Haereticarum fabularum compendium

THE EPITOME OF THE HERETICAL FABLES OF THE BLESSED THEODORET, BISHOP OF CYRUS.

To the lord, the most magnificent and most glorious, and Christ-loving son, Sporacius, Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus of Augustoeuphratesia, greets in the Lord. Praiseworthy indeed is the purpose of your magnificence. For you desire to learn the bypaths of the straight road that have been innovated on either side by certain men, whose end is the pit of destruction. And you have welcomed this desire, not in order that you may hear of myths that have been most wickedly fashioned and give off a foul odor, but in order that you may teach those who do not know which is the royal highway, adorned with the apostolic and prophetic footprints and having as its end the kingdom of heaven, and which are the paths of the heretics, bringing the ultimate destruction upon those who travel in them. The purpose, then, as I said, is most excellent and worthy of admiration. But your God-loving soul must know that most of the ancient heresies have been extinguished through divine grace, and have become, to speak prophetically, "like the grass of the housetops, which withered before it blossomed." And perhaps someone might reproach us, that we are bringing back into the light of memory those that have been consigned to the darkness of oblivion. In addition to this, the nonsense of the myths is great, and the magnitude of the blasphemy dared against God is unspeakable to tongues that have been taught to speak piously; and the licentiousness that has been both legislated and practiced by them, not even one of those brought up in a tent could endure either to describe or to hear others speaking of it; so far does it surpass even the notorious practitioners of debauchery.

Since the naked exposure of the pollution of these utterly defiled doctrines makes both those who impiously begot them and those who foolishly believed them appear more abominable, I will gladly undertake the labor, looking to the profit. I shall try, as far as possible, to cut short the rubbish of the myths, to pass over the greatest of the blasphemies, and to leap over the pollution of the most licentious and foulest orgies. With God's help, I will divide the work into five books. The first will contain the narrative of those myths in which the fathers fashioned for themselves another creator, and, denying the one principle of all things, posited other principles that do not exist, and said that the Lord appeared to men only in appearance. The first inventor of these doctrines was Simon the magician, the Samaritan, and the last was Manes the sorcerer, the Persian. The second will show those who have religiously held the opposite of these things: they confessed that there is one principle of all things, but called the Lord a mere man. Ebion was the leader of this heresy, and it received its various inventions down to Marcellus and Photinus. The third will set forth those who sprang up between these and those, who became fathers of various doctrines. In the fourth I will show the more recent heresies—I mean that of Arius and Eunomius, and as many as grew up after them, down to this last one, which the Master suddenly tore up root and all. In these four books, then, we will expose the manifold error of the heresies.

But that we may also wipe clean the tongues of those who will read and the ears of those who will hear, and rid them of the pestilent stench, let us set before them, as it were a Chalaestrian, even a sweet-smelling ointment, the truth of the gospel doctrines, and show every heresy to be opposed to the teaching of the divine oracles. Now the myths of the ancient heresies I have collected from the ancient teachers of the Church: Justin the philosopher and martyr; Irenaeus, who both cultivated and enlightened the Celtic nations; Clement, who is surnamed Stromateus; Origen; Eusebius, both the Palestinian and the Phoenician; Adamantius; Rhodon; Titus; Diodorus; George; and the others who armed their tongues against falsehood. And what those men wrote scattered here and there I will arrange in order; and what they said at length I will state briefly. For I have not undertaken to refute them at present—for against those still standing even now I have already drawn up a written battle-line—but I was commanded to show the difference of their myths. The name, then, for the collection of the abominable heresies is Epitome of Heretical Evil-Mythology; and for the teaching of the truth, Epitome of Divine Doctrines; and the common name for both is Distinction of Falsehood and Truth. And I exhort those who will come upon this work to set each of the heretical doctrines beside the teaching of the truth; for it was for this very reason that I also composed the fifth book. For one will see that this teaching follows the oracles of the divine Spirit, while those doctrines are inventions of an utterly wicked mind.

But let the one who clearly finds the power of the truth amid others' labors be repaid with prayers—both the one who has labored and the one who requested the composition; because, having used a cloak and a belt, and having been entrusted with a generalship, and being compelled for this reason to sit in attendance upon the imperial courts, he prefers the knowledge of divine things and the learning of the truth above all things together, and cries out with the prophet: "How I have loved your law, O Lord! It is my meditation all the day long." Of the Heretical Calumny, Book One.

Preface. 1. Concerning Simon the Magician. 2. Concerning Menander. 3. Concerning Saturnilus. 4. Concerning Basilides and Isidore. 5. Concerning Carpocrates and Epiphanes. 6. Concerning Prodicus. 7. Concerning Valentinus. 8. Concerning Secundus and the others. 9. Concerning Marcus the Trickster. 10. Concerning the Ascodrutae, or Ascodrupitae. 11. Concerning the Archontics. 12. Concerning the Colorbasians. 13. Concerning the Barbeliotae, that is, the Borborians. 14. Concerning the Sethians, or Ophians, or Ophites. 15. Concerning the Cainites. 16. Concerning the Antitactae. 17. Concerning the Peratae. 18. Concerning Monoimus. 19. Concerning Hermogenes. 20. Concerning Tatian, and the Hydroparastatae, or Encratites. 21. Concerning Severus. 22. Concerning Bardesanes and Harmonius. 23. Concerning Florinus and Blastus. 24. Concerning Cerdo and Marcion. 25. Concerning Apelles, Potitus, Prepon, and the others. 26. Concerning Manes. Preface. The all-wise God of all things entrusted the cultivation of the desolated world to a few men—and those fishermen and tax collectors and one tentmaker.

But the utterly wicked demon, the avenger of men, seeing these men uprooting the thorns of the polytheistic error, and himself being stripped of his subjects, being a contriver of devices and a craftsman of wickedness, invented other schemes of plots. For having chosen men worthy of his own activity, and having put upon them, as it were a mask, the name of Christians, and having smeared, as it were with honey, the mouth of the cup, he administered to men the poison of falsehood as a drug. And thirsting for the destruction of men, he did not wait for the preaching of the apostles to be strengthened, and then bring in the deception; but immediately when they began to till the soil and to cast down the seeds of piety, he sowed the tares in between. 1. — Concerning Simon the Magician.

Now Simon the Samaritan, the magician, appeared first as the servant of his wicked craft. He, coming from Gitta (this is a village of Samaria), and having driven sorcery to the utmost, first persuaded many by the wonder-working that he practiced to sit at his feet and to call him some divine power.

Then, seeing that the apostles were truly genuine and performed divine wonders, and granted the grace of the Spirit to those who came to them, he thought himself worthy to receive equal authority from them. But when the great Peter observed his utterly wicked intent and commanded him to heal the hard-to-cure wounds of his mind with the medicines of repentance, he immediately returned to his former wicked craft, and leaving Samaria behind as having received the saving seeds, he rushed off to those not yet cultivated by the apostles, so that by deceiving the easily caught with his sorceries and binding them to his own mythologies, he might make the doctrines of the holy apostles hard to accept. But divine grace armed the great Peter against his madness. For he, following after him, scattered his abominable teaching like some mist and darkness, and displayed the rays of the light of truth. Nevertheless, even when plainly refuted, the thrice-wretched man did not cease arraying himself against the truth, until he arrived at Rome, when Claudius Caesar was emperor. And he so astounded the Romans with his sorceries that he was even honored with a bronze pillar. But again the divine Peter, having arrived, stripped him of the wings of his deceit, and finally, having summoned him to a contest of wonderworking and shown the difference between divine grace and sorcery, while all the Romans watched, he cast him down from a great height by his prayer, and captured the eyewitnesses of the wonder for salvation. This man produced such a myth: he supposed a certain boundless power;

He called this the root of all things. He said that it is fire, having a twofold activity, the one apparent and the other hidden; and that the world is generated, having come into being from the apparent activity of the fire. First from it were projected three syzygies, which he also called roots; and he named the first Mind and Intention, the second Voice and Thought, and the third Reasoning and Reflection. He called himself the boundless power, and said that he appeared to the Jews as the Son, descended to the Samaritans as the Father, and came to the other nations as the Holy Spirit. And having taken as his companion a certain other woman standing on a roof, called Helena, he said that she was his first Intention, and he called her the mother of all things, and through her he made both the angels and the archangels; and the world was fashioned by the angels; then the angels, envying her, held her fast among themselves. For they did not wish, he says, to be called her creations. For this reason they brought her into many women's bodies, and into that Helena for whom the Trojan war took place. For her sake, he said, he himself had descended, so as both to free her from the bonds laid upon her and to provide salvation to men through the knowledge of him; and he descended being changed, so as not to be known by the angels who administer the creation; and he appeared in Judea as a man not being a man, and suffered while not having suffered at all; and the prophets had become servants of the angels. But those who

He ordered those who believed not to pay attention to them, nor to shudder at the threats of the laws, but to act as free men in whatever they wished; for they would obtain salvation not through good deeds but through grace. For this reason those of his company dared every kind of licentiousness, and they used all sorts of enchantments, contriving certain love-charms and incantations, and pursuing the other things that are proper to sorcery as if they were divine mysteries. And they made an image of this man in the form of Zeus, and of Helen in the likeness of Athena, and they burned incense and poured libations to these, and worshipped them as gods, calling themselves Simonians. From this most bitter root sprang the Cleobians, Dositheans, Gorthenians, Masbotheans, Adrianists, Eutychites, and Cainists. But all these, having devised certain small variations of the impious heresy, did not last very long, but were handed over to complete oblivion.

2. Concerning Menander.

A certain Menander, himself also a Samaritan, coming from a village thus called Chabrai, succeeded to that man's sorcery, but did not call himself the first power; for he said that this was unknown; but boasting that he had been sent by it, he called himself Savior, and said that the angels, like Simon, were projected by the thought, and that these made the world; and that those baptized into him are saved and are made better even in this life, and receive power to overcome the world-making powers with ease.

Against these men wrote Justin, who in the guise of a philosopher became a champion of the truth and took upon himself the crown of martyrdom; and Irenaeus, whom I mentioned earlier—he too was an apostolic man; and Origen, who cultivated great learning. Having this man as their teacher, Saturnilus and Basilides—the one boasting as his homeland Antioch, which neighbors the river Orontes, and Basilides Alexandria—fashioned myths opposed both to their teacher and to each other. Both lived in the time of Hadrian Caesar.

3. On Saturnilus.

I shall first set forth the mythologizing of Saturnilus. He, in a manner similar to Menander, said that there is one Father altogether unknown; and that this Father made angels and the other powers; and that seven of these made the world and molded man, and he says that they themselves spoke the words, "Let us make man in our image and likeness." But when the formed creature could not stand upright, but crawled like a worm, the divine power, he says, took pity and sent down a spark of life and brought the imperfect man to completion; and this spark of life, after the dissolution of the living being, returns to the power that sent it. He said that the Savior and Lord was not only unbegotten but also ungenerated, incorporeal, and without form; and that he appeared to men in appearance rather than in truth. He said that the God of the Jews is one of the angels.

Then, forgetting the formation, for he called the Savior unbegotten, he says that the Father of Christ, wishing to destroy along with the other angels also the God of the Jews, sent Christ into the world for the salvation of the humans who believe in him. He says that there are two kinds of humans, and that some are good and some evil, and that they have received this distinction in their nature. And since the evil demons cooperate with the evil, the Savior came, he says, to help the good. This man was the first to call marriage a teaching of the devil. He also legislates to abstain from living creatures. Of the prophecies, he said that some were spoken by the world-making angels and some by Satan; and that this one too is an angel, who especially opposes the God of the Jews.

4. On Basilides and Isidore.

But Basilides, despising these myths as worthless, fashioned others more impious. For he said that the Unbegotten Mind first begat, and from the Mind the Word was projected, and Prudence from the Word, and from Prudence Wisdom and Power, and from these angels and archangels; and these made heaven; and from their effluence other angels came to be, and made another heaven like the first; then again from the effluence of these others were born, and these too fashioned another heaven, and those from these again another, and the effluence that came to be, and the creation of the heavens, extended as far as the three hundred and sixty-fifth.

But the angels who dwell in the outermost heaven, the one visible to us, made the world and divided the dominion of the earth among themselves, and one of them was allotted the stewardship of the Jews, and he ruled over the others. And when this one wished to subject all the nations to his own people, the other rulers opposed him; and the Unbegotten, seeing these things, sent his firstborn Mind, whom he also called Christ, so that he might save those who choose to believe. But he says that this one did not suffer at all, but Simon the Cyrenian underwent the passion, having been thought to be Christ; and Christ, seeing from afar, laughed at the folly of the Jews, and then afterward departed to the one who sent him. And he said it was necessary to believe, not in the one who was crucified, but in the one who seemed to be crucified. For thus, he says, it is possible to be delivered from the power of the world-makers. This man also denied the resurrection of the flesh, and he himself said that the prophecies were made by angels, and that the law was established by the ruler of the Jews. And he commanded them to partake of idol-sacrifices without fear, and to perform the forbidden deeds without distinction. And these men also, like those from Menander and Simon, use incantations and sorceries and all kinds of trickeries. And having fabricated names of angels, they said that some hold the first heaven, others the second, and so on in order up to the sixty-fifth and three hundredth. And they call the Savior and Lord Caulacau. And they call these things unutterable, and not comprehensible or graspable by all, but by one out of a thousand.

He says their ruler is Abrasax; for the numerical value of the name signifies the number 365 heavens. Basilides also had prophets, Barcabas and Barcoph, and certain others similarly barbarous. And he fabricated other myths more abominable than these, which I have not inserted because of the harm to those who would read them. And Isidore, the son of Basilides, with some addition strengthened his father's mythology. But Agrippa, also surnamed Castor, and Irenaeus, and Clement the Stromatist, and Origen contend against these, fighting as champions of the truth.

5. — Concerning Carpocrates and Epiphanes.

