An ancient Gnostic religious system teaching that the material world was created by inferior divine beings and that spiritual salvation comes through secret knowledge.
From Basilides, the 2nd-century Alexandrian teacher, plus the suffix '-ism' indicating a religious system or philosophy.
Basilidianism challenged the mainstream church so thoroughly that almost all its writings were deliberately destroyed, so we mainly know it through angry rebuttals—making it one of history's most censored ancient religions.
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