(Updated July 17, 2025)
St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215) | EAST
St. Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies (c. 207)
(Book 7, Ch. 15-16)
(Ch. 15) Since it comes next to reply to the objections alleged against us by Greeks and Jews; and since, in some of the questions previously discussed, the sects also who adhere to other teaching give their help, it will be well first to clear away the obstacles before us, and then, prepared thus for the solution of the difficulties, to advance to the succeeding Miscellany.
First, then, they make this objection to us, saying, that they ought not to believe on account of the discord of the sects. For the truth is warped when some teach one set of dogmas, others another.
To whom we say, that among you who are Jews, and among the most famous of the philosophers among the Greeks, very many sects have sprung up. And yet you do not say that one ought to hesitate to philosophize or Judaize, because of the want of agreement of the sects among you between themselves. And then, that heresies should be sown among the truth, as “tares among the wheat,” was foretold by the Lord; and what was predicted to take place could not but happen [Matt. 13:28]. And the cause of this is, that everything that is fair is followed by a foul blot. If one, then, violate his engagements, and go aside from the confession which he makes before us, are we not to stick to the truth because he has belied his profession? But as the good man must not prove false or fail to ratify what he has promised, although others violate their engagements; so also are we bound in no way to transgress the canon of the Church. And especially do we keep our profession in the most important points, while they traverse it.
Those, then, are to be believed, who hold firmly to the truth. And we may broadly make use of this reply, and say to them, that physicians holding opposite opinions according to their own schools, yet equally in point of fact treat patients. Does one, then, who is ill in body and needing treatment, not have recourse to a physician, on account of the different schools in medicine? No more, then, may he who in soul is sick and full of idols, make a pretext of the heresies, in reference to the recovery of health and conversion to God.
Further, it is said that it is on account of “those that are approved that heresies exist” (1 Cor. 11:19). [The apostle] calls “approved,” either those who in reaching faith apply to the teaching of the Lord with some discrimination (as those are called skillful money-changers, who distinguish the spurious coin from the genuine by the false stamp), or those who have already become approved both in life and knowledge.
For this reason, then, we require greater attention and consideration in order to investigate how precisely we ought to live, and what is the true piety. For it is plain that, from the very reason that truth is difficult and arduous of attainment, questions arise from which spring the heresies, savoring of self-love and vanity, of those who have not learned or apprehended truly, but only caught up a mere conceit of knowledge. With the greater care, therefore, are we to examine the real truth, which alone has for its object the true God. And the toil is followed by sweet discovery and reminiscence.
On account of the heresies, therefore, the toil of discovery must be undertaken; but we must not at all abandon [the truth]. For, on fruit being set before us, some real and ripe, and some made of wax, as like the real as possible, we are not to abstain from both on account of the resemblance. But by the exercise of the apprehension of contemplation, and by reasoning of the most decisive character, we must distinguish the true from the seeming.
And as, while there is one royal highway, there are many others, some leading to a precipice, some to a rushing river or to a deep sea, no one will shrink from traveling by reason of the diversity, but will make use of the safe, and royal, and frequented way; so, though some say this, some that, concerning the truth, we must not abandon it; but must seek out the most accurate knowledge respecting it. Since also among garden-grown vegetables weeds also spring up, are the husbandmen, then, to desist from gardening?
Having then from nature abundant means for examining the statements made, we ought to discover the sequence of the truth. Wherefore also we are rightly condemned, if we do not assent to what we ought to obey, and do not distinguish what is hostile, and unseemly, and unnatural, and false, from what is true, consistent, and seemly, and according to nature. And these means must be employed in order to attain to the knowledge of the real truth.
This pretext is then, in the case of the Greeks, futile; for those who are willing may find the truth. But in the case of those who adduce unreasonable excuses, their condemnation is unanswerable. For whether do they deny or admit that there is such a thing as demonstration? I am of opinion that all will make the admission, except those who take away the senses. There being demonstration, then, it is necessary to condescend to questions, and to ascertain by way of demonstration by the Scriptures themselves how the heresies failed, and how in the truth alone and in the ancient Church is both the exactest knowledge, and the truly best set of principles (αἴρεσις).
Now, of those who diverge from the truth, some attempt to deceive themselves alone, and some also their neighbors. Those, then, who are called (δοξόσοφοι) wise in their own opinions, who think that they have found the truth, but have no true demonstration, deceive themselves in thinking that they have reached a resting place. And of whom there is no inconsiderable multitude, who avoid investigations for fear of refutations, and shun instructions for fear of condemnation. But those who deceive those who seek access to them are very astute; who, aware that they know nothing, yet darken the truth with plausible arguments.
But, in my opinion, the nature of plausible arguments is of one character, and that of true arguments of another. And we know that it is necessary that the appellation of the heresies should be expressed in contradistinction to the truth; from which the Sophists, drawing certain things for the destruction of men, and burying them in human arts invented by themselves, glory rather in being at the head of a School than presiding over the Church.
(Ch. 16) But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will not desist from the search after truth, till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures themselves.
There are certain criteria common to men, as the senses; and others that belong to those who have employed their wills and energies in what is true—the methods which are pursued by the mind and reason, to distinguish between true and false propositions.
