rch as a body at the head of which, and clothed with authority, appeared the bishop of Rome, had, indeed, become current at Rome in the last decade of the second century on th

e clergy and laity [pg 160] and the established organs of the Church's government, which in the recent rise of a theory of the necessity of the episcopate (see above, § 27) had become important. In the administration of the penitential discipline (§ 42) the position of the clergy and the realization of a hierarchically organized Church was still further advanced, preparatory for the position of Cyprian. At the same time as these constitutional developments were taking place in the West, and especially in North Africa, there occurred in Egypt and Palestine a remarkable advance in doctrinal discus

g

he Separation of the Churches of A

osing customs occurred over the date of Easter, as to which marked differences existed between the churches of Asia Minor, at that time the most flourishing part of the Church, and the churches of the West, especially with the church of Rome, the strongest local church of all. The course of the controversy is sufficiently stated in the following selection from Eusebius. The outcome was the practica

24. (MSG, 20:489.) Mirbt, n.

ng may be found above in § 3 in

tradition has prevailed to the present time, of ending the fast on no other day than that of the resurrection of the Saviour. Synods and assemblies of bishops were held on this account, and all with one consent, by means of letters addressed to all, drew up an ecclesiastical decree that the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord from the dead should be celebrated on no other day than on the Lord's Day, and that we should observe the close of the paschal fast on that day only. There is still extant a writing of those who were then assembled in Palestine, over whom Theophilus, bishop of the parish

urches that agreed with them, as being heterodox. And he published letters declaring that all the brethren there were wholly excommunicated. But this did not please all the bishops, and they besought him to consider the things of peace, of neighborly unity and love. Words of theirs are still extant, rather sharply rebuking Victor. Among these were Iren?us, who sent letters in the name of the brethren in Gaul, over whom he presided, and maintained that the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord should be observed only on the Lord's Day, yet he fittingly admonishes Victor that he should not cut off whole churches of God which observed the tradition of an ancient custom, and after many other words he proceeds as follows: "For the controversy is not merely concerning the day, but also concerning the very manner of the fast. For some think that they should fast one day, others two, yet others more; some, moreover, count their days as consisting of forty hours day and night. And this variety of observance has not originated in our times, but long before, in the days of our ancestors. It is likely that they did not [pg 164] hold to strict accuracy, and thus was formed a custom for their posterity, according to their own simplicity and their peculiar method. Yet all these lived more or less in peace, and we also live in peace with one another; and the disagreement in regard to the fast confirms the agreement in the faith.... Among these were the elders [i.e., bishops of earlier date] before Soter, who presided over the church which thou [Victor] now rulest. We mean Anicetus, and Pius, and Hyginus

the West: Its Moral

rit with God; its sacred rites, solemnly administered by an established hierarchy; and all observed for the sake of a reward which God in justice owed those who kept His commandments. It is noticeable that already there is the same divided opinion as to marriage, whereby, on the one hand, it was regarded as a concession to weakness, a necessary

Oratione, 23, 25,

wever, as we have received, only on the Sunday of the resurrection ought to guard not only against this kneeling, but every posture and office of anxiety; deferring even our businesses, lest we give any place to the devil. Similarly, too, the period of Pentecost, [pg 166] is a time which we distinguish by the same solemnity of exultation. But wh

unprofitable; those common hours, I mean, which mark the intervals of the day-the third, t

roper and acceptable to God, which, assuredly, He has required, which He has looked forward to for Himself. This victim, devoted from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended by truth, entire

, De Jejun., 3

nt of the meritorious and propitiatory ch

s been this: that by a renewed interdiction of food and observance of the precept the primordial sin might now be expiated, so that man may make God satisfaction through the same causative material by which he offende

De Baptismo, 1

this has been preserved, peace is preserved. Besides these, even laymen have the right; for what is equally received can be equally given. If there are no bishops, priests, or deacons, other disciples are called. The word of the Lord ought not to be hidden away by any. In like manner, also, baptism, which

De P?nitentia, 2

is a rewarder of every cause. Now, since God as judge presides over the exacting and maintaining of justice, which is most dear to Him, and since it is for the sake of justice

