Valentinus, Cerdon and Marcion

“For Valentinus came to Rome under Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and stayed on until Anicetus. Cerdon too, Marcion’s predecessor, came into the church under Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop, and made public confession. And so he went on, now teaching in secret, now confessing again, now being convicted of his evil teaching and withdrawing from the fellowship of the brothers.” [a] He says this in the third book of his work Against Heresies. And again in the first book he tells this about Cerdon: “A certain Cerdon, who took his starting point from Simon’s followers, came to live at Rome under Hyginus, who held the ninth place in the succession of bishops from the apostles. He taught that the God proclaimed by the law and the prophets is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: for the one is known and the other unknown, the one is just and the other good. Marcion of Pontus succeeded him and enlarged his school, blaspheming without a blush.” [c]

The same Irenaeus with the greatest energy sails through the boundless depth of Valentinus’s much-wandering matter, and strips bare his wickedness, which lies hidden and unseen like a reptile lurking in its den. [d] Besides these, he says, there was another man of their time, named Marcus, most expert in the trickery of magic; and he describes their initiation rites that accomplish nothing, and their abominable mysteries, in these very words: [e] “For some of them prepare a bridal chamber and perform a mystery rite, with certain words spoken over those being initiated, and they say that what they do is a spiritual marriage, after the likeness of the unions above. Others bring them to water, and as they baptize them they say these words: ‘Into the name of the unknown Father of all things, into Truth, the mother of all, into him who came down into Jesus.’ Others pronounce Hebrew names over them, the better to overawe those being initiated.” [f]

When Hyginus died after the fourth year of his time as bishop, Pius was entrusted with the ministry at Rome. At Alexandria Marcus was appointed shepherd, Eumenes having served thirteen years in all; and when Marcus rested from the ministry after ten years, Celadion took over the ministry of the church of the Alexandrians. In the city of the Romans, Pius departed this life in the fifteenth year of his time as bishop, and Anicetus presided over the Christians there. Hegesippus records that in his time he himself came to stay at Rome and remained there until the episcopate of Eleutherus.

But Justin was at the height of his powers in their time. Wearing the dress of a philosopher, he served as an envoy of the divine word and contended for the faith in his writings. He also wrote a treatise against Marcion, in which he mentions that the man was alive at the time he wrote. He says: [g] “And there is a certain Marcion of Pontus, who is even now still teaching those who listen to him to believe in some other god greater than the Maker. With the help of the demons he has led many people of every race to speak blasphemies and to deny that the Maker of this universe is the Father of Christ, and to confess that some other, as being greater than he, did the making. And all who start out from these men are, as we have said, called Christians, just as the name of philosophy is shared by philosophers, though their teachings are not shared.” To this he adds: “We also have a treatise against all the heresies that have arisen, which we will give you if you wish to read it.” This same Justin also labored most effectively against the Greeks, and he addressed other discourses containing a defense of our faith to the emperor Antoninus, the one called the Pious, and to the Roman senate; for he made his home at Rome. He shows who he was and where he came from in his defense, in these words: