ADAM BOREEI. — Founder of the Borelites, born at Duinbeke (Holland) in 1603, died in 1667. While serving as a Protestant minister in the province of Zeeland, he resigned his office at one point, explaining that he had come to realize that, with the death of the Apostles, the Christian Church had fallen into decay.
To remedy this damage, in 1645 he founded in Amsterdam a sect of his own, without churches, sacraments, or outward worship, which advocated the sole authority of the Bible, strict morality, and philanthropic generosity. It was indeed a Quaker-like imitation, but not— as some insinuated— tinged with antinomianism. Among other things, B., an expert in Hebrew studies, left as the normative work of his group *Ad Legem et Testimonium*.
BIBL.: H. G. Kleyn, in *Realencyklop. für protest. Theol. und Kirche*, III (1987), pp. 325–326; F. Lichterberger, s. V. in *Enc. des Sciences religieuses*, II, p. 363; C. Crivelli, *Piccolo dizionario delle sette protestanti*, Rome 1945, p. 222.