Chapter XIII.—The deceitful arts and nefarious practices of Marcus. 1. But165 there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who boasts himself as having improved upon his master. He is a perfect adept in magical impostures, and by this means drawing away a great number of men, and not a few women, he has induced them to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and perfection, and who has received the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions above. Thus it appears as if he really were the precursor of Antichrist. For, joining the buf- fooneries of Anaxilaus166 to the craftiness of the magi, as they are called, he is regarded by his senseless and cracked-brain followers as working miracles by these means. 2. Pretending167 to consecrate cups mixed with wine, and protracting to great length the word of invocation, he contrives to give them a purple and reddish colour, so that Charis,168 who is one of those that are superior to all things, should be thought to drop her own blood into that cup through means of his invocation, and that thus those who are present should be led to rejoice to taste of that cup, in order that, by so doing, the Charis, who is set forth by this magician, may also flow into them. Again, handing mixed cups to the women, he bids them consecrate these in his presence. When this has been done, he himself produces another cup of much larger size than that which the deluded woman has consecrated, and pouring from the smaller one consecrated by the woman into that which has been brought forward by himself, he at the same time pronounces these words: “May that Charis who is before all things, and who transcends all knowledge and speech, fill thine inner man, and multiply in thee her own knowledge, by sowing the grain of mustard seed in thee as in good soil.” Repeating certain other like words, and thus goading on the wretched woman [to madness], he then appears a worker of wonders when the large cup is seen to have been filled out of the small one, so as even to overflow by what has been obtained from it. By accomplishing several other similar things, he has completely deceived many, and drawn them away after him. 3. It appears probable enough that this man possesses a demon as his familiar spirit, by means of whom he seems able to prophesy,169 and also enables as many as he counts worthy to be partakers of his Charis themselves to prophesy. He devotes himself especially to women, and those such as are well-bred, and elegantly attired, and of great wealth, whom he frequently seeks to draw after him, by addressing them in such seductive words as these: “I am eager 165 The Greek text of this section is preserved both by Epiphanius (Hær. xxxiv. 1) and by Hippolytus (Philosoph., vi. 39, 40). Their citations are somewhat discordant, and we therefore follow the old Latin version. 166 Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxxv. 15, etc. 167 Epiphanius now gives the Greek text verbatim, to which, therefore, we return. 168 Probably referring to Sige, the consort of Bythus. 169 [Comp. Acts xvi. 16.] Chapter XIII.—The deceitful arts and nefarious practices of Marcus. 884 Chapter XIII.—The deceitful arts and nefarious practices of Marcus.