# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Tertullian: Part Fourth/Appendix/Five Books in Reply to Marcion/Chapter 3

Book III.—Of the Harmony of the Fathers of the Old and New Testaments.
Now hath the mother, formerly surnamed
Barren, giv’n birth: now a new people, born
From the free woman, joys: (the slave expelled,
Deservedly, with her proud progeny;
5 Who also leaves ungratefully behind
The waters of the living fount, and drinks—
Errant on heated plains—’neath glowing star:)
Now can the Gentiles as their parent claim
Abraham; who, the Lord’s voice following,
10 Like him, have all things left, life’s pilgrimage
To enter. “Be glad, barren one;” conceive
The promised people; “break thou out, and cry,”
Who with no progeny wert blest; of whom
Spake, through the seers, the Spirit of old time:
15 She hath borne, out of many nations, one;
With whose beginning are her pious limbs
Ever in labour.
Hers “just Abel” was,
A pastor and a cattle—master he;
Whom violence of brother’s right hand slew
20 Of old. Her Enoch, signal ornament,
Limb from her body sprung, by counsel strove
To recall peoples gone astray from God
And following misdeed, (while raves on earth
The horde of robber-renegades,) to flee
25 The giants’sacrilegious cruel race;
Faithful in all himself. With groaning deep
Did he please God, and by deserved toil
Translated is reserved as a pledge,
With honour high. Perfect in praise, and found
30 Faultless, and just—God witnessing the fact—
In an adulterous people, Noah (he
Who in twice fifty years the ark did weave)
By deeds and voice the coming ruin told.
Favour he won, snatched out of so great waves
35 Of death, and, with his progeny, preserved.
Then, in the generation following,
Is Abraham, whose sons ye do deny
Yourselves to be; who first—race, country, sire,
All left behind—at suasion of God’s voice
40 Withdrew to realms extern: such honours he
At God’s sublime hand worthily deserved
As to be father to believing tribes
And peoples. Jacob with the patriarchs
(Himself their patriarch) through all his own
45 Life’s space the gladdest times of Christ foresang
By words, act, virtue, toil.
Him follows—free
From foul youth’s stain—Joseph, by slander feigned,
Doomed to hard penalty and gaol: his groans
Glory succeeds, and the realm’s second crown, so
50 And in dearth’s time large power of furnishing
Bread: so appropriate a type of Christ,
So lightsome type of Light, is manifest
To all whose mind hath eyes, that they may see
In a face-mirror their sure hope.
Himself
55 The patriarch Judah, see; the origin
Of royal line, whence leaders rose, nor kings
Failed ever from his seed, until the Power
To come, by Gentiles looked for, promised long,
Came.
Moses, leader of the People, (he
60 Who, spurning briefly—blooming riches, left
The royal thresholds,) rather chose to bear
His people’s toils, afflicted, with bowed neck,
By no threats daunted, than to gain himself
Enjoyments, and of many penalties
65 Remission: admirable for such faith
And love, he, with God’s virtue armed, achieved
Great exploits: smote the nation through with plagues;
And left their land behind, and their hard king
Confounds, and leads the People back; trod waves;
70 Sunk the foes down in waters; through a “tree”
Made ever-bitter waters sweet; spake much
(Manifestly to the People) with the Christ,
From whose face light and brilliance in his own
Reflected shone; dashed on the ground the law
75 Accepted through some few,—implicit type,
And sure, of his own toils!—smote through the rock;
And, being bidden, shed forth streams; and stretched
His hands that, by a sign, he vanquish might
The foe; of Christ all severally, all
80 Combined through Christ, do speak. Great and approved,
He rests with praise and peace.
But Joshua,
The son of Nun, erst called Oshea—this man
The Holy Spirit to Himself did join
As partner in His name: hence did he cleave
85 The flood; constrained the People to pass o’er;
Freely distributed the land—the prize
Promised the fathers!—stayed both sun and moon
While vanquishing the foe; races extern
And giants’ progeny outdrave; razed groves;
90 Altars and temples levelled; and with mind
Loyal performed all due solemnities:
Type of Christ’s name; his virtue’s image.
What
Touching the People’s Judges shall I say
Singly? whose virtues, if unitedly
95 Recorded, fill whole volumes numerous
With space of words. But yet the order due
Of filling out the body of my words,
Demands that, out of many, I should tell
The life of few.
