Gods, Myths, and Heroes - Part 66

Adamites

The Adamites were a Christian sect.  They basically believed that by living like Adam and Eve before the Fall, they were in a state of purity where sin was impossible.  This lifestyle included nudism, because of course Adam and Eve were naked before the Fall.

The first Adamite sect flourished in the second century in northern Africa (probably Egypt) during the Roman Empire.  There was also an Adamite sect in Spain in the fourth and fifth centuries.  The Adamites rejected marriage as an institution that didn't exist before the Fall, and they are believed to have practiced free love.

Above, an 1898 illustration by E. J. Sullivan is supposed to depict second century Adamites, although they look like Victorians to me, not ancient Romans.

Another Adamite sect formed in the Netherlands in the 14th century.  Above, Scene des Adamites a Amsterdam by Francesco Badens.

These Dutch Adamites held a burning of their clothes in 1353.  Above, Night Meeting of the Adamites by Francois de la Cave.

However, when the Dutch Adamites went out into the streets naked, they were arrested, jailed, and executed.  Above, The Arrest of the Adamites in a Public Square in Amsterdam by Francois de la Cave.

The following century, in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), theologian Jan Hus spoke out against some Catholic practices, and he was burned at the stake in 1415.  He was not an Adamite, but his followers, the Hussites, continued to fight the Catholic establishment, and one offshoot of this movement became Adamites.  They believed themselves beyond sin.  They practiced nudity, declared marriage sinful, and advocated free love.  They outlawed private property and practiced communal ownership of all goods.

Above, Adamites in the Hussite Wards in Bohemia, a 15th century etching.

In 1421, another Hussite splinter group, the Taborites, attacked the Bohemian Adamites, and almost all the Adamites were killed.  Above, Doom of the Adamites by Frantisek Zenisek, 1903.  This painting focuses on a naked woman in the middle, but ...

it also depicts these naked men to the left of her.

During the English civil wars in the 1640s, an English Adamite sect appeared.  The illustration above is from an English broadsheet c. 1646.  Like their predecessors, the English Adamites were nudists, they rejected all laws, and they were sexual libertines, at least as described by their critics.  Very few facts are known about them, and the sect seems to have died out by 1660 when the English monarchy was restored.

We close with a scene from a video game called Crusader Kings III.  This game, which is set during the Middle Ages, has an option to choose a religion, and if you choose the Adamite religion, the characters on your side all become naked, though genitals are covered by a fig leaf.  However, there is apparently a mod to the game that eliminates the fig leaves, seen above.

So the Adamites are not completely forgotten. 😊