(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all mistakes found.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.

TERTULLIAN.

THE PRESCRIPTION AGAINST HERETICS.(1)

[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. PETER HOLMES, D.D., F.R.A.S., ETC., ETC.]

CHAP. I.--INTRODUCTORY. HERESIES MUST EXIST, AND EVEN ABOUND; THEY ARE A
PROBATION TO FAITH.

   THE character of the times in which we live is such as to call forth
from us even this admonition, that we ought not to be astonished  at the
heresies (which abound)(2) neither ought their existence to surprise us,
for it was foretold that they should come to pass;(3) nor the fact that
they subvert the faith of some, for their final cause is, by affording a
trial to faith, to give it also the opportunity of being "approved."(4)
Groundless, therefore, and inconsiderate is the offence of the many(5) who
are scandalized by the very fact that heresies prevail to such a degree.
How great (might their offence have been) if they had not existed.(6) When
it has been determined that a thing must by all means be, it receives the
(final) cause for which it has its being. This secures the power through
which it exists, in such a way that it is impossible for it not to have
existence.

CHAP, II.--ANALOGY BETWEEN FEVERS AND HERESIES. HERESIES NOT TO BE WONDERED
AT: THEIR STRENGTH DERIVED FROM WEAKNESS OF MEN'S FAITH. THEY HAVE NOT THE
TRUTH. SIMILE OF PUGILISTS AND GLADIATORS IN ILLUSTRATION.

   Taking the similar case(7) of fever, which is appointed a place amongst
all other deadly and excruciating issues (of life) for destroying man: we
are not surprised either that it exists, for there it is, or that it
consumes man, for that is the purpose of its existence. In like manner,
with respect to heresies, which are produced for the weakening and the
extinction of faith, since we feel a dread because they have this power, we
should first dread the fact of their existence; for as long as they exist,
they have they have their power; and as long as they have their power,
they, have their existence. But still fever, as being an evil both in its
cause(8) and in its power, as all know, we rather loathe than wonder at,
and to the best of our power guard against, not having its extirpation in
our power. Some men prefer wondering at heresies, however, which bring with
them eternal death and the heat of a stronger fire, for possessing this
power, instead of avoiding their power when they have the means of escape:
but heresies would have no power, if (men) would cease to wonder that they
have such power. For it either happens that, while men wonder, they fall
into a snare, or, because they are ensnared, they cherish their surprise,
as if heresies were so powerful because of some truth which belonged to
them. It would no doubt be a wonderful thing that evil should have any
force of its own, were it not that heresies are strong in those persons who
are not strong in faith. In a combat of boxers and gladiators, generally
speaking, it is not because a man is strong that he gains the victory, or
loses it because he is not strong, but because he who is vanquished was a
man of no strength; and indeed this very conqueror, when afterwards matched
against a really powerful man, actually retires crest-fallen from the
contest. In precisely the same way, heresies derive such strength as they
have from the infirmities of individuals--having no strength whenever they
encounter a really powerful faith.

CHAP. III.--WEAK PEOPLE FALL AN EASY PREY TO HERESY, WHICH DERIVES STRENGTH
FROM THE GENERAL FRAILTY OF MANKIND. EMINENT MEN HAVE FALLEN FROM FAITH;
SAUL, DAVID, SOLOMON.THE CONSTANCY OF CHRIST.

   It is usual, indeed, with persons of a weaker character, to be so built
up (in confidence) by certain individuals who are caught by heresy, as to
topple over into ruin themselves. How comes it to pass, (they ask), that
this woman or that man, who were the most faithful, the most prudent, and
the most approved(1) in the church, have gone over to the other side? Who
that asks such a question does not in fact reply to it himself, to the
effect that men whom heresies have been able to pervert(2) ought never to
have been esteemed prudent, or faithful, or approved? This again is, I
suppose, an extraordinary thing, that one who has been approved should
afterwards fall back? Saul, who was good beyond all others, is afterwards
subverted by envy.(3) David, a good man "after the Lord's own heart,"(4) is
guilty afterwards of murder and adultery.(5) Solomon, endowed by the Lord
with all grace and wisdom, is led into idolatry, by women.(6) For to the
Son of God alone was it reserved to persevere to the last without sin.(7)
But what if a bishop, if a deacon, if a widow, if a virgin, if a doctor, if
even a martyr,(8) have fallen from the rule (of faith), will heresies on
that account appear to possess(9) the truth? Do we prove the faith(10) by
the persons, or the persons by the faith? No one is wise, no one is
faithful, no one excels in dignity,(11) but the Christian; and no one is a
Christian but he who perseveres even to the end.(12) You, as a man, know
any other man from the outside appearance. You think as you see. And you
see as far only as you have eyes. But says (the Scripture), "the eyes of
the Lord are lofty."(13) "Man looketh at the outward appearance, but God
looketh at the heart."(14) "The Lord (beholdeth and) knoweth them that are
His;"(15) and "the plant which (my heavenly Father) hath not planted, He
rooteth up;"(16) and "the first shall," as He shows, "be last;"(17) and He
carries "His fan in His hand to purge His threshing-floor."(18) Let the
chaff of a fickle faith fly off as much as it will at every blast of
temptation, all the purer will be that heap of corn which shall be laid up
in the garner of the Lord. Did not certain of the disciples turn back from
the Lord Himself,(19) When they were offended? Yet the rest did not
therefore think that they must turn away from following Him,(20) but
because they knew that He was the Word of Life, and was come from God,(21)
they continued in His company to the very last, after He had gently
inquired of them whether they also would go away.(22) It is a comparatively
small thing,(23) that certain men, like Phygellus, and Hermogenes, and
Philetus, and Hymenaeus, deserted His apostle:(24) the betrayer of Christ
was himself one of the apostles. We are surprised at seeing His churches
forsaken by some men, although the things which we suffer after the example
of Christ Himself, show us to be Christians. "They went out from us," says
(St. John,) "but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would no
doubt have continued with us."(25)

CHAP. IV.--WARNINGS AGAINST HERESY GIVEN US IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. SUNDRY
PASSAGES ADDUCED. THESE IMPLY THE POSSIBILITY OF FALLING INTO HERESY.

   But let us rather be mindful of the sayings of the Lord, and of the
letters of the apostles; for they have both told us beforehand that there
shall be heresies, and have given us, in anticipation, warnings to avoid
them; and inasmuch as we are not alarmed because they exist, so we ought
not to wonder that they are capable of doing that, on account of which they
must be shunned. The Lord teaches us that many "ravening wolves shall come
in sheep's clothing."(1) Now, what are these sheep's clothing's, but the
external surface of the Christian profession? Who are the ravening wolves
but those deceitful senses and spirits which are lurking within to waste
the flock of Christ? Who are the false prophets but deceptive predictors of
the future? Who are the false apostles but the preachers of a spurious
gospel?(2) Who also are the Antichrists, both now and evermore, but the men
who rebel against Christ?(3) Heresies, at the present time, will no less
rend the church by their perversion of doctrine, than will Antichrist
persecute her at that day by the cruelty of his attacks,(4) except that
persecution makes  even martyrs, (but) heresy only apostates. And therefore
"heresies must needs be in order that they which are approved might be made
manifest,(5) both those who remained stedfast under persecution, and those
who did not wander out of their way(6) into heresy. For the apostle does
not mean(7) that those persons should be deemed approved who exchange their
creed for heresy; although they contrariously interpret his words to their
own side, when he says in another passage, "Prove all things; hold fast
that which is good;"(8) as if, after proving all things amiss, one might
not through error make a determined choice of some evil thing.

CHAP. V.--HERESY, AS WELL AS SCHISM AND DISSENSION, DISAPPROVED BY ST.
PAUL, WHO SPEAKS OF THE NECESSITY OF HERESIES, NOT AS A GOOD, BUT, BY THE
WILL OF GOD, SALUTARY TRIALS FOR TRAINING AND APPROVING THE FAITH OF
CHRISTIANS.

   Moreover, when he blames dissensions and schisms, which undoubtedly are
evils, he immediately adds heresies likewise. Now, that which he subjoins
to evil things, he of course confesses to be itself an evil; and all the
greater, indeed, because he tells us that his belief of their schisms and
dissensions was grounded on his knowledge that "there must  be heresies
also."(9) For he shows us that it   was owing to the prospect of the
greater evil that he readily believed the existence of the lighter ones;
and so far indeed was he from believing, in respect of evils (of such a
kind), that heresies were good, that his object was to forewarn us that we
ought not to be surprised at temptations of even a worse stamp, since (he
said) they tended "to  make manifest all such as were approved;"(10) in
other words, those whom they were unable to pervert.(11) In short, since
the whole passage(12) points to the maintenance of unity and the checking
of divisions, inasmuch as heresies sever men from unity no less than
schisms and dissensions, no doubt he classes heresies under the same head
of censure as he does schisms also and dissensions. And by so doing, he
makes those to be "not approved," who have fallen into heresies; more
especially when with reproofs he exhorts(13) men to turn away from such,
teaching them that they should "all speak and think the selfsame
thing,"(14) the very object which heresies do not permit.

CHAP. VI.--HERETICS ARE SELF-CONDEMNED. HERESY. IS SELF-WILL, WHILST FAITH
IS SUBMISSION OF OUR WILL TO THE DIVINE AUTHORITY. THE HERESY OF APELLES.

   On this point, however, we dwell no longer, since it is the same Paul
who, in his Epistle to the Galatians, counts "heresies" among "the sins of
the flesh,"(15) who also intimates to Titus, that "a man who is a heretic"
must be "rejected after the first admonition," on the ground that "he that
is such is perverted, and committeth sin, as a self-condemned man."(16)
Indeed, in almost every epistle, when enjoining on us (the duty) of
avoiding false doctrines, he sharply condemns(17) heresies. Of these the
practical effects(18) are false doctrines, called in Greek heresies,(19) a
word used in the sense of that choice which a man makes when he either
teaches them(to others)(20) or takes up with them (for himself).(21) For
this reason it is that he calls the heretic condemned,(22) because he has
himself chosen that for which he is condemned. We, however, are not
permitted to cherish any object(1) after our own will, nor yet to make
choice of that which another has introduced of his private fancy. In the
Lord's apostles we possess our authority; for even they did not of
themselves choose to introduce anything, but faithfully delivered to the
nations (of mankind) the doctrine(2) which they had received from Christ.
If, therefore, even "an angel from heaven should preach any other gospel"
(than theirs), he would be called accursed(3) by us. The Holy Ghost had
even then foreseen that there would be in a certain virgin (called)
Philumene(4) an angel of deceit, "transformed into an angel of light,"(5)
by whose miracles and illusions(6) Apelles was led (when) he introduced his
new heresy.

