Jerome, the oracle on such subjects, from whom the Roman Catholic Church
is unwilling to allow any appeal, expressly tells us that Cyprian[47],
who called Tertullian the Master, never passed a single day without
studying his works; and that after Tertullian had remained a presbyter
of the Church to middle age, he was driven, by the envy and revilings of
the members of the Roman Church, to fall from its unity, and espouse
Montanism. Bellarmin calls him a heretic, and says he is the first
heretic who denied that the saints went at once and forthwith to glory.
[Hieron. edit. 1684. tom. i. p. 183.]
[Footnote 47: The words of Jerome, who refers to the
circumstance more than once, are very striking: "I saw one
Paulus, who said that he had seen the secretary (notarium) of
Cyprian at Rome, who used to tell him that Cyprian never passed
a single day without reading Tertullian; and that he often said
to him, 'Give me the Master,' meaning Tertullian."--Hieron. vol.
iv. part ii. p. 115.]
A decided line of distinction is drawn by Roman Catholic writers between
the works of Tertullian written before he espoused the errors of
Montanus, and his works written after that unhappy step. The former they
hold in great estimation, the latter are by many considered of far less
authority. I do not see how such a distinction ought to affect his
testimony on the historical point immediately before us.
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