Ad Nationes — Book I

Tertullian

  1. 1. — The Hatred Felt by the Heathen Against the Christians is Unjust, Because Based on Culpable Ignorance.
  2. 2. — The Heathen Perverted Judgment in the Trial of Christians. They Would Be More Consistent If They Dispensed with All Form of Trial. Tertullian Urges This with Much Indignation.
  3. 3. — The Great Offence in the Christians Lies in Their Very Name. The Name Vindicated.
  4. 4. — The Truth Hated in the Christians; So in Measure Was It, of Old, in Socrates. The Virtues of the Christians.
  5. 5. — The Inconsistent Life of Any False Christian No More Condemns True Disciples of Christ, Than a Passing Cloud Obscures a Summer Sky.
  6. 6. — The Innocence of the Christians Not Compromised by the Iniquitous Laws Which Were Made Against Them.
  7. 7. — The Christians Defamed. A Sarcastic Description of Fame; Its Deception and Atrocious Slanders of the Christians Lengthily Described.
  8. 8. — The Calumny Against the Christians Illustrated in the Discovery of Psammetichus. Refutation of the Story.
  9. 9. — The Christians are Not the Cause of Public Calamities: There Were Such Troubles Before Christianity.
  10. 10. — The Christians are Not the Only Contemners of the Gods. Contempt of Them Often Displayed by Heathen Official Persons. Homer Made the Gods Contemptible.
  11. 11. — The Absurd Cavil of the Ass's Head Disposed of.
  12. 12. — The Charge of Worshipping a Cross. The Heathens Themselves Made Much of Crosses in Sacred Things; Nay, Their Very Idols Were Formed on a Crucial Frame.
  13. 13. — The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met by a Retort.
  14. 14. — The Vile Calumny About Onocoetes Retorted on the Heathen by Tertullian.
  15. 15. — The Charge of Infanticide Retorted on the Heathen.
  16. 16. — Other Charges Repelled by the Same Method. The Story of the Noble Roman Youth and His Parents.
  17. 17. — The Christian Refusal to Swear by the Genius of Cæsar. Flippancy and Irreverence Retorted on the Heathen.
  18. 18. — Christians Charged with an Obstinate Contempt of Death. Instances of the Same are Found Amongst the Heathen.
  19. 19. — If Christians and the Heathen Thus Resemble Each Other, There is Great Difference in the Grounds and Nature of Their Apparently Similar Conduct.
  20. 20. Truth and Reality Pertain to Christians Alone. The Heathen Counselled to Examine and Embrace It.

One proof of that ignorance of yours, which condemns while it excuses your injustice, is at once apparent in the fact, that all who once shared in your ignorance and hatred (of the Christian religion ), as soon as they have come to know it, leave off their hatred when they cease to be ignorant; nay more, they actually themselves become what they had hated, and take to hating what they had once been. Day after day, indeed, you groan over the increasing number of the Christians. Your constant cry is, that the state is beset (by us); that Christians are in your fields, in your camps, in your islands. You grieve over it as a calamity, that each sex, every age — in short, every rank — is passing over from you to us; yet you do not even after this set your minds upon reflecting whether there be not here some latent good. You do not allow yourselves in suspicions which may prove too true, nor do you like ventures which may be too near the mark. This is the only instance in which human curiosity grows torpid. You love to be ignorant of what other men rejoice to have discovered; you would rather not know it, because you now cherish your hatred as if you were aware that, (with the knowledge,) your hatred would certainly come to an end. Still, if there shall be no just ground for hatred, it will surely be found to be the best course to cease from the past injustice. Should, however, a cause have really existed there will be no diminution of the hatred, which will indeed accumulate so much the more in the consciousness of its justice; unless it be, forsooth, that you are ashamed to cast off your faults, or sorry to free yourselves from blame. I know very well with what answer you usually meet the argument from our rapid increase. That indeed must not, you say, be hastily accounted a good thing which converts a great number of persons, and gains them over to its side. I am aware how the mind is apt to take to evil courses. How many there are which forsake virtuous living! How many seek refuge in the opposite! Many, no doubt; nay, very many, as the last days approach. But such a comparison as this fails in fairness of application; for all are agreed in thinking thus of the evil-doer, so that not even the guilty themselves, who take the wrong side, and turn away from the pursuit of good to perverse ways, are bold enough to defend evil as good. Base things excite their fear, impious ones their shame. In short, they are eager for concealment, they shrink from publicity, they tremble when caught; when accused, they deny; even when tortured, they do not readily or invariably confess (their crime); at all events, they grieve when they are condemned. They reproach themselves for their past life; their change from innocence to an evil disposition they even attribute to fate. They cannot say that it is not a wrong thing, therefore they will not admit it to be their own act. As for the Christians, however, in what does their case resemble this? No one is ashamed; no one