In one passage Tertullian even goes so far as to send his readers to the Churches of Corinth, Philippi, &c.

for the very autographs ('authenticae literae') of St.Paul's Epistles [Endnote 327:5].

But this is merely a characteristic flourish of rhetoric.
All for which the statements of Tertullian may safely be said to vouch is, that the Gospels had held their 'prerogative' position within his memory and that of most members of the Church to which he belonged.
But the evidence of the Fathers is most decisive when it is unconscious.

That the Gospels as used by the Christian writers at the end of the first century, so far from being of recent composition, had already a long history behind them, is nothing less than certain.

At this date they exhibit a text which bears the marks of frequent transcription and advanced corruption.
'Origen's,' says Dr.Scrivener [Endnote 328:1], 'is the highest name among the critics and expositors of the early Church; he is perpetually engaged in the discussion of various readings of the New Testament, and employs language in describing the then state of the text, which would be deemed strong if applied even to its present condition with the changes which sixteen more centuries must needs have produced ...