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| The Heresy Traceable to Valentinus, an Able But Restless Man. Many Schismatical Leaders of the School Mentioned. Only One of Them Shows Respect to the Man Whose Name Designates the Entire School. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter IV.—The Heresy
Traceable to Valentinus, an Able But Restless Man. Many Schismatical
Leaders of the School Mentioned. Only One of Them Shows Respect to the
Man Whose Name Designates the Entire School.
We know, I say, most fully their actual origin,
and we are quite aware why we call them Valentinians, although they
affect to disavow their name. They have departed, it is
true,6657 from their founder, yet is their origin by
no means destroyed; and even if it chance to be changed, the very
change bears testimony to the fact. Valentinus had expected to become a
bishop, because he was an able man both in genius and eloquence. Being
indignant, however, that another obtained the dignity by reason of a
claim which confessorship6658 had given him, he
broke with the church of the true faith. Just like those (restless)
spirits which, when roused by ambition, are usually inflamed with the
desire of revenge, he applied himself with all his might6659 to exterminate the truth; and finding the
clue6660 of a certain old opinion, he marked out a
path for himself with the subtlety of a serpent. Ptolemæus
afterwards entered on the same path, by distinguishing the names and
the numbers of the Ænons into personal substances, which, however,
he kept apart from God. Valentinus had included these in the very
essence of the Deity, as senses and affections of motion. Sundry
bypaths were then struck off therefrom, by Heraclean and Secundus and
the magician Marcus. Theotimus worked hard about “the images of
the law.” Valentinus, however, was as yet nowhere, and still the
Valentinians derive their name from Valentinus. Axionicus at Antioch is
the only man who at the present time does honour6661 to the memory of Valentinus, by keeping his
rules6662
6662 Regularum: the
particulars of his system. [Here comes in the word, borrowed from
heresy, which shaped Monasticism in after times and created the
regular orders.] | to the full. But this heresy is permitted to
fashion itself into as many various shapes as a courtezan, who usually
changes and adjusts her dress every day. And why not? When they
review that spiritual seed of theirs in every man after this fashion,
whenever they have hit upon any novelty, they forthwith call their
presumption a revelation, their own perverse ingenuity a spiritual
gift; but (they deny all) unity, admitting only
diversity.6663
6663 Nec unitatem, sed
diversitatem: scil. appellant. | And thus we clearly
see that, setting aside their customary dissimulation, most of them are
in a divided state, being ready to say (and that sincerely) of certain
points of their belief, “This is not so;” and, “I
take this in a different sense;” and, “I do not admit
that.” By this variety, indeed, innovation is stamped on the very
face of their rules; besides which, it wears all the colourable
features of ignorant conceits.6664
6664 Colores
ignorantiarum. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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