Disciplinary, Moral, and Ascetical Works

Introduction

INTRODUCTION UN AN EARLIER WORK) The Chaplet (1.5), Tertullian had touched upon a question which, in those uncertain times, was a matter of grave concern for every fervent Christian: Is the Christian allowed to take refuge in flight under the crucial test of persecution? The promise Tertullian had given on that occasion, namely, to give a detailed answer to this vexing question, he made good by writing a special treatise, Flight in Time of Persecution. The Church never did impose on its members the absolute duty of exposing themselves to martyrdom by boldly waiting for arrest, torture, and death. The Martyrdom of Polycarp (Ch. 4), written in 156, contains the explicit statement: 'We do not commend those who give themselves up, since the Gospel does not teach this.' St. Polycarp himself, yielding to the entreaties of friends, quietly left his episcopal city of Smyrna and withdrew to a farm in the neighborhood. Nor did other Christian leaders of unquestionable courage, as, for instance, St. Cyprian, hesitate to retire to a safe place of hiding, when giving themselves up to their persecutors would only have meant uselessly courting death and probably 271 272 TERTULLIAN causing greater damage to the Christian community as a whole. In his Catholic days, Tertullian had found no fault with this attitude. 'In time of persecution,' he wrote in Ad uxorem (1.3.4), 'it is better to use the permission granted and "to flee from town to town," than to be apprehended and to deny the faith under torture.' A similar view is implied in his De patientia (13.6). As a Montanist, however, Tertullian felt himself compelled to change his opinion in the matter. Did the 'Paraclete' who spoke through the mouth of his Phrygian prophet, Montanus, not make it unmistakably clear that, in persecution, a Christian should never be a coward and seek safety in flight, but be anxious to die a martyr's death (see below, Ch. 9.4)? Hence, consulted by a Catholic Christian, whose name was Fabius, as to whether it was permitted to elude persecution either by going into hiding or by buying off the persecutors, Tertullian categorically condemns both means of escaping danger as equivalent to formal apostasy. Persecution, he argues, is willed by God, the Devil being only the instrument of persecution, not its author. As coming from God, persecution is something intrinsically good. It tests the faith of Christians, separating the chaff from the wheat, and increases religious zeal anI fervor. For those who object to these conclusions by referring to Matt. 23.10, 'When they begin to persecute you, flee from city to city' (see below, Ch. 6.1), Tertullian has a ready answer. The Lora's command, he replies, was only intended for the persons of the Apostles, their times, and the peculiar circumstances of their mission, but does not apply to the present. As to buying one's freedom from persecution by bribing informers, soldiers and judges, such a practice is 'flight' in disguised form, unworthy of God, because it tries to redeem with FLIGHT IN TIME OF PERSECUTION 273 money a man whom Christ has redeemed with his Blood. That the treatise belongs to Tertullian's Montanist period is evident from such passages as Ch. 1.1, where the author regrets that the addressee, Fabius, obviously a Catholic Christian, has not yet accepted the 'Paraclete' of the Montanists ; Ch. 9.4, where he bolsters his argumentation by quoting two utterances of the 'Paraclete'; Ch. 11.2, where he states that anyone who harkens to the 'Paraclete' 'will hear Him branding the runaways'; Ch. 14.3, where he insists on the necessity of further revelation by the 'Paraclete.' The treatise is usually assigned to the year 212. The text followed in the present translation is that of J. J. Thierry in Corpus ChristianorumJ Series Latina 2 (Turnholti 1954) 1133-1155. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Texts: J. J. Thierry, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 2 (Turnholti 1954) 1133·1155. J. J. Thierry, Tertullianus. De fuga in persectuione, ed. with [Dutch] introduction, translation, and commentary (Hilversum 1941). J. Marra, Q. Septimii Tertulliani De spectaculis, De fuga in persecu· tione, De pallio (Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum; Turin 1954). Secondary Sources: E. Jolyon, La Fuite de la persecution. Ce qu'en a pense Tertullien et ce qu'en pense I'Eglise (Lyon 1903). H. Leclercq, 'Fuite de Ia persecution: DACL 5.2 (1923) 2660·2684. A. QuacquareIIi, 'La...