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LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



••■Wlien found, make a note o(."— Captain Cuttle, 



No. 34.1 



Saturday, June 22. 1850. 



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 C Stamped Edition 4 d. 



CONTENTS. Page 



Notes : — 



Tlie AKapemone of ihe Sixteenth Centurr, by E. F. 



Rimbault. LL..D. . . , . .49 



Punislirapiit of Death by Burning, by C. Koss and Rev. 



A. Gatty - . . ^. . . .50 



Folk Lore: — Death bed Mystery — Easter Eggs — May 



Marriages — "Trash" or "Skriker" - . - 51 



Notes on Milton - - . . . - 63 



Colvil's Whigg's Supplication .. - . -53 



Queries : — 



Hubert le Soeur's Six Brass Statues, by E. F. Kimbanlt, 

 LL.D. - . . . . . .54 



Bishop Jewell's Ljbrary . . . . - 54 



The Low Window . - . . _ - .55 



Minor Queries .' — North Sides of Churchyards — Hatfield 

 — Ulriih von Hutten — Simon of Glient — Boetius — 

 Gloucestershire Gospel Tree — Churchyards — F.pi- 

 taphs — Anthony Wart^n — Cardinal's Hat — Maps of 

 London — Griffith of Penrhyn — Mariner's Compass — 

 Pontefract on the Thames • . . .55 



Replies: — 



Study of Geometry in Lancashire, by T. T. Wilkinson - 57 

 Queries Answered, No. 8., by Bolton Corney . . 60 



Me:ining of Bawn - . - . . .60 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Births, Marriaees, !kc M. " 



or N.— Arabic Numerals — Comment in Apocalypsin— 

 Robert Deverell- Ilipp.ipolamus- Ashes to Ashes — 

 Dr. Maginn's Miscellanies — Living Dog better than a 

 Dead Lion —Gaol Chaplains — Rome, Ancient and 

 Modern — Triiinoji - . . . . -60 



Miscellanies: — 



Aboriginal Chambers near Tilbury- Mistake in Cony, 



beareand Howson's Life of St. Paul . . -62 

 Miscellaneous .• — 



Notes on Books, Catalogues, Sales, &c. . . . 63 



Books and Odd Volumes Wanted - , . -6.3 



Notices to Correspondents - - - . I 63 



Advertisements - , . . . -64 



iJntcS. 



THE " AGAPEMONe" OF TUE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



As it is not gcnenilly known that tlte " A>,'ape- 

 mone" had a prototype in tlie celebrated Family 

 of Love, some account of this "wicked sect" may 

 not at tin's moment be witliout interest to your 

 readers : — 



" Henry Nicholas, a Westphalian, born at Munster, 

 but who had lived a great while at Amsterdam, and 

 some lime hkewise at Eii)l)!len, was the father oC this 

 family. He appeared upon the stage about the year 

 I540, styled liimself the ileifeil man, boa.stod of great 

 matters, and seemed to exalt himself above the condi- 

 tion of a Iminan creature. He was, as he pretende<l, 

 greater than Moses and Chiist, because Moses liad 

 taught mankind to /lope, Clirist to Lelieve, hut he to 



V'oL. II. — No. 34. 



love; which last being of more worth than both the 

 former, he was consequently greater than both those 

 prophets " — See Brandt's Bist. of the Brforin.. ^c, in 

 the Low Countries, vol. i. p, 105, ed. 1720. 



According to some writers, however, the sect 

 was not founded by Henry Nicholas, but by David 

 George, an Anabaptist entliusiast of Detft, who 

 died in 1556; and indeed there is some reason to 

 believe that the Family of Love grew out of the 

 heresies of the said George, with whom Nicholas 

 had been on friendly terms. 



« ' Not content,' says Fuller, speaking of Nicholas, 

 I to confine his errors to his own country, over becomes 

 into England, and in the latter end of the reign of 

 Edward the Sixth, joyned himself to the Dutch^con- 

 gregation in London, where he seduced a number of 

 artificers and silly women.'" — Church. Hist, a. 1]2 

 ed. 1655. 



On the 12th of June, 1575, according to the 

 historian HoUinsUed, 



" Stood at Paule's Cro.sse five persons, Englishmen, 

 of the sect termed the Familie of Love, who there con- 

 fessed themselves utterlie to detest as well the author 

 of that sect, H. N., as ail his damnable errors and he- 

 resies." 



A curious little volume on the history and doc- 

 trines of this sect appeareil in the year 1572, from 

 the pen of John Rogers, entitled The Displaying of 

 an horrible Secte of grosse and wicked Heretiqves, 

 naming themselves the Family of Love, with the Lives 

 of their Authors, and what Doctrine they teach in 

 Corners. Imprinled at London for George Bishop. 

 1579. ]2mo. Ciiristopher Vittall, a joiner of 

 Southwark, who had been infected with the doc- 

 trine of Arius some twenty years before, and whose 

 credit was great amongst 'the Family of Love, was 

 at this period actively engaged in teaching their 

 doctrines. He travelled about the country 'to dis- 

 seminate them ; and was likewise author of a little 

 book, in rejily to Roger's Displaying of the sect, 

 printed in the same year. 



At the close of the year 1580 the sect was in- 

 creasing so rapidly in England, that the govern- 

 ment took active nioasiires for its suppression, and 

 tiie Ciueen i.^sued a proclamation to search for the 

 " teachers or professors of the foresaid damnable 

 sect," and to "proceed severelie against them." 



