tion for the objects they had in view; nor would they have given the arts to the world by any but those in whose names, and images, and histories they set up for their own ends the artifice of consecration. /• CHAP. XI.
In fulfilment of our plan, let us now go on to consider the combats. Their origin is akin to that of the games {ludi). Hence they arc kept as either sacred or funereal, as they have been instituted in honour of the idol-gods of the nations or of the dead. Thus, too, they are called Olympian in honour of Jupiter, known at Rome as the Capitoline; Nemean, in honour of Hercules; Isthmian, in honour of Neptune; the rest vwrtuarii, as belonging to the dead. What wonder, then, if idolatry pollutes the combat-parade with profane crowns, with sacerdotal chiefs, with attendants belonging to the various colleges, last of all with the blood of its sacrifices? To add a completing word about the " place " — in the common place for the college of the arts sa- cred to the Muses, and Apollo, and Minerva, and also for that of the arts dedicated to Mars, they with contest and sound of trumpet emu- late the circus in the arena, which is a real temple — I mean of the god whose festivals it celebrates. The gymnastic arts also origi- nated with their Castors, and Herculeses, and Mercuries.
CHAP. XIV.} THE SHOWS, OR I)E SPECTACULIS.
^5 CHAP. XII.
It remains for us to examine the " specta- cle " most noted of all, and in highest favour. Ct is called a dutiful service {inunus), from its peing an office, for it bears the name of "^- cium'' as well as '' miinus.'' The ancients thought that in this solemnity they rendered oifices to the dead; at a later period, with a cruelty more refined, they somewhat modified its character. For formerly, in the belief that the souls of the departed were appeased by human blood, they were in the habit of buying captives or slaves of wicked disposition, and immolating them in their funeral obsequies. Afterwards they thought good to throw the veil of pleasure over their iniquity.' Those, therefore, whom they had provided for the combat, and then trained in arms as best they could, only that they might learn to die, they, on the funeral day, killed at the places of sepulture. They alleviated death by murders. Such is the origin of the " Munus." But by degrees their refinement came up to their cruelty; for these human wild beasts could not find pleasure exquisite enough, save in the spectacle of men torn to pieces by wild beasts. Offerings to propitiate the dead then were regarded as belonging to the class of funeral sacrifices; and these are idolatry; for idolatry, in fact, is a sort of homage to the departed; the one as well as the other is a service to dead men. Moreover, demons have abode in the images of the dead. To refer also to the matter of names, though this sort of exhibition has passed from honours of the dead to honours of the living, I mean, to quaestorships and magistracies — to priestly offices of different kinds; yet, since idolatry still cleaves to the dignity's name, whatever is done in its name partakes of its impurity. The same remark will apply to the procession of the " Munus," as we look at that in the pomp which is connected with these honours themselves; for the purple robes, the fasces, the filiets the crowns, the proclamations too, and edicts, the sacred feasts of th day before, are not without the pomp of the cevil, without invitation of demons. What need, then, of dwelling on the place of horrors, which is too much even for the tongue of the perjurer? For the amphitheatre - is consecrated to names more numerous and more dire ^ than is the Capitol itself, temple of all demons as it is. There are as many unclean spirits there as it ' [The authority of Tertullian. in ihk matter, is accepted by the critics, as of historic importaiace.]
2 [Though this was probably ■written at Carthage, his reference to the Flavian theatre in this place is plain from the immediate comparison with the Capitol.]
3 [To the infernal deities and first of all to Pluto. See vol. I. >ote 6, p, I ji, this Series.]
holds men. To conclude with a single remark about the arts which have a place in it, we know that its two sorts of amusement have for their patrons Mars and Diana.
CHAP. XIII.
