beautiful and good field you have received the seed and will by it produce fruit. § 23. Marcion Recently Marcion has been commonly treated apart from the Gnostics on account of the large use he made of the Pauline writings. By some he has even been regarded as a champion of Pauline ideas which had failed to hold a place in Christian thought. This opinion of Marcion is being modified under the influence of a larger knowledge of Gnosticism. At the bottom Marcion’s doctrine was thoroughly Gnostic, though he differed from the vast majority of Gnostics in that his interest seems to have been primarily ethical rather than speculative. His school maintained itself for some centuries after undergoing some minor modifications. Marcion was teaching at Rome, A. D. 140. The aspersions upon his moral character must be taken with caution, as it had already become a common practice to blacken the character of theological opponents, regardless of the truth, a custom which has not yet wholly disappeared. Additional source material: Justin Martyr, _Apol._, I. 26, 58; Irenæus, III. 12:12 _ff._ The most important source is Tertullian’s elaborate _Adversus Marcionem_, especially I, 1 _f._, 29; III, 8. 11. (_a_) Irenæus, Adv. _Hær._, I, 27: 1-3. (MSG, 7:687.) The system of Cerdo and Marcion. Ch. 1. A certain Cerdo, who had taken his fundamental ideas from those who were with Simon [_i.e._, Simon Magus], and who was in Rome in the time of Hyginus, who held the ninth place from the Apostles in the episcopal succession, taught that the God who was preached by the law and the prophets is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the former is known, but the latter is unknown; and the former is righteous, but the other is good.