Carpocratians

Theology

The Carpocratians were Gnostics who believed in a dualism of evil matter and good spirit, pursuing gnosis for salvation. They held that all beings strive toward Monad, the Supreme Principle, whom they called the Father of All or the One Beginning. The visible world was created not by him but by inferior angels known as the 'fabricating powers' or 'builders'. Human souls existed before being trapped in material bodies, orbiting a 'spiritual sun' on the 'plain of truth'.

After initially working with God, souls were imprisoned by the builders in bodies and could only be freed after living every form of life and committing every possible act. Based on Luke 12:58, Carpocrates taught that the Devil dragged souls to the highest builder, who gave them over to a messenger angel, imprisoning them until they 'paid the uttermost farthing' and re-joined God. Every imprisoned soul retained some capacity for remembering their natural state (ἀνάμνησις), the only knowledge through which humans could be saved.

Carpocratians rejected the material world as evil and claimed to communicate with demonic spirits to prove their superiority. They practiced magic, made love potions, used theurgic incantations, and performed exorcisms, dream interpretation, and healing. They erected statues and painted icons of Christ, apostles, Plato, Pythagoras, and Aristotle, honoring them in a temple on Cephalonia. They professed transmigration of souls, likely from Indian or Pythagorean sources, and rejected bodily resurrection and the Old Testament.

History

The sect was founded in the 2nd century by Carpocrates of Alexandria, and its belief system was solidified in the writings of his son, Epiphanes. Both men were well-educated in Plato's thought. No original writings from Carpocrates remain, but some rhetoric can be traced from fragments in his son's works. According to Clement of Alexandria, Epiphanes died at seventeen and was worshipped as a god, though 19th-century scholars refuted this as a legend, arguing the cult of a local moon god was mistakenly applied to him. Philip Schaff's religious encyclopaedia disputes this claim, but agrees Epiphanes was an important writer. Carpocratians were among the best-developed Gnostic cults, existing until the 6th century, with secret greetings, signs, symbols, and a hierarchy; members may have been branded behind the right ear.