We have, I think, faithfully carried out our plan of showing in how many different ways the sin of idolatry clings to the shows, in re- spect of their origins, their titles, their equip- ments, their places of celebration, their arts; and we may hold it as a thing beyond all doubt, that for us who have twice* renounced all idols, they are utterly unsuitable. " Not that an idol is anything," ^ as the apostle says, but that the homage they render is to demons, vvho are the real occupants of these conse- crated images, whether of dead men or (as they think) of gods. On this account, there- fore, because they have a common source — for their dead and their deities are one — we abstain from both idolatries. Nor do we dis- like the temples less than the monuments: we have nothing to do with either altar, we adore neither image; we do not offer sacrifices to the gods, and we make no funeral oblations to the departed; nay, we do not partake of what is offered either in the one case or the other, for we cannot partake of God's feast and the feast of devils.* If, then, we keep throat and belly free from such defilements, how much more do we withhold our nobler parts, our ears and eyes, from the idolatrous and funereal enjoyments, which are not passed through the body, but are digested in the very spirit and soul, whose purity, much more than that of our bodily organs, God has a right to claim from us.
CHAP. XIV.
Having sufficiently established the charge of idolatry, which alone ought to be reason enough for our giving up the shows, let us now ex abtmdanti look at the subject in an- other way, for the sake of those especially who keep themselves comfortable in the thought that the abstinence we urge is not in so many words enjoined, as if in the condem- nation of the lusts of the world there was not involved a sufficient declaration against all these amusements. For as there is a lust of money, or rank, or eating, or impure enjoy- ment, or glory, so there is also a lust of pleas- ure. But the show is just a sort of pleasure. I think, then, that under the general designa- tion of lusts, pleasures are included; in like manner, under the general idea of pleasures, 4[Bunsen, Hippol. vol. III. pp. 20-22.]
86 THE SHOWS, OR DE SPECTACULIS.
[chap. XVII.
you have as a specific class the " shows." But we have spoken already of how it is with the places of exhibition, that they are not pollut- ing in themselves, but owing to the things that are done in them from which they im- bibe impurity, and then spirt it again on others.
CHAP. XV.
Having done enough, then, as we have said, in regard to that principal argument, that there is in them all the taint of idolatry — hav- ing sufficiently dealt with that, let us now contrast the other characteristics of the show with the things of God. God has enjoined us to deal calmly, gently, quietly, and peacefully with the Holy Spirit, because these things are alone in keeping with the goodness of His nature, with His tenderness and sensitiveness, and not to vex Him with rage, ill-nature, anger, or grief. Well, how shall this be made to accord with the shows? For the show al- ways leads to spiritual agitation, since where there is pleasure, there is keenness of feeling giving pleasure its zest; and where there is keenness of feeling, there is rivalry giving in turn its zest to that. Then, too, where you have rivalry, you have rage, bitterness, wrath, and grief, with all bad things which flow from them — the whole entirely out of keeping with the religion of Christ. For even suppose one should enjoy the shows in a moderate way, as befits his rank, age or nature, still he is not undisturbed in mind, without some unuttered movings of the inner man. No one partakes of pleasures such as these without their strong excitements; no one comes under their ex- citements without their natural lapses. These lapses, again, create passionate desire. If there is no desire, there is no pleasure, and he is chargeable with trifling who goes where nothing is gotten; in my view, even that is foreign to us. Moreover, a man pronounces his own condemnation in the very act of taking his place among those with whom, by his dis- inclination to be like them, he confesses he has no sympathy. It is not enough that we do no such things ourselves, unless we break all connection also with those who do. " If thou sawest a thief," says the Scripture, "thou consentedst with him." ' Would that we did not even inhabit the same world with these wicked men! But though that wish cannot be realized, yet even now we are separate from them in what is of the world; for the world is God's, but the worldly is the devil's.
•Ps. x'lix. 18. [This chapter bears on modern theatres.]
CHAP. XVI.
Since, then, all passionate excitement is forbidden us, we are debarred from every kind of spectacle, and especially from the circus, where such excitement presides as in its proper element. See the people coming to it already under strong emotion, already tumultuous, already passion-blind, already agitated about their bets. The praetor is too slow for them: their eyes are ever rolling as though along with the lots in his urn; then they hang all eager on the signal; there is the united shout of a common madness. Observe how "out of themselves" they are by their foolish speeches. " He has thrown it! " they exclaim; and they announce each one to his neighbour what all have seen. I have clearest evidence of their blindness; they do not see what is really thrown. They think it a " signal cloth," but it is the like- ness of the devil cast headlong from on high. And the result accordingly is, that they fly into rages, and passions, and discords, and all that they who are consecrated to peace ought never to indulge in. Then there are curses and reproaches, with no cause of ha- tred; there are cries of applause, with noth- ing to merit them. What are the partakers in all this — not their own masters — to obtain of it for themselves? unless, it may be, that which makes them not their own: they are saddened by another's sorrow, they are glad- dened by another's joy. Whatever they desire on the one hand, or detest on the other, is entirely foreign to themselves. So love with them is a useless thing, and hatred is unjust. Or is a causeless love perhaps more legitimate than a causeless hatred? God certainly forbids us to hate even with a reason for our hating; for He commands us to love our enemies. God forbids us to curse, though there be some ground for doing so, in commanding that those who curse us we are to bless. But what is more merciless than the circus, where people do not spare even their rulers and fellow-citizens? If any of its madnesses are becoming elsewhere in the saints of G<pd, they will be seemly in the cir- cus too; but if they are nowhere right, so neither are they there.
CHAP. xvii.
Are we not, in like manner, enjoined to put away from us all immodesty? On this ground, again, we are excluded from the theatre, which is immodesty's own peculiar abode, where nothing is in repute but what elsewhere is disreputable. So the best path to the highest favour of its god is the vileness CHAP. XIX.]
THE SHOWS, OR DE SPECTACULIS.
87 which the Atellan ' gesticulates, which the buffoon in woman's clothes exhibits, destroy- ing all natural modesty, so that they blush more readily at home than at the play, which finally is done from his childhood on the per- son of the pantomime, that he may become an actor. The very harlots, too, victims'of the public lust, are brought upon the stage, their misery increased as being there in the pres- ence of their own sex, from whom alone they are wont to hide themselves: they are paraded publicly before every age and every rank — their abode, their gains, their praises, are set forth, and that even in the hearing of those who should not hear such things. I say noth- ing about other matters, which it were good to hide away in their own darkness and their own gloomy caves, lest they should stain the light of day. Let the Senate, let all ranks, blush for very shame! Why, even these miser- able women, who by their own gestures de- stroy their modesty, dreading the light of day, and the people's gaze, know something of shame at least once a year. But if we ought to abominate all that is immodest, on what ground is it right to hear what we must not speak? For all licentiousness of speech, nay, every idle word, is condemned by God.
Why, in the same way, is it right to look on what it is disgraceful to do? How is it that the things which defile a man in going out of his mouth, are not regarded as doing so when they go in at his eyes and ears — when eyes and ears are the immediate attendants on the spirit — and that can never be pure whose serv- ants-in-waiting are impure? You have the theatre forbidden, then, in the forbidding of immodesty. If, again, we despise the teach- ing of secular literature as being foolishness in God's eyes, our duty is plain enough in regard to those spectacles, which from this source derive the tragic or comic play. If tragedies and comedies are the bloody and wanton, the impious and licentious inventors of crimes and lusts, it is not good even that there should be any calling to remembrance the atrocious or the vile. What you reject in deed, you are not to bid welcome to in word.
CHAP, XVIII.
