purpose, they formed connections with those women who had made vows of perpetual chastity; and it was an ordinary thing for an ecclesiastic to admit one of these fair saints to the participation of his bed, but still under the most solemn declarations, that nothing passed in this commerce that was contrary to the rules of chastity and virtue” (p. 73).  Such was the morality of the clergy as early as the third century!

The doctrine of the Church in these primitive times was as confused as its morality was impure.  In the first century (during which we really know nothing of the Christian Church), Dr. Mosheim, in dealing with “divisions and heresies,” points to the false teachers mentioned in the New Testament, and the rise of the Gnostic heresy.  Gnosticism (from [Greek:  gnosis] knowledge), a system compounded of Christianity and Oriental philosophy, long divided the Church with the doctrines known as orthodox.  The Gnostics believed in the existence of the two opposing principles of good and evil, the latter being by many considered as the creator of the world.  They held that from the Supreme God emanated a number of AEons—­generally put at thirty; (see throughout “Irenaeus Against Heresies")—­and some maintained that one of these, Christ, descended on the man Jesus at his baptism, and left him again just before his passion; others that Jesus had not a real, but only an apparent, body of flesh.  The Gnostic philosophy had many forms and many interdivisions; but most of the “heresies” of the first centuries were branches of this one tree:  it rose into prominence, it is said, about the time of Adrian, and among its early leaders were Marcion, Basilides, and Valentinus.  In addition to the various Gnostic theories, there was a deep mark of division between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians; the former developed into the sects, of Nazarenes and Ebionites, but were naturally never very powerful in the Church.  In the second century, as the Christians become more visible, their dissensions are also more clearly marked; and it is important to observe that there is no period in the history of Christianity wherein those who laid claim to the name “Christian” were agreed amongst themselves as to what Christianity was.  Gnosticism we see now divided into two main branches, Asiatic and Egyptian.  The Asiatic believed that, in addition to the two principles of good and evil, there was a third being, a mixture of both, the Demiurgus, the creator, whose son Jesus was; they maintained that the body of Jesus was only apparent; they enforced the severest discipline against the body, which was evil, in that it was material; and marriage, flesh, and wine were forbidden.  The Elcesaites were a judaising branch of this Asiatic Gnosticism; Saturninus of Antioch, Ardo of Syria, and Marcion of Pontus headed the movement, and after them Lucan, Severus, Blastes, Apelles, and Bardesanes formed new sects.  Tatian (see ante, pp. 259, 260) had many followers called