TERTULLIAN. - Apologist and polemicist, who lived in Carthage between c. 160 and 220.
He is one of the most prominent figures of Christian antiquity, the most vigorous among the apologists and polemicists of the early centuries, the first among the Latins who attempted to elaborate the revealed datum with the effort of a tormented speculation and created a theological language, a writer among the most powerful of the whole Latin tradition.
I. LIFE
The main sources for knowledge of T.'s life are certain references found in his works and, furthermore: the notices of St. Jerome (De viris ill., 53; Epist., 70, 5; Chron. ad a. 2224 [= A.D. 208]), of Eusebius (Hist. eccl., II, 2, 4), of St. Augustine (De haer., 86), of Vincent of Lérins (Commonit., 18), of the Praedestinatus (F. Oehler, Corp. haereseolog., I, Berlin 1856, pp. 242, 264).
Quintus Septimius Florens T. was born at Carthage around the middle of the 2nd century, of a "proconsular centurion." He shared the mockery of the pagan milieu, from which he came, toward Christianity (Apol., 18, 4; cf. Paen., I, 1); perhaps he was initiated into the mysteries of Mithras (Praeser., 40, 4); he was a passionate frequenter of the spectacles (Nat., I, 10, 47; Apol., 15, 5; Spect., 19) and gave himself over to the instincts of a strongly sensual nature (Resurr., 59). His writings give proof of a careful cultural formation acquired in the study of letters, history, philosophy and particularly of law. His identification with the jurist of the same name is uncertain. He learned Greek so well as to compose in that language certain works now lost. He was at Rome (Cult. fem., I, 7), where it is supposed he practiced advocacy.
On the date and the process of his conversion to Christianity precise notices are lacking. The spectacle of the heroic fortitude of the martyrs (Scop., 4; cf. Apol., 50, 15) perhaps gave him the first impulse, and the reading of the Bible (Apol., 18) persuaded him of the truth of Christianity. According to St. Jerome, T. was a priest; nor does the notice seem contradicted by De exhort. cast., 7 (cf. A. De Labriolle, in Bull. d'anc. littér. et d'archéol. chrét., 3 [1913], pp. 161-67).
In 213 he came to an open rupture with the Church, formally adhering to Montanism (v. MONTANO E MONTANISMO), for which he had already manifested sympathies at least from 206-207. It was his temperament, prone to excess and impatient of the curb of authority, that drove him toward this movement characterized by a fanatical and visionary rigorism. The isolated testimony of St. Jerome, that T. passed over to heresy because of violent conflicts with the clergy of Rome, is rightly considered suspect. But, dissatisfied also with the new experience, he formed a little church of his own, whose adherents took the name of "Tertullianists" and whose offshoots lasted until the time of St. Augustine. After 220 there are no further traces of his activity; according to St. Jerome he died around 240.
II. WORKS
The program of T. as a writer can be summed up in three points: to defend Christianity from the persecutions and accusations of the pagans; to demonstrate, in polemic against the heretics, the truth of Christian dogma and to illustrate its meaning; to give norms and exhortations for practical life.
1. Apologetic writings
T. begins his activity as a writer (leaving aside the De pallio, of uncertain date) as an apologist. After 180, when among others the twelve martyrs of Scillium were beheaded (v. SCILLITANI, MARTIRI), the Church of Africa had enjoyed a certain tranquility; but now the hatred of the mob against the Christians not only gave substance to the most infamous accusations (v. ACCUSE CONTRO I CRISTIANI), but often exploded in bloody violence against the faithful even when gathered in prayer, and did not spare even the dead (Apol., 7, 4; 37, 2). In defense of the truth and of the right trampled underfoot, T. took up his pen, burning with the enthusiasm of the neophyte, with the two books Ad nationes, that is, to the pagans, composed in the first half of 197, as appears from the allusion to recent events (Nat., I, 17, 4). After an apologetic part, in which he reproaches the pagans for their culpable ignorance of Christianity and for the injustice of the laws with which they strike it, giving credence to unfounded rumors, he turns back upon his adversaries the accusations of superstition, of cruelty, of lese-majesty, and attacks polytheism in all its forms.
