“We Christians are forbidden to introduce anything on our own authority or to choose what someone else introduces on his own authority. Our authorities are the Lord’s apostles… They faithfully passed on to the nations the teaching which they had received from Christ.”
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics 6, in Greenslade, Early Latin Theology (Westminster, 1956), 34 — as quoted in The History of Apologetics, p. 93. Short excerpt from an in-copyright translation, used under fair use.in copyright · fair use
“To know nothing in opposition to the rule (of faith), is to know all things.”
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics 14 (trans. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Rule of Faith
ChristologyArgument · power 55 · 100% accurate
In the gameOne public tradition, handed down openly in all the churches.
Learned byPrescription (Lv 1)
Strong against
×4Gos. Judasa book · why?
And this book is BUILT on that error — it has nowhere left to stand once the rule is read out.
×4Gos. Thomasa book · why?
And this book is BUILT on that error — it has nowhere left to stand once the rule is read out.
×2"That’s Three Gods"an argument · why?
Irenaeus points to the one faith held by the churches everywhere: one God the Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The church has always named three and counted one God.
×2Hidden Sparkan argument · why?
Irenaeus shows the church has not grown through sharing secrets but by bearing witness (publicly!) to the truth, from Germany to Egypt.
×2Letter to Floraan argument · why?
Ptolemy wrote it privately, to one woman. Irenaeus’ test is a faith said aloud in every church, for anyone to compare.
×2The Traitor’s Handsan argument · why?
Irenaeus points to the one faith held by all the churches together. The Donatists kept a pure church in one province, but the true church is spread through the whole world.
×2Thirty Aeonsan argument · why?
Irenaeus’ complaint was that no two Valentinian teachers described the aeons the same way. He compared their disagreements against the shared and consistent testimony of the church — the Rule of Faith.
“Crucify us — torture us — condemn us — destroy us! Your iniquity is the proof of our innocence.”
Tertullian, Apology 50, in Arbesmann, Daly & Quain, Tertullian: Apologetical Works and Minucius Felix: Octavius (Fathers of the Church, 1950), 125 — as quoted in The History of Apologetics, p. 92. Short excerpt from an in-copyright translation, used under fair use.in copyright · fair use
How it works in the game: the move Turn the Charge
EthicsArgument · power 60 · 100% accurate
In the gameTertullian quits playing defense. The people accusing Christians of devouring infants are the people filling the arena — so he hands the charge back, addressed. Frequently drops the foe’s Contend.
Learned byApology (Lv 1)
Strong against
×2"Haters of Mankind"an argument · why?
Tertullian hands the charge back. The crowds cheering in the arena are the ones who hate mankind. The Christians are the ones dying there.
“So we sojourn with you in the world, abjuring neither forum, nor shambles, nor bath, nor booth, nor workshop, nor inn, nor weekly market, nor any other places of commerce. We sail with you, and fight with you, and till the ground with you.”
Tertullian, Apology 42 (trans. S. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move We Sojourn With You
EthicsArgument · power 52 · 100% accurate
In the gameThe charge is that these people are no use to a city. Tertullian answers by listing where you can find them: your forum, your baths, your workshops, your ships, your army. The argument is five words long.
Learned byApology (Lv 6)
“This (I say) is my property. I have long possessed it; I possessed it before you. I hold sure title-deeds from the original owners themselves, to whom the estate belonged. I am the heir of the apostles… On what ground are heretics strangers and enemies to the apostles, if it be not from the difference of their teaching?”
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics 37 (trans. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Case Dismissed
RationalityArgument · power 65 · 100% accurate
In the gameA move from Roman property law. The church has held these Scriptures since the apostles, so a newcomer has no standing to dispute them. Often lowers the foe’s Contend.
Learned byPrescription (Lv 12)
“We become more numerous every time we are hewn down by you: the blood of Christians is seed.”
Tertullian, Apology 50, in Arbesmann, Daly & Quain (Fathers of the Church, 1950), 125 — as quoted in The History of Apologetics, p. 92. Commonly misquoted as “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Short excerpt from an in-copyright translation, used under fair use.in copyright · fair use
How it works in the game: the move The Blood Is Seed
EthicsArgument · power 65 · 100% accurate
In the gameTertullian’s real sentence, not the popular misquote. It is a warning to Rome: every persecution makes the church grow. Hits harder when the book is nearly spent.
Learned byApology (Lv 13)
Strong against
×2Mischievous Superstitionan argument · why?
Tertullian’s point: every time Rome killed Christians, there were more of them. People do not die in their thousands for a fad they could escape with one word.
“The object of our worship is the One God, He who by His commanding word, His arranging wisdom, His mighty power, brought forth from nothing this entire mass of our world, with all its array of elements, bodies, spirits, for the glory of His majesty.”
