Tertullian: ad Martyres

[1] Inter carnis alimenta, benedicti martyres designati, quae vobis et domina mater ecclesia de uberibus suis et singuli fratres de opibus suis propriis in carcerem subministrant, capite aliquid et a nobis quod faciat ad spiritum quoque educandum. Carnem enim saginari et spiritum esurire non prodest. Immo, si quod infirmum est curatur, aeque quod infirmius est neglegi non debet

[1] Among the aliments of the flesh, blessed designated martyrs, which both to you your Lady Mother Church from her own breasts and each brother from his own resources supply into the prison, take also something from us which may make for the spirit to be educated as well. For it does no good that the flesh be fattened and the spirit hunger. Rather, if that which is infirm is cared for, equally that which is more infirm ought not to be neglected

[2] Nec tantus ego sum, ut vos alloquar; verumtamen et gladiatores perfectissimos non tantum magistri et praepositi sui, sed etiam idiotae et supervacui quique adhortantur de longinquo, ut saepe de ipso populo dictata suggesta profuerint.

[2] Nor am I so great as to address you; nevertheless even the most accomplished gladiators are exhorted from afar not only by their masters and their overseers, but also by idiots and every sort of superfluous person, so that from the very populace the dictated suggestions have often been of use.

[3] Inprimis ergo, benedicti, «nolite contristare Spiritum sanctum», qui vobiscum introiit carcerem. Si enim non vobiscum nunc introisset, nec vos illic hodie fuissetis. Et ideo date operam ut illic vobiscum perseveret et ita vos inde perducat ad Dominum.

[3] In the first place, therefore, blessed ones, «do not grieve the Holy Spirit», who entered the prison with you. For if he had not now entered with you, neither would you have been there today. And therefore give diligence that there with you he may persevere, and thus may lead you from there to the Lord.

[4] Domus quidem diaboli est et carcer, in qua familiam suam continet. Sed vos ideo in carcerem pervenistis, ut illum etiam in domo sua conculcetis. Iam enim foris congressi conculcaveratis.

[4] The prison is indeed the devil’s house,
in which he keeps his family. But for this reason you have come into the prison, that you may even
trample him in his own house. For already outside, having engaged him, you had trampled him.

[5] Non ergo dicat: «In meo sunt, temptabo illos vilibus odiis, defectionibus, aut inter se dissensionibus.» Fugiat conspectum vestrum, et in ima sua delitescat contractus et torpens, tamquam coluber excantatus aut effumigatus. Nec illi tam bene sit in suo regno, ut vos committat, sed inveniat munitos et concordia armatos: quia pax vestra bellum est illi.

[5] Therefore let him not say: «They are mine, I will tempt them with base hatreds, defections, or dissensions among themselves.» Let him flee your sight, and in his own depths let him skulk, contracted and torpid, like a serpent enchanted or fumigated. Nor let it go so well with him in his own kingdom as to set you at strife, but let him find you fortified and armed with concord: because your peace is war to him.

[6] Quam pacem quidam in ecclesia non habentes a martyribus in carcere exorare consueverunt. Et ideo eam etiam propterea in vobis habere et fovere et custodire debetis, ut, si forte, et aliis praestare possitis.

[6] Which peace some, not having in the church, have been accustomed to implore from the martyrs in prison. And therefore you ought even for this reason in yourselves to have it and to cherish and to guard it, so that, if perhaps, you may also be able to bestow it upon others.

Capitulum II

Chapter 2

[1] Cetera aeque animi impedimenta usque ad limen carceris deduxerint vos, quousque et parentes vestri. Exinde segregati estis ab ipso mundo, quanto magis a saeculo rebusque eius? Nec hoc vos consternet, quod segregati estis a mundo.

[1] Let the other impediments of the mind likewise have conducted you up to the threshold of the prison, as far as even your parents. From then on you have been segregated from the world itself; how much more from the secular age and its things? Nor let this consternate you, that you have been segregated from the world.

Si enim recogitemus ipsum magis mundum carcerem esse, exisse vos e carcere, quam in carcerem introisse, intellegemus.

For if we reconsider that the world itself is rather a prison, we will understand that you have gone out of prison, rather than gone into prison.

[2] Maiores tenebras habet mundus, quae hominum praecordia excaecant. Graviores catenas induit mundus, quae ipsas animas hominum constringunt. Peiores immunditias exspirat mundus, libidines hominum.

[2] The world has greater darkness, which blind the innermost hearts of men. The world puts on heavier chains, which bind fast the very souls of men themselves. The world breathes out worse uncleannesses, the libidos of men.

