Primary source · Latin
The Apology (Apologeticus) — closing
Tertullian of Carthage · c. AD 197
What this text is
The first great Latin defense of the faith, addressed to the provincial governors: persecution, Tertullian argues, only multiplies the church.
Profile of Tertullian of Carthage →
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
Chapter 50.13 — The seed
SemenSeedestissanguisthe bloodChristianorum.of the Christians
Public-domain translations
S. Thelwall (ANF, 1885)
…the blood of Christians is seed. We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed. (Popularly paraphrased: ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.’)
Manuscript witnesses
Codex Fuldensis of the Apologeticum (lost)
ancient; collated 1584A separate, older text-form of the Apology, known from Modius's collation before the manuscript vanished.
Corpus Cluniacense manuscripts
9th c. onwardThe monastic corpus that carried most of Tertullian across the Middle Ages.
Provenance
Carthage, c. AD 197 — the Apology for the Christians
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Tertullian: Apology & De Spectaculis (Loeb 250)T. R. Glover, 1931Latin text with facing English.
- Tertullian: A Historical and Literary StudyTimothy D. Barnes, rev. ed. 1985The standard modern study.