The Gnostics and Their Remains - C W King PDF

All A
lioy
AU/H
INTO A GNOSTIC TALISM

CEBACMA OF CKEES JADE, COSVEBTED
(See page 197.)
THE GNOSTICS
AND
THEIR REMAINS,
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL.
C. W. KING, MA.
Nam veluti puori trcpidant atque omnia caacis

In tencbris metuimt, sic nos in luce timemus
Intcrdum nilo qua; sunt metueuda magis quam
ori in tenebris pavitant, finguntque futura.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
DAVID NUTT, 270, STRAND.
1887.
LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,

STAMFORD STREET AND CHARINQ CROSS.
[All rights reserved.]

PREFACE.
WHEN this work first appeared, three-and-twenty years ago, it

became at once an object of unmerited abuse, and of equally
unmerited praise. Small divines mistaking it for an insidious
attempt to overthrow opinions as by law established," spurted
"
at it with pens dipped in the milk of the Gospel whilst, under ;
the very same hallucination, Friends of Light lauded it to "

"
the skies either party equally ignorant both of the subject,

and of the purpose of my labours. One noted Zoilus (whose
recollections of Homer would seem to be of the same deeply-
marked nature as Ensign Blifil s) is disgusted at my citing
Aidoneus as a title of the God of the Shades another is
"
"
astonished at ignorance in calling Bardanes a Persian,

my
whereas he was a native of Pontus ; not understanding that
my argument was equally valid in spite of the mistake Pontus
being originally a province of the empire of Darius, and what
is more to the purpose, the actual focus whence Mithraicism
diffused itself over the Eoman world.
A
greater cause of outcry against the book was my
still
presuming to lay presumptuous hands upon the Sacred Ark of

Masonry, and openly express my opinion that the Free and
"
Accepted of these times have no more real connexion with the

"
ancient Craft, out of whose terms and forms, like fig-leaves, they
have stitched together aprons, wherewith to cover the real
nakedness of their pretension, than the Italian Carbonari of
Murat s day had with the trade of charcoal burners, whose
baskets were borrowed for the President s throne. King
Hiram s skull gnashed his teeth with rage within the cista
mystica ; and one valiant young Levite of the course of Abia,

VI PREFACE.
proceeds thus logically to confute all my assertions Athelstan "
built a church he could not build without masons argal,

:
;
Athelstan was the founder of Masonry in England.

But enough of this the same treatment is necessarily in store
;
for the present edition ;

it must look fur
"
Verbera, carnifices, robur, pix, lamina, taedae."
The one reviewer of its predecessor who exhibited any acquain

tance with the literature of the subject, felt himself (from his
duty bound
"
to qualify his praise by passing the

in
"
position)
summary judgment that I had displayed in the work more of
"
the spirit of a Gnostic than of a Catholic Christian." This

sentence, intended for condemnatory, I accept as the highest
praise that could be given to my labours taking yvwortKos in
its strict sense of one addicted to knowledge and who
"
"
therefore studies the history and remains of any opinion for

the solo purpose of understanding the truth and not for the ;
sake of demonstrating the Truth can only exist under one

defined form.
Let me now
proceed to state how, in the present edition, I
have endeavoured still further to deserve the appellation attached
to me by the good-natured Aristarchus. My Treatise was the
only one upon Gnostic Archaeology (for Dr. Walsh s little book
scarce deserves the name) that had appeared since Chiflet s
admirable
"
"
Apistopistus (1617); Matter, in his Histoire
Critique du Gnosticisme (1827), an excellent analysis of the

doctrines of the Gnosis, doing nothing for its monuments,
beyond republishing, on a reduced scale, the engravings of the

"
Apistopistus." The only sources of information accessible to

me at the time of writing that edition were the same as those
drawn upon by Matter before me, namely the treatises of
Irenaeus and Epiplianius. In the interval, I have become
acquainted with, and, in order thoroughly to master, have
made complete translations of, two recently discovered works
that throw much light upon many difficult questions in this
investigation. The one is the Refutation of all Heresies,

ascribed, either to Origen or Hippolytus its author being inti :
mately acquainted with the doctrines which he holds up for

PREFACE. Vll
detestation, or for ridicule ;

and (what makes his criticisms of
far higher value to students of the present day) illustrating
them by copious extracts from the then so extensive heretical
literature, soon to be completely exterminated by the triumph

"
of the "
orthodox Faith.
The other aid is the "
Pistis-Sophia," sole survivor of the once

numerous family of Gnostic Gospels ; but fortunately the most
important of them all for our purpose, and the very one for
whose escape (in its Coptic disguise) the archreologist ought to
feelmost grateful to the ignorance of the destroyers. For,
whereas the other Gnostic teachers appear (as Hippolytus loves
to point out) to buildup their systems upon the lines of various
Grecian philosophies, the makes known to us
"
"
Pistis-Sophia
what were the deepest secrets of the so celebrated Egyptian
Mysteries, which are identical with those of the Eabbinical
Kabbala, the only alteration being that of putting them into
the mouth of Scripture personages, in order to adapt them
to the prevailing change of ideas. This book, therefore,
from very nature supplies a kind of elucidation of con
its
temporary monuments not to be found elsewhere, for the

Christian Fathers discuss only the doctrines of their adversaries,
not condescending to notice their application to the uses of
everyday life. It is the latter point that gives such interest to

the "
Pistis-Sophia
"
the whole category ofwe gain from it
Holy Names, of such talismanic virtue; the powers and titles

of the actual genii, the constitution of the soul ; and its
state after death. But what
yet more curious, the Pistis- is
"
Sophia exhibits the leading principles of the Kabbala already

"
established, and applied to the demonstration of the highest

truths in exactly the same manner as these principles wore
used by the heresiarch, Marcus, in the third century. And
here it may be remarked parenthetically, that no one really
acquainted with the history of religious opinions, can for a
moment imagine that Marcus (a born Jew, be it remembered)
was the first inventor of the wondrous machinery which he used
in the development of his system, and the Manifestation of
Truth, he did but apply to a new purpose the rules that he
found already established as authoritative in the Rabbinical
Vlll PREFACE.
schools. For in Religion there is no new thing"
the same
"
ideas are worked up over and over again the gold in the ;
sovereign of to-day may first have circulated in the new-coined

stater of Croesus.
Last, in point of time, but equally valuable with any of

the fresh sources that have served me for the completion of
this work, must I gratefully acknowledge the oral teachings
of Eabbi Dr. Schiller-Szinessy that unchanged representative
of the Gamaliels of old at whose feet I have sat for many
years, listening to his exposition of the

"
Holy Zohar." What

ever may be the date of the present form of that transcendental
development of the Torah no one but an inverted Jew, totally
unread in the Greek historians of the Gnosis, can fail to
perceive that its principles and traditions are the veiy same
as those taught in the schools of Babylon and Tiberias at the
timewhen Simon Magus and Justinus studied there.
During the many years that have slipped by since its first
publication, I have irom time to time re-cast and re- written the
entire Treatise, incorporating with the former contents what
ever fresh information, reading, or chance, might throw in my
way. In the same interval, two other works upon this subject
have made their appearance. Dean Mansel s Gnostics is a l
well- written and accurate summary of all that the Greek Fathers
have left us upon the doctrines of the various sects but, as the ;
book is evidently intended for the use of theological students

alone, the author has regarded his subject from a strictly pro
fessional point of view ; totally ignoring the archaeological side
of the question (with which I am chiefly concerned), as being
altogether foreign to the purpose for which he wrote.

On the other Dr. Ginsburg s
hand, The Kabbala its :
Doctrines, Development, and Literature, possesses not only the

merit of a lucid exposition of the most abstruse of all Theo-
contemplated in the shape to which it has been
sophies, as
brought by the refining subtlety of successive generations of

Bobbins but will be found an invaluable guide to all who
attempt the interpretation talismanic inscriptions. For
of
example, the Hebrew which express the Names of

radicals,
the Sephiroth, are ta be discovered in the strings of Greek

PREFACE. IX
consonants, now dumb for want of vowels, which have

hitherto baffled the ingenuity of every reader.
There seems reason for suspecting that the Sibyl of Esoteric
Buddhism drew the first notions of her new religion from the
I
analysis of the Inner Man, as set forth in my
first edition.
therefore to the of those clear "
may promise myself gratitude

spirits
"
(the Miltonian phrase) who are busying themselves by "
searching to find out God," for now making known to them a
still more profound theosophy, whose revelations definitely

settle hardest problems relating to our mental nature, and the
world beyond the grave. Investigators of the same order as the
Esoteric Buddhists will find here a Gospel ready made to their
hand so full of great truths, so original in its conceptions,
that it would seem to flow from no human source ;

and must
divine origin to every mind that shall
carry conviction of its
be its nature for the reception of the good seed.
adapted by
In conclusion, I must express my grateful acknowledgments
of the services of my indefatigable friend, Mr. S. S. Lewis,
Fellow of Corpus Christi College; but for whose persuasion,
and negotiations with the publishers, these pages would never
have seen the light. Not merely this, but he has enabled me to
overcome an apparently insurmountable difficulty in the way of
the publication the failure of my sight, which totally prevented
my conducting the work through the press by taking upon

himself the correction of the proofs a laborious and irksome :
task to any one besides the author ; and demanding a sacrifice

of time that can only be appreciated by those, who, like myself,
know the multifarious nature of the engagements by which
absorbed.
every hour of his life is so completely
Mr. Joseph Jacobs has furnished a carefully compiled list of
authors quoted in this work, and of the references made to them,
which will be found of use to those who wish to pursue the
still further.
subject
C. W. KING.
THINITY COLLEGB:, CAMBRIDGE,
August 26, 1887.
CONTENTS.
>AGK
V
PREFACE
xin
Introduction .
PART I.
GNOSTICISM AND ITS SOURCES.
Book of
Introduction Gnosticism and its origin Pistis-Sophia
of Judaism
Enoch Gnosticism in its beginning Influence
Kabbala and the T
on the Ancients The Zendavesta The
Indian Sources of Gnosticism, Manes Buddhism Simon-
mud
ianism Basilides The Ophites Machinery of the Gnosis
PART II.
THE WORSHIP OF MITHRAS AND SERAPIS.

Origin of Mithraicism The Mithraic
Sacraments A Roman Mithas
and
in his Cave Mithraic Talismans Gnostic Sacraments
with the Mithraic St. Augustine on
as
Initiations, Connected
Gnosticism The Worship
of Serapis The Figured Representa
tions of Serapis Probable Origin of Serapis Monuments
the Serapis-worship The Caduceus

and its Symbolism Death,
as Represented in Ancient Art
Tomb-treasures Gnostic con
with Practices, the Evil Eye Cerauma
nection Superstitious
Jade converted into a Gnostic Talisman
PART III.
GEMS.
ABRAXAS, ABRAXASTER AND ABRAXOID
The Abraxas
Aâthodacmon Worship The Chnuphis Serpent
Abraxoids, or Gems con
Abraxaster, or Borrowed Types
with the true Gnostic The True Abraxas <
founded
as described by the Christian Fathers-
The god Abraxas,
its numerical Vain
Etymology of-" Abraxas,"
name m its Hindoo
Abraxas,"
The Abraxas Religion-The Ineffable

their Materials, Workmanship,
Form-Abraxas-gerns,
Legends and Formulas
.
Nature
Xll CONTENTS.
PART IV.
THE FIGURED MONUMENTS OF GNOSTICISM.

Gnostic Siglxj Symbols, Legends Explained The Name IAQ
Abraxas, a New Type of
Original Purpose of these Formula
The Gnostic Theogony The Schema of the Ophites The
Cause of Sin State after death of the Uninitiated Future
Punishments, and the Infernal Hierarchy Talismanic Leaden
Scrolls
Squares ..........
Leaden Books Numerals, Their Virtues Magic
303
PART V.
TEMPLARS, ROSICBUCIAN&, FREEMASONS.
Preservation of Gnostic Symbols among the Freemasons Masonic

Pretences Constitutiones Artis Geometriae
"
Henry VI. and

"
his Masons Hindoo and Chinese Symbols Masons Marks

Stonehenge The Carbonari De Quincey The Rosy Cross
"Vultus Triformis" Hosea Lux Lodges First Established
Templars Suppressed "Mystery of Baphomet Revealed"
Articles of Accusation against the Templars Orphic Mysteries
Clarkson on the Temple Church Baphometic Vases
" "
Manicheism in France The Assassins of the Lebanon The

Druses The Sufi of Persia Lodges first Established Spartacus
Weishaupt Wren Scottish Knights "Cypher Writing
"
Book of Kells Brand-marking, National and Mystic

"
"
. 373
DESCRIPTION OF WOODCUTS
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES
.......
........ 432
435
INDEX
PLATES
...........
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX, by Joseph Jacobs, B.A.
A to 0.
. . . 449
457
INTRODUCTION.
THAT nothing upon the subject of Gnosticism should have

hitherto been attempted in our language except by Dr. Walsh
in his very meagre sketch (long since out of print), seemed to
me a sufficient excuse for my undertaking the same task upon a
more comprehensive scale, as well as upon different principles.
Dr. Walsh s performance, entitled An Essay on Coins, Medals,
and Gems, as illustrating the progress of Christianity in the
Early Ages, is little more than an abridgment of some popular
Church History for the period comprehended within its scope,
illustrated from the very scanty store of monuments at his
command whilst his explanations are, like the source supply
;
ing them, based upon grounds altogether fallacious, and, even to

the beginner, obviously unsatisfactory.
Taking for granted, upon the bare word of their opponents,

that the various Teachers of the Gnosis were mere heretics, that
is, perverters of the regular (!) Christian doctrine which they had
at first embraced as a divine revelation, he, like his guides, did

not trouble himself any further to investigate the true origin of
their systems, but was content with roughly sketching their
most prominent features whilst in explaining their extant pro
;
ductions, he refers all, however diverse in nature, to the same

school, and interprets them according to his own preconceived
and baseless views of their character.
On such a plan as this, neither the doctrines nor the monu
ments they have bequeathed to us in such profusion are
susceptible of even a plausible explanation, much less of one

capable of satisfying an unprejudiced and inquiring mind. The
method, therefore, of treating the subject which I have followed
in the present work is to begin by reviewing the great religions
systems of the East, flourishing at the time of the promulgation
XIV INTRODUCTION.
of Christianity in those regions, with the influence of these
systems upon the modes of thought and expression of both the

missionaries of the new creed and their opponents ;
and lastly
to establish, upon the testimony of the Apostle to the Gentiles
himself, the previous existence of the germs of Gnosticism in the
cities that were the scene of his most important labours.
In my sketch of these older systems I have done little more
*
than condense Matter s admirable introduction to his Histoire
Critique du Gnosticisme but from that point forward have
;
carried on my investigations according to a theory to which

that writer once alludes approvingly, although, from some un
accountable reason, he has neglected to follow it out to its
in
legitimate consequences. Eestricting himself to describing
his lucidand elegant style the speculations of the several heresi-
archs, and seeking no further back than the Zendavesta and
Kabbala for the storehouses whence they all must have drawn
their first principles, he falls into the grave error of represent
ing their doctrines as novel, and the pure inventions of the

persons that preached them.
That the seeds of the Gnosis were originally of Indian growth,
carried so far westward by the influence of that Buddhistic
movement which had previously overspread all the East, from
Thibet to Ceylon, was the great truth faintly discerned by
Matter, but which became evident to me upon acquiring even
a slight acquaintance with the chief doctrines of Indian
theosophy. To display this in the most incontrovertible manner,
the two systems, each in its highest form of development that
of Valentinus, and that, of the Nepal ese Buddhists are described
and confronted for the sake of establishing their original
identity: and throughout these pages

innumerable other points
of affinity will be found noticed as they present themselves.
Actual historical proof of the same fact will also be adduced,
establishing the important circumstance (but hitherto entirely
unnoticed, or disregarded) that Buddhism had already been
planted in the dominions of the Seleucida3 and the Ptolemies at
the
least as early as the times of the generation following
establishment of those dynasties, and was provided for in
treaties made between those Grecian princes and the great
INTRODUCTION. XV
Hindoo promoter of the religion. In the history of the Church

most certain that almost every notion that was subsequently
it is
denounced as heretical can bo traced up to Indian speculative

philosophy as its genuine fountain-head how much that was
:
allowed to pass current for orthodox had really flowed from the
same source, it is neither expedient nor decorous now to
inquire.
In order to obtain a clear view of the principal forms of
Gnosticism, as well as to escape relying upon second-hand
information (in this case more than elsewhere untrustworthy), j
commenced the collecting materials for the present work by
carefully perusing the vast Panarion of Epiphanius a
laborious undertaking, but well repaid by the vivid picture he
presents of the inner state of society under the Lower Empire,

and of the war even at that late period so fiercely waged
between Reason and Faith. The Panarion is a connected
history of the Gnosis in all its developments during the first
three centuries the author quoting Irenasus for the earlier ages ;
for the later his account is of the highest value, having been
derived from personal experience, Epiphanius having in his
youth belonged to the Marcosian sect. After his days nothing

new sprung up in the field of Eeligious philosophy, before so
diversified with the vigorous and more curious flowers (or
weeds) of the Gnosis the civil now combining with the
;
ecclesiastical power to cut down and root out all such daring
and irregular growths of the human mind.

Since the first publication of this treatise I have become
acquainted with and minutely studied two authorities of the
greatest importance for the true understanding of Gnosticism
the one for its philosophy the other for its tangible remains.
;
*
The Refutation of all Heresies, of Hippolytus, written two
centuries before the Panarion, gives a view of the chief
schools of the Gnosis, drawn up with the utmost intelligence
united with the most charming candour qualities sadly to seek
;
in the other ecclesiastical historians. The Pistis-Sophia, the

only Gnostic Gospel preserved, throws a light upon the
terminology and machinery of the religion that, before its
discovery and publication was perfectly unattainable. Both
XVI INTRODUCTION.
these treatises are of recent discovery, and consequently their

assistance was lost to the previous historians of Gnosticism. I
have therefore availed myself largely of these invaluable
resources, which will be found doing good service in almost
every section of the present work.
After considering the class of speculations that owed their
birth to India, next in importance for her contributions to the
opinions, still more to the monuments before us, conies Egypt

with her primeval creed, although exhibited in its Romanized
and latest phase and whose productions are too often confounded
;
with the true offspring of the Gnosis. These remains are here
discriminated ; their distinctive characters are pointed out ; and
they are arranged under several heads, according as their object
was religious or medicinal. In the consideration of these
remains, Bellermann s classification has been chiefly followed ;
according to which the truly Gnostic are regarded as those

only that exhibit the figure of the Pantheus, Abraxas, the actual
invention of Basilides, and which gives its name to the class.
The second, Abraxoids, includes the types borrowed from different
religions by the other Gnostic teachers. The third, Abraxaster,
consists of such as in their nature are purely astrological, and
intended for talismans; deriving their virtues from the stars.
In the first of these classes much

space has been devoted to
the ingenious creation of the Alexandrine philosopher, the
pantheistic image of the supreme Abraxas ; whose title has

hitherto been improperly applied to monuments some of which
are anterior in date to his embodiment in a visible form;
whilst others spring from nations entirely unconnected with his
worship. Of this eidolon of the personage thereby typified, of the

meaning of his name and titles, much information has been
collected, and presented here in a connected form for the benefit
of those interested in learning what can on safe grounds be
established in elucidation of these abtruse questions.
Mithraicism, under whose kindly and congenial shelter so much

of Occidental Christianity grew up unmolested, is reviewed in its
due order, and the causes explained of an alliance at first sight
BO inexplicable. With this subject are connected the singular
resemblance between the ceremonial of the two, and the transfer
INTRODUCTION. XVH
of so much that was Mithraic into the practice of the orthodox ;
and many curious memorials will be found described bearing

witness to the reality of this adaptation.
After the Mithraic, the religion of Serapis comes to be
considered a worship which, besides being the last of the
;
Heathen forms to fall before the

power of Christianity, had
previously contributed, as largely as the Mithraic, to the con
stitution of the later Gnosticism. It is in truth a great mis
take, the confining the name of "Gnostic"(as

is
commonly done)
to the sectaries who, boasting of their superior lights," declared
"
that they were the only real Christians (as did the Ophites), and
that too in virtue of a creed professedly of their own devising.
Such Gnostics indeed were Christians by their own showing,
and regarded all who differed from them as heretics : but at the
same time they based their arguments upon the tenets of Pagan
religions; very far from regarding the latter as the empty
fabrications of demons, which was the persuasion of the ortho
dox. But although they accepted these ancient Ethnic legends,
it was only because through the help of theirthey
"
knowledge
"
were enabled to discern the truth enveloped within these

seemingly profane traditions. But the followers of Mithras and
of Serapis had in reality, and long before them, a Gnosis of
their own, communicated in their Mysteries to the initiated few ;
and they opposed to the predictions of orthodox and Gnostic

alike claims and pretensions lofty as their own. The Emperor
Hadrian, a most diligent inquirer into things above man s
nature, got himself initiated into one mystery after another;
nevertheless we shall find him writing from Alexandria that the
worship of Christ and of Serapis was in that city one and the
same, and moreover the sole religion of that immense population.
Consequently, those initiated into the true secrets of the old
religion must have recognised the fact that their deity, whether
the Sun or the Soul of the Universe, was nothing but a type of
the One, the Saviour recently revealed to them or else it would :
appear (which tells equally for our argument) that the new
converts, in order to escape persecution, enjoyed their own faith
under the covert of the national worship, which was susceptible

of a spiritual interpretation quite cognate to their own ideas,
b
XV111 INTRODUCTION.
and indeed enshrouding the same. As for the worshippers of

Mithras, their whole elaborate system of sacraments and degrees
of initiation had no other object than the securing of spiritual
enlightenment and spiritual blessings. The foundation being

the pure teaching of Zoroaster, holders were prepared gladly
its
to accept any higher revelation, and to discover that the greater
mystery had been foreshadowed in the types and ceremonies

of the former one. In this way a man might continue a
Mithraicist and yet accept all the doctrines of Christianity, as
the priests of that religion in their last days assured the
incredulous Augustine.
After thus pointing out the various elements which the
Apostles of the Gnosis worked up so ingeniously into one

harmonious whole, incorporating therewith so much of the
Christian scheme as fitted to the rest, we come prepared to the
examination of the Symbols and Terminology by which these ideas
were communicated to the members of the sect who had attained
to the Arcanum; the composite images or sigils having a voice
"
for the intelligent, which the vulgar crowd heareth not."
Astrology justly claims for her own a large share of the relics
popularly called Gnostic; for Gnosticism, from the beginning,
had linked its own speculations to those of the Magians national
science, and borrowed as a vehicle for its own peculiar ideas
the machinery of the latter its Astral Genii, Decani, and
Myriageneses. And this truth was seen by the earliest writers
upon Gnosticism, for Hippolytus proves conclusively, at much

length, that the system of the Peratae (a branch of the Ophites)
was nothing more than a barefaced plagiarism from the rules of
Astrology. Under head I have endeavoured to separate the
this
purely Astrological talismans from those to which the illuminati,

their makers, had given a more spiritual sense. "Astrology,
not Christ, is the author of their religion," says Hippolytus of
the sects founded by Euphrates and Celbes and proceeds; to give
extracts from their writings, held in the highest esteem at the
time,which amply bear out his assertion.

Next pour in, a multitudinous swarm, the stones covered over
with long strings of bare inscriptions, genuine offspring of the
Kabbala, that betray the handiwork of the idol-hating Jewish
INTRODUCTION. XIX
dreamers of Alexandria spoils even then ascribed to Solomon,

and which secured the favour
"
Of those demons that are found

In fire, air, flood, or under ground;
Whose power hath a true consent
With planet or with element."
One object I have kept steadily in view throughout the whole

of this investigation to show how the productions of the
different schools are to be distinguished from each other and to ;
this has been given in describing the

particular attention
numerous remains proceeding from the several sources just
enumerated, that are collected in the accompanying plates,
and thus in some degree to remedy the confusion that reigns
at present in the whole department. My predecessor, Matter,
busied himself only with the doctrines, making use of the
monuments merely in illustration of his remarks but as my own ;
labours are properly designed to be subsidiary to his invaluable

treatise, I refer the reader to him for the more complete
elucidation of the philosophy of Gnosticism, and give my full
attention to its archaeological side, which he has too cursorily
glanced at, and which nothing has been done of any

for
importance since the publications of Chiflet and Montfaucon.

Last to be considered comes the Gnosis in its final and
grandest manifestation, the composite religion of Manes : with
its wonderful revival and diffusion over Medieval Europe and ;
itssupposed connexion with the downfall of the Templars, of

which catastrophe the history and causes are here briefly
sketched ; although to form a satisfactory judgment on the merits
of the case is about the hardest problem history can offer. With
their scandal and their fate is coupled the most singular phe
nomenon of modern times the preservation by their professed
descendants, the Freemasons, of so much symbolism that appears
to be indisputably Gnostic in its origin. For this, however
(unfortunately for the lovers of mystery), a very matter of fact
but doubtless sufficient cause can be assigned, and by valid
arguments established: when the solution of the enigma
irresistibly brings to mind Êsop s apologue of the
"
Fox and the
Mask," and his exclamation of disappointment after he had at

XX INTRODUCTION.
lastmustered up sufficient courage to examine the interior of the

awe-inspiring and venerable head. This section is illustrated
by all the information I have been able to glean from different
sources upon the curious subject of Masons Marks which,
yet existing and in common use amongst our own craftsmen
and equally so amongst the Hindoos in daily religious
observance, can be traced back through Gothic retention, and
Gnostic usage, through old Greek and Etruscan art, to their
ultimate source and which attest more convincingly than any
;
thing else what region gave birth to the theosophy making such
liberal use of the same siylse in Roman times. To assist
inquirers into this point I have been careful to give references to

all the published lists of these Marks that have come to my
knowledge ; which same rule I have observed as regards other
monographs upon the several various questions discussed in the
following pages. In this way the shortcomings of myself can be
supplied by those desirous of fuller information for 1 am well :
aware that my own best qualification for attempting an arduous
investigation like the present, extending over so many and un

connected branches of learning, lies in a larger practical ex
perience of the monuments themselves, tangible and literary,

than was possessed by those who have hitherto attempted it.
And as it is a most true adage, Dans le pays des aveugles

"
le
borgne est roi,"

there is some probability of my labours proving
both novel and interesting to many, who desire to know
something authentic upon the much-talked-of but little under
stood subject of Gnosticism.
Related to this religion by their nature are talismans and
amulets in general for Gnostic symbols and Gnostic formulae
;
gave their virtue to many of the class being borrowed either :
directly from the Gnosis, or from the older creeds out of

which
the latter was constructed. Their employment, and the notions
generating them, have been here described showing the deriva ;
tion of many of the medieval examples from the Gnostic class ;
and by following out the same principle it has been attempted

to find a key to their cabalistic legends, which may fit them
better than any hitherto offered
by symbols their interpreters
and emblems being with them those conveying the idea of death,
INTRODUCTION. XXI
which last indeed has of all others furnished the richest store
of such imagery ;
for thereby the human mind endeavoured to
familiarise itself with the thought of mortality, and by em
itself to the inevitable.
bellishing the idea tried to reconcile
This being a topic of universal interest, to say nothing of
its very important relations to Art, my collections connected
therewith have been somewhat extensive, and embrace many

in his curious esây entitled
particulars neglected by Lessing
*
Wie die Alien den Tod gebildet.
this book, many doubtless
respect to the illustrations of
With
will be surprised as well as disappointed at finding them
derived entirely from monuments of such small apparent im
this part incomplete
portance as engraved stones ; and, thinking
on that account, may accuse the author of negligence in not
having had recourse to other evidences of a more public
character. But the limitation is in truth the necessary result
of the nature of the things discussed in this inquiry. Secret
Societies, especially the one whose maxim was (as Clemens
records) that truly wise one

but keep thyself unknown
"
"
Learn to know all, ;
erect no monuments to attract public attention. They deal but

in symbols, to be privately circulated amongst their members
in
known to the illuminati ; or else they embody

only
passwords
their doctrines in drawings, like the Ophite Dia- "
mystic
"
or long since committed to the flames.

gramma ; upon papyri
The man of taste, but not an antiquary, will certainly
exclaim against the rudeness of the drawing in illustrations ; my
but the truth is that, rude as they look, they in most cases
their originals, the extreme barbarism of which it was
flatter
often found impossible to reproduce with any hope of leaving
the meaning recognisable. Be it remembered that
"
Gratia non habitat, non hoc Cyllenius antro."
Pallas no longer, as in the earlier ages of the art, guided the

as Hermes
engraver s hand, but Siva and Bhavani (ill-disguised
and the designs or else he was inspired by the
Isis) suggested ;
the Genii of Astrology.

Typhonian monsters which imagined
The of Fear, under its various manifestations, n w
religion
XX11 INTRODUCTION.
reigned supreme, having banished the beauteous sensuous

machinery of the old Greek Nature-worship, into which nothing
that was malignant or hideous was ever suffered to intrude.
The virtue of the talisman lay in the type it carried ; and in its
own material substance the manner of the exhibition of the
potent sigil was altogether unregarded. One of the most
learned men this University has ever produced once re
marked to me that the Gnostic theories reminded him of the
visions that float through the brain of a not of a fool. madman
Circumstances following gave a melancholy force to this acute
and accurate distinction. Let any imaginative person read my
extracts from the of Marcus, with all its crazy
"
"
Revelation
ingenuity in deducing the nature of the Deity from the pro

perties of numerals above all, his exemplification of Infinity
;
by the perpetual multiplication of the letters contained in other

letters making up a name he will speedily find his brain begin
to whirl, and be reminded of similar phantoms of numerals
recurring in endless series, and the equally endless attempts to
sum them up in order to obtain repose, that fill the head when
suffering from the first approaches of fever before actual
delirium pushes memory from her seat. Or, again, when the
febrile disturbance of the brain is yet slighter, one will
sometimes awake out of a dream with a fleeting sensation of

inexpressible happiness arising from the immediate attainment
of Omniscience in virtue of something that has just been
revealed to him ; but too soon he finds that ineffable something
has fled for ever, all that is left of it being the faint recollection
that it was contained in a numeral. And one of the most striking
points in the revelation of the *
Seherin von Prevorst, so
religiously recorded by Justinus Kerner (and which proves

that allthe wondrous narrative was not imposture), is her
declaration that she could see the entire history of each year as it
closed,with every event, however trifling, clear and distinct
before her mind, all comprehended within the form of a single
numeral; and her assertion upon these grounds that at the

Judgment-Day the whole past life of every man will thus be
pictured in a single moment before his mind s eye.
About half the number of the drawings for these illustra-
INTRODUCTION. XX111
tions were done by myself from the most interesting specimens

that came under my notice in the course of several years, so
that I am
able to vouch for their scrupulous fidelity. After
wards, when the sudden failure of my sight prevented my

carrying on the drawings, the kindness of the then owner of
most of the originals came to my assistance and furnished the
remainder. Most of them in factwere taken from the largo
and unpublished set contained in the ancient Praun Cabinet
(formed three centuries ago), now unfortunately broken up.

The Gnostic stones, however 73 in number have been since
that time purchased for the British Museum, where they will be
found conveniently arranged for consultation, iri the Egyptian
Room, which contains the works in terra-cotta. This my
collection of drawings was in truth the occasion of the present
work; for after making out a detailed description of each
specimen, it became easy to put the mass of materials I had
collected for their elucidation into a form available for support
ing my explanations by showing the grounds on which they

were based and in
: this way the work has grown up by gradual
accretion to its present dimensions. The theme offers so bound
less a variety of interesting subjects for research, one suggesting
it can
another in endless succession, that only be compared to
Marcus own exposition of the infinite composition of the In
effable Name (quoted above), and would alone supply materials
for a whole library of distinct treatises upon its various sub
divisions.
In those few instances where the better style of the original
deserved reproduction by a more artistic hand, I have had
recourse to the services of Mr. E. B. Utting, who has executed
the woodcuts with a spirit as well as an accuracy that leave
nothing to be desired.
PART I.
GNOSTICISM AND ITS SOURCES.

TOVTOV pc X l P LVl
&ioSev<rco,
fj.v(TTr]pi(i
TrdvTa Stavoi^co,
/cai ra Kcupvpufva rfs ayias

TNH2IN KaXeo-as, 7rapa8a)O-co.
v. 10.)
ifc J/2/WW, (Hippolytus,
Nan e pulcggio da piccola barca

Quel die fendcndo va 1 ardita prora,
Nb da nocclner ch a sc medesmo parca."
(Dante,
Farad, xxiii. 68.)
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS,
GNOSTICISM AND ITS ORIGIN.

THE general name used to designate several
"
"
Gnostics is
widely differing sects, which sprang up in the Eastern provinces
of the Roman Empire almost simultaneou.-ly with the first
planting of Christianity. That is to say, these sects then for

the first time assumed a definite form, and ranged themselves
under different teachers, by whose names they became known
to the world, although in all probability their main doctrines had
made their appearance previously in many of the cities of Asia
Minor. There, probable, these sectaries
it is first came into
definite existence under the title of upon the estab

"
Mystae,"
lishment of a direct intercourse with India and her Buddhist
philosophers, under the Seleuciclae and the Ptolemies.

The term Gnosticism is derived from the Greek, Gnosis,
"
"
knowledge a word specially employed from the first dawn of

divine.
religious inquiry to designate the science of things
Thus Pythagoras, according to Diogenes Laeitius, called the
transcendental portion of his philosophy, Pvwo-ts TOJV oi/ron/, the
"
knowledge of things that are." And in later times Gnosis was

the name given to what Porphyry calls the Antique or Oriental
philosophy, to distinguish from the Grecian systems. But the

it
term was first used (as Matter on good grounds conjectures) in

its ultimate sense of supernal and celestial knowledge, by the
Jewish philosophers belonging to the celebrated school of that
nation, flourishing at Alexandria. These teachers, following

the example of a noted Rabbi, Aristobulus, surname d the
Pcripatician, endeavoured to make out that all the wisdom

of the Greeks was derived immediately from the Hebrew
B 2
4 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.
Scripture and by means of their well-known mode of alle

;
gorical interpretation, which enabled them to elicit any sense

desired out ofany given passage of the Old Testament, they
sought, and often succeeded, in establishing their theory. In
this way they showed that Plato, during his sojourn in Egypt,
had been tlieir own scholar ; and still further to support these
pretensions, the indefatigable Aristobulus produced a string of

poems in the names of Linus, Orpheus, Homer, and Ilesiod
allstrongly impregnated with the spirit of Judaism. But his
Judaism was a very different thing from the simplicity of the
Pentateuch. A single, but very characteristic, production, of this
Jewish Gnosis has come down to our times. This is the "
Book
of Enoch "
(v. p. 18), of which the main object is to maJcc Imown

the description of the heavenly bodies and the true names of tho
same, as revealed to tho Patriarch by the angel Uriel. This
profession betrays, of itself, the Magian source whence its
inspiration was derived. Many Jews, nevertheless, accepted it
as a divine revelation ; even the Apostle Jude scruples not to
quote it as of genuine
Scriptural authority. The Pistis- "
Sophia,"
attributed to tho Alexandrian heresiarch Valentinus
(so important a guide in the following inquiry), perpetually

refers to it as : Tho highest source of knowledge, as being
dictated by Christ Himself, "speaking out of the Tree of Life
unto EOT, the Primal Man." Another Jewish-Gnostic Scripture

I
of even greater interest, (inasmuch as it is the Bible of the

"
"
only professed Gnostic sect that has maintained its existence

to tho present day, the Mandaites of Bassora,) is their text
book, the Book of Adam." Its doctrines and singular

"
application of Zoroastrism to Jewish tenets, present frequent

analogies to those of the Pistis-Sophia, in its continual reference
to the ideas of the Religion of Light," of which full particulars
"
will be given when the latter remarkable work comes to be

considered (see p. 14). Gnosticism," therefore, cannot receive
"
a better definition than in that dictum of the sect first and

*
specially calling itself Gnostics," the Naaseni (translated by

the Greeks into Ophites viz.,
"
"),
"
the beginning of perfection

is the knowledge of man, but absolute perfection is the know
ledge of God." And to give a general view of the nature of

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 5
the entire system, nothing that I can do will serve so well as

to transcribe the exact words of a learned and
very acute writer
upon the subject of Gnosticism Christian (" Remembrancer,"
for 1866).
"Starting, then, from this point we ask what Gnosticism

is, and what it professes to teach. What is the peculiar Gnosis
that it claims to itself? The answer
is, the knowledge of God
and of Man, of the Being and Providence of the former, and of

the creation and destiny of the latter. While the
ignorant and
superstitious wore
degrading the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made with hands, and were
changing the truth
of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather
than the Creator/ the ancient Gnostics held purer and truer
ideas. And when these corrupted and idolatrous forms of
religion and worship became established, and were
popularly
regarded as true and real in themselves, the Gnostics held and
"
"
secretly taught an esoteric theology of which the popular creed

of multitudes of deities, with its whole ritual of sacrifice and
worship, was but the exoteric from. Hence all the mysteries
which, almost if not all, the heathen religions possessed. Those
initiated into these mysteries, whilst they carefully maintained
and encouraged the gorgeous worship, sacrifices and processions
and even openly taught polytheism, and
of the national religion,
the efficacy of the public rites, yet secretly held
something
very different at the first, probably, a purer creed, but in
course of time, like the exoteric form, degenerating. The
progress of declination differed according to race or habit of

thought : in the East it tended to superstition, in the West (as
we learn from the writings of Cicero) to pure atheism, a denial
of Providence. This system was adopted likewise by the Jews,
but with this great difference, that it was superinduced upon
and applied to a pre-existent religion; whereas in the other
Oriental .religions, the external was added to the esoteric, and
developed out of it. In the Oriental systems the external was

the sensuous expression of a hidden meaning ; in the Jewish,
the hidden meaning was drawn out of pre-existing external
laws and ritual ; in the former the esoteric alone was claimed
as divine, in the latter it was the exoteric which was a matter
of revelation. To repair thisseeming defect, the Kabbalists, or

teachers of the
*
Hidden Doctrine, invented the existence of a
secret tradition, orally handed down from the time of Moses.
We may, of course, reject this assertion, and affirm that the Jews
learnt the idea of a Hidden Wisdom, underlying the Mosaic
Law, from their intercourse with the Eastern nations during
the Babylonian captivity and we may further be assured that
;
the origin of this Secret Wisdom is Indian. Perhaps we shall

be more exact if we say that the Jews learnt from their inter-
Bourse with Eastern nations to investigate the external Divine
Law, for the purpose of discovering its hidden meaning.
The heathen Gnostics, in fact, collected a Gnosis from every
quarter, accepted systems as partly true, and

all religious
extracted from each what harmonized with their ideas. The
Gospel, widely preached, accompanied by miracles, having

new
doctrines and enunciating new truths, very naturally attracted
their attention. The Kabbalists, or Jewish Gnostics, like
Simon Magus, found a large portion of apostolic teaching in
accordance with their own, and easily grafted upon it so much
us they liked.Again the Divine power of working miracles
possessed by Apostles and their successors naturally
the
attracted the interest of those whose chief mystery was the
practice of magic. Simon the Magician was considered by the

Samaritans to be the great Power of God he was attracted;
by the miracles wrought by the Apostles; and no doubt he

sincerely believed, that is, after his own fashion. His notion
of was probably an initiation into a new
Holy Baptism
and by
mystery with a higher Gnosis than he possessed before,
which he hoped to be endued with higher powers; and so
likewise many of those who were called Gnostic Heretics by
the Christian Fathers, were not Christians at all, only they
adopted so much of the Christian doctrine as accorded with
their system."
The consideration of the local and political circumstances of

the grand foci of Gnosticism will serve to explain much that is
puzzling in the origin and nature

of the system itself. Epliesus
was, after Alexandria, the most important meeting-point of

Grecian culture and Oriental speculation. In regard to
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.
the Egyptian
commerce and although she yielded to
riches,
she rivalled Corinth in both, which city in truth
capital, yet
Her
she far surpassed in her treasures of reli-ion and
science.
richness in theosophic ideas and rites had from

time immemorial
in her of Diana, "whom all Asia
been manifested possession
and the world,"
that pantheistic figure so con
worshipped
formable to the genius of the furthest East; her College of
Essenes
"
dedicated to the
"
service of that goddess ; and her

"
Megabyzae,"
whose name sufficiently declares their Magian
of highest
institution. Hence, also, was supplied the talisman
the far-famed
"
repute in the antique world,

Ephesian spell,"
the zone and feet of the
those mystic words graven upon
that fell down from Jupiter;"
and how zealously
"image
her citizens is apparent from St.
magic was cultivated by
to
Luke sincidental notice of the cost of the books belonging
the"
regular names for

that used curious arts (ra irepUpya,
"
those
their owners in the first
sorcery and divination) destroyed by
to a new faith. Such converts, indeed,
transports of conversion
after their early zeal had cooled down, were not likely to resist
the allurements of the endeavour to reconcile their ancient,
in short, to follow
far-famed wisdom, with the new revelation ;
the plan invented not long before by the Alexandrian Jew, in
his reconciliation of Plato with Moses

and the Prophets.
Matter, the speculations of the Jewish-Egyptian
"
Ephesus," says
of the Kabbala, had
school, and the Semi-Persian speculations
of Grecian and
then recently come to swell the vast conflux
that teachers should
Asiatic doctrines; so there is no wonder
the religion
have sprung up there, who strove to combine
the with the ideas so long estab
newly preached by Apostle
lished in the place. As early as the year A.D. 58, St. Paul, in
his First Epistle to Timothy, enjoins
him to warn certain persons
to abstain from teaching strange doctrines,
those myths and
that only breed division. These same
interminable genealogies
without any doubt, to the
myths and genealogies apply,
of the Emanation of the ôns-Sephiroth, and to all the
theory
relations between the Good and
Bad Angels that the Kabbalists
had borrowed from the religion of Zoroaster."
certain doctrines concerning the
Again, after condemning
obligation to complete asceticism, adopted literally from the

Essence, the Apostle adds, keep safe the precious charge
"
entrusted to thee, avoiding profane novelties and the antitheses

of the knowledge, falsely so-called, of which some
making
profession have gone astray from the faith of Christ." It was
assuredly not the mere fables by which the new converts

sought to enrich and complete the Christian doctrine (such as
we still have samples of in the childish, though pious fictions
of the Apocryphal Gospels), such things as these were certainly
not the false knowledge," which set itself up
"
against the
"
true knowledge," that is, Eevelation itself, something as
superior to that Revelation. It must, on the contrary, have

been a doctrine professing to make a science out of the Christian
faith, and that, too, a science founding its principles upon
antitheses. Now what are these "
antitheses
"
(or, oppositions)
but the the
Zendavesta, concerning the two
teaching of
Empires of Light and Darkness the two grand classes of ;
Intelligences, the good and the evil spirits ; and the perpetual
combat going on between them ? Now these antitheses, or the
principle of Dualism, is that which forms the most conspicuous
feature of the Gnostic scheme and in the Apostle s words we ;
trace one of themost [obvious ways in which such doctrines

were communicated, and how they insinuated themselves into
the infant Church.
In fact the ancient commentators, Theodorot and Chrysostom,
who were thoroughly conversant with the Gnosticism of their
own day, apply this passage of St. Paul to that actual pre
cursor of Gnosticism, his indefatigable rival Simon Magus
himself, whose curious tenets had by that time been widely
diifused throughout Asia Minor.
So deeply rooted were such speculations in the minds of
many of the Ephesians, that the Apostle, in his second Epistle
to Timothy, written six years later, returns perpetually to the
subject, whilst in his Epistle to the Church at Ephesus, he

entreats his flock not to be seduced by
"
vain discourses," or
"
new-coined one reading has it, and which

appellations," (as
applies forcibly to the Gnostic nomenclature), nor by human
doctrines that have no more solidity in themselves than the
whither it
wind, whereof no one knows whence it oometh, or
the very terminology of
gooth. Nay more, ho oven employs
Gnosticism, as when he "
Ye were dead in error and in

says,
sins ye walked according to the 2Eon of this world, according
:
to the ArcJion who has the dominion of the that is, the air,"
Ildabaoth. Hero wo have the Devs of Zoroaster,

Demiurgus
whose hosts fill the air, deceive mankind, blind their under
standings, and lead them into temptation. Again when ho
adds, "Wo war not against flesh and blood, but against the
the malevolence
Dominions, the Powers, the Lords of the Darkness,
of the Spirits in the upper regions" all these are regular Gnostic
epithets, having also their place in the Kabbali.stic theology.

The later Gnosticism is, in fact, as Chiflet has well expressed it,
to assert its empire

"the
spirit of Asiatic antiquity seeking
over the soul of Man by insinuating itself into the Christian
Church." The Ophites, even in the early times of Ilippolytus,
boasted that they of all men were the only real Christians,
because they alone comprehended the real nature of the Saviour.

At the same time, they diligently attended the celebration of
all the ancient Mysteries, notably the Eleusinian
and the
that through their Jcnoivledge they had
Phrygian, declaring
to the hidden meaning of the whole ceremonial,
gotten the key
which by types and figures foreshadowed the coming of the
Christ. But indeed, Gnosticism, in its primitive form, had
materialism
almost supplanted, by spiritualizing it, the beautiful
of the early Greek and Latin mythologies. Catholicism,
its and simplicity, in the end tiiumphed

through unity greater
over the conflicting Gnostic philosophies, which became
extinct
far as Europe was
as a professed religion in the sixth century, so
and whose relics in Asia were at the same moment
concerned,
covered over with impenetrable obscurity by the sudden deluge
of the Mahommedan Nevertheless, even in the first-
conquest.
it was not to be eradicated with
named scene of its domination,
out leaving behind it deep traces in the writings
and symbolisms
of the magicians, astrologers, and seekers

after the grand arcanum
course of the Middle Ages. Thus there is a
throughout the whole
with the profoundest
passage in Dante (Paradiso, xviii.) replete
of course, our Freemasons claim for their
symbolism, and which,
own, and that with all possible security, because the very nature
of the assumption exempts them from being called upon to publish

the interpretation of the mystery. The poet here tells how the
five times seven letters making up the five words Diligito "
justitiam qui judicatis terrain came forth in the star Jupiter,

"
when the beatified spirits of just princes hovered over the final
M, forming their hosts into the figure of an eagle. Certainly
the importance given to the numerals five and seven in this
revelation savours much of Gnostic phraseology, and reminds
one of the thiity letters which make up the quadrisyllable
Name of God, as made known by Truth unto the heresiarch
Marcus, the history of which shall be given in the fitting place.

Dante had before (Canto vi.) spoken of the awe that over "
comes him before the B and I C evidently the initials

E,"
of some mighty password, although his commentators most
prosaically interpret them as the mere diminutive of the name

of his lost love, Beatrice. It was to its connection with Gnosticism
that primitive Christianity owed the accusation of being a
Magical system a superstition not only nova but malefica.

There is a curious passage in Dio Cassius, where, mentioning
how the Christian Legion in M. Aurelius Quadian War obtained
rain from Heaven through their prayers, he remarks, the "
Christians can bring about anything they desire through
prayer."
In later times the various factions within the Church
were fond of retorting upon each other this ancient aspersion of
the pagans: it was on the charge of magical practices, says
Ammianus, that the Arians managed to depose and exile the
great Athaiiasius himself.
The history of Gnosticism, written by its contemporaries, still
forms a copious library, despite the losses and damages it has
sustained through the injuries of time. In the carrying out of
the chief object of the present work the elucidation of the
tangible remains of the Gnosis no historical record has yielded

me by any means so much service as "
The Eefutation of all
Heresies," composed by Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia (Portus),
early in the third century. Many points, hitherto seeming

hopelessly enveloped in darkness, have been made clear by
the careful perusal of his judicious summaries of the systems
of the different gnostic apostles. His views of their doctrines

are evidently drawn up with equal candour and intelligence,
and fully bear out his declaration,
"
that his design was not to
vilify the holders of such doctrines, but merely

to make known
the sources whence they had really derived their pretended

revelation." And he keeps his word throughout, never once
indulging, like the later controversialists, in invectives against
asserted practices, but exhibiting the tenets only of his opponents,
and, with much

ingenuity, showing up their gross plagiarism
from Pagan philosophy. His eagerness for discovering the
latter source in the fount f every gnostic stream, sometimes
leads him to detect relationship that does not actually exist, and
stilloftener to pronounce a recent copy of the other what was in
true
reality drawn directly from the same Oriental prototype
origin of the old Greek idea with
which he identifies it. But
this invaluable, as well as most interesting, treatise breathes
all through that spirit of charity and forbearance that made a
writer belonging to a still persecuted religion, happy to be
allowed to subsist through the tolerance of its neighbours.
The abuse and scurrilous tales in which the later Epiphanius
revels sufficiently indicate the writer belonging to an established
Church, able at length to call in the secular power to assist in

convincing by the unanswerable
all adversaries of their errors
arguments of rack, rope and faggot.

Ircnacus, a Gaul by birth, and disciple of Poly carp, himself
a
in the
disciple of St. John, was elected Bishop
of Lyon year
174. In that city he composed his great treatise generally
styled Five Books against Heresies," written in an easy, and
"
indeed elegant style, although in one place he excuses its rude

ness by the fact of his having been forced during so many years
a remark of interest
"
to converse
"
in a barbarous language
as showing that remained the vulgar tongue in his

Celtic still
He is A.D. 200
diocese. supposed to have died soon after the year ;
and therefore is somewhat earlier than Hippolytus, who was

and whose Eefut ition was clearly
"
"
put to death in A.D. 222,

written after the death of Irenasus, for he quotes him occasionally
"
and has incorporated

by the title 6 paKtipios, the deceased
"
some entire chapters respecting Marcus in his own work.

The great Origen, another contemporary, has given some

important details concerning the religious systems of the
Ophites in his celebrated
"
Reply to Celsus." Two centuries

after him comes
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus, in Syria, during
the second quarter of the fifth century, who has left very full
particulars respecting the great Gnostic school flourishing in

that region. The other Christian writers who have treated
upon the origin and nature of the same doctrines were nothing
more than ignorant churchmen, able to discern nothing in any
religion beyond its external forms, and which they construed in
the darkest possible sense, ever seeking for the worst interpre
tation of which these external appearances were susceptible.
At the head of this latter class stands Epiphanius, author of the
most detailed, and, from its furious partisanship, amusing account
of the Gnostic sects that is extant his vast Panarion, "
Bread
basket," or rather, "
Scrap-basket," a whimsical title intended to
express the motly nature of its contents, picked up from all
quarters. This immense

(admirably translated into elegant
folio
Latin by the learned Petavius) is of the highest interest, full of

pictures of the struggles of the human mind to devise for itself
a revelation that shall plausibly solve all the problems of Man s

other nature. Its compiler lived as Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus
A.IV 367-403, and displays great zeal in raking up all manner
of scandalous stories against the enemies of his adoptive Church.
But there is one thing that gives immense value to his labours,
the minute account given of Manichasism that latest and
grandest development of the gnosis, which had come into
existence in the interval between Epiphanius and Hippolytus.
The rule observed by all these later historians of Gnosticism is
to represent it as a mere spurious offshoot and corruption of
Christianity; invented, usually out of disappointed ambition,
by apostates from the true faith established by the several
apostles in the Eastern provinces of the Empire a mode of

representing the system than which nothing can be more un
founded. For in its earliest shape, such as it shows itself in
the doctrine of Simon Magus, or of Basilides, the heaven-sent
knowledge merely added upon the old foundations such articles
and terms of the Christian faith as seemed capable of being
assimilated to and combined therewith, whilst on the

other
hand she availed herself of the machinery of the older paganism,

to elucidate and prove the mysteries of the now theosophy ;
and
this was conspicuously the character of the systems of Justinus,

and of the Poratae; as the very curious extracts given by
exhibit to the astonishment of
Ilippolytus from their text-books
the modern reader. That sagacious controversialist was right
in calling all these heresies nothing better than the old philo
sophies disguised under

now names his only error lay in not
;
back far to find their ultimate source.

enough Basilides,
going
for example, never professed Christianity (in fact, Tortulliaii calls
him a Platonist), but ho suporadded upon the esoteric doctrines
notions of
of the priesthood the newly-imported
Egyptian
Buddhism that probable source of so much that is strange in
the Gnosis. The introduction of the religion of Buddha into
sub
Egypt and Palestine, a fact only recently discovered, yet
monumental testimony, affords the best
stantiated by strong
of religion ;
solution for innumerable difficulties in the history
but the circumstances relating to this very important question
must bo reserved for a separate chapter.
As for the actual TEXT-BOOKS of the Gnostics,

which in their
founder of a sect being,

day formed so immense library (every
a
as Ilippolytus shows
as if by obligation, a most prolific writer,
ho quotes), hunted up aud carefully
by the number of works
the victorious orthodox, never perpetuated by
destroyed by
the sectaries became extinct, all have perished,
transcripts after
one sole to attest their nature. But this
leaving specimen
of a character so wild and wondrous, that
had fortune
survivor is
left it to our choice we could

not have preserved a more
This is the Piatis-
characteristic representative of its class.
"
a work to be perpetually quoted in
Sophia, Faith-Wisdom,"
the actual
the following pages, as it throws more light {upon
from
monuments of Gnosticism than could hitherto be collected
On this
all the other writers ou the subject put together.
will be the best
account a brief summary of its contents
of the system.
introduction to our inquiry into the nature
PISTIS-SOPHIA.
This treatise, ascribed to Valentinus (I know not on what
authority) was discovered by Schwartze in a Coptic MS.

preserved in the British Museum. He transcribed
the Coptic
text and translated it into Latin both texts and;
version were
published by Petermann in the year 1853. The original is
copiously interspersed with Greek words and phrases

in fact, ;
the Coptic was evidently so poor a language as to have no terms

of its own to express any but the most materialistic ideas. The
matter of its professed revelation is set forth also with endless
repetitions, bespeaking a language destitute of relative pronouns,

of conjunctions, and of all the other grammatical refinements
necessary for the clear and concise expression of thought.*

The authorship of this record is assigned by itself in several
bids to sit down
places to Philip the Apostle, whom the Saviour
and write these things This circumstance made me at first
!
conclude it to be the lost Gospel of Philip quoted by Epiphanius,

but the particular anecdote adduced by him from that gospel is
not to be discovered anywhere in this. But as the original is
full of wide lacunae, which often

fall in very interesting places,
as if purposely defaced to escape the eyes of the profane, such

an omission is not altogether conclusive against the identity of
the two.
The nature of the book may be briefly sketched as follows.
It professes to be a record of the higher teaching of the Saviour
communicated to his disciples during the eleven years he passed
with them on earth after his crucifixion, and when he had
returned from his ascension into Heaven. This ascension had
been made from the Mount of Olives, where he received from on
high two shining vestures inscribed with five mystic words ( 16),
and the names of the powers whose domains he had to
all
traverse. He thus (as he relates to the disciples) passes through

the gate of the Firmament, the Sphere of Fate, and the regions
* It is intended to issue an English translation as a supplement to the
present work.
of the Twelve Great TEons, all of whom in succession are terror-
smitten, and fall down before him and sing hymns of praise.
On arriving at the thirteenth aeon, he finds seated

below and
weeping the excluded Power Pistis-Sophia,* who gives her

name
to the revelation. She, having once caught a glimpse of the
Supreme Light, was seized with a desire to fly upwards into

it :
but Adamas, the ruler of her proper place, being enraged at this
act of rebellion against himself, caused a false light, a veritable
ignis fatuus, to shine upon

the waters of the subjacent chaos
which lured down the hapless aspirant, and she was inextricably
immersed in the abyss, and beset by the spirits thereof, all
This doctrine of the
eager to deprive her of her native light.
admixture of derived from the Treasure of Light, with
light,
imprisonment therein, and its extraction
matter, its
and recovery
pervading idea
"
of the the
by the appointed Receivers
"
is
Light
of this revelation, to a greater extent even than in the Ophite
scheme. As part of the same notion comes the frequent allusion to

the Kepcur/Aos or chaotic commixture of Light and Matter, to
reorganise which is the special object of the Saviour s descent

from above.
At least is taken up with the account
one half of the book
of the successive steps by which she ascends through all the
Twelve .ZEons by the Saviour aid, and the confession she sings
s
at each stage of her deliverance out of chaos. Each confession

is proposed by Jesus to a disciple for explanation, and is
referred to some psalm or other prophecy containing parallel

sentiments; this concordance being occasionally made out
with
considerable ingenuity. A remarkable peculiarity is that all

most
throughout Mary Magdalene is the chief speaker, and the
her spiritual knowledge, though once
highly commended for
she is sharply rebuked by Peter for her presumption in thus
herself forward unbidden and not giving
perpetually putting
the men a chance to speak. After Pistis-Sophia has thus
the most valuable portion of the
regained her lost position,
assigns a different reason for her

* This banishment of Sophia from
the of
the society of the other Êons is the degradation, as in system
turning-point of the principal Valentinus, and also that of the later
grand
Gnostic schemes, although each Ophites.
16 THE GNOSTIOB AND THEIR REMAINS.
exposition of doctrines commences. The Magdalene asks the

great question as to the final cause of Sin ( 281), to which Jesus
returns a long and minute description of the composition of the
soul of man, which is fourfold, the divine
spark therein (a
particle of the Light yet entangled in the Kepaoyxos) being
encased in a three-fold envelope formed out of the effluvia of the
rebellious Êons, the tendency of which is to keep it in subjection
to the passions, and to themselves, so that when separated from
may not bo able to escape out of their domains, the
"
the body it
here represented as places of pain. These
"
regions of mid-space
.ZEons are elsewhere identified with the signs of the Zodiac. Next
comes a detailed account of the Kulers of the regions of torment
a a bear, a cat, a dog, a
( 320), of their authentic forms, crocodile,
a black bull, &c., and of their authentic names these last
serpent, ;
are not Semitic, but either Coptic or belong, judging from their
terminations, to the mystic language generally used upon the
Gnostic stones. After this wo have the several punishments
appointed for the various sins of mankind, and the exact number
of years and even of days required for the expiation of each in
its proper dungeon (ra/xetov). These places of torment are all
enclosed within the Dragon of Outward Darkness. It is worthy
of remark that the serpent, whenever introduced, is a thing
of evil a sure indication that the book is under the
influence of the Kabbala. The same conclusion is doducible
from the malignity pervading the entire dispensation which it
pictures; and the evident delight it
takes in creating and
of which heretics
parcelling out the various punishments,
naturally get the largest share. The philosophic Gnostic
schemes have no severer penalty for those who do not listen to
them than the want of Knowledge, and the subjection to Matter.
After purgation in these prisons the souls are put into new
bodies, and begin a new probation upon earth.
The judge of souls is the Virgin of Light, attended by her
seven hand-maids. Certain sins, but few in
number, are
punished by annihilation, and admit of neither expiation nor
atonement. But for all the rest instant remission is procurable,
it the friends of the deceased celebrate on his behalf the

"
Mystery (or, Sacrament) of the Ineffable One." This must be

the very earliest notice extant of the belief in the efficacy of

the offering up of a sacrament for the redemption of souls,
There is a singular provision made for the salvation of a per
fectly righteous man, but who in his

life-time has not enjoyed
the opportunity of being converted. The angels take his

and it through all the realms of punishment
departed soul, carry
with the utmost rapidity, and then conduct him before the
Virgin of Light, who clothes it in a new body to recommence
its earthly career, to obtain there the advantage of the mysteries
and so become an heir of Light. The nature of the particular
is in no place
Mystery, so perpetually alluded to in this work,
of the Four and Twenty
explained it is, however, the highest
:
;
for such is the number of the Mysteries here mentioned, one for
each of the grades in its celestial hierarchy, for the Five Marks,
for the Seven Vowels, for the Five Trees and for the Seven Amcns.
Throughout are interspersed frequent allusions to the seals,

and the numbers of the Mysteries, courses, and divine personages,
borrowed partly from the usages of the Temple, partly from those
of the old Egyptian worship. They are repeated and involved
in a multitudinous, inextricable sequence, that to one not having
the key thereto belonging, strongly calls to mind the numerical
vagaries that flit before the

mind when slightly delirious and :
which even the plodding German editor confesses, in his preface,
often made his brain whirl as he attempted to transcribe them.

headed a Portion of the
"
Lastly comes a long fragment ( 358),
Prayers of Jesus," which tells

more directly upon the subject of
these researches than anything that has fallen in my way.
The Saviour, attended by his disciples, standing sometimes on
a mountain, sometimes by the sea, and sometimes in mid-air,
addresses prayers to the Father, prefaced with long formulae of
the same character, and often in the same words, as those
monuments. Some of
covering the more important Gnostic
these opening invocations are expounded, and seemingly
them, though not in a
paraphrased, in the prayers following
manner. Also Jesus celebrates, with many
very satisfactory
of wine and water, which, there
singular formalities, a sacrifice
is reason to believe, is the grand Mystery or Sacrament
so often
lauded in the foregoing chapters. The whole closes with a
c
long exposition by him of the influence of the ôns of the

Zodiac upon the soul of the infant born under each, and of the
fortunate or malign intervention of the planets in such cases.
Of the latter the sacred names are communicated apparently as
used by the Magi. A few Egyptian deities, eg. Bubastes and
Typhon, are named here, and the Syrian Barbelo is frequently
introduced, as a personage of the very highest importance, being
no less than the lieavenhj mother of the Saviour himself. His
earthly Mother is indeed represented as attending at these
revelations, but she plays a very secondary part therein to the
Magdalene and even to Salome. The last thing to be noticed in

this most remarkable fruit of a
crazy, mystic imagination it is
bard to say whether more Kabbalist, or Magian, or Christian is
the opposed dualism of many of the Powers introduced as agents
in the economy of the universe for example, there is an
:
obedient and a rebellious Adamas (that highest name with the

earlier Naaseni), a great and a little Sabaoth, and similar
antitheses to be met with also in the later Ophite schemes.
THE BOOK OF ENOCH.

This most ancient (as
it
professes) of the Hebrew Scriptures
being so frequently referred to as the highest authority by the
./Eon Pistis-Sophia, a brief
summary of its doctrine seems to
form the necessary complement to the preceding section. The
Book of Enoch, though often quoted by the Fathers, had been
lost ever since the eighth century
(with the exception of a few
chapters of a Greek version preserved by Georgius Syncellus),
until Bruce brought back three copies of it from
Abyssinia. In
the canon of that Church it takes its place in the Old Testament
immediately before the Book of Job.*

* An English translation was The best German translation is that
made by Dr. Lawrence, Bishop of of Dillmann, 1857. Cf. Schodtle
Cashel, of which the third edition, 7?oofc of Enoch, 1882.
with notes, was published in 1837.
This book is divided into ninety chapters, and begins with

the preface :
"
In the Name of God, the merciful and gracious,

slow to anger, and of great mercy, and holiness. This Book is
the Book of Enoch the prophet. May blessing and help

bo
with him who loves Him, for ever and ever. Amen. Chapter I.
This word is the blessing of Enoch with which ho blessed the
chosen and the righteous that were of old. And Enoch lifted
up his voice andspoke, a man of God, while his eyes wcro

holy
in the heavens, which the angels
open, and he saw a holy vision
revealed to him. And I heard from them everything,
and I
understood what I saw." After this follows the history of the
angels, of their having

descended from heaven, and produced
of men of their having instructed
giants with the daughters ;
them in the arts of war, and peace, and luxury. The names
of
the leading angels are mentioned, which appear to

be of Hebrew
Greek The resolution

origin, but corrupted by pronunciation.
then revealed to Enoch. These
of God to destroy these is
From the eighteenth

topics occupy about eighteen chapters.
Uriel and
to the fiftieth chapter Enoch is led by the angels
series of visions not much connected with
Kaphael through a
the fallen
the preceding. He saw the Burning Valley of
of the saints, the utmost ends of the earth,
angels, the Paradise
the treasuries of the thunder and lightning, winds, rain,
dew
and the angels who presided over these. He was led into the
saw the Ancient of Days on his

place of the General Judgment,
before him. At the fifty-
throne, and all the kings of the earth
have been alarmed at the
second chapter, Noah is said to
to
enormous wickedness of mankind, and, fearing vengeance,
have implored the advice of his great-grandfather. Enoch told
him that a flood of water should destroy the whole race of man,
and a flood of fire punish the angels whom the deluge could
not In Chapter L1X. the subject of the angels is re

affect.
Kamiel,
sumed, Semeiza, Artukaru, Arimeoii, Kakabael, Tusael,
and others to the number of twenty, appear at the head
Damdal,
of their rebellious
of the fallen spirits, and give fresh instances
At Chapter LXII. Enoch gives his son Methuselah
dispositions.
a account of the sun, moon, stars, the year, the months,
long
This takes up
the winds, and the like physical phenomena.
c 2
eight chapters, after which the Patriarch makes a recapitulation

of the former pages. The remaining twenty chapters are
employed on the history of the Deluge, Noah s preparations for
it,and the success which attended them. The destruction of

all flesh excepting his family, and the execution of divine
vengeance on the angels, conclude the work.
Fio. 1.
GNOSTICISM IN ITS BEGINNING.

To begin with the received account of the RISE AND PROGRESS
of the Gnostic philosophy, for that is its proper appellation,
heresy being properly restricted to differences of opinion between

members of one regularly established community, we find
that as early as the year A.D. 35, the Samaritans were regarding
Simon Magus, as the Great Power of God," and he and his
"
disciple Cerinthus, are represented by the Christian Fathers as

the actual founders of Gnosticism, under that accepted name.
Of the former, Hippolytus gives a history which there is no
reason for not accepting as correct in the main particulars. He
was a native of Gitteh, in the province of Samaria, and com
menced his career, and soon acquired great influence amongst
his countrymen, by practising magic after the "
Thrasymedian
method
"
(i.e. jugglery, as previously described by Hippolytus),

working miracles through the agency of devils."
"
nay more, by
Having fallen in love with a beautiful courtezan at Tyre, rue
bought her from her owner, and always carried her about with
v
him, declaring that she was the
"
Ei/vota) that of
"
Intelligence (
oldwas imprisoned in the body of the Grecian Helen, then of the

Lost Sheep, but now was restored to him for the salvation of the
world. Even before the preaching of Christianity he had set
up for a teacher of a new religion, plagiarised from Moses and

Heraclitus the "
Obscure," based upon the axiom that Fire was

the First Principle of all things, subordinate to which were the
a curiously compounded mixture of Judaism
"
Six Radicals
"
and Magism, of which Hippolytus gives a full though not very

intelligible summary. This Simon, after he had ransomed "
Helen, granted salvation unto men by means of his own know

ledge. For inasmuch as the angels had governed the world ill
by reason of their own ambitiousness, he pretended that he was
come to set all things right ; and having changed his form and
made himself like to the Principalities, the Powers, and the
Angels, wherefore it was that he showed himself in the form of

man although not a man at all, and had suffered the Passion in
Juda3a, although he had not really suffered it; moreover, that

lie had manifested himself to the Jews as the Son, in Samaria
as the Father, and amongst the Gentiles in other parts as the
Holy Ghost; but he submitted to be called by whatsoever

name they pleased. The Prophets were inspired by the Angels,
when they delivered their prophecies on
creators of the world, ;
which account they that believe in Simon and Helen pay no

regard to them (the Prophets) even in our times and they do :
whatever they please, pretending that they are redeemed

through his
grace."
..." Now
same Simon, when he was this
by his magic arts deceiving many in Samaria, was confuted by

the Apo-stles, and having been cursed by them, he afterwards
fellfrom his reputation and invented these fables. At last,
having travelled to Rome, ho again ran against the Apostles,
and Peter had many encounters with him when he was seducing
multitudes through his magical practices. Finally, having gone
into the land of Persia, ho took up his abode under a plane-tree,
mid there preached his doctrine. But at last, when he was on
the point of being convicted for an impostor, in consequence of
hismaking too long a stay in the same place, he gave out that,
if he were buried he would rise again on the third day.
alive,
And iti truth,
having caused a pit to be dug by his disciples
lie commanded himself to be covered over with earth. They
therefore did what he commanded them, but he never came
back unto this day, inasmuch as he was not a Christ. Now this
is the story told concerning Simon, from whom Valentinus
borrowed his first ideas, but called them by different names.

Mind, and Truth, and the Word, and Life, and the
*
For
(
liurcli, and Man, the Êons of Valentinus, are confessedly
*
*
the Six Radicals of Simon, namely, Mind, Intelligence, Voice,
Name, Eeason, and Thought.
"
But to go on with the series of teachers this counter-
apostolical succession Simon was followed by Menander, he by

Basilides at Alexandria, who, dying about A.D. 138, was replaced
by Valentinus, born of Jewish parentage in the same city. This

last is styled by Ireneeus
"
Chief of the Gnostics," on account

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. "23
of the importance and wide diffusion of his doctrines even
during his own lifetime. In Syria other sects were being

founded contemporaneously with these, taking their names
from Marcion and Bardesanes, both of whom tradition represents
as Persians by origin, and consequently Magians by religious
training. The by some called a native of Pontus, a

latter is
circumstance, however, making no difference as to the source

of his opinions, that region being confessedly the seat of
Mithraicism, and ruled over by a line claiming descent from
the first Darius, or a satrap of his. It is needless to enumerate
here the founders of less important sects, until we come to the
uprising of Manes, author of the most daring and most

permanent theosophy of them all, which fought twice over
so long and obstinate a battle with the Catholic faith. This
sect, its origin, and tenets, on account of the curiosity of its
doctrines, and the immense influence that they exerted over the
ancient and mediaeval world, will be considered at length in
another chapter as will also the Opliites whose name figures
;
so conspicuously in the history of the primitive Church.

What has been mentioned above with respect to the countries
producing the founders of all these sects Egypt, Syria, or
Persia leads us to expect to find one common principle
pervading the systems of all, and such is most probably the

case. The fundamental doctrine held in common by all the
chiefs of the Gnosis was, that the whole creation was not the
work of the Supreme Deity, but of the Demiurgus, a simple
Emanation, and several degrees removed from the highest power.
To the latter, indeed, styled by them the Unknown Father
"
"
(or as Simon first designated him The Boundless Power,"

"
and
"
The Root of all Things"), they attributed the creation of the

intellectual world the Intelligences, the Êons, and the
that is,
Angels whilst, to the Demiurgus they referred the creation of

the World of Matter, subject to imperfection from its very nature.
But in order clearly to understand the grand principles under
to possess the
lying these doctrines, it is absolutely necessary
main features of the older systems from which these same
doctrines were principally borrowed ;

these systems being that
of the Zendavesta, of the Kabbala (which is little more than a
translation of the same), and of the reformed Brahminical
religion as taught by the Buddhist missionaries in the

dominions of the Syro-Macedonians, or picked up in India
by Alexandrian merchants visiting the emporia of Guzerat
for the sake of trade.
to express their ideas visibly upon their monuments
Although
(the elucidation of which is the special object of this treatise)
the Gnostics largely borrowed the images and symbols of the
ancient Egyptian mythology (especially those connected with
the Agathodaemon, the Solar god lao, and the guide of souls,
the jackal-headed Anubis), yet these figures were employed in a
new sense, unless indeed we suppose (what
is probable enough)
that their esoteric meaning had been from the very beginning
similar to that published by the teachers of the new faith.
This last explanation was in fact the perpetual boast of
Valeiitinus, and runs through every article of his theosophy as
we read it in the interesting summary given by Hippolytus ;
and again, must never be forgotten, for it is the key to many

it
of the seeming contradictions in the different systems about to

be passed in review, that Greek and Jew carried with them
their ancient quarrel into the new field of the Gnosis. The
former exalts the Bacchic Serpent, whilst he makes Sabaoth little
bettor than a demon; the latter continues to abominate the
Serpent as the impersonation of Satan, but his Sabaoth is the

Great and Good (as Pistis-Sophia perpetually entitles him),
"
"
the defender of the believer s soul against the malignant JEons "
of the Sphere," and the influence of Judaism radiating from its

second focus, the school of Alexandria, was so much more
powerful than ordinary readers of history have ever suspected,
that a few remarks upon this very curious subject will form a
useful introduction to our consideration of its later
philosophy.
INFLUENCE OF JUDAISM ON THE ANCIENT WOKLD.

People in these times are still so influenced by the ideas
engendered by the fifteen centuries of ecclesiastical regime, during
which hatred and contempt for the Jewish race formed an
important Christian virtue, that they entirely overlook the

influence exercised by Judaism over the minds of the heathen
world so long as the Temple stood, and the national worship was
celebrated there in all its glory. When the Komans, by their
conquest of Syria, and soon after of Egypt, came into direct
contact with the Jewish nation, although they disliked them
individually, yet they conceived an intense admiration

for their
ancient, mysterious, and solemn worship. But, in fact, every

institution, hallowed by the stamp of antiquity, immediately
commanded the respect of the genuine old Roman. The
Emperors lost no time in gaining a new patron, of mighty and
undefined power, in Jehovali, by instituting a daily sacrifice to
be ever offered at their own cost on behalf of themselves and
empire. The discontinuance of this sacrifice, by the
faction of
the Zealots which had taken possession of the Temple, is noted

as the consummating act of the great revolt and
by Josephus
attempt to re-establish independence, which brought down final
destruction upon Zion. To give a few examples of the hold
Judaism had taken upon the imaginations of the highest classes
in Rome, whence its vastly magnified power over the minds of
the vulgar, may be calculated according to the well-known rule
of proportion in such matters. To mark Augustus freedom
from superstition, Suetonius quotes the circumstance of his
heir
highly commending the conduct of his grandson Caius, his
his to and Palestine he
apparent, because during visit Egypt
had forborne to visit Apis in the one and the Temple in the
other country. Putting the two religions in this way upon an

then held by
equality, of itself demonstrates the high place
the Jewish in popular estimation for by that time the
;
will show,
Egyptian, as the chapter upon the Serapis-worship
had to a great extent superseded the worship of the national
deities of Koine. Fuscus Aristius, a friend of Horace s, and
therefore to be supposed a person of consequence and of
education, makes it his excuse for not attending to a business-

matter, that the day happened to be the Sabbath, and that
ho"
was alittle superstitious, like many others."
The influence and numbers of the Jews actually residing at

Rome under the Republic is strikingly exhibited by some
2(J THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.
observations of Cicero in his oration in defence of Flaccus.

Flaccus,when commanding in Asia, had prohibited the sending
of money to Jerusalem. This money can only mean the tribute
paid by each adult Jew to the Temple, of half a shekel, or two
drachmas a head. Flaccus seized the money that had been
collected for the purpose in defiance of his edict, amounting at
Apamea to nearly one hundred pounds weight of gold, at

Laodicea to twenty. The only gold piece of the age being the
stater, current for twenty-five drachma3, and of the weight of fifty
to the pound, these collections would give us fifty thousand

tribute-payers at the former city, and ten thousand at the other.
"
The orator considers this "
auri Judaici invidia so damaging

to his cause, that he explains the circumstances in a whisper to
the jurymen, in order not to excite the indignation of the Jews
amongst his audience. He actually declares that Flaccus s

enemies had managed that his cause should be tried in that
particular court in order to have the aid of the Jews
domiciled
in that quarter of Koine, to intimidate the jury, and so gain a
verdict against him. Sequitur auri ilia invidia Judaici. Hoc
"
niinirum est illud, quod non longe a gradibus Aureliis ha3C causa
dicitur. Ob hoc crirnen hie locus abs te, Laoli, atque ilia turba
quaisita est. Scis quanta sit rnanus, quanta concordia, quantum
valeat in concionibus. Submissa voce agani, tantum ut judices
audiant. Neque enim desunt qui istos in me atque in optimum
quemque inciteiit, quos ego quo id facilius faciant non adjuvabo."
(Chapter XXYIII.) And what is still
more surprising this
influence continued to work even after the fall of Jerusalem,
and the extinction of the people as a nation. Spartianus mentions
that Severus in his tour of investigation throughout Asia, when
he forbade people to turn Christians, extended the same inter
dict to the Jewish religion also. Again, to show the natural
his indignation on
good-heartedness of Caracalla, he instances
account of the severe flogging which a boy, his playfellow, had
received from his father, with the emperor s approbation, on the
score of his Judaising. The circumstances of the friendship
point out that the boy thus made
must have
"
a confessor "
belonged to one of the best families of Rome. Such a position
yet retained by the religion of Abraham is uluiot inconceivable

at that late period, when it had, besides the vigorous and ever-
increasing growth of Christianity, to contend with the

varieties
of the Gnosis which suited themselves to every taste, and in many

instances had sprung immediately out of herself (not out of her
hated daughter and rival), and by their union with heathen
philosophy,were naturally more attractive to the Gentiles than
the original parent. Even at the time when one would have
to that
expected the prejudice against anything belonging
nation to have been the most violent amongst the Romans, we
find Vespasian, the actual destroyer of their national existence,
erecting a statue in the most honourable of all situations,

to
an Alexandrian Jew, Tiberius, who had assisted him in his

attempt to gain the empire, in some manner not recorded,
but
in his capacity of the Rothschild of the age by an
possibly
opportune loan. It is true that Juvenal cannot repress his
indignation of all this prostitution to a foreigner of an

honour
before confined to the most eminent of his countrymen, and
hints it duty of every true Roman to express his sense
to bo the
of the injury by committing nuisances under the very nose of

the statue.
Atqiie triumphales, inter quos ausus habere
"
Nescio quis titulos yEgyptius atquc Alabarchcs,

Cujus ad effigicin non tantum meicrc fas cst." I. 130.
In the third century we find the model emperor, Severus

Alexander, setting up the image of Abraham by the side of
Christ and Orpheus, all considered as the divinely-inspired
founders of the several schools of mystery (or to go to the
different Buddlias), in
probable root of the belief, as so many
the most holy recess of his domestic chapel. A little research
amongst the annals of the later emperors would no doubt,

furnish many other examples of the hold taken by various
particulars of the Jewish creed, in its Babylonian and

Alexandrian phases, upon the religious notions of the Romans
The fact is easily accounted for, when men s ideas upon the
nature of the soul, of Government, and of a future state,
God s
are entirely vague, as were those of the educated heathen of

those times, when (old traditions being discarded as mere
to build up systems
unsatisfying poetical fables) they attempted
that should explain every difficulty by the help of reason and
philosophy alone, although destitute of any solid grounds upon

which to lay the first foundation of the fabric. Things being
in this state, a religion venerable by its antiquity (itself an
impenetrable shield against the shafts of infidelity, as even

Tacitus concedes: "Hi ritus, quoquo modo inducti, antiquitate
Hist. v. 5), possessing a
"
defenduntur complete system that solved

every problem by a professedly divine revelation, totally setting
itself above reason and human experience, but proclaiming un
questioning credence as the most meritorious of virtues, such a

religion could not but gain the victory over its disorderly and
discordant competitors, which had nothing but arguments
deduced from probabilities and analogies wherewith to oppose
it. The same contest we behold passing under our own eyes ;
Roman Catholicism with its doctrines overthrown, exploded,
rejected by reason, learning, and philosophy, for the space of
three centuries, again rapidly bringing back into her fold her
is
lost sheep, which, having wandered through the tempting ways

of Protestantism, and of philosophy or infidelity, however people
choose to call it, and unable to discover any reason that will bear
the test for standing fast at any ultimate point as the absolute
truth, at last return weary and disappointed to whence they
started, and find it conducive to peace of mind to accept assertion
for demonstration, and the age of a tenet as equivalent to its
truth.
There is yet another consideration that is of great importance
in the present inquiry, which is the close affinity between the
Judaism of and Magism, the extent of which will
this period
be pointed out in the following sections when we come to speak

of the Talmud. Remembering how much of the machinery of
the one was borrowed from the other, there is little cause for
astonishment at discovering that what are generally considered
rather be
peculiarly Jewish titles of Deity upon relics, may
attributed to a Magian source.
The three circumstances thus briefly adduced namely, the

"
direct influence of the religion of Zion as a mystery of the

"
most venerable antiquity, vying with those of Egypt and of

Babylon its subsequent indirect influence through its offshoots
;
visible the
(which left its impress upon things tangible) ;
virtue of its connection with the creed of the Magi, the secret
priesthood, or rather, freemasons of

the ancient world; these
are the things solving the difficulty that must have struck any
the so-called Gnostic
inquiring mind when beginning to study
remains. From the foregoing considerations, at least a plausible
reason may bo gathered for the fact of the Hebrew names of the
Deity, and of his angels, and of the patriarchs,

so perpetually
being repeated on works presenting the figures of genii and

of astral spirits forms of idol-monsters the most repugnant,
one would have thought, to the feelings of the worshippers of
those sacred names, profaned by such union and imagery, from ;
beholding which the true follower of Moses must certainly

have
recoiled in horror.
THE ZENDA VESTA.

The Zendavesta, literally
"
text and comment," is the doctrine
of Zoroaster (Zaratltmstra), comprised in eight parts, written at

different periods, but of which the earliest have been assigned to
the date of 1200-1000. In its present form it was collected
B.C.
by Ardeshir, the founder of the Sassanian dynasty, from oral

tradition, at the time when he re-established the ancient religion
of Persia.
In this revelation the Supreme Being is called "Boundless
Time (Zarvana Akarana\ because to him no beginning can be
"
assigned; he is so surrounded by his own glory,

and so far
exalted beyond all human comprehension, that he can only be
the object of silent veneration. The beginning of creation was
made by means of Emanations. The first emanation of the
Eternal One was Light, whence issued Ormuzd (Ahuramazda), the
of Boundless
King of Light. Ormuzd is styled the Firstborn
or Pre-existing Soul (type
"
Time and the Fcrouer

;
of him,
"
or idea in Platonic had existed from all eternity within

phrase),
the primitive By Light. means of his "Word," Ormuzd
created the pure world of which he is the preserver and the
judge. Next, he created in his own image the six Amshaspands,

who stand about his throne, and are his agents with the lower
spirits, and with mankind, whose prayers they offer up to him,
and to whom they serve for models of perfection. These Am-
shaspands, of whom Ormuzd thus making up the
is the first,
mystic number seven, are of both sexes, and the Gnostics
adopted them, as we shall see further on, into their own

systems, with the same distinction of sex. The next series of
emanations were the Izeds, twenty -eight in number, of whom
Mithras is the chief. Like the superior order, they watch over
the purity and happiness of the world, of which they are the
genii and guardians. The principal names amongst them are

Vohu-mano, Mazda, Asha, Vayu (Ventus), Geusurvi (Soul of the
Earth), Sraosha (who exactly answers, in point of duties, to the
Grecian Hermes and Jewish Gabriel, for he carries the mandates
of Ormuzd, and conveys up to him the souls of the righteous).
The third series, the Fcrouers, are in number infinite. These
are the Thoughts or
"
Ideas
"
conceived in the mind of Ormuzd

l>ofore he proceeded to creation of things. They are the
tlig
protectors of mankind during this mortal life, and will purify

their souls on the Day of the Besurrection.
The creation of these chiefs, with their angelic hosts, had
become necessary. Ahriman, the Second-born of the Eternal
One like Ormuzd, an emanation from the Primal Light, and
equally pure, but ambitious and full of pride had become
jealous of the Firstborn. On this account the Supreme Being
condemned him to inhabit for twelve thousand years the space
that illumined by no ray of light the black empire of
is
Darkness. This interval will suffice to decide the struggle

between Light and Darkness, between Good and Evil. Ahriman,
in order to oppose his rival, created in his turn three series of
evil spirits, corresponding in number, and antagonistic in office,
to each one of the good, and, like them, male and female. The
first Arch-Dem, chained each one to his
series is that of the
respective planet, and of whom the chief is Astomogt, the two-

"
footed Serpent of lies." These Devs are the authors of all evil,
both physical and moral, throughout the universe.
Ormuzd, after a reign of three thousand years, then created
THE GNOSTICS AND THEITl REMAINS.
the Animal World in six periods, creating first light a faint
image of the Light celestial then water, earth, plants, beasts,

and lastly, man. Ahriman had concurred in the creation of
earth and water, for Darkness being already inherent in these

two elements, Ormuzd was unable to exclude its nature from
them.
Ormuzd had produced by his Word a being the type and
source of universal life for all creation this being was called
;
Life, or the Bull (the same word in Zend stands for both).
This creature Ahriman contrived to destroy, but out of its
scattered seed Ormuzd, through the agency of the Amshaspand

Saphandomad (Wisdom), formed the first
human pair, Meschia
and Meschiano. This couple Ahriman, by a bribe of fruits and
milk, succeeded in corrupting, having gained over the
female
first. Then, to all the good animals made by Ormuzd, ho

opposed, by his own creation, as many mischievous and venomous
ones. The struggle still goes on the Power of Darkness often
;
is the superior, but the pure souls are assisted and defended by
the good genii, and will ultimate!^ triumph. For when things
shall seem at their worst, and Evil all-powerful in the creation,
three prophets shall appear and restore the lost Light. One of
these, Sosioch, shall regenerate the world and restore

it to its
pristine excellence. Then comes the general Resurrection,

when the good shall immediately enter into this happy abode
the regenerated earth, and Ahriman, together with his angels
and the wicked, be purified by immersion in a lake of molten
metal, so as to render them fitting members of the new kingdom.
Thenceforth enjoy unchangeable happiness, and,
all will headed
the of the Eternal One.
by Sosioch, ever sing praises
The religion of Zoroaster was a reformed version of the
ancient creed held by the inhabitants of Eritene in Bactria.
the Aryan race before
For probable that the first gods of
it is
it split into Indian and Zend, were the powers of Nature,
Indra, thunder, Mithra, sunlight, Vayu, wind, Agni, fire, Armaiti,

earth, Soma, intoxication. The worship of the last may have
been the source of the Dionysia, introduced from India, as the
Greeks themselves always asserted. These powers were called
Almras and Devas indifferently but Zoroaster reduced all these
;
powers to the secondary rank of angels, and used the name Dcvas
in abad sense only. The Zoroastrian was the established re
ligion of the Persians at the time when they conquered Assyria ;
and to a great extent it superseded the material idolatry of

the Babylonians, whose gods Darius and Xerxes melted down
without any scruple. But Matter is of opinion that the College
of Magi, established long before the Persian conquest of Babylon,
accepted the new religion upon the change of masters, retaining

nothing of the old besides Astrology and Divination.
It must not bo forgotten how large a portion of the Jewish
captivity remained permanently in Assyria only two tribes,

Judah and Levi, having been sent back to Jerusalem by Cyrus ;
and Babylon long continued the seat of a most flourishing
Kabbinical school, whilst Judea itself, down to the time of the
Macedonian conquest, remained a province of the Persian
Empire. How important a part of the Persian population
at a much later period were either Jews, or under Jewish
influence, appears from the very remarkable assertion of Jose-
phus, that his nation were encouraged to brave all extremities
"
in their final struggle against the power of Rome by the

confident expectation of aid from their brethren beyond the
Euphrates."
And three centuries later Ammianus notices
that Julian s invading army came upon a city entirely in
habited by Jews in the very centre of Persia. After the
captivity, the principal literary establishments of the Jews
appear to have been seated in central Asia. The schools of

Nahardea, of Sora, of Punbiditha, were at least as famous as the
schools of Palestine (cf. Jos. Ant. xviii. 12). The latter even
appear to have paid a sort of filial deference to these foundations :
the Chaldee version of the Pentateuch, made by Onkelos of
Babylon, was accepted as the authorised version by all the Jews

living in Palestine and the Eabbi Hillel, coming from that
;
capital to Jerusalem, was received by the doctors of the Holy

City as an ornament of the same national school, and this only
a few years before the birth of Christ. From all these circum
stances it is easy to perceive how much of the Zoroastrian
element may have pervaded the Jewish religion at the time of
the promulgation of Christianity, when its principal teachers
were the Pharisees or "
separatists," if, indeed, their doctors

did not actually get their appellation from the word Pharsi,
"Persian" an etymology that has something to recommend
it. These doctrines, as then taught, are set forth in the
"
Traditions," so called from Kalbal,

to receive "
Kabbala, or
"
the main features of which shall be sketched in the following

sections.
THE KABBALA AND THE TALMUD.

The
origin of the Kal/b.ala is placed by most authors much
later than that of Christianity ;
it is not impossible
and, indeed,
that doctrines may have received great developments after
its
that epoch * nevertheless, the elements of them go back to n

;
much more remote antiquity. The Book of Daniel bears the

most traces of this antiquity, and to the attestation
conspicuous
of this record are added other proofs no less convincing.
The
idea of Emanation is, so to speak, the soul, the essential element
of the Kabbala it is likewise, as we have already seen, the
;
essential character of Zoroastrism. We may therefore consider

that it was through their very intimate connection with Persia
that the Jews imbibed that idea.

to the Zendavesta,
According to the Kabbala, as according
from the source of the Infinite
all that exists has emanated
Light.
the "Ancient of
Before things existed the Primal Being,
all
Days,"
the eternal King of Light. This King of Light is the
he is the Infinite
All; he is the real cause of all existence ;
he alone is He, there is in him no Thou but he

(En Soph) ;
cannot be known,
"
he is a closed Eye."
The universe is the revelation of the King of Light, and only

subsists in Him. His qualities are manifested in it, variously
therefore his
"
modified and in different degrees ;

it is Holy
* was first for the space of cloven years, the

The tradition is that it
committed to writing by Simon Ben whole of which he devoted to tins

work, in which, he was nan
Jochai, who, being proscribed by
the prophet Elfau.
Titus, concealed himself in a cavern
D
were, wherewith he must be

"
Splendour the mantle, as it
clothed in silence. an emanation from this Being the

All is ;
nearer therefore that any approaches to him, the more perfect

is it and the less so does it become as it recedes from him :
?
this idea of gradation is eminently Persian. Before the creation

of the world, the Primal Light filled all, so that there was no
void at all but when the Supreme Being, residing within this
;
Light, resolved to display and manifest his perfection, he

retired within himself, and formed around him a void space.
Into this void he let fall his first emanation a ray of the
Light, which is the cause and principle of

uniting all existence,
in itself the generative and conceptive forces

being both father ;
and mother in the sublimest sense, pervading all, and without

which nothing can for an instant subsist.
From this Double Force, designated by the first two letters
of the name Jehovah (Forf, He *), emanated the First-born of
"
God, the Tiltkun, or Universal Type (Platonic Idea), and

"
the general container of all beings, united within himself bv

means of the Primal Ray. lie is the creator, preserver, and
prime animator of the world. He is the Light of light,"

"
possessing the three primitive forces of the Godhead the light, :
the spirit, and the life. Inasmuch as he has received what he
gives,the light and the life, he is considered as equally a
generative and conceptive principle as the Primitive Man,"

"
Adam-Kadmon ; and as man himself is called the little world," "
or the microcosm, so this Being, his Type, is properly designated

the great world," or Macrocosm. In this their Adam-Kadmon,
"
the principle of light and life, the Kabbalists have united the
attributes of the same principles amongst the Persians.
Adam-Kadmon has manifested himself in ten emanations,
which are not indeed actual beings, but sources of life, vessels
of the Almighty Power, types of all the creation. Their names
are : the Crown, Wisdom, Prudence, Magnificence, Severity,
Beauty, Victory, Glory, Foundation, Empire. To Wisdom they

gave the title Jah ; to Prudence Jehovah ; to Magnificence El ;
* The I. H. so nearest equivalents the Greek alpha-
conspicuously placed
on some Gnostic stones probably ex- bet could furnish for the Hebrew
presses this name; as being the letters.
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. oi>
to Severity Elohim ; to Victory and Glory Sabaotlt ; to Empire

Adonai.
These are all attributes of the Supreme, as displayed in Ids
works, through which alone it is possible for the human mind

to conceive him. To the same emanations the Kabbalists give
other titles, which constantly present themselves in Gnostic
inscriptions. For example, the Croicn (Parmenides also calls
the Godhead Sre âvos) nas tlie synonym of Or, "
Light," (possibly
the same with Our, the name of a Sabean genius). Wisdom is
called is equivalent to the Sophia of Gnos

Nous and Logos, and
ticism she has also the names of Fear, Depth of thought, Eden,
;
her. Prudence is
according to the several passions that animate
the river flowing out of Paradise, the fountain of the oil of
"
unction." has for symbol a lion s head Severity, a

Magnificence ;
red and black fire Beauty, the colours green and yellow ;
;
the symbol of Beauty is an illuminating mirror Victory is ;
Jehovah Sabaoth, having for symbol the pillar on the right
hand, called Jachin ; Glory has the left pillar Boaz, called
likewise the "
Old Serpent,"
and sometimes "
Cherubim and
"
this principle answers to the genius OpMs of the

Seraphim ;
Boaz
"
Gnostic systems. "Jachin" and "
signify Strength
of the
and Power they figure conspicuously in the symbolism
:
secret societies of modern times and naturally so, for these ;
illuminati have borrowed (probably without understanding it)
all the terminology of the Valentinians and the Kabbalists.

Foundation becomes the Tree of the knowledge of Good and
"
"
Evil: also Noah, Solomon, and the Messiah all which titles
between the
merely express the eternal alliance existing
from and in virtue whereof
Supreme and all that emanates him,
he back into himself all the souls that have lost their
brings
original purity. "Empire"
is the Consuming Fire, the wife
of the Church all three titles being also employed in thu
Valentinian system.
The or yEons, to one another
relationship of the
"
Sephiroth,"
the Kabbalists represent by a of circles intersecting iu a number

of a
mysterious manner ad infinitum ; or again, by the figure
Man, orof a made of such circles.
Tree,
The figure of the Man,
up
Seir-Anpin, consists -of two hundred and forty-three numbers,
"bers, being the numerical value of the letters in the name Abram,
and signifying the different orders in the celestial hierarchy.
The first idea of this type was possibly borrowed from the
Hindoo figure of Brahma and the several types typified by the
different parts of his body, to which mystical values are still
attached by the Hindoos.
The ten Sephiroth served as types or models for the visible
Creation and from them emanated the Four Worlds, Aziluth,
;
B riah, Jezirah, and Asiah ; each world successively proceeding

out of the one above and each in succession enveloping its
it,
superior. A theory this, possibly borrowed from Plato s de

scription of the arrangement of the seven spheres, as given
in the Vision of Er," at the end of his
"
Kepublic,"
where "
he compares them to a set of the hemispherical bowls used

by jugglers, fitting into, and moving loosely within, each
other (lib. x. 614B, seq.~).
These Four Worlds become less pure as they descend in the

series ; the least pure of all being the material world. But
nothing is entirely material, for all subsists through God, the
ray of his light penetrating through all creation being the
Life of the life, and consequently "
all is God." This universal

All is divided into thirty-two
"
Gates," the elements or energies

out of which beings are formed. all
The world is inhabited by the Parsuphaim, the purest

Aziluth
emanations of the Deity, having nothing material in their
composition. B
riah is possessed by an inferior order, who are
the servants of Aziluth, although still immaterial creatures.

Stilllower are the inhabitants of Jezirah, to which world belong
the Cherubim and Seraphim, the Elohim and the Bene-Elohim.
But Asiah is peopled by gross material existences of both sexes,
the Klippoth delighting in evil, whose chief is Belial. These

last beings are full of ambition, and ever at war with the pure
spirits of the superior worlds, whose empire they unceasingly

endeavour to usurp.
The three superior orders just described answer to the
Amshaspaiids, Izeds, and Fravashis, of Zoroaster
;
as do the
Klippoth, in their vast numbers and malicious nature, to his

Devs. This discord did not exist in the beginning, it was the
result of a revolution in heaven, called the

"
Fall of the Seven
Kings,"
from whom* the Creator, as a punishment, extracted the
principle of good and light, and bestowed

it upon the inhabi
tants of the three superior spheres.
This last notion is common to many forms of Gnosticism.
The Ophites make Achamoth extract from Ildabaoth and his
six sons the inherent ray of Divine Light, in order to bestow it
upon Man. Again, the Pistis-Sophia represents two great

angels, Melchisedech and Zorocothora (gatherer of light) making
their annual rounds through the rebellious
"
Êons of the
sphere
"
(zodiacal signs),
and squeezing out of them all the rays
of Divine Light that are still left in their composition, which
havino- been all extracted, the fulness of time and the kingdom
of heaven are come ;
and so, according to the Kabbala, when
the contest shall have endured for the space ordained from the
beginning of the world, the Supreme shall deliver the spirits in

Asiah from their material envelope, shall strengthen the feeble
ray of his light that is
within them, and shall establish its
pristine harmony throughout all Creation.

The Human Soul is composed of all parts borrowed from each
of these four worlds. From Asiah it gets the Ncphesh, or seat
of
the physical appetites from Jezirah the Buach, or seat of the

;
passions,from Briah the Neshamah or reason, and from Aziluth

it obtains the principle of spiritual life.
Cliaiali, or
This looks
like an adaptation of the Platonic theory of the soul s obtaining

its respective faculties from the Planets in its downward
their spheres. But the Pistis-Sophia, with its
progress through
accustomed boldness, puts this theory into a much more poetical
* The author of the Book of consummation of heaven and earth

Enoch alludes to the same legend : will be the prison of the stars and
these fountains also I per- the host of heaven. The stars

"Over
which roll over fire arc those who
ceived a place which had neither the
firmament of heaven above it, nor transgressed the commandments of
the solid ground underneath it; God before their time arrived, for
neither was there water above it, nor they came not in their proper season,
was Therefore was he offended with
any thing on wing, but the spot
desolate. And then I beheld seven them, and bound them until the
stars like great blazing mountains, consummation of their crimes in the
and like me. Then secret Chap, xviii.
spirits entreating
year."
the Angel said, this place until the

shape ( 282). The Inner Man is similarly made up of four
constituents, but these are supplied by the rebellious Êons of

the Sphere, being the Power (a particle of the Divine light
("Divina3 yet left in themselves); the Soul

particula aurae")
"
formed out of the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their
torments
"
; the Ai/Tifu/xov IIi/ev/xaTos Counterfeit of the Spirit
(seemingly answering to our Conscience) ; and lastly the Motpa

Fate, it is to lead the man to the end appointed
whose business
for him he hath to die by the fire, to lead hi in into the fire
;
"
if ;
if he hath to die by a wild beast, to lead him unto the wild

beast, &c." But in truth the entire sy stem of this most wondrous
Gospel is a mixture of the Kabbala with the ideas of Magian
astrology, clouded under the terminology of the old Egyptian

creed, to which belong its Invisible Gods," " "
Triple Powers,"
and "
the Proper Forms "
assigned by it to the different Êons.

All the human race having sinned in the First Man, that is
as regards their souls, all which were necessarily contained within
his soul at the time of the Fall, these souls are exiled hither
into prisons of Matter, called bodies, in order to expiate their
sin, and to exercise themselves in good during their residence

on earth. Such as upon quitting the body are not found
sufficiently purified for entrance into Aziluth, have to recom
mence their penance in this world. Hence the question of the
Disciples whether a man s being lorn blind were the punish
ment for his own sins, which on this supposition must have
been committed by him in a previous life. This penitential
transmigration of souls forms a very conspicuous feature in the
The wicked, after under
doctrine set forth in the Pistis-Sophia.
going torment for periods nicely apportioned to their deserts, in

prisons belonging to the several Infernal Powers, are sent into
this world again to inhabit human bodies afflicted in different
ways lame, Mind, or sunk in abject poverty. Similarly the

righteous, but unreycncrate, man is provided with a fresh body
wherein to avail himself of the sacraments of the new religion ;
which in his former life he had neglected through ignorance,

and not wilfully.
The nature of God, and of Man, is therefore the subject of
the Kabbala ;
the Government of the Creation is set forth in the
Talmud, the doctrine of which concerning the Nature of the Aiujcls

is extremely important for the understanding of much in
Gnosticism. The whole system in this particular is borrowed
from the Zendavesta ; and could not have originated before, or
indeed without the Captivity, so opposite is the spirit pervading
it to the genius of the Mosaic Law. According to it, the
government of all things is entrusted to the Angels, of whom
there are seventy Princes, watching over each element, nation,
and language. Thus, Johuel is the Prince of Fire, and
has under him seven subordinates :
Seraphiel, Gabriel, Uriel,
Temanael, Shimsael, Hadranael, and Samiel. Again, Michael
is Prince of Water, and similarly attended by seven inferior
spirits. Moreover, there are an infinity of Angels yet lower in

degree, guardians of ttie various animals, plants, heat, winds,
rains, &c. There also are others presiding over the passions
of the soul, fear, grace, favour, love, and so on. Hence it is not
to be wondered at, that the Angel who directs the course of the
sun should have under him no less than two hundred and ninety-
six hosts, whose sum is expressed by the numerical letters in the
word Haaretz the earth." The head of them is Metatron, the
"
number of his name being three hundred and fourteen, and

"
"
therefore equivalent to that of Shaddai, "the Almighty."

Metatron is the Persian Mithras; the names of the others are
all compounded with El
"
God," and contain his titles, or
invocations to him.* All this celestial roll-call fully explains
St. Paul s warning to his flock at Colossae against being reduced
into a is, an uncalled for) humility, and the

"
voluntary (that
worshipping of Angels,"
whilst the copious appearance of their
names upon talismans strongly testifies to the veneration in
which their power was held.
This last circumstance was a necessity of the case, for all

these monuments proceed from two sources the two great
schools of Magi mentioned by Pliny, the most ancient, the
* The Book of Enoch thus states luminaries ; Michael, who presides

the names and offices of the
"
Angels over human virtue, commands the

who watch Uriel presides over
"
:
nations. Sarakiel over the spirits of
clamour and terror Raphael over ;

the children of men who transgress ;
the spirits of Eagicl inflicts men ;

Gabriel over Ikisat, over Paradise,
and over the ClieruMm.
punishment on the world and the
and Orthancs, the modern of his

Chaldean, founded by Zoroaster
after bringing J
own day, by Moses and Jambres. So Juvenal,
the maker of emperors-
the proud and pompous Chaldean,
tabella
Cujus amicitia conducendaque
civis obit, et formidatus Othoni," (vi. 55<-8.)
Magnus
fortune-teller steal in with
makes the poor trembling Jewess
for the lady s private ear-her profession
going no
whispers
of dreams-
further than the interpreting or the vending
Such nocturnal
voles Judaa somnia vendent."
"Qualiacunquo
revelations, we are told, were to bo procured by sleeping
under one s pillow.
with the proper talisman put
Camillo di Leonardo, lays down that
writer on magie quoted by
down loose, and a i
-a woman with her hair hanging
a
a gesture of love, engraved upon
approaching her making
the head upon
or jacinth, being placed under
crystal, goingj
whatsoever one desires.
sleep will make one see in a dream
c
the existing productions
Such being the nature of the case,
will be most appropriately investigated
m
Gnosticism _the
the nature of the various
present by considering
Treatise
emanated. commences with
The series
sources from which they
whic.
the IKihraic, as being the
most ancient in origin, and in
Kabbalistie ideas are found the
most
the Magianandtho Jewish
To this class succeed the Abraxas-gems,
frequently united. mod
is
in which the Magian ground-work
properly so-called,
of Basilides, introducing
a strong
fied by the refinements
theology. To Egypt herself
tincture of the primitive Egyptian
talismans bearing t
more properly belong the Agaikodxmo*
emblem which gave
figure of the good serpent, Chnuphis-an
and clearly defined sect,
ite name to that very wide-spreading
the innumerable rel
the OpUtcs. Last of all
come
treasures, and of the right manner of hghtful visions.
finding them." Also, Cepheus, a

worship of Scrapis, that most recent of all the gods in the

Egyptian Pantheon, and in which the Brahminical influence
is most distinctly to be traced. This last subject, so curious
in itself, shall bo the subject of the following section, where the
numerous facts brought forward may perhaps serve to remove
some of the incredulity with which such a thesis will naturally
at first be regarded.
FIG. 2.
INDIAN SOUKCES OF GNOSTICISM. MANES.
The Persian origin of so considerable a portion of the Gnosis

Laving been set forth in the foregoing pages, it remains to
show what portion is due to a purely Indian source, and to
indicate the channels through which a direct intercourse was
carried on between the farthest east and the foci of Gnosticism,
Alexandria and Ephesus. For the Christian Gnosis was indirectly
the daughter of the Hindoo Gnosis, such as it was taught in the
various mysteries possibly in the Eleusinian and the Phrygian.
;
For universal tradition made the first founder of mysteries,

Bacchus, bring them direct from India and Jove s fi%)09, the ;
fabled birth-place of the god, may have been no other than

Mount Mem, the Olympus of the Hindoo Pantheon.*
Certain Gnostic tenets concerning the duality of the Divine
emanations, absorption into the god-head, asceticism, penance,
and self-collection, are identical with the Buddhistic teaching
upon the same points of which agreement several remarkable
;
examples will be adduced in their fitting place. But we are

not left to mere conjecture on this point, for the actual circum
stances of their importation from India are minutely detailed,
in one case that doubtless had many parallels, by the laborious
Epiphanius in his
"
Life of Manes," (Hasres. lxv.).f

This celebrated heresiarch, equally abhorrent to Zoroastrian
and Christian orthodoxy, was by birth a Persian, named
Cubricus ;
but who upon commencing his mission assumed the
title of Manes, signifying in the Babylonian tongue The "
Vessel," for the same reason,

we may
suppose, that Dante gives
to St. Paul the epithet Vas Electionis." This Cubricus had
"
* The bearer of the phallus (lin- (drawn upon by Epiphanius also),

in the grand Dionysian pro- is the "Disputation of Archelaus
gam)
cession celebrated by Ptolemy Phila- and Manes," held at Charrae in
delphus was blackened all over with A.D. 275-9. This book was written
soot, doubtless to indicate
the native in Syriac, but is only extant in a
country of that very equivocal symbol. Latin version.
f The earliest authority, however,
been slave, and subsequently sole heir, to a certain wealthy

widow who had inherited all the effects belonging to one
Terminthus, surnamed in Assyrian This Termin-
"
Buddas."
thus had similarly been the slave of a rich Saracen merchant,
Scythicus, who had studied the Greek language and literature

in some place on the borders of Palestine (perhaps the school of
Palmyra), and who "had there attained to eminence in the

empty learning of this world." By constant journeys between
his home and India, this Scythicus had amassed a large fortune.
With this he settled down in Hypsele in the Thebaid, where
ho married a beautiful courtezan, whom ho had bought and
Here, out of sheer idleness and licentiousness,
"
emancipated.
he up to preach new doctrines, not derived from Scripture
set
but from mere human reason."
These doctrines, from the nature of the case, can hardly have
been of his own concoction, but, in all probability, things that
he had picked up in India, where all the ancient emporia lay
on the Guzerat Coast, the seat of the powerful Jaina (Buddhist)
monarchy. A mere Eastern trader, a common Arab merchant
who, after making his fortune by long and dangerous travels in
the East, who could afterwards in advanced life set himself
down to study, nay more, to attain proficiency in the Greek
philosophy, must have been a man of no ordinary intellect.

Assuredly it was not the mere want of anything better to do,
(as his malicious biographer asserts), that made him turn
preacher of a new religion. His marriage with the enfranchised
courtezan looks like a theological addition, added to the portrait
for the sake of so completing his resemblance to Simon Magus.
The nature of the doctrines he was likely to imbibe in the great
Indian marts, Baroche, Barcellore, Pultaneh, or in the semi-
Grecian cities of Bactria, is attested to this day by the innumer
able Buddhist temples and topes, with their deposit of relics yet
studding the provinces this side of the Indus; and whose

contents declare the flourishing state of that religion even
when the country had passed under the rule of the Sassaniaii
Kings of Persia.
But to return to Scythicus in his retirement :
"
Taking
Pythagoras for guide, he composed four books, namely, *
The
Mysteries, The Summary/ The Gospel, and The Trea

to have
(Pythagoras was then universally believed
"
suries.
visited India, and there to have obtained the elements of his

which has a certain Brahminical character.) After "
philosophy,
this, Scythicus made a journey to Jerusalem in the very times of
the Apostles, and held conferences with the elders of the church
upon the Origin of Evil, and such like points.

But not being
satisfied by their explanations, he took to preaching magic, the
knowledge of which he had gotten along with his other wares
from the Indians and Egyptians. But as he was showing off a
miracle upon the roof of his house, he fell down and was killed.
Upon this, his servant and sole disciple, Terminthus, instead of

returning to his mistress at Hypsele, ran off with his money
into Persia, where, in order to escape detection, he assumed the
name of Buddas, which signifies "Wise."
(This last fact
of the and his doctrines he
proves incontestably the nature
master had been gathering up in their Indian travels and the ;
truth lying at the bottom of this story seems to be that he gave

himself out for a incarnation of Buddha, of which there had
fresh
been seven* before his date.)
This Terminthus was himself a
"
man of learning and con
versant with his master s four treatises. He lodged in the
house of a widow, where he used to hold conferences with the
priests of Mithras, especially

with two, Parcus and Labdacus,
upon the Two Principles, and similar

1
subjects. He, too, having

been killed by accident, like kepthis master, his landlady
books included and in
possession of all his baggage, religious
;
her turn bequeathed them to her servant Cubricus, the after
wards so celebrated Manes."
It is necessary here to point out a certain violent anachronism

told If Scythicus visited
in the story as by Epiphanius.
Jerusalem at all, he must have done so before the year of its
destruction, A.D. 70. His disciple, Terminthus, could therefore
not have survived far into the second century. The landlady
of the latter could for this reason have hardly had
for slave
Manes, who flourished about two hundred years

later. It is,
* The seventh
heaving been that gakyal who, from Benares, diffused
Buddhism all over the peninsula.

however, possible that the works plagiarised by Manes had

been preserved in her family down to the period of his service
in it.
In this history of Scythicus, however disguised Toy tradition,

we have at one view the complete history of the rise and
progress of Gnosticism. Wo find an Arab merchant of a
subtle and inquiring mind, occupying himself during his long
and frequent sojourns at the Indian marts in studying the
philosophy of these prevailing religionists, the speculations of
the Buddhist monks, and equally investigating the secrets of
the wisdom of Egypt," when detained at the other head
"
quarters of the Eastern trade. Then retiring from business,

he goes to Palmyra for the purpose of studying Grecian
philosophy, as then taught in its school, which philosophy
would be no other than Neo-Flatonism ; thence returning home,
he occupies his leisure in reducing to one harmonious system
the numerous conflicting theories upon subjects too high for
human knowledge, which he had so laboriously collected from
the three great fountains of philosophy India, Egypt, and
Athens.
Finally attracted by the fame of a new religion that professed
to throw the clearest light upon all things relating to God
and Man, being preached at Jerusalem, he immediately starts
light, leaving behind him

new
for the focus of this wife
and property, only accompanied by one servant, himself an
educated man, and his own treasured theological speculations.
On his arriving at theHoly City, we find him (as might be
expected from his previous training) grievously disappointed
in his hopes of at last obtaining the solution of all the problems
that had so long occupied his thoughts for on subjects of that
kind the Christian Presbyters could tell no more than what he
had learnt already from the Rablis of Alexandria, or the Jaina
monks of Guzerat. Thus disappointed, he appears to have set
up himself for a teacher of a new and higher doctrine, supporting
his pretensions (after the customary fashion of the times) by
miracle-working ; and as a matter of course getting his career

speedily cut short, for Jerusalem was not the place where a new
religion would be promulgated with impunity by a single indi-
vidual, and that too an Arabian. His disciple, Terminthus, taking

warning by his fate, resolves to try another school of profound
wisdom, formed from time immemorial, but as yet unvisited by
his master, and proceeds to hold discussion with the Wise Men
of the East at their head college in Babylon, seeking for the
final solution of his difficulties in the doctrine of Zoroaster. It
isvery probable that he, as the result of this study, engrafted

upon the system of Scythicus whatever features of the
Zendavesta appeared to him the most satisfactory, and consistent
best with his preconceived ideas of the truth. It would be
interesting to know whether he shaped all these fresh acquisi

tions into conformity with the original Indian groundwork of
his master s system. As already observed, such appears to
have been his course from the title that he assumed, declaring
himself an eighth Buddha," successor to the famous Gua-
"
tama, founder of the religion, and like him commissioned

to teach a new way of salvation. Terrain thus, like his master,
came to an untimely end. The Magi were not members of a
powerful establishment who would suffer themselves to

be
puzzled and confuted by an over-wise foreigner, disputing

so
boldly
"
Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and Fate,

Fixed Fate, freewill, foreknowledge absolute,"
still less to allow him to go off exulting in his victory, as his
asserted follower Manes likewise found to his cost.

Manes himself appears to have belonged to the order of
admitted after gaining his freedom and
Magi (probably being
his for he is reported to have been famous for
changing name),
his skill in astrology, medicine, magic, and painting ! This last
is curious ;
it shows that the Magi, like the media3val monks,
monopolised the arts as well as the sciences of their times.
Whether he conceived the scheme from the accidental acquisi
tion of the writings of Scythicus or not (M. Matter supposes him
to have got his first inspiration from some Egyptian Basilidan
who had found his way into Persia), certain it is that he first
gave to these notions a definite shape, and constructed his
system with such skill that it spread not merely all over the
East but throughout Europe. In the latter region its im-
portanco evinced by the fact (mentioned incidentally by

is
Ammianus) that Constantino himself, before finally changing

his religion, following the Apostolical precept Try all things,
"
hold fast that which is good," carefully studied the Manicha3an

system under the guidance of the learned Musonianus, whom
we must suppose to have been a great doctor of the sect.* Nay
more, this religion, after long seeming extinction from the
pertinacious persecution the Byzantine emperors, again of
blazed forth with extraordinary lustre in the Paulicianism of
the Middle Ages.
The grand purpose of the scheme of Manes was the reconcile
ment of the two religions, which had by that time come to
dispute the empire of the world the flourishing, though still

unrecognised Christianity of Rome, and the equally vigorous
but newly revived Zoroastrism of Sassanian Persia. Calling
himself the Promised Paraclete," Manes accepted the gospel,
"
but only after purifying it from all taint of Judaism, whilst he

utterly rejected the Old Testament. But whilst Zoroaster
makes all to begin in the harmony, and to end in the mutual
reconciliation of the Two Principles, Manes declares these Two
Principles immutable and existent from all eternity as they
shall continue for ever to exist. His Good is Zoroaster s "
Lord
of Light
"
;
but his Bad is
Satan-Matter, from deliverance
whose bondage is to bo obtained only through the strictest
asceticism. From the Christian Church he borrowed its
institutionof presbyters and deacons, being sensible how
greatly that organisation had conduced to its rapid develop

ment, and in his own enterprise it met with almost equal
success. Manes was a genuine Pantheist, teaching that God
pervaded even plants (of which tenet I subjoin a
all things,
singular illustration from his once ardent follower, St. Augus
tine) he also adopted

;
the entire theory of Emanations, exactly
* Constantinus enim cum limatius

"
gium dictitaturn." Ammianus xv. G.

superstitionum qusoreret sectas, Ma- The sainted Emperor s eulogists have
nichsBorum et similium, nee interpres carefully hushed up this trait of an
inveniretur idoneus, hunc sibi com- inquiring spirit, anxious to weigh the
meudatum ut sufficientem elegit ; relative merits of the existing rivals
quern officiofunctum perite Musoni- of Catholicism,

auum voluit appellari ante Strate-
as it was defined in the older Gnostic systems. St. Augustine s
words are ( Confessions iii.

