THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE
BASILICA: 1. Legal codes. Since the great codification of the Roman law by Justinian, the Corpus juris civilis, was written in Latin, it could not meet the needs of the East, and required Greek translations. To do away with the uncertainty which had arisen from such versions, in 878 the emperor Basil the Macedonian had a handbook put together, covering forty titles, and put out a revision in 885. A further revision and codification of the older laws, edited once more under Leo the Wise (886), bears the Greek name of ta basilika. It is in sixty books, based on Justinian's compilation from the older versions and commentaries, with extracts from his later constitutions known as the Novellce, and from Basil's handbook mentioned above. (E. Friedberg.)
2. Early form of Christian churches. See Architecture, Ecclesiastical.
Bibliography: C. E. Zacharia, Histories juris Grmco-Romani delineatio, pp. 35-36, Heidelberg, 1839; Mortreuil, Hisloire du droit Byzantin, part ii, pp. 1 sqq., part iii, pp. 230 eqq., Paris, 1843-46; Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 171, 257-258, 606, 607, 609, 610, 977.
BASILIDES, bas-i-lai'diz, AND THE BASILID- IANS: Basilides, a famous Gnostic, was a pupil of an alleged interpreter of St. Peter, Glaucias by name, and taught at Alexandria during the reign of Hadrian (117-138). He may have been previously a disciple of Menander at Antioch, together with Saturnilus. The Acta Archelai state that for a time he taught among the Persians. He composed twenty-four books on the Gospel, which, according to Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, iv, 12), were entitled " Exegetics." Fragments of xiii and xxiii, preserved by Clement and in the Acta Archelai, supplement the knowledge of Basilides furnished by his opponents. Origen is certainly wrong in ascribing to him a Gospel. The oldest
Basilides. refutation of the teachings of Basilides, by Agrippa Castor (q.v.), is lost, and we are dependent upon the later accounts of Irenseus, Clement of Alexandria, and Hippolytus. The latter, in his Philoso-phumena, gives a presentation entirely different from the other sources. It either rests on corrupt accounts, or, more probably, on those of a later, post-Basilidian phase of the system. Hippolytus describes a monistic system, in which Hellenic, or rather Stoic, conceptions stand in the foreground, whereas the genuine II.— 1
Basilides is an Oriental through and through, who stands in closer relationship to Zoroaster than to Aristotle.
The fundamental theme of the Basilidian speculation is the question concerning the origin of evil and how to overcome it. The answer is given entirely in the forms of Oriental gnosis, evidently influenced by Parseeism. There are two principles, uncreated and self-existent, light and darkness, originally separated and without knowledge of each other. At the head of the " kingdom of light "
stands " the uncreated, unnamable His System. God." From him divine life unfolds
in successive steps. Seven such revelations form the first ogdoad, from which issued the rest of the spirit-world, till three hundred and sixtyfive spirit-realms had originated. These are comprised under the mystic name Abrasax (q.v.), whose numerical value answers to the number of the heavens and days. Being seized with a longing for light, darkness now interferes. A struggle of the principles commences, in which originated our system of the world as copy of the last stage of the spirit-world, having an archon and angel at its head. The earthly life is only a moment of the general purification-process which now takes place to deliver the world of light from darkness. Hence everything which is bad and evil in this system of the world becomes intelligible when regarded in its proper relations. Gradually the rays of light find their way through the mineral kingdom, vegetable kingdom, and animal kingdom. Man has two souls in his breast, of which the rational soul tries to master the material or animal. For the consummation of the process an intervention from above is necessary, however. The Christian idea of the manifestation of God in Jesus Christ is the historical fact which Basilides subjects to his general thoughts. God's " mind " (Gk. nous) descended upon Jesus as dove at the Jordan, and he proclaimed salvation to the Jews, the chosen people of the archon. The suffering of Jesus, Basilides admitted as a historical fact, but he did not understand how to utilize it religiously. The Spirit of God is the redeemer, not the crucified one. Jesus suffered as man, whose light-nature was also contaminated through the matter of evil. But the belief in the redemption which came from above lifts man beyond himself to a higher degree of exist-
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