A few months later (Apol., 35, 9, 11) the writer addressed himself to the governors (praesides) of the provinces, in the first place of Africa, with the Apologeticum, where many themes of the previous work are taken up almost with the same words, but in a more complete and effective reworking, with close logic, juridical rigor, vehemence of passion, so as to make of this work one of the masterpieces destined to survive through the centuries. After an introduction of a juridical character on the injustice of the laws and of the proceedings with which the Christians are persecuted, he refutes the accusations of secret crimes: infanticide, Thyestean banquets, incest, then those of manifest crimes, that is, of contempt for the national religion and for the emperor. He demonstrates that the supposed gods are not such; the Christians acknowledge the one true God who has manifested himself in Christ and are loyal toward the emperor and toward the fatherland; their conduct is irreproachable and brotherly love reigns among them. Christianity is far superior to philosophy, which has drawn from Scripture whatever good it has. The work concludes with a passionate exaltation of martyrdom.
One of the themes touched upon in the Apologeticum (c. 17) is developed on purpose in a short work written probably a short time later: De testimonio animae. Referring back to the attempts of most of the preceding apologists to show the consonance between the natural theology of Christianity and the doctrines of the pagan philosophers and poets, he proclaims their futility, affirming that the openness toward Christianity is something spontaneous and connatural to the soul that has not been led astray by prejudices.
The brief writing Ad Scapulam, of 212-13, is an open letter to the proconsul of Africa who was persecuting the Christians, tolerated by his predecessors. In it T. affirms the right to profess one's own religion freely, declares the full loyalty of the Christians to the Empire, threatens the magistrate with the punishments, already announced by warning signs, that have struck the enemies of Christ at other times.
2. Dogmatic-polemical writings
The works of doctrinal polemic, all the more numerous and extensive, are no less important than the apologetic ones for characterizing the historical significance of T. in the life of the Church and his influence on theological thought.
In this field too it was the needs of the environment that suggested themes and developments to the writer: Gnosticism (v. GNOST) is the great adversary against which above all the arrows of T. are directed. It is targeted together with the other errors in the De praescriptione haereticorum, which, composed around 200 and considered the masterpiece of T. in this genre of writings, constitutes almost an introduction to the whole polemic against heresy, as is said in the conclusion of the book. Having set forth the origin of the heresies, born of a foolish and presumptuous philosophy, and having explained in what sense the Christian may investigate revealed truth, T. opposes to the heretics, by a juridical procedure, a "prejudicial exception," denying them the right to appeal, because they are innovators, to the Scriptures, entrusted by the Apostles to the true Church, which alone is their legitimate guardian and interpreter.
The Adversus Hermogenem, perhaps of 202-203, is directed against the painter-philosopher who professed the eternity of matter. The Adversus Marcionem has come down to us, in the third reworking made of it by the author, in five books, of which the first was composed in 207 (I, 1). In books I and II the absurdity is demonstrated of the doctrine that admitted two gods, that of the Old Testament, author of evil, and the good one, revealed in Christ. In book III, dedicated to Christology, T. combats docetism (v. DOCETI) and demonstrates that Christ is the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. In book IV he criticizes point by point the gospel of Marcion, a capricious reworking of the Gospel of Luke; in book V he extends the examination to the text and to the interpretation given by the heresy to the epistles of St. Paul. The date of the Adversus Valentinianos is disputed, since the allusion to the defection of Valentinus from the Church (c. 4) would suppose the author still Catholic, while the praise of the Montanist "Proculus noster" (c. 5) suggests T. already a heretic. The confutation of the masters of Gnosticism is made there by the simple exposition of their complicated and fanciful speculations, which T. draws from the first book of the Adversus haereses of Irenaeus. The Scorpiace, composed between 211 and 213, presents a "remedy against the sting of scorpions," that is, of the Gnostics, who denied the merit of martyrdom. In the De carne Christi, of uncertain date, the Gnostic docetism is again combated; in the De resurrectione carnis, connected with the preceding (c. 2) and directed against the same adversaries, the reality of the final resurrection is demonstrated with the Scriptures and its manner is set forth.