CHAP. VII.--PAGAN PHILOSOPHY THE PARENT OF HERESIES. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN
DEFLECTIONS FROM CHRISTIAN FAITH AND  THE OLD SYSTEMS OF PAGAN PHILOSOPHY,

   These are "the doctrines" of men and "of demons"(7) produced for
itching ears of the spirit of this world's wisdom: this the Lord called
"foolishness,"(8) and "chose the foolish things of the world" to confound
even philosophy itself. For (philosophy) it is which is the material of the
world's wisdom, the rash interpreter of the nature and the dispensation of
God. Indeed(9) heresies are themselves instigated(10) by philosophy. From
this source came the AEons, and I known not what infinite forms,(11) and
the trinity of man(12) in the system of Valentinus, who was of Plato's
school. From the same source came Marcion's better god, with all his
tranquillity; he came of the Stoics. Then, again, the opinion that the soul
dies is held by the Epicureans; while the denial of the restoration of the
body is taken from the aggregate school of all the philosophers; also, when
matter is made equal to God, then you have the teaching of Zeno; and when
any doctrine is alleged touching a god of fire, then Heraclitus comes in.
The same subject-matter is discussed over and over again(13) by the
heretics and the philosophers; the same arguments(14) are involved. Whence
comes evil? Why is it permitted? What is the origin of man? and in what way
does he come? Besides the question which Valentinus has very lately
proposed--Whence comes God? Which he settles with the answer: From
enthymesis and ectroma.(15) Unhappy Aristotle! who invented for these men
dialectics, the art of building up and pulling down; an art so evasive in
its propositions,(16) so far-fetched in its conjectures, so harsh, in its
arguments, so productive of contentions--embarrassing(17) even to itself,
retracting everything, and really treating of(18) nothing! Whence spring
those "fables and endless genealogies,"(19) and "unprofitable
questions,"(20) and "words which spread like a cancer?"(21) From all these,
when the apostle would restrain us, he expressly names philosophy as that
which he would have us be  on our guard against. Writing to the Colossians,
he says, "See that no one beguile you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, and contrary to the wisdom of the Holy
Ghost."(22) He had been at Athens, and had in his interviews (with its
philosophers) become acquainted with that human wisdom which pretends to
know the truth, whilst it only corrupts it, and is itself divided into its
own manifold heresies, by the variety of its mutually repugnant sects. What
indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the
Academy and the Church? what between heretics and Christians? Our
instruction comes from "the porch of Solomon,"(23) who had himself taught
that "the Lord should be sought in simplicity of heart."(24) Away with(25)
all attempts to produce a mottled Christianity of Stoic, Platonic, and
dialectic composition! We want no curious disputation after possessing
Christ Jesus, no inquisition after enjoying the gospel! With our faith, we
desire no further belief. For this is our palmary faith, that there is
nothing which we ought to believe besides.

CHAP. VIII.--CHRIST'S WORD, SEEK, AND YE SHALL FIND, NO WARRANT FOR
HERETICAL DEVIATIONS FROM THE FAITH. ALL CHRIST'S WORDS TO THE JEWS ARE FOR
US, NOT INDEED AS SPECIFIC COMMANDS, BUT AS PRINCIPLES TO  BE APPLIED.

   I come now to the point which (is urged both by our own brethren and by
the heretics). Our brethren adduce it as a pretext for entering on curious
inquiries,(1) and the heretics insist on it for importing the scrupulosity
(of their unbelief).(2) It is written, they say, "Seek, and ye shall
find."(3) Let us remember at what time the Lord said this. I think it was
at the very outset of His teaching, when there was still a doubt felt by
all whether He were the Christ, and when even Peter had not yet declared
Him to be the Son of God, and John (Baptist) had actually ceased to feel
assurance about Him.(4) With good reason, therefore, was it then said,
"Seek, and ye shall find," when inquiry was still be to made of Him who was
not yet become known. Besides, this was said in respect of the Jews. For it
is to them that the whole matter(5) of this reproof(6) pertains, seeing
that they had (a revelation) where they might seek Christ.

   "They have," says He, "Moses and Elias,"(7)--in other words, the law
and the prophets, which preach Christ; as also in another place He says
plainly, "Search the Scriptures, in which ye expect (to find) salvation;
for they testify of me;"(8) which will be the meaning of "Seek, and ye
shall find." For it is clear that the next words also apply to the Jews:
"Knock, and it shall be opened unto you."(9) The Jews had formerly been in
covenant with(10) God; but being afterwards cast off on account of their
sins, they began to be(11) without God. The Gentiles, on the contrary, had
never been in covenant with God; they were only as "a drop from a bucket,"
and "as dust from the threshing floor,(12) and were ever outside the door.
Now, how shall he who was always outside knock at the place where he never
was? What door does he know of, when he has passed through none, either by
entrance or ejection? Is it not rather he who is aware that he once lived
within and was thrust out, that (probably) found the door and knocked
thereat? In like manner, "Ask, and ye shall receive,"(13) is suitably
said(14) to one who was aware from whom he ought to ask,--by whom also some
promise had been given; that is to say, "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and
of Jacob." Now, the Gentiles knew nothing either of Him, or of any of His
promises. Therefore it was to Israel that he spake when He said, "I am not
sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."(15) Not yet had He
"cast to the dogs the children's bread;"(16) not yet did He charge them to
"go into the way of the Gentiles."(17) It is only at the last that He
instructs them to "go and teach all nations, and baptize them,"(18) when
they were so soon to receive "the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, who should
guide them into all the truth."(19) And this, too, makes towards the the
same conclusion. If the apostles, who were ordained(20) to be teachers to
the Gentiles, were themselves to have the Comforter for their teacher, far
more needless(21) was it to say to us, "Seek, and ye shall find," to whom
was to come, without research,(22) our instruction(23) by the apostles, and
to the apostles themselves by the Holy Ghost. All the Lord's sayings,
indeed, are set forth for all men; through the ears of the Jews have they
passed on to us. Still most of them were addressed to Jewish persons;(24)
they therefore did not constitute instruction properly designed(25) for
ourselves, but rather an example.(26)

CHAP. IX.--THE RESEARCH AFTER DEFINITE TRUTH ENJOINED ON US. WHEN WE HAVE
DISCOVERED THIS, WE SHOULD BE CONTENT.

   I now purposely(27) relinquish this ground of argument. Let it be
granted, that the words, "Seek, and ye shall find," were addressed to all
men (equally). Yet even here one's aim is(28) carefully to determine(29)
the sense of the words(30) consistently with(31) (that reason),(32) which
is the guiding principle(33) in all interpretation. (Now) no divine saying
is so unconnected(34) and diffuse, that its words only are to be insisted
on, and their  connection left undetermined. But at the outset I lay  down
(this position) that there is some one, and therefore definite, thing
taught by Christ, which the Gentiles are by all means bound to believe, and
for that purpose to "seek," in order that they may be able, when they have
"found" it, to believe. However,(1) there can be no indefinite seeking for
that which has been taught as one only definite thing. You must "seek"
until you "find," and believe when you have found; nor have you anything
further to do but to keep what you have believed provided you believe this
besides, that nothing else is to be believed, and therefore nothing else is
to be sought, after you have found and believed what has been taught by Him
who charges you to seek no other thing than that which He has taught.(2)
When, indeed, any man doubts about this, proof will be forthcoming,(3) that
we have in our possession(4) that which was taught by Christ. Meanwhile,
such is my confidence in our proof, that I anticipate it, in the shape of
an admonition to certain persons, not "to seek" anything beyond what they
have believed--that this is what they ought to have sought, how to avoid(5)
interpreting, "Seek, and ye shall find," without regard to the rule of
reason.

CHAP. X.--ONE HAS SUCCEEDED IN FINDING DEFINITE TRUTH, WHEN HE BELIEVES.
HERETICAL WITS ARE ALWAYS OFFERING MANY THINGS FOR VAIN DISCUSSION, BUT WE
ARE NOT TO BE ALWAYS SEEKING.

   Now the reason of this saying is comprised in three points: in the
matter, in the time, in the limit.(6) In the matter, so that you must
consider what it is you have to seek; in the time, when you have to seek;
in the limit, how long. What you have "to seek," then, is that which Christ
has taught,(7) (and you must go on seeking) of course for such time as you
fail to find,(8)--until indeed you find(9) it. But you have succeeded in
finding (10) when you have believed. For you would not have believed if you
had not found; as neither would you have sought except with a view to find.
Your object, therefore, in seeking was to find; and your object in finding
was to believe, All further delay for seeking and finding you have
prevented(11) by believing. The very fruit of your seeking has determined
for you this limit. This boundary(12) has He set for you Himself, who is
unwilling that you should believe anything else than what He has taught,
or, therefore, even seek for it. If, however, because so many other things
have been taught by one and another, we are on that account bound to go on
seeking, so long as we are able to find anything, we must (at that rate) be
ever seeking, and never believe anything at all. For where shall be the end
of seeking? where the stop's in believing? where the completion in finding?
(Shall it be) with Marcion? But even Valentinus proposes (to us the) maxim,
"Seek, and ye shall find." Then shall it be) with Valentinus? Well, but
Apelles, too, will assail me with the same quotation; Hebion also, and
Simon, and all in turn, have no other argument wherewithal to entice me,
and draw me over to their side. Thus I shall be nowhere, and still be
encountering(14) (that challenge), "Seek, and ye shall find," precisely as
if I had no resting-place;(15) as if (indeed) I had never found that which
Christ has taught--that which ought(16) to be sought, that which must
needs(17) be believed.

CHAP. XI.--AFTER WE HAVE BELIEVED, SEARCH SHOULD CEASE; OTHERWISE IT MUST
END IN A DENIAL OF WHAT WE HAVE BELIEVED. NO OTHER OBJECT PROPOSED FOR OUR
FAITH.

