Patristics

“What are we to think of it, that most people so blindly knock their heads against the hatred of the Christian name; that when they bear favorable testimony to any one, they mingle it with abuse of the name he bears? 'A good man,' one says, 'is Gaius Seius, only that he is a Christian.' So another, 'I am astonished that a wise man like Lucius should have suddenly become a Christian.' Nobody thinks it needful to consider whether Gaius is not good and Lucius wise, on this very account that he is a Christian; or a Christian, for the reason that he is wise and good. They praise what they know, they abuse but they are ignorant of, and they inspire their knowledge with their ignorance; ….” Tertullian, Apology, 3, ANF 3:20