LABADIE, Jean de, French mystic and separarist: b. Bourg eti Guienne, 13 Feb. 1610; d. Altona, Prussia, 13 Feb. 1674. He was edu cated at Bordeaux by the Jesuits and belonged to their order till 1639. He then quitted it, both because irregularities were detected in his conduct and he was found to have adopted many very •peculiar and extravagant views. For these he was cited before the Parliament, but fled to Geneva. At a later period he returned to France and took up his residence in Amiens, whose bishop entrusted him with the visitation of the monasteries in his diocese. He also found a patron in the archbishop of 'Toulouse. His zealous opposition to some of the clergy subjeoted him again to persecution, and to escape from it he, in 1650, went over to the Reformed Church, but not finding himself so comfortable as he expected, he thought he had received a call to found an apostolic church for himself. He now became a preacher in Mont
auban, and afterward, on being obliged to leave it, in the town of Orange, from which he pro ceeded successively to Geneva, Middleburg and Amsterdam. In the last city he collected his followers into a distinct church or society under the name of Labadists. They were ana Baptists, believed in the community of goods, held that marriage with the unregenerate was not binding, and that the children of the re generate were born without original sin. Tolera tion being now denied him, he in 1670 pro ceeded to Herford, where the Palsgravine Eliza beth gave him protection. Driven thence by an imperial edict in 1672, he went first to Bremen and finally to Altona, where he held private meetings. See LABADISTS.