[3] Plures postremo mundus reos continet, scilicet universum hominum genus. Iudicia denique non proconsulis, sed Dei sustinet.

[3] At last the world contains more accused
namely the entire race of men. Finally, judgments not of a proconsul, but of God
it sustains.

[4] Quo vos, benedicti, de carcere in custodiarium, si forte, translatos existimetis. Habet tenebras, sed lumen estis ipsi; habet vincula, sed vos soluti Deo estis. Triste illic exspirat, sed vos odor estis suavitatis.

[4] Wherefore you, blessed ones, may suppose yourselves, if by chance, transferred from the prison into the guardroom. It has darkness, but you yourselves are the light; it has chains, but you are free for God. Something dreary exhales there, but you are the odor of suavity.

Iudex exspectatur, sed vos estis de iudicibus ipsis iudicaturi.

The Judge is awaited, but you are going to judge the judges themselves.

[5] Contristetur illic qui fructum saeculi suspirat. Christianus etiam extra carcerem saeculo renuntiavit, in carcere autem etiam carceri. Nihil interest, ubi sitis in saeculo, qui extra saeculum estis.

[5] Let him be saddened there who sighs for the fruit of the world. The Christian has renounced the world even outside the prison; but in prison he has renounced even the prison. It makes no difference where you are in the world, you who are outside the world.

[6] Et si aliqua amisistis vitae gaudia: «negotiatio est aliquid amittere, ut maiora lucreris.» Nihil adhuc dico de praemio, ad quod Deus martyres invitat. Ipsam interim conversationem saeculi et carceris comparemus, si non plus in carcere spiritus acquirit quam caro amittit.

[6] And if you have lost some joys of life:
«it is a negotiation to lose something, so that you may gain greater things.» I say nothing yet about
the reward, to which God invites the martyrs. Meanwhile let us compare the very conversation of the world and of the prison,
whether the spirit does not acquire more in prison than the flesh loses.

[7] Immo et quae iusta sunt caro non amittit per curam ecclesiae et agapen fratrum; et insuper quae semper utilia fidei, spiritus adipiscitur: non vides alienos deos, non imaginibus eorum incurris, non sollemnes nationum dies ipsa commixtione participas, non nidoribus spurcis verberaris, non clamoribus spectaculorum, atrocitate vel furore vel impudicitia celebrantium caederis; non in loca libidinum publicarum oculi tui impingunt: vacas a scandalis, a temptationibus, a recordationibus malis, iam et a persecutione.

[7] Nay rather, even what is justly due to the flesh it does not lose through the care of the church and the agape of the brethren; and in addition the spirit acquires the things which are always useful to faith: you do not see alien gods, you do not run into their images, you do not participate in the solemn days of the nations by the very commixture, you are not scourged by filthy odors, you are not
battered by the shouts of the spectacles, of those celebrating with atrocity or frenzy or impudicity; your
eyes do not strike upon the places of public lusts: you are free from scandals, from temptations, from evil
recollections, now also from persecution.

[8] Hoc praestat carcer Christiano, quod eremus prophetis. Ipse Dominus in secessu frequentius agebat, ut liberius oraret, ut saeculo cederet. Gloriam denique suam discipulis in solitudine demonstravit.

[8] This the prison provides to the Christian, what the desert did to the prophets. The Lord himself spent time more frequently in seclusion, so that he might pray more freely, so that he might withdraw from the world. Finally, he showed his glory to his disciples in solitude.

Auferamus carceris nomen, secessum vocemus.

Let us remove the name of prison; let us call it a retreat.

[9] Etsi corpus includitur, etsi caro detinetur, omnia spiritui patent. Vagare spiritu, spatiare spiritu, et non stadia opaca aut porticus longas proponens tibi, sed illam viam, quae ad Deum dueit. Quotiens eam spiritu deambulaveris, totiens in carcere non eris.

[9] Although the body is enclosed, although the flesh is detained, everything lies open to the spirit. Range with the spirit, stroll with the spirit, and not setting before yourself shadowy stadia or long porticoes, but that way which leads to God. As often as you shall have walked it in the spirit, so often you will not be in prison.

[10] Nihil crus sentit in nervo, cum animus in caelo est. Totum hominem animus circumfert, et quo velit transfert. Ubi autem erit cor tuum, illic erit et thesaurus tuus.

[10] The leg feels nothing in the shackle, when
the mind is in heaven. The mind carries the whole man around, and transfers him whither it wills. But where
your heart will be, there too will be your treasure.

