To Scapula

A short letter “To Scapula” (5 chapters, 212) is addressed to the proconsul of Africa regarding the persecution he initiated. Tertullian briefly rejects the accusations of crimes against Christians, saying that they are not enemies of the emperor, but honor him and pray for him. The author reminds Scapula that persecutors of Christians suffered divine punishment and points to the tragic end of some of them, as well as recent terrible signs of God's wrath, which should serve as a warning to Scapula. Tertullian calls on the proconsul to imitate the example of a humane attitude towards Christians of those governors who released Christians, seeing some kind of dishonesty in the legal proceedings initiated against them. In conclusion, the apologist draws attention to the large number of Christians. The more Christians are destroyed, the more of them there are: “For in everyone who sees such patience, bewilderment is aroused, and everyone is inflamed with the desire to find out what the matter is, and when he knows the truth, he himself will immediately follow it” (chapter 5). *The title of the work in Latin is Ad Scapulam. See also: To Scapula lane. A.Yu. Bratukhin [2005] We, indeed, are not afraid or afraid of what we suffer from those who do not know; since we, wanting to achieve what God promises, and fearing to endure what He threatens with a corrupted life, entered this sect, accepting, of course, the condition of its agreement - to fight this battle, sacrificing our lives. Therefore, we fight against all your cruelty, even opposing it voluntarily, and we rejoice more when we are condemned than when we are justified. So we are sending this book, fearing not for ourselves, but for you and all our enemies, not to mention our friends. For our teaching commands us to love even our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us, so that our kindness may be perfect and may be our property and not belong to everyone. After all, loving friends is common to everyone, but loving enemies is common only to Christians. Therefore, we, grieving over your ignorance, and regretting your error, and seeing the future, and seeing that its signs threaten us daily, must decide at least in this way to tell you what you do not want to openly listen to. We honor the one God, whom you all know by nature, at whose lightning and thunder you tremble, at whose benefits you rejoice. And you yourself think that there are other gods, about whom we know that they are demons. However, by human right and natural authority, everyone can worship what he wants, and the worship of one brings neither harm nor benefit to another. Therefore, it is not appropriate for the worship of God (religion) to force the worship of God, since it must be accepted voluntarily, and not through violence, since sacrifices are also required from the willing spirit. Therefore, although you would force us to sacrifice, you would not be giving anything to your gods, for they do not demand sacrifices from those who do not want to make them, unless they are ambitious. But God is not ambitious. Moreover, Who is the true God, He equally gives everything that is His to both His admirers and non-admirers, and therefore He has determined eternal judgment for those who are pleasing to Him and those who are displeasing. However, we, whom you consider sacrilegious, you have never caught even in a simple theft, not just in the robbery of a church. Yet the robbers of churches swear by the gods, and worship the gods, and are not Christians, and yet they are convicted of sacrilege. It would take a long time to talk about in what other ways all your gods are both ridiculed and despised by their admirers themselves, if I wanted to do this. We are also accused of lese majesty of the emperor; however, Christians could never be found among the Albinians, nor among the Nigrians, nor among the Cassinians. But those very ones who even the day before swore by the geniuses of the emperors, who often condemned Christians, turned out to be their enemies. The Christian is not the enemy of any person, especially of the emperor, whom he knows that he was appointed by his God, whom he must love, fear, honor, and desire his well-being along with the well-being of the entire Roman Empire, as long as the world exists, for until then it will exist. Therefore, we honor the emperor as we are allowed and as is beneficial for him, as a person who is higher than everyone else after God, who received from God everything that he is, who is lower than God alone. This is what he himself must desire. For He is greater than all because He is inferior only to the true God. He is greater than the gods themselves, because the gods themselves are in his power. Therefore, we make sacrifices for the health of the emperor, but to our God, and in the form of a pure prayer addressed to Him, as He himself commands. For God, the creator of the universe, does not need any perfume or any blood. This is, of course, demon food. We not only despise demons, but we also tame them, and daily we reveal them and drive them out of people, as very many people know. So we pray more for the health of the emperor, asking him from the One who can bestow it. And in general, what we do, following the teaching of divine patience, this can be quite clear to you, when we, making up such a crowd of people, almost the majority of every city, live quietly and modestly, when we are better known individually than in the masses, when we are known for no other reason than because we have abandoned our former vices. Let it not be that we endure with annoyance what we wish to endure, or that we, on our part, plot any kind of revenge: we expect it from God. However, as we said above, we need to grieve, because no city will shed our blood with impunity. So it was during the reign of Gilarian, when they shouted about the places (de areis) of our burials: “areae non sint,” let there be no cemeteries, “areae ipsorum non fuerunt,” and they themselves had no currents, since they did not make harvests. But what the rains of last year reminded people of is clear. They reminded, of course, that there had been a flood before because of the unbelief and injustice of the human race. And what the threat of the fires, which very recently hung over the walls of Carthage during the night, was, is known to those who saw them. And what the previous thunders pointed to is known to those who were deaf to them. All these are signs of the terrible wrath of God. We need, as much as we can, to proclaim it, and predict it, and pray that it will now be local. Of course, in due time those who interpret its signs differently will recognize the