" Impegit.
'2 In chap. vi. p. 246 above.
'3 Energemate. Oehler defines this word, " vis et efHcacia dae- monum, quibus agebatur." [But see Lardner, Credit, viii. p. 540.]
>5 Sine dubio.
'*Alterius fuisse. One reading is anterius; i.e., "demon- strates x^ae: priority " of the book he alters.
'7 Frequentiores.
'8 Nescio qui.
'9 Ambulant.
» Compare de Carne Ckristi, chap. ii. [Elucidation IV.]
21 Christ; so Routh.
-2 We add Oehler's reading of this obscure passage: " Sic enim apostolus descripsit, sic enim apostolos solet facere, dare praeterea illis virtutcm eadem signa edendi quae et ipse." [" It is worthy of remark " (says Kaye, p. 95), " that he does not appeal to any instance of the exercise of miraculous powers in his own day."]
ON PRESCRIPTION AGAINST HERETICS.
[chap, xxxiil mightiest deed to be that by which they pervei-sely vie with the apostles. For whilst they used to raise men to life from the dead, these i consign men to death from their living state.
CHAP. XXXI. — TRUTH FIRST, FALSEHOOD AFTER- WARDS, AS ITS PERVERSION. CHRIST'S PAR- ABLE PUTS THE SOWING OF THE GOOD SEED BEFORE THE USELESS TARES.
Let me return, however, from this digres- sion * to discuss = the priority of truth, and the comparative lateness ^ of falsehood, deriving support for my argument even from that para- ble 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 use- less weed of the wild oats. For herein is figu- ratively 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 after- wards introduced. This sentence will keep its ground in opposition to all later heresies, which have no consistent quality of kindred / knowledge* 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 CHAL- LENGED TO SHOW ANY APOSTOLIC CREDEN- TIALS.
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 apos- tles, 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*] 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 ' Ab excessu.
^DisputandaiQ. Another reading has tieputandatn,\.c, "to attribute."
sPosteritatem.
4 Nulla constantia de conscientia, " no conscientious ground of confidence " (Dodgson).
5 Origines, " the originals " (Dodgson).
* Ille. A touch of irony occurs in the phrase " primus ille episcopus."
transmit' their registers:^ 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.' In ex- actly the same way the other churches like- wise 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" 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 com- parison with that of the apostles, will declare, by its own diversity and contrariety, that it had for its author neither an apostle nor an apos- tolic man; because, as the apostles would never have taught things which were self-contradic- tory, so the apostolic men would not have in- culcated 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" 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." Then let all the heresies, when challenged to these two '^ 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 ^heir diversity as to the mysteries of the faith. "* CHAP. XXXIII. PRESENT HERESIES (SEEDLINGS OF THE TARES NOTED BY THE SACRED WRIT- ERS) 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 doc- trines themselves, which, existing as the)'^ did 7 Deferunt.
8 Pastes.
9 [Linus and Cletus must have died, or been martyred, there- fore, almost as soon as appointed. Our author had seen these registers, no doubt.]
i9Confingant.
«• Probabuntur. Another reading x& provocabuntur, " will be challenged." [Not to one particular See, but to all the Apostolic churches: Quod uhique.^ " Pro consanguinitate doctrinae.
13 That is, the succession of bishops from the apostles, and the identity of doctrine with the apostolic.
'4 Sacramenti.
CHAP. XXXIV.]
ON PRESCRIPTION AGAINST HERETICS.
