whole instrument, (neque enim si Valentinus integro instrumento uti videtur),"(1) &c. Tertullian evidently knew very little of Valentinus himself, and had probably not read his writings at all.(2) His treatise against the Valentinians is avowedly not original, but, as he himself admits, is compiled from the writings of Justin, Miltiades, Irenæus, and Proclus.(3) Tertullian would not have hesitated to affirm anything of this kind positively, had there been any ground for it, but his assertion is at once too uncertain, and the value of his statements of this nature much too small, for such a remark to have any weight as evidence.(4) Besides, by his own showing Valentinus altered Scripture (sine dubio emen-dans),(5) which he could not have done had he recognized it as of canonical authority.(6) We cannot, however, place any reliance upon criticism emanating from Tertullian. All that Origen seems to know on this subject is that the followers of Valentinus [------] have altered the form of the Gospel [------].(7) Clement of Alexandria, however, informs us that Valentinus, like Basilides, professed to have direct traditions from the Apostles, his teacher being Theodas, a disciple of the Apostle Paul.(8) If he had known any Gospels which he believed to have apostolic authority, there would clearly not have been any need of such tradition. Hippolytus distinctly affirms that Valentinus derived his system from Pythagoras and Plato, {76} and "not from the Gospels" [-----], and that consequently he might more properly be considered a Pythagorean and Platonist than a Christian.(1) Irenæus, in like manner, asserts that the Valentinians derive their views from unwritten sources [------],(2) and he accuses them of rejecting the Gospels, for after enumerating them,(3) he continues: "When, indeed, they are refuted out of the Scriptures, they turn round in accusation of these same Scriptures, as though they were not correct, nor of authority.... For (they say) that it (the truth) was not conveyed by written records but by the living voice."(4) In the same chapter he goes on to show that the Valen-tinians not only reject the authority of Scripture, but also reject ecclesiastical tradition. He says: "But, again, when we refer them to that tradition which is from the Apostles, which has been preserved through a succession of Presbyters in the Churches, they are opposed to tradition, affirming themselves wiser not only than Presbyters, but even than the Apostles, in that they have discovered the uncorrupted truth. For (they say) the Apostles mixed up matters which are of the law with the words of the Saviour, &c.... It comes to this, they neither consent to Scripture nor to tradition. (Evenit itaque, neque Scripturis jam, neque Traditioni consentire eos.)"(6) We find, therefore, that even in the time of Irenæus the Valentinians rejected the writings {77}