Tertullian

“ About these versifications, which are “poems” only as mules are horses, it is enough to say of them, with Dupin, “They are no more Tertullian’s than they are Virgil’s or Homer’s. The poem called Genesis seems to be that which Gennadius attributes to Salvian, Bishop of Marseilles. That concerning the Judgment of God was, perhaps, composed by Verecundus, an African bishop. In the books Against Marcion there are some opinions different from those of Tertullian. ”

“ Bunsen sets it on all-fours, and treats it as if it were soberly designed to defy reason,—that reason to which Tertullian constantly makes his appeal against Marcion, and in many of his sayings [5] hardly less witty. Speaking of Hippolytus, that writer remarks, [6] “He might have said on some points, Credibile licet ineptum: he would never have exclaimed with Tertullian, ‘Credibile quia ineptum.’” Why attempt to prove the absurdity of such a reflection? As well attempt to defend St. John’s hyperbole [7] against a mind incapable of comprehending a figure of speech. ”

“ In taking leave of Tertullian, it may be well to say a word of his famous saying, Certum est quia impossibile est. ”