A'DAXITES, a sect of fanatics who spread themselves in Bohemia and Moravia in the 15th and 16th c., but had no connection with the Missiles. One Picard is said to have been the founder of the sect about 1400. He styled himself Adam, the son of God, rejected the sacrament of the supper and the priesthood, and advocated the com munity of women. After his death, his followers spread themselves in Bohemia under several leaders. They even fortified themselves on an island in a tributary of the Moldau, and committed depredations around. They were detested as much by the followers of Huss as by the Catholics. Ziska (q.v.) made war against them, and slew great numbers; but they were never entirely rooted out. Even as recently as 1849, when the Austrian government declared religious liberty for all its subjects, certain members of this sect appeared and endeavored to gain proselytes. The official investigation into their character which took place at that time represents their creed as a mixture of freethinking, quiet ism, and communism. The members belong to the peasant or laboring class; and ath men
and women are generally industrious, temperate, and discreet in their ordinary course of life; but at their nightly meetings, at which they dispense with clothes, the utmost licen tiousness is said to prevail.—As early as the 2d c., there wash sect. of Gnostic tendency, called Adamites, who sought, by from all indulgence of the senses, to recall the state of innocence men were before the full. They therefore rejected manure, and in order to exercise the virtue of continence went naked. They held that for those who had once attained the state of innocence all actions were alike indifferent—neither good nor evil. This doctrine led directly to the greatest licentiousness. Aberrations of this kind, under various disguises and modifications, have made their appearance from time to time in all ages of the world.