[701] Tert. _de præsc. hær._ 18. It is important to contrast the arguments of Tertullian with those of Clement of Alexandria, and of both with the practice which circumstances rendered necessary. In _Strom._ 7. 16 and 17, Clement makes Scripture the criterion between the Church and the heretics, though he assumes that all orthodox teaching is apostolic and uniform. [702] The combination is first found in _Apost. Const._ Bk. ii. pp. 14, 10. 16, 25. 51. 17, 20. 58, 22. [703] Routh, _Rel. Sacr._ iii. p. 290; Harnack, p. 644. [704] Cf. the definitions of faith in Clem. Al. _Strom._ 2. cc. 2 and 3. [705] αἵρεσις is used in Clem. Al. _Strom._ 7. 15, of the true system of Christian doctrine: ἡ τῷ ὄντι ἀρίστη αἵρεσις: as in Sext. Empir. (_Pyrrh._ p. 13, § 16) it meant only adherence to a system of dogmas (no standard implied). [706] _Ad Scap._ 2. [707] Philosophers had abused each other. Theologians followed in their track. The “cart-loads of abuse they emptied upon one another” (ὅλας ἁμάξας βλασφημιῶν κατεσκέδασαν ἀλλήλων, Lucian, _Eunuch._ 2) are paralleled in, e.g. Gregory of Nyssa. [708] See Lecture V. p. 135. [709] Socrates, _H. E._ p. 177, ἕνασις τοῦ σώματος, of the corporate unity of a philosophical school. [710] _Didaché_, cc. 1-3. [711] _Apost. Const._ p. 1. 15-17. [712] _Ib._ 5. 20-22. [713] _Ib._ 1. 6. [714] “We Christians are remarkable,” says Tertullian (_Ad Scap._ 2), “only for the reformation of our former vices.” The plea of the Apologists was based on the fact that the Christians led blameless lives: _de causâ innocentiæ consistam_, Tert. _Apol._ c. 4. [715] The Elchasaites, ap. _Hipp._ 9. 15. [716] Weingarten, _Zeittafeln_, p. 12. See also Lightfoot, _Ignatius_, vol. ii. pp. 310-312. [717] Weingarten, p. 17. [718] Eusebius, _H. E._ 4. 22, 4. [719] The very terms heresy and heterodox bear witness to the action of the Greek philosophical schools on the Christian Church: αἵρεσις is used in Sext. Empir. _Pyrrh._ p. 13, of any system of dogmas, or the principle which is distinctive of a philosophical school: cf. Diels, _Doxogr. Gr._ pp. 276, 573, 388. In Clem. Alex. _Strom._ 7. 15, it is used to denote the orthodox system. Ἑτεροδόξους is used of the dogmatics from point of view of a sceptic: Sext. Empir. _adv. Math._ p. 771, § 40. Josephus uses it of the men of the other schools or parties as distinguished from the Essenes, _de Bell. Jud._ 2. 8. 5. For the place of opinion in Gnostic societies, with its curious counterpart in laxity of discipline, see Tert. _de præsc._ 42-44. He speaks of the Valentinians, _adv. Val._, as “frequentissimum plane collegium inter hæreticos.” Cf. Harnack, 190 ff., also 211. The very cultivation of the _Gnosis_ means the supremacy of the intellect.