But if you argue that the racecourse is mentioned in Scripture, I grant it at once. But you will not refuse to admit that the things which are done there are not for you to look upon: the blows, and kicks, and cuffs, and all the recklessness of hand, and every- * [The ludi Atellani were so called from Atella, in Campania, where a vast amphitheatre delighted the inhabitants. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 71. The like disgrace our times.]
thing like that disfiguration of the human countenance, which is nothing less than the disfiguration of God's own image. You will never give your approval to those foolish racing and throwing feats, and yet more fool- ish leapings; you will never find pleasure in injurious or useless exhibitions of strength; certainly you will not regard with approval those efforts after an artificial body which aim at surpassing the Creator's work; and you will have the very opposite of compla- cency in the athletes Greece, in the inactivity of peace, feeds up. And the wrestler's art is a devil's thing. The devil wrestled with, and crushed to death, the first human beings. Its very attitude has power in it of the serpent kind, firm to hold — tortures to clasp — slippery to glide away. You have no need of crowns; why do you strive to get pleasures from crowns?
CHAP. XIX.
We shall now see how the Scriptures con- demn the amphitheatre. If we can maintain that it is right to indulge in the cruel, and the impious, and the fierce, let us go there. If we are what we are said to be, let us regale ourselves there with human blood. It is good, no doubt, to have the guilty punished. Who but the criminal himself will deny that? And yet the innocent can find no pleasure in another's sufferings: he rather mourns that a brother has sinned so heinously as to need a punishment so dreadful. But who is my guarantee that it is always the guilty v/ho are adjudged to the wild beasts, or to some other doom, and that the guiltless never suffer from the revenge of the judge, or the weakness of the defence, or the pressure of the rack? How much better, then, is it for me to remain ignorant of the punishment inflicted on the wicked, lest I am obliged to know also of the good coming to untimely ends — if I may speak of goodness in the case at all! At any rate, gladiators not chargeable with crime are offered in sale for the games, that they may be- come the victims of the public pleasure. Even in the case of those who are judicially con- demned to the amphitheatre, what a mon- strous thing it is, that, in undergoing their punishment, they, from some less serious delinquency, advance to the criminality of manslayers! But I mean these remarks for heathen. As to Christians, I shall not insult them by adding another word as to the aver- sion with which they should regard this sort of exhibition; though no one is more able than myself to set forth fully the whole sub- ject, unless it be one who is still in the habit 88 THE SHOWS, OR DE SPECTACULIS.
[chap. XXII.
of going to the shows. I would rather withal be incomplete than set memory a-working."
CHAP. XX.
How vain, then — nay, how desperate — is the reasoning of persons, who, just because they decline to lose a pleasure, hold out that we cannot point to the specific words or the very place where this abstinence is men-- tioned, and where the servants of God are directly forbidden to have anything to do with such assemblies! I heard lately a novel defence of himself by a certain play-lover. "The sun," said he, "nay, God Himself, looks down from heaven on the show, and no pollution is contracted." Yes, and the sun, too, pours down his rays into the common sewer without being defiled. As for God, would that all crimes were hid from His eye, that we might all escape judgment! But He looks on robberies too; He looks on false- hoods, adulteries, frauds, idolatries, and these same shows; and precisely on that account we will not look on them, lest the All- seeing see us. You are putting on the same level, O man, the criminal and the judge; the criminal who is a criminal because he is seen, and the Judge who is a Judge because He sees. Are we set, then, on playing the madman outside the circus boundaries? Out- side the gates of the theatre are we bent on lewdness, outside the course on arrogance, and outside the amphitheatre on cruelty, because outside the porticoes, the tiers and the curtains, too, God has eyes? Never and nowhere is that free from blame which God ever condemns; never and nowhere is it right to do what you may not do at all times and in all places. It is the freedom of the truth from change of opinion and varying judgments which constitutes its perfection, and gives it its claims to full mastery, unchanging rever- ence, and faithful obedience. That which is really good or really evil cannot be ought else. But in all things the truth of God is immu- table.
CHAP. XXI.
