the church of Rome contributed to make him a Montanist, as Jerom says, 'Invidiâ et contumeliis clericorum ecclesiæ Romanæ ad Montani dogma delapsum.' De Script. Eccl. This may be true; and it may be a mistake: for how should Jerom know Tertullian's motives? Thus however he lost the title of Saint, a title which hath been often as wretchedly bestowed as other titles and favours. Charity bids us suppose that he lost not what is infinitely more important. Several have thought too hardly concerning him, never considering that, with all his abilities, he was deficient in judgment, and had a partial disorder in his understanding, which excuses almost as much as downright phrensy. He was learned, for those times, acute, and ingenious, and somewhat satyrical, hasty, credulous, impetuous, rigid, and censorious, fanatical and enthusiastical, and a bad writer, as to style, not perhaps through incapacity of doing better, but through a false taste and a perverse affectation. He fell into many errors; but it is to be hoped that, in another world, the mistakes, as well as the doubts, of poor mortals are rectified, and forgiven too, and that whosoever loves truth and virtue, illic postquam se lumine vero But the manner in which he treated some of those heretics whom he attacks, is not to be excused. In his books against Marcion, he declaims against the very country in which he supposed him to have been born, and calls him, by way of reproach, a sailor, or water-man, and a Scythian. He should have remembered, as Beausobre observes, that Peter the apostle was a fisherman, and the Scythian Anacharsis a philosopher, and that such reflections are good for nothing. TERTULLIAN informs us that a Christian, called Proculus, cured the emperor Severus of some distemper with oil, • Mr. de Balzac dit que l'obscurité de Tertullien est comme la noirceur de l'êbene, qui jette un grand éclat. Menagiana. for which the emperor was favourable to the Christians, and kept Proculus, as long as he lived, in the palace. Ipse etiam Severus, pater Antonini, Christianorum memor fuit; nam et Proculum Christianorum, qui Torpacion cognominabatur, Euhodeæ procuratorem, qui eum per oleum aliquando curaverat, requisivit, et in palatio suo habuit ad mortem ejus: quem et Antoninus optime noverat, lacte Christiano educatus.' Ad Scap. iv. Was this cure miraculous? Instead of making a direct answer to the question, we will supply the reader with some facts relating to it, which ought to be taken into consideration. Tertullian seems to have thought the cure miraculous, for he joins it to other cures of that kind, which, as he says, were wrought by Christians. Hæc omnia tibi et officio, suggeri possunt, et ab iisdem advocatis, qui et ipsi beneficia habent Christianorum, licet adclament quæ volunt. Nam et cujusdam Notarius, cum a dæmone præcipitaretur, liberatus est; et quorundam propinquus et puerulus. Et quanti honesti viri, de vulgaribus enim non dicimus, aut a dæmoniis aut valetudinibus remediati sunt. Ipse etiam Severus,' &c. The relation of Tertullian, as to the cure, must be admitted, since he is so circumstantial, and part of his account is confirmed by Pagan writers. See Tillemont Hist. des Emp. iii. 89. and H. Eccl. iii. 114. and Fabricius Bibl. Gr. viii. 460. where it appears that there was such a man as Euhodus, who was Libertus of the emperor Severus, and by him appointed to educate his eldest son Caracalla. Proculus was steward to this Euhodus, or Euhodeas, or to Euhodea, who might be the daughter of Euhodus. Caracalla had a Christian nurse, and a Christian boy for a play-fellow; and it is probable that Euhodus or Euhodea was a Christian, as well as Proculus. Tertullian and Severus were not only contemporaries, but countrymen, and Africans; and Tertullian, who seems also to have been very curious and inquisitive, might know more particularities concerning the emperor than many other persons. It had been a custom with Christians in the apostolical age to anoint the sick with oil, and to pray over them; after which I know not whether it be mentioned in the three first centuries, except this passage of Tertullian be allowed a proof of it, or the authority of the Constitutions be admitted in this particular: yet it is probable that the practice was continued. Many medical uses of oil were very well known before that time, as may be seen in Pliny's Natural History, ii. p. 308, &c. ed. Hard. and the state of physic in the days of Severus was flourishing enough, and Galen lived then and was in high esteem. If oil had been thought proper for his distemper, Severus would probably have known it without the advice of Proculus. The case seems to have been somewhat extraordinary, and not accounted curable by oil, since Severus was so fond of the Christian who recovered him, and took him into the palace, perhaps that he might have him at hand, if he should want him for himself or his family. Severus kept medicines by him, which he used to bestow on those who stood in need of them; and it is said that many persons had found them beneficial in dangerous diseases and disorders. Some emperors before Severus had done the same. See Galen de Theriaca. Severus was for a time very favourable to the Christians, though afterward upon some disgust he used them ill. He was haughty, cruel, stubborn, and