Tertullian, Apology 17.1 (trans. S. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Fashioned Out of Nothing
Theology ProperArgument · power 64 · 100% accurate
In the gameSixteen chapters of taking Rome’s case apart, and then Tertullian finally says what he is FOR. One God, who made the whole mass of it out of nothing, for no reason but his own glory.
Learned byApology (Lv 15)
“What has Jerusalem to do with Athens, the Church with the Academy, the Christian with the heretic?”
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics 7, in Greenslade, Early Latin Theology (Westminster, 1956), 36 — as quoted in The History of Apologetics, p. 94. The “Academy” is Plato’s school. Short excerpt from an in-copyright translation, used under fair use.in copyright · fair use
How it works in the game: the move Athens and Jerusalem
RationalityArgument · power 60 · 100% accurate
In the gameTertullian’s most misread sentence. He used philosophy all the time. What he refused was letting people who had abandoned the apostles’ teaching call their speculations Christian.
Learned byPrescription (Lv 16)
“Without ceasing, for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray for life prolonged; for security to the empire; for protection to the imperial house; for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest, whatever, as man or Cæsar, an emperor would wish.”
Tertullian, Apology 30 (trans. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move We Pray for Caesar
RationalityArgument · power 55 · 100% accurate
In the gameThe charge was disloyalty. Christians would not burn incense to the emperor, but they prayed every day for his life, his armies, his senate and his peace, to the only God who could grant them.
Learned byApology (Lv 16)
Strong against
×2The True Wordan argument · why?
Tertullian answered the charge of disloyalty: Christians pray every day for the emperor, his armies and his empire. They refuse only to worship him.
“You put Christians on crosses and stakes: what image is not formed from the clay in the first instance, set on cross and stake? The body of your god is first consecrated on the gibbet… We lay our heads upon the block; before the lead, and the glue, and the nails are put in requisition, your deities are headless.”
Tertullian, Apology 12 (trans. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Sarcasm
RationalityArgument · power 60 · 95% accurate
In the gameSay the argument back to it, straight-faced and in full, until the shape of it does the refuting. Often finds the telling stroke — and occasionally goes too far and misses.
Learned byApology (Lv 19)
“You have succeeded in finding when you have believed. For you would not have believed if you had not found; as neither would you have sought except with a view to find. Your object, therefore, in seeking was to find; and your object in finding was to believe. All further delay for seeking and finding you have prevented by believing.”
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics 10 (trans. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Seek Until You Find
RationalityArgument · power 60 · 100% accurate
In the game“Seek, and you shall find” was being used as a licence never to arrive. Tertullian points out that the sentence has an end in it: you sought in order to find, and found in order to believe, and you have believed.
Learned byPrescription (Lv 19)
“Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning… as the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter.”
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics 32 (trans. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Produce the Records
EcclesiologyArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate
In the gameName your bishops back to an apostle. Smyrna could: Polycarp was placed there by John. Rome could: Clement was ordained by Peter. A book or group that cannot has answered the question.
Learned byPrescription (Lv 21)
Strong against
×2Gos. Barnabasa book · why?
Tertullian asked for a line of bishops back to an apostle. The Gospel of Barnabas has none: nobody had heard of it before the late Middle Ages.
×2Gos. Judasa book · why?
Tertullian’s test: show your line of teachers back to an apostle. The Gospel of Judas came from a second-century sect, and no church received it from anyone who knew Judas.
×2Gos. Thomasa book · why?
Tertullian’s test: name your bishops back to an apostle. The churches of Smyrna and Rome could. No church ever received the Gospel of Thomas from Thomas.
×2Hidden Sparkan argument · why?
Tertullian asks for names, not beliefs. A teaching that arrived in secret has no list to hand over.
×2Letter to Floraan argument · why?
It claims a tradition handed down privately. Tertullian asks who handed it, and no name is ever produced.
×2On the Unitya book · why?
Jerome reports that Cyprian read Tertullian every day and would say, “Give me the master.”
×2Thirty Aeonsan argument · why?
Tertullian’s answer to a secret handover: the churches with the clearest lists teach none of this.
“Observe also the Spirit speaking of the Father and the Son, in the character of a third Person: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.””
Tertullian, Against Praxeas 11 (trans. Peter Holmes, ANF 3, public domain); cf. Psalm 110:1.public domain
How it works in the game: the move Trinitas
Theology ProperArgument · power 75 · 100% accurate
In the gameAgainst Praxeas, answered with grammar rather than mystery: in scene after scene of Scripture there is one who speaks, one who is spoken to, and one who is spoken about, and no amount of costume-changing makes those the same person.
Learned byTertullian’s Corpus (Lv 22)
Strong against
×2"That’s Three Gods"an argument · why?
