re, to
realise the idea of placing Christendom on the firm foundation of a
definite theory of what is Christian--but not of basing it on a
theological doctrine--and of establishing this theory by a fixed
collection of Christian writings with canonical authority.[400] He was
not a systematic thinker; but he was more, for he was not only a
religious character, but at the same time a man with an organising
talent, such as has no peer in the early Church. If we think of the
lofty demands he made on Christians, and, on the other hand, ponder the
results that accompanied his activity, we cannot fail to wonder.
Wherever Christians were numerous about the year 160, there must have
been Marcionite communities with the same fixed but free organisation,
with the same canon and the same conception of the essence of
Christianity, pre-eminent for the strictness of their morals and their
joy in martyrdom.[401] The Catholic Church was then only in process of
growth, and it was long ere it reached the solidity won by the
Marcionite church through the activity of one man, who was animated by a
faith so strong that he was able to oppose his conception of
Christianity to all others as the only right one, and who did not shrink
from making selections from tradition instead of explaining it away. He
was the first who laid the firm foundation for establishing what is
Christian, because, in view of the absoluteness of his faith,[402] he
had no desire to appeal either to a secret evangelic tradition, or to
prophecy, or to natural religion.

_Remarks._--The innovations of Marcion are unmistakable. The way in
which he attempted to sever Christianity from the Old Testament was a
bold stroke which demanded the sacrifice of the dearest possession of
Christianity as a religion, viz., the belief that the God of creation is
also the God of redemption. And yet this innovation was partly caused by
a religious conviction, the origin of which must be sought not in
heathenism, but on Old Testament and Christian soil. For the bold
Anti-judaist was the disciple of a Jewish thinker, Paul, and the origin
of Marcion's antinomianism may be ultimately found in the prophets. It
will always be the glory of Marcion in the early history of the Church
that he, the born heathen, could appreciate the religious criticism of
the Old Testament religion as formerly exercised by Paul. The
antinomianism of Marcion was ultimately based on the strength of his
religious feeling,