Tertullian: de Praescriptione Haereticorum

[1] Condicio praesentium temporum etiam hanc admonitionem prouocat nostram non oportere nos mirari super haereses istas, siue quia sunt, futurae enim praenuntiabantur, siue quia fidem quorumdam subuertunt, ad hoc enim sunt ut fides habendo temptationem haberet etiam probationem.

[1] The condition of the present times also provokes this our admonition: that we ought not to marvel at these heresies, whether because they exist—for they were preannounced as about to be—or because they subvert the faith of some; for to this end they are, that faith, by having temptation, might have also probation.

[2] Vane ergo et inconsiderate plerique hoc ipso scandalizantur quod tantum haereses ualeant. Quantum si non ualerent, non fuissent.

[2] Vainly therefore and inconsiderately most are scandalized by this very fact, that heresies prevail so much. Inasmuch as, if they had not had strength, they would not have been.

[3] Cum quod sortitum est, ut omnimodo sit, sicut caussam accipit ob quam sit, sic uim consequitur per quam sit, nec esse non possit.

[3] Since what has been allotted, that it be in every way, just as it receives the cause on account of which it is, so it obtains the force by which it is, nor can it not be.

II.

[1] Febrem denique inter ceteros mortiferos et cruciarios exitus erogando homini deputatam neque quia est miramur, est enim, neque quia erogat hominem, ad hoc enim est.

[1] Finally, we reckon fever, among the other mortiferous and cruciatory ends, as deputed to man by being disbursed; nor do we marvel either because it is—for it is—or because it expends a man, for to this end it is.

[2] Proinde haereses ad languorem et interitum fidei productas si expauescimus hoc posse, prius est ut expauescamus hoc eas esse quae dum sunt, habent posse et dum possunt, habent esse.

[2] Accordingly, if we are terrified that heresies, produced toward the languor and destruction of faith, can do this, it is first that we be terrified that they are such: that, while they are, they have ability, and while they have ability, they have being.

[3] Sed enim febrem, ut malum et de causa et de potentia sua, ut notum est, abominamur potius quam miramur et quantum in nobis est praecauemus, non habentes abolitionem eius in nostra potestate.

[3] But indeed a fever, as an evil both from its cause and from its own potency, as is known, we abominate rather than marvel at, and, as far as is in us, we take precautions, not having its abolition in our power.

[4] Haereses uero mortem aeternam et maioris ignis ardorem inferentes malunt quidam mirari quod hoc possint, quam deuitare ne possint, cum habeant deuitandi potestatem.

[4] And indeed heresies, bringing eternal death and the ardor of a greater fire, some prefer to marvel that they can do this, rather than to avoid them so that they cannot, since they have the power of avoiding.

[5] Ceterum nihil ualebunt, si illas tantum ualere non mirentur. Aut enim dum mirantur in scandalum subministrantur, aut quia scandalizantur, ideo mirantur quasi quod tantum ualeant ex aliqua ueniat ueritate.

[5] Moreover, they will avail nothing, if people do not marvel that they avail so greatly. For either, while they marvel, they are furnished for scandal; or, because they are scandalized, for that reason they marvel, as if the fact that they avail so greatly came from some truth.

[6] Mirum scilicet ut malum uires suas habeat, nisi quod haereses apud eos multum ualeant qui in fide non ualent.

[6] A marvel, to be sure, that evil should have its own powers, except that heresies prevail greatly among those who do not prevail in the faith.

[7] In pugna pugilum et gladiatorum plerumque non quia fortis est uincit quis aut quia non potest uinci, sed quoniam ille qui uictus est nullis uiribus fuit : adeo idem ille uictor bene ualenti postea comparatus, etiam superatus recedit.

[7] In the combat of pugilists and gladiators, for the most part one does not conquer because he is strong or because he cannot be conquered, but because the one who was defeated was of no strength: to such a degree that the same man, the victor, afterward when matched with one who is in good condition, even withdraws overcome.

[8] Non aliter haereses de quorumdam infirmitatibus habent quod ualent, nihil ualentes, si in bene ualentem fidem incurrant.

[8] Not otherwise do heresies have what strength they have from the infirmities of certain persons, being of no strength if they run up against a well-strengthened faith.

III.

[1] Solent quidem isti miriones etiam de quibusdam personis ab haeresi captis aedificari in ruinam,

[1] Those marvel-lovers are indeed wont even to be edified into ruin by certain persons captured by heresy,

[2] quare illa uel ille fidelissimi prudentissimi et usitatissimi in ecclesia in illam partem transierunt?

[2] why, then, did that woman or that man, most faithful, most prudent, and most customary in the church, cross over into that party?

[3] Quis hoc dicens non ipse sibi respondet neque prudentes neque fideles neque usitatos aestimandos quos haereses potuerint demutare? Et hoc mirum, opinor, ut probatus aliqui retro postea excidat?

[3] Who, saying this, does not answer himself that those whom heresies have been able to change are not to be esteemed prudent, faithful, or well-tried? And is this a wonder, I suppose, that someone approved should afterward fall away backward?

[4] Saul, bonus prae caeteris, liuore postea euertitur. Dauid uir bonus secundum cor Domini, postea caedis et stupri reus est. Solomon omni gratia et sapientia donatus a Domino, ad idololatriam a mulieribus inducitur.

[4] Saul, good beyond the rest, is afterwards overturned by envy. David, a good man according to the heart of the Lord, is afterwards guilty of murder and adultery. Solomon, endowed by the Lord with every grace and wisdom, is induced to idolatry by women.

[5] Soli enim Dei filio seruabatur sine delicto permanere. Quid ergo si episcopus, si diaconus, si uidua, si uirgo, si doctor, si etiam martyr lapsus a regula fuerit? Ideo haereses ueritatem uidebuntur obtinere?

[5] For it was reserved for the Son of God alone to remain without sin. What then if a bishop, if a deacon, if a widow, if a virgin, if a doctor, if even a martyr should have lapsed from the rule? Will heresies therefore seem to obtain the truth?

[6] Ex personis probamus fidem, an ex fide personas? Nemo est sapiens nisi fidelis, nemo maior nisi christianus, nemo autem christianus nisi qui ad finem usque perseuerauerit.

[6] Do we prove faith from persons, or persons from faith? No one is wise unless faithful, no one greater unless a christian, but no one a christian unless he who has persevered all the way to the end.

[7] Tu, ut homo, extrinsecus unumquemque nosti, putas quod uides, uides autem quousque oculos habes. Sed oculi, inquit, Domini alti. Homo in faciem, Deus in praecordia contemplatur.

[7] You, as a human, know each individual extrinsically; you suppose what you see, and you see only as far as you have eyes. But “the eyes,” he says, “of the Lord are high.” Man looks on the face; God contemplates the precordia (the inmost heart).

[8] Et ideo cognoscit Dominus qui sunt eius, et plantam quam non plantauit eradicat, et de primis nouissimos ostendit et uentilabrum in manu portat ad purgandam aream suam.

[8] And therefore the Lord knows those who are his, and he eradicates the plant which he did not plant, and from the first he shows the very last, and he carries the winnowing-fan in his hand for purging his threshing-floor.

[9] Auolent quantum uolent paleae leuis fidei quocumque afflatu temptationum, eo purior massa frumenti in horrea Domini reponetur.

[9] Let the chaff of light faith fly away as much as they will with whatever afflatus of temptations; by so much the purer will the mass of grain be deposited in the Lord’s granaries.

[10] Nonne ab ipso Domino quidam discentium scandalizati deuerterunt? Nec tamen propterea ceteri quoque discedendum a uestigiis eius putauerunt, sed qui scierunt illum uitae esse uerbum et a Deo uenisse, perseuerauerunt in comitatu eius usque ad finem, cum illis, si uellent et ipsi discedere placide obtulisset.

[10] Did not certain of the learners, scandalized, turn aside from the Lord himself? Nor, however, on that account did the rest think that they too should depart from his footsteps; but those who knew that he was the Word of life and had come from God persevered in his company unto the end, when he had placidly offered to them that, if they wished, they too might depart.

[11] Minus est et si apostolum eius aliqui, Phygellus et Hermogenes et Philetus, et Hymenaeus reliquerunt; ipse traditor Christi de Apostolis fuit.

[11] It is a lesser matter even if some left his apostle—Phygellus and Hermogenes and Philetus and Hymenaeus; the traitor of Christ himself was from among the Apostles.

[12] Miramur de ecclesiis eius si a quibusdam deseruntur cum ea nos ostendunt christianos quae patimur ad exemplum ipsius Christi?

[12] Do we marvel about his churches if they are deserted by some, since the things which we suffer, after the example of Christ himself, show us to be Christians?

[13] Ex nobis, inquit, prodierunt sed non fuerunt ex nobis; si fuissent ex nobis, permansissent utique nobiscum. IV.

[13] They went out from us, he says, but they were not of us; if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us. 4.

[1] Quin potius memores simus tam dominicarum pronuntiationum quam apostolicarum litterarum, quae nobis et futuras haereses praenuntiarunt et fugiendas praefinierunt et, sicut esse illas non expauescimus, ita et posse id propter quod effugiendae sunt, non miremur.

[1] Nay rather, let us be mindful both of the dominical pronouncements and of the apostolic letters, which for us both pre-announced future heresies and predetermined that they be fled; and, just as we do not quake at their existence, so too let us not marvel that they can accomplish that on account of which they must be shunned.

[2] Instruit Dominus multos esse uenturos sub pellibus ouium rapaces lupos.

[2] The Lord instructs that many rapacious wolves will come under the skins of sheep.

[3] Quaenam istae sunt pelles ouium nisi nominis christiani extrinsecus superficies? Qui lupi rapaces nisi sensus et spiritus subdoli, ad infestandum gregem Christi intrinsecus delitescentes?

[3] What indeed are those sheep-skins if not the external superficies of the Christian name? What rapacious wolves if not subdolous senses and spirit, delitescing within for infesting the flock of Christ?

[4] Qui pseudoprophetae sunt nisi falsi praedicatores? Qui pseudoapostoli, nisi adulteri euangelizatores? Qui antichristi, interim et semper, nisi Christi rebelles?

[4] Who are the pseudo-prophets if not false preachers? Who are the pseudo-apostles if not adulterous evangelizers? Who are the antichrists, for the time being and always, if not rebels against Christ?

[5] Hoc erunt haereses, non minus nouarum doctrinarum peruersitate ecclesiam lacessentes, quam tunc antichristus persecutionum atrocitate persequetur nisi quod persecutio et martyras facit, haeresis apostatas tantum.

[5] These will be the heresies, assailing the church no less by the perversity of new doctrines than the Antichrist will then persecute by the atrocity of persecutions, except that persecution makes martyrs as well, whereas heresy makes only apostates.

[6] Et ideo haereses quoque oportebat esse, ut probabiles quique manifestarentur, tam qui in persecutionibus steterint quam qui ad haereses non exorbitauerint.

[6] And therefore heresies also had to exist, so that those approved might be made manifest, both those who have stood fast in persecutions and those who have not deviated into heresies.

[7] Neque enim eos probabiles intelligi iubet qui in haeresim fidem demutant, sicut ex diuerso sibi interpretantur quia dixit alibi: omnia examinate, quod bonum est tenete. Quasi non liceat omnibus male examinatis in electionem alicuius mali impingere per errorem. V.

[7] For he does not bid those to be understood as approved who change their faith into heresy, as contrariwise they interpret for themselves because he said elsewhere: examine all things, hold fast what is good. As though it were not allowed, when all things have been badly examined, to strike into the choice of some evil through error. 5.

[1] Porro si dissensiones et schismata increpat quae sine dubio mala sunt, et in continenti haereses subiungit,

[1] Furthermore, if he reproaches dissensions and schisms, which without doubt are evils, and immediately subjoins heresies,

[2] quod malis adiungat, malum utique profitetur et quidem maius cum ideo credidisse se dicat de schismatibus et dissensionibus quia sciret etiam haereses oportere esse.

[2] in that he joins them to evils, he assuredly professes it to be an evil, and indeed a greater one, since he says that for this reason he believed concerning schisms and dissensions, because he knew that heresies also must needs exist.

[3] Ostendit enim grauioris mali conspectu de leuioribus se facile credidisse; certe non ut ideo de malis crediderit quia haereses bonae essent, sed uti de peioris quoque notae temptationibus praemoneret non esse mirandum quas diceret tendere ad probabiles quosque manifestandos, scilicet quos non potuerit deprauare.

[3] For he shows that, at the sight of a more grievous evil, he had easily believed about the lighter ones; certainly not as though he had therefore believed about evils because heresies were good, but rather so that he might forewarn that even in temptations of a worse stamp it is not to be wondered at—those which he said tend toward manifesting each of the approved—namely, those whom it could not deprave.

[4] Denique si totum capitulum ad unitatem continendam et separationes coercendas sapit, haereses uero non minus ab unitate diuellunt quam schismata et dissensiones. Sine dubio et haereses in ea condicione reprehensionis constituit in qua et schismata et dissensiones.

[4] Finally, if the whole chapter has regard to maintaining unity and coercing separations, heresies indeed tear no less from unity than schisms and dissensions. Without doubt it likewise sets heresies in the same condition of reprehension in which are schisms and dissensions.

[5] Et per hoc non eos probabiles facit qui in haereses diuerterint, cum maxime diuerti ab eiusmodi obiurget edocens unum omnes loqui et ipsum sapere, quod etiam haereses non sinunt. VI.

[5] And through this he does not make approved those who have turned aside into heresies, since he most especially rebukes being turned aside from such things, teaching that all speak one thing and be of the same mind, which even heresies do not allow. 6.

[1] Nec diutius de isto si idem est Paulus qui et alibi haereses inter carnalia crimina enumerat scribens ad Galatas et qui Tito suggerit hominem haereticum post primam correptionem recusandum quod peruersus sit eiusmodi et delinquat ut a semetipso damnatus.

[1] Nor any longer about this, if he is that same Paul who elsewhere enumerates heresies among carnal crimes, writing to the Galatians, and who suggests to Titus that a heretical man, after the first correction, is to be refused, because such a one is perverse and is delinquent, as being self-condemned.

[2] Sed et in omni paene epistula de adulterinis doctrinis fugiendis inculcans haereses taxat quarum opera sunt adulterae doctrinae : haereses dictae graeca uoce ex interpretatione electionis qua quis maxime siue ad instituendas siue ad suscipiendas eas utitur.

[2] But also in almost every epistle, inculcating that adulterine doctrines are to be fled, he censures heresies, by whose agency there are adulterine doctrines : heresies are so called by a Greek word, from the interpretation “choice,” which is what one especially uses either for instituting them or for adopting them.

[3] Ideo et sibi damnatum dixit haereticum quia et in quo damnatur sibi elegit. Nobis uero nihil ex nostro arbitrio inducere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis de arbitrio suo induxerit.

[3] Therefore he also said that the heretic is condemned by himself, because he even elected for himself that in which he is condemned. But for us it is not permitted to introduce anything from our own arbitrium, nor to elect what someone has introduced from his own arbitrium.

[4] Apostolos Domini habemus auctores qui nec ipsi quicquam ex suo arbitrio quod inducerent, elegerunt, sed acceptam a Christo disciplinam fideliter nationibus adsignauerunt.

[4] We have the Apostles of the Lord as authors, who not even they themselves elected anything from their own arbitrament to introduce, but the discipline received from Christ they faithfully assigned to the nations.

[5] Itaque etiamsi angelus de caelis aliter euangelizaret, anathema diceretur a nobis.

[5] And so, even if an angel from the heavens should evangelize otherwise, he would be called anathema by us.