Tertullian reads Psalm 110: the Lord said to my Lord. One speaks, one is spoken to, and the Spirit speaks the verse. Three persons and one God, and Tertullian coined the word trinitas for it.
×2Bittul Ikkarei ha-Notzriman argument · why?
Tertullian answers with grammar, not mystery. In Psalm 110 one speaks, one is spoken to, and the Spirit speaks the verse. Three persons in one God is what the text shows, not a sum that fails.
×2One Actor, Three Masksan argument · why?
Tertullian reads Psalm 110: the Lord said to my Lord. One actor in a mask cannot speak to himself as another person. Scripture shows three who speak to one another.
×2The Kuzarian argument · why?
Tertullian shows that Israel’s own Scriptures speak of more than one person. In Psalm 110 one speaks, one is spoken to, and the Spirit speaks the verse.
“The Son of God was crucified. There is no shame [in believing this], because it is indeed shameful. And the Son of God died. It is surely to be believed, because it is absurd. And having been buried, he rose again. It is certain, because it is impossible.”
Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ 5, as quoted in The History of Apologetics, p. 98 — the actual Latin is certum est, quia impossibile, NOT the later credo quia absurdum. Short excerpt used under fair use.in copyright · fair use
How it works in the game: the move Certain Because Impossible
RationalityArgument · power 90 · 90% accurate
In the gameNobody invents a god who dies ashamed. Tertullian takes the most embarrassing thing in the story and argues that the embarrassment is the evidence — the reasoning Aristotle used, aimed at a cross.
Learned byTertullian’s Corpus (Lv 26)
Strong against
×2Mere Appearancean argument · why?
Tertullian points to the part nobody would invent: the Son of God dying in shame. A story made up to impress people would have left that out.
“My assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other… on the ground of Personality, not of Substance—in the way of distinction, not of division.”
Tertullian, Against Praxeas 9, 12 (trans. Peter Holmes, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Distinction, Not Division
Theology ProperArgument · power 75 · 100% accurate
In the gameThree is a count of persons, not of gods. Tertullian says the Father, the Son and the Spirit are distinct from one another and are never divided, because they share one substance.
Learned byTertullian’s Corpus (Lv 28)
Strong against
×2.5The Institutes (1559)a book · why?
Calvin defends Tertullian’s Against Praxeas in the Institutes (1.13.28) and quotes it himself: the Father and the Son, each in his own name and person.
×2"That’s Three Gods"an argument · why?
Tertullian met this objection around A.D. 213. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are three persons, distinct from one another, and they are not divided, because they are one substance. Three persons is not three gods.
“Whenever the soul comes to itself, as out of a surfeit, or a sleep, or a sickness, and attains something of its natural soundness, it speaks of God… O noble testimony of the soul by nature Christian!”
Tertullian, Apology 17.5–6 (trans. S. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain). The words he lists are “God is great and good,” “God sees,” “I commend myself to God.”public domain
How it works in the game: the move Testimony of the Soul
PresuppositionArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate
In the gameNobody coaches a man startled awake, or a woman who has just heard bad news. Tertullian listens to what people say when they are not being religious at all, and finds the same word in every mouth.
Learned byTertullian’s Corpus (Lv 32)
“All are of One, by unity (that is) of substance; while the mystery of the dispensation is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect.”
Tertullian, Against Praxeas 2 (trans. Peter Holmes, ANF 3, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Three in Degree
Theology ProperArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate
In the gameAround A.D. 213 Praxeas was teaching in Rome that the Father and the Son are one person. Tertullian answered with the terms the Latin church used from then on: one substance, three persons, set in order.
Learned byTertullian’s Corpus (Lv 34)
Strong against
×2.5The Institutes (1559)a book · why?
Calvin says he is glad to use Tertullian’s word “economy” from this same treatise (Institutes 1.13.6): an order in God that leaves his one being undivided.
×2Bittul Ikkarei ha-Notzriman argument · why?
Tertullian gave the church its terms for this in Latin, around A.D. 213: one substance, one condition, one power, and three persons in order within it. What is counted as three is the persons. What is one is the substance.
“Go zealously on, good presidents, you will stand higher with the people if you sacrifice the Christians at their wish, kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent.”
Tertullian, Apology 50 (trans. S. Thelwall, ANF 3, public domain) — the sentence just before “the blood of Christians is seed.”public domain
How it works in the game: the move Your Injustice, Our Proof
RationalityArgument · power 70 · 95% accurate
In the gameKill us, torture us, grind us to dust — go on. Tertullian invites the whole sentence, because the size of it is the case for the defence. Nobody needs that much force to punish a real crime.
Learned byTertullian’s Corpus (Lv 38)