, Scorpiace, 6

desire [pg 168] and suspend its wish, that it might strive to mount up, seeing that they, also, who strive to discharge earthly functions are eager for promotion? Or how will there

I, 3; II, 8-10. (MSL, 1:139

temptations, the latter on account of the straits of the times (I Cor. 7:26). Now by examining the reason for each statement it is easily seen that the permission to marry is conceded us as a necessity; but whatever necessity grants, she herself deprecates. In fact, inasmuch as it

nounce, and the Father holds for ratified? For even on earth children do not rightly and lawfully wed without their father's consent. What kind of yoke is that of two believers of one hope, on

g

e Monogamia, 9, 1

ence is made in both passages. But the teaching of the Church regarding remarriage after divorce was as Tertullian here speaks.

the six hundredth year after the foundation of the city that this kind of hardness of heart is recorded to have been committe

f God. She is bound to another, she who has not departed from him. But if she say, "In peace," then she must necessarily persevere in that peace with him whom she will be no longer able to divorce; not that she would ma

e et Eleemosynis, 1,

a matter beyond dispute. His most important contributions to the development of the Church were his hierarchical conceptions, which became generally accepted as the basis of the episcopal organization of the Church (see below, §§ 46, 50, 51). His writings, whic

might heal our wounds; He served that He might draw to liberty those who were in bondage; He underwent death, that He might set forth immortality to mortals. These are many and great boons of compassion. But, moreover, what a providence, and how great the clemency, that by a plan of salvation it is provided for us that more abundant care should be taken for preserving man who has been redeemed! For when the Lord, coming to us, had cured those wounds which Adam had borne, and had healed the old poi

ccles. 3:30]. Here, also, is shown and proved that as by the laver of the saving water the fire of Gehenna is extinguished, so, also, by almsgiving and works of righteousness the flame of sin is subdued. And because in baptism remission of sins is granted [pg 171] once and for all, constant and ceaseless labor, following the likene

ed.... He [the angel Raphael, cf. Tobit. 12:8, 9] shows that our prayers and fastings are of little avail unless they are aided by almsgiving; that entreaties alone are of little force to obtain what they seek, unless they be made sufficien

onarchian C

n impersonal power (Greek, dynamis) sent from God into the man Jesus; hence the term "Dynamistic Monarchians." The other class makes the divine element a person, without, however, making any personal distinction between Father and Son, only a difference in the mode in which the one [pg 172] divine person manifests Himself; hence the term "Modalistic Monarchians." By some the Dynamistic Monarchians have been called Adoptionists, because they generally taught that the man Jesus ultimately became the Son of

llected and annotated in Hi

istic Mon

efut., VII, 35, 3

bion, he alleges that He appeared somewhat as follows: that Jesus was a man, born of a virgin, according to the counsel of the Father, and that after He had lived in a way common to all men, and had become pre-eminently religious, He afterward at His baptism in Jordan received Christ, who came from above and descended upon Him. Therefore miracul

the leather-worker], attempted to establish the doctrine that a certain Melchizedek is the greatest power, and that this one is greater than Christ. And they allege that Christ happens to be according to the likeness o

h, in Eusebius, Hist. E

which Eusebius quotes at considerable length, is

ren which are older than the times of Victor, and which they wrote in behalf of the truth against the heathen and against heresies of their time. I refer to Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clement, and others. In all of their works Christ is spoken of as God. For who does not know the works of Iren?us and of Melito and of others, which teach that Christ is God and man? And how many psalms and hymns, written by the faithful brethren from the beginning, celebrate Christ

ere disciples of Theodotus, the leather-worker, who, as I said, was the first person excommunicated by Victor, bishop at that time, on account of this senseless sentiment or, rather, s

an be made from it. And as being of the earth and speaking of the earth and as ignorant of Him that cometh from above, they devote themselves to geometry and forsake the holy writings of God. Euclid is at least laboriously measured by some of them; Aristotle and Theophrastus admired; and Galen, perhaps, by some is even worshipped. But that those who use the arts of unbelievers for their heretical opinion and adulterate the simple fa

istic Mon

m, Refutatio, IX, 7 ff., X, 27; Tertullian, Adversus P

Refut., X, 27.

