[676]. The kings, according to a belief which was evidently very old in the time of the Pyramid-Builders, were supposed to possess immortality as being gods even in their lifetime. Later, the gift was extended to rulers of nomes and other rich men, and finally to all those who could purchase the spells that would assure it. In Maspero’s words “La vie d’au delà n’était pas un droit pour l’Égyptien: il pouvait la gagner par la vertu des formules et des pratiques, mais il pouvait aussi bien la perdre, et s’il était pauvre ou isolé, les chances étaient qu’il la perdit à bref délai” (op. cit. p. 174).
[677]. p. 254, Copt.
[678]. de Faye (Intro. etc. p. 110) shows clearly, not only that the aims and methods of the school of Valentinus changed materially after its founder’s death, but that it was only then that the Catholic Church perceived the danger of them, and set to work to combat them systematically.
[679]. To thinkers like Dean Inge (Christian Mysticism, 1899, p. 82) this was the natural and appointed end of Gnosticism, which according to him was “rotten before it was ripe.” “It presents,” he says, “all the features which we shall find to be characteristic of degenerate mysticism. Not to speak of its oscillations between fanatical austerities and scandalous licence, and its belief in magic and other absurdities, we seem, when we read Irenaeus’ description of a Valentinian heretic, to hear the voice of Luther venting his contempt upon some Geisterer of the sixteenth century.” It may be so; yet, after all, Gnosticism in its later developments lasted for a longer time than the doctrines of Luther have done, particularly in the land of their birth.
[680]. Cf. Maspero, Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, Eng. ed. 1892, pp. 90-92, for the distaste of the Egyptians of Ramesside times for the life of a soldier and their delight in that of a scribe.
[681]. All these, especially alchemy, are illustrated in the Magic Papyrus of Leyden known as W. See Leemans, Pap. Gr. t. II. pp. 83 sqq.
[682]. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. III. p. 214, Bury’s ed.
[683]. Renan, L’Église Chrétienne, pp. 154, 155, and authorities there quoted. Cf. Hatch, H. L. pp. 129, 130, 293, 307-309.
[684]. Harnack, What is Christianity? p. 210; Duchesne, Early Christian Church, p. 32.
[685]. [Chap. IX.] p. [118] supra.