The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, Tertullian – Clement of Alexandria
TERTVLLIAN
The Life of Tertullian who dyed An. Christ. 202.
TErtullian was born in Carthage, His birth and education.his Father was a Centurion of the Proconsular Order. He was carefully educated in all manner of learning, wherein he profited so much, that Lactantius saith of him, he was in omni genere doctrine peritus, skilled in all kinde of Learning: Hierom saith that his Works contained cunctam seculi Doctrinam, His excellent learning.all sorts of Learning Vincentius Lyrinensis saith, Inter Latinos omnes hic facile princeps judicandus, that amongst the Latine Fathers he was of chiefest account. His Works which he hath left to us, shew that he was excellently versed in Physicks, Mathematicks, and History. He was eminent for his study of, and knowledge in the Civil Law. Afterward falling to the study of Divinity,He is Ordained a Presbyter. he attained to such excellent skill therein, that at Rome he was made a Presbyter, where he remained to the middle of his age. He flourished under the Emperor Severus, Anno Christi 183.His zeal against Heresies. And burning in holy zeal, he became a great opposite to the Hereticks of those times, Marcion, Valentinian Praxea, Hermogenes, &c. He was very expert both in Greek and Latin, and had great acuteness in disputing, and writing eloquently, as his Books do sufficiently declare: So that Vincentius Lyrinensis saith, that the force of his arguments was such, that whom he could not perswade, them he compelled to consent to him. God raised him in the time of great Persecution to be as a pillar or stay to his poor afflicted Church: For when the Christians were vexed with wrongs, and falsly accused by the Gentiles, He defends the Christians.Tertullian taking their cause in hand, defended them against their Persecutors, and their slanderous accusations, shewing that they never intended a… stirs, or rebellions either against the Empire, or Emperors of Rome, for so much as the manner of Christians was to pray for the prosperous estate of their Governors. And whereas they were falsely accused to be enemies to mankinde, how can that be (saith he) when as the proper office of Christians is to pray for all men, to love their Enemies, never requiting evil for evil, whereas all others do profess only to love their friends; and starcely them? and as touching the horrible slander of murthering Infants, how can that be true (saith he) in the Christians, whose custom is to abstain from all blood, and things strangled, so that it is not lawful for them when they feed at their Tables to meddle with the blood of any Beast? And as for filthy copulations, no sort of men are more free then they who have ever been the greatest observers of chastily, and if they could, have chosen to live in perpetual Virginity all their lives long; if they could not, their manner is to contract Matrimony for the avoiding all Whoredom, and Fornication. Neither can it be proved, that the Christians do Worship the Sun; which false surmise (saith he) ariseth only from this, Because they use to pray towards the East. Much less was there any of them so mad as to Worship an Asses Head, the occasion of which slander arose from the Jews worshipping the Jaw bone of an Ass, from the story of Sampson, which therefore was falsely and wrongfully charged upon the Christians. Likewise against all other lyes and slanders raised by the Heathen against the Christians, he clearly purgeth them, and evidently proves that they were persecuted not for any deserts of theirs, but only out of an hatred to their name and Profession. He sheweth also that by those grievous persecutions, the Religion or number of Christians was nothing impaired, but increased rather. The more (saith he) we are mown down by you, the more we rise up. The blood of the Christians proves the seed of the Church.Persecution increaseth Religion. For what man (saith he) beholding the painful torments, and the perfect patience of the Christians, will not search and enquire into the cause? and when he hath found it out, will not consent, and agree to both? and when he agreeth to it, who will not be willing, and desirous to suffer for it? So that this Profession can never be extirpated, seeing the more it is cut down, the more it encreaseth. For every man seeing, and wondering at the sufferings of the Saints, is moved thereby the more to search into the cause, and in searching he finds it, and in finding, he follows it.
And as Tertullian thus bestirred himself in defending the innocency of the Christians,His learned, works. so he compiled many excellent and fruitful Works, whereof some are extant, others are not to be found. By these excellent Apologies of his he perswaded the Emperor Severus to savour the Christians, who prayed for his prosperity, and imputed the slaughter of his Subjects at Byzartium, as a just judgement upon them for the effusion of so much Christian blood.
Having written excellently against the Hereticks of his time,This was counted an unparalleld crime in Mr. Thomas Edwards. in the end of his Book, he made a Catalogue of all the Hereticks that then tore the Bowels of the Church: Yea he continued these labours when the Persecution was at the hottest, not hiding his head, though the times were so dangerous.
