Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 30/82

But if they should wish to weave falsehood together with truth, and to befuddle the minds of those who are devoted to precision, heaping up for themselves arguments by which they disguise their own error, claiming that certain things are similar, in order to establish their case from the fact that holy Scripture says that God cast an ecstasy upon Adam and he slept — yet this would be in no way similar to that case.

For not even in this case was God about to fashion a body from him upon whom he brought that ecstasy, so as to bring about something similar through the abundance of his love for mankind.

For upon Adam he brought the ecstasy of sleep, not an ecstasy of the mind.

Now 'ecstasy' has its meaning according to many different senses.

'Ecstasy' is used for astonishment due to the excess of wonder, and 'ecstasy' is also used for madness, because of one's being displaced from what lies before one.

But that ecstasy of sleep was spoken of in another sense, according to natural function, especially because it was brought upon the holy Adam most deeply, upon him who had been fashioned by the hand of God.

And indeed one can truly see how rightly the divine Scripture has called this an ecstasy.

For when a person sleeps, all the senses are displaced, having turned toward rest, so that, so to speak, the faculty of sight, though present, does not see;

for the eye is closed, and that spirit — or rather, the soul — which moves within the man is at rest.

Though there be a foul smell in the house, or even a pleasant one, even though the sense of smell is present, he does not perceive it;

for such a sense has been displaced, having turned to rest.

Though there be bitter, salty, or sweet flavors in the mouth, the sense of taste does not perceive them, since it lies in the ecstasy of rest, not being active — whereas when awake it would have been active.

Hearing is present, but the faculty of hearing is idle as regards perception.

And often, when some are speaking in the house, unless the person is roused from sleep, he does not hear what is said by them, because the faculty's activity has withdrawn for that time.

When certain small creatures pass over our body, we do not perceive their touch upon our body, unless they press upon us heavily — since the whole organ has, on account of the rest of sleep, been displaced from its activity.

For the organ, being of earthly nature and pertaining to the soul, since it has thus been made useful for us by God, is given its due time, which removes it from the most vivid perception into a state of rest;

but the soul itself has not been displaced from its governing faculty, nor from its power of thought.

For often it forms images and sees itself as though awake, and walks, and works, and voyages over the sea, and makes public speeches, beholding itself in dreams engaged in these and even greater things than these;

yet not in the manner of the deranged and ecstatic person who is in a state of ecstasy, one who, being awake in both body and soul, handles terrible things, and often does terrible harm both to himself and to those near him;

for he does not know what he says or does, since such a person has fallen into the ecstasy of madness.

We have found it necessary, O beloved ones, to gather together an account of the differences among the various senses of 'ecstasy.'

And we have explained for what reason the Lord's word there calls the participation in sleep an 'ecstasy': it is because of God's sparing kindness and love for mankind, which he has granted to all men alike, so that man might be transferred from anxious care to the rest of sleep and from the necessary affairs of life;

but there, in that particular case, he called it 'ecstasy' in a still more special sense, because he caused Adam, for that hour, not to feel the pain that would come from taking a rib from him and fashioning it into a woman for him.

But he was not in an ecstasy of mind and thought.

For immediately upon rising he recognized her and said, 'This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.'

'She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of her husband.'

For, as you see, he knows both the first things and the present things, and prophesies concerning the things to come.

For behold, he recognized the first things while he was still asleep, saying, 'Bone of my bones.'

And he recognized the present things, after the woman was formed, recognizing that she had been taken from his own body.

And he prophesied concerning the things to come, that 'for this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.'

Now these are not the words of a man in ecstasy, nor of one bereft of coherent thought, but of one possessing a sound mind.

But if it is also necessary to speak concerning the verse, 'I said in my amazement, Every man is a liar,' its meaning is again different — not, God forbid, in the manner of some foolish and deranged man, but of one who marvels exceedingly and reasons beyond his customary train of thought concerning things seen and done that are out of the ordinary.

For since the prophet marveled, it is on account of that amazement that he speaks here as he does.

The prophets came to be in ecstasy, but not in an ecstasy of their reasoning.

For Peter too came to be in ecstasy, not failing to follow the sense of things, but seeing, instead of the daily course of things, other matters beyond what is ordinarily seen by men.

For he saw a sheet let down, bound at four corners, and in it all the four-footed animals and creeping things and the birds of heaven.

Observe that the holy Peter followed the sense of it and was not in an ecstasy of the mind.

