ADAMISM.

The founder of this religion, which sprang up in the bosom of Christianity in the commencement of the second century, according to Theodoret, was Prodicus, who embraced the abominable opinions of the Carpocratians, to which he added the community of women, and a promiscuous intercourse of the sexes at ecclesiastical feasts; that is to say, that at these repasts, which the ancient Christians called Agapæ, it was a rule for the lights to be extinguished, and the sexes to pair themselves as chance might direct, which he called communicating and being initiated into the mystery.

Such is the recital of Theodoret; but I do not find that he had any reason to ascribe this additional doctrine to Prodicus, since Clemens Alexandrinus, on whose credit he speaks, imputes the whole matter to Carpocrates. Theodoret therefore alleges an author who is against him; which author observes, that the men, before they went to those feasts, acquainted the women to whom they were inclined, that they made choice of them. This is likely enough: the passions are too ingenious to be inactive on such occasions, and to refer the whole matter to chance. The Carpocratians knew therefore, pretty nearly, who would fall to

their share, and were not wholly in the case mentioned by a Roman poet.

“ Mox juniores quærit adultéras
Inter mariti vina: Deque eligit
Cui donet impermissa raptim
Gaudia luminibus remotis.”
Hor.Ode, vi.b, iii.

Thus, soon after the time of the Apostles, the doctrine of the mystical union which ought to exist among the faithful, was interpreted into a carnal connexion between the sexes, and persons dared to affirm that in it consisted a true participation of the mysteries. St Epiphanius and St Augustine, however, do not give so disadvantageous an idea of the Adamites, and it is lively that Clement and Theodoret have exaggerated particulars. St Epiphanius asserts that the name of Adamites came to them from a certain Adam, who lived at the time, but I am more disposed to follow the opinion of St Augustin, who asserts that they called themselves after the patriarch Adam. These miserable people imitated the nakedness of our first parents during their innocence, and condemned marriage, because Adam knew not Eve while in that state, whence they concluded, that if he had not sinned he would not have married. Therefore according to St Epiphanius, they made profession of continency, and of a monastic life. As for nudity, they only practised it when assembled for the exercises of religion. They met together in a small chamber, under which was placed a stove. On entering they took off their clothes and sat together, men and women, ministers and laity, as naked as they came into the world. They seated themselves promiscuously on benches that were placed above each other, and having performed their devotions dressed themselves and returned home. If any

committed a fault, they were not received any more into the assembly. They said that like Adam, having eaten of the forbidden fruit, they were to be driven like him out of paradise, for so these people called their communion.

Therefore, although St Epiphanius attributed this conduct to a secret design of exciting concupiscence, he does not say that any impure actions were committed in these assemblies. Or does either he or St Augustin make mention of the monstrous indecencies mentioned by Clement of Alexandria; and it is strange that such should be the case, for they are things that fame suffers not to be lost, when once it has seized on them, unless the falsity of them becomes altogether palpable. Nor does it always happen that time loses its hold in that case either. In a word, when I consider the calumnies of the Pagans against the primitive Christians, and those of the Catholics against the Protestants, as to their nocturnal assemblies, I do not lightly believe all the imputations of the prevailing party.

Evagrius makes mention of some monks of Palestine, who by an excess of devotion, and to mortify their bodies, went, women as well as men, into solitary places quite naked, with the exception of a girdle, and there exposed themselves in a very strange manner to the rigour of the seasons. The solitaries of whom I speak were satisfied with wearing only a girdle, and as for the rest, they renounced humanity as much as they could. They would not eat of the food that served other men, but fed like beasts, and ate but as much as would keep them alive. At last they became like brutes; their figure altered, and their sentiments also. When they saw other persons they ran away, and, if they found themselves pursued, fled as fast as they could, or hid themselves in some inacessible hole. Some appeared in public again, and

pretended to be fools to show a greater contempt of glory. They went to eat in public; houses, they entered into public baths, they conversed and washed themselves with the other sex; but with complete insensibility. They were men with the men, and women with the women; and would be of both sexes. It is likely they had not much trouble to counterfeit the fool, and that they were so in reality.