10) :
"
And I, not understanding

this, used to mock at those holy servants and prophets of thine. *
And what was I doing when I mocked at them, except that I
myself was mocked at by thee, being seduced gently and by
degrees into such absurdities as to believe that the fig weeps
when it is plucked, and likewise its parent tree, with tears of
milk ? Which same fig, however, should any holy man eat, that
is to say, after it has been plucked through the sin of another,
not by his own, he would mingle with his bowels, and breathe
out of it angels, nay more, particles of God himself, in his sighs
and eructations whilst praying, which same particles of the
Supreme and True God would have been bound up in that fruit,
had they not been set at liberty by the tooth and stomach of the
chosen saint and I, like a wretch, believed that greater com
;
passion ought to be shown unto the fruits of the earth than to

man, for whose sake they were created. For if any one not
a Manichtcan, being an hungered, should ask for the same, it
would have been thought a crime, worthy of capital punish
ment, if a were given to him."
single mouthful thereof
Compare the following rule of the Buddhist priesthood

"
They :
will not kill any animal, neither root up nor cut any plant,
because they think it has life." (* Ayeen Akbari, p. 435.)
Manes invented a theory of salvation, so very whimsical
that it ought to be inserted here, to recreate the wanderer in this
dreary and dusky theological labyrinth. When the Son came "
into the world to effect the redemption of mankind, he contrived

a machine containing twelve bowls (cadi),f which being made
to revolve by the motion of the spheres, attracts into itself the
souls of the dying. These the Great Luminary (the sun) takes
and purifies with his rays, and then transfers to the moon and ;
this is the method whereby the disk, as we call it, of the moon
is replenished." Epiphanius triumphantly refutes this theory
* to the Manichsean re- of Palmyra, for it is unmistakably
Alluding
jection of the Old Testament as a borrowed from the eight concentric
divine revelation. basins set in motion, one inside the
t In the notion of this machine other, by the fingers of the Fates, so
may be traced the influence of minutely described in the Vision of
die study of Plato in the school Er the Pamphylian.
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. Ill
was replenished during the nine

by asking how the moon s disk
deaths
hundred years that elapsed after the Creation before any
took place ?
But the career of this inventive heresiarch was speedily
brought to a close. The Persian king, Varanes I. (about the year
the rapid spread of these new doctrines,
275), alarmed by
in judgment
convoked a General Council of the Magi to sit
was pronounced a
upon them by whom the unlucky apostle
;
and sentenced to be
heretic, and a traitor to his own brethren,
flayed alive.
BUDDHISM.
For the sake of comparison with the above-described systems,

all based upon the doctrine of
successive Emanations from One
First Principle, the means of escaping from the bondage of

and the struggles of the souls towards ultimate absorption
Matter,
a very brief sketch of the
into its original source, I shall subjoin
of the Buddhistic theosophy.* Here also we
principal features
state of eternal
find a First Buddha in his proper repose (tho
to the Zoroastrian
Indolentia of Epicurus) corresponding
"
AVhile in
"
Boundless Time," and the Valentinian Bythos."
this state termed "
Nevriti," wishing to create the universe he

divine Buddhas, the makers of the Elements,
produced the Five
who in their turn produced the Five Buddhasativas, and by
their created the material world. The grand aim of
agency
this religion is to effect the release of
the soul from its connection
with Matter. All things, according to the Buddhists, exist only

can only return into non-existence
in illusion, consequently they
or repose means of True Knowledge (compare the Gnosis we
by
years old. He chose Benares

for the
Buddhism was founded in the
*
centre of his mission, whence in the
fifth century before our era, by Sakya
his doctrines
Muni, son of the Raja of Kapila. spaco of forty-five years
were diffused over the fairest districts
At the aê of twenty-nine he began
to study religion, and by
force of of the Ganges from the Delta to
prayer became the
embodiment of Agra and Cawnpore. His death is
the Supreme Deity when thirty-five placed by some writers in B.C. 477
Illusion is the belief in the reality of the

"
are considering).* "
eternal world the degradation of the sonl towards Matter is the

;
effect of a succession of acts ; and therefore its release is effected
by relinquishing the belief in the reality of external objects.

The Buddhists of Nepal, who have preserved the original
doctrines of the religion in their greatest purity, teach the
following cosmogony Padnapani, one of the original Five :
Emanations, created Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, or the Principles of

Creation, Preservation, Adi-Buddha first and Destruction.
created thirteen mansions for his own eternal abode, and for
the dwelling-place after death of Buddha s followers. Below
these are eighteen mansions made by Brahma; lower yet are
six made by Vishnu ; and lowest of all three, the work of Siva.
These three series of abodes receive the souls of the followers of
their respective creators.
Below allthe mansions of the Planetary gods,
these lie
Indra and Chandra; and after these there comes the Earth
floating upon the face of the waters like a boat. Below
these waters are the Seven Patala, or regions of Hell, the abode
and the damned. This arrangement presents tho
of evil spirits
most striking resemblance to the construction of the Ophite
Diagramma (to be given further on), which Origen has described
from the original, and which M. Matter has reconstructed from
Origen s description to illustrate his treatise in his Plate X.
The promulgation of these Indian speculations from so remote
a source a difficulty at first sight insurmountable may

nevertheless be readily explained. The spirit of this religion
was the spirit of proselytism ; the Buddhists from the very
beginning sent out their missionaries (some of whose narratives,
full of interest, are extant and have been translated from the
Chinese) with all the zeal of the old Propaganda. From the
* The Buddhist "
Confession of causes of the cessation of existence."
Faith," regularly set up in the The essence of the religion therefore
temples, engraven on a stone tablet, is Perfect Knowledge; the object of

runs thus Of all things proceeding
:
"
Virgil s aspiration
" tuit
F
Sarinana hath likewise explained the
mainland they converted Ceylon, Japan, and the recesses ofTar-

tary and penetrated into regions where their former presence and
;
tolerated existence are now little dreamed of.* That Buddhism

had been actually planted in the dominions of the Seleucidoe
and the Ptolemies (Palestine belonging to the former) before
the end of the fourth century, at least, before our era is shown
by a This prince was grand

clause in the Edicts of Asoka.
son to Chandragupta (the Sandracottus of the Greeks, con
temporary and friend of Seleucus I.), who, at the head of an
army of 60,000 men, had conquered all India within the Ganges.
Asoka, at first a licentious tyrant, had embraced the newly
preached doctrines of Buddhism, a Brahminical Protestantism,
and propagated them by persuasion and by force through the
length and breadth of his immense kingdom, with all the usual
zeal of a new convert.
The Edicts referred to are graven on a rock tablet at Girnur
in Guzerat. To quote the words of the Indian Archaeologist
Prinsep, to whom the discovery is due, (article xvii. Indian
Antiquities ). "I am now

about to produce evidence that
Asoka sf acquaintance with" geography was not limited to Asia,
and that his expansive benevolence towards living creatures
extended, at least in intention, to another quarter of the globe,
that his religious ambition sought to apostolize Egypt, and that
we must look hereafter for traces of the introduction of Buddhism
into the fertile valley of the Nile, so productive of metaphysical
discussions from the earliest ages. The lino which I allude to
is the fifth from the bottom. And the Greek King (Yoni-
raja) { besides, by whom the Chapta (Egyptian) Kings, Ptole-
* Two Chinese pilgrims, Fa Hian dence, have been found to be to a large

and Hiouen Thsang, visited Benares extent singularly correct. See * Me
at the beginning of the fifth, and at moires de Hiouen Thsang, translated
the middle of the seventh centuries from the Chinese by Stanislas Julien.
of our era. These keen and sagacious f Asoka s zeal was so ardent that
observers have left records of their he sent his son and daughter, Ma-
travels in India of the utmost import- hendra and Saugamitra, as missiou-
anco to the historian and antiquary. aries to Ceylon who in a short time
;
Their narratives are, for the most effected the conversion of the island
part, plain matter-of-fact productions,

to their new religion,
free from the haze and uncertainty of % The Persian envoy in Aristo-
Hindoo writings and whenever they
; phanes Acharniana used the same
have been tested by extraneous evi- word, ia6vav. for the Greek nation.
E 2
maios, and Gonkakenos (Antigonus Gonatas) have "been induced

to allow that both here and in foreign countries everywhere the
people may follow the doctrine of the religion of Devanipya,

wheresoever it reacheth. The "
Essenes," so like to "
Buddhist Monks in many particulars (for which see the minute
description of this ascetic rule as given by Josephus, Antiq.

Jud. xv. 10), had been established on the shores of the Dead
Sea for "
before Pliny s time.

thousands of ages On the " "
West its shores, so far as they are unhealthy, are shunned by
the Esseni, a solitary race, and wonderful beyond all others on

the globe without woman, renouncing all usual enjoyment,
;
without money, associates of the palm-trees, from day to day

they are recruited by the flocks of new-comers all those :
flocking in numerously whom the world drives from itself, all
tempest-tossed by the waves of fortune. In this way, incredible

to tell, the race wherein no birth ever takes place, has endured
for thousands of years, so prolific for them is other people s
disgust at the world
"
(Hist. Nat. v. 15). The great Naturalist s

thousands of years
"
"
must be allowed as one of his favourite

oratorical tropes, but nevertheless serves for testimony to the
belief in the great antiquity of the sect. Perhaps they may
have been a continuation of those early ascetic associations
known as the
"
Schools of the Prophets."
The influence of Jewish Essenism upon primitive Chris

tianity (as to rules of life at least) is a thing that will not be
disputed by any who have read, with a wish to learn the

truth, not to evade it, the account of it given by Josephus.
But over the semi-Christian Gnostics of Syria such long-esta
blished authority must have had a still stronger influence. It
is easy to discover how the source of the slavish notions

about the merits of asceticism, penances, and self-torture (of
which Simon Stylites is the most conspicuous illustration), was
the same one whence the Indian fakirs drew their practice
for even in their methods they were identical. Simon s cele
brated life-penance (which gives him his title), undergone upon
the summit of a lofty pillar, had been practised in the same
regions many generations before his time. The pseudo-Lucian,

in his amusing description of the famous Temple of the "
Syrian
Goddess
"
at Emesa ( De Dea Syria ), particularly notices the
phallus or obelisk, 300 feet high, planted in front of the

edifice, upon the apex of which the devotee sat without bleep
for one and twenty days and nights, keeping himself awake by
constantly ringing a handbell. Ideas like these pervade the
Christianity of the Lower Empire, nay, they constitute the

very essence of the religion. Neither is it difficult to see upon
how many points Manes, with his rigid
Buddhistic tenets, came
into collision with the humane and rational law of Zu roaster
(the brightest system of

natural religion ever promulgated),
and what good causes Yaranes, with his spiritual advisers, had
for condemning his heresy.
In our investigation of this particular subject it must never

bo forgotten that so long as philosophy was cultivated in Greece,
inventor of the naniej,
(even from the times of the Samian sage,
India was often regarded as the ultimate and purest source of
the True Wisdom," the knowledge of things divine. Even
"
so late as Lucian s time, the middle of the second century, that

author concludes his evidently true history of Antiphilus and
Demetrius, by making the latter, a cynic philosopher by
his property to his friend, and depart for
profession, resign all
India, there to end his life amongst the Brachmaiies, ( Toxaris,
34). In the same century the well-known pilgrimage of

conference with the Indian
Apollonius of Tyana, and his deep
philosophers, as recorded by his companion Damis, go to prove
the same thing and although the meagre journal of the sage s
;
travelling companion may have been largely supplemented

and
embellished by the fancy of his editor, Philostratus,* the main
features of the narrative are doubtless authentic. The great
thaumaturgist s proceedings, as there detailed, show how the
difficulty of such a pilgrimage
vanishes upon a better
apparent
knowledge of the circumstances. Apollonius presents himself,
"
Parthian King, Bardaiies (a Hiilhelleiie

"
first of all, to the
as he yet boasts himself upon his coinage), and as warm an

admirer of Grecian savants as any of his Achaiinenian pre-
* Who composed his very interest- a century after the death of tho
Life
Apollouius at the
of philosopher,
ing
about
request of the EUJ press Julia,
decessors, from whom he obtains a firman securing to him

protection and entertainment, everywhere within the limits of
his rule, which extended then, probably, as far as the Indus.
Thenceforward his letters of recommendation from the *
King of
to the various native princes his allies, secure to the
"
Kings
traveller an equally favourable reception. A safe and regular
communication between the extreme points of the Persian
Empire had been from the beginning the great care of its
mighty rulers (the first institutors of highways, posting-stages,
and post-horses), passing through what was not, as now, a series
of deserts infested by robber-tribes, but a populous and well-
cultivated country; so favoured, with a passport from the
sovereign, the pilgrim would find his journey both expeditious

and agreeable.
The same facilities were necessarily made use of by the natives
of Hindustan. It is curious to observe how the occasional
"
Brachman "
who found his way into Greece was received as a

model philosopher like that Zarmanes Chagan, who, coming
from Bargose (Baroclie), finally burnt himself alive upon a
pyre at Athens, in the reign of Augustus of which edifying ;
spectacle Nicolaus Damascenus was eye-witness (Strabo XV.).

Before him, we have Calanas the * gymnosophist
"
(a happy
Greek expression for fakir) in high repute at Alexander s
court, and who similarly chose to leave earth in a chariot of "
fire." Their example was followed by the "Peregrinus
Proteus," so happily ridiculed by Lucian in his book thus

entitled ; Proteus, to give his apotheosis as much celebrity as
possible, chose for its scene the occasion of the Olympic games.
This worthy had been a philosopher, then a Christian

last
teacher, and lastly had started a new religion of his own

invention. That the sect so celebrated by the ancients under
the name of "
Brachrnanes
"
was Buddhistic, not Brahminical,
may be inferred from their locality, Bactria and yet more ;
from a circumstance mentioned by Strabo (Book XV.). He

speaks of their devoting thirty years to the study of Theology,
living in a community (a vihar or monastery), sequestered from
the world in the midst of forests in the neighbourhood of the
different cities, and totally abstaining from sexual intercourse,
and all animal food ; on the contrary, the Brahmins hold that
to leave children behind them is a most sacred duty, and one
upon which their admission into heaven depends. Whether
the Buddhists be the true. representatives of the primal religion*
of their country, or only the Reformers of the more ancient
Brahminical Church, it is the natural weapon of all dissenters
from an established creed, to ridicule and even to pronounce
damnable, the favourite tenets of their adversaries. Witness
Martin Luther with his invectives against vows of virginity,
and his well-known motto
"
Wer nicht liebt Weib, Wein und Gesang,

Der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang."
Similarly wo find the Essenes running counter to the ancient

what
prejudices of their nation, and spontaneously embracing
the Mosaic Law had denounced as the greatest of curses the
leaving no offspring behind to keep up their name

in Israel.
To exemplify the severe discipline maintained in the Brah
man communities, Strabo mentions that the mere act of blow

ing the nose, or spitting, caused the offender to bo excluded
for
that day, as incontinent, from the society of his fellow-recluses.

other Essenian rules,
Similarly Josephus particularises, amongst
the obligation of abstaining from all natural evacuations upon
the Sabbath day. But even their rigour is surpassed, and in our
day too, by a certain sect of Indian Yogis, who profess to

have
all such defiling
completely emancipated themselves from
necessities of nature. This they effect by living entirely upon
milk, which, after retaining a short time in the stomach, they
throw up again by swallowing a ball fastened to a string and ;
maintain the animal expenditure solely through the nutriment

imbibed by the system during the continuance of the liquid in
the stomach and which consequently leaves no residuum to
;
descend into the lower bowels. A doctrine this, the finest
* Which of course their theologians for the most part are worshippers of
claim to be, ami Brahmins
treat the And yet he candidly owns
Siva."
as corrupters of the true faith. For that the Buddhists possessed no more
example Hionen Thsang "They: than thirty monasteries, numbering

reckon (in the kingdom of Benares) only three thousand members, in the
a hundred temples of gods, inhabited same place,
by about tell thousand herdics, who

possible redudio ad absurdam of

the notion of meritorious con
tinence, and exhibiting on the ludicrous side the mischief of
being too logical in matters of religion.

As for the profundity of the philosophical speculations of the
Orientals, even at a very late period, the Byzantine Agathias
quotes a very remarkable example. Chosroes (better

known
to us as Nushirwan the Just), besides giving an asylum, as to
his brethren, to the last Athenian philosophers, when expelled

from their chairs by the stupid bigot Justinian, caused all
Plato s works to be translated into Persian, and professed to be
himself able to comprehend even the mysteries of the Tirnasus.
The Greek is naturally indignant at the impudence of
sophist
the foreigner who could pretend that
"
his own barbarous and

rustic language was capable of expressing the divine thoughts
"
of the Athenian sage for he little suspected that the great

;
Magi and Sufis about him, were

"
the
"
King, or at any rate
masters of the sources whence Plato may have ultimately drawn

his inspiration whilst planning that inscrutable composition.
The religious instruction of the Persian princes had from the
beginning been carefully attended to, and proficiency
therein
was a matter of pride thus Cyrus the younger puts

:
forward
his knowledge of Theology (in his manifesto upon
superior
cause why he should be
claiming the kingdom) as a just
brother.
preferred to hisêlder
Leaving out of the question the now received theory
as to
the immigration of the Indo-Germanic race into the farthest

"
"
recesses of Europe, modern history furnishes the example of ex

tensive migration, effected under infinitely greater difficulties, by
the hordes of low-caste Hindoos, who, flying from the invasion
of Tamerlane, spread themselves all over Europe as Gipsies,
still
retaining their native language

and habits, and to the present
"
Sind" or "
Siridha" for their national name.

day claiming
The facts adduced in the foregoing sketch will suffice to
indicate the manner in which the germs of the various Gnostic
doctrines were impoited from the East, how they M ve engrafted

upon previously existing notions, and how vigorously they
when transplanted
flourished into the kindly soil of Alexandria
and Ephesus. To complete the general view of the subject,

before proceeding to consider the tangible

monuments left us
these ideas, it will be necessary to give some
account of the
by
forms in which they attained to their fullest development.
re
For this purpose I shall select the three principal systems,
as the of all the rest, those of
presented by historians parents
the most
Simon Magus, Bcuilides, and the Ojjltitcs ; satisfactory
words
manner of doing which will bo to transcribe the exact
of the well-informed and impartial llippolytus.
FIG. 3.
SIMONIANISM.
"It intention hero to exhibit the system of Simon
is my
Magus, a native of Gitteh in Samaria, and I will prove that
from him all those that come after have derived the elements
of their doctrines,and impudently attempted the same things
under different appellations. This Simon was skilled in magic
and had imposed upon great numbers, partly by practising the
art of Thrasymedes after the manner which I have already
exposed (in the Book upon Magicians ), and partly by miracle-

working through the agency of demons. He attempted to
set up for a god, being a thorough impostor and altogether
unscrupulous and daring for he was that one

; whom the
Apostles confuted, as is recorded in the Acts.
Much more wisely therefore and sensibly than Simon did
"
that Apscthus act, when he aimed at being accounted a god,

who went to work in Libya whose story, not being very
;
dissimilar to the scheme of our foolish Simon, it were fitting

here to quote, inasmuch as it is quite of a piece with the
procedure of the latter.
Apsethus the Libyan was very desirous of making himself a
"
god, but when, after long labouring, he had failed in his

endeavours, he wanted, as the next best thing, to be supposed to
have made himself a god ; and in fact for a considerable time
he did enjoy such a reputation. For the simple Libyans used
to sacrifice to him as to a Divine Power, in the belief that they
were obeying a voice sent forth out of Heaven. He had got
together and confined several parrots in one and the same little
room, for parrots are plentiful all over Libya, and they distinctly
mimic the human voice and having kept these birds for some
;
time, he taught them to say Apsethus is a god. And when

the birds in course of time were taught, and could speak that
sentence which he supposed, when spoken, would cause him
to pass for a god, then he opened their place of confinement.
and allowed the parrots to escape in different directions. And

as the birds flew about, the sound was carried all over Libya,
and the words travelled as far as the Greek territory (Gyrene) ;
and thus the Libyans, being struck with amazement at the

voice of the birds, and not suspecting the trick played them by
Apsethus, accounted him a god. But one of the Greeks having

clearly detected the contrivance of the supposed deity, did, by
means of the self- same parrots, not
merely confute, but also
extinguish that vain-glorious and impudent fellow. This Greek
caged several of the same parrots, and taught them to utter a
*
contrary strain, Apsethus shut us up, and forced us to say
Apsethus is a god. But when the Libyans heard this recan
tation of the parrots, they all came together with one accord,
and burnt Apsethus alive,
"
In this light wo ought to regard the magician Simon,

and compare him to this Libyan, a man who made him
self agod in that very expeditious manner for in truth the ;
comparison holds good in all particulars, and the sorcerer met

with a fate not unlike that of Apsethus. I will therefore
endeavour parrots by showing that Simon
to un-tcach Simon s
was not the Christ AVho hath stood, standeth, and shall
stand, but a man, mortal, generated from the seed of woman,
begotten from blood and carnal concupiscence like the rest of

mankind and that such was the
: fact I shall clearly demonstrate
in the course of my narrative. For Simon speaks, when in
terpreting the Law of Moses, in an impudent and fraudulent
fashion, for whenever Moses says Our God is a burning and
a consuming fire, Simon, taking what Moses has said in a false
sense, maintains that Fire is the Principle of all things. lie

does not perceive the true meaning that God is not a fire,
but a burning and a consuming fire, and so not only mutilates
the Law
of Moses, but plagiarises from Heraclitus, suriiamed
*
the Obscure. For Simon designates the Principle of all
things Boundless Power in the following words * This is
*
:
the Book of the Declaration of the Voice, and of the Name, from
the inspiration of the Great, the Boundless Power. Wherefore
the same is sealed, hidden, wrapped up, stored in the dwelling
wherein the lioot of all things is established. This dwelling
he says, signifies Man here below, who is born of blood, and

also signifies that there dwells within him that Boundless
Power which he asserts is the Root of all things. But this
Boundless Power (or Fire, according to Simon) is not a simple
substance, the same way as most people who call the
in
Elements simple account Fire likewise as simple on the :
contrary, he maintains that the nature of Fire is, as it were,
double and of this double number he terms one part the

;
Insensible,the other the Visible; asserting that the insensible

are contained within the visible parts of the Fire, and that the
visible parts are generated by the invisible. (This is the same
thing that Aristotle expresses by his Force and Energy ;
and Plato by his Intelligible and Sensible. ) *
"
Again the Visible part of Fire contains within itself all things
whatsoever one can perceive, or even fail to perceive, of things
visible. The Invisible, on the other hand, is whatsoever one
can conceive as an object of thought, but which escapes the
sense, or even what one fails to comprehend by the thought.

And sum
up, it may be said that of all things that exist,
to
whether objects of sense or of thought, or, as Simon terms them,
Visible and Invisible, the store-house is the Great Fire that is
above the heavens : As

were a great Tree, like to that seen
it
in his dream by Nabuchadonosor, from the which all flesh was

fed. And the Visible he considers to be the trunk of the Tree
and the branches, and the leaves, and the bark surrounding the
same on the outside. All these parts of the great Tree, says
he, are kindled from the all-devouring flame of the Fire, and
are destroyed. But the Fruit of the Tree, if it takes a shape
and assumes a proper form, is laid up in a storehouse, and not
cast into the fire. For the fruit is made in order that it may be
laid up in the storehouse, but the husk that it may be committed
to the fire which same is the trunk, ordained not for the sake
;
of the husk but of the fruit.

"And this, according to Simon, is what is written in the
Scripture : The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the House of
Israel, and a man of Judah the well-beloved branch thereof.
Now, if a man of Judah be the well-beloved branch, it is a
proof that the wood can be nothing else than a man. But as
from the same, the

regards the excretion and the dispersion
Scripture hath spoken fully and sufficiently for the instruction
of all such as be brought to their perfect form according to :
the All flesh is *

grass, and the glory thereof as the
saying,
flower of the grass; the grass withereth, the flower thereof
fadeth, but the Word of the Lord endureth for
ever. Now
this Word of the Lord, says Simon, is the word that is produced
in the mouth, that for the place of its birth is
is, Speech ;
nowhere else.
"
To be brief therefore : since, according to Simon, the Fire is
of the aforesaid nature, and all things that be, both visible and
invisible, and vocal and voiceless, and
numbered and un
numbered, are this Fire, therefore in his Great Bevelation ho
terms this the Fountain-head of all, the Great Intellectual, as
in their infinite order,

constituting each individual of all things
which are capable of being conceived in the mind, and likewise
of speaking, of thinking, and of acting. As Empedocles
hath it
Through Earth, the Earth perceive, through Water, Water

"
;
Through. Air scan Air; through Fire the hidden Fire;

Discord.
Through Love view Love; through Discord, hateful
"
the members of this Fire, both the
For Simon held that all
Visible and the Invisible, possessed intelligence and a portion of

mind. The world that is created, consequently, according to
him, comes from the uncreated Fire. The commencement of
its creation was in this wise six Eadicals ( lit. Boots), the
:
First Principles of the beginning of Creation, were taken by

the Begotten One out of the Principle of that Fire; for he
asserts that these Six Eadicals emanated by pairs out of the
Fire. These Six Eadicals he names, Mind and Intelligence,
Voice and Name, Eeason and Thought. And there exists in
these Eadicals taken together the whole of the Boundless
Power, but existing in potentiality, not in activity. And this
Boundless Power Simon calls He who standeth, hath stood,
and shall stand ; who, ho shall be figured (invested with

if
when he is in those Six Powers, shall be in reality, force,

form)
the one and the same with the Un-
power and perfection,
begotten Boundless Power.
But if he shall abide in potentiality
alone in those Six Powers, and not assume a/orwz, he vanishes

and perishes, as does a grammatical or a geometrical power
in a man s mind. For potentiality, when it has gotten art,
becomes the light of things generated; but when it has not
gotten art (execution) it remains in inertness and darkness, and
exactly as when it did not exist at all, and dies with the man
upon his death.
Now
of these Six Powers, and of the Seventh which goes
"
along with them, the First Thought Simon terms Mind and
Intellect, Heaven and Earth teaching that the one of the
;
male sex looks down upon and takes care of his consort whilst ;
the Earth below receives from Heaven the Intellect, and

fruits of the same nature with the Earth, which are poured
down from above. For this cause, says Simon, the Word, often
looking down upon the things that spring out of Mind and
Intellect, says, Hear, Heavens, and receive with thine ears,
O Earth ! for the Lord hath spoken I have begotten and
:
brought up sons, but they have despised me. He that saith

this is the Seventh Power, He who standeth, hath stood, and
shall stand for He is the author of those good things which
;
Moses commended, saying that they were very good.

Voice and name are the Sun and Moon Reason and ;
*
Thought are air and water. But with all of these is mingled
and combined that Boundless Power, He who standeth, as I
have already mentioned.
Therefore when Moses says, In six days the Lord made
"
heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested from all his
works, Simon, distorting the passage after the aforesaid
fashion, makes himself out to be God. "When therefore, the

Simonians say that there were three days before the Sun and
the Moon were made, they understand by it Mind and Intelli
gence, or Heaven and Earth, and also that Boundless Power

of theirs. For these three Powers were made before all the rest.
Again, where Before all the world he hath begotten

it is said :
me, these words, as they pretend, refer to the Seventh Power

Now this Seventh Power, who was a Power existing within the
Boundless Power, and who was made before all the world, this,
as Simon teaches, is that Seventh Power of whom Moses spake :

*
Andthe Spirit of God moved upon tho face of tho waters,
that is to say, the Spirit containing all things within itself, tho
Image of tho Boundless Power, concerning which Simon saith,

*
tho image is tho incorruptible Power governing all things by
himself !
"
Now the creation of the world having been after this or a

similar fashion, God, says he, made Man out of clay taken from
the earth and he made them not single, but double, both as
;
regards the image, and the likeness. For the image is the
Spirit moving upon the face of the waters, who, if he be not
clothed with form will perish together with the world, inas
much and was not made
as ho abode merely in potentiality,
concrete by activity. For this is the
meaning of the Scripture :
*
Lest wo be condemned together with the world. But if it
shall take a form, and spring out of an indivisible point, it is
what is written in the Eevelation : The little shall become
great. This Great shall continue to all eternity, and
unchangeable, inasmuch as it is no longer to le made (z .e., no
longer abstract).
"
In what way therefore, and after what manner did God form
man ? In Paradise for in this point Simon also agreed. But
this paradise must be the womb (according to him), and that
such isthe true explanation is proved by the Scripture, which
saith, I am he that formed thee in thy mother s womb, for so
he will have it to be written. The womb Moses called Paradise
by an allegory, if we choose to listen to the word of God for if ;
God did form man in his mother s womb, that is, in paradise
then Paradise must needs signify the womb.
* *
Eden is
that same region, and the river going forth out of Eden to
water the garden, is the navel. This navel is divided into four
heads; because from each part thereof proceed two arteries
running side by side, channels for the breath ; and also two
veins, channels for the blood. When, therefore, this navel
proceeding out of the region, Eden, is attached to the foetus at

the lower belly which we commonly term the navel. [Here . .
some words are evidently lost]. And the two veins through
which the blood flows, and is carried out of the region Eden,
through what are called the gates of the liver which nourish
the embryo. Again, the two tubes which we have spoken

of as
the bladder at each side of

the channels of the blood, embrace
which runs along the
the pelvis, and touch the great artery
called the aorta and thus the breath, passing through
same, ;
the veins into the heart, produces the motion of the embryo.
it neither
For so long as the child is being formed in paradise,
takes nourishment through the mouth, nor breathes through
in the midst of fluid, it would be
the nostrils ; for, placed as it is
instant death for it, were it to breathe, inasmuch as it would

draw a fluid and be destroyed. Moreover, the child is conceived
within an envelope, which is called the aminium but it receives ;
nourishment through the navel, and takes in the essence of the

breath through the dorsal artery above described. The Eiver,
is divided into four heads,
therefore, going forth out of Eden,
and Tasting, for
namely, Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Touching
Paradise is
these are the only senses that the infant formed in
of.
possessed
This then, according to Simon, is the law which Moses gave
"
as
and his Four Books are written in accordance with that law,
For the first book is Genesis; the
their own titles do manifest.
very title, he affirms,

were sufficient for the understanding of
For this Genesis is the Sight, into which
the whole matter.
one section of the Eiver branches because the whole outer off",
the sight. Again, the title of the

world is perceived through
second book is Exodus, which signifies that it was necessary
for
the thing born to pass through the Eed Sea (meaning by

the and to enter into the wilderness, and to
<Eed Sea, blood),
drink of the bitter water (Marah). Now this *
bitter water
which lies beyond the Eed Sea, is the path of knowledge during
toilsome and unpleasant. But
life, which leads through places
the Word, that
after it hath been changed by Moses, that is, by
same bitter water becometh And that such
sweet. is the reality
learn from everybody who exclaims in the words of

one may
the poet :
u Black is the root, the flower as white as milk,

Named Moly by the gods, full hard to find
By mortals but :"

the gods all things can do.
is sufficient for the under-

"
Even what is said by the Gentiles

THE GNOSTICS AND THEItt REMAINS. Of>
standing of the whole matter unto him that hath oars to hear.
lie that tasted of tho fruit given by Circe* was not only
himself not changed into a beast, but by making use of the
virtue of tho self-same fruit, remodelled, reformed and re
called those already transformed by her into their own proper
shape. For the Faithful Man, and the beloved by that
sorceress, is found out by means of that divine and milky
potion.
"
In the like manner Leviticus is the Third Book (or River) ;
which signifies the sense of smell, or the respiration for the ;
whole of that Book is concerning sacrifices and oblations. But

wheresoever there is sacrifice, there also dues a sweet smell of
perfume arise up from the sacrifice; concerning which sweet

odour the sense of smelling is the approver.
Numbers, the Fourth of the Books, signifies the Taste, for
"
then the speech is active, inasmuch as it is through the Speech

that all objects are designated in numerical order.
Deuteronomy, Simon makes out, is so named in reference

"
to the child that has been formed for Touching. For as the
Touch doth by feeling reciprocate and confirm the impressions
received by tho other senses proving an object to be either
;
hard, or hot, or slippery in the like manner the Fifth Book of
the Law a recapitulation of the four preceding Books.

is
"
All things, therefore (continues he), that are not created exist
within us in potentiality, not in activity ; like the science of
grammar, or of geometry. In the case, therefore, where they

shall have met with the proper training and instruction, there
4
shall the Bitter be turned into Sweet ; that is, the spears
shall be turned into reaping-hooks, and the swords into plough
shares they shall;
be no longer chaff and sticks born for the fire,
but the Perfect Fruit, like and equal, as already said, unto the
Unbegotten and Boundless Power. But where the Tree shall
stand alone, not bearing fruit, there, because it hath not received
form,it shall be destroyed. For now (saith he) the axe is nigh
unto the root of tho tree. Every tree therefore that beareth not
good fruit, is hewn down and cast into tlie fire.
* Simon has here

forgotten his
" "
Odyssey ; the antidote Moly having

been given to Ulysses hy Hermes.
F
According to Simon, therefore, that blessed and inscrutable

"
thing lies hidden, and within every man, but in potentiality
alone, not in activity; the which is He who standeth, hath

stood, and shall stand ;
who standeth above in the Unbegotten
Power, who hath River of Waters when he
*
stood below in the
was begotten in the image, and who shall stand above by the side
of the Blessed and Boundless Power, provided that he shall have
received form. For there are three that stand, and unless there
be the three Êons that stand, the Begotten One is not adorned,
meaning Him, who, according to Simon s teaching, moved upon

the face of the waters who hath been re-created after the
;
image, perfect and heavenly; who likewise is in no degree

lower than the Unbegotten Power."
This is a saying amongst the Simonians,
"
I and thou are one ;
thou before me, I after thee. Tltis

*
is the One Power, divided
into Above and Below, begetting itself, nourishing itself,
seeking after itself/finding itself, being itsown mother, its own

father, its own sifter, its own consort, its own daughter, son
mother, father, inasmuch as it alone is the Root of all things.

"
That Fire is the origin of the generation of all things gene
rated, Simon demonstrates after this fashion. Of all things

whatsoever that being generated, the final cause of the
exist,
desire for their generation proceeds out of Fire. For to be set "
on the term used to designate the desire of the act of

"
fire is
generation and propagation. Now this "Fire," which is one, is

changed into two. For in the male the blood which is hot and
red, like Fire in a visible shape, is converted into seed ; in the
female this same blood is converted into milk. And this change
in the male becomes the generation-faculty itself; whilst the
change in the female becomes the instrument (efficient cause),
of the thing begotten. This (according to Simon) is the
"
Flaming Sword," which is brandished to keep the way unto the

Tree of Life. For the blood is turned into seed and into milk ;
and this Power becomes both father and mother ; the father of
those that be born, and the nutriment of those that be nourished ;
standing in need of none other, sufficient unto itself. More

over the Tree of Life, which is guarded by the brandished naming
sword is, as we have said, the Seventh Power, the self-begotten,
which comprehends all the others, and which is deposited within

the other Six Powers. For Sword should not be
if that Flaming
brandished, then would that beautiful Tree be destroyed and

perish but when it is changed into the seed and the milk, then
;
lie that is stored up within them in potentiality, having ob

tained the necessary Logos {Reason) and the fitting place
wherein that Logos may be generated, then, beginning as it were
from the smallest spark, he shall wax great to perfection, and
increase, and become a Power without end, and without change,
being equal and like unto the infinite TEon, being no more
begotten again to all eternity.
Now, on the strength of this theory, as all are agreed, Simon
"
made himself out a god unto the ignorant, like that Libyan
Apsethus above mentioned being begotten and subject to
;
passion so long as he is in potentiality, but not subject to

passion after he shall have been begotten, and have received the
image, and having been made perfect shall pass out of the
dominion of the first two Powers, that is, of Heaven and Earth.
1
For Simon speaks expressly upon this point in his Revelation,
in the following manner. Unto you therefore I say what I
say, and write what I write. The Writing is this. There are
Two stocks of all the /Eons put together, having neither be
ginning nor end, springing out of one Root, the which is Silence,
invisible, inconceivable, of which Stocks, the one shows itself
from above, the which a great Power, Mind of the all, per
is
vading all things, and of the male sex the other, showing itself
:
from below, the Great Intelligence, and is of the female sex

is ;
generating all things. From thence they correspond with each

other, and keep up a partnership, and illuminate the Middle
Space lying between them (which is the air), inconceivable,

having neither beginning nor end. In this Middle Space is the
Father, who bears up all things and nourishes the things that
have beginning and ending. This is He who standeth, hath "
stood, and shall stand being both male and female, a Power
;
after the image of the pre-existing infinite Power, that hath

neither beginning nor ending, existing in Unity." For the In
telligence in Unity proceeded out of this last and became Twain.

Now He (the Father) is One, for whilst he contained that
F 2
DO THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.
Power within himself he was single nevertheless he was not the ;
First,although he was pre-existent, but when he was mani

fested to himself out of himself, he became Second, and neither
was he named the "
Father," before that Power called him

Father. In the like manner therefore as the drawing- forth
himself out of himself manifested unto himself his- own Intelli
gence, so did this Intelligence also, when manifested, not create,
but contemplate Him; and thereby stood-up the Father within
herself, that is to say, the Power. And this Intelligence like
wise is both a male and female Power ; on which account they
answer to one another, for the Power differs not at all from the
Intelligence, being one and the same. From that which is
above, indeed, is formed the Power below, ; from that which is
the Intelligence. Of the same kind therefore is the Unity,

which is manifested out of them both for being one it is found ;
to be Twain ; both male and female, containing within itself

the female. In this manner the Mind exists within the Intelli
gence ; which, when severed from each other, although they

are One, are found to be Two.
Simon, therefore, by publishing these notions, did not merely
"
distort arid wrest to his own purpose the sayings of Moses, but
equally those of the heathen poets. For he makes an allegory
out of the Trojan Horse of wood, and the story of Helen with
the torch, and much else, which he applies to his own fables
*
concerning himself and his Intelligence. Again he makes
out the latter to be the Lost Sheep, which, always taking up her
abode in the persons of women, doth cause trouble amongst all
earthly Powers by reason of her incomparable beauty where ;
fore the Trojan War came to pass because of her. For this
* of his took
Intelligence up her abode in Helen who was born
just at that time ; and so, when the Powers laid claim to her
possession, strife and discord arose amongst all the nations to
whom she manifested herself. At any rate, it was on this
account that Stesichorus, for having reviled her in his verses,
was deprived of sight ; but afterwards, when he had repented,
* That his wife Helena. a of Novara also went about accom-

is By
doubtless uii- panied by a similar female Intelli-
"
remarkable, though
designed coincidence, Fia Dolcino gence."
and written his *

which ho sang her praises,
Recantation, in
he recovered the use of his eyes. Then, after she had been
placed in another body by the Angels and the Powers below
(who according to Simon were the creators of the world), she
was standing upon a housetop* in Tyre, a city of Pho3nicia, where
he found her on his landing. For he pretends to have gono
thither expressly in quest of her, to deliver her out of bondage ;
and, after having ransomed her, he always carried her about

with him, pretending that this was the Lost Sheep, and ho
himself was the Power that is over all. But the truth is, the
impostor had become enamoured whose real of this harlot,

name was Helena, so that he bought and kept her but out ol ;
shame as regards his disciples, he invented the aforesaid fable.

Furthermore, nowadays those that be the followers of this
deceiver and magician, Simon, imitate his example, asserting
that it is right to have intercourse with all women promiscuously,
they say All land is land, and it matters not where one
*
for
sows his seed so long as he does sow it. Nay more, they pride
themselves upon this promiscuous intercourse, affirming that
this is the Perfect Love, and quote the text The Holy
of holies shall be made holy. For they hold that they are
bound by no obligation as regards anything usually accounted
wicked, inasmuch as they have been redeemed. In this way,
Simon, after he had ransomed Helena, granted salvation unto men
by means of his own Knowledge (or the Gnosis). For inasmuch
as theAngels governed the world badly by reason of their own
ambitiousness, Simon pretended that he was come to set all
things right, having changed his form, and made himself like
to the Principalities, the Powers, and the Angels ; wherefore it
was that he appeared in man s shape, though not a man at all,

and had suffered the Passion in Judaea, although he had not
suffered it; moreover that he had manifested himself to the
Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, and amongst the
Gentiles elsewhere as the Holy Ghost, but that he submitted to
be called by whatever name men pleased. The Prophets were
inspired by the Angels, creators of the world, when they
* A euphemism for "
living in a which these ladies advertised them-

brothel," such being the mode in selves.
delivered their prophecies ; on which account those who believe
in Simon and Helena pay no regard to them, even in our times ;
and they do whatever they please, affirming that they are re

deemed Ms grace. For nothing is the cause of dam
through
nation, supposing aman to act wickedly, for Evil is evil not
through the nature of things but by convention. For the Angels
who created the world ordained it to be so (as they assert),
in order that they might keep in subjection, by means of such
fictions, all men who Furthermore they

should listen to them.
explain the dissolution of the world as referring to the redemp

tion of their own sect.
"
The Simon, practise magic arts

disciples, therefore, of this
and incantation, and make philtres and seductive spells they ;
likewise send the so-called dream-bringing demons to trouble

whomsoever they choose. They likewise practise the rites of
the gods named Paredroi (the Assessors) they have also an ;
image of Simon in the guise of Jupiter, and likewise one of

Helena in the figure of Minerva ;
and these they worship,
Master, the other the
"*
*
Mistress.
calling one the
So much for the system of the renowned Samaritan, in which,
it will have been seen, the place of logical reasoning is supplied
by quibbles upon words, taken absolutely without any reference

to the context a style of argument, however, for which it must
be confessed that he had highly respectable authority. In
strong contrast to this stands the next system,

which displays
much of the refinement and sound training (amidst its extrava
gance) of the Grecian mind.
BASILIDES.
Hippolytus, in accordance with his theses that all these

were mere plagiarisms from the more ancient
"
"
heresies
of
philosophical systems, declares that Basilides stole the entire
his scheme from Aristotle, and proceeds to establish his charge
by the following comparative analysis of the two.
"
Aristotle divides all substance into the Genus, the Species,

* Hero follows the account of his career and end, already extracted
(pp. 21, 22).
and the Individual The Genus is, as it were, a heap composed

of many and different seeds, from which heap all the Species
are taken and the genus is the sufficient cause to all things
;
that exist. For example, Animal is used absolutely, not

signifying any particular animal.
Animal does not signify
a horse, an ox, or a man, but simply animal. From this
abstract the species of animals universally derive
animal all
of
their origin, and this animal without species is the origin
all animals according to their species, and not any
generated
one thing of things generated. Thus, Man is an animal,
his origin from the animal, and Horse is an animal
deriving
in the same manner. Similarly all other animals are derived
of them. If
from that yet in itself is none
animal, who
none of these, then, according to
therefore that animal is
are proceeds out of

Aristotle, the substance of all things that
inasmuch as the animal, out of
things that are non-existent,
which they all proceed individually, is not one thing (or is
And this, being Nothing, is the origin of

nothing at all ).
all that le.

"
substance being divided into three classes the genus,

Now
as
the species, and the individual we have defined the genus
animal, man as the species picked out of the heap of
into the
animals, but as yet undiscriminated, and not separated
form of a particular being. But when I define a
by special
name, like Socrates, or Diogenes, a man taken from the species
the genus, then that being is termed the individual.
Thus
the genus is divided into species, the species into individual ;
be
but the individual once being denned by name cannot
divided any further. is what Aristotle calls justly and
This
which cannot be predicated of the
properly Substance, that
subject,nor in the subject. By the term of the subject
of
he means such an idea as animal, which can be predicated
all the subject animals individually as a horse, an ox, a man-
all being called by the same name, animal. Hence, what can
to many
be predicated of the subject is that which applies
In the subject means
and different indiscriminately.
species
existence
that which cannot be predicated without the previous
of else wherein it may exist, as white, black/
something
just, unjust ;
which are the accidents to substance, and
therefore called qualities, because expressing what sort of thing
each thing is. But no one quality can exist in itself; there must
be something else for it to exist in. If, therefore, neither the
genus animal, which is predicated of all animals existing

individually, nor which is only to be found in things
accident,
that exist, can either ofthem exist by themselves and if indi ;
viduals are made up of these two, namely genus and accident,

then it follows that substance, which is made up of these three,
and nothing besides, is made up of things that are non-existent.
If, therefore, what is properly and primarily termed sub
" *
stance (the Individual) made up is of these, it is, according

to Aristotle, made up of things non-existent.
"
Besides the terms Genus, Species, Individual, Substance is
further designated as Matter and Formation. Upon this

definition rests the Basilidan theory of the Universe. The
Universe Basilides divides into several parts That part which :
extends from the earth up to the moon is destitute of foresight

and of conduct, and is content with its own nature. The part
beyond the moon is constituted with foresight, reason, and
conduct, up to the surface of heaven. This surface is a fifth
substance, free from all the elements out of which the world
was created ; this, therefore, is fifth and supra-mundane
the *
subbtaucc. These three divisions Aristotle has treated of in

three separate works : his Physics, Metaphysics, and On
the Fifth Substance. Not merely bis ideas, but his words and
terminology have been borrowed by Basilides, and applied to
the Scriptures. How, then, can his disciples, being in reality
heathens, expect to be benefited by Christ ?
"
Basilides and his true son and disciple Isidorus, assert that
Matthew (the Evangelist) revealed to them certain secret
doctrines which specially communicated to himself by
had been
Christ. There was a time when there was Nothing nay, not ;
Nothing was anything of being, but barely and

"
even that "
without reserve, and without any sophism, there was altogether

Nothing. When I use the term was," I do not mean to imply "
that this Nothing was, but in order to explain what I wish to

set forth, I employ the expression
"
there was absolutely

Nothing." Now that which is called "
Ineffable
"
is not abso
lutely ineffable, for we ourselves give it that name of ineffable ;
whereaS that which is not even ineffable is not "
ineffable," but
infinitely above every name that can be named. Even for the
Visible world, so multifarious are its divisions that wo have
not names enough but we are reduced to conceive many of its
;
properties from the names of the properties already named,

these (other) properties being ineffable. For an identity of
names occasions a disorder and confusion of ideas in the mind of
the learner. (This is a direct plagiarism from Aristotle s
discussion of synonyms in his book On the Categories. )

"
When no substance, no non-sub

therefore Nothing was
stance, no simple, compound, no incomprehensible, no

no
sensible, no man, no angel, no God when there was nothing
whatever of what is called by name, perceived by sense,
conceived by the mind, but all, and even in a more refined
sense than this, being put out of the question then this No-
being God (Aristotle s thought of a thought, which Basil ides

alters into his No-being ), without thought, without purpose,
without counsel, without passion, without desire, willed to

make the world. word willed* merely to express
I use the
my meaning, being without

it thought, without sensation,
without will, that this was done and by world I do not
;
*
mean that world created afterwards and divided by latitude

and longitude, but I understand by it the Seed of the World. *
This *
Seed of the World contained the All within itself, just
as the germ of the mustard-seed contains the root, the stalk, the
leaves, the grain, the last containing again the rudiments of

others innumerable. Thus the No-being God created the No-
being world out of No-being things, when he deposited the
seed containing within itself the complete seeds of the universe.
And to give an illustration of my meaning the egg of any :
bird of diversified plumage the peacock, for example although

itself single, yet includes within itself the many-coloured,
multifarious forms of multifarious substances; so, in like
manner, did this seed of the world deposited by the No-being

God include within itself the multiform, multifarious seeds of
the universe.
This seed, then, contained all things that can be named nay
"
more, all things that can not be named, as yet hidden in

futurity, and to come forth after their kind by accretion, and by
growth, after the manner in which we see the new-born infant
acquire his teeth, his flesh, his father s form, and all his under
standing, and all such things that come to the child as it grows
up, not apparent in him at the beginning. Now, inasmuch as
it is impossible to use the term projection of the No-being
God (in fact, Basilides is opposed to all schemes of creation by
means of a projectionnot suppose Matter
),
for we must
necessary to his operations in the same way as her threads are
to the spider, or as timber and metal to man when he sets
about any work but He spake and it was made

; and this is ;
what Moses means by his Let there be light, and there was
light. Whence, then, was this light ? Moses saith not whence
it was, but that it was from the word of the speaker; but
neither He that spoke was, neither was that which was made.
The seed of the world was this word that was spoken, Let
there bo light. And to this the evangelist refers by his And
that was the true Light which enlighteneth every man coming
into the world. For man draws his beginning out of that
seed, and is illuminated thereby." (This
"
seed," therefore,
divided into infinite other seeds, is nothing else than Aristotle s
"genus,"
which is divided into infinite other "species,"
as
"animal," the genus, itself non-existent, is divided into
"species,"
as ox, horse, man, &c.)
Having, therefore, got this seed his
"
for starting-point,
Basilides goes on thus : Whatever I speak of as made after
this, there is no need of inquiring out of what it was made,
seeing that this seed comprehended within itself the principles
of the All. Now let us examine what came out of this seed in
the first, second, and third place. There was in the seed a
Sonship, triple, of the same substance with the No-being God,
and generated by him. In this triple Sonship one part was
subtile, another gross, the third needing purification.* Upon
the first projecting (emitting) of the seed, the subtile element
ascending aloft like a feather or a thought,"
"
disengaged itself,
*
Corresponding to Immaterial, Material, and
"
Mixed."
and arrived at the No-being One. For Him all Nature de-
sircth, by reason of the super-eminence beauty and of his
perfection. The
gross part endeavoured to imitate its example,
but was weighed down by its coarser nature, and detained
within the seed. To assist it, therefore, the Sonship equips it
with a wing, such as Plato in his Phaedrus
"
wings the soul

"
withal. Now this wing is the Holy Ghost, which the grosser
part putting on, is both advantaged itself, and advantages the

other. For the wings of a bird are not able to fly if severed
from the bird, neither can the soul fly if separated from her
wings. Such, then, is the relationship borne by the Sonship to
the Holy Ghost, and also by the Holy Ghost to the Sonship.
Soaring aloft, therefore, upon its wings that is, upon the Holy
Ghost, this Soul Part carried its wings, the Holy Ghost, along
with it up to the No-being God, and the Sensible Sonship, but

was unable to comprehend the latter, because its own nature is
not constituted of the same substance with Him. But in the

same way as dry and pure air is repugnant to the nature of
fishes, so the place, more ineffable than the Ineifable One, and
more lofty names that can be named, the seat of the
than all
No-being God and of the Subtile Part, was contrary to the

nature of the Holy Ghost. On this account, the Sonship left
it near to that place which cannot be conceived by mind, nor
described by words, though not altogether abandoned by
himself, but retaining something of his

power (or essence), just
as a vessel once filledwith a precious perfume ever retains
traces of that perfume, however carefully it may have been
emptied. And this is manifestly like the ointment upon the

head "which ran down to Aaron s beard" that is, the perfume
of the Sonship, brought down by
the Holy Ghost even into the
impurity and degradation of mortality, out of which itself at

the beginning had soared aloft, raised by the Sonship, as it
were, on eagle wings, being itself fastened upon his back.

s
For things struggle upwards from that which is below

all
towards that which is above, from the "worse towards the

better," whereas nothing of those above in the better place
seeks to descend below.
"The third part of the Sonship namely, that requiring
76 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIB REMAINS.
purification, remained included within the infinite head (or sum)

of infinite seeds, both giving and receiving benefit, in the
manner hereafter to be explained. After the first and second
ascensions of the Son ship, the Holy Ghost, which had been left
above, became the firmament between the world and the
upper world. For Basilides divides all things that are into
two great classes, the world and the upper world the ;
Spirit, therefore, occupying the interval between the two

(namely, the Holy Ghost, which retains the odour of the Son-
ship) he terms the Boundary Spirit. Now after this
*
firmament above the world had been constituted, there broke

forth out of the Seed of the World the Great Archon, the
Head of the World, or beauty, strength, magnitude indissoluble.
More he than the Ineffable, more powerful than the
irieifable is
Powerful, wiser than the Wise, more beautiful than any beauty
that can be named. As soon as he was born he soared upwards
and reached the firmament, but tliat was the limit of his flight ;
for he knew not of the existence of anything beyond the
firmament, and therefore he remained more beautiful, more

powerful, more wise than any of the things subjacent, always
excepting the Sonship that is, the Third impurified Person
who still lay enclosed within the immense universal seed.
Imagining himself, therefore, to be Lord and Ruler and Intelli
gent Architect, he set about the creation of the world. In the

first place, not wishing to abide alone, he generated unto him
self a son out of things subjacent (mundane elements^), far wiser
and more beautiful than himself, for this son was in truth the
Third Person yet left enclosed within the seed. This thing had
been predestinated by the No-being God from the beginning ;
as soon as he beheld this son he was enamoured of his perfect
beauty, and bade him to sit down on his right hand. This
they call the Ogdoad, the abode of the Great Archon. The
great and wise Demiurgus then made the entire setherial creation,
being inspired and empowered thereto by his own son, so far

above himself in wisdom." (This idea is copied from Aristotle s
of the natural organic body the active soul in
"
"
Entelechia ;
the body being itself wiser, stronger, and better than the body.
The theory, therefore, propounded originally by Aristotle con-
corning the body and the soul, Basilides thus applies to the
Great Archon and the Son whom he had created for as the ;
Archon creates the Son, so does Aristotle make the soul to be

the work and the natural organic body.)
effect of All things, "
therefore, are ruled by the providence of the Great Archon

"
(or
Entelechia of himself and son)
"
rather, by the all things,

" "
that is to say, which lie below the moon, and within the aather
for the moon is the division between the gather and the air.
"
The creation being finished, there arose out of the seed a
Second Archon, but greatly inferior to the first, yet similarly

This (Archon) is designated the
ineffable. Hebdomad. He
proceeded to create all things below the aether of which he is the
Demiurgus ;
and ho, in his turn, generated a son infinitely
superior to himself. The intermediate space between the
regions Ogdoad and Hebdomad is occupied by the universal
seed, the heap of species, the particles whereof are guided by

the intelligence implanted in them by the First Creator as to
the times, the natures, and the changes in which they have to
come forth, and possess no other guide, guardian, or creator.

The whole creation was in this way completed, of the world
"
and of the things above the world ; but there was yet left
within the seed the Third Sonship, who, in his turn, had to be
developed, revealed, and to ascend

beyond the Boundary Spirit
up and the
to the Subtile Sonship No-being One. This is the
interpretation (meaning) of the Scripture The whole creation :
groaneth and is in labour, waiting for the manifestation of the

sons of God. These sons are the Spiritual Men left hero
below to guide and to perfect the souls that from their nature
belong to this place. From Adam unto Moses sin reigned
*
that is to say, the Great Archon, who had dominion up to the
firmament, and imagined that he alone was God, and that there
was none other above him for all above him was kept in the
deepest silence. This is the mystery not revealed unto the
Fathers the Great Archon, the Ogdoad, was, as he supposed,
;
the Lord and Ruler of the universe. But of the interval, or

middle space, the Hebdomad was the ruler now the Ogdoad is ;
ineffable, but the Hebomad may be uttered by speech. This

ruler of the Hebdomad was He who spake unto Moses, saying,
I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and tho Name of

God I have not revealed unto them that is, He did not reveal
tothem the ineffable ruler of the Ogdoad. All the prophets
who were before the Saviour s coming spoke through the
inspiration of the Second Archon.
"
When the time was come for the manifestation of the Sons
of God, the Gospel came, penetrating through every power,
dominion, and name that can be named, although tho Sonship

did not come down from his place upon the right hand of the
Incomprehensible No-being One. But, like as Indian naphtha
kindles at the mere sight of fire a long way off, so do powers
fly up out of the seed to the Sonship that is beyond the firma
ment. The son of the Great Archon of the Ogdoad thus
receives, like as naphtha catches the distant flame, the ema

nations of the Sonship who is beyond the firmament and this ;
last,the Boundary Spirit, serves for the communication of the
thoughts the one to the other.

fn>m
"
The G ospel thus came

to the Great Archon through his
own son, and ho was converted, and troubled, and became wise,
learning his own ignorance (or want of knowledge) and this is ;
the interpretation of The fear of the Lord is the beginning of

wisdom. For the Christ, sitting by him, instructed him con
cerning the Ineffable No-being One, concerning the Son who is
beyond the firmament, and concerning the creation of the
universe. The Great Archon being thus instructed, was filled
with fear, and confessed the sin he had committed in magnifying
himself ;
and this is the meaning of I acknowledge my trans
gression and I confess my sin. When, therefore, the Great

Archon was enlightened, every creature of the Ogdoad was
likewise enlightened, and then came the time for the enlighten
ment and evangelising of the ruler of the Hebdomad. For this
end the son of the Great Archon communicated to the son of
the Second Archon the light which he himself had received
from above, and he communicated his instruction to his Father,
who in like manner was convinced of, and confessed his sin.
By this time every creature of the Hebdomad was enlightened,
and had the Gospel preached unto them. For in this division
(the region below the aether) also, there is an infinite creation
of powers, and dominions (concerning whom

principalities,
Basilides has a lengthy dissertation; who moreover in this
and their ruler ABRASAX, so

region places the 365 heavens,
called because his name contains that sum, for which
reason
the year consists also of that number of days).

After all this it was necessary that the Unformedncss (d/ôp^ta)
"
the Sonship still lying enclosed

existing in our region that is,
in the mass like an abortion should be enlightened in the same
manner with those aforementioned. The Light therefore passed
son of the Hebdomad that is,
through the Hebdomad upon the
the power of the Most
upon Jesus, the son of Mary. This
is
the power of unction,

High shall overshadow thee, namely,
the Demiurgus upon
descending from the Supreme through
the Son.
will last until every
present constitution of things
"The
in the unformed mass shall be

particle of the Sonship enveloped
attracted into Jesus, shall be disentangled and sublimated by
itself to the first
him, and rendered capable of ascending by
source of Light, to which it bears a natural affinity.
"In this way the Three Persons of the Sonship being all
united once more above the firmament, then mercy shall bo

shown unto the creation, which languishes and groans waiting
for the manifestation of the sons of for all men belonging
God ;
to the Sonship shall ascend up unto Him. When this is

accomplished,He will bring upon the world a deep ignorance, so
that all things here below shall abide in their nature, and
this means the
desire contrary to their nature. By
nothing
souls appointed to abide here below will be destitute of even
the slightest notion of anything existing above them, lest they
should be tormented by the fruitless desire of ascending up
into the same ;
like as though a fish should desire to pasture
if gratified, would
with the flocks upon the hills, a wish which,
as they
be its destruction. things are eternal so long
For all
continue in their natural place, but become mortal when they

endeavour to escape beyond it. The same ignorance
will envelop
the ruler of the Hebdomad, in order that sorrow

and grief and
confusion may flee away from him that he may

no longer be
;
troubled with the desire of things above him and contrary

to
his nature. This ignorance shall also come over the Great
Archon of the Ogdoad, and over all creatures subject unto him,
and for the same reason. This is the restoration of all things ;
enclosed from the beginning within the seed, and disposed

according to its season. This is the Saviour s meaning in My
hour not yet come
is it is also signified by the Magi be
;
holding the star, inasmuch as His coming, proclaimed from the
beginning, was subject to the disposition of the stars.*

"
The Gospel is the Declaration of supramundane things, which

the Great Archon knew not of. But when it was told him of
the Sonship, of the Boundary Spirit, and of the No-being God,
he rejoiced with an exceeding great joy. With respect to the
birth of Jesus, all things came to pass as they are written in
the Gospels. For He was the firstfrttits of the division of the
classes, previously commingled here below. Now, as the

all
world is distributed into the Ogdoad, the head of the universe,

whoso chief is the Great Archon, and into the Hebdomad, whose
chief the Demiurgus, chief also of our degree where Frailty
is
(liability to error) subsists, it was necessary that this Confusion

should be distributed and set in order by Jesus. That part of him,
therefore, which was of the Unfonnedness, namely, his body
suffered what it did suffer and returned again into unformed-
ness that part which belonged to the Hebdomad, namely, his
;
soul, returned again into the Hebdomad after his resurrection ;
the part belonging to the Ogdoad remained with the Great

Archon, and the part belonging to the Boundary Spirit was
left there in his ascension. But the third Sonship, thus purified
in his passage upwards, was reunited to the Blessed Sonship
who is supremo above. (In short, the whole theory of the

religion consists in the Confusion of the Seed-heap, its Redistri
bution into classes, and the Restoration of all things to their
natural places. This division of the classes was made in the
first instance by Jesus, and the sole object of his passion was
the restoration of the classes, which were mixed up together,

into their proper order. And for this reason Jesus himself was
* This allude to the Eab- the conjunction of Saturn and Jupi-

may
binical explanation of the sign of
"
tcr in Pisces.
the coming of the Messiah as being
"
81
tho several classes.

distributed as we have shown, amongst
These then are tho things that Basilides fables, who taught in
learned his wisdom from the Egyptians

Egypt, and, having
"
"brought
forth such fruits as these.)
This concluding remark of Ilippolytus deserves particular
as the mere
notice it shows that he regarded the Iksilidan theory
;
doctrine
requirements of an ancient
to esoteric
adaptation present
That it was nothing more
belonging to the Egyptian priesthood.
than a plagiarism from the Aristotelian philosophy, as the learned
Father labours to demonstrate with so much ingenuity, appears
to me no means made out. But the Basilidan theory has one
by
it from every other form of
striking feature that distinguishes
an Ecil
tho Gnosis, in its entirely ignoring the existence of
or of malignity and rebellion against the Supreme
Principle,
God. His two rulers of the upper and lower worlds, the Great
Archon of the Ogdoad, and the Demiurgus of the Hebdomad,
so far from opposing the Gospel receive it
with joy, and
their inferiority to the sender. The
humbly acknowledge
Passion of Jesus not due to the malice of either of them, but
is
is voluntary, and undertaken as the sole means of restoring
confused elements of the All to the harmony indispensable for
their eternal duration. Even the final withdrawing of the

is done for the
Divine Light from the Ogdoad and Hebdomad
same beneficent purpose, in order that both they and their
for ever in blissful ignorance, each holding
greatness may rest
himself supreme in his own creation, and knowing of nothing
after
above it, may no longer be tormented by vain aspirations
a state of perfection for which his nature is not adapted. The
benevolent that pervades the whole theory strongly
spirit
of Hippolytus, and points out for its
supports the assertion
of two
source the Egyptian mythology, to which the notion
in nature, would
principles, equal in power but antagonistic
have been unutterably shocking.
THE OPHITES.
The Ophites should hold by right the first place amongst
the schools we are considering, for that impartial and acute
historian of the Gnosis, Hippolytus, styles them,

"
The Naaseni
who specially call themselves *
Gnostics. But inasmuch as
this deception of theirs is multiform and has
(a many heads
play upon of their name
serpent-followers), like the Hydra of
fable, if I smite all the heads at once with the wand of Truth,
I shall destroy the whole serpent, for all the other sects differ
but little from this one in essentials." He therefore commences

his history of the Gnostic heresies, properly so called, with a
minute account of this one, illustrated with copious extracts
from their text-books on account of their antiquity and im
;
portance bestowing much more of his space upon them

than
upon any other of their offshoots or competitors.

Followers of the
"
Their strange-sounding title

"
Naaseni "
Naas in which the Greek, from its want of

"
(the only way

aspirate letters, could write the Hebrew Nachash, Serpent "
")
was literally rendered by

"
Ophites,"
the name which has ever
since served to designate them. They first assumed a definite
existence about the same time as the Basilidans, in the middle
of the second century, although the elements of the doctrine

are derived from a source much more remote. That source
was the secret doctrines taught in the various Pagan Mysteries ;
and likewise certain philosophic theories of the Greeks,

to the same extent as the learned
although certainly not
Hippolytus labours so ingeniously to demonstrate.
In support of this statement I shall proceed to quote from
the same Father some curious examples of the method in which
the Naaseni pretended to recognise their own knowledge in
"
"
the esoteric religions of antiquity. After quoting a long
passage from Pindar about the conflicting theories as to the

creation of the First Man* and the names given to him by
different nations, the Ophite text-book continues :
* But the Libyans held that plains, first gathered the sweet dates
"
larbas was the first-born of men he ;

of Jove. And even in our day, the
who, rising up out of their droughty Nile fattening the mud of Egypt,
"
This was the Man brought forth by the Earth spontane

ously ; but ho lay without breath, without motion, without
stirring, like a statue ; being made after the image of their
Adamas above, the subject of their hymns, through the agency
of several Powers, concerning each one of whom
they narrate
a long fable. But in order that the Man above might be
obtained, from whom
every tribe upon the Earth, and
is
likewise in the Heavens, there was given unto him a soul, that
through this soul the image of the Man above might suffer and
be chastened in bondage. As to the nature and source of this
soul sent down to animate this image, the Ophite theory is
derived not from Scripture, but from the doctrine of the Mysteries.
The Gospel according to the Egyptians is their text-book on
this point. They premise that the nature of the soul is
extremely difficult
investigate byto inherent reason of its
changeableness, never abiding fixedly in the same place, habits,

or passion and they adopt in this particular the notions of the
:
Assyrian mystics. It is a question with them whether the soul

comes from the Pre-existing, or from the Self-begotten One,
or from the Effusion of Chaos. They adopt the Assyrian
division of the soul as being both one and threefold ! For all
Nature longs for a soul ; the soul is the efficient cause of all
things that grow, are nourished and have action. For without
a soul, growth and nutrition are impossible even stones have ;
a soul, for they possess the faculty of growth, and this

faculty
cannot exist without nutrition. All things therefore in
Heaven or Earth, and in the Abyss, are eager after a soul. This
soul the Assyrians call Adonis, Endymion, Attis and ;
hence arose the fable of the love of Venus for Adonis Venus ;
signifying generation. The love of Proserpine for Adonis means

that the soul is mortal if separated from Venus; that is, from
generation. When the Moon is enamoured of Endymion, it is

Nature herself desiring a more sublime soul. When the Mother
of the gods emasculates her lover, Attis, it signifies the Power
and giving life to things clothed arose in their country, Onnnf*, the
with flesh, through his moist heat eater of fish; but tne ilmldeuns
say
breeds living creatures. The As- he was Arlam."
Syrians pretend that the First Man

G 2
above recalling into itself the male energy of the soul. For the
Man that is above is of both sexes."
[On this account they
most vehemently denounce intercourse with women.]
all Attis "
was deprived of his virility, that is, was divested of his lower,
earthly, part, and then translated to the Upper World, where
is neither male nor female, but a new creature, the Man above,
of two sexes. And to this truth not only Ehea, but all
creation, beareth testimony. And to this doth Paul refer in
Komans (i. 20-27) :
(where they strangely. pervert his expres
sion aa-x^/ôa-vvrj, as signifying that heavenly, sublime, felicity,
that absence of all form which is the real source of every form).
These same verses of Paul, according to them, contain the key
to their whole system, and to their Mystery of Celestial
Pleasure. For the promise of Washing applies to none save
*
the man who is introduced into the eternal pleasure, being

washed with the True Water, and anointed with the Unction
that cannot be spoken. The Phrygian Mysteries, equally with
the Assyrian, teach the same great truth, when they teach the
blessed nature of things past, present, and to come, hidden and
yet manifested the true kingdom that is within you.
; To
the same effect they bring forward the Gospel of Thomas, which
has, lie that seeketh shall find me amongst children from
seven years downwards, for in the fourteenth generation, being
hidden, I will manifest myself. [Although in reality this is
not a maxim of Christ s, but a maximof Hippocrates. The

boy at seven years of age is the half of his father, in stature.]
"The
Egyptians were, after the Phrygians, the most ancient
of mankind, and the first establishers of mysteries. The
Ophites explain as follows the esoteric doctrine concerning
Isis, and the genital member of Osiris, lost, sought after, and
enveloped by her seven times in a black (or dark blue)*

vestment. Osiris is the element Water; Nature seven times
enveloped in an etherial robe, that is, the seven planetary

spheres, stands for Generation and Change, or Creation trans
formed by the ineffable, formless, imageless, incomprehensible
Deity. The same is implied in the words of Scripture, The
righteous man shall fall seven times, and ^hall rise again his
*
Me Aas has both these meanii. gs.
in motion by
all signifying tho revolutions of the planets put
the All-mover.
likewise discourse concerning the essence (or existence)
"
They
*
of the Seed, the final cause of all things that exist, although
itself none of them, and yetmaking and generating all things ;
I become what I will, and

or, as they themselves express it,
am what I am therefore I say that moving all, I am myself
;
immovable. For it continues what it is, making all things,
although itself is made nothing of

all that exist. To this
doctrine the Saviour s words refer, Why callest me good ?thou
One only is good, my Father which is in Heaven, who maketh

the sun to shine upon the just and upon the unjust, and sendeth
His rain upon the sinners and upon tho righteous. And this
is the great and unknown Mystery, hidden amongst the Egyptians
and yet manifested, for Osiris standeth in his temple before
Isis, having his secret part exposed
and pointed upwards, and
crowned with all tho fruits of the creation. And for this
cause, the same member [the Phallus] holds the first position.
in the most sacred places, being shown forth unto the world,
like a light set upon a candlestick it is sot up on the house :
and in the streets, and for landmarks. Jt is a blessing

tops,
acknowledged and proclaimed by they call it the all, for
Bringer of Luck (ayaftyôpov),

not understanding what
This mystery the Greeks got from and observe
they say. E<jm>t,
unto this day. For by this symbol they represent Hermes ;
and they entitle that god Logicos, for he is the interpreter

and Creator of things made, in making, and to be made ;
and
he represented by
is proper symbol. And that this is
this his
the Hermes, guide, companion, and author of souls, Homer

hath for he saith (Od. xxiv. 1-2) :
perceived,
summoned forth the souls of the bold suitors,
Cyilenian Hermes
not meaning those of Penelope s suitors, but of us the awakened
and admonished.
From what vast happiness, what height of glory,
we have fallen, namely, from the Primal Man, the Adamas
* Tho "
Seed of the World

"
in the Basilidau system, as already
explained (p. 73).

that is above, into this vessel of clay, and become the servants
of the Demiurgus, of Ildabaoth, the God of Fire, the Fourth in
number (for by this name they call the creator of the *
World
of Species, KOCT/XO? tSucos).
In his hand his wand Beauteous, all golden, by whose
"
potency the eyes of mortals he at pleasure lulls to sleep, or

rouses others from their slumber. For lie is the sole author of
lifeand death, therefore is it written, Thou shalt rule them
with a rod of iron. But Homer wishing to embellish the in
comprehensible reality of the nature of the Logos, has given to
him a rod of gold, not of iron. Some Ho casts into slumber,
others he awakens, and makes them aware of their condition :
*
Awake thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ
shall give theo light. For this is the Christ that is figured
within all the sons of men by
the unfigured Logos. This is
the great and profound mystery of the Eleusinian rites, the cry,
YE KYE, Rain ! Conceive ! All things are subject unto Him, for
is gone forth unto
their sound all lands. And again, this is
the hidden sense of Homer s
Ho waved his waud, they followed with shrill ery.
That the souls in a continuous line, as the poet goes on to

is,
express by the simile

As in the furthest depths of some vast cave,
Shrill cry the hats when one drops from their chain,
Down from the rock where fast they cling together.
That is, the souls fallen down from the Kock above, namely
from the Adamas. This is the Adamas, the chief corner-stone,
which is made the head of the corner, because in the head is
placed the formative substance, the brain, out of which all

generation proceeds. I will set the Adamant in the founda
tions of Zion is allegorical for setting the figure of the Man
(in the soul). And the text, This Adamas is firmly held by
teeth in the wall, is the Inner Man that is signified, the
stone cut without hands, which hath fallen down from the
Adamas above into this earthly potter s vessel, this figure of
forgetfulness.*
* which the Inner Man
Meaning the Body, in imprisoned has lost all
recollection of his primal source.
"
The souls follow Hermes, or the Logos.

So moved they, crying, through the darksome paths ;
Hermes their guide, that god devoid of ill.
That is, ho leads them to the everlasting places where no ill
comes ; for whither were they going ?

4
They passed o er Ocean s wave and Leucas rock,
The Sun s bright portals, and the Lnd of dreams.
This Ocean signifies the generation of gods and the gener

"
ation of men, ever tossing in a perpetual flow and ebb. When

it runs downwards it is the
generation of men when it tosses ;
itself upwards against its boundary,* the rock Leucas, it is the

generation of gods.
*
For
Wise One, I this cause, saith the
have said ye are gods and the children of the Most
Highest,
when ye shall make haste to flee out of Egypt, and shall come
beyond the Red Sea into the Wilderness that is, out of this ;
earthly mixture (or confusion) up to the Jeiusalem above,

which is the mother of the living. But if ye return into
Egypt ( or i nto this earthly nature) ye shall die. Egypt
being the prison of the body. This is the mighty Jordan
which, flowing downwards, hindered the flight of the Children
of Israel; but which Jesus (i.e. Joshua) turned, and made to
flow upwards."
"
Following guides like those just cited, these very strange

fellows the Gnostics (observes Hippolytus), the inventors of a
new art of grammar (or, criticism), extol beyond all expression
their prophet Homer, who hath foreshown these doctrines unto
them :
and, by seducing those ignorant of the Holy Scriptures
into such-like fancies, they make fools of them in the manner
*
described.
"Another of their maxims is that Whoso saith that the All
cometh from One grossly deceived but he that saith that
is ;
the All cometh from Three, hath the true key to the system of
the universe. For there is one nature of the Man that is above,
Adamas ; one mortal here below ; one without a king, the
generation existing up above, where is Mariam the Sough t-
After, and Jothor the great and wise, and Sephora, she that
* The Basilidan Holy Ghost

"
Boundary Spirit," or (p. 70).

seoth,and Moses, whose offspring is not in Egypt, for his sons

were born unto him in the land of Midian. Neither hath this
truth escaped Homer, for he sings
"All things are parcelled into portions three,

And to each portion its due honour falls."
For it is necessary that the Great Ones (TO. peytO-ri)

should be ex
pressed in words, but in such wise that "hearing

men may not
hear, and seeing they may not perceive." For if the Great Ones
were not uttered, the world could not exist. These three most
sublime names are, KAVLACAV, SAVLAS AV, ZEESAE. Kav-
lacav is the name of the Adamas who is above ; Savlasav of him
who is below, mortal ;
Zeesar of the Jordan that floweth upwards.
This isthat pervades all things, being at once male and
He
female, named by the Greeks Geryon, as having three bodies
out of the Earth whom the Greeks also call The
"
and flowing :
Moon s celestialbecause he has mixed and tempered all

horn,"
the similar sounding words /cepa? and

things [a play upon
Kpacris]. For all things
"
were made through him, and without
him nothing was made, and what was made in him is Life."
This Life is the life unspeakable, the generation of the Perfect

Man, unknown to former ages. The Nothing that was made
"
"
without him is the World of Species, for that world was made
without him by the Third and by the Fourth One.* This is the
Cup (condy) of Joseph, out of which the king doth drink and
"
use divination." Of this also do the Greeks (Anacreon) sing

in Bacchic frenzy,
Bring me, boy, the draught divine

"
Bring me water, bring me wine ;
Make me drunk with quaffing deep,

Lull my charmed soul to sleep ;
For my cup predicts to me

Of what country I shall be."
Here Anacreon s dumb cup utters the unspeakable mysteiy, for
it tells him to what country he shall belong, that is, whether to

the Spiritual or to the Carnal world. This also is the Water "
changed into wine," at the famous wedding at Cana, when Jesus

manifested the kingdom of Heaven that kingdom which is
* God
Ildabaoth, the of Fire.
hidden within every man, like the leaven sufficient for the
three measures. Hero likewise is the unspeakable secret of the
Samoihracian Mysteries, which none but we the
"
Perfect are "
able to understand, for the Samothracians expressly

mention
the Adamas who is above the Primal Man. For in the Temple
of the Samothracians stand two naked men, having their hands
and their genital members elevated towards heaven,* like the
Hermes of Cyllene. These two statues represent the Primal
Man, and the Spiritual Man after he is
"
born again, and made

like unto Him every whit."
"
This is Unless ye eat

the true sense of the Saviour s words,
my flesh and drink my blood, ye cannot enter into the Kingdom

of Heaven and Though ye shall drink of the cup that I
;
drink whither I go ye shall not be able to enter.

of,
For Ho
knew the nature of His disciples, and that every one must abide
in his own nature. For out of the Twelve Tribes he chose the
Twelve for which cause

Disciples;
not all who heard their
the same for that which is not

teaching received or understood ;
according to Nature is contrary

to Nature. Him (Adamas) do
the name Corybas, for he descends from the Head
Phrygians
who is above, the Supernal Brain ;
and permeates the All
(cory)
in And, as the Prophet hath it,
a manner incomprehensible.
Ye have heard his voice, but ye have not beheld his form ;
that the Image coming

is,
down from the Formless One above
no one knows, for it is hidden within an earthen vessel. This
is as the Psalmist hath it: The God dwelling in the great
* A valuable notice of the type DINDIA MAGOLNIA FIEA DE-

under which the Cabiri were repre- DIT NOVIOS PLAVTIOS MED
sented in this the most venerated of RQMAI FECID
all the Grecian sanctuaries. It is
illustrated Ficoroni s where it will be seen that Dindia
curiously by
bronze group, figured in his "Meinorie uses the metronymic after the Etrus-
di Labico," and given to the Kir- can fashion. This group, six inches
cherian Museum. A female, half- high, served for handle to the lid of
a cylindrical pyxis, two palms deep,
draped in a star-span-led robe, rests
her hands on the shoulders of twin resting on three lion s claws. With
it t was found a mirror, the back oil-
youths, similarly arrecti, with the
cars and standing-up hair of fauns, graved with the combat of Pollux
one holds a horn, the other the handle and Amycus, LOSN A with her cres-
cent in the middle, the
of a vase. The base is inscribed in standing
names in regular Etruscan.
very archaic letters
flood, and crying aloud out of the waters of the eea ; that is,
He aloud out of the multiform confusion (or, medley) of

cries
things mortal unto the Formless One who is above, Save my

First-born from the lions. [And in the same sense do they
interpret all the similes concerning waterfloods, and the
promises of the Deity s never forgetting His chosen people.]
The Ascension or Regeneration, that is, the conversion of the
"
Carnal Man into the Spiritual, is thus explained by means of a

curious perversion of words taken from different Psalms :
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, that the King of
Glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The very
scorn of men, and the outcast of the people, He is the King of
Glory, mighty in battle. Battle signifies the war in your

members ever being waged within this earthly creature made
up of conflicting elements. This is the gate seen by Jacob as ho
was journeying into Mesopotamia that is, the young man ;
growing up out of the boy, and Mesopotamia signifies the stream

of the Great Ocean which flows out of the middle of the Perfect
Man. The same by the Phrygians PAPA, be
deity is called
cause He appeased the confusion and chaotic tumult which pre

vailed before His corning. For this name is the unanimous cry
7rae,* of all things in Heaven, in Earth, and under the
Trave,
Earth, calling upon Him to appease the discord, and to send

peace to men that were afar off that is, to the earthly and
mortal and to them that were near that is, to the spiritual
and perfect. He is by the Phrygians,

likewise called dead
inasmuch as he is buried within the tomb of the body ; to which
circumstance also apply the words, Ye are whited sepulchres,
full of dead men s bones and all manner of uncleanness ; because
the Living Man doth not dwell within you.
"
The dead shall rise from their graves signifies that the
Earthly Man shall be born again spiritual. Unless they pass
* A
subsequent thousand years Quidquid liabent alii solus vult pap-
experience of the blessings of eccle- pare :
siastical rule has furnished Walter Aut &i iiomen Gallicuin vis apoco-
de Mapes with a more humorous pare,
etymology for this title Payez, payez dit le mot, si vis im-
"Papa, si rem tangimus nomen petrare."
habet a re,
through this
*
Gate all continue dead, but him that hath
passed through the Phrygians call a god, for he becomes a god,
having passed through the Gate into Heaven. Paul means the
same by his being caught up into the third heaven, and
hearing unutterable things. Again, the publicans and harlots
shall enter into the Kingdo of Heaven before you, where ii
means upon whom the ends of the world

*
publicans the Gentiles
have come * whore ends are the seeds of the universe scat
;
*
tered about by the Formless One, as is set forth by the Saviour,

4
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, declaring that none
but the perfect Gnostics can comprehend this mystery.
Those beloved by the Formless One are Pearls in this vessel
"
of clay ; and to them refers the precept, *

Cast not that which
is holy to the dogs neither throw your pearls before swine
; ;
meaning sexual intercourse with women an act fit only for
dogs and swine. He

by the Phrygians,
is also called AiVoAos
not because he really kept flocks, as the profane fancy, but
because he is o cuet he that ever turns the universe
7roA<Sj
,
in its due revolutions, whence the phrase, the *
poles of heaven.
And Homer (Od. iv. 384-85) says
Here turns about the truthful sea-god old,
Immortal Proteus by the Egyptians called.
"
He is likewise styled *
Fruitful, because the children of
the widow shall be more than those of her that hath a husband ;
that is, the spiritual who are born again, being immortal, are
in number more (though but few of them are born into this
life) than the carnal, who, in spite of their present multitude,

do all perish utterly at last.
The knowledge of the Perfect Man is very deep, and hard to

"
be attained to. The beginning of perfection is the knowledge

of man, but absolute perfection is the knowledge of God. He
( Adamas) is designated by the Phrygians as, the Green Wheat-
ear cut otf ;
on this account, at the Eleusinian rites, the
initiated hold up in silence to the Directors the wondrous
mystery, the green ear of wheat. This wheat-ear is the

Perfect Son descended from the Adamas above, the Great Giver
* A play upon TeAwvcu and re ATj.

of light, like the Hierophant himself. This latter is not
actually castrated like Attis, but emasculated by

the use of
hemlock, so that he despises all carnal pleasure; and whilst
celebrating the mysteries amidst blazing torches, he cries aloud,

1
The holy Brimo hath borne a sacred son, Brimos alluding
to the Spiritual Birth. The rites are therefore named Eleu-
sinian and Anactorian, from the Greek words signifying
Coming and Ascending. This is what the initiated themselves
declare concerning the mysteries of Proserpine and of the ;
road leading the defunct down to her the poet (Amphis)

hath
But underneath her lies a rugged path.
Hollow and muddy, yet the best to lead
Down to the lovely groves of precious Venus.
"
These are the Lesser Mysteries, of earthly origin, in which

men ought to rest themselves for a while, and then proceed to
the Greater Mysteries, that is, to heavenly regeneration.

The Father of the All is furthermore called by the Phrygians
"
Amygdalus, Almond Tree ; not meaning the natural tree,

the
but the Pre-existing One, who, having within himself the

Perfect Fruit pulsating and moving about in his depths, tore
open (8iTJyui;e) his bosom, and brought forth the Invisible.
Ineffable Son, of whom we are treating.* lie is moreover
denominated the Piper, because that which is born is the
harmonious Spirit [or, breath, the Greek affording no distinction

between the twc senses of the word.] The Spirit is likewise
called the Father, and the Son begotten by the Father for the ;
worship of the Perfect is not carnal, but spiritual :

therefore,
*
Neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain shall ye worship
any more/
"
This is the mystery of the Incomprehensible One, furnished

with innumerable eyes, whom all Nature longeth after in different
to the Brahminical figure of Indra,
ways. [Perhaps an allusion
of the heavens.]
<>-od
This is the Word of God, that is, the
* Some lurking tradition of this ciation constructed by Brunelleschi

the church of Sta. Croce. See
mystery may have suggested the for
machine of the almond (machina della Vasari s detailed account of this re-
mandola) containing the Archangel markable example of a miracle-play.

Gabriel, in the spectacle of the
Ann un-
word of the declaration of his great power Wherefore it :
shall be sealed up, and veiled, and hidden, lying in the
dwelling-place, where is established the Eoot of all the TEons,

Powers, thoughts [Platonic Ideas], gods, angels, spirit-mes
sengers that are, that are not, begotten, unbegotten, compre
hensible, incomprehensible, of the years, months, days, hours,
moments, whence Time begins to grow and increase by particles.
For a moment (or geometrical point), itself being nothing, made
of nothing, indivisible, grows by accretion into a magnitude
incomprehensible. This is the Kingdom of Heaven, the grain

of mustard seed, the Indivisible Point existing within every
one, but only known unto the Spiritual Man.

There is neither speech nor language, but their voices are
" *
heard amongst them, signifies that whatever men say or do,

has all a spiritual meaning to the Perfect even the actors in the
;
theatre utter nothing without the intervention of the Deity.

For when the audience are seated, and the actor comes upon the
stage, clad in a gorgeous robeand twanging his lyre, he sings
thus a great mystery without knowing what he says Whether
thou be the offspring of Saturn, or of blessed Jove, or of the
mighty TChea, hail! Thee Assyrians call the thrice-desired
Adamas ; whilst Egypt styles Thee Osiris ; the Greeks in their
wisdom (esoteric knowledge) the Moon s Holy Horn ; the Samo-
thracians, the venerable Adamnas ; the Hsemonians, Corybas ; the
Phrygians, at one time, Papa, the Dead One ; at another, the

God, or the Barren One, or the Green Wheat-car cut off or him ;
whom the fruitful Almond Tree poses the man playing on the
pipe. He is the multiform Attis, whom they thus describe in

theirhymns I will sing of Attis, the favourite of Ehea, with
:
the clashing of cymbals, the bellowing of the Idaean pipe of

the Curetes, and will intermingle the sound of Phoebus lyre.
Evoe Evau ! ! Thou that art like unto Pan, unto Bacchus, thou
Shepherd of the white stars !
(adds Hippolytus) and other such like reasons,

For these "
" "
these Ophites frequent the Mysteries of the Great Mother,
fancying that by means of what is done there they can see

through the whole secret. But in reality they have not the
least advantage over other people, except that they are not
emasculated, and yet they act as though they were. For they
most strictly forbid all intercourse with women, and in every
other respect, as we have fully described, they do the same
things as the eunuchs, the regular priests of Rhea."

After giving an account of their worship and glorification
of the Serpent (which I shall extract when treating of the
Agathodsemon religion) Hippolytus thus continues :
"
The
foregoing a sample of the insane, absurd, and interminable
is
theories of the sect. But to show up, as far as lies in cm-

power, their unknowing knowledge, the following hymn* is
here inserted, as containing a summary of the whole creed :
"
The generative law of the All was the First Mind ;
But the Second was the effused chaos of the First :
In the third place the Soul received a law, and began to operate.!
Whereupon She (the Soul) enveloped in the figure of a fawn,
Struggles with Death, suffering a probationary penance.
At one time, invested with royalty, she beholds the Light ;
At another, cast down into misery, she weeps.

Now she weeps and rejoices ;
Now she weeps and is judged;

Now she is judged and dies.
When shall her deliverance be?
The wretched one
Hath entered, as she strayed, into an evil labyrinth.
But Jesus said Father, suffer me
: ;
She in quest of evil (or, the chased of evil ones) upon earth
Wandercth about, destitute of Thy Spirit :
She seeketh to escape from the bitter chaos,

But knoweth not how to pass through.
For this cause send me, O Father !
I will go down holding the Seals,

I will pass through all the ôns ;
I will reveal all the mysteries;

I will manifest the forms of the gods I ;
And the hidden secrets of the holy way

I will teach, giving unto them the name of GNOSIS.
"
This, therefore, is the system (or pretension) of the

Naaseni, who designate themselves the Gnostics. But this
* This written in ana- mental All
hymn is doctrine "
is Three,"
psestic verses; its text is in many already stated by Hippolytus.

places hopelessly corrupted by the J That is, will disclose to the
transcriber. I have therefore often the different figures of the
faithful
been obliged to conjecture the original Archons of the lower spheres, a
sense. promise fulfilled at much length by
t An er.:mciation of the funda- the author of the Pistis-Sophia.
deception of theirs being multiform, and having many heads

like the Hydra of fable, if I smite all the heads at a single
blow with the wand of Truth, I shall destroy the whole
serpent, for all the other sects differ but little from this in
essentials."
Hippolytus has not given a connected analysis of the Ophite

system ho probably deemed it superfluous labour, as having
;
been already done with much exactness by Ireneeus in his great

work, to which the former occasionally refers as being then in
everybody s hands. To the Bishop of Lugdunum, therefore, we
must apply for this information, which will be found given at
much length in Chapters xxxi.-xxxiii. of the First Book of his
History. Pie states that the Ophites, like other Gnostics, rejected
tlie Old Testament altogether as the work of a subordinate
divinity, and containing nothing of the revelations of their Sophia,
or Divine Wisdom ; whilst they held that the New,
although
originally of higher authority, had been so corrupted by the
interpolations of the Apostles as to have lost all value as a
revelation of Divine truth. They drew the chief supports of
their tenets out of the various "
Testaments "
and similar books

then current, and ascribed to the Patriarchs and the most
ancient Prophets, for example, the book of Enoch.
The primary article of this doctrine was the Emanation of all
things from the One Supreme, long
utterly unknown to man
kind, and at last only revealed to a very small number capable
of receiving such enlightenment. Hence he is named Bythos,
Profundity," to express his unfathomable, inscrutable nature.

"
Following the Zoroastrian and the Kabbalistic nomenclature they

also designated Him as the Fountain of Light," and The
"
"
Primal Man," giving for reason of the latter title that

"
Man
was created after the image of God," which proved the nature of
the prototype.
The Beginning of Creation, that is, the Primal Idea, or Emana
tion, was the "
Ennoia, of Bythos, who bears also the

thought,"
significant name of Sige, "
Silence." This Idea being the first

act of creation of the Primal Man, is therefore properly
denominated the Second
Ennoia is the consort (compare
"
Man."
the Hindoo Darga) of Bythos, and she produced Pneuma, the "
96 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIK REMAINS.
who, being the source of all created things, is entitled

Spirit,"
"the Mother of all living," and likewise Sophia, the wisdom

from on high. As the mother of all living, Sophia is the
medium between the intellectual and material worlds. In

consequence of this, when Bythos and Ennoia, charmed
with
her beauty, furnished her with the divine Light, Sophia pro
duced two new Emanations the one perfect, Christos, the other
imperfect, Sophia- Achamoth. (This scheme resembles the Bud
dhistic Bythos answering
;
to the First Buddha
Sige, Sophia, ;
Christos, Achamoth, Ildabaoth, to the successive other Five.)

Of these emanations Christos was designed for the guide of
all who proceed from God Achamoth, for the guide of all
;
proceeding out of matter nevertheless, the Perfect One was

;
intended to assist and lead upwards his imperfect sister.

Furthermore, the Spirit rests upon Chaos, or the waters of
which are Matter, Water, Darkness, the Abyss. This
Creation,
Chaos was devoid of all life, for life proceeds ultimately from
the Supreme, who has no connection whatever with Matter.
Neither could his purely intellectual daughter, Sophia, act
therefore employed for agent her own
directly upon it; she
emanation, Achamoth, whose mixed imperfect nature fitted her
for that office.
This First Tetrad, Bythos, Ennoia, Sige, Sophia, were in the
meantime creating Ecdesia, the Idea of the Holy Church. But
the imperfect Achamoth upon descending into Chaos, lost her
way there, and became ambitious of creating a world entirely

for She floated about in the Abyss, delighted at
herself.
until she
imparting life and motion to the inert elements,
became so hopelessly entangled in Matter as to be unable to
extricate herself from its trammels. In this condition she
the Demiurgus,
produced the creator of the material world,
Ildabaoth.
But after this event, Achamoth feeling the intolerable burden
and repeated efforts, at length
of her material part, after long
struggled forth out of Chaos. She

had never belonged to the
Pleroma, but she attained to the Middle Space where she
"
"
entirely shook off her material part, and determined to erect a

barrier between the World of Intelligence and the World of
Matter. Ildabaoth,
"
Son of Darkness," creator and tyrant of

the Lower World, followed the example of Bythos in producing
subordinate Emanations. First of all ho generated an Angel
own
in his likeness ; this Angel a second ; and
on up to theso
number of six. These are all reflexions one of the other but ;
they inhabit, with their father, Ildabaoth, seven different

regions ; to which the Middle Space, dominion of their origin
Acharnoth, forms the eighth. Their names are lao, Sabaoth,
Adonai, Eloi, Ouraios, Astaphaios. They became the Genii of
the seven worlds, or planetary spheres. The first four names
are the mystic titles of the God of the Jews degraded thus by
the Ophites into appellations of the subordinates of the Creator ;
the two last signify the forces of Fire and Water.

In this degradation of the names most sacred in the Jewish
theology, is clearly to be recognised, the very teaching of those

reprobated by Jude, v. 8 for despising
"
dreamers" "Dominion,"
and speaking evil of "
Dignities." For "
Dominion "
is the
"Empire"
in the Sephiroth (see page 35) to which the Kabbala
assigned the title Adonai. Now we find here the Ophites
making Adonai the third son of Ildabaoth, a malevolent Genius,

and like his father and brethren, the eternal adversary of the
Christ. The Dignities mean the other personages of the
"
"
Sephiroth, similarly dishonoured by the new doctrine. Judo

shows plainly whom he had in view by contrasting in the next
verse the audacity of these "blasphemers" with the respect
shown by the Archanged Michael towards his opponent on
account of his angelic nature, however fallen from his high
estate. By a most singular coincidence (much too close to
have been merely accidental), Jude s censure, nay, his very
expressions are repeated by Peter in his second Epistle (ii. 10).
If either of these Epistles were really written by the Apostles
whose names they bear, these passages bring to light the very
early existence of this school of Gnosticism, which indeed may
have been founded before the promulgation of Christianity.
But to return to the operations of Ildabaoth. Besides the
Spirits mentioned, he generated Archangels, Angels,

above
Virtues, and Powers presiding over all the details of the
creation. Ildabaoth was far from being a pure spirit ambition ;
and pride dominated in his composition. He therefore re

solved to break off all connection with his mother, Achamoth,
and to create a world entirely for himself. Aided by his own
Six Spirits, he created Man, intending him for the image of his
power but he failed utterly in his work, his Man proving a

;
vast, soulless monster, crawling upon the earth. The Six

Spirits were obliged to bring their work again before their
father, to be animated he did so by communicating the ray of
:
Divine Light which he himself had inherited from Achamoth,

who by this loss punished him for his pride and self-
sufficiency.
Man, thus favoured by Achamoth at the expense of her own
son, followed the impulse of the Divine Light that she had
transferred to him, collected a further supply out of the
creation with which it was intermingled, and began to present
not the image of his creator Ildabaoth, but rather that of the
Supreme Being, the Primal Man." At this spectacle the
"
Demiurgus was filled with rage and envy at having produced
a being so superior to himself. His looks, inspired by his
passions, were reflected in the Abyss, as in a mirror, the image

became instinct with life, and forth arose "Satan Serpent-
formed," embodiment of envy and cunning.
Ophiomorplios, the
He is the combination of all that is most base in matter with
the hate, envy and craft of Spiritual Intelligence. Out of
their normal hatred for Judaism, the Ophites gave this being
the name of Michael, the guardian angel of the Jewish nation
according to Daniel (v. 21). But they also called him Samiel,
the Hebrew name of the Prince of the Devils.
In consequence of his spite at the creation of Man, Ildabaoth
set to work tothe three kingdoms of Nature, the
create
Animal, the Vegetable, and the Mineral with all the defects ;
and evils they now exhibit. Next, in order to regain possession

of the best of things, he resolved to confine Man within his own
exclusive domain. In order to detach him from his protectress
Achamoth, and from the celestial region, he forbade him to eat
of the Tree of Knowledge, which could reveal the mysteries
and confer on him the graces from above. But Achamoth, in order
to defeat his scheme, sent her own Genius, Ophis, in the form
of a serpent to induce himto transgress the commandment, and

so to break the Law of Jealousy. Though not so stated, it
would appear that the serpent-form was put on by Achamoth s
minister in order to escape the vigilance of Ildabaoth, under
the disguise of his offspring Satan, Ophiomorphos.
Enlightened by eating the forbidden fruit, Man became

capable of comprehending heavenly things. Nevertheless
Ildabaoth was sufficiently powerful to revenge himself, which
he did by shutting up the First Pair in the prison-house of
Matter, that is, in the body, so unworthy of his nature, wherein
Man is still enthralled. Achamoth, however, continued to
protect him : she had extractedfrom his composition and
absorbed into herself the divine Spark of Light; and ceased
not to supply him therewith, and defend him in all his
trials.
And of this there was full need. A new enemy had come
into the field against Man, the Genius Ophis whom Ildabaoth had
seized, and punished for his share in the affair of the Tree of
Knowledge, by casting him down
Abyss and who,
into the ;
contaminated by his immersion in Matter, became converted

into the exact image of his fellow-prisoner,
Ophiomorphos.
The former was the type, the latter the antitype, and the two
are often confounded together. Thus we get a third dualism into
the scheme. Sophia and Sophia-Achatnoth, Adam-Kadmon and
Adam, Ophis and Ophiomorphos. Ophis, at first Man s friend,
now began to hate him as the cause (though
innocent) of his own
degradation. With Ildabaoth, and his Sons, he continually seeks
to chain him to the body, by
inspiring him with all manner of
corrupt desires, more especially earthly love and the appetites.
But Achamoth supplies Man with the divine Light,
through
which he became sensible of his Nakedness, that of the
is, misery
of his condition of imprisonment in this body of death, where
his only consolation is the hope of ultimate release.
But the seductions of Ildabaoth and his crew gained over all
the offspring of Adam, except
the true type of the
Seth,
Spiritual Man: and his posterity kept alive the seed of
Light and the knowledge of divine Truth throughout all the
generations following. When they in the Wilderness received
H 2
the commandments and institutions of Ildabaoth and his Sons,

the Planetary Genii, and afterwards the teaching of the
Prophets, inspired from the same source, Achamoth infused into

their predictions something higher, comprehended not even by
their Lord, and made them preach the advent of the Primal
Man, the eternal 2Eon, the heavenly Christ. [The same notion
was a favourite one with the Medieval CatJiari. ]
Achamoth was so afflicted at the condition of Man that she
never rested until she had prevailed on her mother, the
celestial Sophia, to move Bythos into sending down the Christ
to the aid of the Spiritual Sons of Seth. Ildabaoth himself had
been caused to make ready the way for his coming through
his own minister, John the Baptist in the belief that the
;
kingdom Christ came to establish was merely a temporal one a :
supposition fostered in him by the contrivance of Achamoth.

Besides inducing him to send the Precursor, she made him
cause the birth of the Man Jesus by the Virgin Mary because ;
the creation of a material person could only be the work of the
Demiurgus not falling within the province of a higher power.

;
As soon as the Man Jesus was born, the Christ, uniting himself
with Sophia, descended through the seven planetary regions,
assuming in each an analogous form, thus concealing his true
nature from their presiding Genii, whilst he attracted into
himself the sparks of the divine Light they still retained in
[These analogous forms are explained by the

"
their essence.
"
fact that the Ophite Diagramma figured Michael as a lion,
S uriel as a lull, Eaphael as a serpent, Gabriel as an eagle,

Sabaoth as a bear, Erataoth as a dog, Ouriel as an ass. ] In this
manner the Christ entered into the man Jesus at the moment of
his baptism in the Jordan. From this time forth Jesus began to
work miracles ;
before that He had been entirely ignorant of his
own mission. But Ildabaoth was
at last discovering that he
subverting his own kingdom upon up the Jews

earth, stirred
against him, and caused him to be put to death. When he was

on the cross, the Christ and Sophia left his body, and returned
to their own place. Upon his death the Two took the Man
Jesus, abandoned his Material body to the earth, and gave him a
new one made out of the JEther. Thenceforth he consisted
merely of soul and spirit, which was the cause why the
Disciples did not recognise him after his resurrection. During

his sojourn upon earth of eighteen months after he had risen, he
received from Sophia that perfect knowledge, the true Gnosis,
which he communicated to the small portion of the Apostles
who were capable of receiving the same. Thence, ascending

up down upon the
into the Middle Space, he sat right hand of
Ildabaoth although unperceived by him, and there he is
collecting all souls that have been purified through the
knowledge of Christ. When he shall have collected all the

Spiritual, all the Light, out of Ildalaoth s empire, Redemption
is accomplished and the end of the world arrived which means :
nothing else than the reabsorption of all Light into the Pleroina
from which it had originally descended.
The sect were divided in their opinions as to the nature
of Ophis. Although agreed that this
the genius was in
beginning the minister of Achamoth, the Ophites of Theodoret s
time held that he had been converted into the enemy of Man ;
although by inducing him to break the commandment of

Ildabaoth he had proved the final cause of Man s deliverance
from his power. But all these nice distinctions, and compli
cated machinery of Redemption were the invention of the later
schools unknown to the sect described by Hippolytus.
: For
the primitive Ophites, retaining the Egyptian veneration for
the Agathodgernon, regarded their serpent, The Naas, as identical
with either Sophia, or the Christ. That writer says positively
**
the Naas (Hebrew, NacJiasJi) is the only thing they worship,
whence they are denominated Naaseni. Even two centuries
later when Epiphanius wrote, they employed a living tame
serpent to encircle and consecrate the loaves that were to be
eaten at the Eucharistic supper. Again Tertullian has (In
Prescript.)
"
Serpentem magnificant in tantum ut etiam

"
Christo preeferant a passage that suggests that their

opliig
was connected with the antique Solar Genius of the Pharaonio
religion. It was a peculiarity of the Egyptians that, like
the present Hindoos, they were divided, as it were, into sects,
each of which adopted some one deity out of the Pantheon
for the exclusive object of worship, paying no regard to all the
rest. As in modern Hindooism Vishnu and Siva have

engrossed the religion of the country, so in the Egypt of the
first Christian century Anubis and Cnuph had become the sole
objects ofEgyptian veneration, as the monuments hereafter to

be reviewed will abundantly evince.
To establish the identity of their Ophis with the Saviour, his
followers adduced the words of St. John, For as Moses lifted "
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man

be lifted
up."
All this proves that the section of the Ophites
which regarded the serpent as evil by its nature, had been led
astray from the primitive doctrine of their sect by the prevailing
Zoroastrian and Jewish notions upon that subject. The creed
of the original Gnostics, the Naaseni, gave a very different view
of the nature of the serpent considered merely as a type ; a fact
which shall be established in the section on the Agathodeemon
worship.
Epiphanius gives the following abstract of their doctrine to
explain their reverence for the serpent as the true author of
divine knoivlcdgc. The Supreme Êon having produced other
"
yEons, one of these, a female, named Prunicos (i.e. Concupiscence),

descended into the waters of the abyss whence, not being :
able to extricate herself, she remained suspended in the

Middle Space, being too much clogged by matter to return
above, and yet not sinking lower where there was nothing
cognate to her nature. In this condition she produced Ildabaoth,
the God of the Jews ;
and he in his turn seven JEons or Angels,
who created the seven heavens. From these seven Êons
Ildabaoth shut up all that was above, lest they should know of
anything superior to himself. The seven Êons then created

Man the image of their Father, but prone, and crawling
in
upon earth like a worm. But the Heavenly Mother, Prunicos,

wishing to deprive Ildabaoth of the power wherewith she had
unadvisedly invested him, infused into Man a celestial spark
the soul. Straightway man rose up on his feet, soared in mind
beyond the limits of the eight spheres, and glorified the
Supreme Father, Him who is above Ildabaoth. Hence Ilda

baoth, full of jealousy, cast down his eyes upon the lower layer
of Matter, and begat a Virtue, whom they call his Son. Eve,
listening to him as the Son of God, was easily persuaded to eat

of the Tree of Knowledge." Such is the brief summary of
Ophite tenets, as given by Epiphanius. The details of the
elaborate system given in the preceding pages are extracted
from Theodoret who flourished half a century later.
FIG. 4.
MACHINERY OF THE GNOS1S.
The Gnosticism having been

doctrines of the chief schools of
fully described in the preceding sections, the next step in the

natural order of things will be to consider the MACHINERY
employed by its teachers to set forth these new doctrines.

The mythology continued to hold their
deities of the ancient
place in the productions of the great sect whose birth-place

was Alexandria, and consequently some insight into the sense
in which the novel theosophy adopted them may be obtained
by learning what were the powers and attributes of these same
gods, when their worship held undisputed possession of the
country. On this account, the chief deities of Egypt, and the
figures under which they are recognised, must now be briefly
described together with their Coptic titles, so often found on
these monuments in strange companionship with the holy
names of the Jewish creed, with the Magian Genii, even with
the appellatives of Hindoo gods the very terminology of the
religion plainly indicating its remote and multifarious sources.

1. The great god of Lower Egypt, Phthas (phonetic, Ptah), is
represented in a close-fitting robe, with his feet joined together,

and standing upon a base of four steps, called the Four "
Foundations," and which typified the Four Elements, of which

ho was the grand artificer an emblem long afterwards taken
in the same acceptation by the Kosicrucians, sometimes he
appears as a dwarf and Priapean; sometimes as Phtha-Tore

with a beetle forehead. His proper attribute is the Cyno-
cephalus baboon. His four sons, the Cabiri, are painted as little
ugly dwarfs, bearing for badges of office, a sword, a crocodile,

a serpent, a human head stuck on a hook. They become in the
Collectors unto Wrath
"
hierarchy of the Pistis-Sophia the

"
whose office is to accuse souls in the Judgment.

(epivcuoi),
The many-armed Genius brandishing similar weapons, often
found on Gnostic talismans, probably expresses the same idea

in a condensed form.
2. Ammon (phonetically, Amen) has a human, and occasionally

a ram s, head, from which rises a parti-coloured plume. lie is
modified into Pan-Mendes," Priapean, and brandishing a
"
whip. In the character of "
Ammon-Chnubis "
he has his feet

bound together, and wears the horns of a goat. He is often
figured as the serpent, called by the Greeks the Agathodsemon."

"
His symbol is the vase "
Canopus," for so
the Greeks pronounce
the name of Chnubis. United with the sun, ho becomes
"
Animon-Ea."
3. The Sun-god, Phre, or Ea, depicted with the head of a
hawk, supporting the solar disc entwined with the serpent

Uraeus.
4. Thoth or Thoyt, ibis-headed, is the "
Scribe of the gods."
Sometimes he takes the head of a hawk, and becomes tho

famous Hermes Trismegistus." His symbol is the winged orb,
"
Tat, answering to the Mir of the Persians. (He is the prophet

Enoch s fourth rebellious Penumuc,
angel,
"
who discovered unto

tho children of men bitterness and sweetness, and pointed out
to them every unit of their wisdom. He taught men to under
stand writing, and tho use of ink and paper. Therefore
numerous have been those who have gone astray, from every
period of the world even to this day. For men were not born
for this, thus with pen and with ink to confirm their faith."
[Ixviii. 10. 13.])

5. Sochos is depicted with the head of a crocodile, and is also
symbolised by a crocodile with the tail bent.
6. The Moon-god, Pa-Ioh, (Pa, being the Coptic definite

article) is represented having his feet close together ; upon his
head is a single lock of hair and the crescent. At other times,
this deity is figured bi-sexual, and casting gold dust over the
heavens, that is, bespangling them with the stars.
7. human figure distinguished by his lofty conical
Osiris is a
helmet, and holding a crook and a whip. The eye is his

symbol.
8. Aroeres (Aroi), the Horus of the Greeks, has a single lock
of hair upon his head. He is figured as being suckled by I sis

and again, as seated upon the lotus ; ho also occasionally wears
the head of a hawk, as being one character of the Solar god.
His symbol, the hawk, appears upon the breast of Isis in a torso
in the Borgia Collection.
9. Anubis (Anbo) is
always jackal-headed, and sometimes has
also a human one
head, springing from a separate neck. His
Coptic name, ANBO, may often be observed in Gnostic legends.
Bebon, or Bebys, has the head of a hippopotamus, or a
10.
crocodile, and carries a sword a figure which used to be

:
taken for Typhon. He stands for the constellation Ursa

Major
in the Zodiac of Denderah.
Of goddesses the
principal are
1. Neith
expressed by the Vulture, or else by a female with
:
head of a vulture, or lion. In the last case she takes the name
of Taf-net. She symbolizes the vault of Heaven.
2. Athor : with the head of a cow, or else of a woman covered
with the skin of the Eoyal Vulture. She is denoted hiero-
glyphically by a hawk placed within a square.
3. Isis a female with horns of a cow, between which rests a
:
disk, the lunar circle.

4. Sate the Grecian Hera, wearing tall plumes on her head,
:
and sometimes personified with a feather in place of head,

stands for "Truth," in which latter quality she
appears
regularly at the Judgment of the Soul.
The Four Genii of the Amenthes, or Hades, are represented
with the heads of a man, jackal, baboon, and hawk,
respectively ;
and are often placed together like mummy-shaped

figures,
forming the Canopic Vases.
The symbols of the same worship have been to some extent
explained by persons writing at a time when they were still a
living, though fast expiring, language. Of such writers the
most valuable is Plutarch, who in his curious treatise De Iside
et Osiride, has given the meaning of several of these symbols,
and, as it would appear, upon very good authority.
According
to him, Isis sometimes signifies the Moon, in which sense she is
denoted by a Crescent ; sometimes the Earth as fecundated
by
the waters of the Nile. For this reason water, as the seed of
Osiris, was carried in a vase in the processions in honour of this
Of iris is denoted by the picture of an Eye and

Sceptre; his
name being compounded of Os "
many," Uponand iris

"
eye."
this point Macrobius states (Sat. The Egyptians, in

I. 21),
"
order to denote that Osiris means the Sun, whenever they want
to express his name in hieroglyphic writing, engrave a Sceptre
and on top thereof the figure of an Eye ;
and by this symbol
they express Osiris, signifying this
god to be the Sun, riding
on high in regal power, and looking down upon all things,
because antiquity hath surnamed the Sun the Eye of Jupiter. "
The Fig-leaf stands for

"
King" ; and also for the "
South."
The Lizard, which was believed to conceive through the ear,

and to bring forth through the mouth, the typo of the
is
generation of the Word, that is, the Logos, or Divine Wisdom.

(This belief explains the appearance of a lizard upon the breast
of certain figures of Minerva.) *
The Scarabeus, in its making spherical receptacles for its
eggs, and by retrograde motion, imitates the action and
its
movement of the Sun. This insect had no female, according to

the popular belief of the Egyptians.
The Asp expresses a planet, for like that luminary, it moves
rapidly, though without any visible organ of locomotion.
The Ibis stands for the Moon : the legs of the bird, when
extended, making an equilateral triangle. (It is hard to discern
any analogy between the Moon and this figure of geometry, but
,
yet the Pythagoreans denoted Athene by the same sign. But
that Plutarch is here correct is proved by many gems which
show a triangle set upon an altar and adored by the baboon,
Luna s favourite beast.) How the later Egyptians symbolised
the Sun and Moon is well expressed upon a jasper (Waterton)
where Horus, seated on the lotus, is adored by the baboon in ;
the field are the sun-star and the crescent attached to their
respective figures, and also the Triangle very conspicuously placed.

Horus Plutarch remarks wears a crown of the branches of
the Persea, because its fruitresembles in shape the heart ; its
leaves, the tongue. The legend goes that the tree (Cordia myxa,
or Sebestene plum) was first planted at Memphis by the hero
Perseus, whence its name. In memory of his mythic ancestor,
* Of which a fine example, an intaglio, is figured in the Museum (Mescal -
churn.
Alexander ordered that a garland of Persea leaves should form

the prize at the games he instituted at his new Capital. The tree
never wants a succession of flowers and fruit ;
the latter Pliny
compares to a red plum, grow in Europe. adding that it will not
We next come to a professed treatise upon this recondite
*
subject, Horapollo s Interpretation of the Sacred Animals.
Unfortunately, this work bears upon its face clear evidence of
having been excogitated by some pragmatical Alexandrian
Greek, totally ignorant of what he was writing about, but
impudently passing off his own stupid conjectures as to the
meaning of the figures on the ancient
works surrounding him,
as though they were interpretations handed down to him by
antique authority. He must have written under the Lower
Empire, when the art of reading hieroglyphics was entirely lost,
for we know that it still existed in the first century ; Tacitus
particularly notes that an aged priest read to Germanicus upon
his visit to Thebes the contents of the historical tablets on the
edifices of that city. "
Mox visit veterum Thebaruin magna

vestigia ; et manebant structis
literae Êgyptia3 priscam molibus
opulentiam complexa3, jussusque e senioribus sacerdotum patrium
sermonem interpretari (Ann. II. 60). This happened A.D. 19.
"
Itwould appear that the knowledge of hieroglyphics was fast

dying out, and only preserved by members of the previous
generation.*
It is only in a few instances that Horapollo has preserved
some genuine tradition of the meaning of those symbols which
were the most generally used, and therefore the last to be
forgotten. Of these explanations the most important are what
follow.
"The
Cynocephalus baboon denotes the Moon, because that
beast has a certain sympathy with the
luminary, and during
her dark quarter sits without eating, his eyes fixed upon the
*
But the Demotic writing must edifice (moles) an epitaph in Greek,
have lingered much longer in use, Latin, Persian, Jewish, and Egyptian
for Capitolinus, cap. 34, mentions the
letters, so that it might be read by
as one of the current
" "
Egyptian everybody. Divo Gordiano, victori

"
alphabets of the third century. Persarum, victori Gothorum, victori

soldiers raised a tomb to
"The
Sarmatarum, depulsori Eonianarum
Gordian at Circeium Castrum, on the seditionum, victori Germanorum, sed
confines of Persia; placing upon this non victori Philipporum."
ground as though mourning for her loss. He moreover denotes

the priestly order, because he is naturally circumcised, and abhors
fish and fishermen. Erect and with uplifted paws and a
basilisk (asp) upon his head, he symbolises the New Moon,
whose appearance he hails after this fashion.
first
By his
voiding his urine at fixed and regular intervals, he first sug
gested to observers the regular division of the day into hours,
and furnished the first idea of the invention of the Clepsydra, or
water-clock.
"
The Dog (Jackal) represents the sacred scribe : because that

functionary ought to be always studying, and likewise should
bark at, and make himself disagreeable to, In
everybody.
another sense he expresses a Prophet, from his habit of staring
fixedly at the statues of the gods.

"
The Hawk means God, or Sun.

"
The Lion, from the resemblance of his round face to the solar
orb, is placed beneath the throne of Horus, the Egyptian title of

the Sun.
The Eising of the Nile, called in Coptic Nov or Nev, is denoted
"
by three large vases ; and also by a lion, because it attains its

full height when the Sun is in that sign of the Zodiac for ;
which same cause the spouts of the sacred lavers are made in the
shape of lions heads.
By the Ibis is signified the
"
heart, because the bird belongs to

Hermes, who presides over the heart and all reason. The Ibis
also, by its own shape, resembles the form of the heart con ;
cerning which matter there is a very long legend current

amongst the Egyptians."
But the most graphic account of the symbols and ceremonies
employed in the worship of Isis, whilst yet in its full glory
(the middle of the second century), is to be obtained from the
description of her Procession which Apuleius (himself one of
the initiated) has penned in the eleventh Book of his Golden "
Next flow on the crowds of people initiated

Ass."
"
into the
divine mysteries men and women of every rank, and
; all ages,
shining in the pure whiteness of linen robes the latter having ;
their dripping hair enveloped in a transparent

covering the :
former with their heads shaven clean, and the crowns thereof
shining white these earthly stars of the nocturnal ceremony,
raising as they went a shrill tinkling with sistra of bronze,

silver,and even of gold. But the chief performers in the rites
were those nobles, who, clad in a tight-fitting robe of linen
descending from the waist down to the heels, carried in the
procession the glorious symbols of the most potent deities.
The first held out at arm s length a lamp, diffusing before
"
him a brilliant light; not by any means resembling in form

the lamps in common use for illuminating our evening meals,
but a golden bowl supporting a more ample blaze in the midst of
itsbroad expanse. The second, similarly robed, held up with
both hands the Altar that derives its name from the beneficent
Providence of the supreme goddess. The third marched along
bearing aloft a palm branch with leaves formed of thin gold, and
also the Caduceus of Hermes. The fourth displayed the symbol
of Justice, the figure of the left liand with the palm open,
which, on account of its natural inactivity, and its being
endowed with neither skill nor cunning, has been deemed a
more fitting emblem of Justice than the right hand. The same
minister likewise carried a small golden vestibule made in a
round form like an udder, out of which he poured libations of
milk. The fifth carried a winnowing fan piled up with golden
sprigs. The last of all bore a huge wine jar.
"
Immediately after these came the Deities, condescending to

walk upon human feet, the foremost among them rearing
on high his dog s head and neck that messenger
terrifically
between heaven and hell displaying alternately a face black as
night, and golden as the day ;
in his left the caduceus, in his
right waving green palm branch. His steps were

aloft the
closely followed by a cow, raised into an upright posture the

cow being the fruitful emblem of the Universal Parent, the
goddess herself, which one of the happy train carried with
majestic steps, supported on his shoulders. By another was
borne the containing the sacred things, and closely con
coffin
cealing the deep secrets of the holy religion. Another carried

in his happy bosom the awful figure of the Supreme Deity, not
represented in the image of a beast either tame or wild, nor of a

bird, nor even in that of man, but ingeniously devised and
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. Ill
inspiring awo by its very strangeness, that ineffable symbol of

the deepest mystery, and ever to be shrouded in the profoundest
silence. But next came, carried
precisely in the same manner,
a small vessel made of burnished gold, and most skilfully
wrought out into a hemispherical bottom, embossed externally
with strange Egyptian Its mouth, but
figures. slightly raised,
was extended into a spout, and
projected considerably beyond
the body of the bowl, whilst on the
opposite side, widening as
it receded into a
capacious opening, it was affixed to the handle,
upon which was seated an asp wreathed into a knot, and
rearing up on high its streaked, swollen and scaly neck."
These images and symbols require a few remarks in elucida

tion suggested by the notices of ancient writers, or
:
by the
representations of these very objects upon extant monuments of
the same religion. The " "
udder-shaped vessel exactly describes

the one so frequently placed
upon the Gnostic gems, and which
Matter so strangely interprets as the Vase of Sins " "
of the
deceased an unlikely subject to be selected for a
talisman
intended to secure the benevolence of heaven. Much
more to the
purpose is Kohler s conjecture that it is one of the earthen
pots
used to be tied round the circumference of the
irrigating wheel,
still
employed for raising the water of the Kile to fertilise the
adjacent fields;"fecundating Isis with the seed of Osiris" in
ancient phrase, and
certainly the string fastened about its top
favours such an explanation ; in
fact, we have an
example of
similar veneration for a vessel in the case of
the the Canopns,
pot that held the same water when purified for drinking. The
&
"winnow-fan" is also often ov er
represented, placed this
hemispherical vase the same instrument played an
;
important
part in the marriage ceremony of the Greeks. When piled
with fruit of all kinds, it was
placed on the head of the bride ;
the same significant article, a
broad, shallow basket, was the
cradle of the infant Bacchus the "
mystica vannus lacchi."

