Philip Schaff · 13 of 60

Tertullian. A.D. 200.

Tertullian, originally a lawyer, in mature life converted to Christianity, and one of its ablest and most fearless advocates against infidels and heretics, flourished towards the close of the second and the beginning of the third century as presbyter in Northern Africa, till about A.D. 220. He was a rugged and eccentric genius, and joined the Montanist sect, which believed in the advent of the age of the Paraclete in the person of Montanus, the continuance of the gift of prophecy in woman as well as man, and the near approach of the millennium, and which maintained severe discipline and some peculiar customs, in opposition to the more tolerant practice of the Catholic Church. He placed truth ( veritas ) above authority and custom ( vetus consuetude ). But otherwise he was one of the strongest champions of catholic orthodoxy against the Gnostic heresies, and would allow no change in matters of fundamental doctrine. He alludes three times to the Creed, and quotes the chief articles with some variations and interwoven with his comments. In other places he mentions only one or two articles, as the occasion suggested. See Walch, pp. 7–10; Hahn, pp. 68–73; Heurtley, pp. 13–17; Swainson, pp. 35–40.

First Form.

De Virginibus Velandis, cap. 1.

Second Form.

Adv. Praxeam (a Patripassian Unitarian), cap. 2.

Third Form.

De Præscript. Hæret. cap. 13.