In this case you actually ^ conduct trials contrary to the usual form of judicial process against criminals; for when culprits are brought up for trial, should they deny the charge, you press them for a confession by tortures. When Christians, however, confess without compulsion, you aply the torture to in- duce them to deny. What great perverseness is this, when you stand out against confession, and change the use of the torture, compelling the man who frankly acknowledges the charge + to evade it, and him who is unwilling, to deny it? You, who preside for the purpose of ex- torting truth, demand falsehood from us alone, that we may declare ourselves not to be what we are. I suppose you do not want us to be bad men, and therefore you earnestly wish to exclude us from that character. To be sure,^ you put others on the rack and the gibbet, to get them to deny what they have the repu- tation of being. Now, when they deny (the charge against them), you do not believe them; but on our denial, you instantly believe us. If you feel sure that we are the most injurious of men, why, even in processes against us, are we dealt with by you differently from other offenders? I do not mean that you make no account of ^ either an accusation or a denial (for your practice is not hastily to condemn men without an indictment and a defence); but, to take an instance in the trial of a mur- derer, the case is not at once ended, or the inquiry satisfied, on a man's confessing him- self the murderer. However complete his confession,'' you do not readily believe him; but over and above this, you inquire into ac- cessory circumstances — how often had he com- mitted murder; with what weapons, in what place, with what plunder, accomplices, and abettors after the fact® (was the crime perpe- ' Cessat.
2 Comp. c. ii. of The Apology.
3lpsi.
4 Gratis reum.
5 Sane.
* Neque spatium commodetis.
1 Quanquam confessis.
8 Receptoribus. " concealers" of the crime.
trated) — to the end that nothing whatever re- specting the criminal might escape detection, and that every means should be at hand for arriving at a true verdict. In our case, on the contrary,^ whom you believe to be guilty of more atrocious and numerous crimes, you frame your indictments '° in briefer and lighter terms. I suppose you do not care to load with accusations men whom you earnestly wish to get rid of, or else you do not think it nec- essary to inquire into matters which are known to you already. It is, however, all the more perverse that you compel us to deny charges about which you have the clearest evidence. But, indeed," how much more consistent were it with your hatred of us to dispense with all forms of judicial process, and to strive with all your might not to urge us to say " No," and so have to acquit the objects of your hatred; but to confess all and singular the crimes laid to our charge, that your resent- ments might be the better glutted with an ac- cumulation of our punishments, when it be- comes known how many of those feasts each one of us may have celebrated, and how many incests we may have committed under cover of the night! What am I saying? Since your researches for rooting out our society must needs be made on a wide scale, you ought to extend your inquiry against our friends and companions. Let our infanticides and the dressers (of our horrible repasts) be brought out, — ay, and the very dogs which minister to our (incestuous) nuptials;'^ then the busi- ness (of our trial) would be without a fault. Even to the crowds which throng the spectacles a zest would be given; for with how much greater eagerness would they resort to the theatre, when one had to fight in the lists who had devoured a hundred babies! For since such horrid and monstrous crimes are reported of us, they ought, of course, to be brought to light, lest they should seem to be incredible, and the public detestation of us should begin to cool. For most persons are slow to believe such things,'^ feeling a horrible disgust at sup- posing that our nature could have an appetite 9 Porro.
to Elogia.
" Immo.
12 We have for once departed from Oehler's text, and preferred Rigault's: " Perducerentur infantarii et coci, ipsi canes pronubi, emendata esset res." The sense is evident from The Apology, c. yii.: " It is said that we are guilty of most horrible crimes; that in the celebration of our sacrament we put a child to death, which we afterward devour, and at the end of our banquet revel in incest; that we employ dojjs as ministers of our impure delights, to over- throw the candles, and thus to provide darkn.'ss, and remove all shame which might interfere with these impious lusts " (Cheval- lier's translation). These calumnies were very common, and are noticed by Justin Martyr, Minucius Felix, Eusebius, Athenagoras, and Origen, who attributes their origin to the Jews. Oehler reads in/antaritHy after the Agobardine codex and editio princeps^ and quotes Martial (Epigr. iv. 88), where the word occurs in the seose of an inordinate love of children.
«3 Nam et plerique fidem talium teraperant.
CHAP. IV.]
AD NATIONES.
Ill for the food of wild beasts, when it has pre- cluded these from all concubinage with the race of man.