The golden Bowl," serving for
lamp, often figures amongst
the various emblems our talismans. The Sistrum
adorning " "
got its peculiar outline from the Indian Yoni (emblem of the
female sex), and it was on account of its similar
shape the
almond, luz, was also held sacred in Egypt, which seems the
true origin of the vesica piscis," serving as the inclosure for

"
divine figures. The British Museum possesses a Hindoo altar

in hardstone, neatly polished, having its flat top formed into
the shape of the lingam-yoni ; at each corner of the square a
little idol is This Indian figure, signifying the
squatted.
Active and Passive Powers of Nature in conjunction for the
work of Creation, is sculptured like a round shallow basin, with
long projecting lips tapering to a twist, with an obtuse cone

rising out of its middle. Now this is the exact shape of a large
brown lamp from Herculaneum (Caylus, vii. pi. 33), only that
from its centre, instead of a cone, springs a bent fore-finger,
digitus obsccenus (with the same meaning as the lingarn) serving

for handle to carry it by, whilst from the sides project the three
arms of the Egyptian Tau. This vessel must have belonged to
the Isis-worship in that town, no doubt as popular there as
it is known to have been at the neighbouring Pompeii. As for
the office of "
Anubis-bearer," it is related that when Commodus

discharged that duty in the procession, he gratified the insane
cruelty of his nature by cracking the shaven skulls of all within
reach with the weighty head of the idol ; and it seems to follow
as a matter of course that the Anubis of Apuleius, in order to
display alternately an ebon and a golden visage, must have

possessed a pair of heads, human and canine, just as he is
figured, holding the caduceus and palm upon certain

Basilidan
gems. Lastly, the mysterious image, too awful to be described,

but whose nature is darkly hinted at as neither of bird, beast, nor
man. These very expressions would tempt me to believe a
compound of all three in a word, the veritable figure of the
;
Abraxas god. And be it remembered that this image was the

"Supreme God," and he, we know, was the IAO of Egypt.
This idol must have been of small dimensions, for it was carried
in the bosom of the devotee s robe, and my suspicion is strongly
confirmed by the existence in the late Mertens-Schaffhausen
Collection of a bronze statuette, five inches in height, found in
the south of France, and thus described in the Catalogue. "No
2002. Statuette of lao standing, armed with cuirass, shield and
whip his head in the form of a cock s, his legs terminating in

;
serpents."
PART II.
THE WORSHIP OF MITHRAS AND SERAPIS.

voi ch avctc gl intelletti sani,
"
Mirate la dottrina die s asconde

Sotto il velame degli vcrsi straui."
"
Salve vera Deum facies, vultusque paterne,

Octo et Jiexcentis numeris cui litera trina
Conformat sacrum nomen, cognomen et
Omen. (Mart. Capella. Hymn, ad Sol.)
<1>PH
= THC = X = h^Lj-
THE WORSHIP OF MITHRAS.
I. ORIGIN OF MITHEAICISM.
THE innumerable monuments of every kind bequeathed to us
by the widely-spread worship of the deity styled Mithras, serve,

at the same time, copiously to illustrate the
important contribu
tions of Zoroastrian doctrine towards the
composition of Gnosti
cism. The Mithraic religion, according to Plutarch, first made
itsappearance in Italy upon Pompey s reduction of the Cilician
Pirates, of whom it was the national worship * and who, when ;
broken up into colonists and slaves all over

Italy, propagated
itamongst their conquerors. In the new soil the novel religion
flourished so rapidly as, in the space of two
centuries, to
supersede (coupled with the earlier introduced Serapis worship)
the primitive Hellenic and Etruscan deities. In
fact, long
before this final triumph over the
sceptical, Pliny appears
disposed to accept Mithraicism, in its essential principle, as the
only religion capable of satisfying a rational inquirer as may ;
be deduced from this noble passage "
Eorum medius Sol

(ii. 4) :
fervidus, amplissima magnitudine, nee temporum modo terra-

rumque sed siderum etiam ipsorum ccelique Rector. Hanc osse
mundi totius animam ac planius mentem, nunc
principale
Naturae regimen ac Numen credere decet,
opera ejus restiniantes.
Hie lumen rebus ministrat, aufertque tenebras, hie
reliqua
*
This deity, under other titles, most ancient of Grecian colonies,
had ever been the great god of Pon- For destroying his statue, the fanatic
tus. As patron of Sinope he appears Eugenius, justly punished by Dio-
under the form of Helios-Dionysos, was adopted, in the succeed-
cletian,
upon the medallion of Pharnaces II. ing times of superstition, for the
In his proper name lie was the patron
tutelary saint of the Byzantine Empire
of Trebizond, being
worshipped on o f Trebizond.
the Mount Mithras overhanging that
I 2
sidera occultat, illustrat ;

hie vices temporum annumque
semper renascentem ex usu Naturae temperat, hie coeli tristi-
tiam discutit, atque etiam humani nubila animi serenat hie :
suum lumen ceeteris quoque sideribus foenerat ; prseclarus,

eximius, omnia intuens, omnia etiam exaudiens ;
at principi
literarum Homero placuisse in uno eo video. Quapropter

effigiem Dei formamque quserere imbecillitatis humanee rear.
Quisquis est Deus, si modo cst alius, et qnacuiique in parte, totus
est sensus, totus visus, totus auditus, totus, animrc, totus animi,
totus Thus, during the second and third centuries of the

sui."
lioman Empire, Mithras and Serapis had come almost to engross

the popular worship, even to the remotest limits of the known
world. For Mithraicism was originally the religion taught by
Zoroaster, although somewhat changed and materialized so
as better to assimilate itself to the previously established Nature
Worship of the West. Under this grosser form it took its name
from Mithras, who in the Zendavesta is not the Supreme Being
the Seven
(Ormuzd), but the Chief of the subordinate Powers,
Amshaspands. Mithra is the Zend name for the sun, the
proper mansion of this Spirit, but not the Spirit himself. Hence
the great oath of Artaxerxes Mnemon was, By the light of
"
Mithras," a counterpart
of the tremendous adjuration of our
William the Conqueror, By the Splendour of God
"
But the !"
materialistic Greeks at once identified the Persian Spirit with

their own substantial Phoebus and Hyperion. Thus Ovid has,
radiis
"Placat cquo Persis Hypcriona cinctum."
(Fasti I. 335.)
In this view of his nature Mithras was identified with other

such as the Phanaces of Asia Minor,
"
"
types of the Sun-god,

and the "
Dionysos
"
of Greece ;
and thereby soon usurped the
in the long established Mysteries, the ancient
place of the latter
Dionysia. The importance into which the Mithraica had grown
from a fact
by the middle of the second century may be estimated
mentioned by Lampridius, that the emperor himself (Commodus)
condescended to be initiated into them. Nay more, with their
tests of the courage of the neophyte, they may be
penances, and
said to have been maintained by unbroken tradition through
the secret societies of the Middle Ages, then by the Eosicrucians,
down to that faint reflex of the latter, the Freemasonry of our

own times. But this curious point must be reserved for the
last Section of this Treatise
investigating the nature of the last
named societies. My present object to point out the grada
is
tions by which the Mithraic principle passed into the

Egyptian
and semi-Christian forms of Gnosticism.
The mystic name Abraxas (asserted to have been the coinage
of the Alexandrian Basilides) is said to mean either in actual
Holy Name
"
Bellermann will have

"
Coptic (as it) ; or, as

seems equally probable, merely the Hebrew Ha-Brachah
is
"Blessing," Grecised, in the same sense. That the symbolic

figure embodying the idea of the Abraxas god has a reference
to the sun in all its components is
yet more evident, as shall
be shown hereafter; similarly, the Brahmins apply their
Ineffable Name Aum to the "
fierce and all-pervading Sun "
and Macrobius devotes much curious learning to

prove that
all the great gods of
antiquity, whatever their names and
figures, were no more than various attempts at personifying the
One Deity, whose residence is the sun. It must here be re
membered that Basilides was by no means a Christian heretic, as
the later Fathers found it expedient to
represent him, but
rather as his contemporary Clemens, relates, a
philosopher de
voted to the study of divine things ; and thus
possibly imbued
with such Buddhistic notions as the intercourse between
Alexandria and the cities of Guzerat (then ruled over by
the Jaina kings) may have naturalized both in Egypt and
in Palestine. This metropolis, as the grand emporium for
foreign doctrines as well as foreign wares, supplies the reason
for the frequent union of Mithras with Abraxas in the same
stone, proceeding from the Alexandrian talisman-factory. A

curious exemplification is a green jasper
(Maiiborough), bearing
on one side the normal Zoroastrian device, Mithras
slaughtering
the Bull ; on the other, the well-known Gnostic Pantheus. A
truly Indian syncretism, which converts all deities from separate

beings into mere deified attributes of one and the same God,
and (for the initiated few, that
reduces that
seemingly
is)
unlimited polytheism into the acknowledgment of the existence
of the Supremo Creator.
That model of a perfect prince, Severus Alexander, must have

imbibed a strong tinge of the Gnosis (as indeed might have
been expected from his birthplace and style of education), for
he went up to worship in the
although upon every seventh day
visited the temples of the other
Capitol, and also regularly
Roman gods, he nevertheless
was intending to build a temple
"
unto Christ, and to rank Him in the number of the gods.

Which thing Hadrian also is said to have thought of, and
without images to be built in all
actually to have ordered temples
the chief cities of the Empire which same temples, because :
raised to Hadrian
they contain no gods, are now called temples
in ho is reported to have prepared
himself, although reality
them purpose above-named.
for the But ho was prevented
from carrying out his design by those who consulted the oracles
if it should be carried out, everybody
(sacra), and discovered that,
would turn Christian, and thereby the other temples would bo
Indeed, there is every reason
"
all deserted (Lampridius i.

43).
worship of Serapis was at first
to believe that, as in the East, the
combined with Christianity, and gradually merged into it with

an entire change of name, though not of substance, carrying
along with it many of its proper ideas and rites, so in the West
the Mithras- worship produced a similar effect upon the character
of the religion that took its place. Seel, in his admirable
of opinion that is
treatise upon Mithraicism ( Mithra, p. 287)
"
as long as the Roman dominion lasted in Germany, we find

traces there of the Mosaic law : and in the same way as there
were single Jewish families, so were there single Christians
existing amongst the

heathen. The latter, however, for the
most part, ostensibly paid worship
to the Roman gods in order
hearts the
toescape persecution, holding secretly in their
religion of Christ. It by no means improbable that, under

is
the permitted symbols of Mithras, they worshipped the Son of

this point of view,
God, and the mysteries of Christianity. In
the Mithraic monuments, so frequent in Germany, are evidences
to the early Christian Romans."
the faith of This same
in his own times makes the
supremacy of the Mithras- worship
grand scheme of Heliogabalus prove less insane than it strikes
the modern reader at the first impression. He was intending
(according to report) to permit no other worship at Eomo than

that of his own god and namesake, the Emesene aerolite,
apt
emblem of the Sun ; bringing together in his temple the Fire "
of Vesta, the Palladium, the Ancilia, and all the other most
venerated relics ; and moreover the religion of the Jews and
Samaritans, and the devotion* of the Christians."
(Lampridius
3). To such a heterogeneous union that numerous section of
the Eoman public who shared Macrobius sentiments on the
nature of all ancient gods, could have found no possible objection
so far as the principle was concerned.
That such a relationship to Christianity was actually alleged
by the partisans of Mithraicism (when in its decline) is proved
by the remarkable declaration of Augustine himself (John I.

Dis. 7). "I remember that the priests of the fellow in the cap
used at one time to say, Our Capped One is
(illius pileati)
himself a Christian.
"
In this asserted affinity probably lay the

motive that induced Constaiitine to adopt for the commonest
type of his coinage (the sole currency of the Western provinces),
and retain long after his conversion, the figure of Sol himself,
with the legend To the Invincible Sun, my companion (or
"
guardian)."
A type capable of a double interpretation,
meaning
equally the ancient Phoebus and the new Sun of Righteousness,
and thereby unobjectionable to Gentile and Christian alike of
the equally divided population amongst whom it circulated.
Nay when avowedly Christian, selected for

more, this Emperor
the grandest ornament of his new Capital, a colossal Apollo,
mounted upon a lofty column, which retained its place until
cast down by an earthquake in the reign of Alexius Comnenus.
Through a similar interchange, the old festival held on the
25th day of December in honour of the Birth-day of the
"
Invincible One," and celebrated by the Great Games of the

Circus (as marked in the Kalendar viii KAL.IAN. N. IN VICTI. "
C. M. xxivj) was afterwards transferred to the commemoration

of the Birth of Christ, of which the real day was, as the Fathers
* This
curious distinction between public sanction.
"
religio
"
and "
devotio," is meant f Signifying that twenty-four con-

to mark the between a difference secutive races of chariots were ex-
national and established creed and hibited on that occasion in the Circus
one held by individuals, without any Maxinms.
confess, totally unknown: Chrysostom, for example, declares

(Horn, xxx i.) that the Birthday of Christ had then lately
been
fixed at Rome upon that day, in order that whilst the heathen
were busied with their own profane ceremonies, the Christians

might perform their holy rites without molestation.
And Mithras was the more readily admitted as the type of
as the
Christ, Creator and Maintainer of the Universe, inasmuch
Zendavesta declares him to be the First Emanation of Ormuzd,
the Good Principle, and the Manifestation of Himself unto the
world. Now it was from this very creed that the Jews, during
their long captivity in the Persian Empire (of which when

they formed but a province), derived all
restored to Palestine
the angelology of their religion, even to its minutest details,
such as we find it flourishing in the times of the Second
Kingdom. Not until then are they discovered to possess the
Belief in a future state ; of rewards and punishments, the latter
carried on in a fiery lake the existence of a complete hierarchy

;
of good and evil angels, taken almost verbatim from the lists
given by the Zendavesta the soul s immortality, and the Last

;
Judgment all of them essential parts of the Zoroastrian scheme,

and recognised by Josephus as the fundamental doctrines of the
Judaism of his own times.
To all these ideas Moses in the Law makes not the slightest
allusion his promises and threatenings are all of the earth,
;
preaches a religion of Secularists, and such

he a religion
earthy ;
was, down to the latest days of Jerusalem, still maintained by

the Sadducees. Now these Sadducees were the most ancient
and respectable families of the nation, who boasted of keeping
the law of Moses pure, and uncontaminated from the admixture
of foreign notions imbibed by the commonalty during their long
is some reason
sojourn amongst the Gentiles. Nay more, there
to accept Matter s etymology of the name of their opponents,
being a term
"
the Pharisees, as actually signifying Persians,"
of contempt for the holders of the new-fangled doctrines picked
up from their conquerors. And this etymology is a Jrnuch more

rational one, and more consistent with the actual elements of the
word, than the common one making it to mean Separatists

"
"
an epithet by no means applicable to a party constituting

the immense majority of the race. It is only necessary now to
allude to the ingenious theory of Bishop Wai-burton, set forth

in his Divine Legation of Moses, who converts the absence
*
of all spiritualism from his teaching into the strongest argument

for its being directly inspired from Heaven.
But from whatever source derived, how closely does the
Zoroastrian idea of the nature and office of Mithras coincide with
the definition of those of Christ as given by the author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews, that profound Jewish theologian, who

styles Him the
Brightness (or reflection) of his glory, the
"
express image* of his person, upholding all things by the word

and again, being made so much better than the
"
of his power ;
"
angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent

Name than they," and here it may be observed that the Reflection
of the Invisible Supreme in his First Emanation is a distinguishing
feature in most of the Gnostic systems. Mithras used to be*
invoked together with the Sun, and thus, being confounded with
that luminary, became the object of a separate worship, which
ultimately superseded that of Ormuzd himself and this was :
the only one propagated by the Pontic colonists and their

converts amongst the nations of the West. Secondary deities
often usurp the places of those of the first rank so Vishnu ;
and Siva have entirely eclipsed Brahma. Serapishad played the

same part with the Pharaonic gods of Egypt, and yet more
striking analogies from modern creeds are too obvious to re
quire quotation. Through this relationship of ideas Mithraic
symbolism found its way into early Christian art in many of its
particulars. The bas-relief over the portal of the Baptistery

at Parma (a work of the 12th century), has all the aspect of a
Mithraic monument, and certainly its design would be

very
difficult to understand from a
Scriptural point of view.
*
ATravya.(TiJ.a xapaKT-fip, the latter title,
"
Tikkan," the Primal Emanu-

\vord literally "impression ot a seal," tion.
is the exact counterpart of the Hebrew
II. THE MITHEAIC SACRAMENTS.

The
principal rites of the worship of Mithras bore a very
curious resemblance to those subsequently established in the
Catholic church; they likewise furnished a model for the
initiatory ceremonies observed by the secret societies of the
Middle Ages, and by their professed descendants in modern
times. The Neophytes were admitted by the rite of Baptism ;
the initiated at their assemblies solemnly celebrated a species of
Eucharist: whilst the courage and endurance of the candidate
for admission into the sect were tested by twelve consecutive
trials, called
"
The Tortures," undergone within a cave con

structed for the purpose ;
all which tortures had to bo
"
"
completely passed through before participation in the Mysteries

was granted to the aspirant.
The two distinguishing Eites, or
"
Sacraments
"
(to use the

technical term) are thus alluded toby Justin Martyr ( Apol. II) in
the earliest description which has been left us of their character.
The Apostles in the Commentaries written by themselves,
"
which we call Gospels, have delivered down to us that Jesus

thus commanded them : He having taken bread, after that
He had given thanks,* said Do this in commemoration of me ;
:
this is my body. Also having taken a cup and returned thanks,

He said : This is my blood, and delivered it unto them alone.
Which things indeed the evil spirits have taught to be done,
out of memory, in the Mysteries and Initiations of Mithras.
For in these likewise a cup of water, and bread, are set out,
with the addition of certain words, in the sacrifice or act of

worship of the person about to be initiateda thing which Ye :
either know by
personal experience or may learn by inquiry."
Again, Tertullian, writing in the following century, has in
the same connection The Devil, whoso business it is to per
:
"
vert the truth, mimicks the exact circumstances of the Divine

Sacraments, in the Mysteries of idols. He himself baptises some
that is to say, his believers and followers ;
he promises forgive-
*
This expression seems to prove (the second century) crept into the
that the notion of llesshiri, or con- Christian practice.
the elements, had not then
,
ness of sins from tho Sacred Fount, and thereby initiates them
into tho religion of Mithras thus he marks on the forehead his :
own there he celebrates the oblation of bread : he brings

soldiers :
in tho symbol of tho Besurrection, and wins the crown with

"
the By tho symbol of tho Kesurrection Tertullian

"
sword."
means that simulation of death mentioned by Lam-

"
"
clearly
pridius (of which more hereafter), and which is typified on so
many talismans by the corpse bestridden by the Solar Lion.
The ceremony he has himself explained in another passage
final :
Blush, my Kornan fellow-soldiers, even though yo be not to

"
be judged by Christ, but by any Soldier of Mithras/ who

when he undergoing initiation in the Cave, in the very Camp
is
of the Powers of Darkness, when the crown (garland, rather) is

offered to him (a sword being placed between, as though in
semblance of martyrdom), and about to be set upon his head, is
instructed to put forth his hand, and push the crown away,
transferring it perchance, to his shoulder, saying at the same

time :
My crown is Mithras. And from that time forth he
never wears a crown (garland), and this he has for the badge
of his initiation, for he is immediately known to be a soldier
of Mithras, if he rejects a garland when offered to him, saying
that his crown is his god. Let us therefore acknowledge tho
craftiness of the Devil ;
who copies certain things of those
that be Divine, in order that he may confound and judge us by
the faithfulness of his own followers." As to the ceremony
here mentioned, unimportant as it may seem to the modern
reader, it may be remarked that as the wearing a garland was

indispensable among the ancients on all festive occasions, the
refusal of one upon such occasions would be a most conspicuous
mark of singularity, and of unflinching profession of faith. But
every dispassionate observer will perceive that these over-zealous
Fathers proceed to beg the question when they assume that the
Mithraic rites were devised as counterfeits of the Christian
Sacraments : inasmuch as the former were in existence long
before the firstpromulgation of Christianity ; unless indeed to
imitate by anticipation be considered as merely another proof
of the mischievous sagacity of its diabolical opponent. On the
other hand, there is good reason to suspect that the simple
commemorative, or distinctive, ceremonies, instituted by the

first founder of Christianity, were gradually invested with
those mystic and supernatural virtues which later
ages insisted
upon as articles of faith,
by the teaching of unscrupulous mis
sionaries, anxious to outbid the attractions of long-established
rites of an apparently cognate character. By this assimilation
they offered to their converts through the performance of, as it

were, certain magical practices, all those spiritual blessings of
which the rites themselves were, at their institution, the symbols
only, not the instruments. A very instructive illustration
of such union of Mithraicism and
Christianity, in the cele
bration of the Eucharist, is afforded by the
Pistis-Sophia s
description of the great one celebrated by the Saviour himself
upon the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which will be found given
at length in its proper place. And lastly, it deserves to bo
mentioned that eating the flesh and drinking the blood
"
of a
"
human sacrifice was far from being a mere

figure of speech in
certain of these mystic celebrations.
Pliny gives high praise
to Claudius for having suppressed the
worship of the Druids
(whom he considers as identical in their religion with the
Magi), in whose rites "it was esteemed the highest act of
religion to slaughter a man, and the most salutary of proceedings

to eat the flesh of the same." And in this notion, which neces
sarily became attached by suspicion to the proceedings of all
secret societies, lay most probably the root of the belief so
widely diffused amongst the vulgar, Eoman that the real

Eucharist of the Christians at their nocturnal meetings was
first
the sacrifice, and the feasting upon, a new-born child, concealed

within a vessel of flour, into which the catechumen was directed
by his sponsors to plunge a knife.
In the particulars preserved to us of the Mithraic Sacrament,
certain very curious analogies to those of the Christian rite
cannot fail to arrest our attention. The *
Bread therein used
was a round cake," emblem of the solar disk, and called Mizd.
In this name Seel discovers the origin of Missa, as designating
the Bloodless Sacrifice of the Mass, assuming that this Mizd
was the prototype of the Host (host la), which is of precisely the
same form and dimensions.
It is not out of place to notice here the various etymologies

which have been proposed for the word Missa. The most
popular one, which moreover has the sanction of Ducange,
derives it from the words "Ite, missa with which the est,"
priest dismissed the non-communicant part of the congregation,

"before
proceeding to the actual consecration of the Eucharist.
The translation of the phrase by the vulgar into "
Depart, it is
the Missa," would certainly bo obvious enough. But, according

to the rule in all such cases, the object sacrificed gives its name
to the ceremony, rather than a phrase from the ceremonial itself,
and this object had from time immemorial gone by the name of
hostia, or
"
victim." The early Christians were quite as partial

Hebrew terms belong
as the Gnostics to the naturalizing of the
ing to the Mosaic ordinances, and applying the same to their

own practices. Thus the old Covenant went amongst them by
the name of Phase, for example :
"
In hoc festo novi Kegis,

Novum Pascha nova3 legis
Vetus Phase terminal."
The Eabbins have possibly preserved a tradition that ex

plains the true origin of the wafer. Alphonsns de Spira, in
that its circular form
"
his Fortalitium Fidei

"
(II. 2), asserts
is a symbol of the sun, and that it is in reality offered in

sacrifice, at the celebration of the Mass, to the genius of that
luminary For the Kabbalists hold that Moses and the

!
prophets were inspired by the genius of Saturn, a good and

pure spirit, whereas Jesus was by that of Mercury, a malevolent
one and the Christian religion was the work of Mercury,
;
Jupiter and the Sun, all combining together for that purpose.
There yet another curious analogy to be noticed, when it is
is
remembered that the Mass symbolises the death of its first

institutor. A round cake (the chupatty of such evil notoriety at
the commencement of the Sepoy Mutiny) is, amongst the
Hindoos, the established offering to the Manes of their ancestors.
The Christian of bread," besides symbolising the
"breaking
great sacrificeonce offered, seems, from the account of the

Manifestation at Emmaus, to have been done in some peculiar
way which should serve for a masonic token, or means of mutual

recognition amongst the brethren.
The sacramental Cup, or chalice, is often represented as set
upon the Mithraic altar, or rather, table ; and a curious piece
of Jugglery connected with its
employment (though not amongst
the Mithraicists), is described by
Epiphanius (Hseres. xxxiv.).
The followers of Marcus, in their celebrating the Eucharist,
employed three vases made of the clearest glass. These were
filled with wine which,
during the progress of the ceremony,
changed into a blood-red, purple, and blue colour, respectively.
"
Thereupon the officiating minister, or more properly speaking,

magician, hands one of these vessels to some lady of the congre
gation, and requests her to bless it. Which done, he this pours
into another vase of much greater capacity, with the prayer,
"May the grace of God, which
is above all, inconceivable,
inexplicable, thine inner man, and increase the

fill
knowledge
of Himself within thee,
sowing the grain of mustard-seed in
"
good ground Whereupon the liquid in the larger vase

!
swells and swells until it runs over the brim.

The worship of Mithras long kept its ground under the
Christian emperors in the capital itself, and doubtless survived
its overthrow there for
many generations longer in the remote
and then semi-independent provinces. At the very close of the
fourth century, Jerome,
writing to Leeta, says, few years
"
A
ago, did not your kinsman Gracchus, a name the very echo of
patrician nobility, when holding the office of Prefect of the
City, break down and burn the Cave of Mithras, with all the
monstrous images which pervade the
initiatory rites, as Corax,
Niphus, the Soldier, the Lion, the Persian, Helios, and Father
Bromius ? "
In the imagery here alluded to, it is

easy to recognise figures
that perpetually occur upon the still extant
representations of
the Mithras worship. In Corax, the Eaven in
; Niphus, Cneph
the serpent; the armed man; the Lion
bestriding the human
victim the youth in Persian the
;
garb ; Sun, expressed either
by Phoebus in his car, or by the star with eight rays ; and
Bromius "
the lioarer," appropriate title of the Grecian Dionysos ;

who also appears as the Asiatic
Plianaces, a youth holding a
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMANS. 127
torch in each hand, one elevated and one depressed to signify

his risingand setting. Chiflet s gem (Fig. 62) may on good
grounds be taken for a picture of the Mithraic ritual, and
upon it all the foremen tioned figures and symbols are easily
to be discovered. Two erect serpents form a kind of frame
to the whole tableau which are seen the heads
;
at the top of
of Sol and Luna confronted; between them stands an eagle
with outspread wings; at the back of each, a raven. In
the field are two naked, crowned men on horseback, tram
pling upon as many dead bodies; between them a kneeling

figure in supplicatory attitude, over whose head are two
stars. Behind each horseman stand two soldiers. In the
exergue is set out a table supporting a loaf, a fawn (sacred to
Bacchus), a chalice, and something indistinct, but probably

meant for the crown Tertullian speaks of. The reverse presents
a more simple design two crested serpents (dracones^), twined
:
about wands, and looking into a cup two stars over a table ;
resting upon a larger vase and on each side a bow, the ends of
;
which finish in serpents heads.

In this composition we probably see portrayed certain
amongst the tests of the neophyte s courage, which, according
to Suidas, were termed the Twelve Degrees or Tortures."

"
"
"
These corresponded in nature, although of vastly more severe

reality, with those trials of courage to which our Masonic
apprentice who seeks admission amongst

"
Lodges subject the

"
them. During the Mithraic probation, which lasted forty days,*

the candidate was tested by the Four Elements, he lay naked a
certain number of nights upon the snow, and afterwards was
scourged for the space of two days. These Twelve Tortures
are sculptured upon the border of the famous Mithraic tablets
preserved in the Innsbruck Museum, and a brief account of their

several stages will serve to elucidate much of what remains to
be discussed. I. Man
standing and about to plunge a dagger
into the throat of a kneeling figure, who holds up his hands in
supplication. (This scene appears analogous to the one in the

modern ceremonial, when the candidate, ordered to remove the
bandage from his eyes, beholds many swords pointed in the

*
Perhaps the origin of the Lenten term of self-inflicted punishment.
most threatening manner at his naked breast.) II. Naked
man lying on the earth, his head resting on his hand, in the
posture of repose. (Probably the penance of the bed of snow.)
III. The same figure, standing with hands uplifted in a huge
crescent (perhaps an arJc, and representing the trial by water.
To this last, Plato is reported to have been subjected during his
initiation in Egypt, and to have but narrowly escaped drown
ing). IV. The same, but now with

the pileus, cap of liberty,
upon his head, rushing boldly into a great fire (the trial by
fire). V. He is now seen struggling through a deep stream,
and endeavouring to grasp a rock. VI. Bull walking to the
left.
On the other side conie the remaining stages. VII. Four
guests reclining at a horseshoe table (sigma), upon

which is set
a boar roasted whole. VIII. Youth guided up a flight of
interminable steps by an aged man. IX. Youth kneeling before
a man in a long robe, whose hand he grasps in prayer. X. The
same but their positions are interchanged. XI. Seated
figures,
man, before whom kneels a naked, crowned, youth, escorted by
one in a long robe. XII. Naked man holding up the hind legs
of a cow, so as to receive in his face the stream still regarded
by the Hindoos as the most efficient laver of regeneration,

and consequently always administered to persons at their
last gasp. The same sacred fluid (as I am

informed by a
Parsee) is used in the sacramental cups

drunk by every male
upon his first admission into that religion, which takes place on
his completing his seventh year. Nay more, such is the belief
in its cleansing virtue, that scrupulous Parseos always carry a
bottle thereof in their pocket, wherewith to purify their hands
after any unavoidable contact with unbelievers !
Very similar ceremonies to these were practised

in the secret
societies of the Middle Ages, if we choose to accept Von

Hammer s interpretation of certain mysterious sculptures,
still
to be seen in the Templar-churches of Germany ;

and which
he has copiously illustrated in his Mysterium Baphometis
revelatum. In the intaglio already described, the kneeling
encompassed by all the terrific and mysterious
is host
neophyte
of Mithras, so remorselessly destroyed by the zealous Gracchus.
And again, the corpses trample;! on by the crowned horsemen

clearly refer to that recorded test of the candidate s fortitude
the apparent
approach of death for Lampridius puts down
amongst the other mad freaks of Comrnodiis, that during the
Mithraic ceremonies, "when a certain
thing had to be done for
the purpose of he
inspiring terror, polluted the rites by a real
murder;" m
expression clearly showing that a scenic repre
sentation of such an act did
really form a part of the proceedings.
The Haven properly takes its
place here, as being the attribute
of the Solar
god in the Hellenic creed, on which account it is
often depicted
standing upon Apollo s lyre.
Many other gems express the spiritual benefits conferred by
the Mithraic initiation
upon believer*. A frequent device of
the kind, is a man, with hands bound behind his
back, seated at
the foot of a
pillar supporting a gryphon with paw on wheel,
that special emblem of the solar often god ;
accompanied with
the legend AIKAIQ2, "
I have deserved it." Another (Blacas)

displays an unusual richness of symbolism the same gryphon s :
tail ends in a whilst

scorpion, the wheel squeezes out of its
chrysalis a tiny human soul that stretches forth its hands in
jubilation in front stands s ibis, Thoth
;
holding in its beak
the balance, perhaps the horoscope of the patient. This
talisman too, unites the Egyptian with the
Magian creed,
for the benefit of the for the reverse
carrier; displays Isis,
but in the character of
llygieia, standing upon her crocodile ;
the field being

occupied by strangely complicated monograms,
of sense
intelligible to the initiated alone, and doubtless com
municated to the
recipient of the talisman, who found in them
"a New Name written, that no man knoweth, save he that
receiveth the same." But both doctrines and ceremonial of
this religion are best understood
through the examination of
extant representations them either directly or alle-
displaying
gorically; which in their turn are illustrated by the practice
of the faithful few who still alive the Sacred keep Fire, namely
the Parsees of Guzerat. The series therefore will be most
fittingly opened by the following curious description of a cave
of Mithras, as discovered in its
original and unprofaned condition,
written by that eminent
antiquary, Flaminius Vacca. (No. 117.)
III. A KOMAN MITHRAS IN HIS CAVE.

I remember there was found in the vineyard of Sig. Orazio
"
Muti (where the treasure was discovered), opposite S, Yitale, an

idol in marble about 5 palms high (3J ft.), standing erect upon
a pedestal in an empty chamber, which had the door walled up.
This idol had the head of a lion, but the body that of a man.
Under the feet was a globe, whence sprung a serpent which
encompassed all the idol, and itshead entered into the lion s
mouth. He had his hands crossed upon the breast, with a key
in each ;
four wings fastened upon the shoulders, two pointing
upwards, two downwards. I do not consider it a very antique

work, being done in a rude manner, or else indeed it was so
ancient that at the time when it was made the good style was
not yet known. Sig. Orazio, however, told me that a theologian,
a Jesuit Father, explained its meaning by saying it signified
the Devil, who. in the times of heathenism, ruled over the
world hence the globe under his feet, the serpent which begirt
:
his body and entered into his mouth, signified his foretelling the
future with ambiguous responses the keys in his hands, his ;
over the world the lion s head, his being the ruler
sovereignty ;
of all beasts the wings, his presence everywhere. Such was

;
the interpretation given by the Father aforesaid. I have done
everything to see the idol, but Sig. Orazio being

now dead, his
heirs do not know what has become of it. It is not, however,
unlikely that by the advice of the same theologian, Sig.

Orazio
may have sent it to some limekiln to cure its dampness, for it had
been buried many and many a year." Tims was this most
interesting monument destroyed through the conceited ignorance
of a wretched ecclesiastic, himself more truly a worshipper of the
Evil Principle, than was the ancient votary of the beneficent
Lord of Light who carved that wondrous image. Yacca adds,
I remember, there was found in the same place, after the
"
above-mentioned only in bas-relief, also having a

idol, another,
lion s head, but the rest of the body human with the arms :
extended, in each hand a torch with two wings pointing up ;
wards, two downwards, from between which issued a serpen t.

At his right stood an altar with fire; from the idol s mouth
proceeded a ribbon or scroll extending over the fire."
This Zzow-headed deity can be no other than Jerome s Pater "
Bromius," a Grecian title of Bacchus ; and we are he, told,

distinguished himself under that disguise in the famous war of
the giants
"
Tu cum Parentis regna per arduum

Cohors Gigantum scanderet impia,
Rha3tum retorsisti leonis
Unguibus horribilique mala."
(Horace, Od. IT. xix. 21-24.)
And, tracing back this composite figure to the real source of

such iconology, it is found to be the
very one under which
" "
Nri-singha-avatar is depicted. was assumed by the deity

It
in order to
destroy the tyrant Hiransyakagipu, who had obtained
the gift of all known beasts, either by day
invulnerability against
or night.
A
Mithraic cave, with the contiguous
buildings, was dis
covered at Spoleto in 1878. In the end wall were the usual
three niches for the god and his torch-bearers. In front of
them an altar inscribed "
Soli invicto Mithras sacrum." Close

to the altar, a tall with a square hole
phallic stone, perforated
near the top perhaps the "stone
symbolizing the Birth of
Mithras
"
mentioned by Firmicus. The cave, with the ground

plan of the whole edifice is given in the Archa3ologia, vol. 47,
p. 205.
IV. MITHRAIC TALISMANS.

Mithraic gems are, for the most part, earlier in date than those
emanating from the Gnosticism of Alexandria, with whose

doctrines they had no connection whatever in their first orioin.
Little difficulty will be found on
inspection in separating the
two classes, the former being pointed out by the
superiority of
their style, and yet more so by the absence of the
Egyptian
symbols, and long Coptic legends that generally accompany the
latter. Indeed many of them belong to the best
period of
Roman art the age of Hadrian and it is easy to perceive how ;
the worship of Apollo

gradually merged into that of his more
K 2
in the times when religious

spiritual oriental representative,
ideas of Indian origin began to get the upper hand throughout
the Eoman world a religion essentially speculative, and dealing
with matters pertaining to another life and the Invisible,
utterly different in nature from the old Grecian creed, so
materialistic, so active, so entirely- busying itself with the

Present and the Visible.
In accordance with the rule that prescribed the proper
material for talismans, the Jasper (Pliny s Malachites), green,
mottled, or yellow, is almost exclusively employed for intagli
embodying Mithraic ideas, and which take the place of Phoebus

and his attributes amongst the glyptic remains of the second
and third centuries. To judge from their fine execution, certain
examples of the class may even date from the age of the first
Cgesars, and thus form as it were the advanced guard of that
countless host of regular Gnostic works, amidst whose terrific
barbarism ancient art ultimately expires. In their beginning
these Mithraic works were the fruit of the modified Zoroastrian
doctrines so widely disseminated over the Empire after the
conquest of Pontus doctrines whose grand feature was the
exclusive worship of the Solar god, as the fountain of all life a
notion philosophically true, if indeed the vital principle be, as
some scientists assert, nothing more than electricity. As will be
shown hereafter (" Serapis "),
the later Platonists, like Macrobius,
laboured hard to demonstrate that the multitudinous divinities
of the old faiths, wheresoever established, were no other than
various epithets and expressions for the same god in his different
phases. The aim of all the school was to accommodate the

old faith to the influence of theBuddhistic theosophy, the
very essence of which was that the innumerable gods

of the
Hindoo mythology were but names for the Energies of the First
Triad in its successive Avatars, or manifestations unto man.
To come now to the actual types setting forth these ideas ;
prominent amongst them the figure of the Lion (he being in

is
astrological parlance the "House of the Sun"), usually sur

rounded with stars, and carrying in his jaws a bull s head,
emblem of earth subjected to his power. Sometimes he tramples
on the serpent, which in this connection no longer typifies wisdom,
but the Principle of Evil. For in all

religions emanating from
the East, where
deadly poisonousness is the most conspicuous
character of the snake-tribe, the
reptile has been adopted as
the most speaking type of the In the West, on
Destroyer.
the other hand, where the same is for the most part
species
innocuous, and a mere object of wonder, it has always
symbolized
wisdom, and likewise eternity, from the popular belief in the
yearly removal of its youth through casting the slough on this ;
account the serpent was made the

companion of Apollo and
Aesculapius; and furthermore plays so important a in part
Scandinavian mythology, holding the whole universe
together
in its perpetual embrace.
Mithras himself often makes his

appearance, figured as a
youthful Persian, plunging the national weapon, Modus "
acinaces," into the throat of a prostrate bull

(which expresses
the same doctrine as the type last
mentioned), whilst overhead
are the sun and moon, the
group standing in the centre of the
Zodiac. But the completest
assembly of Mithraic figures and
symbols that has come under my notice, is the intaglio published
by Caylus ( Recueil d Aiitiquites, vi. pi. It is84). engraved
upon a very fine agate, 2xlJ inches in measurement. In the
centre is the usual type of Mithras
slaughtering the Bull, the
tail ofwhich terminates in three wheat-ears, and between the
hind legs hangs a huge scorpion below is the Lion
;
strangling
the Serpent emblem of darkness and of death. On each side
stands a fir-tree, admitted into this system because its
spiry
form imitates a flame, for which same reason its cone was taken
for the symbol of the element fire, and therefore
borne in the
hands of deities in the most ancient
Syrian sculptures.
Against these fir-trees are affixed torches, one pointing upwards,
the other downwards, which
clearly stand for the rising and
setting of the Sun. At the side of one is a scorpion, of the
other, a bull s head. Above each tree again is a torch, each
pointing in an opposite direction. The principal group is
flanked by Phoebus in his four-horse, Luna in her two-horse car
Above the whole stand two winged figures entwined with
serpents and leaning upon long sceptres, between whom rise
up
three flames, besides four more at the side of the
right-hand
figure,making up the mystic number seven perhaps repre

senting the seven Amshaspands or Archangels. A naked
female, surrounded with stars, kneels before the angel on the
left doubtless the soul for whose benefit the talisman was
composed soliciting his patronage.

Could this elaborate composition be interpreted, it would
certainly be found to contain a summary of the Mithraic creed
as itwas received by the nations of the West. As it is, how
ever, some portions of the tableau are explained by certain
legends to be found in the Parsee sacred books whilst others ;
derive light from comparison with the larger monuments of the

same worship. Thus, the termination of the bull s tail in ears
of wheat allude to the fifty life-giving plants which sprang
from the tail of the Primaeval Bull (or Life, the same word in
Zend) after he had been slain b} Ahriman. Of the same animal
r
the seed was carried up by the Izeds (genii) to the Moon, wheiv,
purified in her beams, it was moulded by Ormuzd into a new

pair, the parents of all that exists in earth, air and water. The
scorpion is appended to the part of the body, properly under
the influence of the sign so called, for as Manilius teaches,
The fiery scorpion in the groin delights." In this particular
"
situation it expresses Autumn, as the serpent underneath does

Winter ;
and with good reason takes the place of the bull s
genitals, for, as the same poet sings (iv. 217.)
"
With fiery tail when Scorpio threatens war,

As through the stars he drives the solar car,
He searches earth with penetrating rays
And the mixed seed deep in her furrows lays."
The torches raised and lowered signify the East and West.
In the circular altar of the Villa Borghese (Wiiickelmann Men.
Ined. No. 21) the bust of Luna appears resting on a crescent over
an aged head in front face with crabs claws springing out of his
forehead a speaking type of Oceanus. The bust of the rising
sun, with his customary badge, the eight-rayed star, in point,

rests upon an erect flambeau, whilst that of the setting luminary
looking downwards, is placed upon another lowered towards

earth. Again, the serpent winding four times about the figures
may signify the sun s annual revolution ; an explanation
rendered the more plausible by the torso of Mithras at Aries,

in which the Zodiacal Signs
occupy the intervals between the
coils of the same serpent. The lion and raven stand for the
attendant priests; for in these mysteries the higher officials
were denominated Lions, the lower Ravens whence the rites :
themselves got the name of Leontica," and Coracica."

" "
The fires, the planets and the genii presiding over them are
in number seven a numeral the most sacred of all amongst the
Persians. But of these seven Fires, three are ever depicted in a
special manner as those most worthy to be held in reverence.

These three are the "
Eire of the IS tars," that is, of the planet
Venus, named Anahid; the "Fire of the Sun," or the Fire Mihr ;
and the "
Fire of Lightning," or the Fire Bcrsiov, that is, the
planet Jupiter. The Mihr is the winged orb, so common in all
Assyrian sculpture an emblem which serves to explain the
Prophet s simile,
"
the Sun of Kighteousness with healing in his
wings."
The worship of the Fire Gushtasp (or that of Anahid) figures

011 the Zend sculptures as a very ancient worship, and also in
the Shah Nameh
"
"
just as that of the goddess Anaitis does in

;
many Greek authors from Herodotus downwards. This his

torian observes (I. 131) that at first the Persians worshipped
only the sun, moon, and elements, until they learnt from the
Assyrians the worship of Venus Urania, whom they called
Mitra, the same being the Mylitta of the Babylonians, the
Alata or Alilat of the Arabians. Now Mitra (feminine of
Mithras) and Anahid, are one and the same goddess, that is to
say, the Morning Star, a female Genius, presiding over love,
giving light, and directing the harmonious movement of the
other planets by the sound of her lyre, the strings whereof are
the solar rays Apollo s lyre strung with his golden hair
" "
(Creuzer, Kal. de 1 Antiq. ii. 731). In this doctrine we discover

the reason for the separation of the Fires upon Caylus gem into
two groups ; the principal group consisting of the three most
anciently adored the subsidiary one of the remaining four.

;
Other Mithraic symbols are of a very speaking character, and

almost explain their own meaning at first sight. Thus Mithras
piercing the bull s throat with his dagger signifies the penetration
136 THE GNOSTICS A^B THEIR REMAINS,
of the solar ray into tlie bosom of the earth, by whose action all
Nature is nourished further expressed by the Dog s licking
; as is
up the blood that pours from the wound. The sign

Capricorn
frequently introduced into the same group, declares the
necessity of moisture to co-operate with the Sun s influence in
bringing about the germination of the seed sown whilst the ;
scorpion, in the significant position above noticed, expresses the

generative heat. The
union of two diverse religions, already
mentioned, is curiously exemplified by those stones that sho\v
the Mithraic group surrounded by sets of the sacred animals of
Eyypt, arranged by threes crocodiles, goats, calves, vultures,

hawks, standing around in attitudes of adoration, and
ibises
gazing upon the great work of their supreme lord, Mithras (see
page 41, fig. 2).
Mithraic bas-beliefs cut upon the smoothed faces of rocks, or
upon tablets of stone, still abound throughout the former western

provinces of the Roman Empire; many exist in Germany ; still
more in France; others in this island,

along the line of the Picts
Wall, and a remarkably fine example at York, the station of the
Sixth Legion. The famous "
(destroyed in the Arthur s Oon "
last
century) upon the Carron, a hemispherical vaulted building
of immense blocks of stone, was
unmistakably a Specus Mitft-
raicumthG same in design as Chosroes magnificent Fire
temple at Gazaca. Inasmuch as the sun-god was the chief
deity* of the Druids, imagine what ready ac
it is
easy to
ceptance the worship of his more refined Persian equivalent
would find amongst the Celtic Aborigines, when once introduced
by the Roman troops and colonists, many of whom were
Orientals. To the last circumstance a curious testimony is
incidentally borne by Lampridius, when he remarks that the

entire military force employed by Maximinus in his
great in-
*
As "Belenus" ho continued to prove that Belenus was held to bo
the last the patron-god of Aquileia, another name for Apollo. A
shoe of
lhat (Gallic metropolis of Cisalpine the giant emperor, a convincing testi-
(Jaul, and to his power was ascribed niony, literally an "ex pede Hercu-
the death of Maximin when besieging lem," to his incredible stature, was
that city. The acclamations of the \et to be seen in the days of Lam-
senate on the receipt of the news pridius, nailed to a tree in the mcrcd
of their deliverance from the tyrant, yrnve at the place of his fall.
vasion of Germany, was the same that had been raised

by Severus
Alexander, and which had accompanied him to the scene of his
either the North of Gaul or
"
murder, Britain," which same
army the historian describes

potentissimus quidem per as "
Armenios et Osrhocnos, et Partlws, et onmis

generis homiimm."
For this sagacious emperor had
appointed to subordinate
commands in his own army all the prisoners of
royal or noble
birth whom
he had taken in his
preceding Persian campaign.
Although the modern Parsees, like their Achseinenian
ancestry
in the days of
Herodotus, abominate idols and all visible
representations of things divine, yet do they still
piously
cherish the ideas embodied on the
sculptures just passed under
review. Amongst these, most conspicuous is their veneration
for theDog which they yet esteem the most holy of animals.
Tavernier (I. 493) was on this account
greatly scandalised by
the Guebres of Surat
they have another strange custom
"
when a person is on the point of death, to take a little

dog, and
place it upon his
breast. When they perceive that he is at his
last gasp, they apply the dog s muzzle to the dying man s
mouth, and make it bark twice when in this position, as if
they
meant to make the person s soul enter into the
dog,* which they
pretend will deliver it unto the angel appointed to receive the
same. Moreover, if a dog
happens to die, they carry it out of
the town, and pray to God in behalf of that
piece of carrion, as
though the brute s soul could derive any advantage from their
prayers after its death." Following up this analogy, the
sculptured dog licking up the bull s blood
may actually be
intended for such a vehicle of
departing life. In these times
the Parsees expose their dead,
upon gratings laid on the summit
of the Tower of silence," to be consumed
"
by the birds alone ;
but under the Sassanian it was the monarchy inviolable rule to

lay outall corpses in the
open fields to be devoured by the dogs.
This was no more than
carrying out to the full a very ancient
principle of the Zoroastriaii religion. Herodotus (I. 140) states
from his own knowledge that the
corpse of a Magus was not
allowed to be buried before it had been attacked
by a bird or
*
My Parsee informant assures mo the merely
brinîn^ a tloi , iuto l]ic
this ceremony is now modiiiod into dying man s chamber.
dog adding that the same was reported of the other Persians.
;
The Magi regarded the killing of a dog equally criminal with

that of a human being This primitive style of obsequies the
Sassanians strove hard to enforce upon all nations subjected to
their sway, viewing as a LI eat sacrilege the
placing of dead
bodies in the bosom of the earth ; a still greater, the
consuming
them by the sacred element, Fire. This practice above all
others scandalised the narrcw-minded Byzantines; the historian
Agathias expressing his horror at the casting the dead to the

dogs, wlntever their rank or dignity in life; as in the case of
the great Satrap Mermeroes, whom he saw thus
exposed naked
in the fields to be so devoured. When the last seven sages of
Greece, expelled from their professional chairs at Athens by the
stupid bigotry of Justinian, sought refuge in the ostentatious
hospitality of Nushirwan the Just, even they (despite their
philosophy) found themselves obliged, by their disgust at the
sight of this practice,* to return home with loss of dignity, >ad
and submit to the spirit of the times. If the dogs refused to

touch the carcase, this was looked on by the friends of the
deceased as the very worst of indications as to the ultimate
destination of his soul. The Parsees, who, with more decency,
constitute the raveiif (or equally sacred
creature) sexton and
sepulchre in. one, deiivo a similar augury from observing
which eye is first attacked by the bird, the preference for the
right one being the token of salvation; for the left, of ti.c
reverse.
A very curious portion of the initiatory ceremony in the
*
To which they ould have been
\\ into the heavens, a portion of the
forced to conform had they continued spiritof the deceased is taken up
under the protection of the Sassanian into heaven. In the case of rich
king. people Lamas are employed to divide
f The same practice prevails in the body into small pieces and carry
Thibet with the motive thus assigned. it up to the
top of a hill, where the
bodies exposed on the
"Several vulture and buzzard soon dispose of
banks of the stream were being de- it. Interment of the dead is als,o
voured by crows and buzzards, which practised, but only among the poorer
soon leave nothing but the skeletons, people, \vho cannot afford to pay
which are washed away by the sum- Lamas to perform the ceremony of
raer rise of the stream. The Tibe- exposing the body." Cooper s Tra-
tians believe that as each buzzard, vels of a Pioneer of Commerce,
gorged with its foul repast, soars p. 270.

ancient Mysteries was the giving of the Mark of Mithras." "
After successfully undergoing each stage of the ordeal, the
accepted candidate was marked in a certain indelible manner,

but the exact nature of this marking cannot now be ascertained
The expressions used by St. Augustine (in Johan. i. dis. 7) lead
us to conclude two things :
firstly, that the engraved stones, the
object of our consideration, were given to the candidate at the

end of his probation, for a token of admission into the fra
ternity, and for a medium of recognition between members :
and secondly, that every one, upon admission, was stamped with
a secret Mark, indelibly imprinted in his flesh. Something of
"
the sort has been copied by a certain Spirit, in that he will

have his own image to be purchased with blood, forasmuch as he
was aware that mankind were some day or another to be
redeemed by the shedding of blood." This last expression
shows that this Mark was not burnt in, but incised or tattooed ;
and the same conclusion may be deduced from St. John s using
the term âpay/xa, engraving, not crT/y/^, branding, for that badge
of servitude which all the subjects of the Second Beast, having "
horns like a lamb s, and speaking like a dragon," were forced to

receive, either in their right hands upon the palm) or upon
(i.e.,
their foreheads, and he caused all, both small and great, rich
and poor, free and bond, to receive a Mark in their right hand,
or in their foreheads : and that no man might buy or sell, save
"
he that had the Mark, or the Name of the Beast, or the Number
of his Name"
(Eev. 17). xiii. These words contain a com
pendious account of the different kinds of
"
Stigmata then in
"
use to distinguish those devoting themselves to any particular
deity. The Mark was the figure of the special symbol or

attribute of that deity (exactly answering to the caste-marks of
the modern Hindoos) the Name was his own, written at full
:
length in some sacred language the Number was the more:
recondite way of expressing that name, either

by a single
numeral in the primitive Chalda3an fashion, or by other letters
taken numerically, and yielding the same sum. The author of
the Apocalypse very probably had the Mithraicists in view
when penning this allegory ; yet we may be certain that the
members of a secret society did not receive the mark of member-
ship upon any conspicuous part of their persons. The same

necessity meets us here, as in every other branch of this inquiry,
for placing the origin of all such sectarian
bodily Marks in
India the true fountainhead, directly or of so indirectly, many
Gnostic practices. There, the votaries of the several deities are
still distinguished, each by the proper symbol of his patron-
god impressed upon his forehead, but by a milder process than
of old, being traced, not in his own blood, but with the ashes of
cow-dung, the powder of sandal-wood, or coloured- earths, daily

renewed. Inasmuch as amongst them the symbol of Fire
(Bramah) is an equilateral Triangle, with the apex
pointing
may be conjectured that the Mithraic
âpay/xa was
upwards, it
the same simple figure, by which indeed

Horapollo informs
us the Egyptians symbolised the Moon, and Plutarch that
Pythagoras expressed the goddess Athene.* Clarkson, how

ever, asserts positively that the Mark of Mithras was the Tau "
mysticum," but whence he derived this knowledge I have never

been able to ascertain. f
The Seven Stars, so conspicuous upon these talismans, doubt
less stand forsomething higher than the mere planets in all ;
likelihood they denote the Seven Amshaspands, the First Order

of Angels in the Zoroastrian hierarchy and who became the ;
"
Seven Spirits of God "
and thenco by to the later Jews,
gradual transition gave the epithet Septiformis munere

" "
to
the Spiritus Sanctus of Christianity. Of these Amshaspands
the names and offices are Ormu/d, source of life and creation
:
;
Bahman, king of the world Ardibehest, giver of fire Shahrivar,

; ;
of the metals ; Qpandarmat (the Gnostic Sophia), queen of the

earth Khordad, presiding over time and the seasons Amerdad,
; ;
over trees and plants. Of these the highest in place are

(after
Ormuzd) the four named next in gradation. Below this
order stand the Ixeds, twenty-seven in number, ruled over
by
Mithras they govern the heavenly bodies and the elements.
;
* Herself the lunar

deity, at-ford- Crescents, the regular badge of tlio
ing to an old tradition preserved by kings of Pontus, and as such put
Aristotle. upon the states of Athens bearing
t There is very good reason to the names of Mithridutes and Aris-
discover a Mithraie mark in the tion. (In the Due de Luyues Coi-
"
Phanaces" or, Sun between two lection.)

Against each Amshaspand and Ized is arrayed a corresponding

Angel of Darkness, to thwart all his operations, namely, the
Seven Arch-Devs, and the Twenty-Seven Devs.
V. GNOSTIC SACRAMENTS AND INITIATIONS AS

CONNECTED WITH THE MIT1IRAIC.
In my account of Mithraicism notice has been taken of the

very prominent part that sacraments for the remission of sin
play in the ceremonial of that religion; the following extracts
from the grand Gnostic text-book will serve to show how the
same notions (and probably, forms) were transferred to the
service of Gnosticism.
Baptism, Remitting Sins. (Pistis-Sophia) (298). Then came

forth Mary and said Lord, under what
: form do Baptisms remit
sins ? I have heard thee saying that the Ministers of
Contentions (e/atSatot)*
follow after the soul, bearing witness
against it hath committed, so that they

of all the sins that it
may convict it in the judgments. Now, therefore, Lord, do the

mysteries of Baptism blot out the sins that be in the hands of
the Receivers of Contention, so that they shall utterly forget
the same? Now, therefore, Lord, tell us in what form they
remit sins ; for we desire to know them thoroughly. Then the
Saviour answered and said : Thou hast well spoken : of truth
those Ministers are they that testify against all sins, for
they
abide constantly in the places of judgment, laying hold upon
the souls, convicting all the souls of sinners who have not
received the mystery, and they keep them fast in chaos
tormenting them. But these contentious ones cannot pass over

chaos so as to enter into the courses that be above chaos; in
order to convict the souls therefore receiving the mysteries, it is
not lawful for them to force so as to drag them down into chaos,
where the Contentious Receivers may convict them. But the
souls of such as have not received the mysteries, these do they
desire and hail into chaos whereas the souls that have received
:
*
The Cabiri,
"
pimishers," of the former duties under the new dispen-

ancieiit mythology, performing their sation.
THE GNOSTICS AND TPIEIR REMAINS.
the mysteries, they have no means of

convicting, seeing that they
cannot get out of their own place and even if
they did come ;
forth, they could not stop those souls, neither shut them in up
their chaos. Hearken, therefore, I will declare to you in truth
in what form the mystery of
Baptism remitteth sins. If the
souls when yet living in the world have been sinful, the Con
tentious Receivers verily do come, that
they may bear witness of
allthe sins they have committed, but they can
by no means come
forth out of the regions of chaos, so as to convict the soul in the
places of judgment that be beyond chaos. But the counterfeit

of the spirit* testifies against all the sins of the
soul, in order
to convict it in the
places of judgment that be chaos beyond ;
not only doth it testify, but also sets a seal

upon all the sins of
the soul, so as to print them firmly upon the soul, that all the
Kulers of the judgment place of the sinners know that it may
is the soul of a sinner, and likewise know the number of sins
which it hath committed from the seals that the counterfeit of
the spirit hath imprinted upon it, so that they
may punish the
soul according to the number of its sins this is the manner :
in which they treat the soul of a sinner. (300). Now there

fore if any one hath received the mysteries of Baptism, those
mysteries become a great fire, j exceeding strong, and wise, so as to
burn up all the sins and the Fire entereth into the soul
:
secretly, so that it may consume within it all the sins which the
counterfeit of the spirit hath printed there. Likewise it entereth
into the body secretly, that it may pursue all its pursuers, and
divide them into parts for it pursueth within the
body, the
counterfeit of the spirit, and Fate so that it may divide them
apart from the Power and the Soul, and place them in one part
of the body so that the fire separates the counterfeit of the
spirit, Fate, and the Body into one portion, and the Soul and
the Power { into another portion. The mystery of Baptism
remaineth in the middle of them, so that it
may perpetually
separate them, so that it may purge and cleanse them in order
s, one of tl.e t -A- clear allusion to the Mithraic

four component parts of torture of the
"
the soul; fire."
equivalent apparently to our Cyon- "
I The particle of the Godhead

science." mixed up in the quadruple
compo&i-
of the Inner Man.
xxiii GX03TICS AND THEIR REMAINS
that they may not be polluteil by Matter. Now therefore,
Mary, this is the manner whereby the mystery of Baptism

remitteth sins and all transgressions.
(301) And when the Saviour Urns spoken, he said to his ha<)
disciples :Do ye understand in what manner I speak with you ?

Then came forth Mary, saying : Of a truth, Lord, I perceive in
reality all the things that thou hast said. Touching this matter
of the Remission of Sins, thou speaketh aforetime to us in a
parable, saying : I am come to bring fire upon the earth nay, ;
more, let it burn as much as I please. And, again thou hast set
it forth openly, saying I have a baptism wherewith I will
:
baptise and how shall I endure until it be accomplished? Ye

think that I am come to bring peace upon the earth ? By no
means but dissension, which I am come to bring. For from
so,
this time forth there shall be five in one house three shall be ;
divided against t\vo, and two against three. This, Lord, is the
word that thou speakest openly. But concerning the word that
thou spakest I am come to bring fire upon the earth, and let it
:
burn so much as I please : in this thou hast spoken of the
mystery of Baptism in the world, and let it burn as much as

thou pleasest for to consume all the sins of the soul, that it may
purge them away. And again thou hast shewn the same forth
openly, saying I have a baptism wherewith I will baptise, and
:
how shall I endure until it be accomplished? The which is

this ;
Thou
wilt not tarry in the world until the baptisms be
accomplished to purify all the perfect souls. And again what

thou spakest unto us aforetime Do ye suppose I am come to :
"
bring peace uponearth," &c. (302). This signifieth the mystery

of Baptism which thou hast brought into the world, because it
hath brought about dissension in the body of the world, because
ithath divided the Counterfeit of the spirit, the Body, and the
Fate thereof, into one party, and the Soul and the Power into the
other party. The same is, There shall be three against two, and
"
two against three." And when Mary had spoken these things
the Saviour said : Well done, thou Spiritual One in the pure
light, this is the interpretation of my saying.

Then Mary went on and said Bear with me, Lord, whilst I :
yet inquire of thee. Lo we know now fully after what form

!
144 THE GNOSTICS AXD THEIR REMAINS.
Baptism remitteth sin. Now therefore declare unto us the

mystery of the Three Courts, and the mystery of the First
Mystery, and likewise the mystery of the Ineffable One; in
what form do these also remit sin ? Do
they remit sin in the
form of baptism or not ? (3^3) The Saviour answered again :
By no means but all the mysteries of the Three Courts remit

;
in the soul, and in all the

regions of the Rulers, all the sins
that the soul hath committed even from the
beginning. They
remit also the sins that the soul shall have committed after
wards up to the time that each one of the
mysteries taketh unto
itself, the time whereof I will declare unto hereafter.
you
Moreover the mystery of the First
Mystery, and the mysterv of
the Ineffable One, remit unto the soul in all the
regions of the
Rulers all the sins and
transgressions that it hath committed.
And not only do they remit, but
they do not impute sin* to the
soul, from henceforth for ever by reason of the free-
grace of
the mystery and the
exceeding glory of the same. Then said
the Saviour Do ye understand all that I have said unto
:
you ?
Then Mary answered: Lord, I have caught
up all the words
thou hast spoken. Now therefore as to the
saying that all the
mysteries of the Three Courts remit sins, and blot out iniquities.
Concerning this same matter hath David the prophet spoken,
Blessed are they whose sins
"
saying they have remitted, and

:
whoso iniquities they have covered," and as to

thy saying that
the mystery of the First and the
Mystery, mystery of the
Ineffable One, do not
only remit all sin unto the soul for ever,
but also do not suffer sin to be
imputed unto the same for ever
and ever, by reason of the free-gift of the great
mystery, and
the exceeding glory thereof;
concerning this same matter David
the prophet foretold, Blessed are they unto whom the
"
saying :
Lord will not impute sin," which

signifieth they will not impute
sin from henceforth unto those that receive the
mystery of the
First Mystery and the
mystery of the Ineffable One. Then
answered the Saviour Well done, thou
Spiritual One, this is
:
the interpretation of my word.

(305) Then Mary continued, saying :
Lord, if a man shall
*
This is the doctrine that renders all actions free from
"knowledge"
infulness as held by the Simonians.
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS. 145
have received the mystery in the mystery of the First

Mystery,
and afterwards shall turn back and sin, and again shall
repent
and pray in his own mystery, shall his sin be remitted to him or
not ? Then answered the Saviour Whosoever after ;
receiving
the mystery shall again sin twelve times, and
again repent
twelve times, and then shall pray in his own mystery, his sin
shall be remitted unto him. But and after these twelve
if,
times, he shall turn again and transgress, then of a truth his

sin shall never more be remitted, so that he
may turn again
unto his own mystery whatsoever it be. For such an one there
is no
repentance, unless indeed ho hath received the mystery of
the Ineifablo One that remitteth all sins, and shall remit them
at every time.
Then said Mary Lord, those who have received the
:
mystery
of the First
Mystery, and then have turned back and sinned, if
such without having repented shall depart out of the
body,
shall they inherit the
kingdom or not, forasmuch as they have
received the free gift of that mystery ?
(306) The Saviour
answered Of such the judgment shall be the most merciful
:
amongst the judgments, for their dwelling is in the Middle

all
Gate* of the Dragon of Outer Darkness, and at the end| of all

those that be in torment because such an one hath received
:
the free gift of the mystery, and hath not remained stead
fast therein. Then said Mary Such as have received the
:
mystery of the Ineffable One and then shall turn back and sin,
but afterwards shall repent in their lifetime, how
many times
shall their sin be remitted unto them? Then answered the
Saviour : To such an one, not only if he turn back and sin once,
and then repent, shall his sin be remitted, but even if he doth
so continually, so long as he shall
repent whilst yet alive, not
being in hypocrisy, and shall pray according to his own mystery,
because those mysteries are merciful and remit sin at
every
time (307). Then asked Mary But if such an one shall
:
depart out of the body before he hath repented, what then shall
happen unto him? (307) Then answered the Saviour: Of
such an one the judgment shall be worse than of
any other, and
*
This term is borrowed from the f The lost place, answering to the
ancient Gates of the Ainenti. Limbo of the medifcval Hell.
if those souls be new ones* they

exceeding great; for even
shall not return unto the changes of the earthly bodies, neither
shall they do any work, but they shall be cast out into the
uttermost parts of the Outer Darkness, and shall be consumed so
that they shall not exist for ever and ever.
declaration Mary refers the saying Salt is "
(308) To this
:
salt hath lost its &c.

good, but if the
savour,"
The following from the same high authority, will

extracts,
much elucidate the pass-words communicated to the dying

which form so important a feature of the Gnostic
believer,
system.
I will declare unto you that mystery,
Benefits of Initiation.
which is this : Whosoever shall have received that One Word,
when he shall depart out of the body of the
Matter of the Kulers,
there shall come the Contentious Eeceivers to loosen him out of
that body, which same Receivers loosen every one departing out
of the body. And when they shall have loosened the soul that
hath received that mystery which I have declared unto you, in
that very moment wherein he is set loose, he becometh a great
Hood of light in the midst of them. And the Eeceivers shall fear
the light of that soul, and shall tremble, and shall cease through
their fear of the great light which they behold. And that soul
shall up aloft, and the Eeceivers
fly
shall not lay hold upon
him, neither shall they discern by

what way he is gone, inas
much as he is become a great Ray of Light, and flieth up aloft,
neither is there any Power that can overtake him, nor ever come
But he passes through all the
nigh unto him at all (228).
regions of the Eulers, and also the regions of the offspring of
the Light, neither doth he give-in a declaration in any region,

nor yet a defence of himself,t nor yet the pass-word (or symbol).
Neither can any Power of them all draw near him,
but all the
regions of the Eulers and of the offspring of the Light shall
* have occupied the body Egyptian Kitual of the Dead,"

"
That is,
for the first time ;

not souls that concerning the soul s passage on its
after punishment for
their sins in way to the palace of Osiris Socharis,
have been placed again in the Occidental," through the One-
"
this life,
bodies to undergo a second probation and-twenty Gates, each guarded by
its own ^ en i us and eacn requiring a
upon earth. >
f All this
is borrowed from the separate address.
sing hymns, each one in his own place, fearing the flood of light
that clotheth that soul, until he shall come into the place of the
heirs of the mystery that he hath received, and become con
joined with the members of the same. Verily, I say unto you,
lie shall be in all the regions in the time that a man can shoot
an arrow. Again I say unto you, whosoever shall receive that

mystery and make himself perfect in all the types and figures
thereof, that man is in the world, but he is more excellent than
the angels, and shall be before them all he is a man in the ;
world, but he is better than the archangels and shall be before

them (229) he is higher than all the tyrants, and all the
all ;
lords, and
all the gods, and all the luminaries, and all the
pure
ones, and all the triple powers, and all the Primal Fathers,
and all the Unseen Ones; he is a man in the world, but he is
more excellent than the great unseen Primal Father, and shall
be more exalted than he, and above all those
pertaining to the
Middle-space, and above all the emanations of the Treasury of
Light, and above all the confusion,* and above every region of
the Treasure of Light ; he is a man in the world, but he shall
reign with me (230) in my kingdom ; he is a man in the world,

but he shall be a king in the Light he is a man in the world,
;
but he is not of the world and verily I say unto you, that man
;
is I, and I am that man ; and in the dissolution of the world, when

the universe shall be raised up, and all the number of
perfect
souls shall be raised up, and I am made king over all the off
spring of the Light, and when I am made king over the seven
AMHN,f and the Five Trees, and the Three AMHN, and the
Nine Keepers and when I am king over the Boy of the
;
boy
which be the Twin Saviours, and over the Twelve Saviours, and
over all the number of perfect souls which have received the
mystery of Light, then whosoever shall have received the

mystery of the Ineffable One, they shall be joint kings with mo
and shall sit upon my right hand and upon left hand in my my
kingdom. Verily I say unto you, those men are I, and I am
*
The Creation of the Demiurgus, f Title probably borrowed from
in which the Particle of the Godhead the former Amentt, the four sons of
is mixed up and lost in the heap of Osiris, and keepers of Elysium
Matter.
L 2
148 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR KEMAINS.
those men. For this cause have I said to you formerly, ye

shall sit upon your thrones on my right hand and on my left
in my kingdom, and ye shall reign together with me (231).
Therefore I did not refrain, neither was I abashed to call you
my brethren and my fellows, inasmuch as ye shall be joint
kings with me in my kingdom. These things therefore I Baid
unto you, knowing that I was about to give unto you the
mystery of the Ineffable One, because that mystery is I, and I
am that mystery. Now

therefore not only ye shall reign with
me, but also whatsoever men shall have received that mystery
they shall be joint kings with me in my kingdom ; and 1
am they, and they are I. But my throne shall be more

exalted than theirs and inasmuch
; as ye shall receive sorrows
in this world beyond all other men
whilst ye are preaching the
words that I declare unto you, therefore your thrones shall bo
next to my throne in my kingdom. For this cause I said of old
time, in the place where I shall be, my twelve ministers shall
be also ;
but Mary Magdalene, and John the Virgin, shall be the
most excellent amongst my disciples. And all men that shall
have received the mystery of the Ineffable One shall be upon
my right hand and upon my left, for I am they and they are I,
and they shall be equal with you in every thing ; but your
thrones shall be more exalted than theirs, and my throne shall
be more exalted than yours (232). And all men that shall
find out the Word of the Ineffable One, verily I say unto you
all the men that shall know that Word, the same shall under
stand also the knowledge of all the words that I have spoken
unto you, both in their depth and in their height, in their
length and in their breadth. And what things I have not told
you those I will tell you in their place and in their order in the
emanation of the universe. Verily I say unto you, they shall
know how the world is established, and after what form those
that pertain unto the height (highest place) be made, and for
what end the universe was created.
And when the Saviour had said these things, Mary Magdalene
came forward and said Lord, be not wroth with me if I
:
seek out everything with diligence. Whether is the Word of

the mystery of the Ineffable One, one thing, and the Word of
the Knowledge of All, another? Then the Saviour answered,

and said: The Word of the mystery of the Ineffable is one
thing, and the Word of the Knowledge of All is another. Then
saidMary : Suffer me, Lord, to ask thee yet again one thing.
Unless when we are living we understand the knowledge of the
whole Word of the Ineffable One, we shall not inherit the king
dom of Light? (233). Then the Saviour answered, and said :
Of a truth, whosoever shall have received the mystery of the

kingdom of Light, the same shall go to inherit it into that
place the mystery whereof he hath received. But he shall not

obtain the knowledge of the All, wherefore all things were made,
except he shall have known that One Word of the Ineffable, the
which the knowledge of all. And again, there is no way of
is
knowing that One Word of knowledge, except a man shall have

first received the
mystery of the Ineffable One ; but every man
shall go to inherit that place the mystery whereof he hath
received. For which cause I said to you formerly :
"
He that
believeth a prophet shall receive a prophet s reward, and he
that believeth a righteous man shall receive a righteous man s
reward," which is this of whatsoever place each hath received
:
the mystery, into that same place shall he go. He that hath
received a humble mystery, the same shall inherit a humble
place. He that hath received an excellent mystery, the same

shall inherit an exalted place and every one shall abide in his
;
own place in the light of kingdom, and every one shall

my
have authority over the Course that is below him, but over that
which is above himself he shall not have authority, but shall
abide in his inheritance of the light of my kingdom, dwelling
in a great light unto which there is no measure, next to the
gods and to the Unseen Ones, and he shall be in great joy and
gladness (234).
Now therefore I will speak with you touching the glory of
those also that shall receive the mystery of the Fiist Mystery.
He that hath received the same, at the time when he shall
depart out of this body of Matter, the- Contentious Eeceiver shall
come that they may take his soul out ol the body, and that soul
shall become a great Kay of light and shall fly aloft through the
midst of them, and shall pass through all the regions and ahull
not give-in any declaration, or defence, or symbol, token (pass

word), but shall pass through all, that he may come and reign
over all the places belonging to the First Saviour. In the like
manner he that hath received the Second Mystery and the Third
and Fourth up to the Twelfth* (235), that soul likewise shall pass
through all the regions without giving in his defence, or token,
and shall come and reign over all the places belonging to the
Twelve Saviours. And in like manner those receiving the second
mystery reign over the places of the Second Saviour
shall
amongst the heirs of light. In like manner those receiving the

third and the fourth up to the twelfth, shall reign over the
regions of that Saviour whose mystery each hath received. But

they shall not be equal with those that have received the
mystery of the Ineffable One, but shall abide in the Courses of
the Twelve Saviours.
Then Mary answered, saying :
Lord, suffer me yet again.
How is that the First Mystery hath twelve mysteries, whereas
it
the Ineffable hath but one ? Jesus answered Of a truth He :
hath but One, but that mystery maketh three others the mys ;
tery is indeed one, but to each of them there is a different

form, and moreover it maketh five mysteries.
As for the First Mystery, when thou hast performed it well
in all the forms thereof, when thou departest out of thy body
thou shalt forthwith become a great Bay of light, and it shall
traverse all the regions of the Eulers and all the regions of
Light, all being afraid of that light of the soul, until it shall
come into own kingdom. As for the Second Mystery, he that
its
shallperform the same rightly in all the forms thereof, if he speak

itover the head of a man departing out of the body, and into
Ms two ears, that man departing out of the body when he hath
received the mystery a second time, and been made partaker of
the Word of Trutli^ that man s soul shall become, when it leaveth
the body, a great flood of light, so as to traverse all the regions
until it cometh into the kingdom of that mystery. But and if
* This gradation seems borrowed of the practice of the Heracleonites

from the twelve degrees in the of communicating the password to
Mithraic initiation. the ear of the dying man.
t This is what Epiphanlns relates
that man hathnot received that mystery, neither hath been

made partaker of the words of truth, if he that hath performed
that mystery shall speak the same into the ears of him who is
departing out of the body, verily I say unto you, the soul of
that man, although he hath not received the mystery of Light
nor partaken of the words of truth, shall not be judged in the
places of the Rulers, neither shall it be punished in any place,
neither shall the fire touch it, by reason of the mystery of the
Ineffable which goeth along with it. And they shall hasten to
deliver that soul one to the other, and shall guide it Course after
Course, and place (239) after place, until they bring it before the
Virgin of Light for all the regions shall fear the mystery and
:
the Mark* of the kingdom of the Ineffable One that is with it.
And when they have brought the soul unto the Virgin of
Light, she shall see the Mark of the mystery of the kingdom of
the Ineffable One which is with it. And the Virgin of Light
marvelleth thereat, and she judgeth that soul, but suffereth him
not to be brought unto the light until he hath accomplished the
ministry of the light of that mystery, which be these the :
purification of the renouncing of the world and

of all the Matter
that therein is. And the Virgin of Light sealeth him with a
special seal, which is this in the same month in which he hath

:
departed out of the body, she will cause him to be placed in

another body that shall be righteous, and shall obtain the
divinity of truth and the high mystery, so that he may inherit

the same, and also inherit the Light for ever and ever. This is
the grace of the Second Mystery of the Ineffable One.
As touching the Third Mystery the man that hath performed :
the same duly in all the forms thereof and shall name that
mystery over the head of one departing out of the body whether
ho be living or dead, or abiding in the midst of the torments of the
Rulers,-\ and their different fires, they shall make haste
to release
* It has the
impression of the royal usage alluded to by Dante in his
sealstamped upon it. Vendetta di Dio non Teme Suppe,
t Here we have the first hint of refers to something of the sort done
masses performed for the dead. A to appease the manes. A homicide
similar idea is involved in the who had eaten sops in wine upon
practice mentioned by St. Paul of the grave of the slain man was
for the sake of de- thereby freed from the vendetta of
"
being baptized
ceased persons." A singular Italian the family. (Purgat. xxxiii. 35.)
that man out of them all, and shall bring him before the Virgin
of Light, who shall place him in a righteous body that shall
inherit the light.
(243) Moreover in the dissolution of the Universe, that is,

when the number of perfect souls is made up, and the mystery
is accomplished on account of which the Universe has been
created, then I will spend a thousand years, according to the
years of light, ruling over the offspring of the light, and over
the number of the perfect souls which have received all the
mysteries. Then Mary said, Lord, how many years in the

years of this world is one year of light? Jesus answered,
One day of light is one thousand years of this world, where
fore thirty and six myriads and a half of the years of the world
make one year of light. I shall therefore reign a thousand
years of light, being king in the middle of the last Parastates,*
being king over all the offspring of light, and over all the
number of perfect souls that have received the mysteries of
light. And ye, my disciples, and each one that hath received
the mysteries of the Ineffable One, shall be upon ray right hand
and upon kings together with me in my kingdom.
my left, being
And those likewise that receive the three mysteries of the five
mysteries of the Ineffable shall be kings together with you in

the kingdom of light. But they shall not be equal with you,
and with those receiving the mystery of the Ineffable One, for
they shall continue kings behind you. And those receiving
the five mysteries of the Ineffable shall remain behind the
three mysteries being kings also. Likewise those receiving the
twelve mysteries of the First Mystery, they too shall abide as
kings behind the five mysteries of the Ineffable One. And they
also are kings each one of them according to his course, and all
receiving in the mysteries in all the places of the Court of the

Ineffable One, so that they shall be kings also* but come after-
such as have received the mystery of the First Mystery: being
sent forth according to the glory of each, so that those receiving
high mysteries shall dwell in high places, but those receiving

humble mysteries shall abide in humble places.
* The deity whose place is next to the Supreme Light; to judge from the
primary sense of the word. .
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 1"3
These are the Three Lots of the Kingdom of Light, and the
mysteries of these Three Lots of Light are exceeding great. Ye
will find them in the great Second Book of EV but I will
give
I
;
unto you and declare unto you the mysteries of each lot, which
be more exalted than any other place (246), and are chief both
as to place and as to order : the which also lead all mankind
within, into lofty places ; according to the court belonging to
their inheritance, so that ye have no need of
any of the lower
but ye will find them in the Second Book of EV which
mysteries, I
Enoch wrote when I spoke with him out of the Tree of Know
ledge and out of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of Adam.
Now therefore after I shall, have declared unto you all
Emanation, I will give and I will tell unto you the Three Lots
of my Kingdom which be the chief of all.
Inasmuch as Ordeals and Meritorious Penances heldso important
a place in the Mithraic ceremonial, it will not be irrelevant here
to adduce for comparison a series of the kind as
excogitated by
the extravagant imagination of the Brahmins. The
penances
of the demon Taraka, the Tapa-asura, by means whereof he
constrained Brahma to grant him whatever he chose to demand,
are thus enumerated, each stage being of one
century s dura
tion. 1. He stood on one foot,
holding up the other with both
hands towards heaven, his eyes fixed immovably upon the sun.
2. He stood on one great toe. 3. He took for sustenance
nothing but water. 4. He lived similarly upon air. 5. He

remained immersed in the water. 6. He was buried in the
earth, continuing, as during the last penance, in continued

adoration. 7. He performed the same act in the fire. 8. He
stood on his head with his feet upwards. 9. He stood
resting
on one hand. 10. He hung by his hands from a tree. 11. He
hung on a tree by his feet, with his head downwards. (The
twelfth degree Moor has, for some reason,
omitted.)
By means like these, termed the Yoy, the ascetic Yogi is
enabled to obtain nine seveial gifts, that set him above all the
laws of Nature. For example, he may expand or contract his
body to any size he pleases he may float in the air upon a
;
sunbeam he may exert all his sense at an infinite distance

;
from the objects of them with other capabilities of like kind.

;
And with respect to the sixth penance of Taraka, this, incredible

as it appears, is still performed. To be buried alive in a small
vault covered deep with earth until a crop of grain, sown over
him at the time of inhumation, shall be ripe for cutting, is yet
esteemed the most efficacious of good works for extorting from
heaven the blessing most desired by the patient or his employer
(the doctrine of vicarious atonement being most thoroughly
Hindoo). The English Resident at Eunjeet Singh s court has
minutely described all the preparation made by the royal proxy,
(whose regular trade it was thus to die for others), and the
successful completion of his penance, which occupied the space
of six weeks. The Eesident assisted at the closing and the
opening of the vault, and was certain that no deception could
possibly have been practised by the Yogi.
The blessing
aimed at was the gift of fecundity for a favourite queen of
s.
Kunjeet
The Taurobolia," or Baptism of Blood, during the later ages
"
of the Western Empire, held the foremost place, as the means

of purification from sin, however atrocious. Prudentius has
left a minute description of this horrid rite, in which the person
to be regenerated, being stripped of his clothing, descended into
a which was covered with planks pierced full of holes a
pit, ;
bull was slaughtered upon them, whose hot blood, streaming

down through these apertures (after the fashion of a shower-
bath), thoroughly drenched the recipient below. The selection

of the particular victim proves this ceremony in connection
with the Mithraica, which latter, as Justin says, had a
"Baptism
for the remission of Sins"; and the Bull being in
that religion the recognised emblem of life, his blood necessarily
constituted the most effectual laver of regeneration. No more
conclusive evidence of the value then attached to the Taurobolia
can be adduced, than the fact mentioned by Lampridius that
the priest-emperor Ileliogabalus thought it necessary to submit
to its performance and a pit, constructed for the purpose as
;
late as the fourth century, has lately been discovered within
the sacred precincts of the Temple at Eleusis, the most holy
spot in all Greece.

The subject will find its most appropriate conclusi-jn in the
be taken in the Mysteries, as laid down by

"
list of "
Degrees to
M. Lajard, in his elaborate treatise, Le Culte do Mithra, *

These degrees were divided into four stages, Terrestrial, Aerial,
Igneous, and Divine, each consisting of three. The Terrestrial
comprised the Soldier, the Lion, the Bull. The Aerial, the
Vulture, the Ostrich, the Eaven. The Igneous, the Gryphon,
the Horse, the Sun. The Divine, the Eagle, the Sparrow- Hawk,
the Father of fathers. Lajard s theory is best elucidated by
quoting his a very frequent cylinder-subject.
way of expounding
He finds the admission to the degree of The Soldier," in the "
group where a man seen standing before a

is hierophant," or
"
priest, who stands on the back of a bull couchant on a platform.

The hierophant, wearing a cap tipped by a crescent, holds out
to the neophyte a curved sword, symbol of admission into the
Order. A priestess stands apart, separated from him by the
horn, or Tree of Life, over which soars the emblem of the
Assyrian Triad. Her cap is tipped by the Sun-star, but she
also wears the crescent, to show the hermaphrodite nature of
Mylitta !
*
Lajard discovers upon the Baity- proceeding to a higher degree, threw
Ionian cylinders representations of away the cylinder marking the pre
admission to the several degrees, of ceding one. But the complicated
which they were given, as certificate system of the Mithraici was evi
to the initiated and accounts for
: dently the creation of much later
their enormous extant numbers by times, and of a religion vainly strug
the supposition that every one, upon gling for life.
FIG 5
ST. AUGUSTINE ON GNOSTICISM.

The transition from orthodoxy to Gnosticism, in its last and
mosi elaborate phase is well pointed out by the following re
miniscences of St. Augustine, describing his own experiences.
In his eighteenth or nineteenth year he had begun to study
the Scriptures, to satisfy himself as to the truth of the religion in
which he had been brought up. Consequently I set to work
"
to study the Holy Scriptures, in order that I might discover
what was their true character. And lo I behold a thing!
not discovered unto the proud, nor revealed unto babes; but
humble in gait, lofty in issue, and veiled in
mysteries and I was
;
not such a one as could enter therein, neither to bow down my

neck unto the steps thereof. For I did not think then, as 1
speak now, when I was studying Scripture, but it seemed to
me unworthy to be compared with the sublimity of Cicero s
eloquence. Nevertheless that Scripture was such as should
grow up together with babes, but I .disdained to be a babe, and

being puffed up with pride I fancied myself a grown-up man.
So it came to pass that I fell in with men full of pride, dotards,
too carnal, and great talkers, in whose mouth is a snare of the
Devil, and bird-lime made up with a mixture of the syllables of
Thy Name, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Paraclete s,
our Comforter the Holy Ghost. All these names did not
proceed out of their mouth except as far as the sound and echo
of the tongue go, but their heart was utterly void of truth.
And they used to repeat Truth and Truth, and so did they
repeat her name to me, but she was nowhere amongst them, but
they spoke false things, not only concerning thee who art the
Truth in truth, but even concerning the elements of this world
of ours, thy creation concerning which even the philosophers,
;
who declared what is true, I ought to have slighted for the love
of Thee, my Father, the Supreme Good, the Beauty of all
things beautiful. Truth Truth how inwardly did the

! !
marrow of rny soul sigh after thee even then, whilst they were
perpetually dinning thy name into my ears, and after various

fashions with the mere voice, and with many and huge boohs of
theirs. And these were the dishes upon wliich were served up
to me who was hungering after thee, nothing but the Sun and
the Moon, thy works indeed, but not thyself, and not even
fair
the first amongst thy works. For thy spiritual works are
before those corporeal works, however splendid and heavenly
they may be. But even for those, thy higher works, I hungered
and thirsted not, but for thee only, Truth wherein there is
!
no change, neither shadow of turning. And again there were

set before me, in those same dishes, splendid phantoms, than
which it were even better to love the Sun himself, for he was
true as far as regards one s eyes, rather than to love those
fictions whereby the soul was deceived through the eyes. And
yet because I believed them to be Thee, I ate thereof though not
greedily, because Thou didst not taste in my mouth as thou
really art, for thou wert not those empty fictions neither;
was I nourished thereby, but rather weakened. Food in dreams

is like tothe food of one awake, yet the sleepers are not fed by
the same, for they sleep on but those dishes were not in any
:
wise like unto Thee as thou now hast spoken to me, &c."
FIG. G.
THE WORSHIP OF SERAPIS.

I. THE FIGURED REPRESENTATIONS OF SERAPIS.
The next great series of monuments to be considered are

those emanating from the worship of Serapis, that mysterious
deity, who, under his varying forms, had, during the second
and third centuries of our era, completely usurped the sove
reignty of his brother Jupiter, and reduced him to the rank of
a mere planetary Genius. Unlike the generality of the deities
who figure upon the Gnostic stones, the Alexandrian Serapis
does not belong to the primitive mythology of Egypt.* His
worship may be said to be only coeval with the rise of Alex

andria, into which city it was introduced from Sinope by the
first Ptolemj 7
, in consequence of the command (and repeated
threats, in case of neglect) of a vision which had appeared to
him. After three years of ineffectual negotiation, Ptolemy
at last obtained the god from Scythotherius,
king of Sinope ;
but when the citizens still refused to part with their idol, a
report was spread, that it had spontaneously found its way from
the temple down to the Egyptian ships lying in the harbour.
The prevalent opinion amongst the Greeks was that the
figure represented Jupiter Dis (Aidoneus) and the one by his
side, Proserpine. This latter the envoys were ordered by the
same divine messenger, to leave in its native shrine. Another
story, also mentioned by Tacitus,f made the statue to have
been brought from Seleucia by Ptolemy III, but this rested
on slighter authority. It is, however, a curious confirmation
of this last tradition that Serapis is named by Plutarch
as the chief deity of Babylon
(" Alexander,") (Seleucia in later
times) at the date of the Macedonian Conquest a proof that
* The difference between him and f Who narrates the whole affair at
the ancient Theban
Serapia (as the great length a proof of the influ-
Greeks translated his title Osor- "
ence of the religion in his day in his

Api"), shall be pointed out farther History, iv. 84.
he at least regarded that god as identical with Belus. Now, it

is a remarkable coincidence that Ana, the First Person in the
Chaldean Triad, is likewise King of the Lower

"
primitive
World," and that his symbol, the vertical wedge, stands
also for
the numeral GO, which last is often used to express hiero-
glyphically the name Ana.

It was Timotheus, an Athenian Eumolpid, and, in virtue of
his descent, Diviner to the king, who indicated Pontus as the

residence of the unknown god, whose apparition had so dis
quieted the monarch by commanding himself to be sent for
without declaring whence. The figure, seen in the vision, was
that of a youth, a circumstance that tallies ill with the mature
majesty of the great god of Alexandria.* But the Helios
Dionysos, a veritable Christina, who graces the reverse of the
gold medallion of Pharnaces II, coined at Sinope in the follow
ing century, agrees much more exactly with this description of
the nocturnal visitor.
Speedily did Serapis become the sole lord of his new home ;
and speculations as to his true nature employed the ingenuity

of the philosophers at Alexandria, down to the times when
they were superseded by the discussions on the doctrine of

the Trinity, waged with equal zeal but infinitely worse temper.
Every conflicting religion strove to claim him as the grand

representative of their own doctrine. Macrobius has pre
served one of the most ingenious of these interpretations, as
made by the Rationalists, a party so strong amongst the later
Greeks (I. 20).
"
The City of Alexandria pays an almost

frantic worship to Serapis and nevertheless they show that
Isis,
veneration is merely offered to the Sun under that name,

all this
both by their placing the corn-measure upon his head, and by

accompanying his statue with the figure of an animal having
three heads ;
of these heads, the middle and the largest one is a
*
The great god of Assyria, Adad, signify their influence upon the earth,
The One," the oracle-giving Jupiter
"
who stood before him in the figure of
of Heliopolis, was thus figured in Atergatis, the rays in her crown
his golden statue as a beardless pointing upwards, to express the
youth, brandishing aloft a whip, and springing up of her gifts. She was
holding in his left hand the thunder- supported, like Cybele, upon the
bolt and wheat-ears. The rays crown- backs of lions,
ing his head pointed downwards to

lion that which rises on the right is a dog s in a peaceable and

s,
fawning attitude whilst the left part of the neck terminates in

;
that of a ravening wolf. All these bestial forms are connected
together by the wreathed body of a serpent, which raises its head

up towards the god s right hand, on which side the monster is
placed. The lion s head typifies the Present, because its con
dition between the Past and the Future is strong and fervent.
The Past is signified by the wolfs head, because the memory
of all things past is away from us and utterly con
scratched
sumed. The emblem of the fawning dog represents the Future,
the domain of inconstant and flattering hope. But whom
should Past, Present and Future serve except their Authors ?
His head crowned with the calathus typifies the height of the
since unto
planet above us, also his all-powerful capaciousness,
him all things earthly do return, being drawn up by the heat
he emits. Moreover when Nicocreon, tyrant of Cyprus, con
sulted Serapis as to which of the gods he ought to be accounted,
ho received the following response :
"
A god I am, such as I show to thee,

The starry heavens my head my trunk the sea
; ;
Earth forms my feet; mine ears the air supplies;

The sun s far-darting, brilliant rays mine eyes.
"
From all this it is evident that the nature of Serapis and the
Sun is one and indivisible. Again, Isis is universally worshipped
as the type of earth, or Nature in subjection to the Sun. For
this cause the body of the goddess is covered with continuous rows
of udders, to declare that the universe is maintained by the per

the Earth or Nature." This last curious
petual nourishing of
remark shows that Macrobius regarded the Alexandrian Isis as
the same with the Ephesian Diana, for the ancient Isis of Egypt
had only the usual complement of breasts. This philosopher
had started with the axiom (I. 17), Omnes deos referri ad "
Solem," and begins by demonstrating

from the various epithets
* I cannot
help suspecting that blem of the air, the serpent, accordin
this description supplied Basilides
to Herodotus, was the offspring of
with the idea of his celebrated earth, the breast of man was the
Pantkeus, the Abraxas-figure. The
Homeric attribute of Neptune,
head of the Irird was the fittest em-
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. ]61
of Apollo, that
Tie was the same
god with the one styled the Sun.
He then proceeds to prove the same of
Bacchus, Hermes,
Aesculapius, and Hercules. His ingenious explanation of the
serpent-entwined rod of Hermes, and club of Aesculapius, will be
found applied further on to the elucidation of the remarkable
symbol on the reverse of all the Chnuphis amulets. After this,
Macrobius passes in review the attributes and
legends of Adonis
and Atys, also of Osiris and Horus, and comes to the same con
clusion concerning the real nature of all these
personages, add
ing parenthetically a very fanciful exposition of the Signs of
the Zodiac, as being
merely so many emblems of the solar in
fluence in the several
regions of creation. Nemesis, Paris,
Saturn, Jupiter, and finally the Assyrian Adad, are all reduced
by him to the same signification.
This brings us to that most wondrous identification of
all,
which Hadrian mentions in a letter to his brother-in-law
Servianus, preserved by the historian Vopiscus in his Life of the
Tyrant Saturninus. "
Those who worship Serapis are likewise

Christians; even those who style themselves the
bishops of
Christ are devoted to The very Patriarch himself,*
Serapis.
when he comes to Egypt, is forced by some to adore
Serapis, by
others to worship Christ. There is but one God for them all,
Him do the Christians, Him do the Jews, Him do the
Gentiles,
all alike worship." Severus Alexander, too, who
daily paid his
devotions to Christ and Abraham, did none the less
expend
large sums in decorating the temples of Serapis and Isis with "
and all things pertaining to their

statues, couches,
Mysteries,"f
whilst he left the other
gods of Korne to take care of them-
And as connected with the same subject, it

may be here
observed that the conventional of the Saviour is in all
portrait
probability borrowed from the head of Serapis, so full of grave
and pensive majesty.Of the first converts, the Jewish foredilec-
were so powerful that we may be sure that no
tions
attempt
was made to portray His countenance until
many generations
*
The
Patriarch of Tiberias, head fA very favourite representation
of the Jewish
religion, after the of Isis upon our talismans shows her
destruction of Jerusalem.
reclining upon a couch.
M
after all who had beheld it on earth had passed away.* Never
theless, the importance so long attached to the pretended letter of
Len tulus to the emperor, Tiberius, describing Christ s personal
appearance, demands a notice in this place. Its monkish

at first sight, for the authorship
Latinity and style betray it,
of some mediaeval divine. Yet, incredible as it may seem,
even a learned man like Grynaeus has been so besotted through
hie pious longing for the reality of such a record, as to persuade
himself that Lentulus, a Eoman Senator and an eminent his
torian, could have written in

the exact phrase of a mendicant
friar. There has appeared in our times, and still lives, a

"
Man of great virtue, named Christ Jesus, who is called by the

Gentiles a Prophet of Truth, but whom his
own disciples
called the Son of God raising the
;
dead, and healing diseases.
a venerable
A man indeed of stature, handsome,
lofty having
love and fear. His
countenance, which the beholders can both
hair verily somewhat wavy and curling, somewhat brightish
and resplendent in colour, flowing down upon his shoulders,
having a parting in the middle of the head after the fashion

This
(Grynaeus, Orthodoxia
of the Nazarenes, &c." I. p. 2.)
reminds one of Pliny s remark, Pariunt desideria "
forgery
non traditos vultus, sicutin Homero evenit." The wish is father
and the conception is too

to the image of the venerated object ;
the loving soul for it to trouble itself

joyfully accepted by
overmuch in scrutinizing the legitimacy of the same for, as :
Martial exclaims with full truth quis enirn darnnet sua

"
vota
libenter?"
But to return to the of the times of Gnosticism. In the

Egypt
the syncretistic sects
very focus of that theosophy, Alexandria,
which sprang up so rankly there during the three first centuries
out Serapis
of the Eomanempire, had good grounds for making
a prototype of Christ, considered as Lord and Maker of all, and
the response given to
Judge of the quick and the dead. For
at least
Nicocreon, above quoted, evinces that the philosophers
saw in Serapis nothing more than the emblem of the Anima
* What proves the ânt of any monuments in sculpture or painting,

real authority for the portraits of the representhim as youthful and beard-
Saviour is the fact that the earliest Jess.
Mundi, the Spirit of whom Nature universal is the body, for

they held the doctrine of
"
the one harmonious whole,

Whose body Nature is, and God the soul."
So that by an easy transition

Serapis came to be worshipped as
the embodiment of the One Supreme, whose representative on
earth was Christ.
The very construction of the grand Colossus of Serapis in
geniously set forth these ideas of his character. It was formed
out of plates of all the metals,
artfully joined together, to typify
the harmonious union of different elements in the fabric of the
universe, the moles et machina mundi." This statue was placed

"
upon the summit of an artificial hill (whose vast interior was

divided into vaulted halls,
containing the famous library), as
cended by a flight of a hundred steps a
style of building totally
diverse from the native Egyptian and the Grecian
model, but
exactly following the Indian usage, as may be seen by the grand
pagoda of Siva at Tanjore, and by the topes and dagolas of
the Buddhists.
The remarkable construction of this Colossus
may reasonably
be supposed to have
suggested to the Alexandrian Jew, who
completed the Book of Daniel, the notion of the similarly com
pacted Image which figures in Nebuchadnezzar s Dream. That
his description of the latter was
penned long after the coming
of Serapis into that is manifest from the minute details
city
this prophet gives
concerning the constant squabbles
going on
between Antiochus Epiphanes and
Ptolemy Philometor, his
nephew together with the final intervention of the Roman
;
Senate. The popular belief of the Alexandrians (Christian as

well as pagan) was that the
profanation of this statue would be
the signal for heaven and earth to
collapse at once into pristine
chaos a notion bearing clear
testimony to the grand idea
embodied by the figure.At last, however, although his worship,
thus defended by deep-rooted fear, had been tolerated
by the
Christian government long after the other of
gods Egypt
had been swept away, this wonderful Colossus was broken
down by "
that perpetual enemy of peace and virtue

"
the
M 2
Patriarch Theophilus, in the reign of Theodosius ; and its muti

lated trunk, dragged triumphantly through the streets the "by
mob of rejoicing fanatics, was ultimately buried in the Hippo

drome.
Like that of Mithras, the worship of Serapis was widely
diffused over the West. A very curious exemplification of this
is be found in Ammianus notice that Mederich, king of the
to
Alemanni, had, when detained as a hostage in Gaul, been taught

certain Greek Mysteries, and for that reason changed the
name of his son Aganerich into Serapion. But Serapis had a

natural claim to the adoration of the Gauls, who, as Caesar tells
actually boasted of descent from

us,
Dis Pater.
The new-comer from Sinope does not seem to have brought
his name with him. Ptolemy consulted his own priest
When
hood upon this important point, Manetho boldly identified the
Pontic god with their own Osor-Apis, chiefly on the score of his
attribute Cerberus, which he considered the counterpart of the
hippopotamus-headed Typhon
who attends Osor-Apis in his
character of sovereign of the This deity is no

Lower World.
Bull after assumes the figure of
other than the Apis, who, death,
Osiris, the regular form of Egyptian apotheosis, and so frequently

seen applied to deceased kings. Osor-Apis, as he now becomes,
is depicted as a man with the head of a bull, and carrying
the
The god of
ensigns by which we usually recognize
Osiris.
Alexandria therefore differs in form as widely as in origin from

the original patron of Thebes, with whom he has no other
affinity than in name,

and that rests only on the arbitrary inter
so successful in persuading
pretation of the Egyptian priests,
the Greeks that the mythology of the whole world was but a
plagiarism from their

own.
M. Mariette in 1860 excavated the Theban Serapeum, as it
was called in Koman times, with its long avenue of sphinxes ;
he also discovered the catacombs where the Apis Bulls were

deposited after death, and
found there no fewer than sixty, two
of their mummies yet reposing undisturbed. It is amusing to
notice how neatly the Greeks turned the Coptic Osor-Apis into
the more euphonious 6
II. THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF SERAPIS.
The ancient speculations cited in the preceding chapter are

all baseless theories, due to the ingenious refinements of the
Alexandrian and springing out of the system of
literati,
allegorical interpretation in which the New Platonists so much

delighted. evident that upon his first introduction into
It is
Egypt, Serapis was regarded by the Alexandrians as identical

with Ai doneus, or Dis, the Lord of the Lower World. Now, all
his attributes suggest him to have been of Indian origin, and no
other than Yama, "Lord of Hell," attended by his dog
"
Barbara," the spotted, who has the epithet "
Trigira," three-
headed, and by his serpent Qesha," called Regent of Hades " "
;
"
in fact, some have discovered in the name Serapis* but the

Grecian form of Yama s epithet,
"
Sraddha-deva," Lord of the
obsequies, that is, of the funeral sacrifices offered to the Pitris

or Manes. Yama also is styled "
Lord of souls," and "
Judge of
the dead ;
"
another office assimilating him to Serapis in the

character under which the latter came to be specially regarded
a point, moreover, which at a later date afforded stronger
reasons for identifying him with Christ. A plausible etymology
of the Serapis may be found in another of Yama s epithets,
name
"
"
Asrik-pa the Blood-drinker. This explanation is confirmed to

some extent by the ancient tradition, of which Homer makes
such fine use when he describes Ulysses mode of evoking the
ghosts, and their eagerness to lap up the life-blood of the
victim (Od. xi. 35) :
Seizing the victim sheep I pierced their throats ;

"
Flowed the black blood, and filled the hollow trench ;
Then from the abyss, eager their thirst to slake,

Came swarming up the spirits of the dead."
And connected with the same notion was the practice of
strewing roses over the graves of departed friends
"
Purpureos spargam flores et fungar inani munere,"
for (as Servius explains it) the red colour of the flower
* It is not and which suggested
improbable that the this sound ; to
name under which the god was wor- Manetho the idea of identifying him
shipped at iSinope had something of with his own Osor-Api.
represented blood, and thereby served as a substitute for the

living victim.*
This analogy between Yama and Serapis may be further
extended by the consideration of certain other points con
nected with the office of the former deity. For example, unto
the souls of the righteous he appears as Dharma-raja," and
"
has a servant Karma-la (the Hermes Psychopompos of the

"
"
Greeks), who brings them into his presence upon a self-moving

car. But unto the wicked he is
"
Yama," and has for them
Kash-Mala," who drags them before him

*
another minister,
with halters round their necks, over rough and stony places.
Other titles of Yama are "Kritanta" and "Mrityu." The
connection of the latter with Mors is evident enough, making
it a fitting appellation for Dis (Ditis), in which again unmis
takably lies the root of our name Death, applied to the same
Principle of Destruction.
Yama as "
Sraddha-deva," monarch of "
Patala
"
(the infernal
regions), has for consort Bhavani, who hence takes the title of
as upon Earth she in heaven,
" "
Patala-devi," is Bhu-devi,"
"
Swardevi." Her owns, besides (Barbara, another dog

lord
named "
Qyama,"
the Blade One (now we see wherefore the
mediaeval familiar spirits like Cornelius Agrippa s black
and Faustus
"
spaniel, pudel chose that particular figure), "
whom he employs as the minister of his vengeance. As Judge

of Souls he displays two faces, the one benign, the other
terrific. Another of his titles is
"
Kalantika," Time as the
Destroyer can hardly be a mere accidental coincidence that

: it
such was the exact name given to the head-dress worn by the
Egyptian priests when officiating in later times a purple cloth
covering the head, and falling down upon the neck, surmounted
by two plumes.
* One of the most flowers included. Another well in
frequented
at Benares is the same city, of supreme efficacy for
places of pilgrimage
Gyan Bapi," Well of Know- the washing away of all sin, is the
"
the
"
ledge,"
in the depths whereof Siva Manikarnika, so called from the ear-
himself resides. was dug by the It ring of Mahadeva, which fell into it.
genius Eishi, with that gud s own Vishnu had dug this well with his
trident, to relieve the world after P rJiangra, quoit, and filled it with the
twelve years drought. The pilgrims luminous sweat of his body,
throw into it offerings of all kinds.
Kali-Bhavani," the Destructive Female Principle is repre

"
sented* in this character with a visage exactly identical with

the most ancient type of the Grecian Gorgon such as we still
behold it
guarding the Etruscan sepulchres, and lowering
upon the sacrilegious intruder as in that notable
horrifically ;
example in the tomb of the Volumni at Perugia, where it forms

the centrepiece of the ceiling of the grand hall. Formed of a
Tiger s head in its first conception by the excited fancy of

Hindoo superstition, the Etruscan demon still exhibits the
same protruded tongue, huge tusks, glaring eyes, wings in
the hair, and serpents twining about the throat. Of such
aspect was doubtless that "
Head, the work of the

Gorgon s
Cyclops," which was shown to Pausanias as the most notable
object in the Argive Acropolis a proof that the earliest essays

of Pelasgic art had been made in realising this idea. Again, in
that most ancient monument of Grecian art, the Coffer of
Cypselus (made before 600), the same traveller states
B.C.
(v. 19.), Behind Polynices stands a female figure, having tusks

"
as savage as those of a wild beast, and the nails of her

fingers
like unto talons the inscription above her,
they tell you means
:
Kvjp (Fate)." This name therefore must have been a foreign

word, translated to Pausanias by the Custodian of the Temple.
Plutarch (Life of Aratus) supplies another singular illustration
of the Worship of these terrific idols of the olden time in
the most polished ages of Greece. The Artemis of Pellene was
of so dreadful an aspect that none dared to look upon her and :
when carried in procession, her sight blasted the

very tree and
crops as she passed. When the Êtolians were actually in
possession of and plundering the town, her priestess, by bringing
this image out from the shrine, struck them with such terror
that they made a precipitate retreat. This Artemis conse
quently must have been a veritable Hecate, a true Queen of
Hell, an idol moreover of wood, goavov (like her of Ephesus), other
wise the priestess had not been able to wield it so
effectually
to scare away the marauders. Again, the recorded dream of
Cimon, which presaged his death, was that a black bitch bayed
Roth, Zeitschrift dor Morgenlandischen Gcsollschaft, iv. 425, and

p.
Murec in Koyal Asiatic Society s Journal, i. p. 287.
168 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIE REMAINS.
at him in a half-human voice, Come to me I and my whelps

"
will receive thee gladly."

The Hellenic gods, now and then
shew themselves tinder an aspect strangely at variance with
their usual benevolent and jovial character. A true Siva was
that **
Dionysos Omestes
"
(The Cannibal), unto whom Themi-

stocles, forced by the Diviners, sacrificed the three sons of
Xerxes, when taken prisoners on the
Sandauce,"own sister to
eve of the Battle of Salamis. It must be remembered that

tradition made Perseus bring back the Gorgon s Head, trophy
of his success, from Ethiopia, a synonym at first for the
remotest East it being only in Roman times that "
Ethiopia
"
was restricted to a single province of Africa. The liarpe too,

the weapon lent to the hero by Hermes, is from its form
no other than the ankusa, elephant-hook, which is carried for
attribute by so many of the Hindoo Deities.* Sufficient ex
planation this why Persephone (Destroying-slayer} was assigned

by the earliest Greeks as Consort to Aidoneus ; and also why
Ulysses, on his visit to her realms, should have been alarmed,
"
Lest from deep Hell Persephone the dread

Should send the terror of the Gorgon s Head."
From the influence of this terror upon the otherwise un

daunted wanderer, these same two lines came to be considered
as endued with a wonderfully strong repellent power, for
Marcellus Empiricus prescribes them to be whispered into the
ear of any one choking from a bone or other matter sticking in
his throat; or else to write them out on a paper to be tied
around his throat, Which will be equally effectual."
"
Lucian remarks ( Philopatris, ) that the reason why the

ancient warriors bore the Gorgon s Head upon their shields
was because it served for an amulet against dangers of every
sort; on the same account, in all likelihood, was it put for

device on many archaic coinages ; Populonia, Paros, &c. For
* The Gorgon of the gems ( Ant. of of the Gate." Now we
"Keeper
Gems, PI. XX., 4), and of the coin see why her head decorated the pe-
of Neapolis is regularly to be seen, to diluents of temples in Greece and
this day, sculptured in relief upon the Rome, and formed the keystone of
pillar set up on each
side of the gates triumphal arches even in the time of
of Hindoo temples, as I am informed Constantino, as the lately-discovered
by our great oriental archaeologist, entrance to his
"
Forum of Taurus
"
Col. Pearse. She goes by the name convincingly attests.

what could be more effective for the purpose of scaring away all
evil spirits than the visible countenance of the Queen of Hell ?
Timomachus the painter (contemporary with the first Caesar)
made his reputation by such a subject, praecipue tamen ars ei "
favisse in
Gorgone are the words of Pliny, which
visa
est,"
masterpiece is supposed the original of the horrific fresco dis

covered at Pompeii, the finest of the art that has
example
reached our times. centuries after the fall of Paganism
Many
did this image retain its power; Miinter
figures ( Sinnbilder
der Christen ) a Gorgon s Head surrounded the by
phonetic legend, + VOMEAAINHMEAAINOMENAOCOcJ>ICHAHeC
KOCAONBPVXHCeiKOCAPNOCKVMHCH, intended for
Ytos 0eou MeAau/r; /xeAati/o/xeVr?, cos o<ts etAa ^crv^J, a>s
AeW /fyvxrjo-ei, /cat a>s

dpi/os /coi/tTJo-ei.
"
Black, blackened
one, as a serpent thou coilest thyself quietly, thou shalt roar
like a lion, thou shalt go to The same
sleep like a lamb
"
inscription, but so barbarously spelt as to be unintelligible,

probably forms the legend upon the famous Seal of St. Serva-
tius,preserved in Maestricht Cathedral. The seal is alarge disc
of green jasper, engraved on both sides, and is attached to a
small slab of porphyry,
traditionally passing for the Saint s
portable altar. Servatius died A.D. 389, but the
workmanship
of his seal betokens the tenth or eleventh
century for its origin.
An important evidence of the veneration of the Christian
Byzantines for their guardian demon is afforded
by the ex
humation (Spring of 1869) in the Ahmedan,
Constantinople,
of the Colossal Gorgonion, six feet
high from chin to brow,
carved in almost full relief on each side of an immense marble
block, which once formed the keystone of the gateway to
the Forum of Constantine. Though the execution betrays the
paralysis of the Decline, yet the general effect still remains
grandiose and awe-inspiring.
Having thus traced Bhavani in her progress from Archaic
Greek to Byzantine times, let us observe the part she plays in
the superstitions of Imperial Eome. The idea, full of novel
horrors, was gladly seized by the extravagant genius of Lucan*
*
Who had in all probability learnt with all persons making pretensions
them at some of the Mysteries, all of to the title of philosophers.
Asiatic origin, so popular in his times
to animate the exorcisms of his Thessalian sorceress Erictho

(Pharsalia, vi. 695).
"
And Chaos, ever seeking to enfold
*****
Unnumbered worlds in thy confusion old :
And Earth s dull god, who pining still beneath

Life s lingering burthen, piriest for tardy death.
Tisiphone, and Thou her sister fell,
Megaera, thus regardless of my spell,

Why haste ye not with sounding scourge to chase
The soul accursed through hell s void formless space?
Say, must I call you by the names your right,

And drag the hell-hounds forth to th upj>er light ?
Midst death I ll dog your steps at every turn,
Chase from each tomb, and drive from every urn.
And thou, still wont with visage not thine own,
To join the gods round the celestial throne,
Though yet thy doth the truth betray,
pallor
And hint the horrors of thy gloomy
Thee, Hecate, in thy true form I ll show,
Nor let thee change the face thou wearest below.
I ll tell what feasts thy lingering steps detain
In earth s deep centre, and thy will enchain;
Tell what the pleasures that thee so delight,
And what tie binds thee to the King of Night ;
And by what union wert thou so defiled,

Thy very mother would not claim her child,
Iburst thy caves, the world s most evil Lord,
ll
And pour the sun upon thy realms abhorred,

Striking thee lifeless by the sudden day,
If still reluctant my behests to obey.
Or must I call Him at whose whispered Name
Earth trembles awestruck through her inmost frame V
Who views the Gorgon s face without a veil,

And with her own scourge makes Erinnys quail ;
To whom the abyss, unseen by you, is given,

To which your regions are the upper heaven,
Who dares the oath that binds all gods to break,
?
And marks the sanction of the Stygian lake ?
All these personifications are in a spirit quite foreign to that

of Grecian mythology, but thorougly imbued with that of India.
Lucan s Chaos is the Hindoo Destroyer, the Negro giant, Maha-
"
swallowing up the gods themselves in his wide-gaping

Pralaya,"
pining for the promised annihila

"
jaws. His Hector terrae "
tion that is so long in coming, finds no parallel in classical

religions,* and his character remains to mo utterly inexplicable.

His Furies hunting
"
souls to make them fly,"

instead of being
awful Eumenides, the impartial avengers of guilt,
like the old
are mere demons, or churchyard ghouls. But his Hecate is
facies Erebi being the
"
manifestly Bhavani herself; her

"
Gorgonian aspect which the latter was when reigning in

Yama-putri," but which she puts
44
off when presiding on
"
earth, or in heaven ; whilst the "
infernal banquets that so

enchant her are the human sacrifices regularly offered up by
Bhavaiii s special votaries, the Thugs. In the first, or infernal
aspect, a true
"
facies Erebi," she is depicted wearing a neck
lace of and grasping in each hand a naked

human skulls
victim ready to be devoured. She probably still shows us in
what shape the Artemis of Pallene appeared to scare away the
The title of her lord pessimus mundi
"
Êtolian plunderers.
arbiter
"
is far more applicable to the Destroyer Siva than to the
inoffensive Pluto of the Greeks. Unless indeed the Neronean
poet may have heard something of the Demiurgus Ildabaoth,

Son of Darkness, or Erebus," existing under a different name
"
insome ancient theogony. The Gnostics did not invent they

merely borrowed and applied.
Bhavani, in her character of sculptured as a
"
Kali," is
terminal figure, the exact counterpart in outline of the Ephesian

Diana. Even the stags, those remarkable adjuncts to tho
shoulders of the latter, are seen in a similar position spinging
from Kali s hands. The multiplied breasts of the Ephesian
statue were also given to the Alexandrian Isis, who is allowed
by Creuzer and the rest to be the Hindoo goddess in her

character of Now this remark applies only to her
"
Parvati."
statue in the Serapeum, not to those belonging to the ancient
Pharaonic religion and Macrobius s expressions show that her

;
was as much a matter of dispute as that of

real character there
her companion, Serapis. Again, Diana as Hecate or Proserpine,
belongs to the infernal world over which she rules with the
same authority as Bhavani over Yama-Putri. The Ephesian
* Orcus Hades and the dreaded
Unless, perhaps, obscurely sha- arid
dowed forth by Hesiod, from whom Name

Milton drew his grand picture of Of Demogorgon."
Chaos, on whom wait

image, made of cypress wood, had

"
fallen down from heaven,"
which only means, had come from some very remote and
unknown source.
III. MONUMENTS OF THE SERAPIS WORSHIP.
Innumerable are the statues, bas-reliefs, and gems, many of

them syle of Koman art, emanating from the
in the best
worship of Serapis a thing not to be wondered at in the case

;
of a divinity whose idea involved the two strongest principles

that actuate the conduct of mankind the love of riches and the
fear of death. For the god of the subterranean world was
necessarily lord also of its treasures ; a truth expressed by
the
dedication to Serapis of an altar as lovi custodi et genio "
thesaurorum" (Winckelmann, Pierres Gravees de Stosch,
p. 83). similarly the older Koman Pluto takes the title of

And
but the comprehensiveness of the idea as
"
"
Jupiter Stygius ;
expanded by the monotheistic tendency of later times is most

fully manifested by the invocation (Raspe, No. 1490) 10 ZYC
CAPAI1IC AflON ONOMA
CABAU) ANATOAH X0CON "One cJ>U)C
Jupiter, Serapis, Holy Name, Sabaoth, the Light, the Day-
spring, the Earth

"
Talismanic gems very commonly bear the full length figure,

or the bust of Serapis, with the legend 6IC GOG CAPAHIC
(oftenabbreviated into 0- c), There is but one God, and ho "
is Serapis:" IC ZCON 6OC, "The One Living God." Some

times the purpose of the amulet is distinctly expressed by the
inscription, NIKAO CAPAHIC TON <1>QONON,
"Baffle the Evil-
the curious example by
"
Serapis : or in published
eye,
Caylus, where the god stands
between Venus and Horus, and
the KATA XPHMATICMON intimates that the gem had
legend
in consequence of a vision or other
"
been so "
engraved
divine intimation. Around his bust on a jasper (Praun)
appears the invocation, convincing proof of his supposed
AIA,
"
Protect the ancient

supremacy, ct>YAACC Jupiter,"
kin^ of heaven being now degraded to the rank of an

astral genius and benignant horoscope. Invocations like the
above bear the unmistakable stamp of the age when the old,
liberal,mythology which had pictured Heaven as

of the West,
a well-ordered monarchy peopled by innumerable deities, each
one having his own proper and undisputed position therein,
was fast giving place to the gloomy superstitions of Syria,
which made the tutelary divinity of each nation or sect the
sole god of Heaven, condemning those of all other races as mere
deceivers and evil spirits.
There are, however, many gems, fine both as to material and
workmanship, which give besides Serapis, the primitive
us,
Egyptian gods exactly as they appear in the most ancient

monuments, but engraved in the unmistakable style of Roman
art. Most of these are to be referred to the efforts of Hadrian
to resuscitate the forms of that old religion whose life had long
before passed away in this equally with the grander department
of sculpture. Under his zealous patronage, the religion of the
Pharaohs blazed up for a moment with a brilliant but factitious
lustre, aphenomenon often observed to precede the extinction
of a long established system.* To this period belongs a
beautiful sard of my own, which represents Serapis enthroned
exactly as Macrobius describes him, whilst in front stands Isis,
holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other a wheatsheaf,

with the legend, HKYPIAGICIC ATNH-t "Immaculate is our
This address
"
Lady Isis ! is couched in the exact words applied

later topersonage who succeeded to the form, titles,
the
symbols and ceremonies of Isis with even less variation than

marked the other interchange alluded to above. The "Black
Virgins" so highly venerated in certain French Cathedrals
during the long night of the Middle Ages, proved when at last
examined by antiquarian eyes to be basalt statues of the
Egyptian goddess, which having merely changed the name,
continued to receive more than pristine adoration. Her
devotees carried into the new priesthood the ancient badges of
their profession ;
"
the obligation to celibacy," the tonsure, the

* throw of Buddhism;
Sbering, in his Benares, ob- and yet the
serves that the Hindoos are now religion itself is utterly worn out.
building and restoring temples every- f In inscriptions of this period the
where with greater zeal and cost long I is usually written El.
than at ai/y time since the final over-
bell, and the surplice omitting unfortunately the frequent and

complete ablutions enjoined by the older ritual. The holy image
still moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at it (vi. 530),
"
Escorted by the tonsured, surpliced, train." Even her proper

title Domina," exact translation of the Sanscrit Isi, survives
with slight change, in the modern "
Madonna "
(Mater-Domina).
By a singular permutation of meaning the flower borne in the
hand of each, the lotus,former symbol of perfection (because in
leaf, flower, fruit, it gave the figure of the Circle, as Jamblichus
explains it),
of fecundity, is now interpreted
and therefore
as signifying the opposite to the last virginity itself. The
tinkling sistrum, so well pleasing to Egyptian ears, has unluckily

found a substitute in that most hideous of all noise-makers, the
clangorous bell. But this latter instrument came directly
from the Buddhistic ritual in which it forms as essential a part
of the religion as it did in Celtic Christianity, where the Holy

Bell was the actual object of worship to the new converts. The
bell in its present form, was unknown to the Greeks and
Eomans normal shape is Indian, and the first true bell-
: its
founders were the Buddhist Chinese. Again relic-worship became,

after the third century, the chief form of Christianity through
out the world ;
which finds its parallel in the fact that a frag
ment of a bone of a Buddha (that is, holy man in whom the
deity had dwelt during his actually indispensable for

life) is
the consecration of a dagobali, or temple of that religion equally ;
as a similar particle of saintliness is a sine qua non for the
setting-up of a Eoman-Catholic altar.

