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| The Hatred Felt by the Heathen Against the Christians is Unjust, Because Based on Culpable Ignorance.
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VI.
Ad Nationes.458
| 458 [As a
recapitulation I insert this here to close this class of
argument for the reasons following.] This treatise resembles The
Apology, both in its general purport as a vindication of
Christianity against heathen prejudice, and in many of its expressions
and statements. So great is the resemblance that this shorter work has
been thought by some to have been a first draft of the longer and
perfect one. Tertullian, however, here addresses his expostulations to
the general public, while in The Apology it is the rulers and
magistrates of the empire whom he seeks to influence. [Dr. Allix
conjectures the date of this treatise to be about a.d. 217. See Kaye, p. 50.] |
Book I.
[Translated by Dr. Holmes.]
————————————
Chapter I.459
| 459 Compare The
Apology, c. i. | —The Hatred Felt by the Heathen Against
the Christians is Unjust, Because Based on Culpable
Ignorance.
One proof of that
ignorance of yours, which condemns460
| 460 Revincit.
“Condemnat” is Tertullian’s word in The
Apology, i. | whilst it
excuses461
| 461 Defendit.
“Excusat” in Apol. | your injustice, is at once apparent in the
fact, that all who once shared in your ignorance and hatred (of the
Christian religion), as soon as they have come to know it, leave off
their hatred when they cease to be ignorant; nay more, they actually
themselves become what they had hated, and take to hating what they had
once been. Day after day, indeed, you groan over the increasing number
of the Christians. Your constant cry is, that the state is beset (by
us); that Christians are in your fields, in your camps, in your
islands. You grieve over it as a calamity, that each sex, every
age—in short, every rank—is passing over from you to us;
yet you do not even after this set your minds upon reflecting whether
there be not here some latent good. You do not allow yourselves
in suspicions which may prove too true,462
| 462 Non licet rectius
suspicari. | nor
do you like ventures which may be too near the mark.463
| 463 Non lubet propius
experiri. |
This is the only instance in which human curiosity grows torpid. You
love to be ignorant of what other men rejoice to have discovered; you
would rather not know it, because you now cherish your hatred as if you
were aware that, (with the knowledge,) your hatred would certainly come
to an end. Still,464
if there shall be no
just ground for hatred, it will surely be found to be the best course
to cease from the past injustice. Should, however, a cause have
really existed there will be no diminution of the hatred, which will
indeed accumulate so much the more in the consciousness of its justice;
unless it be, forsooth,465
that you are ashamed
to cast off your faults,466
or sorry to free
yourselves from blame.467
I know very well with
what answer you usually meet the argument from our rapid
increase.468
That indeed must not,
you say, be hastily accounted a good thing which converts a great
number of persons, and gains them over to its side. I am aware how the
mind is apt to take to evil courses. How many there are which forsake
virtuous living! How many seek refuge in the opposite!
Many, no doubt;469
nay, very many, as
the last days approach.470
| 470 Pro extremitatibus
temporum. | But such a comparison
as this fails in fairness of application; for all are agreed in
thinking thus of the evil-doer, so that not even the guilty themselves,
who take the wrong side, and turn away from the pursuit of good to
perverse ways, are bold enough to defend evil as good.471
| 471 Or perhaps, “to
maintain evil in preference to good.” | Base things excite their fear, impious ones
their shame. In short, they are eager for concealment, they shrink from
publicity, they tremble when caught; when accused, they deny; even when
tortured, they do not readily or invariably confess (their crime); at
all events,472
they grieve when they
are condemned. They reproach themselves for their past life;
their change from innocence to an evil disposition they even attribute
to fate. They cannot say that it is not a wrong thing, therefore they
will not admit it to be their own act. As for the Christians, however,
in what does their case resemble this? No one is ashamed; no one is
sorry, except for his former (sins).473
| 473 Pristinorum. In
the corresponding passage (Apol. i.) the phrase is,
“nisi plane retro non fuisse,” i.e.,
“except that he was not a Christian long
ago.” | If he is
pointed at (for his
religion), he glories in it; if dragged to trial, he does not resist;
if accused, he makes no defence. When questioned, he confesses; when
condemned, he rejoices. What sort of evil is this, in which the nature
of evil comes to a standstill?474
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