so perfectly represented the innocence of Christians by this Apologie or Defence that all the Church had this Book in singular reversace they esteemedit as a pretions Cabinet where the evidences of its faith are kept the proofs of its ancient discipline and marks of the holinesse of its first children It seemes to me that England deserves to have this Peece in its Language that Learned men owe to this Nation so rich a Present for although Translations are not much esteemed in this Age where every one adores his own inventions yet this how meanly soever translated may bee well received because of the dignity of the matter I have undertaken it for those who not knowing the language of the Mistresse of the World cannot know the perfection of so excellent a production of wit if it appear not to their eyes with its graces in the Mother tongue of their native Country This Work might have met with a better Pen then mine but not a faithfuller I aspire not to the glory of writing well but only of being an Interpreter of an Author who in the judgement of the Learned hath no fewer thorns then flowers Tertullians Apologie or Defense of the Christians against the accusations of the Gentiles CHAPTER I. SIRS IF the Authority of Justice bee subject to so intollerable a necessity as you that hold the first places of the Roman Empire who in the dignity of your Magistracy being exposed to the eyes of all the world judge men in the most eminent place of this Capitoll City of the Universe have not the liberty to examine publickly and in the view of the people under your conduct wherein the things consist whereof the Christians are accused and which they propose for the proofe of their innocence If upon this occasion only you feare or are ashamed to labour openly to finde out the truth and to instruct your selves by the order the Lawes have established or if the severity you have exercised against the Christians subject to your domesticke power incensing your mindes with too much sury against our Religion makes you bring from your home a resolution to condemn us and not so much as hear the reasons serving for our defence Be pleased we present you this truth in secret and permit us to discover the same to you in paper seeing wee cannot make you understand it by word of mouth She demands no favour of you because her condition permits her not to hope for a usage easier then that she hath formerly received she knowes her selfe a stranger on earth and doubts not to meet with enemies in a Countrey that 's not her owne as shee derives her originall from Heaven so there makes she her principal residence where shee hath most hope where her best credit is and where her dignity Chines in its greatest lustre That which shee desires of you whilest she remaines heer below is only you would not condemne her unknown The Lawes of the State will lose nothing of their Authority if you Permit her but to defend her selfe their power on the contrary will be seen with more luster if you condemne her after you have heard her but if you judge her without knowing her cause you will not only stand charged with reproach of manifest injustice but be justly suspected your consciences check you with some secret motions that make you refuse to heare the thing you could not condemne if you heard it Wee say then ignorance is the first cause that makes the hatred unjust you have conceived against the name of Christians indeed wee are unholy in your opinion because you are not informed of the holines of our doctrine But take heed what seems to serve you for an excuse be not that which renders your judgement of us faulty For is there any thing more unjust then to hate that you know not although it were otherwise even a thing to bee hated As bad as any thing is it begins not to deserve hatred till it be known to deserve it while you know not what it is how is it possible you should rightly hate it To make the hatred of any thing just it sufficeth not the thing it selfe be evill but that the party who hates the same knows it to be evill in like maner seeing therefore you hate us without knowing wherefore how appears it you hate us not without a cause and consequently most unjustly in regard whereof wee have good reason to reprehend you because you know us not to wit in our condition when you hate us and therefore hate us most unjustly Certainly you pursue us with so much animosity that it well appears you know not in what manner wee live and affect an ignorance that condemnes rather then excuseth you of injustice For we see a great many whose hatred is grounded on the want of knowledge onely who so soone as they cease from being ignorant of our discipline cease at the same time to bear hatred against us It is of these fort of men that Christians are made they embrace our religion after informed in the Piety thereof when hating what they sometimes were they make publick profession of that they hated before the number of these men is so great that it will astonish you when but hear them reckoned up And from thence it comes the people complain highly that the City of Rome is invironed on all sides with the enemies of the worship of the Gods that Christians are spred over all the Empire that the provinces are full of them they be wail it as a signall mischiefe and as a considerable losse because persons of all qualities and ages men of