Very curious and interesting would it be to pursue the
subject, and trace how much of Egyptian, and second-hand

Indian, symbolism has passed over into the possession of a
church that would be beyond measure indignant at any re
clamation on the part of the rightful owners. The high cap
and hooked staff of the Pharaonic god become the mitre and
crosier of the bishop; the very term, Nun, is Coptic, and witk
its the erected oval symbol of productive
present meaning :
Nature, christened into the Vesica piscis, becomes the proper

framework for pictures of the Divinity the Crux ansata, that :
very expressive emblem of the union of the Male and Female

Principles, whence comes all Life, and therefore placed as the

symbol of Life in the hands of gods, now, by simple inversion,
changes into the orb and cross, the recognised distinction of
sovereignty.
But to give a last glance at Serapis and his attributes his :
bust on gems is often accompanied by -a figure resembling a

short truncheon from the top of which spring three leaves, or
spikes. Can it be some plant sacred to the god, or else some

instrument of power ? certain it is that Iva, Assyrian god of
Thunder, hand
carries in his a fulmen of somewhat similar form
in the Ninivitish sculptures. A dwarf column, supporting a
M,* are all frequently to be seen
globe, a corded bale, the letter
in thesame companionship. Another symbol is of such mighty
import in the domains of the Lord of Souls, that its discussion
may fairly claim to itself the space of the following section.
*
Perhaps the Greek numeral =40, that these figures symbolise The
which was the number sacred to the Four Elements under the protection
Assyrian Hoa, god of Water. A con of the supreme Lord, Serapis.
jecture, therefore, may be hazarded
FIG. 7.
THE CADUCEUS, AND ITS SYMBOLISM.
Macrobius seems to afford us some clue for solving this

enigma by remarks upon the true universality of the sun-
his
worship under different names (Sat. i. 19).

That under the
"
form of Mercury the Sun is really worshipped is evident

also from the Caduceus which the Egyptians have fashioned in
the shape of two dragons (asps), male and female joined together,
and consecrated to Mercury. These serpents in the middle
in the knot called the
parts of their volume are tied together
4
Knot of Hercules whilst their upper parts bending back
;
wards in a circle, by pressing mouths together as if kissing

their
and their tails are
complete the circumference of the circle;
carried back to touch the staff of the Caduceus and adorn the ;
latter with wings springing out of the same part of the staff.
The meaning of the Caduceus with reference to the nativity of
man, technically termed his genesis (or horoscope), is thus

teach that four deities preside
explained by the Egyptians they :
and attend at man s birth the Daimon (his genius), Fortune,

that
Love, and Necessity. By the two first of these they hold
the Sun and the Moon are meant because the Sun, as the
;
author of spirit, heat,

and light, is the producer and guardian
of human life, and therefore is esteemed the Daimon that is the
god of the person born.

The Moon is the Fortune, because she
is the president over our bodies which are the sport of a variety
of accidents. Love is signified by the kissing of the serpents ;
Necessity, the knot in which they are tied. The reason for
by
discussed above. For a symbol
adding the wings has been fully
of this nature the convolution of the serpents has been selected
in preference to anything else, because of the flexuosity of the
course of both these luminaries. From this cause it conies,
that the serpent is attached to the figures both of Aesculapius
and of Hygiea, because these deities are explained as expressing
the nature of the Sun and the Moon. For Aesculapius is the
out of the substance of the
health-giving influence proceeding
THE CrNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 177
Sun, that benefits the souls and bodies of mortals.*

Ilygieia
again is the influence of the nature of the Moon, which the by
bodies of things animated are
holpen, being strengthened by
her health-giving
sway. For this reason, therefore, the figure
of the serpent is attached to the statues of both
deities, because
they bring it about that our bodies
strip off, as it were, the
slough of their maladies, and are restored to their
pristine
vigour, just as serpents renew their youth every year,
by
casting off the slough of old age. And the figure of the serpent is
explained as an emblem of the Sun himself for the reason that
the Sun is
perpetually returning out of, as it were, the old age
of his lowest
setting, up to his full meridian
height as if to the
vigour of youth. Moreover, that the dragon is one of the
chiefest emblems of the Sim, is manifest from the derivation of
the name, it
being so called from to see. For the}
Sep/ceu/,
teach that this serpent,
by his extremely acute and never-
sleeping sight, typifies the nature of the luminary; and on
this account the
guardianship of temples, shrines, oracles, and
treasures is assigned to
dragons. That Aesculapius is the same
with Apollo is further proved
by this fact, not merely that he
is reputed the son of the
latter, but because he also is invested
with the privilege of divination. For Apollodorus, in his
Treatise on Theology,
lays down that Aesculapius presides over
augury and oracles. And no wonder; seeing that the sciences
of medicine and of divination are
cognate sciences for medicine :
predicts the changes for good or ill about to succeed in the

human body. As Hippocrates hath it, the physician should be
competent to predicate of his patient both his present, his
past and future condition, which is the same thing as divination
which foreknows, as Homer says,
The things tint be, that shall be, and that were. "
Ithas been already stated how, in the Mithraic

worship, the
image, surrounded from foot to head by the spiral convolutions
of the serpent, had become the established emblem
of the deity
himself. The incidental remark in the above citation, that the
* Or in modern scientific phrase, Aesculapius is but another name for

electricity.
flexuous motion of the reptile represented to the Egyptians, the

annual course of the sun, affords the sufficient reason why his
image should be thus encircled by so significant an attribute.
Taking therefore into account the fact that the disputed symbol
we are considering was by its nature primarily confined to
talismans designed for medical agents, there is at once sufficient
reason to suppose it connected with the worship of Aesculapius ;
and secondly, always appears in such cases in company with

as it
the Agathodaemon, the undoubted emblem of the Solar god, it
may be inferred to be a symbol or a hieroglyphical

either
same type. In other words, the
representation in little of the
figure signifies nothing more than a serpent-entwined wand,
and its sense only contains an allusion to the principal visible
manifestation of the nature of the Sun. But this point must be
left for fuller examination in its connexion with the hitherto
unexplained Sigil which invariably makes its appearance on the

reverse of the Chnuphis talismans, and which therefore must
have been regarded as an essential element in their potency.
FIG. 8.
THE ONOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. ] 79
DEATH, AS DEPICTED IN ANCIENT ART.

The King of the Shades has formed the
subject of the pre
ceding investigation. The natural sequence of ideas requires us
to consider
by what visible form ancient imagination expressed
the direct agency of his
power, and represented to the eye the
unwelcome apparition of the Satolles Orel."
"
Mingling among the Cupids, whether sculptured or glyptic,

and easy to be mistaken for one of the
sportive group by the
casual observer, comes the most
popular antique embodiment of
what to our notions is the most discordant of all ideas. He can
only be distinguished from the God of Love by
observing his
pensive attitude; his action of extinguishing his torch either by
striking the blazing end against the ground or by
trampling it
out with the foot otherwise he leans upon it inverted, with
;
folded wings, and arms and

legs crossed in the attitude of
profound repose. At other times he is divested of
wings, to
typify the end of all movement, and whilst he quenches his
torch with one hand, he holds behind him with the
other the
large hoop, annus (which the Grecian EvtWos carries
before
him), to signify that for his victim no more shall the
year
roll on.
To understand how so charming a type came to be appro

priated to such a signification, it is
necessary to cast off modern
associations, and to recollect that to the ancient mind,
arguing
merely from the analogy of Nature, death presented itself as
merely the necessary converse of birth, and consequently carried
no terror in the thought -
nullique ea tristis imago," as Statius

happily words it. For it implied nothing worse than the
return to the state of unconsciousness, such as was
before
Being commenced or, as 1 liny clearly puts the case, Unto all
;
"
the state of being after the last

day as the same as it was before
the first day of life; neither is there more sensation
any in
N 2
either body or soul after death than there was before life."
On this account the mere return, as Byron hath it

"
To be the nothing that I was,

Ere born to life and living woe,"
inspired no fears beyond those springing from the natural

instinct of self-preservation. Many carried this indifference
to the opposite extreme exemplified in the trite story of the
Thracians lamenting on the occasion of a birth, and rejoicing
on that of a death in the family. Pliny boldly declares that
the greatest favour Nature has bestowed on man is the short
ness of his span of life; whilst the later Platonists, as seen
in that curious chapter of Macrobius, On the descent of the"
termed the being born into this world

"
Soul," spiritual
death," and dying, "spiritual birth." But after the ancient

order of ideas had been totally revolutionised when the death
of the body came to be looked upon as the punishment of
a
Original Sin, and as the infraction, not the fulfilment of
natural law the notion necessarily assumed a more horrific
to the utmost of their
aspect; which again was exaggerated
power by the new teachers, for it supplied them with the most
of all engines for the subjugation of the human soul
potent
Êternas qnoniam pcenas in morte timendum." The ancient
"
type, therefore, which implied nothing

but peace and unbroken
as totally inconsistent
repose, was therefore at once discarded,
with the altered view of the reality. Add to this the fact that
everything in the shape of Cupid had been forcibly

enrolled
amongst the Cherubim and Seraphim, and had thereby received
a character yet more foreign to that of the newly-created King

of Terrors.
Hence the Christians were driven to seek in the ancient
iconology for a more fitting representation of the offspring
and
avenger of transgression something that should be equally
ghastly and terror-inspiring and such a representative they
found made to their hand in the former way of picturing a
Larva, or bad man s ghost. This had always been depicted as
a skeleton, and such a figure was recommended by old asso
ciation to their minds in the times when (as Bottiger phrases
it) "the Christians creeping forth out of their catacombs

substituted for the Genius with inverted torch, the skulls and
mouldering bones of their own martyrs." And that the larva

was popularly imagined in a skeleton form, appears, amongst
the rest, from Ovid s line in his Ibis -
Insequar atque oculos

"
o.s.sea larva tuos."
"
Wheie er thou turn st my injured shade shall rise,

And flit, a fleshless ghost before thine eyes."
Seneca also laughs at the vulgar notion of "larva-forms,

and Trimalchio, at
"
frames of bare bones hanging together ;
his famous dinner, in order to promote conviviality, throws

down upon made as to
the table a silver larva, so ingeniously
bound about on the board with every limb quivering, whilst
the host hiccups out the admonition
Heu, Heu, DOS miseros, quam totus homuncio

"
nil est,
Sic erimus cuncti,postquam nos auferet Orcus

Ergo vivamus dum licet esse bene."
Such a larva sometimes makes his appearance on the gem,

introduced there for the same purpose to remind his wearer
of the shortness of life, and the wisdom of making the best
use of the portion allotted to him speaking, mutely, the words
of Virgil s -
Copa Syrisca
"
Pone ireniiii et talos, pereat qui crastina curat !
Mors aurem vellens Vivite, ait,

;
venio."
Thus upon one gem we behold him holding forth in his

bony hand the lecythus (long, pointed vase of oil), that regul irly
accompanied every Greek interment, whilst he leans with his
elbow against a huge amphora of wine, as though recommending
the enjoyment of its contents whilst yet in one s, power.*
Another, a more fanciful composition, depicts Cupid casting
the light of his torch into the depths of an immense Corinthian
crater out of which a skeleton is throwing himself headlong,
as though scared away by the hateful glare a design whoso
abstruse meaning may perhaps be interpreted by the foregoing
* a dauee of skeletons. (Mein. Soc.
Exactly the same lesson is taught
by a drinking-cup in the Orleans Antiq. de France, vol. xxxi.)
Museum, the dccoiHtion of which i*
remarks ( Impronte Gemmarie, ii. 10, 11).* A skeleton, like

wise, was often painted on the wall of tombs for example, in that ;
pathetic scene at Pompeii, where a mother is represented laying

a mortuary fillet over the bones of her child. In all these
cases the form is merely intended to symbolise the condition of
death by placing before the eye the body as deserted by life,
reduced to the state most expressive of mortality and decay,
and which cannot be mistaken for one of sleep. But it is easy
to perceive how ready was the transition from the hieroglyph
of mortality regarded as a state (especially when to the popular

mind the figure represented a restless and malignant
also
spiritual being) to the adoption of the same inauspicious shape

for the embodiment of the idea of the actual principle of
destruction.
But to return to antique imagery of the same sense. The
idea of death ingeniously and curiously expressed in a fresco
i.s
decorating the lately discovered vault of Yincentius and Vibia,

in the Catacombs of Prretextatus, Home. In the scene labelled
" r
abreptio A ibie et the messenger of Fate,
Discensio," Mer- "
curius," appears placing one foot ami leading the way into a
huge urn laid sideways on the ground. The allusion to Orcus

in the name of such a vessel, orca, is sufficiently obvious, and
in fact both may spring from the same root, epKos, inclosure,
prison. But the most common type, perpetually repeated on

sarcophagi and tablets, is the Horse, significant of departure,
looking in through window upon a party carousing
the
life s festive scene. Yet more forcibly is the same notion
carried out in an Etruscan sculpture (figured in the Revue
Archeologique, 1844), where the angel of death, Charun, armed
as usual with his ponderous mall, actually leads this horse
upon which the deceased with head muffled up, "
sits capite
obnupto" the established form in sentencing a criminal to

execution. The same reason, probably, made the horse s hea I
standing before him

~*
Such a larva also points the ;
at his t eet lies
moral of the scene embossed upon a an infant in swaddling-clothes. These

lamp, publishf d by De Witte (Mem. adjuncts declare the subject of the
Soc. Antiq. de France, 1871), where philosopher s meditations the des-
:i
philosopher seated, and grasping a tiny of Man from birtb to death,
scroll, is apostrophising a skeleton
so popular a subject for signet-gems; it served there for a
memento-mori, like the death s heads so much in vogue amongst

the jewels of the Cinque-cento time, although the antique
symbol carried with it a widely different admonition. The

same notion may possibly lie at the bottom of that immemorial
custom in South Wales of the mummers carrying the skull of a
horse in their Christmas merry-makings.
Cognate to this is that most ancient representation of the

conveyance of the departed soul to the realms of bliss imagined
as some happy island in the far West upon a fantastic
hippocampus, in figure like a winged sea-serpent, and who later

became the Eornan Capricornus, Ruler of the Hesperian "
Wave :
"
-
Capricorn hast won
"
Thou, for thy rule, !
All that extends beneath the setting sun,"
as Manilius defines the authority of that amphibious sign. But

the original conception is often engraved upon Phoenician
scarabic; and no doubt can remain as to its intention, since
Caylus has published an Etruscan vase (i. pi. 32) where this
same monster is painted joyously careering over the sea, whilst
on its other side stands the mourner, prsefica, chaunting the
funeral hymn over the corpse laid out upon its bier of bronze.
To continue within the earliest portion of the subject, it
must be observed that in the most ancient monument of Greek

sculpture whereof any account remains the Coffer of Cypselus
(executed earlier than 600 B.C.) Night was represented carrying
in her arms two children,
alike in all respects save colour ; the
one white, the other black, having their legs crossed * their :
names being inscribed over them Sleep and Death for their
mother was hastening to the aid of the expiring Memnon. Thus
it is manifest that from the very dawn of pictorial art the
crossed legs were the accepted emblem of the most profound
repose ; whilst the sluggard s wish for "
a little more folding of

*
Steo-TpaêVous rovs TroSas. The authority of tins blunder, Properties
very obvious meaning of these words somnia rana" have been turned
"
critics have contrived to misuuder- into somnia vara" and ever since
"
stand, and to render as distorte

"
1." the whole tribe of Dreams are be-

Nor is this all ; entirely upon the lievcd to walk bandy-legged.
the hands in slumber bears the same testimony to the import of

"
the crossed arms of the Roman Genius who leans on his inverted
torch. In that master-piece of Roman chasing, the Pompeian
discus,
"
The Death of Cleopatra," the object of the design is
indicated with equal truth and pathos by the placing of the

beauteous infant genius at the knee of the dying queen, on
which he rests his elbow to form a support for his head as
though dropping off into a gentle slumber. The traditional
attitude* retained its significance well understood far down
into the Middle Ages : witness so many cross-legged effigies
of warriors resting from their toils who for that sole reason
popularly pass for crusaders.

But in the whole long catalogue of emblems, not one
expressed the distract idea so definitely as that most frequently
employed in such sense the Gorgon s Head. Accepting the
explanation already offered (p. 107), that at its origin this
terrific visage was designed for the vera effigies of the Queen
"
"
of the dead, it was the most speaking emblem of her office that
could possibly be chosen. In the Heroic ages it was universally
painted, or embossed upon the warrior s shield ; and with the

progress of art, cut in cameo, became the regular decoration of
the imperial breastplate ; t in which post it served, as Lucian
remarks ( Philopatris ),
"both to terrify enemies and to avert
all danger from the wearer," conveying to all beholders the
im nace of death exactly as now by an undesigned coincidence
does the death s he,d and cross-bones painted upon the pirate s
flag. The Byzantines,

in the true spirit of their gloomy super
stition, discarded the Pros-Italian type for whose beauty they

had lost all feeling, and reverted to the image invented by the
horror-loving genius of Pelasgic barbarism. They saw in it
the most faithful representation of their Motpa, the destroying
demon or glioul, still believed by the Greek peasant to haunt
* The child s bkeb t n n in the Dum vacat hrec, Caesar, potent

above lorica vocari,
Pompeian painting quoted,
similarly folds his feet.
Pcctore cum sacro sederit, ^Kgis
t Accipe bell, gene cruclum thorac;i erit.
Minervse, Mart. vii. I.
Ip&a MedusffB quani timet ira

com ?e.
ruins and desolate places. That the figure was received in

such a sense into Byzantine symbolism, the examples of
amulets already quoted convincingly declare. From Byzantine
the Gorgon passed into Gothic art, which ever revelling in
grotesque horror, its inspiring genius being the skeleton which

intrudes his ghastliness into every mode of ornamentation, even
of a mirror-frame (Lucrezia Borgia s for example) contrived to
render the image yet more terrible by converting the face into
a fleshless skull, and substituting for the hawk s wings lent
by Hermes, which previously impelled its flight, the skinny
pinions of her own congenial and much-loved fowl, ihe
sepulchre-haunting bat.
But of all these emblems, not one is so full of poetry and

truth as the device of the Winged Foot crushing the Butterfly,
Life. The Foot, chosen probably for the same reason as the
Horse, as conveying most speakingly the notion of departure,
was equally accepted as the emblem of death. Horace s simile
must occur to every reader :
"
Pallida Mors juquo pulsat jiedv pauperum tabernas

Regumque turres."
On this account the Foot became the peculiar attribute of

the infernal deities ; and the figure of one carved in stone was
often dedicated in the temple of Serapis * apparently as an
ex voto commemorating the donor s escape from the very
threshold of his dark domain. Singularly related to this
custom is what Moor notices of the pairs of feet carved in stone
commonly seen in the vicinity of Hindoo temples, traditionally

said to be memorials of suttees, marking the spot whence the
devoted widow stepped from earth upon the funeral pile, that
is into the Gate of Heaven.
It has long been a question how the Grecian Hades The ("
Invisible One and the Koinan Pluto were depicted in a

")
bodily form as they were originally conceived for their
Egyptian equivalent, Serapis, figures much more frequently in

* A colossal example of the fiuest Commodus from that mint, which
workmanship was exhumed at Alex- has for reverse a head of Serapis
andria a few years ago. It may have placet upon a foot for pedestal, with
been contemporary with the coin of the date of his seventh year.
monuments of Imperial date than either of his brethren, Jove

or Neptune. In the latter style he is regularly sculptured as
Plutus, "Lord of Riches," seated on a throne, holding a cornucopia,
and extending with his right hand a cluster of earth s choicest
gifts. But under what form the primitive Greeks had
imagined their Aidoneus, God of the Shades, before Serapis was
introduced into their mythology, is a question that has never
been satisfactorily answered. We should have found him on
the scarabeus of the Etruscans and early Italiotes, had not a
long-enduring respect for things divine (expressly enjoined by

Pythagoras) prevented their placing in their signets, used for
everyday purposes, the actual figures of the gods, whose absence
they supplied by their well-known attributes. For this reason a
popular Etruscan seal-device is Cerberus, represented sometimes
as a man with three heads of a dog, but more commonly in the
shape so familiar to us from later arts. But the Egyptians had

contrived to make their Guardian of the Shades much more
formidable in aspect by equipping him with the heads of a lion,
crocodile, and hippopotamus. "We are also certified in what
shape the Etruscans imaged their god of the lower world,
Mantus; for he painted with serpent legs, like Typhon,

is
wielding a huge butcher s cleaver, and attended by Cerberus,

enthroned upon the court placed below the niche of interment,
locidus, in the Campana tomb, Cervetri.
The "
Helmet of Hades" is named by Homer (v. 845), which

Pallas puts on in order to render herself invisible to Ares ;
which helmet the scholiast explains by

"
cloud and invisibility "-
whence seems but natural to infer that, as this deity was

it
rendered invisible by his very attiibute, no attempt would be

made to depict his personal appearance. figure of a god in A
long flowing robes, and wielding a trident wanting one of its
prongs,sometimes on the Nolan vases, has been taken for
painted
an Aidoneus, but on no sufficient grounds, there being better
reason to consider him a Poseidon in the archaic style. The

Eenowned given to the fâme god
"
epithet
"
for horses is
elsewhere by Homer (v. 445), allusive

doubtless to the siviftness
of the Destroyer :
may, perchance, lie the
and in the s nne title
motive which made the Greeks adopt the horse, as above noticed,
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIlt REMAINS. 187
for thecommonest symbol of his power. If we could meet

with any genuine antique and early representation of the
Rape of Proserpine it would at once decide the question by
portraying the grim Ravisher himself; but the inauspicious
nature of the subject (so conspicuously set forth in Suetonius
anecdote of the ring with the story presented by Sporus to Nero
for a New Year s
gift) has completely excluded it from the
artist s repertory, so far as
anything now remaining informs
us. Stosch s Collection, amongst its immense varity of mytho
logical designs, contains nothing of the sort, whilst Kaspe

gives for its representative only a single antique paste (and
that, too, of very dubious attribution) where a god with quiver
on shoulder is
carrying off a Nymph in a car drawn by two
swans attributes properly bespeaking an Apollo ;
and if really
given here to Pluto, proving the work to belong to those latter

times of Paganism when Hades, Serapis, Phoebus, were equally
interpreted as mere titles of the Solar god.

As for the Roman Pluto, or, to give him his native name, Dis
(ditis, from the same root as death), there was the best of reasons
forexcluding him from the province of art which admitted
nought that was hideous or of evil augury. For there can be
no doubt, that, to the popular imagination, he still continued the
Charun * whom we still behold lording it over the sepulchres of
their Etruscan teachers in the arts, a giant of horrid aspect with
pointed ears, and tusky grinning jaws, winged buskins 011 legs,
extending with one hand a hissing serpent, with the other
wielding a monstrous mall. It was probably the traditional
influence of the idea that caused the âme instrument, mazza,
to be retained at Rome for the execution of peculiarly atrocious
criminals down to the recent introduction of the guillotine.

That Pluto was really so personified in the shows of the
Amphitheatre, as late as the third century, may be gathered

from the remark of Tertullian (Apol. xxv.), that, amongst the "
other scenic cruelties of the afternoon, the spectators laughed at

the sight of Mercury raising the dead with his red-hot wand
[applied doubtless to the feet of the slaughtered gladiators to

* As Etriiriii was the only scho,>l she supplied the figures equally with
.
of art for Koine until very late times, the iHanes of all the Roman deities.
lingered within them] whilst the Brother

*
ascertain if life still ;
of Jupiter, armed with his mall, escorted the dead bodies of the
combatant [for the purpose clearly of giving them the coup de
"
grace]. The primitive Etruscan image passed down into the

belief of their mediaeval descendants, for Dante brings on the
stage :
Charon, demonic con occhi di bragia."

"
Charon, a devil with live-coals jor ey

"
s."
It is time now to dismiss the Lord of the Shades, and to

consider by what Emblem ancient art sought to express the
Shade the disembodied spirit.

itself, The Greeks of early times
appropriately painted it in the shape of a bird with a human
head, as on that beau iful vase, "The Death of Procris"
(British
Museum), where such a fowl is conspicuously seen winging its
flight from the mouth of the wounded Nymph. The celebrated
Orleans (now Russian) scarabeus, engraved with the Death of "
Achilles," back carved into the same creature, tearing

has its
her breast in an agony of despair. This expressive type was

riot, however, the birth of Grecian genius, but adopted, without
alteration, from the most ancient symbolism of Egypt. In the
body and soul," regularly painted on the
of the
"
Judgment
mummy-cases, the former, depicted as a mummy, stands before
Lord of the West," to answer for its actions ; whilst the
"
Osiris,
soul, in shape of a hawk, with human head and wings uplifted,

isbrought before the same god under another form, to give
an account of its thoughts. And the same soul, purified, and
admitted amongst the gods, appears as before, but tranquilly
standing with a golden disk, a crown of glory," set upon her "
head :
figures of the last kind in bronze frequently occurring
amongst Egyptian remains, complimentary mementoes of
deceased friends. Again, this same bird is often found painted
on the mummy-case right over the heart (named in Coptic, the
"
abode of the soul a plain proof of what it signifies there

"),
;
although Father Kifcher, with his wonted extravagance, chose

to explain it as figuring the iynx, the bird so renowned in the
magical operations of the Greeks. Again, the same notion is

as often is
expressed by the simple figure of a bird flying away,
done in Etruscan works, where the subject represented is the
death of a Latest of all, this somewhat grotesque

hero.
Egyptian conception was modified by Grecian culture into the
graceful girl with butterfly wings the well-known Psyche

and such a form is seen seated upon the summit of Achilles
tomb, before which the sacrifice of Polyxena is about to be
offered. This ancient human-headed Bird, by a natural tran
sition of ideas, came ultimately to be applied to express a
widely different meaning. Instead of the dead, it was made to

stand for the destroyer ; and the Syrens are always painted in
this shape whenever their interview with Ulysses becomes the
theme of ancient art, or when they engage in their unlucky
contest with the Muses. But here, for the sake of more grace,
in the conformation of the monster, the whole of the female
bust is adapted to the body of the fowl. Despite their beauty
and melodiousness, the Syrens were considered as the most
malignant and destructive of beings, for which reason the
Harpies likewise were depicted in precisely the same figure.
Although identical at first, the more refining art of Koman
times introduced a distinction between them by giving to the
Syrens the complete bust, to the Harpies the head only of the
woman. Inasmuch as the name signifies Snatcher-away," the
"
Harpy was understood to embody the abstract idea of death,

which acceptation explains why she is often represented armed
with a sword, or carrying on her shoulder the funeral lecytlius,
and torch. For the same reason the Harpy holds a conspicuous
place in the decorations of many ancient tombs, unlesss, indeed,
the emblem may have been used there in its Egyptian sense.
In what shape Death was personified by Euripides, in his
Alcestis, cannot be made out from the insufficiency of data
afforded by the lines relating to his appearance on the stage.
It however, plain that the poet brought forward cu/a-ros in
is,
a bodily form, perhaps considering him the same with Aidoneus,

for he styles him "King of the Dead;" and Macrobius, speaking
of the same event, uses for his name the Roman equivalent,
"
All that can be gathered from the incidental allu

Orcus."
sions of the other dramatis personse to this apparition, is that he

was robed in and carried a sword, wherewith to sever a
black,
lock from the head of his destined victim, and so devote it to
the subterranean gods. It is, however,

possible that Euripides
brought on this avaros in that harpy shape which sometimes is
found in antique art where the bust is that of a
grim aged
man, in place of the smiling female s, and who, as
badge of
office, carries a naked sword. In such a form the
Destroyer
must have flitted before the eyes of Statius, when about to make
prey of the young and beautiful Glaucius :
"
Snbitas ininiica levavit

Parca manus ; quo diva feros gravis exuis ?
"
unrjues
This last word can apply whom

to nothing but the Harpy, of
claws were the distinctive attribute :
nummoa
"
Unguibus ire parat raptura
Nevertheless, a representation like this had in it nothing

grotesque or offensive to the Athenian eye. Far different was
the Pelasgic K^, likewise robed in Hack
(according to Ilomer d
normal for her), in the form which the archaic
epithet
sculptor had given her upon the Coffer of Cypselus, having "
tusks as fierce as those of

any wild beast." Such a conception
was eagerly embraced by the
gloomy genius of the Etruscans,
ever delighting in the monstrous and the horrible. She
therefore figures on their
signets in a form to be described in
the very words of Pausaiiias,
having a huge Gorgonian head,
grinning jaws, arms wreathed with serpents, impelled by
quadruple wings, like an Assyrian deity, and her action that of
furious baste. So, doubtless, appeared the Furies, brought on
the stage by Êschylus, when the horror of their
strange aspect
struck the Athenian audience with such For his
deadly fright.
purpose he must have revived a very ancient and forgotten type
of the idea, for the
paintings on the vases of his epoch exhibit
the Eumenides, who persecute Orestes, under a no more terrific
form than as shadowy old women
brandishing serpents and
torches, as they chase their victim from shrine to shrine.
*
The same picture must have been in Horace s mind when he
uses the figure ....
"
Mors atris cireumvolat alis."

THE GNOSTICS AND THEIK REMAINS. 191
TOMB-TREASURES.
Sorapis, in his double character of God of Death and God
of Riches, has been the subject of preceding chapters; the
present one shall be devoted to the consideration of the most

striking method by which human superstition sought to turn
to account the two ideas. To propitiate the Manes by placing
his most valuable or beloved effects in the sepulchre of the
defunct, dates probably from the very institution of interment ;
but the account now to be cited is the most interesting of any

on record, owing to the circumstances of the time, person, and
It is literally translated from the
place. description of an
eye witness, the earliest of Italian antiquaries, M. L. Fauno,
given in his Antichita de Roma, p. 154, published 1553.
"In
February, 1544, in the Chapel of the King of France, which
is now being built in St. Peter s, after the plan of Julius II.,
the workmen, in excavating, came upon a marble coffin, which,
from the things found therein, was clearly known to be the
tomb of Maria, wife of the Emperor Honorius. Of the body,
indeed, there was nothing left, except the teeth, the hair, and
the two leg-bones. From which were interwoven
the robes
with gold, and from the head-tire, which was cloth of silk and
gold, there was extracted by smelting more than forty pounds
weight of the purest gold." [Suecius says thirty-six, but makes
the total of all the gold found to amount to the above weight
when they weie melted down by order of Paul III., to be
applied to the building fund of the Cathedral.]
Within the coffin lay a silver box, one and a half foot long
"
by eight inches deep, with many articles inside, the which we

shall proceed particularly to describe. There were vases and
different things in rock crystal, thirty in all,
big and little ;
amongst which were two cups, as it were, not very large, the
one round, the other oval shaped, with most beautiful figures
in intaglio of middling depth (mezzo-cavo), and a snail-shell
(nautilus), likewise in crystal, fitted up for a lamp in fine gold,

with which in the first place the mouth of the shell is overlaid,
there being only left a hole for pouring in the oil ;
by the side
of which holeis fixeJ &fly of

gold upon a pivot, turning back
wards and forwards, for the purpose of
closing the orifice. In
the same way is also made a nozzle with beak for (^jAppio)
holding the wick, drawn out long and sharpened with the
greatest elegance, and so fastened to the crystal that it appears
all one piece The cover also is equally well made.
naturally.
The shape of the shell is that of a great sea-shell,
encompassed
all round withpoints, which in this vessel are polished and
its
very smooth, so excellently wrought is the crystal. There were

also vases and various articles in
agate, with certain little
animals, eight in all, and amongst them two very beautiful
one like the glass ampullae, made

vases, big and squat for
holding oil and such like liquids, so worked, so beautiful, and
thin that it is a wonder to behold. The other is in the shape
of those ladles with long handles used at Rome for
baling water
out of cisterns, and is supposed to be a vessel used
by the
ancients in their sacrifices [a ligula for the
purpose of ladling
the wine out of the great standing Next came four
crater}.
little vessels in gold of different kinds, and another little vessel
of gold with a cover set round with

jewels. A little gold heart
that had been a pendant with jewels set in it a buckle of
gold ;
with six gems of different kinds set in it, also

twenty-four
other buckles of gold of various patterns with little
gems set
in them ; furthermore, forty-eight rings and hoops* of gold of
different shapes, one of them in red bone, and various gems.
A mouse in "
chelidonia," a reddish quartz, is also specified by

Suecius [which must be the next item], also three little animals
in red lone ;
also two ear-drops in emerald or
plasma with two
jacinths ;
four small crosses with red and green stones a ;
pendant in the form of a bunch of grapes, made of purple

stones eight other little gold pendants of different sorts with
;
gems set in them. The remains of a string of crepundia, the

usual decoration of little children. [Maria had died at the age
of four, being thus early betrothed to Honorius by his father
the all-powerful Stilicho]. Three little gold crosses set with
emeralds a piece of a small fine necklace with certain green
;
*
like the French verge,
"
:
Verglteverga, signifies a plain gold wire
forming a ring having no head.
stones strung upon it. Another little gold necklace with

twenty-four beads of plasma. Another necklace with twelve
heads of sapphire cut almond Another little necklace
shape.
of gold wire folded
up (raccolto), but broken into four pieces.
Two small buttons in gold fourteen little gold-wire
;
rings like
those of a coat of mail three more crosses with some
;
emeralds,
and a round gold plate like an
Agnus Dei,* with these words
upon it, STILICHO VI VAT. Two bracelets (maniche) of gold, set
with certain red and green stones. Two or stiletti for large pins
the hair, one in gold nearly a
palm (nine inches) long inscribed
with these words, DOMINVS HONORIVS DOMINA MARIA: the
other in silver without inscription. There were likewise
many
fragments of enamels and other stones. Also silver nails [their
heads] partly flat, partly in relief, which had fastened down a
cover of silver upon a little Also a small plate of gold
coffer.
with these words written or rather scratched in Greek, MICHAEL-

GABRIEL- RAPHAEL- VRIEL-"
[Laurentius Surius makes out
forty gold with precious stones, besides an emerald
rings set
set in gold, engraved with a head
supposed to be that of
Honorius, which was valued at five hundred We
gold ducats].
have particularly described the above-named objects because
all
Claudian, a poet of those times, declares that to the

Empress
Maria were sent similar rare presents from her betrothed which
;
perhaps may have formed the greatest part of these

things.
The words of the poet are
"
Jam munera nuptce

Prasparat, et pulchros Marios sed luce minores
Elicit ornatus :
quidquid venerabilis olini
Livia, divorumque nurus gessere superbaj." (x. 10-1. }. )
This account enables us to form some notion of the treasures

to a or less
deposited greater degree in all the tombs of important
personages, but more especially in those sumptuous structures
raised to the memory of the dead
throughout Asia Minor. The
same fact sufficiently accounts for the furious
onslaught made
upon the tombs all over the Roman world, so soon as the
change
of religion had extinguished the old veneration for the Manes
and the things consecrated to them a profanation, and a
* A disk of stamped wax about three inches in diameter.
destruction of works of art, which Gregorius Theologus, inspired
by a taste and good feeling very surprising in a Byzantine saint,

has attacked in one hundred and eighty-two very interesting
and often poetical epigrams.
The same custom was kept up (although we can hardly
suppose with any lingering belief in its ancient efficiency) by
the Merovingian and Carlovingian successors to the wealth of
the Western Empire. The learned Canon Chiflet has left in
his interesting book, a complete

Anastasis Childerici Kegis,
history of tomb-treasures, serving to illustrate his account of

that of Childeric the Frank, accidentally found in the precincts
of Tournay Cathedral, May 1654. The deposit, as far it could
be recovered from the first finders, consisted of the arms of the
king, the trappings of his horse (buried with him), all of gold
encrusted with garnets, his gold tablets and writing-stylus,
abundance of golden-bees originally stretched over his mantle
(which gave that curious idea to Napoleon I.), a bull s head for a
pendant (the primitive Frankish badge of sovereignty), and
lastly, a viaticum in the shape of one hundred Byzantine solidi of
contemporary emperors, and as many denarii of several and much

earlier Cajsars. The canon, by zealous perquisitions, succeeded
in recovering all these articles, including the most important of
all, the royal signet ring of massy gold, engraved with the
image and superscription of Childeric, for his patron the Arch

duke Leopold, then governor of the Low Countries. At some
subsequent period the most important of these relics passed into
the collect] on of the Bibliotheque Imperiale, where they continued
in all due honour until the disastrous robbery of 1 808, when it
issupposed, with too much probability, that they were melted

down along with the rest of the booty !
FIG. 1).
GNOSTIC CONNECTION WITH SUPERSTITIOUS

PRACTICES.
I. THE EVIL EYE.
Serapis we have seen, in one of his representations lately

noticed, specially invoked to defend his votary against the
Evil Eye under A
its abstract title of 00oW glance therefore
at this most ancient superstition (which still nourishes in full
vigour in the same countries that gave it birth) will form a
fitting prelude to the coming section, which takes for subject
talismans and amulets of
every class.
The belief in the power for mischief of the eye of an envious
or malignant
person (to counteract which was the principal
object of so many of the amulets that have come down to us)
was universal amongst all ancient nations. It is needless to
bring forward classic writers to support this statement such ;
as Apollonius Rhodius, where he

skilfully avails himself of the
notion, and makes Medea by her basilisk glance alone work the
death of Talas, the Brazen Man,
guardian of the Cretan shores ;
for even St. Paul

(Rom. i.
29) sets down this action of the soul
working through the eye in the list of sins of the deepest dye.
But the actual manner of operation uponthe sufferer I have
nowhere found explained except in the following
passage from
Heliodorus (* Êthiopica, iii. 8), and which therefore deserves to
be inserted at length in this
prelude to the subject. Tell me, "
my good Calasiris, what is the malady that has attacked your

You ought not to be sui prised," I replied, if at
"
"
daughter ? "
the time when she was

heading the procession in the sight of so
vast an assemblage of
people, she had drawn upon herself some
envious Do you
Whereupon, smiling
"
eye"
ironically, then,"
asked he, like the vulgar in general, believe in the

"
reality of
such fascination ? As much as I do in any other fact,"
"
"
I replied, the thing is this the air which surrounds us

"and :
passing through the eyes, as it were through a strainer, and

o 2
into
also through the mouth, the teeth and the other passages,
the inward parts, whilst its external properties make their way
in together with it whatever be its quality as it flows in, of
the same nature is the effect it disseminates in the recipient, so
that when any one looks upon beauty with envy, he fills the
circumambient with a malignant property, and diifuses upon
air
his neighbour the breath issuing from himself, all impregnated

with bitterness, and this, being as it is of a most subtile nature,
through into the very bone and marrow.
Hence
penetrates
envy has frequently turned itself into a regular disease, and has
received the distinctive appellation of fascination (/foo-Kcma).
Consider also, my Charicles, how many people have been
infected with ophthalmia, how many with other pestilential
so affected, or from
diseases, not from any contact with those
sharing the same bed or same table,

but merely from breathhig
the same air. Let also above all the rest), the origin of
(and
love be a support to my argument, for that owes its first origin
to the sight which shoots like arrows the passion into the soul.
And for this there is good reason, for of all the senses
very
and
is the most easily excited, and
passages of the body, the sight
the most inflammable, and consequently the most susceptible
with regard to external emanation, in consequence of its own
essence, attracting to itself the visits of
natural love.
fiery
And if you wish for a proof drawn from Natural History,
recorded likewise in the Sacred Books, the bird, the yellow-
hammer, cures the jaundice, and person so affected shall but
if a
look at that bird, the latter at once tries to escape and shuts its
it begrudges the benefit to the
eyes not as some think, because
;
sick but because, if looked upon by men, it is forced by its

man,
nature to attract his disease into its own body, like an exhala
tion, and therefore shuns the glance as much as a blow. And
amongst serpents, the basilisk,
doth not he, as you may have
heard, kill and blast whatever conies in his way by means of
his eyes and his breath alone ? And if some give the stroke of
the Evil Eye even and are well disposed
to those they love
of an envious
towards, you must not be surprised, for people
disposition act not as they loish,
but as their Nature compels
them to do."
II. ON A CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC

TALISMAN.
Few relics of antiquity combine in one so many and so

widely differing points of interest, with respect to the material,
the strangely dissimilar uses to which the same
object has been
applied in two opposite phases of the history of Man, and,
above all, the curious superstitions engendered
by its peculiar
form, as does the stone brought under the notice of the Archaeo
logical Institute by General Lefroy, now in the Woolwich
Repository. The kindness of that gentleman having afforded me
fullopportunity for the careful examination of this interesting
monument, I proceed to embody, in as succinct a form as their
multifarious nature will permit, the observations

suggested
to me by that examination.
The subject, therefore, of this section is a small stone celt of
the common pattern, but of very uncommon material
(in the
antique class), being made, not of flint, but of dark-green jade or
nephrite, 2 in. by lj in. in length and greatest width; and
brought, there is reason to believe, from Egypt many years ago,
by Colonel Milner, aide-de-camp to Lord J. Bathurst during
the English occupation of Sicily in 1812. Each of its two faces
isoccupied by a Gnostic formula, engraved with much neatness,
considering the excessive hardness of the material, in the some
what debased Greek character that was current at Alexandria
during the third and fourth centuries of our era.

The most important of these two formulae has been in-e-
niously forced to take the outline of a wreath composed of
broad leaves, in number/oweew(or the sacred seven
duplicated),
and doubtless intended for those of the "
Five Trees "
that
figure so conspicuously in Gnostic symbolism ; the ends being
tied together with four broad ribbons. This is a
design of
which no other example has ever come to my knowledge
amongst the innumerable and wondrously varied devices
excogitated by the prolific fancy of this religion of mysteries.
Upon the four ties are engraved in very minute letters different
combinations of the seven Greek vowels, whilst each of the
leaves is emblazoned with some which many "
Holy Name," of
can be easily recognised as constantly recurring in charms of

this classothers are disguised by a novel orthography whilst
; ;
a few, from the uncertain forms of the It-tiering, defy all

attempts at interpretation.
To the first series belong ABPACA,
"
Abraxas," properly
an epithet of the sun, but designating here the Supreme Deity ;
IAGOOYIE, lao, Jehovah

"
ABAANA, Thou art our Father

;
"
"
!
"
TAMBPIHA, a curious mode of spelling "Gabriel," that testifies

to the difficulty ever felt by the Greeks of expressing the
sound of our B; AKTNONBCx), which contains the Coptic form
of Anubis AAMNAMENEYC, the sun s name in the famous
;
ftphesian Spell; and, most interesting of all, nCANTAPEOC,

"
"
who can be no other than the IYANTA of the Pistis- Sophia

one of the great TpiSwa/xeis, a Power from whom is enthroned
in the planet Mars. To the uncertain belong COYMA, probably
for name occurring elsewhere, and perhaps cognate
COYMAPTA, a
to the Hindoo XOONONIXAP which may be intended for

Sumitri,
XAP-XNOYMIC, a common epithet of the AgathodaBinon Serpent;

AEICUEHAANHC; NEIXAPOnAHC the two last, spells un ;
explained but very uncommon MONAPXOC whilst AXAPCIC ; ;
and the rest appear here for the first time, if correctly so
read.
The other face is covered with an inscription, cut in much
larger letters, and in eight lines. This number was certainly
not the result of chance, but of deep design, for it was mystic
in the highest degree, representing so taught the profoundest
doctor of the Gnosis, Marcus the divine Ogdoad, which was

the daughter of the Pythagorean Tetrad, the mother of all
creation.* The lines 2, 4, 5, consist of Greek letters used as
numerals, intermixed with siglce, which, from their constant
occurrence upon monuments of a like nature, are supposed, with
good reason, to be symbols of the planets. The numerals, on

their part, probably denote various deities, for the Alexandrian
Gnosis was the true daughter of Magiism ; and in the old
theology oi Chaldea every god and astral genius had a number
of his own, and which often stands instead of his proper
* St.
Hippolytus, Eefut. Om. Hseres. vi. 50.
name in dedicatory inscriptions.* Thus, the number of Hoa

(Neptune), was 40 of Ana (Pluto), 60 of Bel (Jupiter), 50 ; ; ;
of the Sun, 20 of the moon, 30 of the Air, 10 of Nergal

; ; ;
(Mars), 12 ; &o.
A fragment of the Pistis- Sophia^ supplied the "spiritual
man" with a key to the right interpretation of similar steno
graphy in his own creed. "
These be the Names which I will

give unto thee, even from the Infinite One downwards. Write
the same with a sign (cypher), so that the sons of God may
manifest (understand ?) them out of this place. This is the
name of the Immortal One, AAA (jL)U)U).:j: And this is the
name of the Voice whereby the Perfect Man is moved, TIT.
These likewise be the interpretations of the names of the
Mysteries. The first is AAA, and the interpretation thereof is
ct>4>4>. The second, which is MMM, or which is CX)(JL)(JL), the
interpretation thereof is AAA. The third is YYT, the inter
pretation thereof is OOO. The forth is the interpretation <t>ct>4>,
thereof is NNN. The fifth AAA, the interpretation thereof is

AAA, the which is above the throne of AAA. This is the in
terpretation of the second AAAA, namely, AAAAAAAA ; the same
isthe interpretation of the whole Name."
Lines 7, 8, are made up of vowels, variously combined, and
shrouding from profane eyes the Ineffable Name ATT which, I
as we are informed by many authorities (the most ancient and

trustworthy being Diodorus Siculus), was the name of the God of
the Jews meaning thereby their mode of
writing Jehovah in
"
"
Greek characters.
Line 3 consists of the seven vowels placed in their natural
order. This was the most potent of all the spells in the
Gnostic repertory; and its importance
may justify the ex-
tensiveness of the following extract from the grand text-book
of this theosophy, which sets forth its hidden sense and
wondrous efficacy. The primary idea, however, was far from
abstruse, if we accept the statement of the writer
"
On Interpre-
* On this curious subject, see J That is, 1000 and 800 tripled.
Kawlinson s Ancient Monarchies, The next numbers are 10,000 tripled,
iii.
p. 466. and so on.
t Cap. 125. Bibliotheca Historica, i. 94.
tations," that the Egyptians expressed the name of the Supreme

God by the seven vowels thus arranged IEHQOYA.* But
this singlemystery was soon refined upon, and made the basis
of other and infinitely deeper mysteries. In an inscription
found at Miletus (published by Montfaucon), the Holy IEOY-
AHHAEIOYn is besought "to protect the city of Miletus
and the inhabitants of the same a plain proof that this
all ;
interminable combination only expressed the name of some one

divine being. Again, the Pistis-Sophia perpetually brings in
IEOY invariably accompanied with the epithet of "the Primal
Man," .e., He after whose image or type man was first created.
But in the fulness of time the semi-Pythagorean, Marcus, had

it revealed unto him that the seven heavens in their revelation
sounded each one vowel which, all combine ! together, formed a
single doxology, "the sound whei eof being carried down to
earth becomes the creator and parent of all things that be on
earth."!
The Greek language has but one word for vowel and voice;
when therefore, the seven thunders uttered their voices," the
"
seven vowels, it is meant, echoed through the vault of heaven,

and composed that mystic utterance which the sainted seer was
forbidden to reveal unto mortals. up those things which Seal
"
the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. With the "if
best reason, then, is the formula inscribed on a talisman of

the first class, for hear what the Pistis-Sophia delivers touching
itspotency.
"
After these things his disciples said again unto

him, Kabbi, reveal unto us the mysteries of the Light of thy
Father, forasmuch as we have heard thee saying that there is
another baptism of smoke, and another baptism o! ihe Spirit of
Holy Light, and moreover an unction of the Spirit, all which

shall bring our souls into the treasurehouse of Light. Declare
therefore unto us the mysteries of these things, so that we also
may inherit the kingdom of thy Father. Jesus said unto them,
Do ye seek after these mysteries ? No mystery is more excellent
* This in fact a very correct

is f Hippolytus, vi. 48.
representation, if we give each vowel J Rev. x. 4.
its true Greek sound, of the Hebrew Pistis-Sophiu, cap. 378.

pronunciation of the word Jehovah.
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 20 1
than they; which shall bring your souls unto the Light of
Lights, unto the place of Truth and Goodness, unto the place
of the Holy of holies, unto the place where is neither male nor
female, neither form in that place but Light, everlasting, not to

be uttered. Nothing therefore is more excellent than the
mysteries which ye seek after, saving only the mystery of the
Seven Vowels and their forty and nine Powers, and the numbers
thereof. And no name is more excellent than all these
(Vowels),* a Name wherein be contained all Names and all
Lights and all Powers. Knowing therefore this Name, if a man
shall have departed out of this body of Matter, no smoke
(of the
bottomless pit), neither any darkness, nor Euler of the
Sphere
of Fate,| nor Angel, nor Power, shall be able to hold back the
soul that knoweth that Name. But and if, after he shall have
departed out of this world, he shall utter that Name unto the
fire, it shall be quenched, and the darkness shall flee
away.
And if Name unto the devils of the Outei
he shall utter that
Darkness, and to the Powers thereof, they shall all faint away,
and their flame shall blaze up, so that they shall cry aloud
Thou art holy, thou art holy, Holy One of all holies!
And if he shall utter that Name unto the Takers-awav for
condemnation, and their Authorities, and all their Powers, nay,

even unto Barbelo,J and the Invisible God, and the three
Triple-powered Gods, so soon as he shall have uttered that
Name in those places, they shall all bo shaken and thrown one
upon the other, so that they shall be ready to melt
away and
perish, and shall cry aloud, Light of all lights that art in
the Boundless L?ght remember us also, and purify us
!
!
"
After such a revelation as this, we need seek no further for the

reason of the frequent occurrence of this formula talismans upon
intended, when they had done their duty in this world, to
accompany their owner

into the tomb,
continuing to exert there
a protective influence of a yet higher order than in life.
For the student of the mineralogy of the ancients this celt
* to the col-
Evidently alluding released from the body in which
they
location of the vowels on our talisman. have imprisoned it.
t The twelve Mons of the Zodiac, J The divine mother of the Saviour,
the creators of the human soul, which and one of the three Invisible Gods
" "
they eagerly seek to catch when cap. 351).

has very great interest in point of material, as being the only
specimen of true jade, bearing indisputable marks of either

Greek or Eoman workmanship, that, so far as my knowledge
extends, has ever yet been brought to light. This ancient
neglect of the material is truly difficult to explain, if the state
ment of a very good authority, Corsi, be indeed correct, that the
sort showing the deepest green is found in Egypt. The known
predilection of the Eomans for gems of that colour, would, one
should naturally expect, have led them in that case to employ
the stone largely in ornamentation, after the constant fashion of
the Chinese, and to value it as a harder species of the Smaragdus.
The circumstances under which this relic was brought to
England render it more than probable that Egypt was the

place where it was found a supposition corroborated by the
;
fine quality of the stone exactly agreeing with what Corsi
remarks of the Egyptian kind. That Alexandria was the place

where the inscription was added upon its surface can admit of
littlequestion the lettering being precisely that seen upon
;
innumerable other monuments which can with certainty be

assigned to the same grand focus of Gnosticism. In addition to
this, it is very doubtful whether in the third or fourth centuries
a lapidary could have been found elsewhere throughout the
whole KomanVEmpiie capable of engraving with such skill as
the minute characters within the wreath evince, upon a
material of this, almost insuperable, obduracy. From the times
of the Ptolemies down to the Arab conquest, and even later,
Alexandria was the seat of the manufacture of vases in rock

crystal. This trade served to keep alive the expiring Glyptic
art for the only purpose for which its productions continued to
be demanded the manufacture of talismans, consignments of
which must have been regularly shipped, together with the
crystal- ware,* to Rome, and equally to the other important
cities of the empire.
The primitive Egyptians, like the early Chaldeans, used
stone in the place of metal for their cutting instruments, and
continued use for making particular articles down into
its
historic times. Herodotus mentions the regular employment of

* "
Duin tibi Niliacus portat cryatallu Mart. xii. 72.

catajplua."
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 20 5
the "
Ethiopian stone
"
sharpened, for a dissect ing-knife* in the

process of embalming, and similarly for pointing the arrowsf
carried by the contingent of the same nation in the
army of
Xerxes. The Alexandrian citizen, half-Jew half-Greek, who
had the good fortune to pick up primaeval implement, this
doubtless rejoiced in the belief that he had gotten a "stone of
most potent alike from substance, figure, and nature,
virtue,"
and therefore proceeded to do his prize due honour by making

it the medium of his most accredited
spells nay, more, by
inventing a new formula of unusual complication and pro
fundity whereby to animate

its inherent powers. As regards
the stone probably passed then for a smaragdus of
its substance,
exceptional magnitude, and that gem, as Pliny records, J was

recommended by the magi as the proper material for a talisman
of prodigious efficacy, which, duly engraved, should baffle
witchcraft, give success at court, avert hailstorms, and much

more of like nature. The smaragdus of the ancients was little
more than a generic designation for all stones of a green colour,
and the entire Gnostic series strikingly demonstrates that this
hue was deemed a primary requisite in a talismanic gem the
almost exclusive material of the class being the
green jasper
and the plasma.
Again, as regards figure, this celt offered in its triangular
outline, that most sacred of all
emblems, the mystic Delta, the
form that signified maternity, and was the
hieroglyph of the
moon. This belief is mentioned by Plutarch, and
explains
why the triangle so often accompanies the figure of the sacred
baboon, Luna s special attribute, on monuments, where also it
is sometimes displayed elevated upon a column with that
animal standing before it in the attitude of adoration.
Lastly, the supposed nature of this gift of Fortune was not of
Earth, inasmuch as then passed for a holy thing that had
it "
fallen down from Jupiter," being, in fact, nothing less than one
of that god s own thunderbolts. A notion this which will
* 86.
ii- the equilateral triangle Athene
" "
t vii. 69. a curious confirmation of the tradition

I xxxvii. 40. quoted by Aristotle, that the Attic
De Iside etcap. 75.
Osiride, goddess was one and the same with
He adds that the Pythagoreans called the Moon.
doubtless strike the modern mind as so strange, or rather as so
preposterous, that it necessitates my giving at full length my

reasons for making such an assertion. And in truth the subject
is well worth the trouble of investigation, seeing that the same
superstition will be found to extend from an early period of

antiquity down into the popular belief of our own times
throughout a large extent of Europe.
It is in accordance with this notion that I have designated
this celt a "ceraunia"
(thunderbolt-stone), and it therefore
remains for me to adduce my reasons for giving it what must
appear to most people so unaccountable and highly inappro
priate an appellation. Sotacus, who is quoted elsewhere by
Pliny
"
as one of the most ancient writers on mineralogy," is
cited by him*
"
as making two other kinds of the ceraunia, the

black and the red, resembling axe-heads in shape. Of these,
such as be black and round are sacred things; towns and fleets
can be captured by their instrumentality. The latter are called
Bsetyli, whilst the oblong sort are the Ceraunise. Some make
out another kind, in mighty request in the practices of the
magi, inasmuch as it is only to be found in places that have

been struck by lightning." One would have been utterly at a
loss to understand what the old Greek had been speaking about
in the chapter thus confusedly condensed by the later Eoman
naturalist, or to discover any resemblance in form between the
lightning-flash and an axe-head, had it not been for the popular
superstition tint has prevailed in Germany from time im

memorial to the present day, and of which full particulars are
given by Anselmus Boetius in his invaluable repertory of

medieval lore upon all such matters, written at the beginning
of the seventeenth century. |
Under the popular names of "
Strahl-hammer,"
"
Donner-
"
pfeil,"
"
Donner-keil,"
"
Strahl-pfeil,"
"
Strahl-keil (lightning-
hammer, thunder-arrow or club, lightning-arrow, &c.), and the
Italian Sagitta,"t
he figures stone celts and hammers of five
"
* xxxvii. 51. archer shaft

lightning-niissila, the s
f Gem. et Lapid. Hist. ii.

cap. being expressed by the Teutonic
261.
"
freceia," in accordance with the
J"Saetta" (a vulgar Italian genius of the language which reserves

execration), is now restricted to the the old Latin terms for the things
different, but all common, types remarking that so firm was

;
the belief in these things

being the "actual arrow of the
"
lightning (ipsa fulminis sagitta), that should any one attempt

to controvert it he would be taken for a madman. He however
confesses with amusing simplicity that the substance of these
thunderbolts is
exceedingly like the common flint used for
striking with; nay, more, he boldly declares he should
fire
agree with those few rationalists who, on the strength of their

resemblance in shape to the tools in common use, pronounced
these objects to be merely ordinary iron
implements that had
got petrified by long continuance in the earth, had it not been
for the testimony of the most respectable witnes ses as to the
fact of their being discovered in places just seen to be struck
witli lightning. Besides quoting some fully detailed instances
from Gesner, he adds that several persons had assured him of
having themselves seen these stones dug up in places where the
lightning had fallen. The natural philosophers of the day
accounted for the creation of such substances in the
atmosphere
by supposing the existence of a vapour charged with sulphureous
and metallic particles, which rising above a certain
height
became condensed through the extreme heat of the sun, and
assumed a wedge-like form in consequence of the escape of their
moisture, and the gravitation of the heavier particles towards
their lower end! Notwithstanding this celestial origin, the
virtue of the production was not then esteemed of a pro
portionally sublime order, extending no further than to the
prevention or the cure of ruptiires in children, if placed upon
their cradles and also to the
;
procuring of sleep in the case of
adults. In our own times Justinus Kerner mentions* the same
names for stone celts as
universally popular amongst the
German boors; but they are now chiefly valued for their
efficacy in preserving cattle from the murrain, and consequently
the finders can seldom be induced to part with them.
not of this world, using those of the peasantry to have this celestial
lingua militaris for every-day pur- origin, and are highly valued as
poses. The flint arrow-heads found portable
"
light-conductors."
in the terra marna of the primaeval * In
his little treatise on Amulets.
Umbrian towns, are believed by the
It must not, however, be supposed that Sotacus picked tip

this strange notion from the Teutones of bis own age, whose
very existence was probably unknown to him his informants ;
were unquestionably those magi cited at the conclusion of

Pliny s extract. The Greek mineralogist had lived apud "
Eegem," that is, at the court of the King of Persia, very pro
bably in the capacity of royal physician, like his countrymen

Democedes and Ctesias. In that region he had ample oppor
tunities of seeing stone celts, for Rawlinson observes * that
flintaxes and other implements, exactly identical with the
European in workmanship, are common in all the most ancient

mounds of Chaldsea, those sites of primeval cities. Such
elevations above the dead level of those interminable plains
were necessarily the most liable to be lightning-struck and ;
hence probably arose the idea that these weird-looking stones

( all tradition of whose proper destination had long since died
out amongst the iron-using Persians) were the actual fiery bolts
which had been seen to bury themselves in the clay. And
again, to revert to the German belief, it must be remembered
that Thor, the Northern Jupiter, is pictured as armed with a
huge hammer in the place of the classical thunderbolt. The

type of the god had been conceived in the far-remote ages when
the stone -hammer was as yet the most effective and formidable
of weapons, and was preserved unchanged out of deference to
antiquity, after the true meaning of the attribute was entirely
forgotten. Nevertheless, his worshippers, accustomed to be
hold the hammer in the hand ofthe god of thunder, vi/a/^pe/zeV^s
Zev s, very naturally concluded that these Grange objects, of
unknown use, found from time to time deep buried in the
earth, were the actual which that deity had discharged.

mis.siles
It is a remarkable proof of the wide diffusion of the same belief,

that the late owner of the relic under consideration, habitually
spoke of it as a
*
thunderstone," a name he could only have
learnt from the Arabs from whom it was procured, seeing that
no such notion with respect to celts has ever been current in
this country. But every one whose memory reaches back forty
years or more may recollect, that wheresoever in England the
* Ancient Monarchies, i.
p. 120.
fossil Belemnite
is to be found, it was
implicitly received by all,
except the few pioneers of Geology (a word then almost synony
mous with Atheism), as the veritable thunderbolt shot from
the clouds, and by that appellation was it
universally known.
for one, can recollect stories, as
I, quite respectably attested
as those Boetius quotes concerning the Ceraunise, told re
specting the discovery of new fallen belemnites under precisely

the same circumstances and, in truth, the same author does
;
in the preceding chapter treat at

length of the Belemnites,
and his cuts show that the name meant then what it does
at present but he assigns to the missile an infernal instead
;
of a celestial source, giving the vulgar title for it as "
Alp-
schoss," (elfin-shot,) which he classically renders into "
dart
of the Incubus," stating further that it was esteemed (on
the good old principle,
"
similia similibus curantur of

")
mighty guard the sleeper from the visits of that

efficacy to
much dreaded nocturnal demon. The Prussian, Saxon, and
Spanish physicians employed it, powdered, as equally efficacious
with the lapis Judaicus, in the treatment of the calculus. It was
also believed a specific for the pleurisy in virtue of its pointed
figure, which was analogous to the sharp pains of that disease,
for so taught the universally accepted Doctrine of Signa
"
tures."
The Ceraunise of Sotacus, however, comprised, besides these
primitive manufactures of man, other substances, it is hard to

say whether meteorites or fossils the nature of which remains
;
to be discussed. Photius,* after quoting the paragraph, I "
beheld the Bsetylus moving through the air, and sometimes
wrapped up in vestments, sometimes carried in the hands of

the ministers," proceeds to give a summary of the wondrous
tale told by the discoverer of the prodigy one Eusebius of
Emesa. He related how that, being seized one night with a
sudden and unaccountable desire to visit a very ancient temple
of Minerva, situated upon a mountain at some distance from the
city, he started off, and arriving at the foot, sat down to rest
himself. Suddenly he beheld a globe of fire fall down from
heaven, and a monstrous lion standing by the same, but who
*
Bibliotheca, 1063, R.
immediately vanished. Running to pick it up as soon as the

firewas extinguished, he found this self-same Bsetylus. In
quiring of it to what god it belonged, the thing made answer
that he came from the Noble One (so was called a
figure of a
lion standing in the temple at Eusebius thereupon
Heliopolis).
ran home with his prize, a distance of 210 stadia
(26 miles),
without once stopping, being quite unable to control the im
petus of the stone He described it as of a whitish colour, a
!
"
perfect sphere, a span in diameter, but sometimes assuming a

purple* shade, and also expanding and contracting its dimen
sions, and having letters painted on it in cinnabar, of which he
gave the interpretation. The stone, likewise, if struck against

the wall, returned answers to consultors in a low whistling
voice." The grain of truth in this huge heap of lies is
obviously enough the fact that Eusebius, having had the good
fortune to witness the descent of a meteorite, and to get posses
sion of the same, told all these fables about it in order to in
crease the credit of the oracular stone (which doubtless
brought
him in many fees) amongst his credulous townsfolk. Damasciusf
(whose Life of Isidorus Photius is here being
epitomised) adds,
that this philosopher was of opinion that the stone was the abode
of a spirit, though not one of the mischievous or unclean sort,
nor yet one of a perfectly immaterial nature. He further
more states that other bsetyli were known, dedicated to Saturn,
and the Sun and moreover that Isidorus and himself
Jupiter, ;
saw many of such bsetyli or bsetylla upon Mount Libanus, near

Heliopolis in Syria.
As for the derivation of bsetylus, the one proposed by the
Byzantine Hesychius, who makes it come from bsete, the goat

skin mantle, wherein Rhea wrapped up the stone she gave old
Saturn to swallow, instead of the new-born Jove, cannot be
considered much more satisfactory than Bochart s, who, like a
sound divine, discovers in it a reminiscence of the stone pillar
which Jacob set up at Bethel, and piously endeavours to force
Sancoriiathon, who speaks of the
"
living
"
stones, the bsethylia, J

*
The Greek purple included every J
"
Moreover the god Uranus de-

shade from crimson to violet. vised btethylia, contriving stones that
t A stoic philosopher under Justi- moved as having life."
nian.
to confirm his his

interpretation by correcting text into
"
anointed."
But this last Ixtylm is beyond all

question the same thing
with that described by the
Pseudo-Orpheus,* under the names
of Sideritcs, and the animated Oritcs, "
round, black, ponderous,

and surrounded with deeply-graven furrows." In the first of
these epithets may easily be recognized the ferruginous character
common to all meteorites (siderites being also applied to the
loadstone), whilst the second (Orites) seems to indicate the
locality where they most abounded, viz., Mount Lebanon.
Sotacus notice, indeed, of the
efficacy of the Isetylm in pro
curing success in seafights and sieges, is copiously illustrated
by the succeeding verses of the same mystic poet, who, it must
be remembered, can claim a
very high antiquity, there being
identifying him with Onomacritus, a con
sufficient grounds for
temporary of Pisistratus, in the sixth century before our era.

The diviner Helenus, according to him, had received this
oracular stone from Apollo, and he describes the
rites, with
great minuteness, for the guidance of all subsequent possessors
of such a treasure, by means of which the
Trojan woke up the
spirit within the vocal sphere." This was effected
"
by dint of
thrice seven days
fasting and continence, by incantations and
sacrifices offered to the stone, and
by bathing, clothing, and
nursing it like an infant. Through its aid, when at length
rendered instinct with life, the traitorous seer declared to the
Atridas the coming downfall of
Troy; the stone uttering its
responses in a voice resembling the feeble wail of an infant
desiring the breast. It is more than that
probable in
Orphesius
describing the Orites, had in view the Sdlagrdma, or sacred
stone of Vishnu, still employed
by the Brahmins in all pro
pitiatory rites, especially in those performed at the death-bed.
Sonnerat describes it as a kind of "
round or oval ammonite, in

shape, black, and very ponderous." The furrows covering its
surface were traced by Vishnu s own
finger ; but when found
of a violet colour, it is looked
upon with horror, as repre
senting a vindictive avatar of the The possessor keeps
god.
it
wrapped up in linen garment like a child, and often bathes
*
Ai0i/ca, 355.
P
and perfumes it precisely the rites prescribed by our poet for

the due consultation of the oracle of the Siderites.
From all this it may safely be deduced that the stone of "
power,"
whether bsetylus or orites, was in most cases nothing
more than a either a ferruginous nodule, or an echinus
fossil ;
filled with iron pyrites. Their being found in abundance in one
particular locality, precludes

the idea of these at least being
meteorites, which never assume any regular form,

latter, besides,
but look like mere fragments of iron slag. This explanation is
strongly supported by the drawings Boetius gives* of what was

then called the Donner-stein," or Wetter-stein," (thunder, or
" "
storm-stone,) and which he very plausibly identifies with
Pliny s Brontias "
that got into the head of the tortoise during
thunder-storms," and which

described in another place as is
that conferred the gift of

"
the of
"
eye the Indian tortoise
prophecy. His carefully drawn figure of this Donner-stein

also passed for the bigger toad-
"
(which grosser Kroten-stein,"
stone), shows it to be only a fossil echinus of a more oMate form

than the common sort. The regular toadstone, plentifully to be
seen in medieval rings, was, on the other hand, the small
hollow hemisphere, the fossil tooth of an extinct fish, found in
the greensand formation. In that age the Donner-stein was
held to possess all the many virtues of the Toadstone, Belem-
nito, and Ovum Anguinum, in counteracting poison, giving
success in all procuring sleep, and protection
enterprises,
against danger of lightning. But the old physician, so much

in advance of his times, cannot help winding up the list of its
virtues with the hint, Fides saspe veritate
"
major."
The axe-heads and hammer-heads of stone, known to us by

the general designation of celts, have, until recent explorations,
been regarded as comparatively of rare occurrence amongst
ancient relics obtained from Eastern lands and from some other
continental countries. Our information, however, in regard
to objects of this class has become greatly extended. Mr.
James Yates published, in the Archaeological Journal, ex
amples of stone celts from Java ; an interesting specimen
obtained at Sardis is figured, vol. xv. p. 178, and some others
* ii.
cap. 26-i.
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIK REMAINS. 211
were found by Mr. Layard at Nineveh. The occurrence of

any ornament or inscription upon such objects is very rare,
but amongst numerous stone
implements obtained in Greece
one is noticed by M. de Mortillet
(Materiaux pour 1 Histoire
primitive do rilomme, Jan. 1868, p. 9), of which he had re
ceived from Athens a
drawing and an estampage it is described;
as "une hache en
pierre serpentineu.se, sur une des faces de
laquello on a grave trois personnages et une
inscription en
caracteres grecs. L ancien outil a evidemment ete, beaucoup
plus tard, quand on a eu
completement oublie son usao-e
primitif, transforme en talisman ou pierre
cabalistique."
At the annual meeting of the Antiquaries of the
North, on
March 21st, 1853, under the presidency of the late
King of Den
mark, several recent acquisitions were exhibited, obtained for his
private collection at Frederiksborg. Amongst these there was
an axe-head of stone about
(length 6J inches), perforated with a
hole for the handle, and remarkable as on one of
bearing its
sides fourEunic characters, that appear to have been cut
upon
the stone at some period more recent than the
original use of
the implement. It has been figured in the Memoirs of the
Society, 1850-1860, p. 28 ; see also Antiquarisk
Tidsskrift, 1852-
1854, pp. 258-266. I am indebted to a friend well skilled in
Eunes and Scandinavian archaeology, Dr.
Charlton, formerly
secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, for the
following observations on this interesting relic.
"
The first letter is L, and, if we accept the idea that these

were Eunes of Victory, it
may stand for the initial of Loki ;
the second is Th, and

may stand for Thor the third for;
Odin; the fourth, Belgthor, with a T above it,

may refer to
Belgthor s friendship and alliance with Thor, and the T stands
for Tyr. We may imagine the names of the Northern to gods
have been cut on this stone axe to in battle,
give it victory
just as the old Germans and Saxons cut mystic Eunes on their
swords, a practice noticed by Haigh in his Conquest of Britain
by the Saxons, p. 28, pi. 1, where he has figured amongst
various examples of the futhorc, or
alphabet of Eunic charac
ters, one inlaid on a sword or knife found in the
Thames,
and now in the British Museum. At p. 51, ibid. pi. iii.
fig. 20,
he has cited also the Eunic
inscription on the silver pommel of
P 2
a sword found at Gilton, Kent, formerly in the collection of the

late Mr. Eolfe, of Sandwich, and subsequently in the possession of
Mr. Joseph Mayer. This relic is now in the precious museum

bestowed by his generous encouragement of archaeological science
on the town of Liverpool. The interpretation given in the
latter instance is as follows, I eke victory to great deeds.*
There was another explanation given of the characters on
"
the Danish stone axe. It was read LUTHER, o. Ludr owns

namely, the weapon thus inscribed."
*
In the ancient Sagas, as remarked in Nilsson s Primitive
Inhabitants of Scandinavia (translation by Sir John Lubbock,

Bart, p. 214J, mention occurs of amulets designated life-stones,
victory-stones, &c., which warriors carried about

with them in
battle to secure victory. A curious relation is cited from one
of the Sagas, that King Kidung, when about to engage in

conflict, perceived that he had neglected to bring a precious
heir-loom, a .stone that possessed the virtue of ensuring victory.

He offered the hand of his daughter, with a third part of his
kingdom, to him who should bring this talisman before the
fight commenced and, having received it, he won the battle.
;
In another narrative, the daughter of a Scanian warrior steals

during his slumbers the stone that was hung on his neck,
and
gave it to her lover, who thus became the victor. Nilsson

observes that stones are found in museums, for instance a
hammer-stone with a loop, that appear to have been worn thus

as talismans in war.
It is perhaps scarcely necessary to advert to certain axe-heads
of stone, in their general form similar to those with which we

are familiar as found in Europe upon these implements are ;
&c. These
engraved rude designs, such as the Jiuman visage,
objects, of which an example preserved
in a museum at Douai
of an ancient
"
has been much cited, may be "
victory-stones
and primitive people, but they are now recognised as of Carib
origin, and not European.
* 321. to
Archceologia, vol. xxxii. p. antiquaries suggest, appended
A spear-head inscribed with Runes sword-hilts as charms. One of these
is noticed, Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., rings, lately found at Carlisle, is in
vol. xxiii. p. 387. There exist certain possession of Mr. Robert Ferguson, of
massive rings of metal inscribed with Morton, near that city.
Runes, that may have been, as some

PART III.
ABRAXAS, ABRAXASTER, AND

ABRAXOID GEMS.
THE CxNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 215
THE AGATIIODÊMON WORSHIP

THERE was a time
"
"
(says M. Matter with much force)

"
when it
was from Judaism, especially from the Kabbala, and the system
of Philo, that people sought to derive the great transition of the
human mind from the ancient into the modern world a revolu :
tion in which so important a part is played by Gnosticism. So

far as regards the explanation of the writings and the under
standing of the views given by Origen, Irengeus, and the other

Fathers upon Gnosticism, the Jewish element still retains its
ancient pre-eminence but in the case of the tangible monuments
;
come down to us from the Gnostics themselves, we ought hence
forth to be fully convinced that it is in the antiquities of Eyypt

we must look for our chief information : and if the ideas,
terminology, and symbols of Judaism (that is, of the Kabbala)

have lent certain doctrines to this system, yet it is Egyptian art
that has furnished it with the greatest part of its symbols."
This grand development of the old Wisdom of Egypt in a

new phase is the most conspicuously exhibited in that very
numerous class of engraved gems popularly and indiscriminately
called Abraxas, Basilidan, and Gnostic stones, almost the sole
production of the expiring Glyptic Art during the last two

centuries of the Western Empire. But, contrary to the
generally received notion concerning their nature, a careful,
study of their numerous subdivisions has fully convinced me
that only a very small minority amidst their multitude present
any traces of the influence of Christian doctrines being for the ;
most part the fruit of religious ideas which had flourished long
before the first dawn of Christianity. An important portion,
indeed, originating in the primitive
Egyptian Mythology, have
more connexion with Magic and Medicine than with any
religious object and their employment as talismans establishes
;
216 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIli REMAINS.
for them a higher antiquity than belongs to the real Abraxas "
"
gems, the date of whose origin is historically ascertained. The

subject therefore will be more conveniently approached by
considering in the first place the Agathodsemon, Chnuphis, or
Chneph figures, often named
Dracontia," and erroneously
"
attributed to the Ophites and such-like semi-Christian

sects, as
their actual inventors.
It cannot however be denied, that although these last-named
sectaries did not invent this emblem, yet that they generally
adopted it for their distinguishing badge or, to use their technical
word,
"
seal." And this circumstance leads to a remark which,

applying to all talismans alike,
may aptly serve for preface to
the following dissertation upon their several classes. In the
primitive Nature-worship of the Old World all religion consisted

in the deification of the great visible Powers of the Universe*
The Supremo Beings therefore belonged to the present
World,
consequently the blessings they could confer were limited to
all
this life. The means, of whatever kind, supposed to secure the

goodwill of these Powers had for object
tangible blessings
alone wealth, peace, long life, posterity in fact all those
rewards promised by Moses to the obedient Israelites. The
engraved stones under consideration, being legacies of this
older religion, were designed to secure
temporal not spiritual
benefits to the wearers. The latter were not even dreamed of
by people holding the belief "
mors ultima linea rerum est."
This fact explains why so many of the Gnostic

gems are in
reality no more than medicinal agents, and prescribed by
physicians, Heathen and Christian alike, in their regular
practice,from Nechepsos down to Alexander Trallianus. On
the other hand the true Gnostics, whose sole
profession was
the knowledge of the other world, when they applied to the
doctrines of the ancient religion the same method of
interpre
tation that the Kabbalists had used for Moses and the
Prophets
(of which the Pistis- Sophia has us such ingenious
left
specimens),
subjected all the productions of the former creed to the same
Procrustean torture, and consequently availed themselves of
these same symbols nay, more, continued to manufacture
them in their own sense of their import.
Tho Agathodsemon Genius" whose very name

"Good
furnishes the reasonwhy he should be chosen to figure on an

ornament intended to defend its wearer from all disease and
mischance, is depicted as a
huge serpent having the head of a
lion, surrounded by a crown of seven or twelve rays components
conspicuously announcing that he is the embodiment of the
idea of the Sun-god. This figure is
usually accompanied, either
on obverse or reverse, with its proper title, written
variously
XNOTBIZ, XNOT<t>II, and XNOTMIZ, accordingly as the engraver
fancied ho could best master that difficulty to the Greek
mouth, the true sound of our letter B. This name Salmasius*
considers as a rendering of the Coptic XNOTB, gold; and hence
explains another title which sometimes takes its place, XOAXN-
OTBIZ, as All-golden." Jablonsky, however,derives the word
"
more plausibly from XNOTM, good, and IZ, spirit, and thus makes
"
Agothodaemon to be the literal translation of the namc.t

"
This last had become in the third century the popular name
for the hooded snake of Egypt.
Lampridius has Heliogabulus
"
Êgyptios dracunculos Romae habuit, quos illi Agatlwdsemonas

This kind was the Uraeus, to be seen
vocant."
commonly on
Egyptian monuments, whore it is the badge of royalty placed
upon the head of the sovereign. It is the hadji hasher of the
modern Arabs, the cobra di capello of the Hindoos. I have met
with a large sard engraved in the late Roman-Egyptian
style,
with two imperial busts regardant; reverse, the
Chnuphis
Serpent, with the legend in Roman letters AGATHO DAEMON,
the sole instance known to me of such an amulet with a Latin
inscription: but which goes far to confirm Jablonsky s inter
pretation of the Coptic title. In classical Greek the original
Chneph becomes Canopus ; hence the Canopic vase often appears
between two serpents for heraldic supporters. But in those
lower times, so fruitful in the Chnuphis talismans, no more
Canopic vases appear on gems.
* He has treated the subject at (the Sun) designated as HFE"Tlie
some length in that learned miscel- Serpent
"
par eminence, and which

lany of his, the treatise *
De Anno was a winged serpent bavin" human
Climacterico. arms and feet. He is thus"
painted
The
prototype appears to have
t on mummy-cases as guardian of the
been that ancient figure of Atmon inmate.
The ancient Agathodsemon,

in the form of his congener the
Cobra, haunts the precincts of the Hindoo temples, as of

still
old the shrines of Isis; and issues from his hole at the sound
of a fife to accept the oblation of milk from the attendant priest.
As with the ancients with the Hindoos, he is the special so
keeper of concealed treasure and when a zemindar deposits his ;
hoard in the prepared hiding-place, he, to make assurance

doubly sure, builds up a serpent therewith, to watch over the
gold. Suetonius records that Tiberius had a most appropriate pet
in a but having found it one day devoured by
"
serpens draco
"
a swarm of ants, the suspicious CaBsar took warning from its fate
to beware of the force of a multitude of feeble individuals; and
consequently secured his person against all danger of popular out

break by shutting himself up in the inaccessible fastness of Capri.
But to return to the type of the Agathodaiiiion upon our
gems. Over the seven rays of the lion s crown, and correspond
ing to their points, stand often the seven vowels of the Greek
alphabet, AEHIOTQ, testifying the Seven Heavens; a mystery
whereof notice shall be taken in the fitting place. The reverse
of such gems is invariably occupied by a special symbol
resembling the letter S, or Z, thrice repeated, or the convolu
tions of a spiral cord, and traversed by a straight rod through
their middle ; a symbol for which many and the most whimsical
explanations have been proposed. Of these the most ingenious,
but also the most fanciful, makes it represent the spinal marrow
traversing the spine certainly an apt device for a medicinal
talisman. But whatever its primary meaning it was probably
imported in its present shape from India (that true fountain-

head of Gnostic iconography). It is to be seen in two varieties,
upon and 17 in Plate VII. of E. Thomas admirable
series 16
Essay on the Primitive Coinage of India, amongst the punch-

marks.
THE CHNUPHIS SERPENT.

A Limoges enamelled plaque of the twelfth century (in the
collection of Mr. Octavius Morgan) represents on its one half
"
up the Brazen Serpent to the Filii Israel."

"
"
Moyses lifting
On the other half, similis Aaron
"
"
is seen inscribing with a

reed pen the mystic Tau Cross upon the foreheads of the elect.
The first of these tableaux offers the most extraordinary feature
in its representation of the serpent, depicted here with lion s
head and mane : the veritable Agathodaemon Chnuphis of our
Alexandrian talismans. The preservation of this form to so
late a period fills one with surprise : it indicates a traditionary
belief that the symbol was the giver of life and health. The
beliefmust have come down from the times when the Egyptian
talisman was commonly worn, in the way Galen mentions, as a
protection to the chest. The Brazen Serpent of Moses and the

Plasma Agathoda3mon of King Nechepsos had in all probability
one and the same origin, giving currency to those little ingots
which formed the sole money of the Hindoos before the esta
blishment of the Macedonians in Bactria. But the most probable
solution of the question is that thesymbol stealthily represents
the serpent-entwined club of Aesculapius (itself so hard to account
for), or the wand similarly encircled,

which was the badge of
Egyptian priesthood. And what renders this conjecture of mine
almost a certainty is an as of the gens Acilia, bearing for
obverse the head of Aesculapius, for reverse a wand (not the
usual club) placed vertically and encircled by his serpent in
three convolutions. This type, if slightly defaced by wear, would
become identical in appearance with the Chnuphis symbol.
The spiral frequently takes the form of the letters S S S
dis
connected, traversed by a straight line. The curative virtue

ascribed to the sigil, again, tends to indicate its derivation from
the proper badge of the god of the healing art. For the eminent
physician Marcellus Ernpiricus (who flourished at Bordeaux

in
Theodosius reign) promises wonderful effects in the cure of

pleurisy from the wearing of this very figure engraved upon a
cerulean Scythian jasper. Whether this promise be true or not,
marvellous has been the vitality of the symbol itself for re ;
duced to a double S S upon a bar, it became a favourite device

in the times of chivalry, being taken as the rebus upon the
word Fermesse* (SS fermees) and the emblem of constancy.

Hence comes it that this ancient Egyptian symbol now adorns
* This sigla ill its simplest form, fusion over all the buildings of
>$,
makes its appearance in pro- Henri IV., where it is popularly ex-
the Collar of the Garter, formerly known as the Collars of SS." "
Meyrick s derivation of the name from the initial of Souver

"
ayne," motto of Henry IV. when Earl of Derby (and on whoso

effigy the Collar first appears), is of little weight ; for that king
was long posterior to the institution of the Order and its in
signia. Even more preposterous is Camden s idea that the name
originated in the initials of Sanctus Simo Simplicius, a famous
Koinan lawyer and therefore was taken for badge by his pro
;
fession a theory which assuredly does not account for Henry s
queen, Joan of Navarre, being similarly decorated with her

husband upon their monument.
That the Agathodaemon sigil was not only pre-Christian, but
ascended to the remotest antiquity in its use as a talisman, plainly
appears from Galen s notice thereof (De Simp. Med. 6 ix.).

Some indeed assert that a virtue of this kind is inherent in
"
certain stones, such as certain is possessed by the green it is

jasper,
which and mouth of the stomach, when tied
benefits the chest
upon them. Some indeed set the stone in a ring, and engrave
upon it a serpent with head crowned with rays, according to the
directions of King Nechepsos in his thirteenth book. Of this
material I have had much experience, having made a necklace
out of stones of the kind, and hung it about the patient s neck,
descending low enough to touch the mouth of the stomach, and
they proved to be of no less benefit than if they had been en
graved in the manner laid down by King Nechepsos." This
by Nechepsos must have been a regular Manual for the
treatise
use of Magicians, for Ausonius mentions its author as

"
Quique magos docuit mysteria vaiia Nechepsi."

"
Xechepsos, teacher of vain Magic s lore."
plained as relating to Gabrielle cords Revue Numismatique for

(
d Estrees, a rebus in its sound, 1856, p. 276j.
S pcrce d un t rait." But Longperier
"
"
Fermesse, dout 1 Araour point uu

has shown that the same figure is to Chiffre d amour
be found on the medals of Henri s Commune en 1 ecriture, mais rare
mother and and even upon dans le coeur,
sister,
,. T -infor * n A Mais ainsi que la lorrne est a un
articles made Anne of Austria;
j.
anj mb ^
deux
and he acquiesces in the explanation Le de sir i nc0 nstant froiase et
given in the text, which is taken brise tes uceuds,
from an old book, Lcs Bigarrures, Ce pendant quo les mains ta
chap. DCS Rebus de la Picardie,"

"
fcrmesse figurent."
Lov * Pa P n 16th centur
by Etioime Tabouret, Sieur des Ac >
The book, perhaps the foundation of the pretended Evax, was

the first source of the notions concerning the virtues of sigils
and gems preserved to us in the medieval "
Lapidaria." Pliny
(vii. 50) quotes him along with hi& countryman Petosiris as an
astrological authority, according to whose rule of the Tetarto- "
morion "
(or law deduced from the position of three signs,

Trine) the possible duration of human life in the region of Italy
extended to 124 years. And before dismissing Nechepsos and
his book it may be as well to add herefor the fact will be of
service in a further stage of this inquiry that Pliny mentions
(xxx. 2) a second school of Magic, but more recent by many "
thousand years than Zoroaster s, and founded by the Jews,

"
Moses, lannes and Jotapes. The first of the trio may be the
Talmudist to whose "
secret volume "
Juvenal alludes
"
Tradidit arcane quacunique voluminc Moses."
Although the Apostle couples lannes along with lambrcs

amongst the Egyptian opponents of the Hebrew legislator,
Juvenal also informs us that the nation retained even in his
times their ancient fame of veracious interpreters of dreams ;
nay, more, grown "wiser than Daniel," they even produced

them to order
Qualiacunque voles Judan somnia

"
mittunt."
"The Jew, for money, sends what dreams you chooso."
Hippolytus in the following century remarks that the Sama

**
ritans, or Simonians," founded by the first preacher of the

"
Gnosis, Simon Magus himself, availed themselves of this power

in order to plague their adversaries, "sending the dream-
producing demons to trouble whomsoever they please."

The
medieval name for engraved gems regarded as talismans, viz.,
"
Pierres d Israel," is better founded than is generally supposed-
The obvious difficulty that graven figures nay, more, idols

could not have been the work of Jews, is answered by the
Kabbinical gloss upon the Second Commandment, which allows
the wearing of any sort of design cut in intaglio, though
prohibiting anything of the sort in relief.

The choice of the green jasper (now called plasmcv*) for the
Agathodasinon sigils was probably dictated by the resemblance

of its colour to that of the sacred Asp green banded with
brown. As for the figure itself, a very ancient testimony as to
its nature and signification is aiforded by the tradition Eusebius
has preserved (I. 7) The serpent, unless injured by violence,
:
"
never dies naturally, for which reason the Phoenicians have

given it the name of the Good Genius, AgatJwdsemon. For
the same cause the Egyptians have called it Cneph, and
given to it the head of a hawk, because of the especial swiftness
of that bird." The priest of Epeae, entitled
Head-interpreter
"
of sacred things and Scribe," had expounded the allegory thus :
The most divine Nature of all was one Serpent having the
"
face of a hawk, and most delightful in aspect, for when he

opened his eyes he filled all the places of his native region
with light; but when he closed them, darkness immediately
ensued." The serpent on our gems, however, does not appear
invested with a hawk s head, but with a lion s ; for which reason
this legend applies better to the Abraxas-god, occasionally
equipped with a hawk s or lion s head, in place of his proper
one, that of a cock. But the idea is certainly embodied in that
common design upon the Mithraic gems, a man grasping a
serpent, of which the radiated head points at his eyes and seems
to supply them with light. Furthermore, the meaning of the
figure of the Agathodairnon is clearly denoted by the Chaldee
legend frequently accompanying it. C6MC6IAAM, "The Ever
lasting Sun," which is sometimes followed by YG, probably used
as sacred numerals, for they have the power in Greek arith

metic of 705. This same legend is attached to a classical
figure of Phcobus (such as he appears on the coins with the
legend SOLI INVICTO C OMIT ) engraved upon a yellow jasper
I
in the Marlborough Cabinet a fact sufficiently attesting the
accuracy of the interpretation here given to the Chaldee

inscription.
Astrology likewise lent its aid to accrediting the virtues of the
* The and specially

green jasper of the moderns as opaque, dark-green,
was the rnolochites or moloohas of used for amulets,
the ancients, for Pliny describes it
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS 223
sigil. That great authority Hephaestion (quoted by Salmasius,

i.e.) observes that XNOTMIC is the name of one of the
Decani, or three chief stars in Cancer ; whilst another astrologer
laid down
that the star so called was set in the breast of Leo,
and/or that reason was efficacious for the cure of all diseases in the
chest of man. And in fact we find this latter dictum con
firmed by the prayer <J>TAACC6 THH CTOMAXON HPOKAOT,
Keep in good health the chest of Proclus," engraved upon the

"
back of one of these very Chnuphis gems. Others of the same

kind are again surrounded by a
long Coptic legend often
arranged in the outline of a serpent, varying in words, but
always terminating in the epithet riTANTUPHKTA or nAIKTA,
Breaker or Mocker of the Giants that is, of the evil and
"
" " "
rebellious Angels; for the Grecian fable of the War of the

Giants against Jove had then revived, a Zoroastrian
interpreta
tion being applied to the rebellion of Ahriman and his demons
against Ormuzd and the Ministers of Good.

The method of employing a talisman is thus
prescribed
in the Magic Papyrus, 9 :
"
A Spell of Alloius Crseonins,

spoken to the
"
Lamp," Oâp/xaxo) rovvovpai xprj /uaXXov Sep K vo>v
i/a lao o-ov/Ai/îow o-ovjjujnqvis o-wcrta <riaa>i,

Thou that shakest
the world! Enter, and deliver an oracle such
concerning
and such a matter. oto KoroO <f>0ovtj>vovv vovefiov?) Trraa-7raxaTov.
The engraved stone (A.y.) Serapis seated in front, having the
Egyptian crown (/WiAijZoi/) and upon his sceptre an ibis, ,
on the back of the stone the Name and lock it up and keep ;
it for use. Hold in thy left hand the -ring, and in

thy right
a branch of olive and of
bay-tree, waving them over the lamp,
repeating all the while the spells even times. And having
drawn the ring upon the proper finger of
thy left hand, facing
and being inwards (the engraving), stick the
gem against thy
left ear, and go to sleep,
without returning answer to any one."
The object of charm was (although not so stated) to
this
procure prophetic dreams, which are actually enumerated

amongst the effects to follow from the use of the one that
stands next in the MS.
Although the original intention of these Chnuphis sigils was

unquestionably the one pointed out in the preceding pages, yet
thereis every probability from the nature of the case that the
same were adopted and interpreted in a spiritual sense by the

numerous and influential sect that first assumed the title of
They had an reason for so doing, in
"
Gnostics." all-sufficient
the fundamental doctrine of their creed The well-informed

and temperate Hippolytus, writing at the most flourishing
period of these transitional theosophies, thus opens his actual
Refutation of all Heresies and his Fifth Book with the
description
"
of that sect which hath dared to boast the Serpent

as the author of their they prove by certain religion, as
arguments wherewith he hath inspired them. On this account

the apostles and priests of this creed have been styled Naaseni,
from Naas, the Hebrew word for serpent : but
subsequently
they entitled themselves The Gnostics, because they alone
understood the deep things of religion. Out of this sect sprung
many other teachers, who by diversifying the original doctrines
through inventions of their own became the founders of new
Further on he has a passage bearing immediately
systems."
upon this subject. This Naas is the only thing they worship,
"
for which reason they are called Naaseni (i.e. Ophites, or

Serpent- worshippers). From same word Naas they pretend
this
that all the temples (vaoi*) under Heaven derive the name.
And unto this Naas are dedicated every rite, ceremony, mystery,
that is ;
in short, not one rite can be found under Heaven into
which this Naas doth not enter. For they say the Serpent
signifies the element Water ; and with Thales of Miletus contend
that nothing in the Universe can subsist without it, whether of
things mortal or immortal, animate or inanimate. All things
are subject unto him and he is good, and hath all good things
;
within himself as in the horn of a unicorn, so that he imparts

beauty and perfection unto all that is, inasmuch as he pervades
all things, as flowing out of Eden, and divided into four
heads. . . . This Naas is the water above the firmament, and
likewise the living water spoken of by the Saviour. Unto
this Water all Nature is drawn, and attracts out of the same
whatever is analogous to its own nature, each thing after its
own kind, with more avidity than the loadstone draws the iron,
Hie ray of the sea-hawk gold, or amber straws. Then they go
on to boast : Wo are the Spiritual, who have drawn our own

portion out of the living water of the Euphrates that flows
through the midst of Babylon and who have entered in through ;
the True Gate, the which is Jesus the Blessed. And we of all
men are the only Christians, in the Third Gate celebrating the
Mystery, being anointed with the ineffable ointment out of the

horn like David, not out of the earthen vessel like Saul who
conversed with the Evil Spirit of carnal concupiscence."
Euphrates, a more recent teacher of the sect, who founded

the branch calling themselves Peratai," or Fatalists, has a"
passage that indicates the sense in which his followers may

have accepted these Clmuphis gems. To them therefore of "
the Children of Israel who were bitten in the Wilderness Moses

showed the True and Perfect Serpent; in whom whosoever
trusteth he shall not be bitten by the serpents of the Wilderness,
that is, by the Powers. No one therefore is
shall not be hurt
able to heal and to save them that be gone forth out of Egypt,
that is, out of the body and out of the world, save that Perfect,
Full of all fulness, In Him whosoever putteth his
Serpent.
trust, that man perisheth not by the serpents of the Wilderness,
that is, by the gods of the nativity."
These last Powers, whom Euphrates (a pure astrologer) in
another place calls the
"
gods of death," are the stars of the
horoscope,
"
which impose upon that be born the fatal yoko

all
of the changeful nativity,"

that is, the necessity of death, the
necessary consequence of birth, a doctrine that clearly leads to

the efficacy of the Serpent sigil as a talisman to protect the
wearer against the malign influence of the astral genii. The
Ophites, in fact, were the legitimate
descendants of the Bacchic
Mystae, whose religion during the two centuries preceding cm-
era must have been the predominant one in the great cities of
Asia Minor. An argument derived from Numismatics establishes
the common the coinage of the chief cities, Ephesus,
fact
Apamea, Pergamus, was issued chiefly in the form of Cistophor),

having for obverse the Bacchic Serpent raising himself out of
the sacred coffer; for reverse, two serpents entwined round
torches.
22(3 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIB REMAINS.
THE ABKAXAS.
I. ABRAX ASTER, OR BORROWED TYPES.
*
Bellermann in his lucid little treatise, Drei Programmen
* has divided his
iiber die Abraxas-gemmen, subject into three
p ar t s the true Abraxas, all of which bear the Pantheon com

monly so entitled, whose creation is assigned to Basilides him
self the Abraxastcr, or types borrowed from the old religions,
;
but adapted by the Gnostic semi-Christians to the expression

of their own new ideas and Abraxoid, which, though vulgarly
;
accounted Basilidan gems, have no connection at all with

Basilides own doctrines, but owe their origin entirely to the
astrologers of his or anterior times.

The Alraxaster gems, therefore, on account of this priority of
their first creation, have by right the first claim to be con
sidered and this mode of treating the subject possesses the
;
additional advantage of elucidating the sources of many ideas

that strike us as so extraordinary in the Gnostic creed.
The strangely heterogeneous mixture of creeds that prevailed
over the Koman Empire during the two centuries between the
reigns of Trojan and Constantino is exemplified by numerous
Historia Augusta, equally with their tangible
allusions in the
*
monuments, which are the subject of this inquiry. What vast

encouragement (little enough needed, of a truth) must have
been given to the talisman-makers by the accession to imperial
power of the Syrian priest Heliogabalus He used to sacrifice
!
"
human victims, selecting for the purpose, throughout all Italy,
boys of noble birth and conspicuous beauty, having both

that both parties might feel the keener
parents living, in order
anguish. In fact Magicians of every sort attended upon him
and practised their arts every day, whilst he gave them every
encouragement, and returned thanks to the gods for his having
met with their especial favourites, at the same time that he was
and torturing
prying into the entrails of the
sacrificed children,
the victims to death, after the rules of his national religion."
( Lamprulins.) And yet the same amusing chronicler puts it
*
Berlin, 1820.
down amongst tlio accomplishments of his model Emperor, Severus
Alexander, cousin-german to the monster he has previously

portrayed that he was a great proficient in Judicial Astrology
"
(ma thesis), so that he gave permission to astrologers to profess

and teach that science publicly at Rome. He was moreover
very well skilled in divination by victims (Jiaruspicina) also ;
an excellent diviner by birds (ornitlwscopos), so far as even to

surpass the Augurs of Spain and This same "
Pannonia."
every
way accomplished gentleman (to use the Elizabethan phrase)
set up the statues of Abraham and Christ side by side with
Orpheus and Alexander in his private chapel (Sacrarium) whilst ;
hismad predecessor had conceived the grand notion of found

for having conveyed to
ing one universal syncretistic religion ;
Rome his Emesene god (the aerolite), he built for him a temple on
the Palatine, whither he transferred the Palladium, Vesta s fire,

the Ancilia, the Cybele in short, whatever object of worship
was most sacred to the Romans. Nay, more he talked of
drawing into the same centre the religions of the Jews and
"
Samaritans and the devotion of the Christians, in order that his

deity, Elagabal, might possess the mystery of every other
creed."
(Heliogabalus, 3.)
Of the Abraxaster class the figures are for the most part
drawn from the ancient iconography of the Egyptian religion ;
but they were adopted in a more spiritual sense by the newly-

arisen sects, holding the doctrines of Christianity strangely
amalgamated with the old teachings of the Mysteries.*

Of these borrowed types the most frequent and most impor
all
tant the Jackal-headed Anubis (sometimes double-headed, the

is
human being superadded to his own), and bearing the caduceus

of Hermes conducting souls, not as of yore
to denote his office of
through the shades of the lower world,f but along the planetary
path to their final rest in the Pleroma.
Thus the Gnostic
*
Many of the actual types the Hebrew inscriptions certify their
mummified erect Osiris, the reclining authorship.
Isis, the Nile, the Horus on the lotus- t In the paintings on the mummy-
flower, tho Anuhis, &c. occur on case of Petemeuopt (or Ammonius),
the contemporary Alexandrian coins; Osiris the Occidental, invoked in tho
ritual inclosed
they therefore can only be accounted papyrus with the
Gnostic productions when their corpse, is seen seated on his throne ;
Q 2
"
( 20), describing the Saviour after re

"
Gospel, Pistis-Sophia
ceiving his luminous vestment, inscribed with the Five words of
power and with the names of all the Domination to be encoun
tered in his Ascension, makes him come first to the Gate of the
firmament, then to the God of the sphere, then to the Spheie
of Fate, and lastly to the Twelve great yEons all which Powers :
when they beheld own names

written upon his vesture
their
were smitten with fear and began to sing hymns unto him.
This Anubis-Hermes appears sometimes waving a palm-branch,
to proclaim his victory over the Powers of Evil ; or presiding
at the psycliostasia "weighing of the soul," the scene commonly
pictured in the Egyptian Eitual of the Dead. In the latter
character he stands here for Christ, the Judge of the quick and
the dead but his successor in mediaeval art is the Archangel
;
Michael, who In the old Greek gems Hermes

holds the scales.
is often represented as bending forward, caduceus in hand, and
by its mystic virtue assisting a soul to emerge from the depths

of the earth a strange coincidence in form, probably too in
origin, with the mediaeval picture of the Saviour lifting souls

out of Purgatory. The Zoroastrian Hell, a burning lake of
molten metal, into which, on the Judgment-Day, Ahriman with
his followers were to be cast, had for object the ultimate
purification and restoration to their pristine state of the con

demned a merciful doctrine, held by Origen, and partly
allowed by Jerome.
Hermes in this particular character of Psycliopotnpos was
made great use of by the Naaseni (Ophites) as the prophetic
representative of the Saviour in his grandest office. They
interpreted Hermes leading souls through darkness into
Elysium minds of the enlightened out
as Christ s guiding the
of Ignorance into Knowledge, in their special sense of the words.

As may well be supposed, they descanted largely upon that
at his side, his wife and sister, Isis. functions equally in the supernal
In front stands an altar, loaded with and infernal regions (the place of
flowers, fruits, and libations. Anubis, the Four Amenti), presents to his sire
recognisable by his jackal s head the defunct Petemenopt, swathed
crowned with the pschent (tall cap), in his sepulchral bandages, and
because, like the Hermes of the holding up his hands in the attitude
Greeks, he discharges important of supplication.
peculiar symbol, under which form Hermes, surnamed Cyllenius,

was worshipped. Amongst their mystical expositions of the
object one curious fact appears, that its popular name was
good luck," for which cause it was set

briiiger of
"
aya@o(f>of)ov,
up at cross-roads, and upon house-tops. But as regards the

ancient religion, since it is thus made out that this attribute,
later modified into a Pillar, stood for Cyllenius, guide of
departed souls (exactly as the same figure, linyam, represents

Siva, Lord of the dead in modern Hinduism), the reason
becomes obvious why its sculptured representations should
have been the earliest form of monument placed over the
departed. The monuments secured for the dweller in the
grave the perpetual protection of the Guide and Shepherd of

souls a colossal phallus crowns to this day the summit of the
;
oldest tomb, the date of which is historically certain, the

tumulus of the Lydia king, Alyattes. The Asiatic colonists
carried with them into Italy the same belief in the protective
virtues of the symbol carved in stone it regularly surmounted
;
the door of the sepulchre. One lately came into my possession,

inscribed around with the name and patronymic of the deceased
Etruscan, whose repose it had so long guarded, SVSES FELVS
FENTV, Suses, son of Phintas."
"
This double character of Anubis is very curiously expressed

by the upon a sard belonging to myself, which to the
figure
casual observer presents that most orthodox of types, the Good
Shepherd, carrying a lamb upon his shoulders, leaning upon his

staff, his loins bound with a girdle having long and waving
ends. But upon closer examination this so innocent personage

resolves himself into the double-headed god of Egypt, the
lamb s head doing duty for the jackal s, springing from the
same shoulders with that of the man, whilst the floating end of
the girdle is turned into the bushy tail of the wolfish beast,
and the latrator Anubis bursts upon our astonished eyes.
"
"
This identification of character in Anubis and Christ enables us

rightly to understand that drawing, the discovery of which
created such a sensation at Rome a few years back, scratched
(graffito) roughly on the plaster of a room in a house buried (in

ancient times) under the extended buildings of the Palatine.
It represents this same jackal-headed man holding in front of

him a Latin Cross with his outstretched hands, and standing on
a pedestal, in front of his worshipper, who makes the customary
form of adoration by raising his hand to his lips, and who has
expressed the object of his handiwork by
the inscription
AAEZAMENOC CeBGTE 0/EON. In reality the production of
some devout, but illiterate Gnostic, it is construed
by its present
owners* into a shocking heathen blasphemy, and a jibe upon
the good Christian Alexamenos, because they mistake the
jackal s head for that of an ass, and consequently imagine
an
intentional caricature of their own Crucifix.
The discovery of this picture clearly illustrates a passage of

Tertullian (Apol. xvi.) where he says to his opponents Like :
"
others have dreamed that an Ass s Head is our god.

many you
But a new version of our god has lately been made public at
Kome, ever since a certain hireling convict of a bullfighter put

forth a picture with some such inscription as this, the god of
tho Christians ONOKOIHTHZ. He was depicted thus with the
ears of an ass, and with one of his feet hoofed, holding in his
hand a book, and clothed in the toga." An exact description
this of the Anubis figured by Matter (PL ii. c. No. 1.), save
that instead of a book the god carries a cadceus and palm-
branch. Tho same calumny was somewhat later transferred
by the Christians themselves to the account of the Gnostics.

Not being acquainted with tho Egyptian beast, they mistook
of the
(perhaps intentionally) the head of the jackal for that
ass, which in truth it strongly resembles in the rude drawing of
our gems. Thus we find, at the close of the fourth century,
Epiphanius asserting that the Gnostic Sabaoth has, according

"
to some, the face of an Ass, according to others, that of a Hog ;
on which latter account He hath forbidden the Jews to eat

swine s This second notion was a very ancient one,
flesh."
being alluded to by Petronius in Judaeus licet et porcinum numen

*
adoret." Now Sabaoth being held by the Gnostics as the

national god of the Jews, it seems probable that this same
confusion of one beast with the other was the real source of
*
Having been cut from the wall aud deposited in the museum of the
Collegio Romano.
the opinion so prevalent amongst the ancients, and quoted by

Tacitus (Hist. v. 4). The sacred object so zealously guarded
"
from profane eyes within the Sanctuary at Jerusalem was the

figure of the wild ass by whoso guidance they had relieved their
thirst and their distress, Moses having, through the observation
of the movements of a troop of these animals, discovered the
spring, the waters of which saved his followers from perishing
in the desert." This legend was furthermore connected with
the belief that the real god of the Jews was Bacchus, for the ass
was sacred to the god of wine. For this dedication Pliny finds
i
singular reason in the fact that the ass was fond of fennel, a
deadly poison to all other quadrupeds, but a plant specially
consecrated to Bacchus (xxxv. 1). Again, the spurious gospel
The Genealogy of Mary assigns for the cause of the death of
Zacharias, son of Barachias, that once entering the Temple he
beheld standing within the Sanctuary a man with the face of
an ass, and when he was rushing out to cry unto the people,
Woe unto you Whom do ye worship ? he was smitten with
!
dumbness by the apparition. But afterwards, when he had

recovered his speech, and revealed what he had seen unto the
Jews, they slew him for a blasphemer. And this they gave as a
reason wherefore the High Priest had bells fastened around the
hem of his garment, in order that this monstrous deity might
by their tinkling be warned of the approach of man, and so

have the time to conceal himself. This wild story is preserved
by Epiphanius alone, for the original work is entirely lost. It
was ascribed to St. Matthew, and was taken for their special
textbook by the Collyridians, who got their name from their

custom of sacrificing cakes to the Virgin Mary, whom they
pretended was also born of a virgin. Faustus, bishop of Eiez,
cites thissame gospel concerning the parentage of Mary. But
the apocryphal gospel, The Birth of Mary, still extant, is
of a totally different character, being a mere monkish invention
of the most orthodox stupidity and which, coupled with the
;
Protevangelion, became the source of all the medieval pictures

*
and sculptures that set forth the history of the Madonna.

To the same Egyptian family likewise belongs the boy
Harpocratcs or Horus (the vernal Sun), having the symbol of
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS .
fecundity monstrously exaggerated and seated upon the lotus,

which expressed the same idea by its abundant seeds ; and also
Perfection because for its flower, fruit, bulb, all exhibit the form
of the circle, as lamblichus observes. Macrobius too remarks
that Horus the Egyptian equivalent for Apollo, who gave his
is
name to the twenty-four hours of day and

night and this :
acceptation of his character is recorded by the Alexandrian

plasma (Vienna Cabinet, I. 39) which identifies him with the
Grecian Sun god: MEfAC OOPOC AnOAACON APHOKPATHC
6TIAATOCTU) cjjQPOTNTI. He often appears accompanied by
Anubis in the character -of his messenger. Again, Horus is
seen adored by the kneeling Cynocephalus baboon, the animal
consecrated to Luna. This last curious animal also
belonged
to Thoth, scribe of the gods, and makes a favourite Gnostic
device performing his devotions before a pillar covered all over
with inscriptions and supporting a triangle, symbol of the Moon
whose influence was supposed singularly to affect his constitu
tion. This pillar clearly enough denotes those Pillars of
"
Hermes," by means of which lamblichus solved all the

ques
tions propounded to him by Porphyrius (Jam. De Mystcrieis, II.).
To make the allusion more certain, these beings are even
designated in the spells by their proper name of Titans."
"
Kicoroni has given in his Formse No. 4 a mould for

casting the
reverse of a medalet, of the 3B size, bearing the Dioscuri
facing each other, holding their spears point downwards, in
token of amity, in their left hands each a situla. Behind,
vertically CABACOT in
lines two
in the exergue TITAN,
:
space
not admitting the remainder of the title too well-known besides
to require more than such a reminiscence.
Horus is often figured sailing through the heavens in the

sacred boat, the Bans steered by two hawks solar emblems, ;
with sun and moon overhead, and taking the same titles I
AH,
ABAANA0ANAABA, &c., as the
great Abiaxas-god himself,
and with reason, the same idea being couched in the two
personifications. Horus, as Heliodorus records (Mih. ix. 22),

was also applied to the Nile, whose Greek name NelAos also
contained the mystic solar number 365 this voyager in the ;
baria is analogous to the Hindoo Nerjaiut, the child floating

in his argah leaf upon the face of the waters having his whole
body coloured blue (nila). To complete the resemblance the
situla regularly carried from a cord in the hand of Anubis is
the very lotah, brass drinking cup, of the modern Brahmins.

Those common emblems, the baris and the coiled serpent, have
their Gnostic meaning fully explained by a remarkable passage
in the Pistis-Sophia ( 359).
"
And the disk of the sun was a

Great Dragon whose tail was in his mouth, who went up into
the Seven Powers on the left hand, being drawn by four Powers
having the similitude of white horses. But the going of the

Moon was in the shape of a boat, the rudder whereof showed a
male and female dragon with two white cows drawing the same,
and the figure of a child on the stern guiding the dragons, who
drew away the light from the Rulers (the regular synonym in
the book fur the rebellious Êons, lords of the Zodiac), and in
front of the child was the similitude of a cat."
The Regeneration of the occasionally deco
"
Spiritual Man "
rates these talismans, being symbolised in the most material

istic manner by the Solar Lion impregnating a naked woman,
the recognised emblem of the soul, who,

quadrupeduin ritu,"
"
submits with joy to the vivifying operation. And the spiritual

man thus regenerate is again depicted under the form of a
human outline holding up by the neck a huge serpent, both of
them entirely up with inscribed letters, amongst whicli
filled
the mystic Seven Vowels largely predominate.
Scaliger, however, as cited by Salmasius in the above-quoted

work, takes this figure to be the representative of the combined
365 JEons, all whose names are supposed to be condensed within
his outline in short he is the emblem of the Pleroma, and
stands for the "
Adam-Kadmon "
of the Kabbalists, the Primal
Man, the Ophite Adamas, after whose image the second Adam
was made. Or again, this same combination may have been
intended to display the Seven Vowels, with their forty and nine
Powers, the virtues whereof are so wondrously exalted by the
inspired writer of the Pistis-Sophia ( 378), whose words are
cited in another place.* But as the fact bears directly upon the
* Goodwill s several vowel-com-

Magic Papyrus, terminating in
gives, at the end of a spell (No. 1) binatious, these directions for pro-
sigil before us, it may be mentioned here that the same gospel
(358) makes the Saviour open his "Prayer" with the ejaculation,
AEHIOTQIAnOA IOJIA ; which, as enveloping the mystic Name

of God, were the most obvious spell to be selected to fill up so
important a talisman. Neither is it out of place to conclude

this inquiry with the notice that the motto of the mediaeval
House of Hapsburgh was the Latin vowels A.E.I.O.V. These
enigmatical letters were interpreted by the arrogance of
succeeding generations, puffed up with imperial dignity, into
the initials of the prophecy
"
Austriae est imperare orbi uni-

But I more than suspect that the five Latin letters were
verso."
adopted by some illuminato amongst the ancient Dukes (perhaps

acquired during his alchemical studies) as containing the same
transcendental virtues with the Gnostic seven of the Gieek
alphabet.
The winged goddesses Athor and Sate, representing the Eoman
Venus and Juno, sometimes are found accompanied with such
legends as makes it evident they too had been pressed into the
Gnostic service, asrepresentatives of certain amongst the
feminine .ZEons.* But another shape repeatedly presents his
monstrosity to our astonished gaze, whose true character almost
sets conjecture at defiance, but evidently the offspring of very
diverse ideas most strangely commingled. He is an aged man,
Priapean, four-winged, with four hands grasping as many
sceptres he has likewise the spreading tail of
;
the vulture and
stands in the baris, or upon the coiled serpent, or on a tree-
trunk, horizontal, whence project five lopped off branches.
Some potent saviour must be be, for he is addressed, like
Abraxas himself, by the title ABAANAOANAABA! But the
most prominent symbol in the monstrous collocation suggests
an explanation of its hidden meaning, supplied by the following
uounciug each O, in the same manner as above

A, with the mouth opened, rolled said,
"
about like a wave. H, with gentleness aspirated.

O, in a short manner for spiritual T, unto the Shepherd (Hermes),
threatcniugs. as if it were long."
* Valeutinus made his yEous in
A O, unto Earth, Air, Heaven.
E, after the fashion of the cyiioce- pairs, male and female.
phulud.
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS 235
exposition of Justinus, that wildest teacher in all the Gnosis.

"
For Eden, Mother, behold thy son

this cause said he unto !
meaning his animal and carnal body. He himself, however,

having commended his spirit into the Father s hands, ascended
up unto the Good One. Now this Good One is Priapus, He that
created before anything existed. On this account he is called
Priapus because he first made all things (eVptaTroto-c).* For

this reason is he set up in every temple, being honoured by all
Nature, and likewise in the roadways, having the fruits of

Autumn hung about him, that is, the fruits of the Creation
whereof he is the author, inasmuch as he first made the Creation
which before was not."
That very frequent type, a mummy swathed in the coils of a

vast serpent, is easily explained as an allusion to the protection
in the next world of the ancient agatho-demon,j" or the
spiritualNaas of the more recent Ophites. The same belief

also generated that more graceful allegory, the woman en
throned on the back of the same reptile, like the Atergatis of
Phoenicia.
Interesting above the rest for the part it played in mediaeval

superstition is the Osiris, or old man, with radiated head, a
terminal figure always shown in front face with arms crossed on
the breast, the true Bapliomet of the Templars. Sometimes he
is borne aloft upon the heads of four Angels, upon whom two
streams pour forth from his sides. This group has been
explained as Ormuzd borne up by the Four Elements ; although
it may possibly refer to the notion the prophet Enoch mentions
(xviii. 3) "I also beheld the Four Winds which bear up the
earth and the firmament of The idea in truth has
heaven."
rather an Assyrian than Egyptian cast, for in Assyrian works

Athor (Mylitta) often appears pouring out from her extended
arms the Waters of Life ;
and again the Persian female Ized
Ardui&her is by The giver of living water."J
interpretation
"
A curious specimen of ancient form, borrowed in a more

*
That is, the proper symbol of At Tarsus (1863) was discovered
J
Priapus, either the phallus or the incompany with aurei of Sev. Alex-
Egyptian Tau. ander and Gordian III., a talisman
f The HFE painted on the thus described by Longpcriur :
niiunmy cases in that very capacity.