In the twelfth century Tandemus, an heretic, rose in Germany, under the emperor Henry V, and spread his errors particularly among the citizens of Antwerp. He was a layman, with a smooth tongue, and exceeded the greatest scholars of his time in subtilty, eloquence, and many other things. He was richly clothed; he kept a good table, and was attended by three thousand armed men, by whose means he brought about what the charms of his language could not effect. He had infatuated his followers to such a degree, that they drank the water in which he bathed himself, and kept it as a relic. One may very well wonder, though perhaps it is no wonder at all, how he could seduce many people with such odious doctrines and actions as his were. He maintained that it was no sensual action, but rather a spiritual one, to lie with a maid in her mother’s presence, and with a wife in the sight of her husband, and practised that abominable doctrine. He killed those whom he could not persuade. He ascribed no virtue to the sacrament of the eucharist, and acknowledged no distinction between laymen and those in orders. A priest, with whom he happened to be in a boat, gave him a blow on the head, which killed him. His errors were not quickly extirpated; but at length those erring people were brought back into the pale of the church, and Norbert was the chief instrument of their conversion.

The fourteenth century produced a new sect of Adamites, still more abominable than those of whom I have already spoken, called Turlupins. It is not easy to discover the true origin of this name, which Vignier derives from a savage place exposed to the inroads of wolves. They taught that when man was arrived at a certain degree of perfection, he was freed from the yoke of the divine law; and contrary to the doctrine of the stoics, who made the liberty of their wise man consist in being free from passions, they placed this liberty in being no longer subject to the precepts of eternal wisdom. They did not believe they ought to pray to God any otherwise than mentally; but what was yet more shocking in their sect was, that they went naked, and followed the example of the cynics, or rather of brutes, in view of all the world; affirming that we ought not to be ashamed of any thing which nature has bestowed on us. Notwithstanding these profane extravagancies, they affected a very spiritual and devout air, the better to insinuate themselves into the women’s favour, and allure them into the snare of their unchaste desires. For this is the fatal rock of all those sects who aim at distinguishing themselves by paradoxes in morality. Examine to the bottom the visions of the pretenders to new light, and of the Quietists, &c., you will find if any thing can unmask them, it is something relating to the venereal pleasure. This is the weak part of the place, where the enemy makes the assault; it is a worm which never dies, and a fire which never goes out. These heretics appeared in France in the reign of Charles V, and their principal scenes were Savoy and Dauphiny. They affected to call themselves the “ Fraternity of the Poor.”

The following passage, from an ancient register, affords us a specimen of the diligence which was

exercised to extinguish them. “To James de More, of the preaching order, inquisitor of the —— of France, as a gift bestowed on him by the king, by his letters patent of the 2nd February, 1373, for and in consideration of several pains, missions and expenses which he had been at and suffered in the pursuit of the male and female Tur-lupins, whom he found and took in the said provinces, and who by his diligence have been punished for their errors and falsities, the sum of fifty francs, which are worth ten Paris livres.”

Gaguin observes, in his life of Charles V, that “ the books and vestments of the Turlupins were burnt in the hog’s-market at Paris, without the gate of St Honoré; that one Joan Dabentonne, and a man, being the chief holders-forth of that sect, were also burnt.” Du Tillet says also, that under Charles V, “ the superstitious religion of the Turlupins, who had called their sect the ‘ Fraternity of the Poor,' was condemned and abolished, and their ceremonies, books, and clothes condemned and burnt.” But how do these clothes which were burnt agree with the report of those who tell us that they went naked? We must suppose the nakedness of all these sorts of fanatics to have been limited with regard to times, places, and certain members. We have seen that the Adamites did not strip themselves any where but in the stoves where they met. The cold and rain would not permit them to go always naked: it is not at all probable that they durst regularly and continually appear naked in those cities in which they were not strong enough; and it seems that the Turlupins discovered the parts only which distinguish the sexes. They had clothes notwithstanding their impudence; and probably before uninitiated persons or those whom they sought to entangle, did not immediately expose themselves.

