Primary source · Latin
Against Praxeas
Tertullian of Carthage · c. AD 213
What this text is
The treatise that gave Latin theology its Trinitarian grammar — tres personae, una substantia — against the man who 'did a twofold service for the devil at Rome: he drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy.'
Profile of Tertullian of Carthage →
Public-domain translations
Peter Holmes (ANF, 1885)
By this Praxeas did a twofold service for the devil at Rome: he drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy; he put to flight the Paraclete, and he crucified the Father.
Manuscript witnesses
Corpus Cluniacense manuscripts
9th c. onwardAdversus Praxean in the Montanist-period corpus.
Provenance
Carthage, c. AD 213 — the grammar of the Trinity, against modalism
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Tertullian's Treatise against PraxeasErnest Evans, 1948Critical text, translation, and the classic commentary.
- Tertullian, First Theologian of the WestEric Osborn, 1997The doctrine of the treatise in context.