Heresiography, Description of sect 5
Of ADAMITES.
AN old Heresie, of which St. Augustine maketh mention, but renewed by the Anabaptists, in the assembly of the Adamites men & women pray naked, celebrated the holy Communion naked heare Sermons naked. These Hereticks had their Conventicles in subterranean places, called Hypocausta, because that under the place of their meetings a Furnace of fire was kindled to warme the place of their Conventions; for they uncloathed themselves when they entred into it, and stood naked born men and women, according to the similitude of Adam, and Eve before their fall. They call the place of their meeting Paradice.
I read in the History of the Anabaptists, Lamb. Hortens. p. 53.page 42. That in Amsterdam, in a house seven men and five women had a meeting: one of them called Theadoret a Taylor, who bore himselfe a Prophet, fell flat on the ground, prayed with such vehemenacy, that he scared all the assistants, and rising as if it were out of an extasie, I have seen (said he) God in his Majesty, and have spoken with him: I was taken up into heaven, then I descended into hell, and there scarched every corner: the great day of the last judgement is comming. At night they met againe in the same place, and after four houres spent in praying and teaching the prophet being armed, disarmeth himselfe, and putteth off his garments to his shirt, and throweth them in the fire: then he commandeth the company in authority of a Prophet to doe the like, and so they did, women, and all, leaving not so much as a hai…elace to tye up their scattered haire, no covering to the body, no shelter, (for so was the Prophets pleasure, that they should cast away all that came out of the earth and burn it as a Sacrifice of sweet favou unto God: yet you may think (saith my Author) that the burning of so many clo…hes yeelded no very sweet favour, for it was such as awaked the …istris of the house that knew nothing of the meeting, and made her arise to seek where this burning was, for that smell made, her afraid that the fire was in her shop which was of wollen Drapery. Being come to the place, she saw eleven naked bodies, and the Propher commanded her to put off her cloathes and put them in the fire, which she did: then the Prophet commanded them all to follow him, and doe as he should doe, and so rushed into the street stark naked, and all his Disciples after him, running and crying horribly throughout the Town, woe, woe, woe, the divine vengeance, the divine vengeance, whereby they put the whole Town into an uproare; The people thinking that the Towne was surprized by some enemy, they were all taken but one woman that slipt out of the way, & brought before the Magistrate: and as they stood all naked in a full Court, they could never be perswaded neither by command nor threatning to put on garments which they offered them, saying, that they must have no covering, for they were the naked truth: they were kept a while in prison untill the great conspiracy in Amsterdam by the Anapaptists, when they went about to surprise the Town, & then they were executed. The Mistris of the house where the Conventic…e was kept was hanged before her owne doore.
Of the Adamites in Bohemia.
WHereas Bohemia is like Africa, alwayes bringing forth some new thing:…onfi…. decad. 3. lib 2. page 390. Gas…io… page …. an heresie (saith he) far greater then the for…er, arose there, viz. of the Adamites. A certain Piccard passing over the Rhene, came out of the low Countries into Bohemia, who, with craft & with delusion deceiving many, gathered a multitude of followers, and taking an Island in the Lusmisicus Lake, he lived there, prosessing himselfe to be the Son of God; he taught his Sect to goe naked, and to call him Adam & to use promiscuous marriages, and for their lust every one to take a woman and to bring her before the Prelate, saying, My flesh doth wax hot upon this woman: unto whom Adam answered, encrease and multiply. This man called all other men slaves, & himselfe and they that were of his Sect, free-men: Forty of this Sect with their Swords drawn set upon the Village adjoyning to them, and killed about 200. husband-men, whom they called the children of the devill: when these things were come to the eares of Zisca, the Adamites were all slaine, but two men who were left to declare and make known to the world their superstitions, with the women who declared that all that wore cloathes, and especially breeches, were by no means Free-men. These women were committed to prison, and afterwards for their obstinacy in their Errors they were burnt. They did undergoe their punishment with great …aerity, singing and laughing in the fire.