Encratites
ENCRATITES
A sect in the second century, who abstained from marriage, wine, and animals.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Encratites
[’Egkrateîs (Irenæus) ’Egkratetai (Clement Alex., Hippolytus)].
Literally, “abstainers” or “persons who practised continency”, because they refrained from the use of wine, animal food, and marriage. The name was given to an early Christian sect, or rather to a tendency common to several sects, chiefly Gnostic, whose asceticism was based on heretical views regarding the origin of matter.
I. HISTORY
Abstinence from the use of some creatures, because they were thought to be intrinsically evil, is much older than Christianity. Pythagorism, Essenism, Indian asceticism betrayed this erroneous tendency, and the Indian ascetics are actually quoted by Clement of Alexandria as the forerunners of the Encratites (Strom., I, xv). Although St. Paul refers to people, even in his days, “forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats” (1 Timothy 4:1-5), the first mention of a Christian sect of this name occurs in Irenæus (I, xxviii). He connects their origin with Saturninus and Marcion. Rejecting marriage, they implicitly accuse the Creator, Who made both male and female. Refraining from all ’émpsucha (animal food and intoxicants), they are ungrateful to Him Who created all things. “And now”, continues Irenæus, “they reject the salvation of the first man [Adam]; an opinion recently introduced among them by Tatian, a disciple of Justin. As long as he was with Justin he gave no sign of these things, but after his martyrdom Tatian separated himself from the Church. Elated and puffed up by his professorship, he established some teaching of his own. He fabled about some invisible æons, as the Valentinians do; and proclaimed marriage to be corruption and fornication, as Marcion and Saturninus do, but he made the denial of Adam’s salvation a specialty of his own.” The Encratites are next mentioned by Clement Alex. (Pæd., II, ii, 33; Strom., I, xv; VII, xvii). The whole of the third book of the Stromata is devoted to combating a false encrateia, or continency, though a special sect of Encratites is not there mentioned. Hippolytus (Philos., VIII, xiii) refers to them as “acknowledging what concerns God and Christ in like manner with the Church; in respect, however, of their mode of life, passing their days inflated with pride”; “abstaining from animal food, being water-drinkers and forbidding to marry”; “estimated Cynics rather than Christians”. On the strength of this passage it is supposed that some Encratites were perfectly orthodox in doctrine, and erred only in practice, but tà perì toû theoû kaì toû christoû need not include the whole of Christian doctrine. Somewhat later this sect received new life and strength by the accession of a certain Severus (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., IV, xxix), after whom Encratites were often called Severians. These Severian Encratites accepted the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels, but rejected the Book of the Acts and cursed St. Paul and his Epistles. But the account given by Epiphanius of the Severians rather betrays Syrian Gnosticism than Judaistic tendencies. In their hatred of marriage they declared woman the work of Satan, and in their hatred of intoxicants they called wine drops of venom from the great Serpent, etc. (Hær., xiv). Epiphanius states that in his day Encratites were very numerous throughout Asia Minor, in Psidia, in the Adustan district of Phrygia, in Isauria, Pamphylia, Cilicia, and Galatia. In the Roman Province and in Antioch of Syria they were found scattered here and there. They split up into a number of smaller sects of whom the Apostolici were remarkable for their condemnation of private property, the Hydroparastatæ for their use of water instead of wine in the Eucharist. In the Edict of 382, Theodosius pronounced sentence of death on all those who took the name of Encratites, Saccophori, or Hydroparastatæ, and commanded Florus, the Magister Officiarum, to make strict search for these heretics, who were Manichæans in disguise. Sozomen (Hist. Eccl., V, xi) tells of an Encratite of Ancyra in Galatia, called Busiris, who bravely submitted to torments in the Julian persecution, and who under Theodosius abjured his heresy and returned to the Catholic Church. On the other hand, we learn from Macarius Magnes (about 403–Apocr., III, xliii) of a certain Dositheus, a Cilician, who about the same time wrote a work in eight books in defence of Encratite errors. About the middle of the fifth century they disappear from history, absorbed, probably, by the Manichæans, with whom they had so much in common from the first.
II. WRITINGS
The Encratites developed a considerable literary activity. The earliest writer in their defence probably was Tatian in his book “Concerning Perfection according to the Saviour”, which Clement of Alexandria quotes and refutes in Strom., III, xii. Almost contemporary with him (about A.D. 150) was Julius Cassianus, known as the founder of Docetism (see DOCETÆ). He wrote a work “Concerning Self-restraint and Continency”, of which Clement and St. Jerome have preserved some passages (Strom., I, xxi; Euseb., Praep. Ev., X, xii; Strom., III, xiii; Jerome, ad Gal., VI, viii). Concerning the eight books of Dositheus we know only that he maintained that, as the world had its beginning by sexual intercourse, so by continency (encrateia) it would have its end; and that he inveighed against wine-drinkers and flesh- eaters. Among the apocryphal works which originated in Encratite circles must be mentioned: The Gospel according to the Egyptians, referred to by Clement (Strom., III, ix, 13), Origen (Hom. in i Luc.), Hippolytus (Philos., V, vii), which contained a dialogue between Jesus and Salome specially appealed to by the Encratites in condemnation of marriage (to this Gospel the recently discovered “Logia” probably belong); the Gospel of Philip, of Thomas, the Acts of Peter, of Andrew, of Thomas, and other Apocrypha, furthering Gnostic-Encratite views.
Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., IV, xxi, 28) says that Musanus (A.D. 170 or 210) wrote a most elegant book addressed to some brethren who had fallen into the heresy of the Encratites. Theodoret (Hær. Fab., I, xxi) says that Apollinaris of Hierapolis in Phrygia (about 171) wrote against the Severian Encratites.
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SALMON in Dict. Chr. Biogr., s. vv., Encratites, Apostolici, Hydroprastatai, Tatian, Cassian; HARNACK, History of Dogma, tr., I; CRUTTWELL,; A Literary Hist. of Early Christianity (1893), I; HILGENFELD, Ketzergesch. des Urch. (1884); HARNACK, Gesch. der altchr. Lit. (Leipzig, 1893-97), I, 201 sqq., II, 1, 408, 535; BARDENHEWER, Gesch. der altkirchl. Lit. (Freiburg, 1902), I, 243-5, 346, 386-391; IDEM, Patrology, SHAHAN tr. (Freiburg im Br., St. Louis, 1908), 81, 92.
J.P. ARENDZEN Transcribed by WGKofron With thanks to St. Mary’s Church, Akron, Ohio
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VCopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Encratites
( , Contanentes), a name given by several Church fathers (Irenaeus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Jerome, Augustine, Theodoret) to a particular Gnostic sect, but which, in the opinion of most of the modern Church historians (Neander, Hase), either designates collectively several Gnostic sects, or, in general, the tendency of Gnostic asceticism in the ancient Church. The Encratites condemned marriage, forbade the eating of flesh or drinking of wine, and used even at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper water instead of wine, on which account they were called , aquarii. They were, in general, representatives of the Gnostic asceticism lased upon the principle of Dualism, in opposition to the asceticism of the Ebionites, Montanists, and others which kept within the limits of the Church. The Church fathers who regarded the Encratites as one sect of Gnostics, called Tatian (q.v.) its founder; but it is certain that there were Encratites before Tatian, and that subsequently there were Encratites who in some points differed from Tatian. Prominent men among the Encratites were, besides Tatian, Saturninus, Marcion, Julianus, Cassianus, and Severus, who is called the founder of a particular sect, the Severians, and made himself known as a violent opponent of the apostle Paul and of the Pauline epistles. In the 12th century the name of the Encratites was used. together with the names of several other ancient heresies, to designate and condemn the Bogomiles. See Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 4:29; Mosheim, Ch. Hist. (N.Y. 3 volumes) 1:149, 282; Mosheim, Comment. 1:482; Hase, Chz. Hist. pages 64, 83; Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy, page 42; Lardner, Works (10 volumes, 8vo), 2:148 sq.; Schaff. Ch. Hist. 1:245; Herzog, Real-Encykl. 4:67; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirch.-Lex. 3:575. SEE SACCOPHORI; SEE TATIAN.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Encratites
Encratites (, Irenaeus; , Clem. Alex.; , Hippol.), heretics who abstained from flesh, wine, and the marriage bed, believing them essentially impure. Persons who so abstained called themselves continent (, Iren. i. 28, p. 107); and the slightly modified form, Encratites, soon became a technical name to denote those whose asceticism was regarded as of a heretical character (Clem. Alex. Paed. ii. 2, p. 182; Strom. i. 15, p. 359, vii. 17, p. 900; Hippol. Ref. viii. 20, p. 276). We are not bound to suppose that all who were known by the name formed a single united sect. Irenaeus, e.g. (l.c.), says that some of the earliest of them were followers of Saturninus and Marcion; and it is reasonable to understand by this, not that they united in a single heretical body, but that, independently using the same mode of life and making the same boast of continence, they were known to the orthodox by the same name. The practice of such abstinence was older than Christianity. Not to speak of the Indian ascetics (to whom Clement of Alexandria refers as predecessors of the Encratites), the abstinence of the Essenes, both in respect of food and of marriage, is notorious. Josephus’s account of the Essenes is referred to by Porphyry, who, like them, objected both to the use of animal food and to animal sacrifices. An interesting specimen of Pythagorean doctrine on this subject is his work , addressed to a friend who after trial of abstinence had wickedly relapsed into the use of flesh diet. He insists on the importance of keeping the soul, as far as possible, free from the bonds of matter, to which animal food tends to enslave it; on the wisdom of avoiding everything over which evil demons have power, viz. all material things, and especially animal food; and on the injustice of depriving of life for our pleasure animals akin to ourselves, having reason, emotions, sentiments, completely like ours.