Carpocrates, an Alexandrian by birth, also said that the creation came into being by angels; but that the Lord Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary like other men, but excelled in virtue, having a pure soul and one that remembered its converse with the Unbegotten. He says also that those like him, despising the world-making angels, similarly receive power to do the same things. And if one should have a purer soul, he says, he will surpass even the dignity of the Son. To such madness of conceit did these men fall, practicing sorcery and making invocations of demons, and not enduring to conceal their licentiousness, but making a law of debauchery. For by opinion, he says, not by truth, some things seem evil and others good. But having come to this point, I know not how I shall leap over the legislation of licentiousness.

For having accepted the Pythagorean metensomatoses, they did not accept the account that accompanies it. For Pythagoras said that souls that had sinned are sent into bodies, so that they might both pay penalties and be purified by earnest effort. But these men state the cause of metensomatosis to be diametrically opposite to the Pythagorean. For they say that souls are sent into bodies so as to accomplish every kind of licentiousness; those, then, that have fulfilled [these] in one descent have no need of another mission; but those that have sinned only a little are sent out both twice and three times and many times, until they fulfill all the forms of wickedness. But so that no one may suspect that I fabricate these things against them, I shall set forth the testimony of Irenaeus, an apostolic man who enlightened the West. He says this in the first book of those he wrote against the heresies: "And if the godless and unlawful and forbidden things are practiced among them, I would not believe it; but in their writings it is recorded thus, and they themselves explain it thus, saying that Jesus spoke in mystery to his disciples and apostles privately, and asked them to hand these things down to those who are worthy and who obey. For they are saved through faith and love, while the remaining things, being indifferent, are considered according to the opinion of men, in one respect good and in another bad, since nothing is by nature evil." This, then, is what the wondrous Irenaeus said about them. But the things that follow I have not added; for they contain an excess of madness. And Epiphanes, his son, having been led through a Platonic education, broadened his mythology.

These too strengthened their evil heresies while Hadrian was emperor.

6. On Prodicus.

Prodicus, succeeding him, established the heresy of those called Adamites. He openly added to the doctrines of Carpocrates the practice of licentiousness; for he legislated that women be held in common. For this reason, not only at their common meals did they put out the lamp's light and each have intercourse with whichever woman he happened upon, but they also regarded such licentiousness as a mystic rite. And I shall produce as witness for this Clement the Stromatist, a holy man who surpassed all others in wide experience. He speaks thus in the third book of the Stromateis: "There are those who call the common Aphrodite a mystic fellowship, doing outrage even to the name itself." Then, after saying certain things against their swinish licentiousness, he adds this as well: "For these thrice-wretched people celebrate as sacred mysteries the fellowship of the flesh and of sexual intercourse, and they think that this leads them into the kingdom of Christ. Such fellowship leads rather into brothels, and indeed swine and goats would be partakers with them; and in their greater hopes would be the prostitutes who preside over the brothel, who shamelessly

receiving all who wish to join." And having added other similar things, he continued: "Such things also do those from Prodicus, who falsely proclaim themselves Gnostics, teach as doctrine." 7. On Valentinus.

From all these heresies Valentinus took his starting points and composed his boundless myths. He established his heresy under Antoninus the first. He supposed first a perfect Aeon, whom he also calls Proarche, and Propator, and Bythos; and a certain Ennoia to coexist with him, called Charis and Sige. He said that this one embraced stillness over infinite aeons; but later in time, from both of them, Nous and Aletheia came to be. And they name Nous Monogenes. And these two syzygies they call the Pythagorean tetractys, and they call it the root of all things. And from Nous and Aletheia he says Logos and Zoe were put forth; and from Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ekklesia. And the four syzygies they call the first-begotten Ogdoad, and root, and substance of all things. And they say that the first Aeon is, then Logos and Zoe. After the putting forth of Anthropos and Ekklesia, he put forth ten other Aeons: Bythios and Mixis, Ageratos and Henosis, Autophyes and Hedone, Acinetus and Syncrasis, Monogenes and Macaria. And from Anthropos and Ekklesia twelve other Aeons were put forth: Paracletus and Pistis, Patricus and Elpis, Matricus and Agape, Aeinous and Synesis, Ekklesiasticus and Makariotes, Theletos and Sophia. These thirty Aeons, they say, are unknown to all others, but known to themselves alone.

Then, after recounting a great many myths, so as to show that the number eight, and ten, and twelve, and thirty is honorable, he says that Bythos is unattainable by all those who came forth from him; and that when he had formed a desire to see himself and to make himself known to the others, Sige restrained him and prevented the attempt. But the last Aeon, whom they call Sophia, having received the same desire and being unable to attain the object of her longing, gave birth, he says, to a formless substance. And having grieved over such a birth, she came to the Forefather and announced her suffering; and the remaining Aeons joined her in entreaty, and she herself obtained a certain forgiveness. But the formless offspring, they say, is Matter, which grew from ignorance, and grief, and fear, and rebuke. And Bythos, taking forethought that no other Aeon should fall into a similar suffering, puts forth Horos without a female consort; for each of the other Aeons has been yoked with a female. This Horos they also name Cross, and they mythologize other names as well. It is through this one, he says, that Sophia also, having been purified, was released from her suffering. And that Enthymesis, which they also called Suffering, and formless offspring, and Matter, Horos cast far away from her. After these things, he says, the Only-Begotten, by the will of the Father, was put forth for the safety and stability of the Aeons—Christ and the Holy Spirit; for they say that Christ taught the Aeons that the Father is incomprehensible, and that the Holy Spirit bestowed on the Aeons the better equality according to them.

When the Aeons had obtained these things, they hymned the Forefather, and having jointly contributed the finest things each possessed, they put forth through these Jesus, whom they also call Savior and Christ Logos. Together with him they also put forth other angels, so as to be his bodyguards. All these things they name within the Pleroma. Outside the Pleroma are the things now said: the Enthymesis of that Sophia, which they also called a formless embryo, they call Achamoth; and having come outside the Pleroma, she dwells in a certain shadow and void. And the one called Christ, taking pity, was slain through the one called Horos and Cross, and gave her form according to substance; but he left her destitute of knowledge, and afterward drew back his power into himself. And she, having received perception of the light that encompassed her, ran to seek it, but was prevented by Horos from proceeding, having said Iao—for from here, they say, this name also came to be. Then, having grieved because she was prevented from proceeding, she received grief and fear and perplexity; then there was added to her also a desire of conversion. From these passions, they say, this world was constituted: from the conversion, the Demiurge and the souls of all; from the other passions, the rest—from her tears the moist substance, from her laughter the light, and from the others the other things. For I think it is not free from blame to recount everything that they mythologize. They say that she begged the Christ who had already pitied her to grant her a share of the light.

But he received the supplication, yet did not pursue them, but sent Jesus, so that in him both the visible and the invisible might be created, and thrones and dominions and divinities, as they themselves say. He therefore arrived with the angels who had been put forth, and separated her from the passions that had come upon her, and having separated them he compacted them. And she, having been separated from the passions, received a desire for the angels, and brought forth a spiritual offspring resembling the angels, and this ran up on high. And from the conversion they say the psychic substance came to be, and from this God was formed, both Father and King of the souls that have the same nature as himself, which they call the right, and of those of matter, which they name the left. For they say he appropriated to himself all things visible. And they call him both Metropator and Father and Demiurge. And why must one recount all the nonsense of the myth-making? For the whole fiction resembles what has been said. He says that the Savior who appeared took the spiritual from Achamoth, and put on the psychic Christ from the Demiurge, and from the Economy clothed himself with a body having a psychic substance, made by ineffable wisdom so as to become tangible and visible and passible. But they say he took up nothing material at all; for nothing of the things from matter admits of salvation. And they say that they themselves are saved from knowledge alone, but we from faith and good action; and that they have no need of works, knowledge being sufficient for salvation. For this very reason, the most perfect among them do without fear whatever is forbidden by the divine laws.

For they celebrated Greek festivals, partook of things sacrificed to idols, were slaves to pleasures, and shamelessly dared every evil thing. 8. — Concerning Secundus and others.

Secundus, who succeeded Valentinus, divided the Ogdoad in two, and called one part of it the Right and the other the Left; and he added Light and Darkness. And countless other leaders of heresy sprang up from this source—Cossianus, Theodotus, Heracleon, Ptolemaeus, Marcus—devising various additional doctrines. 9. — Concerning Marcus the sorcerer.

Marcus also practiced sorcery, and performing certain marvels through trickery, he deceived many of the easily led. He, having fabricated a long myth, said that Silence had told it to him; and he is not ashamed to have shown Silence to be a babbler. He also likened the Aeons to the twenty-four letters, and called some of them voiceless, some semivowels, and some vowels. A multitude of these men, having composed a mass of falsely named and spurious books, attempt through them to astound the foolish. And when baptizing those who are deceived, they are accustomed to say: "In the name of the unknown Father of all, in Truth the mother of all, in him who descended into Jesus, in union, and redemption, and communion of the powers." They also mix in Hebrew names, intimidating those being initiated, which I considered superfluous to mention. From these men countless heresies sprang up after the sprouting of the tares; and they say that those called Ascodrutes by some, and Ascodrupites by others, are a segment of these.

10. — Concerning those called Ascodruti or Ascodrupiti. These people say that the divine mysteries ought not to be performed by means of visible things, since they are symbols of invisible things, nor things incorporeal by means of things perceptible and corporeal. And they hold that the perfect redemption is the true knowledge of that which exists. For all visible things, having come into being through ignorance and passion, are dissolved through knowledge. Therefore redemption must also be spiritual. For this reason they do not baptize those who come to them, nor is the mystery of baptism performed among them. For they call redemption the knowledge of all things.

11. — Concerning the Archontics.

Some of these, called Archontics, having fabricated certain books, call them revelations of prophets. One of these they called Symphony, in which they wrote of seven heavens, and that each of them has one ruler, and that a certain mother, Photine, is the highest. They anathematize baptism and the partaking of the mysteries, as being done in the name of Sabaoth; for they say that he tyrannizes in the seventh heaven. And they say that the souls are food for the rulers, and that without this they cannot live. And the devil is the son of Sabaoth; and Sabaoth is the God of the Jews; and since the son is evil, they do not honor him, but oppose him in all things. And Cain and Abel, they say, are children of the devil. And they mythologize certain other things as well, full of all impiety. But certain others, after the departure of life, pour oil and water on the heads of the deceased. For in this way, they say, they will be invisible and superior to the principalities and authorities in between.

They also teach them to recite a certain myth, which, by inserting it into their treatise, I supposed they shared in the nonsense.

12. — Concerning the Colorbasians.

The Colorbasians say that the first Ogdoad came into being from what they call the Forefather. Some say that the Savior was projected from the thirty Aeons, and is therefore also called Eudoketos, because the whole Pleroma through him was well pleased to glorify the Father; others say he came from only the ten Aeons; others again, that he was made by Christ and the Spirit as a support of the Pleroma, and is called Christ by the Father's own appellation. And they monstrously invent very many other things besides.

13. — Concerning the Barbeliotae, that is, the Borborians.

From the seeds of Valentinus sprouted the abomination of those called Barbeliotae, that is, Borborians, or Naassenes, or Stratiotici, or Phemionitae. For they supposed a certain imperishable Aeon dwelling in a virgin spirit, whom they name Barbelo; and Barbelo asked Foreknowledge from him. When she had come forth, and then asked again, Incorruption came forth, and then eternal Life. And Barbelo, rejoicing, became pregnant and brought forth the Light. This, they say, having been anointed with the perfection of the Spirit, was named Christ. This Christ again announced Mind, and received him. And the Father added Word. Then Thought and Word were joined together, Incorruption and Christ, eternal Life and the Will, Mind and Foreknowledge. Then again, they say, from Thought and Word were projected the Self-begotten and, with him, Truth, and there came to be again another conjunction, of the Self-begotten and Truth.

And why need one speak of the other emissions, those from Light and Incorruptibility? For the myth is long, and besides its impiety it also has its unpleasantness. They have also attached Hebrew names to these things, attempting to astound the simpler sort. They say that Autogenes emitted a perfect and true man, whom they also call Adamas; and that with him was emitted a consort, perfect Gnosis. From this, they say, were again produced mother, father, and son. And from the Man and Gnosis sprouted a Tree; and this too they call Gnosis. And from the first angel, they say, was emitted a Holy Spirit, whom they named Sophia and Prunikos. This one, they say, desiring a consort, gave birth to a Work, in which were Ignorance and Audacity. And this Work they call Proarchon, and they say that he is the maker of creation. And this one, united with Audacity, begot Vice, and the parts of Vice. These things, then, I have gone through in summary, passing over the length of the fabrication. But their mystic rites—who is so thrice-wretched as to bring forth in speech the things performed in them? For all evil reasoning and every foul conception is surpassed by the things done by them as if divine. And their name alone is enough to hint at their utterly polluted audacity. For it is for this reason that they were named Borborians.

