early 3rd century (217–222)

The holiness of the Church: Hippolytus and Callistus on the "mixed body"

Of the attributes of the Church in the creeds, "holy" was named most often, and the question of holiness gave rise to the first ecclesiological controversies (Pelikan). Hippolytus defined the Church as "the holy assembly of those who live in righteousness," guaranteed by the purity of its members. Callistus, bishop of Rome, citing the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:30) and Noah's ark, held that the Church's holiness rests on forgiveness rather than on the empirical holiness of its members. Hippolytus accused him of absolving all who wished and of keeping bishops in office after mortal sin; Tertullian, as a Montanist, attacked in On Modesty a bishop who forgave adulterers.