   There is impunity in erring, if there is no delinquency; although
indeed to err it is itself an act of delinquency.(18) With impunity, I
repeat, does a man ramble,(19) when he (purposely) deserts nothing. But
yet, if I have believed what I was bound to believe, and then afterwards
think that there is something new to be sought after, I of course expect
that there is something else to be found, although I should by no means
entertain such expectation, unless it were because I either had not
believed, although I apparently had become a believer, or else have ceased
to believe. If I thus desert my faith, I am found to be a denier thereof.
Once for all I would say, No man seeks, except him who either never
possessed, or else has lost (what he sought). The old woman (in the
Gospel)(1) had lost one of her ten pieces of silver, and therefore she
sought it;(2) when, however, she found it, she ceased to look for it. The
neighbour was without bread, and therefore he knocked; but as soon as the
door was opened to him, and he received the bread, he discontinued
knocking.(3) The widow kept asking to be heard by the judge, because she
was not admitted; but when her suit was heard, thenceforth she was
silent.(4) So that there is a limit both to seeking, and to knocking, and
to asking. "For to every one that asketh," says He, "it shall be given, and
to him that knocketh it shall be opened, and by him that seeketh it shall
be found."(5) Away with the man(6) who is ever seeking because he never
finds; for he seeks there where nothing can be found. Away with him who is
always knocking because it will never be opened to him; for he knocks where
there is none (to open). Away with him who is always asking because he will
never be heard; for he asks of one who does not hear.

CHAP. XII.--A PROPER SEEKING AFTER DIVINE KNOWLEDGE, WHICH WILL NEVER BE
OUT OF PLACE OR EXCESSIVE, IS ALWAYS WITHIN THE RULE OF FAITH.

   As for us, although we must still seek, and that always, yet where
ought our search to be made? Amongst the heretics, where all things are
foreign(7) and opposed to our own verity, and to whom we are forbidden to
draw near? What slave looks for food from a stranger, not to say an enemy
of his master? What soldier expects to get bounty and pay from kings who
are unallied, I might almost say hostile--unless forsooth he be a deserter,
and a runaway, and a rebel? Even that old woman(8) searched for the piece
of silver within her own house. It was also at his neighbour's door that
the persevering assailant kept knocking. Nor was it to a hostile judge,
although a severe one, that the widow made her appeal. No man gets
instruction(9) from that which tends to destruction.(10) No man receives
illumination from a quarter where all is darkness. Let our "seeking,"
therefore be in that which is our own, and from those who are our own: and
concerning that which is our own,--that, and only that,(12) which can
become an object of inquiry without impairing the rule of faith.

CHAP. XIII.--SUMMARY OF THE CREED, OR RULE OF FAITH. NO QUESTIONS EVER
RAISED ABOUT IT BY BELIEVERS.  HERETICS ENCOURAGE AND pERPETUATE THOUGHT
INDEPENDENT OF CHRIST'S TEACHING.

   Now, with regard to this rule of faith--that we may from this point(12)
acknowledge what it is which we defend--it is, you must know, that which
prescribes the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none other
than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing
through His own Word, first of all sent forth;(13) that this Word is called
His Son, and, under the name of God, was seen "in diverse manners" by the
patriarchs, heard at all times in the prophets, at last brought down by the
Spirit and Power of the Father into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her
womb, and, being born of her, went forth as Jesus Christ; thenceforth He
preached the new law and the new promise of the kingdom of heaven, worked
miracles; having been crucified, He rose again the third day; (then) having
ascended(14) into the heavens, He sat at the right hand of the Father; sent
instead of Himself(15) the Power of the Holy Ghost to lead such as believe;
will come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment of everlasting
life and of the heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting
fire, after the resurrection of both these classes shall have happened,
together with the restoration of their flesh. This rule, as it will be
proved, was taught by Christ, and raises amongst ourselves no other
questions than those which heresies introduce, and which make men
heretics.(16)

CHAP. XIV.--CURIOSITY OUGHT NOT RANGE BEYOND THE RULE OF FAITH. RESTLESS
CURIOSITY, THE FEATURE OF HERESY.

   So long, however, as its form exists in its proper order, you may seek
and discuss as much as you please, and give full rein to(1) your curiosity,
in whatever seems to you to hang in doubt, or to be shrouded in obscurity.
You have at hand, no doubt, some learned(2) brother gifted with the grace
of knowledge, some one of the experienced class, some one of your close
acquaintance who is curious like yourself; although with yourself, a seeker
he will, after all,(3) be quite aware(4) that it is better for you to
remain in ignorance, lest you should come to know what you ought not,
because you have acquired the knowledge of what you ought to know.(5) "Thy
faith," He says, "hath saved thee"(6) not observe your skill(7) in the
Scriptures. Now, faith has been deposited in the rule; it has a law, and
(in the observance thereof) salvation. Skill,(7) however, consists in
curious art, having for its glory simply the readiness that comes from
knack.(8) Let such curious art give place to faith; let such glory yield to
salvation. At any rate, let them either relinquish their noisiness.(9) or
else be quiet. To know nothing in opposition to the rule (of faith), is to
know all things. (Suppose) that heretics were not enemies to the truth, so
that we were not forewarned to avoid them, what sort of conduct would it be
to agree with men who do themselves confess that they are still seeking?
For if they are still seeking, they have not as yet found anything
amounting to certainty; and therefore, whatever they seem for a while(10)
to hold, they betray their own scepticism,(11) whilst they continue
seeking. You therefore, who seek after their fashion, looking to those who
are themselves ever seeking, a doubter to doubters, a waverer to waverers,
must needs be "led, blindly by the blind, down into the ditch."(12) But
when, for the sake of deceiving us, they pretend that they are still
seeking, in order that they may palm(13) their essays(14) upon us by the
suggestion of an anxious sympathy,(15)--when, in short (after gaining an
access to us), they proceed at once to insist on the necessity of our
inquiring into such points as they were in the habit of advancing, then it
is high time for us in moral obligation(16) to repel(17) them, so that they
may know that it is not Christ, but themselves, whom we disavow. For since
they are still  seekers, they have no fixed tenets yet;(18) and being not
fixed in tenet, they have not yet believed; and being not yet believers,
they are not Christians. But even though they have their tenets and their
belief, they still say that inquiry is necessary in order to
discussion.(19) Previous, however, to the discussion, they deny what they
confess not yet to have believed, so long as they keep it an object of
inquiry. When men, therefore, are not Christians even on their own
admission,(20) how much more (do they fail to appear such) to us! What sort
of truth is that which they patronize,(21) when they commend it to us with
a lie? Well, but they actually(22) treat of the Scriptures and
recommend(their opinions) out of the Scriptures! To be sure they do.(23)
From what other source could they derive arguments concerning the things of
the faith, except from the records of the faith?

CHAP. XV.--HERETICS NOT TO BE ALLOWED TO ARGUE OUT OF THE SCRIPTURES. THE
SCRIPTURES, IN FACT, DO NOT BELONG TO THEM.(24)

   We are therefore come to (the gist of) our position; for at this point
we were aiming, and for this we were preparing in the preamble of our
address (which we have just completed),--so that we may now join issue on
the contention to which our adversaries challenge us. They put forward(25)
the Scriptures, and by this insolence(26) of theirs they at once influence
some. In the encounter itself, however, they weary the strong, they catch
the weak, and dismiss waverers with a doubt. Accordingly, we oppose to them
this step above ,all others, of not admitting them to any discussion of the
Scriptures.(27)

   If in these lie their resources, before they can use them, it ought to
be clearly seen to whom belongs the possession of the Scriptures, that none
may be admitted to the use thereof who has no title at all to the
privilege.

CHAP. XVI.--APOSTOLIC SANCTION TO THIS EXCLUSION OF HERETICS FROM THE USE
OF THE SCRIPTURES, HERETICS, ACCORDING TO THE APOSTLE, ARE NOT TO BE
DISPUTED WITH, BUT TO BE ADMONISHED.

   I might be thought to have laid down this position to remedy distrust
in my case,(1) or from a desire of entering on the contest(2) in some other
way, were there not reasons on my side, especially this, that our faith
owes deference(3) to the apostle, who forbids us to enter on "questions,"
or to lend our ears to new-fangled statements,(4) or to consort with a
heretic "after the first and second admonition,"(5) not, (be it observed,)
after discussion. Discussion he has inhibited in this way, by designating
admonition as the purpose of dealing with a heretic, and the first one too,
because he is not a Christian; in order that he might not, after the manner
of a Christian, seem to require correction again and again, and "before two
or three witnesses,"(6) seeing that he ought to be corrected, for the very
reason that he is not to be disputed with; and in the next place, because a
controversy over the Scriptures can, clearly,(7) produce no other effect
than help to upset either the stomach or the brain.

CHAP. XVII.--HERETICS, IN FACT, DO NOT USE BUT ONLY ABUSE, SCRIPTURE. NO
COMMON GROUND BETWEEN THEM AND YOU.

   Now this heresy of yours(3) does not receive certain Scriptures; and
whichever of them it does receive, it perverts by means of additions and
diminutions, for the accomplishment of it own purpose; and such as it does
receive, it receives not in their entirety; but even when it does receive
any up to a certain point(9) as entire, it nevertheless perverts even these
by the contrivance of diverse interpretations. Truth is just as much
opposed by an adulteration of its meaning as it is by a corruption of its
text.(10) Their vain presumptions must needs refuse to acknowledge the
(writings) whereby they are refuted. They rely on those which they have
falsely put together, and which they have selected, because their
ambiguity. Though most skilled(12) in the Scriptures, you will make no
progress,(13) when everything which you maintain is denied on the other
side, and whatever you deny is (by them) maintained. As for yourself,
indeed, you will lose nothing but your breath, and gain nothing but
vexation from their blasphemy.

CHAP. XVIII.--GREAT EVIL ENSUES TO THE WEAK IN FAITH, FROM ANY DISCUSSION
OUT OF THE SCRIPTURES. CONVICTION  NEVER COMES TO THE HERETIC FROM SUCH A
PROCESS.

   But with respect to the man for whose sake you enter on the discussion
of the Scriptures,(14) with the view of strengthening him when afflicted
with doubts, (let me ask) will it be to the truth, or rather to heretical
opinions that he will lean? Influenced by the very fact that he sees you
have made no progress, whilst the other side is on an equal footing(15)
(with yourself) in denying and in defence, or at any rate on a like
standing(16) he will go away confirmed in his uncertainty(17) by the
discussion, not knowing which side to adjudge heretical. For, no doubt,
they too are able(18) to retort these things on us. It is indeed a
necessary consequence that they should go so far as to say that
adulterations of the Scriptures, and false expositions thereof, are rather
introduced by ourselves, inasmuch as they, no less than we(19) maintain
that truth is on their side.

CHAP. XIX. APPEAL, IN DISCUSSION OF HERESY, LIES NOT TO THE SCRIPTURES. THE
SCRIPTURES BELONG ONLY TO THOSE WHO HAVE THE RULE OF FAITH

   Our appeal, therefore, must not be made to the Scriptures; nor must
controversy be admitted on points in which victory will either be
impossible,(20) or uncertain, or not certain enough.(21) But even if a
discussion from the Scriptures(22) should not turn out in such a way as to
place both sides on a par, (yet) the natural order of things would require
that this  point should be first proposed, which is now the only one which
we must discuss: "With whom lies that very faith to which the Scriptures
belong.(23) From what and through whom, and when, and to whom, has been
handed down that rule,(24) by which men become Christians?" For wherever it
shall be manifest that the true Christian rule and faith shall be, there
will likewise be the true Scriptures and expositions thereof, and all the
Christian traditions.

CHAP. XX.--CHRIST FIRST DELIVERED THE FAITH. THE APOSTLES SPREAD IT; THEY
FOUNDED CHURCHES AS THE DEPOSITORIES THEREOF. THAT FAITH, THEREFORE, IS
APOSTOLIC, WHICH DESCENDED FROM THE APOSTLES, THROUGH APOSTOLIC CHURCHES.

   Christ Jesus our Lord (may He bear with  me a moment in thus expressing
myself!), whosoever He is, of what God soever He is the Son, of what
substance soever He is man and God, of what faith soever He is the,
teacher, of what reward soever He is the Promiser, did, whilst He lived on
earth, Himself declare what He was, what He had been, what the Father's
will was which He was administering, what the duty of man was which He was
prescribing; (and this declaration He made,) either openly to the people,
or privately to His disciples, of whom He had chosen the twelve chief ones
to be at His side,(1) and whom He destined to be the teachers of the
nations. Accordingly, after one of these had been struck off, He commanded
the eleven others, on His departure to the Father, to "go and teach all
nations, who were to be baptized into the Father, and into the Son, and
into the Holy Ghost."(2) Immediately, therefore, so did the apostles, whom
this designation indicates as "the sent." Having, on the authority of a
prophecy, which occurs in a psalm of David,(3) chosen Matthias by lot as
the twelfth, into the place of Judas, they obtained the promised power of
the Holy Ghost for the gift of miracles and of utterance; and after first
bearing witness to the faith in Jesus Christ throughout Judaea, and
rounding churches (there), they next went forth into the world and preached
the same doctrine of the same faith to the nations. They then in like
manner rounded churches in every city, from which all the other churches,
one after another, derived the tradition of the faith,(4) and the seeds of
doctrine, and are every day deriving them,(5) that they may become
churches. Indeed, it is on this account only that they will be able to deem
themselves apostolic, as being the offspring of apostolic churches. Every
sort of thing(6) must necessarily revert to its original for its
classification.(7) Therefore the churches, although they are so many and so
great, comprise but the one primitive church, (rounded) by the apostles,
from which they all (spring). In this way all are primitive, and all are
apostolic, whilst they are all proved to be one, in (unbroken) unity, by
their peaceful communion,(8) and title of brotherhood, and bond(9) of
hospitality,--privileges(10) which no other rule directs than the one
tradition of the selfsame mystery.(11)

CHAP. XXI.--ALL DOCTRINE TRUE WHICH COMES THROUGH THE CHURCH FROM THE
APOSTLES, WHO WERE TAUGHT BY GOD THROUGH CHRIST. ALL OPINION WHICH HAS NO
SUCH DIVINE ORIGIN AND APOSTOLIC TRADITION TO SHOW, IS IPSO FACTO FALSE.

   From this, therefore, do we draw up our rule. Since the Lord Jesus
Christ sent the apostles to preach, (our rule is) that no others ought to
be received as preachers than those whom Christ appointed; for "no man
knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
Him."(12) Nor does the Son seem to have revealed Him to any other than the
apostles, whom He sent forth to preach--that, of course, which He revealed
to them. Now, what that was which they preached--in other words, what it
was which Christ revealed to them--can, as I must here likewise prescribe,
properly be proved in no other way than by those very churches which the
apostles rounded in person, by declaring the gospel to them directly
themselves, both rivet race, as the phrase is, and subsequently by their
epistles. If, then, these things are so, it is in the same degree(13)
manifest that all doctrine which agrees with the apostolic churches--those
moulds(14) and original sources of the faith must be reckoned for truth, as
undoubtedly containing that which the (said) churches received from the
apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God. Whereas all doctrine
must be prejudged(15) as false(16) which savours of contrariety to the
truth of the churches and apostles of Christ and God. It remains, then,
that we demonstrate whether this doctrine of ours, of which we have now
given the rule, has its origin(17) in the tradition of the apostles, and
whether all other doctrines do not ipso facto(18) proceed from falsehood.
We hold communion with the apostolic churches because our doctrine is in no
respect different from theirs. This is our witness of  truth.

CHAP. XXII.--ATTEMPT TO INVALIDATE THIS RULE OF FAITH REBUTTED. THE
APOSTLES SAFE TRANSMITTERS OF THE TRUTH. SUFFICIENTLY TAUGHT AT FIRST, AND
FAITHFUL IN THE TRANSMISSION.

   But inasmuch as the proof is so near at hand,(1) that if it were at
once produced there would be nothing left to be dealt with, let us give way
for a while to the opposite side, if they think that they can find some
means of invalidating this rule, just as if no proof were forthcoming from
us. They usually tell us that the apostles did not know all things: (but
herein) they are impelled by the same madness, whereby they turn round to
the very opposite point,(2) and declare that the apostles certainly knew
all things, but did not deliver all things to all persons,--in either case
exposing Christ to blame for having sent forth apostles who had either too
much ignorance, or too little simplicity. What man, then, of sound mind can
possibly suppose that they were ignorant of anything, whom the Lord
ordained to be masters (or teachers),(3) keeping them, as He did,
inseparable (from Himself) in their attendance, in their discipleship, in
their society, to whom, "when they were alone, He used to expound" all
things(4) which were obscure, telling them that "to them it was given to
know those mysteries,"(5) which it was not permitted the people to
understand? Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter, who is
called "the rock on which the church should be built,"(6) who also obtained
"the keys of the kingdom of heaven,"(7) with the power of "loosing and
binding in heaven and on earth?"(8) Was anything, again, concealed from
John, the Lord's most beloved disciple, who used to lean on His breast(9)
to whom alone the Lord pointed Judas out as the traitor,(10) whom He
commended to Mary as a son in His own stead?(11) Of what could He have
meant those to be ignorant, to whom He even exhibited His own glory with
Moses and Elias, and the Father's voice moreover, from heaven?(12) Not as
if He thus disapproved(13) of all the rest, but because "by three witnesses
must every word be established."(14) After the same fashion,(15) too, (I
suppose,) were they ignorant to whom, after His resurrection also, He
vouchsafed, as they were journeying together, "to expound all the
Scriptures."(16) No doubt(17) He had once said, "I have yet many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now;" but even then He added, "When
He, the Spirit of truth, shall come, He will lead you into all truth."(18)
He (thus) shows that there was nothing of which they were ignorant, to whom
He had promised the future attainment of all truth by help of the Spirit of
truth. And assuredly He fulfilled His promise, since it is proved in the
Acts of the Apostles that the Holy Ghost did come down. Now they who reject
that Scripture(19) can neither belong to the Holy Spirit, seeing that they
cannot acknowledge that the Holy Ghost has been sent as yet to the
disciples, nor can they presume to claim to be a church themselves(20) who
positively have no means of proving when, and with what swaddling-
clothes(21) this body was established. Of so much importance is it to them
not to have any proofs for the things which they maintain, lest along with
them there be introduced damaging exposures(22) of those things which they
mendaciously devise.

CHAP. XXIII.--THE APOSTLES NOT IGNORANT. THE HERETICAL PRETENCE OF ST.
PETER'S IMPERFECTION BECAUSE HE WAS REBUKED BY ST. PAUL. ST. PETER NOT
REBUKED FOR ERROR IN TEACHING.

   Now, with the view of branding(23) the apostles with some mark of
ignorance, they put forth the case of Peter and them that were with him
having been rebuked by Paul. "Something therefore," they say, "was wanting
in them." (This they allege,) in order that they may from this construct
that other position of theirs, that a fuller knowledge may possibly have
afterwards come over(the apostles,) such as fell to the share of Paul when
he rebuked those who preceded him. I may here say to those who reject The
Acts of the Apostles: "It is first necessary that you shows us who this
Paul was,--both what he was before he was an apostle, and how he became an
apostle,"--so very great is the use which they make of him in respect of
other questions also. It is true that he tells us himself that he was a
persecutor before he became an apostle,(1) still this is not enough for any
man who examines before he believes, since even the Lord Himself did not
bear witness of Himself.(2) But let them believe without the Scriptures, if
their object is to believe contrary to the Scriptures.(3) Still they should
show, from the circumstance which they allege of Peter's being rebuked by
Paul, that Paul added yet another form of the gospel besides that which
Peter and the rest had previously set forth. But the fact is,(4) having
been converted from a persecutor to a preacher, he is introduced as one of
the brethren to brethren, by brethren--to them, indeed, by men who had put
on faith from the apostles' hands. Afterwards, as he himself narrates, he
"went up to Jerusalem for the purpose of seeing Peter,"(5) because of his
office, no doubt,(6) and by right of a common belief and preaching. Now
they certainly would not have been surprised at his having become a
preacher instead of a persecutor, if his preaching were of something
contrary; nor, moreover, would they have "glorified the Lord,"(7) because
Paul had presented himself as an adversary to Him They accordingly even
gave him "the right hand of fellowship,"(3) as a sign of their agreement
with him, and arranged amongst themselves a distribution of office, not a
diversity of gospel, so that they should severally preach not a different
gospel, but (the same), to different persons,(9) Peter to the circumcision,
Paul to the Gentiles. Forasmuch, then, as Peter was rebuked because, after
he had lived with the Gentiles, he proceeded to separate himself from their
company out of respect for persons, the fault surely was one of
conversation, not of preaching.(10) For it does not appear from this, that
any other God than the Creator, or any other Christ than (the son) of Mary,
or any other hope than the resurrection, was (by him) announced.

