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“To Defer and Not to Hasten”: The Anabaptist and Baptist Appropriations of Tertullian's Baptismal Theology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2013
Extract
Regardless of the historiographical arguments made over the course of the last century regarding the relationship between Baptists and Anabaptists in the seventeenth century, every historian of Christianity must concede at least a typological connection between the two movements. Seventeenth-century Baptists shared numerous theological convictions with their sixteenth-century forerunners, including the novel ideas of the separation of church and state, the freedom of the individual conscience, and a voluntary ecclesiology which restricted the practice of baptism and church membership to professing adult Christians. Historians have likewise noted that the two movements differed from their magisterial Protestant counterparts in that each viewed its movement as a restoration of the church to first-century practices rather than as a mere reformation of the church to some previous era of perceived relative purity which remained under the auspices of government.
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References
1 For a review of historiography regarding the relationship between Baptists and Anabaptists from the viewpoints of early Baptists, Dutch Mennonites, and contemporary Baptists, see Coggins, James R., John Smyth's Congregation: English Separatism, Mennonite Influence, and the Elect Nation (Waterloo, Ont.: Herald, 1991) esp. 19–26Google Scholar.
2 For instance, Martin Luther asked, “Why should not we complain who for three hundred years have had such a great increase of corruption and wickedness?” Thus, the era of excessive corruption from which the church must reform was generally, for Luther, the late medieval period (“Freedom of a Christian,” in Luther's Works [LW] [ed. Harold J. Grimm; American ed.; 55 vols.; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1957] 31:337).
3 For instance, Dutch Anabaptist Menno Simons argued that if Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, and Augustine were able to substantiate their theology “with the Word and command of God, we will admit that they are right. If not, then it is a doctrine of men and accursed according to the Scriptures (Gal. 1:8)” (originally cited in Menno Simons, “Reply to Gellius Faber,” in The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, c. 1496–1561 [ed. J. C. Wenger; Scottdale, Pa.: Herald, 1956] 623–781, at 695).
4 Hubmaier, Balthasar, “On the Christian Baptism of Believers,” in Balthasar Hubmaier: Theologian of Anabaptism (ed. and trans. Pipkin, H. Wayne and John Yoder, H.; Scottdale, Pa.: Herald, 1989) 95–149Google Scholar, at 99.
5 Hubmaier, “On Infant Baptism Against Oecolampad,” in Balthasar Hubmaier (ed. and trans. Pipkin and Yoder), 275–95, at 290–91.
6 “Orthodox Creed,” in Baptist Confessions of Faith (ed. William L. Lumpkin; Philadelphia: Judson, 1959) 295–334, at 325. In the same way, the Particular Baptist Confession of 1644 posited that “the rule of this Kingdom, Faith, and Obedience, concerning the worship and service of God, and all other Christian duties, is not man's inventions, opinions, devices, lawes, constitutions, or traditions unwritten whatsoever, but onely the word of God contained in the Canonical Scriptures” (Baptist Confessions of Faith [ed. W. J. McGlothlin; Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1911] 174–200, at 176).
7 Durnbaugh, Donald F., The Believers’ Church: The History and Character of Radical Protestantism (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald, 1968) 33Google Scholar.
8 Hubmaier, “Old and New Teachers on Believers Baptism,” Balthasar Hubmaier (ed. and trans. Pipkin and Yoder) 245–74.
9 The phrase: fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani—is found in Tertullian's Apol., ch. 18. Roberts and Donaldson literally translated this passage: “men are made, not born, Christians” (Apol., 18.4, in Ante-Nicene Fathers [hereafter ANF] [ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; Peabody: Hendrickson, 1995] 3:17–55, at 32). Emily Joseph Daly, in her critical translation, rendered the phrase more concisely, “Christians are made, not born!” (Fathers of the Church: A New Translation [New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1950] 10:54). Tertullian also wrote in De Testimonio Animae: Non es, quod sciam, Christiana. Fieri enim, non nasci solet Christiana, translated by Rudolph Arbesmann as: “Thou art not a Christian, as far as I know, for, as a rule, the soul is not born Christian; it becomes Christian” (Fathers of the Church, 10:133).