The heathen, who have not a full revelation of the truth, for they are not taught of God, hold a thing evil and good as it suits self-will and passion, making that which is good in one place evil in another, and that which is evil in one place in another good. So it strangely happens, that the same man who can scarcely in public lift up his tunic, even when neces- sity of nature presses him, takes it off in the ' [See Kaye, p. ii. This expression is thought to confirm the probability of Tertullian's original Oenlilism.]
circus, as if bent on exposing himself before everybody; the father who carefully protects and guards his virgin daughter's ears from every polluting word, takes her to the theatre himself, exposing her to all its vile words and attitudes; he, again, who in the streets lays hands on or covers with reproaches the brawl- ing pugilist, in the arena gives all encourage- ment to combats of a much more serious kind; and he who looks with horror on the corpse of one who has died under the common law of nature, in the amphitheatre gazes down with most patient eyes on bodies all mangled and torn and smeared with their own blood; nay, the very man who comes to the show, because he thinks murderers ought to suffer for their crime, drives the unwilling gladiator to the murderous deed with rods and scourges; and one who demands the lion for every manslayer of deeper dye, will have the staff for the savage swordsman, and re- wards him with the cap of liberty. Yes and he must have the poor victim back again, that he may get a sight of his face — with zest inspecting near at hand the man whom he wished torn in pieces at safe distance from him: so much the more cruel he if that was not his wish.
CHAP. XXII.
CHAP. XXII.
What wonder is there in it? Such incon- sistencies as these are just such as we might expect from men, who confuse and change the nature of good and evil in their incon- stancy of feeling and fickleness in judgment. Why, the authors and managers of the spec- tacles, in that very respect with reference to which they highly laud the charioteers, and actors, and wrestlers, and those most loving gladiators, to whom men prostitute their souls, women too their bodies, slight and trample on them, though for their sakes they are guilty of the deeds they reprobate; nay, they doom them to ignominy and the loss of their rights as citizens, excluding them from the Curia, and the rostra, from senatorial and equestrian rank, and from all other honours as well as certain distinctions. What perver- sity! They have pleasure in those whom yet they punish; they put all slights on those to whom, at the same time, they award their approbation; they magnify the art and brand the artist. What an outrageous thing it is, to blacken a man on account of the very things which make him meritorious in their eyes! Nay, what a confession that the things are evil, when their authors, even in highest favour, are not without a mark of disgrace upon them!
CHAP. XXV.
THE SHOWS, OR DE SPECTACULIS.
89 CHAP. XXllI.
Seeing, then, man's own reflections, even in spite of the sweetness of pleasure, lead him to think that people such as these should be condemned to a hapless lot of infamy, losing all the advantages connected with the posses- sion of the dignities of life, how much more does the divine righteousness inflict punish- ment on those who give themselves to these arts! Will God have any pleasure in the charioteer who disquiets so many souls, rouse $ up so many furious passions, and creates so many various moods, either crowned like a priest or wearing the colours of a pimp, — decked out by the devil that he may be whirled away in his chariot, as though with the object of taking off Elijah? Will He be pleased with him who applies the razor to himself, and completely changes his features; who, with no respect for his face, is not content with making it as like as possible to Saturn and Isis and Bacchus, but gives it quietly over to contumelious blows, as if in mockery of our Lord? The devil, forsooth, makes it part, too, of his teaching, that the cheek is to be meekly offered to the smiter. In the same way, with their high shoes, he has made the tragic actors taller, because " none can add a cubit to his stature." ' His desire is to make Christ a liar. And in regard to the wearing of masks, I ask is that according to the mind of God, who forbids the making of every like- ness, and especially then the likeness of man who is His own image? The Author of truth hates all the false; He regards as adultery all that is unreal. Condemning, therefore, as He does hypocrisy in every form. He never ivill approve any putting on of voice, or sex, or age; He never will approve pretended loves, and wraths, and groans, and tears. Then, too, as in His law it is declared that the man is cursed who attires himself in female garments, = what must be His judgment of the pantomime,who is even brought up to play the woman! And will the boxer go unpunished? I suppose he received these caestus-scars, and the thick skin of his fists, and these growths upon his ears, at his creation! God, too, gave him eyes for no other end than that they might be knocked out in fighting! I say nothing of him who, to save himself, thrusts another in the lion's way, that he may not be