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GNOSTICISM (Gr. yvwvcs, knowledge)
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See also:GNOSTICISM (Gr. yvwvcs, knowledge) , the name generally applied, to that spiritual See also:movement existing See also:side by side with genuine-.See also:Christianity, as it gradually crystallized into the old See also:Catholic See also: This first came See also:Marcion (fragment in Irenaeus iv. 6. 2). Both these writings are lost. He was followed by Irenaeus, who, especially in the first See also:book of his See also:treatise Adversus haereses (EMEyxov lad avaTpmrils riffs 1`EVSwvuµov yvcov€ws fc(3Aia 7rEVTE, c. A.D. 18o), gives a detailed See also:account of the Gnostic heresies. He founds his See also:work upon that of his See also:master See also:Justin, but adds from his own knowledge among many other things, notably the detailed account of Valentinianism at the beginning of the book. On Irenaeus, and probably also on Justin, Hippolytus See also:drew for his Syntagma (beginning of the 3rd See also:century), a work which is also lost, but can, with See also:great certainty, be reconstructed from three recensions of it: in the Panarion of Epiphanius (after 374), in Philaster of See also:Brescia, Adversus haereses, and the Pseudo-See also:Tertullian, See also:Liber adversus omnes haereses. A second work of Hippolytus (Kara 7raQwv allpicrewv E)1eyxos) is preserved in the so-called Philosophumena which survives under the name of See also:Origen. Here Hippolytus gave a second exposition supplemented by fresh Gnostic See also:original See also:sources with which he had become acquainted in the meanwhile. These sources quoted in Hippolytus have lately met with very unfavourable criticisms. The See also:opinion has been advanced that Hippolytus has here fallen a victim to the mystification of a forger. The truth of the See also:matter must be that Hippolytus probably made use of a collection of Gnostic texts, put together by a Gnostic, in which were already represented various secondary developments of the genuine Gnostic See also:schools. It is also possible that the compiler has himself attempted here and there to harmonize to a certain extent the various Gnostic doctrines, yet in no See also:case is this collection of sources given by Hippolytus to be passed over; it should rather be considered as important See also:evidence for the beginnings of the decay of Gnosticism. Very noteworthy references to Gnosticism are also to be found scattered up and down the Stromateis of See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria. Especially important are the Excerpta ex Theodoto, the author of which is certainly Clement, which are verbally extracted from Gnostic writings, and have almost the value of original sources. The writings of Origen also contain a See also:wealth of material. In the first See also:place should be mentioned the treatise Contra Celsum, in which the expositions of Gnosticism by both Origen and See also:Celsus are of See also:interest (see especially v. 61 seq. and vi. 25 seq.). Of Tertullian's See also:works should be mentioned: De praescriptione haereticorum, especially Adversus Marcionem, Adversus Hermogenem, and finally Adversus Valentinianos (entirely founded on Irenaeus). Here must also be mentioned the See also:dialogue of See also:Adamant;us with the Gnostics, De recta in deum fide (beginning of 4th centl.ry). Among the followers of Hippolytus, Epiphanius in his Panarion gives much See also:independent and valuable See also:information from his own knowledge of contemporary Gnosticism. But See also:Theodoret of See also:Cyrus (d. 455) is already entirely dependent on previous works and has nothing new to add. With the 4th century both Gnosticism and the polemical literature directed against it See also:die out.' - ' See R. A. See also:Lipsius, Die Quellen der altesten Ketzergeschichte (1875) A. See also:Harnack, Zur Quellenkritik der Geschichie See also:des Gnosticismus (1873) ; A. See also:Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte, pp: 1-83; Harnack, Geschichie der altchristlich. Literatur, i. 171 seq., u. 533 seq., 712 seq.; J. Kunze, De historiae Gnostic. fontibus (1894). On the Philosophumena of Hippolytus see G. See also:Salmon, the See also:cross-references in the Philosophumena, Hermathena, vol. xi. (1885) p. 5389 seq.; H. Staehelin, Die gnostischen Quellen Hippolyts, Texte and Unters. Bd. vi. Hft. 3 (189o).possessed a See also:secret and mysterious knowledge, in no way accessible to those outside, which was not to be proved or propagated, but believed in by the initiated, and anxiously guarded as a secret. This knowledge of theirs was not based on reflection, on scientific inquiry and See also:proof, but on See also:revelation. It was derived directly from the times of See also:primitive Christianity; from the Saviour himself and his disciples and See also:friends, with whom they claimed to be connected by a secret tradition, or else from later prophets, of whom many sects boasted. It was laid down in wonderful mystic writings, which were in the See also:possession of the various circles (Liechtenhahn, Die Qfenbarung See also:im Gnosticismus, 1901). In See also:short, Gnosticism, in all its various sections, its See also:form and its See also:character, falls under the great See also:category of mystic religions, which were so characteristic of the religious See also:life of decadent antiquity. In Gnosticism as in the other mystic religions we find the same,acontrast of the initiated and the uninitiated, the same loose organization, the same See also:kind of See also:petty sectarianism and See also:mystery-mongering. All alike boast a mystic revelation and a deeply-veiled See also:wisdom. As in many mystical religions, so in Gnosticism, the ultimate See also:object is individual salvation, the assurance of a fortunate destiny for the soul after See also:death. As in the others, so in this the central object of See also:worship is a