The Trinitarian doctrine is the object of the Adversus Praxeam (after 213), a patripassian from Asia who came to Rome and to Carthage. Although not lacking in polemical themes, the De baptismo and the De anima have a predominantly positive and systematic character. The first, of ca. 200, demonstrates the necessity of Baptism and treats certain debated questions on the value of the Baptism of John, on that of heretics, and gives norms on the manner of administering and receiving this Sacrament. The De anima, probably composed between 210 and 213 (v. the introduction of J. H. Waszink to his edition, Amsterdam 1947, p. 6*) is a work more of controversy than of psychology, directed against the philosophers and particularly the Gnostics. In it T. studies the essence, the unity and the origin of the soul, combating the theories of pre-existence and metempsychosis, and maintaining that the soul is transmitted to children by the parents (v. TRADUCIANISM). He then speaks of particular problems: growth, puberty, sin, sleep and dream, death and the fate of the soul after death.
The Adversus Iudaeos (ca. 207) belongs more to polemic than to apologetics properly so called, in which T. wishes to demonstrate that the law of Moses has been replaced by the new law and that Christ is the Messiah in whom the prophecies have been fulfilled. The last chapters (9-14) are taken in large part from book III of the Adv. Marcionem: their authenticity is contested.
3. Writings of a practical and disciplinary nature
These differ from one another more sharply, insofar as they were composed by T. while still a Catholic or a semi-Montanist and Montanist, because for him Montanism was above all a practical attitude of moral and disciplinary rigorism in relation to pagan society and its customs.
The Ad martyros is a brief writing of consolation and exhortation to the brethren imprisoned for the faith, probably from 197. In the De spectaculis (197-202) Christians are resolutely forbidden to take part in any kind of pagan spectacle, intimately bound up with idolatrous worship and a school of immorality and cruelty. In the De oratione (200-202) T. explains the Pater to the catechumens and gives instructions on prayer in general. The De poenitentia (perhaps 203-204) treats of the repentance necessary for forgiveness, both as preparation for Baptism and for sins committed after Baptism. The De patientia has a more personal character, probably contemporary with the preceding work: the author acknowledges himself to be devoid of this virtue, which he extols as proper to God himself, showing its necessity and its fruits. The two books De cultu feminarum (200-206), of which the second takes up again the material treated in the first, censure the luxury and vanity of women. In the first of the two books Ad uxorem, composed in the same period as the preceding works, the author exhorts his wife not to remarry when he is dead, refuting the reasons by which second marriages are justified and extolling chaste widowhood; in the second he warns the Christian woman against marriage to a pagan. In this work T.'s thought is still orthodox; whereas when, around 207, he takes up again the subject of second marriages in the De exhortatione castitatis, he condemns them, under the influence of Montanism, as a kind of adultery. He will maintain the same thesis later (c. 217) in the De monogamia.
In the De virginibus velandis, written no later than 207, after he had already treated the same subject in Greek, he demonstrates from the Bible, from nature and from the discipline of the Church the duty that virgins have to wear the veil. An incident that occurred in 211 gave occasion for the De corona, composed to defend the conduct of a Christian soldier who at Carthage had presented himself to receive the donative holding the crown in his hand rather than on his head, as was the custom, and had therefore been put in prison; there T. denies the lawfulness of military service for Christians. This subject is also treated in the De idolatria, slightly later, which confronts the whole problem of the participation of Christians in public life, forbidding them every activity that has any connection with idolatry.
