as a Christian falls between 190 and 220, a period of very great moment in the history of the Catholic church; for within it the struggle with Gnosticism was brought to a victorious close, the New Testament established a firm footing within the churches, the “apostolic” rules which thenceforward regulated all the affairs of the church were called into existence, and the ecclesiastical priesthood came to be developed. Within this period also falls that evangelical and legal reaction against the political and secular tendencies of the church which is known as Montanism. The same Tertullian who had fortified the Catholic church against Gnosticism was none the less anxious to protect it from becoming a political organization. Being unable to reconcile incompatibles, he broke with the church and became the most powerful representative of Montanism in the West.
Although Tertullian’s extant works are both numerous and copious, our knowledge of his life is very vague. He cannot have been born much later than about 150. His activity as a jurist in Rome must fall within the period of Commodus; for there is no indication in his writings that he was in Rome in the time of Marcus Aurelius, and many passages seem to preclude the supposition. The date of his conversion to Christianity is quite uncertain; there is much in favour of the years between 190 and 195. How long he remained in Rome after becoming a Christian, whether he had attained any office in the church before leaving Rome, what was the date of his visit to Greece—on these points also we remain in ignorance. It is certain that he was settled in Carthage in the second half of 197, the date of his writing his Apologetics and (shortly afterwards) his two books Ad nationes; we also know that he became a presbyter in Carthage and was married. His recognition of the Montanistic prophecy in Phrygia as a work of God took place in 202–203, at the time when a new persecution broke out. For the next five years it was his constant endeavour to secure the victory for Montanism within the church; but in this he became involved more and more deeply in controversy with the majority of the church in Carthage and especially with its clergy, which had the support of the clergy of Rome. As Jerome writes (De vir. ill. 53): “Usque ad mediam aetatem presbyter fuit ecclesiae Africanae, invidia postea et contumelies clericorum Romanae ecclesiae ad Montani dogma delapsus.” On his breach with the Catholic church, probably in 207–208, he became the head of a small Montanist community in Carthage. In this position he continued to labour, to write, and to assail the lax Catholics and their clergy until at least the time of Bishop Calixtus in the reign of Elagabalus. The year of his death is uncertain. Jerome (ut sup.) says: “Fertur vixisse usque ad decrepit am aetatem.” That he returned at last to the bosom of the Catholic church is a mere legend, the motive of which is obvious; his adherents after his death continued to maintain themselves as a small community in Carthage. Although he had left the church, his earlier writings continued to be extensively read; and in the 4th century his works, along with those of Cyprian, were the principal reading of Western Christians, until they were superseded by those of Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory. Jerome has included him in his catalogue of Christian “viri illustres,” but only as a Catholic to whom reference should be made with caution.[1]
The works of Tertullian, on the chronology of which a great deal has been written, and which for the most part do not admit of being dated with perfect certainty, fall into three classes—the apologetic, defending Christianity against paganism and Judaism; the polemical dogmatic, refuting heresies and heretics; and the ascetic or practical, dealing wit points of morality and church discipline. In point of time also three periods can be readily distinguished, the years 202–203 and 207–208 constituting the divisions. Some of the books he wrote have unfortunately disappeared in particular the De spectaculis, De baptismo, and De virginibus velandis in Greek; his works in Latin on the same subjects have survived.
I. Works dating from before 202–203. To this class belong the Apologeticus (197) and the two books Ad nationes, De spectaculis, De idololatria, De cultu feminarum Libri II., De testimonio animae (written soon after the Apologeticus), Ad martyres (perhaps the earliest of all), De baptismo haereticorum (now lost), De baptismo, De poenitentia, De oratione (the last three written for catechumens), De patientia, Ad uxorem Libri II., De praescriptione haereticorum, and Adv. Marcionem (in its first form). The Apolpgeticus, which in the 3rd century was translated into Greek, is the weightiest work in defence of Christianity of the first two centuries. It disposes of the charges brought 'against Christians for secret crimes (incest, &c.) and public offences (contempt of the State religion and high treason), and asserts the absolute superiority of Christianity as a revealed religion beyond the rivalry of all human systems. Respecting its relation to the Octavius of Minucius Felix much has been written; to the present writer it seems unquestionable that Tertullian’s work was the later. Of great moment also is the De praescriptione haereticorum, in which the jurist is more clearly heard than the Christian. It is the chief of the dogmatic or polemical works, and rules the accuser out of court at the very opening of the case. The De spectaculis and De idololatria show that Tertullian was already in a certain sense a Montanist before he formally went over to that creed; on the other hand, his De poeriilenlia proves that his earlier views on church discipline were much more tolerant than his later. To learn something of his Christian temper we must read the De oratione and the De patientia. The De baptismo is of special interest from the archaeological point of view.