redeemer-deity who has already trodden the difficult way which the faithful have to follow. And finally, as in all mystical religions, so here too, See also:holy See also:rites and formulas, acts of See also:initiation and See also:consecration, all those things which we See also:call sacraments, See also:play a very prominent See also:part. The Gnostic See also:religion is full of such sacraments. In the accounts of the Fathers we find less about them; yet here Irenaeus' account of the Marcosians is of the highest significance (i. 21 seq.). Much more material is to be found in the original Gnostic writings, especially in the Pistis-See also:Sophia and the two books of Ieu, and again in the Excerpta ex Theodoto, the Acts of See also: We constantly meet with the See also:idea that the soul, on leaving the See also:body, finds its path to the highest See also:heaven opposed by the deities and demons of the See also:lower realms of heaven, and only when it is in possession of the names of these demons, and can repeat the proper holy See also:formula, or is prepared with the right See also:symbol, or has been anointed with the holy oil, finds its way unhindered to the heavenly See also:home. Hence the Gnostic must above all things learn the names of the demons, and equip himself with the sacred formulas and symbols, in See also:order to be certain of a See also:good destiny after death. The exposition of the See also:system of the Ophites given by Celsus (in Origen vi. 25 seq.), and, in connexion with Celsus, by Origen, is particularly instructive on this point. The two " Coptic Ieu " books unfold an immense system of names and symbols. This system again was simplified, and as the supreme secret was taught in a single name or a single formula, by means of which the happy possessor was able to penetrate through all the spaces of heaven (cf. the name " Caulacau " among the Basilidians; Irenaeus, Adv. haer. i. 24. 5, and among other sects). It was taught that even the redeemer-See also:god, when he once descended on to this See also:earth, to rise from it again, availed himself of these names and formulas on his descent and ascent through the See also:world of demons. Traces of ideas of this kind are to be met with almost everywhere. They have been most carefully collected by Anz (Ursprung des Gnosticismus, Texte and Untersuchungen xv. 4 passim) who would see in them the central See also:doctrine of Gnosticism. IV. All these investigations point clearly to the fact that Gnosticism belongs to the See also:group of mystical religions. We must now proceed to define more exactly the See also:peculiar and distinctive character of the Gnostic system. The basis of the Gnostic religion and world-See also:philosophy lies in 'a decided See also:Oriental See also:dualism. In See also:sharp contrast are opposed the two worlds of the good and of the evil, the divine world and the material world (An), the worlds of See also:light and of darkness. In many systems there seems to be no See also:attempt to derive the one world from the other. The true See also:Basilides (q.v.), perhaps also Satornil, Marcion and a part of his disciples, Bardesanes and others, were frankly dualists. In the case of other systems, owing to the inexactness of our information, we are unable to decide; the later systems of Mandaeism and Manichaeanism, so closely related to Gnosticism, are also based upon a decided dualism. And even when there is an attempt at reconciliation, it is still quite clear how strong was the original dualism which has to be overcome. Thus the Gnostic systems make great use of the idea of a fall of the Deity himself; by the fall of the Godhead into the world of matter, this matter, previously insensible, is animated into life and activity, and then arise the See also:powers, both partly and wholly hostile, who hold sway over this world. Such figures of fallen divinities, sinking down into the world of matter are those of Sophia (i.e. Ahamoth) among the Gnostics (Ophites) in the narrower sense of the word, the Simoniani (the figure of See also:Helena), the Barbelognostics, and in the system of the Pistis-Sophia or the Primal See also:Man, among the Naasseni and the See also:sect, related to them, as described by Hippolytus.' A further weakening of the dualism is indicated when, in the systems of the Valentinian school, the fall of Sophia takes place within the godhead, and Sophia, inflamed with love, plunges into the Bythos, the highest divinity, and when the attempt is thus made genetic-ally to derive the lower world from the sufferings and passions of fallen divinity. Another attempt at reconciliation is set forth in the so-called " system of emanations" in which it is assumed that from the supreme divinity emanated a somewhat lesser world, from this world a second; and so on, until the divine See also:element (of life) became so far weakened and attenuated, that the See also:genesis of a partly, or even wholly, evil world appears both possible and comprehensible. A system of emanations of this kind, in its purest form, is set forth in the expositions coming from the school of Basilides, which are handed down by Irenaeus, while the propositions which are set forth in the Philosophumena of Hippolytus as being doctrines of Basilides represent a still closer approach to a monistic philosophy. Occasionally, too, there is an attempt to establish at any rate a threefold See also:division of the world, and to assume between the worlds of light and darkness a See also:middle world connecting the two; this is clearest among the Sethiani mentioned by Hippolytus (and cf. the Gnostics in Irenaeus i. 30. r). Quite peculiar in this connexion are the accounts in Books xix. and xx. of the Clementine Homilies. After a preliminary examination of all possible different attempts at a See also:solution of the problem of evil, the attempt is here made to represent the See also:devil as an See also:instrument of God. See also:Christ and the devil are the two hands of God, Christ the