# To the Martyrs - Author: [Tertullian](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/tertullian/) - Latin title: *Ad martyras* - Date: ca. 197 (approximate) - Source: Franz Oehler, ed., Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani quae supersunt omnia, vol. 1 (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1853), 3–16 (Latin text: Franz Oehler (Oehler 1), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text; each passage below gives the model and date - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/ - Passages: 6 ## To the Martyrs 1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/1/ - Source: Oehler 1:3–6 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Tertullian encourages Christians imprisoned and awaiting martyrdom to feed their spirits, not to grieve the Holy Spirit, and to keep peace among themselves so that the devil finds no foothold. ### Latin text Inter carnis alimenta, benedicti martyres designati, quae vobis et domina mater ecclesia de uberibus suis et singuli fratres de opibus suis propriis in carcerem subministrant, capite aliquid et a nobis, quod faciat ad spiritum quoque educandum. Carnem enim saginari et spiritum esurire non prodest. Immo si quod infirmum est curatur, aeque quod infirmius est neglegi non debet. Nec tantus ego sum, ut vos alloquar. Verumtamen et gladiatores perfectissimos non tantum magistri et praepositi sui, sed etiam idiotae et supervacue quique adhortantur de longinquo, ut saepe de ipso populo dictata suggesta profuerint. Inprimis ergo, benedicti, nolite contristare spiritum sanctum, qui vobiscum introiit carcerem. Si enim non vobiscum nunc introisset, nec vos illic hodie fuissetis. Et ideo date operam, ut illic vobiscum perseveret: ita vos inde perducat ad dominum. Domus quidem diaboli est et carcer, in qua familiam suam continet. Sed vos ideo in carcerem pervenistis, ut illum etiam in domo sua conculcetis. Iam enim foris congressi conculcaveratis. Non ergo dicat: In meo sunt, temptabo illos vilibus odiis, defectionibus aut inter se dissensionibus. Fugiat conspectum vestrum et in ima sua delitescat contractus et torpens, tamquam coluber excantatus aut effumigatus. Nec illi tam bene sit in suo regno, ut vos committat, sed inveniat munitos et concordia armatos, quia pax vestra bellum est illi. Quam pacem quidam in ecclesia non habentes a martyribus in carcere exorare consueverunt. Et ideo eam propterea in vobis habere et fovere et custodire debetis, ut, si forte, et aliis praestare possitis. ### English translation (Claude) Blessed martyrs-designate: among the nourishments for the flesh which both our lady mother the church from her breasts and the brothers individually from their own means supply to you in prison, take something from us as well, something that may serve to nourish the spirit too. For it does no good for the flesh to be fattened while the spirit goes hungry. Indeed, if what is weak is cared for, what is weaker ought not to be neglected either. Nor am I such a one as to address you. Yet even the most accomplished gladiators are urged on not only by their trainers and masters, but also from a distance by the untrained and by anyone at all who has no business there, so that shouts from the crowd itself have often done them good. First of all, then, blessed ones, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit,” who entered prison with you. For if he had not entered with you now, you would not be there today. And so take care that he remains with you there; so he will lead you out of there to the Lord. The prison, indeed, is the devil's house too, in which he keeps his household. But you have come into prison for this very purpose, to trample him even in his own house. For you had already trampled him when you engaged him outside. Let him not say, then, “They are in my domain; I will tempt them with petty hatreds, with defections or with quarrels among themselves.” Let him flee your sight and hide in his depths, shrunken and numb, like a snake charmed or smoked out. Let him not fare so well in his kingdom as to set you against one another, but let him find you fortified and armed with concord, because your peace is war to him. This peace some who do not have it in the church have been accustomed to beg from the martyrs in prison. And therefore you ought to have it, cherish it, and guard it in yourselves for this reason, so that you may perhaps be able to grant it to others as well. ### Scripture references - Eph 4:30: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The quotation is Eph 4:30. The “peace” begged from the martyrs refers to the practice by which lapsed or excommunicated Christians sought the intercession of confessors for readmission to the church's communion. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Mart. 1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/1/). ## To the Martyrs 2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/2/ - Source: Oehler 1:6–9 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The world is the real prison; for the Christian the prison is a retreat that frees the spirit from idolatry and temptation, as the desert did for the prophets. ### Latin text Cetera aeque animi impedimenta usque ad limen carceris deduxerint vos, quousque et parentes vestri. Exinde segregati estis ab ipso mundo, quanto magis a saeculo rebusque eius? Nec hoc vos consternet, quod segregati estis a mundo. Si enim recogitemus ipsum magis mundum carcerem esse, exisse vos e carcere quam in carcerem introisse intellegemus. Maiores tenebras habet mundus, quae hominum praecordia excaecant. Graviores catenas induit mundus, quae ipsas animas hominum constringunt. Peiores immunditias expirat mundus, libidines hominum. Plures postremo mundus reos continet, scilicet universum hominum genus. Iudicia denique non proconsulis, sed dei sustinet. Quo vos, benedicti, de carcere in custodiarium, si forte, translatos existimetis. Habet tenebras, sed lumen estis ipsi. Habet vincula, sed vos soluti deo estis. Triste illic expirat, sed vos odor estis suavitatis. Iudex expectatur, sed vos estis de iudicibus ipsis iudicaturi. Contristetur illi qui fructum saeculi suspirat. Christianus etiam extra carcerem saeculo renuntiavit, in carcere autem etiam carceri. Nihil interest, ubi sitis in saeculo, qui extra saeculum estis. Et si aliqua amisistis vitae gaudia, negotiatio est aliquid amittere, ut maiora lucreris. Nihil adhuc dico de praemio, ad quod deus martyres invitat. Ipsam interim conversationem saeculi et carceris comparemus, si non plus in carcere spiritus acquirit, quam caro amittit. Immo et quae iusta sunt caro non amittit per curam ecclesiae et agapen fratrum, et insuper quae semper utilia fidei, spiritus adipiscitur. Non vides alienos deos, non imaginibus eorum incurris, non sollemnes nationum dies ipsa commixtione participas, non nidoribus spurcis verberaris, non clamoribus spectaculorum, atrocitate vel furore vel impudicitia celebrantium caederis, non in loca libidinum publicarum oculi tui impingunt, vacas a scandalis, a temptationibus, a recordationibus malis, iam et a persecutione. Hoc praestat carcer Christiano, quod eremus prophetis. Ipse dominus in secessu frequentius agebat, ut liberius oraret, ut saeculo cederet: gloriam denique suam discipulis in solitudine demonstravit. Auferamus carceris nomen, secessum vocemus. Etsi corpus includitur, etsi caro detinetur, omnia spiritui patent. Vagare spiritu, spatiare spiritu et non stadia opaca aut porticus longas proponens tibi, sed illam viam, quae ad deum ducit. Quotiens eam spiritu deambulaveris, totiens in carcere non eris. Nihil crus sentit in nervo, cum animus in caelo est. Totum hominem animus circumfert et, quo velit, transfert. Ubi autem erit cor tuum, illic erit et thesaurus tuus. Ibi ergo sit cor nostrum, ubi volumus habere thesaurum. ### English translation (Claude) Other hindrances of the soul may likewise have escorted you as far as the prison threshold, as far as your relatives did too. From then on you were separated from the world itself; how much more from the age and its affairs? Nor let this dismay you, that you are separated from the world. For if we reflect that the world is rather the prison, we will understand that you have gone out of prison rather than into it. The world has greater darkness, which blinds people's hearts. The world puts on heavier chains, which bind people's very souls. The world breathes out worse filth: people's lusts. Finally, the world holds more accused: the whole human race. And it awaits judgment not from the proconsul but from God. So, blessed ones, consider yourselves transferred, if anything, from a prison to a place of safekeeping. It has darkness, but you yourselves are light. It has bonds, but you are free to God. It breathes out a foul smell, but you are a fragrance of sweetness. A judge is awaited, but you are going to judge the judges themselves. Let him be sad there who sighs for the fruit of the world. The Christian, even outside prison, has renounced the world, and in prison the prison as well. It makes no difference where you are in the world, you who are outside the world. And if you have lost some of life's joys, it is good business to lose something in order to gain greater things. I say nothing yet of the reward to which God invites the martyrs. Meanwhile let us compare the very way of life of the world and of the prison, and see whether the spirit does not gain more in prison than the flesh loses. Indeed, the flesh does not lose even what is due to it, through the care of the church and the love of the brothers, and the spirit besides obtains what is always useful to faith. You do not see foreign gods, you do not run into their images, you do not take part in the festival days of the heathen by the very mingling, you are not assailed by filthy fumes of sacrifice, you are not struck by the shouts of the shows, by the cruelty or frenzy or shamelessness of those celebrating them; your eyes do not stumble on the places of public lust; you are free from stumbling blocks, from temptations, from evil memories, and now even from persecution. The prison does for the Christian what the desert did for the prophets. The Lord himself very often went into seclusion, to pray more freely, to withdraw from the world; indeed, he showed his glory to his disciples in solitude. Let us take away the name of prison and call it a retreat. Though the body is shut in, though the flesh is detained, everything lies open to the spirit. Roam in spirit, walk about in spirit, setting before yourself not shady walks or long colonnades but that way which leads to God. As often as you walk it in spirit, so often you will not be in prison. The leg feels nothing in the stocks when the mind is in heaven. The mind carries the whole person about and transfers him wherever it wishes. “But where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” There, then, let our heart be, where we wish to have our treasure. ### Scripture references - Matt 6:21: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:2: allusion, medium confidence - 2 Cor 2:15: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 17:1: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The quotation is Matt 6:21 (cf. Luke 12:34), with heart and treasure in reverse order. “Judge the judges” alludes to 1 Cor 6:2–3; “fragrance of sweetness” to 2 Cor 2:15 and Eph 5:2; the glory shown in solitude to the transfiguration (Matt 17:1–2). ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Mart. 2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/2/). ## To the Martyrs 3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/3/ - Source: Oehler 1:9–11 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Like soldiers and athletes in training, the imprisoned martyrs are being prepared by hardship for a contest whose prize is an eternal crown. ### Latin text Sit nunc, benedicti, carcer etiam Christianis molestus. Vocati sumus ad militiam dei vivi iam tunc, cum in sacramenti verba respondemus. Nemo miles ad bellum cum deliciis venit nec de cubiculo ad aciem procedit, sed de papilionibus expeditis et substrictis, ubi omnis duritia et inbonitas et insuavitas constitit. Etiam in pace labore et incommodis bellum pati iam ediscunt in armis deambulando, campum decurrendo, fossam moliendo, testudinem destinando, desudando. Sudore omnia constant, ne corpora atque animi expavescant de umbra ad solem et sole ad gelum, de tunica ad loricam, de silentio ad clamorem, de quiete ad tumultum. Proinde vos, benedicti, quodcunque hoc durum est, ad exercitationem virtutum animi et corporis deputate. Bonum agonem subituri estis, in quo agonothetes deus vivus est, xystarches spiritus sanctus, corona aeternitatis brabium angelicae substantiae, politia in caelis, gloria in saecula saeculorum. Itaque epistates vester Christus Iesus, qui vos spiritu unxit et ad hoc scamma produxit, voluit vos ante diem agonis ad duriorem tractationem a liberiore condicione seponere, ut vires corroborarentur in vobis. Nempe enim et athletae segregantur ad strictiorem disciplinam, ut robori aedificando vacent. Continentur a luxuria, a cibis laetioribus, a potu iocundiore, coguntur, cruciantur, fatigantur: quanto plus in exercitationibus laboraverint, tanto plus de victoria sperant. Et illi, inquit apostolus, ut coronam corruptibilem consequantur. Nos aeternam consecuturi carcerem nobis pro palaestra interpretamur, ut ad stadium tribunalis bene exercitati incommodis omnibus producamur, quia virtus duritia extruitur, mollitia vero destruitur. ### English translation (Claude) Granted now, blessed ones, that prison is irksome even to Christians. We were called to the military service of the living God already at the moment when we answered in the words of the oath. No soldier comes to war with luxuries, nor goes from his bedroom to the battle line, but from light tents, pitched and girt up, where every hardship, discomfort, and unpleasantness is found. Even in peace they learn beforehand to endure