CHAP. XXIV.--ST. PETER'S FURTHER VINDICATION. ST. PAUL NOT SUPERIOR TO ST.
PETER IN TEACHING. NOTHING IMPARTED TO THE FORMER IN THE THIRD HEAVEN
ENABLED HIM TO ADD TO THE FAITH. HERETICS BOAST AS IF FAVOURED WITH SOME OF
THE SECRETS IMPARTED TO HIM.

   I have not the good fortune,(11) or, as I must rather say,(12) I have
not the unenviable task,(13) of setting apostles by the ears.(14) But,
inasmuch as our very perverse cavillers obtrude the rebuke in question for
the set purpose of bringing the earlier(15) doctrine into suspicion, I will
put in a defence, as it were, for Peter, to the effect that even Paul said
that he was "made all things to all men--to the Jews a Jew," to those who
were not Jews as one who was not a Jew--"that he might gain all."(16)
Therefore it was according to times and persons and causes that they used
to censure certain practices, which they would not hesitate themselves to
pursue, in like conformity to times and persons and causes. Just (e.g.) as
if Peter too had censured Paul, because, whilst for-bidding circumcision,
he actually circumcised Timothy himself. Never mind(17) those who pass
sentence on apostles! It is a happy fact that Peter is on the same level
with Paul in the very glory(18) of martyrdom. Now, although Paul was
carried away even to the third heaven, and was caught up to paradise,(19)
and heard certain revelations there, yet these cannot possibly seem to have
qualified him for(teaching) another doctrine, seeing that their very nature
was such as to render them communicable to no human being.(20) If, however,
that unspeakable mystery(21) did leak out,(22) and become known to any man,
and if any heresy affirms that it does itself follow the same, (then)
either Paul must be charged with having betrayed the secret, or some other
man must actually(23) be shown to have been afterwards "caught up into
paradise," who had permission to speak out plainly what Paul was not
allowed (even) to mutter.

CHAP. XXV.--THE APOSTLES DID NOT KEEP BACK ANY OF THE DEPOSIT OF DOCTRINE
WHICH CHRIST HAD ENTRUSTED TO THEM. ST. PAUL OPENLY COMMITTED HIS
WHOLEDOCTRINE TO TIMOTHY.

   But here is, as we have said,(24) the same madness, in their allowing
indeed that the apostles were ignorant of nothing, and preached not any
(doctrines) which contradicted one another, but at the same time insisting
that they did not reveal all to all men, for that they proclaimed some
openly and to all the world, whilst they disclosed others (only) in secret
and to a few, because Paul addressed even this expression to Timothy: "O
Timothy, guard that which is entrusted to thee;"(1) and again: "That good
thing which was committed unto thee keep."(2) What is this deposit? Is it
so secret as to be supposed to characterize(3) a new doctrine? or is it a
part of that charge of which he says, "This charge I commit unto thee, son
Timothy?"(4) and also of that precept of which he says, "I charge thee in
the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ who
witnessed a good confession under Pontius Pilate, that thou keep this
commandment?"(5) Now, what is (this) commandment and what is (this) charge?
From the preceding and the succeeding contexts, it will be manifest that
there is no mysterious(6) hint darkly suggested in this expression about
(some) far-fetched(7) doctrine, but that a warning is rather given against
receiving any other (doctrine) than that which Timothy had heard from
himself, as I take it publicly: "Before many witnesess" is his phrase. (8)
Now, if they refuse to allow that the church is meant by these "many
witnesses," it matters nothing, since nothing could have been secret which
was produced "before many witnesses." Nor, again, must the circumstance of
his having wished him to "commit these things to faithful men, who should
be able to teach others also,"(9) be construed into a proof of there being
some occult gospel. For, when he says "these things," he refers to the
things of which he is writing at the moment. In reference, however, to
occult subjects, he would have called them, as being absent, those things,
not these things, to one who had a joint knowledge of them with
himself.(10)

CHAP. XXVI.--THE APOSTLES DID IN ALL CASES TEACH THE WHOLE TRUTH TO THE
WHOLE CHURCH. NO RESERVATION, NOR PARTIAL COMMUNICATION TO FAVOURITE
FRIENDS.

   Besides which, it must have followed, that, for the man to whom he
committed the ministration of the gospel, he would add the injunction that
it be not ministered in all places,(11) and without respect to persons,(12)
in accordance with the Lord's saying, "Not to cast one's pearls before
swine, nor that which is holy unto dogs."(13) Openly did the Lord
speak,(14) without any intimation of a hidden mystery. He had Himself
commanded that, "whatsoever they had heard in darkness" and in secret, they
should "declare in the light and on the house-tops."(15) He had Himself
fore-shown, by means of a parable, that they should not keep back in
secret, fruitless of interest,(16) a single pound, that is, one word of
His. He used Himself to tell them that a candle was not usually "pushed
away under a bushel, but placed on a candlestick," in order to "give light
to all who are in the house."(17)  These things the apostles either
neglected, or failed to understand, if they fulfilled them not, by
concealing any portion of the light, that is, of the word of God and the
mystery of Christ. Of no man, I am quite sure, were they afraid,--neither
of Jews nor of Gentiles in their violence;(18) with all the greater
freedom, then, would they certainly preach in the church, who held not
their tongue in synagogues and public places. Indeed they would have found
it impossible either to convert Jews or to bring in Gentiles, unless they
"set forth in order"(19) that which they would have them believe. Much
less, when churches were advanced in the faith, would they have withdrawn
from them anything for the purpose of committing it separately  to some few
others. Although, even supposing that among intimate friends,(20) so to
speak, they did hold certain discussions, yet it is incredible that these
could have been such as to bring in some other rule of faith, differing
from and contrary to that which they were proclaiming through the Catholic
churches,(21)--as if they spoke of one God in the Church, (and) another at
home, and described one substance of Christ, publicly, (and) another
secretly, and announced one hope of the resurrection before all men, (and)
another before the few; although they themselves, in their epistles,
besought men that they would all speak one and the same thing, and that
there should be no divisions and dissensions in the church,(22) seeing that
they, whether Paul or others, preached the same things. Moreover, they
remembered the words): "Let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay; for
whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil;"(1) so that they were not to
handle the gospel in a diversity of treatment.

CHAP. XXVII.--GRANTED THAT THE APOSTLES TRANSMITTED THE WHOLE DOCTRINE OF
TRUTH, MAY NOT THE CHURCHES HAVE BEEN UNFAITHFUL IN HANDING IT ON?
INCONCEIVABLE THAT THIS CAN HAVE BEEN THE CASE.

   Since, therefore, it is incredible that the apostles were either
ignorant of the whole scope of the message which they had to declare,(2) or
failed to make known to all men the entire rule of faith, let us see
whether, while the apostles proclaimed it, perhaps, simply and fully, the
churches, through their own fault, set it forth otherwise than the apostles
had done. All these suggestions of distrust(3) you may find put forward by
the heretics. They bear in mind how the churches were rebuked by the
apostle: "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?"(4) and, "Ye did run
so well; who hath hindered you?"(5) and how the epistle actually begins: "I
marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him, who hath called you as His own
in grace, to another gospel."(6) That they likewise (remember), what was
written to the Corinthians, that they "were yet carnal," who "required to
be fed with milk," being as yet "unable to bear strong meat;"(7) who also
"thought that they knew somewhat, whereas they knew not yet anything, as
they ought to know."(8) When they raise the objection that the churches
were rebuked, let them suppose that they were also corrected; let them also
remember those (churches), concerning whose faith and knowledge and
conversation the apostle "rejoices and gives thanks to God," which
nevertheless even at this day, unite with those which were rebuked in the
privileges of one and the same institution.

CHAP. XXVIII.--THE ONE TRADITION OF THE FAITH, WHICH IS SUBSTANTIALLY ALIKE
IN THE CHURCHES EVERYWHERE, A GOOD PROOF THAT THE TRANSMISSION HAS BEEN
TRUE AND HONEST IN THE MAIN.

   Grant, then, that all have erred; that the apostle was mistaken in
giving his testimony; that the Holy Ghost had no such respect to any one
(church) as to lead it into truth, although sent with this view by
Christ,(9) and for this asked of the Father that He might be the teacher of
truth;(10) grant, also, that  He, the Steward of God, the Vicar of
Christ,(11) neglected His office, permitting the churches for a time to
understand differently, (and) to believe differently, what He Himself was
preaching by the apostles,--is it likely that so many churches, and they so
great, should have gone astray into one and the same faith? No casualty
distributed among many men issues in one and the same result. Error of
doctrine in the churches must necessarily have produced various issues.
When, however, that which is deposited among many is found to be one and
the same, it is not the result of error, but of tradition. Can any one,
then, be reckless(12) enough to say that they were in error who handed on
the tradition?

CHAP. XXIX.--THE TRUTH NOT INDEBTED TO THE CARE OF THE HERETICS; IT HAD
FREE COURSE BEFORE THEY APPEARED. PRIORITY OF THE CHURCH'S DOCTRINE A MARK
OF ITS TRUTH.

   In whatever manner error came,it reigned of course(13) only as long as
there was an absence of heresies? Truth had to wait for certain Marcionites
and Valentinians to set it free. During the interval the gospel was
wrongly(14) preached; men wrongly believed; so many thousands were wrongly
baptized; so many works of faith were wrongly wrought; so many miraculous
gifts,(15) so many spiritual endowments,(16) were wrongly set in operation;
so many priestly functions, so many ministries,(17) were wrongly executed;
and, to sum up the whole, so many martyrs wrongly received their crowns!
Else, if not wrongly done, and to no purpose, how comes it to pass that the
things of God were on their course before it was known to what God they
belonged? that there were Christians before Christ was found? that there
were heresies before true doctrine? Not so; for in all cases truth precedes
its copy, the likeness succeeds the reality. Absurd enough, however, is it,
that heresy should be deemed to have preceded its own prior doctrine, even
on this account, because it is that (doctrine) itself which foretold that
there should be heresies against which men would have to guard! To a church
which possessed this doctrine, it was written--yea, the doctrine itself
writes to its own church--"Though an angel from heaven preach any other
gospel than that which we have preached, let him be accursed."(1)

CHAP. XXX.--COMPARATIVE LATENESS OF HERESIES. MARClON'S HERESY. SOME
PERSONAL FACTS ABOUT HIM. THE HERESY OF APELLES. CHARACTER OF THIS MAN;
PHILUMENE; VALENTINUS; NIGIDIUS, AND HERMOGENES.

