in church-history, a Christian sect in the fourth century, so called from their drawing their opinions from the writings of Origen. -The Origenists maintained, that the souls of men had a pre-existent state: that they were holy intelligences, and had finished in heaven before the body was created: that Christ is only the Son of God by adoption; that he has been successively united with all the angelical natures, and has been a cherub, a seraph, and all the celestial virtues one after another; that, in future ages, he will be crucified for the salvation of the devils, as he has already been for that of men; and that their punishment, and that of the damned, will continue only for a certain limited time.