Luciferians describes two quite separate heterodox tendencies in opposition to the Roman Catholic Church.

"Luciferians" described a schismatic group named after Lucifer Calaritanus, Bishop of Cagliari, Sardinia in the late 4th century. The movement was linked to the complex political machinations involving the emperor Constantius II and Pope Liberius. Lucifer was a staunch ultra-orthodox opponent of Arian, declared a heretic. The movement died out early in the following century. All that we know of Bishop Lucifer's views derive from the anti-Luciferian polemic of Jerome in the form of a dialogue, Altercatio Luciferiani et orthodoxi ("Altercation of the Luciferian and the orthodox").

Various gnostic "Luciferian" sects that emphasize the dualism of the universe have also been associated with the image of Lucifer, in the root sense of the "bringer of light". The orthodox view has associated Lucifer with "Satan before the fall", though, as Bishop Lucifer's name attests, Lucifer was not yet associated with "Satan" in the 4th century. Some classically-educated Free-masons used "luciferian" in the scholarly, somewhat pedantic sense of "bringing enlightenment," invoking Prometheus who stole fire from the gods to bring to man. Pro-Catholic polemicists linked such Masonic usage with sects worshiping Lucifer, which have had persistent groups of followers since the Middle Ages.

See also

• Gnosticism

External links

• Lucifer of Cagliari
• Orthodoxus's Dialogue against the Luciferians