14. On the Sethians, or Ophians, or Ophites.

The Sethians, whom some call Ophians or Ophites, call the God of all things a Man, again naming him Light, and proclaiming him blessed and incorruptible, and affirming that he has his dwelling in the Depth. His Ennoia they call the Son of Man, and a second Man. After this one exists the Holy Spirit; below these are four elements: water, darkness, the abyss, and chaos. They call the Spirit female, and say she moves over the elements. They say that the first Man and the second Man fell in love with the Spirit's beauty and begot Light, whom they call Christ. The female, unable to bear the excess of the light, overflowed; and Christ, together with his mother, was drawn up into the incorruptible Aeon, which they also call the true Church. But the moisture of the light that overflowed they say fell down and was called Sophia, and Prounikos, and Arsenothelu. As she darted about in the waters, she took a body from them, and was weighed down, and was in danger of becoming submerged; but she rose up, and from the body that clung around her the heaven was fashioned; then, casting it off, she flew back to her mother. Him they call the son of Prounikos. And he again put forth another son, and from that one they say another came into being, and the emissions advanced as far as the number seven. By each of these one heaven was created, and each dwells

their own. They also assigned names to the aforementioned sons, using the Hebrew language, which I considered altogether superfluous to mention. They say that the others quarreled with the first, who was grandfather to some, great-grandfather to others, and ancestor to certain ones. And he, disheartened, they say, cast his thought into the dregs of matter and begot from it a son in the form of a serpent. Then the father of the serpent-formed one, boasting, said, "I am God and father, and there is no one above me." But the mother, displeased, cried out to him, "Do not lie; for there is a father of all above you, the first man, the son of man." And the father, he says, upon hearing these words of the serpent, said: "Come, let us make man in our image." And they add very many other things full of impiety and at the same time of absurdity. And that serpent-formed one they name Michael and Samanna. And they divide the prophets and assign them to the seven sons as they wish. And they say that Seth is some divine power; for which reason they were also called Sethians. And they say that Jesus is different from the Christ; and that Jesus was born of the virgin, but the Christ descended upon him from heaven. They also say that the apostles were deceived, supposing that the flesh of the Savior had risen. But some of them say that Christ, having formed himself into the shape of a serpent, entered into the womb of the virgin. And so the wretched ones understand the apostolic saying:

Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” Some say that the serpent itself had intercourse with Wisdom, and that, warring against God the Creator as an adversary, it deceived Adam and gave him knowledge, and that for this reason it was said that the serpent is wiser than all, and that the winding position of our intestines is encircled by the body of the serpent, showing the life-bearing wisdom of the serpent. For this reason they also worship the serpent. Having charmed it with certain incantations, they keep it in darkness, and at the celebration of their abominable mysteries they bring it to the table; and when it has come upon it, they partake of the loaves as having been sanctified.

15. Concerning the Cainites.

Others, whom they call Cainites, say that Cain was redeemed from the authority above, and they acknowledge Esau, and Korah, and the Sodomites, and all such people as their own kinsmen, and that these were hated by the Creator but received no harm. For the wisdom which was in them snatched it away from them; and they say that Judas the traitor alone of all the apostles had this knowledge, and that for this reason he accomplished the mystery of the betrayal. They also put forward a Gospel of his, which those men composed; for he immediately received the noose as the wage of his betrayal. And performing forbidden acts, they pronounce the name of a certain angel, as though granting the impiety to him as a favor; and they do this for each form of licentiousness.

For they say that there are certain angels equal in number to the forms of licentiousness, who are served by the deeds performed. 16. — On the Antitactae.

There were also certain others whom they called Antitactae, impious men, who named the great unknown God, as they themselves say, their own Father; and that this one is good, and God the Maker; but that one of those who came into being by him sowed tares; who also, as they themselves say, encompassed us all with evils, having set himself in opposition to our most good Father. For which reason we also set ourselves in opposition to him, standing against his laws in avengement of the Father. And since he said, "You shall not commit adultery," we, says he, let us commit adultery for the dissolution of his commandment. These one would reasonably name inventors of evils, who join blasphemies to licentiousness. 17. — On the Peratae.

Ademes the Carystian, and Euphrates the Peratic, from whom those of like mind with them were called Peratae, say that there is one world divided in three; and that the one part, as it were a great fountain, can by reason be divided into infinite parts. And the first division they address as a Triad, and call it a perfect good, a paternal magnitude. And the second, the multitude of infinite powers. And the third they call idikon. And the first they say is unbegotten, and they name three gods, three words, three minds, three men.

From the beginning, from unbegottenness and the first division of the world, at the very consummation of the world, in the times of Herod, there came down a certain man of three natures, and three bodies, and three powers, called Christ; and he passed through the unbegotten world and the self-begotten world, and came into this world in which we are. And Christ, having come down, will arrange for the things brought down from above to return above, and will deliver over to punishment those who plotted against them. And they say that the unbegotten world and the self-begotten world will be saved, but that this world is perishing, which they call the "idical" one. 18. — On Monoimus.

They say that Monoimus the Arab, taking his starting points from the science of arithmetic, molded his own heresy.

19. — On Hermogenes.

Hermogenes said that God made all things from underlying and co-eternal matter. For the thunderstruck fellow supposed it impossible even for the God of all to create from non-being. This man said that the Lord's body was deposited in the sun, and that the devil and the demons would be poured back into matter. Against him Theophilus, bishop of the Antiochenes, wrote, and Origen likewise. Against Valentinus and those from him, Irenaeus, and Clement, and Origen.

20. — On Tatian and the Hydroparastatae, that is, the Encratites.

Tatian the Syrian was at first a sophist, and afterward became a pupil of the wondrous Justin the martyr. But after the completion of his teacher, he desired to become the leader of a heresy.

He derived the starting points of his doctrine from Valentinus—the emanations of the Aeons—and from Saturnilus and Marcion, the abhorrence of marriage and the partaking of animate creatures and of wine. These have as their founder the so-called Hydroparastatae and Encratitae. They are called Hydroparastatae because they offer water instead of wine, and Encratitae because they neither drink wine nor partake of animate creatures. They abstain from these, detesting them as evil. They also practice celibacy, calling marriage fornication and naming lawful union diabolical. This man also composed the so-called Gospel according to the Four, having cut off the genealogies and all the other things that show the Lord to have been born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Not only those of his own faction used this, but also those who follow the apostolic doctrines, not knowing the wickedness of the composition, but using the book more simply as a concise one. I too found more than two hundred such books honored in the churches among us, and having gathered them all I set them aside, and I introduced in their place the Gospels of the four evangelists. 21. On Severus.

Severus, who succeeded to his teaching, named those who had been duped by him after his own name. Hence some call the Encratites Severians. These also reject the Epistles of the divine Paul and the history of the Acts. Against them Musanus wrote as a champion of the truth, and Clement in the Stromateis, and Apollinaris, who was bishop of the sacred city in Phrygia, and Origen.

22. Concerning Bardesanes and Harmonius.

Bardesanes the Syrian, a native of Edessa, flourished in the times of Marcus Aurelius Caesar. They say that he cut away much of the mythology of Valentinus. He also wrote much in the Syriac tongue, and some have translated these writings into the Greek language. I too have encountered his discourses, both those written against fate and those against the heresy of Marcion, and not a few others. They say also that Harmonius, who was his son, was educated in the Greek language at Athens. He too wrote much, using the Syriac tongue. But Ephraim the Syrian, that all-lauded man, courageously refuted the error of both.

23. About Florinus and Blastus.

Florinus and Blastus, who were enrolled in the list of the presbyters in Rome, inclined to the corruption of Valentinus. They say that the thrice-blessed Irenaeus, lamenting their disease, composed his work against Valentinus. All these, then, beginning from Simon, brought forth certain kindred doctrines, naming certain Aeons, and emanations of Aeons, and other emanations of emanations.

24. About Cerdo and Marcion.

Marcion and Cerdo his teacher also took the starting points of their blasphemy from the deception of Simon, but they innovated another way of impiety. For Cerdo lived in the time of Antoninus the first, and he said that another was the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, unknown to the prophets, and another the maker of the universe and the lawgiver of the Mosaic law; and that the one was just, but the other good. For the one in the law, he says, enjoins the plucking out of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but the good one in the Gospels commands the one who strikes the right cheek to turn the other also, and the one who wishes to take the tunic to give up the cloak as well. And the one in the law commanded to love one's friend and hate one's enemy; but the other commanded to love even enemies. And he does not perceive, the thoroughly thunderstruck man, that it is also declared in the law that the one who goes astray

to lead back the ox of an enemy, and to raise up together the fallen beast, and not to overlook an enemy in need of help; and that the one called good by him alone threatened Gehenna to the one calling his brother a fool; and showing himself just he said, "With the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you." But to refute these things is not for the present occasion; besides, to those who have read the divine Scriptures the blasphemy is very easily detected. But Marcion of Pontus, having been taught these things by Cerdo, did not accept the handed-down teaching, but increased the impiety. For he fashioned in his account four unbegotten substances; and he called one good and unknown, which he also named the Father of the Lord; and another the creator and just, which he also called evil; and besides these, matter, which was evil and was subject to another evil. And the creator, having overcome the evil, took matter and from it created all things: from the purest part, the heaven; from the rest, the four elements; from the sediment, Hades and Tartarus. And again, having filtered the purest part of the earth, he made, he says, Paradise; and taking one clod from it, he molded Adam, having given him the soul from his own substance. From this, he says, comes the struggle of the soul and the body, the body striving to drag it down to that matter, while the soul tries to draw the body up to the Creator. These men dare even to say that the serpent is better than the Creator.

For he prevented them from partaking of the tree of knowledge, but the other strongly urged it. And the impious did not perceive that the serpent's counsel gave birth to death. Accordingly, some of them even honor the serpent. And I myself found among them a bronze serpent lying in a certain ark together with their abominable mysteries. And they do not only blaspheme the Creator, but they also call the patriarchs and the prophets lawless, in order to show the Demiurge to be a lover of wicked men. This man received from the Gospels only the one according to Luke, and after cutting off the genealogy, most of it; but the Law, and the prophets, and the whole Old Testament he has cast out, as having been given by an alien God. And he says that our Lord Jesus Christ came down in order to free those who believed in him from slavery to the Demiurge; and that he seemed to be a man, having nothing human, and that he seemed to suffer, having in no way suffered. He has also cast out the resurrection of bodies, supposing it to be impossible. This man said that Cain, and the Sodomites, and all the other impious men obtained salvation, having come to the Savior Christ in Hades, and were taken up into the kingdom; but Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and the patriarchs and the rest of the prophets, and the righteous, did not partake of the freedom given to those men, because they were unwilling to run to him. For this reason, he says, they were also condemned to dwell in Hades. Such things Marcion raged against the Maker, and indeed things far more grievous than these.

For I have passed over the greater blasphemies in silence. And I know one of them, a certain elder ninety years old, who, rising at dawn, used to wash his own face with the residue of his spittle; and when asked the reason, he said that he did not wish to be indebted to the Demiurge, nor to take water from his creations. And when those present said: How then do you eat, and drink, and clothe yourself, and sleep, and perform the customary mysteries? he replied that he did this of necessity, because otherwise he could neither live nor perform the mysteries. And the madman unwillingly confessed that he had nothing of the good which he himself called good, but enjoyed all good things from the creations of the Demiurge. But I, leaving most things aside, will pass on to what follows in the writing. For this assembly also was again divided into many parts, 25. — Concerning Apelles and Potitus, and Prepon, and the others. For Apelles, in addition to the unbegotten ones of Marcion, added another, Pyron. This man also composed another book and called it the prophecy of Philumene. And he attributed to Christ a body, not human, but from the substance of the world. But Potitus, and Blastus, and Syneros, and Prepon, and Pithon presided over different teachings; and all these had their starting points from the blasphemy of Marcion. Very many, however, wrote against this impiety.

For Justin the philosopher and martyr, and Theophilus the bishop of Antioch, and Philip the bishop of Gortyna, and Irenaeus, whom we mentioned earlier, bishop of Lyons, and Modestus, and Origen, and Rhodon, and Adamantius, and Hippolytus, and Eusebius of Emesa, and all of them refuted the madness of the blasphemy most excellently and most wisely. 26. Concerning Manes. Manes was a Persian by race, as they say, but he dragged the yoke of slavery for the longest time, and while serving as a slave he was called Scythianus; and having become heir of his mistress, he did not love her though he had grown rich beyond expectation, nor did he hymn the giver of good things, but he moved his tongue to blasphemy and impious mythologizing, having become a most perfect instrument of the enemy of the truth. This man said that there were two unbegotten and eternal things, God and Matter, and he called God Light, and Matter Darkness; and Light Good, and Darkness Evil, and he added other names as well. For he named the Light a good tree, filled with good fruits; and Matter a bad tree, bearing fruits that befit its root. He said that God stood apart from Matter and was altogether ignorant, both he of Matter and Matter of him; and that God held the northern parts, and the eastern, and the western, while Matter held the southern; and that after many ages Matter quarreled with itself, and its fruits with one another.

When war arose, with some persecuting and others being persecuted, they reached the borders of the Light; then, having seen the Light, they rejoiced in it and marveled, and wished with all their might to march against it, to seize it, and to mix their own darkness with the Light. So Matter rushed forth, as the incoherent, foolish, and senseless myth said, together with the demons, the idols, fire, and water, against the Light that had appeared. But God, alarmed at the sudden assault—for, it says, he had no fire with which to use thunderbolts and lightning, nor water with which to bring a flood, nor iron or any other weapon—devises something like this. Taking a certain portion of the Light, he sent it forth like some bait and hook to Matter; and she, pressing close and spreading herself over it, swallowed what was sent, and was bound fast, and was caught as in a kind of snare. From this, they say, God was compelled to create the world. But the parts of the world, they say, are not his, but the works of Matter. He created, however, wishing to dissolve her constitution and to bring the warring elements into peace, so as to free little by little even the Light that had been mixed with Matter. And they say that man was not molded by God, but by the ruler of Matter; they call him Saklas. And Eve likewise came to be from Saklas and Nebro; and Adam was created beast-shaped, while Eve was soulless and motionless. But the virginal female, whom they call the daughter of the Light and address as Joel, they say gave a share to the

To Eve, and of life and light; and that Eve freed Adam from beastliness, and then later was stripped of the light; and that Saklas, first having mingled with her, had from her a beast-shaped child. Then, they say, he had intercourse with her again. But perhaps someone might justly reproach even me for tolerating the writing of these things. For this reason, leaving aside the other myths and nonsense, I will briefly state the chief points of the impious heresy. These people call the sun and the moon gods, sometimes calling the sun himself Christ, and they offer as sufficient proof of this that the sun was eclipsed at the time of the cross; and sometimes they say that the souls of the departed are boats carrying them over from Matter to the Light. For in this way, he says, it is freed in part from the evil mixture. And they say that the moon becomes crescent-shaped and half-divided by being emptied; and that the light-like souls receive from Matter and deposit into the Light; and thus little by little the Light is freed from the evil mixture. But when the whole nature of the Light has been separated from Matter, then, they say, God will hand Matter over to fire and make it one lump; and together with it also the souls that have not believed in Manes. And they call the devil sometimes Matter, and sometimes ruler of Matter. And marriage, he says, is the law of the devil. And they slander the benevolence shown to the poor, saying that it is service of Matter. And they say that the Lord neither took a soul nor a body, but appeared as a man, and having nothing human;

And they say that the cross, and the passion, and the death came about in appearance only. But the resurrection of bodies they cast out as a myth. For they have supposed that no part of matter is worthy of salvation. And they say that transmigrations of souls take place, and that some are sent down into the bodies of birds, and others into those of cattle, and of wild beasts, and of reptiles. And they consider all things to be ensouled, both fire, and water, and air, and plants, and seeds. For this reason those among them who are called perfect neither break bread nor cut vegetables, but they openly rise up against those who do these things, as against murderers; yet they nevertheless eat what has been cut and broken. And they have employed sorceries to an exceptional degree, performing their abominable mysteries; for this reason their teaching is also hard to escape from, and it is very difficult for one who has partaken of their accursed orgies to be transferred away from the working of the soul-destroying demons, who bind their souls fast by the incantations of those who wash them. This Manes had at first three disciples: Aldas, and Thomas, and Hermas. And he sent Aldas as a herald to the Syrians, and Thomas to the Indians. But when these returned, saying that they had endured dangers of every kind, and no one was willing to receive Manes as a teacher, the utterly wicked man dared to call himself Christ, and to name himself the Holy Spirit, and he said that he had been sent according to the promise of the Savior. For the Lord promised to send another Paraclete. This man, having made twelve disciples in accordance with the Lord's pattern, came to the middle of the rivers, fleeing from the king of the Persians.

