Carpocrates of Alexandria (Greek: Καρποκράτης) was the founder of an early Gnostic sect from the first half of the 2nd century, known as Carpocratians.
As with many Gnostic sects, the Carpocratians are known only through the writings of the Church Fathers, principally Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria.
Irenaeus wrote that the Carpocratians believed that Jesus was not divine; but because his soul was "steadfast and pure", he "remembered those things which he had witnessed within the sphere of the unbegotten God" (similar to Plato's concept of Anamnesis).
The followers of Carpocrates, he says, believed that in order to leave this world, one's imprisoned eternal soul must pass through every possible condition of earthly life.
He also says that they possessed a portrait of Christ, a painting they claimed had been made by Pontius Pilate during his lifetime, which they honoured along with images of Plato, Pythagoras and Aristotle "in the manner of the Gentiles".
Some early Christian authors opposed representational art, and statues and portraits and sculptures are crude and stylised.
According to Robin Lane Fox: "Only one group of early Christians, the heretical Carpocratians, are known to have owned portraits of Christ".
[6] The letter details how Carpocrates obtained the copy of Secret Gospel of Mark:But since the foul demons are always devising destruction for the race of men, Carpocrates, instructed by them and using deceitful arts, so enslaved a certain presbyter of the church in Alexandria that he got from him a copy of the secret Gospel, which he both interpreted according to his blasphemous and carnal doctrine and, moreover, polluted, mixing with the spotless and holy words utterly shameless lies.
[7] The letter mentions and quotes from the previously unknown Secret Mark, focusing on the episode where Jesus brings a youth back from the dead.
Epiphanius of Salamis writes that Carpocratians derived from a native of Asia, Carpocrates, who taught his followers to perform every obscenity and every sinful act.