"
Amulet formed of lapis-lazuli, set

spiritual sense, isfurnished by a pretty sard, found in tho

Punjab (Major Pearise), engraved with two figures of the Eoman
Providentia facing each other, in the field between
them,
the heads of Sol and Luna, and below XAIA, the Hebrew
for Life.
The common figure may be explained by Eusebius s de

scription of the Egyptian hieroglyph for the world, as a circle
coloured sky-blue and besprinkled with flames, in the centre an
extended serpent the whole being
;
carelessly imitated by the
letter in the Diagramma of the Ophites.
An armed man, the Mithraic soldier, one of the figures
regularly set up in the mystic Cave of the Solar god, often
decorates a talisman, holding a spear
tipped with tho head
of a cock, a mark of honour granted
by the Persian kings to
distinguished valour (as by Artaxerxes to the Carian who slew
Cyrus the Younger) ;
or else grasping a serpent in each hand.
A sect that sprung up in Egypt, the Phibionites, took the title
Militant,"
3rparta)ruco Another figure, the three-headed
throe-bodied god, who, standing like Priapus,
grasped with one
hand the symbols of fecundity, with the other, asps and scorpions,
must be the visible embodiment of the Great TpiSwa/xets,
who figure so prominently in the celestial hierarchy of the
Pistis -Sophia. The Trees sometimes enlisted in the Talismanic
corps may find their motive in the "
Almond-tree
"
of the
Phrygian Mysteries, in which the Naaseni discovered the name
of the Great Creator of All; or else to the of the
"Mystery
Five Trees," mentioned in that oft-quoted revelation, on whose
true nature light is thrown by Justinus exposition making out
in a gold frame of rude workmansnip, large haematite (Praun) now in the

with a ring for suspension. The two British Museum. Montfaucon, pi.
faces are engraved in intaglio, and clxi.has a Venus unveiling inscribed
represent an Êon with four wings A PGUP OPACIC, I "The Vision of
and bird s tail, holding two spears; Arori and another with A P POOP
;" I <J>
and with a Venus and the inscription I AC 1C, and on the field CAN KTA
(not reversed) APCx)PI OPACIC, for the owner s name. It was under
some letters of which are concealed such a form as this that the Supreme
by the setting. Length, 0-0034 ; Tetrad brought down Truth from
weight, 5 20 grammes (=95 grs. Heaven to display her beauty to
troy)."
The same legend accoin- Marcus as he d< scribes in his lleve-
pauies a Venus Amvlyorneiic upon a latiou (see p. 218).
the Trees of Paradise to bo the Angels generated between the
Demiurgus Elohim and his daughter Eden.*

There is a sigil of this class, that from its frequency must
have been considered of peculiar virtue. It represents a fish
with immense head and shoulders, but diminutive body, as if
from above the reverse of the stone thus inscribed

;
One of the three sacivd fish of the Nile must figure here ; and
in this talismanic character passed, with an appropriate
mystic interpretation, into the symbolism of the Alexandrine
Christians.
II. ABRAXOIDS, OR GEMS CONFOUNDED WITH THE TRUE GNOSTIC.
Our invaluable and most charming guide, Ilippolytus, when

describing the Astrotlicoscopi,
"
Seekers of God in the stars,"
begins with a simile more apposite than complimentary to the

fashion which then prevailed for combining astrology with every
species of religion. He compares these inquirers to that silly

fowl the bustard, which suffers itself to be caught by the follow
ing device. When a man discovers a flock he begins to dance

"
and make grimaces in front of them, The birds stand motionless

him in wonderment until his confederate steals up to
staring at
them from behind and knocks them on the head. In the same
way (adds the good Saint, evidently much refreshed by his joke)
do the people seduced by such teachers stare up at the stars,
until at last they find themselves hopelessly caught in the snare
of the heresy."
As an example of this most curious system of
theology it will suffice to quote their exposition of the doctrine con
veyed by one constellation out of many.

"
Ophiuchus represents
with his stars a man on his knees, in appearance oppressed with
* An authentic description of the bearing fruit which resembled grapes
Tree of Knowledge will doubtless be extremely fine and its fragrance
;
acceptable to
-
my readers. "
The extended to a considerable distance.

Tree of Knowledge also was there, I exclaimed How beautiful is this
:
(if which if any eats he becomes tree,and how delightful is its ap-
endowed with great wisdom. It was
"
pearance !
(Book of Enoch, xxxi.
like a species of the tamarind-tree, 3-4).
fatigue, a posture for which that great authority in Astrology,

Aratas, is at a loss to account. But rightly understood, he is
Adam engaged in watching the Dragon s head underneath him,
which is biting his heel. Over his head are seen the Lyre, and
the Crown. The Lyre was the invention of the infant Hermes,
who is in reality the Word of God their position therefore :
announces that whosoever gives heed unto the Word, he shall

obtain the Crown but if he refuses to hearken unto the Word,
;
he shall be cast down below with the Dragon." In another

place Hippolytus observes :
"
The doctrine of the Chaldaians
concerning trines, quadrates, benignant and malign stars,

Euphrates the Peratist applies to Christianity, by changing the
concord and discord of the stars into the constitution of the
TEons, the transition of Good Powers into Evil ones, and the
harmony of their respective particles. From the same source
he gets his Toparchs
"
and "
Presidents," and all the other

imagery of the astrologers."
Such being the nature of the actual foundations of Gnosticism,
no wonder that it should so frequently be impossible to decide
whether a talismanic sigil be the expression of some semi-
Christian tenet, or merely the imagined similitude of some
astral Power whose influence was thus secured for the wearer s
protection. For the gods of Magianism, the religion that has

so deeply tinged all Gnostic doctrines, were no other than these
starry Powers. The Agathodamion himself gave his name to
one of the three Decani of Cancer, as Hephaestion hath already
informed us. The very title,
"
Decanus," Salmasius with some

reason derives from the Chaldee Dekan, "
inspector," and thereby

makes it
equivalent to the Greek "
Horoscopos," The god "
that looks down upon the nativity." The common Latin

derivation, in its military sense of "sergeant," Salmasius rejects
as foreign to the idea conveyed. Again, Charchnumis is
named as the First Decanus in Leo, and this title actually
appears around a serpent with human and radiated head, figured
by Salmasius in the same chapter. This name is sometimes
written XOAXNOTBIZ, which the same authority explains as
"
The All-golden One."

A Greek astrologer quoted without name by Salmasius gives
this curious piece of information :

"
There are appointed in each

one of the Signs, three Decani of different forms ; one holding an
axe, the others represented variously. These figures engraved

in rings are amulets against all mischance." As Teucer asserts,
with other great astrologers of his times This, alas too :
"
scanty notice of their attributes shows at least one of their
number Babylonian god described by the prophet

to be the old
Raruch (
Epistle 13, 14) He hath a sceptre in his hand like a
*
man, like a judge of the kingdom ho hath in his hand a sword

and an axe But not merely the Decani of the Signs were thus
"
worn but equally so the signs themselves, and the stars

in rings,
rising together with them, technically called

ot TrapareAAovrc?.
Such images were termed oroiêta, whence those who made a

business of engraving then got the name a-roLxôârLKOL.
They performed their work with many ceremonies, and always

under the inspection of the particular Decanus, or star, whose
sigil they were embodying, On this account Epiphaiiius speaks
of the sun, moon, and planets as oroiêTa, terming /xop(axreis the
figures of the constellations formed by the imaginary

collocation
of the stars. The same writer uses the expression, "The stars
that be vainly imagined in the shape of figures, which are

called Signs of the Zodiac." As Diodorus distinguishes between
planets and <rroixa,
it follows that the term was equivalent
to our "
constellation." All this evinces that the Arabian

writers were correct in translating talis
"
o-Totxao/xariKot by
man-makers." How
these later astrologers thought proper to
portray the Ascendants of each Sign in their Table of the "
will be described in my chapter upon Talis

"
Myriogeneses
mans.
A curious Praun gem represents Mercury enthroned and
bearing the attributes of Jupiter, with the strange legend EnnTA
(sic) XPTZOZ, which has been absurdly interpreted
as referring to
his seven-stringed lyre. More probably was the gem the signet
Hebdomadarian or votary of the Number Seven a
"
of some "
sect of sufficient importance to get from Hippolytus a separate

section for themselves in his great work. The identification of
Hermes with the Christian Logos was one grand feature in the
doctrine of the Naaseni, so lucidly set forth by that learned
Father. Ho was of opinion that this Hebdomadarian doctrine

(derived from ancient Egyptian philosophy) was the true source
of every form of Gnosticism. This potent Numeral is illus
trated by another device of
frequent occurrence in cameo,the
Delphic e crowned with a fillet, and below, the legend XPTZOT-
This can be no other than that most
holy of Numerals the
Delphic or Five, on the
"Ei,
mystery whereof Plutarch has left a
very curious dissertation and it represents the golden
;
figure of
that same numeral dedicated
by Livia Augusta at the shrine
of her husband s peculiar And similarly the gem above
patron.
referred to exhibits Hermes invested with
and supreme dominion,
accompanied by his owntestudo resonare
special number,
"
"
septem* callida nervis the Magian method for

symbolizing
the different Powers of Heaven, which shall be
explained in its
due place, when we come to treat of the Seven Voices." "
The oddest adaptations of the imagery of the old

religions
mark the earliest preaching of the Gnosis. its first
apostle,
Simon Magus, who passed himself off upon the Samaritans as
the third manifestation of the Christ, was worshipped as late
as Hippolytus times, in statues made in the form of Jupiter.
His famous concubine Helena (in whom Simon has discovered
the Lost Sheep of the parable whilst
carrying on her profession
in a brothel at
Tyre) was similarly adored under the forms of
Minerva and the Moon (Hipp. vi.
19). The main doctrines of
the Naaseni were supported
by ingenious applications of the
symbolism employed in the Eleusinian, Phrygian, and Samo-*
thracian Mysteries, of which Hyppolytus has
given a full and
very interesting account.
Phoenicia, again, furnished our talisman-makers
with a copious
repertory in the exaggerated symbolism of the figures whereby
their priesthood had expressed their notions of the Divine
Power. Taut, the great god of the Phoenicians
"
"
(says
Samoniathon), in order to express the character of Kronos, made
"
his image with four eyes two in front,two behind, open and
closed ; also with four wings two expanded upwards, two
folded downwards. The eyes denoted that the godhead sees
*
The compound Eirrdxpvaos is EirraxaA/cos, the place in the wall of
made after the same rule as the Athens where Sulla took the city.
when sleeping, and sleeps when waking the attitude of his

;
wings, that he in resting, and rests in flying.

flies Upon his
head are two wings, denoting Reason and the Senses." -It is
very provoking that Diodorus (xx. 1 9) should have given no
further description of the famous Kronos, Mdcarth, of Carthago
than the brief remark that it held the hands open, palm
upwards, but sloping downwards, so that the child sacrificed,
when laid upon them, should roll off into a pit of fire at the
foot.* When Agathocles was pressing hard the siege, and
hope was almost lost, no fewer that three hundred children of
the nobles were offered to Melcarth at one and the same time.
Inasmuch as the genius of the planet Saturn, or Kronos, was
held by the Talmudists to be good and pure, contrary to those
of the other planets, the Four-winged image, so common upon
Gnostic gems, may reasonably be considered as a copy from the
ancient original, devised by Taut. Saturn, the solo inspirer of
the Law and the Prophets, had special claims to the veneration
of the Alexandrine Kabbalists. And this belief explains where
fore Valentinus fixed upon this planet for the abode of
Ildabaoth, the Giver of the Law to the Children of Israel in the
Wilderness.
"
It sounds like a paradox to assert that our Gnostic gems

"
are not the work of the Gnostics but taking that appellation in
;
the thing is perfectly true. The talismans

its strictest sense,
we are considering never exhibit any traces of that admixture

of Christian and Pagan doctrines which properly constitutes
the Gnosis, that subject of the descriptions and the attacks of
the Fathers of the Church. Their elements are drawn from the
ancient religions of Babylon and Egypt, mixed at times with
the formulae of the Jewish Kabbala. The Gnostic stones are "
"
in reality the paraphernalia of magicians and dealers in charms
(charm-doctors in modern phrase), and only belong to the

Ophites, Valentinians, and other subdivisions of the Christian
Gnosis, in so far as those theosophists were especially given to
*
This tradition was verified by burnt human bones. The discovery
N. Davis, who in excavating the ruins is well described in his section "
Mo
of the temple found, at a great depth, loch and his Victims."
a thick layer of ashes mingled with

the cultivation of the Black Art; as the notices above cited

abundantly declare. This delusive study prevailed at the
of Gnosticism to an extent
period of the grand development
which no one can credit who has not studied the historians of
"
the Later Empire. The accusation of

"
magical practices
proved a ready weapon for destroying an obnoxious
individual
against whom no tangible crime could be charged what :
stronger proof of this than its being effectually employed (as

Animian tells us) to expel that pattern of orthodoxy, the great
Athanasius, from the patriarchal throne of Alexandria ? The
same historian notices that under the timid Valens it sufficed to
establish this
capital charge ifsuspected person had
the
been seen walking at night-time in the neighbourhood of any
to hold conference
cemetery, where he might possibly have gone
with the demons of the dead.
"
But to exhibit the true source and nature of these "
Gnostic
inscriptions I shall transcribe

a spell from the Magic Papyrus,"
"
to which I shall have occasion frequently to refer. The author

of this wondrous Manual of Necromancy was unmistakably of
the old unmixed Egyptian religion, and very probably a
Nevertheless, he not merely employs the very
priest of Isis.
words found on our talismans, but even the same peculiar
arrangement of them. Any one desirous of preserving so
valuable a charm in a more durable material than papyrus or
lead,had only to order a lapidary to copy it for him upon a
Gnostic monument would have been
"
jasper, and a regular

"
bequeathed to our times. The maker having carefully specified

the virtues of composition, gives us to understand the value of
similar forms still existing on stones VII. Take a sheet of
:
"
hieratic paper, or a leaden plate, and an iron link of a chain

and place the link upon the paper, and mark both
(/cpi/cos),
insideand out with a pen the form of the link. Then having
described the circular outline of the link, write upon the same
outline, inscribingupon the paper the name and the characters
on the outside, and inside the thing which you wish not to
a man s mind may be bound so as not to do
happen, or that
such and such a thing. Then placing the link upon its outline
which you have made, and taking up the parts outside the
outline, sew up the link with thread so as to completely conceal

it, piercing through the characters with the pen ; and when you
wish to bend, say I bend such a one not to speak to such a
one, let him not resist, lot him not him not be
contradict, let
able to look me into the face, or to answer me, but let him be
subject unto me so
long as this link is buried. And again I
bind his mind, his senses, his desires, his actions, that he
may
be sluggish towards all men, in case
(a certain woman) marries
such a one, or else, in order that she
may not marry such and
such a one. Common (i.e., to be said in Greek).
Then taking it to the grave of one untimely deceased, dig
"
four fingers deep, and put it in and

say departed Spirit,
whosoever thou art, them art this ; I deliver unto thee such a
one, that he may not do such and such a thing. Then cover it
up and depart. And you will do this best when themoon is on
the wane. The words to be written within the circle are
these APOAMA0PA6P6C KITAAAX 6ZANTA IAPOTNH AKH
: :
lACx) AAPTNKU) MANIHA MH nPAXGHTO) TO $ (Se/a)

nPATMA <!>
OCON XPONON K6XGOCTAI O KPIKOC OTTOC
Let not such and such a done for so long a time as
( tiling be this
link is buried ). Bind it with knots, making a twist of them, and
so deposit it. The link may also be cast into a disused well, or
into the grave of one dead before his time. And after the
characters, write also these words below the link as a plinth

(or
a square) APXOOA AAIAAM C6MeCIAAM<J> AMMOOOPIOON
:
ICUAH
*90T U)cDPH O MELICTOC AAIMCUN A CO CABACO APBA0 I
lACx) AAIAAM OCOPNOct>PI MOPH cJ>RH cJ>A XPGOICx) lACx) BAB-

OTPH 0IMAM6N B NOTCI CABAGU BAPBA0IAU) QAXPA
cJ>RH
OTX66 eCOPNUXfrPI, and the inscription at the

top of the
page, which also you must place within it.
IAU)BAcJ>P6N6MOTNO0IAAPIKPIct>lA6TAPIcJ>IKPAAI0ONct)TO
MNP<l>ABA(jOAI.
(This spell is repeated at the foot of the page, inscribed in

one continuous circle, to show that it reads either
way. It
occurs also on a gem (Brit. AOTAI XAPIN
Mus.) followed by
lePWNIMA nPOC riANTAC, "Give to Hieronima favour in
the sight of all men and also on
"
:
another, figured by Monl-
faucon, II. pi. 164 a proof of the importance attached to it at
the time.)
R 2
"
And the same arrangement may be written upon a leaden
plate ;
and having put the link within it, fold it over and seal
with gypsum, and afterwards the base beneath, upon which
IA600 as before directed, and also these words: BAKAZTXTX
M6N6BA IXTX ABPACAZ AT, Prevent such and such a thing."
"
But in the original the Names are found as follows AM4>OOA :
AAIAAM CMCIAAM IA(x) AOBAKAZIXTX APACAZAT APXU)M

AAX M6NCIAAM IA6U) OTU) BAKAZIXTX APACAZUTT, "Pre
vent such and such a thing."
KICNVB
AA|>H D[>nMA
On the reverse of a Chnuphis plasma (Lewis Collection),

as also 011 the Bosanquet
KICNVOaiid NABIC (prophet) occur,
be corrupt Greek, the
gem. The last words may
"Restore
the object of the talisman.

"
night ;
FIG. 10.
III. THE TRUE ABRAXAS GEMS.
Having in the preceding sections cleared the ground of the

innumerable usurpers of the title
"
Abraxas gems,"
we can con
veniently proceed to consider the wondrous Sigil, the invention

whereof isuniversally ascribed to Basilides himself. And for
this asumption there are very good grounds, for it is certain

that such a Sigil never occurs executed in a style that bespeaks
a date anterior to the grand heresiarch s, the first years of the
second century.
This figure, which has given its name to the whole family, is
designed to represent the god Abraxas," for so his name is

"
written invariably on the gems, although the Latin Fathers

to suit the genius of their own language have transposed the
final letters. The etymology and value of the name require a
whole section to themselves, so deep are the mysteries that
they contain.
The purpose of the composition was to express visibly, and at
once, the 365 ôns, emanations from the First Cause, whose
number was probably first suggested by its own numerical
signification, and consequently the figure may be taken as a
speaking type of the Pleroma, the one embracing all within
itself, an idea fittingly embodied in a name containing the sum
of all its component powers. To shadow forth therefore this
doctrine, the in question a or com

"
grand image is Paiitheus,"
bination of many discordant attributes expressing the amalga

mation of many different ideas in one and the same figure.
Hence he is depicted with the head of a cock, sacred to Phoebus,
or else of a Lion, symbol of Mithras and Belus; his body,
human and clad in armour, indicates his guardian power, for he
is a Virtue Militant "putting on the whole armour of God"; his
legs are the sacred asps, types of the Agathodeemon, likewise
indicating swiftness; for in this way, says Fausanias, was Boreas
pictured upon the Coffer of Cypselus in his right hand ho :
brandishes a scourge, the Egyptian badge of sovereignty; on

his left arm a shield, usually emblazoned with some word of

power, declaring his perpetual warfare against the rebellious
Angels, the Gods of death." Bellermann has proposed with
"
much ingenuity an interpretation of this Pantheus in the more

spiritual sense better consonant with the esoteric teaching of
its inventor. According to him, the whole represents the
Supreme Being, with his Five great Emanations, each one
pointed out by means of an expressive emblem. Thus, from the
human body, the usual form assigned to the Deity, forasmuch
as written that God created man in his own image, issue
it is
the two supporters, Nous and Logos, symbols of the inner sense
and tho quickening understanding, as typified by the serpents,
for the same reason that had induced the old Greeks to assign
this reptile for an attribute to Pallas. His head a cock s
represents Phroncsis, the fowl being emblematical of foresight
and vigilance. His two hands bear the badges of Sophia and
Dynamis, the shield of Wisdom, and the scourge of Power.
This Pantheus is invariably inscribed with his proper name,
IAO, and his epithets, ABPAZAZ and ZABAQ0, and often accom
panied with invocations such as, ZEMEZ EIAAM, "The Eternal
Sun"; ABAANAOANAABA, "Thou art our Father"
(sometimes
curtailed, but generally so arranged as to read the same both
ways) ;
or AAONAI,
"
The Lord."*
]n a further relationship to the ancient idea of the

all this
Sun-god is readily to be discovered. Phoebus, as the god of day,

is similarly furnished with a whip, and the serpent, according to
the Egyptians, hieroglyphically expressed his tortuous course

**
through the Zodiac. Adonai was the Syrian title of the "
Sun, whence Adonis or Thammuz denoted that luminary at the

winter solstice. Moreover, the Gnostic epithets above are the
very words composing that short prayer," from the use of "
which at all sacrifices Macrobius (I. 23) makes out that the
influence of the Sun is
Sun, the Power supreme over all :
"
Father of All, Spirit of the world, Strength of the world,

But the God adored under the name of
"
Light of the world !
* Besides these regular titles, Abraxas has

figure (John Evans)
others are occasionally used, of im- over his head BICTYC, below his
known import. Thus a well-engraved feet GICIT-
"
Abrasax
"
is clearly shown by the Bosanquet jasper (more

the Fantheus in
particularly described elsewhere), exhibiting
the very car, and attitude of Phoebus, and by the Alexandrian
coin of Hadrian presenting Serapis similarly engaged. That
the latter was the Solar deity, all mythologists were agreed ;
and this identity of action would lead one to suspect that

"
Abrasax
"
was no more than the mystic name of the tutelary
god of Alexandria.
erected
The Chnuphis was occasionally (though rarely)
older
with Abraxas on the same talisman an example of which is ;
offered in one of the most remarkable of the class ever brought

under my notice. It was brought from Bombay by a Jew (1874),
and sold to M. Gaston Feuardent, whence it came into the
S. S. Lewis.
possession of the Rev.
Red jasper of fine quality, Ijxli inch, with figure of
in unusually good
Abraxas, holding whip and shield, engraved
the convex face. Round the edge, beginning over the
stylo upon
head, runs continuously,
ANA#3A AVAAI
AEIVAV&AVIAHAI
at the back of the head, P ;
under beak, ;Iover right shoulder,
RA (probably nexus of ABA AN) ;

across the field, each side of
waist,
DAI/HHI IHHMAD
Aain, across field on a level with his loins, on each side,
(perhaps Eoia,
"
The Serpent,"
in Syriac).
Between the serpent legs,

AIIVIIMHV
which is almost is the Chnuphis

On the other side, flat,
Serpent, erect,
with the Seven Vowels inserted between the
Across the middle of the field,
rays of his head.
HA IX ("Thy God.")
three
Over his head, three scarabei in a row; to the right,
crocodiles above each other; to the left, as
goats, and
three
many ibises and serpents so arranged.

GNOSTIC PLAQUE.
The most remarkable specimen of the class known to me

was obtained (Jan. 1876) from Sambon, a noted antiquario at
Naples. It is a circular bronze disc, 2J inches (the ancient
palmus) in diameter, with a small projection to top, perforated

for suspension. The surface of the obverse bears a genuine
patina, and the characters of the legend have the true antique
formation ; but, for reasons hereafter to be stated, the reverse
strikes me as an addition of later times not, indeed, a forgery to
entrap the antiquarian, but something intended in all good

faith to augment the virtues of the original talisman.
The Abraxas-god, advancing to the right, with arms extended
crucifix fashion, holding sword and shield, above his head and
arms,
IA0 IAOO AAU)N
U)H .
On each side of figure

HGO
MA
MOJ
CON ce
g^
BAA ru 5 z
OA # 3
<
N
ce
P
c
The whole inclosed within a coiled serpent.
Reverse :
King with hand on breast, seated on throne, seen
in front-face. Over his head,
CAAOMCONOC
On each side of the figure
enHNA ABO
CVMAHA VAC
OCAAAM MOTHE
AZABA NT6
M6AZA K6N
X HH6
OYC AAB
A
Under the footstool, similarly surrounded by the coiled serpent,
z z z
This Solomon is a truly medieval piece of drawing the lettering, ;
too, evidently differs from that of the obverse; and as the

surface of the plate is fresher on this side, it is probable that
the whole has been added upon the empty back of the original
plate.
Some legends, following the rule of the famous ABAA0ANAABA,
read indifferently from either end. A good example occurs on
the reverse of a serapis, carried in the laris between Sol and
Luna.
ALW
BA4>PEME
MOYNO0IAP
<J>PKIPAN00N
YOMNP4>A
(Sard, from collection of

Mr. Webb Ware, Cork.)
Horus seated in the baris ; on prow and poop are perched the
neatly engraved on dark-green jasper (Pliny
sacred birds; s
Molochites). On the reverse

XABPAX
4>NCXHP
4>IXNOcl>NVPN
cfeMXMEMX
Amongst the various contents of a tomb at Saintes, discovered

in 1885, was a metal ring set with a heliotrope engraved with
the Agathodsemon, furnished with a human trunk, standing.
On the reverse a novel formula
XAXXA
XIOVXIPO
VXAHA
Eucliael,
"
Spirit of God," is known as the name of an angel ;
but the other words defy interpretation.

The best executed of such talismans known to me, belongs
to Mr. Webb Ware, of Cork. It is an elliptical sard, about
1j inches long and wide ; engraved very neatly, with Scrapin

seated on the Baris, busts of Osiris and Isis on

prow and poop ;
above, AAAA ; below, BAIN. On the reverse, finely cut
BA<tP6N
MOYNO0IAAP
IKPIOct>IABAI
4>IPKIPAN0ON
YOMNeP4>A
KO6AI
There is no distinction between A and A in the original,
but I have made it where
clearly required. The AAAA is a
novelty but many words in the long formula are of
; common
occurrence in other gems.
IV. THE GOD ABRAXAS AS DESCRIBED BY THE

CHRISTIAN FATHERS.
That the Pantheus upon our gems was really intended to

picture forth the deity styled Abraxas
"
can be established "
by the evidence of many contemporary writers.

indirect
Irenaeus remarks of the Basilidans, that they use images,
"
incantations, and all other things pertaining unto Magic."

Further on (xxiii.) he adds their custom of giving names to
their images of pretended angels. And, what bears more
directly on the subject, Tertullian (Apol. xvi.), after laughing
at the god of the heretics as
"
biforme numen "
(evidently in
reference to the serpent legs, "biforrnes"
being the classical
synonym for the Giants similarly equipped), then goes on to
They have taken unto themselves gods with wings,

"
say, or
with heads of dogs or lions, or else serpents from tlie legs down
Here we have unmistakeable reference to the Magian,
wards"
Egyptian, and Mithraic idols so common upon these talismans,

and in the last words to the serpent-legged and veritable
Abraxas-god.
Lastly, Epiphanius, after stating that Basilides had taught
that the Supreme Being out of whom proceeded Mind, Intelli
gence, Providence, Strength, and Wisdom was named Abraxas,

proceeds to describe in what manner the idea was embodied by
the heresiarch Having taken their vain speculations, he and

"
his followers have converted them into a peculiar and definite

form, as a foundation for their own erroneous idolatrous
and
fictitious doctrines." Further on he adds With respect :
"
to their Kavlacav, what person with any understanding

would not laugh at their converting a Hebrew word into a
lodily shape in order to represent their idol; at their per
sonified Principalities in a word, at their fondness for images ;
;
whilst through these fancies they sow error in the minds of the
arid lying
ignorant for the furtherance of their disgraceful
trade ? Then proceeding, it would appear, to the analysis of
"
the figure itself, he exclaims It is a Spirit of deceit, which, :

"
like the playing upon a pipe, leads the ignorant into many sins
are an imitation of the
against the Truth. Yea, even his legs
Serpent through whom the Evil One spake
and deceived Eve.
For after the pattern of that figure hath the flute been invented
for the deceiving of mankind. Observe the figure that the
player makes in blowing his flute. Doth

he not bend himself
and down to the and to the left, like unto it (the
up right
serpent)? These forms hath the Devil used to support his
blasphemy against heavenly things, to destroy with destruction
things upon earth, to encompass the whole world, taking cap
tive right and left all such as lend an ear to his seductions."
V. "
ABRAXAS
"
ETYMOLOGY OF.
Of this "Great Name," many etymologies have been pro

Of all these the most satisfactory is perhaps the one
posed.
offered by Eabbi Abraham Geiger, making it the Grecised
form of Ha-Brachah, "The Blessing." For there is good reason
for believing that the of SH, which explains
Z had the sound
"
the strange metamorphoris of the Persian Artashir into "
"
Artaxerxes." By the same rule the Kabbi interprets the

talismanic EAZAI as representing El-Chai, The Living God."
"
The same interpretation is again confirmed by the true solution

(so long sought
in vain, and now suggested by Mr. W. A.
Wright) of the mighty spell abracadabra, which receives a
most fitting sense when rendered by Ha-Brachah-dabarah,

"
Pronounce the Blessing stands for the

Blessing," where "
"
name of the Blessed One, that most potent of exorcisms.

Another derivation, extremely acute, but probably untenable,
had been previously offered by Bellermann in the Coptic com
pound signifying
"
The Blessed Name," made of the word ab or
o/,
"
let it be," Bali,

"
adore," and Sax for Sadsh, "
name." This
formula would agree in a remarkable manner with the regular
Jewish synonym for the Ineffable Name Jehovah, viz., shem
Hamephorash, The Holy Word which the Rabbins compress
"
"
into "
The Name or The Word." It is, besides, a singular

"
"
coincidence that the Egyptian word Abrak should be used by

Moses (Gen. xli. 43), where Pharaoh commands that Joseph
shall ride in his own chariot, and that they shall cry before
him Abrak, "
kneel down where the Coptic word is actually

!
"
retained in the Hebrew text, and not rendered by an equivalent

in that language.* A precedent for expressing a sacred title
in an unknown tongue is furnished by St. John (Rev. xix. 12) :
"
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and upon his head were many
crowns, and he had a name written (upon them) that no man
knew but himself and he was clothed in a vesture dipped in :
blood, and his name was called The Word of God." And
again (iii. 12) :
"
He that overcometh will I make a pillar in the

Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will
write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the City
of my God."
All this supplies a reason for the occurrence of the word

dbra in so many sacred titles. A very remarkable instance is to
be seen in the wall-painting of the tomb of Vincentius and Yibia,
in the Catacomb of Preetextatus at Eome. Now this Vincentius
is described in his epitaph as priest of Sabazius, a title connected
with the lao-worship and the name Abracura is inscribed ;
over the head of the consort of Dispater, the two Kulers of the
Shades into whose presence Vibia s soul is ushered by Hermes.
In the first title, cur a is plainly the Latinised Kovprj Virgin,
*
Sharpe, however, makes Abrasax deity represented on the gein.
si
pure Egyptian phrase, signifying ( Egypt. Mythol.* p. xii.)
"
Hurt me not," as addressed to the

the regular synonym for Proserpine, whilst Abra seems to have

the same deeper meaning in which it was employed by the
talisman-makers.
The Mystic Name is set forth in the Book
of Enoch
efficacy of a
(Ixviii. 19) :
"
This is the Number of the Kesbal, the principal

which the Most High dwelling in glory revealed
part of the oath
unto the holy ones. Its name is Beka: He spoke to holy
Michael to deliver to them the Secret Name, that they might
understand that secret name and thus remember the oath and ;
that those who pointed out every secret thing to the children
of men might tremble at that Name and oath. This is the
and And he
power of that oath, for powerful is it strong.
established the oath of Abrac the instrumentality of the
by
of this oath, and by it
holy Michael. These are the secrets
were they confirmed. Heaven was suspended by it before
the world was made for ever. By it has the earth been framed
of the hills the
upon the flood, whilst from the concealed parts
forth from the creation unto the end
agitated waters proceed
of the world. this oath the sea has been formed and the
By
foundation of it. ... By this oath the sun and moon complete
their progress, never swerving from the command given to them
for ever and ever. By this oath the stars complete their progress.
And when their names are called they return an answer for
ever and ever . . . And with them he establishes this oath by
wnich. their paths are preserved, nor does their progress perish.
Great was their joy."
VI. ABRAXAS ITS NUMERICAL FORCE.
To find outsome deep mystery expressed by the numerical

value of the letters in a name is the grand foundation of the
famous science of the Kabbala. Although the Jewish Talnmd-
of the discovery, it is but
ists nowengross all the honour
consistent with the known character of that very uninventive
race to suspect that they borrowed the first notion from a

the real fountain-head of all their
foreign source Chaldrca,
The earliest instance that can be quoted
spiritual knowledge.
of this way of expressing a name is St. John s so much dis

cussed Number of the
"
Beast,
"
employed to screen from

vulgar curiosity some dangerous secret. What though its
analysis has supplied good Protestants like Bishop Newton
with a deadly weapon (in their own eyes) against the Pope,
after the sum total has been reduced into its integrals Aareivos ;
yet a prosaic non-controversialist will be more inclined to

suspect that the Kabbalistic number shrouds the name of some
potentate of the times who had happened to make himself
especially formidable to the beholder of the Vision.* But the
titles lao, Abraxas, and the like, instead of being recent Gnostic
inventions, were in all likelihood recognised
Holy Names," and
"
borrowed from the most ancient religions of the East. Pliny

must be alluding to something of the sort when he mentions
with a sneer the miraculous powers ascribed by the Magi to
amethysts engraved with ihenames of the Sun and Moon names
certainly from the nationality of his authorities not inscribed
in either the Greek or the Latin In the Shemesh "
tongue.
Eilam,"
"
Adoiiai,"
"
Abraxas
"
of these talismans we may rea
sonably recognise the words of power referred to by the great

naturalist.
The Alexandrine Greeks, proceeding upon the axiom that
things equal to the same thing are equal to one
"
another,"
spied out the sacred number 365 in many Holy Names, and
thus proved the identity of the several personages, so denomi
nated, with one another. To give a few examples the same :
sum obtained by adding up the numerals in Mei#pas and in

is
A/fyao-a and whether we interpret the latter as

;
Blessing
"
"
or Holy Word," both are equally applicable to the Persian

"
god. Again, the Egyptians, says Heliodorus (Êth. ix. 22),

discovered the same value in NeiAos, appellation of that earliest
god and father of their land, entitled in their hymns Horus also,
properly the name of the Sun.j In the new-coined religions
of Egypt, other and stranger mysteries were extracted out of
* Who expressly tells us that certain person. The Hebrew cha-

number is the number of a Caesar Nero
"
"
his racters representing "
man"; that is, the sum of the produce by addition the required sum.
numerical letters in the name of a f Amongst the many points of
sacred names by following the old process. Kircher publishes

a gem inscribed XNOYMIZ
PI, and supposes, with much apparent
reason, the last syllable to be added in order to make up a

sum equivalent to xpurros = 1480. That most ingenious of the
Gnostics, Marcus, based his whole system upon these numerical
deductions. According to him, the Saviour calls himself A and
fi, because these letters stand for 801, which is the sum of those
in the Dove, assumed in virtue thereof for the vehicle
Trepto-repa,
of the Holy Ghost. But the profoundest mystery that rewarded
his researches is the fact, certainly a very curious coincidence,
that all the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet added together yield
the exact number of the Name Lycrovs = 888. But his own
"
"
words well deserve to be

quoted (Hip. vi. 50) Now Jesus had :
"
this ineffable origin. From the Mother of all things the First
Tetrad, proceeded another Tetrad, and there was an Ogdoad,
whence proceeded the Decad, so there were Eighteen." The
Decad therefore having come together with the Ogdoad, after that
it had decoupled the same, produced the number
Eighty. And
again after that it had decoupled the Eighty it begot the number
which is Eight hundred, so that the whole number of the
from the Ogdoad according to the Decad is
letters proceeding
eight hundred and eighty and eight the same is Jesus. For
the Name Irjcrovs by the value of its letters is the number 888.
And, verily, the alphabet of the Greeks has eight monads, and
eight decads, and eight hundreds, producing the number 888,
which is made up by all the numbers, the same is Jesus. For
this cause doth He call himself A and fi, to set forth his
generation from the All." At first sight it will strike the

reader, accustomed only to Arabic numerals, as a work of
incredible laboriousness to discover numerical values, so aptly
tallying in different words, of totally different components.

But the difficulty was in truth much less than it appears. The
Greek, accustomed perpetually to use the letters of his alphabet
close connexion between Hindoo and observes Pliny (xxxv. 36),

sirnilis,"
Egyptian Mythology is the name of speaking of a picture by Nealces of a

the sacred river, so nearly re- naval battle upon that river. The
sembling the Sanscrit nil, Arabs still distinguish its upper con-
"
blue,"
referring to the remarkable colour of fluents as the Blue and the White
its waters. In Nilo cujus aquaiww
"
Nile.
indifferently as symbols of number and of sounds, perceived the

two forces at the same glance in every word that caught his
eye, and easily estimated the total value of each proper name,
more especially when he made it his business to attend to such
coincidences. The same operation would be equally familiar
to ourselves were our "Arabic" numerals
exchanged for the
first Eoman alphabet, instead of being what
ten letters of the
they are, the ancient Palmyrene somewhat modified by the

wear of ages and a long course of travel.
The use of the Numerical Value of Names is remarkably ex
emplified by a Midrash, which makes the 318 men of Abraham s
household, with whom

he defeated the Five Kings, to be no
more than his one servant, Eliezer, the numeral letters in whose
name exactly make up that sum a coincidence, though acci
dental, truly astonishing !
That genuine Gnostic, Dante, employs with great effect

this numerical expressionof a Name in that most mystical
prophecy with which his Purgatorio closes :
"
Ch io
veggio certamente, e perb il narro,
A darne tempo gia stelle propinque,
Sicuro d ogni intoppo e d ogni sbarro,
Nel qual un Cinquecento-dieci-c-cinque,
Messo di Dio, ancidera la fuia,
E quel gigante che con lei delinque."
(Canto xxxiii. 40-45.)
The interpretation whereof is found in the word DVX formed

out of the Eoman letters, and applying to the "General"
of the Ghibelline League, from whom such

great things were
expected by the poet for the chastisement of the and Papacy
the restoration of the Imperial power.
FIG. 11.
THE ABRAXAS RELIGION.

That most philosophic of the Fathers, Hippolytus, commences
his account of the systems of Basilides and his successors with
this ingenious and appropriate simile :
"
It behoves all their
hearers, as they see that the doctrines of these heretics are like
unto a sea tossed into waves by tho fury of the winds, to sail bv
them without heeding them, and to look out for the
tranquil
harbour for themselves. For that sea of theirs is both full of
monsters, and difficult to traverse, and be likened unto the
may
Sicilian wherein are the fabled Cyclops, Charybdis and
Scylla
. . and the rock of the Syrens which the Grecian
poets tell
how Ulysses sailed it past when he craftily baffled the cruelty
of those inhospitable monsters. For the Syrens singing clear
and musically used to beguile all sailing by,
through the
sweetness of their voice seducing them to come to land
Ulysses .
learning this is said to have stopped with wax the ears of his
crew, and having tied himself fast to the mast in this way
sailed past the Syrens and overheard all their
song. Which
same thing it is my advice that all who fall in with these
seducers should do, and either to stop his ears, on account of his
own weakness, so to sail by unheeded the doctrines of heresies,
without even listening to things too easily capable of
seducing
him by their sweetness, like the melodious Syrens
song, or else
faithfully binding himself fast to the Tree of Christ to listen to
them without being shaken, putting his trust in that whereunto
he hath been tied, and stand fast without wavering."
The Abraxas Deity, his nature and form already
titles,
having been discussed, it remains now to give a sketch of his

great Apostle and his doctrines. To begin with the earliest
notice of them
Clemens Alexandrinuslived in the same
city, and in the
same century, with Basilides, the reputed founder of the
Abraxas religion. During some years of that period
they were
contemporaries, and it is more than probable that Clemens
was personally acquainted with Basilides he a being very
remarkable personage of his times. On this account Clemens
s
testimony to the character of the Basilidan doctrine deserves

infinitely more reliance than
the statements of the later
Fathers whilst at the same time he passes a more judicious,
;
and also a more favourable judgment upon its nature. He

describes the system as consisting in a constant attention to the
soul, and intercourse with the Deity considered as the fountain

of universal Love. In his own words,
"
The Basilidan doctrine

consists of two parts ;
the first part busies itself with divine
things, and considers what is the First Cause through which all,
and without which nothing is made ; of what constitution are the
things that pervade, or include, each other : the forces which

exist in Nature, arid unto what they tend. The other part
relates to things human, as to what things be
is Man what ;
consistent or inconsistent with his Nature, what he has to do

and to suffer. In this department Basilides includes Virtue and
Vice; what is Good, what is Evil, and what is Indifferent."
In short we are here reminded of a description of a Buddhist

missionary. The amiable but fanciful Clemens, whose own
Christianity was no more than a graft upon the congenial stock
of his original Platonism, could see very little to blame in the
transcendental speculations of Basilides. In his eyes the latter
was not a heretic, that is, an innovator upon the accepted
doctrines of the Catholic Church, but only a theosophic specu
latorwho sought to express old truths by new formulae, and
perhaps to combine the same with the new faith, the divine
authority of which he was able to admit without renouncing
his own creed precisely as is the case with the learned
Hindoos of our own day.
But drawn by the
far different is the picture of Basilides, as
pen of bigoted orthodoxy in the two next centuries, after his

doctrines had been taken up and carried out to monstrous
precision by the swarms

of semi-Christian sects that sprung up
in the very bosom of the Church. These notices are subjoined in

chronological order, for they give in a few words the grand
features of the perfected system. Hippolytus has left an
excellent analysis of the Basilidan doctrine, well deserving of
caceful study, although it is hard to see how it bears out the
assertion at the opening, that this heretic took his entire system
ready made from Aristotle, with his genus, species and individual,
but pretended to have received the same from St. Matthew, who
had communicated to him the esoteric doctrines which he alone
had received from Christ when on earth. The philosophic
Bishop, however, mild in censure; nay, seems rather capti
is
vated by the ingenuity of the Alexandrine mystic. But

Tertullian, with no sense of the beauty of a clover piece of
sophistry, launches out like a true African barrister After :
"
this, Basilides the heretic broke loose. Ho asserted that there

was a Supreme God named Abraxas, by whom was created
Mind whom the Greeks call Nous. From Mind proceeded the
Word, from the Word, Providence; from Providence, Virtue
and Wisdom from these two again, Virtues, Principalities and
;
Powers were made ; from these infinite productions and emissions

of Angels. By these Angels the 365 heavens were created.
Amongst the lowest Angels, indeed, and those who made this
world, he sets last of all the god of the Jews, whom he denies
to be God, affirming that he is one of the Angels." Similarly
the still later Jerome has (Amos III.) :
"
So Basilides, who called

Almighty God by the portentous name of Abraxas, saying that
the same word according to Greek numeration, and the sum of
his annual revolution, are contained in the circle of the Sun,
whom the heathen taking the same amount but expressed in
different numerical letters call Mithras; him whom the simple
Iberians worship under the names of Balsamus (Baal-samen,
Lord of heaven") and Barbelus
"
Son of Baal And that this (" ").
wondrous Abraxas had long before been applied to the

title
Sun-god in the formula of The Mysteries may be inferred

from various incidental allusions of ancient writers. Thus
Theosebius the philosopher (says Photius, in his Life of
Isidorus ) drove a devil out of a woman by merely invoking
over her "
the Eays of the Sun, and the Name of the God of the
Plebrews." The same explanation is much supported by the
words of Augustine :
"
Basilides asserted the number of heavens

to be 365, the number of the days in the year. For this
reason he used to glorify a Holy Name, as it were, that is the
word Abraxas, the letters in which, taken according to the
Greek method of computation, make up this number."
s 2
The Basil idan doctrine of

"
Emanation
"
was greatly refined

upon by Valentinus, whose muster-roll of the celestial hierarchy
shall be given in proper place. its Suffice it here to observe that
the entire theory resembles the Brahminical for in that theogony ;
each Manifestation of the One Supreme Being, regarded by the

the
vulgar as a separate self-existing deity, has a female partner
exact counterpart of himself, through whom, as through an
instrument, he exerts his power to express which doctrine this
other half is styled his Durga, "Active Virtue." This last
in all the Gnostic lists of
name, "Virtue," actually figures
Emanations and the great Êon,
;
Pistis- Sophia, in her second
perpetually upbraids herself for having quitted

"
"
Confession
to go in
her male 2v?vô?, partner, in her proper habitation,
quest of the Supernal Light whilst she equally reproaches

:
him for not descending into Chaos to her aid. The system of
Dualism, in fact, pervades the whole of that wondrous revelation.
Brahminical inspiration is possible in many other points of the
doctrine of Basilides, as will appear by the following extracts
from Irenfeiis whoso judgment was not warped, like that of
from the
Hippolytus, by the mania for deriving his system
Aristotelian. Basilides (according to him) lived at Alexandria
under Trajan and Hadrian (the first half of the second century),
and commenced life as a student of the Oriental Gnosis an
the source of that philosophy.
epithet sufficiently indicating
Being converted to Christianity he attempted, like many others,
to combine his new faith with his old, for the explanation of
things both spiritual and natural.

To do this he invented a
terminology and In the promulgation

symbolism of his own.
of his peculiar notions concerning God and the Divine attributes
the Word, the Creation, the Emanation of spirits and worlds,
the Architect of the universe, and the multifarious forces of
Nature he took the same road with his contemporary Satur-
ninus in Syria. His system was a combination of Christian,
entire com
Jewish, Persian and Egyptian notions, but the
the spirit of the Oriental Gnosis.
position was moulded by
These tenets their author zealously promulgated. For many
he in the school of Alexandria; he was also a
taught
years
most prolific
writer. Clemens says he published twenty-four
volumes of "
interpretations upon the Gospels," besides "
Odes"
and "Spiritual Songs"; all of which have perished. The

doctrines he thus disseminated his contemporary Irenseuw
represents in the following manner :
"
Basilides in order to invent

something more refined and
plausible in the Gnostic speculative philosophy pushed his
investigations even into the Infinite. He asserted that God,
the uncreated eternal Father, first
brought forth Nous or Mind ;
and Mind, the Logos, Word this in turn, Phronesis,

Intelligence ;
;
whence came forth Sophia, Wisdom, and Dynamis,

Strength."
IreneBus understands Basilides as making a Quiuternion of
Beings or Personal Intelligences external to the Godhead : but
Bellermann with more reason takes them as signifying
personi
fied attributes of the
Supreme forms of his working internally
and externally. According to this explanation Basilides would
only have borrowed his system from the Kabbala it is however ;
equally likely that he drew the whole from a much more distant
source, and that his "
Uncreated
"
and "
Quinterniou
"
stand in
truth for the First Buddha and the successive Five.
When the uncreated eternal Father beheld the corruption
"
of mankind, he sent his Firstborn, Nous, into the world in the

form of Christ, for the redeeming of all that believe in him out
of the power of those who fabricated the world the namely,
Demiurgus and his Six sons, the planetary Genii. Nous
appeared amongst men as the Man Jesus, and wrought miracles.
This Christ did not die in person, but Simon the reman, to Cy
whom he lent his bodily form, suffered in his stead inasmuch ;
as the Divine Power, the Nous of the Eternal Father, is not
corporeal, and therefore cannot die. Whoso therefore maintains

that Christ has died is still the bondman of Ignorance, but
whoso denies the same, he is a freeman, and hath understood the
purpose of the Father." From this tenet the Basiiidans

got
the opprobrious title of
"
Docetae
"
(Illusionists). Similarly the

pious Brahmins explain away all such of their legends as are
inconsistent with our notions of divine dignity by making them
all "Maya" (illusion). The same is also the doctrine of the
Koran (Cap. iv.) upon this point
for that they have :
"
And
not believed upon Jesus, and have spoken against Mary a
grievous calumny, and

have said, Verily we have slain Christ
slew him
Jesus, the Son of Mary, the apostle of God ; yet they
neither crucified him, but he was represented by one in his
not,
likeness and verily they were disagreed concerning him, were
;
in a doubt as to this matter, and had no true knowledge thereof,

but followed only an uncertain opinion. They did not really
kill him, but God took him up unto himself, and God
is mighty
and wise."
to a remarkable degree
The system just described coincides
with the Brahniinical, where the First Principle produces in
succession the Five Powers Mahasiva, Sadasiva, Kudra, Vishnu
and Brahma who are held by some for mere attributes of
sense for
the Godhead ; by others are taken in a materialistic
.Ether, Air, Fire, Water, Earth. But possibly, as Mosheim so
whole Gnostic system is derived, not

long ago maintained, the
from the Kabbala, nor from the Greek philosophy, but from the
theosophy of the Brahmins.
Another circumstance in the Basilidan practice, mentioned by
Iveimeus, will receive abundant illustration
from the study of
these talismans. Furthermore the sect have invented proper
"
names for these Angels, and class them under the first, second,
third heavens, and so on. Besides this, they endeavour to
andÊons of their pretended
explain the names, origin, powers,
oOo heavens similarly they give its own name to the terrestrial
sphere, which they say the saviour (whom they call Kavlacav)
has visited, and then abandoned. Who understands this
rightly and knows
the Êoiis with their respective names, the
same shall be invisible unto, and beyond the power of, those
zEons, in the same manner as the Saviour
Kavlacav himself
was. As the Son of God remained unknown in the World, so
n. ust also the disciple of Basilides remain unknown to the
rest ofmankind, as they know all this, and nevertheless must

conduct themselves
liveamongst strangers, therefore must they
towards the rest of the world as beings invisible and unknown.
Hence their motto, Learn to know all, but keep thyself un
the
known, and they are accustomed to deny
for this cause
fact of their being Basilidans. Neither can they be detected as

to all
Christian heretics, because they assimilate themselves
sects. Their secret constitution however is known to but a

few,
perhaps to one in a thousand or two in ten thousand. The
local situation of their 365 heavens
they parcel out just like
land-surveyors. Their doctrine is contained in a sacred book,
and likewise in Symbolic Figures. The
Supreme Lord, the Head
of all things,
they call Abrasax, which name contains the
number 365."
So much virtue being involved in a

perfect knowledge of the
names of the Êons, it would be unpardonable not to
subjoin them,
as far as they can
possibly be procured at present and, the follow
ing may be taken for their most authoritative roll-call, having
been drawn up by Valentinus himself, the
profoundest doctor
of the Gnosis, and who had elaborated to the
highest degree
the system first sketched out by Basilides. He
arranges them
in pairs, male and female, in the order of their successive
emanation from Bythos, the pre-existing, eternal

Principle.
The number of pairs is fifteen, or the sacred number Five three
times repeated. Their names, it will be seen, are Hebrew
words,
the va preceding some of the female powers
being merely the
copulative "and." Matter supposes Valentinus to have been
of Jewish origin, although bo.rn at Alexandria. Tertullian
states that he was first of all a Platonist, then a convert to
Christianity, but having been disappointed in his aspirations

to a bishopric he founded a religion of his own.
1. Ampsiu, Ouraan = Depth, Silence.
2. Bucua, Thurtun = Mind, Truth.
3. Ubucua, Thardedia = Reason, Life.
4. Metaxas, Artababa Man, Church.
r
5.
|Udua, Casten
1_ = /-, /. ,
Comforter, Faith.
( Udu, Vacastene
6. Amphian, Essumen Fatherly, Hope.
7. Vannanin, Larner = Motherly, Charity.
8. Tarde, Athames = Eternal, Intelligence.
9. Susua, Allora = Light, Beatitude.
10. Bucidia, Damadarah = Eucharistic, Wisdom.
11. Allora, Damnio = Profundity, Mixture.
12. Oren, Lamaspechs = Unfading, Union.
13. Amphiphuls, Emphsboshbaud = Self-born, Temperance.
14. Assiouache, Belin = Only begotten, Unity.
15. Dexariche, Massemo = Immovable, Pleasure.
Epiphauius has evidently copied one pair (5) twice over*

misled by a slight difference of spelling, and thus adds one pair

to the proper fifteen.
It will be very instructive to compare this Valentinian
male
system of Emanation, which makes all to proceed in pairs,
and female, out of the First Cause, with that Indian theosophy
Avhich this very feature indicates as its real source, in the latter,
each
every Principle is divided into a male and female Energy,
exactly alike the other the same, distinguished by their
"
sex alone." Each deity exerts his power through the agency
of his female Principle or Sacti, which in turn possesses a Vahan
vehicle," that is an instrument

"
or attribute, which is fixed

and represented in a material form. Of the Persons in the
*
Supreme Triad the Sactis and their Vahans are :
1. Of Brahma, Saraswati, goddess of harmony and the arts (the

Jewish Wisdom^) ;
her vahan is a swan, or goose. (Hence Juno s
Capitoline bird, afterwards explained by an historical fiction.)

2. Of Vishnu, Lakshmi, goddess of Prosperity, she has the
her vahan is Garuda, the man-

"
title of Kamala,
"
lotus-bearer ;
eagle. Vishnu in one Avatar takes the name Varaha," and "
his consort
"
Vanihi," in which case her vahan is a buffalo.

3. Of Siva, the Changer or Destroyer, the Sacti is Bhavani,
goddess of fecundity, and consequently of death, for the first

im
plies the second "Nascentes morimur, finisque
ab origine pendet."
Nothing perishes, things only take a new form called by the
ignorant Death. (Compare the title Gods of death," which "
the Ophites were so fond of giving to the Gods of the "
Nativity,"
the astral genii ruling the horoscope). Bhavani s
appropriate vehicles are the Bull, emblem of generation, and
the Tiger, of destruction.
And before going further I cannot resist observing how these
names and symbols manifest the far-spreading influence of the
nations they embody. The Sassanian queens in their gem
* It even be Elders had their prototypes in the
might suggested
that Indian influence shines through Saints to the same number of the
the whole Apocalypse. The Four Buddhist theology the sea of glass
;
"
Beasts (borrowed it is true from the the vast crystal block

"
or crystal is
First Vision of Ezekiel) are these suspended in the highest heaven, the
Vahans, ministers of the Divine Will. shrine of the Supreme Being ab- ;
Later times assigned each to an sjrption into whom is the true object
evangelist. The Foui -and-twenty of the believer.
THE GNOSTICS AND THETR REMAINS. 265
**
Varanes
"
portraits generally bear the lotus in the hand,* is
a common name for the kings of that line, and the Brahminic
Bull, the commonest of all signet devices with their subjects.
But as the dominions of the later Persian kings extended as
far as the Indus, Hindoo princesses doubtless entered their
harems and communicated their own religion to their children.
Again, many of these Sanscrit titles bear a resemblance,

certainly not accidental, to words frequently occurring in the
Gnostic inscriptions. Thus, Sumitri," wife of Vishnu in his
"
seventh Avatar explain ^vâpra and Natha," a

"
may ; title
of Vishnu and Crishna, the equally common Navrtra ;

"
Isa,"
lord, feminine, perhaps even the origin of

"Isi," lady, is
Isis ; and
Nila,"
"
dark-blue, and epithet of Parvati, is more

appropriately transferred to Father Nilus. Vishnu in infancy
Narayana floating in his Vat," leaf boat over the face of the
"
as
waters, and coloured all over blue, may be compared to the child
Horns wafted in the The ancient of all creeds having,
baris. ra< >st
as above shown, made

the lotus the symbol of Plenty, the
reason becomes obvious for the introduction of its seed-vessels,
always mistaken for poppyheads, amongst the wheatears in

the cornucopia of Ceres.
The above quoted ^vâpra seems have been applied by
to
the Gnostics to the Sun-god, for Montfancon gives (PL 157)

a figure of Sol so inscribed, with ^pov(3i on the reverse, a
manifest invocation to all the angelic host. And as the pro
tection of this celestial hierarchy is so perpetually sought by
our talisman-makers in their voluntary humility and wor-
"
"
shipping of angels," I subjoin the names of the Hindoo Guardians

of the Jehabs," quarters of the world, which may perhaps lurk
"
in their Grecised form amongst these interminable strings of

titles.
E. Indra. N.W. Vayu.
S.E. Agni. N. Kuvera.
S. Yama. N.E. Jsaua.
S.W. Nirriti. Above. Brahma.
W. Varuna. Below. Xaga.
Of the centre, Kudra.
*
In the character of Kaiii.ila, as the later Greek, aud the Roman ladies in
that of Isis.
206 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR llEMAINS.
THE INEFFABLE NAME IN THE HINDOO FOEM.
We have already heen how inportant a part the notion of an

Ineffable denoting the inconceivable Supreme, plays
"
Name,"
in the machinery of the Gnosis, and here again the original idea
is to be found fully developed in the practice of the Brahmins.
This awful name emblazoned in three Sanscrit letters within a
cartouche formed by a coiled serpent (that normal inclosure for
a Holy Name in Gnostic art) * is fittingly borne up by the
elephant headed Ganesa, god of Wisdom. The word being

triliteral is rather AUM than OM, as usually written in English.
It is never to be uttered aloud, but only mentally by the devout.

Of the characters, A signifies the Creator, U the Preserver, M
the Destroyer ;
that is, the Triad Brahma- Vishnu-Siva. "
If
pronounced aloud, the sound much resembles Amen as drawled out

by a country parish clerk. In fact it is used for "
Augiekar,"
So Le it ! Moor, Hindoo Pantheon). f
in token of approbation (**
And here a very curious analogy is to be pointed out in the

assertion of the Talmudists that the word Amen if shouted aloud
is of power to open the gates of Heaven. In the Pistis-Sophia
the "
Three Ainen," and again the Four Amen," are repeatedly

"
mentioned amongst the other Mysteries revealed by the Saviour

in his esoteric teaching. On this account the word may be
* As and that the whole life of man is
the Pistis-Sophia informs
us,
"
the disk of the sim was a great not sufficient to measure its depth
dragon having his tail in Irs mouth," and extent. Knox ( Overland through
the meaning of this figure whereon Asia ) describes the ruined "
Monas-
the sacred word is emblazoned be- tery of Eternal Eepose," built at the
comes sufficiently obvious. junction of the Augoou with the
tOMMANIPADHVM "
Glorifi- Amoor by an emperor of the Yuen

cation of the Deity,"
is the Thibetian dynasty to commemorate his visit to
Confession of Faith, engraved on that region. On the summit of the
stone tablets
up everywhere set cliffare three columns, 5 to 8 feet
over the country; and everlastingly high of marble granite, and porphyry
chanted by the Lamas as they tell and granite, bearing inscriptions
their beads. (Cooper s Travels of a commemorating this foundation, and
Pioneer, p. 208). Hue mentions that also this formula in Chinese, Mon-
tho Lamns assert that the doctrine golian and Thibetan,
contained in these words id immense,
suspected to have some connexion with the Hindoo Sacred

Name, unless indeed Valentinus had got it nearer home,
from the four Amenti," guardians of the dead, and sons of
"
Osiris. The common explanation that "
Amen "
signifies Truth
in some Eastern dialect, does not seem to rest on good founda
tion. The Kabbalist Marcus discovered a great mystery in
Ajar/i/,
taken numerically, the number Ninety-nine became
formed by the union of the Eleven and the Nine and therefore
set forth by the parables of the piece of silver, and the ninety
and nine sheep, "
which is the reason why we use amen in
prayers."
Other Hindoo titles of the Deity are

"
Tat
"
and "
Sat
"
= Virtue.
These are recognisable in the Egyptian gods Tat or Hermes,
and Sate, Truths. It is likewise more than probable that the
mighty AUM itself often lies enshrouded amidst the lines of
vowels filling Certainly the Praun calcedony
our talismans.
one side the Delphic Apollo in a good
011
(No. 517) bearing
style of art, or the other (by a later hand) a man dancing with
his apron filled with fruits, presents in its legend Trupo-Traiooo
aov/j, oA.et,
the Sanscrit triliteral in the only form in which
Greek characters could express the sound.
The origin of this Ineffable Name is thus related ( Inst. Menu. 4
ii.
370) Brahma milked out as it were from the three Vedas the
letter A, the letter U, and the letter M ; together with the three
mysterious words Bhur," Swar," or Earth, Sky
" "
"
Bhavah,"
and Heaven. From the three Vedas also the Lord of Creation,
incomprehensibly exalted successively milked out the three
Treasures of the ineffable text, beginning with the word Tat,
"
and entitled the Savatri," or Gayatri. A priest who shall know

"
the Veda, and pronounce to himself both morning and evening

that syllable and that holy text preceded by the Three words
shall attain that sanctity which the Veda confers and a twice
"
born
"
man who shall a thousand times repeat those Three apart

from the multitude, shall be released in a month even from a
great offence, as a snake
from its slough. The Three great
immutable words preceded by the Triliteral syllable and
followed by the Gayatri which consists of three measures, must
be considered as the mouth, or principal part of the Veda." In
268 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIK REMAINS.
this doctrine lies the very origin of all talismanic

inscriptions,
for their essence is the
stringing together of sacred names. Nay
more, the actual Three words, disguised by Coptic pronunciation,
or purposely sealed from profane eyes by a
duplication of vowels,
very probably exist in the midst of certain Gnostic formula?.
In the spell of Battus, hereafter to be quoted, words of the same
senhe as the Hindoo Three do in
reality occur.
The Gayatii or holiest verse of the Vedas is Let us adore :
"
the supremacy of the Divine Sun, the Godhead, who illuminates

all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, unto whom all
must return, whom we invoke to direct our progress aright in
our progress towards the Holy Seat." Another is Earth, Sky, ;
"
Heaven Let us meditate upon that most excellent

;
Light and
Power, of that most generous, sportive, and resplendent Sun, that
it may guide our intellects." In all this there is something
that irresistibly reveals the Gnostic invocations whenever
they
can be interpreted, and the "
Divine Sun "
finds its counterpart

in the "
Shemesh Eilani "
so perpetually repeated.
This Gayatri is contained in the confession of faith of the
Brahmin. This new and excellent praise of thee O,
"
splendid
playful Sun (Pushan) is offered by us to thee. Be gratified
by this niy speech: approach this craving mind as a fond man
seeks a woman. May that Sun who contemplates and looks
into all worlds be our Protector ! Let us meditate on the
adorable light of the Divine Kuler
(Savitri) may it guide our ;
intellects. Desirous of food we solicit the gift of the

splendid
Sun, who should be studioufly worshipped. Venerable men,
guided by the understanding, salute ihee, Divine Sun, with
oblations and praise."
Moor hereupon makes the very pertinent remark: -

It is
difficult to conjecture why this text should be so

studiously kept
secret, for its exposition, unconnected with any idea of mystery,
and affectation of profundity, does not appear
likely to have the
effect so dreaded by all priests of the intellect of man
guiding
kind to the discovery of Truth."
As already remarked our Gnostic formulae when expressed in
Greek have a spirit and a rhythm that strikes the ear as the echo
of these primitive invocations; witness the legend upon the
plasma described by Creuzor (Archool. iii. last plate). Within

the serpent- formed cartouche is an inscription of many lines, the
first half an undecypherable
medley of letters, which like Marcus
thirty syllabic appellation of the Supreme Tetrad, must express
the name of the Unknown God, who in the following portion is
invoked as :
"
The Primal Father, incorporeal, pervading all

things, self-existing, the seal of Solomon :
"
then come more

mystic epithets ending with "
lion-headed," evidently the

Mithrnic figure of that kind. The declaration that the unknown
the Seal of Solomon
"
"
is
legend extremely interesting, as is
showing the early date of the celebrity attained by that most

famous of talismans which, be it remembered, was reported to
;
derive its virtue from the mighty throne of God engraven on

the gem.
Many further analogies between the two theosophies may be

detected in the Hindoo forms of worship published by Moor.
Of the Persons in the Supreme Triad, P>rahma represents the
Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer. But
the last ismore truly the Changer, all death being only change.
Siva therefore in one of his characters becomes identified with
Yama, god of the Shades. Now, seeing that the first two
Persons are symbolised by the elements Fire and Water, the
analogy of the Hellenic Triad, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, becomes

at once apparent. Here also we find the originals of the "
Great
TpiSwa/xt5," who hold so high a place in the hierarchy of the
Pistis-Sophia.
The famous Inscription of Buddha-Gaya, Bengal, dated the
year 1005 of the era of Yikramaditya (B.C. 57) contains this
remarkable passage Amaradiva [son of Sandracottus] having
:
"
heard this voice caused an image of the Supreme Spirit, Buddha,

to be made; and he worshipped it, according to the law, with
perfumes, incense, and the like, and he thus admired [magnified]

the Name of that Supreme Being, an Incarnation of a portion
of Vishnu. Eeverence be unto thee in the form of Buddha ;
reverence be unto thee, Lord of the Earth Reverence be unto !
thee an Incarnation of the Deity, and the Eternal One;

Reverence be unto thee God, in the form of the God of Mercy,
the Dispeller of pain and trouble, the Lord of all things, the
the
Deity who overcomes the sins of the Kali yug (Imn Age),
Guardian of the universe, the emblem of Mercy towards all them
that sue thee OM, the Possessor of all things in vital form,
Thou art Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa (Siva) Thou art the ;
Lord of the universe Thou art the proper form of all things,*
;
moveable and immoveable, the Possessor of the whole. And

thus I adore thee. Eeverence be unto thee the Bestower of
Salvation ;
Eeverence be unto thee the Destroyer of the Evil
Spirit, Kesi f ;
Damadara shew me favour Thou art he who !
resteth upon the face of the Milky Ocean, and who lieth upon
the serpent Sesha. Thou art Trivikrama, who at three strides
encompasseth the earth I adore thee, who art celebrated by
;
a
thousand names, and under various forms, in the shape of
Buddha, the God of Mercy be propitious, ;

thou Most High !
Having thus worshipped the Guardian of mankind, he became

like one of the just. He
joyfully caused a holy temple to be
built of a w onderful construction, and therein were set up the
r
Divine Feet of Vishnu, for ever Purifier of the sins of mankind ;
the images of the Pandus, and the Descents of Vishnu (Avatars) ;
and in like manner of Brahma and the rest of the divinities."

(Hind. Panth. p. 223.)
It may here be observed how extensively this symbol of the
Divine Foot has pervaded the religions of the West. Feet either
in relief or in cavo, cut in stone, are common about Hindoo
temples according to tradition they are memorials of suttees,

;
the self-sacrificing widow having mounted from that stone upon

the pyre. This usage supplies the connection of the symbol
with Serapis, the translated Yama, god of Hades. Compare the
colossal Foot dedicated to the Serapis of Alexandria, as his special
attribute, and recently exhumed from the ruins of his temple.J

It is richly sandalled, and on the top sits enthroned the god
himself, with his attendants Cerberus and the Serpent, Tricasa
*
Meaning the pre-existing Type, % The religious importance of the
the Platonic Idea, the Persian Fe- s>
mbol isattested by an Alexandrian
for re-
rouher, the Rabbinical Adam-Karl- coin of Commodus, having
mon springing from this source.
all verse this same Foot, with the bust
f This explains the title of the of Serapis placed on the section of
deity so often put on our talismans,

the leg. (Feuardent, Egypie An-
cienne, pi. xxvii.)-
and Scslia in Grecian

disguise. The same Foot, winged and
girtwith the Serpent placed between two seated lions, is cut on
the altar inscribed Deo
Sarapi M. Vibius Onesimus ex visu
"
"
(Montfaucon, pi. 122). The same idea produced in Ceylon the

print of Adam s foot upon the summit of the Peak, bearing his
name, whence he had ascended to his Creator, and equally,
in the very metropolis of
Christianity, that of Christ himself
stamped in the basalt paving-stone of the Via Appia, still
worshipped in the church and entitled, Domino
1 "
"
vadis quo
An ancient silver plate, found in a pit at Islamabad, at the
northern end of the Bay of Bengal, records the
hallowing of the
site of a projected
temple there in the deposit in that pit of 120
small bronze images called Tahmudas," "
twenty of size, larger

Languda," one large in stone,
"
Langudagari," and a brass

"
vessel containing two of the bones of Thacur." This last title,

"
"
Noble,"* is the regular style of a god, or a deified mortal.

In medieval ecclesiastical usage (which still
probably continues)
it was indispensable for the consecration of
any church altar in a
that a relic (bone) of some Saint should have been
deposited
under its base. The same silver plate contains this account of
the birth and infancy of Buddha. This
coincidence, if acci
dental is
very curious.
"
When Buddha Avatar descended from

the region of souls, and entered the
body of Mahamaya, the
wife of Soontala Danna, Raja of Kailas, her womb suddenly
assumed the appearance of clear transparent which
crystal in
Buddha appeared, beautiful as a flower, kneeling, and
reclining
on his hands. \Vhen born he had on his head two and on
feet,
his hands the marks of wheels. at the Brahma attending
birth received the infant in a golden vessel, and delivered him
unto Indra."
This intimate connection of the

theosophies of India and
Greece was originally (before the period of direct
commerce)
kept up through the medium of the Persian Magi, as the
classical writers themselves show
by casual but trustworthy
allusions. Their notices were till lately reckoned, the amongst
other fictions of "
Graecia Mendax," but better acquaintance

with Sanscrit and Pehlevi records have revealed their truth.
*
Exactly answering to the ancient Dims, the Catholic Saint.
For it is now accepted as certainly proved by the oldest
portions of the Zendavesta (the or hymns) that the

"
Gathas,"
primitive religion of the whole Aryan race, previous to the
great division, was a simple worship of the Powers of Nature.

This religion was reformed by Zoroaster, who retained the
old names for his Angels, but superadded the idea of the One
Supreme.
Ammian in his account of Julian s Persian expedition, gives
the following curious, though oddly blundered, details upon
this subject (xxiii. 0). In these tracts are situated the fertile
"
lands of the Ma<ji [in Media], concerning

whose profession and
pursuits, since we have come upon them, it will be fitting
to give here some brief information. Plato, that greatest

celebrated doctrines, states that the Magian
authority upon
religion, known by this mystic name of Machagestia, is the
most uncorrupted form of worship in things divine. To the

in primitive
philosophy of this religion, Zoroastres, a Bactrian,
times, made additions drawn from the Mysteries of the
many
Chaldeans, as did still later Ilystaspes, a very learned prince,
father of Darius. This King Hystaspes, when he was boldly
penetrating into the unknown regions of Upper India, had come

upon a certain wooded solitude, the tranquil silence of which
is occupied by those incomparable sages, the Brachmans.
Instructed by their teaching in the science of the motions of
the world and heavenly bodies, and also in pure religious rites as
far as he was able to gather them of the notions thus acquired
he transfused a certain proportion into the creed of the Magi.

The latter coupling these doctrines with their own peculiar
science of the future, have handed down the whole
foretelling
through their descendants to succeeding ages. Thenceforth, in

the course of many generations to the present time, a multitude,
dedicates itself to sacred
sprung from one and the same stock,
offices. It is said they preserve unextinguished the Sacred
Fire which fell down from heaven, a portion where

first of all
of used always be carried before the kings of Asia as a good
to
omen. The number persons so descended was at the

of first
but small, and they were exclusively employed by the Persian

It was con-
kings for the performance of religious
services.
sidered a great offence to approach the altar, or to touch the
sacrifice, before a Magus, after reciting the appointed prayers,

had poured upon it the
preliminary libation. But through
gradual increase they are grown into the name and dimensions
of a distinct people, and inhabit
villages unprotected by walls,
being allowed to follow their own laws, being respected on ac
count of their religious character. It was from this race of men
that the seven, as ancient history records,
usurped the Persian
throne upon the death of Cambyses, and were crushed
by the
conspiracy of that Darius who gained the kingdom through the
neighing of his horse." The worthy, but pedantic old soldier,
in his anxiety to show off his historical
reading, has committed
certain very ludicrous blunders in this account. The father of
Darius was no ancient king of Persia," but merely governor of
"
that province (eVapxs) under Cambyses His

(Her. iii. 70).
name, derived from Gushtasp," the planet Venus, was doubt
"
less common enough wherever Magism was the established

religion. And yet more ludicrously does Ammian convert the one
Magian usurper, Smerdis, into seven, the actual number of the

Persian nobles who put him down. Nevertheless, the tradition
has great value, as proving the previous existence of the
Magi
in a community of diviners and seers (like the ancient Jewish
fraternities,
"
Sons of the and the subsequent modi

Prophets,")
fication of their doctrines
by the importation of Brahminical
ideas, following upon the conquest of Indian provinces. Such
being the case, one need not be surprised at finding Sassanian
kings named after Hindoo deities, like the numerous Varancs
(from "Varani," Vishnu s title) just as others of their line

assume that of the proper Persian god, Ormuzd, in the form of
that favourite royal appellation, Hormisdas
(Ahoromasdi).
ABRAXAS-GEMS, THEIR MATERIALS, WORKMAN

SHIP, AND NATURE.
Following the axiom,

"
that the body is more than the

the foregoing chapters have been devoted to the
raiment,"
consideration of the notions which our talismans have invested

with visible form. These visible forms, therefore, their
materials,and manufacture, now come before us for explanation

a wide field for curious research, and extending into many
diverse regions of Archeology.
The genuine Abraxas-gems, that yet fill our cabinets, came
originally for the most part out of Egypt ; others, as their
differing style shows, from Asia ; others again from Syria,

where many Basilidans had established themselves at an early
period. Amongst these philosophising semi-Christian sects the
figure of Abraxas was held in high esteem. They used it
"
in doctrine, in obedience to whom

(says Bellermann) as a Teacher
they directed their transcendental researches and mystic
instruction ;
and a Password amongst the initiated, to
as a Token
show that they belonged to the same fraternity as an Amulet ;
and a Talisman, and lastly as a Seal to their documents."

Gnostic intagli are almost the sole productions of the Glyptic
Art, during the time it was dying out, all through the last two
centuries of the Western Empire, if we except a few rude
figures of the goddess Roma, Victories, and Eagles made for

legionary rings. As may easily be supposed the art displayed
in these designs is at its lowest ebb, being itself a degenerate
successor to the debased Egyptian school of Alexandria.* The

* Their
barbarism, however, is so rude a style that one would have
often in advance of that of their real placed its execution three centuries
period. A
convincing example is later, but for the company in which
the one found in the great treasure- it was found. Another point ot
trove of Tarsus, where the latest interest was its retaining the original
coins went no later than Gordiau III. setting a cable-mounted frame,
with
was a black hematite, with a of the
It four- loop, of massy gold proof
value its
winged, sceptre-holding Êon, reverse placed upon potency.
Venus Anadyomene, with her usual (Franks Collection.)
title APU)PI<J>PACIC, scratched in
engraving seems to have been entirely executed by means of a

coarse wheel, like that
characterising the Sassanian stamp, then
commonly used in Persia, a country which, the was the by bye,
source of many of the ideas expressed in these figures and
inscriptions. The choice Indian Sards, Nicoli, arid
Amethysts
which embellished earlier periods, are
replaced coarser by
materials, the native productions of the countries which had
engendered the new creed, the Jasper of Egypt dark green, or
sometimes mottled with yellow and red, the
Plasma, usually of
bad quality, passing from a into dirty olive-green common
Calcedony, and quite as abundantly the fibrous Hematite more
or less magnetic. Indeed the opaque Jasper and the
Loadstone,
those special materials for signets at the fountains of the
Magic
Art,Egypt and Assyria, had, from time immemorial, engrossed
the reputation of the most
fitting vehicles for talismanic
figures. The former was Pliny s
"opaque, and of
Molochites,
the colour of a mallow leaf, of innate power as an amulet
to protect children;" its black variety was his
Antipatlics,
"
recommended by the Magi as a sure defence witch

against
craft of every kind
"
whilst the ILematite

; is the Persian
Kamhahen, perhaps the true etymology of cameo, a word that
came into Europe in the ages when every engraved stone
passed for a talisman.
So constant is this rule of
unmitigated barbarism that
Gnostic types when found well executed and in fine
stones, as
sometimes is the case, will on examination
always prove to
emanate from the Cinquecento school, a period when
anything
pertaining to Astrology or the Kabala was reproduced in vast
abundance under the impulse of the revived of spirit mystic
speculation. To this and the following century, must be
referred the authorship of those
large jaspers, not unfrequent in
Collections, presenting the terminal figure of Osiris, the field
occupied with astrological cyphers and modem Hebrew letters.

Of these imitations, betraying themselves by their own excel
lence, themost conspicuous was a large
Amethyst, obtained by
me at Florence, engraved with an erect
figure of the hawk-
headed Phre, Priapean, holding the
Cyiiophalus upon his
hand, and standing on the coiled serpent, an intaglio in the
T 2
best Eoman manner, that no era of Gnosticism had been capable

of producing.*
Antique pastes with subjects do not exist, and for a very
sufficient reason. The material of a talisman being quite as
essential to its virtue as the sigil engraved

upon the mystery it ;
whereof the profound Camillo di Leonardo shall hereafter declare
in his own words. Again, the genuine stones were in them

selves so cheap, and the work upon them produced so expedi-
tiously and with so little care, as to leave small temptation for
counterfeiting them in a baser substance. The only exception

that has come under my notice to the inferior quality of the
stones employed by the Gnostic engravers is the singular
Garnet tablet of the Hertz Cabinet, of which a description will
be given in its proper place, when we come to treat of inscrip
tions.
The Lettering of the legenclsf upon these talismans has u

peculiarity of execution
that of itself serves to identify almost
every stone belonging to the Gnostic series. The letters are all
formed by stralyld lines, the O, and T_, being quite square,
,
either from the rudeness of the instrument employed to cut
them, or because want of skill prevented the engraver from

attempting curvilinear characters, to do which neatly requires
the utmost dexterity and long practice, being in fact the most
difficult task that can be demanded from the wheel. For it was
with this newly -in vented instrument, as the equality of their
were faintly
lines demonstrates, that these ill-shaped characters
* Ihad long suspected that the t Stiechel explains the inscrip-
Cmquecento period produced much tion upon the shield borne by an

Gnostic work iti the ruder style, and A b ra xas *^ X
figure, written thus, AAV
at length have obtained proof de- I
more than the customary

monstrative of tLe truth of this
f * that position the fcame lao
suspcon. Amongst a large lot of
th the Sign o the Cross thrice
coarsely-cut Gnostic jaspers of very
attention was repeated (to make up the mystic
recent work, my
number Seven He 4 uoteB
caught by one (an inscription of
>
>
support of this acute explanation

several lines) cut upon a tablet of
that streaky agaet paste so popular B PuUished by Matter,
?
Baring X4>ENECXH ex-
at that period, but quite unknown to W>IX,
Pressing the sound of the Hebrew

tho ancients. The piece had been
highly polished and then engraved
Peni ze ** ri P ia =
healed."
with the wheel the design probably
;
copied from a genuine stone.

traced upon the stone. In all likelihood the same artists were
the Alexandrian glass-workers, famed
long, before for their
engraved vases, Martial s toreumata
"
tepido Nili," for Pliny

uses the significant expression, vitrum, aliud torno
"
teritur,
aliud argenti more caelatur," some glass vessels are cut out by
"
means of the drill, others carved in relief in the same manner as

silver plate."
The z in these inscriptions
is
invariably formed
by drawing a short line across the diagonal of a Z, so that in
rude work, it cannot be distinguished from the latter character.
These inscriptions are often found superadded upon the backs
of gems of much earlier date, evidently for the
purpose of
converting them into talismans. Of such conversions the most
remarkable known to me are, a fine cameo
(Marlborough
Cabinet) a bust of Commodus; on the reverse of which has
been rudely cut the Abraxas-god surrounded
by a legend,
unintelligible though sounding like Greek words.
AOYrENNAIOAEMENAIBAZIAIIKOZ
Another cameo (Royal Cabinet) with the helmeted heads
regardant of Constantino s two elder sons, has received the very
unorthodox addition of Anubis, also surrounded bv a
j & lon<r
legend in huge characters, so barbarous as to defy transcription.

A third (Devonshire Parure, No.
79), a fine head of Hercules,
lapis lazuli, has received the Gnostic baptism by the addition
on the back of a scarabeus -with expanded
wings (recognised
emblem of the Creator), and the word of power ABPAZAZ The .
extremely debased style of all such additions plainly indicates

a period long posterior to that of the
originals; whilst the
position they occupy, necessarily concealed when in use, proves
that the whole object of such improvements was the
supernatural
protection of the wearer.
The finest example of Gnostic conversion is an onyx cameo
(Vienna Cabinet), representing some young Caesar under the
form of Jupiter Axur, standing in front face with the thunder
bolt in his left hand, his right resting on the
sceptre, the eegis
hangs down his back for paludamentum, at his feet the eagle
on one side a trophy with seated captive, hands tied behind all ;
in a good style in low relief. The talisman-maker has cut a

line of square characters, resembling Palmyrene, down each leg

from hipto foot, a nimbus of the same round his head, others on
the field :
and, to make all sure, has covered the back of the
16 lines in the same abstruse lettering. It is care
gem with
fully figured in Arneth
s Cameen des K. K. Cabinettes,
xviii. who suggests Julian for its subject, without con
(PI. 2),
wore a long beard during the
"
sidering that the

"
Philosopher
period when such a representation of him as this was permissible.
Besides, for the two centuries before Julian s times, Serapis was
the only type under which the reigning emperor was allowed
to be complimented, the old Latin Jovis Axur having grown
obsolete. The hero of this apotheosis is much more probably
Titus, or even his brother. The cameo is of respectable dimen
sions, being 2f inches high by 2J wide.
As regards the history of Glyptics these inscribed gems have
a value of their own, as fixing the date when the wheel came
for the minute
generally into use in the engraver s atelier ;
and elegant lettering of earlier times will be found, when

examined with the microscope, to have been incised in the gem
with the diamond point, whence its perfect regularity and
freedom.
Of those Gnostic inscriptions in general, Easpe (Catalogue of
Tassie s Pastes, p. 38) has given accurate transcripts, from an
immense belonging to every shape and period of

collection
Gnosticism. Chabouillet has more recently done the same for

the very large series in the French Cabinet, in his valuable
Catalogue des Ctimees de la Bib. Imp. p. 282. In the Gorla3

(3rd ed. 1G95), Nos. 326-486
are entirely
Dactyliotheca,
Gnostic and astrological designs, and include the greater part
of those first published by Chiflct in his Macarii Abraxas-
Proteus, whose plates were re-engraved for the
ed. 1610.
purpose on a reduced scale, but

with large additions, apparently
made the learned editor of the work, Gronovius. But the
by
most extensive series of actual representations of the whole
class are the plates to the Section Les Abraxas of Mont-

faucon grand work L Antiquite expliquee.
s Many of his
were drawn from the fine Cabinet of gems belonging
examples
to the Library of St. Geneviove, besides others, and very
interesting specimens, from a previous work by Capello.*

Though roughly engraved, they seem to have been copied with
laudablo attention to
accuracy.
* Who professes to copy originals some of the strangest amongst them
iu the ancient Cassel Cabinet al have lately corne under
;
my own
though many of his types are so un notice, apparently mediaeval Arabic
paralleled inmodern collections that talismans, which Capello,very
Matter suspects them mere creations
pardonably, mistook for remains of
of his own fancy. But the ancient Gnostics.
examples of
FIG. 12.
LEGENDS AND EOKMUL7E.

Foremost in the rank of Words of Power stands the
"
Mystery
of the Seven Vowels," so important as to demand a separate
section for discussion with befitting reverence.
its Though
inferior to these, great no doubt was the virtue of those
interminable strings of letters that fill both faces of many a
Gnostic stone later refinements upon the celebrated EêVta
rpa/Aâra, as Clemens aptly remarks. Amongst these inter
minable formula? lurk, no doubt, those potent spells composed by
Solomon himself; repeating which and at the same time
by
whose gem was
applying to the sufferer s nose his ring (under
the same oracle of wisdom) the
placed the herb prescribed by
Jew Eleazar drew out through their nostrils the devils possess
his tribunes and
ing many people, in the presence of Vespasian,
chief officers. The sapient Josephus adds, that to make sure of
the exit of the diabolical occupant, the exorcist commanded him to
overturn in his flight a basin of water placed at a considerable
distance, which was forthwith done, to the consternation and
conviction of all the heathen spectators. The Ephesian Spell,
the mystic words graven on the zone of the Great Diana, were
commonly used by the Magi of Plutarch s times for the same
purpose.
And there can be no doubt that such invocations were often
efficacious. Demoniacal possession was nothing more than
derived
epilepsy (its veiy name, signifying possession, being
from that same belief) for Galen, ;
after rationally discussing
the natural causes of the malady, remarks that the vulgar
of devils. Now our
universally attributed it to the agency
far as there is any reality in that
experience of Mesmerism (so
pet science of charlatans) clearly
shows what inexplicable effects
can be produced upon persons labouring under nervous derange
ment by words of command, authoritatively pronounced. How
in old times, when
much greater the effect of those words
uttered in an unknown tongue by a person of imposing presence,
and over patients already filled with the belief of his power to
relieve them Hence the Casting-out of devils became the
!
grand staple of their trade with all the Thaumaturgists, both

old and new, of the ages with which we are dealing. That the
cure should be permanent was a thing perfectly immaterial, it
sufficed the exorcist s purpose if the manifestation of his power
should be successful for the moment, to the edification of the
awestruck crowd of believers, and to the confusion of the few
nationalistic doubters amongst the crowd.
Suchspells gave power likewise over demons ranging about
unconfined in fleshly prison. Eucrates, in Lucian s amusing
4
Philopseudes, boasts that he is so accustomed to meet thousands
of them roving about, that he has come not to mind them at all,
more especially since "
The Arabian has given me a ring made

out of the nail from a cross, and taught me the spell composed
of many Names" The last remark is valuable for our purpose :
it proves that the legends in an unknown tongue on our

talismans are sometimes to be explained from the Arabic,* and
also may consist of strings of titles of the one deity invoked.
Virgil s
"
Crines effusa sacerdos

Ter centum tonat ore dcos, Erebumque, Ghaosque,
"
Tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virgiuis ora Dianaj ;
(/En. iv. 510)
distinctly refers to the same superstition, for Servius explains

these "
three hundred gods"

in the spells of Dido s Massjlian
sorceress, as not meaning so many different deities, but only so

many Hecate herself; whose very names he, for the
epithets of
same reason, fancifully derives from the numeral e/carov. The
same idea yet survives in the religious exercise of the devout
Moslem, the mental repetition and reflection upon the Ninety-
and-nine Arabic epithets of the One Almighty.
* In unknown
fact, the charac-
"
(therefore long anterior to Gnostic

ters" sometimes
occurring in the times), and neatly engraved Hini-
field of these talismans are unmis- yaritic legends. This character is
takeably Himyaritic letters, belong- perfectly vertical, handsome, and

ing to that primitive alphabet of well denned in its differences ; it is a
Arabia. Osiander and Levy have modification of the Palmyrene, and
published gems bearing intagli, of the parent of the modern Ethiopic.
good execution, of Persian deities
The great object of these adjurations was to address the

Deity by the names under which he was known to all the
nations of Earth in this way making sure of
addressing him
;
by the appellation wherein he most delighted. This is the

fundamental principle of, and sufficient explanation of, the
entire class of these talismanic and of their syncretism
legends ;
No. 10 of the Magic Papyrus affords a most valuable

illustration. "
I call upon thee that didst create the Earth, and

bones, and all flesh, and all spirit, that didst establish the Sea,
and that shakest the Heavens, that didst divide the
Light from
the Darkness Thou, the Great,
;
Directing Mind, that disposest
all things, Genius of genii of the world
Eye Sai/Wwv),
!
(8ai>o>v
God of gods, the Lord of spirits, IAO OYHI, hearken unto

my voice I call upon Thee, the Master of the gods,
!
loud
thundering Zeus, sovereign Zeus, Adonai Lord AH OYHE ! I !
I am he that calleth
upon thee in the Syrian tongue, the great
God Zaa\ar)p ; and do not thou disregard my voice iii
!</>
<ou
the Hebrew language, A/3\ava6ava\f3a A/3pao-iAwa. For I am

o-L\Oa>xuovx /WAa/x, /3/WaAw# law law vtfiovO (rapLoOap fiuO ap/3aO
law Iaw<9
o-afiauO Trayovpyj payovpr) ftapovx ASwvat EXwat ta/fyaa/x
(3ap(3apavu vav <n0.
lofty-minded, ever-living Crown of the
world ;
containing all, Sieô-a/m er^ fiiov = = VOVOL =
a<f>rj
o-ttOv = X 6t6w7)pvyX OHAHHfiAI A fiHIAO acnaA

o-aaâXo-w
eOôvp-rjo-ivi Aav \ov Xovpiy^.
crep. (This spell) looses fetters,
causes blindness (i.e. makes one invisible), procures dreams,
gives favour, for whatsoever purpose thou wishesi."
One circumstance, very unaccountable, connected with these
Inscriptions is wherefore the Pclilcvi character, the national
writing of the Magi in those times, should never be used in

formula so often embodying the doctrines of that profession.
Neither are any complete legends to be found written in
Punic,
although that character with the last mentioned was at the
time universally employed, in various modifications, all over
Asia and Africa. In the latter
country Punic was not super-
s ided by Latin until a
very late period of the Empire, for in the
second century Apuleius ( Apology
) wishing to prove the neglect
of his stepson s education by the
boy s uncle who had taken
charge of him (the family belonged to the large city Madaura in
Numidia), declares that though arrived at the age of sixteen

he could speak nothing but Punic and the little Greek he had
picked up from his mother, praeter Punice, et siquid ad hue a
"
matre Graecissat."
"
And some years later, the emperor Severus,

a descendant of Hannibal s, had to blush for his sister when she
came from his native place Leptis to Court, "vix Latino
loquens." It is true the characters which are often scattered
over the field of these gems have much the look of Punic;
others again of Palniyrene Syriac whilst some are
obviously ;
the same with the strange Nubian characters to be seen in

abundance graven on the rocks at upon the upper Nile. Silsilis,
As for the square
(modern) Hebrew, works presenting them all
are mere fabrications of the astrologers and Kosicrucians of

the 16th and 17th centuries. Hicroglyphical writing,
though
naturally to be looked for in the manufacture of A]exandria,
hardly occurs at all it is probable that even its modification
;
the Demotic had long before been superseded

(in that capital at
least)by the Greek alphabet. The only exception known to
me the agate published by Caylus ( Eec. d Ant. viii. pi,
is
8),
presenting the common four-winged Priapic genius in the
sacred boat, the reverse bearing a long vertical line of
neatly
cut genuine hieroglyphics. The Arabic Kamar Moon, some "
"
times found in these formulas, illustrates Pliny s remark,

that the Magi ordered the âme of the Sun or Moon to be
engraved on emeralds or amethysts, in order to convert them

into amulets against witchcraft, and giving success at Court.
An emerald (Praun) of very bad quality, however, inscribed
IAH ZABAjQO ABPAZAZ, may represent the very kind of
amulet alluded to. But that Alexandria was the grand
fabrique of talismans is equally apparent to the mineralogist
from the materials, as to the archaeologist from the
lettering
employed in their construction. Nevertheless it still remains
unexplained why the Magi should not have written their own
spells in the character then solely current in the vast dominions
of the Sassanian kings.
The language of these inscriptions is never Latin, rarely
Greek, frequently Syriac, but most commonly corrupt Hebrew.
For this choice the sufficient reason is given by lamblichus in a
284: THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.
letter to Porphyrius, where he expressly states that, "
The gods
are well pleased with prayers addressed unto them in the Egyptian
or Assyrian tongues, as being ancient and cognate languages to
their own, and moreover those in which prayer was first made
unto them ;
and therefore they have stamped as sacred the entire
speech of those holy nations." It is a singular coincidence that
Justinus Kerner, in his extraordinary work, Die Seherin von
Prevorst (in reading which one continually fluctuates between
ihe conviction of its being an impudent fiction, and the
uncomfortable suspicion that it may be a revelation of the pro-
foundest tnith), assigns a similar reason for the writing used by
the visitant from the spirit-world so greatly resembling Arabic,
because tliat had the best claim to be considered the primitive
language of mankind." was a peasant girl, worn
This "
Seer
"
out by long sickness to that degree as to belong more to the next

world than to this. Consequently she had become sensible of the
presence of spiritual visitors, and acted as a medium of com
munication between them and those in the Kerner, a flesh.
physician, took her into his own house the better to observe
these singular phenomena, and a
kept regular diary of her health
and of her disclosures during several months until her death,
with a minuteness of which only a German is capable. He
writes evidently in all good faith, and, amidst heaps of nonsense,
puts down some startling occurrences beyond the flights of

forgery and confirmed by one s own experience.
But as concerns the Language of the other world," in every
"
country Omne
"
ignotum pro magninco has ever been the

"
maxim of priestcraft, the soundness of which has been demon

strated by the experience of all time. More particularly does
this apply to forms of prayer. Thus Orpheus :
"
Then whilst the cauldron buhhlcs o er the flame,

Address each godhead by his mystic name ;
Full well th immortals all are pleased to hear

Their mystic names rise in the muttered prayer."
Of such mystic invocations it will be advisable to adduce

examples from writers contemporary with their use, before
proceeding to the consideration of actual remains of similar
nature. Of the numerous specimens cited, the following are the
most noteworthy. The Pistis-Sophia ( 358) makes the Saviour

"
standing upon the shore of the sea, the ocean, call upon God
with this prayer, saying, Hear me, Father, thou Father of
all fatherships, Infinite Light, Aeîovco law Awt ana if/LvuOep Oeptvwi}/
Trayovprj /x,$/x,o/xaw0 Vi/ao/xa(ju$ /âpaâ^â Owfiappa-

popOKoOopa leov 5a/3aa>$."
And again ( 375)
in this valuable description of the Gnostic Sacrament :
"Then said Jesus, bring me fire and vine-branches. And they

brought them unto him, and he, placing upon them an offer
ing, set two vessels of wine, the one on the right, the other
on the the offering. He set before them the offering
left of :
he put also a cup of water before the vessel of wine which was
on the right hand, and ho set a cup of wine before the vessel of
wine that was on the left ;
and he set loaves of bread, according
to the number of his disciples in the middle between the cups.

He set likewise a cup of water behind the loaves. And Jesus,
standing before the offering, made all the disciples to stand

behind him, being all clothed in linen garments, having all of
them in their hands tlie number* of the Name of the Father of the
Treasury of Light. And he cried aloud, saying, Hear me, O

Father, Father of all fatherships, Boundless Light, law louco Iao>
acot tola i//i,vco$p Otpivwij/ i/a)i//i$ep veô/xapaâ Lâva^vaâv a/xavî

of heaven !
lo-pat a/xî/ a/x^y aovjSai j3ai aTnraar] a^rjv a^-rjv Seppa
apat arraoi afjirjv afjuqv crao-apa-aprov a/Jirjv a/xr/i/ KovKia.fj.-rjv (JLO.L
a.[uqv Lai LOLL Tovair a/JLyv a^v /xatv/xapt fiapir) /xapet a/^v a/x^v
Again Irenasus copies out a formula
"
couched in Hebrew words,

to inspire greater awe into the Gallic neophyte (at Lugdunum),"
as used by certain Gnostics there in administering baptism :
y8acrcre/xa â/xocrcre POL cuavo/jia jaaraSia povaoa Kovcrra f3aj3a(>op

KoAa-
Supreme over every virtue, the Light of

I invoke Thee,
"
X#ai,
the Father by name, the Good Spirit, the Life, because thou hast
reigned in the body."
Another of their formulas was Meo-o-ia ov
(j)ape-y fa/xe/xiâi/xev âA-Saiar pxxre/xeSia aK0pai/at iâora lrj(rov Naapta.

"
I do not separate the Spirit, the Head, and the Supercelestial
*
Meaning, perhaps, having their fingers in such manner as to indicate
lingers arranged so as to cxpn ss this his own numeral, that of the days in
number for Pliny mentions a very
;
the year.
old statue of Janus displaying the
Virtue, the Merciful One. May I prosper in thy name, Saviour

of Truth."
But as regards the expression of divine mysteries

by means
of letters of the alphabet, Marcus stands
pre-eminently first
amongst the Gnostics, as the following extracts from his
"
"
Eevelation
will conclusively attest. The supreme Tetrad "
came down unto me from that region which cannot be seen nor
named, in a female form because the world would have been
unable to bear their appearing in a male figure, and revealed
to me the generation of the universe, untold before either to
gods men. When first the Father, the Inconceivable,

or
Beingless,* sexless, began to be in labour he desired that his

Inemible should be born, and his invisible should be clothed
with form. He mouth and uttered the
therefore opened his
Word like unto himself.
This word standing before him
showed that he was manifesting himself as the form or
type
of the Invisible One. Now the uttering of the Name came to
pass in this wise. He (the Supreme) spake the first word of
his name, the which is a syllable of four letters. He then added
the second syllable, also of four letters. Then the third, com
posed of ten letters. Finally the fourth, made up of twelve

letters. Thus the utterance
of the whole name consists of
thirty and of four syllables. Each letter has a form-

letters,
pronunciation and writing of its own, but neither under

stands nor beholds that of the whole Name nay, not even the ;
power of the letter standing next to itself. Now these sounds

united make up
the Beingless unbegotten TEon, and these are
the Angels that always behold the face of the Father. Thus
the Father knowing himself to be incomprehensible
gives unto
each of the letters, called Êons, its own proper sound, inas-
*
The Kabbalistic "En-Soph."
In this existence perceptible, and to
this boundlessness, or as theEn-Soph, render himself comprehensible, the
God cannot be comprehended by the En-Soph had to become active and
intellect, nor described by words, for But the En-Soph cannot
creative.
there is nothing that c,.n grasp or be the direct Creator, for he has
define Him to us; and as such He neither will, intention, desire, thought,
is a certain sense non-existent, in language, nor action, as these properly
because as far as our minds are con- imply limit, and belong to finite
corned that which is perfectly incom- brings, whereas the En-Soph is
prehensible does not exist. To make Boundless."

much as none of them singly is competent to utter the entire

Name."*
The substance of the revelation

brought down to Marcus by
Truth is to be found in the Kabbala, which makes the mystic
names of God lo consist of four, twelve,
forty-two and seventy-
two letters respectively. The Kabbalists go so far as to
assert that the forty- two victims offered
by Balaam in order
to obtain a favourable response, were consecrated to one of
these great names. If indeed Moses was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians, the magic virtues of numerals would
have formed an essential part of his learning, as we see from
the doctrine of Pythagoras,
confessedly derived from Egypt.
It looks very much like as if the framers of the of
genealogy
Jesus had the same object in view, when
they forced the
generations to the required number by omitting three of the
kings in the second division, being able to deal with the third
in whatever manner they pleased. On counting the number
of the vowels that evidently have some
deep purpose in occurring
without consonants on so many talismans of the age of Marcus,
weshould, I expect, often find it
tally with that of one or the
other of these Holy Names, "f
A
subsequent revelation of the same Tetrad to Marcus,
serves to account for the frequent
appearance of the naked
woman, the Venus Anadyomene of earlier times, upon Gnostic
monuments. After having declared these
"
the Tetrad things,

added: I will shew unto thee Truth, whom I have brought
* This is a regular Talmudic the divine name offorty-tu-o letters is
notion as the Rabbins propound. only communicated to such as are
"
At first the Name of twelve letters pious, not easily provoked, not given
was communicated one but to every ; to drinking, and are not
self-opiuion-
wJien the profane multiplied it was ated. He who knows that name and
only communicated to the most pious preserves it in purity, is beloved
of the priests, and these pre-eminently above, cherished below, respected by
pious priests absorbed it from their every creature, and is new to both
fellow-priests in the chant. It is
(Babylon. Mid. 71 a.),
worlds."
recorded that Kabbi Tarphon said :

fThis explains the 2evya fiapcpap-
I once weut-up the orchestra in the aês, those who stand before the
"
Temple after my maternal uncle, Mount"so commonly

following
and bending forward my ear to a angelic names upon our talismans;
priest I heard how he absorbed it where also the long strings of letters
from his fellow-priests in the chant. may be designed to express their
K. Jehudah said in the time of Rab Êou unbegotk-n.
down from the celestial mansions that thou shouldest behold

her naked, acknowledge her beauty, hear her speaking, and be
astonished at her wisdom. Look up therefore at her head A
and O, at her neck B and ^, at her shoulders with her hands
F and X, at her breasts A and P, at her chest E and Y, at her
back Z and her belly H and 2, at her thighs
T, at and P, at
her knees II, at her I
legs K and
and O, at her ankles A and a
at her feet and N. This is M
the body of Truth, this the form
of the letters, this the character of the writing. Whereupon
Truth looked upon me (Marcus) and opened her mouth, and
and that word became a Name, a name which
littered a word,
we know and speak Christ Jesus : and having named him she
held her peace."*
is made up, it will be perceived, by

Truth "
This "
figure of
taking successive pairs of letters from each extremity of the
alphabet perhaps, thereby constituting them male and female,

;
and thus making them types of so many .ZEons. All this

suggests a rational question, whether the primary appli
cation of the name "
Logos
"
to the Divine Emanation, was

not at first a mere interpretation of the Kabbinical Synonym
"
Name, or Word," the respectful substitute for the ineffable

Name Jehovah, the Sliem Hale, Kodesh; and that later, the
Reason
"
secondary meaning of Logos,

"
suggested to the
Platonising Jews of Alexandria its analogy to their own Sophia-

Achamoth, the first-born of the Supreme Cause. And finally,
the composition of this Holy Name, extending to thirty letters,
illustrates the purport of that interminable polysyllabic title
which runs either in one unbroken circle, or sometimes in the
outline of an erect serpent, around the margin of so many
Gnostic gems, and circumscribes the mystic device engraved in
the centre. In the latter arrangement of the inscription, one is
tempted to recognise that

"
Good and Perfect Serpent "
of the
* the union of the whole body. The
Similarly in the Kabbalistic dia-
Venus Anadyomene so often seen
gram of the Sephiroth, the Crown is
the head; Wisdom, the brain; In- on our talismans was probably
Love, the right adopted by the Gnostics in this
telligence, the heart ;
arm; Gentleness, the left arm; Beauty, spiritualised sense; and thereby
the chest; Firmness, the right leg; still continues to personify the i
Splendour, the left leg Foundation, ; virtue, Truth.

the genitals ; Kingdom, or Shckiiiah,
Naaseni that Messias whose visible type in the heavens their
eyes, sharpened by faith, discovered and adored in the Constel

lation Draco.
To come now to the actual remains of Gnostic manufacture,
which preserve to us formula of the nature just considered, the
most important, to judge from its frequent occurrence, and the
evident care bestowed upon its engraving, is the one here
transcribed. My copy is taken from an example formerly in
the State collection, probaby the finest talisman known. It
is a thick
plaque, somewhat heart-shaped, of dark garnet, 2* X 1 J
inches in its greatest dimensions, bearing on the one side 14
lines, on the other 11, neatly cut in the Greek character in the
third century but making no distinction between the A and
the A.
Obverse. Reverse.
AT(jOCACAU)AAU)Ne OITICCjOPOYAP
CMCIAAMABPACAZ IACjJPCx)HAc|>ON
C3ZYPPATHAKPAMMA AIOJAIHTOC
KPAMMAKANAPICCCe CUAIHMAOHAU)
rr6NBAAc|>APANrHC (jJA6YU)YH
ACNIAMBCONAPOY Cx)AIYIHI6
ANTAMIYHHAN AH6YCjO
MOPAPAXCIA HACjJAYU)
U)HAU)HNHct>!
6MHAIAOA
AHU)(x)(jd
00 U)
Amongst the titles on the obverse several familiar names may

be detected, such as Alon, Sliemesli Eilam, Abrasax. The long
style filling the fourth line is clearly the correct spelling of the
abbreviated Agrammaeamereg addressed in another part of the
Prayers of the Saviour," as the first of the

"
Invisible Gods."
"
The next line Shemgensalpharanges, they who stand before

"
themount of Paradise," can be no other than the Êons just

described by Marcus as the Angels who always behold the
"
Father whilst in this Jewish hierarchy of heaven the

"
s face :
old god of Egypt, Anubis, oddly intrudes himself under his
Coptic title of Ambo.

* me
Probably meant aAeêre Defend "
ûe
"
! of exactly similar sound

in the spoken language.
U
Both inscriptions agree literally with those upon the large

oval calcedony figured by Chiflet (fig. 69) except the addition
in the letter of a few words inclosed within a coiled serpent
placed at the top of the obverse. Out of these inscriptions his

friend Wendelin, by taking the language as good Greek, had
contrived to elicit a most orthodox invocation to the Trinity,
which however was evidently far from satisfactory to the
sceptical and more sagacious Canon. Amongst the Townley
gems is a large sard, agreeing in all except a few letters
with Chiflet s specimen convincing attestation to the supposed
virtue of the formula. For the purpose of comparison I insert
another, lately discovered, engraved on a much more minute
scale than any of the preceding (Whelan s copy).
ZZZ OMCU)TOYAP
TRY IA(x)POHAct>ON
# # AOAIHTOC
ArCx)ACAU)AACx)NC U)AIMAU)HAO
COMeceiAAMABPAC IU)AOYU)OVH
C3ZYPPAHAKPAMMA (x)AIYHAHIC
KPAMMAKAMAPICCC6 AH6IYU)Y
rrONBAAÂBANTHC HA(x)AYCOJL
IMCCIAAMCx)BHAM TH6CU)IACC
. .NIAMBU)NAPOY
. U)HAU)HNIIVI
. NTAMIXAHAA
. . HAU3YHAA6Y
____ MOPAXei^Y CMHAIAOAY
. . . PAB6T6MAI . . . IHHCi)U)U)YH
...ANCx)
Dark red agate, 1 X in. : scut me by Mr. Whelan, Nov. 25, 1881.
Doubtless such immense and overcharged pieces of mystery

served in their time the purpose of pocket prayer books, out of
which the owner recited the due invocations at the sacred rites.
To some such manual of devotion, the pseudo-Orpheus possibly
alludes by
Prny, with the flowered Pet races in thy hand,
"
When hecatombs before the altar stand."
The Orientalist desirous of exercising his ingenuity upon

the decyphering of these, for the most part unexplained monu
ments will find an immense collection of them in Raspe (Nos.
433-633) copied with scrupulous accuracy. The reason
he thero
gives for the attention he has paid

to a class previously so
neglected is a very sound one. "
All these sects have evidently

borrowed their symbols, and probably also their respective
explanations, from the iconology and mysteries of the Egyptians
and other nations of the East. If as regards the meaning of
hieroglyphics and symbols they had no better information, the

Gnostics of Egypt and Syria had at least national tradition
to depend upon a point assuredly of some weight. If
therefore the more recent sects of Gnostics with their sym
bolical learning have established new opinions and fresh modifi
cations of religion upon the basis of the old, we are not there
fore to conclude that they knew
nothing about, and wantonly
gave a new meaning to, the symbols which thus mis they
applied. This
the only rational point of view in which these
is
amulets and engravings ought to be studied."

Easpe s collection I shall now proceed to supplement by
copies of several unpublished examples the most interesting that
have come under my notice in a long course of study, and such
as servo best to illustrate the theories
proposed in the foregoing
pages. And to show the curious and puzzling nature of the
whole class, they often present the critical examiner with signs
and siglee, now supposed the exclusive property of national
religions, the most diversefrom one another, as they were

remote from the recognised metropolis of Gnosticism. Inter
mingled with the regular Greek characters appear strange
signs analogous in form, often identical with, the Caste-marks
of the Hindoos, and which in their turn became the
parents of
those used by the media) val alchemists and
Eosicrucians, and
(during the same ages) of the true professors of Masonry. The
consideration of these Sigla, of which I have collected a larê
series belonging to ages and countries, has proved sufficiently
all
fruitful to supply muter ials for a separate and important sub

division of this Treatise. One example, described under "
talis
mans and amulets," presents unmistakeable evidence of the use
of Runes in the Alexandrine studio, whilst another,
shortly to
be noticed, demonstrates that the Gnosis may
dispute with
Hibernia her supposed peculiar invention of the mysterious
Ogliams.
A tablet of aquamarine (?) communicated to me by the
u 2
Kev. Grevillo Chester, bears the inscriptions in well-formed

characters
Obverse.
. . . IGPKP ....
. - BAGOPrOAGOPO
. . AAXAMXABPAC . .
. . HTAAOJNAICA . .
. . AGOOAHAAYNA.
. MICBOH06IM.
Reverse.
CABAOJeGOYGAHOJ
PMAPCABAOYêi
OP0O0AYMA0IM
YXPCJOC6M6NOX
Extremity.
GAG00OY.
A string of titles ending with

"
Lord of hosts ! defend me.
NeMONO0IAAP
IPAAINYOM6NP4>A
BCx)AIANAIAY6A
GOeiGOIAIAIANIN
NIHAZMKWAA
ZON
Sapphirine calcedony, the size of a pigeon

s egg. (Forman
Collection.)
The concluding word <v
Aaov,
"
Do thou protect," clearly

evinces that this elegantly engraved invocation was ad
dressed to some one deity rejoicing in many titles, and styled
"
"
by its opening iXew.

propitious
MIE1XAHA
TABPIHAVAc|>
AHAEEEENTE
NBAPANTH
NIAW
A This is
very thick stone of sapphirine calcedony. purely
"
Jewish, perhaps the ware of some sacerdos arboris

"
Magna
sold to the Roman ladies, for it puts the buyer under the
protection of the Archangels

"
Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, who

stand before the Mount of Paradise of Jehovah."
A remarkable exemplification of the mixture of two opposing

creeds is found in the OPGOPIOYO, "Light of lights,
accompanying the figure of a globose vase with bands hanging
from the neck. This is evidently the small golden vessel "
shaped like a cow s udder, containing the libations of milk

"
mentioned by Apuleius as carried in the Isiac procession by the

same official who bore aloft the Hand of Justice. The gridiron-
like object often laid upon it, is the regular Egyptian door-key,
made of wood. In one example figured by Matter (PL vi. 6),
the key is shown of the regular Roman form in the same
position, which places the meaning of the more usual figure
entirely out of doubt. This shows the reason for KXetSoOôs,
thekeybearer," being a priestly
"
title.
offer some curious improve

Other types purely Egyptian,
ments upon the old qualia demens "
Êgyptus portenta colat."

For example, one (Praun) exhibits Anubis, but now equipped,
with two heads and four hands holding torches and daggers ;
styled on the reverse HEPA-AMBO-YBAKA-KZIK-YK. In

another (Nelthropp) the Cat-headed goddess, Taf-Neith stands
lotus-crowned, and is addressed as KVXBA-KYXBA*-KAXYA-
BAZAKAX-KX. Again Anubis with the superadded heads
of Pan (Mendes} and a cock (Phre), with arms outstretched
in the form of a cross; his body supported upon the legs
of an ibis, has over the heads respectively written the
initials 0, l~l, X. On the reverse AIHB-U)ncX CVNO
XPA. But the most curious composition of this nature
known to me is presented by a large elliptical mottled jasper,
measuring inch, very boldly cut, and better drawn
1^+J
than usual apparently a Solar talisman (Mr. Topham, Eome).
The obverse shows a gryllas in the outline of a cock having the
head of Pan, scorpions for tail-feathers, and the whip of Sol
stuck in his rump to complete that appendage, standing upon
a serpent the sun-star and crescent, on his
overhead are
back rests a tailed globe (a comet ?) in front A, in the field
below the astral siglce. On the reverse, or (73?) over
* The Star, the
"
Star."
Chaldee,
the Agathodaemon serpent uncoiled, and crawling, a star and A.

Below the serpent, EAODT HIHCx), the letters inverted, then
another line HIVOMCOI. Below this again the triple S
on the bar that
accompanies the Agathodaimon,
always
IAHIEOJ-IEOVGOH, reading thus in the impression. In the
last word the Great leou
"
special title of the Supreme

"
Being in the Pistis-Sophia may easily be detected ; whilst the
triple-headed deity previously described, very probably expresses

the conception of those mighty TptSwa/xeis $eoi, who play so
important a part in the theology of the same book of wonder.

The following examples are the more genuine offspring of the
Kabbala, consisting of letters alone, uncontaminated by the
presence of the idols of Misraim. First for beauty of material
and engraving stands a large citrine (occidental topaz) formerly
in the Praun cabinet, now in the Gnostic Series, British Museum.
On one side is an oval enclosing HI (perhaps denoting the

Ogdoad and Decad, the base of Marcus scheme see Hep. vi. 52) ; ;
an eye, emblem of Osiris, a square bisected, and A, which

hist letter may also numerically represent the Tetrad of the
same Doctor.
The other face of the gem presents,
AMAPYCMMPIAGMIOYOO
POAACNABAPeeHIOYCx)
NABAPN6HIOYU)
ePeOPAYMOYCJ
ZATECCmOYGO
OPGPOXOPCeYU)
AXAHMAPeU)
The next is a legend which, with trivial variations, frequently
occurs. PL 11) gives
Cay lus (VI. it very rudely added, upon
the reverse of a female portrait. The present copy is from a
large calccdony, somewhat coarsely executed, having 011 its
other face the triple S and bar (Praun)
CTOXBA0A
HMAAAXIC0OM
MAKOXyOX
A B PA MM AGO H
ABPAMMHA
The Hebrew Patriarch, figures in this legend, and in many
more of the same kind, as the divinely inspired founder of a
Gnosis, a reputation he enjoyed even amongst the heathen, who

put him in the same category with Orpheus, first iiistitutor of
Mysteries.
"
Sov. Alexander in larario suo omnes sanctiores

in quibus Apollonium, et (quantum scriptor horum temporum
dicit) Christum, Abrnham, et Orpheum, et ejusmodi caiteros
habebat." (Lampridius 29.)
To the same family belongs a yellow jasper (Maskelyne) dis
playing a perforated quatrefoil over the name lACx), then the

mystic vowels AEIHOYGOAI, then TABACx)0 (/c) and on reverse
# MIXAHA#. The originally the symbol of Sitala,
quatrefoil is
the Tenth Trithakoor, or deified Jaina saint whence it found its ;
way along with the other Buddhistic machinery, into Mediaeval

symbolism, in which it resembles an angel.*
Very remarkable on account of its adjuncts, is a green jasper
(Traun) bearing a long neatly-cut legend, the central portion of

which is circumscribed by two lines, cut by short strokes at
different angles, exactly after the fashion of the Irish Oghams.
In the latter, as is well known, all the letters of the liomaii
alphabet are represented by the different positions of very short

lines in relation to one continuous line in the middle ; and it is
impossible imagine any other purpose subserved by the

to
similar contrivance on our talisman. The Ogham is supposed to

be an invention of the first missionaries to Ireland, it was used
as late as the Civil War by Lord Glamorgan in his correspond
ence with Charles however, very possible that the

I. It is,
monks carried this simple stenography from liome to their

Celtic mission. f
nYPOcox
KPHc|>O XOYBY...
YMAPTA AAIAAM
AP4>OY 0AA0AA ANOX
Y06P YY0A0O MOYI
ctOY0AI POCIU) YAAAA
ICx)
AYni0IAAKY0(jO
*One of the heaviest charges characters that came to their kuow-

against the mediaeval Manichseans ledge. Even the Ruiric of the farthest
was the adoration of an Octagon, as north added its virtue to the Praun
the figure of God. hepatic amulet to be fully noticed in
f The talisman-makers loved to its proper section.
press into their service all the strange
A
minute figure of Abraxas, green jasper (Praun) takes a new
Abrachars in the invocation ABPAXAPC-AfPAWA
"
"
title
COAPIWNIE.
Thoth s caduceus within a wreath, is accompanied by the
legend on the reverse AKPICO<l>r on a brown calcedony in my
collection.
Of all Agathodsemon talismans, no more elegant specimen

has come to my knowledge than a large emerald-like plasma
(Bosanquet) displaying the serpent "the Good and Perfect

One "
erect above his invariable concomitant sigla, and whom

the reverse propitiates by the beautifully cut address OCOP-
M6P<t>-<l>ePrAMAPA-ct>PIAYPIC-XNOYcl>IC-NABIC-KICNYe
True green jade, very convex on back (Rev. S. S. Lewis.)

