A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

§ 17. The Extension of Christianity 65Cyrene, Romans and sojourners, yes, and in Jerusalem, Jewsand other nations; 25 as now the varied races of the Gætulians,and manifold confines of the Moors, all the limits of Spain, andthe diverse nations of the Gauls, and the places of the Britonsinaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ, and of theSarmatians and Dacians, and Germans and Scythians, and ofmany remote nations and provinces and many islands unknownto us and which we can hardly enumerate? In all of these placesthe name of Christ, who has already come, now reigns.(b) Tertullian, Apologeticus adversus Gentes pro Christianis,37. (MSL, 1:525.)The date of this work is 197 A. D.We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place amongyou—cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the verycamps, tribes, companies, palace, Senate, and Forum. We haveleft you only the temples.(c) Irenæus, Adv. Hæreses, I, 10, 3. (MSG, 7:551 f.) For text,see Kirch, § 91.Since the Church has received this preaching and this faith, aswe have said, the Church, although it is scattered throughout thewhole world, diligently guards it as if it dwelt in one house; andlikewise it believes these things as if it had one soul and oneheart, and harmoniously it preaches, teaches, and believes thesethings as if possessing one mouth. For although the languagesof the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is oneand the same. For the churches which have been founded inGermany have not believed nor handed down anything different,nor have those among the Iberians, nor those among the Gauls,