right See also:hand, and the devil the See also:left, the devil having See also:power over this world-See also:epoch and Christ over the next. The devil here assumes very much the characteristics of the punishing and just God of the Old Testament, and the prospect is even held out of his ultimate See also:pardon. All these efforts at reconciliation show how clearly the problem of evil was realized in these Gnostic and See also:half-Gnostic sects, and how deeply they meditated on the subject; it was not altogether without See also:reason that in the ranks of its opponents Gnosticism was judged to have arisen out of the question, rhOsv To KaK6v; This dualism had not its origin in Hellenic See also:soil, neither is it related to that dualism which to a certain extent existed also ifi See also:late See also:Greek religion. For the lower and imperfect world, which in that system too is conceived and assumed, is the nebulous world of the non-existent and the formless, which is the Cf. the same idea of the fall of mankind in the See also:pagan Gnosticism of " Poimandres "; see Reitzenstein, Poimandres (1904); and the position of the Primal Man (Urmensch) among the Manichaeansis similar..necessary See also:accompaniment of that which exists, as See also:shadow is of light. In Gnosticism, on the contrary, the world of evil is full of active See also:energy and hostile powers. It is an Oriental (Iranian) dualism which here finds expression, though in one point, it is true, the See also:mark of Greek See also:influence is quite clear. When Gnosticism recognizes in this corporeal and material world the true seat of evil, consistently treating the bodily existence of mankind as essentially evil and the separation of the spiritual from the corporeal being as the object of salvation, this is an outcome of the contrast in Greek dualism between spirit and matter, soul and body. For in Oriental (See also:Persian) dualism it is within this material world that the good and evil powers are at See also:war, and this world beneath the stars is by no means conceived as entirely subject to the influence of evil. Gnosticism has combined the two, the Greek opposition between spirit and matter, and the sharp Zoroastrian dualism, which, where the Greek mind conceived of a higher and a lower world, saw instead two hostile worlds, See also:standing in contrast to each other like light and darkness. And out of the See also:combination of these two dualisms arose the teaching of Gnosticism, with its thoroughgoing See also:pessimism and fundamental See also:asceticism. Another characteristic feature of the Gnostic conception of the universe is the role played in almost all Gnostic systems by the seven world-creating powers. There are indeed certain exceptions; for instance, in the systems of the Valentinian schools there is the figure of the one See also:Demiurge who takes the place of ' the Seven. But how widespread was the idea of seven powers, who created this lower material world and See also:rule over it, has been clearly proved, especially by the systematic examination of the subject by Anz (Ursprung des Gnosticismus). These Seven, then, are in most systems half-evil, half-hostile powers; they are frequently characterized as " angels," and are reckoned as the last and lowest emanations of the Godhead; below them —and frequently considered as derived from them—comes the world of the actually devilish powers. On the other hand, among the speculations of the See also:Mandaeans, we find a different and perhaps more primitive conception of the Seven, according to which they, together with their See also:mother Namrus (Ruha) and their See also:father (Ur), belong entirely to the world of darkness. They and their See also:family are looked upon as captives of the god of light (Manda-d'hayye, Hibil-Ziva), who pardons them, sets them, on chariots of light, and appoints them as rulers of the world (cf. chiefly Genza, in Tractat 6 and 8; W. Brandt, Manddische Schriften, 125 seq. and 137 seq.; Manddische Religion, 34 seq., &c.). In the Manichaean system it is related how the helper of the Primal Man, the spirit of life, captured the evil archontes, and fastened them to the See also:firmament, or according to another account, flayed them, and formed the firmament from their skin (F. C. See also:Baur, Das ma nichdische Religionssystem,v. 65), and this conception is closely related to the other, though in this tradition the number (seven) of the archontes is lost. Similarly, the last book of the Pistis-Sophia contains the myth of the See also:capture of the rebellious archontes, whose leaders here appear as five in number (See also:Schmidt, Koptisch-gnostische Schriften, p. 234 seq.).2 There can scarcely be any doubt as to the origin of these seven (five) powers; they are the seven planetary divinities, the See also:sun, See also:moon and five See also:planets. In the Mandaean speculations the Seven are introduced with the Babylonian names of the planets. The connexion of the Seven with the planets is also clearly established by the expositions of Celsus and Origen (Contra Celsum, vi. 22 seq.) and similarly by the above-quoted passage in the Pistis-Sophia, where the archontes, who are here mentioned as five, are identified with the five planets (excluding the sun and moon). This collective grouping of the seven (five) planetary divinities is derived from the late Babylonian religion, which can definitely be indicated as the home of these ideas (Zimmern, Keilinschriften in dem See also:alien Testament, ii. p. 620 seq.; cf. particularly Diodorus ii. 30). And if in the old sources it is only the first beginnings of this development that can be traced, we must assume that at a later 2 These ideas may possibly be traced still further back; and perhaps even underlie St See also:Paul's exposition in 'Gal. H. 15. See also:period the Babylonian religion centred in the See also:adoration of the seven planetary deities. Very instructive in this connexion is the later (Arabian) account