[6] Prouiderat iam tunc Spiritus sanctus futurum in uirgine quadam Philumene angelum seductionis transfigurantem se in angelum lucis, cuius signis et praestigiis Apelles inductus nouam haeresin induxit. VII.

[6] The Holy Spirit had already then foreseen that there would be, in a certain virgin Philumene, an angel of seduction transfiguring himself into an angel of light, by whose signs and prestidigitations Apelles, being induced, introduced a new heresy. 7.

[1] Hae sunt doctrinae hominum et daemoniorum prurientibus auribus natae de ingenio sapientiae saecularis quam Dominus stultitiam uocans stulta mundi in confusionem etiam philosophiae ipsius elegit.

[1] These are doctrines of men and of demons, born for itching ears, from the ingenuity of secular wisdom, which the Lord, calling it folly, chose the foolish things of the world to confound even philosophy itself.

[2] Ea est enim materia sapientiae saecularis, temeraria interpres diuinae naturae et dispositionis.

[2] For this is the matter of secular wisdom, a rash interpreter of the divine nature and disposition.

[3] Ipsae denique haereses a philosophia subornantur. Inde aeones et formae nescio quae infinitae et trinitas hominis apud Valentinum: Platonicus fuerat. Inde Marcionis deus, melior de tranquillitate: a Stoicis uenerat.

[3] The heresies themselves, in fine, are suborned by philosophy. Thence the aeons and some I-know-not-what infinite forms and the trinity of man with Valentinus: he had been a Platonist. Thence Marcion’s god, better on account of tranquillity: he had come from the Stoics.

[4] Et ut anima interire dicatur : Epicurus obseruatur; et ut carnis restitutio negetur, de una omnium philosophorum schola sumitur; et ubi materia cum Deo aequatur, Zenonis disciplina est; et ubi aliquid de igneo deo adlegatur, Heraclitus interuenit.

[4] And that the soul be said to perish : Epicurus is observed; and that the restitution of the flesh be denied, it is taken from the one school of all the philosophers; and where matter is equated with God, it is the discipline of Zeno; and where something about a fiery god is alleged, Heraclitus intervenes.

[5] Eadem materia apud haereticos et philosophos uolutatur, idem retractatus implicantur : unde malum et quare? et unde homo et quomodo? et quod proxime Valentinus proposuit : unde deus?

[5] The same materia is rolled about among heretics and philosophers, the same retractations are entangled: whence evil and why? and whence man and how? and that which most recently Valentinus proposed: whence God?

scilicet de Enthymesi et ectromate.

namely about Enthymesis and the ectroma.

[6] Miserum Aristotelen! qui illis dialecticam instituit, artificem struendi et destruendi, uersipellem in sententiis, coactam in coniecturis, duram in argumentis, operariam contentionum, molestam etiam sibi ipsam, omnia retractantem ne quid omnino tractauerit.

[6] Poor Aristotle! who instituted for them dialectic, the artificer of building and destroying, versipellous in opinions, constrained in conjectures, hard in arguments, the workwoman of contentions, troublesome even to itself, rehandling everything lest it should have handled anything at all.

[7] Hinc illae fabulae et genealogiae interminabiles et quaestiones infructuosae et sermones serpentes uelut cancer, a quibus nos apostolus refrenans nominatim philosophiam [et inanem seductionem] contestatur caueri oportere scribens ad Colossenses : Videte ne qui sit circumueniens uos per philosophiam et inanem seductionem, secundum traditionem hominum, praeter prouidentiam Spiritus sancti.

[7] Hence those fables and interminable genealogies and unfruitful questions and serpentine discourses like a cancer, from which the Apostle, restraining us, bears witness that one ought to beware expressly of philosophy [and empty seduction], writing to the Colossians : See to it that there be not anyone circumventing you through philosophy and empty seduction, according to the tradition of men, apart from the providence of the Holy Spirit.

[8] Fuerat Athenis et istam sapientiam humanam affectatricem et interpolatricem ueritatis de congressibus nouerat, ipsam quoque in suas haereses multipartitam uarietate sectarum inuicem repugnantium.

[8] He had been at Athens, and from congresses he knew that human wisdom, a pretender and an interpolator of truth, itself too multipartite into its own heresies by the variety of sects mutually repugnant.

[9] Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis? quid academiae et ecclesiae? quid haereticis et christianis?

[9] What then has Athens to do with Jerusalem? what has the Academy to do with the Church? what have heretics to do with Christians?

[10] Nostra institutio de porticu Solomonis est qui et ipse tradiderat Dominum in simplicitate cordis esse quaerendum.

[10] Our institution is from the Portico of Solomon, who himself had handed down that the Lord is to be sought in simplicity of heart.

[11] Viderint qui Stoicum et Platonicum et dialecticum christianismum protulerunt.

[11] Let those see to it who have put forward a Stoic, a Platonic, and a dialectic Christianism.

[12] Nobis curiositate opus non est post Christum Iesum nec inquisitione post euangelium.

[12] For us there is no need of curiosity after Christ Jesus, nor of inquiry after the evangel.

[13] Cum credimus, nihil desideramus ultra credere. Hoc enim prius credimus non esse quod ultra credere debeamus. VIII.

[13] When we believe, we desire nothing further to believe. For this first we believe: that there is not anything which we ought to believe beyond. 8.

[1] Venio itaque ad illum articulum quem et nostri praetendunt ad ineundam curiositatem et haeretici inculcant ad importandam scrupulositatem.

[1] I therefore come to that article which even our own hold forth for entering upon curiosity, and which the heretics inculcate for importing scrupulosity.

[2] Scriptum est, inquiunt quaerite et inuenietis.

[2] It is written, they say, “seek and you will find.”

[3] Quando hanc uocem Dominus emisit, recordemur. Puto in primitiis ipsis doctrinae suae cum adhuc dubitaretur apud omnes an Christus esset, cum adhuc nec Petrus illum Dei filium pronuntiasset, cum etiam Ioannes de illo certus esse desisset.

[3] Let us recall when the Lord sent forth this utterance. I think it was in the very first-fruits of his doctrine, when it was still being doubted among all whether he was the Christ, when as yet not even Peter had pronounced him the Son of God, when even John had ceased to be certain about him.

[4] Merito ergo tunc dictum est : quaerite et inuenietis, quando quaerendus adhuc erat qui adhuc agnitus non erat, et hoc quantum ad Iudaeos.

[4] Deservedly therefore it was then said : seek and you will find, when he was still to be sought who was not yet recognized, and this as regards the Jews.

[5] Ad illos enim pertinet totus sermo suggillationis istius qui habebant ubi quaererent Christum.

[5] For to those pertains the whole discourse of this reproach who had where to seek Christ.

[6] Habent, inquit, Moysen et Heliam, id est legem et prophetas Christum praedicantes secundum quod et alibi aperte : scrutamini scripturas in quibus salutem speratis; illae enim de me loquuntur. Hoc erit quaerite et inuenietis.

[6] They have, he says, Moses and Elijah, that is, the law and the prophets proclaiming Christ, according as also elsewhere openly : scrutinize the scriptures in which you hope for salvation; for they speak about me. This will be seek and you will find.

[7] Nam et sequentia in Iudaeos competere manifestum est: pulsate et aperietur uobis.

[7] For it is manifest that the subsequent statements also pertain to the Jews: knock, and it will be opened to you.

[8] Iudaei retro penes Deum fuerant, dehinc eiecti ob delicta extra Deum esse coeperunt;

[8] The Jews had formerly been with God; thereafter, ejected on account of their delicts, they began to be outside of God;

[9] nationes uero nunquam penes Deum nisi stillicidium de situla et puluis ex area et foris semper.

[9] the nations, indeed, were never with God except as a drip from a bucket and dust from the threshing floor, and always outside.

[10] Itaque qui foris semper, quomodo pulsabit eo ubi nunquam fuit? quam ianuam nouit in quam nec receptus nec eiectus aliquando? an qui scit se intus fuisse et foras actum, is potius pulsabit et ostium nouit ?

[10] Therefore, he who is always outside—how will he knock there where he has never been? What door does he know, into which he has never been either received or ejected? Or is it rather he who knows himself to have been within and to have been driven out—he will knock, and he knows the door ?

[11] Etiam, petite et accipietis ei competit qui sciebat a quo esset petendum, a quo et erat aliquid repromissum, a Deo scilicet Abraham, Isaac et Iacob, quem nationes magis non nouerant quam ullam repromissionem eius.

[11] Likewise, “ask and you will receive” applies to him who knew from whom it ought to be asked, from whom also something had been promised—to wit, from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—whom the nations had not known any more than any promise of his.

[12] Et adeo ad Israel loquebatur: non sum, inquit, missus nisi ad oues perditas domus Israel.

[12] And so he was speaking to Israel: 'I am not,' he says, 'sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'

[13] Nondum canibus iactabat panem filiorum, nondum in uiam nationum ire mandarat.

[13] He was not yet casting to the dogs the bread of the children, he had not yet commanded to go into the way of the nations.

[14] Siquidem in fine praecepit, ut uaderent ad docendas et tinguendas nationes, consecuturi mox Spiritum sanctum Paraclitum qui illos deducturus esset in omnem ueritatem. Et hoc ergo illos facit.

[14] Indeed, in the end he commanded that they should go to teach and to dip the nations, soon to receive the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, who would lead them into all truth. And this therefore he accomplishes for them.

[15] Quodsi nationibus destinati doctores apostoli ipsi quoque doctorem consecuturi erant paracletum, multo magis uacabit erga nos quaerite et invenientis, quibus ultro erat obuentura doctrina per apostolos et ipsis apostolis per Spiritum sanctum.

[15] And if the apostles—the teachers destined for the nations—were themselves also going to obtain a teacher, the Paraclete, much more will the dictum “seek, and you shall find” be applicable toward us, for whom doctrine was going to come unbidden through the apostles, and to the apostles themselves through the Holy Spirit.

[16] Omnia quidem dicta Domini omnibus posita sunt, per aures Iudaeorum ad nos transierunt sed pleraque in personas directa, non proprietatem admonitionis nobis constituerunt, sed exemplum. IX.

[16] All indeed the sayings of the Lord have been set for all; through the ears of the Jews they have passed over to us; but most, directed to persons, did not constitute for us the propriety of admonition, but an example. 9.

[1] Cedo nunc sponte de gradu isto. Omnibus dictum sit, quaerite et invenietis; tamen et hic expedit sensus certa re cum interpretationis gubernaculo.

[1] I now cede of my own accord from this grade. Let it be said to all, seek and you will find; nevertheless even here it is expedient that the sense, by a definite thing with the helm of interpretation, be guided.

[2] Nulla uox diuina ita dissoluta est et diffusa ut uerba tantum defendantur et ratio uerborum non constituatur.

[2] No divine voice is so dissolved and diffused that only the words are defended and the ratio of the words is not constituted.

[3] Sed inprimis hoc propono, unum utique et certum aliquid institutum esse a Christo, quod credere omni modo debeant nationes et idcirco quaerere ut possint, cum inuenerint, credere.

[3] But first of all I propose this: that one, assured, and certain thing has been instituted by Christ, which the nations ought by every means to believe, and therefore to seek, so that, when they have found it, they may be able to believe.

[4] Vnius porro et certi instituti infinita inquisitio non potest esse; quaerendum est donec inuenias et credendum ubi inueneris, et nihil amplius nisi custodiendum quod credidisti, dum hoc insuper credis, aliud non esse credendum ideoque nec requirendum cum id inueneris et credideris quod ab eo institutum est, qui non aliud tibi mandat inquirendum quam quod instituit.

[4] Moreover, of a single and certain institute there cannot be an infinite inquiry; one must seek until you find, and believe where you have found, and nothing more, except that what you have believed is to be guarded, while you further believe this: that nothing else is to be believed, and therefore not to be sought, since you have found and believed that which has been instituted by him who mandates you to inquire nothing other than what he has instituted.

[5] De hoc quidem, si quis dubitat, constabit penes nos esse id quod a Christo institutum est.

[5] Concerning this, indeed, if anyone doubts, it will be established that with us is that which was instituted by Christ.

[6] Interim ex fiducia probationis praeuenio admonens quosdam, nihil esse quaerendum ultra quod crediderunt, id esse, quod quaerere debuerunt, ne quaerite et inuenietis sine disciplina rationis interpretentur. X.

[6] Meanwhile, on the confidence of the proof, I forestall, admonishing certain persons, that nothing is to be sought beyond what they have believed, that this is what they ought to have sought, lest they interpret seek and you will find without the discipline of reason. 10.

[1] Ratio autem dicti huius in tribus articulis constitit, in re, in tempore, in modo. In re ut quid sit quaerendum consideres; in tempore ut quando; in modo ut quousque.

[1] The rationale of this saying consisted in three articles: in the matter, in the time, in the mode. In the matter, that you consider what is to be sought; in the time, when; in the mode, how far.

[2] Igitur quaerendum est quod Christus instituit utique quamdiu non inuenis, utique donec inuenias. Inuenisti autem cum credidisti.

[2] Therefore what Christ instituted is to be sought, assuredly for as long as you do not find it, assuredly until you find it. You have found it, however, when you have believed.

[3] Nam non credidisses si non inuenisses, sicut nec quaesisses nisi ut inuenires.

[3] For you would not have believed if you had not found, just as neither would you have sought except in order that you might find.

[4] Ad hoc ergo quaerens ut inuenias et ad hoc inueniens ut credas omnem prolationem quaerendi et inueniendi credendo fixisti.

[4] To this end, therefore, seeking so that you may find, and to this end finding so that you may believe, you have fixed by believing the whole prolation of seeking and finding.

[5] Hunc tibi modum statuit fructus ipse quaerendi. Hanc tibi fossam determinauit ipse, qui te non uult aliud credere quam quod instituit ideoque nec quaerere.

[5] This measure for you the fruit itself of seeking has set. This fosse for you he himself has determined, he who does not wish you to believe anything other than what he has instituted, and therefore not to seek.

[6] Ceterum si quia et alia tanta ab aliis sunt instituta, propterea in tantum quaerere debemus, in quantum possumus inuenire, semper quaeremus et nunquam omnino credemus.

[6] But if, because other things of such magnitude have also been instituted by others, for that reason we ought to inquire only to the extent that we are able to discover; otherwise we shall always be inquiring and never altogether believing.

[7] Vbi enim erit finis quaerendi? ubi statio credendi? ubi expunctio inueniendi?

[7] Where indeed will there be a finish of inquiring? where a station of believing? where an expunction of finding?

Apud Marcionem? Sed et Valentinus proponit: quaerite et inuenietis.

With Marcion? But Valentinus also puts forward: seek and you will find.

[8] Apud Valentinum? Sed et Apelles hac me pronuntiatione pulsabit; et Hebion et Simon et omnes ex ordine non habent aliud quo se mihi insinuantes me sibi adducant.

[8] With Valentinus? But even Apelles will assail me by this pronouncement; and Hebion and Simon, and all in their turn, have nothing else by which, insinuating themselves with me, they may draw me to themselves.

[9] Erit itaque nusquam, dum ubique conuenio quaerite et inuenietis et uelut si nusquam et quasi qui numquam apprehenderim illud quod Christus instituit, quod quaeri oportet, quod credi necesse est. XI.

[9] Accordingly it will be nowhere, while everywhere I meet “seek and you shall find,” and as though it were nowhere, and as one who has never apprehended that which Christ instituted, which ought to be sought, which it is necessary to believe. 11.

[1] Impune erratur nisi delinquatur, quamuis et errare delinquere est; impune, inquam, uagatur qui nihil deserit.

[1] One errs with impunity unless one is delinquent, although to err is also delinquency; with impunity, I say, he wanders who deserts nothing.

