Chapter I.

Very lately it happened thus: while the bounty of our most excellent emperors1    “Emperors.” The Emperor Severus associated his two sons with him in the possession of the imperial power; Caracalla in the year 198, Geta in 208.—Tr. was dispensed in the camp, the soldiers, laurel-crowned, were approaching. One of them, more a soldier of God, more stedfast than the rest of his brethren, who had imagined that they could serve two masters, his head alone uncovered, the useless crown in his hand—already even by that peculiarity known to every one as a Christian—was nobly conspicuous. Accordingly, all began to mark him out, jeering him at a distance, gnashing on him near at hand. The murmur is wafted to the tribune, when the person had just left the ranks. The tribune at once puts the question to him, Why are you so different in your attire? He declared that he had no liberty to wear the crown with the rest.  Being urgently asked for his reasons, he answered, I am a Christian. O soldier! boasting thyself in God. Then the case was considered and voted on; the matter was remitted to a higher tribunal; the offender was conducted to the prefects. At once he put away the heavy cloak, his disburdening commenced; he loosed from his foot the military shoe, beginning to stand upon holy ground;2    [A touch of our author’s genius, inspired by the Phrygian enthusiasm for martyrdom. The ground on which a martyr treads begins to be holy, even before the sacrifice, and in loosing his shoe the victim consecrates the spot and at the same time pays it homage.] he gave up the sword, which was not necessary either for the protection of our Lord; from his hand likewise dropped the laurel crown; and now, purple-clad with the hope of his own blood, shod with the preparation of the gospel, girt with the sharper word of God, completely equipped in the apostles’ armour, and crowned more worthily with the white crown of martyrdom, he awaits in prison the largess of Christ. Thereafter adverse judgments began to be passed upon his conduct—whether on the part of Christians I do not know, for those of the heathen are not different—as if he were headstrong and rash, and too eager to die, because, in being taken to task about a mere matter of dress, he brought trouble on the bearers of the Name,3    [The name of Christ: and the Antiochian name of Christians.]—he, forsooth, alone brave among so many soldier-brethren, he alone a Christian. It is plain that as they have rejected the prophecies of the Holy Spirit,4    [Gibbon will have it that the De Corona was written while Tertullian was orthodox, but this reference to the Montanist notion of “New Prophecy” seems to justify the decision of critics against Gibbon, who, as Kaye suggests (p. 53) was anxious to make Christianity itself responsible for military insubordination and for offences against Imperial Law.] they are also purposing the refusal of martyrdom. So they murmur that a peace so good and long is endangered for them. Nor do I doubt that some are already turning their back on the Scriptures, are making ready their luggage, are equipped for flight from city to city; for that is all of the gospel they care to remember. I know, too, their pastors are lions in peace, deer in the fight. As to the questions asked for extorting confessions from us, we shall teach elsewhere.  Now, as they put forth also the objection—But where are we forbidden to be crowned?—I shall take this point up, as more suitable to be treated of here, being the essence, in fact, of the present contention. So that, on the one hand, the inquirers who are ignorant, but anxious, may be instructed; and on the other, those may be refuted who try to vindicate the sin, especially the laurel-crowned Christians themselves, to whom it is merely a question of debate, as if it might be regarded as either no trespass at all, or at least a doubtful one, because it may be made the subject of investigation.  That it is neither sinless nor doubtful, I shall now, however, show.

1. Proxime factum est. Liberalitas praestantissimoram imperatorum expungebatur in castris, milites laureati adibant. Adhibetur quidam illic magis Dei miles, ceteris constantior fratribus qui se duobus dominis seruire posse praesumpserant. Solus libero capite, coronamento in manu otioso, uulgato iam et ista disciplina christiano, relucebat. Denique singuli designare et ludere eminus, infrendere comminus. Continuo murmur; tribuno defertur et persona : iam ex ordine decesserat. Statim tribunus : « Cur, inquit, tam diuersus habitus ? » Negauit ille sibi cum ceteris licere. Causas expostulatus, « christianus sum » respondit. O militem gloriosum in Deo ! Suffragia exinde, et res ampliata et reus ad praefectos. Ibidem grauissimas paenulas posuit, releuari auspicatus, speculatoriam morosissimam de pedibus absoluit, terrae sanctae insistere incipiens, gladium nec dominicae defensioni necessarium reddidit, laurea et de manu claruit. Et nunc, rufatus sanguinis sui spe, calciatus de euangelii paratura, succinctus acutiore uerbo dei, totus de apostolo armatus et de martyrii candida melius coronatus, donatiuum Christi in carcere expectat. Exinde sententiae super illo, -- nescio an christianorum : non enim aliae ethnicorum --, ut de abrupto et praecipiti et mori cupido, qui de habitu interrogatus nomini negotium fecerit, solus scilicet fortis inter tot fratres commilitones, solus christianus. Plane superest ut etiam martyria recusare meditentur, qui prophetias eiusdem spiritus sancti respuerunt. Mussitant denique tam bonam et longam pacem periclitari sibi. Nec dubito quosdam scripturas emigrare, sarcinas expedire, fugae accingi de ciuitate in ciuitatem. Nullam enim aliam euangelii memoriam curant. Noui et pastores eorum: in pace leones et in proelio ceruos. Sed de quaestionibus confessionum alibi docebimus. At nunc, quatinus et illud opponunt : « Vbi autem prohibemur coronari ? », hanc magis localem substantiam causae praesentis aggrediar, ut et qui ex sollicitudine ignorantiae quaerunt instruantur, et qui in defensionem delicti contendunt, reuincantur, ipsi uel maxime christiani laureati, quibus id solum quaestio est, quasi aut nullum aut incertum saltem habere possit delictum quod patiatur quaestionem. Nec nullum autem nec incertum hinc interim ostendam.