of the religion of the Mesopotamian See also:Sabaeans. The religion of the Sabaeans, evidently a later offshoot from the stock of the old Babylonian religion, actually consists in the cult of the seven planets (cf. the great work of See also:Daniel Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier u. der Ssabismus). But this reference to Babylonian religion does not solve the problem which is here in question. For in the Babylonian religion the planetary constellations are reckoned as the supreme deities. And here the question arises, how it came about that in the Gnostic systems the Seven appear as subordinate, half-daemonic powers, or even completely as powers of darkness. This can only be explained on the See also:assumption that some religion hostile to, and stronger than the Babylonian, has superimposed itself upon this, and has degraded its See also:principal deities into daemons. Which religion can this have been? We are at first inclined to think of Christianity itself, but it is certainly most improbable that at the See also:time of the rise of Christianity the Babylonian teaching about the seven See also:planet-deities governing the world should have played so great a part throughout all See also:Syria, See also:Asia See also:Minor and See also:Egypt, that the most varying sections of syncretic Christianity should over and over again adopt this doctrine and work it up into their system. It is f?.r more probable that the combination which we meet with in Gnosticism is older than Christianity, and was found already in existence by Christianity and its sects. We must also reject the theory that this degradation of the planetary deities into daemons is due to the influence of See also:Hebrew monotheism, for almost all the Gnostic sects take up a definitely hostile attitude towards the Jewish religion, and almost always the highest divinity among the Seven is actually the creator-God of the Old Testament. There remains, then, only one religion which can be used as an explanation, namely the Persian, which in fact fulfils all the necessary conditions. The Persian religion was at an See also:early period brought into contact with the Babylonian, through the triumphant progress of Persian culture towards the See also:West; at the time of See also: I) is able to inform us that in the primeval strife of Satan against the light-world, seven hostile powers were captured and set as constellations in the heavens, where they are guarded by good See also:star-powers and prevented from doing harm. Five of the evil powers are the planets, while here the sun and moon are of course not reckoned among the evil powers—for the obvious reason that in the Persian See also:official religion they invariably appear as good divinities (cf. similar ideas in the Arabic treatise on Persian religion See also:Ulema-i-See also:Islam, Vullers, Fragmente caber die Religion Zoroasters, p. 49, and in other later sources for Persian religion, put together in Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde, Bd. ii. p. 18o). These Persian fancies can hardly be borrowed from the Christian Gnostic systems, their definiteness and much more strongly dualistic character recalling the exposition of the Mandaean (and Manichaean) system, are proofs to the contrary. They are 155 derived from the same period in which the underlying idea of the Gnostic systems also'originated, namely, the time at which the ideas of the Persian and Babylonian religions came into contact, the remarkable results of which have thus partly found their way into the official documents of Parsiism. With this fundamental doctrine of Gnosticism is connected, as Anz has shown in his book which we have so often quoted, a side of their religious practices to which we have already alluded. Gnosticism is to a great extent dominated by the idea that it is above all and in the highest degree important for the Gnostic's soul to be enabled to find its way back through the lower worlds and See also:spheres of heaven ruled by the Seven to the See also:kingdom of light of the supreme deity of heaven. Hence, a principal See also:item in their religious practice consisted in communications about the being, nature and names of the Seven (or of any other hostile daemons barring the way to heaven), the formulas with which they must be addressed, and the symbols which must be shown to them. But names, symbols and formulas are not efficacious by themselves: the Gnostic must See also:lead a life having no part in the lower world ruled by these See also:spirits, and by his knowledge he must raise himself above them to the God of the world of light. Throughout this mystic religious world it was above all the influence of the late Greek religion, derived from See also:Plato, that also continued to operate; it is filled with the See also:echo of the See also:song, the first See also:note of which was sounded by the Platonists, about the heavenly home of the soul and the homeward See also:journey of the See also:wise to the higher world of light. But the form in which the whole is set forth is Oriental, and it must be carefully noted that the See also:Mithras mysteries, so closely connected with the Persian religion, are acquainted with this doctrine of the ascent of the soul through the planetary spheres (Origen, Contra Celsum, vi. 22). V. We cannot here undertake to set forth and explain in detail all the complex varieties of the Gnostic systems; but it will be useful to take a nearer view of certain principal figures which have had an influence upon at least one See also:series of Gnostic systems, and to examine their origins in the See also:history of religion. In almost all systems an important part is played by the Great Mother (n rrtp) who appears under the most varied forms (cf. GREAT MOTHER OF THE Goias). At an early period, and notably in the older systems of the Ophites (a fairly exact account of which has been preserved for us by Epiphanius and Hippolytus), among the Gnostics in the narrower sense of the