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women living with them; but we know that he was such a one even from among the confessors. Nevertheless, we have not believed those who said this and claimed to have heard it from the women; for the compulsion of the wickedness of those who spoke suggested to us at one time to believe, at another time not to believe concerning the slander of the aforementioned aged bishop after his death. For the accusation which reached him was something like this. A certain man of this kind was caught in sin with a woman and when he was being refuted by us, he brought this defense, that the woman who had been corrupted with him, although she was already advanced in years and was of a great old age, had told him the practice of wickedness, how she taught him to use her, but to scatter his abominable emissions outside upon the earth. 3. And this is their abominable practice, deceiving their mind and blinded by the devil. I have not thought it necessary to bring forth the testimonies through which they fall, lest we should seem, by means of what we wish to state accurately for the aversion of the unlawful practice of each heresy, to rather incite to evil those who are unstable and always lax in their mind, who desire to pursue for themselves 2.401 what is wicked rather than what is good. But rather for the refutation of this terrible and serpentine heresy, I will set forth a few things from among many. From where have you received, O you people, the conception of your unlawful practice? For first of all, as to the whole matter, to whom will it not be clear that your teaching is of demons, and your contrived evil device is of those whose mind is deceived and corrupted? For if it is altogether wicked to conceive, then it is not because of procreating but because of being joined to a body; how then, being overcome by pleasure, are you joined to a body? And if it is not wicked to be joined to a body, neither is it wicked for one who has been joined to bring to completion that which has been begotten. For either a man must renounce and not cultivate the things upon the earth; as "Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground." But if someone cultivates the earth, like Noah, who "became a man of the soil and planted a vineyard," he did not plant it in order that it might not bear a cluster, but he planted it "and drank of its fruit and became drunk," as it is written. But it was possible to assign forgiveness to the old man; for being well-pleasing to God, he did not suffer drunkenness through profligacy, but being overcome by grief he was perhaps stupefied and not bearing it from both sides because of his weakness and old age he succumbed to weakness, not that he might be mocked by his child. But he who mocked received the curse for himself, so that those who bring insult upon their fathers may be punished, and the reasonings within us that rise up against the knowledge of God and his well-ordered arrangement. 4. For although marriage is not glorified as virginity is, yet virginity is above it—and a true virginity is called glorious and virtuous, not defiled—and marriage is also honorable, if one for procreation, not for shame, † forbids the things well created by God, but neither does one otherwise handle the conduct of marital union which has been ordained by God. 2.402 For virginity is truly like that which is praised by the holy apostle, that "the virgin and the unmarried woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord, so that she may be holy in body and in spirit," to show that singleness allows for no cause of error to be even suspected. But we also know * Abraham, who procreated children, yet was a friend to the Lord, and Isaac and Jacob and those who followed; and they neither defiled themselves with unlawful acts, touching abominable things, and * nor were they opposed to the procreation through honorable marriage that was well-ordered by God, nor did those among them who practiced chastity and virginity corrupt their contest and transform it in another way, as if by trickery assuming the virtuous manner of the struggle. And Elijah, for his part, would not readily enter cities at all, nor was he conversant with women