in the days of the apostles, were both exposed and denounced by the said apostles. For by this method they will be more easily reproba- ted, ' when they are detected to have been even then in existence, or at any rate to have been seedlings'' 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. ^ This opinion was the especial property of the Sadducees.* jA 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.^ Thus runs Hebion's heresy. Such also as " forbid to marry " he reproaches in his instructions to Timothy.* Now, this is the teaching of Marcion and his follower Apelles. (The apostle) directs a simi- lar blow' against those who said that "the resurrection was past already."^ Such an opinion did the Valentinians assert of them- selves. When again he mentions " endless genealogies," 9 one also recognises Valenti- nus, in whose system a certain ^on, whoso- ever he be,'° of a new name, and that not one only, generates of his own grace " Sense and Truth; and these in like manner produce of themselves Word '- and Life, while these again afterwards beget Man and the Church. From these primary eight '^ ten other yEons after them spring, and then the twelve others arise with their wonderful names, to complete the mere story of the thirty ^ons. The same apostle, when disapproving of those who are " in bondage to elements,""' points us to some dogma of Hermogenes, who introduces matter as having no beginning, 's and then compares it with God, who has no beginning.'* 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 '^ God. John, however, in the Apocalypse is charged to chastise those "who eat things sacrificed to idols," and "who commit fornication."'^ There are even now another sort of Nicolaitans.
' Traducentur. _ - Semina sumpsisse.
4 Comp. Tertull. de Resur, Carnis, xxxvi.
7 jEque tangit.
»o Nescio qui. " Charite.
'= Serraonera.
'3 De qua prima ogdoade. [See Irenaeus, Vol. I. p. 316, etc this Series.^ '5 Non natani, literally, " as being unbegotten." *5 Deo non nato. '7 Comparat.
Theirs is called the Gaian '' heresy. But in his epistle he especially designates those as "Antichrists" who "denied that Christ was come in the flesh, "^ and who refused to think that Jesus was the Son of God. The one dogma Marcion maintained; the other, He- bion.=' The doctrine, however, of Simon's sorcery, which inculcated the worship of an- gels,=- was itself actually reckoned amongst idolatries and condemned by the Apostle Peter in Simon's own person.
CHAP. XXXIV. NO EARLY CONTROVERSY RE- SPECTING THE DIVINE creator; NO SECOND GOD INTRODUCED AT FIRST. HERESIES CON- DEMNED 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 in- formed by the apostles themselves) existed in their own day. And yet we find amongst so many various perversions of truth, not one school^3 which raised any controversy concern- ing 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 in- troduced, in addition to the Creator, another god of goodness only. Apelles made the Creator of some nondescript^'* glorious angel, who belonged to the superior God, the god (according to him,) of the law and of Israel, affirming that he was fire.^^ Valentinus dis- seminated his vEons, and traced the sin of one ^on^ 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,^ 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." ^^ Let the entire mass'' of heresies choose, therefore, for themselves the times when they should appear, provided that the 7vhen be an unimportant point; allowing, too, that they be not of the truth, and (as a matter of course ^°) that such as had no exist- »9 Gaiana. So Oehler; the coramon reading being " Caiana."
22 Referred to perhaps in Col. ii. 18.
23 Institutionem.
24 Nescio quern.
25 Igneum, " consisted of fire."
26 "The ectroma, or fall of Sophia from the Pleroma, from whom the Creator was fabled to be descended " (Dodgson).
27 Scilicet.
29 UnirerssE. 3° Utique.
ON rRESCRlPTION AGAINST HERETICS.
[chap. XXXVI, ence 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,' with a view to their own repression likewise. Those (here- sies) indeed which did exist in the days of the apostles, are condemned in their very men- tion.* 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 after- wards in a different form, and merely assumed from them certain tenets, then, by sharing with them an agreement in their teaching,^ they must needs partake in their condemna- tion, by reason of the above-mentioned defi- nition,* of lateness of date, which meets us on the very threshold. ^ Even if they were free from any participation in condemned doctrine, they would stand already judged * on the mere ground of time, being all the more spu- rious because they were not even named by the apostles. Whence we have the firmer as- surance, that these were (the heresies) which even then,' 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 AP- PEAL 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, re- futable 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 exist- ence amongst them. Our system * is not be- hind 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 con- ' Noniinarentur et ipsx.
^Nominatione, i.e. by the apostles.
3 Prxdicationis.
♦ Fine.
5 PrsEcedente.
7 i.e., in the days of the apostles, and by their mouth.
