The Gnostics and their remains : ancient and mediaeval

All A

lioy

AU/H

CEBACMA OF CKEES JADE, COSVEBTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISM
(See page 197.)

THE GNOSTICS

AND

THEIR REMAINS,

ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL.

C. W. KING, MA.

Nam veluti puori trcpidant atque omnia caacis
In tencbris metuimt, sic nos in luce timemus
Intcrdum nilo qua; sunt metueuda magis quam

ori in tenebris pavitant, finguntque futura.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:
DAVID NUTT, 270, STRAND.

1887.

LONDON :

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARINQ CROSS.

[All rights reserved.]

PREFACE.

WHEN this work first appeared, three-and-twenty years ago, it
became at once an object of unmerited abuse, and of equally
unmerited praise. Small divines mistaking it for an insidious
attempt to overthrow opinions " as by law established," spurted
at it with pens dipped in the milk of the Gospel ; whilst, under
the very same hallucination, " Friends of Light " lauded it to
the skies — either party equally ignorant both of the subject,
and of the purpose of my labours. One noted Zoilus (whose
recollections of Homer would seem to be of the same deeply-
marked nature as Ensign Blifil's) is disgusted at my citing
" Aidoneus " as a title of the God of the Shades ; another is
astonished at my ignorance in calling Bardanes a Persian,
whereas he was a native of Pontus ; not understanding that
my argument was equally valid in spite of the mistake — Pontus
being originally a province of the empire of Darius, and what
is more to the purpose, the actual focus whence Mithraicism
diffused itself over the Eoman world.

A still greater cause of outcry against the book was my
presuming to lay presumptuous hands upon the Sacred Ark of
Masonry, and openly express my opinion that the " Free and
Accepted " of these times have no more real connexion with the
ancient Craft, out of whose terms and forms, like fig-leaves, they
have stitched together aprons, wherewith to cover the real
nakedness of their pretension, than the Italian Carbonari of
Murat's day had with the trade of charcoal burners, whose
baskets were borrowed for the President's throne. King
Hiram's skull gnashed his teeth with rage within the cista
mystica ; and one valiant young Levite of the course of Abia,

VI PREFACE.

proceeds thus logically to confute all my assertions : " Athelstan
built a church : he could not build without masons ; argal,
Athelstan was the founder of Masonry in England.

But enough of this ; the same treatment is necessarily in store
for the present edition ; it must look fur

" Verbera, carnifices, robur, pix, lamina, taedae."

The one reviewer of its predecessor who exhibited any acquain
tance with the literature of the subject, felt himself (from his
position) " in duty bound " to qualify his praise by passing the
summary judgment " that I had displayed in the work more of
the spirit of a Gnostic than of a Catholic Christian." This
sentence, intended for condemnatory, I accept as the highest
praise that could be given to my labours — taking yvwortKos in
its strict sense of " one addicted to knowledge " ; and who
therefore studies the history and remains of any opinion for
the solo purpose of understanding the truth ; and not for the
sake of demonstrating the Truth can only exist under one
defined form.

Let me now proceed to state how, in the present edition, I
have endeavoured still further to deserve the appellation attached
to me by the good-natured Aristarchus. My Treatise was the
only one upon Gnostic Archaeology (for Dr. Walsh's little book
scarce deserves the name) that had appeared since Chiflet's
admirable " Apistopistus " (1617); — Matter, in his ' Histoire
Critique du Gnosticisme (1827), an excellent analysis of the
doctrines of the Gnosis, doing nothing for its monuments,
beyond republishing, on a reduced scale, the engravings of the
" Apistopistus." The only sources of information accessible to
me at the time of writing that edition were the same as those
drawn upon by Matter before me, namely the treatises of
Irenaeus and Epiplianius. In the interval, I have become
acquainted with, and, in order thoroughly to master, have
made complete translations of, two recently discovered works
that throw much light upon many difficult questions in this
investigation. The one is the 'Refutation of all Heresies,'
ascribed, either to Origen or Hippolytus : its author being inti
mately acquainted with the doctrines which he holds up for

PREFACE. Vll

detestation, or for ridicule ; and (what makes his criticisms of
far higher value to students of the present day) illustrating
them by copious extracts from the then so extensive heretical
literature, soon to be completely exterminated by the triumph
of the " orthodox " Faith.

The other aid is the " Pistis-Sophia," sole survivor of the once
numerous family of Gnostic Gospels ; but fortunately the most
important of them all for our purpose, and the very one for
whose escape (in its Coptic disguise) the archreologist ought to
feel most grateful to the ignorance of the destroyers. For,
whereas the other Gnostic teachers appear (as Hippolytus loves
to point out) to build up their systems upon the lines of various
Grecian philosophies, the " Pistis-Sophia " makes known to us
what were the deepest secrets of the so celebrated Egyptian
Mysteries, which are identical with those of the Eabbinical
Kabbala, the only alteration being that of putting them into
the mouth of Scripture personages, in order to adapt them
to the prevailing change of ideas. This book, therefore,
from its very nature supplies a kind of elucidation of con
temporary monuments not to be found elsewhere, for the
Christian Fathers discuss only the doctrines of their adversaries,
not condescending to notice their application to the uses of
everyday life. It is the latter point that gives such interest to
the " Pistis-Sophia " — we gain from it the whole category of
Holy Names, of such talismanic virtue; the powers and titles
of the actual genii, the constitution of the soul ; and its
state after death. But what is yet more curious, the " Pistis-
Sophia " exhibits the leading principles of the Kabbala already
established, and applied to the demonstration of the highest
truths in exactly the same manner as these principles wore
used by the heresiarch, Marcus, in the third century. And
here it may be remarked parenthetically, that no one really
acquainted with the history of religious opinions, can for a
moment imagine that Marcus (a born Jew, be it remembered)
was the first inventor of the wondrous machinery which he used
in the development of his system, and the ' Manifestation of
Truth,' — he did but apply to a new purpose the rules that he
found already established as authoritative in the Rabbinical

Vlll PREFACE.

schools. For in Religion there is no " new thing " ; the same
ideas are worked up over and over again ; the gold in the
sovereign of to-day may first have circulated in the new-coined
stater of Croesus.

Last, in point of time, but equally valuable with any of
the fresh sources that have served me for the completion of
this work, must I gratefully acknowledge the oral teachings
of Eabbi Dr. Schiller-Szinessy — that unchanged representative
of the Gamaliels of old — at whose feet I have sat for many
years, listening to his exposition of the " Holy Zohar." What
ever may be the date of the present form of that transcendental
development of the Torah — no one but an inverted Jew, totally
unread in the Greek historians of the Gnosis, can fail to
perceive that its principles and traditions are the veiy same
as those taught in the schools of Babylon and Tiberias at the
time when Simon Magus and Justinus studied there.

During the many years that have slipped by since its first
publication, I have irom time to time re-cast and re- written the
entire Treatise, incorporating with the former contents what
ever fresh information, reading, or chance, might throw in my
way. In the same interval, two other works upon this subject
have made their appearance. Dean Mansel's l Gnostics ' is a
well- written and accurate summary of all that the Greek Fathers
have left us upon the doctrines of the various sects ; but, as the
book is evidently intended for the use of theological students
alone, the author has regarded his subject from a strictly pro
fessional point of view ; totally ignoring the archaeological side
of the question (with which I am chiefly concerned), as being
altogether foreign to the purpose for which he wrote.

On the other hand, Dr. Ginsburg's ' The Kabbala : its
Doctrines, Development, and Literature,' possesses not only the
merit of a lucid exposition of the most abstruse of all Theo-
sophies, as contemplated in the shape to which it has been
brought by the refining subtlety of successive generations of
Bobbins — but will be found an invaluable guide to all who
attempt the interpretation of talismanic inscriptions. For
example, the Hebrew radicals, which express the Names of
the Sephiroth, are ta be discovered in the strings of Greek

PREFACE. IX

consonants, now dumb for want of vowels, which have
hitherto baffled the ingenuity of every reader.

There seems reason for suspecting that the Sibyl of Esoteric
Buddhism drew the first notions of her new religion from the
analysis of the Inner Man, as set forth in my first edition. I
may therefore promise to myself the gratitude of those " clear
spirits " (the Miltonian phrase) who are busying themselves " by
searching to find out God," for now making known to them a
still more profound theosophy, whose revelations definitely
settle hardest problems relating to our mental nature, and the
world beyond the grave. Investigators of the same order as the
Esoteric Buddhists will find here a Gospel ready made to their
hand — so full of great truths, so original in its conceptions,
that it would seem to flow from no human source ; and must
carry conviction of its divine origin to every mind that shall
be adapted by its nature for the reception of the good seed.

In conclusion, I must express my grateful acknowledgments
of the services of my indefatigable friend, Mr. S. S. Lewis,
Fellow of Corpus Christi College; but for whose persuasion,
and negotiations with the publishers, these pages would never
have seen the light. Not merely this, but he has enabled me to
overcome an apparently insurmountable difficulty in the way of
the publication — the failure of my sight, which totally prevented
my conducting the work through the press — by taking upon
himself the correction of the proofs : a laborious and irksome
task to any one besides the author ; and demanding a sacrifice
of time that can only be appreciated by those, who, like myself,
know the multifarious nature of the engagements by which
every hour of his life is so completely absorbed.

Mr. Joseph Jacobs has furnished a carefully compiled list of
authors quoted in this work, and of the references made to them,
which will be found of use to those who wish to pursue the
subject still further.

C. W. KING.

THINITY COLLEGB:, CAMBRIDGE,
August 26, 1887.

>AGK
V

CONTENTS.

PREFACE

xin
Introduction .

PART I.

GNOSTICISM AND ITS SOURCES.

Introduction— Gnosticism and its origin— Pistis-Sophia— Book of
Enoch— Gnosticism in its beginning— Influence of Judaism
on the Ancients— The Zendavesta— The Kabbala and the T
mud— Indian Sources of Gnosticism, Manes— Buddhism— Simon-
ianism— Basilides— The Ophites— Machinery of the Gnosis

PART II.

THE WORSHIP OF MITHRAS AND SERAPIS.

Origin of Mithraicism— The Mithraic Sacraments— A Roman Mithas
°in his Cave— Mithraic Talismans— Gnostic Sacraments and
Initiations, as Connected with the Mithraic— St. Augustine on
Gnosticism— The Worship of Serapis— The Figured Representa
tions of Serapis— Probable Origin of Serapis— Monuments
the Serapis-worship— The Caduceus and its Symbolism— Death,
as Represented in Ancient Art— Tomb-treasures— Gnostic con
nection with Superstitious Practices, the Evil Eye— Cerauma
Jade converted into a Gnostic Talisman

PART III.

ABRAXAS, ABRAXASTER AND ABRAXOID GEMS.
A^athodacmon Worship— The Chnuphis Serpent— The Abraxas
—Abraxaster, or Borrowed Types— Abraxoids, or Gems con
founded with the true Gnostic— The True Abraxas <
The god Abraxas, as described by the Christian Fathers-
« Abraxas," Etymology of-" Abraxas," its numerical Vain
The Abraxas Religion-The Ineffable name m its Hindoo
Form-Abraxas-gerns, their Materials, Workmanship,
Nature— Legends and Formulas .

Xll CONTENTS.

PART IV.
THE FIGURED MONUMENTS OF GNOSTICISM.

Gnostic Siglxj Symbols, Legends Explained — The Name IAQ —
Abraxas, a New Type of — Original Purpose of these Formula —
The Gnostic Theogony — The Schema of the Ophites — The
Cause of Sin — State after death of the Uninitiated — Future
Punishments, and the Infernal Hierarchy — Talismanic Leaden
Scrolls — Leaden Books — Numerals, Their Virtues — Magic
Squares .......... 303

PART V.

TEMPLARS, ROSICBUCIAN&, FREEMASONS.

Preservation of Gnostic Symbols among the Freemasons — Masonic
Pretences — " Constitutiones Artis Geometriae " — Henry VI. and
his Masons — Hindoo and Chinese Symbols — Masons' Marks —
Stonehenge — The Carbonari — De Quincey — The Rosy Cross —
"Vultus Triformis" — Hosea Lux — Lodges First Established —
Templars Suppressed — "Mystery of Baphomet Revealed" —
Articles of Accusation against the Templars — Orphic Mysteries
• — Clarkson on the Temple Church — " Baphometic Vases " —
Manicheism in France — The Assassins of the Lebanon — The
Druses — The Sufi of Persia — Lodges first Established — Spartacus
Weishaupt — Wren — " Scottish Knights "—Cypher Writing —
" Book of Kells " — Brand-marking, National and Mystic . 373

DESCRIPTION OF WOODCUTS ....... 432

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES ........ 435

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX, by Joseph Jacobs, B.A. . . . 449

INDEX ........... 457

PLATES A to 0.

INTRODUCTION.

THAT nothing upon the subject of Gnosticism should have
hitherto been attempted in our language except by Dr. Walsh
in his very meagre sketch (long since out of print), seemed to
me a sufficient excuse for my undertaking the same task upon a
more comprehensive scale, as well as upon different principles.
Dr. Walsh's performance, entitled « An Essay on Coins, Medals,
and Gems, as illustrating the progress of Christianity in the
Early Ages,' is little more than an abridgment of some popular
Church History for the period comprehended within its scope,
illustrated from the very scanty store of monuments at his
command ; whilst his explanations are, like the source supply
ing them, based upon grounds altogether fallacious, and, even to
the beginner, obviously unsatisfactory.

Taking for granted, upon the bare word of their opponents,
that the various Teachers of the Gnosis were mere heretics, that
is, perverters of the regular (!) Christian doctrine which they had
at first embraced as a divine revelation, he, like his guides, did
not trouble himself any further to investigate the true origin of
their systems, but was content with roughly sketching their
most prominent features ; whilst in explaining their extant pro
ductions, he refers all, however diverse in nature, to the same
school, and interprets them according to his own preconceived
and baseless views of their character.

On such a plan as this, neither the doctrines nor the monu
ments they have bequeathed to us in such profusion are
susceptible of even a plausible explanation, much less of one
capable of satisfying an unprejudiced and inquiring mind. The
method, therefore, of treating the subject which I have followed
in the present work is to begin by reviewing the great religions
systems of the East, flourishing at the time of the promulgation

XIV INTRODUCTION.

of Christianity in those regions, with the influence of these
systems upon the modes of thought and expression of both the
missionaries of the new creed and their opponents ; and lastly
to establish, upon the testimony of the Apostle to the Gentiles
himself, the previous existence of the germs of Gnosticism in the
cities that were the scene of his most important labours.

In my sketch of these older systems I have done little more
than condense Matter's admirable introduction to his * Histoire
Critique du Gnosticisme ' ; but from that point forward have
carried on my investigations according to a theory to which
that writer once alludes approvingly, although, from some un
accountable reason, he has neglected to follow it out to its
legitimate consequences. Eestricting himself to describing in
his lucid and elegant style the speculations of the several heresi-
archs, and seeking no further back than the Zendavesta and
Kabbala for the storehouses whence they all must have drawn
their first principles, he falls into the grave error of represent
ing their doctrines as novel, and the pure inventions of the
persons that preached them.

That the seeds of the Gnosis were originally of Indian growth,
carried so far westward by the influence of that Buddhistic
movement which had previously overspread all the East, from
Thibet to Ceylon, was the great truth faintly discerned by
Matter, but which became evident to me upon acquiring even
a slight acquaintance with the chief doctrines of Indian
theosophy. To display this in the most incontrovertible manner,
the two systems, each in its highest form of development — that
of Valentinus, and that, of the Nepal ese Buddhists — are described
and confronted for the sake of establishing their original
identity: and throughout these pages innumerable other points
of affinity will be found noticed as they present themselves.
Actual historical proof of the same fact will also be adduced,
establishing the important circumstance (but hitherto entirely
unnoticed, or disregarded) that Buddhism had already been
planted in the dominions of the Seleucida3 and the Ptolemies at
least as early as the times of the generation following the
establishment of those dynasties, and was provided for in
treaties made between those Grecian princes and the great

INTRODUCTION. XV

Hindoo promoter of the religion. In the history of the Church
it is most certain that almost every notion that was subsequently
denounced as heretical can bo traced up to Indian speculative
philosophy as its genuine fountain-head : how much that was
allowed to pass current for orthodox had really flowed from the
same source, it is neither expedient nor decorous now to
inquire.

In order to obtain a clear view of the principal forms of
Gnosticism, as well as to escape relying upon second-hand
information (in this case more than elsewhere untrustworthy), j
commenced the collecting materials for the present work by
carefully perusing the vast ' Panarion ' of Epiphanius — a
laborious undertaking, but well repaid by the vivid picture he
presents of the inner state of society under the Lower Empire,
and of the war even at that late period so fiercely waged
between Reason and Faith. The ' Panarion ' is a connected
history of the Gnosis in all its developments during the first
three centuries — the author quoting Irenasus for the earlier ages ;
for the later his account is of the highest value, having been
derived from personal experience, Epiphanius having in his
youth belonged to the Marcosian sect. After his days nothing
new sprung up in the field of Eeligious philosophy, before so
diversified with the vigorous and more curious flowers (or
weeds) of the Gnosis ; the civil now combining with the
ecclesiastical power to cut down and root out all such daring
and irregular growths of the human mind.

Since the first publication of this treatise I have become
acquainted with and minutely studied two authorities of the
greatest importance for the true understanding of Gnosticism —
the one for its philosophy ; the other for its tangible remains.
* The Refutation of all Heresies,' of Hippolytus, written two
centuries before the 'Panarion,' gives a view of the chief
schools of the Gnosis, drawn up with the utmost intelligence
united with the most charming candour ; qualities sadly to seek
in the other ecclesiastical historians. The ' Pistis-Sophia,' the
only Gnostic Gospel preserved, throws a light upon the
terminology and machinery of the religion that, before its
discovery and publication was perfectly unattainable. Both

XVI INTRODUCTION.

these treatises are of recent discovery, and consequently their
assistance was lost to the previous historians of Gnosticism. I
have therefore availed myself largely of these invaluable
resources, which will be found doing good service in almost
every section of the present work.

After considering the class of speculations that owed their
birth to India, next in importance for her contributions to the
opinions, still more to the monuments before us, conies Egypt
with her primeval creed, although exhibited in its Romanized
and latest phase ; and whose productions are too often confounded
with the true offspring of the Gnosis. These remains are here
discriminated ; their distinctive characters are pointed out ; and
they are arranged under several heads, according as their object
was religious or medicinal. In the consideration of these
remains, Bellermann's classification has been chiefly followed ;
according to which the truly Gnostic are regarded as those
only that exhibit the figure of the Pantheus, Abraxas, the actual
invention of Basilides, and which gives its name to the class.
The second, Abraxoids, includes the types borrowed from different
religions by the other Gnostic teachers. The third, Abraxaster,
consists of such as in their nature are purely astrological, and
intended for talismans; deriving their virtues from the stars.
In the first of these classes much space has been devoted to
the ingenious creation of the Alexandrine philosopher, the
pantheistic image of the supreme Abraxas ; whose title has
hitherto been improperly applied to monuments some of which
are anterior in date to his embodiment in a visible form;
whilst others spring from nations entirely unconnected with his
worship. Of this eidolon of the personage thereby typified, of the
meaning of his name and titles, much information has been
collected, and presented here in a connected form for the benefit
of those interested in learning what can on safe grounds be
established in elucidation of these abtruse questions.

Mithraicism, under whose kindly and congenial shelter so much
of Occidental Christianity grew up unmolested, is reviewed in its
due order, and the causes explained of an alliance at first sight
BO inexplicable. With this subject are connected the singular
resemblance between the ceremonial of the two, and the transfer

INTRODUCTION. XVH

of so much that was Mithraic into the practice of the orthodox ;
and many curious memorials will be found described bearing
witness to the reality of this adaptation.

After the Mithraic, the religion of Serapis comes to be
considered ; a worship which, besides being the last of the
Heathen forms to fall before the power of Christianity, had
previously contributed, as largely as the Mithraic, to the con
stitution of the later Gnosticism. It is in truth a great mis
take, the confining the name of "Gnostic"(as is commonly done)
to the sectaries who, boasting of their " superior lights," declared
that they were the only real Christians (as did the Ophites), and
that too in virtue of a creed professedly of their own devising.
Such Gnostics indeed were Christians by their own showing,
and regarded all who differed from them as heretics : but at the
same time they based their arguments upon the tenets of Pagan
religions; very far from regarding the latter as the empty
fabrications of demons, which was the persuasion of the ortho
dox. But although they accepted these ancient Ethnic legends,
it was only because through the help of their " knowledge " they
were enabled to discern the truth enveloped within these
seemingly profane traditions. But the followers of Mithras and
of Serapis had in reality, and long before them, a Gnosis of
their own, communicated in their Mysteries to the initiated few ;
and they opposed to the predictions of orthodox and Gnostic
alike claims and pretensions lofty as their own. The Emperor
Hadrian, a most diligent inquirer into things above man's
nature, got himself initiated into one mystery after another;
nevertheless we shall find him writing from Alexandria that the
worship of Christ and of Serapis was in that city one and the
same, and moreover the sole religion of that immense population.
Consequently, those initiated into the true secrets of the old
religion must have recognised the fact that their deity, whether
the Sun or the Soul of the Universe, was nothing but a type of
the One, the Saviour recently revealed to them : or else it would
appear (which tells equally for our argument) that the new
converts, in order to escape persecution, enjoyed their own faith
under the covert of the national worship, which was susceptible
of a spiritual interpretation quite cognate to their own ideas,

b

XV111 INTRODUCTION.

and indeed enshrouding the same. As for the worshippers of
Mithras, their whole elaborate system of sacraments and degrees
of initiation had no other object than the securing of spiritual
enlightenment and spiritual blessings. The foundation being
the pure teaching of Zoroaster, its holders were prepared gladly
to accept any higher revelation, and to discover that the greater
mystery had been foreshadowed in the types and ceremonies
of the former one. In this way a man might continue a
Mithraicist and yet accept all the doctrines of Christianity, as
the priests of that religion in their last days assured the
incredulous Augustine.

After thus pointing out the various elements which the
Apostles of the Gnosis worked up so ingeniously into one
harmonious whole, incorporating therewith so much of the
Christian scheme as fitted to the rest, we come prepared to the
examination of the Symbols and Terminology by which these ideas
were communicated to the members of the sect who had attained
to the Arcanum; the composite images or sigils " having a voice
for the intelligent, which the vulgar crowd heareth not."

Astrology justly claims for her own a large share of the relics
popularly called Gnostic; for Gnosticism, from the beginning,
had linked its own speculations to those of the Magians' national
science, and borrowed as a vehicle for its own peculiar ideas
the machinery of the latter — its Astral Genii, Decani, and
Myriageneses. And this truth was seen by the earliest writers
upon Gnosticism, for Hippolytus proves conclusively, at much
length, that the system of the Peratae (a branch of the Ophites)
was nothing more than a barefaced plagiarism from the rules of
Astrology. Under this head I have endeavoured to separate the
purely Astrological talismans from those to which the illuminati,
their makers, had given a more spiritual sense. "Astrology,
not Christ, is the author of their religion," says Hippolytus of
the sects founded by Euphrates and Celbes ; and proceeds to give
extracts from their writings, held in the highest esteem at the
time, which amply bear out his assertion.

Next pour in, a multitudinous swarm, the stones covered over
with long strings of bare inscriptions, genuine offspring of the
Kabbala, that betray the handiwork of the idol-hating Jewish

INTRODUCTION. XIX

dreamers of Alexandria — spoils even then ascribed to Solomon,
and which secured the favour

" Of those demons that are found
In fire, air, flood, or under ground;
Whose power hath a true consent
With planet or with element."

One object I have kept steadily in view throughout the whole
of this investigation — to show how the productions of the
different schools are to be distinguished from each other ; and to
this particular attention has been given in describing the
numerous remains proceeding from the several sources just
enumerated, that are collected in the accompanying plates,
and thus in some degree to remedy the confusion that reigns
at present in the whole department. My predecessor, Matter,
busied himself only with the doctrines, making use of the
monuments merely in illustration of his remarks ; but as my own
labours are properly designed to be subsidiary to his invaluable
treatise, I refer the reader to him for the more complete
elucidation of the philosophy of Gnosticism, and give my full
attention to its archaeological side, which he has too cursorily
glanced at, and for which nothing has been done of any
importance since the publications of Chiflet and Montfaucon.

Last to be considered comes the Gnosis in its final and
grandest manifestation, the composite religion of Manes : with
its wonderful revival and diffusion over Medieval Europe ; and
its supposed connexion with the downfall of the Templars, of
which catastrophe the history and causes are here briefly
sketched ; although to form a satisfactory judgment on the merits
of the case is about the hardest problem history can offer. With
their scandal and their fate is coupled the most singular phe
nomenon of modern times — the preservation by their professed
descendants, the Freemasons, of so much symbolism that appears
to be indisputably Gnostic in its origin. For this, however
(unfortunately for the lovers of mystery), a very matter of fact
but doubtless sufficient cause can be assigned, and by valid
arguments established: when the solution of the enigma
irresistibly brings to mind ^Esop's apologue of the " Fox and the
Mask," and his exclamation of disappointment after he had at

XX INTRODUCTION.

last mustered up sufficient courage to examine the interior of the
awe-inspiring and venerable head. This section is illustrated
by all the information I have been able to glean from different
sources upon the curious subject of Masons' Marks — which,
yet existing and in common use amongst our own craftsmen
and equally so amongst the Hindoos in daily religious
observance, can be traced back through Gothic retention, and
Gnostic usage, through old Greek and Etruscan art, to their
ultimate source ; and which attest more convincingly than any
thing else what region gave birth to the theosophy making such
liberal use of the same siylse in Roman times. To assist
inquirers into this point I have been careful to give references to
all the published lists of these Marks that have come to my
knowledge ; which same rule I have observed as regards other
monographs upon the several various questions discussed in the
following pages. In this way the shortcomings of myself can be
supplied by those desirous of fuller information : for 1 am well
aware that my own best qualification for attempting an arduous
investigation like the present, extending over so many and un
connected branches of learning, lies in a larger practical ex
perience of the monuments themselves, tangible and literary,
than was possessed by those who have hitherto attempted it.
And as it is a most true adage, " Dans le pays des aveugles le
borgne est roi," there is some probability of my labours proving
both novel and interesting to many, who desire to know
something authentic upon the much-talked-of but little under
stood subject of Gnosticism.

Related to this religion by their nature are talismans and
amulets in general ; for Gnostic symbols and Gnostic formulae
gave their virtue to many of the class : being borrowed either
directly from the Gnosis, or from the older creeds out of which
the latter was constructed. Their employment, and the notions
generating them, have been here described ; showing the deriva
tion of many of the medieval examples from the Gnostic class ;
and by following out the same principle it has been attempted
to find a key to their cabalistic legends, which may fit them
better than any hitherto offered by their interpreters — symbols
and emblems being with them those conveying the idea of death,

INTRODUCTION. XXI

which last indeed has of all others furnished the richest store
of such imagery ; for thereby the human mind endeavoured to
familiarise itself with the thought of mortality, and by em
bellishing the idea tried to reconcile itself to the inevitable.
This being a topic of universal interest, to say nothing of
its very important relations to Art, my collections connected
therewith have been somewhat extensive, and embrace many
particulars neglected by Lessing in his curious es^ay entitled
* Wie die Alien den Tod gebildet.'

With respect to the illustrations of this book, many doubtless
will be surprised as well as disappointed at finding them
derived entirely from monuments of such small apparent im
portance as engraved stones ; and, thinking this part incomplete
on that account, may accuse the author of negligence in not
having had recourse to other evidences of a more public
character. But the limitation is in truth the necessary result
of the nature of the things discussed in this inquiry. Secret
Societies, especially the one whose maxim was (as Clemens
records) that truly wise one —

" Learn to know all, but keep thyself unknown ; "
erect no monuments to attract public attention. They deal but
in symbols, to be privately circulated amongst their members in
passwords known only to the illuminati ; or else they embody
their doctrines in mystic drawings, like the Ophite " Dia-
gramma " ; or upon papyri long since committed to the flames.
The man of taste, but not an antiquary, will certainly
exclaim against the rudeness of the drawing in my illustrations ;
but the truth is that, rude as they look, they in most cases
flatter their originals, the extreme barbarism of which it was
often found impossible to reproduce with any hope of leaving
the meaning recognisable. Be it remembered that

" Gratia non habitat, non hoc Cyllenius antro."

Pallas no longer, as in the earlier ages of the art, guided the
engraver's hand, but Siva and Bhavani (ill-disguised as Hermes
and Isis) suggested the designs ; or else he was inspired by the
Typhonian monsters which imagined the Genii of Astrology.
The religion of Fear, under its various manifestations, n »w

XX11 INTRODUCTION.

reigned supreme, having banished the beauteous sensuous
machinery of the old Greek Nature-worship, into which nothing
that was malignant or hideous was ever suffered to intrude.
The virtue of the talisman lay in the type it carried ; and in its
own material substance the manner of the exhibition of the
potent sigil was altogether unregarded. One of the most
learned men this University has ever produced once re
marked to me that the Gnostic theories reminded him of the
visions that float through the brain of a madman — not of a fool.
Circumstances following gave a melancholy force to this acute
and accurate distinction. Let any imaginative person read my
extracts from the " Revelation " of Marcus, with all its crazy
ingenuity in deducing the nature of the Deity from the pro
perties of numerals ; above all, his exemplification of Infinity
by the perpetual multiplication of the letters contained in other
letters making up a name — he will speedily find his brain begin
to whirl, and be reminded of similar phantoms of numerals
recurring in endless series, and the equally endless attempts to
sum them up in order to obtain repose, that fill the head when
suffering from the first approaches of fever before actual
delirium pushes memory from her seat. Or, again, when the
febrile disturbance of the brain is yet slighter, one will
sometimes awake out of a dream with a fleeting sensation of
inexpressible happiness arising from the immediate attainment
of Omniscience in virtue of something that has just been
revealed to him ; but too soon he finds that ineffable something
has fled for ever, all that is left of it being the faint recollection
that it was contained in a numeral. And one of the most striking
points in the revelation of the * Seherin von Prevorst,' so
religiously recorded by Justinus Kerner (and which proves
that all the wondrous narrative was not imposture), is her
declaration that she could see the entire history of each year as it
closed, with every event, however trifling, clear and distinct
before her mind, all comprehended within the form of a single
numeral; and her assertion upon these grounds that at the
Judgment-Day the whole past life of every man will thus be
pictured in a single moment before his mind's eye.

About half the number of the drawings for these illustra-

INTRODUCTION. XX111

tions were done by myself from the most interesting specimens
that came under my notice in the course of several years, so
that I am able to vouch for their scrupulous fidelity. After
wards, when the sudden failure of my sight prevented my
carrying on the drawings, the kindness of the then owner of
most of the originals came to my assistance and furnished the
remainder. Most of them in fact were taken from the largo
and unpublished set contained in the ancient Praun Cabinet
(formed three centuries ago), now unfortunately broken up.
The Gnostic stones, however — 73 in number — have been since
that time purchased for the British Museum, where they will be
found conveniently arranged for consultation, iri the Egyptian
Room, which contains the works in terra-cotta. This my
collection of drawings was in truth the occasion of the present
work; for after making out a detailed description of each
specimen, it became easy to put the mass of materials I had
collected for their elucidation into a form available for support
ing my explanations by showing the grounds on which they
were based : and in this way the work has grown up by gradual
accretion to its present dimensions. The theme offers so bound
less a variety of interesting subjects for research, one suggesting
another in endless succession, that it can only be compared to
Marcus' own exposition of the infinite composition of the In
effable Name (quoted above), and would alone supply materials
for a whole library of distinct treatises upon its various sub
divisions.

In those few instances where the better style of the original
deserved reproduction by a more artistic hand, I have had
recourse to the services of Mr. E. B. Utting, who has executed
the woodcuts with a spirit as well as an accuracy that leave
nothing to be desired.

PART I.
GNOSTICISM AND ITS SOURCES.

TOVTOV pc Xl'lPLV

&ioSev<rco,
fj.v(TTr]pi(i TrdvTa Stavoi^co,

/cai ra Kcupvpufva rfs ayias
TNH2IN KaXeo-as, 7rapa8a)O-co.

ifc J/2/WW, (Hippolytus, v. 10.)

Nan e pulcggio da piccola barca

Quel die fendcndo va 1' ardita prora,

Nb da nocclner ch' a sc medesmo parca."

(Dante, Farad, xxiii. 68.)

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS,

GNOSTICISM AND ITS ORIGIN.

THE general name " Gnostics " is used to designate several
widely differing sects, which sprang up in the Eastern provinces
of the Roman Empire almost simultaneou.-ly with the first
planting of Christianity. That is to say, these sects then for
the first time assumed a definite form, and ranged themselves
under different teachers, by whose names they became known
to the world, although in all probability their main doctrines had
made their appearance previously in many of the cities of Asia
Minor. There, it is probable, these sectaries first came into
definite existence under the title of " Mystae," upon the estab
lishment of a direct intercourse with India and her Buddhist
philosophers, under the Seleuciclae and the Ptolemies.

The term " Gnosticism " is derived from the Greek, Gnosis,
knowledge — a word specially employed from the first dawn of
religious inquiry to designate the science of things divine.
Thus Pythagoras, according to Diogenes Laeitius, called the
transcendental portion of his philosophy, Pvwo-ts TOJV oi/ron/, " the
knowledge of things that are." And in later times Gnosis was
the name given to what Porphyry calls the Antique or Oriental
philosophy, to distinguish it from the Grecian systems. But the
term was first used (as Matter on good grounds conjectures) in
its ultimate sense of supernal and celestial knowledge, by the
Jewish philosophers belonging to the celebrated school of that
nation, flourishing at Alexandria. These teachers, following
the example of a noted Rabbi, Aristobulus, surname d the
Pcripatician, endeavoured to make out that all the wisdom
•of the Greeks was derived immediately from the Hebrew

B 2

4 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Scripture ; and by means of their well-known mode of alle
gorical interpretation, which enabled them to elicit any sense
desired out of any given passage of the Old Testament, they
sought, and often succeeded, in establishing their theory. In
this way they showed that Plato, during his sojourn in Egypt,
had been tlieir own scholar ; and still further to support these
pretensions, the indefatigable Aristobulus produced a string of
poems in the names of Linus, Orpheus, Homer, and Ilesiod —
all strongly impregnated with the spirit of Judaism. But his
Judaism was a very different thing from the simplicity of the
Pentateuch. A single, but very characteristic, production, of this
Jewish Gnosis has come down to our times. This is the " Book
of Enoch " (v. p. 18), of which the main object is to maJcc Imown
the description of the heavenly bodies and the true names of tho
same, as revealed to tho Patriarch by the angel Uriel. This
profession betrays, of itself, the Magian source whence its
inspiration was derived. Many Jews, nevertheless, accepted it
as a divine revelation ; even the Apostle Jude scruples not to
quote it as of genuine Scriptural authority. The " Pistis-
Sophia," attributed to tho Alexandrian heresiarch Valentinus
(so important a guide in the following inquiry), perpetually
refers to it as : Tho highest source of knowledge, as being
dictated by Christ Himself, "speaking out of the Tree of Life
unto I EOT, the Primal Man." Another Jewish-Gnostic Scripture
of even greater interest, (inasmuch as it is the " Bible " of the
only professed Gnostic sect that has maintained its existence
to tho present day, the Mandaites of Bassora,) is their text
book, the " Book of Adam." Its doctrines and singular
application of Zoroastrism to Jewish tenets, present frequent
analogies to those of the Pistis-Sophia, in its continual reference
to the ideas of the " Religion of Light," of which full particulars
will be given when the latter remarkable work comes to be
considered (see p. 14). " Gnosticism," therefore, cannot receive
a better definition than in that dictum of the sect first and
specially calling itself *' Gnostics," the Naaseni (translated by
the Greeks into " Ophites "), viz., " the beginning of perfection
is the knowledge of man, but absolute perfection is the know
ledge of God." And to give a general view of the nature of

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 5

the entire system, nothing that I can do will serve so well as
to transcribe the exact words of a learned and very acute writer
upon the subject of Gnosticism (" Christian Remembrancer,"
for 1866).

"Starting, then, from this point we ask what Gnosticism
is, and what it professes to teach. What is the peculiar Gnosis
that it claims to itself? The answer is, the knowledge of God
and of Man, of the Being and Providence of the former, and of
the creation and destiny of the latter. While the ignorant and
superstitious wore degrading the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made with hands, and were changing « the truth
of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather
than the Creator/ the ancient Gnostics held purer and truer
ideas. And when these corrupted and idolatrous forms of
religion and worship became established, and were popularly
regarded as true and real in themselves, the " Gnostics " held and
secretly taught an esoteric theology of which the popular creed
of multitudes of deities, with its whole ritual of sacrifice and
worship, was but the exoteric from. Hence all the mysteries
which, almost if not all, the heathen religions possessed. Those
initiated into these mysteries, whilst they carefully maintained
and encouraged the gorgeous worship, sacrifices and processions
of the national religion, and even openly taught polytheism, and
the efficacy of the public rites, yet secretly held something
very different — at the first, probably, a purer creed, but in
course of time, like the exoteric form, degenerating. The
progress of declination differed according to race or habit of
thought : in the East it tended to superstition, in the West (as
we learn from the writings of Cicero) to pure atheism, a denial
of Providence. This system was adopted likewise by the Jews,
but with this great difference, that it was superinduced upon
and applied to a pre-existent religion; whereas in the other
Oriental .religions, the external was added to the esoteric, and
developed out of it. In the Oriental systems the external was
the sensuous expression of a hidden meaning ; in the Jewish,
the hidden meaning was drawn out of pre-existing external
laws and ritual ; in the former the esoteric alone was claimed
as divine, in the latter it was the exoteric which was a matter

6 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

of revelation. To repair this seeming defect, the Kabbalists, or
teachers of the * Hidden Doctrine,' invented the existence of a
secret tradition, orally handed down from the time of Moses.
We may, of course, reject this assertion, and affirm that the Jews
learnt the idea of a Hidden Wisdom, underlying the Mosaic
Law, from their intercourse with the Eastern nations during
the Babylonian captivity ; and we may further be assured that
the origin of this Secret Wisdom is Indian. Perhaps we shall
be more exact if we say that the Jews learnt from their inter-
Bourse with Eastern nations to investigate the external Divine
Law, for the purpose of discovering its hidden meaning.
The heathen Gnostics, in fact, collected a Gnosis from every
quarter, accepted all religious systems as partly true, and
extracted from each what harmonized with their ideas. The
Gospel, widely preached, accompanied by miracles, having new
doctrines and enunciating new truths, very naturally attracted
their attention. The Kabbalists, or Jewish Gnostics, like
Simon Magus, found a large portion of apostolic teaching in
accordance with their own, and easily grafted upon it so much
us they liked. Again the Divine power of working miracles
possessed by the Apostles and their successors naturally
attracted the interest of those whose chief mystery was the
practice of magic. Simon the Magician was considered by the
Samaritans to be ' the great Power of God ; ' he was attracted
by the miracles wrought by the Apostles; and no doubt he
sincerely ' believed,' that is, after his own fashion. His notion
of Holy Baptism was probably an initiation into a new
mystery with a higher Gnosis than he possessed before, and by
which he hoped to be endued with higher powers; and so
likewise many of those who were called Gnostic Heretics by
the Christian Fathers, were not Christians at all, only they
adopted so much of the Christian doctrine as accorded with
their system."

The consideration of the local and political circumstances of
the grand foci of Gnosticism will serve to explain much that is
puzzling in the origin and nature of the system itself. Epliesus
was, after Alexandria, the most important meeting-point of
Grecian culture and Oriental speculation. In regard to

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

commerce and riches, although she yielded to the Egyptian
capital, yet she rivalled Corinth in both, which city in truth
she far surpassed in her treasures of reli-ion and science. Her
richness in theosophic ideas and rites had from time immemorial
been manifested in her possession of Diana, "whom all Asia
and the world," worshipped— that pantheistic figure so con
formable to the genius of the furthest East; her College of
" Essenes " dedicated to the service of that goddess ; and her
" Megabyzae," whose name sufficiently declares their Magian
institution. Hence, also, was supplied the talisman of highest
repute in the antique world, the far-famed " Ephesian spell,"
those mystic words graven upon the zone and feet of the
"image that fell down from Jupiter;" and how zealously
magic was cultivated by her citizens is apparent from St.
Luke's incidental notice of the cost of the books belonging to
those that used " curious arts " (ra irepUpya, the regular names for
sorcery and divination) destroyed by their owners in the first
transports of conversion to a new faith. Such converts, indeed,
after their early zeal had cooled down, were not likely to resist
the allurements of the endeavour to reconcile their ancient,
far-famed wisdom, with the new revelation ; in short, to follow
the plan invented not long before by the Alexandrian Jew, in
his reconciliation of Plato with Moses and the Prophets.
Ephesus," says Matter, " the speculations of the Jewish-Egyptian
school, and the Semi-Persian speculations of the Kabbala, had
then recently come to swell the vast conflux of Grecian and
Asiatic doctrines; so there is no wonder that teachers should
have sprung up there, who strove to combine the religion
newly preached by the Apostle with the ideas so long estab
lished in the place. As early as the year A.D. 58, St. Paul, in
his First Epistle to Timothy, enjoins him to warn certain persons
to abstain from teaching ' strange doctrines,' those myths and
interminable genealogies that only breed division. These same
« myths and genealogies ' apply, without any doubt, to the
theory of the Emanation of the ^ons-Sephiroth, and to all the
relations between the Good and Bad Angels that the Kabbalists
had borrowed from the religion of Zoroaster."

Again, after condemning certain doctrines concerning the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

obligation to complete asceticism, adopted literally from the
Essence, the Apostle adds, " keep safe the precious charge
entrusted to thee, avoiding profane novelties and the antitheses
of the knowledge, falsely so-called, of which some making
profession have gone astray from the faith of Christ." It was
assuredly not the mere fables by which the new converts
sought to enrich and complete the Christian doctrine (such as
we still have samples of in the childish, though pious fictions
of the Apocryphal Gospels), such things as these were certainly
not the " false knowledge," which set itself up against the
" true knowledge," that is, Eevelation itself, as something
superior to that Revelation. It must, on the contrary, have
been a doctrine professing to make a science out of the Christian
faith, and that, too, a science founding its principles upon
antitheses. Now what are these " antitheses " (or, oppositions)
but the teaching of the Zendavesta, concerning the two
Empires of Light and Darkness ; the two grand classes of
Intelligences, the good and the evil spirits ; and the perpetual
combat going on between them ? Now these antitheses, or the
principle of Dualism, is that which forms the most conspicuous
feature of the Gnostic scheme ; and in the Apostle's words we
trace one of the most [obvious ways in which such doctrines
were communicated, and how they insinuated themselves into
the infant Church.

In fact the ancient commentators, Theodorot and Chrysostom,
who were thoroughly conversant with the Gnosticism of their
own day, apply this passage of St. Paul to that actual pre
cursor of Gnosticism, his indefatigable rival Simon Magus
himself, whose curious tenets had by that time been widely
diifused throughout Asia Minor.

So deeply rooted were such speculations in the minds of
many of the Ephesians, that the Apostle, in his second Epistle
to Timothy, written six years later, returns perpetually to the
subject, whilst in his Epistle to the Church at Ephesus, he
entreats his flock not to be seduced by " vain discourses," or
" new-coined appellations," (as one reading has it, and which
applies forcibly to the Gnostic nomenclature), nor by human
doctrines that have no more solidity in themselves than the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

wind, whereof no one knows whence it oometh, or whither it
gooth. Nay more, ho oven employs the very terminology of
Gnosticism, as when he says, " Ye were dead in error and in
sins : ye walked according to the 2Eon of this world, according
to the ArcJion who has the dominion of the air," that is, the
Demiurgus Ildabaoth. Hero wo have the Devs of Zoroaster,
whose hosts fill the air, deceive mankind, blind their under
standings, and lead them into temptation. Again when ho
adds, "Wo war not against flesh and blood, but against the
Dominions, the Powers, the Lords of the Darkness, the malevolence
of the Spirits in the upper regions"— all these are regular Gnostic
epithets, having also their place in the Kabbali.stic theology.
The later Gnosticism is, in fact, as Chiflet has well expressed it,
"the spirit of Asiatic antiquity seeking to assert its empire
over the soul of Man by insinuating itself into the Christian
Church." The Ophites, even in the early times of Ilippolytus,
boasted that they of all men were the only real Christians,
because they alone comprehended the real nature of the Saviour.
At the same time, they diligently attended the celebration of
all the ancient Mysteries, notably the Eleusinian and the
Phrygian, declaring that through their Jcnoivledge they had
gotten the key to the hidden meaning of the whole ceremonial,
which by types and figures foreshadowed the coming of the
Christ. But indeed, Gnosticism, in its primitive form, had
almost supplanted, by spiritualizing it, the beautiful materialism
of the early Greek and Latin mythologies. Catholicism,
through its unity and greater simplicity, in the end tiiumphed
over the conflicting Gnostic philosophies, which became extinct
as a professed religion in the sixth century, so far as Europe was
concerned, and whose relics in Asia were at the same moment
covered over with impenetrable obscurity by the sudden deluge
of the Mahommedan conquest. Nevertheless, even in the first-
named scene of its domination, it was not to be eradicated with
out leaving behind it deep traces in the writings and symbolisms
of the magicians, astrologers, and seekers after the grand arcanum
throughout the whole course of the Middle Ages. Thus there is a
passage in Dante (Paradiso, xviii.) replete with the profoundest
symbolism, and which, of course, our Freemasons claim for their

10 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

own, and that with all possible security, because the very nature
of the assumption exempts them from being called upon to publish
the interpretation of the mystery. The poet here tells how the
five times seven letters making up the five words " Diligito
justitiam qui judicatis terrain " came forth in the star Jupiter,
when the beatified spirits of just princes hovered over the final
M, forming their hosts into the figure of an eagle. Certainly
the importance given to the numerals five and seven in this
revelation savours much of Gnostic phraseology, and reminds
one of the thiity letters which make up the quadrisyllable
Name of God, as made known by Truth unto the heresiarch
Marcus, the history of which shall be given in the fitting place.
Dante had before (Canto vi.) spoken of the " awe that over
comes him before the B and I C E," evidently the initials
of some mighty password, although his commentators most
prosaically interpret them as the mere diminutive of the name
of his lost love, Beatrice. It was to its connection with Gnosticism
that primitive Christianity owed the accusation of being a
Magical system — a superstition not only nova but malefica.
There is a curious passage in Dio Cassius, where, mentioning
how the Christian Legion in M. Aurelius' Quadian War obtained
rain from Heaven through their prayers, he remarks, " the
Christians can bring about anything they desire through
prayer." In later times the various factions within the Church
were fond of retorting upon each other this ancient aspersion of
the pagans: it was on the charge of magical practices, says
Ammianus, that the Arians managed to depose and exile the
great Athaiiasius himself.

The history of Gnosticism, written by its contemporaries, still
forms a copious library, despite the losses and damages it has
sustained through the injuries of time. In the carrying out of
the chief object of the present work — the elucidation of the
tangible remains of the Gnosis — no historical record has yielded
me by any means so much service as " The Eefutation of all
Heresies," composed by Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia (Portus),
early in the third century. Many points, hitherto seeming
hopelessly enveloped in darkness, have been made clear by
the careful perusal of his judicious summaries of the systems

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 11

of the different gnostic apostles. His views of their doctrines
are evidently drawn up with equal candour and intelligence,
and fully bear out his declaration, " that his design was not to
vilify the holders of such doctrines, but merely to make known
the sources whence they had really derived their pretended
revelation." And he keeps his word throughout, never once
indulging, like the later controversialists, in invectives against
asserted practices, but exhibiting the tenets only of his opponents,
and, with much ingenuity, showing up their gross plagiarism
from Pagan philosophy. His eagerness for discovering the
latter source in the fount ©f every gnostic stream, sometimes
leads him to detect relationship that does not actually exist, and
still oftener to pronounce a recent copy of the other what was in
reality drawn directly from the same Oriental prototype — true
origin of the old Greek idea with which he identifies it. But
this invaluable, as well as most interesting, treatise breathes
all through that spirit of charity and forbearance that made a
writer belonging to a still persecuted religion, happy to be
allowed to subsist through the tolerance of its neighbours.
The abuse and scurrilous tales in which the later Epiphanius
revels sufficiently indicate the writer belonging to an established
Church, able at length to call in the secular power to assist in
convincing all adversaries of their errors by the unanswerable
arguments of rack, rope and faggot.

Ircnacus, a Gaul by birth, and disciple of Poly carp, himself a
disciple of St. John, was elected Bishop of Lyon in the year
174. In that city he composed his great treatise generally
styled " Five Books against Heresies," written in an easy, and
indeed elegant style, although in one place he excuses its rude
ness by the fact of his having been forced during so many years
to converse " in a barbarous language " — a remark of interest
as showing that Celtic still remained the vulgar tongue in his
diocese. He is supposed to have died soon after the year A.D. 200 ;
and therefore is somewhat earlier than Hippolytus, who was
put to death in A.D. 222, and whose " Eefut ition " was clearly
written after the death of Irenasus, for he quotes him occasionally
by the title 6 paKtipios, " the deceased " ; and has incorporated
some entire chapters respecting Marcus in his own work.

12 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

The great Origen, another contemporary, has given some
important details concerning the religious systems of the
Ophites in his celebrated " Reply to Celsus." Two centuries
after him comes Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus, in Syria, during
the second quarter of the fifth century, who has left very full
particulars respecting the great Gnostic school flourishing in
that region. The other Christian writers who have treated
upon the origin and nature of the same doctrines were nothing
more than ignorant churchmen, able to discern nothing in any
religion beyond its external forms, and which they construed in
the darkest possible sense, ever seeking for the worst interpre
tation of which these external appearances were susceptible.
At the head of this latter class stands Epiphanius, author of the
most detailed, and, from its furious partisanship, amusing account
of the Gnostic sects that is extant — his vast Panarion, " Bread
basket," or rather, " Scrap-basket," a whimsical title intended to
express the motly nature of its contents, picked up from all
quarters. This immense folio (admirably translated into elegant
Latin by the learned Petavius) is of the highest interest, full of
pictures of the struggles of the human mind to devise for itself
a revelation that shall plausibly solve all the problems of Man's
other nature. Its compiler lived as Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus
A.IV 367-403, and displays great zeal in raking up all manner
of scandalous stories against the enemies of his adoptive Church.
But there is one thing that gives immense value to his labours,
the minute account given of Manichasism — that latest and
grandest development of the gnosis, which had come into
existence in the interval between Epiphanius and Hippolytus.

The rule observed by all these later historians of Gnosticism is
to represent it as a mere spurious offshoot and corruption of
Christianity; invented, usually out of disappointed ambition,
by apostates from the true faith established by the several
apostles in the Eastern provinces of the Empire — a mode of
representing the system than which nothing can be more un
founded. For in its earliest shape, such as it shows itself in
the doctrine of Simon Magus, or of Basilides, the heaven-sent
knowledge merely added upon the old foundations such articles
and terms of the Christian faith as seemed capable of being

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

13

assimilated to and combined therewith, whilst on the other
hand she availed herself of the machinery of the older paganism,
to elucidate and prove the mysteries of the now theosophy ; and
this was conspicuously the character of the systems of Justinus,
and of the Poratae; as the very curious extracts given by
Ilippolytus from their text-books exhibit to the astonishment of
the modern reader. That sagacious controversialist was right
in calling all these heresies nothing better than the old philo
sophies disguised under now names ; his only error lay in not
going back far enough to find their ultimate source. Basilides,
for example, never professed Christianity (in fact, Tortulliaii calls
him a Platonist), but ho suporadded upon the esoteric doctrines
of the Egyptian priesthood the newly-imported notions of
Buddhism— that probable source of so much that is strange in
the Gnosis. The introduction of the religion of Buddha into
Egypt and Palestine, a fact only recently discovered, yet sub
stantiated by strong monumental testimony, affords the best
solution for innumerable difficulties in the history of religion ;
but the circumstances relating to this very important question
must bo reserved for a separate chapter.

As for the actual TEXT-BOOKS of the Gnostics, which in their
day formed so immense a library (every founder of a sect being,
as if by obligation, a most prolific writer, as Ilippolytus shows
by the number of works ho quotes), hunted up aud carefully
destroyed by the victorious orthodox, never perpetuated by
transcripts after the sectaries became extinct, all have perished,
leaving one sole specimen to attest their nature. But this
survivor is of a character so wild and wondrous, that had fortune
left it to our choice we could not have preserved a more
characteristic representative of its class. This is the Piatis-
Sophia, " Faith-Wisdom," a work to be perpetually quoted in
the following pages, as it throws more light {upon the actual
monuments of Gnosticism than could hitherto be collected from
all the other writers ou the subject put together. On this
account a brief summary of its contents will be the best
introduction to our inquiry into the nature of the system.

14 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

PISTIS-SOPHIA.

This treatise, ascribed to Valentinus (I know not on what
authority) was discovered by Schwartze in a Coptic MS.
preserved in the British Museum. He transcribed the Coptic
text and translated it into Latin ; both texts and version were
published by Petermann in the year 1853. The original is
copiously interspersed with Greek words and phrases ; in fact,
the Coptic was evidently so poor a language as to have no terms
of its own to express any but the most materialistic ideas. The
matter of its professed revelation is set forth also with endless
repetitions, bespeaking a language destitute of relative pronouns,
of conjunctions, and of all the other grammatical refinements
necessary for the clear and concise expression of thought.*

The authorship of this record is assigned by itself in several
places to Philip the Apostle, whom the Saviour bids to sit down
and write these things ! This circumstance made me at first
conclude it to be the lost Gospel of Philip quoted by Epiphanius,
but the particular anecdote adduced by him from that gospel is
not to be discovered anywhere in this. But as the original is
full of wide lacunae, which often fall in very interesting places,
as if purposely defaced to escape the eyes of the profane, such
an omission is not altogether conclusive against the identity of
the two.

The nature of the book may be briefly sketched as follows.
It professes to be a record of the higher teaching of the Saviour
communicated to his disciples during the eleven years he passed
with them on earth after his crucifixion, and when he had
returned from his ascension into Heaven. This ascension had
been made from the Mount of Olives, where he received from on
high two shining vestures inscribed with five mystic words (§ 16),
and the names of all the powers whose domains he had to
traverse. He thus (as he relates to the disciples) passes through
the gate of the Firmament, the Sphere of Fate, and the regions

* It is intended to issue an English translation as a supplement to the
present work.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 15

of the Twelve Great TEons, all of whom in succession are terror-
smitten, and fall down before him and sing hymns of praise.
On arriving at the thirteenth aeon, he finds seated below and
weeping the excluded Power Pistis-Sophia,* who gives her name
to the revelation. She, having once caught a glimpse of the
Supreme Light, was seized with a desire to fly upwards into it :
but Adamas, the ruler of her proper place, being enraged at this
act of rebellion against himself, caused a false light, a veritable
ignis fatuus, to shine upon the waters of the subjacent chaos
which lured down the hapless aspirant, and she was inextricably
immersed in the abyss, and beset by the spirits thereof, all
eager to deprive her of her native light. This doctrine of the
admixture of light, derived from the Treasure of Light, with
matter, its imprisonment therein, and its extraction and recovery
by the appointed " Receivers of the Light " is the pervading idea
of this revelation, to a greater extent even than in the Ophite
scheme. As part of the same notion comes the frequent allusion to
the Kepcur/Aos or chaotic commixture of Light and Matter, to
reorganise which is the special object of the Saviour's descent
from above.

At least one half of the book is taken up with the account
of the successive steps by which she ascends through all the
Twelve .ZEons by the Saviour's aid, and the confession she sings
at each stage of her deliverance out of chaos. Each confession
is proposed by Jesus to a disciple for explanation, and is
referred to some psalm or other prophecy containing parallel
sentiments; this concordance being occasionally made out with
considerable ingenuity. A remarkable peculiarity is that all
throughout Mary Magdalene is the chief speaker, and the most
highly commended for her spiritual knowledge, though once
she is sharply rebuked by Peter for her presumption in thus
perpetually putting herself forward unbidden— and not giving
the men a chance to speak. After Pistis-Sophia has thus
regained her lost position, the most valuable portion of the

* This banishment of Sophia from assigns a different reason for her

the society of the other ^Eons is the degradation, as in the system of

grand turning-point of the principal Valentinus, and also that of the later

Gnostic schemes, although each Ophites.

16 THE GNOSTIOB AND THEIR REMAINS.

exposition of doctrines commences. The Magdalene asks the
great question as to the final cause of Sin (§ 281), to which Jesus
returns a long and minute description of the composition of the
soul of man, which is fourfold, the divine spark therein (a
particle of the Light yet entangled in the Kepaoyxos) being
encased in a three-fold envelope formed out of the effluvia of the
rebellious ^Eons, the tendency of which is to keep it in subjection
to the passions, and to themselves, so that when separated from
the body it may not bo able to escape out of their domains, " the
regions of mid-space " here represented as places of pain. These
.ZEons are elsewhere identified with the signs of the Zodiac. Next
comes a detailed account of the Kulers of the regions of torment
(§ 320), of their authentic forms, a crocodile, a bear, a cat, a dog, a
serpent, a black bull, &c., and of their authentic names ; these last
are not Semitic, but either Coptic or belong, judging from their
terminations, to the mystic language generally used upon the
Gnostic stones. After this wo have the several punishments
appointed for the various sins of mankind, and the exact number
of years and even of days required for the expiation of each in
its proper dungeon (ra/xetov). These places of torment are all
enclosed within the Dragon of Outward Darkness. It is worthy
of remark that the serpent, whenever introduced, is a thing
of evil — a sure indication that the book is under the
influence of the Kabbala. The same conclusion is doducible
from the malignity pervading the entire dispensation which it
pictures; and the evident delight it takes in creating and
parcelling out the various punishments, of which heretics
naturally get the largest share. The philosophic Gnostic
schemes have no severer penalty for those who do not listen to
them than the want of Knowledge, and the subjection to Matter.
After purgation in these prisons the souls are put into new
bodies, and begin a new probation upon earth.

The judge of souls is the Virgin of Light, attended by her
seven hand-maids. Certain sins, but few in number, are
punished by annihilation, and admit of neither expiation nor
atonement. But for all the rest instant remission is procurable,
it' the friends of the deceased celebrate on his behalf the
" Mystery (or, Sacrament) of the Ineffable One." This must be

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 17

the very earliest notice extant of the belief in the efficacy of
the offering up of a sacrament for the redemption of souls,
There is a singular provision made for the salvation of a per
fectly righteous man, but who in his life-time has not enjoyed
the opportunity of being converted. The angels take his
departed soul, and carry it through all the realms of punishment
with the utmost rapidity, and then conduct him before the
Virgin of Light, who clothes it in a new body to recommence
its earthly career, to obtain there the advantage of the mysteries
and so become an heir of Light. The nature of the particular
Mystery, so perpetually alluded to in this work, is in no place
explained ; it is, however, the highest of the Four and Twenty :
for such is the number of the Mysteries here mentioned, one for
each of the grades in its celestial hierarchy, for the Five Marks,
for the Seven Vowels, for the Five Trees and for the Seven Amcns.
Throughout are interspersed frequent allusions to the seals,
and the numbers of the Mysteries, courses, and divine personages,
borrowed partly from the usages of the Temple, partly from those
of the old Egyptian worship. They are repeated and involved
in a multitudinous, inextricable sequence, that to one not having
the key thereto belonging, strongly calls to mind the numerical
vagaries that flit before the mind when slightly delirious : and
which even the plodding German editor confesses, in his preface,
often made his brain whirl as he attempted to transcribe them.
Lastly comes a long fragment (§ 358), headed " a Portion of the
Prayers of Jesus," which tells more directly upon the subject of
these researches than anything that has fallen in my way.
The Saviour, attended by his disciples, standing sometimes on
a mountain, sometimes by the sea, and sometimes in mid-air,
addresses prayers to the Father, prefaced with long formulae of
the same character, and often in the same words, as those
covering the more important Gnostic monuments. Some of
these opening invocations are expounded, and seemingly
paraphrased, in the prayers following them, though not in a
very satisfactory manner. Also Jesus celebrates, with many
singular formalities, a sacrifice of wine and water, which, there
is reason to believe, is the grand Mystery or Sacrament so often
lauded in the foregoing chapters. The whole closes with a

c

18 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

long exposition by him of the influence of the ^ons of the
Zodiac upon the soul of the infant born under each, and of the
fortunate or malign intervention of the planets in such cases.
Of the latter the sacred names are communicated apparently as
used by the Magi. A few Egyptian deities, eg. Bubastes and
Typhon, are named here, and the Syrian Barbelo is frequently
introduced, as a personage of the very highest importance, being
no less than the lieavenhj mother of the Saviour himself. His
earthly Mother is indeed represented as attending at these
revelations, but she plays a very secondary part therein to the
Magdalene and even to Salome. The last thing to be noticed in
this most remarkable fruit of a crazy, mystic imagination — it is
bard to say whether more Kabbalist, or Magian, or Christian — is
the opposed dualism of many of the Powers introduced as agents
in the economy of the universe : for example, there is an
obedient and a rebellious Adamas (that highest name with the
earlier Naaseni), a great and a little Sabaoth, and similar
antitheses to be met with also in the later Ophite schemes.

THE BOOK OF ENOCH.

This most ancient (as it professes) of the Hebrew Scriptures
being so frequently referred to as the highest authority by the
./Eon Pistis-Sophia, a brief summary of its doctrine seems to
form the necessary complement to the preceding section. The
Book of Enoch, though often quoted by the Fathers, had been
lost ever since the eighth century (with the exception of a few
chapters of a Greek version preserved by Georgius Syncellus),
until Bruce brought back three copies of it from Abyssinia. In
the canon of that Church it takes its place in the Old Testament
immediately before the Book of Job.*

* An English translation was The best German translation is that

made by Dr. Lawrence, Bishop of of Dillmann, 1857. Cf. Schodtle

Cashel, of which the third edition, 7?oofc of Enoch, 1882.
with notes, was published in 1837.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

This book is divided into ninety chapters, and begins with
the preface : " In the Name of God, the merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and of great mercy, and holiness. This Book is
the Book of Enoch the prophet. May blessing and help bo
with him who loves Him, for ever and ever. Amen. Chapter I.
This word is the blessing of Enoch with which ho blessed the
chosen and the righteous that were of old. And Enoch lifted
up his voice and spoke, a holy man of God, while his eyes wcro
open, and he saw a holy vision in the heavens, which the angels
revealed to him. And I heard from them everything, and I
understood what I saw." After this follows the history of the
angels, of their having descended from heaven, and produced
giants with the daughters of men ; of their having instructed
them in the arts of war, and peace, and luxury. The names of
the leading angels are mentioned, which appear to be of Hebrew
origin, but corrupted by Greek pronunciation. The resolution
of God to destroy these is then revealed to Enoch. These
topics occupy about eighteen chapters. From the eighteenth
to the fiftieth chapter Enoch is led by the angels Uriel and
Kaphael through a series of visions not much connected with
the preceding. He saw the Burning Valley of the fallen
angels, the Paradise of the saints, the utmost ends of the earth,
the treasuries of the thunder and lightning, winds, rain, dew
and the angels who presided over these. He was led into the
place of the General Judgment, saw the Ancient of Days on his
throne, and all the kings of the earth before him. At the fifty-
second chapter, Noah is said to have been alarmed at the
enormous wickedness of mankind, and, fearing vengeance, to
have implored the advice of his great-grandfather. Enoch told
him that a flood of water should destroy the whole race of man,
and a flood of fire punish the angels whom the deluge could
not affect. In Chapter L1X. the subject of the angels is re
sumed, Semeiza, Artukaru, Arimeoii, Kakabael, Tusael, Kamiel,
Damdal, and others to the number of twenty, appear at the head
of the fallen spirits, and give fresh instances of their rebellious
dispositions. At Chapter LXII. Enoch gives his son Methuselah
a long account of the sun, moon, stars, the year, the months,
the winds, and the like physical phenomena. This takes up

c 2

20

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

eight chapters, after which the Patriarch makes a recapitulation
of the former pages. The remaining twenty chapters are
employed on the history of the Deluge, Noah's preparations for
it, and the success which attended them. The destruction of
all flesh excepting his family, and the execution of divine
vengeance on the angels, conclude the work.

Fio. 1.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 21

GNOSTICISM IN ITS BEGINNING.

To begin with the received account of the RISE AND PROGRESS
of the Gnostic philosophy, for that is its proper appellation,
heresy being properly restricted to differences of opinion between
members of one regularly established community, we find
that as early as the year A.D. 35, the Samaritans were regarding
Simon Magus, as " the Great Power of God," and he and his
disciple Cerinthus, are represented by the Christian Fathers as
the actual founders of Gnosticism, under that accepted name.

Of the former, Hippolytus gives a history which there is no
reason for not accepting as correct in the main particulars. He
was a native of Gitteh, in the province of Samaria, and com
menced his career, and soon acquired great influence amongst
his countrymen, by practising magic after the " Thrasymedian
method " (i.e. jugglery, as previously described by Hippolytus),
nay more, by working miracles " through the agency of devils."
Having fallen in love with a beautiful courtezan at Tyre, rue
bought her from her owner, and always carried her about with
him, declaring that she was the " Intelligence " (vEi/vota) that of
old was imprisoned in the body of the Grecian Helen, then of the
Lost Sheep, but now was restored to him for the salvation of the
world. Even before the preaching of Christianity he had set
up for a teacher of a new religion, plagiarised from Moses and
Heraclitus the " Obscure," based upon the axiom that Fire was
the First Principle of all things, subordinate to which were the
" Six Radicals " : a curiously compounded mixture of Judaism
and Magism, of which Hippolytus gives a full though not very
intelligible summary. " This Simon, after he had ransomed
Helen, granted salvation unto men by means of his own know
ledge. For inasmuch as the angels had governed the world ill
by reason of their own ambitiousness, he pretended that he was
come to set all things right ; and having changed his form and
made himself like to the Principalities, the Powers, and the

22 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Angels, wherefore it was that he showed himself in the form of
man although not a man at all, and had suffered the Passion in
Juda3a, although he had not really suffered it; moreover, that
lie had manifested himself to the Jews as the Son, in Samaria
as the Father, and amongst the Gentiles in other parts as the
Holy Ghost; but he submitted to be called by whatsoever
name they pleased. The Prophets were inspired by the Angels,
creators of the world, when they delivered their prophecies ; on
which account they that believe in Simon and Helen pay no
regard to them (the Prophets) even in our times : and they do
whatever they please, pretending that they are redeemed
through his grace." ..." Now this same Simon, when he was
by his magic arts deceiving many in Samaria, was confuted by
the Apo-stles, and having been cursed by them, he afterwards
fell from his reputation and invented these fables. At last,
having travelled to Rome, ho again ran against the Apostles,
and Peter had many encounters with him when he was seducing
'multitudes through his magical practices. Finally, having gone
into the land of Persia, ho took up his abode under a plane-tree,
mid there preached his doctrine. But at last, when he was on
the point of being convicted for an impostor, in consequence of
his making too long a stay in the same place, he gave out that,
if he were buried alive, he would rise again on the third day.
And iti truth, having caused a pit to be dug by his disciples
lie commanded himself to be covered over with earth. They
therefore did what he commanded them, but he never came
back unto this day, inasmuch as he was not a Christ. Now this
is the story told concerning Simon, from whom Valentinus
borrowed his first ideas, but called them by different names.
For ' Mind,' and ' Truth,' and ' the Word,' and * Life,' and ' the
( 'liurcli,' and * Man,' the ^Eons of Valentinus, are confessedly
the Six Radicals of Simon, namely, * Mind, Intelligence, Voice,
Name, Eeason, and Thought.' "

But to go on with the series of teachers — this counter-
apostolical succession — Simon was followed by Menander, he by
Basilides at Alexandria, who, dying about A.D. 138, was replaced
by Valentinus, born of Jewish parentage in the same city. This
last is styled by Ireneeus " Chief of the Gnostics," on account

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. "23

of the importance and wide diffusion of his doctrines even
during his own lifetime. In Syria other sects were being
founded contemporaneously with these, taking their names
from Marcion and Bardesanes, both of whom tradition represents
as Persians by origin, and consequently Magians by religious
training. The latter is by some called a native of Pontus, a
circumstance, however, making no difference as to the source
of his opinions, that region being confessedly the seat of
Mithraicism, and ruled over by a line claiming descent from
the first Darius, or a satrap of his. It is needless to enumerate
here the founders of less important sects, until we come to the
uprising of Manes, author of the most daring and most
permanent theosophy of them all, which fought twice over
so long and obstinate a battle with the Catholic faith. This
sect, its origin, and tenets, on account of the curiosity of its
doctrines, and the immense influence that they exerted over the
ancient and mediaeval world, will be considered at length in
another chapter ; as will also the Opliites whose name figures
so conspicuously in the history of the primitive Church.

What has been mentioned above with respect to the countries
producing the founders of all these sects — Egypt, Syria, or
Persia — leads us to expect to find one common principle
pervading the systems of all, and such is most probably the
case. The fundamental doctrine held in common by all the
chiefs of the Gnosis was, that the whole creation was not the
work of the Supreme Deity, but of the Demiurgus, a simple
Emanation, and several degrees removed from the highest power.
To the latter, indeed, styled by them the " Unknown Father "
(or as Simon first designated him " The Boundless Power," and
" The Root of all Things"), they attributed the creation of the
intellectual world — that is, the Intelligences, the ^Eons, and the
Angels — whilst, to the Demiurgus they referred the creation of
the World of Matter, subject to imperfection from its very nature.
But in order clearly to understand the grand principles under
lying these doctrines, it is absolutely necessary to possess the
main features of the older systems from which these same
doctrines were principally borrowed ; these systems being that
of the Zendavesta, of the Kabbala (which is little more than a

24 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

translation of the same), and of the reformed Brahminical
religion as taught by the Buddhist missionaries in the
dominions of the Syro-Macedonians, or picked up in India
by Alexandrian merchants visiting the emporia of Guzerat
for the sake of trade.

Although to express their ideas visibly upon their monuments
(the elucidation of which is the special object of this treatise)
the Gnostics largely borrowed the images and symbols of the
ancient Egyptian mythology (especially those connected with
the Agathodaemon, the Solar god lao, and the guide of souls,
the jackal-headed Anubis), yet these figures were employed in a
new sense, unless indeed we suppose (what is probable enough)
that their esoteric meaning had been from the very beginning
similar to that published by the teachers of the new faith.
This last explanation was in fact the perpetual boast of
Valeiitinus, and runs through every article of his theosophy as
we read it in the interesting summary given by Hippolytus ;
and again, it must never be forgotten, for it is the key to many
of the seeming contradictions in the different systems about to
be passed in review, that Greek and Jew carried with them
their ancient quarrel into the new field of the Gnosis. The
former exalts the Bacchic Serpent, whilst he makes Sabaoth little
bettor than a demon; the latter continues to abominate the
Serpent as the impersonation of Satan, but his Sabaoth is the
" Great and Good " (as Pistis-Sophia perpetually entitles him),
the defender of the believer's soul against the malignant " JEons
of the Sphere," and the influence of Judaism radiating from its
second focus, the school of Alexandria, was so much more
powerful than ordinary readers of history have ever suspected,
that a few remarks upon this very curious subject will form a
useful introduction to our consideration of its later philosophy.

INFLUENCE OF JUDAISM ON THE ANCIENT WOKLD.

People in these times are still so influenced by the ideas
engendered by the fifteen centuries of ecclesiastical regime, during
which hatred and contempt for the Jewish race formed an

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 25

important Christian virtue, that they entirely overlook the
influence exercised by Judaism over the minds of the heathen
world so long as the Temple stood, and the national worship was
celebrated there in all its glory. When the Komans, by their
conquest of Syria, and soon after of Egypt, came into direct
contact with the Jewish nation, although they disliked them
individually, yet they conceived an intense admiration for their
ancient, mysterious, and solemn worship. But, in fact, every
institution, hallowed by the stamp of antiquity, immediately
commanded the respect of the genuine old Roman. The
Emperors lost no time in gaining a new patron, of mighty and
undefined power, in Jehovali, by instituting a daily sacrifice to
be ever offered at their own cost on behalf of themselves and
empire. The discontinuance of this sacrifice, by the faction of
the Zealots which had taken possession of the Temple, is noted
by Josephus as the consummating act of the great revolt and
attempt to re-establish independence, which brought down final
destruction upon Zion. To give a few examples of the hold
Judaism had taken upon the imaginations of the highest classes
in Rome, whence its vastly magnified power over the minds of
the vulgar, may be calculated according to the well-known rule
of proportion in such matters. To mark Augustus' freedom
from superstition, Suetonius quotes the circumstance of his
highly commending the conduct of his grandson Caius, his heir
apparent, because — during his visit to Egypt and Palestine — he
had forborne to visit Apis in the one and the Temple in the
other country. Putting the two religions in this way upon an
equality, of itself demonstrates the high place then held by
the Jewish in popular estimation ; for by that time the
Egyptian, as the chapter upon the Serapis-worship will show,
had to a great extent superseded the worship of the national
deities of Koine. Fuscus Aristius, a friend of Horace's, and
therefore to be supposed a person of consequence and of
education, makes it his excuse for not attending to a business-
matter, that the day happened to be the Sabbath, and that " ho
was a little superstitious, like many others."

The influence and numbers of the Jews actually residing at
Rome under the Republic is strikingly exhibited by some

2(J THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

observations of Cicero in his oration in defence of Flaccus.
Flaccus, when commanding in Asia, had prohibited the sending
of money to Jerusalem. This money can only mean the tribute
paid by each adult Jew to the Temple, of half a shekel, or two
drachmas a head. Flaccus seized the money that had been
collected for the purpose in defiance of his edict, amounting at
Apamea to nearly one hundred pounds weight of gold, at
Laodicea to twenty. The only gold piece of the age being the
stater, current for twenty-five drachma3, and of the weight of fifty
to the pound, these collections would give us fifty thousand
tribute-payers at the former city, and ten thousand at the other.
The orator considers this " auri Judaici invidia " so damaging
to his cause, that he explains the circumstances in a whisper to
the jurymen, in order not to excite the indignation of the Jews
amongst his audience. He actually declares that Flaccus's
enemies had managed that his cause should be tried in that
particular court in order to have the aid of the Jews domiciled
in that quarter of Koine, to intimidate the jury, and so gain a
verdict against him. " Sequitur auri ilia invidia Judaici. Hoc
niinirum est illud, quod non longe a gradibus Aureliis ha3C causa
dicitur. Ob hoc crirnen hie locus abs te, Laoli, atque ilia turba
quaisita est. Scis quanta sit rnanus, quanta concordia, quantum
valeat in concionibus. Submissa voce agani, tantum ut judices
audiant. Neque enim desunt qui istos in me atque in optimum
quemque inciteiit, quos ego quo id facilius faciant non adjuvabo."
(Chapter XXYIII.) And what is still more surprising this
influence continued to work even after the fall of Jerusalem,
and the extinction of the people as a nation. Spartianus mentions
that Severus in his tour of investigation throughout Asia, when
he forbade people to turn Christians, extended the same inter
dict to the Jewish religion also. Again, to show the natural
good-heartedness of Caracalla, he instances his indignation on
account of the severe flogging which a boy, his playfellow, had
received from his father, with the emperor's approbation, on the
score of his Judaising. The circumstances of the friendship
point out that the boy thus made a " confessor " must have
belonged to one of the best families of Rome. Such a position
yet retained by the religion of Abraham is uluio»t inconceivable

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 27

at that late period, when it had, besides the vigorous and ever-
increasing growth of Christianity, to contend with the varieties
of the Gnosis which suited themselves to every taste, and in many
instances had sprung immediately out of herself (not out of her
hated daughter and rival), and by their union with heathen
philosophy, were naturally more attractive to the Gentiles than
the original parent. Even at the time when one would have
expected the prejudice against anything belonging to that
nation to have been the most violent amongst the Romans, we
find Vespasian, the actual destroyer of their national existence,
erecting a statue in the most honourable of all situations, to
an Alexandrian Jew, Tiberius, who had assisted him in his
attempt to gain the empire, in some manner not recorded, but
possibly in his capacity of the Rothschild of the age by an
opportune loan. It is true that Juvenal cannot repress his
indignation of all this prostitution to a foreigner of an honour
before confined to the most eminent of his countrymen, and
hints it to bo the duty of every true Roman to express his sense
of the injury by committing nuisances under the very nose of
the statue.

" Atqiie triumphales, inter quos ausus habere
Nescio quis titulos yEgyptius atquc Alabarchcs,
Cujus ad effigicin non tantum meicrc fas cst." — I. 130.

In the third century we find the model emperor, Severus
Alexander, setting up the image of Abraham by the side of
Christ and Orpheus, all considered as the divinely-inspired
founders of the several schools of mystery (or to go to the
probable root of the belief, as so many different Buddlias), in
the most holy recess of his domestic chapel. A little research
amongst the annals of the later emperors would no doubt,
furnish many other examples of the hold taken by various
particulars of the Jewish creed, in its Babylonian and
Alexandrian phases, upon the religious notions of the Romans
The fact is easily accounted for, when men's ideas upon the
nature of the soul, of God's Government, and of a future state,
are entirely vague, as were those of the educated heathen of
those times, when (old traditions being discarded as mere
unsatisfying poetical fables) they attempted to build up systems

28 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

that should explain every difficulty by the help of reason and
philosophy alone, although destitute of any solid grounds upon
which to lay the first foundation of the fabric. Things being
in this state, a religion venerable by its antiquity (itself an
impenetrable shield against the shafts of infidelity, as even
Tacitus concedes: "Hi ritus, quoquo modo inducti, antiquitate
defenduntur " Hist. v. 5), possessing a complete system that solved
every problem by a professedly divine revelation, totally setting
itself above reason and human experience, but proclaiming un
questioning credence as the most meritorious of virtues, such a
religion could not but gain the victory over its disorderly and
discordant competitors, which had nothing but arguments
deduced from probabilities and analogies wherewith to oppose
it. The same contest we behold passing under our own eyes ;
Roman Catholicism with its doctrines overthrown, exploded,
rejected by reason, learning, and philosophy, for the space of
three centuries, is again rapidly bringing back into her fold her
lost sheep, which, having wandered through the tempting ways
of Protestantism, and of philosophy or infidelity, however people
choose to call it, and unable to discover any reason that will bear
the test for standing fast at any ultimate point as the absolute
truth, at last return weary and disappointed to whence they
started, and find it conducive to peace of mind to accept assertion
for demonstration, and the age of a tenet as equivalent to its
truth.

There is yet another consideration that is of great importance
in the present inquiry, which is the close affinity between the
Judaism of this period and Magism, the extent of which will
be pointed out in the following sections when we come to speak
of the Talmud. Remembering how much of the machinery of
the one was borrowed from the other, there is little cause for
astonishment at discovering that what are generally considered
peculiarly Jewish titles of Deity upon relics, may rather be
attributed to a Magian source.

The three circumstances thus briefly adduced — namely, the
direct influence of the religion of Zion as a " mystery " of the
most venerable antiquity, vying with those of Egypt and of
Babylon ; its subsequent indirect influence through its offshoots

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 29

(which left its visible impress upon things tangible) ; the
virtue of its connection with the creed of the Magi, the secret
priesthood, or rather, freemasons of the ancient world; these
are the things solving the difficulty that must have struck any
inquiring mind when beginning to study the so-called Gnostic
remains. From the foregoing considerations, at least a plausible
reason may bo gathered for the fact of the Hebrew names of the
Deity, and of his angels, and of the patriarchs, so perpetually
being repeated on works presenting the figures of genii and
of astral spirits— forms of idol-monsters the most repugnant,
one would have thought, to the feelings of the worshippers of
those sacred names, profaned by such union ; and imagery, from
beholding which the true follower of Moses must certainly have
recoiled in horror.

THE ZENDA VESTA.

The Zendavesta, literally " text and comment," is the doctrine
of Zoroaster (Zaratltmstra), comprised in eight parts, written at
different periods, but of which the earliest have been assigned to
the date of B.C. 1200-1000. In its present form it was collected
by Ardeshir, the founder of the Sassanian dynasty, from oral
tradition, at the time when he re-established the ancient religion
of Persia.

In this revelation the Supreme Being is called "Boundless
Time " (Zarvana Akarana\ because to him no beginning can be
assigned; he is so surrounded by his own glory, and so far
exalted beyond all human comprehension, that he can only be
the object of silent veneration. The beginning of creation was
made by means of Emanations. The first emanation of the
Eternal One was Light, whence issued Ormuzd (Ahuramazda), the
King of Light. Ormuzd is styled the Firstborn of Boundless
Time ; and the " Fcrouer " of him, or Pre-existing Soul (type
or idea in Platonic phrase), had existed from all eternity within
the primitive Light. By means of his "Word," Ormuzd
created the pure world of which he is the preserver and the

30 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

judge. Next, he created in his own image the six Amshaspands,
who stand about his throne, and are his agents with the lower
spirits, and with mankind, whose prayers they offer up to him,
and to whom they serve for models of perfection. These Am-
shaspands, of whom Ormuzd is the first, thus making up the
mystic number seven, are of both sexes, and the Gnostics
adopted them, as we shall see further on, into their own
systems, with the same distinction of sex. The next series of
emanations were the Izeds, twenty -eight in number, of whom
Mithras is the chief. Like the superior order, they watch over
the purity and happiness of the world, of which they are the
genii and guardians. The principal names amongst them are
Vohu-mano, Mazda, Asha, Vayu (Ventus), Geusurvi (Soul of the
Earth), Sraosha (who exactly answers, in point of duties, to the
Grecian Hermes and Jewish Gabriel, for he carries the mandates
of Ormuzd, and conveys up to him the souls of the righteous).

The third series, the Fcrouers, are in number infinite. These
are the Thoughts or " Ideas " conceived in the mind of Ormuzd
l>ofore he proceeded to tlig creation of things. They are the
protectors of mankind during this mortal life, and will purify
their souls on the Day of the Besurrection.

The creation of these chiefs, with their angelic hosts, had
become necessary. Ahriman, the Second-born of the Eternal
One — like Ormuzd, an emanation from the Primal Light, and
equally pure, but ambitious and full of pride — had become
jealous of the Firstborn. On this account the Supreme Being
condemned him to inhabit for twelve thousand years the space
that is illumined by no ray of light — the black empire of
Darkness. This interval will suffice to decide the struggle
between Light and Darkness, between Good and Evil. Ahriman,
in order to oppose his rival, created in his turn three series of
evil spirits, corresponding in number, and antagonistic in office,
to each one of the good, and, like them, male and female. The
first series is that of the Arch-Dem, chained each one to his
respective planet, and of whom the chief is Astomogt, " the two-
footed Serpent of lies." These Devs are the authors of all evil,
both physical and moral, throughout the universe.

Ormuzd, after a reign of three thousand years, then created

THE GNOSTICS AND THEITl REMAINS.

the Animal World in six periods, creating first light— a faint
image of the Light celestial — then water, earth, plants, beasts,
and lastly, man. Ahriman had concurred in the creation of
earth and water, for Darkness being already inherent in these
two elements, Ormuzd was unable to exclude its nature from
them.

Ormuzd had produced by his Word a being the type and
source of universal life for all creation ; this being was called
Life, or the Bull (the same word in Zend stands for both).
This creature Ahriman contrived to destroy, but out of its
scattered seed Ormuzd, through the agency of the Amshaspand
Saphandomad (Wisdom), formed the first human pair, Meschia
and Meschiano. This couple Ahriman, by a bribe of fruits and
milk, succeeded in corrupting, having gained over the female
first. Then, to all the good animals made by Ormuzd, ho
opposed, by his own creation, as many mischievous and venomous
ones. The struggle still goes on ; the Power of Darkness often
is the superior, but the pure souls are assisted and defended by
the good genii, and will ultimate!^ triumph. For when things
shall seem at their worst, and Evil all-powerful in the creation,
three prophets shall appear and restore the lost Light. One of
these, Sosioch, shall regenerate the world and restore it to its
pristine excellence. Then comes the general Resurrection,
when the good shall immediately enter into this happy abode—
the regenerated earth, and Ahriman, together with his angels
and the wicked, be purified by immersion in a lake of molten
metal, so as to render them fitting members of the new kingdom.
Thenceforth all will enjoy unchangeable happiness, and, headed
by Sosioch, ever sing the praises of the Eternal One.

The religion of Zoroaster was a reformed version of the
ancient creed held by the inhabitants of Eritene in Bactria.
For it is probable that the first gods of the Aryan race before
it split into Indian and Zend, were the powers of Nature,
Indra, thunder, Mithra, sunlight, Vayu, wind, Agni, fire, Armaiti,
earth, Soma, intoxication. The worship of the last may have
been the source of the Dionysia, introduced from India, as the
Greeks themselves always asserted. These powers were called
Almras and Devas indifferently ; but Zoroaster reduced all these

32 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

powers to the secondary rank of angels, and used the name Dcvas
in a bad sense only. The Zoroastrian was the established re
ligion of the Persians at the time when they conquered Assyria ;
and to a great extent it superseded the material idolatry of
the Babylonians, whose gods Darius and Xerxes melted down
without any scruple. But Matter is of opinion that the College
of Magi, established long before the Persian conquest of Babylon,
accepted the new religion upon the change of masters, retaining
nothing of the old besides Astrology and Divination.

It must not bo forgotten how large a portion of the Jewish
captivity remained permanently in Assyria — only two tribes,
Judah and Levi, having been sent back to Jerusalem by Cyrus ;
and Babylon long continued the seat of a most flourishing
Kabbinical school, whilst Judea itself, down to the time of the
Macedonian conquest, remained a province of the Persian
Empire. How important a part of the Persian population
at a much later period were either Jews, or under Jewish
influence, appears from the very remarkable assertion of Jose-
phus, " that his nation were encouraged to brave all extremities
in their final struggle against the power of Rome by the
confident expectation of aid from their brethren beyond the
Euphrates." And three centuries later Ammianus notices
that Julian's invading army came upon a city entirely in
habited by Jews in the very centre of Persia. After the
captivity, the principal literary establishments of the Jews
appear to have been seated in central Asia. The schools of
Nahardea, of Sora, of Punbiditha, were at least as famous as the
schools of Palestine (cf. Jos. Ant. xviii. 12). The latter even
appear to have paid a sort of filial deference to these foundations :
the Chaldee version of the Pentateuch, made by Onkelos of
Babylon, was accepted as the authorised version by all the Jews
living in Palestine ; and the Eabbi Hillel, coming from that
capital to Jerusalem, was received by the doctors of the Holy
City as an ornament of the same national school, and this only
a few years before the birth of Christ. From all these circum
stances it is easy to perceive how much of the Zoroastrian
element may have pervaded the Jewish religion at the time of
the promulgation of Christianity, when its principal teachers

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

were the Pharisees or " separatists," if, indeed, their doctors
did not actually get their appellation from the word Pharsi,
"Persian" — an etymology that has something to recommend
it. These doctrines, as then taught, are set forth in the
Kabbala, or " Traditions," so called from Kalbal, " to receive "
— the main features of which shall be sketched in the following
sections.

THE KABBALA AND THE TALMUD.

The origin of the Kal/b.ala is placed by most authors much
later than that of Christianity ; and, indeed, it is not impossible
that its doctrines may have received great developments after
that epoch ; * nevertheless, the elements of them go back to n
much more remote antiquity. The Book of Daniel bears the
most conspicuous traces of this antiquity, and to the attestation
of this record are added other proofs no less convincing. The
idea of Emanation is, so to speak, the soul, the essential element
of the Kabbala ; it is likewise, as we have already seen, the
essential character of Zoroastrism. We may therefore consider

that it was through their very intimate connection with Persia

that the Jews imbibed that idea.

According to the Kabbala, as according to the Zendavesta,

all that exists has emanated from the source of the Infinite

Light.

Before all things existed the Primal Being, the "Ancient of

Days," the eternal King of Light. This King of Light is the

All; he is the real cause of all existence ; he is the Infinite

(En Soph) ; he alone is He, there is in him no Thou • but he

cannot be known, " he is a closed Eye."

The universe is the revelation of the King of Light, and only

subsists in Him. His qualities are manifested in it, variously

modified and in different degrees ; it is therefore his " Holy

* The tradition is that it was first for the space of cloven years, the
committed to writing by Simon Ben whole of which he devoted to tins
Jochai, who, being proscribed by work, in which, he was nan
Titus, concealed himself in a cavern the prophet Elfau.

D

34 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Splendour " — the mantle, as it were, wherewith he must be
clothed in silence. All is an emanation from this Being ; the
nearer therefore that any approaches to him, the more perfect
is it? and the less so does it become as it recedes from him :
this idea of gradation is eminently Persian. Before the creation
of the world, the Primal Light filled all, so that there was no
void at all ; but when the Supreme Being, residing within this
Light, resolved to display and manifest his perfection, he
retired within himself, and formed around him a void space.
Into this void he let fall his first emanation — a ray of the
Light, which is the cause and principle of all existence, uniting
in itself the generative and conceptive forces ; being both father
and mother in the sublimest sense, pervading all, and without
which nothing can for an instant subsist.

From this Double Force, designated by the first two letters
of the name Jehovah (Forf, He *), emanated the First-born of
God, the Tiltkun, or " Universal Type " (Platonic Idea), and
the general container of all beings, united within himself bv
means of the Primal Ray. lie is the creator, preserver, and
prime animator of the world. He is the " Light of light,"
possessing the three primitive forces of the Godhead : the light,
the spirit, and the life. Inasmuch as he has received what he
gives, the light and the life, he is considered as equally a
generative and conceptive principle as the " Primitive Man,"
Adam-Kadmon ; and as man himself is called the " little world,"
or the microcosm, so this Being, his Type, is properly designated
the " great world," or Macrocosm. In this their Adam-Kadmon,
the principle of light and life, the Kabbalists have united the
attributes of the same principles amongst the Persians.

Adam-Kadmon has manifested himself in ten emanations,
which are not indeed actual beings, but sources of life, vessels
of the Almighty Power, types of all the creation. Their names
are : the Crown, Wisdom, Prudence, Magnificence, Severity,
Beauty, Victory, Glory, Foundation, Empire. To Wisdom they
gave the title Jah ; to Prudence Jehovah ; to Magnificence El ;

* The I. H. so conspicuously placed nearest equivalents the Greek alpha-
on some Gnostic stones probably ex- bet could furnish for the Hebrew
presses this name; as being the letters.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. oi>

to Severity Elohim ; to Victory and Glory Sabaotlt ; to Empire
Adonai.

These are all attributes of the Supreme, as displayed in Ids
works, through which alone it is possible for the human mind
to conceive him. To the same emanations the Kabbalists give
other titles, which constantly present themselves in Gnostic
inscriptions. For example, the Croicn (Parmenides also calls
the Godhead Sre'^avos) nas tlie synonym of Or, " Light," (possibly
the same with Our, the name of a Sabean genius). Wisdom is
called Nous and Logos, and is equivalent to the Sophia of Gnos
ticism ; she has also the names of Fear, Depth of thought, Eden,
according to the several passions that animate her. Prudence is
the " river flowing out of Paradise, the fountain of the oil of
unction." Magnificence has for symbol a lion's head ; Severity, a
red and black fire ; Beauty, the colours green and yellow ;
the symbol of Beauty is an illuminating mirror ; Victory is
Jehovah Sabaoth, having for symbol the pillar on the right
hand, called Jachin ; Glory has the left pillar Boaz, called
likewise the " Old Serpent," and sometimes " Cherubim and
Seraphim ; " this principle answers to the genius OpMs of the
Gnostic systems. "Jachin" and " Boaz " signify Strength
and Power : they figure conspicuously in the symbolism of the
secret societies of modern times ; and naturally so, for these
illuminati have borrowed (probably without understanding it)
all the terminology of the Valentinians and the Kabbalists.
" Foundation " becomes the Tree of the knowledge of Good and
Evil: also Noah, Solomon, and the Messiah— all which titles
merely express the eternal alliance existing between the
Supreme and all that emanates from him, and in virtue whereof
he brings back into himself all the souls that have lost their
original purity. "Empire" is the Consuming Fire, the wife
of the Church— all three titles being also employed in thu
Valentinian system.

The relationship of the " Sephiroth," or yEons, to one another
the Kabbalists represent by a number of circles intersecting iu a
mysterious manner ad infinitum ; or again, by the figure of a
Man, orof a Tree, made up of such circles. The figure of the Man,
Seir-Anpin, consists -of two hundred and forty-three numbers,

36 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

"bers, being the numerical value of the letters in the name Abram,
and signifying the different orders in the celestial hierarchy.
The first idea of this type was possibly borrowed from the
Hindoo figure of Brahma and the several types typified by the
different parts of his body, to which mystical values are still
attached by the Hindoos.

The ten Sephiroth served as types or models for the visible
Creation ; and from them emanated the Four Worlds, Aziluth,
B'riah, Jezirah, and Asiah ; each world successively proceeding
out of the one above it, and each in succession enveloping its
superior. A theory this, possibly borrowed from Plato's de
scription of the arrangement of the seven spheres, as given
in the " Vision of Er," at the end of his " Kepublic," where
he compares them to a set of the hemispherical bowls used
by jugglers, fitting into, and moving loosely within, each
other (lib. x. 614B, seq.~).

These Four Worlds become less pure as they descend in the
series ; the least pure of all being the material world. But
nothing is entirely material, for all subsists through God, the
ray of his light penetrating through all creation being the
Life of the life, and consequently " all is God." This universal
All is divided into thirty-two " Gates," the elements or energies
out of which all beings are formed.

The world Aziluth is inhabited by the Parsuphaim, the purest
emanations of the Deity, having nothing material in their
composition. B'riah is possessed by an inferior order, who are
the servants of Aziluth, although still immaterial creatures.
Still lower are the inhabitants of Jezirah, to which world belong
the Cherubim and Seraphim, the Elohim and the Bene-Elohim.
But Asiah is peopled by gross material existences of both sexes,
the Klippoth delighting in evil, whose chief is Belial. These
last beings are full of ambition, and ever at war with the pure
spirits of the superior worlds, whose empire they unceasingly
endeavour to usurp.

The three superior orders just described answer to the
Amshaspaiids, Izeds, and Fravashis, of Zoroaster ; as do the
Klippoth, in their vast numbers and malicious nature, to his
Devs. This discord did not exist in the beginning, it was the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 37

result of a revolution in heaven, called the " Fall of the Seven
Kings," from whom* the Creator, as a punishment, extracted the
principle of good and light, and bestowed it upon the inhabi
tants of the three superior spheres.

This last notion is common to many forms of Gnosticism.
The Ophites make Achamoth extract from Ildabaoth and his
six sons the inherent ray of Divine Light, in order to bestow it
upon Man. Again, the Pistis-Sophia represents two great
angels, Melchisedech and Zorocothora (gatherer of light) making
their annual rounds through the rebellious " ^Eons of the
sphere " (zodiacal signs), and squeezing out of them all the rays
of Divine Light that are still left in their composition, which
havino- been all extracted, the fulness of time and the kingdom
of heaven are come ; and so, according to the Kabbala, when
the contest shall have endured for the space ordained from the
beginning of the world, the Supreme shall deliver the spirits in
Asiah from their material envelope, shall strengthen the feeble
ray of his light that is within them, and shall establish its
pristine harmony throughout all Creation.

The Human Soul is composed of all parts borrowed from each
of these four worlds. From Asiah it gets the Ncphesh, or seat of
the physical appetites ; from Jezirah the Buach, or seat of the
passions, from Briah the Neshamah or reason, and from Aziluth
it obtains the Cliaiali, or principle of spiritual life. This looks
like an adaptation of the Platonic theory of the soul's obtaining
its respective faculties from the Planets in its downward
progress through their spheres. But the Pistis-Sophia, with its
accustomed boldness, puts this theory into a much more poetical

* The author of the Book of consummation of heaven and earth

Enoch alludes to the same legend : will be the prison of the stars and

"Over these fountains also I per- the host of heaven. The stars

ceived a place which had neither the which roll over fire arc those who

firmament of heaven above it, nor transgressed the commandments of

the solid ground underneath it; God before their time arrived, for

neither was there water above it, nor they came not in their proper season,

any thing on wing, but the spot was Therefore was he offended with

desolate.0 And then I beheld seven them, and bound them until the

stars like great blazing mountains, consummation of their crimes in the

and like spirits entreating me. Then secret year."— Chap, xviii.
the Angel said, this place until the

38 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

shape (§ 282). The Inner Man is similarly made up of four
constituents, but these are supplied by the rebellious ^Eons of
the Sphere, being the Power (a particle of the Divine light
("Divina3 particula aurae") yet left in themselves); the Soul
" formed out of the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their
torments " ; the 'Ai/Tifu/xov IIi/ev/xaTos Counterfeit of the Spirit
(seemingly answering to our Conscience) ; and lastly the Motpa
Fate, whose business it is to lead the man to the end appointed
for him ; " if he hath to die by the fire, to lead hi in into the fire ;
if he hath to die by a wild beast, to lead him unto the wild
beast, &c." But in truth the entire sy stem of this most wondrous
Gospel is a mixture of the Kabbala with the ideas of Magian
astrology, clouded under the terminology of the old Egyptian
creed, to which belong its " Triple Powers," " Invisible Gods,"
and " the Proper Forms " assigned by it to the different ^Eons.

All the human race having sinned in the First Man, that is
as regards their souls, all which were necessarily contained within
his soul at the time of the Fall, these souls are exiled hither
into prisons of Matter, called bodies, in order to expiate their
sin, and to exercise themselves in good during their residence
on earth. Such as upon quitting the body are not found
sufficiently purified for entrance into Aziluth, have to recom
mence their penance in this world. Hence the question of the
Disciples whether a man's being lorn blind were the punish
ment for his own sins, which on this supposition must have
been committed by him in a previous life. This penitential
transmigration of souls forms a very conspicuous feature in the
doctrine set forth in the Pistis-Sophia. The wicked, after under
going torment for periods nicely apportioned to their deserts, in
prisons belonging to the several Infernal Powers, are sent into
this world again to inhabit human bodies afflicted in different
ways — lame, Mind, or sunk in abject poverty. Similarly the
righteous, but unreycncrate, man is provided with a fresh body
wherein to avail himself of the sacraments of the new religion ;
which in his former life he had neglected through ignorance,
and not wilfully.

The nature of God, and of Man, is therefore the subject of
the Kabbala ; the Government of the Creation is set forth in the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 39

Talmud, the doctrine of which concerning the Nature of the Aiujcls
is extremely important for the understanding of much in
Gnosticism. The whole system in this particular is borrowed
from the Zendavesta ; and could not have originated before, or
indeed without the Captivity, so opposite is the spirit pervading
it to the genius of the Mosaic Law. According to it, the
government of all things is entrusted to the Angels, of whom
there are seventy Princes, watching over each element, nation,
and language. Thus, Johuel is the Prince of Fire, and
has under him seven subordinates : Seraphiel, Gabriel, Uriel,
Temanael, Shimsael, Hadranael, and Samiel. Again, Michael
is Prince of Water, and similarly attended by seven inferior
spirits. Moreover, there are an infinity of Angels yet lower in
degree, guardians of ttie various animals, plants, heat, winds,
rains, &c. There also are others presiding over the passions
of the soul, fear, grace, favour, love, and so on. Hence it is not
to be wondered at, that the Angel who directs the course of the
sun should have under him no less than two hundred and ninety-
six hosts, whose sum is expressed by the numerical letters in the
word Haaretz " the earth." The head of them is Metatron, the
" number of his name " being three hundred and fourteen, and
therefore equivalent to that of Shaddai, "the Almighty."
Metatron is the Persian Mithras; the names of the others are
all compounded with El " God," and contain his titles, or
invocations to him.* All this celestial roll-call fully explains
St. Paul's warning to his flock at Colossae against being reduced
into a " voluntary (that is, an uncalled for) humility, and the
worshipping of Angels," whilst the copious appearance of their
names upon talismans strongly testifies to the veneration in
which their power was held.

This last circumstance was a necessity of the case, for all
these monuments proceed from two sources — the two great
schools of Magi mentioned by Pliny, the most ancient, the

* The Book of Enoch thus states luminaries ; Michael, who presides

the names and offices of the " Angels over human virtue, commands the

who watch " : Uriel presides over nations. Sarakiel over the spirits of

clamour and terror ; Raphael over the children of men who transgress ;

the spirits of men ; Eagicl inflicts Gabriel over Ikisat, over Paradise,

punishment on the world and the and over the ClieruMm.

40 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Chaldean, founded by Zoroaster and Orthancs, the modern of his
own day, by Moses and Jambres. So Juvenal, after bringing J
the proud and pompous Chaldean, the maker of emperors-

« Cujus amicitia conducendaque tabella
Magnus civis obit, et formidatus Othoni," (vi. 55<-8.)

makes the poor trembling Jewess fortune-teller steal in with
whispers for the lady's private ear-her profession going no
further than the interpreting or the vending of dreams-
"Qualiacunquo voles Judaa somnia vendent." Such nocturnal
revelations, we are told, were to bo procured by sleeping
with the proper talisman put under one's pillow.
writer on magie quoted by Camillo di Leonardo, lays down that
-a woman with her hair hanging down loose, and a i
approaching her making a gesture of love, engraved upon a
crystal, or jacinth, being placed under the head upon goingj
sleep will make one see in a dream whatsoever one desires.

Such being the nature of the case, the existing productions c
Gnosticism will be most appropriately investigated m _the
present Treatise by considering the nature of the various
sources from which they emanated. The series commences with
the IKihraic, as being the most ancient in origin, and in whic.
the Magianandtho Jewish Kabbalistie ideas are found the most
frequently united. To this class succeed the Abraxas-gems,
properly so-called, in which the Magian ground-work is mod
fied by the refinements of Basilides, introducing a strong
tincture of the primitive Egyptian theology. To Egypt herself
more properly belong the Agaikodxmo* talismans bearing t
figure of the good serpent, Chnuphis-an emblem which gave
ite name to that very wide-spreading and clearly defined sect,
the OpUtcs. Last of all come the innumerable rel

treasures, and of the right manner of hghtful visions.
finding them." Also, « Cepheus, a

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

41

worship of Scrapis, that most recent of all the gods in the
Egyptian Pantheon, and in which the Brahminical influence
is most distinctly to be traced. This last subject, so curious
in itself, shall bo the subject of the following section, where the
numerous facts brought forward may perhaps serve to remove
some of the incredulity with which such a thesis will naturally
at first be regarded.

FIG. 2.

42 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

INDIAN SOUKCES OF GNOSTICISM.— MANES.

The Persian origin of so considerable a portion of the Gnosis
Laving been set forth in the foregoing pages, it remains to
show what portion is due to a purely Indian source, and to
indicate the channels through which a direct intercourse was
carried on between the farthest east and the foci of Gnosticism,
Alexandria and'Ephesus. For the Christian Gnosis was indirectly
the daughter of the Hindoo Gnosis, such as it was taught in the
various mysteries ; possibly in the Eleusinian and the Phrygian.
For universal tradition made the first founder of mysteries,
Bacchus, bring them direct from India ; and Jove's fi%)09, the
fabled birth-place of the god, may have been no other than
Mount Mem, the Olympus of the Hindoo Pantheon.*

Certain Gnostic tenets concerning the duality of the Divine
emanations, absorption into the god-head, asceticism, penance,
and self-collection, are identical with the Buddhistic teaching
upon the same points ; of which agreement several remarkable
examples will be adduced in their fitting place. But we are
not left to mere conjecture on this point, for the actual circum
stances of their importation from India are minutely detailed,
in one case that doubtless had many parallels, by the laborious
Epiphanius in his " Life of Manes," (Hasres. lxv.).f

This celebrated heresiarch, equally abhorrent to Zoroastrian
and Christian orthodoxy, was by birth a Persian, named
Cubricus ; but who upon commencing his mission assumed the
title of Manes, signifying in the Babylonian tongue " The
Vessel," for the same reason, we may suppose, that Dante gives
to St. Paul the epithet " Vas Electionis." This Cubricus had

* The bearer of the phallus (lin- (drawn upon by Epiphanius also),

gam) in the grand Dionysian pro- is the "Disputation of Archelaus

cession celebrated by Ptolemy Phila- and Manes," held at Charrae in

delphus was blackened all over with A.D. 275-9. This book was written

soot, doubtless to indicate the native in Syriac, but is only extant in a

country of that very equivocal symbol. Latin version.

f The earliest authority, however,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 43

been slave, and subsequently sole heir, to a certain wealthy
widow who had inherited all the effects belonging to one
Terminthus, surnamed in Assyrian " Buddas." This Termin-
thus had similarly been the slave of a rich Saracen merchant,
Scythicus, who had studied the Greek language and literature
in some place on the borders of Palestine (perhaps the school of
Palmyra), and who "had there attained to eminence in the
empty learning of this world." By constant journeys between
his home and India, this Scythicus had amassed a large fortune.
With this he settled down in Hypsele in the Thebaid, where
ho married a beautiful courtezan, whom ho had bought and
emancipated. " Here, out of sheer idleness and licentiousness,
he set up to preach new doctrines, not derived from Scripture
but from mere human reason."

These doctrines, from the nature of the case, can hardly have
been of his own concoction, but, in all probability, things that
he had picked up in India, where all the ancient emporia lay
on the Guzerat Coast, the seat of the powerful Jaina (Buddhist)
monarchy. A mere Eastern trader, a common Arab merchant
who, after making his fortune by long and dangerous travels in
the East, who could afterwards in advanced life set himself
down to study, nay more, to attain proficiency in the Greek
philosophy, must have been a man of no ordinary intellect.
Assuredly it was not the mere want of anything better to do,
(as his malicious biographer asserts), that made him turn
preacher of a new religion. His marriage with the enfranchised
courtezan looks like a theological addition, added to the portrait
for the sake of so completing his resemblance to Simon Magus.
The nature of the doctrines he was likely to imbibe in the great
Indian marts, Baroche, Barcellore, Pultaneh, or in the semi-
Grecian cities of Bactria, is attested to this day by the innumer
able Buddhist temples and topes, with their deposit of relics yet
studding the provinces this side of the Indus; and whose
contents declare the flourishing state of that religion even
when the country had passed under the rule of the Sassaniaii
Kings of Persia.

But to return to Scythicus in his retirement : " Taking
Pythagoras for guide, he composed four books, namely, * The

44 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Mysteries,' 'The Summary/ 'The Gospel,' and 'The Trea
suries.'" (Pythagoras was then universally believed to have
visited India, and there to have obtained the elements of his
philosophy, which has a certain Brahminical character.) " After
this, Scythicus made a journey to Jerusalem in the very times of
the Apostles, and held conferences with the elders of the church
upon the Origin of Evil, and such like points. But not being
satisfied by their explanations, he took to preaching magic, the
knowledge of which he had gotten along with his other wares
from the Indians and Egyptians. But as he was showing off a
miracle upon the roof of his house, he fell down and was killed.
Upon this, his servant and sole disciple, Terminthus, instead of
returning to his mistress at Hypsele, ran off with his money
into Persia, where, in order to escape detection, he assumed the
name of Buddas, which signifies "Wise." (This last fact
proves incontestably the nature of the doctrines he and his
master had been gathering up in their Indian travels ; and the
truth lying at the bottom of this story seems to be that he gave
himself out for a fresh incarnation of Buddha, of which there had
been seven* before his date.)

" This Terminthus was himself a man of learning and con
versant with his master's four treatises. He lodged in the
house of a widow, where he used to hold conferences with the
priests of Mithras, especially with two, Parcus and Labdacus,
upon the Two Principles, and1 similar subjects. He, too, having
been killed by accident, like his master, his landlady kept
possession of all his baggage, religious books included ; and in
her turn bequeathed them to her servant Cubricus, the after
wards so celebrated Manes."

It is necessary here to point out a certain violent anachronism
in the story as told by Epiphanius. If Scythicus visited
Jerusalem at all, he must have done so before the year of its
destruction, A.D. 70. His disciple, Terminthus, could therefore
not have survived far into the second century. The landlady
of the latter could for this reason have hardly had for slave
Manes, who flourished about two hundred years later. It is,

* The seventh heaving been that gakyal who, from Benares, diffused
Buddhism all over the peninsula.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 45

however, possible that the works plagiarised by Manes had
been preserved in her family down to the period of his service
in it.

In this history of Scythicus, however disguised Toy tradition,
we have at one view the complete history of the rise and
progress of Gnosticism. Wo find an Arab merchant of a
subtle and inquiring mind, occupying himself during his long
and frequent sojourns at the Indian marts in studying the
philosophy of these prevailing religionists, the speculations of
the Buddhist monks, and equally investigating the secrets of
the " wisdom of Egypt," when detained at the other head
quarters of the Eastern trade. Then retiring from business,
he goes to Palmyra for the purpose of studying Grecian
philosophy, as then taught in its school, which philosophy
would be no other than Neo-Flatonism ; thence returning home,
he occupies his leisure in reducing to one harmonious system
the numerous conflicting theories upon subjects too high for
human knowledge, which he had so laboriously collected from
the three great fountains of philosophy — India, Egypt, and
Athens.

Finally attracted by the fame of a new religion that professed
to throw the clearest light upon all things relating to God
and Man, being preached at Jerusalem, he immediately starts
for the focus of this new light, leaving behind him wife
and property, only accompanied by one servant, himself an
educated man, and his own treasured theological speculations.
On his arriving at the Holy City, we find him (as might be
expected from his previous training) grievously disappointed
in his hopes of at last obtaining the solution of all the problems
that had so long occupied his thoughts — for on subjects of that
kind the Christian Presbyters could tell no more than what he
had learnt already from the Rablis of Alexandria, or the Jaina
monks of Guzerat. Thus disappointed, he appears to have set
up himself for a teacher of a new and higher doctrine, supporting
his pretensions (after the customary fashion of the times) by
miracle-working ; and as a matter of course getting his career
speedily cut short, for Jerusalem was not the place where a new
religion would be promulgated with impunity by a single indi-

46 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

vidual, and that too an Arabian. His disciple, 'Terminthus, taking
warning by his fate, resolves to try another school of profound
wisdom, formed from time immemorial, but as yet unvisited by
his master, and proceeds to hold discussion with the Wise Men
of the East at their head college in Babylon, seeking for the
final solution of his difficulties in the doctrine of Zoroaster. It
is very probable that he, as the result of this study, engrafted
upon the system of Scythicus whatever features of the
Zendavesta appeared to him the most satisfactory, and consistent
best with his preconceived ideas of the truth. It would be
interesting to know whether he shaped all these fresh acquisi
tions into conformity with the original Indian groundwork of
his master's system. As already observed, such appears to
have been his course from the title that he assumed, declaring
himself an eighth " Buddha," successor to the famous Gua-
tama, founder of the religion, and like him commissioned
to teach a new way of salvation. Terrain thus, like his master,
came to an untimely end. The Magi were not members of a
powerful establishment who would suffer themselves to be
puzzled and confuted by an over-wise foreigner, disputing so

boldly—

" Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and Fate,
Fixed Fate, freewill, foreknowledge absolute,"

still less to allow him to go off exulting in his victory, as his
asserted follower Manes likewise found to his cost.

Manes himself appears to have belonged to the order of
Magi (probably being admitted after gaining his freedom and
changing his name), for he is reported to have been famous for
his skill in astrology, medicine, magic, and painting ! This last
is curious ; it shows that the Magi, like the media3val monks,
monopolised the arts as well as the sciences of their times.
Whether he conceived the scheme from the accidental acquisi
tion of the writings of Scythicus or not (M. Matter supposes him
to have got his first inspiration from some Egyptian Basilidan
who had found his way into Persia), certain it is that he first
gave to these notions a definite shape, and constructed his
system with such skill that it spread not merely all over the
East but throughout Europe. In the latter region its im-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 47

portanco is evinced by the fact (mentioned incidentally by
Ammianus) that Constantino himself, before finally changing
his religion, following the Apostolical precept " Try all things,
hold fast that which is good," carefully studied the Manicha3an
system under the guidance of the learned Musonianus, whom
we must suppose to have been a great doctor of the sect.* Nay
more, this religion, after long seeming extinction from the
pertinacious persecution of the Byzantine emperors, again
blazed forth with extraordinary lustre in the Paulicianism of
the Middle Ages.

The grand purpose of the scheme of Manes was the reconcile
ment of the two religions, which had by that time come to
dispute the empire of the world — the flourishing, though still
unrecognised Christianity of Rome, and the equally vigorous
but newly revived Zoroastrism of Sassanian Persia. Calling
himself the " Promised Paraclete," Manes accepted the gospel,
but only after purifying it from all taint of Judaism, whilst he
utterly rejected the Old Testament. But whilst Zoroaster
makes all to begin in the harmony, and to end in the mutual
reconciliation of the Two Principles, Manes declares these Two
Principles immutable and existent from all eternity as they
shall continue for ever to exist. His Good is Zoroaster's " Lord
of Light " ; but his Bad is Satan-Matter, deliverance from
whose bondage is to bo obtained only through the strictest
asceticism. From the Christian Church he borrowed its
institution of presbyters and deacons, being sensible how
greatly that organisation had conduced to its rapid develop
ment, and in his own enterprise it met with almost equal
success. Manes was a genuine Pantheist, teaching that God
pervaded all things, even plants (of which tenet I subjoin a
singular illustration from his once ardent follower, St. Augus
tine) ; he also adopted the entire theory of Emanations, exactly

* " Constantinus enim cum limatius gium dictitaturn." Ammianus xv. G.

superstitionum qusoreret sectas, Ma- The sainted Emperor's eulogists have

nichsBorum et similium, nee interpres carefully hushed up this trait of an

inveniretur idoneus, hunc sibi com- inquiring spirit, anxious to weigh the

meudatum ut sufficientem elegit ; relative merits of the existing rivals

quern officio functum perite Musoni- of Catholicism,
auum voluit appellari ante Strate-

48 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

as it was defined in the older Gnostic systems. St. Augustine's
words are (' Confessions ' iii. 10) : " And I, not understanding
this, used to mock at those holy servants and prophets of thine. *
And what was I doing when I mocked at them, except that I
myself was mocked at by thee, being seduced gently and by
degrees into such absurdities as to believe that the fig weeps
when it is plucked, and likewise its parent tree, with tears of
milk ? Which same fig, however, should any holy man eat, that
is to say, after it has been plucked through the sin of another,
not by his own, he would mingle with his bowels, and breathe
out of it angels, nay more, particles of God himself, in his sighs
and eructations whilst praying, which same particles of the
Supreme and True God would have been bound up in that fruit,
had they not been set at liberty by the tooth and stomach of the
chosen saint ; and I, like a wretch, believed that greater com
passion ought to be shown unto the fruits of the earth than to
man, for whose sake they were created. For if any one not
a Manichtcan, being an hungered, should ask for the same, it
would have been thought a crime, worthy of capital punish
ment, if a single mouthful thereof were given to him."
Compare the following rule of the Buddhist priesthood : " They
will not kill any animal, neither root up nor cut any plant,
because they think it has life." (* Ayeen Akbari,' p. 435.)

Manes invented a theory of salvation, so very whimsical
that it ought to be inserted here, to recreate the wanderer in this
dreary and dusky theological labyrinth. " When the Son came
into the world to effect the redemption of mankind, he contrived
a machine containing twelve bowls (cadi),f which being made
to revolve by the motion of the spheres, attracts into itself the
souls of the dying. These the Great Luminary (the sun) takes
and purifies with his rays, and then transfers to the moon ; and
this is the method whereby the disk, as we call it, of the moon
is replenished." Epiphanius triumphantly refutes this theory

* Alluding to the Manichsean re- of Palmyra, for it is unmistakably

jection of the Old Testament as a borrowed from the eight concentric

divine revelation. basins set in motion, one inside the

t In the notion of this machine other, by the fingers of the Fates, so

may be traced the influence of minutely described in the Vision of

die study of Plato in the school Er the Pamphylian.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Ill

by asking how the moon's disk was replenished during the nine
hundred years that elapsed after the Creation before any deaths
took place ?

