Abrahamites

ABRAHAMITES: A deistic sect which appeared in the district of Pardubitz, eastern Bohemia, after 1782. They claimed to hold to the faith of Abraham before his circumcision; rejected most of the Christian doctrines, but professed belief in one God, and accepted, of the Scriptures, only the Decalogue and the Lord’s Prayer. The government took measures against them, and they were soon suppressed. The name was also applied to the followers of one Abraham (Ibrahim) of Antioch at the beginning of the ninth century; they were charged with idolatrous and licentious practises, probably on insufficient grounds, and may have been related to the Paulicians.

Bibliography: [P. A. Winkopp], Geschichte der böhmischen Deisten, Leipsic, 1785; J. G. Meusel, Vermischte Nachrichten und Bemerkungen, Erlangen, 1818; H. Grégoire, Histoire des sectes réligieuses, v. 419 sqq., 6 vols., Paris, 1828-45.