nino & Marcione profecti qui vocantur
Continentes, docuerunt non contrahendum esse matrimonium; reprobantes
scilicet primitivum illud opificium Dei, & tacite accusantes Deum qui
masculum & faeminam condidit ad procreationem generis humani. Induxerunt
etiam abstinentiam ab esu eorum quae animalia appellant, ingratos se
exhibentes ergo eum qui universa creavit Deum. Negant etiam primi hominis
salutem. Atque hoc nuper apud illos excogitatum est, Tatiano quodam omnium
primo hujus impietatis auctore: qui Justini auditor, quamdiu cum illo
versatus est, nihil ejusmodi protulit. Post martyrium autem illius, ab
Ecclesia se abrumpens, doctoris arrogantia elatus ac tumidus, tanquam
praestantior caeteris, novam quandam formam doctrinae conflavit: AEonas
invisibiles commentus perinde ac Valentinus: asserens quoque cum Saturnino
& Marcione, matrimonium nihil aliud esse quam corruptionem ac stuprum: nova
praeterea argumenta ad subvertendam Adami salutem excogitans. Haec Irenaeus de
Haeresi quae tunc viguit Encratitarum._ Thus far _Eusebius_. But altho the
followers of _Tatian_ were at first condemned as hereticks by the name of
_Encratites_, or _Continentes_; their principles could not be yet quite
exploded: for _Montanus_ refined upon them, and made only second marriages
unlawful; he also introduced frequent fastings, and annual, fasting days,
the keeping of _Lent_, and feeding upon dried meats. The _Apostolici_,
about the middle of the third century, condemned marriage, and were a
branch of the disciples of _Tatian_. The _Hierocitae_ in _Egypt_, in the
latter end of the third century, also condemned marriage. _Paul_ the
_Eremite_ fled into the wilderness from the persecution of _Decius_, and
lived there a solitary life till the reign of _Constantine_ the great, but
made no disciples. _Antony_ did the like in the persecution of
_Dioclesian_, or a little before, and made disciples; and many others soon
followed his example.

Hitherto the principles of the _Encratites_ had been rejected by the
Churches; but now being refined by the Monks, and imposed not upon all men,
but only upon those who would voluntarily undertake a monastic life, they
began to be admired, and to overflow first the _Greek_ Church, and then the
_Latin_ also, like a torrent. _Eusebius_ tells us, [2] that _Constantine_
the great had those men in the highest veneration, who dedicated themselves
wholly to the divine philosophy; and that he almost venerated the most holy