“The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians…”

The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.

Tertullian · The Apology (Apologeticus) · ANF III, Apology, Chapter L

The last chapter of the Apology and the most quoted sentence in Latin Christian literature after the creeds. Usually cited as "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church", a form Tertullian did not write; Thelwall renders the Latin *semen est sanguis Christianorum* exactly as it stands here.