BOHEMIAN BRETHREN

A sect which sprung up in Bohemia in the year 1467. In 1503 they were accused by the Roman Catholics to King Ladislaus II., who published an edict against them, forbidding them to hold any meetings, either privately or publicly. When Luther declared himself against the Church of Rome, the Bohemian Brethren endeavoured to join his party. At first, that reformer showed a great aversion to them; but the Bohemians sending their deputies to him in 1535, with a full account of their doctrines, he acknowledged that they were a society of Christians whose doctrine came near to the purity of the gospel. This sect published another confe ion of faith in 1535, in which they renounced anabaptism, which they at first profe ed; upon this an union was concluded with the Luther ans, and afterwards with the Zuinglians, whose opinions from thenceforth they continued to follow.