Such a scheme as this was too palatable to human nature not to have many followers; and accordingly it found its way to Lyons, where Irenæus was bishop. The exact nature of it was first learnt by the confessions of his victims and those of his followers, when, recovering from their delusion, they wished to be readmitted to the Church. One particular instance I have already mentioned, of his having seduced the wife of a deacon in Asia Minor, with whom he had lodged. This person remained with him for a long time; but, being at length restored by the unwearied efforts of the Christians, spent the rest of her life bewailing the pollution she had sustained. This was not the only instance of repentance; but most appear to have dreaded the public acknowledgment which was then required in the case of gross transgression, and thus never to have returned(721).
There is one feature of the Gnostic scheme common to almost every variety of the Gnostics, which was reserved for a separate detail; and which Irenæus introduces immediately after the account of the Marcosian heresy, having probably been able to obtain a more perfect account of their views on that subject, than of those of any other sect. That feature is their ordinance of _Redemption_(722); which was in fact the initiating rite of their perfect adepts(723), and without denying baptism, threw it into the back ground, and thus virtually annulled it(724). The professed object of this rite was the regeneration of those who underwent it, preparatory to their entering into the Fulness(725). The outward form of it was various, according to the fancy of the mystagogue(726). Some celebrated it as a marriage; others made it a baptism in water, with varying forms of words(727); others again poured a mixture of oil and water upon the head of the person who received it; whilst some declared, that the blessing being purely spiritual, all outward signs were unavailing and impertinent; that knowledge was in fact redemption, and that those, and those alone, who were perfect in knowledge were partakers of it(728).
In most cases the Redemption was effected during the lifetime of those who were made partakers of it; but the dead were not excluded. The rite was administered immediately after death.