   Where was Marcion then, that shipmaster of Pontus, the zealous student
of Stoicism? Where was Valentinus then, the disciple of Platonism? For it
is evident that those menlived not so long ago,--in the reign of Antoninus
for the most part,(2)--and that they at first were believers in the
doctrine of the Catholic Church, in the church of Rome under the episcopate
of the blessed Eleutherus,(3) until on account of their ever restless
curiosity,with which they even infected the brethren, they were more than
once expelled. Marcion, indeed, [went] with the two hundred sesterces which
which he had brought into the church, and,(4) when banished at last to a
permanent excommunication, they scattered abroad the poisons of their
doctrines. Afterwards, it is true, Marcion professed repentance, and agreed
to the conditions granted to him--that he should receive reconciliation if
he restored to the church all the others whom he had been training for
perdition: he was prevented, however, by death. It was indeed(5) necessary
that there should be heresies;(6) and yet it does not follow from that
necessity, that heresies are a good thing. As if it has not been necessary
also that there should be evil! It was even necessary that the Lord should
be betrayed; but woe to the traitor!(7) So that no man may from this defend
heresies. If we must likewise touch the descent(8) of Apelles, he is far
from being" one of the old school,"(9) like his instructor and moulder,
Marcion; he rather forsook the continence of Marcion, by resorting to the
company of a woman, and withdrew to Alexandria, out of sight of his most
abstemious(10) master. Returning therefrom, after some years, unimproved,
except that he was no longer a Marcionite, he clave(11) to another woman,
the maiden Philumene (whom we have already(12) mentioned), who herself
afterwards became an enormous prostitute. Having been imposed on by her
vigorous spirit,(13) he committed to writing the revelations which he had
learned of her. Persons are still living who remember them,--their own
actual disciples and successors,--who cannot therefore deny the lateness of
their date. But, in fact, by their own works they are convicted, even as
the Lord said.(14) For since Marcion separated the New Testament from the
Old, he is (necessarily) subsequent to that which he separated, inasmuch as
it was only in his power to separate what was (previously) united. Having
then been united previous to its separation, the fact of its subsequent
separation proves the subsequence also of the man who effected the
separation. In like manner Valentinus, by his different expositions and
acknowledged(15) emendations, makes these changes on the express ground of
previous faultiness, and therefore demonstrates the difference(16) of the
documents. These corrupters of the truth we mention as being more notorious
and more public(17) than others. There is, however, a certain man(18) named
Nigidius, and Hermogenes, and several others, who still pursue the
course(19) of perverting the ways of the Lord. Let them show me by what
authority they come! If it be some other God they preach, how comes it that
they employ the things and he writings and the names of that God against
whom they preach? If it be the same God, why treat Him in some other way?
Let them prove themselves to be new apostles!(20) Let them maintain that
Christ has come down a second time, taught in person a second time, has
been twice crucified, twice dead, twice raised! For thus has the apostle
described (the order of events in the life of Christ); for thus, too, is
He(21) accustomed to make His apostles--to give them, (that is), power
besides of working the same miracles which He worked Himself.(22) I would
therefore have their mighty deeds also brought forward; except that I allow
their mightiest deed to be that by which they perversely vie with the
apostles. For whilst they used to raise men to life from the dead, these
consign men to death from their living state.

CHAP. XXXI.--TRUTH FIRST, FALSEHOOD AFTER  WARDS, AS ITS PERVERSION.
CHRIST'S PARABLE PUTS THE SOWING OF THE GOOD SEED BEFORE THE USELESS TARES.

   Let me return, however, from this digression(1) to discuss(2) the
priority of truth, and the comparative lateness(3) of falsehood, deriving
support for my argument even from that parable which puts in the first
place the sowing by the Lord of the good seed of the wheat, but introduces
at a later stage the adulteration of the crop by its enemy the devil with
the useless weed of the wild oats. For herein is figuratively described the
difference of doctrines, since in other passages also the word of God is
likened unto seed. From the actual order, therefore, it becomes clear, that
that which was first delivered is of the Lord and is true, whilst that is
strange and false which was afterwards introduced. This sentence will keep
its ground in opposition to all later heresies,   which have no consistent
quality of kindred knowledge(4) inherent in them--to claim the truth as on
their side.

CHAP.XXXII.--NONE OF THE HERETICS CLAIM SUCCESSION FROM THE APOSTLES.  NEW
CHURCHES STILL APOSTOLIC, BECAUSE THEIR FAITH IS THAT WHICH THE APOSTLES
TAUGHT AND HANDED DOWN. THE HERETICS CHALLENGED TO SHOW ANY APOSTOLIC
CREDENTIALS.

   But if there be any (heresies) which are bold enough to plant
themselves in the midst Of the apostolic age, that they may thereby seem to
have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of
the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records(5) of their
churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due
succession from the beginning in such a manner that [that first bishop of
theirs(6)] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor
some one of the apostles or of apostolic men,--a man, moreover, who
continued stedfast with the apostles. For this is the  manner in which the
apostolic churches transmit(7) their registers:(8) as the church of Smyrna,
which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church
of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by
Peter.(9) In exactly the same way the other churches likewise exhibit
(their several worthies), whom, as having been appointed to their episcopal
places by apostles, they regard as transmitters of the apostolic seed. Let
the heretics contrive(10) something of the same kind. For after their
blasphemy, what is there that is unlawful for them (to attempt)? But should
they even effect the contrivance, they will not advance a step. For their
very doctrine, after comparison with that of the apostles, will declare, by
its own diversity and contrariety, that it had for its author neither an
apostle nor an apostolic man; because, as the apostles would never have
taught things which were self-contradictory, so the apostolic men would not
have inculcated teaching different from the apostles, unless they who
received their instruction from the apostles went and preached in a
contrary manner. To this test, therefore will they be submitted for
proof(11) by those churches, who, although they derive not their founder
from apostles or apostolic men (as being of much later date, for they are
in fact being founded daily), yet, since they agree in the same faith, they
are accounted as not less apostolic because they are akin in doctrine.(12)
Then let all the heresies, when challenged to these two(13) tests by our
apostolic church, offer their proof of how they deem themselves to be
apostolic. But in truth they neither are so, nor are they able to prove
themselves to be what they are not. Nor are they admitted to peaceful
relations and communion by such churches as are in any way connected with
apostles, inasmuch as they are in no sense themselves apostolic because of
their diversity as to the mysteries of the faith.(14)

CHAP. XXXIII.--PRESENT HERESIES (SEEDLINGS OF THE TARES NOTED BY THE SACRED
WRITERS) ALREADY CONDEMNED IN SCRIPTURE. THIS DESCENT OF LATER HERESY FROM
THE EARLIER TRACED IN SEVERAL INSTANCES.

   Besides all this, I add a review of the doctrines themselves, which,
existing as they did in the days of the apostles, were both exposed and
denounced by the said apostles. For by this method they will be more easily
reprobated,(1) when they are detected to have been even then in existence,
or at any rate to have been seedlings(2) of the (tares) which then were.
Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, sets his mark on certain who
denied and doubted the resurrection.(3) This opinion was the especial
property of the Sadducees.(4) A part of it, however, is maintained by
Marcion and Apelles and Valentinus, and all other impugners of the
resurrection. Writing also to the Galatians, he inveighs against such men
as observed and defend circumcision and the (Mosaic) law.(5) Thus runs
Hebion's heresy. Such also as "forbid to marry" he reproaches in his
instructions to Timothy.(6) Now, this is the teaching of Marcion and his
follower Apelles. (The apostle) directs a similar blow(7) against those who
said that "the resurrection was past already."(8) Such an opinion did the
Valentinians assert of themselves. When again he mentions "endless
genealogies,"(9) one also recognises Valentinus, in whose system a certain
AEon, whosoever he be,(10) of a new name, and that not one only, generates
of his own grace(11) Sense and Truth; and these in like manner produce of
themselves Word(12) and Life, while these again afterwards beget Man and
the Church. From these primary eight(13) ten other AEons after them spring,
and then the twelve others arise with their wonderful names, to complete
the mere story of the thirty AEons. The same apostle, when disapproving of
those who are "in bondage to elements,"(14) points us to some dogma of
Hermogenes, who introduces matter as having no beginning,(15) and then
compares it with God, who has no beginning.(16) By thus making the mother
of the elements a goddess, he has it in his power "to be in bondage" to a
being which he puts on a par with(17) God. John, however, in the Apocalypse
is charged to chastise those "who eat things sacrificed to idols," and "who
commit fornication."(18) There are even now another sort of Nicolaitans.
Theirs is called the Gaian(19) heresy. But in his epistle he especially
designates those as "Antichrists" who "denied that Christ was come in the
flesh,"(20) and who refused to think that Jesus was the Son of God. The one
dogma Marcion maintained; the other, Hebion.(21) The doctrine, however, of
Simon's sorcery, which inculcated the worship of angels,(22) was itself
actually reckoned amongst idolatries and condemned by the Apostle Peter in
Simon's own person.

CHAP. XXXIV.--NO EARLY CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE DIVINE CREATOR; NO SECOND
GOD INTRODUCED AT FIRST. HERESIES CONDEMNED ALIKE BY THE SENTENCE AND THE
SILENCE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.

   These are, as I suppose, the different kinds of spurious doctrines,
which (as we are informed by the apostles themselves) existed in their own
day. And yet we find amongst so many various perversions of truth, not one
school(23) which raised any controversy concerning God as the Creator of
all things. No man was bold enough to surmise a second god. More readily
was doubt felt about the Son than about the Father, until Marcion
introduced, in addition to the Creator, another god of goodness only.
Apelles made the Creator of some nondescript(24) glorious angel, who
belonged to the superior God, the god (according to him,) of the law and of
Israel, affirming that he was fire.(25) Valentinus disseminated his AEons,
and traced the sin of one AEon(26) to the production of God the Creator. To
none, forsooth, except these, nor prior to these, was revealed the truth of
the Divine Nature; and they obtained this especial honour and fuller favour
from the devil, we cannot doubt,(27) because he wished even in this respect
to rival God, that he might succeed, by the poison of his doctrines, in
doing himself what the Lord said could not be done--making "the disciples
above their Master."(28) Let the entire mass(29) of heresies choose,
therefore, for themselves the times when they should appear, provided that
the when be an unimportant point; allowing, too, that they be not of the
truth, and (as a matter of course(30)) that such as had no existence in the
time of the apostles could not possibly have had any connection with the
apostles. If indeed they had then existed, their names would be extant,(1)
with a view to their own repression likewise. Those (heresies) indeed which
did exist in the days of the apostles, are condemned in their very
mention.(2) If it be true, then, that those heresies, which in the
apostolic times were in a rude form, are now found to be the same, only in
a much more polished shape, they derive their condemnation from this very
circumstance Or if they were not the same, but arose afterwards in a
different form, and merely assumed from them certain tenets, then, by
sharing with them an agreement in their teaching,(3) they must needs
partake in their condemnation, by reason of the above-mentioned
definition,(4) of lateness of date, which meets us on the very
threshold.(5) Even if they were free from any participation in condemned
doctrine, they would stand already judged(6) on the mere ground of time,
being all the more spurious because they were not even named by the
apostles. Whence we have the firmer assurance, that these were (the
heresies) which even then,(7) were announced as about to arise.