10 Johnson, Maxwell E., The Rites of Christian Initiation (Collegeville, Minn: Liturgical, 2007) 84Google Scholar.
11 Though Tertullian himself noted that he had in mind “those at present under instruction” and those who were already baptized but had not “examined the reasons for what has been conferred upon them” (De baptismo 1.1, in Tertullian's Homily on Baptism [ed. and trans. Ernest Evans; London: SPCK, 1964] 5).
12 Tertullian, De baptismo 20, in ibid., 41. See also ANF 3:678–79.
13 Tertullian, Bapt. 18, in Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy ACC 79 (ed. E. C. Whitaker; 3rd ed.; London: SPCK, 2003) 10. See also Tertullian's Homily on Baptism (ed. and trans. Evans) 39.
14 For example, see Stayer, James, Packull, Werner O., and Deppermann, Klaus, “From Monogenesis to Polygenesis: The Historical Discussion of Anabaptist Origins,” MQR 49 (1975) 83–121Google Scholar; Pitts, William L., “Baptist Origins and Identity in 1609: The John Smyth/Richard Clifton Debate,” Perspectives in Religious Studies 36 (2009) 377–90Google Scholar; Stassen, Glen H., “Anabaptist Influence in the Origin of the Particular Baptists,” MQR 36 (1962) 322–48Google Scholar; and McBeth, Leon, “Baptist Beginnings,” Baptist History and Heritage 15 (1980) 36–41Google Scholar.
15 See Bender, Harold S., Conrad Grebel c. 1498–1526: The Founder of the Swiss Brethren Sometimes Called Anabaptists (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald, 1950) esp. 136–62Google Scholar, and The Sources of Swiss Anabaptism: The Grebel Letters and Related Documents (ed. Leland Harder; Scottdale, Pa.: Herald, 1985) 338–45.
16 See Lee, Jason K., The Theology of John Smyth: Puritan, Separatist, Baptist, Mennonite (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2003) 46–83Google Scholar; Leonard, Bill J., Baptist Ways: A History (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson, 2003) 23–25Google Scholar; and McBeth, H. Leon, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville: Broadman, 1987) 32–37Google Scholar.
17 Conrad Grebel, Letter 40: “Grebel to Vadian–Zurich, end of October, 1521,” The Sources of Swiss Anabaptism (ed. Harder) 154–55. In 1521, Beatus Rhenanus published his Opera of Tertullian's collected works. Until that year, the focus of printed works of Tertullian in the sixteenth century was placed on singular volumes, especially his Apol., printed with works of Lactantius in Venice in 1494, 1502, 1509, and 1511, in Paris by itself in 1500, and again with Lactantius in 1511, 1513, and 1515, and in Florence in 1513 and 1515. Beatus's Opera, printed in Basel under the scholar-printer Johann Froben, was the first collection of Tertullian's work of that era. Beatus made use of two manuscripts of Tertullian's writings, the Paterniacensis of Peterlingen and the Hirsaugiensis of Hirsau in south Germany.
18 Grebel, Letter 46: “Grebel to Vadian–Zurich, January 30, 1522,” Sources of Swiss Anabaptism (ed. Harder) 162–63. It is difficult to know what Grebel precisely meant by making Vadian into “a Tertullian.” Beatus's annotations in the 1521 volume were mostly confined to historical and philological issues in Tertullian's treatise, Cor. After Grebel, subsequent Anabaptists would refer to Beatus -Rhenanus 1521 edition of Tertullian's works for support for delaying baptism until faith might be confessed by the recipient, making especial reference to Tertullian's Apol., Paen., and Cor. Notably, Tertullian's Bapt. was not included in the Opera.
19 See The Sources of Swiss Anabaptism (ed. Harder) 628 n. 9 and 631 n. 1.
20 George H. Williams noted that “little did Grebel realize that Vadian would one day turn all the arguments of Tertullian aimed at ancient heretics against the Swiss Brethren themselves. Vadian saw no reason to suppress the movement at first and even sympathized with its disapproval of infant baptism” (The Radical Reformation [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962] 127–28).
