2 Revincit. "Condemnat" is Tertullian's word in The Apology, i.
3 Defendit. "Excusat" in Apol.
4 Non licet rectius suspicari.
12 Pro extremitatibus temporum.
13 Or perhaps, "to maintain evil in preference to good."
15 Pristinorum. In the corresponding passage (Apol. I.) the phrase is, "nisi plane retro non fuisse," i.e., "except that he was not a Christian long ago."
17 Comp. c. ii. of The Apology.
23 Receptoribus, "concealers" of the crime.
27 We have for once departed from Oehler's text, and preferred Rigault's: "Perducerentur infantarii et coci, ipsi canes pronubi, emendata esset res." The sense is evident from The Apology, c. vii.: "It is said that we are guilty of most horrible crimes; that in the celebration of our sacrament we put a child to death, which we afterward devour, and at the end of our banquet revel in incest; that we employ dogs as ministers of our impure delights, to overthrow the candles, and thus to provide darkness, and remove all shame which might interfere with these impious lusts" (Chevalier's translation). These calumnies were very common, and are noticed by Justin Martyr, Minucius Felix, Eusebius, Athenagoras, and Origen, who attributes their origin to the Jews. Oehler reads infantarioe, after the Agobardine codex and editio princeps, and quotes Martial (Epigr. iv. 88), where the word occurs in the sense of an inordinate love of children.
28 Nam et plerique fidem talium temperant.
29 Comp. The Apology, cc. i. And ii.
36 i.e., the name "Christians."
37 By the "suo loco," Tertullian refers to The Apology.
41 Xrhsto/j means both "pleasant" and "good:" and the heathen founded this word with the sacred name |xrusti/j.
50 Libertatem suam, "their liberty of speech."
58 Unum atque alium. The sense being plural, we have so given it all through.
59 Captivitatis (as if theirs was a self-inflicted captivity at home).
60 Omnem uxorem patientiam obtulisse (comp. Apology, middle of c. xxxix.).
63 He means the religion of Christ, which he in b. ii. c. ii. contrasts with "the mere wisdom" of the philosophers.
64 Compare The Apology, cc. ii. xliv. xlvi.
65 Colata, "filtered" [or "strained"-Shaks.]
66 Ut non alicujus nubiculae flocculo resignetur. This picturesque language defies translation.