For having made a youthful boast that he would heal the king's son when he had fallen into some affliction, he involved him in greater evils. And since from this too he was driven out as plainly an adversary of God, and reached Persia, he was seized by the king, endured the Persian punishment, and, stripped of his skin, was handed over to dogs. Such was the end of Manes; these are the chief points of the impious heresy. For if anyone should wish to go through the whole nonsense of the myths, he would need very many books. Such doctrines the all-wicked demon sounded into the minds of unholy men, and such captains and commanders he used, arraying himself against the truth. But he wove, to speak prophetically, a spider's web. For the Master most easily refuted the falsehood and dissolved the bands of its advocates. Against the impiety of Manes the best advocates of piety wrote, Titus and Diodorus, the one having shepherded the church of the Bostreni, the other having guided the metropolis of the Cilicians. George of Laodicea also wrote, a man who championed the heresy of Arius but was trained in philosophical studies. In addition to these, Eusebius the Phoenician, whom we mentioned earlier. But I will move on to the other phalanx. Second Book of the Heretical Nonsense.

Preface. 1. On Ebion. 2. On the Nazoraeans. 3. On Cerinthus. 4. On Artemon. 5. On Theodotus. 6. On the Melchisedecians. 7. On the Elcesaites. 8. On Paul of Samosata. 9. On Sabellius. 10. On Marcellus. 11. On Photinus.

PREFACE.

On the heretics who flourished alongside the apostles. What sort of branches the most bitter root of Simon produced, and how deadly were the fruits they bore, we clearly demonstrated in the first book, cutting short the length of the myths as far as was possible, yet hesitating to speak of the greatest of their blasphemies, and passing over in silence the more difficult and more abominable of their most polluted orgies. For we considered it a transgression to teach these things to those who are ignorant of them; for not even those wholly enslaved to pleasures ever conceived in their minds the things dared by those men. But the all-wicked demon sounded these things into their souls, undertaking war against the heralds of the truth, and attempting through them to pour a wicked reputation upon those who champion the divine things; for he supposed that the sharing of the name would bring the blasphemy upon all. For both the teachers of the abominable doctrines and the heralds of the gospel were called Christians, and everyone ignorant of the difference supposed that all who shared the one designation were polluted. And these things the inventor and craftsman of evil dared, straightway when the light of the truth arose and sent forth the divine apostles like rays into the inhabited world.

For while they were still alive, Simon also appeared, and Menander, and the other disciples of Simon, whom we mentioned earlier. And they say that Cerinthus, while John the all-lauded, who wrote the divine Gospel, was still alive, sowed the tares of his own heresy. And the inspired Paul also accused others in his Epistles to Timothy. He speaks thus: "But avoid the profane empty babblings; for they will advance further in ungodliness, and their word will have a spread like gangrene. Of whom are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have missed the mark concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened, and they overturn the faith of some." Then he shows the firmness and stability of the truth: "Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal." And he teaches also how the Lord cares for all his own: "For the Lord knows those who are his," he says. Then he exhorts them to flee fellowship with the wicked: "And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." Then, by an example, he heals those who are vexed that the wicked live together with the good.

For in a great house," he says, "there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of clay, some for honor and some for dishonor." He also shows the self-determination of the will, and that the mind is sovereign and can easily shift its own inclination toward whatever it wishes. And he says thus: "If anyone purifies himself from such things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful, prepared for every good work." He wrote similar things also in the former Epistle. "For this charge," he says, "I commit to you, child Timothy, according to the prophecies that went before concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having thrust away have suffered shipwreck concerning the faith; among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme." Clearly through these words he taught that a lawless life is the foundation of impiety. For he called the pure life a good conscience. And he said that those who thrust this away suffered shipwreck concerning the faith. And again: "But reject the profane and old-womanish myths." And again: "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not come to the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the teaching according to godliness, he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but disputing about words and sick with questions," and the rest. And shortly after: "The love of money is the root of all evils, which some desiring have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows." And at the very end he cries out exhortingly:

O Timothy, guard the deposit, turning away from the profane empty babblings and contradictions of the falsely named knowledge, which some, professing it, have missed the mark concerning the faith." These things clearly show that while they were still preaching, many leaders of the abominable heresies appeared. And he foretells also that after their departure, some will teach empty doctrines to those who are persuaded by them. "For the Spirit," he says, "expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, in the hypocrisy of liars, their own conscience seared, forbidding to marry, and to abstain from foods which God created for reception with thanksgiving by the faithful and those who have known the truth." And in the second letter, having foretold many accusations against the men who would come after them, he has also added these things: "For from these are those who creep into houses and take captive little women loaded with sins, led by various desires, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth; and just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, disapproved concerning the faith." Then he also foretells the easy detection of their falsehood: "But they will not advance much further; for their folly will be evident to all, as theirs also became." And I have brought forward the apostolic testimonies, wishing to show that while they were still farming, the common enemy sowed the tares of the heresies.

But the all-wise Master did not prevent the sowing of the evil seeds; yet he turned most of the tares into wheat. And cities and villages bear witness, having been freed from the tares of Simon, and Menander, and Cleobius, and Dositheus, and Gorthaeus, and Adrian, and Saturnilus, and Basilides, and Isidorus, and Carpocrates, and Epiphanes, and all the others of such kind without exception. For the Master called the wheat matured by those men ripe. But a few, very few in number, and these scattered in certain cities, remained encompassed by the corruption of Valentinus, and Marcion, and Manes; perhaps as a reproof of those now entrusted with governing the Churches, who are not even able to turn back the small remnants of the impious heresies. But the god-opposed demon did not wish to take his fill of the war against piety; but again he marched others against the truth, who practiced heresies directly contrary to the things foretold.

1. Concerning Ebion.

Ebion led this faction; for the Hebrews thus call the poor man. He said that the unbegotten One was one, like us, and he showed that this one was the creator of the world; but he said that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of Joseph and Mary, being a man, but distinguished from others by virtue and purity; and they live according to the Mosaic law. And they accept only the Gospel according to the Hebrews, and they call the Apostle an apostate. From these was Symmachus, who translated the old Scripture from the Hebrew into the Greek tongue. But there is another company besides this one, having the same name; for these too are called Ebionites; in all other respects they agree with the former, but they say that the Savior and Lord was born of a Virgin. And they use only the Gospel according to Matthew, and they honor the Sabbath according to the law of the Jews, but they consecrate the Lord's Day like us.

2. Concerning the Nazarenes.

The Nazoraeans are Jews who honor Christ as a righteous man and use the so-called Gospel according to Peter. Eusebius has said that these heresies arose during the reign of Domitian. Justin the philosopher and martyr, Irenaeus the successor of the apostles, and Origen wrote against them. 3. Concerning Cerinthus.

At the same time Cerinthus also began another heresy. After spending a very long time in Egypt and being educated in the philosophical sciences, he later came to Asia and named his own disciples after his own name. He taught that there is one God over all, but that he is not the creator of the world; rather, certain powers separated from him and completely ignorant of him are. He said that Jesus, like the Hebrews, was born by nature from a man and a woman, Joseph and Mary, but that he excelled in chastity, righteousness, and the other virtues. But Christ descended upon him from above in the form of a dove, and at that time proclaimed the unknown God and performed the recorded miracles. At the time of the passion, Christ departed, but Jesus endured the passion. This man also fabricated certain revelations as though he himself had seen them, and composed teachings of certain threats, and said that the kingdom of the Lord would be earthly; and he dreamed of food and drink, and imagined pleasures, and marriages, and sacrifices, and festivals celebrated in Jerusalem, and that these things would be fulfilled over a thousand years.

For he thought he would gain such a hold on the kingdom of the Lord. Against him wrote not only those mentioned above, but together with them Gaius and Dionysius, the bishop of the Alexandrians. This man, as they say, the inspired John the evangelist saw bathing; for it happened that he too was using the bathhouse on account of illness. "Let us flee from here," he said, "lest through Cerinthus the bathhouse collapse and we too share in the harm."

4. On Artemon.

And a certain Artemon, whom some call Artemas, held opinions about the God of all things similar to ours, saying that he is the maker of the universe; but he said that the Lord Jesus Christ was a mere man, born of a virgin, but greater than the prophets in virtue. And he said that the apostles had also proclaimed these things, misinterpreting the meaning of the divine Scriptures, and that those after them had spoken of Christ as God, though he is not God.

5. On Theodotus.

And Theodotus the Byzantine, the cobbler, having held the same opinions as this man, led another faction. Him the thrice-blessed Victor, the bishop of the Romans, excommunicated, as having attempted to adulterate the doctrines of the Church. Against their heresy the little Labyrinth was written, which some suppose to be the work of Origen, but the style convicts those who say so. But whether that man or another wrote it, it relates the following story in it. It said that a certain Natalius, who had been one of the noble confessors, was deceived by Asclepiades and Theodotus, another of the same heresy, so as to preside over the faction for a wage, on account of the distinction of his confession.

They promised to supply him with a hundred and fifty denarii each day. The physician of souls often urged him to be rid of his error, saying this not on their account, but that he had contended for the gospel doctrines. But since he did not yield, being enslaved to the honor which he supposed he had as leader of the deceived, he brought grievous scourges upon him through angels. And learning by experience what opposing God brings, he came at dawn with all speed to the church; and rolling at the feet of the high priest, he begged that an intercession be offered on his behalf to the merciful Master. Lamenting and wailing, he was pitied by him, who extended a hand to him for repentance. Having said these things about him, the aforementioned writer added that those who composed the heresy dared to tamper with the divine Scripture, cutting out some things and adding others, claiming to have corrected what was not right, and showing themselves wiser than the all-holy Spirit. And he says they did not even do this in agreement, but Theodotus in one way, Asclepiades in another, Hermophilus in another, and Apollonides in yet another; and each of these made corrections of their own, so that there is great disagreement among the copies. Concerning these things, then, we have learned this much. 6. — Concerning the Melchisedecians.

The Melchisedecians, they say, are a part of these, but differ in one point only: that they suppose Melchisedek to be a certain power both divine and greatest, and that Christ came to be in his image. Another Theodotus, a silversmith by trade, began this heresy. 7. – On the Elcesaites.

The Elcesaites, taking their name from a certain Elcesai who began the heresy, having gathered myths from various heresies, have composed their own error. Concerning the beginning of all things, indeed, they agree with us. For they say there is one unbegotten, and they call him the Demiurge of all things. But they say there is not one Christ, but one above and one below; and that this one dwelt long ago in many, and later came down; and they say that Jesus is sometimes from God, sometimes they call him a spirit, and sometimes that he had a virgin for a mother. In other writings, however, not even this. And again they say that this one is reincarnated, and passes into other bodies, and is shown differently at each time. These too have used incantations and invocations of demons, and baptisms upon the confession of the elements. They embraced the error of astrology, magic, and mathematics, and called themselves Prognostics. But they utterly denied the Apostle; and they have composed a certain book, which they said had fallen from the heavens. Whoever has heard it receives forgiveness of sins beyond that which Christ bestowed. Against this heresy Origen wrote truly. Alcibiades, who came from Apamea in Syria, put it together.

8. On Paul of Samosata.

Paul of Samosata was bishop of the Antiochenes. At that time Zenobia was governing the region (for the Persians, having defeated the Romans, had handed over to her the rule of Syria and Phoenicia), and he drifted into the heresy of Artemon, thinking by this to court her favor, since she favored the views of the Jews. When those who guided the Churches learned this, they did not think it safe to overlook so great a disease as it hastened to creep in, with the splendor of the greatest city as its ally. And Dionysius, the bishop of the Alexandrians, a man who became distinguished in teaching, put off the personal visit because of the weakness of old age, but by letters he advised him of what was fitting, and stirred up the assembled bishops to zeal for piety. Of those assembled, the foremost were Gregory the Great, the far-famed, who performed the miracles sung of by all through the grace of the Spirit dwelling in him, and Athenodorus his brother, and Firmilian, bishop of the Caesareans of Cappadocia, a distinguished man, possessing both kinds of knowledge, both that from without and the divine; and in addition to these, Helenus, who guided the metropolis of the Cilicians. These were the leaders, though those assembled were many. And first they attempted by suggestions and counsels to change Paul from his evil opinion. But when he denied openly that he had ever held any such view, and said that he followed the apostolic doctrines, they praised the Master for the agreement and returned to their own flocks.

