Original post: Asimis
A Brief Summary of Valentinian Theology
The Secret Tradition
According to Valentinus, there are esoteric teachings which originate from Jesus that were passed on in secret. When Jesus spoke in public, he used metaphors that did not disclose his complete teachings. He only passed them on to his disciples in private. He referred to this when he said: "The knowledge about the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but to the rest it comes by means of parables so that they may look but not see and listen but not understand."(Luke 8:9-10 cf. Ireneus Against Heresies 1:3:1). Similarly, when Saint Paul encountered the risen Lord in a vision (2 Corinthians 12:2-4; Acts 9:9-10), he received the secret teaching from him. Valentinus claimed that he learned this secret teaching from Theudas.
According to Valentinus, this secret tradition provides the key that is essential for a complete understanding of Jesus' message. One of his followers put this in the following words: "The scriptures are ambiguous and the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition." (Irenaeus Against Heresies 3:2:1). The Valentinians claimed that the secret teachings are meaningful only to those who are spiritually mature. If a person was not ready to receive them, they seem like nonsense "because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis" (1 Corinthians 2:14). According to the Valentinian tradition, Paul and the other apostles revealed these teachings only to those who were 'spiritually mature' (1 Corinthians 2:6)
God
Valentinians believed that God is incomprehensible and cannot be known directly. Therefore he defies accurate description. He is infinite, without beginning or end and is the ultimate origin of all things. He encompasses all things without being encompassed. Everything including the world lies within the deity and continues to be part of it. The Godhead manifests itself through a process of self-unfolding in the subsequent multiplicity of being while maintaining its unity.
Valentinians believed that God is androgynous and frequently depicted him as a male-female dyad. This is related to the notion that God provides the universe with both form and substance. The feminine aspect of the deity is called Silence, Grace and Thought. Silence is God's primordial state of tranquillity and self-awareness She is also the active creative Thought that makes all subsequent states of being (or "Aeons") substantial. The masculine aspect of God is Depth, also called Ineffable and First Father. Depth is the profoundly incomprehensible, all-encompassing aspect of the deity. He is essentially passive, yet when moved to action by his feminine Thought, he gives the universe form.
The Son
The origin of the universe is described as a process of emanation from the Godhead. The male and female aspects of the Father, acting in conjunction, manifested themselves in the Son. The Son is also often depicted by Valentinians as a male-female dyad. The Son manifests himself in twenty-six spiritual entities or Aeons arranged into male-female pairs. The arrangement and names of the Aeons will not be discussed here. They represent the energies immanent within Son and were seen as part of his personality. Together they constitute the Fullness (pleroma) of the Godhead.
The Fall
The Aeons who are manifested by the Son are conceived as having some degree of psychological independence. They lie within God but are separated from him by a Limit or boundary. As a result, they do not know the one who brought them into being. The Aeons sensed that they were incomplete and longed to know their origin.
This longing passed to Sophia (Wisdom), the youngest of the Aoens. On behalf of the whole Fullness, she took up the quest to know the supreme Parent. She attempted to know him by thinking alone, something that is impossible. As a result, she became separated from her consort and fell into a state of deficiency and suffering. Through the power of Limit, Sophia was divided in two. Her higher part was returned to her consort but her lower part was separated from the Fullness into a lower realm along with the deficiency and suffering. This lower realm is identical with the physical world.
Valentinians envisioned the universe as a series of concentric spheres. The innermost sphere is the world or deficiency where the lower Sophia was exiled. Enclosing this is the Fullness (pleroma) where the Aeons are. The Aeons are enclosed within the Son. The outermost sphere which encompasses the Son is where the Father (Depth and Silence) is. There is a boundary or Limit between God and the Fullness. There is a second boundary or Limit between the Fullness and the deficiency. Just as the Fullness is a product of the Godhead and lies within it, so also the realm of deficiency is a product of the Fullness and lies within it. The deficiency arose as result of ignorance and it will be dissolved through knowledge (gnosis).
Through the mediation of the Son, the Aeons within the Fullness were given knowledge (gnosis) of God and received rest. All of the Aeons then joined together in celebration and became completely integrated into the personality of the Son. The reintegrated Son is also called the Savior. He is destined to be the male partner or bridegroom of the fallen Sophia. He is surrounded by a retinue of angels who were brought forth in honor of the Aeons.
The lower Sophia, trapped in the realm of deficiency, continued to suffer the emotional torments of grief, fear and confusion. As a result of her ignorance, she was trapped in a state of illusion and was unable to distinguish what was real and what unreal. She underwent a conversion when she thought of the light and she began to plead for assistance. In response, her bridegroom, the Savior, and his retinue of angels descended through the Limit to her. Through knowledge (gnosis) of the eternal realm she was freed of illusion and suffering.
The lower Sophia rejoiced at the sight of the Savior and his retinue of angels, and brought forth spiritual seeds in their image. These seeds are the spiritual element present in every Christian. For this reason the seeds are referred to as the spiritual Church. Just as the Savior is the bridegroom of the lower Sophia, so also the angels will be the bridegrooms of the spiritual seeds at the end of time.
Three states of being or "substances" came into being from Sophia as a result of her quest to know God. First the illusion which characterizes material existence came from ignorance and suffering; it is personified as the Devil. Second came soul which comes from conversion as an intermediate stage between ignorance and knowledge. It is personified as the Craftsman (demiurge) who forms the material world. Last the spiritual seed came from her knowledge (gnosis) and is personified in the lower Sophia herself.
Despite the fact that the lower Sophia was no longer ignorant, the ignorance was not fully dissipated. The spiritual seeds were immature and needed training. For this purpose, the creation of the material world was necessary. The lower Sophia and the Savior secretly influenced the Craftsman to create the material world in the image of the Fullness. The Craftsman is ignorant of his mother and thinks that he acts alone, but he unconsciously acts as her agent.
Human Beings
Human beings were created by the Craftsman. In addition to a physical body, Valentinians believed that people were composed of three non-corporeal elements: a demonic part (chous), a rational soul (psyche), and a spiritual seed (pneuma). Human beings were divided into three types depending on which of the three natures is dominant within them. That is why Adam and Eve are described as having had three children who they named Cain, Abel and Seth. They are the prototypes of carnal (choic), animate (psychic) and spiritual (pneumatic) human beings respectively.
