MENNONITES  A sect in the United Provinces, in most respects the same with those in other places called Anabaptists. They had their rise in 1536, when Menno Simon, a native of Friesland, who had been a Romish priest, and a notorious profligate, resigned his rank and office in the Romish church, and publicly embraced the communion of the Anabaptists.  Menno was born at Witmarsum, a village in the neighbourhood of Bolswert, in Friesland, in the year 1505, and died in 1561, in the duchy of Holstein, at the country-seat of a certain nobleman, not far from the city of Oldesloe, who, moved with compassion by the view of the perils to which Menno was exposed, and the snares that were daily laid for his ruin,…

QUIETISTS  A sect famous towards the close of the seventh century. They were so called from a kind of absolute rest and inaction, which they supposed the soul to be in when arrived at that state of perfection which they called the unitive life; in which state they imagined the soul wholly employed in contemplating its God, to whose influence it was entirely submissive, so that he could turn and drive it where and how he would.  Molinos, a Spanish priest, is the reputed author of Quietism; though the Illuminati, in Spain, had certainly taught something like it before. Molinos had numerous disciples in Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. One of the principal patrons and propagators of Quietism in France was Marie Bouveres de…

SANDEMANIANS  A sect that originated in Scotland about the year 1728; where it is, at this time, distinguished by the name of Glassites, after its founder, Mr. John Glass, who was a minister of the established church in that kingdom; but being charged with a design of subverting the national covenant, and sapping the foundation of all national establishments, by maintaining that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, was expelled from the synod by the church of Scotland. His sentiments are fully explained in a tract, published at that time, entitled, "The Testimony of the King of Martyrs," and preserved in the first volume of his works. In consequence of Mr. Glass's expulsion, his adherents formed themselves into churches, conformable, in their…

PIETISTS  A religious sect that sprung up among the Protestants in Germany in the latter end of the seventeenth century. Pietism was set on foot by the pious and learned Spencer, who, by the private societies he formed at Francfort with a design to promote vital religion, roused the lukewarm from their indifference, and excited a spirit of vigour and resolution in those who had been satisfied to lament in silence the progress of impiety. The remarkable effect of these pious meetings was increased by a book he published under the title of Pious Desires, in which he exhibited a striking view of the disorders of the church, and proposed the remedies that were proper to heal them. Many persons of good and upright intentions…

QUAKERS  A sect which took its rise in England about the middle of the seventeenth century, and rapidly found its way into other countries in Europe, and into the English settlements in North America. The members of this society, we believe, called themselves at first Seekers, from their seeking the truth; but after the society was formed, they assumed the appellation of Friends. The name of Quakers was given to them by their enemies, and though an epithet of reproach, seems to be stamped upon them indelibly. George Fox is supposed to be their first founder,; but, after the restoration, Penn and Barclay gave to their principles a more regular form.  The doctrines of the society have been variously represented; and some have thought and…

METHODIST  A name applied to different sects, both Papists and Protestants.--1. The popish Methodists were those polemical doctors who arose in France about the middle of the seventeenth century, in opposition to the Huguenots, or Protestants. These Methodists, from their different manner of treating the controversy with their opponents, may be divided into two classes. The one comprehends those doctors whose method of disputing with the Protestants was disingenuous and unreasonable; and who followed the example of those military chiefs, who shut up their troops in intrenchments and strong holds, in order to cover them from the attacks of the enemy. Of this number were the Jesuit Veron, who required the Protestants to prove the tenets of their church by plain passages of Scripture, without…