The De ecstasi is lost, in which T. seems to have defended the charismatic and prophetic character of Montanism. In the De fuga in persecutione (ca. 212) he maintains that it is not lawful for a Christian to escape persecution by flight, persecution being sent by God to make us better. In the De ieiunio adversus psychicos (that is, the Catholics), written after 213, T. defends the rigorism of the sect in the practice of fasting. In the De pudicitia (217-22) he inveighs against a bishop (most say Pope Callistus, others the bishop of Carthage Agrippinus) who upheld the right of the Church to admit to penance even those guilty of fornication and adultery. In the De pallio T. wishes to justify himself for having exchanged the Roman toga for the cloak of the Greek philosophers. It is a work of strongly rhetorical tone, bizarre in argumentation and style, composed according to some when T. was converted to Christianity, between 193 and 196, while others see in it a sign of the author's passage to Montanism and date it later, to 209-11. It is the opinion of many that the Passio in Perpetuae et Felicitatis is a work of T., in the parts that were not written by the martyrs themselves (cf. C.I.M.I. Van Beek, Passio sanctorum Perpetuae et Felicitatis, I, Nijmegen 1936, p. 92°-96°).
III. THOUGHT
In studying the thought of T. one must constantly keep in mind his habits as a polemicist and rhetorician, which easily lead him into emphasis and hyperbole (J. Lortz, Tertullian als Apologet, I, Münster 1927, p. 220 ff.).
1. Apologetics
As an apologist, T. dwells on the practical aspects of the struggle, setting out to demonstrate the right of Christians to exist, contested by the unreasonable hatred of the pagans, due to their ignorance, and the injustice of persecution, with a juridical apparatus unknown to Greek apologetics (Nat., I, 1-7; 20; Apol., 1-4; J. Lortz, op. cit., I, pp. 45-71); he rejects the accusations of immorality and cruelty, showing the purity of the moral doctrine to which Christians are faithful and turning such accusations back against the pagans (Nat., I, 7; Apol., 7-9; J. Lortz, op. cit., pp. 77-120; II, Munich 1927, p. 54 ff.), refutes the accusations of a political and social nature, especially those of lese-majesty and of hostility to the Empire, striving to demonstrate the loyalty of Christians to the emperor and to the State, and explains the relations of Christians with pagan society (Apol., 28-45).
From the speculative point of view, practical necessities and perhaps also the need to justify to himself his own faith, beyond the custom of apologetics, drew the attention of T. to the rational foundations of Christian dogma. To this is directed the refutation of polytheism, in which T. demonstrates that the gods do not exist (Nat., I, 10, 9; Apol., 10, 2; 27 and passim), resorting to the well-known traditional motifs of philosophical and then Jewish and Christian polemic: the obscenities and cruelties attributed to the supposed gods (Nat., II, 7, 15-18; 10; 12-15; Apol., 9, 4, 16; 11, 10-16; 13, 9; 14, 2-9; 15; 21, 7 f.); the Euhemeristic theory (v. EVEMERO), which sees in the gods divinized men (Nat., II, 14; Apol., 10-11; Idol., 15), alongside which is also professed, without the problem of reconciling the two being raised, the theory that identifies the gods with demons, itself also traditional (Apol., 23; Spect., 8; 10; 13; Scap., 2; Idol., 15); the impotence of the gods (Nat., I, 9, 10 f.; II, 17; Apol., 23, 8; 25, 8; 29) and their ignorance (Apol., 23, 6; 25, 6; 46, 6); the identification, traditional in popular worship and in polemic, of the images with the divinities (Apol. 12; 16, 7; 22, 12; 25, 13; 27, 1), the contradictions of the philosophers on religious doctrines (Nat., II, 1, 9-15; 2; Apol., 47). Naturally, this polemic, which often gives rise to developments that are literarily brilliant and effective, suffers from the critical weakness inherent in such a tradition, aggravated, if anything, by the impetuosity of a strongly passionate temperament. The intemperances of the polemicist and the tendency to a one-sided and pessimistic rigorism explain his negative attitude toward not only official paganism but every aspect of culture and life outside Christianity, as against philosophy, even in its most distinguished masters (Apol., 46; Praescr., 7). This does not prevent him from turning philosophy and science extensively to profit, as he does especially in the De anima (cf. G. H. Waszink, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 21 6-47°; A. Labhardt, T. et la philosophie ou la recherche d'une «position pure», in Museum Helveticum, 7 [1950], pp. 159-80).