all conditions even those who have attained to great dignities run promiscuously on this side The progresse Christianity hath made cannot make them judge well of us and the examples before their eyes puts not this thought in their mindes that a religion that drawes all the world after it must have something excellent and divine that they know not of The constancy wherewith wee suffer their persecutions is not able to move them to better opinions of us then those they have formerly conceived they will not perticularly be informed of our Doctrine wherin only they care not for being over curious and take as much delight to bee ignorant of this as others to know all things O how would Anacharsis have judged these rather imprudent for giving their judgement upon men wiser then themselves then formerly hee taxed those of folly who themselves being altogether immusicall gave their judgement touching Musicke Seemed it not the policy of the Athenians ridiculous to him when hee saw among them the learned exposed to the judgement of ignorant men Truly the blindenesse of our enemies far surpasseth this in regard they are so hardned in the hatred they beare towards us that because not being oblieged to relinquish it they care not for being made acquainted with our condition much doubting what they are ignorant of is of such
and advantagious for our part against you I that the gods with you must depend upon the approbation of men if men like not God hee shall no longer be a God and man must now be propitious to God It was by vertue of this Law the Emperour Tiberius under whom the name Christian began to be made famous propounded to the Senate to receive among the number of their gods Jesus Christ of whom he heard great miracles had been done from the intelligence given him by those Commanders under him Palestine the place where Christ our Master first Preached the mystery of his Divinity This Prince witnessed at first that he enclined to ordaine for him the honour he rendred to his other gods the Senate rejected the proposition and would not approve of a God they did not know Tiberius remained firme in his resolution and threatned disgrace to those that went about to accuse the Christians Read your ancient Records you shall finde there Nero the first of all the Emperours that persecuted our Religion when it was in its birth which much redounded to our glory that this Monster should be the first of all others that condemned us for whosoever knew his life must needs judge it could not otherwise be but what he condemned was most highly to be esteemed Domitian whose cruelty made up that of Nero's did sometimes resolve also to molest us but as his thoughts and resolutions were contrary to humane condition his minde of it selfe turned to render us the peace he had taken from us and to recall those Christians he had banished In briefe we were never persecuted but by Prince whose actions were full of injustice whose minds of impiety and whose manners of shame and infamy never persecuted of any but of those whose lives your owne selves are wont to condemn and whose odious governments oblige you to revoke their judgements in re-establishing innocents which have beene so miserable as to be the unhappy objects of their fury Princes who by their vertue got the love of the people have not been our enemies and of all the Emperours commanding this State till now and that had any sense of Piety and Religion towards your gods or whose conduct was animated by the spirit of humane wisedome you cannot name one that persecuted the Christians On the contrary it will bee found the Emperour Marke Aurelius a very wise Prince was our Protector if you see the Letters hee writ touching the extreame incommodity his Army suffered whilst he made war in Germany you shall finde hee there witnesseth that the prayers of the Christian Souldiers in his Troops obtained from Heaven that favourable raine which quenched the thirst wherewith they were oppressed This Prince resolving to make acknowledgement of their affection and the good will they bore him and yet not purposing to infringe the authority of his Predecessors did not publickly discharge the Christians from the punishments enacted against them but rendred their power useless in the sight of all the world another way by ordaining their Accusers to be inflicted also with the extreamest punishment Consider then a little what force these Lawes ought to have where none made use of them against us but these Emperours that are defamed with all manner of impietie injustice villany cruelty lightness and folly which Trajan frustrated in part in forbidding to inquire after Christians which were never confirmed by an Adrian a Prince curious of all rare and excellent things by a Vespasian who conquered Judea by an Antoninus Pius nor by a Marcus Aurelius If our lives were wicked as is supposed we should not feare affliction from wicked Princes because Companions of their Vices but rather punnishment to bee inflicted upon us from them who make profession of honesty whom being vertuous we might sooner feare to become our enemies and ready upon all occasions to seeke meanes to disturbe us CHAP. VI. BUT I could wish these men that appeare so religiously and so zealously observant of their owne Lawes and so severe defenders of things instituted by their Ancestors would answer to the