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For the Father is Father, the Son is Son, the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, being a Trinity, one Godhead, one doxology, one Lordship, one God, to whom be glory, honor and power, to the Father in the Son, to the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever, amen. And having shaken off this heresy again, as if it were a libus or a molurus or an elops or some one of the most fearsome reptiles, yet not able to harm by their bites, and having trampled it down by the power of the Holy Trinity, advancing again to what follows let us call upon him as a helper of our poverty and brevity, so that we may be helped to make a worthy refutation of the things said and done by each of them *. Against the Origenians, the first and shameful ones, ˉμˉγ, but of the sequence ˉξˉγ. 1. Some are called Origenians, but this type does not exist everywhere, but I think this declared heresy also sprang up in succession to these heresies. they are called Origenians, but we do not know very clearly for what reason; whether they came to be called from Origen called Adamantius the writer, or from some other, I do not know. nevertheless, we have received this name. But the heresy which is practiced among them, as if it were a copy of that of Epiphanes, previously mentioned by me above in the heresies against the Gnostics. These people read various scriptures of the New and Old Testament. They reject marriage, and lewdness does not cease from them. Some have said that it arose around Rome and Afri2.399ca. They defile their own body and mind and soul in licentiousness. For the men are under the guise of monks, and the women with them are under the guise of nuns. They are corrupted in their bodies, fulfilling their desire, but employing the deed, to speak more modestly, of the son of Judah called Onan. For as he was joined in body to Tamar and fulfilled his desire, but did not complete it for the casting of seed according to the procreation given by God, but wronged himself, in the way that he himself worked this evil thing, so too do these use the so-called *, completing this unlawful practice. For what is prized among them is not chastity, but a hypocritical chastity so-called by name, but rather a zealous care not to impregnate the woman corrupted by the one who seems *, or not to present child-bearing into the world, or so that they may not be caught by men, wishing to be held in honor because of the practice of chastity which is supposed among them; nevertheless this is their work, and others are zealous to accomplish this same abominable thing not through women, but also in other ways, defiling themselves with their own hands. And likewise they imitate the aforementioned son of Judah, polluting the earth with their unlawful practices and abominable drops and rubbing their own emissions into the earth with their own feet, so that, forsooth, their seeds might not be snatched away by unclean spirits for the reception of the conception of demons. 2. And they use, as I said, various writings of the Old and New Testament and certain apocryphal ones, especially the so-called Acts of Andrew and of the others. And they themselves have already often boasted of performing this openly. And they accuse, forsooth, 2.400 those in the church who have the so-called 'beloved' spiritual wives, 2.400 as if they too were doing this, but secretly on account of shame before men, so that * they might be joined in wickedness, but for the sake of appearances before men they might dignify the name. And some have also told us about some who have died, and how, forsooth, they too were performing this, as we have heard from the women who had been forced by them; among whom they also brought forward the name of a bishop, who administered the episcopal lot in a small city of Palestine for a considerable number of years, and who had such women serving him, I mean

