Traduction Masquer
Against the Valentinians

Chapter XXXIII.--These Remaining Chapters an Appendix to the Main Work. In This Chapter Tertullian Notices a Difference Among Sundry Followers of Ptolemy, a Disciple of Valentinus.

I shall now at last produce, by way of finale, ¹ after so long a story, those points which, not to interrupt the course of it, and by the interruption distract the reader's attention, I have preferred reserving to this place. They have been variously advanced by those who have improved on ² the doctrines of Ptolemy. For there have been in his school "disciples above their master," who have attributed to their Bythus two wives--Cogitatio (Thought) and Voluntas (Will). For Cogitatio alone was not sufficient wherewith to produce any offspring, although from the two wives procreation was most easy to him. The former bore him Monogenes (Only-Begotten) and Veritas (Truth). Veritas was a female after the likeness of Cogitatio; Monogenes a male bearing a resemblance to Voluntas. For it is the strength of Voluntas which procures the masculine nature, ³ inasmuch as she affords efficiency to Cogitatio.

Edition Masquer
Adversus Valentinianos

33

[1] producam denique velut epicitharisma post fabulam tantam etiam illa quae, ne ordini obstreperent et lectoris intentionem interiectione dispargerent, hunc malui in locum distulisse aliter atque aliter commendata ab emendatioribus Ptolomaei. exstiterunt enim de schola ipsius discipuli super magistrum qui duplex coniugium Bytho suo adfingerent, Cogitationem et Voluntatem. [2] una enim sans non erat Cogitatio qua nihil producere potuisset. ex duabus facillime prolatum secundum coniugium Monogenem et Veritatem, ad imaginem quidem Cogitationis feminam Veritatem, ad imaginem Voluntatis marem Monogenem. Voluntatis enim vis, ut quae effectum praestat Cogitationi, viritatis obtinet censum.