[2] At enim si quod debui credere credidi et aliud denuo puto requirendum, spero utique aliud esse inueniendum, nullo modo speraturus istud nisi quia aut non credideram qui uidebar credidisse aut desii credidisse.

[2] But indeed, if I have believed what I ought to have believed, and I think that something else must be sought anew, I certainly hope that another thing is to be found, by no means would I be going to hope this except because either I had not believed, I who seemed to have believed, or I have ceased to believe.

[3] Ita fidem meam deserens, negator inuenior. Semel dixerim : nemo quaerit nisi qui aut non habuit aut perdidit.

[3] Thus, deserting my faith, I am found a denier. I will say once : no one seeks except one who either did not have or has lost.

[4] Perdiderat unam ex decem drachmis anus illa et ideo quaerebat : ubi tamen inuenit, quaerere desiit.

[4] That old woman had lost one of the ten drachmas and therefore she was seeking : however, when she found it, she ceased to seek.

[5] Panem uicinus non habebat et ideo pulsabat : ubi tamen apertum est ei et accepit, pulsare cessauit.

[5] The neighbor did not have bread and therefore was knocking : when, however, it was opened to him and he received, he ceased to knock.

[6] Vidua a iudice petebat audiri quia non admittebatur : sed ubi audita est, hactenus institit.

[6] A widow was petitioning to be heard by the judge, because she was not being admitted; but when she was heard, she pressed no further.

[7] Adeo finis est et quaerendi et pulsandi et petendi. Petenti enim dabitur, inquit, et pulsanti aperietur et quaerenti inuenietur.

[7] Thus there is an end both to inquiring and to knocking and to petitioning. For, “to the petitioner it will be given,” he says, “and to the one knocking it will be opened, and to the one inquiring it will be found.”

[8] Viderit qui quaerit semper quia non inuenit; illic enim quaerit ubi non inuenietur.

[8] Let him look to it, he who always seeks because he does not find; for he seeks there where it will not be found.

[9] Viderit qui semper pulsat quia numquam aperietur : illuc enim pulsat ubi nemo est.

[9] Let him see to it who always knocks, because it will never be opened : for he knocks there where no one is.

[10] Viderit qui semper petit quia numquam audietur; ab eo enim petit qui non audit. XII.

[10] Let him see to it who always asks because he will never be heard; for he asks from him who does not hear. 12.

[1] Nobis etsi quaerendum esset adhuc et semper, ubi tamen quaeri oportet? apud haereticos? ubi omnia extranea et aduersaria nostrae ueritatis ad quos uetamur accedere?

[1] For us, although it would have to be sought still and always, yet where ought it to be sought? among the heretics? where all things are extraneous and adversarial to our truth, whom we are forbidden to approach?

[2] Quis seruus cibaria ab extraneo, ne dicam ab inimico domini sui sperat? Quis miles ab infoederatis, ne dicam ab hostibus regibus donatiuum et stipendium captat nisi plane desertor et transfuga et rebellis?

[2] What servant hopes for rations from an outsider— not to say from the enemy of his master? What soldier solicits a donative and a stipend from the confederates— not to say from enemy kings— unless he is plainly a deserter and a turncoat and a rebel?

[3] Etiam anus illa intra tectum suum dragmam requirebat, etiam pulsator ille uicini ianuam tundebat, etiam uidua illa non inimicum licet durum iudicem interpellabat.

[3] Even that old woman was seeking the drachma under her own roof, even that knocker was pounding the neighbor’s door, even that widow was importuning a judge not an enemy, albeit a hard one.

[4] Nemo inde instrui potest unde destruitur; nemo ab eo inluminatur a quo contenebratur.

[4] No one can be instructed from the place whence he is destroyed; no one is illumined by him by whom he is darkened.

[5] Quaeramus ergo in nostro et a nostris et de nostro : idque dumtaxat quod salua regula fidei potest in quaestionem deuenire. XIII.

[5] Therefore let us seek in our own and from our own and about our own : and only that which, with the rule of faith safe, can come into question. 13.

[1] Regula est autem fidei, ut iam hinc quid defendamus profiteamur, illa scilicet qua creditur.

[1] The rule of faith is, moreover, so that now from this point we may profess what we defend, namely that by which it is believed.

[2] Vnum omnino Deum esse nec alium praeter mundi conditorem qui uniuersa de nihilo produxerit per uerbum suum primo omnium emissum.

[2] That there is one only God, and no other besides the world’s creator, who brought forth the universe out of nothing through his Word, sent forth before all.

[3] Id uerbum filium eius appellatum in nomine Dei uarie uisum a patriarchis, in prophetis semper auditum, postremo delatum ex spiritu patris Dei et uirtute in uirginem Mariam, carnem factum in utero eius et ex ea natum egisse Iesum Christum.

[3] That Word, called his Son, in the name of God variously seen by the patriarchs, always heard in the prophets, finally delivered by the Spirit of God the Father and by power into the Virgin Mary, made flesh in her womb and born from her, has acted as Jesus Christ.

[4] Exinde praedicasse nouam legem et nouam promissionem regni caelorum, uirtutes fecisse, cruci fixum, tertia die resurrexisse, in caelos ereptum sedisse ad dexteram patris,

[4] Thereafter to have preached a new law and a new promise of the kingdom of the heavens, to have worked miracles, to have been fixed to the cross, to have risen on the third day, to have been caught up into the heavens, to have sat at the right hand of the Father,

[5] misisse uicariam uim spiritus sancti qui credentes agat, uenturum cum claritate ad sumendos sanctos in uitae aeternae et promissorum caelestium fructum et ad profanos adiudicandos igni perpetuo, facta utriusque partis resuscitatione cum carnis restitutione.

[5] that he has sent the vicarious power of the Holy Spirit, who may act upon the believers; that he will come with glory to take up the saints into the fruition of eternal life and of the heavenly promises, and to adjudicate the profane to perpetual fire, the resuscitation of both parties having been effected, with the restitution of the flesh.

[6] Haec regula a Christo, ut probabitur, instituta nullas habet apud nos quaestiones nisi quas haereses inferunt et quae haereticos faciunt. XIV.

[6] This rule, instituted by Christ, as will be proved, raises no questions among us except those which heresies bring in and which make heretics. 14.

[1] Ceterum manente forma eius in suo ordine quantumlibet quaeras et tractes et omnem libidinem curiositatis effundas, si quid tibi uidetur uel ambiguitate pendere uel obscuritate obumbrari :

[1] Moreover, with its form remaining in its own order, inquire and treat as much as you please, and pour out every lust of curiosity, if anything seems to you either to hang in ambiguity or to be overshadowed by obscurity :

[2] est utique frater aliqui doctor gratia scientiae donatus, est aliqui inter exercitatos conuersatus, aliqui tecum, curiosius tamen quaerens. Nouissime ignorare melius est ne quod non debeas noris quia quod debeas nosti.

[2] there is assuredly some brother, a doctor endowed with the grace of science; there is someone conversant among the exercised; someone with you, yet inquiring more curiously. Lastly, to be ignorant is better, lest you know what you ought not, because what you ought you know.

[3] Fides, inquit, tua te saluum fecit, non exercitatio scripturarum.

[3] Faith, he says, has saved you, not the exercise of the scriptures.

[4] Fides in regula posita est, habet legem et salutem de obseruatione legis. Exercitatio autem in curiositate consistit, habens gloriam solam de peritiae studio.

[4] Faith is set in the rule, it has law and salvation from the observance of the law. Exercise, however, consists in curiosity, having glory only from zeal for expertise.

[5] Cedat curiositas fidei, cedat gloria saluti. Certe aut non obstrepant aut quiescant. Aduersus regulam nihil scire omnia scire est.

[5] Let curiosity yield to faith, let glory yield to salvation. Certainly, let them either not be obstreperous or keep quiet. Against the rule, to know nothing is to know everything.

[6] Vt non inimici essent ueritatis haeretici, ut de refugiendis eis non praemoneremur, quale est conferre cum hominibus qui et ipsi adhuc se quaerere profiteantur?

[6] As though heretics were not enemies of the truth, as though we had not been forewarned about shunning them, what sort of thing is it to confer with men who even themselves still profess that they are seeking?

[7] Si enim uere adhuc quaerunt, nihil adhuc certi repererunt, et ideo quaecumque uidentur interim tenere, dubitationem suam ostendunt, quamdiu quaerunt.

[7] For if truly they are still seeking, they have as yet discovered nothing certain, and therefore whatever they seem for the interim to hold, they show their doubt, as long as they are seeking.

[8] Itaque tu, qui perinde quaeris, spectans ad eos qui et ipsi quaerunt, dubius ad dubios, incertus ad incertos, caecus a caecis in foueam deducaris necesse est.

[8] And so you, who in like manner seek, looking to those who themselves also seek, dubious to the dubious, uncertain to the uncertain, blind by the blind, must needs be led down into the pit.

[9] Sed cum decipiendi gratia praetendunt se adhuc quaerere ut nobis per sollicitudinis iniectionem tractatus suos insinuent, denique ubi adierint ad nos statim quae dicebant quaerenda esse defendunt, iam illos sic debemus refutare ut sciant nos non Christo, sed sibi negatores esse.

[9] But when, for the sake of deceiving, they pretend that they are still seeking, in order that, by the injection of solicitude into us, they may insinuate their tractates, finally, when they have come to us, immediately they defend the very things they were saying ought to be sought; now we ought so to refute them that they may know us to be deniers not of Christ, but of themselves.

[10] Cum enim quaerunt adhuc, nondum tenent; cum autem nondum tenent, nondum crediderunt; cum autem nondum credideruntm non sunt christiani.

[10] For when they are still seeking, they do not yet hold; but when they do not yet hold, they have not yet believed; but when they have not yet believed, they are not christians.

[11] At cum tenent quidem et credunt, quaerendum tamen dicunt ut defendant.

[11] But when they indeed hold and believe, nevertheless they say that inquiry must be made so that they may defend.

[12] Antequam defendant, negant quod credunt, confitentes se nondum credidisse dum quaerunt.

[12] Before they defend, they deny what they believe, confessing that they have not yet believed while they inquire.

[13] Qui ergo nec sibi sunt christiani, quanto magis nobis? Qui per fallaciam ueniunt, qualem fidem disputant? Cui ueritati patrocinantur qui eam a mendacio inducunt?

[13] Who therefore are not even Christians to themselves, how much less to us? Those who come by fallacy, what kind of faith do they dispute? For what truth do they patronize, who introduce it from mendacity?

[14] 'Sed ipsi de scripturis agunt, et de scripturis suadent'? Aliunde scilicet loqui possent de rebus fidei nisi ex literis fidei? XV.

[14] 'But they themselves deal from the Scriptures, and from the Scriptures they persuade'? From elsewhere, forsooth, could they speak about matters of faith except from the letters of faith? 15.

[1] Venimus igitur ad propositum. Huc enim dirigebamus et hoc praestruebamus allocutionis praefatione, ut iam hinc de eo congrediamur, de quo aduersarii prouocant.

[1] We have therefore come to the proposition. For to this we were directing, and this we were prearranging by the preface of our allocution, so that now from here we may contend concerning that to which the adversaries provoke us.

[2] Scripturas obtendunt et hac sua audacia statim quosdam mouent. In ipso uero congressu firmos quidem fatigant, infirmos capiunt, medios cum scrupulo dimittunt.

[2] They put forward the Scriptures and by this their audacity they immediately move some. In the very encounter the firm indeed they fatigue, the infirm they capture, the middle they dismiss with a scruple.

[3] Hunc igitur potissimum gradum obstruimus non admittendos eos ad ullam de scripturis disputationem.

[3] Therefore we block this step most of all: that they are not to be admitted to any disputation about the Scriptures.

[4] Si hae sunt illae uires eorum, uti eas habere possint, dispici debet cui competat possessio scripturarum, ne is admittatur ad eas cui nullo modo competit. XVI.

[4] If these are those forces of theirs, in order that they may be able to have them, it ought to be examined to whom the possession of the scriptures belongs, lest one be admitted to them to whom it in no way belongs. 16.

[1] Hoc de consilio diffidentiae aut de studio aliter ineundae constitutionis induxerim, nisi ratio constiterit, inprimis illa, quod fides nostra obsequium apostolo debeat prohibenti quaestiones inire, nouis uocibus aures accommodare, haereticum post unam correptionem conuenire, non post disputationem.

[1] I would have ascribed this to a counsel of diffidence or to a zeal for a constitution to be undertaken otherwise, unless reason be established—especially this: that our faith owes obedience to the apostle who prohibits entering upon questions, accommodating our ears to new voices, meeting with a heretic after one correction, not after a disputation.

[2] Adeo interdixit disputationem correptionem designans causam haeretici conueniendi. Et hoc unam, scilicet quia non est christianus, ne more christiani semel et iterum, et sub duobus aut tribus testibus castigandus uideretur, cum ob hoc sit castigandus propter quod non sit cum illo disputandum. Dehinc quoniam nihil proficiat congressio scripturarum, nisi plane ut aut stomachi quis ineat euersionem, aut cerebri.

[2] To such a degree he interdicted disputation, designating correction as the cause for convening the heretic. And this one [correction], namely because he is not a Christian, lest he should seem to be castigated after the manner of a Christian once and again, and under two or three witnesses, since on this account he is to be castigated for the very reason that one must not dispute with him. Thereafter, since the congress of the Scriptures profits nothing, except plainly that someone should enter upon an eversion of the stomach, or of the brain.

XVII.

17.

[1] Ista haeresis non recipit quasdam scripturas; et si quas recipit, non recipit integrassed adiectionibus et detractionibus ad dispositionem instituti sui interuertit, et si aliquatenus integras praestat, niholominus diuersas expositiones commentata conuertit.

[1] This heresy does not receive certain Scriptures; and if it receives any, it does not receive them entire, but with additions and detractions it has interverted them to the disposition of its own institute; and if it to some extent presents them entire, nonetheless, by contriving diverse expositions, it turns them aside.

[2] Tantum ueritati obstrepit adulter sensus quantum et corruptor stylus; uanae praesumptiones necessario nolunt agnoscere ea per quae reuincuntur;

[2] So much does an adulterate sense make noise against the truth as also a corrupting stylus; vain presumptions, of necessity, are unwilling to acknowledge the things by which they are refuted;

[3] his nituntur quae ex falso composuerunt et quae de ambiguitate ceperunt.

[3] upon these they rely, the things which they have composed from the false, and the things which they have taken from ambiguity.

[4] Quid promouebis, exercitatissime scripturarum, cum si quid defenderis, negetur ex diuerso, si quid negaueris defendatur?

[4] What will you advance, most thoroughly exercised in the Scriptures, when, if you defend anything, it is denied from the opposite side, if you deny anything, it is defended?

[5] Et tu quidem nihil perdes nisi uocem in contentione, nihil consequeris nisi bilem de blasphematione. XVIII.

[5] And you indeed will lose nothing except your voice in the contention, you will gain nothing except bile from blasphemy. 18.

[1] Ille uero, si quis est cuius causa in congressum descendis scripturarum ut eum dubitantem confirmes, ad ueritatem an magis ad haereses deuerget?

[1] But he, indeed—if there is anyone for whose sake you descend into a congress of the Scriptures, that you may confirm him while doubting—does he incline to the truth, or rather to heresies?

[2] Hoc ipso motus quod te uideat nihil promouisse, aequo gradu negandi et defendendi diuersa parte, statu certe pari, altercatione incertior discedet, nesciens quam haeresin iudicet.

[2] Moved by this very thing, that he sees you have advanced nothing, with denying and defending on different sides on an equal footing, with the status certainly equal, he will depart more uncertain from the altercation, not knowing which he should judge to be heresy.

