Now Callistus was a sorcerer[63] and a trickster and in time p. 442. snatched away many. And harbouring the poison in his heart, and devising nothing straight, besides being ashamed to declare the truth because he had reproached us in public, saying: “Ye are ditheists,”[64] but especially because he had often been accused by Sabellius of having strayed from his first faith, he invented some such heresy as this:—He says that the Word is the Son and that He is also the Father, being called by that name, but being one undivided Spirit.[65] And that the Father is not one thing and the Son another; but that they subsist [as] one and the same. And that all things above and below are filled with the Divine Spirit, and that the Spirit which was incarnate in the Virgin was not other than the Father, but one and the same. And that this is the saying: “Dost thou not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?”[66] For that which is seen, which is a man, that is the Son; but the Spirit which is contained in the Son, that is the Father. “For I do not,” p. 443. he says, “say that there are two Gods, Father and Son, but One. For the Father who existed in Him, having taken on Him the flesh, made it God by union with Himself and made it one [Being] so that He is called Father and Son, one God. And that this [God] being one Person cannot be two.”[67] And so he said that the Father had suffered with the Son; for he did not like to say that the Father suffered and was One Person, [so as] to avoid[68] blasphemy against the Father. [Thus this] senseless and shifty fellow, scattering blasphemies high and low, so that he may only seem [not] to speak against the Truth, is not ashamed to lean now towards the doctrine of Sabellius and now towards that of Theodotus.[69]
The sorcerer having dared such things, set up a school against that of the Church,[70] thus to teach. And first he contrived to make concessions to men in respect of their pleasures, telling every one that their sins were remitted by himself. For if any one who has been received[71] by another and calls himself Christian should transgress, he says, the transgression of him will not be reckoned against him if he hastens to the school of Callistus. And many were pleased with this proposition,[72] having been stricken with conscience as well as cast out of many heresies. And p. 444. some even after having been cast by us out of the Church by a [regular] judgment, joining with these last, filled the school of Callistus. He laid it down that if [even] a bishop commits any sin, though it should be one unto death, he ought not to be deposed. In his time bishops and priests and deacons who had married twice and even thrice began to keep their places among the clergy.[73] For if any one who was in the clerical order[74] should marry, he [decided] that he should remain in the order as if he had not sinned, saying that what was spoken by the Apostle was said with regard to this [viz.:] “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?”[75] And also the Parable of the Tares, he says spoke as to this: “Let the tares grow to the harvest,”[76] that is, let the sinners remain in the Church. But he also said that the ark of Noah was made into an image[77] of the Church, wherein were dogs and wolves and crows and all clean and unclean [animals]. Thus, he affirms, ought the Church to do likewise; and as many things as he could bring together on this point, he thus interpreted.
Whose hearers being attracted by these doctrines continue [to exist], deluding themselves and many others, crowds of p. 445. whom flock into the school. Wherefore they are multiplied and rejoice in the crowds, by reason of the pleasures which Christ did not permit. Whom slightly regarding, they forbid no one to sin, affirming that they themselves remit sins to those with whom they are well pleased. For [Callistus] has also permitted women, if they, being unmarried and in the prime of life, turned towards some one unworthy of their station, or did not wish to lessen it by [marriage], to hold any bedfellow they might choose as lawfully married to them, whether he was a house slave or free,[78] and to consider this person although not married by law as in the place of a husband.[79] From this the so-called faithful women began to make attempts with abortifacient drugs and to gird themselves tightly so that they might cast out what they had conceived, through their not wishing on account of their family or superabundant wealth to have a child by a slave or some mean person. See now what impiety the lawless one has reached when he teaches p. 446. adultery and murder at the same time! And in the face of these audacities the shameless ones attempt to call themselves a Catholic Church, and some think that they do well to join with them.
