FRANK, JAKOB , a Jewish theologian, founded in Poland a sect which emanated from Judaism but ended by merging with Christianity. The sect, the outcome of the Messianic mysticism of Sabbetai Zebi, was an antinomian movement in which the authority of the Jewish law was held to be superseded by personal freedom. It posed as an anti-Talmudic protest in behalf of a spiritual religion. The Frankists in 1759 were baptized en masse, amid much pomp, but the Church soon became con vinced that Frank was not a genuine convert. He was imprisoned on a charge of heresy, but on his release in 1763 the empress Maria Theresa patronized him, regarding him as a propagandist of Christianity among the Jews. He thenceforth lived in state as baron of Offenbach, and on his death his daughter Eva succeeded him as head of the sect.