Prescription Against Heretics
For For readers asking how the early church judged truth and authority — tradition, succession, the rule of faith; not for a devotional reader.
Length About 16,000 words, about an hour.
Tertullian's De Praescriptione Haereticorum (Against the Prescription of Heretics) emerged from the heated theological controversies of late second-century Carthage, where Gnostic teachers and other heterodox groups challenged orthodox Christian doctrine with sophisticated philosophical arguments. Writing around 196-200 CE, the North African lawyer-turned-theologian crafted this treatise not as a point-by-point refutation of specific heresies, but as a more fundamental challenge to heretical authority itself.
Tertullian's central argument deploys the Roman legal concept of praescriptio – a procedural objection that could bar a case from proceeding to trial. He contends that heretics have no standing to interpret Scripture because they possess neither apostolic succession nor the regula fidei (rule of faith) that authentic churches inherited from the apostles. The churches founded by apostles, he argues, are the sole legitimate custodians of Christian truth, making heretical appeals to biblical interpretation legally and theologically invalid. This "prescription" renders detailed theological argumentation unnecessary: heretics are simply trespassing on property that does not belong to them. Tertullian reinforces this position by appealing to the public, verifiable nature of apostolic tradition versus the secret, ever-changing doctrines of Gnostic schools.
This work established a foundational principle for orthodox Christianity's approach to doctrinal authority that resonated through centuries of theological development. Tertullian's emphasis on apostolic succession and ecclesiastical authority influenced later patristic writers and contributed to evolving concepts of biblical interpretation within the church's authoritative framework. His legal-theological methodology provided a template for defending orthodox positions that went beyond scriptural exegesis to questions of interpretive authority itself.
Who should read this: Students of early Christian apologetics and anyone interested in how the ancient church established boundaries between orthodox and heterodox teaching will find Tertullian's legal-theological framework illuminating. This is not devotional reading, but rather a technical treatise requiring familiarity with early Christian controversies and basic knowledge of Gnostic movements.
Editions
External off-site sources
Free downloads
- OTHER Prescription Against Heretics PDTrans. Peter HolmesDe Praescriptione Haereticorum in the same Ante-Nicene Fathers translation (volume 3, 1885) by Peter Holmes, hosted by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library with chapter-by-chapter navigation and downloadable as EPUB or PDF. Choose this over the single-page copies if you want to move around the text or take it offline.
- OTHER De Praescriptione Haereticorum (The Latin Library (Latin)) LatinDe Praescriptione Haereticorum in Tertullian's Latin, unaccompanied: no translation, no introduction and no notes — just the text, section-numbered, on one page at The Latin Library. For readers working with the original, or checking an English rendering against it.Much harder than the work: Original Latin, no translation — read alongside an English edition unless you have the language.
- OTHER De Praescriptione Haereticorum (New Advent)Trans. Peter HolmesDe Praescriptione Haereticorum in the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation (volume 3, 1885), translated by Peter Holmes, on New Advent as a single continuous page with the chapter divisions kept and the editors' notes gathered at the foot. No introduction and no apparatus — the plainest way to read it straight through. A manageable single sitting for most readers.