Part 10 (2/2)

According to Basilides, the various pa.s.sions of the soul were no original parts of the soul, but appendages to the soul. They were in essence certain spirits attached to the rational soul, through some original perturbation and confusion; and that again, other b.a.s.t.a.r.d and heterogeneous natures of spirits grow onto them, like that of the wolf, the ape, the lion, and the goat, whose properties, showing themselves around the soul, they say, a.s.similate the l.u.s.ts of the soul to the likeness of these animals. See the whole pa.s.sage immediately preceding the following fragment. The fragment can best be understood by reference to the presentation of the system by W. Bousset in _Encyc. Brit._, eleventh ed., art. Basilides.

Valentinus, too, in a letter to certain people, writes in these very words respecting the appendages: There is One good, by whose presence is the manifestation, which is by the Son, and by Him alone can the heart become pure, by the expulsion of every evil spirit from the heart; for the mult.i.tude of spirits dwelling in it do not suffer it to be pure; but each of them performs his own deeds, insulting it oft with unseemly l.u.s.ts. And the heart seems to be treated somewhat like a caravansary. For the latter has holes and ruts made in it, and is often filled with filthy dung; men living filthily in it, and taking no care for the place as belonging to others. So fares it with the heart as long as there is no thought taken for it, being unclean and the abode of demons many. But when the only good Father visits it, it is sanctified and gleams with light. And he who possesses such a heart is so blessed that he shall see G.o.d.

(_c_) Clement of Alexandria, _Strom._, II. 8. (MSG, 8:972.)

The teaching in the following pa.s.sage attaches itself to the text, The fear of G.o.d is the beginning of wisdom (_cf._ Prov. 1:7).

Compare with it Irenus, _Adv. Hr._, I, 30:6.

Here the followers of Basilides, interpreting this expression [Prov. 1:7]

say that the Archon, having heard the speech of the Spirit, who was being ministered to, was struck with amazement both with the voice and the vision, having had glad tidings beyond his hopes announced to him; and that his amazement was called fear, which became the origin of wisdom, which distinguishes cla.s.ses, and discriminates, and perfects, and restores. For not the world alone, but also the election, He that is over all has set apart and sent forth.

And Valentinus appears also in an epistle to have adopted such views. For he writes in these very words: And as terror fell on the angels at this creature, because he uttered things greater than proceeds from his formation, by reason of the being in him who had invisibly communicated a germ of the supernal essence, and who spoke with free utterance; so, also, among the tribes of men in the world the works of men became terrors to those who made themas, for example, images and statues. And the hands of all fas.h.i.+on things to bear the image of G.o.d; for Adam, formed into the name of man, inspired the dread attaching to the pre-existing man, as having his being in him; and they were terror-stricken and speedily marred the work.

(_d_) Clement of Alexandria, _Strom._, III, 7. (MSG, 8:1151.)

The Docetism of Valentinus comes out in the following. It is to be noted that Clement not only does not controvert the position taken by the Gnostic as to the reality of the bodily functions of Jesus, but in his own person makes almost the same a.s.sertions (_cf.

Strom._, VI, 9). He might indeed call himself, as he does in this latter pa.s.sage, a Gnostic in the sense of the true or Christian Gnostic, but he comes very close to the position of the non-Christian Gnostic.

Valentinus in an epistle to Agathopous says: Since He endured all things, and was continent [_i.e._, self-controlled], Jesus, accordingly, obtained for Himself divinity. He ate and drank in a peculiar manner, not giving forth His food. Such was the power of His continence [self-control] that the food was not corrupted in Him, because He himself was without corruption.

(_e_) Irenus, _Adv. Hr._, I, 7, 15; I, 8, 23. (MSG, 7:517, 528.)

The division of mankind into three cla.s.ses, according to their nature and consequent capacity for salvation, is characteristic of the Valentinian Gnosticism. The other Gnostics divided mankind into two cla.s.ses: those capable of salvation, or the pneumatics, or Gnostics, and those who perish in the final destruction of material existence, or the hylics. Valentinus avails himself of the notion of the trichotomy of human nature, and gives a place for the bulk of Christians, those who did not embrace Gnosticism; _cf._ Irenus, _ibid._, I, 6. Valentinus remained long within the Church, accommodating his teaching as far as possible, and in its exoteric side very fully, to the current teaching of the Church.

The doctrine as to the psychics, capable of a limited salvation, appears to be a part of this accommodation.

I, 7, 5. The Valentinians conceive of three kinds of men: the pneumatic [or spiritual], the choic [or material],(45) and the psychic [or animal]; such were Cain, Abel, and Seth. These three natures are no longer in one person, but in the race. The material goes to destruction. The animal, if it chooses the better part, finds repose in an intermediate place; but if it chooses the worse, it, too, goes to the same [destruction]. But they a.s.sert that the spiritual principles, whatever Acamoth has sown, being disciplined and nourished here from that time until now in righteous souls, because they were sent forth weak, at last attain perfection and shall be given as brides(46) to the angels of the Saviour, but their animal souls necessarily rest forever with the Demiurge in the intermediate place. And again subdividing the animal souls themselves, they say that some are by nature good and others are by nature evil. The good are those who become capable of receiving the seed; the evil by nature, those who are never able to receive that seed.

I, 8, 23. The parable of the leaven which the woman is said to have hid in three measures of meal they declare manifests the three kinds of men: pneumatic, psychic, and the choic, but the leaven denoted the Saviour himself. Paul also very plainly set forth the choic, the psychic, and the pneumatic, saying in one place: As is the earthy [choic] such are they also that are earthy [I Cor. 15:48]; and in another place, He that is spiritual [pneumatic] judgeth all things [I Cor. 2:14]. And the pa.s.sage, The animal man receiveth not the things of the spirit [I Cor. 2:15], they affirm was spoken concerning the Demiurge, who, being psychic, knew neither his mother, who was spiritual, nor her seed, nor the Eons in the pleroma.

(_f_) Irenus. _Adv. Hr._, I, 1. (MSG, 7:445 _f._)

The following pa.s.sage appears, from the context, to have been written with the teaching of Ptolemus especially in mind. It should be compared with the account further on in the same book, I, 11: 1-3. The syzygies are characteristic of the Valentinian teaching, and the symbolism of marriage plays an important part in the system of all the Valentinians. In the words of d.u.c.h.esne (_Hist. ancienne de lglise_, sixth ed., p. 171): Valentinian Gnosticism is from one end to the other a marriage Gnosticism.

From the most abstract origins of being to their end, there are only syzygies, marriages, and generations. For the connection between these conceptions and antinomianism, see Irenus, _Adv.

Hr._, I, 6:3 _f._ For their sacramental application, _ibid._, I, 21:3. _Cf._ I, 13:3, a pa.s.sage which seems to belong to the sacrament of the bridal chamber.

<script>