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leading to eternal life and to leave behind the wide and broad and thorny road full of stumbling blocks, muddy and filled with licentiousness and fornication, of which fornication and licentiousness the likeness can be seen in the most terrible serpent, to which the ancients gave the name of the viper that does not feel birth-pangs. For the nature of such a viper is similar to their wickedness. For by performing this shameful act through the male or female nature, they forbid the depositing of seed, destroying the childbearing given by God to his creatures, as the apostle also says, "for receiving in themselves the due penalty 1.300 for their error," and what follows. For thus, he says, the viper that does not feel birth-pangs, charmed by the passion of desire, both the female towards the male and the male towards the female, entwined together, with the female opening her mouth, the male inserts his head, and she, seized by passion, bites off his head, and thus, having swallowed the venom dripped from his mouth, she becomes pregnant with such a male-female pair; which pair, having matured in the womb and not having a way to be born, wounds the mother's side and is thus born, with the result that both their father and mother are destroyed. Therefore they gave it the name "without birth-pangs," because it does not experience birth-pangs. And it is terrible and fearful beyond all serpents, working destruction in itself and receiving shame through its mouth, to which this mind-corrupting heresy is similar, whose head and body and offspring we have here crushed with the wood of life, let us proceed to examine the others, calling upon God as our helper, to whom be honor and power for ever and ever, amen.

Against the Carpocratians ˉζ, but in the series ˉκˉζ. 1. A certain Carpocrates is another, who established for himself an unlawful school of his falsely-named opinion, he having habits worse than all. For from all these, from Simon and Menander, and Saturnilus and Basilides and Nicolas and Carpocrates himself, 1.301 and further from the pretext of Valentinus, the heresy of falsely-named knowledge sprang up, which named its adherents Gnostics, from which the Gnostics have already been revealed by me, being condemnable in their ways. 2. This one again says there is one principle above, and wishes to introduce a father of all, both unknown and unnameable like the others, but that the world and the things in the world were made by angels, who were much inferior to the unknown father; for he says that these, having defected from the power above, thus made the world. He says that Jesus our lord was begotten from Joseph, just as all men were begotten from the seed of a man and a woman. And that he was similar to all men, but differed in his life, in prudence and virtue and a life of righteousness. But since, he says, he had a vigorous soul beyond other men and remembered the things seen by it above, when it was in the revolution of the unknown father, powers were sent, he says, by the same father into his soul, so that having remembered the things seen by it 1.302 and having been empowered, it might flee the world-making angels by passing through all the things in the world and the deeds done by men, both in secret absurd and unlawful works, and so that, having been freed through all deeds, the same soul, he says, of Jesus might ascend to the same unknown father, who sent powers to it from above, so that through all

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φερούσης εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον καὶ καταλιμπάνειν τὴν πλατεῖαν καὶ εὐρύχωρον καὶ ἀκανθώδη καὶ προσκομμάτων ἔμπλεον ὁδόν, βορβορώδη καὶ ἀσελγείας καὶ πορνείας ἐμπεπλησμένην, ἧς πορνείας καὶ ἀσελγείας τὸ ὅμοιον ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ἐν τῷ ἑρπετῷ τῷ δεινοτάτῳ, ᾧ ἐπέθεντο τὸ ὄνομα ἀπειρώδινον ἔχιδναν οἱ παλαιοί. ἔστι γὰρ τῆς τοιαύτης ἐχίδνης ἡ φύσις ὁμοία τῆς τούτων μοχθηρίας. διὰ γὰρ τῆς ἀνδρείας φύσεως ἢ γυναικείας τὴν αἰσχρότητα ἐπιτελοῦντες ταύτην ἀπαγορεύουσι τὴν τῶν σπερμάτων καταβολήν, ἀφανίζοντες τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ τοῖς κτίσμασι δεδομένην τεκνογονίαν, ὡς καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολός φησι «τὴν γὰρ ἀντι1.300 μισθίαν ἣν ἔδει τῆς πλάνης αὐτῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀπολαμβάνοντες» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. οὕτω γάρ, φησί, τὴν ἀπειρώδινον ἔχιδναν θελχθεῖσαν τῷ πάθει τῆς ἐπιθυμίας, τήν τε θήλειαν πρὸς τὸν ἄρρενα καὶ τὸν ἄρρενα πρὸς τὴν θήλειαν, περιπλακείσας μὲν ὁμοῦ, διὰ τοῦ στόματος χαινούσης τῆς θηλείας τὸν ἄρρενα τὴν κεφαλὴν εἰσβάλλειν, ἐκείνης δὲ πάθει συσχεθείσης ἀποτέμνειν τὴν τούτου κεφαλὴν καὶ οὕτως τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ στόματος σταλάξαντα ἰὸν καταπιοῦσαν ἐν ἑαυτῇ ἐγκυμονεῖν μὲν τοιοῦτο ζεῦγος ἀρρενόθηλυ· ὅπερ ζεῦγος ἁδρυνθὲν ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ καὶ μὴ ἔχον πόθεν γεννηθῆναι τὴν πλευρὰν τῆς μητρὸς τιτρώσκειν καὶ οὕτως γεννᾶσθαι, ὥστε ἀπολέσθαι τόν τε τούτων πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα. διόπερ ἀπειρώδινον αὐτῇ ἐπέθεντο ὄνομα, ὅτι ὠδίνων οὐ πειρᾶται. δεινὴ δὲ καὶ φοβερὰ παρὰ πάντα τὰ ἑρπετὰ τυγχάνει, ἐν ἑαυτῇ τὸν ἀφανισμὸν ἐξεργαζομένη καὶ διὰ στόματος τὴν αἰσχρότητα ἀπολαμβάνουσα, ᾗ ἔοικεν αὕτη ἡ φρενοβλαβὴς αἵρεσις, ἧς τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὰ ἐξ αὐτῆς γεγεννημένα ἐνταῦθα συντρίψαντες τῷ ξύλῳ τῆς ζωῆς τὰς ἑτέρας διασκοπεῖν προέλθωμεν, θεὸν ἀρωγὸν ἐπικαλούμενοι, ᾧ τιμὴ καὶ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, ἀμήν.

Κατὰ Καρποκρασίων ˉζ, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉκˉζ. 1. Καρποκρᾶς τις ἕτερος γίνεται, συστήσας ἑαυτῷ ἀθέμιτον διδασκαλεῖον τῆς ψευδωνύμου αὐτοῦ γνώμης, χείρονας πάντων οὗτος τοὺς τρόπους κεκτημένος. ἐκ πάντων γὰρ τούτων, Σίμωνός τε καὶ Μενάνδρου, Σατορνίλου τε καὶ Βασιλείδου καὶ Νικολάου καὶ αὐτοῦ 1.301 τοῦ Καρποκρᾶ, ἔτι δὲ ἐκ προφάσεως Οὐαλεντίνου ἡ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως ἐφύη αἵρεσις, ἥτις Γνωστικοὺς τοὺς αὐτῆς ὠνόμασεν, ἀφ' ἧς οἱ Γνωστικοὶ ἤδη μοι δεδήλωνται, κατάγνωστοι ὄντες τὸν τρόπον. 2. Οὗτος δὲ πάλιν ἄνω μὲν μίαν ἀρχὴν λέγει καὶ πατέρα τῶν ὅλων καὶ ἄγνωστον καὶ ἀκατονόμαστον ἴσα τοῖς ἄλλοις εἰσάγειν βούλεται, τὸν δὲ κόσμον καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ὑπὸ ἀγγέλων γεγενῆσθαι, τῶν πολύ τι ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ ἀγνώστου ὑποβεβηκότων· τούτους γὰρ λέγει ἀποστάντας ἀπὸ τῆς ἄνω δυνάμεως οὕτω τὸν κόσμον πεποιηκέναι. Ἰησοῦν δὲ τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν ἀπὸ Ἰωσὴφ λέγει γεγεννῆσθαι, καθάπερ καὶ πάντες ἄνθρωποι ἐκ σπέρματος ἀνδρὸς καὶ γυναικὸς ἐγεννήθησαν. εἶναι δὲ αὐτὸν ὅμοιον τοῖς πᾶσι, βίῳ δὲ διενηνοχέναι, σωφροσύνῃ τε καὶ ἀρετῇ καὶ βίῳ δικαιοσύνης. ἐπειδὴ δέ, φησίν, εὔτονον ἔσχε ψυχὴν παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους καὶ ἐμνημόνευεν τὰ ὁραθέντα ὑπ' αὐτῆς ἄνω, ὅτε ἦν ἐν τῇ περιφορᾷ τοῦ ἀγνώστου πατρός, ἀπεστάλθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πατρός, φησίν, εἰς τὴν αὐτοῦ ψυχὴν δυνάμεις, ὅπως τὰ ὁραθέντα αὐτῇ ἀναμνημο1.302 νεύσασα καὶ ἐνδυναμωθεῖσα φύγῃ τοὺς κοσμοποιοὺς ἀγγέλους ἐν τῷ διὰ πάντων χωρῆσαι τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ πραγμάτων καὶ πράξεων τῶν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γινομένων καὶ ἐν παραβύστῳ ἀτόπων ἔργων καὶ ἀθεμίτων, καὶ ὅπως διὰ πασῶν τῶν πράξεων ἐλευθερωθεῖσα ἡ αὐτὴ ψυχή, φησί, τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀνέλθῃ πρὸς τὸν αὐτὸν πατέρα τὸν ἄγνωστον, τὸν δυνάμεις αὐτῇ ἀποστείλαντα ἄνωθεν, ἵνα διὰ πασῶν