boni) of the Ophites. He came into being from the commingling of the light-nature in the Sophia (the ■RPki'iiaTiKov anipfia) with matter. As the fruit of such a parentage, he was possessed of a nature neither pneumatic nor material, but psychical, and he occupies an intermediate position between the supreme God and the material world. He is not, of course, an evil, but only a limited and imperfect being, and yet evil springs from the defects of his work and of his plans. He acts in general with sincerity according to his power and light. By him the chaos of matter was transformed into an organized universe. The planetar}' heavens, and the sidereal spirits who are over them, and the whole course of the world, are under his control. In all this, however, he is the unconscious instrument of higher powers in the world of light, who secretly influ- ence all his movements. Of this control he finally and gradually became aware, and by some teachers he is said to have become vexed and goaded into opposi- tion b}' the discovery, and bj' others to have gladlj' welcomed and submitted to it. He was the author of Judaism, and to some extent of Christianity ; and hence by manj' Gnostics the former system was looked upon as defective, if not false, and even the latter, es- ])eciall}' in its mere letter, as incapable of imparting the highest wisdom. Only bj^ Marcion was he re- garded as entirely independent of the supreme God in the work of creation and providence, since he was here in a department which belonged wholly to him. Ke remained the God of this world until the coming of Christ, who vanquished him at the crucifixion. 4. With respect to anthropology, the Gnostics held that the whole kingdom of the Demiurge was fallen. He was himself the creature of a fallen reon, and the world he created and rules is subject to imperfection. From his connection with matter there was produced a hu- man race, which in its totalit}' is a microcosm, repre- senting within itself the three principles of the great universe, the supreme God, the Demiurge, and matter. This was in consequence of the creation of three class- es of men, higher or lower in proportion to their free- dom from matter. ISIarcion alone made this distinc- tion dependent upon the will of man himself; the oth- er Gnostics made it a result of creation, or of a divine communication of the spark of light and life from the upper world. The highest of these, i. e. the spiritual (TTi'fii/jrtri/coi), share largely in the nature of the low- est a!on ((TO0i«), who originally fell from the Pleroma, and hence they are the only ones who can attain per- fection. They alone are capable of recognising and receiving the light which is conmiunicated from above. The second class, the ps'/chical (jpvKiKoi^, have the na- ture of the Demiurge himself, who has power to raise them to some extent above the debasement of matter, and, by giving them legal forms, to impart to them a legal righteousness, but not to aflford them a recogni- tion of those divine mysteries which are bej'ond his own reach. The third class are the fleshly or hjdic (^(TapKtKoi, i'i/\(Ko() natures, in whom matter has usurped >' human form and passion (jrc'tdoi;'), has entire con- trol, and who are therefore destined to share the for- tunes of matter alone. Historically, the spiritual pre- dominated under the Christian dispensation, the psy- chical under the Jewish, and the fleshly among the heathen of all ages. Individuals, however, of each class are numerous under all these dispensations. In the aristocratic spirit of ancient I'latonism, many Gnos- tics allowed of no transition from the one to the other of these classes, while others looked upon it as possi- ble for the lower to rise to the higher in consequence of a divine communication of special powers. 5. The Gnostic idea of redemption was simply that of a liber- ation of the light-spirit from its connection with mat- tor. Of course it is confined to the two higher classes of our race in whom that spirit is found. In every condition of humanity, some favored individuals are represented as sighing for deliverance. In this way
were explained some glimpses of a higher knowledge, which break forth at intervals in the prophecies and psalms of the Jewish Scriptures, and in the writings of pagan philosophers. Some sparks of light were supposed to have been thrown into the breasts of no- bler persons, and the rational creation, as a whole ((cri- (T(t), is represented as sighing for redemption (Rom. viii, 22). A recently discovered work (Pistis Sophia) contains the penitential sighings and longings of the ason ((To0(o) when she had herself fallen from her orig- inal condition of divine intuition to that of mere faith. In pity for this sighing spirit, Christ, one of the high- est of all the a;ons, descends, and brings her, after in- numerable sufterings, back to the Pleroma, and under- takes the deliverance of all pneumatic natures. To accomplish this, he assumes, not a material form, since he can have no contact with matter, but only the ap- pearance of one. In answer to the longings of the Jews, the Demiurge had promised and actuallj^ sent among them a Messiah with only psychical powers. Most of the Gnostics suppose that the heavenly Christ (Soter) took possession of this Messiah, who had proved himself unable to accomplish what had been promised in his behalf, and that from the baptism hy John until the crucifixion this true Redeemer acted through this personage. Some, however, held that the man Jesus, with whom the agon Christ tlien became connected, combined in his own nature all human elements with the powers of an ajtherial spirit. As this Christ can- not suflTer, ever^'thing in him which seemed like it, or like anj' imperfection, was either a docetic illusion, or whollj' in the human personage with which he Avas united. This work of Christ, however, commenced not wholh' with the life of Jesus, but, to some extent, with creation itself, in which the Redeemer inspired the unconscious Demiurge with manj' divine ideas, and during the whole pi'ocess of the world's govern- ment he is drawing congenial spirits to himself, and correcting manj^ errors of the world-ruler. His re- deeming work, however, is eflTected entirely by the communication of the Gnosis, and especially the reve- lation of the true God. In the end, all pneumatic and psj'chical natures capaVile of redemption will be gath- ered and raised to the Pleroma. Valentinus supposes that all psychical natures are exalted onlj' to a lower degree of blessedness in a peculiar kingdom of the Demiurge. Matter with all fleshly natures will either be consumed by its own powers, or sink back into its original condition of utter deadness and absolute sep- aration from the light, or of internal confusion. 6. The sources from which the Gnostics professed to de- rive their knowledge were, (r(.) Tradition, not so much that of the Church, which the}^ generall}' looked upon as unphilosophical, and fit only for the multitude, but that which was said to have been communicated by Christ to a narrow circle of congenial spirits, and by them transmitted to others. IMarcion alone made this tradition accessible to all. (6.) The ordinarj' Chris- tian Scriptures were only partially received among them. Marcion and the more strenuous Judaistic Gnostics entirely rejected the Old Testament, and the more moderate recognised a distinction between its pneumatic, psychic, and hylic elements. Many of them disparaged portions of the New Tel^tament also, while others accepted only of Paul's writings and an expurgated gospel of Luke, (c.) Other writings of highly enlightened persons belonging to particular sects. Thus ISIanes's writings were much venerated among his followers, and the prophecies of Cain and of a pretended seer named Parchor among the follow- ers of Basilides, and the apocryphal books of Adam, Enoch, Moses, Elias, Isaiah, Baruch, and others. ((/.) Even the writings of the heathen poets and philoso- phers were much used by some, who, by a course of al- legorical explanations, like tliose which they applied to the Scriptures, discovered ineffable mj'steries under the most unpromising outward letter. 7. ^V'ith the