27 [Observe-"daily raised." On this precarious condition of the Christians, in their daily life, see the calm statement of Kaye, pp. 110, 111.
29 Phil. i. 23.
30 [See cap. 26, supra. On this claim to such powers still remaining in the church. See Kaye, p. 89.]
31 [Kaye, p. 20. He doubtless looked for a speedy appearance of the Lord : and note the apparent expectation of a New Jerusalem, on earth, before the Consummation and Judgment.]
32 [This New Jerusalem gives Bp. Kaye (p. 55) "decisive proof" of Montanism, especially as compared with the Third Book against Marcion. I cannot see it, here.]
33 Viz., the theatre and amphitheatre. [This concluding chapter, which Gibbon delights to censure, because its fervid rhetoric so fearfully depicts the punishments of Christ's enemies, "appears to Dr. Neander to contain a beautiful specimen of lively faith and Christian confidence." See Kaye, p. xxix.]
1 [Kaye, apparently accepting the judgment of Dr. Neander, assigns this treatise to A.D. 204. The bounty here spoken of, then, must be that dispensed in honour of the victories over the Parthians, under Severus.]
2 "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.
3 [A touch of our author's genius, inspired by the Phrygian enthusiam for martydom. 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.]
4 [The name of Christ: and the Antiochian name of Christians.]
5 [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.]
6 [Kaye (p. 231) notes this as a rare instance of classing Catechumens among "the Faithful."]
7 [This is said not absolutely but in contrast with extreme license; but it shows the Supremacy of Scripture. Compare De Monogam, cap. 4.]
8 [Elucidation I., and see Bunsen's Church and House Book, pp. 19-24.]
9 [There is here an allusion to the Roman form of recognizing a lawful child. The father, taking up the new-born infant, gave him adoption into the family, and recognised him as a legitimate son and heir.]
10 [Men and women, rich and poor.]
12 Vulgate, Dan. xiii. 32. [See Apocrypha, Hist. of Susanna, v. 32.]
13 [Observe it must (1.) be based on Apostolic grounds; (2.) must not be a novelty, but derived from a time "to which the memory of men runneth not contrary."]
14 [I slightly amend the translation to bring out the force of an objection to which our author gives a Montanistic reply.]
17 [See luminous remarks in Kaye, pp. 371-363.]
18 [This teacher, i.e., right reason, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. He is here foisting in a plea for the "New Prophecy," apparently, and this is one of the most decided instances in the treatise.]
19 Kaye [p. 187,] has some valuable remarks on this testimony to the sense in Christian Philosophy, and compares Cicero, I. Tusc. Cap. xx. or xlvi.]
21 Rom. ii. 14.
22 Rom. i. 26.
23 [Plays were regarded as pomps renounced in Baptism.]
26 2 Tim. iv. 13. [This is a useful comment as showing what this failo/nh was. Our author translates it by paenula. Of which more when we reach the De Pallio.]
28 [But see Eusebius, Hist. E. v., cap. 24, whose story is examined by Lardner, Cred., vol. iv., p. 448.]
29 Isa. v. 12.
30 [Compare De Idololatria, cap. xv., p. 70, supra.]
32 Tit. 1. 15.
33 [He seems to know no use for incense except for burials and for fumigation.]
35 [Kaye (p. 362) defends our author against Barbeyrac's animadversions, by the maxim. "put yourself in his place" i.e. among the abominations of Paganism.]
38 [He plays on this word Sacramentum. Is the military sacrament to be added to the Lord's?]
40 [Vexillum. Such words as these prepared for the Labarum.]
41 "Outside of the military service." By substituting ex militia for the corresponding words extra militiam, as has been proposed by Rigaltius, the sentence acquires a meaning such that desertion from the army is suggested as one of the methods by which a soldier who has become a Christian may continue faithful to Jesus. But the words extra militiam are a genuine part of the text. There is no good ground, therefore, for the statement of Gibbon: "Tertullian (de Corona Militis, c. xi.) suggests to them the expedient of deserting; a counsel which, if it had been generally known, was not very proper to conciliate the favour of the emperors toward the Christian sect."-Tr.
42 "the faithful," etc.; i.e., the kind of occupation which any one has cannot be pleaded by him as a reason for not doing all that Christ has enjoined upon His people.-Tr.
43 [He was not yet quite a Montanist.]