The Religion Of The West Its Mo

In the writings of Tertullian a conception of Christianity is quite fully

developed according to which the Gospel was a new law of life, with its

prescribed holy seasons and hours for prayer; its sacrifices, though as

yet only sacrifices of prayer; its fasts and almsgiving, which had

propitiatory effect, atoning for sins committed and winning merit with

God; its sacred rites, solemnly administered by an established hierarchy;

and all observed for the sake of a reward which God in justice owed those

who kept His commandments. It is noticeable that already there is the same

divided opinion as to marriage, whereby, on the one hand, it was regarded

as a concession to weakness, a necessary evil, and, on the other, a high

and holy relation, strictly monogamous, and of abiding worth. The

propitiatory and meritorious character of fasts and almsgiving as laid

down by Tertullian was developed even further by Cyprian and became a

permanent element in the penitential system of the Church, ultimately

affecting its conception of redemption.





(a) Tertullian, De Oratione, 23, 25, 28. (MSL, 1:1298.)





Ch. 23. As to kneeling, also, prayer is subject to diversity of observance

on account of a few who abstain from kneeling on the Sabbath. Since this

dissension is particularly on its trial before the churches, the Lord will

give His grace that the dissentients may either yield or else follow their

own opinion without offence to the others. We, however, as we have

received, only on the Sunday of the resurrection ought to guard not only

against this kneeling, but every posture and office of anxiety; deferring

even our businesses, lest we give any place to the devil. Similarly, too,

the period of Pentecost, is a time which we distinguish by the same

solemnity of exultation. But who would hesitate every day to prostrate

himself before God, at least in the first prayer with which we enter on

the daylight? At fasts, moreover, and stations, no prayer should be made

without kneeling and the remaining customary marks of humility. For then

we are not only praying, but making supplication, and making satisfaction

to our Lord God.



Ch. 25. Touching the time, however, the extrinsic observance of certain

hours will not be unprofitable; those common hours, I mean, which mark the

intervals of the day--the third, the sixth, the ninth--which we may find in

Scripture to have been more solemn than the rest.



Ch. 28. This is the spiritual victim which has abolished the pristine

sacrifices. We are the true adorers and true priests, who, praying in the

spirit, in the spirit sacrifice prayer, proper and acceptable to God,

which, assuredly, He has required, which He has looked forward to for

Himself. This victim, devoted from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended

by truth, entire in innocence, pure in chastity, garlanded with love

[agape], we ought to escort with the pomp of good works, amid psalms and

hymns, unto God's altar, to obtain all things from God for us.





(b) Tertullian, De Jejun., 3. (MSL, 2:100.)





The following is a characteristic statement of the meritorious and

propitiatory character of fasting. See below, h, Cyprian.





Since He himself both commands fasting and calls a soul wholly

shattered--properly, of course, by straits of diet--a sacrifice (Psalm

51:18), who will any longer doubt that of all macerations as to food the

rationale has been this: that by a renewed interdiction of food and

observance of the precept the primordial sin might now be expiated, so

that man may make God satisfaction through the same causative material by

which he offended, that is, by interdiction of food; and so, by way of

emulation, hunger might rekindle, just as satiety had extinguished,

salvation, contemning for the sake of one thing unlawful many things that

are lawful?





(c) Tertullian, De Baptismo, 17. (MSL, 1:1326.)





It remains to put you in mind, also, of the due observance of giving and

receiving baptism. The chief priest (summus sacerdos), who is the

bishop, has the right of giving it; in the second place, the presbyters

and deacons, yet not without the bishop's authority, on account of the

honor of the Church. When this has been preserved, peace is preserved.

Besides these, even laymen have the right; for what is equally received

can be equally given. If there are no bishops, priests, or deacons, other

disciples are called. The word of the Lord ought not to be hidden away by

any. In like manner, also, baptism, which is equally God's property, can

be administered by all; but how much more is the rule of reverence and

modesty incumbent on laymen, since these things belong to their superiors,

lest they assume to themselves the specific functions of the episcopate!

Emulation of the episcopal office is the mother of schism.





(d) Tertullian, De Poenitentia, 2. (MSL, 1:1340.)





How small is the gain if you do good to a grateful man, or the loss if to

an ungrateful man! A good deed has God as its debtor, just as an evil deed

has Him also; for the judge is a rewarder of every cause. Now, since God

as judge presides over the exacting and maintaining of justice, which is

most dear to Him, and since it is for the sake of justice that He appoints

the whole sum of His discipline, ought one to doubt that, as in all our

acts universally, so, also, in the case of repentance, justice must be

rendered to God?





(e) Tertullian, Scorpiace, 6. (MSL, 2:157.)





If he had put forth faith to suffer martyrdoms, not for the contest's

sake, but for its own benefit, ought it not to have had some store of

hope, for which it might restrain its own desire and suspend its wish,

that it might strive to mount up, seeing that they, also, who strive to

discharge earthly functions are eager for promotion? Or how will there be

many mansions in the Father's house, if not for a diversity of deserts?

How, also, will one star differ from another star in glory, unless in

virtue of a disparity of their rays?





(f) Tertullian, Ad Uxorem, I, 3; II, 8-10. (MSL, 1:1390, 1415.) Cf.

Kirch, n. 181.





I, 3. There is no place at all where we read that marriages are

prohibited; of course as a "good thing." What, however, is better than

this "good," we learn from the Apostle in that he permits marriage,

indeed, but prefers abstinence; the former on account of the insidiousness

of temptations, the latter on account of the straits of the times (I Cor.

