Trouble near and abroad

I was struck by the metaphorical and, perhaps in some cases, literal representation of the heresy spreading abroad.  First of all, although these disturbances are grouped under a single event (turbo, tempestas), I wonder if all of the events fall under a single heresy or whether there are individual and different unorthodox beliefs emerging in different provinces (as Jerome does mention in his provinciis).  Although he gives examples of those that he presumably observed in Rome (the blasphemous translation of peri archon, the teachings of the Pharisaeians), presumably other heresies abounded abroad.  Likewise, I was intrigued by the turbo mentioned in section 11 which caused a number of great shipwrecks should be taken purely at a metaphorical level or literal.  Apart from the bloody persecutions occurring on land, could the opposing factions of the heresies could have engaged in open naval warfare?