des taught that even those who have not sinned in act, even Jesus
himself, possess a sinful nature. It is possibly also in connexion with the
dualism of his fundamental [v.03 p.0479] views that he taught the
transmigration of souls (Origen in _Ep. ad Rom_. lib. v.; Opp. de la Rue
iv. 549; cf. Clemens, _Excerpta ex Theodoto_, s. 28). Isidorus set up
celibacy, though in a modified form, as the ideal of the perfect (Clemens,
_Strom_. iii. 1 s. 1, &c.) Clemens accuses Basilides of a deification of
the Devil ([Greek: theiazein ton diabolon]), and regards as his two dogmas
that of the Devil and that of the transmigration of souls (_Strom_. iv. 12
s. 85: cf. v. 11 s. 75). It is remarkable too that Isidorus held the
existence of two souls in man, a good and a bad (Clemens, _Strom_. ii. 20
113); with which may be compared the teaching of Mani about the two souls,
which it is impossible to follow F, Ch. Baur in excluding,[2] and also the
teaching of the _Pistis Sophia_ (translated by C. Schmidt, p. 182, &c.).
According to Clemens (_Strom_. ii. 20 s. 112), the followers of Basilides
spoke of [Greek: pneumata tina prosertemena tei logikei phuchei kata tina
tarachon kai sunchusin archiken]: that is to say, here also is assumed an
original confusion and intermingling. Epiphanius too tells us that the
teaching of Basilides had its beginning in the question as to the origin of
evil (_Haer_. xxiv. 6).

Now, of this sharply-defined dualism there is scarcely a trace in the
system described by the Fathers of the Church. It is therefore only with
caution that we can use them to supplement our knowledge of the true
Basilides. The doctrine described by them that from the supreme God (the
_innatus pater_) had emanated 365 heavens with their spirits, answers
originally to the astronomical conception of the heavens with their 365
daily aspects (Irenaeus i. 24. 7; _Trecentorum autem sexaginta quinque
caelorum locales positiones distribuunt similiter ut mathematici_). When,
therefore, the supreme God is called by the name [Greek: Abrasax] or
[Greek: Abraxas], which contains the numerical value 365, it is worthy of
remark that the name of the Persian god Mithras ([Greek: Meithras]) also
was known in antiquity to contain this numerical value (Jerome in _Amos_ 3;
Opp. Vallarsi VI. i. 257). Speculations about the Perso-Hellenistic Mithras
appear to have been transferred to the Gnostic Abraxas. Further, if the
_Pater innatus_ be surrounded by a series of