The beginnings of Latin Christian literature

Abstract

The first Latin Christian literature appears to have been translations of portions of the Bible. The small Passio Sanctorum Scilitanorum is the earliest preserved Latin Christian document. It is the transcript of a portion of a trial of five Christians in Carthage in 180. Tertullian of Carthage is the first Latin Christian author who can be located and identified with relative precision. Tertullian's conversion to Christianity occurred, perhaps, in 193, and his earliest writings, Ad Martyras, Ad Nationes and Apologeticum, can be dated in 196-7on the basis of historical allusions to the immediate aftermath of the battle of Lugdunum. In De Baptismo Tertullian defends the necessity of baptism against an attack by a woman of the Cainite heresy who had been successful in making converts in Carthage. Tertullian also addressed various virtues and disciplines of the Christian faith. Acts 15:29 played an important part in Tertullian's later view on the forgiveness of post-baptismal sins.

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