Tertullian

TERTULLIAN (c. 222), whose full name was QUIN TUS SEPTIMIUS FLORENS TERTULLIANUS, is the earliest and after Augustine the greatest of the ancient church writers of the West. Before him the whole Christian literature in the Latin language consisted of a translation of the Bible, the Octavius of Minucius Felix (q.v.)—an apologetic treatise written in the Ciceronian style for the higher circles of society, and with no evident effect for the church as a whole, the brief Acts of the Scillitan martyrs, and a list of the books recognized as canonical (the so-called Muratorian fragment). Whether Victor the Roman bishop and Apollonius the Roman senator ever really made an appearance as Latin authors is quite uncertain. Tertullian in fact created Christian Latin literature; one might almost say that that litera ture sprang from him full-grown, alike in form and substance, as Athena from the head of Zeus. Cyprian polished the language that Tertullian had made, sifted the thoughts he had given out, rounded them off, and turned them into current coin, but he never ceased to be aware of his dependence on Tertullian, whom he designated as Kar' iEoxini, his master (Jer., De vir. ill. 53).

Life.

Born at Carthage about 150 of good family—his father was a "centurio proconsularis"—he received a first-rate educa tion both in Latin and in Greek. He was able to speak and write Greek, and gives evidence of familiarity alike with its prose and with its poetry; and his excellent memory—though he himself complains about it—enabled him always to bring in at the right place an appropriate, often brilliant, quotation or some historical allusion. The old historians, from Herodotus to Tacitus, were familiar to him, and the accuracy of his historical knowledge is astonishing. He studied with earnest zeal the Greek philosophers; Plato in particular, and the writings of the Stoics he had fully at command, and his treatise De Anima shows that he himself was able to investigate and discuss philosophical problems. From the philosophers he had been led to the medical writers, whose treatises plainly had a place in his working library. But no por tion of this rich store of miscellaneous knowledge has left its characteristic impress on his writings; this influence was reserved for his legal training.

His father, whose military spirit reveals itself in the whole bearing of Tertullian, to whom Christianity was above every thing a "militia," had intended him for the law. He studied in Carthage, probably also in Rome, where, according to Eusebius, he enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most eminent jurists. This statement derives confirmation from the Digest,

where references are made to two works, De Castrensi Peculio and Quaestionum Libri of a Roman jurist named Ter tullian, who must have flourished about A.D. 180. In point of fact the quondam advocate never disappeared in the Christian pres byter. This was at once his strength and his weakness : his strength, for as a professional pleader he had learned how to deal with an adversary according to the rules of the art, and was specially qualified to expose the irregularities in the proceedings taken by the state against the Christians ; but it was also his weakness, for it was responsible for his litigiousness, his often doubtful shifts and artifices.

should make a declaration against transubstantiation, invocation of saints, and the sacrifice of the mass—an exception being made in favour of the Duke of York. The provisions of the Test act were violated by both Charles II. and James II. on the ground of the dispensing power claimed by the Stuart kings. In the case of Godden v. Hales (it State Trials, 1,166), an action for penalties under the Test act brought against an officer in the army, the judges decided in favour of the dispensing power—a power finally abolished by the Bill of Rights. After a considerable number of amendments and partial repeals of these acts, and of acts of in demnity to protect persons from penalties incurred under the Test act, the necessity of receiving the sacrament as a qualification for office was abolished by 9 Geo. IV. c. 17, and all acts requiring the taking of oaths and declarations against transubstantiation, etc., were repealed by the Roman Catholic Relief act of 1829 (io Geo. IV. C.7). This general repeal was followed by the special repeal of the Corporation act by the Promissory Oaths act 1871, of the Test act by the Statute Law Revision act 1863, and of the act of 1678 by an act of 1866 (2g & 3o Vict. c.19). In 1871 the University Tests act abolished subscriptions to the articles of the Church of England, all declarations and oaths respecting religious belief, and all compulsory attendance at public worship in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham. There is an exception restricting to persons in holy orders of the Church of England degrees in divinity and positions such as the divinity and Hebrew professor ships.