「For Valentinus came to Rome under Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and remained until Anicetus. Cerdon also, the predecessor of Marcion, himself likewise under Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop, came into the church and made confession, and continued thus: now teaching in secret, now again confessing, and now being convicted for the things he taught amiss, and withdrawing from the assembly of the brethren.」 This he says in the third book of his work Against the Heresies.
And again, in the first book, he goes through these things concerning Cerdon: 「A certain Cerdon, who took his starting-points from the followers of Simon, and who had come to reside in Rome under Hyginus, who held the ninth place of the episcopal succession from the apostles, taught that the God proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for the one is known, but the other unknown, and the one is just, while the other is good. Marcion of Pontus, succeeding him, enlarged the school, blaspheming shamelessly.」
And the same Irenaeus, having most vigorously sailed through the boundless abyss of Valentinus’s much-erring matter, lays bare his wickedness, which lay hidden and concealed like a serpent lurking in its hole.
Besides these, he says that there arose in their time another man, Marcus by name, most expert in magical jugglery. And he describes their incomplete rites and abominable mystic initiations, revealing them in these very words:
「For some of them prepare a bridal chamber and perform a mystic rite with certain invocations over those being initiated, and they assert that what is being done by them is a spiritual marriage, after the likeness of the unions above. Others lead them to water and, baptizing them, repeat these words: ‘Into the name of the unknown Father of all things, into Truth the mother of all, into him who descended upon Jesus.’ Others repeat Hebrew names, the better to astound those being initiated.」
But indeed, after the fourth year of his bishopric, when Hyginus had died, Pius was entrusted with the ministry at Rome. And at Alexandria Marcus was appointed shepherd, when Eumenes had completed thirteen years in all; and when Marcus too had rested from his ministry after ten years, Celadion received the ministry of the church of the Alexandrians.
And at the city of the Romans, when Pius had departed this life in the fifteenth year of his bishopric, Anicetus presided over those there. In his time Hegesippus relates that he himself sojourned at Rome, and that he remained there until the bishopric of Eleutherus.
But most of all in their time Justin flourished, who in the garb of a philosopher served as ambassador of the divine word, and contended in writings on behalf of the faith. He indeed, having also written a treatise against Marcion, mentions that at the time he composed it the man was known in life. He speaks thus:
「A certain Marcion of Pontus, who even now is still teaching those who are persuaded by him to believe in another god greater than the Creator; and who throughout every race of men, by the cooperation of demons, has persuaded many to utter blasphemies, and to deny that the Maker of this universe is the Father of the Christ, and to confess that another, as being greater, made it. And all who take their start from these, as we said, are called Christians, in the same way that the name of philosophy is common to philosophers, although their doctrines are not in common.」
To this he adds, saying: 「And there is among us also a treatise against all the heresies that have arisen, which, if you wish to consult it, we will give you.」
And this same Justin, having laboured most ably also against the Greeks, addresses discourses containing a defence of our faith to the emperor Antoninus, called Pius, and to the senate of the Romans; for he was making his stay at Rome. And he makes plain who he was and whence he came, through his Apology, in these words: