Christian Cyclopedia

Gnostic-Marcionite (and possibly Manichaean) sect traced to mid-7th c. Armenia, where they stayed, despite persecution, till their removal to Thrace ca. 970. In the 11th c. some returned to the ch., others joined various sects. Held a dualism in which a demiurge made the material world and man's body and a good god made heaven and man's soul; Christ saves humanity from the former for the latter. See also Gnosticism.