Chapter XXX.—Comparative Lateness of Heresies. Marcion’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 men lived not so long ago,—in the reign of Antoninus for the most part,306    Fere.—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,307    [Kaye, p. 226.] 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 he had brought into the church, and,308    See adv. Marcion, iv. 4. infra. 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 indeed309    Enim, profecto (Oehler). necessary that there should be heresies;310    1 Cor. xi. 19. 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!311    Mark. xiv. 21. So that no man may from this defend heresies. If we must likewise touch the descent312    Stemma. The reading of the Cod. Agobard. is “stigma,” which gives very good sense. of Apelles, he is far from being “one of the old school,”313    Vetus. 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 abstemious314    Sanctissimi. This may be an ironical allusion to Marcion’s repudiation of marriage. master. Returning therefrom, after some years, unimproved, except that he was no longer a Marcionite, he clave315    Impegit. to another woman, the maiden Philumene (whom we have already316    In chap. vi. p. 246 above. mentioned), who herself afterwards became an enormous prostitute. Having been imposed on by her vigorous spirit,317    Energemate. Oehler defines this word, “vis et efficacia dæmonum, quibus agebatur.” [But see Lardner, Credib. viii. p. 540.] 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.318    Matt. vii. 16. 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 acknowledged319    Sine dubio. emendations, makes these changes on the express ground of previous faultiness, and therefore demonstrates the difference320    Alterius fuisse. One reading is anterius; i.e., “demonstrates the priority” of the book he alters. of the documents. These corrupters of the truth we mention as being more notorious and more public321    Frequentiores. than others. There is, however, a certain man322    Nescio qui. named Nigidius, and Hermogenes, and several others, who still pursue the course323    Ambulant. 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 the 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!324    Compare de Carne Christi, chap. ii. [Elucidation IV.] 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 He325    Christ; so Routh. accustomed to make His apostles—to give them, (that is), power besides of working the same miracles which He worked Himself.326    We add Oehler’s reading of this obscure passage: “Sic enim apostolus descripsit, sic enim apostolos solet facere, dare præterea illis virtutem eadem signa edendi quæ 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.”] 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.

CAPUT XXX.

Marcionem enim et Valentinum, in catholicam primo doctrinam apud Ecclesiam romanensem sub episcopatu Eleutheri credidisse; donec ob inquietam curiositatem 0042Asemel et iterum ejecti, novissime in perpetuum dissidium relegati, venena doctrinarum suarum disseminarunt. Atque idem de aliis judicium, qui virtutibus et miraculis novos se apostolos esse probare nequeunt.

Ubi tunc Marcion, ponticus nauclerus, stoicae studiosus? Ubi Valentinus platonicae sectator? Nam constat illos, neque adeo olim fuisse, Antonini fere principatu, et in catholicae primo doctrinam credidisse apud Ecclesiam romanensem, sub episcopatu Eleutherii benedicti , donec ob inquietam semper eorum curiositatem, qua fratres quoque vitabant semel et iterum ejecti , Marcion quidem cum ducentis sestertiis quae Ecclesiae intulerat, novissime in perpetuum discidium relegati 0042B , venena doctrinarum suarum disseminaverunt. Postmodum idem Marcion, poenitentiam confessus cum conditioni datae sibi occurrit , ita pacem recepturus, si caeteros quos perditioni erudisset, Ecclesiae restitueret, morte praeventus est. Oportebat enim haereses esse (I Cor., II, 19). Nec tamen ideo bonum haereses, quia eas oportebat, quasi non et malum oportuerit esse. Nam et Dominum tradi oportebat; sed vae traditori (Marc., XIV, 21)? ne quis etiam hinc haereses defendat . Si et Apellis stemma retractandum est, tam non vetus et ipse quam Marcion institutor et praeformator ejus: sed lapsus in foeminam desertor continentiae 0043A marcionensis, ab oculis sanctissimi magistri Alexandriam secessit; inde post annos regressus non melior, nisi tantum qua jam non marcionites, in alteram foeminam impegit, illam virginem Philumenen, quam supra edidimus, postea vero immane prostibulum et ipsam, cujus energemate circumventus, quas ab ea didicit phaneroseis scripsit. Adhuc in saeculo supersunt qui meminerint eorum, etiam proprii discentes et successores ipsorum, ne se posteriores negare possint. Quanquam et de operibus suis, ut dixit Dominus, revincuntur (Matth., VII, 16). Si enim Marcion Novum Testamentum a Vetere separavit, posterior est eo quod separavit; quia separare non posset, nisi quod unitum fuit. Unitum ergo ante quam separaretur, postea separatum, posteriorem 0043B ostendit separatorem. Item Valentinus, aliter exponens, et sine dubio emendans, hoc omnino quicquid emendat, ut mendosum retro, anterius fuisse demonstrat . Hos ut insigniores et frequentiores adulteros veritatis nominamus. Caeterum et Nigidius nescio quis , et Hermogenes, et multi alii qui adhuc ambulant pervertentes vias Dei , ostendant mihi ex qua auctoritate prodierunt. Si alium Deum praedicant, quomodo ejus Dei rebus et litteris et nominibus utuntur adversus quem praedicant? si eumdem, quomodo aliter? Probent se novos apostolos esse: dicant Christum iterum descendisse, iterum ipsum docuisse, iterum crucifixum, iterum mortuum, iterum resuscitatum: sic enim Apostolos solet 0043C facere , dare illis praeterea virtutem eadem signa edendi, quae et ipse. Volo igitur et virtutes eorum proferri; nisi quod agnosco maximam virtutem eorum, qua Apostolos in perversum aemulantur: illi enim de mortuis vivos faciebant , isti de vivis mortuos faciunt.