CHAP. III.' THE GREAT OFFENCE IN THE CHRISTIANS LIES IN THEIR VERY NAME. THE NAME VINDICATED.
Since, therefore, you who are in other cases most scrupulous and persevering in investigat- ing charges of far less serious import, relin- quish your care in cases like ours, which are so horrible, and of such surpassing sin that impiety is too mild a word for them, by de- clining to hear confession, which should al- ways be an important process for those who conduct judicial proceedings; and failing to make a full inquiry, which should be gone into by such as sue for a condemnation, it be- comes evident that the crime laid to our charge consists not of any sinful conduct, but lies wholly in our?iame. If, indeed,^ any real crimes were clearly adducible against us, their very names would condemn us, if found ap- plicable,3 so that distinct sentences would be pronounced against us in this wise: Let that murderer, or that incestuous criminal, or whatever it be that we are charged with, be led to execution, be crucified, or be thrown to the beasts. Your sentences, however," im- port only that one has confessed himself a Christian. No name of a crime stands against us, but only the crime of a name. Now this in very deed is neither more nor less than ^ the entire odium which is felt against us. The name is the cause: some mysterious force intensified by your ignorance assails it, so that 3^ou do not wish to know for certain that which for certain you are sure you know nothing of; and therefore, further, you do not believe things which are not submitted to proof, and, lest they should be easily refuted,^ you refuse to make inquiry, so that the odious name is punished under the presumption of (real) crimes. In order, therefore, that the issue may be withdrawn from the offensive name, we are compelled to deny it; then upon our denial we are acquitted, with an entire absolu- tion ^ for the past: we are no longer murderers, no longer incestuous, because we have lost that name.^ But since this point is dealt with in a place of its own,' do you tell us plainly why you are pursuing this name even to ex- tirpation? What crime, what offence, what ' Comp. The Apology, cc. i. and ii. - Adeo si.
3 Si accommodarent.
4 Porro.
5 Haec ratio est. * Reprobentur. 7 Impunitate.
*i,e., the name " Christians."
9 By the " suo loco," Tertullian refers to The Apology.
fault is there in a name? For you are barred by the rule '° which puts it out of your power to allege crimes (of any man), which no legal action moots, no indictment specifies, no sen- tence enumerates. In any case which is sub- mitted to the judge," inquired into against the defendant, responded to by him or denied, and cited from the l>ench, I acknowledge a legal charge. Concerning, then, the merit of a name, whatever offence names may be charged with, whatever impeachment words may be amenable to, I for my part '- think, that not even a complaint is due to a word or a name, unless indeed it has a barbarous sound, or smacks of ill-luck, or is immodest, or is indecorous for the speaker, or unpleasant to the hearer. These crimes in (mere) words and names are just like barbarous words and phrases, which have their fault, and their sole- cism, and their absurdity of figure. The name Christiati, however, so far as its meaning goes, bears the sense of anointing. Even when by a faulty pronunciation you call us " Chrestians " (for you are not certain about even the sound of this noted name), you in fact lisp out the sense of pleasantness and goodness. '3 You are therefore vilifying "« in harmless men even the harmless name we bear, which is not inconvenient for the tongue, nor harsh to the ear, nor injurious to a single be- ing, nor rude for our country, being a good Greek word, as many others also are, and pleasant in sound and sense. Surely, surely, 's names are not things which deserve punish- ment by the sword, or the cross, or the beasts.
• CHAP. IV. '^ THE TRUTH HATED IN THE CHRIS- TIANS; SO IN MEASURE WAS IT, OF OLD, IN SOCRATES. THE VIRTUES OF THE CHRIS- TIANS.
But the sect, you say, is punished in the name of its founder. Now in the first place it is, no doubt a fair and usual custom that a sect should be marked out by the name of its founder, since philosophers are called Pytha- goreans and Platonists after their masters; in the same way physicians are called after Era- sistratus, and grammarians after Aristarchus. If, therefore, a sect has a bad character be- cause its founder was bad, it is punished '^ as the traditional bearer'^ of a bad name. But this would be indulging in a rash assumption.
10 Prsescribitur vobis. " Praesidi.
'3 XpT)(TTo? means both ^'■pleasant" and '■'■good;" and the heathen founded this word with the sacred name Xpio-r^. '4 Detinetis. '5 Et utique.
•6 See The Apology, c. iii. '7 Plectitur. '8 Tradux.
AD NATIONES.
[book I.
The first step was to find out what the founder was, that his sect might be understood, instead of hindering' inquiry into the founder's char- acter from the sect. But in our case,^' by being necessarily ignorant of the sect, through your ignorance of its founder, or else by not taking a fair survey of the founder, because you make no inquiry into his sect, you fasten merely on the name, just as if you vilified in it both sect and founder, whom you know nothing of whatever. And yet you openly allow your philosophers the right of attaching themselves to any school, and bearing its founder's name as their own; and nobody stirs up any hatred against them, although .both in public and in private they bark out^ their bitterest eloquence against your customs, rites, ceremonies, and manner of life, with so much contempt for the laws, and so little re- spect for persons, that they even flaunt their licentious words * against the emperors them- selves with impunity. And yet it is the truth, which is so troublesome to the world, that these philosophers affect, but which Christians possess: they therefore who have it in posses- sion afford the greater displeasure, because he who affects a thing plays with it; he who pos- sesses it maintains it. For example,^ Socrates was condemned on that side (of his wisdom) in which he came nearest in his search to the truth, by destroying your gods. Although the name of Christian was not at that time in the world, yet truth was always suffering con- demnation. Now you will not deny that he was a wise man, to whom your own Pythian (god) had borne witness. Socrates, he said, was the wisest of men. Truth overbore Apollo, and made him pronounce even against himself; since he acknowledged that he was no god, when he affirmed that that was the wisest man who was denying the gods. However,* on your principle he was the less wise because he denied the gods, although, in truth, he was all the wiser by reason of this denial. It is just in the same way that you are in the habit of saying of us: "Lucius Titius is a good man, only he is a Christian;" while another says; "I wonder that so worthy ''a man as Caius Seius has become a Christian.^" Ac- cording to 9 the blindness of their folly men praise what they know, (and) blame what they are ignorant of; and that which they know, they vitiate by that which they do not know.
" Retinere. » Ar nunc.
3 Elatrent.
4 Libertatem suam, " their liberty of speech.' SDenique.
* Porro.
It occurs to none (to consider) whether a man is not good and wise because he is a Christian, or therefore a Christian because he is wise and good, although it is more usual in human con- duct to determine obscurities by what is mani- fest, than to prejudice what is manifest by what is obscure. Some persons wonder that those whom they had known to be unsteady, worthless, or wicked before they bore this " name, have been suddenly converted to vir- tuous courses; and yet they better know how to wonder (at the change) than to attain to it; others are so obstinate in their strife as to do battle with their own best interests, which they have it in their power to secure by intercourse " with that hated name. I know more than one ''' husband, formerly anxious about their wives' conduct, and unable to bear even mice to creep into their bed-room without a groan of suspicion, who have, upon discovering the cause of their new assiduity, and their un- wonted attention to the duties of home,'^ of- fered the entire loan of their wives to others,'* disclaimed all jealousy, (and) preferred to be the husbands of she-wolves than of Chris- tian women: they could commit themselves to a perverse abuse of nature, but they could not permit their wives to be reformed for the better! A father disinherited his son, with whom he had ceased to find fault. A master sent his slave to bridewell, '^ whom he had even found to be indispensable to him. As soon as they discovered them to be Christians, they wished they were criminals again; for our dis- cipline carries its own evidence in itself, nor are we betrayed by anything else than our own goodness, just as bad men also become conspic- uous '* by their own evil. Else how is it that we alone are, contrary to the lessons of nature, branded as very evil because of our good? For what mark do we exhibit except the prime wisdom, '7 which teaches us not to worship the frivolous works of the human hand; the tem- perance, by which we abstain from other men's goods; the chastity, which we pollute not even with a look; the compassion, which prompts us to help the needy; the truth itself, which makes us give offence; and liberty, for which we have even learned to die? Whoever wishes to understand who the Christians are, must needs employ these marks for their dis- covery.
loj.e., the Christian.
" De commercio.
"2 Unum atque alium. The sense being plural, we have so given it all through.
"3 Captivitatis (as if theirs was a self-inflicted captivity at home).
•4 Omnem u.\orem patientiam obtulisse (comp. Apology, middle of c. xxxix.).
'5 In ergastulum.
•6 Radiant.
