he applies them to adulterers and fornicators in particular, and 78 even extends them to those who contract a second marriage; branding 79 the orthodox, who recommended a milder course, with the name of yuxikoi, Animalesthat is, men possessing indeed the Anima which God breathed into Adam, thereby constituting him a living soul, but strangers to the influence of that Spirit by which the disciples of the Paraclete were inspired. We may take this opportunity of observing, that Tertullian's works contain no allusion to the practice of Auricular Confession. At the end of the chapter on the Government of the Church, Mosheim gives a short account of the ecclesiastical authors, who flourished during the century of which he is treating. The notices which the writings of Tertullian supply on this point are very few 78 Et ideo durissime nos, infamantes Paracletum disciplinæ enormitate, Digamos foris sistimus, eundem limitem liminis machis quoque et fornicatoribus figimus, jejunas pacis lachrymas profusuris, nec amplius ab Ecclésiâ quam publicationem dedecoris relaturis. De Pudicitiâ, c. 1. sub fine. 79 See Chap. I. note 46. The Tract de Pudicitiâ was directed against an edict, published by a bishop (probably of Rome) and allowing adulterers and fornicators to be readmitted to the communion of the Church upon repentance. R in number. 80 He alludes to the Shepherd of Hermas in a manner which shews that it was highly esteemed in the Church, and even deemed by some of authority; for he supposes that a practice, which appears to have prevailed in his day, of sitting down after the conclusion of the public prayers, owed its origin to a misinterpretation of a passage in that work. In his later writings, when he had adopted the rigid notions of Montanus respecting the perpetual exclusion of adulterers from the communion of the Church, 81 he speaks with great bitterness of the Shepherd of Hermas, as countenancing adultery; and states that it had been pronounced apocryphal by every synod of the orthodox Churches. 82 Yet the opinions expressed in the Treatise de Pœnitentiâ, written before Tertullian became a Montanist, appear to bear something more than an accidental resemblance to those contained in the Shepherd of Hermas. 80 De Oratione, c. 12. 81 Sed cederem tibi, si Scriptura Pastoris, quæ sola machos amat, divino instrumento meruisset incidi; si non ab omni Concilio Ecclesiarum etiam vestrarum inter Apocrypha et falsa judicaretur; adultera et ipsa et inde patrona sociorum. De Pudicitiâ, c. 10. Again, in c. 20. Illo Apocrypho Pastore machorum. 82 22 Compare de Pœnitentiâ, cc. 7, 8, 9. with the Shepherd of Hermas, Mand. iv. c. 3. We have seen that Tertullian mentions Clemens Romanus as having been placed in the see of Rome, by St. Peter; and Polycarp in that of Smyrna, by St. John. 84 In 8 speaking of the authors who had refuted the Valentinian heresy, he mentions Justin, 85 Miltiades, and Irenæus. To them he adds Proculus, supposed by some eminent critics to be the same as Proclus; who is stated 86 by the author of the brief Enumeration of Heretics, subjoined to Tertullian's Treatise de Præscriptione Hæreticorum, to have been the head of one of the two sects into which the Cataphrygians or Montanists were divided. He appears to have made a distinction between the Holy Ghost and the Paraclete; the former inspired the apostles; the latter spoke in Montanus, and revealed through him more numerous and more sublime truths than Christ had delivered in the Gospel. Proclus did not, however, like Æschines, the head of the other division of the Cataphrygians, confound the Father and the Son. 87 Eusebius, 83 De Præscriptione Hæreticorum, c. 32. quoted in p. 233. 84 Adversus Valentinianos, c. 5. 85 See Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. L. v. c. 17. and after him 88 Jerome and 89 Photius, mention a Proclus or Proculus, who was a leader of the sect of Cataphrygians, and held a disputation at Rome with Caius, a distinguished writer of that day. There is, therefore, no doubt, as 90 Lardner justly observes, that a 91 Montanist of the name of Proculus or Proclus lived about the end of the second cen-. tury; but whether he was the author mentioned by Tertullian has been doubted: the expression Proculus noster, which is applied to him, inclines me to think that he was. Tertullian speaks of Tatian as one of the heretics who enjoined abstinence from food; on the ground that the Creator of this world was a Being at variance with the Supreme God, and that it was consequently sinful to partake of any enjoyments which this world affords. 92 From the manner in which Tertullian speaks of the visions seen by the Martyr Perpetua, I infer that a written account of 88 Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum. Caius. 89 Bibliotheca, Cod. 48. 9 Credibility of Gospel History, c. 40. 91 De Jejuniis, c. 15. 92 De Animâ, c. 55. Quomodo Perpetua, fortissima Martyr, sub die passionis in revelatione Paradisi, solos illic commartyres suos vidit? |