MARCION, miir'shon. A second century Christian. classed among time heretics. He was born in tiinope. Pontes, and died after 160. About the year 140 he came to Rome, where he fell under the influence of the Syrian Cerdon, from whom his Gnostic ideas were perhaps derived, and here he founded his church. Ile afterwards trav eled through the East. visiting Rome again in the episcopate of Anieetus (154-165). Nothing is known of his later life. His disciples, chief among whom was Apelles, continued his work, and Marcionite churches were soon to he found scattered over North Africa, Gaul, .Asia Minor, and Egypt.
It is said that Polyearp (q.v.) once met :Mar eion in the streets of Rome and saluted him as 'the first-horn of Satan.' In this he gave expres sion to the general sentiment of the Church, for llareimm was attacked by almost every orthodox writer from Justin onward. Yet Marcion regarded himself in the light of a reformer. Ile believed that Christianity marked an essen tially new departure. but that it had already become corrupted through the admixture of Jewish elements. These must be purged out. For him Paul was the only true Apostle. because he alone thoroughly abjured Judaism. These principle, appear in Mareion's Scripture canon— the earliest Christian collection known—which embraced tlospel 1.11ke, without the ductory part, which was 'Jewish') and ten of Paul's Epistles (omitting those of Timothy and Titus). Church writers accused him, with ap parent justice, of 'mutilating' the Scriptures. His own chief work, entitled Antitheses. set forth the alleged emmtradietions between Law and Gos pel. The Creator of the Old Testament was rep resented as a cruel and vindictive being, wholly different from the God of love, revealed through Christ. Mareion's Christology, was docetie. i.e.
he taught that Christ suffered only in appear anee. (See Doet:T.1.1.) His ethics resulted in a severe ascetieism. His Gnostic tendency appears in the dualistic tenet that man's body cannot be saved, only his spirit, which is the opposite of matter. This was a striking departure from the common Christian belief. An attempt has recently been made to prove anti-lar cionite influence in the formulation of the old Roman symbol, which lies at the basis of the Apostles' Creed. The Mareionite Church was completely organized, having its clergy, its rites, and its Scriptures. The sacrament of bap tism was administered much as in the orthodox. Church, but in the Eucharist water was substi tuted for wine. In the East Marcionite churches are found as late as the sixth century, but in the West they disappeared earlier, being absorbed by the more virile 31anielizrans. (See Their downfall was due in part to ecclesiastical opposition, and in part to hostile legislaiion tin der Christian emperors from Constantine on ward. In the persecutions through which they passed. not a few Mareionites suffered a mar tyr's death, and the property of their churches was declared forfeited to the Catholie Church. For information as to the surviving fragments of 31arcion's works, consult: Krfiger, History of Early Christian Literat are (New York, 1897) ; Crattwell, Literary History of Early Christianity (London. 1893). Among the sources consult the interesting work of Tertullian. Against Mareion, trans. in The Ante-Nieene Fathers, vol. iii., by Roberts and Donaldson (American edition). In general, consult: Harnaek, History of Dogma, i. (London, IA94) ; Smith and Nt'ace, Diction ary of Christian Biography, article "Marcion."