Now, it is a very great thing to abandon opinion, by taking one’s stand between accurate knowledge and the rash wisdom of opinion, and to know that he who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance to it is toilsome “and strait.” And let him who has once received the Gospel, even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge of salvation, “not turn back, like Lot’s wife” [Gen. 19:26], as is said; and let him not go back either to his former life, which adheres to the things of sense, or to heresies. For they form the character, not knowing the true God. “For he that loves father or mother more than Me,” the Father and Teacher of the truth, who regenerates and creates anew, and nourishes the elect soul, “is not worthy of Me”—He means, to be a son of God and a disciple of God, and at the same time also to be a friend, and of kindred nature. “For no man who looks back, and puts his hand to the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
But, as appears, many even down to our own time regard Mary, on account of the birth of her child, as having been in the puerperal state, although she was not. For some say that, after she brought forth, she was found, when examined, to be a virgin.
Now such to us are the Scriptures of the Lord, which gave birth to the truth and continue virgin, in the concealment of the mysteries of the truth. “And she brought forth, and yet brought not forth” [drawn from Ezek. 44:2], says the Scripture; as having conceived of herself, and not from conjunction. Wherefore the Scriptures have conceived to Gnostics; but the heresies, not having learned them, dismissed them as not having conceived.
Now all men, having the same judgment, some, following the Word speaking, frame for themselves proofs; while others, giving themselves up to pleasures, wrest Scripture, in accordance with their lusts [2 Pet. 3:16]. And the lover of truth, as I think, needs force of soul. For those who make the greatest attempts must fail in things of the highest importance; unless, receiving from the truth itself the rule of the truth, they cleave to the truth. But such people, in consequence of falling away from the right path, err in most individual points; as you might expect from not having the faculty for judging of what is true and false, strictly trained to select what is essential. For if they had, they would have obeyed the Scriptures.
As, then, if a man should, similarly to those drugged by Circe, become a beast; so he, who has spurned the ecclesiastical tradition, and darted off to the opinions of heretical men, has ceased to be a man of God and to remain faithful to the Lord. But he who has returned from this deception, on hearing the Scriptures, and turned his life to the truth, is, as it were, from being a man made a god.
For we have, as the source of teaching, the Lord, both by the prophets, the Gospel, and the blessed apostles, “in diverse manners and at sundry times” (Heb. 1:1), leading from the beginning of knowledge to the end. But if one should suppose that another origin was required, then no longer truly could an origin be preserved.
He, then, who of himself believes the Scripture and voice of the Lord, which by the Lord acts to the benefiting of men, is rightly [regarded] faithful. Certainly we use it as a criterion in the discovery of things. What is subjected to criticism is not believed till it is so subjected; so that what needs criticism cannot be a first principle. Therefore, as is reasonable, grasping by faith the indemonstrable first principle, and receiving in abundance, from the first principle itself, demonstrations in reference to the first principle, we are by the voice of the Lord trained up to the knowledge of the truth.
For we may not give our adhesion to men on a bare statement by them, who might equally state the opposite. But if it is not enough merely to state the opinion, but if what is stated must be confirmed, we do not wait for the testimony of men, but we establish the matter that is in question by the voice of the Lord, which is the surest of all demonstrations, or rather is the only demonstration; in which knowledge those who have merely tasted the Scriptures are believers; while those who, having advanced further, and become correct expounders of the truth, are Gnostics. Since also, in what pertains to life, craftsmen are superior to ordinary people, and model what is beyond common notions; so, consequently, we also, giving a complete exhibition of the Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves, from faith persuade by demonstration.
And if those also who follow heresies venture to avail themselves of the prophetic Scriptures; in the first place they will not make use of all the Scriptures, and then they will not quote them entire, nor as the body and texture of prophecy prescribe. But, selecting ambiguous expressions, they wrest them to their own opinions, gathering a few expressions here and there; not looking to the sense, but making use of the mere words. For in almost all the quotations they make, you will find that they attend to the names alone, while they alter the meanings; neither knowing, as they affirm, nor using the quotations they adduce, according to their true nature.
But the truth is not found by changing the meanings (for so people subvert all true teaching), but in the consideration of what perfectly belongs to and becomes the Sovereign God, and in establishing each one of the points demonstrated in the Scriptures again from similar Scriptures. Neither, then, do they want to turn to the truth, being ashamed to abandon the claims of self-love; nor are they able to manage their opinions, by doing violence to the Scriptures. But having first promulgated false dogmas to men; plainly fighting against almost the whole Scriptures, and constantly confuted by us who contradict them; for the rest, even now partly they hold out against admitting the prophetic Scriptures, and partly disparage us as of a different nature, and incapable of understanding what is peculiar to them. And sometimes even they deny their own dogmas, when these are confuted, being ashamed openly to own what in private they glory in teaching. For this may be seen in all the heresies, when you examine the iniquities of their dogmas. For when they are overturned by our clearly showing that they are opposed to the Scriptures, one of two things may be seen to have been done by those who defend the dogma. For they either despise the consistency of their own dogmas, or despise the prophecy itself, or rather their own hope. And they invariably prefer what seems to them to be more evident to what has been spoken by the Lord through the prophets and by the Gospel, and, besides, attested and confirmed by the apostles.
Seeing, therefore, the danger that they are in (not in respect of one dogma, but in reference to the maintenance of the heresies) of not discovering the truth; for while reading the books we have ready at hand, they despise them as useless, but in their eagerness to surpass common faith, they have diverged from the truth. For, in consequence of not learning the mysteries of ecclesiastical knowledge, and not having capacity for the grandeur of the truth, too indolent to descend to the bottom of things, reading superficially, they have dismissed the Scriptures. Elated, then, by vain opinion, they are incessantly wrangling, and plainly care more to seem than to be philosophers. Not laying as foundations the necessary first principles of things; and influenced by human opinions, then making the end to suit them, by compulsion; on account of being confuted, they spar with those who are engaged in the prosecution of the true philosophy, and undergo everything, and, as they say, ply every oar, even going the length of impiety, by disbelieving the Scriptures, rather than be removed from the honors of the heresy and the boasted first seat in their churches; on account of which also they eagerly embrace that convivial couch of honor in the Agape [love feast], falsely so called.