The apologetic intent influences the presentation that T. makes of Christianity, suggesting aspects and motifs to be emphasized. In the first place, it is, naturally, monotheism: quod colimus, Deus unus est (Apol., 17, cf. 34, 1; Testim. an., passim; Marc., I, 3 and passim; Adv. Hermog., 4, 17; cf. G. Lortz, op. cit., II, p. 1 ff.). The existence of God is demonstrated rationally by the cosmological proof and more by the testimony of conscience and of the human race (Adv. Marc., 1, 10; Testim. an., entire; An., 41; cf. A. d'Alès, La théologie de Tert., in Bibl. de théol. hist., Paris 1905, p. 37 ff.). The unity of God is proved, against pagan polytheism and Gnostic dualism, in the works already mentioned on this point. The attributes of God are set out as in the philosophical tradition: God is invisible, great, eternal, the supreme Good, living, perfect, omnipresent, immutable and happy, spirit (yet this doctrine is obscured by the confusion between corporeality and reality, Adv. Prax., 7; Carn. Chr., 11; cf. A. d'Alès, op. cit., pp. 61-65), creator from nothing of all things, lord of the universe, free, just judge, good and merciful (v., for example, Nat., II, 3, 5; 4, 2; 8, 1; Apol., 11, 5; 17; 18, 2-3; 21, 10 ff.; 24, 3, 10; 26, 1; 30, 1 f.; 40, 7; 10; 41, 3; 45, 7; 48, 7; Testim. an., 2; Spect., 2; Hermog., 16; Paenit., 1, 2; 2, 7, 4; Adv. Marc., I and II). Some aspects of T.'s thought that have an apologetic function and an intent of anti-heretical polemic and of doctrinal deepening, such as demonology, the resurrection, creation, Christology, will be mentioned in the exposition of his theology. T. is therefore convinced that reason, when it is not clouded by prejudices, can reach God so as to affirm his existence and recognize his fundamental attributes (v., besides the passages just cited, Nat., II, 1; Res. carn., 3; Adv. Marc., I, 10; cf. G. Lortz, op. cit.*, I, p. 224 ff., 350 ff.).
2. Theology
This natural knowledge of God is integrated by Revelation, which alone constitutes the foundation of the Christian faith. It is summed up in the «rule of faith», of which T. gives here and there different formulations, evidently without concerning himself with the literal text (Praescr., 13, 36; Virg. vel., 1; Adv. Prax., 1).
The sources of Revelation and their use are the object of a specific treatment in the De praescript. (cf. A. d'Alès, op. cit., pp. 201-61; J. P. Stirnmann, Die Praescriptio Tertullians im Lichte des röm. Rechts und der Theologie [Paradox, 3], Freiburg 1949). They are the Scriptures (Praescr., 15 and passim) divinely inspired (Apol., 18) and the teaching entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles and by these to the Churches founded by them (Praescr., 20 f.; Apol., 47, 10; Adv. Marc., IV, 5; Cor., 3): to that of Rome a pre-eminence is recognized (Praescr., 36; cf. A. d'Alès, op. cit., p. 216 ff.), in which, however, one could not discern a true primacy of jurisdiction (G. Bardy, s. v. in DThC, XV, col. 140 f.); such a primacy will be openly denied by the Montanist T. (Pad., 21).
To the Trinity (A. d'Alès, op. cit., p. 67 ff.) the Adv. Praxeam is dedicated. T. affirms the real distinction of the divine persons, demonstrates the divinity of the Son begotten of the Father and explains the texts that the modalists (v.) adduce in their favor, introducing into theology the terms trinitas and persona. The unity of substance is energetically defended, as is the union of the wills. The distinction among the divine persons lies in the distributio (the «economy» of the Greeks: Adv. Prax., 13, 25). The Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, with whom it sometimes appears confused (A. d'Alès, op. cit., p. 98). The equality of the persons is clearly affirmed in some points, while in others subordinationism surfaces. With the Trinitarian doctrine is connected that of creation (ibid., pp. 104-12), since in the Word, his reason and wisdom and word, God created every thing (Apol., 17, 1; 21, 10; 23, 12; O'at., 1).
