Section 232
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 201 again : " Does it not appear to you that the Scripture forbids any prophet to receive gifts and money ? When, therefore, I see a prophetess receiving both gold and silver, and precious garments, how can I fail to reject her ?" Again, further on, respecting a certain one of their confessors, he says : " Moreover, Themison, who was completely clad in a most plausible covetousness, who could not bear the great characteristic of confession, but threw aside bonds and imprisonment for the abundance of wealth, and though it became him to walk humbly, boasted as a martyr, and dared to imitate the apostles by drawing up a certain catholic epistle, to instruct those who had a better faith than himself, to contend for doctrines of empty sound, and to utter impieties against the Lord and his apostles and the holy church." Again, speaking of others that are honoured among them as martyrs, he writes thus : " But not to speak of many, let the prophetess tell us the circumstances of Alexander, who called himself a martyr, with whom she feasted, the same too that is adored by numbers ; whose robberies and other crimes, for which he was punished, it is not for us to tell, but which are preserved" in the public records. Which of them forgives another his sins ? Does the prophetess forgive the martyr his robberies ? or the martyr forgive the pro phetess her avarice ? Although the Lord has said, ' lay not up for yourselves gold or silver, nor two coats,' these, in direct opposi tion, have committed great crimes in regard to the possession of things thus prohibited. For we shall show, that those that are called martyrs and prophets among them, have derived pecuniary gain, not only from the wealthy, but from the poor, and from widows and orphans, and if they have any confidence (of inno cence) in this, let them stand and settle these matters with us ; so that if they are convicted, they may abandon their misdemea nours hereafter. " The fruits of a prophet must be examined ; for by its fruits the tree is known. But that those who wish may understand the circumstances respecting this Alexander, he was tried by ^Emilius Frontinus, the proconsul (of Asia) at Ephesus, not for the name (of Christian), but for the robberies which he dared to commit, as he had already been a transgressor. — 2C