'7 He means the religion of ^l^ri■^t, which he in b. ii. c. ii. con- trasts with " the titere wisdom " d i'.k- philosophers.
CHAP. VI.]
AD NATIONES.
n3 CHAP. V.' THE INCONSISTENT LIKE OF ANY FALSE CHRISTIAN NO MORE CONDEMNS TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, THAN A PASSING CLOUD OBSCURES A SUMMER SKY.
As to your saying of us that we are a most shameful set, and utterly steeped in luxury, avarice, and depravity, we will not deny that this is true of some. It is, however, a suf- ficient testimonial for our name, that this cannot be said of all, not even of the greater part of us. It must happen even in the healthiest and purest body, that a mole should grow, or a wart arise on it, or freckles disfig- ure it. Not even the sky itself is clear with so perfect " a serenity as not to be flecked with some filmy cloud. ^ A slight spot on the face, because it is obvious in so conspicuous a part, only serves to show purity of the entire complexion. The goodness of the larger por- tion is well attested by the slender flaw. But although you prove that some of our people are evil, you do not hereby prove that they are Christians. Search and see whether there is any sect to which (a partial shortcoming) is imputed as a general stain." You are accus- tomed in conversation yourselves to say, in dis- paragement of us," Why is so-and-so deceitful, when the Christians are so self-denying? why merciless, when they are so merciful? " You thus bear your testimony to the fact that this is not the character of Christians, when you ask, in the way of a retort, ^ how men who are reputed to be Christians can be of such and such a disposition. There is a good deal of difference between an imputation and a name,* between an opinion and the truth. For names were appointed for the express purpose of setting their proper limits between mere des- ignation and actual condition. ^ How many indeed are said to be philosophers, who for all that do not fulfil the law of philosophy? All bear the name in respect of their profession; but they hold the designation without the excellence of the profession, and they disgrace the real thing under the shallow pretence of its name. Men are not straightway of such and such a character, because they are said to be so; but when they are not, it is vain to say so of them: they only deceive people who attach reality to a name, when it is its consistency with fact which decides the condition implied in the name.^ And yet persons of this doubtful ' Compare The Apology^ cc. ii. xliv. xUa. 'Colata, " filtered" [or " strained" — Shaks.'\ 3 Ut non alicujus nubiculas flocculo resignetur..This picturesque language defies translation. < MalitisE. 5 Dum retorquetis.
* Inter crimen et nomen. ■' Inter dici et esse.
* Status nominis.
8 stamp do not assemble with us, neither do they belong to our communion: by their delin- quency they become yours once more,' since we should be unwilling to mix even with them whom your violence and cruelty compelled to recant. Yet we should, of course, be more ready to have included amongst us those who have unwillingly forsaken our discipline than wilful apostates. However, you have no right to call them Christians, to whom the Chris- tians themselves deny that name, and who have not learned to deny themselves.
CHAP. VI. '° THE INNOCENCE OF THE CHRIS- TIANS NOT COMPROMISED BY THE INIQUITOUS LAWS WHICH WERE MADE AGAINST THEM.
Whenever these statements and answers of ours, which truth suggests of its own accord, press and restrain your conscience, which is the witness of its own ignorance, you betake yourselves in hot haste to that poor altar of refuge," the authority of the laws, because these, of course, would never punish the offensive '== sect, if their deserts had not been fully considered by those who made the laws. Then what is it which has prevented a like consideration on the part of those who put the laws in force, when, in the case of all other crimes which are similarly forbidden and pun- ished by the laws, the penalty is not inflicted '^ until it is sought by regular process?.'* Take,'^ for instance, the case of a murderer or an adulterer. An examination is ordered touch- ing the particulars '* of the crime, even though it is patent to all what its nature '^ is. What- ever wrong has been done by the Christian ought to be brought to light. No law forbids inquiry to be made; on the contrary, inquiry is made in the interest of the laws.'* For how are you to keep the law by precautions against that which the law forbids, if you neutralize the carefulness of the precaution by your failing to perceive '^ what it is you have to keep? No law must keep to itself^ the knowledge of its own righteousness,^' but (it owes it) to those from whom it claims obe- dience. The law, however, becomes an object of suspicion when it declines to approve itself. Naturally enough,- then, are the laws against 9 Denuo.
>" Compare The Apology, c. iv. " Ad arulam quandam. '- Istam.