eresy was the official Roman doctrine for some years. See also IX, 12, of which the text may be found in Kirch, nn. 201-206. The whole question as to the position of Callistus, or Calixtus, as bishop of Rome and his relati

that He who had made all things was, when He wished, invisible to those who existed, and when He wished He became visible; that He is invisible when He is not seen and visible when He is seen; that the Father is unbegotten when He is not generated, but begotten when He is bo

ther and God, and that He is the Creator of the universe, and that He is called and regarded as Son by name, yet that in substance He is one.60 For the Spirit as Deity is not, he says, any being different from the Logos, or the Logos from Deity; therefore, th

efut., IX, 7, 11

person during his sojourn in Rome spread his godless opinion.... But Zephyrinus himself was in course of time enticed away and hurried headlong into the same opinion; and he had Callistus as his adviser

y styled the Father; and when it pleased Him to undergo generation and to be begotten, He himself became His own Son, not another's." For in this manner he thinks he establishes the Monarchy, allegin

of suffering." When he said, "The Father did not die but the Son," he would in this way continue to keep up ceaseless disturbance among the people. And we [i.e., Hippolytus], becoming aware of his opinions, did not give place to him,

Adversus Noetu

h seems to be the conclusion of an ex

him before the Church and examined him. But he denied at first that he held such opinions. Afterward, taking shelter among some and gathering round him some others who had been deceived in the same way, he wished to maintain his doctrine openly. And the blessed presbyters summoned him and examined him. But he resisted, saying, "What evil, then, do I commit when I glorify Christ?" And the presbyters replied to him, "We, too,

20:3]; and again in another passage, "I am the first and the last and besides me there is none other" [cf. Is. 44:6]. Thus they assert that God is one. And then they answer in this manner: "If th

Praxean, 1, 2, 27, 29

ted favorably. The work Adversus Praxean is the most important work of Western theology on the Trinity before the time of Augustine. It was corrected in some

in other respects, and above all inflated with the pride of martyrdom [confessorship] simply and solely because of a short annoyance in prison; when, even if he had given his body to be burned, it would have [pg 179] profited him nothing, not having the love of God, whose very gifts he resisted and destroyed. For after the Bishop of Rome had acknowledged the prophetic gifts of Montanus, Priscilla, and Maximilla, and in consequence of the acknowledgment had bestowed his peace on the churches

born, and the Father suffered-God himself,

nd the river-yet by help of their conceit of an indivisible number [with issues] of two and three, they endeavor to interpret this distinction in a way which shall nevertheless agree with their own opi

or we do not say that He died after the divine nature, but only after the human.... They [the heretics], indeed, fearing to incur blasphemy against the F

g

, in Socrates. Hist. Ec.

of Antioch, A. D. 345, the elaborate Formula Macrostichos was put forth, in which the council attempted to steer a middle course between the Sabel

same person, we expel with good reason from the Church, because by the incarnation they subject the Father, who is infinite and incapab

s contra Arianos, IV, 9,

e been raised against the genuineness of the fourth. The following quotations are, in any case, valuable as setting forth the Sabellian position. But the

llius, who said that Son and Father were the same and did away with bot

ut the same Spirit, so also the Father is th

Expositio fide

g this little work of uncertain dat

he Sabellians, calling Him of one but not of the same

, Epistula, 210:3.

