Opening the library…
Against Hermogenes
Tertullian
On the very threshold, then, of this doctrine, which
Præstructione. The notion is of the foundation of an edifice: here ="preliminary remarks” (see our Anti-Marcion, v. 5, p. 438).
Articuli.
Utrumque utrique.
Alterum alteri.
Boni matrix.
The usual reading is “Hermogenes.” Rigaltius, however, reads “Hermogenis,” of which Oehler approves; so as to make Tertullian say, “I cannot tell how I can avoid the opinion of Hermogenes, who,” etc. etc.
Per substantiæ suggestum.
Excusas jam causam. Hermogenes held that Matter was eternal, to exclude God from the authorship of evil. This causa of Matter he was now illogically evading. Excusare = ex, causa, “to cancel the cause.”
De præjudicio alieno.