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Here having made a reminder of the instruction and having put an end to their great wickedness I will proceed to the next things, calling upon God as a guide and helper of our weakness to be saved from this and the aforementioned heresies and from those that are about to be revealed to lovers of learning and to those who wish to know the precise details of the empty words and inconsistent bonds in the world. For this man, having sown his own fantasy among many, calling himself a Gnostic, bound many scorpions, so to speak, into one chain, as the old and clear parable has it, that scorpions, binding a certain chain from one to another up to ten or even more, let themselves down from a roof or house and thus with deceit work destruction upon men. So also this man and those called Gnostics from him have become leaders of error and having taken their pretexts from him, each having been taught by another, after the teacher worked an addition to the error and introduced another heresy, connected to the former. And thus in succession those called Gnostics were themselves divided into different heresies; having taken their pretexts, however, as I said, from Valentinus and those before him. Nevertheless, let the aforementioned heresies, together with this one of Valentinus, having been trampled down by us by the teaching of the truth, be set aside, and let us examine the next ones in the power of God. Against the Secundians, with whom Epiphanes and Isidore were associated, 12, but of the sequence 32. 1. But having passed by the heresy of Valentinus and having toiled much in his thorny seed, through much, so to speak, * labor and agricultural hardship, we will come to the remnants of his thorny seed and his reptilian beast-like form, having asked for the 1.439 holy spirit from the Lord to shelter the souls through it with the teaching in God and with the solemn word and to be able to pull out the poisons from those who have been so preoccupied. I shall begin to speak about these in succession, who became the successor of whom of those who originated from him and who teach a different seed than his. Secundus, therefore, being one of them and wishing to think something more, explains all things according to Valentinus, but sounded a greater sound into the ears of the thunderstruck. For this man, being according to Valentinus as I said before, but thinking beyond Valentinus, says that the first Ogdoad is a right tetrad and a left tetrad, thus transmitting that the one is to be called light, and the other darkness; and that the power which apostatized and was deficient was not from the thirty aeons, but after the thirty aeons, so that it was from their own fruits which came to be below after the other Ogdoad. And all things concerning Christ and the other doctrines he teaches in the same way as his own provider of poison and giver of venom, Valentinus. Since there are not many things differently and strangely spoken by this man I thought it necessary to be content with what has been said before, as they have their refutation even from themselves; nevertheless, I will say a few things about him, so that I may not seem to have passed over the things concerning him for lack of material. For if right and left tetrads are arranged among them, something sought for will be found in the middle of the right and the left. For whatever has right and left arrangements stands in the middle of its left and right and will nowhere be able to be right or left, unless the distinction of each part should come from some intervening body. Therefore, O foolish Secundus and those from

