a native of the Netherlands, who improved upon the errors of the Adamites. He called himself the Son of God; and pretended, that, like a new Adam, he was sent by his father to restore the law of nature, which, according to him, chiefly consisted in community with respect to women, and in going quite naked. It is said, that though marriage was instituted among them, no man was allowed to lie with a woman without first obtaining leave of the chief of the sect. He fortified himself in an island in the river Lifnik, seven leagues from Thabor, the military residence of the famous Zifca; but unhappily for him, 40 of his followers being gone out upon a party, basely plundered some country houses, and killed upwards of 200 persons; upon which Zifca attacked the island, took it, and put all the Picards to the sword, except two, whose lives he spared in order to learn from their own mouths the principles of their religion. This happened in the year 1420.

Picard (John), an able mathematician, and one of the most learned astronomers of the 17th century, was born at Fleche, and became priest and prior of Rillie in Anjou. Going to Paris, he was in 1666 received into the Academy of Sciences, in quality of astronomer. In 1671, he was sent, by order of the king, to the castle of Uraniburg, built by Tycho Brahe in Denmark, to make astronomical observations there; and from thence he brought the original manuscripts wrote by Tycho Brahe, which are the more valuable as they differ in many places from the printed copies, and contain a book more than has yet appeared. He made important discoveries in astronomy; and was the first who travelled through several parts of France, to measure a degree of the meridian. His works are, 1. A treatise on levelling. 2. Fragments of dioptrics. 3. Experimenta circa aquas effluentias. 4. De mensuris. 5. De mensura liquidorum & aridorum. 6. A voyage to Uraniburg, or astronomical observations made in Denmark. 7. Astronomical observations made in several parts of France, &c. These, and some other of his works, which are much esteemed, are in the fifth and seventh volumes of the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences.