works in the world. The notes that I have
added are not intended to be final or exhaustive, but to give the
general reader some guidance towards understanding the intensely
interesting topics with which the powerful mind of the ancient mystical
writer was preoccupied. I have endeavoured to show myself a
sympathetic "Hierophant" or expounder of some of the mysteries, not
without study of the Gnosis, both of the Christianised and purely
Hellenistic type, for the key to the understanding of symbolism is only
given into the hands of sympathy.

The Codex Brucianus was brought to England from Upper Egypt, by the
famous traveller Bruce, in 1769, and bequeathed by him to the care of
the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It contains several Gnostic works
translated into the Upper Egyptian dialect from the Greek, and probably
is as old as the sixth century A.D. The Greek originals were of course
much older, that is to say, the MSS. to which the codex ultimately goes
back were much older. We are only concerned with one of them here, the
so-called _Untitled Apocalypse_, which is markedly distinct from the
others in character and style. Schmidt dates it well in the second
century A.D., and with this estimate I am inclined to agree. It shows,
as I have endeavoured to make clear in the notes, marked affinities in
some respects to the _Gospel of Mary_ (Codex Akhmim), which we know to
have been in existence before 180 A.D., and its philosophical basis is
the Platonism of Alexandria. If it is by one writer, I think it may be
dated from 160 or 170 A.D.-200 A.D., and belongs to the period of
Basilides and Valentinus.

Before venturing upon any discussion of the authorship and contents of
our document, it would be as well to say a few words as to the meaning
of that much misunderstood technical term "Gnosis" in Hellenistic and
early Christian theology. For a fuller exposition I would refer the
reader to the admirable essay upon the subject by Mr G. R. S. Mead in
his volume _Quests Old and New_. Gnosis was not "philosophy" in the
generally accepted sense of the term, or even religio-philosophy. "It
was immediate knowledge of God's mysteries received from direct
intercourse with the Deity--mysteries which must remain hidden from the
natural man, a knowledge at the same time which exercises decided
reaction on our relationship to God and also on our nature or
disposition" (Reitzenstein). It was the power or gift of receiving and
understa