Crowns And Garlands

Qui tamen et viri caput est et feminae facies, vir ecclesiae Christus Iesus, quale, oro te, sertum pro utroque sexu subiit? Ex spinis, opinor, et tribulis, in figuram delictorum quae nobis protulit terra carnis, abstulit autem virtus crucis, omnem aculeum mortis in dominici capitis tolerantia obtundens, certe praeter figuram: contumelia in promptu est, et dedecoratio et turpitudo et his implexa saevitia. Quae tunc Domini tempora et foedaverunt et lancinaverunt, uti tu nunc laurea et myrto et olea et inlustriore quaque fronde et, quod magis usui est, centenariis quoque rosis de horto Midae lectis et utrisque liliis et omnibus violis coroneris, etiam gemmis forsitan et auro, ut et illam Christi coronam aemuleris, quae postea ei obvenit? Atquin et favos post fella gustauit, nec ante rex gloriae a caelestibus salutatus est quam rex Iudaeorum proscriptus in cruce, minoratus primo a patre modico quid citra angelos, et ita gloria et honore coronatus. Si ob haec caput ei tuum debes, tale, si forte, ei repende, quale suum pro tuo obtulit, aut nec floribus coroneris si spinis non potes, quia floribus non potes. Serva Deo rem suam intaminatam. Ille eam, si volet, coronabit. Immo et vult, denique invitat : Qui vicerit, inquit, dabo ei coronam vitae. Esto et tu fidelis ad mortem, decerta et tu bonum agonem, cuius coronam et apostolus repositam sibi merito confidit. Accipit et angelus victoriae coronam, procedens in candido equo ut uinceret; at alius iridis ambitu ornatur caelesti prasio. Sedent et presbyteri coronati, eodemque auro et ipse filius hominis super nubem micat. Si tales imagines in visione, quales veritates in repraesentatione? Illas aspice, illas adora. Quid caput strophiolo aut dracontario damnas, diademati destinatum? Nam reges nos Deo et Patri suo fecit Christus Iesus. Quid tibi cum flore morituro? Habes florem ex virga Iesse, super quem tota divini Spiritus gratia requievit, florem incorruptum, immarcescibilem, sempiternum. Tertullianus, De Corona Militis, Caput XIV-XV Source: Migne PL 2.97b-102a

But what sort of garland,I ask, did He who is the head of the man and the glory of the woman, 1 Jesus Christ, the husband of the Church, submit to for both sexes? Of thorns, I think, and thistles, a figure of the sins which the earth of the flesh brought forth for us, but which the power of the cross removed, every sting of death blunted by its endurance by the head of our Lord. Certainly besides the figure there is eager insolence, and dishonour, and infamy, and with these the ferocity involved in the cruel things which then disfigured and lacerated the temples of the Lord, and is that so that you may now be crowned with laurel and myrtle and olive, and any celebrated branch, and, of much more use, with a hundred roses too, culled from the garden of Midas, and with both kinds of lily and every sort of violet, perhaps also with gems and gold, so as even to rival that crown of Christ which afterwards He obtained? But He tasted the honey after the gall, and He was not greeted as the King of Glory by the heavens until He had been condemned to the cross as the King of the Jews, having first been made by the Father a little less than the angels for a time, and so crowned with glory and honour. If for these things you owe your own head to Him, repay it if you can, such as He presented His for yours, or do not be crowned with flowers at all, if you cannot be with thorns, because you will not be with flowers. Keep for God His own property untainted, for He will crown it if He chooses. And indeed He does choose and He calls us to it. To him who conquers He says, 'I will give him a crown of life.' You also be faithful to death, 2 you also fight the good fight, whose crown the Apostle was rightly confident had been laid up for him. 3 The angel receives a crown of victory, who goes forth on a white horse, conquering and to conquer, and another is adorned with an encircling rainbow, a celestial meadow. The elders sit crowned with the same gold, and the Son of Man Himself flashes out above the clouds. 4 If such are the appearances in the vision, of what sort will be the realities represented? Look at those crowns, inhale those odours. Why condemn the head destined for a diadem to a little chaplet or a twisted headband? For Jesus Christ has made us kings to God and His Father. What to you is the flower which is to die? You have a flower from the shoot of Jesse, upon which the grace of the Divine Spirit in all its fullness rested, a flower undefiled, unfading, everlasting. Tertullian, On The Crown, Chap 14-15 1 2 Tim 4.8 2 Apoc 2.10 3 2 Tim 4.7-8 4 Apoc 6.2, 10.1, 4.4, 14.14