A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen.

So great blindness has fallen on the Roman race, that they call their enemy Lord, and preach the filcher of blessings as being their very giver, and to him they give thanks. They call those (deities), then, by human names, not by their own, for their own names they know not. That they are dæmons1 they understand: but they read histories of the old kings, and then, though they see that their character2 was mortal, they honour them with a deific name.

As for him whom they call Jupiter, and think to be the highest god, when he was born the years (that had elapsed) from the foundation of the world3 to him4 were some three thousand. He is born in Greece, from Saturnus and Ops; and, for fear he should be killed by his father (or else, if it is lawful to say so, should be begotten5 anew), is by the advice of his mother carried down into Crete, and reared in a cave of Ida; is concealed from his father’s search) by (the aid of) Cretans—born men!6—rattling their arms; sucks a she-goat’s dugs; flays her; clothes himself in her hide; and (thus) uses his own nurse’s hide, after killing her, to be sure, with his own hand! but he sewed thereon three golden tassels worth the price of an hundred oxen each, as their author Homer7 relates, if it is fair to believe it.  This Jupiter, in adult age, waged war several years with his father; overcame him; made a parricidal raid on his home; violated his virgin sisters;8 selected one of them in marriage; drave9 his father by dint of arms. The remaining scenes, moreover, of that act have been recorded. Of other folks’ wives, or else of violated virgins, he begat him sons; defiled freeborn boys; oppressed peoples lawlessly with despotic and kingly sway. The father, whom they erringly suppose to have been the original god, was ignorant that this (son of his) was lying concealed in Crete; the son, again, whom they believe the mightier god, knows not that the father whom himself had banished is lurking in Italy. If he was in heaven, when would he not see what was doing in Italy? For the Italian land is “not in a corner.”10 And yet, had he been a god, nothing ought to have escaped him. But that he whom the Italians call Saturnus did lurk there, is clearly evidenced on the face of it, from the fact that from his lurking11 the Hesperian12 tongue is to this day called Latin,13 as likewise their author Virgil relates.14 (Jupiter,) then, is said to have been born on earth, while (Saturnus his father) fears lest he be driven by him from his kingdom, and seeks to kill him as being his own rival, and knows not that he has been stealthily carried off, and is in hiding; and afterwards the son-god pursues his father, immortal seeks to slay immortal (is it credible?15), and is disappointed by an interval of sea, and is ignorant of (his quarry’s) flight; and while all this is going on between two gods on earth, heaven is deserted. No one dispensed the rains, no one thundered, no one governed all this mass of world.16 For they cannot even say that their action and wars took place in heaven; for all this was going on on Mount Olympus in Greece. Well, but heaven is not called Olympus, for heaven is heaven.

These, then, are the actions of theirs, which we will treat of first—nativity, lurking, ignorance, parricide, adulteries, obscenities—things committed not by a god, but by most impure and truculent human beings; beings who, had they been living in these days, would have lain under the impeachment of all laws—laws which are far more just and strict than their actions. “He drave his father by dint of arms.” The Falcidian and Sempronian law would bind the parricide in a sack with beasts. “He violated his sisters.” The Papinian law would punish the outrage with all penalties, limb by limb. “He invaded others’ wedlock.” The Julian law would visit its adulterous violator capitally. “He defiled freeborn boys.” The Cornelian law would condemn the crime of transgressing the sexual bond with novel severities, sacrilegiously guilty as it is of a novel union.17 This being is shown to have had no divinity either, for he was a human being; his father’s flight escaped him. To this human being, of such a character, to so wicked a king, so obscene and so cruel, God’s honour has been assigned by men. Now, to be sure, if on earth he were born and grew up through the advancing stages of life’s periods, and in it committed all these evils, and yet is no more in it, what is thought18 (of him) but that he is dead? Or else does foolish error think wings were born him in his old age, whence to fly heavenward? Why, even this may possibly find credit among men bereft of sense,19 if indeed they believe, (as they do,) that he turned into a swan, to beget the Castors;20 an eagle, to contaminate Ganymede; a bull, to violate Europa; gold, to violate Danaë; a horse, to beget Pirithoüs; a goat, to beget Egyppa21 from a she-goat; a Satyr, to embrace Antiope.  Beholding these adulteries, to which sinners are prone, they therefore easily believe that sanctions of misdeed and of every filthiness are borrowed from their feigned god. Do they perceive how void of amendment are the rest of his career’s acts which can find credit, which are indeed true, and which, they say, he did without self transformation? Of Semele, he begets Liber;22 of Latona, Apollo and Diana; of Maia, Mercury; of Alcmena, Hercules. But the rest of his corruptions, which they themselves confess, I am unwilling to record, lest turpitude, once buried, be again called to men’s ears. But of these few (offsprings of his) I have made mention; off-springs whom in their error they believe to be themselves, too, gods—born, to wit, of an incestuous father; adulterous births, supposititious births.  And the living,23 eternal God, of sempiternal divinity, prescient of futurity, immeasurable,24 they have dissipated (into nothing, by associating Him) with crimes so unspeakable.

EX LIBRIS TERTULLIANI DE EXECRANDIS GENTIUM DIIS FRAGMENTUM ERUTUM E BIBLIOTHECA VATICANA, A JOSEPHO MARIA SUARESIO AVENIONENSI.

