s disciples, before going to
the Mount of Olives, sing a hymn together. It is not identified but is
generally believed to be a part of the _Hallel_ or group of Passover
Psalms, 113-118. The writer of the _Acts of John_ represents Jesus as
using a new hymn which opens,

Glory be to Thee, Father.

It contains a long series of antitheses, as follows:

I would be saved and I would save,
I would be loosed and I would loose,
I would be wounded and I would wound,
I would be borne and I would bear, etc.

The hymn concludes,

A way am I to thee, a wayfarer.[60]

Variants of the _Hymn of Jesus_ are extant, one of which has been
preserved by Augustine, the Hymn of the Priscillianists, which came to
him from a correspondent in Spain.[61]

Hippolytus, whose _Refutation of all Heresies_ has been mentioned in
another connection, discusses the Gnostic sect of the Naasenes. He quotes
one of their hymns, beginning,

The world's producing law was Primal Mind,

in which Jesus is represented as the guide of mankind to the attainment
of celestial knowledge.[62] The system of Valentinus, a Gnostic leader,
is also discussed and a psalm of his authorship is quoted:

I behold all things suspended in air by spirit,

a didactic presentation of Gnostic thought.[63] It is composed in
dactylic meter, affording another illustration of the adoption of popular
rhythms in the hymnology of the heretical sects. A Gnostic hymn to the
Highest God from a third century Coptic source may be cited:

Thou art alone the eternal and
thou art alone the deep and
thou art alone the unknowable, etc.[64]

Whatever impression may be created upon the modern mind by the perusal of
Gnostic poetry, its influence was admitted by contemporary Christians and
combatted by every means in their power. The Gnostic leaders, unhampered
by Hebrew traditions of religious poetry, were able to make use of
popular forms and popular concepts. They met the trend of the times more
than halfway. Heretical groups of all varieties of opinion were using
hymns as a means of expressing their beliefs and persuading possible
adherents. At the opening of the fourth century, Arius appeared, the
leader of the group whose theology was rejected at the Council of Nicaea,
325, and whose hymns were met and overcome by the verses of Ambrose. Such
was the influence of heretical upon orthodox hymnody.

VI. Early Christi