Tertullian, On the Crown 10

You argue that the ornaments of secular gods turn up even in God's house, so that the crown on the head must be defended as common property. By that logic, you yourself have already ruled that anything not found in God's things has no place in the communion of use. What could be more unworthy of God than what counts as worthy of an idol? And what suits an idol better than what suits the dead? The dead, after all, are crowned the same way: they instantly become idols by their dress and the cult of their consecration, which is a second idolatry for us (Psalm 115:4-8). So the senseless will use that thing exactly as the senseless would, and as if they wanted to abuse it, if they weren't senseless. There is no difference between use and abuse when the truth of use ceases, because the very capacity to perceive has ceased; how can anyone abuse what they lack the faculty to use? For us, however, abuse is not permitted, since the apostle teaches that it is easier not to use a thing at all — unless it is that those who feel nothing do not abuse (1 Corinthians 10:19-21). But the whole thing is void; it is a dead work so far as idols go, yet positively alive with demons, to whom superstition belongs. David says the idols of the nations are silver and gold: they have eyes but do not see, noses but do not smell, hands but do not touch. Through such things one 'enjoys flowers.' If the makers of idols will become like that, those who use anything according to the ornament of idols already are like that. All things are pure to the pure, and all things impure to the impure; but nothing is more impure than idols. Pure substances, as God's things, are common to use by their very nature; what differs is the administration of that use. I myself sacrifice a chicken for my own dinner, no less than Socrates did for Asclepius; if a place smells bad, I burn Arabian incense; but not with the same rite, dress, or equipment used at idols. If the mere word 'idol-offering' pollutes the thing, as the apostle teaches — 'If anyone says, "This is idol food," do not eat it' — how much more when you have gone through the dress, rite, and equipment of idol-offerings? Thus the crown itself becomes idol food. With that rite, dress, and equipment it is sacrificed to the idol by its authors, whose use is especially proper to it, so that it cannot be admitted into communion because it is not found in God's things. Therefore the apostle cries: 'Flee from idolatry' — entirely and completely. Recognize the forest, and how many hidden thorns lie in it. Nothing is to be given to an idol, so nothing is to be taken from an idol. If reclining in an idol's temple is alien to faith, what is it to be seen in an idol's dress? What communion has Christ with Belial? That is why we must flee. A long divorce from idolatry is commanded; we must not approach it closely in anything. Even the earthly dragon sucks the spirit of people from afar. John goes deeper: 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols' — not merely from idolatry as if from an office, but from the very image of them. For it is unworthy that the image of the living God should become the image of an idol and of the dead (1 John 5:21). We have claimed the property of this dress for idols both from its origin and from its superstitious use; and also because, while it is not referred to in God's things, it is more and more assigned as the image of those in whose antiquities, solemnities, and offices it is found. Even their doors, victims, altars, ministers, and priests are crowned. You have the crowns of all the priestly colleges under Claudius. But we have also woven in the distinction between rational and irrational, which meets those who defend communion in all things on the strength of certain examples. It remains, then, to examine the coronation causes themselves, so that while we show they are foreign — indeed contrary to discipline — we may prove that none of them is backed by reason enough to defend such dress and its use for communion, even though some people throw examples at us.