[9] Others question whether Augustine really held to some form of an "invisible true Church" concept.
John Calvin described the church invisible as "that which is actually in God's presence, into which no persons are received but those who are children of God by grace of adoption and true members of Christ by sanctification of the Holy Spirit... [The invisible church] includes not only the saints presently living on earth, but all the elect from the beginning of the world."
"[11] John Wycliffe, who was a precursor to the reformation, also believed in an invisible church made of the predestinated elect.
[12] Another precursor of the reformation, Johann Ruchrat von Wesel believed in a distinction between the visible and invisible church.
This encyclical rejected two extreme views of the Church:[15] Although the juridical principles, on which the Church rests and is established, derive from the divine constitution given to it by Christ and contribute to the attaining of its supernatural end, nevertheless that which lifts the Society of Christians far above the whole natural order is the Spirit of our Redeemer who penetrates and fills every part of the Church.