oil, the laying on of hands, etc., all of which were to be carried out
in the most exacting and solemn manner.

[Sidenote: Example from Tertullian]

As an example of the ritualistic character of Christian worship at the
beginning of the third century, I will cite a passage from Tertullian.
In the third chapter of his work De Corona, this celebrated Latin
father undertakes to defend customs and practises that he confesses
were received "on the ground of tradition alone." He says: "I shall
begin with baptism. When we are going to enter the water, but a little
before, in the presence of the congregation and under the hand of the
president, we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, and his pomp,
and his angels. Whereupon we are thrice immersed, making a somewhat
ampler pledge than the Lord has appointed in the gospel.[A] Then
when we are taken up (as new-born children) we taste, first of all, a
mixture of milk and honey, and from that day we abstain from the daily
bath for a whole week. We take also, in congregations before daybreak,
and from the hand of none but the president, the sacrament of the
Eucharist, which the Lord both commanded to be done at mealtimes and
enjoined to be taken by all alike. As often as the anniversary comes
round, we make offerings for the dead as birthday honors. We count
shouting or kneeling in worship on the Lord's day to be unlawful. We
rejoice in the same privilege also from Easter to Whitsunday. We feel
pained should any wine or bread, even though our own, be cast upon the
ground. At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out,
when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at
table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary
actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign of the
cross."