St. Irenaeus - Five Books of St. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons

Five Books

Of

St. Irenaeus

Bishop of Lyons

Against Heresies

With the fragments that remain of his other works

Translated

by

The rev. John Keble, M. A.

James Parker and Co.

Oxford, and 377 Strand, London;

Rivingtons,

London, Oxford, and Cambridge

MDCCCLXXII

TO THE MEMORY

of the

most reverend father in god

WILLIAM

LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,

primate of all england ,

formerly regius professor of divinity in the university of oxford ,

THIS LIBRARY

of

ANCIENT BISHOPS, FATHERS, DOCTORS, MARTYRS, CONFESSORS, OF CHRISTS HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH,

undertaken amid his encouragement

and

carried on for twelve years under his sanction ,

until his departure hence in peace ,

is

gratefully and reverently

inscribed .

Hope. Inspiration. Trust.

Were Social! Follow Us for New Titles and Deals:

FaceBook.com/CrossReachPublications

@CrossReachPub

Available In Paperback And eBook Editions

Please go online For More Great Titles
Available Through CrossReach Publications.

And If You Enjoyed This Book Please Consider Leaving A
Review Online . That Helps Us Out A Lot. Thanks.

2018 CrossReach Publications

All Rights Reserved, Including The Right To Reproduce
This Book Or Portions Thereof In Any Form Whatever.

A

Library of fathers

Of the

Holy catholic church,

Anterior to the division of the east and west

Translated by members of the English Church

Yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. Isaiah 30:20

Sold by

James Parker & Co., Oxford,

And 377, Strand, London;

Rivingtons, Waterloo Place, London,

High Street, Oxford, and Trinity Street, Cambridge

1872

Contents

This Translation of S. Irenus work against Heresies was finished by the Translator though not begun to be printed in his lifetime. One very remarkable feature in the work, the depth of S. Irenus fervent and loyal Love for his Master, as of one who all but remembered His earthly Life, amid the drearier exposure of the wild Gnostic Heresies, ever glowing forth;the firm gentle lowly loyal mind of the Author of the Christian Year could best render into English.

For correcting the Press, except the two first sheets, for the few notes signed E, as also for the Translation of the earlier Fragments, the son of the last surviving Editor of the Library of the Fathers is responsible. The Very Rev. Dr. Smith, Dean of Canterbury, kindly vouches for the accuracy of the fragments translated from the Syriac, and these last have been collated afresh with the Mss. from which they were printed.

With regard to the genuineness of the fragments, Massuet the Benedictine Editor who had bestowed much pains in verifying those which his predecessors had collected from Catenae, &c., points out (i. 338) that they were of two kinds, those given by Eusebius and other ancient writers being undoubtedly genuine, those given by later writers or again by Catenae (whose compilers constantly condensed very considerably, whose transcribers sometimes put by mistake the wrong name) are of more doubtful authority. Massuet sums up, We give here all the fragments which have been collected by Feuardent, Halloix, Sirmond, Combefis, Grabe and others and those which ourselves have collected, yet not attaching to them more credit than they deserve.

The first 13 fragments and the 6 Syriac ones, and again those marked 35 to 38 will probably be genuine, the 14th and again the last fragment from the Armenian almost certainly spurious; of the Catenae-fragments some rest on the authority of several Mss., (and for these the probability of the wrong name having been appended is very considerably diminished,) some again at present on that of one Ms. only, while fragment xxxix attributed to S. Irenus by the Vatican Ms. 331 and one of the Mss. used by the editor of the Leipzig Catena, is by his other Ms. attributed to Diodorus, and probably also (since Muenter was the first to publish it) the 3 Paris Catenae consulted by Massuet attribute this fragment to Diodorus or some other writer.

P. E. PUSEY.

Oxford ,

Oct. 1. 1872.

1. Forasmuch as there are some, who, putting the truth away from them3 to distinguish falsehood from truth:

2. (For no false teaching is wont to offer itself to our view singly and apart, lest such exposure should lead to conviction; but craftily putting on a plausible dress, makes itself by its outward habiliments appear to the simpler sort truer than Truth itself, according to what was said of such cases by one superior to us: bThe precious stone, the real emerald, accounted by some of great value, is dishonoured by the artful imitation of itself in glass, whenever he is not by, who hath power to prove it, and detect the craft so cunningly put in practice. Again, when there is an alloy of brass with our silver, what simple person shall be lightly able to assay it?)

In order therefore that it may not be our fault, if any be snatched away as sheep by wolves, not knowing them on account of the sheepskin which they outwardly wear;cwhich all men receive not, because all have not yet spit out their brains: that thou also, having learned them, mayest disclose them to all who are with thee, and exhort them to avoid the depth of these mens folly, and blasphemy against Christ.

And to the best of our power, we will shortly and clearly set forth the meaning of those who are now teaching amiss, I mean of Ptolemy and his partizans, which school is a kind of efflorescence*

3. But thou wilt not require of us, who dwell among Celts, and converse for the most part in a foreign language, skill in discourse which we have not learned, nor power of composition, which we have not practised, nor eloquence of phrase, nor persuasiveness, of which we know nothing. Rather in simplicity, and truth, and plainness, the things which are written to thee lovingly, thou wilt lovingly accept, and what is more, wilt cherish them within thyself, as being more competent than we are, receiving them from us as a kind of seeds and principles. That which we have briefly expressed, thou wilt cause to bear much fruit in the wide field of thine understanding; and wilt forcibly represent to them that are with thee what we have but faintly detailed. And as we have sought, according to thy request made long ago for information about their meaning, not only to make it known to thee, but also to provide thee with resources for demonstrating its falsehoods: so wilt thou too seek honestly to minister unto others, according to the grace given thee by the Lord: to the end that our people may be no longer perverted by their show of reasoning: whereof the account is as follows;

Chap. I. 1. They affirm that there is in certain high places unseen and unnamed, I know not what perfect on; existing before all; whom they call sometimes Proarche, the First Beginning, sometimes Propator, the First Father, sometimes Bythos, that is, the Deep; that he is likewise invisible and incomprehensible; and that being incomprehensible and invisible, eternal also and unbegotten, he abode in great tranquillity and calm through boundless ages: