Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Where, then, was Marcion at that time, the Pontic ship-captain, that devotee of the Stoics? Where was Valentinus, that follower of Plato? It is a matter of record that these men were by no means so ancient — they belong roughly to the reign of Antoninus — and that they first believed in catholic doctrine, within the church at Rome, under the blessed bishop Eleutherus, until, on account of their perpetually restless curiosity, which even the brethren kept clear of, they were expelled once and then again. Marcion — along with the two hundred sesterces he had donated to the church — was at last banished into permanent separation, and the two of them went on to spread the poisons of their own doctrines. Later Marcion confessed his repentance and came to terms offered him: he would receive peace back only on condition that he also restore to the church the others whom he had trained up for ruin — but death overtook him first. It was, indeed, necessary that heresies exist. But that does not make heresies a good thing, simply because their existing was necessary — as if evil, too, were not sometimes necessary! For it was necessary that the Lord be betrayed — but woe to the betrayer! Let no one, on that basis, go defending heresies. And if the pedigree of Apelles too must be traced, he is himself no less recent than Marcion, his founder and model, but he lapsed for a woman, deserted Marcionite continence, and withdrew to Alexandria, away from the eyes of his most saintly master. Returning after some years, no better — except that he was no longer a Marcionite — he stumbled into another woman, that virgin Philumena mentioned above, later herself an outright prostitute, by whose 'inspiration' he was taken in, and wrote up the 'Revelations' he learned from her. There are still people alive today who remember them, people who even studied under them personally, disciples and successors of theirs, so that the later heretics cannot deny it. And besides, as the Lord said, they are convicted out of their own works. For if Marcion tore the New Testament away from the Old, he necessarily comes after the thing he tore it from, since he could not have separated what had never been joined. So what was joined before it was separated, and later separated, shows the separator to be the later party. Likewise Valentinus, expounding things differently and, no doubt, correcting them — by that very word 'correcting,' whatever he corrects, he shows to have been earlier, flawed as it stood. These we name as the more prominent and more numerous adulterers of the truth. But there are others too — some Nigidius or other, and Hermogenes, and many more still walking about, perverting the ways of the Lord. I should like them to show me by what authority they came forth. If they preach a different god, how is it they make use of the possessions, the writings, the very names of the God against whom they preach? And if the same God, how is it they preach differently? Let them prove themselves new apostles; let them say that Christ came down again, taught again in person, was crucified again, died again, rose again. For that is how he is accustomed to make apostles — by giving them, besides, the power of working the same signs he himself worked. I want their powers displayed too — except that I recognize their greatest power already: the perverse way they rival the apostles. The apostles used to make the dead live; these men make the living dead.