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Montpellierians

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a fanatical sect which, under the religious garb, committed all manner of excesses, and became guilty of most immoral conduct, but which, fortunately, was only short-lived, the people soon becoming disgusted with the licentiousness of its members. It arose at Montpellier, France, about the year 1723. Its founder, master, and high-priest took the name of Jacob Prophetus, and designated his meeting as the "New Sion." They held nightly meetings, in which the grossest licentiousness was indulged in under cover of religion. Their place of assembly contained numerous apartments, carpeted with white, and furnished with beds and mattresses. In the farthest apartment, considered as the sanctum sanctorum, stood an altar, a pulpit,, candlestick with seven branches, and a gazophylakion. There were also some priests dressed in the garb of the Hebrew priests. They circumcised and baptized their children, but in the latter ceremony brandy was used instead of water. Louis XV commissioned the marquis de Roquelaure to put an end to their abomination, and the sect was speedily suppressed. See P.I. von Huth, Versulch einer Kirchengesch. d. 18ten Jahrh. 1:543 sq.