Against the Valentinians.

 Chapter I.—Introductory. Tertullian Compares the Heresy to the Old Eleusinian Mysteries.  Both Systems Alike in Preferring Concealment of Error and Si

 Chapter II.—These Heretics Brand the Christians as Simple Persons.  The Charge Accepted, and Simplicity Eulogized Out of the Scriptures.

 Chapter III.—The Folly of This Heresy. It Dissects and Mutilates the Deity. Contrasted with the Simple Wisdom of True Religion. To Expose the Absurdit

 Chapter IV.—The Heresy Traceable to Valentinus, an Able But Restless Man. Many Schismatical Leaders of the School Mentioned. Only One of Them Shows Re

 Chapter V.—Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted the Heresy.  These the Author Makes His Own Guides.

 Chapter VI.—Although Writing in Latin He Proposes to Retain the Greek Names of the Valentinian Emanations of Deity.  Not to Discuss the Heresy But Onl

 Chapter VII.—The First Eight Emanations, or Æons, Called the Ogdoad, are the Fountain of All the Others. Their Names and Descent Recorded.

 Chapter VIII.—The Names and Descent of Other Æons First Half a Score, Then Two More, and Ultimately a Dozen Besides. These Thirty Constitute the Pler

 Chapter IX.—Other Capricious Features in the System. The Æons Unequal in Attributes. The Superiority of Nus The Vagaries of Sophia Restrained by Horo

 Chapter X.—Another Account of the Strange Aberrations of Sophia, and the Restraining Services of Horus.  Sophia Was Not Herself, After All, Ejected fr

 Chapter XI.—The Profane Account Given of the Origin of Christ and the Holy Ghost Sternly Rebuked. An Absurdity Respecting the Attainment of the Knowle

 Chapter XII.—The Strange Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the Members Thereof. Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous

 Chapter XIII.—First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated.  Transition to the Other Part, Which is Like

 Chapter XIV.—The Adventures of Achamoth Outside the Pleroma. The Mission of Christ in Pursuit of Her. Her Longing for Christ. Horos’ Hostility to Her.

 Chapter XV.—Strange Account of the Origin of Matter, from the Various Affections of Achamoth.  The Waters from Her Tears Light from Her Smile.

 Chapter XVI.—Achamoth Purified from All Impurities of Her Passion by the Paraclete, Acting Through Soter, Who Out of the Above-Mentioned Impurities Ar

 Chapter XVII.—Achamoth in Love with the Angels. A Protest Against the Lascivious Features of Valentinianism. Achamoth Becomes the Mother of Three Natu

 Chapter XVIII.—Blasphemous Opinion Concerning the Origin of the Demiurge, Supposed to Be the Creator of the Universe.

 Chapter XIX.—Palpable Absurdities and Contradictions in the System Respecting Achamoth and the Demiurge.

 Chapter XX—The Demiurge Works Away at Creation, as the Drudge of His Mother Achamoth, in Ignorance All the While of the Nature of His Occupation.

 Chapter XXI.—The Vanity as Well as Ignorance of the Demiurge. Absurd Results from So Imperfect a Condition.

 Chapter XXII.—Origin of the Devil, in the Criminal Excess of the Sorrow of Achamoth. The Devil, Called Also Munditenens, Actually Wiser Than the Demiu

 Chapter XXIII.—The Relative Positions of the Pleroma. The Region of Achamoth, and the Creation of the Demiurge. The Addition of Fire to the Various El

 Chapter XXIV.—The Formation of Man by the Demiurge. Human Flesh Not Made of the Ground, But of a Nondescript Philosophic Substance.

 Chapter XXV.—An Extravagant Way of Accounting for the Communication of the Spiritual Nature to Man. It Was Furtively Managed by Achamoth, Through the

 Chapter XXVI.—The Three Several Natures—The Material, the Animal, and the Spiritual, and Their Several Destinations.  The Strange Valentinian Opinion

 Chapter XXVII.—The Christ of the Demiurge, Sent into the World by the Virgin. Not of Her. He Found in Her, Not a Mother, But Only a Passage or Channel

 Chapter XXVIII.—The Demiurge Cured of His Ignorance by the Saviour’s Advent, from Whom He Hears of the Great Future in Store for Himself.

