forming one Person, not, as the orthodox held, three Persons forming one God.[2] Here we see a close resemblance to the error mentioned in the preceding paragraph; but the heretics we are now dealing with make an even closer approach to the teaching of Mohammed in their quotation of John xx. 17 given above, as will be seen, if we compare with that text the following passages of the Koran, put into the mouth of Christ:  “Verily, God is my Lord, and your Lord; therefore serve him:"[3] “They are surely infidels who say, verily, God is Christ, the Son of Mary, since Christ said, O children of Israel, serve God, my Lord and your Lord:"[4] and, “I have not spoken unto them any other than what thou didst command me—­namely, worship God, my Lord and your Lord."[5]

[1] Alvar’s letter.  Florez, xi. 147.  Another text quoted in defence of this doctrine of Agnoetism was Matt. xxiv. 36:  “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”  In answer to this, Speraindeo refers to Gen. iii. 9, where God the Father seems not to know where Adam is.

    [2] Speraindeo’s illustration of the Trinity cannot be called a
    happy one.  He likens it to a king, whose power is one, but made
    up of the man himself, his diadem, and his purple.

    [3] Koran, c. iii. v. 46.

    [4] Kor., c. v. 77.

    [5] Kor., c. v. 118.

We come next to the famous Adoptionist heresy, the most remarkable and original of those innovations to which Alcuin taunts the Spanish Church with being addicted.  Unfortunately we derive little of our knowledge of the new doctrine from the originators and supporters of it—­our information on the subject coming chiefly from passages quoted by their opponents (notably our own Alcuin) in controversial works.  But that the heresy had an important connection with the Mohammedan religion has been the opinion of many eminent writers on Church history.  Mariana, the Spanish historian, and Baronius, the apologist for the Roman Church, held that the object of the new heresiarchs was, “by lowering the character of Christ, to pave the way for a union between Christians and Mohammedans."[1] Enhueber,[2] also, in his treatise on this subject, quotes a tract, “De Primatu Ecclesiae Toletanae,” which attributes the heresy to its author, Elipandus, being brought into so close a contact with the Saracens, and living on such friendly terms with them.[3]

Neander[4] thinks that there are some grounds for supposing that Felix, one of the authors of the heresy, had been employed in defending Christianity against objections brought against it from the Moslem standpoint,[5] and in proving the divinity of Christ, so that they might be induced to accept it.  Felix, therefore, may have been led to embrace this particular doctrine, called Adoptionism, from a wish to bring the Christian view of Christ nearer to the Mohammedan opinion.