, author of the heretical sect called Valeutinians, was an Egyptian,
, author of the heretical sect called Valeutinians, was an Egyptian, and, according to Danaeus,
was educated at Alexandria. He aspired to the episcopal
dignity; but being set aside by another, who was afterwards martyred, he formed the design to oppose the true
doctrine of Christ. He came to Rome A.D. 140, during
the pontificate of Hyginus, and there created great disturbances. In 143, he was censured by the church, and
excluded the congregation; which was so far from humbling him, that he retired into Cyprus, where he propagated
his erroneous doctrines with still greater boldness: He was
learned, eloquent, and had studied the Grecian language,
particularly the Platonic philosophy. Thus, from nice and
witty, or sophistical, distinctions, mixing the doctrine of
ideas, and the mysteries of numbers with the Theogony of
Hesiod, and the Gospel of St. John, which was the only
one received by him, he formed a system of religious philosophy, not very different from that of Basilides and the
Gnostics, and in some respects more absurd than either.
The rise of his heresy was in the reign of Adrian. Fleury
places it A. D. 143, as do Danasus, Tillemont, and Echard.
Valentine himself died A.D. 160. His errors spread at
Rome, in Gaul, and Syria, but particularly in the Isle of
Cyprus and Egypt, and continued until the fourth century. Bishop Hooper, in his tract “De Haeresi Valentiniana,
” has deduced this heresy from the Egyptian mysteries. Irenseus was the principal writer against Valentinus, to whom may be added Tertullian, Clemens
Alexandriuus, &c. and among the moderns, Buddeus
“Dissert. de hreresi Valentiniana.
” The author of this heresy
is said to have at last abjured his errors, and was received
into the church again, but we have no farther account of
his personal history.