1115B Tantum caecitatis invasit genus humanum, ut inimicum suum Dominum vocent, et ablatorem bonorum adeo datorem sibi esse praedicent, atque illi gratias agant; vocant ergo illos nominibus humanis, non propriis, nesciunt enim eorum nomina, quia sint daemones intelligunt; sed historias veterum regum legunt, quorum actum cum videant fuisse mortalem, deifico honorificant eos nomine. Jovem, quem 1115C vocant, quemque putant summum Deum, quando natus est, a constitutione mundi erant ad illud tempus anni ferme tria millia. Hic in Graecia nascitur de Saturno et Ope. Et ne a patre interficeretur, aut si fas est dicere, denuo pareretur, Cretam delatus, consilio matris in antro Idaeo nutritur, a Cretibus hominibus natis arma quatientibus occultatur, caprae ubera sugit, cujus excoriatae pelle amictus utitur, nutricis suae scilicet a se interfectae: sed tres cincinnos aureos ei assuit, centenum boum singulos pretium valentes, sicut meminit auctor eorum Homerus, credere si aequum est. Hic adulta aetate cum patre annis 1115D compluribus bellum gessit, superavit, parricidio domum invasit, sorores virgines stupravit, quarum unam in connubio elegit, patrem armis fugavit: caetera autem actus illius scripta sunt. Ex connubiis alienis, aut virginibus violatis, filios sibi adulteros generavit, pueros ingenuos attaminavit, tyrannico 1116B regalique imperio oppressit populos sine lege: hunc pater, quem initialem deum fuisse opinantur errantes, celari in insula Creta ignoravit; filius quoque, quem potentiorem deum credunt, fugatum a se patrem latere in Italia nescit: si erat in coelo, cur non videbat quid in Italia gereretur? Non enim in angulo est terra Italia. Quamquam si fuisset deus, latere eum nihil debebat: latuisse autem ibi, quem Itali 1116C Saturnum vocitaverunt, liquido adprobatum est, a cujus latitatione lingua hesperia latina nominata est usque in hodiernum: sicut etiam auctor eorum Virgilius meminit : ergo in terra generatus dicitur, dum et ne ab eo regno pellatur timet, et tamquam aemulum quaerit necare, et subreptum nescit latere, et postea deus filius patrem prosequitur, interficere quaerit immortalis immortalem (credi potest), et intervallo pelagi fallitur, et fugisse ignorat, et cum haec agerentur inter duos deos in terris, coelum desertum est. Nemo administrabat pluvias, nemo tonabat, nemo gubernabat tantam molem orbis. Nec enim possunt 1116D dicere actum illorum et bella in coelo esse facta: haec enim in monte Olympo fiebant, in Graecia: sed nec coelum Olympum vocatur, coelum enim coelum est. De quibus ergo actibus eorum primum tractabimus, de nativitate, de latitatione, de ignorantia, de parricidio, de adulteriis, de obscenis actibus, 1117A de rebus non a Deo, sed ab hominibus immundissimis, et truculentissimis commissis, qui si essent in his temporibus, omnibus legibus rei subjacerent, quae multo justiores, et severiores, quam actus illorum. Patrem armis pulsavit: lex Falcidia et Sempronia parricidam in culeo cum feris ligaret. Et sorores corrupit: lex Papinia omnibus poenis per singula membra probrum puniret. Connubia aliena invasit: lex Julia adulterum suum capite afficeret. Pueros ingenuos attaminavit: lex Cornelia transgressi foederis amissum novis exemplis novi coitus sacrilegum damnaret. Hic nec divinitatem habuisse ostenditur: erat enim homo: latuit eum fuga patris. Huic tali homini, tam nefando regi, tam obscoeno tamque crudeli, Dei assignatus est honos ab hominibus, qui utique cum sit in terra natus, et per incrementa 1117B aetatum adultus, in qua omnia haec mala admisit, et modo non sit in ea, quid putatus nisi mortuus, aut numquid putat stultus error pennas ei natas in senectute, unde ad coelum volaret? Sed possunt et haec credere orbati sensu homines, si tamen credunt 1118A eum cygnum factum esse, ut generaret Castores; et aquilam, ut contaminaret Ganymedem; et taurum, ut violaret Europam; aurum, ut violaret Danaen; et equum, ut generaret Pirithoum; hircum, ut generaret Egyppam de capra; satyrum, ut opprimeret Antiopam. Haec, qui adulteria spectant, ad quae proni sunt peccatores, ideo facile credunt, ut malefacti auctoritatis, et omnis spurcitiae de ficto deo mutuentur. Num caetera, quae credi possunt actus illius, quae et vera sunt, quaeque sine transfiguratione eum aiunt gessisse, quam sint inemendata, animadvertunt: ex Semele generat Liberum, ex Latona Appollinem et Dianam, ex Maia Mercurium, ex Alcmena Herculem. At caeteras ejus corruptelas, quas ipsi confitentur, nolo conscribere, ne rursus foeditas jam sepulta auribus renovetur: sed horum paucorum 1118B mentionem feci, quos deos et ipsos credunt errantes, scilicet de incesto patre generatos, adulterinos, supposititios, et Deum viventem, aeternum, sempiterni numinis , praescium futurorum, immensum, talibus cum nefandis criminibus diffuderunt.