Academic Exercise on the Abstinence of the Early Christians from Reading Profane Books

-stians. Therefore, those who held the most power in the royal courts persuaded the princes to wipe out the name of Christians. They sought to do this by killing the worshippers of the true Deity original: "veri Numinis" after torturing them with the most refined cruelties. Relying on their own intellectual resources, these opponents drew their pens and vomited out every kind of curse and insult against the Christians. They intended, of course, to spread a thick fog of error over the entire world.

Thesis III.

(a) Compare Colbergius in the Preface to the specimen History of the Origin and Progress of Heresies. Ehsan Colberg (1659–1698) was a German Lutheran theologian who wrote extensively about the history of sects and the perceived dangers of mixing philosophy with theology.

If any faith is to be placed in the ancient records, there were even some among the number of Philosophers who made an unfortunate attempt to mix the dictates of human reason with the mysteries of divine revelation. (a) Because of this, Philosophy itself suffered such a sad fate that it was commonly called the mother and source of heresies among the Church Fathers. In the writings of Tertullian Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 220 AD) was a prolific Christian author from Carthage. He is famous for his antagonistic stance toward Greek philosophy, famously asking, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" the following may be read: Heresies themselves are prompted by philosophy original: "Ipſæ hæreſes a Philoſophia [ſubornantur]"