For when he heard, 'Rise, kill and eat,' he was not persuaded as one whose mind was unsound, but he said to the Lord, 'By no means, Lord.'

'For nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'

But he who says, 'I said,' was speaking of himself in particular; and concerning men he was saying that they lie.

So then he himself was not lying, but being astonished and marveling at God's love for mankind, and marveling exceedingly at the things proclaimed to him by the Lord, and seeing that every man stands in need of God's mercy, he assigned truthfulness to the Lord alone, and knew that every man is under condemnation, so that he might show forth the true Spirit, which spoke in the prophets and revealed to them the depths of the exact knowledge of God.

Abraham too came to be in ecstasy, not an ecstasy of the mind, but an ecstasy of fear.

For he saw a furnace and torches around the setting of the sun; and other prophets too, seeing visions with a sound mind, spoke — as Moses says — 'I am afraid and trembling.'

And Abraham understood the things spoken by the Lord.

For, it says, 'Know for certain that your seed shall be a sojourner in a land not their own for four hundred years.'

And you see how it is possible to see that all the things spoken by the prophets were spoken in truth, with a sound mind and sober reasoning, and not in madness.

The holy apostles also prophesied.

First, then, when the Savior was ascending into heaven, those who saw the two men in white garments did not see them in a state of madness, but heard with a sound mind, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way' — and so on.

Then also Peter, as I said, in seeing and hearing and answering and saying, 'By no means, Lord,' was steadfast in his mind.

For Agabus, prophesying and signifying by a marvelous gesture, took Paul's belt and, binding his own feet, said, 'The man to whom this belt belongs — they will bind him and carry him away to Jerusalem.'

But again, at Antioch prophets came down and announced that a famine would come over the whole world.

And their word did not fall to the ground.

But in order to show them to be true prophets, Scripture immediately adds, saying, 'which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.'

And Paul, the most holy apostle, prophesying, said, 'But the Spirit expressly says, In the last days perilous times will come' — and so on; and again elsewhere, that 'some will depart from sound doctrine, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by us who believe.'

As is plain from the very things at hand, this has clearly been fulfilled in you and those like you.

For most of these heresies forbid marriage and command abstinence from foods, not urging this for the sake of a stricter way of life, nor for the sake of greater virtue and prizes and crowns, but considering these very things, which were made by the Lord, to be abominable.

But the holy Church both glorifies virginity and praises singleness of life and chastity and widowhood, and honors and accepts honorable marriage, but forbids fornication and adultery and licentiousness; whence one may see the character of the holy catholic Church and the counterfeit ways of the others, so that whoever puts it to the test may flee from every error and crooked way, and from the arduous path that lies before them.

For I said above, as it was previously said by the most holy apostle, and I will say again, that in safeguarding us and distinguishing the character of the holy Church from the error of the heresies, he said how boldly they legislate, forbidding the things well ordained by God — speaking of those who forbid marriage and command abstinence from foods.

For indeed, with a certain measure, God the Word, saying in the Gospel, 'Do you wish to become perfect?', being indulgent to the frailty and weakness of men, rejoices on the one hand over those who are able to demonstrate the proofs of piety and who choose to practice virginity and chastity and self-control, but on the other hand he honors monogamy.

Even though he especially prefigured beforehand for the world the graces of the priesthood through those who practice continence after a single marriage and those who continue in virginity, just as his own apostles too orderly and piously established the ecclesiastical rule of the priesthood.

But if anyone, on account of weakness, should need, after the death of his own wife, to be joined in a second marriage, the canon of truth does not forbid this — that is, for one who is not a priest.

But these forbid it, according to what was said, 'forbidding to marry.'

For they cast out the one who has entered a second marriage, and compel people not to enter a second marriage.

But we do not impose compulsion; rather we admonish, urging with good counsel the one who is able; we impose no compulsion on the one who is not able, nor do we cast him out from life.

For the holy word everywhere proclaimed that we should bear the weakness of the weak, as the holy apostle too will immediately be found saying, reproving such men for not possessing the same gift, [saying]: 'Refuse younger widows;'

'...for they wish to marry, having condemnation, because they have set aside their first pledge.'

For those who made a vow and then broke it have condemnation, but those who did not make a vow, but were joined in marriage on account of weakness, will not have condemnation.

But if they were going to have condemnation, how could he say, 'Let them marry, let them manage the household'?

Every one, then, who prophesies is found to be coherent of mind, whether in the Old Testament or in the New, just as the holy John also said in the Revelation, 'These things the Lord revealed to his servants through his servant John,' and 'Thus says the Lord.'

