itus Christi"), of the "creation of two substances which Christ
himself also possesses," ("conditio duarum substantiarum, quas Christus
et ipse gestat")[596] and of the "twofold condition not blended but
united in one person--God and man" ("duplex status _non confusus sed
conjunctus_ in una persona--deus et homo".)[597] Here we already have in
a complete form the later Chalcedonian formula of the two substances in
one person.[598] At the same time, however, we can clearly see that
Tertullian went beyond Irenaeus in his exposition.[599] He was, moreover,
impelled to combat an antagonistic principle. Irenaeus had as yet no
occasion to explain in detail that the proposition "the Word became
flesh" ("verbum caro factum") denoted no transformation. That he
excludes the idea of change, and that he puts stress on the Logos'
assumption of flesh from the Virgin is shown by many passages.[600]
Tertullian, on the other hand, was in the first place confronted by
(Gnostic) opponents who understood John's statement in the sense of the
Word's transforming himself into flesh, and therefore argued against the
"assumption of flesh from the Virgin" ("assumptio carnis ex
virgine");[601] and, in the second place, he had to do with Catholic
Christians who indeed admitted the birth from the Virgin, but likewise
assumed a change of God into flesh, and declared the God thus invested
with flesh to be the Son.[602] In this connection the same Tertullian,
who in the Church laid great weight on formulae like "the crucified God,"
"God consented to be born" ("deus crucifixus," "nasci se voluit deus")
and who, impelled by opposition to Marcion and by his apologetic
interest, distinguished the Son as capable of suffering from God the
Father who is impassible, and imputed to him human weaknesses--which was
already a further step,--sharply emphasised the "distinct function"
("distincte agere") of the two substances in Christ and thus separated
the persons. With Tertullian the interest in the Logos doctrine, on the
one hand, and in the real humanity, on the other, laid the basis of that
conception of Christology in accordance with which the unity of the
person is nothing more than an assertion. The "deus factus homo"
("verbum caro factus") presents quite insuperable difficulties, as soon
as "theology" can no longer be banished. Tertullian smoothed over these
difficulties by juristic distinctions, for all his elucidations of
"substance" and "person" are of t