GNOSTICISM
592
GNOSTICISM
cessively obnoxious conditions that prevailed through-
out the archdiocese. Since his death it has been with-
out a spiritual head. The diocese is at present in a
very troubled state. The Polish population is bitterly
hostile to the administration in consequence of the
exclusion of their language from the schools, and of
the plantation laws and expropriation policy inaugu-
rated by the Prussian government. The schools have
been altogether removed from the influence of the
archbishop, the clergy, and the parents of the pupils;
the intea-mediate schools are, for the most part, under
the guidance of Protestant directors and teachers. In
consequence of the plantation of German settlers,
mostly of Protestant extraction, many parishes have
been brought to the verge of ruin. The efforts of the
government to Germanize the country and the con-
sequent resistance of the Poles have, in many cases,
exceeded all legitimate bounds, and have given rise to
conditions which are very detrimental to the interests
of the Catholic Church.
II. Statistics.— The Archdiocese of Gnesen-Posen embraces the Prussian governmental department of Posen, the department of Bromberg (with the ex- ception of the circle, or district, of Bromberg), the circles of Deutsch-Krone and the circle of Thorn in Western Prussia and several small places in Poine- rania. The total population in 1900 consisted of 1,272,499 souls, of whom some 110,000 were Germans. Each of the dioceses has a suffragan and its own cathedral chapter. During the vacancy of the see the administration of the Diocese of Posen is administered by the suffragan as capitular vicar and administrator general. The cathedral chapter is composed of a provost, a dean, eight canons and four honorary canons (1_ vacant). At the beginning of 1909 the bishopric included 26 deaneries, 34S parish churches, 104 chapels-of-ease, 91 oratories and public chapels, 69 private chapels, 554 priests, 97 clerics, 951,020 souls. There is a clerical seminary (Seminarium Leoninum) at Posen with 5 professors and 97 alumni, and 2 preparatory colleges. There have been no male orders in either diocese since the Kulturkampf. The following female orders and congregations have institutions in the diocese: the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul have 1.3 convents with 112 sisters; the Grey Sisters of St. Elizabeth have 21 with 141 sisters; the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo 3 with 28 sisters; the Servants of the Immaculate Conception, 8 with 42 sisters. The church at Pasen is the official cathedral of the diocese. It was built between 1772 and 1775on the siteof an older structure. It contains numerous memorial tablets and monu- ments of former bishops, and also the famous golden chapel of Ranch. A collegiate chapter with a provost, a dean, and two canons is attached to the parish church ad Sanctam Mariam Magdalenam, formerly the church of the Jesuits. In the Diocese of Gnesen the provost of the cathedral chapter has jurisdiction as vicar capitular and administrator general. The chapter consists of the provost and six canons. At the beginning of 1909 the diocese included 17 deaneries 207 parish churches, 29 chapels-of-ease, 64 oratories and chapels, 277 priests, 438,425 Catholics. There is one seminary at Gnesen, with 3 professors and 31 students, one archiepiscopal preparatory college, and 9 ecclesiastical hospitals. There are 8 convents of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth with 38 sisters, 5 of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul with 33 in- mates, and six of the Servants of the Immaculate Conception with 38 sisters. The Gothic cathedral at Gnesen, the largest religious sanctuary in all Poland, dates from the 14th century. It contains the silver sarcophagus enclosing the relics of St. Adalbert, to which thousands make pilgrimages each year. There are collegiate chapters attached to the church of St. George in Gnesen, ;>nd to the parish church in Krusch- witz.
Bibliography in Finkel, Bibliografia Hisloryi Polskie, i.e.
Bibliography of Polish History (Cracow, 1876). .Authorities in
Theineh. Vetera Manumenla Polunim et Lithuania (4 vols..
Rome, 1860-64); Codex diplomalicus Majoris Polonia, I (Posen,
1877-81); Monummta PolonicB hislorica, III (Lemberg, 1878);
Ulanowski. Statuta Capitulorum Gnesnensis et Posnaniensis
(Cracow, 1897); Idem, Acta iudiciorum ecclesiasticorum duEce-
siun Plocensis, Wladislaviensis et Gnesnensis 1422-tBSS (Cra-
cow, 1909 — ); Idem, Acta capitulorum Posnaniensis et Wladis'
laviensis (Cracow, 1909 — ). The earlier books on the Arch-
bishops of Gnesen are surpassed by the authoritative work of
KoRYTKowsKi, Arcybisknpi Gnieznienscy, pn/masowie i metro-
poHci polscy od roku lOOOazduroku 1821 (i.e. The Archbishops
of Gnesen, primates and metropolitans of Poland from the year
1000 to the year 1821", 5 vols., Posen. 1887-91); also Idem,
Prataci i kanonicy katedry melropolitanskiej (jnieinieAskiej (i.e.
"The prelates and canons of the metropolitan cathedral at
Gnesen", 4 vols., Gnesen, 1882-83). For the Bishops of Posen cf,
RzEPNicKi, Vitce prcpsulum Pnlonice (2 vols., Posen, 1761 — ). and
KozLo^wsKi, Zwoty prymasowi i arcybiskupow gnieznienskich i
poznanskich w skniceniu (i.e. "Brief biographies of the primates
and Archbishops of Gnesen and Posen", Posen, 1887). On the
diocese itself, of. Lvkaszev/icz, Diocesi Poznanski (3 vols., Posen,
18.58), ^aud KoRYTKowsKi, Brevis descriptio archidiacesis
Gn&inensis H Posnaniensis (Gnesen, 18S8); concerning the
churches cf. Kohte and Warschauer, Verzeichnis der Kunst-
denkmaler der Provinz Posen (4 vols., Posen, 1895-98); also
PoLKowsKi, Katedra Gniehiienska (i.e. "The Cathedral of
Gnesen", Gnesen, 1874). Numerous essavs dealing with both
dioceses can be found in the Zeitschrifl der Historischen Gesell-
schnft far die Provinz Posen (Posen, 1885 — ). Cf. also art.
Poland.
Joseph Lins.
Gnosticism, the doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, l)ased on the etymology of the word (7i'iD(ris "knowledge", yvui<TTiK6s, "good at knowing"), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Chris- tianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi- intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formuUe indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were "people who knew", and their knowl- edge at once constituted them a superior class of bemgs, whose present and future status was essen- tially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know. A more complete and historical definition of Gnosticism would be: "A collective name •for a large number of greatly-varying pantheistic- idealistic sects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God-sent Saviour". However unsatisfactory this definition may be, the obscurity, multiplicity, and wild confusion of Gnostic systems will hardly allow of another. Many scholars, moreover, would hold that every attempt to give a generic description of Gnostic sects is labour lost.
Origin. — The beginnings of Gnosticism have long been a matter of controversy and are still largely a subject of research. The more these origins are stud- ied, the farther they seem to recede in the past. Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly as a corruption of Christianity, it now .seems clear that the first traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before tlie Christian Era. Its Eastern origin was already maintained by (iieseler and Nean- der; F. Ch. Bauer (1831) and Lassen (1858) sought to prove its relation to the religions of India; Lipsius (1860) pointed to Syria and Phoenicia as its home, and Hilgenfeld (1884) thought it was connected with later Mazdeism. Joel (1880), Weingarten (1881), Koff- tnane (1881), Anricb (1894), and Wobbermin (1896)
