Tertullian, On the Crown 11

I start with the whole question because I want to get at the real issue: is military service even compatible with being a Christian? It makes no sense to debate the details when the root is rotten. Do we really think a human oath can override a divine one, or that we can pledge allegiance to another lord after Christ? Do we abandon father, mother, and every neighbor the Law commands us to honor and love after God—people the Gospel also honored, without putting them above Christ alone? Can we live by the sword when the Lord says whoever uses the sword will perish by the sword (Matthew 26:52)? Can a son of peace take part in battle when it does not even become him to quarrel? Will he inflict chains, prison, torture, and execution without avenging his own wrongs? Will he pull guard duty, or do more than Christ did? Will he do it on the Lord's Day when not even Christ did? Will he stand watch over temples he has renounced? Will he eat where the apostle says not to? Will he defend at night the very spirits he exorcised by day, leaning on the spear that pierced Christ's side? Will he carry a standard that rivals Christ's? Will he demand a sign from a commander when he has already received one from God? Even dead, will a bugler's trumpet disturb him when he waits for the angel's trumpet? Will a Christian be burned by military discipline when burning was forbidden him and Christ granted him the merit of fire? How many other violations of military duty must be counted as sins? Simply moving your name from the camp of light to the camp of darkness is itself a sin.

If faith finds a man already in the ranks, his case is different—like the centurions John baptized, whom Christ approved and Peter instructed. But once they have accepted the faith and been sealed, they must either desert immediately, as many did, or find every possible way to avoid anything that opposes God, since military service does not allow it; or, finally, they must endure everything for God, which even pagan faith permits. Military service promises neither impunity for sins nor immunity from martyrdom. A Christian is a Christian everywhere. There is one Gospel, one Jesus, who denies every denier and confesses every confessor of God, who saves the soul lost for his name and destroys the one who gained the world against his name. In his eyes a faithful pagan soldier is no different from an unfaithful pagan soldier. The demands of faith admit no exemptions based on rank. There is no necessity to sin when the only necessity is not to sin. Even when someone is forced by torture or punishment to sacrifice or deny directly, discipline does not yield to that pressure, because the necessity of refusing to deny and accepting martyrdom outweighs the necessity of avoiding suffering and doing one's duty. Moreover, this kind of justification guts the whole substance of the sacrament, loosening the bond even for voluntary sins. Will can masquerade as necessity when it has something to gain. I have already established this for the other official crowns where the plea of necessity is commonplace: either the offices must be avoided so we do not fall into sin, or martyrdoms must be endured so we can break with those offices. I will not press the first part of the question—the illegitimacy of military service itself—any further, so the second part can be addressed; otherwise, if I drive out military service entirely, I will have raised the issue of the military crown in vain.