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object of thela aversion; since, is inqui fino nostingworthy of distiae, it is certainly proper to ceras hom anunjust distino,-while it ita bad character comes plataly out, instoad of tho detestation enteria ed for it being thus dimunished, a stronger mason lar perseverance in stat detestation
evit, not even inose Whom it carries away venture to defendas good. Nature throws a veil either of fear or inamo over
he offers no defence; interrogated, he mahes voluntary consession ; condemned, he renders thanks. What sori os ovil
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mado against us aro made against others, they are portauedio mari me both of their om lips and of hirta pleadere toston inela innocenos. They have fuit opportunity of ansWerand debato; in faci, it is against the law to condemn anybohundefended and nnheard. Christians alone are forbidden tosv anything in exculpation of themselves, in defence of the
truth, in help the judgo to a righteous decision, ali stat iscaria about is having What the public halred demanti heconfession of the name, not examination of the charge; While inbour ordinary judiciat investigations, on a man's confessiones the crime of murder, or sacrilege, or incest, or treason, totiso tho potata of Which We are accus , Du are not contentis pro ed at once in sentence, ou do nes tae stat steptili Du thoron ly examino the circumstances of the confession-What is tho real character of the doed, osten,
the reigning omperor, as in What he mas to do missi tho res explaining to his master stat, excepi an obstinate disinclinationio offer sacrifices, he found in their religious services nothing
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punished. O miserable desiveran ,-under tho necessities of the case, a Mincontradiction t D forbida them to bo soti tester as innocent, and it commanti them to bo punished as
ali the provinces for traching robbers. Against imitore and public foes every man is a soldier; aearch is made even fortheir consederates and accessaries. The Christian alone
Othera densng, you apply the torture to mahe them confess- Christians alone you torture, to mine them deny; Whereas, ii 're mere Milty of any crime, me should be fure to devit, and you mist your tortures Would force us to confession. Nor indeod inould y- hold that our crimes require no such investigation merely on the mound that you are convincedis our confession of the name that the deeds were done,-
muriar is, none the lem to Extraci Dom the consessed mu derer a fuit account of ho the crime Was perpetrated. So
our crimes proved by our confession of the name os Christ, y- -- us by torture to fati hom our consession, that, repudiating the name, We may in like manner repudiate also tho crimes mith Which, fram that fame confession, you hadassumed that me were charge te. I suppose, though Dubelieve us to be the morat of mankiud, you do nes Wish us to
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58 TERTULLIANUS peristi. For thus, no doubt, you ars in the habit os bidding
the murderer deny, and of ordering the man guilty of sacrilege to the rach it ho persevero in his achnowledgmenti Isthat the way of it But is thus you do uot deat with us ascriminals, you declare us ther y innocent, When as innocentyou are anxious that We do not persevere in a confession
bo passed ; the criminal should be oven over to the penalty whicli is his duo, not rete ed. Accordingly, no One is eager for the acquittat of tho milty; it is not right to destre that, and So no one is ever compelled to deny. Well, you thinhthe Christian a man os every crime, an enemy os the gods, of the emperor, of the laWs, of good morais, os ali nature;
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reflect stat a spontaneous confession is greatly more Worthyos credit than a compelled dental; or consider Whether, When
compelled in den' a man's dental may not be in good faith, and whether acquitted, he may not, then and there, M SOon asthe triat is over, lavo at your hostilit' a Christian as muta asever 3 Seeing, then, that in everything you deat differently with us than with other criminals, bent upon the one objectoi tising from us our name indeed, it is ours no more is wo do what Christians never do), it is made perfectly clearthat there is no crime of any hind in the case, but merely aname Whicli a certain system, ever Worhing against the truth,
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60 TERTULLIANUS says one, se is Gaius Seius, only that he is a Christian.' Soanother, I am astonished that a Wim man like Lucius inould have suddenly beeome a Christian.' Nobody thinis it need-sul in consider Whother Gaius is not good and Lucius mise, onctis very account that lis is a Christian; or a Christian, forthe reason stat he is mise and good. They praise What in know, they abuse What they are ignorant os and they inspire their knowledge mith their ignoranco; though in fatonem you fhould rather judge of What is unknown imm .hat is
