Prescription against Heretics 42
Summary: Heretics aim to overthrow believers rather than convert pagans; they respect no authority, and their unity is itself schism, since each follows his own choice.
Latin text · Oehler 2:40–41
De verbi autem administratione quid dicam, cum hoc sit negotium illis, non ethnicos convertendi, sed nostros evertendi? Hanc magis gloriam captant, si stantibus ruinam, non si iacentibus elevationem operentur. Quoniam et ipsum opus eorum non de suo proprio aedificio venit, sed de veritatis destructione, nostra suffodiunt, ut sua aedificent. Adime illis legem Moysi et prophetas et creatorem deum, accusationem eloqui non habent. Ita fit, ut ruinas facilius operentur stantium aedificiorum quam exstructiones iacentium ruinarum. Ad haec solummodo opera humiles et blandi et summissi agunt. Ceterum nec suis praesidibus reverentiam noverunt. Et hoc est, quod schismata apud haereticos fere non sunt, quia cum sint, non parent. Schisma est enim unitas ipsa. Mentior, si non etiam a regulis suis variant inter se, dum unusquisque proinde suo arbitrio modulatur quae accepit, quemadmodum de suo arbitrio ea composuit ille qui tradidit. Agnoscit naturam suam et originis suae morem profectus rei. Idem licuit Valentinianis quod Valentino, idem Marcionitis quod Marcioni, de arbitrio suo fidem innovare. Denique penitus inspectae haereses omnes in multis cum auctoribus suis dissentientes deprehenduntur. Plerique nec ecclesias habent; sine matre, sine sede, orbi fide, extorres, sua in vilitate vagantur.
English · Claude translation
And what shall I say about their ministry of the word, since their business is not to convert the heathen but to overturn our people? They seek the greater glory in bringing about the fall of those who stand rather than the raising of those who lie fallen. Since their very work comes not from building anything of their own but from destroying the truth, they undermine our buildings in order to build their own. Take away from them the law of Moses and the prophets and God the Creator, and they have nothing to accuse. So it happens that they bring about the ruin of standing buildings more easily than the raising of fallen ruins. Only for these works do they act humble, smooth, and submissive. Otherwise they know no reverence even for their own leaders. And this is why there are hardly any schisms among heretics: because when there are, they do not show. For schism is their very unity. I am lying if they do not even differ among themselves from their own rules, since each one adjusts what he has received to his own choice, just as the one who handed it down composed it by his own choice. The development of the thing recognizes its nature and the character of its origin. What was permitted to Valentinus was permitted to the Valentinians, what to Marcion to the Marcionites: to innovate the faith by their own choice. In short, all the heresies, examined thoroughly, are found to disagree with their own founders in many points. Most of them do not even have churches: without mother, without see, bereft of faith, exiles, they wander in their own worthlessness.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The digital text's “de sue proprio” is read as “de suo proprio.”
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (letter misread in the digital text): de sue proprio → de suo proprio.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Praescr. 42 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/42/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 42 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/42/).
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