ore important ecclesiastics of the fourth century, and the leader

f a man calls Father, Son, and Holy Spirit one, but manifold as to person [prosopon], and makes one hypo

aying, as he did, that the same God, being one in substance,62 was metamorphosed as the nee

the Consequences of its

his rigoristic discipline or morality was not acceptable to the bulk of Christians, and along with the Montanists was driven out of the Church, except in the case of the clergy, to whom a stricter morality was regarded as applicable. In this way a distinct

ortatione Castitat

t his wife, he treated it as the foulest adultery. This work belongs to the later years of Tertullian's life and inci

baptize and are a priest to yourself alone. But where there are three, there is the Church, though they are laics.... Therefore, if, when there is necessity, you have the right of a priest in yourself, you ought also to have the discipline of a priest where there is necessity that you have the right of a priest. As a digamist,64 do you baptize? As a digamist, do you offer? How much more capital a crime it is for a digamist laic to act as a priest,

g

Penitentia

ne developed rapidly and became an important part of the business of the local congregation (b). The sinner, by a long course of self-mortification and prayer, obtained the desired readmission (c). The Montanists, however, in accord with their general rigorism, would make it extremely hard, if not impossible, to obtain readmission or forgiveness. The body of the Church, and certainly the Roman church under the lead of its bishop, who relied upon Matt. 16:18, adopted a more liberal policy and granted forgiveness on relatively easy terms to even the worst offenders (d). The discipline grew less severe, because martyrs or conf

g

Pastor, Ma

the Pastor, v

his sins ought not to sin any more, but to live in purity.... The Lord, therefore, being merciful, has had mercy on the work of His hands, and has set repentance for them; and He has intrusted to me the power over this repentance. And therefore I say unto you that if any one is tempted by the

. Apology, 39.

e, rebukes and sacred censures are administered. For with a great gravity is the work of judging carried on among us, as befits those who feel assured that they are in the sight of God; an

P?nitentia, 4, 9. (

ngs to the Catholic period of Tertullian's liter

repentance, O sinner like myself (nay, rather, less a sinner than myself, for I acknowledge my pre-eminence in sins), do you hasten to embrace as a shipwrecked

ased. And thus exomologesis is a discipline for man's prostration and humiliation, enjoining a demeanor calculated to move mercy. With regard, also, to the very dress and food, it commands one to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover the body as in mourning, to lay the spirit low in sorrow, to exchange for severe treatment the sins which he has committed; furthermore, to permit as food and drink only what is plain-not for the stomach's sake, but for the soul's; for the most part, however, to feed prayers on fastings

udicitia, 1, 21, 22.

st chapter, was bishop of Rome 217 to 222. The work, the

e; namely, that the Pontifex Maximus, the bishop of bishops, issues an edict: "I r

clete himself in the person of the new prophets, saying: "The Church has the power to forgive sins, but I will not do it, lest

n, are you, subverting and wholly changing the manifest intention of the Lord, who conferred the gift personally upon Peter? "On Thee," He says, "I will build my Church," and "I will give thee the keys," not to the Church; and "whatsoever thou shalt have loosed or bound," not what they shall have loosed or bound. For so the result actually teaches. In him (Peter) the Church was

spiritual men that this power will correspondingly belong, either to an Apostle or else to a prophet.... And accordingly the "Church," it is

icators gain access to him; instantly prayers resound about him; instantly pools of tears of the polluted surround him; nor are there any who are more diligent in purchasing entrance to the prison than they who have lost the f

Ad Martyres, 1

ve of the practice of giving libelli pacis by the confessors, a custom which in his more rigoristic period under the influence of Montanism he denounced most vehemently; see pre

. The prison, truly, is the devil's house as well, wherein he keeps his family.... Let him not be successful in his own kingdom by setting you at variance with one another, but let him find you armed and [pg 188] fortified with concord; for your peace is w

De Pudicitia, 19

on of penance and remained as a feature of ecclesiastical discipline from the time of Tertull

plighted word; or lying from bashfulness or necessity? In business, in official duties, in trade, in food, in sight, in hearing, by how great temptations are we assailed! So that if there were no pardon for such simple sins as these, salvation would be unattainable by any. Of these, then, there will be pardon through the successful Intercessor with the Father, Christ. But there are other sins wholly different

g

l School of Alexandri

y. It aimed to give a general secular and religious training. It appears to have been in existence well before the end of the second century, having been founded, it is thought, by Pant?nus. Clement assisted in the instruction from 190, and from about 200 was head of the school for a few years. In 202 or 203 he was forced by persecution under Septimius Severus to flee from the city. He died before 215. Of his works, the most important is his three-part treatise composed of his Protrepticus, an apologetic work addressed to the Greeks; his P?degogus, a treatise on Christian morality; and his Stromata, or miscellanies. Origen became head of the Catechetical School in 203, when but eighteen years old, and remained in that position until 232, wh

