Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Basilidians
or Basilideans were a Gnostic sect founded by Basilides of Alexandria in
the 2nd century. Basilides claimed to have been taught his doctrines by
Glaucus, a disciple of St. Peter. Of the customs of the Basilidians, we
know no more than that Basilides enjoined on his followers, like
Pythagoras, a silence of five years; that they kept the anniversary of
the day of the baptism of Jesus as a feast day and spent the eve of it
in reading; that their master told them not to scruple eating things
offered to idols. The sect had three grades - material, intellectual and
spiritual - and possessed two allegorical statues, male and female. The
sect's doctrines were often similar to those of the Ophites and later
Jewish Kabbalism.