21 Hubmaier received his B.A. from the University of Freiburg where Johann Eck and Johannes Faber played significant roles in influencing his studies. When Eck left Freiburg for Ingolstadt, Hubmaier quickly followed, receiving his doctorate of theology from the latter institution and subsequently being named professor of theology at the same school (Pipkin, H. W. Walker, Scholar, Pastor, Martyr: The Life and Ministry of Balthasar Hubmaier (ca. 1480–1528) [The Hughey Lectures 2006; Prague: International Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008] 39–40Google Scholar).
22 See Klager, Andrew P., “Balthasar Hubmaier's Use of the Church Fathers: Availability, Access and Interaction” MQR 84 (2010) 5–66, esp. 8–9Google Scholar.
23 Alexis-Baker, Andy, “Anabaptist Use of Patristic Literature and Creeds,” MQR 85 (2011) 477–504, at 481Google Scholar.
24 See Klager, “Balthasar Hubmaier's Use of the Church Fathers,” 5–66, at 37–39.
25 Beatus Rhenanus (1484–1547), a faithful associate of Erasmus, produced three editions of Tertullian's works in 1521, 1528 and 1539. The Tertullian Opera consisted of twenty-three of the Latin father's thirty-three works, utilizing manuscripts from the monasteries in Hirsau and Peterlingen (Peyre). Not only did he make Tertullian widely available, Beatus famously complemented Tertullian's writings with his own annotations in each edition to express his objections to the perceived abuses of scholasticism on the church. John F. D'Amico observes that “with Tertullian's writings and those of the other Fathers, Beatus felt modern theologians could dispose of their summulae and learn from the earliest Christian apologists who were expert in all disciplines. In place of the quibbles of scholastics, Beatus offered the Fathers” (D'Amico, “Beatus Rhenanus, Tertullian and the Reformation: A Humanist's Critique of Scholasticism,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschicte 71 [1980] 37–63, at 41). Though Beatus was a philologist and historian, not a significant theologian, D'Amico notes that “Beatus utilized the Fathers to show how things had been, how they had changed, and, at times, how they had degenerated. He conceived of Tertullian's description of early Christian practices as orthodox and as normative and a proper instrument for analyzing contemporary problems” (56).
26 Ibid., 39.
27 Tertullian's Paen. originally cited in Patrologia latina 2:1351; here cited in Hubmaier, “Old and New Teachers on Believers Baptism,” Balthasar Hubmaier (ed. and trans. Pipkin and Yoder) 252; Tertullian: Treatises on Penance (ed. and trans. William P. LeSaint; Ancient Christian Writers 28; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1959) 26, and ANF 3:657–66, at 662.
28 Tertullian, “On Penitence,” 4, in Tertullian: Treatises on Penance (ed. and trans. LeSaint) 14–37, at 26–27.
29 Here cited in Balthasar Hubmaier (ed. and trans. Pipkin and Yoder) 252. Cf. Edwin A. Quain who renders this: “To begin, for instance, with baptism: When we are about to enter the water, and, as a matter of fact, even a short while before, we declare in the presence of the congregation before the bishop that we renounce the Devil, his pomps, and his angels. After that, we are immersed in the water three times, making a somewhat fuller pledge than the Lord has prescribed in the Gospel”(Tertullian, Cor., ch. 3, in Tertullian: Apologetical Works [trans. Quain; The Fathers of the Church 40; New York: The Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1959] 231–67, at 236–37).
30 Tertullian: Apologetical Works (trans. Quain), 240.
31 Conversely, in his Cor. Tertullian would admit, regarding various ceremonial flourishes in the church, Harum et aliarum eiusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules, scripturarum nullam leges, translated by Quain as “Now, if you demand a precise scriptural precept for these and other practices of church discipline, you will find none” (ibid., 238).
32 Marpeck, “The Admonition of 1542,” in The Writings of Pilgram Marpeck (ed. and trans. William Klassen and Walter Klaassen; Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1978) 159–302, at 197.
33 This term was given to Marpeck by John D. Rempel in his excellent study of Marpeck's fusion of sacramentalism and spiritualism in “Critically Appropriating Tradition: Pilgram Marpeck's Experiments in Corrective Theologizing,” MQR 85 (2011) 59–75, at 71.
34 Ibid., 71.
35 The Writings of Pilgram Marpeck (ed. and trans. Klassen and Klaassen) (171–72 [italics in original]). On this point, Rempel observes: “By marrying Protestant ‘faith’ to Catholic ‘sacrament’ Marpeck overcame a dichotomy that the magisterial reformers could not resolve: against the Catholics they argued that it was only by faith that the believer participated in Christ at the Supper; against the Anabaptists they argued that infant baptism conveyed regeneration to an infant ex opere operato. There are convolutions and conflations in Marpeck's fusion of the sacramental and spiritual principles but the case he makes is strong enough to suggest a distinctive model for the relationship between God's initiative and our response . . . leav[ing] us with an initial impression of a ‘believers church sacramentalism’” (“Critically Appropriating Tradition,” 71).
36 The Writings of Pilgram Marpeck (ed. and trans. Klassen and Klaassen) [italics in the original], 197.
37 In fact, citing the historian Beatus Rhenanus along with Tertullian's Cor., Marpeck proposed that infant baptism did not appear on the scene until “the time of Charlemagne and Kaiser Ludwig” (“The Admonition of 1542,” in ibid., 159–302, esp. 253–54).
38 LeSaint prefers “catechumens” (those who hear and learn) (Tertullian: Treatises on Penance, 27).
39 Simons, “Foundation of Christian Doctrine,” in The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, (ed. Wenger) 105–226, at 137. Here Grantham may have been paraphrasing Tertullian, where in the latter's treatise, Cor. 3.2, Tertullian wrote: “When we are about to enter the water, and, as a matter of fact, even a short while before, we declare in the presence of the congregation before the bishop that we renounce the Devil, his pomps, and his angels. After that, we are immersed in the water three times, making a somewhat fuller pledge than the Lord has prescribed in the Gospel” (Tertullian: Apologetical Works [trans. Quain] 236–37).
40 The Complete Writings of Menno Simons (ed. Wenger), 137.
41 Simons, “Christian Baptism,” in ibid., 227–87, at 248.
42 Later in the same treatise, Menno argued through Tertullian that infant baptism was still not “common practice” at the turn of the third century (ibid., 279–80).
43 Although this essay is focused on various appropriations of Tertullian's baptismal theology by early Anabaptist and Baptist theologians, it is also worthy to note for future research that both Marpeck and Menno appeal to Tertullian also regarding the Lord's Supper as a love feast whose power resides in its symbols, rather than as a sacramental Mass (The Writings of Pilgram Marpeck [ed. and trans. Klassen and Klaassen] 280–1, 287; The Complete Writings of Menno Simons [ed. Wenger] 304, 515, 571).
44 Smyth, “The Character of the Beast,” in Baptist Roots: A Reader in the Theology of a Christian People (ed. Curtis W. Freeman, James Wm. McClendon, Jr., and C. Rosalee Velloso da Silva; Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson, 1999) 79. Tertullian's passage reads: itaque pro cuiusque personae condicione ac dispositione, etiam aetate, cunctatio baptismi utilior est, praecipue tamen circa parvulos. quid enim necesse, si non tam necesse est, sponsores etiam periculo ingeri, qui et ipsi per mortalitatem destituere promissiones suas possunt et proventu malae indolis falli? ait quidem dominus, Nolite illos prohibere ad me venire: veniant ergo, dum adolescunt, dum discunt, dum quo veniant deocentur: fiant Christiani cum Christum nosse potuerint. quid festinate innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum? cautius agetur in saecularibus, ut cui substantia terrena non creditur divina credatur? norint petere salutem, ut petenti dedisse videaris (Tertullian's Homily on Baptism [ed. and trans. Evans] 38).
45 In his critical edition of this text, Evans translates this: “Why should innocent infancy come with haste to the remission of sins?” (Tertullian's Homily on Baptism [ed. and trans. Evans] 39).
