Relevant
books
available at Amazon
Studies
 
Eric Francis Osborn
Tertullian, First Theologian of the West --------------
 
Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study
Timothy David Barnes --------------
 
Early Christian Thinkers: The Lives and Legacies of Twelve Key Figures
Paul Foster
(A helpful chapter) --------------
 
The Early Christian World
P.F. Esler, with a helpful chapter by David Wright
--------------
 
Tertullian and the Church
David Rankin -------------- Ancient Rhetoric and the Art of Tertullian (Oxford theological monographs)
Robert D. Sider --------------  
David E. Wilhite -------------- Translations Tertullian (The Early Church Fathers)
Geoffrey D. Dunn -------------- Disciplinary, Moral And Ascetical Works
R. Arbesmann, E.J. Daly, and E. A. Quain, eds. -------------- Tertullian: Apologetical Works, & Minucius Felix: Octavius
Emily J. Daly, trans. -------------- 28. Tertullian: Treatises on Penance: On Penitence and On Purity (Ancient Christian Writers)
W.P. Le Saint, trans. -------------- 13. Tertullian: Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To His Wife, An Exhortation to Chastity, Monogamy (Ancient Christian Writers)
W.P. Le Saint, trans. -------------- Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian (Selections from the Fathers of the Church)
Robert D. Sider, ed. -------------- Tertullian, Cyprian, And Origen On The Lord's Prayer (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)
Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed. -------------- 24. Tertullian: The Treatise against Hermogenes (Ancient Christian Writers)
J.H. Waszink, trans. |
Chapter I.
Very lately it happened thus: while the bounty of our most excellent emperors
was dispensed in the camp, the soldiers, laurel-crowned, were approaching. One
of them, more a soldier of God, more stedfast than the rest of his brethren, who
had imagined that they could serve two masters, his head alone uncovered, the
useless crown in his hand—already even by that peculiarity known to every one as
a Christian—was nobly conspicuous. Accordingly, all began to mark him out,
jeering him at a distance, gnashing on him near at hand. The murmur is wafted to
the tribune, when the person had just left the ranks. The tribune at once puts
the question to him, Why are you so different in your attire? He declared that
he had no liberty to wear the crown with the rest. Being urgently asked for his
reasons, he answered, I am a Christian. O soldier! boasting thyself in God. Then
the case was considered and voted on; the matter was remitted to a higher
tribunal; the offender was conducted to the prefects. At once he put away the
heavy cloak, his disburdening commenced; he loosed from his foot the military
shoe, beginning to stand upon holy ground; he gave up the sword, which was not
necessary either for the protection of our Lord; from his hand likewise dropped
the laurel crown; and now, purple-clad with the hope of his own blood, shod with
the preparation of the gospel, girt with the sharper word of God, completely
equipped in the apostles’ armour, and crowned more worthily with the white crown
of martyrdom, he awaits in prison the largess of Christ. Thereafter adverse
judgments began to be passed upon his conduct—whether on the part of Christians
I do not know, for those of the heathen are not different—as if he were
headstrong and rash, and too eager to die, because, in being taken to task about
a mere matter of dress, he brought trouble on the bearers of the Name,—he,
forsooth, alone brave among so many soldier-brethren, he alone a Christian. It
is plain that as they have rejected the prophecies of the Holy Spirit, they are
also purposing the refusal of martyrdom. So they murmur that a peace so good and
long is endangered for them. Nor do I doubt that some are already turning their
back on the Scriptures, are making ready their luggage, are equipped for flight
from city to city; for that is all of the gospel they care to remember. I know,
too, their pastors are lions in peace, deer in the fight. As to the questions
asked for extorting confessions from us, we shall teach elsewhere. Now, as they
put forth also the objection—But where are we forbidden to be crowned?—I shall
take this point up, as more suitable to be treated of here, being the essence,
in fact, of the present contention. So that, on the one hand, the inquirers who
are ignorant, but anxious, may be instructed; and on the other, those may be
refuted who try to vindicate the sin, especially the laurel-crowned Christians
themselves, to whom it is merely a question of debate, as if it might be
regarded as either no trespass at all, or at least a doubtful one, because it
may be made the subject of investigation. That it is neither sinless nor
doubtful, I shall now, however, show....
Chapter XI.
To begin with the real ground of the military crown, I think we must first
inquire whether warfare is proper at all for Christians. What sense is there in
discussing the merely accidental, when that on which it rests is to be
condemned? Do we believe it lawful for a human oath to be superadded to one
divine, for a man to come under promise to another master after Christ, and to
abjure father, mother, and all nearest kinsfolk, whom even the law has commanded
us to honour and love next to God Himself, to whom the gospel, too, holding them
only of less account than Christ, has in like manner rendered honour? Shall it
be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that
he who uses the sword shall perish by the sword? And shall the son of peace take
part in the battle when it does not become him even to sue at law? And shall he
apply the chain, and the prison, and the torture, and the punishment, who is not
the avenger even of his own wrongs? Shall he, forsooth, either keep
watch-service for others more than for Christ, or shall he do it on the Lord’s
day, when he does not even do it for Christ Himself? And shall he keep guard
before the temples which he has renounced? And shall he take a meal where the
apostle has forbidden him? And shall he diligently protect by night those whom
in the day-time he has put to flight by his exorcisms, leaning and resting on