But the career of this inventive heresiarch was speedily
brought to a close. The Persian king, Varanes I. (about the year
275), alarmed by the rapid spread of these new doctrines,
convoked a General Council of the Magi to sit in judgment
upon them ; by whom the unlucky apostle was pronounced a
heretic, and a traitor to his own brethren, and sentenced to be
flayed alive.

BUDDHISM.

For the sake of comparison with the above-described systems,
all based upon the doctrine of successive Emanations from One
First Principle, the means of escaping from the bondage of
Matter, and the struggles of the souls towards ultimate absorption
into its original source, I shall subjoin a very brief sketch of the
principal features of the Buddhistic theosophy.* Here also we
find a First Buddha in his proper state of eternal repose (tho
Indolentia of Epicurus) corresponding to the Zoroastrian
" Boundless Time," and the Valentinian " Bythos." AVhile in
this state termed " Nevriti," wishing to create the universe he
produced the Five divine Buddhas, the makers of the Elements,
who in their turn produced the Five Buddhasativas, and by
their agency created the material world. The grand aim of
this religion is to effect the release of the soul from its connection
with Matter. All things, according to the Buddhists, exist only
in illusion, consequently they can only return into non-existence
or repose by means of True Knowledge (compare the Gnosis we

* Buddhism was founded in the years old. He chose Benares for the

fifth century before our era, by Sakya centre of his mission, whence in the

Muni, son of the Raja of Kapila. spaco of forty-five years his doctrines

At the a^e of twenty-nine he began were diffused over the fairest districts

to study0 religion, and by force of of the Ganges from the Delta to

prayer became the embodiment of Agra and Cawnpore. His death is

the Supreme Deity when thirty-five placed by some writers in B.C. 477

50 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

are considering).* " Illusion " is the belief in the reality of the
eternal world ; the degradation of the sonl towards Matter is the
effect of a succession of acts ; and therefore its release is effected
by relinquishing the belief in the reality of external objects.

The Buddhists of Nepal, who have preserved the original
doctrines of the religion in their greatest purity, teach the
following cosmogony : Padnapani, one of the original Five
Emanations, created Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, or the Principles of
Creation, Preservation, and Destruction. Adi-Buddha first
created thirteen mansions for his own eternal abode, and for
the dwelling-place after death of Buddha's followers. Below
these are eighteen mansions made by Brahma; lower yet are
six made by Vishnu ; and lowest of all — three, the work of Siva.
These three series of abodes receive the souls of the followers of
their respective creators.

Below all these lie the mansions of the Planetary gods,
Indra and Chandra; and after these there comes the Earth
floating upon the face of the waters like a boat. Below
these waters are the Seven Patala, or regions of Hell, the abode
of evil spirits and the damned. This arrangement presents tho
most striking resemblance to the construction of the Ophite
Diagramma (to be given further on), which Origen has described
from the original, and which M. Matter has reconstructed from
Origen's description to illustrate his treatise in his Plate X.

The promulgation of these Indian speculations from so remote
a source— a difficulty at first sight insurmountable — may
nevertheless be readily explained. The spirit of this religion
was the spirit of proselytism ; the Buddhists from the very
beginning sent out their missionaries (some of whose narratives,
full of interest, are extant and have been translated from the
Chinese) with all the zeal of the old Propaganda. From the

* The Buddhist " Confession of causes of the cessation of existence."

Faith," regularly set up in the The essence of the religion therefore

temples, engraven on a stone tablet, is Perfect Knowledge; the object of

runs thus : " Of all things proceeding Virgil's aspiration —

" F°tuit

Sarinana hath likewise explained the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 51

mainland they converted Ceylon, Japan, and the recesses ofTar-
tary ; and penetrated into regions where their former presence and
tolerated existence are now little dreamed of.* That Buddhism
had been actually planted in the dominions of the Seleucidoe
and the Ptolemies (Palestine belonging to the former) before
the end of the fourth century, at least, before our era is shown
by a clause in the Edicts of Asoka. This prince was grand
son to Chandragupta (the Sandracottus of the Greeks, con
temporary and friend of Seleucus I.), who, at the head of an
army of 60,000 men, had conquered all India within the Ganges.
Asoka, at first a licentious tyrant, had embraced the newly
preached doctrines of Buddhism, a Brahminical Protestantism,
and propagated them by persuasion and by force through the
length and breadth of his immense kingdom, with all the usual
zeal of a new convert.

The Edicts referred to are graven on a rock tablet at Girnur
in Guzerat. To quote the words of the Indian Archaeologist
Prinsep, to whom the discovery is due, (article xvii. ' Indian
Antiquities ' ). "I am now about to produce evidence that
Asoka'sf acquaintance with" geography was not limited to Asia,
and that his expansive benevolence towards living creatures
extended, at least in intention, to another quarter of the globe,
that his religious ambition sought to apostolize Egypt, and that
we must look hereafter for traces of the introduction of Buddhism
into the fertile valley of the Nile, so productive of metaphysical
discussions from the earliest ages. The lino which I allude to
is the fifth from the bottom. 'And the Greek King (Yoni-
raja) { besides, by whom the Chapta (Egyptian) Kings, Ptole-

* Two Chinese pilgrims, Fa Hian dence, have been found to be to a large
and Hiouen Thsang, visited Benares extent singularly correct. See * Me
at the beginning of the fifth, and at moires de Hiouen Thsang,' translated
the middle of the seventh centuries from the Chinese by Stanislas Julien.
of our era. These keen and sagacious f Asoka's zeal was so ardent that
observers have left records of their he sent his son and daughter, Ma-
travels in India of the utmost import- hendra and Saugamitra, as missiou-
anco to the historian and antiquary. aries to Ceylon ; who in a short time
Their narratives are, for the most effected the conversion of the island
part, plain matter-of-fact productions, to their new religion,
free from the haze and uncertainty of % The Persian envoy in Aristo-
Hindoo writings ; and whenever they phanes' Acharniana used the same
have been tested by extraneous evi- word, 'ia6vav. for the Greek nation.

E 2

52 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

maios, and Gonkakenos (Antigonus Gonatas) have "been induced
to allow that both here and in foreign countries everywhere the
people may follow the doctrine of the religion of Devanipya,
wheresoever it reacheth.' " The " Essenes," so like to
Buddhist Monks in many particulars (for which see the minute
description of this ascetic rule as given by Josephus, ' Antiq.
Jud.' xv. 10), had been established on the shores of the Dead
Sea for " thousands of ages " before Pliny's time. " On the
West its shores, so far as they are unhealthy, are shunned by
the Esseni, a solitary race, and wonderful beyond all others on
the globe ; without woman, renouncing all usual enjoyment,
without money, associates of the palm-trees, from day to day
they are recruited by the flocks of new-comers : all those
flocking in numerously whom the world drives from itself, all
tempest-tossed by the waves of fortune. In this way, incredible
to tell, the race wherein no birth ever takes place, has endured
for thousands of years, so prolific for them is other people's
disgust at the world " (Hist. Nat. v. 15). The great Naturalist's
" thousands of years " must be allowed as one of his favourite
oratorical tropes, but nevertheless serves for testimony to the
belief in the great antiquity of the sect. Perhaps they may
have been a continuation of those early ascetic associations
known as the " Schools of the Prophets."

The influence of Jewish Essenism upon primitive Chris
tianity (as to rules of life at least) is a thing that will not be
disputed by any who have read, with a wish to learn the
truth, not to evade it, the account of it given by Josephus.
But over the semi-Christian Gnostics of Syria such long-esta
blished authority must have had a still stronger influence. It
is easy to discover how the source of the slavish notions
about the merits of asceticism, penances, and self-torture (of
which Simon Stylites is the most conspicuous illustration), was
the same one whence the Indian fakirs drew their practice —
for even in their methods they were identical. Simon's cele
brated life-penance (which gives him his title), undergone upon
the summit of a lofty pillar, had been practised in the same
regions many generations before his time. The pseudo-Lucian,
in his amusing description of the famous Temple of the " Syrian

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 53

Goddess " at Emesa (' De Dea Syria '), particularly notices the
phallus or obelisk, 300 feet high, planted in front of the
edifice, upon the apex of which the devotee sat without bleep
for one and twenty days and nights, keeping himself awake by
constantly ringing a handbell. Ideas like these pervade the
Christianity of the Lower Empire, nay, they constitute the
very essence of the religion. Neither is it difficult to see upon
how many points Manes, with his rigid Buddhistic tenets, came
into collision with the humane and rational law of Zu roaster
(the brightest system of natural religion ever promulgated),
and what good causes Yaranes, with his spiritual advisers, had
for condemning his heresy.

In our investigation of this particular subject it must never
bo forgotten that so long as philosophy was cultivated in Greece,
(even from the times of the Samian sage, inventor of the naniej,
India was often regarded as the ultimate and purest source of
the " True Wisdom," the knowledge of things divine. Even
so late as Lucian's time, the middle of the second century, that
author concludes his evidently true history of Antiphilus and
Demetrius, by making the latter, a cynic philosopher by
profession, resign all his property to his friend, and depart for
India, there to end his life amongst the Brachmaiies, (' Toxaris,'
34). In the same century the well-known pilgrimage of
Apollonius of Tyana, and his deep conference with the Indian
philosophers, as recorded by his companion Damis, go to prove
the same thing ; and although the meagre journal of the sage's
travelling companion may have been largely supplemented and
embellished by the fancy of his editor, Philostratus,* the main
features of the narrative are doubtless authentic. The great
thaumaturgist's proceedings, as there detailed, show how the
apparent difficulty of such a pilgrimage vanishes upon a better
knowledge of the circumstances. Apollonius presents himself,
first of all, to the Parthian King, Bardaiies (a " Hiilhelleiie "
as he yet boasts himself upon his coinage), and as warm an
admirer of Grecian savants as any of his Achaiinenian pre-

* Who composed his very interest- a century after the death of tho
ing 'Life of Apollouius' at the philosopher,
request of the EUJ press Julia, about

54 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

decessors, from whom he obtains a firman securing to him
protection and entertainment, everywhere within the limits of
his rule, which extended then, probably, as far as the Indus.
Thenceforward his letters of recommendation from the *' King of
Kings " to the various native princes his allies, secure to the
traveller an equally favourable reception. A safe and regular
communication between the extreme points of the Persian
Empire had been from the beginning the great care of its
mighty rulers (the first institutors of highways, posting-stages,
and post-horses), passing through what was not, as now, a series
of deserts infested by robber-tribes, but a populous and well-
cultivated country; so favoured, with a passport from the
sovereign, the pilgrim would find his journey both expeditious
and agreeable.

The same facilities were necessarily made use of by the natives
of Hindustan. It is curious to observe how the occasional
" Brachman " who found his way into Greece was received as a
model philosopher — like that Zarmanes Chagan, who, coming
from Bargose (Baroclie), finally burnt himself alive upon a
pyre at Athens, in the reign of Augustus ; of which edifying
spectacle Nicolaus Damascenus was eye-witness (Strabo XV.).
Before him, we have Calanas the *' gymnosophist " (a happy
Greek expression for fakir) in high repute at Alexander's
court, and who similarly chose to leave earth in a " chariot of
fire." Their example was followed by the "Peregrinus
Proteus," so happily ridiculed by Lucian in his book thus
entitled ; Proteus, to give his apotheosis as much celebrity as
possible, chose for its scene the occasion of the Olympic games.
This last worthy had been a philosopher, then a Christian
teacher, and lastly had started a new religion of his own
invention. That the sect so celebrated by the ancients under
the name of " Brachrnanes " was Buddhistic, not Brahminical,
may be inferred from their locality, Bactria ; and yet more
from a circumstance mentioned by Strabo (Book XV.). He
speaks of their devoting thirty years to the study of Theology,
living in a community (a vihar or monastery), sequestered from
the world in the midst of forests in the neighbourhood of the
different cities, and totally abstaining from sexual intercourse,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 55

and all animal food ; on the contrary, the Brahmins hold that
to leave children behind them is a most sacred duty, and one
upon which their admission into heaven depends. Whether
the Buddhists be the true. representatives of the primal religion*
of their country, or only the Reformers of the more ancient
Brahminical Church, it is the natural weapon of all dissenters
from an established creed, to ridicule and even to pronounce
damnable, the favourite tenets of their adversaries. Witness
Martin Luther with his invectives against vows of virginity,
and his well-known motto

" Wer nicht liebt Weib, Wein und Gesang,
Der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang."

Similarly wo find the Essenes running counter to the ancient
prejudices of their nation, and spontaneously embracing what
the Mosaic Law had denounced as the greatest of curses — the
leaving no offspring behind to keep up their name in Israel.

To exemplify the severe discipline maintained in the Brah
man communities, Strabo mentions that the mere act of blow
ing the nose, or spitting, caused the offender to bo excluded for
that day, as incontinent, from the society of his fellow-recluses.
Similarly Josephus particularises, amongst other Essenian rules,
the obligation of abstaining from all natural evacuations upon
the Sabbath day. But even their rigour is surpassed, and in our
day too, by a certain sect of Indian Yogis, who profess to have
completely emancipated themselves from all such defiling
necessities of nature. This they effect by living entirely upon
milk, which, after retaining a short time in the stomach, they
throw up again by swallowing a ball fastened to a string ; and
maintain the animal expenditure solely through the nutriment
imbibed by the system during the continuance of the liquid in
the stomach ; and which consequently leaves no residuum to
descend into the lower bowels. A doctrine this, the finest

* Which of course their theologians for the most part are worshippers of

claim to be, ami treat the Brahmins Siva." And yet he candidly owns

as corrupters of the true faith. For that the Buddhists possessed no more

example Hionen Thsang : "They than thirty monasteries, numbering

reckon (in the kingdom of Benares) only three thousand members, in the

a hundred temples of gods, inhabited same place,
by about tell thousand herdics, who

56 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

possible redudio ad absurdam of the notion of meritorious con
tinence, and exhibiting on the ludicrous side the mischief of
being too logical in matters of religion.

As for the profundity of the philosophical speculations of the
Orientals, even at a very late period, the Byzantine Agathias
quotes a very remarkable example. Chosroes (better known
to us as Nushirwan the Just), besides giving an asylum, as to
his brethren, to the last Athenian philosophers, when expelled
from their chairs by the stupid bigot Justinian, caused all
Plato's works to be translated into Persian, and professed to be
himself able to comprehend even the mysteries of the ' Tirnasus.'
The Greek sophist is naturally indignant at the impudence of
the foreigner who could pretend that " his own barbarous and
rustic language " was capable of expressing the divine thoughts
of the Athenian sage ; for he little suspected that the great
King, or at any rate the Magi and " Sufis " about him, were
masters of the sources whence Plato may have ultimately drawn
his inspiration whilst planning that inscrutable composition.
The religious instruction of the Persian princes had from the
beginning been carefully attended to, and proficiency therein
was a matter of pride : thus Cyrus the younger puts forward
his superior knowledge of Theology (in his manifesto upon
claiming the kingdom) as a just cause why he should be
preferred to his^elder brother.

Leaving out of the question the now received theory as to
the immigration of the " Indo-Germanic " race into the farthest
recesses of Europe, modern history furnishes the example of ex
tensive migration, effected under infinitely greater difficulties, by
the hordes of low-caste Hindoos, who, flying from the invasion
of Tamerlane, spread themselves all over Europe as Gipsies, still
retaining their native language and habits, and to the present
day claiming " Sind" or " Siridha" for their national name.

The facts adduced in the foregoing sketch will suffice to
indicate the manner in which the germs of the various Gnostic
doctrines were impoited from the East, how they M ve engrafted
upon previously existing notions, and how vigorously they
flourished when transplanted into the kindly soil of Alexandria
and Ephesus. To complete the general view of the subject,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

57

before proceeding to consider the tangible monuments left us
by these ideas, it will be necessary to give some account of the
forms in which they attained to their fullest development.
For this purpose I shall select the three principal systems, re
presented by historians as the parents of all the rest, those of
Simon Magus, Bcuilides, and the Ojjltitcs ; the most satisfactory
manner of doing which will bo to transcribe the exact words
of the well-informed and impartial llippolytus.

FIG. 3.

58 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

SIMONIANISM.

"It is my intention hero to exhibit the system of Simon
Magus, a native of Gitteh in Samaria, and I will prove that
from him all those that come after have derived the elements
of their doctrines, and impudently attempted the same things
under different appellations. This Simon was skilled in magic
and had imposed upon great numbers, partly by practising the
art of Thrasymedes after the manner which I have already
exposed (in the Book upon ' Magicians '), and partly by miracle-
working through the agency of demons. He attempted to
set up for a god, being a thorough impostor and altogether
unscrupulous and daring ; for he was that one whom the
Apostles confuted, as is recorded in the Acts.

" Much more wisely therefore and sensibly than Simon did
that Apscthus act, when he aimed at being accounted a god,
who went to work in Libya ; whose story, not being very
dissimilar to the scheme of our foolish Simon, it were fitting
here to quote, inasmuch as it is quite of a piece with the
procedure of the latter.

" Apsethus the Libyan was very desirous of making himself a
god, but when, after long labouring, he had failed in his
endeavours, he wanted, as the next best thing, to be supposed to
have made himself a god ; and in fact for a considerable time
he did enjoy such a reputation. For the simple Libyans used
to sacrifice to him as to a Divine Power, in the belief that they
were obeying a voice sent forth out of Heaven. He had got
together and confined several parrots in one and the same little
room, for parrots are plentiful all over Libya, and they distinctly
mimic the human voice ; and having kept these birds for some
time, he taught them to say ' Apsethus is a god.' And when
the birds in course of time were taught, and could speak that
sentence which he supposed, when spoken, would cause him
to pass for a god, then he opened their place of confinement.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 59

and allowed the parrots to escape in different directions. And
as the birds flew about, the sound was carried all over Libya,
and the words travelled as far as the Greek territory (Gyrene) ;
and thus the Libyans, being struck with amazement at the
voice of the birds, and not suspecting the trick played them by
Apsethus, accounted him a god. But one of the Greeks having
clearly detected the contrivance of the supposed deity, did, by
means of the self- same parrots, not merely confute, but also
extinguish that vain-glorious and impudent fellow. This Greek
caged several of the same parrots, and taught them to utter a
contrary strain, * Apsethus shut us up, and forced us to say
Apsethus is a god.' But when the Libyans heard this recan
tation of the parrots, they all came together with one accord,
and burnt Apsethus alive,

" In this light wo ought to regard the magician Simon,
and compare him to this Libyan, a man who made him
self a god in that very expeditious manner ; for in truth the
comparison holds good in all particulars, and the sorcerer met
with a fate not unlike that of Apsethus. I will therefore
endeavour to un-tcach Simon's parrots by showing that Simon
was not the Christ ' AVho hath stood, standeth, and shall
stand,' but a man, mortal, generated from the seed of woman,
begotten from blood and carnal concupiscence like the rest of
mankind : and that such was the fact I shall clearly demonstrate
in the course of my narrative. For Simon speaks, when in
terpreting the Law of Moses, in an impudent and fraudulent
fashion, for whenever Moses says ' Our God is a burning and
a consuming fire,' Simon, taking what Moses has said in a false
sense, maintains that Fire is the Principle of all things. lie
does not perceive the true meaning that God is not ' a fire,'
but ' a burning and a consuming fire,' and so not only mutilates
the Law of Moses, but plagiarises from Heraclitus, suriiamed
* the Obscure.' For Simon designates the Principle of all
things * Boundless Power ' in the following words : * This is
the Book of the Declaration of the Voice, and of the Name, from
the inspiration of the Great, the Boundless Power. Wherefore
the same is sealed, hidden, wrapped up, stored in the dwelling
wherein the lioot of all things is established.' This dwelling

60 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

he says, signifies Man here below, who is born of blood, and
also signifies that there dwells within him that ' Boundless
Power' which he asserts is the Root of all things. But this
Boundless Power (or Fire, according to Simon) is not a simple
substance, in the same way as most people who call the
Elements ' simple ' account Fire likewise as simple : on the
contrary, he maintains that the nature of Fire is, as it were,
double ; and of this double number he terms one part the
Insensible, the other the Visible; asserting that the insensible
are contained within the visible parts of the Fire, and that the
visible parts are generated by the invisible. (This is the same
thing that Aristotle expresses by his ' Force ' and ' Energy ' ;
and Plato by his ' Intelligible ' and * Sensible.')

" Again the Visible part of Fire contains within itself all things
whatsoever one can perceive, or even fail to perceive, of things
visible. The Invisible, on the other hand, is whatsoever one
can conceive as an object of thought, but which escapes the
sense, or even what one fails to comprehend by the thought.
And to sum up, it may be said that of all things that exist,
whether objects of sense or of thought, or, as Simon terms them,
Visible and Invisible, the store-house is the Great Fire that is
above the heavens : ' As it were a great Tree, like to that seen
in his dream by Nabuchadonosor, from the which all flesh was
fed.' And the Visible he considers to be the trunk of the Tree
and the branches, and the leaves, and the bark surrounding the
same on the outside. All these parts of the great Tree, says
he, are kindled from the all-devouring flame of the Fire, and
are destroyed. But the Fruit of the Tree, if it takes a shape
and assumes a proper form, is laid up in a storehouse, and not
cast into the fire. For the fruit is made in order that it may be
laid up in the storehouse, but the husk that it may be committed
to the fire ; which same is the trunk, ordained not for the sake
of the husk but of the fruit.

"And this, according to Simon, is what is written in the
Scripture : ' The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the House of
Israel, and a man of Judah the well-beloved branch thereof.'
Now, if a man of Judah be the ' well-beloved branch,' it is a
proof that the wood can be nothing else than a man. But as

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 61

regards the excretion and the dispersion from the same, the
Scripture hath spoken fully and sufficiently for the instruction
of all such as be brought to their perfect form : according to
the saying, * All flesh is grass, and the glory thereof as the
flower of the grass; the grass withereth, the flower thereof
fadeth, but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.' Now
this Word of the Lord, says Simon, is the word that is produced
in the mouth, that is, Speech ; for the place of its birth is
nowhere else.

" To be brief therefore : since, according to Simon, the Fire is
of the aforesaid nature, and all things that be, both visible and
invisible, and vocal and voiceless, and numbered and un
numbered, are this Fire, therefore in his ' Great Bevelation ' ho
terms this the Fountain-head of all, the Great Intellectual, as
constituting each individual of all things in their infinite order,
which are capable of being conceived in the mind, and likewise
of speaking, of thinking, and of acting. As Empedocles
hath it—

" ' Through Earth, the Earth perceive, through Water, Water ;
Through. Air scan Air; through Fire the hidden Fire;
Through Love view Love; through Discord, hateful Discord.'

" For Simon held that all the members of this Fire, both the
Visible and the Invisible, possessed intelligence and a portion of
mind. The world that is created, consequently, according to
him, comes from the uncreated Fire. The commencement of
its creation was in this wise : six ' Eadicals ' ( lit. Boots), the
First Principles of the beginning of Creation, were taken by
the Begotten One out of the Principle of that Fire; for he
asserts that these Six Eadicals emanated by pairs out of the
Fire. These Six Eadicals he names, 'Mind and Intelligence,
Voice and Name, Eeason and Thought.' And there exists in
these Eadicals taken together the whole of the 'Boundless
Power,' but existing in potentiality, not in activity. And this
Boundless Power Simon calls ' He who standeth, hath stood,
and shall stand ; ' who, if ho shall be figured (invested with
form) when he is in those Six Powers, shall be in reality, force,
power and perfection, the one and the same with the Un-
begotten Boundless Power. But if he shall abide in potentiality

62 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

alone in those Six Powers, and not assume a/orwz, he vanishes
and perishes, as does a grammatical or a geometrical power
in a man's mind. For potentiality, when it has gotten art,
becomes the light of things generated; but when it has not
gotten art (execution) it remains in inertness and darkness, and
exactly as when it did not exist at all, and dies with the man
upon his death.

" Now of these Six Powers, and of the Seventh which goes
along with them, the First Thought Simon terms ' Mind and
Intellect,' ' Heaven and Earth ' ; teaching that the one of the
male sex looks down upon and takes care of his consort ; whilst
the Earth below receives from Heaven the ' Intellect,' and
fruits of the same nature with the Earth, which are poured
down from above. For this cause, says Simon, the Word, often
looking down upon the things that spring out of Mind and
Intellect, says, ' Hear, 0 Heavens, and receive with thine ears,
O Earth ! for the Lord hath spoken : I have begotten and
brought up sons, but they have despised me.' He that saith
this is the Seventh Power, ' He who standeth, hath stood, and
shall stand ; ' for He is the author of those good things which
Moses commended, saying that they were very good.

' Voice and name are the Sun and Moon ; * Reason and
Thought ' are air and water. But with all of these is mingled
and combined that Boundless Power, ' He who standeth,' as I
have already mentioned.

" Therefore when Moses says, ' In six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested from all his
works,' Simon, distorting the passage after the aforesaid
fashion, makes himself out to be God. "When therefore, the
Simonians say that there were three days before the Sun and
the Moon were made, they understand by it Mind and Intelli
gence, or Heaven and Earth, and also that ' Boundless Power '
of theirs. For these three Powers were made before all the rest.
Again, where it is said : ' Before all the world he hath begotten
me,' these words, as they pretend, refer to the Seventh Power
Now this Seventh Power, who was a Power existing within the
Boundless Power, and who was made before all the world, this,
as Simon teaches, is that Seventh Power of whom Moses spake :

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 63

* And the Spirit of God moved upon tho face of tho waters,'
that is to say, the Spirit containing all things within itself, tho
Image of tho Boundless Power, concerning which Simon saith,

* tho image is tho incorruptible Power governing all things by
himself ! '

" Now the'creation of the world having been after this or a
similar fashion, God, says he, made Man out of clay taken from
the earth ; and he made them not single, but double, both as
regards the image, and the likeness. For the image is the
Spirit moving upon the face of the waters, who, if he be not
clothed with form will perish together with the world, inas
much as ho abode merely in potentiality, and was not made
concrete by activity. For this is the meaning of the Scripture :

* Lest wo be condemned together with the world.' But if it
shall take a form, and spring out of an indivisible point, it is
what is written in the Eevelation : ' The little shall become
great.' This ' Great ' shall continue to all eternity, and
unchangeable, inasmuch as it is no longer to le made (z'.e., no
longer abstract).

" In what way therefore, and after what manner did God form
man ? In Paradise — for in this point Simon also agreed. But
this ' paradise ' must be the womb (according to him), and that
such is the true explanation is proved by the Scripture, which
saith, ' I am he that formed thee in thy mother's womb,' for so
he will have it to be written. The womb Moses called Paradise
by an allegory, if we choose to listen to the word of God ; for if
God did form man in his mother's womb, that is, in paradise
then * Paradise ' must needs signify the womb. * Eden ' is
that same region, and the river going forth out of Eden to
water the garden, is the navel. This navel is divided into four
heads; because from each part thereof proceed two arteries
running side by side, channels for the breath ; and also two
veins, channels for the blood. When, therefore, this navel
proceeding out of the region, Eden, is attached to the foetus at
the lower belly which we commonly term the navel. . . [Here
some words are evidently lost]. And the two veins through
which the blood flows, and is carried out of the region Eden,
through what are called 'the gates of the liver' which nourish

64 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the embryo. Again, the two tubes which we have spoken of as
the channels of the blood, embrace the bladder at each side of
the pelvis, and touch the great artery which runs along the
same, called the aorta ; and thus the breath, passing through
the veins into the heart, produces the motion of the embryo.
For so long as the child is being formed in ' paradise,' it neither
takes nourishment through the mouth, nor breathes through
the nostrils ; for, placed as it is in the midst of fluid, it would be
instant death for it, were it to breathe, inasmuch as it would
draw a fluid and be destroyed. Moreover, the child is conceived
within an envelope, which is called the aminium ; but it receives
nourishment through the navel, and takes in the essence of the
breath through the dorsal artery above described. The Eiver,
therefore, going forth out of Eden, is divided into four heads,
namely, Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Touching and Tasting, for
these are the only senses that the infant formed in Paradise is
possessed of.

" This then, according to Simon, is the law which Moses gave
and his Four Books are written in accordance with that law, as
their own titles do manifest. For the first book is Genesis; the
very title, he affirms, were sufficient for the understanding of
the whole matter. For this ' Genesis ' is the Sight, into which
one section of the Eiver branches off", because the whole outer
world is perceived through the sight. Again, the title of the
second book is Exodus, which signifies that it was necessary for
the thing born to pass through the Eed Sea (meaning by
<Eed Sea,' the blood), and to enter into the wilderness, and to
drink of the bitter water (Marah). Now this * bitter water '
which lies beyond the Eed Sea, is the path of knowledge during
life, which leads through places toilsome and unpleasant. But
after it hath been changed by Moses, that is, by the Word, that
same bitter water becometh sweet. And that such is the reality
one may learn from everybody who exclaims in the words of
the poet :—

u « Black is the root, the flower as white as milk,
Named Moly by the gods, full hard to find
By mortals :" but the gods all things can do.'

" Even what is said by the Gentiles is sufficient for the under-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEItt REMAINS. Of>

standing of the whole matter unto him that hath oars to hear.
lie that tasted of tho fruit given by Circe* was not only
himself not changed into a beast, but by making use of the
virtue of tho self-same fruit, remodelled, reformed and re
called those already transformed by her into their own proper
shape. For the Faithful Man, and the beloved by that
sorceress, is found out by means of that divine and milky
potion.

" In the like manner Leviticus is the Third Book (or River) ;
which signifies the sense of smell, or the respiration ; for the
whole of that Book is concerning sacrifices and oblations. But
wheresoever there is sacrifice, there also dues a sweet smell of
perfume arise up from the sacrifice; concerning which sweet
odour the sense of smelling' is the approver.

" ' Numbers,' the Fourth of the Books, signifies the Taste, for
then the speech is active, inasmuch as it is through the Speech
that all objects are designated in numerical order.

" ' Deuteronomy,' Simon makes out, is so named in reference
to the child that has been formed for Touching. For as the
Touch doth by feeling reciprocate and confirm the impressions
received by tho other senses ; proving an object to be either
hard, or hot, or slippery — in the like manner the Fifth Book of
the Law is a recapitulation of the four preceding Books.

" All things, therefore (continues he), that are not created exist
within us in potentiality, not in activity ; like the science of
grammar, or of geometry. In the case, therefore, where they
shall have met with the proper training and instruction, there
4 shall the Bitter be turned into Sweet ' ; that is, ' the spears
shall be turned into reaping-hooks, and the swords into plough
shares ; ' they shall be no longer chaff and sticks born for the fire,
but the Perfect Fruit, like and equal, as already said, unto the
Unbegotten and Boundless Power. But where the Tree shall
stand alone, not bearing fruit, there, because it hath not received
form, it shall be destroyed. ' For now (saith he) the axe is nigh
unto the root of tho tree. Every tree therefore that beareth not
good fruit, is hewn down and cast into tlie fire.'

* Simon has here forgotten his " Odyssey " ; the antidote Moly having
been given to Ulysses hy Hermes.

F

66 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

" According to Simon, therefore, that blessed and inscrutable
thing lies hidden, and within every man, but in potentiality
alone, not in activity; the which is 'He who standeth, hath
stood, and shall stand ' ; who standeth above in the Unbegotten
Power, who hath stood below in the * River of Waters ' when he
was begotten in the image, and who shall stand above by the side
of the Blessed and Boundless Power, provided that he shall have
received form. For there are three that stand, and unless there
be the three ^Eons that stand, ' the Begotten One is not adorned,'
meaning Him, who, according to Simon's teaching, moved upon
the face of the waters ; who hath been re-created after the
image, perfect and heavenly; who likewise is in no degree
lower than the Unbegotten Power."

" This is a saying amongst the Simonians, ' I and thou are one ;
thou before me, I after thee.' * Tltis is the One Power, divided
into Above and Below, begetting itself, nourishing itself,
seeking after itself/finding itself, being its own mother, its own
father, its own sifter, its own consort, its own daughter, son
mother, father, inasmuch as it alone is the Root of all things.'

" That Fire is the origin of the generation of all things gene
rated, Simon demonstrates after this fashion. ' Of all things
whatsoever that exist, being generated, the final cause of the
desire for their generation proceeds out of Fire. For " to be set
on fire " is the term used to designate the desire of the act of
generation and propagation. Now this "Fire," which is one, is
changed into two. For in the male the blood which is hot and
red, like Fire in a visible shape, is converted into seed ; in the
female this same blood is converted into milk. And this change
in the male becomes the generation-faculty itself; whilst the
change in the female becomes the instrument (efficient cause),
of the thing begotten. This (according to Simon) is the
" Flaming Sword," which is brandished to keep the way unto the
Tree of Life. For the blood is turned into seed and into milk ;
and this Power becomes both father and mother ; the father of
those that be born, and the nutriment of those that be nourished ;
standing in need of none other, sufficient unto itself. More
over the Tree of Life, which is guarded by the brandished naming
sword is, as we have said, the Seventh Power, the self-begotten,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 67

which comprehends all the others, and which is deposited within
the other Six Powers. For if that Flaming Sword should not be
brandished, then would that beautiful Tree be destroyed and
perish ; but when it is changed into the seed and the milk, then
lie that is stored up within them in potentiality, having ob
tained the necessary Logos {Reason) and the fitting place
wherein that Logos may be generated, then, beginning as it were
from the smallest spark, he shall wax great to perfection, and
increase, and become a Power without end, and without change,
being equal and like unto the infinite TEon, being no more
begotten again to all eternity.'

" Now, on the strength of this theory, as all are agreed, Simon
made himself out a god unto the ignorant, like that Libyan
Apsethus above mentioned ; ' being begotten and subject to
passion so long as he is in potentiality, but not subject to
passion after he shall have been begotten, and have received the
image, and having been made perfect shall pass out of the
dominion of the first two Powers, that is, of Heaven and Earth.'
For Simon speaks expressly upon this point in his ' Revelation,1
in the following manner. ' Unto you therefore I say what I
say, and write what I write. The Writing is this. There are
Two stocks of all the /Eons put together, having neither be
ginning nor end, springing out of one Root, the which is Silence,
invisible, inconceivable, of which Stocks, the one shows itself
from above, the which is a great Power, Mind of the all, per
vading all things, and of the male sex : the other, showing itself
from below, is the Great Intelligence, and is of the female sex ;
generating all things. From thence they correspond with each
other, and keep up a partnership, and illuminate the Middle
Space lying between them (which is the air), inconceivable,
having neither beginning nor end. In this Middle Space is the
Father, who bears up all things and nourishes the things that
have beginning and ending. This is " He who standeth, hath
stood, and shall stand ; being both male and female, a Power
after the image of the pre-existing infinite Power, that hath
neither beginning nor ending, existing in Unity." For the In
telligence in Unity proceeded out of this last and became Twain.
Now He (the Father) is One, for whilst he contained that

F 2

DO THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Power within himself he was single ; nevertheless he was not the
First, although he was pre-existent, but when he was mani
fested to himself out of himself, he became Second, and neither
was he named the " Father," before that Power called him
Father. In the like manner therefore as the drawing- forth
himself out of himself manifested unto himself his- own Intelli
gence, so did this Intelligence also, when manifested, not create,
but contemplate Him; and thereby stood-up the Father within
herself, that is to say, the Power. And this Intelligence like
wise is both a male and female Power ; on which account they
answer to one another, for the Power differs not at all from the
Intelligence, being one and the same. From that which is
above, indeed, is formed the Power ; from that which is below,
the Intelligence. Of the same kind therefore is the Unity,
which is manifested out of them both ; for being one it is found
to be Twain ; both male and female, containing within itself
the female. In this manner the Mind exists within the Intelli
gence ; which, when severed from each other, although they
are One, are found to be Two.'

" Simon, therefore, by publishing these notions, did not merely
distort arid wrest to his own purpose the sayings of Moses, but
equally those of the heathen poets. For he makes an allegory
out of the Trojan Horse of wood, and the story of Helen with
the torch, and much else, which he applies to his own fables
concerning himself and his ' Intelligence.' * Again he makes
out the latter to be the Lost Sheep, which, always taking up her
abode in the persons of women, doth cause trouble amongst all
earthly Powers by reason of her incomparable beauty ; where
fore the Trojan War came to pass because of her. For this
' Intelligence ' * of his took up her abode in Helen who was born
just at that time ; and so, when the Powers laid claim to her
possession, strife and discord arose amongst all the nations to
whom she manifested herself. At any rate, it was on this
account that Stesichorus, for having reviled her in his verses,
was deprived of sight ; but afterwards, when he had repented,

* That is his wife Helena. By a of Novara also went about accom-
remarkable, though doubtless uii- panied by a similar female " Intelli-
designed coincidence, Fia Dolcino gence."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

and written his * Recantation,' in which ho sang her praises,
he recovered the use of his eyes. Then, after she had been
placed in another body by the Angels and the Powers below
(who according to Simon were the creators of the world), she
was standing upon a housetop* in Tyre, a city of Pho3nicia, where
he found her on his landing. For he pretends to have gono
thither expressly in quest of her, to deliver her out of bondage ;
and, after having ransomed her, he always carried her about
with him, pretending that this was the Lost Sheep, and ho
himself was the Power that is over all. But the truth is, the
impostor had become enamoured of this harlot, whose real
name was Helena, so that he bought and kept her ; but out ol
shame as regards his disciples, he invented the aforesaid fable.
Furthermore, nowadays those that be the followers of this
deceiver and magician, Simon, imitate his example, asserting
that it is right to have'intercourse with all women promiscuously,
for they say * All land is land, and it matters not where one
sows his seed so long as he does sow it.' Nay more, they pride
themselves upon this promiscuous intercourse, affirming that
this is the ' Perfect Love,' and quote the text ' The Holy
of holies shall be made holy.' For they hold that they are
bound by no obligation as regards anything usually accounted
wicked, inasmuch as they have been redeemed. In this way,
Simon, after he had ransomed Helena, granted salvation unto men
by means of his own Knowledge (or the Gnosis). For inasmuch
as the Angels governed the world badly by reason of their own
ambitiousness, Simon pretended that he was come to set all
things right, having changed his form, and made himself like
to the Principalities, the Powers, and the Angels ; wherefore it
was that he appeared in man's shape, though not a man at all,
and had suffered the Passion in Judaea, although he had not
suffered it; moreover that he had manifested himself to the
Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, and amongst the
Gentiles elsewhere as the Holy Ghost, but that he submitted to
be called by whatever name men pleased. The Prophets were
inspired by the Angels, creators of the world, when they

* A euphemism for " living in a which these ladies advertised them-
brothel," such being the mode in selves.

70 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

delivered their prophecies ; on which account those who believe
in Simon and Helena pay no regard to them, even in our times ;
and they do whatever they please, affirming that they are re
deemed through Ms grace. For nothing is the cause of dam
nation, supposing a man to act wickedly, for Evil is evil not
through the nature of things but by convention. For the Angels
who created the world ordained it to be so (as they assert),
in order that they might keep in subjection, by means of such
fictions, all men who should listen to them. Furthermore they
explain the dissolution of the world as referring to the redemp
tion of their own sect.

" The disciples, therefore, of this Simon, practise magic arts
and incantation, and make philtres and seductive spells ; they
likewise send the so-called 'dream-bringing' demons to trouble
whomsoever they choose. They likewise practise the rites of
the gods named Paredroi (the Assessors) ; they have also an
image of Simon in the guise of Jupiter, and likewise one of
Helena in the figure of Minerva ; and these they worship,
calling one the * Master,' the other the ' Mistress.' "*

So much for the system of the renowned Samaritan, in which,
it will have been seen, the place of logical reasoning is supplied
by quibbles upon words, taken absolutely without any reference
to the context— a style of argument, however, for which it must
be confessed that he had highly respectable authority. In
strong contrast to this stands the next system, which displays
much of the refinement and sound training (amidst its extrava
gance) of the Grecian mind.

BASILIDES.

Hippolytus, in accordance with his theses that all these
" heresies " were mere plagiarisms from the more ancient
philosophical systems, declares that Basilides stole the entire of
his scheme from Aristotle, and proceeds to establish his charge
by the following comparative analysis of the two.

" Aristotle divides all substance into the Genus, the Species,

* Hero follows the account of his career and end, already extracted
(pp. 21, 22).

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

71

and the Individual The Genus is, as it were, a heap composed
of many and different seeds, from which heap all the Species
are taken ; and the genus is the sufficient cause to all things
that exist. For example, 'Animal' is used absolutely, not
signifying any particular animal. ' Animal ' does not signify
a horse, an ox, or a man, but simply 'animal.' From this
abstract ' animal ' all the species of animals universally derive
their origin, and this ' animal ' without species is the origin of
all animals generated according to their species, and not any
one thing of things generated. Thus, Man is an animal,
deriving his origin from the ' animal,' and Horse is an animal
in the same manner. Similarly all other animals are derived
from that 'animal,' who yet in itself is none of them. If
therefore that 'animal' is none of these, then, according to
Aristotle, the substance of all things that are proceeds out of
things that are non-existent, inasmuch as the ' animal,' out of
which they all proceed individually, is not one thing (or ' is
nothing at all '). And this, being Nothing, is the origin of
all that le.

" Now substance being divided into three classes — the genus,
the species, and the individual— we have defined the genus as
' animal,' 'man' as the species picked out of the heap of
animals, but as yet undiscriminated, and not separated into the
form of a particular being. But when I define by a special
name, like Socrates, or Diogenes, a man taken from the species
the genus, then that being is termed the ' individual.' Thus
the genus is divided into species, the species into individual ;
but the individual once being denned by name cannot be
divided any further. This is what Aristotle calls justly and
properly ' Substance,' that which cannot be predicated ' of the
subject,' nor 'in the subject.' By the term 'of the subject'
he means such an idea as ' animal,' which can be predicated of
all the subject animals individually— as a horse, an ox, a man-
all being called by the same name, ' animal.' Hence, what can
be predicated ' of the subject ' is that which applies to many
and different species indiscriminately. ' In the subject ' means
that which cannot be predicated without the previous existence
of something else wherein it may exist, as 'white,' 'black/

72 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

' just,' ' unjust ; ' which are the ' accidents ' to substance, and
therefore called ' qualities,' because expressing what sort of thing
each thing is. But no one quality can exist in itself; there must
be something else for it to exist in. If, therefore, neither the
genus 'animal,' which is predicated of all animals existing
individually, nor ' accident,' which is only to be found in things
that exist, can either of them exist by themselves ; and if indi
viduals are made up of these two, namely genus and accident,
then it follows that substance, which is made up of these three,
and nothing besides, is made up of things that are non-existent.

" If, therefore, what is properly and primarily termed * sub
stance' (the Individual) is made up of these, it is, according
to Aristotle, made up of things non-existent.

" Besides the terms Genus, Species, Individual, Substance is
further designated as ' Matter ' and ' Formation.' Upon this
definition rests the Basilidan theory of the Universe. The
Universe Basilides divides into several parts : That part which
extends from the earth up to the moon is destitute of foresight
and of conduct, and is content with its own nature. The part
beyond the moon is constituted with foresight, reason, and
conduct, up to the surface of heaven. This ' surface ' is a fifth
substance, free from all the elements out of which the world
was created ; this, therefore, is the * fifth and supra-mundane
subbtaucc.' These three divisions Aristotle has treated of in
three separate works : his ' Physics,' ' Metaphysics,' and ' On
the Fifth Substance.' Not merely bis ideas, but his words and
terminology have been borrowed by Basilides, and applied to
the Scriptures. How, then, can his disciples, being in reality
heathens, expect to be benefited by Christ ?

" Basilides and his true son and disciple Isidorus, assert that
Matthew (the Evangelist) revealed to them certain secret
doctrines which had been specially communicated to himself by
Christ. ' There was a time when there was Nothing ; nay, not
even that " Nothing " was anything of being, but barely and
without reserve, and without any sophism, there was altogether
Nothing. When I use the term " was," I do not mean to imply
that this Nothing was, but in order to explain what I wish to
set forth, I employ the expression " there was absolutely

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 73

Nothing." Now that which is called " Ineffable " is not abso
lutely ineffable, for we ourselves give it that name of ineffable ;
whereaS'that which is not even ineffable is not " ineffable," but
infinitely above every name that can be named. Even for the
Visible world, so multifarious are its divisions that wo have
not names enough ; but we are reduced to conceive many of its
properties from the names of the properties already named,
these (other) properties being ineffable. For an identity of
names occasions a disorder and confusion of ideas in the mind of
the learner.' (This is a direct plagiarism from Aristotle's
discussion of synonyms in his book ' On the Categories.')

" When therefore Nothing was — no substance, no non-sub
stance, no simple, no compound, no incomprehensible, no
sensible, no man, no angel, no God — when there was nothing
whatever of what is called by name, perceived by sense,
conceived by the mind, but all, and even in a more refined
sense than this, being put out of the question — then this No-
being God (Aristotle's ' thought of a thought,' which Basil ides
alters into his ' No-being '), without thought, without purpose,
without counsel, without passion, without desire, willed to
make the world. I use the word 'willed* merely to express
my meaning, it being without thought, without sensation,
without will, that this was done ; and by * world ' I do not
mean that world created afterwards and divided by latitude
and longitude, but I understand by it * the Seed of the World.'
This * Seed of the World ' contained the All within itself, just
as the germ of the mustard-seed contains the root, the stalk, the
leaves, the grain, the last containing again the rudiments of
others innumerable. Thus the No-being God created the No-
being world out of No-being things, when he deposited the
seed containing within itself the complete seeds of the universe.
And to give an illustration of my meaning : the egg of any
bird of diversified plumage— the peacock, for example — although
itself single, yet includes within itself the many-coloured,
multifarious forms of multifarious substances; so, in like
manner, did this seed of the world deposited by the No-being
God include within itself the multiform, multifarious seeds of
the universe.

74 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

" This seed, then, contained all things that can be named ; nay
more, all things that can not be named, as yet hidden in
futurity, and to come forth after their kind by accretion, and by
growth, after the manner in which we see the new-born infant
acquire his teeth, his flesh, his father's form, and all his under
standing, and all such things that come to the child as it grows
up, not apparent in him at the beginning. Now, inasmuch as
it is impossible to use the term ' projection ' of the No-being
God (in fact, Basilides is opposed to all schemes of creation by
means of a 'projection'), for we must not suppose Matter
necessary to his operations in the same way as her threads are
to the spider, or as timber and metal to man when he sets
about any work ; but ' He spake and it was made ' ; and this is
what Moses means by his ' Let there be light, and there was
light.' Whence, then, was this light ? Moses saith not whence
it was, but that it was from the word of the speaker; but
neither He that spoke was, neither was that which was made.
The seed of the world was this word that was spoken, 'Let
there bo light.' And to this the evangelist refers by his ' And
that was the true Light which enlighteneth every man coming
into the world.' For man draws his beginning out of that
seed, and is illuminated thereby." (This " seed," therefore,
divided into infinite other seeds, is nothing else than Aristotle's
"genus," which is divided into infinite other "species," as
"animal," the genus, itself non-existent, is divided into
"species," as ox, horse, man, &c.)

" Having, therefore, got this seed for his starting-point,
Basilides goes on thus : ' Whatever I speak of as made after
this, there is no need of inquiring out of what it was made,
seeing that this seed comprehended within itself the principles
of the All. Now let us examine what came out of this seed in
the first, second, and third place. There was in the seed a
Sonship, triple, of the same substance with the No-being God,
and generated by him. In this triple Sonship one part was
subtile, another gross, the third needing purification.* Upon
the first projecting (emitting) of the seed, the subtile element
disengaged itself, ascending aloft " like a feather or a thought,"

* Corresponding to " Immaterial, Material, and Mixed."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 75

and arrived at the No-being One. For Him all Nature de-
sircth, by reason of the super-eminence of his beauty and
perfection. The gross part endeavoured to imitate its example,
but was weighed down by its coarser nature, and detained
within the seed. To assist it, therefore, the Sonship equips it
with a wing, such as Plato in his " Phaedrus " wings the soul
withal. Now this wing is the Holy Ghost, which the grosser
part putting on, is both advantaged itself, and advantages the
other. For the wings of a bird are not able to fly if severed
from the bird, neither can the soul fly if separated from her
wings. Such, then, is the relationship borne by the Sonship to
the Holy Ghost, and also by the Holy Ghost to the Sonship.
Soaring aloft, therefore, upon its wings — that is, upon the Holy
Ghost, this Soul Part carried its wings, the Holy Ghost, along
with it up to the No-being God, and the Sensible Sonship, but
was unable to comprehend the latter, because its own nature is
not constituted of the same substance with Him. But in the
same way as dry and pure air is repugnant to the nature of
fishes, so the place, more ineffable than the Ineifable One, and
more lofty than all names that can be named, the seat of the
No-being God and of the Subtile Part, was contrary to the
nature of the Holy Ghost. On this account, the Sonship left
it near to that place which cannot be conceived by mind, nor
described by words, though not altogether abandoned by
himself, but retaining something of his power (or essence), just
as a vessel once filled with a precious perfume ever retains
traces of that perfume, however carefully it may have been
emptied. And this is manifestly like the ointment upon the
head "which ran down to Aaron's beard" — that is, the perfume
of the Sonship, brought down by the Holy Ghost even into the
impurity and degradation of mortality, out of which itself at
the beginning had soared aloft, raised by the Sonship, as it
were, on eagle's wings, being itself fastened upon his back.
For all things struggle upwards from that which is below
towards that which is above, from the "worse towards the
better," whereas nothing of those above in the better place
seeks to descend below.'

"The third part of the Sonship — namely, that requiring

76 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIB REMAINS.

purification, remained included within the infinite head (or sum)
of infinite seeds, both giving and receiving benefit, in the
manner hereafter to be explained. After the first and second
ascensions of the Son ship, the Holy Ghost, which had been left
above, became the 'firmament' between the world and the
upper world. For Basilides divides all things that are into
two great classes, the ' world ' and the ' upper world ' ; the
Spirit, therefore, occupying the interval between the two
(namely, the Holy Ghost, which retains the odour of the Son-
ship) he terms the * Boundary Spirit.' Now after this
firmament above the world had been constituted, there broke
forth out of the Seed of the World the 'Great Archon,' the
Head of the World, or beauty, strength, magnitude indissoluble.
More irieifable is he than the Ineffable, more powerful than the
Powerful, wiser than the Wise, more beautiful than any beauty
that can be named. As soon as he was born he soared upwards
and reached the firmament, but tliat was the limit of his flight ;
for he knew not of the existence of anything beyond the
firmament, and therefore he remained more beautiful, more
powerful, more wise than any of the things subjacent, always
excepting the Sonship — that is, the Third impurified Person —
who still lay enclosed within the immense universal seed.
Imagining himself, therefore, to be Lord and Ruler and Intelli
gent Architect, he set about the creation of the world. In the
first place, not wishing to abide alone, he generated unto him
self a son out of things subjacent (mundane elements^), far wiser
and more beautiful than himself, for this son was in truth the
Third Person yet left enclosed within the seed. This thing had
been predestinated by the No-being God from the beginning ;
as soon as he beheld this son he was enamoured of his perfect
beauty, and bade him to sit down on his right hand. This
they call the ' Ogdoad,' the abode of the Great Archon. The
great and wise Demiurgus then made the entire setherial creation,
being inspired and empowered thereto by his own son, so far
above himself in wisdom." (This idea is copied from Aristotle's
" Entelechia " of the natural organic body ; the active soul in
the body being itself wiser, stronger, and better than the body.
The theory, therefore, propounded originally by Aristotle con-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 77

corning the body and the soul, Basilides thus applies to the
Great Archon and the Son whom he had created ; for as the
Archon creates the Son, so does Aristotle make the soul to be
the work and effect of the natural organic body.) " All things,
therefore, are ruled by the providence of the Great Archon " (or
rather, by the " Entelechia " of himself and son) — " all things,
that is to say, which lie below the moon, and within the aather —
for the moon is the division between the gather and the air.

" The creation being finished, there arose out of the seed a
' Second Archon,' but greatly inferior to the first, yet similarly
ineffable. This (Archon) is designated the ' Hebdomad.' He
proceeded to create all things below the aether of which he is the
Demiurgus ; and ho, in his turn, generated a son infinitely
superior to himself. The intermediate space between the
regions Ogdoad and Hebdomad is occupied by the universal
seed, the heap of species, the particles whereof are guided by
the intelligence implanted in them by the First Creator as to
the times, the natures, and the changes in which they have to
come forth, and possess no other guide, guardian, or creator.

" The whole creation was in this way completed, of the world
and of the things above the world ; but there was yet left
within the seed the ' Third Sonship,' who, in his turn, had to be
developed, revealed, and to ascend beyond the Boundary Spirit
up to the Subtile Sonship and the No-being One. This is the
interpretation (meaning) of the Scripture : ' The whole creation
groaneth and is in labour, waiting for the manifestation of the
sons of God.' These ' sons ' are the Spiritual Men left hero
below to guide and to perfect the souls that from their nature
belong to this place. * From Adam unto Moses sin reigned '
—that is to say, the Great Archon, who had dominion up to the
firmament, and imagined that he alone was God, and that there
was none other above him — for all above him was kept in the
deepest silence. This is the 'mystery not revealed unto the
Fathers ' ; the Great Archon, the Ogdoad, was, as he supposed,
the Lord and Ruler of the universe. But of the ' interval,' or
middle space, the Hebdomad was the ruler ; now the Ogdoad is
ineffable, but the Hebomad may be uttered by speech. This
ruler of the Hebdomad was He who spake unto Moses, saying,

78 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

' I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and tho Name of
God I have not revealed unto them ' — that is, He did not reveal
to them the ineffable ruler of the Ogdoad. All the prophets
who were before the Saviour's coming spoke through the
inspiration of the Second Archon.

" When the time was come for the manifestation of the Sons
of God, the Gospel came, penetrating through every power,
dominion, and name that can be named, although tho Sonship
did not come down from his place upon the right hand of the
Incomprehensible No-being One. But, like as Indian naphtha
kindles at the mere sight of fire a long way off, so do powers
fly up out of the seed to the Sonship that is beyond the firma
ment. The son of the Great Archon of the Ogdoad thus
receives, like as naphtha catches the distant flame, the ema
nations of the Sonship who is beyond the firmament ; and this
last, the Boundary Spirit, serves for the communication of the
thoughts fn>m the one to the other.

" The G ospel thus came to the Great Archon through his
own son, and ho was converted, and troubled, and became wise,
learning his own ignorance (or want of knowledge) ; and this is
the interpretation of ' The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom.' For the Christ, sitting by him, instructed him con
cerning the Ineffable No-being One, concerning the Son who is
beyond the firmament, and concerning the creation of the
universe. The Great Archon being thus instructed, was filled
with fear, and confessed the sin he had committed in magnifying
himself ; and this is the meaning of ' I acknowledge my trans
gression and I confess my sin.' When, therefore, the Great
Archon was enlightened, every creature of the Ogdoad was
likewise enlightened, and then came the time for the enlighten
ment and evangelising of the ruler of the Hebdomad. For this
end the son of the Great Archon communicated to the son of
the Second Archon the light which he himself had received
from above, and he communicated his instruction to his Father,
who in like manner was convinced of, and confessed his sin.
By this time every creature of the Hebdomad was enlightened,
and had the Gospel preached unto them. For in this division
(the region below the aether) also, there is an infinite creation

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 79

of powers, principalities, and dominions (concerning whom
Basilides has a lengthy dissertation; who moreover in this
region places the 365 heavens, and their ruler ABRASAX, so
called because his name contains that sum, for which reason
the year consists also of that number of days).

" After all this it was necessary that the Unformedncss (d/^op^ta)
existing in our region— that is, the Sonship still lying enclosed
in the mass like an abortion— should be enlightened in the same
manner with those aforementioned. The Light therefore passed
through the Hebdomad upon the son of the Hebdomad — that is,
upon Jesus, the son of Mary. This is ' the power of the Most
High shall overshadow thee,' namely, the power of unction,
descending from the Supreme through the Demiurgus upon
the Son.

"The present constitution of things will last until every
particle of the Sonship enveloped in the unformed mass shall be
attracted into Jesus, shall be disentangled and sublimated by
him, and rendered capable of ascending by itself to the first
source of Light, to which it bears a natural affinity.

"In this way the Three Persons of the Sonship being all
united once more above the firmament, then mercy shall bo
shown unto the creation, ' which languishes and groans waiting
for the manifestation of the sons of God ' ; for all men belonging
to the Sonship shall ascend up unto Him. When this is
accomplished, He will bring upon the world a deep ignorance, so
that all things here below shall abide in their nature, and
desire nothing contrary to their nature. By this means the
souls appointed to abide here below will be destitute of even
the slightest notion of anything existing above them, lest they
should be tormented by the fruitless desire of ascending up
into the same ; like as though a fish should desire to pasture
with the flocks upon the hills, a wish which, if gratified, would
be its destruction. For all things are eternal so long as they
continue in their natural place, but become mortal when they
endeavour to escape beyond it. The same ignorance will envelop
the ruler of the Hebdomad, in order that sorrow and grief and
confusion may flee away from him ; that he may no longer be
troubled with the desire of things above him and contrary to

80 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

his nature. This ignorance shall also come over the Great
Archon of the Ogdoad, and over all creatures subject unto him,
and for the same reason. This is the ' restoration of all things ;
enclosed from the beginning within the seed, and disposed
according to its season. This is the Saviour's meaning in ' My
hour is not yet come ' ; it is also signified by the Magi be
holding the star, inasmuch as His coming, proclaimed from the
beginning, was subject to the disposition of the stars.*

" The Gospel is the Declaration of supramundane things, which
the Great Archon knew not of. But when it was told him of
the Sonship, of the Boundary Spirit, and of the No-being God,
he rejoiced with an exceeding great joy. With respect to the
birth of Jesus, all things came to pass as they are written in
the Gospels. For He was the firstfrttits of the division of the
classes, previously all commingled here below. Now, as the
world is distributed into the Ogdoad, the head of the universe,
whoso chief is the Great Archon, and into the Hebdomad, whose
chief is the Demiurgus, chief also of our degree where Frailty
(liability to error) subsists, it was necessary that this Confusion
should be distributed and set in order by Jesus. That part of him,
therefore, which was of the ' Unfonnedness,' namely, his body
suffered what it did suffer and returned again into unformed-
ness ; that part which belonged to the Hebdomad, namely, his
soul, returned again into the Hebdomad after his resurrection ;
the part belonging to the Ogdoad remained with the Great
Archon, and the part belonging to the Boundary Spirit was
left there in his ascension. But the third Sonship, thus purified
in his passage upwards, was reunited to the Blessed Sonship
who is supremo above. (In short, the whole theory of the
religion consists in the Confusion of the Seed-heap, its Redistri
bution into classes, and the Restoration of all things to their
natural places. This division of the classes was made in the
first instance by Jesus, and the sole object of his passion was
the restoration of the classes, which were mixed up together,
into their proper order. And for this reason Jesus himself was

* This may allude to the Eab- the conjunction of Saturn and Jupi-
binical explanation of the " sign of tcr in Pisces.
the coming " of the Messiah as being

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

81

distributed as we have shown, amongst tho several classes.
These then are tho things that Basilides fables, who taught in
Egypt, and, having learned his wisdom from the Egyptians
"brought forth such fruits as these.) "

This concluding remark of Ilippolytus deserves particular
notice ; it shows that he regarded the Iksilidan theory as the mere
adaptation to present requirements of an ancient esoteric doctrine
belonging to the Egyptian priesthood. That it was nothing more
than a plagiarism from the Aristotelian philosophy, as the learned
Father labours to demonstrate with so much ingenuity, appears
to me by no means made out. But the Basilidan theory has one
striking feature that distinguishes it from every other form of
tho Gnosis, in its entirely ignoring the existence of an Ecil
Principle, or of malignity and rebellion against the Supreme
God. His two rulers of the upper and lower worlds, the Great
Archon of the Ogdoad, and the Demiurgus of the Hebdomad,
so far from opposing the Gospel receive it with joy, and
humbly acknowledge their inferiority to the sender. The
Passion of Jesus is not due to the malice of either of them, but
is voluntary, and undertaken as the sole means of restoring
confused elements of the All to the harmony indispensable for
their eternal duration. Even the final withdrawing of the
Divine Light from the Ogdoad and Hebdomad is done for the
same beneficent purpose, in order that both they and their
greatness may rest for ever in blissful ignorance, each holding
himself supreme in his own creation, and knowing of nothing
above it, may no longer be tormented by vain aspirations after
a state of perfection for which his nature is not adapted. The
benevolent spirit that pervades the whole theory strongly
supports the assertion of Hippolytus, and points out for its
source the Egyptian mythology, to which the notion of two
principles, equal in power but antagonistic in nature, would
have been unutterably shocking.

82 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

THE OPHITES.

The Ophites should hold by right the first place amongst
the schools we are considering, for that impartial and acute
historian of the Gnosis, Hippolytus, styles them, " The Naaseni
who specially call themselves * Gnostics.' But inasmuch as
this deception of theirs is multiform and has many heads (a
play upon their name of serpent-followers), like the Hydra of
fable, if I smite all the heads at once with the wand of Truth,
I shall destroy the whole serpent, for all the other sects differ
but little from this one in essentials." He therefore commences
his history of the Gnostic heresies, properly so called, with a
minute account of this one, illustrated with copious extracts
from their text-books ; on account of their antiquity and im
portance bestowing much more of his space upon them than
upon any other of their offshoots or competitors.

Their strange-sounding title " Naaseni " — " Followers of the
Naas " (the only way in which the Greek, from its want of
aspirate letters, could write the Hebrew Nachash, " Serpent ") —
was literally rendered by " Ophites," the name which has ever
since served to designate them. They first assumed a definite
existence about the same time as the Basilidans, in the middle
of the second century, although the elements of the doctrine
are derived from a source much more remote. That source
was the secret doctrines taught in the various Pagan Mysteries ;
and likewise certain philosophic theories of the Greeks,
although certainly not to the same extent as the learned
Hippolytus labours so ingeniously to demonstrate.

In support of this statement I shall proceed to quote from
the same Father some curious examples of the method in which
the Naaseni pretended to recognise their own " knowledge " in
the esoteric religions of antiquity. After quoting a long
passage from Pindar about the conflicting theories as to the
creation of the First Man* and the names given to him by
different nations, the Ophite text-book continues :

* " But the Libyans held that plains, first gathered the sweet dates
larbas was the first-born of men ; he of Jove. And even in our day, the
who, rising up out of their droughty Nile fattening the mud of Egypt,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 83

" This was the Man brought forth by the Earth spontane
ously ; but ho lay without breath, without motion, without
stirring, like a statue ; being made after the image of their
Adamas above, the subject of their hymns, through the agency
of several Powers, concerning each one of whom they narrate
a long fable. But in order that the Man above might be
obtained, ' from whom is every tribe upon the Earth, and
likewise in the Heavens,' there was given unto him a soul, that
through this soul the image of the Man above might suffer and
be chastened in bondage. As to the nature and source of this
soul sent down to animate this image, the Ophite theory is
derived not from Scripture, but from the doctrine of the Mysteries.
' The Gospel according to the Egyptians ' is their text-book on
this point. They premise that the nature of the soul is
extremely difficult to investigate by reason of its inherent
changeableness, never abiding fixedly in the same place, habits,
or passion : and they adopt in this particular the notions of the
Assyrian mystics. It is a question with them whether the soul
comes from the ' Pre-existing,' or from the ' Self-begotten One,'
or from the 'Effusion of Chaos.' They adopt the Assyrian
division of the soul as being both one and threefold ! For all
Nature longs for a soul ; the soul is the efficient cause of all
things that grow, are nourished and have action. For without
a soul, growth and nutrition are impossible ; even stones have
a soul, for they possess the faculty of growth, and this faculty
cannot exist without nutrition. All things therefore in
Heaven or Earth, and in the Abyss, are eager after a soul. This
soul the Assyrians call ' Adonis,' ' Endymion,' ' Attis ' ; and
hence arose the fable of the love of Venus for Adonis ; Venus
signifying generation. The love of Proserpine for Adonis means
that the soul is mortal if separated from Venus; that is, from
generation. When the Moon is enamoured of Endymion, it is
Nature herself desiring a more sublime soul. When the Mother
of the gods emasculates her lover, Attis, it signifies the Power

and giving life to things clothed arose in their country, Onnnf*, the
with flesh, through his moist heat eater of fish; but tne ilmldeuns say
breeds living creatures. The As- he was Arlam."
Syrians pretend that the First Man

G 2

84 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

above recalling into itself the male energy of the soul. For the
Man that is above is of both sexes." [On this account they
most vehemently denounce all intercourse with women.] " Attis
was deprived of his virility, that is, was divested of his lower,
earthly, part, and then translated to the Upper World, ' where
is neither male nor female, but a new creature,' the Man above,
of two sexes. And to this truth not only Ehea, but all
creation, beareth testimony. And to this doth Paul refer in
Komans (i. 20-27) : (where they strangely. pervert his expres
sion aa-x^/^oa-vvrj, as signifying that heavenly, sublime, felicity,
that absence of all form which is the real source of every form).
These same verses of Paul, according to them, contain the key
to their whole system, and to their ' Mystery of Celestial
Pleasure.' For the promise of * Washing ' applies to none save
the man who is introduced into the eternal pleasure, 'being
washed with the True Water, and anointed with the Unction
that cannot be spoken.' The Phrygian Mysteries, equally with
the Assyrian, teach the same great truth, when they teach the
blessed nature of things past, present, and to come, hidden and
yet manifested ; the ' true kingdom that is within you.' To
the same effect they bring forward the Gospel of Thomas, which
has, ' lie that seeketh shall find me amongst children from
seven years downwards, for in the fourteenth generation, being
hidden, I will manifest myself.' [Although in reality this is
not a maxim of Christ's, but a maxim of Hippocrates. ' The
boy at seven years of age is the half of his father,' — in stature.]
"The Egyptians were, after the Phrygians, the most ancient
of mankind, and the first establishers of mysteries. The
Ophites explain as follows the esoteric doctrine concerning
Isis, and the genital member of Osiris, lost, sought after, and
enveloped by her seven times in a black (or dark blue)*
vestment. Osiris is the element Water; Nature seven times
enveloped in an etherial robe, that is, the seven planetary
spheres, stands for Generation and Change, or Creation trans
formed by the ineffable, formless, imageless, incomprehensible
Deity. The same is implied in the words of Scripture, ' The
righteous man shall fall seven times, and ^hall rise again ' — his

* Me'Aas has both these meanii.'gs.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 85

all signifying tho revolutions of the planets put in motion by
the All-mover.

" They likewise discourse concerning the essence (or existence)
of the ' Seed,'* the final cause of all things that exist, although
itself none of them, and yet making and generating all things ;
or, as they themselves express it, ' I become what I will, and
am what I am ; therefore I say that moving all, I am myself
immovable.' For it continues what it is, making all things,
although itself is made nothing of all that exist. To this
doctrine the Saviour's words refer, ' Why callest thou me good ?
One only is good, my Father which is in Heaven, who maketh
the sun to shine upon the just and upon the unjust, and sendeth
His rain upon the sinners and upon tho righteous.' And this
is the great and unknown Mystery, hidden amongst the Egyptians
and yet manifested, for Osiris standeth in his temple before
Isis, having his secret part exposed and pointed upwards, and
crowned with all tho fruits of the creation. And for this
cause, the same member [the Phallus] holds the first position.
in the most sacred places, being shown forth unto the world,
'like a light set upon a candlestick' : it is sot up on the house
tops, and in the streets, and for landmarks. Jt is a blessing
acknowledged and proclaimed by all, for they call it the
' Bringer of Luck ' (ayafty^opov),— not understanding what
they say. This mystery the Greeks got from E<jm>t, and observe
unto this day. For by this symbol they represent Hermes ;
and they entitle that god ' Logicos,' for he is the interpreter
and Creator of things made, in making, and to be made ; and
he is represented by this his proper symbol. And that this is
the Hermes, guide, companion, and author of souls, Homer
hath perceived, for he saith (Od. xxiv. 1-2) :—

' Cyilenian Hermes summoned forth the souls of the bold suitors,'
not meaning those of Penelope's suitors, but of us the awakened
and admonished.

' From what vast happiness, what height of glory,'
we have fallen, namely, from the Primal Man, the Adamas

* Tho " Seed of the World " in the Basilidau system, as already
explained (p. 73).

86 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

that is above, into this vessel of clay, and become the servants
of the Demiurgus, of Ildabaoth, the God of Fire, the Fourth in
number (for by this name they call the creator of the * World
of Species,' KOCT/XO? tSucos).

" In his hand his wand Beauteous, all golden, by whose
potency the eyes of mortals he at pleasure lulls to sleep, or
rouses others from their slumber. For lie is the sole author of
life and death, therefore is it written, ' Thou shalt rule them
with a rod of iron.' But Homer wishing to embellish the in
comprehensible reality of the nature of the Logos, has given to
him a rod of gold, not of iron. Some Ho casts into slumber,
others he awakens, and makes them aware of their condition :
* Awake thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ
shall give theo light.' For this is the Christ that is figured
within all the sons of men by the unfigured Logos. This is
the great and profound mystery of the Eleusinian rites, the cry,
YE KYE, Rain ! Conceive ! All things are subject unto Him, for
' their sound is gone forth unto all lands.' And again, this is
the hidden sense of Homer's

' Ho waved his waud, they followed with shrill ery.'

That is, the souls in a continuous line, as the poet goes on to
express by the simile —

' As in the furthest depths of some vast cave,
Shrill cry the hats when one drops from their chain,
Down from the rock where fast they cling together.'

That is, the souls fallen down from the Kock above, namely
from the Adamas. This is the Adamas, the chief corner-stone,
' which is made the head of the corner,' because in the head is
placed the formative substance, the brain, out of which all
generation proceeds. ' I will set the Adamant in the founda
tions of Zion ' is allegorical for setting the figure of the Man
(in the soul). And the text, ' This Adamas is firmly held by
teeth in the wall,' is the Inner Man that is signified, the
'stone cut without hands,' which hath fallen down from the
Adamas above into this earthly potter's vessel, this figure of
forgetfulness.*

* Meaning the Body, in which the Inner Man imprisoned has lost all
recollection of his primal source.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 87

" The souls follow Hermes, or the Logos.

' So moved they, crying, through the darksome paths ;
Hermes their guide, that god devoid of ill.'

That is, ho leads them to the everlasting places where no ill
comes ; for whither were they going ?

4 They passed o'er Ocean's wave and Leucas' rock,
The Sun's bright portals, and the L»nd of dreams.'

" This ' Ocean ' signifies the generation of gods and the gener
ation of men, ever tossing in a perpetual flow and ebb. When
it runs downwards it is the generation of men ; when it tosses
itself upwards against its boundary,* the rock Leucas, it is the
generation of gods. * For this cause,' saith the Wise One, ' I
have said ye are gods and the children of the Most Highest,
when ye shall make haste to flee out of Egypt, and shall come
beyond the Red Sea into the Wilderness ' ; that is, out of this
earthly mixture (or confusion) up to the Jeiusalem above,
which is the mother of the living. ' But if ye return into
Egypt (or» into this earthly nature) ye shall die.' 'Egypt'
being the prison of the body. This is the mighty Jordan
which, flowing downwards, hindered the flight of the Children
of Israel; but which Jesus (i.e. Joshua) turned, and made to
flow upwards."

" Following guides like those just cited, these very strange
fellows the Gnostics (observes Hippolytus), the inventors of a
new art of grammar (or, criticism), extol beyond all expression
their prophet Homer, who hath foreshown these doctrines unto
them : and, by seducing those ignorant of the Holy Scriptures
into such-like fancies, they make fools of them in the manner
described.'*

"Another of their maxims is that ' Whoso saith that the All
cometh from One is grossly deceived ; but he that saith that
the All cometh from Three, hath the true key to the system of
the universe. For there is one nature of the Man that is above,
Adamas ; one mortal here below ; one without a king, the
generation existing up above, where is Mariam the Sough t-
After, and Jothor the great and wise, and Sephora, she that

* The Basilidan " Boundary Spirit," or Holy Ghost (p. 70).

88 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

seoth, and Moses, whose offspring is not in Egypt, for his sons
were born unto him in the land of Midian. Neither hath this
truth escaped Homer, for he sings—

"All things are parcelled into portions three,
And to each portion its due honour falls."

For it is necessary that the Great Ones (TO. peytO-ri) should be ex
pressed in words, but in such wise that "hearing men may not
hear, and seeing they may not perceive." For if the Great Ones
were not uttered, the world could not exist. These three most
sublime names are, KAVLACAV, SAVLAS AV, ZEESAE. Kav-
lacav is the name of the Adamas who is above ; Savlasav of him
who is below, mortal ; Zeesar of the Jordan that floweth upwards.
This is He that pervades all things, being at once male and
female, named by the Greeks Geryon, as having three bodies
and flowing out of the Earth : whom the Greeks also call " The
Moon's celestial horn," because he has mixed and tempered all
things [a play upon the similar sounding words /cepa? and
Kpacris]. " For all things were made through him, and without
him nothing was made, and what was made in him is Life."
This Life is the life unspeakable, the generation of the Perfect
Man, unknown to former ages. The " Nothing " that was made
without him is the World of Species, for that world was made
without him by the Third and by the Fourth One.* This is the
Cup (condy) of Joseph, " out of which the king doth drink and
use divination." Of this also do the Greeks (Anacreon) sing
in Bacchic frenzy,

" Bring me, boy, the draught divine ;
Bring me water, bring me wine ;
Make me drunk with quaffing deep,
Lull my charmed soul to sleep ;
For my cup predicts to me
Of what country I shall be."

Here Anacreon's dumb cup utters the unspeakable mysteiy, for
it tells him to what country he shall belong, that is, whether to
the Spiritual or to the Carnal world. This also is the " Water
changed into wine," at the famous wedding at Cana, when Jesus
manifested the kingdom of Heaven — that kingdom which is

* Ildabaoth, the God of Fire.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

hidden within every man, like the leaven sufficient for the
three measures. Hero likewise is the unspeakable secret of the
Samoihracian Mysteries, which none but we the " Perfect " are
able to understand, for the Samothracians expressly mention
the Adamas who is above— the Primal Man. For in the Temple
of the Samothracians stand two naked men, having their hands
and their genital members elevated towards heaven,* like the
Hermes of Cyllene. These two statues represent the Primal
Man, and the Spiritual Man after he is " born again, and made
like unto Him every whit." '

" This is the true sense of the Saviour's words, ' Unless ye eat
my flesh and drink my blood, ye cannot enter into the Kingdom
of Heaven ' ; and « Though ye shall drink of the cup that I
drink of, whither I go ye shall not be able to enter.' For Ho
knew the nature of His disciples, and that every one must abide
in his own nature. For out of the Twelve Tribes he chose the
Twelve Disciples; for which cause not all who heard their
teaching received or understood the same ; for that which is not
according to Nature is contrary to Nature. Him (Adamas) do
the Phrygians name ' Corybas,' for he descends from the Head
(cory) who is above, the Supernal Brain ; and permeates the All
in a manner incomprehensible. And, as the Prophet hath it,
'Ye have heard his voice, but ye have not beheld his form';
that is, the Image coming down from the Formless One above
no one knows, for it is hidden within an earthen vessel. This
is as the Psalmist hath it: 'The God dwelling in the great

* A valuable notice of the type DINDIA MAGOLNIA FIEA DE-

under which the Cabiri were repre- DIT NOVIOS PLAVTIOS MED

sented in this the most venerated of RQMAI FECID
all the Grecian sanctuaries. It is

curiously illustrated by Ficoroni's where it will be seen that Dindia
bronze group, figured in his "Meinorie uses the metronymic after the Etrus-
di Labico," and given to the Kir- can fashion. This group, six inches
cherian Museum. A female, half- high, served for handle to the lid of
draped in a star-span-led robe, rests a cylindrical pyxis, two palms deep,
her hands on the shoulders of twin resting on three lion's claws. With
youths, similarly arrecti, with the it twas found a mirror, the back oil-
cars and standing-up hair of fauns, graved with the combat of Pollux
one holds a horn, the other the handle and Amycus, LOSN A with her cres-
of a vase. The base is inscribed in cent standing in the middle, the
very archaic letters— names in regular Etruscan.

90 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

flood, and crying aloud out of the waters of the eea ' ; that is,
He cries aloud out of the multiform confusion (or, medley) of
things mortal unto the Formless One who is above, « Save my
First-born from the lions.' [And in the same sense do they
interpret all the similes concerning ' waterfloods,' and the
promises of the Deity's never forgetting His chosen people.]

" The Ascension or Regeneration, that is, the conversion of the
Carnal Man into the Spiritual, is thus explained by means of a
curious perversion of words taken from different Psalms :
'Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, that the King of
Glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The very
scorn of men, and the outcast of the people, He is the King of
Glory, mighty in battle.' Battle signifies the war in your
members ever being waged within this earthly creature made
up of conflicting elements. This is the gate seen by Jacob as ho
was journeying into Mesopotamia ; that is, the young man
growing up out of the boy, and Mesopotamia signifies the stream
of the Great Ocean which flows out of the middle of the Perfect
Man. The same deity is called by the Phrygians PAPA, be
cause He appeased the confusion and chaotic tumult which pre
vailed before His corning. For this name is the unanimous cry
Trave, 7ra£e,* of all things in Heaven, in Earth, and under the
Earth, calling upon Him to appease the discord, and to ' send
peace to men that were afar off ' — that is, to the earthly and
mortal — ' and to them that were near ' that is, to the spiritual
and perfect. He is likewise called ' dead ' by the Phrygians,
inasmuch as he is buried within the tomb of the body ; to which
circumstance also apply the words, ' Ye are whited sepulchres,
full of dead men's bones and all manner of uncleanness ; because
the Living Man doth not dwell within you.'

" ' The dead shall rise from their graves ' signifies that the
Earthly Man shall be born again spiritual. Unless they pass

* A subsequent thousand years' Quidquid liabent alii solus vult pap-
experience of the blessings of eccle- pare :

siastical rule has furnished Walter Aut &i iiomen Gallicuin vis apoco-

de Mapes with a more humorous pare,

etymology for this title — Payez, payez dit le mot, si vis im-

"Papa, si rem tangimus nomen petrare."

habet a re,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 91

through this * Gate ' all continue dead, but him that hath
passed through the Phrygians call a god, for he becomes a god,
having passed through the Gate into Heaven. Paul means the
same by his ' being caught up into the third heaven, and
hearing unutterable things.' Again, ' the publicans and harlots
shall enter into the Kingdo'ii of Heaven before you,' where
publicans means the Gentiles * upon whom the ends of the world
have come ' ; * whore * ends ' are the seeds of the universe scat
tered about by the Formless One, as is set forth by the Saviour,
4 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,' declaring that none
but the perfect Gnostics can comprehend this mystery.

" Those beloved by the Formless One are Pearls in this vessel
of clay ; and to them refers the precept, * Cast not that which
is holy to the dogs ; neither throw your pearls before swine ; '
meaning sexual intercourse with women — an act fit only for
dogs and swine. He is also called AiVoAos by the Phrygians,
not because he really kept flocks, as the profane fancy, but
because he is o cuet 7roA<Sj', ' he that ever turns ' the universe
in its due revolutions, whence the phrase, the * poles ' of heaven.
And Homer (Od. iv. 384-85) says—

' Here turns about the truthful sea-god old,
Immortal Proteus by the Egyptians called.'

" He is likewise styled * Fruitful,' because ' the children of
the widow shall be more than those of her that hath a husband ; '
that is, the spiritual who are born again, being immortal, are
in number more (though but few of them are born into this
life) than the carnal, who, in spite of their present multitude,
do all perish utterly at last.

" The knowledge of the Perfect Man is very deep, and hard to
be attained to. ' The beginning of perfection is the knowledge
of man, but absolute perfection is the knowledge of God.' He
( Adamas) is designated by the Phrygians as, ' the Green Wheat-
ear cut otf'; on this account, at the Eleusinian rites, the
initiated hold up in silence to the Directors the wondrous
mystery, the green ear of wheat. This wheat-ear is the
Perfect Son descended from the Adamas above, the Great Giver

* A play upon TeAwvcu and re'ATj.

92 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

of light, like the Hierophant himself. This latter is not
actually castrated like Attis, but emasculated by the use of
hemlock, so that he despises all carnal pleasure; and whilst
celebrating the mysteries amidst blazing torches, he cries aloud,
1 The holy Brimo hath borne a sacred son, Brimos ' — alluding
to the Spiritual Birth. The rites are therefore named ' Eleu-
sinian ' and ' Anactorian,' from the Greek words signifying
Coming and Ascending. This is what the initiated themselves
declare concerning the mysteries of Proserpine ; and of the
road leading the defunct down to her the poet (Amphis)
hath—

' But underneath her lies a rugged path.
Hollow and muddy, yet the best to lead
Down to the lovely groves of precious Venus.'

" These are the Lesser Mysteries, of earthly origin, ' in which
men ought to rest themselves for a while, and then proceed to
the Greater Mysteries,' that is, to heavenly regeneration.

" The Father of the All is furthermore called by the Phrygians
' Amygdalus,' the Almond Tree ; not meaning the natural tree,
but the Pre-existing One, who, having within himself the
Perfect Fruit pulsating and moving about in his depths, tore
open (8iTJyui;£e) his bosom, and brought forth the Invisible.
Ineffable Son, of whom we are treating.* lie is moreover
denominated the ' Piper,' because that which is born is the
harmonious Spirit [or, breath, the Greek affording no distinction
between the twc senses of the word.] The Spirit is likewise
called the Father, and the Son begotten by the Father ; for the
worship of the Perfect is not carnal, but spiritual : therefore,
* Neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain shall ye worship
any more/

" This is the mystery of the Incomprehensible One, furnished
with innumerable eyes, whom all Nature longeth after in different
ways. [Perhaps an allusion to the Brahminical figure of Indra,
<>-od of the heavens.] This is the ' Word of God,' that is, the

* Some lurking tradition of this ciation constructed by Brunelleschi

mystery may have suggested the for the church of Sta. Croce. See

machine of the almond (machina della Vasari's detailed account of this re-

mandola) containing the Archangel markable example of a miracle-play.
Gabriel, in the spectacle of the Ann un-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 93

word of the declaration of his great power : ' Wherefore it
shall be sealed up, and veiled, and hidden, lying in the
dwelling-place, where is established the Eoot of all the TEons,
Powers, thoughts [Platonic Ideas], gods, angels, spirit-mes
sengers that are, that are not, begotten, unbegotten, compre
hensible, incomprehensible, of the years, months, days, hours,
moments, whence Time begins to grow and increase by particles.
For a moment (or geometrical point), itself being nothing, made
of nothing, indivisible, grows by accretion into a magnitude
incomprehensible.' This is the Kingdom of Heaven, the grain
of mustard seed, the Indivisible Point existing within every
one, but only known unto the Spiritual Man.

" * There is neither speech nor language, but their voices are
heard amongst them,' signifies that whatever men say or do,
has all a spiritual meaning to the Perfect ; even the actors in the
theatre utter nothing without the intervention of the Deity.
For when the audience are seated, and the actor comes upon the
stage, clad in a gorgeous robe and twanging his lyre, he sings
thus a great mystery without knowing what he says — 'Whether
thou be the offspring of Saturn, or of blessed Jove, or of the
mighty TChea, hail! Thee Assyrians call the thrice-desired
Adamas ; whilst Egypt styles Thee Osiris ; the Greeks in their
wisdom (esoteric knowledge) the Moon's Holy Horn ; the Samo-
thracians, the venerable Adamnas ; the Hsemonians, Corybas ; the
Phrygians, at one time, Papa, the Dead One ; at another, the
God, or the Barren One, or the Green Wheat-car cut off ; or him
whom the fruitful Almond Tree poses the man playing on the
pipe.' He is the multiform Attis, whom they thus describe in
their hymns : ' I will sing of Attis, the favourite of Ehea, with
the clashing of cymbals, the bellowing of the Idaean pipe of
the Curetes, and will intermingle the sound of Phoebus' lyre.
Evoe ! Evau ! Thou that art like unto Pan, unto Bacchus, thou
Shepherd of the white stars ! '

" For these " (adds Hippolytus) " and other such like reasons,
these Ophites frequent the Mysteries of the Great Mother,
fancying that by means of what is done there they can see
through the whole secret. But in reality they have not the
least advantage over other people, except that they are not

94 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

emasculated, and yet they act as though they were. For they
most strictly forbid all intercourse with women, and in every
other respect, as we have fully described, they do the same
things as the eunuchs, the regular priests of Rhea."

After giving an account of their worship and glorification
of the Serpent (which I shall extract when treating of the
Agathodsemon religion) Hippolytus thus continues : — " The
foregoing is a sample of the insane, absurd, and interminable
theories of the sect. But to show up, as far as lies in cm-
power, their unknowing 'knowledge,' the following hymn* is
here inserted, as containing a summary of the whole creed : —

" ' The generative law of the All was the First Mind ;
But the Second was the effused chaos of the First :
In the third place the Soul received a law, and began to operate.!
Whereupon She (the Soul) enveloped in the figure of a fawn,
Struggles with Death, suffering a probationary penance.
At one time, invested with royalty, she beholds the Light ;
At another, cast down into misery, she weeps.
Now she weeps and rejoices ;
Now she weeps and is judged;
Now she is judged and dies.
When shall her deliverance be?
The wretched one

Hath entered, as she strayed, into an evil labyrinth.
But Jesus said : Father, suffer me ;

She in quest of evil (or, the chased of evil ones) upon earth
Wandercth about, destitute of Thy Spirit :
She seeketh to escape from the bitter chaos,
But knoweth not how to pass through.
For this cause send me, O Father !
I will go down holding the Seals,
I will pass through all the ^ons ;
I will reveal all the mysteries;
I will manifest the forms of the gods ; I
And the hidden secrets of the holy way
I will teach, giving unto them the name of GNOSIS.'

" This, therefore, is the system (or pretension) of the
Naaseni, who designate themselves 'the Gnostics.' But this

* This hymn is written in ana- mental doctrine " All is Three,"

psestic verses; its text is in many already stated by Hippolytus.

places hopelessly corrupted by the J That is, will disclose to the

transcriber. I have therefore often faithful the different figures of the

been obliged to conjecture the original Archons of the lower spheres, a

sense. promise fulfilled at much length by

t An er.:mciation of the funda- the author of the Pistis-Sophia.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 95

deception of theirs being multiform, and having many heads
like the Hydra of fable, if I smite all the heads at a single
blow with the wand of Truth, I shall destroy the whole
serpent, for all the other sects differ but little from this in
essentials."

Hippolytus has not given a connected analysis of the Ophite
system ; ho probably deemed it superfluous labour, as having
been already done with much exactness by Ireneeus in his great
work, to which the former occasionally refers as being then in
everybody's hands. To the Bishop of Lugdunum, therefore, we
must apply for this information, which will be found given at
much length in Chapters xxxi.-xxxiii. of the First Book of his
History. Pie states that the Ophites, like other Gnostics, rejected
tlie Old Testament altogether as the work of a subordinate
divinity, and containing nothing of the revelations of their Sophia,
or Divine Wisdom ; whilst they held that the New, although
originally of higher authority, had been so corrupted by the
interpolations of the Apostles as to have lost all value as a
revelation of Divine truth. They drew the chief supports of
their tenets out of the various " Testaments " and similar books
then current, and ascribed to the Patriarchs and the most
ancient Prophets, for example, the book of Enoch.

The primary article of this doctrine was the Emanation of all
things from the One Supreme, long utterly unknown to man
kind, and at last only revealed to a very small number capable
of receiving such enlightenment. Hence he is named Bythos,
" Profundity," to express his unfathomable, inscrutable nature.
Following the Zoroastrian and the Kabbalistic nomenclature they
also designated Him as the " Fountain of Light," and " The
Primal Man," giving for reason of the latter title that " Man
was created after the image of God," which proved the nature of
the prototype.

The Beginning of Creation, that is, the Primal Idea, or Emana
tion, was the " thought," Ennoia, of Bythos, who bears also the
significant name of Sige, " Silence." This Idea being the first
act of creation of the Primal Man, is therefore properly
denominated the " Second Man." Ennoia is the consort (compare
the Hindoo Darga) of Bythos, and she produced Pneuma, " the

96 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIK REMAINS.

Spirit," who, being the source of all created things, is entitled
"the Mother of all living," and likewise Sophia, the wisdom
from on high. As the mother of all living, Sophia is the
medium between the intellectual and material worlds. In
consequence of this, when Bythos and Ennoia, charmed with
her beauty, furnished her with the divine Light, Sophia pro
duced two new Emanations — the one perfect, Christos, the other
imperfect, Sophia- Achamoth. (This scheme resembles the Bud
dhistic ; Bythos answering to the First Buddha ; Sige, Sophia,
Christos, Achamoth, Ildabaoth, to the successive other Five.)

Of these emanations Christos was designed for the guide of
all who proceed from God ; Achamoth, for the guide of all
proceeding out of matter ; nevertheless, the Perfect One was
intended to assist and lead upwards his imperfect sister.

Furthermore, the Spirit rests upon Chaos, or the waters of
Creation, which are Matter, Water, Darkness, the Abyss. This
Chaos was devoid of all life, for life proceeds ultimately from
the Supreme, who has no connection whatever with Matter.
Neither could his purely intellectual daughter, Sophia, act
directly upon it; she therefore employed for agent her own
emanation, Achamoth, whose mixed imperfect nature fitted her
for that office.

This First Tetrad, Bythos, Ennoia, Sige, Sophia, were in the
meantime creating Ecdesia, the Idea of the Holy Church. But
the imperfect Achamoth upon descending into Chaos, lost her
way there, and became ambitious of creating a world entirely
for herself. She floated about in the Abyss, delighted at
imparting life and motion to the inert elements, until she
became so hopelessly entangled in Matter as to be unable to
extricate herself from its trammels. In this condition she
produced the creator of the material world, the Demiurgus,
Ildabaoth.

But after this event, Achamoth feeling the intolerable burden
of her material part, after long and repeated efforts, at length
struggled forth out of Chaos. She had never belonged to the
Pleroma, but she attained to the " Middle Space " ; where she
entirely shook off her material part, and determined to erect a
barrier between the World of Intelligence and the World of

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 97

Matter. Ildabaoth, " Son of Darkness," creator and tyrant of
the Lower World, followed the example of Bythos in producing
subordinate Emanations. First of all ho generated an Angel
in his own likeness ; this Angel a second ; and so on up to the
number of six. These are all reflexions one of the other ; but
they inhabit, with their father, Ildabaoth, seven different
regions ; to which the Middle Space, dominion of their origin
Acharnoth, forms the eighth. Their names are lao, Sabaoth,
Adonai, Eloi, Ouraios, Astaphaios. They became the Genii of
the seven worlds, or planetary spheres. The first four names
are the mystic titles of the God of the Jews — degraded thus by
the Ophites into appellations of the subordinates of the Creator ;
the two last signify the forces of Fire and Water.

In this degradation of the names most sacred in the Jewish
theology, is clearly to be recognised, the very teaching of those
" dreamers" reprobated by Jude, v. 8 for despising "Dominion,"
and speaking evil of " Dignities." For " Dominion " is the
"Empire" in the Sephiroth (see page 35) to which the Kabbala
assigned the title Adonai. Now we find here the Ophites
making Adonai the third son of Ildabaoth, a malevolent Genius,
and like his father and brethren, the eternal adversary of the
Christ. The " Dignities " mean the other personages of the
Sephiroth, similarly dishonoured by the new doctrine. Judo
shows plainly whom he had in view by contrasting in the next
verse the audacity of these "blasphemers" with the respect
shown by the Archanged Michael towards his opponent on
account of his angelic nature, however fallen from his high
estate. By a most singular coincidence (much too close to
have been merely accidental), Jude's censure, nay, his very
expressions are repeated by Peter in his second Epistle (ii. 10).
If either of these Epistles were really written by the Apostles
whose names they bear, these passages bring to light the very
early existence of this school of Gnosticism, which indeed may
have been founded before the promulgation of Christianity.
But to return to the operations of Ildabaoth. Besides the
Spirits above mentioned, he generated Archangels, Angels,
Virtues, and Powers presiding over all the details of the
creation. Ildabaoth was far from being a pure spirit ; ambition

98 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

and pride dominated in his composition. He therefore re
solved to break off all connection with his mother, Achamoth,
and to create a world entirely for himself. Aided by his own
Six Spirits, he created Man, intending him for the image of his
power ; but he failed utterly in his work, his Man proving a
vast, soulless monster, crawling upon the earth. The Six
Spirits were obliged to bring their work again before their
father, to be animated : he did so by communicating the ray of
Divine Light which he himself had inherited from Achamoth,
who by this loss punished him for his pride and self-
sufficiency.

Man, thus favoured by Achamoth at the expense of her own
son, followed the impulse of the Divine Light that she had
transferred to him, collected a further supply out of the
creation with which it was intermingled, and began to present
not the image of his creator Ildabaoth, but rather that of the
Supreme Being, the " Primal Man." At this spectacle the
Demiurgus was filled with rage and envy at having produced
a being so superior to himself. His looks, inspired by his
passions, were reflected in the Abyss, as in a mirror, the image
became instinct with life, and forth arose "Satan Serpent-
formed," Ophiomorplios, the embodiment of envy and cunning.
He is the combination of all that is most base in matter with
the hate, envy and craft of Spiritual Intelligence. Out of
their normal hatred for Judaism, the Ophites gave this being
the name of Michael, the guardian angel of the Jewish nation
according to Daniel (v. 21). But they also called him Samiel,
the Hebrew name of the Prince of the Devils.

In consequence of his spite at the creation of Man, Ildabaoth
set to work to create the three kingdoms of Nature, the
Animal, the Vegetable, and the Mineral ; with all the defects
and evils they now exhibit. Next, in order to regain possession
of the best of things, he resolved to confine Man within his own
exclusive domain. In order to detach him from his protectress
Achamoth, and from the celestial region, he forbade him to eat
of the Tree of Knowledge, which could reveal the mysteries
and confer on him the graces from above. But Achamoth, in order
to defeat his scheme, sent her own Genius, Ophis, in the form

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 99

of a serpent to induce him to transgress the commandment, and
so to break the Law of Jealousy. Though not so stated, it
would appear that the serpent-form was put on by Achamoth's
minister in order to escape the vigilance of Ildabaoth, under
the disguise of his offspring Satan, Ophiomorphos.

Enlightened by eating the forbidden fruit, Man became
capable of comprehending heavenly things. Nevertheless
Ildabaoth was sufficiently powerful to revenge himself, which
he did by shutting up the First Pair in the prison-house of
Matter, that is, in the body, so unworthy of his nature, wherein
Man is still enthralled. Achamoth, however, continued to
protect him : she had extracted from his composition and
absorbed into herself the divine Spark of Light; and ceased
not to supply him therewith, and defend him in all his
trials.

And of this there was full need. A new enemy had come
into the field against Man, the Genius Ophis whom Ildabaoth had
seized, and punished for his share in the affair of the Tree of
Knowledge, by casting him down into the Abyss ; and who,
contaminated by his immersion in Matter, became converted
into the exact image of his fellow-prisoner, Ophiomorphos.
The former was the type, the latter the antitype, and the two
are often confounded together. Thus we get a third dualism into
the scheme. Sophia and Sophia-Achatnoth, Adam-Kadmon and
Adam, Ophis and Ophiomorphos. Ophis, at first Man's friend,
now began to hate him as the cause (though innocent) of his own
degradation. With Ildabaoth, and his Sons, he continually seeks
to chain him to the body, by inspiring him with all manner of
corrupt desires, more especially earthly love and the appetites.
But Achamoth supplies Man with the divine Light, through
which he became sensible of his Nakedness, that is, of the misery
of his condition of imprisonment in this body of death, where
his only consolation is the hope of ultimate release.

But the seductions of Ildabaoth and his crew gained over all
the offspring of Adam, except Seth, the true type of the
Spiritual Man: and his posterity kept alive the seed of
Light and the knowledge of divine Truth throughout all the
generations following. When they in the Wilderness received

H 2

100 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the commandments and institutions of Ildabaoth and his Sons,
the Planetary Genii, and afterwards the teaching of the
Prophets, inspired from the same source, Achamoth infused into
their predictions something higher, comprehended not even by
their Lord, and made them preach the advent of the Primal
Man, the eternal 2Eon, the heavenly Christ. [The same notion
was a favourite one with the Medieval CatJiari.']

Achamoth was so afflicted at the condition of Man that she
never rested until she had prevailed on her mother, the
celestial Sophia, to move Bythos into sending down the Christ
to the aid of the Spiritual Sons of Seth. Ildabaoth himself had
been caused to make ready the way for his coming through
his own minister, John the Baptist ; in the belief that the
kingdom Christ came to establish was merely a temporal one : a
supposition fostered in him by the contrivance of Achamoth.
Besides inducing him to send the Precursor, she made him
cause the birth of the Man Jesus by the Virgin Mary ; because
the creation of a material person could only be the work of the
Demiurgus ; not falling within the province of a higher power.
As soon as the Man Jesus was born, the Christ, uniting himself
with Sophia, descended through the seven planetary regions,
assuming in each an analogous form, thus concealing his true
nature from their presiding Genii, whilst he attracted into
himself the sparks of the divine Light they still retained in
their essence. [These " analogous forms " are explained by the
fact that the Ophite Diagramma figured Michael as a lion,
S uriel as a lull, Eaphael as a serpent, Gabriel as an eagle,
Sabaoth as a bear, Erataoth as a dog, Ouriel as an ass.'] In this
manner the Christ entered into the man Jesus at the moment of
his baptism in the Jordan. From this time forth Jesus began to
work miracles ; before that He had been entirely ignorant of his
own mission. But Ildabaoth at last discovering that he was
subverting his own kingdom upon earth, stirred up the Jews
against him, and caused him to be put to death. When he was
on the cross, the Christ and Sophia left his body, and returned
to their own place. Upon his death the Two took the Man
Jesus, abandoned his Material body to the earth, and gave him a
new one made out of the JEther. Thenceforth he consisted

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 101

merely of soul and spirit, which was the cause why the
Disciples did not recognise him after his resurrection. During
his sojourn upon earth of eighteen months after he had risen, he
received from Sophia that perfect knowledge, the true Gnosis,
which he communicated to the small portion of the Apostles
who were capable of receiving the same. Thence, ascending
up into the Middle Space, he sat down upon the right hand of
Ildabaoth although unperceived by him, and there he is
collecting all souls that have been purified through the
knowledge of Christ. When he shall have collected all the
Spiritual, all the Light, out of Ildalaoth's empire, Redemption
is accomplished and the end of the world arrived : which means
nothing else than the reabsorption of all Light into the Pleroina
from which it had originally descended.

The sect were divided in their opinions as to the nature
of Ophis. Although agreed that this genius was in the
beginning the minister of Achamoth, the Ophites of Theodoret's
time held that he had been converted into the enemy of Man ;
although by inducing him to break the commandment of
Ildabaoth he had proved the final cause of Man's deliverance
from his power. But all these nice distinctions, and compli
cated machinery of Redemption were the invention of the later
schools : unknown to the sect described by Hippolytus. For
the primitive Ophites, retaining the Egyptian veneration for
the Agathodgernon, regarded their serpent, The Naas, as identical
with either Sophia, or the Christ. That writer says positively
** the Naas (Hebrew, NacJiasJi) is the only thing they worship,
whence they are denominated Naaseni. Even two centuries
later when Epiphanius wrote, they employed a living tame
serpent to encircle and consecrate the loaves that were to be
eaten at the Eucharistic supper. Again Tertullian has (In
Prescript.) " Serpentem magnificant in tantum ut etiam
Christo preeferant " — a passage that suggests that their opliig
was connected with the antique Solar Genius of the Pharaonio
religion. It was a peculiarity of the Egyptians that, like
the present Hindoos, they were divided, as it were, into sects,
each of which adopted some one deity out of the Pantheon
for the exclusive object of worship, paying no regard to all the

102 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

rest. As in modern Hindooism Vishnu and Siva have
engrossed the religion of the country, so in the Egypt of the
first Christian century Anubis and Cnuph had become the sole
objects of Egyptian veneration, as the monuments hereafter to
be reviewed will abundantly evince.

To establish the identity of their Ophis with the Saviour, his
followers adduced the words of St. John, " For as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up." All this proves that the section of the Ophites
which regarded the serpent as evil by its nature, had been led
astray from the primitive doctrine of their sect by the prevailing
Zoroastrian and Jewish notions upon that subject. The creed
of the original Gnostics, the Naaseni, gave a very different view
of the nature of the serpent considered merely as a type ; a fact
which shall be established in the section on the Agathodeemon
worship.

Epiphanius gives the following abstract of their doctrine to
explain their reverence for the serpent as the true author of
divine knoivlcdgc. " The Supreme ^Eon having produced other
yEons, one of these, a female, named Prunicos (i.e. Concupiscence),
descended into the waters of the abyss : whence, not being
able to extricate herself, she remained suspended in the
Middle Space, being too much clogged by matter to return
above, and yet not sinking lower where there was nothing
cognate to her nature. In this condition she produced Ildabaoth,
the God of the Jews ; and he in his turn seven JEons or Angels,
who created the seven heavens. From these seven ^Eons
Ildabaoth shut up all that was above, lest they should know of
anything superior to himself. The seven ^Eons then created
Man in the image of their Father, but prone, and crawling
upon earth like a worm. But the Heavenly Mother, Prunicos,
wishing to deprive Ildabaoth of the power wherewith she had
unadvisedly invested him, infused into Man a celestial spark —
the soul. Straightway man rose up on his feet, soared in mind
beyond the limits of the eight spheres, and glorified the
Supreme Father, Him who is above Ildabaoth. Hence Ilda
baoth, full of jealousy, cast down his eyes upon the lower layer
of Matter, and begat a Virtue, whom they call his Son. Eve,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

103

listening to him as the Son of God, was easily persuaded to eat
of the Tree of Knowledge." Such is the brief summary of
Ophite tenets, as given by Epiphanius. The details of the
elaborate system given in the preceding pages are extracted
from Theodoret who flourished half a century later.

FIG. 4.

104 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

MACHINERY OF THE GNOS1S.

The doctrines of the chief schools of Gnosticism having been
fully described in the preceding sections, the next step in the
natural order of things will be to consider the MACHINERY
employed by its teachers to set forth these new doctrines.

The deities of the ancient mythology continued to hold their
place in the productions of the great sect whose birth-place
was Alexandria, and consequently some insight into the sense
in which the novel theosophy adopted them may be obtained
by learning what were the powers and attributes of these same
gods, when their worship held undisputed possession of the
country. On this account, the chief deities of Egypt, and the
figures under which they are recognised, must now be briefly
described — together with their Coptic titles, so often found on
these monuments in strange companionship with the holy
names of the Jewish creed, with the Magian Genii, even with
the appellatives of Hindoo gods — the very terminology of the
religion plainly indicating its remote and multifarious sources.

1. The great god of Lower Egypt, Phthas (phonetic, Ptah), is
represented in a close-fitting robe, with his feet joined together,
and standing upon a base of four steps, called the " Four
Foundations," and which typified the Four Elements, of which
ho was the grand artificer — an emblem long afterwards taken
in the same acceptation by the Kosicrucians, sometimes he
appears as a dwarf and Priapean; sometimes as Phtha-Tore
with a beetle forehead. His proper attribute is the Cyno-
cephalus baboon. His four sons, the Cabiri, are painted as little
ugly dwarfs, bearing for badges of office, a sword, a crocodile,
a serpent, a human head stuck on a hook. They become in the
hierarchy of the Pistis-Sophia the " Collectors unto Wrath "
(epivcuoi), whose office is to accuse souls in the Judgment.
The many-armed Genius brandishing similar weapons, often
found on Gnostic talismans, probably expresses the same idea
in a condensed form.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 105

2. Ammon (phonetically, Amen) has a human, and occasionally
a ram's, head, from which rises a parti-coloured plume. lie is
modified into " Pan-Mendes," Priapean, and brandishing a
whip. In the character of " Ammon-Chnubis " he has his feet
bound together, and wears the horns of a goat. He is often
figured as the serpent, called by the Greeks the " Agathodsemon."
His symbol is the vase " Canopus," for so the Greeks pronounce
the name of Chnubis. United with the sun, ho becomes
" Animon-Ea."

3. The Sun-god, Phre, or Ea, depicted with the head of a
hawk, supporting the solar disc entwined with the serpent
Uraeus.

4. Thoth or Thoyt, ibis-headed, is the " Scribe of the gods."
Sometimes he takes the head of a hawk, and becomes tho
famous " Hermes Trismegistus." His symbol is the winged orb,
Tat, answering to the Mir of the Persians. (He is the prophet
Enoch's fourth rebellious angel, Penumuc, " who discovered unto
tho children of men bitterness and sweetness, and pointed out
to them every unit of their wisdom. He taught men to under
stand writing, and tho use of ink and paper. Therefore
numerous have been those who have gone astray, from every
period of the world even to this day. For men were not born
for this, thus with pen and with ink to confirm their faith."
[Ixviii. 10. 13.])

5. Sochos is depicted with the head of a crocodile, and is also
symbolised by a crocodile with the tail bent.

6. The Moon-god, Pa-Ioh, (Pa, being the Coptic definite
article) is represented having his feet close together ; upon his
head is a single lock of hair and the crescent. At other times,
this deity is figured bi-sexual, and casting gold dust over the
heavens, that is, bespangling them with the stars.

7. Osiris is a human figure distinguished by his lofty conical
helmet, and holding a crook and a whip. The eye is his
symbol.

8. Aroeres (Aroi), the Horus of the Greeks, has a single lock
of hair upon his head. He is figured as being suckled by I sis
and again, as seated upon the lotus ; ho also occasionally wears
the head of a hawk, as being one character of the Solar god.

106 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

His symbol, the hawk, appears upon the breast of Isis in a torso
in the Borgia Collection.

9. Anubis (Anbo) is always jackal-headed, and sometimes has
also a human one head, springing from a separate neck. His
Coptic name, ANBO, may often be observed in Gnostic legends.

10. Bebon, or Bebys, has the head of a hippopotamus, or a
crocodile, and carries a sword : a figure which used to be
taken for Typhon. He stands for the constellation Ursa Major
in the Zodiac of Denderah.

Of goddesses the principal are —

1. Neith : expressed by the Vulture, or else by a female with
head of a vulture, or lion. In the last case she takes the name
of Taf-net. She symbolizes the vault of Heaven.

2. Athor : with the head of a cow, or else of a woman covered
with the skin of the Eoyal Vulture. She is denoted hiero-
glyphically by a hawk placed within a square.

3. Isis : a female with horns of a cow, between which rests a
disk, the lunar circle.

4. Sate : the Grecian Hera, wearing tall plumes on her head,
and sometimes personified with a feather in place of head,
stands for "Truth," in which latter quality she appears
regularly at the Judgment of the Soul.

The Four Genii of the Amenthes, or Hades, are represented
with the heads of a man, jackal, baboon, and hawk, respectively ;
and are often placed together like mummy-shaped figures,
forming the Canopic Vases.

The symbols of the same worship have been to some extent
explained by persons writing at a time when they were still a
living, though fast expiring, language. Of such writers the
most valuable is Plutarch, who in his curious treatise ' De Iside
et Osiride,' has given the meaning of several of these symbols,
and, as it would appear, upon very good authority. According
to him, Isis sometimes signifies the Moon, in which sense she is
denoted by a Crescent ; sometimes the Earth as fecundated by
the waters of the Nile. For this reason water, as the seed of
Osiris, was carried in a vase in the processions in honour of this

Of iris is denoted by the picture of an Eye and Sceptre; his

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 107

name being compounded of Os " many," and iris " eye." Upon
this point Macrobius states (Sat. I. 21), " The Egyptians, in
order to denote that Osiris means the Sun, whenever they want
to express his name in hieroglyphic writing, engrave a Sceptre
and on top thereof the figure of an Eye ; and by this symbol
they express ' Osiris,' signifying this god to be the Sun, riding
on high in regal power, and looking down upon all things,
because antiquity hath surnamed the Sun the ' Eye of Jupiter.' "

The Fig-leaf stands for " King" ; and also for the " South."

The Lizard, which was believed to conceive through the ear,
and to bring forth through the mouth, is the typo of the
generation of the Word, that is, the Logos, or Divine Wisdom.
(This belief explains the appearance of a lizard upon the breast
of certain figures of Minerva.) *

The Scarabeus, in its making spherical receptacles for its
eggs, and by its retrograde motion, imitates the action and
movement of the Sun. This insect had no female, according to
the popular belief of the Egyptians.

The Asp expresses a planet, for like that luminary, it moves
rapidly, though without any visible organ of locomotion.

The Ibis stands for the Moon : the legs of the bird, when
extended, making an equilateral triangle. (It is hard to discern
any analogy between the Moon and this figure of geometry, but
, yet the Pythagoreans denoted Athene by the same sign. But
that Plutarch is here correct is proved by many gems which
show a triangle set upon an altar and adored by the baboon,
Luna's favourite beast.) How the later Egyptians symbolised
the Sun and Moon is well expressed upon a jasper (Waterton)
where Horus, seated on the lotus, is adored by the baboon ; in
the field are the sun-star and the crescent attached to their
respective figures, and also the Triangle very conspicuously placed.

Horus — Plutarch remarks — wears a crown of the branches of
the Persea, because its fruit resembles in shape the heart ; its
leaves, the tongue. The legend goes that the tree (Cordia myxa,
or Sebestene plum) was first planted at Memphis by the hero
Perseus, whence its name. In memory of his mythic ancestor,

* Of which a fine example, an intaglio, is figured in the Museum (Mescal -
churn.

108 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Alexander ordered that a garland of Persea leaves should form
the prize at the games he instituted at his new Capital. The tree
never wants a succession of flowers and fruit ; the latter Pliny
compares to a red plum, adding that it will not grow in Europe.

We next come to a professed treatise upon this recondite
subject, Horapollo's * Interpretation of the Sacred Animals.'
Unfortunately, this work bears upon its face clear evidence of
having been excogitated by some pragmatical Alexandrian
Greek, totally ignorant of what he was writing about, but
impudently passing off his own stupid conjectures as to the
meaning of the figures on the ancient works surrounding him,
as though they were interpretations handed down to him by
antique authority. He must have written under the Lower
Empire, when the art of reading hieroglyphics was entirely lost,
for we know that it still existed in the first century ; Tacitus
particularly notes that an aged priest read to Germanicus upon
his visit to Thebes the contents of the historical tablets on the
edifices of that city. " Mox visit veterum Thebaruin magna
vestigia ; et manebant structis molibus literae ^Egyptia3 priscam
opulentiam complexa3, jussusque e senioribus sacerdotum patrium
sermonem interpretari " (Ann. II. 60). This happened A.D. 19.
It would appear that the knowledge of hieroglyphics was fast
dying out, and only preserved by members of the previous
generation.*

It is only in a few instances that Horapollo has preserved
some genuine tradition of the meaning of those symbols which
were the most generally used, and therefore the last to be
forgotten. Of these explanations the most important are what
follow.

"The Cynocephalus baboon denotes the Moon, because that
beast has a certain sympathy with the luminary, and during
her dark quarter sits without eating, his eyes fixed upon the

* But the Demotic writing must edifice (moles) an epitaph in Greek,

have lingered much longer in use, Latin, Persian, Jewish, and Egyptian

for Capitolinus, cap. 34, mentions the letters, so that it might be read by

" Egyptian " as one of the current everybody. " Divo Gordiano, victori

alphabets of the third century. Persarum, victori Gothorum, victori

"The soldiers raised a tomb to Sarmatarum, depulsori Eonianarum

Gordian at Circeium Castrum, on the seditionum, victori Germanorum, sed

confines of Persia; placing upon this non victori Philipporum."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 109

ground as though mourning for her loss. He moreover denotes
the priestly order, because he is naturally circumcised, and abhors
fish and fishermen. Erect and with uplifted paws and a
basilisk (asp) upon his head, he symbolises the New Moon,
whose first appearance he hails after this fashion. By his
voiding his urine at fixed and regular intervals, he first sug
gested to observers the regular division of the day into hours,
and furnished the first idea of the invention of the Clepsydra, or
water-clock.

" The Dog (Jackal) represents the sacred scribe : because that
functionary ought to be always studying, and likewise should
bark at, and make himself disagreeable to, everybody. In
another sense he expresses a Prophet, from his habit of staring
fixedly at the statues of the gods.

" The Hawk means ' God,' or « Sun.'

" The Lion, from the resemblance of his round face to the solar
orb, is placed beneath the throne of Horus, the Egyptian title of
the Sun.

" The Eising of the Nile, called in Coptic Nov or Nev, is denoted
by three large vases ; and also by a lion, because it attains its
full height when the Sun is in that sign of the Zodiac ; for
which same cause the spouts of the sacred lavers are made in the
shape of lions' heads.

" By the Ibis is signified the heart, because the bird belongs to
Hermes, who presides over the heart and all reason. The Ibis
also, by its own shape, resembles the form of the heart ; con
cerning which matter there is a very long legend current
amongst the Egyptians."

But the most graphic account of the symbols and ceremonies
employed in the worship of Isis, whilst yet in its full glory
(the middle of the second century), is to be obtained from the
description of her Procession which Apuleius (himself one of
the initiated) has penned in the eleventh Book of his " Golden
Ass." " Next flow on the crowds of people initiated into the
divine mysteries ; men and women of every rank, and all ages,
shining in the pure whiteness of linen robes ; the latter having
their dripping hair enveloped in a transparent covering : the
former with their heads shaven clean, and the crowns thereof

110 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

shining white — these earthly stars of the nocturnal ceremony,
raising as they went a shrill tinkling with sistra of bronze,
silver, and even of gold. But the chief performers in the rites
were those nobles, who, clad in a tight-fitting robe of linen
descending from the waist down to the heels, carried in the
procession the glorious symbols of the most potent deities.

" The first held out at arm's length a lamp, diffusing before
him a brilliant light; not by any means resembling in form
the lamps in common use for illuminating our evening meals,
but a golden bowl supporting a more ample blaze in the midst of
its broad expanse. The second, similarly robed, held up with
both hands the Altar that derives its name from the beneficent
Providence of the supreme goddess. The third marched along
bearing aloft a palm branch with leaves formed of thin gold, and
also the Caduceus of Hermes. The fourth displayed the symbol
of Justice, the figure of the left liand with the palm open,
which, on account of its natural inactivity, and its being
endowed with neither skill nor cunning, has been deemed a
more fitting emblem of Justice than the right hand. The same
minister likewise carried a small golden vestibule made in a
round form like an udder, out of which he poured libations of
milk. The fifth carried a winnowing fan piled up with golden
sprigs. The last of all bore a huge wine jar.