war by toil and hardships: marching in arms, running over the field, digging the ditch, forming the tortoise, sweating hard. Everything is built on sweat, so that bodies and minds may not be dismayed at passing from shade to sun and from sun to frost, from tunic to breastplate, from silence to shouting, from quiet to tumult. So you, blessed ones, count whatever is hard here as training for the virtues of soul and body. You are about to undergo a noble contest, in which the president of the games is the living God, the master of the exercises the Holy Spirit, the crown of eternity, the prize of angelic nature, citizenship in heaven, glory for ever and ever. Therefore your trainer Christ Jesus, who has anointed you with the Spirit and led you out to this arena, has willed before the day of the contest to set you apart from a freer condition to harsher handling, so that your strength might be made firm in you. For athletes too are set apart for a stricter discipline, so that they may devote themselves to building up strength. They are kept from luxury, from richer foods, from pleasanter drink; they are driven, racked, worn out: the more they have toiled in training, the more they hope for victory. “And they,” says the apostle, “to obtain a perishable crown.” We, who are to obtain an eternal one, regard the prison as our wrestling school, so that we may be led out to the stadium of the judgment seat well trained in every hardship, because virtue is built up by hardness and destroyed by softness. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 9:25: quotation, high confidence - Phil 3:20: allusion, medium confidence - 2 Tim 2:3: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - “Oath” renders sacramentum in its military sense: the baptismal pledge is compared to a soldier's oath. The Greek athletic terms (agonothetes, xystarches, brabium, epistates, scamma) are kept in English equivalents. The quotation is 1 Cor 9:25; “citizenship in heaven” alludes to Phil 3:20. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Mart. 3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/3/). ## To the Martyrs 4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/4/ - Source: Oehler 1:11–13 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Since the weak flesh must serve the willing spirit, the martyrs should remember that pagans, men and women alike, endured death and torture for mere earthly glory. ### Latin text Scimus ex dominico praecepto, quod caro infirma sit, spiritus promptus. Non ergo nobis blandiamur, quia dominus consensit carnem infirmam esse. Propterea enim praedixit spiritum promptum, ut ostenderet, quid cui debeat esse subiectum, scilicet ut caro serviat spiritui, infirmior fortiori, ut ab eo etiam ipsa fortitudinem assumat. Colloquatur spiritus cum carne de communi salute, nec iam de incommodis carceris, sed ipso agone et proelio cogitans. Timebit forsitan caro gladium gravem et crucem excelsam et rabiem bestiarum et summam ignium poenam et omne carnificis ingenium in tormentis, sed spiritus contraponat sibi et carni acerba licet ista, a multis tamen aequo animo excepta, immo et ultro appetita, famae et gloriae causa nec a viris tantum, sed etiam a feminis, ut vos quoque, benedictae, sexui vestro respondeatis. Longum est, si enumerem singulos, qui se gladio confecerint animo suo ducti. De feminis ad manum est. Lucretia, quae vim stupri passa est, cultrum sibi adegit in conspectu propinquorum, ut gloriam castitati suae pareret. Mucius manum suam dexteram in ara cremavit, ut hoc factum eius fama haberet. Minus fecerunt philosophi Heraclitus, qui se bubulo stercore oblitum exussit, item Empedocles, qui in ignes Aetnaei montis desilivit, et Peregrinus, qui non olim se rogo immisit, cum feminae quoque contempserint ignes Dido, cum post virum dilectissimum nubere cogeretur, item Asdrubalis uxor, quae iam ardente Carthagine, ne maritum suum supplicem Scipionis videret, cum filiis suis in incendium patriae devolavit. Regulus, dux Romanorum, captus a Carthaginiensibus, cum se unum pro multis captivis Carthaginiensibus compensari noluisset, maluit hostibus reddi et in arcae genus stipatus undique extrinsecus clavis transfixus tot cruces sensit. Bestias femina libens appetiit, et utique horridiores aspides serpentes tauro vel urso, quas Cleopatra immisit sibi, ne in manus inimici perveniret. Sed mortis metus non tantus est, quantus tormentorum. Itaque cessit carnifici meretrix Atheniensis, quae conscia coniurationis cum propterea torqueretur a tyranno, et non prodidit coniuratos et novissime linguam suam commestam in faciem tyranni expuit, ut nihil agere in se sciret tormenta, etsi ultra perseverarent. Nam