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Tertullian was a lay theologian in Carthage, North Africa. His sincerity as a convert was mixed with moral rigorism and an uncompromising stand against worldly standards. This led him to leave the Church and join the Montanists in 210 AD, and later to found his own sect.
In spite of his lapse from the Church, Tertullian exercise a great influence on the Latin Fathers who were to follow him. “As the initiator of ecclesiastical Latin, he was instrumental in shaping the vocabulary and thought of Western Christianity for the next 1,000 years.” (Robert L. Wilken in the Encyclopedia Britannica).
The author of 1 Timothy 5,9-10 lays down as conditions for women being admitted to the 'order' of widows that they be sixty years old, had only one husband and have been involved in good works. Tertullian shows that this ecclesiastical order of widows was a living reality in North Africa.
To his Wife 1.7. "In as far as we can, let us love the opportunity of sexual abstinence. When it first presents itself, let us resolve to accept it, so that what we could not take on in marriage, we might embrace in widowhood. The occasion must be embraced which concludes what necessity used to command. The practice of the Church and the prescription of the Apostle [Paul] show how harmful to faith, and what an impediment to sanctity, second marriages are. For he [Paul] does not allow twice-married men to preside [for bishops: 1 Timothy 3,2; for deacons|: 1 Timothy 3.11] and he does not allow a widow into the [ecclesiastical] order [ordinem] unless she had been married to only one man (1 Timothy 5,9)."
On Modesty 13.7. "Why do you . . . lead the penitent adulterer into the middle of the church (assembly) and have him kneel in haircloth and ashes . . . before the widows, before the priests (presbyters), imploring the tears of all, kissing the footprints of all, clutching the knees of all?"
On Monogamy 11.1. "How will you ask for a blessing on your (second) marriage while those from whom you ask it are not allowed to have it -- namely from monogamist bishops, priests (presbyters) and deacons, bound by the same promise, and from widows whose way of life (sectam) you have turned down?"
However, Tertullian's attitude to women was negative and he opposed women's involvement in priestly tasks.
De Cultu Feminarum, book 1, chap. 1. “You (woman) destroyed so easily God's image, man.”
On the Veiling of Virgins, chap. 10. “How, then, would God have failed to make any such concession to men more (than to women), whether on the ground of nearer intimacy, as being "His own image," or on the ground of harder toil? But if nothing (has been thus conceded) to the male, much less to the female.”
The Prescription against Heretics, chap. 41 §1. “I must
not omit an account of the conduct also of the heretics-how frivolous it is,
how worldly, how merely human, without seriousness, without authority, without
discipline, as suits their creed.
§2. To begin with, it is doubtful
who is a catechumen, and who a believer; they have all access alike, they hear
alike, they pray alike-even heathens, if any such happen to come among them.
"That which is holy they will cast to the dogs, and their pearls," although (to
be sure) they are not real ones, "they will fling to the swine."
§3.
Simplicity they will have to consist in the overthrow of discipline, attention
to which on our part they call brotherly. Peace also they huddle up anyhow with
all comers;
§4. for it matters not to them, however different be
their treatment of subjects, provided only they can conspire together to storm
the citadel of the one only Truth. All are puffed up, all offer you knowledge.
Their catechumens are perfect before they are full-taught.
§5. The
very women of these heretics, how wanton they are! For they are bold enough to
teach, to dispute, to enact exorcisms, to undertake cures-it may be even to
baptize.
§6. Their ordinations, are carelessly. administered,
capricious, changeable. At one time they put novices in office; at
another time, men who are bound to some secular employment; at another, persons
who have apostatized from us, to bind them by vainglory, since they cannot by
the truth.
§7. Nowhere is promotion easier than in the camp of
rebels, where the mere fact of being there is a foremost service.
§8.
And so it comes to pass that today one man is their bishop, tomorrow another;
today he is a deacon who tomorrow is a reader; today he is a presbyter who
tomorrow is a layman. For even on laymen do they impose the functions of
priesthood.”
On the Veiling of Virgins, chap. 9. “It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the church; but neither (is it permitted her) to teach, nor to baptize, nor to offer, nor to claim to herself a lot in any manly function, not to say (in any) sacerdotal office.”
Note. All that these verses establish is that Tertullian objected to women being involved in teaching, baptizing and other priestly ministries. They do not prove a valid ecclesiastical tradition.
On the Veiling of Virgins, chap 7. “So perilous a face, then, ought to be shaded, which has cast stumbling-stones even so far as heaven: that, when standing in the presence of God, at whose bar it stands accused of the driving of the angels from their (native) confines, it may blush before the other angels as well; and may repress that former evil liberty of its head,-(a liberty) now to be exhibited not even before human eyes. But even if they were females already contaminated whom those angels had desired, so much the more "on account of the angels" would it have been the duty of virgins to be veiled, as it would have been the more possible for virgins to have been the cause of the angels' sinning.”
An Exhortation to Chastity, chap. 9. “The Lord Himself said, ‘Whoever has seen a woman with a view to sexual lust has already violated her in his heart.’ But has he who has seen her with a view to marriage done so less or more? What if he has even married her? - which he would not do had he not desired her with a view to marriage, and seen her with a view to sexual lust; unless it is possible for a wife to be married whom you have not seen or desired. I grant it makes a wide difference whether a married man or an unmarried desire another woman. Every woman, (however), even to an unmarried man, is "another," so long as she belongs to some one else; nor yet is the means through which she becomes a married woman any other than that through which (she becomes) an adulteress. It is laws which seem to make the difference between marriage and fornication; through diversity of illicitness, not through the nature of the thing itself. Besides, what is the thing which takes place in all men and women to produce marriage and fornication? Commixture of the flesh, of course; the sexual lusting of which the Lord put on the same footing with fornication. "Then", says (some one), "are you by this time destroying single-marriage too?" Indeed, yes, but not without reason; inasmuch as marriage too, consists of that which is the essence of fornication. Accordingly, the best thing for a man is not to touch a woman; and accordingly the virgin's is the principal sanctity, because it is free from affinity with fornication.”
Concerning a Crown, chap. 14. “Much less may the Christian put the service of idolatry on his own head-nay, I might have said, upon Christ, since Christ is the Head of the Christian man-(for his head) is as free as even Christ is, under no obligation to wear a covering, not to say a band. But even the head which is bound to have the veil, I mean woman's, as already taken possession of by this very thing, is not open also to a crown. She has the burden of her own humility to bear. If she ought not to appear with her head uncovered on account of the angels, much more with a crown on it will she offend those (elders) who perhaps are then wearing crowns above. For what is a crown on the head of a woman, but beauty made seductive, but mark of utter wantonness,-a notable casting away of modesty, a setting temptation on fire?”
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