ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST BOOK

FROM THE PREPARATION FOR THE GREAT LIBRARY

of the ancient Fathers by DOM NICOLAUS LE NOURRY, book II. edition of 1703. Dissertation 6. regarding

the five books of Irenaeus.

What the heresy of Valentinus and his followers was, what their false opinions were, and what the vain dreams of these delirious men were, Irenaeus opens up with the greatest possible diligence in the first book of this work, and explains most accurately. But since he held it as entirely certain that these same Valentinians had composed their heresy from the errors of other heretics who had previously attempted to undermine the Christian faith: for that reason, with one and the same effort, he reviews and refutes one by one the false opinions and the wicked and perverse doctrines of all the heretics who preceded Valentinus.

Preface.
Chapters 1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
and 9.

Therefore, he briefly states in his opening preface what the subject of his work is, who encouraged and even commanded him to write it, and for what reason he was driven to it. Then, having approached the matter itself, he places before the eyes of all the errors of the Valentinians, and especially the fable asserted by them of the thirty Aeons divine emanations or ages, or Gods, their marriages, order and division, genealogies, and how they taught that all other created things proceeded from them.

Chapter 10.

After this, however, he discusses what the true doctrine of the Catholic Church is. He teaches that it is one and the same faith and doctrine in all the Churches dispersed throughout the whole world, while the opinions and sentiments of the Valentinians are various, differing from one another, and almost infinite. Chapter 11. and following. This he proves from their own followers and supporters, namely Secundus, Epiphanes, Ptolemy, Colorbasus, and others, who professed the sect and heresies of Valentinus.

a. Chapter 22.
b. Chapter 23.
c. Chapter 24.
d. Chapter 25.
e. Chapter 26.
f. Chapter 27.
g. Chapter 28.
h. Chapter 29.
i. Chapter 30.
k. Chapter 31.

Furthermore, to make it clear that this Valentinian heresy flowed from the corrupt fountains of earlier heretics, having first explained the Regula veritatis Rule of Truth, he clearly and briefly sets forth the heresies, impious inventions, and shameful doctrines of ᵃ Simon Magus, ᵇ Menander, ᶜ Saturninus, ᵈ Basilides, ᵉ Carpocrates, ᶠ Cerinthus, ᵍ the Ebionites, ʰ the Nicolaitans, ⁱ Cerdo, Marcion, ᵏ Tatian, and various Gnostics, Barbelo-ites, Sethians, Ophites, and finally the Cainites. l. Ibid. n. 3. 4. From this enumeration of the monstrous portents of the straying human mind, he concludes that the Valentinian heresy, which was composed and compacted from them, can be very easily recognized and refuted by everyone.

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PREFACE.

a Jerome on chapter 64 of Isaiah.
b Basil, Book on the Holy Spirit, ch. 29.
c Tertullian, Book against the Valentinians, ch. 5.
d Eusebius, History, book 3, ch. 23.
e Epiphanius, Heresy 31 § 33.

Out of all the works of the holy Fathers, anyone who is not entirely ignorant of Christian history will readily admit with me that there are hardly any more worthy of the veneration, study, reading, and care of all good men than the writings of Irenaeus. For all those qualities that are chief in gaining authority for ecclesiastical writers recommend this most holy Bishop of the people of Lyon, and once the most brilliant light of our Gaul. If we look at antiquity, ᵃ he was an Apostolic man, ᵇ near to the times of the Apostles, and instructed by the disciples of the Apostles. If we look at doctrine, ᶜ he was a most curious explorer of all doctrines, ᵈ always a most strenuous champion of the right Catholic doctrine, and, as his writings everywhere proclaim, exceptionally well-versed in the reading of the Holy Scripture and the earlier Fathers. If we look finally at sanctity, ᵈ he was a man entirely equipped with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and heavenly ornaments. His writings, to use the words of Erasmus, breathe that ancient vigor of the Gospel, and his phrasing reveals a heart prepared for martyrdom. The most holy Martyrs of Lyon magnificently commend him in their letters; and finally, his integrity of character caused him to be chosen to fill the place of Pothinus, the first Bishop of the people of Lyon. Out of the many monuments of doctrine and piety which he had left, there remain five books which he wrote ᵉ against the heresies of the Gnostics, which in his time had already begun to spread in the region of Lyon over which he presided. These are to be valued all the more, both because out of so many and so great works with which he had illustrated the Christian faith, almost nothing else remains; and because they are precious relics of the Apostolic age, in which that doctrine which the Apostles had delivered to their disciples, and which Irenaeus had received from them, is both easily perceived and transmitted to us unimpaired. Indeed, in these books, the principal doctrines of the Catholic faith which we profess to this day—concerning the Mysteries of the most holy Trinity and the Incarnation, the Sacraments, the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, the divine institution of Bishops, the authority of Tradition, the supreme dignity and primacy of Peter and his successors, etc.—are so eloquently explained and confirmed that not only the ancient heresies, but all those that have emerged from Apostolic times even to our own, can be rooted out from here and utterly overthrown. For this reason, they were long and anxiously sought by Gregory the Great, and handled with such a diligent hand by the Holy Fathers and all pious Catholics, and read all the more studiously because it was a pleasure to drink the pure waters of Apostolic doctrine fresh from the fountains. Hence, since the study of good literature was reborn in the West, with the love for the labors of Irenaeus rising at the same time, those to whom sacred antiquity was dear had no higher priority than to rescue them from the darkness of libraries and commit them to the printing press for public use.

The first edition of all was that which Desiderius Erasmus provided at Basel in the year 1526 from three copies; one transcribed at Rome was sent to him by Johannes Faber, and two others were conveniently provided from monasteries. What he furthermore achieved in this edition, he mentions in his dedicatory letter to Bernhard von Glös, Bishop of Trent, later created Cardinal by Pope Clement VII in the year 1529, which we have seen to be placed at the end of our edition. Although much is owed to a man who otherwise deserved so well of literature for being the first to give the books of Irenaeus to the light, yet it is to be lamented that, being destitute of better codices, he could not achieve more. For his edition swarms with so many errors, gaps, mutilations, and corrupted sentences, that Irenaeus is often sought in Irenaeus himself, and it is difficult to grasp his meaning.