In
the field, each side of serpent
--
101. With me, with .
"
ICi)|^
me ! in pure Chaldee.
"
Reverse in two lines, round the usual
symbol.
XNOYMICMAABeiCBINY0eee
COPOOPMeP<t>6PrArBAPMA<i>PinYIPIPirZ
All cut with unusual precision and neatness of work. The

legend has many words in common with Mr. Bosanquet s
plasma.
of the Mithraic Cave has pro
"
Jerome s "Pater Bromius

bably some share in the Sabbaoth," so often coupled with
"
title
Bacchus rejoiced in the epithet

"
"
Adonai," for Sabazius,"
Sabbaoi raised by the celebrants of

"
derived from the shout

"
his Orgies a word identical with the Hebrew "
Sabi
"
glory !
Certain sectaries of our own day who bellow out the same word
at their
"
Revivals," are little aware what an ancient and
congenial authority they have

for their vociferation.
Adonai," our Lord,

"
is converted by the Greek into Adoneus,
a synonym and Orpheus, as already quoted, points
for Pluto,
out the identity of Bacchus, Pluto, and Sol. This is the founda
tion for the ancient exposition of the Syrian rite, the Mourning
for Adonis ("
The women weeping for Tharnmuz ")
as really
power to the sun s loss of at the winter quarter.

applying
Adoneus or Aidoneus, becoming interpreted according to Greek
to signify him that walketh unseen,"
etymology, was supposed
"
whence spring the "helmet of Adoneus," that rendered the

wearer invisible ; and Catullus s application of tho title to the

intrigue-loving Caesar.
"
Perambulabit omnium cubilia

Ut albulas columbas aut Adoneus."
The same Adonis had the name "
Sal-Anbo
"
(which often
occurs in Gnostic legends) as appears from tho statement in
Lampridius, that Heliogabalus exhibited Salanbo with all the

"
lamentation and tossing of head proper to tho Syrian ceremony,
whereby ho gave the omen of his own impending fate.

The Delphic E has already been noticed but its importance
demands further particulars of its history, which have been
preserved by Plutarch in his curious treatise upon the subject.
The Greeks with their usual fondness for explaining all
mysteries rationistically, considered the letter as the simple
numeral, Five, set up in the Temple to denote the original and

proper number of the far-famed Wise Men but which in "
;
"
later times had been raised

by the addition of two to seven,
more who had small claims The legend went to the honour.
that these Five Wise Men, to commemorate the accidental meeting
of them all in Delphi at the same festival, had dedicated the
numeral carved in wood, which, decaying through age, tho
Corinthians replaced by a facsimile in bronze which last was ;
finally transmuted by Livia Augusta into another of gold, as

more consistent with the dignity of the god of the place, whose
son her husband claimed to be, and whose received image ho
represented in his features.

Others, more profoundly, interpreted the letter as represent
ing by its proper sound in the Greek alphabet tho declaration
E!,
"
Thou art
"
as addressed to the Godhead thus making

it equivalent to the title 6 the living
"
oil/, God," so frequently
given to Jehovah.
But it is much more consistent with the simplicity of antique
times, to understand the figure as merely standing for the number
Five, a number sacred for itself, not for its reference to the fabled
sages of a later period. The idea of its virtue may have come
from an Indian source, where it is the cause of the five-headed
shape assigned to Brahma. From India it would find its way to
Delphi in company with the Gorgon-heads, themselves masks

of Bhavana the Destroyer, which guarded the actual oracle a
singular connexion, noticed by Euripides in his Ion. But it
should be remembered that the Hyperboreans, reputed founders
of the Oracle, were placed between the Caspian and the frontiers
of India. The Omphalos itself shaded with garlands, and en
"
compassed with Gorgoiis was no other than the Brahminical

"
Lingam, as its figure demonstrates, whether as repictured in

the early vase paintings when embraced by Orestes seeking
sanctuary there from the pursuing Eumenides, or with Apollo

seated thereon, stamped on the money of the Seleucidae direct
descendants of the god. In form reduced to an obtuse cone, the
emblem had nothing obscene in appearance, its hidden meaning
being a matter of revelation to the initiated few. The same
conically-shaped stone was the sole representative of Venus
in her most ancient temples Paphos for example. Again that
earliest of all statues of Apollo, the Ainycla3an, described by
Pausanias, was a veritable Hindoo Lat a bronze column 50
cubits high, to which later art had added a head, hands holding
bow and spear, and toes (d/cpot TroSes). But his throne, in the
middle of which the idol stood was an after-thought of
erect,
the best times of Greece, covered with elaborate figures and
reliefs, the work of Bathyeles, or of Myron, with his scholars.

And in truth this very lunar-shaped 6 seems to belong to the
same class of Indian importations, and to have been originally

a mere Caste-mark indeed, if placed horizontally it becomes
u>,
ut once the badge of the sectaries of Vishnu. strongly What

confirms this explanation is the fact, that this symbol had been
consecrated at Delphi many centuries before that shape of the
letter came into the Greek alphabet a change only dating from
the age of Antony and Cleopatra, upon whose medals, struck in
Asia Minor, the lunar-shaped 6 is first observable.
In the earliest dawn of Grecian philosophy we find Pytha
goras* bull ing his whole system upon the mystic properties of
i
* Who is constantly affirmed to manas, eoruni ergo Brackmamim

have visited India, Apuleius stating Gymnosophistas adiisse." ( Flo-
of him, Sed nee his artibus anirni rida. )
expletum mox Chuldseas, inde Brach-

Numbers, and declared by tradition to have been taught the

science in nay more, Plato himself has penned in his
Egypt ;
Republic a certain section in the same line, worthy of any

Alexandrian Kabbalist. In our own day, with the Sikhs to hold
a "
Punch," or council of Five, was the formal mode of delibera

ting upon all matters of State. And inasmuch as the most
serious things have a ludicrous side, this sacred Numeral only
preserves its reputation amongst ourselves from haying given
the name to the well-known beverage, by reason of the five
ingredients that go to its concoction perhaps too, because its
brewing was the inevitable result of the coming together of
the same number of Englishmen in the times when our
language
was enriched by so many loans from the Bindostanee.*
A remarkable feature in the theogony of Aâlentinus is
curiously illustrated by a Praun Calcedony,

elegantly engraved,
and mounted in a gold frame by some later Oriental
owner,
who justly deemed the gem a talisman of uncommon
power.
"
The
Father at last sent forth a mighty /Eon, called the
Cross,
and who contained within himself all the other /Eons.
thirty
The same was likewise denominated Terminus, inasmuch as lie
served for Boundary between the Fulness (Pleroma) and the
Deficiency (Hysteroma)" Our gem presents the Egyptian Tan,
as a Deus Terminus, topped with a human head, and surrounded
by a continuous legend composed of vowels interspersed with
rare consonants; probably expressing the thirty /Eons con
tained within the sigil s self. On the base of the Terminus
is the legend NIXAPOriAHC, often on talismans.
occurring
The same words are found at the foot of a cruciform
trophy,
above which is the Christian X upon a stone in the French
Cabinet (No. 2222) also followed by IU)A
upon the back of a
gem (silex) published in the Gottingische Anzeiger, Nos. 35 a, I,
which clearly emanates from Mithraic notions, for it
represents
the usual lion-headed, serpent-girt man, a torch in one
hand, in
the other a sword, serpent, and crown of
victory, soaring aloft
from the back of a lion, under which lies a prostrate
corpse.
* For example caste and dam. The which ignorance softens into curse.
latter is the probable source of the
Similarly used is rap, the smallest of
common English expression that em- the Swiss money,
phasises the small value of a thing,
A very curious instance of the employment of Gnostic figures

in the art of Medicine is offered by the stone which Matter has
published (PL The obverse displays the Agatho-

II., C. 4).
dsemon serpent placed between Phre (Sol) and a female in the

act of adoration. Overhead are the mystic Vowels below the ;
undershaped vase, already noticed, placed upon a low altar,

the whole encompassed by a legend in some unknown tongue.
But the other side explains in lucid Greek the object of the
composition. TACCON THN MHTPAN THC A6INA 61C TON
IAION TOnONOTON KYKAON TOY HAIOY, "Place the womb
of such or such a one into its proper region, O, the circle of the
sun." Matter, in his explanation, has fallen into a ludicrous
mistake, by interpreting ^rpav as ^repa he converts the
words into a prayer for the soul of the mother of a certain
Dina ! But the real translation shows that the gem was made
for any purchaser, to be as a preservative against the worn
a female complaint very common in ancient
"
prolapsus uteri,"
times, owing to the abuse of the hot bath, so relaxing to the
internal muscles, and also to the general employment of
"
abortiva,"
In fact the very
whenever thought desirable.
definite expression of the object, MHPIKON, uterine, is found

on other gems, and places the correctness of the attribution of
the former one quite out of doubt.
The circle of the sun means the navel, which marks the
"
"
natural position of the organ concerned, for the navel in the

microcosm was supposed to concide with the sun in the universe.
This idea produced the far-famed hallucination of the Byzantine
anchorites, respecting the mystical Light of Tabor, which shone
upon the devotee in virtue of long-continued fasting, and

unintermitted fixing of the eyes upon the region of the navel,
whence at length it streamed forth, as from a focus, the truo
"
creation of an empty brain and an empty stomach."*
* A neatly engraved ring-stone, names can be deciphered on these

hfematite, lately communicated to
talismans they are always those of
me, has a line of several of the women. A Praun gem, similarly

common siglae, followed by two more opening with a line of siglae and the
containing IA(x> A PI HA BIKTO- names lao and Gabriel, was made
PIN A, "
Jehovah, Lion of God (pro- for a certain Sabinia Quinta.
tect) Victorina!" When proper

Another circumstance bearing upon this employment of the

sigil is that Isis, the peculiar goddess of maternity, is often
figured in Eoman sculpture, holding up in her hand a conical
pouch shaped, exhibiting a triangular orifice.
object, This
object some have taken for the Persia plum; much more
probably does it represent the organ in question, the most
natural and expressive symbol of that
divinity s peculiar
function. In her mystic coffer were carried the distinctive
marks of both sexes, the lingam and yoni of the Hindoos. Their
Isis, Parvati, who in this character takes the name of Deva
the goddess pre-eminently, bears in her hand for distinctive
"
"
badge the yoni, or bhaga, often a precious stone carved into

that shape. Similarly her consort, Siva, carries the
lingan or
phallus. For example, the Nizam s diamond, the largest stone
of its kind known certainly to exist, exhibits evident traces of
the native lapidary s clumsy endeavours to reduce the native
crystal to the proper shape for the hand of the great goddess.
Ugly omen to happen under a female reign, this diamond was
accidentally broken in two just before the outbreak of the Sepoy
re volt.
Deva s Mark, as borne upon their foreheads by Parvati s

sectaries, is formed by three strokes, the two outside white or
yellow, the centre always red. It is interpreted as
represent
ing the womb, methra, of Bhavani (another of Parvati s names)
out of which proceeded all that exists. The close
relationship
between the Egyptian and Hindoo goddesses cannot fail to
strike the observer ; Isis carries the very same attributes with
Parvati the kid and cobras upon the talisman published by
Caylus (IV., PI. 16). But the Egyptian goddess, having but
one pair of hands, is forced to clasp in each the several attributes
borne singly by her many-handed Indian prototype.
A
singular union of two contrary deities in one body, is
presented by a hematite (Praun), representing Anubis, who,
besides his proper jackal s head, is equipped with another,
nianed on the neck, and unmistakably that of an ass; as
Typhon,* the evil one, was depicted moreover, one of the feet,;
* The ass was sacred to Typhon. Egyptian legend that this deity fled
Plutarch (De Iside, 31) quotes an from the Battle of the Gods
"
upon
too, of the figure is clearly hoofed, so as to leave no doubt as to

the ownership of the second head. The same discordance of
characters is still further set forth by what he bears in his
hands, the two of Anubis holding up torches, the two of the

malignant Typhon, swords. This odd combination probably
expressed the same idea as did the Anubis seen by Apuleius,
who exhibited at one time a face black as the night, at another
golden as the day, in order to express his functions exercised

both in heaven and in hell. The reverse bears an inscription
containing the Coptic name of the god, HE PA AM BOO YBAIA

KZIK-A.
the back of an ass for over sevun tinus. Sir G. Wilkinson has met
days space without stopping, until (although but rarely) with the figure
he came into Judrca, where he begat of an ass-headed deity, or demon, in
two sons, Ilierosolymus aiid Pala)s- Egyptian sculptures.
PART IV.
THE FIGURED MONUMENTS OF

GNOSTICISM.
TQI NIKQNTI AQZn AYTdl cJ>Al~EIN
TOY MANNA TOY KEKPYMMENOY KAI

AI~1O
AOin AYTQ YHcUON AEYKHN KAI EHI
THN H^HcÔN ONOMA KAINON TErPAMMEN
O OYAEIS EfNQ El MH O AAMBANQN.
THE FIGURED MONUMENTS OF
GNOSTICISM.
GNOSTIC SIGLÊ, SYMBOLS, LEGENDS EXPLAINED.

THE inscriptions in Greek characters upon Gnostic talismans
are frequently interspersed with
mystic figures, formed out of
straight lines set at right angles to each other, and intermingled
with dots. These lines Bellermann plausibly enough supposes
to represent the "sacredlots," of the same nature as the
celebrated sortes Antiates, held in the hands of the much-con
sulted Fortuna of Antium. In their usual form these lots were
only little sticks and balls, taken up by the handful from an urn,
and thrown at random on the ground. The diviner examined
the patterns thus produced by their casual
collocation, and
predicted the future from them according to the rules of his
art. Bellermann goes on to suppose that the figures on our
talismans represent certain configurations of the lots, regarded as
peculiarly lucky to the consulter. This explanation is supported
by the Geomancy of the modern Arabs,* where lines drawn at
haphazard on the sand by a stick held between the fingers are
interpretedby persons professing that method of divination.
Our own divination, by means of tea-grounds, is carried on
upon the same principle, the fortuitous
arrangement of the
* Each tribe either found or
"
of Hebal, of red agate,

holding in his
introduced in the Caaba their do- hand seven arrows, without heads or
mestic worship; the temple was feathers, the instruments and symbols
adorned or defiled with 360 idols of of profane divination." Gibbon,
men, eagles, lions, and antelopes; chap. 42.)
and most conspicuous was the statue
particles producing to the experienced eye definite pictures

and
letters of the alphabet.
These Siglse, however, may possibly have had another origin.

The in the Yendidad,
regular badge of the Magus, as prescribed
is a bundle of divining-rods three, seven, or nine in number.
Hence the rebuke Hosea My people ask counsel of
"
of : sticks,
and their staff declareth it unto them." These same divining-

rods placed upon the altar are commonly represented upon the
Magian signets, bearing for type the Mobed at his

official
devotions; and may therefore be supposed to have passed

down to the talisman-makers of later times.*
That others amongst these angular forms are numerals is
certain from the nature of the case, and from Horapollo s
10 by the
express declaration that the Egyptians represented
and 100 the same four times repeated in the form of
figure r, by
a thus
square, Ten being the perfect number of the Valen- "
"
].
tinian creed (whose fountain-head was Alexandria), its frequent
the sect is naturally
appearance amongst the religious formulas of
to bo looked for. The primitive Egyptian numerals were of
the simplest kind, but their abbreviated combinations ultimately

became distinct symbols for the different days of the month,
and out of these the Arab astrologers concocted their own

for another solution
system. This circumstance affords reason
that some of these sigla3 indicate the particular days connected
with the astrological intention of the talisman, j
And besides all these, there is every probability that these
sigla3include actual cuneiform letters, belonging to the Assyrian
the semi-
alphabet, but their forms somewhat corrupted by
* The ancient Teutons practised f Some of these siglse may be

in an
the same method of divining fu- recognised in the inscriptions
ture events. A shoot of a fruit tree unknown character, cut in the hard
was cut into pieces, each being sandstone rock, and very numerous
distinguished by certain marks, about Silsilis, Upper Nubia, where
notis quibusdam, probably meaning they accompany figures of elephants,
"
The consulter threw them

Eunes." and ostriches all animals
giraffes,
down at random on a white cloth, long since extinct in that country,
Gre-
with eyes turned to heaven he took Specimens were published by
separately, and interpreted ville Chester in the Archaeological
up three
the response from the inscriptions Journal for 1864, p. 274.
upon them, (Tacitus. Germ, x.)
Greek wizard, who employed them in ignorance of their true

nature. The Assyrian language being considered as late as
tho times of lamblichus
peculiarly grateful to the heavenly
Powers, what more reasonable than that some at least of these
invocations should continue to be couched in their original
cyphers ? Be it remembered, the cuneiform character was the

national one of the whole Persian empire down to the Macedonian
conquest, and must have been preserved in religious usages
long after that event by the Magi. They, at least, were a very
unlikely class to trouble themselves about the Greek alphabet
or Greek literature, professing, like the Talmudists, a pious
horror for both. This is well exemplified on the restoration of
the native dynasty under the Sassanians Greek, employed for ;
four centuries by the Parthian line, is at once expelled from

the coins by the Pehlevi character, true daughter of the
primitive cuneiform. There is moreover one all-sufficient

reason for seeking the origin of these inexplicable
siglse at
Babylon they constituted a religious stenography.
:
The
Babylonians attached to each god a certain numeral, which may
"
be used in the place of his proper emblem, and may even stand
for his name in an "
*
inscription, (Eawlinson, Anc. Monarchies,
iii., 466). To give those of the principal deities :
First Triad Ami = 60 Bel = 50 Hoa = 40.

:
; ;
Second Triad Moon = 30 Sun = 20 Air = 10.

:
; ;
Beltis, or Mylitta = 15 Nergal, or Mars = 12 Xiu, ; ;

or Saturn = 10.
Of the other planets the numerals have not been discovered ; but
theirnames are, Nebo, Mercury; Merodach, Jupiter; Ishtar, Venus.
The great gods are Ann, Pluto ; Bel, Jupiter Hoa, Neptune. ;
Their consorts are, respectively, Anat, Beltis, Davkana. The

minor gods are, Sin, or Hurke, answering to the later Lunus
Deus San, the Sun Vid, the Êther.
; Their respective consorts
;
are, The Great

"
Lady Gula, or Anahit Tula, or Shula. The

"; ;
Pythagoreans had a symbolism of the same nature, denoting

Minerva by an equilateral triangle, Apollo by unity Strife, by ;
the numeral two ; Justice, by three, and the Supreme Being by

four (Plat. De Is. et Os. 75).* I find a very strong confirmation
* In the
Egyptian Ritual papyrus, Hermes by is mystic name of the
Thoth is addressed as "
the second god A."
x 2
of my were similarly designated

belief that the Gnostic Powers
by their numerals, in
Raspe gem, No. G01, where is s CNfN
inscribed in the exergue under a serpent coiled into a cartouche
containing several of the siglse under consideration. Now this

legend (to be explained farther on) is, when written in full,
always followed by the names of the Archangels, whence it
may justly be inferred the same names are still here, but
represented in their mystic form.*

The Great Names constitute the very essence of every
"
"
Gnostic spell. To begin, therefore, with their consideration is
obviously the most appropriate and propitious mode of ap

proaching this part of our work pandere res alta terra et
caligine mersas. There are three titles perpetually occurring,
and consequently to be supposed denoting beings of the highest
importance in the Gnostic hierarchy of heaven. Their meaning
was unknown until the fortunate discovery of the grand Yalen-
tiriian gospels.The Pistis-Sophia informed us ( 361) that they
are the holy Names of the Three TpiSura/Aeis, who are lYANTAX-
AINXEOTX, a Power emanating from whom resides in the

planet Mars; BAINXGOCUX,! in Mercury; and niCTIC CO<J>IA,
in Verms. Above this Triad is one still higher, the "
Three
Unseen Gods," AT PA MM AX A MA PEP, BAPBHAU) (the Heavenly
Mother of Jesus), and BAEAAH ( 359).
The Five Words written upon the shining vesture
"
"
sent down to Jesus at His glorification ( 16) were ZAMA

* The Turks represent tlie Great This papy-
ning-swift-footed-one."
Nanie AllaU by an oval crossed rus, now in the British Museum,
\\itliintersecting lines, which is was bought of Atanasi, Swedish
often seen stamped on their old Consul at Alexandria : who sold
armour, for an amulet. Now this several others of the game nature to
very mark occurs in the Gnostic set, the Leyden Library. All are sup-
and it is more than probable that its posed to have been found together
true meaning is preserved in the in a catacomb at Thebes, and to
Turkish tradition. have formed the stock of some
f In Good win s Ma c Papyrus magician of the second century of our
the Serapean Divination (No. 1) era, as the handwriting leads us to
names this Power: "Appear and infer. Goodwin edited the Brit.
give heed unto him who was mani- Museum specimen for the Cambridge
fested before Fire and Snow, ~Qa.iv- Antiquarian Society in 1852, and
Xo>o>x,
for Thou art he that did enriched it with notes giving in-
make manifest Light and Snow, valuable assistance to all who study
Terrible -
eyed-thunderiug-and-light- Gnostic remains.
ZAMA WZZA PAXAMA The robe, the glorious robe

U)ZAI "
of my strength." The same revelation furthermore imparts

to the faithful the mystic names of the planets. Hearken "
now, I will tell unto you the Incorruptible Names of the

Planets, which bo CJPIMOTG, Saturn; MOTNIXOTAcJXjJP,
Mars; TAP RET A NOT*, Mercury; XU)!I, Venus; XU)NBAA,
Jupiter. These be the incorruptible names of the same "
( 362). Of these, the names from each Triad are to be

recognised upon talismans, BAINXU)U)Cx)X most commonly
of all but no example of these planetary appellations has
;
hitherto come to my knowledge.

The Naaseni (says Hippolytus) taught that the universe
could not hold together unless the names of the Great Ones
(TO, peycQrf) were uttered. These were KATAKAT, ZATAAZAT,

ZEHZAP. "
The first is the name of the Adamas who is

above ; the second, of him who is below ; the third of the Jordan
that floweth upwards." "Above are Mariamne the Sought-
after,and Jothor the great and wise; and Sephora she that
seeth and Moses." According to the text-book of another
;
sect,
the Peratae, XOOZZAP is the Power whom the ignorant and
profane call Neptune: KAP4>AKOZHMOXEP is the Steward
of the East: EKKABAKAPA of the West; called by the
vulgar the Curetes. APIBA is the Euler of the Winds; ZGOK-
AAM, or Osiris, rules the twelve hours of the
night ENTCx), or ;
those of the day her sign is the

Isis, Dog-star. BHNA is Ceres,
:
or the Left-hand Power of God,

presiding over nutrition MHN ;
is the
Right-hand Power that presides over the fruits of the
earth. In the same doctrine,
chozzar, called by the ignorant
Neptune,
"
who
converts into a sphere the dodecagonal
pyramid,
and paints with many colours the gate of that
pyramid," has
Five Ministers, ACT, AOAI, OTH, OTHAB; the name of the
fifth being lost. Hence it is probable that the strings
of vowels, so often found on these stones,
may contain the
names of elementary genii
similarly expressed.
Origen (viii. 58) quotes Celsus to the effect, that the
Egyptians
made six-and- thirty (or more) demons or aetherial
powers preside
over the several parts of the body,
giving some of their names,
Chumis, Chuachumes, Knat, Sichat, Bou, Eroti, Eribiou,
Eomanor, and Eeianoor: "Whoever therefore prefers being

in health to sickness, and happiness to trouble, ought to pay
all possible honour to these Powers." Origen therefore accuses
Celsus of attempting to divert men from the worship of the one
God to that of six-and-thirty daemons, only known to Egyptian

understand how "the Name of
magicians, because he cannot
Jesus, pronounced by the truly faithful," can
cure the sick and
those possessed by devils the evidence for which is far stronger

;
than that of the effect of the names of Chnumis, Sichat, and the
he
rest of the Egyptian catalogue. In another place (i. 22)
shows it was not Moses only that knew the name of Abraham
and his friendship with God, for that others (pagans) use the
words "the God of Abraham" when they are driving out
And from which

devils. again the Egyptians use in their rites,
they promise wonderful effects, the names of Abraham, Isaac,
Also 33) Origen mentions the
use of
Jacob, and Israel. (iv.
the form Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of

"
The God of
incantations, and that the same is often to be met

"
Jacob in
with in books of Magic. He adds that the formula The God
"
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, who didst overwhelm the

the Egyptians in the Eed Sea,"
Egyptians and the King of
was in common use against demons and the Powers of Evil.
All this to that the talismans inscribed with the
goes prove
name of Chnumis and the other thirty-five daemons named (who
now by this assistance may be hereafter recognised) were of a
medicinal character, whereas those with "Abraham," equally
common, were more properly of the nature of talismans.
In the Book of Enoch the Archangel Uriel gives us the

luminaries The names of the
mystic names of the two great
"
Sun are these, one the other Tornas. The Moon hath
Aryares,
the second, Ebla; the third,
four names: the first, Asonga;
Benase and the fourth, Erai."
;
The 125) furnishes the adept

with the key
Pistis-Sophia (
to the most of the numerical cyphers. These be "
important
the Names that I will give unto thee, even from the Infinite
One downwards. Write them with a sign (cypher? ) that the

sons of God may manifest (understand ? ) them out of this place.
This is the Name of the Immortal One, AAA UJUKD. And this
is the name of the Voice through whoso means the Perfect Man is
moved, RT. These likewise are the interpretations of the names of

the Mysteries. The first is AAA, the interpretation thereof <><!>*.
The second which is MMM, or which is U)CjOU) the interpreta ;
tion whereof is AAA. The third is YTY, the interpretation

whereof is OOO. The fourth is the interpretation whereof<b<b<b,
is NNN. The fifth is AAA, the interpretation whereof is AAA,

the which is over the throne AAA. This is the interpretation
of the second AAAA, which is AAAAAAAA, and the same is the
interpretation of the whole Name."
To pass from the cyphers, where

all is guess work, to the
actual inscriptions, engraved legibly enough in the Greek

character, but presenting us with what Jerome aptly terms
mere "tormenta verborum." Many of the more common
formulas, Bellermann, by the aid of Hebrew, Coptic, and
Syriac,* has satisfactorily explained of others his interpreta ;
tions are manifestly absurd. AMAPTEA seems to be the Chaldee

Amarchel, a president. ANOX XOA XNOTBIC, "
I am All the
Good Spirit, or the Universal genius of good." AIN APPAI.
The eye shall behold." AAONAI AANTAAA, Lord Thou art
" "
the Lamb."f XGJCA MIAA000 exactly represents the Hebrew

words signifying "
He hath seen the Pleroma."
AMAAXO
AMA9AZ
LZA!
isrendered by Stiechel Salama zebaam jatzael = Peace unto

"
"
"
This agrees with

"
the army of these (of the celestial Êons) !
* Prof.
Stiechel, in his essay De words cJ>pACIC, 4>ACIC, IACIC,
Gemma Abraxea nondum edita,
"
Declaration,"
"
Manifestation,"
Jeuae, 1848, has acutely and satis- always attached to a

"
Healing," is
factorily elucidated some very im- figure of Venus Anudyomeue, and

portant formula?, giving a key to the admits of the translation Mountain
whole class. The necessity for em- of Light."
The Venus therefor**
ploying Oriental languages in spells seems adopted here for the Virgin
"
iscuriously illustrated by Hippolytus of Light," who holds so high a place

statement, that the magicians of his in the celestial hierarchy of the
time used to write the answers to Pistis-Sophia. At any rate the
the questions proposed to their sense of APCOPI, "Mountain of
demons, partly in Hebrew, partly in Light," strongly favours this accep-
Greek letters. tation.
t AP OJPI, followed by the Greek
the benediction pronounced by the Marcosians in administering

the holy unction, Peace be unto all upon whom this holy
"
Name rests !
"
Some of these inscriptions display an evident affectation of
obscurity by their transposition of parts of the same word from

one line to another, the only key to which is the observing the
different sizes of the characters employed, and taking those of
the same size as belonging to the disjecta membra

"
of the "
same word. A most instructive example of this artifice is

supplied by the legend cut on the reverse of a magnificent
Serapis head (Wood), which reads thus :
IABATAOP
ONATHCAAI
APBA0I
AAM
AU)
This will only be translatable if

transposed as follows: IABATAOP .
0ONATHC AAIAAM APBA0

. . . lACx). Jehovah, the Pure yEther,
"
where the Four

"
the Fire,* for ever, the Four, lao,"

"
signifies
the Tetrad, so conspicuous in the Theogony of Marcus. This
legend seems much of the same nature as the Greek one cut
on a piece of copper (communicated to me by Prof. Ch.
Babington) : 6 Sia TTOLVTWV Novs, cu$r/p, Trvp, Trvev^ta, eAcoetv eAweti/
(Elohim). The only word in the first legend not reducible to

*
Hebrew is Qovar, but it seems to correspond to the "./Ether of

the copper piece, APAANA AMAKA ZAABANA XAMKIM, "Our
Light, let thy goodness grant unto us a full lap whence the
"
object of such a talisman would seem to be the procuring of

fecundity.j
ANAKAA A KA A AGO) GO I, I "Pursue then (my foes) unto
destruction, Lord," is found very appropriately engraven on
the reverse of a sphinx, the recognised emblem of power and
slaughter.
* A B P A M which
, often occurs in f HC
represents the Hebrew word
these legends, may perhaps refer to for Fire and this explanation is
" "
the Kabbinical Seir-Anpen," the

"
confirmed by the TO <i>U)C HYP

Primitive Man, made up of 213 4>AOH
accompanying a figure of
numbers, the numerical value of the Phre on a gem elucidated by Froeh-
Hebrew letters in the name. ner in his Byrsa, part i.
BAPIA ZAZTA IAU),

"
Jehovah the Creator, the Destroyer.

Chaldee slightly corrupted.
IA0AI, "The
providence of God."
MAO A HE, The honour of God." "
PEOTHAE, The will of God." "
XCUMI, The power of God."

"
ZBU) "
Wisdom."
These Coptic words thus designate the Five Emanations

from the Godhead viz., Phronesis, Logos, Nous, Dynamis,
Sophia.
enlightening mine eye,"
or
"
enlightening me,"
Meireni M ireni
If HNAMEPU) and MAPCOHNI are really the same, it will be
conclusive against ii, where the eni is an affix. The form then
might be
TXID iyy
enimeir.
Query what of the U) ?
101 placed on each side of the Chnuphis serpent engraved

in green jade (S. S. Lewis) is correct Hebrew for k
With me,"
which gives an appropriate sense if understood as a prayer for

the constant presence of the protecting Spirit.
MEZ XANAAU),* "The Messiah be propitious unto me."
Enlighten mine
"
MAPU)HNI,* eyes."
K ATA A K AT. The Basilidan name for the Saviour is written
by Epiphanius K ATA A K ATX, who ridicules it as an expression

taken from Isaiah (xxviii. 10) without any regard to the
* The Syrian Alexander Sevcrus converted into "Maria." HNAM-
expresses his indignation at the sight EPU), which often accompanies the
of a certain notorious rogue, Arabi- figure of the Cynocephalus, seems to
anus, coming to Court, by exclaiming be equivalent to the phrase in the
"
O Marna, O Jupiter," &c., where text : and as that beast belongs to

his native "
Our Lord "
he renders Thoth, god of Imoicledge, this inter-

by Jupiter," for the benefit of his
"
pretation has at least appropriateness

Kornan hearers. This word the in its favour.
monkish transcribers very naturally
real meaning of the words. Bellermann, however, thinks

he has found a more sensible derivation for the title in Arabic,
Strength upon strength," that is, the All-
" "
signifying
powerful" or else in the Coptic KAB, a lamp," and so implying
;
"
The burning and the shining Light."

"
MOT0, "Mother," Plutarch informs us (De Is. et Os.), was a

title given to Isis. This word contains a plain allusion to the
earth,
"
lutum Prometheum," whence Man was taken. MOT0

and | EOTA are translated by Sanconiathon as Hades and
"
"
"
Only-begotten," the offspring of the Phoenician Cronos.

MOOT for the Coptic NOTT, "God."
MAI MTM TXATM GDI, "Being, Fount, Salvation, Food,

and salvation
"
lao :
implying that lao is the source, food, life,
of the soul.
OPOOPIOT0, Light of
"
Light."*
TAAA APAIU) OUAPAOPO NTOKO NBAI, "Protector, Creator,

rule, speak, Lord," is a very common formula.
ZEZEMEN BAPANTHN lACx), written with many variations,

and followed by the names of the great Angels, has been
ingeniously deciphered by a learned Hebraist (Rev. E. Sinker)
as representing the sound of Shengab hor anje Jehevoh,"
"
"
They that stand before the Mountain of God/ that is, the
Angels of the Presence, j

XAIA, Life," is seen on a field of the
"
Eoman gem bearing two

figures of Providentia, with the Sun and Moon on the field
overhead (Major Pearse).

Three Greek characters often occur in juxtaposition viz., the
E set on its back, a vertical line crossed by two horizontal
strokes, numerals 5, 3, and 7, the
and Z. They stand for the
Triad, Pentad, Ileptad lucky and sacred numbers in the
religious notions of the East. For the same reason the inscrip
tions on our gems will be found to be arranged for the most
part in either three, five, or seven lines. This also accounts for
the name lao being often written with its elements repeated
* This
legend always goes with ye(y}& apavynv law.
the udder-shaped vase of the Isiac pjjy in 3J3G? "I D J
rites.
fftyei/ flap eV%
t
COAIAOJ,* for the sake of obtaining the venerated numeral, five.

And, again, by introducing another vowel, H, the Holy Name is
repeated under five different forms, HAI.AIH.HICxJ.AIGO.IAU).
The Priest officiating, commonly figured in these designs, wears
upon his head the "
calantica," a square of purple cloth whence

spring two flamingo feathers a badge which made Trrepo ôpos
;
a synonym for the Egyptian priesthood. The staff in his

hand, emblem of his office, has the serpent coiled five times
about This
"
it.
"
sceptrum sacerdotal e furnishes the true
explanation of the meaning of many ancient insignia, beginning

with Moses wand, then the club of Êsculapius, and closing
with its derivative the rod in the spiral of 3SS that so
constantly goes with the Agathoda3mon serpent upon the

Chnuphis gems.
As for the geometrical figures so often introduced,
they may be
supposed have had
to much the same import here as in the
formulas of the Eosicrucians, who obtained these with other
Gnostic paraphernalia probably by tradition from the Arabs ;
for their pretended founder, the Great Unknown A. S., is

declared to have acquired his small learning at the
College of
Damascus. In their system the Square stands for the Four
Elements ; the Triangle for the body, the spirit, and the life :
and also for Sun, Moon, arid Mercury. The last Triad
Paracelsus interprets by salt, sulphur, vmcltsilver the three
radical forces of Nature according to his system. The PJiombus
represents the Orphic Egg, out of which issued the whole
Creation.
Phoenician Numerals may, from the very nature of the
case, be
looked for amongst the marks that cannot be referred to the
Greek alphabet. The notation was simplicity itself one to nine :
being expressed by vertical strokes, so many times repeated j

ten by a horizontal one ; twenty by two such parallel to
each other, sometimes slightly curving In the
together.
* Stiechel has a very ingenious I EGO AIM = vivit existens.

explanation of this permutation of AICOOVEV isque est luo
vowels he makes it express different
; A H A H (x) H = existeus vivit.
I I
tenses of the Hebrew verb to exist, OOAIHOYE = isque lao

thus
Palmyrene notation five has a special cypher, a sloping line
upon which in the middle stands another at right angles.

It was to be expected that Samaritan characters should make
their appearance upon the productions of a religion of which the
reputed founder was a Samaritan, whose professed followers
also formed an important sect as late as the times of
Hippoly-
tus. Stiechel interprets the reverse legend on his above-quoted
gem as having its commencing words written in this alphabet :
thus
AV Z = qui tenet.
VI = sat.
signum
==
PAct>ACx) ejus sanat.
PPI~V<t>CjL)
= exorcista corpus.
TAB PI I
= facilitates.
IHIAII = et vitam.
III! = fiat! fiat!
He also points out that the important word "
Au(}i" = sign or
written in these legends in four different ways
token, is :
0VO, EVO, EIW, VIE.

It is possible tliat in certain legends the letters, taken in an
order known to one having the key, would give a definite
meaning; and this suspicion is supported by the reversing of

some of the characters. Certain it is that the Donatists
adopted such a device in order to disguise their proscribed

war-cry from the victorious Catholics. A door-lintel at
Tebessa exhibits the well-known formula thus
VDES DICA
EOLAY SVM
a
to be read by the brethren Deo laudes dicamus." A second
"
lintel bears the same in monogram.
The most famous spell of all, ABRACADABRA, is first

mentioned by Serenus Sammonicus, the most learned Roman
of his times, and physician to Caracalla, to whom he dedicated
his poetical Guide
to Health, entitled De Medicina prsecepta
saluberrima. This work, remarks Spartian, was the favourite
study of the unfortunate Cassar, Geta, for attachment to whose
cause this true son of Apollo was afterwards put to death
by the imperial fratricide. Severus Alexander also, who had

"
known and loved Serenus," greatly admired his poetry, putting

him on a level with Horace, as Lampridius

expressions seem
to intimate. This high authority orders the word to be written
out in the form of an inverted cone, and declares it of virtue
against all diseases.
"
Thou shalt on paper write the spell divine,

Abracadabra called, in many a line;
Each under each in even order place,
But the last letter in each line efface.
As by degrees the elements grow few
Still take away, but fix the residue,
Till at the lastone letter stands alone
And the whole dwindles to a tapering cone.
Tie this about the neck with flaxen string;
Mighty the good twill to the patient bring.
Its wondrous
potency shall guard his head
And drive disease and death far from his bed."
The belief in
the virtue of this recipe flourished
through the
Middle Ages. It seems alluded to in the
Dialogue on Masonry,
ascribed by Leland to Henry VI. for
amongst the things that
"
Masons conceal" the winrjynge of the faculty e of Alrac :

is
" "
perhaps signifying the possession of this mystical arrangement

of letters unless, indeed, one chooses to suspect in this
:
a deeper sense, some

"facultye" traditionary knowledge of the
ancient Abraxas religion. Again, De Foe mentions how
people
commonly wore the word written in the manner above pre
scribed, as a safeguard against infection during the Great
Plague of London.
As for the etymology of the word, the most satisfactory yet
compound of the Hebrew Ha-Braelmli, blessing,"
offered is the "
and Dobara, speak meaning the Blessing of the Mystic

"
"
;
"
Name "
that
utter the Tetragrammatou, invoke the
is, Holy
Name of Jehovah, itself the mightiest of charms.*
It is very remarkable,
considering its high repute, that no
Gnostic stone bearing such an inscription should be known
to exist. On the other hand that normal address to lao,
ABAAN0AAABA, Thou
is so found on talis-
"
art our Father!

"
manic jaspers arranged in the exact pattern recommended

by
*
By the mere utterance whereof to cast out devils from all who ap-
the philosopher Theosebius, though plied to him for aid.
unacquainted with magic, was able
Serenus for the paper spell, and probably so done in compliance

with his directions. One is strongly tempted to discover in
this same Ha-Brachah the real origin of the equally famous
title
"
Abraxas." The Greek letters, constantly in use for

numerals, at once presented their numeric value in every word
to the practised eye of the Kabalist.
The celebrated letter of Christ to Abgarus was (according to
Cedrenus) sealed with the initials of the seven Hebrew words,

whose Greek was co? eo$ev Oavâ Otiov.
interpretation
At the mere sight of the seal the king was healed of his
gout and of his black leprosy, all but a slight trace upon
the face remaining to be cleansed by the waters of baptism.
Cedrenus Greek reads like a popular formula, and may serve to
explain the legend on the reverse of an Abraxas gem in
my possession, IXOEOGOHIAIACx), as to be read Iô-ous XpKrro?
@eos CK COT} law,
"
Jesus Christ, God of God, Jehovah."
This inscription encloses the letters IH placed conspicuously

in the centre, and which probably represent, as nearly as
the t\vo discordant alphabets allow, the Hebrew letters Jod,
He, the Kabalistic name of the Tikkan, "
Express Image,"
or
FirstEmanation of the Godhead.
The Crescent and Seven Stars, amongst which are scattered
the mystical Seven Vowels, has for reverse this formula :
1A1IX3 C13
OHTO93N
HAATO
Its first line, but written AX0IU)<t>l, is cut in beautiful
characters on the reverse of a caduceus within a wreath. Sinker

reads it as >S>
ipy, Essence,Beauty: probably the rest arc
names of virtues. It is inconceivable that the Sephiroth
mightiest spell of all should be omitted in these gems. It is
made up of the Ten attributes of Jehovah viz., The Crown,

Wisdom, Prudence, Security, Magnificence, Goodness, Glory,
Victory, Fortitude, Kingdom. There is consequently a pro
bability that these Names often lurk in the phonetic Hebrew,
enveloping all in darkness. have for guide the analogy of We

the present Arab talismans, consisting of the ninety-nine
epithets of Allah written on a scroll.

THE GNOSTICS AND THETR REMAINS. 319
THE NAME IAO.
Diodorus Siculus, when enumerating the different

legislators
of antiquity, says,
Amongst the Jews Moses pretended that
"
the god surnamed lao him his laws And this is "
gave (i. 94).

elucidated by the remark of Clemens Alexandrinus, that the
Hebrew Tetragrammaton, or Mystic Name, is pronounced IAOT-
and signifies "He that is and shall Theodoret states that be."
the same four letters were pronounced

by the Samaritans as
IABE (Jave) by the Jews as AH. Jerome (upon Psalm viii. N
; I -
says,
"
The Name of the Lord

amongst the Hebrews is of four
"
letters, lod, He, Van, He, which is properly the Name of God,
and may be read as IAHO (Idho) (that is in Latin

characters),
which is held by the Jews for unutterable. The author of the
Treatise on Interpretations says,
"
The Egyptians express

the name of the
Supreme Being by the seven Greek vowels
IEHHOTA":* which sufficiently explains the mighty potency
ascribed to this formula by the inspired author of the Pistis-
Sophia, and equally so its frequent appearance upon the

talismans now under consideration,
Eabbi Tarphon (Tryphon), who could remember the Second
Temple, noticed that the Ineffable Name, though occurring a
hundred times in the course of the daily service, was rather "
*
According to the Talmud, the Dante alludes to a curious tradi-
Name of God, which was communi- tion that the name of God, revealed
cated only to the most pious of the to Adam, was which succeeding
I,
priesthood, was composed of twelve times changed into Eli:
letters. And upon our talismans the p ria ch io scendessi all infernale
vowels inclosing I AO are often found ambascia,
repeated so as to make up that I s appellava in terra il somnio
number Beue,
; whence
that their union represents the same
it may be inferred ~
fascia
61 ** ^^ ^ ""
ineffable sound. In the same passage ELI si chiamo ; poi, e cio conviene,
mention is made of another Name of Che 1 uso dei mortali e come
God, consisting of forty-two letters, fronda,
which in its turn may serve to ac- In ramo, die sen va, ed altra viene."
count for the lines of often-repeated ( Parad xxvi. 133). -
vowels similarly to be met with.

warbled than pronounced."

A precious hint this, as indicating
how the Gnostic strings of boneless vowels give an approxima
tion to the audible and yet unuttered sound. Since the
destruction of the Temple, the Name has never been heard in
prayer, or pronounced aloud. It iscommunicated, indeed, to

every Rabbi, after his ordination, but not in full. One half of it
is told ; the rest he is left to make out for himself.
The first idea of an "
Ineffable Name," and all its inherent

virtues, evidently came Egyptians (from whom the Jews
to the
borrowed it) from the Hindoo doctrine respecting the title
AUM, itself, like the AIO, trilateral representing the Triad,
Brahma- Vishnu-Siva A standing for the Creator, U for the
:
Preserver, M for the Destroyer. The connection between

Indian and Egyptian mythology is certain, however difficult to
account for, the names of the principal deities in the latter
having the appearance of pure Sanscrit. Thus Isis signifies in
that tongue the Mistress ; Tat and Sat, Virtue and Power ; Serapis,
Sripa, the Blood-drinker ; Nila, Blue-icatcr, &c. The original

identity of the two religious systems no one can doubt who has
intelligently studied the monuments of each but which country :
instructed the other ?

The balance
of probabilities is strongly in favour of India,
the confinement of the peculiar system within the narrow
limits of Egypt betokening an importation by a colony from
some very remote source. Traces of a very ancient intercourse
between the two countries are discernible, though very dimly,
in history. The Periplus of the Eed Sea mentions that as late
as Caesar time the townEndeemon on thatcoast was the entrepot
s
where the Indian and Egyptian traders used annually to meet.

In prehistoric times therefore it is conceivable that Brahminical
missionaries may have laboured amongst the aborigines of the
Valley of the Nile. This religious analogy manifests itself in
the meanest details, in the sacred titles as well as attributes.
For example, as the Brahmins teach tint each of the letters
A, U, M
envelops a great mystery, so does the Pistis-SopJiia
( Prayers of the Saviour, 358) interpret the |, A, O, as the
summary of the Gnostic, or Valentinian, creed.
"
signifies I
.
All goctli out ; A, All returneth within ; n, There sliall be an end of

"
ends thus expressing the grand doctrines of the

:
Emanation,
the Return, and the Annihilation, or rather
reabsorption, of the
Universe.*
To turn now to Greece in the same way as Abraxas is no
other than a numerical title of the Solar
god, so does loo
actually make
appearance as an epithet of the same
its
divinity. Macrobius (Sat. i. 18), whilst labouring to prove that

the Sun-worship was in truth the sole
religion of Paganism,
under whatever name it was disguised,
gives a notice very
much to our purpose. The Apollo of Claros, when consulted as
to the true nature of the
god called laos, gave the following
response :
"
The sacred things ye learn, to none

disclose,
A littlefalsehood much discretion shows;
Regard laos as supreme above,
In winter Pluto, in spring s
opening Jove,
Phoebus through blazing summer rules the day,
Whilst autumn owns the mild laos f sway."
Here we find lao expressly
recognised as the title of the
Supreme God whose physical representative is the Sun. Again
we have Dionysos or Bacchus added to the list by Orpheus, who
sings
"Jove, Pluto, Phoebus, Bacchus, all are One."
A distinct recognition this of the

grand principle of Brahmin -
ism that all the different deities are but
representations of the
different attributes of the One. The same truth is curiously
expressed upon a talisman (Hertz collection) which at the
same time sets forth the triune nature of the
Supreme Being
whose visible type is the Sun. It is a heart-shaped
piece of
figures of Ammon and Ea (the
basalt engraved with seated
Zeus and Helios of the Greeks), with the sacred
Asp erect
between them. The reverse bears the invocation
neatly cut
in characters of the third
century
EIC BAIT EIC A0QP MIA TON BIA EIC AE AXHPI
XAIPE FIATEP KOCMOT XAIPE TPIMOPOE EOC
* This
has a remarkable analogy f a&fiv low, where the epithet
with the Brahminical definition of seems suggested by the name Abraxas
God as "
the Self-existing, Eternal, so generally coupled with it.

Supreme Being, who is the Cause of
everything, and into whom e very-
tiling is finally absorbed"?
"There is One Bait, One Athor, their power is one and the
same, there is One Achori. Hail Father of the universe, hail
Concerning the three figures a
"
God under three forms !
word As for the

is necessary in explanation of their titles.
hawk-head Ea, Horapollo gives for reason of the type The ;

"
hawk stands for the Supreme Mind, and for the intelligent
soul. The hawk is called in the Egyptian language Baieth,
from ~bai soul, and etli heart, which organ they consider the
seat or inclosure of the soul." A sufficient explanation this
for the shape in which the talisman is formed. Achoreus, the

virtuous priest-councillor of the last of the Ptolemies (see
Lucan), derives his name from the sacred serpent here invoked.
That lews was recognised by the Greeks as an epithet for
the Sun in the autumnal quarter has been shown from
Macrobius. The philosophical interpreters of the ancient
mythology discovered in Dionysos also a mere type of the same
luminary.
"
One is Zeus, Hades, Helios, and Dionysos."

And
Serapis is substituted for the last in an oracle quoted by Julian :
nor must be forgotten that the main object of Macrobius in

it
the above-quoted dissertation is to prove, that Serapis is a
representative of the various powers of the Solar deity all

combined in one figure. Again, to the yame effect, comes
Virgil s famous apostrophe
"
Yos, clarissima mundi,

Lumina labentem qui ccelo ducitis annum,
Liber et alma Ceres!"
Bacchus and do no more than interpret

" "
where " "
Ceres
Osiris and Isis, the Sun and Moon. Here lies the reason for
equipping Bacchus with horns in some of his statues.

Accedant capiti cornua Bacchus eris," âys Sappho
"
to
Phaon. For in Hebrew a radiated and a horned head is ex
pressed by the same word. When Moses came down from the
Mount, "cornuta erat facies ejus," according to the version
of the Yulgate; and on the strength of this mistranslation
Christian art hath ever graced the Jewish lawgiver with these
appendages.
In this very title lao undoubtedly lies the origin of the
universal persuasion of the ancients that the Jehovah of the
Jews whose name was thus expressed in Greek letters was

no other than the Egyptian Bacchus. For this notion they
found strong support in the Golden Vine which formed the
sole visible decoration of the in the blowing the
"
Temple ;
trumpets at the New Moon," and the custom of keeping

the Feast of Tabernacles in huts made
of leafy boughs,
accompanied with many of the ceremonies used at the Grecian
Quia sacerdotes eorum tibia tympanis concinebant,
"
Dionysia :
hedera vinciebantur, vitisque aurea templo (Tacit.

"
reperta
Hist. v. 5.) This opinion as to the real nature of the Jewish
worship Tacitus quotes as the one generally held by the learned
of his own times, although he cannot bring himself to accept
it as satisfactory although merely on the grounds that the
gloomy arid unsocial character of the seemed to dis
religion
prove itsrelationship to the merry worship of the god of
"
wine," the only character in which the Romans recognised

Bacchus. Nevertheless this ancient theory has found
sup
porters in modern times, notably in the overlearned Dr.
Stanley, rector of
Martyr, who (without
St. George the
giving much scandal to his own
easy-going generation) ad
vocated this heterodox opinion in an elaborate treatise which
puts to shame the boldest flights of the Essays and Reviews,

or even the interpretations of our indiscreet
apostle to the
Zulus. Ludicrously enough, the German Jews still celebrate
the Feast of Purim, and the Fall of Haman,
by getting as royally
drunk as their means afford, and thus to the present
day do
their best to perpetuate the old Roman aspersion. Amongst the
later Gnostics, indeed, some rites were unmistakably borrowed
from the Bacchanalia, singularly modified by Christian doctrine.
Epiphanius relates (Ha3res. xxxvii.) how that "they kept a
tame serpent in a chest or sacred ark, and piled loaves
upon a
table before the same, and then called the to come
upon serpent
forth. Whereupon, opening of himself the ark, he would
come forth, mount upon the table, and twine about the loaves,
which they broke in pieces, and distributed
amongst the
worshippers, calling this their Perfect Sacrifice and their
* "
Eucharist.
Another explanation as to the true character of the
Y 2
named lao must not be passed over in silence, however little

foundation it may have in truth, seeing that it is supported by
the authority of the learned historian of Gnosticism, Jacques
Matter. The Moon to the Egyptians, as to the Orientals of
to-day, was of the masculine gender, and was designated by the

phonetic name Aali or loJi. Thoth was sometimes identified with
this deity; and therefore Thoth
s emblem, the ibis, accompanied
with the crescent, bears the legend loh, because (says Plutarch) "
Mercury attends the Moon in her journey round the earth in

the same way as Hercules doth the Sun." When Thoth, Tat,
appears as Mercury he has the head of an ibis; but in his

character of the Moon-god, or Dens Lumis, he shows the face of
a man supporting the lunar crescent enclosing the sun s disk
and surmounted by a double plume.
Hence came the notion mentioned by Plutarch, that the "
Egyptians call the Moon the Mother of Creation, and say it is

of both sexes and to the same effect Spartian (Caracalla,
"
vii.) explains that the Egyptians in the mysteries (mystice)

call the Moon a male, though designating it a female in
ordinary
speech. He adds that the people of Carrhal (famed for its great
temple of Deus Lunus) hold that whatsoever man thinks the
"
moon should be called of the feminine gender shall pass his

life a slave unto women, whereas he that holds it to be a male
deity shall rule over his wife and be secured against all female
treachery."
A very sufficient reason this for the fondness of
Spartian contemporaries for wearing in their signet rings the
s
vcra effigies of the Carrhene god, a youth in a Phrygian cap,

his bust supported on the crescent that gives his name. This
elegant effeminate lunar genius is in truth no other than the
modernized and tasteful version of the griin old Assyrian
"
Sin," pictured in the Ninevitish monuments as an aged man

leaning on his staff as he floats through the heavens on the
crescent, presenting a ludicrous resemblance to our popular idea
of the Man in the Moon." A blue calcedony in my possession
"
fully illustrates Plutarch s title of "Mother of Creation." It
exhibits a perfect hermaphrodite figure wearing the Egyptian

head-dress, and squatting down so as more clearly to display
its bisexual nature : below creeps a snail surmounted by a
butterfly, the well-understood emblems of laseiviousness and

life, the fount of propagation.
All this brings us to Matter
s
theory (based on a statement
of Origen that lao, Adonai, Sabaoth signified the
s), genii of the
Moon, the Sun, and the Planets being far inferior in power
and even antagonistic to Abraxas, who is the aetual
representative
of the Supreme Source of
Light. Matter therefore explains the
warlike attitude in which the Abraxas-god is
regularly depicted
as declaring his office of
scaring away the Adversary, or
demon, lao, who
is expressed
by his name alone, placed in the
lowest part of the scene, to denote his But the
inferiority.
authority of the monuments themselves is more than sufficient
to upset such an interpretation of the to them
meaning given
by the actual manufacturers. The
mentioned by
doctrine
Origen was, it cannot be denied, that of the more recent sect,
which set itself above all old Egyptian or Hebrew tradition :
but most assuredly was not of the immense body of

it
primitive
Kabbalistic Gnostics who excogitated and put their trust in the
sigils that they have bequeathed to us in such fantastical
profusion. These talisman -makers evidently held Thoth and

Moses in equal reverence they had nothing to do with the
:
Valentinians, who had an obvious motive for exalting their

newly-invented invisible Tetrad, by so immeasurably degrading
below it the most venerated names of the old The
religion.
Valentinians were Greeks by education,
really drawing their
inspiration from Pythagoras and Plato, and only too well
pleased with the opportunity of venting their natural spite
upon the most cherished ideas of the Alexandrine Kabbalists,
the grand fabricants of our talismans, those veritable Pierres "
d Israel."
The Pistis-Soplda continually introduces, as a most important

actor in its scenes of the judgment and
purification of the
soul, "the
great and good lao, ruler of the Middle Sphere,"
who when he looks down into the places of torment causes tho
souls therein imprisoned to be set at liberty. The very
collocation of the words on our talismans clearly denotes that
Adonai, Sabaoth, are equally with Abraxas the titles of lao, who
is the god actually represented by the symbolical
figure these
words accompany. What else would be the motive for their
collocation in a prayer like this (on a gem published by Matter

himself)" lao, Abraxas, Adonai, Holy Name, Holy Powers,*
defend Vibia Paulina from every evil spirit ? And, again, these
"
same names perpetually occur united together, and followed by

the address ABAANA0ANAABA, Thou art our Father" CGMC "
6IAAM, "Eternal Sun"; a mode of adoration that could not

of a discordant, much less
possibly have been applied to beings
of an antagonistic, nature to each other. Besides, if Abraxas
were the opponent and ultimate destroyer of lao, it would have
been absurd put the names of the two in such close union,
to
the latter even taking precedence; each, too, being equally

the
invoked in the accompanying prayer, and honoured with
same epithets of majesty. Moreover the composite figure, or
Pantheus, which, as all writers agree, represents the actual god

Abraxas, is much more frequently inscribed with the name AGO I
tli an with ABPACAZ and nevertheless, though the former name

;
stands alone, it is followed by the same glorification, Thou art "
our when the two names are engraved in

Father," &c., as
juxtaposition. moreover quite opposed to all the rules oi

It is
symbolism to represent the one actor in a scene by his proper
figure or emblem, and to indicate the other by

the simple letters
of his name and equally repugnant to common sense to depict
:
the figure of the god with the name of his adversary placed in
the most conspicuous portion of the tableau. The absurdity is
as great as though in Christian art one should paint a Crucifix
with Satan s name in the place of the holy I . N . R . I

, and
give for explanation the hostility of the two personages. And

lastly, it has been already shown that
the numerical or Kabbal-
isticvalue of the name Abraxas directly refers to the Persian
of the god, Mithras," Euler of the year, worshipped from
"
title
the earliest times under the apellation of lao. Matter himself
* A parallel to this form still one object of adoration by heaping

exists m the Turkish amulet com- upon him a multitude of honorific
posed of the ninety-and-nine epithets titles expressive of his various attri-
of Allah written on a paper, and butes. Amulets of this and various
believed to possess wondrous pro- other kinds are regularly sold at the
tcctive po\ver. The spirit of all mosques.
Oriental religions is to glorify the
publishes (PI. iii. 2) a gem that should have convinced him of his
error,had he not overlooked the force of its legend. The type is
Horus seated on the lotus, inscribed ABPACAZ lACx) an address
exactly parallel to the so frequent EIC ZETC CAPAHI on the
contemporary Heathen gems and therefore only to be trans ;
lated by Abraxas is the One Jehovah."

"
The Great Name with its normal be observed

"
"
titles is often to
interpolated by a Gnostic hand upon works of a better period

and creed, but whose subjects were fancied analogous to the
ideas conveyed by the lao Pantheus such as Phoebus in :
his car, the Lion House of the Sun, the Sphinx emblem of
royalty, and the Gorgon s Head of the Destructive Force, or of
Providence.* But the most interesting of such adopted types
that has come to knowledge, as unmistakably pointing out
my
the deity really understood by the name Abraxas, is a work
discovered by myself amongst the miscellanea of a small pri
vate collection (Bosanquet). In this we behold the familiar
Pantheus with head of cock, cuirassed body, and serpent-legs
brandishing the whip and driving the car of Sol,f in the
exact attitude of its proper occupant, Phoebus. In the exergue
"
the salutation CABACx), Glory unto th( e the reverse,

"
is : 011
in a cartouche formed by a coiled asp precisely as the Hindoos

write the Ineffable Name AUM are engraved the titles I AGO
ABPACAZ, attesting that one deity alone is meant, and that

one to be the Kuler of the Sun.
* The holy name has often been cited (section "Abraxas gems ").
added to iutagli of a foreign nature The god giving the benediction

is
merely for the sake of turning them with his right hand, and holds a
into talismans for example, on the
:
sceptre in his left. Upon another
reverse of a heliotrope with Victory, coin of the same emperor and mint
inscribing a shield (K. S. Williams, he is seated on the Earn, clearly
Utica, U.S.). meaning the Sun in that sign, and
f Exactly as Serapis (also a type perhaps having no deeper meaning
of the Sun-god) makes his appear- than the date of the month when
ance upon an Alexandrian coin of coined.
Hadrian s, which has been already
ABRAXAS, NEW TYPE OF.

A most singular variation upon the normal type of the
Abraxas pantheus gives him the head of Serapis for that of the
usual cock. In the field between the serpents are the genital
organs, of disproportionate size, represented in a state of rest,

not as the fascinum properly appear on amulets and unmis ;
takably displaying the seal of circumcision. This circumstance

is another proof to be added to all those
previously observed,
that the fabricators of this class of talismans were the Egyptian
Jews. As the distinguishing principle of the Gnosis in all its
forms was the reprobation of the "
doing the work of the

"
Demiurgus that
is, the
propagation of the species it is
evident that the object of this symbolism was not of a religious
kind. It is probable that the idea was to produce a talisman of
medicinal use, perhaps for the cure of impotence or other
affections of the parts represented. Of medicinal talismans,
expressing their purpose by the legends they bear, numerous
examples have been already published. The one now described
was made known to me through an impression brought by
the Eev. S. S. Lewis of a jasper in the Bourgignon collection
at Rome. Another very uncommon subject in the same
collection is a skeleton seated on a throne, holding a lance, or
perhaps sceptre. Although perfectly corresponding with the

mediaeval representation of Death, yet the spirited though rude
extension of the intaglio is that of the earlier Gnostic period,
and the idea intended was that of a larva, not that of the
Destroying Power. In the Stosch Cabinet is a similar figure

borne along in a car by steeds as fleshless as himself, like
the Wild Hunter of the German legend.
FIG. 14.
ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF THESE FORMULAE.

The interpretation of Gnostic legends and the nature of the
deity to whom
they were addressed have been thus far the sub
jects of our inquiry the next step is to search contemporary
:
writers for information as to the special

purpose for which the
talismans so enriched were originally manufactured. The
motive for placing in the coffin of the defunct illuminate these
words of power graven on scrolls of lead, plates of bronze,
" "
the gems we are considering, and doubtless to an

infinitely
greater extent on more perishable materials, derives much light
from the description Epiphanius gives
(Hair, xxxvi.) of the
ceremony whereby the IIeracleonita3 prepared their dying
brother for the next world. They sprinkled his head with water
mingled with oil and opobalsamum, repeating at the same time

the form of words used by the Marcosians in
baptism, in order
that his Inner Man, thus provided,
might escape the vigilance of
the Principalities and Powers whose domains he was about to
traverse,and mount up unseen by any to the Pleroma from which

he had originally descended. Their priests therefore instructed
the dying man that as he came before these Powers he was
to address them in the following words
I, the son from the :
"
Father, the Father pre-existing but the son in the present time,
am come to behold all things both of others and of my own, and
things not altogether of others but belonging unto Achamoth
(Wisdom), who is feminine and hath created them for herself.
But I declare my own origin from the Pre-existing One, and I
am going back unto my own from which I have descended."
By the virtue of these words he will elude the Powers, and arrive
at the Demiurgus in the eighth sphere, whom again he must
thus address I am a precious vessel,
"
superior to the female

:
power who made thee, inasmuch as thy mother knoweth not

her own origin, whereas I know myself, and I know whence I
am ; and I invoke the Incorruptible Wisdom who is in the
father and in the mother of your mother that hath no
father,
nay, not even a male consort, but being a female sprung from
a female that created thee, though she herself knows not her
mother, but believes herself to exist alone. But I invoke the

mother." At this address the Demiurgus is struck with con
fusion (as well he might be), and forced to acknowledge the
baseness of his origin whereupon the inner man of the Gnostic
:
casts off his bondage as well as his own angel, or soul,

which remains with the Demiurgus for further use, and
ascends still higher into his proper place. For every man is
made up of and inner man, this
body, soul, last being the more
spiritual nature. This same belief was the popular one of the
Jews, as appears from Rhoda s exclamation at the unhoped-for
reappearance of Peter, whom she supposed already put to death.
The Achamoth here mentioned is the Sephandomad of
Zoroaster, the Wisdom of the later Jews so fully described by
the pseudo-Solomon under that title (vii. 25). She is the "
Spirit of the virtue of God, the pure emanation of the brightness

of the Almighty, the brightness of the eternal Light, the mirror
without spot of his majesty, the image of his goodness." Wis "
dom hath made her house upon seven pillars." The naked woman,
or Venus Anadyouieiie, so often seen on these gems, is the same
idea expressed by the ancient Greek type. One given by
Caylus
(*Reo. d Ant. vi. PI. 21) explains its destination in terms
sufficiently clear, despite their corrupt Byzantine orthography :
IAU) CABACx) AAONAI HKAI EAAAZEIGON TOT TAPTAPOT

CKOTIN, "Jehovah, Sabaoth, Lord, come and deliver me from
the darkness of Hell
"
Could the long legends covering so many of these jasper tablets

be interpreted, most probably their purport would be found of
the same nature with the just-cited Heracleonitan passport for
the Pleroma : it were but a natural precaution on his friends
part to supply the deceased brother with a correct copy of such
long-winded involved professions of faith, and which otherwise
would be extremely apt to escape his memory the more ;
especially as being only confided to him by his spiritual guides

when he was already at the last gasp.
Of thepractice itself, the origin undoubtedly lay in the very
ancient Egyptian rule of placing in the cases those mummy
GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 331
*
elaborate Litanies of the Dead of which so
"
many have come

down to our times
containing the prayers to
:*
papyrus scrolls
be addressed by the soul to each god whose gate it has to "
"
traverse on its way to final rest. To prevent mistakes, the

portrait of each deity is column of prayers
prefixed to the
due to him, and this same arrangement is found in the
leaden scrolls belonging to the heterogeneous doctrine of the
Gnostics.
The same custom yet holds its ground in India, probably
its pristine source. Tavernier notices that the Brahmins
placed on the breast of the corpse seven pieces of paper,
inscribed with the prayers to be uttered by the soul as soon as
released from its corporeal envelope by the flames of the funeral
pile.f
The gem-talismans that remain in such varied abundance are
themselves recognised in the few surviving writings of the
Gnostic teachers. The Pistis-Soplda is full of allusions to the
Seals and Numbers of the different Êons and the other Powei
s,J
and with the repeated promise of the Saviour to reveal these
all unto his hearers a promise which, unfortunately, is not
;
fulfilled in the book as it has come down to us. Nevertheless

the very allusion sufficiently declares the sense in which we are
to understand the C4>PAriC so frequently to be seen on
the talismans. The motive for providing the defunct believer
*
Papyri, it is well known, were excavating in Egypt and has been
"
frequently kept in readiness, with published with facsimile. But the

blank spaces for the names and finest example known is the one
occupation of the deceased the :

preserved in the Soane Museum,
papyrus in fact formed part of the hitherto unpublished,
regular funeral appliances. They t The Lord Taraka, if duly pro-
were of three classes, namely Ritual, pitiated, w ill breathe into the dying
y
Boolts of Transmigrations, and Solar man s ear a mantra or charm of such

Litanies, or descriptions of the power as will secure him a safe
passage of the soul through the passage to heaven.
earth the solar boat.
in These J Then they bring the soul before
"
highly curious MSS. contain minute the Virgin of Light, and it showeth
descriptions of all the regions through unto the Virgin her own seal, her
which the soul was supposed to pass own form of defence, &c." This
afterdeath." C. \V. Goodwin. A very illustrative portion of the teach-
MS. of this kind, written in the ing of Valentinus is found in the
fourth century before our era, was Pistis-Sophia.
found by the Prince of \Vales when
with a good of these

supply imperishable credentials is
by the Scheme of the Ophites (pub

" "
sufficiently explained
lished by Origen), which details the prayers to be addressed to
the Seven Planetary Powers
by the released soul, in its upward
flight.
The
prayer to Ildabaoth
contains this indication "
princi :
pal Spirit of the Pure Intelligence, Perfect Work in the eyes of

the Father and of the Son, in
presenting unto thee in this seal
the sign of Life open the
gates closed by thy power unto the
world, and freely traverse thy domain."
Again, in saluting lao (here taken from the Lunar Genius) :
Thou that presides! over the Mysteries of the Father and of

the Son, who sliinest in the
night-time, holding the second rank,
(he first Lord of Death ! in presenting thee with this thine own
symbol swiftly pass through thy dominions."
To Sabaoth
Receive me, on beholding
:
"
this pure symbol

against which thy Genius cannot prevail it ; is made after the
image of the type ; it is the body delivered by the Pentad."
To Orai (Venus) Let me pass, for thou seest the symbol of

:
"
thy power annihilated by the sign of the Tree of Life." (Is

this sign the Cross, as Matter
supposes, or the actual tree
occasionally to be found on Gnostic gems ?) And it must be
remembered that the primary meaning of symbolum is the im
pression of a signet, which makes it more probable that such is
the sense in which the word is used in all these It
passages.
may further be conjectured that in this conversion of the
symbolum into a passport to heaven originated the theological

use of the word to signify a creed or
summary of the articles of
Faith.
This same service of talismans in the next world is
clearly
recognised in the Pistis-Sophia ( 293), where Mary Magdalene
gives this curious version of the business of the tribute-penny :
"
Thou hast said that the soul giveth an account of itself, and
likewise a seal unto all the Rulers that be in the
regions of King
Adamas, and giveth the account the honour and the glory of all
the seals belonging unto them, and also the
hymns of the king
dom of Light. This therefore is the word which thou spakest
\N lien the stater was brought unto thee, and thou sawcst that it
was of silver and likewise of copper.*

Thereupon thou didst ask,
Whose is this image ? and they answered, Of the
King. Then
when thou sawest that it was of silver and also of copper, thou
saidest Give the part which is the
:
King s unto the King, and

the part which is God s unto God. The which mean eth this:
After that the soul hath received the
Mystery it giveth an
account of itself unto all the Eulers and unto the dominion of
King Adamas, and also giveth the glory unto those that
pertain
to the Light. And thy
saying that it shone, when thou sawest
of silver and copper, it is the
it,
image and likeness of the soul.
The power of the Light which is therein, the same is the fine
silver : but the Counterfeit of the Spirit (Conscience) is the material
copper."
The grand doctrine of Gnosticism was this

The soul on being :
released from the prison-house and place of torment)

body (its
has to pass through the regions of the Seven Powers which it ;
cannot do unless impregnated beforehand with

knowledge:
otherwise it is seized upon and swallowed by the
dragon-formed
Euler of this world, Satan Ophiomorphos, and voided forth
through his tail upon earth again, where it animates a swine or
some such beast, and repeats its career once more. But should
it be filled with knoivledge, it eludes the Seven Powers, and
tramples upon the head of Sabaoth of whom they say he("
hath the hair of a woman and mounts up unto the eighth

")
heaven, the abode of Barbelo, the Universal Mother, and who

according to the Pistis-Sophia is the celestial Mother of the
Saviour. Epiphanius quotes from the Gospel of Philip another
formula, intended to extort a free passage from the same
Planetary Genii: "The Lord hath revealed unto me what

words the soul must use as it ascendeth up into heaven, and
how it must make answer unto each one of the Celestial
Virtues. I have known
myself, I have collected myself from
all parts, neither have I
begotten sons unto the Ruler of this
world, but I have plucked up the roots, and gathered together
the scattered members. I know thee who thou art, for I am
* A curious remark, pointing tetradrachm of imperial times being
clearly to Alexandria as the place very base silver indied.
where this Gospel \vas written, its
on^ from above. But

convicted of having left any offspring
if
id pon earth, the soul is detained there until it shall have
collected all and attracted these into itself."
This "
Self- Collection
"
was only to be effected through the ob

servance of perpetual chastity, or rather (inevitable compromise)
vices that regularly spring
the practice of the various unnatural
such an article of faith. If however a woman of the
from
want of precaution allow herself
congregation should through
took the
to become pregnant, the Elders produced abortion,
foetus and pounded it up in a
mortar along with honey, pepper,
and other and perfumery. Then this congregation of "
spices
swine and dogs assembled and every one dipping
"
his finger ;
into the mess, tasted thereof. This they called their Perfect
Passover, saying :
"
We have not been deceived by the Ruler of
concupiscence, but
have gathered up again the backsliding of
exact
our brother." The very plain-spoken Epiphanius gives
not to be into a modern tongue, of the mode in
particulars, put
which the faithful observed in one sense
their vow of perpetual
without renouncing the joys of Venus. This he

chastity,
illustrates by the explanation then current of the
singular
ancient of Saturn s devouring his own offspring, against
myth
even
which interpretation and the practice thereon founded,
to warn the orthodox two centuries
Clemens had found it needful
before.
done the
To exemplify the punishment ordained for having
the
work of the Demiurgus by leaving offspring upon earth,
wild legend how that Elias himself was turned
Ophites told a
to his own conscience a
back from the gates of heaven, although
a female demon had gathered up of his
pure virgin, because
and formed infants therewith, which to
seed during his sleep,
his unutterable confusion she then and there produced in
Hence the medieval notion of the
testimony of his sin. springs
Succuboe, nocturnal temptresses of the continent ; although these

father the Devil in a
were supposed to do the work of their
different way, by procuring him
the needful supplies for his
stood in the ex-officio
amours with the witches, to whom he
relation of paramour.
in strict accordance with what is found in the
All this is
THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 3H5
fragments of the for Clemens

"
Gospel to tho Egyptians

"
(Stromata iii.) quotes therefrom this dictum of the Saviour s :
When Salome asked the Lord

"
how long shall Death prevail?

He answered unto her, So long as ye women do bring forth chil
dren. Wherefore she said, Then I have done well in not bearing
children, seeing that there is no necessity for generation. To

which the Lord answered, Feed upon every herb, but that
which hath bitterness, eat thou not. Again when Salome asked
when the things should be known concerning which she in
quired, the Lord answered, When ye shall not need a covering
foryour nakedness when the two shall become one, the male
;
with the female, neither male nor female." It is to these over

strained rules of morality that St. Paul alludes when he ex
postulates with the Colossians (ii. 20) asking them, Why are
"
ye subject to ordinances (or rather, make laws for yourselves

without any warrant), namely, touch not (women), taste not
(flesh), handle not (things unclean)."
From the consideration of the value and use of these Gnostic
Symbols in the world to come, we are naturally led to inquire

in what manner they were employed by their owners in this.
The meaning of the word itself has gone through many tran
sitions. properly signified the contribution of
"Symbolism"
each member towards

the expenses of a Greek drinking-party.
For this purpose each pledged his signet-ring to the caterer
and afterwards redeemed it by paying his quota of the bill.
For this reason Plautus transfers the name of symboluin to the
ring itself. The

signet being considered the most trustworthy
of all credentials, the word came to signify any token serving
for the purpose of a credential. For example, Caylus figures
(Rec. V. pi. 55), a bronze right-hand, the natural size, inscribed

on the palm ZTMBOAON HPOZ OTEAATNIOTZ, "Credentials
to the Yelaunii" (a Gallic tribe whose seat was round

Antibes).* The wrist at the section is closed, forming a base,
* most two
The best, as well as the fishes, placed side by side, with
interesting example of a symbolism a palm-branch between them the ;
extant, the one figured by Caylus,

is
I
without any conception of its value reverse is inscribed AAA<t>OT.
(PI. 87, i.)- It isan ivory disk, two

inches in diameter, engraved with The-well known emblems show this
so that the hand could stand upright of itself. A pair of

clasped hands, symbol of faith (still called in Italy fede\ was
the common present from one nation or army to another on
making alliance Miserat civitas Lingonum veteri institute

:
"
dono legionibus dextras hospitii insigne" (Tac. Hist. i. 54).

From the nature of the case such presents must have been
made in the precious metals, and consequently none have been
preserved. This connexion of ideas shows plainly why in
ecclesiastical language symbolum stands for a profession of
faith, a creed, i.e. gr. Symbolum Apostolicum." And so
"
"by
degrees the word degenerated into its present sense of any

token denoting an idea, more especially a religious one.
Emblem again has passed through equal vicissitudes. At
first, a little silver chasing, intended for letting into plate as
an embellishment of the surface which the term e/xÂ^/xa
neatly expresses the designs being always mythological, its

name remained, after the fashion had expired, to denote any
representation of that nature. There is, however, a distinction
in the realmeaning of emblem and symbol the former expressing ;
by actual representation, the latter by hieroglyphs, the idea
they convey. Thus the emblem of Victory is a winged female

holding a palm ; the symbol of Victory is the palm by itself.
The BAMBINO the favourite idol of the women of Rome
bears, in its type and decoration, the most convincing of all
testimony as to the real source of the religion in whose
pantheon it plays so prominent a part. It is a wooden figure,

about two feet high, now passing for the vera effigies of the
Infant Jesus ; but to any eye acquainted with Indian art, an
unmistakable copy of the Infant Buddha. The figure, in
almost full relief, stands in front face, with arms crossed on
the breast, and holding the lotus flower in the one hand, in the
regular attitude of the Hindoo god. But the most striking

feature in the design is the shape of the background, which has
no prototype in Roman art, but is cut into the so-called "
pine-
ticket to have been the pass of some as his introduction to the faithful in
"
Brother in Christ Jesus," in the whatever part he might require their

primitive ages of the Church, serving help.
"
apple outline, which invariably accompanies the sacred

images
of India. On the head is a
crown, in the Oriental and style,
the close-fitting
garment, reaching from neck to ankle, and now
passing for the swaddling-clothes of the baby, is
profusely
studded with precious stones the
offerings of a later time. The
very tradition as to its place of manufacture supplies an inkling
of the truth ; for it is said to be the work of a monk at
Jerusalem, and carved out of one of the sacred olive-trees. The
pious artist must have been inspired by the sight of the Indian
prototype, for the resemblance is far too close to be
accidental, if
indeed, the whole affair be not another instance of a christened "
Jove."
The very nature of

things renders it a necessity for the
members of every secret
society to possess means for mutual
recognition that shall escape the observation of the outer
world. The partakers of the Eleusinian
Mysteries, appear,
from certain allusions in the
classics, to have been furnished
by their sponsors with
something of the kind. The refusal
to wear a garland at a feast was accepted as the gn of a
Mithraic brother. Certain it is that our popular notion about
the "Masonic
Grip" was equally current
as applied to the
Gnostics in the times of On the arrival of any
"
Epiphanius.
stranger belonging to the same sect, they have a sign
given by
the man to the woman, and vice versa. In
holding out the hand
under pretence of saluting each other,
they feel and tickle it
in a particular manner, underneath the
palm, and by that means
discover whether the new-comer to the belongs same society.
Upon Lowever poor they may be, they serve
this,
up to him a
sumptuous feast, with abundance of meats and wine. And
after they are well filled the host
rises, leaving his wife behind,
bidding her, Show thy charity unto this our brother, & c ., "
carrying out his hospitality to an extent that in our selfish

times no one can expect to meet with unless
amongst the
Esquimaux.
As may well be supposed, these symbola are
Avidely diffused ;
was more than co-extensive with the

for Gnosticism
empire of
Koine, and long survived her fall. Besides our guns,
plates of
bronze and lead (and oven of gold in the remarkable
example
found near Carnarvon), and rude copper medallions, engraved

with similar devices, are constantly disinterred from ancient
of
cemeteries, where they had so long protected the repose
their original possessors. Of that rarer class, the medallions,
the most interesting known me, was found in Provence

to
It shows in intaglio the Abraxas god, for

(Praun Cabinet).
reverse, the triple Hecate, executed with considerable spirit:
nature of the creed by
types well illustrating the syncretistic
this union of an ancient and a newly-devised type. The
sepulchre of Maria, wife of the most
orthodox Honorius, con
tained, amongst a variety of amuletic figures (or perhaps toys

little animals, mice, carved in crystal and agate, a gold
&c.),
with the names of the of the Presence."
plate, inscribed "Angels
On account of the great interest of this discovery, I have

inserted a complete translation of Fauno s account, the only
description ever of the rifling of an imperial tomb.

penned
And when Bishop Seffred s coffin (deceased 1159) was opened
in Chichester Cathedral, upon his bony finger still lay the
episcopal ring, set with an Abraxas jasper, no doubt recom

mended to him in life and death by the numerous virtues so
particularly set forth by Camillus
Leonardi. When did the
belief in the virtue of these talismans really expire? The
Young Pretender, with the superstition inherent in his family,
had sought to enlist in his service the mighty Abraxas himself
for his ill-starredexpedition. In his baggage, captured at
Cullodcii by General Belfort, was found a bloodstone, set in
silver as a pendant, engraved with the well-known Pantheus.
and for reverse the naked Venus, Acliamotli, legend ATITA

(Figured by Walsh, pi. 7).
Provence is yet a fruitful source of these interesting memorials
of the wide-spread theosophy. Gnosticism from the beginning
took root and flourished in Southern Gaul, as the elaborate
treatise of Ireneeus attacking it, as no newly-invented thing,
demonstrates. Its success was probably due to the

very clearly
close affinity of its leading doctrines to the Mithraic and original
Druidical systems previously reigning there. Later still, in the

middle of the fourth century, a new form of Gnosticism, broached
by Piriscllian, Bishop of Avila, who was put to death for his
pains by the British emperor Magnus Maximus. Gibbon s note

upon the unlucky heresiarch is so characteristic of his style that
I cannot forbear
quoting itThe bishopric of Avila (in Old
:
"
Castile) is now worth 20,000 ducats a year, and is therefore

much less likely to produce the author of a new
heresy."
That
Spain also had, long before Priscillian s preaching, received and
warmly embraced that of Basilides, although so far removed
from its fountain-head, is apparent from a passage in Jerome s
29th letter to Theodora :
"
Our
when that most friend Licinius,
was raging throughout Spain, and like
foul heresy of Basilides
a pestilence and murrain was devastating all the
province
between the Pyrenees and the Ocean, held fast the purity of the
Christian faith, far from receiving Amargel, Barbelo, Abraxas,
Balsamus, the ridiculous Leusiboras, and the other such-like

monstrosities."
That Britain had to some extent received the same doctrines,

the Carnarvon gold plaque is sufficient evidence. And its
existence throws light upon the singular fact mentioned by

Matthew Paris, that when Eadred, in collecting building
materials for Ins conventual church, was pulling up the Roman
foundations of Verulamium, he came upon a little cupboard,
immense wall containing
"
armariolum," in the thickness of an

an unknown tongue.
scrolls in At last a very aged monk,
Unwona by name, made them out to be written in the ancient
British language, and containing invocations to the
gods formerly
worshipped in the place. But Verulamium was so entirely
Roman, as far as its public edifices were concerned, that the
use of the native language in any documents
accompanying the
foundation of a temple is in the highest degree improbable the ;
regular Gnostic Greek would be equally puzzling to the old Saxon

monk, and his explanation was a safe cloak for his ignorance.
The late period of the Roman occupation, when Gnosticism
most flourished, will account for the preservation of "
scrolls
"
(parchment no doubt) through the few centuries intervening

before the abbotship of Eadred.
It is more than probable that such doctrines lurked un
noticed amongst the native Gallo-Romans, during the times of
the Arian Gothic kings, and did no more than revive into the
z 2
flourishing Manicheism of the Albigenses in the twelfth
century. The fact of these sectaries having received the same

share of persecution from Catholics as the "Waldenses them
selves is not alone sufficient to prove them equally good
Protestants with the latter; though that is now taken for
granted, especially by expounders of the Apocalypse, when

hard put to it to find the required
"
Two "
Witnesses against
the Scarlet Lady.
Gnosticism has left traces of itself, whether by direct or
indirect descent amongst those mysterious sects of the Libanus,
the Druses and Anseyrets. As late as Justinian s reign, ac

cording Procopius, no fewer than a million Polytheists,
to
Manicheans and Samaritans (the last also a sect of Gnostics)*

were exterminated in Syria alone, during the systematic perse
cution, so long carried on by this pedantic bigot. As that
soon afterwards fell under the more tolerant Caliphs, who
region
never troubled themselves about the religion of their subjects,
provided their tribute were punctually paid, these doctrines
may very well have come down in some sort to our days,
considering the secluded position of the people holding them,

and the tenacity of life possessed by every well-defined system
of religious ideas.
* And the most ancient of claimed Simon for their

all, for they Magus
founder.
GNOSTIC THEOGONY.
The several grades in the Gnostic Theogony, through all of
which the soul had to pass before it could attain to supreme
of the Pistis
perfection, are briefly set before us in this passage
Sophia (247) :
And when the Saviour had said all these things unto His
"
disciples, Andrew came forward

and spoke Lord, be not :
wroth with me, but have compassion upon me and reveal the
mystery of the word which I will ask Thee, otherwise
it is a
hard thing in my sight and I understand it not. Then the

Saviour answered and said unto him Inquire what thou
4
:
wouldst inquire and I will declare the same unto thee, face
to face, and without a parable. Then Andrew answered and
said Lord, I wonder and marvel greatly how men that be
:
in this world, when they are departed from out of this body
of Matter, and have gone out of the world, how shall they
pass through these .firmanents,
and all these rulers, and lords,
and gods, and all these Great Invisible Ones, and all these
that belong to the Middle-space, and those that belong to
the place of them upon the right hand, and all the great
emanations of the same, so that they may come within
inherit the kingdom of
(beyond) them all, so that they may
This business, therefore, Lord, is full of trouble in my
Light?
sight. When Andrew had thus spoken, the spirit of the
Saviour was moved within Him, and he cried out and said :
How with you, how long shall I suffer you

long shall I bear !
Do you then not understand at all, and are ye still ignorant ?
Know ye not and do ye not understand that ye are all angels,
and archangels, and rulers, and lords, and gods, and the other
Powers, and the glory thereof; you from yourselves and in
out of one mass, and one
yourselves in turn, proceeding
and one and all proceeding out of one confusion.*
matter, being,
*
Kepacruos, i.e. the mixture of which it was the object of the
the Light Divine with brute Matter, Saviour s coming to rectify.
342 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS
And by the commandment of the First Mystery this confusion

must needs be, until the great emanations of Light and the
glory of the same shall have cleansed it; and they shall
cleanse it not of themselves, but through the
compulsion of
the Great Ineffable One. And they have not received torments,
neither have they changed their places at all, neither
have they despoiled themselves, nor transformed themselves
into variousfigures, neither have they been in the last
affliction.For this cause chiefly ye are the dregs of the
Treasury -house, and ye are the dregs of them that pertain to
the right hand, and ye are the dregs of the great Invisible
Ones, and of all the Eulers, and in a word ye are the dregs of
them all. And ye were in great sorrows, and afflictions, and
transformations, and in sundry shapes of this world; and by
reason of these sorrows, ye were in agony and
fought with
this world and all the Matter that is therein, and
ye did not
slacken your hands in fighting against it until
ye had found
out the mysteries of the kingdom of Light, which rendered
you, who fought, a pure Light, and ye were made the pure
"
Light.
All which implies the grand idea that Man, although made
of inferior, though cognate stuff, to the Powers, is
Angelic
susceptible, through the attainment of knowledge, of a perfection
superior to theirs.
THE SCHEME OF THE OPHITES.

Gnostic symbols, with their uses in this life and in that to
come have thus far been the subject of our investigation which ;
naturally leads us to consider the ideas that their devisers

entertained of the constitution of the next world and of the
nature of the soul As to the former of these deeply
itself.
interesting questions, the Gnosis specially laboured to afford the

exactest information to its disciples and in this class the one
;
preserved by Origen (in Celsum vi.), leaves nothing to be

desired in point of fulness, and may confidently be accepted as
the most authoritative of all such celestial cartes de route.
This learned Father had, by some means or other, become

possessed of a parchment chart on which were depicted the
successive stages of the soul s heavenward journey, with the
several Powers * must encounter in its flight, and the proper
it
invocations (specimens of which I have already given)

whereby it should extort permission to traverse their do
minions. This chart was known to the faithful as the
"Schema, or Diagramma, of the Ophites." Amongst these
invocations the one addressed to lao, genius of the moon, is
of the most
peculiarly important as illustrating the use
numerous are considering.
class of the talismans wethou "
that president over the mysteries of the Father and of the Son,
lao who shinest in the night, who holdest the second place, the
First Lord of Death, part of that which is without
who makest
God In presenting to thee thine own memorial (or likeness)
!
as a token (or passport) I swiftly traverse thy domain after
having conquered through the Word of Life that which was

born of Thee." The MSS. read rov I&LOV VTTO vovv <//,j3oAov,
which has no meaning, but can only be the corruption of
rryv ISiav vTrovo iav,
a word often used by Plutarch in the sense of
Now memorial of lao be but
"
symbol. what else could this

"
his own image engraved in gems? This deity is btyled Lord "
of Death," because the moon (Isis) presides over the birth,
development and change, of which death is the necessary con
sequence, of things terrestrial.

* This was merely an adaptation have had a Chaldsoan origin, even
to the new notions of the sect of the more a.icient than the Egyptian,
old Egyptian ritual always placed, Lane-Fox and others have translated
entire or in part, within the mummy- a tahlet giving an account of the
case, and entitled,
"
The Book of descent of the goddess Ishtar into

the Gates, concerning the manifesta- Hades,
"
the Land of no Keturn."
tion unto the Light." These Gates, The Lord of Earth gives her a green
leading to the palace of Osiris, were bough of the If tree, and she passes
one-aad-twenty iu number, and were successively through the Seven Gates,
guarded each by its particular deity, surrendering at each in order, her
to be duly addressed in his turn. crown, ear-rings, head-jewels, front-
The papyrus of Petamenoph, other- lets, finger and toe-rings, and neck-
wise Ainmuiiius (d. under Hadrian), lace. The Lord of Hades gives her
has been admirably explained and a cup of the Water of Life, and she
translated by Champollion, and pub- returns, receiving back her jewels in
lished in Caillaud s Voyage a the same order in which she gave
Meroe, iv. p. 22. Or the belief may them up.
Of the theory therein embodied, much was

evidently derived
from the same source as the Neo-Platonic doctrine
concerning
the planetary origin of the soul s faculties, which shall be related
further on. The chart itself was founded on that essential
doctrine of Gnosticism, that the soul, released from the
body,
mounted upwards, eager for absorption into the Infinite God
head, or
"
Boundless Light," that summum bonum of Oriental

aspiration (the Buddist Nirwana perfect Repose, the Epicu
"
rean Indolent ia but on its way WHS obliged to traverse the

") ;
successive regions of the planets, each ruled

by its presiding
genius. These genii were of a nature somewhat material, and
therefore malignant, and in this respect
corresponding to the
Seven Devs, Ahrimaii s ministers, who according to Zoroaster
are chained each to his own planet. To obtain the indispensable
permission of transit, a different adjuration to each Power was
all which have been
required ;
already given from Origen s
copy of the Chart. Their names were put down therein, as
Adonai, genius of the Sun, lao of the Moon, Eloi of Jupiter.
Sabao of Mars, Orai of Venus, Astaphai of Mercury, and
Ildabaoth of Saturn.*
All these names are to be read, more or less
commonly, upon
our talismans, although probably used there in a different sense
from that accepted by the author of the Diairramma. The
Jewish angels Michael, Gabriel, Surid, Raphael, Thantabaoth,
and Erataoth, were likewise inscribed as names of the genii
presiding over the constellations, the Bear, Serpent, Eagle,
Lion, Dog, Bull. These notions are manifestly of Magian
root, acquired by the Jews during the long period that their
country was a province of the Persian Empire, and had grown

into an essential article of religion.
St. Paul found it needful to warn his flock against the
" "
worshipping of Angels ; nevertheless, the adoration and the

multiplication of their names went on augmenting to that
pitch, that a Council held under Pope Zachary reduced them, as
objects of worship to three only, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael.
*
The Kitual above cited contains the defunct to the guardians of the
regularly eight invocations addressed same numher of regions over whom
to Thoth, recommending the soul of he is the president.
This retrenchment of the heavenly host was endorsed

by a
capitulary of Charlemagne s issued from Aix-la-Chapelle. In
the Diagram under consideration, Michael was
typified by a
lion,Suriel by an ox, Raphael by a serpent, Gabriel by an
eagle,Thantabaoth by a bear, Onioth or Zartaoth by an ass.

The reward promised to the Angel of the Church at Thyatira
(Rev. ii. 28), And I will give him the Morning Star,"
"
seems to be connected with the same belief in the Planetary

Presidents. Dante, in his Paradiso, going doubtless upon
old tradition, makes Mercury the abode of spirits moved to
glorious deeds in life by the love of fame; Venus, of true

lovers Luna, of theologians; Mars, of martyrs for the Faith
; ;
Jupiter of good princes; Saturn of such as have led a con

templative and recluse life.
The above-quoted names of the Planetary Genii were in the

Jewish religion either and attributes of the Most High,
titles
or else of his chief ministering spirits but in the Gnostic

;
Scheme they had been degraded from their high estate, and
reduced into secondary deities of a mixed nature, partaking
of good as well as of evil, yet all equally anxious to win souls
from Abraxas, the proper lord and creator of the universe.
The only explanation for such a misapplication of the sacred
titles is a very brief one; these semi-Buddhist philosophers
who found the root of all evil in Matter, and consequently in
the material creation, employed these old hallowed names to
denote the agents of the Creator, who on account of this their
office were regarded as mere demons and by an exactly similar
;
process they are found misappropriating the most sacred names

of the Christian revelation. But of this blasphemous perversion
and wanton desecration of the ancient terminology no trace is
to be discoveredupon our talismans, their makers belonging to
the Kabbalistic School of Alexandria, which reconciling Moses
with Zoroaster, continued to employ these appellations in
their primary time-honoured sense.
The source of this notion concerning the Planetary Rulers
can be traced very far back. The power of Ildabaoth, or
Saturn, and his sons over the soul, as well as the astrological
notion about the influence of the stars over man s destiny, are
clearly part and parcel of what the Alexandrian Platonists had

taught concerning the planetary origin of the soul and its
faculties, thus expounded by Macrobius (Som.
Scip. i. 12) :
The soul on its descent from the One and Indivisible source
"
of its being in order to be united to the body, passes through

the Milky Way into the Zodiac at their intersection in Cancer
and Capricorn, called the Gates of the Sun, because the two
solstices are placed in these
signs. Through Cancer, the Gate
of Man, the soul descends upon Earth, the which is spiritual
death. Through Capricorn, the Gate of the Gods, it reascends
up into heaven; its new
birth taking place upon its release
from the body. So soon as the soul has left Cancer and the
Milky Way, it begins to lose its divine nature, and arriving
at Leo enters upon the first phase of its future condition here
below. During its downward
progress, the soul, at first a
sphere in form, is elongated into a cone, and now begins to feel
the influence of Matter, so that on
joining the body it is
intoxicated and stupefied by the novel
draught. This condition
is typified
by the Crater of Bacchus placed in the heavens
between Cancer and Leo.
The soul thus descending, as it passes
"
through each sphere

receives successive coatings, as it were, of a luminous
body, and
is furnished at the same time with the several
faculties it has
ta exercise during its probation
upon Earth. Accordingly, in
Saturn, supplied with reason and intelligence in Jupiter,
it is
;
with the power of action in Mars, with the irascible ;

principle ;
in the Sun, with sensation and in with
speculation ; Venus,
the appetites; in Mercury, with the means of declaring and
expressing thoughts ;
in the Moon, with the faculty of generating
and augmenting the body." Hence, as the Planets contain all
the elements that, so to speak, make up the Inner Man, the
genii, their rulers Lords of Death," as Valentinus calls
("
them),
exercise their tyranny over the soul
through the medium of
these faculties, so long as the soul is encrusted with their con
tributions during its imprisonment in the
body.
It is curious to
compare with this Grecian theory the
"
Doctrine of the Servants, of Saturn," dwellers in the farthest

North (unmistakably a fragment of Druidical lore), preserved to
us by Plutarch in his treatise On the Face in the Moon.

They taught that in the generation of man, the Earth supplied
the body, the Moon the the Sun the vovs. What the
i/^x>7,
is to the body, the same is the voCs to the i//vx?J.

This
i//vx?7
composite nature undergoes a double death. In the first,
Demetor, whose companion is the Earthly, or Supernal, Hermes,

forcibly separates the (animal soul) from the body. This
i/^x??
soul, after a certain penance in the Middle Sphere, in order to

into the
purify it from the pollution of the flesh, is caught up
Moon, and passes through the Earth s shadow during an eclipse,
after a
probation proportionate length of time unto its in
deserts whereas,
;
the wicked, if they try to enter before their
purification be completed, are scared away by the terrific Face.
The good abide in the Moon, in the enjoyment of perfect
tranquillity, and becoming Sat/xoi/e? or genii, busy themselves
with the regulation of human affairs upon earth, rendering
oraclesand similar services to mankind. But should these
beatified spirits misconduct themselves, they are put again into
a human body, and sent down to Earth. (This is the very
doctrine of Manes, who made the light of the Moon to depend
upon the brightness of the blessed one therein resident; a
theory which Epiphanius triumphantly overthrows by asking
how the luminary was supplied during the eight centuries
that elapsed between the Creation and the death of Adam ?)
But after a certain time, the i/o{k aspires to reascend to its
fountain head the Sun, whereupon Persephone, with her col
league the Celestial Hermes, separates it with gentleness and by

slow degrees from the grosser i/^x 7?- This is the Second Death :
the vovs flying up to the Sun, but the i/a;x?/ remaining in the
Moon in a dreamy sort of existence, until gradually absorbed
into her substance, exactly as the Earth gradually absorbs into
herself the remains of the body. Calm and philosophic souls
are easily absorbed ;
but active, passionate, erotic natures with
great difficulty ; they wander about in midspace, divested of

the vows, becoming Tityi and Typlioncs ;* throwing confusion
* Names of the chief giants who as that in the Book of Enoch :
warred against Jupiter. The legend

"
And the Giants who were born of

clearly comes from the same source
the spirit and of flesh shall be called
into oracles, as the so-called Typhon does at Delphi, until in

the end they likewise are drawn back and attracted into the
substance of the Moon.
Justinus Kerner, in his treatise Die Seherin von Prevorst,
improving upon the old notion, most ingeniously anatomises
the Inner Man, and makes him to consist of three members,
Seele, Nerven-Geist, Geisi. The Nerven-Geist, or nervous
energy, being of a grosser nature, continues united with
the Seele after its separation from the body,
rendering it
capable of becoming visible to the living in the form of an
apparition, and enabling it in other ways to affect material
objects, to make noises, move about articles of furniture, in

commit the various annoyances comprehended under
short, to
the term es spukt." And here be it observed the commonness
"
of such visitations in Germany is amusingly exemplified by the

necessity of having an impersonal verb to express them just as ;
we say it rains," it blows," so do the more sensitive Germans

" "
According to
"
it ghosts." its
say previous training in life, this
composite being requires more or less time to dissolve, the

Seele alone being immortal and consequently the Teutonic ;
spectres as-ume a more and more diminutive form as their time

of probation wears away. Analogous to this is Plato s explana
tion of the aclmoidedged facts of spirits haunting tombs
having :
been immersed during her union with the body in gross sensual
pleasures, the soul becomes equally unable and unwilling to
abandon her old companion and dwelling-house before the same
be totally consumed.
To the above-quoted theories explaining the nature of the
soul, and its final destination, the recent discovery of that
precious monument of Gnosticism, the Pistis-Sophia enables us to

add a third, infinitely more complete in all its details. This last
evil spirits upon earth ;

and on earth shall they be called. The habitation
shall he their habitation. Evil of the spirits of heaven shall be in
spirits shall proceed from their flesh heaven, but upon earth shall be the
because they were created from habitation of terrestrial spirits who
above from the holy watchers was
;
are born on earth. The spirits of
their beginning and primary founda- the giants shall Le like clouds which
tion. Evil spirits shall they be upon shall oppress, corrupt, fall, contend,
earth, and the spirits of the wicked and bruise upon earth." (xv. 8.)
revelation improves upon the Neo-Platonic doctrine by making

Rulers of the Sphere (Zodiac) create the
"
the astral genii "the
soul from their own substance out of the tears of their eyes
"
and the sweat of their torment," animated with a spark of that

Divine Light which has not yet been totally extracted from
their fuller nature. For these Zodiacal Lords evidently answer
to the rebellious of the Jews, and the Seven Devs of the
Angels
the religious ideas of
Magi, in fact the whole treatise represents
the latter, more closely than of any other system.
THE CAUSE OF SIN.
And when the Saviour had spoken these

(Pist.-Soph. 282).
"
things, he continuing in his discourse said unto Mary Now, :
therefore Mary, hear concerning the thing whereof thou askest

of me, Who is it that constraineth man to commit sin?" Now
therefore when (the parents) have begotten the child, when
there exists in him a small power, and a small soul, and a small
"
counterfeit of the spirit

"
;* in a word, all the three

(conscience)
in him being small together. No one of them understaiideth
at be good or evil, by reason of the
whether it
anything all,
of the oblivion (of the former life)

that holdeth
weight heavy
them the ;
likewise being
body small. And the child eateth of
the meats of the world of the Eulers. And the soul gathereth
to itself out of the portion of the soul that is concealed in these
meats, and the Counterfeit of the spirit gathereth to itself out of

the portion of evil that resideth in the meats and in the lusts
thereof; the body, likewise, gathereth the insensible Matter that
is in the meats. But the Fate herself taketh not out of the
in what
meats, inasmuch as she is not mixed up with them, but
shape she came into the world, in the same she continueth. And
little the power, the soul, and the counterpart of the
by little,
to their full stature, and each one thereof is sensible

spirit grow
after its own kind.f The power is sensible to seek after the
the soul sensible to seek after the place of
Light above ;
is
Righteousness of the mixture, which same is the place of
* t I.e. adapted by its constitution.

AVTI/JH/J.O} TTvev/jLaros.
confusion ; the counterfeit of the spirit also seeketh after all

wickedness and lusts and sins; and the
body is sensible to
nothing save how it may draw strength out of Matter, thus the
three are forthwith sensible, each one according to its own
nature, and the contentious ones (epiSaioi) also send ministers
who shall follow them in order to bear witness against all the
eins that they may commit, to regulate the manner in which
they shall punish them when they come up for judgment, the
counterfeit of the spirit also thinks upon and is sensible to all
the sins and the evils that come near to that soul, which
proceedeth from the Rulers of the Great Fate, and bringeth
them But the inner power seeketh after the
into the soul.*
Place of Light, and all the godhead, whilst the counterfeit of
the spirit turneth the soul
awry, and constraineth it to work all
its own unlawful deeds, and all its passions, and all its wicked
ness continually ;
and it abideth a different creature from the
soul, and
an enemy to the
is soul, and causeth itto commit all
these sins and wickednesses and also stirreth
;
up the ministers
of contention, to bear witness against the sins that it is about to
cause the soul to commit. And it cometh to
pass that it resteth
not day or night, and it troubleth the soul in dreams and iu the
lusts of this world, and maketh it to lust after all the things of
this world ; in a word, it urireth the soul to do all the things
t5
that the Rulers have laid before it, and it is at war with the
soul, contriving that it shall do the things it would not. Now
therefore tliis is the enemy of the soul and constraineth it to do
all kinds of sins and when it conies to
;
pass that the time of that
man is accomplished, then cometh his Fate, which driveth that
man unto the death appointed him by the Rulers, and by means
of the bonds wherewith men are tied by
Destiny. Then come the
contentious Receivers to conduct that soul out of the
body; and
after that these Receivers go about with the soul
through all the
regions shewing unto it the ./Eons of the world,f whilst the coun
terfeit of the spirit and fate follow after that soul : but the power
* The Platonic "divinso particuU earth, according to Valentinus.

aurse"; the extrication of which t The sense seems to require the
from the confusion, iîyâ, was the translation, "exhibit the soul unto
real object of Christ s descent on the JEons."
that was in it goes up unto the Virgin of Light. And after those
three days the Receivers lead that soul down from above into
the hell of Chaos, they deliver it unto the tormentors (and the
Receivers return again into their own places), who punish the
same according to the measure of its sins as ordained by the
Archons for the discharge of souls. And the counterfeit of the
spirit becomes the guard over the soul, appointed over it,
convicting it, in one place of punishment after the other, of the
sins which it hath committed, and it leadeth the soul into the
region of the Archons of the Middle space. And when it hath

arrived in their presence, they lead it unto the Mysteries of Fate,
and if they find them not (sealed upon the soul), they seek after
their own share ;
and those Archons punish the soul according
to its sins, according to its deserts ;
of those punishments I will
declare the form unto you in the Emanation of the Universe. *
But after it has come to pass that the time of the soul s different
punishments accomplished in the prisons of the Archons of the
is
Middle-space, then the counterfeit of the spirit leadeth the soul
upwards out of all their regions, and bringeth it before the light
of the Sun, according to the commandment of the Primal Man*
IEOT, and bringeth it before the judge, the Virgin of Light.

And she trieth that soul ; and in case she shall find it to be
sinful, she planteth within the same (a particle of) the power of
her own light, according unto its station in life, its body, and its
share of sensibility. Then the Virgin of Light putteth her seal
upon that soul and delivereth it unto one of her Receivers, who
will see that it be placed in a
body befitting the sins that it
hath committed (in a former life). And verily I say unto you
she shall not let the soul be released from the changes of its
bodies (various metempsychoses), until it shall have accomplished
its uttermost cycle in the shapes whereof it
may be deserving ;
of all which I you will tell the form, and likewise the form of
the several bodies into which they shall place the souls,
according to the sins of each.
"
But if it be a soul that hath not obeyed the counterfeit of the

spirit in all its doings, but is righteous, and hath received the
mysteries of Light that be in the First Court, or those that be in the

* The Seir Anpin of the Eabbis.
Second Court, or those in the Third which is the innermost part

(adytum) when the time of that soul in the body is accomplished,
and when the counterfeit of the spirit followeth after that soul,
together with fate, whilst the soul is on the road that leadeth on
high, and before it is far distant therefrom, it uttereth the
for the * of all the seals and all the bonds of
mystery breaking
the counterfeit of the spirit wherewith the Archons have bound
it unto the soul. And it having uttered those words, the bonds
of the counterfeit of the spirit are loosed so that it ceaseth to
persecute that soul, and lets it go according to the commandment

given unto it by the Archons of the Great Fate, who said unto
it : Let not that soul go free, unless it shall utter unto thee the
mystery breaking of the bonds wherewith we have

for the
bound thee unto it. Thereupon the soul, thus set free, leaves
fate behind unto the Archons of the way of the Middle-space,
and destroys the counterfeit of the spirit leaving it for the
Archons in the place wherein they had bound it (at first) unto
the soul ;
and in that moment it becometh a great flood of light,
shining exceedingly ;
and the Receivers who had fetched it out
of thebody are afraid of that light, so that they fall down upon
their faces, and the soul is made as it were a wing f of light, and
passeth through the regions of the Archons, and through all

all
the courses of the Light, until it entereth into the place of its
own kingdom for which it hath received the mystery.
"
But if it be a soul that hath received the mystery in the

First Court, which the outer part, and after receiving and
is
performing the mystery and being converted shall again have

sinned, and when its time in the body is accomplished, and the
Receivers come to fetch it, and the counterfeit of the spirit and
fate pursue it by reason of the seals and bonds wherewith it hath
been bound together with them by the Archons then if the soul
whilst yet in the way of pursuers should utter the mystery
its
that breaketh those seals and bonds, forthwith they are all
loosed and the counterfeit of the spirit ceases to follow after the
* I.e.
the formula, perhaps the perhaps to the ancient emblem of
mystery of the seven vowels, so
"
the human-headed bird used in the
highly lauded elsewhere. same sense.
t I.e. a winged thing referring ;

soul. And the soul leaves its pursuers behind, for none of them
have their own power, but the soul keeps its own power. Then
the Receivers that belong to the mystery which the soul hath
received come and snatch it away from the contentious Receivers,
and these return to do the business of the Archons in the occupa
tion of fetching away souls. But the Receivers of the soul, who
pertain to the Light, themselves become a wing of light to that
soul, and a vesture of light unto it. And they lead it not into
Chaos, because it is not lawful to lead a soul, that hath obtained
the mysteries, into Chaos but they bring it into the road of the
;
Archons of the Middle-space. And when they are come before

the Archons of the Middle-space, the Archons depart out of the
way of that soul, being in great fear, and in cruel burning, and
in divers shapes, in a word being in great fear unto which there
is no measure. And in that moment the soul utters the mystery
ot its defence before them and they fall upon their faces out of
;
fear of the mystery and of the defence which it hath uttered.

And the soul leaves with them their fate* saying unto them Take :
to yourselves your fate, I am not coming into your place from

henceforth, I am made a stranger unto you for ever, I am coming
into the place of my own inheritance. And after the soul hath
said this, the Receivers of the Light fly away with
it on
high, and
bring before the Êons of Destiny, giving it the proper speech
it
of defence for the place and the seals thereof, and the soul shews
to them the counterfeit of the spirit and utters the mystery that
sundereth the bonds wherewith they had bound them both
together, saying to them
Take to yourselves your counterfeit
:
of the spirit, henceforth I come not in your place, I am made a
stranger unto you for ever. And it shews them the seal of each
and the form of defence. Then the Receivers fly away with
the soul and bring it all the JEons,
through shewing ths seal,
and the defence, in the regions of King Adamas, and of all
all
the Rulers of the places of the left hand (which defences and
seals I will declare toyou when I explain to you the emanation
of the mystery). Then they bring the soul before the
Virgin
of Light, and it giveth to the Virgin her own seal, defence, and
*
Viz., the separate portion of its composition implanted in it
by these
Archons at its birth.
2 A
the glory of hymns, and the Virgin of Light with the seven
other Virgins examine that soul all of them, that they may all
find their own marks, their own seals, their own baptisms, and
their unctions upon it. (292) Then
own the Virgin of Light
sealeth that soul,and the Receivers of Light baptize the same
and give unto it the spiritual unction. And each of the Virgins
of Light sealeth it with her own seal. Furthermore the Re
ceivers deliver it over to the great Sabaoth,the Good One, who
is hard by the gate of Life in the region of those pertaining
unto the right hand, whom they call the Father and the ;
soul rendereth unto him the glory of his hymns, of his seals,
and of Then the great good Sabaoth sealeth

his justification.
it with his own and the soul rendereth the knowledge,

seals,
and the glory of hymns, and the seals belonging to the whole
region of those that pertain unto the right hand. These also
all seal it with their own seal ;
and Melchisedek, the great
gatherer of Light who is in the region of those pertaining
to the right hand also sealeth that soul. Then Melchisedek s
gatherers also seal it and lead it into the Treasury of Light, and
the soul rendereth glory and honour and their proper seals in
all the regions of Light. Then those pertaining to all the
regions of the Treasury of Light seal it with their own seals,
and so it entereth into the place of its inheritance."
STATE AFTER DEATH OF THE UNINITIATED.

(261)
"
Then stood forth Mary and said, Lord, as concerning

just men and perfect in all righteousness ; such a man in whom
there is no sin at all, shall they torment him with all these
judgments and punishments, or shall they not ? Or shall they
carry such a man into the kingdom of heaven or not ?

The Saviour answered and said unto Mary, The just man per
"
fect in all righteousness, that hath never committed sin, but yet
hath never obtained any one mystery of Light, when his time
cometh for departing out of the body, straightway there shall
come for him the Gatherers belonging to that one of the great
Triple Powers who is the greatest amongst them, in order that

they may take away that soul from the Contentious Gatherers,
and during three days they shall go about with that soul amongst
all the creatures of the world
(i.e. throughout all creation).
After the three days they shall lead him down into Chaos, so
that they may deliver him out of * all the
punishments there
in, and out of the judgments, and they shall bring him unto all
the judgment-places, but no flame of Chaos shall afflict him
greatly (2G2) nevertheless they shall in some wise afflict him

;
for a little space,

but speedily shall they have compassion upon
him, and draw him up out of Chaos so as to take him out of the
Road of the Middle-space, and from all the Rulers thereof.
And these shall not punish him with their cruel torments, but
the flame of their regions shall
afflict him in some measure;
and have brought him into the unmerciful place

after they
AXOANABAZ they shall not torment him with the cruel torments
therein, but they shall keep him there a little while, and afflict
him in some measure with the heat of the torments of that
place. But they shall quickly have compassion upon him, and
bring him forth out of all those places, neither shall
they lead
him by the way that goeth from out of the yEons, for fear lest
the Rulers of the ôns should hold him too
firmly, but they
shall conduct him by the path of the Sun s
light, in order to
bring him before the Virgin of Light. And she doth try that
soul that she may find it free from sin, and she ordereth it not
to be carried unto the Light because the mark of the Kingdom of
Light is not upon it but she sealeth it with a special seal, and
;
takes care that itbe put into a body of righteousness belonging

to the jEons. (263) This man will be good, so that he will
obtain the seals of the mysteries of the
Light, and inherit
the kingdom for ever and ever.
"
But if he shall have sinned once, twice, or thrice, they shall

reject that soul, sending it back again into the world according
to the form of the sins that it may have committed the form ;
whereof I will declare unto you hereafter. But verily, verily

I say unto you, that even the righteous man that hath committed
no sin at all cannot be brought into the Kingdom of Light,
forasmuch the seal of the mysteries of that kingdom is not found
*
Protect him against any suffering from.
Once for all, I say unto you, a soul cannot be brought

upon him.
into the kingdom, if it be without the mysteries of the Kingdom
of Light."
FUTUKE PUNISHMENTS.
The Gnostics did not fail, after the example of their orthodox
terror in order
rivals, to employ the strongest stimulants of
this picture
to gain forcibly manifested by
converts, as is
of the varied torments of the world to come, the appointed

which
heritage of all who obtained
not the Gnosis they preached
( Pistis-Sophia, 255) :
"
Jesus continuing in his discourse said unto the disciples,

And
"When I shall have returned
into the Light, preach ye unto the
whole world. Say unto them, Slacken not by day and night
of
to seek until ye bhall find the mysteries of the Kingdom
that shall cleanse you, and render you a pure light,
Light,
and shall bring you into the Kingdom of Light. Say unto
them, Kenounce the world and all the Matter
which is therein,
and all the cares and the sins thereof in a word, all the
that ye may be worthy of the

conversation that therein is
that ye may be saved from all the punish

mysteries of Light,
ments that are in the judgment-places. Say unto them,
that be of the mysteries
Kenounce murmuring, ye may worthy
of Light, that ye may be saved from the burning of the Figure
of the Dog. Say unto them, Renounce obedience (to the world),
that ye be saved from the judgments of the Figure of the
may
Dog. Say unto them,
Renounce invocation (of idols), that ye
of Light, that ye may be
may be worthy of the mysteries
saved from the torments of Ariel. Renounce a lying tongue,
that ye may be saved from the burning rivers of the Figure
of the Dog-shaped one. Rtnounce false witnessing, that ye
may be set free, that may be saved from the same rivers.
ye
the
Renounce boastings and pride, that ye may be saved from
Renounce that ye may be saved
burning pits of Ariel. self-love,
from the judgments of Orcus* Renounce talkativeness, that
* These regions and the shapes of gested to our author by the Egyptian
their Rulers seem to have been sug- mummy-case paintings of the Gates
ye may be saved from the fires of Orcus. Renounce unjust

judgments, that ye may be saved from the torments that be in
Orcus. Renounce covetousness, that ye
may be saved from the
rivers of smoke of the Dog-shaped. Renounce the love of this
world, that ye may be saved from the pitched-coats burning of
the Dog-shaped. Renounce robbery, that be saved from ye may
the rivers of deceit of Ariel. Renounce evil speaking, that
ye
may be saved from the torments of the river of smoke. Renounce
wickedness, that yemay be saved from the burning seas of Ariel.
Renounce unmercifulness, that ye may be saved from the judg
ments of the Drag on- shapes. Renounce anger, that ye
may be
saved from the rivers of smoke of the Dragon-shapes. Renounce
reviling, that ye may be saved from ihe burning seas of the

Dragon-shapes. Renounce robbery, that ye may be saved from
the boiling seas of the same. Renounce
thieving, that ye may
be saved from IlddbaotJi. Renounce backbiting, that
ye may be
saved from the burning rivers of the Lion-shaped one. Renounce
fighting and quarrelling, that ye may be saved from the boiling

rivers of Ildabaoth. Renounce stubbornriess,that
ye may be saved
from the ministers of Ildabaoth and his burning seas. Renounce
evil deeds, that ye may be saved from all the devils of Ilda
baoth and from punishments. Renounce de^perateness,
all his
that ye be saved from the seas of boiling pitch of Ilclabaoth.

may
Renounce adultery, that ye may be saved from the seas of
brimstone and pitch of the Lion-shaped. Renounce murders,
that ye may be saved from the Ruler of crocodiles, which
is the first creature in the ice that is in the Outer Darkness.
Renounce cruelty and ungodliness, that ye may be saved from the
Rulers of the Outer Darkness. Renounce impiety, that
ye may be
saved from weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Renounce witch
craft, that ye may be saved from the mighty frost and hail
of the Outer Darkness. Renounce blasphemy, that ye may be
saved from the great dragon of tne Outer Darkness. Renounce
in which are seated so many genii passage through which on his way
with heads of hawk, baboon, man, to the judgment seat Auubis is
crocodile, lion, jackal, vulture, win- prayed to procure for the defunct in
nowiug-fan, and serpent ; all armed the papyrus-ritual buried with him.
with swords. These were the Gates
358 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR, REMAINS.
false doctrines, that ye may be saved from all the torments

of the great dragon of the Outer Darkness.
Say unto them that teach false doctrines, and unto every one
"
that is taught by them, Woe unto you for, unless ye repent

;
and leave your error, ye shall the torments of the great

fall into
dragon of the Outer Darkness, exceeding cruel, and they in the

world shall not redeem you out of them for ever and ever, but
ye shall be utterly destroyed unto the end. Say unto them that
slight the doctrine of truth of the First Mystery, Woe unto
you, for your punishment shall be evil beyond that of all men :
ye shall abide in the great frost, ice, and hail in the middle of
the dragon, and in the Outer Darkness, and they in this world
shall not redeem you from this hour forth for ever, but ye shall
be in that place and in the dissolution of the universe ye shall
;
be consumed, so that ye shall be destroyed for ever."
FIG. 16.
TAL1SMANIC LEADEN SCROLLS.

