492 



GNOSTICS. 



This is accomplished by the faith of the souls in 

 Christianity, which Basilides calls on elevation of the 

 .-mil, arrived to a consciousness of its destination, 

 into the kingdom of light. Although this poetical 

 view d.ttcml widely from the simplicity of the 

 Christian religion, and betrayed the indulgence of a 

 philosophizing fancy, still Basilides concurred in the 

 Cliristian system of morals, and disapproved only of 

 seeking a martyr's death. The mysterious colouring 

 and the glitter of Basilides's theories procured him 

 many followers. They often misunderstood him, 

 however, and gave themselves up to many super- 

 stitious notions about abraxas siones and amulets. Isi- 

 dore, his son, extended his sect, which, in the fourth 

 century, entirely disappeared. The system of 

 Carpocrates, an Alexandrian, who also flourished 

 during the reign of Adrian, was distinguished from 

 the one which we have just described, in this respect 

 only, that he considered Christ as a mere man, 

 whose purer and more powerful soul had more 

 accurately remembered what it had seen with God, 

 before its union with the body. The fathers of the 

 church, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, Eusebius 

 and Epiphanius, from whom, in general, we derive 

 all our information concerning the Gnostics, accuse 

 the moral system of Carpocrates of destroying all 

 distinctions between good and evil, and inculcating an 

 unlimited indulgence of the sensual appetites. Certain 

 it is, that his followers practised the most detestable 

 vices, and were the cause of many of the calumnies 

 of the heathen writers concerning the Christians of 

 this century. The most conspicuous of Carpocrates' 

 scholars was Prodicus, who has, however, been 

 erroneously called the founder of the sect of Adamites, 

 (q. v.) The sect of Carpoctetians, however, which, 

 in Egypt and Italy, but especially in the islands, met 

 with much success, became extinct as early as the 

 beginning of the third century. The most complete 

 and ingenious of all the Gnostic systems was founded 

 in the second century, by Valentinus, a learned and 

 eloquent Alexandrian. In that light or plenitude, 

 which all the Gnostics make the residence of the 

 Supreme God, he has placed fifteen male and as 

 many female aeons, produced by successive intermar- 

 riages. The Supreme God, the Unbegotten, the 

 Original Father, whom he also calls the Deep 

 (Bathos), is the first of these aeons ; Thinking Silence 

 was his wife, and Intelligence, a male, and Truth, a 

 female, were their children. These produced The 

 Word and Life ; the latter a female, who gave birth 

 to mankind and society. These eight constituted 

 the first class of the thirty aeons. The second class, 

 of five couples, at the end of which stood the Only 

 Begotten, and the third, of six couples, at the head 

 of which stood the Comforter, were, in a similar 

 manner, descended from mankind and society, and 

 consisted, like the first, of personified ideas. The 

 officers of this heavenly state are four male aions : 

 Horus, who guards the boundaries of the region of 

 light ; Christ and the Holy Ghost, which instruct the 

 other aeons in their duties ; and Jesus, whom all the 

 asons of the kingdom of light begat in common, and 

 endowed with their gifts, as all the inhabitants of 

 Olympus did Pandora. Wisdom, the last female 

 aeon of the third class, envied Intelligence, on 

 account of his knowledge and, in the heat of her 

 unrestrained passion, produced an unformed female 

 aeon, Achamoth or Enthymesis (Reflection, Consider- 

 ation), which fell into the darkness of matter, and 

 was endowed with a form by Christ out of compassion. 

 Achamoth longed for the lost heavenly light. Fear, 

 anguish, melancholy and laughter, alternately took 

 possession of her. Her ungratified desire, at length, 

 produced the soul of the world and other souls. 

 From her tears originated the water; from her 



laughter, transparent innlttT ; and from her sorrow, 

 opaque mutter. Christ was moved with compassion 

 for this fallen creature, and sent her Jesus, who 

 communicated to her knowledge, and delivered her 

 from her pain. After this fortunate change, she bore 

 three substances a material, a spiritual, and a soul- 

 like substance. Out of the last, the demiurgus, or the 

 creator of the world, was formed, who, according to 

 Basilides, made the heavens with their angels out of 

 this soul-like substance, and selected the highest of 

 these heavens for his own mansion :'of the material 

 substance, under the influence of Achamoth's fear, 

 beasts were made ; under the influence of her melan 

 choly, wicked spirits, whose prince is the lord of the 

 world ; and under the influence of her anguish, the 

 elements of the world which contain fire. Man is 

 formed out of all three substances. Christ, the 

 Saviour of men, when he appeared on earth, had a 

 visible body, made of finer material, and was com- 

 posed of the spiritual and the soul-like substance 

 only. At his baptism, the aeon Jesus united itself with 

 him, and instructed mankind. Valentinus describes 

 the occurrences of his life, and his good deeds, like 

 Saturninus, with the exception of one peculiarity. 

 He says, that, when all the spiritual parts shall have 

 been delivered from matter, Achamoth will unite 

 herself with Jesus in the divine region of light ; that 

 she will draw the good souls to herself ; that the 

 heaven of the demiurgus will receive the most virtu- 

 ous, and that the world will be consumed with fire. 

 The Valentinian party, which rose towards the mid- 

 dle of the second century in Rome, and especially in 

 Cyprus, and which was distinguished by its austere 

 manners, was the most numerous of all the Gnostic 

 sects, and continued until after the commencement 

 of the fourth century. Marcion of Sinope, and 

 Cerdo, a Syrian, renounced many of the absurdities 

 of the earlier Gnostics, and formed a regular system, 

 the characteristic of which was the rejection of the 

 Old Testament. Marcion distinguished two supreme 

 principles, God and the devil. The true God begat 

 many spirits, among which were the creator of the 

 world, the righteous God, and the lawgiver of the 

 Jews. The last, through the prophets, promised 

 Christ; but Jesus, who actually appeared, and is the 

 true Redeemer, was the Son of the truly good God, 

 and not the Jewish Messiah. This peculiar dogma 

 of Marcion caused his separation from the Catholic 

 church, in which Tertullian, in particular, success- 

 fully defended the honour of the Old Testament 

 against him. The Marcionites were very numerous, 

 and had, even to the beginning of the fifth century, 

 many societies, and their own bishops in Italy, Syria, 

 Arabia, and Egypt; and they maintained the repu- 

 tation of blameless lives, while, according to the pre- 

 cept of their founder, in order to have as little as 

 possible to do witli matter, they avoided eating flesh, 

 drinking wine, and matrimony. It is doubtful whe- 

 ther Marcion and Cerdo were also the founders of 

 the sect which, towards the end of the second cen- 

 tury, arose under the name of the Ophites (q. v.)_ 

 and which, on account of the resemblance of then 

 theogony to that of the Valentinians, were reckoned 

 among the Gnostics. In the same period, Tatian, a 

 Syrian, who had distinguished himself by his Har- 

 mony of the Four Gospels, and his discourses against 

 the Greeks or heathens, adopted Gnostic doctrines, 

 and founded a sect, the followers of which, after one 

 of his pupils, were called Severians; on account of 

 their austerity, Encratitae. or Hydropar it states (water- 

 drinkers); and, because they renounced all property, 

 Apotactitee. Bardesanes, a Syrian, and Hermogenes, 

 an African, who, in the reign of the emperor Com- 

 modus, apostatized from Christianity, and established 

 sects, bordered, in their hypotheses concernirg the 



