106 Gibbon affirms it "to be evident that Tertullian composed his Treatise de Coronâ long before he was engaged in the errors of Montanus." I am afraid that the historian was induced to adopt this opinion, because it assisted him in transferring the sentiments, expressed by Tertullian, from the followers of Montanus to the primitive Christians in general; and thereby to confirm his representation of their rashness and extravagances. But the allusion to the New Prophecy in the first chapter affords a complete refutation of the assertion. Gibbon also supposes the event, which gave occasion to the Treatise, to have happened at Carthage when a donative was distributed to the soldiers by the emperors Severus and Caracalla; and consequently before the title of Cæsar was conferred on Geta, that is, before the year 198. But should we allow the correctness of this date to be better ascertained than it really is, the only inference to be drawn from it would be, that even at that early period Tertullian had openly avowed his belief in the prophecies of Montanus. There is moreover in this Tract an allusion to a 107Tract on Public Spectacles, which Tertullian composed in Greek;

107 Sed et huic materiæ propter suaviludios nostros Græco quoque stilo satisfecimus, c. 6. sub fine.

if it agreed with the Latin Tract now extant, he was probably a Montanist when he wrote it. 107*Tertullian appears in the Tract de Coronâ to announce his intention of writing the Scorpiace.

The second book against Marcion affords an example of the difficulty of accurately determining from the Treatises themselves, whether the author was a Montanist when he composed them for it contains no decisive marks of Montanism. The same remark is applicable to the Tract de Carne Christi, though we find 108 in it an express reference to the fourth book against Marcion; and 109 to the Scorpiace, in which we also find a reference to the works against Marcion. Jerome in his work against Vigilantius, c. 3. says that the latter Tract was written against the Cainites, a branch of the Gnostics, who appear to have spoken contemptuously of martyrdom, and to have dis

mus.

107 * c. 1. Sed de quæstionibus confessionum alibi docebi

108

c. 7. Audiat igitur et Apelles quid jam responsum sit a nobis Marcioni eo libello, quo ad Evangelium ipsius provocavimus. The reference is to c. 19.

109 c. 5. Longum est ut Deum meum bonum ostendam ; quod jam a nobis didicerunt Marcionitæ. The reference is to the second book. From c. 1, and c. 4, it appears that the Scorpiace was written during a time of persecution.

suaded Christians in times of persecution from exposing themselves to danger by an open profession of their faith; 110 contending that He was the true martyr, uaprès, who bore testimony to the Gospel by his virtuous life and conversation. Here then we might expect to find strong proofs of Tertullian's Montanism; yet they do not occur. There is in the Scorpiace an allusion to the establishment of the Pythian games at Carthage, as if it had recently taken place.

111

If the Proculus, whom Tertullian 11 calls Proculus noster, and mentions with respect in his Treatise against the Valentinians, was the same to whose dispute or dialogue with Caius both 15 Eusebius and Jerome refer, we may fairly conclude that Tertullian was a Montanist when he composed the Treatise.

113

Allix infers that the Tract de Spectaculis was written after Tertullian became a Montanist, because in enumerating the privileges of

110

Compare Irenæus, L. iii. c. 20. L. iv. c. 64. and Clemens Alexandrinus, L. iv. c. 4. p. 571. 1. 10.

Adhuc Carthaginem singulæ civitates gratulando inquietant, donatam Pythico Agone post stadii senectutem, c. 6.

113 Hist. Eccl. L. vi. c. 20. Catalogus Scriptorum Eccl. sub Caio.

116

the Christian, he mentions that of asking revelations from heaven. The introduction 115 of the New Jerusalem in the last chapter, when compared with the final chapter of the fourth book against Marcion, supplies in my opinion far more decisive proof of his Montanism. Allix has shewn satisfactorily that it was written, not at Rome, but at Carthage. It was prior to the Tract 7 de Idololatriâ and to the 118 first book de Cultu Fœminarum, which contain references to it. These two Tracts, therefore, were probably written after Tertullian became a Montanist, though they contain no decisive marks of Montanism. 119 In the Tract de Idololatriâ Allix fancies that he discovers an allusion to the festivities which took place at Carthage when the birth-day of Geta was celebrated, in the year 203.

The notion that three persons compose a Church has been 120 already mentioned as indi

114 c. 29. Quod revelationes petis.

115 Qualis Civitas nova Hierusalem ?

116 Quanta præterea Sacra, quanta Sacrificia præcedant, intercedant, succedant, quot Collegia, quot sacerdotia, quot officia moveantur, sciunt homines illius urbis (Romæ) in quâ Dæmoniorum conventus consedit, c. 7. Proinde tituli: Olympia Jovi, quæ sunt Romæ Capitolina, c. 11. Observe also the use of the word Præsides in the last chapter.

cative of Montanism. It occurs in 121 the Tract de Exhortatione Castitatis: yet I am led to. infer, from a comparison of this Tract with that de Monogamia, that Tertullian, when he wrote it, had not embraced the tenets of Montanus in all their rigor.

Perhaps we shall not deviate very widely from the truth, if we adopt the following classification of Tertullian's works, without attempting to arrange them in the order in which they are written.

Works probably written while he was yet a member of the Church.

De Pœnitentiâ.

De Oratione.

De Baptismo.

The two books ad Uxorem.

Ad Martyres.

De Patientiâ.

Adversus Judæos.

De Præscriptione Hæreticorum. 122

121 c. 7. Sed ubi tres, Ecclesia est, licet Laici. Compare de Pudicitiâ, c. 21. Pamelius supposes that the three persons alluded to in the latter passage were Montanus, Maximilla, and Priscilla; but, as it appears to me, without sufficient grounds.

122 Referred to in the first book against Marcion, c. 1. adv. Praxeam, c. 2. de Carne Christi, c. 2. adv. Hermogenem, c. 1.