CHAP. XXXV.--LET HERETICS MAINTAIN THEIR CLAIMS BY A DEFINITE AND
INTELLIGIBLE  EVIDENCE.THIS THE ONLY METHOD OF SOLVING THEIR QUESTIONS.
CATHOLICS APPEAL ALWAYS TO EVIDENCE TRACEABLE TO APOSTOLIC SOURCES.

   Challenged and refuted by us, according to these definitions, let all
the heresies boldly on their part also advance similar rules to these
against our doctrine, whether they be later than the apostles or
contemporary with the apostles, provided they be different from them;
provided also they were, by either a general or a specific censure,
precondemned by them. For since they deny the truth of (our doctrine), they
ought to prove that it also is heresy, refutable by the same rule as that
by which they are themselves refuted; and at the same time to show us where
we must seek the truth, which it is by this time evident has no existence
amongst them. Our system(8) is not behind any in date; on the contrary, it
is earlier than all; and this fact will be the evidence of that truth which
everywhere occupies the first place. The apostles, again, nowhere condemn
it; they rather defend it,--a fact which will show that it comes from
themselves.(9) For that doctrine which they refrain from condemning, when
they have condemned every strange opinion, they show to be their own, and
on that ground too they defend it.

CHAP. XXXVI.--THE APOSTOLIC CHURCHES THE VOICE OF THE APOSTLES, LET THE
HERETICS EXAMINE THEIR APOSTOLIC CLAIMS, IN EACH CASE, INDISPUTABLE. THE
CHURCH OF ROME DOUBLY APOSTOLIC; ITS EARLY EMINENCE AND EXCELLENCE. HERESY,
AS PERVERTING THE TRUTH, IS CONNECTED THEREWITH.

   Come now, you who would indulge a better curiosity, if you would apply
it to the business of your salvation, run over the apostolic churches, in
which the very thrones (10) of the apostles are still pre-eminent in their
places,(11) in which their own authentic writings(12) are read, uttering
the voice and representing the face of each of them severally. Achaia is
very near you, (in which) you find Corinth. Since you are not far from
Macedonia, you have Philippi; (and there too) you have the Thessalonians.
Since you are able to cross to Asia, you get Ephesus. Since, moreover, you
are close upon Italy,(13) you have Rome, from which there comes even into
our own hands the very authority (of apostles themselves).(14) How happy is
its church, on which apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with
their blood! where Peter endures a passion like his Lord's! where Paul wins
his crown in a death like John's(15) where the Apostle John was first
plunged, unhurt, into boiling oil, and thence remitted to his island-exile!
See what she has learned, what taught, what fellowship has had with even
(our) churches in Africa!(16) One Lord God does she acknowledge, the
Creator of the universe, and Christ Jesus (born) of the Virgin Mary, the
Son of God the Creator; and the Resurrection of the flesh; the law and the
prophets she unites(17) in one volume with the writings of evangelists and
apostles, from which she drinks in her faith. This she seals with the water
(of baptism), arrays with the Holy Ghost, feeds with the Eucharist, cheers
with martyrdom,(1) and against such a discipline thus (maintained) she
admits no gainsayer. This is the discipline which I no longer say foretold
that heresies should come, but from(2) which they proceeded. However, they
were not of her, because they were opposed to her.(3) Even the rough wild-
olive arises from the germ(4) of the fruitful, rich, and genuine(5) olive;
also from the seed(6) of the mellowest and sweetest fig there springs the
empty and useless wild-fig. In the same way heresies, too, come from our
plant,(7) although not of our kind; (they come) from the grain of truth,(8)
but, owing to their falsehood, they have only wild leaves to show.(9)

CHAP. XXXVII.--HERETICS NOT BEING CHRISTIANS, BUT RATHER PERVERTERS OF
CHRIST'S TEACHING, MAY NOT CLAIM THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES. THESE ARE A
DEPOSIT, COMMITTED TO AND CAREFULLY KEPT BY THE CHURCH.

   Since this is the case, in order that the truth may be adjudged to
belong to us, "as many as walk according to the rule," which the church has
handed down from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, and Christ from
God, the reason of our position is clear, when it determines that heretics
ought not to be allowed to challenge an appeal to the Scriptures, since we,
without the Scriptures, prove that they have nothing to do with the
Scriptures. For as they are heretics, they cannot be true Christians,
because it is not from Christ that they get that which they pursue of their
own mere choice, and from the pursuit incur and admit the name of
heretics.(10) Thus, not being Christians, they have acquired(11) no right
to the Christian Scriptures; and it may be very fairly said to them, "Who
are you? When and whence did you come? As you are none of mine, what have
you to do with that which is mine? Indeed, Marcion, by what right do you
hew my wood? By whose permission, Valentinus, are you diverting the streams
of my fountain? By what power, Apelles, are you removing my landmarks? This
is my property. Why are you, the rest, sowing and feeding here at your own
pleasure? This (I say) is my property. I have long possessed it; I
possessed it before you. I hold sure title-deeds from the original owners
themselves, to whom the estate belonged. I am the heir of the apostles.
Just as they carefully prepared their will and testament, and committed it
to a trust, and adjured (the trustees to be faithful to their charge),(12)
even so do I hold it. As for you, they have, it is certain, always held you
as disinherited, and rejected you as strangers--as enemies. But on what
ground are heretics strangers and enemies to the apostles, if it be not
from the difference of their teaching, which each individual of his own
mere will has either advanced or received in opposition to the apostles?"

CHAP.XXXVIII.--HARMONY OF THE CHURCH AND THE SCRIPTURES.HERETICS HAVE
TAMPERED WITH THE SCRIPTURES, AND MUTILATED, AND ALTERED THEM. CATHOLICS
NEVER CHANGE THE SCRIPTURES, WHICH ALWAYS TESTIFY FOR THEM.

   Where diversity of doctrine is found, there, then, must the corruption
both of the Scriptures and the expositions thereof be regarded as existing.
On those whose purpose it was to teach differently, lay the necessity of
differently arranging the instruments of doctrine.(13) They could not
possibly have effected their diversity of teaching in any other way than by
having a difference in the means whereby they taught. As in their case,
corruption in doctrine could not possibly have succeeded without a
corruption also of its instruments, so to ourselves also integrity of
doctrine could not have accrued, without integrity in those means by which
doctrine is managed. Now, what is there in our Scriptures which is contrary
to us?(14) What of our own have we introduced, that we should have to take
it away again, or else add to it, or alter it, in order to restore to its
natural soundness anything which is contrary to it, and contained in the
Scriptures?(15) What we are ourselves, that also the Scriptures are (and
have been) from the beginning.(16) Of them we have our being, before there
was any other way, before they were interpolated by you. Now, inasmuch as
all interpolation must be believed to be a later process, for the express
reason that it proceeds from rivalry which is never in any case previous to
nor home-born(1) with that which it emulates, it is as incredible to every
man of sense that we should seem to have introduced any corrupt text into
the Scriptures, existing, as we have been, from the very first, and being
the first, as it is that they have not in fact introduced it who are both
later in date and opposed (to the Scriptures). One man perverts the
Scriptures with his hand, another their meaning by his exposition. For
although Valentinus seems to use the entire volume,(2) he has none the less
laid violent hands on the truth only with a more cunning mind and skill(3)
than Marcion. Marcion expressly and openly used the knife, not the pen,
since he made such an excision of the Scriptures as suited his own subject-
matter.(4) Valentinus, however, abstained from such excision, because he
did not invent Scriptures to square with his own subject-matter, but
adapted his matter to the Scriptures; and yet he took away more, and added
more, by removing the proper meaning of every particular word, and adding
fantastic arrangements of things which have no real existence.(5)

CHAP. XXXIX.--WHAT ST. PAUL CALLS SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESSES DISPLAYED BY PAGAN
AUTHORS, AND BY HERETICS, IN NO DISSIMILAR MANNER. HOLY SCRIPTURE
ESPECIALLY LIABLE TO HERETICAL MANIPULATION. AFFORDS MATERIAL FOR HERESIES,
JUST AS VIRGIL HAS BEEN THE GROUNDWORK OF LITERARY PLAGIARISMS, DIFFERENT
IN PURPORT FROM THE ORIGINAL.

   These were the ingenious arts of "spiritual wickednesses,"(6) wherewith
we also, my brethren, may fairly expect to have "to  wrestle," as necessary
for faith, that the elect  may be made manifest,(and) that the reprobate
may be discovered. And therefore they possess influence, and a facility in
thinking out and fabricating(7) errors, which ought not to be wondered at
as if it were a difficult and inexplicable process, seeing that in profane
writings also an example comes ready to hand of a similar facility. You see
in our own day, composed out of Virgil,(8) a story of a wholly different
character, the subject-matter being arranged according to the verse, and
the verse according to the subject-matter. In short,(9) Hosidius Geta has
most completely pilfered his tragedy of Medea from Virgil. A near relative
of my own, among some leisure productions(10) of his pen, has composed out
of the same poet The Table of Cebes. On the same principle, those
poetasters are commonly called Homerocentones, "collectors of Homeric odds
and ends," who stitch into one piece, patchwork fashion, works of their own
from the lines of Homer, out of many scraps put together from this passage
and from that (in miscellaneous confusion). Now, unquestionably, the Divine
Scriptures are more fruitful in resources of all kinds for this sort of
facility. Nor do I risk contradiction in saying(11) that the very
Scriptures were even arranged by the will of God in such a manner as to
furnish materials for heretics, inasmuch as I read that "there must be
heresies,(12) which there cannot be without the Scriptures.

CHAP. XL.--NO DIFFERENCE IN THE SPIRIT OF IDOLATRY AND OF HERESY. IN THE
RITES OF IDOLATRY, SATAN IMITATED AND DISTORTED THE DIVINE INSTITUTIONS OF
THE OLDER SCRIPTURES. THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES CORRUPTED BY HIM IN THE
PERVERSIONS OF THE VARIOUS HERETICS.

   The question will arise, By whom is to be interpreted(13) the sense of
the passages which make for heresies? By the devil, of course, to whom
pertain those wiles which pervert the truth, and who, by the mystic rites
of his idols, vies even with the essential portions(14) of the sacraments
of God.(15) He, too, baptizes some--that is, his own believers and faithful
followers;(17) he promises the putting away(17) of sins by a layer (of his
own); and if my memory still serves me, Mithra there, (in the kingdom of
Satan,) sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers; celebrates also
the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of a resurrection, and
before a sword wreathes a crown.(1) What also must we say to (Satan's)
limiting his chief priest(2) to a single marriage? He, too, has his
virgins; he, too, has his proficients in continence.(3) Suppose now we
revolve in our minds the superstitions of Numa Pompilius, and consider his
priestly offices and badges and privileges, his sacrificial services, too,
and the instruments and vessels of the sacrifices themselves, and the
curious rites of his expiations and vows: is it not clear to us that the
devil imitated the well-known(4) moroseness of the Jewish law? Since,
therefore he has Shown such emulation in his great aim of expressing, in
the concerns of his idolatry, those very things of which consists the
administration of Christ's sacraments, it follows, of course, that the same
being, possessing still the same genius, both set his heart upon,(5) and
succeeded in, adapting(6) to his profane and rival creed the very documents
of divine things and of the Christian saints(7)--his interpretation from
their interpretations, his words from their words, his parables from their
parables. For this reason, then, no one ought to doubt, either that
"spiritual wickednesses," from which also heresies come, have been
introduced by the devil, or that there is any real difference between
heresies and idolatry, seeing that they appertain both to the same author
and the same work that idolatry does. They either pretend that there is
another god in opposition to the Creator, or, even if they acknowledge that
the Creator is the one only God, they treat of Him as a different being
from what He is in truth. The consequence is, that every lie which they
speak of God is in a certain sense a sort of idolatry

CHAP. XLI.--THE CONDUCT OF HERETICS: ITS FRIVOLITY, WORLDLINESS, AND
IRREGULARITY. THE NOTORIOUS WANTONNESS OF THEIR WOMEN.

   I must not omit an account of the conduct(8) also of the heretics--how
frivolous it is, how worldly, how merely human, without seriousness,
without authority, without discipline, as suits their creed. To begin with,
it is doubtful who is a catechumen, and who a believer; they have all
access alike, they hear alike, they pray alike--even heathens, if any such
happen to come among them. "That which is holy they will cast to the dogs,
and their pearls," although (to be sure) they are not real ones, "they will
fling to the swine." (9) Simplicity they will have to consist in the
overthrow of discipline, attention to which on our part they call
brothelry.(10) Peace also they huddle up(11) anyhow with all comers; for it
matters not to them, however different be their treatment of subjects,
provided only they can conspire together to storm the citadel of the one
only Truth. All are puffed up, all offer you knowledge. Their catechumens
are perfect before they are full-taught.(12) The very women of these
heretics, how wanton they are! For they are bold enough to teach, to
dispute, to enact exorcisms, to undertake(13) cures--it may be even to
baptize.(14) Their ordinations, are carelessly. administered,(15)
capricious, changeable.(16) At one time they put novices in office; at
another time, men who are bound to some secular employment;(17) at another,
persons who have apostatized from us, to bind them by vainglory, since they
cannot by the truth. Nowhere is promotion easier than in the camp of
rebels, where the mere fact of being there is a foremost service.(18) And
so it comes to pass that to-day one man is their bishop, to-morrow another;
to-day he is a deacon who to-morrow is a reader; to-day he is a presbyter
who tomorrow is a layman. For even on laymen do they impose the functions
of priesthood.

CHAP. XLII.--HERETICS WORK TO PULL DOWN AND TO DESTROY, NOT TO EDIFY AND
ELEVATE. HERETICS DO NOT ADHERE EVEN TO THEIR OWN TRADITIONS, BUT HARBOUR
DISSENT EVEN FROM THEIR OWN FOUNDERS.

   But what shall I say concerning the ministry of the word, since they
make it their business not to convert the heathen, but to subvert our
people? This is rather the glory which they catch at, to compass the fall
of those who stand, not the raising of those who are down. Accordingly,
since the very work which they purpose to themselves comes not from the
building up of their own society, but from the demolition of the truth,
they undermine our edifices, that they may erect their own. Only deprive
them of the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the divinity of the
Creator, and they have not another objection to talk about. The consequence
is, that they more easily accomplish the ruin of standing houses than the
erection of fallen ruins. It is only when they have such objects in view
that they show themselves humble and bland and respectful. Otherwise they
know no respect even for their own leaders. Hence it is [supposed] that
schisms seldom happen among heretics, because, even when they exist, they
are not obvious.(1) Their very unity, however,(2) is schism. I am greatly
in error if they do not amongst themselves swerve even from their own
regulations, forasmuch as every man, just as it suits his own temper,
modifies the traditions he has received after the same fashion as the man
who handed them down did, when he moulded them according to his own will.
The progress of the matter is an acknowledgment at once of its character
and of the manner of its birth. That was allowable to the Valentinians
which had been allowed to Valentinus; that was also fair for the
Marcionites which had been done by Marcion--even to innovate on the faith,
as was agreeable to their own pleasure. In short, all heresies, when
throughly looked into, are detected harbouring dissent in many particulars
even from their own founders. The majority of them have not even
churches.(3) Motherless, houseless, creedless, outcasts, they wander about
in their own essential worthlessness.(4)

CHAP. XLIII.--LOOSE COMPANY PREFERRED BY HERETICS. UNGODLINESS THE EFFECT
OF THEIR TEACHING THE VERY OPPOSITE OF CATHOLIC TRUTH, WHICH PROMOTES THE
FEAR OF GOD, BOTH IN RELIGIOUS ORDINANCES AND PRACTICAL LIFE.

   It has also been a subject of remark, how extremely frequent is the
intercourse which heretics hold with magicians, with mountebanks, with
astrologers, with philosophers; and the reason is,(5) that they are men who
devote themselves to curious questions. "Seek, and ye shall find," is
everywhere in their minds. Thus, from the very nature of their conduct, may
be estimated the quality of their faith. In their discipline we have an
index of their doctrine. They say that God is not to be feared; therefore
all things are in their view free and unchecked. Where, however is God not
feared, except where He is not? Where God is not, there truth also is not.
Where there is no truth, then, naturally enough, there is also such a
discipline as theirs. But where God is, there exists "the fear of God,
which is the beginning of wisdom."(6) Where the fear of God is, there is
seriousness, an honourable and yet thoughtful(7) diligence, as well as an
anxious carefulness and a well-considered admission (to the sacred
ministry)(8) and a safely-guarded(9) communion, and promotion after good
service, and a scrupulous submission (to authority), and a devout
attendance,(10) and a modest gait, and a united church, and God in all
things.

CHAP. XLIV.--HERESY LOWERS RESPECT FOR CHRIST, AND DESTROYS ALL FEAR OF HIS
GREAT JUDGMENT. THE TENDENCY OF HERETICAL TEACHING ON THIS SOLEMN ARTICLE
OF THE FAITH. THE PRESENT TREATISE AN INTRODUCTION TO CERTAIN OTHER ANTI-
HERETICAL WORKS OF OUR AUTHOR.

   These evidences, then, of a stricter discipline existing among us, are
an additional proof of truth, from which no man can safely turn aside, who
bears in mind that future judgment, when "we must all stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ,(11) to render an account of our faith itself
before all things. What, then, will they say who shall have defiled it,
even the virgin which Christ committed to them with the adultery of
heretics? I suppose they will allege that no injunction was ever addressed
to them by Him or by His apostles concerning depraved(12) and perverse
doctrines assailing them,(13) or about their avoiding and abhorring the
same. (He and His apostles, perhaps,) will acknowledge(14) that the blame
rather lies with themselves and their disciples, in not having given us
previous warning and instruction! They(15) will, besides, add a good deal
respecting the high authority of each doctor of heresy,--how that these
mightily strengthened belief in their own doctrine; how that they raised
the dead, restored the sick, foretold the future, that so they might
deservedly be regarded as apostles. As if this caution were not also in the
written record: that many should come who were to work even the greatest
miracles, in defence of the deceit of their corrupt preaching. So,
forsooth, they will deserve to be forgiven! If, however, any, being mindful
of the writings and the denunciations of the Lord and the apostles, shall
have stood firm in the integrity of the faith, I suppose they will run
great risk of missing pardon, when the Lord answers: I plainly forewarned
you that there should be teachers of false doctrine in my name, as well as
that of the prophets and apostles also; and to my own disciples did I give
a charge, that they should preach the same things to you. But as for you,
it was not, of course, to be supposed(1) that you would believe me! I once
gave the gospel and the doctrine of the said rule (of life and faith) to my
apostles; but afterwards it was my pleasure to make considerable changes in
it! I had promised a resurrection, even of the flesh; but, on second
thoughts, it struck me(2) that I might not be able to keep my promise! I
had shown myself to have been born of a virgin; but this seemed to me
afterwards to be a discreditable thing.(3) I had said that He was my
Father, who is the Maker of the sun and the showers; but another and better
father has adopted me! I had forbidden you to lend an ear to heretics; but
in this I erred! Such (blasphemies), it is possible,(4) do enter the minds
of those who go out of the right path,(5) and who do not defend(6) the true
faith from the danger which besets it. On the present occasion, indeed, our
treatise has rather taken up a general position against heresies, (showing
that they must) all be refuted on definite, equitable, and necessary rules,
without(7) any comparison with the Scriptures. For the rest, if God in His
grace permit, we shall prepare answers to certain of these heresies in
separate treatises.(8) To those who may devote their leisure in reading
through these (pages), in the belief of the truth, be peace, and the grace
of our God Jesus Christ for ever.(9)


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 3, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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