IV.
The Chaplet, or De Corona.380
| 380 [Kaye, apparently
accepting the judgment of Dr. Neander, assigns this treatise to
a.d. 204. The bounty here spoken of, then, must
be that dispensed in honour of the victories over the Parthians, under
Severus.] |
————————————
Chapter I.
Very lately it happened
thus: while the bounty of our most excellent emperors381
| 381
“Emperors.” The Emperor Severus associated his two
sons with him in the possession of the imperial power; Caracalla in the
year 198, Geta in 208.—Tr. |
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;
382
| 382 [A touch of our
author’s genius, inspired by the Phrygian enthusiasm for
martyrdom. The ground on which a martyr treads begins to be holy, even
before the sacrifice, and in loosing his shoe the victim consecrates
the spot and at the same time pays it homage.] |
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,
383
—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,
384
| 384 [Gibbon will have it
that the De Corona was written while Tertullian was orthodox,
but this reference to the Montanist notion of “New
Prophecy” seems to justify the decision of critics against
Gibbon, who, as Kaye suggests (p. 53) was anxious to make Christianity
itself responsible for military insubordination and for offences
against Imperial Law.] |
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.
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