monog.) is not deterred by such a
limitation: "qui potest capere capiat, inquit, id est qui non potest
discedat."]

[Footnote 211: It is very instructive, but at the same time very
painful, to trace Tertullian's endeavours to reconcile the
irreconcilable, in other words, to show that the prophecy is new and yet
not so; that it does not impair the full authority of the New Testament
and yet supersedes it. He is forced to maintain the theory that the
Paraclete stands in the same relation to the Apostles as Christ does to
Moses, and that he abrogates the concessions made by the Apostles and
even by Christ himself; whilst he is at the same time obliged to
reassert the sufficiency of both Testaments. In connection with this he
hit upon the peculiar theory of stages in revelation--a theory which,
were it not a mere expedient in his case, one might regard as the first
faint trace of a historical view of the question. Still, this is another
case of a dilemma, furnishing theology with a conception that she has
cautiously employed in succeeding times, when brought face to face with
certain difficulties; see virg. vel. I; exhort. 6; monog. 2, 3, 14;
resurr. 63. For the rest, Tertullian is at bottom a Christian of the old
stamp; the theory of any sort of finality in revelation is of no use to
him except in its bearing on heresy; for the Spirit continually guides
to all truth and works wherever he will. Similarly, his only reason for
not being an Encratite is that this mode of life had already been
adopted by heretics, and become associated with dualism. But the
conviction that all religion must have the character of a fixed _law_
and presupposes definite regulations--a belief not emanating from
primitive Christianity, but from Rome--bound him to the Catholic Church.
Besides, the contradictions with which he struggled were by no means
peculiar to him; in so far as the Montanist societies accepted the
Catholic regulations, they weighed on them all, and in all probability
crushed them out of existence. In Asia Minor, where the breach took
place earlier, the sect held its ground longer. In North Africa the
residuum was a remarkable propensity to visions, holy dreams, and the
like. The feature which forms the peculiar characteristic of the Acts of
Perpetua and Felicitas is still found in a similar shape in Cyprian
himself, who makes powerful use of visions and dreams; and in the
genuine African Acts of the Martyrs, dating from Valerian