Labadists

Followers of Jean de la Badie (1610-74), born near Bordeaux, the son of the governor of Guienne. He possessed a strong bent to mysticism, becoming a Roman Catholic priest, then about 1650 embracing Protestantism. He held pastorates in Geneva (1659-66), then in Holland (until 1670). There under his leadership his congregation at Middelburg became a religious community dedicated to simple living, holding children and property in common. Enthusiastic disciples flocked to him, among them Pierre Dulignon (d.1679), Pierre Yvon (d.1707), Theodor Untereyk (d.1693), and more important than any, Anna Maria von Schürman (d.1678), whose book Eucleria set forth the above principles and others such as the continuance of prophecy and the continuous Sabbath. The Dutch authorities found them too independent of the religious community in Holland, and in 1670 they moved to Westphalia, then to Bremen in 1672, and later to Altona, where they were dispersed on the death of the leaders. By 1730 the movement was dead, although settlements had been made in Maryland and New York.