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5. “I have set forth these sayings,” says the one who wrote against them, “for the refutation of those who do not live rightly,” and of the Basilidians and Carpocratians and those from Valentinus and those called of Epiphanes, with whom the aforementioned Secundus was associated. For each from another, either this one imparting to that one or that one to this one, having sold off their terrible things and differing in some respect from one another, nevertheless placed themselves in one heresy, “so that they even taught that they have the authority to sin because of their perfection, since they would certainly be saved by nature, even if they should sin now, on account of their innate election, since not even the forefathers of these doctrines allow them to do the same things.” “And these men, extending to what is higher and more gnostic, also speak of the first tetrad thus: there is a certain Fore-beginning before all things, beyond thought, both ineffable and unnameable, which I call Monotēs (Solitude). With this Monotēs co-exists a power, which I myself also name Henotēs (Oneness). This Henotēs and the Monotēs, being The One, sent forth, without sending forth, an intelligible beginning over all things, both unbegotten and invisible, which beginning the word calls Monad. With this Monad co-exists a power consubstantial with it, which I myself also name The One. These powers, both Monotēs and Henotēs, and Monad and The One, sent forth the remaining projections of the aeons.” 6. Then those who wrote well the truth about these things in their own writings refuted them, both Clement, whom some say was an Alexandrian, but others an Athenian, and also the holy Irenaeus, deriding them brought forward that tragic utterance which he applied to the aforesaid: “iou iou and pheu pheu. It is truly possible to utter this tragic cry at such a disaster from those who have written these ridiculous things of such neologism and with such audacity, as having lost all shame he has assigned names to his own falsehood. For in saying ‘there is a certain Fore-beginning before all things, beyond thought, which I call Monotēs,’ and again ‘with this Monotēs co-exists a power, which I myself also name Henotēs,’ he has most clearly confessed both that the things said are his own fiction and that he himself has assigned names to the fiction, which were not assigned previously by any other. And it is clear that he himself dared to invent these names, and if he himself had not been present in life, the truth would not have had a name. Therefore nothing prevents another person from defining names in this way upon the same hypothesis; then, furthermore, in response to these things, the same blessed Irenaeus, as we have said before, himself also †uttered ridiculous words, wittily inventing from himself a different set of names as a match for their nonsense, devising kinds of melons and cucumbers and gourds as if applied to certain underlying realities,† as would be clear to philologists from what they have read before. 7. But others of them again have called the first and primeval Ogdoad by these names: first Fore-beginning, then Unthinkable, the third Ineffable and the fourth Invisible. And from the first Fore-beginning was projected in the first and fifth place Beginning, and from the beginning of the Unthinkable in the second and sixth place Incomprehensible, and from the Ineffable in the third and seventh place Unnameable, and from the Invisible Unbegotten, the Pleroma of the first Ogdoad. They wish these powers to pre-exist Bythos (Depth) and Sigē (Silence), so that they may appear to be more perfect than the perfect and more Gnostic than the Gnostics; to whom one might justly exclaim: O you nonsensical sophists. For indeed concerning Bythos itself there are different opinions among them. For some say that he is unpaired, being neither male nor female nor anything at all, while others say that he is male-female, ascribing to him the nature of a hermaphrodite. But others again Sigē