The knowledge of the truth among us from what is already believed, produces faith in what is not yet believed; which [faith] is, so to speak, the essence of demonstration. But, as appears, no heresy has at all ears to hear what is useful, but opened only to what leads to pleasure. Since also, if one of them would only obey the truth, he would be healed.
Now the cure of self-conceit (as of every ailment) is threefold: the ascertaining of the cause, and the mode of its removal; and thirdly, the training of the soul, and the accustoming it to assume a right attitude to the judgments come to. For, just like a disordered eye, so also the soul that has been darkened by unnatural dogmas cannot perceive distinctly the light of truth, but even overlooks what is before it.
They say, then, that in muddy water eels are caught by being blinded. And just as knavish boys bar out the teacher, so do these shut out the prophecies from their Church, regarding them with suspicion by reason of rebuke and admonition. In fact, they stitch together a multitude of lies and figments, that they may appear acting in accordance with reason in not admitting the Scriptures. So, then, they are not pious, inasmuch as they are not pleased with the divine commands, that is, with the Holy Spirit. And as those almonds are called empty in which the contents are worthless, not those in which there is nothing; so also we call those heretics empty, who are destitute of the counsels of God and the traditions of Christ; bitter, in truth, like the wild almond, their dogmas originating with themselves, with the exception of such truths as they could not, by reason of their evidence, discard and conceal.
As, then, in war the soldier must not leave the post which the commander has assigned him, so neither must we desert the post assigned by the Word, whom we have received as the guide of knowledge and of life. But [most] have not even inquired, if there is one that we ought to follow, and who this is, and how he is to be followed. For as is the Word, such also must the believer’s life be, so as to be able to follow God, who brings all things to end from the beginning by the right course.
But when one has transgressed against the Word, and thereby against God, if it is through becoming powerless in consequence of some impression being suddenly made, he ought to see to have the impressions of reasons at hand. And if it is that he has become “common,” as the Scripture says, in consequence of being overcome the habits which formerly had sway by over him, the habits must be entirely put a stop to, and the soul trained to oppose them. And if it appears that conflicting dogmas draw some away, these must be taken out of the way, and recourse is to be had to those who reconcile dogmas, and subdue by the charm of the Scriptures such of the untutored as are timid, by explaining the truth by the connection of the Testaments.
But, as appears, we incline to ideas founded on opinion, though they be contrary, rather than to the truth. For it is austere and grave. Now, since there are three states of the soul—ignorance, opinion, knowledge—those who are in ignorance are the Gentiles; those in knowledge, the true Church; and those in opinion, the heretics. Nothing, then, can be more clearly seen than those, who know, making affirmations about what they know, and the others respecting what they hold on the strength of opinion, as far as respects affirmation without proof.
They accordingly despise and laugh at one another. And it happens that the same thought is held in the highest estimation by some, and by others condemned for insanity. And, indeed, we have learned that voluptuousness, which is to be attributed to the Gentiles, is one thing; and wrangling, which is preferred among the heretical sects, is another; and joy, which is to be appropriated to the Church, another; and delight, which is to be assigned to the true Gnostic [not the heretical Gnostics], another. And as, if one devote himself to Ischomachus, he will make him a farmer; and to Lampis, a mariner; and to Charidemus, a military commander; and to Simon, an equestrian; and to Perdices, a trader; and to Crobylus, a cook; and to Archelaus, a dancer; and to Homer, a poet; and to Pyrrho, a wrangler; and to Demosthenes, an orator; and to Chrysippus, a dialectician; and to Aristotle, a naturalist; and to Plato, a philosopher: so he who listens to the Lord, and follows the prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher—made a god going about in flesh [2 Pet. 1:4].
Accordingly, those fall from this eminence who follow not God whither He leads. And He leads us in the inspired Scriptures.
Though men’s actions are ten thousand in number, the sources of all sin are but two, ignorance and inability. And both depend on ourselves; inasmuch as we will not learn, nor, on the other hand, restrain lust. And of these, the one is that, in consequence of which people do not judge well, and the other that, in consequence of which they cannot comply with right judgments. For neither will one who is deluded in his mind be able to act rightly, though perfectly able to do what he knows; nor, though capable of judging what is requisite, will he keep himself free of blame, if destitute of power in action. Consequently, then, there are assigned two kinds of correction applicable to both kinds of sin: for the one, knowledge and clear demonstration from the testimony of the Scriptures; and for the other, the training according to the Word, which is regulated by the discipline of faith and fear. And both develop into perfect love. For the end of the Gnostic [non-heretic] here is, in my judgment, twofold—partly scientific contemplation, partly action.
Would, then, that these heretics would learn and be set right by these notes, and turn to the sovereign God! But if, like the deaf serpents, they listen not to the song called new, though very old, may they be chastised by God, and undergo paternal admonitions previous to the Judgment, till they become ashamed and repent, but not rush through headlong unbelief, and precipitate themselves into judgment.
For there are partial corrections, which are called chastisements, which many of us who have been in transgression incur, by falling away from the Lord’s people. But as children are chastised by their teacher, or their father, so are we by Providence. But God does not punish, for punishment is retaliation for evil. He chastises, however, for good to those who are chastised, collectively and individually.
I have adduced these things from a wish to avert those, who are eager to learn, from the liability to fall into heresies, and out of a desire to stop them from superficial ignorance, or stupidity, or bad disposition, or whatever it should be called. And in the attempt to persuade and lead to the truth those who are not entirely incurable, I have made use of these words. For there are some who cannot bear at all to listen to those who exhort them to turn to the truth; and they attempt to trifle, pouring out blasphemies against the truth, claiming for themselves the knowledge of the greatest things in the universe, without having learned, or inquired, or labored, or discovered the consecutive train of ideas—whom one should pity rather than hate for such perversity.
But if one is curable, able to bear (like fire or steel) the outspokenness of the truth, which cuts away and burns their false opinions, let him lend the ears of the soul. And this will be the case, unless, through the propensity to sloth, they push truth away, or through the desire of fame, endeavor to invent novelties. For those are slothful who, having it in their power to provide themselves with proper proofs for the divine Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves, select only what contributes to their own pleasures. And those have a craving for glory who voluntarily evade, by arguments of a diverse sort, the things delivered by the blessed apostles and teachers, which are wedded to inspired words; opposing the divine tradition by human teachings, in order to establish the heresy. For, in truth, what remained to be said—in ecclesiastical knowledge I mean—by such men, Marcion, for example, or Prodicus, and such like, who did not walk in the right way? For they could not have surpassed their predecessors in wisdom, so as to discover anything in addition to what had been uttered by them; for they would have been satisfied had they been able to learn the things laid down before.
Our Gnostic [non-heretic] then alone, having grown old in the Scriptures, and maintaining apostolic and ecclesiastic orthodoxy in doctrines, lives most correctly in accordance with the Gospel, and discovers the proofs, for which he may have made search (sent forth as he is by the Lord), from the law and the prophets. For the life of the Gnostic, in my view, is nothing but deeds and words corresponding to the tradition of the Lord. But “all have not knowledge. For I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,” says the apostle, “that all were under the cloud, and partook of spiritual meat and drink” (1 Cor. 10:1, 3-4); clearly affirming that all who heard the word did not take in the magnitude of knowledge in deed and word. Wherefore also he added: “But with all of them He was not well pleased.” Who is this? He who said, “Why do you call Me Lord, and do not the will of My Father?” (Luke 6:46; Matt. 7:21). That is the Savior’s teaching, which to us is spiritual food, and drink that knows no thirst, the water of gnostic life. Further it is said, knowledge is said “to puff up.” To whom we say: Perchance seeming knowledge is said to puff up, if one suppose the expression means “to be swollen up.” But if, as is rather the case, the expression of the apostle means, “to entertain great and true sentiments,” the difficulty is solved. Following, then, the Scriptures, let us establish what has been said: “Wisdom,” says Solomon, “has inflated her children.” For the Lord did not work conceit by the particulars of His teaching; but He produces trust in the truth and expansion of mind, in the knowledge that is communicated by the Scriptures, and contempt for the things which drag into sin, which is the meaning of the expression “inflated.” It teaches the magnificence of the wisdom implanted in her children by instruction. Now the apostle says, “I will know not the speech of those that are puffed up, but the power” (1 Cor. 6:19); if you understand the Scriptures magnanimously (which means truly; for nothing is greater than truth). For in that lies the power of the children of wisdom who are puffed up. He says, as it were, I shall know if ye rightly entertain great thoughts respecting knowledge. “For God,” according to David, “is known in Judea,” that is, those that are Israelites according to knowledge. For Judea is interpreted “Confession.” It is, then, rightly said by the apostle, “This Thou, shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not steal, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Rom. 13:9).
For we must never, as do those who follow the heresies, adulterate the truth, or steal the canon of the Church, by gratifying our own lusts and vanity, by defrauding our neighbors; whom above all it is our duty, in the exercise of love to them, to teach to adhere to the truth. It is accordingly expressly said, “Declare among the heathen His statutes” [Ps. 96:3], that they may not be judged, but that those who have previously given ear may be converted. But those who speak treacherously with their tongues have the penalties that are on record.
Origen (c. 184-c. 253) | EAST
Origen, On First Principles, or De Principiis (c. 225)
(§7) …Many, not understanding the Scriptures in a spiritual sense, but incorrectly, have fallen into heresies.
(§8) …Thereupon the heretics…there being different and discordant opinions among them even on this very point, because, when they once depart from a belief in God the Creator, who is Lord of all, they have given themselves over to various inventions and fables, devising certain (fictions), and asserting that some things were visible, and made by one (God), and that certain other things were invisible, and were created by another, according to the vain and fanciful suggestions of their own minds. But not a few also of the more simple of those, who appear to be restrained within the faith of the Church, are of opinion that there is no greater God than the Creator, holding in this a correct and sound opinion; and yet they entertain regarding Him such views as would not be entertained regarding the most unjust and cruel of men.
