Muggleton. See Muggletonians.
Muggletonians, a sect that arose in England about the year 1651, and of which the founders were John Reeve and Ludovic Muggleton (the latter born 1607, died 1697), both until 1651 obscure men. The former's pro- fession is not at all known, and he lived but a little while after their public declaration as religionists. Mug- gleton was a journeyman tailor, and is depicted bj"^ his contemporaries with long, thin hair, low forehead, pro- truding brow, broad high cheek-bones, and what phys- iognomists would call the aggressive nose. Tliese men claimed to have the spirit of prophecy, and that they had been appointed by an audible voice from God as the last and greatest prophets of Jesus Christ, and af- firmed themselves to be the two witne.ises of Kev. xi. Muggltt;)n professed to be the "mouth" of Reeve, as Aaron was of ]Moses. They asserted a right to bless all who favored and to curse all who opposed them, and did not hesitate to declare eternal damnation against their adversaries. They favored the world with a num- ber of publications. In 1650 Muggleton published his first paper, in which it was asserted " that he was the chief judge in the world in passing sentence of eternal death and damnation upon the souls and bodies of men ; that in obedience to his commission he had already cursed and damned many hundreds to all eternity; that in doing this he went by as certain a rule as the judges of the land do when they pass sentence according to law; and that no infinite Spirit of Christ, nor any God, coidd or should be able to deliver from his sentence and curse." In another paper, published later, he insisted " that he was as true an ambassador of God, and judge of all men's spiritual estate, as any ever was since the creation of the world." He also declared himself above ordinances of every kind, not excepting prayer and preaching, rejecting all creeds and Church discipline and authority. The most remarkable of his papers is the one particularly directed to the Parliament and com- monwealth of England, and to his excellencj' the lord- general Cromwell, which was entitled A Remonstrance from the Eternal God. The consequence was that the prophets were declared " nuisances," and imprisoned in " Old Bridewell." Another remarkable publication was A general Epistle from the Holy Spirit, dated from " Great Trinit}' Lane, at a chandler's shop, over against one Mr. j\Iillis, a brown baker, near Bow Lane End, Lon- don." A pretty full exposition of their doctrines they furnished in 1656 in their publication entitled The divine Looking-glass of the Third Testament of our Lord JesUs Christ, which makes the chief articles of their creed to have been confused notions of Gnostic heresies. Thus they taught that God has the real body of a man ; that the Trinity is only a variety of names of God; that God himself came down to earth, and was born as a man and suffered death ; and that during this time Elias was his representative in heaven. They also held very singular and not very intelligible doctrines con- cerning angels and devils. The Evil One, they taught, became incarnate in Eve, and there is no devil at all without the body of man or woman ; and that the devil is man's spirit of unclean reason and cursed imagina- tion, and that this is the only devil we have now to fear. According to them the soul of man is inseparably united with the bodv, with which it dies and will rise
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again. The works of Liulovic Jluggleton, with his por- trait prefixed, were publislied in 1756, and A complete Collection of the Works of Reeve and Mufigleton, together with other \\[u;;(jletonian Tracts,\va.s published by some of their modern followers in 1832 (3 vols. 4to). A list of books and general index to Keeve's and Muggleton's works was published in 1846, ro\-al 8vo. Among the works written against them are the following: The New Witnesses proved Old Heretics, by William Penn (1672, 4to) ; A true Representation of the absurd and mischievous Principles of the Sect commonly known by the Name of Muggletonians (Lond. 1694, 4to). Muggleton succeeded in gathering a large number of followers, and at the time of his death (1697) the Muggletonians, as they called themselves, were largely scattered all over England. They subsisted in good numbers until the end of the first quarter of this century; but the census of 1851 showed no trace of them, and they are supposed to be now wellnigh extinct. In 1868 one of the most eminent of the sect in modern times, Mr. Joseph Gan- der, died, and the London papers then announced that with him expired the Muggletonians. He had sus- tained a place of worship for a few of like mind with himself. Mr. Gander is spoken of as a " sincere mem- ber of the sect called Muggletonians for upwards of sixty years." Muggleton himself lies buried in Spinning- wheel Alley, Moorfields, with the following inscription over his tomb :
"While mausoleums and large inscriptions give Might, splendor, .ind past death make potents live, It is enough briefly to write thy name. Succeeding times by that will read thy fame; Thy deeds, thy acts, around the world resound. No foreign soil where Muggleton's not found."