especially
in controversy, to rhetorical exaggerations. When he defends a cause, of whose
truth he was convinced, we often see in him the advocate, whose sole anxiety is to collect
together all the arguments which can help his case, it matters not whether they are true
arguments or only plausible sophisms; and in such cases the very exuberance of his wit
sometimes leads him astray from the simple feeling of truth. What must render this man
a phenomenon presenting special claims to the attention of the Christian historian is the
fact, that Christianity is the inspiring soul of his life and thoughts; that out of Christianity
an entirely new and rich inner world developed itself to his mind: but the leaven of
Christianity had first to penetrate through and completely refine that fiery, bold and withal
rugged nature. We find the new wine in an old bottle; and the tang which it has contracted
there, may easily embarrass the inexperienced judge. Tertullian often had more within
him than he was able to express: the overflowing mind was at a loss for suitable forms of
phraseology. He had to create a language for the new spiritual matter,—and that out of
the rude Punic Latin,—without the aid of a logical and grammatical education, and as he
was hurried along in the current of thoughts and feelings by his ardent nature. Hence the
often difficult and obscure phraseology; but hence, too, the original and striking turns in
his mode of representation. And hence this great church-teacher, who unites great gifts
with great failings, has been so often misconceived by those who could form no friendship
with the spirit which dwelt in so ungainly a form."
Hase (
Kirchengesch.
p. 91, tenth ed.): "
Die lateinische Kirche hatte fast nur Übersetzungen, bis
Tertullian
us,
als Heide Rhetor und Sachwalter zu Rom
,
mit reicher griechischer Gelehrsamkeit, die auch der Kirchenvater gern sehen liess,
Presbyter in seiner Vaterstadt Karthago, ein strenger, düsterer, feuriger Character, dem Christenthum aus punischem Latein
eine Literatur errang, in welcher geistreiche Rhetorik, genialer so wie gesuchter Witz, der sinnliches Anfassen des Idealen, tiefes
Gefühl and juridische Verstandesansicht mit einander ringen. Er hat der afrikanischen Kirche die Losung angegeben: Christus
sprach: Ich bin die Wahrheit, nicht, das Herkommen. Er hat das Gottesbewusstsein in den Tiefen der Seele hochgehalten, aber
ein Mann der Auctoritaet hat er die Thorheit des Evangeliums der Weltweisheit seiner Zeitgenossen, das Unglaubliche der
Wunder Gottes dem gemeinen Weltverstande mit stolzer Ironie entgegengehalten. Seine Schriften, denen er unbedenklich Fremdes
angeeignet und mit dent Gepraege seines Genius versehen hat, sind theils polemisch mit dem höchsten Selbstvertraun der
katholischen Gesinnung gegen Heiden, Juden und Haeretiker, theils erbaulich; so jedoch, dass auch in jenen das Erbauliche,
in
diesen das Polemische für strenge Sitte und Zucht vorhanden ist
"
Hauck (Tertullian
’s Leben und Schriften, p.
1)
Unter den Schriftstellern der lateinischen Christenheit ist
Tertullian
einer der bedeutendsten und intressantesten. Er ist der Anfänger der lateinischen Theologie, der nicht nur ihrer
Sprache seinen Stempel aufgeprägt hat
,
sondern sie auch an die Bahn hinwies, welche sie lange einheilt. Seine Persönlichkeit
hat ebensoviel Anziehendes als Abstossendes; denn wer könnte den Ernst seines sittlichen Strebens, den Reichthum und die
Lebhaftigkeit seines Geistes, die Festigkeit seiner Ueberzeugung und die stürmische Kraft seiner Beredtsamkeit verkennen? Allein
ebensowenig lässt sich übersehen, dass ihm in allen Dingen das Mass fehlte. Seine Erscheinung hat nichts Edles; er war nicht
frei von Bizzarem, ja Gemeinem
.
So zeigen ihn seine Schriften, die Denkmäler seines Lebens Er war ein Mann
,
der sich in
unaufhörlichen Streite bewegte: sein ganzes Wesen trägt die Spuren hievon
"
Cardinal Hergenröther, the first Roman Catholic church historian now living (for
Döllinger was excommunicated in 1870), says of Tertullian (in his Kirchengesch. I. 168,
second ed., 1879): "
Strenge und ernst, oft beissend sarkastisch, in der, Sprache gedrängt und dunkel der heidnischen
Philosophie durchaus abgeneigt, mit dem römischen Rechte sehr vertraut, hat er in seinen zahlreichen Schriften Bedeutendes
514
Philip Schaff
History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene
Christianity. A.D. 100-325.
für die Darstellung der Kirchlichen Lehre geleistet, und ungeachtet seines Uebertritts zu den Montanisten betrachteten ihn die
späteren africanischen Schriftsteller, auch
Cyprian
, als Muster und Lehrer
"
Pressensé (Martyrs and Apoloqists, p. 375): "The African nationality gave to
Christianity its most eloquent defender, in whom the intense vehemence, the untempered
ardor of the race, appear purified indeed, but not subdued. No influence in the early ages
could equal that of Tertullian; and his writings breathe a spirit of such undying power that
they can never grow old, and even now render living, controversies which have been silent
for fifteen centuries. We must seek the man in his own pages, still aglow with his
enthusiasm and quivering with his passion, for the details of his personal history are very
few. The man is, as it were, absorbed in the writer, and we can well understand it, for his
writings embody his whole soul. Never did a man more fully infuse his entire moral life
into his books, and act through his words."
§ 197. The Writings of Tertullian.
Tertullian developed an extraordinary literary activity in two languages between about 190 and
220. His earlier books in the Greek language, and some in the Latin, are lost. Those which remain
are mostly short; but they are numerous, and touch nearly all departments of religious life. They
present a graphic picture of the church of his day. Most of his works, according to internal evidence,
fill in the first quarter of the third century, in the Montanistic period of his life, and among these
many of his ablest writings against the heretics; while, on the other hand, the gloomy moral austerity,
which predisposed him to Montanism, comes out quite strongly even in his earliest
productions.
1527
528
His works may be grouped in three classes: apologetic; polemic or anti-heretical; and ethic
or practical; to which may be added as a fourth class the expressly Montanistic tracts against the
Catholics. We can here only mention the most important:
1. In the Apologetic works against heathens and Jews, he pleads the cause of all Christendom,
and deserves the thanks of all Christendom. Preëminent among them is the Apologeticus (or
Apologeticum).
1528
529 It was composed in the reign of Septimius Severus, between 197 and 200.
It is unquestionably one of the most beautiful monuments of the heroic age of the church. In this
work, Tertullian enthusiastically and triumphantly repels the attacks of the heathens upon the new
religion, and demands for it legal toleration and equal rights with the other sects of the Roman
empire. It is the first plea for religious liberty, as an inalienable right which God has given to every
man, and which the civil government in its own interest should not only tolerate but respect and
protect. He claims no support, no favor, but simply justice. The church was in the first three centuries
a self-supporting and self-governing society (as it ought always to be), and no burden, but a blessing
to the state, and furnished to it the most peaceful and useful citizens. The cause of truth and justice
never found a more eloquent and fearless defender in the very face of despotic power, and the
1527
On the chronological order see Notes.
1528
Comp. H. A. Woodham: Tert. Liber Apologeticus with English Notes and an Introduction to the Study of Patristical and
Ecclesiastical Latinity, Cambridge, 1850. Am. ed. of Select Works of Tert., by F. A. March, New York, 1876. p. 26-46.
515
Philip Schaff
History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene
Christianity. A.D. 100-325.