universal and final wrath. Of course, the cessation of sunlight in the Utich district was an extraordinary phenomenon, because the sun, standing at its height and in its place, could not make it its usual eclipse. However, you have astrologers. We can also tell you about the death of some rulers who, before their death, confessed that they had sinned in torturing Christians. Vitellius Saturninus, who first raised his sword here against us, lost his sight. Claudius Lucius Germinianus, when, indignant that his wife had joined this sect, treated the Christians cruelly in Cappadocia and when, alone in his palace, he was sick and was eaten alive by worms, he said: let no one know about this, so that Christians do not rejoice and Christian women do not hope. Then, realizing his error, since he did something that, thanks to torture, some fell away from their faith, he died almost a Christian. During the famous destruction of Byzantium, Caecilius Capella exclaimed: Rejoice, Christians! But even those who have not suffered any punishment will come for punishment on the day of divine judgment. And we wish for you that the blow to which you suffered immediately after you condemned Mavil of Adrumet to the beasts would serve as your only reminder, and now for this reason blood damage has occurred. But remember this for the future. You do not bring fear to us, since we are not afraid of you. But I wish we could save you all by telling you not to fight God. You can fulfill the duty of your judicial power and remember humanity, even because you are under the sword. What, of course, is more commanded to you than that you condemn those criminals who confess, and torture those who deny? Therefore, you see how you yourself act against the laws, forcing those who have confessed to recant. Therefore, you recognize us as innocent, not wanting to condemn us immediately after our consciousness. If you seek to kill us, then you are destroying innocence. And how many rulers, both very strict and very cruel, ignored these matters. Such was Cincius Severus, who in Thisdra himself gave advice on how to answer Christians so that they could be released. Such was Vespronius Candide, who, in order to calm the citizens, released the Christian as a person who could cause a rebellion. Such was Asper, who did not force the man who fell away immediately after a few torments to make sacrifices and declared in the presence of lawyers and judges that he regretted that he got into this matter. Pudent also released the Christian sent to him, having learned from the accusation that the denunciation was selfish. Having torn up the accusation, he said that, according to the law, he would not listen to anyone without an accuser. All this can be communicated to you both by officials and by those lawyers who themselves take advantage of their benefits, although they say what they want. For someone's scribe, being possessed by a demon, was freed from him, and someone's relative and slave were also freed from him. And how many noble people (I’m not talking about ordinary people) were cured either from demons or from illness? Even Severus himself, Antonin's father, remembered the Christians. For he found Proculus the Christian, who was called Torpation, the procurator of Euchodia, who had once healed him with oil, and kept him in his palace until his death. Antonin, who was raised on Christian milk, knew him very well. Further, the North, knowing that both the noblest women and the noblest men belonged to this sect, not only did not persecute them, but even gave them evidence and clearly defended them from the people who attacked them. And Marcus Aurelius, during the German campaign, received rain thanks to the prayers of Christian soldiers addressed to God when he was very thirsty. When were droughts also not eliminated by our kneeling and fasting? Then the people, calling on the God of gods, Who alone is able, gave thanks to our God under the name of Jupiter. In addition, we do not refuse what was given to us as a guarantee, we do not desecrate anyone’s marriage, we treat orphans with love, we help those in need, we do not repay anyone with evil for evil. Let those who deceive the sect and whom we ourselves reject see this. Who finally brings a complaint against us under a different name? For what other cause does a Christian suffer than that of his sect? But for such a long time no one has proven that she is a criminal, that she is cruel. For such great innocence, for such great honesty, for justice, for chastity, for faith, for truth, for the living God, we are burned, which neither blasphemers, nor real public enemies, nor criminals against the emperor are usually subjected to. For even now the ruler of the Legion and the ruler of Mauritania are tormented for this name, but only with the sword, as in the beginning it was commanded to punish for deeds of this kind. But big battles come with big rewards. Your cruelty is our glory. Just beware that it does not turn out that by the very fact that we are enduring this, we strive only to prove that we are not afraid of it, but voluntarily call for it. When Arrius Antoninus was severely persecuted in Asia, all the Christians of that country came to his tribunal, forming a huge force. Then he, having ordered a few to be taken away, said to the rest: pathetic people! if you want to die, then you have stones and ropes. If we were pleased to do this here too, what would you do with so many thousands of people, with so many men and women, people of every sex, every age, every condition, if they came to you? How many lights, how many swords would it take? What would Carthage itself endure, in which you would have to punish the tenth, when everyone would recognize there their relatives, their comrades, when everyone, perhaps, would see there the men and women of your class, and all sorts of noble persons and either relatives or friends of yours? Therefore, spare yourself if you do not spare us. Spare Carthage if you do not spare yourself. Spare the province, in which everyone became the prey of soldiers and their enemies when they learned your decision. We have no teacher except God alone; He is in front of you and cannot hide; but you can't do anything to Him. But those whom you consider your teachers are people, and they themselves have no time to die. However, this sect will not be destroyed. You should know that then it increases more when, apparently, it is destroyed. For in everyone who sees such patience, bewilderment is aroused, and everyone is inflamed with the desire to find out what the matter is, and when he recognizes the truth, he himself will immediately follow it. You might be interested in: