A confutation of this sect was written in the year 1579; the privy council called upon the convocation of the year 1580 to notice it. We find the sect still described in the publications of 1641, and continuing under the same name with its preachers and congregations in 1645.
Bp. Cooper, in speaking of the sect in 1589 (Admonition, &c., p. 146.), terms them "that peevish faction of the 'Familie of Love,' which have been breeding in this realm the space of these thirty years."
Fuller (Ch. Hist., 17th cent., p. 610.) says that in his time "they had obtained the name of Ranters."
Leslie, in his Works (vol. ii. p. 609.), considers the sect "identical with that of the Quakers."
That this was not the case is evident, I conceive, from George Fox, the father of the Quakers, having severely chastised this "Family of Love," because they would take an oath, dance, sing, and be cheerful. See Sewel's History of the Quakers, iii. p. 88, 89, 344.
The founder of the sect, Henry Nicolai, was born at Munster, and commenced his career about 1546 in the Netherlands; thence he passed over to England, in the latter years of Edward VI.'s life, and joined the Dutch congregation. But his sect did not become visible till some time in the reign of Elizabeth.
In 1575 they presented a confession of their faith to parliament, along with a number of their books, and prayed toleration.
Nicolai, or Nicolas, their founder, published a number of tracts and letters in Dutch for the edification of his followers: and now I will propose a Query, in hopes that some of your correspondents will solve it. Is there extant any list of their writings as presented to parliament in 1575, and has their confession been published, and when? Perhaps the following works, none of which I am able to consult, would furnish the means of solving my Query, all of which treat of the subject:—
J. Hombeck's Summa Controversiarum. Godfr. Arnold's Kirchen- und Kitzer-historie. Ant. Wilh. Bohm's Englische Reformations-historie. Schroekh's Kirchengesch. seit der Reformation.