Quintus Septimius Florens, one of the Latin Fathers, was born at Carthage about the middle of the second century. Dr Allix, in his Dissertatio de Tertullianis Vita et Scriptis, 1680, has remarked that those who suppose him to have flourished about the year A.D. 160, have referred his birth to too early a period. His father was a centurion in the legion of the proconsul. The son was well instructed in elegant as well as useful learning, and in particular acquired much skill in the civil law. Having renounced the errors of paganism, he distinguished himself by his able apology for the Christians. It appears from his works that he was married. He became a presbyter of the church of Carthage, and afterwards paid a visit to Rome, where he was a spectator of the games celebrated by the Emperor Severus in the year A.D. 204. On his return he embraced the errors of Montanus. (See MONTANUS.) He assumed the pallium, or robe of the ancient philosophers, and defended his conduct in a learned and singular tract De Pallio. He at length relinquished his connection with the Montanists, but still retained some peculiar opinions. Tertullian reached an advanced age, and we may perhaps place his death about the year A.D. 240. Nearly all we know of him is obtained from a very short account by St Jerome. He was a man of much fervour and ingenuity, conjoined with various learning; but his works contain many erroneous, and some pernicious opinions, among which we may class his notion as to the benefit of prayers for the dead. He writes in an impassioned style of eloquence, and his meaning is not unfrequently obscure. Lactantius, no mean judge, has censured him as deficient in ease and perspicuity. His whole works number in all thirty-one. The earliest edition of his works was published by Beatus Rhenanus, Basil, 1521, fol. Many editions followed, but we shall only refer the reader to that of Rigault, or Rigaltius, Paris, 1634, fol. A separate volume, containing the commentaries of former editors, was added in 1635. Some of his treatises have received much learned illustration in a separate form, particularly the Apologeticus from Heraldus, Lutet. Paris, 1613, 4to; and from Havercamp, Lugd. Bat, 1718, 8vo; and the tract De Pallio, from Salmasius, Lugd. Bat, 1656, 8vo. Dr Kaye, late bishop of Lincoln, published a work of considerable value, under the title of The Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries, illustrated from the Writings of Tertullian, Cambridge, 1826, 8vo.