After some time had passed, rumor again ran everywhere and made Paul's deviation known to all. But not even so did those all-praiseworthy men proceed readily to the man's excision; but first they attempted to heal the disease by letters. But when they saw the malady hard to cure, they again eagerly made for Antioch, and again applied gentle remedies, both advising and entreating and reminding him of the agreements that had been made. Then, seeing him denying and the accusers pressing on and promising to refute him, they came together in council. And when a certain Malchion, who had formerly been a sophist but later was honored with the ordination of presbyter, had held a discussion with Paul, he was convicted of saying that Christ is a man, exceptionally deemed worthy of divine grace. At that time, then, they justly separated him from the sacred lists, bringing forth a unanimous vote. But since he resisted and held the leadership of the Church, they informed Aurelian, who was reigning at that time, of Paul's audacity, and persuaded him to expel him from the Church. For he, enslaved to the worship of idols, supposed it just that the one who contradicted the vote of those of the same faith should be cut off from their fellowship.

9. On Sabellius.

Sabellius the Libyan, the Pentapolitan, began his heresy as follows. He said that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one hypostasis, and one person with three names, and that the same one is sometimes called Father, sometimes Son, sometimes Holy Spirit; and that in the Old Testament he legislated as Father, in the New he became man as Son, and as Holy Spirit he came upon the apostles. Against him Dionysius, the bishop of the Alexandrians, wrote.

10. On Marcellus.

Marcellus the Galatian similarly denied the Trinity of hypostases. He said that a certain extension of the divinity of the Father came into Christ, and this he called God the Word; and after the whole economy it was drawn back again and contracted to God, from whom it had been extended. And the all-holy Spirit he calls an extension of the extension, and says that this was given to the apostles. And in short he supposed a Trinity that is extended and contracted according to different economies.

11. On Photinus.

Photinus said that there is one energy of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, proclaiming the thought of Sabellius's doctrines under different names. Against these four wrote the divine Diodore, who governed the metropolis of the Cilicians, demonstrating that Christ is God before the ages, who in the last days became man and worked out the salvation of mankind. All these heresies the avenger of mankind devised for the destruction of the only-begotten divinity.

But the one who rebukes the abyss and dries it up, who says to the abyss, "You shall be made desolate, and I will dry up your rivers," has quenched them all. For not even a small remnant of these remained: not of the Cerinthians, not of the Ebionites, not of the Theodotians, not of the Elkesaites, not of the Melchisedecians, not of the Sabellians, not of the Paulianists, not of the Marcellians, not of the Photinians; but all at once they were handed over to the darkness of oblivion, and not even their names are known to the many. For the word of our Savior is true: "Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted." But the divine doctrines of the Gospels have flourished, and the lots of the apostles have been extended to the sea, and their offshoots have filled the inhabited world, and the whole earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, so as to cover the seas like much water, and the testimony of the facts has shown the truth of the prophecy. Third Discourse of Heretical Mischief.

Preface.

1. On the Nicolaitans. 2. On the Montanists. 3. On Noetus of Smyrna. 4.

Concerning the Quartodecimans. 5. Concerning Novatus. 6. Concerning Nepos. PROLOGUE.

That the Lord Christ also foretold the heresies that were to come. Since in the earlier books we have made clear the heresies that are opposed to one another, come now, let us also teach those who are ignorant of the others that sprouted up between these and those. For just as field mice are brought forth from the earth by some intemperance of the air and a foul-smelling putrefaction, and they destroy seeds and destroy plants, and the farmers hunt them down and kill them, so too from the devil's wicked craft heresies have appeared, which injured the more frivolous of men; but the best farmers of piety drove these out from the divine fields and made them vanish away. And the Lord foretold their plots both through the parable of the tares and taught the apostles plainly, sometimes saying that many false Christs and false prophets and false apostles would appear, and sometimes enjoining them to be on guard against these, and adding: "Many will come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." Then he teaches how one ought to distinguish the difference between the sheep and the wolf clothed in the fleece. "For by their fruits," he says, "you will know them." Then by means of an image he makes the matter clearer. "For do they gather," he says, "grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Thus every good tree produces good fruits, but the evil tree produces evil fruits." And having expanded the discourse, he added:

By their fruits, then, you will know them.” For those grievous and utterly abominable doctrines are of themselves sufficient to reveal their own father. “For by its fruit,” it says, “the tree is known.” Their end also is enough to convict the falsehood. For falsehood is easily dissolved, but the power of truth is steadfast. For this reason the myths of demonic activity are gone, while the doctrines of the Gospels flourish and bloom. And though many have warred against them—peoples, demagogues, generals, and kings—the foundations of the Church have remained firmly established upon the rock; and the heralds of the ill-named heresies have fled, as the wise man said, with no one pursuing. For it is his voice: “I let down my hands, and they dried up, and became like dry grass upon the housetops; but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not fail.” But let us turn to the account of the remaining doctrines.

1. Concerning the Nicolaitans.

The heresy of the Nicolaitans arose not only from folly but also from licentiousness. Clement taught the matters concerning it more clearly. He said that Nicolaus was one of the seven deacons whom the company of the apostles appointed for the service of widows. Having a wife who was fair to look upon, he was accused by the apostles of having entertained the passion of jealousy. Endeavoring to avert this opinion, he brought the woman into their midst and permitted whoever wished to have intercourse with her—not legislating this, but refuting the slander of those who had accused him. From this, some, most wickedly receiving what was done by him for the reason just mentioned, legislated that they should hold their wives in common. But Clement said that Nicolaus was one of those distinguished for chastity, and that he trained his children in purity beyond nature, and that his son remained unmarried and his daughters virgins. From these things, those who practice the aforementioned licentiousness are very greatly refuted as falsely calling themselves by his name. Against them the aforementioned Clement also wrote, as did Irenaeus, and Origen, and Hippolytus the bishop and martyr.

2. On the Montanists.

The heresy called that of the Phrygians was begun by Montanus, who came from a certain village situated there, called Ardaban. This man, goaded by a love of preeminence, called himself the Paraclete, and made two prophetesses, Priscilla and Maximilla, and called their writings prophetic books, and named the village Pepuza Jerusalem. This man also legislated to dissolve marriage, and introduced new fasts contrary to the custom of the Church. But he did not corrupt the doctrine concerning the divine Trinity, and he taught concerning the creation of the world in the same way as we do. Those who depend on his teaching are called Montanists from him, and are called Phrygians from the nation, and Pepouzians from the village which he named Jerusalem. The prophecies of Priscilla and Maximilla are honored among them above the divine Gospel. Concerning the mysteries, some prattle certain things, but they do not agree, but call the accusation slander. Some of them denied the three hypostases of the Godhead in a manner similar to Sabellius, saying that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the same, in a manner similar to the Asian Noetus. Against these wrote Apollinarius, who was bishop of the sacred city in Phrygia, a man worthy of praise, and who in addition to the knowledge of divine things had also acquired secular learning. Likewise also Miltiades, and Apollonius, and other writers. And against Proclus, who presided over the same heresy, wrote Gaius, whom we mentioned earlier. 3.

3. On Noetus of Smyrna.

Noetus was a Smyrnaean by birth, but he renewed the heresy which one Epigonus, so called, first brought forth, and which Cleomenes, having taken it up, confirmed. These are the chief points of the heresy. They say that there is one God and Father, the creator of all things: invisible when he wills, and visible whenever he wishes; and that the same is both invisible and seen, and both begotten and unbegotten: unbegotten from the beginning, but begotten when he wished to be born of a Virgin; impassible and immortal, and again in turn passible and mortal. For being impassible, he says, he willingly endured the passion of the cross. This one they call both Son and Father, being called now this and now that according to needs. Those who embraced this heresy were called Noetians. After Noetus, Callistus defended it, devising certain additional innovations for the impiety of the doctrine.

4. On the Quartodecimans.

The heresy of the Quartodecimans has this as its underlying assumption. They say that the evangelist John, having preached in Asia, taught them to celebrate the festival of Pascha on the fourteenth day of the moon; but understanding the apostolic tradition badly, they do not wait for the day of the Lord's resurrection, but

sometimes on the third day, sometimes on the fifth, sometimes on the Sabbath, or however it may happen, they celebrate the memorial of the passion. They also make use of the erroneous Acts of the apostles, and of the other spurious writings, or rather those alien to grace, which they call apocrypha. They also agree with the Novatians; for these too reject the doctrine concerning repentance.

5. On Novatus.

Novatus was a presbyter of the church of the Romans. When a most violent storm fell upon the churches, it happened that certain persons who had been brought up in piety, after many tortures, recanted and made use of the words of denial. When calm came, these begged to obtain the medicines of repentance. And indeed it seemed good to the best of the shepherds to fear the Lord's accusation, which says: "O shepherds, you did not bind up the broken, and you did not turn back the wandering, and you did not raise up the fallen"; and to stretch out a hand to the fallen, and to strengthen them according to the Lord's commandment. For the Lord said to the great Peter: "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you as wheat; and I prayed for you, that your faith may not fail." With these counsels Novatus was not pleased, but he spoke directly against them, saying that those who had denied ought not to obtain salvation; doing something similar to those who prevent the sick from enjoying medical remedies. But those who begged to obtain healing refuted him, [saying] that he had often been exhorted to do this alongside them, and at least to yield in words to those who were being struck by the tyrant's devices.

But the one who was hiding and trying to escape notice, he denied even being a presbyter. Nevertheless, when the bishops who had assembled at Rome heard these words, they tried to persuade him to agree with what had been best decided. But when they saw him raving and legislating god-hated cruelty, they separated him from the body of the Church, Cornelius at that time governing Rome. This Novatus, having persuaded a few persons, very few in number, to share in his heresy, went out into Italy, and having deceived the bishops of three small towns, he led them along, ostensibly to act as envoys on his behalf to the bishop of Rome. But arriving with them at a certain village, he compelled them to give him episcopal ordination, and they themselves lamented this violence, when they reached Rome and made known what had happened. Thus the wretched man, having stolen the ordination, became the leader of the heresy. And those of his own faction he named not only Novatians, but also Cathari. And he did not even fear the accusation of the Lord God, which he made against certain persons, saying: "Those who say, 'I am clean, do not touch me';" and he added: "He is the smoke of my anger, a fire burns in him all the days." For the Lord "resists the proud." But his successors have added other things to the doctrine; for those who have had second marriages they drive out from the sacred mysteries; and they entirely banish the word of repentance from their own assemblies; and to those baptized by them they do not offer the all-holy chrism.

For this reason the all-praiseworthy Fathers also ordered that those from this heresy who were joined to the body of the Church be anointed. Against this heresy Cornelius wrote many letters, and Dionysius the bishop of the Alexandrians wrote many, and many other bishops of that time as well, through which the cruelty of Novatus immediately became manifest to all.

6. Concerning Nepos.

Nepos, bishop of the Egyptian city, agreed with all the other doctrines of the Church, but he erred concerning the divine promises, supposing that these would be on this earth—both food and drink and the Jewish festivals, and periods of a thousand years spent in these things. Against him again Dionysius the bishop of the Alexandrians wrote, praising him in other matters but refuting the deceiver in these. These doctrines sprang up between those who deny the humanity of our God and Savior and those who call him a mere man who also exists as God before the ages. And most of these, having sprouted immediately, withered and have remained dry. For who knows anyone now called after Nepos, or Nicolaus, or Noetus, or Proclus? The East is entirely free of the Montanists, the Novatians, and the Quartodecimans, and Egypt is free, and Libya, and the West is also free of these; only small portions of Asia and Pontus have their tares.

For neither Pontus of Polemon, nor Helenopontus, nor the Armenias, nor the Cappadocias, nor Lycaonia, nor Pisidia, nor Pamphylia, nor Lycia, nor Caria received these heresies. But the continents are full of those who champion the truth, and the very ends of the inhabited world are full. For true is the foretelling of the God of all, which he made through the prophetic tongue, saying to the Savior: "Behold, I have given you as a covenant of a people, as a light of the nations, that you may be salvation to the end of the earth." In agreement with Isaiah, the blessed David also says: "For he shall have dominion, it says, from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the inhabited world. Before him shall Ethiopians fall prostrate, and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and the islands shall bring gifts; the kings of the Arabians and of Sheba shall offer gifts. And all the kings of the earth shall worship him, all the nations shall serve him." And these foretellings have received their fulfillment through the Church. But the teaching of the heretics—the one has been torn up root and branch, and the other is no different from half-dried plants, having remained in a few cities and villages, and revealing the weakness and falsehood of those who composed it. For the Lord "scatters the signs of ventriloquists, and divinations from the heart, and establishes the words of his servant, and shows the counsel of his angels to be true." And, "He scatters the counsels of nations, and rejects the reasonings of peoples; but the counsel of the Lord endures forever, the thoughts of his heart to generation and generation.

Blessed therefore is the nation whose Lord is its God, the people whom he chose for his own inheritance. Book Four of the Compendium of Heretical Malice.

Preface. 1. Concerning Arius. 2. Concerning Eudoxius. 3. Concerning Eunomius and Aetius. 4. Concerning the Psathyrians and the others who derive from the heresy of Arius. 5. Concerning the Macedonians. 6. Concerning the Donatists. 7. Concerning the Meletians. 8. Concerning Apollinarius. 9. Concerning the Polemians and the other Apollinarists. 10. Concerning the Audians. 11. Concerning the Messalians, that is, the Euchites, and the Enthusiasts. 12. Concerning Nestorius. 13. Concerning Eutyches.

Preface.

That most of the ill-named heresies were handed over to the primordial gods of Valentinus, Bythos and Sige, has been shown in the books already written. Cities and villages freed from these bear witness to the account. But the father of falsehood, whom the Lord rightly called a murderer of men (for he always plots against the souls of human beings), devised other engines of treachery. For seeing that what his disciples said about the God of all things seemed abominable to all, and that the accounts of the dispensation did not possess persuasiveness—for some said that a bare divinity appeared, while others said that the dispensation wrought only a humanity devoid of divinity—he blended an impiety removed from the excess of either. 1. Concerning Arius.

