Tertullian, On Baptism 1
The sacrament of our water is a blessed thing: through it we are washed clean of the sins that sprang from our original blindness and set free for eternal life. This treatise will not sit idle; it instructs both those undergoing the most rigorous formation and those who rest content with simple belief, never having probed the rationale behind the traditions, and who therefore carry a probable faith that remains untested through their own ignorance. And so, just recently, a certain viper of the Caian heresy, armed with its most poisonous doctrine, has seized many people, above all by destroying Baptism. This follows nature perfectly: for vipers, asps, and even king snakes habitually haunt dry, waterless places. But we are little fish, born in our ΙΧΘΥΣ Jesus Christ, and we survive only by staying in the water. Thus the monstrous Quintilla—who did not even possess a legitimate right to teach—knew exactly how to kill the little fish: by dragging them out of the water.
Latin
Felix sacramentum aquae nostrae qua abluti delictis pristinae caecitatis, in vitam aeternam liberamur. Non erit otiosum digestum istud, instruens tam eos qui cum maxime formantur, quam et illos qui simpliciter credidisse contenti, non exploratis rationibus traditionum, intentatam probabilem fidem per imperitiam portant: atque adeo nuper conversata istic quaedam de Caiana haeresi vipera venenatissima doctrina sua plerosque rapuit, imprimis Baptismum destruens. Plane secundum naturam: nam fere viperae, et aspides, ipsique reguli serpentes arida et inaquosa sectantur. Sed nos pisciculi secundum ΙΧΘΥΝ nostrum Jesum Christum in qua nascimur, nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus. Ita Quintillia monstrosissima, cui nec integre quidem docendi jus erat, optime norat pisciculos necare, de aqua auferens.