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Statues of Saint Hippolytus, Photograph by Fiat 500e (Wikimedia Commons)

Hippolytus of Rome, The Refutation of All Heresies I.14: Ecphantus; His Scepticism; Tenet of Infinity

Photograph by Fiat 500e (Wikimedia Commons), Statues of Saint Hippolytus, 2025-01-27 16:39:51 · CC BY 4.0Photograph by Fiat 500e (Wikimedia Commons), Statues of Saint Hippolytus, 2025-01-27 16:39:51

SectionHippolytus of RomePublic domainBook I

One Ecphantus, a native of Syracuse, affirmed that it is not possible to attain a true knowledge of things. He defines, however, as he thinks, primary bodies to be indivisible, and that there are three variations of these, viz., bulk, figure, capacity, from which are generated the objects of sense. But that there is a determinable multitude of these, and that this is infinite. And that bodies are moved neither by weight nor by impact, but by divine power, which he calls mind and soul; and that of this the world is a representation; wherefore also it has been made in the form of a sphere by divine power. And that the earth in the middle of the cosmical system is moved round its own centre towards the east.

Reproduced in full. Translation: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (Roberts and Donaldson, 1886), public domain (Public domain).

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