so great a creation was377 formed by angels, or by some particular production ignorant of the true God in that territory which is His own. Nor is it possible that those things which are earthly and material could have been formed within their Pleroma, since that is wholly spiritual. And further, it is not even possible that those things which belong to a multiform creation, and have been formed with mutually opposite qualities [could have been created] after the image of the things above, since these (i.e., the Æons) are said to be few, and of a like formation, and homogeneous. Their talk, too, about the shadow of kenoma— that is, of a vacuum—has in all points turned out false. Their figment, then, [in what way soever viewed,] has been proved groundless,378 and their doctrines untenable. Empty, too, are those who listen to them, and are verily descending into the abyss of perdition. 377 The text has fabricâsse, for which, says Massuet, should be read fabricatam esse; or fabricâsse itself must be taken in a passive signification. It is possible, however, to translate, as Harvey indicates, “that He (Bythus) formed so great a creation by angels,” etc., though this seems harsh and unsuitable. 378 Literally, empty: there is a play on the words vacuum and vacui (which immediately follows), as there had been in the original Greek. 960 Chapter VIII.—Created things are not a shadow of the Pleroma.