[99] Cf. Tert. _de cor. mil._ 11, if a soldier is converted, _aut deserendum statim ut a multis actum, aut,_ etc. The chapter is a general discussion whether military service and Christianity are compatible. Cf. also Tert. _de idol._ 19, _Non convenit sacramento divino et humano, signo Christi et signo diaboli, castris lucis et castris tenebrarum ... quomodo autem bellabit immo quomodo etiam in pace militabit sine gladio quem dominus abstulit? .... omnem postea militem dominus in Petro exarmando discinxit_. Tertullian, it may be remembered, was a soldier's son. [100] viii, 68. The Greeks used _basileus_ as Emperor. [101] viii, 69. For this taunt against the Jews, cf. Cicero, _pro Flacco_, 28, 69. [102] viii, 72. [103] viii, 73. [104] viii, 75. [105] Cf. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ i, 55, who says that hardly any words could be to the many more absurd than the mysteries of the faith. [106] Clem. Alex. _Protr._ 56 (on idols). _ou gar moi themis empisteusai pote tois apsychois tas tes psyches elpidas_. [107] This was at all events the view of Clement, _Strom._ i, 19. _oude katapsephixesthai ton Hellenon oion te psile te peri ton dogmatiothenton autois chromenous phrasei, me synembrainontas eis ten kata meros achri syllnoseos ekkalypsin. pistos gar eu mala ho met' empeirias elegchos, hoti kai teleiotate apadeixis ehurisketai he gnosis ton kategnosmenon_. [108] It is regrettable that Clement should have flung one of these against the school of Carpocrates, _Strom._ iii, 10. {262} CHAPTER IX CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA Viderint qui Stoicum et Platonicum et dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt.--TERTULLIAN, _de praescr. haeret._ 7. No one can allege that the Bible has failed to win access for want of metaphysics being applied to it.--MATTHEW ARNOLD, _Literature and Dogma_, p. 121. Though Celsus had much to say upon the vulgar and servile character of the members of the Christian community, he took the trouble to write a book to refute Christianity; and this book, as we have seen, was written from a more or less philosophical point of view. He professed himself doubtful as to whether his opponents would understand his arguments; but that he wrote at all, and that he wrote as he did, is evidence that the new faith was making its way upward through society, and was gaining a hold upon the classes of wealth and education. [Sidenote: The rise of the Church]