Jerome. Lives of Illustrious Men 53
53 Tertullian the presbyter PL 23, 661
Tertullian the presbyter, now regarded as chief of the Latin writers after Victor and Apollonius, was from the city of Carthage in the province of Africa, and was the son of a proconsul or Centurion, a man of keen and vigorous character, he flourished chiefly in the reign of the emperor Severus and Antoninus Caracalla and wrote many volumes which we pass by because they are well known to most. I myself have seen a certain Paul an old man of Concordia, a town of Italy, who, while he himself was a very young man had been secretary to the blessed Cyprian who was already advanced in age. He said that he himself had seen how Cyprian was accustomed never to pass a day without reading Tertullian, and that he frequently said to him, “Give me the master,” meaning by this, Tertullian. He was presbyter of the church until middle life, afterwards driven by the envy and abuse of the clergy of the Roman church, he lapsed to the doctrine of Montanus, and mentions the new prophecy in many of his books.
He composed, moreover, directly against the church, volumes: On modesty, On persecution, On fasts, On monogamy, six books On ecstasy, and a seventh which he wrote Against Apollonius. He is said to have lived to a decrepit old age, and to have composed many small works, which are not extant.
Tertullianus presbyter, nunc demum primus post Victorem et Appollonium Latinorum ponitur, provinciae Africae, civitatis Carthaginiensis, patre Centurione Proconsulari. Hic acris et vehementis ingenii, sub Severo principe et Antonino Caracalla maxime floruit, multaque scripsit volumina, quae quia nota sunt pluribus, praetermittimus. Vidi ego quemdam Paulum Concordiae, quod oppidum Italiae est, senem, qui se beati Cypriani, jam grandis aetatis, notarium, cum ipse admodum esset adolescens, Romae vidisse diceret, 891 referreque sibi solitum numquam Cyprianum absque Tertulliani lectione unum diem praeterisse, ac sibi crebro dicere, Da magistrum: Tertullianum videlicet significans. Hic cum usque ad mediam aetatem presbyter Ecclesiae permansisset, invidia postea et contumeliis clericorum Romanae Ecclesiae, ad Montani dogma delapsus, in multis libris Novae Prophetiae meminit, specialiter autem adversum Ecclesiam texuit volumina, de pudicitia, de persecutione, de jejuniis, de monogamia, de ecstasi libros sex, et septimum, quem adversum Apollonium composuit. Ferturque vixisse usque ad decrepitam aetatem, et multa, quae non exstant opuscula condidisse.
Τερτυλλιανὸς πρεσβύτερος, νῦν πρῶτος μετὰ Βίκτωρα καὶ Ἀπολλώνιον ψηφίζεται τοὺς Ῥώμαϊκοὺς, ἐκ τῆς Καρχηδόνος τῆς Ἀφρικῆς ὁρμώμενος, πατρὸς κεντυρίωνος ἀντυπατιανοῦ. Οὗτος δεινὸς καὶ σφόδρα εὐφυὴς ἐπὶ Σεβήρου καὶ Ἀντωνίνου τοῦ ἐπίκλην Καρακάλου, ἤνθησε, πολλὰ συντάξας τεύχη, ἅτινα διὰ τὸ πολλοῖς εἶναι ἐγνωσμένα παραλιμπάνομεν. Συνέτυχον ἐγὼ Παύλῳ ἀπὸ Κονκορδίας τῆς Ἰταλίας γέροντι ὅστις τοῦ μακαριωτάτου Κυπριανοῦ νοτάριον, λοιπὸν πρεσβύτην ἔλεγεν, ἔτι νέος ὢν ἑωρακέναι ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ καί ἀκηκοέναι παρ' αὐτοῦ ὡς οὐδεμίαν σχεδὸν ἡμέραν διετέλεσε Κυπριανὸς ἀναγνωσμάτων Τερτυλλιανοῦ χωρὶς, συνεχῶς λέγοντος τοῦ αὐτοῦ 892 Κυπριανοῦ, Ἐπίδος τὸν διδάσκαλον, Τερτυλλιανὸν δηλονότι μηνύων. Οὗτος ἄχρι μέσης ἡλικίας πρεσβύτερος τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐκκλησίας γέγονεν, ὕστερον δὲ φθόνῳ καὶ προπηλακισμοῖς τῶν κληρικῶν τῆς ἐν Ῥώμῃ Ἐκκλησίας, εἰς τὸ Μοντανοῦ δόγμα ὀλισθήσας, πολλὰς συνέταξε βίβλους, καινῆς προφητείας μέμνηται, καὶ ἰδικῶς κατὰ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας συνεγράψατο, οὐδὲν δὲ ἧττον περὶ σωφροσύνης, περὶ διωγμοῦ, περὶ νηστείας, περὶ μονογαμίας, περὶ ἐκστάσεως λόγους ἓξ, καὶ ἕδδομον κατὰ Ἀπολλωνίου, καὶ ἕτερα πάμπολλα, ζήσας ἕως γήρως ἐσχάτου.