Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3 (Latin Christianity: Tertullian, Apologetic and Anti-Marcion works)

Let it be borne in mind, that if this sad close of TertuUian's career cannot be extenuated, the later history of Latin Christianity forbids us to condemn him, in the tones which proceeded from the Virgin Church with authority, and which the law of her testimony and the instinct of self-preservation forced her to utter. Let us reflect that St. Bernard and after him the Schoolmen, whom we so deservedly honour, separated themselves far more absolutely than ever Tertullian did from the orthodoxy of Primitive Christendom. The schism which withdrew the West from Communion with the original seats of Christendom, and from Nicene Catholicity, was formidable beyond all expression, in comparison with TertuUian's entanglements with a delusion which the See of Rome itself had momentarily patronized. Since the Council of Trent, not a theologian of the Latins has been free from organic heresies, compared with which the fanaticism of our author was a trifling aberration. Since the late Council of the Vatican, essential Montanism has become organized in the Latin • Elucidation I. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. • Elucidation I. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. Churches: for what are the new revelations and oracles of the pontiff but the deliria of another claimant to the voice and inspiration of the Paraclete ? Poor Tertullian ! The sad influences of his decline and folly have been fatally felt in all the subsequent history of the West, but, surely subscribers to the Modern Creed of the Vatican have reason to "speak gently of their father' s fall. " To Dollinger, with the " Old Catholic " remnant only, is left the right to name the Montanists heretics, or to upbraid Tertullian as a lapser from Catholicity.' From Dr.…