FAMILISTS. - A Protestant sect that existed in Holland and England between the 16th and 17th centuries. It was founded between 1539 and 1540 by one Henry Niclaes, a native of Münster, and it spread to England under the reign of Elizabeth.

In 1575 Niclaes published his profession of faith, in which he declared that Hope had reigned with Moses, Faith with Christ, and that there must now open the kingdom of Charity. The followers of Niclaes, who formed the Familia charitatis (whence their name of F.), believed that the exercise of Charity ought to make them partakers of the Godhead itself. Familist preaching died out after a few years, for by the middle of the 17th century no trace of it remains. The most illustrious disciple of Niclaes was the famous printer of Antwerp, Christopher Plantin.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: F. Nippold, Heinrich Niclaes und das Haus der Liebe, in Zeitschrift für hist. Theol., 32 (1862), p. 323 ff.; F. A. Loofs, Familistes, in Review. für prot. Theol. u. Kirche, V, pp. 750-55; M. Roussa, Chr. Plantin, imprimerie universale, Antwerp 1882; G. Barcille, Famille d'amour, in DThC, V, coll. 2070-72. Renzo U. Montini

@incollection{ec5_familisti, author = {Montini, Renzo Uberto}, title = {Familisti}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {1008--1009}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/familisti} }

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Familists

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