Jean de Labadie

Jean de Labadie was a French theologian who converted from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism and founded the Labadists, a Pietist community. He was born in 1610 in Bourg, near Bordeaux, France, as the son of a governor of Guienne. He studied at the Jesuit school in Bordeaux and entered the Jesuit order in 1625. He claimed to have a vision to reform the church and became a popular preacher. However, he also developed mystical tendencies that led him to leave the Jesuits in 1639. He then embraced Jansenism and became a secular priest in Amiens. He was imprisoned and expelled by Mazarin for causing public unrest with his sermons. In 1650, he converted to Calvinism and became a pastor of the Reformed Church in Montauban. He was forced to leave Montauban in 1657 and then served as a pastor in Orange until 1660, when the city was conquered by Louis XIV. He then moved to Geneva, where he gathered a group of followers who shared his views on personal piety and church discipline. He also clashed with the Calvinist orthodoxy and was reprimanded by the Consistory several times. In 1666, he left Geneva and joined the Walloon Church in Middelburg, Netherlands. There he met Anna Maria van Schurman, a renowned scholar and poet who became his disciple and companion. They separated from the Walloon Church in 1669 and formed their own community, known as the Labadists. They moved to Herford, Germany, in 1670, where they were protected by the princess Elisabeth of the Palatinate. They then moved to Altona, near Hamburg, in 1672, where they established a communal settlement. Labadie died of pneumonia on his 64th birthday in 1674. He left behind several writings on theology, mysticism, and ecclesiology. His followers continued his movement until the early 18th century, when it gradually declined. The Labadists were known for their strict discipline, ascetic lifestyle, communal ownership of property, rejection of worldly pleasures, and emphasis on spiritual experience.