 Chapter XXIX.—The Three Natures Again Adverted to. They are All Exemplified Amongst Men. For Instance, by Cain, and Abel, and Seth.

 Chapter XXX.—The Lax and Dangerous Views of This Sect Respecting Good Works. That These are Unnecessary to the Spiritual Man.

 Chapter XXXI.—At the Last Day Great Changes Take Place Amongst the Æons as Well as Among Men. How Achamoth and the Demiurge are Affected Then. Irony o

 Chapter XXXII.—Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of the Doct

 Chapter XXXIII.—These Remaining Chapters an Appendix to the Main Work. In This Chapter Tertullian Notices a Difference Among Sundry Followers of Ptole

 Chapter XXXIV.—Other Varying Opinions Among the Valentinians Respecting the Deity, Characteristic Raillery.

 Chapter XXXV.—Yet More Discrepancies. Just Now the Sex of Bythus Was an Object of Dispute Now His Rank Comes in Question.  Absurd Substitutes for Byt

 Chapter XXXVI.—Less Reprehensible Theories in the Heresy.  Bad is the Best of Valentinianism.

 Chapter XXXVII.—Other Turgid and Ridiculous Theories About the Origin of the Æons and Creation, Stated and Condemned.

 Chapter XXXVIII.—Diversity in the Opinions of Secundus, as Compared with the General Doctrine of Valentinus.

 Chapter XXXIX.—Their Diversity of Sentiment Affects the Very Central Doctrine of Christianity, Even the Person and Character of the Lord Jesus. This D

Chapter XIII.—First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated.  Transition to the Other Part, Which is Like a Play Outside the Curtain.

In this series, then, is contained the first emanation of Æons, who are alike born, and are married, and produce offspring: there are the most dangerous fortunes of Sophia in her ardent longing for the Father, the most seasonable help of Horos, the expiation of her Enthymesis and accruing Passion, the instruction of Christ and the Holy Spirit, their tutelar reform of the Æons, the piebald ornamentation of Soter, the consubstantial retinue153    Comparaticium antistatum. The latter word Oehler explains, “ante ipsum stantes;” the former, “quia genus eorum comparari poterat substantiæ Soteris” (so Rigaltus). of the angels. All that remains, according to you, is the fall of the curtain and the clapping of hands.154    The reader will see how obviously this is meant in Tertullian’s “Quod superest, inquis, vos valete et plaudite.” This is the well-known allusion to the end of the play in the old Roman theatre. See Quintilian, vi. 1, 52; comp. Horace, A. P. 155. Tertullian’s own parody to this formula, immediately after, is: “Immo quod superest, inquam, vos audite et proficite. What remains in my opinion, however, is, that you should hear and take heed. At all events, these things are said to have been played out within the company of the Pleroma, the first scene of the tragedy.  The rest of the play, however, is beyond the curtain—I mean outside of the Pleroma. And yet if it be such within the bosom of the Father, within the embrace of the guardian Horos, what must it be outside, in free space,155    In libero: which may be, however, “beyond the control of Horos.” where God did not exist?

CAPUT XIII.

Continet hic igitur ordo primam processionem pariter et nascentium, et nubentium, et generantium Aeonum: Sophiae ex desiderio patris, periculosissimum casum, Hori opportunissimum auxilium, Enthymeseos et conjunctae Passionis expiatum, Christi et Spiritus Sancti paedagogatum, Aeonum tutelarem 0563B reformatum, Soteris pavoninum ornatum, angelorum comparatitium antistatum. Quod superest, inquis, vos valete et plaudite. Imo quod superest, inquam, vos audite et projicite. Caeterum, haec intra coetum Pleromatis decucurrisse dicuntur; prima tragoediae scena. Alia autem trans si parium cothurnatio est, extra Pleroma dico: et tamen si talis sub sinu patris intra ambitum Hori custodis, qualis extra jam in libero, ubi Deus non erat?