And finding Arius striving after human glory, he kindled in him the passion of arrogance, and implanted the deceit of heresy. For this man, being enrolled in the list of the presbyters of the Church of the Alexandrians, and seeing the great Alexander seated on the high-priestly thrones, received the sting of envy, and seeking occasions for quarreling with him, he found a pretext in the impiety of his doctrines. For while that man was offering the apostolic grass to the flock, and guiding the sheep to the evangelical springs, this man contradicted what was said; and when the all-wise teacher said that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, this man contradicted him, calling him a creature whom he had named a genuine son; and when that man said that the Word of God is coeternal with God the Father, as being in the beginning, and being God the Word, and the radiance of his glory, this man said that he who is had come to be out of nothing, and declared that he has a changeable nature. Moreover, he also mutilated the doctrine of the incarnation. For he said that he took a body without a soul, and that the divinity performed the functions of the soul, so as to attach to it the sympathy arising from the body. This man also, abandoning the laws of glorification which those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word from the beginning handed down, introduced another form, teaching those who had been deceived to glorify the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. And the invocation made at the divine baptism he did not dare to alter, because of the manifest nature of the transgression.

But according to the Lord's commandment, he handed down baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; yet he forbade glorifying according to the law of baptism, although our God and Savior did not simply command to baptize, but first to make disciples. "For going forth," he said, "make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." And according to this law both the divine apostles and the teachers of the Church after them make those who come forward disciples, to believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and those who have been made disciples they baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, those who have enjoyed the gift, just as they were made disciples and were baptized, glorify the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For it is wretched, that those who have received the gift of baptism from the Holy Trinity should offer the doxology to the Father alone, and leave the Son and the all-holy Spirit unhonored. But these things we have said at length in what we wrote against them; but the purpose of the present writing is to show the character of each heresy. This Arius, then, having held these opinions, the holy Fathers who assembled at Nicaea openly condemned, as being altogether alien from the

...divine oracles and introducing foreign doctrines. But later, pretending repentance, he persuaded those who held power alongside the great emperor Constantine to grant him a place of repentance. The emperor, accepting the supplication, ordered the bishop of the imperial city to extend his hand to the one seeking salvation. But the divine Alexander (for he held the helm of that Church), first tried to persuade the emperor not in the least to be led away by the fabricated words of Arius. But when he saw him displeased, he fell silent and departed. It had been decided that Arius would be admitted at dawn; for it was the Sabbath when these things were said. Therefore the truly man of God, together with two of those present, rushed into the divine temple and entreated the Master of the Churches, throwing himself on the ground before the sacred altars and pouring out tears, that He not permit the wolf to be mingled with the sheep, if indeed he who wished to do the deeds of wolves was covering himself with the sheep's fleece. They say that he also added this word to his prayer: "But if You permit him to enter, having planned such things, for the sake of Your ineffable dispensation (for Your judgments are unsearchable), release me, Your servant, from the present life." Having made his prayer thus, he went up to his chamber in tears. But Arius, thinking that the emperor's promises would be confirmed, came forth around daybreak. Then, when his stomach urged him to excretion, he entered the public latrines, leaving the servant who followed him outside.

But suddenly his bowels dissolved and were expelled, and he died while sitting inside. When those sitting with him saw the affliction and cried out, the boy ran in, and seeing him dead, reported what had happened to the household. When the heaven-sent blow was made known throughout the whole most populous city, all ran together to the divine temple. And when they learned both the emperor's promise and the priest's prayer, they sang hymns to the protector of the Churches and loathed the impiety of the heresy. But nevertheless, even though these things had happened thus and the divine judgment had been shown most clearly, those who had received the disease persisted, sharpening their tongues against the Only-begotten and the all-holy Spirit. But since I have written these things at length in the Ecclesiastical History, I consider it superfluous to say the same things again. Leaving aside, then, Eusebius, and Theognis, and Theodotus of Perinthus, and Menophantus of Ephesus, and Patrophilus of Scythopolis, and the others, I shall make mention of Eudoxius alone. For the accounts concerning Aetius and Eunomius demand his remembrance.

2. About Eudoxius.

This Eudoxius was bishop of Germanicia, a city neighboring Mount Taurus; but despising the small town, he rushed to Antioch, having learned of the death of Leontius. Then he seized the throne contrary to the ecclesiastical canons. But driven out from there by imperial letters, and ordered to join the synod assembling in Seleucia of Isauria, he arrived as he was commanded, but did not dare to enter the assembly, but ran to the city of Constantine, and having flattered the imperial chamberlains, he persuaded them that the synod should be assembled there. And so that I may not lengthen my account by saying everything (for I have mentioned all these things in that writing), he prevailed also to seize the throne of that city, and to strip the Churches of the heralds of the truth.

3. About Eunomius and Aetius.

At that time, having brought out the all-praiseworthy Eleusius from Cyzicus, he ordained Eunomius in his place. And Eunomius had as his teacher Aetius the Syrian, whose thrice-wretched life, and the pursuits he followed, both Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore of Mopsuestia taught accurately in what they wrote against Eunomius. This man openly increased the blasphemies of Arius. For this reason Constantius banished him to a certain remote region of Phrygia; and these things happened after he had in some way turned aside from the straight road, and inclined to another road. For indeed, after the death of his father, having been led astray by certain persons entrusted with the care of his body, he established a law forbidding anyone to dare to say that the Son of God is either of the same substance or of a different substance.

For he said it was not pious to search into the substance of God; and he ordered them to say that the Son is like the Father in all things. For this reason he also sent Aetius, who they said was the first to dare to say that the Son is unlike God who begot him in all things, to the aforementioned remote region. Eudoxius, knowing these things, persuaded Eunomius not to expose their own opinion, but for the time being to keep it in concealment and to nourish it in darkness like some secret offspring, until they should receive authority from the occasion. Eunomius, yielding to these things, offered teaching obscured to the many in Cyzicus. But laboring to bring forth impiety, he made this clear in his discourse, and he wounded the souls of those who heard. Then some, inflamed with divine zeal, concealed their zeal, put on the mask of the heresy, and having entered Eunomius's chamber, they begged him to teach clearly the truth of the doctrine. He, led on, and thinking that all were of one mind, vomited the poison that he had hitherto concealed. But they again more earnestly entreated him to bring this teaching before all the people, and to prefer the flock, which longed to learn the truth, to the service of the emperor. Thus Eunomius, deceived again, published the blasphemy. But they immediately, taking along many of the same faith, ran to the camp and informed Eudoxius of the daring impiety. Eudoxius was grieved when he learned that Eunomius had transgressed the agreed terms; and he promised the accusers that he would take care of it, but he neglected it entirely, alleging occupations.

But the accusers of Eunomius, having grasped the purpose of Eudoxius, reported Eunomius' blasphemies to the emperor. And the emperor at first ordered Eudoxius to bring Eunomius and to examine the accusation that had been made. But when he learned that he was putting it off (for the accusers kept coming continually), he threatened to send both of them to the remotest region where Aetius lived. Eudoxius therefore, fearing this, brought Eunomius; and first he reminded him of the instructions that had come from him, and then, when he had been openly convicted, he deposed him, although he himself was encompassed by the same disease; for he feared the imperial threats. But Eunomius immediately proclaimed himself leader of the heresy, and that though he had been compelled to live in a certain remote region of Pamphylia. From this the band of the Eunomians appeared. He made theology a technical craft, and openly belched forth blasphemies against the Only-Begotten and the all-holy Spirit. And he said that the Son is the first creature of the Father and pre-eminent; but that the all-holy Spirit was created by the Son before the other created things. He himself also overturned the ordinance of holy baptism handed down from the beginning by the Lord and the apostles, and directly legislated in opposition, saying that the one being baptized ought not to be immersed three times, nor should the invocation of the Trinity be made; but to baptize once into the death of Christ. And

Baptizing, they immerse them in water up to the breasts, but they forbid bringing the water to the other parts of the body as though they were polluted. For this reason, whenever they baptized in a basin, they stood the man outside it and lowered his head once into the water up to the chest. But since it happened that someone was injured when his head was dashed against the basin, they devised another form of baptism. For stretching the man face down on a kind of platform, and suspending his head outside it, they pour water over him, touching no other part. Some of them also invented another manner of baptism. For having made a very long band and consecrated it, they wrap the man in it down to the nails, beginning from the chest, and then they apply the pouring of the water. Those who have fled their impiety and been joined to the sheep of our Savior and God have disclosed these things. And they say that yet another thing is dared by them, which I would not dare to commit to writing; for the mere hearing of the pollution is enough to defile the reasoning. But whether these things are dared by them or not, I would not assert; however, I have heard them from men who know their affairs accurately. Thus Eunomius, raging against the truth, sought to increase the disease day by day. For he dared to say that he was ignorant of none of the divine things, but that he also knows accurately the very substance of God, and has the same knowledge concerning God as God himself has concerning himself.

Those who partook of his corruption, having been driven into this madness by him, dare to say openly that they know God as he himself knows himself. And he devised certain other things besides, so that he might seem to have become the inventor of new doctrines. From this the Arian faction was divided in two: and some were called Arians, and others Eunomians. The Arians were also surnamed Eudoxians in the time of Eudoxius; for he, enslaved to empty opinion, hastened to impose his own name upon those of like mind. The same are also called Exakionites, receiving the name from the place in which they are accustomed to hold their assembly. The Eunomians were also called Aetians, since Eunomius named Aetius as his teacher; the same are also called Troglites, that is, Troglodytes, as they make their gatherings in hidden houses. For they are exceedingly few in number, all abhorring them because of the shamelessness of their blasphemy. And the greater part of the inhabited world has been freed from their pestilence, but a few cities, and those exceedingly few in number, have some of them, and those trying to escape notice. 4. — Concerning the Psathyrians, and the others descended from the heresy of Arius. And from the blasphemy of Arius another division again broke off. These say: God is Father, and the Son was always created by God. For with God, to create and to beget are the same thing. The Antiochenes call these Psathyrians; for they say that the leader of the heresy was a maker of such cakes.

And others again, having separated from them, were called by some Curtians, and by others Pithecians, from a certain insignificant little man who had a high back and had gone out with them, and who brought it about that this name was imposed on them. And later in time another assembly also arose, separated from the Arians; and they received their name from their impiety. For they were called Duleians, having dared to call the only-begotten Son of God a servant of the Father. And using this sort of reasoning, they construct their blasphemy. Every creature, they say, is a servant of the one who possesses it; and the Son is a creature of the Father. Such great starting points of blasphemies did they receive from the madness of Arius; into so many parts was the company of Arius also divided.

5. — On the Macedonians.

And another heresy besides those mentioned sprouted from these, supposed to be less impious. For when Paul, the all-praiseworthy, who shepherded the imperial city, was driven out by those who had received the disease of Arius, Macedonius was entrusted with the helm of that church in his place. This Macedonius utterly repudiated the Son's being consubstantial with the Father; and he laid it down as law to say that he is like in all things, and he devised in addition the "similar in substance" instead of "consubstantial." And he continued to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, in a manner similar to Arius and Eunomius. Hence those of his company were named Pneumatomachi. From here too the tares of the Macedonians were sown.

26. Concerning the Donatists.

In what was formerly called Libya but is now called Africa, the common avenging spirit displayed the madness of those called Donatists. These men agree with the heresy of Arius. But they devised a new kind of insanity. For they call violent death martyrdom; and those who desire to obtain this title announce it long in advance to their like-minded companions. These provide them with every kind of care and bring them food of all sorts, fattening them up like sacrificial victims. Having enjoyed this luxury to the fullest, they compel whomever they find on the roads to inflict deadly blows upon them with the sword. And some achieve their aim, while others miss it. For who of sound mind would endure to take upon himself the pollution of murder? Therefore, in their frenzy, they hurl themselves down from heights into precipices. But among the Arian narratives, I wish to relate a certain amusing incident that happened in connection with these men. For many of them, fattened up like pheasants, chanced upon a certain brave young man, and then, holding out a naked sword, they ordered him to strike the blows, and threatened to slaughter him if he did not do what was commanded. But he said he was afraid that, if some were killed, the survivors might change their minds and exact punishment from him for the slaughter; it was necessary, therefore, first to put a bond on each one, and then in that way to apply the sword. When they yielded and accepted the bonds, he flogged them all with rods and went off, leaving them bound.

The evil demon has truly cast these men too into such a frenzy of madness.

7. Concerning the Melitians in Egypt.

In Alexandria in Egypt, at the very time when Arius began his blasphemy against the Only-Begotten, a certain Meletius, a bishop, having rebelled against the great leadership of Alexander, ordained many bishops and presbyters and deacons in many cities, not championing a new heresy, but holding the same things as the Church, while having taken in the passion of love of rule. Him the most holy Fathers who assembled at Nicaea removed from the helm of the Church; and those ordained by him they stripped of the offices unlawfully given. From this the schism of the Melitians in Egypt arose. But he indeed innovated nothing of the doctrines of piety; these men, however, seeing the heresy of Arius strengthened by those who were then reigning, inclined toward it. But now they say that they have been freed from this disease, and that they live by themselves, not wishing to be guided by others, and that they decline communion with the churches. For this reason, as being autonomous, they have devised also those ridiculous practices besides: to cleanse the body with water every other day, and to perform their hymns with clapping of hands and a kind of dancing, and to move many bells hung from a certain rope, and whatever else is similar to these things. For this reason that great Athanasius continued to wage war against them.

8. Concerning Apollinaris.

Apollinaris of Laodicea in some of his writings did not corrupt the doctrine concerning the Trinity, but proclaimed, like us, both the one essence of the Godhead and the three hypostases. In others, however, he defined degrees of rank, appointing himself the distributor of the divine allotment. For his invention is the phrase "great, greater, greatest," as though the Spirit were great, the Son greater, and the Father greatest. What could be more ridiculous than this? For if he says that the essence of the Trinity is truly one, how did he suppose the same essence to be both small and great? For in bodies, quantity and magnitude produce such measures, but the nature that is free of these does not admit measures of these either. But now we have set forth not to refute but to show the different opinions. In some of his writings, then, he again confused the distinctive properties of the hypostases, and did the same in the case of the Trinity as he dared to do in the case of the economy. Hence he also received the charge of Sabellianism. He said that God the Word was made flesh, having taken a body and a soul—not the rational soul, but the irrational, which some call the vegetative, that is, the vital. And saying that the mind is something other than the soul, he said that it was not assumed, but that the divine nature sufficed to fulfill the need of the mind. And the most wise man did not perceive that he would not have needed a body either, had he not willed it; but he would have appeared even without a body, just as of old to the patriarchs. But the account concerning the economy we will preserve for the discourse after this. 9.

