Ad Nationes (To the Nations) shows that the Roman actions taken against the early Christians are violations of justice. This is followed by a listing of Roman slanders against the Christians. Tertullian points out the hypocrisy, since Romans hardly conduct themselves in anything resembling moral behavior. The second book condemns and criticizes Roman religion and their deities in particular. "The hatred held by the heathen against the Christians is unjust, because based on culpable ignorance. One proof of that ignorance of yours, which condemns whilst it excuses your injustice, is at once apparent in the fact, that all who once shared in your ignorance and hatred (of the Christian religion), as soon as they have come to know it, leave off their hatred when they cease to be ignorant; nay more, they actually themselves become what they had hated, and take to hating what they had once been. Day after day, indeed, you groan over the increasing number of the Christians. Your constant cry is, that the state is beset (by us); that Christians are in your fields, in your camps, in your islands."-Tertullian 197 AD

Papers presented to the International Conference on Patristic Studies. 2d- 1955-

Tertullian (c. AD 160 - 225) was one of the first theologians of the Western Church & ranks among the most prominent of the early Latin fathers. His wide-ranging literary output offers a valuable insight into the Christian Church at a crucial stage in its development.