mon blasphemy lies in their saying that the Holy Spirit was in the apostles indeed, the Paraclete was not; and in their saying that the Paraclete has spoken in Montanus more things than Christ brought forward into (the compass of) the Gospel, and not merely more, but likewise better and greater. But the particular one they who follow ^schines have; this, namely, whereby they add this, that they affirm Christ to be Himself Son and Father.

Chapter VIII BLASTUS, TWO THEODOTI, PRAXEAS

In addition to all these, there is likewise Blastus, who would latently introduce Juda- ism. For he says the passover is not to be kept otherwise than according to the law of Moses, on the fourteenth of the month. But who would fail to see that evangelical grace is escheated if he recalls Christ to the Law?

<J. V.

' Phaneroseis. Oehler refers to de Prtescr. c. xxx

2<^iAou>i«'ioj, "loved one."

^Salvi. Perhaps if it be questionable whether this word may be so rendered in a correct I.atinist, it may be lawful to render it so in so incorrect a one as our present author.

4 i.e. followers of Proclus.

5 I.e. followers of >Eschines. So this writer takes " Cataphry- ges " to mean followers of the Phrygians."

Add to these Theodotus the Byzantine, who, 'after being apprehended for Christ's Name, and apostatizing,*^ ceased not to blaspheme against Christ. For he introduced a doctrine by which to affirm that Christ was merely a human being, but deny His deity; teaching that He was born of the Holy Spirit indeed of a virgin, but was a solitary and bare human being,Mvith no pre-eminence above the rest (of mankind), but only that of righteousness.

After him brake out a second heretical Theodotus, who again himself introduced a sister-sect, and says that the human being Christ Himself ^ was merely conceived alike, and born, of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, but that He was inferior to Melchizedek ; because it is said of Christ, " Thou art a priest unto eternity, after the order of Mel- chizedek." ^ For that Melchizedek, he says, was a heavenly Virtue of pre-eminent grace; in that Christ acts for human beings, being made their Deprecator and Advocate: Mel- chizedek does so '° for heavenly angels and Virtues. For to such a degree, he says, is he better than Christ, that he is aitarup (father- less), (Lfif/Tup (motherless), a}evea?u)yT/To^ (without genealogy), of whom neither the beginning nor the end has been comprehended, nor can be comprehended."

But after all these, again, one Praxeas introduced a heresy which Victorinus" v/as careful to corroborate. He asserts that Jesus Christ is God the Father Almighty. Him he contends to have been crucified, and suffered, and died; beside which, with a profane and sacrilegious temerity, he maintains the prop- osition that He is Himself sitting at His own right hand. '3

*Negavit. See de Idol. c. xxiii. note i.

7 Hominem solitarium atque nudum. The words seem to mean, destitute of anything super\\wvaa.n.

8 Et ips;<»/ hominem Christum tantummodo. I rather incline to read, as in the preceding sentence, " et ipjt" .•" "and bimsell affirms Christ to have been merely human, conceived alike," etc.

9 See Ps. ex. 4, and the references there.

'o The Latin here is very careless, unless, with Routh, we sug- gest " et" for " eo," and render: "and that what Christ does," etc., " Melchizedek does," etc-

'" See Heb. vii. 1-3.

'2 Who he is, no one knows. Oehler (following the lead of Fabricius on Philaster, cap. 49, p. 102) believes the name to be a mistake for Victor, a bishop of Rome, who (see Ad7i. Frax. c. i.) had held the episcopate when Praxeas was there. His successor was Zephyrinus ; and it is an ingenious conjecture of Oehler, that these two names, the one written as a correction of the other, may

Victor \

have been confused : thus, yeohv-jnus l • ^"^ thus of the two

may have made Victorinus.

'3 The form and order of the words here used are certainly re- markably similar to the ezpressioas and order of the " Apcstles' Creed."

TERTULLIAN

PART THIRD