Tertullian’s larger account in his treatise against Praxeas indicates that the swelling number of modalists was a brand new thing. Praxeas, according to Tertullian, was the person who brought these ideas to Rome from Asia, but he had actually recanted his views. For some time, then, these views remained dormant until they recently had sprung up again (Against Praxeas 1). Now, it is always possible that Tertullian is stretching the truth or even telling a flat-out lie. But the fact remains that we have no positive evidence for modalism being the majority view even in Rome, let alone in the
...more
