Quick Answer
The Basilidians were a Gnostic school founded by Basilides of Alexandria in the early 2nd century AD. Basilides developed one of the earliest and most philosophically sophisticated Gnostic cosmologies — a system of 365 heavens and a God beyond all description — which survives only in hostile summaries by church fathers.
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Quick Facts
- Basilides taught in Alexandria c. 117–138 AD, during the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius
- His cosmology posited 365 heavens, each ruled by a power; the Demiurge rules the lowest
- The Basilidians reportedly observed a 365-day ritual calendar corresponding to the heavens
- His son Isidore continued the school; both wrote now-lost texts