[3] Haec utique et ipsi habent in nos retorquere. Necesse est enim et illos dicere a nobis potius adulteria scripturarum et expositionum mendacia inferri, qui proinde sibi defendant ueritatem. XIX.

[3] These things, to be sure, they too have to retort against us. For it is necessary that they also say that adulterations of the scriptures and the mendacity of expositions are rather being brought in by us, they who likewise claim the truth for themselves. 19.

[1] Ergo non ad scripturas prouocandum est nec in his constituendum certamen in quibus aut nulla aut incerta uictoria est aut parum certa.

[1] Therefore one must not appeal to the Scriptures, nor establish the contest in them, in which the victory is either none at all, or uncertain, or scarcely certain.

[2] Nam etsi non ita euaderet conlatio scripturarum ut utramque partem parem sisteret, ordo rerum desiderabat illud prius proponi quod nunc solum disputandum est: quibus competat fides ipsa, cuius sunt scripturae, a quo et per quos et quando et quibus sit tradita disciplina, qua fiunt christiani.

[2] For even if the collation of the scriptures were not to turn out so as to set forth both sides as equal, the order of things demanded that that first be proposed which now alone is to be debated: to whom the faith itself pertains, whose the scriptures are, by whom and through whom and when and to whom the discipline was handed down, by which people become Christians.

[3] Vbi enim apparuerit esse ueritatem et disciplinae et fidei christianae, illic erit ueritas scripturarum et expositionum et omnium traditionum christianarum. XX.

[3] Where, indeed, it shall have appeared that there is the truth both of discipline and of the Christian faith, there will be the truth of the scriptures and of the expositions and of all Christian traditions. 20.

[1] Christus Iesus, Dominus noster, permittat dicere interim, quisquis est, cuiuscumque Dei filius, cuiuscumque materiae homo et Deus, cuiuscumque fidei praeceptor, cuiuscumque mercedis repromissor,

[1] Christ Jesus, our Lord, may allow us to say for the time being, whoever he is, son of whatever God, a man and God of whatever matter, preceptor of whatever faith, promiser of whatever reward,

[2] quid esset, quid fuisset, quam patris uoluntatem administraret, quid homini agendum determinaret, quamdiu in terris agebat, ipse pronuntiabat siue populo palam, siue discentibus seorsum, ex quibus duodecim praecipuos lateri suo allegerat destinatos nationibus magistros.

[2] what he was, what he had been, what will of the Father he was administering, what he determined should be done by man, so long as he was living on earth, he himself proclaimed, either openly to the people or separately to the disciples, out of whom he had chosen twelve principal men to his side, appointed as teachers to the nations.

[3] Itaque uno eorum decusso reliquos undecim digrediens ad patrem post resurrectionem iussit ire et docere nationes tinguendas in Patrem et in Filium et in Spiritum sanctum.

[3] And so, with one of them shaken off, departing to the Father after the resurrection, he ordered the remaining eleven to go and teach the nations, baptizing in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

[4] Statim igitur apostoli - quos haec appellatio missos interpretatur - adsumpto per sortem duodecimo Matthia in locum Iudae ex auctoritate prophetiae quae est in psalmo Dauid, consecuti promissam uim Spiritus sancti ad uirtutes et eloquium, primo per Iudaeam contestata fide in Iesum Christum et ecclesiis institutis, dehinc in orbem profecti eamdem doctrinam eiusdem fidei nationibus promulgauerunt.

[4] Immediately therefore the apostles - which appellation interprets them as the “sent” - with Matthias taken by lot as the twelfth in the place of Judas, by the authority of the prophecy which is in the psalm of David, having obtained the promised power of the Holy Spirit for powers and eloquence, first throughout Judaea, the faith in Jesus Christ being attested and churches established, then, having set out into the world, promulgated the same doctrine of the same faith to the nations.

[5] Et perinde ecclesias apud unamquamque ciuitatem condiderunt, a quibus traducem fidei et semina doctrinae ceterae exinde ecclesiae mutuatae sunt et cottidie mutuantur ut ecclesiae fiant.

[5] And in like manner they founded churches in each city, from which the other churches thereafter have borrowed and daily borrow the stock of faith and the seeds of doctrine, that they may become churches.

[6] Ac per hoc et ipsae apostolicae deputantur ut soboles apostolicarum ecclesiarum.

[6] And through this, they themselves are also deemed apostolic, as the offspring of apostolic churches.

[7] Omne genus ad originem suam censeatur necesse est. Itaque tot ac tantae ecclesiae una est illa ab apostolis prima, ex qua omnes.

[7] Every kind must be reckoned to its own origin. And so, though the churches are so many and so great, there is that one, the first from the apostles, from which all.

[8] Sic omnes primae et omnes apostolicae, dum una omnes. Probant unitatem communicatio pacis et appellatio fraternitatis et contesseratio hospitalitatis.

[8] Thus all are first and all apostolic, while all are one. The communion of peace, the appellation of fraternity, and the contesseration of hospitality prove the unity.

[9] Quae iura non alia ratio regit quam eiusdem sacramenti una traditio. XXI.

[9] Which rights are governed by no other rule than the single tradition of the same sacrament. 21.

[1] Hinc igitur dirigimus praescriptionem: si Dominus Christus Iesus apostolos misit ad praedicandum, alios non esse recipiendos praedicatores quam Christus instituit,

[1] Hence, therefore, we direct the prescription: if the Lord Christ Jesus sent the apostles to preach, no other preachers are to be received than those whom Christ instituted,

[2] quia nec alius patrem nouit nisi filius et cui filius reuelauit, nec aliis uidetur reuelasse filius quam apostolis quos misit ad praedicandum utique quod illis reuelauit.

[2] because neither does anyone else know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son has revealed (him), nor does the Son seem to have revealed to others than the apostles whom he sent to preach, assuredly that which he revealed to them.

[3] Quid autem praedicauerint, id est quid illis Christus reuelauerit, et hic praescribam non aliter probari debere nisi per easdem ecclesias quas ipsi apostoli condiderunt, ipsi eis praedicando tam uiua, quod aiunt, uoce quam per epistolas postea.

[3] What moreover they preached, that is, what Christ revealed to them, I also here prescribe ought to be proved in no other way than through those same churches which the apostles themselves founded, they themselves preaching to them both by a living, as they say, voice and afterwards through epistles.

[4] Si haec ita sunt, constat proinde omnem doctrinam, quae cum illis ecclesiis apostolicis matricibus et originalibus fidei conspiret, ueritati deputandam, id sine dubio tenentem, quod ecclesiae ab apostolis, apostoli a Christo, Christus a Deo accepit;

[4] If these things are so, it follows accordingly that every doctrine which conspires with those apostolic churches, the matrices and originals of the faith, is to be assigned to the truth, as holding without doubt that which the churches received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God;

[5] omnem uero doctrinam de mendacio praeiudicandam quae sapiat contra ueritatem ecclesiarum et apostolorum Christi et Dei.

[5] but every doctrine is to be prejudged as of mendacity which savors against the truth of the churches and of the apostles of Christ and of God.

[6] Superest ergo uti demonstremus, an haec nostra doctrina cuius regulam supra edidimus de apostolorum traditione censeatur et hoc ipso an ceterae de mendacio ueniant.

[6] It remains, therefore, that we should demonstrate whether this our doctrine, the rule of which we have set forth above, is to be deemed of the apostles’ tradition, and by this very fact whether the rest come from mendacity.

[7] Communicamus cum ecclesiis apostolicis quod nulla doctrina diuersa: hoc est testimonium ueritatis. XXII.

[7] We are in communion with the apostolic churches, in that no doctrine is diverse: this is the testimony of truth. 22.

[1] Sed quoniam tam expedita probatio est ut si statim proferatur, nihil iam sit retractandum, ac si prolata non sit a nobis, locum interim demus diuersae parti, si quid putant ad infirmandam hanc praescriptionem mouere se posse.

[1] But since the proof is so ready that, if it be at once brought forward, there is now nothing to be reconsidered, and as if it had not been produced by us, let us meanwhile give room to the opposing party, if they think they can set anything in motion toward enfeebling this prescription.

[2] Solent dicere non omnia apostolos scisse, eadem agitati dementia qua susum rursus conuertunt, omnia quidem apostolos scisse sed non omnia omnibus tradidisse, in utroque Christum reprehensioni inicientes qui aut minus instructos aut parum simplices apostolos miserit.

[2] They are wont to say that the apostles did not know all things—driven by the same madness with which they turn things upside down again—that indeed the apostles knew all things but did not hand everything down to everyone; in both cases casting Christ into censure, as the one who sent apostles either less-instructed or not sufficiently straightforward (simple).

[3] Quis igitur integrae mentis credere potest aliquid eos ignorasse quos magistros Dominus dedit, indiuiduos habens in comitatu in discipulatu in conuictu, quibus obscura quaeque seorsum disserebat, illis dicens datum esse cognoscere arcana quae populo intelligere non liceret?

[3] Who, therefore, of sound mind can believe that those whom the Lord gave as masters were ignorant of anything, keeping them indivisible in company, in discipleship, in convivial fellowship, to whom he used to discourse apart on each obscure matter, telling them that it was given to them to know the arcana which it was not permitted the people to understand?

[4] Latuit aliquid Petrum, aedificandae ecclesiae petram dictum, claues regni caelorum consecutum et soluendi et alligandi in caelis et in terris potestatem?

[4] Did anything escape Peter, who was called the rock for the building of the church, who obtained the keys of the kingdom of the heavens and the authority of loosing and binding in the heavens and on the earth?

[5] Latuit et Ioannem aliquid, dilectissimum Domino, pectori eius incubantem cui soli Dominus Iudam traditorem praemonstrauit, quem loco suo filium Mariae demandauit?

[5] Did anything also lie hidden from John, most beloved to the Lord, reclining upon his breast, to whom alone the Lord fore‑showed Judas the traitor, whom, in his stead, he entrusted as son to Mary?

[6] Quid eos ignorasse uoluit quibus etiam gloriam suam exhibuit, et Moysen et Heliam et insuper de caelo patris uocem? non quasi ceteros reprobans sed quoniam in tribus testibus stabit omne uerbum.

[6] What did he wish them to be ignorant of, to whom he even exhibited his glory, and Moses and Elijah, and moreover the Father’s voice from heaven? not as though reprobating the rest, but because in three witnesses every word shall stand.

[7] Ignorauerunt itaque et illi quibus post resurrectionem quoque in itinere omnes scripturas disserere dignatus est.

[7] Therefore even they were ignorant, those to whom after the resurrection he likewise deigned on the way to discourse upon all the Scriptures.

[8] Dixerat plane aliquando: Multa habeo adhuc loqui uobis, sed non potestis modo ea sustinere,

[8] He had plainly said at some time: I have many things still to speak to you, but you are not able now to sustain them,

[9] tamen adiiciens: Cum uenerit ille spiritus ueritatis, ipse uos deducet in omnem ueritatem, ostendit illos nihil ignorasse quos omnem ueritatem consecuturos per spiritum ueritatis repromiserat.

[9] nevertheless adding: When that spirit of truth shall have come, he himself will lead you into all truth, he shows that those had been ignorant of nothing whom he had promised would attain all truth through the spirit of truth.

[10] Et utique impleuit repromissum, probantibus actis apostolorum descensum spiritus sancti.

[10] And assuredly he fulfilled the promise, the Acts of the Apostles proving the descent of the Holy Spirit.

[11] Quam scripturam qui non recipiunt nec spiritus sancti esse possunt, qui necdum spiritum sanctum possunt agnoscere discentibus missum. Sed nec ecclesiam se defendere qui, quando et quibus incunabulis institutum est hoc corpus, probare non habent.

[11] Those who do not receive that scripture cannot be of the Holy Spirit, since they cannot yet recognize the Holy Spirit sent to learners. But nor can they defend themselves as the Church, who do not have to prove when, and with what incunabula, this body was instituted.

[12] Tanti est enim illis non habere probationes eorum quae defendunt, ne pariter admittantur traductiones eorum quae mentiuntur.

[12] For it is of such moment to them not to have proofs of the things they defend, lest the traducements of the things they lie about be admitted equally.

XXIII.

23.

[1] Proponunt ergo ad suggillandam ignorantiam aliquam apostolorum quod Petrus et qui cum eo reprehensi sunt a Paulo.

[1] They therefore put forward, to stigmatize a certain ignorance of the apostles, that Peter and those with him were reprehended by Paul.

[2] 'Adeo', inquiunt, 'aliquid eis defuit', ut ex hoc etiam illud struant potuisse postea pleniorem scientiam superuenire, qualis obuenerit Paulo reprehendendi antecessores.

[2] 'So,' they say, 'something was lacking to them,' so that from this they even construct that a fuller science could afterwards have supervened, the kind which befell Paul for reprehending his predecessors.

[3] Possum et hic acta apostolorum repudiantibus dicere: 'Prius est ut ostendatis quis iste Paulus et quid ante apostolum et quomodo apostolus', quatenus et alias ad quaestiones plurimum eo utuntur.

[3] I can also, here, say to those repudiating the Acts of the apostles: 'First, show who this Paul is, and what he was before he was an apostle, and how he became an apostle,' inasmuch as they use him very much also for other questions.

[4] Neque enim, si ipse se apostolum de persecutore profitetur, sufficit unicuique examinate credenti, quando nec Dominus ipse de se testimonium dixerit.

[4] For neither, if he himself professes himself an apostle from being a persecutor, does it suffice for each one who believes after examination, since not even the Lord himself gave testimony about himself.

[5] Sed credant sine scripturis ut credant aduersus scripturas. Tamen doceant ex eo quod allegant Petrum a Paulo reprehensum aliam euangelii formam a Paulo superductam citra eam quam praemiserat Petrus et ceteri.

[5] But let them believe without the Scriptures, so that they may believe against the Scriptures. Yet let them teach from that which they allege—that Peter was reprehended by Paul—that another form of the evangel was superinduced by Paul, other than that which Peter and the rest had previously put forth.

[6] Atquin demutatus in praedicatorem de persecutore deducitur ad fratres a fratribus ut unus ex fratribus, ad illos ab illis, qui ab apostolis fidem induerant.

[6] But indeed, transformed from a persecutor into a preacher, he is conducted to the brothers by the brothers as one of the brothers, to them by those who had put on the faith from the apostles.

[7] Dehinc, sicut ipse enarrat, ascendit Hierosolymam cognoscendi Petri causa, ex officio et iure scilicet eiusdem fidei et praedicationis.

[7] Thereafter, as he himself relates, he ascended to Jerusalem for the sake of getting to know Peter, out of the duty and right, namely, of the same faith and preaching.

[8] Nam et illi non essent mirati de persecutore factum praedicatorem si aliquid contrarium praedicaret nec Dominum praeterea magnificassent quia aduersarius eius Paulus obuenerat.

[8] For they too would not have been amazed that from a persecutor a preacher had been made if he were preaching anything contrary, nor, moreover, would they have magnified the Lord, since His adversary Paul had come.

[9] Itaque et dexteram ei dederunt, signum concordiae et conuenientiae, et inter se distributionem officii ordinauerunt, non separationem euangelii nec ut aliud alter sed ut aliis alter praedicarent, Petrus in circumcisionem, Paulus in nationes.

[9] And so also they gave to him the right hand, a sign of concord and conveniency, and they ordained among themselves a distribution of office, not a separation of the gospel, nor that the one should preach something different, but that the one should preach to others: Peter to the circumcision, Paul to the nations.

