[39]. Salmon’s position is set out by him in Hermathena, Dublin, 1885, pp. 389 sqq. For Stähelin’s, see his tractate Die Gnostische Quellen Hippolyts, Leipzig, 1890, in Harnack’s Texte und Untersuchungen. Both are skilfully summarized by de Faye in his Introduction à l’Étude du Gnosticisme, Paris, 1903, pp. 25 sqq.
[40]. De Faye does not accept Stähelin’s contention as to the forgery, but his conclusion as to the date is as stated in the text. See Introduction, etc. pp. 68, 71.
[41]. Tertullian, Scorpiace, c. 1.
[42]. Neander, Ch. Hist. (Eng. ed.), I. p. 208, quotes a case from St Augustine which I have not been able to verify.
[43]. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, II. p. 110 and note 144 (Bury’s ed.). For the search which the Christian emperors directed to be made for the heretics’ books, see Eusebius, Vita Constantini, Bk III. cc. 64, 65.
[44]. The actual transcription and translation were made by Maurice Schwartze, a young German who was sent over here to study the documents in the British Museum at the expense of the King of Prussia. He died after the completion of his task, and before the book could be printed.
[45]. Amélineau’s transcription and translation appeared in the Notices et Extraits, etc. of the Académie des Inscriptions, t. XXIX. pt 2 (Paris, 1891). He has also published a translation into French without text of the Pistis Sophia (Paris, 1895). Dr Carl Schmidt, of the University of Berlin, has published translations into German of both works under the title Koptisch-Gnostische Schriften, Bd I., Leipzig, 1905. None of these versions are entirely satisfactory, and it is much to be wished that an authoritative edition of the two works could be put forward by English scholars. The present writer gave a short history and analysis of them in the Scottish Review for 1893 under the title “Some Heretic Gospels.”
[46]. Clement was so far from being a heresiologist that he has not escaped the reproach of being himself a heretic. He repeatedly speaks in praise of the “true Gnostic,” meaning thereby the perfect Christian, and although this is probably a mere matter of words, it seems to have induced Photius in the IXth century to examine his writings with a jealous eye. The result was that, as M. Courdaveaux points out (R.H.R. 1892, p. 293 and note), he found him guilty of teaching that matter was eternal, the Son a simple creature of the Father, the Incarnation only an appearance, that man’s soul entered several bodies in succession, and that several worlds were created before that of Adam. All these are Gnostic opinions, and it may be that if we had all Clement’s books in our hands, as had Photius, we might confirm M. Courdaveaux’s judgment, as does apparently Mgr Duchesne. Cf. his Hist. of Christian Ch. pp. 244, 245.
[47]. Cf. A. C. McGiffert, Prolegomena to the Church History of Eusebius (Schaff and Wace’s Nicene Library), Oxford, 1890, vol. I. p. 179 and note.
[48]. Of the heresies mentioned in the Philosophumena only two, viz. that of Simon Magus and that of those whom Hippolytus calls the Sethiani, do not admit, either expressly or by implication, the divinity of Jesus. This may be accounted for by what has been said above as to both being pre-Christian in origin.