ived and realised the idea of a Canon of Christian
writings, Basilides or Valentinus or Marcion or whether this was done by
several at the same time, will always remain obscure, though many things
favour Marcion. If it should even be proved that Basilides (see Euseb.
H. E. IV. 7. 7) and Valentinus himself, regarded the Gospels only as
authoritative yet the full idea of the Canon lies already in the fact of
their making these the foundation and interpreting them allegorically.
The question as to the extent of the Canon afterwards became the subject
of an important controversy between the Gnostics and the Catholic
Church. The Catholics throughout took up the position that their Canon
was the earlier, and the Gnostic collection the corrupt revision of it
(they were unable to adduce proof, as is attested by Tertullian's de
praescr.) But the aim of the Gnostics to establish themselves on the
uncorrupted apostolic tradition gathered from writings was crossed by
three tendencies, which, moreover, were all jointly operative in the
Christian communities and are therefore not peculiar to Gnosticism. (1)
By faith in the continuance of prophecy, in which new things are always
revealed by the Holy Spirit (the Basilidean and Marcionite prophets).
(2) By the assumption of an esoteric secret tradition of the Apostles
(see Clem. Strom. VII. 17. 106, 108, Hipp. Philos. VII. 20, Iren. I. 25.
5, III. 2. 1, Tertull. de praescr. 25. Cf. the Gnostic book [Greek:
Pistis Sophia], which in great part is based on doctrines said to be
imparted by Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection). (3) By the
inability to oppose the continuous production of Evangelic writings in
other words by the continuance of this kind of literature and the
addition of Acts of the Apostles (Gospel of the Egyptians (?), other
Gospels, Acts of John, Thomas, Philip etc. We know absolutely nothing
about the conditions under which these writings originated the measure
of authority which they enjoyed or the way in which they gained that
authority). In all these points which in Gnosticism hindered the
development of Christianity to the religion of a new book the Gnostic
schools shew that they stood precisely under the same conditions as the
Christian communities in general (see above Chap. 3 Sec. 2). If all things
do not deceive us, the same inner development may be observed even in
the Valentinian school, as in the great Church viz. the production of
sacred Evangelic and Ap