In an attempt to defend the practice of offering Mass for the repose of the souls of the deceased, Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid provided the following from Tertullian:
Tertullian, A.D. 211—“We offer sacrifices for the dead on their birthday anniversaries” (The Crown 3.3). (Patrick Madrid, Why is That in Tradition? [Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor, 2002], 91)
In a note for this quote, Madrid offers the following commentary:
By “sacrifices” Tertullian refers here to the sacrifice of the Mass, offered for the repose of the souls of deceased Christians. (Ibid., 216 n. 50, italics in original)
Let us examine this claim.
The relevant section of De Corona 3.3 reads in the Schaff set, as follows:
We take also, in congregations before daybreak, and from the hand of none but the presidents, the sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord both commanded to be eaten at meal-times, and enjoined to be taken by all alike. As often as the anniversary comes round, we make offerings for the dead as birthday honours. (ANF 4:94)
The following is the Latin for the above passage:
Eucharistiae sacramentum, et in tempore uictus et omnibus mandatum a Domino, etiam antelucanis coetibus nec de aliorum manu quam praesidentium sumimus. Oblationes pro defunctis, pro nataliciis, annua die facimus. (source)
It is true that the Eucharist is mentioned before Tertullian's mention of "offerings" for the dead on their birthday. However, there are some problems with thinking Tertullian believed that the Eucharist (which Madrid reads into this as the Eucharist being a propitiatory sacrifice) would include, among other things, the following:
1. The term used for the Eucharist in the original language text is sacramentum, which is not the same term Tertullian uses for the actions living Christians use for the dead (oblationes), showing a distinction between the two actions.
2. Tertullian, in his other writings, never speaks of the Eucharist being offered for the dead but instead prayers being offered for the dead. Consider the following from his other writings:
For (in that case) the shame is double; inasmuch as, in second marriage, two wives beset the same husband—one in spirit, one in flesh. For the first wife you cannot hate, for whom you retain an even more religious affection, as being already received into the Lord’s presence; for whose spirit you make request; for whom you render annual oblations. Will you stand, then, before the Lord with as many wives as you commemorate in prayer; and will you offer for two; and will you commend those two (to God) by the ministry of a priest ordained (to his sacred office) on the score of monogamy, or else consecrated (thereto) on the score even of virginity, surrounded by widows married but to one husband? And will your sacrifice [sacrificium] ascend with unabashed front, and—among all the other (graces) of a good mind—will you request for yourself and for your wife chastity? (An Exhortation to Chastity, 11 [ANF 4:56]; note that the term translated as “sacrifice,” in reference to prayer, not the Eucharistic sacrifice, is)
Indeed, she [the widow] prays for his soul, and requests refreshment for him meanwhile, and fellowship (with him) in the first resurrection; and she offers (her sacrifice) on the anniversaries of his falling asleep. (On Monogamy, 10 [ANF 4:67])
Unless Madrid wishes to argue that Tertullian preached female ordination to the sacerdotal priesthood and other like-beliefs, one cannot maintain that Tertullian preached that the Eucharist was offered for the dead, thought it will be conceded that Tertullian did believe in the efficacy of prayers for the dead.
3. Related to no. 2, the use of sacrificial language for prayers and other actions by Chrisitans is rooted firmly in the Bible. In 1 Pet 2:5, we read:
Ye also, as lively stones are built upon a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
In this text, believers are said to “offer up” (αναφερω; a sacrificial term in both the LXX and NT and used of Jesus “offering” of himself [e.g. 1 Pet 2:24]) themselves as “spiritual sacrifices" (πνευματικὰς θυσίας). This is echoed in Paul’s epistle to the Romans:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. (Rom 12:1)
The dedication of one’s body to God is said to be a sacrifice (θυσια) to God the Father, notwithstanding it not being a literal (in the sense of propitiatory/expiatory) sacrifice for sin. Such “spiritual sacrifices” can be prayers, petitions, and other godly actions for our fellow man (cf. 1 Tim 2:1-4) as well as the sacrifice of a broken heart and contrite spirit (cf. Psa 34:18; 51:17; Isa 57:15; 66:2; also see 2 Nephi 2:7; Helaman 8:5; 3 Nephi 9:20; 12:19; Ether 4:15; Moroni 6:2 in the Book of Mormon). It would represent eisegesis of Scripture and the Patristics to read sacrificial language in various texts as being, ipso facto, "proof" that the authors held to the Eucharist being a propitiatory sacrifice and can be efficacious for the dead, not just the living.
What informs the Catholic doctrine of offering Masses for the dead is the dogmatic teaching of Catholicism (from the Fourth Lateran Council [1215] and the Council of Trent [1545-1563] and other councils) that the Mass is the very same sacrifice of the cross and can propitiate God’s wrath against the sins of the living and the dead. To see the biblical and historical evidence against such dogmatic teachings, see:
