the history of heresies, and their refutation - Catholic Apologetics ...

81. The following errors were taught and practised by them (21); they said that every man had, from his
birth, a devil attached to him, who prompted him to all evil, and that the only remedy against him was
prayer, which banished the devil, and destroyed the root of sin. They looked on the sacraments with
indifference, and said the Eucharist did neither good nor harm, and that baptism takes away sin, just like
a razor, which leaves the roots. They said the domestic devil is expelled by spitting and blowing the nose,
and when they purified themselves in this manner, that they saw a sow and a number of little pigs come
out of their mouths, and a fire that did not burn, enter into them (22). Their principal error consisted in
taking the precept, to pray continually, in the literal sense; they did so to excess, and it was the parent of a
thousand follies in this case; they slept the greater part of the day, and then began to say they had
revelations, and prophesied things which never happened.
(17) St. Eph. Her. 88 n. 1
(18) Supplem. t. 11, n . 30
(19) St. Epiph n. 3
(20) Theod. t. 4, c. 11. ( 21 ) Theod. Her . fab . l. 4 c .2 Nat. Alex. t. 8, c. 3, act 16; Fleury, t. 3. l. 19 n. 35 (22)
St. Aug. Her. l. 5, c. 7.
They boasted that they saw the Trinity with the eyes of the flesh, and that they visibly received the Holy
Ghost; they did very extraordinary things while praying; they would frequently jump forward with
violence, and then say that they were dancing on the devil, and this folly became so glaring, that they
acquired the name of the Enthusiasts (23). They said that man’s science and virtue could be made equal to
that of God, so that those who once arrived at perfection, never could afterwards sin, even through
ignorance. They never formed a separate community from the faithful, always denying their heresy, and
condemning it as strongly as any one else, when they were convicted of it. Their founder was Adelphius,
a native of Mesopotamia, and from him they were called Adelphians. The Messalians were condemned in
a Council, held in 387, by Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, and also in another Council, held about the same
time by St. Anphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, the Metropolis of Pamphilia (24). They were finally
condemned in the first Council of Ephesus, especially in the seventh session, and they were proscribed by
the Emperor Theodosius, in the year 428. It was a long time before this heresy was finally extinct in the
East, and in 1018, during the reign of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, another heresy sprung out of it,
the followers of which were called Bongimilists, which signifies, in the Bulgarian language, the beloved
of God. Their founder was Basil, a physician, or monk, who, after practising his errors for fifty-two years,
and deluding a great number, was burned alive, with all his followers, by order of the Emperor. This
unfortunate man promulgated many blasphemous opinions, principally taken from the Messalians and
Manicheans; he said that we should use no prayer, except the " Our Father," and rejected every other
prayer but that, which, he said, was the true Eucharist; that we ought to pray to the devil even, that he
might not injure us, and that we should never pray in churches, for our Lord says : " When you pray,
enter into your " chamber; " he denied the books of Moses, and the existence of the Trinity, and it was not,
he said, the Son of God, who became incarnate, but the Archangel Michael. He published many other like
opinions, so that there is little doubt but that he lost, not alone the faith, but his senses likewise (25).
(23) St. Epip. Her. n. 3. (24) Fleury, t. 3, I. 19, n. 25; Nat. Alex. t. 8, c. 3, ar. 16; Orsi, t. 8, l. 12, n. 78. (25)
Graveson, Hist. Eccl. t. 3, col. 2; Nat. Alex. t. 8, c. 4, ar. 5; Gotti. Ver. Eel. t. 2, c. 88, s. 2; Van Ranst, His. sec.
xii, p. 195; Bernini, t. 2. c. 1.
82. About the year 380, the heresy of the Priscillianists first appeared in the East. The founder of this sect
was an Egyptian of Memphis, of the name of Mark; he went to Spain, and his first disciples were, a lady
of the name of Agapa, and Elpidius, a rhetorician, invited to join him by the lady. These two next
wheedled Priscillian to join them, and from him the sect took its name. Priscillian was both noble and
rich; he had a great facility of speech, but was unsettled, vain, and proud of his knowledge of profane
literature. By his affable manners he gained a great number of followers, both noble and plebeian, and
had a great number of women, especially, adherents, and soon the heresy spread like a plague over great
part of Spain, and even some bishops, as Instantius and Salvianus, were infected by it. The foundation of
this doctrine was Manicheism, but mixed up with the Gnostic, and other heresies. The soul, they said,
was of the substance of God himself, and of its own will came on earth, passing through the seven
heavens, to combat the evil principle, which was sown in the body of the flesh. They taught that we
depended altogether on the stars, which decided our fate, and that our bodies depended on the signs of
the zodiac, the ram presiding over the head, the bull over the neck, the twins over the back, and so on
with the remainder of the Twelve Signs. They made merely a verbal profession of the doctrine of the
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