Commodian

Commodian, while he was engaged in secular literature, also read our writings, and when he found the opportunity he accepted the faith. Having become a Christian in this way, and wishing to offer the fruit of his studies to Christ, the author of his salvation, he wrote Against the Pagans in barely tolerable, half-metrical language. Because he knew very little of our literature, he was better able to overthrow their teaching than to establish ours. That is why, when he contended against them about the divine promises, he spoke in a rather wretched and, so to speak, crude fashion, to their bewilderment and our despair. Following Tertullian, Lactantius and Papias as authorities, he adopted good moral principles and taught them to his students, and especially a voluntary love of poverty. [a]