TERTULLIAN, or QUINTUS SEXTIMUS FLORENS TERTULLIANUS, a celebrated priest of Carthage, was the son of a centurion in the militia, who served as proconsul of Africa. He was educated in the Pagan religion; but being convinced of its errors, embraced Christianity, and became a zealous defender of the faith. He married, it is thought, after his baptism. Afterwards he took orders, and went to Rome; where, during the persecution under the emperor Severus, he published his Apology for the Christians, which is, in its kind, a masterpiece of eloquence and learning; and at the beginning of the third century he embraced the sect of the Montanists. He lived to a very great age, and died under the reign of Antoninus Caracalla, about the year 216. Many of his works are still extant, in all of which he discovers a great knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, a lively imagination, a strong, elevated, and impetuous style, great eloquence and strength of reasoning; but is sometimes
reduced to a fine powder, and mixed with the hand, adding olive oil ten ounces, and a sufficient quantity of water, to bring the mass to the consistence of an ointment. To all sores and ulcers in warm climates astringent applications of this kind are found to be peculiarly useful."
Teruncius sometimes obscure. His Apology and Prescriptions are most esteemed. The best editions of his works are those of Rigault; especially that of Venice in 1746, folio. Pamelius and Alix, Mr Thomas, and the Sieur du Fossé, have written his life; and Rigault, M. de P'Aube Epine, Father Petau, and other learned men, have published notes on his works.