[10] Ceterum si reprehensus est Petrus quod, cum conuixisset ethnicis, postea se a conuictu eorum separabat personarum respectu, utique conuersationis fuit uitium, non praedicationis.

[10] But if Peter was reprehended because, when he had lived in company with the Gentiles, afterward he separated himself from their fellowship out of respect of persons, assuredly it was a fault of conversation (conduct), not of preaching.

[11] Non enim ex hoc alius Deus quam creator et alius Christus quam ex Maria, et alia spes quam resurrectio annuntiabatur.

[11] For from this there was not being proclaimed another God than the Creator, nor another Christ than the one from Mary, nor another hope than the resurrection.

XXIV.

24.

[1] Non mihi tam bene est, immo non mihi tam male est ut apostolos committam.

[1] It is not so well with me—nay rather, not so ill with me—that I should compare myself with the apostles.

[2] Sed quoniam peruersissimi isti illam reprehensionem ad hoc obtendunt ut suspectam faciant doctrinam superiorem, respondebo quasi pro Petro: ipsum Paulum dixisse factum se esse omnibus omnia, Iudaeis Iudaeum, non Iudaeis non Iudaeum ut omnes lucrificaret.

[2] But since those most perverse men hold up that reprehension for this purpose, to make the doctrine above suspect, I will respond as if on behalf of Peter: that Paul himself said he had become all things to all, to the Jews a Jew, to those not Jews not a Jew, so that he might gain all.

[3] Adeo pro temporibus et personis et causis quaedam reprehendebant, in quae et ipsi aeque pro temporibus et personis et causis committebant, quemadmodum si et Petrus reprehenderet Paulum quod prohibens circumcisionem circumciderit ipse Timotheum.

[3] To such a degree, according to times and persons and causes, they used to censure certain things—things which they themselves equally, according to times and persons and causes, used to commit—just as if even Peter were to reprehend Paul because, while prohibiting circumcision, he himself circumcised Timothy.

[4] Viderint qui de Apostolis iudicant. Bene quod Petrus Paulo et in martyrio adaequatur.

[4] Let those who judge concerning the Apostles see to it. It is good that Peter is equated to Paul even in martyrdom.

[5] Sed et si in tertium usque caelum ereptus Paulus et in paradisum delatus audiit quaedam illic, non possunt uideri fuisse quae illum in aliam doctrinam instructiorem praestarent, cum ita fuerit condicio eorum ut nulli hominum proderentur.

[5] But even if Paul, snatched up as far as the third heaven and borne into Paradise, heard certain things there, they cannot be seen to have been such as would furnish him with a more instructive doctrine, since their condition was such that they were disclosed to no human being.

[6] Quod si ad alicuius conscientiam manauit nescio quid illud et hoc se aliqua haeresis sequi affirmat aut Paulus secreti proditi reus est, aut et alius postea in paradisum ereptus debet ostendi cui permissum sit eloqui quae Paulo mutire non licuit.

[6] But if that I-know-not-what has seeped into someone’s conscience, and some heresy affirms that it follows this, either Paul is guilty of a secret betrayed, or else another, afterwards, snatched up into paradise, ought to be shown, to whom it was permitted to utter what it was not permitted for Paul even to mutter.

XXV.

25.

[1] Sed, ut diximus, eadem dementia est cum confitentur quidem nihil apostolos ignorasse nec diuersa inter se praedicasse, non tamen omnia uolunt illos omnibus reuelasse.

[1] But, as we have said, it is the same madness when they confess indeed that the apostles were ignorant of nothing and did not preach diverse things among themselves, yet they are unwilling to allow that they revealed all things to all.

[2] Quaedam enim palam et uniuersis, quaedam secreto et paucis demandasse quia et hoc uerbo usus est Paulus ad Timotheum: O Timothee, depositum custodi, et rursum: Bonum depositum serua.

[2] For they claim that certain things he entrusted openly and to all, certain things secretly and to a few, since Paul also used this word to Timothy: O Timothy, guard the deposit, and again: Keep the good deposit.

[3] Quod hoc depositum est? tacitum ut alteri doctrinae deputetur?

[3] What is this deposit? Kept tacit, so that it may be deputed to another doctrine?

[4] An illius denuntiationis, de qua ait: Hanc denuntiationem commendo apud te, filiole Timothee?

[4] Or of that injunction, of which he says: This injunction I commend to you, little son Timothy?

[5] Item illius praecepti de quo ait: Denuntio tibi ante Deum, qui uiuificat omnia et Iesum Christum, qui testatus est sub Pontio Pilato bonam confessionem, custodias praeceptum?

[5] Likewise of that precept, about which he says: I charge you before God, who vivifies all things, and Jesus Christ, who testified under Pontius Pilate the good confession, that you keep the precept?

[6] Quod autem praeceptum et quae denuntiatio? Ex supra et infra scriptis intelligere erat, non nescio quid subostendi hoc dicto de remotiore doctrina sed potius inculcari de non admittenda alia praeter eam quam audierat ab ipso, et puto coram multis, inquit, testibus.

[6] But what precept and what denunciation? From what is written above and below it was to be understood, not that some I-know-not-what was being hinted at by this saying concerning a more remote doctrine, but rather that it was being inculcated that no other [teaching] was to be admitted besides that which he had heard from him himself, and, I think, “before many,” he says, “witnesses.”

[7] Quos multos testes si nolunt ecclesiam intelligi, nihil interest, quando nihil tacitum fuerit quod sub multis testibus proferebatur.

[7] If they do not wish the church to be understood by those many witnesses, it makes no difference, since nothing was left tacit which was being brought forward under many witnesses.

[8] Sed nec quia uoluit illum haec fidelibus hominibus demandare, qui idonei sint et alios docere, id quoque ad argumentum occulti alicuius euangelii interpretandum est.

[8] But neither because he wished him to entrust these things to faithful men, who are fit also to teach others, is this also to be interpreted as an argument for some occult gospel.

[9] Nam cum dicit haec, de eis dicit de quibus in praesenti scribebat; de occultis autem, ut de absentibus apud conscientiam, non haec sed illa dixisset.

[9] For when he says these things, he says them about those about whom he was writing in the present; but about occult matters, as about those absent before his conscience, he would not have said these, but those.

XXVI.

26.

[1] Porro consequens erat, ut cui demandabat euangelii administrationem, non passim nec inconsiderate administrandam adiceret secundum dominicam uocem 'ne margaritam porcis et sanctum canibus iactaret'.

[1] Furthermore, it was consequent that, to the one to whom he was entrusting the administration of the evangel, he should add that it was not to be administered indiscriminately nor inconsiderately, according to the dominical voice, 'that he should not cast the pearl to swine and the holy thing to dogs'.

[2] Dominus palam edixit, sine ulla significatione alicuius taciti sacramenti; ipse praeceperat si quid in tenebris et in abscondito audissent, in luce et in tectis praedicarent.

[2] The Lord declared openly, without any signification of any tacit sacrament; he himself had commanded that if they had heard anything in the darkness and in secret, they should proclaim it in the light and on the housetops.

[3] Ipse per similitudinem praefigurauerat ne unam mnam, id est unum uerbum eius, sine fructu in abdito reseruarent.

[3] He himself, through a similitude, had prefigured that they should not, without fruit, in a hidden place reserve a single mina—that is, one word of his.

[4] Ipse docebat lucernam non sub modium abstrudi solere sed in candelabrum constitui ut luceat omnibus qui in domo sunt.

[4] He himself taught that a lamp is not wont to be thrust under a modius but to be set upon a candelabrum, so that it may shine for all who are in the house.

[5] Haec apostoli aut neglexerunt aut minime intellexerunt si non adimpleuerunt abscondentes aliquid de lumine, id est, de Dei uerbo et Christi sacramento.

[5] The apostles either neglected these things or did not at all understand them, if, not fulfilling them, they were hiding something of the light, that is, of the word of God and the sacrament of Christ.

[6] Neminem, quod scio uerebantur, non Iudaeorum uim, non ethnicorum. Quo magis utique in ecclesia libere praedicabant qui in synagogis et in locis publicis non tacebant.

[6] No one, so far as I know, did they fear—neither the force of the Jews nor of the pagans. For which reason, all the more indeed, they preached freely in the church, who did not keep silent in the synagogues and in public places.

[7] Immo neque Iudaeos conuertere neque ethnicos inducere potuissent nisi, quod credi ab eis uolebant, ordine exponerent.

[7] Nay rather, they could have neither converted the Jews nor induced the Gentiles unless they expounded in order what they wanted to be believed by them.

[8] Multo magis iam credentibus ecclesiis nihil subtraxissent quod aliis paucis seorsum demandarent.

[8] Much more would they have withheld nothing from the churches now believing—anything which they would entrust separately to a few others.

[9] Quamquam, etsi quaedam inter domesticos, ut ita dixerim, disserebant, non tamen ea fuisse credendum est, quae aliam regulam fidei superducerent, diuersam et contrariam illi quam catholicae in medium proferebant,

[9] Although, even if they were discussing certain things among domestics, so to speak, nevertheless it is not to be believed that these were such as would superinduce another rule of faith, diverse and contrary to that one which they were bringing forth into the open to the Catholics,

[10] ut alium Deum in ecclesia dicerent, alium in hospitio, aliam Christi substantiam designarent in aperto, aliam in secreto, aliam spem resurrectionis apud omnes annuntiarent, aliam apud paucos,

[10] as if they would say another God in the church, another in the lodging, would designate another substance of Christ in the open, another in secret, would announce another hope of the resurrection among all, another among a few,

[11] cum ipsi obsecrarent in epistulis suis, ut idipsum et unum loquerentur omnes et non essent scismata et dissensiones in ecclesia, quia siue Paulus siue alii, eadem praedicarent.

[11] since they themselves besought in their letters, that all should speak the selfsame and one thing, and that there should not be schisms and dissensions in the church, because whether Paul or others, they preached the same things.

[12] Alioquin meminerant, Sit sermo uester, est est, non non. Nam quod amplius hoc, a malo est, ne euangelium in diuersitate tractarent. XXVII.

[12] Otherwise they had remembered, Let your speech be, yes yes, no no. For whatever is beyond this is from evil, lest they should handle the evangel in diversity. 27.

[1] Si ergo incredibile est uel ignorasse apostolos plenitudinem praedicationis uel non omnem ordinem regulae omnibus edidisse, uideamus ne forte apostoli quidem simpliciter et plene, ecclesiae autem suo uitio aliter acceperint quam apostoli proferebant.

[1] If therefore it is incredible either that the apostles were ignorant of the plenitude of preaching or that they did not publish to all the whole order of the rule, let us see whether perhaps the apostles indeed spoke simply and fully, but the churches, by their own fault, received otherwise than the apostles were proffering.

[2] Omnia ista scrupulositatis incitamenta inuenias praetendi ab haereticis.

[2] You may find all those incitements of scrupulosity put forward by heretics.

[3] Tenent correptas ab apostolo ecclesias: O insensati Galatae, quis uos fascinauit? et: Tam bene currebatis, quis uos impediit? ipsumque principium: Miror, quod sic tam cito transferemini ab eo qui uos uocauit in gratia, ad aliud euangelium;

[3] They adduce churches corrected by the apostle: O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you? and: You were running so well, who impeded you? and the very beginning itself: I marvel that you are thus so quickly being transferred from him who called you in grace, to another gospel;

[4] item ad Corinthios scriptum quod essent adhuc carnales qui lacte educarentur, nondum idonei ad pabulum, qui putarent se scire aliquid quando nondum scirent quemadmodum scire oporteret.

[4] likewise, it was written to the Corinthians that they were still carnal, who were being nourished with milk, not yet fit for pabulum, who thought themselves to know something when they did not yet know in what manner it behooved to know.

[5] Cum correptas ecclesias opponunt, credant et emendatas.

[5] When they bring forward rebuked churches, let them also believe them amended.

[6] Sed et illas recognoscant de quarum fide et scientia et conuersatione apostolus gaudet et Deo gratias agit; quae tamen hodie cum illis correptis unius institutionis iura miscent. XXVIII.

[6] But let them also recognize those, concerning whose faith and science and conversation the apostle rejoices and gives thanks to God; which nevertheless today, together with those corrected, mingle the rights of a single institution. 28.

[1] Age nunc, omnes errauerint, deceptus sit et apostolus de testimonio reddendo quibusdam ; nullam respexerit Spiritus sanctus uti eam in ueritatem deduceret, ad hoc missus a Christo, ad hoc postulatus de patre ut esset doctor ueritatis. Neglexerit officium Dei uillicus, Christi uicarius, sinens ecclesias aliter interim intelligere, aliter credere quod ipse per apostolos praedicabat; ecquid uerisimile est ut tot ac tantae in unam fidem errauerint?

[1] Come now, let us suppose all have erred, and that even the apostle was deceived in rendering testimony about certain persons ; that the Holy Spirit had paid no regard to this—to lead her into the truth—sent for this by Christ, asked from the Father for this, that he might be a doctor of truth. Let the steward of God, the vicar of Christ, have neglected his office, allowing the churches meanwhile to understand otherwise, to believe otherwise than what he himself was preaching through the apostles; is it at all likely that so many and so great have erred into one faith?

[2] Nullus inter multos euentus unus est exitus: uariasse debuerat error doctrinae ecclesiarum.

[2] There is not one outcome among many events: the error of the doctrine of the churches ought to have varied.

[3] Ceterum quod apud multos unum inuenitur, non est erratum sed traditum.

[3] However, what among many is found as one is not an error but a tradition.

[4] Audeat ergo aliquis dicere illos errasse qui tradiderunt! XXIX.

[4] Let someone therefore dare to say that those who have handed down have erred! 29.

[1] Quoquo modo sit erratum, tamdiu utique regnauit error, quamdiu haereses non erant.

[1] In whatever way error was committed, at any rate error reigned for as long as heresies did not exist.

[2] Aliquos Marcionitas et Valentinianos liberanda ueritas expectabat.

[2] The truth, to be set free, was awaiting some Marcionites and Valentinians.

[3] Interea perperam euangelizabatur, perperam credebatur, tot milia milium perperam tincta, tot opera fidei perperam ministrata, tot uirtutes, tot charismata perperam operata, tot sacerdotia, tot ministeria perperam functa, tot denique martyria perperam coronata.

[3] Meanwhile the gospel was proclaimed wrongly, it was believed wrongly, so many thousands upon thousands were wrongly baptized, so many works of faith were wrongly ministered, so many virtues, so many charismata were wrongly wrought, so many priesthoods, so many ministries were wrongly discharged, so many, finally, martyrdoms were wrongly crowned.

[4] Aut si non perperam nec in uacuum, quale est ut ante res Dei currerent quam cuius Dei notum esset? ante christiani quam Christus inuentus? Ante haereses quam uera doctrina?

[4] Or if not wrongly nor into the void, how is it that the affairs of God were running ahead before it was known of which God? before christians than Christ was found? Before heresies than the true doctrine?

[5] Sed enim in omnibus ueritas imaginem antecedit, post rem similitudo succedit.

[5] But indeed, in all things, truth precedes the image; after the reality, the similitude succeeds.

[6] Ceterum satis ineptum ut prior in doctrina haeresis habeatur, uel quoniam ipsa est quae futuras haereses et cauendas praenuntiabat.

[6] However, it is quite inept that heresy be held as prior in doctrine, or at least since it is itself the very thing that was pre-announcing the future heresies and those to be guarded against.

[7] Ad eius doctrinae ecclesiam scriptum est, immo ipsa doctrina ad ecclesiam suam scribit: Et si angelus de caelo aliter euangelizauerit citra quam nos, anathema sit. XXX.

[7] To the church of his doctrine it has been written—nay rather, the doctrine itself writes to its own church: And if an angel from heaven should evangelize otherwise than we, let him be anathema. 30.

