In spite of his lapse from the Church, Tertullian exercise a great influence on the Latin Fathers who were to follow him. As the initiator of ecclesiastical Latin, he was instrumental in shaping the vocabulary and thought of Western Christianity for the next 1,000 years. Here are select passages that demonstrate what Tertullian thought about women. Only man, not woman, is the 'image of God'. Every woman carries the curse of Eve, as originator of sin.
Woman is a source of temptation .
It is better for a man not to marry, because it is tainted with concupiscence Man, not woman, is the 'image of God'. De Cultu Feminarum, book 1, chap. On the Veiling of Virgins, chap. Among heretics, women teach, dispute, heal and, perhaps, baptize The Prescription against Heretics, chap. I must not omit an account of the conduct also of the heretics-how frivolous it is, how worldly, how merely human, without seriousness, without authority, without discipline, as suits their creed.