ness is without selection, and there was in his character a propensity to exaggeration, which affected his language and rendered it inflated and unnatural. He is indeed the harshest and most obscure of writers, and the least capable of being accurately represented in a translation. With respect to his Latinity, I know only one critic who has ventured to speak in its commendation the late Gilbert Wakefield; between whom and Tertullian, widely as they differed upon doctrinal questions, there appear to have been some points of resemblance. Both possessed great stores of acquired knowledge, which they produced in and out of season; both were deficient in taste, discrimination, and judgement. 146 In one of his letters to Mr. Fox, Mr. Wakefield complains that the "words of Tertullian, Arnobius, Apuleius, Aulus Gellius, and Ammianus Marcellinus, are usually marked in dictionaries as inelegant and of suspicious authority: when they are, in reality, the most genuine remains of pure Roman composition," or as he had previously expressed himself, "of the language of the old comedians and tragedians, of Ennius and Lucilius." I am far from intending to assert that this statement is wholly destitute of foundation; when I have myself been obliged to 146 Letter 54. consult the dictionaries for the meaning of some strange and portentous word which crossed me in my perusal of Tertullian's works, I have occasionally found that it had been used by Plautus; but the general opinion which I have formed respecting Tertullian's Latinity, cannot be better expressed than in the words of the learned Ruhnken. 14766 Fuit nescio quisqui se pulchre de Latinâ Linguâ meriturum speraret, si verba et verborum constructiones ex Tertulliano-in Lexicon referret. A cujus sententiâ dici vix potest quantopere dissentiam. Sit Tertullianus quam velis eruditus, sit omnis peritus antiquitatis; nihil impedio; Latinitatis certè pessimum auctorem esse aio et confirmo. At usus est sermone eo, quo tunc omnes Afri Latinè loquentes utebantur. Δωρίσδεν δ ̓ ἔξεστι, δοκῶ, τοῖς Δωριέεσσιν. Ne hoc quidem concesserim. Nam si talis Afrorum sermo fuit, cur, non dicam Apuleius et Arnobius scriptores prisca elegantiæ studiosi, sed Cyprianus, &c. aliter locuti reperiuntur? Quid ergo? Fecit hic, quod ante eum arbitror fecisse neminem. Etenim quum in aliorum vel summâ infantiâ tamen appareat voluntas et conatus bene loquendi, hic, nescio quâ ingenii 147 Præfatio ad Schelleri Lexicon. perversitate, cum melioribus loqui noluit, et sibimet ipse linguam finxit duram, horridam, Latinisque inauditam; ut non mirum sit per eum unum plura monstra in Linguam Latinam, quam per omnes Scriptores semi-barbaros, esse invecta." In the preceding remarks we have all along taken for granted that the works, the dates of which we have been investigating, were composed by an individual, named Tertullian. This fact we conceived to be established by testimony precisely similar to that by which the genuineness of the works of every author is ascertained-by the testimony of writers whose proximity to the times in which he lived, and whose opportunities of information rendered them competent to form a correct opinion on the subject. We are told that Cyprian, who was Bishop of Carthage within forty years after the period at which Tertullian lived there, held his works in the highest estimation; and in confirmation of this statement we find that Cyprian frequently repeats, not only the sentiments, but even the words contained in the writings now extant under his name. We find 148 Eusebius, a dili 148 L. ii. c. 2. The only work of Tertullian quoted by Eusebius is the Apology, which he states to have been translated gent enquirer into all points connected with Ecclesiastical history, quoting within a century 'after his death one of his works which had been translated into Greek, and speaking of the author 149 as well known in the capital of the world. We find Jerome, who has left us a catalogue of Ecclesiastical authors accompanied by succinct accounts of their lives and writings, quoting various works of Tertullian without giving the slightest hint that he entertained a doubt of their genuineness. We find him. quoted by 150 Augustine, who had resided at Carthage and made enquiries there respecting the sect which bore his name; and by subsequent writers, who may be deemed too far removed from his time to be received as independent witnesses. Here surely is a chain of testimony sufficient to satisfy even a sceptical mind. It did not, however, satisfy that of Semler, who in a dissertation, inserted in translated into Greek, and with which alone he appears to have been acquainted. He was perhaps little versed in the Latin language, and had never met with the tracts composed by Tertullian himself in Greek, which were of less general interest than the Apology. 149 If we adopt the interpretation suggested by Valesius after Rufinus of the words τῶν μάλιστα ἐπὶ Ῥώμης λαμπρών, inter Latinos Scriptores celeberrimus, the inference will be strengthened. 150 Liber de Hæresibus, 86. Tertullianista. his 151 edition of Tertullian's works, endeavours to fix a mark of spuriousness, not only upon them, but also upon the writings which are extant, under the names of Justin Martyr, and Irenæus. 152 His theory is, that all those works, though bearing the names of different authors, proceeded from one and the same shop established at Rome, and were the produce of the joint labours of a set of men, who entered into a combination to falsify history and corrupt the Scriptures, principally with the view of throwing discredit upon certain persons, Marcion, Valentinus, &c. whom they thought fit to brand with the title of Heretics. This, it must be allowed, is a theory which, for novelty and singularity, will bear a comparison with the boldest speculations of the German critics. Let us, therefore, enquire upon what foundations it rests; first observing that we neither profess, nor deem it incumbent upon us, to give a full and complete solution of all the doubts and difficulties which an inge 151 Halæ Magdeburgicæ, 1770. 152 Ex unâ atque eâdem officinâ quidam libri videntur prodiisse quos studiosissimè solebant variis et diversis Scriptoribus dividere. Antiquissima fuit hæc Societas et impensa sive ab uno sive a duobus diligentia, quæ cum Romanâ illâ, tam Græcâ quam Latinâ, Societate novâ videtur sic cohærere ut communi consilio operam dederint. Sect. 10. See also the concluding Section. |