Pro legibus facit inquisitio. Processo provinciale e nomen christianum nelle opere apologetiche di Tertulliano

Comparing the very similar dispositio of Tertullian’s Ad Nationes and Apologeticum (both the works were written almost simultaneously and for the same ideological purposes), It is possible to assess the valor of the various meanings of the words inquisitio/inquirere in the criminal legal procedure in the provinces between the second and the third centuries. However, the forma malorum iudicandorum (in which the right use of the inquisitio, intended as a preparatory inquiry, plays a legitimating role) is not applied to the christian, to whom, on the contrary, It is applied a ‘perverse’ legal procedure on which Tertullian recriminates, stigmatizing the unlawfulness of every conviction that is not issued through the right aforementioned procedure. Accordingly to the reasons mentioned by the carthaginian author, It is possible to deduce some important clues related to nature of the felony charges (s.c. nomen christianum) applicable to the ‘guilty’ of Christianity and connected to the iniquity of any rule of law that provides those charges.