" Immediately after these came the Deities, condescending to
walk upon human feet, the foremost among them rearing
terrifically on high his dog's head and neck — that messenger
between heaven and hell displaying alternately a face black as
night, and golden as the day ; in his left the caduceus, in his
right waving aloft the green palm branch. His steps were
closely followed by a cow, raised into an upright posture — the
cow being the fruitful emblem of the Universal Parent, the
goddess herself, which one of the happy train carried with
majestic steps, supported on his shoulders. By another was
borne the coffin containing the sacred things, and closely con
cealing the deep secrets of the holy religion. Another carried
in his happy bosom the awful figure of the Supreme Deity, not
represented in the image of a beast either tame or wild, nor of a
bird, nor even in that of man, but ingeniously devised and

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. Ill

inspiring awo by its very strangeness, that ineffable symbol of
the deepest mystery, and ever to be shrouded in the profoundest
silence. But next came, carried precisely in the same manner,
a small vessel made of burnished gold, and most skilfully
wrought out into a hemispherical bottom, embossed externally
with strange Egyptian figures. Its mouth, but slightly raised,
was extended into a spout, and projected considerably beyond
the body of the bowl, whilst on the opposite side, widening as
it receded into a capacious opening, it was affixed to the handle,
upon which was seated an asp wreathed into a knot, and
rearing up on high its streaked, swollen and scaly neck."

These images and symbols require a few remarks in elucida
tion : suggested by the notices of ancient writers, or by the
representations of these very objects upon extant monuments of
the same religion. The " udder-shaped " vessel exactly describes
the one so frequently placed upon the Gnostic gems, and which
Matter so strangely interprets as the " Vase of Sins " of the
deceased— an unlikely subject to be selected for a talisman
intended to secure the benevolence of heaven. Much more to the
purpose is Kohler's conjecture that it is one of the earthen pots
used to be tied round the circumference of the irrigating wheel,
still employed for raising the water of the Kile to fertilise the
adjacent fields; "fecundating Isis with the seed of Osiris" in
ancient phrase, and certainly the string fastened about its top
favours such an explanation ; in fact, we have an example of
similar veneration for a vessel in the case of the Canopns, the
pot that held the same water when purified for drinking. The
"winnow-fan" is also often represented, placed ov&er this
hemispherical vase ; the same instrument played an important
part in the marriage ceremony of the Greeks. When piled
with fruit of all kinds, it was placed on the head of the bride ;
the same significant article, a broad, shallow basket, was the
cradle of the infant Bacchus— the " mystica vannus lacchi."
The golden » Bowl," serving for lamp, often figures amongst
the various emblems adorning our talismans. The " Sistrum "
got its peculiar outline from the Indian Yoni (emblem of the
female sex), and it was on account of its similar shape the
almond, luz, was also held sacred in Egypt, which seems the

112 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

true origin of the " vesica piscis," serving as the inclosure for
divine figures. The British Museum possesses a Hindoo altar
in hardstone, neatly polished, having its flat top formed into
the shape of the lingam-yoni ; at each corner of the square a
little idol is squatted. This Indian figure, signifying the
Active and Passive Powers of Nature in conjunction for the
work of Creation, is sculptured like a round shallow basin, with
long projecting lips tapering to a twist, with an obtuse cone
rising out of its middle. Now this is the exact shape of a large
brown lamp from Herculaneum (Caylus, vii. pi. 33), only that
from its centre, instead of a cone, springs a bent fore-finger,
digitus obsccenus (with the same meaning as the lingarn) serving
for handle to carry it by, whilst from the sides project the three
arms of the Egyptian Tau. This vessel must have belonged to
the Isis-worship in that town, no doubt as popular there as
it is known to have been at the neighbouring Pompeii. As for
the office of " Anubis-bearer," it is related that when Commodus
discharged that duty in the procession, he gratified the insane
cruelty of his nature by cracking the shaven skulls of all within
reach with the weighty head of the idol ; and it seems to follow
as a matter of course that the Anubis of Apuleius, in order to
display alternately an ebon and a golden visage, must have
possessed a pair of heads, human and canine, just as he is
figured, holding the caduceus and palm upon certain Basilidan
gems. Lastly, the mysterious image, too awful to be described,
but whose nature is darkly hinted at as neither of bird, beast, nor
man. These very expressions would tempt me to believe a
compound of all three ; in a word, the veritable figure of the
Abraxas god. And be it remembered that this image was the
"Supreme God," and he, we know, was the IAO of Egypt.
This idol must have been of small dimensions, for it was carried
in the bosom of the devotee's robe, and my suspicion is strongly
confirmed by the existence in the late Mertens-Schaffhausen
Collection of a bronze statuette, five inches in height, found in
the south of France, and thus described in the Catalogue. "No
2002. Statuette of lao standing, armed with cuirass, shield and
whip ; his head in the form of a cock's, his legs terminating in
serpents."

PART II.
THE WORSHIP OF MITHRAS AND SERAPIS.

" 0 voi ch' avctc gl' intelletti sani,
Mirate la dottrina die s'asconde
Sotto il velame degli vcrsi straui."

" Salve vera Deum facies, vultusque paterne,
Octo et Jiexcentis numeris cui litera trina
Conformat sacrum nomen, cognomen et
Omen. (Mart. Capella. Hymn, ad Sol.)

<1>PH = THC = X = h^Lj-

THE WORSHIP OF MITHRAS.

I. ORIGIN OF MITHEAICISM.

THE innumerable monuments of every kind bequeathed to us
by the widely-spread worship of the deity styled Mithras, serve,
at the same time, copiously to illustrate the important contribu
tions of Zoroastrian doctrine towards the composition of Gnosti
cism. The Mithraic religion, according to Plutarch, first made
its appearance in Italy upon Pompey's reduction of the Cilician
Pirates, of whom it was the national worship ; * and who, when
broken up into colonists and slaves all over Italy, propagated
it amongst their conquerors. In the new soil the novel religion
flourished so rapidly as, in the space of two centuries, to
supersede (coupled with the earlier introduced Serapis worship)
the primitive Hellenic and Etruscan deities. In fact, long
before this final triumph over the sceptical, Pliny appears
disposed to accept Mithraicism, in its essential principle, as the
only religion capable of satisfying a rational inquirer ; as may
be deduced from this noble passage (ii. 4) : " Eorum medius Sol
fervidus, amplissima magnitudine, nee temporum modo terra-
rumque sed siderum etiam ipsorum ccelique Rector. Hanc osse
mundi totius animam ac planius mentem, nunc principale
Naturae regimen ac Numen credere decet, opera ejus restiniantes.
Hie lumen rebus ministrat, aufertque tenebras, hie reliqua

* This deity, under other titles, most ancient of Grecian colonies,

had ever been the great god of Pon- For destroying his statue, the fanatic

tus. As patron of Sinope he appears Eugenius, justly punished by Dio-

under the form of Helios-Dionysos, cletian, was adopted, in the succeed-

upon the medallion of Pharnaces II. ing times of superstition, for the

In his proper name lie was the patron tutelary saint of the Byzantine Empire

of Trebizond, being worshipped on of Trebizond.
the Mount Mithras overhanging that

I '2

116 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

sidera occultat, illustrat ; hie vices temporum annumque
semper renascentem ex usu Naturae temperat, hie coeli tristi-
tiam discutit, atque etiam humani nubila animi serenat : hie
suum lumen ceeteris quoque sideribus foenerat ; prseclarus,
eximius, omnia intuens, omnia etiam exaudiens ; at principi
literarum Homero placuisse in uno eo video. Quapropter
effigiem Dei formamque quserere imbecillitatis humanee rear.
Quisquis est Deus, si modo cst alius, et qnacuiique in parte, totus
est sensus, totus visus, totus auditus, totus, animrc, totus animi,
totus sui." Thus, during the second and third centuries of the
lioman Empire, Mithras and Serapis had come almost to engross
the popular worship, even to the remotest limits of the known
world. For Mithraicism was originally the religion taught by
Zoroaster, although somewhat changed and materialized so
as better to assimilate itself to the previously established Nature
Worship of the West. Under this grosser form it took its name
from Mithras, who in the Zendavesta is not the Supreme Being
(Ormuzd), but the Chief of the subordinate Powers, the Seven
Amshaspands. Mithra is the Zend name for the sun, the
proper mansion of this Spirit, but not the Spirit himself. Hence
the great oath of Artaxerxes Mnemon was, " By the light of
Mithras," a counterpart of the tremendous adjuration of our
William the Conqueror, " By the Splendour of God !" But the
materialistic Greeks at once identified the Persian Spirit with
their own substantial Phoebus and Hyperion. Thus Ovid has,

"Placat cquo Persis radiis Hypcriona cinctum." (Fasti I. 335.)

In this view of his nature Mithras was identified with other
types of the Sun-god, such as the " Phanaces " of Asia Minor,
and the " Dionysos " of Greece ; and thereby soon usurped the
place of the latter in the long established Mysteries, the ancient
Dionysia. The importance into which the Mithraica had grown
by the middle of the second century may be estimated from a fact
mentioned by Lampridius, that the emperor himself (Commodus)
condescended to be initiated into them. Nay more, with their
penances, and tests of the courage of the neophyte, they may be
said to have been maintained by unbroken tradition through
the secret societies of the Middle Ages, then by the Eosicrucians,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 117

down to that faint reflex of the latter, the Freemasonry of our
own times. But this curious point must be reserved for the
last Section of this Treatise investigating the nature of the last
named societies. My present object is to point out the grada
tions by which the Mithraic principle passed into the Egyptian
and semi-Christian forms of Gnosticism.

The mystic name Abraxas (asserted to have been the coinage
of the Alexandrian Basilides) is said to mean either in actual
Coptic " Holy Name " (as Bellermann will have it) ; or, as
seems equally probable, is merely the Hebrew Ha-Brachah
"Blessing," Grecised, in the same sense. That the symbolic
figure embodying the idea of the Abraxas god has a reference
to the sun in all its components is yet more evident, as shall
be shown hereafter; similarly, the Brahmins apply their
Ineffable Name Aum to the " fierce and all-pervading Sun " ;
and Macrobius devotes much curious learning to prove that
all the great gods of antiquity, whatever their names and
figures, were no more than various attempts at personifying the
One Deity, whose residence is the sun. It must here be re
membered that Basilides was by no means a Christian heretic, as
the later Fathers found it expedient to represent him, but
rather as his contemporary Clemens, relates, a philosopher de
voted to the study of divine things ; and thus possibly imbued
with such Buddhistic notions as the intercourse between
Alexandria and the cities of Guzerat (then ruled over by
the Jaina kings) may have naturalized both in Egypt and
in Palestine. This metropolis, as the grand emporium for
foreign doctrines as well as foreign wares, supplies the reason
for the frequent union of Mithras with Abraxas in the same
stone, proceeding from the Alexandrian talisman-factory. A
curious exemplification is a green jasper (Maiiborough), bearing
on one side the normal Zoroastrian device, Mithras slaughtering
the Bull ; on the other, the well-known Gnostic Pantheus. A
truly Indian syncretism, which converts all deities from separate
beings into mere deified attributes of one and the same God,
and (for the initiated few, that is) reduces that seemingly
unlimited polytheism into the acknowledgment of the existence
of the Supremo Creator.

118 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

That model of a perfect prince, Severus Alexander, must have
imbibed a strong tinge of the Gnosis (as indeed might have
been expected from his birthplace and style of education), for
although upon every seventh day he went up to worship in the
Capitol, and also regularly visited the temples of the other
Roman gods, he nevertheless " was intending to build a temple
unto Christ, and to rank Him in the number of the gods.
Which thing Hadrian also is said to have thought of, and
actually to have ordered temples without images to be built in all
the chief cities of the Empire : which same temples, because
they contain no gods, are now called temples raised to Hadrian
himself, although in reality ho is reported to have prepared
them for the purpose above-named. But ho was prevented
from carrying out his design by those who consulted the oracles
(sacra), and discovered that, if it should be carried out, everybody
would turn Christian, and thereby the other temples would bo
all deserted " (Lampridius i. 43). Indeed, there is every reason
to believe that, as in the East, the worship of Serapis was at first
combined with Christianity, and gradually merged into it with
an entire change of name, though not of substance, carrying
along with it many of its proper ideas and rites, so in the West
the Mithras- worship produced a similar effect upon the character
of the religion that took its place. Seel, in his admirable
treatise upon Mithraicism (' Mithra,' p. 287) is of opinion that
" as long as the Roman dominion lasted in Germany, we find
traces there of the Mosaic law : and in the same way as there
were single Jewish families, so were there single Christians
existing amongst the heathen. The latter, however, for the
most part, ostensibly paid worship to the Roman gods in order
to escape persecution, holding secretly in their hearts the
religion of Christ. It is by no means improbable that, under
the permitted symbols of Mithras, they worshipped the Son of
God, and the mysteries of Christianity. In this point of view,
the Mithraic monuments, so frequent in Germany, are evidences
to the faith of the early Christian Romans." This same
supremacy of the Mithras- worship in his own times makes the
grand scheme of Heliogabalus prove less insane than it strikes
the modern reader at the first impression. He was intending

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 119

(according to report) to permit no other worship at Eomo than
that of his own god and namesake, the Emesene aerolite, apt
emblem of the Sun ; " bringing together in his temple the Fire
of Vesta, the Palladium, the Ancilia, and all the other most
venerated relics ; and moreover the religion of the Jews and
Samaritans, and the devotion* of the Christians." (Lampridius
3). To such a heterogeneous union that numerous section of
the Eoman public who shared Macrobius' sentiments on the
nature of all ancient gods, could have found no possible objection
so far as the principle was concerned.

That such a relationship to Christianity was actually alleged
by the partisans of Mithraicism (when in its decline) is proved
by the remarkable declaration of Augustine himself (John I.
Dis. 7). "I remember that the priests of the fellow in the cap
(illius pileati) used at one time to say, ' Our Capped One is
himself a Christian.' " In this asserted affinity probably lay the
motive that induced Constaiitine to adopt for the commonest
type of his coinage (the sole currency of the Western provinces),
and retain long after his conversion, the figure of Sol himself,
with the legend " To the Invincible Sun, my companion (or
guardian)." A type capable of a double interpretation, meaning
equally the ancient Phoebus and the new Sun of Righteousness,
and thereby unobjectionable to Gentile and Christian alike of
the equally divided population amongst whom it circulated.
Nay more, this Emperor when avowedly Christian, selected for
the grandest ornament of his new Capital, a colossal Apollo,
mounted upon a lofty column, which retained its place until
cast down by an earthquake in the reign of Alexius Comnenus.

Through a similar interchange, the old festival held on the
25th day of December in honour of the " Birth-day of the
Invincible One," and celebrated by the Great Games of the
Circus (as marked in the Kalendar " viii KAL.IAN. N. IN VICTI.
C. M. xxivj) was afterwards transferred to the commemoration
of the Birth of Christ, of which the real day was, as the Fathers

* This curious distinction between public sanction.

" religio " and " devotio," is meant f Signifying that twenty-four con-
to mark the difference between a secutive races of chariots were ex-
national and established creed and hibited on that occasion in the Circus
one held by individuals, without any Maxinms.

120 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

confess, totally unknown: Chrysostom, for example, declares
(Horn, xxx i.) that the Birthday of Christ had then lately been
fixed at Rome upon that day, in order that whilst the heathen
were busied with their own profane ceremonies, the Christians
might perform their holy rites without molestation.

And Mithras was the more readily admitted as the type of
Christ, Creator and Maintainer of the Universe, inasmuch as the
Zendavesta declares him to be the First Emanation of Ormuzd,
the Good Principle, and the Manifestation of Himself unto the
world. Now it was from this very creed that the Jews, during
their long captivity in the Persian Empire (of which when
restored to Palestine they formed but a province), derived all
the angelology of their religion, even to its minutest details,
such as we find it flourishing in the times of the Second
Kingdom. Not until then are they discovered to possess the
Belief in a future state ; of rewards and punishments, the latter
carried on in a fiery lake ; the existence of a complete hierarchy
of good and evil angels, taken almost verbatim from the lists
given by the Zendavesta ; the soul's immortality, and the Last
Judgment — all of them essential parts of the Zoroastrian scheme,
and recognised by Josephus as the fundamental doctrines of the
Judaism of his own times.

To all these ideas Moses in the Law makes not the slightest
allusion ; his promises and threatenings are all of the earth,
earthy ; he preaches a religion of Secularists, and such a religion
was, down to the latest days of Jerusalem, still maintained by
the Sadducees. Now these Sadducees were the most ancient
and respectable families of the nation, who boasted of keeping
the law of Moses pure, and uncontaminated from the admixture
of foreign notions imbibed by the commonalty during their long
sojourn amongst the Gentiles. Nay more, there is some reason
to accept Matter's etymology of the name of their opponents,
the Pharisees, as actually signifying " Persians," being a term
of contempt for the holders of the new-fangled doctrines picked
up from their conquerors. And this etymology is a Jrnuch more
rational one, and more consistent with the actual elements of the
word, than the common one making it to mean " Separatists "
— an epithet by no means applicable to a party constituting

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 121

the immense majority of the race. It is only necessary now to
allude to the ingenious theory of Bishop Wai-burton, set forth
in his * Divine Legation of Moses,' who converts the absence
of all spiritualism from his teaching into the strongest argument
for its being directly inspired from Heaven.

But from whatever source derived, how closely does the
Zoroastrian idea of the nature and office of Mithras coincide with
the definition of those of Christ as given by the author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews, that profound Jewish theologian, who
styles Him the " Brightness (or reflection) of his glory, the
express image* of his person, upholding all things by the word
of his power ; " and again, " being made so much better than the
angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
Name than they," and here it may be observed that the Reflection
of the Invisible Supreme in his First Emanation is a distinguishing
feature in most of the Gnostic systems. Mithras used to be*
invoked together with the Sun, and thus, being confounded with
that luminary, became the object of a separate worship, which
ultimately superseded that of Ormuzd himself : and this was
the only one propagated by the Pontic colonists and their
converts amongst the nations of the West. Secondary deities
often usurp the places of those of the first rank ; so Vishnu
and Siva have entirely eclipsed Brahma. Serapishad played the
same part with the Pharaonic gods of Egypt, and yet more
striking analogies from modern creeds are too obvious to re
quire quotation. Through this relationship of ideas Mithraic
symbolism found its way into early Christian art in many of its
particulars. The bas-relief over the portal of the Baptistery
at Parma (a work of the 12th century), has all the aspect of a
Mithraic monument, and certainly its design would be very
difficult to understand from a Scriptural point of view.

* 'ATravya.(TiJ.a — xapaKT-fip, the latter title, " Tikkan," the Primal Emanu-
\vord literally "impression ot a seal," tion.
is the exact counterpart of the Hebrew

122 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

II. THE MITHEAIC SACRAMENTS.

The principal rites of the worship of Mithras bore a very
curious resemblance to those subsequently established in the
Catholic church; they likewise furnished a model for the
initiatory ceremonies observed by the secret societies of the
Middle Ages, and by their professed descendants in modern
times. The Neophytes were admitted by the rite of Baptism ;
the initiated at their assemblies solemnly celebrated a species of
Eucharist: whilst the courage and endurance of the candidate
for admission into the sect were tested by twelve consecutive
trials, called " The Tortures," undergone within a cave con
structed for the purpose ; all which " tortures " had to bo
completely passed through before participation in the Mysteries
was granted to the aspirant.

The two distinguishing Eites, or " Sacraments " (to use the
technical term) are thus alluded to by Justin Martyr ( Apol. II) in
the earliest description which has been left us of their character.
" The Apostles in the Commentaries written by themselves,
which we call Gospels, have delivered down to us that Jesus
thus commanded them : He having taken bread, after that
He had given thanks,* said : Do this in commemoration of me ;
this is my body. Also having taken a cup and returned thanks,
He said : This is my blood, and delivered it unto them alone.
Which things indeed the evil spirits have taught to be done,
out of memory, in the Mysteries and Initiations of Mithras.
For in these likewise a cup of water, and bread, are set out,
with the addition of certain words, in the sacrifice or act of
worship of the person about to be initiated : a thing which Ye
either know by personal experience or may learn by inquiry."
Again, Tertullian, writing in the following century, has in
the same connection : " The Devil, whoso business it is to per
vert the truth, mimicks the exact circumstances of the Divine
Sacraments, in the Mysteries of idols. He himself baptises some
that is to say, his believers and followers ; he promises forgive-

* This expression seems to prove (the second century) crept into the
that the notion of llesshiri, or con- Christian practice.
, the elements, had not then

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 123

ness of sins from tho Sacred Fount, and thereby initiates them
into tho religion of Mithras : thus he marks on the forehead his
own soldiers : there he celebrates the oblation of bread : he brings
in tho symbol of tho Besurrection, and wins the crown with
the sword." By tho " symbol of tho Kesurrection " Tertullian
clearly means that " simulation of death " mentioned by Lam-
pridius (of which more hereafter), and which is typified on so
many talismans by the corpse bestridden by the Solar Lion.
The final ceremony he has himself explained in another passage :
" Blush, my Kornan fellow-soldiers, even though yo be not to
be judged by Christ, but by any ' Soldier of Mithras/ who
when he is undergoing initiation in the Cave, in the very Camp
of the Powers of Darkness, when the crown (garland, rather) is
offered to him (a sword being placed between, as though in
semblance of martyrdom), and about to be set upon his head, is
instructed to put forth his hand, and push the crown away,
transferring it perchance, to his shoulder, saying at the same
time : My crown is Mithras. And from that time forth he
never wears a crown (garland), and this he has for the badge
of his initiation, for he is immediately known to be a ' soldier
of Mithras,' if he rejects a garland when offered to him, saying
that his crown is his god. Let us therefore acknowledge tho
craftiness of the Devil ; who copies certain things of those
that be Divine, in order that he may confound and judge us by
the faithfulness of his 'own followers." As to the ceremony
here mentioned, unimportant as it may seem to the modern
reader, it may be remarked that as the wearing a garland was
indispensable among the ancients on all festive occasions, the
refusal of one upon such occasions would be a most conspicuous
mark of singularity, and of unflinching profession of faith. But
every dispassionate observer will perceive that these over-zealous
Fathers proceed to beg the question when they assume that the
Mithraic rites were devised as counterfeits of the Christian
Sacraments : inasmuch as the former were in existence long
before the first promulgation of Christianity ; unless indeed to
imitate by anticipation be considered as merely another proof
of the mischievous sagacity of its diabolical opponent. On the
other hand, there is good reason to suspect that the simple

124 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

commemorative, or distinctive, ceremonies, instituted by the
first founder of Christianity, were gradually invested with
those mystic and supernatural virtues which later ages insisted
upon as articles of faith, by the teaching of unscrupulous mis
sionaries, anxious to outbid the attractions of long-established
rites of an apparently cognate character. By this assimilation
they offered to their converts through the performance of, as it
were, certain magical practices, all those spiritual blessings of
which the rites themselves were, at their institution, the symbols
only, not the instruments. A very instructive illustration
of such union of Mithraicism and Christianity, in the cele
bration of the Eucharist, is afforded by the Pistis-Sophia's
description of the great one celebrated by the Saviour himself
upon the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which will be found given
at length in its proper place. And lastly, it deserves to bo
mentioned that " eating the flesh and drinking the blood " of a
human sacrifice was far from being a mere figure of speech in
certain of these mystic celebrations. Pliny gives high praise
to Claudius for having suppressed the worship of the Druids
(whom he considers as identical in their religion with the
Magi), in whose rites "it was esteemed the highest act of
religion to slaughter a man, and the most salutary of proceedings
to eat the flesh of the same." And in this notion, which neces
sarily became attached by suspicion to the proceedings of all
secret societies, lay most probably the root of the belief so
widely diffused amongst the Eoman vulgar, that the real
Eucharist of the first Christians at their nocturnal meetings was
the sacrifice, and the feasting upon, a new-born child, concealed
within a vessel of flour, into which the catechumen was directed
by his sponsors to plunge a knife.

In the particulars preserved to us of the Mithraic Sacrament,
certain very curious analogies to those of the Christian rite
cannot fail to arrest our attention. The *' Bread therein used
was a round cake," emblem of the solar disk, and called Mizd.
In this name Seel discovers the origin of Missa, as designating
the Bloodless Sacrifice of the Mass, assuming that this Mizd
was the prototype of the Host (host la), which is of precisely the
same form and dimensions.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 125

It is not out of place to notice here the various etymologies
which have been proposed for the word Missa. The most
popular one, which moreover has the sanction of Ducange,
derives it from the words "Ite, missa est," with which the
priest dismissed the non-communicant part of the congregation,
"before proceeding to the actual consecration of the Eucharist.
The translation of the phrase by the vulgar into " Depart, it is
the Missa," would certainly bo obvious enough. But, according
to the rule in all such cases, the object sacrificed gives its name
to the ceremony, rather than a phrase from the ceremonial itself,
and this object had from time immemorial gone by the name of
hostia, or " victim." The early Christians were quite as partial
as the Gnostics to the naturalizing of the Hebrew terms belong
ing to the Mosaic ordinances, and applying the same to their
own practices. Thus the old Covenant went amongst them by
the name of Phase, for example : —

" In hoc festo novi Kegis,
Novum Pascha nova3 legis
Vetus Phase terminal."

The Eabbins have possibly preserved a tradition that ex
plains the true origin of the wafer. Alphonsns de Spira, in
his " Fortalitium Fidei " (II. 2), asserts that its circular form
is a symbol of the sun, and that it is in reality offered in
sacrifice, at the celebration of the Mass, to the genius of that
luminary ! For the Kabbalists hold that Moses and the
prophets were inspired by the genius of Saturn, a good and
pure spirit, whereas Jesus was by that of Mercury, a malevolent
one ; and the Christian religion was the work of Mercury,
Jupiter and the Sun, all combining together for that purpose.
There is yet another curious analogy to be noticed, when it is
remembered that the Mass symbolises the death of its first
institutor. A round cake (the chupatty of such evil notoriety at
the commencement of the Sepoy Mutiny) is, amongst the
Hindoos, the established offering to the Manes of their ancestors.
The Christian "breaking of bread," besides symbolising the
great sacrifice once offered, seems, from the account of the
Manifestation at Emmaus, to have been done in some peculiar

126

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

way which should serve for a masonic token, or means of mutual
recognition amongst the brethren.

The sacramental Cup, or chalice, is often represented as set
upon the Mithraic altar, or rather, table ; and a curious piece
of Jugglery connected with its employment (though not amongst
the Mithraicists), is described by Epiphanius (Hseres. xxxiv.).
The followers of Marcus, in their celebrating the Eucharist,
employed three vases made of the clearest glass. These were
filled with wine which, during the progress of the ceremony,
changed into a blood-red, purple, and blue colour, respectively.
" Thereupon the officiating minister, or more properly speaking,
magician, hands one of these vessels to some lady of the congre
gation, and requests her to bless it. Which done, he pours this
into another vase of much greater capacity, with the prayer,
"May the grace of God, which is above all, inconceivable,
inexplicable, fill thine inner man, and increase the knowledge
of Himself within thee, sowing the grain of mustard-seed in
good ground ! " Whereupon the liquid in the larger vase
swells and swells until it runs over the brim.

The worship of Mithras long kept its ground under the
Christian emperors in the capital itself, and doubtless survived
its overthrow there for many generations longer in the remote
and then semi-independent provinces. At the very close of the
fourth century, Jerome, writing to Leeta, says, " A few years
ago, did not your kinsman Gracchus, a name the very echo of
patrician nobility, when holding the office of Prefect of the
City, break down and burn the Cave of Mithras, with all the
monstrous images which pervade the initiatory rites, as Corax,
Niphus, the Soldier, the Lion, the Persian, Helios, and Father
Bromius ? "

In the imagery here alluded to, it is easy to recognise figures
that perpetually occur upon the still extant representations of
the Mithras worship. In Corax, the Eaven ; in Niphus, Cneph
the serpent; the armed man; the Lion bestriding the human
victim ; the youth in Persian garb ; the Sun, expressed either
by Phoebus in his car, or by the star with eight rays ; and
Bromius " the lioarer," appropriate title of the Grecian Dionysos ;
who also appears as the Asiatic Plianaces, a youth holding a

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMANS. 127

torch in each hand, one elevated and one depressed to signify
his rising and setting. Chiflet's gem (Fig. 62) may on good
grounds be taken for a picture of the Mithraic ritual, and
upon it all the foremen tioned figures and symbols are easily
to be discovered. Two erect serpents form a kind of frame
to the whole tableau ; at the top of which are seen the heads
of Sol and Luna confronted; between them stands an eagle
with outspread wings; at the back of each, a raven. In
the field are two naked, crowned men on horseback, tram
pling upon as many dead bodies; between them a kneeling
figure in supplicatory attitude, over whose head are two
stars. Behind each horseman stand two soldiers. In the
exergue is set out a table supporting a loaf, a fawn (sacred to
Bacchus), a chalice, and something indistinct, but probably
meant for the crown Tertullian speaks of. The reverse presents
a more simple design : two crested serpents (dracones^), twined
about wands, and looking into a cup ; two stars over a table
resting upon a larger vase ; and on each side a bow, the ends of
which finish in serpents' heads.

In this composition we probably see portrayed certain
amongst the tests of the neophyte's courage, which, according
to Suidas, were termed the " Twelve Degrees " or " Tortures."
These corresponded in nature, although of vastly more severe
reality, with those trials of courage to which our Masonic
Lodges subject the " apprentice " who seeks admission amongst
them. During the Mithraic probation, which lasted forty days,*
the candidate was tested by the Four Elements, he lay naked a
certain number of nights upon the snow, and afterwards was
scourged for the space of two days. These Twelve Tortures
are sculptured upon the border of the famous Mithraic tablets
preserved in the Innsbruck Museum, and a brief account of their
several stages will serve to elucidate much of what remains to
be discussed. I. Man standing and about to plunge a dagger
into the throat of a kneeling figure, who holds up his hands in
supplication. (This scene appears analogous to the one in the
modern ceremonial, when the candidate, ordered to remove the
bandage from his eyes, beholds many swords pointed in the
* Perhaps the origin of the Lenten term of self-inflicted punishment.

128 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

most threatening manner at his naked breast.) II. Naked
man lying on the earth, his head resting on his hand, in the
posture of repose. (Probably the penance of the bed of snow.)
III. The same figure, standing with hands uplifted in a huge
crescent (perhaps an arJc, and representing the trial by water.
To this last, Plato is reported to have been subjected during his
initiation in Egypt, and to have but narrowly escaped drown
ing). IV. The same, but now with the pileus, cap of liberty,
upon his head, rushing boldly into a great fire (the trial by
fire). V. He is now seen struggling through a deep stream,
and endeavouring to grasp a rock. VI. Bull walking to the
left.

On the other side conie the remaining stages. VII. Four
guests reclining at a horseshoe table (sigma), upon which is set
a boar roasted whole. VIII. Youth guided up a flight of
interminable steps by an aged man. IX. Youth kneeling before
a man in a long robe, whose hand he grasps in prayer. X. The
same figures, but their positions are interchanged. XI. Seated
man, before whom kneels a naked, crowned, youth, escorted by
one in a long robe. XII. Naked man holding up the hind legs
of a cow, so as to receive in his face the stream still regarded
by the Hindoos as the most efficient laver of regeneration,
and consequently always administered to persons at their
last gasp. The same sacred fluid (as I am informed by a
Parsee) is used in the sacramental cups drunk by every male
upon his first admission into that religion, which takes place on
his completing his seventh year. Nay more, such is the belief
in its cleansing virtue, that scrupulous Parseos always carry a
bottle thereof in their pocket, wherewith to purify their hands
after any unavoidable contact with unbelievers !

Very similar ceremonies to these were practised in the secret
societies of the Middle Ages, if we choose to accept Von
Hammer's interpretation of certain mysterious sculptures, still
to be seen in the Templar-churches of Germany ; and which
he has copiously illustrated in his ' Mysterium Baphometis
revelatum.' In the intaglio already described, the kneeling
neophyte is encompassed by all the terrific and mysterious host
of Mithras, so remorselessly destroyed by the zealous Gracchus.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 129

And again, the corpses trample;! on by the crowned horsemen
clearly refer to that recorded test of the candidate's fortitude—
the apparent 'approach of death— for Lampridius puts down
amongst the other mad freaks of Comrnodiis, that during the
Mithraic ceremonies, "when a certain thing had to be done for
the purpose of inspiring terror, he polluted the rites by a real
murder;" m expression clearly showing that a scenic repre
sentation of such an act did really form a part of the proceedings.
The Haven properly takes its place here, as being the attribute
of the Solar god in the Hellenic creed, on which account it is
often depicted standing upon Apollo's lyre.

Many other gems express the spiritual benefits conferred by
the Mithraic initiation upon believer*. A frequent device of
the kind, is a man, with hands bound behind his back, seated at
the foot of a pillar supporting a gryphon with paw on wheel,
that special emblem of the solar god ; often accompanied with
the legend AIKAIQ2, " I have deserved it." Another (Blacas)
displays an unusual richness of symbolism : the same gryphon's
tail ends in a scorpion, whilst the wheel squeezes out of its
chrysalis a tiny human soul that stretches forth its hands in
jubilation ; in front stands Thoth's ibis, holding in its beak
the balance, perhaps the horoscope of the patient. This
talisman too, unites the Egyptian with the Magian creed,
for the benefit of the carrier; for the reverse displays Isis,
but in the character of llygieia, standing upon her crocodile ;
the field being occupied by strangely complicated monograms,
of sense intelligible to the initiated alone, and doubtless com
municated to the recipient of the talisman, who found in them
"a New Name written, that no man knoweth, save he that
receiveth the same." But both doctrines and ceremonial of
this religion are best understood through the examination of
extant representations displaying them either directly or alle-
gorically; which in their turn are illustrated by the practice
of the faithful few who still keep alive the Sacred Fire, namely
the Parsees of Guzerat. The series therefore will be most
fittingly opened by the following curious description of a cave
of Mithras, as discovered in its original and unprofaned condition,
written by that eminent antiquary, Flaminius Vacca. (No. 117.)

130 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

III. A KOMAN MITHRAS IN HIS CAVE.

" I remember there was found in the vineyard of Sig. Orazio
Muti (where the treasure was discovered), opposite S, Yitale, an
idol in marble about 5 palms high (3J ft.), standing erect upon
a pedestal in an empty chamber, which had the door walled up.
This idol had the head of a lion, but the body that of a man.
Under the feet was a globe, whence sprung a serpent which
encompassed all the idol, and its head entered into the lion's
mouth. He had his hands crossed upon the breast, with a key
in each ; four wings fastened upon the shoulders, two pointing
upwards, two downwards. I do not consider it a very antique
work, being done in a rude manner, or else indeed it was so
ancient that at the time when it was made the good style was
not yet known. Sig. Orazio, however, told me that a theologian,
a Jesuit Father, explained its meaning by saying it signified
the Devil, who. in the times of heathenism, ruled over the
world : hence the globe under his feet, the serpent which begirt
his body and entered into his mouth, signified his foretelling the
future with ambiguous responses ; the keys in his hands, his
sovereignty over the world ; the lion's head, his being the ruler
of all beasts ; the wings, his presence everywhere. Such was
the interpretation given by the Father aforesaid. I have done
everything to see the idol, but Sig. Orazio being now dead, his
heirs do not know what has become of it. It is not, however,
unlikely that by the advice of the same theologian, Sig. Orazio
may have sent it to some limekiln to cure its dampness, for it had
been buried many and many a year." Tims was this most
interesting monument destroyed through the conceited ignorance
of a wretched ecclesiastic, himself more truly a worshipper of the
Evil Principle, than was the ancient votary of the beneficent
Lord of Light who carved that wondrous image. Yacca adds,
" I remember, there was found in the same place, after the
above-mentioned idol, another, only in bas-relief, also having a
lion's head, but the rest of the body human : with the arms
extended, in each hand a torch ; with two wings pointing up
wards, two downwards, from between which issued a serpen t.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 131

At his right stood an altar with fire; from the idol's mouth
proceeded a ribbon or scroll extending over the fire."

This Zzow-headed deity can be no other than Jerome's " Pater
Bromius," a Grecian title of Bacchus ; and he, we are told,
distinguished himself under that disguise in the famous war of
the giants —

" Tu cum Parentis regna per arduum
Cohors Gigantum scanderet impia,
Rha3tum retorsisti leonis

Unguibus horribilique mala."

(Horace, Od. IT. xix. 21-24.)

And, tracing back this composite figure to the real source of
such iconology, it is found to be the very one under which
" Nri-singha-avatar " is depicted. It was assumed by the deity
in order to destroy the tyrant Hiransyakagipu, who had obtained
the gift of invulnerability against all known beasts, either by day
or night.

A Mithraic cave, with the contiguous buildings, was dis
covered at Spoleto in 1878. In the end wall were the usual
three niches for the god and his torch-bearers. In front of
them an altar inscribed " Soli invicto Mithras sacrum." Close
to the altar, a tall phallic stone, perforated with a square hole
near the top— perhaps the "stone symbolizing the Birth of
Mithras " mentioned by Firmicus. The cave, with the ground
plan of the whole edifice is given in the ' Archa3ologia,' vol. 47,
p. 205.

IV. MITHRAIC TALISMANS.

Mithraic gems are, for the most part, earlier in date than those
emanating from the Gnosticism of Alexandria, with whose
doctrines they had no connection whatever in their first orioin.
Little difficulty will be found on inspection in separating the
two classes, the former being pointed out by the superiority of
their style, and yet more so by the absence of the Egyptian
symbols, and long Coptic legends that generally accompany the
latter. Indeed many of them belong to the best period of
Roman art — the age of Hadrian ; and it is easy to perceive how
the worship of Apollo gradually merged into that of his more

K 2

132 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

spiritual oriental representative, in the times when religious
ideas of Indian origin began to get the upper hand throughout
the Eoman world — a religion essentially speculative, and dealing
with matters pertaining to another life and the Invisible,
utterly different in nature from the old Grecian creed, so
materialistic, so active, so entirely- busying itself with the
Present and the Visible.

In accordance with the rule that prescribed the proper
material for talismans, the Jasper (Pliny's Malachites), green,
mottled, or yellow, is almost exclusively employed for intagli
embodying Mithraic ideas, and which take the place of Phoebus
and his attributes amongst the glyptic remains of the second
and third centuries. To judge from their fine execution, certain
examples of the class may even date from the age of the first
Cgesars, and thus form as it were the advanced guard of that
countless host of regular Gnostic works, amidst whose terrific
barbarism ancient art ultimately expires. In their beginning
these Mithraic works were the fruit of the modified Zoroastrian
doctrines so widely disseminated over the Empire after the
conquest of Pontus — doctrines whose grand feature was the
exclusive worship of the Solar god, as the fountain of all life — a
notion philosophically true, if indeed the vital principle be, as
some scientists assert, nothing more than electricity. As will be
shown hereafter (" Serapis "), the later Platonists, like Macrobius,
laboured hard to demonstrate that the multitudinous divinities
of the old faiths, wheresoever established, were no other than
various epithets and expressions for the same god in his different
phases. The aim of all the school was to accommodate the
old faith to the influence of the Buddhistic theosophy, the
very essence of which was that the innumerable gods of the
Hindoo mythology were but names for the Energies of the First
Triad in its successive Avatars, or manifestations unto man.

To come now to the actual types setting forth these ideas ;
prominent amongst them is the figure of the Lion (he being in
astrological parlance the "House of the Sun"), usually sur
rounded with stars, and carrying in his jaws a bull's head,
emblem of earth subjected to his power. Sometimes he tramples
on the serpent, which in this connection no longer typifies wisdom,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 133

but the Principle of Evil. For in all religions emanating from
the East, where deadly poisonousness is the most conspicuous
character of the snake-tribe, the reptile has been adopted as
the most speaking type of the Destroyer. In the West, on
the other hand, where the same species is for the most part
innocuous, and a mere object of wonder, it has always symbolized
wisdom, and likewise eternity, from the popular belief in the
yearly removal of its youth through casting the slough ; on this
account the serpent was made the companion of Apollo and
Aesculapius; and furthermore plays so important a part in
Scandinavian mythology, holding the whole universe together
in its perpetual embrace.

Mithras himself often makes his appearance, figured as a
youthful Persian, plunging the national weapon, " Modus
acinaces," into the throat of a prostrate bull (which expresses
the same doctrine as the type last mentioned), whilst overhead
are the sun and moon, the group standing in the centre of the
Zodiac. But the completest assembly of Mithraic figures and
symbols that has come under my notice, is the intaglio published
by Caylus (' Recueil d'Aiitiquites,' vi. pi. 84). It is engraved
upon a very fine agate, 2xlJ inches in measurement. In the
centre is the usual type of Mithras slaughtering the Bull, the
tail of which terminates in three wheat-ears, and between the
hind legs hangs a huge scorpion ; below is the Lion strangling
the Serpent — emblem of darkness and of death. On each side
stands a fir-tree, admitted into this system because its spiry
form imitates a flame, for which same reason its cone was taken
for the symbol of the element fire, and therefore borne in the
hands of deities in the most ancient Syrian sculptures.
Against these fir-trees are affixed torches, one pointing upwards,
the other downwards, which clearly stand for the rising and
setting of the Sun. At the side of one is a scorpion, of the
other, a bull's head. Above each tree again is a torch, each
pointing in an opposite direction. The principal group is
flanked by Phoebus in his four-horse, Luna in her two-horse car
Above the whole stand two winged figures entwined with
serpents and leaning upon long sceptres, between whom rise up
three flames, besides four more at the side of the right-hand

134 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

figure, making up the mystic number seven — perhaps repre
senting the seven Amshaspands or Archangels. A naked
female, surrounded with stars, kneels before the angel on the
left — doubtless the soul for whose benefit the talisman was
composed — soliciting his patronage.

Could this elaborate composition be interpreted, it would
certainly be found to contain a summary of the Mithraic creed
as it was received by the nations of the West. As it is, how
ever, some portions of the tableau are explained by certain
legends to be found in the Parsee sacred books ; whilst others
derive light from comparison with the larger monuments of the
same worship. Thus, the termination of the bull's tail in ears
of wheat allude to the fifty life-giving plants which sprang
from the tail of the Primaeval Bull (or Life, the same word in
Zend) after he had been slain b}r Ahriman. Of the same animal
the seed was carried up by the Izeds (genii) to the Moon, wheiv,
purified in her beams, it was moulded by Ormuzd into a new
pair, the parents of all that exists in earth, air and water. The
scorpion is appended to the part of the body, properly under
the influence of the sign so called, for as Manilius teaches,
" The fiery scorpion in the groin delights." In this particular
situation it expresses Autumn, as the serpent underneath does
Winter ; and with good reason takes the place of the bull's
genitals, for, as the same poet sings (iv. 217.)

" With fiery tail when Scorpio threatens war,
As through the stars he drives the solar car,
He searches earth with penetrating rays
And the mixed seed deep in her furrows lays."

The torches raised and lowered signify the East and West.
In the circular altar of the Villa Borghese (Wiiickelmann Men.
Ined. No. 21) the bust of Luna appears resting on a crescent over
an aged head in front face with crabs' claws springing out of his
forehead — a speaking type of Oceanus. The bust of the rising
sun, with his customary badge, the eight-rayed star, in point,
rests upon an erect flambeau, whilst that of the setting luminary
looking downwards, is placed upon another lowered towards
earth. Again, the serpent winding four times about the figures
may signify the sun's annual revolution ; an explanation

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 135

rendered the more plausible by the torso of Mithras at Aries,
in which the Zodiacal Signs occupy the intervals between the
coils of the same serpent. The lion and raven stand for the
attendant priests; for in these mysteries the higher officials
were denominated Lions, the lower Ravens : whence the rites
themselves got the name of " Leontica," and " Coracica."

The fires, the planets and the genii presiding over them are
in number seven — a numeral the most sacred of all amongst the
Persians. But of these seven Fires, three are ever depicted in a
special manner as those most worthy to be held in reverence.
These three are the " Eire of the IS tars," that is, of the planet
Venus, named Anahid; the "Fire of the Sun," or the Fire Mihr ;
and the " Fire of Lightning," or the Fire Bcrsiov, that is, the
planet Jupiter. The Mihr is the winged orb, so common in all
Assyrian sculpture — an emblem which serves to explain the
Prophet's simile, " the Sun of Kighteousness with healing in his
wings."

The worship of the Fire Gushtasp (or that of Anahid) figures
011 the Zend sculptures as a very ancient worship, and also in
the " Shah Nameh ; " just as that of the goddess Anaitis does in
many Greek authors from Herodotus downwards. This his
torian observes (I. 131) that at first the Persians worshipped
only the sun, moon, and elements, until they learnt from the
Assyrians the worship of Venus Urania, whom they called
Mitra, the same being the Mylitta of the Babylonians, the
Alata or Alilat of the Arabians. Now Mitra (feminine of
Mithras) and Anahid, are one and the same goddess, that is to
say, the Morning Star, a female Genius, presiding over love,
giving light, and directing the harmonious movement of the
other planets by the sound of her lyre, the strings whereof are
the solar rays — " Apollo's lyre strung with his golden hair "
(Creuzer, Kal. de 1'Antiq. ii. 731). In this doctrine we discover
the reason for the separation of the Fires upon Caylus' gem into
two groups ; the principal group consisting of the three most
anciently adored ; the subsidiary one of the remaining four.

Other Mithraic symbols are of a very speaking character, and
almost explain their own meaning at first sight. Thus Mithras
piercing the bull's throat with his dagger signifies the penetration

136 THE GNOSTICS A^B THEIR REMAINS,

of the solar ray into tlie bosom of the earth, by whose action all
Nature is nourished ; as is further expressed by the Dog's licking
up the blood that pours from the wound. The sign Capricorn
frequently introduced into the same group, declares the
necessity of moisture to co-operate with the Sun's influence in
bringing about the germination of the seed sown ; whilst the
scorpion, in the significant position above noticed, expresses the
generative heat. The union of two diverse religions, already
mentioned, is curiously exemplified by those stones that sho\v
the Mithraic group surrounded by sets of the sacred animals of
Eyypt, arranged by threes — crocodiles, goats, calves, vultures,
hawks, ibises — standing around in attitudes of adoration, and
gazing upon the great work of their supreme lord, Mithras (see
page 41, fig. 2).

Mithraic bas-beliefs cut upon the smoothed faces of rocks, or
upon tablets of stone, still abound throughout the former western
provinces of the Roman Empire; many exist in Germany ; still
more in France; others in this island, along the line of the Picts'
Wall, and a remarkably fine example at York, the station of the
Sixth Legion. The famous " Arthur's Oon " (destroyed in the
last century) upon the Carron, a hemispherical vaulted building
of immense blocks of stone, was unmistakably a Specus Mitft-
raicum—thG same in design as Chosroes' magnificent Fire
temple at Gazaca. Inasmuch as the sun-god was the chief
deity* of the Druids, it is easy to imagine what ready ac
ceptance the worship of his more refined Persian equivalent
would find amongst the Celtic Aborigines, when once introduced
by the Roman troops and colonists, many of whom were
Orientals. To the last circumstance a curious testimony is
incidentally borne by Lampridius, when he remarks that the
entire military force employed by Maximinus in his great in-

* As "Belenus" ho continued to prove that Belenus was held to bo
the last the patron-god of Aquileia, another name for Apollo. A shoe of
lhat (Gallic metropolis of Cisalpine the giant emperor, a convincing testi-
(Jaul, and to his power was ascribed niony, literally an "ex pede Hercu-
the death of Maximin when besieging lem," to his incredible stature, was
that city. The acclamations of the \et to be seen in the days of Lam-
senate on the receipt of the news pridius, nailed to a tree in the mcrcd
of their deliverance from the tyrant, yrnve at the place of his fall.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 137

vasion of Germany, was the same that had been raised by Severus
Alexander, and which had accompanied him to the scene of his
murder, " either the North of Gaul or Britain," which same
army the historian describes as " potentissimus quidem per
Armenios et Osrhocnos, et Partlws, et onmis generis homiimm."
For this sagacious emperor had appointed to subordinate
commands in his own army all the prisoners of royal or noble
birth whom he had taken in his preceding Persian campaign.

Although the modern Parsees, like their Achseinenian ancestry
in the days of Herodotus, abominate idols and all visible
representations of things divine, yet do they still piously
cherish the ideas embodied on the sculptures just passed under
review. Amongst these, most conspicuous is their veneration
for the Dog which they yet esteem the most holy of animals.
Tavernier (I. 493) was on this account greatly scandalised by
the Guebres of Surat ; " they have another strange custom—
when a person is on the point of death, to take a little dog, and
place it upon his breast. When they perceive that he is at his
last gasp, they apply the dog's muzzle to the dying man's
mouth, and make it bark twice when in this position, as if they
meant to make the person's soul enter into the dog,* which they
pretend will deliver it unto the angel appointed to receive the
same. Moreover, if a dog happens to die, they carry it out of
the town, and pray to God in behalf of that piece of carrion, as
though the brute's soul could derive any advantage from their
prayers after its death." Following up this analogy, the
sculptured dog licking up the bull's blood may actually be
intended for such a vehicle of departing life. In these times
the Parsees expose their dead, upon gratings laid on the summit
of the " Tower of silence," to be consumed by the birds alone ;
but under the Sassanian monarchy it was the inviolable rule to
lay out all corpses in the open fields to be devoured by the dogs.
This was no more than carrying out to the full a very ancient
principle of the Zoroastriaii religion. Herodotus (I. 140) states
from his own knowledge that the corpse of a Magus was not
allowed to be buried before it had been attacked by a bird or

* My Parsee informant assures mo the merely brin^in^ a tloi, iuto l]ic
this ceremony is now modiiiod into dying man's chamber.

138 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

dog ; adding that the same was reported of the other Persians.
The Magi regarded the killing of a dog equally criminal with
that of a human being This primitive style of obsequies the
Sassanians strove hard to enforce upon all nations subjected to
their sway, viewing as a LI eat sacrilege the placing of dead
bodies in the bosom of the earth ; a still greater, the consuming
them by the sacred element, Fire. This practice above all
others scandalised the narrcw-minded Byzantines; the historian
Agathias expressing his horror at the casting the dead to the
dogs, wlntever their rank or dignity in life; as in the case of
the great Satrap Mermeroes, whom he saw thus exposed naked
in the fields to be so devoured. When the last seven sages of
Greece, expelled from their professional chairs at Athens by the
stupid bigotry of Justinian, sought refuge in the ostentatious
hospitality of Nushirwan the Just, even they (despite their
philosophy) found themselves obliged, by their disgust at the
sight of this practice,* to return home with >ad loss of dignity,
and submit to the spirit of the times. If the dogs refused to
touch the carcase, this was looked on by the friends of the
deceased as the very worst of indications as to the ultimate
destination of his soul. The Parsees, who, with more decency,
constitute the raveiif (or equally sacred creature) sexton and
sepulchre in. one, deiivo a similar augury from observing
which eye is first attacked by the bird, the preference for the
right one being the token of salvation; for the left, of ti.c
reverse.

A very curious portion of the initiatory ceremony in the

* To which they \\ ould have been into the heavens, a portion of the

forced to conform had they continued spirit of the deceased is taken up

under the protection of the Sassanian into heaven. In the case of rich

king. people Lamas are employed to divide

f The same practice prevails in the body into small pieces and carry

Thibet with the motive thus assigned. it up to the top of a hill, where the

"Several bodies exposed on the vulture and buzzard soon dispose of

banks of the stream were being de- it. Interment of the dead is als,o

voured by crows and buzzards, which practised, but only among the poorer

soon leave nothing but the skeletons, people, \vho cannot afford to pay

which are washed away by the sum- Lamas to perform the ceremony of

raer rise of the stream. The Tibe- exposing the body." — Cooper's 'Tra-

tians believe that as each buzzard, vels of a Pioneer of Commerce,'

gorged with its foul repast, soars p. 270.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 139

ancient Mysteries was the giving of the " Mark of Mithras."
After successfully undergoing each stage of the ordeal, the
accepted candidate was marked in a certain indelible manner,
but the exact nature of this marking cannot now be ascertained
The expressions used by St. Augustine (in Johan. i. dis. 7) lead
us to conclude two things : firstly, that the engraved stones, the
object of our consideration, were given to the candidate at the
end of his probation, for a token of admission into the fra
ternity, and for a medium of recognition between members :
and secondly, that every one, upon admission, was stamped with
a secret Mark, indelibly imprinted in his flesh. " Something of
the sort has been copied by a certain Spirit, in that he will
have his own image to be purchased with blood, forasmuch as he
was aware that mankind were some day or another to be
redeemed by the shedding of blood." This last expression
shows that this Mark was not burnt in, but incised or tattooed ;
and the same conclusion may be deduced from St. John's using
the term ^apay/xa, engraving, not crT/y/^, branding, for that badge
of servitude which all the subjects of the Second Beast, " having
horns like a lamb's, and speaking like a dragon," were forced to
receive, either in their right hands (i.e., upon the palm) or upon
their foreheads, and he caused all, both small and great, rich
and poor, free and bond, to receive a Mark in their right hand,
or in their foreheads : " and that no man might buy or sell, save
he that had the Mark, or the Name of the Beast, or the Number
of his Name" (Eev. xiii. 17). These words contain a com
pendious account of the different kinds of " Stigmata " then in
use to distinguish those devoting themselves to any particular
deity. The Mark was the figure of the special symbol or
attribute of that deity (exactly answering to the caste-marks of
the modern Hindoos) : the Name was his own, written at full
length in some sacred language : the Number was the more
recondite way of expressing that name, either by a single
numeral in the primitive Chalda3an fashion, or by other letters
taken numerically, and yielding the same sum. The author of
the Apocalypse very probably had the Mithraicists in view
when penning this allegory ; yet we may be certain that the
members of a secret society did not receive the mark of member-

140 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

ship upon any conspicuous part of their persons. The same
necessity meets us here, as in every other branch of this inquiry,
for placing the origin of all such sectarian bodily Marks in
India— the true fountainhead, directly or indirectly, of so many
Gnostic practices. There, the votaries of the several deities are
still distinguished, each by the proper symbol of his patron-
god impressed upon his forehead, but by a milder process than
of old, being traced, not in his own blood, but with the ashes of
cow-dung, the powder of sandal-wood, or coloured- earths, daily
renewed. Inasmuch as amongst them the symbol of Fire
(Bramah) is an equilateral Triangle, with the apex pointing
upwards, it may be conjectured that the Mithraic ^apay/xa was
the same simple figure, by which indeed Horapollo informs
us the Egyptians symbolised the Moon, and Plutarch that
Pythagoras expressed the goddess Athene.* Clarkson, how
ever, asserts positively that the Mark of Mithras was the " Tau
mysticum," but whence he derived this knowledge I have never
been able to ascertain. f

The Seven Stars, so conspicuous upon these talismans, doubt
less stand for something higher than the mere planets ; in all
likelihood they denote the Seven Amshaspands, the First Order
of Angels in the Zoroastrian hierarchy ; and who became the
" Seven Spirits of God " to the later Jews, and thenco by
gradual transition gave the epithet " Septiformis munere " to
the Spiritus Sanctus of Christianity. Of these Amshaspands
the names and offices are : Ormu/d, source of life and creation ;
Bahman, king of the world ; Ardibehest, giver of fire ; Shahrivar,
of the metals ; Qpandarmat (the Gnostic Sophia), queen of the
earth ; Khordad, presiding over time and the seasons ; Amerdad,
over trees and plants. Of these the highest in place are (after
Ormuzd) the four named next in gradation. Below this
order stand the Ixeds, twenty-seven in number, ruled over by
Mithras ; they govern the heavenly bodies and the elements.

* Herself the lunar deity, at-ford- Crescents, the regular badge of tlio

ing to an old tradition preserved by kings of Pontus, and as such put

Aristotle. upon the states of Athens bearing

t There is very good reason to the names of Mithridutes and Aris-

discover a Mithraie mark in the tion. (In the Due de Luyues Coi-

" Phanaces" or, Sun between two lection.)

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 141

Against each Amshaspand and Ized is arrayed a corresponding
Angel of Darkness, to thwart all his operations, namely, the
Seven Arch-Devs, and the Twenty-Seven Devs.

V. GNOSTIC SACRAMENTS AND INITIATIONS AS
CONNECTED WITH THE MIT1IRAIC.

In my account of Mithraicism notice has been taken of the
very prominent part that sacraments for the remission of sin
play in the ceremonial of that religion; the following extracts
from the grand Gnostic text-book will serve to show how the
same notions (and probably, forms) were transferred to the
service of Gnosticism.

Baptism, Remitting Sins. — (Pistis-Sophia) (298). Then came
forth Mary and said : Lord, under what form do Baptisms remit
sins ? I have heard thee saying that the Ministers of
Contentions (e/atSatot)* follow after the soul, bearing witness
against it of all the sins that it hath committed, so that they
may convict it in the judgments. Now, therefore, Lord, do the
mysteries of Baptism blot out the sins that be in the hands of
the Receivers of Contention, so that they shall utterly forget
the same? Now, therefore, Lord, tell us in what form they
remit sins ; for we desire to know them thoroughly. Then the
Saviour answered and said : Thou hast well spoken : of truth
those Ministers are they that testify against all sins, for they
abide constantly in the places of judgment, laying hold upon
the souls, convicting all the souls of sinners who have not
received the mystery, and they keep them fast in chaos
tormenting them. But these contentious ones cannot pass over
chaos so as to enter into the courses that be above chaos; in
order to convict the souls therefore receiving the mysteries, it is
not lawful for them to force so as to drag them down into chaos,
where the Contentious Receivers may convict them. But the
souls of such as have not received the mysteries, these do they
desire and hail into chaos : whereas the souls that have received

* The Cabiri, " pimishers," of the former duties under the new dispen-
ancieiit mythology, performing their sation.

THE GNOSTICS AND TPIEIR REMAINS.

the mysteries, they have no means of convicting, seeing that they
cannot get out of their own place ; and even if they did come
forth, they could not stop those souls, neither shut them up in
their chaos. Hearken, therefore, I will declare to you in truth
in what form the mystery of Baptism remitteth sins. If the
souls when yet living in the world have been sinful, the Con
tentious Receivers verily do come, that they may bear witness of
all the sins they have committed, but they can by no means come
forth out of the regions of chaos, so as to convict the soul in the
places of judgment that be beyond chaos. But the counterfeit
of the spirit* testifies against all the sins of the soul, in order
to convict it in the places of judgment that be beyond chaos ;
not only doth it testify, but also sets a seal upon all the sins of
the soul, so as to print them firmly upon the soul, that all the
Kulers of the judgment place of the sinners may know that it
is the soul of a sinner, and likewise know the number of sins
which it hath committed from the seals that the counterfeit of
the spirit hath imprinted upon it, so that they may punish the
soul according to the number of its sins : this is the manner
in which they treat the soul of a sinner. (300). Now there
fore if any one hath received the mysteries of Baptism, those
mysteries become a great fire, j exceeding strong, and wise, so as to
burn up all the sins : and the Fire entereth into the soul
secretly, so that it may consume within it all the sins which the
counterfeit of the spirit hath printed there. Likewise it entereth
into the body secretly, that it may pursue all its pursuers, and
divide them into parts — for it pursueth within the body, the
counterfeit of the spirit, and Fate — so that it may divide them
apart from the Power and the Soul, and place them in one part
of the body — so that the fire separates the counterfeit of the
spirit, Fate, and the Body into one portion, and the Soul and
the Power { into another portion. The mystery of Baptism
remaineth in the middle of them, so that it may perpetually
separate them, so that it may purge and cleanse them in order

s, one of tl.e t -A- clear allusion to the Mithraic

four component parts of the soul; " torture of the fire."
equivalent apparently to our " Cyon- I The particle of the Godhead

science." mixed up in the quadruple compo&i-

of the Inner Man.

xxiii GX03TICS AND THEIR REMAINS

that they may not be polluteil by Matter. Now therefore,
Mary, this is the manner whereby the mystery of Baptism
remitteth sins and all transgressions.

(301) And when the Saviour ha<) Urns spoken, he said to his
disciples : Do ye understand in what manner I speak with you ?
Then came forth Mary, saying : Of a truth, Lord, I perceive in
reality all the things that thou hast said. Touching this matter
of the Remission of Sins, thou speaketh aforetime to us in a
parable, saying : I am come to bring fire upon the earth ; nay,
more, let it burn as much as I please. And, again thou hast set
it forth openly, saying : I have a baptism wherewith I will
baptise and how shall I endure until it be accomplished? Ye
think that I am come to bring peace upon the earth ? By no
means so, but dissension, which I am come to bring. For from
this time forth there shall be five in one house ; three shall be
divided against t\vo, and two against three. This, Lord, is the
word that thou speakest openly. But concerning the word that
thou spakest : I am come to bring fire upon the earth, and let it
burn so much as I please : in this thou hast spoken of the
mystery of Baptism in the world, and let it burn as much as
thou pleasest for to consume all the sins of the soul, that it may
purge them away. And again thou hast shewn the same forth
openly, saying : I have a baptism wherewith I will baptise, and
how shall I endure until it be accomplished? The which is
this ; Thou wilt not tarry in the world until the baptisms be
accomplished to purify all the perfect souls. And again what
thou spakest unto us aforetime : " Do ye suppose I am come to
bring peace upon earth," &c. (302). This signifieth the mystery
of Baptism which thou hast brought into the world, because it
hath brought about dissension in the body of the world, because
it hath divided the Counterfeit of the spirit, the Body, and the
Fate thereof, into one party, and the Soul and the Power into the
other party. The same is, " There shall be three against two, and
two against three." And when Mary had spoken these things
the Saviour said : Well done, thou Spiritual One in the pure
light, this is the interpretation of my saying.

Then Mary went on and said : Bear with me, Lord, whilst I
yet inquire of thee. Lo ! we know now fully after what form

144

THE GNOSTICS AXD THEIR REMAINS.

Baptism remitteth sin. Now therefore declare unto us the
mystery of the Three Courts, and the mystery of the First
Mystery, and likewise the mystery of the Ineffable One; in
what form do these also remit sin ? Do they remit sin in the
form of baptism or not ? (3^3) The Saviour answered again :
By no means ; but all the mysteries of the Three Courts remit
in the soul, and in all the regions of the Rulers, all the sins
that the soul hath committed even from the beginning. They
remit also the sins that the soul shall have committed after
wards up to the time that each one of the mysteries taketh unto
itself, the time whereof I will declare unto you hereafter.
Moreover the mystery of the First Mystery, and the mysterv of
the Ineffable One, remit unto the soul in all the regions of the
Rulers all the sins and transgressions that it hath committed.
And not only do they remit, but they do not impute sin* to the
soul, from henceforth for ever by reason of the free- grace of
the mystery and the exceeding glory of the same. Then said
the Saviour : Do ye understand all that I have said unto you ?
Then Mary answered: Lord, I have caught up all the words
thou hast spoken. Now therefore as to the saying that all the
mysteries of the Three Courts remit sins, and blot out iniquities.
Concerning this same matter hath David the prophet spoken,
saying : " Blessed are they whose sins they have remitted, and
whoso iniquities they have covered," and as to thy saying that
the mystery of the First Mystery, and the mystery of the
Ineffable One, do not only remit all sin unto the soul for ever,
but also do not suffer sin to be imputed unto the same for ever
and ever, by reason of the free-gift of the great mystery, and
the exceeding glory thereof; concerning this same matter David
the prophet foretold, saying : " Blessed are they unto whom the
Lord will not impute sin," which signifieth they will not impute
sin from henceforth unto those that receive the mystery of the
First Mystery and the mystery of the Ineffable One. Then
answered the Saviour : Well done, thou Spiritual One, this is
the interpretation of my word.

(305) Then Mary continued, saying : Lord, if a man shall

* This is the doctrine that "knowledge" renders all actions free from
infulness— as held by the Simonians.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS. 145

have received the mystery in the mystery of the First Mystery,
and afterwards shall turn back and sin, and again shall repent
and pray in his own mystery, shall his sin be remitted to him or
not ? Then answered the Saviour ; Whosoever after receiving
the mystery shall again sin twelve times, and again repent
twelve times, and then shall pray in his own mystery, his sin
shall be remitted unto him. But and if, after these twelve
times, he shall turn again and transgress, then of a truth his
sin shall never more be remitted, so that he may turn again
unto his own mystery whatsoever it be. For such an one there
is no repentance, unless indeed ho hath received the mystery of
the Ineifablo One that remitteth all sins, and shall remit them
at every time.

Then said Mary : Lord, those who have received the mystery
of the First Mystery, and then have turned back and sinned, if
such without having repented shall depart out of the body,
shall they inherit the kingdom or not, forasmuch as they have
received the free gift of that mystery ? (306) The Saviour
answered : Of such the judgment shall be the most merciful
amongst all the judgments, for their dwelling is in the Middle
Gate* of the Dragon of Outer Darkness, and at the end| of all
those that be in torment : because such an one hath received
the free gift of the mystery, and hath not remained stead
fast therein. Then said Mary : Such as have received the
mystery of the Ineffable One and then shall turn back and sin,
but afterwards shall repent in their lifetime, how many times
shall their sin be remitted unto them? Then answered the
Saviour : To such an one, not only if he turn back and sin once,
and then repent, shall his sin be remitted, but even if he doth
so continually, so long as he shall repent whilst yet alive, not
being in hypocrisy, and shall pray according to his own mystery,
because those mysteries are merciful and remit sin at every
time (307). Then asked Mary : But if such an one shall
depart out of the body before he hath repented, what then shall
happen unto him? (307) Then answered the Saviour: Of
such an one the judgment shall be worse than of any other, and

* This term is borrowed from the f The lost place, answering to the
ancient Gates of the Ainenti. Limbo of the medifcval Hell.

146 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

exceeding great; for even if those souls be new ones* they
shall not return unto the changes of the earthly bodies, neither
shall they do any work, but they shall be cast out into the
uttermost parts of the Outer Darkness, and shall be consumed so
that they shall not exist for ever and ever.

(308) To this declaration Mary refers the saying : " Salt is
good, but if the salt hath lost its savour," &c.

The following extracts, from the same high authority, will
much elucidate the pass-words communicated to the dying
believer, which form so important a feature of the Gnostic
system.

Benefits of Initiation.— I will declare unto you that mystery,
which is this : Whosoever shall have received that One Word,
when he shall depart out of the body of the Matter of the Kulers,
there shall come the Contentious Eeceivers to loosen him out of
that body, which same Receivers loosen every one departing out
of the body. And when they shall have loosened the soul that
hath received that mystery which I have declared unto you, in
that very moment wherein he is set loose, he becometh a great
Hood of light in the midst of them. And the Eeceivers shall fear
the light of that soul, and shall tremble, and shall cease through
their fear of the great light which they behold. And that soul
shall fly up aloft, and the Eeceivers shall not lay hold upon
him, neither shall they discern by what way he is gone, inas
much as he is become a great Ray of Light, and flieth up aloft,
neither is there any Power that can overtake him, nor ever come
nigh unto him at all (228). But he passes through all the
regions of the Eulers, and also the regions of the offspring of
the Light, neither doth he give-in a declaration in any region,
nor yet a defence of himself,t nor yet the pass-word (or symbol).
Neither can any Power of them all draw near him, but all the
regions of the Eulers and of the offspring of the Light shall

* That is, have occupied the body Egyptian " Kitual of the Dead,"
for the first time ; not souls that concerning the soul's passage on its
after punishment for their sins in way to the palace of Osiris Socharis,
this life, have been placed again in " the Occidental," through the One-
bodies to undergo a second probation and-twenty Gates, each guarded by
upon earth. its own ^enius> and eacn requiring a

f All this is borrowed from the separate address.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 147

sing hymns, each one in his own place, fearing the flood of light
that clotheth that soul, until he shall come into the place of the
heirs of the mystery that he hath received, and become con
joined with the members of the same. Verily, I say unto you,
lie shall be in all the regions in the time that a man can shoot
an arrow. Again I say unto you, whosoever shall receive that
mystery and make himself perfect in all the types and figures
thereof, that man is in the world, but he is more excellent than
the angels, and shall be before them all ; he is a man in the
world, but he is better than the archangels and shall be before
them all (229) ; he is higher than all the tyrants, and all the
lords, and all the gods, and all the luminaries, and all the pure
ones, and all the triple powers, and all the Primal Fathers,
and all the Unseen Ones; he is a man in the world, but he is
more excellent than the great unseen Primal Father, and shall
be more exalted than he, and above all those pertaining to the
Middle-space, and above all the emanations of the Treasury of
Light, and above all the confusion,* and above every region of
the Treasure of Light ; he is a man in the world, but he shall
reign with me (230) in my kingdom ; he is a man in the world,
but he shall be a king in the Light ; he is a man in the world,
but he is not of the world ; and verily I say unto you, that man
is I, and I am that man ; and in the dissolution of the world, when
the universe shall be raised up, and all the number of perfect
souls shall be raised up, and I am made king over all the off
spring of the Light, and when I am made king over the seven
AMHN,f and the Five Trees, and the Three AMHN, and the
Nine Keepers ; and when I am king over the Boy of the boy
which be the Twin Saviours, and over the Twelve Saviours, and
over all the number of perfect souls which have received the
mystery of Light, then whosoever shall have received the
mystery of the Ineffable One, they shall be joint kings with mo
and shall sit upon my right hand and upon my left hand in my
kingdom. Verily I say unto you, those men are I, and I am

* The Creation of the Demiurgus, f Title probably borrowed from

in which the Particle of the Godhead the former Amentt, the four sons of

is mixed up and lost in the heap of Osiris, and keepers of Elysium
Matter.

L 2

148 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR KEMAINS.

those men. For this cause have I said to you formerly, ye
shall sit upon your thrones on my right hand and on my left
in my kingdom, and ye shall reign together with me (231).
Therefore I did not refrain, neither was I abashed to call you
my brethren and my fellows, inasmuch as ye shall be joint
kings with me in my kingdom. These things therefore I Baid
unto you, knowing that I was about to give unto you the
mystery of the Ineffable One, because that mystery is I, and I
am that mystery. Now therefore not only ye shall reign with
me, but also whatsoever men shall have received that mystery
they shall be joint kings with me in my kingdom ; and 1
am they, and they are I. But my throne shall be more
exalted than theirs ; and inasmuch as ye shall receive sorrows
in this world beyond all other men whilst ye are preaching the
words that I declare unto you, therefore your thrones shall bo
next to my throne in my kingdom. For this cause I said of old
time, in the place where I shall be, my twelve ministers shall
be also ; but Mary Magdalene, and John the Virgin, shall be the
most excellent amongst my disciples. And all men that shall
have received the mystery of the Ineffable One shall be upon
my right hand and upon my left, for I am they and they are I,
and they shall be equal with you in every thing ; but your
thrones shall be more exalted than theirs, and my throne shall
be more exalted than yours (232). And all men that shall
find out the Word of the Ineffable One, verily I say unto you
all the men that shall know that Word, the same shall under
stand also the knowledge of all the words that I have spoken
unto you, both in their depth and in their height, in their
length and in their breadth. And what things I have not told
you those I will tell you in their place and in their order in the
emanation of the universe. Verily I say unto you, they shall
know how the world is established, and after what form those
that pertain unto the height (highest place) be made, and for
what end the universe was created.

And when the Saviour had said these things, Mary Magdalene
came forward and said : Lord, be not wroth with me if I
seek out everything with diligence. Whether is the Word of
the mystery of the Ineffable One, one thing, and the Word of

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 149

the Knowledge of All, another? Then the Saviour answered,
and said: The Word of the mystery of the Ineffable is one
thing, and the Word of the Knowledge of All is another. Then
said Mary : Suffer me, Lord, to ask thee yet again one thing.
Unless when we are living we understand the knowledge of the
whole Word of the Ineffable One, we shall not inherit the king
dom of Light? (233). Then the Saviour answered, and said :
Of a truth, whosoever shall have received the mystery of the
kingdom of Light, the same shall go to inherit it into that
place the mystery whereof he hath received. But he shall not
obtain the knowledge of the All, wherefore all things were made,
except he shall have known that One Word of the Ineffable, the
which is the knowledge of all. And again, there is no way of
knowing that One Word of knowledge, except a man shall have
first received the mystery of the Ineffable One ; but every man
shall go to inherit that place the mystery whereof he hath
received. For which cause I said to you formerly : " He that
believeth a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he
that believeth a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's
reward," which is this : of whatsoever place each hath received
the mystery, into that same place shall he go. He that hath
received a humble mystery, the same shall inherit a humble
place. He that hath received an excellent mystery, the same
shall inherit an exalted place ; and every one shall abide in his
own place in the light of my kingdom, and every one shall
have authority over the Course that is below him, but over that
which is above himself he shall not have authority, but shall
abide in his inheritance of the light of my kingdom, dwelling
in a great light unto which there is no measure, next to the
gods and to the Unseen Ones, and he shall be in great joy and
gladness (234).

Now therefore I will speak with you touching the glory of
those also that shall receive the mystery of the Fiist Mystery.
He that hath received the same, at the time when he shall
depart out of this body of Matter, the- Contentious Eeceiver shall
come that they may take his soul out ol the body, and that soul
shall become a great Kay of light and shall fly aloft through the
midst of them, and shall pass through all the regions and ahull

150 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

not give-in any declaration, or defence, or symbol, token (pass
word), but shall pass through all, that he may come and reign
over all the places belonging to the First Saviour. In the like
manner he that hath received the Second Mystery and the Third
and Fourth up to the Twelfth* (235), that soul likewise shall pass
through all the regions without giving in his defence, or token,
and shall come and reign over all the places belonging to the
Twelve Saviours. And in like manner those receiving the second
mystery shall reign over the places of the Second Saviour
amongst the heirs of light. In like manner those receiving the
third and the fourth up to the twelfth, shall reign over the
regions of that Saviour whose mystery each hath received. But
they shall not be equal with those that have received the
mystery of the Ineffable One, but shall abide in the Courses of
the Twelve Saviours.

Then Mary answered, saying : Lord, suffer me yet again.
How is it that the First Mystery hath twelve mysteries, whereas
the Ineffable hath but one ? Jesus answered : Of a truth He
hath but One, but that mystery maketh three others ; the mys
tery is indeed one, but to each of them there is a different
form, and moreover it maketh five mysteries.

As for the First Mystery, when thou hast performed it well
in all the forms thereof, when thou departest out of thy body
thou shalt forthwith become a great Bay of light, and it shall
traverse all the regions of the Eulers and all the regions of
Light, all being afraid of that light of the soul, until it shall
come into its own kingdom. As for the Second Mystery, he that
shall perform the same rightly in all the forms thereof, if he speak
it over the head of a man departing out of the body, and into
Ms two ears, that man departing out of the body when he hath
received the mystery a second time, and been made partaker of
the Word of Trutli^ that man's soul shall become, when it leaveth
the body, a great flood of light, so as to traverse all the regions
until it cometh into the kingdom of that mystery. But and if

* This gradation seems borrowed of the practice of the Heracleonites

from the twelve degrees in the of communicating the pass- word to

Mithraic initiation. the ear of the dying man.

t This is what Epiphanlns relates

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 151

that man hath not received that mystery, neither hath been
made partaker of the words of truth, if he that hath performed
that mystery shall speak the same into the ears of him who is
departing out of the body, verily I say unto you, the soul of
that man, although he hath not received the mystery of Light
nor partaken of the words of truth, shall not be judged in the
places of the Rulers, neither shall it be punished in any place,
neither shall the fire touch it, by reason of the mystery of the
Ineffable which goeth along with it. And they shall hasten to
deliver that soul one to the other, and shall guide it Course after
Course, and place (239) after place, until they bring it before the
Virgin of Light : for all the regions shall fear the mystery and
the Mark* of the kingdom of the Ineffable One that is with it.

And when they have brought the soul unto the Virgin of
Light, she shall see the Mark of the mystery of the kingdom of
the Ineffable One which is with it. And the Virgin of Light
marvelleth thereat, and she judgeth that soul, but suffereth him
not to be brought unto the light until he hath accomplished the
ministry of the light of that mystery, which be these : the
purification of the renouncing of the world and of all the Matter
that therein is. And the Virgin of Light sealeth him with a
special seal, which is this : in the same month in which he hath
departed out of the body, she will cause him to be placed in
another body that shall be righteous, and shall obtain the
divinity of truth and the high mystery, so that he may inherit
the same, and also inherit the Light for ever and ever. This is
the grace of the Second Mystery of the Ineffable One.

As touching the Third Mystery : the man that hath performed
the same duly in all the forms thereof and shall name that
mystery over the head of one departing out of the body whether
ho be living or dead, or abiding in the midst of the torments of the
Rulers,-\ and their different fires, they shall make haste to release

* It has the impression of the royal usage alluded to by Dante in his

seal stamped upon it. ' Vendetta di Dio non Teme Suppe,'

t Here we have the first hint of refers to something of the sort done

masses performed for the dead. A to appease the manes. A homicide

similar idea is involved in the who had eaten sops in wine upon

practice mentioned by St. Paul of the grave of the slain man was

being " baptized for the sake of de- thereby freed from the vendetta of

ceased persons." A singular Italian the family.— (Purgat. xxxiii. 35.)

152 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

that man out of them all, and shall bring him before the Virgin
of Light, who shall place him in a righteous body that shall
inherit the light.

(243) Moreover in the dissolution of the Universe, that is,
when the number of perfect souls is made up, and the mystery
is accomplished on account of which the Universe has been
created, then I will spend a thousand years, according to the
years of light, ruling over the offspring of the light, and over
the number of the perfect souls which have received all the
mysteries. Then Mary said, Lord, how many years in the
years of this world is one year of light? Jesus answered,
One day of light is one thousand years of this world, where
fore thirty and six myriads and a half of the years of the world
make one year of light. I shall therefore reign a thousand
years of light, being king in the middle of the last Parastates,*
being king over all the offspring of light, and over all the
number of perfect souls that have received the mysteries of
light. And ye, my disciples, and each one that hath received
the mysteries of the Ineffable One, shall be upon ray right hand
and upon my left, being kings together with me in my kingdom.
And those likewise that receive the three mysteries of the five
mysteries of the Ineffable shall be kings together with you in
the kingdom of light. But they shall not be equal with you,
and with those receiving the mystery of the Ineffable One, for
they shall continue kings behind you. And those receiving
the five mysteries of the Ineffable shall remain behind the
three mysteries being kings also. Likewise those receiving the
twelve mysteries of the First Mystery, they too shall abide as
kings behind the five mysteries of the Ineffable One. And they
also are kings each one of them according to his course, and all
receiving in the mysteries in all the places of the Court of the
Ineffable One, so that they shall be kings also* but come after-
such as have received the mystery of the First Mystery: being
sent forth according to the glory of each, so that those receiving
high mysteries shall dwell in high places, but those receiving
humble mysteries shall abide in humble places.

* The deity whose place is next to the Supreme Light; to judge from the
primary sense of the word. .

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 1"»3

These are the Three Lots of the Kingdom of Light, and the
mysteries of these Three Lots of Light are exceeding great. Ye
will find them in the great Second Book of I EV ; but I will give
unto you and declare unto you the mysteries of each lot, which
be more exalted than any other place (246), and are chief both
as to place and as to order : the which also lead all mankind
within, into lofty places ; according to the court belonging to
their inheritance, so that ye have no need of any of the lower
mysteries, but ye will find them in the Second Book of I EV which
Enoch wrote when I spoke with him out of the Tree of Know
ledge and out of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of Adam.

Now therefore after I shall, have declared unto you all
Emanation, I will give and I will tell unto you the Three Lots
of my Kingdom which be the chief of all.

Inasmuch as Ordeals and Meritorious Penances held so important
a place in the Mithraic ceremonial, it will not be irrelevant here
to adduce for comparison a series of the kind as excogitated by
the extravagant imagination of the Brahmins. The penances
of the demon Taraka, the Tapa-asura, by means whereof he
constrained Brahma to grant him whatever he chose to demand,
are thus enumerated, each stage being of one century's dura
tion. 1. He stood on one foot, holding up the other with both
hands towards heaven, his eyes fixed immovably upon the sun.
2. He stood on one great toe. 3. He took for sustenance
nothing but water. 4. He lived similarly upon air. 5. He
remained immersed in the water. 6. He was buried in the
earth, continuing, as during the last penance, in continued
adoration. 7. He performed the same act in the fire. 8. He
stood on his head with his feet upwards. 9. He stood resting
on one hand. 10. He hung by his hands from a tree. 11. He
hung on a tree by his feet, with his head downwards. (The
twelfth degree Moor has, for some reason, omitted.)

By means like these, termed the Yoy, the ascetic Yogi is
enabled to obtain nine seveial gifts, that set him above all the
laws of Nature. For example, he may expand or contract his
body to any size he pleases ; he may float in the air upon a
sunbeam ; he may exert all his sense at an infinite distance
from the objects of them ; with other capabilities of like kind.

154 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

And with respect to the sixth penance of Taraka, this, incredible
as it appears, is still performed. To be buried alive in a small
vault covered deep with earth until a crop of grain, sown over
him at the time of inhumation, shall be ripe for cutting, is yet
esteemed the most efficacious of good works for extorting from
heaven the blessing most desired by the patient or his employer
(the doctrine of vicarious atonement being most thoroughly
Hindoo). The English Resident at Eunjeet Singh's court has
minutely described all the preparation made by the royal proxy,
(whose regular trade it was thus to die for others), and the
successful completion of his penance, which occupied the space
of six weeks. The Eesident assisted at the closing and the
opening of the vault, and was certain that no deception could
possibly have been practised by the Yogi. The blessing
aimed at was the gift of fecundity for a favourite queen of
Kunjeet's.

The " Taurobolia," or Baptism of Blood, during the later ages
of the Western Empire, held the foremost place, as the means
of purification from sin, however atrocious. Prudentius has
left a minute description of this horrid rite, in which the person
to be regenerated, being stripped of his clothing, descended into
a pit, which was covered with planks pierced full of holes ; a
bull was slaughtered upon them, whose hot blood, streaming
down through these apertures (after the fashion of a shower-
bath), thoroughly drenched the recipient below. The selection
of the particular victim proves this ceremony in connection
with the Mithraica, which latter, as Justin says, had a
"Baptism for the remission of Sins"; and the Bull being in
that religion the recognised emblem of life, his blood necessarily
constituted the most effectual laver of regeneration. No more
conclusive evidence of the value then attached to the Taurobolia
can be adduced, than the fact mentioned by Lampridius that
the priest-emperor Ileliogabalus thought it necessary to submit
to its performance ; and a pit, constructed for the purpose as
late as the fourth century, has lately been discovered within
the sacred precincts of the Temple at Eleusis, the most holy
spot in all Greece.

The subject will find its most appropriate conclusi-jn in the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

155

list of " Degrees " to be taken in the Mysteries, as laid down by
M. Lajard, in his elaborate treatise, ' Le Culte do Mithra,'*
These degrees were divided into four stages, Terrestrial, Aerial,
Igneous, and Divine, each consisting of three. The Terrestrial
comprised the Soldier, the Lion, the Bull. The Aerial, the
Vulture, the Ostrich, the Eaven. The Igneous, the Gryphon,
the Horse, the Sun. The Divine, the Eagle, the Sparrow- Hawk,
the Father of fathers. Lajard's theory is best elucidated by
quoting his way of expounding a very frequent cylinder-subject.
He finds the admission to the degree of " The Soldier," in the
group where a man is seen standing before a " hierophant," or
priest, who stands on the back of a bull couchant on a platform.
The hierophant, wearing a cap tipped by a crescent, holds out
to the neophyte a curved sword, symbol of admission into the
Order. A priestess stands apart, separated from him by the
horn, or Tree of Life, over which soars the emblem of the
Assyrian Triad. Her cap is tipped by the Sun-star, but she
also wears the crescent, to show the hermaphrodite nature of
Mylitta !

* Lajard discovers upon the Baity-
Ionian cylinders representations of
admission to the several degrees, of
which they were given, as certificate
to the initiated : and accounts for
their enormous extant numbers by
the supposition that every one, upon

proceeding to a higher degree, threw
away the cylinder marking the pre
ceding one. But the complicated
system of the Mithraici was evi
dently the creation of much later
times, and of a religion vainly strug
gling for life.

FIG 5

156 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

ST. AUGUSTINE ON GNOSTICISM.

The transition from orthodoxy to Gnosticism, in its last and
mosi elaborate phase is well pointed out by the following re
miniscences of St. Augustine, describing his own experiences.
In his eighteenth or nineteenth year he had begun to study
the Scriptures, to satisfy himself as to the truth of the religion in
which he had been brought up. " Consequently I set to work
to study the Holy Scriptures, in order that I might discover
what was their true character. And lo ! I behold a thing
not discovered unto the proud, nor revealed unto babes; but
humble in gait, lofty in issue, and veiled in mysteries ; and I was
not such a one as could enter therein, neither to bow down my
neck unto the steps thereof. For I did not think then, as 1
speak now, when I was studying Scripture, but it seemed to
me unworthy to be compared with the sublimity of Cicero's
eloquence. Nevertheless that Scripture was such as should
grow up together with babes, but I .disdained to be a babe, and
being puffed up with pride I fancied myself a grown-up man.
So it came to pass that I fell in with men full of pride, dotards,
too carnal, and great talkers, in whose mouth is a snare of the
Devil, and bird-lime made up with a mixture of the syllables of
Thy Name, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Paraclete's,
our Comforter the Holy Ghost. All these names did not
proceed out of their mouth except as far as the sound and echo
of the tongue go, but their heart was utterly void of truth.
And they used to repeat ' Truth and Truth,' and so did they
repeat her name to me, but she was nowhere amongst them, but
they spoke false things, not only concerning thee who art the
Truth in truth, but even concerning the elements of this world
of ours, thy creation ; concerning which even the philosophers,
who declared what is true, I ought to have slighted for the love
of Thee, 0 my Father, the Supreme Good, the Beauty of all
things beautiful. 0 Truth ! Truth ! how inwardly did the
marrow of rny soul sigh after thee even then, whilst they were

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

157

perpetually dinning thy name into my ears, and after various
fashions with the mere voice, and with many and huge boohs of
theirs. And these were the dishes upon wliich were served up
to me who was hungering after thee, nothing but the Sun and
the Moon, thy fair works indeed, but not thyself, and not even
the first amongst thy works. For thy spiritual works are
before those corporeal works, however splendid and heavenly
they may be. But even for those, thy higher works, I hungered
and thirsted not, but for thee only, 0 Truth ! wherein there is
no change, neither shadow of turning. And again there were
set before me, in those same dishes, splendid phantoms, than
which it were even better to love the Sun himself, for he was
true as far as regards one's eyes, rather than to love those
fictions whereby the soul was deceived through the eyes. And
yet because I believed them to be Thee, I ate thereof though not
greedily, because Thou didst not taste in my mouth as thou
really art, for thou wert not those empty fictions ; neither
was I nourished thereby, but rather weakened. Food in dreams
is like to the food of one awake, yet the sleepers are not fed by
the same, for they sleep on : but those dishes were not in any
wise like unto Thee as thou now hast spoken to me, &c."

FIG. G.

158 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

THE WORSHIP OF SERAPIS.

I. THE FIGURED REPRESENTATIONS OF SERAPIS.

The next great series of monuments to be considered are
those emanating from the worship of Serapis, that mysterious
deity, who, under his varying forms, had, during the second
and third centuries of our era, completely usurped the sove
reignty of his brother Jupiter, and reduced him to the rank of
a mere planetary Genius. Unlike the generality of the deities
who figure upon the Gnostic stones, the Alexandrian Serapis
does not belong to the primitive mythology of Egypt.* His
worship may be said to be only coeval with the rise of Alex
andria, into which city it was introduced from Sinope by the
first Ptolemj7, in consequence of the command (and repeated
threats, in case of neglect) of a vision which had appeared to
him. After three years of ineffectual negotiation, Ptolemy
at last obtained the god from Scythotherius, king of Sinope ;
but when the citizens still refused to part with their idol, a
report was spread, that it had spontaneously found its way from
the temple down to the Egyptian ships lying in the harbour.

The prevalent opinion amongst the Greeks was that the
figure represented Jupiter Dis (Aidoneus) and the one by his
side, Proserpine. This latter the envoys were ordered by the
same divine messenger, to leave in its native shrine. Another
story, also mentioned by Tacitus,f made the statue to have
been brought from Seleucia by Ptolemy III, but this rested
on slighter authority. It is, however, a curious confirmation
of this last tradition that Serapis is named by Plutarch
(" Alexander,") as the chief deity of Babylon (Seleucia in later
times) at the date of the Macedonian Conquest — a proof that

* The difference between him and f Who narrates the whole affair at

the ancient Theban Serapia (as the great length — a proof of the influ-

Greeks translated his title " Osor- ence of the religion in his day — in his

Api"), shall be pointed out farther History, iv. 84.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 159

he at least regarded that god as identical with Belus. Now, it
is a remarkable coincidence that Ana, the First Person in the
primitive Chaldean Triad, is likewise " King of the Lower
World," and that his symbol, the vertical wedge, stands also for
the numeral GO, which last is often used to express hiero-
glyphically the name Ana.

It was Timotheus, an Athenian Eumolpid, and, in virtue of
his descent, Diviner to the king, who indicated Pontus as the
residence of the unknown god, whose apparition had so dis
quieted the monarch by commanding himself to be sent for
without declaring whence. The figure, seen in the vision, was
that of a youth, a circumstance that tallies ill with the mature
majesty of the great god of Alexandria.* But the Helios
Dionysos, a veritable Christina, who graces the reverse of the
gold medallion of Pharnaces II, coined at Sinope in the follow
ing century, agrees much more exactly with this description of
the nocturnal visitor.

Speedily did Serapis become the sole lord of his new home ;
and speculations as to his true nature employed the ingenuity
of the philosophers at Alexandria, down to the times when
they were superseded by the discussions on the doctrine of
the Trinity, waged with equal zeal but infinitely worse temper.
Every conflicting religion strove to claim him as the grand
representative of their own doctrine. Macrobius has pre
served one of the most ingenious of these interpretations, as
made by the ' Rationalists,' a party so strong amongst the later
Greeks (I. 20). " The City of Alexandria pays an almost
frantic worship to Serapis and Isis, nevertheless they show that
all this veneration is merely offered to the Sun under that name,
both by their placing the corn-measure upon his head, and by
accompanying his statue with the figure of an animal having
three heads ; of these heads, the middle and the largest one is a

* The great god of Assyria, Adad, signify their influence upon the earth,

" The One," the oracle-giving Jupiter who stood before him in the figure of

of Heliopolis, was thus figured in Atergatis, the rays in her crown

his golden statue as a beardless pointing upwards, to express the

youth, brandishing aloft a whip, and springing up of her gifts. She was

holding in his left hand the thunder- supported, like Cybele, upon the

bolt and wheat-ears. The rays crown- backs of lions,
ing his head pointed downwards to

160 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

lion's, that which rises on the right is a dog's in a peaceable and
fawning attitude ; whilst the left part of the neck terminates in
that of a ravening wolf. All these bestial forms are connected
together by the wreathed body of a serpent, which raises its head
up towards the god's right hand, on which side the monster is
placed. The lion's head typifies the Present, because its con
dition between the Past and the Future is strong and fervent.
The Past is signified by the wolfs head, because the memory
of all things past is scratched away from us and utterly con
sumed. The emblem of the fawning dog represents the Future,
the domain of inconstant and flattering hope. But whom
should Past, Present and Future serve except their Authors ?
'His head crowned with the calathus typifies the height of the
planet above us, also his all-powerful capaciousness, since unto
him all things earthly do return, being drawn up by the heat
he emits. Moreover when Nicocreon, tyrant of Cyprus, con
sulted Serapis as to which of the gods he ought to be accounted,
ho received the following response : —

" ' A god I am, such as I show to thee,
The starry heavens my head ; my trunk the sea ;
Earth forms my feet; mine ears the air supplies;
The sun's far-darting, brilliant rays mine eyes.' "

From all this it is evident that the nature of Serapis and the
Sun is one and indivisible. Again, Isis is universally worshipped
as the type of earth, or Nature in subjection to the Sun. For
this cause the body of the goddess is covered with continuous rows
of udders, to declare that the universe is maintained by the per
petual nourishing of the Earth or Nature." This last curious
remark shows that Macrobius regarded the Alexandrian Isis as
the same with the Ephesian Diana, for the ancient Isis of Egypt
had only the usual complement of breasts. This philosopher
had started with the axiom (I. 17), " Omnes deos referri ad
Solem," and begins by demonstrating from the various epithets

* I cannot help suspecting that blem of the air, the serpent, accordin

this description supplied Basilides to Herodotus, was the offspring of

with the idea of his celebrated earth, the breast of man was the

Pantkeus, the Abraxas-figure. The Homeric attribute of Neptune,
head of the Irird was the fittest em-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. ]61

of Apollo, that Tie was the same god with the one styled the Sun.
He then proceeds to prove the same of Bacchus, Hermes,
Aesculapius, and Hercules. His ingenious explanation of the
serpent-entwined rod of Hermes, and club of Aesculapius, will be
found applied further on to the elucidation of the remarkable
symbol on the reverse of all the Chnuphis amulets. After this,
Macrobius passes in review the attributes and legends of Adonis
and Atys, also of Osiris and Horus, and comes to the same con
clusion concerning the real nature of all these personages, add
ing parenthetically a very fanciful exposition of the Signs of
the Zodiac, as being merely so many emblems of the solar in
fluence in the several regions of creation. Nemesis, Paris,
Saturn, Jupiter, and finally the Assyrian Adad, are all reduced
by him to the same signification.

This brings us to that most wondrous identification of all,
which Hadrian mentions in a letter to his brother-in-law
Servianus, preserved by the historian Vopiscus in his Life of the
Tyrant Saturninus. " Those who worship Serapis are likewise
Christians; even those who style themselves the bishops of
Christ are devoted to Serapis. The very Patriarch himself,*
when he comes to Egypt, is forced by some to adore Serapis, by
others to worship Christ. There is but one God for them all,
Him do the Christians, Him do the Jews, Him do the Gentiles,
all alike worship." Severus Alexander, too, who daily paid his
devotions to Christ and Abraham, did none the less expend
large sums in decorating the temples of Serapis and Isis " with
statues, couches, and all things pertaining to their Mysteries,"f
whilst he left the other gods of Korne to take care of them-

And as connected with the same subject, it may be here
observed that the conventional portrait of the Saviour is in all
probability borrowed from the head of Serapis, so full of grave
and pensive majesty. Of the first converts, the Jewish foredilec-
tions were so powerful that we may be sure that no attempt
was made to portray His countenance until many generations

* The Patriarch of Tiberias, head f A very favourite representation
of the Jewish religion, after the of Isis upon our talismans shows her
destruction of Jerusalem. reclining upon a couch.

M

162 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

after all who had beheld it on earth had passed away.* Never
theless, the importance so long attached to the pretended letter of
Len tulus to the emperor, Tiberius, describing Christ's personal
appearance, demands a notice in this place. Its monkish
Latinity and style betray it, at first sight, for the authorship
of some mediaeval divine. Yet, incredible as it may seem,
even a learned man like Grynaeus has been so besotted through
hie pious longing for the reality of such a record, as to persuade
himself that Lentulus, a Eoman Senator and an eminent his
torian, could have written in the exact phrase of a mendicant
friar. " There has appeared in our times, and still lives, a
Man of great virtue, named Christ Jesus, who is called by the
Gentiles a Prophet of Truth, but whom his own disciples
called the Son of God ; raising the dead, and healing diseases.
A man indeed of lofty stature, handsome, having a venerable
countenance, which the beholders can both love and fear. His
hair verily somewhat wavy and curling, somewhat brightish
and resplendent in colour, flowing down upon his shoulders,
having a parting in the middle of the head after the fashion
of the Nazarenes, &c." (Grynaeus, ' Orthodoxia ' I. p. 2.) This
forgery reminds one of Pliny's remark, " Pariunt desideria
non traditos vultus, sicutin Homero evenit." The wish is father
to the image of the venerated object ; and the conception is too
joyfully accepted by the loving soul for it to trouble itself
overmuch in scrutinizing the legitimacy of the same : for, as
Martial exclaims with full truth " quis enirn darnnet sua vota
libenter?"

But to return to the Egypt of the times of Gnosticism. In the
very focus of that theosophy, Alexandria, the syncretistic sects
which sprang up so rankly there during the three first centuries
of the Eoman empire, had good grounds for making out Serapis
a prototype of Christ, considered as Lord and Maker of all, and
Judge of the quick and the dead. For the response given to
Nicocreon, above quoted, evinces that the philosophers at least
saw in Serapis nothing more than the emblem of the ' Anima

* What proves the ^ant of any monuments in sculpture or painting,
real authority for the portraits of the represent him as youthful and beard-
Saviour is the fact that the earliest Jess.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 163

Mundi,' the Spirit of whom Nature universal is the body, for
they held the doctrine of

" the one harmonious whole,

Whose body Nature is, and God the soul."

So that by an easy transition Serapis came to be worshipped as
the embodiment of the One Supreme, whose representative on
earth was Christ.

The very construction of the grand Colossus of Serapis in
geniously set forth these ideas of his character. It was formed
out of plates of all the metals, artfully joined together, to typify
the harmonious union of different elements in the fabric of the
universe, the " moles et machina mundi." This statue was placed
upon the summit of an artificial hill (whose vast interior was
divided into vaulted halls, containing the famous library), as
cended by a flight of a hundred steps — a style of building totally
diverse from the native Egyptian and the Grecian model, but
exactly following the Indian usage, as may be seen by the grand
pagoda of Siva at Tanjore, and by the topes and dagolas of
the Buddhists.

The remarkable construction of this Colossus may reasonably
be supposed to have suggested to the Alexandrian Jew, who
completed the Book of Daniel, the notion of the similarly com
pacted Image which figures in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream. That
his description of the latter was penned long after the coming
of Serapis into that city is manifest from the minute details
this prophet gives concerning the constant squabbles going on
between Antiochus Epiphanes and Ptolemy Philometor, his
nephew ; together with the final intervention of the Roman
Senate. The popular belief of the Alexandrians (Christian as
well as pagan) was that the profanation of this statue would be
the signal for heaven and earth to collapse at once into pristine
chaos — a notion bearing clear testimony to the grand idea
embodied by the figure. At last, however, although his worship,
thus defended by deep-rooted fear, had been tolerated by the
Christian government long after the other gods of Egypt
had been swept away, this wonderful Colossus was broken
down by " that perpetual enemy of peace and virtue " the

M 2

164 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Patriarch Theophilus, in the reign of Theodosius ; and its muti
lated trunk, dragged triumphantly through the streets "by the
mob of rejoicing fanatics, was ultimately buried in the Hippo
drome.

Like that of Mithras, the worship of Serapis was widely
diffused over the West. A very curious exemplification of this
is to be found in Ammianus' notice that Mederich, king of the
Alemanni, had, when detained as a hostage in Gaul, been taught
certain Greek Mysteries, and for that reason changed the
name of his son Aganerich into Serapion. But Serapis had a
natural claim to the adoration of the Gauls, who, as Caesar tells
us, actually boasted of descent from Dis Pater.

The new-comer from Sinope does not seem to have brought
his name with him. When Ptolemy consulted his own priest
hood upon this important point, Manetho boldly identified the
Pontic god with their own Osor-Apis, chiefly on the score of his
attribute Cerberus, which he considered the counterpart of the
hippopotamus-headed Typhon who attends Osor-Apis in his
character of sovereign of the Lower World. This deity is no
other than the Bull Apis, who, after death, assumes the figure of
Osiris, the regular form of Egyptian apotheosis, and so frequently
seen applied to deceased kings. Osor-Apis, as he now becomes,
is depicted as a man with the head of a bull, and carrying the
ensigns by which we usually recognize Osiris. The god of
Alexandria therefore differs in form as widely as in origin from
the original patron of Thebes, with whom he has no other
affinity than in name, and that rests only on the arbitrary inter
pretation of the Egyptian priests, so successful in persuading
the Greeks that the mythology of the whole world was but a
plagiarism from their own.

M. Mariette in 1860 excavated the Theban Serapeum, as it
was called in Koman times, with its long avenue of sphinxes ;
he also discovered the catacombs where the Apis Bulls were
deposited after death, and found there no fewer than sixty, two
of their mummies yet reposing undisturbed. It is amusing to
notice how neatly the Greeks turned the Coptic Osor-Apis into
the more euphonious 6

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 165

II. THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF SERAPIS.

The ancient speculations cited in the preceding chapter are
all baseless theories, due to the ingenious refinements of the
Alexandrian literati, and springing out of the system of
allegorical interpretation in which the New Platonists so much
delighted. It is evident that upon his first introduction into
Egypt, Serapis was regarded by the Alexandrians as identical
with Ai'doneus, or Dis, the Lord of the Lower World. Now, all
his attributes suggest him to have been of Indian origin, and no
other than Yama, "Lord of Hell," attended by his dog
" Barbara," the spotted, who has the epithet " Trigira," three-
headed, and by his serpent " Qesha," called " Regent of Hades ; "
in fact, some have discovered in the name Serapis* but the
Grecian form of Yama's epithet, " Sraddha-deva," Lord of the
obsequies, that is, of the funeral sacrifices offered to the Pitris
or Manes. Yama also is styled " Lord of souls," and " Judge of
the dead ; " another office assimilating him to Serapis in the
character under which the latter came to be specially regarded
— a point, moreover, which at a later date afforded stronger
reasons for identifying him with Christ. A plausible etymology
of the name Serapis may be found in another of Yama's epithets,
" Asrik-pa " the Blood-drinker. This explanation is confirmed to
some extent by the ancient tradition, of which Homer makes
such fine use when he describes Ulysses' mode of evoking the
ghosts, and their eagerness to lap up the life-blood of the
victim (Od. xi. 35) : —

" Seizing the victim sheep I pierced their throats ;
Flowed the black blood, and filled the hollow trench ;
Then from the abyss, eager their thirst to slake,
Came swarming up the spirits of the dead."

And connected with the same notion was the practice of
strewing roses over the graves of departed friends —

" Purpureos spargam flores et fungar inani munere,"
for (as Servius explains it) the red colour of the flower

* It is not improbable that the this sound ; and which suggested to
name under which the god was wor- Manetho the idea of identifying him
shipped at iSinope had something of with his own Osor-Api.

166 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

represented blood, and thereby served as a substitute for the
living victim.*

This analogy between Yama and Serapis may be further
extended by the consideration of certain other points con
nected with the office of the former deity. For example, unto
the souls of the righteous he appears as " Dharma-raja," and
has a servant " Karma-la " (the Hermes Psychopompos of the
Greeks), who brings them into his presence upon a self-moving
car. But unto the wicked he is " Yama," and has for them
another minister, *• Kash-Mala," who drags them before him
with halters round their necks, over rough and stony places.
Other titles of Yama are "Kritanta" and "Mrityu." The
connection of the latter with Mors is evident enough, making
it a fitting appellation for Dis (Ditis), in which again unmis
takably lies the root of our name Death, applied to the same
Principle of Destruction.

Yama as " Sraddha-deva," monarch of " Patala " (the infernal
regions), has for consort Bhavani, who hence takes the title of
" Patala-devi," as upon Earth she is " Bhu-devi," in heaven,
" Swardevi." Her lord owns, besides (Barbara, another dog
named " Qyama," the Blade One (now we see wherefore the
mediaeval familiar spirits like Cornelius Agrippa's black
spaniel, and Faustus' " pudel " chose that particular figure),
whom he employs as the minister of his vengeance. As Judge
of Souls he displays two faces, the one benign, the other
terrific. Another of his titles is " Kalantika," Time as the
Destroyer : it can hardly be a mere accidental coincidence that
such was the exact name given to the head-dress worn by the
Egyptian priests when officiating — in later times a purple cloth
covering the head, and falling down upon the neck, surmounted
by two plumes.

* One of the most frequented flowers included. Another well in

places of pilgrimage at Benares is the same city, of supreme efficacy for

the " Gyan Bapi," " Well of Know- the washing away of all sin, is the

ledge," in the depths whereof Siva Manikarnika, so called from the ear-

himself resides. It was dug by the ring of Mahadeva, which fell into it.

genius Eishi, with that gud's own Vishnu had dug this well with his

trident, to relieve the world after P rJiangra, quoit, and filled it with the

twelve years' drought. The pilgrims luminous sweat of his body,
throw into it offerings of all kinds.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 167

" Kali-Bhavani," the Destructive Female Principle is repre
sented* in this character with a visage exactly identical with
the most ancient type of the Grecian Gorgon — such as we still
behold it guarding the Etruscan sepulchres, and lowering
horrifically upon the sacrilegious intruder ; as in that notable
example in the tomb of the Volumni at Perugia, where it forms
the centrepiece of the ceiling of the grand hall. Formed of a
Tiger's head in its first conception by the excited fancy of
Hindoo superstition, the Etruscan demon still exhibits the
same protruded tongue, huge tusks, glaring eyes, wings in
the hair, and serpents twining about the throat. Of such
aspect was doubtless that " Gorgon's Head, the work of the
Cyclops," which was shown to Pausanias as the most notable
object in the Argive Acropolis — a proof that the earliest essays
of Pelasgic art had been made in realising this idea. Again, in
that most ancient monument of Grecian art, the Coffer of
Cypselus (made before B.C. 600), the same traveller states
(v. 19.), " Behind Polynices stands a female figure, having tusks
as savage as those of a wild beast, and the nails of her fingers
like unto talons : the inscription above her, they tell you means
Kvjp (Fate)." This name therefore must have been a foreign
word, translated to Pausanias by the Custodian of the Temple.
Plutarch (Life of Aratus) supplies another singular illustration
of the Worship of these terrific idols of the olden time in
the most polished ages of Greece. The Artemis of Pellene was
of so dreadful an aspect that none dared to look upon her : and
when carried in procession, her sight blasted the very tree and
crops as she passed. When the ^Etolians were actually in
possession of and plundering the town, her priestess, by bringing
this image out from the shrine, struck them with such terror
that they made a precipitate retreat. This Artemis conse
quently must have been a veritable Hecate, a true Queen of
Hell, an idol moreover of wood, goavov (like her of Ephesus), other
wise the priestess had not been able to wield it so effectually
to scare away the marauders. Again, the recorded dream of
Cimon, which presaged his death, was that a black bitch bayed

Mure

Roth, ' Zeitschrift dor Morgenlandischen Gcsollschaft,' iv. p. 425, and
c in Koyal Asiatic Society's Journal, i. p. 287.

168 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS.

at him in a half-human voice, " Come to me ; I and my whelps
will receive thee gladly." The Hellenic gods, now and then
shew themselves tinder an aspect strangely at variance with
their usual benevolent and jovial character. A true Siva was
that ** Dionysos Omestes " (The Cannibal), unto whom Themi-
stocles, forced by the Diviners, sacrificed the three sons of
Sandauce,"own sister to Xerxes, when taken prisoners on the
eve of the Battle of Salamis. It must be remembered that
tradition made Perseus bring back the Gorgon's Head, trophy
of his success, from Ethiopia, a synonym at first for the
remotest East — it being only in Roman times that " Ethiopia "
was restricted to a single province of Africa. The liarpe too,
the weapon lent to the hero by Hermes, is from its form
no other than the ankusa, elephant-hook, which is carried for
attribute by so many of the Hindoo Deities.* ' Sufficient ex
planation this why Persephone (Destroying-slayer} was assigned
by the earliest Greeks as Consort to Aidoneus ; and also why
Ulysses, on his visit to her realms, should have been alarmed,

" Lest from deep Hell Persephone the dread
Should send the terror of the Gorgon's Head."

From the influence of this terror upon the otherwise un
daunted wanderer, these same two lines came to be considered
as endued with a wonderfully strong repellent power, for
Marcellus Empiricus prescribes them to be whispered into the
ear of any one choking from a bone or other matter sticking in
his throat; or else to write them out on a paper to be tied
around his throat, " Which will be equally effectual."

Lucian remarks (' Philopatris, ') that the reason why the
ancient warriors bore the Gorgon's Head upon their shields
was because it served for an amulet against dangers of every
sort; on the same account, in all likelihood, was it put for
device on many archaic coinages ; Populonia, Paros, &c. For

* The Gorgon of the gems ('Ant. of "Keeper of the Gate." Now we

Gems,' PI. XX., 4), and of the coin see why her head decorated the pe-

of Neapolis is regularly to be seen, to diluents of temples in Greece and

this day, sculptured in relief upon the Rome, and formed the keystone of

pillar set up on each side of the gates triumphal arches even in the time of

of Hindoo temples, as I am informed Constantino, as the lately-discovered

by our great oriental archaeologist, entrance to his " Forum of Taurus "

Col. Pearse. She goes by the name convincingly attests.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 169

what could be more effective for the purpose of scaring away all
evil spirits than the visible countenance of the Queen of Hell ?
Timomachus the painter (contemporary with the first Caesar)
made his reputation by such a subject, " praecipue tamen ars ei
favisse in Gorgone visa est," are the words of Pliny, which
masterpiece is supposed the original of the horrific fresco dis
covered at Pompeii, the finest example of the art that has
reached our times. Many centuries after the fall of Paganism
did this image retain its power; Miinter figures (' Sinnbilder
der Christen') a Gorgon's Head surrounded by the
phonetic legend, + VOMEAAINHMEAAINOMENAOCOcJ>ICHAHeC
€K€OCA€ONBPVXHCeiK€OCAPNOCKVMHCH, intended for
— Ytos 0eou • MeAau/r; /xeAati/o/xeVr?, cos o<£ts etAa ^crv^J, a>s
AeW /fyvxrjo-ei, /cat a>s dpi/os /coi/tTJo-ei. " Black, blackened
one, as a serpent thou coilest thyself quietly, thou shalt roar
like a lion, thou shalt go to sleep like a lamb ! " The same
inscription, but so barbarously spelt as to be unintelligible,
probably forms the legend upon the famous Seal of St. Serva-
tius, preserved in Maestricht Cathedral. The seal is alarge disc
of green jasper, engraved on both sides, and is attached to a
small slab of porphyry, traditionally passing for the Saint's
portable altar. Servatius died A.D. 389, but the workmanship
of his seal betokens the tenth or eleventh century for its origin.
An important evidence of the veneration of the Christian
Byzantines for their guardian demon is afforded by the ex
humation (Spring of 1869) in the Ahmedan, Constantinople,
of the Colossal Gorgonion, six feet high from chin to brow,
carved in almost full relief on each side of an immense marble
block, which once formed the keystone of the gateway to
the Forum of Constantine. Though the execution betrays the
paralysis of the Decline, yet the general effect still remains
grandiose and awe-inspiring.

Having thus traced Bhavani in her progress from Archaic
Greek to Byzantine times, let us observe the part she plays in
the superstitions of Imperial Eome. The idea, full of novel
horrors, was gladly seized by the extravagant genius of Lucan*

* Who had in all probability learnt with all persons making pretensions
them at some of the Mysteries, all of to the title of philosophers.
Asiatic origin, so popular in his times

170 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

to animate the exorcisms of his Thessalian sorceress Erictho
(Pharsalia, vi. 695).

" And Chaos, ever seeking to enfold
Unnumbered worlds in thy confusion old :
And Earth's dull god, who pining still beneath

Life's lingering burthen, piriest for tardy death.
*****

Tisiphone, and Thou her sister fell,

Megaera, thus regardless of my spell,

Why haste ye not with sounding scourge to chase

The soul accursed through hell's void formless space?

Say, must I call you by the names your right,

And drag the hell-hounds forth to th' upj>er light ?

Midst death I'll dog your steps at every turn,

Chase from each tomb, and drive from every urn.

And thou, still wont with visage not thine own,

To join the gods round the celestial throne,

Though yet thy pallor doth the truth betray,

And hint the horrors of thy gloomy

Thee, Hecate, in thy true form I'll show,

Nor let thee change the face thou wearest below.

I'll tell what feasts thy lingering steps detain

In earth's deep centre, and thy will enchain;

Tell what the pleasures that thee so delight,

And what tie binds thee to the King of Night ;

And by what union wert thou so defiled,

Thy very mother would not claim her child,

— I'll burst thy caves, the world's most evil Lord,

And pour the sun upon thy realms abhorred,

Striking thee lifeless by the sudden day,

If still reluctant my behests to obey.

Or must I call Him at whose whispered Name

Earth trembles awestruck through her inmost frame V

Who views the Gorgon's face without a veil,

And with her own scourge makes Erinnys quail ;

To whom the abyss, unseen by you, is given,

To which your regions are the upper heaven,

Who dares the oath that binds all gods to break,

And marks the sanction of the Stygian lake ? '?

All these personifications are in a spirit quite foreign to that
of Grecian mythology, but thorougly imbued with that of India.
Lucan's Chaos is the Hindoo Destroyer, the Negro giant, " Maha-
Pralaya," swallowing up the gods themselves in his wide-gaping
jaws. His " Hector terrae " pining for the promised annihila
tion that is so long in coming, finds no parallel in classical

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 171

religions,* and his character remains to mo utterly inexplicable.
His Furies " hunting souls to make them fly," instead of being
like the old awful Eumenides, the impartial avengers of guilt,
are mere demons, or churchyard ghouls. But his Hecate is
manifestly Bhavani herself; her " facies Erebi " being the
Gorgonian aspect which the latter was when reigning in
44 Yama-putri," but which she puts off when presiding on
earth, or in heaven ; whilst the " infernal banquets " that so
enchant her are the human sacrifices regularly offered up by
Bhavaiii's special votaries, the Thugs. In the first, or infernal
aspect, a true " facies Erebi," she is depicted wearing a neck
lace of human skulls and grasping in each hand a naked
victim ready to be devoured. She probably still shows us in
what shape the Artemis of Pallene appeared to scare away the
^Etolian plunderers. The title of her lord " pessimus mundi
arbiter " is far more applicable to the Destroyer Siva than to the
inoffensive Pluto of the Greeks. Unless indeed the Neronean
poet may have heard something of the Demiurgus Ildabaoth,
" Son of Darkness, or Erebus," existing under a different name
in some ancient theogony. The Gnostics did not invent — they
merely borrowed and applied.

Bhavani, in her character of " Kali," is sculptured as a
terminal figure, the exact counterpart in outline of the Ephesian
Diana. Even the stags, those remarkable adjuncts to tho
shoulders of the latter, are seen in a similar position spinging
from Kali's hands. The multiplied breasts of the Ephesian
statue were also given to the Alexandrian Isis, who is allowed
by Creuzer and the rest to be the Hindoo goddess in her
character of " Parvati." Now this remark applies only to her
statue in the Serapeum, not to those belonging to the ancient
Pharaonic religion ; and Macrobius's expressions show that her
real character there was as much a matter of dispute as that of
her companion, Serapis. Again, Diana as Hecate or Proserpine,
belongs to the infernal world over which she rules with the
same authority as Bhavani over Yama-Putri. The Ephesian

* Unless, perhaps, obscurely sha- '• Orcus arid Hades and the dreaded

dowed forth by Hesiod, from whom Name

Milton drew his grand picture of Of Demogorgon."
Chaos, on whom wait —

172 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

image, made of cypress wood, had " fallen down from heaven,"
which only means, had come from some very remote and
unknown source.

III. MONUMENTS OF THE SERAPIS WORSHIP.

Innumerable are the statues, bas-reliefs, and gems, many of
them in the best syle of Koman art, emanating from the
worship of Serapis ; a thing not to be wondered at in the case
of a divinity whose idea involved the two strongest principles
that actuate the conduct of mankind — the love of riches and the
fear of death. For the god of the subterranean world was
necessarily lord also of its treasures ; a truth expressed by the
dedication to Serapis of an altar as " lovi custodi et genio
thesaurorum" (Winckelmann, 'Pierres Gravees de Stosch,'
p. 83). And similarly the older Koman Pluto takes the title of
" Jupiter Stygius ; " but the comprehensiveness of the idea as
expanded by the monotheistic tendency of later times is most
fully manifested by the invocation (Raspe, No. 1490) €10 Z€YC
CAPAI1IC AflON ONOMA CABAU) cJ>U)C ANATOAH X0CON "One
Jupiter, Serapis, Holy Name, Sabaoth, the Light, the Day-
spring, the Earth ! "

Talismanic gems very commonly bear the full length figure,
or the bust of Serapis, with the legend 6IC ©GOG CAPAHIC
(often abbreviated into € • 0- c), " There is but one God, and ho
is Serapis:" €IC ZCON ©6OC, "The One Living God." Some
times the purpose of the amulet is distinctly expressed by the
inscription, NIKAO CAPAHIC TON <1>QONON, "Baffle the Evil-
eye, 0 Serapis : " or in the curious example published by
Caylus, where the god stands between Venus and Horus, and
the legend KATA XPHMATICMON intimates that the gem had
been " so " engraved in consequence of a vision or other
divine intimation. Around his bust on a jasper (Praun)
appears the invocation, convincing proof of his supposed
supremacy, ct>YAACC€ AIA, " Protect Jupiter," the ancient
kin^ of heaven being now degraded to the rank of an
astral genius and benignant horoscope. Invocations like the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS. 173

above bear the unmistakable stamp of the age when the old,
liberal, mythology of the West, which had pictured Heaven as
a well-ordered monarchy peopled by innumerable deities, each
one having his own proper and undisputed position therein,
was fast giving place to the gloomy superstitions of Syria,
which made the tutelary divinity of each nation or sect the
sole god of Heaven, condemning those of all other races as mere
deceivers and evil spirits.

There are, however, many gems, fine both as to material and
workmanship, which give us, besides Serapis, the primitive
Egyptian gods exactly as they appear in the most ancient
monuments, but engraved in the unmistakable style of Roman
art. Most of these are to be referred to the efforts of Hadrian
to resuscitate the forms of that old religion whose life had long
before passed away in this equally with the grander department
of sculpture. Under his zealous patronage, the religion of the
Pharaohs blazed up for a moment with a brilliant but factitious
lustre, a phenomenon often observed to precede the extinction
of a long established system.* To this period belongs a
beautiful sard of my own, which represents Serapis enthroned
exactly as Macrobius describes him, whilst in front stands Isis,
holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other a wheatsheaf,
with the legend, HKYPIAGICIC ATNH-t "Immaculate is our
Lady Isis ! " This address is couched in the exact words applied
later to the personage who succeeded to the form, titles,
symbols and ceremonies of Isis with even less variation than
marked the other interchange alluded to above. The "Black
Virgins" so highly venerated in certain French Cathedrals
during the long night of the Middle Ages, proved when at last
examined by antiquarian eyes to be basalt statues of the
Egyptian goddess, which having merely changed the name,
continued to receive more than pristine adoration. Her
devotees carried into the new priesthood the ancient badges of
their profession ; " the obligation to celibacy," the tonsure, the

* Sbering, in his 'Benares,' ob- throw of Buddhism; and yet the

serves that the Hindoos are now religion itself is utterly worn out.

building and restoring temples every- f In inscriptions of this period the

where with greater zeal and cost long I is usually written El.
than at ai/y time since the final over-

174 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

bell, and the surplice — omitting unfortunately the frequent and
complete ablutions enjoined by the older ritual. The holy image
still moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at it (vi. 530),
" Escorted by the tonsured, surpliced, train." Even her proper
title •' Domina," exact translation of the Sanscrit Isi, survives
with slight change, in the modern " Madonna " (Mater-Domina).
By a singular permutation of meaning the flower borne in the
hand of each, the lotus, former symbol of perfection (because in
leaf, flower, fruit, it gave the figure of the Circle, as Jamblichus
explains it), and therefore of fecundity, is now interpreted
as signifying the opposite to the last — virginity itself. The
tinkling sistrum, so well pleasing to Egyptian ears, has unluckily
found a substitute in that most hideous of all noise-makers, the
clangorous bell. But this latter instrument came directly
from the Buddhistic ritual in which it forms as essential a part
of the religion as it did in Celtic Christianity, where the Holy
Bell was the actual object of worship to the new converts. The
bell in its present form, was unknown to the Greeks and
Eomans : its normal shape is Indian, and the first true bell-
founders were the Buddhist Chinese. Again relic-worship became,
after the third century, the chief form of Christianity through
out the world ; which finds its parallel in the fact that a frag
ment of a bone of a Buddha (that is, holy man in whom the
deity had dwelt during his life) is actually indispensable for
the consecration of a dagobali, or temple of that religion ; equally
as a similar particle of saintliness is a sine qua non for the
setting-up of a Eoman-Catholic altar.

Very curious and interesting would it be to pursue the
subject, and trace how much of Egyptian, and second-hand
Indian, symbolism has passed over into the possession of a
church that would be beyond measure indignant at any re
clamation on the part of the rightful owners. The high cap
and hooked staff of the Pharaonic god become the mitre and
crosier of the bishop; the very term, Nun, is Coptic, and witk
its present meaning : the erected oval symbol of productive
Nature, christened into the Vesica piscis, becomes the proper
framework for pictures of the Divinity : the Crux ansata, that
very expressive emblem of the union of the Male and Female

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

175

Principles, whence comes all Life, and therefore placed as the
symbol of Life in the hands of gods, now, by simple inversion,
changes into the orb and cross, the recognised distinction of
sovereignty.

But to give a last glance at Serapis and his attributes : his
bust on gems is often accompanied by -a figure resembling a
short truncheon from the top of which spring three leaves, or
spikes. Can it be some plant sacred to the god, or else some
instrument of power ? — certain it is that Iva, Assyrian god of
Thunder, carries in his hand a fulmen of somewhat similar form
in the Ninivitish sculptures. A dwarf column, supporting a
globe, a corded bale, the letter M,* are all frequently to be seen
in the same companionship. Another symbol is of such mighty
import in the domains of the Lord of Souls, that its discussion
may fairly claim to itself the space of the following section.

* Perhaps the Greek numeral =40,
which was the number sacred to the
Assyrian Hoa, god of Water. A con
jecture, therefore, may be hazarded

that these figures symbolise The
Four Elements under the protection
of the supreme Lord, Serapis.

FIG. 7.

176 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

THE CADUCEUS, AND ITS SYMBOLISM.

Macrobius seems to afford us some clue for solving this
enigma by his remarks upon the true universality of the sun-
worship under different names (Sat. i. 19). " That under the
form of Mercury the Sun is really worshipped is evident
also from the Caduceus which the Egyptians have fashioned in
the shape of two dragons (asps), male and female joined together,
and consecrated to Mercury. These serpents in the middle
parts of their volume are tied together in the knot called the
4 Knot of Hercules ; ' whilst their upper parts bending back
wards in a circle, by pressing their mouths together as if kissing
complete the circumference of the circle; and their tails are
carried back to touch the staff of the Caduceus ; and adorn the
latter with wings springing out of the same part of the staff.
The meaning of the Caduceus with reference to the nativity of
man, technically termed his genesis (or horoscope), is thus
explained by the Egyptians : they teach that four deities preside
and attend at man's birth— the Daimon (his genius), Fortune,
Love, and Necessity. By the two first of these they hold that
the Sun and the Moon are meant ; because the Sun, as the
author of spirit, heat, and light, is the producer and guardian
of human life, and therefore is esteemed the Daimon that is the
god of the person born. The Moon is the Fortune, because she
is the president over our bodies which are the sport of a variety
of accidents. Love is signified by the kissing of the serpents ;
Necessity, by the knot in which they are tied. The reason for
adding the wings has been fully discussed above. For a symbol
of this nature the convolution of the serpents has been selected
in preference to anything else, because of the flexuosity of the
course of both these luminaries. From this cause it conies,
that the serpent is attached to the figures both of Aesculapius
and of Hygiea, because these deities are explained as expressing
the nature of the Sun and the Moon. For Aesculapius is the
health-giving influence proceeding out of the substance of the

THE CrNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 177

Sun, that benefits the souls and bodies of mortals.* Ilygieia
again is the influence of the nature of the Moon, by which the
bodies of things animated are holpen, being strengthened by
her health-giving sway. For this reason, therefore, the figure
of the serpent is attached to the statues of both deities, because
they bring it about that our bodies strip off, as it were, the
slough of their maladies, and are restored to their pristine
vigour, just as serpents renew their youth every year, by
casting off the slough of old age. And the figure of the serpent is
explained as an emblem of the Sun himself for the reason that
the Sun is perpetually returning out of, as it were, the old age
of his lowest setting, up to his full meridian height as if to the
vigour of youth. Moreover, that the dragon is one of the
chiefest emblems of the Sim, is manifest from the derivation of
the name, it being so called from Sep/ceu/, ' to see.' For the}'
teach that this serpent, by his extremely acute and never-
sleeping sight, typifies the nature of the luminary; and on
this account the guardianship of temples, shrines, oracles, and
treasures is assigned to dragons. That Aesculapius is the same
with Apollo is further proved by this fact, not merely that he
is reputed the son of the latter, but because he also is invested
with the privilege of divination. For Apollodorus, in his
Treatise on Theology, lays down that Aesculapius presides over
augury and oracles. And no wonder; seeing that the sciences
of medicine and of divination are cognate sciences : for medicine
predicts the changes for good or ill about to succeed in the
human body. As Hippocrates hath it, the physician should be
competent to predicate of his patient 'both his present, his
past and future condition,' which is the same thing as divination
which foreknows, as Homer says,

'The things tint be, that shall be, and that were.'"

It has been already stated how, in the Mithraic worship, the
image, surrounded from foot to head by the spiral convolutions
of the serpent, had become the established emblem of the deity
himself. The incidental remark in the above citation, that the

* Or in modern scientific phrase, Aesculapius is but another name for
electricity.

178

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

flexuous motion of the reptile represented to the Egyptians, the
annual course of the sun, affords the sufficient reason why his
image should be thus encircled by so significant an attribute.
Taking therefore into account the fact that the disputed symbol
we are considering was by its nature primarily confined to
talismans designed for medical agents, there is at once sufficient
reason to suppose it connected with the worship of Aesculapius ;
and secondly, as it always appears in such cases in company with
the Agathodaemon, the undoubted emblem of the Solar god, it
may be inferred to be either a symbol or a hieroglyphical
representation in little of the same type. In other words, the
figure signifies nothing more than a serpent-entwined wand,
and its sense only contains an allusion to the principal visible
manifestation of the nature of the Sun. But this point must be
left for fuller examination in its connexion with the hitherto
unexplained Sigil which invariably makes its appearance on the
reverse of the Chnuphis talismans, and which therefore must
have been regarded as an essential element in their potency.

FIG. 8.

THE ONOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. ] 79

DEATH, AS DEPICTED IN ANCIENT ART.

The King of the Shades has formed the subject of the pre
ceding investigation. The natural sequence of ideas requires us
to consider by what visible form ancient imagination expressed
the direct agency of his power, and represented to the eye the
unwelcome apparition of the " Satolles Orel."

Mingling among the Cupids, whether sculptured or glyptic,
and easy to be mistaken for one of the sportive group by the
casual observer, comes the most popular antique embodiment of
what to our notions is the most discordant of all ideas. He can
only be distinguished from the God of Love by observing his
pensive attitude; his action of extinguishing his torch either by
striking the blazing end against the ground or by trampling it
out with the foot ; otherwise he leans upon it inverted, with
folded wings, and arms and legs crossed in the attitude of
profound repose. At other times he is divested of wings, to
typify the end of all movement, and whilst he quenches his
torch with one hand, he holds behind him with the other the
large hoop, annus (which the Grecian 'EvtWos carries before
him), to signify that for his victim no more shall the year
roll on.

To understand how so charming a type came to be appro
priated to such a signification, it is necessary to cast off modern
associations, and to recollect that to the ancient mind, arguing
merely from the analogy of Nature, death presented itself as
merely the necessary converse of birth, and consequently carried
no terror in the thought—'- nullique ea tristis imago," as Statius
happily words it. For it implied nothing worse than the
return to the state of unconsciousness, such as was before
Being commenced ; or, as 1'liny clearly puts the case, " Unto all
the state of being after the last day as the same as it was before
the first day of life; neither is there any more sensation in

N 2

180 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

either body or soul after death than there was before life."
On this account the mere return, as Byron hath it —

" To be the nothing that I was,
Ere born to life and living woe,"

inspired no fears beyond those springing from the natural
instinct of self-preservation. Many carried this indifference
to the opposite extreme — exemplified in the trite story of the
Thracians lamenting on the occasion of a birth, and rejoicing
on that of a death in the family. Pliny boldly declares that
the greatest favour Nature has bestowed on man is the short
ness of his span of life; whilst the later Platonists, as seen
in that curious chapter of Macrobius, " On the descent of the
Soul," termed the being born into this world " spiritual
death," and dying, "spiritual birth." But after the ancient
order of ideas had been totally revolutionised — when the death
of the body came to be looked upon as the punishment of
Original Sin, and as the infraction, not the fulfilment of a
natural law — the notion necessarily assumed a more horrific
aspect; which again was exaggerated to the utmost of their
power by the new teachers, for it supplied them with the most
potent of all engines for the subjugation of the human soul—
" ^Eternas qnoniam pcenas in morte timendum." The ancient
type, therefore, which implied nothing but peace and unbroken
repose, was therefore at once discarded, as totally inconsistent
with the altered view of the reality. Add to this the fact that
everything in the shape of Cupid had been forcibly enrolled
amongst the Cherubim and Seraphim, and had thereby received
a character yet more foreign to that of the newly-created King
of Terrors.

Hence the Christians were driven to seek in the ancient
iconology for a more fitting representation of the offspring and
avenger of transgression — something that should be equally
ghastly and terror-inspiring — and such a representative they
found made to their hand in the former way of picturing a
Larva, or bad man's ghost. This had always been depicted as
a skeleton, and such a figure was recommended by old asso
ciation to their minds in the times when (as Bottiger phrases
it) "the Christians creeping forth out of their catacombs

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 181

substituted for the Genius with inverted torch, the skulls and
mouldering bones of their own martyrs." And that the larva
was popularly imagined in a skeleton form, appears, amongst
the rest, from Ovid's line in his ' Ibis '-

" Insequar atque oculos o.s.sea larva tuos."
" Wheie'er thou turn'st my injured shade shall rise,
And flit, a fleshless ghost before thine eyes."

Seneca also laughs at the vulgar notion of "larva-forms,
frames of bare bones hanging together ; " and Trimalchio, at
his famous dinner, in order to promote conviviality, throws
down upon the table a silver larva, so ingeniously made as to
bound about on the board with every limb quivering, whilst
the host hiccups out the admonition —

" Heu, Heu, DOS miseros, quam totus homuncio nil est,
Sic erimus cuncti, postquam nos auferet Orcus
Ergo vivamus dum licet esse bene."

Such a larva sometimes makes his appearance on the gem,
introduced there for the same purpose — to remind his wearer
of the shortness of life, and the wisdom of making the best
use of the portion allotted to him — speaking, mutely, the words
of Virgil's ' Copa Syrisca '-

" Pone ireniiii et talos, pereat qui crastina curat !
Mors aurem vellens ; Vivite, ait, venio."

Thus upon one gem we behold him holding forth in his
bony hand the lecythus (long, pointed vase of oil), that regul irly
accompanied every Greek interment, whilst he leans with his
elbow against a huge amphora of wine, as though recommending
the enjoyment of its contents whilst yet in one's, power.*
Another, a more fanciful composition, depicts Cupid casting
the light of his torch into the depths of an immense Corinthian
crater out of which a skeleton is throwing himself headlong,
as though scared away by the hateful glare — a design whoso
abstruse meaning may perhaps be interpreted by the foregoing

* Exactly the same lesson is taught a dauee of skeletons. (Mein. Soc.
by a drinking-cup in the Orleans Antiq. de France, vol. xxxi.)
Museum, the dccoiHtion of which i*«

182 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

remarks ('Impronte Gemmarie,' ii. 10, 11).* A skeleton, like
wise, was often painted on the wall of tombs ; for example, in that
pathetic scene at Pompeii, where a mother is represented laying
a mortuary fillet over the bones of her child. In all these
cases the form is merely intended to symbolise the condition of
death by placing before the eye the body as deserted by life,
reduced to the state most expressive of mortality and decay,
and which cannot be mistaken for one of sleep. But it is easy
to perceive how ready was the transition from the hieroglyph
of mortality regarded as a state (especially when to the popular
mind the figure also represented a restless and malignant
spiritual being) to the adoption of the same inauspicious shape
for the embodiment of the idea of the actual principle of
destruction.

But to return to antique imagery of the same sense. The
idea of death i.s ingeniously and curiously expressed in a fresco
decorating the lately discovered vault of Yincentius and Vibia,
in the Catacombs of Prretextatus, Home. In the scene labelled
" abreptio Aribie et Discensio," the messenger of Fate, " Mer-
curius," appears placing one foot ami leading the way into a
huge urn laid sideways on the ground. The allusion to Orcus
in the name of such a vessel, orca, is sufficiently obvious, and
in fact both may spring from the same root, epKos, inclosure,
prison. But the most common type, perpetually repeated on
sarcophagi and tablets, is the Horse, significant of departure,
looking in through the window upon a party carousing —
life's festive scene. Yet more forcibly is the same notion
carried out in an Etruscan sculpture (figured in the Revue
Archeologique, 1844), where the angel of death, Charun, armed
as usual with his ponderous mall, actually leads this horse
upon which sits the deceased with head muffled up, " capite
obnupto" — the established form in sentencing a criminal to
execution. The same reason, probably, made the horse's hea I

~* Such a larva also points the standing before him ; at his t'eet lies

moral of the scene embossed upon a an infant in swaddling-clothes. These

lamp, publishf d by De Witte (Mem. adjuncts declare the subject of the

Soc. Antiq. de France, 1871), where philosopher's meditations — the des-

:i philosopher seated, and grasping a tiny of Man from birtb to death,
scroll, is apostrophising a skeleton

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 183

so popular a subject for signet-gems; it served there for a
memento-mori, like the death's heads so much in vogue amongst
the jewels of the Cinque-cento time, although the antique
symbol carried with it a widely different admonition. The
same notion may possibly lie at the bottom of that immemorial
custom in South Wales of the mummers carrying the skull of a
horse in their Christmas merry-makings.

Cognate to this is that most ancient representation of the
conveyance of the departed soul to the realms of bliss — imagined
as some happy island in the far West — upon a fantastic
hippocampus, in figure like a winged sea-serpent, and who later
became the Eornan Capricornus, " Ruler of the Hesperian
Wave : " -

" Thou, for thy rule, 0 Capricorn ! hast won
All that extends beneath the setting sun,"

as Manilius defines the authority of that amphibious sign. But
the original conception is often engraved upon Phoenician
scarabic; and no doubt can remain as to its intention, since
Caylus has published an Etruscan vase (i. pi. 32) where this
same monster is painted joyously careering over the sea, whilst
on its other side stands the mourner, prsefica, chaunting the
funeral hymn over the corpse laid out upon its bier of bronze.

To continue within the earliest portion of the subject, it
must be observed that in the most ancient monument of Greek
sculpture whereof any account remains — the Coffer of Cypselus
(executed earlier than 600 B.C.) — Night was represented carrying
in her arms two children, alike in all respects save colour ; the
one white, the other black, having their legs crossed : * their
names being inscribed over them — Sleep and Death — for their
mother was hastening to the aid of the expiring Memnon. Thus
it is manifest that from the very dawn of pictorial art the
crossed legs were the accepted emblem of the most profound
repose ; whilst the sluggard's wish for " a little more folding of

* Steo-Tpa^eVous rovs TroSas. The authority of tins blunder, Properties'

very obvious meaning of these words " somnia rana" have been turned

critics have contrived to misuuder- into " somnia vara" and ever since

stand, and to render as " distorte 1." the whole tribe of Dreams are be-

Nor is this all ; entirely upon the lievcd to walk bandy-legged.

184 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the hands in slumber " bears the same testimony to the import of
the crossed arms of the Roman Genius who leans on his inverted
torch. In that master-piece of Roman chasing, the Pompeian
discus, " The Death of Cleopatra," the object of the design is
indicated with equal truth and pathos by the placing of the
beauteous infant genius at the knee of the dying queen, on
which he rests his elbow to form a support for his head as
though dropping off into a gentle slumber. The traditional
attitude* retained its significance well understood far down
into the Middle Ages : witness so many cross-legged effigies
of warriors resting from their toils — who for that sole reason
popularly pass for crusaders.

But in the whole long catalogue of emblems, not one
expressed the distract idea so definitely as that most frequently
employed in such sense — the Gorgon's Head. Accepting the
explanation already offered (p. 107), that at its origin this
terrific visage was designed for the " vera effigies " of the Queen
of the dead, it was the most speaking emblem of her office that
could possibly be chosen. In the Heroic ages it was universally
painted, or embossed upon the warrior's shield ; and with the
progress of art, cut in cameo, became the regular decoration of
the imperial breastplate ; t in which post it served, as Lucian
remarks ('Philopatris '), "both to terrify enemies and to avert
all danger from the wearer," conveying to all beholders the
im nace of death exactly as now by an undesigned coincidence
does the death's he,»d and cross-bones painted upon the pirate's
flag. The Byzantines, in the true spirit of their gloomy super
stition, discarded the Pros-Italian type for whose beauty they
had lost all feeling, and reverted to the image invented by the
horror-loving genius of Pelasgic barbarism. They saw in it
the most faithful representation of their Motpa, the destroying
demon or glioul, still believed by the Greek peasant to haunt

* The child's bkeb tnn in the Dum vacat hrec, Caesar, potent

Pompeian painting above quoted, lorica vocari,

similarly folds his feet. Pcctore cum sacro sederit, ^Kgis

t Accipe bell, gene cruclum thorac;i erit.

Minervse, 'Mart.' vii. I.

Ip&a MedusffB quani timet ira
com ?e.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 185

ruins and desolate places. That the figure was received in
such a sense into Byzantine symbolism, the examples of
amulets already quoted convincingly declare. From Byzantine
the Gorgon passed into Gothic art, which ever revelling in
grotesque horror, its inspiring genius being the skeleton which
intrudes his ghastliness into every mode of ornamentation, even
of a mirror-frame (Lucrezia Borgia's for example) contrived to
render the image yet more terrible by converting the face into
a fleshless skull, and substituting for the hawk's wings lent
by Hermes, which previously impelled its flight, the skinny
pinions of her own congenial and much-loved fowl, ihe
sepulchre-haunting bat.

But of all these emblems, not one is so full of poetry and
truth as the device of the Winged Foot crushing the Butterfly,
Life. The Foot, chosen probably for the same reason as the
Horse, as conveying most speakingly the notion of departure,
was equally accepted as the emblem of death. Horace's simile
must occur to every reader : —

" Pallida Mors juquo pulsat jiedv pauperum tabernas
Regumque turres."

On this account the Foot became the peculiar attribute of
the infernal deities ; and the figure of one carved in stone was
often dedicated in the temple of Serapis * — apparently as an
ex voto commemorating the donor's escape from the very
threshold of his dark domain. Singularly related to this
custom is what Moor notices of the pairs of feet carved in stone
commonly seen in the vicinity of Hindoo temples, traditionally
said to be memorials of suttees, marking the spot whence the
devoted widow stepped from earth upon the funeral pile, that
is into the Gate of Heaven.

It has long been a question how the Grecian Hades (" The
Invisible One ") and the Koinan Pluto were depicted in a
bodily form as they were originally conceived — for their
Egyptian equivalent, Serapis, figures much more frequently in

* A colossal example of the fiuest Commodus from that mint, which

workmanship was exhumed at Alex- has for reverse a head of Serapis

andria a few years ago. It may have placet upon a foot for pedestal, with

been contemporary with the coin of the date of his seventh year.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

monuments of Imperial date than either of his brethren, Jove
or Neptune. In the latter style he is regularly sculptured as
Plutus, "Lord of Riches," seated on a throne, holding a cornucopia,
and extending with his right hand a cluster of earth's choicest
gifts. But under what form the primitive Greeks had
imagined their Aidoneus, God of the Shades, before Serapis was
introduced into their mythology, is a question that has never
been satisfactorily answered. We should have found him on
the scarabeus of the Etruscans and early Italiotes, had not a
long-enduring respect for things divine (expressly enjoined by
Pythagoras) prevented their placing in their signets, used for
everyday purposes, the actual figures of the gods, whose absence
they supplied by their well-known attributes. For this reason a
popular Etruscan seal-device is Cerberus, represented sometimes
as a man with three heads of a dog, but more commonly in the
shape so familiar to us from later arts. But the Egyptians had
contrived to make their Guardian of the Shades much more
formidable in aspect by equipping him with the heads of a lion,
crocodile, and hippopotamus. "We are also certified in what
shape the Etruscans imaged their god of the lower world,
Mantus; for he is painted with serpent legs, like Typhon,
wielding a huge butcher's cleaver, and attended by Cerberus,
enthroned upon the court placed below the niche of interment,
locidus, in the Campana tomb, Cervetri.

The " Helmet of Hades" is named by Homer (v. 845), which
Pallas puts on in order to render herself invisible to Ares ;
which helmet the scholiast explains by " cloud and invisibility "-
whence it seems but natural to infer that, as this deity was
rendered invisible by his very attiibute, no attempt would be
made to depict his personal appearance. A figure of a god in
long flowing robes, and wielding a trident wanting one of its
prongs, sometimes painted on the Nolan vases, has been taken for
an Aidoneus, but on no sufficient grounds, there being better
reason to consider him a Poseidon in the archaic style. The
epithet " Eenowned for horses " is given to the f^ame god
elsewhere by Homer (v. 445), allusive doubtless to the siviftness
of the Destroyer : and in the s nne title may, perchance, lie the
motive which made the Greeks adopt the horse, as above noticed,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIlt REMAINS. 187

for the commonest symbol of his power. If we could meet
with any genuine antique and early representation of the
Rape of Proserpine it would at once decide the question by
portraying the grim Ravisher himself; but the inauspicious
nature of the subject (so conspicuously set forth in Suetonius'
anecdote of the ring with the story presented by Sporus to Nero
for a New Year's gift) has completely excluded it from the
artist's repertory, so far as anything now remaining informs
us. Stosch's Collection, amongst its immense varity of mytho
logical designs, contains nothing of the sort, whilst Kaspe
gives for its representative only a single antique paste (and
that, too, of very dubious attribution) where a god with quiver
on shoulder is carrying off a Nymph in a car drawn by two
swans — attributes properly bespeaking an Apollo ; and if really
given here to Pluto, proving the work to belong to those latter
times of Paganism when Hades, Serapis, Phoebus, were equally
interpreted as mere titles of the Solar god.

As for the Roman Pluto, or, to give him his native name, Dis
(ditis, from the same root as death), there was the best of reasons
for excluding him from the province of art which admitted
nought that was hideous or of evil augury. For there can be
no doubt, that, to the popular imagination, he still continued the
Charun * whom we still behold lording it over the sepulchres of
their Etruscan teachers in the arts, a giant of horrid aspect with
pointed ears, and tusky grinning jaws, winged buskins 011 legs,
extending with one hand a hissing serpent, with the other
wielding a monstrous mall. It was probably the traditional
influence of the idea that caused the ^ame instrument, mazza,
to be retained at Rome for the execution of peculiarly atrocious
criminals down to the recent introduction of the guillotine.

That Pluto was really so personified in the shows of the
Amphitheatre, as late as the third century, may be gathered
from the remark of Tertullian (Apol. xxv.), that, " amongst the
other scenic cruelties of the afternoon, the spectators laughed at
the sight of Mercury raising the dead with his red-hot wand
[applied doubtless to the feet of the slaughtered gladiators to

. * As Etriiriii was the only scho,>l she supplied the figures equally with
of art for Koine until very late times, the iHanes of all the Roman deities.

188 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

ascertain if life still lingered within them] ; whilst the * Brother
of Jupiter,' armed with his mall, escorted the dead bodies of the
combatant " [for the purpose clearly of giving them the coup de
grace]. The primitive Etruscan image passed down into the
belief of their mediaeval descendants, for Dante brings on the
stage : —

" Charon, demonic con occhi di bragia."
" Charon, a devil with live-coals jor ey s."

It is time now to dismiss the Lord of the Shades, and to
consider by what Emblem ancient art sought to express the
Shade itself, the disembodied spirit. The Greeks of early times
appropriately painted it in the shape of a bird with a human
head, as on that beau'iful vase, "The Death of Procris" (British
Museum), where such a fowl is conspicuously seen winging its
flight from the mouth of the wounded Nymph. The celebrated
Orleans (now Russian) scarabeus, engraved with the " Death of
Achilles," has its back carved into the same creature, tearing
her breast in an agony of despair. This expressive type was
riot, however, the birth of Grecian genius, but adopted, without
alteration, from the most ancient symbolism of Egypt. In the
" Judgment of the body and soul," regularly painted on the
mummy-cases, the former, depicted as a mummy, stands before
Osiris, " Lord of the West," to answer for its actions ; whilst the
soul, in shape of a hawk, with human head and wings uplifted,
is brought before the same god under another form, to give
an account of its thoughts. And the same soul, purified, and
admitted amongst the gods, appears as before, but tranquilly
standing with a golden disk, " a crown of glory," set upon her
head : figures of the last kind in bronze frequently occurring
amongst Egyptian remains, complimentary mementoes of
deceased friends. Again, this same bird is often found painted
on the mummy-case right over the heart (named in Coptic, " the
abode of the soul "), a plain proof of what it signifies there ;
although Father Kifcher, with his wonted extravagance, chose
to explain it as figuring the iynx, the bird so renowned in the
magical operations of the Greeks. Again, the same notion is
expressed by the simple figure of a bird flying away, as often is
done in Etruscan works, where the subject represented is the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 189

death of a hero. Latest of all, this somewhat grotesque
Egyptian conception was modified by Grecian culture into the
graceful girl with butterfly wings — the well-known Psyche —
and such a form is seen seated upon the summit of Achilles'
tomb, before which the sacrifice of Polyxena is about to be
offered. This ancient human-headed Bird, by a natural tran
sition of ideas, came ultimately to be applied to express a
widely different meaning. Instead of the dead, it was made to
stand for the destroyer ; and the Syrens are always painted in
this shape whenever their interview with Ulysses becomes the
theme of ancient art, or when they engage in their unlucky
contest with the Muses. But here, for the sake of more grace,
in the conformation of the monster, the whole of the female
bust is adapted to the body of the fowl. Despite their beauty
and melodiousness, the Syrens were considered as the most
malignant and destructive of beings, for which reason the
Harpies likewise were depicted in precisely the same figure.
Although identical at first, the more refining art of Koman
times introduced a distinction between them by giving to the
Syrens the complete bust, to the Harpies the head only of the
woman. Inasmuch as the name signifies " Snatcher-away," the
Harpy was understood to embody the abstract idea of death,
which acceptation explains why she is often represented armed
with a sword, or carrying on her shoulder the funeral lecytlius,
and torch. For the same reason the Harpy holds a conspicuous
place in the decorations of many ancient tombs, unlesss, indeed,
the emblem may have been used there in its Egyptian sense.

In what shape Death was personified by Euripides, in his
Alcestis, cannot be made out from the insufficiency of data
afforded by the lines relating to his appearance on the stage.
It is, however, plain that the poet brought forward ©cu/a-ros in
a bodily form, perhaps considering him the same with Aidoneus,
for he styles him "King of the Dead;" and Macrobius, speaking
of the same event, uses for his name the Roman equivalent,
" Orcus." All that can be gathered from the incidental allu
sions of the other dramatis personse to this apparition, is that he
was robed in black, and carried a sword, wherewith to sever a
lock from the head of his destined victim, and so devote it to

190

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the subterranean gods. It is, however, possible that Euripides
brought on this ©avaros in that harpy shape which sometimes is
found in antique art where the bust is that of a grim aged
man, in place of the smiling female's, and who, as badge of
office, carries a naked sword. In' such a form the Destroyer
must have flitted before the eyes of Statius, when about to make
prey of the young and beautiful Glaucius : —

" Snbitas ininiica levavit
Parca manus ; quo diva feros gravis exuis unrjues ? "

This last word can apply to nothing but the Harpy, of whom
claws were the distinctive attribute : —

" Unguibus ire parat nummoa raptura

Nevertheless, a representation like this had in it nothing
grotesque or offensive to the Athenian eye. Far different was
the Pelasgic K^, likewise robed in Hack (according to Ilomer'd
normal epithet for her), in the form which the archaic
sculptor had given her upon the Coffer of Cypselus, " having
tusks as fierce as those of any wild beast." Such a conception
was eagerly embraced by the gloomy genius of the Etruscans,
ever delighting in the monstrous and the horrible. She
therefore figures on their signets in a form to be described in
the very words of Pausaiiias, having a huge Gorgonian head,
grinning jaws, arms wreathed with serpents, impelled by
quadruple wings, like an Assyrian deity, and her action that of
furious baste. So, doubtless, appeared the Furies, brought on
the stage by ^Eschylus, when the horror of their strange aspect
struck the Athenian audience with such deadly fright. For his
purpose he must have revived a very ancient and forgotten type
of the idea, for the paintings on the vases of his epoch exhibit
the Eumenides, who persecute Orestes, under a no more terrific
form than as shadowy old women brandishing serpents and
torches, as they chase their victim from shrine to shrine.

* The same picture must have been in Horace's mind when he
uses the figure ....

" Mors atris cireumvolat alis."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIK REMAINS. 191

TOMB-TREASURES.

Sorapis, in his double character of God of Death and God
of Riches, has been the subject of preceding chapters; the
present one shall be devoted to the consideration of the most
striking method by which human superstition sought to turn
to account the two ideas. To propitiate the Manes by placing
his most valuable or beloved effects in the sepulchre of the
defunct, dates probably from the very institution of interment ;
but the account now to be cited is the most interesting of any
on record, owing to the circumstances of the time, person, and
place. It is literally translated from the description of an
eye witness, the earliest of Italian antiquaries, M. L. Fauno,
given in his ' Antichita de Roma,' p. 154, published 1553.

"In February, 1544, in the Chapel of the King of France, which
is now being built in St. Peter's, after the plan of Julius II.,
the workmen, in excavating, came upon a marble coffin, which,
from the things found therein, was clearly known to be the
tomb of Maria, wife of the Emperor Honorius. Of the body,
indeed, there was nothing left, except the teeth, the hair, and
the two leg-bones. From the robes which were interwoven
with gold, and from the head-tire, which was cloth of silk and
gold, there was extracted by smelting more than forty pounds
weight of the purest gold." [Suecius says thirty-six, but makes
the total of all the gold found to amount to the above weight
when they weie melted down by order of Paul III., to be
applied to the building fund of the Cathedral.]

" Within the coffin lay a silver box, one and a half foot long
by eight inches deep, with many articles inside, the which we
shall proceed particularly to describe. There were vases and
different things in rock crystal, thirty in all, big and little ;
amongst which were two cups, as it were, not very large, the
one round, the other oval shaped, with most beautiful figures
in intaglio of middling depth (mezzo-cavo), and a snail-shell
(nautilus), likewise in crystal, fitted up for a lamp in fine gold,
with which in the first place the mouth of the shell is overlaid,
there being only left a hole for pouring in the oil ; by the side

192 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

of which hole is fixeJ &fly of gold upon a pivot, turning back
wards and forwards, for the purpose of closing the orifice. In
the same way is also made a nozzle with beak (^jAppio) for
holding the wick, drawn out long and sharpened with the
greatest elegance, and so fastened to the crystal that it appears
all one piece naturally. The cover also is equally well made.
The shape of the shell is that of a great sea-shell, encompassed
all round with its points, which in this vessel are polished and
very smooth, so excellently wrought is the crystal. There were
also vases and various articles in agate, with certain little
animals, eight in all, and amongst them two very beautiful
vases, one like the glass ampullae, made big and squat for
holding oil and such like liquids, so worked, so beautiful, and
thin that it is a wonder to behold. The other is in the shape
of those ladles with long handles used at Rome for baling water
out of cisterns, and is supposed to be a vessel used by the
ancients in their sacrifices [a ligula for the purpose of ladling
the wine out of the great standing crater}. Next came four
little vessels in gold of different kinds, and another little vessel
of gold with a cover set round with jewels. A little gold heart
that had been a pendant with jewels set in it ; a buckle of gold
with six gems of different kinds set in it, also twenty-four
other buckles of gold of various patterns with little gems set
in them ; furthermore, forty-eight rings and hoops* of gold of
different shapes, one of them in red bone, and various gems.
A mouse in " chelidonia," a reddish quartz, is also specified by
Suecius [which must be the next item], also three little animals
in red lone ; also two ear-drops in emerald or plasma with two
jacinths ; four small crosses with red and green stones ; a
pendant in the form of a bunch of grapes, made of purple
stones ; eight other little gold pendants of different sorts with
gems set in them. The remains of a string of crepundia, the
usual decoration of little children. [Maria had died at the age
of four, being thus early betrothed to Honorius by his father
the all-powerful Stilicho]. Three little gold crosses set with
emeralds ; a piece of a small fine necklace with certain green

* Verglte : " verga,'' like the French verge, signifies a plain gold wire
forming a ring having no head.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 193

stones strung upon it. Another little gold necklace with
twenty-four beads of plasma. Another necklace with twelve
heads of sapphire cut almond shape. Another little necklace
of gold wire folded up (raccolto), but broken into four pieces.
Two small buttons in gold ; fourteen little gold-wire rings like
those of a coat of mail ; three more crosses with some emeralds,
and a round gold plate like an Agnus Dei,* with these words
upon it, STILICHO VI VAT. Two bracelets (maniche) of gold, set
with certain red and green stones. Two large pins or stiletti for
the hair, one in gold nearly a palm (nine inches) long inscribed
with these words, DOMINVS HONORIVS DOMINA MARIA: the
other in silver without inscription. There were likewise many
fragments of enamels and other stones. Also silver nails [their
heads] partly flat, partly in relief, which had fastened down a
cover of silver upon a little coffer. Also a small plate of gold
with these words written or rather scratched in Greek, MICHAEL-
GABRIEL- RAPHAEL- VRIEL-" [Laurentius Surius makes out
forty gold rings set with precious stones, besides an emerald
set in gold, engraved with a head supposed to be that of
Honorius, which was valued at five hundred gold ducats]. We
have particularly described all the above-named objects because
Claudian, a poet of those times, declares that to the Empress
Maria were sent similar rare presents from her betrothed ; which
perhaps may have formed the greatest part of these things.
The words of the poet are —

" Jam munera nuptce

Prasparat, et pulchros Marios sed luce minores
Elicit ornatus : quidquid venerabilis olini
Livia, divorumque nurus gessere superbaj." (x. 10-1.'}. )

This account enables us to form some notion of the treasures
deposited to a greater or less degree in all the tombs of important
personages, but more especially in those sumptuous structures
raised to the memory of the dead throughout Asia Minor. The
same fact sufficiently accounts for the furious onslaught made
upon the tombs all over the Roman world, so soon as the change
of religion had extinguished the old veneration for the Manes
and the things consecrated to them— a profanation, and a
* A disk of stamped wax about three inches in diameter.

0

194 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

destruction of works of art, which Gregorius Theologus, inspired
by a taste and good feeling very surprising in a Byzantine saint,
has attacked in one hundred and eighty-two very interesting
and often poetical epigrams.

The same custom was kept up (although we can hardly
suppose with any lingering belief in its ancient efficiency) by
the Merovingian and Carlovingian successors to the wealth of
the Western Empire. The learned Canon Chiflet has left in
his interesting book, ' Anastasis Childerici Kegis,' a complete
history of tomb-treasures, serving to illustrate his account of
that of Childeric the Frank, accidentally found in the precincts
of Tournay Cathedral, May 1654. The deposit, as far it could
be recovered from the first finders, consisted of the arms of the
king, the trappings of his horse (buried with him), all of gold
encrusted with garnets, his gold tablets and writing-stylus,
abundance of golden-bees originally stretched over his mantle
(which gave that curious idea to Napoleon I.), a bull's head for a
pendant (the primitive Frankish badge of sovereignty), and
lastly, a viaticum in the shape of one hundred Byzantine solidi of
contemporary emperors, and as many denarii of several and much
earlier Cajsars. The canon, by zealous perquisitions, succeeded
in recovering all these articles, including the most important of
all, the royal signet ring of massy gold, engraved with the
image and superscription of Childeric, for his patron the Arch
duke Leopold, then governor of the Low Countries. At some
subsequent period the most important of these relics passed into
the collect] on of the Bibliotheque Imperiale, where they continued
in all due honour until the disastrous robbery of 1 808, when it
is supposed, with too much probability, that they were melted
down along with the rest of the booty !

FIG. 1).

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 105

GNOSTIC CONNECTION WITH SUPERSTITIOUS
PRACTICES.

I. THE EVIL EYE.

Serapis we have seen, in one of his representations lately
noticed, specially invoked to defend his votary against the
Evil Eye under its abstract title of 00oW A glance therefore
at this most ancient superstition (which still nourishes in full
vigour in the same countries that gave it birth) will form a
fitting prelude to the coming section, which takes for subject
talismans and amulets of every class.

The belief in the power for mischief of the eye of an envious
or malignant person (to counteract which was the principal
object of so many of the amulets that have come down to us)
was universal amongst all ancient nations. It is needless to
bring forward classic writers to support this statement ; such
as Apollonius Rhodius, where he skilfully avails himself of the
notion, and makes Medea by her basilisk glance alone work the
death of Talas, the Brazen Man, guardian of the Cretan shores ;
for even St. Paul (Rom. i. 29) sets down this action of the soul
working through the eye in the list of sins of the deepest dye.
But the actual manner of operation upon the sufferer I have
nowhere found explained except in the following passage from
Heliodorus (* ^Ethiopica,' iii. 8), and which therefore deserves to
be inserted at length in this prelude to the subject. " Tell me,
my good Calasiris, what is the malady that has attacked your
daughter ? " " You ought not to be sui prised," I replied, " if at
the time when she was heading the procession in the sight of so
vast an assemblage of people, she had drawn upon herself some
envious eye" Whereupon, smiling ironically, " Do you then,"
asked he, " like the vulgar in general, believe in the reality of
such fascination ? " " As much as I do in any other fact,"
I replied, "and the thing is this : the air which surrounds us
passing through the eyes, as it were through a strainer, and

o 2

196 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

also through the mouth, the teeth and the other passages, into
the inward parts, whilst its external properties make their way
in together with it — whatever be its quality as it flows in, of
the same nature is the effect it disseminates in the recipient, so
that when any one looks upon beauty with envy, he fills the
circumambient air with a malignant property, and diifuses upon
his neighbour the breath issuing from himself, all impregnated
with bitterness, and this, being as it is of a most subtile nature,
penetrates through into the very bone and marrow. Hence
envy has frequently turned itself into a regular disease, and has
received the distinctive appellation of fascination (/foo-Kcma).
Consider also, my Charicles, how many people have been
infected with ophthalmia, how many with other pestilential
diseases, not from any contact with those so affected, or from
sharing the same bed or same table, but merely from breathhig
the same air. Let also (and above all the rest), the origin of
love be a support to my argument, for that owes its first origin
to the sight which shoots like arrows the passion into the soul.
And for this there is very good reason, for of all the senses and
passages of the body, the sight is the most easily excited, and
the most inflammable, and consequently the most susceptible
with regard to external emanation, in consequence of its own
natural fiery essence, attracting to itself the visits of love.
And if you wish for a proof drawn from Natural History,
recorded likewise in the Sacred Books, the bird, the yellow-
hammer, cures the jaundice, and if a person so affected shall but
look at that bird, the latter at once tries to escape and shuts its
eyes ; not as some think, because it begrudges the benefit to the
sick man, but because, if looked upon by men, it is forced by its
nature to attract his disease into its own body, like an exhala
tion, and therefore shuns the glance as much as a blow. And
amongst serpents, the basilisk, doth not he, as you may have
heard, kill and blast whatever conies in his way by means of
his eyes and his breath alone ? And if some give the stroke of
the Evil Eye even to those they love and are well disposed
towards, you must not be surprised, for people of an envious
disposition act not as they loish, but as their Nature compels
them to do."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 197

II. ON A CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC
TALISMAN.

Few relics of antiquity combine in one so many and so
widely differing points of interest, with respect to the material,
the strangely dissimilar uses to which the same object has been
applied in two opposite phases of the history of Man, and,
above all, the curious superstitions engendered by its peculiar
form, as does the stone brought under the notice of the Archaeo
logical Institute by General Lefroy, now in the Woolwich
Repository. The kindness of that gentleman having afforded me
full opportunity for the careful examination of this interesting
monument, I proceed to embody, in as succinct a form as their
multifarious nature will permit, the observations suggested
to me by that examination.

The subject, therefore, of this section is a small stone celt of
the common pattern, but of very uncommon material (in the
antique class), being made, not of flint, but of dark-green jade or
nephrite, 2 in. by lj in. in length and greatest width; and
brought, there is reason to believe, from Egypt many years ago,
by Colonel Milner, aide-de-camp to Lord J. Bathurst during
the English occupation of Sicily in 1812. Each of its two faces
is occupied by a Gnostic formula, engraved with much neatness,
considering the excessive hardness of the material, in the some
what debased Greek character that was current at Alexandria
during the third and fourth centuries of our era.

The most important of these two formulae has been in°-e-
niously forced to take the outline of a wreath composed of
broad leaves, in number/ow£eew(or the sacred seven duplicated),
and doubtless intended for those of the " Five Trees " that
figure so conspicuously in Gnostic symbolism ; the ends being
tied together with four broad ribbons. This is a design of
which no other example has ever come to my knowledge
amongst the innumerable and wondrously varied devices
excogitated by the prolific fancy of this religion of mysteries.
Upon the four ties are engraved in very minute letters different
combinations of the seven Greek vowels, whilst each of the

198 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

leaves is emblazoned with some " Holy Name," of which many
can be easily recognised as constantly recurring in charms of
this class ; others are disguised by a novel orthography ; whilst
a few, from the uncertain forms of the It-tiering, defy all
attempts at interpretation.

To the first series belong ABPACA, " Abraxas," properly
an epithet of the sun, but designating here the Supreme Deity ;
IAGOOYIE, " lao, Jehovah ; " ABAANA, " Thou art our Father ! "
TAMBPIHA, a curious mode of spelling "Gabriel," that testifies
to the difficulty ever felt by the Greeks of expressing the
sound of our B; AKTNONBCx), which contains the Coptic form
of Anubis ; AAMNAMENEYC, the sun's name in the famous
" ftphesian Spell; " and, most interesting of all, nCANTAPEOC,
who can be no other than the IYANTA of the Pistis- Sophia —
one of the great TpiSwa/xeis, a Power from whom is enthroned
in the planet Mars. To the uncertain belong COYMA, probably
for COYMAPTA, a name occurring elsewhere, and perhaps cognate
to the Hindoo Sumitri, XOONONIXAP which may be intended for
XAP-XNOYMIC, a common epithet of the AgathodaBinon Serpent;
AEICUEHAANHC; NEIXAPOnAHC ; the two last, spells un
explained but very uncommon ; MONAPXOC ; whilst AXAPCIC
and the rest appear here for the first time, if correctly so
read.

The other face is covered with an inscription, cut in much
larger letters, and in eight lines. This number was certainly
not the result of chance, but of deep design, for it was mystic
in the highest degree, representing — so taught the profoundest
doctor of the Gnosis, Marcus — the divine Ogdoad, which was
the daughter of the Pythagorean Tetrad, the mother of all
creation.* The lines 2, 4, 5, consist of Greek letters used as
numerals, intermixed with siglce, which, from their constant
occurrence upon monuments of a like nature, are supposed, with
good reason, to be symbols of the planets. The numerals, on
their part, probably denote various deities, for the Alexandrian
Gnosis was the true daughter of Magiism ; and in the old
theology oi Chaldea every god and astral genius had a number
of his own, and which often stands instead of his proper
* St. Hippolytus, Eefut. Om. Hseres. vi. 50.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 199

name in dedicatory inscriptions.* Thus, the number of Hoa
(Neptune), was 40 ; of Ana (Pluto), 60 ; of Bel (Jupiter), 50 ;
of the Sun, 20 ; of the moon, 30 ; of the Air, 10 ; of Nergal
(Mars), 12 ; &o.

A fragment of the Pistis- Sophia^ supplied the "spiritual
man" with a key to the right interpretation of similar steno
graphy in his own creed. " These be the Names which I will
give unto thee, even from the Infinite One downwards. Write
the same with a sign (cypher), so that the sons of God may
manifest (understand ?) them out of this place. This is the
name of the Immortal One, AAA (jL)U)U).:j: And this is the
name of the Voice whereby the Perfect Man is moved, TIT.
These likewise be the interpretations of the names of the
Mysteries. The first is AAA, and the interpretation thereof is
ct>4>4>. The second, which is MMM, or which is CX)(JL)(JL), the
interpretation thereof is AAA. The third is YYT, the inter
pretation thereof is OOO. The forth is <t>ct>4>, the interpretation
thereof is NNN. The fifth AAA, the interpretation thereof is
AAA, the which is above the throne of AAA. This is the in
terpretation of the second AAAA, namely, AAAAAAAA ; the same
is the interpretation of the whole Name."

Lines 7, 8, are made up of vowels, variously combined, and
shrouding from profane eyes the Ineffable Name I ATT which,
as we are informed by many authorities (the most ancient and
trustworthy being Diodorus Siculus),§ was the name of the God of
the Jews ; meaning thereby their mode of writing " Jehovah " in
Greek characters.

Line 3 consists of the seven vowels placed in their natural
order. This was the most potent of all the spells in the
Gnostic repertory; and its importance may justify the ex-
tensiveness of the following extract from the grand text-book
of this theosophy, which sets forth its hidden sense and
wondrous efficacy. The primary idea, however, was far from
abstruse, if we accept the statement of the writer " On Interpre-

* On this curious subject, see J That is, 1000 and 800 tripled.

Kawlinson's ' Ancient Monarchies,' The next numbers are 10,000 tripled,
iii. p. 466. and so on.

t Cap. 125. § ' Bibliotheca Historica,' i. 94.

200 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

tations," that the Egyptians expressed the name of the Supreme
God by the seven vowels thus arranged — IEHQOYA.* But
this single mystery was soon refined upon, and made the basis
of other and infinitely deeper mysteries. In an inscription
found at Miletus (published by Montfaucon), the Holy IEOY-
AHHAEIOYn is besought "to protect the city of Miletus
and all the inhabitants of the same ; a plain proof that this
interminable combination only expressed the name of some one
divine being. Again, the Pistis-Sophia perpetually brings in
IEOY invariably accompanied with the epithet of "the Primal
Man," «.e., He after whose image or type man was first created.
But in the fulness of time the semi-Pythagorean, Marcus, had
it revealed unto him that the seven heavens in their revelation
sounded each one vowel which, all combine'! together, formed a
single doxology, "the sound whei'eof being carried down to
earth becomes the creator and parent of all things that be on

earth."!

The Greek language has but one word for vowel and voice;
when therefore, " the seven thunders uttered their voices," the
seven vowels, it is meant, echoed through the vault of heaven,
and composed that mystic utterance which the sainted seer was
forbidden to reveal unto mortals. " Seal up those things which
the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. "if With the
best reason, then, is the formula inscribed on a talisman of
the first class, for hear what the Pistis-Sophia delivers touching
its potency. § " After these things his disciples said again unto
him, Kabbi, reveal unto us the mysteries of the Light of thy
Father, forasmuch as we have heard thee saying that there is
another baptism of smoke, and another baptism o! ihe Spirit of
Holy Light, and moreover an unction of the Spirit, all which
shall bring our souls into the treasurehouse of Light. Declare
therefore unto us the mysteries of these things, so that we also
may inherit the kingdom of thy Father. Jesus said unto them,
Do ye seek after these mysteries ? No mystery is more excellent

* This is in fact a very correct f Hippolytus, vi. 48.

representation, if we give each vowel J Rev. x. 4.

its true Greek sound, of the Hebrew § Pistis-Sophiu, cap. 378.
pronunciation of the word Jehovah.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 20 1

than they; which shall bring your souls unto the Light of
Lights, unto the place of Truth and Goodness, unto the place
of the Holy of holies, unto the place where is neither male nor
female, neither form in that place but Light, everlasting, not to
be uttered. Nothing therefore is more excellent than the
mysteries which ye seek after, saving only the mystery of the
Seven Vowels and their forty and nine Powers, and the numbers
thereof. And no name is more excellent than all these
(Vowels),* a Name wherein be contained all Names and all
Lights and all Powers. Knowing therefore this Name, if a man
shall have departed out of this body of Matter, no smoke (of the
bottomless pit), neither any darkness, nor Euler of the Sphere
of Fate,| nor Angel, nor Power, shall be able to hold back the
soul that knoweth that Name. But and if, after he shall have
departed out of this world, he shall utter that Name unto the
fire, it shall be quenched, and the darkness shall flee away.
And if he shall utter that Name unto the devils of the Outei
Darkness, and to the Powers thereof, they shall all faint away,
and their flame shall blaze up, so that they shall cry aloud
'Thou art holy, thou art holy, 0 Holy One of all holies!'
And if he shall utter that Name unto the Takers-awav for
condemnation, and their Authorities, and all their Powers, nay,
even unto Barbelo,J and the Invisible God, and the three
Triple-powered Gods, so soon as he shall have uttered that
Name in those places, they shall all bo shaken and thrown one
upon the other, so that they shall be ready to melt away and
perish, and shall cry aloud, ' 0 Light of all lights that art in
the Boundless L?ght ! remember us also, and purify us ! ' "
After such a revelation as this, we need seek no further for the
reason of the frequent occurrence of this formula upon talismans
intended, when they had done their duty in this world, to
accompany their owner into the tomb, continuing to exert there
a protective influence of a yet higher order than in life.

For the student of the mineralogy of the ancients this celt

* Evidently alluding to the col- released from the body in which they

location of the vowels on our talisman. have imprisoned it.

t The twelve Mons of the Zodiac, J The divine mother of the Saviour,

the creators of the human soul, which and one of the three " Invisible Gods "

they eagerly seek to catch when cap. 351).

202 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

has very great interest in point of material, as being the only
specimen of true jade, bearing indisputable marks of either
Greek or Eoman workmanship, that, so far as my knowledge
extends, has ever yet been brought to light. This ancient
neglect of the material is truly difficult to explain, if the state
ment of a very good authority, Corsi, be indeed correct, that the
sort showing the deepest green is found in Egypt. The known
predilection of the Eomans for gems of that colour, would, one
should naturally expect, have led them in that case to employ
the stone largely in ornamentation, after the constant fashion of
the Chinese, and to value it as a harder species of the Smaragdus.
The circumstances under which this relic was brought to
England render it more than probable that Egypt was the
place where it was found ; a supposition corroborated by the
fine quality of the stone exactly agreeing with what Corsi
remarks of the Egyptian kind. That Alexandria was the place
where the inscription was added upon its surface can admit of
little question ; the lettering being precisely that seen upon
innumerable other monuments which can with certainty be
assigned to the same grand focus of Gnosticism. In addition to
this, it is very doubtful whether in the third or fourth centuries
a lapidary could have been found elsewhere throughout the
whole KomanVEmpiie capable of engraving with such skill as
the minute characters within the wreath evince, upon a
material of this, almost insuperable, obduracy. From the times
of the Ptolemies down to the Arab conquest, and even later,
Alexandria was the seat of the manufacture of vases in rock
crystal. This trade served to keep alive the expiring Glyptic
art for the only purpose for which its productions continued to
be demanded — the manufacture of talismans, consignments of
which must have been regularly shipped, together with the
crystal- ware,* to Rome, and equally to the other important
cities of the empire.

The primitive Egyptians, like the early Chaldeans, used

stone in the place of metal for their cutting instruments, and

continued its use for making particular articles down into

historic times. Herodotus mentions the regular employment of

* " Duin tibi Niliacus portat cryatallu catajplua."— Mart. xii. 72.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 20'5

the " Ethiopian stone " sharpened, for a dissect ing-knife* in the
process of embalming, and similarly for pointing the arrowsf
carried by the contingent of the same nation in the army of
Xerxes. The Alexandrian citizen, half-Jew half-Greek, who
had the good fortune to pick up this primaeval implement,
doubtless rejoiced in the belief that he had gotten a "stone of
virtue," most potent alike from substance, figure, and nature,
and therefore proceeded to do his prize due honour by making
it the medium of his most accredited spells — nay, more, by
inventing a new formula of unusual complication and pro
fundity whereby to animate its inherent powers. As regards
its substance, the stone probably passed then for a smaragdus of
exceptional magnitude, and that gem, as Pliny records, J was
recommended by the magi as the proper material for a talisman
of prodigious efficacy, which, duly engraved, should baffle
witchcraft, give success at court, avert hailstorms, and much
more of like nature. The smaragdus of the ancients was little
more than a generic designation for all stones of a green colour,
and the entire Gnostic series strikingly demonstrates that this
hue was deemed a primary requisite in a talismanic gem — the
almost exclusive material of the class being the green jasper
and the plasma.

Again, as regards figure, this celt offered in its triangular
outline, that most sacred of all emblems, the mystic Delta, the
form that signified maternity, and was the hieroglyph of the
moon. This belief is mentioned by Plutarch,§ and explains
why the triangle so often accompanies the figure of the sacred
baboon, Luna's special attribute, on monuments, where also it
is sometimes displayed elevated upon a column with that
animal standing before it in the attitude of adoration.

Lastly, the supposed nature of this gift of Fortune was not of
Earth, inasmuch as it then passed for a holy thing that " had
fallen down from Jupiter," being, in fact, nothing less than one
of that god's own thunderbolts. A notion this which will

* ii- 86. the equilateral triangle " Athene " —

t vii. 69. a curious confirmation of the tradition

I xxxvii. 40. quoted by Aristotle, that the Attic

§ ' De Iside et Osiride,' cap. 75. goddess was one and the same with

He adds that the Pythagoreans called the Moon.

204 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

doubtless strike the modern mind as so strange, or rather as so
preposterous, that it necessitates my giving at full length my
reasons for making such an assertion. And in truth the subject
is well worth the trouble of investigation, seeing that the same
superstition will be found to extend from an early period of
antiquity down into the popular belief of our own times
throughout a large extent of Europe.

It is in accordance with this notion that I have designated
this celt a "ceraunia" (thunderbolt-stone), and it therefore
remains for me to adduce my reasons for giving it what must
appear to most people so unaccountable and highly inappro
priate an appellation. Sotacus, who is quoted elsewhere by
Pliny " as one of the most ancient writers on mineralogy," is
cited by him* " as making two other kinds of the ceraunia, the
black and the red, resembling axe-heads in shape. Of these,
such as be black and round are sacred things; towns and fleets
can be captured by their instrumentality. The latter are called
Bsetyli, whilst the oblong sort are the Ceraunise. Some make
out another kind, in mighty request in the practices of the
magi, inasmuch as it is only to be found in places that have
been struck by lightning." One would have been utterly at a
loss to understand what the old Greek had been speaking about
in the chapter thus confusedly condensed by the later Eoman
naturalist, or to discover any resemblance in form between the
lightning-flash and an axe-head, had it not been for the popular
superstition tint has prevailed in Germany from time im
memorial to the present day, and of which full particulars are
given by Anselmus Boetius in his invaluable repertory of
medieval lore upon all such matters, written at the beginning
of the seventeenth century. |

Under the popular names of " Strahl-hammer," " Donner-
pfeil," " Donner-keil," " Strahl-pfeil," " Strahl-keil " (lightning-
hammer, thunder-arrow or club, lightning-arrow, &c.), and the
Italian " Sagitta,"t he figures stone celts and hammers of five

* xxxvii. 51. lightning-niissila, the archer's shaft

f ' Gem. et Lapid. Hist.' ii. cap. being expressed by the Teutonic

261. " freceia," in accordance with the

J"Saetta" (a vulgar Italian genius of the language which reserves

execration), is now restricted to the the old Latin terms for the things

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 205

different, but all common, types ; remarking that so firm was
the belief in these things being the "actual arrow of the
lightning " (ipsa fulminis sagitta), that should any one attempt
to controvert it he would be taken for a madman. He however
confesses with amusing simplicity that the substance of these
thunderbolts is exceedingly like the common flint used for
striking fire with; nay, more, he boldly declares he should
agree with those few rationalists who, on the strength of their
resemblance in shape to the tools in common use, pronounced
these objects to be merely ordinary iron implements that had
got petrified by long continuance in the earth, had it not been
for the testimony of the most respectable witnes'ses as to the
fact of their being discovered in places just seen to be struck
witli lightning. Besides quoting some fully detailed instances
from Gesner, he adds that several persons had assured him of
having themselves seen these stones dug up in places where the
lightning had fallen. The natural philosophers of the day
accounted for the creation of such substances in the atmosphere
by supposing the existence of a vapour charged with sulphureous
and metallic particles, which rising above a certain height
became condensed through the extreme heat of the sun, and
assumed a wedge-like form in consequence of the escape of their
moisture, and the gravitation of the heavier particles towards
their lower end! Notwithstanding this celestial origin, the
virtue of the production was not then esteemed of a pro
portionally sublime order, extending no further than to the
prevention or the cure of ruptiires in children, if placed upon
their cradles ; and also to the procuring of sleep in the case of
adults. In our own times Justinus Kerner mentions* the same
names for stone celts as universally popular amongst the
German boors; but they are now chiefly valued for their
efficacy in preserving cattle from the murrain, and consequently
the finders can seldom be induced to part with them.

not of this world, — using those of the peasantry to have this celestial

lingua militaris for every-day pur- origin, and are highly valued as

poses. The flint arrow-heads found portable " light-conductors."
in the terra marna of the primaeval * In his little treatise on Amulets.
Umbrian towns, are believed by the

206 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

It must not, however, be supposed that Sotacus picked tip
this strange notion from the Teutones of bis own age, whose
very existence was probably unknown to him ; his informants
were unquestionably those magi cited at the conclusion of
Pliny's extract. The Greek mineralogist had lived " apud
Eegem," that is, at the court of the King of Persia, very pro
bably in the capacity of royal physician, like his countrymen
Democedes and Ctesias. In that region he had ample oppor
tunities of seeing stone celts, for Rawlinson observes * that
flint axes and other implements, exactly identical with the
European in workmanship, are common in all the most ancient
mounds of Chaldsea, those sites of primeval cities. Such
elevations above the dead level of those interminable plains
were necessarily the most liable to be lightning-struck ; and
hence probably arose the idea that these weird-looking stones
('all tradition of whose proper destination had long since died
out amongst the iron-using Persians) were the actual fiery bolts
which had been seen to bury themselves in the clay. And
again, to revert to the German belief, it must be remembered
that Thor, the Northern Jupiter, is pictured as armed with a
huge hammer in the place of the classical thunderbolt. The
type of the god had been conceived in the far-remote ages when
the stone -hammer was as yet the most effective and formidable
of weapons, and was preserved unchanged out of deference to
antiquity, after the true meaning of the attribute was entirely
forgotten. Nevertheless, his worshippers, accustomed to be
hold the hammer in the hand of the god of thunder, — vi/a/^pe/zeV^s
Zev's, — very naturally concluded that these Grange objects, of
unknown use, found from time to time deep buried in the
earth, were the actual mis.siles which that deity had discharged.
It is a remarkable proof of the wide diffusion of the same belief,
that the late owner of the relic under consideration, habitually
spoke of it as a *' thunderstone," — a name he could only have
learnt from the Arabs from whom it was procured, seeing that
no such notion with respect to celts has ever been current in
this country. But every one whose memory reaches back forty
years or more may recollect, that wheresoever in England the
* 'Ancient Monarchies,' i. p. 120.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 207

fossil Belemnite is to be found, it was implicitly received by all,
except the few pioneers of Geology (a word then almost synony
mous with Atheism), as the veritable thunderbolt shot from
the clouds, and by that appellation was it universally known.
I, for one, can recollect stories, quite as respectably attested
as those Boetius quotes concerning the Ceraunise, told re
specting the discovery of new fallen belemnites under precisely
the same circumstances ; and, in truth, the same author does
in the preceding chapter treat at length of the Belemnites,
and his cuts show that the name meant then what it does
at present ; but he assigns to the missile an infernal instead
of a celestial source, giving the vulgar title for it as " Alp-
schoss," (elfin-shot,) which he classically renders into " dart
of the Incubus," stating further that it was esteemed (on
the good old principle, " similia similibus curantur ") of
mighty efficacy to guard the sleeper from the visits of that
much dreaded nocturnal demon. The Prussian, Saxon, and
Spanish physicians employed it, powdered, as equally efficacious
with the lapis Judaicus, in the treatment of the calculus. It was
also believed a specific for the pleurisy in virtue of its pointed
figure, which was analogous to the sharp pains of that disease,
for so taught the universally accepted " Doctrine of Signa
tures."

The Ceraunise of Sotacus, however, comprised, besides these
primitive manufactures of man, other substances, it is hard to
say whether meteorites or fossils ; the nature of which remains
to be discussed. Photius,* after quoting the paragraph, " I
beheld the Bsetylus moving through the air, and sometimes
wrapped up in vestments, sometimes carried in the hands of
the ministers," proceeds to give a summary of the wondrous
tale told by the discoverer of the prodigy — one Eusebius of
Emesa. He related how that, being seized one night with a
sudden and unaccountable desire to visit a very ancient temple
of Minerva, situated upon a mountain at some distance from the
city, he started off, and arriving at the foot, sat down to rest
himself. Suddenly he beheld a globe of fire fall down from
heaven, and a monstrous lion standing by the same, but who
* ' Bibliotheca,' 1063, R.

208 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS.

immediately vanished. Running to pick it up as soon as the
fire was extinguished, he found this self-same Bsetylus. In
quiring of it to what god it belonged, the thing made answer
that he came from the Noble One (so was called a figure of a
lion standing in the temple at Heliopolis). Eusebius thereupon
ran home with his prize, a distance of 210 stadia (26 miles),
without once stopping, being quite unable to control the im
petus of the stone ! He described it as " of a whitish colour, a
perfect sphere, a span in diameter, but sometimes assuming a
purple* shade, and also expanding and contracting its dimen
sions, and having letters painted on it in cinnabar, of which he
gave the interpretation. The stone, likewise, if struck against
the wall, returned answers to consultors in a low whistling
voice." The grain of truth in this huge heap of lies is
obviously enough the fact that Eusebius, having had the good
fortune to witness the descent of a meteorite, and to get posses
sion of the same, told all these fables about it in order to in
crease the credit of the oracular stone (which doubtless brought
him in many fees) amongst his credulous townsfolk. Damasciusf
(whose Life of Isidorus Photius is here being epitomised) adds,
that this philosopher was of opinion that the stone was the abode
of a spirit, though not one of the mischievous or unclean sort,
nor yet one of a perfectly immaterial nature. He further
more states that other bsetyli were known, dedicated to Saturn,
Jupiter, and the Sun ; and moreover that Isidorus and himself
saw many of such bsetyli or bsetylla upon Mount Libanus, near
Heliopolis in Syria.

As for the derivation of bsetylus, the one proposed by the
Byzantine Hesychius, who makes it come from bsete, the goat
skin mantle, wherein Rhea wrapped up the stone she gave old
Saturn to swallow, instead of the new-born Jove, cannot be
considered much more satisfactory than Bochart's, who, like a
sound divine, discovers in it a reminiscence of the stone pillar
which Jacob set up at Bethel, and piously endeavours to force
Sancoriiathon, who speaks of the " living " stones, the bsethylia, J

* The Greek purple included every J " Moreover the god Uranus de-
shade from crimson to violet. vised btethylia, contriving stones that

t A stoic philosopher under Justi- moved as having life."
nian.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 209

to confirm his interpretation by correcting his text into
" anointed."

But this last Ixtylm is beyond all question the same thing
with that described by the Pseudo-Orpheus,* under the names
of Sideritcs, and the animated Oritcs, " round, black, ponderous,
and surrounded with deeply-graven furrows." In the first of
these epithets may easily be recognized the ferruginous character
common to all meteorites (siderites being also applied to the
loadstone), whilst the second (Orites) seems to indicate the
locality where they most abounded, viz., Mount Lebanon.

Sotacus' notice, indeed, of the efficacy of the Isetylm in pro
curing success in seafights and sieges, is copiously illustrated
by the succeeding verses of the same mystic poet, who, it must
be remembered, can claim a very high antiquity, there being
sufficient grounds for identifying him with Onomacritus, a con
temporary of Pisistratus, in the sixth century before our era.
The diviner Helenus, according to him, had received this
oracular stone from Apollo, and he describes the rites, with
great minuteness, for the guidance of all subsequent possessors
of such a treasure, by means of which the Trojan woke up the
spirit within the " vocal sphere." This was effected by dint of
thrice seven days' fasting and continence, by incantations and
sacrifices offered to the stone, and by bathing, clothing, and
nursing it like an infant. Through its aid, when at length
rendered instinct with life, the traitorous seer declared to the
Atridas the coming downfall of Troy; the stone uttering its
responses in a voice resembling the feeble wail of an infant
desiring the breast. It is more than probable that Orphesius in
describing the Orites, had in view the Sdlagrdma, or sacred
stone of Vishnu, still employed by the Brahmins in all pro
pitiatory rites, especially in those performed at the death-bed.
Sonnerat describes it as " a kind of ammonite, round or oval in
shape, black, and very ponderous." The furrows covering its
surface were traced by Vishnu's own finger ; but when found
of a violet colour, it is looked upon with horror, as repre
senting a vindictive avatar of the god. The possessor keeps
it wrapped up in linen garment like a child, and often bathes

* Ai0i/ca, 355.

P

210 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

and perfumes it — precisely the rites prescribed by our poet for
the due consultation of the oracle of the Siderites.

From all this it may safely be deduced that the " stone of
power," whether bsetylus or orites, was in most cases nothing
more than a fossil ; either a ferruginous nodule, or an echinus
filled with iron pyrites. Their being found in abundance in one
particular locality, precludes the idea of these at least being
meteorites, which latter, besides, never assume any regular form,
but look like mere fragments of iron slag. This explanation is
strongly supported by the drawings Boetius gives* of what was
then called the " Donner-stein," or " Wetter-stein," (thunder, or
storm-stone,) and which he very plausibly identifies with
Pliny's Brontias " that got into the head of the tortoise during
thunder-storms," and which is described in another place as
the " eye of the Indian tortoise " that conferred the gift of
prophecy. His carefully drawn figure of this Donner-stein
(which also passed for the " grosser Kroten-stein," bigger toad-
stone), shows it to be only a fossil echinus of a more oMate form
than the common sort. The regular toadstone, plentifully to be
seen in medieval rings, was, on the other hand, the small
hollow hemisphere, the fossil tooth of an extinct fish, found in
the greensand formation. In that age the Donner-stein was
held to possess all the many virtues of the Toadstone, Belem-
nito, and Ovum Anguinum, in counteracting poison, giving
success in all enterprises, procuring sleep, and protection
against danger of lightning. But the old physician, so much
in advance of his times, cannot help winding up the list of its
virtues with the hint, " Fides saspe veritate major."

The axe-heads and hammer-heads of stone, known to us by
the general designation of celts, have, until recent explorations,
been regarded as comparatively of rare 'occurrence amongst
ancient relics obtained from Eastern lands and from some other
continental countries. Our information, however, in regard
to objects of this class has become greatly extended. Mr.
James Yates published, in the Archaeological Journal, ex
amples of stone celts from Java ; an interesting specimen
obtained at Sardis is figured, vol. xv. p. 178, and some others

* ii. cap. 26-i.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIK REMAINS. 211

were found by Mr. Layard at Nineveh. The occurrence of
any ornament or inscription upon such objects is very rare,
but amongst numerous stone implements obtained in Greece
one is noticed by M. de Mortillet (Materiaux pour 1'Histoire
primitive do rilomme, Jan. 1868, p. 9), of which he had re
ceived from Athens a drawing and an estampage ; it is described
as "une hache en pierre serpentineu.se, sur une des faces de
laquello on a grave trois personnages et une inscription en
caracteres grecs. L'ancien outil a evidemment ete, beaucoup
plus tard, quand on a eu completement oublie son usao-e
primitif, transforme en talisman ou pierre cabalistique."

At the annual meeting of the Antiquaries of the North, on
March 21st, 1853, under the presidency of the late King of Den
mark, several recent acquisitions were exhibited, obtained for his
private collection at Frederiksborg. Amongst these there was
an axe-head of stone (length about 6J inches), perforated with a
hole for the handle, and remarkable as bearing on one of its
sides four Eunic characters, that appear to have been cut upon
the stone at some period more recent than the original use of
the implement. It has been figured in the Memoirs of the
Society, 1850-1860, p. 28 ; see also Antiquarisk Tidsskrift, 1852-
1854, pp. 258-266. I am indebted to a friend well skilled in
Eunes and Scandinavian archaeology, Dr. Charlton, formerly
secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, for the
following observations on this interesting relic.

" The first letter is L, and, if we accept the idea that these
were Eunes of Victory, it may stand for the initial of Loki ;
the second is Th, and may stand for Thor ; the third 0 for
Odin; the fourth, Belgthor, with a T above it, may refer to
Belgthor's friendship and alliance with Thor, and the T stands
for Tyr. We may imagine the names of the Northern gods to
have been cut on this stone axe to give it victory in battle,
just as the old Germans and Saxons cut mystic Eunes on their
swords, a practice noticed by Haigh in his ' Conquest of Britain
by the Saxons,' p. 28, pi. 1, where he has figured amongst
various examples of the futhorc, or alphabet of Eunic charac
ters, one inlaid on a sword or knife found in the Thames,
and now in the British Museum. At p. 51, ibid. pi. iii. fig. 20,
he has cited also the Eunic inscription on the silver pommel of

P 2

212 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

a sword found at Gilton, Kent, formerly in the collection of the
late Mr. Eolfe, of Sandwich, and subsequently in the possession of
Mr. Joseph Mayer. This relic is now in the precious museum
bestowed by his generous encouragement of archaeological science
on the town of Liverpool. The interpretation given in the
latter instance is as follows, — I eke victory to great deeds.*

" There was another explanation given of the characters on
the Danish stone axe. It was read — LUTHER, o. — Ludr owns
namely, the weapon thus inscribed."

In the ancient Sagas, as remarked in Nilsson's * Primitive
Inhabitants of Scandinavia ' (translation by Sir John Lubbock,
Bart, p. 214J, mention occurs of amulets designated life-stones,
victory-stones, &c., which warriors carried about with them in
battle to secure victory. A curious relation is cited from one
of the Sagas, that King Kidung, when about to engage in
conflict, perceived that he had neglected to bring a precious
heir-loom, a .stone that possessed the virtue of ensuring victory.
He offered the hand of his daughter, with a third part of his
kingdom, to him who should bring this talisman before the
fight commenced ; and, having received it, he won the battle.
In another narrative, the daughter of a Scanian warrior steals
during his slumbers the stone that was hung on his neck, and
gave it to her lover, who thus became the victor. Nilsson
observes that stones are found in museums, for instance a
hammer-stone with a loop, that appear to have been worn thus
as talismans in war.

It is perhaps scarcely necessary to advert to certain axe-heads
of stone, in their general form similar to those with which we
are familiar as found in Europe ; upon these implements are
engraved rude designs, such as the Jiuman visage, &c. These
objects, of which an example preserved in a museum at Douai
has been much cited, may be " victory-stones " of an ancient
and primitive people, but they are now recognised as of Carib
origin, and not European.

* ' Archceologia,' vol. xxxii. p. 321. antiquaries suggest, appended to

A spear-head inscribed with Runes sword-hilts as charms. One of these

is noticed, ' Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass.,' rings, lately found at Carlisle, is in

vol. xxiii. p. 387. There exist certain possession of Mr. Robert Ferguson, of

massive rings of metal inscribed with Morton, near that city.
Runes, that may have been, as some

PART III.

ABRAXAS, ABRAXASTER, AND
ABRAXOID GEMS.

THE CxNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 215

THE AGATIIOD^EMON WORSHIP

" THERE was a time " (says M. Matter with much force) " when it
was from Judaism, especially from the Kabbala, and the system
of Philo, that people sought to derive the great transition of the
human mind from the ancient into the modern world : a revolu
tion in which so important a part is played by Gnosticism. So
far as regards the explanation of the writings and the under
standing of the views given by Origen, Irengeus, and the other
Fathers upon Gnosticism, the Jewish element still retains its
ancient pre-eminence ; but in the case of the tangible monuments
come down to us from the Gnostics themselves, we ought hence
forth to be fully convinced that it is in the antiquities of Eyypt
we must look for our chief information : and if the ideas,
terminology, and symbols of Judaism (that is, of the Kabbala)
have lent certain doctrines to this system, yet it is Egyptian art
that has furnished it with the greatest part of its symbols."

This grand development of the old Wisdom of Egypt in a
new phase is the most conspicuously exhibited in that very
numerous class of engraved gems popularly and indiscriminately
called Abraxas, Basilidan, and Gnostic stones, almost the sole
production of the expiring Glyptic Art during the last two
centuries of the Western Empire. But, contrary to the
generally received notion concerning their nature, a careful,
study of their numerous subdivisions has fully convinced me
that only a very small minority amidst their multitude present
any traces of the influence of Christian doctrines ; being for the
most part the fruit of religious ideas which had flourished long
before the first dawn of Christianity. An important portion,
indeed, originating in the primitive Egyptian Mythology, have
more connexion with Magic and Medicine than with any
religious object ; and their employment as talismans establishes

216 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIli REMAINS.

for them a higher antiquity than belongs to the real " Abraxas "
gems, the date of whose origin is historically ascertained. The
subject therefore will be more conveniently approached by
considering in the first place the Agathodsemon, Chnuphis, or
Chneph figures, often named " Dracontia," and erroneously
attributed to the Ophites and such-like semi-Christian sects, as
their actual inventors.

It cannot however be denied, that although these last-named
sectaries did not invent this emblem, yet that they generally
adopted it for their distinguishing badge or, to use their technical
word, " seal." And this circumstance leads to a remark which,
applying to all talismans alike, may aptly serve for preface to
the following dissertation upon their several classes. In the
primitive Nature-worship of the Old World all religion consisted
in the deification of the great visible Powers of the Universe*
The Supremo Beings therefore belonged to the present World,
consequently all the blessings they could confer were limited to
this life. The means, of whatever kind, supposed to secure the
goodwill of these Powers had for object tangible blessings
alone— wealth, peace, long life, posterity— in fact all those
rewards promised by Moses to the obedient Israelites. The
engraved stones under consideration, being legacies of this
older religion, were designed to secure temporal not spiritual
benefits to the wearers. The latter were not even dreamed of
by people holding the belief " mors ultima linea rerum est."
This fact explains why so many of the Gnostic gems are in
reality no more than medicinal agents, and prescribed by
physicians, Heathen and Christian alike, in their regular
practice, from Nechepsos down to Alexander Trallianus. On
the other hand the true Gnostics, whose sole profession was
the knowledge of the other world, when they applied to the
doctrines of the ancient religion the same method of interpre
tation that the Kabbalists had used for Moses and the Prophets
(of which the Pistis- Sophia has left us such ingenious specimens),
subjected all the productions of the former creed to the same
Procrustean torture, and consequently availed themselves of
these same symbols — nay, more, continued to manufacture
them in their own sense of their import.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 217

Tho Agathodsemon — "Good Genius" — whose very name
furnishes the reason why he should be chosen to figure on an
ornament intended to defend its wearer from all disease and
mischance, is depicted as a huge serpent having the head of a
lion, surrounded by a crown of seven or twelve rays — components
conspicuously announcing that he is the embodiment of the
idea of the Sun-god. This figure is usually accompanied, either
on obverse or reverse, with its proper title, written variously
XNOTBIZ, XNOT<t>II, and XNOTMIZ, accordingly as the engraver
fancied ho could best master that difficulty to the Greek
mouth, the true sound of our letter B. This name Salmasius*
considers as a rendering of the Coptic XNOTB, gold; and hence
explains another title which sometimes takes its place, XOAXN-
OTBIZ, as '" All-golden." Jablonsky, however,derives the word
more plausibly from XNOTM, good, and IZ, spirit, and thus makes
" Agothodaemon " to be the literal translation of the namc.t

This last had become in the third century the popular name
for the hooded snake of Egypt. Lampridius has " Heliogabulus
^Egyptios dracunculos Romae habuit, quos illi Agatlwdsemonas
vocant." This kind was the Uraeus, to be seen commonly on
Egyptian monuments, whore it is the badge of royalty placed
upon the head of the sovereign. It is the hadji hasher of the
modern Arabs, the cobra di capello of the Hindoos. I have met
with a large sard engraved in the late Roman-Egyptian style,
with two imperial busts regardant; reverse, the Chnuphis
Serpent, with the legend in Roman letters AGATHO DAEMON,
the sole instance known to me of such an amulet with a Latin
inscription: but which goes far to confirm Jablonsky's inter
pretation of the Coptic title. In classical Greek the original
Chneph becomes Canopus ; hence the Canopic vase often appears
between two serpents for heraldic supporters. But in those
lower times, so fruitful in the Chnuphis talismans, no more
Canopic vases appear on gems.

* He has treated the subject at (the Sun) designated as HFE"Tlie

some length in that learned miscel- Serpent " par eminence, and which

lany of his, the treatise * De Anno was a winged serpent bavin" human

Climacterico.' arms and feet. He is thus" painted

t The prototype appears to have on mummy-cases as guardian of the

been that ancient figure of Atmon inmate.

218 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

The ancient Agathodsemon, in the form of his congener the
Cobra, still haunts the precincts of the Hindoo temples, as of
old the shrines of Isis; and issues from his hole at the sound
of a fife to accept the oblation of milk from the attendant priest.
As with the ancients so with the Hindoos, he is the special
keeper of concealed treasure ; and when a zemindar deposits his
hoard in the prepared hiding-place, he, to make assurance
doubly sure, builds up a serpent therewith, to watch over the
gold. Suetonius records that Tiberius had a most appropriate pet
in a " serpens draco " ; but having found it one day devoured by
a swarm of ants, the suspicious CaBsar took warning from its fate
to beware of the force of a multitude of feeble individuals; and
consequently secured his person against all danger of popular out
break by shutting himself up in the inaccessible fastness of Capri.

But to return to the type of the Agathodaiiiion upon our
gems. Over the seven rays of the lion's crown, and correspond
ing to their points, stand often the seven vowels of the Greek
alphabet, AEHIOTQ, testifying the Seven Heavens; a mystery
whereof notice shall be taken in the fitting place. The reverse
of such gems is invariably occupied by a special symbol
resembling the letter S, or Z, thrice repeated, or the convolu
tions of a spiral cord, and traversed by a straight rod through
their middle ; a symbol for which many and the most whimsical
explanations have been proposed. Of these the most ingenious,
but also the most fanciful, makes it represent the spinal marrow
traversing the spine — certainly an apt device for a medicinal
talisman. But whatever its primary meaning it was probably
imported in its present shape from India (that true fountain-
head of Gnostic iconography). It is to be seen in two varieties,
upon series 16 and 17 in Plate VII. of E. Thomas' admirable
Essay on the Primitive Coinage of India, amongst the punch-
marks.

THE CHNUPHIS SERPENT.

A Limoges enamelled plaque of the twelfth century (in the
collection of Mr. Octavius Morgan) represents on its one half
" Moyses " lifting up the Brazen Serpent to the " Filii Israel."
On the other half, " similis Aaron " is seen inscribing with a

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 219

reed pen the mystic Tau Cross upon the foreheads of the elect.
The first of these tableaux offers the most extraordinary feature
in its representation of the serpent, depicted here with lion's
head and mane : the veritable Agathodaemon Chnuphis of our
Alexandrian talismans. The preservation of this form to so
late a period fills one with surprise : it indicates a traditionary
belief that the symbol was the giver of life and health. The
belief must have come down from the times when the Egyptian
talisman was commonly worn, in the way Galen mentions, as a
protection to the chest. The Brazen Serpent of Moses and the
Plasma Agathoda3mon of King Nechepsos had in all probability
one and the same origin, giving currency to those little ingots
which formed the sole money of the Hindoos before the esta
blishment of the Macedonians in Bactria. But the most probable
solution of the question is that the symbol stealthily represents
the serpent-entwined club of Aesculapius (itself so hard to account
for), or the wand similarly encircled, which was the badge of
Egyptian priesthood. And what renders this conjecture of mine
almost a certainty is an as of the gens Acilia, bearing for
obverse the head of Aesculapius, for reverse a wand (not the
usual club) placed vertically and encircled by his serpent in
three convolutions. This type, if slightly defaced by wear, would
become identical in appearance with the Chnuphis symbol.
The spiral frequently takes the form of the letters S S S dis
connected, traversed by a straight line. The curative virtue
ascribed to the sigil, again, tends to indicate its derivation from
the proper badge of the god of the healing art. For the eminent
physician Marcellus Ernpiricus (who flourished at Bordeaux in
Theodosius' reign) promises wonderful effects in the cure of
pleurisy from the wearing of this very figure engraved upon a
cerulean Scythian jasper. Whether this promise be true or not,
marvellous has been the vitality of the symbol itself ; for re
duced to a double S S upon a bar, it became a favourite device
in the times of chivalry, being taken as the rebus upon the
word Fermesse* (SS fermees) and the emblem of constancy.
Hence comes it that this ancient Egyptian symbol now adorns

* This sigla ill its simplest form, fusion over all the buildings of
>$, makes its appearance in pro- Henri IV., where it is popularly ex-

220

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the Collar of the Garter, formerly known as the " Collars of SS."
Meyrick's derivation of the name from the initial of " Souver
ayne," motto of Henry IV. when Earl of Derby (and on whoso
effigy the Collar first appears), is of little weight ; for that king
was long posterior to the institution of the Order and its in
signia. Even more preposterous is Camden's idea that the name
originated in the initials of Sanctus Simo Simplicius, a famous
Koinan lawyer ; and therefore was taken for badge by his pro
fession — a theory which assuredly does not account for Henry's
queen, Joan of Navarre, being similarly decorated with her
husband upon their monument.

That the Agathodaemon sigil was not only pre-Christian, but
ascended to the remotest antiquity in its use as a talisman, plainly
appears from Galen's notice thereof (De Simp. Med. 6 ix.).
" Some indeed assert that a virtue of this kind is inherent in
certain stones, such as it is certain is possessed by the green jasper,
which benefits the chest and mouth of the stomach, when tied
upon them. Some indeed set the stone in a ring, and engrave
upon it a serpent with head crowned with rays, according to the
directions of King Nechepsos in his thirteenth book. Of this
material I have had much experience, having made a necklace
out of stones of the kind, and hung it about the patient's neck,
descending low enough to touch the mouth of the stomach, and
they proved to be of no less benefit than if they had been en
graved in the manner laid down by King Nechepsos." This
treatise by Nechepsos must have been a regular Manual for the
use of Magicians, for Ausonius mentions its author as

" Quique magos docuit mysteria vaiia Nechepsi."
" Xechepsos, teacher of vain Magic's lore."

plained as relating to Gabrielle cords — (' Revue Numismatique ' for

d'Estrees, a rebus in its sound, 1856, p. 276j.

" S pcrce d'un t rait." But Longperier " Fermesse, dout 1'Araour point uu

has shown that the same figure is to Chiffre d'amour

be found on the medals of Henri's Commune en 1'ecriture, mais rare

mother and sister, and even upon dans le coeur,

,. T -in * n A j. • Mais ainsi que la lorrne est a un

articles made for Anne of Austria; anj mb ^ deux

and he acquiesces in the explanation Le de'sir inc0nstant froiase et

given in the text, which is taken brise tes uceuds,

from an old book, ' Lcs Bigarrures,' Ce pendant quo les mains ta

chap. " DCS Rebus de la Picardie," fcrmesse figurent."

by Etioime Tabouret, Sieur des Ac ' Lov* PaP°n»' 16th centur>''

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 221

The book, perhaps the foundation of the pretended Evax, was
the first source of the notions concerning the virtues of sigils
and gems preserved to us in the medieval " Lapidaria." Pliny
(vii. 50) quotes him along with hi& countryman Petosiris as an
astrological authority, according to whose rule of the " Tetarto-
morion " (or law deduced from the position of three signs,
Trine) the possible duration of human life in the region of Italy
extended to 124 years. And before dismissing Nechepsos and
his book it may be as well to add here—for the fact will be of
service in a further stage of this inquiry — that Pliny mentions
(xxx. 2) a second school of Magic, " but more recent by many
thousand years " than Zoroaster's, and founded by the Jews,
Moses, lannes and Jotapes. The first of the trio may be the
Talmudist to whose " secret volume " Juvenal alludes —

" Tradidit arcane quacunique voluminc Moses."

Although the Apostle couples lannes along with lambrcs
amongst the Egyptian opponents of the Hebrew legislator,
Juvenal also informs us that the nation retained even in his
times their ancient fame of veracious interpreters of dreams ;
nay, more, grown "wiser than Daniel," they even produced
them to order —

" Qualiacunque voles Judan somnia mittunt."
"The Jew, for money, sends what dreams you chooso."

Hippolytus in the following century remarks that the ** Sama
ritans, or " Simonians," founded by the first preacher of the
Gnosis, Simon Magus himself, availed themselves of this power
in order to plague their adversaries, "sending the dream-
producing demons to trouble whomsoever they please." The
medieval name for engraved gems regarded as talismans, viz.,
" Pierres d'Israel," is better founded than is generally supposed-
The obvious difficulty that graven figures — nay, more, idols —
could not have been the work of Jews, is answered by the
Kabbinical gloss upon the Second Commandment, which allows
the wearing of any sort of design cut in intaglio, though
prohibiting anything of the sort in relief.

222 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

The choice of the green jasper (now called plasmcv*) for the
Agathodasinon sigils was probably dictated by the resemblance
of its colour to that of the sacred Asp — green banded with
brown. As for the figure itself, a very ancient testimony as to
its nature and signification is aiforded by the tradition Eusebius
has preserved (I. 7) : " The serpent, unless injured by violence,
never dies naturally, for which reason the Phoenicians have
given it the name of the 'Good Genius,' AgatJwdsemon. For
the same cause the Egyptians have called it ' Cneph,' and
given to it the head of a hawk, because of the especial swiftness
of that bird." The priest of Epeae, entitled " Head-interpreter
of sacred things and Scribe," had expounded the allegory thus :
" The most divine Nature of all was one Serpent having the
face of a hawk, and most delightful in aspect, for when he
opened his eyes he filled all the places of his native region
with light; but when he closed them, darkness immediately
ensued." The serpent on our gems, however, does not appear
invested with a hawk's head, but with a lion's ; for which reason
this legend applies better to the Abraxas-god, occasionally
equipped with a hawk's or lion's head, in place of his proper
one, that of a cock. But the idea is certainly embodied in that
common design upon the Mithraic gems, a man grasping a
serpent, of which the radiated head points at his eyes and seems
to supply them with light. Furthermore, the meaning of the
figure of the Agathodairnon is clearly denoted by the Chaldee
legend frequently accompanying it. C6M€C6IAAM, "The Ever
lasting Sun," which is sometimes followed by YG, probably used
as sacred numerals, for they have the power in Greek arith
metic of 705. This same legend is attached to a classical
figure of Phcobus (such as he appears on the coins with the
legend SOLI INVICTO C OMIT I ) engraved upon a yellow jasper
in the Marlborough Cabinet — a fact sufficiently attesting the
accuracy of the interpretation here given to the Chaldee
inscription.

Astrology likewise lent its aid to accrediting the virtues of the

* The green jasper of the moderns as opaque, dark-green, and specially
was the rnolochites or moloohas of used for amulets,
the ancients, for Pliny describes it

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS 223

sigil. That great authority Hephaestion (quoted by Salmasius,
i.e.) observes that XNOTMIC is the name of one of the
Decani, or three chief stars in Cancer ; whilst another astrologer
laid down that the star so called was set in the breast of Leo,
and/or that reason was efficacious for the cure of all diseases in the
chest of man. And in fact we find this latter dictum con
firmed by the prayer <J>TAACC6 THH CTOMAXON HPOKAOT,
" Keep in good health the chest of Proclus," engraved upon the
back of one of these very Chnuphis gems. Others of the same
kind are again surrounded by a long Coptic legend often
arranged in the outline of a serpent, varying in words, but
always terminating in the epithet riTANTUPHKTA or nAIKTA,
" Breaker " or " Mocker " of the Giants— that is, of the evil and
rebellious Angels; for the Grecian fable of the War of the
Giants against Jove had then revived, a Zoroastrian interpreta
tion being applied to the rebellion of Ahriman and his demons
against Ormuzd and the Ministers of Good.

The method of employing a talisman is thus prescribed
in the Magic Papyrus, § 9 :— " A Spell of Alloius Crseonins,
spoken to the Lamp," " O^ap/xaxo) rovvovpai xprj /uaXXov SepKvo>v
i/a lao o-ov/Ai/^iow o-ovjjujnqvis o-wcrta <riaa>i, Thou that shakest
the world! Enter, and deliver an oracle concerning such
and such a matter. ®oto KoroO <f>0ovtj>vovv vovefiov?) €Trraa-7raxaTov.
The engraved stone (A.y.) Serapis seated in front, having the
Egyptian crown (/WiAijZoi/) ££, and upon his sceptre an ibis,
on the back of the stone the Name ; and lock it up and keep
it for use. Hold in thy left hand the -ring, and in thy right
a branch of olive and of bay-tree, waving them over the lamp,
repeating all the while the spells even times. And having
drawn the ring upon the proper finger of thy left hand, facing
and being inwards (the engraving), stick the gem against thy
left ear, and go to sleep, without returning answer to any one."
The object of this charm was (although not so stated) to
procure prophetic dreams, which are actually enumerated
amongst the effects to follow from the use of the one that
stands next in the MS.

Although the original intention of these Chnuphis sigils was
unquestionably the one pointed out in the preceding pages, yet

224 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

there is every probability from the nature of the case that the
same were adopted and interpreted in a spiritual sense by the
numerous and influential sect that first assumed the title of
" Gnostics." They had an all-sufficient reason for so doing, in
the fundamental doctrine of their creed The well-informed
and temperate Hippolytus, writing at the most flourishing
period of these transitional theosophies, thus opens his actual
' Refutation of all Heresies ' and his Fifth Book with the
description " of that sect which hath dared to boast the Serpent
as the author of their religion, as they prove by certain
arguments wherewith he hath inspired them. On this account
the apostles and priests of this creed have been styled ' Naaseni,'
from ' Naas,' the Hebrew word for serpent : but subsequently
they entitled themselves ' The Gnostics,' because they alone
understood the deep things of religion. Out of this sect sprung
many other teachers, who by diversifying the original doctrines
through inventions of their own became the founders of new
systems." Further on he has a passage bearing immediately
upon this subject. " This Naas is the only thing they worship,
for which reason they are called ' Naaseni ' (i.e. Ophites, or
Serpent- worshippers). From this same word Naas they pretend
that all the temples (vaoi*) under Heaven derive the name.
And unto this Naas are dedicated every rite, ceremony, mystery,
that is ; in short, not one rite can be found under Heaven into
which this Naas doth not enter. For they say the Serpent
signifies the element Water ; and with Thales of Miletus contend
that nothing in the Universe can subsist without it, whether of
things mortal or immortal, animate or inanimate. All things
are subject unto him ; and he is good, and hath all good things
within himself as in the horn of a unicorn, so that he imparts
beauty and perfection unto all that is, inasmuch as he pervades
all things, as flowing out of Eden, and divided into four
heads. . . . This Naas is the ' water above the firmament,' and
likewise the 'living water' spoken of by the Saviour. Unto
this Water all Nature is drawn, and attracts out of the same
whatever is analogous to its own nature, each thing after its
own kind, with more avidity than the loadstone draws the iron,
Hie ray of the sea-hawk gold, or amber straws. Then they go

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

on to boast : Wo are the Spiritual, who have drawn our own
portion out of the living water of the Euphrates that flows
through the midst of Babylon ; and who have entered in through
the True Gate, the which is Jesus the Blessed. And we of all
men are the only Christians, in the Third Gate celebrating the
Mystery, being anointed with the ineffable ointment out of the
horn like David, not out of the earthen vessel like Saul who
conversed with the Evil Spirit of carnal concupiscence."

Euphrates, a more recent teacher of the sect, who founded
the branch calling themselves " Peratai," or Fatalists, has a
passage that indicates the sense in which his followers may
have accepted these Clmuphis gems. " To them therefore of
the Children of Israel who were bitten in the Wilderness Moses
showed the True and Perfect Serpent; in whom whosoever
trusteth he shall not be bitten by the serpents of the Wilderness,
that is, shall not be hurt by the Powers. No one therefore is
able to heal and to save them that be gone forth out of Egypt,
that is, out of the body and out of the world, save that Perfect,
Full of all fulness, Serpent. In Him whosoever putteth his
trust, that man perisheth not by the serpents of the Wilderness,
that is, by the gods of the nativity."

These last Powers, whom Euphrates (a pure astrologer) in
another place calls the " gods of death," are the stars of the
horoscope, " which impose upon all that be born the fatal yoko
of the changeful nativity," that is, the necessity of death, the
necessary consequence of birth, a doctrine that clearly leads to
the efficacy of the Serpent sigil as a talisman to protect the
wearer against the malign influence of the astral genii. The
Ophites, in fact, were the legitimate descendants of the Bacchic
Mystae, whose religion during the two centuries preceding cm-
era must have been the predominant one in the great cities of
Asia Minor. An argument derived from Numismatics establishes
the common fact — the coinage of the chief cities, Ephesus,
Apamea, Pergamus, was issued chiefly in the form of Cistophor),
having for obverse the Bacchic Serpent raising himself out of
the sacred coffer; for reverse, two serpents entwined round
torches.

22(3 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIB REMAINS.

THE ABKAXAS.

I. ABRAX ASTER, OR BORROWED TYPES.

Bellermann in his lucid little treatise, * Drei Programmen
iiber die Abraxas-gemmen,'* has divided his subject into three
parts — the true Abraxas, all of which bear the Pantheon com
monly so entitled, whose creation is assigned to Basilides him
self ; the Abraxastcr, or types borrowed from the old religions,
but adapted by the Gnostic semi-Christians to the expression
of their own new ideas ; and Abraxoid, which, though vulgarly
accounted Basilidan gems, have no connection at all with
Basilides' own doctrines, but owe their origin entirely to the
astrologers of his or anterior times.

The Alraxaster gems, therefore, on account of this priority of
their first creation, have by right the first claim to be con
sidered ; and this mode of treating the subject possesses the
additional advantage of elucidating the sources of many ideas
that strike us as so extraordinary in the Gnostic creed.

The strangely heterogeneous mixture of creeds that prevailed
over the Koman Empire during the two centuries between the
reigns of Trojan and Constantino is exemplified by numerous
allusions in the * Historia Augusta,' equally with their tangible
monuments, which are the subject of this inquiry. What vast
encouragement (little enough needed, of a truth) must have
been given to the talisman-makers by the accession to imperial
power of the Syrian priest Heliogabalus ! " He used to sacrifice
human victims, selecting for the purpose, throughout all Italy,
boys of noble birth and conspicuous beauty, having both
parents living, in order that both parties might feel the keener
anguish. In fact Magicians of every sort attended upon him
and practised their arts every day, whilst he gave them every
encouragement, and returned thanks to the gods for his having
met with their especial favourites, at the same time that he was
prying into the entrails of the sacrificed children, and torturing
the victims to death, after the rules of his national religion."

( Lamprulins.) And yet the same amusing chronicler puts it

* Berlin, 1820.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 227

down amongst tlio accomplishments of his model Emperor, Severus
Alexander, cousin-german to the monster he has previously
portrayed — " that he was a great proficient in Judicial Astrology
(ma thesis), so that he gave permission to astrologers to profess
and teach that science publicly at Rome. He was moreover
very well skilled in divination by victims (Jiaruspicina) ; also
an excellent diviner by birds (ornitlwscopos), so far as even to
surpass the Augurs of Spain and Pannonia." This same " every
way accomplished gentleman ' (to use the Elizabethan phrase)
set up the statues of Abraham and Christ side by side with
Orpheus and Alexander in his private chapel (Sacrarium) ; whilst
his mad predecessor had conceived the grand notion of found
ing one universal syncretistic religion ; for having conveyed to
Rome his Emesene god (the aerolite), he built for him a temple on
the Palatine, whither he transferred the Palladium, Vesta's fire,
the Ancilia, the Cybele — in short, whatever object of worship
was most sacred to the Romans. Nay, more — he talked of
drawing into the same centre the " religions of the Jews and
Samaritans and the devotion of the Christians, in order that his
deity, Elagabal, might possess the mystery of every other
creed." — (Heliogabalus, 3.)

Of the Abraxaster class the figures are for the most part
drawn from the ancient iconography of the Egyptian religion ;
but they were adopted in a more spiritual sense by the newly-
arisen sects, holding the doctrines of Christianity strangely
amalgamated with the old teachings of the Mysteries.*

Of all these borrowed types the most frequent and most impor
tant is the Jackal-headed Anubis (sometimes double-headed, the
human being superadded to his own), and bearing the caduceus
of Hermes to denote his office of conducting souls, not as of yore
through the shades of the lower world,f but along the planetary
path to their final rest in the Pleroma. Thus the Gnostic

* Many of the actual types— the Hebrew inscriptions certify their

mummified erect Osiris, the reclining authorship.

Isis, the Nile, the Horus on the lotus- t In the paintings on the mummy-
flower, tho Anuhis, &c. — occur on case of Petemeuopt (or Ammonius),
the contemporary Alexandrian coins; Osiris the Occidental, invoked in tho
they therefore can only be accounted papyrus ritual inclosed with the
Gnostic productions when their corpse, is seen seated on his throne ;

Q 2

228 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Gospel, " Pistis-Sophia " (§ 20), describing the Saviour after re
ceiving his luminous vestment, inscribed with the Five words of
power and with the names of all the Domination to be encoun
tered in his Ascension, makes him come first to the Gate of the
firmament, then to the God of the sphere, then to the Spheie
of Fate, and lastly to the Twelve great yEons : all which Powers
when they beheld their own names written upon his vesture
were smitten with fear and began to sing hymns unto him.

This Anubis-Hermes appears sometimes waving a palm-branch,
to proclaim his victory over the Powers of Evil ; or presiding
at the psycliostasia "weighing of the soul," the scene commonly
pictured in the Egyptian Eitual of the Dead. In the latter
character he stands here for Christ, the Judge of the quick and
the dead ; but his successor in mediaeval art is the Archangel
Michael, who holds the scales. In the old Greek gems Hermes
is often represented as bending forward, caduceus in hand, and
by its mystic virtue assisting a soul to emerge from the depths
of the earth — a strange coincidence in form, probably too in
origin, with the mediaeval picture of the Saviour lifting souls
out of Purgatory. The Zoroastrian Hell, a burning lake of
molten metal, into which, on the Judgment-Day, Ahriman with
his followers were to be cast, had for object the ultimate
purification and restoration to their pristine state of the con
demned — a merciful doctrine, held by Origen, and partly
allowed by Jerome.

Hermes in this particular character of Psycliopotnpos was
made great use of by the Naaseni (Ophites) as the prophetic
representative of the Saviour in his grandest office. They
interpreted Hermes' leading souls through darkness into
Elysium as Christ's guiding the minds of the enlightened out
of Ignorance into Knowledge, in their special sense of the words.
As may well be supposed, they descanted largely upon that

at his side, his wife and sister, Isis. functions equally in the supernal

In front stands an altar, loaded with and infernal regions (the place of

flowers, fruits, and libations. Anubis, the Four Amenti), presents to his sire

recognisable by his jackal's head the defunct Petemenopt, swathed

crowned with the pschent (tall cap), in his sepulchral bandages, and

because, like the Hermes of the holding up his hands in the attitude

Greeks, he discharges important of supplication.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 229

peculiar symbol, under which form Hermes, surnamed Cyllenius,
was worshipped. Amongst their mystical expositions of the
object one curious fact appears, that its popular name was
aya@o(f>of)ov, " briiiger of good luck," for which cause it was set
up at cross-roads, and upon house-tops. But as regards the
ancient religion, since it is thus made out that this attribute,
later modified into a Pillar, stood for Cyllenius, guide of
departed souls (exactly as the same figure, linyam, represents
Siva, Lord of the dead in modern Hinduism), the reason
becomes obvious why its sculptured representations should
have been the earliest form of monument placed over the
departed. The monuments secured for the dweller in the
grave the perpetual protection of the Guide and Shepherd of
souls ; a colossal phallus crowns to this day the summit of the
oldest tomb, the date of which is historically certain, the
tumulus of the Lydia king, Alyattes. The Asiatic colonists
carried with them into Italy the same belief in the protective
virtues of the symbol ; carved in stone it regularly surmounted
the door of the sepulchre. One lately came into my possession,
inscribed around with the name and patronymic of the deceased
Etruscan, whose repose it had so long guarded, SVSES FELVS
FENTV, " Suses, son of Phintas."

This double character of Anubis is very curiously expressed
by the figure upon a sard belonging to myself, which to the
casual observer presents that most orthodox of types, the Good
Shepherd, carrying a lamb upon his shoulders, leaning upon his
staff, his loins bound with a girdle having long and waving
ends. But upon closer examination this so innocent personage
resolves himself into the double-headed god of Egypt, the
lamb's head doing duty for the jackal's, springing from the
same shoulders with that of the man, whilst the floating end of
the girdle is turned into the bushy tail of the wolfish beast,
and the " latrator Anubis " bursts upon our astonished eyes.
This identification of character in Anubis and Christ enables us
rightly to understand that drawing, the discovery of which
created such a sensation at Rome a few years back, scratched
(graffito) roughly on the plaster of a room in a house buried (in
ancient times) under the extended buildings of the Palatine.

230 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS.

It represents this same jackal-headed man holding in front of
him a Latin Cross with his outstretched hands, and standing on
a pedestal, in front of his worshipper, who makes the customary
form of adoration by raising his hand to his lips, and who has
expressed the object of his handiwork by the inscription
AAEZAMENOC CeBGTE 0/EON. In reality the production of
some devout, but illiterate Gnostic, it is construed by its present
owners* into a shocking heathen blasphemy, and a jibe upon
the good Christian Alexamenos, because they mistake the
jackal's head for that of an ass, and consequently imagine an
intentional caricature of their own Crucifix.

The discovery of this picture clearly illustrates a passage of
Tertullian (Apol. xvi.) where he says to his opponents : " Like
many others you have dreamed that an Ass's Head is our god.
But a new version of our god has lately been made public at
Kome, ever since a certain hireling convict of a bullfighter put
forth a picture with some such inscription as this, ' the god of
tho Christians ONOKOIHTHZ.' He was depicted thus — with the
ears of an ass, and with one of his feet hoofed, holding in his
hand a book, and clothed in the toga." An exact description
this of the Anubis figured by Matter (PL ii. c. No. 1.), save
that instead of a book the god carries a cadceus and palm-
branch. Tho same calumny was somewhat later transferred
by the Christians themselves to the account of the Gnostics.
Not being acquainted with tho Egyptian beast, they mistook
(perhaps intentionally) the head of the jackal for that of the
ass, which in truth it strongly resembles in the rude drawing of
our gems. Thus we find, at the close of the fourth century,
Epiphanius asserting " that the Gnostic Sabaoth has, according
to some, the face of an Ass, according to others, that of a Hog ;
on which latter account He hath forbidden the Jews to eat
swine's flesh." This second notion was a very ancient one,
being alluded to by Petronius in * Judaeus licet et porcinum numen
adoret." Now Sabaoth being held by the Gnostics as the
national god of the Jews, it seems probable that this same
confusion of one beast with the other was the real source of

* Having been cut from the wall aud deposited in the museum of the
Collegio Romano.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 231

the opinion so prevalent amongst the ancients, and quoted by
Tacitus (Hist. v. 4). " The sacred object so zealously guarded
from profane eyes within the Sanctuary at Jerusalem was the
figure of the wild ass by whoso guidance they had relieved their
thirst and their distress, Moses having, through the observation
of the movements of a troop of these animals, discovered the
spring, the waters of which saved his followers from perishing
in the desert." This legend was furthermore connected with
the belief that the real god of the Jews was Bacchus, for the ass
was sacred to the god of wine. For this dedication Pliny finds
i singular reason in the fact that the ass was fond of fennel, a
deadly poison to all other quadrupeds, but a plant specially
consecrated to Bacchus (xxxv. 1). Again, the spurious gospel
' The Genealogy of Mary ' assigns for the cause of the death of
Zacharias, son of Barachias, that once entering the Temple he
beheld standing within the Sanctuary a man with the face of
an ass, and when he was rushing out to cry unto the people,
Woe unto you ! Whom do ye worship ? he was smitten with
dumbness by the apparition. But afterwards, when he had
recovered his speech, and revealed what he had seen unto the
Jews, they slew him for a blasphemer. And this they gave as a
reason wherefore the High Priest had bells fastened around the
hem of his garment, in order that this monstrous deity might
by their tinkling be warned of the approach of man, and so
have the time to conceal himself. This wild story is preserved
by Epiphanius alone, for the original work is entirely lost. It
was ascribed to St. Matthew, and was taken for their special
textbook by the Collyridians, who got their name from their
custom of sacrificing cakes to the Virgin Mary, whom they
pretended was also born of a virgin. Faustus, bishop of Eiez,
cites this same gospel concerning the parentage of Mary. But
the apocryphal gospel, ' The Birth of Mary,' still extant, is
of a totally different character, being a mere monkish invention
of the most orthodox stupidity ; and which, coupled with the
* Protevangelion,' became the source of all the medieval pictures
and sculptures that set forth the history of the Madonna.

To the same Egyptian family likewise belongs the boy
Harpocratcs or Horus (the vernal Sun), having the symbol of

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR . REMAINS

fecundity monstrously exaggerated and seated upon the lotus,
which expressed the same idea by its abundant seeds ; and also
Perfection because for its flower, fruit, bulb, all exhibit the form
of the circle, as lamblichus observes. Macrobius too remarks
that Horus is the Egyptian equivalent for Apollo, who gave his
name to the twenty-four hours of day and night : and this
acceptation of his character is recorded by the Alexandrian
plasma (Vienna Cabinet, I. 39) which identifies him with the
Grecian Sun god: MEfAC OOPOC AnOAACON APHOKPATHC
6TIAATOCTU) cjjQPOTNTI. He often appears accompanied by
Anubis in the character -of his messenger. Again, Horus is
seen adored by the kneeling Cynocephalus baboon, the animal
consecrated to Luna. This last curious animal also belonged
to Thoth, scribe of the gods, and makes a favourite Gnostic
device performing his devotions before a pillar covered all over
with inscriptions and supporting a triangle, symbol of the Moon
whose influence was supposed singularly to affect his constitu
tion. This pillar clearly enough denotes those " Pillars of
Hermes," by means of which lamblichus solved all the ques
tions propounded to him by Porphyrius (Jam. De Mystcrieis, II.).

To make the allusion more certain, these beings are even
designated in the spells by their proper name of " Titans."
Kicoroni has given in his Formse No. 4 a mould for casting the
reverse of a medalet, of the 3B size, bearing the Dioscuri
facing each other, holding their spears point downwards, in
token of amity, in their left hands each a situla. Behind,
vertically CABACOT in two lines : in the exergue TITAN, space
not admitting the remainder of the title— too well-known besides
to require more than such a reminiscence.

Horus is often figured sailing through the heavens in the
sacred boat, the Bans steered by two hawks ; solar emblems,
with sun and moon overhead, and taking the same titles I AH,
ABAANA0ANAABA, &c., as the great Abiaxas-god himself,
and with reason, the same idea being couched in the two
personifications. Horus, as Heliodorus records (Mih. ix. 22),
was also applied to the Nile, whose Greek name NelAos also
contained the mystic solar number 365 ; this voyager in the
baria is analogous to the Hindoo Nerjaiut, the child floating

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 233

in his argah leaf upon the face of the waters having his whole
body coloured blue (nila). To complete the resemblance the
situla regularly carried from a cord in the hand of Anubis is
the very lotah, brass drinking cup, of the modern Brahmins.
Those common emblems, the baris and the coiled serpent, have
their Gnostic meaning fully explained by a remarkable passage
in the Pistis-Sophia (§ 359). " And the disk of the sun was a
Great Dragon whose tail was in his mouth, who went up into
the Seven Powers on the left hand, being drawn by four Powers
having the similitude of white horses. But the going of the
Moon was in the shape of a boat, the rudder whereof showed a
male and female dragon with two white cows drawing the same,
and the figure of a child on the stern guiding the dragons, who
drew away the light from the Rulers (the regular synonym in
the book fur the rebellious ^Eons, lords of the Zodiac), and in
front of the child was the similitude of a cat."

The Regeneration of the " Spiritual Man " occasionally deco
rates these talismans, being symbolised in the most material
istic manner by the Solar Lion impregnating a naked woman,
the recognised emblem of the soul, who, " quadrupeduin ritu,"
submits with joy to the vivifying operation. And the spiritual
man thus regenerate is again depicted under the form of a
human outline holding up by the neck a huge serpent, both of
them entirely filled up with inscribed letters, amongst whicli
the mystic Seven Vowels largely predominate.

Scaliger, however, as cited by Salmasius in the above-quoted
work, takes this figure to be the representative of the combined
365 JEons, all whose names are supposed to be condensed within
his outline — in short he is the emblem of the Pleroma, and
stands for the " Adam-Kadmon " of the Kabbalists, the Primal
Man, the Ophite Adamas, after whose image the second Adam
was made. Or again, this same combination may have been
intended to display the Seven Vowels, with their forty and nine
Powers, the virtues whereof are so wondrously exalted by the
inspired writer of the Pistis-Sophia (§ 378), whose words are
cited in another place.* But as the fact bears directly upon the

* Goodwill's ' Magic Papyrus,' terminating in several vowel-com-
gives, at the end of a spell (No. 1) binatious, these directions for pro-

234 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

sigil before us, it may be mentioned here that the same gospel
(358) makes the Saviour open his "Prayer" with the ejaculation,
AEHIOTQIAnOA IOJIA ; which, as enveloping the mystic Name
of God, were the most obvious spell to be selected to fill up so
important a talisman. Neither is it out of place to conclude
this inquiry with the notice that the motto of the mediaeval
House of Hapsburgh was the Latin vowels A.E.I.O.V. These
enigmatical letters were interpreted by the arrogance of
succeeding generations, puffed up with imperial dignity, into
the initials of the prophecy " Austriae est imperare orbi uni-
verso." But I more than suspect that the five Latin letters were
adopted by some illuminato amongst the ancient Dukes (perhaps
acquired during his alchemical studies) as containing the same
transcendental virtues with the Gnostic seven of the Gieek
alphabet.

The winged goddesses Athor and Sate, representing the Eoman
Venus and Juno, sometimes are found accompanied with such
legends as makes it evident they too had been pressed into the
Gnostic service, as representatives of certain amongst the
feminine .ZEons.* But another shape repeatedly presents his
monstrosity to our astonished gaze, whose true character almost
sets conjecture at defiance, but evidently the offspring of very
diverse ideas most strangely commingled. He is an aged man,
Priapean, four-winged, with four hands grasping as many
sceptres ; he has likewise the spreading tail of the vulture and
stands in the baris, or upon the coiled serpent, or on a tree-
trunk, horizontal, whence project five lopped off branches.
Some potent saviour must be be, for he is addressed, like
Abraxas himself, by the title ABAANAOANAABA! But the
most prominent symbol in the monstrous collocation suggests
an explanation of its hidden meaning, supplied by the following

uounciug each — O, in the same manner as above

" A, with the mouth opened, rolled said,

about like a wave. H, with gentleness aspirated.

O, in a short manner for spiritual T, unto the Shepherd (Hermes),

threatcniugs. as if it were long."

