e forced on some schools. We have only to read Iren. III. 15. 2 in
order to see that these associations could only exist by finding support
in a church. Irenaeus expressly remarks that the Valentinians designated
the common Christians [Greek: katholikoi] (communes) [Greek: kai
ekklesiastikoi], but that they, on the other hand, complained that "we
kept away from their fellowship without cause, as they thought like
ourselves."]

[Footnote 346: The differences between the Gnostic Christianity and that
of the Church, that is, the later ecclesiastical theology, were fluid,
if we observe the following points. (1) That even in the main body of
the Church, the element of knowledge was increasingly emphasised, and
the Gospel began to be converted into a perfect knowledge of the world
(increasing reception of Greek philosophy, development of [Greek:
pistis] to [Greek: gnosis]). (2) That the dramatic eschatology began to
fade away. (3) That room was made for docetic views, and value put upon
a strict asceticism. On the other hand, we must note: (1) That all this
existed only in germ or fragments within the great Church during the
flourishing period of Gnosticism. (2) That the great Church held fast to
the facts fixed in the baptismal formula (in the _Kerygma_), and to the
eschatological expectations, further, to the creator of the world as the
supreme God, to the unity of Jesus Christ, and to the Old Testament, and
therefore rejected dualism. (3) That the great Church defended the unity
and equality of the human race, and therefore the uniformity and
universal aim of the Christian salvation. (4) That it rejected every
introduction of new, especially of Oriental Mythologies, guided in this
by the early Christian consciousness and a sure intelligence. A deeper,
more thorough distinction between the Church and the Gnostic parties
hardly dawned on the consciousness of either. The Church developed
herself instinctively into an imperial Church, in which office was to
play the chief role. The Gnostics sought to establish or conserve
associations in which the genius should rule, the genius in the way of
the old prophets or in the sense of Plato, or in the sense of a union of
prophecy and philosophy. In the Gnostic conflict, at least at its close,
the judicial priest fought with the virtuoso and overcame him.]

[Footnote 347: The absolute significance of the person of Christ was
very plainly expressed in Gnosticism (Christ is not only the