Of whom when Gideon, guide
100 Of martial band, keen to attack the foe,
(Not keen to gain for his own family,
By virtue, tutelary dignity,)
And needing to be strengthened in the faith
Excited in his mind, seeks for a sign
105 Whereby he either could not, or could, wage
Victorious war; to wit, that with the dew
A fleece, exposèd for the night, should be
Moistened, and all the ground lie dry around
(By this to show that, with the world, should dry
110 The enemies’ palm); and then again, the fleece
Alone remaining dry, the earth by night
Should with the self-same moisture be bedewed:
For by this sign he prostrated the heaps
Of bandits; with Christ’s People ’countering them
115 Without much soldiery, with cavalry
Three hundred—the Greek letter Tau, in truth,
That number is—with torches armed, and horns
Of blowers with the mouth: then was the fleece,
The people of Christ’s sheep, from holy seed
120 Born (for the earth means nations various,
And scattered through the orb), which fleece the word
Nourishes; night death’s image; Tau the sign
Of the dear cross; the horn the heraldings
Of life; the torches shining in their stand
125 The glowing Spirit: and this testing, too,
Forsooth, an image of Christ’s virtue was:
To teach that death’s fierce battles should not be
By trump angelic vanquished before
Th’ indocile People be deservedly
130 By their own fault left desolate behind,
And Gentiles, flourishing in faith, received
In praise.
Yea, Deborah, a woman far
Above all fame, appears; who, having braced
Herself for warlike toil, for country’s sake,
135 Beneath the palm-tree sang how victory
Had crowned her People; thanks to whom it was
That the foes, vanquisht, turned at once their backs,
And Sisera their leader fled; whose flight
No man, nor any band, arrested: him,
140 Suddenly renegade, a woman’s hand—
Jael’s—with wooden weapon vanquished quite,
For token of Christ’s victory.
With firm faith
Jephthah appears, who a deep-wounding vow
Dared make—to promise God a grand reward
145 Of war: him then, because he senselessly
Had promised what the Lord not wills, first meets
The pledge dear to his heart; who suddenly
Fell by a lot unhoped by any. He,
To keep his promise, broke the sacred laws
150 Of parenthood: the shade of mighty fear
Did in his violent mind cover his vow
Of sin: as solace of his widowed life
For wickedness, renown, and, for crime, praise,
He won.
Nor Samson’s strength, all corporal might
155 Passing, must we forget; the Spirit’s gift
Was this; the power was granted to his head.
Alone he for his People, daggerless,
Armless, an ass-jaw grasping, prostrated
A thousand corpses; and no bonds could keep
160 The hero bound: but after his shorn pride
Forsook him thralled, he fell, and, by his death,—
Though vanquisht,—bought his foes back ’neath his power.
Marvellous Samuel, who first received
The precept to anoint kings, to give chrism
165 And show men-Christs, so acted laudably
In life’s space as, e’en after his repose,
To keep prophetic rights.
Psalmographist
David, great king and prophet, with a voice
Submiss was wont Christ’s future suffering
170 To sing: which prophecy spontaneously
His thankless lawless People did perform:
Whom God had promised that in time to come,
Fruit of his womb, a holy progeny,
He would on his sublime throne set: the Lord’s
175 Fixt faith did all that He had promised.
Corrector of an inert People rose
Emulous Hezekiah; who restored
Iniquitous forgetful men the Law:
All these God’s mandates of old time he first
180 Bade men observe, who ended war by prayers,
Not by steel’s point: he, dying, had a grant
Of years and times of life made to his tears:
Deservedly such honour his career
Obtained.
With zeal immense, Josiah, prince
185 Himself withal, in like wise acted:  none
So much, before or after!—Idols he
Dethroned; destroyed unhallowed temples; burned
With fire priests on their altars; all the bones
Of prophets false updug; the altars burned,
190 The carcases to be consumed did serve
For fuel!
To the praise of signal faith,
Noble Elijah, (memorable fact!)
Was rapt; who hath not tasted yet death’s dues;
Since to the orb he is to come again.
195 His faith unbroken, then, chastening with stripes
People and frenzied king, (who did desert
The Lord’s best service), and with bitter flames
The foes, shut up the stars; kept in the clouds
The rain; showed all collectively that God
200 Is; made their error patent;—for a flame,
Coming with force from heaven at his prayers,
Ate up the victim’s parts, dripping with flood,
Upon the altar:—often as he willed,
So often from on high rushed fire; the stream
205 Dividing, he made pathless passable;
And, in a chariot raised aloft, was borne
To paradise’s hall.
