an obscure Gnostic sect in the early Christian church, who owed their origin to Florinus, a pupil of Polycarp, and a presbyter of Rome, excommunicated by the Bishop Eleutherius. They never numbered among their members any person remarkable either for intellect or influence, and the history of their doctrines is involved in as much obscurity as that of their origin and progress. It is only known for certain, from a passage in Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. lib. v., cap. 20), that they adopted the Gnostic heresy.