Fragments of a Faith Forgotten

Jesus said unto His disciples : " Come unto Me." And they came unto Him. He turned towards the four angles of the world; He uttered the Great Name over their heads, and blessed them and breathed on their eyes. Jesus said unto them : " Look up, and mark what ye see ! " And they raised their eyes unto the height and saw a great light, exceedingly brilliant, which no man in the world could describe. He said unto them a second time : " Look into the light, and mark what ye see ! " They said : " We see tire and water, and wine and blood." Jesus, that is to say Aberamentho, said unto His disciples : " Amen, I say unto you, I have brought nothing into the world when I came, save this tire and water, this wine and blood. I brought down the water and fire from the region of the Light of light, from the Treasure of Light; I brought down the wine and the blood from the region of Barbelo.

And shortly after My Father sent unto Me the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. "The fire, the water, and the wine are for cleansing all the sins of the world ; the blood I had as a sign of the body of human kind, and I received it in the region of Barbelo, the great power of the Divine Invisible [? the Thirteenth ^Eon] ; while the Spirit draweth all souls and bringeth them into the region of Light." This is the " fire " He came to " cast on the earth " according to a former saying ; this the " living water " the Samaritan woman should have asked for ; this the " cup of wine " in the eucharist ; this the " water " that came from His side.

" These are the mysteries of the light which remit sins " — that is to say, their names merely. After this Jesus again gives the command that the powers of the Left return to their own region, and the disciples find themselves once more on the to EarthMount of Galilee. Hereupon Jesus celebrates the mystic eucharist and the first Baptism of Water, with ceremonies The and invocations almost identical to those in the of the Codex Brucianus. The disciples enquire further Eucharist, as to the nature of the Baptism of Incense [> Fire], the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the Spiritual Chrism, arid ask that the " Mystery of the Light of Thy Father " be revealed to them.

Jesus said unto them : " As to these mysteries which ye seek after, there is no mystery which is The higher than them. They will bring your souls thafarT* into the Light of lights, into the regions of Truth Revealed. The Punish ments of Sinners in the Lower Regions and the Evil Bodies they Receive when Reborn. and Righteousness, into the region of the Holy of all Holies, into the region where there is neither female nor male, nor form in that region, but only Light, unceasing, ineffable. " No mystery is higher than the mysteries ye seek after, save only the mystery of the Seven Voices and their Nine-and-Forty Powers and Numbers; and the Name which is higher than them all, the Name which sums up all their names, all their lights, and all their powers."

Here follows a lacuna, and the text is resumed in the middle of a totally different subject. It treats of the punishment of him that curseth, of the slanderer, of the murderer, of the thief, of the contemptuous, of the blasphemer, of him who hath intercourse with males, and of a still fouler act of sorcery, the mention of which stirs the infinite compassion of the Master to wrath and denunciation. The few remaining pages of the Codex are taken up with a description of the after-death state of the righteous man who has not received the mysteries ; a man must suffer for each separate sin, but even the greatest of sinners, if he repent, shall inherit the Kingdom. The time favourable for the birth of those who shall find the mysteries is described.

As for the righteous man who has not been initiated, in his next birth he shall not be given the draught of oblivion, but " there cometh a receiver of the little Sabaoth, the Good, him of the Midst; he bringeth a cup full of intuition and wisdom, and also prudence, and giveth it to the soul, and casteth the soul into a body which will not be able to fall asleep and forget, because of the cup of prudence which hath been given unto it, but will be ever pure in heart and seeking after the mysteries of light, until it hath found them, by order of the Virgin of Light, in order [that that soul] may inherit the Light for ever."

The Extracts end with the disciples again beseeching Jesus to have mercy upon them ; and Tfh® the whole Codex is terminated by the note of a scribe describing the preaching of the apostles : " They went forth three by three to the four points of heaven ; they preached the Glad Tidings of the Kingdom in the whole world, the Christ being active with them in the words of confirmation and the signs and wonders which accompanied them. And thus was known the Kingdom of God in all the land and in all the world of Israel, [and this] is a testimony for all the nations which are from the east even unto the west."

THE first page is headed with the beautiful words : of 'the00^ " I nave l°ve(l you and longed to give you Life," and Gnoses -g fo}}owed by the statement : " This is the Book of ^msibie the Gnoses (pi.) of the Invisible God " ; it is the Book of the Gnosis of Jesus the Living One, by means of which all the hidden mysteries are revealed to the elect. Jesus is the Saviour of Souls, the Logos of Life, sent by the Father from the Light-world to mankind, who taught His disciples the one and only doctrine, saying : " This is the doctrine in which all Gnosis dwelleth." This is evidently an introduction written by an editor or compiler ; immediately after there begins a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples.

Jesus saith : " Blessed is the man who crucifieth the world and doth not let the world crucify him." He then explains that such a man is he who hath The Hidden found His Word, and fulfilled it according to the will of the Father. The apostles beg the Master to tell them this Word, for they have left all and followed Him; they desire to be instructed in the Life of the Father. Jesus answers that the Life of His Father consists in their purifying their souls from all earthly stain, and making them to become the Race of the Mind, so that they may be filled with understanding, and by His teaching perfect themselves, and be saved from the Rulers of this world and its endless snares. Let them then hasten to receive the Gnosis He is to impart — His Word — for He is free from all stain of the world.

The disciples break into praises of the Master — as the Light shining in the daylight — who hath enlightened their hearts until they receive the Light of Life, by means of the Gnosis which teacheth the hidden wisdom of the Lord. Jesus saith : " Blessed is the man who knoweth this [Word] and hath brought down the Heaven, j|aD-*rkig and borne the earth and raised it heavenwards; and Explained. it [the Earth] becometh the midst, for it is a ' nothing.' " The Heaven is explained as being the invisible Word of the Father. They who know this — (who become children of the true Mind) — bring down Heaven to Earth. The raising of Earth to Heaven is the ceasing from being an earthly intelligence, by receiving the Word of these Gnoses (pi.) and becoming a Dweller in Heaven. Thus will they be saved from the Ruler of this World, and he will become the midst (that is to say, perhaps, that they will be above the Ruler and no longer subject to him as heretofore ; he will be a " nothing " to them, that is to say, have no effect on them). Nay, the evil powers will envy them because they know Him, that He is not of this world and that no evil cometh from Him. But as for those who are born in the flesh of unrighteousness (and are not children of the Righteous Race, those of the second birth), they have no part in the Kingdom of the Father.

Thereupon the disciples are in despair, for they The Flesh of have been born "according to the flesh" and have known Him only "according to the flesh." But the Master explains that not the flesh of their bodies is meant, but the flesh of unrighteousness and ignorance." The disciples ask to be instructed in the nature of ignorance (ayvota, the opposite of gnosis, yvuxris), and the Master tells them that, to understand this great mystery, they must first put on His virginity and righteousness, and His robe (of glory), and seek to understand the teaching of the Word, whereby they will learn to know Him in the Fullness (Pleroma) of the Father. The apostles answered and said, " Lord Jesus, Thou Living One, teach us the Fullness and it sufficeth us."

Here unfortunately the text breaks off and pages are lost; nowhere in the MS. is a direct continuation to be found. Taking Schmidt's Second Book of leou first, we are introduced to the following narrative. Jesus bids the twelve disciples and also the The women disciples to surround Him, and promises theTraurare ^° reveal to them the great mysteries of the Treasure of Light, which no one in the Invisible God knows (that is to say, no one even of the powers of the Thirteenth Mon — the ^Eon which surrounds or is beyond or within the Twelve ^Eons — over wThich the Invisible God is ruler). If these mysteries are consummated, neither the Rulers of the Twelve ^Eons nor those of the Invisible God can endure them nor comprehend them,

for they are the great mysteries of the interior of the interiors of the Treasure of Light. When these are consummated, the Receivers of the Light-treasure come and take the soul from the body, and bear it through all inferior spaces into the Light-treasure. Yea, the sins of that soul, whether conscious or unconscious, are blotted out, and the soul becomes pure Light. And not only does the purified soul pass through all inferior spaces, but also within into the Light-realm, ever inward, within all its spaces, orders, and powers, to the space of the Uncontainables in the innermost space of the Light-treasure. These mysteries are to be guarded with utmost secrecy, and revealed to none who are unworthy ; Revealed neither to father nor mother, to sister nor brother, worthy nor to any relative ; neither for meat nor drink, Aloneneither for woman nor gold nor silver, nor anything in this world. Beyond all to no sorcerer, those who practise certain most foul rites, whose God is the son of the Great Ruler, Sabaoth Adamas — the enemy of the Kingdom of Heaven, the chief of the six non-repentant Rulers. The mystery-name of this power is given and its monstrous form described.

Those alone are worthy of the mysteries of the Light-treasure (the emanation of the Unapproachable God) who have abandoned the whole world and all that pertains thereto, its gods and powers, and have centred their whole faith in the Light, giving ear to one another, and submitting themselves the one to the other, as do the children of the Light. Now inasmuch as the disciples have left father and mother and brethren and all their possessions, and have followed Him and fulfilled His command ments, Jesus promises that He will reveal to them the mysteries as follows : The mystery of the Twelve ^Eons and their Receivers, and the mode of their invocation, so that the disciples may pass through their spaces ; the mystery of the Invisible God (the Thirteenth ^Eon) and his Receivers (them of the Left), etc. ; of them of the Middle, etc. ; of them of the Right. But before all He will give them the mysteries of the three Baptisms — the Baptism of Water, the Baptism of Fire, and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Moreover He will give them the Mystery of Withdrawing the Malice or Naughtiness (KCLKIO) of the Rulers, and thereafter the Mystery of the Spiritual Chrism.

But they must remember that, when they in turn give these mysteries to others, they must command them not to swear falsely, nor even to swear at all ; neither to fornicate nor commit adultery ; neither to steal nor covet other men's goods ; neither to love silver nor gold, nor invoke the names of the seventy-two evil Rulers or of their angels for any purpose ; not to rob, nor to curse, nor calumniate falsely, nor to rail, but to let their yea be yea and their nay nay ; in a word, they must fulfil the good commandments. The disciples remind Jesus that His first promise had been that they should be given the mysteries of the Treasure of Light, the greater, which are above these lower mysteries of which He has spoken.

Seeing then that the disciples have not only abandoned all things in the world and kept all the commandments, but have further now followed Him The Greater for twelve years, Jesus assures them that He will further give them the mysteries of the Lighttreasure, to wit : The mystery of the Nine Guardians of the three Gates of the Light-treasure and the way of their invocation, so that they may pass through their spaces; the mystery of the Child of the Child, etc.; of the Three Amens; of the Five Trees; of the Seven Voices; the will (? mystery) of the Forty -nine Powers ; the mystery of the Great Name of all names, that is of the Great Light which contains, or is beyond, the Treasure of Light. The master-mysteries of the Light-treasure are those of the Five Trees and of the Seven Voices and of the Great Name. There is, however, yet another supreme Mystery, which bestows upon a man all the rest — the Mystery of the Forgiveness of Sins; this Mystery transmutes the soul into pure light, so that it may be received into the Light of lights.

Such souls have already inherited the Kingdom of God while still on earth ; they have their share The Power* in the Light-treasure and are immortal Gods ; and * at death, when they leave the body, all the /Eons disperse and flee to the west, to the left, until their souls arrive at the Gates of the Lighttreasure. And the Gates are opened to them, and the Wardens give them their seals and their Great Name. So they pass within successively through the various Orders, where they receive the successive seals and master-words — within into the Five Trees and Seven Voices ; yea, still farther The Mystic Rite of the Baptism of the Water of Life. within, to the Orders of the Parentless, to the spaces of their inheritance — the Order of the Thricespiritual ; until they reach the space of the leou, the Lord over the whole Treasure — the middle Treasure ; thence ever within to the inner Treasures — the spaces of the interior of the interiors, the within of the within, to the Silences, to Peace Eternal, in those Everlasting Spaces.

All of these mysteries Jesus promises to give to His disciples, that they may be called " Children of the Fullness (Pleroma) perfected in all mysteries." The Master then gathers His disciples, men and women, round Him with the words : " Come all of you and receive the three Baptisms, ere I tell you the mystery of the Rulers ! " He bids them go to Galilee and find a man or woman in whom the greater part of evil (or the superfluity of naughtiness) is dead, that is to say, who has ceased from intercourse or sexuality (o-vvovaria), and receive from such a one two jars of wine and bring them to the place where He is, and also two vine branches.

They do so, and the Master sets forth a place of offering (Oucria), placing one wine-jar on the right and one on the left, and strews certain berries and spices round the vessels ; He then makes the disciples clothe themselves in white linen robes, puts a certain plant into their mouths, and the number of the Seven Voices and also another plant in their hands, and ranges them in order round the sacrifice. Jesus then spreads a linen cloth, and on it places a cup, and bread or loaves according to the number of the disciples; He surrounds this with olivebranches, and also puts wreaths of olive-branches on the heads of His disciples. He next seals their foreheads with a certain seal (the diagram of which, authentic name, and interpretation of it — also in the secret cypher — are given).

The Master then turns with his disciples to the four corners of the world, and the disciples are com manded to set their feet together (an attitude of prayer). He then offers a prayer which is prefixed with an invocation in the mystery-language, inter spersed with triple Amens, and continues as follows : " Hear Me, My Father, Father of all fatherhood, Boundless Light, who art in the Treasure of Light ! May the Supporters [or Ministers (Trapao-Tarai)] come, who serve the Seven Virgins of Light who preside over the Baptism of Life ! [The mystery-names of the Supporters are here given.] May they come and baptize My disciples with the Water of Life of the Seven Virgins of Light, and wash away their sins and purify their iniquities, and number them among the heirs of the Kingdom of Light ! If now Thou hast heard Me and hast had pity on My disciples, and if they have been numbered among the heirs of the Kingdom of Light, and if Thou hast forgiven their sins and blotted out their iniqui ties, then may a wonder be done, and Zorokothora come and bring the Water of the Baptism of Life into one of these wine-jars ! "

The wonder takes place, and the wine in the right-hand jar becomes water ; and Jesus baptizes them, and gives them of the sacrifice, and seals them with the seal (? of the Supporters), to their great This is the Baptism of Water ; we are next given Jhe,. a description of the Baptism of Fire. In this rite the of Fire. vine-branches are used ; they are strewn with various materials of incense. The eucharist is prepared as before, and the rest of the details are almost identical ; the number of the Seven Voices is again used, but the seal is different. The prayer is longer than the preceding one, but all to the same purpose ; the supernal baptizers are no longer the Ministers of the Seven Virgins, but the Virgin of Life, herself, the Judge ; she it is who gives the Water of the Baptism of Fire. A wonder is asked for in " the fire of this fragrant incense," and it is brought about by the agency of Zorokothora, a name now interpreted as Melchizedec. What the nature of the wonder was, is not stated. Jesus baptizes the disciples, gives them of the eucharistic sacrifice, and seals their foreheads with the seal of the Virgin of Light.

Next follows the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In The this rite both the wine-jars and vine-branches are <?fa?he8m used ; the details are otherwise very similar, the Holy Spmt. numJ3er of the Seven Voices being again employed. The supernal givers of the Baptism are not men tioned, but as the final sealing after the rite is with the seal of the Seven Virgins of Light, we may suppose that they are the givers of the Baptism. A wonder again takes place, but is not further

After this we have the Mystery of Withdrawing the Evil of the Rulers. There is here no mention of the eucharist, but in other respects the ceremonial is very similar, and consists of an elaborate incense- Wi^draw- offering. The number is that of the First Amen and of the the seal is very elaborate. The prayer asks that Sabaoth Adamas and all his chiefs may come, and take away their (the Rulers') evil or naughtiness from the disciples. At the end of it the disciples are sealed with the seal of the Second Amen, and the Rulers have no longer any power over them ; they have now become immortal, and can follow Jesus into all spaces whither they would go.

Jesus having now given the disciples the mysteries of the Baptisms, the mode of invoking the powers, their numbers, seals, and authentic names, promises to give them the apologies (defences or formulae), whereby they will now be able to enter into the interior of the spaces or realms of these powers, and pass through them. So far as they have been taught, they will be enabled, when out of the body, to pass through the The Powers realms apparently of the six ^Eons which have not Mysteries repented, those of Sabaoth Adamas; these with all their rulers and indwellers will disperse before them. But on reaching the six great ^Eons (those apparently of labraoth, who repented and believed in the Light), they will be detained until they receive the Mystery of the Forgiveness of Sins.

The Mystery of the Forgiveness of Sins is said to have its being in the interior of the interior of the Treasures of Light; it is the perfect salvation of the soul. He who receives it is more excellent than all the gods and powers of the twelve The of the Invisible God (the Ruler of the Thirteenth the Pctajive- ^Eon). This Mystery is the Great Mystery of the Unapproachable God ; it is the perfection of all mysteries, making the soul all-perfect. It is this Mystery which will enable the disciples to pass into the ^Eons of the Invisible God — that is, the spaces that no physical eye can see, beyond the elements of water, fire, and air (or aether) — the baptismal mysteries of which have been already given.

But with the aid of the rite of the Mystery of the i?Con?eS* Forgiveness of Sins all the ^Eons will withdraw to the west, to the left, as veils before the eyes, up to the twelfth, which will then be so purified by the Light of the Light-treasure, that all the ways by which the disciples will have ascended will be purified ; and moreover the exterior of the Lighttreasure (the exterior being the Space of the Thirteenth ^Eon) will be revealed, and they will see Heaven from below. It will be at this point that Jesus will give them the apologies, seals, and numbers of the Mystery with their interpretations. And when they have received these and go out of the body, they will become pure light and soar upwards into the Light-treasure.

And then the Guardians of the Gates of the Treasure will open to them, and they will pass upwards and ever inwards through the following spaces, the powers therein rejoicing and giving them their mysteries, seals, and names of power : the Orders of the Three Amens, of the Child of the Child, of the Twin Saviours, of the Great Sabaoth, of the Great lao the Good, of the Seven The Amens, of the Five Trees, of the Seven Voices; the Orders of the Uncontainables, of the Impassables; the Orders of those who are before and beyond (in time and space) the Uncontainables and Impass ables; the Orders of the Unstainables, arid of those who are before and beyond them; the Orders of the Immovables, and of those who are before and beyond them; the Orders of the Parentless, and of those that are before them ; the Orders of the Five Impressions, of the Three Spaces, of the Five Sup porters, of the Thrice-spiritual, of the Triple Power, of the First Precept (or Statute), of the Inheritance, of the Silences and of Peace, of the Veils which are drawn before the Great King of the Lighttreasure, unto the Great Man himself, the King of the whole Light-realm, whose name is leou.