Disciple his
Elisha was, succeeding to his lot:
Who begged to take to him Elijah’s lot
210 In double measure; so, with forceful stripe,
The People to chastise: such and so great
A love for the Lord’s cause he breathed. He smote
Through Jordan; made his feet a way, and crossed
Again; raised with a twig the axe down—sunk
215 Beneath the stream; changed into vital meat
The deathful food; detained a second time,
Double in length, the rains; cleansed leprosies;
Entangled foes in darkness; and when one
Offcast and dead, by bandits’slaughter slain
220 His limbs, after his death, already hid
In sepulchre, did touch, he—light recalled—
Revived.
Isaiah, wealthy seer, to whom
The fount was oped,—so manifest his faith!
Poured from his mouth God’s word forth.  Promised was
225 The Father’s will, bounteous through Christ; through him
It testified before the way of life,
And was approved: but him, though stainless found,
And undeserving, the mad People cut
With wooden saw in twain, and took away
230 With cruel death.
The holy Jeremy
Followed; whom the Eternal’s Virtue bade
Be prophet to the Gentiles, and him told
The future: who, because he brooded o’er
His People’s deeds illaudable, and said
235 (Speaking with voice presaging) that, unless
They had repented of betaking them
To deeds iniquitous against their slaves,
They should be captived, bore hard bonds, shut up
In squalid gaol; and, in the miry pit,
240 Hunger exhausted his decaying limbs.
But, after he did prove what they to hear
Had been unwilling, and the foes did lead
The People bound in their triumphal trains,
Hardly at length his wrinkled right hand lost
245 Its chains: it is agreed that by no death
Nor slaughter was the hero ta’en away.
Faithful Ezekiel, to whom granted was
Rich grace of speech, saw sinners’ secrets; wailed
His own afflictions; prayed for pardon; saw
250 The vengeance of the saints, which is to be
By slaughter; and, in Spirit wrapt, the place
Of the saints’ realm, its steps and accesses,
And the salvation of the flesh, he saw.
Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, too,
255 With Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, come;
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai,
And Zechariah who did violence
Suffer, and Malachi—angel himself!
Are here: these are the Lord’s seers; and their choir,
260 As still they sing, is heard; and equally
Their proper wreath of praise they all have earned.
How great was Daniel! What a man!
What power!
Who by their own mouth did false witnesses
Bewray, and saved a soul on a false charge
265 Condemned; and, before that, by mouth resolved
The king’s so secret dreams; foresaw how Christ
Dissolves the limbs of kingdoms; was accused
For his Lord’s was made the lions’ prey;
And, openly preserved before all eyes,
270 Rested in peace.
His Three Companions, scarce
With due praise to be sung, did piously
Contemn the king’s iniquitous decree,
Out of so great a number: to the flames
Their bodies given were; but they preferred,
275 For the Great Name, to yield to penalties
Themselves, than to an image stretch their palms
On bended knees. Now their o’erbrilliant faith,
Now hope outshining all things, the wild fires
Hath quencht, and vanquisht the iniquitous!
280 Ezra the seer, doctor of Law, and priest
Himself (who, after full times, back did lead
The captive People), with the Spirit filled
Of memory, restored by word of mouth
All the seers’ volumes, by the fires and mould
285 Consumèd.
Great above all born from seed
Is John whose praises hardly shall we skill
To tell: the washer of the flesh: the Lord’s
Open forerunner; washer, too, of Christ,
Himself first born again from Him: the first
290 Of the new convenant, last of the old,
Was he; and for the True Way’s sake he died,
The first slain victim.
See God-Christ! behold
Alike, His Twelve-Fold Warrior-Youth! in all
One faith, one dove, one power; the flower of men;
295 Lightening the world with light; comrades of Christ
And apostolic men; who, speaking truth,
Heard with their ears Salvation, with their eyes
Saw It, and handled with their hand the late
From death recovered body, and partook
300 As fellow-guests of food therewith, as they
Themselves bear witness.
