THE ANTIGNOSTIC FATHERS If there was one “Christian heresy” in the second century A.D. that threatened the doctrinal purity of the church more than any other, it was Gnosticism. We can do no better in our search for a clear definition of this “other gospel” than to cite Bromiley: The teachers [for example, Valentinus, Basilides, Hermogenes] usually grouped under the title of “Gnostics” so intermingled Christian teachings with current speculations that nothing distinctly Christian remained. Whether