These spaces and orderings are also mentioned in the Pistis Sophia, treatise, but I have omitted them in the summary in order not to confuse the reader. The subject is exceedingly difficult, and no one has so far succeeded in reconstructing in detail the elaborate scheme of the Gnosis presupposed by the compiler or compilers of our treatises, owing in a great measure to the fragmentary state of the Codex Brucianus on the one hand and to the insufficient data of the Askew Codex on the other. Still upwards and inwards are they to soar to the Space of the Great Light which surrounds or transcends the outer Treasure of Light itself. leou is there too, he is the Great Light ; this is the Second or inner Light Treasure. The guardians will open the Gates and they will pass into the Orders of the Triple Powers of the Second Light Treasure; thence inwards to the twelfth Order of the twelfth Great Power of the emanation of the True God. There are twelve Great Powers with twelve Chiefs in each of their Orders (of which the authentic names are given). These Twelve will stand apart in this Space and invoke the True God with this " Name " (? prayer), saying :

" Hear us, O Father, Father of all fatherhood ! [Here follows a sentence in the mystery-language Godcontaining four of the vowels each seven times repeated — with the interpretation : That is to say, Father of all fatherhood, for the All hath come out of the Alpha, and will return to the Omega when the consummation of all consummations will take place.] We will now invoke Thy imperishable Names that Thou mayest send forth Thy great Light-power, and that it follow these Twelve Uncontainables [that is to say, the twelve disciples], for they have verily received the Mystery of the Forgiveness of Sins, and therefore are they not to be held back from approaching Thy LightTreasure." Thereon the True God will send forth his Lightpower; it will shine forth from behind the disciples, and cause all the Treasures of the Second Light-realm to withdraw, and they will reach the Space of the True God.

Then will the True God in turn invoke the Unapproachable God, that is to say the One and Only One, and He will send forth a Light-power invocation out of Himself, into the Space of the True God, and Unapproach- the disciples shall be perfected in all fullness and be made into an Order in that Treasure. They shall sing hymns of praise to the Unapproachable God, for, while still in the body, they have received the Mystery of the Forgiveness of Sins, and attained to The disciples hereupon ask to be given this Great Mystery; the Master promises that He will give it; The Mystery but before receiving it, they must be told the mystery Twelve of the Twelve (supernal) JEons, their seals, names, and apologies. These are given, seal-diagrams, names, numbers, and apologies ; the last being in the form " Make way [mystery names], ye Rulers of the h'rst (second, etc.) Mou, for I invoke [other mystery names — these being superior names of the Lighttreasure]."

The sixth (? seventh) JSon is called the Little Midst, for it belongs to the six ^Eons which have believed on the Light; the Rulers of these Mous have a little good in them. In the twelfth JEon is the Invisible God and Barbelo and the Ingenerable God. The Invisible God is in a space alone in the twelfth JEon with veils drawn before him, and in that Mon are many other gods called the great rulers of the JSons, though servants of the Invisible God, Barbelo and the Ingenerable God. In the thirteenth JSon is the Great Invisible God, the Great Virginal Spirit (? Barbelo) and the four and twenty emanations of the Invisible God. The mystery-names of these four and twenty are given, and also the invocation of the higher names of the Light-treasure in which are contained a series of triple omegas four times repeated, and a series of triple etas four times repeated. The names of these emanations are said to be their names "from the beginning."

Yet higher in the fourteenth ^Eon is a second Great Invisible God, and another Great God called the " Great Just One " (XPI&TOS) ; he is a power of the three Light-rulers which are within all the ^Eons, but without the Treasure of Light. Here also are numbers of emanations. The powers of this ./Eon will try to detain the disciples in order that they may perform the mysteries of Jesus in those spaces, and so these powers themselves receive further powers from the powers of the Light-treasure. The disciples, however, are given the proper seals, numbers, and apologies, so that the powers shall withdraw. Now the three Great Rulers that are within all The Three these Invisibles (i.e., the emanations of the Thirteenth

and Fourteenth ^Eons), but without the Treasure of Light, are called the Triple-powered Gods, and are above all others. They themselves have received the mysteries of the Treasure of Light, for when the First Power came forth (from the Light-kingdom) they first of all remained in it (the Power), and when they emerged from it the Kingdom of Light was preached to them. " I gave them," says the Master, " the mysteries which I have given unto you, but I have not given them the Mystery of the Forgiveness of Sins. . .• . Therefore now I say unto you that I, when I shall separate all the ^Eons, will give to these three Rulers of the Light, who are in the last [highest] of all the ^Eons> the Mystery of the Forgiveness of Sins, because they have believed in the Mystery of the Light-realm."

No one can pass beyond them till he have received the Mystery of the Forgiveness of Sins; but, con tinues the Master, they are not to fear on this account, for there is no place of punishment in those spaces, for their indwellers received the Mysteries (?of Baptism). The seals, names, and apologies of these powers are then given, and here unfortunately the text breaks suddenly off, and we come to the end of Schmidt's Second Book of leou. Taking now Schmidt's First Book we next come to a description of the middle Light-world, and Concerning its Ruler, the True God, the Demiurgos, Bmanatorof above whom are the Treasures ot the Pleroma Light-world. of the Father. Jesus is still the narrator. The subject is one of immense complexity, with infinite emanations, treasures (i.e., store houses of riches and fullness), spaces, orders, and hierarchies, with diagrams and symbols, and hosts of (to me) absolutely unintelligible "authentic" names, which are said to be "in the language of my Father." The authentic name of the supernal Demiurgos is translated as the True God or God of Truth, and is given in Greek transliteration as

leou, which Schmidt transliterates into German as Jeu. I would suggest that leou is a transliteration The Tetraof the four-lettered mystery name of the creator according to Semitic and Chaldaean tradition, the tetragrammaton of the Kabalah. Theodoret tells us that the Samaritans pronounced this name labe (lave) and the Jews lao. Since the six teenth century, by adding the vowels of Adonai to the unpronounceable Y H V H, it has been pronounced Jehovah. It is now generally written Yahweh ; but there is no certainty in the matter, beyond the fact that Jehovah is absolutely wrong. leou or lao are probably attempts in Greek transliteration at the same Semitic name, which contained letters totally unrepresentable in Greek ; Yahoo or Yahuwh per chance, the name hidden in lacchus (Yach), still further corrupted into Bacchus by the Greeks, lacchus was the mystery-name of the creative power in that great mystery tradition; Bacchus was the name in the popular cult. But to continue with our summary.

Jesus, the Living One, has apparently taken his disciples with Him through the inner spaces of the unseen world, and brought them to the plane of this True God, from which He gives the mystic instruc tion on the creative dispensation of the universe, in the Realm of Light. He first shows them leou in his own nature, as a simple emanation from the Ineffablo Treasures of the Father, before he has in his turn <ent forth emana tions by the command of the Father. A strange combination of letters and signs is said to be the " name " of this God " according to the treasures which are outside this region " — that is to say, either the planes below or sub-planes of that plane.

Next follows a diagram — a square surrounding a circle, within which is another square containing The Type three lines; this diagram is said to be the type Treasures. of the treasures over which leou will rule, and it is also the type of leou himself before he emanated. But out of leou are to come a host of emanations, through the command of the Father, who are in their turn to become fathers of treasures ; each of these fathers is also to be called leou. This ordering is effected by Jesus as the Logos ; but the True God is the father of all of these fathers or fatherhoods, for he is a direct emanation from the Father, and through him and from him all subsequent emanation will proceed. Further, from each of the subordinate leou's, through the command of the Father, will proceed other hosts to fill the treasures, and they shall be called Orders (or hierarchies) of the Treasures of Light. Myriads of myriads will arise out of them. We are therefore in the Light-kingdom.

We are next given a diagram which is said to be the type of the True God before he The Type of emanated, that is to say when the subsequent God leou. emanations lay potential within him. The diagram is like an egg, with a smaller egg or nucleus within it containing three lines or strokes. The upper circum ferences, or shells, of both the egg and the nucleus are lacking, as though to represent the creative Light-beam from the Father streaming into them. It is very probable, therefore, that in these The Mystic diagrams squares may represent treasures or the substance-side, while circles may represent gods or the energy-side — but these can interchange, for the substance of one plane or phase becomes the energy of the plane below. The three strokes seem to represent the potential triad or trinity latent in all manifestation, and this triad acting within the tetrad of the squares produces the infinite ordering into twelves or dodecads. We should also recollect that in all probability we have only a very faulty reproduction of these diagrams, for we have to take into account the translating and copying and re-copying by ignorant scribes.

