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 magician.

He taught, that no person could be saved, unless he were baptised 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 phrasery of a lunatic more than the founder of a sect, as a promised favourer. For it appears by the testimonies of Irenaeus, 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 ancient writers looked upon him as the instructor of Menander. See SIMONIANS.