Primary source · Latin

Augustine, On Heresies (De Haeresibus)

Augustine of Hippo · AD 428–429

What this text is

The old bishop's last reference work: an 88-entry catalogue of heresies from Simon Magus to the Pelagians, distilling Epiphanius's summary and Philastrius. Independent value is limited — it is cited here as what it is: the great Latin witness that a name (Basilides, Carpocrates, Cerdo, Valentinus, the Tertullianists) was still a live entry in the church's memory at the end of antiquity.

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Public-domain translations

Working translation (from the Latin, CCSL 46)

The first heresy of all is that of the Simonians, from Simon the magician... [on entry 11:] The Valentinians, from Valentinus, who introduced thirty aeons and taught that our flesh is not raised.

Manuscript witnesses

Early medieval Latin tradition

8th–9th c.

Carried among Augustine's opuscula through the Carolingian scriptoria; no ancient copy survives.

EARLIEST WITNESSES

Editio princeps (Amerbach, Basel)

1506

In the first collected Augustine, the base of early-modern citation.

PRINTED PROXY

Corpus Christianorum SL 46 (Vander Plaetse & Beukers)

1969

The modern text behind the entry numbering used here.

CRITICAL EDITION

Provenance

Hippo Regius; compiled for Quodvultdeus, deacon of Carthage, and left unfinished at Augustine's death

Editions & scholarship

Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.

Figures named in this text (12)