Tertullian worked as a jurist in Rome, converted to Christianity after his return to Carthage, and became a leader of the African Church.

He wrote works in defense of the faith ('Apologeticum') and he helped establish Latin - rather than Greek - as ecclesiastical language in the West. Therefore, he has been called 'the Father of Latin Christianity'.

In his later years Tertullian became dissatisfied with the laxity of contemporary Christians and he joined the movement of Montanism (from the prophet Montanus), which demanded a strict moralism and preached the imminent end of the world.