VALENTINUS and THE VALENTINIANS. Valen tinus, the most prominent leader of the Gnostic movement, was born, according to Epiphanius (Haer. 31, 2), near the coast in Lower Egypt, and was brought up and educated in Alexandria. Valentinus came to Rome (c. 135-160) during the episcopate of Hyginus, flourished under Pius and stayed till the time of Anicetus. According to Irenaeus iii. 3, 4, Polycarp, during his sojourn in Rome under the episcopate of Anicetus, converted a few adher ents of the Valentinian sect. Tertullian (Adv. Valentin. cap. 4) declares that Valentinus came to Rome as an adherent of the orthodox Church, and was a candidate for the bishopric of Rome, but he abandoned the Church because a confessor was preferred to him for this office. The credibility of this statement may be questioned. Great uncertainty attaches to the residence of Valen tinus in Cyprus, recorded by Epiphanius (loc. cit.), who places it after his stay in Rome, adding that it was here that he definitely accomplished his secession from the Church. But it seems to be clear that Valentinus did not, like Marcion, break with the Church from the very beginning, but endeavoured to maintain his standing within it.
Justin's Syntagma, which treats of Valentinus, is unfortunately lost. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. i 1, 1-3, as in every other article where named, has preserved what is obviously an older document, possibly from Justin, dealing with Valentinus's own teaching and that of two of his disciples. The sketch which he gives is the best guide for the original form of Valentinianism. For Valentinus himself we have also to consider the fragments of his writings preserved by Clement of Alexandria. The best edi tion of and commentary on them is Hilgenfeld's Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums (pp. 293-307). Irenaeus also gives a detailed account of the two chief schools following Valentinus, the school of Ptolemaeus (i. 0), and Marcus and the Marcosians (i. 13-21). For his account of the Ptolemaeans, Irenaeus seems to have used various writings and expositions of the school, espe cially prominent being a collection of Scripture proofs which may have once had a separate literary existence (i. 1, 3; 3, [6] 8, 2-4). To this is appended in a somewhat disconnected fashion a commentary on the prologue to the fourth Gospel (i. 8, 5). Irenaeus himself twice prefaces his remarks by saying he is indebted to other authorities for his exposition (i. 2, 7, Excerpta ex T/ieodoto which are to be found in the works of Clement and may be looked upon as a collection made by the author with a view to the unfinished eighth book of his Stromateis. The lost Syntagma of Hippolytus, which can be par
tially reconstructed from Philaster (Haereses) and from pseudo Tertullian (Adversus Valentina anos), seems to furnish us with valuable information as to the earlier doctrines of the sect ; and in his second treatise against heretics, the so-called Philosophu mena (6, 29 seq.), Hippolytus gives a homogeneous and continu ous exposition of a later Valentinian system, possibly connected with the school of Ptolemaeus. Important, too, are Hippolytus' references to an Italic and an Anatolian branch of the Valentinian sect (6, 35). Tertullian gives at the beginning of his treatise against the Valentinians a few separate notices of the life and disciples of Valentinus, but his further argument is closely depend ent upon Irenaeus' exposition of the Ptolemaean system, which he embellishes in his usual fashion with bitterly sarcastic com ments. Epiphanius deals with Valentinus and his school in sections 31-36 of his work. He has preserved a valuable letter of Ptole maeus to Flora, which is of the highest importance for the under standing of Gnosticism.
Valentinus is the only one of the Gnostics who had a whole series of disciples who are known by name—indeed, in the ac counts of the Church Fathers his own system and views are almost entirely obscured by the accounts of those of his disciples. The most important disciples are the two dealt with at length by Irenaeus, Ptolemaeus and Marcus, who both seem to have had a numerous following. Also, there was Herakleon, of whose commentary on the gospel of St. John extensive fragments are preserved by Origen. Ptolemaeus and Herakleon are counted by Hippolytus (6, 35) among the Italic branch of Valentinianism. There was also the Anatolian branch, as representative of which Hippolytus mentions Axionicus, who is also referred to by Ter tullian as having actually been taught in Antioch. The Excerpta ex Theodoto in Clement are also, according to the superscription, fragments from the Anatolian Gnosticism. It is, however, an error when Hippolytus speaks of Bardesanes as representative of this branch, for he had an entirely distinct position. Valentinianism was based on primitive gnosticism (q.v.), with the doctrines of which Valentinus may have become acquainted in Egypt. The mother goddess stands at the centre of the system. The main doctrines are outlined below.