Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus was a Christian writer from Carthage in North Africa who flourished during the Severan age at the end of the second and beginning of the third centuries. He is one of the first Latin-writing Christians who works survive and he was responsible for one of the most extensive surviving bodies of work from the pre-Nicene period.
Little is known about his life. The accuracy of a brief biography of him recorded in Jerome’s De uiris illustribus 53 from the late fourth century has been called into question by Timothy Barnes on topics such as his presbyteral status, his father’s occupation, and his leaving the church to join the Montanists. From his own writings we learn that he was a married man and that he had converted to Christianity in adulthood. He
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Citation: Dunn, Geoffrey. "Tertullian". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4353, accessed 26 April 2024.]