The three lines are said to be the three Voices, which leou will send forth when he is ordered "to praise the Father," that is to say, to emanate, for this is how the creative song of praise is sung. Next we have a diagram of the first moment of Cosmic this emanation ; it is curious to notice that the 1 ryo ogy* symbols used closely resemble a spermatozoon and ovum. Within a square is a small circle with its diameter produced, so that it very well represents the head and tail of a spermatozoon; the ovum consists of three concentric circles, the innermost of which has a diameter and is of the same size as the head of the spermatozoon, which has also a similar diameter ; there are thus two of the lines or strokes or Voices still latent, and only one is so far manifest.

Following this comes a diagram the upper half of which apparently repeats the preceding diagram, and the lower half consists of six concentric circles with a point in the centre. The latter is called The Seal the seal (xapaKrtjp) upon the face or forehead of Forehead leou, and is said to be the type of the treasures. This emanation from the True God is caused by the streaming into the True God of a Light-power from the ineffable treasures above, in response to an invocation of Jesus as the Logos, calling upon the Name of His Father. The Light-power is called the " Little Idea," presumably to signify that though it has power to energize all creation, it is but

little compared to the real "Greatnesses" or Ideas What follows is beyond my power of summarizing. We have diagrams of a series of twenty-eight leou's, 8^°^! before the text again breaks suddenly off. What gticsofthe was the full number in the original is now impos sible to say ; Schmidt supposes thirty. The diagrams appear to have been very carelessly copied, but present certain general characteristics. The upper part generally consists of six squares, one within the other; within the smallest square is the word leou, and the special mystery-name of the leou or treasure for which the diagram stands. These names are generally placed over a small oblong figure (or two lines), which are said to stand for the " root " of the spaces or regions in which the particular leou is placed. Above and below, cutting through the top and bottom sides of the six squares, are two parallel lines, which are said to denote the paths whereby one must travel if he would enter into the space of the father of the treasure. These paths

where they cross the sides of the square are marked by Greek letters, alphas, which are said to stand for the curtains or veils which are drawn before the father. Above each diagram of squares we find again the three lines or strokes, which are now said to be the three Gates or Doors of each treasure. Each treasure has twelve orders, the authentic names of the Heads of each of which are appended, together with the authentic names of the three Guardians or Watchers of the Gates. The lower half of each diagram consists of the seal upon the forehead of the leou; these seals are mostly circles with varying contents, but it is exceedingly difficult to trace any connection between them.

Between the second and third leou diagram is rhe Twelve, another figure differing entirely from the rest of the :>f Jesus. series ; as to its meaning I have no notion. It is followed by these words of Jesus : " From these orders I will take Twelve and range them for Myself, that they may serve Me." This probably refers to the prototypes of the souls of the disciples which Jesus chooses for Himself before their incarnation, as we learn from the Pistis Sophia. With the twenty-eighth diagram the text breaks off suddenly ; and the next subject we meet with, according to Schmidt's ordering of the leaves, is a hymn which Jesus sings to the First Mystery. After printing this fragment in this place, Schmidt came to the conclusion that these pages must be separated, and treated as fragments of

another work, on the ground that they could not be brought into organic unity with the rest. We are now in the lower space or plane of the Thirteen ^Eons, each of which has its father or creator, its leou, with rulers, and subordinate powers, toSe First called decans and liturgi, signifying servants, 8Unginythe ministers, or workmen. There are thirteen praise- ^^en givings, one for each ^Eon, but the text of the first four is missing. The general tenour of each petition is as follows : "Give ear unto me, while I sing Thy praises, O Thou First Mystery, who didst shine forth in his mystery [i.e., the mystery of that particular ^Eon] ; it was Thy Light which caused leou to order this ^Eon and establish therein its rulers, ministers, and workers. [Then follows the " imperishable name " of the ^Eon.] Save all my Members (Limbs), which since the foundation of the world have been scattered abroad in all the rulers, ministers, and workmen of this ^Eon, and gather them all together and receive them into the Light ! "

The final petition is concluded by a threefold Amen. The peculiarity of the praise-giving with regard to the Thirteenth JEou consists in the fact that The it is treated apparently as a separate plane or space. By command of the First Mystery the leou of this space brought into existence the space of the four and twenty invisible emana tions, with all their rulers, gods, lords, arch angels and angels, their ministers and workmen ; further to this space of the Thirteenth ^Eon are assigned the " three gods." Moreover, by command of the First Mystery the six Rulers under labraoth, who have believed in the Light-kingdom, are set just below this Thirteenth MOIL in a space of pure air, the six unrepentant Rulers being apparently assigned to the lower impure atmosphere.

With regard to the scattering of the Limbs, we may remind the reader of Epiphanius' quotation from The Gospel of Philip : " I have recognised myself and gathered myself together from all sides. I have sown no children to the Ruler [the lord of this world], but have torn up his roots ; I have gathered together my limbs that were scattered abroad, and I know thee who thou art." We are now introduced to a new subject. Jesus The Sixty is taking His Order, the twelve disciples, through the Treasures of the Middle Light-world, and giving them the seals, numbers, and authentic names whereby these Treasures can be entered and passed through. There are sixty of these Treasures, but our narrative begins only in the the fifty-sixth, for all the intervening pages are lost. From what we are here told I am inclined to think that there were also sixty diagrams of the leou's, and not thirty only as Schmidt supposes. Fundamentally there were presumably twelve main treasures, but each apparently was regarded from five different standpoints, each view-point being called an order or ordering. There was thus a twelve-fold ordering, and a five-fold ordering as well, all immanent in the God " who dwells in the Middle of the universe," that is to say, in leou, the God of the Middle Light-world. Of the five, two are

called the exterior, two the interior, and one the middle order. Each treasure is said to be surrounded by six regions or spaces, represented by the squares of the diagrams. By a use of the seals (a series of very curious diagrams), numbers, and names, the Guardians, Orders, and Veils are said to disperse and the inner most space of the father of the treasure is reached, and so the secret of his authentic name is revealed. Moreover within each treasure is a Door or Gate, and without three Gates ; each of the outer Gates has three Guardians, but the inner gate has but one, presumably the father of the treasure himself. On the conclusion of this exposition, the disciples ask how all these spaces and their fatherhoods The Little have come into being. Jesus replies that it is because of the " Little Idea," which the Father has left behind and not withdrawn into Himself; all else of the Father He has withdrawn into Himself. " It was in this Little Idea that I streamed forth, having My being in the Father; I burst forth and freed Myself therefrom. I shone forth and it emanated Me, the first emanation there from, its perfect likeness and image. When it had emanated Me I stood before it." This was the First Voice.

Again it shone forth and emanated, sending forth the Second Voice — all these spaces, which came forth one after another. The Third Voice streamed forth and emanated the rulers of all these spaces. It is He, Jesus, the First Voice, the first emana- tion, who has gathered together His own Order — the Twelve, and taken them through all the spaces, that they may serve Him , He has given them the powers whereby they may pass through all these spaces within, to the innermost space of the ruler of them all, the True God. The disciples then remind Jesus that He had The Name promised to give them the one master-name, whereby Great every space could be traversed without the weari-

some repetition ot each ot the separate names — the Name that was the key to unlock every gate in every treasure. Is this, they ask, the Great Name of the Father ? The Christ (the first mention of this title) replied : " Nay, but the Name of the Great Power that is in all the spaces." He then gives them this authentic name — apparently a sentence in cypher, interspersed with the triple repetition of the seven vowels. It is to be said in the Space of the True God, in the " space of the interiors which belongs to the space of the exteriors." The name must be invoked, turning to the four corners of the treasure, and then followed by the request that all the paths to the fatherhood be left free to the disciple, "for I have invoked the Great Name of the God of all the spaces." Then will all the veils be withdrawn, and all the rulers disperse; they will withdraw "into their own form."

" Lo, now," continued the Master, " I have told you the [master-name] ; guard it, and do not repeat it continually, so that all the spaces may not be disquieted because of the glory therein." Hereupon Jesus commands His disciples to follow Him, and goes yet farther within, into the seventh Hymnlto the treasure ; this cannot apparently be the seventh able^focT treasure of the sixty, but must be some other Seventh ordering. Here He commands them to surround Him, and answer Him with a threefold Amen for every praise-giving, as He sings a hymn of praise to the Father because of the emanation of the treasures. The Father is addressed first by the Ineffable Name, symbols of which are given; then as "God, My Father," and then as the " Unapproachable One." The form of each praise-giving begins with the words : " I praise Thee, Thou Unapproachable God, for that Thou didst shine forth in Thyself," and ends with the question : " For what now is Thy will, but that all this should be, O Unapproachable God ? "

The subject of the hymn is that God has with drawn Himself into Himself, into His Truth, save only one Little Idea, the space of which He has left as the shining Light-world, shining within the Father. It is a radiance of the Father within Himself, according to His will. This Light is Jesus, the one emanation of the Father through His will. Jesus is the perfect likeness and whole image of God. The second emanation brings into being the spaces which surround the Father. The third emanation is the bringing into being the powers and rulers of the Light-spaces, which are called Treasures. Moreover all these powers are energized by a Great Power emanated by the Father, so that they are called True Gods, that is, Gods in Truth (presumably as dis-

tinguished from the Gods of the vulgar pantheons). It is this Power that energizes not only in the various fathers of the treasures, but also in the subordinate powers. Thus also are emanated the Guardians or Watchers and the sixty fatherhoods, one for each treasure. These sixty are called the " Orders of the Five Trees." It is also this Power which has brought into existence the seals and the great name. This same Power is further called the [First ?] Mystery and the Lightimage surrounding the Father. These Light-spaces are called the Spaces of the " Great Logoi according to the Mystery," in whom is the glory of the Father. This leads us to suppose that the " Great Logos " of the title of the treatise is the same as the First Mystery, the Great Power, and therefore identical with Jesus. The Great Logoi are also called leou's. The hymn then continues :