A O, unto Earth, Air, Heaven. * Valeutinus made his yEous in

E, after the fashion of the cyiioce- pairs, male and female.
phulud.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS 235

exposition of Justinus, that wildest teacher in all the Gnosis.
" For this cause said he unto Eden, Mother, behold thy son !
meaning his animal and carnal body. He himself, however,
having commended his spirit into the Father's hands, ascended
up unto the Good One. Now this Good One is Priapus, He that
created before anything existed. On this account he is called
Priapus because he first made all things (eVptaTroto-c).* For
this reason is he set up in every temple, being honoured by all
Nature, and likewise in the roadways, having the fruits of
Autumn hung about him, that is, the fruits of the Creation
whereof he is the author, inasmuch as he first made the Creation
which before was not."

That very frequent type, a mummy swathed in the coils of a
vast serpent, is easily explained as an allusion to the protection
in the next world of the ancient agatho-demon,j" or the
spiritual Naas of the more recent Ophites. The same belief
also generated that more graceful allegory, the woman en
throned on the back of the same reptile, like the Atergatis of
Phoenicia.

Interesting above the rest for the part it played in mediaeval
superstition is the Osiris, or old man, with radiated head, a
terminal figure always shown in front face with arms crossed on
the breast, the true Bapliomet of the Templars. Sometimes he
is borne aloft upon the heads of four Angels, upon whom two
streams pour forth from his sides. This group has been
explained as Ormuzd borne up by the Four Elements ; although
it may possibly refer to the notion the prophet Enoch mentions
(xviii. 3) "I also beheld the Four Winds which bear up the
earth and the firmament of heaven." The idea in truth has
rather an Assyrian than Egyptian cast, for in Assyrian works
Athor (Mylitta) often appears pouring out from her extended
arms the Waters of Life ; and again the Persian female Ized
Ardui&her is by interpretation " The giver of living water."J

A curious specimen of ancient form, borrowed in a more

* That is, the proper symbol of J At Tarsus (1863) was discovered
Priapus, either the phallus or the in company with aurei of Sev. Alex-
Egyptian Tau. ander and Gordian III., a talisman

f The HFE painted on the thus described by Longpcriur :

niiunmy cases in that very capacity. " Amulet formed of lapis-lazuli, set

236 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

spiritual sense, is furnished by a pretty sard, found in tho
Punjab (Major Pearise), engraved with two figures of the Eoman
Providentia facing each other, in the field between them,
the heads of Sol and Luna, and below XAIA, the Hebrew
for Life.

The common figure 0 may be explained by Eusebius's de
scription of the Egyptian hieroglyph for the world, as a circle
coloured sky-blue and besprinkled with flames, in the centre an
extended serpent ; the whole being carelessly imitated by the
letter 0 in the Diagramma of the Ophites.

An armed man, the Mithraic soldier, one of the figures
regularly set up in the mystic Cave of the Solar god, often
decorates a talisman, holding a spear tipped with tho head
of a cock, a mark of honour granted by the Persian kings to
distinguished valour (as by Artaxerxes to the Carian who slew
Cyrus the Younger) ; or else grasping a serpent in each hand.
A sect that sprung up in Egypt, the Phibionites, took the title
•' Militant," 3rparta)ruco£ Another figure, the three-headed
throe-bodied god, who, standing like Priapus, grasped with one
hand the symbols of fecundity, with the other, asps and scorpions,
must be the visible embodiment of the Great TpiSwa/xets,
who figure so prominently in the celestial hierarchy of the
Pistis -Sophia. The Trees sometimes enlisted in the Talismanic
corps may find their motive in the " Almond-tree " of the
Phrygian Mysteries, in which the Naaseni discovered the name
of the Great Creator of All; or else to the "Mystery of the
Five Trees," mentioned in that oft-quoted revelation, on whose
true nature light is thrown by Justinus' exposition making out

in a gold frame of rude workmansnip, large haematite (Praun) now in the

with a ring for suspension. The two British Museum. Montfaucon, pi.

faces are engraved in intaglio, and clxi. has a Venus unveiling inscribed

represent an ^Eon with four wings A PGUP I OPACIC, "The Vision of

and bird's tail, holding two spears; Arori ;" and another with A P POOP I <J>

and with a Venus and the inscription I AC 1C, and on the field CAN KTA

(not reversed) APCx)PI OPACIC, for the owner's name. It was under

some letters of which are concealed such a form as this that the Supreme

by the setting. Length, 0-0034 ; Tetrad brought down Truth from

weight, 5 '20 grammes (=95 grs. Heaven to display her beauty to

troy)." The same legend accoin- Marcus as he d< scribes in his ' lleve-

pauies a Venus Amvlyorneiic upon a latiou ' (see p. 218).

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 237

the Trees of Paradise to bo the Angels generated between the
Demiurgus Elohim and his daughter Eden.*

There is a sigil of this class, that from its frequency must
have been considered of peculiar virtue. It represents a fish
with immense head and shoulders, but diminutive body, as if
from above ; the reverse of the stone thus inscribed —

One of the three sacivd fish of the Nile must figure here ; and
in this talismanic character passed, with an appropriate
mystic interpretation, into the symbolism of the Alexandrine
Christians.

II. ABRAXOIDS, OR GEMS CONFOUNDED WITH THE TRUE GNOSTIC.

Our invaluable and most charming guide, Ilippolytus, when
describing the Astrotlicoscopi, " Seekers of God in the stars,"
begins with a simile more apposite than complimentary to the
fashion which then prevailed for combining astrology with every
species of religion. He compares these inquirers to that silly
fowl the bustard, which suffers itself to be caught by the follow
ing device. " When a man discovers a flock he begins to dance
and make grimaces in front of them, The birds stand motionless
staring at him in wonderment until his confederate steals up to
them from behind and knocks them on the head. In the same
way (adds the good Saint, evidently much refreshed by his joke)
do the people seduced by such teachers stare up at the stars,
until at last they find themselves hopelessly caught in the snare
of the heresy." As an example of this most curious system of
theology it will suffice to quote their exposition of the doctrine con
veyed by one constellation out of many. " Ophiuchus represents
with his stars a man on his knees, in appearance oppressed with

* An authentic description of the bearing fruit which resembled grapes

Tree of Knowledge will doubtless be extremely fine ; and its fragrance

acceptable to - my readers. " The extended to a considerable distance.

Tree of Knowledge also was there, I exclaimed : ' How beautiful is this

(if which if any eats he becomes tree, and how delightful is its ap-

endowed with great wisdom. It was pearance ! ' " — (Book of Enoch, xxxi.

like a species of the tamarind-tree, 3-4).

238 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

fatigue, a posture for which that great authority in Astrology,
Aratas, is at a loss to account. But rightly understood, he is
Adam engaged in watching the Dragon's head underneath him,
which is biting his heel. Over his head are seen the Lyre, and
the Crown. The Lyre was the invention of the infant Hermes,
who is in reality the Word of God : their position therefore
announces that whosoever gives heed unto the Word, he shall
obtain the Crown ; but if he refuses to hearken unto the Word,
he shall be cast down below with the Dragon." In another
place Hippolytus observes : " The doctrine of the Chaldaians
concerning trines, quadrates, benignant and malign stars,
Euphrates the Peratist applies to Christianity, by changing the
concord and discord of the stars into the constitution of the
TEons, the transition of Good Powers into Evil ones, and the
harmony of their respective particles. From the same source
he gets his «« Toparchs " and " Presidents," and all the other
imagery of the astrologers."

Such being the nature of the actual foundations of Gnosticism,
no wonder that it should so frequently be impossible to decide
whether a talismanic sigil be the expression of some semi-
Christian tenet, or merely the imagined similitude of some
astral Power whose influence was thus secured for the wearer's
protection. For the gods of Magianism, the religion that has
so deeply tinged all Gnostic doctrines, were no other than these
starry Powers. The Agathodamion himself gave his name to
one of the three Decani of Cancer, as Hephaestion hath already
informed us. The very title, " Decanus," Salmasius with some
reason derives from the Chaldee Dekan, " inspector," and thereby
makes it equivalent to the Greek " Horoscopos," " The god
that looks down upon the nativity." The common Latin
derivation, in its military sense of "sergeant," Salmasius rejects
as foreign to the idea conveyed. Again, Charchnumis is
named as the First Decanus in Leo, and this title actually
appears around a serpent with human and radiated head, figured
by Salmasius in the same chapter. This name is sometimes
written XOAXNOTBIZ, which the same authority explains as
" The All-golden One."

A Greek astrologer quoted without name by Salmasius gives

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 239

this curious piece of information : " There are appointed in each
one of the Signs, three Decani of different forms ; one holding an
axe, the others represented variously. These figures engraved
in rings are amulets against all mischance." As Teucer asserts,
with other great astrologers of his times : " This, alas ! too
scanty notice of their attributes shows at least one of their
number to be the old Babylonian god described by the prophet
Raruch ( Epistle 13, 14) — * He hath a sceptre in his hand like a
man, like a judge of the kingdom — ho hath in his hand a sword
and an axe' " But not merely the Decani of the Signs were thus
worn in rings, but equally so the signs themselves, and the stars
rising together with them, technically called ot TrapareAAovrc?.
Such images were termed oroi^eta, whence those who made a
business of engraving then got the name a-roLx^o^arLKOL.
They performed their work with many ceremonies, and always
under the inspection of the particular Decanus, or star, whose
sigil they were embodying, On this account Epiphaiiius speaks
of the sun, moon, and planets as oroi^eTa, terming /xop(£axreis the
figures of the constellations formed by the imaginary collocation
of the stars. The same writer uses the expression, "The stars
that be vainly imagined in the shape of figures, which are
called Signs of the Zodiac." As Diodorus distinguishes between
planets and <rroix«a, it follows that the term was equivalent
to our " constellation." All this evinces that the Arabian
writers were correct in translating o-Totxao/xariKot by " talis
man-makers." How these later astrologers thought proper to
portray the Ascendants of each Sign in their " Table of the
Myriogeneses " will be described in my chapter upon Talis
mans.

A curious Praun gem represents Mercury enthroned and
bearing the attributes of Jupiter, with the strange legend EnnTA
(sic) XPTZOZ, which has been absurdly interpreted as referring to
his seven-stringed lyre. More probably was the gem the signet
of some " Hebdomadarian " or votary of the Number Seven ; a
sect of sufficient importance to get from Hippolytus a separate
section for themselves in his great work. The identification of
Hermes with the Christian Logos was one grand feature in the
doctrine of the Naaseni, so lucidly set forth by that learned

240 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Father. Ho was of opinion that this Hebdomadarian doctrine
(derived from ancient Egyptian philosophy) was the true source
of every form of Gnosticism. This potent Numeral is illus
trated by another device of frequent occurrence in cameo, the
Delphic e crowned with a fillet, and below, the legend XPTZOT-
This can be no other than that most holy of Numerals the
Delphic "Ei, or Five, on the mystery whereof Plutarch has left a
very curious dissertation ; and it represents the golden figure of
that same numeral dedicated by Livia Augusta at the shrine
of her husband's peculiar patron. And similarly the gem above
referred to exhibits Hermes invested with supreme dominion, and
accompanied by his own special number, " testudo resonare
septem* callida nervis "— the Magian method for symbolizing
the different Powers of Heaven, which shall be explained in its
due place, when we come to treat of the " Seven Voices."

The oddest adaptations of the imagery of the old religions
mark the earliest preaching of the Gnosis. its first apostle,
Simon Magus, who passed himself off upon the Samaritans as
the third manifestation of the Christ, was worshipped as late
as Hippolytus' times, in statues made in the form of Jupiter.
His famous concubine Helena (in whom Simon has discovered
the Lost Sheep of the parable whilst carrying on her profession
in a brothel at Tyre) was similarly adored under the forms of
Minerva and the Moon (Hipp. vi. 19). The main doctrines of
the Naaseni were supported by ingenious applications of the
symbolism employed in the Eleusinian, Phrygian, and Samo-*
thracian Mysteries, of which Hyppolytus has given a full and
very interesting account.

Phoenicia, again, furnished our talisman-makers with a copious
repertory in the exaggerated symbolism of the figures whereby
their priesthood had expressed their notions of the Divine
Power. " Taut, the great god of the Phoenicians " (says
Samoniathon), " in order to express the character of Kronos, made
his image with four eyes— two in front, two behind, open and
closed ; also with four wings — two expanded upwards, two
folded downwards. The eyes denoted that the godhead sees

* The compound 'Eirrdxpvaos is 'EirraxaA/cos, the place in the wall of
made after the same rule as the Athens where Sulla took the city.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 241

when sleeping, and sleeps when waking ; the attitude of his
wings, that he flies in resting, and rests in flying. Upon his
head are two wings, denoting Reason and the Senses." -It is
very provoking that Diodorus (xx. 1 9) should have given no
further description of the famous Kronos, Mdcarth, of Carthago
than the brief remark that it held the hands open, palm
upwards, but sloping downwards, so that the child sacrificed,
when laid upon them, should roll off into a pit of fire at the
foot.* When Agathocles was pressing hard the siege, and
hope was almost lost, no fewer that three hundred children of
the nobles were offered to Melcarth at one and the same time.

Inasmuch as the genius of the planet Saturn, or Kronos, was
held by the Talmudists to be good and pure, contrary to those
of the other planets, the Four-winged image, so common upon
Gnostic gems, may reasonably be considered as a copy from the
ancient original, devised by Taut. Saturn, the solo inspirer of
the Law and the Prophets, had special claims to the veneration
of the Alexandrine Kabbalists. And this belief explains where
fore Valentinus fixed upon this planet for the abode of
Ildabaoth, the Giver of the Law to the Children of Israel in the
Wilderness.

It sounds like a paradox to assert that our " Gnostic " gems
are not the work of the Gnostics ; but taking that appellation in
its strictest sense, the thing is perfectly true. The talismans
we are considering never exhibit any traces of that admixture
of Christian and Pagan doctrines which properly constitutes
the Gnosis, that subject of the descriptions and the attacks of
the Fathers of the Church. Their elements are drawn from the
ancient religions of Babylon and Egypt, mixed at times with
the formulae of the Jewish Kabbala. The " Gnostic " stones are
in reality the paraphernalia of magicians and dealers in charms
(charm-doctors in modern phrase), and only belong to the
Ophites, Valentinians, and other subdivisions of the Christian
Gnosis, in so far as those theosophists were especially given to

* This tradition was verified by burnt human bones. The discovery

N. Davis, who in excavating the ruins is well described in his section " Mo

of the temple found, at a great depth, loch and his Victims."
a thick layer of ashes mingled with

242 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the cultivation of the Black Art; as the notices above cited
abundantly declare. This delusive study prevailed at the
period of the grand development of Gnosticism to an extent
which no one can credit who has not studied the historians of
the Later Empire. The accusation of " magical practices "
proved a ready weapon for destroying an obnoxious individual
against whom no tangible crime could be charged : what
stronger proof of this than its being effectually employed (as
Animian tells us) to expel that pattern of orthodoxy, the great
Athanasius, from the patriarchal throne of Alexandria ? The
same historian notices that under the timid Valens it sufficed to
establish this capital charge if the suspected person had
been seen walking at night-time in the neighbourhood of any
cemetery, where he might possibly have gone to hold conference
with the demons of the dead.

But to exhibit the true source and nature of these " Gnostic "
inscriptions I shall transcribe a spell from the " Magic Papyrus,"
to which I shall have occasion frequently to refer. The author
of this wondrous Manual of Necromancy was unmistakably of
the old unmixed Egyptian religion, and very probably a
priest of Isis. Nevertheless, he not merely employs the very
words found on our talismans, but even the same peculiar
arrangement of them. Any one desirous of preserving so
valuable a charm in a more durable material than papyrus or
lead, had only to order a lapidary to copy it for him upon a
jasper, and a regular " Gnostic " monument would have been
bequeathed to our times. The maker having carefully specified
the virtues of composition, gives us to understand the value of
similar forms still existing on stones : VII. " Take a sheet of
hieratic paper, or a leaden plate, and an iron link of a chain
(/cpi/cos), and place the link upon the paper, and mark both
inside and out with a pen the form of the link. Then having
described the circular outline of the link, write upon the same
outline, inscribing upon the paper the name and the characters
on the outside, and inside the thing which you wish not to
happen, or that a man's mind may be bound so as not to do
such and such a thing. Then placing the link upon its outline
which you have made, and taking up the parts outside the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 243

outline, sew up the link with thread so as to completely conceal
it, piercing through the characters with the pen ; and when you
wish to bend, say — ' I bend such a one not to speak to such a
one, let him not resist, lot him not contradict, let him not be
able to look me into the face, or to answer me, but let him be
subject unto me so long as this link is buried. And again I
bind his mind, his senses, his desires, his actions, that he may
be sluggish towards all men, in case (a certain woman) marries
such a one,' or else, ' in order that she may not marry such and
such a one.' Common (i.e., to be said in Greek).

" Then taking it to the grave of one untimely deceased, dig
four fingers deep, and put it in and say — « 0 departed Spirit,
whosoever thou art, them art this ; I deliver unto thee such a
one, that he may not do such and such a thing.' Then cover it
up and depart. And you will do this best when the moon is on
the wane. The words to be written within the circle are
these : APOAMA0PA6P6C : KITAAAX • 6ZANTA • IAPOTNH • AKH •
lACx) • AAPTNKU) • MANIHA • MH nPAXGHTO) TO $ (Se«/a)
nPATMA €<!>' OCON XPONON K6XGOCTAI O KPIKOC OTTOC
('Let not such and such a tiling be done for so long a time as this
link is buried '). Bind it with knots, making a twist of them, and
so deposit it. The link may also be cast into a disused well, or
into the grave of one dead before his time. And after the
characters, write also these words below the link as a plinth (or
a square) : APXOOA AAIAAM C6MeCIAAM<J> AMMOOOPIOON ICUAH
*90T© €U)cDPH O MELICTOC AAIMCUN I A CO CABACO© APBA0
lACx) AAIAAM OCOPNOct>PI €MOPH cJ>RH cJ>©A XPGOICx) lACx) BAB-
OTPH 0IMAM6N cJ>RH B€ NOTCI CABAGU© BAPBA0IAU) QAXPA
OTX66© eCOPNUXfrPI, and the inscription at the top of the
page, which also you must place within it.

IA€U)BAcJ>P6N6MOTNO0IAAPIKPIct>lA6T€APIcJ>IKPAAI0ONct)TO
M€NP<l>ABA(jO€AI.

(This spell is repeated at the foot of the page, inscribed in
one continuous circle, to show that it reads either way. It
occurs also on a gem (Brit. Mus.) followed by AOTAI XAPIN
lePWNIMA nPOC riANTAC, "Give to Hieronima favour in
the sight of all men " : and also on another, figured by Monl-
faucon, II. pi. 164— a proof of the importance attached to it at
the time.)

R 2

244

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

" And the same arrangement may be written upon a leaden
plate ; and having put the link within it, fold it over and seal
with gypsum, and afterwards the base beneath, upon which
IA600 as before directed, and also these words: BAKAZTXTX
M6N6BA IXTX ABPACAZ AT, " Prevent such and such a thing."
But in the original the Names are found as follows : AM4>OOA
AAIAAM C€M€CIAAM IA€(x) AOBAKAZIXTX APACAZAT APXU)M
€AAX M6N€CIAAM IA6U) OTU) BAKAZIXTX APACAZUTT, "Pre
vent such and such a thing."
KICNVB

AA|>H D[>nMA

On the reverse of a Chnuphis plasma (Lewis Collection),
KICNVOaiid NABIC (prophet) occur, as also 011 the Bosanquet
gem. The last words may be corrupt Greek, "Restore the
night " ; the object of the talisman.

FIG. 10.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 245

III. THE TRUE ABRAXAS GEMS.

Having in the preceding sections cleared the ground of the
innumerable usurpers of the title " Abraxas gems," we can con
veniently proceed to consider the wondrous Sigil, the invention
whereof is universally ascribed to Basilides himself. And for
this asumption there are very good grounds, for it is certain
that such a Sigil never occurs executed in a style that bespeaks
a date anterior to the grand heresiarch's, the first years of the
second century.

This figure, which has given its name to the whole family, is
designed to represent the god " Abraxas," for so his name is
written invariably on the gems, although the Latin Fathers
to suit the genius of their own language have transposed the
final letters. The etymology and value of the name require a
whole section to themselves, so deep are the mysteries that
they contain.

The purpose of the composition was to express visibly, and at
once, the 365 ^ons, emanations from the First Cause, whose
number was probably first suggested by its own numerical
signification, and consequently the figure may be taken as a
speaking type of the Pleroma, the one embracing all within
itself, an idea fittingly embodied in a name containing the sum
of all its component powers. To shadow forth therefore this
grand doctrine, the image in question is a " Paiitheus," or com
bination of many discordant attributes expressing the amalga
mation of many different ideas in one and the same figure.
Hence he is depicted with the head of a cock, sacred to Phoebus,
or else of a Lion, symbol of Mithras and Belus; his body,
human and clad in armour, indicates his guardian power, for he
is a Virtue Militant "putting on the whole armour of God"; his
legs are the sacred asps, types of the Agathodeemon, likewise
indicating swiftness; for in this way, says Fausanias, was Boreas
pictured upon the Coffer of Cypselus : in his right hand ho
brandishes a scourge, the Egyptian badge of sovereignty; on

246 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

his left arm a shield, usually emblazoned with some word of
power, declaring his perpetual warfare against the rebellious
Angels, the " Gods of death." Bellermann has proposed with
much ingenuity an interpretation of this Pantheus in the more
spiritual sense better consonant with the esoteric teaching of
its inventor. According to him, the whole represents the
Supreme Being, with his Five great Emanations, each one
pointed out by means of an expressive emblem. Thus, from the
human body, the usual form assigned to the Deity, forasmuch
as it is written that God created man in his own image, issue
the two supporters, Nous and Logos, symbols of the inner sense
and tho quickening understanding, as typified by the serpents,
for the same reason that had induced the old Greeks to assign
this reptile for an attribute to Pallas. His head — a cock's —
represents Phroncsis, the fowl being emblematical of foresight
and vigilance. His two hands bear the badges of Sophia and
Dynamis, the shield of Wisdom, and the scourge of Power.

This Pantheus is invariably inscribed with his proper name,
IAO, and his epithets, ABPAZAZ and ZABAQ0, and often accom
panied with invocations such as, ZEMEZ EIAAM, "The Eternal
Sun"; ABAANAOANAABA, "Thou art our Father" (sometimes
curtailed, but generally so arranged as to read the same both
ways) ; or AAONAI, " The Lord."*

]n all this a further relationship to the ancient idea of the
Sun-god is readily to be discovered. Phoebus, as the god of day,
is similarly furnished with a whip, and the serpent, according to
the Egyptians, hieroglyphically expressed his tortuous course
through the Zodiac. ** Adonai " was the Syrian title of the
Sun, whence Adonis or Thammuz denoted that luminary at the
winter solstice. Moreover, the Gnostic epithets above are the
very words composing that " short prayer," from the use of
which at all sacrifices Macrobius (I. 23) makes out that the
influence of the Sun is the Power supreme over all : " 0 Sun,
Father of All, Spirit of the world, Strength of the world,
Light of the world ! " But the God adored under the name of

* Besides these regular titles, Abraxas figure (John Evans) has
others are occasionally used, of im- over his head BICTYC, below his
known import. Thus a well-engraved feet GICIT-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 247

" Abrasax " is clearly shown by the Bosanquet jasper (more
particularly described elsewhere), exhibiting the Fantheus in
the very car, and attitude of Phoebus, and by the Alexandrian
coin of Hadrian presenting Serapis similarly engaged. That
the latter was the Solar deity, all mythologists were agreed ;
and this identity of action would lead one to suspect that
" Abrasax " was no more than the mystic name of the tutelary
god of Alexandria.

The older Chnuphis was occasionally (though rarely) erected
with Abraxas on the same talisman ; an example of which is
offered in one of the most remarkable of the class ever brought
under my notice. It was brought from Bombay by a Jew (1874),
and sold to M. Gaston Feuardent, whence it came into the
possession of the Rev. S. S. Lewis.

Red jasper of fine quality, Ijxli inch, with figure of
Abraxas, holding whip and shield, engraved in unusually good
stylo upon the convex face. Round the edge, beginning over the
head, runs continuously,

®ANA#3A AVAAI©
AEIVAV&AVIAHAI

at the back of the head, P ; under beak, I ; over right shoulder,
RA (probably nexus of ABA AN) ; across the field, each side of

waist,

DAI/HHI IHHMAD

Aain, across field on a level with his loins, on each side,

(perhaps Eoia, " The Serpent," in Syriac).

Between the serpent legs,

AIIVIIMHV

On the other side, which is almost flat, is the Chnuphis
Serpent, erect, with the Seven Vowels inserted between the
rays of his head. Across the middle of the field,
HA €IX ("Thy God.")

Over his head, three scarabei in a row; to the right, three
goats, and three crocodiles above each other; to the left, as
many ibises and serpents so arranged.

248 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

GNOSTIC PLAQUE.

The most remarkable specimen of the class known to me
was obtained (Jan. 1876) from Sambon, a noted antiquario at
Naples. It is a circular bronze disc, 2J inches (the ancient
palmus) in diameter, with a small projection to top, perforated
for suspension. The surface of the obverse bears a genuine
patina, and the characters of the legend have the true antique
formation ; but, for reasons hereafter to be stated, the reverse
strikes me as an addition of later times — not, indeed, a forgery to
entrap the antiquarian, but something intended in all good
faith to augment the virtues of the original talisman.

The Abraxas-god, advancing to the right, with arms extended
crucifix fashion, holding sword and shield, above his head and
arms,

IA0 IAOO AAU)N
U)H .

On each side of figure —

HGO
MA
MOJ

CON ce g ^

BAA ru 5 z

OA # < 3 °

N

ce

€P

c

The whole inclosed within a coiled serpent.

Reverse : King with hand on breast, seated on throne, seen
in front-face. Over his head,

CAAOMCONOC
On each side of the figure—

enHNA ABO

CVMAHA VAC

OCAAAM MOTHE

AZABA N€T6

M6AZA K6N€
X HH6

OYC AAB

A

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 249

Under the footstool, similarly surrounded by the coiled serpent,

z z z

This Solomon is a truly medieval piece of drawing ; the lettering,
too, evidently differs from that of the obverse; and as the
surface of the plate is fresher on this side, it is probable that
the whole has been added upon the empty back of the original
plate.

Some legends, following the rule of the famous ABAA0ANAABA,
read indifferently from either end. A good example occurs on
the reverse of a serapis, carried in the laris between Sol and

Luna.

ALW

BA4>PEME
MOYNO0IAP

<J>€PKIPAN00N
YOM€N€P4>A

(Sard, from collection of Mr. Webb Ware, Cork.)

Horus seated in the baris ; on prow and poop are perched the

sacred birds; neatly engraved on dark-green jasper (Pliny's

Molochites). On the reverse —

XABPAX
4>N€CXHP
4>IXNOcl>NVPN
cfeMXMEMX

Amongst the various contents of a tomb at Saintes, discovered
in 1885, was a metal ring set with a heliotrope engraved with
the Agathodsemon, furnished with a human trunk, standing.
On the reverse a novel formula —

XAXXA

XIOVXIPO

VXAHA

Eucliael, " Spirit of God," is known as the name of an angel ;
but the other words defy interpretation.

The best executed of such talismans known to me, belongs
to Mr. Webb Ware, of Cork. It is an elliptical sard, about
1 j inches long and wide ; engraved very neatly, with Scrapin

250 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

seated on the Baris, busts of Osiris and Isis on prow and poop ;
above, AAAA ; below, BAIN. On the reverse, finely cut —

BA<t»P6N€

MOYNO0IAAP

IKPIOct>IA€B€AI

4>IPKIPAN0ON

YOM€NeP4>A

KO6AI

There is no distinction between A and A in the original,
but I have made it where clearly required. The AAAA is a
novelty ; but many words in the long formula are of common
occurrence in other gems.

IV. THE GOD ABRAXAS AS DESCRIBED BY THE
CHRISTIAN FATHERS.

That the Pantheus upon our gems was really intended to
picture forth the deity styled " Abraxas " can be established
by the indirect evidence of many contemporary writers.
Irenaeus remarks of the Basilidans, that " they use images,
incantations, and all other things pertaining unto Magic."
Further on (xxiii.) he adds their custom of giving names to
their images of pretended angels. And, what bears more
directly on the subject, Tertullian (Apol. xvi.), after laughing
at the god of the heretics as " biforme numen " (evidently in
reference to the serpent legs, "biforrnes" being the classical
synonym for the Giants similarly equipped), then goes on to
say, " They have taken unto themselves gods with wings, or
with heads of dogs or lions, or else serpents from tlie legs down
wards" Here we have unmistakeable reference to the Magian,
Egyptian, and Mithraic idols so common upon these talismans,
and in the last words to the serpent-legged and veritable
Abraxas-god.

Lastly, Epiphanius, after stating that Basilides had taught
that the Supreme Being — out of whom proceeded Mind, Intelli
gence, Providence, Strength, and Wisdom — was named Abraxas,
proceeds to describe in what manner the idea was embodied by

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 251

the heresiarch : " Having taken their vain speculations, he and
his followers have converted them into a peculiar and definite
form, as a foundation for their own erroneous idolatrous and
fictitious doctrines." Further on he adds : " With respect
to their « Kavlacav,' what person with any understanding
would not laugh at their converting a Hebrew word into a
lodily shape in order to represent their idol; at their per
sonified Principalities ; in a word, at their fondness for images ;
whilst through these fancies they sow error in the minds of the
ignorant for the furtherance of their disgraceful arid lying
trade ? " Then proceeding, it would appear, to the analysis of
the figure itself, he exclaims : " It is a Spirit of deceit, which,
like the playing upon a pipe, leads the ignorant into many sins
against the Truth. Yea, even his legs are an imitation of the
Serpent through whom the Evil One spake and deceived Eve.
For after the pattern of that figure hath the flute been invented
for the deceiving of mankind. Observe the figure that the
player makes in blowing his flute. Doth he not bend himself
up and down to the right and to the left, like unto it (the
serpent)? These forms hath the Devil used to support his
blasphemy against heavenly things, to destroy with destruction
things upon earth, to encompass the whole world, taking cap
tive right and left all such as lend an ear to his seductions."

V. " ABRAXAS " — ETYMOLOGY OF.

Of this "Great Name," many etymologies have been pro
posed. Of all these the most satisfactory is perhaps the one
offered by Eabbi Abraham Geiger, making it the Grecised
form of Ha-Brachah, "The Blessing." For there is good reason
for believing that the Z had the sound of SH, which explains
the strange metamorphoris of the Persian " Artashir " into
" Artaxerxes." By the same rule the Kabbi interprets the
talismanic EAZAI as representing El-Chai, " The Living God."
The same interpretation is again confirmed by the true solution
(so long sought in vain, and now suggested by Mr. W. A.
Wright) of the mighty spell abracadabra, which receives a

252 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

most fitting sense when rendered by Ha-Brachah-dabarah,
" Pronounce the Blessing," where " Blessing " stands for the
name of the Blessed One, that most potent of exorcisms.

Another derivation, extremely acute, but probably untenable,
had been previously offered by Bellermann in the Coptic com
pound signifying " The Blessed Name," made of the word ab or
o/, " let it be," Bali, " adore," and Sax for Sadsh, " name." This
formula would agree in a remarkable manner with the regular
Jewish synonym for the Ineffable Name Jehovah, viz., shem
Hamephorash, " The Holy Word " ; which the Rabbins compress
into " The Name " or " The Word." It is, besides, a singular
coincidence that the Egyptian word Abrak should be used by
Moses (Gen. xli. 43), where Pharaoh commands that Joseph
shall ride in his own chariot, and that they shall cry before
him Abrak, " kneel down ! " where the Coptic word is actually
retained in the Hebrew text, and not rendered by an equivalent
in that language.* A precedent for expressing a sacred title
in an unknown tongue is furnished by St. John (Rev. xix. 12) :
" His eyes were as a flame of fire, and upon his head were many
crowns, and he had a name written (upon them) that no man
knew but himself : and he was clothed in a vesture dipped in
blood, and his name was called The Word of God." And
again (iii. 12) : " He that overcometh will I make a pillar in the
Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will
write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the City
of my God."

All this supplies a reason for the occurrence of the word
dbra in so many sacred titles. A very remarkable instance is to
be seen in the wall-painting of the tomb of Vincentius and Yibia,
in the Catacomb of Preetextatus at Eome. Now this Vincentius
is described in his epitaph as priest of Sabazius, a title connected
with the lao-worship ; and the name Abracura is inscribed
over the head of the consort of Dispater, the two Kulers of the
Shades into whose presence Vibia's soul is ushered by Hermes.
In the first title, cur a is plainly the Latinised Kovprj Virgin,

* Sharpe, however, makes Abrasax deity represented on the gein. —
si pure Egyptian phrase, signifying (' Egypt. Mythol.* p. xii.)
" Hurt me not," as addressed to the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 253

the regular synonym for Proserpine, whilst Abra seems to have
the same deeper meaning in which it was employed by the
talisman-makers.

The efficacy of a Mystic Name is set forth in the Book of Enoch
(Ixviii. 19) : " This is the Number of the Kesbal, the principal
part of the oath which the Most High dwelling in glory revealed
unto the holy ones. Its name is Beka: He spoke to holy
Michael to deliver to them the Secret Name, that they might
understand that secret name and thus remember the oath ; and
that those who pointed out every secret thing to the children
of men might tremble at that Name and oath. This is the
power of that oath, for powerful is it and strong. And he
established the oath of Abrac by the instrumentality of the
holy Michael. These are the secrets of this oath, and by it
were they confirmed. Heaven was suspended by it before
the world was made for ever. By it has the earth been framed
upon the flood, whilst from the concealed parts of the hills the
agitated waters proceed forth from the creation unto the end
of the world. By this oath the sea has been formed and the
foundation of it. ... By this oath the sun and moon complete
their progress, never swerving from the command given to them
for ever and ever. By this oath the stars complete their progress.
And when their names are called they return an answer for
ever and ever . . . And with them he establishes this oath by
wnich. their paths are preserved, nor does their progress perish.
Great was their joy."

VI. ABRAXAS — ITS NUMERICAL FORCE.

To find out some deep mystery expressed by the numerical
value of the letters in a name is the grand foundation of the
famous science of the Kabbala. Although the Jewish Talnmd-
ists now engross all the honour of the discovery, it is but
consistent with the known character of that very uninventive
race to suspect that they borrowed the first notion from a
foreign source— Chaldrca, the real fountain-head of all their
spiritual knowledge. The earliest instance that can be quoted

254 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

of this way of expressing a name is St. John's so much dis
cussed " Number of the Beast, " employed to screen from
vulgar curiosity some dangerous secret. What though its
analysis has supplied good Protestants like Bishop Newton
with a deadly weapon (in their own eyes) against the Pope,
after the sum total has been reduced into its integrals Aareivos ;
yet a prosaic non-controversialist will be more inclined to
suspect that the Kabbalistic number shrouds the name of some
potentate of the times who had happened to make himself
especially formidable to the beholder of the Vision.* But the
titles lao, Abraxas, and the like, instead of being recent Gnostic
inventions, were in all likelihood recognised " Holy Names," and
borrowed from the most ancient religions of the East. Pliny
must be alluding to something of the sort when he mentions
with a sneer the miraculous powers ascribed by the Magi to
amethysts engraved with ihenames of the Sun and Moon — names
certainly from the nationality of his authorities not inscribed
in either the Greek or the Latin tongue. In the " Shemesh
Eilam," " Adoiiai," " Abraxas " of these talismans we may rea
sonably recognise the words of power referred to by the great
naturalist.

The Alexandrine Greeks, proceeding upon the axiom that
" things equal to the same thing are equal to one another,"
spied out the sacred number 365 in many Holy Names, and
thus proved the identity of the several personages, so denomi
nated, with one another. To give a few examples : the same
sum is obtained by adding up the numerals in Mei#pas and in
A/fyao-a£ ; and whether we interpret the latter as " Blessing "
or " Holy Word," both are equally applicable to the Persian
god. Again, the Egyptians, says Heliodorus (^Eth. ix. 22),
discovered the same value in NeiAos, appellation of that earliest
god and father of their land, entitled in their hymns Horus also,
properly the name of the Sun.j In the new-coined religions
of Egypt, other and stranger mysteries were extracted out of

* Who expressly tells us that certain person. The Hebrew cha-

" his number is the number of a racters representing " Caesar Nero "

man"; that is, the sum of the produce by addition the required sum.

numerical letters in the name of a f Amongst the many points of

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 255

sacred names by following the old process. Kircher publishes
a gem inscribed XNOYMIZ • PI, and supposes, with much apparent
reason, the last syllable to be added in order to make up a
sum equivalent to xpurros = 1480. That most ingenious of the
Gnostics, Marcus, based his whole system upon these numerical
deductions. According to him, the Saviour calls himself A and
fi, because these letters stand for 801, which is the sum of those
in Trepto-repa, the Dove, assumed in virtue thereof for the vehicle
of the Holy Ghost. But the profoundest mystery that rewarded
his researches is the fact, certainly a very curious coincidence,
that all the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet added together yield
the exact " number of the Name " Lycrovs = 888. But his own
words well deserve to be quoted (Hip. vi. 50) : " Now Jesus had
this ineffable origin. From the Mother of all things the First
Tetrad, proceeded another Tetrad, and there was an Ogdoad,
whence proceeded the Decad, so there were Eighteen." The
Decad therefore having come together with the Ogdoad, after that
it had decoupled the same, produced the number Eighty. And
again after that it had decoupled the Eighty it begot the number
which is Eight hundred, so that the whole number of the
letters proceeding from the Ogdoad according to the Decad is
eight hundred and eighty and eight — the same is Jesus. For
the Name Irjcrovs by the value of its letters is the number 888.
And, verily, the alphabet of the Greeks has eight monads, and
eight decads, and eight hundreds, producing the number 888,
which is made up by all the numbers, the same is Jesus. For
this cause doth He call himself A and fi, to set forth his
generation from the All." At first sight it will strike the
reader, accustomed only to Arabic numerals, as a work of
incredible laboriousness to discover numerical values, so aptly
tallying in different words, of totally different components.
But the difficulty was in truth much less than it appears. The
Greek, accustomed perpetually to use the letters of his alphabet

close connexion between Hindoo and sirnilis," observes Pliny (xxxv. 36),
Egyptian Mythology is the name of speaking of a picture by Nealces of a
the sacred river, so nearly re- naval battle upon that river. The
sembling the Sanscrit nil, " blue," Arabs still distinguish its upper con-
referring to the remarkable colour of fluents as the Blue and the White
its waters. " In Nilo cujus aquaiww Nile.

256 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

indifferently as symbols of number and of sounds, perceived the
two forces at the same glance in every word that caught his
eye, and easily estimated the total value of each proper name,
more especially when he made it his business to attend to such
coincidences. The same operation would be equally familiar
to ourselves were our "Arabic" numerals exchanged for the
first ten letters of the Eoman alphabet, instead of being what
they are, the ancient Palmyrene somewhat modified by the
wear of ages and a long course of travel.

The use of the Numerical Value of Names is remarkably ex
emplified by a Midrash, which makes the 318 men of Abraham's
household, with whom he defeated the Five Kings, to be no
more than his one servant, Eliezer, the numeral letters in whose
name exactly make up that sum — a coincidence, though acci
dental, truly astonishing !

That genuine Gnostic, Dante, employs with great effect
this numerical expression of a Name in that most mystical
prophecy with which his ' Purgatorio ' closes :—

" Ch' io veggio certamente, e perb il narro,
A darne tempo gia stelle propinque,
Sicuro d' ogni intoppo e d' ogni sbarro,
Nel qual un Cinquecento-dieci-c-cinque,
Messo di Dio, ancidera la fuia,
E quel gigante che con lei delinque."

(Canto xxxiii. 40-45.)

The interpretation whereof is found in the word DVX formed
out of the Eoman letters, and applying to the "General"
of the Ghibelline League, from whom such great things were
expected by the poet for the chastisement of the Papacy and
the restoration of the Imperial power.

FIG. 11.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 257

THE ABRAXAS RELIGION.

That most philosophic of the Fathers, Hippolytus, commences
his account of the systems of Basilides and his successors with
this ingenious and appropriate simile : " It behoves all their
hearers, as they see that the doctrines of these heretics are like
unto a sea tossed into waves by tho fury of the winds, to sail bv
them without heeding them, and to look out for the tranquil
harbour for themselves. For that sea of theirs is both full of
monsters, and difficult to traverse, and may be likened unto the
Sicilian wherein are the fabled Cyclops, Charybdis and Scylla
• . . and the rock of the Syrens which the Grecian poets tell
how Ulysses sailed it past when he craftily baffled the cruelty
of those inhospitable monsters. For the Syrens singing clear
and musically used to beguile all sailing by, through the
sweetness of their voice seducing them to come to land . Ulysses
learning this is said to have stopped with wax the ears of his
crew, and having tied himself fast to the mast in this way
sailed past the Syrens and overheard all their song. Which
same thing it is my advice that all who fall in with these
seducers should do, and either to stop his ears, on account of his
own weakness, so to sail by unheeded the doctrines of heresies,
without even listening to things too easily capable of seducing
him by their sweetness, like the melodious Syrens' song, or else
faithfully binding himself fast to the Tree of Christ to listen to
them without being shaken, putting his trust in that whereunto
he hath been tied, and stand fast without wavering."

The Abraxas Deity, his titles, nature and form already
having been discussed, it remains now to give a sketch of his
great Apostle and his doctrines. To begin with the earliest
notice of them —

Clemens Alexandrinus lived in the same city, and in the
same century, with Basilides, the reputed founder of the
Abraxas religion. During some years of that period they were
contemporaries, and it is more than probable that Clemens
was personally acquainted with Basilides — he being a very
remarkable personage of his times. On this account Clemens'

s

258 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

testimony to the character of the Basilidan doctrine deserves
infinitely more reliance than the statements of the later
Fathers ; whilst at the same time he passes a more judicious,
and also a more favourable judgment upon its nature. He
describes the system as consisting in a constant attention to the
soul, and intercourse with the Deity considered as the fountain
of universal Love. In his own words, " The Basilidan doctrine
consists of two parts ; the first part busies itself with divine
things, and considers what is the First Cause through which all,
and without which nothing is made ; of what constitution are the
things that pervade, or include, each other : the forces which
exist in Nature, arid unto what they tend. The other part
relates to things human, as to what is Man ; what things be
consistent or inconsistent with his Nature, what he has to do
and to suffer. In this department Basilides includes Virtue and
Vice; what is Good, what is Evil, and what is Indifferent."
In short we are here reminded of a description of a Buddhist
missionary. The amiable but fanciful Clemens, whose own
Christianity was no more than a graft upon the congenial stock
of his original Platonism, could see very little to blame in the
transcendental speculations of Basilides. In his eyes the latter
was not a heretic, that is, an innovator upon the accepted
doctrines of the Catholic Church, but only a theosophic specu
lator who sought to express old truths by new formulae, and
perhaps to combine the same with the new faith, the divine
authority of which he was able to admit without renouncing
his own creed — precisely as is the case with the learned
Hindoos of our own day.

But far different is the picture of Basilides, as drawn by the
pen of bigoted orthodoxy in the two next centuries, after his
doctrines had been taken up and carried out to monstrous
precision by the swarms of semi-Christian sects that sprung up
in the very bosom of the Church. These notices are subjoined in
chronological order, for they give in a few words the grand
features of the perfected system. Hippolytus has left an
excellent analysis of the Basilidan doctrine, well deserving of
caceful study, although it is hard to see how it bears out the
assertion at the opening, that this heretic took his entire system

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 259

ready made from Aristotle, with his genus, species and individual,
but pretended to have received the same from St. Matthew, who
had communicated to him the esoteric doctrines which he alone
had received from Christ when on earth. The philosophic
Bishop, however, is mild in censure; nay, seems rather capti
vated by the ingenuity of the Alexandrine mystic. But
Tertullian, with no sense of the beauty of a clover piece of
sophistry, launches out like a true African barrister : " After
this, Basilides the heretic broke loose. Ho asserted that there
was a Supreme God named Abraxas, by whom was created
Mind whom the Greeks call Nous. From Mind proceeded the
Word, from the Word, Providence; from Providence, Virtue
and Wisdom ; from these two again, Virtues, Principalities and
Powers were made ; from these infinite productions and emissions
of Angels. By these Angels the 365 heavens were created.
Amongst the lowest Angels, indeed, and those who made this
world, he sets last of all the god of the Jews, whom he denies
to be God, affirming that he is one of the Angels." Similarly
the still later Jerome has (Amos III.) : " So Basilides, who called
Almighty God by the portentous name of Abraxas, saying that
the same word according to Greek numeration, and the sum of
his annual revolution, are contained in the circle of the Sun,
whom the heathen taking the same amount but expressed in
different numerical letters call Mithras; him whom the simple
Iberians worship under the names of Balsamus (Baal-samen,
" Lord of heaven") and Barbelus (" Son of Baal "). And that this
wondrous title Abraxas had long before been applied to the
Sun-god in the formula of The Mysteries may be inferred
from various incidental allusions of ancient writers. Thus
Theosebius the philosopher (says Photius, in his 'Life of
Isidorus ') drove a devil out of a woman by merely invoking
over her " the Eays of the Sun, and the Name of the God of the
Plebrews." The same explanation is much supported by the
words of Augustine : " Basilides asserted the number of heavens
to be 365, the number of the days in the year. For this
reason he used to glorify a Holy Name, as it were, that is the
word Abraxas, the letters in which, taken according to the
Greek method of computation, make up this number."

s 2

260 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

The Basil idan doctrine of " Emanation " was greatly refined
upon by Valentinus, whose muster-roll of the celestial hierarchy
shall be given in its proper place. Suffice it here to observe that
the entire theory resembles the Brahminical ; for in that theogony
each Manifestation of the One Supreme Being, regarded by the
vulgar as a separate self-existing deity, has a female partner the
exact counterpart of himself, through whom, as through an
instrument, he exerts his power — to express which doctrine this
other half is styled his Durga, "Active Virtue." This last
name, "Virtue," actually figures in all the Gnostic lists of
Emanations ; and the great ^Eon, Pistis- Sophia, in her second
" Confession " perpetually upbraids herself for having quitted
her male 2v?v^o?, partner, in her proper habitation, to go in
quest of the Supernal Light : whilst she equally reproaches
him for not descending into Chaos to her aid. The system of
Dualism, in fact, pervades the whole of that wondrous revelation.

Brahminical inspiration is possible in many other points of the
doctrine of Basilides, as will appear by the following extracts
from Irenfeiis — whoso judgment was not warped, like that of
Hippolytus, by the mania for deriving his system from the
Aristotelian. Basilides (according to him) lived at Alexandria
under Trajan and Hadrian (the first half of the second century),
and commenced life as a student of the Oriental Gnosis — an
epithet sufficiently indicating the source of that philosophy.
Being converted to Christianity he attempted, like many others,
to combine his new faith with his old, for the explanation of
things both spiritual and natural. To do this he invented a
terminology and symbolism of his own. In the promulgation
of his peculiar notions concerning God and the Divine attributes
— the Word, the Creation, the Emanation of spirits and worlds,
the Architect of the universe, and the multifarious forces of
Nature — he took the same road with his contemporary Satur-
ninus in Syria. His system was a combination of Christian,
Jewish, Persian and Egyptian notions, but the entire com
position was moulded by the spirit of the Oriental Gnosis.
These tenets their author zealously promulgated. For many
years he taught in the school of Alexandria; he was also a
most prolific writer. Clemens says he published twenty-four

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 261

volumes of " interpretations upon the Gospels," besides " Odes"
and "Spiritual Songs"; all of which have perished. The
doctrines he thus disseminated his contemporary Irenseuw
represents in the following manner :—

" Basilides in order to invent something more refined and
plausible in the Gnostic speculative philosophy pushed his
investigations even into the Infinite. He asserted that God,
the uncreated eternal Father, first brought forth Nous or Mind ;
and Mind, the Logos, Word ; this in turn, Phronesis, Intelligence ;
whence came forth Sophia, Wisdom, and Dynamis, Strength."
IreneBus understands Basilides as making a Quiuternion of
Beings or Personal Intelligences external to the Godhead : but
Bellermann with more reason takes them as signifying personi
fied attributes of the Supreme forms of his working internally
and externally. According to this explanation Basilides would
only have borrowed his system from the Kabbala ; it is however
equally likely that he drew the whole from a much more distant
source, and that his " Uncreated " and " Quinterniou " stand in
truth for the First Buddha and the successive Five.

" When the uncreated eternal Father beheld the corruption
of mankind, he sent his Firstborn, Nous, into the world in the
form of Christ, for the redeeming of all that believe in him out
of the power of those who fabricated the world — namely, the
Demiurgus and his Six sons, the planetary Genii. Nous
appeared amongst men as the Man Jesus, and wrought miracles.
This Christ did not die in person, but Simon the Cy reman, to
whom he lent his bodily form, suffered in his stead ; inasmuch
as the Divine Power, the Nous of the Eternal Father, is not
corporeal, and therefore cannot die. Whoso therefore maintains
that Christ has died is still the bondman of Ignorance, but
whoso denies the same, he is a freeman, and hath understood the
purpose of the Father." From this tenet the Basiiidans got
the opprobrious title of " Docetae " (Illusionists). Similarly the
pious Brahmins explain away all such of their legends as are
inconsistent with our notions of divine dignity by making them
all "Maya" (illusion). The same is also the doctrine of the
Koran (Cap. iv.) upon this point : " And for that they have
not believed upon Jesus, and have spoken against Mary a

262 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

grievous calumny, and have said, Verily we have slain Christ
Jesus, the Son of Mary, the apostle of God ; yet they slew him
not, neither crucified him, but he was represented by one in his
likeness ; and verily they were disagreed concerning him, were
in a doubt as to this matter, and had no true knowledge thereof,
but followed only an uncertain opinion. They did not really
kill him, but God took him up unto himself, and God is mighty
and wise."

The system just described coincides to a remarkable degree
with the Brahniinical, where the First Principle produces in
succession the Five Powers— Mahasiva, Sadasiva, Kudra, Vishnu
and Brahma— who are held by some for mere attributes of
the Godhead ; by others are taken in a materialistic sense for
.Ether, Air, Fire, Water, Earth. But possibly, as Mosheim so
long ago maintained, the whole Gnostic system is derived, not
from the Kabbala, nor from the Greek philosophy, but from the
theosophy of the Brahmins.

Another circumstance in the Basilidan practice, mentioned by
Iveimeus, will receive abundant illustration from the study of
these talismans. " Furthermore the sect have invented proper
names for these Angels, and class them under the first, second,
third heavens, and so on. Besides this, they endeavour to
explain the names, origin, powers, and^Eons of their pretended
oOo heavens— similarly they give its own name to the terrestrial
sphere, which they say the saviour (whom they call Kavlacav)
has visited, and then abandoned. Who understands this
rightly and knows the ^Eoiis with their respective names, the
same shall be invisible unto, and beyond the power of, those
zEons, in the same manner as the Saviour Kavlacav himself
was. As the Son of God remained unknown in the World, so
n. ust also the disciple of Basilides remain unknown to the
rest of mankind, as they know all this, and nevertheless must
live amongst strangers, therefore must they conduct themselves
towards the rest of the world as beings invisible and unknown.
Hence their motto, ' Learn to know all, but keep thyself un
known,'— and for this cause they are accustomed to deny the
fact of their being Basilidans. Neither can they be detected as
Christian heretics, because they assimilate themselves to all

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 203

sects. Their secret constitution however is known to but a few,
perhaps to one in a thousand or two in ten thousand. The
local situation of their 365 heavens they parcel out just like
land-surveyors. Their doctrine is contained in a sacred book,
and likewise in Symbolic Figures. The Supreme Lord, the Head
of all things, they call Abrasax, which name contains the
number 365."

So much virtue being involved in a perfect knowledge of the
names of the ^Eons, it would be unpardonable not to subjoin them,
as far as they can possibly be procured at present and, the follow
ing may be taken for their most authoritative roll-call, having
been drawn up by Valentinus himself, the profoundest doctor
of the Gnosis, and who had elaborated to the highest degree
the system first sketched out by Basilides. He arranges them
in pairs, male and female, in the order of their successive
emanation from Bythos, the pre-existing, eternal Principle.
The number of pairs is fifteen, or the sacred number Five three
times repeated. Their names, it will be seen, are Hebrew words,
the va preceding some of the female powers being merely the
copulative "and." Matter supposes Valentinus to have been
of Jewish origin, although bo.rn at Alexandria. Tertullian
states that he was first of all a Platonist, then a convert to
Christianity, but having been disappointed in his aspirations
to a bishopric he founded a religion of his own.

1. Ampsiu, Ouraan = Depth, Silence.

2. Bucua, Thurtun = Mind, Truth.

3. Ubucua, Thardedia = Reason, Life.

4. Metaxas, Artababa — Man, Church.

r | Udua, Casten /-, /. ,

5. 1_ = Comforter, Faith.
( Udu, Vacastene

6. Amphian, Essumen — Fatherly, Hope.

7. Vannanin, Larner = Motherly, Charity.

8. Tarde, Athames = Eternal, Intelligence.

9. Susua, Allora = Light, Beatitude.

10. Bucidia, Damadarah = Eucharistic, Wisdom.

11. Allora, Damnio = Profundity, Mixture.

12. Oren, Lamaspechs = Unfading, Union.

13. Amphiphuls, Emphsboshbaud = Self-born, Temperance.

14. Assiouache, Belin = Only begotten, Unity.

15. Dexariche, Massemo = Immovable, Pleasure.

Epiphauius has evidently copied one pair (5) twice over*

204 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

misled by a slight difference of spelling, and thus adds one pair
to the proper fifteen.

It will be very instructive to compare this Valentinian
system of Emanation, which makes all to proceed in pairs, male
and female, out of the First Cause, with that Indian theosophy
Avhich this very feature indicates as its real source, in the latter,
every Principle is divided into a male and female Energy, each
exactly alike the other — " the same, distinguished by their
sex alone." Each deity exerts his power through the agency
of his female Principle or Sacti, which in turn possesses a Vahan
" vehicle," that is an instrument or attribute, which is fixed
and represented in a material form. Of the Persons in the
Supreme Triad the Sactis and their Vahans * are :—

1. Of Brahma, Saraswati, goddess of harmony and the arts (the
Jewish Wisdom^) ; her vahan is a swan, or goose. (Hence Juno's
Capitoline bird, afterwards explained by an historical fiction.)

2. Of Vishnu, Lakshmi, goddess of Prosperity, she has the
title of Kamala, " lotus-bearer ; " her vahan is Garuda, the man-
eagle. Vishnu in one Avatar takes the name " Varaha," and
his consort " Vanihi," in which case her vahan is a buffalo.

3. Of Siva, the Changer or Destroyer, the Sacti is Bhavani,
goddess of fecundity, and consequently of death, for the first im
plies the second "Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet."

Nothing perishes, things only take a new form called by the
ignorant Death. (Compare the title " Gods of death," which
the Ophites were so fond of giving to the " Gods of the
Nativity," the astral genii ruling the horoscope). Bhavani's
appropriate vehicles are the Bull, emblem of generation, and
the Tiger, of destruction.

And before going further I cannot resist observing how these
names and symbols manifest the far-spreading influence of the
nations they embody. The Sassanian queens in their gem

* It might even be suggested Elders had their prototypes in the

that Indian influence shines through Saints to the same number of the

the whole Apocalypse. The Four Buddhist theology ; the " sea of glass

Beasts (borrowed it is true from the or crystal " is the vast crystal block

First Vision of Ezekiel) are these suspended in the highest heaven, the

Vahans, ministers of the Divine Will. shrine of the Supreme Being ; ab-

Later times assigned each to an sjrption into whom is the true object

evangelist. The Foui'-and-twenty of the believer.

THE GNOSTICS AND THETR REMAINS. 265

portraits generally bear the lotus in the hand,* ** Varanes " is
a common name for the kings of that line, and the Brahminic
Bull, the commonest of all signet devices with their subjects.
But as the dominions of the later Persian kings extended as
far as the Indus, Hindoo princesses doubtless entered their
harems and communicated their own religion to their children.
Again, many of these Sanscrit titles bear a resemblance,
certainly not accidental, to words frequently occurring in the
Gnostic inscriptions. Thus, " Sumitri," wife of Vishnu in his
seventh Avatar may explain ^v^apra ; and " Natha," a title
of Vishnu and Crishna, the equally common Navrtra ; " Isa,"
lord, feminine, "Isi," lady, is perhaps even the origin of
Isis ; and " Nila," dark-blue, and epithet of Parvati, is more
appropriately transferred to Father Nilus. Vishnu in infancy
as Narayana floating in his " Vat," leaf boat over the face of the
waters, and coloured all over blue, may be compared to the child
Horns wafted in the baris. The ra< >st ancient of all creeds having,
as above shown, made the lotus the symbol of Plenty, the
reason becomes obvious for the introduction of its seed-vessels,
always mistaken for poppyheads, amongst the wheatears in
the cornucopia of Ceres.

The above quoted ^v^apra seems to have been applied by
the Gnostics to the Sun-god, for Montfancon gives (PL 157)
a figure of Sol so inscribed, with ^€pov(3i on the reverse, a
manifest invocation to all the angelic host. And as the pro
tection of this celestial hierarchy is so perpetually sought by
our talisman-makers in their " voluntary humility and wor-
" shipping of angels," I subjoin the names of the Hindoo Guardians
of the " Jehabs," quarters of the world, which may perhaps lurk
in their Grecised form amongst these interminable strings of

titles.

E. Indra. N.W. Vayu.

S.E. Agni. N. Kuvera.

S. Yama. N.E. Jsaua.

S.W. Nirriti. Above. Brahma.

W. Varuna. Below. Xaga.
Of the centre, Kudra.

* In the character of Kaiii.ila, as the later Greek, aud the Roman ladies in
that of Isis.

206 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR llEMAINS.

THE INEFFABLE NAME IN THE HINDOO FOEM.

We have already heen how inportant a part the notion of an
" Ineffable Name," denoting the inconceivable Supreme, plays
in the machinery of the Gnosis, and here again the original idea
is to be found fully developed in the practice of the Brahmins.
This awful name emblazoned in three Sanscrit letters within a
cartouche formed by a coiled serpent (that normal inclosure for
a Holy Name in Gnostic art) * is fittingly borne up by the
elephant headed Ganesa, god of Wisdom. The word being
triliteral is rather AUM than OM, as usually written in English.
It is never to be uttered aloud, but only mentally by the devout.
Of the characters, A signifies the Creator, U the Preserver, M
the Destroyer ; that is, the Triad Brahma- Vishnu-Siva. " If
pronounced aloud, the sound much resembles Amen as drawled out
by a country parish clerk. In fact it is used for " Augiekar,"
So Le it ! in token of approbation (** Moor, Hindoo Pantheon). f
And here a very curious analogy is to be pointed out in the
assertion of the Talmudists that the word Amen if shouted aloud
is of power to open the gates of Heaven. In the Pistis-Sophia
the " Three Ainen," and again the " Four Amen," are repeatedly
mentioned amongst the other Mysteries revealed by the Saviour
in his esoteric teaching. On this account the word may be

* As the Pistis-Sophia informs and that the whole life of man is

us, " the disk of the sim was a great not sufficient to measure its depth

dragon having his tail in Irs mouth," and extent. Knox (' Overland through

the meaning of this figure whereon Asia ') describes the ruined " Monas-

the sacred word is emblazoned be- tery of Eternal Eepose," built at the

comes sufficiently obvious. junction of the Augoou with the

tOMMANIPADHVM " Glorifi- Amoor by an emperor of the Yuen

cation of the Deity," is the Thibetian dynasty to commemorate his visit to

Confession of Faith, engraved on that region. On the summit of the

stone tablets set up everywhere cliff are three columns, 5 to 8 feet

over the country; and everlastingly high of marble granite, and porphyry

chanted by the Lamas as they tell and granite, bearing inscriptions

their beads. (Cooper's 'Travels of a commemorating this foundation, and

Pioneer,' p. 208). Hue mentions that also this formula in Chinese, Mon-

tho Lamns assert that the doctrine golian and Thibetan,
contained in these words id immense,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 207

suspected to have some connexion with the Hindoo Sacred
Name, unless indeed Valentinus had got it nearer home,
from the four " Amenti," guardians of the dead, and sons of
Osiris. The common explanation that " Amen " signifies Truth
in some Eastern dialect, does not seem to rest on good founda
tion. The Kabbalist Marcus discovered a great mystery in
Ajar/i/, taken numerically, the number Ninety-nine became
formed by the union of the Eleven and the Nine and therefore
set forth by the parables of the piece of silver, and the ninety
and nine sheep, " which is the reason why we use ' amen ' in
prayers."

Other Hindoo titles of the Deity are " Tat " and " Sat " = Virtue.
These are recognisable in the Egyptian gods Tat or Hermes,
and Sate, Truths. It is likewise more than probable that the
mighty AUM itself often lies enshrouded amidst the lines of
vowels filling our talismans. Certainly the Praun calcedony
(No. 517) bearing 011 one side the Delphic Apollo in a good
style of art, or the other (by a later hand) a man dancing with
his apron filled with fruits, presents in its legend Trupo-Traiooo
aov/j, oA.et, the Sanscrit triliteral in the only form in which
Greek characters could express the sound.

The origin of this Ineffable Name is thus related (4 Inst. Menu.'
ii. 370) Brahma milked out as it were from the three Vedas the
letter A, the letter U, and the letter M ; together with the three
mysterious words " Bhur," " Bhavah," " Swar," or Earth, Sky
and Heaven. From the three Vedas also the Lord of Creation,
incomprehensibly exalted successively milked out the three
Treasures of the ineffable text, beginning with the word " Tat,''
and entitled the " Savatri," or Gayatri. A priest who shall know
the Veda, and pronounce to himself both morning and evening
that syllable and that holy text preceded by the Three words
shall attain that sanctity which the Veda confers : and a " twice
born " man who shall a thousand times repeat those Three apart
from the multitude, shall be released in a month even from a
great offence, as a snake from its slough. The Three great
immutable words preceded by the Triliteral syllable and
followed by the Gayatri which consists of three measures, must
be considered as the mouth, or principal part of the Veda." In

268 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIK REMAINS.

this doctrine lies the very origin of all talismanic inscriptions,
for their essence is the stringing together of sacred names. Nay
more, the actual Three words, disguised by Coptic pronunciation,
or purposely sealed from profane eyes by a duplication of vowels,
very probably exist in the midst of certain Gnostic formula?.
In the spell of Battus, hereafter to be quoted, words of the same
senhe as the Hindoo Three do in reality occur.

The Gayatii or holiest verse of the Vedas is : " Let us adore
the supremacy of the Divine Sun, the Godhead, who illuminates
all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, unto whom all
must return, whom we invoke to direct our progress aright in
our progress towards the Holy Seat." Another is ; " Earth, Sky,
Heaven ; Let us meditate upon that most excellent Light and
Power, of that most generous, sportive, and resplendent Sun, that
it may guide our intellects." In all this there is something
that irresistibly reveals the Gnostic invocations whenever they
can be interpreted, and the " Divine Sun " finds its counterpart
in the " Shemesh Eilani " so perpetually repeated.

This Gayatri is contained in the confession of faith of the
Brahmin. " This new and excellent praise of thee O, splendid
playful Sun (Pushan) is offered by us to thee. Be gratified
by this niy speech: approach this craving mind as a fond man
seeks a woman. May that Sun who contemplates and looks
into all worlds be our Protector ! Let us meditate on the
adorable light of the Divine Kuler (Savitri) ; may it guide our
intellects. Desirous of food we solicit the gift of the splendid
Sun, who should be studioufly worshipped. Venerable men,
guided by the understanding, salute ihee, Divine Sun, with
oblations and praise."

Moor hereupon makes the very pertinent remark: -'It is
difficult to conjecture why this text should be so studiously kept
secret, for its exposition, unconnected with any idea of mystery,
and affectation of profundity, does not appear likely to have the
effect so dreaded by all priests of guiding the intellect of man
kind to the discovery of Truth."

As already remarked our Gnostic formulae when expressed in
Greek have a spirit and a rhythm that strikes the ear as the echo
of these primitive invocations; witness the legend upon the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 269

plasma described by Creuzor (Archool. iii. last plate). Within
the serpent- formed cartouche is an inscription of many lines, the
first half an undecypherable medley of letters, which like Marcus'
thirty syllabic appellation of the Supreme Tetrad, must express
the name of the Unknown God, who in the following portion is
invoked as : " The Primal Father, incorporeal, pervading all
things, self-existing, the seal of Solomon : " then come more
mystic epithets ending with " lion-headed," evidently the
Mithrnic figure of that kind. The declaration that the unknown
legend is the " Seal of Solomon " is extremely interesting, as
showing the early date of the celebrity attained by that most
famous of talismans ; which, be it remembered, was reported to
derive its virtue from the mighty throne of God engraven on
the gem.

Many further analogies between the two theosophies may be
detected in the Hindoo forms of worship published by Moor.
Of the Persons in the Supreme Triad, P>rahma represents the
Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer. But
the last is more truly the Changer, all death being only change.
Siva therefore in one of his characters becomes identified with
Yama, god of the Shades. Now, seeing that the first two
Persons are symbolised by the elements Fire and Water, the
analogy of the Hellenic Triad, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, becomes
at once apparent. Here also we find the originals of the " Great
TpiSwa/x€t5," who hold so high a place in the hierarchy of the
Pistis-Sophia.

The famous Inscription of Buddha-Gaya, Bengal, dated the
year 1005 of the era of Yikramaditya (B.C. 57) contains this
remarkable passage : " Amaradiva [son of Sandracottus] having
heard this voice caused an image of the Supreme Spirit, Buddha,
to be made; and he worshipped it, according to the law, with
perfumes, incense, and the like, and he thus admired [magnified]
the Name of that Supreme Being, an Incarnation of a portion
of Vishnu. Eeverence be unto thee in the form of Buddha ;
reverence be unto thee, Lord of the Earth ! Reverence be unto
thee an Incarnation of the Deity, and the Eternal One;
Reverence be unto thee 0 God, in the form of the God of Mercy,
the Dispeller of pain and trouble, the Lord of all things, the

270 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Deity who overcomes the sins of the Kali yug (Imn Age), the
Guardian of the universe, the emblem of Mercy towards all them
that sue thee — OM, the Possessor of all things in vital form,
Thou art Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa (Siva) ; Thou art the
Lord of the universe ; Thou art the proper form of all things,*
moveable and immoveable, the Possessor of the whole. And
thus I adore thee. Eeverence be unto thee the Bestower of
Salvation ; Eeverence be unto thee the Destroyer of the Evil
Spirit, Kesi ; f 0 Damadara shew me favour ! Thou art he who
resteth upon the face of the Milky Ocean, and who lieth upon
the serpent Sesha. Thou art Trivikrama, who at three strides
encompasseth the earth ; I adore thee, who art celebrated by a
thousand names, and under various forms, in the shape of
Buddha, the God of Mercy ; be propitious, 0 thou Most High !
Having thus worshipped the Guardian of mankind, he became
like one of the just. He joyfully caused a holy temple to be
built of a wronderful construction, and therein were set up the
Divine Feet of Vishnu, for ever Purifier of the sins of mankind ;
the images of the Pandus, and the Descents of Vishnu (Avatars) ;
and in like manner of Brahma and the rest of the divinities."
(Hind. Panth. p. 223.)

It may here be observed how extensively this symbol of the
Divine Foot has pervaded the religions of the West. Feet either
in relief or in cavo, cut in stone, are common about Hindoo
temples ; according to tradition they are memorials of suttees,
the self-sacrificing widow having mounted from that stone upon
the pyre. This usage supplies the connection of the symbol
with Serapis, the translated Yama, god of Hades. Compare the
colossal Foot dedicated to the Serapis of Alexandria, as his special
attribute, and recently exhumed from the ruins of his temple.J
It is richly sandalled, and on the top sits enthroned the god
himself, with his attendants Cerberus and the Serpent, Tricasa

* Meaning the pre-existing Type, % The religious importance of the

the Platonic Idea, the Persian Fe- s> mbol is attested by an Alexandrian

rouher, the Rabbinical Adam-Karl- coin of Commodus, having for re-

mon — all springing from this source. verse this same Foot, with the bust

f This explains the title of the of Serapis placed on the section of

deity so often put on our talismans, the leg. (Feuardent, ' Egypie An-

cienne,' pi. xxvii.)-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 271

and Scslia in Grecian disguise. The same Foot, winged and
girt with the Serpent placed between two seated lions, is cut on
the altar inscribed " Deo Sarapi M. Vibius Onesimus ex visu "
(Montfaucon, pi. 122). The same idea produced in Ceylon the
print of Adam's foot upon the summit of the Peak, bearing his
name, whence he had ascended to his Creator, and equally,
in the very metropolis of Christianity, that of Christ himself
stamped in the basalt paving-stone of the Via Appia, still
worshipped in the church and entitled, " Domino quo vadis1'"

An ancient silver plate, found in a pit at Islamabad, at the
northern end of the Bay of Bengal, records the hallowing of the
site of a projected temple there in the deposit in that pit of 120
small bronze images called " Tahmudas," twenty of larger size,
" Languda," one large in stone, " Langudagari," and a brass
vessel containing two of the bones of " Thacur." This last title,
" Noble,"* is the regular style of a god, or a deified mortal.
In medieval ecclesiastical usage (which probably still continues)
it was indispensable for the consecration of any altar in a church
that a relic (bone) of some Saint should have been deposited
under its base. The same silver plate contains this account of
the birth and infancy of Buddha. This coincidence, if acci
dental is very curious. " When Buddha Avatar descended from
the region of souls, and entered the body of Mahamaya, the
wife of Soontala Danna, Raja of Kailas, her womb suddenly
assumed the appearance of clear transparent crystal in which
Buddha appeared, beautiful as a flower, kneeling, and reclining
on his hands. \Vhen born he had on his head two feet, and on
his hands the marks of wheels. Brahma attending at the
birth received the infant in a golden vessel, and delivered him
unto Indra."

This intimate connection of the theosophies of India and
Greece was originally (before the period of direct commerce)
kept up through the medium of the Persian Magi, as the
classical writers themselves show by casual but trustworthy
allusions. Their notices were till lately reckoned, amongst the
other fictions of " Graecia Mendax," but better acquaintance
with Sanscrit and Pehlevi records have revealed their truth.
* Exactly answering to the ancient Dims, the Catholic Saint.

272 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

For it is now accepted as certainly proved by the oldest
portions of the Zendavesta (the " Gathas," or hymns) that the
primitive religion of the whole Aryan race, previous to the
great division, was a simple worship of the Powers of Nature.
This religion was reformed by Zoroaster, who retained the
old names for his Angels, but superadded the idea of the One
Supreme.

Ammian in his account of Julian's Persian expedition, gives
the following curious, though oddly blundered, details upon
this subject (xxiii. 0). " In these tracts are situated the fertile
lands of the Ma<ji [in Media], concerning whose profession and
pursuits, since we have come upon them, it will be fitting
to give here some brief information. Plato, that greatest
authority upon celebrated doctrines, states that the Magian
religion, known by this mystic name of ' Machagestia,' is the
most uncorrupted form of worship in things divine. To the
philosophy of this religion, Zoroastres, a Bactrian, in primitive
times, made many additions drawn from the Mysteries of the
Chaldeans, as did still later Ilystaspes, a very learned prince,
father of Darius. This King Hystaspes, when he was boldly
penetrating into the unknown regions of Upper India, had come
upon a certain wooded solitude, the tranquil silence of which
is occupied by those incomparable sages, the Brachmans.
Instructed by their teaching in the science of the motions of
the world and heavenly bodies, and also in pure religious rites as
far as he was able to gather them — of the notions thus acquired
he transfused a certain proportion into the creed of the Magi.
The latter coupling these doctrines with their own peculiar
science of foretelling the future, have handed down the whole
through their descendants to succeeding ages. Thenceforth, in
the course of many generations to the present time, a multitude,
sprung from one and the same stock, dedicates itself to sacred
offices. It is said they preserve unextinguished the Sacred
Fire which first of all fell down from heaven, a portion where
of used always to be carried before the kings of Asia as a good
omen. The number of persons so descended was at the first
but small, and they were exclusively employed by the Persian
kings for the performance of religious services. It was con-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 273

sidered a great offence to approach the altar, or to touch the
sacrifice, before a Magus, after reciting the appointed prayers,
had poured upon it the preliminary libation. But through
gradual increase they are grown into the name and dimensions
of a distinct people, and inhabit villages unprotected by walls,
being allowed to follow their own laws, being respected on ac
count of their religious character. It was from this race of men
that the seven, as ancient history records, usurped the Persian
throne upon the death of Cambyses, and were crushed by the
conspiracy of that Darius who gained the kingdom through the
neighing of his horse." The worthy, but pedantic old soldier,
in his anxiety to show off his historical reading, has committed
certain very ludicrous blunders in this account. The father of
Darius was no " ancient king of Persia," but merely governor of
that province (eVapx°s) under Cambyses (Her. iii. 70). His
name, derived from " Gushtasp," the planet Venus, was doubt
less common enough wherever Magism was the established
religion. And yet more ludicrously does Ammian convert the one
Magian usurper, Smerdis, into seven, the actual number of the
Persian nobles who put him down. Nevertheless, the tradition
has great value, as proving the previous existence of the Magi
in a community of diviners and seers (like the ancient Jewish
fraternities, " Sons of the Prophets,") and the subsequent modi
fication of their doctrines by the importation of Brahminical
ideas, following upon the conquest of Indian provinces. Such
being the case, one need not be surprised at finding Sassanian
kings named after Hindoo deities, like the numerous Varancs
(from "Varani," Vishnu's title) just as others of their line
assume that of the proper Persian god, Ormuzd, in the form of
that favourite royal appellation, Hormisdas (Ahoromasdi).

274 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS.

ABRAXAS-GEMS, THEIR MATERIALS, WORKMAN
SHIP, AND NATURE.

Following the axiom, " that the body is more than the
raiment," the foregoing chapters have been devoted to the
consideration of the notions which our talismans have invested
with visible form. These visible forms, therefore, their
materials, and manufacture, now come before us for explanation
— a wide field for curious research, and extending into many
diverse regions of Archeology.

The genuine Abraxas-gems, that yet fill our cabinets, came
originally for the most part out of Egypt ; others, as their
differing style shows, from Asia ; others again from Syria,
where many Basilidans had established themselves at an early
period. Amongst these philosophising semi-Christian sects the
figure of Abraxas was held in high esteem. " They used it
(says Bellermann) as a Teacher in doctrine, in obedience to whom
they directed their transcendental researches and mystic
instruction ; as a Token and a Password amongst the initiated, to
show that they belonged to the same fraternity ; as an Amulet
and a Talisman, and lastly as a Seal to their documents."

Gnostic intagli are almost the sole productions of the Glyptic
Art, during the time it was dying out, all through the last two
centuries of the Western Empire, if we except a few rude
figures of the goddess Roma, Victories, and Eagles made for
legionary rings. As may easily be supposed the art displayed
in these designs is at its lowest ebb, being itself a degenerate
successor to the debased Egyptian school of Alexandria.* The

* Their barbarism, however, is so rude a style that one would have

often in advance of that of their real placed its execution three centuries

period. A convincing example is later, but for the company in which

the one found in the great treasure- it was found. Another point ot

trove of Tarsus, where the latest interest was its retaining the original

coins went no later than Gordiau III. setting — a cable-mounted frame, with

It was a black hematite, with a four- loop, of massy gold — proof of the

winged, sceptre-holding ^Eon, reverse value placed upon its potency.

Venus Anadyomene, with her usual (Franks Collection.)
title APU)PI<J>PACIC, scratched in

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS. 275

engraving seems to have been entirely executed by means of a
coarse wheel, like that characterising the Sassanian stamp, then
commonly used in Persia, a country which, by the bye, was the
source of many of the ideas expressed in these figures and
inscriptions. The choice Indian Sards, Nicoli, arid Amethysts
which embellished earlier periods, are replaced by coarser
materials, the native productions of the countries which had
engendered the new creed, the Jasper of Egypt dark green, or
sometimes mottled with yellow and red, the Plasma, usually of
bad quality, passing from a dirty olive-green into common
Calcedony, and quite as abundantly the fibrous Hematite more
or less magnetic. Indeed the opaque Jasper and the Loadstone,
those special materials for signets at the fountains of the Magic
Art, Egypt and Assyria, had, from time immemorial, engrossed
the reputation of the most fitting vehicles for talismanic
figures. The former was Pliny's Molochites, "opaque, and of
the colour of a mallow leaf, of innate power as an amulet
to protect children;" its black variety was his Antipatlics,
" recommended by the Magi as a sure defence against witch
craft of every kind ; " whilst the ILematite is the Persian
Kamhahen, perhaps the true etymology of cameo, a word that
came into Europe in the ages when every engraved stone
passed for a talisman.

So constant is this rule of unmitigated barbarism that
Gnostic types when found well executed and in fine stones, as
sometimes is the case, will on examination always prove to
emanate from the Cinquecento school, a period when anything
pertaining to Astrology or the Kabala was reproduced in vast
abundance under the impulse of the revived spirit of mystic
speculation. To this and the following century, must be
referred the authorship of those large jaspers, not unfrequent in
Collections, presenting the terminal figure of Osiris, the field
occupied with astrological cyphers and modem Hebrew letters.
Of these imitations, betraying themselves by their own excel
lence, the most conspicuous was a large Amethyst, obtained by
me at Florence, engraved with an erect figure of the hawk-
headed Phre, Priapean, holding the Cyiiophalus upon his
hand, and standing on the coiled serpent, an intaglio in the

T 2

276 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

best Eoman manner, that no era of Gnosticism had been capable
of producing.*

Antique pastes with subjects do not exist, and for a very
sufficient reason. The material of a talisman being quite as
essential to its virtue as the sigil engraved upon it ; the mystery
whereof the profound Camillo di Leonardo shall hereafter declare
in his own words. Again, the genuine stones were in them
selves so cheap, and the work upon them produced so expedi-
tiously and with so little care, as to leave small temptation for
counterfeiting them in a baser substance. The only exception
that has come under my notice to the inferior quality of the
stones employed by the Gnostic engravers is the singular
Garnet tablet of the Hertz Cabinet, of which a description will
be given in its proper place, when we come to treat of inscrip
tions.

The Lettering of the legenclsf upon these talismans has u
peculiarity of execution that of itself serves to identify almost
every stone belonging to the Gnostic series. The letters are all
formed by stralyld lines, the ©, O, and T_, being quite square,
either from the rudeness of the instrument employed to cut
them, or because want of skill prevented the engraver from
attempting curvilinear characters, to do which neatly requires
the utmost dexterity and long practice, being in fact the most
difficult task that can be demanded from the wheel. For it was
with this newly -in vented instrument, as the equality of their
lines demonstrates, that these ill-shaped characters were faintly

* I had long suspected that the t Stiechel explains the inscrip-

Cmquecento period produced much tion upon the shield borne by an

Gnostic work iti the ruder style, and Abraxas figure, written thus, *^ X

at length have obtained proof de- I AAV

monstrative of tLe truth of this ™ ™ more than the customary

suspcon. Amongst a large lot of f™» * that position the fcame lao

coarsely-cut Gnostic jaspers of very ™th the Sign o the Cross thrice

recent work, my attention was repeated (to make up the mystic

caught by one (an inscription of number> Seven> He 4uoteB ™

several lines) cut upon a tablet of support of this acute explanation

that streaky agaet paste so popular ? B™ PuUished by Matter,

at that period, but quite unknown to Baring X4>ENECXH W>IX, ex-

tho ancients. The piece had been Pressing the sound of the Hebrew

highly polished and then engraved Peni ze** riPia =

with the wheel ; the design probably healed."
copied from a genuine stone.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 277

traced upon the stone. In all likelihood the same artists were
the Alexandrian glass-workers, famed long, before for their
engraved vases, Martial's " tepido toreumata Nili," for Pliny
uses the significant expression, " vitrum, aliud torno teritur,
aliud argenti more caelatur," " some glass vessels are cut out by
means of the drill, others carved in relief in the same manner as
silver plate." The z in these inscriptions is invariably formed
by drawing a short line across the diagonal of a Z, so that in
rude work, it cannot be distinguished from the latter character.
These inscriptions are often found superadded upon the backs
of gems of much earlier date, evidently for the purpose of
converting them into talismans. Of such conversions the most
remarkable known to me are, a fine cameo (Marlborough
Cabinet) a bust of Commodus; on the reverse of which has
been rudely cut the Abraxas-god surrounded by a legend,
unintelligible though sounding like Greek words.

AOYrENNAIOAEMENAIBAZIAIIKOZ

Another cameo (Royal Cabinet) with the helmeted heads
regardant of Constantino's two elder sons, has received the very

unorthodox addition of Anubis, also surrounded bv a lon<r

j ' &

legend in huge characters, so barbarous as to defy transcription.
A third (Devonshire Parure, No. 79), a fine head of Hercules,
lapis lazuli, has received the Gnostic baptism by the addition
on the back of a scarabeus -with expanded wings (recognised
emblem of the Creator), and the word of power ABPAZAZ . The
extremely debased style of all such additions plainly indicates
a period long posterior to that of the originals; whilst the
position they occupy, necessarily concealed when in use, proves
that the whole object of such improvements was the supernatural
protection of the wearer.

The finest example of Gnostic conversion is an onyx cameo
(Vienna Cabinet), representing some young Caesar under the
form of Jupiter Axur, standing in front face with the thunder
bolt in his left hand, his right resting on the sceptre, the eegis
hangs down his back for paludamentum, at his feet the eagle
on one side a trophy with seated captive, hands tied behind ; all
in a good style in low relief. The talisman-maker has cut a

278 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

line of square characters, resembling Palmyrene, down each leg
from hip to foot, a nimbus of the same round his head, others on
the field : and, to make all sure, has covered the back of the
gem with 16 lines in the same abstruse lettering. It is care
fully figured in Arneth's ' Cameen des K. K. Cabinettes,'
(PI. xviii. 2), who suggests Julian for its subject, without con
sidering that the " Philosopher " wore a long beard during the
period when such a representation of him as this was permissible.
Besides, for the two centuries before Julian's times, Serapis was
the only type under which the reigning emperor was allowed
to be complimented, the old Latin ' Jovis Axur ' having grown
obsolete. The hero of this apotheosis is much more probably
Titus, or even his brother. The cameo is of respectable dimen
sions, being 2f inches high by 2J wide.

As regards the history of Glyptics these inscribed gems have
a value of their own, as fixing the date when the wheel came
generally into use in the engraver's atelier ; for the minute
and elegant lettering of earlier times will be found, when
examined with the microscope, to have been incised in the gem
with the diamond point, whence its perfect regularity and
freedom.

Of those Gnostic inscriptions in general, Easpe (Catalogue of
Tassie's Pastes, p. 38) has given accurate transcripts, from an
immense collection belonging to every shape and period of
Gnosticism. Chabouillet has more recently done the same for
the very large series in the French Cabinet, in his valuable
' Catalogue des Ctimees de la Bib. Imp.' p. 282. In the ' Gorla3
Dactyliotheca,' (3rd ed. 1G95), Nos. 326-486 are entirely
Gnostic and astrological designs, and include the greater part
of those first published by Chiflct in his 'Macarii Abraxas-
Proteus,' ed. 1610. whose plates were re-engraved for the
purpose on a reduced scale, but with large additions, apparently
made by the learned editor of the work, Gronovius. But the
most extensive series of actual representations of the whole
class are the plates to the Section ' Les Abraxas' of Mont-
faucon's grand work ' L'Antiquite expliquee.' Many of his
examples were drawn from the fine Cabinet of gems belonging
to the Library of St. Geneviove, besides others, and very

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

279

interesting specimens, from a previous work by Capello.*
Though roughly engraved, they seem to have been copied with
laudablo attention to accuracy.

* Who professes to copy originals
iu the ancient Cassel Cabinet ; al
though many of his types are so un
paralleled in modern collections that
Matter suspects them mere creations
of his own fancy. But examples of

some of the strangest amongst them
have lately corne under my own
notice, apparently mediaeval Arabic
talismans, which Capello, very
pardonably, mistook for remains of
the ancient Gnostics.

FIG. 12.

280 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

LEGENDS AND EOKMUL7E.

Foremost in the rank of Words of Power stands the " Mystery
of the Seven Vowels," so important as to demand a separate
section for its discussion with befitting reverence. Though
inferior to these, great no doubt was the virtue of those
interminable strings of letters that fill both faces of many a
Gnostic stone — later refinements upon the celebrated 'E^eVta
rpa/A^ara, as Clemens aptly remarks. Amongst these inter
minable formula? lurk, no doubt, those potent spells composed by
Solomon himself; by repeating which and at the same time
applying to the sufferer's nose his ring (under whose gem was
placed the herb prescribed by the same oracle of wisdom) the
Jew Eleazar drew out through their nostrils the devils possess
ing many people, in the presence of Vespasian, his tribunes and
chief officers. The sapient Josephus adds, that to make sure of
the exit of the diabolical occupant, the exorcist commanded him to
overturn in his flight a basin of water placed at a considerable
distance, which was forthwith done, to the consternation and
conviction of all the heathen spectators. The Ephesian Spell,
the mystic words graven on the zone of the Great Diana, were
commonly used by the Magi of Plutarch's times for the same
purpose.

And there can be no doubt that such invocations were often
efficacious. Demoniacal possession was nothing more than
epilepsy (its veiy name, signifying possession, being derived
from that same belief) ; for Galen, after rationally discussing
the natural causes of the malady, remarks that the vulgar
universally attributed it to the agency of devils. Now our
experience of Mesmerism (so far as there is any reality in that
pet science of charlatans) clearly shows what inexplicable effects
can be produced upon persons labouring under nervous derange
ment by words of command, authoritatively pronounced. How
much greater the effect of those words in old times, when
uttered in an unknown tongue by a person of imposing presence,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 281

and over patients already filled with the belief of his power to
relieve them ! Hence the Casting-out of devils became the
grand staple of their trade with all the Thaumaturgists, both
old and new, of the ages with which we are dealing. That the
cure should be permanent was a thing perfectly immaterial, it
sufficed the exorcist's purpose if the manifestation of his power
should be successful for the moment, to the edification of the
awestruck crowd of believers, and to the confusion of the few
nationalistic doubters amongst the crowd.

Such spells gave power likewise over demons ranging about
unconfined in fleshly prison. Eucrates, in Lucian's amusing
4 Philopseudes,' boasts that he is so accustomed to meet thousands
of them roving about, that he has come not to mind them at all,
more especially since " The Arabian has given me a ring made
out of the nail from a cross, and taught me the spell composed
of many Names" The last remark is valuable for our purpose :
it proves that the legends in an unknown tongue on our
talismans are sometimes to be explained from the Arabic,* and
also may consist of strings of titles of the one deity invoked.
Virgil's —

" Crines effusa sacerdos

Ter centum tonat ore dcos, Erebumque, Ghaosque,
Tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virgiuis ora Dianaj ; "

(/En. iv. 510)—

distinctly refers to the same superstition, for Servius explains
these " three hundred gods" in the spells of Dido's Massjlian
sorceress, as not meaning so many different deities, but only so
many epithets of Hecate herself; whose very names he, for the
same reason, fancifully derives from the numeral e/carov. The
same idea yet survives in the religious exercise of the devout
Moslem, the mental repetition and reflection upon the Ninety-
and-nine Arabic epithets of the One Almighty.

* In fact, the " unknown charac- (therefore long anterior to Gnostic

ters" sometimes occurring in the times), and neatly engraved Hini-

field of these talismans are unmis- yaritic legends. This character is

takeably Himyaritic letters, belong- perfectly vertical, handsome, and

ing to that primitive alphabet of well denned in its differences ; it is a

Arabia. Osiander and Levy have modification of the Palmyrene, and

published gems bearing intagli, of the parent of the modern Ethiopic.
good execution, of Persian deities

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

The great object of these adjurations was to address the
Deity by the names under which he was known to all the
nations of Earth ; in this way making sure of addressing him
by the appellation wherein he most delighted. This is the
fundamental principle of, and sufficient explanation of, the
entire class of these talismanic legends ; and of their syncretism
No. 10 of the 'Magic Papyrus' affords a most valuable
illustration. " I call upon thee that didst create the Earth, and
bones, and all flesh, and all spirit, that didst establish the Sea,
and that shakest the Heavens, that didst divide the Light from
the Darkness ; Thou, the Great, Directing Mind, that disposest
all things, Eye of the world ! Genius of genii (8ai>o>v Sai/Wwv),
God of gods, the Lord of spirits, IAO OYHI, hearken unto
my voice ! I call upon Thee, the Master of the gods, 0 loud
thundering Zeus, 0 sovereign Zeus, Adonai ! Lord I AH OYHE !
I am he that calleth upon thee in the Syrian tongue, the great
God Zaa\ar)p !</> <£ou ; and do not thou disregard my voice iii
the Hebrew language, A/3\ava6ava\f3a A/3pao-iAwa. For I am
o-L\Oa>xuovx /WAa/x, /3/WaAw# law law vtfiovO (rapLoOap fiuO ap/3aO
law Iaw<9 o-afiauO Trayovpyj payovpr) ftapovx ASwvat EXwat ta/fyaa/x
(3ap(3apavu vav <n0. 0 lofty-minded, ever-living Crown of the
world ; containing all, Sie^o-a/m er^ fiiov = a<f>rj = VOVOL =
o-ttOv = X6t6w7)pvyX OHAHHfiAI A fiHIAO acnaA o-aa^aXo-w
eO^ovp-rjo-ivi crep. Aav \ov Xovpiy^. (This spell) looses fetters,
causes blindness (i.e. makes one invisible), procures dreams,
gives favour, for whatsoever purpose thou wishesi."

One circumstance, very unaccountable, connected with these
Inscriptions is wherefore the Pclilcvi character, the national
writing of the Magi in those times, should never be used in
formula so often embodying the doctrines of that profession.
Neither are any complete legends to be found written in Punic,
although that character with the last mentioned was at the
time universally employed, in various modifications, all over
Asia and Africa. In the latter country Punic was not super-
s ided by Latin until a very late period of the Empire, for in the
second century Apuleius ('Apology ') wishing to prove the neglect
of his stepson's education by the boy's uncle who had taken
charge of him (the family belonged to the large city Madaura in

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 283

Numidia), declares that though arrived at the age of sixteen
he could speak nothing but Punic and the little Greek he had
picked up from his mother, " praeter Punice, et siquid ad hue a
matre Graecissat." " And some years later, the emperor Severus,
a descendant of Hannibal's, had to blush for his sister when she
came from his native place Leptis to Court, "vix Latino
loquens." It is true the characters which are often scattered
over the field of these gems have much the look of Punic;
others again of Palniyrene Syriac ; whilst some are obviously
the same with the strange Nubian characters to be seen in
abundance graven on the rocks at Silsilis, upon the upper Nile.
As for the square (modern) Hebrew, all works presenting them
are mere fabrications of the astrologers and Kosicrucians of
the 16th and 17th centuries. Hicroglyphical writing, though
naturally to be looked for in the manufacture of A]exandria,
hardly occurs at all ; it is probable that even its modification
the Demotic had long before been superseded (in that capital at
least) by the Greek alphabet. The only exception known to
me is the agate published by Caylus (' Eec. d'Ant.' viii. pi, 8),
presenting the common four-winged Priapic genius in the
sacred boat, the reverse bearing a long vertical line of neatly
cut genuine hieroglyphics. The Arabic " Kamar " Moon, some
times found in these formulas, illustrates Pliny's remark,
that the Magi ordered the ^ame of the Sun or Moon to be
engraved on emeralds or amethysts, in order to convert them
into amulets against witchcraft, and giving success at Court.
An emerald (Praun) of very bad quality, however, inscribed
I AH ZABAjQO ABPAZAZ, may represent the very kind of
amulet alluded to. But that Alexandria was the grand
fabrique of talismans is equally apparent to the mineralogist
from the materials, as to the archaeologist from the lettering
employed in their construction. Nevertheless it still remains
unexplained why the Magi should not have written their own
spells in the character then solely current in the vast dominions
of the Sassanian kings.

The language of these inscriptions is never Latin, rarely
Greek, frequently Syriac, but most commonly corrupt Hebrew.
For this choice the sufficient reason is given by lamblichus in a

284: THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

letter to Porphyrius, where he expressly states that, " The gods
are well pleased with prayers addressed unto them in the Egyptian
or Assyrian tongues, as being ancient and cognate languages to
their own, and moreover those in which prayer was first made
unto them ; and therefore they have stamped as sacred the entire
speech of those holy nations." It is a singular coincidence that
Justinus Kerner, in his extraordinary work, ' Die Seherin von
Prevorst ' (in reading which one continually fluctuates between
ihe conviction of its being an impudent fiction, and the
uncomfortable suspicion that it may be a revelation of the pro-
foundest tnith), assigns a similar reason for the writing used by
the visitant from the spirit-world so greatly resembling Arabic,
''because tliat had the best claim to be considered the primitive
language of mankind." This " Seer " was a peasant girl, worn
out by long sickness to that degree as to belong more to the next
world than to this. Consequently she had become sensible of the
presence of spiritual visitors, and acted as a medium of com
munication between them and those in the flesh. Kerner, a
physician, took her into his own house the better to observe
these singular phenomena, and kept a regular diary of her health
and of her disclosures during several months until her death,
with a minuteness of which only a German is capable. He
writes evidently in all good faith, and, amidst heaps of nonsense,
puts down some startling occurrences beyond the flights of
forgery and confirmed by one's own experience.

But as concerns the " Language of the other world," in every
country " Omne ignotum pro magninco " has ever been the
maxim of priestcraft, the soundness of which has been demon
strated by the experience of all time. More particularly does
this apply to forms of prayer. Thus Orpheus :

" Then whilst the cauldron buhhlcs o'er the flame,
Address each godhead by his mystic name ;
Full well th' immortals all are pleased to hear

' Their mystic names rise in the muttered prayer."

Of such mystic invocations it will be advisable to adduce
examples from writers contemporary with their use, before
proceeding to the consideration of actual remains of similar
nature. Of the numerous specimens cited, the following are the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 285

most noteworthy. The ' Pistis-Sophia' (§ 358) makes the Saviour
" standing upon the shore of the sea, the ocean, call upon God
with this prayer, saying, Hear me, 0 Father, thou Father of
all fatherships, Infinite Light, Ae^iovco law Awt ana if/LvuOep Oeptvwi}/
Trayovprj /x,€$/x,o/xaw0 V€i/ao/xa(ju$ /^apa^a^^a Owfiappa-
popOKoOopa leov 5a/3aa>$." And again (§ 375)
in this valuable description of the Gnostic Sacrament :
"Then said Jesus, bring me fire and vine-branches. And they
brought them unto him, and he, placing upon them an offer
ing, set two vessels of wine, the one on the right, the other
on the left of the offering. He set before them the offering :
he put also a cup of water before the vessel of wine which was
on the right hand, and ho set a cup of wine before the vessel of
wine that was on the left ; and he set loaves of bread, according
to the number of his disciples in the middle between the cups.
He set likewise a cup of water behind the loaves. And Jesus,
standing before the offering, made all the disciples to stand
behind him, being all clothed in linen garments, having all of
them in their hands tlie number* of the Name of the Father of the
Treasury of Light. And he cried aloud, saying, Hear me, O
Father, Father of all fatherships, Boundless Light, law louco Iao>
acot tola i//i,vco$€p Otpivwij/ i/a)i//i$ep ve^o/xapa^a L^ava^va^av a/xav^i
of heaven ! lo-pat a/x^i/ a/x^y aovjSai j3ai aTnraar] a^rjv a^-rjv Seppa
apat arraoi afjirjv afjuqv crao-apa-aprov a/Jirjv a/xr/i/ KovKia.fj.-rjv (JLO.L
a.[uqv Lai LOLL Tovair a/JLyv a^v /xatv/xapt fiapir) /xapet a/^v a/x^v
Again Irenasus copies out a formula " couched in Hebrew words,
to inspire greater awe into the Gallic neophyte (at Lugdunum),"
as used by certain Gnostics there in administering baptism :
y8acrcre/xa ^a/xocrcre POL cuavo/jia jaaraSia povaoa Kovcrra f3aj3a(£>op KoAa-
X#ai, " I invoke Thee, Supreme over every virtue, the Light of
the Father by name, the Good Spirit, the Life, because thou hast
reigned in the body." Another of their formulas was — Meo-o-ia ov
(j)ape-y fa/xe/xi^ai/xev ^aA-Saiar pxxre/xeSia aK0pai/at i^aora lrj(rov Na£apta.
" I do not separate the Spirit, the Head, and the Supercelestial

* Meaning, perhaps, having their fingers in such manner as to indicate

lingers arranged so as to cxpn ss this his own numeral, that of the days in

number ; for Pliny mentions a very the year.
old statue of Janus displaying the

286 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Virtue, the Merciful One. May I prosper in thy name, 0 Saviour
of Truth."

But as regards the expression of divine mysteries by means
of letters of the alphabet, Marcus stands pre-eminently first
amongst the Gnostics, as the following extracts from his
" Eevelation " will conclusively attest. " The supreme Tetrad
came down unto me from that region which cannot be seen nor
named, in a female form because the world would have been
unable to bear their appearing in a male figure, and revealed
to me the generation of the universe, untold before either to
gods or men. When first the Father, the Inconceivable,
Beingless,* sexless, began to be in labour he desired that his
Inemible should be born, and his invisible should be clothed
with form. He therefore opened his mouth and uttered the
Word like unto himself. This word standing before him
showed that he was manifesting himself as the form or type
of the Invisible One. Now the uttering of the Name came to
pass in this wise. He (the Supreme) spake the first word of
his name, the which is a syllable of four letters. He then added
the second syllable, also of four letters. Then the third, com
posed of ten letters. Finally the fourth, made up of twelve
letters. Thus the utterance of the whole name consists of
thirty letters, and of four syllables. Each letter has a form-
pronunciation and writing of its own, but neither under
stands nor beholds that of the whole Name ; nay, not even the
power of the letter standing next to itself. Now these sounds
united make up the Beingless unbegotten TEon, and these are
the Angels that always behold the face of the Father. Thus
the Father knowing himself to be incomprehensible gives unto
each of the letters, called ^Eons, its own proper sound, inas-

* The Kabbalistic "En-Soph." In this existence perceptible, and to

this boundlessness, or as the En-Soph, render himself comprehensible, the

God cannot be comprehended by the En-Soph had to become active and

intellect, nor described by words, for creative. But the En-Soph cannot

there is nothing that c,.n grasp or be the direct Creator, for he has

define Him to us; and as such He neither will, intention, desire, thought,

is a certain sense non-existent, in language, nor action, as these properly

because as far as our minds are con- imply limit, and belong to finite

corned that which is perfectly incom- brings, whereas the En-Soph is

prehensible does not exist. To make Boundless."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 287

much as none of them singly is competent to utter the entire
Name."*

The substance of the revelation brought down to Marcus by
Truth is to be found in the Kabbala, which makes the mystic
names of God lo consist of four, twelve, forty-two and seventy-
two letters respectively. The Kabbalists go so far as to
assert that the forty- two victims offered by Balaam in order
to obtain a favourable response, were consecrated to one of
these great names. If indeed Moses was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians, the magic virtues of numerals would
have formed an essential part of his learning, as we see from
the doctrine of Pythagoras, confessedly derived from Egypt.
It looks very much like as if the framers of the genealogy of
Jesus had the same object in view, when they forced the
generations to the required number by omitting three of the
kings in the second division, being able to deal with the third
in whatever manner they pleased. On counting the number
of the vowels that evidently have some deep purpose in occurring
without consonants on so many talismans of the age of Marcus,
we should, I expect, often find it tally with that of one or the
other of these Holy Names, "f

A subsequent revelation of the same Tetrad to Marcus,
serves to account for the frequent appearance of the naked
woman, the Venus Anadyomene of earlier times, upon Gnostic
monuments. " After having declared these things, the Tetrad
added: I will shew unto thee Truth, whom I have brought

* This is a regular Talmudic the divine name offorty-tu-o letters is

notion as the Rabbins propound. only communicated to such as are

" At first the Name of twelve letters pious, not easily provoked, not given

was communicated to every one ; but to drinking, and are not self-opiuion-

wJien the profane multiplied it was ated. He who knows that name and

only communicated to the most pious preserves it in purity, is beloved

of the priests, and these pre-eminently above, cherished below, respected by

pious priests absorbed it from their every creature, and is new to both

fellow-priests in the chant. It is worlds."— (Babylon. Mid. 71 a.),

recorded that Kabbi Tarphon said : f This explains the 2evya fiapcpap-

I once weut-up the orchestra in the a^es, " those who stand before the

Temple after my maternal uncle, Mount" so commonly following

and bending forward my ear to a angelic names upon our talismans;

priest I heard how he absorbed it where also the long strings of letters

from his fellow-priests in the chant. may be designed to express their

K. Jehudah said in the time of Rab ^Eou unbegotk-n.

288 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

down from the celestial mansions that thou shouldest behold
her naked, acknowledge her beauty, hear her speaking, and be
astonished at her wisdom. Look up therefore at her head A
and O, at her neck B and ^, at her shoulders with her hands
F and X, at her breasts A and P, at her chest E and Y, at her
back Z and T, at her belly H and 2, at her thighs © and P, at
her knees I and II, at her legs K and O, at her ankles A and a
at her feet M and N. This is the body of Truth, this the form
of the letters, this the character of the writing. Whereupon
Truth looked upon me (Marcus) and opened her mouth, and
littered a word, and that word became a Name, a name which
we know and speak — Christ Jesus : and having named him she
held her peace."*

This " figure of Truth " is made up, it will be perceived, by
taking successive pairs of letters from each extremity of the
alphabet ; perhaps, thereby constituting them male and female,
and thus making them types of so many .ZEons. All this
suggests a rational question, whether the primary appli
cation of the name " Logos " to the Divine Emanation, was
not at first a mere interpretation of the Kabbinical Synonym
" Name, or Word," the respectful substitute for the ineffable
Name Jehovah, the Sliem Hale, Kodesh; and that later, the
secondary meaning of Logos, " Reason " suggested to the
Platonising Jews of Alexandria its analogy to their own Sophia-
Achamoth, the first-born of the Supreme Cause. And finally,
the composition of this Holy Name, extending to thirty letters,
illustrates the purport of that interminable polysyllabic title
which runs either in one unbroken circle, or sometimes in the
outline of an erect serpent, around the margin of so many
Gnostic gems, and circumscribes the mystic device engraved in
the centre. In the latter arrangement of the inscription, one is
tempted to recognise that " Good and Perfect Serpent " of the

* Similarly in the Kabbalistic dia- the union of the whole body. The

gram of the Sephiroth, the Crown is Venus Anadyomene so often seen

the head; Wisdom, the brain; In- on our talismans was probably

telligence, the heart ; Love, the right adopted by the Gnostics in this

arm; Gentleness, the left arm; Beauty, spiritualised sense; and thereby

the chest; Firmness, the right leg; still continues to personify i the

Splendour, the left leg ; Foundation, virtue, Truth.
the genitals ; Kingdom, or Shckiiiah,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 289

Naaseni — that Messias whose visible type in the heavens their
eyes, sharpened by faith, discovered and adored in the Constel
lation Draco.

To come now to the actual remains of Gnostic manufacture,
which preserve to us formula of the nature just considered, the
most important, to judge from its frequent occurrence, and the
evident care bestowed upon its engraving, is the one here
transcribed. My copy is taken from an example formerly in
the State collection, probaby the finest talisman known. It
is a thick plaque, somewhat heart-shaped, of dark garnet, 2* X 1 J
inches in its greatest dimensions, bearing on the one side 14
lines, on the other 11, neatly cut in the Greek character in the
third century but making no distinction between the A and
the A.

Obverse. Reverse.

AT(jOCACAU)AAU)Ne OITICCjOPOYAP

C€M€C€IAAMABPACAZ IACjJP€Cx)HAc|>ON

C3ZYPPATHAKPAMMA AIOJAIHTOC

KPAMMAKANAPICCCe CUAIHMAOHAU)

rr6NBAAc|>APANrHC €(jJA6YU)€YH

ACNIAMBCONAPOY Cx)AI€Y€IHI6

ANTAMIYHHAN AH€€6YCjO

MOPAPAXCIA HACjJA€Y€U)

U)HAU)HNHct>!

6MHAIAOA
AHU)(x)(jd

€00 U)

Amongst the titles on the obverse several familiar names may
be detected, such as Alon, Sliemesli Eilam, Abrasax. The long
style filling the fourth line is clearly the correct spelling of the
abbreviated Agrammaeamereg addressed in another part of the
" Prayers of the Saviour," as the first of the " Invisible Gods."
The next line Shemgensalpharanges, " they who stand before
the mount of Paradise," can be no other than the ^Eons just
described by Marcus as the " Angels who always behold the
Father's face " : whilst in this Jewish hierarchy of heaven the
old god of Egypt, Anubis, oddly intrudes himself under his
Coptic title of Ambo.

* Probably meant aAe^ere ^ue " Defend me ! " — of exactly similar sound
in the spoken language.

U

290 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Both inscriptions agree literally with those upon the large
oval calcedony figured by Chiflet (fig. 69) except the addition
in the letter of a few words inclosed within a coiled serpent
placed at the top of the obverse. Out of these inscriptions his
friend Wendelin, by taking the language as good Greek, had
contrived to elicit a most orthodox invocation to the Trinity,
which however was evidently far from satisfactory to the
sceptical and more sagacious Canon. Amongst the Townley
gems is a large sard, agreeing in all except a few letters
with Chiflet's specimen — convincing attestation to the supposed
virtue of the formula. For the purpose of comparison I insert
another, lately discovered, engraved on a much more minute
scale than any of the preceding (Whelan's copy).

ZZZ OM€CU)TOYAP

TRY€ IA(x)P€OHAct>ON

# # A€OAIHTOC

ArCx)€ACAU)AACx)NC U)AIMAU)HAO

COMeceiAAMABPAC IU)AOYU)OVH

C3ZYPPAHAKPAMMA (x)AIYHAHIC

KPAMMAKAMAPICCC6 AH€€6IYU)Y

rrONBAA^ABANTHC HA(x)A€YCOJL

IM€CCIAAMCx)BHAM TH6CU)IACC

. . . €NIAMBU)NAPOY U)HAU)HNIIVI

. . . NTAMIXAHAA HAU3YHAA6Y

____ MOPAXei^Y CMHAIAOAY

. . . PAB6T6MAI . . . IHHCi)U)U)YH
...ANCx)

Dark red agate, 1 X £ in. : scut me by Mr. Whelan, Nov. 25, 1881.

Doubtless such immense and overcharged pieces of mystery
served in their time the purpose of pocket prayer books, out of
which the owner recited the due invocations at the sacred rites.
To some such manual of devotion, the pseudo-Orpheus possibly
alludes by

" Prny, with the flowered Pet races in thy hand,
When hecatombs before the altar stand."

The Orientalist desirous of exercising his ingenuity upon
the decyphering of these, for the most part unexplained monu
ments will find an immense collection of them in Raspe (Nos.
433-633) copied with scrupulous accuracy. The reason he thero
gives for the attention he has paid to a class previously so

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 291

neglected is a very sound one. " All these sects have evidently
borrowed their symbols, and probably also their respective
explanations, from the iconology and mysteries of the Egyptians
and other nations of the East. If as regards the meaning of
hieroglyphics and symbols they had no better information, the
'Gnostics of Egypt and Syria had at least national tradition
to depend upon — a point assuredly of some weight. If
therefore the more recent sects of Gnostics with their sym
bolical learning have established new opinions and fresh modifi
cations of religion upon the basis of the old, we are not there
fore to conclude that they knew nothing about, and wantonly
gave a new meaning to, the symbols which they thus mis
applied. This is the only rational point of view in which these
amulets and engravings ought to be studied."

Easpe's collection I shall now proceed to supplement by
copies of several unpublished examples — the most interesting that
have come under my notice in a long course of study, and such
as servo best to illustrate the theories proposed in the foregoing
pages. And to show the curious and puzzling nature of the
whole class, they often present the critical examiner with signs
and siglee, now supposed the exclusive property of national
religions, the most diverse from one another, as they were
remote from the recognised metropolis of Gnosticism. Inter
mingled with the regular Greek characters appear strange
signs analogous in form, often identical with, the Caste-marks
of the Hindoos, and which in their turn became the parents of
those used by the media) val alchemists and Eosicrucians, and
(during the same ages) of the true professors of Masonry. The
consideration of these Sigla, of which I have collected a lar^e
series belonging to all ages and countries, has proved sufficiently
fruitful to supply muter ials for a separate and important sub
division of this Treatise. One example, described under " talis
mans and amulets," presents unmistakeable evidence of the use
of Runes in the Alexandrine studio, whilst another, shortly to
be noticed, demonstrates that the Gnosis may dispute with
Hibernia her supposed peculiar invention of the mysterious
Ogliams.

A tablet of aquamarine (?) communicated to me by the

u 2

292 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Kev. Grevillo Chester, bears the inscriptions in well-formed
characters —

Obverse.

. . . IGPKP ....

. - BAGOPrOAGOPO

. . AAXAMXABPAC . .

. . HTAAOJNAICA . .

. . AGOOAHAAYNA.

. MICBOH06IM.

Reverse.

CABAOJeGOYGAHOJ
PMAPCABAOY^ei
OP0O0AYMA0IM
YXPCJOC6M6NOX

Extremity.
GAG00OY.

A string of titles ending with " Lord of hosts ! defend me.

NeMONO0IAAP

IPAAINYOM6N€P4>A

BCx)€AIANA€IAY€6A

GOeiGOIAIAIANIN

NIHAZMKWAA

ZON

Sapphirine calcedony, the size of a pigeon's egg.— (Forman
Collection.)

The concluding word <£v'Aa£ov, " Do thou protect," clearly
evinces that this elegantly engraved invocation was ad
dressed to some one deity rejoicing in many titles, and styled
" propitious " by its opening iXew.

MIE1XAHA

TABPIHAVAc|>

AHAEEEENTE

NBAPANTH

NIAW

A very thick stone of sapphirine calcedony. This is purely
Jewish, perhaps the ware of some " Magna sacerdos arboris "
sold to the Roman ladies, for it puts the buyer under the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 293

protection of the Archangels " Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, who
stand before the Mount of Paradise of Jehovah."

A remarkable exemplification of the mixture of two opposing
creeds is found in the OPGOPIOYO, "Light of lights,''
accompanying the figure of a globose vase with bands hanging
from the neck. This is evidently " the small golden vessel
shaped like a cow's udder, containing the libations of milk "
mentioned by Apuleius as carried in the Isiac procession by the
same official who bore aloft the Hand of Justice. The gridiron-
like object often laid upon it, is the regular Egyptian door-key,
made of wood. In one example figured by Matter (PL vi. 6),
the key is shown of the regular Roman form in the same
position, which places the meaning of the more usual figure
entirely out of doubt. This shows the reason for KXetSoO^os,
" the keybearer," being a priestly title.

Other types purely Egyptian, offer some curious improve
ments upon the old " qualia demens ^Egyptus portenta colat."
For example, one (Praun) exhibits Anubis, but now equipped,
with two heads and four hands holding torches and daggers ;
styled on the reverse HEPA-AMBO-YBAKA-KZIK-YK. In
another (Nelthropp) the Cat-headed goddess, Taf-Neith stands
lotus-crowned, and is addressed as KVXBA-KYXBA*-KAXYA-
BAZAKAX-KX. Again Anubis with the superadded heads
of Pan (Mendes} and a cock (Phre), with arms outstretched
in the form of a cross; his body supported upon the legs
of an ibis, has over the heads respectively written the
initials 0, l~l, X. On the reverse AIHB-U)ncX— CVNO—
XPA. But the most curious composition of this nature
known to me is presented by a large elliptical mottled jasper,
measuring 1^+J inch, very boldly cut, and better drawn
than usual — apparently a Solar talisman (Mr. Topham, Eome).
The obverse shows a gryllas in the outline of a cock having the
head of Pan, scorpions for tail-feathers, and the whip of Sol
stuck in his rump to complete that appendage, standing upon
a serpent — overhead are the sun-star and crescent, on his
back rests a tailed globe (a comet ?) in front A, in the field
below the astral siglce. On the reverse, or (73?) over
* Chaldee, " The Star, the Star."

294 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the Agathodaemon serpent uncoiled, and crawling, a star and A.
Below the serpent, EAODT HIHCx), the letters inverted, then
another line HIVOMCOI. Below this again the triple S
on the bar that always accompanies the Agathodaimon,
IAHIEOJ-IEOVGOH, reading thus in the impression. In the
last word " the Great leou " — special title of the Supreme
Being in the Pistis-Sophia may easily be detected ; whilst the
triple-headed deity previously described, very probably expresses
the conception of those mighty TptSwa/xeis $eoi, who play so
important a part in the theology of the same book of wonder.

The following examples are the more genuine offspring of the
Kabbala, consisting of letters alone, uncontaminated by the
presence of the idols of Misraim. First for beauty of material
and engraving stands a large citrine (occidental topaz) formerly
in the Praun cabinet, now in the Gnostic Series, British Museum.

On one side is an oval enclosing HI (perhaps denoting the
Ogdoad and Decad, the base of Marcus' scheme ; see Hep. vi. 52) ;
an eye, emblem of Osiris, a square bisected, and A, which
hist letter may also numerically represent the Tetrad of the
same Doctor.

The other face of the gem presents,

AMAPYCMMPIAGMIOYOO

POAACNABAPeeHIOYCx)

NABAPN6HIOYU)

ePeOPAYMOYCJ

ZATECCmOYGO

OPGPOXOPCeYU)

AXAHMAPeU)

The next is a legend which, with trivial variations, frequently
occurs. Cay lus (VI. PL 11) gives it very rudely added, upon
the reverse of a female portrait. The present copy is from a
large calccdony, somewhat coarsely executed, having 011 its
other face the triple S and bar (Praun) —

CTOXBA0A
HMAAAXIC0OM

MAKOXyOX
A B PA MM AGO© H
ABPAMMHA

The Hebrew Patriarch, figures in this legend, and in many
more of the same kind, as the divinely inspired founder of a

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 295

Gnosis, a reputation he enjoyed even amongst the heathen, who
put him in the same category with Orpheus, first iiistitutor of
Mysteries. " Sov. Alexander in larario suo — omnes sanctiores
in quibus Apollonium, et (quantum scriptor horum temporum
dicit) Christum, Abrnham, et Orpheum, et ejusmodi caiteros
habebat." (Lampridius 29.)

To the same family belongs a yellow jasper (Maskelyne) dis
playing a perforated quatrefoil over the name lACx), then the
mystic vowels AEIHOYGOAI, then TABACx)0 («/c) and on reverse
# MIXAHA#. The quatrefoil is originally the symbol of Sitala,
the Tenth Trithakoor, or deified Jaina saint ; whence it found its
way along with the other Buddhistic machinery, into Mediaeval
symbolism, in which it resembles an angel.*

Very remarkable on account of its adjuncts, is a green jasper
(Traun) bearing a long neatly-cut legend, the central portion of
which is circumscribed by two lines, cut by short strokes at
different angles, exactly after the fashion of the Irish Oghams.
In the latter, as is well known, all the letters of the liomaii
alphabet are represented by the different positions of very short
lines in relation to one continuous line in the middle ; and it is
impossible to imagine any other purpose subserved by the
similar contrivance on our talisman. The Ogham is supposed to
be an invention of the first missionaries to Ireland, it was used
as late as the Civil War by Lord Glamorgan in his correspond
ence with Charles I. It is, however, very possible that the
monks carried this simple stenography from liome to their
Celtic mission. f

nYPOcox

KPHc|>O XOYBY...