Ibi ergo sit cor nostrum, ubi volumus habere thesaurum.

Therefore let our heart be there, where we wish to have the treasure.

Capitulum III

Chapter 3

[1] Sit nunc, benedicti, carcer etiam Christianis molestus. Vocati sumus ad militiam Dei vivi iam tunc, cum in sacramenti verba respondimus. Nemo miles ad bellum cum deliciis venit, nec de cubiculo ad aciem procedit, sed de papilionibus expeditis et substrictis, ubi omnis duritia et inbonitas et insuavitas constitit.

[1] Let now, blessed ones, the prison also be troublesome to Christians. We were called to the militia of the living God already then, when we responded to the words of the sacrament. No soldier comes to war with delights, nor does he proceed from the bedchamber to the battle-line, but from pavilions, unencumbered and girt up, where all hardness and ungraciousness and unsavoriness has taken its stand.

[2] Etiam in pace labore et incommodis bellum pati iam ediscunt, in armis deambulando, campum decurrendo, fossam moliendo, testudinem densando. Sudore omnia constant, ne corpora atque animi expavescant de umbra ad solem et sole ad gelum, de tunica ad loricam, de silentio ad clamorem, de quiete ad tumultum.

[2] Even in peace they already learn by practice to endure war with labor and inconveniences
by walking about under arms, by running across the field, by working at the ditch,
by densifying the testudo. By sweat everything stands fast, lest bodies and minds take fright from shade into
sun and from sun into frost, from tunic into cuirass, from silence into clamor, from rest into
tumult.

[3] Proinde vos, benedicti, quodcumque hoc durum est, ad exercitationem virtutum animi et corporis deputate. Bonum agonem subituri estis in quo agonothetes Deus vivus est, xystarches Spiritus Sanctus, corona aeternitatis, brabium angelicae substantiae, politia in caelis, gloria in saecula saeculorum.

[3] Therefore, blessed ones, whatever this hard thing is, reckon it for the training of the virtues of mind and body. You are about to enter a good contest (agôn), in which the agonothete is the living God, the xystarch the Holy Spirit, the crown is eternity, the brabeum of angelic substance, the citizenship in the heavens, the glory unto the ages of ages.

[4] Itaque epistates vester Christus Iesus, qui vos Spiritu unxit, et ad hoc scamma produxit, voluit vos ante diem agonis ad duriorem tractationem a liberiore condicione seponere, ut vires corroborarentur in vobis. Nempe enim et athletae segregantur ad strictiorem disciplinam, ut robori aedificando vacent. Continentur a luxuria, a cibis laetioribus, a potu iucundiore.

[4] And so your overseer, Christ Jesus, who anointed you with the Spirit and led you out to this arena, wished, before the day of the contest, to set you apart from a freer condition to a harsher regimen, so that your strength might be corroborated within you. For indeed even athletes are segregated to a stricter discipline, that they may have leisure for building up robustness. They are restrained from luxury, from richer foods, from more pleasant drink.

Coguntur, cruciantur, fatigantur: quanto plus in exercitationibus laboraverint, tanto plus de victoria sperant.

They are compelled, they are cruciated (tormented), they are fatigued: the more they shall have labored in exercises, the more they hope of victory.

[5] Et illi, inquit Apostolus, ut coronam corruptibilem consequantur. Nos aeternam consecuturi carcerem nobis pro palaestra interpretamur, ut ad stadium tribunalis bene exercitati incommodis omnibus producamur, quia virtus duritia exstruitur, mollitia vero destruitur.

[5] And they, says the Apostle, in order that they may obtain a corruptible crown. We, about to obtain an eternal one, interpret prison for ourselves as a palaestra, so that to the stadium of the tribunal, well-exercised by all inconveniences, we may be brought forth, because virtue is built up by hardness, but by softness is destroyed.

Capitulum IV

Chapter 4

[I] Scimus ex dominico praecepto, quod caro infirma sit, spiritus promptus. Non ergo nobis blandiamur, quia Dominus consensit carnem infirmam esse. Propterea enim praedixit spiritum promptum, ut ostenderet, quid cui debeat esse subiectum, scilicet, ut caro serviat spiritui, infirmior fortiori, ut ab eo etiam ipsa fortitudinem assumat.

[1] We know from the dominical precept that the flesh is infirm, the spirit prompt. Therefore let us not flatter ourselves, because the Lord conceded the flesh to be infirm. For this reason he also foretold the spirit to be prompt, to show what ought to be subject to what, namely, that the flesh serve the spirit, the weaker to the stronger, so that from it even the flesh itself may assume fortitude.