Jesus
The decisive event in the history of the world was the ministry of Jesus. He is the physical manifestation of the Son or Savior. Prior to his coming, the true God was unknown. Jesus came to bring knowledge (gnosis) to a suffering humanity that was desperately seeking God. By knowledge, the two elements which had been separated (i.e. the seeds and the angels) are joined.
The Valentinian tradition draws a sharp distinction between the human Jesus and the divine Jesus. The human Jesus was born the true son of Mary and Joseph. By a special dispensation, his body is consubstantial with Sophia and her spiritual seed. When he was thirty years old, he went to John the Baptist to be baptized. As soon as he went down into the water, the divine Savior, referred to as the "Spirit of the Thought of the Father", descended on him in the form of a dove. This is the true "virgin birth" and resurrection from the dead, for he was reborn of the virgin Spirit.
Jesus taught publicly in parables and riddles, but to his closest disciples he revealed the whole truth about the fall of Sophia and the coming restoration of the Fullness. According to Valentinian tradition, Mary Magdalene was an important member of this inner circle. She is seen as an image of the lower Sophia and is described as Jesus' consort in the Gospel of Philip.
The divine Jesus experienced all of the emotions of human being including grief, fear and confusion in the Garden of Gethsemene. However, only the human Jesus suffered pain and died on the cross. His divine aspect transcends physical suffering and death. When his physical body died, his non-corporeal spiritual body rose up from it.
Following the crucifixion, Valentinians believed that Jesus continued to appear to his disciples for eighteen months, not the forty days reported in the Acts of the Apostles. During this period he instructed the disciples "plainly about the Father." Even after his ascension, he continued to appear to people in visions, most notably Saint Paul and Valentinus.
Redemption
According to the Valentinians, people manifest their true nature by their response to the message of Jesus. Using the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-8 ), they explain that through Jesus, Sophia sows the spiritual seed in all who hear the message. In some people the seed "falls on the path" and they do not respond at all. Such people are carnal by nature. In others the seed is choked by the thorns which are worldly concerns. They are hesitant and are unable to go beyond the level of rational explanations. Such people are dominated by their rational element or soul. In others, the seed was planted "in good earth" and they bear spiritual fruit. Such people are Gnostic or spiritual Christians.
People bear fruit spiritually by attaining a state of mystical knowledge (gnosis) in which they are joined with their angel who accompanies the Savior. Awakened from the drunken stupor of ignorance, and freed of suffering, they recognize their true spiritual nature. This is the true resurrection from the dead, that is, from the death of ignorance. This resurrection does not take place in the afterlife. It must be experienced in the here and now.
Valentinians describe the process of union with the divine in terms of a general eschatology that can be realized in the individual here and now. First the person spiritually ascends above the Craftsman and the lower powers to join Sophia, the Savior and their angel. Rejoicing with all of the saved, the person is joined with their angel and enters the Fullness. Such a person is "in the world but not of it." They have already attained a spiritual existence such that, for them, the world has become the Fullness.
Ethics
Despite the untruths spread by their enemies, Valentinians insisted on the highest possible ethical standard from members of their school. They believed that it was possible to lead a sinless existence through perfect knowledge (gnosis) of God's will. Sin was seen as an expression of ignorance. As it says in the Gospel of Philip, "The one who has knowledge is a free person. But the free person does not sin, for the one who sins is a slave of sin " (Gospel of Philip 77:15-18 ).
The Sermon on the Mount was seen as a guide to leading an ethical life. According to the teacher Ptolemy, the law of love taught by Jesus abolished unjust laws, tranformed other laws to a spiritual sense and fulfilled the true divine law (Letter to Flora). While they did reject wealth and temporal authority, Valentinians never rejected marriage and raising children. According to the Alexandrian teacher Theodotus, marriage was necessary so that those with the spiritual seed might be born. Despite his advice, some members of the school practiced celibacy.
Taken from: http://www.gnosis.org/library/valentinus/
Gnostic Christianity
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Gnostic Christianity
Original post: Asimis
A Short History of Gnosticism
The roots of Gnosticism reach far into antiquity and, during much of its history , has faced such persecution as to destroy most records about it. Gnosticism transcends the boundaries of secular religion. Elements of it can be found among Quakers and Old Catholics, the Hebrew Kabbalah, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Baha'i', in Greek philosophy, and even Polynesian Huna. Kabbalistic Gnosticism (or a predecessor thereof) was probably brought to Palestine from Ur of the Chaldees by Abraham.
Gnosticism even transcends the long-standing war between science and religion. In fact, it was Gnostic philosophers like Phthagoras, who were primarily responsible for developing the scientific method. On the other extreme, we can see Hebrew messianic movements (a constant process in Judaism) growing consistently out of Kabbalistic Gnosticism. There is no clear evidence indicating Christianity to be an exception to this rule.
In fact, the earliest recorded schism in Christianity was between the Gnostics and Pistics. Several of the Gospels are clearly Gnostic in orientation, including the Gospels of John, Thomas, Philip, and Mary. Then, it was the Pistics who were the heretics, and they were often hated at that, because it was (and still is) Pistics who would burn Gnostic writings wherever they could find them.
In AD 38, the Church of Antioch was founded by James, Peter and Thomas in
Antioch, Asia Minor. In AD 64, Pistic Christianity began growing by leaps and bounds when Nero began throwing Christians to the lions in the arena. Roman courts offered Christians an out: they could denounce their religion and go free. The Pistics refused and died for it. The Gnostics were horrified. They were faced with a veritable Jonestown horror in their midst. Their friends and neighbors were committing suicide by walking willingly into the mouths of lions.
While Gnostics respected honesty, they respected life more, and they knew that the man who would brandish a sword at them was not interested in honesty, but only in their obedience. They became hated and scorned by Pistics for refusing to die with them. Better advertising could not have been bought. No faith, no commitment, could have been more impressive to the spectators. The arena made converts by the droves, and it was Pistic Christians that they sought out to learn more about this powerful religion.
In Ad 325, the Roman Catholic Church was created by a pagan emperor named Constantine. It was only superficially a Christian Church. The First Nicean Council was assembled to work out the details.