Him did Paul as well
(Forechosen apostle, and in due time sent),
When rapt into the heavens, behold: and sent
By Him, he, with his comrade Barnabas,
305 And with the earlier associates
Joined in one league together, everywhere
Among the Gentiles hands the doctrine down
That Christ is Head, whose members are the Church,
He the salvation of the body, He
310 The members’ life perennial;
He, made flesh, He, ta’en away for all, Himself first rose
Again, salvation’s only hope; and gave
The norm to His disciples: they at once
All variously suffered, for His Name,
315 Unworthy penalties.
Such members bears
With beauteous body the free mother, since
She never her Lord’s precepts left behind,
And in His home hath grown old, to her Lord
Ever most choice, having for His Name’s sake
320 Penalties suffered. For since, barren once,
Not yet secure of her futurity,
She hath outgiven a people born of seed
Celestial, and been spurned, and borne the spleen
Of her own handmaid; now ’tis time to see
325 This former-barren mother have a son
The heir of her own liberty; not like
The handmaid’s heir, yoked in estate to her,
Although she bare him from celestial seed
Conceived. Far be it that ye should with words
330 Unlawful, with rash voice, collectively
Without distinction, give men exemplary
(Heaven’s glowing constellations, to the mass
Of men conjoined by seed alone or blood),
The rugged bondman’s name; or that one think
335 That he may speak in servile style about
A People who the mandates followèd
Of the Lord’s Law. No: but we mean the troop
Of sinners, empty, mindless, who have placed
God’s promises in a mistrustful heart;
340 Men vanquisht by the miserable sweet
Of present life: that troop would have been bound
Capital slavery to undergo,
By their own fault, if sin’s cause shall impose
Law’s yoke upon the mass. For to serve God,
345 And be whole-heartedly intent thereon,
Untainted faith, and freedom, is thereto
Prepared spontaneous.
The just fathers, then,
And holy stainless prophets, many, sang
The future advent of the Lord; and they
350 Faithfully testify what Heaven bids
To men profane: with them the giants, men
With Christ’s own glory satiated, made
The consorts of His virtue, filling up
The hallowed words, have stablished our faith;
355 By facts predictions proving.
Of these men
Disciples who succeeded them throughout
The orb, men wholly filled with virtue’s breath,
And our own masters, have assigned to us
Honours conjoined with works.
Of whom the first
360 Whom Peter bade to take his place and sit
Upon this chair in mightiest Rome where he
Himself had sat, was Linus, great, elect,
And by the mass approved. And after him
Cletus himself the fold’s flock undertook;
365 As his successor Anacletus was
By lot located: Clement follows him;
Well known was he to apostolic men:
Next Evaristus ruled without a crime
The law. To Sixtus Sextus Alexander
370 Commends the fold: who, after he had filled
His lustral times up, to Telesphorus
Hands it in order: excellent was he,
And martyr faithful. After him succeeds
A comrade in the law, and master sure:
375 When lo! the comrade of your wickedness,
Its author and forerunner—Cerdo hight—
Arrived at Rome, smarting with recent wounds:
Detected, for that he was scattering
Voices and words of venom stealthily:
380 For which cause, driven from the band, he bore
This sacrilegious brood, the dragon’s breath
Engendering it. Blooming in piety
United stood the Church of Rome, compact
By Peter: whose successor, too, himself,
385 And now in the ninth place, Hyginus was,
The burden undertaking of his chair.
After him followed Pius—Hermas his
Own brother was; angelic “Pastor” he,
Because he spake the words delivered him:
390 And Anicetus the allotted post
In pious order undertook. ’Neath whom
Marcion here coming, the new Pontic pest,
(The secret daring deed in his own heart
Not yet disclosed,) went, speaking commonly,
395 In all directions, in his perfidy,
With lurking art. But after he began
His deadly arrows to produce, cast off
Deservedly (as author of a crime
So savage), reprobated by the saints,
400 He burst, a wondrous monster! on our view.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Isa. liv. 1; Gal. iv. 27.
* ↑ Gal. iv. 19–31.
* ↑ The Jewish people leaving Christ, “the fountain of living waters” (Jer. ii. 13; John vii. 37–39), is compared to Hagar leaving the well, which was, we may well believe, close to Abraham’s tent.
* ↑ Et tepidis errans ardenti sidere potat. See Gen. xxi. 12–20.
* ↑ See Matt. xix. 27; Mark x. 28; Luke xviii. 28.
* ↑ See Matt. xxiii. 35.
* ↑ i.e., apparently the “giants;” see Gen. vi. 4; but there is no mention of them in Enoch’s time (Migne).
* ↑ i.e., over the general sinfulness.
* ↑ I suggest “translatus” for “translatum” here.
* ↑ See Gen. vii. 1.
* ↑ Loosely; 120 years is the number in Gen. vi. 3.
* ↑ Gente.
* ↑ Speculo vultus. The two words seem to me to go together, and, unless the second be indeed redundant, to mean perhaps a small hand-mirror, which affords more facilities for minute examination of the face than a larger fixed one.
* ↑ “Sortis;” lit. “lot,” here ="the line or family chosen by lot.” Compare the similar derivation of “clergy.”
* ↑ Lignum.
* ↑ I have ventured to substitute “Christo” for “Christi;” and thus, for “Cum Christi populo manifeste multa locutus,” read, “Cum Christo (populo manifeste) multa locutus.” The reference is to the fact, on which such special stress is laid, of the Lord’s “speaking to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend.” See especially Num. xii. 5–8, Deut. xxxiv. 9–12, with Deut. xviii. 17–19, Acts iii. 22, 23, vii. 37.
* ↑ The Latin in Oehler and Migne is thus: “Acceptam legem per paucos fudit in orbem;” and the reference seems to me to be to Ex. xxxii. 15–20, though the use of “orbem” for “ground” is perhaps strange; but “humum” would have been against the metre, if that argument be of any weight in the case of a writer so prolific of false quantities. Possibly the lines may mean that “he diffused through some few”—i.e., through the Jews, “few” as compared with the total inhabitants of the orb—“the Law which he had received;” but then the following line seems rather to favour the former view, because the tables of the Law—called briefly “the Law”—broken by Moses so soon after he had received them, were typical of the inefficacy of all Moses’ own toils, which, after all, ended in disappointment, as he was forbidden, on account of a sin committed in the very last of the forty years, to lead the people into “the land,” as he had fondly hoped to do. Only I suspect some error in “per paucos;” unless it be lawful to supply “dies,” and take it to mean “received during but few days,” i.e., “within few days,” “only a few days before,” and “accepted” or “kept” by the People “during but a few days.” Would it be lawful to conjecture “perpaucis” as one word, with “ante diebus” to be understood?
* ↑ i.e., the sign of the cross. See Tertullian, adv. Marc., l. iii. c. xviii. sub. fin.; also adv. Jud., c. x. med.
* ↑ i.e., all the acts and the experiences of Moses.
* ↑ Moses.
* ↑ See Ex. xxiii. 20–23; and comp. adv. Marc., l. iii. c. xvi.
* ↑ Legitima, i.e., reverent of law.
* ↑ i.e., virtuous acts.
* ↑ Or, “valour.”
* ↑ The Latin runs thus: “Acer in hostem. Non virtute sua tutelam acquirere genti.” I have ventured to read “suæ,” and connect it with “genti;” and thus have obtained what seems to me a probable sense. See Judg. viii. 22, 23.
* ↑ I read “firmandus” for “firmatus.”
* ↑ Mundo.
* ↑ I have again ventured a correction, “coarescere” for “coalescere.” It makes at least some sense out of an otherwise (to me) unintelligible passage, the “palm” being taken as the well-known symbol of bloom and triumph. So David in Ps. xcii. 12 (xci. 13 in LXX.), “The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree.”  To “dry” here is, of course, neuter, and means to “wither.”
* ↑ I have changed “eadem”—which must agree with “nocte,” and hence give a false sense; for it was not, of course, on “the same night,” but on the next, that this second sign was given—into “eodem,” to agree with “liquore,” which gives a true one, as the “moisture,” of course, was the same,—dew, namely.
* ↑ Equite. It appears to be used loosely for “men of war” generally.
* ↑ Which is taken, from its form, as a sign of the cross; see below.
* ↑ Refers to the “when” in 99, above.
* ↑ Lychno.  The “faces” are probably the wicks.
* ↑ “Scilicet hoc testamen erat virtutis imago.”
* ↑ The text as it stands is, in Oehler:— …“Hic Baal Christi victoria signo Extemplo refugam devicit femina ligno;” which I would read:— …“Hunc Jael, Christi victoriæ signo, Extemplo,” etc.
* ↑ For “hic” I would incline to read “huic.”
* ↑ i.e., child.
* ↑ i.e., instead of.
* ↑ i.e., to his unshorn Nazarite locks.
* ↑ Viros ostendere Christos.
* ↑ See 1 Sam. xxviii. (in LXX. 1 Kings) 11–19.
* ↑ i.e., to whom, to David.
