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A. Tertullian

B. Cyril of Alexandria

C. Augustine of Hippo

D. Ignatius of Antioch

Answer: (D) Ignatius, bishop of Antioch. Little is known of him, except for the letters of encouragement he left behind as he traveled from Antioch to Rome to be martyred (he died around 150 A.D.). On this final trip, Ignatius stressed the importance of martyrdom. In the same letter, he wrote: "I am the wheat of God, I must be ground by the teeth of beasts that I may be found the pure bread of Christ."

A. Prudentius

B. Ambrose

C. Sebastian

D. Lawrence

Answer: (D) Lawrence, one of the seven deacons of Rome, who died in 258. According to Ambrose of Milan, Lawrence took the church's treasures to the poor and gave the sacred vessels, etc. as alms. Then he took the poor to the prefect and cheekily proclaimed, "These are the treasure of the church." For his troubles, Lawrence was roasted to death on a hot gridiron.

A. Rome

B. Constantinople

C. Antioch

D. Jerusalem

E. All of the above

Answer: (E) All of the above. Along with a fifth city, Alexandria, these cities were called "patriarchates."

A. Polycarp

B. Justin Martyr

C. Tertullian

D. The apostle Paul

Answer: (C) Tertullian. This, at least, is the way the quote has gone down in history. Tertullian (died ca. 220) wrote an enormous body of literature including Apology, directed to the prefects of the Roman provinces. In it he tried to point out the absurdity of the accusations they brought against Christians and, in this famous line, the futility of persecuting them: "The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed."

A. After Jesus' death and resurrection, the apostles got together to decide on a common statement of faith, with each apostle suggesting one clause.

B. The emperor Constantine, who had converted to Christianity in 312, had his theological advisors compose a creed that would impose uniformity of belief on everyone in his empire.

C. In the second century, Roman Christians used an early form of the text in the form of questions ("Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?") posed to candidates for baptism.

D. We're not sure who wrote it, but the text comes from an apocryphal book from the fourth century, attributed to the apostle Peter.

Answer: (C) The wording of these early baptismal "creeds" eventually evolved into what we now know as the "Apostles' Creed" by the 8th century. If you answered (a) you are in good company—Rufinus of Aquileia in his Commentary on the Apostles' Creed (ca. 400), argued that this is how the creed had come into being.

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