in ecclesiastical history, the name of a sect of ancient heretics, supposed to have been a branch of the Basilidians and Carpocratics. Epiphanius tells us, that they were called Adamites from their pretending to be re-established in the state of innocence, and to be such as Adam was at the moment of his creation, whence they ought to imitate him in his nakedness. They detested marriage; maintaining, that the conjugal union would never have taken place upon earth had sin been unknown; and that the privilege of enjoying women in common, was one of the rights which flowed from their establishment in original purity.

This obscure and detestable sect did not at first last long; but it was revived in the twelfth century by one Tandamus, since known by the name of Tanchelin, who propagated his errors at Antwerp, in the reign of the emperor Henry V. He maintained, that there ought to be no distinction between priests and laymen, and that fornication and adultery were meritorious actions. Tanchelin had a great number of followers, and was constantly attended by 3000 of these profligates in arms. His sect did not however continue long after his death: but another appeared under the name of Turlypini, in Savoy and Dauphiny, where they committed the most brutal actions in open day.

About the beginning of the fifteenth century, one Picard, a native of Flanders, spread these errors in Germany and Bohemia, particularly in the army of the famous Zizka, notwithstanding the severe discipline he maintained. Picard pretended that he was sent into the world as a new Adam, to re-establish the law of nature; and which, according to him, consisted in exposing every part of the body, and having all the women in common. This sect found also some partizans in Poland, Holland, and England: they assembled in the night; and it is asserted, that one of the fundamental maxims of their society was contained in the following verse:

Tura, perjura, secretum predere noli.