Under this [Callistus, too], a second baptism has been ventured upon by them for the first time.[80] These things the most amazing Callistus has set on foot, whose school still persists and preserves the customs and tradition [of the Church], nor does it discriminate as to whom it should hold communion with, but offers communion indiscriminately to all. From whom also they are called by a name that they share with him, and, by reason of the protagonist of such works being Callistus, are called Callistians.[81]
3. Concerning Elchesaites.[82]
13. When the teaching of this [Callistus] had been dispersed p. 447. over the whole world, a certain man called Alcibiades dwelling at Apamea in Syria, who was crafty and full of impudence, and having looked into the matter, deemed himself more forcible and expert in tricks than Callistus, arrived in Rome bringing with him a book.[83] He pretended that a righteous man (called) Elchasai, had received the same from the Seres[84] of Parthia and gave it to one called Sobiae,[85] as having been revealed by an angel. The height of which angel was 24 schoeni,[86] which is 96 miles; but the girth was 4 schoeni, and from shoulder to shoulder 6 schoeni; and his footprints were 3½ schoeni in length, which is 14 miles,[87] their width 1½ schoeni, and their depth half a schoenus. And that there was with him also a female whose measure, he says, accorded with those aforesaid. And that the male is the Son of God, and that the female is called the Holy Spirit. Describing these portents, he is wont to distract the foolish by this address: “A new remission of sins was brought as good news to men in the third year of the reign of Trajan.” And he prescribes (therefore) a baptism which I will explain (later). He affirms that of those wrapped in all licentiousness and pollution and breaches of the Law, if any such be a believer and turns again and hearkens to and believes on the book, he determines p. 448. that he shall receive by baptism remission of sins.
These tricks he audaciously elaborated, starting from the doctrine before described which Callistus had brought forward. For he, having understood that many rejoiced at such an announcement,[88] thought that his enterprise would be timely.[89] Yet we withstood him also, and did not permit very many to go astray, refuting them[90] [with the argument] that this was the work of a spurious[91] spirit and of a puffed-up heart; and that the man like a wolf had risen up among the many stray sheep which the false guide Callistus had scattered abroad. But, since we have begun, we shall not be silent regarding the doctrines of this man also; and we shall bring to light the (mode of) life (he advocates),[92] and shall then prove that his supposed discipline is a make-believe. And then again I will explain the chief of his sayings, so that the reader who has studied p. 449. his writings may know thoroughly what and of what quality is the heresy on which he has ventured.
14. He puts forward as a bait, conformity with the Law,[93] claiming that those who have believed ought to be circumcised and to live according to the Law while clutching at something from the heresies aforesaid. And he says that Christ was a man born in the way common to all; and that He was not now begotten for the first time from a virgin, but that both in the first instance and then many times since, He had been begotten and born, appeared and grown up, alternating births and changing one body for another, wherein He makes use of the Pythagorean teaching.[94] But [the Elchesaites] are so vainglorious as to say that they themselves foretell the future, starting evidently from the measures and numbers of the Pythagorean art before described. And they give heed to mathematics and astrology and magic as if they were true, and they use these things to astonish the weak-minded, so that they may think themselves partakers in a mighty matter. They give also incantations and spells[95] to those bitten by dogs and to possessed and other diseased persons concerning which we p. 450. shall not be silent. Having then sufficiently detailed the sources and causes of their audacities, I will proceed to repeat their writings, whereby the reader may know at once their folly and their godless endeavours.
15. To his catechumens, then, [Alcibiades] administers baptism, speaking such words as these to those whom he deceives: “If, therefore, any one has gone in unto a child, or to any kind of animal, or to a male or to a brother or to a daughter, or has committed adultery or fornication, and wishes to receive remission of sins, immediately he hears this book, let him be baptized a second time in the name of the Great and Highest God and in the name of His Son, the Great King. And let him be purified and be chaste and call to witness the seven witnesses who are written in this book [to wit], the Heaven and the Water, and the Holy Spirit and the Angel of Prayer and the oil and the salt and the Earth.”[96] These are the wonderful mysteries of Elchasai, the hidden and great things which he hands p. 451. down to the disciples who are worthy. And the lawless one is not content with these, but before two or three witnesses puts the seal on his own crimes, again speaking thus: “I say again, O adulterers and adulteresses and false prophets, if you wish to turn again so that your sins may be remitted unto you, peace shall be yours, and a portion with the just, if immediately you hearken to this book and are baptized a second time with your garments.”
But since we have said that these persons use incantations over those bitten by dogs and over others, we shall point out [these also]. Thus he speaks: “If a furious and mad dog in whom is the breath of death,[97] bite or tear or touch any man or woman or man-child or maid-child, in the same hour let [the bitten one] run with all his clothing and go down to a river or a pool where there is a deep place, and let him be baptized there with all his clothing, and let him pray[98] to the Great and Highest God in faith of heart, and then call to witness the Seven Witnesses who are written p. 452. in this book, saying: ‘Lo! I call to witness the Heaven and the Water and the Holy Spirit and the Angel of Prayer and the oil and the salt and the Earth. I call to witness these Seven Witnesses that I will no more sin, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor do injustice, nor be greedy, nor cherish hatred, nor break faith, nor take pleasure in any evil deeds.’ Then upon saying this, let him be baptized with all his clothing in the name of the Great and Highest God.”