Cerinthus

Cerinthus, an early Christian heretic (98-117). Irenaeus, who is the chief authority on his doctrines, states that he maintained that the world was not created by God, but by some separate and distinct power that knew not God. He held also that Christ was of simply human birth, but received the Divine nature at His baptism, when the dove descended, and that this Divine nature quitted Him before the crucifixion, since the Divine nature could not suffer. But not much is really known either of Cerinthus or his views. He appears to have had Judaising tendencies, and is said to have been among those who condemned St. Paul's going to Cornelius. There is a story that St. John fled from a bath in which Cerinthus was lest the walls should fall in.