" I praise Thee, O Unapproachable God, for that Thou didst shine forth in Thyself ; Thou hast emanated Thy One and Only Mystery, Thou who art an unapproachable God even for these Logoi. Thou art an unapproachable among them, in this Great Logos according to the Mystery of leou, the father of all leou's, which is Thyself; — yet what is else Thy one and only will but that we should draw nigh Thee in them, O God that none can approach, to whom never theless we have drawn near in this Great Logos according to the Mystery of leou ? " I am inclined to think that " Logos " is here used in two meanings. It generally means Reason or

Word ; here it seems to mean also Sermon, Discourse, or Teaching. The hymn ends with praises in which the Father is again said to have withdrawn, or inbreathed, Him- Ttie Univer sal Idea, self entirely into His Universal Likeness and Idea, with the single exception of the Little Idea, leaving it as a means whereby His boundless Riches, universal Glory, and mighty Mysteries might be manifested. The Great or Universal Idea and the Little Idea are thus seen to correspond in the ideal spiritual world to the ideas of the macrocosm and microcosm. And so ends this remarkable hymn, with a final triple Amen. The two remaining fragments are put by Schmidt in an appendix. The first fragment is part of a hymn of praise, each praise-giving of which begins with the words :

" Give ear unto me, while I sing Thy praises, Thou Mystery before all Uncontainables and Impassables, Jhe who didst shine forth in Thy Mystery, in order that Myster7 the Mystery that is from the beginning should be completed." The contents of the hymn are as follows, the imperishable names being added after each technical term : The Mystery shining forth became Water of the Ocean. The Earth in the midst of the Ocean became purified. The whole vast matter of the Ocean became purified — that is to say, the Sea and all species existing therein. Through its shining forth it sealed the Sea and all that are therein, for the power that is in them was in disorder (? chaos) against the existing order (? cosmos). MM

The hymn here breaks off suddenly, and we have The Way of a description of the passing of the soul through the regions of the dsemonian powers, and of the imperishable names of the "mystery of their fear," whereby the soul can escape from their clutches. These are the spaces of the orders of the various great ministers of the Great Powerful Ruler in the Way of the Midst; and the names of these ministers, recoverable from this scrap, are the same as the Rulers of the Way of the Midst as given in the Extracts from the Books of the Saviour. This Great Powerful Ruler is further described as " he who is filled with wrath." He is the successor of the Ruler of the Outer Darkness, of that space which changes all forms. He is spread out on the Way of the Midst, so that he may carry off the souls like a robber.

The leaves on which these fragments are found differ from the rest of the MS. in that they are surrounded by single-lined borders.

THE beginning is lost, and the leaves that are left us plunge into the midst of a description of the supernal beings and spaces as follows : " He [the God beyond Being] established Him, that they might strive towards the City in which is their Th.e First Image. In this City it is that they move and live; it is the House of the Father, and the Vesture of the Son, and the Power of the Mother, and the Image of the Fullness (Pleroma). He is the First Father of the All ; He is the first Being; He is the King of the Intangibles. It is He in whom the All moves. It is He in whom He gave it (the All) Form. This is the self -produced and self -generated Space; this is the Depth of the All. He is the Great One whose real being is deeper than the Depth. He it is to whom the All did come. The All was silent before Him and spake not to Him, for unspeakable and incomprehensible is He. He is the first Source ; He it is whose Voice hath gone forth into all spaces. He is the first Tone, whereby the All doth sense and comprehend. He it is whose Limbs (Members) make a myriad of myriads of Powers, each one of which comes from them.

"The second space came into being, which is to be called Demiurge, and Father and LOP-OS The Second and Source, and Mind, and Man, and Eternal, and Limitless. This is the Pillar (or Sup port) ; He is the Overseer. He, too, is Father of the All ; He it is upon whose Head the vEons form a wreath, shooting forth their rays. The Outline of His Face is beyond all possibility of knowing in the outer Worlds — those Worlds which ever seek His Face, desiring to know it, for His Word has gone forth into them, and they long to see Him. The Light of his Eyes penetrates the Spaces of the Outer Pleroma, and the Word which comes forth from his Mouth pene trates the Above and Below [of the Outer Worlds]. The Hair of His Head is the number of the Hidden Worlds, and the Outline of his Face is the type of the ^Eons. The Hairs of his Face are the number of the Outer Worlds, and the out-spreading of his Hands is the manifestation of the Cross ; the out-spreading of the Cross is the ninefold, on the Right and the Left.

" The source of the Cross is the Man whom no man can comprehend. He is the Father ; He is the Source from which the Silence wells; He it is who is desired in every Space. He is the Father from whom came forth the Monad like a light-spark, in comparison with which (Monad) all Worlds are as [? darkness] ; for it is the Monad which has moved all things in their out-shining. And they have received Gnosis, and Life, and Hope, and Peace, and Love, and Resurrection, and Faith, and Rebirth, and the Seal. These are the ninefold which have come from the Father of those who are without begin ning, from Him who is Father and Mother to Himself alone, whose Pleroma surrounds [that is transcends] the Twelve Depths.

" 1. The first Depth is the All-source from which all Sources have come. " 2. The second Depth is the All-wise One from which all Wise ones have come. "3. The third Depth is the All-mystery from which all Mysteries have come. " 4. The fourth Depth is the All-gnosis from which all Gnosis hath come. " 5. The fifth Depth is the All-holy from which all Holiness hath come. " 6. The sixth Depth is the Silence from which all Silence hath come. " 7. The seventh Depth is the Gate which hath no substance, from which all Substances have come. " 8. The eighth Depth is the Forefather from whom all Forefathers have come. "9. The ninth Depth is the All-father-Selffather, in which all Fathers exist, — He being the only father they have.

"10. The tenth Depth is the All-power from which all Powers have come. "11. The eleventh Depth is that in which is the First Invisible, from which all Invisibles have come. " 12. The twelfth Depth is the Truth from which all Truth hath come. " This [the second space, as a Monad, which surrounds the Depths], is the Truth which embraces The primai them all; this is the Image of the Father; this Source' is the Truth of the All ; this is the Mother of all [their] ^Eons ; this it is which surrounds all Depths. This is the Monad which is incom prehensible or unknowable ; this it is which has no Seal (or Mark), in which are all Seals ; which is blessed for ever and ever. This is the eternal Father ; this the ineffable, unthinkable, incom prehensible, untranscendible Father ; this it is in which the All became joyous ; it rejoiced and was joyful, and brought forth in its joy myriads of myriads of ^Eona^ they were called the ' Births of Joy/ because it (the All) had joyed with the Father. These are the Worlds from which the Cross upsprang ; out of these incorporeal Members did the Man arise.

" This is the Father and the Source of All, whose Members are gathered together and completed. All Names have come from the Father— whether such Names as Ineffable, or Unknowable, or Incompre hensible, or Invisible, or Single, or Solitary, or Power, or All -power, or whether all those Names which are named in silence alone — all of them come from the Father, whom all the outer Worlds behold as the stars of the firmament in the night. As men desire to see the sun, so do the outer Worlds desire to see the Father, because of his invisibility which is round about Him. For ever to the ^Eons doth He give Life, and through His Word hath the Indivisible [? Atom] learnt to know the Monad ; and by His Word hath the holy Pleroma come into being.

" This is the Father, the second Demiurge; through the Breath of His Mouth Forethought made the that -which -is -not. The that -which -is -not arose through the will of Him, for He it is who commands the All to come into being. In this wise hath He made the holy Pleroma: four Gates, and in it (the Pleroma) are four Monads, a Monad for each Gate, and six Supporters for each Gate, making four and twenty Supporters, and four and twenty myriads of Powers for each Gate ; and nine Ennads for every Gate, and ten Decads for every Gate, and twelve Dodecads for every Gate, and five Pentads of Powers for every Gate, and an Overseer who hath three faces — an ingenerable, a true, and an ineffable face, for every Gate.

" One of his faces looks without the Gate to the outer yEons, and the other looks on Setheus, and the Three-faced and Twothird looks upwards — to the Sonship in each Monad faced Space. [i.e., the one Sonship contained in the four Monads], where [i.e., above] is Aphredon with his twelve Righteous Ones. There [above] is the Forefather; in that space is Adam [the Man] who belongs to the Light, and his three hundred and sixty-five ^Eoiis, and there is the Perfect Mind, [all three] surrounding a Basket [? network, representing a conical swirl of forces or atoms] that knows no death. " The ineffable face of the Overseer looks within to the Holy of Holies — that is, to the Bound less one, he being the head of the Holy Place (Shrine). He has two faces; one opens to the space of the Depth and the other opens to the space of the Overseer who is called the ' Child/ And there is there [within] a Depth which is called the ' Light ' or the ' Shining One,' in which is hidden an Alone-born (yuoyoyew/?), who manifests three Powers and is mighty in all Powers.

