Tertullian (c. 2nd and 3rd century)
“When people who are upright and good assemble, when the pious and virtuous gather together, the meeting should be called not a secret society but a senate.”
- From Apology (chapter 39) by Tertullian, translation edition by Rudolph Arbesmann, reprinted in After The New Testament: A Reader In Early Christianity, edited by Bart D. Ehrman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
