Library › Tertullian › Apology

Apology

Tertullian, ANF 3

d1
Rulers of the Roman Empire, if, seated for the administration of justice on your lofty …
If, again, it is certain that we are the most wicked of men, why do you treat us so …
What are we to think of it, that most people so blindly knock their heads against the …
And so, having made these remarks as it were by way of preface, that I might show in its …
To say a word about the origin of laws of the kind to which we now refer, there was an …
I would now have these most religious protectors and vindicators of the laws and …
Monsters of wickedness, we are accused of observing a holy rite in which we kill a little…
See now, we set before you the reward of these enormities. They give promise of eternal …
That I may refute more thoroughly these charges, I will show that in part openly, in part…
“You do not worship the gods,” you say; “and you do not offer sacrifices for the …
And since, as you dare not deny that these deities of yours once were men, you have taken…
But I pass from these remarks, for I know and I am going to show what your gods are not, …
“But they are gods to us,” you say. And how is it, then, that in utter inconsistency with…
I wish now to review your sacred rites; and I pass no censure on your sacrificing, when …
Others of your writers, in their wantonness, even minister to your pleasures by vilifying…
For, like some others, you are under the delusion that our god is an ass’s head. …
The object of our worship is the One God, He who by His commanding word, His arranging …
But, that we might attain an ampler and more authoritative knowledge at once of Himself, …
Their high antiquity, first of all, claims authority for these writings. With you, too, …
To make up for our delay in this, we bring under your notice something of even greater …
But having asserted that our religion is supported by the writings of the Jews, the …
And we affirm indeed the existence of certain spiritual essences; nor is their name …
Moreover, if sorcerers call forth ghosts, and even make what seem the souls of the dead …
This whole confession of these beings, in which they declare that they are not gods, and …
I think I have offered sufficient proof upon the question of false and true divinity, …
Examine then, and see if He be not the dispenser of kingdoms, who is Lord at once of the …
Enough has been said in these remarks to confute the charge of treason against your …
But as it was easily seen to be unjust to compel freemen against their will to offer …
Let it be made clear, then, first of all, if those to whom sacrifice is offered are …
For we offer prayer for the safety of our princes to the eternal, the true, the living …
But we merely, you say, flatter the emperor, and feign these prayers of ours to escape …
There is also another and a greater necessity for our offering prayer in behalf of the …
But why dwell longer on the reverence and sacred respect of Christians to the emperor, …
Augustus, the founder of the empire, would not even have the title Lord; for that, too, …
This is the reason, then, why Christians are counted public enemies: that they pay no …
If it is the fact that men bearing the name of Romans are found to be enemies of Rome, …
If we are enjoined, then, to love our enemies, as I have remarked above, whom have we to …
Ought not Christians, therefore, to receive not merely a somewhat milder treatment, but …
I shall at once go on, then, to exhibit the peculiarities of the Christian society, that,…
On the contrary, they deserve the name of faction who conspire to bring odium on good men…
You, therefore, are the sources of trouble in human affairs; on you lies the blame of …
But we are called to account as harm-doers on another ground, and are accused of being …
I will confess, however, without hesitation, that there are some who in a sense may …
Yes, and no one considers what the loss is to the common weal,—a loss as great as it is …
We, then, alone are without crime. Is there ought wonderful in that, if it be a very …
We have sufficiently met, as I think, the accusation of the various crimes on the ground …
Unless I am utterly mistaken, there is nothing so old as the truth; and the already …
Come now, if some philosopher affirms, as Laberius holds, following an opinion of …
These are what are called presumptuous speculations in our case alone; in the …
In that case, you say, why do you complain of our persecutions? You ought rather to be …
d2