(§9) Now the reason of the erroneous apprehension of all these points on the part of those whom we have mentioned above [heretics], is no other than this, that holy Scripture is not understood by them according to its spiritual, but according to its literal meaning. And therefore we shall endeavor, so far as our moderate capacity will permit, to point out to those who believe the holy Scriptures to be no human compositions, but to be written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and to be transmitted and entrusted to us by the will of God the Father, through His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, what appears to us, who observe things by a right way of understanding, to be the standard and discipline delivered to the apostles by Jesus Christ, and which they handed down in succession to their posterity, the teachers of the holy Church. Now, that there are certain mystical economies [dispensations] indicated in holy Scripture, is admitted by all, I think, even the simplest of believers. But what these are, or of what kind they are, he who is rightly minded, and not overcome with the vice of boasting, will scrupulously [religiously] acknowledge himself to be ignorant. For if anyone, e.g., were to adduce the case of the daughters of Lot, who seem, contrary to the law of God, to have had intercourse with their father, or that of the two wives of Abraham, or of the two sisters who were married to Jacob, or of the two handmaids who increased the number of his sons, what other answer could be returned than that these were certain mysteries, and forms of spiritual things, but that we are ignorant of what nature they are? Nay, even when we read of the construction of the tabernacle, we deem it certain that the written descriptions are the figures of certain hidden things; but to adapt these to their appropriate standards, and to open up and discuss every individual point, I consider to be exceedingly difficult, not to say impossible. That that description, however, is, as I have said, full of mysteries, does not escape even the common understanding. But all the narrative portion, relating either to the marriages, or to the begetting of the children, or to battles of different kinds, or to any other histories whatever, what else can they be supposed to be, save the forms and figures of hidden and sacred things? As men, however, make little effort to exercise their intellect, or imagine that they possess knowledge before they really learn, the consequence is that they never begin to have knowledge or if there be no want of a desire, at least, nor of an instructor, and if divine knowledge be sought after, as it ought to be, in a religious and holy spirit, and in the hope that many points will be opened up by the revelation of God—since to human sense they are exceedingly difficult and obscure—then, perhaps, he who seeks in such a manner will find what it is lawful to discover.
St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310-c. 367) | WEST
St. Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity (c. 356-360)
But I trust that the Church, by the light of her doctrine, will so enlighten the world’s vain wisdom, that, even though it accept not the mystery of the faith, it will recognize that in our conflict with heretics we, and not they, are the true representatives of that mystery. For great is the force of truth; not only is it its own sufficient witness, but the more it is assailed the more evident it becomes; the daily shocks which it receives only increase its inherent stability. It is the peculiar property of the Church that when she is buffeted she is triumphant, when she is assaulted with argument she proves herself in the right, when she is deserted by her supporters she holds the field. It is her wish that all men should remain at her side and in her bosom; if it lay with her, none would become unworthy to abide under the shelter of that august mother, none would be cast out or suffered to depart from her calm retreat.
But when heretics desert her or she expels them, the loss she endures, in that she cannot save them, is compensated by an increased assurance that she alone can offer bliss. This is a truth which the passionate zeal of rival heresies brings into the clearest prominence. The Church, ordained by the Lord and established by His Apostles, is one for all; but the frantic folly of discordant sects has severed them from her. And it is obvious that these dissensions concerning the faith result from a distorted mind, which twists the words of Scripture into conformity with its opinion, instead of adjusting that opinion to the words of Scripture.
And thus, amid the clash of mutually destructive errors, the Church stands revealed not only by her own teaching, but by that of her rivals. They are ranged, all of them, against her; and the very fact that she stands single and alone is her sufficient answer to their godless delusions. The hosts of heresy assemble themselves against her; each of them can defeat all the others, but not one can win a victory for itself. The only victory is the triumph which the Church celebrates over them all. Each heresy wields against its adversary some weapon already shattered, in another instance, by the Church’s condemnation. There is no point of union between them, and the outcome of their internecine struggles is the confirmation of the faith.
St. Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310/320-403) | EAST
St. Epiphanius of Salamis, Letter to John, Bishop of Jerusalem (Letter 51 in St. Jerome) (394)
(§4) …If this doctrine is true what becomes of our faith? Where is the preaching of the resurrection? Where is the teaching of the apostles, which lasts on to this day in the churches of Christ?…There can be no doubt that the meaning of the divine Scripture is different from the interpretation by which he [a heretic] unfairly wrests it to the support of his own heresy. This way of acting is common to the Manichaeans, the Gnostics, the Ebionites, the Marcionites, and all the votaries of the other eighty heresies, all of whom draw their proofs from the pure well of the Scriptures, not, however, interpreting it in the sense in which it is written, but trying to make the simple language of the Church’s writers accord with their own wishes…
(§6) But may God free you, my brother, and the holy people of Christ which is entrusted to you, and all the brothers who are with you, and especially the presbyter [priest] Rufinus, from the heresy of Origen, and other heresies, and from the perdition to which they lead. For, if for one word or for two opposed to the faith many heresies have been rejected by the Church, how much more shall he be held a heretic who has contrived such perverse interpretations and such mischievous doctrines to destroy the faith, and has in fact declared himself the enemy of the Church!
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 313-386) | EAST
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 4: On the Ten Points of Doctrine (c. 350)
For the method of godliness consists of these two things, pious doctrines, and virtuous practice: and neither are the doctrines acceptable to God apart from good works, nor does God accept the works which are not perfected with pious doctrines. For what profit is it, to know well the doctrines concerning God, and yet to be a vile fornicator? And again, what profit is it, to be nobly temperate, and an impious blasphemer? A most precious possession therefore is the knowledge of doctrines: also there is need of a wakeful soul, since there are many “that make spoil through philosophy and vain deceit” (Col. 2:8). The Greeks on the one hand draw men away by their smooth tongue, “for honey drops from a harlot’s lips” (Prov. 5:3): whereas they of the Circumcision deceive those who come to them by means of the Divine Scriptures, which they miserably misinterpret though “studying them from childhood to old age” (Isa. 46:3), and growing old in ignorance. But the children of heretics, “by their good words and smooth tongue, deceive the hearts of the innocent” (Rom. 16:17), disguising with the name of Christ as it were with honey the poisoned arrows of their impious doctrines: concerning all of whom together the Lord says, “Take heed lest any man mislead you” (Matt. 24:4). This is the reason for the teaching of the Creed and for expositions upon it.
