in Ecclesiastical History, a Christian sect in the fourth century, so called from their deriving their opinions from the writings of Origen. The Origenists maintained that the souls of men existed in a prior state; that they were holy intelligences, and had sinned 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 limited time.