demands I shall make them namely whether they have kept their Faith inviolable whether rendred the honour and obedience they ought to the good Rules left them by their fore-Fathers whether there are not some Laws that have lost their power and authority among them whether they have not passed beyond the bounds prescribed by ancient simplicity or rather not banished from their policy all that their Fathers judged necessary and convenient to establish a good government what are become of the Laws which cut off Luxury superfluous and ambitious expences which commanded what we spent at a Feast should not exceed five shillings that would have us serve up but one Hen at a meale and that not a fat one neither which forbad a Senator entrance into the Senate who had in his house twenty markes of silver as if in that alone one might justly suspect he would seeme too magnificent that would over throw the Theatres after newly set up supposing the use of shewes would not serve but to corrupt manners which would not suffer any man rashly and without punishment to usurp the emblems of great dignities belonging to persons of noble birth But now I see superfluity gives names to Feasts they call them Hundreds because of s o many hundred Crownesspent at such Feasts They also draw out of the Mines silver to make Basins not onely for Senators but Free-men and those that not yet come to obtaine their freedome yea that scarce exempt from the miseries of servitude I see it is not enough in open Theatres to content the eyes of the People but by drawing vast Covertures over they arme themselves against the injuries of the Ayre to fulfill their pleasures by the objects of those infamous representations For they imitate the Lacedemonians who were the first that tooke care to see publique Playes at their ease and covered themselves with large and heavy Gownes for feare lest during the winter they should catch cold in injoying their dishonest and unchaste pleasures I see no difference between the women of honour and those that are infamous and lewd they observe not any longer those holy institutions of former times that injoyned women to have speciall care of modesty and temperance When a woman wore no more gold then that on the finger she put the Ring her Husband gave her the day shee was married to bee the gage of her conjugall Faith When it was so absolutely forbidden women to drink Wine that there was one that her neare Kinsman caused to be starved because she had broke the seales wherewith his Cellars were shut up and under the reigne of Romulus one Mecenius killed his Wife for the same cause and was absolved for it Therefore it was established that they should kiss their Parents that they might judge by their breath if they had offended against this Law Where are now those happy Mariages and good
as it hath done they abhorred your Idolatry and on the contrary you have sacrificed oblations to their god you have presented gifts to his Temple you have lived in alliance with them along time and they had never fallen under your power if they had not offended their God by the unworthy treating they used to Jesus Christ CHAP. XXVII MEE thinks we have purged our selves very well of the crime of high treason when we say we offend not your deities because wee shew they are no deities Therefore when wee are exhorted to present them sacrifices wee oppose for our defence the trust wee put or owe to the light God hath given us wee call our consciences to our aide which shews us certainly to whom the worship you render to these images should be adressed which are exposed to a sacrilegious adoration and to the names of men you have consecrated but some say there is folly in our resistance wee may sacrifice when prest to it and conserve our lives without injuring our consciences in keeping a secret resolution to remaine firme in our Religion and that in neglecting our security wee prefer a vaine selfe-will before our welfare So you give us an advise that teacheth us how to deceave you but we know the author of this counsell and who inspires it into you wee know the crafts of that wicked one who sometimes by the wiles of his perswasions sometimes by the force of torments makes us suffer strives to overthrow our constancy It is that malicious spirit whose substance is that of Angels and Divels who by his sin finally falling from grace becomes our enemy and envies at that state of happinesse wherein by Gods gracious assistance we yet remaine and who puts projects in your minds to assault us who secretly excites these furious motions that corrupts all functions of reason in you and dispose you to do us the injustice we spoke of in the beginning of this discourse of condemning us against the rules of justice and in tormenting us altough guilty of no fault for although all power of Devils and this wicked spirit is subject to us yet is falls out sometimes that like unto wicked and faithlesse slaves in the midst of the feare they have of the authority God hath given us over them they give themselves over to actions of disobedience and revolt and as te ordinary effect of feare is to produce hatred they strive to wrong them whose power they feare Besides in the estate of rage and despaire to which they are reduced because their condemnation is already pronounced they find content in their wickednesse they solace themselves in their evils by those they make against the servants of God against the day of the last judgement when they shall bee shut up in hell to suffer there eternally Neverthelesse they combate not with us after this sort but at a distance for when wee come neare them they must yield being under out power and are forced to acknowledge the misery of their condition so the Devills that assault us when far from us have recourse to entreaties when we affront them neare hand Therefore when we must undergoe such punishmets as you ordain for your wretched slaves when they shut us up in prisos whe tey cause us to be condemned to work in the mines or to som other servile work of the same condition in the end when they exercise all their rage against us by te impetuous motions of fury that transports them because they see they are subjected to our authority knowing their forces are inferior to ours and therfore our victory is assured and their destruction is inevitable then we defend our selves against these troublesom importunate spirits as if they were our equalls wee resist them by a holy perseverance in the faith which they strive to destroy and the most glorious triumph wee can gain over them is when our constancy and firme resolution in the Religion of the true God condemns us to death CHAP. XXVIII BUT seeing Religion cannot bee forced and the service of God is a pure act of the will it seemes it were injustice to force free men to offer them sacrifices and would be ridiculous to obliege them to honour the gods in despite of them seeing they ought to be carried by their owne motion and interest to seeke their favour if they be true gods wee should not snatch away the advantage that gives them the liberty of their nature It should be permitted them to say I will not have Jupiter favourable to mee who are you that will force my will I feare not Janus I laugh at his anger of which side soever of his two faces he looks upon me what power have you to meddle with what concerns me but the same spirit that inspires you to presse us to sacrifice to the gods excites you to ordain us to sacrifice for the health of the Emperours by this meanes the interest of Caesar being mingled with that of the gods you cannot avoyd the necessity of constrayning us and we cannot hinder our lives form being in perill if wee will be faithfull to God So wee are come to the second head of high treason but against a majesty more august then that of the gods for you render your duties to the Emporour with more feare and an apprehension more industrious then to your Iupiter you place in Heaven and I find you doe wisely if you knew the true condition of this King of gods for tell me whatsoever he be of the living is he not to be preserd before the dead but that which you doe is not so much because reason obliegeth you to it as for the consideration of the power present with you and which before your eyes exerciseth a soveraigne authority on the earth therefore you shew your selves impious towards your gods in being more afraid of the Princes of the world then of those gods you prosesse to worship Finally there is lesse danger with you to cal all the gods together to be witnesses of a false oath then to sweare falsely by the genius of Caesar onely CHAP. XXIX BEfore then you can force us to sacrifice to the gods it must appeare they can preserve the lives of the Emperours and the rest of men when you can shew us they have this power wee are willing to be declared criminalls if we addresse not our prayers to them for the welfare of our Princes If the gods you serve who are no other then the miserable spirits of evill Angels and Devills worke any good if they that destroy themselves preserve others if the condemned deliver those that exclaime against them and lastly if the dead as you know in your consciences your gods are protect the living Why defend they not rather their statues images and temples who in my opinion owe their conservation to the souldiers that guard them But tell me if the matter wherof these statues are formed be not taken out of the
maners maintained in such a perfect harmony that we have seen neare six hundred years since the foundation of this City pass without hearing so much as a divorce once spoke of in any one family onely Women now a dayes have never a part of their bodies which bows not under the weight of the gold they weare a man cannot kiss them without smelling the Wine they drinke and wee are fallen into those times it seems that people marry onely to be repudiated and divorce is the fruit of marriage But this is not all for as religious as you will appear in the observation of the ancient institutions of your Fathers you have revoked what they ordained with serious deliberation concerning the worship of your gods The Consuls with the Authority of the Senate banished not only from the City but also from all Italy Father Bacchus with all ceremonies done in his honour Piso and Gabinius were not Christians and yet during their Consulship they forbad to place in the Capitoll Serapis Isis Harpoerates and that Image which had the head of a dog that is to say they put them away from the Palace of the gods They tooke from them their divine honours and caused their Altars to be beat down that the disorder of vaine and dishonest superstitions might be restrained You have re-established all