quod hodie apud Lacedaemonas sollemnitas maxima est διαμαστίγωσις, id est flagellatio, non latet. In quo sacro ante aram nobiles quique adulescentes flagellis affliguntur, astantibus parentibus et propinquis et, uti perseverent, adhortantibus. Ornamentum enim et gloria deputabitur maiore quidem titulo, si anima potius cesserit plagis, quam corpus. Igitur si tantum terrenae gloriae licet de corporis et animi vigore, ut gladium, ignem, crucem, bestias, tormenta contemnat sub praemio laudis humanae, possum dicere, modicae sunt istae passiones ad consecutionem gloriae caelestis et divinae mercedis. Tanti vitreum, quanti verum margaritum? Quis ergo non libentissime tantum pro vero habeat erogare, quantum alii pro falso? ### English translation (Claude) We know from the Lord's precept that the flesh is weak, the spirit willing. Let us not flatter ourselves, then, because the Lord granted that the flesh is weak. For he said first that the spirit is willing precisely to show which ought to be subject to which: namely, that the flesh should serve the spirit, the weaker the stronger, so that it may take strength from it. Let the spirit converse with the flesh about their common salvation, thinking no longer of the discomforts of prison but of the contest and battle itself. The flesh will perhaps fear the heavy sword, the lofty cross, the rage of beasts, the supreme penalty of fire, and every device of the executioner in torture. But let the spirit set before itself and the flesh that these things, harsh as they are, have nevertheless been accepted calmly by many, and even sought out willingly for the sake of fame and glory, and not by men only but also by women, so that you too, blessed women, may be worthy of your sex. It would take long to list one by one those who have put an end to themselves by the sword, led by their own spirit. Of women there are examples at hand. Lucretia, having suffered the violence of rape, drove a knife into herself in the sight of her relatives, to win glory for her chastity. Mucius burned his right hand on an altar so that fame might hold this deed of his. The philosophers did less: Heraclitus, who smeared himself with cow dung and burned himself up; likewise Empedocles, who leapt down into the fires of Mount Etna; and Peregrinus, who not long ago threw himself on a pyre; since women too have despised fire: Dido, when she was being forced to marry after a husband she dearly loved; likewise the wife of Hasdrubal, who, when Carthage was already burning, lest she see her husband a suppliant of Scipio, flung herself with her children into the fire of her homeland. Regulus, a Roman general, captured by the Carthaginians, refused to be exchanged alone for many Carthaginian captives, chose rather to be returned to the enemy, and, crammed into a kind of chest pierced from outside on every side with nails, felt as many crosses. A woman willingly sought out beasts, and snakes at that, more horrid than a bull or a bear: the asps which Cleopatra set upon herself so as not to fall into the hands of her enemy. But the fear of death is not as great as that of torture. Yet the Athenian courtesan yielded to the executioner: privy to a conspiracy, when she was tortured for it by the tyrant, she did not betray the conspirators, and at last bit off her tongue and spat it in the tyrant's face, so that he might know that tortures could achieve nothing against her even if they went on. And it is no secret that today among the Lacedaemonians the greatest festival is the diamastigosis, that is, the flogging. In this rite, before the altar, all the noble youths are beaten with whips while their parents and relatives stand by and urge them to hold out. For it will be counted an ornament and glory, and with a greater title, if the soul rather than the body has yielded to the blows. If, then, earthly glory is allowed so much from vigor of body and mind that it despises sword, fire, cross, beasts, and tortures for the reward of human praise, I can say that these sufferings are slight for obtaining heavenly glory and a divine reward. Is glass worth as much as a true pearl? Who, then, would not most gladly spend as much for the true as others spend for the false? ### Scripture references - Matt 26:41: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The quotation is Matt 26:41 (Mark 14:38). The examples come from Roman and Greek history and legend: Lucretia, Mucius Scaevola, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Peregrinus Proteus (d. 165), Dido, the wife of Hasdrubal (146 BC), Regulus, Cleopatra, and the Athenian courtesan Leaena. The digital text marks uncertain characters in διαμαστίγωσις, “tyranni”, and “humanae”, restored here. “Is glass worth as much as a true pearl?” recalls Matt 13:45–46 at most as an echo. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Mart. 4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/4/). ## To the Martyrs 5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/5/ - Source: Oehler 1:13–14 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Even people with no higher motive than a craving for display endure the sword, beasts, fire, and whips, which should shame Christians who shrink from suffering for the truth. ### Latin text Omitto nunc gloriae causam. Eadem omnia saevitiae et cruciatus certamina iam apud homines affectatio quoque et morbus quidam animi conculcavit. Quot otiosos affectatio armorum ad gladium locat? Certe ad feras ipsas affectatione descendunt, et de morsibus et de cicatricibus formosiores sibi videntur. Iam et ad ignes quidam se auctoraverunt, ut certum spatium in tunica ardente conficerent. Alii inter venatorum taureas scapulis patientissimis inambulaverunt. Haec, benedicti, non sine causa dominus in saeculum admisit, sed ad nos et nunc exhortandos et in illo die confundendos, si reformidaverimus pati pro veritate in salutem quae alii affectaverunt pro vanitate in perditionem. ### English translation (Claude) I leave aside now the motive of glory. All these same contests of cruelty and torment have been trampled down among people by mere craving and a kind of sickness of the mind. How many idle men does the craving for arms hire out to the sword? They certainly go down to the very beasts out of craving, and think themselves handsomer for the bites and scars. Some have even bound themselves over to the fire, to cover a set distance in a burning tunic. Others have walked up and down among the hunters' bull-hide whips with most patient shoulders. These things, blessed ones, the Lord has not permitted in the world without reason, but both to encourage us now and to put us to shame on that day, if we have shrunk from suffering for the truth unto salvation what others have craved for vanity unto perdition. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Mart. 5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/5/). ## To the Martyrs 6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/6/ - Source: Oehler 1:14 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ordinary life exposes people to fire, beasts, and violence, and many have recently died for the sake of a mere man; Christians should not hesitate to suffer for God. ### Latin text Sed haec exempla constantiae omittamus de affectatione venientis. Convertamur ad ipsam condicionis humanae contemplationem, ut et illa nos instruant, si qua constanter adeunda sint quae et invitis evenire consueverunt. Quotiens enim incendia vivos cremarunt? quotiens ferae et in silvis suis et in mediis civitatibus elapsae caveis homines devoraverunt? quot a latronibus ferro, ab hostibus etiam cruce extincti sunt, torti prius, immo et omni contumelia expuncti? Nemo non etiam hominis causa pati potest quod in causa dei pati dubitat. Ad hoc quidem vel praesentia nobis tempora documenta sint, quantae qualesque personae inopinatos natalibus et dignitatibus et corporibus et aetatibus suis exitus referunt hominis causa, aut ab ipso, si contra eum fecerint, aut ab adversariis eius, si pro eo steterint. ### English translation (Claude) But let us leave aside these examples of constancy that come from mere craving. Let us turn to the contemplation of the human condition itself, so that it too may instruct us whether things that commonly befall even the unwilling are to be faced with constancy. How often have fires burned people alive? How often have beasts, both in their forests and in the middle of cities, having escaped their cages, devoured people? How many have been killed by robbers with the sword, by enemies even with the cross, after first being tortured, indeed, finished off with every outrage? Anyone can suffer, even for the sake of a man, what he hesitates to suffer in the cause of God. Of this let even the present times be proof to us: how many persons, and of what rank, have met ends unexpected for their birth, their dignities, their bodies, and their ages, for the sake of a man: either at his hands, if they acted against him, or at the hands of his adversaries, if they stood by him. ### Translation notes - The “present times” probably refer to the executions after the civil wars of Septimius Severus (193–197), which suggests the work's date; this is an inference. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Mart. 6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-martyras/6/).