they had been burned-" a severity of punishment, he adds, to which even criminals convicted of sacrilege or treason are not doomed." Nor were the governors content with inflicting bodily sufferings on their unhappy victims. Those more refined and ingenious torments, which 151 Gibbon supposes to have existed only in the inventions of the monks of succeeding ages, were, if we may believe Tertullian, actually resorted to in his day. 132 The Primitive Christians scrupulously complied with the decree pronounced by the Apostles at Jerusalem, in abstaining from things strangled and from blood; when, therefore, they were exhausted by long fasting, food containing blood was offered to them, in the hope that they might be seduced into an act of disobedience. 133 Tertullian states also that attempts were frequently made to overcome the chastity of the female martyrs; and that, instead of being exposed to the wild beasts, they were consigned to the keepers of the public stews, to become the victims either of seduction, or of brutal violence.

132 Apology, c. 9. De Monogamiâ, c. 5. Et libertas ciborum et sanguinis solius abstinentia, sicut ab initio fuit.

133 Nam et proxime ad Lenonem damnando Christianam, potius quam ad Leonem, confessi estis labem pudicitiæ apud nos atrociorem omni pœnâ et omni morte reputari. Apology, sub fine. See also de Pudicitiâ, c. 1.

I shall proceed to notice some other facts mentioned by Tertullian which, though they do not relate immediately to the history of his own times, are yet worthy of observation. 154 In the Tract against the Jews, he says that Christ suffered in the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, in the Consulship of Rubellius Geminus and Fusius Geminus, in the month of March, at the time of the Passover, on the eighth of the calends of April, on the first day of unleavened bread. 135 He had previously said that Augustus survived the birth of Christ fifteen years; and that Christ suffered in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar, being then about thirty years of age. It is allowed that the consulship of the Gemini corresponded to the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius; and as we know from St. Luke's Gospel that our Saviour began to preach in that year, those writers who contend that his ministry lasted only for a single year, refer to Tertullian as maintaining that opinion. To these passages, however, has been

134 c. 8. sub fine. Compare c. 10. sub fine.

135 Post enim Augustum, qui supervixit post nativitatem Christi, anni 15 efficiuntur: cui successit Tiberius Cæsar, et imperium habuit annis 22, mensibus 7, diebus 20. Hujus quintodecimo anno imperii passus est Christus, annos habens quasi 30 quum pateretur, c. 8. Tertullian affirms also, that Christ was born in the forty-first year of the reign of Augustus, of which he dates the commencement from the death of Cleopatra.

opposed another, 136 from the first Book against Marcion; in which it is said that Christ was revealed in the twelfth year of Tiberius. The correct inference, therefore, appears to be that Tertullian believed our Saviour's ministry to have continued for three years, but mistook the year in which he was revealed for the year in which he suffered. As it forms no part of my plan to discuss the difficulties attending the chronology of our Saviour's life, I shall content myself with referring the reader to 137 Mr. Benson's work on that subject.

Tertullian 138

more than once speaks of a

136 c. 15. At nunc quale est ut Dominus a 12 Tiberii Cæsaris revelatus sit? In a subsequent chapter, Tertullian speaks as if the ministry of Christ had commenced in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar, but he then appears to be stating the opinion of Marcion. Anno 15 Tiberii, Christus Jesus de cœlo manare dignatus est, Spiritus Salutaris, c. 19. So in L. iv. c. 7. Anno quintodecimo principatûs Tiberiani, proponit (Marcion) eum descendisse in civitatem Galilææ Capharnaum, utique de cœlo creatoris, in quod de suo ante descenderat.

137 c. vii. Sect. i. p. 274.

138 Cujus nemo adhuc certus de tribu, de populo, de domo? de censu denique Augusti, quem testem fidelissimum Dominicæ nativitatis Romana Archiva custodiunt? ad Marcionem, L. iv. c. 7. We must bear in mind that Tertullian is arguing with an heretic, who affirmed that Christ was not born at all, but descended upon earth a perfect man. Again, c. 19. Sed et census constat actos sub Augusto nunc (f. tunc) in Judæâ per Sentium Saturninum. And c. 36. Vel de recentibus Augustianis censibus adhuc tunc fortasse pendentibus.

census taken during the reign of Augustus; the documents relating to which were preserved in the Roman archives, and, according to him, afforded incontestable evidence of our Lord's nativity. He states, however, that this census was taken by Sentius Saturninus; and consequently appears to contradict the account given by St. Luke, who ascribes it to Cyrenius. In this, as in the former case, I shall not attempt to examine the solutions of the difficulty, which have been proposed by different learned men, but shall refer the reader to 139 Lardner. circumstance, however, seems worthy of observation. 140 Tertullian uniformly appeals to the census as establishing the descent of Christ from David through Mary; whose genealogy he also supposes to be given 1 in St. Matthew's

141

One

pendentibus. See also de Carne Christi, c. 2. Molestos semper Cæsaris census. In the Treatise de Pallio, c. 1. Sentius Saturninus is mentioned as having presided at the ceremonies which attended the admission of Carthage among the Colonies of Rome.

139 Credibility of the Gospel History. Objections against Luke ii. 1, 2. considered.

140 Ex stirpe autem Jesse deputatum, per Mariam scilicet inde censendum. Fuit enim de patriâ Bethlehem, et de domo David, sicut apud Romanos in censu descripta est Maria, ex quâ nascitur Christus. Adv. Judæos, c. 9. Compare adv, Marc. L. iii. cc. 17. 20. L. iv. c. 1. c. 36. Qui vult videre Jesum, David filium credat per virginis censum. See also L. i. c. 1. and c. 8. where there is a very fanciful application of Isaiah xi. 1. Compare de Carne Christi, c. 21.

141 De Carne Christi, c. 22.

Gospel. 142 In the Apology, Tertullian states that the miraculous darkness at our Lord's crucifixion was denied by those who did not know that it had been predicted, and therefore could not account for it; "yet, he adds, it is mentioned in your, i. e. the Roman archives." 143 Gibbon thinks, that, instead of archivis vestris, we should adopt the reading of the Codex Fuldensis, arcanis vestris; and understand the reference to be to the Sibylline Verses, which relate the prodigy exactly in the words of the Gospel. It is certain that 111 Tertullian speaks of the Sibyl as a true prophetess; but we 145 have just seen that he occasionally appeals to documents in the Roman archives in confirmation of his statements, and I observe that Semler retains the reading archivis.

144

I will conclude my remarks on the external History of the Church, as illustrated by the writings of Tertullian, with briefly advert

142 Eodem momento dies, medium orbem signante sole, subducta est. Deliquium utique putaverunt, qui id quoque super Christo prædictum non scierunt; ratione non deprehensâ, negaverunt. Et tamen eum mundi casum relatum in archivis vestris habetis, c. 21.

143 Chap. xv. note 194.

144 Ad Nationes, L. ii. c. 12. sub fine. The verses there quoted may be found in the Apology of Athenagoras, c. 26. De Pallio, c. 2. See Salmasius in loco.

145 See note 138 of this Chapter.

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