Brewer's: Cainites

(2 syl.). Disciples of Cain, a pseudo-Gnostic sect of the second century. They renounced the New Testament, and received instead The Gospel of Judas, which justified the false disciple and the crucifixion of Jesus. This sect maintained that heaven and earth were created by the evil principle, and that Cain with his descendants were the persecuted party.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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