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Against the Valentinians

Tertullian

Chapter 5

About this work

Author: Tertullian

Chapter V.—Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted the Heresy. These the Author Makes His Own Guides.

My own path, however, lies along the original tenets

‹ Chapter 4 Chapter 6 ›

of

their

chief

teachers

,

not

with

the

self

-

appointed

leaders

of

their

promiscuous

followers

.

Nor

shall

we

hear

it

said

of

us

from

any

quarter

,

that

we

have

of

our

own

mind

fashioned

our

own

materials

,

since

these

have

been

already

produced

,

both

in

respect

of

the

opinions

and

their

refutations

,

in

carefully

written

volumes

,

by

so

many

eminently

holy

and

excellent

men

,

not

only

those

who

have

lived

before

us

,

but

those

also

who

were

contemporary

with

the

heresiarchs

themselves

:

for

instance

Justin

,

philosopher

and

martyr

;

Miltiades

,

the

sophist

of

the

churches

;

Irenæus

,

that

very

exact

inquirer

into

all

doctrines

;

our

own

Proculus

,

the

model

of

chaste

old

age

and

Christian

eloquence

.

All

these

it

would

be

my

desire

closely

to

follow

in

every

work

of

faith

,

even

as

in

this

particular

one

.

Now

if

there

are

no

heresies

at

all

but

what

those

who

refute

them

are

supposed

to

have

fabricated

,

then

the

apostle

who

predicted

them

must

have

been

guilty

of

falsehood

.

If

,

however

,

there

are

heresies

,

they

can

be

no

other

than

those

which

are

the

subject

of

discussion

.

No

writer

can

be

supposed

to

have

so

much

time

on

his

hands

as

to

fabricate

materials

which

are

already

in

his

possession

.

Notes

1
Archetypis.
2
Passivorum.
3
[See Vol. I. pp. 171, 182, this series].
4
In a good sense, from the elegance of his style.
5
[See Vol. I. p. 326, of this series. Tertullian appropriates the work of Irenæus, (B. i.) against the Gnostics without further ceremony: translation excepted.]
6
Dignitas. [Of this Proculus see Kaye, p. 55.]
7
1 Cor. xi. 19.
8
Otiosus.