word, the Archontici, the Sethites (there are also traces among the Naasseni, cf. the Philosophumena of Hippolytus), the µijrnp is the most prominent figure in the light-world, elevated above the if3boµ6s, and the great mother of the faithful. The sect of the Barbelognostics takes its name from the See also:female figure of the Barbelo (perhaps a corruption of IIapNvos; cf. the form BapOevws for " virgin " in Epiphanius, Haer. xxvi. I). But Gnostic See also:speculation gives various accounts of the descent or fall of this goddess of heaven. Thus the " Helena " of the Simoniani descends to this world in order by means of her beauty to provoke to sensual See also:passion and mutual strife the angels who rule the world, and thus again to deprive them of the powers of light, stolen from heaven, by means of which they rule over the world. She is then held See also:captive by them in extreme degradation. Similar ideas are to be found among the " Gnostics " of Epiphanius. The kindred idea of the light-See also:maiden, who, by exciting the sensual passions of the rulers (&pXovres), takes from them those powers of light which still remain to them, has also a central place in the Manichaean See also:scheme of salvation (F. C. Baur, Das manichiiische Religionssystem, pp. 219, 315, 321). The light-maiden also plays a prominent part in the Pistis-Sophia (cf. the See also:index to the See also:translation by C. Schmidt). With this figure of the mother-goddess who descends into the lower world seems to be closely connected the idea of the fallen Sophia, which is so widespread among the Gnostic systems. This Sophia then is certainly no longer the dominating figure of the light-world, she is a lower See also:aeon at the extreme limit of the world of light, who sinks down into matter (Barbelognostics, the See also:anonymous Gnostic of Irenaeus, of non-Christian Gnosis. Thus in the Poimandres of See also:Hermes man is the most prominent figure in the speculation; numerous pagan and half-pagan See also:parallels (the " Gnostics of See also:Plotinus, See also:Zosimus, Bitys) have been collected by Reitzenstein in his work Poimandres (pp. 8i-116). Reitzenstein has shown (p. 8i seq.) that very probably the system of the Naasseni described by Hippolytus was originally derived from purely pagan circles, which are probably connected in some way with the mysteries of the See also:Attis cult. The figure in the Mandaean system most closely corresponding to the Primal Man, though this' figure also actually occurs in another part of the system (cf. the figure of Adakas Mana; Brandt, Mandaische Religion, p. 36 seq.) is that of Manda d'hayye (yvwans riis wgs; cf. the pair of aeons, Adamas and Gnosis, among the Barbelognostics, in Irenaeus 1. 29. 3). Finally, in the Manichaean system, as is well known, the Primal Man again assumes the predominant place (Baur, Manich. Religionssystem, 49 seq.). - This figure of the Primal Man can particularly be compared with that of the Gnostic Sophia. Wherever this figure has not become quite obscure, it represents that divine power which, whether simply owing to a fall, or as the See also:hero who makes war on, and is partly vanquished by darkness, descends into the darkness of the material world, and with whose descent begins the great See also:drama of the world's development. From this power are derived those portions of light existing and held prisoner in this lower world. And as he has raised himself again out of the material world, or has been set See also:free by higher powers, so shall also the members of the Primal Man, the portions of light still imprisoned in matter, be set free. The question of the derivation of the myth of the Primal Man is still one of the unsolved problems of religious history. It is worthy of See also:notice that according to the old Persian myth also, the development of the world begins with the slaying of the primal man Gayomart by See also:Angra-Mainyu (See also:Ahriman); further, that the Primal Man (" son of man "= man) also plays a part in Jewish apocalyptic literature (Daniel, See also:Enoch, iv. See also:Ezra), whence this figure passes into the Gospels; and again, that the See also:dogma of Christ's descent into See also:hell is directly connected with this myth. But these parallels do not carry us much further. Even the Persian myth is entirely obscure, and has hitherto defied See also:interpretation. It is certainly true that in some way an essential part in the formation of the myth has been played by the sun-god, who daily descends into darkness, to rise from it again victoriously. But how to explain the combination of the figure of the sun-god with that of the Primal Man is an unsolved riddle. The meaning of this figure in the Gnostic speculations is, however, clear. It answers the question: how did the portions of light to be found in this lower world, among which certainly belong the souls of the Gnostics, enter into it? A parallel myth to that of the Primal Man are the accounts to be found in most of the Gnostic systems of the creation of the first man. In all these accounts the idea is expressed that so far as his body is concerned man is the work of the angels who created the world. So e.g. Satornil relates (Irenaeus i. 24. I) that a brilliant See also:vision appeared from above to the world-creating angels; they were unable to hold it fast, but formed man after its See also:image. And as the man thus formed was unable to move, but could only crawl like a See also:worm, the supreme Power put into him a spark of life, and man came into existence. Imaginations of the same sort are also to be found, e.g. in the genuine fragments of See also:Valentinus (Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte, p. 293), the Gnostics of Irenaeus i. 30. 