[2] Colloquatur spiritus cum carne de communi salute, nec iam de incommodis carceris, sed de ipso agone et proelio cogitans. Timebit forsitan caro gladium gravem, et crucem excelsam, et rabiem bestiarum, et summam ignium poenam, et omne carnificis ingenium in tormentis.

[2] Let the spirit confer with the flesh about their common salvation, and now not thinking about the inconveniences of the prison, but about the contest itself and the battle. Perhaps the flesh will fear the heavy sword, and the lofty cross, and the frenzy of beasts, and the utmost penalty of fires, and every contrivance of the executioner in torments.

[3] Sed spiritus contraponat sibi et carni: acerba licet ista, a multis tamen aequo animo excepta, immo et ultro appetita, famae et gloriae causa; nec a viris tantum, sed etiam a feminis, ut vos quoque, benedictae, sexui vestro respondeatis.

[3] But let the spirit counterpose for itself and for the flesh:
though these things are bitter, yet by many they have been accepted with equanimity, nay even desired of their own accord,
for the sake of fame and glory; and not by men only, but also by women, that you also,
blessed ones, may respond to your sex.

[4] Longum est, si enumerem singulos, qui se gladio confecerint, animo suo ducti. De feminis ad manum est Lucretia, quae vim stupri passa cultrum sibi adegit in conspectu propinquorum, ut gloriam castitati suae pareret. Mucius dexteram suam in ara cremavit, ut hoc factum eius fama haberet.

[4] It is a long story, if I should enumerate the individuals
who have killed themselves by the sword, led by their own animus. As for women, Lucretia is at hand, who, having suffered the violence of rape, drove a knife into herself in the sight of her kinsfolk, that she might procure glory for her chastity.
Mucius burned his right hand on the altar, that fame might have this deed of his.

[5] Nec minus fecerunt philosophi: Heraclitus, qui se bubulo stercore oblitum excussit; item Empedocles, qui in ignes Aetnaei montis desilivit; et Peregrinus, qui non olim se rogo immisit, cum feminae quoque contempserint ignes: Dido, ne post virum dilectissimum nubere cogeretur; item Asdrubalis uxor, quae iam ardente Carthagine, ne maritum suum supplicem Scipionis videret, cum filiis suis in incendium patriae devolavit.

[5] No less have philosophers done: Heraclitus, who, having smeared himself with bovine dung, made away with himself; likewise Empedocles, who leapt down into the fires of the Aetnaean mountain; and Peregrinus, who not long ago threw himself upon a pyre, since women too have scorned the fires: Dido, lest she be compelled to marry after her most beloved husband; likewise Hasdrubal’s wife, who, with Carthage now aflame, lest she see her husband a suppliant of Scipio, with her sons plunged into the conflagration of her fatherland.

[6] Regulus, dux Romanorum, captus a Carthaginensibus, cum se unum pro multis captivis Carthaginensibus compensari noluisset, maluit hostibus reddi et in arcae genus stipatus undique extrinsecus clavis transfixus, tot cruces sensit. Bestias femina libens appetiit, et utique aspides, serpentes tauro vel urso horridiores, quas Cleopatra immisit sibi, ne in manus inimici perveniret.

[6] Regulus, leader of the Romans, captured by the Carthaginians, when he had not wished that he alone be compensated in exchange for many Carthaginian captives, preferred to be returned to the enemies and, packed into a kind of chest and pierced from the outside on all sides with nails, felt so many crosses. A woman gladly sought beasts, and especially asps, serpents more horrid than a bull or a bear, which Cleopatra sent in upon herself, lest she come into the hands of the enemy.

[7] «Sed mortis metus non tantus est, quantus est tormentorum.» Itaque cessit carnifici meretrix Atheniensis? Quae conscia coniurationis cum propterea torqueretur a tyranno, et non prodidit coniuratos et novissime linguam suam comestam in faciem tyranni exspuit, ut nihil agere in se sciret tormenta, etsi ultra perseverarent.

[7] «But the fear of death is not so great, as that of torments.» And so did the Athenian courtesan yield to the executioner? She, privy to the conspiracy, when on that account she was being tortured by the tyrant, did not betray the conspirators, and at the last she spat her own tongue, chewed off, into the tyrant’s face, so that he might know that the torments did nothing against her, even if they should persevere further.

[8] Nam quod hodie apud Lacedaemonas sollemnitas maxima est,DIAMASTIGOSIS, id est, flagellatio, non latet. In quo sacro, ante aram nobiles quique adolescentes flagellis affliguntur, astantibus parentibus et propinquis, et uti perseverent adhortantibus. Ornamentum enim et gloria deputatur maiore quidem titulo, si anima potius cesserit plagis, quam corpus.

