Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] So that no one thinks we are splitting hairs, let me turn to the primary authority: the wording of our own seal. When we go down into the water and make our Christian profession using the wording its rule prescribes, we declare with our own mouth that we have renounced the devil, together with his pomp and his angelic host. [2] Now what will be found to be the chief and principal thing under which that devil, with his pomp and his angelic host, is reckoned, if not idolatry? From idolatry comes every unclean and wicked spirit, so to speak — but no need to dwell on that further. [3] If, then, it turns out that the whole apparatus of the spectacles rests on idolatry, it will stand beyond doubt as settled in advance that the testimony of our renunciation at the font extends to the spectacles too, since they are made over — mortgaged, so to speak — to the devil, together with his pomp and his angelic host, precisely through idolatry. [4] We will trace the origins of each show, in what cradle each grew up in the world; then their titles, under which names each is known; then their trappings, by what superstitions they are furnished; then their venues, under whose patronage they are said to belong; then their arts, to what authors they are credited. If any of this turns out to have nothing to do with an idol, then it will have nothing to do with idolatry, and nothing to do with our renunciation.