is given to a reformation os character. Some even barter
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lo re a designation hom iis master o not tho philosophera called iram the foundere of their systems-Platonisis, Epicureans, Pythagoreansi Are not tho Stoica and Ac demim so called alio trom tho places in Which they amembledand stationed thomselves and are not physicians named homErasistratus, grammarians from Aristarchus, coohs even immApiciust And yet tho bearing of the name, transmitted homine original institutor mith Whataver ho has instituted, offentino one. No dosit, is it is proved that the feci is a bad one, and so ita founder bad as well, that will provo that the nameis bad and deserves our aversion, in respect of the character
both of tho seci and ita author. Before, thereiore, tahingup a distilis to the name, it behoved you to consider the sectin tho author, or tho auctor in the feci. But noW, wit, out any sisting and knowledge of either, the mere namo is
made matter os accusation, the mere name is assassed, and asound alone Mings condemnation on a seci and iis author
inat Christians ars Dee from the very crimes they are m ess aWare prevasi among themselves, that they may at thesamo time bo put to tho bl h for their accusations againstus, ccusations I shali not say of the worat of men against
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it, though that very thing, is it mere evit, it Would justly
tho laws of Lycurgus himself, thereby inflicting such pain
consent that crueity was a terWards erased from the statutes,
and the capital penalty turned into a brand of shame. Byadopting the plan os confiscating a deblor's goods, it Wassought rather to pour the blood in biushes ovor his face than
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stili requiro to bo reformed i For it is neither tho number of their years nor the dignity of their miser that commendsthem, but simply that they are just; and thereiore, Whentheir injustico is recognised, they are deservedly condemned, even though they condemn. Why speah me of them as un-justi nari ii they punish mere names, We may weli cali them irrational. But ii they punish acis, Why in cur case do theypunish acta sesely on the ground of a name, while in othersthey must have them proved not from the name, but from tho
mont is inflicted. It is not enough that a laW is just, nor that the judge should be convinced of iis justice; inoso homwhom obedience is expected should havo that conviction too. Nay, a tam lies under strong suspicions Which does not caro
should be consecrared by the emperor illi first approved by the senate. Marcus AEmilius had experieneo of this in referenes to his god Alburnus. And this, too, maes for cur case, stat among you divinity is allotted at the judgment of human beings. Unless gods give satisfaction to men, there mill be no deification for them: tho god mill have to propitiato the man. Tiberius accordingly, in Whose days tho Christian name made iis ento into the worid, having himself received intelligendo hom Palestine of evenis Whicli han
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matter besoro tho senato, With his o n decision in favo of Christ. Τhe. senate, because it had not inven tho a' provat iraeis, rejected his proposia. Caesar held in his opinion, threatening Wrath against ali accusors of the Chri tians. Consult your histories; you mill them find that Noro Was tho fidit Who assailed Mith tho imperiat swota tho Christian seci, mahing progress then especialty at Rome. But Ws ψοπ in haring our condemnation heslowed by the hostili of such a Wrelah. For any one Who kno shim, can underetand that not excepi as being of singulis excelleneo did anything bring on it Neresa condemnation. Domitian, too, a man os Nero's typo in cruei , ined his hand at persecution; bnt ho had something of tho humanis him, he soon put an end in What he had bemn, evendistoring again those Whom he had banishod. Such as theso
present dari With anything of divine and human wisdom in them, pesnt Out a single persecutor of tho Christian name. So far hom that, W' on the contra , bring belare Πu Ons Who Was their protector, as you Will see by examining tholotters of Marcus Aurelius, stat most grave os emperora, in which ho bears his testimony that that Germanic MoughtWas removed by the ratas obruinta through the prayers of
tho Christians who chancod is bo fighting undis him. d as ho did not by public law remove fram Christians thola legat dis ilities, yet in another Way ho put them
Openly aside, even adding a sentence of condemnation, and that os greater severi , against their accusem. What sortoi laws ara these Which the implous alone execute against us-and the uniust, ina vile, the bl dri the sensetes' insinsane -Which Traian to somo extent made nauot is
and nem nor a Vespasian, though the subjugator of the JeWs, nor a Pius, nor a Verus, ever ent cedi It should