YMAPTA AAIAAM

AP4>OY 0AA0AA ANOX

Y06P YY0A0O MOYI

ct»OY0AI POCIU) YAAAA

ICx)
AY€ni0IAAKY0(jO

* One of the heaviest charges characters that came to their kuow-

against the mediaeval Manichseans ledge. Even the Ruiric of the farthest

was the adoration of an Octagon, as north added its virtue to the Praun

the figure of God. hepatic amulet to be fully noticed in

f The talisman-makers loved to its proper section.
press into their service all the strange

296 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

A minute figure of Abraxas, green jasper (Praun) takes a new
title " Abrachars " in the invocation ABPAXAPC-AfPAWA—
COAPIWNIE.

Thoth's caduceus within a wreath, is accompanied by the
legend on the reverse AKPICO<l>r on a brown calcedony in my
collection.

Of all Agathodsemon talismans, no more elegant specimen
has come to my knowledge than a large emerald-like plasma
(Bosanquet) displaying the serpent "the Good and Perfect
One " erect above his invariable concomitant sigla, and whom
the reverse propitiates by the beautifully cut address OCOP-
M6P<t>-<l>ePrAMAPA-ct>PIAYPIC-XNOYcl>IC-NABIC-KICNYe
True green jade, very convex on back (Rev. S. S. Lewis.) In
the field, each side of serpent ICi)|^ . -- 101. " With me, with
me ! " in pure Chaldee. Reverse in two lines, round the usual

symbol.

XNOYMICMAABeiCB€INY0eee
COPOOPMeP<t>6PrArBAPMA<i>PinYIPIPirZ

All cut with unusual precision and neatness of work. The
legend has many words in common with Mr. Bosanquet's
plasma.

Jerome's "Pater Bromius " of the Mithraic Cave has pro
bably some share in the title " Sabbaoth," so often coupled with
" Adonai," for Bacchus rejoiced in the epithet " Sabazius,"
derived from the shout " Sabbaoi " raised by the celebrants of
his Orgies— a word identical with the Hebrew " Sabi " glory !
Certain sectaries of our own day who bellow out the same word
at their " Revivals," are little aware what an ancient and
congenial authority they have for their vociferation.

" Adonai," our Lord, is converted by the Greek into Adoneus,
a synonym for Pluto, and Orpheus, as already quoted, points
out the identity of Bacchus, Pluto, and Sol. This is the founda
tion for the ancient exposition of the Syrian rite, the Mourning
for Adonis (" The women weeping for Tharnmuz ") as really
applying to the sun's loss of power at the winter quarter.
Adoneus or Aidoneus, becoming interpreted according to Greek
etymology, was supposed to signify him " that walketh unseen,"
whence spring the "helmet of Adoneus," that rendered the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 297

wearer invisible ; and Catullus's application of tho title to the
intrigue-loving Caesar.

" Perambulabit omnium cubilia
Ut albulas columbas aut Adoneus."

The same Adonis had the name " Sal-Anbo " (which often
occurs in Gnostic legends) as appears from tho statement in
Lampridius, " that Heliogabalus exhibited Salanbo with all the
lamentation and tossing of head proper to tho Syrian ceremony,''
— whereby ho gave the omen of his own impending fate.

The Delphic E has already been noticed — but its importance
demands further particulars of its history, which have been
preserved by Plutarch in his curious treatise upon the subject.
The Greeks with their usual fondness for explaining all
mysteries rationistically, considered the letter as the simple
numeral, Five, set up in the Temple to denote the original and
proper number of the far-famed " Wise Men ; " but which in
later times had been raised to seven, by the addition of two
more who had small claims to the honour. The legend went
that these Five Wise Men, to commemorate the accidental meeting
of them all in Delphi at the same festival, had dedicated the
numeral carved in wood, which, decaying through age, tho
Corinthians replaced by a facsimile in bronze ; which last was
finally transmuted by Livia Augusta into another of gold, as
more consistent with the dignity of the god of the place, whose
son her husband claimed to be, and whose received image ho
represented in his features.

Others, more profoundly, interpreted the letter as represent
ing by its proper sound in the Greek alphabet tho declaration
E!, " Thou art " as addressed to the Godhead — thus making
it equivalent to the title 6 oil/, " the living God," so frequently
given to Jehovah.

But it is much more consistent with the simplicity of antique
times, to understand'the figure as merely standing for the number
Five, a number sacred for itself, not for its reference to the fabled
sages of a later period. The idea of its virtue may have come
from an Indian source, where it is the cause of the five-headed
shape assigned to Brahma. From India it would find its way to

298 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Delphi in company with the Gorgon-heads, themselves masks
of Bhavana the Destroyer, which guarded the actual oracle — a
singular connexion, noticed by Euripides in his ' Ion.' But it
should be remembered that the Hyperboreans, reputed founders
of the Oracle, were placed between the Caspian and the frontiers
of India. The Omphalos itself " shaded with garlands, and en
compassed with Gorgoiis " was no other than the Brahminical
Lingam, as its figure demonstrates, whether as repictured in
the early vase paintings when embraced by Orestes seeking
sanctuary there from the pursuing Eumenides, or with Apollo
seated thereon, stamped on the money of the Seleucidae — direct
descendants of the god. In form reduced to an obtuse cone, the
emblem had nothing obscene in appearance, its hidden meaning
being a matter of revelation to the initiated few. The same
conically-shaped stone was the sole representative of Venus
in her most ancient temples — Paphos for example. Again that
earliest of all statues of Apollo, the Ainycla3an, described by
Pausanias, was a veritable Hindoo Lat — a bronze column 50
cubits high, to which later art had added a head, hands holding
bow and spear, and toes (d/cpot TroSes). But his throne, in the
middle of which the idol stood erect, was an after-thought of
the best times of Greece, covered with elaborate figures and
reliefs, the work of Bathyeles, or of Myron, with his scholars.

And in truth this very lunar-shaped 6 seems to belong to the
same class of Indian importations, and to have been originally
a mere Caste-mark — indeed, if placed horizontally u>, it becomes
ut once the badge of the sectaries of Vishnu. What strongly
confirms this explanation is the fact, that this symbol had been
consecrated at Delphi many centuries before that shape of the
letter came into the Greek alphabet — a change only dating from
the age of Antony and Cleopatra, upon whose medals, struck in
Asia Minor, the lunar-shaped 6 is first observable.

In the earliest dawn of Grecian philosophy we find Pytha
goras* bull i ing his whole system upon the mystic properties of

* Who is constantly affirmed to manas, eoruni ergo Brackmamim

have visited India, Apuleius stating Gymnosophistas adiisse." — (' Flo-

of him, '• Sed nee his artibus anirni rida.')
expletum mox Chuldseas, inde Brach-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 299

Numbers, and declared by tradition to have been taught the
science in Egypt ; nay more, Plato himself has penned in his
Republic a certain section in the same line, worthy of any
Alexandrian Kabbalist. In our own day, with the Sikhs to hold
a " Punch," or council of Five, was the formal mode of delibera
ting upon all matters of State. And inasmuch as the most
serious things have a ludicrous side, this sacred Numeral only
preserves its reputation amongst ourselves from haying given
the name to the well-known beverage, by reason of the five
ingredients that go to its concoction— perhaps too, because its
brewing was the inevitable result of the coming together of
the same number of Englishmen in the times when our language
was enriched by so many loans from the Bindostanee.*

A remarkable feature in the theogony of A^alentinus is
curiously illustrated by a Praun Calcedony, elegantly engraved,
and mounted in a gold frame by some later Oriental owner,
who justly deemed the gem a talisman of uncommon power.
" The Father at last sent forth a mighty /Eon, called the Cross,
and who contained within himself all the other thirty /Eons.
The same was likewise denominated Terminus, inasmuch as lie
served for Boundary between the Fulness (Pleroma) and the
Deficiency (Hysteroma)" Our gem presents the Egyptian Tan,
as a Deus Terminus, topped with a human head, and surrounded
by a continuous legend composed of vowels interspersed with
rare consonants; probably expressing the thirty /Eons con
tained within the sigil's self. On the base of the Terminus
is the legend NIXAPOriAHC, often occurring on talismans.
The same words are found at the foot of a cruciform trophy,
above which is the Christian X upon a stone in the French
Cabinet (No. 2222) also followed by IU)A upon the back of a
gem (silex) published in the ' Gottingische Anzeiger,' Nos. 35 a, I,
which clearly emanates from Mithraic notions, for it represents
the usual lion-headed, serpent-girt man, a torch in one hand, in
the other a sword, serpent, and crown of victory, soaring aloft
from the back of a lion, under which lies a prostrate corpse.

* For example caste and dam. The which ignorance softens into curse.
latter is the probable source of the Similarly used is rap, the smallest of
common English expression that em- the Swiss money,
phasises the small value of a thing,

300 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

A very curious instance of the employment of Gnostic figures
in the art of Medicine is offered by the stone which Matter has
published (PL II., C. 4). The obverse displays the Agatho-
dsemon serpent placed between Phre (Sol) and a female in the
act of adoration. Overhead are the mystic Vowels ; below the
undershaped vase, already noticed, placed upon a low altar,
the whole encompassed by a legend in some unknown tongue.
But the other side explains in lucid Greek the object of the
composition. TACCON THN MHTPAN THC A6INA 61C TON
IAION TOnONOTON KYKAON TOY HAIOY, "Place the womb
of such or such a one into its proper region, O, the circle of the
sun." Matter, in his explanation, has fallen into a ludicrous
mistake, by interpreting ^rpav as ^repa he converts the
words into a prayer for the soul of the mother of a certain
Dina ! But the real translation shows that the gem was made
for any purchaser, to be worn as a preservative against the
" prolapsus uteri," a female complaint very common in ancient
times, owing to the abuse of the hot bath, so relaxing to the
internal muscles, and also to the general employment of
" abortiva," whenever thought desirable. In fact the very
definite expression of the object, MHPIKON, uterine, is found
on other gems, and places the correctness of the attribution of
the former one quite out of doubt.

The " circle of the sun " means the navel, which marks the
natural position of the organ concerned, for the navel in the
microcosm was supposed to concide with the sun in the universe.
This idea produced the far-famed hallucination of the Byzantine
anchorites, respecting the mystical Light of Tabor, which shone
upon the devotee in virtue of long-continued fasting, and
unintermitted fixing of the eyes upon the region of the navel,
whence at length it streamed forth, as from a focus, the " truo
creation of an empty brain and an empty stomach."*

* A neatly engraved ring-stone, names can be deciphered on these

hfematite, lately communicated to talismans they are always those of

me, has a line of several of the women. A Praun gem, similarly

common siglae, followed by two more opening with a line of siglae and the

containing IA(x> A PI HA BIKTO- names lao and Gabriel, was made

PIN A, " Jehovah, Lion of God (pro- for a certain Sabinia Quinta.
tect) Victorina!" When proper

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 301

Another circumstance bearing upon this employment of the
sigil is that Isis, the peculiar goddess of maternity, is often
figured in Eoman sculpture, holding up in her hand a conical
object, pouch shaped, exhibiting a triangular orifice. This
object some have taken for the Persia plum; much more
probably does it represent the organ in question, the most
natural and expressive symbol of that divinity's peculiar
function. In her mystic coffer were carried the distinctive
marks of both sexes, the lingam and yoni of the Hindoos. Their
Isis, Parvati, who in this character takes the name of Deva
" the goddess " pre-eminently, bears in her hand for distinctive
badge the yoni, or bhaga, often a precious stone carved into
that shape. Similarly her consort, Siva, carries the lingan or
phallus. For example, the Nizam's diamond, the largest stone
of its kind known certainly to exist, exhibits evident traces of
the native lapidary's clumsy endeavours to reduce the native
crystal to the proper shape for the hand of the great goddess.
Ugly omen to happen under a female reign, this diamond was
accidentally broken in two just before the outbreak of the Sepoy
re volt.

Deva's Mark, as borne upon their foreheads by Parvati's
sectaries, is formed by three strokes, the two outside white or
yellow, the centre always red. It is interpreted as represent
ing the womb, methra, of Bhavani (another of Parvati's names)
out of which proceeded all that exists. The close relationship
between the Egyptian and Hindoo goddesses cannot fail to
strike the observer ; Isis carries the very same attributes with
Parvati — the kid and cobras — upon the talisman — published by
Caylus (IV., PI. 16). But the Egyptian goddess, having but
one pair of hands, is forced to clasp in each the several attributes
borne singly by her many-handed Indian prototype.

A singular union of two contrary deities in one body, is
presented by a hematite (Praun), representing Anubis, who,
besides his proper jackal's head, is equipped with another,
nianed on the neck, and unmistakably that of an ass; as
Typhon,* the evil one, was depicted ; moreover, one of the feet,

* The ass was sacred to Typhon. Egyptian legend that this deity fled
Plutarch (De Iside, 31) quotes an from the " Battle of the Gods ' upon

302

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

too, of the figure is clearly hoofed, so as to leave no doubt as to
the ownership of the second head. The same discordance of
characters is still further set forth by what he bears in his
hands, the two of Anubis holding up torches, the two of the
malignant Typhon, swords. This odd combination probably
expressed the same idea as did the Anubis seen by Apuleius,
who exhibited at one time a face black as the night, at another
golden as the day, in order to express his functions exercised
both in heaven and in hell. The reverse bears an inscription
containing the Coptic name of the god, HE PA— AM BOO— YBAIA—
KZIK-A.

the back of an ass for over sevun
days' space without stopping, until
he came into Judrca, where he begat
two sons, Ilierosolymus aiid Pala)s-

tinus. Sir G. Wilkinson has met
(although but rarely) with the figure
of an ass-headed deity, or demon, in
Egyptian sculptures.

PART IV.

THE FIGURED MONUMENTS OF
GNOSTICISM.

TQI NIKQNTI AQZn AYTdl cJ>Al~EIN
AI~1O TOY MANNA TOY KEKPYMMENOY KAI
AOin AYTQ YHcUON AEYKHN KAI EHI
THN H^Hc^ON ONOMA KAINON TErPAMMEN
O OYAEIS EfNQ El MH O AAMBANQN.

THE FIGURED MONUMENTS OF
GNOSTICISM.

GNOSTIC SIGL^E, SYMBOLS, LEGENDS EXPLAINED.

THE inscriptions in Greek characters upon Gnostic talismans
are frequently interspersed with mystic figures, formed out of
straight lines set at right angles to each other, and intermingled
with dots. These lines Bellermann plausibly enough supposes
to represent the "sacred lots," of the same nature as the
celebrated sortes Antiates, held in the hands of the much-con
sulted Fortuna of Antium. In their usual form these lots were
only little sticks and balls, taken up by the handful from an urn,
and thrown at random on the ground. The diviner examined
the patterns thus produced by their casual collocation, and
predicted the future from them according to the rules of his
art. Bellermann goes on to suppose that the figures on our
talismans represent certain configurations of the lots, regarded as
peculiarly lucky to the consulter. This explanation is supported
by the Geomancy of the modern Arabs,* where lines drawn at
haphazard on the sand by a stick held between the fingers are
interpreted by persons professing that method of divination.
Our own divination, by means of tea-grounds, is carried on
upon the same principle, the fortuitous arrangement of the

* " Each tribe either found or of Hebal, of red agate, holding in his

introduced in the Caaba their do- hand seven arrows, without heads or

mestic worship; the temple was feathers, the instruments and symbols

adorned or defiled with 360 idols of of profane divination."— Gibbon,

men, eagles, lions, and antelopes; chap. 42.)
and most conspicuous was the statue

306 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

particles producing to the experienced eye definite pictures and
letters of the alphabet.

These Siglse, however, may possibly have had another origin.
The regular badge of the Magus, as prescribed in the Yendidad,
is a bundle of divining-rods — three, seven, or nine in number.
Hence the rebuke of Hosea : " My people ask counsel of sticks,
and their staff declareth it unto them." These same divining-
rods placed upon the altar are commonly represented upon the
Magian signets, bearing for official type the Mobed at his
devotions; and may therefore be supposed to have passed
down to the talisman-makers of later times.*

That others amongst these angular forms are numerals is
certain from the nature of the case, and from Horapollo's
express declaration that the Egyptians represented 10 by the
figure r, and 100 by the same four times repeated in the form of
a square, thus £]. Ten being the " perfect number " of the Valen-
tinian creed (whose fountain-head was Alexandria), its frequent
appearance amongst the religious formulas of the sect is naturally
to bo looked for. The primitive Egyptian numerals were of
the simplest kind, but their abbreviated combinations ultimately
became distinct symbols for the different days of the month,
and out of these the Arab astrologers concocted their own
system. This circumstance affords reason for another solution—
that some of these sigla3 indicate the particular days connected
with the astrological intention of the talisman, j

And besides all these, there is every probability that these
sigla3 include actual cuneiform letters, belonging to the Assyrian
alphabet, but their forms somewhat corrupted by the semi-

* The ancient Teutons practised f Some of these siglse may be

the same method of divining fu- recognised in the inscriptions in an

ture events. A shoot of a fruit tree unknown character, cut in the hard

was cut into pieces, each being sandstone rock, and very numerous

distinguished by certain marks, about Silsilis, Upper Nubia, where

notis quibusdam, probably meaning they accompany figures of elephants,

" Eunes." The consulter threw them giraffes, and ostriches— all animals

down at random on a white cloth, long since extinct in that country,

with eyes turned to heaven he took Specimens were published by Gre-

up three separately, and interpreted ville Chester in the ' Archaeological

the response from the inscriptions Journal' for 1864, p. 274.
upon them, — (Tacitus. Germ, x.)

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 307

Greek wizard, who employed them in ignorance of their true
nature. The Assyrian language being considered as late as
tho times of lamblichus peculiarly grateful to the heavenly
Powers, what more reasonable than that some at least of these
invocations should continue to be couched in their original
cyphers ? Be it remembered, the cuneiform character was the
national one of the whole Persian empire down to the Macedonian
conquest, and must have been preserved in religious usages
long after that event by the Magi. They, at least, were a very
unlikely class to trouble themselves about the Greek alphabet
or Greek literature, professing, like the Talmudists, a pious
horror for both. This is well exemplified on the restoration of
the native dynasty under the Sassanians ; Greek, employed for
four centuries by the Parthian line, is at once expelled from
the coins by the Pehlevi character, true daughter of the
primitive cuneiform. There is moreover one all-sufficient
reason for seeking the origin of these inexplicable siglse at
Babylon : they constituted a religious stenography. The
Babylonians " attached to each god a certain numeral, which may
be used in the place of his proper emblem, and may even stand
for his name in an inscription, " (Eawlinson, * Anc. Monarchies,'
iii., 466). To give those of the principal deities :

First Triad : Ami = 60 ; Bel = 50 ; Hoa = 40.

Second Triad : Moon = 30 ; Sun = 20 ; Air = 10.

Beltis, or Mylitta = 15 ; Nergal, or Mars = 12 ; Xiu, or Saturn = 10.

Of the other planets the numerals have not been discovered ; but
their names are, Nebo, Mercury; Merodach, Jupiter; Ishtar, Venus.
The great gods are Ann, Pluto ; Bel, Jupiter ; Hoa, Neptune.
Their consorts are, respectively, Anat, Beltis, Davkana. The
minor gods are, Sin, or Hurke, answering to the later Lunus
Deus ; San, the Sun ; Vid, the ^Ether. Their respective consorts
are, " The Great Lady "; Gula, or Anahit ; Tula, or Shula. The
Pythagoreans had a symbolism of the same nature, denoting
Minerva by an equilateral triangle, Apollo by unity ; Strife, by
the numeral two ; Justice, by three, and the Supreme Being by
four (Plat. De Is. et Os. 75).* I find a very strong confirmation

* In the Egyptian Ritual papyrus, Hermes by is mystic name of the
Thoth is addressed as " the second god A."

x 2

308 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

of my belief that the Gnostic Powers were similarly designated
by their numerals, in Raspe's gem, No. G01, where C€Nf€N is
inscribed in the exergue under a serpent coiled into a cartouche
containing several of the siglse under consideration. Now this
legend (to be explained farther on) is, when written in full,
always followed by the names of the Archangels, whence it
may justly be inferred the same names are still here, but
represented in their mystic form.*

" The Great Names " constitute the very essence of every
Gnostic spell. To begin, therefore, with their consideration is
obviously the most appropriate and propitious mode of ap
proaching this part of our work — pandere res alta terra et
caligine mersas. There are three titles perpetually occurring,
and consequently to be supposed denoting beings of the highest
importance in the Gnostic hierarchy of heaven. Their meaning
was unknown until the fortunate discovery of the grand Yalen-
tiriian gospels. The Pistis-Sophia informed us (§ 361) that they
are the holy Names of the Three TpiSura/Aeis, who are lYANTAX-
AINXEOTX, a Power emanating from whom resides in the
planet Mars; BAINXGOCUX,! in Mercury; and niCTIC CO<J>IA,
in Verms. Above this Triad is one still higher, the " Three
Unseen Gods," AT PA MM AX A MA PEP, BAPBHAU) (the Heavenly
Mother of Jesus), and BAEAAH (§ 359).

The " Five Words " written upon the shining vesture
sent down to Jesus at His glorification (§ 16) were ZAMA

* The Turks represent tlie Great ning-swift-footed-one." This papy-

Nanie AllaU by an oval crossed rus, now in the British Museum,

\\itli intersecting lines, which is was bought of Atanasi, Swedish

often seen stamped on their old Consul at Alexandria : who sold

armour, for an amulet. Now this several others of the game nature to

very mark occurs in the Gnostic set, the Leyden Library. All are sup-

and it is more than probable that its posed to have been found together

true meaning is preserved in the in a catacomb at Thebes, and to

Turkish tradition. have formed the stock of some

f In Good win's 'Ma c Papyrus' magician of the second century of our

the Serapean Divination (No. 1) era, as the handwriting leads us to

names this Power: "Appear and infer. Goodwin edited the Brit.

give heed unto him who was mani- Museum specimen for the Cambridge

fested before Fire and Snow, ~Qa.iv- Antiquarian Society in 1852, and

Xo>o>x, for Thou art he that did enriched it with notes giving in-

make manifest Light and Snow, valuable assistance to all who study

Terrible - eyed-thunderiug-and-light- Gnostic remains.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 309

ZAMA WZZA PAXAMA U)ZAI — " The robe, the glorious robe
of my strength." The same revelation furthermore imparts
to the faithful the mystic names of the planets. " Hearken
now, I will tell unto you the Incorruptible Names of the
Planets, which bo CJPIMOTG, Saturn; MOTNIXOTAcJXjJP,
Mars; TAP RET A NOT*, Mercury; XU)!I, Venus; XU)NBAA,
Jupiter. These be the incorruptible names of the same "
(§ 362). Of these, the names from each Triad are to be
recognised upon talismans, BAINXU)U)Cx)X most commonly
of all ; but no example of these planetary appellations has
hitherto come to my knowledge.

The Naaseni (says Hippolytus) taught that the universe
could not hold together unless the names of the Great Ones
(TO, peycQrf) were uttered. These were KATAKAT, ZATAAZAT,
ZEHZAP. " The first is the name of the Adamas who is
above ; the second, of him who is below ; the third of the Jordan
that floweth upwards." "Above are Mariamne the Sought-
after, and Jothor the great and wise; and Sephora she that
seeth ; and Moses." According to the text-book of another sect,
the Peratae, XOOZZAP is the Power whom the ignorant and
profane call Neptune: KAP4>AKOZHMOXEP is the Steward
of the East: EKKABAKAPA of the West; called by the
vulgar the Curetes. APIBA is the Euler of the Winds; ZGOK-
AAM, or Osiris, rules the twelve hours of the night ; ENTCx), or
Isis, those of the day : her sign is the Dog-star. BHNA is Ceres,
or the Left-hand Power of God, presiding over nutrition ; MHN
is the Right-hand Power that presides over the fruits of the
earth. In the same doctrine, chozzar, called by the ignorant
Neptune, " who converts into a sphere the dodecagonal pyramid,
and paints with many colours the gate of that pyramid," has
Five Ministers, ACT, AOAI, OTH, OTHAB; the name of the
fifth being lost. Hence it is probable that the strings
of vowels, so often found on these stones, may contain the
names of elementary genii similarly expressed.

Origen (viii. 58) quotes Celsus to the effect, that the Egyptians
made six-and- thirty (or more) demons or aetherial powers preside
over the several parts of the body, giving some of their names,
Chumis, Chuachumes, Knat, Sichat, Bou, Eroti, Eribiou,

310 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Eomanor, and Eeianoor: "Whoever therefore prefers being
in health to sickness, and happiness to trouble, ought to pay
all possible honour to these Powers." Origen therefore accuses
Celsus of attempting to divert men from the worship of the one
God to that of six-and-thirty daemons, only known to Egyptian
magicians, because he cannot understand how "the Name of
Jesus, pronounced by the truly faithful," can cure the sick and
those possessed by devils ; the evidence for which is far stronger
than that of the effect of the names of Chnumis, Sichat, and the
rest of the Egyptian catalogue. In another place (i. 22) he
shows it was not Moses only that knew the name of Abraham
and his friendship with God, for that others (pagans) use the
words "the God of Abraham" when they are driving out
devils. And again the Egyptians use in their rites, from which
they promise wonderful effects, the names of Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and Israel. Also (iv. 33) Origen mentions the use of
the form " The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of
Jacob " in incantations, and that the same is often to be met
with in books of Magic. He adds that the formula " The God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, who didst overwhelm the
Egyptians and the King of the Egyptians in the Eed Sea,"
was in common use against demons and the Powers of Evil.
All this goes to prove that the talismans inscribed with the
name of Chnumis and the other thirty-five daemons named (who
now by this assistance may be hereafter recognised) were of a
medicinal character, whereas those with "Abraham," equally
common, were more properly of the nature of talismans.

In the Book of Enoch the Archangel Uriel gives us the
mystic names of the two great luminaries : " The names of the
Sun are these, one Aryares, the other Tornas. The Moon hath
four names: the first, Asonga; the second, Ebla; the third,
Benase ; and the fourth, Erai."

The Pistis-Sophia (§ 125) furnishes the adept with the key
to the most important of the numerical cyphers. " These be
the Names that I will give unto thee, even from the Infinite
One downwards. Write them with a sign (cypher? ) that the
sons of God may manifest (understand ? ) them out of this place.
This is the Name of the Immortal One, AAA UJUKD. And this

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 311

is the name of the Voice through whoso means the Perfect Man is
moved, RT. These likewise are the interpretations of the names of
the Mysteries. The first is AAA, the interpretation thereof <£><!>*.
The second which is MMM, or which is U)CjOU) ; the interpreta
tion whereof is AAA. The third is YTY, the interpretation
whereof is OOO. The fourth is <b<b<b, the interpretation whereof
is NNN. The fifth is AAA, the interpretation whereof is AAA,
the which is over the throne AAA. This is the interpretation
of the second AAAA, which is AAAAAAAA, and the same is the
interpretation of the whole Name."

To pass from the cyphers, where all is guess work, to the
actual inscriptions, engraved legibly enough in the Greek
character, but presenting us with what Jerome aptly terms
mere "tormenta verborum." Many of the more common
formulas, Bellermann, by the aid of Hebrew, Coptic, and
Syriac,* has satisfactorily explained ; of others his interpreta
tions are manifestly absurd. AMAPTEA seems to be the Chaldee
Amarchel, a president. ANOX XOA XNOTBIC, " I am All the
Good Spirit, or the Universal genius of good." AIN ©APPAI.
" The eye shall behold." AAONAI AANTAAA, " Lord ! Thou art
the Lamb."f XGJCA MIAA000 exactly represents the Hebrew
words signifying " He hath seen the Pleroma."

AMAAXO

AMA9AZ

LZA!

is rendered by Stiechel " Salama zebaam jatzael " = " Peace unto
the army of these " (of the celestial ^Eons) ! This agrees with

* Prof. Stiechel, in his essay ' De words cJ>pACIC, 4>ACIC, IACIC,

Gemma Abraxea nondum edita,' " Declaration," " Manifestation,"

Jeuae, 1848, has acutely and satis- " Healing," is always attached to a

factorily elucidated some very im- figure of Venus Anudyomeue, and

portant formula?, giving a key to the admits of the translation '• Mountain

whole class. The necessity for em- of Light." The Venus therefor**

ploying Oriental languages in spells seems adopted here for the " Virgin

is curiously illustrated by Hippolytus' of Light," who holds so high a place

statement, that the magicians of his in the celestial hierarchy of the

time used to write the answers to Pistis-Sophia. At any rate the

the questions proposed to their sense of APCOPI, "Mountain of

demons, partly in Hebrew, partly in Light," strongly favours this accep-

Greek letters. tation.

t AP OJPI, followed by the Greek

312 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the benediction pronounced by the Marcosians in administering
the holy unction, " Peace be unto all upon whom this holy
Name rests ! "

Some of these inscriptions display an evident affectation of
obscurity by their transposition of parts of the same word from
one line to another, the only key to which is the observing the
different sizes of the characters employed, and taking those of
the same size as belonging to the " disjecta membra " of the
same word. A most instructive example of this artifice is
supplied by the legend cut on the reverse of a magnificent
Serapis head (Wood), which reads thus :

IABATAOP

©ONATHCAAI

APBA0I

AAM

AU)

This will only be translatable if transposed as follows: IABATAOP .
0ONATHC . AAIAAM . APBA0 . lACx). " Jehovah, the Pure yEther,
the Fire,* for ever, the Four, lao," where " the Four " signifies
the Tetrad, so conspicuous in the Theogony of Marcus. This
legend seems much of the same nature as the Greek one cut
on a piece of copper (communicated to me by Prof. Ch.
Babington) : 6 Sia TTOLVTWV Novs, cu$r/p, Trvp, Trvev^ta, eAcoetv eAweti/
(Elohim). The only word in the first legend not reducible to
Hebrew is Qovar, but it seems to correspond to the "./Ether *' of
the copper piece, APAANA ©AMAKA ZAABANA XAMKIM, "Our
Light, let thy goodness grant unto us a full lap " : whence the
object of such a talisman would seem to be the procuring of
fecundity.j

ANAKAA A KA A AGO) I GO I, "Pursue then (my foes) unto
destruction, 0 Lord," is found very appropriately engraven on
the reverse of a sphinx, the recognised emblem of power and
slaughter.

* A B P A M , which often occurs in f H C represents the Hebrew word

these legends, may perhaps refer to for " Fire " : and this explanation is

the Kabbinical " Seir-Anpen," the confirmed by the TO <i>U)C HYP

Primitive Man, made up of 213 4>AOH accompanying a figure of

numbers, the numerical value of the Phre on a gem elucidated by Froeh-

Hebrew letters in the name. ner in his ' Byrsa,' part i.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. £13

BAPIA ZAZTA IAU), " Jehovah the Creator, the Destroyer.'
Chaldee slightly corrupted.

IA0AI, "The providence of God."

MAO A HE, " The honour of God."

PEOTHAE, " The will of God."

XCUMI, " The power of God."

ZBU) " Wisdom."

These Coptic words thus designate the Five Emanations
from the Godhead — viz., Phronesis, Logos, Nous, Dynamis,
Sophia.

'' enlightening mine eye,"

or

" enlightening me,"
Meireni M'ireni

If HNAMEPU) and MAPCOHNI are really the same, it will be
conclusive against ii, where the eni is an affix. The form then
might be

TXID iyy
enimeir.

Query what of the U) ?

101 placed on each side of the Chnuphis serpent engraved
in green jade (S. S. Lewis) is correct Hebrew for k' With me,"
which gives an appropriate sense if understood as a prayer for
the constant presence of the protecting Spirit.

MEZ XANAAU),* "The Messiah be propitious unto me."

MAPU)HNI,* " Enlighten mine eyes."

K ATA A K AT. The Basilidan name for the Saviour is written
by Epiphanius K ATA A K ATX, who ridicules it as an expression
taken from Isaiah (xxviii. 10) without any regard to the

* The Syrian Alexander Sevcrus converted into "Maria." HNAM-

expresses his indignation at the sight EPU), which often accompanies the

of a certain notorious rogue, Arabi- figure of the Cynocephalus, seems to

anus, coming to Court, by exclaiming be equivalent to the phrase in the

" O Marna, O Jupiter," &c., where text : and as that beast belongs to

his native " Our Lord " he renders Thoth, god of Imoicledge, this inter-

by " Jupiter," for the benefit of his pretation has at least appropriateness

Kornan hearers. This word the in its favour.
monkish transcribers very naturally

314

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

real meaning of the words. Bellermann, however, thinks
he has found a more sensible derivation for the title in Arabic,
signifying " Strength upon strength," that is, the " All-
powerful" ; or else in the Coptic KAB, " a lamp," and so implying
" The burning and the shining Light."

MOT0, "Mother," Plutarch informs us (De Is. et Os.), was a
title given to Isis. This word contains a plain allusion to the
earth, " lutum Prometheum," whence Man was taken. MOT0
and | EOTA are translated by Sanconiathon as " Hades " and
" Only-begotten," the offspring of the Phoenician Cronos.

MOOT for the Coptic NOTT, "God."

MAI MTM TXATM GDI, "Being, Fount, Salvation, Food,
lao " : implying that lao is the source, food, life, and salvation
of the soul.

OPOOPIOT0, " Light of Light."*

TAAA APAIU) OUAPAOPO NTOKO NBAI, "Protector, Creator,
rule, speak, 0 Lord," is a very common formula.

ZEZEMEN BAPANTHN lACx), written with many variations,
and followed by the names of the great Angels, has been
ingeniously deciphered by a learned Hebraist (Rev. E. Sinker)
as representing the sound of " Shengab hor anje Jehevoh,"
" They that stand before the Mountain of God/' that is, the
Angels of the Presence, j

XAIA, " Life," is seen on a field of the Eoman gem bearing two
figures of Providentia, with the Sun and Moon on the field
overhead (Major Pearse).

Three Greek characters often occur in juxtaposition — viz., the
E set on its back, a vertical line crossed by two horizontal
strokes, and Z. They stand for the numerals 5, 3, and 7, the
Triad, Pentad, Ileptad — lucky and sacred numbers in the
religious notions of the East. For the same reason the inscrip
tions on our gems will be found to be arranged for the most
part in either three, five, or seven lines. This also accounts for
the name lao being often written with its elements repeated

* This legend always goes with ye(y}& apavynv law.
the udder-shaped vase of the Isiac » pjjy in 3J3G? '"I 'D 'J

rites. fftyei/ flap eV%€

t

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 315

COAIAOJ,* for the sake of obtaining the venerated numeral, five.
And, again, by introducing another vowel, H, the Holy Name is
repeated under five different forms, HAI.AIH.HICxJ.AIGO.IAU).

The Priest officiating, commonly figured in these designs, wears
upon his head the " calantica," a square of purple cloth whence
spring two flamingo feathers ; a badge which made Trrepo'^opos
a synonym for the Egyptian priesthood. The staff in his
hand, emblem of his office, has the serpent coiled five times
about it. This " sceptrum sacerdotal e " furnishes the true
explanation of the meaning of many ancient insignia, beginning
with Moses' wand, then the club of ^Esculapius, and closing
with its derivative the rod in the spiral of 3SS that so
constantly goes with the Agathoda3mon serpent upon the
Chnuphis gems.

As for the geometrical figures so often introduced, they may be
supposed to have had much the same import here as in the
formulas of the Eosicrucians, who obtained these with other
Gnostic paraphernalia probably by tradition from the Arabs ;
for their pretended founder, the Great Unknown A. S., is
declared to have acquired his small learning at the College of
Damascus. In their system the Square stands for the Four
Elements ; the Triangle for the body, the spirit, and the life :
and also for Sun, Moon, arid Mercury. The last Triad
Paracelsus interprets by salt, sulphur, vmcltsilver — the three
radical forces of Nature according to his system. The PJiombus
represents the Orphic Egg, out of which issued the whole
Creation.

Phoenician Numerals may, from the very nature of the case, be
looked for amongst the marks that cannot be referred to the
Greek alphabet. The notation was simplicity itself : one to nine
being expressed by vertical strokes, so many times repeated j
ten by a horizontal one ; twenty by two such parallel to
each other, sometimes slightly curving together. In the

* Stiechel has a very ingenious I EGO AIM = vivit existens.

explanation of this permutation of AICOOVEV — isque est luo

vowels ; he makes it express different A I H A H I (x) H = existeus vivit.

tenses of the Hebrew verb to exist, OOAIHOYE = isque lao
thus —

316 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Palmyrene notation five has a special cypher, a sloping line
upon which in the middle stands another at right angles.

It was to be expected that Samaritan characters should make
their appearance upon the productions of a religion of which the
reputed founder was a Samaritan, whose professed followers
also formed an important sect as late as the times of Hippoly-
tus. Stiechel interprets the reverse legend on his above-quoted
gem as having its commencing words written in this alphabet :
thus —

AV Z = qui tenet.

VI = signum sat.

PAct>ACx) == ejus sanat.
PPI~V<t>CjL) = exorcista corpus.

TAB PI I = facilitates.

IHIAII = et vitam.
III! = fiat! fiat!

He also points out that the important word " Au(}i" = sign or
token, is written in these legends in four different ways :
0VO, EVO, EIW, VIE.

It is possible tliat in certain legends the letters, taken in an
order known to one having the key, would give a definite
meaning; and this suspicion is supported by the reversing of
some of the characters. Certain it is that the Donatists
adopted such a device in order to disguise their proscribed
war-cry from the victorious Catholics. A door-lintel at
Tebessa exhibits the well-known formula thus —

VDES DICA

EOLAY £ SVM

a

to be read by the brethren " Deo laudes dicamus." A second
lintel bears the same in monogram.

The most famous spell of all, ABRACADABRA, is first
mentioned by Serenus Sammonicus, the most learned Roman
of his times, and physician to Caracalla, to whom he dedicated
his poetical ' Guide to Health,' entitled ' De Medicina prsecepta
saluberrima.' This work, remarks Spartian, was the favourite
study of the unfortunate Cassar, Geta, for attachment to whose
cause this true son of Apollo was afterwards put to death
by the imperial fratricide. Severus Alexander also, " who had
known and loved Serenus," greatly admired his poetry, putting

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS. 317

him on a level with Horace, as Lampridius' expressions seem
to intimate. This high authority orders the word to be written
out in the form of an inverted cone, and declares it of virtue
against all diseases.

" Thou shalt on paper write the spell divine,
Abracadabra called, in many a line;
Each under each in even order place,
But the last letter in each line efface.
As by degrees the elements grow few
Still take away, but fix the residue,
Till at the last one letter stands alone
And the whole dwindles to a tapering cone.
Tie this about the neck with flaxen string;
Mighty the good 'twill to the patient bring.
Its wondrous potency shall guard his head —
And drive disease and death far from his bed."

The belief in the virtue of this recipe flourished through the
Middle Ages. It seems alluded to in the • Dialogue on Masonry,'
ascribed by Leland to Henry VI. ; for amongst " the things that
Masons conceal" is " the winrjynge of the faculty e of Alrac " :
perhaps signifying the possession of this mystical arrangement
of letters : unless, indeed, one chooses to suspect in this
"facultye" a deeper sense, some traditionary knowledge of the
ancient Abraxas religion. Again, De Foe mentions how people
commonly wore the word written in the manner above pre
scribed, as a safeguard against infection during the Great
Plague of London.

As for the etymology of the word, the most satisfactory yet
offered is the compound of the Hebrew Ha-Braelmli, " blessing,"
and Dobara, " speak " ; meaning the " Blessing of the Mystic
Name " — that is, utter the Tetragrammatou, invoke the Holy
Name of Jehovah, itself the mightiest of charms.*

It is very remarkable, considering its high repute, that no
Gnostic stone bearing such an inscription should be known
to exist. On the other hand that normal address to lao,
ABAAN0AAABA, " Thou art our Father! " is so found on talis-
manic jaspers arranged in the exact pattern recommended by

* By the mere utterance whereof to cast out devils from all who ap-
the philosopher Theosebius, though plied to him for aid.
unacquainted with magic, was able

318 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Serenus for the paper spell, and probably so done in compliance
with his directions. One is strongly tempted to discover in
this same Ha-Brachah the real origin of the equally famous
title " Abraxas." The Greek letters, constantly in use for
numerals, at once presented their numeric value in every word
to the practised eye of the Kabalist.

The celebrated letter of Christ to Abgarus was (according to
Cedrenus) sealed with the initials of the seven Hebrew words,
whose Greek interpretation was ®co? ®eo$ev Oav^a Otiov.
At the mere sight of the seal the king was healed of his
gout and of his black leprosy, all but a slight trace upon
the face remaining to be cleansed by the waters of baptism.
Cedrenus' Greek reads like a popular formula, and may serve to
explain the legend on the reverse of an Abraxas gem in
my possession, IXOEOGOHIAIACx), as to be read 'I^o-ous XpKrro?
@eos CK ©COT} law, " Jesus Christ, God of God, Jehovah."
This inscription encloses the letters IH placed conspicuously
in the centre, and which probably represent, as nearly as
the t\vo discordant alphabets allow, the Hebrew letters Jod,
He, the Kabalistic name of the Tikkan, " Express Image," or
First Emanation of the Godhead.

The Crescent and Seven Stars, amongst which are scattered
the mystical Seven Vowels, has for reverse this formula : —

1A1IX3C13
OHTO93N

©HAATO

Its first line, but written AX0IU)<t>l, is cut in beautiful
characters on the reverse of a caduceus within a wreath. Sinker
reads it as >S> ipy, Essence, Beauty: probably the rest arc
names of virtues. It is inconceivable that the Sephiroth —
mightiest spell of all— should be omitted in these gems. It is
made up of the Ten attributes of Jehovah — viz., The Crown,
Wisdom, Prudence, Security, Magnificence, Goodness, Glory,
Victory, Fortitude, Kingdom. There is consequently a pro
bability that these Names often lurk in the phonetic Hebrew,
enveloping all in darkness. We have for guide the analogy of
the present Arab talismans, consisting of the ninety-nine
epithets of Allah written on a scroll.

THE GNOSTICS AND THETR REMAINS. 319

THE NAME IAO.

Diodorus Siculus, when enumerating the different legislators
of antiquity, says, " Amongst the Jews Moses pretended that
the god surnamed lao gave him his laws " (i. 94). And this is
elucidated by the remark of Clemens Alexandrinus, that the
Hebrew Tetragrammaton, or Mystic Name, is pronounced IAOT-
and signifies "He that is and shall be." Theodoret states that
the same four letters were pronounced by the Samaritans as
I ABE (Jave) ; by the Jews as I AH. Jerome (upon Psalm viii.N-
says, " The Name of the Lord " amongst the Hebrews is of four
letters, lod, He, Van, He, which is properly the Name of God,
and may be read as IAHO (Idho) (that is in Latin characters),
which is held by the Jews for unutterable. The author of the
' Treatise on Interpretations ' says, " The Egyptians express
the name of the Supreme Being by the seven Greek vowels
IEHHOTA":* which sufficiently explains the mighty potency
ascribed to this formula by the inspired author of the ' Pistis-
Sophia,' and equally so its frequent appearance upon the
talismans now under consideration,

Eabbi Tarphon (Tryphon), who could remember the Second
Temple, noticed that the Ineffable Name, though occurring a
hundred times in the course of the daily service, was " rather

* According to the Talmud, the Dante alludes to a curious tradi-

Name of God, which was communi- tion that the name of God, revealed

cated only to the most pious of the to Adam, was I, which succeeding

priesthood, was composed of twelve times changed into Eli:

letters. And upon our talismans the « pria ch' io scendessi all' infernale

vowels inclosing I AO are often found ambascia,

repeated so as to make up that I s'appellava in terra il somnio

number ; whence it may be inferred ~ Beue,

that their union represents the same fascia'61 ** ^'^ ^ ""

ineffable sound. In the same passage ELI si chiamo ; poi, e cio conviene,

mention is made of another Name of Che 1' uso dei mortali e come

God, consisting of forty-two letters, fronda,

which in its turn may serve to ac- In ramo, die sen va, ed altra viene."

count for the lines of often-repeated ( Parad-' xxvi. 133).

vowels similarly to be met with.

320 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

warbled than pronounced." A precious hint this, as indicating
how the Gnostic strings of boneless vowels give an approxima
tion to the audible and yet unuttered sound. Since the
destruction of the Temple, the Name has never been heard in
prayer, or pronounced aloud. It is communicated, indeed, to
every Rabbi, after his ordination, but not in full. One half of it
is told ; the rest he is left to make out for himself.

The first idea of an " Ineffable Name," and all its inherent
virtues, evidently came to the Egyptians (from whom the Jews
borrowed it) from the Hindoo doctrine respecting the title
AUM, — itself, like the AIO, trilateral — representing the Triad,
Brahma- Vishnu-Siva : A standing for the Creator, U for the
Preserver, M for the Destroyer. The connection between
Indian and Egyptian mythology is certain, however difficult to
account for, the names of the principal deities in the latter
having the appearance of pure Sanscrit. Thus Isis signifies in
that tongue the Mistress ; Tat and Sat, Virtue and Power ; Serapis,
Sripa, the Blood-drinker ; Nila, Blue-icatcr, &c. The original
identity of the two religious systems no one can doubt who has
intelligently studied the monuments of each : but which country
instructed the other ?

The balance of probabilities is strongly in favour of India,
the confinement of the peculiar system within the narrow
limits of Egypt betokening an importation by a colony from
some very remote source. Traces of a very ancient intercourse
between the two countries are discernible, though very dimly,
in history. The Periplus of the Eed Sea mentions that as late
as Caesar's time the townEndeemon on thatcoast was the entrepot
where the Indian and Egyptian traders used annually to meet.
In prehistoric times therefore it is conceivable that Brahminical
missionaries may have laboured amongst the aborigines of the
Valley of the Nile. This religious analogy manifests itself in
the meanest details, in the sacred titles as well as attributes.
For example, as the Brahmins teach tint each of the letters
A, U, M envelops a great mystery, so does the Pistis-SopJiia
('Prayers of the Saviour,' § 358) interpret the |, A, O, as the
summary of the Gnostic, or Valentinian, creed. " I signifies .
All goctli out ; A, All returneth within ; n, There sliall be an end of

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 321

ends " : thus expressing the grand doctrines of the Emanation,
the Return, and the Annihilation, or rather reabsorption, of the
Universe.*

To turn now to Greece — in the same way as Abraxas is no
other than a numerical title of the Solar god, so does loo
actually make its appearance as an epithet of the same
divinity. Macrobius (Sat. i. 18), whilst labouring to prove that
the Sun-worship was in truth the sole religion of Paganism,
under whatever name it was disguised, gives a notice very
much to our purpose. The Apollo of Claros, when consulted as
to the true nature of the god called 'laos, gave the following
response : —

" The sacred things ye learn, to none disclose,
A little falsehood much discretion shows;
Regard laos as supreme above,
In winter Pluto, in spring's opening Jove,
Phoebus through blazing summer rules the day,
Whilst autumn owns the mild laos' f sway."

Here we find lao expressly recognised as the title of the
Supreme God whose physical representative is the Sun. Again
we have Dionysos or Bacchus added to the list by Orpheus, who
sings

"Jove, Pluto, Phoebus, Bacchus, all are One."

A distinct recognition this of the grand principle of Brahmin -
ism — that all the different deities are but representations of the
different attributes of the One. The same truth is curiously
expressed upon a talisman (Hertz collection) which at the
same time sets forth the triune nature of the Supreme Being
whose visible type is the Sun. It is a heart-shaped piece of
basalt engraved with seated figures of Ammon and Ea (the
Zeus and Helios of the Greeks), with the sacred Asp erect
between them. The reverse bears the invocation neatly cut
in characters of the third century —

EIC BAIT EIC A0QP MIA TON BIA EIC AE AXHPI
XAIPE FIATEP KOCMOT XAIPE TPIMOPOE ©EOC
* This has a remarkable analogy f a&fiv 'low, where the epithet

with the Brahminical definition of seems suggested by the name Abraxas
God as " the Self-existing, Eternal, so generally coupled with it.
Supreme Being, who is the Cause of
everything, and into whom e very-
tiling is finally absorbed"?

322 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

"There is One Bait, One Athor, their power is one and the
same, there is One Achori. Hail Father of the universe, hail
God under three forms ! " Concerning the three figures a
word is necessary in explanation of their titles. As for the
hawk-head Ea, Horapollo gives for reason of the type ; " The
hawk stands for the Supreme Mind, and for the intelligent
soul. The hawk is called in the Egyptian language ' Baieth,'
from ~bai soul, and etli heart, which organ they consider the
seat or inclosure of the soul." A sufficient explanation this
for the shape in which the talisman is formed. Achoreus, the
virtuous priest-councillor of the last of the Ptolemies (see
Lucan), derives his name from the sacred serpent here invoked.
That lews was recognised by the Greeks as an epithet for
the Sun in the autumnal quarter has been shown from
Macrobius. The philosophical interpreters of the ancient
mythology discovered in Dionysos also a mere type of the same
luminary. " One is Zeus, Hades, Helios, and Dionysos." And
Serapis is substituted for the last in an oracle quoted by Julian :
nor must it be forgotten that the main object of Macrobius in
the above-quoted dissertation is to prove, that Serapis is a
representative of the various powers of the Solar deity all
combined in one figure. Again, to the yame effect, comes
Virgil's famous apostrophe —

" Yos, 0 clarissima mundi,
Lumina labentem qui ccelo ducitis annum,
Liber et alma Ceres!"

where " Bacchus " and " Ceres " do no more than interpret
Osiris and Isis, the Sun and Moon. Here lies the reason for
equipping Bacchus with horns in some of his statues.

" Accedant capiti cornua Bacchus eris," ^ays Sappho to
Phaon. For in Hebrew a radiated and a horned head is ex
pressed by the same word. When Moses came down from the
Mount, "cornuta erat facies ejus," according to the version
of the Yulgate; and on the strength of this mistranslation
Christian art hath ever graced the Jewish lawgiver with these
appendages.

In this very title lao undoubtedly lies the origin of the
universal persuasion of the ancients that the Jehovah of the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 323

Jews — whose name was thus expressed in Greek letters — was
no other than the Egyptian Bacchus. For this notion they
found strong support in the Golden Vine which formed the
sole visible decoration of the Temple ; in the " blowing the
trumpets at the New Moon," and the custom of keeping
the Feast of Tabernacles in huts made of leafy boughs,
accompanied with many of the ceremonies used at the Grecian
Dionysia : " Quia sacerdotes eorum tibia tympanis concinebant,
hedera vinciebantur, vitisque aurea templo reperta " (Tacit.
Hist. v. 5.) This opinion as to the real nature of the Jewish
worship Tacitus quotes as the one generally held by the learned
of his own times, although he cannot bring himself to accept
it as satisfactory — although merely on the grounds that the
gloomy arid unsocial character of the religion seemed to dis
prove its relationship to the merry worship of the " god of
wine," the only character in which the Romans recognised
Bacchus. Nevertheless this ancient theory has found sup
porters in modern times, notably in the overlearned Dr.
Stanley, rector of St. George the Martyr, who (without
giving much scandal to his own easy-going generation) ad
vocated this heterodox opinion in an elaborate treatise which
puts to shame the boldest flights of the ' Essays and Reviews,'
or even the interpretations of our indiscreet apostle to the
Zulus. Ludicrously enough, the German Jews still celebrate
the Feast of Purim, and the Fall of Haman, by getting as royally
drunk as their means afford, and thus to the present day do
their best to perpetuate the old Roman aspersion. Amongst the
later Gnostics, indeed, some rites were unmistakably borrowed
from the Bacchanalia, singularly modified by Christian doctrine.
Epiphanius relates (Ha3res. xxxvii.) how that "they kept a
tame serpent in a chest or sacred ark, and piled loaves upon a
table before the same, and then called upon the serpent to come
forth. Whereupon, opening of himself the ark, he would
come forth, mount upon the table, and twine about the loaves,
which they broke in pieces, and distributed amongst the
worshippers, calling this their 'Perfect Sacrifice' and their
* Eucharist.' "

Another explanation as to the true character of the

Y 2

324 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

named lao must not be passed over in silence, however little
foundation it may have in truth, seeing that it is supported by
the authority of the learned historian of Gnosticism, Jacques
Matter. The Moon to the Egyptians, as to the Orientals of
to-day, was of the masculine gender, and was designated by the
phonetic name Aali or loJi. Thoth was sometimes identified with
this deity; and therefore Thoth's emblem, the ibis, accompanied
with the crescent, bears the legend loh, " because (says Plutarch)
Mercury attends the Moon in her journey round the earth in
the same way as Hercules doth the Sun." When Thoth, Tat,
appears as Mercury he has the head of an ibis; but in his
character of the Moon-god, or Dens Lumis, he shows the face of
a man supporting the lunar crescent enclosing the sun's disk
and surmounted by a double plume.

Hence came the notion mentioned by Plutarch, that " the
Egyptians call the Moon the Mother of Creation, and say it is
of both sexes " : and to the same effect Spartian (Caracalla,
vii.) explains that the Egyptians in the mysteries (mystice)
call the Moon a male, though designating it a female in ordinary
speech. He adds that the people of Carrhal (famed for its great
temple of Deus Lunus) hold that " whatsoever man thinks the
moon should be called of the feminine gender shall pass his
life a slave unto women, whereas he that holds it to be a male
deity shall rule over his wife and be secured against all female
treachery." A very sufficient reason this for the fondness of
Spartian' s contemporaries for wearing in their signet rings the
vcra effigies of the Carrhene god, a youth in a Phrygian cap,
his bust supported on the crescent that gives his name. This
elegant effeminate lunar genius is in truth no other than the
modernized and tasteful version of the griin old Assyrian
" Sin," pictured in the Ninevitish monuments as an aged man
leaning on his staff as he floats through the heavens on the
crescent, presenting a ludicrous resemblance to our popular idea
of the " Man in the Moon." A blue calcedony in my possession
fully illustrates Plutarch's title of "Mother of Creation." It
exhibits a perfect hermaphrodite figure wearing the Egyptian
head-dress, and squatting down so as more clearly to display
its bisexual nature : below creeps a snail surmounted by a

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 325

butterfly, the well-understood emblems of laseiviousness and
life, the fount of propagation.

All this brings us to Matter's theory (based on a statement
of Origen's), that lao, Adonai, Sabaoth signified the genii of the
Moon, the Sun, and the Planets — being far inferior in power
and even antagonistic to Abraxas, who is the aetual representative
of the Supreme Source of Light. Matter therefore explains the
warlike attitude in which the Abraxas-god is regularly depicted
as declaring his office of scaring away the Adversary, or
demon, lao, who is expressed by his name alone, placed in the
lowest part of the scene, to denote his inferiority. But the
authority of the monuments themselves is more than sufficient
to upset such an interpretation of the meaning given to them
by the actual manufacturers. The doctrine mentioned by
Origen was, it cannot be denied, that of the more recent sect,
which set itself above all old Egyptian or Hebrew tradition :
but it most assuredly was not of the immense body of primitive
Kabbalistic Gnostics who excogitated and put their trust in the
sigils that they have bequeathed to us in such fantastical
profusion. These talisman -makers evidently held Thoth and
Moses in equal reverence : they had nothing to do with the
Valentinians, who had an obvious motive for exalting their
newly-invented invisible Tetrad, by so immeasurably degrading
below it the most venerated names of the old religion. The
Valentinians were Greeks by education, really drawing their
inspiration from Pythagoras and Plato, and only too well
pleased with the opportunity of venting their natural spite
upon the most cherished ideas of the Alexandrine Kabbalists,
the grand fabricants of our talismans, those veritable " Pierres
d'Israel."

The Pistis-Soplda continually introduces, as a most important
actor in its scenes of the judgment and purification of the
soul, "the great and good lao, ruler of the Middle Sphere,"
who when he looks down into the places of torment causes tho
souls therein imprisoned to be set at liberty. The very
collocation of the words on our talismans clearly denotes that
Adonai, Sabaoth, are equally with Abraxas the titles of lao, who
is the god actually represented by the symbolical figure these

326 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

words accompany. What else would be the motive for their
collocation in a prayer like this (on a gem published by Matter
himself)—" lao, Abraxas, Adonai, Holy Name, Holy Powers,*
defend Vibia Paulina from every evil spirit " ? And, again, these
same names perpetually occur united together, and followed by
the address ABAANA0ANAABA, " Thou art our Father" ; CGM€C
6IAAM, "Eternal Sun"; a mode of adoration that could not
possibly have been applied to beings of a discordant, much less
of an antagonistic, nature to each other. Besides, if Abraxas
were the opponent and ultimate destroyer of lao, it would have
been absurd to put the names of the two in such close union,
the latter even taking precedence; each, too, being equally
invoked in the accompanying prayer, and honoured with the
same epithets of majesty. Moreover the composite figure, or
Pantheus, which, as all writers agree, represents the actual god
Abraxas, is much more frequently inscribed with the name I AGO
tli an with ABPACAZ ; and nevertheless, though the former name
stands alone, it is followed by the same glorification, " Thou art
our Father," &c., as when the two names are engraved in
juxtaposition. It is moreover quite opposed to all the rules oi
symbolism to represent the one actor in a scene by his proper
figure or emblem, and to indicate the other by the simple letters
of his name : and equally repugnant to common sense to depict
the figure of the god with the name of his adversary placed in
the most conspicuous portion of the tableau. The absurdity is
as great as though in Christian art one should paint a Crucifix
with Satan's name in the place of the holy I . N . R . I , and
give for explanation the hostility of the two personages. And
lastly, it has been already shown that the numerical or Kabbal-
istic value of the name Abraxas directly refers to the Persian
title of the god, " Mithras," Euler of the year, worshipped from
the earliest times under the apellation of lao. Matter himself

* A parallel to this form still one object of adoration by heaping

exists m the Turkish amulet com- upon him a multitude of honorific

posed of the ninety-and-nine epithets titles expressive of his various attri-

of Allah written on a paper, and butes. Amulets of this and various

believed to possess wondrous pro- other kinds are regularly sold at the

tcctive po\ver. The spirit of all mosques.
Oriental religions is to glorify the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 327

publishes (PI. iii. 2) a gem that should have convinced him of his
error, had he not overlooked the force of its legend. The type is
Horus seated on the lotus, inscribed ABPACAZ lACx) — an address
exactly parallel to the so frequent EIC ZETC CAPAHI on the
contemporary Heathen gems ; and therefore only to be trans
lated by " Abraxas is the One Jehovah."

The " Great Name " with its normal titles is often to be observed
interpolated by a Gnostic hand upon works of a better period
and creed, but whose subjects were fancied analogous to the
ideas conveyed by the lao Pantheus : such as Phoebus in
his car, the Lion — House of the Sun, the Sphinx emblem of
royalty, and the Gorgon's Head of the Destructive Force, or of
Providence.* But the most interesting of such adopted types
that has come to my knowledge, as unmistakably pointing out
the deity really understood by the name Abraxas, is a work
discovered by myself amongst the miscellanea of a small pri
vate collection (Bosanquet). In this we behold the familiar
Pantheus with head of cock, cuirassed body, and serpent-legs
brandishing the whip and driving the car of Sol,f in the
exact attitude of its proper occupant, Phoebus. In the exergue
is the salutation CABACx), " Glory unto th( e " : 011 the reverse,
in a cartouche formed by a coiled asp — precisely as the Hindoos
write the Ineffable Name AUM — are engraved the titles I AGO
ABPACAZ, attesting that one deity alone is meant, and that
one to be the Kuler of the Sun.

* The holy name has often been cited (section "Abraxas gems ").

added to iutagli of a foreign nature The god is giving the benediction

merely for the sake of turning them with his right hand, and holds a

into talismans : for example, on the sceptre in his left. Upon another

reverse of a heliotrope with Victory, coin of the same emperor and mint

inscribing a shield (K. S. Williams, he is seated on the Earn, clearly

Utica, U.S.). meaning the Sun in that sign, and

f Exactly as Serapis (also a type perhaps having no deeper meaning

of the Sun-god) makes his appear- than the date of the month when

ance upon an Alexandrian coin of coined.
Hadrian's, which has been already

328 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

ABRAXAS, NEW TYPE OF.

A most singular variation upon the normal type of the
Abraxas pantheus gives him the head of Serapis for that of the
usual cock. In the field between the serpents are the genital
organs, of disproportionate size, represented in a state of rest,
not as the fascinum properly appear on amulets ; and unmis
takably displaying the seal of circumcision. This circumstance
is another proof to be added to all those previously observed,
that the fabricators of this class of talismans were the Egyptian
Jews. As the distinguishing principle of the Gnosis in all its
forms was the reprobation of the " doing the work of the
Demiurgus " — that is, the propagation of the species — it is
evident that the object of this symbolism was not of a religious
kind. It is probable that the idea was to produce a talisman of
medicinal use, perhaps for the cure of impotence or other
affections of the parts represented. Of medicinal talismans,
expressing their purpose by the legends they bear, numerous
examples have been already published. The one now described
was made known to me through an impression brought by
the Eev. S. S. Lewis of a jasper in the Bourgignon collection
at Rome. Another very uncommon subject in the same
collection is a skeleton seated on a throne, holding a lance, or
perhaps sceptre. Although perfectly corresponding with the
mediaeval representation of Death, yet the spirited though rude
extension of the intaglio is that of the earlier Gnostic period,
and the idea intended was that of a larva, not that of the
Destroying Power. In the Stosch Cabinet is a similar figure
borne along in a car by steeds as fleshless as himself, like
the Wild Hunter of the German legend.

FIG. 14.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 329

ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF THESE FORMULAE.

The interpretation of Gnostic legends and the nature of the
deity to whom they were addressed have been thus far the sub
jects of our inquiry : the next step is to search contemporary
writers for information as to the special purpose for which the
talismans so enriched were originally manufactured. The
motive for placing in the coffin of the defunct illuminate these
" words of power " graven on scrolls of lead, plates of bronze,
the gems we are considering, and doubtless to an infinitely
greater extent on more perishable materials, derives much light
from the description Epiphanius gives (Hair, xxxvi.) of the
ceremony whereby the IIeracleonita3 prepared their dying
brother for the next world. They sprinkled his head with water
mingled with oil and opobalsamum, repeating at the same time
the form of words used by the Marcosians in baptism, in order
that his Inner Man, thus provided, might escape the vigilance of
the Principalities and Powers whose domains he was about to
traverse, and mount up unseen by any to the Pleroma from which
he had originally descended. Their priests therefore instructed
the dying man that as he came before these Powers he was
to address them in the following words : " I, the son from the
Father, the Father pre-existing but the son in the present time,
am come to behold all things both of others and of my own, and
things not altogether of others but belonging unto Achamoth
(Wisdom), who is feminine and hath created them for herself.
But I declare my own origin from the Pre-existing One, and I
am going back unto my own from which I have descended."
By the virtue of these words he will elude the Powers, and arrive
at the Demiurgus in the eighth sphere, whom again he must
thus address : " I am a precious vessel, superior to the female
power who made thee, inasmuch as thy mother knoweth not
her own origin, whereas I know myself, and I know whence I
am ; and I invoke the Incorruptible Wisdom who is in the
father and in the mother of your mother that hath no father,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

nay, not even a male consort, but being a female sprung from
a female that created thee, though she herself knows not her
mother, but believes herself to exist alone. But I invoke the
mother." At this address the Demiurgus is struck with con
fusion (as well he might be), and forced to acknowledge the
baseness of his origin : whereupon the inner man of the Gnostic
casts off his bondage as well as his own angel, or soul,
which remains with the Demiurgus for further use, and
ascends still higher into his proper place. For every man is
made up of body, soul, and inner man, this last being the more
spiritual nature. This same belief was the popular one of the
Jews, as appears from Rhoda's exclamation at the unhoped-for
reappearance of Peter, whom she supposed already put to death.

The Achamoth here mentioned is the Sephandomad of
Zoroaster, the Wisdom of the later Jews — so fully described by
the pseudo-Solomon under that title (vii. 25). " She is the
Spirit of the virtue of God, the pure emanation of the brightness
of the Almighty, the brightness of the eternal Light, the mirror
without spot of his majesty, the image of his goodness." " Wis
dom hath made her house upon seven pillars." The naked woman,
or Venus Anadyouieiie, so often seen on these gems, is the same
idea expressed by the ancient Greek type. One given by Caylus
(*Reo. d'Ant.' vi. PI. 21) explains its destination in terms
sufficiently clear, despite their corrupt Byzantine orthography :
IAU) CABACx) AAONAI HKAI EAAAZEIGON TOT TAPTAPOT
CKOTIN, "Jehovah, Sabaoth, Lord, come and deliver me from
the darkness of Hell ! "

Could the long legends covering so many of these jasper tablets
be interpreted, most probably their purport would be found of
the same nature with the just-cited Heracleonitan passport for
the Pleroma : it were but a natural precaution on his friends'
part to supply the deceased brother with a correct copy of such
long-winded involved professions of faith, and which otherwise
would be extremely apt to escape his memory ; the more
especially as being only confided to him by his spiritual guides
when he was already at the last gasp.

Of the practice itself, the origin undoubtedly lay in the very
ancient Egyptian rule of placing in the mummy cases those

GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 331

elaborate «* Litanies of the Dead " of which so many have come
down to our times :* papyrus scrolls containing the prayers to
be addressed by the soul to each god whose " gate " it has to
traverse on its way to final rest. To prevent mistakes, the
portrait of each deity is prefixed to the column of prayers
due to him, and this same arrangement is found in the
leaden scrolls belonging to the heterogeneous doctrine of the
Gnostics.

The same custom yet holds its ground in India, probably
its pristine source. Tavernier notices that the Brahmins
placed on the breast of the corpse seven pieces of paper,
inscribed with the prayers to be uttered by the soul as soon as
released from its corporeal envelope by the flames of the funeral
pile.f

The gem-talismans that remain in such varied abundance are
themselves recognised in the few surviving writings of the
Gnostic teachers. The Pistis-Soplda is full of allusions to the
Seals and Numbers of the different ^Eons and the other Powei s,J
and with the repeated promise of the Saviour to reveal these
all unto his hearers ; a promise which, unfortunately, is not
fulfilled in the book as it has come down to us. Nevertheless
the very allusion sufficiently declares the sense in which we are
to understand the C4>PAriC so frequently to be seen on
the talismans. The motive for providing the defunct believer

* " Papyri, it is well known, were excavating in Egypt ; and has been
frequently kept in readiness, with published with facsimile. But the
blank spaces for the names and finest example known is the one
occupation of the deceased : the preserved in the Soane Museum,
papyrus in fact formed part of the hitherto unpublished,
regular funeral appliances. They t The Lord Taraka, if duly pro-
were of three classes, namely Ritual, pitiated, wyill breathe into the dying
Boolts of Transmigrations, and Solar man's ear a mantra or charm of such
Litanies, or descriptions of the power as will secure him a safe
passage of the soul through the passage to heaven.
earth in the solar boat. These J " Then they bring the soul before
highly curious MSS. contain minute the Virgin of Light, and it showeth
descriptions of all the regions through unto the Virgin her own seal, her
which the soul was supposed to pass own form of defence, &c." This
after death." — C. \V. Goodwin. A very illustrative portion of the teach-
MS. of this kind, written in the ing of Valentinus is found in the
fourth century before our era, was Pistis-Sophia.
found by the Prince of \Vales when

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

with a good supply of these imperishable credentials is
sufficiently explained by the " Scheme of the Ophites " (pub
lished by Origen), which details the prayers to be addressed to
the Seven Planetary Powers by the released soul, in its upward
flight.

The prayer to Ildabaoth contains this indication : " 0 princi
pal Spirit of the Pure Intelligence, Perfect Work in the eyes of
the Father and of the Son, in presenting unto thee in this seal
the sign of Life open the gates closed by thy power unto the
world, and freely traverse thy domain."

Again, in saluting lao (here taken from the Lunar Genius) :
' Thou that presides! over the Mysteries of the Father and of
the Son, who sliinest in the night-time, holding the second rank,
(he first Lord of Death ! in presenting thee with this thine own
symbol swiftly pass through thy dominions."

To Sabaoth : " Receive me, on beholding this pure symbol
against which thy Genius cannot prevail ; it is made after the
image of the type ; it is the body delivered by the Pentad."

To Orai (Venus) : " Let me pass, for thou seest the symbol of
thy power annihilated by the sign of the Tree of Life." (Is
this sign the Cross, as Matter supposes, or the actual tree
occasionally to be found on Gnostic gems ?) And it must be
remembered that the primary meaning of symbolum is the im
pression of a signet, which makes it more probable that such is
the sense in which the word is used in all these passages. It
may further be conjectured that in this conversion of the
symbolum into a passport to heaven originated the theological
use of the word to signify a creed or summary of the articles of
Faith.

This same service of talismans in the next world is clearly
recognised in the Pistis-Sophia (§ 293), where Mary Magdalene
gives this curious version of the business of the tribute-penny :
" Thou hast said that the soul giveth an account of itself, and
likewise a seal unto all the Rulers that be in the regions of King
Adamas, and giveth the account the honour and the glory of all
the seals belonging unto them, and also the hymns of the king
dom of Light. This therefore is the word which thou spakest
\N lien the stater was brought unto thee, and thou sawcst that it

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 333

was of silver and likewise of copper.* Thereupon thou didst ask,
Whose is this image ? and they answered, Of the King. Then
when thou sawest that it was of silver and also of copper, thou
saidest : Give the part which is the King's unto the King, and
the part which is God's unto God. The which mean eth this:
After that the soul hath received the Mystery it giveth an
account of itself unto all the Eulers and unto the dominion of
King Adamas, and also giveth the glory unto those that pertain
to the Light. And thy saying that it shone, when thou sawest
it, of silver and copper, it is the image and likeness of the soul.
The power of the Light which is therein, the same is the fine
silver : but the Counterfeit of the Spirit (Conscience) is the material
copper."

The grand doctrine of Gnosticism was this : The soul on being
released from the body (its prison-house and place of torment)
has to pass through the regions of the Seven Powers ; which it
cannot do unless impregnated beforehand with knowledge:
otherwise it is seized upon and swallowed by the dragon-formed
Euler of this world, Satan Ophiomorphos, and voided forth
through his tail upon earth again, where it animates a swine or
some such beast, and repeats its career once more. But should
it be filled with knoivledge, it eludes the Seven Powers, and
tramples upon the head of Sabaoth (" of whom they say he
hath the hair of a woman ") and mounts up unto the eighth
heaven, the abode of Barbelo, the Universal Mother, and who
according to the Pistis-Sophia is the celestial Mother of the
Saviour. Epiphanius quotes from the Gospel of Philip another
formula, intended to extort a free passage from the same
Planetary Genii: "The Lord hath revealed unto me what
words the soul must use as it ascendeth up into heaven, and
how it must make answer unto each one of the Celestial
Virtues. 'I have known myself, I have collected myself from
all parts, neither have I begotten sons unto the Ruler of this
world, but I have plucked up the roots, and gathered together
the scattered members. I know thee who thou art, for I am

* A curious remark, pointing tetradrachm of imperial times being
clearly to Alexandria as the place very base silver indied.
where this Gospel \vas written, its

334 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

on^ from above.' But if convicted of having left any offspring
id pon earth, the soul is detained there until it shall have
collected all and attracted these into itself."

This " Self- Collection " was only to be effected through the ob
servance of perpetual chastity, or rather (inevitable compromise)
the practice of the various unnatural vices that regularly spring
from such an article of faith. If however a woman of the
congregation should through want of precaution allow herself
to become pregnant, the Elders produced abortion, took the
foetus and pounded it up in a mortar along with honey, pepper,
and other spices and perfumery. Then this " congregation of
swine and dogs " assembled ; and every one dipping his finger
into the mess, tasted thereof. This they called their Perfect
Passover, saying : " We have not been deceived by the Ruler of
concupiscence, but have gathered up again the backsliding of
our brother." The very plain-spoken Epiphanius gives exact
particulars, not to be put into a modern tongue, of the mode in
which the faithful observed in one sense their vow of perpetual
chastity, without renouncing the joys of Venus. This he
illustrates by the singular explanation then current of the
ancient myth of Saturn's devouring his own offspring, against
which interpretation and the practice thereon founded, even
Clemens had found it needful to warn the orthodox two centuries

before.

To exemplify the punishment ordained for having done the
work of the Demiurgus by leaving offspring upon earth, the
Ophites told a wild legend how that Elias himself was turned
back from the gates of heaven, although to his own conscience a
pure virgin, because a female demon had gathered up of his
seed during his sleep, and formed infants therewith, which to
his unutterable confusion she then and there produced in
testimony of his sin. Hence springs the medieval notion of the
Succuboe, nocturnal temptresses of the continent ; although these
were supposed to do the work of their father the Devil in a
different way, by procuring him the needful supplies for his
amours with the witches, to whom he stood in the ex-officio
relation of paramour.

All this is in strict accordance with what is found in the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 3H5

fragments of the " Gospel to tho Egyptians " ; for Clemens
(Stromata iii.) quotes therefrom this dictum of the Saviour's :
" When Salome asked the Lord how long shall Death prevail?
He answered unto her, So long as ye women do bring forth chil
dren. Wherefore she said, Then I have done well in not bearing
children, seeing that there is no necessity for generation. To
which the Lord answered, Feed upon every herb, but that
which hath bitterness, eat thou not. Again when Salome asked
when the things should be known concerning which she in
quired, the Lord answered, When ye shall not need a covering
for your nakedness ; when the two shall become one, the male
with the female, neither male nor female." It is to these over
strained rules of morality that St. Paul alludes when he ex
postulates with the Colossians (ii. 20) asking them, " Why are
ye subject to ordinances (or rather, make laws for yourselves
without any warrant), namely, touch not (women), taste not
(flesh), handle not (things unclean)."

From the consideration of the value and use of these Gnostic
Symbols in the world to come, we are naturally led to inquire
in what manner they were employed by their owners in this.
The meaning of the word itself has gone through many tran
sitions. "Symbolism" properly signified the contribution of
each member towards the expenses of a Greek drinking-party.
For this purpose each pledged his signet-ring to the caterer
and afterwards redeemed it by paying his quota of the bill.
For this reason Plautus transfers the name of symboluin to the
ring itself. The signet being considered the most trustworthy
of all credentials, the word came to signify any token serving
for the purpose of a credential. For example, Caylus figures
(Rec. V. pi. 55), a bronze right-hand, the natural size, inscribed
on the palm ZTMBOAON HPOZ OTEAATNIOTZ, "Credentials
to the Yelaunii" (a Gallic tribe whose seat was round
Antibes).* The wrist at the section is closed, forming a base,

* The best, as well as the most two fishes, placed side by side, with

interesting example of a symbolism a palm-branch between them ; the
extant, is the one figured by Caylus, I

without any conception of its value reverse is inscribed AA€A<t>OT.
(PI. 87, i.)- It is an ivory disk, two

inches in diameter, engraved with The-well known emblems show this

336 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

so that the hand could stand upright of itself. A pair of
clasped hands, symbol of faith (still called in Italy fede\ was
the common present from one nation or army to another on
making alliance : " Miserat civitas Lingonum veteri institute
dono legionibus dextras hospitii insigne" (Tac. Hist. i. 54).
From the nature of the case such presents must have been
made in the precious metals, and consequently none have been
preserved. This connexion of ideas shows plainly why in
ecclesiastical language symbolum stands for a profession of
faith, a creed, i.e. gr. " Symbolum Apostolicum." And so "by
degrees the word degenerated into its present sense of any
token denoting an idea, more especially a religious one.

Emblem again has passed through equal vicissitudes. At
first, a little silver chasing, intended for letting into plate as
an embellishment of the surface — which the term e/x^A^/xa
neatly expresses — the designs being always mythological, its
name remained, after the fashion had expired, to denote any
representation of that nature. There is, however, a distinction
in the real meaning of emblem and symbol ; the former expressing
by actual representation, the latter by hieroglyphs, the idea
they convey. Thus the emblem of Victory is a winged female
holding a palm ; the symbol of Victory is the palm by itself.

The BAMBINO — the favourite idol of the women of Rome —
bears, in its type and decoration, the most convincing of all
testimony as to the real source of the religion in whose
pantheon it plays so prominent a part. It is a wooden figure,
about two feet high, now passing for the vera effigies of the
Infant Jesus ; but to any eye acquainted with Indian art, an
unmistakable copy of the Infant Buddha. The figure, in
almost full relief, stands in front face, with arms crossed on
the breast, and holding the lotus flower in the one hand, in the
regular attitude of the Hindoo god. But the most striking
feature in the design is the shape of the background, which has
no prototype in Roman art, but is cut into the so-called " pine-

ticket to have been the pass of some as his introduction to the faithful in
" Brother in Christ Jesus," in the whatever part he might require their
primitive ages of the Church, serving help.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 337

apple " outline, which invariably accompanies the sacred images
of India. On the head is a crown, in the Oriental style, and
the close-fitting garment, reaching from neck to ankle, and now
passing for the swaddling-clothes of the baby, is profusely
studded with precious stones— the offerings of a later time. The
very tradition as to its place of manufacture supplies an inkling
of the truth ; for it is said to be the work of a monk at
Jerusalem, and carved out of one of the sacred olive-trees. The
pious artist must have been inspired by the sight of the Indian
prototype, for the resemblance is far too close to be accidental, if
indeed, the whole affair be not another instance of a " christened
Jove."

The very nature of things renders it a necessity for the
members of every secret society to possess means for mutual
recognition that shall escape the observation of the outer
world. The partakers of the Eleusinian Mysteries, appear,
from certain allusions in the classics, to have been furnished
by their sponsors with something of the kind. The refusal
to wear a garland at a feast was accepted as the «gn of a
Mithraic brother. Certain it is that our popular notion about
the "Masonic Grip" was equally current as applied to the
Gnostics in the times of Epiphanius. " On the arrival of any
stranger belonging to the same sect, they have a sign given by
the man to the woman, and vice versa. In holding out the hand
under pretence of saluting each other, they feel and tickle it
in a particular manner, underneath the palm, and by that means
discover whether the new-comer belongs to the same society.
Upon this, Lowever poor they may be, they serve up to him a
sumptuous feast, with abundance of meats and wine. And
after they are well filled the host rises, leaving his wife behind,
bidding her, ' Show thy charity unto this our brother,' " &c.,
carrying out his hospitality to an extent that in our selfish
times no one can expect to meet with unless amongst the
Esquimaux.

As may well be supposed, these symbola are Avidely diffused ;
for Gnosticism was more than co-extensive with the empire of
Koine, and long survived her fall. Besides our guns, plates of
bronze and lead (and oven of gold in the remarkable example

338 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

found near Carnarvon), and rude copper medallions, engraved
with similar devices, are constantly disinterred from ancient
cemeteries, where they had so long protected the repose of
their original possessors. Of that rarer class, the medallions,
the most interesting known to me, was found in Provence
(Praun Cabinet). It shows in intaglio the Abraxas god, for
reverse, the triple Hecate, executed with considerable spirit:
types well illustrating the syncretistic nature of the creed by
this union of an ancient and a newly-devised type. The
sepulchre of Maria, wife of the most orthodox Honorius, con
tained, amongst a variety of amuletic figures (or perhaps toys —
little animals, mice, &c.), carved in crystal and agate, a gold
plate, inscribed with the names of the "Angels of the Presence."
On account of the great interest of this discovery, I have
inserted a complete translation of Fauno's account, the only
description ever penned of the rifling of an imperial tomb.
And when Bishop Seffred's coffin (deceased 1159) was opened
in Chichester Cathedral, upon his bony finger still lay the
episcopal ring, set with an Abraxas jasper, no doubt recom
mended to him in life and death by the numerous virtues so
particularly set forth by Camillus Leonardi. When did the
belief in the virtue of these talismans really expire? The
Young Pretender, with the superstition inherent in his family,
had sought to enlist in his service the mighty Abraxas himself
for his ill-starred expedition. In his baggage, captured at
Cullodcii by General Belfort, was found a bloodstone, set in
silver as a pendant, engraved with the well-known Pantheus.
and for reverse the naked Venus, Acliamotli, legend ATITA
(Figured by Walsh, pi. 7).

Provence is yet a fruitful source of these interesting memorials
of the wide-spread theosophy. Gnosticism from the beginning
took root and flourished in Southern Gaul, as the elaborate
treatise of Ireneeus attacking it, as no newly-invented thing,
very clearly demonstrates. Its success was probably due to the
close affinity of its leading doctrines to the Mithraic and original
Druidical systems previously reigning there. Later still, in the
middle of the fourth century, a new form of Gnosticism, broached
by Piriscllian, Bishop of Avila, who was put to death for his

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 339

pains by the British emperor Magnus Maximus. Gibbon's note
upon the unlucky heresiarch is so characteristic of his style that
I cannot forbear quoting it : " The bishopric of Avila (in Old
Castile) is now worth 20,000 ducats a year, and is therefore
much less likely to produce the author of a new heresy." That
Spain also had, long before Priscillian's preaching, received and
warmly embraced that of Basilides, although so far removed
from its fountain-head, is apparent from a passage in Jerome's
29th letter to Theodora : " Our friend Licinius, when that most
foul heresy of Basilides was raging throughout Spain, and like
a pestilence and murrain was devastating all the province
between the Pyrenees and the Ocean, held fast the purity of the
Christian faith, far from receiving Amargel, Barbelo, Abraxas,
Balsamus, the ridiculous Leusiboras, and the other such-like
monstrosities."

That Britain had to some extent received the same doctrines,
the Carnarvon gold plaque is sufficient evidence. And its
existence throws light upon the singular fact mentioned by
Matthew Paris, that when Eadred, in collecting building
materials for Ins conventual church, was pulling up the Roman
foundations of Verulamium, he came upon a little cupboard,
" armariolum," in the thickness of an immense wall containing
scrolls in an unknown tongue. At last a very aged monk,
Unwona by name, made them out to be written in the ancient
British language, and containing invocations to the gods formerly
worshipped in the place. But Verulamium was so entirely
Roman, as far as its public edifices were concerned, that the
use of the native language in any documents accompanying the
foundation of a temple is in the highest degree improbable ; the
regular Gnostic Greek would be equally puzzling to the old Saxon
monk, and his explanation was a safe cloak for his ignorance.
The late period of the Roman occupation, when Gnosticism
most flourished, will account for the preservation of " scrolls "
(parchment no doubt) through the few centuries intervening
before the abbotship of Eadred.

It is more than probable that such doctrines lurked un
noticed amongst the native Gallo-Romans, during the times of
the Arian Gothic kings, and did no more than revive into the

z 2

340

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

flourishing Manicheism of the Albigenses in the twelfth
century. The fact of these sectaries having received the same
share of persecution from Catholics as the "Waldenses them
selves is not alone sufficient to prove them equally good
Protestants with the latter; though that is now taken for
granted, especially by expounders of the Apocalypse, when
hard put to it to find the required " Two Witnesses " against
the Scarlet Lady.

Gnosticism has left traces of itself, whether by direct or
indirect descent amongst those mysterious sects of the Libanus,
the Druses and Anseyrets. As late as Justinian's reign, ac
cording to Procopius, no fewer than a million Polytheists,
Manicheans and Samaritans (the last also a sect of Gnostics)*
were exterminated in Syria alone, during the systematic perse
cution, so long carried on by this pedantic bigot. As that
region soon afterwards fell under the more tolerant Caliphs, who
never troubled themselves about the religion of their subjects,
provided their tribute were punctually paid, these doctrines
may very well have come down in some sort to our days,
considering the secluded position of the people holding them,
and the tenacity of life possessed by every well-defined system
of religious ideas.

* And the most ancient of all, for they claimed Simon Magus for their
founder.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 341

GNOSTIC THEOGONY.

The several grades in the Gnostic Theogony, through all of
which the soul had to pass before it could attain to supreme
perfection, are briefly set before us in this passage of the Pistis
Sophia (247) :—

" And when the Saviour had said all these things unto His
disciples, Andrew came forward and spoke : ' Lord, be not
wroth with me, but have compassion upon me and reveal the
mystery of the word which I will ask Thee, otherwise it is a
hard thing in my sight and I understand it not.' Then the
Saviour answered and said unto him : 4 Inquire what thou
wouldst inquire and I will declare the same unto thee, face
to face, and without a parable.' Then Andrew answered and
said : ' Lord, I wonder and marvel greatly how men that be
in this world, when they are departed from out of this body
of Matter, and have gone out of the world, how shall they
pass through these .firmanents, and all these rulers, and lords,
and gods, and all these Great Invisible Ones, and all these
that belong to the Middle-space, and those that belong to
the place of them upon the right hand, and all the great
emanations of the same, so that they may come within
(beyond) them all, so that they may inherit the kingdom of
Light? This business, therefore, Lord, is full of trouble in my
sight.' When Andrew had thus spoken, the spirit of the
Saviour was moved within Him, and he cried out and said :
' How long shall I bear with you, how long shall I suffer you !
Do you then not understand at all, and are ye still ignorant ?
Know ye not and do ye not understand that ye are all angels,
and archangels, and rulers, and lords, and gods, and the other
Powers, and the glory thereof; you from yourselves and in
yourselves in turn, proceeding out of one mass, and one
matter, and one being, and all proceeding out of one confusion.*

* Kepacruos, i.e. the mixture of which it was the object of the
the Light Divine with brute Matter, Saviour's coming to rectify.

342 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS

And by the commandment of the First Mystery this confusion
must needs be, until the great emanations of Light and the
glory of the same shall have cleansed it; and they shall
cleanse it not of themselves, but through the compulsion of
the Great Ineffable One. And they have not received torments,
neither have they changed their places at all, neither
have they despoiled themselves, nor transformed themselves
into various figures, neither have they been in the last
affliction. For this cause chiefly ye are the dregs of the
Treasury -house, and ye are the dregs of them that pertain to
the right hand, and ye are the dregs of the great Invisible
Ones, and of all the Eulers, and in a word ye are the dregs of
them all. And ye were in great sorrows, and afflictions, and
transformations, and in sundry shapes of this world; and by
reason of these sorrows, ye were in agony and fought with
this world and all the Matter that is therein, and ye did not
slacken your hands in fighting against it until ye had found
out the mysteries of the kingdom of Light, which rendered
you, who fought, a pure Light, and ye were made the pure
Light.' "

All which implies the grand idea that Man, although made
of inferior, though cognate stuff, to the Angelic Powers, is
susceptible, through the attainment of knowledge, of a perfection
superior to theirs.

THE SCHEME OF THE OPHITES.

Gnostic symbols, with their uses in this life and in that to
come have thus far been the subject of our investigation ; which
naturally leads us to consider the ideas that their devisers
entertained of the constitution of the next world and of the
nature of the soul itself. As to the former of these deeply
interesting questions, the Gnosis specially laboured to afford the
exactest information to its disciples ; and in this class the one
preserved by Origen (in Celsum vi.), leaves nothing to be
desired in point of fulness, and may confidently be accepted as
the most authoritative of all such celestial cartes de route.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 343

This learned Father had, by some means or other, become
possessed of a parchment chart on which were depicted the
successive stages of the soul's heavenward journey, with the
several Powers * it must encounter in its flight, and the proper
invocations (specimens of which I have already given)
whereby it should extort permission to traverse their do
minions. This chart was known to the faithful as the
"Schema, or Diagramma, of the Ophites." Amongst these
invocations the one addressed to lao, genius of the moon, is
peculiarly important as illustrating the use of the most
numerous class of the talismans we are considering. " 0 thou
that president over the mysteries of the Father and of the Son,
lao who shinest in the night, who holdest the second place, the
First Lord of Death, who makest part of that which is without
God ! In presenting to thee thine own memorial (or likeness)
as a token (or passport) I swiftly traverse thy domain after
having conquered through the Word of Life that which was
born of Thee." The MSS. read rov I&LOV VTTO vovv <™//,j3oAov,
which has no meaning, but can only be the corruption of
rryv ISiav vTrovo'iav, a word often used by Plutarch in the sense of
symbol. Now what else could this " memorial " of lao be but
his own image engraved in gems? This deity is btyled " Lord
of Death," because the moon (Isis) presides over the birth,
development and change, of which death is the necessary con
sequence, of things terrestrial.

* This was merely an adaptation have had a Chaldsoan origin, even
to the new notions of the sect of the more a.icient than the Egyptian,
old Egyptian ritual always placed, Lane-Fox and others have translated
entire or in part, within the mummy- a tahlet giving an account of the
case, and entitled, " The Book of descent of the goddess Ishtar into
the Gates, concerning the manifesta- Hades, " the Land of no Keturn."
tion unto the Light." These Gates, The Lord of Earth gives her a green
leading to the palace of Osiris, were bough of the If tree, and she passes
one-aad-twenty iu number, and were successively through the Seven Gates,
guarded each by its particular deity, surrendering at each in order, her
to be duly addressed in his turn. crown, ear-rings, head-jewels, front-
The papyrus of Petamenoph, other- lets, finger and toe-rings, and neck-
wise Ainmuiiius (d. under Hadrian), lace. The Lord of Hades gives her
has been admirably explained and a cup of the Water of Life, and she
translated by Champollion, and pub- returns, receiving back her jewels in
lished in Caillaud's 'Voyage a the same order in which she gave
Meroe,' iv. p. 22. Or the belief may them up.

344

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Of the theory therein embodied, much was evidently derived
from the same source as the Neo-Platonic doctrine concerning
the planetary origin of the soul's faculties, which shall be related
further on. The chart itself was founded on that essential
doctrine of Gnosticism, that the soul, released from the body,
mounted upwards, eager for absorption into the Infinite God
head, or " Boundless Light," that summum bonum of Oriental
aspiration (the Buddist Nirwana " perfect Repose, the Epicu
rean Indolent ia ") ; but on its way WHS obliged to traverse the
successive regions of the planets, each ruled by its presiding
genius. These genii were of a nature somewhat material, and
therefore malignant, and in this respect corresponding to the
Seven Devs, Ahrimaii's ministers, who according to Zoroaster
are chained each to his own planet. To obtain the indispensable
permission of transit, a different adjuration to each Power was
required ; all which have been already given from Origen's
copy of the Chart. Their names were put down therein, as
Adonai, genius of the Sun, lao of the Moon, Eloi of Jupiter.
Sabao of Mars, Orai of Venus, Astaphai of Mercury, and
Ildabaoth of Saturn.*

All these names are to be read, more or less commonly, upon
our talismans, although probably used there in a different sense
from that accepted by the author of the Diairramma. The
Jewish angels Michael, Gabriel, Surid, Raphael, Thantabaoth,
and Erataoth, were likewise inscribed as names of the genii
presiding over the constellations, the Bear, Serpent, Eagle,
Lion, Dog, Bull. These notions are manifestly of Magian
root, acquired by the Jews during the long period that their
country was a province of the Persian Empire, and had grown
into an essential article of religion.

St. Paul found it needful to warn his flock against the
" worshipping of Angels ; " nevertheless, the adoration and the
multiplication of their names went on augmenting to that
pitch, that a Council held under Pope Zachary reduced them, as
objects of worship to three only, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael.

* The Kitual above cited contains the defunct to the guardians of the
regularly eight invocations addressed same numher of regions over whom
to Thoth, recommending the soul of he is the president.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 345

This retrenchment of the heavenly host was endorsed by a
capitulary of Charlemagne's issued from Aix-la-Chapelle. In
the Diagram under consideration, Michael was typified by a
lion, Suriel by an ox, Raphael by a serpent, Gabriel by an
eagle, Thantabaoth by a bear, Onioth or Zartaoth by an ass.

The reward promised to the Angel of the Church at Thyatira
(Rev. ii. 28), " And I will give him the Morning Star,"
seems to be connected with the same belief in the Planetary
Presidents. Dante, in his Paradiso, going doubtless upon
old tradition, makes Mercury the abode of spirits moved to
glorious deeds in life by the love of fame; Venus, of true
lovers ; Luna, of theologians; Mars, of martyrs for the Faith ;
Jupiter of good princes; Saturn of such as have led a con
templative and recluse life.

The above-quoted names of the Planetary Genii were in the
Jewish religion either titles and attributes of the Most High,
or else of his chief ministering spirits ; but in the Gnostic
Scheme they had been degraded from their high estate, and
reduced into secondary deities of a mixed nature, partaking
of good as well as of evil, yet all equally anxious to win souls
from Abraxas, the proper lord and creator of the universe.
The only explanation for such a misapplication of the sacred
titles is a very brief one; these semi-Buddhist philosophers
who found the root of all evil in Matter, and consequently in
the material creation, employed these old hallowed names to
denote the agents of the Creator, who on account of this their
office were regarded as mere demons ; and by an exactly similar
process they are found misappropriating the most sacred names
of the Christian revelation. But of this blasphemous perversion
and wanton desecration of the ancient terminology no trace is
to be discovered upon our talismans, their makers belonging to
the Kabbalistic School of Alexandria, which reconciling Moses
with Zoroaster, continued to employ these appellations in
their primary time-honoured sense.

The source of this notion concerning the Planetary Rulers
can be traced very far back. The power of Ildabaoth, or
Saturn, and his sons over the soul, as well as the astrological
notion about the influence of the stars over man's destiny, are

316

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

clearly part and parcel of what the Alexandrian Platonists had
taught concerning the planetary origin of the soul and its
faculties, thus expounded by Macrobius (Som. Scip. i. 12) :
" The soul on its descent from the One and Indivisible source
of its being in order to be united to the body, passes through
the Milky Way into the Zodiac at their intersection in Cancer
and Capricorn, called the Gates of the Sun, because the two
solstices are placed in these signs. Through Cancer, the ' Gate
of Man,' the soul descends upon Earth, the which is spiritual
death. Through Capricorn, the ' Gate of the Gods,' it reascends
up into heaven; its new birth taking place upon its release
from the body. So soon as the soul has left Cancer and the
Milky Way, it begins to lose its divine nature, and arriving
at Leo enters upon the first phase of its future condition here
below. During its downward progress, the soul, at first a
sphere in form, is elongated into a cone, and now begins to feel
the influence of Matter, so that on joining the body it is
intoxicated and stupefied by the novel draught. This condition
is typified by the Crater of Bacchus placed in the heavens
between Cancer and Leo.

" The soul thus descending, as it passes through each sphere
receives successive coatings, as it were, of a luminous body, and
is furnished at the same time with the several faculties it has
ta exercise during its probation upon Earth. Accordingly, in
Saturn, it is supplied with reason and intelligence ; in Jupiter,
with the power of action ; in Mars, with the irascible principle ;
in the Sun, with sensation and speculation ; in Venus, with
the appetites; in Mercury, with the means of declaring and
expressing thoughts ; in the Moon, with the faculty of generating
and augmenting the body." Hence, as the Planets contain all
the elements that, so to speak, make up the Inner Man, the
genii, their rulers (" Lords of Death," as Valentinus calls them),
exercise their tyranny over the soul through the medium of
these faculties, so long as the soul is encrusted with their con
tributions during its imprisonment in the body.

It is curious to compare with this Grecian theory the
" Doctrine of the Servants, of Saturn," dwellers in the farthest
North (unmistakably a fragment of Druidical lore), preserved to

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 347

us by Plutarch in his treatise 'On the Face in the Moon.'
They taught that in the generation of man, the Earth supplied
the body, the Moon the i/^x>7, the Sun the vovs. What the
i//vx?7 is to the body, the same is the voCs to the i//vx?J. This
composite nature undergoes a double death. In the first,
Demetor, whose companion is the Earthly, or Supernal, Hermes,
forcibly separates the i/^x?? (animal soul) from the body. This
soul, after a certain penance in the Middle Sphere, in order to
purify it from the pollution of the flesh, is caught up into the
Moon, and passes through the Earth's shadow during an eclipse,
after a probation proportionate in length of time unto its
deserts ; whereas, the wicked, if they try to enter before their
purification be completed, are scared away by the terrific Face.
The good abide in the Moon, in the enjoyment of perfect
tranquillity, and becoming Sat/xoi/e? or genii, busy themselves
with the regulation of human affairs upon earth, rendering
oracles and similar services to mankind. But should these
beatified spirits misconduct themselves, they are put again into
a human body, and sent down to Earth. (This is the very
doctrine of Manes, who made the light of the Moon to depend
upon the brightness of the blessed one therein resident; a
theory which Epiphanius triumphantly overthrows by asking
how the luminary was supplied during the eight centuries
that elapsed between the Creation and the death of Adam ?)

But after a certain time, the i/o{k aspires to reascend to its
fountain head the Sun, whereupon Persephone, with her col
league the Celestial Hermes, separates it with gentleness and by
slow degrees from the grosser i/^x7?- This is the Second Death :
the vovs flying up to the Sun, but the i/a;x?/ remaining in the
Moon in a dreamy sort of existence, until gradually absorbed
into her substance, exactly as the Earth gradually absorbs into
herself the remains of the body. Calm and philosophic souls
are easily absorbed ; but active, passionate, erotic natures with
great difficulty ; they wander about in midspace, divested of
the vows, becoming Tityi and Typlioncs ;* throwing confusion

* Names of the chief giants who as that in the Book of Enoch :
warred against Jupiter. The legend " And the Giants who were born of
clearly comes from the same source the spirit and of flesh shall be called

348 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

into oracles, as the so-called Typhon does at Delphi, until in
the end they likewise are drawn back and attracted into the
substance of the Moon.

Justinus Kerner, in his treatise ' Die Seherin von Prevorst,'
improving upon the old notion, most ingeniously anatomises
the Inner Man, and makes him to consist of three members,
Seele, Nerven-Geist, Geisi. The Nerven-Geist, or nervous
energy, being of a grosser nature, continues united with
the Seele after its separation from the body, rendering it
capable of becoming visible to the living in the form of an
apparition, and enabling it in other ways to affect material
objects, to make noises, move about articles of furniture, in
short, to commit the various annoyances comprehended under
the term " es spukt." And here be it observed the commonness
of such visitations in Germany is amusingly exemplified by the
necessity of having an impersonal verb to express them ; just as
we say " it rains," " it blows," so do the more sensitive Germans
say " it ghosts." According to its previous training in life, this
composite being requires more or less time to dissolve, the
Seele alone being immortal ; and consequently the Teutonic
spectres as-ume a more and more diminutive form as their time
of probation wears away. Analogous to this is Plato's explana
tion of the aclmoidedged facts of spirits haunting tombs : having
been immersed during her union with the body in gross sensual
pleasures, the soul becomes equally unable and unwilling to
abandon her old companion and dwelling-house before the same
be totally consumed.

To the above-quoted theories explaining the nature of the
soul, and its final destination, the recent discovery of that
precious monument of Gnosticism, the Pistis-Sophia enables us to
add a third, infinitely more complete in all its details. This last

evil spirits upon earth ; and on earth shall they be called. The habitation

shall he their habitation. Evil of the spirits of heaven shall be in

spirits shall proceed from their flesh heaven, but upon earth shall be the

because they were created from habitation of terrestrial spirits who

above ; from the holy watchers was are born on earth. The spirits of

their beginning and primary founda- the giants shall Le like clouds which

tion. Evil spirits shall they be upon shall oppress, corrupt, fall, contend,

earth, and the spirits of the wicked and bruise upon earth." — (xv. 8.)

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 349

revelation improves upon the Neo-Platonic doctrine by making
the astral genii "the Rulers of the Sphere " (Zodiac) create the
soul from their own substance " out of the tears of their eyes
and the sweat of their torment," animated with a spark of that
Divine Light which has not yet been totally extracted from
their fuller nature. For these Zodiacal Lords evidently answer
to the rebellious Angels of the Jews, and the Seven Devs of the
Magi, in fact the whole treatise represents the religious ideas of
the latter, more closely than of any other system.

THE CAUSE OF SIN.

(Pist.-Soph. 282). " And when the Saviour had spoken these
things, he continuing in his discourse said unto Mary : Now,
therefore Mary, hear concerning the thing whereof thou askest
of me, Who is it that constraineth man to commit sin?" Now
therefore when (the parents) have begotten the child, when
there exists in him a small power, and a small soul, and a small
" counterfeit of the spirit " (conscience) ;* in a word, all the three
in him being small together. No one of them understaiideth
anything at all, whether it be good or evil, by reason of the
weight of the heavy oblivion (of the former life) that holdeth
them ; the body likewise being small. And the child eateth of
the meats of the world of the Eulers. And the soul gathereth
to itself out of the portion of the soul that is concealed in these
meats, and the Counterfeit of the spirit gathereth to itself out of
the portion of evil that resideth in the meats and in the lusts
thereof; the body, likewise, gathereth the insensible Matter that
is in the meats. But the Fate herself taketh not out of the
meats, inasmuch as she is not mixed up with them, but in what
shape she came into the world, in the same she continueth. And
little by little, the power, the soul, and the counterpart of the
spirit grow to their full stature, and each one thereof is sensible
after its own kind.f The power is sensible to seek after the
Light above ; the soul is sensible to seek after the place of
Righteousness of the mixture, which same is the place of

* 'AVTI/JH/J.O}' TTvev/jLaros. t I.e. adapted by its constitution.

350 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

confusion ; the counterfeit of the spirit also seeketh after all
wickedness and lusts and sins; and the body is sensible to
nothing save how it may draw strength out of Matter, thus the
three are forthwith sensible, each one according to its own
nature, and the contentious ones (epiSaioi) also send ministers
who shall follow them in order to bear witness against all the
eins that they may commit, to regulate the manner in which
they shall punish them when they come up for judgment, the
counterfeit of the spirit also thinks upon and is sensible to all
the sins and the evils that come near to that soul, which
proceedeth from the Rulers of the Great Fate, and bringeth
them into the soul.* But the inner power seeketh after the
Place of Light, and all the godhead, whilst the counterfeit of
the spirit turneth the soul awry, and constraineth it to work all
its own unlawful deeds, and all its passions, and all its wicked
ness continually ; and it abideth a different creature from the
soul, and is an enemy to the soul, and causeth it to commit all
these sins and wickednesses ; and also stirreth up the ministers
of contention, to bear witness against the sins that it is about to
cause the soul to commit. And it cometh to pass that it resteth
not day or night, and it troubleth the soul in dreams and iu the
lusts of this world, and maketh it to lust after all the things of
this world ; in a word, it urireth the soul to do all the things

t5

that the Rulers have laid before it, and it is at war with the
soul, contriving that it shall do the things it would not. Now
therefore tliis is the enemy of the soul and constraineth it to do
all kinds of sins ; and when it conies to pass that the time of that
man is accomplished, then cometh his Fate, which driveth that
man unto the death appointed him by the Rulers, and by means
of the bonds wherewith men are tied by Destiny. Then come the
contentious Receivers to conduct that soul out of the body; and
after that these Receivers go about with the soul through all the
regions shewing unto it the ./Eons of the world,f whilst the coun
terfeit of the spirit and fate follow after that soul : but the power

* The Platonic "divinso particuU earth, according to Valentinus.

aurse"; the extrication of which t The sense seems to require the

from the confusion, i^iy^a, was the translation, "exhibit the soul unto

real object of Christ's descent on the JEons."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 351

that was in it goes up unto the Virgin of Light. And after those
three days the Receivers lead that soul down from above into
the hell of Chaos, they deliver it unto the tormentors (and the
Receivers return again into their own places), who punish the
same according to the measure of its sins as ordained by the
Archons for the discharge of souls. And the counterfeit of the
spirit becomes the guard over the soul, appointed over it,
convicting it, in one place of punishment after the other, of the
sins which it hath committed, and it leadeth the soul into the
region of the Archons of the Middle space. And when it hath
arrived in their presence, they lead it unto the Mysteries of Fate,
and if they find them not (sealed upon the soul), they seek after
their own share ; and those Archons punish the soul according
to its sins, according to its deserts ; of those punishments I will
declare the form unto you in the * Emanation of the Universe.'
But after it has come to pass that the time of the soul's different
punishments is accomplished in the prisons of the Archons of the
Middle-space, then the counterfeit of the spirit leadeth the soul
upwards out of all their regions, and bringeth it before the light
of the Sun, according to the commandment of the Primal Man*
IEOT, and bringeth it before the judge, the Virgin of Light.
And she trieth that soul ; and in case she shall find it to be
sinful, she planteth within the same (a particle of) the power of
her own light, according unto its station in life, its body, and its
share of sensibility. Then the Virgin of Light putteth her seal
upon that soul and delivereth it unto one of her Receivers, who
will see that it be placed in a body befitting the sins that it
hath committed (in a former life). And verily I say unto you
she shall not let the soul be released from the changes of its
bodies (various metempsychoses), until it shall have accomplished
its uttermost cycle in the shapes whereof it may be deserving ;
of all which I will tell you the form, and likewise the form of
the several bodies into which they shall place the souls,
according to the sins of each.

" But if it be a soul that hath not obeyed the counterfeit of the
spirit in all its doings, but is righteous, and hath received the
mysteries of Light that be in the First Court, or those that be in the
* The Seir Anpin of the Eabbis.

352 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Second Court, or those in the Third which is the innermost part
(adytum) — when the time of that soul in the body is accomplished,
and when the counterfeit of the spirit followeth after that soul,
together with fate, whilst the soul is on the road that leadeth on
high, and before it is far distant therefrom, it uttereth the
mystery for the breaking * of all the seals and all the bonds of
the counterfeit of the spirit wherewith the Archons have bound
it unto the soul. And it having uttered those words, the bonds
of the counterfeit of the spirit are loosed so that it ceaseth to
persecute that soul, and lets it go according to the commandment
given unto it by the Archons of the Great Fate, who said unto
it : Let not that soul go free, unless it shall utter unto thee the
mystery for the breaking of the bonds wherewith we have
bound thee unto it. Thereupon the soul, thus set free, leaves
fate behind unto the Archons of the way of the Middle-space,
and destroys the counterfeit of the spirit leaving it for the
Archons in the place wherein they had bound it (at first) unto
the soul ; and in that moment it becometh a great flood of light,
shining exceedingly ; and the Receivers who had fetched it out
of the body are afraid of that light, so that they fall down upon
their faces, and the soul is made as it were a wing f of light, and
passeth through all the regions of the Archons, and through all
the courses of the Light, until it entereth into the place of its
own kingdom for which it hath received the mystery.

" But if it be a soul that hath received the mystery in the
First Court, which is the outer part, and after receiving and
performing the mystery and being converted shall again have
sinned, and when its time in the body is accomplished, and the
Receivers come to fetch it, and the counterfeit of the spirit and
fate pursue it by reason of the seals and bonds wherewith it hath
been bound together with them by the Archons — then if the soul
whilst yet in the way of its pursuers should utter the mystery
that breaketh those seals and bonds, forthwith they are all
loosed and the counterfeit of the spirit ceases to follow after the

* I.e. the formula, perhaps the perhaps to the ancient emblem of

" mystery of the seven vowels,'' so the human-headed bird used in the

highly lauded elsewhere. same sense.

t I.e. a winged thing ; referring

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 353

soul. And the soul leaves its pursuers behind, for none of them
have their own power, but the soul keeps its own power. Then
the Receivers that belong to the mystery which the soul hath
received come and snatch it away from the contentious Receivers,
and these return to do the business of the Archons in the occupa
tion of fetching away souls. But the Receivers of the soul, who
pertain to the Light, themselves become a wing of light to that
soul, and a vesture of light unto it. And they lead it not into
Chaos, because it is not lawful to lead a soul, that hath obtained
the mysteries, into Chaos ; but they bring it into the road of the
Archons of the Middle-space. And when they are come before
the Archons of the Middle-space, the Archons depart out of the
way of that soul, being in great fear, and in cruel burning, and
in divers shapes, in a word being in great fear unto which there
is no measure. And in that moment the soul utters the mystery
ot its defence before them ; and they fall upon their faces out of
fear of the mystery and of the defence which it hath uttered.
And the soul leaves with them their fate* saying unto them : Take
to yourselves your fate, I am not coming into your place from
henceforth, I am made a stranger unto you for ever, I am coming
into the place of my own inheritance. And after the soul hath
said this, the Receivers of the Light fly away with it on high, and
bring it before the ^Eons of Destiny, giving it the proper speech
of defence for the place and the seals thereof, and the soul shews
to them the counterfeit of the spirit and utters the mystery that
sundereth the bonds wherewith they had bound them both
together, saying to them : Take to yourselves your counterfeit
of the spirit, henceforth I come not in your place, I am made a
stranger unto you for ever. And it shews them the seal of each
and the form of defence. Then the Receivers fly away with
the soul and bring it through all the JEons, shewing ths seal,
and the defence, in all the regions of King Adamas, and of all
the Rulers of the places of the left hand (which defences and
seals I will declare to you when I explain to you the emanation
of the mystery). Then they bring the soul before the Virgin
of Light, and it giveth to the Virgin her own seal, defence, and

* Viz., the separate portion of its composition implanted in it by these
Archons at its birth.

2 A

354 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the glory of hymns, and the Virgin of Light with the seven
other Virgins examine that soul — all of them, that they may all
find their own marks, their own seals, their own baptisms, and
their own unctions upon it. (292) Then the Virgin of Light
sealeth that soul, and the Receivers of Light baptize the same
and give unto it the spiritual unction. And each of the Virgins
of Light sealeth it with her own seal. Furthermore the Re
ceivers deliver it over to the great Sabaoth,the Good One, who
is hard by the gate of Life in the region of those pertaining
unto the right hand, whom they call 'the Father'; and the
soul rendereth unto him the glory of his hymns, of his seals,
and of his justification. Then the great good Sabaoth sealeth
it with his own seals, and the soul rendereth the knowledge,
and the glory of hymns, and the seals belonging to the whole
region of those that pertain unto the right hand. These also
all seal it with their own seal ; and Melchisedek, the great
gatherer of Light — who is in the region of those pertaining
to the right hand— also sealeth that soul. Then Melchisedek's
gatherers also seal it and lead it into the Treasury of Light, and
the soul rendereth glory and honour and their proper seals in
all the regions of Light. Then those pertaining to all the
regions of the Treasury of Light seal it with their own seals,
and so it entereth into the place of its inheritance."

STATE AFTER DEATH OF THE UNINITIATED.

(261) " Then stood forth Mary and said, Lord, as concerning
just men and perfect in all righteousness ; such a man in whom
there is no sin at all, shall they torment him with all these
judgments and punishments, or shall they not ? Or shall they
carry such a man into the kingdom of heaven or not ?

" The Saviour answered and said unto Mary, The just man per
fect in all righteousness, that hath never committed sin, but yet
hath never obtained any one mystery of Light, when his time
cometh for departing out of the body, straightway there shall
come for him the Gatherers belonging to that one of the great
Triple Powers who is the greatest amongst them, in order that

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 355

they may take away that soul from the Contentious Gatherers,
and during three days they shall go about with that soul amongst
all the creatures of the world (i.e. throughout all creation).
After the three days they shall lead him down into Chaos, so
that they may deliver him out of * all the punishments there
in, and out of the judgments, and they shall bring him unto all
the judgment-places, but no flame of Chaos shall afflict him
greatly ; (2G2) nevertheless they shall in some wise afflict him
for a little space, but speedily shall they have compassion upon
him, and draw him up out of Chaos so as to take him out of the
Road of the Middle-space, and from all the Rulers thereof.
And these shall not punish him with their cruel torments, but
the flame of their regions shall afflict him in some measure;
and after they have brought him into the unmerciful place
AXOANABAZ they shall not torment him with the cruel torments
therein, but they shall keep him there a little while, and afflict
him in some measure with the heat of the torments of that
place. But they shall quickly have compassion upon him, and
bring him forth out of all those places, neither shall they lead
him by the way that goeth from out of the yEons, for fear lest
the Rulers of the ^ons should hold him too firmly, but they
shall conduct him by the path of the Sun's light, in order to
bring him before the Virgin of Light. And she doth try that
soul that she may find it free from sin, and she ordereth it not
to be carried unto the Light because the mark of the Kingdom of
Light is not upon it ; but she sealeth it with a special seal, and
takes care that it be put into a body of righteousness belonging
to the jEons. (263) This man will be good, so that he will
obtain the seals of the mysteries of the Light, and inherit
the kingdom for ever and ever.

" But if he shall have sinned once, twice, or thrice, they shall
reject that soul, sending it back again into the world according
to the form of the sins that it may have committed ; the form
whereof I will declare unto you hereafter. But verily, verily
I say unto you, that even the righteous man that hath committed
no sin at all cannot be brought into the Kingdom of Light,
forasmuch the seal of the mysteries of that kingdom is not found
* Protect him against any suffering from.

356 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

upon him. Once for all, I say unto you, a soul cannot be brought
into the kingdom, if it be without the mysteries of the Kingdom
of Light."

FUTUKE PUNISHMENTS.

The Gnostics did not fail, after the example of their orthodox
rivals, to employ the strongest stimulants of terror in order
to gain converts, as is forcibly manifested by this picture
of the varied torments of the world to come, the appointed
heritage of all who obtained not the Gnosis which they preached
(' Pistis-Sophia,' 255) :—

" And Jesus continuing in his discourse said unto the disciples,
"When I shall have returned into the Light, preach ye unto the
whole world. Say unto them, Slacken not by day and night
to seek until ye bhall find the mysteries of the Kingdom of
Light, that shall cleanse you, and render you a pure light,
and shall bring you into the Kingdom of Light. Say unto
them, Kenounce the world and all the Matter which is therein,
and all the cares and the sins thereof— in a word, all the
conversation that therein is— that ye may be worthy of the
mysteries of Light, that ye may be saved from all the punish
ments that are in the judgment-places. Say unto them,
Kenounce murmuring, that ye may be worthy of the mysteries
of Light, that ye may be saved from the burning of the Figure
of the Dog. Say unto them, Renounce obedience (to the world),
that ye may be saved from the judgments of the Figure of the
Dog. Say unto them, Renounce invocation (of idols), that ye
may be worthy of the mysteries of Light, that ye may be
saved from the torments of Ariel. Renounce a lying tongue,
that ye may be saved from the burning rivers of the Figure
of the Dog-shaped one. Rtnounce false witnessing, that ye
may be set free, that ye may be saved from the same rivers.
Renounce boastings and pride, that ye may be saved from the
burning pits of Ariel. Renounce self-love, that ye may be saved
from the judgments of Orcus* Renounce talkativeness, that

* These regions and the shapes of gested to our author by the Egyptian
their Rulers seem to have been sug- mummy-case paintings of the Gates

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 357

ye may be saved from the fires of Orcus. Renounce unjust
judgments, that ye may be saved from the torments that be in
Orcus. Renounce covetousness, that ye may be saved from the
rivers of smoke of the Dog-shaped. Renounce the love of this
world, that ye may be saved from the pitched-coats burning of
the Dog-shaped. Renounce robbery, that ye may be saved from
the rivers of deceit of Ariel. Renounce evil speaking, that ye
may be saved from the torments of the river of smoke. Renounce
wickedness, that ye may be saved from the burning seas of Ariel.
Renounce unmercifulness, that ye may be saved from the judg
ments of the Drag on- shapes. Renounce anger, that ye may be
saved from the rivers of smoke of the Dragon-shapes. Renounce
reviling, that ye may be saved from ihe burning seas of the
Dragon-shapes. Renounce robbery, that ye may be saved from
the boiling seas of the same. Renounce thieving, that ye may
be saved from IlddbaotJi. Renounce backbiting, that ye may be
saved from the burning rivers of the Lion-shaped one. Renounce
fighting and quarrelling, that ye may be saved from the boiling
rivers of Ildabaoth. Renounce stubbornriess,that ye may be saved
from the ministers of Ildabaoth and his burning seas. Renounce
evil deeds, that ye may be saved from all the devils of Ilda
baoth and from all his punishments. Renounce de^perateness,
that ye may be saved from the seas of boiling pitch of Ilclabaoth.
Renounce adultery, that ye may be saved from the seas of
brimstone and pitch of the Lion-shaped. Renounce murders,
that ye may be saved from the Ruler of crocodiles, which
is the first creature in the ice that is in the Outer Darkness.
Renounce cruelty and ungodliness, that ye may be saved from the
Rulers of the Outer Darkness. Renounce impiety, that ye may be
saved from weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Renounce witch
craft, that ye may be saved from the mighty frost and hail
of the Outer Darkness. Renounce blasphemy, that ye may be
saved from the great dragon of tne Outer Darkness. Renounce

in which are seated so many genii passage through which on his way

with heads of hawk, baboon, man, to the judgment seat Auubis is

crocodile, lion, jackal, vulture, win- prayed to procure for the defunct in

nowiug-fan, and serpent ; all armed the papyrus-ritual buried with him.
with swords. These were the Gates

358

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR, REMAINS.

false doctrines, that ye may be saved from all the torments
of the great dragon of the Outer Darkness.

