Against the Valentinians.

 Chapter I.—Introductory. Tertullian Compares the Heresy to the Old Eleusinian Mysteries.  Both Systems Alike in Preferring Concealment of Error and Si

 Chapter II.—These Heretics Brand the Christians as Simple Persons.  The Charge Accepted, and Simplicity Eulogized Out of the Scriptures.

 Chapter III.—The Folly of This Heresy. It Dissects and Mutilates the Deity. Contrasted with the Simple Wisdom of True Religion. To Expose the Absurdit

 Chapter IV.—The Heresy Traceable to Valentinus, an Able But Restless Man. Many Schismatical Leaders of the School Mentioned. Only One of Them Shows Re

 Chapter V.—Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted the Heresy.  These the Author Makes His Own Guides.

 Chapter VI.—Although Writing in Latin He Proposes to Retain the Greek Names of the Valentinian Emanations of Deity.  Not to Discuss the Heresy But Onl

 Chapter VII.—The First Eight Emanations, or Æons, Called the Ogdoad, are the Fountain of All the Others. Their Names and Descent Recorded.

 Chapter VIII.—The Names and Descent of Other Æons First Half a Score, Then Two More, and Ultimately a Dozen Besides. These Thirty Constitute the Pler

 Chapter IX.—Other Capricious Features in the System. The Æons Unequal in Attributes. The Superiority of Nus The Vagaries of Sophia Restrained by Horo

 Chapter X.—Another Account of the Strange Aberrations of Sophia, and the Restraining Services of Horus.  Sophia Was Not Herself, After All, Ejected fr

 Chapter XI.—The Profane Account Given of the Origin of Christ and the Holy Ghost Sternly Rebuked. An Absurdity Respecting the Attainment of the Knowle

 Chapter XII.—The Strange Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the Members Thereof. Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous

 Chapter XIII.—First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated.  Transition to the Other Part, Which is Like

 Chapter XIV.—The Adventures of Achamoth Outside the Pleroma. The Mission of Christ in Pursuit of Her. Her Longing for Christ. Horos’ Hostility to Her.

 Chapter XV.—Strange Account of the Origin of Matter, from the Various Affections of Achamoth.  The Waters from Her Tears Light from Her Smile.

 Chapter XVI.—Achamoth Purified from All Impurities of Her Passion by the Paraclete, Acting Through Soter, Who Out of the Above-Mentioned Impurities Ar

 Chapter XVII.—Achamoth in Love with the Angels. A Protest Against the Lascivious Features of Valentinianism. Achamoth Becomes the Mother of Three Natu

 Chapter XVIII.—Blasphemous Opinion Concerning the Origin of the Demiurge, Supposed to Be the Creator of the Universe.

 Chapter XIX.—Palpable Absurdities and Contradictions in the System Respecting Achamoth and the Demiurge.

 Chapter XX—The Demiurge Works Away at Creation, as the Drudge of His Mother Achamoth, in Ignorance All the While of the Nature of His Occupation.

 Chapter XXI.—The Vanity as Well as Ignorance of the Demiurge. Absurd Results from So Imperfect a Condition.

 Chapter XXII.—Origin of the Devil, in the Criminal Excess of the Sorrow of Achamoth. The Devil, Called Also Munditenens, Actually Wiser Than the Demiu

 Chapter XXIII.—The Relative Positions of the Pleroma. The Region of Achamoth, and the Creation of the Demiurge. The Addition of Fire to the Various El

 Chapter XXIV.—The Formation of Man by the Demiurge. Human Flesh Not Made of the Ground, But of a Nondescript Philosophic Substance.

 Chapter XXV.—An Extravagant Way of Accounting for the Communication of the Spiritual Nature to Man. It Was Furtively Managed by Achamoth, Through the

 Chapter XXVI.—The Three Several Natures—The Material, the Animal, and the Spiritual, and Their Several Destinations.  The Strange Valentinian Opinion

 Chapter XXVII.—The Christ of the Demiurge, Sent into the World by the Virgin. Not of Her. He Found in Her, Not a Mother, But Only a Passage or Channel

 Chapter XXVIII.—The Demiurge Cured of His Ignorance by the Saviour’s Advent, from Whom He Hears of the Great Future in Store for Himself.

 Chapter XXIX.—The Three Natures Again Adverted to. They are All Exemplified Amongst Men. For Instance, by Cain, and Abel, and Seth.

 Chapter XXX.—The Lax and Dangerous Views of This Sect Respecting Good Works. That These are Unnecessary to the Spiritual Man.

 Chapter XXXI.—At the Last Day Great Changes Take Place Amongst the Æons as Well as Among Men. How Achamoth and the Demiurge are Affected Then. Irony o

 Chapter XXXII.—Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of the Doct

 Chapter XXXIII.—These Remaining Chapters an Appendix to the Main Work. In This Chapter Tertullian Notices a Difference Among Sundry Followers of Ptole

 Chapter XXXIV.—Other Varying Opinions Among the Valentinians Respecting the Deity, Characteristic Raillery.