" He [the Alone-born] is the Indivisible ; He it is who is never divided ; it is for Him that the All has opened [? divided] itself, for to Him belong all the Powers." The above passages, taken in order from the first pages, according to Schmidt's arrangement of the leaves, will give the reader some idea of the nature of the unabridged contents of this apocalyptic treatise. For the rest we must content ourselves with a trans lation of some of the more intelligible or striking The original seer seems to have endeavoured to The View describe his vision of the inner spaces from different mentator. points oi view, or rather to have seen the same mystery from various points of view, or aspects, in a series of visions. Interspersed we find the comments of another writer. The first indubitably clear instance of this is a passage of which unfortunately sad havoc has been made by the Coptic translator. The commentator tells us that the subject is very difficult, nay that it is utterly impossible to describe those things with the " tongue of flesh " ; nevertheless he does not think that any one could succeed any better than has the original seer, or those who spoke or wrote through him. These spaces and beings are more excellent than the intellectual powers in man, and therefore it is impossible for any one to understand them, unless he have the good fortune to meet with a " kinsman " of those higher ones — that is to say, a " relative of the mystery " — one who has learned the mystery, that is to say, has experienced these states of consciousness ;

and even then the Mystery of the Father cannot be expressed in its reality, as has been stated by even such advanced seers as Marsanes and and Nicotheus, former seers 01 the Gnosis; all the Perfect have seen Him, and have sung His praises each as best he could, but they have all failed to reveal Him. And a little later, in commenting on the " Metropolis of the Alonebegotten," the same writer quotes from another Master of the Gnosis, who, when he had understood, said : " Through Him is That-which-really-is and Thatwhich -really-is-not, through which the Hiddenwhich-really-is and the Manifest-which-really-is-not exists." The Gnostic from whom this sentence is quoted is called Phosilampes ; but the ideas are so identical with those of Basilides, that I cannot but think Phosilampes is merely some cryptonym of the school for this teacher.

The Logos and His creative powers and selfemanation is the subject of much of our treatise. To take one instance out of many : " This is Setheus, who dwells in the Shrine as a King and God. He is the Logos-Creator ; it is He The Creative who commandeth the All to work. He is the Creative Mind according to the command of God, the Father; whom the creature adores as God, and as Lord, and as Saviour, and is subject to Him; at whom all things stand in wonder because of His grace and beauty ; for whose head the inner universe forms a crown, and the outer is set under His feet, while the middle universe surroundeth Him, praising Him and saying :

" ' Holy, holy, holy is He, the [here follow the seven ^ vowels each three times repeated] ; that is to say : Thou art the Living One among the living ; Thou art the Holy One among the holy; Thou art Being among beings; Thou art Father among the fathers ; Thou art God among the gods ; Thou art Lord among the lords ; Thou art Space among the spaces/ " Thus too do they praise Him : ' Thou art the House and Thou art the Dweller in the House.' And yet again do they praise and address the Son hidden in Him : ' Thou art, Thou art the Alone-begotten, Light, Life, and Grace.' "

We are told of the descent of the Light-spark or Light-stream from on high, and how it finally reaches matter. " Then the Veils were opened and Light peneTbe Descent trated to Matter below, and to those which possessed Light-spark, no form and no likeness; and thus have they gained for themselves the likeness of the Light. Some indeed rejoiced that the Light had come to them, and that they had become rich; others wept, because they had become poor, and what was theirs had been taken away from them. Thus came Grace in that which had come forth. And captivity was taken captive and praised the ^Eons who had received the Spark in themselves. And Guardians were sent them . . . ; they gave help to those who had believed in the Light-spark."

" And this [the Light-spark] is the Indivisible, The which led the struggle for the universe ; and all Atom. things were bestowed upon him, through Him who is exalted above all things; and the immeasurable Depth was bestowed upon him, together with the countless fatherhoods that' are therein." In the field of its being is the God-bearing or God-generating Land. And the powers of him who is crowned with this Lightwreath, sing praises to the King, the Alone-begotten, the Logos, saying : " Through Thee have we won fame, and through Thee have we seen the Father of all, and the Mother Hymn to of all things hidden in all spaces, the Conceiver of all aeons. She is the Conceiver of all gods and all lords; she is the Gnosis of all invisibles. Thy Image is the mother of all Uncontainables and the power of all Impassables. . . . Through Thy Image we saw Thee, fled to Thee, stood in Thee, and received the unfading wreath, which has been known through Thee. Praise to Thee, for ever and ever, O Thou Alonebegotten One. Amen ! "

Of such a one we learn : " He became a body of light and penetrated into the aeons of the Indivisible, The Christ. until he reached the Alone-begotten, who is in the Monad [the Father] who dwells in silence alone. And they [his powers] received the Grace of the Alone-begotten, that is to say His goodness, and he received the eternal wreath. He [the Logos] is the Father of all the Light-sparks; His is the chief of all immortal bodies ; this is He for whose sake resurrection is granted to these [immortal] bodies." Higher and higher grades of being are described, and we hear of the Perfected One " who has received the Grace of the Unknowable, and thereby such a Son-ship as the Pleroma could not endure, because

of the superfluity of its light and the brilliancy which was in Him." Still higher soars the intuition of the Gnostic The seer, and we read further of the Losros-Demiurcros, of the "with whom is a host of powers having wreaths (or crowns) on their heads. Their crowns send forth rays ; the brilliancy of their bodies is as the life of the space into which they are come ; the word (logos) that comes out of their mouth is eternal life, and the light that comes forth from their eyes is rest for them; the movement of their hands is their flight to the space out of which they are come, and their gazing on their own faces is knowledge of themselves ; the going to themselves is a repeated return, and the stretching out of their hands establishes them ; the hearing of their ears is the perception in their heart, and the union of their limbs is the in-gathering of the dispersion of Israel ; their holding to one another is their fortification in the Logos. . . .

The of the Creator-Logos with those who had come forth from the re-ordering which had been brought to pass. And they became all One, as it is written : ' They became all One in the One and Only One.' " Then the Logos-Creator became Divine Power, and Lord, and Saviour, and Christ [or Righteous — frequently occurring throughout the MS. for , and Good, and Father, and Mother. He it is whose labour has succeeded ; He was honoured and became the Father of them who believed. He became the Lord and the Mighty One." In this consummation, all things are ordered anew for the Victor. " To Him is given the first fruits of Soteriology. the sacrifice of the Sonship, whereby He is given power to become thrice-powerful. And He received the vow of the Sonship, because the universe has been sold [? into slavery]; and He received the struggle [task] which was entrusted to Him. He raised up the whole purity of matter and made it into a World, an ^Eon, and a City, which is called ' Immortality ' and ' Jerusalem.' And it is also called the ' New Earth,' and * Self-sufficing,' and ' Perfect Freedom.' That Land is a god-bearing and a quickening land."

The Wreath and Robe of the glorified is sung of. " This is the Wreath of which it is written : ' It was given to Solomon on the day of the joy of his heart.' "The first Monad has sent Him an ineffable Vesture, which is all Light, and all Life, and all The . Resurrection, and all Love, and all Hope, and all Vesture. Faith, all Wisdom, and all Gnosis, and all Truth, and all Peace. . . . And in it is the universe, and the universe has found itself in it, and known itself therein. And it gave them all light in its ineffable Light, myriads of myriads of powers were given it, in order that it should raise up the universe once for all.

" It [? the Monad] gathered its vestures to itself, and made them after the fashion of a veil, which surrounds it on all sides, and poured itself over them, and raised up all, and separated them all according to orders and laws and forethought. which-is-not, arid that-which-is-not is the evil The which has manifested itself in matter. And the Nature. which-is-not, and called that-which-is ' eternal ' (seonian), and that-which-is-not ' matter ' ; and it divided in the midst that-which-is from that-whichis-not, and laid between them veils and purifying powers in order that they might cleanse and purge them." The future work of the Glorified is further The Worlddescribed : " And myriads of myriads of glories and angels and archangels and ministers were given Him to serve Him — those of matter. And authority over all things was given Him, and He created for . Himself a mighty ^Eon, and in it laid a vast Pleroma, and in it a mighty Sanctuary, and all the powers He had received He placed in them. And He rejoiced in them, as He brought forth His creatures once again, according to the commandment of the Father who is hidden in silence, who sent Him these treasures. And the crown of Father hood was given Him, for He (the Father) has established Him as father of those who arose after Him [namely, His disciples, the disciples of the Master].

"And He cried out and said: ' My children, with whom I travail until the Christ is formed in you ' ; and again He cries : ' Yea, I would set beside a holy virgin an only husband Christ/ " So when He had seen the Grace with which the hidden Father had endowed Him, He himself desired to lead back the universe to the hidden Father, for His [the Father's] will is this, that the universe should return to Him. "And they [those who repented] fled before the matter of the [lower] aeon, abandoning it, and soared Thc Promis6upward to the ^Eon of Him who is father to Himself alone, and took the vow on themselves which was vowed for them by Him who says : ' He who hath forsaken father and mother, brother and sister, wife and child, and possessions, and will take up his cross and follow Me, he will receive the promises which I have vowed to him ; and I will give such the mystery of the hidden Father, for they have loved what is His and have fled from him who has pursued them with force.'

