What we know of Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus (Tertullian) comes mainly from his own writing. The brief biography in Jer. Vir. ill. 53, which states that he was the son of a centurion, was a presbyter (Priest/Presbyter), and left the church to join the Montanists, has been called into question in T.D. Barnes’ biography, which first appeared in 1971. So too has Eusebius of Caesarea’s point in Historia eccles…