(2) So being in the district of Arsenoe, where, as you know,[181] this
teaching prevailed long before, so that both schisms and the defection of
whole churches have occurred, I called together the presbyters and
teachers[182] among the brethren in the villages, such of the brethren as
wished being also present, and invited them publicly to make an
examination of the matter. And when some brought forward against me this
book as an impregnable weapon and bulwark, I sat with them three days in
succession from dawn till evening and tried to correct the statements
made. During which time I was much struck with the steadiness, the desire
for truth, the aptness in following an argument and the intelligence
displayed by the brethren, whilst we put our questions and difficulties
and points of agreement in an orderly and reasonable manner, avoiding the
mistake of holding jealously at any cost to what we had once thought,
even though it should now be shown to be wrong, and yet not suppressing
what we had to say on the other side, but, as far as possible, attempting
to grapple with and master the propositions in hand without being ashamed
to change one's opinion and yield assent if the argument convinced us;
conscientiously and unfeignedly, with hearts spread open before God,
accepting what was established by the exposition and teaching of the holy
Scriptures.
At last the champion and mouthpiece of this doctrine, the man called
Coracion,[183] in the hearing of all the brethren that were present
agreed and testified to us that he would no longer adhere to it nor
discourse upon it nor yet mention nor teach it, on the ground that he had
been convinced by what had been said against it. And of the rest of the
brethren some rejoiced at the conference and the reconciliation and
harmonious arrangement which was brought about by it between all parties.