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συνεισάκτους· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ ὁμολογητῶν αὐτὸν τὸν τοιοῦτον ὄντα οἴδαμεν. ὅμως τοῖς εἰρηκόσι τοῦτο καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν γυναικῶν ἀκηκοέναι φάσκουσιν οὐ πεπιστεύκαμεν· ἡ γὰρ ἀνάγκη τῆς τῶν εἰρηκότων κακοτροπίας ὑπέβαλλεν ἡμῖν ποτὲ μὲν πιστεύειν, ποτὲ δὲ μὴ πιστεύειν ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ προειρημένου γέροντος ἐπισκόπου μετὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ τελευτὴν κακοφημίᾳ. ἡ γὰρ αἰτία ἡ εἰς αὐτὸν φθάσασα τοιαύτη τις γέγονεν. ἑάλω τις τοιοῦτος ἐπὶ ἁμαρτίᾳ γυναικὸς καὶ ὡς ἠλέγχετο ὑφ' ἡμῶν, ἀπολογίαν ταύτην ἔφερεν, ὡς τῆς συμφθαρείσης αὐτῷ γυναικός καίτοι γε ἤδη πεπαλαιωμένης τὸν χρόνον καὶ ἐν ἡλικίᾳ γηραλέᾳ ὑπαρχούσης εἰπάσης αὐτῷ τὴν τῆς. κακοτροπίας ἐργασίαν, ὡς χρῆσθαι μὲν αὐτὸν ἐδίδασκεν, ἔξωθεν δὲ τὰς μυσαρὰς αὐτοῦ ῥοιὰς ἐπὶ γῆς διασκεδάζειν. 3. Καὶ αὕτη μὲν ἡ τούτων μυσαρά ἐστιν ἐργασία τὸν νοῦν αὐτῶν ἀπατῶσα καὶ ἐκ διαβόλου τετυφλωμένη. ὧν τὰς μαρτυρίας δι' ὧν πίπτουσιν εἰς μέσον φέρειν οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον ἥγημαι, ἵνα μὴ δόξωμεν δι' ὧν βουλόμεθα ἀκριβολογεῖν εἰς ἀποτροπίαν τῆς ἀθεμίτου ἐργασίας ἑκάστης αἱρέσεως, εἰς τὸ κακὸν μᾶλλον προτρέπεσθαι τῶν ἀστηρίκτων καὶ χαυνουμένων ἀεὶ τὴν διάνοιαν, τῶν τὸ πονηρὸν ἑαυ2.401 τοῖς θηρᾶσθαι ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀγαθότητα ἐπιθυμούντων. εἰς ἀλέξησιν δὲ μᾶλλον τῆς δεινῆς ταύτης καὶ ἑρπετώδους αἱρέσεως ὀλίγα ἀπὸ πολλῶν παραθήσομαι. Πόθεν εἰλήφατε, ὦ οὗτοι, τὴν τῆς ἀθεμίτου ἐργασίας ὑμῶν ἐπίνοιαν; πρῶτον μὲν γάρ, ὅτι τὸ πᾶν, τίνι οὐ δῆλον ἔσται ὅτι δαιμόνων ἐστὶν ἡ ὑμετέρα διδασκαλία, ἠπατημένων δὲ τὸν νοῦν καὶ ἐφθαρμένων ἡ ἐπινενοημένη κακομηχανία; εἰ γὰρ ὅλως πονηρὸν τὸ κυΐσκειν, οὐκ ἄρα διὰ τὸ τεκνογονεῖν ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ συνάπτεσθαι σώματι· πῶς οὖν ἡττημένοι ἡδονῇ συνάπτεσθε σώματι; καὶ εἰ οὐ πονηρὸν τὸ συναφθῆναι σώματι, οὐδὲ πονηρὸν τὸ συναφθέντα τελεσιουργεῖν τὸ γεγενημένον. ἢ γὰρ ἀποταξάμενον δεῖ ἄνθρωπον μὴ γεωργεῖν τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· ὡς «ὁ Ἄβελ ἦν ποιμὴν προβάτων, Κάϊν δὲ ἐργαζόμενος τὴν γῆν». εἰ δὲ γεωργεῖ τις τὴν γῆν, ὡς ὁ Νῶε, ὃς «ἐγένετο ἀνὴρ γεωργὸς καὶ ἐφύτευσεν ἀμπελῶνα», οὐκ ἐφύτευσεν, ἵνα βότρυν μὴ ἐνέγκῃ, ἀλλ' ἐφύτευσε «καὶ ἔπιεν ἐκ τοῦ καρποῦ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐμεθύσθη», ὡς γέγραπται. ἐξῆν δὲ συγγνώμην τῷ γέροντι ἀπονεῖμαι· εὐάρεστος γὰρ τῷ θεῷ ὑπάρχων οὐ διὰ ἀσωτίαν τὴν μέθην ὑπέστη, ἀλλὰ λύπῃ φερόμενος τάχα ἐκεκάρωτο καὶ μὴ φέρων ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων διὰ τὸ ἀσθενὲς καὶ γηραλέον ἀσθενείᾳ ὑπέπεσεν, οὐχ ἵνα χλευασθῇ ὑπὸ τοῦ τέκνου. ὁ δὲ καταγελάσας ἑαυτῷ εἴληφε τὴν κατάραν, ἵνα κολάζωνται οἱ ἐνσκήπτοντες τοῖς πατράσιν αὐτῶν ὕβριν καὶ οἱ ἐν ἡμῖν διαλογισμοὶ ἐπεγειρόμενοι κατὰ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ γνώσεως καὶ καλῶς τεταγμένης διατάξεως. 4. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ οὐ δεδόξασται ὁ γάμος ὡς ἡ παρθενία, ὑπὲρ αὐτὸν δὲ ὑπάρχει ἡ παρθενία παρθενία δὲ ἀληθεύουσα ἔνδοξος καὶ ἐνάρετος κέκληται, οὐ μεμολυσμένη, καὶ ὁ γάμος δὲ σεμνός, εἴ τις εἰς παιδοποιίαν, οὐκ εἰς αἰσχύνην τὰ ἐκ θεοῦ καλῶς κεκτισμένα † ἀπαγορεύει, ἀλλ' οὔτε ἄλλως μεταχειρίζεται τῆς τοῦ γάμου κοινωνίας τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ 2.402 τεταγμένην ἀγωγήν. παρθενία γάρ ἐστιν ἀληθῶς ὡς ἐκείνη ἡ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου ἀποστόλου ἐπαινουμένη, ὅτι «ἡ παρθένος καὶ ἡ ἄγαμος μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κυρίου, πῶς ἀρέσει τῷ κυρίῳ, ἵνα ᾖ ἁγία τῷ σώματι καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ», ἵνα δείξῃ ὅτι οὐδεμίαν αἰτίαν ἀμπλακημάτων κἂν ὑπονοηθῆναι ἡ μονότης ἐνδέχεται. ἀλλὰ καὶ * τὸν Ἀβραὰμ οἴδαμεν παιδοποιοῦντα, φίλον δὲ ὄντα τῷ κυρίῳ, Ἰσαὰκ δὲ καὶ Ἰακὼβ καὶ τοὺς καθεξῆς· καὶ οὔτε ἑαυτοὺς ἐμόλυναν ἀθεμίτοις πράξεσι, παραπτόμενοι μυσαρῶν καὶ * οὔτε ἀντιθέτως ἔσχον πρὸς τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ καλῶς τεταγμένην διὰ σεμνοῦ γάμου παιδοποιίαν οὔτε οἱ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἁγνείαν τε καὶ παρθενίαν ἀσκήσαντες παρέφθειραν τὸν ἀγῶνα καὶ ἑτέρως μετεποιήσαντο, ὡς διὰ κυβείας τὸν ἐνάρετον τῆς ἀθλήσεως τρόπον ὑποδύντες. καὶ Ἠλίας μὲν παντελῶς ἐν πόλεσι τάχιον οὐκ εἰσῄει οὐδὲ μετὰ γυναικῶν συνόμιλος