ey belonged to the "true church" of an elect few who were worthy; the orthodox Christians would not be saved because they were blind to the truth.
             Ignatus took the idea of "the father, son and the Holy Spirit" to an extreme. He felt that this same hierarchy was represented on earth by the procession of bishop, priest and deacon. And only by worshiping the bishop as a stand-in for god would they be saved. The Orthodox Church was adamant about the importance of the clergy as the medium to god. The Valentinians were a branch of Gnosticism that often were not recognized as heretics. They rode a fine line between the orthodox and the Gnostics. The Valentinians were different from the rest of the Gnostics because they, like the Orthodox Church, proclaimed belief in one god. The orthodox believed that once the Valentinians were in seclusion that they entertained the thought of a conflict between the popular image of god as the source of all being.
             The Orthodox Church was soon more threatened by the Valentinians because they were heretics who's
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