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ἔστι γὰρ πατὴρ πατήρ, ἔστιν υἱὸς υἱός, ἔστιν ἅγιον πνεῦμα ἅγιον πνεῦμα, τριὰς οὖσα, μία θεότης μία δοξολογία μία κυριότης εἷς θεός, ᾧ δόξα, τιμὴ καὶ κράτος πατρὶ ἐν υἱῷ, υἱῷ ἐν πατρὶ σὺν ἁγίῳ πνεύματι εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων, ἀμήν. Ταύτην δὲ πάλιν τὴν αἵρεσιν ὡσπερεὶ λίβυν ἢ μόλουρον ἢ ἔλοπα ἢ ἕν τι τῶν ἑρπετῶν τῶν φοβερωτάτων, οὐ μὴν δὲ δυναμένων διὰ δηγμάτων βλάπτειν ἀποσεισάμενοι καὶ δυνάμει τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος καταπεπατηκότες, ἐπὶ τὰς ἑξῆς πάλιν προβαίνοντες αὐτὸν ἐπικαλεσώμεθα ἀρωγὸν τῆς ἡμετέρας πενίας τε καὶ βραχύτητος, ὅπως εἰς τὸ ἀξίως τὰ παρ' ἑκάστῃ λεγόμενά τε καὶ γινόμενα * καὶ τὴν τούτων ἀντίρρησιν ποιήσασθαι βοηθηθῶμεν. Κατὰ Ὠριγενιανῶν τῶν πρώτων τῶν καὶ αἰσχρῶν ˉμˉγ, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉξˉγ. 1. Ὠριγένιοί τινες καλοῦνται, οὐ πανταχοῦ δὲ τοῦτο τὸ γένος ὑπάρχει, καθεξῆς δὲ οἶμαι τούτων τῶν αἱρέσεων καὶ αὕτη ἡ δηλουμένη ἀνεφύη. καλοῦνται δὲ Ὠριγένιοι, οὐ πάνυ δὲ σαφῶς ἴσμεν τίνος ἕνεκα· εἰ ἀπὸ Ὠριγένους τοῦ Ἀδαμαντίου καλουμένου τοῦ συντάκτου ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς ἔλαχον τὸ εἶναι, ἀγνοῶ. ὅμως τοῦτο τὸ ὄνομα κατειλήφαμεν. Ἡ αἵρεσις δέ, ἣ παρ' αὐτοῖς νομιστεύεται, ὥσπερ ἀπεικαζομένη τῇ τοῦ Ἐπιφάνους τοῦ ἄνω μοι προδεδηλωμένου ἐν ταῖς κατὰ τοὺς Γνωστικοὺς αἱρέσεσι. γραφὰς δὲ οὗτοι ἀναγινώσκουσι διαφόρους καινῆς καὶ παλαιᾶς διαθήκης. ἀθετοῦσι δὲ γάμον καὶ οὐ παύεται ἀπ' αὐτῶν ἡ λαγνεία. τινὲς δὲ ἔφασαν αὐτὴν περὶ Ῥώμην καὶ Ἀφρι2.399 κὴν γεγενῆσθαι. μολύνουσι δὲ ἑαυτῶν τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὸν νοῦν καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐν ἀσελγείᾳ. οἱ μὲν γάρ εἰσι προσχήματι μοναζόντων, αἱ δὲ σὺν αὐτοῖς οὖσαι προσχήματι μοναζουσῶν. ἐφθαρμένοι δέ εἰσι τοῖς σώμασι, τὴν μὲν ἐπιθυμίαν αὐτῶν ἐκτελοῦντες, τῷ δὲ ἔργῳ κεχρημένοι ἵνα σεμνότερον εἴπω· τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Ἰούδα τοῦ Αὐνᾶν καλουμένου. ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνος τῷ σώματι μὲν τῇ Θάμαρ συνήπτετο καὶ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐξετέλει, εἰς καταβολὴν δὲ σπέρματος κατὰ τὴν ὑπὸ θεοῦ δοθεῖσαν παιδοποιίαν οὐκ ἐτελεσιούργει, ἀλλὰ ἑαυτὸν ἠδίκει, ᾧ τρόπῳ αὐτὸς τὸ πονηρὸν εἰργάζετο, οὕτω καὶ οὗτοι κέχρηνται μὲν ταῖς νομιζομέναις *, τελοῦντες ταύτην τὴν ἀθέμιτον ἐργασίαν. πεφιλοτίμηται γὰρ παρ' αὐτοῖς οὐχ ἡ ἁγνεία, ἀλλ' ὑποκριτικὴ μὲν ἁγνεία τῷ ὀνόματι καλουμένη, φιλοτίμησις δὲ ἕως τοῦ μὴ ἐγκυμονῆσαι τὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ δοκοῦντος * ἐφθαρμένην γυναῖκα, ἢ κατὰ τὸ μὴ παραστῆσαι τεκνογονίαν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἢ ἵνα μὴ φωραθῶσιν ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπων, βουλόμενοι ἐν τιμῇ εἶναι διὰ τὴν νομιζομένην παρ' αὐτοῖς τῆς ἁγνείας ἄσκησιν· ὅμως τοῦτο αὐτῶν ἐστι τὸ ἔργον, ἕτεροι δὲ αὐτὸ τοῦτο φιλοτιμοῦνται τὸ μυσαρὸν ἐπιτελεῖν οὐχὶ διὰ γυναικῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑτέροις τρόποις, ἰδίαις χερσὶ μολυνόμενοι. καὶ ὡσαύτως μιμοῦνται τὸν προειρημένον υἱὸν τοῦ Ἰούδα, τὴν γῆν ταῖς ἀθεμίτοις αὐτῶν ἐργασίαις καὶ μυσαραῖς σταγόσιν ἐπιμολύνοντες καὶ ποσὶν ἑαυτῶν τὰς ῥύσεις ἑαυτῶν ἀνατρίβοντες ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἵνα μὴ δῆθεν ἁρπαγῶσι τὰ αὐτῶν σπέρματα ὑπὸ ἀκαθάρτων πνευμάτων εἰς ὑποδοχὴν ἐγκυμονήσεως δαιμόνων. 2. Κέχρηνται δέ, ὡς ἔφην, διαφόροις γραφαῖς παλαιᾶς καὶ καινῆς διαθήκης καὶ ἀποκρύφοις τισί, μάλιστα ταῖς λεγομέναις Πράξεσιν Ἀνδρέου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων. ἤδη δὲ κἀκεῖνοι αὐτοὶ ἐκαυχήσαντο πολλάκις πεπαρρησιασμένως τοῦτο ἐπιτελεῖν. κατηγοροῦσι δὲ δῆθεν 2.400 τῶν ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τὰς ἀγαπητὰς λεγομένας συνεισάκτους γυναῖκας 2.400 κεκτημένων, ὡς καὶ αὐτῶν τοῦτο ἐπιτελούντων, κρυφῆ δὲ διὰ τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων αἰδῶ, ἵνα * μὲν τῇ πονηρίᾳ συνάπτωνται, τῷ δὲ προσχήματι τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἕνεκα τὸ ὄνομα σεμνύνωνται. διελέχθησαν δὲ ἡμῖν καί τινες περί τινων προτελευτησάντων καὶ δῆθεν ὡς καὶ αὐτῶν τοῦτο ἐπιτελούντων, ὡς ἀπὸ τῶν βεβιασμένων ὑπ' αὐτῶν γυναικῶν ἀκηκοότες· ἐν οἷς καὶ ὄνομα ἐπισκόπου εἰς μέσον ἔφερον, ἐν πόλει μικρᾷ τῆς Παλαιστίνης τὸν τοῦ ἐπισκόπου κλῆρον ἐπὶ ἱκανοῖς ἔτεσι διοικήσαντος, ἐσχηκότος δὲ τοιαύτας γυναῖκας ἐξυπηρετουμένας αὐτῷ, φημὶ δὲ