<Res.
demn it; they rather defend it, — a fact whicli will show that it comes from themselves.' For that doctrine which they refrain from con- demning, 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 ''' of the apostles are still pre-eminent in their places," in which their own authentic writings " 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,'^ you have Rome, from which there comes even into our own hands the very authority (of apostles them- selves).'* How happy is its church, on which apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their blood! where Peter endures a pas- sion like his Lord's! where Paul wins his crown in a death like John's! '5 where the Apostle John was first plungod, 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! '* 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 '^ 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 9 Indicium proprietatis, a proof of its being their own.
lo Cathedra:.
" Suis locis praesident.
" Authenticse. This much disputed phrase may refer to the autographs or the Greek originals (rather than the Latin trans- lations), or full unmutilated copies as opposed to the garbled ones of the heretics. The second sense is probably the correct one.
'3 [Note, those near by may resort to this ancient and glorious church; not as any better than Corinth, or Philippi, or having any higher Apostolic throne. See Irenaeus, Vol. I. p. 41$, (note) and Elucid. p. 460.]
'SThe Baptist's.
»6 [Observe— " even with us in Africa." If this implies note- worthy love, it proves that there was no organic relation requir- ing such particular fellowship, even in the West.]
'7 Miscet.
CHAP. XXXVIII.] ON PRESCRIPTION AGAINST IIHRETICS.
Ghost, feeds with the Eucharist, cheers with martyrdom,' and against such a discipHne thus (maintained) she admits no gainsayer. This is the discipHne which I no longer say foretold that heresies should come, but from'' which they proceeded. However, they were not of her, because they were opposed to her.^ Even the rough wild-olive arises from the germ * of the fruitful, rich, and genuine ^ olive; also from the seed * 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,® but, owing to their falsehood, they have only wild leaves to show. 9 CHAP. XXXVII. HERETICS NOT BEING CHRIS- TIANS, BUT RATHER PERVERTERS OF CHRIST'S TEACHING, MAY NOT CLAIM THE CHklSTIAN SCRIPTURES. THESE ARE A DEPOSIT, COM- MITTED 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 al- lowed 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.'" Thus, not being Christians, they have acquired " no right to the Christian Scriptures; and it maybe 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 'We have taken Oehler's hint in favour of " martyrio.'' The usual reading " martyrium " (meaning "she exhorts to martyr- dom ") is stiff, and unsuited to the context.
^De.
3 Or, " they were not of it, because they were opposed to ii," i.e., the discipline or teaching.
4 Nucleo.
5 Necessariae.
6 Papavere, " Ego cum ^\\s f>apax'er ficus interpreter de semi- oalibus ficus, non de ipso fructu " (Oehler).
7 Frutice.
8 We again follow Oehler's hint, who would like to read " de grano veritatis." The texts are obscure, and vary much here.
9 Silvestres.
'o " That is, in following out their own choice (aipe<7t«) of opinions, they both receive and admit the name of heretics" aiperiKoi., "self-choosers" (Dodgson). [In Theoiogy, techni- cally, one must be a baptized Christian in order to be a heretic, fhe Mohammedans, e. g., are not kereticshvX pagans. But, our author speaks rhetorically.]
" C<ipiuDt.
" C<ipiuDt.
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 them- selves, to whom the estate belonged. I am the heir of the apostles. Just as they care- fully prepared their will and testament, and committed it to a trust, and adjured (the trustees to be faithful to their charge),"' 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 ene- mies to the apostles, if it be not from the difference of their teaching,which each individ- ual 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 MU- TILATED, 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 re- garded as existing. On those whose purpose it was to teach differently, lay the necessity of differently arranging the instruments of doctrine. '3 They could not possibly have ef- fected their diversity of teaching in any other way than by having a difference in the means whereby they taught. As in their case, cor- ruption in doctrine could not possibly have succeeded without a corruption also of its in- struments, so to ourselves also integrity of doctrine could not have accrued, without in- tegrity in those means by which doctrine is managed. Now, what is there in our Scrip- tures which is contrary to us? '* 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? '= What we are ourselves, that also the Scriptures are, (and have been) from the beginning.'* Or '2 Compare i Tim. v. 21, and vi. 13; 2 Tim. ii. 14, and iv. 1-4.