It is the anti-Gnostic works, especially the Adv. Hermog., that develop the doctrine of creation from nothing. The De anima and the De carnis resurrectione are devoted to the anthropological problem. In the first T. sets out (cf. G. H. Waszink, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 15-20) the nature, the qualities and the functions of the soul (1-22), affirming among other things that it is corporeal, has figure and color; in the 2nd part (23-37, 4) he studies its origin, refuting the Platonic theory of reminiscence and demonstrating that the soul begins to exist together with the body at conception. Here original sin is mentioned, through which man has lost the likeness of God; having become in a certain way connatural to man, this sin is transmitted with generation
(16. 21. 27. 39. 41; see also Testim. an., 3; Bapt., 5, 6-7); Baptism erases it, and in the appropriate little treatise T. demonstrates its efficacy, its necessity, its rite, its conditions. After a digression to refute metempsychosis, in the third part he treats particularly of the destiny of the soul; after death souls go to the Underworld, where they wait until the resurrection; only the souls of the martyrs are exempt from this law (cf. Scorp., 12; Adv. Marc., IV, 34); at this point of the De anima (c. 58) the doctrine of purgatory is adumbrated, to which T. also alludes elsewhere (An. 35, 3; Adv. Marc., III, 24, Resurr., 42). In the De resurr. carnis (cf. A. d'Alès, op. cit., pp. 141-53), demonstrating this dogma with metaphysical and moral reasons, T. specifies and completes his anthropology. The resurrection is affirmed also in the apologetic works (Nat., I, 7, 29. 31 ff.; Apol., 18, 3; 23, 13; 45, 6 f.; 48-50; Spect., 30), with the effort to demonstrate its possibility rationally, according to the tradition of apologetics. The related materialism of T. appears also in the doctrine of the angels, which he affirms to be corporeal and inferior to the human soul (A. d'Alès, op. cit., pp. 153-61).
Demonology is set out especially on the occasion of the anti-pagan polemic, by virtue of the identification of the gods with the demons (see, for example, Apol., 22; Testim. an., 3; cf. G. Lortz, op. cit., II, pp. 30-54), of the protest against the persecutions, due to the instigation of the demons (Apol., 27, 4-7; 47, 11) and in the polemic against the heresies, which are likewise the work of the evil spirits (Praescr., 39 f.).
In Christology T. starts from the history of the Revelation, offered to the Hebrews (Apol., 18 f.), to whom Christ was sent (ibid., 21; Adv. Jud., throughout). His divinity is demonstrated by the prophecies and the miracles (Apol., 21; 23, 12; cf. A. d'Alès, op. cit. pp. 5-33). Christ is the Word, who, generated by the Father in unity of nature as a ray from the sun, descends into the womb of the Virgin (Apol., 21, 7, 12; Paescr., 13, 3), homo Deo mixtus (Apol., 21, 14, cf. Adv. Marc., II, 27), to destroy our death and restore life to us (Bapt., 11, 4). In books III-V Adv. Marcionem (A. d'Alès, op. cit., pp. 162-85) T. demonstrates the identity of Jesus son of God with the Christ announced by the prophets, and in the De carne Christi (A. d'Alès, op. cit., p. 185 ff.) he combats the docetism of Apelles and the Christological errors of the Valentinians, illustrating the Incarnation and demonstrating the virginity of Mary, but only up to the birth. There (c. 9) T. shares the thought of some Fathers who denied beauty to the body of the Savior.
Among the Sacraments, besides Baptism, in the appropriate treatise already mentioned, T. speaks of Confirmation, recalling the anointings, the imposition of hands, the blessing and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, the sign of the Cross, which follow Baptism (Bapt., 7 f.; Resurr., 8; cf. A. d'Alès, op. cit., p. 326 f.); of Penance, which restores to man what he has lost through sin and is granted only once after Baptism (Paenit., 7, 9 and passim); only under the influence of Montanism will he affirm in the De pudicitia the irremissibility of fornication, of homicide and of idolatry. As for the Eucharist, «several obscure expressions are encountered in his writings, which give occasion for objections. But if one looks at the whole of his doctrine, there is none of these expressions that cannot and must not be understood in a sense conformable to Catholic tradition» (A. d'Alès, op. cit., p. 356; there a series of texts is listed in which T. alludes to the Eucharist: Praescr., 36; Adv. Marc., I, 14; III, 19; IV, 40; V, 8; Resurr. carn., 8; An., 17; Orat., 6, 19; Ad ux., II, 5; Idol., 7; Pudic., 9). On marriage, after the acknowledgments and the praises of the Catholic period, especially in the 2nd book Ad uxorem, having become a Montanist he will insist, in the Exhortatio castitatis and in the De monogamia, on the negative aspects, to the point of presenting it as a tolerated evil.