" So he gave them Glory, Joy, Jubilation, Gladness, Peace, Hope, Faith, Love, and Truth imperishable. This is the ninefold which is given unto them who have fled from matter. And they have become blessed and perfect, and have recognized the True God, and known the mystery which is given to the Man, for which cause He hath revealed Himself until they saw Him, for He [the True God] is in truth invisible ; for their sakes hath He revealed in words His Logos, so that they might know Him and become gods and perfect." Still speaking of the First-born and His glories, the cosmic powers of His spiritual vesture are again described : " They gave Him a Vesture to consummate every thing in Him. And in it are all bodies : the body of ^P owers fire, the body of water, the body of ether, the vesture. body of earth, the body of air, the body of

the angels, thebody of the archangels, the body of the powers, the body of the mighty ones, the body of the gods, and the body of the lords; in one word, in it are all bodies, so that none may prevent Him from going upwards and downwards to the under-world. " He is the First-born to whom the Inner and the Outer have promised everything He may desire. He it is who hath separated all matter; and as He hath poured Himself over it, 'like a hen which spreadeth her wings over her chickens,' so hath the First-born prepared matter and raised up myriads and myriads of species and kinds. And when the matter had grown warm, it set free the multitude of powers which are His; and they sprang up like herbs, and were separated according to kinds and species. And He gave them the law — to love one another, and to honour God, and praise Him, and seek for Him, who He is, and what He is, and to wonder at the place whence they have come out, for it is narrow and difficult, and not to return thither again, but to follow Him who hath given them the law.

" And He raised them out of the darkness of The matter, which is their mother, and told them what of Men. Light is, for they had not yet known of the Light, whether it existed or not. Then He gave them and went from them to the Mother of the universe, beside the Father, that they might [in turn] give laws to those who have come out of And the powers of the Mother sing a hymn to the Son, praising the One and Only One, and saying : "Thou alone art the Boundless; Thou alone the Depth ; Thou alone the Unknowable ; Thou art He The Song of for whom all seek, and yet [unaided] find Thee the Mother not, for no one can know Thee against Thy will, and no one can praise Thee against Thy will. Thy will alone is it which became space for Thee, for no one can contain Thee, for Thou art the space of all. I pray Thee give orderings to those of the world, and regulations to my offspring according to Thy will. And grieve not my offspring, for no one is ever grieved by Thee; yet no one hath ever known Thy counsel. Thou art He of whom they all, both inner and outer, stand in need, for Thou alone art uncontainable, and Thou alone art beyond all vision, and Thou alone art beyond all substance; Thou who alone hast given seals [distinguishing marks or characteristics] to all creatures, and manifested them in Thyself.

" Thou too art Creator of those which have not yet manifested themselves. Thou alone knowest S16,?" these ; we know them not. Thou alone indicatest them to us, that we [the powers] may pray Thee for her [the Mother Sophia's] sake to manifest them to us, for we can know them through Thee alone. Thou alone hast exalted Thyself to the host of hidden worlds, that they might know Thee; it is Thou who hast given them to know Thee, that Thou hast brought them to birth in Thy incorporeal body, and Thou hast taught them that Thou hast begotten the Man in Thy self-born Mind, and in Thy Reflection and Conception. " He is the Man begotten of Mind, to whom The Man. Reflection gave form. Thou hast given all things to the Man. He weareth them like these garments, and putteth them on like these vestures, and wrappeth Himself with the creation as with a mantle. This is the Man whom the universe prays to learn to know. Thou alone hast commanded the Man that he should manifest himself, that Thou shouldst be known through him, that Thou hast begotten him. Thou hast manifested Thyself accord ing to Thy will. Thou art He to whom I pray, Thou Father of all fatherhood, God of all gods, Lord of lords — the ' I ' who implores Him that He may order my forms and offspring, that I may prepare joy for them in Thy name and in Thy power."

[The hymnody becomes confused as the mystic identifies himself with the Sophia.] " Thou One and Only King, Thou who changest not, give me a power, and I will cause my offspring to know Thee, that Thou art their Saviour." The infinite Light-spark descends on the Sophia ; the world-ordering is consummated in the worlddrama ; the purification of the inner nature achieved in the individual soul. " And the Lord of Splendour descended and The Lord of separated the matter and divided it into two parts and into two regions ; and He gave boundaries to each region, regions that come from one father and one mother. And they who had fled to Him adored Him ; He gave them the place on His right, and

And He called the right the ' Place of Life/ and the left the ' Place of Death ' ; the right the ' Place of Light ' and the left the ' Place of Darkness' ; the right the ' Place of Rest ' and the left the ' Place of between them, so that they should not perceive each other, and placed watchers at the veils. And He gave to them who worshipped Him many honours, and exalted them above those who resisted and opposed Him. And He extended the space on the right into countless spaces, and made them into places, many spaces ; and He established laws for them and gave them regulations. ' Be steadfast in

My word and I will give you eternal life, and send you powers ; and I will strengthen you in spirits His Promise of power, and give you authority according to your Believe. will. And no one shall hinder you in what ye desire; and ye will beget for yourselves aeons, worlds, and heavens, in order that the mind-born spirits may come and dwell therein. And ye will be gods, and will know that ye come from God, and will see Him that He is God in you, and He " These words said the Lord of the universe to them, and disappeared from them, and hid Himself from them. " And the births of matter rejoiced that they had been remembered, and were glad that they had come

out of the narrow and difficult place, and prayed to the hidden Mystery : " ' Give us authority that we may create for The Prayer ourselves aeons and worlds, according to Thy word, Earth-born, upon which Thou didst agree with Thy servant; for Thou alone art the changeless one, Thou alone the boundless, the uncontainable, self -thought, selfbdrn, self -father; Thou alone art the unshakeable and unknowable ; Thou alone art silence, and love, and source of all ; Thou alone art virgin of matter, spotless; whose race no man can tell, whose mani festation no man can comprehend. " ' Hear me, in sooth, Father imperishable, Father immortal, God of the hidden worlds, Thou only Light and Life ; Thou the only invisible, ineffable, unstainable, invincible ; Thou alone prior to all existence ! Hear our prayer, with which we pray Him who is hid in all places ; Hear us and send us spirits incorporal, that they may dwell with us and teach us of those things that Thou hast promised us ; that they abide in us and we may be bodies for them. For Thy will is this, that this may be ; may it be ! Give law to our work and establish it, according to Thy will and according to the statute of the hidden aeons, and

regulate us of Thyself, for we are Thine ! ' ' In answer to this prayer it is described how that The Powers the mysteries (sci.t of baptism and the rest) were nation are given to those who repented ; these mysteries being in Given Them. , ,. . ft . . , , ., grades or purification, whereby the man rises to higher grades of consciousness, by the purity of his inner vehicles, which correspond with certain states or regions. " And He hearkened to them and sent out separating powers, which know the statute of the hidden aeons. He sent them out according to the command of the hidden ones, and established orderings, according to the ordering of the height and according to the hidden statute. They began from below upwards, so that the building might be duly erected in all its courses.

" He created the airworld as a resting-place for those who had come forth [from matter], so that they The Ladder might abide there until the establishing of those Purification, beneath them ; thereafter the true dwelling-place [?] ; within this the place of repentance ; within this the setherial reflections [? of the mansions of the Inheritance]; within these the self -born reflections. At that place they baptize themselves in the Name of the Self -born, who is God over them ; and powers are established there beside the spring of the Water of Life. . . . " Within these is the Pistis Sophia and the pre existing and setherial Jesus with his twelve aeons." The names of the powers in the last two spaces are given, but unfortunately a lacuna follows in the MS., and the following leaves are damaged in numerous places. Still higher and higher spaces are described as the purified souls mount the Great Ladder.

The Heavenly Man, and the Lord of the Pleroma, is sung of : " The Father has sealed Him as His Son The Son in their interior, in order that they should learn to know Him in their interior. And the Name moved them in their interior, so that they saw the Invisible Unknowable. And they praised the One and Only One, and Conception, and the Mind-born Logos, praising the three, who are one, for through Him they became supersubstantial. And the Father took their whole likeness and made it into a City or into a Man ; He limned the universe in His like ness — that is to say, all these powers. Each one of them knew Him in this City ; all began to sing myriads of songs of praise of the Man or the City of the Father of the universe. And the Father has taken his glory and made it into a Vesture without for the Man. . . . He created his body in the type of the holy Pleroma."

Hereupon follows the whole configuration of the Limbs of the Heavenly Man. The rest of the MS. is taken up with a Hymn to the Light quoted from some other Gnostic hymn-maker, introduced by the words " he says," ajid runs as follows : " I praise Thee, O Father of all fathers of the Lignt; ! praise Thee, O boundless Light more excellent than all the boundless ones ; I praise Thee, O uncontainable Light surpassing all uncontainables ; I praise Thee, O ineffable Light, before all ineffables." And so on through an infinity of praise-givings, frequently of great beauty, until the MS. breaks off suddenly in the middle of a sentence.

