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The Prescription Against Heretics

Chapter XVI.--Apostolic Sanction to This Exclusion of Heretics from the Use of the Scriptures. Heretics, According to the Apostle, are Not to Be Disputed With, But to Be Admonished.

I might be thought to have laid down this position to remedy distrust in my case, ¹ or from a desire of entering on the contest ² in some other way, were there not reasons on my side, especially this, that our faith owes deference ³ to the apostle, who forbids us to enter on "questions," or to lend our ears to new-fangled statements, ⁴ or to consort with a heretic "after the first and second admonition," ⁵ not, (be it observed,) after discussion. Discussion he has inhibited in this way, by designating admonition as the purpose of dealing with a heretic, and the first one too, because he is not a Christian; in order that he might not, after the manner of a Christian, seem to require correction again and again, and "before two or three witnesses," ⁶ seeing that he ought to be corrected, for the very reason that he is not to be disputed with; and in the next place, because a controversy over the Scriptures can, clearly, ⁷ produce no other effect than help to upset either the stomach or the brain.

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De Praescriptione Haereticorum

XVI.

[1] Hoc de consilio diffidentiae aut de studio aliter ineundae constitutionis induxerim, nisi ratio constiterit, inprimis illa, quod fides nostra obsequium apostolo debeat prohibenti quaestiones inire, nouis uocibus aures accommodare, haereticum post unam correptionem conuenire, non post disputationem. [2] Adeo interdixit disputationem correptionem designans causam haeretici conueniendi. Et hoc unam, scilicet quia non est christianus, ne more christiani semel et iterum, et sub duobus aut tribus testibus castigandus uideretur, cum ob hoc sit castigandus propter quod non sit cum illo disputandum. Dehinc quoniam nihil proficiat congressio scripturarum, nisi plane ut aut stomachi quis ineat euersionem, aut cerebri.