unrelenting. He was 'vere Pertinax, vere Severus,' as the common people used to say of him, alluding to his names. If he had been obstinately bent upon subverting Christianity, he would have proved a most terrible enemy; but the remembrance of the service which he had received from a Christian, and the dutiful behaviour of the Christians, who had never been in arms against him, or assisted his rivals, and other mo tives, might have contributed to make him less violent; for, if Spartian inform us rightly, his decree was thus; Judæos fieri sub gravi poena vetuit: idem etiam de Christianis sanxit; which might be interpreted as only prohibiting the Jews and Christians to make any more converts, and the Pagans to embrace either of those religions. Many writers suppose that his persecution was sharp; but Dodwell & thinks that it was not rigorous, and the writer de Mortibus Persecutorum passes it over in silence, as though it had not been considerable. Thus stands the evidence, from which the reader may draw what conclusion he thinks proper. He may also examine these points: Whether he were or were not, could he anoint a Pagan with oil, in pursuance of the direction given by St. James v. 14.? Or was it in imitation of the common practice of the Jews, or of the disciples whom Christ sent to preach, Mark vi. 13.? In the Constitutions there is a form of consecrating water and oil, in which the bishop or the presbyter prays that God would give to each of them δύναμιν ὑγείας ἐμποιητι κὴν, νόσων ἀπελαστικὴν, δαιμόνων φυγαδευτικὴν, πάσης ἐπιCouλñs SiwntinÝvvim effectricem sanitatis, morborum expultricem, dæmonum fugatricem, omnium insidiarum profligatricem.' viii. 29. In the passage of Tertullian concerning Proculus, S. Basnage for Euhodeæ reads Euhodi, and for Torpacion, Torpeion, and thus explains the place, Hæc ergo est mens Tertulliani: Cum Severus miraculum a Proculo fuisse editum, ex Euhodo per oleum sanato comperisset, hunc requisivit Proculum, quem et in palatio suo habuit usque ad mortem ejus.' Annal. ii. p. 201. Thus he supposes that Proculus cured Euhodus, and not Severus ; but this interpretation seems to do some violence to the words, and is not the most obvious sense, and eum is more naturally referred to the emperor. Besides, the expression memor fuit, and the affection and kindness which the emperor showed to this man, make it probable that he himself had been cured by him. a In his Dissertation De Paucitate Martyrum ;' in which if he sometimes fall short of the truth, yet he approaches nearer to it than his antagonists, who greatly overshoot it in their notions 'De Multitudine Martyrum,' and in the regard which they pay to lying legends. a Fleury, in his Histoire Ecclesiastique, gives the same interpretation to the words of Tertullian. In the persecution under Severus, many fled to avoid it, or gave money to redeem themselves. Tertullian, like a frantic Montanist, condemned these expedients. De Fuga, 5. 6. One Rutilius, distrusting his own courage, made use of them both; but afterwards, being seized, he endured cruel torments and death with great constancy and intrepidity, leaving an excellent example of prudence and piety. THEOPHILUS Wrote three books, and addressed them to his friend Autolycus, a learned Pagan, A. D. 168. He thus disputes with him concerning the doctrine of the resurrection. a 'Show me,' said Autolycus, even one man raised from the dead, that I may see and believe.' Autolycus, in all probability, had no thoughts of calling in good earnest upon his friend, or upon any of the Christians, to perform such a miracle; but like the generality of the Gentiles, accounted the future resurrection of the dead, expected by the Christians, to be an idle fancy and an utter impossibility, a hope without ground and without example, and the resurrection of Christ to be a fable: therefore, said he, give me an instance, and show me one man at least who hath been restored to life. Observe that this was a common argument in the mouth of the Pagans. • Tanta ætas abiit, says Cæcilius in Minucius Felix, secula innumera fluxerunt: quis unus ullus ab inferis vel Protesilai sorte remeavit, horarum saltem permisso commeatu, vel ut exemplo crederemus?' xi. So in Lactantius : illud reponitur, Tot jam secula trans • Αλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἀρνεῖσθαί σε νεκροὺς ἐγείρεσθαι τῆς γὰρ, δεῖξόν μοι κἂν ἕνα ἐγερθέντα ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἵνα ἰδὼν πιστεύσω· πρῶτον μὲν τί μέγα, εἰ θεασάμενος τὸ γεγονὸς πιστεύσεις; εἶτα πιστεύεις μὲν Ἡρακλέα καύσαντα ἑαυτὸν, ζῆν· καὶ Ἀσκληπιὸν κεραυνωθέντα ἐγηγέρθαι. τὰ δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ σοι λεγόμενα ἀπιστεῖς; ἴσως καὶ ἐπιδείξω σοι νεκρὸν ἐγερθέντα καὶ ζῶντα, καὶ τοῦτο ἀπιστήσεις. ὁ μὲν οὖν Θεός σοι πολλὰ τεκμήρια ἐπιδείκνυσιν εἰς τὸ πιστεύειν αὐτῷ· εἰ γὰρ βούλει, κατανόησον τὴν μὲν καιρῶν καὶ ἡμερῶν καὶ νυκτῶν τελευτὴν, πῶς καὶ αὐτὰ τελευτᾷ καὶ ἀνίσταται.—Μὴ οὖν ἀπίστει, ἀλλὰ πίστευε· καὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ ἠπίστουν τοῦτο ἔσεσθαι, ἀλλὰ νῦν κατανοήσας αὐτὰ πιστεύω, ἅμα καὶ ἐπιτυχῶν ἱεραῖς γραφαῖς τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν, οἱ καὶ προεῖπον διὰ Πνεύματος Θεοῦ τὰ προγεγονότα τρόπῳ γέγονε, καὶ τὰ ἐνεστῶτα τίνι τρόπῳ γίνεται, καὶ τὰ ἐπερχόμενα ποία τάξει απαρτισθήσεται. i. 13. |