Concerning the Polemians and other Apollinarists. A certain Polemius, having received his starting points from the writings of this man, says that there has been a consubstantiation and a blending of the Godhead and the body. From this the heresy of the Polemians sprouted. And certain others from the school of Apollinaris said that the Lord's body came down from the heavens; and finding various doctrines in his writings, some were pleased with these, others with those. But how this man, cut off from the body of the Church, brought forth the varied nonsense of his doctrines, I thought it superfluous to say. 10. Concerning the Audians.

A certain Audaeus, coming from Syria beyond the Euphrates, said that God is in human form, and attributed to him the parts of a body, having foolishly understood the things spoken by the divine Scripture in a condescending manner. For the divine Scripture, when it speaks to men, who do not accurately know even the nature of visible things, gives its teaching as it was possible for them to hear. For this reason it calls the visual power of God eyes

he called them, and ears the faculty of hearing, and hands the faculty of action, and the other energies likewise. Understanding none of these things, the senseless man has attached a human form to God. For thus he understood also the saying: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." And, sick with irrationality, he did not perceive the invisibility and immortality of the soul, but attributed reason to the body alone. But concerning this too, it will be spoken with God's help in the treatises on the formation of man. They say, then, that this Audaeus also called darkness, and fire, and water unbegotten. But those who have received his name conceal these things. They pretend to avoid communion with the Church on account of usurers and men living with women, although many worse things are dared among them. And they do not see that even for the strictest of bishops it is not easy to cut off, but there is need of accusers, and need of witnesses, according to the apostolic law: "For an accusation," it says, "against a presbyter do not accept except on two or three witnesses." That the ecclesiastical laws punish those who are caught is witnessed by what happens everywhere on land and sea. For bishops, and deacons, and presbyters are separated from the ecclesiastical rolls. But these men boldly claim to grant remission of sins. For having divided the sacred books in two along with the spurious ones (for they regard these especially as secret and mystical), and having placed them in a line on this side and on that, they command each person to pass between them and to confess the sins he has committed.

Then they grant forgiveness to those who have confessed, not defining a time for repentance, as the laws of the Church command, but bestowing pardon by their own authority. And those who go through the initiation, knowing what is done, conceal their true transgressions, but mention certain small and laughable things, which one would hesitate even to speak of, unless he shared their madness. 11. — Concerning the Messalians, that is, the Euchites and Enthusiasts. The Messalians (and this name, translated into the Greek tongue, means the Euchites) say that baptism profits those who approach it nothing; for like a razor it removes the former sins, but does not cut out the root of sin; but continual prayer pulls up the root of sin by the roots, and drives out of the soul the evil demon that was allotted to it from the beginning. For they say that to each man, as soon as he is born, a demon immediately follows, and this demon incites him to improper deeds. And this demon neither baptism nor anything else can drive out of the soul, but only the energy of prayer. And they say that the indwelling demon departs through the nose and the excesses of spittle. Thus deceived, the thrice-wretched ones pursue no work (for they call themselves spiritual), but having supposedly devoted themselves to prayer, they sleep the greater part of the day. Then, deceived by the demon that has possessed them, they say they have seen revelations, and they attempt to foretell the future; but they are convicted by the facts of lying.

They boast that they see the Father, the Son, and the all-holy Spirit with the eyes of the body, and that they receive the perception of the coming visitation of the Spirit. But they are ready for denial, and even if compelled, they readily anathematize those who say any of these things. For instance, then, when they were being judged before the all-praiseworthy Flavian, bishop of Antioch, they called the accusations brought against them slander. But that all-wise man detected the heresy that was hidden. For when they seemed to be indignant against the accusers and to be angry as though the accusers had composed false words, he ordered Adelphius himself to sit beside him; for he was the leader of those accused of the heresy, an old man and one already over the grave, and now at the very gates of death. To him the thrice-blessed Flavian said that the accusers were ignorant, being rather coarse, of the spiritual way of life. "But we," he said, "who have grown old in time, have received this knowledge. But tell me," he said, "truthfully, what are the things that are said?" Thus the old man, charmed and thinking he had found a sharer of his doctrines, confirmed the accusation by his confession. Therefore the divine man, having learned these things, drove them out of the borders of the East. And they dare many other works of frenzy. For they leap up suddenly, and they boast that they have leaped over demons; and with their fingers they perform the shape of archery, asserting that they shoot the demons.

And they do other similar things full of madness, for which reason they have also received the name of Enthusiasts. Of this heresy Sabas was a leader, and Adelphius, and Daodes, and Symeones, and Hermas, and certain others. And the all-praiseworthy Letoius, bishop of Melitene, wrote letters against them, having exposed the heresy. But the best of all, Amphilochius, who guided the Church of Iconium, pilloried the heresy more accurately, having inserted their utterances in the treatises composed by him, which clearly make plain the difference of the doctrine.

12. Concerning Nestorius.

Since, as the world was gradually slipping away and hastening toward the dissolution of this universe, everyone thought himself a worthy teacher of piety, because of the blindness of ignorance, since no one endured to learn from anyone, no longer for the rest did the man-slaying demon, the father of falsehood, the sower of tares, arm himself against the Church with external and open enemies; but finding an instrument that would receive, so to speak, his whole craft at once, under the guise of orthodoxy he introduces the denial at once of the divinity and of the love for humanity of the Only-begotten, confounding the simple and artless character of our faith with Greek sophistries. You surely all hear of Nestorius; for the man is notable. He, coming from the little city of the Germanicians, brought up from the beginning in I know not what pursuits, changing from one land to another like some Egyptian plague, burst upon the great city of the Antiochenes.

Having moderately partaken of liberal studies in this, and having cultivated a most beautiful and powerful voice, he crept into the Church of God as he advanced, and having been enrolled in the list of presbyters and entrusted to teach the people of God, he showed at once in his prefaces what sort of man he would be throughout his whole life. For he did not emulate the noble and fruitful character of discourse, the kind able to cultivate the souls of men; but inclining toward what pleases the crowd, and becoming a hunter of the applause that dissolves into air, if ever anyone was, he drew the motley and unstable multitude to a desire for his own person, wrapping himself in a drab cloak, walking with a sullen look, avoiding the clamorous crowds of the marketplace, seeking by the pallor of his body to seem continent, spending most of his time at home over books, and communing with himself in quiet. By such postures and fabrications ensnaring the many, he advanced far beyond his age, pursuing the appearance of being a Christian before actually being one, and preferring his own glory to the glory of Christ. But since, according to what was spoken by the Lord, "Nothing is hidden that will not be made known, nor secret that will not come to light," and "Good works are evident, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden,

According to the unsearchable abyss of God's judgments, Nestorius also, by the vote of those about the palace and the thrones, and of him who at that time held the scepters of the inhabited world, is entrusted with the presidency of the orthodox catholic Church at Constantinople, and none the less of the whole inhabited world. Hereafter let me set forth the dramas, with which almost all earth and sea were filled. For when he had seized that greatest throne, having snatched the leadership of the high priesthood like some tyranny, he was no longer able to hold within himself the birth-pangs of impiety; but having taken to himself from his authority an ignorant boldness, he brings into the middle and sets before all the blasphemy which he had long since conceived against the Only-Begotten. And he chooses war openly against the apostolic doctrines, and he attempts to cast out the words of the holy Fathers, who from the time the Gospel was proclaimed led the faith of the orthodox, troubling the Church of the royal city, and troubling also the whole inhabited world; paying no regard to the divine Paul crying out: "But he who troubles you shall bear the judgment, whoever he may be." But upon the lampstand of the divine bema of the high priests he places, not the lamp of truth, but the gloom of impiety. And his first attempt at innovation is this: that it is not right to confess the holy Virgin, who bore the Word of God taking flesh from herself, as Theotokos, but only Christotokos.

of the heralds of the orthodox faith in times past and long ago, who according to the apostolic tradition taught that the mother of the Lord should be named and believed to be Theotokos. Come then, let me now bring into the middle the blasphemous artifice and observation, known to no one before, of the man. The title "Christ," he says, is indicative of the two natures, both the divinity of the Only-Begotten and the humanity; but the word "God" spoken absolutely presents the simple and incorporeal essence of God the Word; and the word "man" indicates only the human nature. For this reason, he says, it is necessary to confess the Virgin as Christotokos but not Theotokos, lest we unwittingly say that God the Word received the beginning of his being from the holy Virgin, and thus be forced consequently to confess that the mother is older than the one born of her. But that I may not seem to accuse the man with empty abuse, I will make that very man a witness of his own impiety by the words he spoke. For having banished from his own mind the memory of the apostolic teachings and of every saint, he shouted many such utterances in the Church of the orthodox: "Mary did not give birth to God, my good sir, but gave birth to a man, an instrument of divinity." And again in other nonsense: "An irreproachable Greek introducing a mother for the gods." Let these few words from many of his be said by me for now, as the account hastens to what follows.

Therefore, since the lawless are to be destroyed by a most excellent death, and he was cast out from the high priesthood by the divine vote through the saints assembled at Ephesus, and condemned by imperial nod to dwell in the Oasis, from there he received the preludes of the future punishment of the impious, having become a waste of his own madness, and having fulfilled in himself that apostolic saying, "The sins of some men are evident, going before to judgment." But these things, since they have been examined by many others, it is necessary to pass over, and let us go on to the next parts of the history. 13. — Concerning Eutyches. But the envious demon introduced the last of all, the ill-named heresy of the Eutychians, through which he stirred up the Churches throughout the world; and finding the wretched Eutyches as an instrument receptive of his own wickedness, he caused the long-withered heresy of Valentinus to bloom again. For Arius confessed the assumption of the body only, and Apollinaris also of the soul; but this man denied even the assumption of the body. For he said that God the Word took nothing human from the Virgin, but that he himself, unchangeably changed, became flesh—for I use his ridiculous words—that he made only a passage through the Virgin, and that the uncircumscribed and unbounded and uncontainable divinity of the Only-begotten was nailed and fastened to the cross, and that this, having been delivered to the tomb, obtained the resurrection.

But let us leave behind the excess of his madness and consider this: that no benefit has come to us from the incarnation, and we have no sure guarantee of our own resurrection. For even if God has been raised from the dead, it does not at all follow that man will rise; for the difference between the natures is very great. Why, then, does the divine Apostle confirm the doctrine of our resurrection from the Master's resurrection, and cry out when writing to the Corinthians: "But if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised"? For through the thing believed he demonstrated the thing disbelieved, and with the thing disbelieved he also cast out the thing believed. For if it is true, he says, that Christ has risen, then it is also true that we shall rise; but if this is false, then it is also false that Christ has risen; for that body was also a body, and these are bodies too. Having thus confirmed this by many arguments, he then adds as a definitive statement: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." And through "firstfruits" he clearly indicated the lump as well; for the firstfruits have the same nature as that of which it is the firstfruits. He also teaches the reason for the economy: "For since death came through a man, resurrection of the dead also comes through a man." Then he passes from the natures to the persons.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive." But since I have often written many things about this, I have considered it superfluous to prolong the matter at present, especially since I intend, with God's help, to speak about these things in the fifth book. Having therefore set the limit to this fourth book, I will try to demonstrate the nobility of the evangelical teaching, as far as is possible for me.

BOOK FIVE OF THE HERETICAL MISCHIEF. AN EPITOME OF DIVINE DOCTRINES. A REFUTATION OF THE CHAPTERS.

Preface. 1. Concerning the beginning and the Father. 2. Concerning the Son. 3. Concerning the Holy Spirit, and the divine names. 4. Concerning creation. 5. Concerning matter. 6. Concerning the Aeons. 7. Concerning angels. 8. Concerning demons. 9. Concerning man. 10. Concerning Providence. 11. Concerning the economy of the Savior. 12. That the Lord took a body. 13. That he also took a soul together with the body. 14. That he took the complete human nature. 15. That he raised the nature which he took. 16. That the same is good and just. 17. That the same gave both the Old and the New Testament. 18. Concerning baptism. 19. Concerning the resurrection. 20. Concerning judgment. 21. Concerning the promises. 22. Concerning the second appearing of the Savior. 23. Concerning the Antichrist. 24. Concerning virginity. 25. Concerning marriage. 26. Concerning second marriage. 27. Concerning fornication. 28. Concerning repentance. 29. Concerning self-control. Preface.

Honey seems sweet to all men, and that without comparison; but it appears sweeter when some bitter quality is set beside it. And health all men consider worthy of love, but after sickness they consider it more worthy of love; and calm is more pleasant after a storm. So also truth is known by the prudent to be a possession worth acquiring; yet falsehood, when set alongside, reveals it as more brilliant and more divine. Since, therefore, we have displayed the shame of falsehood, and have stripped bare the myths of the heretics, and their impiety has become clear, as well as their unpleasantness and incredibility, come, let us set the evangelical teaching beside them and show the difference between light and darkness, and between perfect health and the most grievous sickness. But it is not possible to find an image that suits the comparison here proposed. For darkness also, even if it falls short of light, nonetheless brings a necessity indispensable to men; for night procures rest for those who labor through the day. And sickness has proved beneficial to many; for by recognizing through it the Savior and Creator, and that he promised release from pains, and having obtained what they asked, they turned their minds to virtue. But from those utterly wicked myths and unutterable blasphemies, every outrage appears to those who are persuaded by them. It is not possible, then, to find an image contrary to the difference of these opposing doctrines; rather, I have found one that is very clear. For as great as the distance between God and the devil, so great is the difference between the teaching of God and of the devil.

