THE IfcW SCHAFF-HERZOG
f
for Wisconsin 1870-74. In 1874-75 he waslpresident of Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomiilgton, 111., but in 1S75 withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church for the Reformed Episcopal denomination. Since 1875 he has been rector of St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal Church, Chicago, and has been a bishop of the Church since 1876. He has been elected presiding bishop seven times. In 1S76 he founded the Reformed Episcopal Appeal, which he edited for four years. Among his writings mention may be made of Bright and Happy Homes (Chicago, 1S77); The Home Beyond (1879); Past Noon (Cincinnati, O., 1886); The Bible Looking Glass (Naperville, 111., 1898); Popular and Critical Biblical Dictionary (Chicago, 1901); and Christian Philosophy (1905.)
FAMILIAR SPIRIT. See Divination, § 1.
FAMILIARES: A term applied to domestic servants or craftsmen employed in the service of a monastery, who, without being either monks or lay brothers, were considered as belonging in a sense to the order, and were thus required to join in certain religious exercises.
FAMILIARITAS (COMMENSALITIUM) : In canon law, a term describing one of the grounds on which a bishop may ordain a man who does not strictly belong to his diocese. It is not required that the candidate shall have literally lived in the bishop's house and sat at his table, but he must have received his support from the bishop's personal funds, and have been for three years in such close communication with the bishop that the latter shall have had full opportunity to acquaint himself with his character. A benefice must also be provided for him by the bishop within a month after his ordination.
FAMILISTS (Family of Love; Huis der Liefde; Familia caritatis) : A short-lived religious community, founded in Emden, East Friesland, about 1540 by Hendrik Niclaes, or Niclas, and exercising a certain amount of influence in the The religious confusion of the later Eng-
Founder. lish Revolution, as well as in the Philadelphian Society of Jane Lead (q.v.). Born of Roman Catholic parentage on Jan. 9 or 10, 1502 or 1501, possibly at Minister, Niclaes spent the first twenty-nine years of his life in his native city as a merchant. He was originally a devoted follower of the ancient faith, and even in his career as the leader of a sect he felt still formally connected with Roman Catholicism. However, he entered into spiritual communion with many who were inclined toward the Reformation, and in 152s he was imprisoned for a short time, but was released for lack of evidence. Some time before 1531 he settled in Amsterdam, remaining there more than nine years. The only details known concerning this residence are that within a year he was again imprisoned, and that after his speedy release he lived in seclusion, devoting himself to a life of Pietism. It was not until his thirty-ninth year that Niclaes became a figure of importance, and claimed that revelations had assured him that God had poured upon him the " spirit of the true love of Jesus Christ," and had chosen him from his
youth to be the prophet to prepare the way for the approaching end of time. In this period he began to commit his revelations to writing, and for twenty years (1540- 60), Emden was the center both of his mercantile activity and his religious propaganda, while he journeyed throughout Holland and Flanders, and also visited Paris and L.ndon. To this period belong the majority of his vritings, of which the most important were Den Spegel der Gherechticheit, dorch den Geist der Lieffden unde den vergodeden Mensch H. .V uth de hemmelische Warheit betiiget, and Evangelium offte eine frolicke Bodeschop des Rycke godes unde Christi (Eng. transl., An Introduction to the Understanding of the Glasse of Righteousness, by C. Vittell 1575 [?]). Most of these works were printed secretly, but, as is now certain, partly by the press of the famous Antwerp printer Plantin, who had become a convert to Niclaes' views about 1550, despite the fact that later he was the " prototypographus " of the king of Spain and printer to the Holy See. Niclaes himself continued to be ostensibly a strict Roman Catholic, his works being disseminated by his closest disciples, while he himself established his Familia caritatis at Emden.
This was essentially a community of mystic
indifferentism, only loosely connected with historic
Christianity. While the teachings
Doctrines of the Bible and the Church were of the not denied, they were practically
Familists. ignored, being regarded either as a mere preparation for the age of love, or being reduced to allegories. The basis of the system is a mystic pantheism, which explains how Niclaes could believe that God and Christ had become incarnate in himself, although others also might thus partake of God. On the other hand, the self-consciousness of the founder, who did not hesitate to term himself an incarnation of God or Christ, often defeated the logical consequences of pantheism; and the organization of the sect, with its twenty-four elders, archbishops, four classes of priests, and " supreme bishop," was entirely monarchical. A centralized administration was necessitated, moreover, by the complicated system of priests professing poverty, a community giving tithes, and an involved law of inheritance. There is no reason to suppose, however, that Niclaes was a conscious hypocrite, although his mysticism of love had an antinomian tendency, and both the organization of the sect and many practises of the community were not free from peril. The propaganda of Niclaes did not escape the notice of the authorities of Emden. Niclaes himself escaped in 1560, before proceedings could be taken against him, and lived the life of a refugee for several years, residing successively at Kampen, Utrecht, probably again in England, and, after 1570 in Cologne. He seems to have died in 15*0. the year in which appeared his Terra Pacts. Ware Getugenisse van idt geistclick Landschop des Fredes (Eng. transl., Terra Paris. A True Testification of the Spirituall Landc of Promyse, 1575 [?]). His success on the Continent had been comparatively slight. At the time of his death he had disciples in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Dort, Kampen,