The only classical notice of the employment of these engines
for moving the invisible world (not, however, for good, but for
evil) is to bo found in the Annals of Tacitus (ii. 09), who thus
enumerates them amongst the means, real or imaginary, where
by Livia s agent, Piso, occasioned, or aggravated, the final
illness of the too popular Germanicus. severity of the

"
The
attack (a fever) was heightened by the suspicion of poison on.
the part of Piso and in fact there were discovered, hidden in
:
the house-walls, fragments of human corpses, spells and curses

and the name of Germanicus engraved upon plates of lead ;
also ashes half-burnt and soaked in blood, and other pieces of

witchcraft by means whereof it is believed that souls are made
over unto the Infernal Gods." A
very remarkable example
of the practice of this malevolent superstition has been
published by Visconti (Op. Var. iii. 256). It is a sheet of lead

found, folded up, within a tomb opened at the llippotade Gate
of Athens and a copy of which he had received from M. Fauvel.
;
The inscription, full of blunders both in spelling and grammar, is
arranged in ten lines, seemingly meant for trochaic tetrameters,

and may be read thus :
X@ OVLOS
1
1. Ep/Z^S ) Fr/ KttTOÔS".
2. KOL TTpOS TT)V 3>p(T<j)6vT]V.
3. &epo~f(p6vri KcrraSoi Aet a//.

4. Trpos TOVTOVS annvTas.
5. Kai KXeoc^paSes.
G. KfiTaoS) irpos TOVS CIVTOVS \oo~i.
7. KCtl Nav(3a.TT]v xaraSco Trpos TOVS CIVTOVS.

8. T\r]Tr6\[j.ov KaraSco.
9. KOI TOVS jj-fTa KTT)O~LOV aTravras*
10. xaraSw.*
"
Infernal Hermes, imprisoning Earth, and also Persephone !
1 lay a
spell upon Dexias before all these deities, also
upon Cleophrades, Naubates, Ctesias with all his family."
* KctTaSecns arc used Hebrew "
Ka.Td8eafj.os Chabar," to bewitch, pro-

by Plato for witchcraft : and the perly signifies to bind.
r
The defunct Athenian must assuredly have departed this li o
full of charity towards all his neighbours to have taken such

pains to carry with him a memorandum so expressive of his
wishes on their behalf. It reminds one of the old Monmouth
shire farmer, who dying of a broken heart,
(as tradition tells),
ordered the bitterest verses of the "Cursing Psalm" to be
engraved upon his tombstone for the benefit of his enemy ;
as itmay yet be seen at Christchurch, near Caerleon, Mon

mouthshire. The Verulamium scrolls (p. 339) contained
invocations of the opposite character, for the benefit of the
parties named therein. Yet another variety are the leaden

scrolls found numerously in the lately discovered Demetrium
of Cnidus. Some evidently belong to a kin-1 of ordeal the
accused party asking to be ill-treated by Persephone in the
next world, if guilty of such or a charge others contain
>uch
;
similar ill wishes against individuals therein specified who have
injured the writers. By far the most curious of these relics is

the leaden plate, found at Bath (1880), engraved with four
lines of words placed in their proper order, but spelt back
wards and about four inches square.
for the sake of disguise,
Jt is thus read by Zangemeister :
Qui mihi mantilium iuvolavit

"
ftic liquat com aqua olla . . . ta

-Niqui earn salvavit vinna vel. . .
Exsupersus Verrianus Servianus

Itianus Sagarbalis Cubus
Minianus cum Sovina
Ceramanilli."
This reading is not satisfactory in many places. The lost
object is written MATHV, MATEHV, to be read backwards, like

all the rest, and therefore bears no resemblance to "
mantelium."
The malignity of the Greek character is exemplified in

nothing more strongly than in the open toleration of the use
of such engines of spite. In the great Temple of Demeter at
Cnidus, Mr. Newton found many of these leaden scrolls invoking
the vengeance of the goddess of the place, her daughter, and the
other infernal gods, upon individuals specified by name. It
will be remarked that this dira detestatio" was not contingent

"
upon the refusal of a just demand, as in the case of the worthy

Silurian hereafter to be mentioned ; but were the means of

revenge resorted to by persons too cowardly to use those
supplied by nature, or probably for the mere sake of gratifying
spite.
As a Roman pendant to this Athenian legacy of curses, I
copy the leaden scroll found, many years ago, in the garden of
the Villa Manenti, upon the Via Latina. De Rossi, who first
published it in the *
Bullettino del Iristit, Arch. Rom. fur 1852,
isof opinion that orthography and characters indicate the date
of the last century of the Republic. Quornodo mortuos qui
"
istic sepultus est nee loqui nee sermonaii potest, seic Rhodine
apud M. Licinium Faustum mortua sit, nee loqui nee serinonari
possit. Ita ut mortuos nee ad Deos nee ad homines acceptus
Khodine apud M. Licinium accepta sit, et tan turn valeat
est, ita
quantum ille mortuos quei istic sepultus e^t Dite Pater Rho- ; !
dinen commendo ut semper odio sit M. Licinio Fausto,

tibi
item M. Hedium Ainphionein, item C. Popillium Apollonium,

item Vennonia Hermiona, item Sergia Glycinna." It is easy
to construct a history out of these lines, the despairing lover
dying from the perfidy of the fair Rhodine, who has jilted him
for the noble Licinius. Faustus prays the God of Hell to make
her distasteful to her possessor, and also to punish her aiders
and abettors, whose Greek cognomens show them to be of the
condition of freedmeu.
In the same strain we have the commination, sounding to us
so jocular, but doubtless in its own time intended for something
very serious, addressed to Nodens, discovered amidst the ruins

of his not much frequented temple in L^dney Park, Gloucester
shire.
"
Devo Nodenti Silvianus anilum perdedit, demediam (sic)

partem donavit Nodenti inter quibus nomen Seniciani nollis
permittas sanitatem donee pei ferat usque Templum Nodentis."
Whereby the half-civilized Silurian, as his name betrays, in
grammar and orthography, beseeches the
artless local deity
never allow Senicianus or any of his family to enjoy health,
to
until he brings back the ring, the loss of whii.-h Silvianus

ascribes to him, and restores it to the rightful owner at the
temple of Nodens in which case one half its value is promised

:
to the god for his assistance in recovering the stolen property.

These thank-offerings to "Neddyn diw (perhaps identical

"
with the Etruscan Nethunos were made in coppers, the

"
")
out of which the tesselated pavement of his

"
"
very stipes
temple was paid for, as the inscription thereon yet testifies.
They were found plentifully strewed over the floor, of every
datedown to Honorius; then some sudden raid of barbarians
gave the whole establishment to the flames.
The idea of "
binding
"
is
practically carried out in Spell VII.
of Atanasi Mag. Papyrus, which directs you to lay the link
s
of a chain (/cpc/cos) upon a leaden plate, and having traced its

round the circumference, the
outline, to write thereon, common
Gnostic legend (reading both ways) continuously :
IAe(jJBAcJ>PeNeMOTNOOIAAPIKPIcJ>l
AeTAPI4>IKPAAI0ONTOM6NP4)ABAU)eAI
Within the circle must be written the nature of the thing it
is desired to prevent. The operation is entitled the Ring of "
Hermes."
The link was then to be folded up on the leaden plate, and

thrown into the grave of one dead before his time, or else into a
disused well. After the formula above given was to follow, in
Greek,
"
Prevent thou such and such a person from doing such

and such a thing
"
a proof that the long string of epithets

all referred to the same Power.
We now come to relics of the same sort, but of diverse in
tention being those passports to eternal bliss, so frequently
;
mentioned in the course of the preceding dissertation. Of these

the most complete example is the Leaden Book formerly be
longing to the celebrated Father Kircher, in whose collection it

first made its appearance, but concerning the provenance of
which nothing is known, although Matter suspects it to be the
same that Montfaucon gave to Cardinal Bouillon, who died at
Rome in 1715. But
this identification is entirely ungrounded,
as shall
presently be shown. The same writer has given
facsimiles, in his Excursion Gnostique, of the seven pages
composing the book, now deposited in the Museum Kircheriaiium.
These leaves are of lead, inches square, engraved on 3x4
each side, with a religious composition for heading, under
which are, in every case, five lines of inscription, that mystic
number having doubtless been purposely adopted by the

spell-maker. These lines are written in large Greek capitals,
square-shaped, and resembling the character commonly used
on Gnostic gems. Intermixed are other forms, some resem
bling the hieroglyphs still current for the Signs and Planets;
others Egyptian Demotic and Pehlevi letters. The language
does not appear to be Coptic, but rather some Semitic tongue,
many words being composed entirely of consonants, showing

that the vowels were to be supplied by the reader. The chief
interest, however, of the relic lies in the designs heading each
page, in which we recognise the usual figures of Gnostic

iconology, together wdth others of a novel character, all touched
in with a free and bold graver with the fewest possible strokes.
The purport of the writing underneath may be conjectured, 011
the authority of the Litany of the Dead * and the Diagram ma
of the Ophites, to be the prayers addressed by the ascending
soul to these particular deities, each in his turn. The very
number of the pages, seven in all, comes to support this ex
planation. The Astral Presidents to be propitiated in the

heavenward journey are represented in the following manner :
1. A nude female which the navel (the "circle of

figure, in
the Sun is strongly defined
")
she makes a gesture of adoration
:
to a genius in a conical cap and short tunic, armed with a
trident, Siva s proper weapon, and consequently appropriated

afterwards by the medieval l\uler of Tartarus.
Reverse. Palm within a circle or garland, and a large Caducous.
2. Female in flowing robes, addressing a gigantic fowl, much
too squat, apparently, in its proportions for the ibis of Thoth :
perhaps intended for the yet more divine bird, the phoenix.
* In the pictures to which the dis- Here the sun s rays cheer his steps,
embodied spirit before his journey
"
and he meets amongst other wonders

addresses his prayers to the various the head of Horus rising out of a
gods, and then enters upon his lotus-flower, the god Pthah, the
labours. He attacks with spear in phoanix, his own soul in the forai of
hand the crocodiles, lizards, scorpions a bird witli a human head, and the
and snakes which beset his path ; goddess Isis as a serpent of goodness,
and passing through these dark The soul then returns to the mummy
regions he at length readies the and puts life into its mouth."
laud of the Arnenti, whose goddess (Sharpe, Egypt. Mytliol., p. 65.)

is a hawk standing upon a perch.
36 A THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS.
Reverse. Nude female adoring a certain undefined monster,

furnished with large ears, and placed upon a low altar. The
first line of the accompanying prayer seems to begin with the
Pehlevi letters equivalent to S, P, V.

3. Horns, leaning upon an instrument of unknown use,
regarding a huge tortoise, better drawn than the rest, which
is
crawling towards him.

Reverse. Female in long flowing robes, holding up her hands
to anaked child (Horus ?), who is in the act of leaping down to
her from a lofty pedestal.

4. Anubis attired in a short mantle (reminding one of Me-
the apex
phistopheles) attentively contemplating a lofty hill,
whereof has the form of an eagle s head.

Reverse. Female in rags leaning on a staff advancing towards
another richly clothed and crowned, who lifts up her hands as
though terrified at the apparition.

5. Abraxas in his proper form, looking towards a female fully
draped, who offers him some indistinct symbol,

much resembling
an E turned upside down. The prayer below opens with the
word lACx); whence itbe fairly conjectured that the first
may
characters in each of the other pages give the name of the deity
pictured above.
Reverse. Frog and serpent facing each other ancient em
:
blems of Spring, but probably used here in their medieval sense

as types of the Eesurrection of the body.
6. A man with rays issuing from his shoulders, and
headless
holding out torch, appears falling backwards

a with affright on
the approach of a winged dragon.
Reverse. A
squat personage with radiated crown stands
in
front face in the attitude of the Egyptian Typhon. On the

other side stands a very indistinct figure, resembling a
his back turned to the
Cupid, having square-cut wings,
spectator.
7. Female with robe flying in an arch over her head, as Iris
is commonly pictured, extends her hand to an approaching bull :
the drawing of the latter being vastly superior to any of the

other figures. One is led to discover in this group Venus and
her tutelary sign, Taurus,
Reverse. Female reclining on the ground, towards whom
advances a large bird, seemingly meant for a pigeon.

In the sacred animals figuring in these successive scenes it
isimpossible to avoid discovering an allusion to the forms the
Gnostics gave to the planetary Rulers. A legend of theirs
related how the Saviour in his descent to this lower world
escaped the vigilance of these Powers by assuming their own

form as he traversed the sphere of each, whence a conjecture
may be hazarded that similar metamorphoses of the illumined
soul are hinted at in these inexplicable pictures.
We now come to the consideration of a second relic of the
same kind, known as "
Card. Bouillon s Leaden Book." How

Matter could have supposed this to be the same with Kircher s
(supposing him ever to have compared his own facsimiles with

Montfaucon s) is a thing totally beyond my comprehension.
For Montfaucon, in his Plate 187, has given every leaf of the
former, apparently copied with sufficient fidelity the pictures :
on which I shall proceed to describe for the purpose of com

parison with those in the Kirch erian volume for the general ;
analogy in the designs attests the similar destination of both

monuments, whilst at the same time the variation in details
proves the existence of two distinct specimens of this interesting-

class.
The leaves within the two covers, connected by rings secured

by a rod passed through them, are only six in number whilst ;
the inscriptions, though in much the same lettering as the

Kircherian copy, fill only four lines on a page, and only four
pages in all : the other eight pages having pictures alone.

Now to describe these pictures, which seem in better drawin^
than those of the former set.*
Man, nude, standingPage 1.
up. Female fully draped, walking. 3. The same figure,

2.
extending one hand. 4. Anubis in a short mantle. 5. The

usual figure of the Abraxas god. 6. Bird-headed man sur
rounded with rays (Phre ?). 7. Bust of Serapis. 8. Female
reclining. 9. Terminal figure in the form of a cross. 10. Frog.
11. Ibis, or Phoenix. 12. Female holding above her head a
star-spangled veil.
* The improvement is probably only due to the French copyist.
Montfaucon supposesall these figures represent the genii who
preside over the hours of the day the first being expressive of
rising, the last of night ; and calls attention to the fact that the
seventh page is assigned to Serapis, who sometimes receives the

title of 7TTaypdfjifjiaro<5
Oe6<s. But in his Plate 188, Montfaucon
copies from Bononi s Museum Kircherianum another leaden
book "
found in a sepulchre," which actually has seven pages, and

two figures heading each, in the specimen pages :and this may
possibly be the one since published in its entirety by Matter ;
although at present the leaves are separate, not connected into

a book, which may be the result of accident during the century
and a half that has elapsed since it was first noticed.
Another discovery of the same nature has been made in our
own times, and investigated with the greatest care. In the year
1852, whilst excavating the ruins of a tomb in the Vigna
Mariiii, near the Porta Pia, a marble sarcophagus was brought
to light, ornamented with a bas-relief representing either the
Adoration of the Magi, or else the prototype of that scene, the
Birth of the New Sun." The floor of the tomb was paved
"
with a mosaic equally ambiguous in subject, whether a Madonna

and Child, or, what the concomitants render more probable,
Isis suckling the infant Harpocrates. Several minor sarcophagi
in terra-cotta surrounded the larger one and in these were ;
found many leaden plates, rolled up into scrolls, not bound -up
like books. Eleven of these can still be deciphered. Matter
publishes facsimiles of three of the best preserved, but none
ofthem present any legends like the examples above described.
On the first is seen Anubis wearing a long tunic and buskins,
and holding out a scroll at his feet are two female busts ; :
below two serpents entwined about the same object as

all are
in the second scroll, where also the same busts appear, viz. a
corpse swathed up like a mummy. In the second scroll these

busts are set on each side of the Anubis, a large figure much
mutilated, but attired as above, and holding out a cross, the

*
Sign of Life." Under his feet lies the corpse, encircled in the
numerous folds of a huge serpent, the Agathodaamon, guardian
of the deceased. And this last type supplies the motive for so
frequently placing upon gems the serpent-girt mummy. In the
olden creed the serpent watched over tombs as well as over

buried treasure. When Êneas is offering sacrifice at his father s
grave (v. 84)
"Dixerat haec; adytis cum lubricus anguis ab imis
Septem ingens gyros, septena volumina, traxit,

Amplexus placidc tumulum, laps usque per anas ;
Coeruleae cui terga notae, maculosus et auro

Squamam incendebat fulgor, ecu nubilus arcus
Mille jacit varios adverse sole colores.
Obstupuit visu Êneas. I lie agmine longo

Tandem inter pateras, et loevia pocula serpcns,
Libavitque dapes, rursusque innoxius imo
Successit tiunulo, et depasta altaria liquit.
Hoc magis inceptos genitori instaurat honores;
Incertus geniunine loci famulumve parentis
Esse putet."
In the third scroll, the most valuable of all, the same Anubis
bears on his arm an oblong object, perhaps the Koman scutum,
held so as to convert the outline of the figure into a complete
Latin cross. Across this shield and the field run a number
of Gnostic symbols, conspicuous amongst which is the sigil pre
scribedby Alexander Trallianus as a cure for the colic.
Others resemble some ordinary Masons Marks. For ex
ample, an eight-armed cross, a circle, and a square
cut by horizontal and vertical lines at the god s foot is :
a rhomboid, the Egyptian Egg "
of the World," towards which

crawls a serpent coiled into a circle. A remarkable addition is
the inscription carved over the tunic in semi-cursive letters :
K6BNT KBA
4>KTK KCI
BK A
NcJ>
#
Under the pairs of busts in the other scrolls is the letter U),
repeated seven times in a line reminding one of the Names,"

"
the interpretation whereof has been already given from the

Pistis-Sopliia (p. 16). Very remarkable also is the line of
characters, apparently Palmyrene, upon the legs of the first
Anubis. As supposing these talis

for the figure of the serpent,
mans to emanate not from the Isiac but the newer Ophite
creed, it may True and perfect Serpent

well stand for that "
"
who leads forth the souls of all that put their trust in him
"
out of the Egypt of the hody, and through the Red Sea of
Death into the Land of Promise, saving them on their way
from the serpents of the Wilderness, that is, from the Rulers of
the stars."
As symbols so largely used here and in other Gnostic

for the
monuments, their frequent construction out of lines terminated

by dots or heads irresistibly suggests a theory for their origin.
In this respect, and in general form, they strikingly resemble
certain characters in the oldest Babylonian alphabet. This
alphabet, simple in construction, long preceding the elaborate
nailhead, is allowed to have been pictorial, i.e. hieroglyphic, in
its nature. It is very conceivable that, revered for antiquity,
this primitive character was preserved in sacred usages long after
it had grown obsolete in common life. The cuneiform continued
the national alphabet of Persia down to the Macedonian conquest,
and doubtless was the one generally employed by the natives
(very few of whom probably learnt the language of the new
masters) until it was replaced by its last modification the early
IVhlevi. And as for the primitive hieroglyphic letters, it was
natural that certain of their forms, expiessing peculiarly hacred
ideas (as the $ signifying God should retain a mystic, perhaps
"
"),
thaumatui gic, value in the practice of the Magi long after their
original meaning was forgotten. And these very Magi were

the teachers of the talisman-makers of Gnostic times.* This
explanation strongly supported by the recent discovery, that
is
in the Assyrian inscriptions every deity has a certain numeral
assigned him, which said numeral frequently stands in the

place of his full name. For example, the numei al for Ann (Pluto)
is 60 for Baal (Jupiter) 50
;
for Hoa (Neptune) 40 ;the same ;
* This conjecture of mine has at last Besides these, lie recognises at least
been verified by that high authority three out of the Cypriote syllabary ;
in Assyrian literature, Professor some remind him of the

of the rest
Sayce. He finds in the assemblage cypher alphabets of the East as given

of siglse on the back of the Mithraic by that old author Ibn Wahaby, of
gem (PI. LI. 1) the regular cuneiform which Von Hammer has made a
characters, somewhat depraved, for translation.
God, and Heaven for BI and El.
rule holding good for the sun, moon, and Hence is it

planets.
more than probable that our Gnostic talismans exhibit to us
those very numeri Babylonii which Horace dissuades the fair
" "
Leuconoe from consulting in her unadvised desire to learn the

Future. Such relics of old Chaldean lore would, it
may well
be supposed, never cease to be
reproduced as they were originally
shapen the current Pehlevi would have carried on its face too
;
recent a stamp to impose upon

superstition.
All numerals were at first letters of an Some
alphabet.
amongst the unknown characters and "
Masons Marks "
found
on talismans cannot but be numerals,
considering the essential
part the properties of numbers play in several divisions of the
Gnostic family. This notion is
strongly supported by what
Hippol) tus (Egyptian Theology) says of a certain numeral, lost in
the text, but from a subsequent Which
passage clearly the Ten.
"
is a sacred Number, and which is written down and tied about

the necks of sick people as a means of cure. In like manner a
certain plant which terminates in the same number (of leaves)
being similarly hung around the patient produces the same
effect, in consequence of the virtue of that Number. Moreover
a physician cures his patients when
they amount to that
particular number, but when the number of them is against
him he does so with great difficulty. The
Egyptians attend
much to such numerals, and calculate all similar matters
according to this rule some reckoning by the vowels alone,
;
others by all the letters in the Word." The plant meant may
have been the Agnus castus, still regarded
by the Turks as a
potent amulet, and called Kef Marjam, the hand of Mary," "
on account of its digitate form. The same hand made of blue

glass is tied round children s necks, or on the part of the body
to be protected against the stroke of the
Evil-eye. Again,
that important sect the Marcosians are shown
by Hippolytus
to teach no better doctrine than a mere patchwork of "
scraps,
stolen from the notions of
Astrology, and from the Pythagorean
art of numbers." In their theosophy the sacred numerals were
the 30, thesum of the letters constituting the Ineffable Name, and
the constituents of the same. viz. 8, 10, 12 expressed in Greek :
by H, I, A or, again, by an intricate combination of these

I :
2 B
numerals giving the sum 99, written in Greek p. In another
place (iv.
almost every heresy is
51) Hippolytus observes that
"
indebted to the science of arithmetic for its invention of the

Hebdomads, and its emanation of the Êons; although the
different teachers divide them variously, and change their names,
doing in reality nothing more : in all which way of proceeding
Pythagoras is their true master, he who first brought with him
out of Egypt the use of numbers in such matters.
The so-called Pythagorean Numerals" of unknown antiquity,

"
whether or not due to the Samian sage, are said to be preserved

to us by Boethius, the last of the Romans," in his treatise
"
on Arithmetic. That they would be the true parents of our

Arabic numerals is at once apparent by inverting the figures
standing for 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 0. Their forms look like certain
Palmyrene letters slightly modified. The Palmyrene is a very
ancient Syriac alphabet, totally different in origin from either

Punic or Pehlevi. The ancient importance of this character is
apparent from what Epiphanius notices (Haer. Ixvi.). Manes "
divided his work into 22 books, being the number of the letters
in the Syriac alphabet. For most of the Persians use the
Syriac character as well as the Persian, just as with us many
nations, although having a national alphabet of their own, yet
employ the Greek. Others again pride themselves upon using

the most cultivated dialect, viz. that current in Palmyra, both
the dialect itself and its letters and these are 22 in number."
;
In this affectation of the learned in Persia, a sufficient reason
presents itself for the occasional appearance of Palmyrene letters

in spells composed and sold by the Magi or their semi-Grecian
disciples under the Roman Empire. The practice went back

far beyond the epoch of the great heresiarch, for many Baby
lonian cylinders are known inscribed, instead of the cumbrous
cuneiform, with a Semitic lettering, sometimes more resembling
the Palmyrene than the Punic. And even when the Pehlevi
had become the national alphabet of Persia there was very good
reason why the cultivators of polite literature should prefer the
Palmyrene alphabet for its superior copiousness, their own

possessing no more than fifteen distinct characters. And, lastly,
the remark of Epiphanius deserves attention as to certain
Western nations then possessing alphabets of their own for it :
proves, contrary to the received opinion, that as late as A.D. 400

they had not been superseded by the Greek or the Latin
all
letters throughout the whole extent of the Roman world.

The curious question of these Numerals, and the deep ideas
involved therein, has led us far away from the
proper object
of this chapter sepulchral scrolls. Their use was carried on
by the Christians down to comparatively recent times. Fauno

describes amongst the innumerable bijoux of all kinds
deposited
in the coffin* of the infant imperial bride Maria Honorii a small "
plate of gold on which were written, or rather

scratched, the
words, in Greek, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel." And the
Abbe Cochet has figured in his very interesting researches in f
the old Norman cemeteries
leaden plates, cross-shaped,
many
inscribed with prayers, placed regularly upon the breast of the
buried body. Out of four examples found in the old
cemetery
of Bouteilles, Dieppe, the most complete formula, written in a
character that cannot be later than the thirteenth
century, runs
as follows Dns IHC XPC qui dixit discipulis suis
:
"
quodcunque
ligaveritis super terrain erit ligatum et in celis quodcunque
solveritissuper terram erit solutum et in
celis de quorum
numero nos indignos nos esse voluit ipse te absolvet per
licet
ministerium nostrum quodcunque fecisti cogitatione locutione

negligenter atque necibus omnibus absolutum perducere
dignetur in regnum celorum qui vivit et regnat Deus per secula
saeculorum amen. Omnipotens Deus misereatur animo Mesaline
condonet peccata tibi preterita presentia et futura liberet te ab
orani malo conservet et confirmet itinere bono et perducat te
Christus films Dei ad vitam eternam et ad sanctorum consortium
absolutione et remissione penitentia tribuat tibi Masaline
omnipotens plus et misericors IHC Amen." The Abbe states
that the custom in the Russian Church for the papa at
it is still
a funeral, after reading the form of absolution, to place the

paper
in the hand of the corpse to accompany him into the grave.
The remarkable properties of Numerals captivated the fancy
* Discovered Feb., 1544, in digging his Antichita di Roma, 154
p.
the foundations of the Chapel of the published 1553.
Kings of France, in St. Peter s, Rome; f Sepultures Gauloises, chap.xiil.
and fully described by M. L. Fauno in
of Man as Boon as the science of arithmetic was invented. From

their powers of infinite multiplication the ancients gave
them
sexes making the odd the males,
:
the even the females of the
This assumption plays a great part in the theosophy

species.
of Marcus. From this idea, the next step was a very easy one
the attribution of mystic virtues to certain combinations of
numerals that produced curious results by their addition. Of
the
such, the most striking example is the Magic Square;
mediaeval charm the plague, and therefore con
grand against
spicuous in Albert Durer
s Melancholy, where the
picture of
dull goddess sits in gloomy abstraction, surrounded by the
emblems of all the arts and sciences. This, which however
4 . 14 . 15 . 1
9 . 7 . 6 . 12
5 . 11 . 10 . 8
16 . 2 . 3 . 13
added, gives the same result, viz., 34.

The celebrated Caireen magician of forty years ago, em
on the same principle, but with
ployed a diagram constructed
different numerals, into the middle of which, traced
on a sheet
4.9.2
3.5.7
8.1.6
for mirror
of paper, he poured the little pool of ink which served
the of the called for by his dupes.
to exhibit spectres persons
subject in an appropriate
manner, a
And, to conclude this
fifteenth century MS. in the library of this college, amongst
a number of charms, gave this

"
for procuring favour with all
men ;
"
always carry about you written

down
A.X.H.B.X.U.Y.III.K.O
FIG. 17.
PART V.
TEMPLARS, ROSICRUCIANS, FREE

MASONS.
"
Inscriptiones proptor quas vadimoniurn deseri possit : at

cum intraveris, Di Deaeque 1
quam nihil in medio invenies."
(Plin. H. N. Praef.)
TEMPLARS, ROSICRUCIANS, FREE
MASONS.
PRESERVATION OF GNOSTIC SYMBOLS AMONGST

THE FEEEMASONS.
AT the first sight it is absolutely
startling to recognise so
many Gnostic (primarily Indian) symbols, figuring so con
spicuously amongst the insignia and illustrated formula3 of our

Freemasons, and that, too, apparently in their original sense
as exponents of the deepest mysteries, human and divine a
circumstance of lending a specious colour to the preten
itself
sions of the Order to the most venerable In- "
antiquity.
scriptiones propter quas vadimonia deseri possint. Sed ubi
intraveris, Dii Deaeque quam nihil in medio invenies," to quote
!
old Pliny s words in speaking of the charlatans of his day. For

the pleasing illusion vanishes when we come to investigate the
line of their descent ; and the Fraternity, though claiming them
as its own legitimate inheritance, turns out at the end a mere
daw in borrowed plumes.
To begin by stating theseclaims, as recently put forward by
one of their most zealous and pugnacious defenders The :
"
mere title may be comparatively modern; for the society in

antediluvian and prehistorical times most undoubtedly was
(!)
not called Freemasonry. But the thing was in existence, and
has descended to our own day."
"
On the arrival of the Eomans

in Britain, we and several of the Roman generals
find CaBsar
who succeeded him in the government of the island becoming

patrons and protectors of the craft but there is no information
;
to be found in regard to the usages and customs prevalent
among them at that time. Their lodges and conventions were

regularly held, but were open only to the initiated fellows.

There is enough however to show that the same society which
now nourishes everywhere was then in existence, holding
lodges and conventions and having its initiated fellows. I may

add, that a regular list of Grand Masters can be produced quite
as genuine and reliable as that of the Archbishops of Canter
bury, or of the Kings of England. If that in itself is not
valid evidence enough of the continued existence of the same
society in England from the earliest historical period down to
the present date, I don t know what would be admitted as
sufficient evidence." Going back to A.D. 300 we find the
"
Emperor Carausius supporting it, and appointing Albanus, his

Steward, Grand Master. This was none other than the famous
St. Alban, the first British martyr, who was born at Verulam,
now St. Albans, in Hertfordshire."*
The above an unusually brilliant specimen of the logic of

is
the Brotherhood, that assumes in every notice of building and

builders to be found in antiquity a recognition of the then
existence of their own society exactly as at present constituted.
The old guild of ivorking-masons seems to have made pretensions
of the same nature (if we allow the genuineness of the supposed
Bodleian MS. copied by Locke) for their great patron Henry VI.
;
informs his scholar that the Mystery was first brought into
"
England by Peter Gower (Pythagoras) a corruption of the

"
name, by the way plainly betraying that he had obtained this

;
piece of information from a French mouth, probably

from some
one in the suite of his queen. It is not unlikely that this con
nexion of the Father of Mathematics with the building trade
by the Greek and Koman
arose from the study of that science
architects for upon the vital importance of a knowledge of
:
Mathematics to his own profession Vitruvius repeatedly and

strongly insists. But this very king, whom our Freemasons
claim as their chief resuscitator, furnishes the most conclusive
evidence against the reality of their modern pretensions. By
the advice of the Bishop of Winchester, better known as Car
dinal Beaufort, he passed an Act, in his third year, forbidding
* From a letter published in the by John Milner, B.A., Chaplain to
Cork Constitution, Jan. 15, 186G, H. M.S. Hector.

Masons to hold lodges or

any meetings whatsoever, which pro
tection is clearly directed against no higher things than
mere
trade-union proceedings. But at a later period he showed
"
"
the Masons more favour, and even attended their meetings, as

did his contemporary James I. of Scotland. But the question
by the language of the Act :*
is set at rest First, Whereas by
"
the assembling congregations and confederacies made by the

Masons in their grand chapters and assemblies the good cause
and effect of the Statute of Labourers be openly violated and
broken, in subversion of the law and to the great damage of
all the commons, our said Lord the King
willing in this case to
provide remedy by the advice and assent aforesaid, and at the
special request of the said
commons, hath ordered and estab
lished, that such chapiters and congregations shall not be
hereafter made, they that cause such chapiters and congrega
tions to be assembled and holden, if they thereof be convict,
judged for felons. And that all the other masons that
shall be
come such chapiters and congregations, be punished by
to
imprisonment of their bodies, and make fine and ransom at the

king s will."
The language of this Act is sufficiently conclusive, but for

accumulation of proofs, I shall proceed to establish the same
position by giving a summary of the oldest, and only genuine
document extant on the subject of Masonry. This document is
a MS. Bib. Eeg. 17. A. I. 32, written in a hand that cannot fif.
be later than the close of the 13th century, and of which a copy
has been published by J. 0. Halliwell. It commences with a
history of Architecture from the beginning, and of the intro

duction of the art into England, and then proceeds to give, in
rhyme, the Rules of the Craft, conceived in precisely the same

business-like spirit as those of a Trades-Union. The preamble
is Hie incipiunt Constitutiones Artis Geometricae secunduni
:
"
Eiiclydem."f Onca upon a time a certain king and his nobles

had such large families as to be unable to maintain them
decently, and taking counsel together devised they should be
* Statutes at Large, ed. Keble, densed summary of the sense of the

1695. 3 Hen. VI. cap. 1. old Mason s rhymes,
t What follows is a much eon-
taught some trade whereby to live. A great clerk Euclyde

proposed teaching them geometry, called Masonry, the most
honest craft of all. He ordered that the most advanced of his
scholars should be styled Master
by the rest, but that he should
callnone of his inferiors either subject or servant, but
always my
dear brother.
In this manner by good wit and

"
Geometry,
Began first the Craft of Masonry."
Euclyde invented and taught the same in Egypt :

many
years afterwards it was brought into England in King Athel-
stan s time. This good king loved the Craft and built
many
towers, halls, bowers, and temples. But finding out many
defects in the Craft he determined to reform the same and
summoned an Assembly of all the masons in England together
with all his lords and commons, and,
"
Fifteen Articles there they brought,

And Fifteen Points there they wrote."
Art. I. The master must be just and true, and

pay his
fellows according to the price of provisions neither exact more :
from his employer than he pays his men nor take bribes from ;
either side.
II. Every master-mason must attend the general congrega
tion or Assembly, wherever it shall be held, unless hindered by
sickness, else shall he be accounted disobedient to the Craft and
full of falseness.
III. No prentice to be taken for less than seven years, for in

less time he cannot learn his business either to his employer s
profit or to his own.

IV. No bondsman may be taken for prentice. Otherwise it
might so happen that his lord might take him out of the lodge
itself, and so occasion great tumult, for all the masons would
stand together by their fellow. The prentice must therefore be
taken of the master s own degree; but of old times it was
ordained he should be of gentle blood, and even great lords
sons took to this geometry.
V. The prentice must be of lawful birth, and sound both in

mind and body :
"
For an imperfect man of such blood,

Should do the Craft but little good.
A maimed man he hath no might,
Ye may it knowen long ere night."
VI. The master must not take from his employer the same
pay for the prentice as for the perfect workman. Nevertheless,

before the prentice s time is out, as he increases in knowledge,
so maywages be proportionably raised.
his
VII. The master must neither for love nor money clothe,
feed, or harbour a thief, nor a homicide, nor one of bad fame,
all which would bring the Craft to shame.
VIII. If the master finds any of his men incompetent he must

turn him off, and take another in his place, as such a hand "
would do the Craft short worship."

IX. The master must undertake no job that he is unable to
finish, and must see that he lays the foundation so that it will
neither give nor crack.
X. No master-mason must supplant another under penalty of
ten pounds unless where the work has tumbled down through
the incompetence of the first builder. In all points of this
curious Craft masons must live together like brethren.
"
"
XI. No mason work by night unless for the sake of

is to
trying experiments amending errors. for

XII. No mason must disparage the work of another, but
rather must praise the same, and if wrong, privately advise him
how to aright it.
XIII. The prentice must be taught every branch of the

business, and be put upon work suitable to his ability.
XIV. The master must take no prentices-, unless he have
divers jobs in hand, in order to teach them the trade.
XV. The must be a friend to his master, never
prentice
deceive him
the sake of another; neither stand by his
for
fellows in a wrong cause, nor take a false oath.

These Fifteen Points were likewise ordained at the aforesaid
Assembly :
I. The mason must love God, Holy Church, and his fellow-
masons, wheresoever he may go.

II. The mason must work as truly as he can

upon the work
day, and so deserve pay upon the holy day.
his
III. The prentice is on no account to divulge any trade
secrets.
"This Third Point it must be special,
Let the prentice know it well,
His master s counsel he keep and close,
And his fellows by good purpose;
,
The secrets of the chamber he tell to none,

Nor in the lodge whatever is done.
Whatever thou seest or nearest them do,
Tell it no man
wherever thou go.
The counsel of hall and eke of bower,
Keep well in great honour,
it
Lest it should bring thyself to blame,

And bring the Craft into great shame."
IV. That no mason be false to the Craft nor maintain
his cause against neither do prejudice to master nor fellow,
it :
and that the prentice stand in awe.

V. The master must take his wages, whatever ordained
him, without disputing. The master, if unable to find them
work as before, to give them warning in the forenoon.
VI. If any dispute or quarrel arise amongst the masons, the
master must make them put off the settlement thereof until
the next holy day and not allow it to be settled upon a work
;
day, lest it should hinder the work in hand.

VII. Not to lie with thy master s or fellow s wife or
concubine under penalty of serving another seven years of
prenticeship.
VIII. If thou hast taken any job under thy master, be a
middleman between thy master and thy fellows.
faithful
IX. When the fellows have a common chamber then they must
take the stewardship in turns, week by week. All victuals to
be paid for as received, and regular accounts to be
kept of the
common expenses.
Of thy
"
fellows goods that thou hast spent,

When, and how, and to what end,
Such accounts thou must come to
When thy fellows would thou do."
X. If a mason lives amiss and

his work, he must, is false to
without favour, be convened before the Assembly, and

punished
in case he refuses to
according to the law of old ordained or,
:
appear, he must forswear the profession.

XI. If a skilled mason observe his fellow cutting a stone and
through his own ignorance, he must
advise
likely to spoil it
him in fair words, and teach him how to amend it, not to bring
shame upon the whole work.
XII. That whatever shall be ordained in the Assembly,
and the
being present the master and fellows, nobles, burghers,
sheriff of the county, and the mayor of the town, that thou
shall maintain against all thy fellows, if disposed to dispute

the same.
XIII. The mason must swear never to be a thief himself, nor
for any fee or reward to abet one that is.
XIV. Before the Assembly breaks up, each must be sworn

unto his master and fellows, to the king, and to all these
present. Also they must seek out every one that hath con
travened any one law thereof, and bring them up before the
Assembly.
XV. And if found guilty, they must forswear the Craft :
"
And so mason s craft they must refuse,

And swear it never more to use,"
unless they consent to make amends. If refractory, the sheriff
is to cast them into prison during the king s good pleasure, and
take their goods and chattels for the king s use. The Assembly
must be held every year, or at least every third year. Unto
the same must come every man of the Craft, and all the great
nobles, to amend all infractions, and to swear obedience to the

Constitutions of King Athelstan ; and especially to make bold
that he stand by the masons everywhere
petition to the king
and enforce the same statutes.
Next follows Ars Quattuor Coronatorum, a manual of

religious and moral duties, and also of good manners in
company.
"The Four Masters
Who were as good Masons as on earth could go,
Gravers and image-makers they were also,"
were commanded by the Emperor to make an idol to be

worshipped.On their refusal he first imprisoned and tortured
them, and at last put them to death. These be the "
Quattuori
Coronati," and their festival falls on the eighth day after All
Saints. Many years after Noah s Flood, was begun the Tower
of Babylon. It was built
up to the height of seven miles, by
order of Nebuchadnezzar, for a
refuge in case of another deluge.
But an angel, in order to punish his
pride, smote all the
builders with confusion of
tongues. After this Euclid taught
geometry, and gave his scholars the following rules.
Behaviour in Church. To use the
holy-water on going in to :
kneel down, never sit nor stand, make no noise nor

talk, but
pray all the time, saying certain prayers given in the text. To
attend mass daily, but if at work to
repeat a certain prayer
upon hearing the mass-bell.
In Company. On coming before a
lord, to doff cap or hood
nor put in on again until bid make two or three bows with ;
the right leg, hold up thy chin, look him

sweetly in the face ;
do not scrape the foot, nor spit or blow

thy nose. On entering
a hall amongst the gentelles, be not
presumptuous on account of
thy birth or skill :
"
In hall or chamber where thou dost

gan,
Good manners make the man."
When sitting down to meat, see thy hands be clean and knife
sharp : cut the bread and meat ready for If
eating. by sitting
a worshipful man, suffer him to help himself first.
Keep thy
hands clean, smudge not the napkin, on which thou must not
blow thy nose nor pick thy teeth at table neither drink with
:
;
anything in the
mouth, nor dip thy chin too deep in the cup,
nor talk to thy neighbour when
drinking.
"In chamber among the ladies bright,
Spare thy tongue, and spend thy sight."
Talk not of thine own matters, neither for mirth nor for mede.
Play only with thine equals. On meeting a man of worship
be sure to cap him; walk a little
way behind him; never
interrupt his speech be brief and fair in thy replies, &c.
;
"
Christ then, of his grace,

Give you both the wit and
space
Well this book to con and read,
Heaven to have for your mede.
Amen! Amen! So mote it bee!
So say we all par charite"
Any reader ofcommon intelligence will perceive that the

good priest, author of this the oldest extant document upon
Masonry, had not the remotest idea of the same as being the
possession of a secret society, established for some hidden end,

whether religious or political. The very rules which he pro
fesses to transcribe from the Constitutions of Athelstan, are
as plain-spoken, matter-of-fact as those of a modern Trades-
Union, differing only from the latter in the larger admixture of

common sense and honesty that they display, the whole winding
up with directions for behaviour in good society, as laid down
by some anticipatory Chesterfield. The secrets of the lodge

"
"
are manifestly nothing more than matters pertaining to the

trade discussed amongst the masons at their lodgings after
work, and very inexpedient for them to be divulged to out
siders. And to come to the most essential point of the question
which these Constitutions fully establish,
"
the Assembly
"
is,
so far from being a secret chapter, held by the Free and Accepted
Brethren only, that it must actually be presided over by the sheriff
of the county, and the mayor of the town where it is held for !
the purpose of settling all matters connected with the building-

trade ; being in fact nothing more than what was called in
those times an Assize of
"
Labour."
An interesting feature in the treatise is the fact of its
ascribing these same "
Constitutions
"
to King Athelstan.
There very good reason for accepting this statement as
is
founded upon trustworthy tradition. The Saxon Prince was

the first British sovereign who possessed either wealth or
inclination for decorative architecture or building of any sort.
His father, Edward the Elder, and his aunt Ethelfleda the "
Lady of Mercia," are recorded as the first of the Saxon line

who built fortifications of stone about their chief cities. Before
this the Saxons, like all other Teutons, had no other idea of
building than of constructions in wood, all stone-masons had
to be brought over from France when wanted (as numerous
references, unnecessary here to quote, conclusively evince), in

which country architecture had kept up a feeble existence
after the fall of the Empire, its preservation being due to the
patronage of the Church, which kept growing in wealth and

power in proportion as the Roman

authority died away. The
simplicity of the Constitutions in prescribing the convening of
mere craftsmen tinder the presidency of the sheriff and mayor,
betokens a truly Saxon state of society, and moreover a time
when these masons were actually working-men. Under the
Normans, regular architects (in one sense) first appear as the
Masters," who were almost invariably churchmen. Further
"
more, the prohibition against taking a bondman

"
"
for pren
tice unmistakably betokens the same early period, when
domestic slavery, not mere villanage, was recognised by law :
the Norman legislation makes no such distinction of bond and

free.
Aubrey indeed quotes the authority of Dugdale that the

"
Fraternity of Adopted Masons," having signs and passwords for

the purpose of mutual recognition, owed its origin to a company
of Italian masons, who in Henry III. s time obtained a patent
from the Pope to go about Europe, building churches. But the
absurdity of this statement is manifested by a single fact :
when the Italians of that period wished to erect any important
edifice, so far from being competent to do so for other nations,
they were forced to call in architects from Germany and

France. To give
a few decisive examples, as regards the
wealthiest and most polished states of that country Pisa em :
ployed Guglielmo Tcdesco to plan her celebrated Campanile ;

il
Florence, Lapo, alias Jacopo il Tedesco, father of Arnolfo

(who had already gained high reputation by the triple church
he had built at Assisi for the Franciscans), to construct
their bridge "
Alia Carraia," the Bargello or Townhall, several

churches, and to drain the Piazza Grande. Even a century
later the Visconti were obliged to employ German architects
to design the Duomo at Milan. It is true
Henry III. had
in his pay one Peter but only in the
"
civis Eomanus,"
capacity of a decorative artist, for the mosaic work at the

Westminster Shrine. But in truth, during the entire Gothic
period, architecture, as a national art, may be said to have been

extinct in Italy, the grand centre of the art then being
established in the very middle of France.
All this evidence goes to show that our Freemasons have no
relationship, either actual or traditional, with the mediaeval

guilds bearing the same appellation, a pretence they so
zealously maintain. The latter were corporations of real work
men, in which each person, after serving a regular apprentice
ship, and, according to the custom still kept up in some
counties, producing a trial-piece to prove his competency, was
admitted free of the Guild, and
"
" "
"
accepted amongst the

members of the same. The compotations accompanying the
ceremony are in truth the sole point of resemblance between
the ancient and the modern Freemasons.
The Bulletin Monumental for 1884, p. 34, contains a
memoir, signes do Tacherons sur les remparts d Avignon,"
"Les
which gives the fullest collection (six pages) of these marks

that has ever been published. They can bo here traced
from Roman
times where they appear as single letters or as
Trionian shorthand, down to the actual Masons Marks of
mediaeval and modern times. Many clearly represent the
tools used in building. Some of these marks, and more of
those from Avignon, are to be recognised upon Lichfield s
Tablet;" which may, after all, be no modern

"Baphometic
forgery, but a genuine register of such segli of the seventeenth

century.*
The mediaeval guild of Masons, as we have seen, was no more
a secret society than were the guilds of Carpenters, Cordwainers or
Tailors. Every man indeed belonging to the first-named (and this
is the only thing belonging to the Craft, that really carries with
it an air of mysterious antiquity) had, upon admission, a mark
(or
cypher) assigned him, which he was bound to put upon every
stone he dressed (a rule still observed) in order to
distinguish
his work from that of his fellows, against the time when the
materials should be examined by the master-mason, who paid
him for those approved, but stopped his wages for those spoiled
through his fault. Similarly every Merchant of the Staple
" "
joined with his initials upon his seal, or trade mark, the mark
of the staple-town to which he belonged. This latter,
though
* Most interesting of on ac-
all, lately published by Dr. Freshfield,
count of their early date, are the in the Archseologia, Vol. 50, Part I.
Masons Marks at Westminster Hall,
2 c
much alike in outline, was variously modified so as to indicate
each of the fifteen towns in England, Ireland, and Wales,
appointed by Edward III. In all mediaeval documents relating

to building, the name "
Freemason "
signifies merely the

worker in hewn stone, the inferior workman who ran up the
body of the wall in rubble or ragstone being called the
Lastly, a very
"
Eough-waller." puzzling question presents

itself if our Freemasons be the legitimate successors in an
unbroken line of the ancient lodges and guilds, how came it
that all the principles of Gothic architecture were utterly lost
within less than a century ?
But to return to the marks themselves, of which many
have been published gathered from regions the
collections
most widely separated. Their history is indeed full of interest
but likewise of obscurity ;
"
res alta nocte et caligine mersae."
Many of them and go back to the highest

are traditional,
antiquity, being found on Phoenician* and Greek buildings (as

well as on vases and coins of the earliest times), and in still
larger abundance and variety in all mediaeval architecture.

These marks were in the beginning religious symbols, many of
them being with the caste-marks, whereby to this day
identical
the followers of the respective Hindoo gods are distinguished

from one another. This religious significance explains also
their occurrence on Celtic monuments, as on the Stonehenge
lintel, and the Newton Stone, Aberdeen, and so numerously on
the Gallic coins but they have for centuries, further back than
;
can be traced, degenerated into the mere signatures of illiterate
mechanics."!"
To illustrate this curious point, I shall adduce a
* A most interesting example is It is, however, ridiculous to attribute

the stone in the second course of the the foundation of the Temple Wall
Temple Wall, S.E. Jerusalem, dis- to Solomon s architects, the fact of
covered Jan. 1869. It bears two its being cut through ten feet of
marks, deeply cut, ^
aD d H. Other rubbish thrown from above proves it
marks in red paint resemble Phoe- to have been done long after the
nician letters. Deutsch observed citywas inhabited, and therefore the

many such on the walls of the old work of Agrippa.
Castle of Sidon, built from ancient f Who have introduced a refine-
materials. He considers them ment upon the old system, viz., the
numeral, unity 9 being repre-

to- necessity of every mark terminating
sented by vertical lines, 10 by a in an odd number of ends.
horizontal, 20 by two parallels, &c.

few of the most remarkable

examples of lapidary symbolism,*
giving, as in duty bound, precedence to the late discovery at
Stonehenge. The mark is cut upon the fallen impost
lying
across the supposed altar. It is nine inches
long and clearly
defined, and may be described as a semicircle of which the
diameter being produced, its own length terminates in a second
semicircle reversed and open, combined with the Koman
letters, L, V ;
having in fact much the appearance of a sicjla
or nota scriptoria. The mark has therefore something in its
look that suggests the
signature LVCIUS. Had the sagacious
Stukeley discovered this inscription he would unquestionably
upon the strength thereof have ascribed the whole fabric to the
British Lucius so renowned in fable. It must not however
be
concealed that our fashionable
scepticism has impugned the
of even this most venerable handwriting on the wall."
"
reality
Dr.Thurman has hunted up three credible witnesses
ready to
make affidavit that they saw with their own a certain
eyes
stranger cut the sigil.f But inasmuch as it would be
equally
facile, by means of leading questions
dexterously put, to obtain
the testimony of the same number of bucolical juveniles
" "
that they were present at the erection of

Stonehenge itself,
the genuineness of the mark
(so wrcrnodern in configuration)
seems to me no measure disproved.
in
Symbolic figures,
spirals and interesting circles are found on the stones in
Newton Grange, Drogheda Cave, Eouth Linn, Old
Berwick,
Doddington Moor, Northumberland; Long Meg, Cumberland.
The latter have been published in the
Archa3ological Journal.
But to proceed to actual Caste-marks. We find a casual
allusion to their use in ancient
writers, who state that the
badges distinguishing the three orders of the Egyptian priest-
xix. p. 78. J
*
Regular Masons marks are the neighbouring Benares. Slier-
visible upon the great hewn stones ring,
*
Sacred City of the Hindus.
of the Buddhist buildings at Sarnath,
f It must be remembered the stone
which are known to have been is so hardened
by weathering as to
erected before the sixth
century ; and turn the best chisel !
more of the same kind are found on J Lists of Masons

marks have
the ruined buildings of the same been published in the
following
religion still to be traced incorporated works: Arehraologia (18-45), for
into the Brahminical edifices within
Scotland, by Prof. Chalmers ; Marks
2 o 2
388 THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS
hood were the signifying the sun ; the T eternal life ; and the
A pleasure. With the Hindoos, the equilateral Triangle sym
bolises Mahadeva, or Siva, that is, the element Fire personified.
The same figure inverted stands for Vishnu, Water.
The
two, intersecting each other, form the Slierkun or six-
points; that is, the two elements in conjunction.
The five-pointed figure, made by bisecting the sides of an
by a line as long as one side, and drawing
equilateial triangle
lines from each extremity of the said line to each foot of the
triangle, symbol of Siva and Brahma (the latter god having
heads) became, later, the famous Solomon This
"
five s Seal."
appellation it must have got in early times, as in virtue thereof

it sculptured along with the seven -branched candlestick
is
upon Sivish tombs dating from the Lower Empire.* The

Hindoos still venerate the figure as replete with virtue.
Similarly the Slierkun is engraved on a large scale upon each
side of the gate of the Fort at Agra, although the building is
of Mohammedan work.
A point, Puru, is the Deity ;
self existing. A circle, Bralim,
eternity. Hence a triangle within a circle is the emblem of

Trinity in Unity and the circle inscribed within a triangle
;
the converse.
Worshippers of Sacti, the Female Principle, mark their sacred

vase with a right angle bisected by a line; and similarly the
worshippers of Isis used so to mark the vessel necessary at her

rites. But the Vishnaivas have for the same object a symbol
of wondrous vitality and diffusion : for it is seen equally on
Greek coins and vases, on the Newton Stone, Aberdeen, in

ecclesiastical sculpture, where it takes the name "
Tetragam-
at Brechin, and signatures to St. those given by Ouseley ( Travels,

Ninian coming down to the pi. 82), as characters of some un-
"
s Roll,
date 1814. Ditto, for 1844, contains known alphabet," found by him on
a memoir by G. Godwin, with five the stones of Ihe Old Palace (a
plates of marks from England Mohammedan building) of Saadi-
(Gloucester, Tewkesbury), France, talat, near Ispahan which never- ;
Gerruany (Koln). Annales Arche - theless have a striking resemblance
(1844-5), Sigues Lapi- to the European class,

ologiques
* Numerous
daires, from Coucy, Avignon, Palais examples may be
do Justice, Paris, Yincenues. Eheims, seen in their catacomb at Rome,
Strasburgh. Most curious of all are lately discovered.
maton," being ignorantly supposed the compounds of the

letter r four times repeated, and its sound and power con
founded with those of the sacred "
Tetragrammaton," or the
Hebrew quadriliteral name Jehovah. This mark is properly
the symbol of Sitala, the seventh incarnation, entitled
"
Trithalesor," a title exactly translated by the alchemical
Trismcgistus : its name is the Swastika, an emblem of Kesigna-
tion ; so that the figure may have passed into Byzantine art
with some recommendation from a knowledge of its real
meaning, In Gothic nomenclature this mark becomes the

equally renowned as to who*e etymology the follow
"
Fylfot,"
ing conjecture may be hazarded. The Swastika signified

at first the arms crossed over the breast, the regular Indian
gesture of submission, and also the legs similarly folded as the
statues of Buddha
are usually represented. The symbol is
evidently nothing more than the rough outline of the arms and
legs thus disposed. May not therefore the Gothic name Fylfot,
applied to the same hieroglyph, bear through some remote
tradition a reference to its reîl meaning, and imply the sense
of Fold-foot ? In the same way the old Greeks appear to have
recognised its when they changed its simple form
true sense,
into the three conjoined legs that so aptly allude to the name
Trinacria. In all probability the great popularity of the
symbol, wheresoever the Indo-Germanic race penetrated, was
due to the same feeling that renders it still so respected in the
land of its origin, its power as a talisman to protect all places
where the figure is painted up. The exclamation Swastika "
"
the Hindoos still employ as a mode of assent, synonymous with

" "
So be * As the symbol of Eesignation the Mark

Amen," it."
forms the distinctive badge of an ascetic. When a man desires

to become a Bandya (Buddhist monk) the rites required for his
initiation foremost amongst which the

occupy three days,
Swastika is solemnly set up upon an altar of unbaked bricks ;
the neophyte being seated on the ground with his legs disposed
after the same fashion. In China the Mark is the badge of the
Pon, the strictest sect of Buddhists, who attribute its invention
to Buddha himself, about six centuries before our era. This
* *
So mote be
"
Or, to speak masontcally, it !

fact may explain how "denying oneself and taking up the

cross" came to signify the embracing an ascetic life; for so
evident are the traces of Buddhist influence over the institu
tions of the Essenes, that it is probable enough the symbol
retained its pristine
acceptation amongst the sect.
The Swastika occurs amongst the signet-devices of the old
Jaina kings of Guzerat (belonging to the far-removed epoch of
Buddhist supremacy in Hindostan), in company with that
intricate square figure which when
appearing on Greek works is
denominated a Labyrinth. Other sectarian Marks are three
paralled lines placed horizontally, or vertically, to denote their
respective deities : others of truly Masonic aspect, are the wheel,
crescent, heart, vesica piscis, all variously modified to express

ritualistic differences. That the Gnostics borrowed many
of these symbols directly from Buddhism,* adding them to
their old stock of Egyptian devices, is
apparent upon the
inspection any large of collection of Abraxas gems. The
lingering influence of this importation continually peep out
where least to be expected. In the finest known MS. of the
Apocalypse, the work of a French illuminator about the
middle of the thirteenth century (in the library of Trinity
College, Cambridge), the most elaborate of all its decorations is
the heading to chapter xiv., filling half a page. It represents
"
The Lamb standing upon Mount Zion," surrounded by the

saints the Godhead, typified by an immense golden
; above, is
Quatrcfoil, encompassed by the Four Beasts which bear the

names of the Evangelists ; at each side and below are the Four-
and-tweiity Elders, arranged in groups of six, eight, and ten
Within the Quatrefoil is seen an
empty throne covered with a
cloth crossed by diagonal blue lines in each diagonal so formed
;
ispainted in red a circle containing a point. This geometrical

expression of the idea of the Deity, so opposed to the character
isticanthropomorphism of regular Gothic art, may perhaps
have been inspired by the Manicheist spirit that still actuated
the Southern French. But to go back to the source in the
*
Scythicus, the preceptor of Manes, during his visits to India as a trader
is actually declared by Epiphauius from Alexandria,
to have picked up his novel ideas
Chinese system, Yang, the Male, Active, Principle has for his
own possession, the Sun, Fire, and all the higher phenomena of
Nature : to him belong the uneven numbers. Yn, the Female,
Passive, Principle, possesses the Earth, Moon, and the even
numbers. The same notion as to the sexes of Numbers was
taught by Pythagoras, and by the Gnostic Marcus, after him.
Yang is represented by the circle, Yn by the square, the two
Forces combined, by two interlaced circles, GD ,
the actual badge
of the Mediaeval Vehm-Gerichte.
Having thus briefly noticed our Masonic Symbols, let us
proceed to consider the society itself, and here a circumstance

of the utmost importance to this inquiry must always be kept
in view the Freemasons, as at present organised into a mystic
:
fraternity, derive their name from nothing but an accidental

circumstance belonging to their first establishment. It was
in the Common Hall of the London Guild of the Freemasons
(the trade) that their first meetings were held, under Christopher
Wren for president, in the time of the Commonwealth.* Their
real object was political the restoration of Monarchy henco
the exclusion of the public, and the oath of secrecy enjoined
upon the members. The pretence of promoting the study of

architecture, and the choice of the place where to hold their
meetings, suggested by the profession of their president, were

no more than blinds to deceive the existing government. There
is a curious analogy to all this in the history of another famous
society, the Neapolitan Carbonari, which similarly derived its

name, terminology and insignia from the accidental circum
stances under which it was created. Like Wren s associates,
the first Carbonari were defeated Koyalists and fanatical
Republicans joined in unnatural union by one common hatred
of the powers that be the old Bourbonists equally with the
chimerical founders of the shortlived Parthenopean Republic,"
"
equally forced to flee for their lives to the mountains, the

former to escape the well-deserved vengeance of the Fiench
under Murat, the latter so fiercely persecuted by Cardinal
* In
April, 1646, when Ashmole Lilly the astrologer, Dr. Pearson,
was admitted member. Others named the two "Whartoua, Hewitt, and
as present on that occasion were Oughtred the mathematician.
Kuffo upon the restoration of royalty at Naples.

first These
desperate men, lurking about in the Abruzzi forests, were forced
to assume the disguise of the only inhabitants of these wild
regions, the carbonari, charcoal-burners, as the best means of

eluding pursuit. After their forces had grown to a regular
confederation, the disguise, so suggestive and terror inspiring,
was retained for a uniform; a charcoal-sack was the badge of
membership, a charcoal-measure the throne of the President,
and their conclaves were held by rule in the midnight forest.
When the Well-beloved," was firmly seated on
Ferdinand,
"
his ancient throne, for the third and last time, his diligent
eradication of his former friends, the Constitutionals, folks
almost equally crazed with the original Parthenopean patriots,
"
"
sent thousands of exiles to swell the ranks of the Carbonari.

Soon the society was able to establish ramifications all over
Italy, thanks to the paternal government of the Austrians and
their proteges, the various restored princes of the Bourbon and
Este lines ;
and thus in our own times Gai-bona.ro and Liberal
came to mean pretty nearly the same thing; and the Italian
to know no more about charcoal-burning than the
"
"
Carbonaro
English "Mason" does about building,
But although this Society of Freemasons was convoked in
London, and established branches all over England, furnishing
also the members with the means for secret recognition, and all
for a political end, yet in its true origin Freemasonry had
nothing political in its nature, neither was the aforesaid con

vocation in London the real commencement of its existence.
This final organisation was only the adaptation to a special end
of another society, then in fullest bloom, the Rosicrucian. If wo
reflect how rankly both astrology and alchemy were nourishing
at that time in England,* and that the Eosicrucian sect was
essentially of Protestant growth, we may on good grounds con
clude that this sect already numbered many English members
from amongst the educated classes and the philosophers of the
*
Oxford produced the two great born in 1612, is said by a writer of
Hermetic philosophy,
lights of tlie the year 1749 to be then living at
Robert de Fluctibus (Fltuld), and Nuremberg, as the president of the
his contemporary Eugenins Phila- illuminated throughout the world.
ethes(Thos. Vaughan). The latter,
day. These last were for the most part ardent Royalists,
hating the established order of things, joined with many
fanatical Republicans equally impatient of the despotism of new
Cromwell. In the Rosicrucian system Religion and Philosophy,
the latter meaning little more than astrology and alchemy,*
were strangely interwoven, and the terminology of the one was
borrowed to express the ideas and aspirations of the other.
This hypothesis is strongly recommended from its adoption by
the acute De Quincey in his essay entitled "Freemasons and
Rosicrucians London Magazine, 1824), where he shows how
"
(
the Rosicrucians, when driven by persecution out of Germany,
re-appeared in England as Freemasons, taking that name from
the place of meeting, and from nothing else. Under the new
appellation the sect was re-imported into the Continent as an

English institution. De Quincey, however, makes their object to
have been purely religious without any admixture of politics,
and so far differs from Nicolai, whose views have been adopted
by myself in what precedes, and who, being himself an illuminate
of the water, ought certainly to be regarded as the higher
first
authority of the two.

The latter writer has given in his Tempel-Herren what
appears to be the best supported account of the risej and
progress of Rosicrucianism. He points out for its founder a
Lutheran mystic, J. V. Andrew, J almoner to the Duke of
* The position of the latter science the ancient Fire-and-Serpent "NYor-
in this century cannot be more strongly shippers, and explanations of the

exemplified tban by the actual exist- Mystic Symbols represented in the
ence of current coins declaring Monuments and Talismans of the
themselves to be made out of Her- Primaeval Philosophers. By Har-
metic metal by the symbols for grave Jennings, London, 1870. A
mercury and lead (Y y?) stamped Masonic
"
production, without
"
truly
on their reverse. Examples are three "
method in its madness," but valu-

dncats of Gustavus Adolphus (Paris able for giving many Eosicrucian
Cabinet), thalers of Wilhelm, Land- (or rather Kabbalistic) expositions
grave of Hesse, and contemporary of symbols, extracted from Fludd s
coins of the city of Erfurt. This writings. The compiler has, more-
subject has been well handled by over, laid my Gnostics largely
Martin Reg in his memoir, An- "
under contribution, and even re-

cicnnes Pieces Herinetiques," Revue produced my engravings with
sundry
Numismatique for 1867. fanciful improvements that wonder-
f The Rosicruciaiis their Rites
:
fully heighten their mystic value,
and Mysteries with Chapters on
;
J Solomon Sernber, however, in
Wiirtemberg early in the seventeenth century. At least, the

writings of this divine, wherein the Rosy Cross prominently
figures were the first indications that made the existence of the
fraternity known But Andreas appears to
to the outer world.
have done no more than borrow the symbols and occult means
of communication already existing from time immemorial
amongst the astrologers and alchemists (in other words the

wealthy and the learned of the age, when the Emperor
Rudolf was the greatest patron of the curious arts ever
II. " "
recorded in history) in order to employ them on the furtherance

of a visionary scheme of his own. This scheme was the fusion
of all Christian sects * into one universal brotherhood, and the
projector wisely commenced his apostleship by attempting to

bring over to his side the most eminent of the mass, by the
utilization of such ancient and venerated machinery. The
well-meaning enthusiast had evidently disregarded the remark
of the sagacious Julian (Am. Mar. xxi. 5), confirmed as it is
by
the experience of every succeeding generation, owes as much as
any ; Null as infestas hominibus bestias ut sunt sibi ferales

"
plerique Christianorum." As a matter of course, his scheme of

universal brotherhood dissolved in smoke as soon as established,
but the older philosophy, whose garb he had adopted, bloomed
with fresh vigour under the new organisation and euphonious
name.
But before going any further, let us for diversion s sake
hear the Eosicrucians own story, and examine some of their
doctrines and insignia, which have an important bearing upon
the subject of our inquiry. The Rosicrucians, fc-ays Boyle, make
their founder to have been a certain German, only known as
A. C., who having gone to Damascus in the year 1387, was
instructed in their mysteries by the College of Arabian Sages f
his Collections for the History of Frozen Sea, universally believed in

Rosicrucianism, assigns a fabulous Russia to be the lost Grand Duke
antiquity to the sect. Constantine.-(Dixou 8 Free Russia. )
*
Exactly the same s -heme, based f This tradition may have some
upon Judaism, is the crime that now truth in it, allowing for an error of
keeps in perpetual imprisonment locality. At Cairo the Fatemite
Nicholas Ilvin, the far-famed Con- "
sultans (Ismaulites be it remembered)

vent Spectre had three centuries before this date
"
of Solovetsk in the
Keturning home he communicated his Ipiow-

there established.
ledge to a small number of chosen associates, dying in 1484.

It is a matter of importance to notice that in this
legend Syria
is made the fountain head of the new
philosophy. The Eosi-
crucian Creed, according to the Essay on Spirits (dedicated
to Mr. Locke, 1647), contains, others, this palpable
amongst
adoption of the Pythagorean system :
"
Ante omiua Punctum extitit, non mathematicum, sed diffusivum

extriusicas Monados, intrinsica3 Myriados omnia et mini Est ct
; ;
-Non.
Ilaec Monas commovebat se in Dyadas, et per Triadas egressas
sunt facies luminis secundi.
Hie respiciens superiorem et inferiorem Parentem, iisdem delude
prot.ulitVultuin Trilbrmem."
In the second paragraph Clarkson* discovers an allusion to

the Vesica Piscis, which is in truth a figure generated
by
two circles intersecting at their respective centres; and for the
same reason, the secret sign of the Brethren of the Vehme-
Gerichte was the two annular links of a chain. The E<>-<r
i->O
formed by three intersecting circles, contains in its upper

section seven triangles, and as many in its lower section, which
are the opposing genii of Light and Darkness. This was the
idol which the Manichasans were accused of worshipping on
the charges brought against them by the Popes
(Clarkson, p. 20).
Still more does the Vultus Triformis of this Creed arrest our
" "
attention as bearing a more than accidental

affinity to the triple-
faced idol, the adoration whereof was so persistently laid to the
charge of the Templars the real meaning of which accusa-
founded the far-famed lodge, entitled of the richest architecture, full of

*
the House of Wisdom." Here the strange birds and beasts, to the
student passed through nine degrees, inmost hall, where the Soldan having
beginning with Obedience, Mysticism, first adored the unseen "Master,"
Philosophy, Doubt, &c., up to Absolute the curtains of gold and pearl were
Incredulity. William of Tyre (xix. suddenly drawn back, and that
17) tells a wonderful story, how dignitary appeared seated in un-
Hugo of Caesarea and Geffroi of the speakable glory on a golden throne,
Temple, envoys to Cairo on business attended by his chief officials,
of the Order, were led by the Soldan * The Symbolical Evidence of the
himself to the palace Kashef, and Temple Church. Were the Templars
conducted through numerous courts Gnostics?
tion shall be investigated in its proper place. This same tete "
d un hornme monstrueuse," image of le Dieu qui rie meurt "
pas/
so often mentioned in the confessions of the
Knights, may be
recognised beyond all mistake in the hideous head with flaring
hair and beard, and eyes wide open, as if just severed from the
body, placed upon a box inscribed X. P. S., which repeatedly

occurs amongst the Eosicrucian pictures in the
Diary of Hosea
Lux. This MS., the most remarkable of the kind extant, or
ever composed, written between the years 1568 and 1612, is full
of mystic drawings, beautifully done in. pen and ink, which
may be either prophetic hieroglyphs, or else enshroud the

arcana of some seeker after the Elixir of Life: the latter it
would rather seem, to judge from the perpetual introduction of

certain vert/ significant emblems. The author must have be
longed (as an actual Mason assures me) to a Lodge of Templars,
as is proved by his use of the hand in hand and foot to " "
"
foot"
insignia. As exhibiting the whole list of the present
Masonic signs, but employed for Rosicrucian purposes, at so
early a date, this Diary is of the utmost value to the history of
the Order.* To quote a few of the most important embellish
ments of these mystic pages the same Baphometic Head
:
" "
appears in another place set on a box inscribed with Solomon s "
Seal," containing a retort over the head is a disk, set all round
:
dial fashion but with hearts instead of numerals ; in the field

is written the opposite motto Timore et tremore." Another
"
is picture presents the Head

hovering above the Ark of the
Covenant, all enclosed within the outline of a heart out of whose
aorta issues a naked boy bearing a flaming star and crescent
conjoined. Yet more mysterious is the heart containing T over

a bell resting upon a star : above all, for a crest is set Solomon s
Seal; supporters to the shield, his pillars Jachin and

for
Boaz, flanked on the right by that King seated, on the left by a

naked man standing, who pierces the heart with a long rod.
Singular, too, is the man with uplifted hands, having instead
of a face Solomon s Seal enclosing a retort. Other symbols
*
Through the kindness of the make a minute examination of the
present owner, Mr. J. E. Hodgkin, MS.
F.lS.A.. I have had opportunity to
frequently occurring on these pictures are the naked boy

extended on the spokes of a wheel or again placed upon an egg;
set in a candlestick the king s bust crowned with the winged

:
crescent (on which the merest novice in alchemy can discern

the allusion to reyulus of antimony and quicksilver) the egg :
containing a circle whence issue rays of light probably typi ;
fying the crucible, for another heading shows the same figure
within a furnace with the infant metal springing rapturously
from its womb the five links of a chain interlaced all these
; :
being Eosicrucian emblems now embalmed in the repertory of

the FJ eemasons. These drawings, besides their artistic value
with respect and incredibly minute
to their fertile invention
finish(Lux being a copper-plate engraver of some eminence),

are highly interesting as pictorial exponents of the Hermetic
philosophy still so flourishing at the time of their execution.

Of such designs, nothing can surpass in elaborate execution and
impenetrable mystery the large drawing of the naked female
standing upon musical notes, holding in her right a torch tipped
with a beautiful face whence issue flames an owl perched ;
upon her extended left hand; on her breast for brooch Sol s
head in a crescent. a pedestal is set a tall long-necked

Upon
alembic containing the most obvious emblem of the generative
power, emitting upwards the stream of Life, which is caught

into themouth of a cherub whose hair forms a bunch of flowers
supporting the before-mentioned disk of hearts, whilst his
hand holds forth a wheatsheaf. In the field lies a crown over
a marshal baton shaped like a phallas. Another drawing full
s
of interest is the portrait of a man in a fur cap with plume,
wearing round his neck a pendant inscribed like the jewel of

the G. A., from which again is hung a human foot; with his
right hand he points a crescent divided into three parts
to
enclosing X. A. P., his left rests on the head of a mighty hammer.
De Quincey, in the above quoted essay, describes a manuscript

work by Simon Stadion, of Wiirtemberg, written in the year
under the Naometria, seu nuda et prima Libri
"
1(504, title,
intus et foris scripti Expositio, et Prognosticticus." It is a

dreams and prophecies based upon the Apocalypse in
series of :
which he speaks of Stellas matutina) ductu anno 1572 con-

"
and constantly brings in the Rose and Cross, on

"
spectye ;
which account he is generally supposed to have been a Rosi-

crucian. Martin Luther also took for his seal the Rose and
Cross ; some deep religious significance, at the time well under
stood, must have recommended the device to the choice of the
"
Tertius Elias."
Besides these obligations to the Rosicrucians, the London

Freemasons also borrowed much of their
phraseology from
Lord Bacon s work, still fresh in men s minds, in which,
adopting the idea of the
"
House of Wisdom," a technical term

with the Arab astrologers, he proposed the foundation of a
"Solomon s House," or learned community dedicated to the
cultivation of experimental
philosophy and the advancement
of science. These philosophic and royalist plotters, in order
to cloak the true nature of their
proceedings, conducted, their
conclaves according to the rules prescribed
by Bacon and the :
same ceremonial and nomenclature they carefully maintain to

the present day.
Aand demonstrative proof of the recent and
final
English
origin of Freemasonry is afforded by the dates of institution of
the various Foreign Lodges, which are
by their own profession
branches of the parent Society in London. The Parisian was
not founded until the year 1725, the Madrid in 1728, and the
Florentine in 1733. And yet France and Italy had been the
birthplace of the actual art of masonry, and the scene of the
full glory of its revival.
Another important fact remains to be noticed, the Rosi-

crucians still subsist amongst the Parisian Freemasons as the
designation for their highest degree (to be conferred upon
distinguished although all disclaim those
English visitors),
mystics as being the parent stock inasmuch as that truth, ;
if allowed, were
utterly incompatible with their own claim
to immemorial Nevertheless, they
antiquity. loudly profess
to trace their descent
through the line of the Templars down
from that splendidly fabulous
origin they arrogate to them
selves.
But to return to Andreas, and the honour Nicolai assigns him

as the creator of the immediate modern Freemasonry,
parent of
certain it is that his far-famed Rosy Cross had been ages "before
the regular badge of the Knights Templars. Considering how
widely the Order had spread its branches, obtained possession

and affiliated to itself multitudes both male and female amongst
the laity all over Europe, it would be a mere absurdity to
believe that all its traditions were swept away at one stroke
by the suppression of the Templars in the year 1307.* In fact,

the Parisian Templiers, as the most important division of the
French Freemasons still style themselves, pretend to have kept
up the succession of Grand Masters unbroken
nay more, to ;
have preserved the archives of the Order ever since that date.
Francois I. is even reported to have burnt alive, with a con
trivance of refined cruelty in The fiery bath," four unfortunate
"
gentlemen convicted of being Templars,f which, if true, suffices

to prove the existence of that fraternity down to a period but
removed from the public manifestation of the Rosicrucians.
little
Truly was he by such proceedings semina odii in longum "
jaciens,"
to borrow the forcible simile of Tacitus, if we are to
believe Barruel express declaration that Spartacus Weishaupt s
s
Jacobins did no more than pay to royalty the so long deferred
legacy of revenge handed down to them by generation after

generation of secret societies fulfilling the last Templar s solemn
vow of vengeance against Philippe le Bel, and all future kings
in his person. By order of the same Francois I., his general
Almeida, extirpated with a cruelty unusual even in those times

the lemnant of the Albigenses still lurking in the villages
of Provence, a sect, it should be remembered, of genuine
Manicha3ans, transplanted thither from the East at a com
paratively recent date. As Manichaaans, they would naturally
have preserved the symbols, and tokens for mutual recognition
so much in vogue, as history and existing monuments attest,
* Even the Michelet d

sceptical Ecosse, et que les hauts grades y
allows "
il est possible que les sont nommes Ecossais. V. Grouvelle

Templiers qui echapperent se soient et les ecrivains qu il a suivis.
fcndus en societes secretes. En ( Hist, de France, iii.
p. 129.)
Ecosse ils disparaissent tous excepte f Communicated to me by a
Or, on a remarque que les
*
deux. Brother ; the historical authority I
plus secrets mysteres dans la Franc- cannot discover,
maônnerie sont repute s emaner
amongst all And such machinery and

followers of the Gnosis.
grown yet more into articles of necessity, after continued

persecution had transformed their congregations into regular
secret societies.
But dismissing all such speculations, we are under no
necessity for connecting the Rosicrucians with the ancient
Brethren of the Temple, in order to account for their display of
the Gnostic symbols which figure so
conspicuously in Andreae s
plates,and which have since been so diligently illustrated
(though often with erroneous ingenuity) by Von Hammer in

his Mystery of Baphomet Revealed
yet even his misinterpreted
;
examples go to prove the same truth, and his Baphometic

Idols, whose adoration should have been the heaviest count in
the charges against the Templars (though unmistakably of
Cinque-cento design and workmanship), are astrological and
cabbalistic sigils breathing a purely Rosicrucian spirit in their
syncretism of symbolic forms. For there is one point in these

sculptures alone sufficient to upset all Von Hammer s elaborate
structure the Arabic legends, being cut in current Neshki
characters, betray their modern manufacture for had they been ;
contemporary with the flourishing times of the Templars, the

primitive Cufic must, as a matter of course, have been employed
Yet, at the same time, these same legends indicate clearly
enough the fountain-head of the doctrines held in common by
all similar fraternities.
But before considering this last and so important point, the
subject will be more conveniently approached by our first
considering the principal arguments set forth by the learned
Orientalist in support of his theory. His object in truth is
sufficiently declared the of his treatise, *

by title
Mysterium
Baphometis Revelatum : seu Fratres militite Templi qua Gnostici
et quidem Ophiani, apostasioe, idololatria3, et quidem impuritatis
convicti per ipsa eorum monumenta "
(published in the Mines

de I Orient, vol. vi.). The treatise is copiously illustrated with
fine copper plates of magical statuettes, architectural orna
ments, mystical inscriptions, vases, and coins. As regards
historical evidence, the main foundation of his
hypothesis rests
upon certain heads in the Articles of Accusation against the
Templars, despatched by Pope Clement V. to all archbishops,

&c. These are
Art. 42. Item, quod ipsi per singulas provincias habeant
"
Idola, videlicet capita,* quorum aliqua habobant trcs fades, ot

alia unarn, et aliqua cranium humanum habebant.
Art. 54. Item, quod aliquod caput illorum cingebant seu
"
tangebant chordulis quibus si ipsos cingebant, circa camiciam

seu carnem.
Art. 55. Quod in hac receptione, singulis fratribus prsedictso
"
chordula) tradebantur, vel alise longitudinis earum."

In this girding with a consecrated string there is a striking
analogy to the Kosti^ prescribed by the Zoroastrian religion,
stillassumed by every Parsee upon his initiation (which takes
place upon his completing his seventh year), and thenceforth
constantly worn over the shirt. This distinctive badge was
the most likely of all to be retained by Manes (himself a
Magian) in his Christianised modification of the Persian creed.

Other articles, unnecessary to quote, allege the permission and
even the obligation of unnatural practices. But, from the very
beginning, this last accusation, so needless to be proved, because
so readily believed, has been brought against the members of
all secret societies, as Ovid shows by the popular tradition
respecting Orpheus, the acknowledged founder of the Grecian
mysteries.
"
Illetiam Thracum populis fuit auctor arnorem

In teneros transferre mares, citraque juvcntam,
Êtatis breve vcr et primes carpere flores."J (Metam. x.
83-85).
Clarkson has more recently discussed the same question in

his very ingenious essay Upon the Symbolical Evidence of
the Temple Church. Were the Templars Gnostic Idolaters as
* Such a head of silver was actually have been made away witli by the
seized in the Parisian Chapter-house ; Templars upon the first alarm of the
but the Templars passed it off for a inquiry.
reliquary containing the skull of one f Woven out of seven threads by
of the 11,000 virgins, in spite of the the wife of the Moled or fire-priest,
long beard with which it was fur- J
"
Dum erat juvenis soocularis,

nished (Kayn. p. 299). Another is omncs pueri clamabant publice et
said to have been found elsewhere vulgariter unus ad alterum, Custodi-
bearing the numeral LI 1. These 1 atis vobis ab osculo
Templariorum
"
damning evidences would naturally Wilkins, Cone. Britann. ii. p. 360).
2 D
alleged ? He endeavours to prove their Manicheism by

means of architectural evidence, deduced from the members of the
edifice and the geometrical relations discoverable in the ground
plan. But, dispassionately considered,
such arguments are of
little weight, inasmuch as they could be found, if looked for
both
(under a similar prepossession), in many other buildings,
mediaeval and modern, having no connection whatsoever with
the Brethren of the Temple. Again, a fatal objection to
his theory is the fact, that all such Round Churches are
"
"
acknowledged copies of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, which,

whether Helena s original building, or merely a Gothic recon
struction by the Frankish kings (the more probable explana
tion), was certainly not subjected to Templar influence in the

laying out of its plan. The circular, domical shape had been
given by her church simply because that form,

Helena to
according to the Eoman notion handed down

from Etruscan
for a tomb.
antiquity, was regarded as most appropriate Hence,
to go no further was adopted for Helena s own
back, it
sepulchre (Torre pignatara), and for that of her grandchild,
Constantia. In illustration of his hypothesis Clarkson adduces

the statement of Clemens Alexandrinus about the
"
Primary
Elements
"
old Egyptians, and supposes

of the them to have
been the square, the angle, the semicircle, the circle, the oval,
the line, the waved line, triangular, and the cross. These would
of which the invention
represent the seven primary consonants,
was attributed to Memnon, viz., the letters with their equiva
lent sounds, Should this theory have any
B,C,D,L,M,N,S.
truth in it, frequent introduction
the of such figures into
talismanic inscriptions obtains a satisfactory explanation.

But it is now full time to return to Von Hammer s Bapho-
metic Idols, and his profound interpretations of their figures
and inscriptions. It is obvious at the first glance that the idea
of most of them was suggested by the Roman Jupiter Hercules,
or Silenus (classical types, by the way, entirely unknown to
the art of the 12th and 13th centuries) ; their heads, or rather
their faces, are triple, eyes and ears are plenteously distributed
all over the body, which is moreover adorned with planetary
Our author sets them down without hesitation as the
actual figures of the Old Man

"
"
adored by the Knights, described

so persistently by the witnesses against them as une ydole avec "
trois faces"* The same

statuettes are for the most part girded
with serpents, whose heads they hold in their mouths, or in
various distorted attitudes,amply sufficient grounds for Von
Hammer them with the Ophite mysteries. But this
to connect
very attribute, together with the numerous eyes studding the

body, would rather seem to betray an acquaintance in the
sculptor with similar Hindoo creations Indra, the eye-be
spangled god of the firmament, for example. Similar fancies
had found their way even into the Cinque-cento dress Queen ;
Elizabeth painted in a gown thus embellished. Some, again,

is
of these figures carry the Egyptian Tau

(marculus, Masonic
Knocker) conspicuously suspended from the neck. But, as
already hinted, the artistic composition of these well-executed
monstrosities, and the classical motives everywhere peeping out
in their seem
altogether foreign to the quaint
outlines,
simplicity of early mediaeval art.

The three Baptismal Vases," or Fonts, on which he
"
lays so
much stress, are nothing but little stone cups six inches
high
at the utmost, covered with bas-reliefs, the character phallic
whereof would seem to
point to their employment in the
brewing of the Elixir of Life from its most obvious ingredients.
The second of these reliefs, explained as denoting the Baptism "
of Fire," does in truth recall to our recollection the Twelve "
Tortures
"
of the Mithraic rock-tablets

for it exhibits a naked ;
boy holding various instruments the axe, lyre, bucket of

Anubis whilst another, blowing a horn, feeds the fire in a
furnace. Of the third vase, however, the decoration savours
strongly of Judaism, representing the lifting up of the Brazen
Serpent, though the female reclining below appears rather to
* "
Car tantot apres ils alloient fosses des yeux escarboncles reluis-
adorer une Idole, et pour certain ants comme clarte du ciel et
; pour
icelle idole etait une vielle peau, certain toute lour esperance etoit en
ainsi comme toute embaumee, et ieelle, et e toit leur Dieu souverain, et
comme toile polie et illecqued certes ;
memement se affioit en lui de bon
Templier mettoit sa tres vile foy
"
le cceur (Art. 3. Vie de Philippe le

et croyance et en lui tres fermement Bel, 66.
;
chap. Chronique de
croyoient. Et en icelle avoit os 8. Denys ).
2 i) 2
caress the living reptile that encircles her, than to be alarmed

at its embrace ; whilst the Candlestick of the Tabernacle, which
the second female is quenching from a vase at the bidding of
Von Hammer s "
Mete," personified as a regular

Dutch Solomon,
but with uplifted hands whence drop off chains, all betray the
same source of inspiration. Bacchic and sidereal symbols,
amongst which the phallus of course predominates, are plentifully

strewn over the field. But the Arabic legends in the modern
lettering, in this case, equally with the classical air of
the
design in the second, suffice to convince the sober archaeologist

that all three vases are nothing more than a portion of the
paraphernalia of those Eosicrucian or alchemical quacks, who

fattened upon the credulity of that arch-virtuoso, Eudolf II.,
ever since whose reign these
"
fonts
"
have been treasured up in

the Imperial Cabinet. A sufficient notion of Von Hammer s mode
of explaining these monuments is afforded by his interpretation
of the Arabic inscription upon the scroll displayed in the hands
of his "
Mete
"
Sophia), a female
(according to him the Ophite
bearded figure whose sex is ostentatiously revealed to view :
yet
Exaltatur Mete germinans, stirps
"
nostra Ego et Septem fuere.
Tu es unus Eenegantium. Eeditus TrptoKros fit."
The Baphometic idol, that

"
Head of the Old Man," which

makes so fearful a figure in the Articles of Accusation, reminds
one of the crowned Osiris seen in front face, otherwise that
terminal figure often to be found cut on certain large green
jaspers, which differ widely in style from the true Gnostic

talismans dating from the Lower Empire, but rather have
something about them bespeaking a medieval and Arabian

origin. For example, Easpe* gives a gem (No. 588) with
"God the Father" crowned with five stars, and several
barbarous characters. Eeverse, a square, a sphere, a pentagon
of Pythagoras, and several astrological and geometrical figures.
Such a talisman was lately found in the tomb of a Knight
Templar which was opened in Germany. And here it may be
parenthetically observed, that our Freemasons, in order to give
a better colour to their pretence of descent from the Templars,
perpetually talk of them as the greatest builders of their times,

*
Descriptive Catalogue of Engraved Gems.
and as the best patrons of the subordinate body of working

masons. Nothing can be more baseless than this assertion. The
Order invested its wealth in a far more profitable manner than
in stone and mortar, and really did nothing in the way of
architecture, if compared with the great monastic Orders of the
same period. In proof of this, notwithstanding its enormous
possessions in England, no more than four churches were built
for "
Temples."
Von Hammer, amongst the numerous examples he has so
indefatigably collected, presents many of a nature seemingly

quite antagonistic to Catholic art, and of truly Gnostic and
Oriental character. Conspicuous amongst them are the Three
Vases, already described, in which he discovers examples of the
true Sangraal," that mystic cup
"
which shines so brightly forth

in the early romances of chivalry, the quest thereof being the
highest adventure proposed in the Morte d Arthur; perfect

chastity being the indispensable condition for attaining unto
the sight of the miraculous vessel. And in truth the decoration
of these mystic fonts, used in the "Baptism of Mete"
(the
Gnostic Wisdom), whence their title "
Baphometic," furnishes a
very plausible foundation for the charges our author brings

against their supposed inventors. But as for the obscene
sculptures taken from the Templar churches, which he refers to
the rites of the Venus Mascula celebrated therein, these are to
be found in equal abundance and shamelessness amongst the
carvings of other churches totally unconnected with the Order ;
for example, notably at Arcueil, near Paris. Such sculptures

either contain a moral grossly expressed, according to the taste
of their barbarous age, the censure of some particular vice, or
may be no more than the ebullition of the brutal humour of the

beery But the gravest error into which this too sagacious
artist.
interpreter has fallen is the attempt to identify the heresy of
the Templar with the Ophite that primitive form of the Gnosis,
swallowed up so many ages before the foundation of the Order,
in theoverwhelming flood of Manicheism a flood indeed that ;
may, even at its source, Syria, have carried away as many

inquiring spirits amongst the Knights, as it was simultaneously
intoxicating in Italy and Provence. A great absurdity, too, is
the building up his grand hypothesis upon the

inexplicable
which he finds out for himself in these unintelligible
"Mete,"
legends, seeing that the Archaic M^ns was never used in Gnostic
times as synonymous with 2o$ia, Achamoth, an identity never
theless taken for granted in his argument. And by the same
rules does Von Hammer explain the Masons marks that he has
collected, although they in no wise differ from others found in
mediaeval buildings of every conceivable destination and origin.
Before quitting this part of the subject, a word must be said
upon other etymologies that have been proposed for the mighty
word u Baphomet." One, equally consistent with Von Hammer s
views, and much more sowith the genius of the Byzantine
language, would be M^rpo ?, Baptism of the Mother," that
"
/3a<j>r]
special designation of Barbelo in the Valentinian theology.*

Such Greek technical phrases may have been perpetuated in the
Manichean ritual, wherever, and however late, it was introduced
into France.
Another explanation makes Baphomet the corruption of
Behemoth, meaning the golden calves Opis and Mnevis, whose
bones were exhibited to their worshippers, set out the upon
lid of the coffin. So in later times were the bones of Manes
displayed for the adoration of his followers; and those of the
G.M. Hiram,f according to report, at the initiation of a
Templar. Hence came the Death s Head and Coffin, that figure
so conspicuously at the Carbonari Conclaves, and the connate
engine of terror at our Masonic receptions, when the candidate
for admission being brought to the G.P. receives that sudden
"
wnd awful impression on his mind that cannot fail to have the
desired effect a part of the ceremony that ought to be well
:
attended to, as well for the honour and safety of the new-made
brother, as of the Fraternity at large." But to return to

etymo
logy. Visconti is probably in the right after all, in
considering
no deeper mystery that the French
"
"
Baphometa corruption
of the name "Mahomet," as repeated by the ignorant witnesses
for the prosecution.
* Which made her the heavenly ing a corpse, elevated upon a cata-
mother of the Saviour. falque of five steps (Clarkson).
t Being set upon a coffin contain-
But although the

fanciful Orientalist has pushed this theory
to an unwarrantable and even ludicrous extent, yet proved
facts, coupled with probabilities, will induce the unprejudiced
inquirer to acquiesce in the conclusions of the judicious Raspe.

The Gnosis of Basilides was an occult science which, according
"
known only and communicated to one in

to his tenets, should be
thousands, and to two in ten thousands, and that if the Knights
Templars were guilty of any offence at the time of their exter

mination, it was that of having adopted the doctrines of the
Gnostics, and consequently of having renounced the established
doctrine of the Church on the human nature of Christ, and on
the Trinity in the place of which they, with the Gnostics,
:
professed one Supreme Being, Father and Creator of all the

Powers which, emanating from him, have created and do govern
this world. At their reception or initiation into the highest
degree of the Order they received /3a^ /xyrovs, or /xr/nos

that the Baptism or Tincture of Wisdom ; they
is to say,
were presented with a sign or symbol of their baptism, which
was the Pentagon of Pythagoras; and they worshipped
a kind of image or idol; that like the Abraxas or this gem
was the figure of a Bearded Old Man, or rather the repre
sentation of the only Supreme Being that they admitted
and professed." The gem referred to is a jasper (Townley)
Abraxas, the Sun, or God-Father, or Demiurgus
"
presenting :
according to the Gnostics and necromancers. This head is

crowned, the beard long, the hands crossed upon the breast :
for the rest, he

formed as a Term, or a mummy. In the
is
field are eight stars, probably an allusion to the eight Powers,

or heavens, that are subordinate to them, according to Epipha-
nius. In the field are two Hebrew letters, n n-
"
Reverse. The same God the Father, or Abraxas, in the same

attitude, standingabove four angels placed upon a sphere and
receiving his emanations in the field are three, on the sphere
;
are five stars. There are besides in the field two Hebrew
letters, three lines of inscription, &c."
Figures of unquestionably medieval workmanship do, how

ever, exist, which would have stood Von Hammer (had he known
of them) in far better stead than the easily recognisable legacies
of Kudolf II. and his Rosicrucian quacks. Such is the brass

statuette published by Caylus (Rec. d antiq. v. PI., 32) repre
senting a man in tight jerkin and hose (as worn under armour),
but head covered with a jester s horned hood. Upon his belly
is emblazoned a blazing sun he is girt with the broad knightly
;
belt, engraved all round with planetary signs, and regular

Masons Marks which also run round the edge of the tripod
;
upon which he stands. The figure, about five and a half inches
high, extends both hands with the palms uppermost, and these
are pierced with holes for the reception of the supports of some
vessel, probably a magician s lamp. Amongst other devices

engraved on the trunk, most conspicuous are the eagle, serpent,
and crucible supporting a retort. Caylus places his drawing of
it amongst his Egyptian monuments, but reasonably enough
distrusting such an origin for the inscriptions, suggests, with
no better reason, that the work belongs to Persia.
ManicJicism has been so repeatedly referred to in the foregoing
pages, as to make it necessary to give a brief explanation of the

way, in which that strange creed may possibly have affected the
religion of the Templars. And here, all is either assertion of
enemies, or modern theory hardly any monuments remaining
;
that can be with certitude attributed to the Manicheans, though

so numerous in their time, they had drawn within their
for
own circle every older form of Gnosticism in the interval

between Constantine and Justinian. This deficiency is partly
due to the fast increasing barbarism of those ages, which pro
duced nothing in the way of art, however degraded. Their
sole religious monuments were sacred books, prayers, spells,
committed to perishable materials,
parchment, papyrus, dili
gently sought out and destroyed by every persecutor. The
extirpation of Gnosticism was vigorously prosecuted by the
later emperors of the West, and by those of the East, Ariaii
equally with Catholic. In this pious career the first step was
made by Magnus Maximus, the British usurper under Gratian,
by putting to death Priscillian, bishop of Avila, and his chief
adherents, in spite of the very umaintly remonstrances of the
good Martin of Tours. The usurper s punisher, Theodosius,
also made Manicheism (Priscillian s crime) a capital offence, his
edict being the first statutalle infraction of the old Roman

principle of universal religious toleration. In the reign of his
son, Epiphanius boasts of having brought about the exile of
seventy women, some noble, through whose seductions he had
himself at one time been drawn into joining the Marcosians.
to the suspicion that the renegade had saved
Such a vaunt leads
himself by turning evidence against his fellow sectarians at
the opening of the persecution. Or again, this absence of
Manichean relics may be accounted for by the rigid character
of the creed itself, the offspring of Magism, therefore regarding
all imagery as idolatrous and sinful, a tenet latterly carried
out to the fullest extent by the iconoclastic Albigenses.

To come now to the second diffusion of Manicheism over
Europe. In the middle of the seventh century, under Con-

stans II., Constantinus Sylvanus, a native of Samosata, broached
that last and most far-spreading heresy, the Paulician. The
name arose from his combination of the doctrine of St. Paul
with that of Zoroaster, but he had intermingled a larger
proportion of the former ingredient than his precursor Manes

had thought fit to do in his original theosophy. The new
teacher easily united into one church the remnants of the old
Gnostics, especially the Manicheans of Armenia, and the still
unconverted Zoroastrians of Pontus and Cappadocia. Incessantly
persecuted by the Byzantine powers, their chief Carbeas
founded a new capital for his sect, the
impregnable Tephrice,
in the mountains near Trebizoiid but which was ultimately
;
destroyed by Basil the Macedonian about the year A.D. 880.

But in the middle of the preceding century, the irreligious
Constantino Copronymus had transplanted a large colony of
these Armenian Paulicians into the depopulated Thrace, where
their numbers were largely augmented in the tenth century
by a fresh reinforcement drawn from the Chalybian Hills and
planted in the valleys of Mount Haernus by John Zimisces.

Here their missionaries converted the neighbouring pagans, the
Bulgarians, whence the sect derived a new and more odious

appellation, one which in course of time from denoting heresy
in religion was fixed to the branding of heresy in love. War
like and fearless of death, we find these Paulicians serving in
the Byzantine armies, notably in those of Alexius Comnerms in

his wars with the Normans of Sicily. From this island as a
focus they diffused their doctrines over Italy, they gained
numerous converts even at Rome and Milan, but spread with
still more
astonishing rapidity through the South of France.
Persons even whose interests were
diametrically opposed to the
progress of the sect, joined it with inexplicable fervour ; twelve
canons of the Cathedral of Orleans were burnt alive at one
time for embracing Paulicianism. These few
facts, selected
from the wide range of their
history, will suffice to illustrate
the diffusion of Manichean notions
during the period when the
Templars were at the height of their prosperity and power.
But Gnosticism in one shape or other, was still
surviving in
the very head-quarters of the Order,
amongst their closest
allies or enemies, the mountaineers of The Templar-
Syria.
Order had been modelled after an original, the last to be looked
for
according to modern views, for Von Hammer has here been
successful in demonstrating that its constitution is a servile
copy
of that of the detested "
Assassins." The statutes of the latter

prove the fact beyond all gainsaying ; they were found upon
the captives of their capital, Alamoot,
by the Mogul, Halakoo,
in the year 1335, when by a most singular coincidence, Caliph
and Pope were busied in exterminating the model and the
copy in the East and West, at one and the same time. From
these documents were verified the " "
Eight Degrees of initiation

as established by Hassan, the first Grand Master or Prince of "
the Mountain." These degrees, probably suggested by the

ancient Mithraic tests,were :
I. The Trial of knowledge.

II. The Trial of Persuasiveness ; i.e., the talent for pro-
selytism.
III. Denial of the truth of the Koran, and of all other sacred
scriptures.
IV. The Trial of silent and perfect obedience.
V. The Disclosure of the names of the Great Brothers of the
Order, royal, sacerdotal and patrician, in all parts of the world.
VI. The Confirmation of all the
preceding steps of knowledge.
VII. The Allegorical interpretation of the
Koran, and of all
other scriptures. In this lodge the divinity of all founders of

religious systems was alike denied. Keligion was shown to be
a mere step to knowledge, its narratives to be merely allegorical
and exhibiting the progress of civil society :
thus, Man s Fall
signified political slavery ; Redemption his restoration to liberty

and equality.
VIII. That allactions were indifferent, provided only they
were done for the good of the Order ; * there being no such
thing, absolutely, as vice or virtue.

It will be seen that the principle running through these
"
Degrees is identical with that pervading the jnain counts in

"
the Articles of Accusation brought against the Templars.

The same author
(History of the Assassins) shows that the
organization of the Templars was exactly modelled upon that
of the Assassins, and thus confronts the several degrees in each
of the two orders.
Of the Assassins.
The Grand Master, or Prince of the Mountain.

I.
The Dais-al-Kabir, or three great viceroys under him.

II.
III. The Dais, or provincial masters.
IV. The Refek, or chaplains.

V. The Lazik, or military body.
VI. The Fedavee, or death-devoted.
VII. The Batinee, or secret brethren, i.e., those affiliated to
the order.
Of the Templars.
The Grand Master.
I.
The three Grand Priors.

II.
III. The Provincial Prior.
IV. The Chaplains.

V. The Knights.
VI. The Esquires.
VII. The Serving-brethren.
VIII. The Donati and Oblati.
IX. The Affiliati.t
* The maxim of the Jesuits The
"
that t benefits of affiliation were

implicit obedience includes the com- obtained at the small annual fee of
mission of a mortal sin." two or three deniers. One of the
The "
Donati
"
and Oblati
"
were sworn, in return for the
protection afforded to them by the Order, to leave to it all their
property at their deaths, and consequently to refrain from

having offspring, or even to stand sponsors to the children of
others. If married at the time of joining the Order, they were
bound to put away their wives. Infraction of the vow was
punished by perpetual imprisonment. The "Affiliati" had,
probably, nothing to do with the secrets of the Order they ;
merely, in return for a certain sum paid down, received their

daily maintenance (their commons) out of the corporate fund ;
such an arrangement being a simple anticipation of the principle

of life annuities, and admirably suited to the requirements of
those barbarous times.
It is not a matter for surprise that the grand elements of
ancient Gnosticism should have thus been discovered lurking in

the secret rules of the Order of Assassins ;
when the origin of
that order investigated, it proves to be only a branch of the
is
Ismaelites, or those Persians who supported the cause of the

descendants of Ali. But Abdallab, himself a Magian, had from
the beginning founded in the midst of these Ismaelites, a secret
society composed of those Persians who had, through Arab

compulsion, embraced Mohammedanism only in name. By
inculcating those vital dogmas of the old Gnosis, that knowledge
was the real end of Eeligion, and that in all scriptures the
allegorical interpretation was the only true one, Abdallah united
under his teaching the remnants of all the older religions that
lurked in Persia, in fact he did in Persia under the Caliph,
still
what the new Manichean Chrysocheir was doing at Tephrice

under the Byzantine emperor. The Ismaelites having gradually
become absorbed into the new sect, succeeded, in the tenth
century, in placing a prince of Ali s line upon the throne of
Cairo, thus founding the Fatimite dynasty. After this, Hassan,
who had served with distinction under the Seljuk Sultans,
aided by his brethren to when he had returned, having captured
the hill fortress of Alamoot or The Vultures Nest (1090 A.D.),
set himself up there as an independent prince, and established
chief causes of Philippe le Bel s refusal, in the early par t of his reign
hatred against the order wns their to admit him into this class.
his community as a political body, under the constitution already

described. In a short time these bold sectaries made themselves
masters of all the strong planes of Lebanon, thereby securing
their independence of the Egyptian Caliph. The Druses are
only the modern representatives of the suppressed Assassins.
Like them, they are Ismaelites, their ostensible founder being
Hakim, a Fatemite Caliph of Cairo, who professed himself
the new incarnation of the Godhead. Their notion that the
present seat of their ever absent Grand Master is Europe,

tallies curiously enough with Von Hammer s theory about
the close relationship that existed between the Templars and

the actual progenitors of the Druses. These same Druses may
also possibly represent the polytheists and Samaritans who
nourished so vigorously in the Lebanon as late as the times
of Justinian, to whose persecuting zeal Procopius ascribes the
extermination of a million inhabitants of that district alone.
Of present creed, preserved in unviolated secrecy,
their
nothing authentic has ever come to light popular belief ;
amongst their neighbours makes them adorers of an idol in the

form of a calf, and to celebrate their nocturnal assemblies, orgies
like those laid to the charge of the Ophites in Eoman, of the
Templars in mediaeval, and of the Freemasons (continental) in

modern times. Their notion of their Head residing in Scotland
has an odd resemblance to the German appellation Scottish "
Brethren," given to our Masons. Some such association of ideas

seems to have led the Lessing to maintain that "
Freemason,"
in German
Masson, has nothing whatever to do with the English
meaning of the word, but comes from mass only, the proper
name for a Templar lodge, called also a Round Table." For "
this derivation he cites Agricola, an authority removed by no

more than 1 50 3 ears from the date of the suppression of the
Order. On this account, he adds, the old Templar buildings in
Bologna and Milan retain the title de la magione," that
"
still
"
is,
"
of the masson
; although a less acute critic would, most
assuredly, only be able to discover here nothing deeper than an
Italian corruption of the French maison in its common sense.
The influence of the Crusades and their results upon the mind
and life of mediaeval Europe cannot possibly be exaggerated
The true masters of the Western barbarians in

philosophy,
science,and many of the arts, were the Arabs,
firstly, those
of Syria, later, of Spain. Together with their
learning they
communicated other ideas, far different from those
originally
contemplated by their pupils. Nevertheless, the connection
between their science and their secret creed was so inti
mate that, in reality, no other result was to be looked for.
So much of primitive Gnosticism, before its admixture with
Christianity, was based upon Magism, that is, upon astrological
ideas, as make to it often difficult to determine whether a
Gnostic monument involves
a religious notion, or is
merely a
sidereal talisman. For example, the Decani of the Signs, whose
figures, according to Teucer, were commonly worn as amulets,
are often to be seen
bearing the names inscribed of Michael and
other Jewish angels. In the
flourishing times of Mahom-
medanism, before the spread of universal ignorance had esta
blished everywhere the dull reign of
uninquiring orthodoxy,
there existed at its very heart
(probably originating in
Persia) an esoteric body, styling themselves Sufi a title t
evidently derived from the Greek 2o<oi, their predecessors.

Now this title appears assumed as equivalent to the previous
IVCDO-TIKOI, although with far more arrogance, since these
"
wise
"
men claimed the possession of that of

knowledge things
divine which the Gnostics by their own designation were only
"
desirous of knowing" Meantime, the tenets they held were

precisely those of the old Antitactae,
"
ordinance-haters," as to
the indifference of all
things pertaining to the body, and the
invalidity of the Jewish moral law (the mere appointment of
the Demiurgus), as regarded the
regulation of the life of the
Spiritual Man." Just as it is a constant charge of the Fathers
"
against the primitive Gnostics that they outwardly conformed

without scruple, in order to escape all
annoyance, to the esta
blished religion of whatever
place they chanced to inhabit, it is
equally probable that the Manicheans and other sectaries of
Asia, persecuted with like zeal by orthodox Byzantine and Zoro-
astrian Persian, would gladly shelter themselves under the
easy cloak of the true religion of their Arab conquerors, during
the two centuries and either save
following Justinian s reign,
their liberty by professing Mahommedanism, or else continue, as

tributaries, in the unmolested exercise of their old faith,
being
confounded by the uninquisitive conqueror under the general
name of Infidels.* "The sects of Egypt and Syria," says
Gibbon, "enjoyed a free toleration under the shadow of the
Arabian Caliphs," and therefore may reasonably be supposed to
have maintained their peculiar notions and observances down to

the time of the Crusades. Of such protracted existence we have
the most convincing proof at the present
day in the numerous
sect, the Mandaites, or Nazarenes of the Shat-el-Arab, and
Bassora veritable Gnostics, holding a creed, the true
;
image of
that of Manes, in their Book of Adam and detested by their
;
Christian and Moslem neighbours alike.
Now, inasmuch as these Sufi were composed exclusively of the

learned amongst the Persians and Syrians, at a time when
learning signified little else than

proficiency in medicine and
astrology (the two points that brought the Eastern sages into
amicable contact with their barbarous invaders from the
West),
it is easy to see how the latter
may have imbibed the esoteric
doctrines simultaneously with the other
teaching of those who
were their sole instructors in all matters pertaining to science
and art. Now the Sufi doctrine was based on that
grand idea
one universal creed that could be
secretly held under the
outward profession of any established religion
taking, in fact,
virtually the same view of all religious systems as that in
which the philosophers of old had regarded them. Such too
had been a striking feature in the Gnostic teaching: the
Naaseni, or Ophites, says Hippolytus, boasted in language truly
Masonic,
"
We
of all men are the only Christians,
standing in
the third gate, and anointed with the ineffable unction out of the
horn like David, not out of the earthen vessel like Saul, who con
sorted with the evil spirit of carnal concupiscence." These same
genuine Christians at the same time zealously celebrated all the
Mysteries of Paganism, affirming that in their higher knowledge
they possessed the only key to the one truth locked up under
those superstitious ceremonies. And in our day the acknow-
* The semi-Magian Abdallali and family resemblance to Weishaupt
his new Ismaelites have a strong and his illuminati in the last
centtiry.
ledgment of one universal religion by the Freemasons, as

expressed by their requiring from the candidate for admission
nothing more than the declaration of his belief in one God, is
denounced with pious horror by the bigots of every variety of
the Christian scheme.
This recognition of one universal religion in fact pervades all
the works of the lights of Mohammedan literature. In the
Malzamat of Hariri the sermons preached by his hero the Dervish
are full of a sentiment more sublime when touching upon
things
pertaining unto God a sentiment harmonising infinitely more
closely with those of enlightened religious men of our times
upon the same subject in a word, these sermons breathe
a spirit in every respect more Christian (to use the modern
phrase) than characterises any writings of the actual Christian

divines, the contemporaries of the author.* But this is neces
sarily so, Hariri and Mohammedans like him being guided by
the traditions of the old philosophy still secretly maintained
amongst them, whilst the spirit of modern Christianity is

strongly, though unconsciously, directed by precisely the same
influence revived, though under a different name, and professedly
contemning its real source.

Again, the greatest of all Mohammedan sovereigns, the
Mogul Akbar, was a true Sufi ; equally so was his prime minister
and historian, Abul Farez. It would be difficult to find in a
modern Christian prayer-book, much less in any one composed
in his age, an address to the Deity so sublime, so consonant
with our present notions, as the invocation opening his Ayeen-
Alcbari. In all such outpourings of Oriental adoration no
allusion whatever to their special lawgiver is to be detected,
nothing to betray any distinctive sectarian prejudice ; the

reader, if unacquainted with the history of the author, would
admire, but know not to what creed to adjudge the composition.
Akbar, according to his vizier,
"
made a point of never ridiculing

or condemning any form of religion." He had thus, perhaps
without knowing it, reverted to the grand and distinguishing
feature of the religion of Greece and Kome in their best times
that discerned the same great truth, the real basis of universal
* He flourished in the ninth century.
toleration, that all religious systems were but expressions of the

same idea,
u
By saint, by savage, or by sago."
Wherever, in ancient times, the of toleration was

principle
apparently violated, it was in cases where the rites, by their
corruption, had become prejudicial to public welfare, as when
the Senate put down the Bacchanalia, or Claudius the Druids
in Gaul, on account of their human sacrifices ; exactly as Iliero
of Syracuse had made
an article in his treaty with the
it
vanquished Carthaginians, that they should discontinue their

burnt-offerings of young children to Melcarth. Ilesiod s maxim,
Mr) d/)/o7/rots ^to/AeuW, was that of his race, as well as of the
Roman, and the same was the guiding principle of Akbar.
From a hint droppedby his panegyrist it would almost appear
that the Emperor had imbibed some slight tinge of /oroastrian
doctrine, for he remarks his particular veneration for the
element of fire ; and again the significant circumstance of his
regulating his frequent daily prayers by the position of the
sun in the heavens and, what bears;
directly upon our subject,
his favourite occupation was to converse with the Svfi and the
learned of all nations and religions. It sounds also
very odd to hear
a Mohammedan grandee, like this writer,
declaring that amongst
the Brahmins were to be found "the most virtuous men
upon
those very religionists in whom Akbar s successors, like
earth,"
Aurungzeb, could (quite according to our own ideas of what

riecessaiily should have been his discern but
feeling) nothing
de\ worshippers, whom
il- it was his bounden duty either to
convert or exterminate.
The constant intercourse between Syria and
Europe, .main
tained by the flocks of pilgrims perpetually crowding to
first
Jerusalem, then by the Crusades, and lastly by the establish

ment of the Frankit>h kingdom in Palestine, and of the different
principalitiesupon the coast, produced vast effects, both apparent
and concealed, upon tl:e nations of Europe, more
especially those
seated upon the Mediterranean. Arabian influence brightly
manifests itself in the poetry of the Troubadours,
half-amatory,
half-mystical like its model, of a spirit differing as widely from
the materialism of classic elegiacs, as does the "
Sara-
pointed
2 E
cenic" with all its forms suggested by tho

architecture,
tentpole and curtain, from the massive Romanesque which it so
rapidly displaced. Of poetry and architecture alike the germs
had been carried into France by the causes already noticed, and
kept in full vigour by the permanent establishment of the two
great military orders having their headquarters in Jerusalem,
but looking principally to France for recruits and resources.
For the Crusades were eminently a French idee, and both
leaders and soldiers in the most important of them, were either
actual Frenchmen or princes holding territories in France
our Norman kings for example. How many arts, the most
admired in those ages, are direct importations from
Syria or
Egypt Glass-working in all its processes connected with the
!
manufacture of ornamental and coloured vessels, and painted

windows, enamelling, majolica, damascening on steel, tho
coinage of gold, the cultivation of the silkworm. The Italian
language has preserved this history in the terms, purely
Arabic, designating things pertaining to all such processes,
still
as zecca, tazza, cameo, mantece, rocca,

gala, pataea, ricamare, dr.
Italian Gothic, particularly its civil branch, as
exemplified in
the buildings of the great maritime cities on the Mediterranean
(those on the Adriatic continued faithful to the Byzantine taste),

such as Genoa, Pisa, Florence, is a mere transcript of Cairo and
Kosetta to the latest days of the style bearing no resemblance
;
to the Gothic then flourishing

beyond the Alps.
This diffusion of Oriental ideas over Europe has a very
important bearing upon the present inquiry, for it explains the
readiness with which Manicheisrn was embraced in France
during the two centuries preceding the fall of the Templars.

These very Templars are found during their residence in
Palestine exhibiting a tolerant spirit, utterly inconsistent with
the ostensible object of their institution; making alliances
with any of the neighbouring Emirs able to assist them in
holding their own against the common enemy, the Soldan of
Egypt ; amongst whom figures conspicuously that arch-Gnostic,

the redoubtable Man of the Mountain."
"Old
*
* His
practice of intoxicating the trial paradise, gave the sect the name,
neophyte with hashish (extract of afterwards accepted by the Italians
liomp) before admis;- ion into his terres- in its present opprobrious sense.
A distinguishing feature of Gnosticisim was the profession of

continence, at least as far as regards the propagation of the
human species, which was denounced to the "spiritual" as
the doing in the
highest measure the will of the Demiurgus,
and the perpetuating the reign of Matter. The
strange means
they adopted to preserve their vow inviolate may be learnt by
referring to Clemens, where he quotes their interpretation of
the ancient fable about Saturn s
devouring his own children,
or to Epiphanius when he describes the rites of the
Ophite
eucharist. In no other doctrine of the Gnosis is the Buddhistic
influence more clearly traceable than in this, for any intrinsic
merit in similar asceticism
(as practised purely for its own
sake) was never dreamed of by the Grecian philosophy, that
offspring of reason in her brightest and most uncorrupted
development. This selfsame affectation of purity contributed,

even more than the proclaimed liberty of conscience, to
promote
the spread of Gnostic tenets in
every age of their development,
from Yalentinus down to the grand apostle of
Laiiguedoc,
Nicetas of Constantinople. His Manichajan
bishops owed their
success in great measure to their black robes and professed
abstinence from, nay, more, pious horror of, all the pleasures of
sense. For any preaching is certain to obtain flocks of converts
that shall make, besides the promise of fully explaining things
too high for man s understanding, an outward and noisy
profession of asceticism, and proclaim the exaltation of the poor
and the certain damnation of the rich as a capital article of its
creed. For the vulgar mind ever admires what is difficult
merely because it is difficult, however useless in itself may be
the result, or even pernicious to
society in its consequence, if
logically carried out; and inasmuch as the abstinence from
sensual pleasures is to them the hardest of all tests, so much
the more is the ostentation of similar self-denial the most
effectual method for gaining ascendency over brutish intelli
gences, utterly incapable of distinguishing the means from the

end. Moreover, such doctrines find powerful allies, ready
existing for them, in the natural enviousness and greed of
common souls. The actually poor being ever the vast majority in
the land, such hearers joyfully receive the teaching that promises
2 E 2
the punishment of their betters in the next

world, purely
as a counterbalance to their
superior happiness in this: whilst
as scarcely any one considers himself as a
truly rich man, but
is
constantly climbing upwards towards a point that constantly
recedes before him at
every successive stage of his ascent, even
the wealthy convert is enabled to hold the comfortable
assurance
that he himself continues in the
category of the poor, and that
the anathema is
only launched against the one immediately
above himself on the social ladder. In this lies the true feeling
secret of the
amazing success of Manicheism, its rapid absorption
into itself of the earlier Gnostic
forms, and above all, of the
facility with which it got possession of tho.se
very regions
where the Catholic Church was the most endowed and richly ;
where her clergy, particularly the Regular, were

attracting the
greatest envy by their wealth and ostentation.
The Templars began their course in actual
poverty, leading
a doubly hard laborious life that of monk and soldier
combined.
To express this poverty the
original device, or common seal, of
the Order, bore two
knights mounted upon the same horse, the
most striking exemplification of
humility that could be imagined
in those days of ashamed of such a
chivalry. Becoming badge
as they grew in power,
they altered it into the somewhat similar
outline of a Pegasus such at least is the old tradition. The
Winged Horse, however, may from the first have involved a
more spiritual meaning, allusive to the heavenward aspirations
of those initiated into the Order. And when their career was
drawing to a close, amidst the
wealth and luxury that drew
down upon them so cruel a destruction, the brethren, no doubt
through some ingenious mode of still flattered
self-deception,
themselves that their vows were as
faithfully observed as in the
very springtide of their institution.
The strange and obscene* ceremonies observed on the ad
mission of neophytes into the various secret societies that
* "
Art. 26. Item,

quod in rccep- Art. 29. Item,
aliquando in virga
tione Fratrum hujus Ordinis, vel virili."
circa, interdum recipiens et receptus "
Art. 30. Item, quod in receptione

aliquando se deosculabantnr in ore, sua ilia faciebant juxta eos quos
vel in umbilico seu in ventre
nudo, recipiebant quod Ordinem non ex-
vel in ano seu in
spiua dorsi." ieriut."
flourished under the Lower Empire and Ages in the Middle

are all of them no more than faint traditions of the penances,
or "
Twelve Tortures "
that purchased admission into the

Cave of Mithras. How widely diffused were these Mithraici,
especially in the West, is attested by the innumerable tablets,
altars,and inscriptions still remaining in Germany, France, and

this country. The religion of Mithras was so readily embraced
and flourished extensively amongst all the Celtic races,
so
in consequence of its analogy to the previously dominant
Druidical religion.
This affinity had struck with astonishment that sagacious
observer, the elder Pliny, who must have had ample opportunity
for forming a correct judgment during his
protracted military
service upon the Rhine. He declares (Nat. Hist. xxx. Gallias
"
4) :
utique possedit (Magica) et quidem ad nostram memoriam ;
namque Tiberii Csesaris principatus sustulit Druidas eorum et hoc

genus vatum medicorumque per senatus consultum. Quid ego
hflec commemorem in arte Oceanum quoque transgressa, et ad
Naturte inane pervecta? Britannia hodieque celebrat, tantis

ceremoniis ut dcdisse Persis videri possit; adeo ista toto mumlo
consensere quamquam discordi et sibi ignoto. Nee satis aBstumari
pote-t quantum Romanis debeatur, qui sustulere monstra in
quibus hominem occidere religiosisîmum erat, mandi vero etiam
saluberrimum." A hundred years before, Ciesar (Bell. Gall. vi.
13) had stated :

"Disciplina
Druidica in Britannia reperta atque
nunc qui diligentius
iiide in Galliani translata esse eestiniatur, et
earn rem cognoscere volunt plerumque eo discendi causa proficis-

cuntur." The subjects of study in the Druidical school were
literally those of the
Magiaii Gnosis, Multa pra3terea de "
sideribus eorumque motu, de mundi ac terrarum magnitudine,

de rerum natura, de deorum immortalium vi ac potestate disputant."
For Pliny by his Magica understands the
"
"
rites instituted by
Zoroaster, and first promulgated by Osthanes to the outer world,
"
Osthanes having been to Xerxes

"
this military chaplain

during his expedition into Greece. And this judgment of the
Romans is fully borne out by native evidence, for Druidism
(such as it appeared in its final struggle with Christianity
during the short-lived independence of Britain after the with-
drawal of the legions) is a religion

agreeing most wonderfully in
many important points with the doctrine of Zoroaster. Thus,
it
expressly teaches the eternal existence and antagonism of
the Two Principles, the final
triumph of Good, and the
Eenovation of all things. A most valuable
fragment of early
Druidical teaching Plutarch has
preserved to us in his strange
essay On the Face in the Moon,"
"
the title of the Doctrine by "
of the Sons of which is full of Gnostic ideas

Saturn,"
; those of
Manes for instance, and even of Gnostic expressions.
Now Manes himself started as a Zoroastrian
priest, and framed
his new
creed (according to
Epiphanius) by engrafting upon
the original the transcendental Buddhistic notions
picked up by
his true master,
Scythicus, during his travels in India. Is there
not then a possibility that some
sparks of the anoient Mithraic
doctrine may have lingered unnoticed in the West* until made
to blaze up anew
by the congenial breath of the Paulician
Apostles? Indeed, one may even now discern the awful antique
ceremonial as parodied to the minutest
particular in the
procedure of the modern convivial lictseria ; for Jerome s Miles,
the lowest grade in the Cave of the
Templars Mithras,
watchman placed on the roof of the house or church wherein
"
the Chapter is held "
(Art. 101), have their exact representative

in the armed man, the lowest official, who stands
"Tiler,"
sentinel at the door of the Freemasons secret conclave.