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ἐνταῦθα ὑφηγήσεως ποιησάμενος τὴν ὑπόμνησιν καὶ ἐπιθεὶς πέρας τῇ τοσαύτῃ αὐτῶν μοχθηρίᾳ ἐπὶ τὰς ἑξῆς βαδιοῦμαι, θεὸν ἐπικαλούμενος ὁδηγόν τε καὶ ἐπίκουρον τῆς ἡμῶν ἀσθενείας εἰς τὸ σωθῆναι ἀπὸ ταύτης καὶ τῶν προειρημένων αἱρέσεων καὶ τῶν μελλουσῶν ἀναδείκνυσθαι τοῖς τε φιλολόγοις καὶ βουλομένοις τὰ ἀκριβῆ εἰδέναι τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ κενοφωνιῶν τε καὶ ἀσυστάτων δεσμῶν. εἰς πολλοὺς γὰρ οὗτος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ὀνειροπολίαν ἐπισπείρας, Γνωστικὸν ἑαυτὸν καλέσας, πολλοὺς ὡς εἰπεῖν σκορπίους εἰς μίαν ἅλυσιν συνέδησεν, ὡς ἡ παλαιὰ καὶ ἐναργὴς παραβολὴ ὑπάρχει, ὅτι ἅλυσίν τινα οἱ σκορπίοι ἀπὸ ἑνὸς εἰς τὸν ἕτερον δεσμοῦντες ἕως δέκα ἢ καὶ πλείους ἀπὸ στέγης ἢ δώματος ἑαυτοὺς χαλῶσι καὶ οὕτως μετὰ δόλου τὴν λύμην τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐργάζονται. οὕτως καὶ οὗτος καὶ οἱ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ καλούμενοι Γνωστικοὶ τῆς πλάνης ἀρχηγέται γεγόνασι καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ τὰς προφάσεις εἰληφότες ἕκαστος ὑφ' ἑτέρου μαθητευθεὶς μετὰ τὸν διδάσκαλον προσθήκην τῆς πλάνης εἰργάσατο καὶ ἑτέραν αἵρεσιν εἰσηγήσατο, ἐχομένην τῆς προτέρας. καὶ οὕτω κατὰ διαδοχὴν εἰς διαφόρους αἱρέσεις αὐτοὶ οἱ κληθέντες Γνωστικοὶ ἐμερίσθησαν· παρὰ Οὐαλεντίνου μέντοι ὡς ἔφην καὶ τῶν πρὸ αὐτοῦ τὰς προφάσεις εἰληφότες. ὅμως αἱ προειρημέναι σὺν τῇ τούτου τοῦ Οὐαλεντίνου τῇ τῆς ἀληθείας διδασκαλίᾳ καταπατηθεῖσαι ὑφ' ἡμῶν παρείσθωσαν, ἡμεῖς δὲ τὰς ἑξῆς ἐν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ δυνάμει διασκοπήσωμεν. Κατὰ Σεκουνδιανῶν οἷς συνήφθη Ἐπιφάνης καὶ Ἰσίδωρος ˉιˉβ, τῆς δὲ

ἀκολουθίας ˉλˉβ. 1. Παρελθόντες δὲ τὴν τοῦ Οὐαλεντίνου αἵρεσιν καὶ πολλὰ μοχθήσαντες ἐν τῇ ἀκανθώδει αὐτοῦ σπορᾷ, διὰ πολλοῦ ὡς εἰπεῖν * καμάτου καὶ γεωργικῆς κακοπαθείας, ἐπὶ τὰ λείψανα τῆς ἀκανθώδους αὐτοῦ σπορᾶς καὶ ἑρπετώδους αὐτοῦ θηριομορφίας ἐλευσόμεθα, τὸ 1.439 ἅγιον πνεῦμα αἰτησάμενοι παρὰ κυρίου εἰς τὸ δι' αὐτοῦ σκεπάσαι τὰς ψυχὰς τῇ ἐν θεῷ διδασκαλίᾳ καὶ σεμνῷ λόγῳ καὶ τοὺς ἰοὺς ἀνασπάσαι δυνηθῆναι ἀπὸ τῶν οὕτως προειλημμένων. ἄρξομαι δὲ περὶ τούτων λέγειν κατὰ διαδοχήν, τίς τίνος διάδοχος γεγένηται τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ ὁρμωμένων καὶ ἑτέραν παρὰ τὴν ἐκείνου σπορὰν διδασκόντων. Σεκοῦνδος τοίνυν, τὶς ἐξ αὐτῶν ὢν καὶ περισσότερόν τι βουλόμενος φρονῆσαι, τὰ μὲν πάντα κατὰ τὸν Οὐαλεντῖνον ἐξηγεῖται, περισσότερον δὲ ἦχον εἰς ἀκοὰς τῶν ἐμβεβροντημένων ἐξήχησεν. οὗτος γὰρ κατὰ Οὐαλεντῖνον ὢν ὡς προεῖπον, ὑπὲρ δὲ Οὐαλεντῖνον φρονῶν, λέγει εἶναι τὴν πρώτην Ὀγδοάδα τετράδα δεξιὰν καὶ τετράδα ἀριστεράν, οὕτως παραδιδοὺς καλεῖσθαι τὴν μὲν μίαν φῶς, τὴν δὲ ἄλλην σκότος· τὴν δὲ ἀποστᾶσάν τε καὶ ὑστερήσασαν δύναμιν μὴ εἶναι ἀπὸ τῶν τριάκοντα αἰώνων, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τοὺς τριάκοντα αἰῶνας, ὡς εἶναι ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν τῶν μετὰ τὴν Ὀγδοάδα τὴν ἄλλην κατωτέρω γενομένων. τὰ δὲ πάντα περὶ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων δογμάτων ὡσαύτως τῷ ἰδίῳ χορηγῷ τοῦ ἰοῦ καὶ δοτῆρι τοῦ δηλητηρίου Οὐαλεντίνῳ δογματίζει. μὴ πολλῶν δὲ ὄντων τῶν ὑπὸ τούτου διαφόρως ξενολεκτουμένων ἀρκεσθῆναι μὲν ἡγησάμην δεῖν τοῖς προειρημένοις, ἔχουσι καὶ ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν τὴν ἀνατροπήν· ὅμως δ' οὖν καὶ περὶ αὐτοῦ ὀλίγα λέξω, ἵνα μὴ δι' ἀπορίαν παρεληλυθέναι τὰ κατ' αὐτὸν δόξω. εἰ γὰρ τετράδες δεξιαὶ καὶ εὐώνυμοι παρ' αὐτοῖς τάσσονται, εὑρεθήσεταί τι ζητούμενον μέσον τοῦ τε δεξιοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀριστεροῦ. πᾶν γὰρ ὁτιοῦν δεξιὰς ἔχον καὶ εὐωνύμους τάξεις μέσον ἕστηκε τῶν εὐωνύμων αὐτοῦ καὶ δεξιῶν καὶ οὐδαμοῦ δυνήσεται εἶναι δεξιὰ ἢ ἀριστερά, εἰ μή τι ἂν ἐκ μεσολαβοῦντος σώματος ἑκατέρου μέρους ἡ διάκρισις γένοιτο. ἄρα οὖν, ὦ ἀνόητε Σεκοῦνδε καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