Encratites

Leaders

• Tatian the Assyrian (c. 120–c. 185)
• Julius Cassianus
• Severus

Beliefs

Baptism meant renouncing marriage, meat and wine, and some used water instead of wine in the Eucharist. Irenaeus adds that Tatian denied Adam's salvation and borrowed Valentinian aeon ideas.

Home bases

• Rome (Justin's school; Tatian), then Mesopotamia

  Rome, Italy · 2nd

  Tatian, 'the Assyrian', studied with Justin Martyr in Rome. After Justin's death (c. 165) he broke with the Roman church and returned east around 172. Irenaeus makes him the founder of the Encratites ('the self-controlled'), who rejected marriage, meat and wine. His Gospel harmony, the Diatessaron, was the standard Syriac gospel text for centuries.

Also named in earlier place batches: Adiabene / Arbela and Edessa (Syriac Christianity; see Persia batch and Part C).

Spread

Syria, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Encratite ideals were widespread in early Syriac Christianity, beyond any single sect.

Books

• Tatian, Diatessaron (gospel harmony)
• Tatian, Oration (Address) to the Greeks

What happened to it

Merged into or was replaced by broader monastic asceticism, and appears in imperial anti-heresy laws (381, 382) as a name. Tatian's Diatessaron served as the Syriac churches' gospel until Rabbula and Theodoret replaced it in the 5th century.

Hostile sources

• Irenaeus of Lyon. Against Heresies I.28 c. 180

  Hostile; earliest systematic heresiology; ANF translation (public domain).

• Eusebius of Caesarea. Church History IV.29 c. 313–325

  Hostile toward heresies; quotes earlier documents verbatim. NPNF translation (public domain).

• Epiphanius of Salamis. Panarion 46–47 c. 374–377

  Hostile and often careless with groups he never met; no public-domain English translation located (F. Williams translation is in copyright). Link is an overview, not the text.

• Clement of Alexandria. Stromata III c. 200

  Hostile, quotes Julius Cassianus.

Their own words

• Tatian. Oration to the Greeks; Diatessaron c. 165–175

  Insider; Oration survives whole (ANF).

Sources

• EncratitesConfessional source

  Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 (confessional). Accessed 2026-11-11.

• TatianConfessional source

  Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 (confessional). Accessed 2026-11-11.

• Encratites

  Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-11-11.