carpocratian

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A member of a sect of Gnostics of the second century, followers of Carpocrates or Carpocras of Alexandria. He taught the doctrine of metempsychosis and the preexistence of the soul, and maintained that the world was created by inferior spirits; that Jesus was the son of Joseph, and like other men, except that his soul was pure and steadfast; that he received from the Great First Cause special power to overcome the evils of the world through intimate recollection of his previous existence in an exalted state; and that in proportion as men attain to this recollection in their own case they are freed from the restraints of the moral law, faith and charity being the only necessary virtues.