Besides, as obsessed as he is with the topic, I thought I should have a Tertullian sex post. Brace yourselves folks, this will be hot! OK, I just lied. The other two are Idolatry and Murder. Callixtus decided to allow fornicators back into the Church. Tertullian, er, disagrees:. He opens with a vehement condemnation which ends with:. But by us precaution is thus also taken against the greatest, or, if you will , highest crimes, viz. The self-same liminal limit we fix for adulterers also and fornicators; dooming them to pour forth tears barren of peace, and to regain from the Church no ampler return than the publication of their disgrace.
These we divide into two issues: some will be remissible, some irremissible: in accordance wherewith it will be doubtful to no one that some deserve chastisement, some condemnation. Every sin is dischargeable either by pardon or else by penalty: by pardon as the result of chastisement, by penalty as the result of condemnation.
Tertullian is careful to note that while there are sins which the Church cannot offer remission for, God may choose to pardon them. His main argument in support of his position is that Adultery is placed following Idolatry and before Murder in the Decalogue Ten Commandments. This placement indicates that these three sins are those which the Church does not have the authority to remit. On Modesty , III. He uses Acts , XV. Here the Apostles, in writing to Syrian Gentiles tell them:.
Then comes the argument where, IMO, Tertullian gets himself in trouble. In 1 Corinthians , V. However in 2 Corinthians , II. I think this applies to Tertullian here. The reality is that as with so much in the Bible, the argument can be made either way.
It was up to the Church to work it out. Tertullian even seems to wonder if perhaps Apostasy is a lesser sin than fornication, at least when it occurs under torture:. No one is compelled with his will to apostatize; no one against his will commits fornication.
