Tertullian

Excerpts from Tertullian

Tertullian on 'the Christian Woman'

(describing certain 'normal' aspects of Christian womanhood that he considered to mitigate against a Christian Woman marrying an non-Christian man.)

Quis autem sinat coniugem suam uisitandorum fratrum gratia uicatim aliena et quidem pauperiora quaeque tuguria circuire? Quis nocturnis conuocationibus, si ita oportuerit, a latere suo adimi libenter feret? Quis denique sollemnibus Paschae abnoctantem securus sustinebit? Quis ad conuiuium dominicum illud, quod infamant, sine sua suspicione dimittet? Quis in carcerem ad osculanda uincula martyris reptare patietur? [3] Iam uero alicui fratrum ad osculum conuenire, aquam sanctorum pedibus offerre, de cibo, de poculo inuadere, desiderare, in mente habere? Si pereger frater adueniat, quod in aliena domo hospitium? Si cui largiendum erit, horreum, proma praeclusa sunt.

For who would suffer his wife, for the sake of visiting the brethren, to go round from street to street to other men's, and indeed to all the poorer, cottages? Who will willingly bear her being taken from his side by nocturnal convocations, if need so be? Who, finally, will without anxiety endure her absence all the night long at the paschal solemnities? Who will, without some suspicion of his own, dismiss her to attend that Lord's Supper which they defame? Who will suffer her to creep into prison to kiss a martyr's bonds? nay, truly, to meet any one of the brethren to exchange the kiss? to offer water for the saints' feet? to snatch (somewhat for them) from her food, from her cup? to yearn (after them)? to have (them) in her mind? If a pilgrim brother arrive, what hospitality for him in an alien home? If bounty is to be distributed to any, the granaries, the storehouses, are foreclosed.

(from To His Wife")
Full Text at CCEL

Tertullian on 'the Kiss of Peace'

What prayer is complete from which the holy kiss is divorced? What kind of sacrifice is that from which men depart without the peace?

Tertullian on 'Spiritual Wives'

I am aware of the excuses by which we colour our insatiable carnal appetite. Our pretexts are: the necessities of props to lean on; a house to be managed; a family to be governed; chests and keys to be guarded; the wool-spinning to be dispensed; food to be attended to; cares to be generally lessened. Of course the houses of none but married men fare well! The families of celibates, the estates of eunuchs, the fortunes of military men, or of such as travel without wives, have gone to rack and ruin! For are not we, too, soldiers? Soldiers, indeed, subject to all the stricter discipline, that we are subject to so great a General?63 Are not we, too, travellers in this world? Why moreover, Christian, are you so conditioned, that you cannot (so travel) without a wife? "In my present (widowed) state, too, a consort in domestic works is necessary." (Then) take some spiritual wife. Take to yourself from among the widows one fair in faith, dowered with poverty, sealed with age. You will (thus) make a good marriage. A plurality of such wives is pleasing to God.

Full Text at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian30.html 

Tertullian on 'Love Feasts'

Tertullian's Apology 

It is the banquet (triclinium) alone of the Christians that is criticised. Our supper (coena) shows its character by its name. It is called by a word which in Greek signifies love (i.e. agape). Whatever it costs, it is anyhow a clear gain that it is incurred on the score of piety, seeing that we succour the poorest by such entertainments (refrigerio). We do not lie down at table until prayer has been offered to God, as it were a first taste. We eat only to appease our hunger, we drink only so much as it is good for temperate persons to do. If we satisfy our appetites, we do so without forgetting that throughout the night we must say our prayers to God.

If we converse, it is with the knowledge that the Lord is listening. After washing our hands and lighting the lamps, each is invited to sing a hymn before all to God, either taken from holy writ or of his own composition. So we prove him, and see how well he has drunk.

Prayer ends, as it began, the banquet; and we break up not in bands of brigands, nor in groups of vagabonds, nor do we burst out into debauchery. . . . This meeting of Christians we admit deserves to be made illicit, if it resembles illicit acts; it deserves to be condemned, if any complain of it on the same score on which complaints are levelled at fractious meetings. But to do harm to whom do we ever thus come together?

Full Text at CCEL