Prescription against Heretics 32
Summary: Apostolic churches can show a succession of bishops going back to an apostle, as Smyrna from John and Rome from Peter; newer churches are apostolic by sharing the same doctrine, but heresies pass neither test.
Latin text · Oehler 2:29–31
Ceterum si quae audent interserere se aetati apostolicae, ut ideo videantur ab apostolis traditae quia sub apostolis fuerunt, possumus dicere: Edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum, evolvant ordinem episcoporum suorum, ita per successionem ab initio decurrentem, ut primus ille episcopus aliquem ex apostolis vel apostolicis viris, qui tamen cum apostolis perseveravit, habuerit auctorem et antecessorem. Hoc enim modo ecclesiae apostolicae census suos deferunt, sicut Smyrnaeorum ecclesia Polycarpum ab Ioanne collocatum refert, sicut Romanorum Clementem a Petro ordinatum itidem. Perinde utique et ceterae exhibent quos ab apostolis in episcopatum constitutos apostolici seminis traduces habeant. Confingant tale aliquid haeretici. Quid enim illis post blasphemiam inlicitum est? Sed etsi confinxerint, nihil promovebunt. Ipsa enim doctrina eorum cum apostolica comparata ex diversitate et contrarietate sua pronuntiabit neque apostoli alicuius auctoris esse neque apostolici, quia sicut apostoli non diversa inter se docuissent, ita et apostolici non contraria apostolis edidissent. Nisi illi qui ab apostolis didicerunt aliter praedicaverunt. Ad hanc itaque formam probabuntur ab illis ecclesiis, quae licet nullum ex apostolis vel apostolicis auctorem suum proferant, ut multo posteriores, quae denique cottidie instituuntur, tamen in eadem fide conspirantes non minus apostolicae deputantur pro consanguinitate doctrinae. Ita omnes haereses ad utramque formam a nostris ecclesiis provocatae probent se quaqua putant apostolicas. Sed adeo nec sunt nec probare possunt quod non sunt, nec recipiuntur in pacem et communicationem ab ecclesiis quoquo modo apostolicis, scilicet ob diversitatem sacramenti nullo modo apostolicae.
English · Claude translation
Further, if any heresies dare to plant themselves in the apostolic age, so that they may seem to have been handed down by the apostles because they existed under the apostles, we can say: let them produce the origins of their churches; let them unroll the list of their bishops, running down in succession from the beginning in such a way that their first bishop had as his founder and predecessor one of the apostles or of the apostolic men who nevertheless continued with the apostles. For this is how the apostolic churches present their records: as the church of the Smyrnaeans reports that Polycarp was placed there by John, as the church of the Romans reports that Clement was likewise ordained by Peter. In just the same way the other churches, too, show those whom they have as shoots of the apostolic seed, appointed to the episcopate by the apostles. Let the heretics invent something of the kind. For after blasphemy, what is forbidden to them? But even if they invent it, they will gain nothing. For their doctrine itself, compared with the apostolic, will declare by its difference and contrariety that it has no apostle or apostolic man as its author; because as the apostles would not have taught things differing among themselves, so the apostolic men would not have put forth things contrary to the apostles, unless those who learned from the apostles preached otherwise. To this test, then, they will be summoned by those churches which, though they cannot produce any apostle or apostolic man as their founder, being much later (indeed they are being founded every day), yet, agreeing in the same faith, are reckoned no less apostolic because of the kinship of their doctrine. So let all the heresies, challenged by our churches to both tests, prove themselves apostolic in whatever way they think. But in fact they neither are, nor can they prove what they are not; nor are they received into peace and communion by churches that are in any way apostolic, clearly because, owing to the difference of their sacrament, they are in no way apostolic.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Sacramentum here means the pledge or content of the faith.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Praescr. 32 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/32/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 32 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/32/).
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