Note 64 — Of Angels and Archangels. (continued 2)

The Gnostics taught that the universe was created by the Seven Great Angels, who ranked next to the Eons, or direct emanations from God: ‘and when a distribution was afterwards made of things, the chief of the creating angels had the people of the Jews particularly to his share; a doctrine which in the main was received by many ancients.’—See Lardner’s ‘History of the Early Heresies.’ I have alluded to the angel pictured as the agent in creation (p. 39), but the Seven creating Angels I have not met with in art. This was one of the Gnostic fancies condemned by the early Church.