i\Iany of these sects can hardlv bo recognised as within the pale of Christianity. While some; of them claimed a place within the Ciun-ch, and reOised to leave it when thej' were disowned ly its autliorities, others openly abjured the Christian nan>e. Certainlv such
complete subverters of the essentials of the Gospel as the Carpocratians, Perates, Sethites, Cainites, and Maniclneans deserve to be called ratlier gnosticized heathen than Christian Gnostics. In the historj' of tlie Cimrch they deserve a phice only because the}', like other heathen, influenced it from without. In a historj' of Gnosticism even these must have no unim- portant position. Indeed, no historj' of this system is quite complete witliout embracing some still more re- mote systems — Cabbalistic Judaism, Neo-Platonism, etc., which had their origin under Gnostic influences.
V. General Principles. — Tlie ultimate aim of Gnosti- cism was to present a perfect solution of the great prob- lem of tlie origin and destin}' of the universe, and espe- ciallj' of the origin of evil, TroXv^pvXiiTov i^>]Tr]i.ta, tto- Biv I'l KUKta. The three ideas which were fundamental to all its speculations were : 1. A supreme being, uncon- nected with matter, and incapable of being att'ected by it; 2. Matter, i'X>/, eternal, tlie source of evil, and op- posed to God ; and, 3. A series of beings intermediate between these two. The primarj' source of all spiritual existence was an eternal abyss (jivi^or), so utterly be- yond human representation that no one should venture to name him, or even to conceive of him. He was the absolute one, and virtualh' and logically non-existent (oi'iK iov). In his nature, however, there was some in- conceivable ground of self-evolution (7rpo/3o\i/), in con- sequence of which his infinite powers became revealed in a series of jeons, or hypostatized divine attributes. It is only through these that he can have communica- tion with finite natures. They are called aeons (ai'- oJinc) because they are eternal ones, representing the eternal Source of all (aiwv). According to Valentinus, the}' emanated in pairs (syzigies) of different sexes. Basilides and Marcion ascribed their existence to an act of love and to a creative word, but the more pan- theistic sects to a necessary process of emanation which is usually spoken of as by generation. Their number varies in different systems ; sometimes it is determined by planetary relations (12), sometimes by the days of the year (3G5), sometimes by the years in the life of Christ (32), but not unfrequently it is left indefinite. The first aions were Nous, Logos, Sophia, Dunamis. Aletheia, Zoe, etc., generated either by the original being or by one another in ever-increasing imperfec- tion as they recede from their source. Together they constitute the Pleroma, the world of light and divine fulness, but far removed from the infinite abyss with which none can directly communicate. 2. Over against this Pleroma and this eternal abyss stands the world of matter {v\)j), sometimes contradistinguished as the Kenoma, or the world of emptiness or darkness. This was usually spoken of as eternal, but chaotic, and dis- ordered by internal strifes. It was generally described as far removed from the kingdom of light, but some- times as very near, and even on the confines of that kingdom. Some conceived of it as dead and power- less until it became animated by influences from the Pleroma, but others, and especially Manes and his fol- lowers, represented it as active and aggressive. Ac- cording to the former, one of the lowest and feeblest of the divine aons (called by Valentinus Sophia, the lower wisdom or Achamoth, the kutio in distinction from the di'M (jorpia) fell from the abode of light and came under the power of matter. Though Valentinus makes this, to some extent, a free act of apostasy on the part of the divine ajon, as she was wandering beyond the bounds of the Pleroma, and agitated by her in- tense desire to get out of her proper sphere and en- ter into more direct communication with the infinite Source, it was usually described as the result of an in- capacity to retain a hold upon the superior world, and a consequent ])recipitation into the darkness of the Kenoma. 3. At. this point we meet with the idea of the Demiurge. The name signifies a public worker (J^/;jU(Oi»(iyiJt), and he is the same with the Avelion of Basilides and the Jaldabaoth (r-inn-X-iS;;', the chaos-
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