ironed in a cloud, and
rose up to heaven--a truth far more certain than any human testimonies
touching the ascension of Romulus or of any other Roman prince mounting
up to the same place.

Tertullian then describes the origin and nature of devils, who, under
Satan, their prince, produce diseases, irregularities of the air,
plagues, and the blighting of the blossoms of the earth, who seduce men
to offer sacrifices, that they may have the blood of the victims, which
is their food. They are as nimble as the birds, and hence know every
thing that is passing upon earth; they live in the air, and hence can
spy what is going on in heaven; for this reason they can impose on men
reigned prophecies, and deliver oracles. Thus they announced in Rome
that a victory would be obtained over King Perseus, when in truth they
knew that the battle was already won. They falsely cure diseases; for,
taking possession of the body of a man, they produce in him a distemper,
and then ordaining some remedy to be used, they cease to afflict him,
and men think that a cure has taken place.

Though Christians deny that the emperor is a god, they nevertheless pray
for his prosperity, because the general dissolution that threatens the
universe, the conflagration of the world, is retarded so long as the
glorious majesty of the triumphant Roman Empire shall last. They desire
not to be present at the subversion of all Nature. They acknowledge
only one republic, but it is the whole world; they constitute one body,
worship one God, and all look forward to eternal happiness. Not only do
they pray for the emperor and the magistrates, but also for peace. They
read the Scriptures to nourish their faith, lift up their hope, and
strengthen the confidence they have in God. They assemble to exhort one
another; they remove sinners from their societies; they have bishops who
preside over them, approved by the suffrages of those whom they are to
conduct. At the end of each month every one contributes if he will, but
no one is constrained to give; the money gathered in this manner is
the pledge of piety; it is not consumed in eating and drinking, but
in feeding the poor, and burying them, in comforting children that are
destitute of parents and goods, in helping old men who have spent the
best of their days in the service of the faithful, in assisting those
who have lost by shipwreck what they had, and those who are condemned
to the mines, or have been banished to isla