c., VI, deals at length with Origen; Gregory

xandria, Stromata,

ristian revelation is almost identical with that of the

thou refer what is good, whether belonging to the Greeks or to us, to Providence. For God is the cause of all good things; but of some primarily, as of the Old and the New Testament, and of others by consequence, as philosophy. Perchance, too, philosophy was give

en thou hast strengthened wisdom with a breastwork by philosophy, and with expenditure, thou wilt preserve her unassaila

g

andria, Stromata, V

In making faith suffice for salvation, Clement clearly distinguishes his position from that of

the divine Word. For by it faith is made perfect, inasmuch as it is solely by it that the man of faith becomes perfect. Faith is an internal good, and without searching for God confesses His exi

points, the beginning and the end, I mean faith and love, are not taught. But knowledge, which is conveyed from communication through the grace of God as a deposit, is intrusted to those who show themselves worthy

st saving change is that from heathenism to faith, as I said before; and the second, that from faith to knowledge. And this latter passing on to [pg 192] love, thereafter gives a mutual friendship between that which knows and that which is known. And perhaps he who has alread

ndria, Stromata, V,

f the Chris

not philosophy, therefore, rightly called by Socrates the meditation on death? For he who neither employs his eyes in the exerc

he great mysteries concerning the universe nothing remains to be learned, but only to contemplate and comprehend with the mind nature and things. We shall understand the more of purification by confession, and of contemplation by analysis, advancing by analysis to the first notion, beginning wi

the conception of the Almighty, knowing not what He is, but knowing what He is not. And form and motion, or standing, or a throne or place, or right hand or left, are not at all to be conceived as belonging to

rincipiis, I, 2:

on of the Son" was of primary importance i

er by form, or color, or magnitude. And who in his sound senses ever sought for form, or color, or size, in wisdom, in respect of its being wisdom? And who that is capable of entertaining reverential thoughts or feelings regarding God can suppose or believe that God the Father ever existed, even for a moment of time, without having generated this Wisdom? For in that case he must say either that God was unable to generate Wisdom before He produced her, so that He afterward called into being that which formerly did not exist, or that He could, but-what is impious to say of God-was unwilling to generate; both of which suppositions, it is patent to all, are alike absurd and impio

rincipiis, I, 2:

employed to show the eternal generation of the Son, but it was rejected by the

uld undoubtedly show that during those ages or periods God was not omnipotent but became omnipotent afterward: viz., from the time that He began to have those over whom He exercised power; and in this way He will appear to have received a certain increase, and to have risen from a lower to a higher condition; since there can be no doubt that it is better for Him to be omnipotent than not to be so. And, now, how can it appear otherwise than absurd, that when God possessed

rincipiis, II, 9

caused great offence in after years when theology became more stereotyped, and it has retained no place i

shown and will yet show in the proper place, were endowed with the power of free choice, this freedom of his will incited each one either to progress by imitation of God or induced him to failure through negligence. And this, as we have already stated, is the cause of the diversity among rational creatures, deriving its origin not from the will or judgment of the Creator, but from the freedom of the individual will. God, however, who deemed it just to arrange His creatures according to merit, brought down these differences [pg 196] of understanding into the harmony of one world, that He might adorn, as it were, one dwelling, in which there ought to be not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of woo

l. in Exod., VI,

tion of the death of Christ to the devil, and the ultimate salvation of every soul. The theory that Christ's death was a ransom paid to the devil was developed by Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory the Great, and reappeared constantly in theology down to the scholastic

ies I have put away your mother." Thou seest, therefore, that we are the creatures of God, but each one has been sold to his sins, and has fallen from his Creator. Therefore we belong to God, inasmuch as we have been c

a Celsum, VII, 17

did all for the good of the human race, yea, even for the good of all intelligent beings. And there is nothing absurd in the fact that a man died, and that his death was not only an example of death endured for the sake of piety, but also the first blow in the conflict which is to overthrow the power of the evil spirit of the devil, who had obtained dominion over