[1] Vbi tunc Marcion, ponticus nauclerus, Stoicae studiosus? ubi Valentinus Platonicae sectator?

[1] Where then was Marcion, the Pontic shipmaster, a student of the Stoic school? where Valentinus, an adherent of the Platonic school?

[2] 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 uitabant, semel et iterum eiecti, Marcion quidem cum ducentis sestertiis quae ecclesiae intulerat, nouissime in perpetuum discidium relegati, uenena doctrinarum suarum disseminauerunt.

[2] For it is established that they were not so very long ago, almost under the principate of Antoninus, and that at the first they believed the doctrine of the catholic [church] at the Roman church under the episcopate of blessed Eleutherius, until, on account of their ever-restless curiosity, on account of which the brethren also avoided them, once and again cast out, Marcion indeed with the two hundred sesterces which he had contributed to the church, at last relegated to a perpetual schism, they disseminated the poisons of their doctrines.

[3] Postmodum Marcion paenitentiam confessus cum condicioni datae sibi occurrit, ita pacem recepturus si ceteros quoque, quos perditioni erudisset, ecclesiae restitueret, morte praeuentus est.

[3] Afterwards Marcion, having confessed repentance, met the condition given to him, thus to receive peace if he should also restore to the Church the others whom he had instructed unto perdition, but he was prevented by death.

[4] Oportebat enim haereses esse. Nec tamen ideo bonum haereses quia esse eas oportebat. Quasi non et malum oportuerit esse.

[4] For it was necessary that heresies exist. Nor yet on that account are heresies good, because it was necessary that they exist. As if evil too had not had to exist.

Nam et Dominum tradi oportebat sed uae traditori! ne quis etiam hinc haereses defendat.

For even the Lord had to be handed over, but woe to the traitor! lest anyone also from this defend heresies.

[5] Si et Apellis stemma retractandum est, tam non uetus et ipse quam Marcion institutor et praeformator eius, sed lapsus in feminam desertor continentiae Marcionensis, ab oculis sanctissimi magistri Alexandriam secessit.

[5] If the pedigree of Apelles too must be re-examined, he himself is no more ancient than Marcion, his institutor and pre-former; but, having lapsed into a woman, a deserter of Marcionite continence, he withdrew from the eyes of his most holy master to Alexandria.

[6] Inde post annos regressus non melior nisi tantum qua iam non Marcionites, in alteram feminam impegit, illam uirginem Philumenen, quam supra edidimus, postea uero inmane prostibulum et ipsam, cuius energemate circumuentus, quas ab ea didicit Fanerw&seij scripsit.

[6] Thence, after years, returning no better except only in that he was now no Marcionite, he ran into another woman— that virgin Philumena, whom we have set forth above— but afterwards, a monstrous prostitute she too; and, ensnared by her energema (operation), he wrote the Fanerw&seij which he learned from her.

[7] Adhuc in saeculo supersunt qui meminerint eorum, etiam proprii discentes et successores ipsorum ne se posteriores negare possint.

[7] Even now in the age there survive those who remember them, even their own disciples and their successors, so that those later cannot deny them.

[8] Quamquam et de operibus suis, ut dixit Dominus, reuincuntur.

[8] Although they are also convicted by their works, as the Lord said.

[9] Si enim Marcion nouum testamentum a uetere separauit, posterior est eo quod separauit quia separare non posset nisi quod unitum fuit.

[9] For if Marcion separated the New Testament from the Old, he is posterior to that which he separated, since he could not separate except what had been united.

[10] Vnitum ergo antequam separaretur postea separatum posteriorem ostendit separatorem.

[10] Therefore, that it was united before it was separated, and afterwards separated, shows the separator to be posterior.

[11] Item Valentinus aliter exponens et sine dubio emendans hoc nomine quicquid emendat, ut mendosum retro, anterius fuisse demonstrat.

[11] Likewise Valentinus, expounding otherwise and, without doubt, emending, by this very name demonstrates that whatever he emends had been earlier—faulty in time past.

[12] Hos ut insigniores et frequentiores adulteros ueritatis nominamus.

[12] We name these as the more notable and more frequent adulterers of the truth.

[13] Ceterum et Nigidius nescio qui et Hermogenes et multi alii adhuc ambulant peruertentes uias Domini. Cupio, ostendant mihi ex qua auctoritate prodierint.

[13] Moreover, both some Nigidius, I know not who, and Hermogenes, and many others still walk, perverting the ways of the Lord. I desire, let them show me from what authority they have proceeded.

[14] Si alium deum praedicant, quomodo eius Dei rebus et litteris nominibus utuntur aduersus quem praedicant? Si eumdem, quomodo aliter?

[14] If they proclaim another god, how do they use the things and letters and names of that God against him whom they proclaim? If the same one, how otherwise?

[15] Probent se nouos apostolos esse, dicant Christum iterum descendisse, iterum ipsum docuisse, iterum crucifixum, iterum mortuum, iterum resuscitatum.

[15] Let them prove that they are new apostles; let them say that Christ has descended again, has himself taught again, has been crucified again, has died again, has been resuscitated again.

[16] Sic enim apostolos solet facere, dare praeterea illis uirtutem eadem signa edendi quae et ipse.

[16] For thus he is wont to make apostles, and besides to give to them the power of producing the same signs as he himself.

[17] Volo igitur et uirtutes eorum proferri, nisi quod agnosco maximam uirtutem eorum qua apostolos in peruersum aemulantur. Illi enim de mortuis uiuos faciebant, isti de uiuis mortuos faciunt. XXXI.

[17] I wish, therefore, that their powers also be put forward, except that I acknowledge their greatest power, by which they emulate the apostles in reverse. For those men made the living out of the dead; these make the dead out of the living. 31.

[1] Sed ab excessu reuertar ad principalitatem ueritatis et posteritatem mendacitatis disputandam, ex illius quoque parabolae patrocinio quae bonum semen frumenti a Domino seminatum in primore constituit, auenarum autem sterilis faeni adulterium ab inimico diabolo postea superducit.

[1] But from the digression I will return to the principality of truth and the posteriority of falsehood to be discussed, under the patronage also of that parable which constitutes the good seed of wheat, sown by the Lord, as set in the first place, but brings in afterwards, oversown by the enemy, the Devil, the adulteration of oats—barren hay.

[2] Proprie enim doctrinarum distinctionem figurat quia et alibi uerbum Dei seminis similitudo est.

[2] For it properly figures the distinction of doctrines, because elsewhere also the Word of God is a likeness of seed.

[3] Ita ex ipso ordine manifestatur id esse dominicum et uerum quod sit prius traditum, id autem extraneum et falsum quod sit posterius immissum.

[3] Thus from the very order it is made manifest that what has been handed down earlier is dominical and true, but that which has been later introduced is extraneous and false.

[4] Ea sententia manebit aduersus posteriores quasque haereses, quibus nulla constantia de conscientia competit ad defendendam sibi ueritatem. XXXII.

[4] That sentence will remain against later and every heresy, for which no constancy from conscience is competent to defend verity for themselves. 32.

[1] Ceterum si quae audent interserere se aetati apostolicae ut ideo uideantur ab apostolis traditae quia sub apostolis fuerunt, possumus dicere: edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum, euoluant ordinem episcoporum suorum, ita per successionem ab initio decurrentem ut primus ille episcopus aliquem ex apostolis uel apostolicis uiris, qui tamen cum apostolis perseuerauerit, habuerit auctorem et antecessorem.

[1] Moreover, if any dare to insert themselves into the apostolic age, so that for that reason they may seem to have been transmitted by the apostles because they were under the apostles, we can say: let them therefore produce the origins of their churches, let them unroll the order of their bishops, thus running down by succession from the beginning, such that that first bishop shall have had as author and predecessor someone from the apostles or from apostolic men, who nevertheless persevered with the apostles.

[2] Hoc enim modo ecclesiae apostolicae census suos deferunt, sicut Smyrnaeorum ecclesia Polycarpum ab Iohanne conlocatum refert, sicut Romanorum Clementem a Petro ordinatum est.

[2] For in this manner the apostolic churches produce their registers, just as the church of the Smyrnaeans reports Polycarp as set in place by John, just as that of the Romans, Clement was ordained by Peter.

[3] Perinde utique et ceterae exhibent quos ab apostolis in episcopatum constitutos apostolici seminis traduces habeant.

[3] Likewise, of course, the others too present those whom, having been constituted by the apostles into the episcopate, they possess as lineages of apostolic seed.

[4] Confingant tale aliquid haeretici. Quid enim illis post blasphemiam inlicitum est?

[4] Let the heretics fabricate something of the sort. For what, indeed, is illicit for them after blasphemy?

[5] Sed etsi confinxerint, nihil promouebunt. Ipsa enim doctrina eorum cum apostolica comparata ex diuersitate et contrarietate sua pronuntiabit neque apostoli alicuius auctoris esse neque apostolici quia, sicut apostoli non diuersa inter se docuissent, ita et apostolici non contraria apostolis edidissent nisi illi, qui ab apostolis didicerunt, aliter praedicauerunt.

[5] But even if they have fabricated, they will advance nothing. For their doctrine itself, when compared with the apostolic, will by its own diversity and contrariety pronounce them to be neither of any apostle as author nor apostolic; because, just as the apostles would not have taught diverse things among themselves, so too those who are apostolic would not have set forth things contrary to the apostles—unless those who learned from the apostles preached otherwise.

[6] Ad hanc itaque formam prouocabuntur ab illis ecclesiis quae, licet nullum ex apostolis uel apostolicis auctorem suum proferant, ut multo posteriores, quae denique cottidie instituuntur, tamen in eadem fide conspirantes non minus apostolicae deputantur pro consanguinitate doctrinae.

[6] To this form, therefore, appeal will be made by those churches which, although they put forward no author of their own from the apostles or apostolic men—being much later, indeed, and in fact instituted every day—yet, conspiring in the same faith, are reckoned no less apostolic, by reason of the consanguinity of doctrine.

[7] Ita omnes haereses ad utramque formam a nostris ecclesiis prouocatae probent se quaqua putant apostolicas.

[7] Thus let all heresies, provoked by our churches to both forms, prove themselves to be apostolic in whatever way they suppose.

[8] Sed adeo nec sunt nec probare possunt quod non sunt, nec recipiuntur in pacem et communicationem ab ecclesiis quoquo modo apostolicis, scilicet ob diuersitatem sacramenti nullo modo apostolicae. XXXIII.

[8] But to such a degree they are not, nor can they prove what they are not, nor are they received into peace and communication by the churches in any way apostolic, namely, on account of the diversity of the sacrament, in no way apostolic. 33.

[1] Adhibeo super haec ipsarum doctrinarum recognitionem quae tunc sub apostolis fuerunt ab isdem apostolis et demonstratae et deieratae.

[1] In addition to these things, I adduce a recognition of the doctrines themselves, which then, under the apostles, were by those same apostles both demonstrated and sworn to.

[2] Nam et sic facilius traducentur dum aut iam tunc fuisse deprehendentur aut ex illis quae iam tunc fuerunt, semina sumpsisse.

[2] For even thus they will more easily be exposed, since either they will be discovered to have already then existed, or to have taken seeds from those things which already then existed.

[3] Paulus, in prima ad Corinthios notat negatores et dubitatores resurrectionis : haec opinio propria Sadducaeorum.

[3] Paul, in the First to the Corinthians notes negators and doubters of the resurrection : this opinion is proper to the Sadducees.

[4] Partem eius usurpat Marcion et Apelles et Valentinus et si qui alii resurrectionem carnis infringunt.

[4] Marcion and Apelles and Valentinus, and whatever others infringe the resurrection of the flesh, usurp a part of it.

[5] Et ad Galatas scribens inuehitur in obseruatores et defensores circumcisionis et legis, Hebionis haeresis sic est.

[5] And, writing to the Galatians, he inveighs against the observers and defenders of circumcision and of the law; such is the heresy of Ebion.

[6] Timotheum instruens nuptiarum quoque interdictores suggillat. Ita instituunt Marcion et Apelles eius secutor.

[6] Instructing Timothy, he also stigmatizes the interdictors of marriage. Thus do Marcion and Apelles, his follower, institute.

[7] Aeque tangit eos qui dicerent factam iam resurrectionem : id de se Valentiniani asseuerant.

[7] He likewise touches those who would say that the resurrection has already been done : the Valentinians asseverated this about themselves.

[8] Sed et cum genealogias indeterminatas nominat, Valentinus agnoscitur, apud quem Aeon ille nescio qui noui et non unius nominis generat e sua Charite Sensum et Veritatem; et hi aeque procreant ex se Sermonem et Vitam, dehinc et isti generant Hominem et Ecclesiam de qua prima ogdoade Aeonum exinde decem alii et duodecim reliqui Aeones miris nominibus oriuntur in meram fabulam triginta Aeonum.

[8] But even when he names indeterminate genealogies, Valentinus is recognized: with him that I-know-not-what new Aeon, not of a single name, from his own Charis, begets Sense and Truth; and these likewise beget from themselves Discourse (Word) and Life; then these in turn beget Man and Church; from which first ogdoad of Aeons, thereafter ten others and the remaining twelve Aeons arise with wondrous names, into the sheer fable of thirty Aeons.

[9] Idem apostolus, cum improbat elementis seruientes, aliquid Hermogenis ostendit qui, materiam non natam introducens Deo non nato eam comparat et ita matrem elementorum deam faciens potest ei seruire quam Deo comparat.

[9] The same apostle, when he disapproves those serving the elements, points out something of Hermogenes, who, introducing unbegotten matter, compares it to the unbegotten God, and thus, making the mother of the elements a goddess, can serve her whom he compares to God.

[10] Ioannes uero in Apocalypsi idolothyta edentes et stupra committentes iubetur castigare: sunt et nunc alii Nicolaitae, Caiana haeresis dicitur.

[10] But John in the Apocalypse is commanded to chastise those eating idolothyta and committing debaucheries: there are even now other Nicolaitans; the heresy is called Caian.

[11] At in epistula eos maxime antichristos uocat qui Christum negarent in carne uenisse et qui non putarent Iesum esse filium Dei: illud Marcion, hoc Hebion uindicauit.

[11] But in the epistle he calls those especially antichrists who denied that Christ had come in the flesh and who did not think Jesus to be the Son of God: the former Marcion claimed, the latter Ebion claimed.

[12] Simonianae autem magiae disciplina angelis seruiens utique et ipsa inter idololatrias deputabatur, et a Petro apostolo in ipso Simone damnabatur.

[12] But the discipline of Simonian magic, serving angels, was assuredly itself reckoned among idolatries, and was condemned by the Apostle Peter in Simon himself.

XXXIV.

34.

[1] Haec sunt, ut arbitror, genera doctrinarum adulterinarum quae sub apostolis fuisse ab ipsis apostolis discimus.

[1] These are, as I judge, the genera of adulterine doctrines which we learn from the apostles themselves to have existed under the apostles.

[2] Et tamen nullam inuenimus institutionem inter tot diuersitates peruersitatum quae de Deo creatore uniuersorum controuersiam mouerit.

[2] And yet we find no institution among so many diversities of perversions that has stirred a controversy about God, the creator of the universe.

[3] Nemo alterum deum ausus est suspicari, facilius de filio quam de patre haesitabatur, donec Marcion praeter Creatorem alium Deum solius bonitatis induceret.

[3] No one dared to suspect another god; there was greater hesitation about the Son than about the Father, until Marcion, besides the Creator, introduced another God of sole goodness.

