A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

MARCUS. MARCUS. 9t7
anonymous writer usually cited as Praedestinatus, the supreme God and the Creator, and to have
nakes Marcus contemporary with Clement of Rome; denied the reality of Christ's incarnation, and the
but this is placing him too early, as, according to resurrection of the body.
Irenaeus. he was a disciple of Valentinus, who pro- Marcus was charged with using magic, and
bably lived in the first half of the century [VALEN- Irenaeus has given a sufficiently obscure descripTIN US]; and there is reason to think, from the tion of the modes in which he imposed on the
manner in which Irenaeus speaks of him, that he was credulity of his votaries, who were commonly women
still alive when that father wrote his treatise Ad- possessed of wealth, and acquired riches at their
versus Haereses [IRENAEUS]. He must be placed expense. Irenaeus suspected that he was assisted
considerably later than the time of Clement. We in his delusions by, some daemon, by whose aid he
have no account in Irenaeus of the country of appeared both to deliver prophecies himself, and to
Marcus; Jerome (Comment. in Isai. lxiv. 4, 5) calls impart the gift of prophecy to those women whom
him an Egyptian, but modern critics do not adopt he deemed worthy to participate in the gift. He
this statement; Lardner thinks, but on very preca- is charged also with employing philters and love
rious ground, that he was " an Asiatic" (i. e. a na- potions, in order to effect his licentious purposes.
tive of Proconsular Asia), and Neander is induced Whether any, or what part of these charges is true,
by some peculiarities of his system to think he was it is difficult to say: that of using magical pracfrom Palestine. All this, however, is mere con- tices, or practices reputed to be magical, is the most
jecture, and we are disposed to accept the statement probable. It is difficult to judge what foundation
of Jerome as to this point, especially as it accords there is for the charge of licentiousness. Lardner
with the statement of Irenaeus that he was a disciple regards it as unfounded. The Marcosians appear
of Valentinus. That Marcus was in Asia, appears to have acknowledged the canonical Scriptures, and
from a scandalous anecdote, related by Irenaeus, of to have received also many apocryphal books, from
his seducing the wife of one Diaconus (or perhaps one of which Irenaeus cites a story which is found
of a certain deacon), into whose house he had been in the Evangelium Inf-antiae. (Iren. A d. HIaeres.
received; but the circumstances show that he was i. 8-18; Epiphan. Haeres. xxxiv. s. ut alii, xiv.;
travelling in that country rather than residing Anon. in the spurious edition to Tertullian, DePraethere. Jerome (I. c. and Epist. ad Theodoram, No. script. Haeret. c. 50, &c.; Tertullian, Adv. Valent.
29, ed. Vett., 53, ed. Benedict, 75, ed. Vallarsii) c. 4, De Resurrect. Carnis, c. 5; Theodoret. Haerestates that he travelled into the parts of Gaul ticarumes Fabularum Comnpend. c. 9; Euseb. H. E.
about the Rhone and the Garonne, then crossed iv. l 1; Philastrius, De Haeresib. post Chlisttum, c.
the Pyrenees into Spain; but Irenaeus, whom he 14; Praedestinatus, De Haesresib. i. 14; Augustin.
cites, is speaking, not of Marcus himself, but of De Haeres. c. 15; Hieronym. II. cc.; Ittigius, De
his followers; and Jerome was probably led into Haeresiarchis, sect. ii. c. 6. ~ 4; Tillemont, Methis misunderstanding of his authority by con- mnoires, vol. ii. p. 291, &c.; Lardner, Hist. of Herefounding this Marcus with another and later tics, book ii. ch. 7; Neander, 1. c.)
teacher of the gnostic school [No. 14], of the same 14. HAERETICUS. Isidore of Seville, in speakname and country. Of the history of Marcus ing of Idacius Clarus, and Sulpicius Severus, in his
nothing more is known. His character is seriously Historia Sacra (ii. 61), mention Marcus, a native
impeached, as already noticed, by Irenaeus, who is of Memphis, as being eminently skilled in magic,
followed by others of the fathers, and who charges a Manichaean, or perhaps personally a disciple of
him with habitual and systematic licentiousness. Manes, and the teacher of the persecuted heresiarch
The followers of Marcus were designated Mar- Priscillian. He is noticed here as having been by
cosii (MaptKccarlol), Marcosians, and a long account Jerome and others confounded with the earlier
of them is given by Irenaeus and by Epiphanius, heresiarch of the same name. [No. 13.] (Isidor.
who has transcribed very largely from Irenaeus; Hispal. De Script. Eccles. c. 2; Sulp. Sever. I. c.)
and a briefer notice is contained in the other an- 15. HAMARTOLUS. [No. 16.]
cient writers on the subject of heresies. The 16. HIEROMONACHUS. In the Typiculs, or
peculiar tenets of Marcus were founded on the ritual directory of the Greek church (TvsnrLra atv'
gnostic doctrine of Aeons; and, according to ee~i acitj 7r apafXoV 7rara,'rTv itd'rTalv T'rS
Irenaeus, Marcus professed to derive his know- gcKKIOA1OLaor1Kis dcoAXovOias Tod XpJ('ov oAeov,
ledge of these Aeons, and of the production of the Typicum, Jfvente Deo, continens integrum Officii
universe, by a revelation from the primal four Ecclesiastici Ordinem per totumn Annum. See the
in the system of Aeons, who descended to him description of the work in Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii.
from the region of the invisible and ineffable, in Dissert. II. p. 38) is contained a treatise, Y'vthe form of a female; but this representation has Tary/a sr Tai acropoe0peva Tov TvKrov, De Duiis
perhaps been owing to Irenaeus interpreting too quae ex Typico oiuntur, arranged in 100 chapters
literally the poetical form in which Marcus deve- by Marcus Hieromonachus, who calls himself
loped his views. Neander (Church Hist. by Rose,'AAap'wAov, "a sinner." This commentary is
vol. ii. p. 95) thus characterizes the system of adapted to the arrangement of the Typicum,
Marcus. " He brought forward his doctrines in a ascribed to St. Saba, but which Oudin supposes to
poem, in which he introduced the Aeons speaking have been drawn up by Marcus himself, and proill liturgical formulae, and in imposing symbols of duced by'hism as the work of St. Saba, in order to
worship... After the Jewish cabalistic method, he obtain: for it an authority which, had it appeared in
hunted after mysteries in the number and positions his own name, it would not have possessed. But
of the letters. The idea of a Aoyos eO dovTds, of though Oudin is successful in showing that parts of
the word as the revelation of the hidden divine the Typicum are adapted to practices which did
being increation, was spun out by him with the not come into use till several centuries after St.
greatest subtilty: he made the whole creation a Saba's death, in the sixth century, and therefore
progressive expression of the inexpressible." The that those parts were of much later date than that
Marcosians are said to have distinguished between of Saint [SABA], he does not prove either that
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