6, the Mandaeans (Brandt, Religion der Mandaer, p. 36), and the Manichaeans (Baur, Religionssystem, p. 118 seq.). The Naasseni (Hippolytus, Philosophumena, v. 7) expressly characterize the myth as Chaldean (cf. the passage from Zosimus, in Reitzenstein's Poimandres, p. 104). Clearly then the question which the myth of the Primal Man is intended to See also:answer in relation to the whole universe is answered in relation to the nature of man by this account of the coming into being of the first man, which may, moreover, have been influenced by the account in the Old Testament. That question is: how does it happen that in this Bardesanes, Pistis-Sophia), or turns in presumptuous love to-wards the supreme God (BvOos), and thus brings the Fall into the world of the aeons (Valentinians). This Sophia then appears as the mother of the " seven " gods (see above). The origin of this figure is not far to seek. It is certainly not derived from the Persian religious system, to the spirit of which it is entirely opposed. Neither would it be correct to identify her entirely with the great goddess See also:Ishtar of the old Babylonian religion. But there can hardly be any doubt that the figure of the great mother-goddess or goddess of heaven, ' who was worshipped throughout Asia under various forms and names (See also:Astarte, Beltis, See also:Atargatis, See also:Cybele, the Syrian See also:Aphrodite), was the prototype of the i.L T71p of the Gnostics (cf. GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS). The character of the great goddess of heaven is still in many places fairly exactly preserved in the Gnostic speculations. Hence we are able to understand how the Gnostic µip-tip, the Sophia, appears as the mother of the Hebdomas (ii3Soµas). The great goddess of heaven is the mother of the stars. Particularly instructive in this connexion is the fact that in those very sects, in the systems of which the figure of the µitrgp plays a See also:special part, unbridled See also:prostitution appears as a distinct and essential part of the cult (cf. the accounts of particular branches of the Gnostics, Nicolaitans, Philionites, Borborites, &c. in Epiphanius, Haer. See also:xxv., xxvi.)•. The meaning of this cult is, of course, reinterpreted in the Gnostic sense: by this unbridled prostitution the Gnostic sects desired to prevent the sexual See also:propagation of mankind, the origin of all evil. But the connexion is clear, and hence it also explained the curious Gnostic myth mentioned above, namely that the µitrrlp (the light-maiden) by appearing to the archontes (apxovres), the lower powers of this world, inflames them to sexual lusts, in order to take from them that See also:share of light which they have stolen from the upper world. This is a Gnostic interpretation of the various myths of the great mother-goddess's many loves and love-adventures with other gods and heroes. And when the pagan See also:legend of the Syrian Astarte tells how she lived for ten years in See also:Tyre as a prostitute, this directly recalls the Gnostic myth of how See also:Simon found Helena in a brothel in Tyre (Epiphanius, Ancoratus, c. 104). From the same group of myths must be derived the idea of the goddess who descends to the under-world, and is there taken prisoner against her will by the lower powers; the See also:direct prototype of this myth is to be found, e.g. in Ishtar's journey to hell. And finally, just as the mother-goddess of See also:south-western Asia stands in particularly intimate connexion with the youthful god of See also:spring (Tammuz, See also:Adonis, Attis), so we ought perhaps to compare here as a parallel the relation of Sophia with the See also:Soter in certain Gnostic systems (see below). Another characteristic figure of Gnosticism is that of the Primal Man (lrpwros avOpwiros). In many systems, certainly, it has already been forced quite into the background. But on closer examination we can clearly see that it has a wide influence on Gnosticism. Thus in the system of the Naasseni (see Hippolytus, Philosophumena), and in certain related sects there enumerated, the Primal Man has a central and predominant position. Again, in the See also:text on which are based the pseudo-Clementine writings (Recognitions, i. 16, 32, 45-47, 52, ii. 47; and Homilies, iii. 17 seq. xviii. 14), as in the closely related system of the See also:Ebionites in Epiphanius (Haer. See also:xxx. 3-16; cf. liii. I), we meet with the man who existed before the world, the See also:prophet who goes through the world in various forms, and finally reveals himself in Christ. Among the Barbelognostics (Irenaeus i. 29. 3), the Primal Man (Adamas, homo perfectus et verus) and Gnosis appear as a pair of aeons, occupying a prominent place in the whole series. In the Valentinian systems the pair of aeons, Anthropos and Ekklesia, occupy the third or See also:fourth place within the Oydods, but incidentally we learn that with some representatives of this school the Anthropos took a still more prominent place (first or second; Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte, p. 294 seq.). And even in the Pistis-Sophia the Primal Man " Ieu " is frequently alluded to as the See also: We also meet with speculations of this kind about man in the circles inferior body of man, fallen a See also:prey to corruption, there dwells a higher spark of the divine Being, or in other words, how are we to explain the See also:double nature of man? VI. Of all the fundamental ideas of Gnosticism of which we have so far treated, it can with some certainty be assumed that they were in existence before the rise of Christianity and the influence of Christian ideas on the development of Gnosticism. The main question with which we have now to See also:deal is that of whether the dominant figure of the Saviour (Ewrip) in Gnosticism is of specifically Christian derivation, or whether this can also be explained apart from the assumption of Christian influence. And here it must be premised that, intimately as the conception of salvation is See also:bound up with the Gnostic religion, the idea of salvation accomplished in a definite See also:historical moment to a certain extent remained See also:foreign to it. Indeed, nearly all the Christian