ntagma against all heresies; but, in the present condition
of our sources, it remains wrapped in obscurity. What may be gathered
from the fragments of Hegesippus, the Epistles of Ignatius, the Pastoral
Epistles and other documents, such as, for example, the Epistle of Jude,
is in itself so obscure, so detached, and so ambiguous, that it is of no
value for historical construction.]

[Footnote 340: There are, above all, the schools of the Basilideans,
Valentinians and Ophites. To describe the systems in their full
development lies, in my opinion, outside the business of the history of
dogma and might easily lead to the mistake that the systems as such were
controverted, and that their construction was peculiar to Christian
Gnosticism. The construction, as remarked above, is rather that of the
later Greek philosophy, though it cannot be mistaken that, for us, the
full parallel to the Gnostic systems first appears in those of the
Neoplatonists. But only particular doctrines and principles of the
Gnostics were really called in question, their critique of the world, of
providence, of the resurrection, etc.; these therefore are to be adduced
in the next section. The fundamental features of an inner development
can only be exhibited in the case of the most important, viz., the
Valentinian school. But even here, we must distinguish an Eastern and a
Western branch. (Tertull. adv. Valent. I.: "Valentiniani frequentissimum
plane collegium inter haereticos." Iren. I. 1.; Hippol. Philos. VI. 35;
Orig. Hom. II. 5 in Ezech. Lomm. XIV. p. 40: "Valentini robustissima
secta").]

[Footnote 341: Tertull. de praescr. 42: "De verbi autem administratione
quid dicam, cum hoc sit negotium illis, non ethnicos convertendi, sed
nostros evertendi? Hanc magis gloriam captant, si stantibus ruinam, non
si jacentibus elevationem operentur. Quoniam et ipsum opus eorum non de
suo proprio aedificio venit, sed de veritatis destructione; nostra
suffodiunt, ut sua aedificent. Adime illis legem Moysis et prophetas et
creatorem deum, accusationem eloqui non habent." (See adv. Valent. I
init.). This is hardly a malevolent accusation. The philosophic
interpretation of a religion will always impress those only on whom the
religion itself has already made an impression.]

[Footnote 342: Iren. III. 4. 2: [Greek: Kerdon eis ten ekklesian elthon
kai exomologoumenos, houtos dietelete, pote men lathrodidaskalon pote de
palin exomologoumenos, pote de eleggomenos eph ho