ARCONTICI (from the Greek ἄργων, “archon, ruler”). — A Gnostic sect of the 3rd and 4th centuries, which takes its name from the strange doctrine its followers professed concerning the ἄργοντες, or rulers, of the seven heavens below the highest of all, presided over by the “luminous mother” (μέτρης ἡ φωτεινά), who is in perpetual conflict with Sabaoth, ruler of the seventh heaven, God of the Jews and father of the devil.
The human souls descended from the last heaven are detained by the archons, who derive from them the nourishment indispensable to their life. In order to return to the bosom of the heavenly mother, man must attain gnosis, avoid Baptism, and escape the baleful influence of Sabaoth. The a. also rejected all the sacraments of the Church, because they were conferred in the name of the God of the Jews; they denied the resurrection of the bodies and admitted numerous other supposed revelations, drawn from various apocryphal sources, among which should be mentioned the Lesser and Greater Symphony, the Assumption of Isaiah, and the Books of Seth and of his seven sons, designated by the name Ἀλλογενεῖς (“alienigenae”). Some used to pour oil and water over the heads of the dead in order to make them
invisible to the powers of evil and thus facilitate their return to the bosom of the “luminous mother.”
Although they were not entirely free from gravely immoral practices, they nevertheless displayed an austere and penitential life. The Ophites, Sethians, Docetists, and Marcionites had affinities with them.
The sect of the a., described for the first time by St. Epiphanius and mentioned only briefly by St. Augustine, Theodoret, and St. John Damascene, had relatively little historical importance, and its diffusion was almost exclusively limited to Armenia and Palestine. It was propagated in the latter region by a false monk named Peter, who, feigning a devout life of withdrawal and fasting, succeeded in gaining many proselytes, especially among simple and ignorant people. Before the death of Constantine the Great (337), he recruited among his followers a certain Eutattus, who in turn introduced the sect into Armenia.