in Church History, a sect of ancient heretics, who denied that Jesus Christ was the Logos, and consequently rejected the gospel of St John. The word is compounded of the privative *a* and *λογος*, q.d. Without Logos or Word. Some ascribe the origin of the name, as well as of the sect of Alogians, to Theodore of Byzantium, by trade a currier; who having apostatized under the persecution of the emperor Severus, to defend himself against those who reproached him therewith, said, that it was not God he denied, but only man. Whence his followers were called in Greek *ἀλόγοι*, because they rejected the Word. But others, with more probability, suppose the name to have been first given them by Epiphanius in the way of reproach. They made their appearance toward the close of the second century.