Gnostic systems clearly exhibit the great difficulty with which they had to contend in order to reconcile the idea of an historical redeemer, actually occurring in the form of a definite See also:person, with their conceptions of salvation. In Gnosticism salvation always lies at the See also:root of all existence and all history. The fundamental conception varies greatly. At one time the Primal Man, who sank down into matter, has freed himself and risen out of it again, and like him his members will rise out of darkness into the light (Poimandres) ; at another time the Primal Man who was conquered by the powers of darkness has been saved by the powers of light, and thus too all his See also:race will be saved (See also:Manichaeism); at another time the fallen Sophia is purified by her passions and sorrows and has found her Syzygos, the Soler, and wedded him, and thus all the souls of the Gnostics who still languish in matter will become the brides of the angels df the Soter (Valentinus). In fact salvation, as conceived in Gnosticism, is always a myth, a history of bygone events, an See also:allegory or figure, but not an historical event. And this decision is not affected by the fact that in certain Gnostic sects figured historical personages such as Simon Magus and See also:Menander. The Gnostic ideas of salvation were in the later schools and sects transferred to these persons whom we must consider as rather obscure charlatans and See also:miracle-mongers, just as in other cases they were transferred to the person of Christ. The " Helena " of the Simonian system was certainly not an historical but a mythical figure. This explains the laborious and artificial way in which the person of Jesus is connected in many Gnostic systems with the original Gnostic conception of redemption. In this patchwork the joins are everywhere still clearly to be recognized. Thus, e.g. in the Valentinian system, the myth of the fallen Sophia and the So-ter, of their ultimate See also:union, their See also:marriage and their 70 sons (Irenaeus i. 4. 5; Hippolytus, Philos. vi. 34), has absolutely nothing to do with the Christian conceptions of salvation. The subject is here that of a high goddess of heaven (she has 70 sons) whose friend and See also:lover finds her in the misery of deepest degradation, frees her, and bears her home as his See also:bride. To this myth the idea of salvation through the earthly Christ can only be attached with difficulty. And it was openly maintained that the Soter only existed for the Gnostic, the Saviour Jesus who appeared on earth only for the " Psychicus " (Irenaeus i. 6. I). It must now be our task to make plain the position of Gnosti-cism within the Christian religion, and its significance for the development of the latter. Above all the Gnostics represented and See also:developed the distinctly See also:anti-Jewish tendency in Christianity. Paul was the apostle whom they reverenced, and his spiritual influence on them is quite unmistakable. The Gnostic Marcion has been rightly characterized as a direct See also:disciple of Paul. Paul's See also:battle against the See also:law and the narrow See also:national conception of Christianity found a willing following in a movement, the syncretic origin of which directed it towards a universal religion. St Paul's ideas were here developed to their extremest consequences, and in an entirely one-sided See also:fashion such as was far from being in his intention. In nearly all the Gnostic systems the doctrine of the seven world-creating spirits is given an anti-Jewish tendency, the god of the See also:Jews and of the Old Testament appearing as the highest of the seven. The demiurge of the Valentinians always clearly bears the features of the Old Testament creator-God. The Old Testament was absolutely rejected by most of the Gnostics. Even the so-called Judaeo-Christian Gnostics (See also:Cerinthus), the Ebionite (Essenian) sect of the Pseudo-Clementine writings (the Elkesaites), take up an inconsistent attitude towards Jewish antiquity and the Old Testament. In this repect the opposition to Gnosticism led to a reactionary movement. If the growing Christian Church, in quite a different fashion from Paul, laid stress on the literal authority of the Old Testament, interpreted, it is true, allegorically; if it took up a much more friendly and definite attitude towards the Old Testament, and gave wider See also:scope to the legal conception of religion, this must be in part ascribed to the involuntary reaction upon it of Gnosticism. The attitude of Gnosticism to the Old Testament and to the creator-god proclaimed in it had its deeper roots, as we have already seen, in the dualism by which it was dominated. With this dualism and the recognition of the worthlessness and absolutely vicious nature of the material world is combined a decided See also:spiritualism. The conception of a resurrection of the body, of a further existence for the body after death, was unattainable by almost all of the Gnostics, with the possible exception of a few Gnostic sects dominated by Judaeo-Christian tendencies. With the dualistic philosophy is further connected an attitude of See also:absolute indifference towards this lower and material world, and the practice of asceticism. Marriage and sexual propagation are considered either as absolute Evil or as altogether worthless, and carnal See also:pleasure is frequently looked upon as forbidden. Then again asceticism sometimes changes into See also:wild libertinism. Here again Gnosticism has exercised an influence on the development of the Church by way of contrast and opposition. If here a return was made to the old material view of the resurrection (the apostolic avav-ravcs pis o apKbs), entirely abandoning the more spiritual conception which had been arrived at as a See also:compromise by Paul, this is probably the result of a reaction from the views of Gnosticism. It was just at this point, too, that Gnosticism started a development which was followed later