CERINTHIANS, noun A set of heretics, so called from Cerinthus, one of the first heresiarchs in the church. They denied the divinity of Christ, but they held that, in his baptism, a celestial virtue descended on him in the form of a dove, by means of which he was consecrated by the Holy Spirit and made Christ.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI