A heretical Christian sect that separated from the Church in the middle of the second century, although its origins may go back to apostolic times. Its existence lasted until the end of the fourth century. The name derives from a Greek term meaning continent, moderate. The Encratites are the continent par excellence. They professed the strictest asceticism, forbidding the use of meat and wine at meals and opposing marriage (see ASCETICISM II, 4, B). To justify their doctrines, they made use of the passages of the N. T. that recommend temperance, isolating them from their context, interpreting them one-sidedly, and even altering them. It seems that the apocryphal works called the Acts of Saint Paul, of Saint John, and of Saint Peter are the work of Encratite authors.
Doctrine
Their theology derives from the Neoplatonic and Gnostic concept of matter as the principle of evil, the work of the demiurge, the enemy of God. From this premise they logically deduced that it was necessary to fight against matter and its author, which led them to unacceptable conclusions summed up in Manichaean dualism (see DUALISM; GNOSTICISM; MANICHAEISM). Precursors of the Encratites were the Allobians of the land of the Sarmatians, Cerdo, and above all Marcion (see). The Allobians lived outside the cities in the open air. According to the testimony of Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, 1,15: PG 7,780), they fed on acorns and fruits, drank only water, and abstained from marriage. Many new converts, carried away by their zeal and piety, allowed themselves to be deceived by Encratite propaganda, which must have been intense. They introduced in practice a way of life that, setting aside the evangelical teachings and the doctrine of the Church, tended to give simple evangelical counsels the value of rigid precepts absolutely indispensable for salvation. This led them to condemn the use of meat, wine, and marriage. It was the application, on practical ground, of their dualist theory: to abstain and mortify themselves so as not to collaborate in the work of the demiurge. Evidently, Encratite ideology represented a danger to the Church and to humanity, especially because of its aversion to marriage. For this reason, from the beginning, Fathers and writers of the Church such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus of Rome, Epiphanius, and others considered it heretical. The Encratites sought to abolish the human race. This, besides being grave in itself, was offensive to God, the author of the union of man and woman, who had sanctified marriage by his presence at the wedding feast of Cana and had inspired numerous biblical texts on the lawfulness and holiness of conjugal union, an institution that the Bible itself described as honorable.
Principal Theorists
One must mention, in chronological order, first of all Julius Cassian, the Docetic master (see DOCETISM), who composed a work in defense of his ascetical principles entitled Peri eunouchias or Peri encrateias (On Continence), which has been lost. After him, the principal doctor of the Encratites was Tatian (see). St. Irenaeus makes him responsible, together with Saturninus and Marcion, for the new heresy (Adversus Haereses, 1,28: PL 7,690). St. Jerome calls him the prince of the Encratites (Epistle 48,2: PL 22,494). If he was not their absolute initiator, it seems, nevertheless, that Tatian was the organizer of the sect and the author of the formal separation of the Encratites from the body of the Church. Shortly after Tatian, a certain Severus reinforced the heresy by giving it a marked Ebionite character (see). Admitting the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels interpreted in his own way, he rejected the epistles of Saint Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. In this way a sect was formed within the sect itself. The new party took the name of its organizer in order to distinguish itself from the other Encratites. The fact of the Severian schism suggests doctrinal divergences and internal struggles within Encratism. Moreover, the Severians were not the only ones to separate. Some Manichaeans also took the name of continent. Others called themselves Apotactics or Renouncers because they claimed to have renounced all the pleasures of the world. Aquarians or Hydroparastatae was the name given to those whose absolute abstinence from wine led them to celebrate the Eucharist with water alone. The Saccophori were distinguished by their external clothing, consisting of a saccos, a kind of tunic of coarse cloth. With these internal divisions, the heresy survived until the end of the fourth century.
Opposition to Encratism
As soon as the heretical character of the group became clear, a Catholic campaign was promoted to unmask and neutralize the heresy. The means adopted were of three kinds: the theoretical refutation of its doctrinal principles, carried out by the Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, canonical sanctions, and imperial edicts. Among the ecclesiastical authors who most effectively combated theoretical Encratism, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen stand out. Of the many canonical sanctions imposed on them, the most famous was the one adopted against them by the Churches of Africa in refusing to recognize the validity of their baptism. From this fact arose the very well-known controversy between St. Cyprian (see) and Pope St. Stephen. As regards the problem of exaggerated abstinence, the Council of Ancyra (A.D. 314) permits priests and deacons to abstain from meat at meals provided that they have tasted it at the beginning. Those who refuse to do so must be excluded from the clerical order (canon 14: cf. Lauchert, Die Kanones der Wichtigsten altkirchlichen Concilien, Freiburg Br. 1896, 32). As can be seen, the intention of the canon is clear. The same intention is found in canon 51 of the so-called Apostolic Canons, which refers to clerics, deacons, priests, and bishops who abstain from marriage, meat, and wine not for reasons of legitimate asceticism, but out of infamy, that is, out of contempt for the works of God. Still, the mortal blow to Encratism in all its forms and varieties came not from the provisions of ecclesiastical law, but from those of civil law. Shortly after the Council of Nicaea, Constantine issued a constitution against heretics (cf. Eusebius, Vita Constantini, 3,64-65: PG 20,1140). Later, Theodosius the Great, in 381 and 383, condemned those who, under various names, professed the error of the Manichaeans. He names the Encratites, Apotactics, Aquarians, and Saccophori, whom he describes as “unacceptable sects” (Codex Theodosianus, 16, tit. 5.1.7.11). From the fifth century on, the Encratites, mortally wounded by these provisions, ceased to play any role capable of disturbing the peace of the Church. See also: TATIAN; EBIONITES.
BIBL.: E. DUCHESNE, Histoire ancienne de l´Église, I, 3rd ed. Paris 1907, 510 ff.; A. EHRHARD, La Chiesa dei martiri, Florence 1947, 205-206: F. BOIGIANI, La tradizione eresiologica sull´encratismo, Turin 1956.
Author: L. S. Nadal y Cañellas
Source: Gran Enciclopedia Rialp
