Tatianists, and in connection with him and his doctrines
we hear of the Eucratites, Hydroparastates (the water-drinkers),
and Apotactites. The Eucratites appear to have
been in existence before Tatian professed Gnosticism,
but he so increased their influence as to be sometimes
regarded as their founder. The Egyptian Gnostics
were less ascetic, and mostly favoured the idea that
Jesus had a real body on which the AEon descended
and joined himself thereunto. They regarded him
as born naturally of Joseph and Mary. Basilides,
and Valentinus headed the Egyptians, and then we have
as sub-divisions the Carpocratians, Ptolemaites, Secundians,
Heracleonites, Marcosians, Adamites, Cainites, Sethites,
Florinians, Ophites, Artemonites, and Hermogenists;
in addition to these we have the Monarchians or Patripassians,
who maintained that there was but one God, and that
the Father suffered (whence this name) in the person
of Christ. This long list may be closed with
the Montanists, a sect joined by Tertullian (see his
account of the orthodox after he became a Montanist,
ante, p. 225); they held that Montanes, their founder,
was the Paraclete promised by Christ, missioned to
complete the Christian code; he forbade second marriages,
the reception into the Church of those who had been
excommunicated for grievous sin, and inculcated the
sternest asceticism. He opposed all learning
as anti-Christian, a doctrine which was rapidly spreading
among Christians, and which seems, indeed, to have
been an integral part of the religion from its very
beginning (Matt. xi. 25, 1 Cor. i. 26, 27). In
the third century the heretic camp received a new
light in the person of Manes, or Manichaeus, a Persian
magus; he appears to have been a man of great learning,
a physician, an astronomer, a philosopher. He
taught the old Persian creed tinctured with Christianity,
Christ being identical with Mithras (see ante, p. 362),
and having come upon earth in an apparent body only
to deliver mankind. Manes was the paraclete sent
to complete his teaching; the body was evil, and only
by long struggle and mortification could man be delivered
from it, and reach final blessedness. Those who
desired to lead the highest life, the elect,
abstained from flesh, eggs, milk, fish, wine, and
all intoxicating drink, and remained in the strictest
celibacy; they were to live on bread, herbs, pulse,
and melons, and deny themselves every comfort and
every gratification (see pp. 80-82). The Hieracites
in Egypt were closely allied with the Manichaeans.
The Novatians differed from the orthodox only in their
refusal to receive again into the Church any who had
committed grievous crimes, or who had lapsed during
persecution. The Arabians denied the immortality
of the soul, maintaining that it died with the body,
and that body and soul together would be revivified
by God. The controversies on the persons of the
Godhead now increased in intensity. Noctus of
Smyrna maintained the doctrine of the Patripassians,