sect of Christian heretics, who sprung up in the second century, and were so called from their leader Valentinus. The Valentinians were only a branch of the Gnostics, who realized or personified the Platonic ideas concerning the Deity, whom they called Pleroma or Plenitude.

Valerius Flaccus, Caius. See Flaccus.

Valletta. See Malta.

Valla, Lorenzo, or Laurentius, the greatest Latin scholar of his time, was born at Rome, according to Drakenborch, in 1407, but other authors date his birth some five or six years later. He was the son of a distinguished lawyer, and was educated in his native city under the charge of Aurispa. Valla subsequently taught rhetoric at Pavia, Milan, and Naples, with great acceptance. He was fortunate enough, while resident in the latter city, to gain the friendship of king Alphonso I., who subsequently saved him from the flames of the Inquisition, to which he was condemned for having maintained some heretical doctrine in a theological dispute with his opponents Beccadelli, Facius, and Poggio. While at Naples, the fame of Valla as a scholar and critic was greatly extended. Going to Rome, he became a canon of St John in the Lateran, but his literary and theological brawls compelled the pope to order him from Rome. He was the first to attack the accuracy of Livy at a time when he had as well have impugned the memory of the apostle Peter. He subsequently successfully justified himself before his holiness, and was appointed professor of rhetoric at Rome with a handsome salary. His works, which are partly critical and partly historical, are much sought after by scholars. His life was embittered by the slanderous literary warfare which he waged against his opponents. He died at Rome in 1457 or 1465. Niebuhr the historian discovered his tomb in an out of the way part of the city of Rome, and caused it again to be replaced in the church of St John, Lateran. A detailed account of the life of Valla is given by Drakenborch in the 7th volume of his edition of Livy.