And this will show more clearly, when set beside those myths, the beauty of the divine oracles, emitting the gleams of the intelligible light. But it is necessary to say, before all other things, what we were taught concerning the principle of all things.

1. Concerning the Principle and the Father.

Both the Old and the New Scripture teach that there is one principle of all things, the God of all, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, unbegotten, imperishable, eternal, infinite, uncircumscribed, unbounded, uncompounded, incorporeal, invisible, simple, good, just, intelligible light, a power known by no measure, but measured only by the divine will. For whatever he wills, he is able to do; and the Prophet clearly taught us this: "For all things, he says, whatsoever the Lord willed, he did." And the teacher of what has been said is the divine Scripture. For we hear God saying at the beginning of the legislation: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; you shall have no other gods besides me." And again: "Hear, Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord." And in agreement with these things he teaches also through Isaiah the prophet: "For I am, he says, God first, and I am after these things, and besides me there is no God." — "Before me there is no other God, and after me there shall be none, and besides me there is none." And again: "I am God, and after me there shall be none." And again: "I am God, and there is no other besides me; a just savior there is none besides me." And clearly through these things he refutes the follies of Valentinus, and Marcus, and Basilides, and Marcion.

For he says that there is no other God either before him or after him, but that the same one is both first and last. The divine teaching of the holy Gospels agrees with these things. For our Savior and Lord, fulfilling all righteousness on our behalf (for he himself said to John: "Permit it now; for thus it is fitting that all righteousness be fulfilled"), accepted, inasmuch as he was a man, even the need of prayer, and he reported that he taught the apostles to call upon the Father; and in the form of prayer he brought to the disciples the teaching of theology. "For this is," he says, "eternal life, that they may know you, the

only true God." And again: "I give thanks to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and have revealed them to babes." And the divine Apostle also says thus: "To the King of the ages, incorruptible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." And again: "One God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." And again: "One God the Father, from whom are all things." And one may find very many other testimonies from the Old and the New [Testament], showing the agreement and proclaiming the one God. And that he is invisible, both the Old and the New teach. For in the Old [Testament] he says to Moses: "No one shall see my face, and live"; and in the holy Gospels the Lord said: "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father." This, indeed, is what the inspired evangelist also cries out:

No one has ever seen God." And he shows also from where he learned this; for he adds: "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, that one has declared him." And the Apostle cries out: "To the incorruptible, only wise God be glory and honor unto the ages of ages. Amen." And again: "Whom no man has seen, nor can see." And we have been taught his infinity and incomprehensibility again both from the Old and from the New. And in the Old he says, God: "Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord." And again: "Heaven is my throne, and earth the footstool of my feet; what house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?" And the most divine David cries out that "In his hand are the ends of the earth." And he has called "hand" the operation of his providential power; and he has shown that he is not himself circumscribed in all things, but that all things depend upon his foreknowledge. And in another hymn he says to him: "Where shall I go from your spirit? And from your face where shall I flee? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; and if I descend into Hades, you are present; if I take up my wings at dawn, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea—for even there your hand will guide me, and your right hand will hold me." And these things show his incomprehensibility both of essence and of power. And the prophet Isaiah also cries out: "He who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it as grasshoppers." And again, refuting the weakness of idols, he brought us this teaching concerning the God of all:

For," he says, "who has measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with a span? Who has set the mountains in a balance, and the valleys in a scale? Who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has become his counselor, who will instruct him? Or who has shown him judgment, or who has shown him the way of understanding?" Then, as far as was possible for human thought and a tongue of clay, he shows the boundlessness of his power. "For if," he says, "all the nations are as a drop from a bucket, and as the turn of a scale, and were reckoned and shall be reckoned as spittle, to whom will you liken the Lord, or by what likeness will you liken him?" But if heaven and earth and the nature of the waters contain every created nature, and the measure of all these things is the measure of the divine hand, let those who attempt to measure with their tongue the boundlessness of that nature consider this—understanding "hand" not as a part of the body, but as the activity that fashioned and governs all things. These things, then, the Old Scripture teaches concerning the God of all things; and one might find other similar things to those said, teaching the uncircumscribability of the divine essence, and wisdom, and power. But in the holy Gospels the Lord taught the Samaritan woman to think similar things. For when she supposed that the Divine was circumscribed by a place, and had said for this reason: "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem one must

Worship," the Lord taught her the opposing opinions and taught the unboundedness of the divine nature; for he said to her: "Amen, I say to you, woman, that the hour is coming, and now is, when neither in Jerusalem nor in this place will they worship the Father." And having thus taught, he added that the divine worship is not circumscribed by certain places: "God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." And in the same way he showed both the incorporeality of the divine nature and its illimitability. And that the God of all is also eternal, the blessed David teaches, now saying: "From age to age you are;" and now: "God will hear, and he who exists before the ages will humble them." And the prophet Isaiah also teaches, crying out: "God is eternal, who prepared the ends of the earth; he will not hunger, nor will he grow weary, nor is there any finding out of his understanding." And the divine Apostle knows him also as the maker of the ages. And the Lord says that not only the divine nature existed before the creation, but also that the kingdom has been prepared for the saints before the foundation of the world. These things we have been taught from both the Old and the New Scripture concerning the principle of all things; not according to the myths of Valentinus and Basilides—conjunctions and mixtures and emissions of male and female Aeons—nor according to the different and opposing principles of Cerdo, and Marcion, and Manes, but one principle, the same and both good and just, as we will later demonstrate. 2. — Concerning the Son.

Just as we have learned to believe in one God, so also in one Son begotten before the ages. And we do not say, according to the myths of Valentinus, that the Only-begotten is one and the Word another, and the Christ yet another, and again Jesus another; nor do we call our Lord Jesus Christ a creature, according to the blasphemy of Arius and Eunomius. For the divine Scripture says that he is Only-begotten; but if he is created, he is not Only-begotten, for he would have creation as a sister, and all the parts of creation. But if he is Only-begotten, as indeed he is, then he has no fellowship at all with created things. And that he is Only-begotten, the Only-begotten himself taught, saying: "God so loved the world that he gave his Only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." And shortly after: "The one who believes in him is not judged; but the one who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God." And the Evangelist said thus: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." For the nature of the flesh did not diminish the worth of the divinity; but even clothed in flesh he displayed his paternal nobility. And again: "The Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known." And the Baptist cries out: "The one who believes in the Son has eternal life.

But the one who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. And all the apostles name him Son, and genuine and true Son of God. And the Father himself, having spoken twice from heaven, showed the genuineness of the generation; for he said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I was well pleased." And why do I speak of the Baptist, and the evangelist, and the other apostles, and the God of all things? For not even the devil, the father of lies, has dared to name him otherwise; but before the contests, doubting, he said: "If you are the Son of God"; and after the victory, having learned who he was, he cries out without hesitation: "What have we to do with you, Son of God? Have you come before the time to torment us?"

And in Philippi he also called him both Most High and God. "For these men," he said, "are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." And he called the apostles slaves of Christ, having learned this from them. For he heard the divine Paul both saying and writing this. "For Paul," he says, "a slave of Jesus Christ, a called Apostle"; and, "Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ." But if the teacher of lies himself names him both Son and Most High and Son of God, yielding to the flashes of the truth, then those who strive to win the Father's appellation by daring to call the Son a creature are surely contentious. And that the divine men also name him Most High, one may hear Zechariah saying to his own son: "And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High.

For you will go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways. And the great John went before, not of God the Father, but of the only-begotten Son. And he himself is a witness of this; for when he was asked whether he was the Christ, he denied this, but said: "I am one sent before that one." And the inspired David also says to him: "Let them know that your name is Lord; you alone are the Most High over all the earth." For if the Son is Lord ("For one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things," according to the divine Apostle; and, "One Lord, one faith"), then the Son is also the Most High, since he is also Lord. But concerning these matters we have gone through many arguments against Arius and Eunomius in the discourses against them. Let us therefore turn to the teaching set before us, and show that we have been taught that the same one is both Lord and Only-begotten, and that the Word is God, and Savior, and Jesus. Let us bring Peter into the midst, who was the first to confess these titles in agreement. For when the first of the apostles was asked by the Savior: "But you, who do you say that I am?" he answered: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And the divine John the evangelist calls the same one both the pre-eternal Word, and the only-begotten Son, and the creator of all things, and Christ Jesus. For "In the beginning," he says, "was the Word;" and this is indicative of the eternal; for the one who was in the beginning was always, clearly. For he did not say: "In the beginning he came to be," or, "In the beginning he was created;" but "In the beginning he was." And he also teaches what he was; for he added: "And the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Then he takes up the prologue again, and says:

This was in the beginning with God. And by the commonality of the name he showed the consubstantiality; but by saying God with God, he made clear the distinction of the persons. Him he also often called the only-begotten Son, and Jesus Christ. And the all-wise Paul also speaks thus: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that he might redeem those under the law, in order that we might receive the adoption as sons." And again: "But when he who had set me apart from my mother's womb, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me." And one may find countless such usages, through which they name him both Christ, and eternal Son, and co-eternal with the Father. Teaching this, this same teacher first shows him to be the maker of the ages. "For in these last days," he says, "he spoke to us in a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the ages." But since those who do not wish to understand divine things in a manner befitting God do not think it possible that he who is from God is co-eternal with God—for foolishly thinking that the divine nature is also subject to the law of human nature, they have supposed the Father to be older than the Son—the divine Apostle clearly demonstrates by a certain image that the only-begotten Son is both from God and with God. For he called him the radiance of glory. For the radiance is both from

It has its existence from the fire, and it coexists with the fire; for the effulgence is naturally united with the fire, and the ray with the sun; for from that from which the sun is, from that also are the rays. But the sun is the cause of the rays, and the fire of the effulgence; for the sun is not from the rays, but the rays are begotten from the sun, and the effulgence grows out of the fire. Thus the only-begotten Son has been begotten from the Father, and is with the Mind, as the Word is with the one who begat, and the effulgence with the fire, and the ray with the sun. But each of these does not subsist by itself, but has its subsistence in that from which it grew. But God the Word, the effulgence of glory, is not some non-subsistent activity of the Father, but a living subsistence, subsisting by itself. For he is not simply called Word, but God Word; nor only effulgence of glory, but also express image of his subsistence. For since it was not possible to teach divine things clearly by one image, we learn them in this way through more images. The effulgence of glory teaches co-eternity; the express image of the subsistence shows both the exactness of the likeness and teaches the difference of the subsistences; and the word makes clear the impassibility of the begetting. For lest, hearing "Son," we fall into human suspicions and think that the Creator of all was begotten in a manner similar to us, he called him Word, teaching thereby that that begetting is free from all passion. For our mind, bringing forth the word, does not need the fellowship of the female, nor does it undergo any cutting or flow; but being perfect, it produces a perfect word.

Through these things, then, we have been taught both the impassibility of the generation and the eternity of the Only-Begotten. And that he is also equal in power to the one who begat him, and in all things like and equal, it is easy to learn from the teaching of the Lord. For he says, "My Father works until now, and I work." And: "Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills." And: "All things that the Father has are mine." And: "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me." And: "The one who has seen me has seen the Father." And in these words he clearly showed the unvarying nature of the likeness. For when Philip asked that the Father be shown, the Lord showed himself, teaching thereby that he is a living image of the one who begat him, clearly displaying the features of the one who begat him. For he said to Philip: "Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known me, Philip?" Do you desire, he says, to see the Father while looking at me? Then you have not known me; for if you had known me, you would not have desired to see him; for in me the Father is beheld. For this reason he added: "The one who has seen me has seen the Father." And here he called the vision of faith a seeing. For he says, "Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known me, Philip?" He did not say, "You have not seen," but "You have not known." For Philip saw what was visible, but he did not behold the invisible divinity. Therefore he was also reproached, as one who had not known the Son accurately, and for this reason had desired to see the Father.

But if we were to use all demonstrations against every heresy, we would fill not ten only, nor twenty books of accusation; but against these we have already lately written twelve discourses, and in addition to these we have now also set forth the scope of the rest of theology, both ethical and doctrinal.

3. — Concerning the Holy Spirit, and the divine names. We have therefore learned that the Holy Spirit has its existence from God the Father. But the manner of its existence is neither like that of creation—for the all-holy Spirit is uncreated—nor like that of the only-begotten Son; for none of the God-bearers has called the existence of the divine Spirit a generation. Nevertheless, that it is from God, and that it is divine, the sacred words teach. For the Master Christ says these things concerning it: "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you." And again: "When the Comforter comes, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will guide you into all truth." And by saying, "He proceeds from the Father," he showed that the Father is the source of the Spirit. And he did not say, "He will proceed," but, "He proceeds," showing both the identity of nature and the indivisible and undifferentiated and united character of the hypostases. For that which proceeds is inseparable from that from which it proceeds. And the divine Apostle said these things concerning the Spirit: "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." And lest anyone should suppose the searching to be ignorance, he added: "No one among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him.

Thus also "no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." Having thus borne witness to his knowledge, he shows also whence he has his existence. "For we," he said, "did not receive the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God." For this reason he continually ranks it with the Father and the Son, but he never ranked it with creation. For he does not know it to be a part of creation, nor does he call it a first-made thing, according to the blasphemy of Arius, Eunomius, and Macedonius; but showing the gifts of divine grace, he spoke thus: "There are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all." Then, having shown the gift of the charisms, he added: "But all these things the one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each one individually as he wills." For, he says, the all-holy Spirit is not of servile ministry but of lordly dignity; nor does he serve as a subordinate, but he cooperates, and acts with lordly authority. Thus also at the end of the second Epistle to these same people, he wove the blessing: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." And in the former Epistle he placed the Spirit first, but here last, teaching that the order of the names does not make a difference of dignities. For this reason he placed the Son before the Father, not overturning the order which the Lord established, but demonstrating the equal honor of the Trinity. This also came upon the apostles in a manner befitting God. For first he shook the house, signifying the divine manifestation.