Tertullian was in many ways the embodiment of the western spirit. This appears in the practical and non-speculative orientation of his thinking, in his emphasis upon the will and upon discipline, in his tendency towards social issues, and in the legalistic frameset of his thought. In such an age, that a figure so turbulent and rebellious--he was a man in revolt against the Modalities or Monarchianism, against Gnosticism and the Marcionites, he wrote Against Praxeas--should have lived long and died a natural death at the ripe age of eighty is indeed curious.