TERTULLIAN.

TRANSLATED BY THE

REV. C. DODGSON, M.A.

PERPETUAL CURATE OF DARESBURY,

EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF RIPON,
LATE STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH.

VOL. I.

APOLOGETIC AND PRACTICAL TREATISES.

OXFORD,

JOHN HENRY PARKER:

J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON.

1842.

Note H, On the title "Spirit" used of the Divine Nature

of our Lord

321

Note I, On "The Son" being called "The Will" of the

Father

324

XII To his Wife, Book 1.

XIII To his Wife, Book 2.

Note O, On the early views as to marriage after divorce

XI Of Repentance

Note K, On the term "satisfaction" as used of works of

repentance

Note L, Exomologesis, the whole act of doing penance

Note M, In what cases and for what ends Confession was

required in the Ancient Church

Note N, On the early views as to the meaning of 1 Tim. 3, 1.

349

369

376

379

419

421

431

viii

CONTENTS.

Page

XIV On Prescription against Heretics

434

Note P, On the early traces and variations of the Apostles'

Creed

480

Note Q, On the title "Rock," Matt. 16, 18.

491

Note R, "The keys of the kingdom of Heaven," Matt. 16,

19. given to all the Apostles

497

Additional Notes

499

PREFACE.

Of the life of Tertullian little is known, except what is contained in the brief account of St. Jerome'. "Tertullian a presbyter, the first Latin writer after Victor and Apollonius, was a native of the province of Africa and city of Carthage, the son of a proconsular centurion: he was a man of a sharp and vehement temper, flourished under Severus and Antoninus Caracalla, and wrote numerous works, which as they are generally known, I think it unnecessary to particularize. I saw at Concordia in Italy an old man named Paulus. He said that, when young, he had met at Rome with an aged amanuensis of the blessed Cyprian, who told him that Cyprian never passed a day without reading some portion of Tertullian's works, and used frequently to say, Give me my master, meaning Tertullian. After remaining a presbyter of the Church until he had attained the middle age of life, Tertullian was by the envy and contumelious treatment of the Roman clergy driven to embrace the opinions of Montanus, which he has mentioned in several of his works under the title of the New Prophecy; but he composed, expressly against the Church, the Treatises de Pudicitiâ, de Persecutione, de Jejuniis, de Monogamiâ, and six books de Ecstasi, to which he added a seventh against Apollonius. He is reported to have lived to a very advanced age, and to have composed many other works which are not extant."

a Catal. Scriptt. Eccles. bacris et vehementis ingenii." Bp. Kaye's translation has been retained;

b

the words, however, appear to me indicative of intellectual as well as of moral qualities.