While it was supposed to have been made up of Christian elders from five major Christian centers (Rome, Athens, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch), it also included elders of all the major Pagan religions of Rome. Bishops from the cults of Mithras, Tammuz, Oannes (Dagon), Ceres, Janus, Bacchus, Apollo, Osiris, Jupiter, and Constantine's own religion: Sol Invictus, were invited. It was Constantine's wish that all of the Pagan religions, then at odds with each other, creating unnecessary conflicts, be unified into one "Catholic" church. "Catholic" means universal. The proceedings of that council were conducted by Constantine with an iron hand, and one of the positions which he insisted upon, and got, was to make Pistis a doctrine of the new church. Gnosticism could not be tolerated, because it encouraged its members to question authority. Pistis was thus politically expedient, because it forbade questioning.
The institution of the papacy was built on the doctrine of being the successors of St. Peter as Bishop of Rome, and the first bishop. History, however, does not show Peter to have been in Rome, or to have ever been a bishop, anywhere. The first bishop of Rome was listed as Linus. "Peter of Rome" took the place of the Pet-Roma, the "Book of Stone" which played a major part in initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries. The statue of Jupiter (Jo-Peter) in Rome came to be worshipped as the image of Peter, with the claim that it always had been the image of Peter.
An effective unification of all of Rome's religions had to, not only include the major deities of those religions, but it also had to place them in a position subordinate to the over-god, who was to pull them all together, and to grant him the higher authority. The names of the disciples, then, corresponded to the names of those deities. Matthew was Mithras, Thomas - Tammuz, Mark - Mars, John - Oannes, Peter - Jupiter, Paul - Apollo. Even the Virgin Mary was a variation on older myths. The name "Jesus Christ" was actually a contraction on "Hesus" and "Christos".
The use of crosses, as symbols, was almost non-existent before. This was generally regarded as a violation of the second commandment, and the reminder of Christ's suffering was usually deemed inappropriate. A vote was cast to decide whether women had souls. The women won by one vote. Among early Christians, however, it was the women, as much as the men, who had visions and were accepted for that ability.
The Church of Antioch left the council in disgust. As a consequence, it was persecuted as far away as Malabar, India. The new church was virtually Christian in name only. Early Christians, and not Gnostics alone, were committed pacifists and anarchists. They refused to enter the military, or any kind of government work. After the Nicean Council, this changed, such that within 60 years almost every soldier and civil servant was a Catholic. The traditional Christian virtues of love, tolerance and forgiveness were quickly swept under the proverbial carpet.
Constantine never converted. On his deathbed, when he was too delirious to protest, "Saint Eusebius" entered his chambers, sprinkled holy water on him, and declared him baptized. Constantine, ruthless as he was, had put a stop to the persecution of Christians, but his successors began the persecution of Gnostics in earnest. Popes and Catholic emperors, alike, have shown, by its fruits, that this religion is, in fact, the utter depth of evil. Emperors Valens and Valentinian were such ruthless butchers as to make even Caligula look like a sweetheart.
They were barely the beginning.
In AD 366, Damasus became pope by the violent removal of his rivals. He hired gangs of thugs to ambush Bishop Ursinus's party in the Basilica. 137 men were left dead, not counting those killed in the previous street fighting.
In AD 375, Valens had untold thousands slaughtered on basis of name alone, because a magician obtained a prophecy giving the first letters of the name of Valen's successor: Theta-Epsilon-Omega. Untold thousands were killed on name alone. Anyone whose name began with those letters, whether named Theodore, Theodosius, Theodatus, Theophilus, or Theodora, were sought out and killed. Untold thousands more were also killed on mere suspicion of occult practice. The heads of those executed were piled high in the town squares. Dispite his efforts, Valens could not stop the fulfillment of the prophecy. After his death, an official named Theodosius, from an obscure province of Gaul, took power. Theodosius, a Catholic, ordered the continued slaughter of occult practitioners.
In Ad 1095, in the First Crusade, thousands of Jews in the Rhine valley alone, were dragged from their homes and slaughtered by crusaders before they left for the Holy Land. Along the 2,000 miles of their journey, they butchered and plundered. In Jerusalem, they killed almost everyone they could find, including Christians, Jews and even allies. Their war cry was "God wills it!" Raymond of Aguilers proudly wrote: "In the temple of Solomon, one rode in blood up to the knees and even to the horses bridles, by the just and marvelous judgment of God."
In AD 1139, Pope Innocent II put a ban on longbows. Longbows were the new superweapons, capable of piercing a knight's armor. This ban, of course, did nothing to keep it out of the hands of Muslims. What it attempted to do was to keep it out of the hands of peasants, to prevent them from defending themselves from abusive lords and barons, who would steal with impunity and casually rape any peasant girl they desired. The longbow made it possible for peasants to protect their daughters' honor. This, to a philandering papacy, was intolerable.
In AD 1191, Richard the Lion-hearted captured Acre and ordered 3,000 captives, many women and children, taken outside the city and killed.
In AD 1209, the entire population of the Albigens was slaughtered at the order of Pope Innocent III. The Albigens, in the south of France, was then the most populous, the most technically, socially, and economically advanced part of Europe. Its population was largely Gnostics and Arian Christians, and were a sanctuary for Jews who were persecuted most everyplace
Else in Europe. All of these groups had a high percentage of literacy and read the Bible, which was prohibited by the Vatican. Innocent III was seeking to put a stop to the "Gnostic heresy", but found it to be entrenched throughout Europe, so he followed the "Cathar Crusade" with the creation of the Inquisition, resulting in countless millions of people being slowly and brutally tortured to death over the next 500 years, under mere suspicion of being witches. Innocent also reinstated a prohibition against the owning or reading of Bibles by anyone other than clergy, under penalty of death.
In AD 1252, Pope Innocent IV gave sanction to the use of torture. When an inquisitor showed up, whole villages could be wiped out and a province could lose half its population, all slowly tortured to death or burned at the stake. The Inquisitor would then leave with all of the wealth, half of which was sent to the Vatican. Inquisitors became relentless in their greed. They condemned as many as possible in their drive for riches. Even the dead were condemned, so inheritances could be stolen from their heirs.
Columbus, Cortez, Pizzaro, DeSoto, in the search for God, Glory and Gold in the new world, left trails of blood. Columbus had about 2,000 San Salvadorians killed for telling him they didn't know where any gold was.
Following the U.S. Civil War, the papacy continued to defend the institution of slavery, even when it had fallen into disfavor most everywhere else.
The papacy also continued the practice of creating castratos (boys castrated before puberty to keep their singing voices high-pitched) for their own entertainment, long after it had fallen in disfavor throughout Italy. Neither is Catholicism alone in being responsible for such atrocity. It has, in fact, been endemic to almost every Pistic religion:
The Aztecs, Mayans and Incas practiced human sacrifice. In the 1300s, the Aztecs, alone, killed about 20,000 yearly.
India's Thugee sect, before it was wiped out with the help of the British, claimed the murder of about 20,000 per year.
Islamic Jihads, mandated by the Koran, resulted in the deaths of millions over a period of 1,200 years.
Baha'i's have been a peaceful people, since the religion was founded in Persia, in 1844. Baha'u'lla'h, their leader, taught against too rigid dogma. The Islamics disagreed, and killed thousands of Baha'i's. In 1852, 200,000 Baha'i's were massacred in the streets of Tehran.
In the early 1900s, Muslim Turks committed genocide against the Armenians.
Noteworthy is the fact that neither Hitler nor Stalin was tolerant of dissent or disagreement. Hitler believed himself on a mission from God. Stalin enforced atheist communism as a Pistic dogma.
In 1947, when India won its independence from Great Britain, the Hindus and Muslims began killing each other with religious zeal. A million died, including Ghandi, before it stopped. Neither can the word of Pistic leaders be trusted. The Vatican, in particular, has a long-standing tradition of fabricating its own history as it went along.
Constantine burned, along with Christian writings that did not fit his ideas for the new religion; he also burned the records of 300 years of Greek philosophy. Neither would he be the last emperor to burn historical documents to cover his tracks. A controversy was raised by a man named Heirocles, who accused the Council of plagiarizing the library of Apollonius of Tyana to produce the New Testament. Heirocles' own arguments were destroyed, but Euesbius' rebuttal, consisting mostly of ridicule, survived.
Circa AD 366, It was Damasus who invented the name "pope", derived from a Greek word for father: "pappas", in violation of Christ's commandments. He also invented the doctrine of the pope being the successor to St. Peter, never mind Peter was never a bishop in Rome, nor anywhere else, and it is doubtful he was ever in Rome. Meanwhile, Peter was one of the founders of the Church of Antioch, which had succeeded from the Catholic Church.
In AD 378, Emperor Theodosius ordered large numbers of historical documents burned.
Circa AD 390, Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, incited a mob to burn the Library of Alexandria, and brutally murder Hypatia, its curator and librarian. For these crimes he was sainted. The Library of Alexandria had been the largest, most comprehensive library of the ancient world. Part of it survived to be burned by Pistic Arabs about two centuries later.
In AD 750, a document surfaced entitled: "The Donation of Constantine" claiming to have been written by Emperor Constantine giving deed of the entire Roman Empire to the Church. Such a greed for power grew out of the acceptance of this story as fact, that there would be as many as four popes take power in a day, each after having his predecessor murdered.
It was exposed as a forgery on both linguistic and historical grounds, independently, by Nicholas of Cues in 1433, and Lorenzo Valla in 1440.
In AD 1030, Pope Gregory the Great took power, declared himself a saint, and created a staff of forgers to create documents supporting any new policy as already existing. Gregory was later excommunicated by a group of Italian Bishops for "preferring licentiousness to honorable marriage". Most "celibate" popes were actually shameless philanderers, womanizers, but Gregory, in reinstating the doctrine of priestly celebacy, had exiled the wives and children of Roman priests, leaving them helpless, while doing nothing about the prostitutes and concubines kept by the clergy. Many wives committed suicide.
Christian history has, by no means, been all bad. Of special note is the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. The Quakers have done more work on behalf of world peace than probably all other religions, with the possible exception of the Baha'i's. The Society of Friends, founded in England in the early 1600s, has as its central teaching that everyone has an "Inner Light": "He was the true light which lighted every man who came into the world." John 1:9. As such, they went a long way toward rediscovering the teachings of ancient Gnosticism, even regarding the "Inner Light" as a higher authority than scripture.
They have also been one of the most egalitarian forms of Christianity, subjecting major decisions, concerning the group, whether in business or church management, to a consensus. As Saturn Corp. has discovered, this approach is a very effective quality control device, and many a Quaker business has prospered by employing that approach. So what of the followers, the true believers of Catholicism, Islam, Communism or any other Pistic religion? It is not they who are the evil. They are merely ignorant pawns in someone else's game. To attack them is to miss the point and create an unnecessary enemy. Even the bad apples are merely the symptom of a bad system. If we merely attack bad apples, we condemn ourselves to keep on doing so, like attacking criminals without addressing the causes of crime. To do so is to be short-sighted and ineffectual. It is the Pistic commitment to BELIEF, to the exclusion of evidence, that is at the root of the evil in our world. To believe to the exclusion of evidence is to create a schism between your understanding and your senses. This is nothing less than a breach of integration, and therefore a breach of integrity.
Having done so, you leave yourself open to be used as a tool of whatever evil your leaders wish to commit. Obfuscation, fraud, and even slander are still going on. In fact, they are widespread among Pistic Churches. Some examples can be found in: Sites That Slander Gnosticism. An analysis is offered in: Why Fundamentalist Religions are Really the Devil's Teaching. Should we really expect any better of the spiritual heirs of one of the most pathological, and long-standing, liars in history: the Roman Catholic Church?
Jesus once said that we should beware of false prophets, that we shall know them by their fruits. The fruits of Gnosticism have benefited many. Gnostic teaching has brought us science, prosperity, wisdom and a foundation for peace. The fruits of Pistis have been oppression, deception, book-burning, torture, the falsification of history, mass murder, and even suicide in the name of God. "
A Short History of Gnosticism
The roots of Gnosticism reach far into antiquity and, during much of its history , has faced such persecution as to destroy most records about it. Gnosticism transcends the boundaries of secular religion. Elements of it can be found among Quakers and Old Catholics, the Hebrew Kabbalah, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Baha'i', in Greek philosophy, and even Polynesian Huna. Kabbalistic Gnosticism (or a predecessor thereof) was probably brought to Palestine from Ur of the Chaldees by Abraham.
Gnosticism even transcends the long-standing war between science and religion. In fact, it was Gnostic philosophers like Phthagoras, who were primarily responsible for developing the scientific method. On the other extreme, we can see Hebrew messianic movements (a constant process in Judaism) growing consistently out of Kabbalistic Gnosticism. There is no clear evidence indicating Christianity to be an exception to this rule.
In fact, the earliest recorded schism in Christianity was between the Gnostics and Pistics. Several of the Gospels are clearly Gnostic in orientation, including the Gospels of John, Thomas, Philip, and Mary. Then, it was the Pistics who were the heretics, and they were often hated at that, because it was (and still is) Pistics who would burn Gnostic writings wherever they could find them.
In AD 38, the Church of Antioch was founded by James, Peter and Thomas in
Antioch, Asia Minor. In AD 64, Pistic Christianity began growing by leaps and bounds when Nero began throwing Christians to the lions in the arena. Roman courts offered Christians an out: they could denounce their religion and go free. The Pistics refused and died for it. The Gnostics were horrified. They were faced with a veritable Jonestown horror in their midst. Their friends and neighbors were committing suicide by walking willingly into the mouths of lions.
While Gnostics respected honesty, they respected life more, and they knew that the man who would brandish a sword at them was not interested in honesty, but only in their obedience. They became hated and scorned by Pistics for refusing to die with them. Better advertising could not have been bought. No faith, no commitment, could have been more impressive to the spectators. The arena made converts by the droves, and it was Pistic Christians that they sought out to learn more about this powerful religion.
In Ad 325, the Roman Catholic Church was created by a pagan emperor named Constantine. It was only superficially a Christian Church. The First Nicean Council was assembled to work out the details.
While it was supposed to have been made up of Christian elders from five major Christian centers (Rome, Athens, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch), it also included elders of all the major Pagan religions of Rome. Bishops from the cults of Mithras, Tammuz, Oannes (Dagon), Ceres, Janus, Bacchus, Apollo, Osiris, Jupiter, and Constantine's own religion: Sol Invictus, were invited. It was Constantine's wish that all of the Pagan religions, then at odds with each other, creating unnecessary conflicts, be unified into one "Catholic" church. "Catholic" means universal. The proceedings of that council were conducted by Constantine with an iron hand, and one of the positions which he insisted upon, and got, was to make Pistis a doctrine of the new church. Gnosticism could not be tolerated, because it encouraged its members to question authority. Pistis was thus politically expedient, because it forbade questioning.
The institution of the papacy was built on the doctrine of being the successors of St. Peter as Bishop of Rome, and the first bishop. History, however, does not show Peter to have been in Rome, or to have ever been a bishop, anywhere. The first bishop of Rome was listed as Linus. "Peter of Rome" took the place of the Pet-Roma, the "Book of Stone" which played a major part in initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries. The statue of Jupiter (Jo-Peter) in Rome came to be worshipped as the image of Peter, with the claim that it always had been the image of Peter.
An effective unification of all of Rome's religions had to, not only include the major deities of those religions, but it also had to place them in a position subordinate to the over-god, who was to pull them all together, and to grant him the higher authority. The names of the disciples, then, corresponded to the names of those deities. Matthew was Mithras, Thomas - Tammuz, Mark - Mars, John - Oannes, Peter - Jupiter, Paul - Apollo. Even the Virgin Mary was a variation on older myths. The name "Jesus Christ" was actually a contraction on "Hesus" and "Christos".
The use of crosses, as symbols, was almost non-existent before. This was generally regarded as a violation of the second commandment, and the reminder of Christ's suffering was usually deemed inappropriate. A vote was cast to decide whether women had souls. The women won by one vote. Among early Christians, however, it was the women, as much as the men, who had visions and were accepted for that ability.
The Church of Antioch left the council in disgust. As a consequence, it was persecuted as far away as Malabar, India. The new church was virtually Christian in name only. Early Christians, and not Gnostics alone, were committed pacifists and anarchists. They refused to enter the military, or any kind of government work. After the Nicean Council, this changed, such that within 60 years almost every soldier and civil servant was a Catholic. The traditional Christian virtues of love, tolerance and forgiveness were quickly swept under the proverbial carpet.
Constantine never converted. On his deathbed, when he was too delirious to protest, "Saint Eusebius" entered his chambers, sprinkled holy water on him, and declared him baptized. Constantine, ruthless as he was, had put a stop to the persecution of Christians, but his successors began the persecution of Gnostics in earnest. Popes and Catholic emperors, alike, have shown, by its fruits, that this religion is, in fact, the utter depth of evil. Emperors Valens and Valentinian were such ruthless butchers as to make even Caligula look like a sweetheart.
They were barely the beginning.
In AD 366, Damasus became pope by the violent removal of his rivals. He hired gangs of thugs to ambush Bishop Ursinus's party in the Basilica. 137 men were left dead, not counting those killed in the previous street fighting.
In AD 375, Valens had untold thousands slaughtered on basis of name alone, because a magician obtained a prophecy giving the first letters of the name of Valen's successor: Theta-Epsilon-Omega. Untold thousands were killed on name alone. Anyone whose name began with those letters, whether named Theodore, Theodosius, Theodatus, Theophilus, or Theodora, were sought out and killed. Untold thousands more were also killed on mere suspicion of occult practice. The heads of those executed were piled high in the town squares. Dispite his efforts, Valens could not stop the fulfillment of the prophecy. After his death, an official named Theodosius, from an obscure province of Gaul, took power. Theodosius, a Catholic, ordered the continued slaughter of occult practitioners.
In Ad 1095, in the First Crusade, thousands of Jews in the Rhine valley alone, were dragged from their homes and slaughtered by crusaders before they left for the Holy Land. Along the 2,000 miles of their journey, they butchered and plundered. In Jerusalem, they killed almost everyone they could find, including Christians, Jews and even allies. Their war cry was "God wills it!" Raymond of Aguilers proudly wrote: "In the temple of Solomon, one rode in blood up to the knees and even to the horses bridles, by the just and marvelous judgment of God."
In AD 1139, Pope Innocent II put a ban on longbows. Longbows were the new superweapons, capable of piercing a knight's armor. This ban, of course, did nothing to keep it out of the hands of Muslims. What it attempted to do was to keep it out of the hands of peasants, to prevent them from defending themselves from abusive lords and barons, who would steal with impunity and casually rape any peasant girl they desired. The longbow made it possible for peasants to protect their daughters' honor. This, to a philandering papacy, was intolerable.
In AD 1191, Richard the Lion-hearted captured Acre and ordered 3,000 captives, many women and children, taken outside the city and killed.
In AD 1209, the entire population of the Albigens was slaughtered at the order of Pope Innocent III. The Albigens, in the south of France, was then the most populous, the most technically, socially, and economically advanced part of Europe. Its population was largely Gnostics and Arian Christians, and were a sanctuary for Jews who were persecuted most everyplace
Else in Europe. All of these groups had a high percentage of literacy and read the Bible, which was prohibited by the Vatican. Innocent III was seeking to put a stop to the "Gnostic heresy", but found it to be entrenched throughout Europe, so he followed the "Cathar Crusade" with the creation of the Inquisition, resulting in countless millions of people being slowly and brutally tortured to death over the next 500 years, under mere suspicion of being witches. Innocent also reinstated a prohibition against the owning or reading of Bibles by anyone other than clergy, under penalty of death.
In AD 1252, Pope Innocent IV gave sanction to the use of torture. When an inquisitor showed up, whole villages could be wiped out and a province could lose half its population, all slowly tortured to death or burned at the stake. The Inquisitor would then leave with all of the wealth, half of which was sent to the Vatican. Inquisitors became relentless in their greed. They condemned as many as possible in their drive for riches. Even the dead were condemned, so inheritances could be stolen from their heirs.
Columbus, Cortez, Pizzaro, DeSoto, in the search for God, Glory and Gold in the new world, left trails of blood. Columbus had about 2,000 San Salvadorians killed for telling him they didn't know where any gold was.
Following the U.S. Civil War, the papacy continued to defend the institution of slavery, even when it had fallen into disfavor most everywhere else.
The papacy also continued the practice of creating castratos (boys castrated before puberty to keep their singing voices high-pitched) for their own entertainment, long after it had fallen in disfavor throughout Italy. Neither is Catholicism alone in being responsible for such atrocity. It has, in fact, been endemic to almost every Pistic religion:
The Aztecs, Mayans and Incas practiced human sacrifice. In the 1300s, the Aztecs, alone, killed about 20,000 yearly.
India's Thugee sect, before it was wiped out with the help of the British, claimed the murder of about 20,000 per year.
Islamic Jihads, mandated by the Koran, resulted in the deaths of millions over a period of 1,200 years.
Baha'i's have been a peaceful people, since the religion was founded in Persia, in 1844. Baha'u'lla'h, their leader, taught against too rigid dogma. The Islamics disagreed, and killed thousands of Baha'i's. In 1852, 200,000 Baha'i's were massacred in the streets of Tehran.
In the early 1900s, Muslim Turks committed genocide against the Armenians.
Noteworthy is the fact that neither Hitler nor Stalin was tolerant of dissent or disagreement. Hitler believed himself on a mission from God. Stalin enforced atheist communism as a Pistic dogma.
In 1947, when India won its independence from Great Britain, the Hindus and Muslims began killing each other with religious zeal. A million died, including Ghandi, before it stopped. Neither can the word of Pistic leaders be trusted. The Vatican, in particular, has a long-standing tradition of fabricating its own history as it went along.
Constantine burned, along with Christian writings that did not fit his ideas for the new religion; he also burned the records of 300 years of Greek philosophy. Neither would he be the last emperor to burn historical documents to cover his tracks. A controversy was raised by a man named Heirocles, who accused the Council of plagiarizing the library of Apollonius of Tyana to produce the New Testament. Heirocles' own arguments were destroyed, but Euesbius' rebuttal, consisting mostly of ridicule, survived.
Circa AD 366, It was Damasus who invented the name "pope", derived from a Greek word for father: "pappas", in violation of Christ's commandments. He also invented the doctrine of the pope being the successor to St. Peter, never mind Peter was never a bishop in Rome, nor anywhere else, and it is doubtful he was ever in Rome. Meanwhile, Peter was one of the founders of the Church of Antioch, which had succeeded from the Catholic Church.
In AD 378, Emperor Theodosius ordered large numbers of historical documents burned.
Circa AD 390, Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, incited a mob to burn the Library of Alexandria, and brutally murder Hypatia, its curator and librarian. For these crimes he was sainted. The Library of Alexandria had been the largest, most comprehensive library of the ancient world. Part of it survived to be burned by Pistic Arabs about two centuries later.
In AD 750, a document surfaced entitled: "The Donation of Constantine" claiming to have been written by Emperor Constantine giving deed of the entire Roman Empire to the Church. Such a greed for power grew out of the acceptance of this story as fact, that there would be as many as four popes take power in a day, each after having his predecessor murdered.
It was exposed as a forgery on both linguistic and historical grounds, independently, by Nicholas of Cues in 1433, and Lorenzo Valla in 1440.
In AD 1030, Pope Gregory the Great took power, declared himself a saint, and created a staff of forgers to create documents supporting any new policy as already existing. Gregory was later excommunicated by a group of Italian Bishops for "preferring licentiousness to honorable marriage". Most "celibate" popes were actually shameless philanderers, womanizers, but Gregory, in reinstating the doctrine of priestly celebacy, had exiled the wives and children of Roman priests, leaving them helpless, while doing nothing about the prostitutes and concubines kept by the clergy. Many wives committed suicide.
Christian history has, by no means, been all bad. Of special note is the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. The Quakers have done more work on behalf of world peace than probably all other religions, with the possible exception of the Baha'i's. The Society of Friends, founded in England in the early 1600s, has as its central teaching that everyone has an "Inner Light": "He was the true light which lighted every man who came into the world." John 1:9. As such, they went a long way toward rediscovering the teachings of ancient Gnosticism, even regarding the "Inner Light" as a higher authority than scripture.
They have also been one of the most egalitarian forms of Christianity, subjecting major decisions, concerning the group, whether in business or church management, to a consensus. As Saturn Corp. has discovered, this approach is a very effective quality control device, and many a Quaker business has prospered by employing that approach. So what of the followers, the true believers of Catholicism, Islam, Communism or any other Pistic religion? It is not they who are the evil. They are merely ignorant pawns in someone else's game. To attack them is to miss the point and create an unnecessary enemy. Even the bad apples are merely the symptom of a bad system. If we merely attack bad apples, we condemn ourselves to keep on doing so, like attacking criminals without addressing the causes of crime. To do so is to be short-sighted and ineffectual. It is the Pistic commitment to BELIEF, to the exclusion of evidence, that is at the root of the evil in our world. To believe to the exclusion of evidence is to create a schism between your understanding and your senses. This is nothing less than a breach of integration, and therefore a breach of integrity.
Having done so, you leave yourself open to be used as a tool of whatever evil your leaders wish to commit. Obfuscation, fraud, and even slander are still going on. In fact, they are widespread among Pistic Churches. Some examples can be found in: Sites That Slander Gnosticism. An analysis is offered in: Why Fundamentalist Religions are Really the Devil's Teaching. Should we really expect any better of the spiritual heirs of one of the most pathological, and long-standing, liars in history: the Roman Catholic Church?
Jesus once said that we should beware of false prophets, that we shall know them by their fruits. The fruits of Gnosticism have benefited many. Gnostic teaching has brought us science, prosperity, wisdom and a foundation for peace. The fruits of Pistis have been oppression, deception, book-burning, torture, the falsification of history, mass murder, and even suicide in the name of God. "
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Occult Forum Archive
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Gnostic Christianity
Original post: Asimis
A Chronology of the Valentinian School:
7-4BC Birth of Yeshu, or Jesus
25-27 Yeshu teaches Naziruthian gnosis and weds Miryai.
27 Crucifixion of Yeshu
37-65 Activity of* Paul.
60 Theudas a disciple of Paul.
62 Martyrdom of James, brother of Yeshu
65 Martyrdom of Paul
70 Destruction of Jerusalem
70-110 Development of speculative theology among some of Paul's followers and seeds of corruption are sewn into the Pauline School.
90 Valentinus born in Phrebonis, Egypt (near Alexandria).
110 Valentinus comes into contact with Theudas, an aging disciple of Paul
120 Valentinus founds school at Alexandria after having a vision of Christ in the form of a child. Theodotus among his first followers.
139 Valentinus goes to Rome and founds school there. Ptolemy and Secundus his most important pupils.
143 Valentinus a candidate for bishop of Rome
150 Florinus moves from Smyrna to Rome where he joins the Valentinian school
155 Valentinus dies
155-175 Secundus, Herakleon, and Ptolemy active at Rome.Theodotus and Marcus in Alexandria.
Valentinian school spreads throughout the Roman Empire.
160 Prominent Valentinian teacher Ptolemy imprisoned and later martyred(?)Herakleon moves from Sicily to Rome where he becomes one of the leading figures of the Valentinian school
165 Miltiades opposes Valentinians in Smyrna.
170 Julius Cassian splits with the Valentinian school at Alexandria over the issue of marriage.
175-225 Alexander active in north Africa.
Theotimus and Florinus active at Rome.
Axionicus active at Antioch.
Marcus active at Lyon and Syria.
North African Valentinians translate the school's writings into Latin. First opponents of the Valentinian school (Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria)
178 Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, attacks Valentinians in his book "Against Heresies".
195 Valentinians in Carthage opposed by Tertullian.
200 Florinus presbyter at Rome.
Syrian school under Axionicus rises to prominence.
Leucius incorporates Valentinian material into Acts of John.
Tertullian attacks the school in "Against the Valentinians".
Valentinians at Alexandria opposed by Clement.
200 Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, demands that the bishop of Rome dismiss the presbyter Florinus on the grounds that he is a Valentinian.
216 A.D* Mar Mani, the promised Parclete and Maitreya, was born on 8 Nissan, 216 A.D. in Mardinu, a little village in southern Iraq, along the Euphrates river and grows up in an Elchasite monastery.
225-325 Candidus at Athens. Philokomos, Adelphius and Aquilinus at Rome.
Demostratus active in Lydia.
229 Prominent Valentinan teacher Candidus debates orthodox teacher Origen at Athens.
230 Hippolytus writes against Valentinians at Rome in his "Refutation of all Heresies".
235 The teachings of Beron and Helix lead to dissention with the Valentinian school at Rome.
263-268 Adelphius and Aquilinus form a Valentinian circle within the Neoplatonist school at Rome.
268 Plotinus writes "Against the Gnostics" (Enneads II:9) to curb the infuence of Valentinians (Adelphius and Aquilinus) in his school.
275 Burial inscription of Flavia Sophe, a Valentinian woman in Rome.
250-350 Egyptian Valentinians translate Valentinian writings into Coptic e.g. Codex I and XI from Nag Hammadi.
Egyptian Valentinians translate Biblical texts into Coptic e.g. Papyrus Bodmer III (cf. Massaux, 1959, New Testament Studies 5, pp 210-12).
326-379 With state support, the Catholic church begins to expel "heretics" from their congregations.
326 Catholicism becomes state religion of Roman Empire. Valentinians (among others) forbidden to assemble by emporor Contantine. No penalty was imposed on those who did.
350 Church authorities ban "heretical" writings. Valentinian writings among those buried by monks at Nag Hamadi to hide them from Catholic authorities.
350 Arians persecute Valentinians in Edessa
379-395 Reign of emporor Theodosius I. His reign was marked by a sort of "cultural revolution". A reign of terror was instituted. All religions other than Catholism were banned and religious persecution became state policy. Under the "Theodosian Laws" heresy became treason and was punishable by death. Numerous books and religious buildings were destroyed. "Heretics" were forcibly expelled from larger cities and had their property seized.
380 Epiphanius of Salimis writes against Valentinians in "Panarion". Based on his own writings, he was one of the major instigators of purges of non-Catholics.
385 In Spain, Priscillian is accused of having connections with the Manichean and Valentinian schools. He and two followers are executed. They are the first of many executed for 'heresy'.
386 Valentinians in Antioch opposed by John Chrystostom
387 Catholic fanatics ransack and burn the great library of Alexandria. Thousands of books are lost including many Gnostic and philosophical works.
388 The Catholic bishop at Callinicum (modern Syria) sends a mob of monks to burn a Valentinian chapel and a Jewish synagogue. Incidents of this sort going were taking place throughout the Roman Empire. The Catholic "Church Father" Ambrose convinces the emporor not to punish the perpetrators of these acts.
395-500 Valentinianism begins to go into decline as a result of persecution by Catholic and Roman authorities.
400 Valentianians persecuted by Severian at Gabula.
400 Valentianians persecuted by Theodore at Mopsuestia.
428 Valentinians forbidden to assemble by emporor Theodosius II on pain of death.
450 Valentinians persecuted by Theodoret in Cyrrus.
476 Final fall of Western Roman Empire.
500-800 Valentinianism reduced to a small underground movement.
Brutal persecution by Catholic authorities continues.
