The most ancient branch of Gnostics; thus called from Menander their chief, said by some, without sufficient foundation, to have been a disciple of Simon Magus, and himself a reputed magician. He taught, that no person could be saved unless he were baptised in his name; and he conferred a peculiar sort of baptism, which would render those who received it immortal in the next world; exhibiting himself to the world with the phrenzy of a lunatic more than the founder of a sect as a promised saviour; for it appears by the testimonies of Irenxus, Justin, and Tertullian, that he pretended to be one of the xons sent from the pleroma, or ecclesiastical regious, to succour the souls that lay groaning under bodily oppression and servitude; and to maintain them against the violence and stratagems of the daemons that hold the reins of empire in this sublunary world. As this doctrine was built upon the same foundation with that of Simon Magus, the ancient writers looked upon him as the instructor of Menander.
See SIMONIANS.
Despite a stated reliance on the plain meaning of the Bible and the dictates of common sense, Buck's Theological Dictionary, first published in London in 1802, seeks to provide a textual basis for the evangelical community. By combining brief essays on orthodox belief and practice with historical entries on various denominations, Buck provided an interpretive lens that allowed antebellum Protestants to see Christianity's almost two millennia as their own history.Wikipedia
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