ublished before the death of Eleutherus in A.D. 190--the latest
date possible for them,--it will be seen that the Gnostic teaching
to which Irenaeus refers is supposed to begin at a time when his
first book may very well have been concluded, and to end actually
five years later than the latest date at which this portion of the
work can have been published! Not only does the author allow no
time at all for Irenaeus to compose his own work, not only does he
allow none for him to become acquainted with the Gnostic
doctrines, and for those doctrines themselves to become
consolidated and expressed in writing, but he goes so far as to
make Irenaeus testify to a state of things five years at least,
and very probably ten, in advance of the time at which he was
himself writing! No doubt there is an oversight somewhere, but
this is the kind of oversight that ought not to be made.

This, however, is an extreme instance of the fault to which I was
alluding--the tendency in the negative school to allow no time or
very little for processes that in the natural course of things
must certainly have required a more or less considerable interval.
On a moderate computation, the indirect testimony of Irenaeus may
be taken to refer--not to the period 185-195 A.D., which is out of
the question--but to that from 160-180 A.D. This is not pressing
the possibility, real as it is, that Valentinus himself, who
flourished from 140-160 A.D., may have been included. We may agree
with the author of 'Supernatural Religion' that Irenaeus probably
made the personal acquaintance of the Valentinian leaders, and
obtained copies of their books, during his well-known visit to
Rome in 178 A.D. [Endnote 199:1] The applications of Scripture
would be taken chiefly from the books of which some would be
recent but others of an earlier date, and it can surely be no
exaggeration to place the formation of the body of doctrine which
they contained in the period 160-175 A.D. above mentioned. I doubt
whether a critic could be blamed who should go back ten years
further, but we shall be keeping on the safe side if we take our
_terminus a quo_ as to which these Gnostic writings can be
alleged in evidence at about the year 160.

A genuine fragment of a letter of Valentinus has been preserved by
Clement of Alexandria in the second book of the Stromateis
[Endnote 200:1]. This is thought to contain references to St.
Matthew's Gospel by Dr. Westcott, and, strange to say, both