t the details of the _Kerygma_,
only shews the general uncertainty which at that time prevailed. But
again, we see that the later Valentinians completely accommodated
themselves to the later development in the Church (Tertull. adv. Valent.
I: communem fidem adfirmant) that is attached themselves, probably even
from the first, to the existing forms, while in the Marcionite Church a
peculiar _regula_ was set up by a criticism of the tradition. The
_regula_ as a matter of course, was regarded as Apostolic. On Gnostic
_regulae_ see Iren. I. 21. 5, 31. 3, II. praef. II. 19. 8, III. II. 3,
III. 16. 1, 5, Ptolem. ap Epiph. h. 33. 7, Tertull. adv Valent. I. 4, de
praescr. 42, adv Marc. I. 1, IV. 5, 17, Ep. Petri ad Jacob in Clem. Hom.
c. 1. We still possess in great part verbatim the _regula_ of Apelles,
in Epiphan II. 44, 2 Irenaeus (I. 7. 2) and Tertull (de carne. 20) state
that the Valentinian _regula_ contained the formula, '[Greek:
gennethenta dia Marias]', see on this p. 203. In noting that the two
points so decisive for Catholicism the Canon of the New Testament and
the Apostolic _regula_ were first, in the strict sense, set up by the
Gnostics on the basis of a definite fixing and systematising of the
oldest tradition we may see that the weakness of Gnosticism here
consisted in its inability to exhibit the publicity of tradition and to
place its propagation in close connection with the organisation of the
churches.]

[Footnote 350: We do not know the relation in which the Valentinians
placed the public Apostolic _regula fidei_ to the secret doctrine
derived from one Apostle. The Church in opposition to the Gnostics
strongly emphasised the publicity of all tradition. Yet afterwards
though with reservations, she gave a wide scope to the assumption of a
secret tradition.]

[Footnote 351: The Gnostics transferred to the Evangelic writings, and
demanded as simply necessary, the methods which Barnabas and others used
in expounding the Old Testament (see the samples of their exposition in
Irenaeus and Clement. Heinrici, l. c.). In this way, of course, all the
specialties of the systems may be found in the documents. The Church at
first condemned this method (Tertull. de praescr. 17-19. 39; Iren. I. 8.
9), but applied it herself from the moment in which she had adopted a
New Testament Canon of equal authority with that of the Old Testament.
However, the distinction always remained, that in the confrontation of
the two Testamen