CARPOCRATIANS, a branch of the ancient Gnostics, so called from Carpocrates, who in the second century revived and improved upon the errors of Simon Magus, Menander, Saturinus, and other Gnostics. He owned with them one sole principle and author of all things, whose name as well as nature was unknown. The word, he taught, was created by angels, beings vastly inferior to the first principle. He opposed the divinity of Jesus Christ; representing him as a mere man, begotten carnally on the body of Mary by Joseph, though possessed of uncommon gifts, which set him above other creatures. He inculcated a community of women; and taught that the soul could not be purified till it had committed all kinds of abominations, which he considered as a necessary condition of perfection.