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Tertullian: source notes

Tertullian: source notes

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Topic: baptism

See baptism reasoning.

BAP S1: On Baptism 1

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm
  • Text: “Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life!”
  • Context: Written c. 200 against a Cainite teacher who rejected baptism.
  • Bears on: B1
  • Status: verified (English)

BAP S2: On Baptism 18

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm
  • Text: “And so, according to the circumstances and disposition, and even age, of each individual, the delay of baptism is preferable; principally, however, in the case of little children. For why is it necessary — if (baptism itself) is not so necessary — that the sponsors likewise should be thrust into danger?”
  • Context: Tertullian advises delay, which presupposes that infants were in fact being baptized, with sponsors. His reason is the danger of post-baptismal sin, not that infant baptism is invalid.
  • Bears on: B2
  • Status: verified (English)

Topic: eucharist

See eucharist reasoning.

EUC S1: Against Marcion IV.40

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/03124.htm
  • Text: “He made it His own body, by saying, This is my body, that is, the figure of my body. A figure, however, there could not have been, unless there were first a veritable body.”
  • Context: Against Marcion’s phantom Christ. “Figure” (figura) is used to prove Christ’s real body. The word does not mean what modern ‘merely symbolic’ means.
  • Bears on: E1
  • Status: verified (English)

Topic: afterlife

See afterlife reasoning.

AFT S1: On the Soul 7

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0310.htm
  • Text: “whatever amount of punishment or refreshment the soul tastes in Hades, in its prison or lodging, in the fire or in Abraham’s bosom, it gives proof thereby of its own corporeality.”
  • Context: An intermediate state in Hades, with punishment or refreshment (cf. Luke 16).
  • Bears on: L1
  • Status: verified (English)

AFT S2: De Corona 3

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0304.htm
  • Text: “As often as the anniversary comes round, we make offerings for the dead as birthday honours.”
  • Context: Listed among unwritten customs held by tradition.
  • Bears on: L2
  • Status: verified (English)

AFT S3: On the Resurrection of the Flesh 1

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0316.htm
  • Text: “The resurrection of the dead is the Christian’s trust. By it we are believers.”
  • Context: Against those who denied the resurrection of the flesh.
  • Bears on: L4
  • Status: verified (English)

Topic: scripture-and-tradition

See scripture-and-tradition reasoning.

SCT S1: Prescription against Heretics 21 (heading)

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm (NPNF/ANF English translation)
  • Text: “That Faith, Therefore, is Apostolic, Which Descended from the Apostles, Through Apostolic Churches.”
  • Context: Heretics are to be refuted from the apostolic churches’ rule.
  • Bears on: C3
  • Status: verified (English)

Topic: trinity

See trinity reasoning.

TRI S1: Against Praxeas 2

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0317.htm (NPNF/ANF English translation)
  • Text: “distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons— the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the …”
  • Context: Against modalism; first Latin ‘Trinity … one substance’.
  • Bears on: T1
  • Status: verified (English)

Topic: other-sacraments

See other-sacraments reasoning.

OSR S1: On Baptism 7

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Of the Unction After this, when we have issued from the font, we are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction, — (a practice derived) from the old discipline, wherein on entering the priesthood, men were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses.”
  • Context: Rite after the font.
  • Bears on: K1
  • Status: verified (English)

OSR S2: On Baptism 8

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Types of the Deluge and the Dove In the next place the hand is laid on us, invoking and inviting the Holy Spirit through benediction.”
  • Context:
  • Bears on: K1
  • Status: verified (English)

OSR S3: On Repentance 9

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0320.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “And thus exomologesis is a discipline for man’s prostration and humiliation, enjoining a demeanor calculated to move mercy.”
  • Context: Public penance.
  • Bears on: K2
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine F01X

See F01X reasoning.

F01X S1: Against Praxeas 1

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0317.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “He says that the Father Himself came down into the Virgin, was Himself born of her, Himself suffered, indeed was Himself Jesus Christ.”
  • Context: The modalist view rejected.
  • Bears on: F01.2
  • Status: verified (English)

F01X S2: Against Praxeas 2

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0317.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. …”
  • Context:
  • Bears on: F01.2
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S10

See S10 reasoning.

