The Church Fathers · c. 217–222
On Modesty
De Pudicitia
Tertullian · c. 155–c. 220
What it is
A furious response to a bishop who offered forgiveness to the sexually lapsed, denying that the church has power to remit such sins at all.
Why it lasted
The rigorist position at its most extreme, and evidence that a bishop was already claiming the authority Tertullian denied him.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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