Q. Septimi Florentie Tertulliani Apologeticue. Annotated by J. E. B.
Mayor. With a Translation by A. Souter. (Cambridge University Press. 12s. 6d. net.)—Tertullian, the first of the three great Christian teachers whom Carthage gave to the world, has been less fortunate than Cyprian and Augustine in retaining the attention of posterity, partly because he diverged from the orthodox path into Montanism, and partly because his vigorous Latin prose is very difficult. The masterly edition of his Apology left by the late President of St. John's and revised for the press by Professor Souter, with a most admirable translation, shows that a scholar of Mayor's eminence thought no pains too great to expend on the elucidation of Tertullian. The famous phrase "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church" is in Tertullian's words "The blood of the Christians is the seed," to whioh Professor Soutar adds "of a new life." Tertullian was a great phrasemaker. "Christians are made, not born," "See how they [the Christians] love one another," said "Truth is the eldest of things" are his sayings, and telling sentences like these punctuate every page of his powerful defence of the Christians against the heathen, which, though written about the year 200, still abounds with life.
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