When you level against us the general charge of divorcing ourselves from the institutions of our forefathers, consider again and again whether you are not yourselves open to that accusation in common with us. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.118
It is therefore against these things that our contest lies: against the institutions of our ancestors, against the authority of tradition, against the laws of our governors, and against the reasonings of the “wise.” It is against antiquity, custom, requirements, precedents, prodigies, miracles—all of which things have had their part in constructing that spurious system of your gods. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.129
Will you prefer to follow antiquity or reason? . . . If you prefer reason, you must abandon the institutions and authority of our ancestors. For nothing is right but that which reason prescribes. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.50