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Ecclesia (2)

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(the Church), one of the eight primary Eeons in the system of Valentinus (q.v.), and held to be the archetype of the lower one on earth. The Gnostics likewise had a heavenly Church, but not a distinct being. This notion is evidently a corruption of the Scriptural idea of the heavenly Jerusalem, and tendencies to a fanciful separation of the Church triumphant and the Church militant are noticeable in the Shepherd of Hermas (Vis. 2:4) and in Clement's Second Epistle to the Corinthians (chapter 14).