" Say unto them that teach false doctrines, and unto every one
that is taught by them, Woe unto you ; for, unless ye repent
and leave your error, ye shall fall into the torments of the great
dragon of the Outer Darkness, exceeding cruel, and they in the
world shall not redeem you out of them for ever and ever, but
ye shall be utterly destroyed unto the end. Say unto them that
slight the doctrine of truth of the First Mystery, Woe unto
you, for your punishment shall be evil beyond that of all men :
ye shall abide in the great frost, ice, and hail in the middle of
the dragon, and in the Outer Darkness, and they in this world
shall not redeem you from this hour forth for ever, but ye shall
be in that place ; and in the dissolution of the universe ye shall
be consumed, so that ye shall be destroyed for ever."

FIG. 16.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 359

TAL1SMANIC LEADEN SCROLLS.

The only classical notice of the employment of these engines
for moving the invisible world (not, however, for good, but for
evil) is to bo found in the Annals of Tacitus (ii. 09), who thus
enumerates them amongst the means, real or imaginary, where
by Livia's agent, Piso, occasioned, or aggravated, the final
illness of the too popular Germanicus. " The severity of the
attack (a fever) was heightened by the suspicion of poison on.
the part of Piso : and in fact there were discovered, hidden in
the house-walls, fragments of human corpses, spells and curses
and the name of Germanicus engraved upon plates of lead ;
also ashes half-burnt and soaked in blood, and other pieces of
witchcraft by means whereof it is believed that souls are made
over unto the Infernal Gods." A very remarkable example
of the practice of this malevolent superstition has been
published by Visconti (Op. Var. iii. 256). It is a sheet of lead
found, folded up, within a tomb opened at the llippotade Gate
of Athens ; and a copy of which he had received from M. Fauvel.
The inscription, full of blunders both in spelling and grammar, is
arranged in ten lines, seemingly meant for trochaic tetrameters,
and may be read thus :

1. 'Ep/Z^S1 X@OVLOS) Fr/ KttTO^OS".

2. KOL TTpOS TT)V 3>€p(T€<j)6vT]V.

3. &epo~f(p6vri KcrraSoi Ae£t'a//.

4. Trpos TOVTOVS annvTas.

5. Kai KXeoc^paSes.

G. KfiTaoS) irpos TOVS CIVTOVS \oo~i.

7. KCtl Nav(3a.TT]v xaraSco Trpos TOVS CIVTOVS.

8. T\r]Tr6\€[j.ov KaraSco.

9. KOI TOVS jj-fTa KTT)O~LOV aTravras*
10. xaraSw.*

" Infernal Hermes, imprisoning Earth, and also Persephone !
1 lay a spell upon Dexias before all these deities, also
upon Cleophrades, Naubates, Ctesias with all his family."

* KctTaSecns Ka.Td8eafj.os arc used Hebrew " Chabar," to bewitch, pro-
by Plato for witchcraft : and the perly signifies to bind.

360 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

The defunct Athenian must assuredly have departed this liro
full of charity towards all his neighbours to have taken such
pains to carry with him a memorandum so expressive of his
wishes on their behalf. It reminds one of the old Monmouth
shire farmer, who (as tradition tells), dying of a broken heart,
ordered the bitterest verses of the "Cursing Psalm" to be
engraved upon his tombstone for the benefit of his enemy ;
as it may yet be seen at Christchurch, near Caerleon, Mon
mouthshire. The Verulamium scrolls (p. 339) contained
invocations of the opposite character, for the benefit of the
parties named therein. Yet another variety are the leaden
scrolls found numerously in the lately discovered Demetrium
of Cnidus. Some evidently belong to a kin-1 of ordeal — the
accused party asking to be ill-treated by Persephone in the
next world, if guilty of such or >uch a charge ; others contain
similar ill wishes against individuals therein specified who have
injured the writers. By far the most curious of these relics is
the leaden plate, found at Bath (1880), engraved with four
lines of words placed in their proper order, but spelt back
wards for the sake of disguise, and about four inches square.
Jt is thus read by Zangemeister :

" Qui mihi mantilium iuvolavit
ftic liquat com aqua olla . . . ta
-Ni qui earn salvavit . . . vinna vel
Exsupersus Verrianus Servianus
Itianus Sagarbalis Cubus
Minianus cum Sovina
Ceramanilli."

This reading is not satisfactory in many places. The lost
object is written MATHV, MATEHV, to be read backwards, like
all the rest, and therefore bears no resemblance to " mantelium."

The malignity of the Greek character is exemplified in
nothing more strongly than in the open toleration of the use
of such engines of spite. In the great Temple of Demeter at
Cnidus, Mr. Newton found many of these leaden scrolls invoking
the vengeance of the goddess of the place, her daughter, and the
other infernal gods, upon individuals specified by name. It
will be remarked that this " dira detestatio" was not contingent
upon the refusal of a just demand, as in the case of the worthy

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 361

Silurian hereafter to be mentioned ; but were the means of
revenge resorted to by persons too cowardly to use those
supplied by nature, or probably for the mere sake of gratifying
spite.

As a Roman pendant to this Athenian legacy of curses, I
copy the leaden scroll found, many years ago, in the garden of
the Villa Manenti, upon the Via Latina. De Rossi, who first
published it in the * Bullettino del Iristit, Arch. Rom.' fur 1852,
is of opinion that orthography and characters indicate the date
of the last century of the Republic. " Quornodo mortuos qui
istic sepultus est nee loqui nee sermonaii potest, seic Rhodine
apud M. Licinium Faustum mortua sit, nee loqui nee serinonari
possit. Ita ut mortuos nee ad Deos nee ad homines acceptus
est, ita Khodine apud M. Licinium accepta sit, et tan turn valeat
quantum ille mortuos quei istic sepultus e^t ; Dite Pater ! Rho-
dinen tibi commendo ut semper odio sit M. Licinio Fausto,
item M. Hedium Ainphionein, item C. Popillium Apollonium,
item Vennonia Hermiona, item Sergia Glycinna." It is easy
to construct a history out of these lines, the despairing lover
dying from the perfidy of the fair Rhodine, who has jilted him
for the noble Licinius. Faustus prays the God of Hell to make
her distasteful to her possessor, and also to punish her aiders
and abettors, whose Greek cognomens show them to be of the
condition of freedmeu.

In the same strain we have the commination, sounding to us
so jocular, but doubtless in its own time intended for something
very serious, addressed to Nodens, discovered amidst the ruins
of his not much frequented temple in L^dney Park, Gloucester
shire. " Devo Nodenti Silvianus anilum perdedit, demediam (sic)
partem donavit Nodenti inter quibus nomen Seniciani nollis
permittas sanitatem donee pei ferat usque Templum Nodentis."
Whereby the half-civilized Silurian, as his name betrays, in
artless grammar and orthography, beseeches the local deity
never to allow Senicianus or any of his family to enjoy health,
until he brings back the ring, the loss of whii.-h Silvianus
ascribes to him, and restores it to the rightful owner at the
temple of Nodens : in which case one half its value is promised
to the god for his assistance in recovering the stolen property.

362 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

These thank-offerings to "Neddyn diw " (perhaps identical
with the Etruscan " Nethunos ") were made in coppers, the
very " stipes " out of which the tesselated pavement of his
temple was paid for, as the inscription thereon yet testifies.
They were found plentifully strewed over the floor, of every
date down to Honorius; then some sudden raid of barbarians
gave the whole establishment to the flames.

The idea of " binding " is practically carried out in Spell VII.
of Atanasi's ' Mag. Papyrus,' which directs you to lay the link
of a chain (/cpc/cos) upon a leaden plate, and having traced its
outline, to write thereon, round the circumference, the common
Gnostic legend (reading both ways) continuously :

IAe(jJBAcJ>PeNeMOTNOOIAAPIKPIcJ>l
AeT€API4>IKPAAI0ONTOM6N€P4)ABAU)eAI

Within the circle must be written the nature of the thing it
is desired to prevent. The operation is entitled the " Ring of
Hermes."

The link was then to be folded up on the leaden plate, and
thrown into the grave of one dead before his time, or else into a
disused well. After the formula above given was to follow, in
Greek, " Prevent thou such and such a person from doing such
and such a thing " — a proof that the long string of epithets
all referred to the same Power.

We now come to relics of the same sort, but of diverse in
tention ; being those passports to eternal bliss, so frequently
mentioned in the course of the preceding dissertation. Of these
the most complete example is the Leaden Book formerly be
longing to the celebrated Father Kircher, in whose collection it
first made its appearance, but concerning the provenance of
which nothing is known, although Matter suspects it to be the
same that Montfaucon gave to Cardinal Bouillon, who died at
Rome in 1715. But this identification is entirely ungrounded,
as shall presently be shown. The same writer has given
facsimiles, in his ' Excursion Gnostique,' of the seven pages
composing the book, now deposited in the Museum Kircheriaiium.
These leaves are of lead, 3x4 inches square, engraved on
each side, with a religious composition for heading, under
which are, in every case, five lines of inscription, that mystic

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 363

number having doubtless been purposely adopted by the
spell-maker. These lines are written in large Greek capitals,
square-shaped, and resembling the character commonly used
on Gnostic gems. Intermixed are other forms, some resem
bling the hieroglyphs still current for the Signs and Planets;
others Egyptian Demotic and Pehlevi letters. The language
does not appear to be Coptic, but rather some Semitic tongue,
many words being composed entirely of consonants, showing
that the vowels were to be supplied by the reader. The chief
interest, however, of the relic lies in the designs heading each
page, in which we recognise the usual figures of Gnostic
iconology, together wdth others of a novel character, all touched
in with a free and bold graver with the fewest possible strokes.
The purport of the writing underneath may be conjectured, 011
the authority of the ' Litany of the Dead '* and the ' Diagram ma
of the Ophites,' to be the prayers addressed by the ascending
soul to these particular deities, each in his turn. The very
number of the pages, seven in all, comes to support this ex
planation. The Astral Presidents to be propitiated in the
heavenward journey are represented in the following manner : —

1. A nude female figure, in which the navel (the "circle of
the Sun ") is strongly defined : she makes a gesture of adoration
to a genius in a conical cap and short tunic, armed with a
trident, Siva's proper weapon, and consequently appropriated
afterwards by the medieval l\uler of Tartarus.

Reverse. Palm within a circle or garland, and a large Caducous.

2. Female in flowing robes, addressing a gigantic fowl, much
too squat, apparently, in its proportions for the ibis of Thoth :
perhaps intended for the yet more divine bird, the phoenix.

* In the pictures to which the dis- Here the sun's rays cheer his steps,

embodied spirit " before his journey and he meets amongst other wonders

addresses his prayers to the various the head of Horus rising out of a

gods, and then enters upon his lotus-flower, the god Pthah, the

labours. He attacks with spear in phoanix, his own soul in the forai of

hand the crocodiles, lizards, scorpions a bird witli a human head, and the

and snakes which beset his path ; goddess Isis as a serpent of goodness,

and passing through these dark The soul then returns to the mummy

regions he at length readies the and puts life into its mouth."—

laud of the Arnenti, whose goddess (Sharpe, ' Egypt. Mytliol.,' p. 65.)
is a hawk standing upon a perch.

36 A THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Reverse. Nude female adoring a certain undefined monster,
furnished with large ears, and placed upon a low altar. The
first line of the accompanying prayer seems to begin with the
Pehlevi letters equivalent to S, P, V.

3. Horns, leaning upon an instrument of unknown use,
regarding a huge tortoise, better drawn than the rest, which is
crawling towards him.

Reverse. Female in long flowing robes, holding up her hands
to a naked child (Horus ?), who is in the act of leaping down to
her from a lofty pedestal.

4. Anubis attired in a short mantle (reminding one of Me-
phistopheles) attentively contemplating a lofty hill, the apex
whereof has the form of an eagle's head.

Reverse. Female in rags leaning on a staff advancing towards
another richly clothed and crowned, who lifts up her hands as
though terrified at the apparition.

5. Abraxas in his proper form, looking towards a female fully
draped, who offers him some indistinct symbol, much resembling
an E turned upside down. The prayer below opens with the
word lACx); whence it may be fairly conjectured that the first
characters in each of the other pages give the name of the deity
pictured above.

Reverse. Frog and serpent facing each other : ancient em
blems of Spring, but probably used here in their medieval sense
as types of the Eesurrection of the body.

6. A headless man with rays issuing from his shoulders, and
holding out a torch, appears falling backwards with affright on
the approach of a winged dragon.

Reverse. A squat personage with radiated crown stands in
front face in the attitude of the Egyptian Typhon. On the
other side stands a very indistinct figure, resembling a
Cupid, having square-cut wings, his back turned to the
spectator.

7. Female with robe flying in an arch over her head, as Iris
is commonly pictured, extends her hand to an approaching bull :
the drawing of the latter being vastly superior to any of the
other figures. One is led to discover in this group Venus and
her tutelary sign, Taurus,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 365

Reverse. Female reclining on the ground, towards whom
advances a large bird, seemingly meant for a pigeon.

In the sacred animals figuring in these successive scenes it
is impossible to avoid discovering an allusion to the forms the
Gnostics gave to the planetary Rulers. A legend of theirs
related how the Saviour in his descent to this lower world
escaped the vigilance of these Powers by assuming their own
form as he traversed the sphere of each, whence a conjecture
may be hazarded that similar metamorphoses of the illumined
soul are hinted at in these inexplicable pictures.

We now come to the consideration of a second relic of the
same kind, known as " Card. Bouillon's Leaden Book." How
Matter could have supposed this to be the same with Kircher's
(supposing him ever to have compared his own facsimiles with
Montfaucon's) is a thing totally beyond my comprehension.
For Montfaucon, in his Plate 187, has given every leaf of the
former, apparently copied with sufficient fidelity : the pictures
on which I shall proceed to describe for the purpose of com
parison with those in the Kirch erian volume ; for the general
analogy in the designs attests the similar destination of both
monuments, whilst at the same time the variation in details
proves the existence of two distinct specimens of this interesting-
class.

The leaves within the two covers, connected by rings secured
by a rod passed through them, are only six in number ; whilst
the inscriptions, though in much the same lettering as the
Kircherian copy, fill only four lines on a page, and only four
pages in all : the other eight pages having pictures alone.

Now to describe these pictures, which seem in better drawin^
than those of the former set.* Page 1. Man, nude, standing
up. 2. Female fully draped, walking. 3. The same figure,
extending one hand. 4. Anubis in a short mantle. 5. The
usual figure of the Abraxas god. 6. Bird-headed man sur
rounded with rays (Phre ?). 7. Bust of Serapis. 8. Female
reclining. 9. Terminal figure in the form of a cross. 10. Frog.
11. Ibis, or Phoenix. 12. Female holding above her head a
star-spangled veil.

* The improvement is probably only due to the French copyist.

366 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Montfaucon supposes all these figures represent the genii who
preside over the hours of the day — the first being expressive of
rising, the last of night ; and calls attention to the fact that the
seventh page is assigned to Serapis, who sometimes receives the
title of €7TTaypdfjifjiaro<5 Oe6<s. But in his Plate 188, Montfaucon
copies from Bononi's ' Museum Kircherianum ' another leaden
book " found in a sepulchre," which actually has seven pages, and
two figures heading each, in the specimen pages : and this may
possibly be the one since published in its entirety by Matter ;
although at present the leaves are separate, not connected into
a book, which may be the result of accident during the century
and a half that has elapsed since it was first noticed.

Another discovery of the same nature has been made in our
own times, and investigated with the greatest care. In the year
1852, whilst excavating the ruins of a tomb in the Vigna
Mariiii, near the Porta Pia, a marble sarcophagus was brought
to light, ornamented with a bas-relief representing either the
Adoration of the Magi, or else the prototype of that scene, the
" Birth of the New Sun." The floor of the tomb was paved
with a mosaic equally ambiguous in subject, whether a Madonna
and Child, or, what the concomitants render more probable,
Isis suckling the infant Harpocrates. Several minor sarcophagi
in terra-cotta surrounded the larger one ; and in these were
found many leaden plates, rolled up into scrolls, not bound -up
like books. Eleven of these can still be deciphered. Matter
publishes facsimiles of three of the best preserved, but none
of them present any legends like the examples above described.

On the first is seen Anubis wearing a long tunic and buskins,
and holding out a scroll ; at his feet are two female busts :
below all are two serpents entwined about the same object as
in the second scroll, where also the same busts appear, viz. a
corpse swathed up like a mummy. In the second scroll these
busts are set on each side of the Anubis, a large figure much
mutilated, but attired as above, and holding out a cross, the
*' Sign of Life." Under his feet lies the corpse, encircled in the
numerous folds of a huge serpent, the Agathodaamon, guardian
of the deceased. And this last type supplies the motive for so
frequently placing upon gems the serpent-girt mummy. In the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 367

olden creed the serpent watched over tombs as well as over
buried treasure. When ^Eneas is offering sacrifice at his father's
grave (v. 84) —

"Dixerat haec; adytis cum lubricus anguis ab imis
Septem ingens gyros, septena volumina, traxit,
Amplexus placidc tumulum, laps usque per anas ;
Coeruleae cui terga notae, maculosus et auro
Squamam incendebat fulgor, ecu nubilus arcus
Mille jacit varios adverse sole colores.
Obstupuit visu ^Eneas. I lie agmine longo
Tandem inter pateras, et loevia pocula serpcns,
Libavitque dapes, rursusque innoxius imo
Successit tiunulo, et depasta altaria liquit.
Hoc magis inceptos genitori instaurat honores;
Incertus geniunine loci famulumve parentis
Esse putet."

In the third scroll, the most valuable of all, the same Anubis
bears on his arm an oblong object, perhaps the Koman scutum,
held so as to convert the outline of the figure into a complete
Latin cross. Across this shield and the field run a number
of Gnostic symbols, conspicuous amongst which is the sigil pre
scribed by Alexander Trallianus as a cure for the colic. 0 0 0
Others resemble some ordinary Masons' Marks. For ex
ample, an eight-armed cross, a circle, and a square
cut by horizontal and vertical lines : at the god's foot is
a rhomboid, the Egyptian " Egg of the World," towards which
crawls a serpent coiled into a circle. A remarkable addition is
the inscription carved over the tunic in semi-cursive letters :

K6BNT €KBA

4>KTK KCI

BK€ A

NcJ> 0
#

Under the pairs of busts in the other scrolls is the letter U),
repeated seven times in a line : reminding one of the " Names,"
the interpretation whereof has been already given from the
Pistis-Sopliia (p. 16). Very remarkable also is the line of
characters, apparently Palmyrene, upon the legs of the first
Anubis. As for the figure of the serpent, supposing these talis
mans to emanate not from the Isiac but the newer Ophite

368 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

creed, it may well stand for that " True and perfect Serpent "
who " leads forth the souls of all that put their trust in him
out of the Egypt of the hody, and through the Red Sea of
Death into the Land of Promise, saving them on their way
from the serpents of the Wilderness, that is, from the Rulers of
the stars."

As for the symbols so largely used here and in other Gnostic
monuments, their frequent construction out of lines terminated
by dots or heads irresistibly suggests a theory for their origin.
In this respect, and in general form, they strikingly resemble
certain characters in the oldest Babylonian alphabet. This
alphabet, simple in construction, long preceding the elaborate
nailhead, is allowed to have been pictorial, i.e. hieroglyphic, in
its nature. It is very conceivable that, revered for antiquity,
this primitive character was preserved in sacred usages long after
it had grown obsolete in common life. The cuneiform continued
the national alphabet of Persia down to the Macedonian conquest,
and doubtless was the one generally employed by the natives
(very few of whom probably learnt the language of the new
masters) until it was replaced by its last modification the early
IVhlevi. And as for the primitive hieroglyphic letters, it was
natural that certain of their forms, expiessing peculiarly hacred
ideas (as the $ signifying " God "), should retain a mystic, perhaps
thaumatui gic, value in the practice of the Magi long after their
original meaning was forgotten. And these very Magi were
the teachers of the talisman-makers of Gnostic times.* This
explanation is strongly supported by the recent discovery, that
in the Assyrian inscriptions every deity has a certain numeral
assigned him, which said numeral frequently stands in the
place of his full name. For example, the numei al for Ann (Pluto)
is 60 ; for Baal (Jupiter) 50 ; for Hoa (Neptune) 40 ; the same

* This conjecture of mine has at last Besides these, lie recognises at least

been verified by that high authority three out of the Cypriote syllabary ;

in Assyrian literature, Professor some of the rest remind him of the

Sayce. He finds in the assemblage cypher alphabets of the East as given

of siglse on the back of the Mithraic by that old author Ibn Wahaby, of

gem (PI. LI. 1) the regular cuneiform which Von Hammer has made a

characters, somewhat depraved, for translation.
God, and Heaven for BI and El.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 369

rule holding good for the sun, moon, and planets. Hence is it
more than probable ' that our Gnostic talismans exhibit to us
those very " numeri Babylonii " which Horace dissuades the fair
Leuconoe from consulting in her unadvised desire to learn the
Future. Such relics of old Chaldean lore would, it may well
be supposed, never cease to be reproduced as they were originally
shapen ; the current Pehlevi would have carried on its face too
recent a stamp to impose upon superstition.

All numerals were at first letters of an alphabet. Some
amongst the unknown characters and " Masons' Marks " found
on talismans cannot but be numerals, considering the essential
part the properties of numbers play in several divisions of the
Gnostic family. This notion is strongly supported by what
Hippol) tus (Egyptian Theology) says of a certain numeral, lost in
the text, but from a subsequent passage clearly the Ten. " Which
is a sacred Number, and which is written down and tied about
the necks of sick people as a means of cure. In like manner a
certain plant which terminates in the same number (of leaves)
being similarly hung around the patient produces the same
effect, in consequence of the virtue of that Number. Moreover
a physician cures his patients when they amount to that
particular number, but when the number of them is against
him he does so with great difficulty. The Egyptians attend
much to such numerals, and calculate all similar matters
according to this rule ; some reckoning by the vowels alone,
others by all the letters in the Word." The plant meant may
have been the Agnus castus, still regarded by the Turks as a
potent amulet, and called Kef Marjam, " the hand of Mary,"
on account of its digitate form. The same hand made of blue
glass is tied round children's necks, or on the part of the body
to be protected against the stroke of the Evil-eye. Again,
that important sect the Marcosians are shown by Hippolytus
to teach no better doctrine than " a mere patchwork of scraps,
stolen from the notions of Astrology, and from the Pythagorean
art of numbers." In their theosophy the sacred numerals were
the 30, the sum of the letters constituting the Ineffable Name, and
the constituents of the same. viz. 8, 10, 12 : expressed in Greek
by H, I, I A : or, again, by an intricate combination of these

2 B

370 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

numerals giving the sum 99, written in Greek p. In another
place (iv. 51) Hippolytus observes that " almost every heresy is
indebted to the science of arithmetic for its invention of the
Hebdomads, and its emanation of the ^Eons; although the
different teachers divide them variously, and change their names,
doing in reality nothing more : in all which way of proceeding
Pythagoras is their true master, he who first brought with him
out of Egypt the use of numbers in such matters.''

The so-called " Pythagorean Numerals" of unknown antiquity,
whether or not due to the Samian sage, are said to be preserved
to us by Boethius, " the last of the Romans," in his treatise
on Arithmetic. That they would be the true parents of our
Arabic numerals is at once apparent by inverting the figures
standing for 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 0. Their forms look like certain
Palmyrene letters slightly modified. The Palmyrene is a very
ancient Syriac alphabet, totally different in origin from either
Punic or Pehlevi. The ancient importance of this character is
apparent from what Epiphanius notices (Haer. Ixvi.). " Manes
divided his work into 22 books, being the number of the letters
in the Syriac alphabet. For most of the Persians use the
Syriac character as well as the Persian, just as with us many
nations, although having a national alphabet of their own, yet
employ the Greek. Others again pride themselves upon using
the most cultivated dialect, viz. that current in Palmyra, both
the dialect itself and its letters ; and these are 22 in number."

In this affectation of the learned in Persia, a sufficient reason
presents itself for the occasional appearance of Palmyrene letters
in spells composed and sold by the Magi or their semi-Grecian
disciples under the Roman Empire. The practice went back
far beyond the epoch of the great heresiarch, for many Baby
lonian cylinders are known inscribed, instead of the cumbrous
cuneiform, with a Semitic lettering, sometimes more resembling
the Palmyrene than the Punic. And even when the Pehlevi
had become the national alphabet of Persia there was very good
reason why the cultivators of polite literature should prefer the
Palmyrene alphabet for its superior copiousness, their own
possessing no more than fifteen distinct characters. And, lastly,
the remark of Epiphanius deserves attention as to certain

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 371

Western nations then possessing alphabets of their own : for it
proves, contrary to the received opinion, that as late as A.D. 400
they had not all been superseded by the Greek or the Latin
letters throughout the whole extent of the Roman world.

The curious question of these Numerals, and the deep ideas
involved therein, has led us far away from the proper object
of this chapter — sepulchral scrolls. Their use was carried on
by the Christians down to comparatively recent times. Fauno
describes amongst the innumerable bijoux of all kinds deposited
in the coffin* of the infant imperial bride Maria Honorii " a small
plate of gold on which were written, or rather scratched, the
words, in Greek, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel." And the
Abbe Cochet has figured in his very interesting researches f in
the old Norman cemeteries many leaden plates, cross-shaped,
inscribed with prayers, placed regularly upon the breast of the
buried body. Out of four examples found in the old cemetery
of Bouteilles, Dieppe, the most complete formula, written in a
character that cannot be later than the thirteenth century, runs
as follows : " Dns IHC XPC qui dixit discipulis suis quodcunque
ligaveritis super terrain erit ligatum et in celis quodcunque
solveritis super terram erit solutum et in celis de quorum
numero licet nos indignos nos esse voluit ipse te absolvet per
ministerium nostrum quodcunque fecisti cogitatione locutione
negligenter atque necibus omnibus absolutum perducere
dignetur in regnum celorum qui vivit et regnat Deus per secula
saeculorum amen. Omnipotens Deus misereatur animo Mesaline
condonet peccata tibi preterita presentia et futura liberet te ab
orani malo conservet et confirmet itinere bono et perducat te
Christus films Dei ad vitam eternam et ad sanctorum consortium
absolutione et remissione penitentia tribuat tibi Masaline
omnipotens plus et misericors IHC Amen." The Abbe states
that it is still the custom in the Russian Church for the papa at
a funeral, after reading the form of absolution, to place the paper
in the hand of the corpse to accompany him into the grave.

The remarkable properties of Numerals captivated the fancy

* Discovered Feb., 1544, in digging his ' Antichita di Roma,' p. 154

the foundations of the Chapel of the published 1553.

Kings of France, in St. Peter's, Rome; f 'Sepultures Gauloises,' chap.xiil.
and fully described by M. L. Fauno in

372 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

of Man as Boon as the science of arithmetic was invented. From
their powers of infinite multiplication the ancients gave them
sexes : making the odd the males, the even the females of the
species. This assumption plays a great part in the theosophy
of Marcus. From this idea, the next step was a very easy one

the attribution of mystic virtues to certain combinations of

numerals that produced curious results by their addition. Of
such, the most striking example is the Magic Square; the
grand mediaeval charm against the plague, and therefore con
spicuous in Albert Durer's picture of ' Melancholy,' where the
dull goddess sits in gloomy abstraction, surrounded by the
emblems of all the arts and sciences. This, which however

4 . 14 . 15 . 1
9 . 7 . 6 . 12

5 . 11 . 10 . 8
16 . 2 . 3 . 13

added, gives the same result, viz., 34.

The celebrated Caireen magician of forty years ago, em
ployed a diagram constructed on the same principle, but with
different numerals, into the middle of which, traced on a sheet

4.9.2

3.5.7

8.1.6

of paper, he poured the little pool of ink which served for mirror
to exhibit the spectres of the persons called for by his dupes.
And, to conclude this subject in an appropriate manner, a
fifteenth century MS. in the library of this college, amongst
a number of charms, gave this " for procuring favour with all
men ; " always carry about you written down—
A.X.H.B.X.U.Y.III.K.O

FIG. 17.

PART V.

TEMPLARS, ROSICRUCIANS, FREE
MASONS.

" Inscriptiones proptor quas vadimoniurn deseri possit : at
cum intraveris, Di Deaeque 1 quam nihil in medio invenies."
(Plin. H. N. Praef.)

TEMPLARS, ROSICRUCIANS, FREE
MASONS.

PRESERVATION OF GNOSTIC SYMBOLS AMONGST
THE FEEEMASONS.

AT the first sight it is absolutely startling to recognise so
many Gnostic (primarily Indian) symbols, figuring so con
spicuously amongst the insignia and illustrated formula3 of our
Freemasons, and that, too, apparently in their original sense
as exponents of the deepest mysteries, human and divine — a
circumstance of itself lending a specious colour to the preten
sions of the Order to the most venerable antiquity. " In-
scriptiones propter quas vadimonia deseri possint. Sed ubi
intraveris, Dii Deaeque ! quam nihil in medio invenies," to quote
old Pliny's words in speaking of the charlatans of his day. For
the pleasing illusion vanishes when we come to investigate the
line of their descent ; and the Fraternity, though claiming them
as its own legitimate inheritance, turns out at the end a mere
daw in borrowed plumes.

To begin by stating these claims, as recently put forward by
one of their most zealous and pugnacious defenders : " The
mere title may be comparatively modern; for the society in
antediluvian (!) and prehistorical times most undoubtedly was
not called Freemasonry. But the thing was in existence, and
has descended to our own day." " On the arrival of the Eomans
in Britain, we find CaBsar and several of the Roman generals
who succeeded him in the government of the island becoming
patrons and protectors of the craft ; but there is no information
to be found in regard to the usages and customs prevalent
among them at that time. Their lodges and conventions were

376 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

regularly held, but were open only to the initiated fellows.
There is enough however to show that the same society which
now nourishes everywhere was then in existence, holding
lodges and conventions and having its initiated fellows. I may
add, that a regular list of Grand Masters can be produced quite
as genuine and reliable as that of the Archbishops of Canter
bury, or of the Kings of England. If that in itself is not
valid evidence enough of the continued existence of the same
society in England from the earliest historical period down to
the present date, I don't know what would be admitted as
sufficient evidence." " Going back to A.D. 300 we find the
Emperor Carausius supporting it, and appointing Albanus, his
Steward, Grand Master. This was none other than the famous
St. Alban, the first British martyr, who was born at Verulam,
now St. Albans, in Hertfordshire."*

The above is an unusually brilliant specimen of the logic of
the Brotherhood, that assumes in every notice of building and
builders to be found in antiquity a recognition of the then
existence of their own society exactly as at present constituted.
The old guild of ivorking-masons seems to have made pretensions
of the same nature (if we allow the genuineness of the supposed
Bodleian MS. copied by Locke) ; for their great patron Henry VI.
informs his scholar that " the Mystery was first brought into
England by Peter Gower " (Pythagoras) — a corruption of the
name, by the way ; plainly betraying that he had obtained this
piece of information from a French mouth, probably from some
one in the suite of his queen. It is not unlikely that this con
nexion of the Father of Mathematics with the building trade
arose from the study of that science by the Greek and Koman
architects : for upon the vital importance of a knowledge of
Mathematics to his own profession Vitruvius repeatedly and
strongly insists. But this very king, whom our Freemasons
claim as their chief resuscitator, furnishes the most conclusive
evidence against the reality of their modern pretensions. By
the advice of the Bishop of Winchester, better known as Car
dinal Beaufort, he passed an Act, in his third year, forbidding

* From a letter published in the by John Milner, B.A., Chaplain to
'Cork Constitution,' Jan. 15, 186G, H. M.S. Hector.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 377

Masons to hold lodges or any meetings whatsoever, which pro
tection is clearly directed against no higher things than mere
" trade-union " proceedings. But at a later period he showed
the Masons more favour, and even attended their meetings, as
did his contemporary James I. of Scotland. But the question
is set at rest by the language of the Act :* " First, Whereas by
the assembling congregations and confederacies made by the
Masons in their grand chapters and assemblies the good cause
and effect of the Statute of Labourers be openly violated and
broken, in subversion of the law and to the great damage of
all the commons, our said Lord the King willing in this case to
provide remedy by the advice and assent aforesaid, and at the
special request of the said commons, hath ordered and estab
lished, that such chapiters and congregations shall not be
hereafter made, they that cause such chapiters and congrega
tions to be assembled and holden, if they thereof be convict,
shall be judged for felons. And that all the other masons that
come to such chapiters and congregations, be punished by
imprisonment of their bodies, and make fine and ransom at the
king's will."

The language of this Act is sufficiently conclusive, but for
accumulation of proofs, I shall proceed to establish the same
position by giving a summary of the oldest, and only genuine
document extant on the subject of Masonry. This document is
a MS. Bib. Eeg. 17. A. I. fif. 32, written in a hand that cannot
be later than the close of the 13th century, and of which a copy
has been published by J. 0. Halliwell. It commences with a
history of Architecture from the beginning, and of the intro
duction of the art into England, and then proceeds to give, in
rhyme, the Rules of the Craft, conceived in precisely the same
business-like spirit as those of a Trades-Union. The preamble
is : " Hie incipiunt Constitutiones Artis Geometricae secunduni
Eiiclydem."f Onca upon a time a certain king and his nobles
had such large families as to be unable to maintain them
decently, and taking counsel together devised they should be

* ' Statutes at Large,' ed. Keble, densed summary of the sense of the
1695. 3 Hen. VI. cap. 1. old Mason's rhymes,

t What follows is a much eon-

378 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

taught some trade whereby to live. A great clerk Euclyde
proposed teaching them geometry, called Masonry, the most
honest craft of all. He ordered that the most advanced of his
scholars should be styled Master by the rest, but that he should
call none of his inferiors either subject or servant, but always my
dear brother.

" In this manner by good wit and Geometry,
Began first the Craft of Masonry."

Euclyde invented and taught the same in Egypt : many
years afterwards it was brought into England in King Athel-
stan's time. This good king loved the Craft and built many
towers, halls, bowers, and temples. But finding out many
defects in the Craft he determined to reform the same and
summoned an Assembly of all the masons in England together
with all his lords and commons, and,

" Fifteen Articles there they brought,
And Fifteen Points there they wrote."

Art. I. The master must be just and true, and pay his
fellows according to the price of provisions : neither exact more
from his employer than he pays his men ; nor take bribes from
either side.

II. Every master-mason must attend the general congrega
tion or Assembly, wherever it shall be held, unless hindered by
sickness, else shall he be accounted disobedient to the Craft and
full of falseness.

III. No prentice to be taken for less than seven years, for in
less time he cannot learn his business either to his employer's
profit or to his own.

IV. No bondsman may be taken for prentice. Otherwise it
might so happen that his lord might take him out of the lodge
itself, and so occasion great tumult, for all the masons would
stand together by their fellow. The prentice must therefore be
taken of the master's own degree; but of old times it was
ordained he should be of gentle blood, and even great lords'
sons took to this geometry.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 379

V. The prentice must be of lawful birth, and sound both in

mind and body :

" For an imperfect man of such blood,
Should do the Craft but little good.
A maimed man he hath no might,
Ye may it knowen long ere night."

VI. The master must not take from his employer the same
pay for the prentice as for the perfect workman. Nevertheless,
before the prentice's time is out, as he increases in knowledge,
so may his wages be proportionably raised.

VII. The master must neither for love nor money clothe,
feed, or harbour a thief, nor a homicide, nor one of bad fame,
all which would bring the Craft to shame.

VIII. If the master finds any of his men incompetent he must
turn him off, and take another in his place, " as such a hand
would do the Craft short worship."

IX. The master must undertake no job that he is unable to
finish, and must see that he lays the foundation so that it will
neither give nor crack.

X. No master-mason must supplant another under penalty of
ten pounds unless where the work has tumbled down through
the incompetence of the first builder. In all points of this
" curious Craft " masons must live together like brethren.

XI. No mason is to work by night unless for the sake of
trying experiments for amending errors.

XII. No mason must disparage the work of another, but
rather must praise the same, and if wrong, privately advise him
how to aright it.

XIII. The prentice must be taught every branch of the
business, and be put upon work suitable to his ability.

XIV. The master must take no prentices-, unless he have
divers jobs in hand, in order to teach them the trade.

XV. The prentice must be a friend to his master, never
deceive him for the sake of another; neither stand by his
fellows in a wrong cause, nor take a false oath.

These Fifteen Points were likewise ordained at the aforesaid
Assembly : —

I. The mason must love God, Holy Church, and his fellow-
masons, wheresoever he may go.

380 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

II. The mason must work as truly as he can upon the work
day, and so deserve his pay upon the holy day.

III. The prentice is on no account to divulge any trade

secrets.

"This Third Point it must be special,
Let the prentice know it well,
His master's counsel he keep and close,
And his fellows', by good purpose;
The secrets of the chamber he tell to none,
Nor in the lodge whatever is done.
Whatever thou seest or nearest them do,
Tell it no man wherever thou go.
The counsel of hall and eke of bower,
Keep it well in great honour,
Lest it should bring thyself to blame,
And bring the Craft into great shame."

IV. That no mason be false to the Craft nor maintain
his cause against it : neither do prejudice to master nor fellow,
and that the prentice stand in awe.

V. The master must take his wages, whatever ordained
him, without disputing. The master, if unable to find them
work as before, to give them warning in the forenoon.

VI. If any dispute or quarrel arise amongst the masons, the
master must make them put off the settlement thereof until
the next holy day ; and not allow it to be settled upon a work
day, lest it should hinder the work in hand.

VII. Not to lie with thy master's or fellow's wife or
concubine under penalty of serving another seven years of
prenticeship.

VIII. If thou hast taken any job under thy master, be a
faithful middleman between thy master and thy fellows.

IX. When the fellows have a common chamber then they must
take the stewardship in turns, week by week. All victuals to
be paid for as received, and regular accounts to be kept of the
common expenses.

" Of thy fellows' goods that thou hast spent,
When, and how, and to what end,
Such accounts thou must come to
When thy fellows would thou do."

X. If a mason lives amiss and is false to his work, he must,
without favour, be convened before the Assembly, and punished

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

according to the law of old ordained : or, in case he refuses to
appear, he must forswear the profession.

XI. If a skilled mason observe his fellow cutting a stone and
likely to spoil it through his own ignorance, he must advise
him in fair words, and teach him how to amend it, not to bring
shame upon the whole work.

XII. That whatever shall be ordained in the Assembly,
being present the master and fellows, nobles, burghers, and the
sheriff of the county, and the mayor of the town, that thou
shall maintain against all thy fellows, if disposed to dispute
the same.

XIII. The mason must swear never to be a thief himself, nor
for any fee or reward to abet one that is.

XIV. Before the Assembly breaks up, each must be sworn
unto his master and fellows, to the king, and to all these
present. Also they must seek out every one that hath con
travened any one law thereof, and bring them up before the
Assembly.

XV. And if found guilty, they must forswear the Craft :

" And so mason's craft they must refuse,
And swear it never more to use,"

unless they consent to make amends. If refractory, the sheriff
is to cast them into prison during the king's good pleasure, and
take their goods and chattels for the king's use. The Assembly
must be held every year, or at least every third year. Unto
the same must come every man of the Craft, and all the great
nobles, to amend all infractions, and to swear obedience to the
Constitutions of King Athelstan ; and especially to make bold
petition to the king that he stand by the masons everywhere
and enforce the same statutes.

Next follows ' Ars Quattuor Coronatorum,' a manual of
religious and moral duties, and also of good manners in

company.

"The Four Masters—
Who were as good Masons as on earth could go,
Gravers and image-makers they were also,"

were commanded by the Emperor to make an idol to be
worshipped. On their refusal he first imprisoned and tortured
them, and at last put them to death. These be the " Quattuori

382

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Coronati," and their festival falls on the eighth day after All
Saints. Many years after Noah's Flood, was begun the Tower
of Babylon. It was built up to the height of seven miles, by
order of Nebuchadnezzar, for a refuge in case of another deluge.
But an angel, in order to punish his pride, smote all the
builders with confusion of tongues. After this Euclid taught
geometry, and gave his scholars the following rules.

Behaviour in Church.— To use the holy-water on going in : to
kneel down, never sit nor stand, make no noise nor talk, but
pray all the time, saying certain prayers given in the text. To
attend mass daily, but if at work to repeat a certain prayer
upon hearing the mass-bell.

In Company.— On coming before a lord, to doff cap or hood
nor put in on again until bid ; make two or three bows with
the right leg, hold up thy chin, look him sweetly in the face ;
do not scrape the foot, nor spit or blow thy nose. On entering
a hall amongst the gentelles, be not presumptuous on account of
thy birth or skill :

" In hall or chamber where thou dost gan,
Good manners make the man."

When sitting down to meat, see thy hands be clean and knife
sharp : cut the bread and meat ready for eating. If sitting by
a worshipful man, suffer him to help himself first. Keep thy
hands clean, smudge not the napkin, on which thou must not
blow thy nose : nor pick thy teeth at table ; neither drink with
anything in the mouth, nor dip thy chin too deep in the cup,
nor talk to thy neighbour when drinking.

"In chamber among the ladies bright,
Spare thy tongue, and spend thy sight."

Talk not of thine own matters, neither for mirth nor for mede.
Play only with thine equals. On meeting a man of worship
be sure to cap him; walk a little way behind him; never
interrupt his speech ; be brief and fair in thy replies, &c.

" Christ then, of his grace,
Give you both the wit and space
Well this book to con and read,
Heaven to have for your mede.
Amen! Amen! So mote it bee!
So say we all par charite"

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 383

Any reader of common intelligence will perceive that the
good priest, author of this the oldest extant document upon
Masonry, had not the remotest idea of the same as being the
possession of a secret society, established for some hidden end,
whether religious or political. The very rules which he pro
fesses to transcribe from the Constitutions of Athelstan, are
as plain-spoken, matter-of-fact as those of a modern Trades-
Union, differing only from the latter in the larger admixture of
common sense and honesty that they display, the whole winding
up with directions for behaviour in good society, as laid down
by some anticipatory Chesterfield. The " secrets of the lodge "
are manifestly nothing more than matters pertaining to the
trade discussed amongst the masons at their lodgings after
work, and very inexpedient for them to be divulged to out
siders. And to come to the most essential point of the question
which these Constitutions fully establish, " the Assembly " is,
so far from being a secret chapter, held by the Free and Accepted
Brethren only, that it must actually be presided over by the sheriff
of the county, and the mayor of the town where it is held ! for
the purpose of settling all matters connected with the building-
trade ; being in fact nothing more than what was called in
those times an " Assize of Labour."

An interesting feature in the treatise is the fact of its
ascribing these same " Constitutions " to King Athelstan.
There is very good reason for accepting this statement as
founded upon trustworthy tradition. The Saxon Prince was
the first British sovereign who possessed either wealth or
inclination for decorative architecture or building of any sort.
His father, Edward the Elder, and his aunt Ethelfleda " the
Lady of Mercia," are recorded as the first of the Saxon line
who built fortifications of stone about their chief cities. Before
this the Saxons, like all other Teutons, had no other idea of
building than of constructions in wood, all stone-masons had
to be brought over from France when wanted (as numerous
references, unnecessary here to quote, conclusively evince), in
which country architecture had kept up a feeble existence
after the fall of the Empire, its preservation being due to the
patronage of the Church, which kept growing in wealth and

384 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

power in proportion as the Roman authority died away. The
simplicity of the Constitutions in prescribing the convening of
mere craftsmen tinder the presidency of the sheriff and mayor,
betokens a truly Saxon state of society, and moreover a time
when these masons were actually working-men. Under the
Normans, regular architects (in one sense) first appear as the
" Masters," who were almost invariably churchmen. Further
more, the prohibition against taking a " bondman " for pren
tice unmistakably betokens the same early period, when
domestic slavery, not mere villanage, was recognised by law :
the Norman legislation makes no such distinction of bond and
free.

Aubrey indeed quotes the authority of Dugdale that " the
Fraternity of Adopted Masons," having signs and passwords for
the purpose of mutual recognition, owed its origin to a company
of Italian masons, who in Henry III.'s time obtained a patent
from the Pope to go about Europe, building churches. But the
absurdity of this statement is manifested by a single fact :
when the Italians of that period wished to erect any important
edifice, so far from being competent to do so for other nations,
they were forced to call in architects from Germany and
France. To give a few decisive examples, as regards the
wealthiest and most polished states of that country : — Pisa em
ployed Guglielmo il Tcdesco to plan her celebrated Campanile ;
Florence, Lapo, alias Jacopo il Tedesco, father of Arnolfo
(who had already gained high reputation by the triple church
he had built at Assisi for the Franciscans), to construct
their bridge " Alia Carraia," the Bargello or Townhall, several
churches, and to drain the Piazza Grande. Even a century
later the Visconti were obliged to employ German architects
to design the Duomo at Milan. It is true Henry III. had
in his pay one Peter " civis Eomanus," but only in the
capacity of a decorative artist, for the mosaic work at the
Westminster Shrine. But in truth, during the entire Gothic
period, architecture, as a national art, may be said to have been
extinct in Italy, the grand centre of the art then being
established in the very middle of France.

All this evidence goes to show that our Freemasons have no

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 385

relationship, either actual or traditional, with the mediaeval
guilds bearing the same appellation, a pretence they so
zealously maintain. The latter were corporations of real work
men, in which each person, after serving a regular apprentice
ship, and, according to the custom still kept up in some
counties, producing a trial-piece to prove his competency, was
admitted " free " of the Guild, and " accepted " amongst the
members of the same. The compotations accompanying the
ceremony are in truth the sole point of resemblance between
the ancient and the modern Freemasons.

The 'Bulletin Monumental' for 1884, p. 34, contains a
memoir, "Les signes do Tacherons sur les remparts d' Avignon,"
which gives the fullest collection (six pages) of these marks
that has ever been published. They can bo here traced
from Roman times where they appear as single letters or as
Trionian shorthand, down to the actual Masons' Marks of
mediaeval and modern times. Many clearly represent the
tools used in building. Some of these marks, and more of
those from Avignon, are to be recognised upon Lichfield's
"Baphometic Tablet;" which may, after all, be no modern
forgery, but a genuine register of such segli of the seventeenth
century.*

The mediaeval guild of Masons, as we have seen, was no more
a secret society than were the guilds of Carpenters, Cordwainers or
Tailors. Every man indeed belonging to the first-named (and this
is the only thing belonging to the Craft, that really carries with
it an air of mysterious antiquity) had, upon admission, a mark (or
cypher) assigned him, which he was bound to put upon every
stone he dressed (a rule still observed) in order to distinguish
his work from that of his fellows, against the time when the
materials should be examined by the master-mason, who paid
him for those approved, but stopped his wages for those spoiled
through his fault. Similarly every " Merchant of the Staple "
joined with his initials upon his seal, or trade mark, the mark
of the staple-town to which he belonged. This latter, though

* Most interesting of all, on ac- lately published by Dr. Freshfield,
count of their early date, are the in the Archseologia, Vol. 50, Part I.
Masons' Marks at Westminster Hall,

2 c

886 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

much alike in outline, was variously modified so as to indicate
each of the fifteen towns in England, Ireland, and Wales,
appointed by Edward III. In all mediaeval documents relating
to building, the name " Freemason " signifies merely the
worker in hewn stone, the inferior workman who ran up the
body of the wall in rubble or ragstone being called the
" Eough-waller." Lastly, a very puzzling question presents
itself — if our Freemasons be the legitimate successors in an
unbroken line of the ancient lodges and guilds, how came it
that all the principles of Gothic architecture were utterly lost
within less than a century ?

But to return to the marks themselves, of which many
collections have been published gathered from regions the
most widely separated. Their history is indeed full of interest
but likewise of obscurity ; " res alta nocte et caligine mersae."
Many of them are traditional, and go back to the highest
antiquity, being found on Phoenician* and Greek buildings (as
well as on vases and coins of the earliest times), and in still
larger abundance and variety in all mediaeval architecture.
These marks were in the beginning religious symbols, many of
them being identical with the caste-marks, whereby to this day
the followers of the respective Hindoo gods are distinguished
from one another. This religious significance explains also
their occurrence on Celtic monuments, as on the Stonehenge
lintel, and the Newton Stone, Aberdeen, and so numerously on
the Gallic coins ; but they have for centuries, further back than
can be traced, degenerated into the mere signatures of illiterate
mechanics."!" To illustrate this curious point, I shall adduce a

* A most interesting example is It is, however, ridiculous to attribute

the stone in the second course of the the foundation of the Temple Wall

Temple Wall, S.E. Jerusalem, dis- to Solomon's architects, the fact of

covered Jan. 1869. It bears two its being cut through ten feet of

marks, deeply cut, ^ aDd H. Other rubbish thrown from above proves it

marks in red paint resemble Phoe- to have been done long after the

nician letters. Deutsch observed city was inhabited, and therefore the

many such on the walls of the old work of Agrippa.

Castle of Sidon, built from ancient f Who have introduced a refine-

materials. He considers them ment upon the old system, viz., the

numeral, unity to- 9 being repre- necessity of every mark terminating

sented by vertical lines, 10 by a in an odd number of ends.
horizontal, 20 by two parallels, &c.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 387

few of the most remarkable examples of lapidary symbolism,*
giving, as in duty bound, precedence to the late discovery at
Stonehenge. The mark is cut upon the fallen impost lying
across the supposed altar. It is nine inches long and clearly
defined, and may be described as a semicircle of which the
diameter being produced, its own length terminates in a second
semicircle reversed and open, combined with the Koman
letters, L, V ; having in fact much the appearance of a sicjla
or nota scriptoria. The mark has therefore something in its
look that suggests the signature LVCIUS. Had the sagacious
Stukeley discovered this inscription he would unquestionably
upon the strength thereof have ascribed the whole fabric to the
British Lucius so renowned in fable. It must not however be
concealed that our fashionable scepticism has impugned the
reality of even this most venerable " handwriting on the wall."
Dr. Thurman has hunted up three credible witnesses ready to
make affidavit that they saw with their own eyes a certain
stranger cut the sigil.f But inasmuch as it would be equally
facile, by means of leading questions dexterously put, to obtain
the testimony of the same number of " bucolical juveniles "
that they were present at the erection of Stonehenge itself,
the genuineness of the mark (so wrcrnodern in configuration)
seems to me in no measure disproved. Symbolic figures,
spirals and interesting circles are found on the stones in
Newton Grange, Drogheda Cave, Eouth Linn, Old Berwick,
Doddington Moor, Northumberland; Long Meg, Cumberland.
The latter have been published in the Archa3ological Journal.
But to proceed to actual Caste-marks. We find a casual
allusion to their use in ancient writers, who state that the
badges distinguishing the three orders of the Egyptian priest-
xix. p. 78. J

* Regular Masons' marks are the neighbouring Benares. Slier-
visible upon the great hewn stones ring, * Sacred City of the Hindus.'
of the Buddhist buildings at Sarnath, f It must be remembered the stone
which are known to have been is so hardened by weathering as to
erected before the sixth century ; and turn the best chisel !
more of the same kind are found on J Lists of Masons' marks have
the ruined buildings of the same been published in the following
religion still to be traced incorporated works: ' Arehraologia ' (18-45), for
into the Brahminical edifices within Scotland, by Prof. Chalmers ; Marks

2 o 2

388 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS

hood were the © signifying the sun ; the T eternal life ; and the
A pleasure. With the Hindoos, the equilateral Triangle sym
bolises Mahadeva, or Siva, that is, the element Fire personified.

The same figure inverted stands for Vishnu, Water.

The two, intersecting each other, form the Slierkun or six-
points; that is, the two elements in conjunction.

The five-pointed figure, made by bisecting the sides of an
equilateial triangle by a line as long as one side, and drawing
lines from each extremity of the said line to each foot of the
triangle, symbol of Siva and Brahma (the latter god having
five heads) became, later, the famous " Solomon's Seal." This
appellation it must have got in early times, as in virtue thereof
it is sculptured along with the seven -branched candlestick
upon Sivish tombs dating from the Lower Empire.* The
Hindoos still venerate the figure as replete with virtue.
Similarly the Slierkun is engraved on a large scale upon each
side of the gate of the Fort at Agra, although the building is
of Mohammedan work.

A point, Puru, is the Deity ; self existing. A circle, Bralim,
eternity. Hence a triangle within a circle is the emblem of
Trinity in Unity ; and the circle inscribed within a triangle
the converse.

Worshippers of Sacti, the Female Principle, mark their sacred
vase with a right angle bisected by a line; and similarly the
worshippers of Isis used so to mark the vessel necessary at her
rites. But the Vishnaivas have for the same object a symbol
of wondrous vitality and diffusion : for it is seen equally on
Greek coins and vases, on the Newton Stone, Aberdeen, in
ecclesiastical sculpture, where it takes the name " Tetragam-

at Brechin, and signatures to St. those given by Ouseley (' Travels,'

Ninian's Roll, coming down to the pi. 82), as " characters of some un-

date 1814. Ditto, for 1844, contains known alphabet," found by him on

a memoir by G. Godwin, with five the stones of Ihe Old Palace (a

plates of marks from England Mohammedan building) of Saadi-

(Gloucester, Tewkesbury), France, talat, near Ispahan ; which never-

Gerruany (Koln). 'Annales Arche'- theless have a striking resemblance

ologiques ' (1844-5), ' Sigues Lapi- to the European class,
daires,' from Coucy, Avignon, Palais * Numerous examples may be

do Justice, Paris, Yincenues. Eheims, seen in their catacomb at Rome,

Strasburgh. Most curious of all are lately discovered.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 389

maton," being ignorantly supposed the compounds of the
letter r four times repeated, and its sound and power con
founded with those of the sacred " Tetragrammaton," or the
Hebrew quadriliteral name Jehovah. This mark is properly
the symbol of Sitala, the seventh incarnation, entitled
" Trithalesor," a title exactly translated by the alchemical
Trismcgistus : its name is the Swastika, an emblem of Kesigna-
tion ; so that the figure may have passed into Byzantine art
with some recommendation from a knowledge of its real
meaning, In Gothic nomenclature this mark becomes the
equally renowned " Fylfot," as to who*e etymology the follow
ing conjecture may be hazarded. The Swastika signified
at first the arms crossed over the breast, the regular Indian
gesture of submission, and also the legs similarly folded as the
statues of Buddha are usually represented. The symbol is
evidently nothing more than the rough outline of the arms and
legs thus disposed. May not therefore the Gothic name Fylfot,
applied to the same hieroglyph, bear through some remote
tradition a reference to its re^il meaning, and imply the sense
of Fold-foot ? In the same way the old Greeks appear to have
recognised its true sense, when they changed its simple form
into the three conjoined legs that so aptly allude to the name
Trinacria. In all probability the great popularity of the
symbol, wheresoever the Indo-Germanic race penetrated, was
due to the same feeling that renders it still so respected in the
land of its origin, its power as a talisman to protect all places
where the figure is painted up. The exclamation " Swastika "
the Hindoos still employ as a mode of assent, synonymous with
" Amen," " So be it." * As the symbol of Eesignation the Mark
forms the distinctive badge of an ascetic. When a man desires
to become a Bandya (Buddhist monk) the rites required for his
initiation occupy three days, foremost amongst which the
Swastika is solemnly set up upon an altar of unbaked bricks ;
the neophyte being seated on the ground with his legs disposed
after the same fashion. In China the Mark is the badge of the
Pon, the strictest sect of Buddhists, who attribute its invention
to Buddha himself, about six centuries before our era. This
* Or, to speak masontcally, *• So mote it be ! "

390 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

fact may explain how "denying oneself and taking up the
cross" came to signify the embracing an ascetic life; for so
evident are the traces of Buddhist influence over the institu
tions of the Essenes, that it is probable enough the symbol
retained its pristine acceptation amongst the sect.

The Swastika occurs amongst the signet-devices of the old
Jaina kings of Guzerat (belonging to the far-removed epoch of
Buddhist supremacy in Hindostan), in company with that
intricate square figure which when appearing on Greek works is
denominated a Labyrinth. Other sectarian Marks are three
paralled lines placed horizontally, or vertically, to denote their
respective deities : others of truly Masonic aspect, are the wheel,
crescent, heart, vesica piscis, all variously modified to express
ritualistic differences. That the Gnostics borrowed many
of these symbols directly from Buddhism,* adding them to
their old stock of Egyptian devices, is apparent upon the
inspection of any large collection of Abraxas gems. The
lingering influence of this importation continually peep out
where least to be expected. In the finest known MS. of the
Apocalypse, the work of a French illuminator about the
middle of the thirteenth century (in the library of Trinity
College, Cambridge), the most elaborate of all its decorations is
the heading to chapter xiv., filling half a page. It represents
" The Lamb standing upon Mount Zion," surrounded by the
saints ; above, is the Godhead, typified by an immense golden
Quatrcfoil, encompassed by the Four Beasts which bear the
names of the Evangelists ; at each side and below are the Four-
and-tweiity Elders, arranged in groups of six, eight, and ten
Within the Quatrefoil is seen an empty throne covered with a
cloth crossed by diagonal blue lines ; in each diagonal so formed
is painted in red a circle containing a point. This geometrical
expression of the idea of the Deity, so opposed to the character
istic anthropomorphism of regular Gothic art, may perhaps
have been inspired by the Manicheist spirit that still actuated
the Southern French. But to go back to the source — in the

* Scythicus, the preceptor of Manes, during his visits to India as a trader
is actually declared by Epiphauius from Alexandria,
to have picked up his novel ideas

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 391

Chinese system, Yang, the Male, Active, Principle has for his
own possession, the Sun, Fire, and all the higher phenomena of
Nature : to him belong the uneven numbers. Yn, the Female,
Passive, Principle, possesses the Earth, Moon, and the even
numbers. The same notion as to the sexes of Numbers was
taught by Pythagoras, and by the Gnostic Marcus, after him.
Yang is represented by the circle, Yn by the square, the two
Forces combined, by two interlaced circles, GD , the actual badge
of the Mediaeval Vehm-Gerichte.

Having thus briefly noticed our Masonic Symbols, let us
proceed to consider the society itself, and here a circumstance
of the utmost importance to this inquiry must always be kept
in view : the Freemasons, as at present organised into a mystic
fraternity, derive their name from nothing but an accidental
circumstance belonging to their first establishment. It was
in the Common Hall of the London Guild of the Freemasons
(the trade) that their first meetings were held, under Christopher
Wren for president, in the time of the Commonwealth.* Their
real object was political — the restoration of Monarchy — henco
the exclusion of the public, and the oath of secrecy enjoined
upon the members. The pretence of promoting the study of
architecture, and the choice of the place where to hold their
meetings, suggested by the profession of their president, were
no more than blinds to deceive the existing government. There
is a curious analogy to all this in the history of another famous
society, the Neapolitan Carbonari, which similarly derived its
name, terminology and insignia from the accidental circum
stances under which it was created. Like Wren's associates,
the first Carbonari were defeated Koyalists and fanatical
Republicans joined in unnatural union by one common hatred
of the powers that be — the old Bourbonists equally with the
chimerical founders of the shortlived " Parthenopean Republic,"
equally forced to flee for their lives to the mountains, the
former to escape the well-deserved vengeance of the Fiench
under Murat, the latter so fiercely persecuted by Cardinal

* In April, 1646, when Ashmole Lilly the astrologer, Dr. Pearson,
was admitted member. Others named the two "Whartoua, Hewitt, and
as present on that occasion were Oughtred the mathematician.

392 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Kuffo upon the first restoration of royalty at Naples. These
desperate men, lurking about in the Abruzzi forests, were forced
to assume the disguise of the only inhabitants of these wild
regions, the carbonari, charcoal-burners, as the best means of
eluding pursuit. After their forces had grown to a regular
confederation, the disguise, so suggestive and terror inspiring,
was retained for a uniform; a charcoal-sack was the badge of
membership, a charcoal-measure the throne of the President,
and their conclaves were held by rule in the midnight forest.
When Ferdinand, " the Well-beloved," was firmly seated on
his ancient throne, for the third and last time, his diligent
eradication of his former friends, the Constitutionals, folks
almost equally crazed with the original " Parthenopean " patriots,
sent thousands of exiles to swell the ranks of the Carbonari.
Soon the society was able to establish ramifications all over
Italy, thanks to the paternal government of the Austrians and
their proteges, the various restored princes of the Bourbon and
Este lines ; and thus in our own times Gai-bona.ro and Liberal
came to mean pretty nearly the same thing; and the Italian
" Carbonaro " to know no more about charcoal-burning than the
English "Mason" does about building,

But although this Society of Freemasons was convoked in
London, and established branches all over England, furnishing
also the members with the means for secret recognition, and all
for a political end, yet in its true origin Freemasonry had
nothing political in its nature, neither was the aforesaid con
vocation in London the real commencement of its existence.
This final organisation was only the adaptation to a special end
of another society, then in fullest bloom, the Rosicrucian. If wo
reflect how rankly both astrology and alchemy were nourishing
at that time in England,* and that the Eosicrucian sect was
essentially of Protestant growth, we may on good grounds con
clude that this sect already numbered many English members
from amongst the educated classes and the philosophers of the

* Oxford produced the two great born in 1612, is said by a writer of

lights of tlie Hermetic philosophy, the year 1749 to be then living at

Robert de Fluctibus (Fltuld), and Nuremberg, as the president of the

his contemporary Eugenins Phila- illuminated throughout the world.
ethes(Thos. Vaughan). The latter,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 393

day. These last were for the most part ardent Royalists,
hating the established order of things, joined with many
fanatical Republicans equally impatient of the new despotism of
Cromwell. In the Rosicrucian system Religion and Philosophy,
the latter meaning little more than astrology and alchemy,*
were strangely interwoven, and the terminology of the one was
borrowed to express the ideas and aspirations of the other.
This hypothesis is strongly recommended from its adoption by
the acute De Quincey in his essay entitled "Freemasons and
Rosicrucians " ('London Magazine,' 1824), where he shows how
the Rosicrucians, when driven by persecution out of Germany,
re-appeared in England as Freemasons, taking that name from
the place of meeting, and from nothing else. Under the new
appellation the sect was re-imported into the Continent as an
English institution. De Quincey, however, makes their object to
have been purely religious without any admixture of politics,
and so far differs from Nicolai, whose views have been adopted
by myself in what precedes, and who, being himself an illuminate
of the first water, ought certainly to be regarded as the higher
authority of the two.

The latter writer has given in his ' Tempel-Herren ' what
appears to be the best supported account of the risej and
progress of Rosicrucianism. He points out for its founder a
Lutheran mystic, J. V. Andrew, J almoner to the Duke of

* The position of the latter science the ancient Fire-and-Serpent "NYor-
in this century cannot be more strongly shippers, and explanations of the
exemplified tban by the actual exist- Mystic Symbols represented in the
ence of current coins declaring Monuments and Talismans of the
themselves to be made out of Her- Primaeval Philosophers.' By Har-
metic metal by the symbols for grave Jennings, London, 1870. A
mercury and lead (Y y?) stamped truly " Masonic " production, without
on their reverse. Examples are three " method in its madness," but valu-
dncats of Gustavus Adolphus (Paris able for giving many Eosicrucian
Cabinet), thalers of Wilhelm, Land- (or rather Kabbalistic) expositions
grave of Hesse, and contemporary of symbols, extracted from Fludd's
coins of the city of Erfurt. This writings. The compiler has, more-
subject has been well handled by over, laid my 'Gnostics' largely
Martin Reg in his memoir, " An- under contribution, and even re-
cicnnes Pieces Herinetiques," ' Revue produced my engravings with sundry
Numismatique ' for 1867. fanciful improvements that wonder-

f ' The Rosicruciaiis : their Rites fully heighten their mystic value,
and Mysteries ; with Chapters on J Solomon Sernber, however, in

394 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Wiirtemberg early in the seventeenth century. At least, the
writings of this divine, wherein the Rosy Cross prominently
figures were the first indications that made the existence of the
fraternity known to the outer world. But Andreas appears to
have done no more than borrow the symbols and occult means
of communication already existing from time immemorial
amongst the astrologers and alchemists (in other words the
wealthy and the learned of the age, when the Emperor
Rudolf II. was the greatest patron of the " curious arts " ever
recorded in history) in order to employ them on the furtherance
of a visionary scheme of his own. This scheme was the fusion
of all Christian sects * into one universal brotherhood, and the
projector wisely commenced his apostleship by attempting to
bring over to his side the most eminent of the mass, by the
utilization of such ancient and venerated machinery. The
well-meaning enthusiast had evidently disregarded the remark
of the sagacious Julian (Am. Mar. xxi. 5), confirmed as it is by
the experience of every succeeding generation, owes as much as
any ; " Null as infestas hominibus bestias ut sunt sibi ferales
plerique Christianorum." As a matter of course, his scheme of
universal brotherhood dissolved in smoke as soon as established,
but the older philosophy, whose garb he had adopted, bloomed
with fresh vigour under the new organisation and euphonious
name.

But before going any further, let us for diversion's sake
hear the Eosicrucians' own story, and examine some of their
doctrines and insignia, which have an important bearing upon
the subject of our inquiry. The Rosicrucians, fc-ays Boyle, make
their founder to have been a certain German, only known as
A. C., who having gone to Damascus in the year 1387, was
instructed in their mysteries by the College of Arabian Sages f

his ' Collections for the History of Frozen Sea, universally believed in

Rosicrucianism,' assigns a fabulous Russia to be the lost Grand Duke

antiquity to the sect. Constantine.-(Dixou'8 ' Free Russia.')
* Exactly the same s -heme, based f This tradition may have some

upon Judaism, is the crime that now truth in it, allowing for an error of

keeps in perpetual imprisonment locality. At Cairo the Fatemite

Nicholas Ilvin, the far-famed " Con- sultans (Ismaulites be it remembered)

vent Spectre " of Solovetsk in the had three centuries before this date

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 395

there established. Keturning home he communicated his Ipiow-
ledge to a small number of chosen associates, dying in 1484.
It is a matter of importance to notice that in this legend Syria
is made the fountain head of the new philosophy. The Eosi-
crucian Creed, according to the ' Essay on Spirits ' (dedicated
to Mr. Locke, 1647), contains, amongst others, this palpable
adoption of the Pythagorean system : —

" Ante omiua Punctum extitit, non mathematicum, sed diffusivum
extriusicas Monados, intrinsica3 Myriados ; omnia et mini ; Est ct
-Non.

Ilaec Monas commovebat se in Dyadas, et per Triadas egressas
sunt facies luminis secundi.

Hie respiciens superiorem et inferiorem Parentem, iisdem delude
prot.ulit Vultuin Trilbrmem."

In the second paragraph Clarkson* discovers an allusion to
the Vesica Piscis, which is in truth a figure generated by
two circles intersecting at their respective centres; and for the
same reason, the secret sign of the Brethren of the Vehme-
Gerichte was the two annular links of a chain. The E<>-<r

i->O

formed by three intersecting circles, contains in its upper
section seven triangles, and as many in its lower section, which
are the opposing genii of Light and Darkness. This was the
idol which the Manichasans were accused of worshipping on
the charges brought against them by the Popes (Clarkson, p. 20).
Still more does the " Vultus Triformis " of this Creed arrest our
attention as bearing a more than accidental affinity to the triple-
faced idol, the adoration whereof was so persistently laid to the
charge of the Templars — the real meaning of which accusa-

founded the far-famed lodge, entitled of the richest architecture, full of

*' the House of Wisdom." Here the strange birds and beasts, to the

student passed through nine degrees, inmost hall, where the Soldan having

beginning with Obedience, Mysticism, first adored the unseen "Master,"

Philosophy, Doubt, &c., up to Absolute the curtains of gold and pearl were

Incredulity. William of Tyre (xix. suddenly drawn back, and that

17) tells a wonderful story, how dignitary appeared seated in un-

Hugo of Caesarea and Geffroi of the speakable glory on a golden throne,

Temple, envoys to Cairo on business attended by his chief officials,
of the Order, were led by the Soldan * ' The Symbolical Evidence of the

himself to the palace Kashef, and Temple Church. Were the Templars

conducted through numerous courts Gnostics?'

396 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

tion shall be investigated in its proper place. This same " tete
d'un hornme monstrueuse," image of " le Dieu qui rie meurt pas/'
so often mentioned in the confessions of the Knights, may be
recognised beyond all mistake in the hideous head with flaring
hair and beard, and eyes wide open, as if just severed from the
body, placed upon a box inscribed X. P. S., which repeatedly
occurs amongst the Eosicrucian pictures in the Diary of Hosea
Lux. This MS., the most remarkable of the kind extant, or
ever composed, written between the years 1568 and 1612, is full
of mystic drawings, beautifully done in. pen and ink, which
may be either prophetic hieroglyphs, or else enshroud the
arcana of some seeker after the Elixir of Life: the latter it
would rather seem, to judge from the perpetual introduction of
certain vert/ significant emblems. The author must have be
longed (as an actual Mason assures me) to a Lodge of Templars,
as is proved by his use of the " hand in hand " and " foot to
foot" insignia. As exhibiting the whole list of the present
Masonic signs, but employed for Rosicrucian purposes, at so
early a date, this Diary is of the utmost value to the history of
the Order.* To quote a few of the most important embellish
ments of these mystic pages : the same " Baphometic " Head
appears in another place set on a box inscribed with " Solomon's
Seal," containing a retort : over the head is a disk, set all round
dial fashion but with hearts instead of numerals ; in the field
is written the opposite motto " Timore et tremore." Another
is picture presents the Head hovering above the Ark of the
Covenant, all enclosed within the outline of a heart out of whose
aorta issues a naked boy bearing a flaming star and crescent
conjoined. Yet more mysterious is the heart containing T over
a bell resting upon a star : above all, for a crest is set Solomon's
Seal; for supporters to the shield, his pillars Jachin and
Boaz, flanked on the right by that King seated, on the left by a
naked man standing, who pierces the heart with a long rod.
Singular, too, is the man with uplifted hands, having instead
of a face Solomon's Seal enclosing a retort. Other symbols

* Through the kindness of the make a minute examination of the
present owner, Mr. J. E. Hodgkin, MS.
F.lS.A.. I have had opportunity to

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 397

frequently occurring on these pictures are the naked boy
extended on the spokes of a wheel ; or again placed upon an egg
set in a candlestick : the king's bust crowned with the winged
crescent (on which the merest novice in alchemy can discern
the allusion to reyulus of antimony and quicksilver) : the egg
containing a circle whence issue rays of light ; probably typi
fying the crucible, for another heading shows the same figure
within a furnace with the infant metal springing rapturously
from its womb ; the five links of a chain interlaced : all these
being Eosicrucian emblems now embalmed in the repertory of
the FJ eemasons. These drawings, besides their artistic value
with respect to their fertile invention and incredibly minute
finish (Lux being a copper-plate engraver of some eminence),
are highly interesting as pictorial exponents of the Hermetic
philosophy still so flourishing at the time of their execution.
Of such designs, nothing can surpass in elaborate execution and
impenetrable mystery the large drawing of the naked female
standing upon musical notes, holding in her right a torch tipped
with a beautiful face whence issue flames ; an owl perched
upon her extended left hand; on her breast for brooch Sol's
head in a crescent. Upon a pedestal is set a tall long-necked
alembic containing the most obvious emblem of the generative
power, emitting upwards the stream of Life, which is caught
into the mouth of a cherub whose hair forms a bunch of flowers
supporting the before-mentioned disk of hearts, whilst his
hand holds forth a wheatsheaf. In the field lies a crown over
a marshal's baton shaped like a phallas. Another drawing full
of interest is the portrait of a man in a fur cap with plume,
wearing round his neck a pendant inscribed like the jewel of
the G. A., from which again is hung a human foot; with his
right hand he points to a crescent divided into three parts
enclosing X. A. P., his left rests on the head of a mighty hammer.
De Quincey, in the above quoted essay, describes a manuscript
work by Simon Stadion, of Wiirtemberg, written in the year
1(504, under the title, " Naometria, seu nuda et prima Libri
intus et foris scripti Expositio, et Prognosticticus." It is a
series of dreams and prophecies based upon the Apocalypse : in
which he speaks of " Stellas matutina) ductu anno 1572 con-

398

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

spectye " ; and constantly brings in the Rose and Cross, on
which account he is generally supposed to have been a Rosi-
crucian. Martin Luther also took for his seal the Rose and
Cross ; some deep religious significance, at the time well under
stood, must have recommended the device to the choice of the
" Tertius Elias."

Besides these obligations to the Rosicrucians, the London
Freemasons also borrowed much of their phraseology from
Lord Bacon's work, still fresh in men's minds, in which,
adopting the idea of the " House of Wisdom," a technical term
with the Arab astrologers, he proposed the foundation of a
"Solomon's House," or learned community dedicated to the
cultivation of experimental philosophy and the advancement
of science. These philosophic and royalist plotters, in order
to cloak the true nature of their proceedings, conducted, their
conclaves according to the rules prescribed by Bacon : and the
same ceremonial and nomenclature they carefully maintain to
the present day.

A final and demonstrative proof of the recent and English
origin of Freemasonry is afforded by the dates of institution of
the various Foreign Lodges, which are by their own profession
branches of the parent Society in London. The Parisian was
not founded until the year 1725, the Madrid in 1728, and the
Florentine in 1733. And yet France and Italy had been the
birthplace of the actual art of masonry, and the scene of the
full glory of its revival.

Another important fact remains to be noticed, the Rosi-
crucians still subsist amongst the Parisian Freemasons as the
designation for their highest degree (to be conferred upon
distinguished English visitors), although all disclaim those
mystics as being the parent stock ; inasmuch as that truth,
if allowed, were utterly incompatible with their own claim
to immemorial antiquity. Nevertheless, they loudly profess
to trace their descent through the line of the Templars down
from that splendidly fabulous origin they arrogate to them
selves.

But to return to Andreas, and the honour Nicolai assigns him
as the creator of the immediate parent of modern Freemasonry,

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 399

certain it is that his far-famed Rosy Cross had been ages "before
the regular badge of the Knights Templars. Considering how
widely the Order had spread its branches, obtained possession
and affiliated to itself multitudes both male and female amongst
the laity all over Europe, it would be a mere absurdity to
believe that all its traditions were swept away at one stroke
by the suppression of the Templars in the year 1307.* In fact,
the Parisian Templiers, as the most important division of the
French Freemasons still style themselves, pretend to have kept
up the succession of Grand Masters unbroken ; nay more, to
have preserved the archives of the Order ever since that date.
Francois I. is even reported to have burnt alive, with a con
trivance of refined cruelty in " The fiery bath," four unfortunate
gentlemen convicted of being Templars,f which, if true, suffices
to prove the existence of that fraternity down to a period but
little removed from the public manifestation of the Rosicrucians.
Truly was he by such proceedings " semina odii in longum
jaciens," to borrow the forcible simile of Tacitus, if we are to
believe Barruel's express declaration that Spartacus Weishaupt's
Jacobins did no more than pay to royalty the so long deferred
legacy of revenge handed down to them by generation after
generation of secret societies —fulfilling the last Templar's solemn
vow of vengeance against Philippe le Bel, and all future kings
in his person. By order of the same Francois I., his general
Almeida, extirpated with a cruelty unusual even in those times
the lemnant of the Albigenses still lurking in the villages
of Provence, a sect, it should be remembered, of genuine
Manicha3ans, transplanted thither from the East at a com
paratively recent date. As Manichaaans, they would naturally
have preserved the symbols, and tokens for mutual recognition
so much in vogue, as history and existing monuments attest,

* Even the sceptical Michelet d'Ecosse, et que les hauts grades y

allows " il est possible que les sont nommes Ecossais. V. Grouvelle

Templiers qui echapperent se soient et les ecrivains qu'il a suivis.'

fcndus en societes secretes. En ('Hist, de France,' iii. p. 129.)

Ecosse ils disparaissent tous excepte f Communicated to me by a

deux. Or, on a remarque' que les * Brother '; the historical authority I

plus secrets mysteres dans la Franc- cannot discover,
ma^onnerie sont repute's emaner

400 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

amongst all followers of the Gnosis. And such machinery and
grown yet more into articles of necessity, after continued
persecution had transformed their congregations into regular
secret societies.

But dismissing all such speculations, we are under no
necessity for connecting the Rosicrucians with the ancient
Brethren of the Temple, in order to account for their display of
the Gnostic symbols which figure so conspicuously in Andreae's
plates, and which have since been so diligently illustrated
(though often with erroneous ingenuity) by Von Hammer in
his ' Mystery of Baphomet Revealed ; ' yet even his misinterpreted
examples go to prove the same truth, and his ' Baphometic
Idols,' whose adoration should have been the heaviest count in
the charges against the Templars (though unmistakably of
Cinque-cento design and workmanship), are astrological and
cabbalistic sigils breathing a purely Rosicrucian spirit in their
syncretism of symbolic forms. For there is one point in these
sculptures alone sufficient to upset all Von Hammer's elaborate
structure— the Arabic legends, being cut in current Neshki
characters, betray their modern manufacture ; for had they been
contemporary with the flourishing times of the Templars, the
primitive Cufic must, as a matter of course, have been employed
Yet, at the same time, these same legends indicate clearly
enough the fountain-head of the doctrines held in common by
all similar fraternities.

But before considering this last and so important point, the
subject will be more conveniently approached by our first
considering the principal arguments set forth by the learned
Orientalist in support of his theory. His object in truth is
sufficiently declared by the title of his treatise, * Mysterium
Baphometis Revelatum : seu Fratres militite Templi qua Gnostici
et quidem Ophiani, apostasioe, idololatria3, et quidem impuritatis
convicti per ipsa eorum monumenta " (published in the Mines
de I Orient, vol. vi.). The treatise is copiously illustrated with
fine copper plates of magical statuettes, architectural orna
ments, mystical inscriptions, vases, and coins. As regards
historical evidence, the main foundation of his hypothesis rests
upon certain heads in the Articles of Accusation against the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 401

Templars, despatched by Pope Clement V. to all archbishops,
&c. These are —

" Art. 42. Item, quod ipsi per singulas provincias habeant
Idola, videlicet capita,* quorum aliqua habobant trcs fades, ot
alia unarn, et aliqua cranium humanum habebant.

" Art. 54. Item, quod aliquod caput illorum cingebant seu
tangebant chordulis quibus si ipsos cingebant, circa camiciam
seu carnem.

" Art. 55. Quod in hac receptione, singulis fratribus prsedictso
chordula) tradebantur, vel alise longitudinis earum."

In this girding with a consecrated string there is a striking
analogy to the Kosti^ prescribed by the Zoroastrian religion,
still assumed by every Parsee upon his initiation (which takes
place upon his completing his seventh year), and thenceforth
constantly worn over the shirt. This distinctive badge was
the most likely of all to be retained by Manes (himself a
Magian) in his Christianised modification of the Persian creed.
Other articles, unnecessary to quote, allege the permission and
even the obligation of unnatural practices. But, from the very
beginning, this last accusation, so needless to be proved, because
so readily believed, has been brought against the members of
all secret societies, as Ovid shows by the popular tradition
respecting Orpheus, the acknowledged founder of the Grecian
mysteries.

" Illetiam Thracum populis fuit auctor arnorem
In teneros transferre mares, citraque juvcntam,
^Etatis breve vcr et primes carpere flores."J (Metam. x. 83-85).

Clarkson has more recently discussed the same question in
his very ingenious essay ' Upon the Symbolical Evidence of
the Temple Church. Were the Templars Gnostic Idolaters as

* Such a head of silver was actually have been made away witli by the

seized in the Parisian Chapter-house ; Templars upon the first alarm of the

but the Templars passed it off for a inquiry.

reliquary containing the skull of one f Woven out of seven threads by

of the 11,000 virgins, in spite of the the wife of the Moled or fire-priest,
long beard with which it was fur- J " Dum erat juvenis soocularis,

nished (Kayn. p. 299). Another is omncs pueri clamabant publice et

said to have been found elsewhere vulgariter unus ad alterum, Custodi-

bearing the numeral LI 1 1. These atis vobis ab osculo Templariorum "

damning evidences would naturally Wilkins, Cone. Britann. ii. p. 360).

2 D

402 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

alleged ? ' He endeavours to prove their Manicheism by
means of architectural evidence, deduced from the members of the
edifice and the geometrical relations discoverable in the ground
plan. But, dispassionately considered, such arguments are of
little weight, inasmuch as they could be found, if looked for
(under a similar prepossession), in many other buildings, both
mediaeval and modern, having no connection whatsoever with
the Brethren of the Temple. Again, a fatal objection to
his theory is the fact, that all such " Round Churches " are
acknowledged copies of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, which,
whether Helena's original building, or merely a Gothic recon
struction by the Frankish kings (the more probable explana
tion), was certainly not subjected to Templar influence in the
laying out of its plan. The circular, domical shape had been
given by Helena to her church simply because that form,
according to the Eoman notion handed down from Etruscan
antiquity, was regarded as most appropriate for a tomb. Hence,
to go no further back, it was adopted for Helena's own
sepulchre (Torre pignatara), and for that of her grandchild,
Constantia. In illustration of his hypothesis Clarkson adduces
the statement of Clemens Alexandrinus about the " Primary
Elements " of the old Egyptians, and supposes them to have
been the square, the angle, the semicircle, the circle, the oval,
the line, the waved line, triangular, and the cross. These would
represent the seven primary consonants, of which the invention
was attributed to Memnon, viz., the letters with their equiva
lent sounds, B,C,D,L,M,N,S. Should this theory have any
truth in it, the frequent introduction of such figures into
talismanic inscriptions obtains a satisfactory explanation.

But it is now full time to return to Von Hammer's Bapho-
metic Idols, and his profound interpretations of their figures
and inscriptions. It is obvious at the first glance that the idea
of most of them was suggested by the Roman Jupiter Hercules,
or Silenus (classical types, by the way, entirely unknown to
the art of the 12th and 13th centuries) ; their heads, or rather
their faces, are triple, eyes and ears are plenteously distributed
all over the body, which is moreover adorned with planetary
Our author sets them down without hesitation as the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 403

actual figures of the " Old Man " adored by the Knights, described
so persistently by the witnesses against them as " une ydole avec
trois faces"* The same statuettes are for the most part girded
with serpents, whose heads they hold in their mouths, or in
various distorted attitudes, amply sufficient grounds for Von
Hammer to connect them with the Ophite mysteries. But this
very attribute, together with the numerous eyes studding the
body, would rather seem to betray an acquaintance in the
sculptor with similar Hindoo creations — Indra, the eye-be
spangled god of the firmament, for example. Similar fancies
had found their way even into the Cinque-cento dress ; Queen
Elizabeth is painted in a gown thus embellished. Some, again,
of these figures carry the Egyptian Tau (marculus, Masonic
Knocker) conspicuously suspended from the neck. But, as
already hinted, the artistic composition of these well-executed
monstrosities, and the classical motives everywhere peeping out
in their outlines, seem altogether foreign to the quaint
simplicity of early mediaeval art.

The three " Baptismal Vases," or Fonts, on which he lays so
much stress, are nothing but little stone cups six inches high
at the utmost, covered with bas-reliefs, the phallic character
whereof would seem to point to their employment in the
brewing of the Elixir of Life from its most obvious ingredients.
The second of these reliefs, explained as denoting the " Baptism
of Fire," does in truth recall to our recollection the " Twelve
Tortures " of the Mithraic rock-tablets ; for it exhibits a naked
boy holding various instruments — the axe, lyre, bucket of
Anubis— whilst another, blowing a horn, feeds the fire in a
furnace. Of the third vase, however, the decoration savours
strongly of Judaism, representing the lifting up of the Brazen
Serpent, though the female reclining below appears rather to

* " Car tantot apres ils alloient fosses des yeux escarboncles reluis-

adorer une Idole, et pour certain ants comme clarte du ciel ; et pour

icelle idole etait une vielle peau, certain toute lour esperance etoit en

ainsi comme toute embaumee, et ieelle, et e'toit leur Dieu souverain, et

comme toile polie ; et illecqued certes memement se affioit en lui de bon

le Templier mettoit sa tres vile foy cceur " (Art. 3. Vie de Philippe le

et croyance ; et en lui tres fermement Bel, chap. 66. ' Chronique de

croyoient. Et en icelle avoit os 8. Denys').

2 i) 2

404 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

caress the living reptile that encircles her, than to be alarmed
at its embrace ; whilst the Candlestick of the Tabernacle, which
the second female is quenching from a vase at the bidding of
Von Hammer's " Mete," personified as a regular Dutch Solomon,
but with uplifted hands whence drop off chains, all betray the
same source of inspiration. Bacchic and sidereal symbols,
amongst which the phallus of course predominates, are plentifully
strewn over the field. But the Arabic legends in the modern
lettering, in this case, equally with the classical air of the
design in the second, suffice to convince the sober archaeologist
that all three vases are nothing more than a portion of the
paraphernalia of those Eosicrucian or alchemical quacks, who
fattened upon the credulity of that arch-virtuoso, Eudolf II.,
ever since whose reign these " fonts " have been treasured up in
the Imperial Cabinet. A sufficient notion of Von Hammer's mode
of explaining these monuments is afforded by his interpretation
of the Arabic inscription upon the scroll displayed in the hands
of his " Mete " (according to him the Ophite Sophia), a female
yet bearded figure whose sex is ostentatiously revealed to view :
" Exaltatur Mete germinans, stirps nostra Ego et Septem fuere.
Tu es unus Eenegantium. Eeditus TrptoKros fit."

The Baphometic idol, that " Head of the Old Man," which
makes so fearful a figure in the Articles of Accusation, reminds
one of the crowned Osiris seen in front face, otherwise that
terminal figure often to be found cut on certain large green
jaspers, which differ widely in style from the true Gnostic
talismans dating from the Lower Empire, but rather have
something about them bespeaking a medieval and Arabian
origin. For example, Easpe* gives a gem (No. 588) with
"God the Father" crowned with five stars, and several
barbarous characters. Eeverse, a square, a sphere, a pentagon
of Pythagoras, and several astrological and geometrical figures.
Such a talisman was lately found in the tomb of a Knight
Templar which was opened in Germany. And here it may be
parenthetically observed, that our Freemasons, in order to give
a better colour to their pretence of descent from the Templars,
perpetually talk of them as the greatest builders of their times,
* ' Descriptive Catalogue of Engraved Gems.'

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 405

and as the best patrons of the subordinate body of working
masons. Nothing can be more baseless than this assertion. The
Order invested its wealth in a far more profitable manner than
in stone and mortar, and really did nothing in the way of
architecture, if compared with the great monastic Orders of the
same period. In proof of this, notwithstanding its enormous
possessions in England, no more than four churches were built
for " Temples."

Von Hammer, amongst the numerous examples he has so
indefatigably collected, presents many of a nature seemingly
quite antagonistic to Catholic art, and of truly Gnostic and
Oriental character. Conspicuous amongst them are the Three
Vases, already described, in which he discovers examples of the
true " Sangraal," that mystic cup which shines so brightly forth
in the early romances of chivalry, the quest thereof being the
highest adventure proposed in the Morte d' Arthur; perfect
chastity being the indispensable condition for attaining unto
the sight of the miraculous vessel. And in truth the decoration
of these mystic fonts, used in the "Baptism of Mete" (the
Gnostic Wisdom), whence their title " Baphometic," furnishes a
very plausible foundation for the charges our author brings
against their supposed inventors. But as for the obscene
sculptures taken from the Templar churches, which he refers to
the rites of the Venus Mascula celebrated therein, these are to
be found in equal abundance and shamelessness amongst the
carvings of other churches totally unconnected with the Order ;
for example, notably at Arcueil, near Paris. Such sculptures
either contain a moral grossly expressed, according to the taste
of their barbarous age, the censure of some particular vice, or
may be no more than the ebullition of the brutal humour of the
beery artist. But the gravest error into which this too sagacious
interpreter has fallen is the attempt to identify the heresy of
the Templar with the Ophite — that primitive form of the Gnosis,
swallowed up so many ages before the foundation of the Order,
in the overwhelming flood of Manicheism ; a flood indeed that
may, even at its source, Syria, have carried away as many
inquiring spirits amongst the Knights, as it was simultaneously
intoxicating in Italy and Provence. A great absurdity, too, is

406 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the building up his grand hypothesis upon the inexplicable
"Mete," which he finds out for himself in these unintelligible
legends, seeing that the Archaic M^ns was never used in Gnostic
times as synonymous with 2o$ia, Achamoth, an identity never
theless taken for granted in his argument. And by the same
rules does Von Hammer explain the Masons' marks that he has
collected, although they in no wise differ from others found in
mediaeval buildings of every conceivable destination and origin.

Before quitting this part of the subject, a word must be said
upon other etymologies that have been proposed for the mighty
word u Baphomet." One, equally consistent with Von Hammer's
views, and much more so with the genius of the Byzantine
language, would be /3a<j>r] M^rpo'?, " Baptism of the Mother," that
special designation of Barbelo in the Valentinian theology.*
Such Greek technical phrases may have been perpetuated in the
Manichean ritual, wherever, and however late, it was introduced
into France.

Another explanation makes Baphomet the corruption of
Behemoth, meaning the golden calves Opis and Mnevis, whose
bones were exhibited to their worshippers, set out upon the
lid of the coffin. So in later times were the bones of Manes
displayed for the adoration of his followers; and those of the
G.M. Hiram,f according to report, at the initiation of a
Templar. Hence came the Death's Head and Coffin, that figure
so conspicuously at the Carbonari Conclaves, and the connate
engine of terror at our Masonic receptions, when the candidate
for admission " being brought to the G.P. receives that sudden
wnd awful impression on his mind that cannot fail to have the
desired effect : a part of the ceremony that ought to be well
attended to, as well for the honour and safety of the new-made
brother, as of the Fraternity at large." But to return to etymo
logy. Visconti is probably in the right after all, in considering
" Baphometa " no deeper mystery that the French corruption
of the name "Mahomet," as repeated by the ignorant witnesses
for the prosecution.

* Which made her the heavenly ing a corpse, elevated upon a cata-
mother of the Saviour. falque of five steps (Clarkson).

t Being set upon a coffin contain-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 407

But although the fanciful Orientalist has pushed this theory
to an unwarrantable and even ludicrous extent, yet proved
facts, coupled with probabilities, will induce the unprejudiced
inquirer to acquiesce in the conclusions of the judicious Raspe.
" The Gnosis of Basilides was an occult science which, according
to his tenets, should be known only and communicated to one in
thousands, and to two in ten thousands, and that if the Knights
Templars were guilty of any offence at the time of their exter
mination, it was that of having adopted the doctrines of the
Gnostics, and consequently of having renounced the established
doctrine of the Church on the human nature of Christ, and on
the Trinity : in the place of which they, with the Gnostics,
professed one Supreme Being, Father and Creator of all the
Powers which, emanating from him, have created and do govern
this world. At their reception or initiation into the highest
degree of the Order they received /3a^ /xyrovs, or /xr/nos —
that is to say, the Baptism or Tincture of Wisdom ; they
were presented with a sign or symbol of their baptism, which
was the Pentagon of Pythagoras; and they worshipped
a kind of image or idol; that like the Abraxas or this gem
was the figure of a Bearded Old Man, or rather the repre
sentation of the only Supreme Being that they admitted
and professed." The gem referred to is a jasper (Townley)
presenting : " Abraxas, the Sun, or God-Father, or Demiurgus
according to the Gnostics and necromancers. This head is
crowned, the beard long, the hands crossed upon the breast :
for the rest, he is formed as a Term, or a mummy. In the
field are eight stars, probably an allusion to the eight Powers,
or heavens, that are subordinate to them, according to Epipha-
nius. In the field are two Hebrew letters, n n-

" Reverse. The same God the Father, or Abraxas, in the same
attitude, standing above four angels placed upon a sphere and
receiving his emanations ; in the field are three, on the sphere
are five stars. There are besides in the field two Hebrew
letters, three lines of inscription, &c."

Figures of unquestionably medieval workmanship do, how
ever, exist, which would have stood Von Hammer (had he known
of them) in far better stead than the easily recognisable legacies

408 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

of Kudolf II. and his Rosicrucian quacks. Such is the brass
statuette published by Caylus (Rec. d'antiq. v. PI., 32) repre
senting a man in tight jerkin and hose (as worn under armour),
but head covered with a jester's horned hood. Upon his belly
is emblazoned a blazing sun ; he is girt with the broad knightly
belt, engraved all round with planetary signs, and regular
Masons' Marks ; which also run round the edge of the tripod
upon which he stands. The figure, about five and a half inches
high, extends both hands with the palms uppermost, and these
are pierced with holes for the reception of the supports of some
vessel, probably a magician's lamp. Amongst other devices
engraved on the trunk, most conspicuous are the eagle, serpent,
and crucible supporting a retort. Caylus places his drawing of
it amongst his Egyptian monuments, but reasonably enough
distrusting such an origin for the inscriptions, suggests, with
no better reason, that the work belongs to Persia.

ManicJicism has been so repeatedly referred to in the foregoing
pages, as to make it necessary to give a brief explanation of the
way, in which that strange creed may possibly have affected the
religion of the Templars. And here, all is either assertion of
enemies, or modern theory ; hardly any monuments remaining
that can be with certitude attributed to the Manicheans, though
so numerous in their time, for they had drawn within their
own circle every older form of Gnosticism in the interval
between Constantine and Justinian. This deficiency is partly
due to the fast increasing barbarism of those ages, which pro
duced nothing in the way of art, however degraded. Their
sole religious monuments were sacred books, prayers, spells,
committed to perishable materials, parchment, papyrus, dili
gently sought out and destroyed by every persecutor. The
extirpation of Gnosticism was vigorously prosecuted by the
later emperors of the West, and by those of the East, Ariaii
equally with Catholic. In this pious career the first step was
made by Magnus Maximus, the British usurper under Gratian,
by putting to death Priscillian, bishop of Avila, and his chief
adherents, in spite of the very umaintly remonstrances of the
good Martin of Tours. The usurper's punisher, Theodosius,
also made Manicheism (Priscillian's crime) a capital offence, his

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 409

edict being the first statutalle infraction of the old Roman
principle of universal religious toleration. In the reign of his
son, Epiphanius boasts of having brought about the exile of
seventy women, some noble, through whose seductions he had
himself at one time been drawn into joining the Marcosians.
Such a vaunt leads to the suspicion that the renegade had saved
himself by turning evidence against his fellow sectarians at
the opening of the persecution. Or again, this absence of
Manichean relics may be accounted for by the rigid character
of the creed itself, the offspring of Magism, therefore regarding
all imagery as idolatrous and sinful, a tenet latterly carried
out to the fullest extent by the iconoclastic Albigenses.

To come now to the second diffusion of Manicheism over
Europe. In the middle of the seventh century, under Con-
stans II., Constantinus Sylvanus, a native of Samosata, broached
that last and most far-spreading heresy, the Paulician. The
name arose from his combination of the doctrine of St. Paul
with that of Zoroaster, but he had intermingled a larger
proportion of the former ingredient than his precursor Manes
had thought fit to do in his original theosophy. The new
teacher easily united into one church the remnants of the old
Gnostics, especially the Manicheans of Armenia, and the still
unconverted Zoroastrians of Pontus and Cappadocia. Incessantly
persecuted by the Byzantine powers, their chief Carbeas
founded a new capital for his sect, the impregnable Tephrice,
in the mountains near Trebizoiid ; but which was ultimately
destroyed by Basil the Macedonian about the year A.D. 880.
But in the middle of the preceding century, the irreligious
Constantino Copronymus had transplanted a large colony of
these Armenian Paulicians into the depopulated Thrace, where
their numbers were largely augmented in the tenth century
by a fresh reinforcement drawn from the Chalybian Hills and
planted in the valleys of Mount Haernus by John Zimisces.
Here their missionaries converted the neighbouring pagans, the
Bulgarians, whence the sect derived a new and more odious
appellation, one which in course of time from denoting heresy
in religion was fixed to the branding of heresy in love. War
like and fearless of death, we find these Paulicians serving in

410 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the Byzantine armies, notably in those of Alexius Comnerms in
his wars with the Normans of Sicily. From this island as a
focus they diffused their doctrines over Italy, they gained
numerous converts even at Rome and Milan, but spread with
still more astonishing rapidity through the South of France.
Persons even whose interests were diametrically opposed to the
progress of the sect, joined it with inexplicable fervour ; twelve
canons of the Cathedral of Orleans were burnt alive at one
time for embracing Paulicianism. These few facts, selected
from the wide range of their history, will suffice to illustrate
the diffusion of Manichean notions during the period when the
Templars were at the height of their prosperity and power.

But Gnosticism in one shape or other, was still surviving in
the very head-quarters of the Order, amongst their closest
allies or enemies, the mountaineers of Syria. The Templar-
Order had been modelled after an original, the last to be looked
for according to modern views, for Von Hammer has here been
successful in demonstrating that its constitution is a servile copy
of that of the detested " Assassins." The statutes of the latter
prove the fact beyond all gainsaying ; they were found upon
the captives of their capital, Alamoot, by the Mogul, Halakoo,
in the year 1335, when by a most singular coincidence, Caliph
and Pope were busied in exterminating the model and the
copy in the East and West, at one and the same time. From
these documents were verified the " Eight Degrees " of initiation
as established by Hassan, the first Grand Master or " Prince of
the Mountain." These degrees, probably suggested by the
ancient Mithraic tests, were : —
I. The Trial of knowledge.

II. The Trial of Persuasiveness ; i.e., the talent for pro-
selytism.

III. Denial of the truth of the Koran, and of all other sacred
scriptures.

IV. The Trial of silent and perfect obedience.

V. The Disclosure of the names of the Great Brothers of the
Order, royal, sacerdotal and patrician, in all parts of the world.

VI. The Confirmation of all the preceding steps of knowledge.

VII. The Allegorical interpretation of the Koran, and of all

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 411

other scriptures. In this lodge the divinity of all founders of
religious systems was alike denied. Keligion was shown to be
a mere step to knowledge, its narratives to be merely allegorical
and exhibiting the progress of civil society : thus, Man's Fall
signified political slavery ; Redemption his restoration to liberty
and equality.

VIII. That all actions were indifferent, provided only they
were done for the good of the Order ; * there being no such
thing, absolutely, as vice or virtue.

It will be seen that the principle running through these
" Degrees " is identical with that pervading the jnain counts in
the Articles of Accusation brought against the Templars.

The same author (History of the Assassins) shows that the
organization of the Templars was exactly modelled upon that
of the Assassins, and thus confronts the several degrees in each
of the two orders.

Of the Assassins.

I. The Grand Master, or Prince of the Mountain.

II. The Dais-al-Kabir, or three great viceroys under him.

III. The Dais, or provincial masters.

IV. The Refek, or chaplains.

V. The Lazik, or military body.

VI. The Fedavee, or death-devoted.

VII. The Batinee, or secret brethren, i.e., those affiliated to
the order.

Of the Templars.

I. The Grand Master.

II. The three Grand Priors.

III. The Provincial Prior.
IV. The Chaplains.

V. The Knights.

VI. The Esquires.

VII. The Serving-brethren.

VIII. The Donati and Oblati.
IX. The Affiliati.t

* The maxim of the Jesuits " that t The benefits of affiliation were
implicit obedience includes the com- obtained at the small annual fee of
mission of a mortal sin." two or three deniers. One of the

412 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

The " Donati " and Oblati " were sworn, in return for the
protection afforded to them by the Order, to leave to it all their
property at their deaths, and consequently to refrain from
having offspring, or even to stand sponsors to the children of
others. If married at the time of joining the Order, they were
bound to put away their wives. Infraction of the vow was
punished by perpetual imprisonment. The "Affiliati" had,
probably, nothing to do with the secrets of the Order ; they
merely, in return for a certain sum paid down, received their
daily maintenance (their commons) out of the corporate fund ;
such an arrangement being a simple anticipation of the principle
of life annuities, and admirably suited to the requirements of
those barbarous times.

It is not a matter for surprise that the grand elements of
ancient Gnosticism should have thus been discovered lurking in
the secret rules of the Order of Assassins ; when the origin of
that order is investigated, it proves to be only a branch of the
Ismaelites, or those Persians who supported the cause of the
descendants of Ali. But Abdallab, himself a Magian, had from
the beginning founded in the midst of these Ismaelites, a secret
society composed of those Persians who had, through Arab
compulsion, embraced Mohammedanism only in name. By
inculcating those vital dogmas of the old Gnosis, that knowledge
was the real end of Eeligion, and that in all scriptures the
allegorical interpretation was the only true one, Abdallah united
under his teaching the remnants of all the older religions that
still lurked in Persia, in fact he did in Persia under the Caliph,
what the new Manichean Chrysocheir was doing at Tephrice
under the Byzantine emperor. The Ismaelites having gradually
become absorbed into the new sect, succeeded, in the tenth
century, in placing a prince of Ali's line upon the throne of
Cairo, thus founding the Fatimite dynasty. After this, Hassan,
who had served with distinction under the Seljuk Sultans,
aided by his brethren to when he had returned, having captured
the hill fortress of Alamoot or « The Vultures' Nest ' (1090 A.D.),
set himself up there as an independent prince, and established

chief causes of Philippe le Bel's refusal, in the early par t of his reign
hatred against the order wns their to admit him into this class.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 413

his community as a political body, under the constitution already
described. In a short time these bold sectaries made themselves
masters of all the strong planes of Lebanon, thereby securing
their independence of the Egyptian Caliph. The Druses are
only the modern representatives of the suppressed Assassins.
Like them, they are Ismaelites, their ostensible founder being
Hakim, a Fatemite Caliph of Cairo, who professed himself
the new incarnation of the Godhead. Their notion that the
present seat of their ever absent Grand Master is Europe,
tallies curiously enough with Von Hammer's theory about
the close relationship that existed between the Templars and
the actual progenitors of the Druses. These same Druses may
also possibly represent the ' polytheists and Samaritans ' who
nourished so vigorously in the Lebanon as late as the times
of Justinian, to whose persecuting zeal Procopius ascribes the
extermination of a million inhabitants of that district alone.
Of their present creed, preserved in unviolated secrecy,
nothing authentic has ever come to light ; popular belief
amongst their neighbours makes them adorers of an idol in the
form of a calf, and to celebrate their nocturnal assemblies, orgies
like those laid to the charge of the Ophites in Eoman, of the
Templars in mediaeval, and of the Freemasons (continental) in
modern times. Their notion of their Head residing in Scotland
has an odd resemblance to the German appellation " Scottish
Brethren," given to our Masons. Some such association of ideas
seems to have led the Lessing to maintain that " Freemason,"
in German Masson, has nothing whatever to do with the English
meaning of the word, but comes from mass only, the proper
name for a Templar lodge, called also a " Round Table." For
this derivation he cites Agricola, an authority removed by no
more than 1 50 3 ears from the date of the suppression of the
Order. On this account, he adds, the old Templar buildings in
Bologna and Milan still retain the title " de la magione," that
is, " of the masson ; " although a less acute critic would, most
assuredly, only be able to discover here nothing deeper than an
Italian corruption of the French maison in its common sense.

The influence of the Crusades and their results upon the mind
and life of mediaeval Europe cannot possibly be exaggerated

414 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS.

The true masters of the Western barbarians in philosophy,
science, and many of the arts, were the Arabs, firstly, those
of Syria, later, of Spain. Together with their learning they
communicated other ideas, far different from those originally
contemplated by their pupils. Nevertheless, the connection
between their science and their secret creed was so inti
mate that, in reality, no other result was to be looked for.
So much of primitive Gnosticism, before its admixture with
Christianity, was based upon Magism, that is, upon astrological
ideas, as to make it often difficult to determine whether a
Gnostic monument involves a religious notion, or is merely a
sidereal talisman. For example, the Decani of the Signs, whose
figures, according to Teucer, were commonly worn as amulets,
are often to be seen bearing the names inscribed of Michael and
other Jewish angels. In the flourishing times of Mahom-
medanism, before the spread of universal ignorance had esta
blished everywhere the dull reign of uninquiring orthodoxy,
there existed at its very heart (probably originating in
Persia) an esoteric body, styling themselves Sufit a title
evidently derived from the Greek 2o<£oi, their predecessors.
Now this title appears assumed as equivalent to the previous
IVCDO-TIKOI, although with far more arrogance, since these
" wise " men claimed the possession of that knowledge of things
divine which the Gnostics by their own designation were only
" desirous of knowing" Meantime, the tenets they held were
precisely those of the old Antitactae, " ordinance-haters," as to
the indifference of all things pertaining to the body, and the
invalidity of the Jewish moral law (the mere appointment of
the Demiurgus), as regarded the regulation of the life of the
" Spiritual Man." Just as it is a constant charge of the Fathers
against the primitive Gnostics that they outwardly conformed
without scruple, in order to escape all annoyance, to the esta
blished religion of whatever place they chanced to inhabit, it is
equally probable that the Manicheans and other sectaries of
Asia, persecuted with like zeal by orthodox Byzantine and Zoro-
astrian Persian, would gladly shelter themselves under the
easy cloak of the true religion of their Arab conquerors, during
the two centuries following Justinian's reign, and either save

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 415

their liberty by professing Mahommedanism, or else continue, as
tributaries, in the unmolested exercise of their old faith, being
confounded by the uninquisitive conqueror under the general
name of Infidels.* "The sects of Egypt and Syria," says
Gibbon, "enjoyed a free toleration under the shadow of the
Arabian Caliphs," and therefore may reasonably be supposed to
have maintained their peculiar notions and observances down to
the time of the Crusades. Of such protracted existence we have
the most convincing proof at the present day in the numerous
sect, the Mandaites, or Nazarenes of the Shat-el-Arab, and
Bassora ; veritable Gnostics, holding a creed, the true image of
that of Manes, in their ' Book of Adam ; ' and detested by their
Christian and Moslem neighbours alike.

Now, inasmuch as these Sufi were composed exclusively of the
learned amongst the Persians and Syrians, at a time when
learning signified little else than proficiency in medicine and
astrology (the two points that brought the Eastern sages into
amicable contact with their barbarous invaders from the West),
it is easy to see how the latter may have imbibed the esoteric
doctrines simultaneously with the other teaching of those who
were their sole instructors in all matters pertaining to science
and art. Now the Sufi doctrine was based on that grand idea
— one universal creed that could be secretly held under the
outward profession of any established religion — taking, in fact,
virtually the same view of all religious systems as that in
which the philosophers of old had regarded them. Such too
had been a striking feature in the Gnostic teaching: the
Naaseni, or Ophites, says Hippolytus, boasted in language truly
Masonic, " We of all men are the only Christians, standing in
the third gate, and anointed with the ineffable unction out of the
horn like David, not out of the earthen vessel like Saul, who con
sorted with the evil spirit of carnal concupiscence." These same
genuine Christians at the same time zealously celebrated all the
Mysteries of Paganism, affirming that in their higher knowledge
they possessed the only key to the one truth locked up under
those superstitious ceremonies. And in our day the acknow-

* The semi-Magian Abdallali and family resemblance to Weishaupt
his new Ismaelites have a strong and his illuminati in the last centtiry.

416 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

ledgment of one universal religion by the Freemasons, as
expressed by their requiring from the candidate for admission
nothing more than the declaration of his belief in one God, is
denounced with pious horror by the bigots of every variety of
the Christian scheme.

This recognition of one universal religion in fact pervades all
the works of the lights of Mohammedan literature. In the
Malzamat of Hariri the sermons preached by his hero the Dervish
are full of a sentiment more sublime when touching upon things
pertaining unto God — a sentiment harmonising infinitely more
closely with those of enlightened religious men of our times
upon the same subject — in a word, these sermons breathe
a spirit in every respect more Christian (to use the modern
phrase) than characterises any writings of the actual Christian
divines, the contemporaries of the author.* But this is neces
sarily so, Hariri and Mohammedans like him being guided by
the traditions of the old philosophy still secretly maintained
amongst them, whilst the spirit of modern Christianity is
strongly, though unconsciously, directed by precisely the same
influence revived, though under a different name, and professedly
contemning its real source.

Again, the greatest of all Mohammedan sovereigns, the
Mogul Akbar, was a true Sufi ; equally so was his prime minister
and historian, Abul Farez. It would be difficult to find in a
modern Christian prayer-book, much less in any one composed
in his age, an address to the Deity so sublime, so consonant
with our present notions, as the invocation opening his Ayeen-
Alcbari. In all such outpourings of Oriental adoration no
allusion whatever to their special lawgiver is to be detected,
nothing to betray any distinctive sectarian prejudice ; the
reader, if unacquainted with the history of the author, would
admire, but know not to what creed to adjudge the composition.
Akbar, according to his vizier, " made a point of never ridiculing
or condemning any form of religion." He had thus, perhaps
without knowing it, reverted to the grand and distinguishing
feature of the religion of Greece and Kome in their best times
that discerned the same great truth, the real basis of universal
* He flourished in the ninth century.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 417

toleration, that all religious systems were but expressions of the
same idea,

u By saint, by savage, or by sago."

Wherever, in ancient times, the principle of toleration was
apparently violated, it was in cases where the rites, by their
corruption, had become prejudicial to public welfare, as when
the Senate put down the Bacchanalia, or Claudius the Druids
in Gaul, on account of their human sacrifices ; exactly as Iliero
of Syracuse had made it an article in his treaty with the
vanquished Carthaginians, that they should discontinue their
burnt-offerings of young children to Melcarth. Ilesiod's maxim,
Mr) d/)/o7/rots ^to/AeuW, was that of his race, as well as of the
Roman, and the same was the guiding principle of Akbar.
From a hint dropped by his panegyrist it would almost appear
that the Emperor had imbibed some slight tinge of /oroastrian
doctrine, for he remarks his particular veneration for the
element of fire ; and again the significant circumstance of his
regulating his frequent daily prayers by the position of the
sun in the heavens ; and, what bears directly upon our subject,
his favourite occupation was to converse with the Svfi and the
learned of all nations and religions. It sounds also very odd to hear
a Mohammedan grandee, like this writer, declaring that amongst
the Brahmins were to be found "the most virtuous men upon
earth," those very religionists in whom Akbar's successors, like
Aurungzeb, could (quite according to our own ideas of what
riecessaiily should have been his feeling) discern nothing but
de\ il- worshippers, whom it was his bounden duty either to
convert or exterminate.

The constant intercourse between Syria and Europe, .main
tained first by the flocks of pilgrims perpetually crowding to
Jerusalem, then by the Crusades, and lastly by the establish
ment of the Frankit>h kingdom in Palestine, and of the different
principalities upon the coast, produced vast effects, both apparent
and concealed, upon tl:e nations of Europe, more especially those
seated upon the Mediterranean. Arabian influence brightly
manifests itself in the poetry of the Troubadours, half-amatory,
half-mystical like its model, of a spirit differing as widely from
the materialism of classic elegiacs, as does the pointed " Sara-

2 E

418 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

cenic" architecture, with all its forms suggested by tho
tentpole and curtain, from the massive Romanesque which it so
rapidly displaced. Of poetry and architecture alike the germs
had been carried into France by the causes already noticed, and
kept in full vigour by the permanent establishment of the two
great military orders having their headquarters in Jerusalem,
but looking principally to France for recruits and resources.
For the Crusades were eminently a French idee, and both
leaders and soldiers in the most important of them, were either
actual Frenchmen or princes holding territories in France —
our Norman kings for example. How many arts, the most
admired in those ages, are direct importations from Syria or
Egypt ! Glass-working in all its processes connected with the
manufacture of ornamental and coloured vessels, and painted
windows, enamelling, majolica, damascening on steel, tho
coinage of gold, the cultivation of the silkworm. The Italian
language has preserved this history in the terms, purely
Arabic, still designating things pertaining to all such processes,
as zecca, tazza, cameo, mantece, rocca, gala, pataea, ricamare, dr.
Italian Gothic, particularly its civil branch, as exemplified in
the buildings of the great maritime cities on the Mediterranean
(those on the Adriatic continued faithful to the Byzantine taste),
such as Genoa, Pisa, Florence, is a mere transcript of Cairo and
Kosetta ; to the latest days of the style bearing no resemblance
to the Gothic then flourishing beyond the Alps.

This diffusion of Oriental ideas over Europe has a very
important bearing upon the present inquiry, for it explains the
readiness with which Manicheisrn was embraced in France
during the two centuries preceding the fall of the Templars.
These very Templars are found during their residence in
Palestine exhibiting a tolerant spirit, utterly inconsistent with
the ostensible object of their institution; making alliances
with any of the neighbouring Emirs able to assist them in
holding their own against the common enemy, the Soldan of
Egypt ; amongst whom figures conspicuously that arch-Gnostic,
the redoubtable "Old Man of the Mountain." *

* His practice of intoxicating the trial paradise, gave the sect the name,
neophyte with hashish (extract of afterwards accepted by the Italians
liomp) before admis;- ion into his terres- in its present opprobrious sense.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 419

A distinguishing feature of Gnosticisim was the profession of
continence, at least as far as regards the propagation of the
human species, which was denounced to the "spiritual" as
the doing in the highest measure the will of the Demiurgus,
and the perpetuating the reign of Matter. The strange means
they adopted to preserve their vow inviolate may be learnt by
referring to Clemens, where he quotes their interpretation of
the ancient fable about Saturn's devouring his own children,
or to Epiphanius when he describes the rites of the Ophite
eucharist. In no other doctrine of the Gnosis is the Buddhistic
influence more clearly traceable than in this, for any intrinsic
merit in similar asceticism (as practised purely for its own
sake) was never dreamed of by the Grecian philosophy, that
offspring of reason in her brightest and most uncorrupted
development. This selfsame affectation of purity contributed,
even more than the proclaimed liberty of conscience, to promote
the spread of Gnostic tenets in every age of their development,
from Yalentinus down to the grand apostle of Laiiguedoc,
Nicetas of Constantinople. His Manichajan bishops owed their
success in great measure to their black robes and professed
abstinence from, nay, more, pious horror of, all the pleasures of
sense. For any preaching is certain to obtain flocks of converts
that shall make, besides the promise of fully explaining things
too high for man's understanding, an outward and noisy
profession of asceticism, and proclaim the exaltation of the poor
and the certain damnation of the rich as a capital article of its
creed. For the vulgar mind ever admires what is difficult
merely because it is difficult, however useless in itself may be
the result, or even pernicious to society in its consequence, if
logically carried out; and inasmuch as the abstinence from
sensual pleasures is to them the hardest of all tests, so much
the more is the ostentation of similar self-denial the most
effectual method for gaining ascendency over brutish intelli
gences, utterly incapable of distinguishing the means from the
end. Moreover, such doctrines find powerful allies, ready
existing for them, in the natural enviousness and greed of
common souls. The actually poor being ever the vast majority in
the land, such hearers joyfully receive the teaching that promises

2 E 2

420

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the punishment of their betters in the next world, purely
as a counterbalance to their superior happiness in this: whilst
as scarcely any one considers himself as a truly rich man, but
is constantly climbing upwards towards a point that constantly
recedes before him at every successive stage of his ascent, even
the wealthy convert is enabled to hold the comfortable assurance
that he himself continues in the category of the poor, and that
the anathema is only launched against the one immediately
above himself on the social ladder. In this feeling lies the true
secret of the amazing success of Manicheism, its rapid absorption
into itself of the earlier Gnostic forms, and above all, of the
facility with which it got possession of tho.se very regions
where the Catholic Church was the most richly endowed ; and
where her clergy, particularly the Regular, were attracting the
greatest envy by their wealth and ostentation.

