The followers of Valentinius attempted to systematically decode the Epistles, claiming that most Christians made the mistake of reading the Epistles literally rather than allegorically. Valentinians understood the conflict between "Jews" and "Gentiles" in Romans to be a coded reference to the differences between "Psychics" (people who are partly spiritual but have not yet achieved separation from carnality) and "Pneumatics" (totally spiritual people). The Valentinians argued that such codes were intrinsic in gnosticism, secrecy being important to ensuring proper progression to true inner understanding.