by the Catholic Church. In spite of the rejection of the ascetic attitude of the Gnostics, as a See also:blasphemy against the Creator, a part of this ascetic principle became at a later date dominant throughout all Christendom. And it is interesting to observe how, e.g.; St See also:Augustine, though desperately combating the dualism of the Manichaeans, yet afterwards introduced a number of dualistic ideas into Christianity, which are distinguishable from those of Manichaeism only by a very keen See also:eye, and even then with difficulty. The Gnostic religion also anticipated other tendencies. As we have seen, it is above all things a religion of sacraments and mysteries. Through its syncretic origin Gnosticism introduced for the first time into Christianity a whole See also:mass of sacramental, mystical ideas, which had hitherto existed in it only in its earliest phases. But in the See also:long run even genuine Christianity has been unable to free itself from the magic of the sacraments; and the Eastern Church especially has taken the same direction as Gnosticism. -Gnosticism was also the See also:pioneer of the Christian Church in the strong emphasis laid on the idea of salvation in religion. And since the Gnostics were compelled to draw the figure of the Saviour into a world of quite alien myths, their Christology became so complicated in character that it frequently recalls the Christology of the later dogmatic of the Greek Fathers. Finally, it was Gnosticism which gave the most decided impulse to the consolidation of the Christian Church as a church. Gnosticism itself is a free, naturally-growing religion, the religion of isolated minds, of See also:separate little circles and See also:minute sects. The homogeneity of wide circles, the sense of responsibility engendered by it, and continuity with the past are almost entirely lacking in it. It is based upon revelation; which even at the See also:present time is imparted to the individual, upon the more or less convincing force of the religious See also:imagination and speculations of a few leaders, upon the voluntary and unstable grouping of the schools See also:round the master. Its adherents feel themselves to be the isolated, the few, the free and the enlightened, as opposed to the sluggish and inert masses of mankind degraded into matter, or the initiated as opposed to the uninitiated, the Gnostics as opposed to the " Hylici " (uXucof); at most in the later and more moderate schools a middle place was given to the adherents of the Church as Psychici (>IivXucoi). This freely-growing Gnostic religiosity aroused in the Church an increasingly strong movement towards unity and a See also:firm and inelastic organization, towards authority and tradition. An organized See also:hierarchy, a definitive See also:canon of the Holy Scriptures, a See also:confession of faith and rule of faith, and unbending doctrinal discipline, these were the means employed. A part was also played in this movement by a free See also:theology.which arose within the Church, itself a kind of Gnosticism which aimed at holding fast whatever was good in the Gnostic movement, and obtaining its recognition within the limits of the Church (Clement of Alexandria, Origen). But the mightiest forces, to which in the end this theology too had absolutely to give way, were outward organization and tradition. It must be considered as' an unqualified See also:advantage for the further development of Christianity, as a universal religion, that at its very outset it prevailed against the great movement of Gnosticism. In spite of the fact that in a few of its later representatives Gnosticism assumed a more refined and spiritual aspect, and even produced blossoms of a true and beautiful piety, it is fundamentally and essentially an unstable religious syncretism, a religion in which the determining forces were a fantastic oriental imagination and a sacramentalism which degenerated into the wildest superstitions, a weak dualism fluctuating unsteadily between asceticism and libertinism. Indirectly, how-ever, Gnosticism was certainly one of the most powerful factors in the development of Christianity in the 1st century. 1 For the disciples of Valentinus, especially See also:Marcus, after whom was named a separate sect, the Marcosians, with their See also:Pythagorean theories of See also:numbers and their strong See also:tincture of the mystical, magic, and sacramental, see VALENTINUS AND VALENTINIANS: of attraction that it now drew within its limits even Judaeo-Christian sects. Among these we must mention the Judaeo-Christian Gnostic Cerinthus, also the Gnostic Ebionites, of whom Epiphanius (Haer.) gives us an account, and whose writings are to be found in a recension in the collected works of the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions and Homilies; to the same class belong the Elkesaites with their mystical scripture, the Elxai, extracts of which are given by Hippolytus in the Philos. (ix. 13). Later evidence of the decadence of Gnosticism occurs in the Pistis-Sophia and the Coptic Gnostic writings discovered and edited by Schmidt. In these confused records of human imagination gone mad, we possess a veritable See also:herbarium of all possible Gnostic ideas, which were once active and now See also:rest peacefully side by side. None the less, the stream of the Gnostic religion is not yet dried up, but continues on its way; and it is beyond a doubt that the later Mandaeanism and the great religious movement of Mani are most closely connected with Gnosticism. These manifestations are all the more characteristic since in them we meet with a Gnosticism which remained essentially more untouched by Christian influences than the Gnostic systems of the 2nd century A.D. Thus these systems throw an important light on the past, and a true See also:perception of the nature and purpose of Gnosticism is not to be obtained without taking them into See also:consideration. 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