[4] Apelles creatorem angelum nescio quem gloriosum superioris Dei faceret deum legis et Israelis, illum igneum affirmans, Valentinus Aeonas suos spargeret et unius Aeonis uitium in originem deduceret Dei creatoris.

[4] Apelles would make the creator some I-know-not-what glorious angel of the higher God, the god of the Law and of Israel, affirming him fiery; Valentinus would scatter his Aeons and would derive the fault of a single Aeon into the origin of the Creator God.

[5] His solis et his primis reuelata est ueritas diuinitatis, maiorem scilicet dignationem et pleniorem gratiam a diabolo consecutis qui Deum sic quoque uoluerit aemulari, ut de doctrinis uenenorum, quod Dominus negauit, ipse faceret discipulos super magistrum.

[5] To these alone and to these first the truth of divinity was revealed, namely to those who had obtained from the devil a greater dignation and a fuller grace, who likewise wished to emulate God in such a way that, from doctrines of poisons—what the Lord denied—he himself would make the disciples above the master.

[6] Eligant igitur sibi tempora uniuersae haereses quae quando fuerint - dum non intersit quae quando dum de ueritate non sint - et utique quae sub apostolis non fuerunt, fuisse non possunt.

[6] Let, therefore, all heresies choose for themselves the times when they may have been - since it does not matter which were when, seeing they are not of the truth - and assuredly those which were not under the apostles cannot have been.

[7] Si enim fuissent, nominarentur et ipsae ut et ipsae coercendae; quae uero sub apostolis fuerunt, in sua nominatione damnantur.

[7] For if they had existed, they too would be named, so that they too might be coerced; but those which were under the apostles are condemned in their very nomination.

[8] Siue ergo eaedem nunc sunt aliquanto expolitiores quae sub apostolis rudes, habent suam exinde damnationem, siue aliae quidem fuerunt, aliae autem postea obortae, quidam ex illis opinionis usurpauerunt, habendo cum eis consortium praedicationis habeant necesse est etiam consortium damnationis, praecedente illo fine supradicto posteritatis, quo etsi nihil de damnaticiis participarent, de aetate sola praeiudicarentur, tanto magis adulterae quanto nec ab apostolis nominatae.

[8] Whether therefore they are the same now, somewhat more polished, which under the apostles were rough, they have their damnation from that point; or whether some indeed existed, others however arose afterward, some from them have usurped opinion; by having with them a consortium of preaching, it is necessary that they also have a consortium of damnation, with that aforementioned boundary of posterity going before, whereby even if they were to share nothing of the things condemned, they would be prejudged by age alone, all the more adulterous, inasmuch as they were not even named by the apostles.

[9] Vnde firmius constat has esse quae adhuc tunc nuntiabantur futurae.

[9] Whence it is more firmly established that these are those which even then were being announced as future.

XXXV.

35.

[1] His definitionibus prouocatae a nobis et reuictae haereses omnes, siue quae posterae, siue quae coaetaneae apostolorum, dummodo diuersae, siue generaliter siue specialiter notatae ab eis, dummodo praedamnatae, audeant respondere et ipsae aliquas eiusmodi praescriptiones aduersus nostram disciplinam.

[1] By these definitions, all heresies, provoked by us and vanquished anew—whether those that are later, or those contemporaneous with the apostles, provided that they are divergent; whether noted by them generally or specially, provided that they have been pre-condemned—let them dare to respond, and they too to bring forward some prescriptions of this sort against our discipline.

[2] Si enim negant ueritatem eius, debent probare illam quoque haeresin esse, eadem forma reuictam qua ipsae reuincuntur, et ostendere simul ubinam quaerenda sit ueritas quam apud illas non esse iam constat.

[2] For if they deny its truth, they ought to prove that it too is heresy, refuted in the same form by which they themselves are refuted, and at the same time to show where exactly the truth is to be sought, which is already established not to be among them.

[3] Posterior nostra res non est, immo omnibus prior est. Hoc erit testimonium ueritatis ubique occupantis principatum.

[3] Our matter is not posterior; nay, it is prior to all. This will be the testimony of the truth occupying primacy everywhere.

[4] Apostolis non damnatur, immo defenditur: hoc erit indicium proprietatis;

[4] By the Apostles it is not condemned, nay rather it is defended: this will be the indication of ownership;

[5] quam enim non damnant qui extraneam quamque damnarunt, suam ostendunt, ideoque et defendunt.

[5] For what they do not condemn, they who have condemned every extraneous thing, they show to be their own, and therefore they also defend it.

XXXVI.

36.

[1] Age iam, qui uoles curiositatem melius exercere in negotio salutis tuae, percurre ecclesias apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhuc cathedrae apostolorum suis locis praesident, apud quas ipsae authenticae litterae eorum recitantur sonantes uocem et repraesentantes faciem uniuscuiusque .

[1] Come now, you who wish to exercise your curiosity better in the business of your salvation, run through the apostolic churches, at which the very chairs of the apostles still preside in their own places, at which their very authentic letters are recited, sounding the voice and representing the face of each and every one.

[2] Proxima est tibi Achaia, habes Corinthum. Si non longe es a Macedonia, habes Philippos; si potes in Asiam tendere, habes Ephesum; si autem Italiae adiaces , habes Romam unde nobis quoque auctoritas praesto est .

[2] Achaea is nearest to you; you have Corinth. If you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi; if you can tend toward Asia, you have Ephesus; but if you are adjacent to Italy , you have Rome, whence for us also authority is at hand .

[3] Ista quam felix ecclesia cui totam doctrinam apostoli cum sanguine suo profuderunt, ubi Petrus passioni dominicae adaequatur, ubi Paulus Ioannis exitu coronatur, ubi apostolus Ioannes posteaquam in oleum igneum demersus nihil passus est, in insulam relegatur;

[3] That church, how happy, to which the apostles poured forth their whole doctrine together with their own blood, where Peter is equated to the Lord’s passion, where Paul is crowned with John’s exit, where the apostle John, after he was plunged into fiery oil and suffered nothing, is relegated to an island;

[4] uideamus quid didicerit, quid docuerit: cum Africanis quoque ecclesiis contesseratis,

[4] let us see what he learned, what he taught: when you had exchanged the tessera with the African churches as well,

[5] unum Deum Dominum nouit, creatorem uniuersitatis, et Christum Iesum ex uirgine Maria filium Dei creatoris, et carnis resurrectionem, legem et prophetas cum euangelicis et apostolicis litteris miscet, et inde potat fidem; eam aqua signat, sancto spiritu uestit, eucharistia pascit, martyrium exhortatur et ita aduersus hanc institutionem neminem recipit.

[5] it knows one God the Lord, creator of the universe, and Christ Jesus from the Virgin Mary, the Son of God the creator, and the resurrection of the flesh; it mixes the Law and the Prophets with the Evangelical and Apostolic letters, and from there imbibes faith; it seals with water, clothes with the Holy Spirit, feeds with the Eucharist, exhorts to martyrdom, and thus, against this institution, it admits no one.

[6] Haec est institutio, non dico iam quae futuras haereses praenuntiabat sed de qua haereses prodierunt. Sed non sunt ex illa , ex quo factae sunt aduersus illam.

[6] This is the institution, I do not now say the one which was preannouncing future heresies, but the one from which heresies have proceeded. But they are not of it , since they have been made against it.

[7] Etiam de oliuae nucleo mitis et optimae et necessariae asper oleaster oritur; etiam de papauere ficus gratissimae et suauissimae uentosa et uana caprificus exsurgit.

[7] Even from the kernel of the olive—of the mild and best and necessary—the rough oleaster arises; even from the poppy of the most pleasing and most sweet fig, the windy and vain caprificus springs up.

[8] Ita et haereses de nostro frutice, non nostro genere, ueritatis grano sed mendacio siluestres.

[8] Thus too heresies arise from our shrub, not from our genus; not from the grain of truth, but wild-grown through mendacity.

XXXVII.

37.

[1] Si haec ita se habent, ut ueritas nobis adiudicetur, quicumque in ea regula incedimus quam ecclesiae ab apostolis, apostoli a Christo, Christus a Deo tradidit, constat ratio propositi nostri definientis non esse admittendos haereticos ad ineundam de scripturis prouocationem quos sine scripturis probamus ad scripturas non pertinere.

[1] If these things are thus, that truth is adjudicated to us, we who walk in that rule which the churches from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God handed down, it is evident—the reasoning of our purpose defining—that heretics are not to be admitted to enter upon a provocation from the Scriptures, whom, without the Scriptures, we prove not to pertain to the Scriptures.

[2] Si enim haeretici sunt, christiani esse non possunt, non a Christo habendo quod de sua electione sectati haereticorum nomine admittunt.

[2] For if they are heretics, they cannot be Christians, not having from Christ that which, having followed by their own election, they admit under the name of heretics.

[3] Ita non christiani nullum ius capiunt christianarum litterarum ad quos merito dicendum est: ' Qui estis? quando et unde uenistis? quid in meo agitis, non mei?

[3] Thus, non-Christians take no right to the Christian literature, to whom it is deservedly to be said: ' Who are you? when and whence did you come? what are you doing in what is mine, you who are not mine?

quo denique, Marcion, iure siluam meam caedis? qua licentia, Valentine, fontes meos transuertis? qua potestate, Apelles, limites meos commoues ?

by what right, Marcion, do you fell my forest? by what license, Valentine, do you divert my springs? by what power, Apelles, do you disturb my boundaries ?

[4] [mea est possessio,] Quid hic, ceteri, ad uoluntatem uestram seminatis et pascitis? Mea est possessio, olim possideo, prior possideo, habeo origines firmas ab ipsis auctoribus quorum fuit res.

[4] [Mine is the possession,] What are you doing here, the rest of you, sowing and pasturing according to your will? Mine is the possession; I have long possessed it, I possessed it first; I have firm origins from the very authors to whom the matter belonged.

[5] Ego sum heres apostolorum. Sicut cauerunt testamento suo, sicut fidei commiserunt, sicut adiurauerunt, ita teneo.

[5] I am the heir of the apostles. As they provided in their testament, as they committed it to the faith, as they adjured, thus I hold.

[6] Vos certe exheredauerunt semper et abdicauerunt ut extraneos, ut inimicos'.

[6] You, surely, they have always disinherited and disowned as outsiders, as enemies'.

[7] Vnde autem extranei et inimici apostolis haeretici, nisi ex diuersitate doctrinae, quam unusquisque de suo arbitrio aduersus apostolos aut protulit aut recepit?

[7] Whence, moreover, are heretics outsiders and enemies to the apostles, if not from a diversity of doctrine, which each, by his own judgment, either put forward against the apostles or received?

XXXVIII.

38.

[1] Illic igitur et scripturarum et expositionum adulteratio deputanda est ubi diuersitas doctrinae inuenitur.

[1] There, therefore, both the adulteration of the scriptures and of expositions is to be reckoned where a diversity of doctrine is found.

[2] Quibus fuit propositum aliter docendi, eos necessitas institit aliter disponendi instrumenta doctrinae.

[2] For those whose purpose was to teach otherwise, necessity pressed them to dispose the instruments of doctrine otherwise.

[3] Alias enim non potuissent aliter docere nisi aliter haberent per quae docerent. Sicut illis non potuisset succedere corruptela doctrinae sine corruptela instrumentorum eius, ita et nobis integritas doctrinae non competisset sine integritate eorum per quae doctrina tractatur.

[3] For otherwise they could not have taught otherwise unless they had otherwise the things through which they taught. Just as corruption of doctrine could not have come to pass for them without corruption of its instruments, so also for us integrity of doctrine would not have been fitting without the integrity of those things through which doctrine is handled.

[4] Etenim quid contrarium nobis in nostris? Quid de proprio intulimus ut aliquid contrarium ei et in Scripturis deprehensum detractione uel adiectione uel transmutatione remediaremus?

[4] Indeed, what is contrary to us in our own things? What have we introduced of our own, so that we might remedy something contrary to it, even found in the Scriptures, by detraction or by addition or by transmutation?

[5] Quod sumus, hoc sunt scripturae ab initio suo. Ex illis sumus, antequam nihil aliter fuit quam sumus; quid denique fuit, antequam a uobis interpolarentur?

[5] What we are, this the Scriptures are from their beginning. We are from them, before there was anything otherwise than what we are; what, finally, were they, before they were interpolated by you?

[6] Cum autem omnis interpolatio posterior credenda sit, ueniens utique ex causa aemulationis quae neque prior neque domestica unquam est eius quod aemulatur, tam incredibile est sapienti cuique ut nos adulterum stilum intulisse uideamur scripturis qui sumus et primi et ex ipsis, quam illos non intulisse qui sunt et posteri et aduersi.

[6] But since every interpolation is to be held posterior, coming, to be sure, from a cause of emulation which is neither prior nor ever domestic to that which it emulates, it is as unbelievable to any wise person that we, who are both first and from the very scriptures, should seem to have introduced an adulterating stylus into the scriptures, as that those men, who are both later and adversaries, did not introduce it.

[7] Alius manu scripturas, alius sensus expositione interuertit.

[7] One interverts the scriptures by hand, another interverts the sense by exposition.

[8] Neque enim si Valentinus integro instrumento uti uidetur, non callidiore ingenio quam Marcion manus intulit ueritati.

[8] For not even if Valentinus seems to use an intact instrument did he, with craftier ingenuity than Marcion, fail to lay hands upon the truth.

[9] Marcion enim exerte et palam machaera, non stilo usus est, quoniam ad materiam suam caedem scripturarum confecit.

[9] For Marcion, boldly and openly, used a sword, not a stylus, since, for his own material, he completed a slaughter of the Scriptures.

[10] Valentinus autem pepercit quoniam non ad materiam scripturas sed materiam ad scripturas excogitauit. Et tamen plus abstulit et plus adiecit, auferens proprietates singulorum quoque uerborum et adiiciens dispositiones non comparentium rerum.

[10] Valentinus, however, spared them, since he did not contrive the scriptures to the material, but the material to the scriptures. And yet he took away more and added more, removing the properties even of the individual words, and adding dispositions of things that do not appear.

XXXIX.

39.

[1] Haec sunt ingenia de spiritalibus nequitiae cum quibus luctatio est nobis, fratres, merito contemplanda, fidei necessaria ut electi manifestentur, ut reprobi detegantur.

[1] These are the ingenious devices of spiritual wickednesses with which our wrestling is, brothers, deservedly to be contemplated, necessary to faith, so that the elect may be made manifest, so that the reprobate may be detected.

[2] Et ideo habent uim et in excogitandis instruendisque erroribus facilitatem, non adeo mirandam quasi difficilem et inexplicabilem, cum de saecularibus quoque scripturis exemplum praesto sit eiusmodi facilitatis.

[2] And therefore they have force and a facility in excogitating and constructing errors, not so to be wondered at as though it were difficult and inexplicable, since from secular writings too an example is at hand of a facility of this sort.

[3] Vides hodie ex Virgilio fabulam in totum aliam componi, materia secundum uersus et uersibus secundum materiam concinnatis.

[3] You see today out of Virgil a wholly other fable being composed, with the material concinnated according to the verses and the verses concinnated according to the material.

[4] Denique Hosidius Geta Medeam tragoediam ex Virgilio plenissime exsuxit. Meus quidam propinquus ex eodem poeta inter cetera stili sui otia Pinacem Cebetis explicuit.

[4] Finally, Hosidius Geta most fully extracted the tragedy Medea from Virgil. A certain kinsman of mine, from the same poet, among the other leisures of his pen, explicated the Pinax of Cebes.

[5] Homerocentones etiam uocari solent qui de carminibus Homeri propria opera more centonario ex multis hinc inde compositis in unum sarciunt corpus.

