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Tertnllian THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 806
charges as that the Christians sacrificed infants at the celebration of the Lord's Supper and committed incest; he pointed to the commission of such crimes in the pagan world, and then proved by the testimony of Pliny that Christians pledged themselves not to commit murder, adultery, or other crimes; he adduced also the inhumanity of pagan customs, such as feeding the flesh of gladiators to beasts. The gods have no existence, and thus there is no pagan religion against which Christians may offend. Christians do not engage in the foolish worship of the emperors; they do better, they pray for them. Christians can afford to be put to torture and to death, and the more they are cast down the more they grow; " the blood of Christians is seed " (chap. L). In the De Priescriptaone he develops as its fundamental idea that, in a dispute between the Church and a separating party, the whole burden of proof lies with the latter, as the Church, in possession of the unbroken tradition, is by its very existence a guaranty of its truth. The five books against Marcion, written 207 or 208, are the most comprehensive and elaborate of his polemical works, invaluable for the understanding of Gnosticism. Of the moral and ascetic treatises, the De Patientia and De spectaculis are among the most interesting, and the De pudicitia and De virginibus velandis among the most characteristic.
III. Theology: Though thoroughly conversant with the Greek theology, Tertullian was independent of its metaphysical speculation.
r. General He had learned from the Greek apol Character. ogles, and forms a direct contrast to Origen. Origen pushed his idealism in the direction of Gnostic spiritualism. Tertullian, the prince of realists and practical theologian, car ried his realism to the verge of materialism. This is evident from his ascription to God of corporeity and his acceptance of the traducian theory of the origin of the soul. He despised Greek philosophy, and, far from looking at Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek thinkers whom he quotes as forerunners of Christ and the Gospel, he pronounces them the patriarchal forefathers of the heretics (De anima, iii.). He held up to acorn their inconsistency when he referred to the fact that Socrates in dying ordered a cock to be sacrificed to lEsculapius (De anima, i.). Tertullian always wrote under stress of a felt neces sity. He was never so happy as when he had op ponents like Marcion and Praxeas, and, however abstract the ideas may be which he treated, he was always moved by practical considerations to mf.ke his case clear and irresistible. It was partly this element which gave to his writings a formative in fluence upon the theology of the post-Nicene period in the West and has rendered them fresh reading to this day. He was a born disputant, moved by the noblest impulses known in the Church. It is true that during the third century no mention is made of his name by other authors. Lactantius at the opening of the fourth century is the first to do this, but Augustine treats him openly with respect. Cyprian, Tertullian's North African compatriot, though he nowhere mentions his name, was well read in his writings, as Cyprian's secretary told Jerome.Tertullian's main doctrinal teachings are as follows: ('1) The soul was not preexistent, as Plato affirmed, nor addicted to metempsya. Specific chosis, as the Pythagoreans held. In Teachings. each individual it is a new product, proceeding equally with the body from the parents, and not created later and associated with the body (De anima, xxvii.). It is, however, a distinct entity and a certain corporeity and as such it may be tormented in Hades (De anima, lviii.). (2) The soul's sinfulness is easily. explained by its traducian origin (De anima, xxxix.). It is in bondage to Satan (whose works it renounces in baptism), but has seeds of good (De anima, xli.), and when awakened, it passes to health and at once calls upon God (Apol., xvii.) and is naturally Christian. It exists in all men alike; it is a culprit and yet an unconscious witness by its impulse to worship, its fear of demons, and its musings on death to the power, benignity, and judgment of God as revealed in the Christian's Scriptures (De testimonio, v.-vi.). (3) God, who made the world out of nothing through his Son, the Word, has corporeity though he is a spirit (De prcescriptione, vii.; Adv. Praxeam, vii.). In the statement of the Trinity, Tertullian was a forerunner of the Nicene doctrine, approaching the subject from the standpoint of the Logos doctrine, though he did not fully state the immanent Trinity. In his treatise against Praxeas, who taught patripassianism in Rome, he used the words, " Trinity and economy, persons and substance." The Son is distinct from the Father, and the Spirit from both the Father and the Son (Adv. Praxeam, xxv.). " These three are one substance, not one person; and it is said, ` I and my Father are one' in respect not of the singularity of number but the unity of the substance." The very names" Father" and " Son "indicate the distinction of personality. The Father is one, the Son is one, and the Spirit is one (Adv. Praxeam, ix.). The question whether the Son was coeternal with the Father Tertullian does not set forth in full clearness; and though he did not fully state the doctrine of the immanence of the Trinity, he went a long distance in the way of approach to it (B. B. Warfield, in Princeton Theological Review, 1906, pp. 56, 159). (4) In soteriology Tertullian does not dogmatize, he' prefers to keep silence at the mystery of the cross (De Patientia, iii.). The sufferings of Christ's life as well as of the crucifixion are efficacious to redemption. In the water of baptism, which (upon a partial quotation of John iii. 5) is made necessary (De baptismate, vi.), we are born again; we do not receive the Holy Spirit in the water, but are prepared for the Holy Spirit. We little fishes, after the example of the ichthys, " fish," Jesus Christ (having reference to the formula Jesus Christus, theou uios sot-'er, the initials of which make up the Greek word for " fish "), are born in water (De baptismate, i.). In discussing whether sins committed subsequent to baptism may be forgiven, he calls baptism and penance " two planks " on which the sinner may be saved from shipwreck-language which he gave to the Church (De penitentia, xii.). (5) With reference to the rule of faith, it may be said that Tertullian is constantly using this expression and by it means