The Druidical
temple, always circular in ground-plan, whether
formed out of native rocks, or built with Gallo-Koman
masonry
as in its latest at
Laiitef in Bretagne
example (figured by
vi.
Caylus, pi. 124), consisting of two concentric enclosures
pierced with numerous arches, bears in this point a remarkable
analogy to all other structures dedicated to the element of
fire. Such is the plan of the
temple of Moloch (uncovered at
Carthage by Davis), the Roman Vesta s temple, the Guebre fire
temples at Balkh, to this day circular towers, and the
great
Sassanian temple at Gazacas
destroyed by Heraclius in his
*
Similarly there is every reason the only change being in the nam e
to believe that the medieval Witches of the presiding
deity. Michelet
Sabbat preserved uninterrupted the is of this
opinion in describing the
ceremonial of the ancient rural immense Sabbats of the 17th century.
orgia,
invasion. The spherical edifice within the palace containing

the abominable idol of Chosroes, the image of himself, enthroned
as in heaven, and all round him the sun, moon, and stars, which
the superstitious king worshipped as gods angels also had he :
Moreover, this
placed standing about him like sceptre-bearers.
of God had so contrived by means of certain mechanism
enemy
that drops of water should fall from the ceiling to imitate rain,
and that sounds of thunder should reverberate therefrom. Our

Vemlamium also boasted a.Mithraic temple commensurate to
the importance of the place until destroyed by the superstitious
;
barbarian, Ealdred, eighth Abbot of St. Albans, for to no other
could have served the very deep grotto, covered with

"
purpose
an unbroken hill of earth, and approached by a subterraneous
the ruins of which were yet visible when Matthew
passage,"
Paris wrote.
"
Specus quoque profundissimum

monte continuo
circumseptum, cum spclunca subterranea quam quondam Draco

in loco qui Wurmenhert dicitur, in
ingens fecerat et inhabitavit,
quantum vestigia tamen ajterna habitatioms
potuit explanavit,
serpentinae derelinqueiis."*
The foregoing considerations seem to furnish a reasonable
solution of the problem set to the archaeologist in the continued

existence of Gnostic symbols (whether in their pristine
genuine
mere dead forms, is for the Masons themselves
significancy or as
and full of
to judge) paraded before us as things holy
still
of Persia, and the dark

meaning. Treasured up amongst the Sufis
sectaries of the Lebanon, thence transmitted to the Templars,
and handed over them to their legitimate heirs the Brethren of
by
the Piosy Cross, these signs maintain a perpetual vitality. The
famous Pentade s of the Templars was, thinks
(Solomon
seal)
Nicolai with good reason, the powerful symbol, prescribed in

the Diagraming of the Ophites to bo offered by the ascending
soul to the Genius of each sphere, to extort from them free
the supernal Light: First and Seventh One
passage to
"0
born to rule with power, chief Word

(lldabaoth, aeon of Saturn),
of the pure Intelligence Perfect Work in the sight of the
!
Father and the Son by presenting unto thee in this seal the
;
I the gate which thy power

hath closed to
sign of life, open
* Gesta Abbatum S.
Albani, cd. H. T. Riley, vol. i., page
25.
the world, and freely traverse thy domains." A sufficient

reason this for the constant appearance of this particular
sigil
upon tombstones of every date. The reverence with which the
Hindoos regard the same figure has been already noticed.
still
In concealed the same expression of the virtues

its five points lies
of that numeral as was conveyed to the Grecian

philosopher by
the Delphic e interpreted in the same sense as by Plutarch, in
;
the Middle Ages the Pentacle was held a sure protection

against
all danger of fire
though found unavailing, alas for its !
knightly wearers; Beranger s dictum being too well verified,
"
Les heretiques n orit pas trouve

Onguent pour la brulure,"
and was therefore regularly painted up in buildings that from

their destination were particularly liable to such brew- ri>k,
houses amongst the rest. This last custom explains how the
pentacle came at last to indicate the places where fermented

liquors were on sale.
As for the transmission of these
symbols, the question would
be at once settled should we accept the bold declaration of
Leasing, for which, however, we have only his own authority
(Fortsctzunrj ties Ernst,
p. 53) The Lodges of the Templars
:
"
were in the very highest repute during the 12th and 13th
centuries and out of such a Templars Lodge which had been
;
continually kept up in the heart of London, was the Society of

Freemasons established in the 17th century by Sir Christopher
Wren." But this venerable tradition is
directly contravened by
the testimony of the most unimpeachable of all witnesses, the
grand illuminato, Spartacus Weishaupt himself. At Munich,
in the St. Theodosius Lodge (in 1777), he received the first
Masonic degrees, but was inexpressibly disappointed on
finding
in
jeux d une fraternite
"
Masonry nothing beyond les

"
innocente Nevertheless he suspected that

!
something deeper
yet remained and soon his expectations were fulfilled. That
;
same winter his friend, Cato Zwack, had an interview at

Augsburg with a certain Abbe Marotti, who conferred him upon
the highest degrees, even those of the Lodges, and Scottish
expounded to him all the mysteries, founded, according to the

Abbe, upon the religion and history of the Church. Zwack

lostno time in communicating his acquisitions to Weishaupt,
who replies The important discovery you have made at Nico-
:
"
media, in your interviews with Marotti, gives me extreme

pleasure ; let us profit by the circumstance, and extract from it
all the advantages possible." Weishaupt had therefore been
anticipated by his explanation of their symbolism, which he
himself adopted in the new Mysteries he founded. Barruel adds
( Jacobin isme, iv. 81) that the charge of illuminatism does not
apply to the first three degrees of Masonry, neither to such as
hold that these three degrees alone belong to the real, ancient,
This would intimate that the Rosicrucian had
"
"
fraternity.
been later grafted upon the original number of gradations in
the Masonic hierarchy.
For the sake of comparison I shall give Barruel s account of
the degrees amongst the Illuminati, the predecessors of the
Jacobins, viz.,
I. Novices.
II. Brethren of Minerva.
III. Minor Illuminate.
IV. Major Illuminate, or Scottish Novices.
V. Scottish Knights.
VI. The Lesser Mysteries: Epoptas, or Illuminati Priests.
VII. The Eegent or Illuminato Prince.
VIII. The Greater Mysteries ; the Magus or King-Man.
Like the Rosicrucians, each novice upon admission received

his characteristic, or mystic name, taken from Roman history :
he then studied the geography of the Order which classicised

modern places after a similar fashion then he acquired the :
cypher, of which the simple set was this
12 . 11 . 10 . 9 . 8 . 7 . 6 . 5 . 4 . 3 . 2 . 1 .
a . 6 . c . d . e .
f .
g . h . i . k . I .m.
The other, more abstruse, cypher consisted of particular symbols

The Noviciate lasted from two three years, according to the age
of the Candidate. One of the things most strictly prohibited
was to ever write the name of either Order or

Lodge; they
must be expressed by O and n respectively.*
In the admission to his degrees
Weishaupt adopted all the
Masonic ceremonial. For example, in
making the Scottish
"
Knight," the was hung with green; the

"secret conclave"
and spurred, wearing St. Andrew s Cross

Prefect, booted
by a
green ribbon tied en saltire, sat under a green canopy, and
received the candidate
similarly equipped, holding a mallet for
sceptre. There was also the triple Benediction, and the sacra
ment, to conclude, administered by the Chaplain. At the
making
of the Epoptas, he was taken, blindfolded,
by his sponsor in a
perfectly closed coach, by a circuitous route, into the hall now
hung with red; on a table covered with scarlet were laid the
crown and sceptre, heaps of gold mingled with chains. On a
cushion lay a white robe and girdle. The novice was told to
choose if he took the
:
gold, he received a severe reprimand,
phrased with a lot of humanitarian cant too tedious to copy here,
and unnecessary besides seeing that the same is
perpetually
dinned into our ears at the present
day.f
At the end, the Ilierophant delivered a
long address upon
natural liberty and equality, and all the rest thereto
pertaining.
Weishaupt, a professional Atheist, was both astonished and
diverted at finding eminent Protestant after their
divines,
initiation, declaring that all these notions were the genuiue
doctrines of the Gospel which was certainly a very awkward
:
truth to be held by the friends of the established order of civi

lised society. It is not, however, less a truth, if the same
Brother A. B., Write upon parts of the body with the lotus, the
tliis MS.
of the R. S. of this Degree.
colocy nth -flower, and the timbrel of
In his attempt to do this he receives
Cybele (Plutarch, diguoscendo
<De
a severe and prudent C. by the J. D. adulatore ). The marking of the

placed behind him for that purpose, Mithraici has been noticed in the
by the C. T. united to his F. &c." section devoted to that
worship (pp.
Masonic Ceremonial. 139, 140). Hence came the mediaeval
tThe popular notion of the brand- belief in the secret mark
impressed
mark received by Masons on initia- by the Devil at the Sabbat upon those
lion is derived from the
stigmata who swore allegiance to him; and
impressed upon the ancient mystso which mark could be recognised by
at their admission. A remarkable, the witch-finders from its
insensibility
example is that of Ptolemy Auletes, to pain,
who was thus marked in several
doctrines be carried out to their logical consequences, instead of
"being employed
in defending ideas deduced in reality from a
totally different source. But Barruel, the refugee, who had

just seen the doctrines of liberty, equality and fraternity
practicallyand naturally expounded by means of the guillotine,
reasonably enough puts down this declaration of Weishaupt s as
the most conclusive proof of his audacious impiety.
The symbols, forming the proper subject of the present
enquiry, embodied in their origin the deepest mysteries of

Brahminical theosophy; they were eagerly accepted by the
subtile genius of the Alexandrine school and applied to the
hidden wisdom of Egypt; and lastly, in their captivating and
illusory promise of enlightenment, the few bright spirits of the

Middle Ages sought for something better than the childish
fables, engendered by monkery upon the primal Buddhistic
stock, which then constituted the Faith and these holy figura
:
tions still continue to flourish, but only as the insignia and
mummery of what, at best a mere charitable, is perhaps only

a convivial association. In the same way Apollo s golden
Pentagon, which of yore blazed on high above the Delphic
shrine, in the Middle Ages the badge of the proudest Order of
Chivalry, and a sure defence from peril of lightning and fire,

has come at last to be degraded into the mere sign of a German
pothouse !
A Master-Mason of the very highest degree lately informed

me that he had detected the Signs now in use, engraved amongst
the sculptures in the Cave-temples of Elephanta ; and, what is still
more important, that, although the Brahmins are Masons, yet if a,
European makes the Sign to them, they immediately put their
hands up before their eyes, as if to shut out the sight of the pro
fanation of things holy. But this curious fact can be explained
with the utmost certainty. The Dionysiac Mysteries, the most
popular of all in Greece, were believed to have been introduced
direct from and necessarily brought along with them
Syria,
all the signs and rites of their birth-place. The painted vases
of the period of the Decadence, of the fourth and third centuries
before our asra, take for their favourite subject scenes from
the celebration of these Mysteries, and in these pictures, mystic
Siglseperpetually recur, amongst which the Fylfot shines con

spicuous. But in truth, all the ancient Mysteries came from
the East, as their names, the Phrygian, the Mithraic, the Iliac,
declare, and these Mysteries existed publicly almost to the
close of the Roman Empire, and how much further down
into mediaeval times they existed as secret and prohibited
things, it is impossible to decide. .
From the very nature of things we may be certain that their
signs and symbols, after the esoteric doctrines were forgotten,
passed into the repertory of all who used curious arts," the
"
alchymists, astrologers, and wizards of the Dark Ages, and then

became the property of Rosicrucians, who truly were the parent
stock, and not a recent brand (as is now pretended) of the
present Freemasons.*
A most important contribution to the history of Masons
marks has (1877) been obtained through the researches of Sig.
Arnoaldi Yeli amongst the Gallic cemeteries around Bologna.
Many of the vases there exhumed bear Siglse upon their

bases, more rarely upon their sides, which are unmistakably
of the same nature, and, what is more curious, are constructed
on the same principle as those used by the regular stone-mason
at this very day.
Those in Class A (see Veli s Scavi prcsso Bologna) may bo
considered as of the highest authority, because they are the
actual stamps of the potter, impressed upon the clay before
baking. That they distinguished individuals, and were not

merely religious symbols, but stood for the proper names of
people unacquainted with writing maybe inferred not only from
the established custom of antiquity in this respect, but from
the much more frequent occurrence of the class, of which he
gives examples in list B. These are scratched upon the bases
after baking, and therefore must have been added by the
* The Jews have a tradition that the gious Jew upon the Sabbath day.
boards of the Tabernacle were marked It isa singular coincidence that tlie
with Hebrew letters, as a guide for stones of the Wall of Servius Tullius
their adjustment in the setting up of atEome are inscribed with Mason s
that migratory Temple. Writing, marks that much resemble Phoeui-
therefore, becomes one of the thirty- cian letters,
two works interdicted to every reli-
buyers, not by the makers. The great variety in the forms

of these latter siglce sufficiently proves that they were the
"
marks "
of private persons, not of clans or tribes. Class

marks
"
C, of similar articles of metal, lead

"
engraved upon
irresistibly to the same conclusion.
must, however, be It
observed that although these characters cannot be distinguished
at first sight from the modern Masons Marks of which I have
given specimens in the large Plate, it appears upon examination

that no care has been taken to make them end in an odd number
of points the guiding rule with the modern craft.
To come from the Cisalpine to the Western Gauls, some
evidence of the same practice is deducible from their
coins. The large billon pieces, evident copies of Alexander s
tetradrachms, found so plentifully in the Channel Islands,
often bear a figure,upon the cheek of the Hercules head,
and repeated in the field of the reverse. What can these
symbols, placed so prominently to catch the eye, have been
intended but to inform the world what particular tribe
for,
of the confederation using one national type had issued the

coin thus distinguished ? There is some analogy to this in the
Greek series, where distant cities use the type of Athens, or
Corinth, but make it their own by placing some appropriate
symbol in the field. We need not, however, carry out this theory
to the same fanciful length as does the Baron Donop, who, struck
by the evident resemblance of these figures to the Hindoo Caste

marks, builds upon it a complete history of the migration of
the Aryans into Jersey and points out the Puranic deities to ;
whom each of such symbols is to be referred. Of these figures,

again, a great variety, and much better executed, are to be
seen in the field of the pretty hemi-drachms of Solimara which, ;
as well as those above mentioned, belong to the times im
mediately preceding Cassar s conquest of Gaul a date clearly

ascertained from that of the Roman denarii often forming part
of the same deposits. Of the continued use of these Marks "
"
under the Roman rule in Gaul some vestiges are still to be

discovered. The "
Pile Cinq-Mars
"
which cuts so ludicrous a
figure in Rabelais description of Garagantua s horê, is a lofty

quadrangular column, ending in a point, in the most compact
and skilfully executed brickwork, apparently built within the

first
century of the Empire. Upon each face, towards the
top, are wrought in bricks of different colour from the main
structure various devices of the same sort as those of the
coins. These can be nothing else than the armorial bearings," "
of the several cities or tribes that had combined together for

the erection of so costly a monument which we may safely ;
suppose intended for one of those

"
plurima simulacra
"
of
Mercury which Caesar noticed in Gaul, and which forms the

intermediate link between the upright stones (menliirs) roughly
cut into a phallic shape at top, of the uncivilised aborigines ;
and the grand Colossus of Zenodorus,to which native taste had
advanced by the time of Nero.
A lucky accident has thrown in my way another, and much
more curious proof of the use of these "
marks
by the more
"
barbarous part of the Celts at a much later period. That the

decoration of the skin which gave the name to the "
Picts
"
consisted in stigmata in the literal sense of the word, and not in

mere dyeing with woad (like the early Britons), is made out by
Claudian s definite expression,
notutas
Terlcgit exanimes Ficto moricntc figuras."
De Bcllo Getico, xxvi. 417-18.
"
The Book of Kells

"
is a MS., written some time in the

ninth century. In one of the facsimiles of its pages published by
the Pala30graphical Society, amongst the ornamentation of one
vast initial letter, the most conspicuous is the figure of a
naked man, writhing himself amongst its most intricate con
volutions. This man sbody is entirely covered with marks
"
"
of various forms ; and from the circumstances under which the

drawing was made we can safely assume that we have here
preserved to us the portrait of a true Pict, taken from the life.
The four centuries that had elapsed since Claudian wrote
were not likely to have changed the customs of a country so
remote, and in which the small amount of civilisation derivable
from its Eomanised neighbours must have gone backwards
in proportion as they relapsed into their pristine barbarism.
This pictured Pict may also lead us to conclude that the sigil
seen upon the cheek of the Jersey Hercules was actually

tattooed upon that of the Gaul who issued the coin.
Out of deference to the popular belief in the Masonic Brand
mark, I shall wind up this section with a few observations upon
that most time-honoured method of distinguishing those initi
ated into any mystic community. To give precedence to the
Patron Saint of Freemasons, St. John the Divine, his making
the followers of the Beast receive his Mark upon the forehead
"
and the palm of the hand," is a clear allusion to the Mithraical

practice, of which Augustine (as already quoted) speaks, in
mentioning "a certain Demon, that will have his own image
purchased with Ptolemy Philopator, whom Plutarch
Mood"
describes as his
"
passing sober hours in the celebration of
Mysteries, and in beating a tambourine about the palace,"

submitted also to receive the Dionysiac brand-marks which ;
were, no doubt, those symbols so plentifully introduced into

the vase-paintings of Bacchanalian rites.
"
Brand-marks,"
however, is an incorrect name for they were

such insignia, fur
imprinted on the skin, not by but by the milder process of

fire,
Tattooing, as we learn incidentally from Yegetius (I. cap. 8), and

also that it was the regular practice in the Roman army, in his
day, the close of the fourth century. Ho advises that the

recruit be not tattooed with the devices of the standards (Punctis
signorum inscribendus est) until he has been proved by exercises

as to whether he be strong enough for the service. That these
tattoo marks were the distinctive badges painted on the shields
of the different legions, may be inferred from their insertion in
the epitaphs of individuals of each corps.
FIG. IS,
WOODCUTS IN THE TEXT.
Frontispiece. Ceraunia of green jade, converted into a Gnostic talisman
described at p. 197. Presented to the Repository, Woolwich,
by General
Lcfroy.
Title-page. The Ophite version of the "
Good Shepherd," described at

p. 230. Sard. (New York.)
Agathortemon Serpent, inscribed 101 With Me [thou shalt be safe].
Remarkable mineralogically, as being cut iti a piece of true
jade (Nephrite)
(Lewis Collection). P. xii.
No. 1. The Gnostic Gorgon, a late Byzantine amulet. The legend, full
of blunders and is AriOCAriOC KTPIOC CABAGOQ 6N
contractions,
TOIC TYICTOIC eTAOrHMeNOC, "Holy, holy,Lord of hosts, in the
highest, Blessed !" Drawn to the actual size, from a cast, sent tome
many years ago by the late Mr. Albert Way. But by a singular chance,
thegem itself (a green jasper) two years back, came into the hands of Mr.
W. Talbot Heady, who supplied me with a drawing of it, from which it
appears that its other face represents Saint Anne, with the Infant Madonna
in her arms, and her name and title in the
field, the legend around being
TCT6PA MGAAINH MGAAINOMeNH GOC 0AAATTAN TAAHNH
CAIN6I, "0, womb, black, blackening, as the calm soothes the sea [be
thou quiet]. The gem is therefore a talisman for the
protection of women
during pregnancy ;
a fact accounting for its frequent occurrence ; Chiflct
figures another (the side only) in his Apistopistus," No. 70. P. 20.
"
Gorgon
The Abraxas-god, as he is usually represented, with shield and
No. 2.
whip away all evil spirits. The reverse exhibits the Agathodsemon
to scare
Serpent, surrounded by triplets of the sacred animals of Egypt, all paying

him adoration. The legend in the field EVIA, is Syriac for Serpent," the "
rest remains unexplained. Drawn to the actual size, from a red jasper,
discovered at Bombay, to which
place it had probably been carried by the
Persian refugees of the seventh P. 41.
century. (Lewis Collection.)
No. 3. A circular green jasper (of the size of the drawing) preserved
from time immemorial in Maestricht Cathedral, where it passes for the
"
Seal of Saint centuries posterior to

Servatius," although in reality many
his date, being a late medieval work. The obverse represents the bust of
some saint the reverse, the Gnostic
;
Gorgon ;
around both rims a most
barbarous attempt at a common Byzantine spell ;
that is, of a few of the
first words only. The spell, in full, may
be translated thus, Death,
"
(Molpa) black, blackening, as a serpent dost thou writhe, as a lion dost

thou roar but as a lamb shalt thou lie down
; P. 57. !
"
WOODCUTS IN THE TEXT. 433
No.The Abraxas-god mounted in the chariot of the Sun. This

4.
design unique in its kind, and of great value, as proving the original
is
identity of the Basilidan deity with the Solar Power. He has, however,
been adopted into the new religion by the legend of the reverse, the
Great Names," lao and Abraxas placed within a coiled serpent, emblem
"
of Eternity. Green-jasper. P. 103.

(Bosanquet.)
No. 5. Horus, the Vernal Sun, seated on the lotus, type of the world,
and reviewing the adoration of the Baboon, attribute of the moon.
Jasper.
(New York.) P. 155.
No. 6. The Sim in his car, in his hand the orb he is saluted in the ;
legend as Thou art our Father

"
and the word in the exergue Trallianus

!
"
tells us is one of his titles, and enters into a The

spell against gout.
reverse exhibits Luna guiding her milk-white heifer, the Grecian substitute
for the silver antelope of the Hindoo Chandra Hematite. (New
York.)
P. 157.
No. 7. Isis, one lotus on her brow, holding a sceptre.

Sardonyx.
(Muirhead.) P. 175.
No. 8. Caduceus, within a myrtle wreath. On the reverse is beautifully

engraved APIKGU<J>I,
which is the exact transliteration of the Hebrew
charm against the special demon of the latrina, and which is found in the
Talmud, being consequently more ancient that the fourth century. The
meaning is Upon the head of a
"
Sard. (New York.) P. 178.

lion."
No. 9. The Abraxas god, engraved in so superior a style that the work
must date from the earliest period of the sect. Green jasper. (New York )
P. 194.
No. The Abraxas god, with the title loa, Son of the Universe
10. "
!
"
This isa truer version of the Hebrew than the Eternal Son," proposed
"
by Matter. Haematite. (New York.) P. 244.

No. 11. Talisman against the Evil Eye. The much-dreaded organ is
shown encompassed by the symbols of the deities presiding over the days
of the week, as the Lion for the Sun, the Stag for the Moon, the
Wolf for
Mars, &c.,all combining to baffle the force of the stroke. This attribution
of days came from the Chalda3an it is represented in a
astrologers painting :
at Herculaneum, but the earliest use of it to mark a date is found in Dio
Cassius, who observes that Jerusalem was taken "on Saturn s

Day."
Sard. (New York.) P. 256.
No. 12. Drawing rudely scratched on the plaster of the wall of a
guard
room, or the Palatine, representing a man of the lower class touncatus
popettus, or a slave, making a gesture of adoration to a biform diety
elevated upon steps, with the explanatory
"
Alexamenos, inscription
worships (or is worshipping) God." It is disputed whether this be a bona
fide adoration of the jackal-headed Anubis or the caricature by some ;
heathen scoffer of the convert, Alexamenos aod his newly-found

god,
depicted here in the shape described by Tertullian. tSee remarks at
page 230. P. 279.
2 F
434 WOODCUTS IN THE TEXT.
No. 13. Bust of Apollo, in the Greek style,

interpolated by a later hand
with a talismanic legend, that would have defied all
interpretation but for
the existence of another of the same
nature, yet rather more explicit.
This is a portrait of Pescermius Niger
(Paris), inscribed with an invocation
to the "
Holy King, Apollo," to preserve the health of that Emperor,

expressed like the present one, chiefly by the initial letters. Ouri, there
fore, must be read Bao-iXei/s- ATrdXXcoi/ lepbs
Seoiôoi/) [<rff] and, in
the same way, calls upon the God of Health to show this
favour to
Pescennius rival, Severus. Sard.
(New York.) P. 302.
No. 14. Talismanic Ring of found in his tomb; now
Bishop Seffrid,
preserved in the Cathedral Library, Chichester. P. 328.
No. 15. The Agathodasmon, declaring by the I am Chnnmis,
"
legend
Sun of the Universe, 700." The Greek numeral must be the Number of a
Name," just as 888 is that of Jesus, but what that name
was, I leave to
deeper Kabbalists than myself to discover. Calcedony. (British Museum )
P. 340.
No. 16. Serapis and Agathodremon combined in one

body enthroned ;
and holding the Orb, as being Lord of the Universe. He receives the
adoration of the Cynocephalus, attribute of the
moon; whence, perhaps, it
may be inferred that Serapis is to be understood now in the more
restricted
seuse of the Solar Power. Green jasper. (New York.) P. 358.
No. 17. SPHINX, emblem of
mystery, sporting with a narthex, the wand
carried by the candidates for initiation into the
Dionysia. Campanian
style, engraved upon the base of a Sard. Scarabeus. (New York.) P. 372.
No. 18. The golden Delphic
E, surmounted by a fillet of roses. For
the explanation of the
symbol, see p. 297. Cameo iu aâte-onyx. (New
York.) P. 431.
No.
19. Vase, the lower part modelled as a
triple face of the boy Atys;
at the base lie the pastoral staff and
pipes. Atys, in the Phrygian
Mysteries, is invoked as the
"
Shepherd of the white stars, and guiding

them by the sound of his piping," which Tatian
(Hymn
to the Mother of
the Gods) explains by
identifying him with the power that governs the
motions of the heavens, lied jasper.
(New York.) P. 466.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.
THE drawings were, for the most made from gems in the Praun
part,
Cabinet, now transferred to the British Museum, some few from my own
collection, now in the Museum of Art, New York. The materials are
either dark green and yellow jaspers, or calcedonies varying in colour from
olive green to light yellow. All designs are drawn to double the actual
PLATE A.
VARIOUS TYPES OF THE GOD ABRAXAS.

1. Abraxas brandishing a whip, to scare away malignant influences, his
shield emblazoned with some word of power. Keverse, the usual Greek
transliteration of the Hebrew name of God.
Abraxas, armed with a sword the exceptionally neat execution of
2. ;
the intaglio bespeaks the first days of the religion.

3. Abraxas, wielding a mace, a Persian weapon that
betrays the Asiatic
origin of this particular design ;
the thunderbolt in the field identifies this
Power with the classic Jupiter. The reverse exhibits the Triple Hecate,
Queen of Hell, brandishing various weapons for the same prophylactic
purpose as the god himself. A
unique combination of ideas, engraved
upon a circular copper plaque, found in the south of France.
4. The Agathodjemon Serpent, with radiated head, identified
by the
legend with the god Abraxas. One of the few types that can with
confidence be attributed to the sect of Ophites.
5. Abraxas, of very debased and late execution. The title
"
Sdbaoth
"
on the reverse, properly signifying "of hosts," was mistaken by the

ignorant Hellenists for the actual name of a Power, by translating Lord "
of Hosts as the Lord Sabaoth." Under this title he figures largely in

" "
the sigillum of the "
Pistis-Sophia."
PLATE B.
1. Abraxas, represented here with the head of an ass, and thereby

identified with Typhon, a singular perversion of ancient ideas. This gem
is valuable as distinctly declaring its purpose by the legend on the
2 F 2
436 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.
reverse, Defend me," addressed to the Power depicted

<YA((tiXao-(rf),
"
upon it ;
and thus putting out of doubt the destruction of all the other
specimens of its class.
2. Abraxas, of neat work and early date, not later than the fourth
century.
3. The Giant Typhoeus defying Jove : his serpent-legs denote that he is
the son of Mother Earth. This beautiful intaglio, which is of Italo-Greek

workmanship, and found at Cumse, is introduced here merely to show the
source whence the sectaries of the Decline borrowed the idea of similar
combinations of discordant natures. (Burnt sard New York.) :
Abraxas, with whip and shield, combining his influence with Horus,
4.
seated on the lotus, the regular personification of the Vernal Sun. The
meaning of the type is set forth in the legend, which is the Greek
transliteration of the Hebrew Shemesh Ham, "Sun of the Universe."
The union of the two types indicates that Abraxas is here to be under
stood in his original sense, the simple personification of the Solar Power.
PLATE C.
1. Terminal fiszure, perhaps allusive by its form to Justinus

"
The The interminable legend surrounding it yields no intelli

Cross."
gible words, but the title below the Herme, NIXAPOriAHC occurs also on
a talisman in the French Cabinet. The reverse gives the Seven Vowels (or
Voices
"
that shroud the Ineffable Name, which has never been uttered
")
aloud since the day of the destruction of the Temple, but is communicated
only in half-whispers to every Rabbi upon his ordination. It is a re
markable fact that a Talmudist, who remembered the Second Temple,
observes that this Holy Name was warbled rather than pronounced hi " "
the course of the service ; hence we may suspect the possibility of

imitating its sound by the permutation of vowels that form so important
an element in the construction of our talismans.
2. Father Nile, reclining and holding forth a cornucopia, emblematic of
amity.* As the "number of his Greek name," 365, is equivalent to

that of Abraxas, it is probable that, according to Kabbalistic rules, he here
represents that god. This explanation is supported by the type of the
reverse, Horus, seated on the lotus, addressed by the Greek transliteration
of the Hebrew Ablanathanalba, "
Thou art our Father !

"
3. Horus seated in the baris, or the prow and poop

sacred boat ;
whereof terminate in the hawk s head of Phre, and the ox-head of Apis.
He is here addressed by the Ineffable Name.
4. The same deity, addressed as before by the salutation Ablanathan-
alba, followed by an unintelligible word. The unskilful gem-engraver,
unable to form curves in the lettering, has given to his B the form of K,
and increased the difficulty of deciphering this legend.
5. The same, but now seated upon the scaraba?, type of the Creator,
* The type also of an Alexandrian coin of Hadrian.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 437
enclosed within the coiled serpent, emblem of Eternity. With these

purely Pharaonic sigils the reverse combines the name of the Jewish
angel Michael, and the Seven Vowels of the Ineffable Name ; thus
presenting an instructive example of that reconciliation of, apparently,
the most antagonistic creeds which is the very foundation of Gnosticism.
PLATE D.
SIGILS OF THE CNUPHIS SERPENT.

This class of figures has no connection with Gnosticism considered as a
development of Christianity being nothing more than talismans for the
;
protection of the chest, as I have already shown from Galen. It is true

indeed that the Kabbalists of Alexandria sought to heighten the medicinal
efficiency of the ancient Pharaonic sigil by adding to it formula? of their
own embodying the all-powerful Name, but this did not endow
fashion,
the gem with any spiritual sense. The appellation Kabbalist
"
I shall
"
always employ in this treatise in its strictest acceptation, and the present
is as good a place as any for stating my reasons for doing so. It is the rule
nowadays to treat the Kabbala as the pure production of the Middle Ages,
and such it probably is, in the form under which it is now presented to
us. I will not, indeed, go as far as the most learned Rabbi of our times,
and boldly assert that Moses himself was a profound Kabbalist, although
the Wisdom of the Egyptians," in which Holy Writ declares he was a
"
proficient, was beyond a doubt something of very much the same nature.
Whatever unprejudiced person will carefully read what I have adduced of
the doctrines of Sastri and of Marcus (themselves converted Jews) will
" "
find there the regular system of the Kabbala fully developed, and its
of Valentinus. No
"
earliest and Egyptian rudiments in the

"
Pistis Sophia
person really acquainted with the history of religions can suppose that
these theosophists invented these rules of interpretation: they merely
transferred principles sanctioned by antiquity from the explanation of the
Old Testament to that of the New.
To return to our Chnuphis, Chubis, or ChupJiis (for thus the Greeks
transliterated the Coptic KnepJi) it is probable that the veneration in which
this sigil of the Pharaoh Nechepsi was held, was the true source of the
legend concerning Moses s elevation of the Brazen Serpent. At all events,

I know enamel picture of the scene (date, thirteenth century) in
of an
which the Serpent, lifted up on the Cross, is figured with the radiated
lion s head, really as he is seen on these talismans. This particular sigil
is generally engraved on calcedony, varying in colour from olive-green to
waxy-white. The best executed have for material the plasena traversed
by an opaque white line (Pliny s laspis Graminatias), the estimation of
which as an amulet by the Orientals he particularly mentions.
1. The reverse of this gem reads Chumis, accompanied by a row of
vowels that appear to contain the word EH, which is, according to
I
Kabbala, an inferior title of God.

2. The Serpent elevated above the thymele, Bacchic altar a combination

betraying the influence of the Dionysiac Mysteries. He declares in
I, I am the Good Spirit." The reverse of this gem
"
phonetic Hebrew,
had been covered with a long invocation in minute characters now almost ;
entirely lost by the fracture of the material in the fire to which it had
accompaniedits owner. (New York.)
This Chnuphis, of exceptionally fine work and yet, finer material, has
3.
each of the seven rays of the crown tipped by one of the seven vowels
that make up the Ineffable Name. The reverse exhibits the serpent-
entwined wand, (badge of the Egyptian priesthood) which generally goes
with this sigil, and doubtless added to its power. Moses s rod and
Aesculapius s club hence took their origin.
4. Another Chnuphis, It is noticeable how the
in the ordinary style.
gem-cutter has endeavoured to give variety to the endless repetition of the

same sigil, by altering the arrangement of the serpentine folds.
PLATE E.
MONUMENTS OF THE SEKAPIS WORSHIP.

1. Serapis, viewed as the Sun-god, enthroned at his feet, the triple- ;
headed monster described by Macrobius. Before him stands Isis, or Mother

Earth, holding a bunch of wheat-ears and poppy-heads, to mark her
character. The legend is the invocation Immaculate is Our Lady, Isis "
!
"
A specimen of Alexandrian art, in a beautiful sard. (New York.)

fine
2. Venus, arranging her hair at a mirror, held up to her
by a Cupid ;
two Loves, hovering in the air, hold a myrtle-crown over her head. The
inscription
"
The Manifestation of Aroiiph," occurs in a similar connection

upon a gem in the Paris Cabinet. It is hard to determine whether she
be the "nuda veritas," whose Kabbalistic revelation to Marcus is given in
my text ;
or merely a talisman for engendering love towards the wearer ;
the material, magnetic haematite, supports the latter acceptation. The

reverse exhibits Horus, seated on the lotus, planted upon the baris, which
is constructed out of long papyrus-stalks lashed together. He here takes
the title of Abraxas, and is surrounded by adoring triplets of all the
animals held sacred by the Egyptians. The symbol of the Sun is seen at
his right.
3. Bust of Serapis, very curious for the prayer surrounding it, Protect
"
a proof that Serapis is here regarded as the Supreme Being,

"
Jupiter !
and the ancient Jupiter reduced to the rank of an astral Power as, indeed ;
he was occasionally so understood in better times. Thus Persius Satur- :

"
numque gravem nostro love fregimus una." (v. 50.)

4. Isis, veiled, with the tubulus on her head, and leaning on a tall
sceptre, in the pose of the Roman Juno ; for whom she might be mistaken
but for the invocation on the other side, "
Baffle, Serapis, the Evil Eye !

"
which declares the object of this talisman.

DESCRIPTION OP THE PLATES. 439
Inscribed Hermes," followed

"
enthroned, seen in front face.

5. Serapis,
by three letters, the initials of some then well-known address to that

god. Or if merely a private signature (Martial mentions a physician of
the name) the initials refer to his business. The God of the Shades was
a very fit patron for a professional who had doubtless done his best to
swell the ranks of his subjects, lied jasper. (New York.)
PLATE F.
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TYPES ADAPTED TO GNOSTIC IDEAS.

It is in Judaism is more strongly
this class that the influence of
marked than any other family of these monuments. These gems
in
were designed as amulets against the power of demons, either considered
specially, or as manifested in the diseases of which they were the final
cause to mankind. But before proceeding further, it will tend much to the
elucidation of this curious subject briefly to sketch the orthodox Jewish
doctrine upon this point. 1 here is no such thing in existence as a spirit
naturally evil, inasmuch as God, being all goodness, was absolutely

incapable of creating evil. Satan is himself an angel, like the others, and
has his own place in the Court of Heaven but he is deputed to test, by
;
temptation, the strength of Man s virtue, since without a struggle there

can be no crown. The Babylonian Eabbi, Philemon,* having demon
strated this grand truth to the satisfaction of his numerous school, was
surprised the next day by a visit from this Ange mal entendu, in a bodily
shape, who tendered him public tlianksf for the pains he had taken to
. set his character in a true light. But, unfortunately, the Demiurgus had
commenced his work by creating so vast a number of spirits, that the
Sabbath-even came upon him before he had made bodies enough for half
of them. These poor houseless beings are not naturally malignant, but
are jealous of their more fortunate brethren, for the same reason that the "
man. who has no coat to his back hates the man that has." They there
fore roam up and down the world, ever striving to force their way into
bodies already occupied, where their struggles with the rightful owner give
birth to all the maladies that flesh is heir to. It is remarkable that the
among primitive races, however widely separated

latter belief is universal
the Samoiedes, the Hindoos, the Red Indians. Something similar, too, may
be found in Plutarch s curious disquisitions on the nature of demons,
contained in his two Treatises upon Oracles.
It is the fashion of our days to believe that the Jews borrowed all their
metaphysical theories from the Platonists of Alexandria but whoever has ;
gone deeply into the subject sees good reason to suspect that both Jews
and Greeks had gone, independently of each other, to a much more ancient
source for such traditions.
* Or as the Hebrew "Kissed his knees" is the ex-

"Polemo," t
,
may equally well be read. pression iii the Talmud.
1. The Agathodaemon Serpent, mounted upon a pair of human legs. A

unique variety of the class the same idea being more usually embodied in
a human figure with head and neck of a serpent or in a serpent with the ;
head of Serapis. The long invocation on the field evidently begins with
the name of Abraxas." "
2.The jackal-headed Anubis, an Egyptian sceptre in each hand,

advancing between the Sun and the Moon, the regular emblems of Eter
nity. A remarkable specimen of
religious syncretism, for the power of the
Pharaonic god doubled by adding, on the reverse, the name of Michael,
is
guardian-angel of the Jewish race, between four stars, which certainly stand
for the letters of the Great Tetragrammaton.
3. Mummy, enveloped in the folds of the guardian Agathodsemon. The
detached letters around (often so found in these gems) seem to cloak the
word "
Initia." If so, this may have been a token

(syinbolum) given to
the neophyte upon his initiation into certain mysteries a custom to which :
St. John alludes, mentioning the white stone with the New Name graven" "
thereon, to be given to him that overcometh.

4. A
Power equipped with double arms and wings, bearing sceptres to
mark his dignity, and carrying on his head the sacramental Table. The
tree-trunk below, with its Five lopped-off branches, had doubtless a
deep
mystic meaning, probably the degree of the person who carried the talisman.
Of the most barbarous execution, but valuable for the name Baincho " "
on the reverse : the astral Power, according to the "
Pistis-Sophia," resident
in the planet Mercury.
5. Anubis, in one hand the the other the lustral vase,
sceptre, in
standing above the open hand, which Apuleius informs us was the
left
type of Justice. At his side is the goddess of Truth, her head formed
out of a bunch of ostrich-feathers under her feet the udder-shaped vessel :
carried in the Isiac procession. One deity is invoked by Thou art our "
Father the other as Sun of the Universe

"
The letters in the middle

" "
!
!
eeem to make up|name, Pia . the owner s

"
. ."
G. Anubis, advancing with the sceptre and situla : the legend on the
reverse is unexplained.
7. A
talisman, certainly meant to be of mighty efficacy, for it combines
the influences of Anubis, Cnuphis, and Horus with that of the God of
the Jews, rudely cut upon the four sides of a cube of steaschist.
PLATE G.
EGYPTIAN TYPES (continued).
.1. In this composition an element from a little-used source is introduced.

The Grecian Apollo, distinguished by his proper attribute, the bay-branch,
is seen
caressing the Ibis, sacred to Thoth, scribe of the gods. The latter
deity being identified with Hermes, his bird carries the caduceus it also ;
bears upon its head the corn-measure,

typical of abundance.
2. The Ass-headed Typhon, or the
Principle of Evil, with quadruple
wings and one foot hoofed, carries by the tail two monstrous scorpions :
over his head a scarabseus flying. Of no esoteric meaning, bat simply an

amulet against the bite of the reptile, made after the rule in such cases
prescribed. The most convincing proof of the practice is the early Greek
gem published by Gen. Cesriola ( Cyprus. pi. xl. 1.7), representing
two
asps, with the explanation EXK and to this day the Arabs always draw ;
upon their amulets the figure of the thing against which it ought to guard
the wearer.
A
Dual Power, who combines the jackal s head of Anubis with the
3.
ass s head of Typhon, whence one of his feet is hoofed, brandishes in his
four hands swords and torches, wherewith to scare away the evil spirits.
The legend on the reverse, FIEPAAMBA VBAKA KZIK A, has not been
read, but contains the Coptic name of Anubis.
4. radiated head, adoring the seated Thoth,
The Sun-god, Phre, with
ibis-headed,and using the invocation (cut on the reverse) "Thou art
our Father Inasmuch as the Neo-Platonists made Hermes to be the
!
"
Power that regulates the motion of the heavens (for which reason Julian
addressed his morning prayer to him), there is evident reason why the
his superior and director.
god of Day should thus do domage to Thoth as
5. A very popular Oryllus, its components being the emblems of the
elements the Bird standing for air the Lion for Fire the Ram s head ; ;
for Earth, and the Bacchic mark for water. This Pagan talisman has
been Gnosticised by Thoth s ibis, with the Holy Names, Abraxas and
"
"
but the work on both sides is evidently from the same hand, and
"
lao
"
in the style of the fourth century. The material is a rarely-used stone

obsidian.
PLATE H.
EGYPTIAN TYPES (continued}.
1. Tortoise lying upon the lotus, which springs out of the back of a
crocodile. The unexplained legend of the reverse occurs again in connection
with an analogous design a vulture-headed winged Genius, seated on
the back of a double-headed crocodile, published by Walsh (No. 13) in his
Gems, &c., illustrating the Progress of Christianity.
Coins,
The Ark of the Covenant, apparently copied from the Altar of Lyons,"
"
2.
that so common device of the brass coins of Tiberius. The engraver ol

this late Roman gem had not studied the minute description of the Ark,
tradition (although savouring
given in the Law. There is a Rabbinical
too much of Alexandrian philosophy to demand any credit) that the
Cherubim placed over it were represented as male and female, in the act
of in order to express the grand doctrine of the essence of Form
copulation,
and Matter, the two principles of all things. When the Chaldeans
broke into the Sanctuary, and beheld this most astounding emblem, they
naturally enough exclaimed Is this your God, of whom you boast, that He
"
"
is such a lover of purity !
On the side is a blundeied attempt at the mystic word, Tctragranimutun,

442 DESCRIPTION 7
O- ? THE PLATES.
i.e.the Name of Four Letters, viz. Jod, He, Van, He. For the Names of
God, according to the Kabbala, are made up respectively, of Four, Forty-
two, and Seventy-four letters. The second explains the motive for the
number of sacrifices offered up by Balaam in his fruitless
attempt to
propitiate the God of the Hebrews ; and perhaps may have induced the
composers of the Genealogy of Jesus (though working independentlv of
each other) to bring out the same mystic number by
curtailing the second
series of three of its kings.
3. A doubly-winged
and doubly-armed Power, holding four
Egyptian
sceptres, and standing on a coiled serpent, enclosing a Holy Name. The
legend is a transliteration of the Hebrew for
"
Light of Lights." Another

form of such transliteration is given by Caylus Recueil d Antiquites, vi. (<
PI. 21), o-pvopiovo; reading from the end backwards cut for reverse to a
;
coiled serpent enclosing various sigla.

4. Thoth s baboon, bearing on his head the Solar disk, in the attitude of
adoration. The reverse bears HNA-MEPU), sometimes written MAPCx)-
HNI, Enlighten my eyes
"
whence we may suspect this very common

!
"
type to be no more than an amulet against ophthalmia.

5. This gem is given here as a good specimen of a
type of which great
numbers are to be met with, although its whole conception, and the vague
symbols in the field the Solomon s Seal, celestial globe, etc., entirely out
of the antique taste, refer its creation to the
fancy of mediaeval quacks and
astrologers. Was the figure suggested by the idol in the shape of an "
Old with whose worship the Templars were so persistently

Man"
charged? The present example, belonging as it does to the original

Praun Cabinet, must have been executed before the beginning of the
seventeenth century.
6 The outline of the
. human figure filled up with
"
Holy Names," and

thereby representing Adam Kadmon, "the Primitive Man" of the
Kabala. The finest example of this curious design, and in which the
letters are the most clearly defined, is the one
Caylus gives 22\ (I.e. pi.
which has been cut by a later hand on the reverse of a Lion passant, in
the Persian style.
7. The Baboon adoring a Triangle, Egyptian symbol of the Moon,
elevated upon a column bearing an inscription. The fact that the
Pythagoreans (who avowedly got their whole system from Egypt)
symbolised Athene by the triangle, lends srength to the idea that the
Attic goddess was in her origin merely the expression of the Lunar
Power.
PLATE J.
SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE MITHEAIC MYSTERIES.

1. This pretty design may be tersely described in a line of Manilius :
"
Quadrijugis et Phoebus equis et Delia bigis."
Sol and Luna in their appropriate equipages a heathenish device :

enough,
but the same hand has backed their influence by the invocation, lao "
Sabaoth, Abraxas
"
; He, i.e. the living God, protect Aparastath<% the bearer

of this talisman. Similar formulae, always attached to women s names,
very frequently occur.
2. The Zoroastrian Dog, of whom and whose office so much has been
said in the text. The ill-cut Bird is intended for the Haven, the usual
Mithraic attribute.
3. The Lion of Baal, the Syrian Sun-god; below, the Scarabams
typifying the Creative Power. The Phoenician inscription Osan el, God "
gives strength," is the name of the owner of the signet. Levy quotes an
agate scaraba3us at the British Museum exactly similar to this gem (a fine
sard), a proof of the popularity of both type and name.
4. A unique talismauic device, converting a male Sphinx into a novel
bird, by the addition of the legs of a crane and the tail of a scorpion. It
is engraved in the Persian style :
my motive for admitting it into the
present class.
5. The Zodiacal Lion, guided by its astral Genius in its course through
the seven planets.
6. The Sun-god, with radiated head, mounted upon a camel, typifying
the East. Below is set the fire-altar of Mithraic worship. He is followed
by Chanticleer, attribute of the god of Day, preceded by the Horse his
peculiar sacrifice, as Ovid tells us :
"
Plncat equo Persis radiis Hyporiona cinctum,

Ne detur Celeri victima tarda deo." (Fasti. I. 305-86.)
PLATE K.
MITHRAIC (continued).
Circular copper plate, of the same size as the drawing, bearing the
1.
name of Aurelius Furellius, the person for whose benefit the talisman was
devised. It represents a female figure, standing in the attitude of
adoration ; legend,
"
The Birth of Salvation." On the reverse is seen

the Solar Lion bestriding a corpse, a type so frequent in this class that
it may reasonably be referred to the entrance-rite of initiation, the
simulation of death alluded to by Spartianus.

"
"
2. The most elegant

of these mystic designs that has ever come to my
knowledge. Two Cranes, one with the head of a Earn, the other of a
Bull, stand guardians over the Mithraic sacramental table, under which
lies crouched the Solar Lion, the House of the Sun." Upon the table "
are set the sacred vessels it is the Delphic E,

badge of Apollo, ;
above
between two Palmyrene (?) letters, and over all the Seven Planets,
engraved with an accuracy worthy of its elegance in a very fine sard.
3. A talisman of uncommon potency, to judge from the profusion
of symbolism with which its two faces are overloaded. A four-winged,
four-armed Power, standing like the Babylonian Belus in the air, is involved
with a multiplicity of legends, amongst which the usual formulas Thou "
art our Father,"

"
Sun of the Universe,"

"
Michael,"
"
Adonai," can clearly

be read. The reverse shows a female figure standing and adoring the
Deity, who guides the Solar light. In the legends we can distinguish
"
Abraxas," and Michalo."

"
Michael,"
"
4. This type only differs from the last by the addition of the
prostrate
man under the Lion s feet, and that nothing definite can be made out of
the disjointed inscription. The reverse merely bears the Great Name
lao, Sabaoth," and the Seven Vowels. The potency of such words is
"
still an article of faith with all true Jews. In the year 1835-6, the Eabbi
of Neutra, in Hungary, actually stood his trial for murder on the charge of
having cursed, by the Ineffable Name an enlightened lady whom he had

" "
ordered to leave the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, because she had

ventured to make her appearance there with her hair in sight, and who
had died suddenly on the very same day. The Rabbi only escaped
conviction by publicly and solemnly disclaiming the possession of any
such power, to the inexpressible disgust of his whole congregation, who
looked upon him as a wretch that had denied his God in order to save
his life !
PLATE L.
MITHRAIC (continued).
1. The Mithraic Lion, moving through the stars of heaven. The

reverse exhibits a complete assemblage of the Siglee that are found,
dispersed, upon so many talismans. That they stand for the names of
deities and
Powers may be guessed from the fact that Moham
astral
medans express Allah by a circle filled up with diagonal lines.
still
2. Lion-headed Man, doubtless a Leonticus (one of the grades in the

Mithraic Mysteries), uttering, with uplifted hand, the inexplicable adjura
0, Centaur of God, Thou match for a hundred [demons]
"
tion, Here !
"
fKarovTopaxos is formed after the analogy of p-ovo/jLaxos,

"
a match for one."
3. A Mobed
(Zoroastrian priest or Magus) performing his nocturnal
devotions before an altar, on which are set up various sacra, amongst
which may be recognised the regular insignia of his profession, the Sword
and the Divining-rods. Engraved upon the base of a calcedony cone, an
early form of the sknet in Assyria.
4. Horns, the Vernal Sun-god, making the gesture of adoration, his
whip resting upon his left arm. He is seated upon the seed-vessel of the
lotus, that aptest symbol of the Universe, in virtue of its innumerable
contents. In the long, clearly-cut legend that fills the exergue, no
hitherto-explained formula? are to be recognised.
PLATE M.
GENERAL TALISMANS.
Zodiacal Monster, compounded of Scorpio and Capricornus,
1.
carrying a
legionary standard. Bearing in mind that the former Sign is under the
patronage of Mars, according to Manilius Pngnax Mavorti Scorpius
"
and the latter a badge of the second Augustan Legion, we may

"
haeret
reasonably suppose this gem to have been engraved for the benefit of
some member of that corps. Sard. (New York Museum.)
2. Three lines of the usual Gnostic siglae, in a cartouche formed by a
coiled serpent, precisely in the same way that the Brahmins still write
the Great Name AUM a sure evidence of the meaning of these
mystic characters. Sard., set in an iron ring, of which only fragments

remain.
3. Fortuna, with rudder and horn of plenty, standing. The word
Feliciter, in scattered letters, the usual acclamation of the crowd, and the
palm-branch prove this gem a present to some favourite auriga. Its
purport is the same as that of the monogram so often found enclosed in
the field of the Antoniate medal, also accompanied with a palm, which
has at last been made out to contain the elements of Palma Feliciter !
4. Masks of Silenus and of Bacchus, combined into the outline of an
elephant s head, bearing a caduceus in his trunk. The typical beast of

India an allusion to the Indian origin of the god and the conceit was a
is ;
favourite with the Komans, to judge from the number of such compositions
that they have bequeathed us. Bed jasper. (New York.)
5. Astrological Trine, or figure produced by dividing the circle of the
Zodiac into equilateral triangles. Here, Virgo (Astrsea) at the apex of a

triangle, is borne up by Taurus and Capricorn. This was the horoscope of
Pescennius Niger, who placed it on the reverse of a coin, on account of its
appropriateness to his surname of Justus, of which virtue Astraa was the
emblem.
6. The Gorgon s Head : the type explains itself by the legend,
"
protect Khoromandares" some Greco-Persian, to judge from his Oriental

name. The younger Lucian tells us in his Philopatrios that the Gorgon
was placed upon the shields of the Heroes as being
a thing that wards off "
all dangers." Red

York.)jasper. (New
7. Mars, grounding arms, in the costume of a soldier of the times of
Constantine. The legend declares the virtue of the sigil "Mars hath :
cut off the disease of the interesting point in the

liver." But a most
amulet has been discovered by Prof. Stephens, viz., that the four characters
behind the head of Mars are the Runes for ABLE, Help. Under
Constantine and his sons, the Franks (as Arnmian observes) were para
mount in the army. It is easy to conceive how some officer of that nation
has thought to augment the great virtue of this important talisman by the
addition of one of his national spells. Engraved in a slight manner, upon
hcematite.
8. Naked Warrior, upon a prancing steed, brandishing a mace, that
weapon legend, The Seal of God." Curious for the
"
specially Oriental ;
material a turquoise ; to the present day the Persians firmly believe in

the protective virtue of this gem, to which they give the name of Phirux
"
The Victor."
PLATE N.
GENERAL TALISMANS (continued}.
Universal Nature, symbolised in a highly poetic
1.
manner, combining
all her forces for the protection of the bearer. The Eagle of Jupiter
(Air) the Dolphins of Neptune (Water)
; the Lion of Sol (Fire), are ;
moulded into the mask of Pan, whose semi-bestial nature is of the Earth,
earthy.
Winckelmann, in describing an intaglio of the Stosch Cabinet (No. 1232)
Pan, playing upon his syrinx, seated in the centre of the Zodiac, observes
that the ancients considered this god as the "
Type of the Universe and

"
saw in his horns and shaggy hairs mystic allusions to the solar For
rays.
the same reason Apollo shared his Gryphon with
Pan, and Orpheus sings
of him as
"
Attuning the harmony of the world with his music." sportive

Onyx cameo (Rollin and Feuardent).
standing, with the Asp, badge of royalty, rising from her fore
2. Isis,
head. The Coptic legend opens with
the name of Osiris. The characters
in the inner circle seem to be Demotic are not I have
they Palmyrene.
published this gem, as being the finest example of the class that has ever
come to my knowledge, by the kind permission of its
owner, Mr. J. C.
Robinson. Dark jasper. (On the reverse, a later hand has inscribed the
"
Great Name," and the Seven Vowels, to adapt the talisman to the new
creed.)
Nos. 3 and G are very frequent forms, made
up entirely of siglae and
Numerals ; on which latter subject more shall be said further on.
4. This spell, Great is the Name of the One God," is the Jewish
"
defiance to its rival, Great is the Name of Serapis," of which

"
Caylus
publishes a beautiful example, in relief, of antique paste a material that
indicates a large manufacture of the same article to meet a constant
demand.
5. Certain astral Powers, represented
by their then well-known symbols,
are enlisted, by this engraving, in the service of a lady, SaUnia Quinta.
A popular kind of talisman this another similar is known to
;
very me,
made for the benefit of one Victorina.
Pythagoras is perpetually referred to by Hippolytus as the real master
of the Gnostics in the application of Numerals to the
expression of things
divine. He is known to have learned his system in Egypt ; and neces
sarily brought away with him the cyphers which he found employed for
the same purpose amongst his teachers. The primitive
Egyptian numerals
were of the simplest nature, but their abbreviations
ultimately became
distinct symbolical cyphers for the several
days of the months and out ;
of these cyphers the Arabs composed their own system of notation. Hence
it follows that many of the Gnostic be no more than numerals
siglss may
connected with the astrological use of the charm on which
they occur. In
fact, Porphyry says of Pythagoras (in his Life ) that his famous
Numbers were merely hieroglyphs, whereby he expressed ideas con
nected with his own philosophy. The so-called "
Pythagorean Nume-
are shown in the MSS. of Boethius s Geometry,

"
rals
composed in the
sixth century. And that the "Numbers" of Pythagoras were Ten.
appears from the remark of Aristotle (Met. vii. 8) that some philo "
sophers maintained that ideas and numbers were of the same nature, and
amount to Ten in all."
That the Numerals as written down by "
the last of the Romans,"

were Egyptian demotic characters in their origin is a very probable
conjecture but it is a curious fact, and remarkably confirms what has
;
been said above, that several of them when viewed upside down assume
the exact form of our present Arabic
cyphers.
PLATE 0.
HINDOO SYMBOLS AND CASTE-MARKS.

I. No. 1. Type of Mahadeva or Siva. Fire personified.
No. 2. Type of Vishnu Water. :
No. 3. The Sherkun symbol of the union of the two Elements.

:
No. 4. The five-pointed figure representing the conjunction of Brahma

(Creator) with Siva (Destroyer) becomes the famous Solomon
"
s Seal,
the badge of the Jewish nation, and therefore engraved upon their tombs
in the Roman Catacombs.
The equilateral Triangle, Trikun, symbolises Triune Co-equality. A
Point (mathematical) the self-existing Deity. The circle expresses
Brahma, or Eternity. The Triangle inscribed in the Circle, Trinity in
Unity. The
Circle within the Triangle, Unity in
Trinity.
The worshippers of a Sacti (Female Power) mark their sacred jars with
the very expressive symbol, No. 5 those of Vishnu with No. & and those of
; ;
Siva with No. 8, which signifies the copulation of Siva with Durga.
Amongst the signatures of the ancient Jaina (Buddhist) kings, occur
the symbols 8 and 9; and also the so-called "Maeander," that frequent
decoration of Greek Coins.
The six following symbols are various Caste-marks, which religious
Hindoos put upon their foreheads every morning, with ashes of
cowdung,
or coloured earths, and powdered sandalwood, producing a
great variety in
them by the employment of different colours. Those figured here
designate the followers of Vishnu.
II. These marks distinguish the votaries of Siva and his wife, Pauvati.
The most obvious symbol of the Passive Principle of Nature, the mystic
Yoni, (and with which Sesostris branded the nations that had submitted
to his arms without resistance) is decorously repressed in the general form
of these marks, the two Deities being those that preside over
propagation
and change which the vulgar call by the name of Death.
Other caste-marks, denoting minor differences in the sects that bear
III.
them they are given here because they include in their number some that
:
appear to have been the originals of certain Mediaeval siglse.

IV. Characters cut upon the rock in the sandstone quarries of Silsilis
in Upper Egypt. That they are alphabetical may be inferred from the
fact of their
accompanying the figures of various animals they are of ;
great interest to us, being identical with those so often found upon our
talisman.
V. Palmyrene characters from a finely-cut now in the
inscription
Louvre.
VI. Siglx, exactly of the nature of Masons Marks, and of
very ancient
date, for they are found on the pottery deposited in the Gallic tombs
around Bologna. Some are stamped in the clay before baking, and
therefore must have indicated the maker s name but the greater number
;
have been scratched on the surface at some later time,

probably when
placed in the sepulchre, to carry down to posterity the memory of the
deceased. Those here given are selected from the list
figured by the
Conte Gozzalini in his very instructive memoir Gli Scavi
presso Bologna,
1877.
VII. Masons Marks, cut on the ashlar of the old Palace of Sadilat, near
Ispahan, whence they were copied by Ouseley, in the belief that they were
some unknown tongue.
inscriptions in
VIII. Masons Marks from the " "
Drawing-room of Raglan Castle, an

Elizabethan building. They will suffice for specimens of the all notation,
the medieval, early or late,
being of the same nature, though infinitely
varied in minor details. Many lists of these have been published from
time to time, the most recent, of the Marks in Duffield Church, a Norman
building, published in the Journal of the Derbyshire Arch. Soc., ix. p. 168.
IX. Every genuine Free Mason (not Rosicrucian recoctus
Freemason)
after serving his apprenticeship, and
beingmade free and accepted of
" "
the Craft, receives his own Mark," which

"
he must thenceforth cut upon

every stone that he dresses, in order to identify his own work when pay
day comes. The essential principle in the Mark is that it must have an
odd number of terminations. The Marks here set down were in use with
the masons employed in the construction of the South Wales
Railway.
The most convincing proof of the emptiness of the lofty pretensions of our
so-called Freemasons, is that they actually are
entirely ignorant that
this most ancient rule of the Craft, to which
they pretend to belong, is
still regularly followed.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
BY
JOSEPH JACOBS, B.A.
PART I. GNOSTICISM AND ITS SOURCES, pp. 1-112.
THE Gnostic heresies play so important a part in the

Christianity of the
three centuries that they naturally come up for treatment in all the
first
Church histories for that period, such as those of Gieseler, Neander,

Hase,
and Scliaff, as well as in the histories of Christian doctrine
(Hagenbach,
F. K. Meier, F. C. Baur, A. Neander, L. Noack,
&c.), and even in the
histories of philosophy of Ueberweg, Zeller, &c. But the monographic
treatment of the subject from the theological standpoint the Gnostic
gems attracted early attention may be said to have begun with
A. Neander. Die genetische Entwickelung der vornehmsten gnos-

tischen Systeme. Berl. 1818. [Sober and clear.]
C. A. Lewald. De Doctrina Gnostica. 1818.
J. Matter. Histoire critique du gnosticisms et de son influence sur les
autres sectes religieuses et
philosophiques pendant les six premiers
siecles. Paris, 2 tomes, 1828. [Second and best edition, Strasbourg,
3 tomes, 1843. Somewhat superficial and viewy, but still useful ;
giving outlines of whole subject, including iconography.]
E. Burton. Inquiry into the Heresies of the Apostolic
Age. Oxford,
1830. [Bampton lectures for 1829, uncritical; superseded for
English readers by Mansel.]
J. A. Moehler. Versuch iiber d. Ursprung dcs Gnosticismus. Tiib.
1831.
F. C. Baur. Die Christliche Gnosis. Tubingen, 1835. [The
place of
publication indicates the tendency of this publication. Baur s
views are read to best advantage in his Das Christenthum der 3
ersten Jahrhunderte.~]
Norton. History of the Gnostics. 1845.
H. Eossel. Geschichte der Untersuchungen uber d. Gnosticismus in his
Theologische Nachlass. Berl. 1847.
E. A. Lipsius. Gnosticismus in Ersch and Griiber. Bnd. 71. 18GO.
[The starting-point of new lines of inquiry rendered necessary by
the publication by Miller of the Philosophumena attributed to
Hippolytus (Clar. Press, 1851).]
W. Moller. Geschichte der Cosmologie der griechischen Kirche bis an
Origenes. Leipzig, 18G2.
2 G
450 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.
H. L. Mansel. The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries.

London, 1875. [Posthumous. Edited by J. B. Lightfoot. Best
English work, clear, fair, mainly founded on Lipsius, classification
of sects geographical. His arrangement is Notices of Gnosticism:
in New Test. (iv. v.) Precursors, Simon Magus and Menander

( v i.)
The Ophite Sects (vii.) Cerinthus, Carpocrates, Nazarenes
and Ebionites (viii.) Syrian Sects, Saturninus, Tatian, Barde-
sanes (ix.) Egyptian, Basilides (x.) Valentinus and Valen-
tinians (xi. xii.) Asiatic Gnosticism, Marcion (xiii.) Judaising
Reaction, Clementines, Elkesaites (xiv.).]
A. Hilgenfeld. Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristenthums. Leipzig,
1884. but at present the work round which
[Ill-arranged,
* discussion on Gnosticism centres.]
These are the chief monographs on the whole subject. Besides these,
several articles in theological reviews may be mentioned, many of
them reaching the length of monographs. They were mostly
occasioned by the various publications mentioned above, as can be
seen by their dates. F. K. Liicke in Berliner theol. ZeiUch. 1819 ;
J. C. L. Gieseler in Hall. lit. Zeit. 1823; and in Studien u.
Kritiken, 1830 F. C. Baur. ibid., 1837 H. T. Cheever in Amer.

; ;
BiU. Repos. 1840 R. Baxmann, Deutsche Ztst. 1861 [translated

;
Amer. ThcoL Rev. 1862] ; Hilgenfeld in Ztst.f. iviss. theoL Bd. xiii.
Articles in encyclopedias often show original research, or present

useful summaries: besides the epoch-making one of Lipsius hi
Ersch and Grliber, reference may be made to the saie writer s
Gnosis in Schenkel s BiM-Lexikon (1868) C. P. Wing
"
"
article ;
in McClintock and Strong, vol. iii. 1873 [useful bibliography] ;

\V. L. Alexander in last edition of Kitto and J. L. Jacob! in
Herzog-Plitt.
The SOURCES are scanty and scattered, at any rate as regards in
dependent works by Gnostics. In addition to scattered fragments in

Grabe s Spicikgium, there have been published
Miinter. Odx gnosticx. Kopenh. 1812.

Korbcrg. Codex Nazareus vel Liber Adami. Leiden, 1815.
[The so-called Bible of Gnosticism, i.e. of the Mendaites ;
on
whom see Christian Review, Jan. 1855, and Petermann in Herzog.]
A. Halm. Bardesanes Gnosticus Syrorum primus hymnologus
Leipz. 1819.
A. Halm Antitheses Marcionis Gnostici. Leipz. 1823.
M. G. Schwartze. Pistis Sophia, opus gnosticum a codice manuscripto
Coptus Londini descripsit et Latine
vertit M. G. Schwartze,
H. Petermann. Berl. 1851-3.
edidit J.
[Nowconsidered to be a production of the later Ophite schools,

see K. Kostlin, Die gnostische System des Buches Pistis Sophia
in Thcol Jahrb. for 1851,]
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. 451
But the real sources of our knowledge of Gnosticism are to be found in

the earliest heresiologists, Irenrcus (Adv. hxreses}, Epiphanius (Adv.
hareses), and Hippolytus (Elenchus and Philosophumena) on the trust
;
worthiness of these a considerable literature exists.
G. Volkmar. Die Quellen der Ketzergeschichte. I. End. 1855.

11. A. Lipsius. Zur Quellenkritik des Epiphanios. 1HG5.
Die Quellen der dltesten Ketzergeschichte. 1875.
A. Harnack. Zur Quellenkritik d. Gesch. des Onosticismus. 187.3.
in Zt. f. lut. Theol. 1874,
pp. 143-226.
Hilgenfeld s Ketzergeschichte goes thoroughly into these sources.
P. 3. Aristobulus. Valckaener s monograph De Aristobulo Judxo,

1806, is still the fullest and best.
P. 4., vide p. 18, note on Enoch.
"
Book of Adam
Codex Nasareus Liber Adami appellatus, syriace
"
a M. Norbery. Berlin, 1815.

transcriptus, latineque redditus
P- 7. Of the large literature on Ephesus it is sufficient to refer to
Guhl, Ephesiaca, Berl. 1843 Faikcner, Ephesus and the Temple of
;
Diana. 1862.
P. 8. On traces of Gnosticism in the
Gospels. C. C. Tittmann, De
vestigiis Gnosticorum in Novo Testamento frustra guxsitis,
Leip.
1773 ; translated Contributions to
Foreign Literature. New York,
1827. On Pre-Christian Gnosis, Lightfoot. Colossians, pp. 80
seq.
P- 14. Title given above, also Kos din s
monograph.
P. 24. Jews
in ancient world form the
subject of Prof. Mayor s
elaborate notes on Juvenal xiv. 06-106, running over twelve
closely
printed pages and preceded more suo by an elaborate bibliography
of previous treatment. The only thing of importance since is a
paper of Heyd s Les juifs devant I opinion romaine in 7?ey. des etudes
juives. 1884. The relations of Gnosticism and Judaism formed
the subject of the historian Graetz und
s first work, Gnosticismus
Judenthum. Krotoschin, 1846.
P. 29. The Zendavesta is now translated in Sacred Books of the East,
vols. iv. xxiii. and xxxi. For literature see Tide, Outlines of the
History of Religion, 100. Chief work, Hang, Essays on the
Parsis in Triibner s Oriental Series. On Persian influences on
Jewish angelology, Kohut, des Talmuds.
Angelologie 1868.
P. 33. Dr. Ginsburg collected in small
compass the modern views on
the Kabbala in his
The Kalhila. 1866. It has
monograph
attracted little from Jewish scholars since that date.
attention
All scientific inquirers
place the origin of Kabbala in the twelfth
century, though mysticism akin to it appears as early as Bible
times. On the great influence of the Kabbala in Middle Ages cf.
Stockl, Gesch. d. Philos. im MittelaUcr. Bud. ii. On the Talmud
at the time of writing three
monographs are about to .appear
Prof. Strack
separately; Dr. Ginsburg in Smith- Wace, Diet, of
2 G 2
Christ. Biog. ;
and Dr. Schillcr-Szinessy in Ency. Brit. Ham
burger Real-Encyclopadie, though unequal, is useful and at
s
present the easiest means of getting second-hand information

about Talmudical topics.
P. 40. Camillo Leonardi, Speculum Lapidum. Ven. 1502.
P. 42. The earliest monograph dealing with the relations of Gnosticism
to the East is J. J. Schmidt, Verwandschqft d. gnostischen Lelire
mit den Religionssystemen d. Orients. Leip. 1828. On Manes
and Manichcism the great work is still Beausobre, Nistoire critique
du Manicheisme. 1734. But important additions to our knowledge
have come from Oriental sources, which are given in somewhat
haphazard fashion but with excellent index in Fliigel, Mani, seine
Lelire und seine Schrift -n. Leip. 1862. Early works on Mani are
given in Fabricius, Bibl. grcec. t. vii. p. 310 seq., ed. Harles. See
also Kessler, Untersuchungen z. Genesis d. manichaisch. Religions-
system. 1876.
p. 49 F orbibliography of Buddhism see Tiele, Outlines 82. A good
short account by T. Rhys Davids (S.P.C.K.). The best recent
books are Oldenburg, Buddha; his Life and Doctrines, 1885;
and H. Kern, Der Buddhisrnus u. seme Geschichte in Indien.
Leipz. 1885.
P. 51 n. See Buddhist Records of the Western World, translated by
S. Beal. 2 vols. 1885.
P. 52. The best account of the Essenes is in the appendices to Lightfoot s
Colossians, strangely neglected by German inquirers as Lucius.

P. 58. The special literature on Simon Magus is rather large.
Mosheim.- De uno Simone Mago in his Dissert, ad hist. eccl.
pert. 2nd ed. vol. ii. Alton. 1767.

A. Simson. Lebtn und Lehre Simon Magiers in Zt. f. hist.
Theol. 1841.
F. Huelsen. Simonis Magi vita doctrinaque. Berl. 1868. [Progr.]
A. Hilgenfehl. Der Magier Simon in Zt. f. wiss. Theol. 1868,

pp. 357-D6.
R. A. Lipsius. Die Quellen d. romischen Petrussage. Kiel, 1872.
W. Moller in Herzog-Plitt, 1884, t. xii. pp. 246-56.
On the alleged statueof Simon see A. van Dale, De statua
Simonis Magi. Amst. 1700 and Corp. Ins. Lat. vi. 1.
;
P. 70. On Basilides besides the Disputatio in Zacagni, Collect.
monument, veter. see
Uhlhorn. System des Basilides. 1855.

Baur in his Theol. Jahrh. 1856.
Ilofstede de Groot. Basilides als erste Zeuge f. neutestament
Schriften [translated from Dutch]. 1868.
J. L. Jacobi. Ueber d. ursprungl. Basilid. System in Zt. f.
Kirchengesch. 1877 p. 493 ff. ;
P. 82. Besides the Ophite Textbook Pistis Sophia mentioned above,

the special treatments are to be found iii
Moshcim. Gesch. d. Schlanyenlriider. Hclmst. 1746-8.

A. Fuldner. De Ophitis. Hint. 1834.
Lipsius. Ucber de ophit. System in Zt.f. wiss. TheoL 1863-4.

F. Giraud. Ophitse, dissertatio historico-theoloyica de eorwn
origine placitis ac fails. Paris, 1884 [best modern work].
P. 104. On the Egyptian Pantheon see Lipsius, Der Gotterkreis d. alien
Aegypter. Berlin Academy, 1851, and Tiele 1. c., 29. Their
representation in art best given in Perrot-Chipiez, Ilistoire de VArt
dans VAntiquiie Eyypte (also English translation, 1884). Mas-
pero, Archeoloyie eyyptienne. 1887.
PART II. WORSHIP OF MITHRAS AND SERAPIS, pp. 115 seq.
THE interesting problems that have collected about the worship of

Mithras have been dealt with in the following special works :
Sainte-Croix. Eecherches critiques sur les mysteres du payanisme.

Paris, 1817.
Seel. Die Mithras Geheimnisse. 1823.
Hammer. Mithriaka. Vienna, 1834.
Creuzcr. Das Mithreum. Heidelb. 1838.
Lajard. Recherches sur le culte public et les mysteres de Mithra.
Paris,
1847-8.
Windis-chmann. Mithra. 1857.
Shrines of Mithras are described by J. Hodgson inEliena Archeoloyie
i. 274-320, who gives the earlier literature, and by Stark, Zwei
Mithrxen d. yrossherzoyl.
Alterthumersammluny in Karlsruhe. 18G4.
P. 116. On the Persian relations of Mithraicism see Burnouf, Sur le
Yacna.
P. 117. For another etymology see G. Barzilai, Gil Abraxas, studeo
archeoloyico. Trieste, 1873.
P. 119. This view of the origin of Christmas was first enunciated by
Wernsdorf, De oriyine solemnium JNatalls Christi ex fesHvitate
Natalis Jnvicti, Wittenb. 1757 he is followed by Jablonsky
;
in his Opuscula, Amst. 1809, vol. iii. p. 351

seq., who argues that
the Bas-ilidans caused the adoption (p. 361).
P. 120. The latest monograph on the Sadducees and Pharisees is that
of E. Montet, Essai sur les oriyines des partis sadduceens et
phariseens. Paris, 1883. A full bibliography at end of Seiffert s
article Sadducaer in Herzog-Plitt.
P. 129. Flam. Vacca in Nordiui, lioma Antiqua, pt. iv. 1771.
P. 137. On contemporary Parsees, T. D. F. Karaka, History of the
Parsis, 2 vols. 1885.
P. 139. Caste-marks of modern Hindoos are given in Sir G. Birdwood s
Industrial Arts of India. 1880 (plate M).
P. 153. On penances in general, the exhaustive work of F. W. H.
Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnuwjen der abendlcindiscJien Kirche.

Halle, 1851. On those of the Brahmins, Sir M. Williams, Modern
India
PP. 158 seq. See bibliog. note on p. 104.
P. 174. The mitre is unknown in the Eastern Church; v. Hefcle,
Beitrdye z. Kirchenyeschichte, t. ii.
P. 179. llcfcrencc may be made here to Lessing s well-known essay.

P. 105. The latest study of the jettatura is, I am informed by Mr.
Nutt, a series of articles, La Fascination, by Tuchmann in
Melusine. 1885-7.
PART III. THE AGATHODÊMON WORSHIP AND THE ABRAXAS

GEMS, pp. 215 seq.
P. 217. On serpent worship comp. introductory essay to Ferguson,

Tree and Serpent Worship, second ed. 1873. Among Semites,
Baudissin, Studien zur seiuit. Religionsgeschichte I. iv.
P. 226. J. Bellermaun, Ueber die Gemmen der Alien mit dem

Abmxaslihle. Stuck 1-3. Berl. 1818, 19, 20.
P. 230. This formed the subject of a monograph by F. X. Krans,
Das Spotter ucifix. Freib. 1872. V. cut on p. 279 here.
P, 251. Vide Barzilai s tract quoted in bibliog. note on p. 117.
P. 254. On the age of this Gcmatria see J. Gow, Hist, of Greek
" "
Mathematics, p. 44.
P. 259. For bibliography of Basilides see note on p. 70.
P. 203. On Vjileiitmtis, G. Henrici, Die Valentinische Gnosis und die
Ifeiliye Schrift. Berl. 1871.
P. 279. On the fig. see monograph referred to in bibliog. note on
p. 230.
P. 281. The 99 epithets of God in Islam form the subject of E. Arnold s
poem, Pearls of the Faith. 1882.

P. 281 n. Levy, Gemmen und Sieyel. 18G9, p. 47-9 and Taf. iii.
P. 284. Die Seherin von Prevorst was published 1866, and translated
into almost all
European languages.
PART IV. TEE FIGURED MONUMENTS OF GNOSTICISM, pp. 305 seq.
GNOSTIC gems have long attracted the attention of antiquarians, their
separate investigation beginning with

Macarius. [Hcureux] Abraxas sen Apistopistis. Ant. 1657 with ;
appendix by Chifflet. [Plates included in Gorkcaus, Dactyliotheca,

3rd edit. Leyd. 1695.]
Kirchmann. De annulis. 1657, c. xxi.
Montfaucon. UAntiquite expliquue. Paris, 1722; vol. ii. livre iii.
Li>s
Abraxas, pp. 353 seq. Supp. vol. ii. 1724, pp. 209 seq.
Thesaurus Florence, 1750, fol.

Gori. gemmarum astriferarum.
[includes essay by Passeri,
De gemmis Basilidianis].
Marrette. Traite des pierres gravecs. 1750. 11.08-73.
F. Miinter. Versuch uber d. Kirchlichen Alttrthumer der Onostiker.
1790.
Bellerman. Vide bibliog. note to p. 226 [only vignettes on title pages].
Kopp.Palieographia critica. 1819-29 4 vols. [third and fourth on
;
Abraxas].
Matter. Ilistoire du gnosticisme. 1828. [2nd ed tion, 1843.]
Hammer. Deux coffrets gnostiques du nioyen age. 1832.

Stickel. De gemma Abraxea nondum edita. 1842.
Matter. Voyage gnostique en Italie. 1852.
King. The Gnostics and their remains, ancient and medixval.
London, 1864. [First edition of present
work including all the
gems in the preceding and more also 13 plates and 27 woodcuts.]
:
No collection of consequence has been made or published since 1864

till the present volume.
p. 309. On IAQ see Graf v. Baudissin s elaborate essay "Der

in his Studien zur semitischen
"
Ursprung des Gottesnamens la co

Jteligionsgeschichte, 1873, pp. 181-254.
On the name itself cf. S. H.
Driver, Recent Theories on the Origin and Nature of the
Tetra-
grammaton in Studio, Billica. 1885, pp. 1-20.

p. 370. On the apices of Boethius considerable discussion has arisen.
Woepcke, in Jour. Asiat. 1863, p. 54, traces them from India;
T. H. Martin, Annali di matem. 1863, p. 350, from Egypt;
while Friedlein, Zahlzeichen, pp. 15-19, &c., and Weissenborn in
Zt. Math. 1 hys., 1879, declare the passage in
Boethius to be a
forgery. See Grow, Hist. Greek Math., p. 38.

P. 372. On magic squares treated mathematically, see
DC Morgan in
English Cyclopaedia, sub. voce. sect. Arts and Sciences, vol. v.
col. 415.
PART V. TEMPLARS, EOSICRUCIAXS, FREEMASONS.
ON the TEMPLARSthe most complete history is still that of Dupin,

Ilistoire de ordre militaire des Templiers.
I Bruxellcs, 1751. On their
mysteries, Loiseleur, La doctrine secrete des Templiers. Orleans, 1872.
And the trials, Michelet, 7 Voces des Templiers. 1871. The statutes
contained in Memlorf, Geheimstatuten des Ordens der Tempelherren,
Halle, 1877, have been shown to be fictitious by 11. G-. Prtitz, Geheimlehre
und Geheimstatut n des Tempelherren Ordens. Bed. 1879. See also
F. Schottmiiller, Der Untergaug des Templer-Ordeus, nut urkundlichen
Beitragen. 2 vols. 1887.
On the PVOSICRUCIANS the earlier literature is given in W. v. Murr,
JJeber d. wahren Ur sprung d. llosenkreuzer. See also Buhle, Ur sprung

und vornehmste Scliicksale d. Orden d. Freimaurer und llosenkreuzer ,
1810 ;
and Kliipfel, sub voc. in tlerzog-l litt. On the origin of Freemasonry,
full references in II. F. Gould s huge and uncritical History of Free

masonry, vol. i. 1884.
P. 393ft. A third edition in two vols. appeared in 1887.
P. 409. On the influence of these Manichaean sects in spreading
Eastern folklore through Europe, see M. Greeko- Slavonic
Caster,
literature. 1887.
P. 410. Assemblies of Al Hariri, translated by T.
Chenery, vol. i.
18(57 ;
and Riickcrt s remarkable translation, Dd Verwandlunyen
des Abu &eid.
INDEX.
A. A. A., Kabalistic, 109 AGATHODXEMON, legend, 216

ABAANA0ANAABA, 246, 317 Agathodaomou gems, examples, 296
Abdullah, the Magian, 412 Ahriman, Evil, 132
Abgarus, Christ s letter to, 317 Akbar, his religion, 416
ABRACADABRA, origin of, 310 Alabarches, 27
Abraxas as Phoebus, 103 Albigenses, their creed, 340
,
explained, 117 last traces of the, 399
,
, the Sun-god, 117 Alexamenos, graffito of, 230

,
etymology of, 251 Alexandria, the Scrapis of, 159
Religion, 257 Allah, sigla for, 10
Religion defined, 257 Alleius Caronius, spell of, 223
, meaning of, 259 Alphabetical names, 311
, curious type of, 328 Amen, why used in prayer, 267
figure, first mention of, 111 Amenti, the Four, 106
gems, the true, 2-45 AMHN, the Three, 147
gem-legends, 247 Ammian, upon the Magi, 272
gems, how used, 274 Amor, how adopted, 234
gems, materials and art of, 274 Amshaspands, the Seven, 140
god, described, 250 Amyclae, Apollo of, 298
Abraxaster-gems, 226 Andrese, and the Rosy Cross, 394
Abraxoids, 237 Andrew, Revelation to St., 341
Abraham, statue of, 161 Angel- worship, 344
Abrak, the Mystery of, 317 Angels Names, talisman, 193
Achamoth, Wisdom, 330 planetary, 344
,
Achoreus, 322 Antigonus Gonatas, his treaty with

Adad, the Sun, 161 Asoka, 51
Adam, Book of, 4, 415 Anubis, with two faces, 110
Kadmon, 34 with triple head, 293
,
Kadmon typified, 233 -Christus, 230

Added talisman ic legends, 277 Christus, figure of, 279
Adonai, Adonis, 296 -
-Typhon, 302
Adoneus, the Invisible, 297 Apis-bulls, catacombs of the, 164
A.E.I.O.U., Austrian version of, 234 Apollo, with talismanic legend, 302
./Eneas, his funeral sacrifice, 367 Apollonius of Tyana, 53
./Eons, Simon s, 67 Apsetlms and the parrots, 58
, whence derived, 260 Apuleius, 110
,
list of the, 263 De Magia, 283
-,
,
male and female, 263 Arabic terms in medieval arf, 418
,
seals and numbers of the, 331 Archon, the Second, 77
, addresses of the Soul to the, 332 ,Demiurgus, 81
, pictures of the, 363 Archons of the Great Fate, 352
./Esculapius, 177 Aristotle, copied by Basilides, 70
,
the Sun, 177 Ark of the Covenant, 7
Agatliodsomon Serpent, 215 Artemis of Pallene, 167

458 INDEX.
Arthur s Oon, 136 Boundless Power, 59

A.S. the Rosicrucian, 315 Bouteilles cemetery, 371
Asceticism, why enjoined, 419 Brachmans, origin of, 272
Asoka s Edicts, 51 Brandmarks, Mithraic, 139
Assassins, the sect of, 410 Brazen Serpent, the, 218
their Degrees,
, ib.
Serpent whence derived, 3
, grades of, 411 Bringer of luck, the, 85
*
Assembly, Masonic, 378 Bromius, how figured, 132
Ass-headed deity, 230 Brother, Masonic, 378
Astrology, in Rome, 227 Buddha Gaya, inscription at, 269
Assumption of deities forms, 3G5 Buddha s Foot, 270, 271
Athelstan, first Saxon builder, 383 Buddhism described, 49
Athelstans Constitutions, 381 Buddhist missions, 51
AHONONOMA, gem-legend, 172 symbols, 389
Augustine, a Manichsean. 48 influence on Gnosticism, 390
AUM, symbolism of, 266 Bulgarians, the sect, 409
or OM,266 Bull, Mithraic, 132
virtues of its use, 267 Bulletin on Masons*
,
Monumental,
, type of the Trinity, 320 Marks, 383
Avila, bishopric of, 339 Bulls, mummies of, 164
Ax6ava.pd<>, place
of torment, 355
Burying-alive, penance, 154
BABYLONIAN characters used in talis Byzantine Gorgon-amulets, 169
mans, 3G8 CABIRT, copper of the, 89
Salylonii numeri, 368-69 Caducous, its symbolism, 176
Bacchic serpent, 323 Camillus Leonardi, 338
Bacchus, the sun-god, 322 Capricorn, 183
god of the Jews, 323
,
,
bearer of souls, 183
Bacon s House of Wisdom, 398 Carbonari, their origin, 391
Balsamus, Barbclus, 259 Carnarvon, gold plaque found at, 339
Balaam s sacrifices, 442 and various
Caste-marks, siylx ex
Bambino, il santissimo, 33 G plained, 13, 14
4
Baphomet of the Templars, 235 diffusionof, 386
Baphometic figures, 403 Catalogues of Gnostic gems, 278
Tablets, 383 Cave of Mithras, 136
Baphometicum Mysterium, 128 Chain, Magic, 362
Barbelo, 259 Chalice, Mithraic, 126
Mother of the Saviour, 333
,
Cliarun, the Etruscan, 182, 187
Barruel, upon the Illuminati, 425, 426 Ceraunia, talismanic, 197
Basilides, his system, 70, 257 Chest-protector, 223
Basilidau doctrine defined, 258 Chiflet s talisman, 290
Bath, scroll found at, 300 Childeric, Tomb of, 194
B. C. D. L. M. N. S., 402 Chinese symbols, 391
Belenus, 136 Christ, identified with Serapis, 161
Gallic Sun-god, 136
, Christ s person described, 162
Betulns, thunderbolt, 2JO Christmas day, how fixed, 120
Birth of the New Sun, 366 Chrysocheir of Tephrice, 412
Birthday of Mithras, 119 Chnumis, various spellings of, 216
Blood-offerings to ghosts, 165 Chnuphis, with mystic numeral, 340
Bocthius Arithmetic, 370 gem-legends, 243
Bolorjna, Scavi presso, 428 Circle of the Sun, 300
Bouillon, Cardinal, 362 Clemens Alexandriuus, 257
Boundary Spirit, the, 76 Clemens and Basilides, 257
Spirit, Deus Terminus, 299 Cleopatra, Death of, 18i
INDEX. 459
Cnidus, Temple at, SCO

*
Domine quo vadis, Church of, 271
Cochct, abbe, 371 Donati, Ollati, 412

Colic, amulet for the, 367 Donatist Confession of Faith, 316
Collar of SS, its origin, 219 Donner-keil, strahl-pfeil, 205
*
College of Arabian Snges, 394 Draco, type of The good and Perfect
Colossus of different metals, 1G3 Serpent, 289.
Constancy, emblem of, 220 Dragon of the Outer Darkness, 358
*
Constitutiones Artis Geometricae, 377 Dragon shaped, lion-shaped, demons,
Continence, meritorious, 334, 335 357
*
Corax of Mithras, 120 Dream-bringing demons, 70
Cow, typo of Isis, 110 Dreams, caused by magic, 40
*
Counterfeit of the Spirit, 38 sold by Jews, 221
,
Crescent and seven stars, 318 Druidical religion, 422

Cross, Sign of the, 276 stone, with Caste-marks, 387
Crown of Mithras, 128 Druidism, invented in Britain, 421
Crusades, their effect, 418 Druids, put down by Tiberius, 421
Cursing by the Name, 444 Druses of Lebanon, 413
Psalm, the, 360 Dualism, Hindoo, 264
of deities, 204
Cynocephalus, 108
Cypher of the Illuminati, 425 Dolcino Fra, and Margarita, 68
Cypselus, Coffer of, 183 Durya, of the Indians, 260
A.A.A., 199 D-V.X., 256
Aai/j-wv, Novs, Vvx h 347 ,

E DELPHICOI, 297
AAMNAMENEYC, 198 Egg of the World, 367
Dante s allotment of Heaven, 345 Egyptian deities, list of, 105
Dante s Cliaron, 188 sacred animals, 107
Death, antique type of, 179 Gospel of the, 335

,
extinction of, 335 EICZETC CAPAniC, 327
, Grecian types of, 188 Eleazar, drives out devils, 280
,
in ancient art, 179 Elements, Angels of the, 39
toons of the, 262
, Spiritual, what, 180 ,
Decline, gems of the, 274 Elephanta, rock-temple of, 427

Deities represented by numerals, 307 Elias, legend of, 334
Delphic E, the, 297 Emanation, doctrine of, 92

Demiurgus, how baffled, 330 Emanations, the Busilidau, 259
doctrine of, 259
doing the work of the, 334
,
,
Demons, Kabbalistic, 36 ,
the Five, their Coptic names, 313
Do Quiucy, on the Eosicrucians, 393 Einesa, Temple of, 154
Destructive Principle, 167 Enipedocles quoted, 61
Deva, her symbol, 301 Enoch, Book of, 18
Devils, casting out of, 259 ,

or the
"
Name," 253
,
their various shapes, 357 Epiphanius, 13
Dextrx : Fede, 336 Ephcsus, School of, 7
Diagramma of the Ophites, 332 Ephesian Spell, The, ib.

AIKAIOZ, on a gem, 129 Epoptas, the Masonic, 426
Dionysiac symbols in vase-painting,
Esoteric Mohammedanism, 415
427 Essenes, origin of the, 51
Dis, the Roman, 187 Evil Eye, talisman for, 256
Dis-pater, of Gaul, 164 , theory of the, 195

439
Divining-rods of the Magi, 307 Spirits, origin of,
Docetae, illusionists, 261 Eye-covered figure, 403

, typical, 109 FABLES, Gnostic love of, 257
,
of the Parse cs, 137 Faculties, whence derived, 346
460 INDEX.
Fakir, badge of a, 390 Gorgon, original type of, 167

Fate, office of, 350 type of Death, 18
,
Ferdinand of Naples, 392 Gracchus destroys Cave of Mithras, 126

Fermesse, emblem of, 219 Great Names, the, 308
*
Fifteen Points, Masonic, 379 Gustavus Adolphus, chymic gold coins
Fire, amulet against, 422 of, 396
the First Principle, 69
Ha-Brachali, Abraxas, 251
Five, the sacred number, 299 Hadrian, upon Serapis, 161
words on the vesture of Jesus, Harpies and Syrens, 189
308
Harpy, on tombs, 188
Foot, carved on stone, 185 Heavens, the, 259, 365
the divine, 270
, Hebdomad of Basilides, 81
winged, 271
, Hebrew terms used by Christians, 125
Formulae, Gnostic, 280 words, false use of, 88
purpose of, 329
,
words, use of, 285
Forty-two a sacred number, 442 Hecate, how invoked, 281
Free and accepted, 385 Helena, the Lost Sheep, 68
Freemasonry, antiquity of, 375 ,
made an idol, 70
, first established, 391 Heliodorus, upon the Evil Eye, 195
,pretender founder of, 376 Heliogabalus, 119
Free-masons, the real, 386 , magic practices of, 226
Freemasons, true origin of title, 391 Hell, description of, 356
Frog and serpent, symbolical, 36 , gods of, 170
Future punishments, 356 Helmet of Adoneus, 296
Fylfot, Swastika, 389 of Hades, 186
GABES, the book of, 343 Henry in.
employs Italian artists, 384
Galen, upon the jasper, 219 Henry on Freemasonry, 376
vi.
, upon demoniacal possession, 280 Heracleonite passport to the moribund,
Gallic brand-marks, 428 329
coins with Tribal marks, 429 Hiero prohibits human sacrifices, 417
Garnet talisman, 289 Hindoo 264
deities,
Gate of the Gods, 346 dualistic deities, 264
Gaul, Gnosticism in, 338 symbols explained, 388
Gayatris, quoted, 268 Hippolytus, on Basilides, 257
Geomancy, Arab, 305 his Treatise, 11
,
Geometrical symbols for deities, 307 Historians of Gnosticism, 11

Genealogy of Mary, 231 Holy Name, Basilidan, 259
Germanicus, bewitched, 358 Homer, Ophite explanation of, 86
Gitteh, 21 Hoop, type of Time, 179
Gnosis, machinery of the, 104 Horapollo s Interpretation, 108
the Jewish, 4
,
Horse, symbolic, 185
,
true aim of the, 333 Horua or Moses, 322
Gnostic gems, lists of, 278 how
, adopted, 232
symbolism, preservation of, 375 Hosea Lux, mystic book of, 397
Guosticised types, 277 Hours, Genii of 366 the,
Gnosticism, beginnings of, 21 Human sacrifices, 226
wide diffusion
337
, of, Druidical, 421
,
Godhead, how constituted, 39 IAO, his various titles, 326

God s name, how expressed by the lao, the Lunar Genius, 332
Egyptians, 319 Jaos, Autumnal Sun, 321
Gold plaque, Carnarvon, 339 I the name explained, 319
AQ,
Good one, the, 354 Ibis,type of Moon, 107
Gorgon, an amuiet, 169 Idea, the Platonic, 34
INDEX. 461
Idol-worship, Gnostic, 70 Jewish badge, 388

Idols,wooden, of primitive Greece, 1G7 influence at Rome, 27
CIY the Primal Man, 351 Magicians, 40
Ignorance, the god of, 261 Joan of Navarre, 220
IH COVC, numerical value of, 255 Jovis Axur, 278
Ildabaoth, demon, 357 Judaism, origin of, 28
son of Darkness, 37
, Justice, symbol of, 110
Uluminati, grades of the, 425 Justinian s persecution, 340
Imprecations fixed on Temple-walls, Justin Martyr on Mithras, 122
360 KABBALA, real source of the, 3
Incubi and Succubse, 334 ,
and Talmud, 33
India, her connexion with Greece, 271 Kabbalistic cyphers, 199
, her influence upon Egypt, 320
- titles, 287
, primitive religion of, 272 Kali Bhavani, 167
, source of the Magi, 272 Karamala, Psychopompos, 16G
visited by Greeks, 53 Kauldkauch, 262
Indian sources of Gnosticism, 42 Kavlacav, 88
IneffableName, the, 266 Kef Mariam, Agnuscastus, 369
Name, Hindoo, 266 Kells, Book of, 430
Name, origin of, 320 Kerner, on talismans, 205
One, Mystery of the, 148 Kerner s division of the Soul, 348
Infant sacrifice, 334 Kingdoms of Nature, 98
Infernal powers depicted, 364 Kirchers Leaden Book, 362
Initiated, brand-marking of the, 139 Klippoth, demons, 36

Initiation, tests at, 421 Knocker, Masonic, 403
Inner Man, the, 38 *
Knot of Hercules, 176
Innsbruck Tablet, the, 127 Eosti, Zoroastrian 401
Inscriptions, Abraxas, 248-9 Kronos, abode of, 241
Gnostic, 248-9
, how figured, 240
,
Inserted legends, 327 Krjp, how figured, 100

Intelligences, Simon s, 67
*
LADY, the Great, 307
Invisible Gods, the, 289 Lump, spoil made to the, 223
Invocation of Names, 310 Language of Gnostic legends, 282
loh, the Moon, 324 Lapo, il Tedesco, 384
Irenseus, 11 Larva, 181
Isiac Procession, 111 ghost, 181
,
Symbols, ib. Lat, the Hindoo, 298

Isis, symbol held by, 301 Lantef,Temple of, 422
Italian masons, mediaeval, 384 Leaden Books, 362
Iva, god of thunder, 175 scrolls, magical, 358
ITANTA, 198 Lebanon, sects of the, 340
Izeds, Zoroastrian, 132 Legends, translations of, 311
JAMBUES, magician, 40 Leonticus, Coracicus, 126
James i. of Scotland, Act concerning Lessing, on Freemasonry, 422
Masons, 371 Lettering of legends, 276
Jasper, virtue of, 219, 222 Letters, composing a female form, 288
Jerome, on Basilides, 259 Life, possible duration of, 221
on Spanish Gnosticism, 339
, Light, Empire of, 8
to Lc-cta, 126 * _I _
of lights, 293
Jersey, Gallic coins of, 429 ,

The Divine, 81
Jerusalem, visited by Scythicus, 44 of, 350
,
Place
Jesus, his invocation, 285 Lines and dots on gems, 305
, ineffable origin of, 255 Lion, typical, 109
462 INDEX.
Lion, form of Bacchus, 131 Marini, scrolls found at Villa, 366

headed man, 131 Marks of owners , Gallic, 428
Litanies of the dead, 331 Maroni, abbe, 425
Lizard, type of Logos, 107 Mary Magdalene, on the use of talis
Lodge, ceremonies at the, 382 mans, 332

Masonic, 380
, , Revelation to, 349
of St. Thcodosius, 424 , the Heavenly, 141
*
, the Scottish, 425 Masonic Grip, 337
Templars/ 413
, rules, genuine, 379
Logos, emanation of the, 2G1 secrecy, 380
Nous, Sophia, 261
, signs, origin of, 427
-, version of Shem, 288 Masonry, genuine rules of, 377
Lord of Light, 47 Masons Marks, origin of, 385
Lots of the Kingdom, 153 Matter, to be renounced, 356
Lotus, explained, 174 s theory, 326
Love, Perfect, 69 Maya, illusion, 261

Lower world, Euler of, 97 Medicinal talismans, 328
Lucan s Gods of Hell, 170 Mercia, the Lady of, 383
Lucian s Philopatris, 184 *
Merchants of the Staple, their Marks,
Toxaris, 53 385
Lingam-yoni, the, 112 Meru, Mount, 42
Lunus dcus, 324 Mete, Von Hammer s, 404
Lydney, leaden scrolls found at, 361 Metempsychosis, 355
MACROBIUS, on TEsculapius, 177 Middle space, the, 102
on Serapis, 159
,
,
archon of the, 353
on the descent of the Soul, 346
, , the Platonic, 347
Magdalene, discourse of the, 150 , lao, Ruler of the, 325
Magi, General Council of, 49 Missa, derived, 125
their origin, 273
, Mithraic bronze ticket, 9
Magic, cultivated in Britain, 421 Cave, discovery of a, 131
the founders of, 40
,
Degrees, the, 127
founders of, 221
, monuments, 115
chain, to make a, 362 Sacraments, 122
Papyrus, spell from the, 242, remains in the West, 422
282 Mithras, bought with blood, 122
May tone, Masson, Massoney, a Tem ,
how figured, 133.
plars Lodge, 413 - identified with Christ, 119
Makam-at, of Hariri, 416 Zoroaster s, 116
,
Mandaites, 4 Mobed, insignia of a, 10

the, 415
, Modern forgeries, 275
Manenti, inscription at Villa, 361 Molochites, green jasper, 275
Manes, history of, 46 Montfaucon, 365
, his use of Palmyrene alphabet, Moon, absorber of souls, 347
370 Egyptian idea of the, 324
,
Mauicheism, 156, 157 how lighted, 48

,
elements of, 47
, type of, 107
,
, how diffused over Europe, 409 Moor s Hindoo Pantheon, 267

, why successful, 420 Moses, magician, 221
Manicheists, persecuted by Justinian, Mylitta, 155
408 Mysteries, the, 145
MAPOOHNI, talisman, 313 benefit of the, 352
,
Marcus, Revelation of, 286 explanation of the, 89

,
Maria Honorii, 191 Mystery of the First Court, 352

INDEX. 463
Mystery, the First, 342 Ophites, Schema of the, 332, 342

Mystic Names, Invocation by, 285 Or, The Divine Light, 35
Nans, the element Water, 224 Oracle of the Clarian Apollo, 321
, worship of the, 101 Orcus, 189
Naaseni, their celestial hierarchy, 309 , the demon, 356
, Ophites, 101 , typified, 182
Nabis on gem, 244 Orai, Venus, 332
Name, power of the, 201 Origen, 12
virtue of the, 253
, , on Gnostic deities, 325
Names, expressed by numerals, 254 Orites, 209
spells made up of Holy, 281
, Orleans, Paulicians of, 410
of God, how made up, 286 Ormuzd, Good, 132
Nushirwan protects Philosophers, 56 Orpheus, on mystic Names, 284
Nature, Active and Passive, symbolized, Mysteries of, 401
,
112 Osiris,Lord of the West, 188

Navel, Circle of the Sun, 363 Osor-Apis, 164
Nebuchadnezzar, 382 Osthanes, magician, 421
Nebuchadnezzar s Image, whence Outer Darkness, the, 357
derived, 163 Ovid s Ibis, 181
*
Nechepsos, King, 216 PALMYRENE alphabet, 370

Neutra, Eabbi of, plate K, 4 Pantheism of Manes, 48
*
New Name, a, 129 Pantheism of the Manicheans, 156
Newton Stone, the, 386 Papyrus, the Magic, 223
Nicocreon, 160 Parca, how personified, 190
Nile, derivation of, 320 Parvati, origin of Isis, 171
Ninety-nine Names of God, 231
*
Passover, the perfect, 334
No-being God, The, 75 Passport, for the next world, 329
Nodens, Temple of Deus, 361 Paulicians, sect of, 409
*
Nothing, of Basilides, 72 Pegasus, badge of the Templars, 420
Numbers of the Names, 287 Penances, Hindoo, 153
Numerals, sacred, 10, 369
*
Peratai, sect, 225
, standing for deities, 307, 368 Persea-plum, 301
Numerical forces, 254 Perugia, Mithraic Cave at, 132
O. O. O. 199 Peter Gower, Pythagoras, 376
Oath of Artaxerxes, 116 Petraces, talismanic gem, 299
Obsidian arrow-heads, 203 Petrus, civis Romanus, 384
Ocean of the Ophites, 87 Phanaces, Sun-god, 116, 140
Ogdoad of Basilides, 84 Philip, Gospel of, 333
Old Man of the Mountain, 418 Phoenician deities, 240
Old Man s Head, Baphometic idol, Phocius, on the Bxtylus, 207
404 Pictish tattoo-marks, 420
Omestes Dionysos, human sacrifice Pilate s letter to Lcntulus, 162
to, 168 Pile Cinq-Mars, the, 429

Omphalos of Delphi, 298 Pistis-Sophia, analysis of, 14
ONOKOIHTHZ, 230 , analysis of the soul, 349
Ophiuchus, 98, 237 , celestial hierarchy, 239
Ophite doctrine of the First Principle* , doctrine of the Sacraments,
224 141
theogony, 309 , Kabbalistic names of deities,
311
Ophites, 12
, hymn of the, 92 Theogony of the, 341
,
,
their perfect sacrifice, 323 Types explained, 233
,
, their system, 82, 92 Plague, amulet against, 317

464 INDEX.
Planetary genii, Gnostic gods, 325 Satan, his real character, 441
Planets, mystic names of the, 309 Saturn, sons of, 422
Pleroma, defined, 245 Saturninus, 260
Pluto, how figured, 186 Sayce, Professor, 368
Pluto, Plutus, 186 Scottish Knight, costume and cere
Potentialityand Activity, 65 monies of the, 426
Powers, figures of the, 343 Scythicus, precursor of Manes, 43
,invocations to the, 343 Seal used by Christ, 317
,names of the, 198 Seals of the /Eons, 331
Praun Cabinet, gems in the, 292 Seed of the World, 73
Prayer of the Saviour, 289 Seele, Nerven-geist, Geist, 348
Priscillian, 338, 406 Seffrid, ring of, 338
Procopius, 340 Seherin von Prevorst, 284
Propagation of species why prohibited, Self-collection, continence, 334
419 CeMeceiAAM, explained, 222, 326
Proserpine, Eape of, 187 Sepheroth, the, 35
nTEpdtyopos, Egyptian priest, 315 Sepoy Mutiny, 125
Ptolemy iv., 158 Serapeum, when destroyed, 164
Punch, council of five, 299 Serapion, Aganaric, 164
Punic language, late use of, 283 Serapis, 158
Pythagoras, his Four Books, 43 , Foot, attribute of, 271
studies in Egypt, 287
, , gems referring to, 172
,
source of his system, 12 , how figured, 159
Pythagorean Numerals, 370 ,
introduction of, 158
symbols for Deities, 307 , type of the Universe, 321
QUAKRELSOMENESS, Christian, 394 and Agathodaemon combined, 358
Quaternion, the Basilidau, 261 Serenus Sammonicus, 220, 316
Quatuor Coronati, 381 Serpent, kept in an ark, 323
Queen of the dead, 184 guardian of tomb, 367
,
Quietism, Indolentia, 344 guide of souls, 368

,
Quinternion, the Basilidan, 262 Servatius, seal of saint, 57

RADICALS, Simon s Sis, 61 Seven-branched candlestick, 388
Raspe s remarks on Gnostic symbolism, Seven vowels, mystery of the, 201
291 Severus Alexander, his worship, 16, 227
Receivers of Light, 354 Siglx, standing for deities, 10
Recognition by signs, 337 Sign of Life, 366
Regeneration typified, 233 Signs and Passwords, Masonic, 384
Ring, Magic, to make a, 243 Simon Magus, history of, 58
Rosicrucian ceremonies, 396 Simon s Four Books, 64
symbolical pictures, 397 Sin, Assyrian Moon-god, 324
Rosicrucians, their object, 393 Sin, the cause of, 349
Round Churches, 402 Sins to be renounced, 356
Rudolf ii. patronises alchemists, 408 Skeleton, larva, 181
Runic legend on a talisman, 11 Sleep and Death, typified, 183
S.S.S. on bar, 218 Solar symbols explained, 155
Sacred animals of Egypt, 108 Soli Invicto Comiti, 222
Sacrifice, theTrue, 225 Salome s question to the Lord, 335

Solomon s Seal, 388, 423
Sacti, female Power, 264
Salagrama, 209 Sons of the prophets, 273
Samaritan legends, 316 Sortes Antiates, 305
Samothracian Mysteries, 89 Soul, change of shape in the, 346
Saugraal, quest of the, 405 , how constituted, 37
Sanscrit names in Egypt, 265, 320 , planetary origin of the, 344
INDEX. 465
Soul, Platonic division of the, 347 Thor s hammer, 206, 403

Souls, sent back into other bodies, 355 Thunderbolt, cell, 206
Spells, specimens of, 243 Tikkun, universal type, 34

Timothy, Epistle 7
Sphinx, the Destroyer, ,327 to,
Spiritual Man, the, 99 Toleration, ancient, 417

- , who, 414 Tomb of a Koman Empress, 192
Men, who, 225 treasures, 191
Tombs, talismans found 371
Spirits, Essay on, 395 in,
SpuJcen, its cause, 348 Tortures, the Twelve, 127

Square-cut letters, 27G Tower of Babel, 382
Sri-pa, Serapis, 105 of Silence, 137
Sticks, asking counsel of, 30G Townley talisman, the, 290

Stone, tools of, 202 Trades-union Rules, mediaeval, 383
Stonehenge, Mason s mark at, 387 Transposition of letters, 312
Stukeley s theory, 323 Trees, the Five, 147
Sufi, the Persian, 414 Triad, Pentad, Heptad, how typified,
Sun, invoked, 2C8 314
and Moon, their names used as Trial-piece, 383
talismans, 283 Triangle, Kosicrucian, 315
-god, various types of, 322 Trihasa, Cerberus, 166
Suttee, monument of a, 185 Trinity, Egyptian, 321
Swastika, mendicants badge, 390 the Hindoo, 2G9
,
Symbol, Emblem, 336 Truth, how figured, 288

Symbola of bronze, 338 Revelation of, 286
,
Symbolic figures, expressing doctrines, UDDER-SHAPED BOWL, 111

2G3 Ulysses and the Syrens, 189
Symbolism, degradation of, 427 Ulysses visit to Hades, 165
Symbols, transmission of, 423 Uninitiated, their future state, 354
Syrian influence on mediaeval Europe, Universal Nature typified, 446
417 religion, idea of, 417
TABOR, Light of, 300 Universe, re-absorption of, 321
Talismanic conversions, 277 Serapis, ICO
*
, typified by
Talismans, material of, 275 Uterine amulet, 300
Taraka s penances, 153 VALENTINUS, 241
Tat and Sat, 267 his system, 260
,
Tau, the Egyptian, 102, 112, 403 Valentinian Sacraments, 141

Taurobolia, 154 Vultus Triforrnis, 395
Templars, accusations against, 401 Varan cs, derived, 273
,
cause of their ruin, 420 Vase, the Baphometic, 405
, grades of, 411 Vase of Sins, 111
,
the Parisian, 399 Velaunii, 335
, suppression of, ib. Venus Auadyomene, 287
Temple-church, symbolism of the, 401 Veruluinium, spells found at, 339
Ten, a sacred number, 369 scrolls found at, 3GO
,
Terbintlms, 46 Vesture, the shining, of Jesus, 308

Tertullian, 187 Vibies abreptio, 182
Tetragramrnaton, talismanic, 441 Victory-stones, Runic, 212
,319 Vienna Cabinet, gems of the, 278
Theogony, the grades in the Gnostic, Virgil, on spells, 281
341 Virgil s Copa Syrisca, 181
Theosebius, 259 Virgin of Light, 351

Thales, doctrine of, 224 Visconti s magic scroll, 358
2 H
466 INDEX.
Vishnu s Foot, 270 Wormenhert, specus at St. Albans, 423

Von Hummer on Tortures, 128 Wren establishes Freemasonry, 391, 422
s theory, 403 XERXES, Ethiopian troop of, 203
Vowels, the seven, 199 , sacrifice of his nephews, 168
Vowels, shrouding the Great Name, X.P.S. on coffer, 396
315 YAMA, Lord of Hell, 165
WATER, the First Principle, 224 and Serapis, 270
,
Weishaupt, Spartacus, 424 putra, Hades, 71

Westminster Hall, Masons Marks at, Yang, Chinese symbol, 391
325 Year, how typified, 179
White stone, St. John s, 129 Yellow jasper, talismanic, 132
Winds, Hindoo, 265 Yoni, Hindoo, 111
Winged Foot, the, 185 York, Mitliraic Tablet at, 136
Wisdom of Egypt, 278 Z.Z.Z. on bar, 218
Wisdom of the Egyptians, 437 Zarmanes Chagan, 54
Wisdom, the Power, 330 Zendavesta, analysis of the, 29
Wisdom, secret, G Zenodorus, his colossus of Mercury, 430
Woes, denounced, 358 Zodiac, mystic sense of the, 346
Wolf of Serapis, 160 Zodiacal gems, frequency of, 132
Wood s Serapis, 312 Lords, 349
*
Word, the true, 252 Zoroaster, a Bactriau, 272
Words of power, 280 Zoroastrian Angclology, 9
World, creation of, 132 burial, 137
Worlds, the four, 36 Zwacke, Cato, 424
FIG. 19.
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All A

INTO A GNOSTIC TALISM

ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL.

Nam veluti puori trcpidant atque omnia caacis

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,

[All rights reserved.]

WHEN this work first appeared, three-and-twenty years ago, it

at it with pens dipped in the milk of the Gospel whilst, under ;

the very same hallucination, Friends of Light lauded it to &quot;

the skies either party equally ignorant both of the subject,

astonished at ignorance in calling Bardanes a Persian,

presuming to lay presumptuous hands upon the Sacred Ark of

Accepted of these times have no more real connexion with the

mystica ; and one valiant young Levite of the course of Abia,

proceeds thus logically to confute all my assertions Athelstan &quot;

built a church he could not build without masons argal,

Athelstan was the founder of Masonry in England.

for the present edition ;

Verbera, carnifices, robur, pix, lamina, taedae.&quot;

The one reviewer of its predecessor who exhibited any acquain

to qualify his praise by passing the

the spirit of a Gnostic than of a Catholic Christian.&quot; This

therefore studies the history and remains of any opinion for

sake of demonstrating the Truth can only exist under one

Apistopistus (1617); Matter, in his Histoire

Critique du Gnosticisme (1827), an excellent analysis of the

beyond republishing, on a reduced scale, the engravings of the

Apistopistus.&quot; The only sources of information accessible to

investigation. The one is the Refutation of all Heresies,

mately acquainted with the doctrines which he holds up for

detestation, or for ridicule ;

literature, soon to be completely exterminated by the triumph

Pistis-Sophia,&quot; sole survivor of the once

temporary monuments not to be found elsewhere, for the

everyday life. It is the latter point that gives such interest to

the whole category ofwe gain from it

Holy Names, of such talismanic virtue; the powers and titles

Sophia exhibits the leading principles of the Kabbala already

established, and applied to the demonstration of the highest

schools. For in Religion there is no new thing&quot;

sovereign of to-day may first have circulated in the new-coined

Last, in point of time, but equally valuable with any of

years, listening to his exposition of the

Holy Zohar.&quot; What

book is evidently intended for the use of theological students

altogether foreign to the purpose for which he wrote.

Doctrines, Development, and Literature, possesses not only the

brought by the refining subtlety of successive generations of

example, the Hebrew which express the Names of

the Sephiroth, are ta be discovered in the strings of Greek

consonants, now dumb for want of vowels, which have

therefore to the of those clear &quot;

may promise myself gratitude

(the Miltonian phrase) who are busying themselves by &quot;

searching to find out God,&quot; for now making known to them a

still more profound theosophy, whose revelations definitely

that it would seem to flow from no human source ;

the publication the failure of my sight, which totally prevented

my conducting the work through the press by taking upon

the very same hallucination, Friends of Light lauded it to "

proceeds thus logically to confute all my assertions Athelstan "

Verbera, carnifices, robur, pix, lamina, taedae."

the spirit of a Gnostic than of a Catholic Christian." This

Apistopistus." The only sources of information accessible to

Pistis-Sophia," sole survivor of the once

schools. For in Religion there is no new thing"

Holy Zohar." What

therefore to the of those clear "

(the Miltonian phrase) who are busying themselves by "

searching to find out God," for now making known to them a

take, the confining the name of "Gnostic"(as

for the intelligent, which the vulgar crowd heareth not."

Mask," and his exclamation of disappointment after he had at

borgne est roi,"