MENANDRIANS, the most ancient branch of
Gnostics; thus called from Menander their chief, said
by some, without sufficient foundation, to have been
a disciple of Simon Magus, and himself a reputed magi-
cian.
He taught, that no person could be saved, unless he
were baptized in his name; and he conferred a peculiar
sort of baptism, which would render those who received
it immortal in the next world: exhibiting himself to the
world, with the phrensy of a lunatic more than the
founder of a sect, as a promised saviour. For it appears
by the testimonies of Irenæus, Justin, and Tertullian,
that he pretended to be one of the sons sent from the
pleroma, or ecclesiastical regions, to succour the souls
that lay groaning under bodily oppression and servitude;
and to maintain them against the violence and stratagems
of the demons that hold the reins of empire in
this sublunary world. As this doctrine was built upon
the same foundation with that of Simon Magus, the an-
cient writers looked upon him as the instructor of Me-
nander. See SIMONIANS.