That Hellenisation of Christianity which gnosticism represented, and against which, in this, its acute form, the Church contended was, after all, the same thing which, by slower process and more unconsciously, befell the Church itself.
"Edward Caldwell Moore Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant"
Edward Moore
All forms of paganism were simultaneously received and retained while the exclusive monotheism of the Jews kept its adherents, and Christianity strengthened its churches and fortified its orthodoxy, at the same time giving birth to the baffling vagaries of gnosticism.
"The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism"
Franz Cumont
With many, however, it assumed a form which at once engendered the worst errors of gnosticism; and gnosticism was, at first, considered a Christian heresy; so that a man might be a pantheist, of the worst kind, and still call himself Christian.
"Irish Race in the Past and the Present"
Aug. J. Thebaud