St. John of Damascus

48. Catafrigasts, they are also Montanists and Ascodrugites. They accept the Old and New Testaments; but they introduce other prophets: they boast of a certain Montanus and Priscilla.

49. The Pepusians, who are also the Quintillians, with whom the Artothyrites are in contact: these are two heresies. Some of them are katafrigasts, but teach a different thing in comparison. They deify some desolate city of Pepusa, between Galatia, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, and consider it Jerusalem. There is, however, another Pepusa. Women are given leadership and priesthood. When consecrating someone, they pierce a small child with copper needles, like the katafrigasts, and after kneading flour with his blood and making bread, they eat it as an offering. It is fabulous that there, in Pepusa, Christ revealed Himself to Quintilla or Priscilla in the form of a woman. They also use the Old and New Testaments, altering them according to their own understanding.

50. The Four Decimals. These celebrate the Passover on the same day of the year, and on whatever day the fourteenth day of the moon falls, i.e. on Saturday or Sunday, they celebrate that day, fasting, as well as performing vigil, they celebrate.

51. The Alogians: so called by us, they reject the Gospel of John and his Apocalypse, because they do not accept the Word of God who has come from the Father, who is eternally existing.

52. Adamians: after the name of a certain Adam, who is called alive. Their teaching is more worthy of ridicule than the true one. And it happens to them that naked, as from [the womb of] their mother, men and women come together in one place, and so they perform readings, prayers, and so on, as if they were monastics, and abstaining, and not accepting marriage; They consider their Church to be a paradise.

53. The Sampsians and the Elkesites: they still dwell in Arabia, which lies above the Dead Sea. They are deceived by a certain false prophet Elxai; of his family there were still women Marthus and Marthina, whom this heresy worships as goddesses. They are close to the Ebionites in everything.

54. Theodotians, followers of Theodotus, a Byzantine tanner. He stood high in Hellenic learning, but being arrested together with others in the days of persecution at that time, he alone fell away, while the rest accepted martyrdom for God. Therefore, since he was reproached for fleeing, he, because of the accusation that he had renounced God, came up with the idea of saying of Christ that He was a simple man.

55. Melchizedekians: These revere Melchizedek, claiming that he is some kind of power and not a mere man, and have dared to trace everything to his name.

56. Vardesianists. This Bardesian came from Mesopotamia; at first he adhered to the true faith and distinguished himself in philosophy, but, deviating from the truth, he taught close to Valentinus, with the exception of some points in which he differed from Valentinus.

57. Ноитиане. Этот Ноит был из Смирны асийской. На колеснице [гордости] вознесшись вместе с другими, он стал говорить, что Христос — Сыноотец, учил, что один и тот же и Отец, и Сын, и Святой Дух. Самого же себя он называл Моисеем, а брата своего Аароном.

58. Валисии. Эти, как мы слыхали, населяют Вакафу, большое селение Филадельфии арабской. Приходящих к ним и пользующихся у них гостеприимством они оскопляют. Очень многие и между ними скопцы, обрезанные. Учат и кое-чему другому, исполненному ереси: отвергают закон и пророков и вводят некие другие бесстыдства.

59. Кафары. Эти, состоя в связи с Новатом римским, совсем отвергают второбрачных и не принимают покаяния.

60. Ангелики. Эти совсем исчезли. Они наименованы так или потому, что похвалялись, что имеют ангельский чин, или потому, что назывались ангелами.

61. Апостолики, они же и апотактики: они тоже — в Писидии; принимают только апотактиков. Очень приближаются к енкратитам; но мудрствуют иное по сравнению с ними.