The following are the contents of the seventh book of the Refutation of all Heresies: --

What the opinion of Basilides is, and that, being struck with the doctrines of Aristotle, he out of these framed his heresy. [794]

And what are the statements of Saturnilus, [795] who flourished much about the time of Basilides.

And how Menander advanced the assertion that the world was made by angels.

What is the folly of Marcion, and that his tenet is not new, nor (taken) out of the Holy Scriptures, but that he obtains it from Empedocles.

How Carpocrates acts sillily, in himself also alleging that existing things were made by angels.

That Cerinthus, in no wise indebted to the Scriptures, formed his opinion (not out of them), but from the tenets of the Egyptians. [796]

What are the opinions propounded by the Ebionæans, and that they in preference adhere to Jewish customs.

How Theodotus has been a victim of error, deriving contributions to his system partly from the Ebionæans, (partly from Cerinthus.) [797]

And what were the opinions of Cerdon, [798] who both enunciated the doctrines of Empedocles, and who wickedly induced Marcion to step forward.

And how Lucian, when he had become a disciple of Marcion, [799] having divested himself of all shame, blasphemed God from time to time.

And Apelles also, having become a disciple of this (heretic), was not in the habit of advancing the same opinions with his preceptor; but being actuated (in the formation of his system) from the tenets of natural philosophers, assumed the substance of the universe as the fundamental principle of things. [800]

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Footnotes:

[794] [Here our author's theory concerning the origin of heresy in heathen philosophy begins to be elaborated.]

[795] Satronilus (Miller).

[796] Or, "in no respect formed his system from the Scriptures, but from the tenets propounded by the Egyptians."

[797] Cruice would prefer, "from the Gnostics," on account of Cerinthus being coupled with the Gnostics and Ebionæans by Hippolytus, when he afterwards indicates the source from which Theodotus derived his heretical notions of Christ.

[798] Miller has "Sacerdon."

[799] The word monos occurs in Miller's text, but ought obviously to be expunged. It has probably, as Cruice conjectures, crept into the ms. from the termination of genomenos. Duncker suggests homoios.

[800] This rendering would ascribe Pantheism to Apelles. The passage might also be construed, "supposed there to exist an essence (that formed the basis) of the universe."