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TERTULLIANUS 313 TEBTULLIANtrS the Montanist sect. According to Jer- ome, this was owing to "the envy and insults of the clergy of the Roman Church," but the chief causes were doubtless the uncompromising character of his natural disposition, and his re- pugnance to the laxity of the Roman clergy in their reception of the Lapsi, and very probably the favor shown to the Patripassian heresy by the Roman bishops Zephyrinus and Callistus. He died between 220 and 240, "in decrepit old age" (Jerome). Augustine says that he at last withdrew from the Montanists, and "propagated conventicles of his own," which is rendered less likely by the fact that the Montanist sect survived in Africa till the 5th century, under the name of "Tertullianists." Tertullian was a man "of an eager and vehement disposition" (Jerome) , who threw all his great gifts of learning, im- agination, eloquence, and wit into the re- ligious controversies of his time for 30 years (190-220). Along with the Roman love for substantiality and strength, he had the "bitter, stern, and harsh tem- per" which Plutarch ascribes to the Car- thaginians. He wanted the sweet rea- sonableness and calmness, the feeling for harmonious form, and the instinct for speculative thought that distinguish the greatest Greek fathers of the Church. He had the heart of a Christian with' the adroit intellect of an advocate. His aim is always to make his adversaries appear ridiculous and contemptible. He pours unsparingly on them a fiery stream of strong argument and satire, mixed with the sophisms, insinuations, and hyperboles of a special pleader. His style is most vivid, vigorous, and con- cise, abounding in harsh and obscure ex- pressions, abrupt turns, and impetuous transitions, with here and there bursts of glowing eloquence, reminding the read- er at one time of Carlyle, at another of Lamennais. What appear to be African provincialisms Niebuhr contends are only words and expressions taken from the ancient Latin writers. He was the first to give such words as persotia, liheniTYi arbitrium, trinitas, eatisfacio, sacramentum, substantia, etc., the place they hold in Christian theology. Many sentences of Tertullian's, as, for example, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church"; "Christ is truth, not custom"; "It is absolutely credible because absurd — it is certain because im- possible"; "the human race has always deserved ill of God"; "the unity of here- tics is schism"; "it is contrary to religion to compel religion"; "how wise an arguer does ignorance seem to herself to be," have become proverbial. "Who can sufficiently extol the eloquence of Tertullian!" exclaims Vincentius of Le- rinum; "almost every word conveys a thought, every sentence is a victory. He is among the Latins what Origen is among the Greeks — the greatest of all." Like Origen, Tertullian was a man of great genius, sincerity, and zeal, a vigor- ous ascetic, and an indefatigable worker, and, though wielding great influence over his contemporaries, was never more than a presbyter. Like him, too, this cham- pion of the Christian faith against all op- ponents, Jews, heathens, and heretics, was himself a heretic to the majority of the Christians of his time. Both show the same contempt of the world and en- thusiasm for martyrdom. But in the tendency of their views the contrast be- tween them is as striking as in their natural temper and their literary style. Tertullian is an intense realist, with leanings toward materialism, Origen a pure idealist. Origen, like Justin, holds that Greek philosophy was "a prepara- tion for the Gospel," "a fragment of eter- nal truth from the theology of the ever- living Word." Tertullian thinks that "philosophers are blockheads when they knock at the gates of truth," and that "they have contributed nothing what- ever that a Christian can accept." "The eloquence of the one," says Presense, "is broad and transparent like his genius: it is a noble, full, majestic river; that of the other is a turbid mountain tor- rent. Origen speaks to philosophers as a Christian philosopher: Tertullian is a tribune of the people passionately haran- guing the crowd in the forum or at the cross roads; he is the ancient orator, with his vehement gestures, his vivid images, his grandiose pathos." His writings have been called "Tracts for the Times." Most of them are short. They are a rich mine of information as to the relations between Christians and heathens in his time. Though perhaps not the first of the Latin Christian writ- ers, Tertullian was the creator of ecclesi- astical Latinity, and impressed upon the language a new character, as he bent it to the service of Christian ideas. His works are divided into three classes: (1) Controversial writings against heathens and Jews. His "Apologetic" (ed. by Woodham, 1843; by Bindley, 1891), addressed to the Roman authori- ties, is an attempt to establish the Chris- tian's right to toleration. A popular edi- tion of this work is presented in his two books "To the Nations," as Uhlhorn and Hauck believe, of earlier date. In his "Con- cerning the Testimony of the Soul" he acutely develops the thought that Chris- tianity responds to the religious necessi-