Patience as the remedy for wrongs and the path to blessedness

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Tertullian is continuing his argument that patience is the Christian response to every kind of wrong, now turning from revenge to the broader duty of enduring wrongs, divine correction, and the beatitudes.

I have now set down the principal sources of impatience as best I could. Why should I wander among the rest, whether at home or abroad? The working of evil is wide and spread out. The serpent's manifold incitements hurl at us now small things, now the greatest. If they are small, you may despise them for their mediocrity. If they are greatest, you may yield to them for their excess. Where the wrong is smaller, there is no necessity for impatience. But where the wrong is greater, there the remedy for the wrong is more necessary: patience.

Let us strive, then, to endure what evil inflicts, so that our equanimity may elude the enemy's zeal. And if we ourselves bring certain things upon us, whether through imprudence or even willingly, let us equally bear patiently what we attribute to ourselves. But if we believe some things are inflicted by the Lord, to whom should we offer patience more than to the Lord? Moreover, he teaches us to rejoice and be glad in the condescension of divine chastisement. Scripture says, "I correct those whom I love" (Proverbs 3:12). O blessed servant, whose correction the Lord presses upon, whom he deigns to be angry with, whom he does not deceive by concealing his admonition!

On every side, then, we are bound to the duty of administering patience. Through it we meet equally our own errors, the snares of evil, or the admonitions of the Lord. The great reward of this duty is happiness, of course. For whom has the Lord called happy except the patient, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3)? No one is poor in spirit unless humble. And who is humble unless patient? Because no one can subject himself without the prior patience of subjection itself.

The Lord says, "Blessed are those who weep and mourn" (Matthew 5:4). Who endures such things without patience? And so to such people both advocacy and laughter are promised. "Blessed are the meek" (Matthew 5:5). By this title the impatient cannot be counted at all. Likewise, when he marks the peacemakers with the same title of happiness and calls them sons of God (Matthew 5:9), are the impatient akin to peace? Only a fool would think so.

And when he says, "Rejoice and be glad whenever they curse and persecute you, for your reward is great in heaven" (Matthew 5:11-12), he certainly does not promise this to the impatience of exultation, because no one will exult in adversities unless he has first despised them. No one will despise them unless he has practiced patience.

Latin

Post has principales impatientiae materias ut potuimus regestas quid inter ceteras euagemur, quae domi, quae foris? lata atque diffusa est operatio mali multiplicia aspidum incitamenta, iaculantis, et modo paruula modo maxima. si paruula de sua mediocritate contemnas, maximis pro sua exuperantia cedas. ubi minor iniuria, ibi nulla necessitas impatientiae. at ubi maior iniuria, ibi necessarior iniuriae medela, patientia. certemus igitur quae a malo infliguntur sustinere, ut hostis studium aemulatio nostrae aequanimitatis eludat. si uero quaedam ipsi in nos aut imprudentia aut sponte etiam superducimus, aeque patienter obeamus quae nobis imputamus. quodsi a domino nonnulla credimus incuti, cui magis patientiam quam domino praebeamus? quin insuper gratulari [et gaudere] nos docet dignatione diuinae castigationis. ego, inquit, quos diligo castigo. o seruum illum beatum, cuius emendationi dominus instat, cui dignatur irasci, quem admonendi dissimulatione non decipit! undique igitur adstricti sumus officio patientiae administrandae, qua aequa ex parte aut erroribus nostris aut mali insidiis aut admonitionibus domini interuenimus. eius officii magna merces, felicitas scilicet. quos enim felices dominus nisi patientes nuncupauit dicendo: beati pauperes spiritu, illorum est enim regnum caelorum? nullus profecto spiritu pauper nisi humilis. quis autem humilis nisi patiens? quia nemo subicere sese potest sine prima patientia subiectionis ipsius. beati, inquit, flentes atque lugentes. quis talia sine patientia tolerat? itaque talibus et aduocatio et risus promittitur. beati mites. hoc quidem uocabulo impatientes non licet omnino censeri. item cum pacificos eodem titulo felicitatis notat et filios dei nuncupat, numquid impatientes pacis adfines? stultus hoc senserit. cum uero gaudete et exultate dicit, quotiens uos maledicent et persequentur, merces enim uestra plurima in caelo, id utique non [exultationis] impatientiae pollicetur, quia nemo in aduersis exultabit, nisi ante contempserit ea. nemo contemnet, nisi patientiam gesserit.

About this text

Tertullian, who admits he is short of patience himself, praises it as the virtue every Christian duty needs, after the pattern of God and Christ.

Tertullian (c. 155–c. 220) was a Christian writer from Carthage in North Africa, and one of the earliest Christian authors to write in Latin. He wrote this treatise for fellow Christians, though he names no particular person or church. He opens by confessing that he himself is weak in patience, and says he writes because no command of God or work pleasing to him can be performed without it.

The work presents patience as the central discipline of Christian life. Tertullian argues that patience is God's own nature, shown in his forbearance toward the wicked and supremely in Christ's passion. Its opposite, impatience, began with the devil and is the root of every sin, from the fall of Adam and Eve to the crimes of Cain and Israel. A reader will meet God and Christ as the supreme examples of patience, the devil as the origin of impatience, and figures such as Adam, Eve, Cain, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, Job, Isaiah, Stephen, Elijah, and Malchus. The words of Christ, the apostle Paul, and God in scripture are quoted and argued from.

The treatise contrasts true Christian patience with the false patience taught by the devil to his own followers. Patience governs every Christian duty: bearing loss, enduring wrong, accepting death, renouncing revenge, forgiving others, and practicing bodily self-denial. The translation renders patientia as patience and impatientia as impatience throughout. Old Latin Bible names are given in their familiar English forms, so Esaias is Isaiah, Helias is Elijah, Moyses is Moses, Iob is Job, Stephanus is Stephen, and Eua is Eve. Malchus is the high priest's servant whose ear was cut off at Jesus' arrest and healed by him.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 47 (1900) (Latin)
Also checked Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Quae Supersunt Omnia Tertullian Franz Oehler T. O. Weigel Leipzig 1853 (Latin · comparison witness (not aligned to the sections))

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.