the spear the while with which Christ’s side was pierced? Shall he carry a flag,
too, hostile to Christ? And shall he ask a watchword from the emperor who has
already received one from God? Shall he be disturbed in death by the trumpet of
the trumpeter, who expects to be aroused by the angel’s trump? And shall the
Christian be burned according to camp rule, when he was not permitted to burn
incense to an idol, when to him Christ remitted the punishment of fire? Then how
many other offences there are involved in the performances of camp offices,
which we must hold to involve a transgression of God’s law, you may see by a
slight survey. The very carrying of the name over from the camp of light to the
camp of darkness is a violation of it. Of course, if faith comes later, and
finds any preoccupied with military service, their case is different, as in the
instance of those whom John used to receive for baptism, and of those most
faithful centurions, I mean the centurion whom Christ approves, and the
centurion whom Peter instructs; yet, at the same time, when a man has become a
believer, and faith has been sealed, there must be either an immediate
abandonment of it, which has been the course with many; or all sorts of
quibbling will have to be resorted to in order to avoid offending God, and that
is not allowed even outside of military service; or, last of all, for God the
fate must be endured which a citizen-faith has been no less ready to accept.
Neither does military service hold out escape from punishment of sins, or
exemption from martyrdom. Nowhere does the Christian change his character. There
is one gospel, and the same Jesus, who will one day deny every one who denies,
and acknowledge every one who acknowledges God,—who will save, too, the life
which has been lost for His sake; but, on the other hand, destroy that which for
gain has been saved to His dishonour. With Him the faithful citizen is a
soldier, just as the faithful soldier is a citizen. A state of faith admits no
plea of necessity; they are under no necessity to sin, whose one necessity is,
that they do not sin. For if one is pressed to the offering of sacrifice and the
sheer denial of Christ by the necessity of torture or of punishment, yet
discipline does not connive even at that necessity; because there is a higher
necessity to dread denying and to undergo martyrdom, than to escape from
suffering, and to render the homage required. In fact, an excuse of this sort
overturns the entire essence of our sacrament, removing even the obstacle to
voluntary sins; for it will be possible also to maintain that inclination is a
necessity, as involving in it, forsooth, a sort of compulsion. I have, in fact,
disposed of this very allegation of necessity with reference to the pleas by
which crowns connected with official position are vindicated, in support of
which it is in common use, since for this very reason offices must be either
refused, that we may not fall into acts of sin, or martyrdoms endured that we
may get quit of offices. Touching this primary aspect of the question, as to the
unlawfulness even of a military life itself, I shall not add more, that the
secondary question may be restored to its place. Indeed, if, putting my strength
to the question, I banish from us the military life, I should now to no purpose
issue a challenge on the matter of the military crown. Suppose, then, that the
military service is lawful, as far as the plea for the crown is concerned.
Chapter XII.
But I first say a word also about the crown itself. This laurel one is sacred to
Apollo or Bacchus—to the former as the god of archery, to the latter as the god
of triumphs. In like manner Claudius teaches; when he tells us that soldiers are
wont too to be wreathed in myrtle. For the myrtle belongs to Venus, the mother
of the Æneadæ, the mistress also of the god of war, who, through Ilia and the
Romuli is Roman. But I do not believe that Venus is Roman as well as Mars,
because of the vexation the concubine gave her. When military service again is
crowned with olive, the idolatry has respect to Minerva, who is equally the
goddess of arms—but got a crown of the tree referred to, because of the peace
she made with Neptune. In these respects, the superstition of the military
garland will be everywhere defiled and all-defiling. And it is further defiled,
I should think, also in the grounds of it. Lo the yearly public pronouncing of
vows, what does that bear on its face to be? It takes place first in the part of
the camp where the general’s tent is, and then in the temples. In addition to
the places, observe the words also: “We vow that you, O Jupiter, will then have
an ox with gold-decorated horns.” What does the utterance mean? Without a doubt
the denial (of Christ). Albeit the Christian says nothing in these places with
the mouth, he makes his response by having the crown on his head. The laurel is
likewise commanded (to be used) at the distribution of the largess. So you see
idolatry is not without its gain, selling, as it does, Christ for pieces of
gold, as Judas did for pieces of silver. Will it be “Ye cannot serve God and
mammon” to devote your energies to mammon, and to depart from God? Will it be
“Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things which
are God’s,” not only not to render the human being to God, but even to take the
denarius from Cæsar? Is the laurel of the triumph made of leaves, or of corpses?
Is it adorned with ribbons, or with tombs? Is it bedewed with ointments, or with
the tears of wives and mothers? It may be of some Christians too; for Christ is
also among the barbarians. Has not he who has carried (a crown for) this cause
on his head, fought even against himself? Another son of service belongs to the
royal guards. And indeed crowns are called (Castrenses), as belonging to the
camp; Munificæ likewise, from the Cæsarean functions they perform. But
even then you are still the soldier and the servant of another; and if of two
masters, of God and Cæsar: but assuredly then not of Cæsar, when you owe
yourself to God, as having higher claims, I should think, even in matters in
which both have an interest.
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