600 A small group of Valentinian 'Hermetics' active at Constantinople
692 Suppression of Valentinianism is mentioned by Trullan Synod indicating the school still existed at this time.
800 The Valentinian school proper disappears.
1945 The Gnostic Christian Nag Hammadi Library is found in Egypt. The writings had been buried since 350. Approximately one third of the 51 writings in the library derive from the Valentinian school.
Taken from: http://essenes.net/valen3.html
A Chronology of the Valentinian School:
7-4BC Birth of Yeshu, or Jesus
25-27 Yeshu teaches Naziruthian gnosis and weds Miryai.
27 Crucifixion of Yeshu
37-65 Activity of* Paul.
60 Theudas a disciple of Paul.
62 Martyrdom of James, brother of Yeshu
65 Martyrdom of Paul
70 Destruction of Jerusalem
70-110 Development of speculative theology among some of Paul's followers and seeds of corruption are sewn into the Pauline School.
90 Valentinus born in Phrebonis, Egypt (near Alexandria).
110 Valentinus comes into contact with Theudas, an aging disciple of Paul
120 Valentinus founds school at Alexandria after having a vision of Christ in the form of a child. Theodotus among his first followers.
139 Valentinus goes to Rome and founds school there. Ptolemy and Secundus his most important pupils.
143 Valentinus a candidate for bishop of Rome
150 Florinus moves from Smyrna to Rome where he joins the Valentinian school
155 Valentinus dies
155-175 Secundus, Herakleon, and Ptolemy active at Rome.Theodotus and Marcus in Alexandria.
Valentinian school spreads throughout the Roman Empire.
160 Prominent Valentinian teacher Ptolemy imprisoned and later martyred(?)Herakleon moves from Sicily to Rome where he becomes one of the leading figures of the Valentinian school
165 Miltiades opposes Valentinians in Smyrna.
170 Julius Cassian splits with the Valentinian school at Alexandria over the issue of marriage.
175-225 Alexander active in north Africa.
Theotimus and Florinus active at Rome.
Axionicus active at Antioch.
Marcus active at Lyon and Syria.
North African Valentinians translate the school's writings into Latin. First opponents of the Valentinian school (Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria)
178 Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, attacks Valentinians in his book "Against Heresies".
195 Valentinians in Carthage opposed by Tertullian.
200 Florinus presbyter at Rome.
Syrian school under Axionicus rises to prominence.
Leucius incorporates Valentinian material into Acts of John.
Tertullian attacks the school in "Against the Valentinians".
Valentinians at Alexandria opposed by Clement.
200 Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, demands that the bishop of Rome dismiss the presbyter Florinus on the grounds that he is a Valentinian.
216 A.D* Mar Mani, the promised Parclete and Maitreya, was born on 8 Nissan, 216 A.D. in Mardinu, a little village in southern Iraq, along the Euphrates river and grows up in an Elchasite monastery.
225-325 Candidus at Athens. Philokomos, Adelphius and Aquilinus at Rome.
Demostratus active in Lydia.
229 Prominent Valentinan teacher Candidus debates orthodox teacher Origen at Athens.
230 Hippolytus writes against Valentinians at Rome in his "Refutation of all Heresies".
235 The teachings of Beron and Helix lead to dissention with the Valentinian school at Rome.
263-268 Adelphius and Aquilinus form a Valentinian circle within the Neoplatonist school at Rome.
268 Plotinus writes "Against the Gnostics" (Enneads II:9) to curb the infuence of Valentinians (Adelphius and Aquilinus) in his school.
275 Burial inscription of Flavia Sophe, a Valentinian woman in Rome.
250-350 Egyptian Valentinians translate Valentinian writings into Coptic e.g. Codex I and XI from Nag Hammadi.
Egyptian Valentinians translate Biblical texts into Coptic e.g. Papyrus Bodmer III (cf. Massaux, 1959, New Testament Studies 5, pp 210-12).
326-379 With state support, the Catholic church begins to expel "heretics" from their congregations.
326 Catholicism becomes state religion of Roman Empire. Valentinians (among others) forbidden to assemble by emporor Contantine. No penalty was imposed on those who did.
350 Church authorities ban "heretical" writings. Valentinian writings among those buried by monks at Nag Hamadi to hide them from Catholic authorities.
350 Arians persecute Valentinians in Edessa
379-395 Reign of emporor Theodosius I. His reign was marked by a sort of "cultural revolution". A reign of terror was instituted. All religions other than Catholism were banned and religious persecution became state policy. Under the "Theodosian Laws" heresy became treason and was punishable by death. Numerous books and religious buildings were destroyed. "Heretics" were forcibly expelled from larger cities and had their property seized.
380 Epiphanius of Salimis writes against Valentinians in "Panarion". Based on his own writings, he was one of the major instigators of purges of non-Catholics.
385 In Spain, Priscillian is accused of having connections with the Manichean and Valentinian schools. He and two followers are executed. They are the first of many executed for 'heresy'.
386 Valentinians in Antioch opposed by John Chrystostom
387 Catholic fanatics ransack and burn the great library of Alexandria. Thousands of books are lost including many Gnostic and philosophical works.
388 The Catholic bishop at Callinicum (modern Syria) sends a mob of monks to burn a Valentinian chapel and a Jewish synagogue. Incidents of this sort going were taking place throughout the Roman Empire. The Catholic "Church Father" Ambrose convinces the emporor not to punish the perpetrators of these acts.
395-500 Valentinianism begins to go into decline as a result of persecution by Catholic and Roman authorities.
400 Valentianians persecuted by Severian at Gabula.
400 Valentianians persecuted by Theodore at Mopsuestia.
428 Valentinians forbidden to assemble by emporor Theodosius II on pain of death.
450 Valentinians persecuted by Theodoret in Cyrrus.
476 Final fall of Western Roman Empire.
500-800 Valentinianism reduced to a small underground movement.
Brutal persecution by Catholic authorities continues.
600 A small group of Valentinian 'Hermetics' active at Constantinople
692 Suppression of Valentinianism is mentioned by Trullan Synod indicating the school still existed at this time.
800 The Valentinian school proper disappears.
1945 The Gnostic Christian Nag Hammadi Library is found in Egypt. The writings had been buried since 350. Approximately one third of the 51 writings in the library derive from the Valentinian school.
Taken from: http://essenes.net/valen3.html