The thought of T. as moralist (cf. A. d'Alès, op. cit., p. 262 ff.) is dominated by a concrete vision of the problems, which gives him a taste for casuistry, as appears from the subjects he treats, and by rigorism, which, favored by a nature tending to excesses, will be brought to exasperation by Montanist doctrine. The virtues and the practices on which he insists most are patience, penance, chastity, prayer, fasting, in the writings dedicated to these subjects.
In eschatology, the expectation of the imminent end of the world has notable prominence (Apol., 31, 1; 39, 3; Cult. fom., II, 9; Resurr. carn., 22; Ad ux., I, 2, 5; Orat., 5; Exhort. cast., 6; Monog., 7; Pudic., 1) and millenarianism (Adv. Marc., III, 24).
IV. THE WRITER
Until recently it was a commonplace to attribute to T. the merit of having created the language of Latin Christianity. But recent studies have shown that even earlier a "Christian Latin" had been forming, especially at Rome, with the versions of the Bible and of other writings, dating back to about the middle of the 2nd century. T. was the first to make use, with the intent and ability of a great artist, of a group language that had long been evolving; he was "the great initiator, the innovator who introduced the idiom of the Christians, so revolutionary and so little traditional, into Latin literature" (Ch. Mohrmann, in Riv. di storia della Chiesa in Italia, 4 [1950], p. 159; id., in Vigiliae Christianae, 3 [1949], pp. 67-106; 162-83; id., in Aevum, 24 [1950], p. 135 ff.; id., Tertullianus, Apologeticum en andere Geschriften uit T. voor-montanischen Tijd [Monumenta Christiana, 3], Utrecht 1951, pp. LXXXVI-XXCV). He was, moreover, the shaper of theological vocabulary. The first among the Latins to attempt, as apologist, controversialist and teacher of practical life, a systematic exposition and a reflective elaboration of Christian content, he had to bend the language of Rome to express not only the novelty of the elementary concepts, to which, as was said, the Christian community had already tried to give a Latin dress, but also the conceptual deepenings and the subtle distinctions that the polemic against heresies obliged him to pursue.
The style of T. reveals one of the most powerful and original writers of Latinity. The customs of the time and his rhetorical training certainly show their traces at every step; but the lucidity of thought, the impetuosity of a born polemicist's temperament, the enthusiasm for the cause he had made himself a defender of, the disdain for beaten paths and conventional means, the full mastery of the language, give T.'s page an unmistakable personal stamp. His aphorisms, which sum up in the most incisive matter the fruit of long meditations or present the happy intuition of a man of genius, have deservedly become commonplaces.
These brilliant qualities must not make one forget the more essential gifts: the solidity of the dialectical framework, the skillful architecture of the composition, the clarity with which he aims at the goal of the demonstration without losing sight of the thread and the starting point, even when, in the heat of polemic, he accumulates erudite material, and, in the pressing on of arguments, invective, rhetoric and sarcasm seem at the mercy of a passionate temperament incapable of control.
By this it is not meant that, as easily happens to rich and brilliant minds, all the more so if educated, like T., in the schools of the rhetoricians who set out to prove any thesis at any cost, he does not often indulge in affectations more of a sophist than of a solid reasoner, with the accumulation of arguments that barely conceals their fragility, with subtlety and quibbling (cf. P. Monceaux, Hist. litt. de l'Afrique chrétienne, I, Paris 1901, p. 439 ff.).
Bibliography50 works
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