THE attentive reader will have already perceived that the contents of the Pistis Sophia treatise, of the Extracts from The Books of the Saviour, and of the Treatises fragments given under the title The Book of the Great Logos according to the Mystery, are closely related together; they indubitably belong to the same school. The result of the researches of Schmidt into this very interesting question may be most clearly seen in his reply to Preuschen's criticism on his work, a copy of which was kindly sent me by Schmidt himself. (See Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Theologie, Pt. iv., 1894.) Schmidt here sums up his position, bringing together the results of his researches. If I might myself venture a general opinion on so difficult and abstruse a subject, I would say that all the three compilations we are considering, belong not only to the same school, but also to one and the same effort at syntheticizing and reformulation. It is evident that each of them contains older materials, and it is almost certain that the writer of the Pistis Sophia was acquainted with the material of the Extracts of the leou and Baptism expositions. The far more difficult question is the relationship of the Extracts to The Book of the Great Logos, and the most difficult question of all is the school and authors to which to assign them.

So far there is nothing absolutely proved as to Date. date, except that the compilers of these documents had access to the same Sayings-material as the compilers of the Canonical Gospels; the terminus a quo may, therefore, be placed somewhere about the end of the first quarter of the second century. But the curious phrase used in introducing a quotation from the Pauline Letters (" Thou didst say unto us aforetime by the mouth of Paul our brother ") shows such complete indifference to the Canonical Acts account, that it argues an early date. Because of the complex nature of the contents, however, they have been ascribed by some to the third century ; but this does not seem to me to be sufficient reason for so late a date, when we consider the complex nature of the new-found pre-Irenseic Gnostic work, and the exceedingly abstruse character of the contents of the superior untitled MS. of the Codex Brucianus, the contents of which Schmidt places well in th« second century.

Some of the materials are undoubtedly very old Authorship, indeed, but it is the compilation-problem that at present engages us. I think that all three were compiled by the same group, or even by the same writer (though the latter will seem a very rash hypothesis to some). It is evident that the treatises pertain to the most intimate centre of Gnosticism, familiar with the inmost traditions, the most secret documents, and the practical inner experi ences of the school. It matters not whether you call this stream of the Gnosis, " Ophite," " BarbeloGnostic," " Gnostic, or " Valentinian " ; such names could have meant little for the compiler or compilers of these documents. Now it is evident that the Extracts and part of The Book of the Great Logos are both based on the same original. It is true that the text of the Baptism extract of the Askew Codex differs slightly from the text of the same rite in the Bruce Codex, but they are probably translated by different hands, and both translators used great freedom in their version, and were often puzzled how to put the Greek into Coptic, as is evident in many passages.

A certain reformulation of the Gnosis is, then, referred to as The Books of the Saviour or The The Title*. Book of the Great Logos ; perhaps the original Greek document or documents had no title, and it was the copiers, or the Coptic translators and scribes, who added these titles. The Pistis Sophia treatise, however, refers to a work called The Two Books of leou, and further adds that they were given by the Saviour to Enoch and preserved from the Flood. Now it seems to me that if these references in the Pistis are not interpolations, The Two Books of ^t leou cannot be identical with the common document in the Extracts and The Book of the Great Logos, but that this document was an overworking and reformulation of these two Books. The Books of leou belonged presumably to some ancient tradition, probably Egyptian, con taining a host of symbols and seals, pass-words and mystery-names, and much else which were referred to what Manetho calls "the Egypt before

the Flood" (the Egypt of the "First Hermes" or Agathodaemon), the traditions of which were equated with the Semitic traditions by Jewish and Christian Gnostic circles. I have dealt with this subject at length in my work on the Trismegistic literature. I believe, then, that the common document in the Extracts and The Book of the Great Logos was not the actual Books of leou referred to in the Pistis Sophia, but that it contained the substance of the leou Books, worked up by a Gnostic writer into a new form. I further suggest that this writer was the same as the author of the Pistis Sophia treatise, who reformulated the Books of leou in the light of the Gnosis of the Living Master. These things, however, do not seem to have been done in order; they were more probably the various attempts at some consistent synthesis of the old wisdom, attempts which in all probability did not satisfy the writer. They were presumably the results of a long life of labour, and may have been several times revised or recast. Who can say in our present ignorance of all historical data?

And if it be asked : Who could have made such an attempt? I can find no answer, on reviewing the whole list of known Gnostic writers, than that Valentinus alone could in any way have attempted it. But that this can ever be proved beyond cavil I have no hope, for we know practically nothing of him and his writings ; we only know of his great reputation, and of his attempted reformulation of the Gnosis. Indeed so-called Valentinianism helps us not at all in this speculation ; on the contrary, if we are to believe in any way the indications of the Church Fathers, " they of Valentinus" seem to have formulated things some what differently, and their ideas form only a small worked-in part of the great syntheses with which we have been dealing. But the information of the Church Fathers is very defective, and they seem for the most part to have dealt with the semi-popular phase of Gnosticism. Such abstruse subjects and such inner teachings as our Codices contain, could not possibly have been circulated publicly; they were meant for " disciples." It is true that the Pistis is in parts in a far more popular form, but if it had been widely circulated ; it is strange that no mention of so marvellous an exposition should remain.

I, however, put forward this speculation with all hesitation ; it means a totally different reading of Valentinianism, a reading from within and not from without. Our ideas on Gnosticism have, however, been so often of late revised by new discoveries, that it may still be hoped that some new find may yet throw a clear light on this (at present) entirely obscure problem. In the Introduction to my translation of the Pistis Sophia, I find that I have stated my conclusions somewhat more crudely than I should now do. I will, therefore, in repeating what I there said as to the probable story of the adventures of the contents of the Askew Codex, slightly modify some expressions. The original Greek treatise which is now called the Pistis Sophia may, then, probably

have been compiled by Valentinus in the latter The half of the second century, perhaps at Alex- Pistis andria. By " compiled " I mean that this Apocalypse Treatise. or Gospel, or whatever its title may have been, was not invented from first to last by Valen tinus ; the framework of the narrative, the selection of texts and ideas from other scriptures, Hebrew, Christian, Egyptian, Chaldsean, Greek, etc., and the adaptation of the nomenclature, were his share of the task. Of this original doubtless several copies were The Coptic made, and mistakes may have crept in. One of these copies was presumably carried up the Nile and translated into the vernacular, Greek being but little understood so far up the river. The translator was evidently not a very accurate person ; moreover his knowledge of the subject was so imperfect that he had to leave many of the technical terms in the original, and doubtless made guesses at others. It is also probable that some things were added and others subtracted on the score of orthodoxy. The wearisome length of the Psalms, for instance, which Pistis Sophia recites in her repentances, followed by the shorter Salomonic Odes, leads one to suppose that the compiler originally quoted only a few striking verses from each psalm, and that the later and more orthodox translator, with that love of wearisome repetition so charac teristic of monkish piety, whether of the East or the West, added the other less apposite verses, with which he was very familiar, while he was compelled to leave the Salomonic Odes as they

stood, owing to his lack of acquaintance with the originals. Moreover, the translator must have translated or possessed a translation of other similar documents, Tf which he or a later scribe styles The Books of the Saviour. Saviour, and from them he extracted what he considered to be passages apposite to the subject in hand, and appended them to the Pistis translation. These Books also, in my opinion, came from the literary workshop of Valentinus. The whole MS. of the Coptic translator seems to have been copied by some ignorant copyist, who The Copyist. made many mistakes of orthography. It was copied by one man as a task, and hurriedly executed ; and I would suggest that two copies were then made and occasionally a page of one copy substituted for a page of the other ; and, as the pages were not quite exact to a word or phrase, we may thus account for some puzzling repetitions and some equally puzzling lacunae. This copy was conjecturally made towards the end of the fourth century.

What was the history of the MS. after this date is impossible even to conjecture. Its history must, however, have been exciting enough for it to have escaped the hands of fanatics — both Christian and Mohammedan. During this period some of the pages were lost. The contents of the inferior MS. of the Bruce Codex presumably had somewhat similar adventures, may even have come from the same distributing Coptic centre. It would be entirely out of place in these short sketches to enter on a critical investigation into the nature of the aeonology, cosmology, soteriology, christology, and eschatology of these documents, and attempt to trace their modifications. The evolution of the universe is according to a certain order, but its involution seems to change that order; the soteriology modifies the seonology and cosmology. It is, in my opinion, because of this, rather than for any other reason, that the scheme underlying the Extracts and The Book of the Great Logos is said to be an " older form " than that underlying the Pistis treatise.

The scheme underlying the Pistis Sophia has Scheme prekeen industriously analysed by Kostlin and revised supposed anci corrected by Schmidt, who has also endeavoured Treatises. to trace the modification of the general scheme underlying the Extracts (hitherto erroneously called the Fourth Book of Pistis Sophia) and The Book of the Great Logos, and of the scheme pre supposed in the Pistis Sophia, — modifications brought about by the revelation of the new glories of the three Spaces of the Inheritance in the last treatise. As the general outlines of the scheme underlying the Pistis Sophia may be of service to the reader, we will give it here, but it should be understood that it represents only one configuration of the cosmic mystery, at a certain moment of time, or in a certain phase of consciousness.