Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume IHippolytus, Antipope
Philosophy
Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume I
Hippolytus, Antipope
Christian heresies -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Occultism; Philosophy, Ancient
Book X seems at first sight likely to solve many of the questions
which every reader who has got so far is compelled to ask. It begins,
in accordance with the habit just noted, with the statement that the
author has now worked through “the Labyrinth of Heresies” and that the
teachings of truth are to be found neither in the philosophies of the
Greeks, the secret mysteries of the Egyptians, the formulas of the
Chaldæans or astrologers, nor the ravings of Babylonian magic.[60]
This links it with fair closeness to the reference in Book IV to the
ideas of the Persians, Babylonians, Egyptians and Chaldæans, only the
first-named nation being here omitted from the text. It then goes on
to say that “having brought together the opinions[61] of all the wise
men among the _Greeks_ in four books and those of the heresiarchs in
five,” he will make a summary of them. It will be noted that this
is in complete contradiction to the supposition that the missing
Books II and III contained the doctrines of the Babylonians, as he
now says that they comprised those of the Greeks only. The summary
which follows might have been expected to make this confusion clear,
but unfortunately it does nothing of the kind. It does indeed give
so good an abstract of what has been said in Books V to IX inclusive
regarding the chief heresiarchs, that in one or two places it enables
us to correct doubtful phrases and to fill in gaps left in earlier
books. There is omitted from the summary, however, all mention of the
heresies of Marcus, Satornilus, Menander, Carpocrates, the Nicolaitans,
Docetæ, Quartodecimans, Encratites and the Jewish sects, and the list
of omissions will probably be thought too long to be accounted for
on the ground of mere carelessness. But when the summarizer deals
with the earlier books, the discrepancy between the summary and the
documents summarized is much more startling. Among the philosophers, he
omits to summarize the opinions of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Ecphantus,
Hippo, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Academics, Brachmans,
or Druids, while he does mention those of Hippasus, Ocellus Lucanus,
Heraclides of Pontus and Asclepiades, who were not named in any of
the texts of Book I which have come down to us. As for the tenets
and practices of the Persians, Egyptians and others, supposed on the
strength of the statement at the beginning of Book V to have been
narrated in Books II and III, nothing further is here said concerning
them, and, by the little table of contents with which Book X like the
others is prefaced, it will appear that nothing was intended to be
said. For this last omission it might be possible to assign plausible
reasons if it stood alone; but when it is coupled with the variations
between summary and original as regards Book I, the only inference that
meets all the facts is that the summarizer did not have the first four
books under his eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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