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

I will now collect from different sources, by way of conclusion, what they affirm concerning the dispensation256    De dispositione. of the whole human race. Having at first stated their views as to man’s threefold nature—which was, however, united in one257    Inunitam. in the case of Adam—they then proceed after him to divide it (into three) with their especial characteristics, finding opportunity for such distinction in the posterity of Adam himself, in which occurs a threefold division as to moral differences. Cain and Abel, and Seth, who were in a certain sense the sources of the human race, become the fountain-heads of just as many qualities258    Argumenta. of nature and essential character.259    Essentiæ. The material nature,260    Choicum: “the clayey.”  Having the doubtful issues, which arise from freedom of the will (Oehler). which had become reprobate for salvation, they assign to Cain; the animal nature, which was poised between divergent hopes, they find261    Recondunt: or, “discover.” in Abel; the spiritual, preordained for certain salvation, they store up262    Recondunt: or, “discover.” in Seth. In this way also they make a twofold distinction among souls, as to their property of good and evil—according to the material condition derived from Cain, or the animal from Abel. Men’s spiritual state they derive over and above the other conditions,263    Superducunt. from Seth adventitiously,264    De obvenientia. not in the way of nature, but of grace,265    Indulgentiam. in such wise that Achamoth infuses it266    The “quos” here relates to “spiritalem statum,” but expressing the sense rather than the grammatical propriety, refers to the plural idea of “good souls” (Oehler). among superior beings like rain267    Depluat. into good souls, that is, those who are enrolled in the animal class. Whereas the material class—in other words, those which are bad souls—they say, never receive the blessings of salvation;268    Salutaria. for that nature they have pronounced to be incapable of any change or reform in its natural condition.269    We have tried to retain the emphatic repetition, “inreformabilem naturæ naturam.” This grain, then, of spiritual seed is modest and very small when cast from her hand, but under her instruction270    Eruditu hujus. increases and advances into full conviction, as we have already said;271    Above, in ch. xxv. p. 515. and the souls, on this very account, so much excelled all others, that the Demiurge, even then in his ignorance, held them in great esteem. For it was from their list that he had been accustomed to select men for kings and for priests; and these even now, if they have once attained to a full and complete knowledge of these foolish conceits of theirs,272    Istarum næniarum. since they are already naturalized in the fraternal bond of the spiritual state, will obtain a sure salvation, nay, one which is on all accounts their due.

CAPUT XXIX.

Colligam nunc ex disperso, ad concludendum, quae de totius generis humani dispositione disserant. Triformem naturam primordio professi, et tamen inunitatem in Adam inde jam dividunt per singulares generum proprietates, nacti occasionem distinctionis hujusmodi ex posteritate ipsius Adae, moralibus quoque differentiis tripartitae. Cain, Abel, et Seth, fontes quodammodo generis humani, in totidem derivant argumenta, naturae atque essentiae. Choicum, 0583B saluti degeneratum, ad Cain redigunt: Animale, mediae spei deliberatum , ad Abel componunt: Spiritale, certae saluti praejudicatum, in Seth recondunt, Sic et animas ipsas duplici proprietate discernunt, 0584A bonas et malas: secundum choicum statum ex Cain, et animalem ex Abel , spiritalem ex Seth. De obvenientia superducunt jam non naturam, sed indulgentiam, ut quos Achamoth in superioribus in animas bonas depluat, id est animali censui inscriptas. Choicum enim genus, id est malas animas nunquam capere salutaria. Immutabilem enim et irreformabilem naturam pronuntiaverunt. Id ergo granum seminis spiritalis modicum et parvulum jactu, sed eruditu hujus fides augetur atque provehitur, ceu supra diximus: animaeque hoc ipso ita caeteris praevertunt, ut Demiurgus tunc ignorans magni eas fecerit. Ex earum ergo laterculo, et in reges, et in sacerdotes allegere consueverat: quae nunc quoque si plenam atque perfectam 0584B notitiam apprehenderint istarum naeniarum , naturificatae jam spiritalis conditionis germanitate, certam obtinebunt salutem, imo omnimodo debitam .