1. _Haeresis_ is so-called in the Greek from choosing, because, forsooth, each one chooses for himself what seems to him to be better, as the Peripatetic philosophers, the Academic, the Epicureans, and the Stoics, or as others who, following perverse belief, have departed from the church of their own free will. 2. And so heresy is named in the Greek from its meaning of choice, since each at his own will chooses what he pleases to teach or believe. But we are not permitted to believe anything of our own will, nor to choose what someone has believed of his. 3. We have God’s apostles as authorities, who did not themselves of their own will choose anything of what they should believe, but they faithfully transmitted to the nations the teaching received from Christ. And so, even if an angel from heaven shall preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema. Chapter 5. On the heresies of the Christians. 69. There are also other heresies[315] without founders or names: some of whom believe that God has three forms; and others say that the divinity of Christ is capable of suffering; and others set a date in time to the generation of Christ by the Father. Others believe that by the descent of Christ the liberation of all[316] in the lower regions was accomplished; others deny that the soul is the image of God; others think that souls are changed to demons and to animals of every sort; others hold different views about the constitution of the universe; others think there are innumerable universes; others make water co-eternal with God; others go on their bare feet; others do not eat in company with men. [315] A list of heresies precedes. [316] Du Breul, _hominum_ instead of _omnium_. 70. These heresies have arisen against the catholic faith and have been condemned beforehand by the apostles and the holy fathers, or by the councils, and while they are not consistent with one another, being divided among many different errors, they still conspire with one assent against the church of God. But whoever understands the holy Scripture otherwise than as the sense of the Holy Spirit, by whom it was written, demands, though he do not withdraw from the church, he can be still called a heretic. Chapter 6. On the heathen philosophers. 1. Philosophers are so-called by a Greek name, which in Latin means _amatores sapientiae_. For he is a philosopher who has a knowledge of divine and human things, and keeps wholly to the way of right living. 2. The name of the philosophers is said to have first originated with Pythagoras. For when the ancient Greeks boastfully named themselves sophists, that is, wise men, or teachers of wisdom, he was asked what he professed to be, and he modestly replied that he was a philosopher, that is, lover of wisdom, since to make a profession of wisdom seemed very arrogant.