And he who says these things had a sound mind and followed the sense of it; thus, behold, 'thus says the Lord,' and 'the vision which he saw.'

But this Montanus, who boasts himself to be a prophet and has deceived those deceived by him, relates things incoherent and contrary to the divine Scripture.

For he says in his so-called prophecy: 'What do you say of the one who is saved beyond the measure of man? For the righteous,' he says, 'shall shine a hundredfold brighter than the sun, and the little ones among you who are saved shall shine a hundredfold brighter than the moon.'

But the Lord refutes such a one — he who has the authority to grant that the faces of the saints shine, and who made the face of Moses radiant, and who will transform his saints in the coming resurrection of bodies, the bodies sown in dishonor and raised in glory, not other bodies besides the ones that exist, but those very bodies raised whole, receiving glory from him after the resurrection, from him who bestows glory ungrudgingly upon his own saints, since he, as God and Lord, has the authority to give and to grant.

But having the authority to grant this, he did not promise as Montanus did, but says, 'Your faces will shine as the sun.'

If, then, he who has the authority and is truly our Master and Lord Jesus Christ says that the faces of the righteous will shine like the sun, how does Montanus promise something more, a hundredfold? Unless indeed he is like that one who promised those around Adam, saying, 'You shall be as gods,' and who, from the glory and delight of paradise that they possessed, brought about their expulsion and their being cast down into the corruption of death.

And this same Montanus further adds, speaking thus: 'I am the Lord God Almighty, dwelling in a man.'

Rightly, then, the divine Scripture safeguards us, and the order of the Holy Spirit's teaching admonishes us, so that we may know what are the imitations of the alien spirit, and what things are opposed to the truth.

For as soon as Montanus said this, he gave us occasion to be reminded of the things spoken by the Lord.

For thus says the Lord in the Gospel: 'I have come in my Father's name, and you did not receive me.'

'Another will come in his own name, and him you will receive.'

Such a one, therefore, has been found altogether discordant with the divine Scriptures, as would be clear to anyone who reads with understanding.

If, then, he is discordant, he himself is a stranger to the holy catholic Church, and so is the heresy that boasts, following him, of having prophets and gifts which it has not received, but from which it has actually departed.

Who, then, thinking coherently, would dare to call these men prophets, and would not rather say that such men are deceivers? For Christ taught us, saying, 'I send you the Paraclete Spirit,' and giving the sign by which to know him, said, 'That one will glorify me' — and it is true to see that the holy apostles, having received the Paraclete Spirit, glorified the Lord; but this Montanus glorifies himself —

through that Spirit which dwelt in them — so that it might be shown in every way that he is not that One himself, nor sent by him, nor receiving anything from him.

For in the Lord it was well pleasing that all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily; and, according to the word of the holy John, 'of his fullness all the prophets have received.'

And observe how all the ancients proclaimed Christ, and those who came after glorified Christ and confessed him, but Montanus has smuggled himself in, calling himself someone great, so that it might be shown that he neither is that One, nor has been sent by him, nor has received anything from him.

Then again the pitiable little man Montanus says, 'I am neither an angel nor an envoy, but I, the Lord God the Father, have come.'

But in saying these things he will be exposed as being a stranger, not glorifying Christ, whom every ecclesiastical gift given in the holy Church has truly glorified.

For he will be found to be outside the body of the Church and outside the Head of the whole, not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, being joined together, grows, according to what is written.

For our Lord Jesus Christ showed himself to be Son, being truly Son in truth; but Montanus calls himself even Father.

How then, O Phrygians, who have again risen up against us as enemies, disguised under a Christian name, yet having taken up the warfare of barbarians and imitating the belligerence of the Trojans and the Phrygians — how should we be persuaded by you when you say you have departed from the Church for the sake of spiritual gifts? For those could no longer be gifts which are alien to true gifts and contrary to the character promised by the Lord, as even your own so-called prophets say.

And again you introduce to us Maximilla.

For indeed even your names are strange and most fearsome, having nothing gentle or sweet about them, but something wild and barbaric.

For at once this Maximilla, who is honored among those so called Cataphrygians — hear, O children of Christ, what she says:

Do not listen to me, but listen to Christ.

And in the very things by which she supposed she was glorifying Christ, she has gone astray.

For if she were of Christ, she would have spoken according to the holy apostles, as each of them speaks: Peter first of all saying, 'We have heard from him,' and the Lord himself saying, 'He who hears you hears me,' and Paul saying, 'Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.'

But she speaks the truth while lying, and against her own will.

For she says well in declaring that one should not listen to her, but to Christ.

For often the unclean spirits are compelled to bring themselves low, as not being of the truth, and, whether willing or not, to reveal their lord by necessity.

Just as the slave-girl who had a spirit of Python said, 'These men are servants of the Most High God,' and, 'Why have you come to torment us before the time? We know who you are, the Holy One of God' — so also this woman, being compelled, said that one should not listen to her, but to Christ.

How then do those who have heard this from her and believed her still wish to listen to her, having learned from her herself not to listen to her but to the Lord? For indeed, since what she truly utters is earthly, if they had understanding, she ought not to be listened to.

And do not say that she was following closely.

For it is not the part of one who follows closely to teach and then to overturn oneself.

For if she says altogether, 'Do not listen to me,' what sort of spirit was it that spoke in her? For if she herself was speaking as a mere human being, then she was not in the Holy Spirit.

For she who says, 'Do not listen to me,' clearly was speaking the human word, and was not in the Holy Spirit.

But if she was not from above, in the Holy Spirit, but was of a human mind, she knew nothing, and therefore was not a prophetess, since she did not have the Holy Spirit, but spoke and uttered things by human reasoning.

The word which in every way makes us wise, so that we may know which things have been spoken by the Holy Spirit — at one time in the person of the Father, at another in the person of the Son, and at another in the person of the Holy Spirit himself.

And if the spirit in Maximilla was the Holy Spirit, it would not have forbidden its own words.

For the Holy Spirit is one, distributing to each as he wills.

But if it has the authority to distribute as it wills, and is called the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of piety, and is said to be the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of the Father, proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son, not being alien to the Father and the Son, then it would not have said, 'Do not listen to me.'

For the Spirit speaks the things of Christ, and Christ sends the Spirit, and casts out demons by the Holy Spirit; and the Son speaks the things of the Father, and the Father sanctified the Son and sent him into the world, that they might know him and glorify him, even as they glorify the Father.

And so in every way the mind of those who alienate themselves from the following of Christ has utterly collapsed.

This same Maximilla — the 'knowledge and teaching of exact tradition,' if I may say so mockingly — again declares: 'The Lord sent me as a chooser, announcer, and interpreter of this labor and covenant and promise, compelled, whether willing or unwilling, to come to know the knowledge of God.'

Let us therefore consider, beloved, the firm foundation of our life and the way of light, and let us not be led astray by the words of the adversary and the pasture of the alien spirit.

For observe here how the one who spoke thus declared himself compelled, and not by voluntary will.

But our Lord did not come into the world unwillingly, nor was he sent by the Father under compulsion, but together with the Father he possessed the will, and together with the Holy Spirit the giving.

And just as he himself, together with the Father, possesses the will, and gives grace to all not under compulsion but through the abundance of his love for mankind, so also he has called those whom he called by their own free choice, imposing no necessity, placing no yoke upon them.

For he says, 'You who thirst, come to me'; and again, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and follow me'; and, speaking the same thing through Isaiah, he said, 'If you are willing and obey me...'; and afterward, that the prophet might show who it is that speaks, he said, 'for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.'

And do you see in every way the disagreement of these oracles with the divine Scripture, and their different suspicion and supposition, contrary to the faith and order of God? For indeed Maximilla too said that he compels both the willing and the unwilling — so that by this very statement such a woman is shown to be lying.

For he neither taught, to those who were willing, a knowledge of God which he himself did not know, nor did he compel those who were unwilling.

In fact, not all who are in the world know what the name Maximilla is, nor the strange utterance of her sayings.

And so in every way their deluded notion has collapsed, not being of the truth of God.

Such people also honor a certain deserted place in Phrygia, once called the city of Pepuza, but now razed to the ground, and they say that the Jerusalem from above comes down there.

Hence, going there, they perform certain mysteries in that place and sanctify themselves, as they suppose.

For this sect also exists in Cappadocia and Galatia and in the aforementioned Phrygia, whence the heresy is called 'according to the Phrygians.'

But also in Cilicia, and most of all in Constantinople.

But that we may leave out nothing of what has already been declared by us concerning the name of each heresy, we shall speak once more about the name of the Tascodrugitae.

For this name belongs either to this very sect, or to the one after it, called that of the Quintillianists.

For this name too takes its origin from these very people.

