They are the characteristic of heretics.
They are the characteristic of heretics.
§ 397. (III) Already earlier the heretics used to conceal their dogmas and foist them upon the Church under the cloak of traditions. Irenaeus in bk. 1, c. 1 and 17, bears this witness about the disciples of Simon Magus and again in bk. 4, c. 47, about the Valentinians: “They say that the Savior taught these very things in secret not to all the disciples but to some of them” who can grasp them. Epiphanius says this about the Selgians (Haeres. 39), about the Archontics (Haeres. 47), about the Severians (Haeres. 47), about the Encratites (Haeres. 47), and about the Bardesanists (Haeres. 56). Tertullian says it about Montanus (De veland. virginibus); Eusebius, about Artemon (Hist. eccles., bk. 5, c. 28); Clement, about Basilides (Stromat., bk. 7, p. 353); Irenaeus, about the Carpocratians (bk. 1, c. 24); Epiphanius, about the heretic Ptolemy (Haeres. 33); Athanasius, about the Arians (Contra Arian., orat. 2); the Council of Chalcedon, about Eutyches (Act. 1); and Irenaeus, about all heretics in general (bk. 3, c. 2, p. 169): “Whenever the heretics argue from Scripture, they are turned into an accusation of Scripture, because they say the truth cannot be found from Scripture by those who do not know tradition. They say that the tradition was not handed down in writing but orally, for which reason they say that Paul even said, ‘We speak wisdom among the perfect.’ “This is the same apostolic dictum (1 Cor. 2:6) that Bellarmine abuses to weaken the perfection of Scripture and to establish traditions (De verbo Dei, bk. 4, c. 8), in order to make his agreement with the ancient heretics clear. (Cf. our treatise On Holy Scripture [1610 Loci Theologici, locus 1], § 54.)