 Chapter XXXV.—Yet More Discrepancies. Just Now the Sex of Bythus Was an Object of Dispute Now His Rank Comes in Question.  Absurd Substitutes for Byt

 Chapter XXXVI.—Less Reprehensible Theories in the Heresy.  Bad is the Best of Valentinianism.

 Chapter XXXVII.—Other Turgid and Ridiculous Theories About the Origin of the Æons and Creation, Stated and Condemned.

 Chapter XXXVIII.—Diversity in the Opinions of Secundus, as Compared with the General Doctrine of Valentinus.

 Chapter XXXIX.—Their Diversity of Sentiment Affects the Very Central Doctrine of Christianity, Even the Person and Character of the Lord Jesus. This D

Chapter XV.—Strange Account of the Origin of Matter, from the Various Affections of Achamoth.  The Waters from Her Tears; Light from Her Smile.

Well, now, the Pythagoreans may learn, the Stoics may know, Plato himself (may discover), whence Matter, which they will have to be unborn, derived both its origin and substance for all this pile of the world—(a mystery) which not even the renowned166    Ille. Mercurius Trismegistus, master (as he was) of all physical philosophy, thought out.167    Recogitavit. You have just heard of “Conversion,” one element in the “Passion” (we have so often mentioned). Out of this the whole life of the world,168    “Omnis anima hujus mundi” may, however, mean “every living soul.”  So Bp. Kaye, On Tertullian, p. 487. and even that of the Demiurge himself, our God, is said to have had its being. Again, you have heard of “sorrow” and “fear.” From these all other created things169    Cetera. took their beginning. For from her170    Achamoth’s. tears flowed the entire mass of waters.  From this circumstance one may form an idea of the calamity171    Exitum. which she encountered, so vast were the kinds of the tears wherewith she overflowed. She had salt tear-drops, she had bitter, and sweet, and warm, and cold, and bituminous, and ferruginous, and sulphurous, and even172    Utique. poisonous, so that the Nonacris exuded therefrom which killed Alexander; and the river of the Lyncestæ173    These two rivers, with their peculiar qualities, are mentioned by Pliny, H. N. ii. 103; [and the latter by Milton against Salmasius.] flowed from the same source, which produces drunkenness; and the Salmacis174    Ovid. Metam. iv. 286. was derived from the same source, which renders men effeminate. The rains of heaven Achamoth whimpered forth,175    Pipiavit. and we on our part are anxiously employed in saving up in our cisterns the very wails and tears of another. In like manner, from the “consternation” and “alarm” (of which we have also heard), bodily elements were derived. And yet amidst so many circumstances of solitude, in this vast prospect of destitution, she occasionally smiled at the recollection of the sight of Christ, and from this smile of joy light flashed forth.  How great was this beneficence of Providence, which induced her to smile, and all that we might not linger for ever in the dark! Nor need you feel astonished how176    Qui. from her joy so splendid an element177    As light. could have beamed upon the world, when from her sadness even so necessary a provision178    Instrumentum: water is meant. flowed forth for man. O illuminating smile! O irrigating tear! And yet it might now have acted as some alleviation amidst the horror of her situation; for she might have shaken off all the obscurity thereof as often as she had a mind to smile, even not to be obliged to turn suppliant to those who had deserted her.179    Christ and the Holy Spirit. Oehler.

CAPUT XV.

0567A

Age nunc discant Pythagorici, agnoscant Stoici, Plato ipse, unde materia , quam innatam volunt, et originem, et substantiam traxerit in omnem hanc struem mundi, quod nec Mercurius ille Trismegistus magister omnium Physicorum recogitavit. Audisti Conversionem, genus aliud Passionis; ex hac omnis anima hujus mundi dicitur constitisse, etiam ipsius Demiurgi, id est Dei nostri. Audisti moerorem et timorem; ex his initiata sunt caetera. Nam ex lacrymis 0568A ejus universa aquarum natura manavit. Hic aestimandum, quem exitum duxerit, quantis lacrymarum generibus inundarit. Habuit et falsas, habuit et amaras, et dulces, et calidas, et frigidas guttas, et bituminosas, et ferruginantes, et sulphurantes, utique et venenatas, ut et Nonacris inde sudaverit quae Alexandrum occidit, et Lyncestarum inde defluxerit quae ebrios efficit, et Salmacis inde se solverit quae masculos molles . Coelestes imbres pipiavit Achamoth (e): et nos in cisternis etiam alienos luctus et 0569A lacrymas servare curamus. Proinde ex consternatione et pavore corporalia elementa ducta sunt. Et tamen in tanta circumstantia solitudinis, in tanto circumsepto destitutionis, ridebat interim, qua conspecti Christi recordans, eo de gaudio risus lumen effulsit. Cujus hoc providentiae beneficium, quale illam ridere cogebat, idcirco ne semper nos in tenebris moraremur? Nec obstupescas, qui laetitia ejus tam splendidum elementum radiaverit mundo, cum moestitia quoque ejus tam necessarium instrumentum defluxerit saeculo? O risum illuminatorem! o fletum rigatorem! Et tamen poterat remedio jam agere cum illius loci horrore. Omnem enim obscuritatem ejus discussisset, quoties ridere voluisset, vel ne cogeretur desertores suos applicare .