Knipperdolings.
A denomination in the sixteenth century, so called from Bertrand Knipperdoling, who taught that the righteous, before the day of judgment, shall have a monarchy on earth, and the wicked be destroyed; that men are not justified by their faith in Christ Jesus; that there is no original sin; that infants ought not to be baptized, and immersion is the only mode of baptism; that every one has authority to preach, and administer the sacraments; that men are not obliged to pay respect to magistrates; that all things ought to be in common; and that it is lawful to marry many wives.
Mendæans, Mendaites, Mendai Ijahi, Or Disciples Of St. John, That Is, The Baptist.
From twenty to twenty-five thousand families of this sect still remain, chiefly in the neighborhood of Bassora, a city between Arabia and Persia, on the extremity of the desert of Irac. They are sometimes called Christians of St. John—a name which they probably received from the Turks, and to which they contentedly submit for the sake of the toleration it affords them; but they are better known in ecclesiastical history as Hemero (or every day) Baptists, from their frequent washings.
Muggletonians.
The followers of Ludovic Muggleton, a journeyman tailor, who, with his companion Reeves, set up for great prophets, in the time of Cromwell. They pretended to absolve or condemn whom they pleased, and gave out that they were the two last witnesses spoken of in the Revelation, who were to appear previous to the final destruction of the world. They affirmed that there was no devil at all without the body of man or woman; that the devil is man's spirit of unclean reason and cursed imagination; that the ministry in this world, whether prophetical or ministerial, is all a lie, and abomination to the Lord; with a variety of other vain and inconsistent tenets.
Muggleton died in 1697, and on his gravestone is this inscription:—
“Whilst mausoleums and large inscriptions give