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Hegesippus in the five books of Memoirs which have come down to us has
left a most complete record of his own views. In them he states that
on a journey to Rome he met a great many bishops, and that he received
the same doctrine from all. It is fitting to hear what he says after
making some remarks about the epistle of Clement to the Corinthians.
His words are as follows: "And the churchIll of Corinth continued
in the true faith until Primus was bishop in Corinth. I conversed
with them on my way to Rome, and abode with the Corinthians many
days, during which we were mutually refreshed in the true doctrine.
And when I had come to Rome I remained a there until Anicetus,
whose deacon was Eleutherus. And Anicetus was succeeded by Soter,
and he by Eleutherus. In every succession, and in every city that is
held which is preached by the law and the prophets and the Lord."
The same author also describes the beginnings of the heresies which
arose in his time, in the following words: "And after James the
Just had suffered martyrdom, as the Lord had also on the same
account, Symeon, the son of the Lord's uncle, Clopas, was
appointed the next bishop. All proposed him as second bishop because
he was a cousin of the Lord. "Therefore, they called the Church a
virgin, for it was not yet corrupted by vain discourses. But
Thebuthis, because he was not made bishop, began to corrupt it. He
also was sprung from the seven sects among the people, like Simon,
from whom came the Simonians, and Cleobius, from whom came the
Cleobians, and Dositheus, from whom came the Dositheans, and
Gorthaeus, from whom came the Goratheni, and Masbotheus, from whom
came the Masbothaeans. From them sprang the Menandrianists, and
Marcionists, and Carpocratians, and Valentinians, and
Basilidians, and Saturnilians. Each introduced privately and
separately his own peculiar opinion. From them came false Christs,
false prophets, false apostles, who divided the unity of the Church
by corrupt doctrines uttered against God and against his Christ."
The same writer also records the ancient heresies which arose among the
Jews, in the following words: "There were, moreover, various
opinions in the circumcision, among the children of Israel. The
following were those that were opposed to the tribe of Judah and the
Christ: Essenes, Galileans, Hemerobaptists, Masbothaeans,
Samaritans, Sadducees, Pharisees." And he wrote of many other
matters, which we have in part already mentioned, introducing the
accounts in their appropriate places. And from the Syriac Gospel
according to the Hebrews he quotes some passages in the Hebrew
tongue, showing that he was a convert from the Hebrews, and he
mentions other matters as taken from the unwritten tradition of the
Jews. And not only he, but also Irenaeus and the whole company of
the ancients, called the Proverbs of Solomon All-virtuous Wisdom.
And when speaking of the books called Apocrypha, he records that some
of them were composed in his day by certain heretics. But let us now
pass on to another.
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