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5. «Ταύτας παρεθέμην τὰς φωνάς», φησὶν ὁ κατὰ τούτων γράψας, «εἰς ἔλεγχον τῶν μὴ βιούντων ὀρθῶς», καὶ Βασιλειδιανῶν καὶ Καρποκρατιανῶν καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ Οὐαλεντίνου καὶ τῶν Ἐπιφάνους καλουμένων, ᾧ δὴ συνήφθη Σεκοῦνδος ὁ προτεταγμένος. ἐξ ἀλλήλων γὰρ ἕκαστος, ἤτοι οὗτος ἐκείνῳ μεταδοὺς ἢ ἐκεῖνος τούτῳ, τὰ δεινὰ ἀπεμπολή1.445 σαντες καὶ εἴς τι πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαφερόμενοι, ὅμως ἐν μιᾷ αἱρέσει ἑαυτοὺς κατέθεντο, «ὥστε καὶ ἔχειν ἐξουσίαν ἐδογμάτισαν καὶ τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν διὰ τὴν τελειότητα, ἦ πάντως γε σωθησομένων φύσει, κἄν τε νυνὶ ἁμάρτωσι, διὰ τὴν ἔμφυτον ἐκλογήν, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ τὰ αὐτὰ αὐτοῖς πράττειν συγχωροῦσιν οἱ προπάτορες τῶν δογμάτων τούτων». «Φασὶ δὲ καὶ οὗτοι ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ ὑψηλότερον καὶ γνωστικώτερον ἐπεκτεινόμενοι τὴν πρώτην τετράδα οὕτως· ἔστι τις πρὸ πάντων προαρχὴ προανεννόητος, ἄρρητός τε καὶ ἀνονόμαστος, ἣν ἐγὼ Μονότητα καλῶ. ταύτῃ τῇ Μονότητι συνυπάρχει δύναμις, ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν ὀνομάζω Ἑνότητα. αὕτη ἡ Ἑνότης ἥ τε Μονότης, τὸ Ἓν οὖσαι, προήκαντο, μὴ προέμεναι, ἀρχὴν ἐπὶ πάντων νοητήν, ἀγέννητόν τε καὶ ἀόρατον, ἣν ἀρχὴν ὁ λόγος Μονάδα καλεῖ. ταύτῃ τῇ Μονάδι συνυπάρχει δύναμις ὁμοούσιος αὐτῇ, ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν ὀνομάζω τὸ Ἕν. αὗται αἱ δυνάμεις, ἥ τε Μονότης καὶ Ἑνότης, Μονάς τε καὶ τὸ Ἕν, προήκαντο τὰς λοιπὰς προβολὰς τῶν αἰώνων». 6. Εἶτα οἱ καλῶς συγγραψάμενοι τὴν ἀλήθειαν περὶ τούτων ἐν τοῖς σφῶν αὐτῶν συγγράμμασιν ἤλεγξαν αὐτούς, Κλήμης τε, ὅν φασί τινες Ἀλεξανδρέα, ἕτεροι δὲ Ἀθηναῖον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ ἱερὸς Εἰρηναῖος καταγελῶν αὐτῶν τὸ τραγικὸν ἐκεῖνο ὃ ἐπὶ τοῖς προειρημένοις εἰς μέσον φέρων ἧκεν τό· «ἰοὺ ἰοὺ καὶ φεῦ φεῦ. τὸ 1.446 τραγικὸν ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐπειπεῖν ἔστιν ἐπὶ τῇ τοιαύτῃ συμφορᾷ τῶν τὰ γελοιώδη ταῦτα γεγραφότων τῆς τοιαύτης ὀνοματοποιίας καὶ τῇ τοσαύτῃ τόλμῃ, ὡς ἀπερυθριάσας τῷ ψεύσματι αὐτοῦ ὀνόματα τέθεικεν. ἐν γὰρ τῷ λέγειν «ἔστιν τις προαρχὴ πρὸ πάντων προανεννόητος, ἣν ἐγὼ Μονότητα καλῶ», καὶ πάλιν «ταύτῃ τῇ Μονότητι συνυπάρχει δύναμις, ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν ὀνομάζω Ἑνότητα», σαφέστατα ὅτι τε πλάσμα αὐτοῦ ἐστι τὰ εἰρημένα ὡμολόγηκε καὶ ὅτι αὐτὸς ὀνόματα τέθεικε τῷ πλάσματι, ὑπὸ μηδενὸς πρότερον ἄλλου τεθειμένα. καὶ σαφές ἐστιν ὅτι αὐτὸς ταῦτα τετόλμηκεν ὀνοματοποιῆσαι, καὶ εἰ μὴ παρῆν τῷ βίῳ αὐτός, οὐκ ἂν ἡ ἀλήθεια εἶχεν ὄνομα. οὐδὲν οὖν κωλύει καὶ ἄλλον τινὰ ἐπὶ τῆς αὐτῆς ὑποθέσεως οὕτως ὁρίσασθαι ὀνόματα· εἶτα λοιπὸν εἰς ταῦτα ὁ αὐτὸς μακάριος Εἰρηναῖος, ὥς γε προείπαμεν, γελοιώδη ῥήματα καὶ αὐτὸς † προεῖπεν, ἑτερωνυμίαν ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ ὡς ἀντάξια τῆς αὐτῶν ληρῳδίας χαριεντιζόμενος, πεπόνων γένη καὶ σικύων καὶ κολοκυνθῶν ὡς ἐπὶ ὑποκειμένων τινῶν ἐπιπλασάμενος, † ὡς τοῖς φιλολόγοις σαφὲς ἂν εἴη ἀφ' ὧν προανέγνωσαν. 7. Ἄλλοι δὲ πάλιν αὐτῶν τὴν πρώτην καὶ ἀρχέγονον Ὀγδοάδα τούτοις τοῖς ὀνόμασι κεκλήκασι· πρῶτον Προαρχήν, ἔπειτα Ἀνεννόητον, τὴν δὲ τρίτην Ἄρρητον καὶ τὴν τετάρτην Ἀόρατον. καὶ ἐκ μὲν τῆς πρώτης Προαρχῆς προβεβλῆσθαι πρώτῳ καὶ πέμπτῳ τόπῳ Ἀρχήν, ἐκ δὲ τῆς ἀρχῆς τῆς Ἀνεννοήτου δευτέρῳ καὶ ἕκτῳ τόπῳ Ἀκατάληπτον, ἐκ δὲ τῆς Ἀρρήτου τρίτῳ καὶ ἑβδόμῳ τόπῳ Ἀνονόμαστον, ἐκ δὲ τῆς Ἀοράτου Ἀγένητον, Πλήρωμα τῆς πρώτης Ὀγδοάδος. ταύτας βούλονται τὰς δυνάμεις 1.447 προϋπάρχειν τοῦ Βυθοῦ καὶ τῆς Σιγῆς, ἵνα τελείων τελειότεροι φανῶσιν ὄντες καὶ Γνωστικῶν γνωστικώτεροι· πρὸς οὓς δικαίως ἄν τις ἐπιφωνήσειεν· ὦ ληρολόγοι σοφισταί. καὶ γὰρ περὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Βυθοῦ διάφοροι γνῶμαι παρ' αὐτοῖς. οἱ μὲν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἄζυγον λέγουσι, μήτε ἄρρενα μήτε θῆλυν μήτε ὅλως ὄντα τι, ἄλλοι δὲ ἀρρενόθηλυν αὐτὸν λέγουσιν εἶναι, ἑρμαφροδίτου φύσιν αὐτῷ περιάπτοντες. Σιγὴν δὲ πάλιν ἄλλοι