eretics, and that, but for this constraint, her method
of satisfying herself as to her relationship to them would hardly have
taken the shape of incorporating them with the canon.[98] This shows
most clearly that the collection of writings must not be traced to the
Church's effort to create for herself a powerful controversial weapon.
But the difficulties which the compilation presented so long as it was a
mere collection vanished as soon as it was viewed as a _sacred_
collection. For now the principle: "as the teaching of the Apostles was
one, so also is the tradition" ([Greek: mia he panton gegone ton
apostolon hosper didaskalia houtos de kai he paradosis]) was to be
applied to all contradictory and objectionable details.[99] It was now
imperative to explain one writing by another; the Pauline Epistles, for
example, were to be interpreted by the Pastoral Epistles and the Acts of
the Apostles.[100] Now was required what Tertullian calls the "mixture"
of the Old and New Testaments,[101] in consequence of which the full
recognition of the knowledge got from the old Bible was regarded as the
first law for the interpretation of the new. The formation of the new
collection into a canon was therefore an immediate and unavoidable
necessity if doubts of all kinds were to be averted. These were
abundantly excited by the exegesis of the heretics; they were got rid of
by making the writings into a canon. Fifthly, the early Christian
enthusiasm more and more decreased in the course of the second century;
not only did Apostles, prophets, and teachers die out, but the religious
mood of the majority of Christians was changed. A reflective piety took
the place of the instinctive religious enthusiasm which made those who
felt it believe that they themselves possessed the Spirit.[102] Such a
piety requires rules; at the same time, however, it is characterised by
the perception that it has not the active and spontaneous character
which it ought to have, but has to prove its legitimacy in an indirect
and "objective" way. The breach with tradition, the deviation from the
original state of things is felt and recognised. Men, however, conceal
from themselves their own defects, by placing the representatives of the
past on an unattainable height, and forming such an estimate of their
qualities as makes it unlawful and impossible for those of the present
generation, in the interests of their own comfort, to compare themselves
with them. When mat