S10 S1: On the Veiling of Virgins 9

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0403.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the church; but neither (is it permitted her) to teach, nor to baptize, nor to offer, nor to claim to herself a lot in any manly function, not to say (in any) sacerdotal office.”
  • Context:
  • Bears on: S10.1
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T04X

See T04X reasoning.

T04X S1: Against Praxeas 26

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0317.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “And indeed it is not once only, but three times, that we are immersed into the Three Persons, at each several mention of Their names.”
  • Context:
  • Bears on: T04.2
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T08

See T08 reasoning.

T08 S1: On the Soul 27

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0310.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Simultaneously How, then, is a living being conceived? Is the substance of both body and soul formed together at one and the same time? Or does one of them precede the other in natural formation? We indeed maintain that both are conceived, and formed, and perfectly simultaneously, as well as born together; and that not a moment’s interval occurs in their conception, so that, a prior place can be assigned to either. …”
  • Context:
  • Bears on: T08.1
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T14

See T14 reasoning.

T14 S1: On the Crown 4

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0304.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Chapter 4 If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none.”
  • Context:
  • Bears on: T14.1
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T24

See T24 reasoning.

T24 S1: To Scapula 2

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0305.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion — to which free-will and not force should lead us — the sacrificial victims even being required of a willing mind.”
  • Context: Against compulsion.
  • Bears on: T24.2
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S22

See S22 reasoning.

S22 S1: To His Wife II.8

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0404.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Church cements, and the oblation confirms, and the benediction signs and seals; (which) angels carry back the news of (to heaven), (which) the Father holds for ratified? For even on earth children do not rightly and lawfully wed without their fathers’ consent. …”
  • Context: The Church joins and blesses marriage.
  • Bears on: S22.2
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T21

See T21 reasoning.

T21 S1: On Baptism 17

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “usurped the power to teach, will of course not give birth for herself likewise to a right of baptizing, unless some new beast shall arise like the former; so that, just as the one abolished baptism, so some other should in her own right confer it! But if the writings which wrongly go under Paul’s name, claim Thecla’s example as a licence for women’s teaching and baptizing, let them know that, in Asia, the presbyter w …”
  • Context: Laymen may baptize; women may not teach or baptize.
  • Bears on: T21.2
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T25

See T25 reasoning.

T25 S1: To His Wife II.5

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0404.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “secretly taste before (taking) any food? And if he knows it to be bread, does he not believe it to be that (bread) which it is said to be? And will every (husband), ignorant of the reason of these things, simply endure them, without murmuring, without suspicion whether it be bread or poison? Some, (it is true,) do endure (them); but it is that they may trample on, that they may make sport of such women; whose secrets …”
  • Context: Reserved bread eaten at home.
  • Bears on: T25.2
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T26

See T26 reasoning.

T26 S1: Apology 39

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0301.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “judging carried on among us, as befits those who feel assured that they are in the sight of God; and you have the most notable example of judgment to come when any one has sinned so grievously as to require his severance from us in prayer, in the congregation and in all sacred intercourse.”
  • Context: Judgment in the assembly.
  • Bears on: T26.1
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine F10

See F10 reasoning.

F10 S1: On the Resurrection of the Flesh 2 — flesh already risen in Christ

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0316.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Driven then, as they are, to give a different dispensation to Christ, so that He may not be accounted as belonging to the Creator, they have achieved their first error in the article of His very flesh; contending with Marcion and Basilides that it possessed no reality; or else holding, after the heretical tenets of Valentinus, and according to Apelles, that it had qualities peculiar to itself. And so it follows that they shut out from all recovery from death that substance of which they say that Christ did not partake, confidently assuming that it furnishes the strongest presumption against the resurrection, since the flesh is already risen in Christ.”
  • Context: Christ’s risen flesh is real human flesh (not a phantom or alien substance); that same flesh rises in him as first-fruits.
  • Bears on: F10.3
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine F14

See F14 reasoning.