Once in great triumph,A Souldiers humility. all the Emperour Severus his Souldiers, for the greater pomp, were to put on Crowns of Bayes; but one Christian Souldier there was amongst them, who wore it on his Arm; and being demanded the reason, he boldly answered, Non decet Christianum in hac vita Coronari, that a Christian ought not to wear his Crown in this life: Upon which occasion Tertullian wrote his Book De Corona Militis. Cyprian when he would read Tertullian, used to say, Da Magistrum, give me my Master.His frequency in prayer. His manner was constantly to pray thrice a day, at the third, sixth, and ninth hours. Writing De quatuor novissimis, of Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell, he saith, Haec nos aliquando risimus, cum de vobis fuimus: fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani. I sometimes scoffed at these things when I was a Heathen; I now perceive that we are not born, but made Christians. He was converted by reading the Scriptures,The manner of his conversion. and the labours of other learned and holy men. In reading the Scriptures, he found them full of Majesty, and truth: And saith he, Quicquid agitur, praenunciabatur: Whatsoever is done, was in them foretold; and after his conversion,His study of the Scriptures. he was taken up night & day in the reading of them, and did with great pains get much of them by heart, and that so exactly that he knew each period. He highly commended Severus, for that knowing many Noble men and women to be Christians, he did not only not punish them, but greatly praised them, and did publickly withstand such as were their enemies. Yet notwithstanding the great Learning,The danger of envy. and famous Vertues of this worthy man, through envy (as it is conceived) at the Roman Clergy, he fell into the Error of Montanus: so that, though the glory of some of his writings was darkned by his Errors: yet his Learning shewed in those very writings is admired by all Posterities, insomuch as Cyprian, that excellent Martyr, would let no day pass without reading some part of him.His death. He dyed in Peace about the 63 year of his age, Anno Christi 202.
Some of his usual sayings were these,
If thou beest backward in thoughts of Repentance,His sayings. be forwards in thoughts of Hell, the burning flames whereof only the tears of a penitent Eye can extinguish.
If the Devils without Christs leave had no power over the Gadarens Swine, much less have they power over Gods own Sheep.
We should not try mens faith by their persons, but their persons by their faith.
Its in vain to come to the God of Peace, without peace; or to pray for the remission of our own sins, without for giving others. We must not come to make an attonement with God at his Altar, before we have made attonement with our Brother in our hearts.
His Works are contained in several Tomes, His works.Quaedam enim in usum Ecclesiae; & pro Ecclesia, quaedam contra Ecclesiam scripta sunt: Primi generis sunt, De Patientia, lib. 1. De carne Christi, l. 1. De Resurrectione carnis, l. 1. De Praescriptionibus adversus Haereticos, l. 1. Adversus Judeos, l. 1. Adversus Marcionem, l. 5. Adversus Hermoginem, l. 1. Adversus Praxeam, l. 1. De Corona Militis, l. 1. Ad Martyres, l. 1. De Virginibus velandis, l. 1. De Habitu Muliebri, l. 1. De Cultu Faeminarum, l. 1. Ad Uxorem, l. 2. Ad Scapulam, l. 1. De Pallio, l. 1. De Testimonio Animae, l. 1. De Anima, l. 1. De Spectaculis, l. 1. De Baptismo, l. 1. Contra Gnosticos, l. 1. De Idololatria, l. 1. De Judaicis Cibis Epistola. De Oratione. Apologeticus. Alterius Generis. De Fuga in Persecutione. De Exhortatione Castitatis. De Monogamia, De Pudicitia. De Jejunio.
The Life of Clemens Alexandrinus, who flourished, Anno Christi, 196.
SCultetus saith, that the Parentage, Country, Birth, Breeding, and manner of Conversion of Clemens are uncertain, some would have him to be born at Athens: But certain it is, that he was the Disciple of Pontenus, who moderated in the Catechistical School at Alexandria, and after his death Clemens succeeded in that Office,His Learning and Ordination. whence he was called Alexandrinus. He most flourished about the year of Christ▪ 196. He was endowed with all manner of Polite Learning & was ordained Presbyter in Alexandria, where, by his servent zeal and piety he much propagated the Christian faith, Phot…nus speaking of his writings, saith thus of them; Dictio est florida, quae que assurgit in Majestatem cum suavitate conjuncta, in quibus etiam est eruditio multa, & decens. That the language is flourishing, and ariseth into a certain majesty joined with sweetness, wherein is much Learning in a comly manner adorned and set forth.His zeal against heresies. He was an excellent Historian, and a zealous Confuter of the Heresies of his times.
He wrote many Works, most of which are perished with time, to the great prejudice of the Church, and grief of the Learned: Only three remain, foreign ad Gentes: Pedagogus: & Stromata. In the first,His writings. he exhorts the Gentiles and Heathens to embrace the Christian Faith. In the second he informs those which were newly converted how to carry themselves. In the third, he directs grown Christians in the Doctrines which were fit for them in that estate. He complains much of the decay of zeal, and of the want of the power of godliness amongst Professors in his time. He was Master to Origen, who also succeeded him in his place in Alexandria. He was excellently versed in the Holy Scriptures, and very careful to preserve the Doctrines which he had received from his Predecessors in purity; whereupon in his first Book entituled Stromatôn, he thus writeth: This present Tract of mine is not made for any Ostentation, but these Monuments are laid up as helps against weakness of memory in my old age, that it may be to me a plain Image and Portracture of that effectual and lively Doctrine which I was thought worthy to hear, &c. The time and manner of his death is uncertain.
He used to say, His sayings.That such as adorn themselves with gold, and think themselves bettered thereby, are worse then gold, and not Lords of it, as all that have it ought to be.
Out of the depth and bowels of the Earth hath God discovered and shewed gold unto men, and they have made it the occasion of all mischief and wickedness.
Gold to many men is much dearer then their Faith and Honesty: and the love of it makes many so covetous, as if they were to live here for ever.
Avarice is not the vice of gold, but of men which use it wickedly.
Scripsit non pauca:His works. Ex quibus ad nos pervenerunt tria opuscula. foreign ad Gentes, Paedagogus. Stromata.