THE ORIGINS OF PROTESTANTISM 



the old and expressive term symbols, as a sort 

 of banner around which to rally their adherents. 

 This militant character of the early church ex- 

 plains the persistency with which all gnostic or 

 rationalizing interpretations of sacred mysteries 

 were condemned and set aside ; they were liable 

 to the charge of offering some possible ground 

 of compromise with pagan philosophic ideas. 

 The most rigid and uncompromising symbol 

 the one which involved the most complete self- 

 surrender to the interests of the common strug- 

 gle was the one which worked the best; and 

 hence there lay a certain sort of rude practical 

 logic beneath the much-derided and often mis- 

 quoted phrase of Tertullian, Credo quia impos- 

 sibile^ To rationalize the new dogma of the 

 Trinity was in itself to make a quasi-concession 

 to the Neo-Platonists ; and herein was reason 

 enough why the Athanasian interpretation 

 should supplant the Arian. An organized priest- 

 hood was necessary, too, in order to preserve 

 the liberty of the Church at a time when the po- 

 litical structure of society was such that there 

 was no other available check upon the auto- 

 cratic power of the emperors. In its attitude as 

 a "church militant," therefore, Christianity was 

 compelled to enforce conformity to dogma, and 



1 This point is well brought out in the Rev. J. H. Allen's 

 excellent little book, Christian History in its Three Great 

 Periods. 



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