. in Matt., XVI,

of the fact that he could not endure the torment connected with holding it fast. Therefore [pg 198] death, which appeared to reign over Him, did not reign over Him, since He was "free among the dead" and stronger than the power of death. He is, indeed, so far superior to it that all who from among those overcome by death will follow Him can follow Him, as death is unable to do anything against them.... We are therefore redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus. As a ransom for us

rincipiis, I, 6:

in brief the theory o

r any of these orders, who act under the government of the devil and obey his wicked commands, will be able in a future world to be converted to righteousness because of their possessing the faculty of freedom of will, or whether persistent and [pg 199] inveterate wickedness may be changed by habit into a kind of nature, you, reader, may decide; yet so that neither in those things which are seen and temporal nor in those which are unseen and eternal one portion is to differ wholly from the final unity and fitness of things. But in the meantime, both in those temporal worlds which are seen, and in those eternal worlds which are invisible, all those beings are arranged according to a regular plan, in the order and degree of merit; so that some of them in the first, others in the second, some even in the last times

ipiis, IV, 9-15. (MS

ego

taken over from the Jewish and Greek philosophers and theologians who employed it in the study of their sacred books. Origen, it should be added, contrib

ed by the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, according to the will of the Father of all things through Jesus Christ, and that they have come down to us, we must point out the modes of interpretation which appear correct to us, who cling to the standard of the heavenly Church according to the succession of the Apostles of Jesus Christ. Now that there are certain mystical economies made known in the Holy Scriptures, all,

[cf. Prov. 22:20 f., LXX]. One ought, then, to portray the ideas of Holy Scripture in a threefold manner upon his soul, in order that the simple man may be edified by the "flesh," as it were, of Scripture, for so we name the obvious sense; while he who has ascended a certain way may be edified by the "soul," as it were. The perfect man, and he who resembles those spoken of by the Apostle, when he says, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, but not

orporeal" sense, as we shall show in the following, there are also places wh

learning nothing worthy of God, or, by not departing from the letter, come to the knowledge of nothing more divine. And this, also, we must know: that, since the principal aim is to announce the "spiritual" connection in those things that are done and that ought to be done where the Word found that things done according to the history could be adapted to these mystic senses, He made use of them, concealing from the multitude the deeper meaning; but where in the narrative of the development of super-sensual things there did not follow the performance of tho

Neo-Pl

Neo-Platonism. It was thoroughly eclectic in its treatment of earlier systems, but under Plotinus attained no small degree of consistency. The emphasis was laid especially upon the religious problems, and in the system it may be fairly said that the religious aspirations of heathenism found their highest and purest

tinus, including those in French and German together with a select list of works bearing on Neo-Platonism); Select Works of Porphyry, trans. by Thomas Taylor, London,

orphyrii philosophi Platonici opuscu

ical aspects see Plotinus, translated by T. Taylor. Porphyry was, after Plotinus, the greatest of [pg 203] the Neo-Platonists, and brought out most clearly those religious

l flees from God and wishes that the foreknowledge of God did not exist; and from the divine law which punishes all wickedness it shrinks away completely. But a wise man's soul is in harmony with God, ever sees Him, ever is with Him. But if that which rules takes pleasure in that which is ruled, then God cares for the wise and provides for him; and therefore is the

who, by his own works, renders himself agreeable to God, and is deified by the conforming of his own soul to the incorruptible blessed One. And it is he himself who makes himself impious and displeasing to God, not suffering evil from God, for the Divinity does only what is good. It is the man himself who c

ed they render no help. But he who honors God as needing anything declares, without knowing it, that he is superior to God. Therefore it is not angering God that harms us, but not knowing God, for wrath is alien to God, because it is the product o

God.69 Neither tears nor supplications turn God from His purpose; nor do sacrifices honor God, nor the multitude of offerings glorify God, but the godlike mind well governed enters into union with God. For like is of necessity joined to like. But the victims of the se

g