') Cessat, " loiters." '4 Requiratur. '5 Lege. '6 Ordo. '7 Genus.
'8 Literally, " holding the inquiry makes for the law*." '9 Per defectionem agnoscendi. 20 Sibi debet. =' Justitije suae. » Merito.
AD NATIONES.
[book I.
the Christians supposed to be just and deserv- ing of respect and observance, just as long as men remain ignorant of their aim and purport; but when this is perceived, their extreme in- justice is discovered, and they are deservedly rejected with abhorrence,' along with (their instruments of torture) — the swords, the crosses, and the lions. An unjust law secures no respect. In my opinion, however, there is a suspicion among you that some of these laws are unjust, since not a day passes with- out your modifying their severity and iniquity by fresh deliberations and decisions, CHAP. Vn.= THE CHRISTIANS DEFAMED. A SARCASTIC DESCRIPTION OF FAME; ITS DE- CEPTION AND ATROCIOUS SLANDERS OF THE CHRISTIANS LENGTHILY DESCRIBED.
Whence comes it to pass, you will say to us, that such a character could have been at- tributed to you, as to have justified the law- makers perhaps by its imputation? Let me ask on my side, what voucher they had then, or you now, for the truth of the imputation? (You answer,) Fame. Well, now, is not this — " Fama malum, quo non aliud velocius ullum? " ^ Now, why a plague,'- if it be always true? It never ceases from lying; nor even at the moment when it reports the truth is it so free from the wish to lie, as not to interweave the false with the true, by processes of addition, diminution, or confusion of various facts. In- deed,^ such is its condition, that it can only continue to exist while it lies. For it lives only just so long as it fails to prove anything. As soon as it proves itself true, it falls; and, as if its office of reporting news were at an end, it quits its post: thenceforward the thing is held to be a fact, and it passes under that name. No one, then, says, to take an in- stance, " The report is that this happened at Rome," or, "The rumour goes that he has got a province; " but, "He has got a prov- ince," and, " This happened at Rome." No- body mentions a rumour except at an uncer- tainty, because nobody can be sure of a rumour, but only of certain knowledge; and none but a fool believes a rumour, because no wise man puts faith in an uncertainty. In however wide a circuit* a report has been cir- culated, it must needs have originated some • Despuuntur.
^ Comp. The Apology, cc. vii, viii. J Aineid, iv. 174.
" Fame, than which never plague that runs Its way more swiftly wins." — Conington.
S Quid? quod " Yea more." ' Ambitione.
time or other from one mouth; afterwards it creeps on somehow to ears and tongues which pass it on ^ and so obscures the humble error in which it began, that no one considers whether the mouth which first set it a-going disseminated a falsehood, — a circumstance which often happens either from a temper of rivalry, or a suspicious turn, or even the pleas- ure of feigning news. It is, however, well that time reveals all things, as your own say- ings and proverbs testify; yea, as nature her- self attests, which has so ordered it that noth- ing lies hid, not even that which fame has not reported. See, now, what a witness^ you have suborned against us: it has not been able up to this time to prove the report it set in mo- tion, although it has had so long a time to recommend it to our acceptance. This name of ours took its rise in the reign of Augustus; under Tiberius it was taught with all clearness and publicity; 5 under Nero it was ruthlessly condemned,'" and you may weigh its worth and character even from the person of its per- secutor. If that prince was a pious man, then the Christians are impious; if he was just, if he was pure, then the Christians are unjust and impure; if he was not a public enemy, we are enemies of our country: what sort of men we are, our persecutor himself shows, since he of course punished what produced hostility to himself." Now, although every other institution which existed under Nero has been destroyed, yet this of ours has firmly remained — righteous, it would seem, as being unlike the author (of its persecution). Two hundred and fifty years, then, have not yet passed since our life began. During the in- terval there have been so many criminals; so many crosses have obtained immortality; " so many infants have been slain; so many loaves steeped in blood; so many extinctions of candles; '3 so many dissolute marriages. And up to the present time it is mere report which fights against the Christians. No doubt it has a strong support in the wickedness of the human mind, and utters its falsehoods with more success among cruel and savage men. For the more inclined you are to malicious- ness, the more ready are you to believe evil; in short, men more easily believe the evil that is false, than the good which is true. Now, if injustice has left any place within you for