A Source Book for Ancient Church HistoryAyer, Joseph Cullen
History
A Source Book for Ancient Church History
Ayer, Joseph Cullen
Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600 -- Sources
(_b_) Irenæus, _Adv. Hær._ I, 28. (MSG, 7:690.)
Many offshoots of numerous heresies have already been formed from those
heresies which we have described.… By way of example, let us say there are
those springing from Saturninus and Marcion, who are called Encratites
[_i.e._, self-controlled], who preached the unmarried state, thus setting
aside the original creation of God, and indirectly condemning Him who made
male and female for the propagation of the human race. Some of those
reckoned as belonging to them have also introduced abstinence from animal
food, being ungrateful to God who created all things. They deny, also, the
salvation of him who was first created. It is but recently that this
opinion has been discovered among them, since a certain man named Tatian
first introduced the blasphemy. He had been a hearer of Justin’s, and as
long as he continued with him he expressed no such views; but after his
martyrdom [circa A. D. 165] he separated from the Church, and having
become excited and puffed up by the thought of being a teacher, as if he
were superior to others, he composed his own peculiar type of doctrine. He
invented a system of certain invisible Eons, like the followers of
Valentinus; and like Marcion and Saturninus, he declared that marriage was
nothing else than corruption and fornication. But this denial of Adam’s
salvation was an opinion due entirely to himself.
§ 25. Montanism
Montanism was, in part at least, an attempt to revive the enthusiastic
prophetic element in the early Christian life. In its first
manifestations, in Asia Minor, Montanism was wild and fanatical. It soon
spread to the West, and in doing so it became, as did other Oriental
religious movements (_e.g._, Gnosticism and Manichæanism, see § 54), far
more sober. It even seemed to many serious persons to be nothing more than
a praiseworthy attempt to revive or retain certain primitive Christian
conditions, both in respect to personal morals and ecclesiastical
organization and life. In this way it came to be patronized by not a few
(_e.g._, Tertullian) who, in other respects, deviated in few or no points
from the prevailing thought and practice of Christians. See also § 26.
Additional source material: Eusebius, _Hist. Ec._, V, 16-19, cf.
literature cited in McGiffert’s notes. The sayings of Montanus,
Maximilla, and Priscilla are collected in Hilgenfeld,
_Ketzergeschichte_, 591 _ff._ See also Hippolytus, _Refut._, X,
25_f._ [= X, 21, ANF.]
(_a_) Eusebius, _Hist. Ec._, V, 16:7. (MSG, 20:463.)
For Eusebius, see § 3.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account