St. Gregory Nazianzus (c. 329-390) | EAST
St. Gregory Nazianzus, Oration 21: On the Great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria (c. 379-80)
The crowning feat of this faction was the council which sat first at Seleucia, the city of the holy and illustrious virgin Thekla, and afterwards at this mighty city, thus connecting their names, no longer with noble associations, but with these of deepest disgrace; whether we must call that council, which subverted and disturbed everything, a tower of Chalane [Gen. 11:4], which deservedly confounded the tongues—would that theirs had been confounded for their harmony in evil!—or a Sanhedrin of Caiaphas where Christ was condemned, or some other like name. The ancient and pious doctrine which defended the Trinity was abolished, by setting up a palisade and battering down the Consubstantial [the word used by the Council of Nicaea to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son]: opening the door to impiety by means of what is written, using as their pretext, their reverence for Scripture and for the use of approved terms, but really introducing unscriptural Arianism. For the phrase “like, according to the Scriptures,” was a bait to the simple, concealing the hook of impiety, a figure seeming to look in the direction of all who passed by, a boot fitting either foot, a winnowing with every wind [Ecc. 5:9], gaining authority from the newly written villainy and device against the truth. For they were wise to do evil, but to do good they had no knowledge [Jer. 4:22].
St. Augustine (354-430) | WEST
St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine (397)
But when proper words make Scripture ambiguous, we must see in the first place that there is nothing wrong in our punctuation or pronunciation. Accordingly, if, when attention is given to the passage, it shall appear to be uncertain in what way it ought to be punctuated or pronounced, let the reader consult the rule of faith which he has gathered from the plainer passages of Scripture, and from the authority of the Church, and of which I treated at sufficient length when I was speaking in the first book about things. But if both readings, or all of them (if there are more than two), give a meaning in harmony with the faith, it remains to consult the context, both what goes before and what comes after, to see which interpretation, out of many that offer themselves, it pronounces for and permits to be dovetailed into itself.
St. Augustine, Tractate 18 on the Gospel of John
For heresies, and certain tenets of perversity, ensnaring souls and hurling them into the deep, have not sprung up except when good Scriptures are not rightly understood, and when that in them which is not rightly understood is rashly and boldly asserted. And so, dearly beloved, ought we very cautiously to hear those things for the understanding of which we are but little ones, and that, too, with pious heart and with trembling, as it is written, holding this rule of soundness, that we rejoice as in food in that which we have been able to understand, according to the faith with which we are imbued; and what we have not yet been able to understand, that we lay aside doubting, and defer the understanding of it for a time; that is, even if we do not yet know what it is, that still we doubt not in the least that it is good and true. And as for me, brethren, you must consider who I am that undertake to speak to you, and what I have undertaken: for I have taken upon me to treat of things divine, being a man; of spiritual things, being carnal; of things eternal, being a mortal. Also from me, dearly beloved, far be vain presumption, if my conversation would be sound in the house of God, “which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:1). In proportion to my measure I take what I put before you: where it is opened, I see with you; where it is shut, I knock with you.
St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) | WEST
St. Isidore of Seville, The Etymologies (c. 636)
(Book 8, Ch. 1, §§1-4)1
(§1) ‘Church’ (ecclesia) is a Greek word that is translated into Latin as “convocation” (convocatio), because it calls (vocare) everyone to itself. ‘Catholic’ (catholicus) is translated as “universal” (universalis), after the term καϑὅλον, that is ‘with respect to the whole,’ for it is not restricted to some part of a territory, like the small associations of heretics, but is spread widely throughout the entire world.
(§2) And the apostle Paul assents to this when he says to the Romans (1:8): “I give thanks to my God for all of you, because your faith is spoken of in the whole world.” Hence the Church is given the name ‘the universal entity’ (universitas) from ‘one’ (unus), because it is gathered into unity (unitas). When the Lord says, in the Gospel according to Luke (11:23): “He that gathereth not with me, scatters.”
(§3) But why is the Church described by John as seven [Apoc. 1:4], when it is one, unless a single and universal church, filled with a sevenfold Spirit, is meant? We know Solomon spoke of the Lord like this (Prov. 9:1): “Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars.” There is no doubt that wisdom, although it is seven, is also one, as the Apostle says (1 Tim. 3:15): “the church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of truth.”
(§4) And the Church began from the place where the Holy Spirit came from heaven, and filled those who were sitting in one (unus) place [Acts 2:1-4].
(Book 8, Ch. 3, §§1-5)2
(§1) Heresy (haeresis) is so called in Greek from ‘choice’ (election, cf. αίρεῖν “choose”), doubtless because each person chooses (eligere) for himself that which seems best to him, as did the Peripatetic, Academic, Epicurean, and Stoic philosophers—or just as others who, devising perverse teachings, have withdrawn from the Church by their own will.
(§2) Hence, therefore, ‘heresy,’ named with a Greek word, takes it meaning from ‘choice,’ by which each person, according to his own judgment, chooses for himself whatever he pleases to institute and adopt. But we are permitted to introduce nothing based on our own judgment, nor to choose what someone else has introduced from his own judgment.