«3 By the instrumenta doctrinie he here means the writings of the New Testament.
'4[0ur author insists on the precise agreement of Catholic Tra- dition with Holy Scripture. See valuable remarks on Schleier- macher, in Kaye, pp. 279-284.]
'5 We add the original of this sentence, which is obscured by its terseness: " Quid de proprio rntulimus, ut aliquid contrarium ei et in Scripturis deprehensum detractione vel adjectione vel trans- mutatione reraediaremus?"
'6 That is, teaching the same faith and conversation (De U Cerda).
a&i ON PRESCRIPTION AGAINST HERETICS.
[chap. XL.
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 ' 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 Scrip- tures with his hand, another their meaning by his exposition. For although Valentinus seems to use the entire volume,^ he has none the less laid violent hands on the truth only with a more cunning mind and skill ^ 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.* Valentinus, however, ab- stained 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. s CHAP. XXXIX. — WHAT ST. PAUL CALLS SPIRIT- UAL WICKEDNESSES DISPLAYED BY PAGAN AUTHORS, AND BY HERETICS, IN NO DIS- SIMILAR MANNER, HOLY SCRIPTURE ES- PECIALLY LIABLE TO HERETICAL MANIPULA- TION. AFFORDS MATERIAL FOR HERESIES, JUST AS VIRGIL HAS BEEN THE GROUND- WORK OF LITERARY PLAGIARISMS, DIFFERENT IN PURPORT FROM THE ORIGINAL.
These were the ingenious arts of " spiritual wickednesses,"^ 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 repro- bate may be discovered. And therefore they possess influence, and a facility in thinking out and fabricating ^ errors, which ought not to be wondered at as if it were a difficult and inexplicable process, seeing that in profane I Domestica. i'lntep'o instrumento.
4 That is, cutting out whatever did not fall in with it (Dodg- fon).
SNon comparentium rerum. [Note, he says above " of /Af»«, the Scriptures, we. Catholics, Aave our being." Prctscription does not undervalue Scripture as the food and life of the Church, but supplies a short and decisive method with innovaters.]
*See Eph. vi. 12, and i Cor. xi. 18.
7 Instruendis.
writings also an example comes ready to hand of a similar facility. You see in our own day, composed out of Virgil,^ 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,' Hosidius Geta has most completely pilfered his tragedy of Medea from Virgil. A near relative of my own, among some leisure pro- ductions '° 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, patch- work fashion, works of their own from the lines of Homer, out of many scraps put to- gether from this passage and from that (in miscellaneous confusion). Now, unquestion- ably, the Divine Scriptures are more fruitful in resources of all kinds for this sort of facility. Nor do I risk contradiction in saying " 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," " which there can- not be without the Scriptures.
CHAP. XL, NO DIFFERENCE IN THE SPIRIT OF IDOLATRY AND OF HERESY. IN THE RITES OF IDOLATRY, SATAN IMITATED AND DIS- TORTED THE DIVINE INSTITUTIONS OF THE OLDER SCRIPTURES. THE CHRISTIAN SCRIP- TURES CORRUPTED BY HIM IN THE PERVER- SIONS OF THE VARIOUS HERETICS.
The question will arise, By whom is to be interpreted '^ 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 "* of the sacraments of God.'s He, too, baptizes some — that is, his own believers and faithful fol- lowers;^7 he promises the putting away '^ of sins by a iaver (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 resurrecsOehler reads ex Vergilio, although the Codex Agobard. has ex Virgilio.
9 Denique. [" Getica lyra."]
10 Otis.
11 Nee periclitor dicere. [Truly, a TertuUianic paradox; but compare 2 Pet. iii. 16. n.b. Scripture the test of heresy.]
'3 " Interpretur " is here a passive verb.
'5 Sacraraentorum divinorum. The form, however, of this phrase seems to point not only to the specific sacraments of the gospel, but to the general mysteries of our religion.
>D Compare Tertullian's treatises, de Bapt. v. and de Corona., last chapter.
'7 Expositionera.
CHAP. XLIl.]
ON PRESCRIPTION AGAINST HERETICS.