INTRODUCTION SOME fifteen years had passed since Tertullian had pleaded for Christianity in the Apology,' pouring scorn and contempt upon the persecutors for their disregard of the simplest rules alike of justice and of common sense, in condemning the Christian religion unheard and unknown; and now he once more takes up his pen to recapitulate his arguments in a personal appeal to the proconsul of the African province. The edict of Severus, which forbade Jews and Christians to proselytize1, had been issued in the year 202 whilst he was in the East; and this prohibition was made the occasion of open attacks upon the Church in various parts of the Empire. The martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas with their companions at Karthage under Hilarian the procurator was, we may be sure, no isolated case, and throughout the next decade persecutions were frequent, their recurrence depending on the indifference, good nature, or hostility of the provincial executive 2. Severus died at York early in 211, and his sons, the two Augusti Caracalla and Geta, shared between them the sovereignty of the Roman empire. But that fraternal 1 Spartian, Sever. 17 'In itinere Palestinis plurima iura fundavit. Iudaeos fieri sub gravi poena vetuit. Idem de Christianis sanxit.' Two points in this edict deserve notice: (1) it refers only to new converts, and does not legislate with regard to persons already Christians; (2) the Jews and Christians are now formally and explicitly distinguished in a legal enactment. 2 Chap. 4. 1 hatred which Tertullian had satirically denounced in the 'Apology' as customary amongst the Romans received a signal exemplification in the case of these joint rulers; for little more than a year elapsed before Caracalla contrived his brother's assassination in his mother's arms, himself assisting in the bloody deed 2. The exiles of Severus' reign had been early recalled, and although this action presumably carried with it to some extent a cessation of persecution, it may be inferred from expressions in this treatise that attacks upon the Christians, after the death of Severus and murder of Geta, were abetted by the African proconsul Scapula, and that Tertullian was on these grounds led to address the present dignified remonstrance to that governor. The true nature of Christianity appears to be no better known to the magistrates than when the 'Apology' was written; its position is the same—that of a 'religio illicita,' and the persecutors are still ignorant of its aims and doctrines. Yet a loftier tone breathes through the condensed sentences of this Address, the opening chapters of which admirably epitomize the 'Apology.' Time had taught Tertullian rather to pity than to deride the aggressors. The Address is free from any taint of Montanism, although Tertullian had for some years been engaged inter alia in the defence of Montanistic tenets. The claim of religious liberty and of freedom of conscience as a civil right, which was advanced in the 'Apology,' reappears here; and the natural tendency to see the hand of Divine judgement in the temporal afflictions which befel persecuting governors and people is especially marked. The proconsul Scapula has been identified with great pro 1 Chap. 39. 2 February 27, 212. Dion Cass. lxxvii. 23; Herodian, iv. 4; Spartian, Sever. 21; Geta 6. 3 Dion Cass. lxxvii. 3. 4 See note chap. 4. bability with Scapula Tertullus, who was consul in the year 195, and whose proconsulship, according to the usual rules of promotion at this time, would fall some fifteen years later. This would coincide with the date already suggested for the Address, viz., sometime later than February in the year 212. The authorities for the text of AD SCAPULAM are the same as those for AD MARTYRAS. |