(§3) We have the apostles of God as authorities, who did not choose anything themselves to introduce from their own judgment, but faithfully bestowed on the world the teaching received from Christ. And if even an angel from heaven preaches otherwise, he will be termed anathema.
(§4) A sect (secta) is named from ‘following’ (sequi, ppl. Sectus) and ‘holding’ (tenere), for we use the term ‘sects’ of attitudes of mind and institutions associated with a precept or premise which people hold and follow when in the practice of religion they believe things that are quite different from what others believe.
(§5) Schism (schisma) is so called from the division (scissura) of opinions, for schismatics believe with the same worship, the same rite, as the rest; they delight in mere dissension (discidium) in the congregation. A schism occurs when people say “we are the righteous ones,” “we are the ones who sanctify the unclean,” and other similar things.
(Book 8, Ch. 5, §§1, 69-70)3
(§1) Some heretics, who have withdrawn from the Church, are named from the name of their founder, and some from the positions that they have selected and established [lists 68 heresies]… 175 | 178
(§69) There are also other names heresies without a founder and without…
(§70) These are heresies that have arisen in opposition to the catholic faith, and have been condemned by the apostles and Holy Fathers, or by the Councils. These heresies, although they disagree with each other, differing among themselves in many errors, nevertheless conspire with a common name against the Church of God. But also, whoever understands the Holy Scriptures otherwise than the meaning of the Holy Spirit, by whom they were written, requires, even if he does not depart from the Church, nevertheless can be called a heretic.
(Book 8, Ch. 6, §22)4
These errors of the philosophers also introduced heresies within the Church…[Cites the heresies of Arius, Valentinians, and Marcion, and points out that they and others were produced by platonic, stoic, epicurean, and Zeno-derived philosophical errors]…The same material is rolled among the heretics and the philosophers, and the same repeated statements are involved.
St. Isidore of Seville, Sententiae (c. 612)
(Book 1, Ch. 12, §5)5
Heathens and heretics attempt to dispute about the soul, but how are they able to think correctly about it if they have not known the author in whose image it has been made? Therefore they have said many things worthy of error.
(Book 1, Ch. 16, §§1-18)6
(§1) The beauty of the Church is twofold: the first follows from the fact that it is living well here and the second from the fact that it will be glorified in the next world as its reward.
(§2) Two tribulations exist for the Church on account of Christ: they are those it suffered from the pagans in its martyrs, and those it endures from heretics in various disputes. However, it overcomes both of these through the grace of God, in part by bearing them, in part by resisting.
(§3) Just as the holy, Catholic Church patiently tolerates those in her who live in an evil manner, just so she repels from herself those who believe in an evil manner.
(§4) The holy Church strives for wisdom and patience with the greatest diligence against the stubbornness of the heathens and heretics; wisdom is exercised when it is put to the test by words, patience is exercised when it is put to the test by swords. [For sometimes it is attacked by persecutions, at other times it is provoked by false assertions].
(§5) Because of the wickedness of heresy, the Church has expanded the scope of its doctrines, for earlier it was flourishing only by a simple faith. Therefore because of the opportunity offered by the heretics, those learned in the faith have increased [1 Cor. 11:19], and through the acumen of the heresies, the teachers of the Church have grown in depth. For now the assertion of the truth is manifested more clearly whenever any dissension appears.
(§6a) The holy Church is called Catholic, therefore, because of the fact that it is spread everywhere throughout the whole world. Whereas the churches of the heretics are restricted to certain parts of the world, the holy Church, diffused throughout the whole world, is being spread, as Paul the Apostle testifies: “I thank my God…for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world” (Rom. 1:8).
(§6b) Heresies are found to have turned up either in some corner of the world, or in one particular people. On the other hand, the Catholic Church is being extended through the whole world and thus is being built up in the community of all peoples.
(§7) Who are the heretics, if not those who having abandoned the Church of God have chosen private associations? About these the Lord says, “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken 64 | 65 me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).
(§8) The reason for heresy is that this reality might come to be, that is, the strengthening of faith [1 Cor. 11:19]. The power of faith is shown, for example, through that which may be an obscurity of the divine Scriptures, in which the mistaken heretics understand something other than that which it really contains; the heresies are not able to survive, because by the very fact that they are heresies, they already are not. By thinking wrongly, they do not acquire the essence; they tend toward nothingness.
(§9) Heretics learn their falsehoods with great zeal, and these falsehoods are contended with furious effort, lest they come to the unity of the Church. About them it is rightly said through the prophet, “They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent” (Jer. 9:5).
(§10a) The heretics mutually lacerate each other by turns, when they lead one another into their own proper sects; nevertheless, each of them bands together with each other, so that they might contend against the Church by the same spirit of error, and those who are divided among themselves are united at the same time in opposition to the Church.
(§10b) To those people for whom only the heresies appear to have the truth, because they have so much strength, it must thus be responded: must diseases now therefore be preferred to health, since in general they occupy the greater portion of the world, so that these diseases leave a smaller place for health?
(§11) It is not possible for heretics to have pardon, except through the Catholic Church, just as the friends of Job were not able to make atonement to God by themselves, if Job had not offered sacrifice for them [Job 42:8].
(§12) The good works that the heretics do and their moral integrity count for nothing as the Lord testifies through [Isaiah]: “[Because you] did not remember me…I will concede your righteousness and your works, but they will not help you” (Isa. 57:11-12).
