To the Nations 1.5
Summary: Some who are called Christians are wicked, but Christians disown them, and the wickedness belongs to the individuals, not to the name.
Latin text · Oehler 1:313–314
Quod ergo dicitis: Pessimi et probrosissimi avaritia, luxuria, improbitate, non negabimus quosdam. Sufficit et hoc ad testimonium nominis nostri, si non omnes, si non plures. Necesse est in corpore, et quantum velis integro aut puro, uti naevus aliqui effruticet aut verrucula exsurgat aut lentigo sordescat. Caelum ipsum nulla serenitas tam colata purgat, ut non alicuius nubiculae flocculo resignetur. Modica macula in fronte, in parte quadam exemplari visa, a quo universitas munda est. Maior boni portio modico malo ad testimonium sui utitur. Cum tamen aliquos de nostris malos probatis, iam hoc ipso Christianos non probatis. Quaerite sectam cui malitiae deputatur. Ipsi in conloquio, si quando adversus nos, Cur ille, inquitis, fraudator, si abstinentes Christiani? cur immitis, si misericordes? Adeo testimonium redditis non esse tales Christianos, dum cur tales sint qui dicuntur Christiani retorquetis. Multum distantiae inter crimen et nomen, inter opinionem et veritatem. Nam et nomina sic sunt instituta, ut fines suos habeant inter dici et esse. Quot denique philosophi dicuntur nec tamen legem philosophiae adimplent? Omnes nomen de professionibus gestant, sed ducunt nomen sine professionis praestantia qui superficie vocabuli infamant veritatem. Non statim sunt quia dicuntur, sed quia non sunt, frustra dicuntur, et fallunt eos qui rem nomini addicunt, cum de re status nominis competat. Et tamen eiusmodi neque congregant neque participant nobiscum, facti per delicta denuo vestri, quando ne illis quidem misceamur quos vestra vis atque saevitia ad negandum subegit. Utique enim facilius inter nos inviti desertores disciplinae quam voluntarii continerentur. Ceterum sine causa vocatis Christianos quos ipsi negant Christiani, qui se negare non norunt.
English · Claude translation
As for what you say, “The worst and most disgraceful in avarice, luxury, and wickedness,” we will not deny that some are. It is enough for the testimony of our name if not all are, if not the greater number. In a body, however sound or clean you like, it must be that some mole sprouts, or a little wart rises, or a freckle discolors. The sky itself is never cleansed by any fair weather so clear that it is not marked by the tuft of some little cloud. A small spot on the forehead, seen on one part as a sample, shows that the whole is clean. The greater portion of good uses a small evil as testimony to itself. When, however, you prove some of ours to be wicked, by that very fact you prove that they are not Christians. Look for the sect to which the wickedness is charged. You yourselves, in conversation, when you speak against us, say: “Why is that man a cheat, if the Christians are self-restrained? Why is he cruel, if they are merciful?” So you bear witness that Christians are not such, when you throw back the question why those who are called Christians are such. There is a great difference between a crime and a name, between opinion and truth. For names too are so established that they have their own boundaries between being called and being. How many, after all, are called philosophers and yet do not fulfill the law of philosophy? All bear a name from their professions; but those bear the name without the excellence of the profession who defame the truth by the mere surface of the word. They are not what they are called merely because they are called so; rather, because they are not, they are called so in vain, and they deceive those who assign the thing to the name, when the standing of the name ought to follow from the thing. And yet such people neither assemble nor share with us, having become yours again through their offenses, since we do not mix even with those whom your force and savagery have compelled to deny. For surely the unwilling deserters of our discipline would more easily be kept among us than the willing ones. For the rest, you call Christians, without cause, those whom the Christians themselves disown, who do not know how to deny themselves.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The sentence about the spot on the forehead (Modica macula in fronte … a quo universitas munda est) is obscure; the rendering is approximate.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misread letter in the digital text; uncertain characters in the digital text; the sense requires causa): philesophi → philosophi; prefessionibus → professionibus; addicumt → addicunt; sine (??)usa → sine causa.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Nat. 1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/1/5/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Nat. 1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/1/5/).
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