ENCRATITES

or CONTINENTS. A name given to a sect in the second century, because they condemned marriage, forbade the eating of flesh or drinking of wine, and rejected with a sort of horror all the comforts and conveniences of life. Tatian, an A yrian, and a disciple of Justin Martyr, was the leader of this sect. He was greatly distinguished for his genius and learning, and the exce ive austerity of his life and manners. He regarded matter as the fountain of all evil, and therefore recommended in a peculiar manner the mortification of the body. He distinguished the Creator of the world from the Supreme Being, denied the reality of Christ’s body, and blended the Christian religion with several corrupt tenets of the Oriental philosophy.