F14 S1: On the Resurrection of the Flesh 35 — body raised also for hell

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0316.htm (public-domain English translation; ANF text also at CCEL)
  • Text: “Since, then, the body after the resurrection has to be killed by God in hell along with the soul, we surely have sufficient information in this fact respecting both the issues which await it, namely the resurrection of the flesh, and its eternal ‘killing.’ Else it would be most absurd if the flesh should be raised up and destined to ’the killing in hell,’ in order to be put an end to, when it might suffer such an annihilation (more directly) if not raised again at all.”
  • Context: Against those who confine resurrection to the righteous: the wicked’s flesh is also raised, so that body and soul may together face eternal penalty. Duration/mode of punishment is T10.
  • Bears on: F14.3
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T09X

See T09X reasoning.

T09X S1: On the Soul 55

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0310.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “You have a treatise by us, (on Paradise), in which we have established the position that every soul is detained in safe keeping in Hades until the day of the Lord.”
  • Context: Tertullian on Hades; he excepts the martyrs, who go to Paradise.
  • Bears on: T09.3
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S03X

See S03X reasoning.

S03X S1: On Baptism 15

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “And therefore their baptism is not one with ours either, because it is not the same; a baptism which, since they have it not duly, doubtless they have not at all; nor is that capable of being counted which is not had.”
  • Context: Tertullian on whether heretics’ baptism counts.
  • Bears on: S03.3
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S05X

See S05X reasoning.

S05X S1: On the Crown 3

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0304.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “As often as the anniversary comes round, we make offerings for the dead as birthday honours.”
  • Context: Tertullian lists church customs not written in Scripture (c. 211).
  • Bears on: S05.3
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S13X

See S13X reasoning.

S13X S1: On Modesty 19

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0407.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “some sins of daily committal, to which we all are liable: for who will be free from the accident of either being angry unjustly, and retaining his anger beyond sunset; or else even using manual violence or else carelessly speaking evil; or else rashly swearing; or else forfeiting his plighted word or else lying, from bashfulness or necessity? In businesses, in official duties, in trade, in food, in sight, in hearing, …”
  • Context: Tertullian, as a Montanist, on John’s distinction of sins.
  • Bears on: S13.3
  • Status: verified (English)

S13X S2: On Modesty 19

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0407.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “But there are, too, the contraries of these; as the graver and destructive ones, such as are incapable of pardon — murder, idolatry, fraud, apostasy, blasphemy; (and), of course, too, adultery and fornication; and if there be any other violation of the temple of God.”
  • Context: Tertullian’s list of deadly sins.
  • Bears on: S13.3
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S18X

See S18X reasoning.

S18X S1: On the Flesh of Christ 7

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0315.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “John 7:5 So is it contained in the Gospel which was published before Marcion’s time; while there is at the same time a want of evidence of His mother’s adherence to Him, although the Marthas and the other Marys were in constant attendance on Him.”
  • Context: Tertullian on Mark 3:31–35, against Marcion’s use of the text.
  • Bears on: S18.4
  • Status: verified (English)

S18X S2: On the Flesh of Christ 7

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0315.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “In this very passage indeed, their unbelief is evident.”
  • Context: Tertullian on Christ’s mother and brothers.
  • Bears on: S18.4
  • Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S17X

See S17X reasoning.

S17X S1: On Modesty 22

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0407.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Let it suffice to the martyr to have purged his own sins: it is the part of ingratitude or of pride to lavish upon others also what one has obtained at a high price.”
  • Context: Tertullian, as a Montanist, against martyrs granting peace to the fallen.
  • Bears on: S17.3
  • Status: verified (English)

S17X S2: On Modesty 22

  • Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0407.htm (public-domain English translation)
  • Text: “Who has redeemed another’s death by his own, but the Son of God alone? For even in His very passion He set the robber free.”
  • Context: Tertullian on Christ alone as redeemer.
  • Bears on: S17.3
  • Status: verified (English)