Report[638] makes him an Ægyptian by birth, and Tertullian expressly informs us[639] that he was originally a Christian; and indeed a person of such eminence in the Church that he aspired to the office of Bishop. But his mind was tinged with the Platonism[640] which was so prevalent in Alexandria, the place of his education: and it did not happen to him as to Justin and Clement, in whom the truth moulded their philosophical notions, and clad them in a Christian garb; for being disappointed in the object of his ambition, he showed how wisely the Church had acted in rejecting him, by giving himself thenceforth, like Arius, to the propagation of error. As he could not be a bishop, he would be a father of heresy.
He took for his foundation, as it would seem[641], the [pg 293] difficulty of explaining the origin of evil consistently with holding the perfection of God. He was thence led to make matter co-eval with the Creator, and to declare that all the defects of created things arise from that portion of matter which he left untouched in the work of creation, as unfit for his use. This idea he doubtless borrowed from the Platonic philosophy: but how from this he passed into the absurdities of Gnosticism we are not informed. We only learn from Irenæus that he fashioned them into a new system. It is curious, however, that he is said by his followers to have derived his notions from a disciple of St. Paul[642], and that he endeavoured to represent them as perfectly consistent with the Scriptures[643]. He had attained such a degree of notoriety before the year 142, in which Justin Martyr offered his First Apology to Antoninus Pius, that Justin therein speaks of having written that book against all the heresies[644], to which Tertullian is believed to refer when he mentions Justin amongst those who had written against Valentinus[645]. And this agrees with what Irenæus says[646], that he came to Rome in [pg 294] the time of Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and continued to the time of Anicetus. For whether we take the Chronology of Eusebius[647], who places his coming to Rome in the year 141, or third of Antoninus, or that of Eutychius, favoured by Bishop Pearson[648] who makes Hyginus contemporary with Adrian, this would equally agree with Justin having already written against him in 142: for he made himself known in his own country as an opposer of the truth before he came to Rome[649]. Whatever may be thought of the precise year at which he came to that city, he remained there fifteen or twenty years, for he continued to the episcopate of Anicetus, and retained some character for piety and correctness of faith up to that period[650]. Thenceforward, however, he cast off all such pretensions, and retiring to Cyprus, taught without disguise all the impieties his system naturally led to[651].
It has so happened that Irenæus did not write directly against him, but against his followers: and as every disciple held himself capable of improving upon the system of his instructor, that which the Bishop of Lyons gives in full detail differs in some particulars from that taught by Valentinus himself. [pg 295] It was in fact more nearly that of Ptolemy, his most noted follower[652]: but still Ptolemy had some peculiarities of his own[653]. Yet Irenæus has preserved to us the leading features of the scheme as taught by Valentinus, and by their help, and that of a fragment preserved by Epiphanius[654], which corresponds with what Irenæus has told us, (although Bishop Pearson rightly contends that it is not the work of the heretical leader himself). I will endeavour to place it before my readers.
Valentinus then taught, according to Irenæus, that all things sprung from one primeval pair, the Ineffable and Silence[655]: the latter being according to the fragment the Thought of the former or his Grace, but called Silence more correctly, because she accomplished every thing by simple desire without utterance. From these, according to Valentinus, sprung another pair, the Father[656] and the Truth: the former of whom the fragment makes to emanate from the Unbegotten Original and Silence, by her [pg 296] desire; the latter from herself and the Father, by some mysterious union of the lights from each; so that their offspring was a true image of herself and thence derived her name. Truth, therefore, by a like mysterious union with her Father, produces a tetrad of two pairs, the Word and the Life, Man and the Church. Subsequently the Holy Spirit was sent forth either by the Truth or by the Church, (for upon that point the Old Translator of Irenæus and Epiphanius differ,) to examine the Æons, and to make them fruitful in the produce of truth[657].
So far Irenæus and the fragment correspond, excepting that the latter places Man and the Church first[658]: but from this point there appears nothing more in common, and as henceforth there is a general coincidence between Valentinus and his followers, I shall give the scheme as it appears in the first book of Irenæus, mentioning the variations where they occur.
It may be however proper to notice this radical difference between the heresiarch and his disciples, that he considered all these Æons, as they were called, or Eternal Essences, as merely feelings, affections, and motions of the one unseen, infinite [pg 297] First Cause, whereas they regarded them as so many personal beings[659].
The last mentioned tetrad then, knowing themselves to have been sent forth to the glory of the unbegotten Father, desired to glorify him by their own act. Wherefore the Word and the Truth sent forth ten Æons, called the Profound and Mixture, the Ever-youthful and Union, the Self-existent and Pleasure, the Immoveable and Commixture, the Only-begotten and the Blessed: whilst Man and the Church sent forth twelve, called the Paraclete and Faith, the Paternal and Hope, the Maternal and Charity, Aïnus (the Eternal Mind, or as it is in the Latin Æons, or Praise) and Comprehension, the Ecclesiastical and Blessedness, the Desired and Wisdom[660].
These thirty Æons, consisting of twelve, and ten, and eight, composed what they called the Fulness[661]: and Valentinus differed from his followers in placing a barrier between the First Cause and the others[662]; [pg 298] which probably is to be explained by his saying that they were not, like him, real beings, but merely qualities or emanations. Irenæus was probably the first person who published their names: for the Valentinians prided themselves on their being a secret, hidden from all but the initiated. The names, however, were differently stated by later Valentinians[663], and were in all probability altered on set purpose whenever they became known.
Of these thirty, the Only-begotten or Father alone knew the nature of the Great Father of all: the rest desired to know their origin, but knew him not: and although the Only-begotten was desirous of revealing him to them, Silence restrained him[664]. A new state of things, however, arose from the restlessness of the last of the Æons, namely Wisdom; who, under the pretext of affection for the unknown First Parent, but in reality through venturesome curiosity, reached forth into the fathomless height and depth, in a state of extreme excitement and anxiety, and would have been reabsorbed into the original substance, but for the interposition of a power called the Barrier, which prevented her farther progress, and brought her back to herself; but at the same time kept up a perpetual separation between her and the Father, to which she originally belonged[665].
Valentinus then taught that Wisdom, being thus separated from Theletos, became the mother of the Christ, producing him from the remembrance of the better things or superior beings she had left, but with a kind of shadow attached to him, derived from her fallen condition; and by that means emptied herself of her spiritual substance. Whereupon he, having become possessed of it, cut off from him the shadow, and returned aloft into the Fulness, leaving his mother under the shadow he rejected. In this still more degraded condition, Valentinus makes her to have produced a son, who became the Creator, and whom he regards as complete ruler of all things subordinate to him[666].