[8] For that which today among the Lacedaemonians is the greatest solemnity,DIAMASTIGOSIS, that is, flagellation, is not hidden. In which sacred rite, before the altar,
the noble youths each are afflicted with scourges, with parents and relatives standing by, and
exhorting them to persevere. For it is reckoned an ornament and a glory, indeed with a greater title,
if rather the soul has yielded to the blows than the body.

[9] Igitur si tantum terrenae gloriae licet de corporis et animae vigore, ut gladium, ignem, crucem, bestias, tormenta contemnat sub praemio laudis humanae, possum dicere, modicae sunt istae passiones ad consecutionem gloriae caelestis et divinae mercedis. Si tanti vitreum, quanti verum margaritum? Quis ergo non libentissime tantum pro vero habet erogare, quantum alii pro falso?

[9] Therefore, if so much is permitted to earthly glory from the vigor of body and soul that it contemns sword, fire, cross, beasts, torments under the premium of human praise, I can say: these sufferings are slight for the attainment of heavenly glory and divine recompense. If the glass one is of so great a price, how much the true pearl? Who then would not most gladly expend as much for the true as others for the false?

Capitulum V

Chapter 5

[1] Omitto nunc gloriae causam. Eadem omnia saevitiae et cruciatus certamina iam apud homines affectatio quoque et morbus quidam animi conculcavit. Quot otiosos affectatio armorum ad gladium locat?

[1] I now pass over the cause of glory. The same entire contests of savagery and torture now among men have been trampled underfoot by affectation too and by a certain disease of the mind. How many idlers does the affectation of arms assign to the sword?

Certe ad feras ipsas affectatione descendunt et de morsibus et de cicatricibus formosiores sibi videntur. Iam et ad ignes quidam se auctoraverunt, ut certum spatium in tunica ardente conficerent. Alii inter venatorum taureas scapulis patientissimis inambulaverunt.

Certainly down to the beasts themselves out of affectation they descend, and from bites and from scars they seem to themselves more handsome. Already some have even pledged themselves to the fires, so that they might complete a fixed distance in a burning tunic. Others walked about among the hunters’ taureae (bull-hunts), with very enduring shoulders.

[2] Haec, benedicti, non sine causa Dominus in saeculum admisit, sed ad nos et nunc exhortandos et in illo die confundendos, si reformidaverimus pati pro veritate in salutem, quae alii affectaverunt pro vanitate in perditionem.

[2] These things, blessed ones, the Lord did not admit into the age without cause, but for us to be exhorted now and to be confounded on that day, if we should shrink back from suffering for the truth unto salvation—things which others have affected for vanity unto perdition.

Capitulum VI

Chapter 6

[1] Sed haec exempla constantiae omittamus de affectatione venientis. Convertamur ad ipsam condicionis humanae contemplationem, ut et illa nos instruant, si qua constanter adeunda sint, quae et invitis evenire consueverunt. Quotiens enim incendia vivos cremaverunt!

[1] But let us omit these examples of constancy concerning the affectation of what is coming. Let us turn to the contemplation of the human condition itself, so that those things too may instruct us, if there are any that must be steadfastly undergone, which are accustomed to happen even to the unwilling. How often indeed have fires cremated the living!

Quotiens ferae et in silvis suis et in mediis civitatibus elapsae caveis homines devoraverunt! Quot a latronibus ferro, ab hostibus etiam cruce extincti sunt, torti prius, immo et omni contumelia expuncti!

How often have wild beasts, both in their own forests and in the midst of cities, slipped from their cages and devoured men! How many have been slain by brigands with the sword, by enemies even on the cross, tortured first, nay even finished off with every contumely!

[2] Nemo non etiam hominis causa pati potest, quod in causa Dei pati dubitat. Ad hoc quidem vel praesentia nobis tempora documenta sint, quantae qualesque personae inopinatos natalibus et dignitatibus et corporibus et aetatibus suis exitus referunt hominis causa: aut ab ipso, si contra eum fecerint, aut ab adversariis eius, si pro eo steterint.

[2] Everyone is able also, for a man’s sake, to suffer what he hesitates to suffer in the cause of God. To this, indeed, let even the present times be for us documents, how great and what sorts of persons experience unexpected exits upon their births and dignities and bodies and ages for a man’s sake: either from the man himself, if they have acted against him, or from his adversaries, if they have stood for him.