d and created, in a disconnected form
and partly in the shape of legal propositions, a series of the most
important dogmatic formulae, which Cyprian, Novatian, Hosius, and the
Roman bishops of the fourth century, Ambrosius and Leo I., introduced
into the general dogmatic system of the Catholic Church. He founded the
terminology both of the trinitarian and of the Christological dogma; and
in addition to this was the first to give currency to a series of
dogmatic concepts (_satisfacere_, _meritum_, _sacramentum_, _vitium
originis_ etc., etc._). Finally it was he who at the very outset
imparted to the type of dogmatic that arose in the West its momentous
bias in the direction of _auctoritas et ratio_, and its corresponding
tendency to assume a legal character (_lex_, formal and material),
peculiarities which were to become more and more clearly marked as time
went on.[478] But, great as is his importance in this respect, it has no
connection at all with the fundamental conception of Christianity
peculiar to himself, for, as a matter of fact, this was already out of
date at the time when he lived. What influenced the history of dogma was
not his Christianity, but his masterly power of framing formulae.

It is different with Irenaeus. The Christianity of this man proved a
decisive factor in the history of dogma in respect of its content. If
Tertullian supplied the future Catholic dogmatic with the most important
part of its formulae, Irenaeus clearly sketched for it its fundamental
idea, by combining the ancient notion of salvation with New Testament
(Pauline) thoughts.[479] Accordingly, as far as the essence of the
matter is concerned, the great work of Irenaeus is far superior to the
theological writings of Tertullian. This appears already in the task,
voluntarily undertaken by Irenaeus, of giving a relatively complete
exposition of the doctrines of ecclesiastical Christianity on the basis
of the New Testament, in opposition to heresy. Tertullian nowhere
betrayed a similar systematic necessity, which indeed, in the case of
the Gallic bishop too, only made its appearance as the result of
polemical motives. But Irenaeus to a certain degree succeeded in
amalgamating philosophic theology and the statements of ecclesiastical
tradition viewed as doctrines. This result followed (1) because he never
lost sight of a fundamental idea to which he tried to refer everything,
and (2) because he was directed by a confident view of Christi