II. Works written between 202–203 and 207–208.—De virginibus velandis, De corona militis, De fuga in persecutione, De exhortatione castitatis, De scorpiace (a booklet against the Gnostics, whom he compares to scorpions; it is written' in praise of martyrdom, Adversus Hsrmogenem, De censu animae adv. Herrnogenem (lost, Adv. Valenlinianos, Adv. Apelleiacos (lost), Dc paradise (lost), De falo (lost), De anima (the first book on Christian psychology), De carrie Christi, De resurrection carnis, and De spe jidelium (lost), were all written after Tertullian had recognized the prophetic claims of the Montanists, but before he had left the church.
III. Works later than 207–208.—To this period belong the five books Adv. Marcionem, his main anti-Gnostic work (in the third form—the first of the five was written in 207–208), Ad Scapulam (an admonition to the persecuting proconsul of Africa, written soon after 212), De pallio (a defence of his wearing the pallium instead of the toga), Adv. Praxean (his principal work aglainst the Monarchians), and /ldv. Judaeos, chaps. ix.–xiv. of w ich are a completion by another and less skilful hand. The latest extant works of Tertullian (all after 217) are his controversial writings against the laxity of the Catholics, full of the bitterest attacks, especially upon Calixtus, the bishop of Rome; these are De monogamia, De jejunio, De pudicitia, and De ecstasi Libri VII. (lost). The arguments against the genuineness of some of the above writings do not seem to the present writer to have weight. It is quite possible that Tertullian was the author of the Acta perpetuae et felicilatis, but he did not write the Libellus adv omnes haereses often appended to De praescriptione; or the poems Adv. Marcionem, De Sodoma, De Jona, De Genesi, De judicio Domini; or the fragment De execrandis gentium diis; or the De Trinitate and De cibis Judaicis of Novatian.
Editions.—For the MSS. see E. Preuschen in A. Harnack, Geschichte der allchrisll. Literatur, i. 675–7. Of printed collections the chief are the editio princeps by Beatus Rhenanus (Basel, 1521), Migne, Patr. Lat. i.–ii. (Paris, 1844); Fr. Oehler (3 vols., Leipzig, 1851–4); and A. Reifferscheid and G. Wissowa in the Corpus Scriptorum eccl. Lat. (Pars i., Vienna, 1890). Editions of the separate books are almost innumerable.
Translations.-German by K. A. H. Kellner (2 vols. Cologne, 1882) and selections in Bibliothek der Kirchenväter (1869, 1872); English by S. Thelwall and others in Ante-Nicene Fathers, iii. and iv., and (apologetic and practical writings) by C. Dodgson in Library of the Fathers, x. (Oxford, 1842).
Literature.—Fr. Oehler’s third volume contains a collection of early dissertations. See also A. Hauck, Terlulliarfs Leben und Schriften (Erlangen, 1877); J. M. Fuller in Dict. Chr. Biog., iv. 818–864; E. Nolldechen, Tertullian (Gotha, 1890); P. Monceaux, Histoire littéraire de l’Afrique chrétienne, vol. i. (Paris, 1901); T. R. Glover, The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, chap. x. (London, 1909); and the various Histories of Dogma and Church Histories.
For a complete bibliography see G. Krüger, Hist. of Early Christian Literature (Eng. tr. New York and London, 1897); Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk. für prot. Theologie, xix.; and O. Bardenhewer, Patrology (Eng. tr. Freiburg im Breisgau and St Louis, 1908). A large number of earlier monographs on special points are cited in the 9th edn. of the Ency. Brit. (A. Ha.; X.)
TERUEL, a province of north-eastern Spain, formed in 1833 from part of the ancient kingdom of Aragon; bounded on the N. by Saragossa, E. by Tarragona, S.E. and S. by Castellon de la Plana and Valencia, S.W. by Cuenca, and W. by Guadalajara. Pop. (1900) 246,001; area 5720 sq. m. In the centre of the province rise the Sierras of Gudar and San Just; in the south-west and west are the lofty Albarracin range, the Montes Universales, and the isolated ridges of Palomera and Cucalon. Outliers of the Castellon and Tarragona highlands extend along the eastern border. The northern districts belong to the Ebro basin. In the west there are a few peaks, such as the Cerro de San Felipe and Muela de San Juan, which exceed 5000 ft. in altitude and are covered with snow for many months; but the highest point is Javalambre (6568 ft.) in the south. The sierras give rise to several large rivers, the principal being
- ↑ Compare also the judgment of Hilary and of Vincent of Lerins, Commonit., 24.
