Origeniani), ancient heretics, who even surpassed the aberrations of the Gnostics.

Epiphanius speaks of them as subsisting in his time; but their numbers, he says, were inconsiderable. He seems to fix their rise about the time of the great Origen; but does not say that they derived their name from him. On the contrary, he distinguishes them from the Origenists, whom he derives from Origen Adamantius; alleging, indeed, that they first took their name from one Origen; by which he intimates, that it was not the great Origen. And St Augustine expressly affirms, that it was another. Their doctrines were shameful: they rejected marriage; they used several apocryphal books, as the acts of St Andrew, &c. and endeavoured to excuse their open crimes, by saying, that the Catholics did the same in private.