Note 112 — BOOK VII BASILIDES, SATURNILUS, AND OTHERS

Marcion of Pontus was the heresiarch most dreaded by the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and is said to have led away from the Primitive Church a greater number of adherents than any teacher of that age, with the doubtful exception of Valentinus. He also differed from all other heretics of the time in setting up a Church fully equipped with bishops, priests, and deacons over against the Catholic, and in seeing that his followers openly avowed their faith in times of persecution. He rejected the Old Testament entirely, and reduced the New to a shorter edition of the Gospel of St. Luke and ten of the Epistles of St. Paul. This has led to his heresy receiving more attention than any other of its contemporaries at the hands of modern scholars, especially in Germany. Hence it is to be regretted that the chapter in our text which is devoted to him adds nothing to our knowledge of his history or tenets, while its statement that Marcion called the Demiurge πονηρός (wicked) shows either that Hippolytus was ignorant of Marcion’s opinions, or that he misread his authority. The first is the more likely theory, as his master Irenæus gives a more scanty account of Marcion than of any other heretic, while promising to write a special treatise against him. This intention does not seem to have been carried out, and it is probable that while the Marcionite heresy flourished at an early date in the Eastern provinces of the Empire, it had too slight a hold in the West to have given such writers as Irenæus and Hippolytus much first-hand knowledge concerning it. It is also noted that in the so-called “epitome of heresies” in Book X, Hippolytus does not, after his manner with the other heresies, quote from this chapter.