[5] Those who, from the songs of Homer, by their own effort, in centonary fashion, from many pieces composed here and there, patch together into one corpus, are also wont to be called Homerocentones.

[6] Et utique fecundior diuina litteratura ad facultatem cuiuscumque materiae.

[6] And assuredly the divine literature is more fecund for the faculty of any material whatsoever.

[7] Nec periclitor dicere, ipsas quoque scripturas sic esse ex Dei uoluntate dispositas, ut haereticis materias subministrarent cum legam oportere haereses esse, quae sine scripturis esse non possunt.

[7] Nor do I hesitate to say that the scriptures themselves also have been thus disposed by the will of God, so as to supply materials to heretics, since I read that heresies ought to exist, which cannot exist without the scriptures.

XL.

40.

[1] Sed quaeritur, a quo intellectus interuertatur eorum quae ad haereses faciant?

[1] But it is inquired: by whom is the understanding inverted of the things which are conducive to heresies?

[2] A diabolo scilicet, cuius sunt partes interuertendi ueritatem qui ipsas quoque res sacramentorum diuinorum idolorum mysteriis aemulatur.

[2] From the devil, of course, whose part it is to intervert the truth, who also emulates the very things of the divine sacraments by the mysteries of idols.

[3] Tingit et ipse quosdam utique credentes et fideles suos; expositionem delictorum de lauacro repromittit,

[3] He too baptizes certain persons, to wit his own believers and faithful; he promises the remission of sins from the laver,

[4] et si adhuc memini Mithrae, signat illic in frontibus milites suos. Celebrat et panis oblationem et imaginem resurrectionis inducit et sub gladio redimit coronam.

[4] and, if I still remember Mithras, there he signs on the foreheads his soldiers. He also celebrates an oblation of bread and introduces an image of resurrection, and under a sword he binds the crown.

[5] Quid, quod et summum pontificem in unis nuptiis statuit? Habet et uirgines, habet et continentes.

[5] What of the fact that he also appoints the supreme pontiff to one marriage? He has both virgins, and he has the continent.

[6] Ceterum si Numae Pompilii superstitiones reuoluamus, si sacerdotalia officia et insignia et priuilegia, si sacrificantium ministeria et instrumenta et uasa, ipsorum sacrificiorum ac piaculorum et uotorum curiositates consideremus, nonne manifeste diabolus morositatem illam Iudaicae legis imitatus est?

[6] But if we review the superstitions of Numa Pompilius, if the sacerdotal offices and insignia and privileges, if the ministries of those sacrificing and the instruments and vessels, we consider the curiosities of the sacrifices themselves and of the expiations and of the vows, did not the devil manifestly imitate that punctiliousness of the Jewish law?

[7] Qui ergo ipsas res de quibus sacramenta Christi administrantur, tam aemulanter adfectauit exprimere in negotiis idololatriae, utique et idem et eodem ingenio gestiit et potuit instrumenta quoque diuinarum rerum et sanctorum christianorum, sensum de sensibus, uerba de uerbis, parabolas de parabolis, profanae et aemulae fidei attemperare.

[7] Therefore he who has so emulously aimed to express, in the dealings of idolatry, the very things with regard to which the sacraments of Christ are administered, assuredly also, the same and with the same ingenuity, has been eager and able to attune even the instruments of divine things and of holy Christians—sense from senses, words from words, parables from parables—to a profane and rival faith.

[8] Et ideo neque a diabolo inmissa esse spiritalia nequitiae, ex quibus etiam haereses ueniunt, dubitare quis debet, neque ab idololatria distare haereses cum et auctoris et operis eiusdem sint, cuius et idololatria.

[8] And therefore no one ought to doubt that the spiritual wickednesses are introduced by the devil—whence heresies also come—and that heresies do not differ from idolatry, since they are both of the same author and of the same work, of which idolatry also is.

[9] Deum aut fingunt alium aduersus creatorem aut si unicum creatorem confitentur, aliter eum disserunt quam in uero est.

[9] They either feign another God in opposition to the creator, or, if they confess a unique creator, they discourse of him otherwise than he is in truth.

[10] Itaque omne mendacium quod de Deo dicunt, quoddammodo genus est idololatriae.

[10] Therefore every mendacity which they speak about God is, in a certain manner, a kind of idolatry.

XLI.

41.

[1] Non omittam ipsius etiam conuersationis haereticae descriptionem quam futilis, quam terrena, quam humana sit, sine grauitate, sine auctoritate, sine disciplina ut fidei suae congruens.

[1] I will not omit even the description of the heretical conversation itself—how futile, how terrene, how human it is, without gravity, without authority, without discipline, as congruent with its own faith.

[2] In primis quis catechumenus, quis fidelis incertum est, pariter adeunt, pariter audiunt, pariter orant; etiam ethnici si superuenerint, sanctum canibus et porcis margaritas, licet non ueras, iactabunt.

[2] In the first place, who is a catechumen, who is of the faithful, is uncertain; they come forward alike, they hear alike, they pray alike; even pagans, if they should chance to come in, will cast the holy to dogs and pearls to swine—though not genuine ones.

[3] Simplicitatem uolunt esse prostrationem disciplinae cuius penes nos curam lenocinium uocant. Pacem quoque passim cum omnibus miscent.

[3] They want simplicity to be a prostration of discipline, the care of which among us they call pandering (lenociny). They also indiscriminately mingle peace with all.

[4] Nihil enim interest illis, licet diuersa tractantibus, dum ad unius ueritatis expugnationem conspirent. Omnes tument, omnes scientiam pollicentur. Ante sunt perfecti catechumeni quam edocti.

[4] For nothing makes a difference to them, though dealing with diverse matters, so long as they conspire for the assault upon the one truth. All are swollen, all promise science. They are perfect catechumens before they are taught.

[5] Ipsae mulieres haereticae, quam procaces! quae audeant docere, contendere, exorcismos agere, curationes repromittere, fortasse an et tingere.

[5] The heretical women themselves—how brazen!—who dare to teach, to contend, to perform exorcisms, to promise cures, perhaps even to baptize.

[6] Ordinationes eorum temerariae, leues, inconstantes. Nunc neophytos conlocant, nunc saeculo obstrictos, nunc apostatas nostros ut gloria eos obligent quia ueritate non possunt.

[6] Their ordinations are temerarious, light, inconstant. Now they appoint neophytes, now those bound to the world, now our apostates, so that by glory they may bind them, since by truth they cannot.

[7] Nusquam facilius proficitur quam in castris rebellium ubi ipsum esse illic promereri est.

[7] Nowhere is one advanced more easily than in the camp of the rebels, where to be there itself is to merit.

[8] Itaque alius hodie episcopus, cras alius; hodie diaconus qui cras lector; hodie presbyter qui cras laicus. Nam et laicis sacerdotalia munera iniungunt.

[8] And so one man is bishop today, tomorrow another; today a deacon who tomorrow is a lector; today a presbyter who tomorrow is a layman. For they even impose sacerdotal duties upon laymen.

XLII.

42.

[1] De uerbi autem administratione quid dicam cum hoc sit negotium illis, non ethnicos conuertendi sed nostros euertendi?

[1] But concerning the administration of the word, what am I to say, since this is their business: not converting the pagans, but subverting our own?

[2] Hanc magis gloriam captant, si stantibus ruinam, non si iacentibus eleuationem operentur. Quoniam et ipsum opus eorum non de suo proprio aedificio uenit sed de ueritatis destructione, nostra suffodiunt ut sua aedificent:

[2] They grasp at this kind of glory more, if they effect ruin for those who are standing, not if they work an elevation for those who are lying low. Since even their very work does not come from their own proper building but from the destruction of truth, they undermine ours so that they may build their own:

[3] adime illis legem Moysi et prophetas et creatorem Deum, accusationem et loqui non habent. [

[3] take away from them the law of Moses and the prophets and the Creator God, they have no accusation and nothing to say. [

[4] Ita fit ut ruinas facilius operentur stantium aedificiorum quam exstructiones iacentium ruinarum.]

[4] Thus it comes about that they more easily work ruins of standing edifices than exstructions of fallen ruins.]

[5] Ad haec solummodo opera humiles et blandi et summissi agunt. Ceterum nec suis praesidibus reuerentiam nouerunt.

[5] For these works alone they act humble and blandishing and submissive. Moreover, they have not known reverence toward their own leaders.

[6] Et hoc est quod scismata apud haereticos fere non sunt quia, cum sint, non parent: schisma est enim unitas ipsa.

[6] And this is why schisms among heretics are hardly to be found, because, when they exist, they do not obey: for schism is unity itself.

[7] Mentior si non etiam a regulis suis uariant inter se dum unusquisque proinde suo arbitrio modulatur quae accepit, quemadmodum de suo arbitrio ea composuit ille qui tradidit.

[7] I would be lying if they do not even vary among themselves from their own rules, while each one accordingly modulates, by his own arbitrament, the things he has received, just as, by his own arbitrament, he who delivered them composed them.

[8] Agnoscit naturam suam et originis suae morem profectus rei. Idem licuit Valentinianis quod Valentino, idem Marcionitis quod Marcioni, de arbitrio suo fidem innouare.

[8] The progress of the matter recognizes its own nature and the custom of its origin. The same was permitted to the Valentinians as to Valentinus, the same to the Marcionites as to Marcion: to innovate the faith by their own arbitrament.

[9] Denique penitus inspectae haereses omnes in multis cum auctoribus suis dissentientes deprehenduntur.

[9] Finally, when thoroughly inspected, all heresies are discovered, along with their authors, to be dissenting in many things.

[10] Plerique nec ecclesias habent, sine matre, sine sede, orbi fide, extorres, quasi sibilati uagantur.

[10] Most have not even churches, without mother, without see, bereft of faith, exiles, they wander as if hissed off.

XLIII.

43.

[1] Notata sunt etiam commercia haereticorum cum magis quam plurimis, cum circulatoribus, cum astrologis, cum philosophis, curiositati scilicet deditis.

[1] Also noted are the dealings of heretics with very many magi, with circulators, with astrologers, with philosophers, plainly devoted to curiosity.

[2] Quaerite et inuenietis ubique meminerunt. Adeo et de genere conuersationis qualitas fidei aestimari potest: doctrinae index disciplina est.

[2] Seek and you will find; they have remembered it everywhere. Thus even from the kind of conversation (way of life) the quality of faith can be estimated: discipline is the index of doctrine.

[3] Negant Deum timendum: itaque libera sunt illis omnia et soluta.

[3] They deny that God is to be feared: and so all things are free to them and unbound.

[4] Vbi autem Deus non timetur nisi ubi non est? ubi Deus non est, nec ueritas ulla est; ubi ueritas nulla est, merito et talis disciplina est.

[4] But where is God not feared, except where he is not? where God is not, there is no verity at all; where there is no verity, deservedly there is also such a discipline.

[5] At ubi Deus, ibi metus in Deum qui est initium sapientiae. Vbi metus in Deum, ibi grauitas honesta et diligentia attonita et cura sollicita et adlectio explorata et communicatio deliberata et promotio emerita et subiectio religiosa et apparitio deuota et processio modesta, et ecclesia unita et Dei omnia.

[5] But where God is, there is fear toward God which is the beginning of wisdom. Where there is fear toward God, there is honorable gravity and awestruck diligence and solicitous care and well-vetted adlection and deliberate communion and merited promotion and religious subjection and devoted service and modest procession, and a united church and all things of God.

XLIV.

44.

[1] Proinde haec pressioris apud nos testimonia disciplinae ad probationem ueritatis accedunt, a qua diuertere nemini expedit qui meminerit futuri iudicii, quo omnes nos necesse est apud Christi tribunal astare, reddentes rationem in primis fidei ipsius.

[1] Accordingly these testimonies of a more stringent discipline among us come in toward the probation of the truth, from which it is expedient for no one to divert who remembers the future judgment, at which it is necessary for us all to stand before the tribunal of Christ, rendering an account, in the first place, of faith itself.

[2] Quid ergo dicent, qui illam stuprauerint adulterio haeretico uirginem traditam a Christo?

[2] What, therefore, will they say, who have defiled that virgin handed over by Christ with heretical adultery?

[3] Credo allegabunt nihil unquam sibi ab illo uel apostolis eius, de saeuis et peruersis doctrinis futuris praenuntiatum et de cauendis abominandisque praeceptum.

[3] I believe they will allege that nothing ever was foretold to them by him or by his apostles about the future savage and perverse doctrines, and that no precept was given about shunning and abominating them.

[4] Agnoscant suam potius culpam quam illorum qui non ante praestruxerunt.

[4] Let them recognize their own fault rather than that of those who did not previously forestall it.

[5] Adicient praeterea multa de auctoritate cuiusque doctoris haeretici: signis illos maxime doctrinae suae fidem confirmasse, mortuos suscitasse, debiles reformasse, futura significasse uti merito apostoli crederentur.

[5] They will add, moreover, many things about the authority of each heretical doctor: that especially by signs they have confirmed the faith of their doctrine, have resuscitated the dead, have re-formed the debilitated, have signified future things, so that they were deservedly believed to be apostles.

[6] Quasi nec hoc scriptum sit uenturos multos qui etiam uirtutes maximas ederent ad fallaciam muniendam corruptae praedicationis. Itaque ueniam merebuntur.

[6] As if this too were not written: that many would come who would even put forth the greatest powers to fortify the fallacy of a corrupted preaching. And so they will merit pardon.

[7] Si uero memores dominicarum et apostolicarum [scripturarum et] denuntiationum in fide integra steterint, credo de uenia periclitabuntur respondente Domino:

[7] But if indeed, mindful of the dominical and apostolic [of the Scriptures too] denunciations, they have stood firm in intact faith, I believe they will be tested concerning pardon, with the Lord responding:

[8] 'Praenuntiaueram plane futuros fallaciae magistros in meo nomine et prophetarum et apostolorum etiam, et discentibus meis eadem ad uos praedicare mandaueram.

[8] 'I had plainly pre-announced that there would be masters of fallacy in my name, and of the prophets and of the apostles as well, and I had commanded my disciples to proclaim the same things to you.

[9] Semel euangelium et eiusdem regulae doctrinam apostolis meis delegaueram. Sed cum uos non crederetis, libuit mihi postea aliqua inde mutare.

[9] Once I had delegated the evangel and the doctrine of the same rule to my apostles. But since you did not believe, it pleased me afterward to change some things therefrom.

[10] Resurrectionem promiseran etiam carnis sed recogitaui ne implere non possem. Natum me ostenderam ex uirgine sed postea turpe mihi uisum est.

[10] I had even promised a resurrection of the flesh, but I reconsidered, lest I should not be able to fulfill it. I had shown myself born from a virgin, but afterward it seemed shameful to me.

[11] Patrem dixeram qui solem et pluuias fecit, sed alius me pater melior adoptauit. Prohibueram uos aurem accommodare haereticis sed erraui.'

[11] I had said Father of him who made the sun and the rains, but another father, a better one, has adopted me. I had forbidden you to lend an ear to heretics, but I erred.'

[12] Talia capit opinari eos qui exorbitant et fidei ueritatis periculum non cauent.

[12] Such opinions seize those who deviate and do not take caution against the peril to the truth of the faith.

[13] Sed nunc quidem generaliter actum est a nobis aduersus haereses omnes certis et iustis et necessariis praescriptionibus repellendas a conlatione scripturarum.

[13] But now indeed, in general, it has been handled by us against all heresies, that by certain, just, and necessary prescriptions they be repelled from the collation of the Scriptures.

[14] De reliquo si Dei gratia adnuerit etiam specialiter quibusdam respondebimus.

[14] As to the remainder, if by the grace of God it shall have assented, we will also respond specifically to certain matters.