7:26). Now by examining the reason for each statement it is easily seen

that the permission to marry is conceded us as a necessity; but whatever

necessity grants, she herself deprecates. In fact, inasmuch as it is

written, "It is better to marry than to burn" (I Cor. 7:9), what sort of

"good" is this which is only commended by comparison with "evil," so that

the reason why "marrying" is better is merely that "burning" is worse?

Nay; but how much better is it neither to marry nor to burn?



II, 8. Whence are we to find adequate words to tell fully of the happiness

of that marriage which the Church cements and the oblation(59) confirms,

and the benediction seals; which the angels announce, and the Father holds

for ratified? For even on earth children do not rightly and lawfully wed

without their father's consent. What kind of yoke is that of two believers

of one hope, one discipline, and the same service? The two are brethren,

the two are fellow-servants; no difference of spirit or flesh; nay, truly,

two in one flesh; where there is one flesh the spirit is one.





(g) Tertullian, De Monogamia, 9, 10. (MSL, 2:991 f.)





This work was written after Tertullian became a Montanist, and

with other Montanists repudiated second marriage, to which

reference is made in both passages. But the teaching of the Church

regarding remarriage after divorce was as Tertullian here speaks.

The reference to offering at the end of ch. 10 does not refer to

the eucharist, but to prayers. See above, Ad Uxorem, ch. II, 8.





Ch. 9. So far is it true that divorce "was not from the beginning" [cf.

Matt. 19:8] that among the Romans it is not till after the six hundredth

year after the foundation of the city that this kind of hardness of heart

is recorded to have been committed. But they not only repudiate, but

commit promiscuous adultery; to us, even if we do divorce, it will not be

lawful to marry.



Ch. 10. I ask the woman herself, "Tell me, sister, have you sent your

husband before in peace?" What will she answer? In discord? In that case

she is bound the more to him with whom she has a cause to plead at the bar

of God. She is bound to another, she who has not departed from him. But if

she say, "In peace," then she must necessarily persevere in that peace

with him whom she will be no longer able to divorce; not that she would

marry, even if she had been able to divorce him. Indeed, she prays for his

soul, and requests refreshment for him meanwhile, and fellowship in the

first resurrection; and she offers on the anniversary of his falling

asleep.





(h) Cyprian, De Opere et Eleemosynis, 1, 2, 5. (MSL, 4:625.)





Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (249-258), was the most important

theologian and ecclesiastic between Tertullian and Augustine. He

developed the theology of the former especially in its

ecclesiastical lines, and his idea of the Church was accepted by

the latter as a matter beyond dispute. His most important

contributions to the development of the Church were his

hierarchical conceptions, which became generally accepted as the

basis of the episcopal organization of the Church (see below, §§

46, 50, 51). His writings, which are of great importance in the

history of the Church, consist only of epistles and brief tracts.

His influence did much to determine the lines of development of

the Western Church, and especially the church of North Africa.

With the following cf. supra, § 16.





Ch. 1. Many and great, beloved brethren, are the divine benefits wherewith

the large and abundant mercy of God the Father and of Christ both has

labored and is always laboring for our salvation: because the Father sent

the Son to preserve us and give us life, that He might restore us; and the

Son was willing to be sent and to become the son of man, that He might

make us the sons of God. He humbled Himself that He might raise up the

people who before were prostrate; He was wounded that He might heal our

wounds; He served that He might draw to liberty those who were in bondage;

He underwent death, that He might set forth immortality to mortals. These

are many and great boons of compassion. But, moreover, what a providence,

and how great the clemency, that by a plan of salvation it is provided for

us that more abundant care should be taken for preserving man who has been

redeemed! For when the Lord, coming to us, had cured those wounds which

Adam had borne, and had healed the old poisons of the serpent, He gave a

law to the sound man, and bade him sin no more lest a worse thing should

befall the sinner. We had been limited and shut up in a narrow space by

the commandment of innocence. Nor should the infirmity and weakness of

human frailty have anything it might do, unless the divine mercy, coming

again in aid, should open some way of securing salvation by pointing out

works of justice and mercy, so that by almsgiving we may wash away

whatever foulness we subsequently contract.



Ch. 2. The Holy Spirit speaks in the sacred Scriptures saying, "By

almsgiving and faith sins are purged" [Prov. 16:6]. Not, of course, those

sins which had been previously contracted, for these are purged by the

blood and sanctification of Christ. Moreover, He says again, "As water

extinguishes fire, so almsgiving quencheth sin" [Eccles. 3:30]. Here,

also, is shown and proved that as by the laver of the saving water the

fire of Gehenna is extinguished, so, also, by almsgiving and works of

righteousness the flame of sin is subdued. And because in baptism

remission of sins is granted once and for all, constant and ceaseless

labor, following the likeness of baptism, once again bestows the mercy of

God. The Lord also teaches this in the Gospel. The Merciful One teaches

and warns that works of mercy be performed; because He seeks to save those

who at great cost He has redeemed, it is proper that those who after the

grace of baptism have become foul can once more be cleansed.



Ch. 5. The remedies for propitiating God are given in the words of God

himself. The divine instructions have taught sinners what they ought to

do; that by works of righteousness God is satisfied, and with the merits

of mercy sins are cleansed. He [the angel Raphael, cf. Tobit. 12:8, 9]

shows that our prayers and fastings are of little avail unless they are

aided by almsgiving; that entreaties alone are of little force to obtain

what they seek, unless they be made sufficient by the addition of deeds

and good works. The angel reveals and manifests and certifies that our

petitions become efficacious by almsgiving, that life is redeemed from

dangers by almsgiving, that souls are delivered from death by almsgiving.