these gods in the dignity they had taken from them and make them pertake of honours due to the highest Majesty knowne by mortals Tell me where is your Religion where the reverence you owe to your fore-Fathers you render your selves unlike them in your habits custome of living manners opinions and lastly in your very words language you always praise antiquity and every day receive new things so that you remove from you as much as is possible the laudable institutions of your Ancestors and as for the things that are established you keep none of them but what deserve not to be kept There is moreover this in it for I will shew presently that by a negligence that injureth the authority of your fore-Fathers although you have set up againe the Altars of Serapis that by your means this god might be no more a stranger at Rome and have presented your sacrifices to Bacchus whom you cause to be worshipped in Italy you have no more this great affection to the worship of the gods which antiquity held so unfortunate an error and so strange a blindness you your selves destroy the Religion your Fathers taught you whilest pass for its faithfull protectors and accuse Christians principally of being guilty of impiety towards them yet notwithstanding I must justifie our profession from the infamy of the hidden crimes which they object against it that I may prepare a way to arrive at the point which concernes the actions we doe in the sight of all the world CHAP. VII I Say then the crimes pretended against us the horror whereof makes us pass for wicked in the opinion of the people are that wee meet together to sacrifice a childe after we have taken away his life by a barbarous superstition we devoure his body and when devoured the flesh of this Innocent we commit incests They adde we have Dogs who serve to overthrow the Candles and doing the Office of these infamous Merchants of modesty make us lose all shame in taking the lights from us and covering our actions under the vaile of darkness emboldens us to seek the use of ungodly and sacrilegious pleasures But so it is we are not guilty save in the discourse you make concerning us It 's a long time since you imputed to us all these things and though you accuse us of them everyday yet you make not much inquiry to know the truth thereof If you take us to be faulty why make you not process against us as criminals but seeing you have not as yer convicted us by a lawfull proceeding you should not have such an evill opinion of us and certainely that which moves you to use dissimulation in what concerns us tells you wee are unjustly accused Therefore is it you dare not undertake to informe against us and when you give the Executioners the order they are to observe in tormenting Christians you command them to draw from their mouthes not the confession of what they are but the disavowing the Religion they profess Now as wee have already said the doctrine which we follow began from the time of the Emperour Tiberius from its beginning it hath drawne on it the hatreds of men it hath met with as many enemies as it hath found people in the darkness of Idolatry even those who ought to have received it The Jewes to whom it was revealed are set against it by a spirit of jealousie because it would destroy their Law Soldiers in their usual persecuting us are accustomed to be against it our domesticks becoming our adversaries by an evill inclination of nature have beene the first that made war against it From thece it coms that every day we see our selvs besieg'd we are betrayed at every instant and very often they take us in our Assemblies This being so I ask when did it fall out that ever any one surprized us at the same time when a Childe having the knife set to his throat gave forth his last crye before we cut his winde-pipe asunder was there any that finding a Christians mouth bleeding as of the Cyclops and the Cyrenes after such a deed done by us presented it to the Judges Who among you ever discerned in his Wite any symptome or token of unchastity after our Religion at any time sincerely imbraced by her Is it possible our Enemies should hide such strange crimes as laid to our charge after once discovering us to be faulty therein or that they that take such a pride in persecuting and dragging us before the Tribunall of justice should be corrupted in our behalfe you say we doe nothing but in obscurity if it bee as you say tell us when knew you wee did what you accuse us of and in whose power it was to give you the certaine knowledge of it it's not likely you had it from the mouthes of them you judge guiltie for all Mysteries are to be kept secret and to partake of them as we ought the Law of silence is faithfully to be observed by us Men usually say nothing of the mysteries of Samothracia or Eleusina How much rather ought they to bee carefull not to reveale those which would excite against them were they knowne the rigour both of humane and divine justice They are not Christians it seems then that discover themselves unto you and if not Christians then must they be people of different profession that discourse of their actions But how should such a peoples knowledge bee informed in those mysteries to be laid open by them seeing even the ceremonies where piety presides puts away the profane and suffers no strange witnesses unless they will have it said Christians