DeConick A.D

272
THE PI OF POLITICS
mysteries or talk to anyone about them unless that person, too, is initiated
(Hippolytus, Refutation 1.pref.3–4).
During the process, the initiate is exposed to tormenting conditions
as well as greater and greater mysteries, making the process emotionally
suspenseful. Tertullian remarks that it takes five years of instruction to
become a “perfect” Valentinian, when the deity is revealed at last to the
fully initiated. The anticipation of this final revelation makes initiation really
attractive. Tertullian says that people crave it (Tertullian, Against the
Valentinians 1.2).
Hippolytus comments on the attractiveness of reserving the final revelation
of secret knowledge for a future date, even until death itself, when
the highest mystery is whispered into the ear of the dying person during
a last rites ceremony. This type of secrecy keeps people committed to the
movement (Hippolytus, Refutation 6.41.2–5).
The second violation of ritual is that Gnostic Christians market their
rituals as advanced ceremonies for advanced Christians. Sometimes these
rituals reflect idiosyncratic activities, such as the Ophian Christian ascent
ceremony of the Seal (Origen, Against Celsus 6.27) or the popular last
rites of the Marcosians (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 1.21.5). But what
really worries the Catholic leaders is how frequently Gnostic rituals are
specialized versions of rituals that the Apostolic Catholic Christians are
doing, making them difficult to distinguish from each other.
For instance, Irenaeus is thoroughly frustrated with the Valentinians,
who, like Apostolic Catholics, openly confess the creed “There is one
God the Father and everything comes from him, and one Lord Jesus
Christ.” But in their hearts, Irenaeus knows, they have transgressed the
liturgy by cueing the meaning of the liturgy with their own secret codes.
In their twisted minds, the “one God the Father” is not the Creator
YHWH but their hidden supreme God, and the “one Jesus” is not a single
entity but a multitude of entities that merge to form Jesus in Valentinian
mythology (4.33.3).
Although the Apostolic Catholic leaders cannot find a common practice
among Gnostics—indeed, they remark that every Gnostic leader relies
upon his own variety of rituals—they do consider Gnostic rites to be divergent
from what is done in the Apostolic Catholic church. To safeguard
their own rituals and liturgies, they remark that Apostolic Catholic rites