* ↑ “Ex utero:” a curious expression for a man; but so it is.
* ↑ i.e., emulous of David’s virtues.
* ↑ Comp. especially 2 Chron. xxix.; xxx.; xxxi.
* ↑ Our author is quite correct in his order. A comparison of dates as given in the Scripture history shows us that his reforms preceded his war with Sennacherib.
* ↑ The “tactus” of the Latin is without sense, unless indeed it refer to his being twice “touched” by an angel. See 1 Kings (in LXX. 3 Kings) xix. 1–8. I have therefore substituted “raptus,” there being no mention of the angel in the Latin.
* ↑ “Aras” should probably be “aram.”
* ↑ See 2 Kings (in LXX. 4 Kings) i. 9–12.
* ↑ For “transgressas et avia fecit,” I read “transgressus avia fecit,” taking “transgressus” as a subst.
* ↑ Sortis.
* ↑ Sortem.
* ↑ Our author has somewhat mistaken Elisha’s mission apparently; for as there is a significant difference in the meaning of their respective names, so there is in their works: Elijah’s miracles being rather miracles of judgment, it has been remarked; Elisha’s, of mercy.
* ↑ The reference is to a famine in Elisha’s days, which—2 Kings (in LXX. 4 Kings) viii. i.—was to last seven years; whereas that for which Elijah prayed, as we learn in Jas. v. 17., lasted three and six months. But it is not said that Elisha prayed for that famine.
* ↑ We only read of one leprosy which Elisha cleansed—Naaman’s. He inflicted leprosy on Gehazi, which was “to cleave to him and to his seed for ever.”
* ↑ Prætestata viam vitæ atque probata per ipsam est. I suspect we should read “via,” quantity being of no importance with our author, and take “prætestata” as passive: “The way of life was testified before, and proved, through him.”
* ↑ This seems to be the meaning, and the reference will then be to Jer. xxxiv. 8–22 (in LXX. xli. 8–22); but the punctuation both in Oehler and Migne makes nonsense, and I have therefore altered it.
* ↑ See the apocryphal “Susanna.”
* ↑ For “servatisque palam cunctis in pace quievit,” which the edd. give, I suggest “servatusque,” etc., and take “palam” for governing “cunctis.”
* ↑ Ignibus et multa consumpta volumina vatum.  Multamust, apparently, be an error for some word signifying “mould” or the like; unless, with the disregard of construction and quantity observable in this author, it be an acc. pl. to agree with volumina, so that we must take “omnia multa volumina” together, which would alter the whole construction of the context.
* ↑ Ablutor.
* ↑ Ablutor.
* ↑ Juventus.
* ↑ Mundo.
* ↑ Salutem =Christum. So Simeon, “Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,” where the Greek word should be noted and compared with its usage in the LXX., especially in the Psalms. See Luke ii. 30.
* ↑ Comp. 1 John i. 1, 2.
* ↑ See 2 Cor. xii. 1 sqq.
* ↑ The common reading is, “Atque suæ famulæ portavit spreta dolorem,” for which Oehler reads “portarit;” but I incline rather to suggest that “portavit” be retained, but that the “atque” be changed into “aeque,” thus:  “Aeque suæ famulæ portavit spreta dolorem;” i.e., Since, like Sarah, the once barren Christian church-mother hath had children, equally, like Sarah, hath she had to bear scorn and spleen at her handmaid’s—the Jewish church-mother’s—hands.
* ↑ Dolorem.
* ↑ i.e., Ishmael’s.
* ↑ “Immanes,” if it be the true reading.
* ↑ This is the way Oehler’s punctuation reads. Migne’s reads as follows:— …“Of whom the first Whom mightiest Rome bade take his place and sit Upon the chair where Peter’s self had sat,” etc.
* ↑ “Is apostolicis bene notus.” This may mean, (a) as in our text; (b) by his apostolically-minded writings—writings like an apostle’s; or (c) by the apostolic writings, i.e., by the mention made of him, supposing him to be the same, in Phil. iv. 3.
* ↑ Legem.
* ↑ Legis.
* ↑ Germine frater.
* ↑ An allusion to the well-known Pastor or Shepherd of Hermas.
* ↑ Our author makes the name Anicetus. Rig. (as quoted by Oehler) observes that a comparison of the list of bishops of Rome here given with that given by Tertullian in de Præscr., c. xxxii., seems to show that this metrical piece cannot be his.