Prescription against Heretics 30

Where was Marcion then, the shipmaster of Pontus, the devotee of Stoicism? Where was Valentinus then, the follower of Platonism? For it is well known that they lived not so very long ago, about the reign of Antoninus, and that at first they believed the catholic doctrine in the church of Rome under the episcopate of the blessed Eleutherus, until, because of their ever restless curiosity, with which they corrupted the brothers too, they were expelled once and again (Marcion, indeed, with the two hundred sesterces he had brought to the church), and at last, banished to permanent separation, they spread the poisons of their doctrines. Afterwards Marcion professed repentance and accepted the condition set him, that he would receive peace if he restored to the church the others whom he had trained for perdition; but he was overtaken by death. For there had to be heresies. Yet heresies are not good because there had to be heresies; as if there did not also have to be evil! For the Lord too had to be betrayed, but woe to the betrayer; so let no one defend heresies on this ground either. If the pedigree of Apelles also must be traced, he too is no more ancient than Marcion, his founder and model; but, having fallen with a woman, a deserter from Marcionite continence, he withdrew from the sight of his most holy master to Alexandria. Returning from there years later no better, except that he was no longer a Marcionite, he ran into another woman, that virgin Philumene whom we mentioned above, who afterwards became a monstrous prostitute herself; ensnared by her energy, he wrote down what he learned from her as “Revelations.” There are still people in the world who remember them, even their own disciples and successors, so that the later ones cannot deny it. Besides, they are convicted by their own works, as the Lord said. For if Marcion separated the New Testament from the Old, he is later than what he separated, since he could not separate what had not been united. What was united before it was separated, being afterwards made separate, shows that the separator is later. Likewise Valentinus, by expounding differently and without doubt correcting, proves by this very name that whatever he corrects, as faulty before, belonged to another. We name these as the more notable and more frequent adulterers of the truth. But also a certain Nigidius, and Hermogenes, and many others still walk about perverting the ways of the Lord. Let them show me by what authority they came forth! If they preach another God, how do they use the things and writings and names of the God against whom they preach? If the same, why differently? Let them prove that they are new apostles; let them say that Christ has come down again, taught again in person, been crucified again, died again, been raised again. For so the apostle has described him; for so is he accustomed to make apostles, giving them besides the power to perform the same signs as he himself. I want their miracles, then, to be produced too; except that I recognize their greatest miracle, by which they imitate the apostles in reverse: those made the dead alive; these make the living dead.