The Templars began their course in actual poverty, leading
a doubly hard laborious life— that of monk and soldier combined.
To express this poverty the original device, or common seal, of
the Order, bore two knights mounted upon the same horse, the
most striking exemplification of humility that could be imagined
in those days of chivalry. Becoming ashamed of such a badge
as they grew in power, they altered it into the somewhat similar
outline of a Pegasus — such at least is the old tradition. The
Winged Horse, however, may from the first have involved a
more spiritual meaning, allusive to the heavenward aspirations
of those initiated into the Order. And when their career was
drawing to a close, amidst the wealth and luxury that drew
down upon them so cruel a destruction, the brethren, no doubt
through some ingenious mode of self-deception, still flattered
themselves that their vows were as faithfully observed as in the
very springtide of their institution.

The strange and obscene* ceremonies observed on the ad
mission of neophytes into the various secret societies that

* " Art. 26. Item, quod in rccep- « Art. 29. Item, aliquando in virga

tione Fratrum hujus Ordinis, vel virili."

circa, interdum recipiens et receptus " Art. 30. Item, quod in receptione

aliquando se deosculabantnr in ore, sua ilia faciebant juxta eos quos

vel in umbilico seu in ventre nudo, recipiebant quod Ordinem non ex-

vel in ano seu in spiua dorsi." ieriut."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 421

flourished under the Lower Empire and in the Middle Ages
are all of them no more than faint traditions of the penances,
or " Twelve Tortures " that purchased admission into the
Cave of Mithras. How widely diffused were these Mithraici,
especially in the West, is attested by the innumerable tablets,
altars, and inscriptions still remaining in Germany, France, and
this country. The religion of Mithras was so readily embraced
and flourished so extensively amongst all the Celtic races,
in consequence of its analogy to the previously dominant
Druidical religion.

This affinity had struck with astonishment that sagacious
observer, the elder Pliny, who must have had ample opportunity
for forming a correct judgment during his protracted military
service upon the Rhine. He declares (Nat. Hist. xxx. 4) : " Gallias
utique possedit (Magica) et quidem ad nostram memoriam ;
namque Tiberii Csesaris principatus sustulit Druidas eorum et hoc
genus vatum medicorumque per senatus consultum. Quid ego
hflec commemorem in arte Oceanum quoque transgressa, et ad
Naturte inane pervecta? Britannia hodieque celebrat, tantis
ceremoniis ut dcdisse Persis videri possit; adeo ista toto mumlo
consensere quamquam discordi et sibi ignoto. Nee satis aBstumari
pote-t quantum Romanis debeatur, qui sustulere monstra in
quibus hominem occidere religiosis^imum erat, mandi vero etiam
saluberrimum." A hundred years before, Ciesar (Bell. Gall. vi.
13) had stated : "Disciplina Druidica in Britannia reperta atque
iiide in Galliani translata esse eestiniatur, et nunc qui diligentius
earn rem cognoscere volunt plerumque eo discendi causa proficis-
cuntur." The subjects of study in the Druidical school were
literally those of the Magiaii Gnosis, " Multa pra3terea de
sideribus eorumque motu, de mundi ac terrarum magnitudine,
de rerum natura, de deorum immortalium vi ac potestate disputant."
For Pliny by his " Magica " understands the rites instituted by
Zoroaster, and first promulgated by Osthanes to the outer world,
this Osthanes having been " military chaplain " to Xerxes
during his expedition into Greece. And this judgment of the
Romans is fully borne out by native evidence, for Druidism
(such as it appeared in its final struggle with Christianity
during the short-lived independence of Britain after the with-

422 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

drawal of the legions) is a religion agreeing most wonderfully in
many important points with the doctrine of Zoroaster. Thus,
it expressly teaches the eternal existence and antagonism of
the Two Principles, the final triumph of Good, and the
Eenovation of all things. A most valuable fragment of early
Druidical teaching Plutarch has preserved to us in his strange
essay " On the Face in the Moon," by the title of the " Doctrine
of the Sons of Saturn," which is full of Gnostic ideas ; those of
Manes for instance, and even of Gnostic expressions.

Now Manes himself started as a Zoroastrian priest, and framed
his new creed (according to Epiphanius) by engrafting upon
the original the transcendental Buddhistic notions picked up by
his true master, Scythicus, during his travels in India. Is there
not then a possibility that some sparks of the anoient Mithraic
doctrine may have lingered unnoticed in the West* until made
to blaze up anew by the congenial breath of the Paulician
Apostles? Indeed, one may even now discern the awful antique
ceremonial as parodied to the minutest particular in the
procedure of the modern convivial lictseria ; for Jerome's Miles,
the lowest grade in the Cave of Mithras, the Templars'
" watchman placed on the roof of the house or church wherein
the Chapter is held " (Art. 101), have their exact representative
in the armed man, the "Tiler," lowest official, who stands
sentinel at the door of the Freemasons' secret conclave.

The Druidical temple, always circular in ground-plan, whether
formed out of native rocks, or built with Gallo-Koman masonry
as in its latest example at Laiitef in Bretagne (figured by
Caylus, vi. pi. 124), consisting of two concentric enclosures
pierced with numerous arches, bears in this point a remarkable
analogy to all other structures dedicated to the element of
fire. Such is the plan of the temple of Moloch (uncovered at
Carthage by Davis), the Roman Vesta's temple, the Guebre fire
temples at Balkh, to this day circular towers, and the great
Sassanian temple at Gazacas destroyed by Heraclius in his

* Similarly there is every reason the only change being in the name

to believe that the medieval Witches' of the presiding deity. Michelet

Sabbat preserved uninterrupted the is of this opinion in describing the

ceremonial of the ancient rural orgia, immense Sabbats of the 17th century.

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 423

invasion. The spherical edifice within the palace containing
the abominable idol of Chosroes, the image of himself, enthroned
as in heaven, and all round him the sun, moon, and stars, which
the superstitious king worshipped as gods : angels also had he
placed standing about him like sceptre-bearers. Moreover, this
enemy of God had so contrived by means of certain mechanism
that drops of water should fall from the ceiling to imitate rain,
and that sounds of thunder should reverberate therefrom. Our
Vemlamium also boasted a.Mithraic temple commensurate to
the importance of the place ; until destroyed by the superstitious
barbarian, Ealdred, eighth Abbot of St. Albans, for to no other
purpose could have served " the very deep grotto, covered with
an unbroken hill of earth, and approached by a subterraneous
passage," the ruins of which were yet visible when Matthew
Paris wrote. " Specus quoque profundissimum monte continuo
circumseptum, cum spclunca subterranea quam quondam Draco
ingens fecerat et inhabitavit, in loco qui Wurmenhert dicitur,' in
quantum potuit explanavit, vestigia tamen ajterna habitatioms
serpentinae derelinqueiis."*

The foregoing considerations seem to furnish a reasonable
solution of the problem set to the archaeologist in the continued
existence of genuine Gnostic symbols (whether in their pristine
significancy or as mere dead forms, is for the Masons themselves
to judge) still paraded before us as things holy and full of
meaning. Treasured up amongst the Sufis of Persia, and the dark
sectaries of the Lebanon, thence transmitted to the Templars,
and handed over by them to their legitimate heirs the Brethren of
the Piosy Cross, these signs maintain a perpetual vitality. The
famous Pentade (Solomon's seal) of the Templars was, thinks
Nicolai with good reason, the powerful symbol, prescribed in
the Diagraming of the Ophites to bo offered by the ascending
soul to the Genius of each sphere, to extort from them free
passage to the supernal Light: "0 First and Seventh One
(lldabaoth, aeon of Saturn), born to rule with power, chief Word
of the pure Intelligence ! Perfect Work in the sight of the
Father and the Son ; by presenting unto thee in this seal the
sign of life, I open the gate which thy power hath closed to
* Gesta Abbatum S. Albani, cd. H. T. Riley, vol. i., page 25.

424 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

the world, and freely traverse thy domains." A sufficient
reason this for the constant appearance of this particular sigil
upon tombstones of every date. The reverence with which the
Hindoos still regard the same figure has been already noticed.
In its five points lies concealed the same expression of the virtues
of that numeral as was conveyed to the Grecian philosopher by
the Delphic e ; interpreted in the same sense as by Plutarch, in
the Middle Ages the Pentacle was held a sure protection against
all danger of fire — though found unavailing, alas ! for its
knightly wearers; Beranger's dictum being too well verified,

" Les heretiques n'orit pas trouve
Onguent pour la brulure,"

and was therefore regularly painted up in buildings that from
their destination were particularly liable to such ri>k, brew-
houses amongst the rest. This last custom explains how the
pentacle came at last to indicate the places where fermented
liquors were on sale.

As for the transmission of these symbols, the question would
be at once settled should we accept the bold declaration of
Leasing, for which, however, we have only his own authority
(Fortsctzunrj ties Ernst, p. 53) : " The Lodges of the Templars
were in the very highest repute during the 12th and 13th
centuries ; and out of such a Templars' Lodge which had been
continually kept up in the heart of London, was the Society of
Freemasons established in the 17th century by Sir Christopher
Wren." But this venerable tradition is directly contravened by
the testimony of the most unimpeachable of all witnesses, the
grand illuminato, Spartacus Weishaupt himself. At Munich,
in the St. Theodosius Lodge (in 1777), he received the first
Masonic degrees, but was inexpressibly disappointed on finding
in Masonry nothing beyond " les jeux d'une fraternite
innocente ! " Nevertheless he suspected that something deeper
yet remained ; and soon his expectations were fulfilled. That
same winter his friend, Cato Zwack, had an interview at
Augsburg with a certain Abbe Marotti, who conferred upon him
the highest degrees, even those of the Scottish Lodges, and
expounded to him all the mysteries, founded, according to the

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 425

Abbe, upon the religion and history of the Church. Zwack
lost no time in communicating his acquisitions to Weishaupt,
who replies : " The important discovery you have made at Nico-
media, in your interviews with Marotti, gives me extreme
pleasure ; let us profit by the circumstance, and extract from it
all the advantages possible." Weishaupt had therefore been
anticipated by his explanation of their symbolism, which he
himself adopted in the new Mysteries he founded. Barruel adds
( Jacobin isme, iv. 81) that the charge of illuminatism does not
apply to the first three degrees of Masonry, neither to such as
hold that these three degrees alone belong to the real, ancient,
fraternity. This would intimate that the " Rosicrucian " had
been later grafted upon the original number of gradations in
the Masonic hierarchy.

For the sake of comparison I shall give Barruel's account of
the degrees amongst the Illuminati, the predecessors of the
Jacobins, viz.,

I. Novices.

II. Brethren of Minerva.
III. Minor Illuminate.
IV. Major Illuminate, or Scottish Novices.

V. Scottish Knights.

VI. The Lesser Mysteries: Epoptas, or Illuminati Priests.
VII. The Eegent or Illuminato Prince.
VIII. The Greater Mysteries ; the Magus or King-Man.

Like the Rosicrucians, each novice upon admission received
his characteristic, or mystic name, taken from Roman history :
he then studied the geography of the Order which classicised
modern places after a similar fashion : then he acquired the
cypher, of which the simple set was this

12 . 11 . 10 . 9 . 8 . 7 . 6 . 5 . 4 . 3 . 2 . 1 .
a . 6 . c . d . e . f . g . h . i . k . I .m.

The other, more abstruse, cypher consisted of particular symbols
The Noviciate lasted from two three years, according to the age
of the Candidate. One of the things most strictly prohibited

426

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

was to ever write the name of either Order or Lodge; they
must be expressed by O and n respectively.*

In the admission to his degrees Weishaupt adopted all the
Masonic ceremonial. For example, in making the " Scottish
Knight," the "secret conclave" was hung with green; the
Prefect, booted and spurred, wearing St. Andrew's Cross by a
green ribbon tied en saltire, sat under a green canopy, and
received the candidate similarly equipped, holding a mallet for
sceptre. There was also the triple Benediction, and the sacra
ment, to conclude, administered by the Chaplain. At the making
of the Epoptas, he was taken, blindfolded, by his sponsor in a
perfectly closed coach, by a circuitous route, into the hall now
hung with red; on a table covered with scarlet were laid the
crown and sceptre, heaps of gold mingled with chains. On a
cushion lay a white robe and girdle. The novice was told to
choose : if he took the gold, he received a severe reprimand,
phrased with a lot of humanitarian cant too tedious to copy here,
and unnecessary besides— seeing that the same is perpetually
dinned into our ears at the present day.f

At the end, the Ilierophant delivered a long address upon
natural liberty and equality, and all the rest thereto pertaining.
Weishaupt, a professional Atheist, was both astonished and
diverted at finding eminent Protestant divines, after their
initiation, declaring that all these notions were the genuiue
doctrines of the Gospel : which was certainly a very awkward
truth to be held by the friends of the established order of civi
lised society. It is not, however, less a truth, if the same

' ' Brother A. B., Write upon parts of the body with the lotus, the

tliis MS. of the R. S. of this Degree.' colocy nth -flower, and the timbrel of

In his attempt to do this he receives Cybele (Plutarch, <De diguoscendo

a severe and prudent C. by the J. D. adulatore '). The marking of the

placed behind him for that purpose, Mithraici has been noticed in the

by the C. T. united to his F. &c." — section devoted to that worship (pp.

Masonic Ceremonial. 139, 140). Hence came the mediaeval

t The popular notion of the brand- belief in the secret mark impressed

mark received by Masons on initia- by the Devil at the Sabbat upon those

lion is derived from the stigmata who swore allegiance to him; and

impressed upon the ancient mystso which mark could be recognised by

at their admission. A remarkable, the witch-finders from its insensibility

example is that of Ptolemy Auletes, to pain,
who was thus marked in several

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 427

doctrines be carried out to their logical consequences, instead of
"being employed in defending ideas deduced in reality from a
totally different source. But Barruel, the refugee, who had
just seen the doctrines of liberty, equality and fraternity
practically and naturally expounded by means of the guillotine,
reasonably enough puts down this declaration of Weishaupt's as
the most conclusive proof of his audacious impiety.

The symbols, forming the proper subject of the present
enquiry, embodied in their origin the deepest mysteries of
Brahminical theosophy; they were eagerly accepted by the
subtile genius of the Alexandrine school and applied to the
hidden wisdom of Egypt; and lastly, in their captivating and
illusory promise of enlightenment, the few bright spirits of the
Middle Ages sought for something better than the childish
fables, engendered by monkery upon the primal Buddhistic
stock, which then constituted the Faith : and these holy figura
tions still continue to flourish, but only as the insignia and
mummery of what, at best a mere charitable, is perhaps only
a convivial association. In the same way Apollo's golden
Pentagon, which of yore blazed on high above the Delphic
shrine, in the Middle Ages the badge of the proudest Order of
Chivalry, and a sure defence from peril of lightning and fire,
has come at last to be degraded into the mere sign of a German
pothouse !

A Master-Mason of the very highest degree lately informed
me that he had detected the Signs now in use, engraved amongst
the sculptures in the Cave-temples of Elephanta ; and, what is still
more important, that, although the Brahmins are Masons, yet if a,
European makes the Sign to them, they immediately put their
hands up before their eyes, as if to shut out the sight of the pro
fanation of things holy. But this curious fact can be explained
with the utmost certainty. The Dionysiac Mysteries, the most
popular of all in Greece, were believed to have been introduced
direct from Syria, and necessarily brought along with them
all the signs and rites of their birth-place. The painted vases
of the period of the Decadence, of the fourth and third centuries
before our asra, take for their favourite subject scenes from
the celebration of these Mysteries, and in these pictures, mystic

428 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

Siglse perpetually recur, amongst which the Fylfot shines con
spicuous. But in truth, all the ancient Mysteries came from
the East, as their names, the Phrygian, the Mithraic, the Iliac,
declare, and these Mysteries existed publicly almost to the
close of the Roman Empire, and how much further down
into mediaeval times they existed as secret and prohibited
things, it is impossible to decide. .

From the very nature of things we may be certain that their
signs and symbols, after the esoteric doctrines were forgotten,
passed into the repertory of all " who used curious arts," the
alchymists, astrologers, and wizards of the Dark Ages, and then
became the property of Rosicrucians, who truly were the parent
stock, and not a recent brand (as is now pretended) of the
present Freemasons.*

A most important contribution to the history of Masons'
marks has (1877) been obtained through the researches of Sig.
Arnoaldi Yeli amongst the Gallic cemeteries around Bologna.
Many of the vases there exhumed bear Siglse upon their
bases, more rarely upon their sides, which are unmistakably
of the same nature, and, what is more curious, are constructed
on the same principle as those used by the regular stone-mason
at this very day.

Those in Class A (see Veli's Scavi prcsso Bologna) may bo
considered as of the highest authority, because they are the
actual stamps of the potter, impressed upon the clay before
baking. That they distinguished individuals, and were not
merely religious symbols, but stood for the proper names of
people unacquainted with writing maybe inferred not only from
the established custom of antiquity in this respect, but from
the much more frequent occurrence of the class, of which he
gives examples in list B. These are scratched upon the bases
after baking, and therefore must have been added by the

* The Jews have a tradition that the gious Jew upon the Sabbath day.

boards of the Tabernacle were marked It is a singular coincidence that tlie

with Hebrew letters, as a guide for stones of the Wall of Servius Tullius

their adjustment in the setting up of at Eome are inscribed with Mason's

that migratory Temple. Writing, marks that much resemble Phoeui-

therefore, becomes one of the thirty- cian letters,
two works interdicted to every reli-

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 429

buyers, not by the makers. The great variety in the forms
of these latter siglce sufficiently proves that they were the
" marks " of private persons, not of clans or tribes. Class
C, of similar " marks " engraved upon articles of metal, lead
irresistibly to the same conclusion. It must, however, be
observed that although these characters cannot be distinguished
at first sight from the modern Masons' Marks of which I have
given specimens in the large Plate, it appears upon examination
that no care has been taken to make them end in an odd number
of points — the guiding rule with the modern craft.

To come from the Cisalpine to the Western Gauls, some
evidence of the same practice is deducible from their
coins. The large billon pieces, evident copies of Alexander's
tetradrachms, found so plentifully in the Channel Islands,
often bear a figure, upon the cheek of the Hercules' head,
and repeated in the field of the reverse. What can these
symbols, placed so prominently to catch the eye, have been
intended for, but to inform the world what particular tribe
of the confederation using one national type had issued the
coin thus distinguished ? There is some analogy to this in the
Greek series, where distant cities use the type of Athens, or
Corinth, but make it their own by placing some appropriate
symbol in the field. We need not, however, carry out this theory
to the same fanciful length as does the Baron Donop, who, struck
by the evident resemblance of these figures to the Hindoo Caste
marks, builds upon it a complete history of the migration of
the Aryans into Jersey ; and points out the Puranic deities to
whom each of such symbols is to be referred. Of these figures,
again, a great variety, and much better executed, are to be
seen in the field of the pretty hemi-drachms of Solimara ; which,
as well as those above mentioned, belong to the times im
mediately preceding Cassar's conquest of Gaul — a date clearly
ascertained from that of the Roman denarii often forming part
of the same deposits. Of the continued use of these " Marks "
under the Roman rule in Gaul some vestiges are still to be
discovered. The " Pile Cinq-Mars " which cuts so ludicrous a
figure in Rabelais' description of Garagantua's hor^e, is a lofty
quadrangular column, ending in a point, in the most compact

430 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.

and skilfully executed brickwork, apparently built within the
first century of the Empire. Upon each face, towards the
top, are wrought in bricks of different colour from the main
structure various devices of the same sort as those of the
coins. These can be nothing else than the " armorial bearings,"
of the several cities or tribes that had combined together for
the erection of so costly a monument ; which we may safely
suppose intended for one of those " plurima simulacra " of
Mercury which Caesar noticed in Gaul, and which forms the
intermediate link between the upright stones (menliirs) roughly
cut into a phallic shape at top, of the uncivilised aborigines ;
and the grand Colossus of Zenodorus,to which native taste had
advanced by the time of Nero.

A lucky accident has thrown in my way another, and much
more curious proof of the use of these " marks " by the more
barbarous part of the Celts at a much later period. That the
decoration of the skin which gave the name to the " Picts "
consisted in stigmata in the literal sense of the word, and not in
mere dyeing with woad (like the early Britons), is made out by
Claudian's definite expression,

notutas
Terlcgit exanimes Ficto moricntc figuras." — De Bcllo Getico, xxvi. 417-18.

" The Book of Kells " is a MS., written some time in the
ninth century. In one of the facsimiles of its pages published by
the Pala30graphical Society, amongst the ornamentation of one
vast initial letter, the most conspicuous is the figure of a
naked man, writhing himself amongst its most intricate con
volutions. This man's body is entirely covered with " marks "
of various forms ; and from the circumstances under which the
drawing was made we can safely assume that we have here
preserved to us the portrait of a true Pict, taken from the life.
The four centuries that had elapsed since Claudian wrote
were not likely to have changed the customs of a country so
remote, and in which the small amount of civilisation derivable
from its Eomanised neighbours must have gone backwards
in proportion as they relapsed into their pristine barbarism.
This pictured Pict may also lead us to conclude that the sigil

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 431

seen upon the cheek of the Jersey Hercules was actually
tattooed upon that of the Gaul who issued the coin.

Out of deference to the popular belief in the Masonic Brand
mark, I shall wind up this section with a few observations upon
that most time-honoured method of distinguishing those initi
ated into any mystic community. To give precedence to the
Patron Saint of Freemasons, St. John the Divine, his making
the followers of the Beast receive his Mark " upon the forehead
and the palm of the hand," is a clear allusion to the Mithraical
practice, of which Augustine (as already quoted) speaks, in
mentioning "a certain Demon, that will have his own image
purchased with Mood" Ptolemy Philopator, whom Plutarch
describes as " passing his sober hours in the celebration of
Mysteries, and in beating a tambourine about the palace,"
submitted also to receive the Dionysiac brand-marks ; which
were, no doubt, those symbols so plentifully introduced into
the vase-paintings of Bacchanalian rites. " Brand-marks,"
however, is an incorrect name for such insignia, fur they were
imprinted on the skin, not by fire, but by the milder process of
Tattooing, as we learn incidentally from Yegetius (I. cap. 8), and
also that it was the regular practice in the Roman army, in his
day, the close of the fourth century. Ho advises that the
recruit be not tattooed with the devices of the standards (Punctis
signorum inscribendus est) until he has been proved by exercises
as to whether he be strong enough for the service. That these
tattoo marks were the distinctive badges painted on the shields
of the different legions, may be inferred from their insertion in
the epitaphs of individuals of each corps.

FIG. IS,

WOODCUTS IN THE TEXT.

Frontispiece. Ceraunia of green jade, converted into a Gnostic talisman
described at p. 197. Presented to the Repository, Woolwich, by General
Lcfroy.

Title-page. The Ophite version of the " Good Shepherd," described at
p. 230. Sard. (New York.)

Agathortemon Serpent, inscribed 101 With Me [thou shalt be safe].
Remarkable mineralogically, as being cut iti a piece of true jade (Nephrite)
(Lewis Collection). P. xii.

No. 1. The Gnostic Gorgon, a late Byzantine amulet. The legend, full
of blunders and contractions, is AriOCAriOC KTPIOC CABAGOQ 6N
TOIC TYICTOIC eTAOrHMeNOC, "Holy, holy, Lord of hosts, in the
highest, Blessed !" Drawn to the actual size, from a cast, sent tome
many years ago by the late Mr. Albert Way. But by a singular chance,
the gem itself (a green jasper) two years back, came into the hands of Mr.
W. Talbot Heady, who supplied me with a drawing of it, from which it
appears that its other face represents Saint Anne, with the Infant Madonna
in her arms, and her name and title in the field, the legend around being
TCT6PA MGAAINH MGAAINOMeNH GOC 0AAATTAN TAAHNH
CAIN6I, "0, womb, black, blackening, as the calm soothes the sea [be
thou quiet]. The gem is therefore a talisman for the protection of women
during pregnancy ; a fact accounting for its frequent occurrence ; Chiflct
figures another (the Gorgon side only) in his " Apistopistus," No. 70. P. 20.

No. 2. The Abraxas-god, as he is usually represented, with shield and
whip to scare away all evil spirits. The reverse exhibits the Agathodsemon
Serpent, surrounded by triplets of the sacred animals of Egypt, all paying
him adoration. The legend in the field EVIA, is Syriac for " Serpent," the
rest remains unexplained. Drawn to the actual size, from a red jasper,
discovered at Bombay, to which place it had probably been carried by the
Persian refugees of the seventh century. (Lewis Collection.) P. 41.

No. 3. A circular green jasper (of the size of the drawing) preserved
from time immemorial in Maestricht Cathedral, where it passes for the
" Seal of Saint Servatius," although in reality many centuries posterior to
his date, being a late medieval work. The obverse represents the bust of
some saint ; the reverse, the Gnostic Gorgon ; around both rims a most
barbarous attempt at a common Byzantine spell ; that is, of a few of the
first words only. The spell, in full, may be translated thus, " Death,
(Molpa) black, blackening, as a serpent dost thou writhe, as a lion dost
thou roar ; but as a lamb shalt thou lie down ! " P. 57.

WOODCUTS IN THE TEXT. 433

No. 4. The Abraxas-god mounted in the chariot of the Sun. This
design is unique in its kind, and of great value, as proving the original
identity of the Basilidan deity with the Solar Power. He has, however,
been adopted into the new religion by the legend of the reverse, the
" Great Names," lao and Abraxas placed within a coiled serpent, emblem
of Eternity. Green-jasper. (Bosanquet.) P. 103.

No. 5. Horus, the Vernal Sun, seated on the lotus, type of the world,
and reviewing the adoration of the Baboon, attribute of the moon. Jasper.
(New York.) P. 155.

No. 6. The Sim in his car, in his hand the orb ; he is saluted in the
legend as " Thou art our Father ! " and the word in the exergue Trallianus
tells us is one of his titles, and enters into a spell against gout. The
reverse exhibits Luna guiding her milk-white heifer, the Grecian substitute
for the silver antelope of the Hindoo Chandra Hematite. (New York.)
P. 157.

No. 7. Isis, one lotus on her brow, holding a sceptre. Sardonyx.
(Muirhead.) P. 175.

No. 8. Caduceus, within a myrtle wreath. On the reverse is beautifully
engraved APIKGU<J>I, which is the exact transliteration of the Hebrew
charm against the special demon of the latrina, and which is found in the
Talmud, being consequently more ancient that the fourth century. The
meaning is " Upon the head of a lion." Sard. (New York.) P. 178.

No. 9. The Abraxas god, engraved in so superior a style that the work
must date from the earliest period of the sect. Green jasper. (New York )
P. 194.

No. 10. The Abraxas god, with the title " loa, Son of the Universe ! "
This is a truer version of the Hebrew than the " Eternal Son," proposed
by Matter. Haematite. (New York.) P. 244.

No. 11. Talisman against the Evil Eye. The much-dreaded organ is
shown encompassed by the symbols of the deities presiding over the days
of the week, as the Lion for the Sun, the Stag for the Moon, the Wolf for
Mars, &c., all combining to baffle the force of the stroke. This attribution
of days came from the Chalda3an astrologers : it is represented in a painting
at Herculaneum, but the earliest use of it to mark a date is found in Dio
Cassius, who observes that Jerusalem was taken "on Saturn's Day."
Sard. (New York.) P. 256.

No. 12. Drawing rudely scratched on the plaster of the wall of a guard
room, or the Palatine, representing a man of the lower class touncatus
popettus, or a slave, making a gesture of adoration to a biform diety
elevated upon steps, with the explanatory inscription " Alexamenos,
worships (or is worshipping) God." It is disputed whether this be a bona
fide adoration of the jackal-headed Anubis ; or the caricature by some
heathen scoffer of the convert, Alexamenos aod his newly-found god,
depicted here in the shape described by Tertullian. tSee remarks at
page 230. P. 279.

2 F

434

WOODCUTS IN THE TEXT.

No. 13. Bust of Apollo, in the Greek style, interpolated by a later hand
with a talismanic legend, that would have defied all interpretation but for
the existence of another of the same nature, yet rather more explicit.
This is a portrait of Pescermius Niger (Paris), inscribed with an invocation
to the " Holy King, Apollo," to preserve the health of that Emperor,
expressed like the present one, chiefly by the initial letters. Ouri, there
fore, must be read Bao-iXei/s- 'ATrdXXcoi/ 'lepbs Seoi^ooi/) [<r£ff] and, in
the same way, calls upon the God of Health to show this favour to
Pescennius' rival, Severus. Sard. (New York.) P. 302.

No. 14. Talismanic Ring of Bishop Seffrid, found in his tomb; now
preserved in the Cathedral Library, Chichester. P. 328.

No. 15. The Agathodasmon, declaring by the legend " I am Chnnmis,
Sun of the Universe, 700." The Greek numeral must be the Number of a
Name," just as 888 is that of Jesus, but what that name was, I leave to
deeper Kabbalists than myself to discover. Calcedony. (British Museum )
P. 340.

No. 16. Serapis and Agathodremon combined in one body ; enthroned
and holding the Orb, as being Lord of the Universe. He receives the
adoration of the Cynocephalus, attribute of the moon; whence, perhaps, it
may be inferred that Serapis is to be understood now in the more restricted
seuse of the Solar Power. Green jasper. (New York.) P. 358.

No. 17. SPHINX, emblem of mystery, sporting with a narthex, the wand
carried by the candidates for initiation into the Dionysia. Campanian
style, engraved upon the base of a Sard. Scarabeus. (New York.) P. 372.

No. 18. The golden Delphic E, surmounted by a fillet of roses. For
the explanation of the symbol, see p. 297. Cameo iu a^ate-onyx. (New
York.) P. 431.

No. 19. Vase, the lower part modelled as a triple face of the boy Atys;
at the base lie the pastoral staff and pipes. Atys, in the Phrygian
Mysteries, is invoked as the " Shepherd of the white stars, and guiding
them by the sound of his piping," which Tatian (Hymn to the Mother of
the Gods) explains by identifying him with the power that governs the
motions of the heavens, lied jasper. (New York.) P. 466.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

THE drawings were, for the most part, made from gems in the Praun
Cabinet, now transferred to the British Museum, some few from my own
collection, now in the Museum of Art, New York. The materials are
either dark green and yellow jaspers, or calcedonies varying in colour from
olive green to light yellow. All designs are drawn to double the actual

PLATE A.
VARIOUS TYPES OF THE GOD ABRAXAS.

1. Abraxas brandishing a whip, to scare away malignant influences, his
shield emblazoned with some word of power. Keverse, the usual Greek
transliteration of the Hebrew name of God.

2. Abraxas, armed with a sword ; the exceptionally neat execution of
the intaglio bespeaks the first days of the religion.

3. Abraxas, wielding a mace, a Persian weapon that betrays the Asiatic
origin of this particular design ; the thunderbolt in the field identifies this
Power with the classic Jupiter. The reverse exhibits the Triple Hecate,
Queen of Hell, brandishing various weapons for the same prophylactic
purpose as the god himself. A unique combination of ideas, engraved
upon a circular copper plaque, found in the south of France.

4. The Agathodjemon Serpent, with radiated head, identified by the
legend with the god Abraxas. One of the few types that can with
confidence be attributed to the sect of Ophites.

5. Abraxas, of very debased and late execution. The title " Sdbaoth "
on the reverse, properly signifying "of hosts," was mistaken by the
ignorant Hellenists for the actual name of a Power, by translating " Lord
of Hosts " as " the Lord Sabaoth." Under this title he figures largely in
the sigillum of the " Pistis-Sophia."

PLATE B.

1. Abraxas, represented here with the head of an ass, and thereby
identified with Typhon, a singular perversion of ancient ideas. This gem
is valuable as distinctly declaring its purpose by the legend on the

2 F 2

436 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

reverse, <£YA((£tiXao-(rf), " Defend me," addressed to the Power depicted
upon it ; and thus putting out of doubt the destruction of all the other
specimens of its class.

2. Abraxas, of neat work and early date, not later than the fourth
century.

3. The Giant Typhoeus defying Jove : his serpent-legs denote that he is
the son of Mother Earth. This beautiful intaglio, which is of Italo-Greek
workmanship, and found at Cumse, is introduced here merely to show the
source whence the sectaries of the Decline borrowed the idea of similar
combinations of discordant natures. (Burnt sard : New York.)

4. Abraxas, with whip and shield, combining his influence with Horus,
seated on the lotus, the regular personification of the Vernal Sun. The
meaning of the type is set forth in the legend, which is the Greek
transliteration of the Hebrew Shemesh Ham, "Sun of the Universe."
The union of the two types indicates that Abraxas is here to be under
stood in his original sense, the simple personification of the Solar Power.

PLATE C.

1. Terminal fiszure, perhaps allusive by its form to Justinus'

" The Cross." The interminable legend surrounding it yields no intelli
gible words, but the title below the Herme, NIXAPOriAHC occurs also on
a talisman in the French Cabinet. The reverse gives the Seven Vowels (or
" Voices ") that shroud the Ineffable Name, which has never been uttered
aloud since the day of the destruction of the Temple, but is communicated
only in half-whispers to every Rabbi upon his ordination. It is a re
markable fact that a Talmudist, who remembered the Second Temple,
observes that this Holy Name was " warbled rather than pronounced " hi
the course of the service ; hence we may suspect the possibility of
imitating its sound by the permutation of vowels that form so important
an element in the construction of our talismans.

2. Father Nile, reclining and holding forth a cornucopia, emblematic of
amity.* As the "number of his Greek name," 365, is equivalent to
that of Abraxas, it is probable that, according to Kabbalistic rules, he here
represents that god. This explanation is supported by the type of the
reverse, Horus, seated on the lotus, addressed by the Greek transliteration
of the Hebrew Ablanathanalba, " Thou art our Father ! "

3. Horus seated in the baris, or sacred boat ; the prow and poop
whereof terminate in the hawk's head of Phre, and the ox-head of Apis.
He is here addressed by the Ineffable Name.

4. The same deity, addressed as before by the salutation Ablanathan-
alba, followed by an unintelligible word. The unskilful gem-engraver,
unable to form curves in the lettering, has given to his B the form of K,
and increased the difficulty of deciphering this legend.

5. The same, but now seated upon the scaraba?, type of the Creator,

* The type also of an Alexandrian coin of Hadrian.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 437

enclosed within the coiled serpent, emblem of Eternity. With these
purely Pharaonic sigils the reverse combines the name of the Jewish
angel Michael, and the Seven Vowels of the Ineffable Name ; thus
presenting an instructive example of that reconciliation of, apparently,
the most antagonistic creeds which is the very foundation of Gnosticism.

PLATE D.
SIGILS OF THE CNUPHIS SERPENT.

This class of figures has no connection with Gnosticism considered as a
development of Christianity ; being nothing more than talismans for the
protection of the chest, as I have already shown from Galen. It is true
indeed that the Kabbalists of Alexandria sought to heighten the medicinal
efficiency of the ancient Pharaonic sigil by adding to it formula? of their
own fashion, embodying the all-powerful Name, but this did not endow
the gem with any spiritual sense. The appellation " Kabbalist " I shall
always employ in this treatise in its strictest acceptation, and the present
is as good a place as any for stating my reasons for doing so. It is the rule
nowadays to treat the Kabbala as the pure production of the Middle Ages,
and such it probably is, in the form under which it is now presented to
us. I will not, indeed, go as far as the most learned Rabbi of our times,
and boldly assert that Moses himself was a profound Kabbalist, although
" the Wisdom of the Egyptians," in which Holy Writ declares he was a
proficient, was beyond a doubt something of very much the same nature.
Whatever unprejudiced person will carefully read what I have adduced of
the doctrines of Sastri and of Marcus (themselves " converted " Jews) will
find there the regular system of the Kabbala fully developed, and its
earliest and Egyptian rudiments in the " Pistis Sophia " of Valentinus. No
person really acquainted with the history of religions can suppose that
these theosophists invented these rules of interpretation: they merely
transferred principles sanctioned by antiquity from the explanation of the
Old Testament to that of the New.

To return to our Chnuphis, Chubis, or ChupJiis (for thus the Greeks
transliterated the Coptic KnepJi) it is probable that the veneration in which
this sigil of the Pharaoh Nechepsi was held, was the true source of the
legend concerning Moses's elevation of the Brazen Serpent. At all events,
I know of an enamel picture of the scene (date, thirteenth century) in
which the Serpent, lifted up on the Cross, is figured with the radiated
lion's head, really as he is seen on these talismans. This particular sigil
is generally engraved on calcedony, varying in colour from olive-green to
waxy-white. The best executed have for material the plasena traversed
by an opaque white line (Pliny's laspis Graminatias), the estimation of
which as an amulet by the Orientals he particularly mentions.

1. The reverse of this gem reads Chumis, accompanied by a row of
vowels that appear to contain the word I EH, which is, according to
Kabbala, an inferior title of God.

438

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

2. The Serpent elevated above the thymele, Bacchic altar — a combination
betraying the influence of the Dionysiac Mysteries. He declares in
phonetic Hebrew, " I, I am the Good Spirit." The reverse of this gem
had been covered with a long invocation in minute characters ; now almost
entirely lost by the fracture of the material in the fire to which it had
accompanied its owner. (New York.)

3. This Chnuphis, of exceptionally fine work and yet, finer material, has
each of the seven rays of the crown tipped by one of the seven vowels
that make up the Ineffable Name. The reverse exhibits the serpent-
entwined wand, (badge of the Egyptian priesthood) which generally goes
with this sigil, and doubtless added to its power. Moses's rod and
Aesculapius's club hence took their origin.

4. Another Chnuphis, in the ordinary style. It is noticeable how the
gem-cutter has endeavoured to give variety to the endless repetition of the
same sigil, by altering the arrangement of the serpentine folds.

PLATE E.
MONUMENTS OF THE SEKAPIS WORSHIP.

1. Serapis, viewed as the Sun-god, enthroned ; at his feet, the triple-
headed monster described by Macrobius. Before him stands Isis, or Mother
Earth, holding a bunch of wheat-ears and poppy-heads, to mark her
character. The legend is the invocation " Immaculate is Our Lady, Isis ! "
A fine specimen of Alexandrian art, in a beautiful sard. (New York.)

2. Venus, arranging her hair at a mirror, held up to her by a Cupid ;
two Loves, hovering in the air, hold a myrtle-crown over her head. The
inscription " The Manifestation of Aroiiph," occurs in a similar connection
upon a gem in the Paris Cabinet. It is hard to determine whether she
be the "nuda veritas," whose Kabbalistic revelation to Marcus is given in
my text ; or merely a talisman for engendering love towards the wearer ;
the material, magnetic haematite, supports the latter acceptation. The
reverse exhibits Horus, seated on the lotus, planted upon the baris, which
is constructed out of long papyrus-stalks lashed together. He here takes
the title of Abraxas, and is surrounded by adoring triplets of all the
animals held sacred by the Egyptians. The symbol of the Sun is seen at
his right.

3. Bust of Serapis, very curious for the prayer surrounding it, " Protect
Jupiter ! " a proof that Serapis is here regarded as the Supreme Being,
and the ancient Jupiter reduced to the rank of an astral Power ; as, indeed
he was occasionally so understood in better times. Thus Persius : — " Satur-
numque gravem nostro love fregimus una." (v. 50.)

4. Isis, veiled, with the tubulus on her head, and leaning on a tall
sceptre, in the pose of the Roman Juno ; for whom she might be mistaken
but for the invocation on the other side, " Baffle, Serapis, the Evil Eye ! "
which declares the object of this talisman.

DESCRIPTION OP THE PLATES. 439

5. Serapis, enthroned, seen in front face. Inscribed " Hermes," followed
by three letters, the initials of some then well-known address to that
god. Or if merely a private signature (Martial mentions a physician of
the name) the initials refer to his business. The God of the Shades was
a very fit patron for a professional who had doubtless done his best to
swell the ranks of his subjects, lied jasper. (New York.)

PLATE F.
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TYPES ADAPTED TO GNOSTIC IDEAS.

It is in this class that the influence of Judaism is more strongly
marked than in any other family of these monuments. These gems
were designed as amulets against the power of demons, either considered
specially, or as manifested in the diseases of which they were the final
cause to mankind. But before proceeding further, it will tend much to the
elucidation of this curious subject briefly to sketch the orthodox Jewish
doctrine upon this point. 1 here is no such thing in existence as a spirit
naturally evil, inasmuch as God, being all goodness, was absolutely
incapable of creating evil. Satan is himself an angel, like the others, and
has his own place in the Court of Heaven ; but he is deputed to test, by
temptation, the strength of Man's virtue, since without a struggle there
can be no crown. The Babylonian Eabbi, Philemon,* having demon
strated this grand truth to the satisfaction of his numerous school, was
surprised the next day by a visit from this Ange mal entendu, in a bodily
shape, who tendered him public tlianksf for the pains he had taken to
. set his character in a true light. But, unfortunately, the Demiurgus had
commenced his work by creating so vast a number of spirits, that the
Sabbath-even came upon him before he had made bodies enough for half
of them. These poor houseless beings are not naturally malignant, but
are jealous of their more fortunate brethren, for the same reason that " the
man. who has no coat to his back hates the man that has." They there
fore roam up and down the world, ever striving to force their way into
bodies already occupied, where their struggles with the rightful owner give
birth to all the maladies that flesh is heir to. It is remarkable that the
latter belief is universal among primitive races, however widely separated —
the Samoiedes, the Hindoos, the Red Indians. Something similar, too, may
be found in Plutarch's curious disquisitions on the nature of demons,
contained in his two Treatises upon Oracles.

It is the fashion of our days to believe that the Jews borrowed all their
metaphysical theories from the Platonists of Alexandria ; but whoever has
gone deeply into the subject sees good reason to suspect that both Jews
and Greeks had gone, independently of each other, to a much more ancient
source for such traditions.

* Or "Polemo," as the Hebrew t "Kissed his knees" is the ex-
, may equally well be read. pression iii the Talmud.

440 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

1. The Agathodaemon Serpent, mounted upon a pair of human legs. A
unique variety of the class — the same idea being more usually embodied in
a human figure with head and neck of a serpent ; or in a serpent with the
head of Serapis. The long invocation on the field evidently begins with
the name of " Abraxas."

2. The jackal-headed Anubis, an Egyptian sceptre in each hand,
advancing between the Sun and the Moon, the regular emblems of Eter
nity. A remarkable specimen of religious syncretism, for the power of the
Pharaonic god is doubled by adding, on the reverse, the name of Michael,
guardian-angel of the Jewish race, between four stars, which certainly stand
for the letters of the Great Tetragrammaton.

3. Mummy, enveloped in the folds of the guardian Agathodsemon. The
detached letters around (often so found in these gems) seem to cloak the
word " Initia." If so, this may have been a token (syinbolum) given to
the neophyte upon his initiation into certain mysteries : a custom to which
St. John alludes, mentioning the " white stone " with the New Name graven
thereon, to be given to him that overcometh.

4. A Power equipped with double arms and wings, bearing sceptres to
mark his dignity, and carrying on his head the sacramental Table. The
tree-trunk below, with its Five lopped-off branches, had doubtless a deep
mystic meaning, probably the degree of the person who carried the talisman.
Of the most barbarous execution, but valuable for the name " Baincho "
on the reverse : the astral Power, according to the " Pistis-Sophia," resident
in the planet Mercury.

5. Anubis, in one hand the sceptre, in the other the lustral vase,
standing above the open left hand, which Apuleius informs us was the
type of Justice. At his side is the goddess of Truth, her head formed
out of a bunch of ostrich-feathers : under her feet the udder-shaped vessel
carried in the Isiac procession. One deity is invoked by " Thou art our
Father ! " the other as " Sun of the Universe ! " The letters in the middle
eeem to make up the owner's |name, " Pia . . ."

G. Anubis, advancing with the sceptre and situla : the legend on the
reverse is unexplained.

7. A talisman, certainly meant to be of mighty efficacy, for it combines
the influences of Anubis, Cnuphis, and Horus with that of the God of
the Jews, rudely cut upon the four sides of a cube of steaschist.

PLATE G.
EGYPTIAN TYPES (continued).

.1. In this composition an element from a little-used source is introduced.
The Grecian Apollo, distinguished by his proper attribute, the bay-branch,
is seen caressing the Ibis, sacred to Thoth, scribe of the gods. The latter
deity being identified with Hermes, his bird carries the caduceus ; it also
bears upon its head the corn-measure, typical of abundance.

2. The Ass-headed Typhon, or the Principle of Evil, with quadruple

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 441

wings and one foot hoofed, carries by the tail two monstrous scorpions :
over his head a scarabseus flying. Of no esoteric meaning, bat simply an
amulet against the bite of the reptile, made after the rule in such cases
prescribed. The most convincing proof of the practice is the early Greek
gem published by Gen. Cesriola (' Cyprus.' pi. xl. 1.7), representing two
asps, with the explanation EXK ; and to this day the Arabs always draw
upon their amulets the figure of the thing against which it ought to guard
the wearer.

3. A Dual Power, who combines the jackal's head of Anubis with the
ass's head of Typhon, whence one of his feet is hoofed, brandishes in his
four hands swords and torches, wherewith to scare away the evil spirits.
The legend on the reverse, FIEPAAMBA VBAKA KZIK A, has not been
read, but contains the Coptic name of Anubis.

4. The Sun-god, Phre, with radiated head, adoring the seated Thoth,
ibis-headed, and using the invocation (cut on the reverse) "Thou art
our Father ! " Inasmuch as the Neo-Platonists made Hermes to be the
Power that regulates the motion of the heavens (for which reason Julian
addressed his morning prayer to him), there is evident reason why the
god of Day should thus do domage to Thoth as his superior and director.

5. A very popular Oryllus, its components being the emblems of the
elements— the Bird standing for air ; the Lion for Fire ; the Ram's head
for Earth, and the Bacchic mark for water. This Pagan talisman has
been Gnosticised by Thoth's ibis, with the Holy Names, " Abraxas " and
" lao ; " but the work on both sides is evidently from the same hand, and
in the style of the fourth century. The material is a rarely-used stone—
obsidian.

PLATE H.
EGYPTIAN TYPES (continued}.

1. Tortoise lying upon the lotus, which springs out of the back of a
crocodile. The unexplained legend of the reverse occurs again in connection
with an analogous design — a vulture-headed winged Genius, seated on
the back of a double-headed crocodile, published by Walsh (No. 13) in his
' Coins, Gems, &c., illustrating the Progress of Christianity.'

2. The Ark of the Covenant, apparently copied from the " Altar of Lyons,"
that so common device of the brass coins of Tiberius. The engraver ol
this late Roman gem had not studied the minute description of the Ark,
given in the Law. There is a Rabbinical tradition (although savouring
too much of Alexandrian philosophy to demand any credit) that the
Cherubim placed over it were represented as male and female, in the act
of copulation, in order to express the grand doctrine of the essence of Form
and Matter, the two principles of all things. When the Chaldeans
broke into the Sanctuary, and beheld this most astounding emblem, they
naturally enough exclaimed " Is this your God, of whom you boast, that He
is such a lover of purity ! "

On the side is a blundeied attempt at the mystic word, Tctragranimutun,

442 DESCRIPTION O-7? THE PLATES.

i.e. the Name of Four Letters,' viz. — Jod, He, Van, He. For the Names of
God, according to the Kabbala, are made up respectively, of Four, Forty-
two, and Seventy-four letters. The second explains the motive for the
number of sacrifices offered up by Balaam in his fruitless attempt to
propitiate the God of the Hebrews ; and perhaps may have induced the
composers of the Genealogy of Jesus (though working independentlv of
each other) to bring out the same mystic number by curtailing the second
series of three of its kings.

3. A doubly-winged and doubly-armed Power, holding four Egyptian
sceptres, and standing on a coiled serpent, enclosing a Holy Name. The
legend is a transliteration of the Hebrew for " Light of Lights." Another
form of such transliteration is given by Caylus (< Recueil d'Antiquites,' vi.
PI. 21), o-pvopiovo; reading from the end backwards ; cut for reverse to a
coiled serpent enclosing various sigla.

4. Thoth's baboon, bearing on his head the Solar disk, in the attitude of
adoration. The reverse bears HNA-MEPU), sometimes written MAPCx)-
HNI, " Enlighten my eyes ! " whence we may suspect this very common
type to be no more than an amulet against ophthalmia.

5. This gem is given here as a good specimen of a type of which great
numbers are to be met with, although its whole conception, and the vague
symbols in the field — the Solomon's Seal, celestial globe, etc., entirely out
of the antique taste, refer its creation to the fancy of mediaeval quacks and
astrologers. Was the figure suggested by the idol " in the shape of an
Old Man" with whose worship the Templars were so persistently
charged? The present example, belonging as it does to the original
Praun Cabinet, must have been executed before the beginning of the
seventeenth century.

6'. The outline of the human figure filled up with " Holy Names," and
thereby representing Adam Kadmon, "the Primitive Man" of the
Kabala. The finest example of this curious design, and in which the
letters are the most clearly defined, is the one Caylus gives (I.e. pi. 22\
which has been cut by a later hand on the reverse of a Lion passant, in
the Persian style.

7. The Baboon adoring a Triangle, Egyptian symbol of the Moon,
elevated upon a column bearing an inscription. The fact that the
Pythagoreans (who avowedly got their whole system from Egypt)
symbolised Athene by the triangle, lends srength to the idea that the
Attic goddess was in her origin merely the expression of the Lunar
Power.

PLATE J.

SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE MITHEAIC MYSTERIES.
1. This pretty design may be tersely described in a line of Manilius :—

" Quadrijugis et Phoebus equis et Delia bigis."

Sol and Luna in their appropriate equipages : a heathenish device enough,
but the same hand has backed their influence by the invocation, " lao

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 443

Sabaoth, Abraxas ; " He, i.e. the living God, protect Aparastath<% the bearer
of this talisman. Similar formulae, always attached to women's names,
very frequently occur.

2. The Zoroastrian Dog, of whom and whose office so much has been
said in the text. The ill-cut Bird is intended for the Haven, the usual
Mithraic attribute.

3. The Lion of Baal, the Syrian Sun-god; below, the Scarabams
typifying the Creative Power. The Phoenician inscription Osan el, " God
gives strength," is the name of the owner of the signet. Levy quotes an
agate scaraba3us at the British Museum exactly similar to this gem (a fine
sard), a proof of the popularity of both type and name.

4. A unique talismauic device, converting a male Sphinx into a novel
bird, by the addition of the legs of a crane and the tail of a scorpion. It
is engraved in the Persian style : my motive for admitting it into the
present class.

5. The Zodiacal Lion, guided by its astral Genius in its course through
the seven planets.

6. The Sun-god, with radiated head, mounted upon a camel, typifying
the East. Below is set the fire-altar of Mithraic worship. He is followed
by Chanticleer, attribute of the god of Day, preceded by the Horse — his
peculiar sacrifice, as Ovid tells us : —

" Plncat equo Persis radiis Hyporiona cinctum,
Ne detur Celeri victima tarda deo." (Fasti. I. 305-86.)

PLATE K.
MITHRAIC (continued).

1. Circular copper plate, of the same size as the drawing, bearing the
name of Aurelius Furellius, the person for whose benefit the talisman was
devised. It represents a female figure, standing in the attitude of
adoration ; legend, " The Birth of Salvation." On the reverse is seen
the Solar Lion bestriding a corpse, a type so frequent in this class that
it may reasonably be referred to the entrance-rite of initiation, the
" simulation of death " alluded to by Spartianus.

2. The most elegant of these mystic designs that has ever come to my
knowledge. Two Cranes, one with the head of a Earn, the other of a
Bull, stand guardians over the Mithraic sacramental table, under which
lies crouched the Solar Lion, " the House of the Sun." Upon the table
are set the sacred vessels ; above it is the Delphic E, badge of Apollo,
between two Palmyrene (?) letters, and over all the Seven Planets,
engraved with an accuracy worthy of its elegance in a very fine sard.

3. A talisman of uncommon potency, to judge from the profusion
of symbolism with which its two faces are overloaded. A four-winged,
four-armed Power, standing like the Babylonian Belus in the air, is involved
with a multiplicity of legends, amongst which the usual formulas " Thou
art our Father," " Sun of the Universe," " Michael," " Adonai," can clearly

444 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

be read. The reverse shows a female figure standing and adoring the
Deity, who guides the Solar light. In the legends we can distinguish
" Abraxas," " Michael," and " Michalo."

4. This type only differs from the last by the addition of the prostrate
man under the Lion's feet, and that nothing definite can be made out of
the disjointed inscription. The reverse merely bears the Great Name
" lao, Sabaoth," and the Seven Vowels. The potency of such words is
still an article of faith with all true Jews. In the year 1835-6, the Eabbi
of Neutra, in Hungary, actually stood his trial for murder on the charge of
having cursed, by the " Ineffable Name " an enlightened lady whom he had
ordered to leave the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, because she had
ventured to make her appearance there with her hair in sight, and who
had died suddenly on the very same day. The Rabbi only escaped
conviction by publicly and solemnly disclaiming the possession of any
such power, to the inexpressible disgust of his whole congregation, who
looked upon him as a wretch that had denied his God in order to save
his life !

PLATE L.
MITHRAIC (continued).

1. The Mithraic Lion, moving through the stars of heaven. The
reverse exhibits a complete assemblage of the Siglee that are found,
dispersed, upon so many talismans. That they stand for the names of
deities and astral Powers may be guessed from the fact that Moham
medans still express Allah by a circle filled up with diagonal lines.

2. Lion-headed Man, doubtless a Leonticus (one of the grades in the
Mithraic Mysteries), uttering, with uplifted hand, the inexplicable adjura
tion, " 0, Centaur of God, Thou match for a hundred [demons] ! " Here
fKarovTopaxos is formed after the analogy of p-ovo/jLaxos, " a match for one."

3. A Mobed (Zoroastrian priest or Magus) performing his nocturnal
devotions before an altar, on which are set up various sacra, amongst
which may be recognised the regular insignia of his profession, the Sword
and the Divining-rods. Engraved upon the base of a calcedony cone, an
early form of the sknet in Assyria.

4. Horns, the Vernal Sun-god, making the gesture of adoration, his
whip resting upon his left arm. He is seated upon the seed-vessel of the
lotus, that aptest symbol of the Universe, in virtue of its innumerable
contents. In the long, clearly-cut legend that fills the exergue, no
hitherto-explained formula? are to be recognised.

PLATE M.
GENERAL TALISMANS.

1. Zodiacal Monster, compounded of Scorpio and Capricornus, carrying a
legionary standard. Bearing in mind that the former Sign is under the
patronage of Mars, according to Manilius — " Pngnax Mavorti Scorpius
haeret " — and the latter a badge of the second Augustan Legion, we may

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 445

reasonably suppose this gem to have been engraved for the benefit of
some member of that corps. Sard. (New York Museum.)

2. Three lines of the usual Gnostic siglae, in a cartouche formed by a
coiled serpent, precisely in the same way that the Brahmins still write
the Great Name AUM — a sure evidence of the meaning of these
mystic characters. Sard., set in an iron ring, of which only fragments
remain.

3. Fortuna, with rudder and horn of plenty, standing. The word
Feliciter, in scattered letters, the usual acclamation of the crowd, and the
palm-branch prove this gem a present to some favourite auriga. Its
purport is the same as that of the monogram so often found enclosed in
the field of the Antoniate medal, also accompanied with a palm, which
has at last been made out to contain the elements of Palma Feliciter !

4. Masks of Silenus and of Bacchus, combined into the outline of an
elephant's head, bearing a caduceus in his trunk. The typical beast of
India is an allusion to the Indian origin of the god ; and the conceit was a
favourite with the Komans, to judge from the number of such compositions
that they have bequeathed us. Bed jasper. (New York.)

5. Astrological Trine, or figure produced by dividing the circle of the
Zodiac into equilateral triangles. Here, Virgo (Astrsea) at the apex of a
triangle, is borne up by Taurus and Capricorn. This was the horoscope of
Pescennius Niger, who placed it on the reverse of a coin, on account of its
appropriateness to his surname of Justus, of which virtue Astraa was the
emblem.

6. The Gorgon's Head : the type explains itself by the legend, " I
protect Khoromandares" — some Greco-Persian, to judge from his Oriental
name. The younger Lucian tells us in his ' Philopatrios ' that the Gorgon
was placed upon the shields of the Heroes as being " a thing that wards off
all dangers." Red jasper. (New York.)

7. Mars, grounding arms, in the costume of a soldier of the times of
Constantine. The legend declares the virtue of the sigil : "Mars hath
cut off the disease of the liver." But a most interesting point in the
amulet has been discovered by Prof. Stephens, viz., that the four characters
behind the head of Mars are the Runes for ABLE, Help. Under
Constantine and his sons, the Franks (as Arnmian observes) were para
mount in the army. It is easy to conceive how some officer of that nation
has thought to augment the great virtue of this important talisman by the
addition of one of his national spells. Engraved in a slight manner, upon
hcematite.

8. Naked Warrior, upon a prancing steed, brandishing a mace, that
specially Oriental weapon ; legend, " The Seal of God." Curious for the
material — a turquoise ; to the present day the Persians firmly believe in
the protective virtue of this gem, to which they give the name of Phirux —
" The Victor."

446 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE N.
GENERAL TALISMANS (continued}.

1. Universal Nature, symbolised in a highly poetic manner, combining
all her forces for the protection of the bearer. The Eagle of Jupiter
(Air) ; the Dolphins of Neptune (Water) ; the Lion of Sol (Fire), are
moulded into the mask of Pan, whose semi-bestial nature is of the Earth,
earthy.

Winckelmann, in describing an intaglio of the Stosch Cabinet (No. 1232)
Pan, playing upon his syrinx, seated in the centre of the Zodiac, observes
that the ancients considered this god as the " Type of the Universe " ; and
saw in his horns and shaggy hairs mystic allusions to the solar rays. For
the same reason Apollo shared his Gryphon with Pan, and Orpheus sings
of him as " Attuning the harmony of the world with his sportive music."
Onyx cameo (Rollin and Feuardent).

2. Isis, standing, with the Asp, badge of royalty, rising from her fore
head. The Coptic legend opens with the name of Osiris. The characters
in the inner circle seem to be Demotic— they are not Palmyrene. I have
published this gem, as being the finest example of the class that has ever
come to my knowledge, by the kind permission of its owner, Mr. J. C.
Robinson. Dark jasper. (On the reverse, a later hand has inscribed the
" Great Name," and the Seven Vowels, to adapt the talisman to the new
creed.)

Nos. 3 and G are very frequent forms, made up entirely of siglae and
Numerals ; on which latter subject more shall be said further on.

4. This spell, " Great is the Name of the One God," is the Jewish
defiance to its rival, " Great is the Name of Serapis,"— of which Caylus
publishes a beautiful example, in relief, of antique paste — a material that
indicates a large manufacture of the same article to meet a constant
demand.

5. Certain astral Powers, represented by their then well-known symbols,
are enlisted, by this engraving, in the service of a lady, SaUnia Quinta.
A popular kind of talisman this ; another very similar is known to me,
made for the benefit of one Victorina.

Pythagoras is perpetually referred to by Hippolytus as the real master
of the Gnostics in the application of Numerals to the expression of things
divine. He is known to have learned his system in Egypt ; and neces
sarily brought away with him the cyphers which he found employed for
the same purpose amongst his teachers. The primitive Egyptian numerals
were of the simplest nature, but their abbreviations ultimately became
distinct symbolical cyphers for the several days of the months ; and out
of these cyphers the Arabs composed their own system of notation. Hence
it follows that many of the Gnostic siglss may be no more than numerals
connected with the astrological use of the charm on which they occur. In
fact, Porphyry says of Pythagoras (in his 'Life') that his famous
' Numbers ' were merely hieroglyphs, whereby he expressed ideas con
nected with his own philosophy. The so-called " Pythagorean Nume-

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 447

rals " are shown in the MSS. of Boethius's Geometry, composed in the
sixth century. And that the "Numbers" of Pythagoras were Ten.
appears from the remark of Aristotle (Met. vii. 8) " that some philo
sophers maintained that ideas and numbers were of the same nature, and
amount to Ten in all."

That the Numerals as written down by " the last of the Romans,"
were Egyptian demotic characters in their origin is a very probable
conjecture ; but it is a curious fact, and remarkably confirms what has
been said above, that several of them when viewed upside down assume
the exact form of our present Arabic cyphers.

PLATE 0.
HINDOO SYMBOLS AND CASTE-MARKS.

I. No. 1. Type of Mahadeva or Siva. Fire personified.

No. 2. Type of Vishnu : Water.

No. 3. The Sherkun : symbol of the union of the two Elements.

No. 4. The five-pointed figure representing the conjunction of Brahma
(Creator) with Siva (Destroyer) becomes the famous " Solomon's Seal,''
the badge of the Jewish nation, and therefore engraved upon their tombs
in the Roman Catacombs.

The equilateral Triangle, Trikun, symbolises Triune Co-equality. A
Point (mathematical) the self-existing Deity. The circle expresses
Brahma, or Eternity. The Triangle inscribed in the Circle, Trinity in
Unity. The Circle within the Triangle, Unity in Trinity.

The worshippers of a Sacti (Female Power) mark their sacred jars with
the very expressive symbol, No. 5 ; those of Vishnu with No. & ; and those of
Siva with No. 8, which signifies the copulation of Siva with Durga.

Amongst the signatures of the ancient Jaina (Buddhist) kings, occur
the symbols 8 and 9; and also the so-called "Maeander," that frequent
decoration of Greek Coins.

The six following symbols are various Caste-marks, which religious
Hindoos put upon their foreheads every morning, with ashes of cowdung,
or coloured earths, and powdered sandalwood, producing a great variety in
them by the employment of different colours. Those figured here
designate the followers of Vishnu.

II. These marks distinguish the votaries of Siva and his wife, Pauvati.
The most obvious symbol of the Passive Principle of Nature, the mystic
Yoni, (and with which Sesostris branded the nations that had submitted
to his arms without resistance) is decorously repressed in the general form
of these marks, the two Deities being those that preside over propagation
and change which the vulgar call by the name of Death.

III. Other caste-marks, denoting minor differences in the sects that bear
them : they are given here because they include in their number some that
appear to have been the originals of certain Mediaeval siglse.

IV. Characters cut upon the rock in the sandstone quarries of Silsilis

448

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

in Upper Egypt. That they are alphabetical may be inferred from the
fact of their accompanying the figures of various animals ; they are of
great interest to us, being identical with those so often found upon our
talisman.

V. Palmyrene characters from a finely-cut inscription now in the
Louvre.

VI. Siglx, exactly of the nature of Masons' Marks, and of very ancient
date, for they are found on the pottery deposited in the Gallic tombs
around Bologna. Some are stamped in the clay before baking, and
therefore must have indicated the maker's name ; but the greater number
have been scratched on the surface at some later time, probably when
placed in the sepulchre, to carry down to posterity the memory of the
deceased. Those here given are selected from the list figured by the
Conte Gozzalini in his very instructive memoir « Gli Scavi presso Bologna,'
1877.

VII. Masons' Marks, cut on the ashlar of the old Palace of Sadilat, near
Ispahan, whence they were copied by Ouseley, in the belief that they were
inscriptions in some unknown tongue.

VIII. Masons' Marks from the " Drawing-room " of Raglan Castle, an
Elizabethan building. They will suffice for specimens of the notation, all
the medieval, early or late, being of the same nature, though infinitely
varied in minor details. Many lists of these have been published from
time to time, the most recent, of the Marks in Duffield Church, a Norman
building, published in the Journal of the Derbyshire Arch. Soc., ix. p. 168.

IX. Every genuine Free Mason (not Rosicrucian recoctus Freemason)
after serving his apprenticeship, and being made " free and accepted " of
the Craft, receives his own " Mark," which he must thenceforth cut upon
every stone that he dresses, in order to identify his own work when pay
day comes. The essential principle in the Mark is that it must have an
odd number of terminations. The Marks here set down were in use with
the masons employed in the construction of the South Wales Railway.
The most convincing proof of the emptiness of the lofty pretensions of our
so-called Freemasons, is that they actually are entirely ignorant that
this most ancient rule of the Craft, to which they pretend to belong, is
still regularly followed.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX

BY

JOSEPH JACOBS, B.A.

PART I. — GNOSTICISM AND ITS SOURCES, pp. 1-112.

THE Gnostic heresies play so important a part in the Christianity of the
first three centuries that they naturally come up for treatment in all the
Church histories for that period, such as those of Gieseler, Neander, Hase,
and Scliaff, as well as in the histories of Christian doctrine (Hagenbach,
F. K. Meier, F. C. Baur, A. Neander, L. Noack, &c.), and even in the
histories of philosophy of Ueberweg, Zeller, &c. But the monographic
treatment of the subject from the theological standpoint — the Gnostic
gems attracted early attention — may be said to have begun with

A. Neander. — Die genetische Entwickelung der vornehmsten gnos-
tischen Systeme. Berl. 1818. [Sober and clear.]

C. A. Lewald. — De Doctrina Gnostica. 1818.

J. Matter. — Histoire critique du gnosticisms et de son influence sur les
autres sectes religieuses et philosophiques pendant les six premiers
siecles. Paris, 2 tomes, 1828. [Second and best edition, Strasbourg,
3 tomes, 1843. Somewhat superficial and viewy, but still useful ;
giving outlines of whole subject, including iconography.]

E. Burton. — Inquiry into the Heresies of the Apostolic Age. Oxford,

1830. [Bampton lectures for 1829, uncritical; superseded for
English readers by Mansel.]

J. A. Moehler. — Versuch iiber d. Ursprung dcs Gnosticismus. Tiib.
1831.

F. C. Baur. — Die Christliche Gnosis. Tubingen, 1835. [The place of

publication indicates the tendency of this publication. Baur's

views are read to best advantage in his Das Christenthum der 3

ersten Jahrhunderte.~]
Norton. — History of the Gnostics. 1845.
H. Eossel. — Geschichte der Untersuchungen uber d. Gnosticismus in his

Theologische Nachlass. Berl. 1847.
E. A. Lipsius. — Gnosticismus in Ersch and Griiber. Bnd. 71. 18GO.

[The starting-point of new lines of inquiry rendered necessary by

the publication by Miller of the Philosophumena attributed to

Hippolytus (Clar. Press, 1851).]
W. Moller. — Geschichte der Cosmologie der griechischen Kirche bis an

Origenes. Leipzig, 18G2.

2 G

450 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.

H. L. Mansel. — The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries.
London, 1875. [Posthumous. Edited by J. B. Lightfoot. Best
English work, clear, fair, mainly founded on Lipsius, classification
of sects geographical. His arrangement is : Notices of Gnosticism
in New Test. (iv. v.) — Precursors, Simon Magus and Menander
(vi.) — The Ophite Sects (vii.) — Cerinthus, Carpocrates, Nazarenes
and Ebionites (viii.) — Syrian Sects, Saturninus, Tatian, Barde-
sanes (ix.) — Egyptian, Basilides (x.) — Valentinus and Valen-
tinians (xi. xii.) — Asiatic Gnosticism, Marcion (xiii.) — Judaising
Reaction, Clementines, Elkesaites (xiv.).]

A. Hilgenfeld. — Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristenthums. Leipzig,
1884. [Ill-arranged, but at present the work round which

* discussion on Gnosticism centres.]

These are the chief monographs on the whole subject. Besides these,
several articles in theological reviews may be mentioned, many of
them reaching the length of monographs. They were mostly
occasioned by the various publications mentioned above, as can be
seen by their dates. F. K. Liicke in Berliner theol. ZeiUch. 1819 ;
J. C. L. Gieseler in Hall. lit. Zeit. 1823; and in Studien u.
Kritiken, 1830 ; F. C. Baur. ibid., 1837 ; H. T. Cheever in Amer.
BiU. Repos. 1840 ; R. Baxmann, Deutsche Ztst. 1861 [translated
Amer. ThcoL Rev. 1862] ; Hilgenfeld in Ztst.f. iviss. theoL Bd. xiii.
Articles in encyclopedias often show original research, or present
useful summaries: besides the epoch-making one of Lipsius hi
Ersch and Grliber, reference may be made to the sa«ie writer's
article " Gnosis " in Schenkel's BiM-Lexikon (1868) ; C. P. Wing
in McClintock and Strong, vol. iii. 1873 [useful bibliography] ;
\V. L. Alexander in last edition of Kitto and J. L. Jacob! in
Herzog-Plitt.

The SOURCES are scanty and scattered, at any rate as regards in
dependent works by Gnostics. In addition to scattered fragments in
Grabe's Spicikgium, there have been published—

Miinter. — Odx gnosticx. Kopenh. 1812.

Korbcrg. — Codex Nazareus vel Liber Adami. Leiden, 1815.

[The so-called Bible of Gnosticism, i.e. of the Mendaites ; on

whom see Christian Review, Jan. 1855, and Petermann in Herzog.]
A. Halm. — Bardesanes Gnosticus Syrorum primus hymnologus

Leipz. 1819.

A. Halm — Antitheses Marcionis Gnostici. Leipz. 1823.
M. G. Schwartze. — Pistis Sophia, opus gnosticum a codice manuscripto

Coptus Londini descripsit et Latine vertit M. G. Schwartze,

edidit J. H. Petermann. Berl. 1851-3.

[Now considered to be a production of the later Ophite schools,

see K. Kostlin, Die gnostische System des Buches Pistis Sophia

in Thcol Jahrb. for 1851,]

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. 451

But the real sources of our knowledge of Gnosticism are to be found in
the earliest heresiologists, Irenrcus (Adv. hxreses}, Epiphanius (Adv.
hareses), and Hippolytus (Elenchus and Philosophumena) ; on the trust
worthiness of these a considerable literature exists.

G. Volkmar.— Die Quellen der Ketzergeschichte. I. End. 1855.
11. A. Lipsius. — Zur Quellenkritik des Epiphanios. 1HG5.

„ Die Quellen der dltesten Ketzergeschichte. 1875.

A. Harnack. — Zur Quellenkritik d. Gesch. des Onosticismus. 187.3.

„ in Zt. f. lut. Theol. 1874,

pp. 143-226.
Hilgenfeld's Ketzergeschichte goes thoroughly into these sources.

P. 3. — Aristobulus. Valckaener's monograph De Aristobulo Judxo,
1806, is still the fullest and best.

P. 4., vide p. 18, note on Enoch.

" Book of Adam " — Codex Nasareus Liber Adami appellatus, syriace
transcriptus, latineque redditus a M. Norbery. Berlin, 1815.

P- 7. — Of the large literature on Ephesus it is sufficient to refer to
Guhl, Ephesiaca, Berl. 1843 ; Faikcner, Ephesus and the Temple of
Diana. 1862.

P. 8.— On traces of Gnosticism in the Gospels. C. C. Tittmann, De
vestigiis Gnosticorum in Novo Testamento frustra guxsitis, Leip.
1773 ; translated Contributions to Foreign Literature. New York,
1827. On Pre-Christian Gnosis, Lightfoot. Colossians, pp. 80 seq.

P- 14.— Title given above, also Kos din's monograph.

P. 24.— Jews in ancient world form the subject of Prof. Mayor's
elaborate notes on Juvenal xiv. 06-106, running over twelve closely
printed pages and preceded more suo by an elaborate bibliography
of previous treatment. The only thing of importance since is a
paper of Heyd's Les juifs devant I' 'opinion romaine in 7?ey. des etudes
juives. 1884. The relations of Gnosticism and Judaism formed
the subject of the historian Graetz's first work, Gnosticismus und
Judenthum. Krotoschin, 1846.

P. 29.— The Zendavesta is now translated in Sacred Books of the East,
vols. iv. xxiii. and xxxi. For literature see Tide, Outlines of the
History of Religion, § 100. Chief work, Hang, Essays on the
Parsis in Triibner's Oriental Series. On Persian influences on
Jewish angelology, Kohut, Angelologie des Talmuds. 1868.

P. 33. — Dr. Ginsburg collected in small compass the modern views on
the Kabbala in his monograph The Kalhila. 1866. It has
attracted little attention from Jewish scholars since that date.
All scientific inquirers place the origin of Kabbala in the twelfth
century, though mysticism akin to it appears as early as Bible
times. On the great influence of the Kabbala in Middle Ages cf.
Stockl, Gesch. d. Philos. im MittelaUcr. Bud. ii. On the Talmud
at the time of writing three monographs are about to .appear —
Prof. Strack separately; Dr. Ginsburg in Smith- Wace, Diet, of

2 G 2

452 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.

Christ. Biog. ; and Dr. Schillcr-Szinessy in Ency. Brit. Ham
burger's Real-Encyclopadie, though unequal, is useful and at
present the easiest means of getting second-hand information
about Talmudical topics.

P. 40. — Camillo Leonardi, Speculum Lapidum. Ven. 1502.

P. 42. — The earliest monograph dealing with the relations of Gnosticism
to the East is J. J. Schmidt, Verwandschqft d. gnostischen Lelire
mit den Religionssystemen d. Orients. Leip. 1828. On Manes
and Manichcism the great work is still Beausobre, Nistoire critique
du Manicheisme. 1734. But important additions to our knowledge
have come from Oriental sources, which are given in somewhat
haphazard fashion but with excellent index in Fliigel, Mani, seine
Lelire und seine Schrift'-n. Leip. 1862. Early works on Mani are
given in Fabricius, Bibl. grcec. t. vii. p. 310 seq., ed. Harles. See
also Kessler, Untersuchungen z. Genesis d. manichaisch. Religions-
system. 1876.

p. 49 — For bibliography of Buddhism see Tiele, Outlines § 82. A good
short account by T. Rhys Davids (S.P.C.K.). The best recent
books are Oldenburg, Buddha; his Life and Doctrines, 1885;
and H. Kern, Der Buddhisrnus u. seme Geschichte in Indien.
Leipz. 1885.

P. 51 n.— See Buddhist Records of the Western World, translated by
S. Beal. 2 vols. 1885.

P. 52. — The best account of the Essenes is in the appendices to Lightfoot's
Colossians, strangely neglected by German inquirers as Lucius.

P. 58. — The special literature on Simon Magus is rather large.

Mosheim.- — De uno Simone Mago in his Dissert, ad hist. eccl.

pert. 2nd ed. vol. ii. Alton. 1767.
A. Simson. — Lebtn und Lehre Simon Magiers in Zt. f. hist.

Theol. 1841.

F. Huelsen. — Simonis Magi vita doctrinaque. Berl. 1868. [Progr.]
A. Hilgenfehl.— Der Magier Simon in Zt. f. wiss. Theol. 1868,

pp. 357-D6.

R. A. Lipsius. — Die Quellen d. romischen Petrussage. Kiel, 1872.
W. Moller in Herzog-Plitt, 1884, t. xii. pp. 246-56.
On the alleged statue of Simon see A. van Dale, De statua
Simonis Magi. Amst. 1700 ; and Corp. Ins. Lat. vi. 1.

P. 70. — On Basilides besides the Disputatio in Zacagni, Collect.

monument, veter. see
Uhlhorn. — System des Basilides. 1855.
Baur in his Theol. Jahrh. 1856.
Ilofstede de Groot. — Basilides als erste Zeuge f. neutestament

Schriften [translated from Dutch]. 1868.

J. L. Jacobi. — Ueber d. ursprungl. Basilid. System in Zt. f.
Kirchengesch. 1877 ; p. 493 ff.

P. 82.' — Besides the Ophite Textbook ' Pistis Sophia ' mentioned above,
the special treatments are to be found iii

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. 453

Moshcim. — Gesch. d. Schlanyenlriider. Hclmst. 1746-8.

A. Fuldner.— De Ophitis. Hint. 1834.

Lipsius.— Ucber de ophit. System in Zt.f. wiss. TheoL 1863-4.

F. Giraud. — Ophitse, dissertatio historico-theoloyica de eorwn

origine placitis ac fails. Paris, 1884 [best modern work].
P. 104. — On the Egyptian Pantheon see Lipsius, Der Gotterkreis d. alien
Aegypter. Berlin Academy, 1851, and Tiele 1. c., § 29. Their
representation in art best given in Perrot-Chipiez, Ilistoire de VArt
dans VAntiquiie — Eyypte (also English translation, 1884). Mas-
pero, Archeoloyie eyyptienne. 1887.

PART II. — WORSHIP OF MITHRAS AND SERAPIS, pp. 115 seq.

THE interesting problems that have collected about the worship of
Mithras have been dealt with in the following special works : —

Sainte-Croix. — Eecherches critiques sur les mysteres du payanisme.

Paris, 1817.

Seel. — Die Mithras Geheimnisse. 1823.
Hammer. — Mithriaka. Vienna, 1834.
Creuzcr.— Das Mithreum. Heidelb. 1838.
Lajard. — Recherches sur le culte public et les mysteres de Mithra. Paris,

1847-8.

Windis-chmann. — Mithra. 1857.

Shrines of Mithras are described by J. Hodgson in Eliena Archeoloyie
i. 274-320, who gives the earlier literature, and by Stark, Zwei
Mithrxen d. yrossherzoyl. Alterthumersammluny in Karlsruhe. 18G4.
P. 116. — On the Persian relations of Mithraicism see Burnouf, Sur le

Yacna.
P. 117.— For another etymology see G. Barzilai, Gil Abraxas, studeo

archeoloyico. Trieste, 1873.
P. 119. — This view of the origin of Christmas was first enunciated by

Wernsdorf, De oriyine solemnium JNatalls Christi ex fesHvitate

Natalis Jnvicti, Wittenb. 1757 ; he is followed by Jablonsky

in his Opuscula, Amst. 1809, vol. iii. p. 351 seq., who argues that

the Bas-ilidans caused the adoption (p. 361).
P. 120. — The latest monograph on the Sadducees and Pharisees is that

of E. Montet, Essai sur les oriyines des partis sadduceens et

phariseens. Paris, 1883. A full bibliography at end of Seiffert's

article Sadducaer in Herzog-Plitt.

P. 129. — Flam. Vacca in Nordiui, lioma Antiqua, pt. iv. 1771.
P. 137. — On contemporary Parsees, T. D. F. Karaka, History of the

Parsis, 2 vols. 1885.
P. 139. — Caste-marks of modern Hindoos are given in Sir G. Birdwood's

Industrial Arts of India. 1880 (plate M).
P. 153. — On penances in general, the exhaustive work of F. W. H.

454 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.

Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnuwjen der abendlcindiscJien Kirche.

Halle, 1851. On those of the Brahmins, Sir M. Williams, Modern

India

PP. 158 seq. — See bibliog. note on p. 104.
P. 174. — The mitre is unknown in the Eastern Church; v. Hefcle,

Beitrdye z. Kirchenyeschichte, t. ii.

P. 179. — llcfcrencc may be made here to Lessing's well-known essay.
P. 105. — The latest study of the jettatura is, I am informed by Mr.

Nutt, a series of articles, La Fascination, by Tuchmann in

Melusine. 1885-7.

PART III.— THE AGATHOD^EMON WORSHIP AND THE ABRAXAS
GEMS, pp. 215 seq.

P. 217. — On serpent worship comp. introductory essay to Ferguson,

Tree and Serpent Worship, second ed. 1873. Among Semites,

Baudissin, Studien zur seiuit. Religionsgeschichte I. § iv.
P. 226. — J. Bellermaun, Ueber die Gemmen der Alien mit dem

Abmxaslihle. Stuck 1-3. Berl. 1818, 19, 20.
P. 230. — This formed the subject of a monograph by F. X. Krans,

Das Spotter ucifix. Freib. 1872. V. cut on p. 279 here.
P, 251. — Vide Barzilai's tract quoted in bibliog. note on p. 117.
P. 254. — On the age of this " Gcmatria " see J. Gow, Hist, of Greek

Mathematics, p. 44.

P. 259. — For bibliography of Basilides see note on p. 70.
P. 203. — On Vjileiitmtis, G. Henrici, Die Valentinische Gnosis und die

Ifeiliye Schrift. Berl. 1871.
P. 279. — On the fig. see monograph referred to in bibliog. note on

p. 230.
P. 281. — The 99 epithets of God in Islam form the subject of E. Arnold's

poem, Pearls of the Faith. 1882.

P. 281 n.— Levy, Gemmen und Sieyel. 18G9, p. 47-9 and Taf. iii.
P. 284. — Die Seherin von Prevorst was published 1866, and translated

into almost all European languages.

PART IV. — TEE FIGURED MONUMENTS OF GNOSTICISM, pp. 305 seq.

GNOSTIC gems have long attracted the attention of antiquarians, their
separate investigation beginning with

Macarius. — [Hcureux] Abraxas sen Apistopistis. Ant. 1657 ; with
appendix by Chifflet. [Plates included in Gorkcaus, Dactyliotheca,
3rd edit. Leyd. 1695.]

Kirchmann. — De annulis. 1657, c. xxi.

Montfaucon. — UAntiquite expliquue. Paris, 1722; vol. ii. livre iii.
Li>s Abraxas, pp. 353 seq. Supp. vol. ii. 1724, pp. 209 seq.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. 455

Gori. — Thesaurus gemmarum astriferarum. Florence, 1750, fol.

[includes essay by Passeri, De gemmis Basilidianis].
Marrette. — Traite des pierres gravecs. 1750. 11.08-73.
F. Miinter. — Versuch uber d. Kirchlichen Alttrthumer der Onostiker.

1790.

Bellerman.— Vide bibliog. note to p. 226 [only vignettes on title pages].
Kopp.—Palieographia critica. 1819-29 ; 4 vols. [third and fourth on

Abraxas].

Matter.— Ilistoire du gnosticisme. 1828. [2nd ed'tion, 1843.]
Hammer. — Deux coffrets gnostiques du nioyen age. 1832.
Stickel. — De gemma Abraxea nondum edita. 1842.
Matter. — Voyage gnostique en Italie. 1852.

King. — The Gnostics and their remains, ancient and medixval.
London, 1864. [First edition of present work including all the

gems in the preceding and more also : 13 plates and 27 woodcuts.]
No collection of consequence has been made or published since 1864
till the present volume.

p. 309. — On IAQ see Graf v. Baudissin's elaborate essay "Der

Ursprung des Gottesnamens 'la'co " in his Studien zur semitischen

Jteligionsgeschichte, 1873, pp. 181-254. On the name itself cf. S. H.

Driver, Recent Theories on the Origin and Nature of the Tetra-

grammaton in Studio, Billica. 1885, pp. 1-20.
p. 370. — On the apices of Boethius considerable discussion has arisen.

Woepcke, in Jour. Asiat. 1863, p. 54, traces them from India;

T. H. Martin, Annali di matem. 1863, p. 350, from Egypt;

while Friedlein, Zahlzeichen, pp. 15-19, &c., and Weissenborn in

Zt. Math. 1'hys., 1879, declare the passage in Boethius to be a

forgery. See Grow, Hist. Greek Math., p. 38.
P. 372.— On magic squares treated mathematically, see DC Morgan in

English Cyclopaedia, sub. voce. sect. Arts and Sciences, vol. v.

col. 415.

PART V. — TEMPLARS, EOSICRUCIAXS, FREEMASONS.

ON the TEMPLARS the most complete history is still that of Dupin,
Ilistoire de I'ordre militaire des Templiers. Bruxellcs, 1751. On their
mysteries, Loiseleur, La doctrine secrete des Templiers. Orleans, 1872.
And the trials, Michelet, 7 Voces des Templiers. 1871. The statutes
contained in Memlorf, Geheimstatuten des Ordens der Tempelherren,
Halle, 1877, have been shown to be fictitious by 11. G-. Prtitz, Geheimlehre
und Geheimstatut' n des Tempelherren Ordens. Bed. 1879. See also
F. Schottmiiller, Der Untergaug des Templer-Ordeus, nut urkundlichen
Beitragen. 2 vols. 1887. '

On the PVOSICRUCIANS the earlier literature is given in W. v. Murr,
JJeber d. wahren Ur sprung d. llosenkreuzer. See also Buhle, Ur sprung
und vornehmste Scliicksale d. Orden d. Freimaurer und llosenkreuzer ,
1810 ; and Kliipfel, sub voc. in tlerzog-l'litt. On the origin of Freemasonry,

456

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.

full references in II. F. Gould's huge and uncritical History of Free
masonry, vol. i. 1884.

P. 393ft. — A third edition in two vols. appeared in 1887.
P. 409. — On the influence of these Manichaean sects in spreading
Eastern folklore through Europe, see M. Caster, Greeko- Slavonic
literature. 1887.

P. 410.— Assemblies of Al Hariri, translated by T. Chenery, vol. i.
18(57 ; and Riickcrt's remarkable translation, Dd Verwandlunyen
des Abu &eid.

INDEX.

A. A. A., Kabalistic, 109
ABAANA0ANAABA, 246, 317
Abdullah, the Magian, 412
Abgarus, Christ's letter to, 317
ABRACADABRA, origin of, 310
Abraxas as Phoebus, 103

, explained, 117

— , the Sun-god, 117

, etymology of, 251

Religion, 257

Religion defined, 257

, meaning of, 259

, curious type of, 328

figure, first mention of, 111

gems, the true, 2-45

gem-legends, 247

gems, how used, 274

gems, materials and art of, 274

god, described, 250

Abraxaster-gems, 226
Abraxoids, 237
Abraham, statue of, 161
Abrak, the Mystery of, 317
Achamoth, Wisdom, 330
Achoreus, 322
Adad, the Sun, 161
Adam, Book of, 4, 415

Kadmon, 34

Kadmon typified, 233

Added talisman ic legends, 277
Adonai, Adonis, 296
Adoneus, ' the Invisible,' 297
A.E.I.O.U., Austrian version of, 234
./Eneas, his funeral sacrifice, 367
./Eons, Simon's, 67

, whence derived, 260

, list of the, 263

, male and female, 263

• , seals and numbers of the, 331

, addresses of the Soul to the, 332

, pictures of the, 363

./Esculapius, 177

, the Sun, 177

Agatliodsomon Serpent, 215

AGATHODXEMON, legend, 216
Agathodaomou gems, examples, 296
Ahriman, Evil, 132
Akbar, his religion, 416
Alabarches, 27
Albigenses, their creed, 340

— , last traces of the, 399
Alexamenos, graffito of, 230
Alexandria, the Scrapis of, 159
Allah, sigla for, 10
Alleius Caronius, spell of, 223
Alphabetical names, 311
' Amen,' why used in prayer, 267
Amenti, the Four, 106
AMHN, the Three, 147
Ammian, upon the Magi, 272
Amor, how adopted, 234
Amshaspands, the Seven, 140
Amyclae, Apollo of, 298
Andrese, and the Rosy Cross, 394
Andrew, Revelation to St., 341
Angel- worship, 344
Angels' Names, talisman, 193

— , planetary, 344
Antigonus Gonatas, his treaty with

Asoka, 51
Anubis, with two faces, 110

— , with triple head, 293

— -Christus, 230

Christus, figure of, 279

- -Typhon, 302

Apis-bulls, catacombs of the, 164
Apollo, with talismanic legend, 302
Apollonius of Tyana, 53
Apsetlms and the parrots, 58
Apuleius, 110

-, ' De Magia,' 283

Arabic terms in medieval arf, 418
Archon, the Second, 77
, Demiurgus, 81

' Archons of the Great Fate,' 352
Aristotle, copied by Basilides, 70
Ark of the Covenant, 7
Artemis of Pallene, 167

458

INDEX.

Arthur's Oon, 136
A.S. the Rosicrucian, 315
Asceticism, why enjoined, 419
Asoka's Edicts, 51
Assassins, the sect of, 410

• , their Degrees, ib.

, grades of, 411

* Assembly,' Masonic, 378
Ass-headed deity, 230
Astrology, in Rome, 227
Assumption of deities' forms, 3G5
Athelstan, first Saxon builder, 383
Athelstans' Constitutions, 381
AHONONOMA, gem-legend, 172
Augustine, a Manichsean. 48
AUM, symbolism of, 266

or OM,266

• , virtues of its use, 267

, type of the Trinity, 320

Avila, bishopric of, 339
' Ax6ava.pd<>, place of torment, 355
BABYLONIAN characters used in talis
mans, 3G8

Salylonii numeri, 368-69
Bacchic serpent, 323
Bacchus, the sun-god, 322

, god of the Jews, 323

Bacon's ' House of Wisdom,' 398
Balsamus, Barbclus, 259
Balaam's sacrifices, 442
Bambino, il santissimo, 33 G
4 Baphomet ' of the Templars, 235
Baphometic figures, 403

Tablets, 383

' Baphometicum Mysterium,' 128
Barbelo, 259

• , ' Mother of the Saviour,' 333

Barruel, upon the Illuminati, 425, 426
Basilides, his system, 70, 257
Basilidau doctrine defined, 258
Bath, scroll found at, 300
B. C. D. L. M. N. S., 402
Belenus, 136

• , Gallic Sun-god, 136

Betulns, thunderbolt, 2JO
'Birth of the New Sun,' 366
'Birthday of Mithras,' 119
Blood-offerings to ghosts, 165
Bocthius' Arithmetic, 370
' Bolorjna, Scavi presso,' 428
Bouillon, Cardinal, 362
Boundary Spirit, the, 76
' Spirit,' Deus Terminus, 299

Boundless Power, 59

Bouteilles cemetery, 371

Brachmans, origin of, 272

Brandmarks, Mithraic, 139

Brazen Serpent, the, 218

— Serpent ' whence derived, 3

• Bringer of luck, the,' 85

Bromius, how figured, 132

' Brother,' Masonic, 378

Buddha Gaya, inscription at, 269

Buddha's Foot, 270, 271

Buddhism described, 49

Buddhist missions, 51

symbols, 389

influence on Gnosticism, 390

Bulgarians, the sect, 409

Bull, Mithraic, 132

« Bulletin Monumental,' on Masons*
Marks, 383

Bulls, mummies of, 164

Burying-alive, penance, 154

Byzantine Gorgon-amulets, 169

CABIRT, copper of the, 89

Caducous, its symbolism, 176

Camillus Leonardi, 338

Capricorn, 183

, bearer of souls, 183

Carbonari, their origin, 391

Carnarvon, gold plaque found at, 339

Caste-marks, and various siylx ex
plained, 13, 14

diffusion of, 386

Catalogues of Gnostic gems, 278

Cave of Mithras, 136

Chain, Magic, 362

Chalice, Mithraic, 126

Cliarun, the Etruscan, 182, 187

Ceraunia, talismanic, 197

Chest-protector, 223

Chiflet's talisman, 290

Childeric, Tomb of, 194

Chinese symbols, 391

Christ, identified with Serapis, 161

Christ's person described, 162

Christmas day, how fixed, 120

Chrysocheir of Tephrice, 412

' Chnumis,' various spellings of, 216

Chnuphis, with mystic numeral, 340

gem-legends, 243

' Circle of the Sun,' 300

Clemens Alexandriuus, 257

Clemens and Basilides, 257

' Cleopatra, Death of,' 18i

INDEX.

459

Cnidus, Temple at, SCO
Cochct, abbe, 371
Colic, amulet for the, 367
Collar of SS, its origin, 219

* College of Arabian Snges,' 394
Colossus of different metals, 1G3
Constancy, emblem of, 220

* Constitutiones Artis Geometricae,' 377
Continence, meritorious, 334, 335

* Corax ' of Mithras, 120
Cow, typo of Isis, 110

* Counterfeit of the Spirit,' 38
Crescent and seven stars, 318
Cross, Sign of the, 276
Crown of Mithras, 128
Crusades, their effect, 418
Cursing by the Name, 444

« Psalm,' the, 360

Cynocephalus, 108

Cypher of the Illuminati, 425

Cypselus, Coffer of, 183

A.A.A., 199

Aai/j-wv, Novs, Vvx'h', 347

AAMNAMENEYC, 198

Dante's allotment of Heaven, 345

Dante's Cliaron, 188

Death, antique type of, 179

• , extinction of, 335

, Grecian types of, 188

, in ancient art, 179

« , Spiritual,' what, 180

Decline, gems of the, 274

Deities represented by numerals, 307

Delphic E, the, 297

Demiurgus, how baffled, 330

' , doing the work of the,' 334

Demons, Kabbalistic, 36

Do Quiucy, on the Eosicrucians, 393

Destructive Principle, 167

Deva, her symbol, 301

Devils, casting out of, 259

, their various shapes, 357

Dextrx : Fede, 336
Diagramma of the Ophites, 332
AIKAIOZ, on a gem, 129
Dionysiac symbols in vase-painting,

427

Dis, the Roman, 187
Dis-pater, of Gaul, 164
Divining-rods of the Magi, 307
Docetae, illusionists, 261

, typical, 109

, of the Parse cs, 137

* Domine quo vadis,' Church of, 271

Donati, Ollati, 412

Donatist Confession of Faith, 316

Donner-keil, strahl-pfeil, 205

Draco, type of ' The good and Perfect

Serpent,' 289.

' Dragon of the Outer Darkness,' 358
Dragon shaped, lion-shaped, demons,

357

Dream-bringing demons, 70
Dreams, caused by magic, 40

— , sold by Jews, 221
Druidical religion, 422

stone, with Caste-marks, 387

Druidism, invented in Britain, 421
Druids, put down by Tiberius, 421
Druses of Lebanon, 413
Dualism, Hindoo, 264

of deities, 204

Dolcino Fra, and Margarita, 68
Durya, of the Indians, 260

D-V.X., 256
' E DELPHICOI,' 297
Egg of the World, 367
Egyptian deities, list of, 105

sacred animals, 107

' Gospel of the,' 335

EICZETC CAPAniC, 327
Eleazar, drives out devils, 280
Elements, Angels of the, 39
, toons of the, 262

Elephanta, rock-temple of, 427

Elias, legend of, 334

Emanation, doctrine of, 92

' Emanations,' the Busilidau, 259

, doctrine of, 259

, the Five, their Coptic names, 313

Einesa, Temple of, 154

Enipedocles quoted, 61

Enoch, Book of, 18
— , or the " Name," 253

Epiphanius, 13

Ephcsus, School of, 7

' Ephesian Spell, The,' ib.

Epoptas, the Masonic, 426

Esoteric Mohammedanism, 415

Essenes, origin of the, 51

Evil Eye, talisman for, 256

, theory of the, 195

Spirits, origin of, 439

Eye-covered figure, 403

FABLES, Gnostic love of, 257

Faculties, whence derived, 346

460

INDEX.

Fakir, badge of a, 390
Fate, office of, 350
Ferdinand of Naples, 392
Fermesse, emblem of, 219
* Fifteen Points,' Masonic, 379
• Fire, amulet against, 422

the First Principle, 69

Five, the sacred number, 299

' words ' on the vesture of Jesus,

308
Foot, carved on stone, 185

' , the divine,' 270

, winged, 271

Formulae, Gnostic, 280

— , purpose of, 329
Forty-two a sacred number, 442
' Free and accepted,' 385
Freemasonry, antiquity of, 375
, first established, 391

— , pretender founder of, 376
' Free-masons,' the real, 386
Freemasons, true origin of title, 391
Frog and serpent, symbolical, 36
Future punishments, 356
Fylfot, Swastika, 389
' GABES, the book of,' 343
Galen, upon the jasper, 219

, upon demoniacal possession, 280

Gallic brand-marks, 428

coins with Tribal marks, 429

Garnet talisman, 289

' Gate of the Gods,' 346

Gaul, Gnosticism in, 338

Gayatris, quoted, 268

Geomancy, Arab, 305

Geometrical symbols for deities, 307

' Genealogy of Mary,' 231

Germanicus, bewitched, 358

Gitteh, 21

Gnosis, machinery of the, 104

, the Jewish, 4

, true aim of the, 333

Gnostic gems, lists of, 278

— symbolism, preservation of, 375
Guosticised types, 277
Gnosticism, beginnings of, 21

, wide diffusion of, 337

Godhead, how constituted, 39

God's name, how expressed by the

Egyptians, 319
Gold plaque, Carnarvon, 339
' Good one, the,' 354
Gorgon, an amuiet, 169

Gorgon, original type of, 167

— , type of Death, 18
Gracchus destroys Cave of Mithras, 126
' Great Names,' the, 308
Gustavus Adolphus, chymic gold coins

of, 396

Ha-Brachali, ' Abraxas,' 251
Hadrian, upon Serapis, 161
Harpies and Syrens, 189
Harpy, on tombs, 188
Heavens, the, 259, 365
Hebdomad of Basilides, 81
Hebrew terms used by Christians, 125

words, false use of, 88

words, use of, 285

Hecate, how invoked, 281
Helena, ' the Lost Sheep,' 68

, made an idol, 70

Heliodorus, upon the Evil Eye, 195
Heliogabalus, 119

— , magic practices of, 226
Hell, description of, 356

— , gods of, 170
' Helmet of Adoneus,' 296

— of Hades,' 186

Henry in. employs Italian artists, 384
Henry vi. on Freemasonry, 376
Heracleonite passport to the moribund,

329

Hiero prohibits human sacrifices, 417
Hindoo deities, 264

— dualistic deities, 264

— symbols explained, 388
Hippolytus, on Basilides, 257

— , his Treatise, 11
Historians of Gnosticism, 11
' Holy Name,' Basilidan, 259
Homer, Ophite explanation of, 86
Hoop, type of Time, 179
Horapollo's ' Interpretation,' 108
Horse, symbolic, 185
Horua or Moses, 322

, how adopted, 232

Hosea Lux, mystic book of, 397
Hours, Genii of the, 366
Human sacrifices, 226

— , Druidical, 421
IAO, his various titles, 326
lao, the Lunar Genius, 332
Jaos, Autumnal Sun, 321
I AQ, the name explained, 319
Ibis, type of Moon, 107
Idea, the Platonic, 34

INDEX.

461

Idol-worship, Gnostic, 70

Idols, wooden, of primitive Greece, 1G7

CIY the Primal Man, 351

Ignorance, the god of, 261

I H COVC, numerical value of, 255

Ildabaoth, demon, 357

— , son of Darkness, 37
Uluminati, grades of the, 425
Imprecations fixed on Temple-walls,

360

Incubi and Succubse, 334
India, her connexion with Greece, 271

— , her influence upon Egypt, 320

— , primitive religion of, 272

, source of the Magi, 272

visited by Greeks, 53

Indian sources of Gnosticism, 42
Ineffable Name, the, 266

Name, Hindoo, 266

Name, origin of, 320

— One, Mystery of the, 148
Infant sacrifice, 334
Infernal powers depicted, 364
Initiated, brand-marking of the, 139
Initiation, tests at, 421
Inner Man, the, 38
Innsbruck Tablet, the, 127
Inscriptions, Abraxas, 248-9

— , Gnostic, 248-9
Inserted legends, 327
Intelligences, Simon's, 67
' Invisible Gods, the,' 289
Invocation of Names, 310
loh, the Moon, 324
Irenseus, 11
Isiac Procession, 111

Symbols, ib.

Isis, symbol held by, 301

Italian masons, mediaeval, 384

Iva, god of thunder, 175

ITANTA, 198

Izeds, Zoroastrian, 132

JAMBUES, magician, 40

James i. of Scotland, Act concerning

Masons, 371

Jasper, virtue of, 219, 222
Jerome, on Basilides, 259

, on Spanish Gnosticism, 339

to Lc-cta, 126

Jersey, Gallic coins of, 429
Jerusalem, visited by Scythicus, 44
Jesus, his invocation, 285
, ineffable origin of, 255

Jewish badge, 388

influence at Rome, 27

Magicians, 40

Joan of Navarre, 220
Jovis Axur, 278
Judaism, origin of, 28
Justice, symbol of, 110
Justinian's persecution, 340
Justin Martyr on Mithras, 122
KABBALA, real source of the, 3

— , and Talmud, 33
Kabbalistic cyphers, 199

- titles, 287
Kali Bhavani, 167
Karamala, Psychopompos, 16G
Kauldkauch, 262
Kavlacav, 88

Kef Mariam, Agnuscastus, 369
' Kells, Book of,' 430
Kerner, on talismans, 205
Kerner's division of the Soul, 348
Kingdoms of Nature, 98
Kircher's Leaden Book, 362
Klippoth, demons, 36
Knocker, Masonic, 403

* Knot of Hercules,' 176
Eosti, Zoroastrian 401
Kronos, abode of, 241

, how figured, 240

Krjp, how figured, 100

* LADY, the Great,' 307
Lump, spoil made to the, 223
Language of Gnostic legends, 282
Lapo, il Tedesco, 384

Larva, 181

, ghost, 181

Lat, the Hindoo, 298
Lantef, Temple of, 422
Leaden Books, 362

scrolls, magical, 358

Lebanon, sects of the, 340
Legends, translations of, 311
' Leonticus,' ' Coracicus,' 126
Lessing, on Freemasonry, 422
Lettering of legends, 276
Letters, composing a female form, 288
Life, possible duration of, 221
Light, Empire of, 8

* _I _ of lights,' 293

— , The Divine, 81
— , Place of,' 350
Lines and dots on gems, 305
Lion, typical, 109

462

INDEX.

Lion, form of Bacchus, 131

headed man, 131

Litanies of the dead, 331
Lizard, type of Logos, 107
Lodge, ceremonies at the, 382

' ,' Masonic, 380

' of St. Thcodosius,' 424

* , the Scottish,' 425

' , Templars/ 413

' Logos,' emanation of the, 2G1

, Nous, Sophia, 261

-, version of Shem, 288

« Lord of Light,' 47
Lots of the Kingdom, 153
Lotus, explained, 174
' Love, Perfect,' 69
Lower world, Euler of, 97
Lucan's Gods of Hell, 170
Lucian's Philopatris, 184

— ' Toxaris,' 53
Lingam-yoni, the, 112
Lunus dcus, 324

Lydney, leaden scrolls found at, 361
MACROBIUS, on TEsculapius, 177

, on Serapis, 159

• , on the descent of the Soul, 346

Magdalene, discourse of the, 150
Magi, General Council of, 49

, their origin, 273

Magic, cultivated in Britain, 421

, the founders of, 40

, founders of, 221

chain, to make a, 362

' Papyrus,' spell from the, 242,

282

May tone, Masson, Massoney, a Tem
plars' Lodge, 413

Makam-at, of Hariri, 416

Mandaites, 4
— , the, 415

Manenti, inscription at Villa, 361

Manes, history of, 46

• , his use of Palmyrene alphabet,

370

Mauicheism, 156, 157

, elements of, 47

, how diffused over Europe, 409

, why successful, 420

Manicheists, persecuted by Justinian,
408

MAPOOHNI, talisman, 313

Marcus, ' Revelation ' of, 286

Maria Honorii, 191

Marini, scrolls found at Villa, 366
Marks of owners', Gallic, 428
Maroni, abbe, 425

Mary Magdalene, on the use of talis
mans, 332

, Revelation to, 349

, the Heavenly, 141

' Masonic Grip,' 337

rules, genuine, 379

secrecy, 380

signs, origin of, 427

Masonry, genuine rules of, 377
Masons' Marks, origin of, 385
Matter, to be renounced, 356

's theory, 326

Maya, illusion, 261

Medicinal talismans, 328

' Mercia, the Lady of,' 383

* Merchants of the Staple,' their Marks,

385

Meru, Mount, 42
Mete, Von Hammer's, 404
Metempsychosis, 355
Middle space, the, 102

, archon of the, 353

' ,' the Platonic, 347

— , lao, Ruler of the, 325
Missa, derived, 125
Mithraic bronze ticket, 9

Cave, discovery of a, 131

Degrees, the, 127

monuments, 115

Sacraments, 122

remains in the West, 422

Mithras, bought with blood, 122
, how figured, 133.

- identified with Christ, 119

— , Zoroaster's, 116
Mobed, insignia of a, 10
Modern forgeries, 275
Molochites, green jasper, 275
Montfaucon, 365
Moon, absorber of souls, 347

, Egyptian idea of the, 324

, how lighted, 48

— , type of, 107

Moor's ' Hindoo Pantheon,' 267
Moses, magician, 221
Mylitta, 155
' Mysteries, the,' 145

— , benefit of the, 352

— , explanation of the, 89
Mystery of the First Court, 352

INDEX.

463

' Mystery, the First,' 342

Mystic Names, Invocation by, 285

Nans, the element Water, 224

, worship of the, 101

Naaseni, their celestial hierarchy, 309

, Ophites, 101

« Nabis ' on gem, 244

« Name,' power of the, 201

, virtue of the, 253

Names, expressed by numerals, 254

, spells made up of Holy, 281

of God, how made up, 286

Nushirwan protects Philosophers, 56
Nature, Active and Passive, symbolized,

112

Navel, ' Circle of the Sun,' 363
Nebuchadnezzar, 382
Nebuchadnezzar's ' Image,' whence

derived, 163
Nechepsos, King, 216
Neutra, Eabbi of, plate K, 4

* New Name,' a, 129
Newton Stone, the, 386
Nicocreon, 160

« Nile,' derivation of, 320

* Ninety-nine Names of God,' 231
« No-being God, The,' 75
Nodens, Temple of Deus, 361

* Nothing,' of Basilides, 72
Numbers of the Names, 287
Numerals, sacred, 10, 369

— , standing for deities, 307, 368
Numerical forces, 254
O. O. O. 199
Oath of Artaxerxes, 116
Obsidian arrow-heads, 203
' Ocean ' of the Ophites, 87
Ogdoad of Basilides, 84
' Old Man of the Mountain,' 418
' Old Man's Head,' Baphometic idol,

404
' Omestes ' Dionysos, human sacrifice

to, 168

Omphalos of Delphi, 298
ONOKOIHTHZ, 230
Ophiuchus, 98, 237
Ophite doctrine of the First Principle*

224

theogony, 309

Ophites, 12

— , hymn of the, 92

, their ' perfect sacrifice,' 323

, their system, 82, 92

Ophites, Schema of the, 332, 342
Or, The Divine Light, 35
Oracle of the Clarian Apollo, 321
Orcus, 189

, the demon, 356

, typified, 182

Orai, Venus, 332
Origen, 12

, on Gnostic deities, 325

Orites, 209

Orleans, Paulicians of, 410

Ormuzd, Good, 132

Orpheus, on mystic Names, 284

, Mysteries of, 401

Osiris, Lord of the West, 188

'Osor-Apis,' 164

Osthanes, magician, 421

Outer Darkness, the, 357

Ovid's * Ibis,' 181

PALMYRENE alphabet, 370

Pantheism of Manes, 48

Pantheism of the Manicheans, 156

' Papyrus, the Magic,' 223

Parca, how personified, 190

Parvati, origin of Isis, 171

' Passover, the perfect,' 334

Passport, for the next world, 329

Paulicians, sect of, 409

Pegasus, badge of the Templars, 420

Penances, Hindoo, 153

* Peratai,' sect, 225

Persea-plum, 301

Perugia, Mithraic Cave at, 132

' Peter Gower,' Pythagoras, 376

Petraces, talismanic gem, 299

Petrus, civis Romanus, 384

Phanaces, Sun-god, 116, 140

Philip, Gospel of, 333

Phoenician deities, 240

Phocius, on the Bxtylus, 207

Pictish tattoo-marks, 420

Pilate's letter to Lcntulus, 162

Pile Cinq-Mars, the, 429

' Pistis-Sophia,' analysis of, 14

, analysis of the soul, 349

, celestial hierarchy, 239

, doctrine of the Sacraments,

141

— , Kabbalistic names of deities,

311

— , Theogony of the, 341
— , Types explained, 233
Plague, amulet against, 317

464

INDEX.

Planetary genii, Gnostic gods, 325
Planets, mystic names of the, 309
Pleroma, defined, 245
Pluto, how figured, 186
Pluto, Plutus, 186
Potentiality and Activity, 65
Powers, figures of the, 343

, invocations to the, 343

, names of the, 198

Praun Cabinet, gems in the, 292

Prayer of the Saviour, 289

Priscillian, 338, 406

Procopius, 340

Propagation of species why prohibited,

419

Proserpine, Eape of, 187
nTEpdtyopos, Egyptian priest, 315
Ptolemy iv., 158
Punch, council of five, 299
Punic language, late use of, 283
Pythagoras, his Four Books, 43

, studies in Egypt, 287

, source of his system, 12

Pythagorean Numerals, 370

— symbols for Deities, 307
QUAKRELSOMENESS, Christian, 394
Quaternion, the Basilidau, 261
Quatuor Coronati, 381
Queen of the dead, 184
Quietism, Indolentia, 344
Quinternion, the Basilidan, 262
RADICALS, Simon's Sis, 61
Raspe's remarks on Gnostic symbolism,

291

' Receivers of Light,' 354
Recognition by signs, 337
Regeneration typified, 233
Ring, Magic, to make a, 243
Rosicrucian ceremonies, 396

symbolical pictures, 397

Rosicrucians, their object, 393

Round Churches, 402

Rudolf ii. patronises alchemists, 408

Runic legend on a talisman, 11

S.S.S. on bar, 218

Sacred animals of Egypt, 108

Sacrifice, the True, 225

Sacti, female Power, 264

Salagrama, 209

Samaritan legends, 316

Samothracian Mysteries, 89

Saugraal, quest of the, 405

Sanscrit names in Egypt, 265, 320

Satan, his real character, 441

' Saturn,' sons of, 422

Saturninus, 260

Sayce, Professor, 368

' Scottish Knight,' costume and cere
monies of the, 426

Scythicus, precursor of Manes, 43

Seal used by Christ, 317

Seals of the /Eons, 331

' Seed of the World,' 73

Seele, Nerven-geist, Geist, 348

Seffrid, ring of, 338

' Seherin von Prevorst,' 284

' Self-collection,' continence, 334

CeMeceiAAM, explained, 222, 326

Sepheroth, the, 35

Sepoy Mutiny, 125

Serapeum, when destroyed, 164

Serapion, Aganaric, 164

Serapis, 158
— , Foot, attribute of, 271

, gems referring to, 172

, how figured, 159

, introduction of, 158

, type of the Universe, 321

and Agathodaemon combined, 358

Serenus Sammonicus, 220, 316

Serpent, kept in an ark, 323

, guardian of tomb, 367

, guide of souls, 368

Servatius, seal of saint, 57

Seven-branched candlestick, 388

Seven vowels, mystery of the, 201

Severus Alexander, his worship, 16, 227

Siglx, standing for deities, 10

« Sign of Life,' 366

Signs and Passwords, Masonic, 384

Simon Magus, history of, 58

Simon's Four Books, 64

Sin, Assyrian Moon-god, 324

Sin, the cause of, 349

Sins to be renounced, 356

Skeleton, larva, 181

Sleep and Death, typified, 183

Solar symbols explained, 155

' Soli Invicto Comiti,' 222

Salome's question to the Lord, 335

Solomon's Seal, 388, 423

' Sons of the prophets,' 273

Sortes Antiates, 305

Soul, change of shape in the, 346

, how constituted, 37

, planetary origin of the, 344

INDEX.

465

Soul, Platonic division of the, 347
Souls, sent back into other bodies, 355
Spells, specimens of, 243
Sphinx, the Destroyer, ,327
Spiritual Man, the, 99
' - — ,' who, 414

' Men,' who, 225

' Spirits, Essay on,' 395

SpuJcen, its cause, 348

Square-cut letters, 27G

Sri-pa, Serapis, 105

' Sticks, asking counsel of,' 30G

Stone, tools of, 202

Stonehenge, Mason's mark at, 387

Stukeley's theory, 323

Sufi, the Persian, 414

Sun, invoked, 2C8

and Moon, their names used as

talismans, 283

-god, various types of, 322

Suttee, monument of a, 185

Swastika, mendicants' badge, 390

Symbol, Emblem, 336

Symbola of bronze, 338

Symbolic figures, expressing doctrines,

2G3

Symbolism, degradation of, 427
Symbols, transmission of, 423
Syrian influence on mediaeval Europe,

417

' TABOR, Light of,' 300
Talismanic conversions, 277
Talismans, material of, 275
Taraka's penances, 153
Tat and Sat, 267
Tau, the Egyptian, 102, 112, 403
Taurobolia, 154

Templars, accusations against, 401
, cause of their ruin, 420

— , grades of, 411

— , the Parisian, 399

— , suppression of, ib.
Temple-church, symbolism of the, 401
Ten, a sacred number, 369
Terbintlms, 46
Tertullian, 187
Tetragramrnaton, talismanic, 441

— ,319
Theogony, the grades in the Gnostic,

341

Theosebius, 259
Thales, doctrine of, 224

Thor's hammer, 206, 403
Thunderbolt, cell, 206
Tikkun, universal type, 34
Timothy, Epistle to, 7
Toleration, ancient, 417
Tomb of a Koman Empress, 192

— treasures, 191

Tombs, talismans found in, 371
Tortures, the Twelve, 127
Tower of Babel, 382

— of Silence, 137
Townley talisman, the, 290
Trades-union Rules, mediaeval, 383
Transposition of letters, 312
Trees, the Five, 147

Triad, Pentad, Heptad, how typified,

314

' Trial-piece,' 383
Triangle, Kosicrucian, 315
Trihasa, Cerberus, 166
Trinity, Egyptian, 321

— , the Hindoo, 2G9
Truth, how figured, 288

— , Revelation of, 286
UDDER-SHAPED BOWL, 111
Ulysses and the Syrens, 189
Ulysses' visit to Hades, 165
Uninitiated, their future state, 354
Universal Nature typified, 446

— • religion, idea of, 417
Universe, re-absorption of, 321

* , typified by Serapis, ICO

Uterine amulet, 300
VALENTINUS, 241

— , his system, 260
Valentinian Sacraments, 141
' Vultus Triforrnis,' 395
' Varan cs,' derived, 273
Vase, the Baphometic, 405
' Vase of Sins,' 111
Velaunii, 335
Venus Auadyomene, 287
Veruluinium, spells found at, 339

— , scrolls found at, 3GO
Vesture, the shining, of Jesus, 308
' Vibies abreptio,' 182
Victory-stones, Runic, 212
Vienna Cabinet, gems of the, 278
Virgil, on spells, 281
Virgil's 'Copa Syrisca,' 181
' Virgin of Light,' 351
Visconti's magic scroll, 358

2 H

466

INDEX.

Vishnu's Foot, 270

Von Hummer on Tortures, 128

's theory, 403

Vowels, the seven, 199

Vowels, shrouding the ' Great Name,'

315

WATER, the First Principle, 224
Weishaupt, Spartacus, 424
Westminster Hall, Masons' Marks at,

325

' White stone,' St. John's, 129
Winds, Hindoo, 265
'Winged Foot,' the, 185
' Wisdom of Egypt,' 278
' Wisdom of the Egyptians,' 437
' Wisdom,' the Power, 330
Wisdom, secret, G
Woes, denounced, 358
Wolf of Serapis, 160
Wood's Serapis, 312
* Word, the true,' 252
Words of power, 280
World, creation of, 132
Worlds, the four, 36

Wormenhert, specus at St. Albans, 423
Wren establishes Freemasonry, 391, 422
XERXES, Ethiopian troop of, 203

— , sacrifice of his nephews, 168
X.P.S. on coffer, 396
YAMA, Lord of Hell, 165

, and Serapis, 270

putra, Hades, 71

Yang, Chinese symbol, 391

Year, how typified, 179

Yellow jasper, talismanic, 132

Yoni, Hindoo, 111

York, Mitliraic Tablet at, 136

Z.Z.Z. on bar, 218

Zarmanes Chagan, 54

Zendavesta, analysis of the, 29

Zenodorus, his colossus of Mercury, 430

Zodiac, mystic sense of the, 346

Zodiacal gems, frequency of, 132

— Lords, 349
Zoroaster, a Bactriau, 272
Zoroastrian Angclology, 9

burial, 137

Zwacke, Cato, 424

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