46 Lawrence, Henry, Of Baptisme (London: n.p., 1646) 318Google Scholar.
47 Ibid., 326–28. Tertullian's original words read: Ceterum baptismum non temere credendum esse sciunt quorum officium est. Omni petenti te dato, suum habet titulum proprie ad eleemosynam pertinentem. immo illud potius respiciendum, Nolite dare sanctum canibus et porcis proicere margaritam vestram, et, Manus ne facile imposueritis nec hamartiis alienis communicaveritis. Evans translates this passage: “Moreover, that baptism ought not to be rashly granted, is known to those whose function it is. Give to everyone that asketh thee, has its own application, which strictly pertains to almsgiving. One ought indeed rather to have regard to that other [injunction], Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearl before swine, and, Do not lay on hands easily, nor become sharers in others’ sins (Tertullian's Homily on Baptism [ed. and trans. Evans], 36 [Latin] and 37 [English translation]).
48 Lawrence, Of Baptisme, 329.
49 Ibid., 330.
50 Grantham, Thomas, The Baptist against the Papist (London: n.p., 1663) 40Google Scholar.
51 The full citation comes from Grantham, A Religious Contest (London: n.p., 1674) 15 [italics for emphasis]. Everett Ferguson has rendered a recent variation of Evans's critical English translation of this passage: “Let them ‘come’ then while they are growing up, while they are learning, while they are instructed why they are coming. Let them become Christians when they are able to know Christ” (Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries [Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 2009] 364). Cf. Tertullian's Homily on Baptism (ed. and trans. Evans) 38–39.
52 These included Gregory of Nazianzus, Irenaeus, Jerome, Ambrose, Theodosius, Augustine, Basil, Cyprian, and Eusebius (Grantham, A Religious Contest, 16; idem, The Prisoner against the Prelate [London: n.p., 1662] 38–43).
53 Grantham, The Prisoner against the Prelate, 37.
54 Grantham, Presumption No Proof: Or, Mr. Petto's Arguments for Infant-Discipleship and Baptism, Considered and Answered (London: n.p., 1687) 2. Tertullian's words here come from Cor., ch. 2.4 (see ANF 3:94). One might note the context of these words by Tertullian: “To be sure, it is very easy to ask: ‘Where in Scripture are we forbidden to wear a crown? . . . If they try to say that we may be crowned because the Scriptures do not forbid it, then they leave themselves open to the retort that we may not be crowned because Scripture does not prescribe it. . . . But ‘Whatever is not forbidden is, without question, allowed.’ Rather do I say: ‘Whatever is not specifically permitted is forbidden’” (this latter translation cited from Tertullian: Apologetical Works [trans. Quain] 235–36).
55 For instance, Menno Simons reasoned: “Since we have not a single command in the Scriptures that infants are to be baptized, or that the apostles practiced it, therefore we confess with good sense that infant baptism is . . . a perversion of the ordinances of Christ” (“Foundation of Christian Doctrine,” in The Complete Writings of Menno Simons [ed. Wenger] 105–225, at 127). Likewise, Hubmaier wrote: “For only Scripture, inspired for us by God, is useful for instruction as to what we should do or leave undone, 2 Tim. 3:16. . . . We should teach nothing but the sound words of Christ, or we will fall into questions and word battles” (“On the Christian Baptism of Believers,” in Balthasar Hubmaier[ed. and trans. Pipkin and Yoder] 137).
56 Grantham, The Loyal Baptist (London: Thomas Fabian, 1684) 52.
57 Searle, Mark, “Infant Baptism Reconsidered,” in Living Water, Sealing Spirit: Readings on Christian Initiation (ed. Johnson, Maxwell E.; Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical, 1995) 365–409Google Scholar, at 372–73.
58 Ibid., 373.
59 See Tertullian, Paen., in Tertullian: Treatises on Penance (ed. and trans. LeSaint) 14–37, and Dallen, James, The Reconciling Community: The Rite of Penance (Collegeville, Minn: Liturgical, 1986) esp. 32–34Google Scholar.
60 Johnson, Maxwell E., The Rites of Christian Initiation: Their Evolution and Interpretation (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical, 1997) 89Google Scholar.
61 Tertullian is here cited in Tertullian's Homily on Baptism (ed. and trans. Evans) 39 and 41. The ANF merely translated the issue for singles as those “in whom the ground of temptation is prepared,” and for widows because of their “freedom,” 3:678.
62 Tertullian's Homily on Baptism (ed. and trans. Evans) 39. This passage is translated with slight nuance in the ANF: “And so, according to the circumstances and disposition, and even age, of each individual, the delay of baptism is preferable; principally, however, in the case of little children. . . . Let them ‘come,’ then, while they are growing up; let them ‘come’ while they are learning, while they are learning whither to come; let them become Christians when they have become able to know Christ. Why does the innocent period of life hasten to the ‘remission of sins’?” (“On Baptism,” 18, in ANF 3:678).
63 Wright, David F., Infant Baptism in Historical Perspective (Milton Keynes, England: Paternoster, 2007) 25Google Scholar.
64 Ibid., 25.
65 See Everett Ferguson, who cites Hermas, Aristides, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, Minucius Felix, Gregory of Nazianzus, Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Ambrose all as examples of patristic precedent for connecting baptism with the forgiveness of sins (Baptism in the Early Church, 365 n. 7).
66 Tertullian clearly makes this case, writing in Bapt.: “Therefore, in consequence of that ancient original privilege [of baptism], all waters, when God is invoked, acquire the sacred significance of conveying sanctity: for at once the Spirit comes down from heaven and stays upon the waters, sanctifying them from within himself, and when thus sanctified they absorb the power of sanctifying” (Tertullian's Homily on Baptism [ed. and trans. Evans] 11).
67 Though, unlike Tertullian, the Free Church did not develop a Traducian understanding of the soul of a person, along with the body, as coming from her parents and as not being specially given by God at the moment of conception.
68 See both Tertullian, Bapt. 18, in Tertullian's Homily on Baptism (ed. and trans. Evans) 38, and Wright, Infant Baptism, 25.
69 Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church, 365.
70 Philips, Dirk, “Christian Baptism,” in Enchiridion (ed. Kolb, A. B. and Klassen, Walter; Aylmer, Ont.: Pathway, 1966) 43–46Google Scholar. This notion of an age of innocence was repeated when Marpeck wrote that “Children and the retarded are not required to believe or disbelieve these words, but those who are born from the knowledge of good and evil into the innocence and simplicity of faith are required to believe. . . . Christ has accepted the children without sacrifice, without circumcision, without faith, without knowledge, without baptism. . . That's the difference between children and understanding. And even if the children were referred to here, it would not follow that they should be baptized, or that they should be sacrificed in baptism, but that they should be left in the order into which Christ put them” (“Confession,” in The Writings of Pilgram Marpeck [ed. and trans. Klassen and Klaassen] 107–57, at 129–30).
71 For instance, Balthasar Hubmaier articulated his honest uncertainty regarding the salvation of children, arguing that while God “can save the infants very well by grace since they know neither good nor evil,” nevertheless “I confess here publicly my ignorance. I am not ashamed not to know what God did not want to reveal to us with a clear and plain word” (“On the Christian Baptism of Believers,” in Balthasar Hubmaier [ed. and trans. Pipkin and Yoder] 95–149, at 140).
72 Johnson, The Rites of Christian Initiation, 85.
73 Tertullian, “On Baptism,” 18, in Tertullian's Homily on Baptism (ed. and trans. Evans) 39; see also ANF 3:678.
74 Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church, 364.
75 See Brewer, Brian C., “Free Church Sacramentalism: A Surprising Connection Between Baptists and Anabaptists,” in Interfaces: Baptists and Others (ed. Bebbington, David W. and Sutherland, Martin; Milton Keynes, England: Paternoster, 2013) 3–28Google Scholar.
76 In particular, Everett Ferguson noted that Tertullian “refers to the baptism of small children as something already being done and for which a practical and scriptural rationale was advanced (themselves indications of a new practice that needed justification), but in view of Tertullian's respect for tradition at this period of his life evidently not a practice of long standing. Just as he would scarcely have made reference to an unknown practice, nor would he have rejected a generally accepted one” (Baptism in the Early Church, 363–64). In contradistinction to the notion of its novelty, Maxwell Johnson writes that Tertullian denounced pedobaptism “in a strong, and rather modern sounding, protest that actually serves to demonstrate its obvious and widespread acceptance in North Africa” (The Rites of Christian Initiation, 89).