(§13) Even if the heretics fulfill the law and the prophets, nevertheless by the fact that they are not Catholic, God is not in their assemblies, as the Lord himself testifies: “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. 65 | 66 Send them out of my sight, and let them go!” (Jer. 15:1). Through the references to Moses and Samuel you should understand the law and the prophets, and even if the heretics strive to fulfill them by their deeds, on account of the impiety of their error, they are cast away nevertheless from the face of God and they are separated from the assemblies of the just.
(§14) The pagan and the heretics: because the first one has never been with the people of God, and because the second has forsaken the people of God, both of them, going away from Christ, belong to the body of the devil.
(§15) Those who by idolatry move toward Judaism or heresy, according to the prophet “proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the Lord” (Jer. 9:3), because by the error of infidelity they move on to another error.
(§16) Whoever follows their teaching is called a child of theirs; just as through the prophet [Ezek. 16:3] the Lord says that the father of the Israelite is an Amorite and his mother is a Hittite, not certainly by birth but by imitating, so also those who keep the precepts of God are, in a much better way, called sons of God. Thus even we call out to God, not by nature but by adoption, saying, “Our father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9).
(§17) Not only simply by birth, but also by imitation is it possible to be called children of someone [Gal. 4:23]; for the Jews are called children of Abraham according to the flesh and children of the devil according to their conduct [1 John 3:8-10]. And, likewise, there are those who are of the seed of Abraham because they are imitators of his faith, though they were not born of his flesh.
(§18) From the author of the error, both the name and the blame are carried to those who follow them, so that by the name of this person, his error and whoever follows it is censured, as it is aid of the Church in Pergamum in Revelation: “You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam” (Apoc. 2:14) and Jezebel [Apoc. 2:20]. Thus the church of [Pergamum] is said to hold the teaching of Balaam by imitation and not on account of his bodily presence.
(Book 1, Ch. 18, §8)7
And further, prophecy mixes in present things with deeds accomplished in the future, so that these future things will be believed to the extent that they are discerned to be already complete. Thus in this manner it is spoken about future things through present things, as in the person of Jerusalem concerning the Church, and also in the person of Ephraim concerning the heretics.
(Book 1, Ch. 23, §1)8
That only the Catholic Church has baptism for salvation is stated by Zechariah the prophet: “On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity” (Zech. 13:1). Clearly the house of David and Jerusalem is the Church of Christ, in which there endures the fountain for the cleansing of sins. Heretics, however, perform it only by imaginary show, and therefore baptism is given to them not for the remission of sins, but as an indication of punishment.
(Book 3, Ch. 12, §1-7)9
(§1-2) A person never understands the law who runs through the words of the law in a sensual manner, but only the one who perceives it with a sense of interior understanding. Those who are attentive to the letter of the law are not able to penetrate its hidden meanings [2 Cor. 3:6]. There are many, not understanding the Scriptures in a spiritual manner and not perceiving them correctly, who have been thrown into heresy and have descended into many errors.
(§3) The law has been entrusted to the faithful alone, as the Lord testifies through the Prophet: “Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples” (Isa. 8:16), so that neither a Jew nor a heretic may understand it, because he is not a disciple of Christ; they do not pursue the unity of peace that Christ has taught, about which the Lord himself says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
(§4) Heretics do not understand the Scriptures in a wholesome sense, but they lead them I not the error of a wicked understanding; nor do they subject themselves to their meanings, but they force them perversely into their own proper error. 163 | 164
(§5) Teachers of errors so entangle their hearers by perverse persuasions through fraudulent arguments that they entwine them as if in a labyrinth from which they are barely able to escape.
(§6) So great is the cunning of the heretics that they mix together falsehoods with the truth and bad things with the good; they frequently sow the poison of their error among salutary things, by which they are able more easily to present in a persuasive manner the depravity of false teaching under the appearance of truth.
(§7) Often heretics write their own doctrines under the name of Catholic teachers so that their presentations may be believed without doubt. Sometimes they even insert their own blasphemies in our books by a hidden deceit, and they corrupt the true teaching by adulterating it, either by adding things that are evil or taking away things that are holy.
(Book 3, Ch. 27, §3)10
Just as our mother the Church is viciously attacked by those who are heretics, but nevertheless comes to them and embraces them with a merciful love, so also should each one of us support those who are our enemies and, turning toward them, immediately embrace them in imitation of our mother.
Footnotes
- St. Isidore of Seville, Stephen A. Barney, et al, trans., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 173. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Stephen A. Barney, et al, trans., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 174. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Stephen A. Barney, et al, trans., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 175, 178. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Stephen A. Barney, et al, trans., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 180. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Thomas L. Knoebel, trans., Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 73: Isidore of Seville—Sententiae (New York: The Newman Press, 2018), 56. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Thomas L. Knoebel, trans., Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 73: Isidore of Seville—Sententiae (New York: The Newman Press, 2018), 64-66. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Thomas L. Knoebel, trans., Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 73: Isidore of Seville—Sententiae (New York: The Newman Press, 2018), 69. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Thomas L. Knoebel, trans., Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 73: Isidore of Seville—Sententiae (New York: The Newman Press, 2018), 74. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Thomas L. Knoebel, trans., Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 73: Isidore of Seville—Sententiae (New York: The Newman Press, 2018), 163-64. ↩︎
- St. Isidore of Seville, Thomas L. Knoebel, trans., Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 73: Isidore of Seville—Sententiae (New York: The Newman Press, 2018), 180. ↩︎
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