They are called Tascodrugitae for the following reason:

By placing their own finger — the so-called forefinger — against the nose while praying, ostensibly for the sake of a downcast composure and a self-devised righteousness, they were called by some Tascodrugitae, that is, 'peg-nosed ones.'

In this heresy, or in its sister sect called that of the Quintillianists, or else the Priscillianists and Pepuzians, they say a terrible and unlawful deed takes place.

For at a certain feast, taking a small infant child, they prick its whole body with bronze needles and thereby procure its blood for themselves, ostensibly for the practice of a sacrifice.

What we have said concerning this sect is sufficient for us, O beloved ones.

For we have promised not to withhold anything out of envy concerning each heresy that we know, but to disclose what we have grasped through hearsay, through writings, through documents, and through what certain people have truly confirmed to our understanding, so that, by leaving out nothing of what we know, we might not seem in our own conscience to be inventing things not upright and speaking against men, but rather falling into the very passion into which they themselves have fallen — not telling the truth, but proclaiming what they have neither seen nor heard, nor received from the true teaching of the Holy Spirit.

But going through all things accurately, as I have said, concerning each heresy, disclosing the terrible things for the correction of those who chance upon them, and by the refutation drawn from the divine words and from right reasoning producing, so to speak, a healing remedy, preparing it in the Lord in two ways — for those who have already passed through it, so that they may recover from the disease and from so great a pain; and for those who have never yet fallen into it, as a kind of preventive aid, so to speak — imparting the medicine of truth to the discerning, may we ourselves also be called disciples of the disciples of the Lord and of the Savior himself, who is the helper of bodies and souls.

So, considering our work here concerning this heresy to be sufficient, let us give ourselves, by the power of Christ, to proceed to what follows, having crushed the venom and the hook-shaped poisons of her teeth upon the wood of the truth of the cross — she being like the hemorrhage-causing viper, whose venom drains the blood of the whole body of those bitten, and thus brings on death.

For this Quintillianist heresy too does this very thing.

For it pierces the body of an uncorrupted child, and carries off its blood for consumption, ostensibly as an initiation rite in the name of Christ, having deceived those who have been led astray.

But let us, proceeding to what follows in the power of Christ, call upon his truth, so that, having tracked down the force of each error, and having exposed and refuted it, we may, as is our custom, give thanks to God in all things.

Against the Quintillianists, or Pepuzians, also called Priscillianists, with whom the Artotyritae are joined: [Heresy] 29, but 49th in the series.

Now the Quintillianists, again, also called Pepuzians, and termed Artotyritae and Priscillianists, are the same people as those 'according to the Phrygians' and originate from them, but they have been divided in a certain manner.

For these Quintillianists, or rather Priscillianists, say that in Pepuza — either Quintilla or Priscilla, for I cannot say precisely which — one of them, as I said before, slept in Pepuza, and Christ came to her and slept with her in this manner, as she, being deceived, used to say:

'Christ came to me,' she says, 'in the form of a woman, clothed in a bright robe, and put wisdom into me, and revealed to me that this place is holy, and that here the Jerusalem from heaven comes down.'

Thus women, and men too, go to that place, so that by remaining there they might see Christ.

Women, indeed, are called prophetesses among them.

But I do not know quite clearly whether this is among them or among the Phrygians.

For they are one and the same, and hold the same mind.

These people make use of the Old and New Testaments, and likewise assert the resurrection of the dead.

They have Quintilla as their founder, together with Priscilla, who is also honored among the Phrygians.

They adduce many vain testimonies, giving credit to Eve on the ground that she was the first to eat from the tree of understanding.

And they call the sister of Moses a prophetess, as testimony for the women established among them in office.

'But,' he says, 'Philip also had four daughters who prophesied.'

And often in their assembly seven virgins enter carrying lamps, coming clothed, supposedly, in white, so that they may prophesy to the people.

And by displaying a certain manner of ecstatic frenzy, they work deception upon the people present, and make everyone weep, as though leading them to a compassionate repentance, shedding tears and lamenting, in a certain fashion, over the life of mankind.

Among them women are bishops, and women are presbyters, and so forth.

For they say there is no difference in these things, since in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.

These are the things we have ascertained.

They call them Artotyritae from the fact that, in their mysteries, they set out bread and cheese, and in this way perform their mysteries.

Now every mockery among men consists in departing from the right faith and turning to helplessness and to the varieties of ecstasies and orgiastic rites.

For the minds of those who do not hold fast the anchor of truth, but give themselves over to whatever carries them along, for any reason whatsoever, are always driven into a Bacchic frenzy.