Towards the year 1440, another fanatic resumed the errors of the Adamites. His name was Picard: he went from Flanders into Germany, and as far as Bohemia. It has been said that he deceived the people with prestiges. However it be, he had in a little time a great number of followers, both men and women. He commanded them to go always naked: which was more than was practised by the Adamites mentioned by St Epiphanius, who were contented to strip themselves naked in their assemblies. He styled himself the Son of God, and pretended that he was sent into the world by his father, as a new Adam, to restore the law of nature, which he said chiefly consisted in two things,viz., the community of women, and the nakedness of the body. He retired into an island of the river Lusmik, seven leagues from Thabor, the place of arms of the famous Zisca. It happened unluckily for him, that forty of his followers, having committed great disorders, drew the forces of that famous general upon the whole crew. Those forty Adamites being gone upon a party, plundered some country houses, and killed above 200 people. Whereupon Zisca caused the island to be attacked, made himself master of it, and put all the Picards to the sword, except two, whose lives he saved, that he might know from them what was their religion; for which action the Protestants have much praised him.

It is said, that though there were no marriages amongst them, yet no man took a woman without the permission of the head of the sect; one of the great principles of which was, that they were the only free persons in the world, all other men being slaves. This is what some women of that sect deposed, whom a Bohemian lord kept prisoners for some time. They said that those who used clothes, especially those who wore breeches, ought

not to be accounted free. They were brought to bed in prison; and having been condemned to be burnt with their husbands, they suffered that punishment laughing and singing. There has been some doting men among the Anabaptists, who had a mind to renew the extravagancies of the Picards, with respect to nakedness.

If I had no other authority than Lindanus, I should doubt if such extravagancies had occurred in Amsterdam; but a much more credible witness, Lambertus Hortensius, in his relation of the tumults of the Anabaptists, dedicated to the magistrates of Amsterdam, whilst the memory of these things was still fresh, says, that on the 13th Feb. 1535, seven men and five women met at Amsterdam, in the house of John Sibert. One of these men, whose name was Theodore Sartor, pretended to be a prophet; he lay upon the ground to pray to God, and having made an end of his prayers, he told one of his brethren that he had seen God in his majesty; that he had spoken to him; that he was descended from heaven into hell, and that he knew that the day of judgment was near at hand. They met again the same day, and after they had spent four hours in prayers and explications, the prophet all of a sudden pulls off his helmet and his armour, and throws them into the fire with the rest of his arms, and shows himself naked to all the company. He bids them all do the like, and every one obeys so exactly, that they did not so much as leave a ribbon upon their heads to keep their hair tied. They throw every thing into the fire, as a burnt-offering unto the Lord. Then the prophet bids them to follow him, and do as he does. They go out all of them, and run into the streets with most horrid cries, “Væ, væ, væ, divina vindicta, divina vindicta, divina vindicta!—Wo, wo, wo, divine vengeance, divine vengeance, divine vengeance !” The

people being frighted with such howlings, think that the town is taken, take up their arms, and go out. The naked crew are apprehended, and brought before the judges, where they scorn to put on the clothes that are presented to them. In the mean time the house from which that infamous procession set out, was burning, and they had much trouble to put out the fire. On the 28th of March the seven men were put to death; and nine of their accomplices were punished in the same manner some few days afterwards.

We cannot sufficiently wonder that such a whimsical fancy should be so often renewed amongst Christians. Paganism affords us only the sect of the cynics who hit on this impudent practice; and it must also be observed that this sect was not numerous, and that the greatest part of the cynics did not discover their nudity, as it was said of Diogenes. The Indian Gymnosophists were not naked in those parts which the Adamites, Turlupins, Picards, and several Anabaptists discovered. We ought then to grant, that in that respect the Christians have been more irregular than the Pagans; at which we shall not be surprised, when we observe that a Gospel principle, of which the Pagans were ignorant, is liable to this abuse. I mean that the second Adam came to repair the evil which the first had introduced into the world. From hence a fanatic ventures to conclude, that those who are once partakers of the benefits of the covenant of grace, are perfectly restored to the state of Adam and Eve. I own that fanaticism must be far advanced, and the dose must be very large, which is able to overcome the impressions of modesty which nature and a Christian education have stamped on us; but what is not the infinite combination of our passions, imaginations, and animal spirits capable of doing?—ArticlesAdamites,

Picard, Prodicus, Tandemus, Turlupins.Text and Notes.