At this time also Ambrose, who held the views of the heresy of Valentinus, having been refuted by the truth advocated by Origen, and as if illumined in mind by a light, gave his adherence to the word of ecclesiastical orthodoxy.
And many others too from among the learned, as the fame of Origen was being noised abroad everywhere, came to him to make trial of the man's competence in the sacred words; while countless heretics, and not a few of the most eminent philosophers, attended upon him with zeal, being instructed by him in well-nigh the matters of outward philosophy as well as in the divine things.
For he would introduce to the philosophic studies as many as he saw to be naturally gifted, handing on to them geometry and arithmetic and the other preliminary disciplines, and leading them on to the sects current among the philosophers, and expounding the writings among these, commenting upon and contemplating each of them, so that the man was proclaimed a great philosopher even among the Greeks themselves.
And many of the more unlettered also he urged on to the general studies, declaring that there would accrue to them no small aptitude from these for the contemplation and preparation of the divine Scriptures. Whence he judged the discipline in worldly and philosophic studies to be necessary above all for himself as well.