Tertullian Quotes
This is the reason, then, why Christians are counted public enemies: that they pay no vain, nor false, nor foolish honors to the emperor
Tertullian, 150-~222, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Carthaginian Christian Philosopher, Explanation of the Discrimination against Christians, Apologeticum
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This vision, known as "The Third Rome" saw not only Moscow as the seat of Christianity for the world, but saw the Czar as the Head of the Christian unified Church. Constantinople had fallen to the Muslims and Rome to the Barbarians and the Pope had virtually no power at the time. Particularly interesting is his vision of transforming a civil Emperor to the head of the Church—one who was strong and wealthy enough to end the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches and command all. In this sense, he was following the Muslim concept of a single secular and religious, all powerful, leader—like the Caliph.
The church was in constant roil with the Bishops, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor each striving for superiority over the other two, almost like branches of government fighting for power. This was the bishops attempt to “impeach” the Holy Roman Emperor. (See {610981} ). The Emperor then wrote to all the kings of Christian Europe pointing out that if the Bishops could unseat the Holy Roman Empire by excommunicating any loyal subjects, then they could do so against any king.
Note the opposition to freedom of speech for contrary theological views. This has been typical of most religions whenever they could exercise or influence state power.
These kinds of inflammatory sermons are delivered with the approval of the king and royal family who crack down on any cleric who preaches what they do not approve of.
5th Earl of Montrose. The public reaction to a new prayer book issued by the King and created by the King’s religious appointees. Although Protestant in nature, it was created without the early Scottish Protestant tradition of consultation with many levels of clergy and society. It was seen as authoritarian and much like the Catholic mass which was proscribed by Rome. The National Covenant was a document of protest. It was first drafted by Alexander Henderson and Johnston of Wariston, and signed by others, but Montrose was the first signer and the acknowledged leader of the Covenanters.
The church was in constant roil with the Bishops, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor each striving for superiority over the other two, almost like branches of government fighting for power. This was the bishops attempt to “impeach” the Holy Roman Emperor who was never charged or given an opportunity to face or refute the charges. He was not even present at the Council. See {611260} for his reply.
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York
The King, a religious fanatic, was a great supporter of the Inquisition whose excesses were even more horrible during his reign than others.
Not unlike George W. Bush and his administration 1800 years later, Licinius just could not accept that the Christians who attacked Roman Rule, resented the Roman Rule or didn’t care for the Roman policies, and assumed that the attacks were motivated by a desire for atheism and a desire to insult the Roman Gods. Today we think it odd, that Christians were referred to as “atheists” and God was “some strange and unheard-of Deity”. In the War on Terror, some politicians in addition to Bush took the position that it was American Religion and value systems were under attack. “Atheist” in its original form meant “without God.” To the Roman who worshipped a bevy of Gods, Christians and Jews, who only worshipped a single God, were “without Gods”—atheists.
Religious and ethnic political conflict had broken out in Fiji. Some in the Christian majority strove to make Fiji officially a “Christian country” and marginalize the Indian Hindu minority. The archbishop opposed and thwarted them.
The Church no longer believes this of course. Having learned from this unfortunate experience and Galileo’s persecution, today the Roman Catholic Church is one of the more advanced religious institutions in accepting modern science.
He was stating for France what the English King James I had said a few decades earlier. See {616307}.
What the historian did not know was how similarly the Protestants would behave against the Catholics when they had the power. Since the Catholics were the established church, and the Protestants the new “heretics” the Protestants were on the receiving end of most of the atrocities at the beginning. However, as if they had been scholled by their horrible experiences, they repeated them just exchanging the perpetrators and the victims.
Reflection on the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1850
This notice of Excommunication was promulgated to the Catholic clergy in Ireland in May of 1538. It required all Roman Catholic leaders to size the property of Protestants or Catholics who sympathized with them. Those who did were then regarded as traitors by the Protestant King. The anti-Protestant feeling culminated with the massacre of about 100 Protestants who were drowned in Bann a few years later.
At the time of the writing she was an ex-queen. See {618099} for Frederick’s own view of the Greeks. The Crusades were going badly for the Christians at this point. The Greek Emperor had, after promising to be a part of the Christian alliance, made a separate treaty with Saladin and the Muslims, making him an outcast and sewing the seeds of the schism between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches. In a year, the Western Christians would sack Constantinople, and murder and plunder their fellow Eastern Christians. The two previous Greek Emperors were suspect from the Western point of view, but the treaty with Saladin “proved” what had been suspected about the Greeks who were now allied with the hated Muslims.
The implication of a double moral standard for adherents of the faith and for others has been characteristics of many religions.
This quotation illustrates how the power and mechanism of an established church operated to control ideas and maintain theological monopoly. In this case, no one could sell or rent any facility in the city to a cleric or church of any kind or persuasion without first having the approval of the Bishop who had theological control of that territory. Even Catholic scholars could not rent a room in the city unless their scholarship met with the Bishop’s approval. This was history with which the American Founding were very familiar, and wanted to avoid by adopting the 1st Amendment.
Lopez and Elizer were Jews who had escaped the persecution in Portugal to come to America. They and other non-Christians could live and work in Rhode Island but could not vote or hold public office by a previous decision of the Rhode Island Assembly. See {619707}.The Jews had petitioned for their civil rights.
Tertullian (/tərˈtʌliən/; Latin: Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; c. 155 – c. AD 220) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. Of Berber origin, he was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He was an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism. Tertullian has been called "the father of Latin Christianity" and "the founder of Western theology."
