Against Marcion, IV.5.… ‘Rome, from which the authority of the apostles is at hand for us also.’ We do not know who first preached the gospel in Africa; Tertullian naturally appeals to Rome as the nearest apostolic church. This passage is the earliest in which the manner of the apostles’ deaths is given. The presence of the apostle John at Rome is not confirmed by any early source. all their doctrine: ‘without any reservation such as the heretics asserted’ (Bindley, Tertulliani Praescriptio Haereticorum,