[Footnote 46: De praescr. 13; de virg. vol. 1; adv. Prax. 2. The latter passage is thus worded: "Unicum quidem deum credimus, sub hac tamen dispensatione quam [Greek: oikonomian] dicimus, ut unici del sit et filius sermo ipsius, qui ex ipso processerit, per quern omnia facta sunt et sine quo factum est nihil, hunc missum a patre in virginem et ex ea natum, hominem et deum, filium hominis et filium dei et cognominatum Iesum Christum, hunc passum, hunc mortuum et sepultum secundum scripturas et resuscitatum a patre et in coelo resumptum sedere ad dextram patris, venturum judicare vivos et mortuos; qui exinde miserit secundum promissionem suam a patre spiritum s. paracletum sanctificatorem fidei eorum qui credunt in patrem et filium et spiritum s. Hanc regulam ab initio evangelii decucurrisse."] [Footnote 47: De praescr. 13.] [Footnote 48: L.c.] [Footnote 49: L.c.] [Footnote 50: L.c.: "id verbum filium eius appellatum, in nomine dei varie visum a patriarchis, in prophetis semper auditum, postremo delatum ex spiritu patris dei et virtute in virginem Mariam, carnem factum," etc.] [Footnote 51: L.c.] [Footnote 52: Adv. Prax. 2: "Unicum quidem deum credimus, sub hac tamen dispensatione quam [Greek: oikonomian] dicimus, ut unici dei sit et filius sermo ipsius," etc.] [Footnote 53: But Tertullian also knows of a "regula disciplinae" (according to the New Testament) on which he puts great value, and thereby shows that he has by no means forgotten that Christianity is a matter of conduct. We cannot enter more particularly into this rule here.] [Footnote 54: Note here the use of "contesserare" in Tertullian. See de praescr. 20: "Itaque tot ac tantae ecclesiae una est illa ab apostolis prima, ex qua omnes. Sic omnes prima et omnes apostolicae, dum una omnes. Probant unitatem communicatio pacis et appellatio fraternitatis et _contesseratio_ hospitalitatis, quae iura non alia ratio regit quam eiusdem sacramenti una traditio." De praescr. 36: "Videamus, quid ecclesia Romanensis cum Africanis ecclesiis contesserarit."] [Footnote 55: We need not here discuss whether and in what way the model of the philosophic schools was taken as a standard. But we may refer to the fact that from the middle of the second century the Apologists, that is the Christian philosophers, had exercised a very great influence on the Old Catholic Fathers. But we cannot say that 2. John 7-11 and Didache XI. 1 f. attest the practice to be a very old one. These passages only show that it had preparatory stages; the main element, namely, the formulated summary of the faith, is there sought for in vain.] [Footnote 56: Herein lay the defect, even if the content of the law of faith had coincided completely with the earliest tradition. A man like Tertullian knew how to protect himself in his own way from this defect, but his attitude is not typical.]