HATTEMISTS, a modern Dutch sect, who adopted the principles of Pontian Van Hattem. They believed in uncontrollable necessity, denied human depravity and the distinction between good and evil, as well as that Christ made expiation for sin. They made religion to consist in suffering cheerfully whatever happens by the will of God, who punished men not for, but by their sins. Their founder seems to have broached his system principally under the influence of Spinoza.