The account given by Hegesippus of James the Just (Eus. H. E. ii. 23) shews that righteousness of the Essene type was clearly held in admiration in the Christian church; and 1Ti 4:3-6 shews that teachers had already arisen who inculcated such abstinence as a duty. But it does not appear that they held the Gnostic doctrine, that matter is essentially evil, and its creation the work of a being inferior or hostile to the Supreme; for the apostle’s argument assumes as common ground that the things they rejected were creatures of the good God. We find from the Clementines that the Ebionite sects which arose out of Essenism permitted marriage, but disallowed flesh meat and wine; and that their doctrine respecting God’s work of creation was quite orthodox. Hippolytus, too, who takes his account of the Encratites from his own acquaintance with them as a then existing sect, describes them as orthodox in doctrine concerning God and Christ, and differing from the church only in their manner of life. But the Gnostic teachers named by Irenaeus (l.c.) undoubtedly based their asceticism on the doctrine of the evil of matter, denying it to be the work of God, and consequently deemed it wrong, by generation, to bring new souls under the dominion of death, and expose them to the miseries of this life. A full discussion of their arguments occurs in the third book of Clement’s Stromateis (though the name Encratites does not occur here), the principal writers whom he combats being Marcion, Tatian, already mentioned by Irenaeus as a leader of that sect, and Julius Cassianus. The Gospel according to the Egyptians contained alleged sayings of our Lord, which they used in support of their doctrines. Epiphanius mentions that they used other apocryphal writings, such as the Acts of Andrew, John, and Thomas. This controversy seems to have been actively carried on in the last quarter of the 2nd cent. Eusebius (H. E. iv. 28) relates that Musanus, a writer early in that period, addressed a very effective dissuasive argument to certain brethren who had turned aside to that sect, then newly come into existence; and Theodoret (Haer. Fab. i. 21) mentions that another writer of the same date, Apollinaris, wrote against the Severian Encratites. Eusebius (iv. 29) derives this name Severians from a certain Severus, who became an Encratite leader shortly after Tatian. He adds that these Severians received the O.T. and the Gospels, only putting their peculiar interpretations on them, but reviled Paul, rejecting his epistles and also Acts. This shews Ebionite features, and these Severians may have been of Ebionite origin, for great diversity probably existed between the teaching of persons classed together as Encratites. The Severians are described by Epiphanius (Haer. 45) with all the features of an Ophite sect; but evidently from hearsay only, as he speaks of the sect as having almost died out; and Lipsius (Q.-K. des Epiph. 215) gives good reason for thinking that he found no article on them in previous heretical treatises. Epiphanius describes (Haer. 48) the Encratites as widely spread, enumerating seven different countries where they were then to be found. Evidently, therefore, there were in these countries heretics leading an ascetic life, though it would be unsafe to assert an absolute identity in their teaching. We may conclude Epiphanius mistaken in placing the Encratites after the Tatianites, as if they were a branch of the latter sect, the true relation being just the opposite. Some additional information about the Encratites is in the work of Macarius Magnes, pub. in Paris, 1876. He wrote c. 400, and enumerates (iii. 43, p. 151) some countries where the Encratites (whom he also called Apotactites and Eremites) were to be found. He was thus, probably, acquainted with the work of Epiphanius. But he adds that a defence of their doctrines in eight books had been published by a leader of theirs, Dositheus, a Cilician, in which he inveighed against marriage and the tasting of wine or partaking of flesh meat. In his account of the Samaritan Dositheus, Epiphanius introduces some Encratite features not attested by other authorities, and may have allowed his knowledge of the doctrine of the one Dositheus to affect his account of the other. We cannot give much weight to the account of Philaster, who (72) assigns the name and doctrine of the Encratites to the followers of Aerius; and we may wholly disregard the inventive “Praedestinatus” (who represents the Encratites as refuted by an Epiphanius, bp. of Ancyra), except to repeat his distinction between Encratite and Catholic abstainers-viz. the former asserted the food they rejected to be evil; the latter owned it to be good, too good for them. Canons of St. Basil on Encratite baptism (clxxxviii. can. i; cxcix. can. 47) have given rise to some dispute, but it seems clear that St. Basil wished to reject the baptism of these Encratites, not because the orthodox formula of baptism was lacking, but because, regarding them as tainted with Marcionite error, he could not accept the verbal acknowledgment of the Father in the baptismal formula as atonement for the insult offered to the Creator, Whose work they looked on as evil. For a reference to these canons, as well as to the law of the Theodosian code (a.d. 381) against the Manicheans, who sheltered themselves under the name of Encratites, see Apostolici. Not many years earlier the Encratites were an existing sect in Galatia; for Sozomen (v. 11) records the sufferings of Busiris, at that time one of them, in the persecution under Julian.
[G.S.]