A You shall learn from the things written to you. We have been able, by receiving the Gospel from others who have practiced this very thing—that is, from the successors of those who began it, whom we call Docetists (for most of their opinions belong to that teaching)—to go through it; and we have found that most of it is in agreement with the right doctrine of the Savior, but some things are divergent, which we have also submitted to you.
APOLLONIUS NOTICE (Galland., Vet. Patrum Bibliotheca, I, Proleg., p. xxv.)
I. Was Apollonius the Bishop of Ephesus? The ancients are silent on this matter, and they reveal neither his lineage nor his homeland. What Eusebius says about him. II. Some observations on the Eusebian text. At what time Apollonius wrote against the Cataphrygian heresy. Eusebius's error noted by Valesius. III. Regarding the tradition of the ancients reported by Apollonius, by which the Lord is said to have commanded his apostles not to depart from Jerusalem for twelve years. How the most learned modern scholars understand this. IV. It is discovered that Tertullian wrote against Apollonius.
Apollonius, a most bitter opponent of the Montanists, ruled the Ephesian Church, if the author of the *Praedestinatus* is to be believed. For thus he says, speaking of the Montanists: A "Holy Soter, Pope of the City, and Apollonius, the leader of the Ephesians, wrote against them." The illustrious Lequien, although hesitant, follows this writer, who is surely of weak credibility; and, leaning upon him, he believes that our Apollonius presided over that Church immediately after Polycrates. But since the ancients, Eusebius and Jerome, are silent concerning the episcopacy of Apollonius, and neither reveal his lineage nor his homeland nor his office anywhere; we adhere to those things which we know to have been commended to memory in the older monuments. Therefore, Eusebius has this: D "Apollonius, an ecclesiastical writer, having set out to refute the Cataphrygian heresy, which was still flourishing in his own time, composed a special volume against them, both examining verbatim the false prophecies that were circulated by them, and discussing the life and customs of those who were the authors of that heresy." Soon, after some fragments from this work of Apollonius had been brought forward, which we have collected from there, he adds this: "Moreover, this very Apollonius testifies in the same book, that at the time when he was writing it, it was the fortieth year..."