Gnosticscondemned
Who he was
- His disciples, the “Carpocratians,” who survived until the 4th century, preached a licentious ethic, the transmigration of souls, and the doctrine that Jesus was born by natural generation.
- The world was created by angels greatly inferior to the Unbegotten Father. Jesus was the son of Joseph; he differed from other men in that his soul was steadfast and pure.
- The Carpocratians practiced magical arts and incantations, philters and love potions, and had recourse to spirits, dreams sending demons and other abominations, declaring that they possessed power to rule over not only the princes of this world but also over the things in it.
What he wrote
- Carpocrates was a native of Alexandria.
- He was a contemporary of Valentinus.
- One of his women disciples, Marcellina, went to Rome during the reign of Pope Anicetus (154-165), and seduced many.
- Images of some of them were painted or made in the likeness of Christ, and portraying Jesus among them. They crowned these images and set them up along with the images of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and others. They also had other modes of honoring these images in the same manner as the gentiles.