The errors multiply. Irenaeus now shows how heresy breeds heresy—Encratites rejecting marriage and food, Tatian denying Adam’s salvation, and the Gnostics of the Barbelo tradition spinning wild origin myths with endless Aeons. But alongside that distortion of memory and meaning, Augustine (in Confessions 10.21) probes how we remember the happy life. He argues that even though we’ve never seen it, we remember it as we remember joy: not by the senses, but by inward experience. Everyone desires happiness—and that common desire points to a shared memory. Meanwhile, Aquinas in Question 83, Article 4 explains that free will is not a separate power from the will—it is the will, acting through reason when we choose. Free will isn’t a second bow. It’s the will itself, drawn back and aimed by rational deliberation.

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Today we meet the tangled roots of heresy as Irenaeus catalogs Cerinthus, the Ebionites, and Marcion—each denying in different ways either the nature of Christ or the Creator Himself. These early errors become a springboard for reflecting on the human search for happiness. Augustine, in Confessions 10.20, wrestles with how we seek a happy life that we somehow already recognize, even if dimly. He asks: if we didn’t already know it, how could we desire it so deeply? Finally, Aquinas in Question 83, Article 2 explains that free will is not merely a one-time act or decision, but a power—a capacity rooted in our ability to choose rationally. Animals act by instinct; humans act by reflection. That power of rational self-direction is what Aquinas calls free will.

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Today’s portion of Against Heresies shows Irenaeus at full throttle. Carpocrates and his sect don’t just claim freedom from sin—they claim that doing evil might actually be necessary for salvation. They believe that each soul must experience every possible action in every kind of life, either in one incarnation or through reincarnation, to escape the material prison of the body. Nothing, they say, is evil by nature—only by opinion. The result? A theology that encourages lawlessness and pride, all under the guise of hidden “gnosis.” In Confessions, Augustine explores how memory holds even what it seems to have lost. When we forget something and try to recall it, we search our own memory—rejecting false matches until the right one returns and we say, “That’s it!” But we couldn’t even search for it unless some part of us still remembered. The process is mysterious: a dance of presence and absence that shows how deep and strange the human soul really is. Aquinas rounds out today’s trio by asking whether free will is a power. In his second article, he clarifies that free will is not a separate power from intellect and will—but it is a real power of the rational soul. It is our capacity to choose rationally and voluntarily, directed by reason and not by instinct. This power distinguishes humans from animals and defines our moral responsibility.

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