Piccards, a mutilation of the name Beghards, an epithet of disgrace applied to both the Moravian Brethren and the Bohemian Hussites. In government decrees this designation was also used; it thus became so general that the Brethren used it themselves in the title of their writings, often in the following form: "The Brethren who are called Piccards from envy and hate."
The Moravian Piccards of the 15th and 16th centuries were much more radical than those of Bohemia. In Western Europe, particularly in France, the Waldenses of the 15th century are often called Piccards.
The theory that the name Piccards is derived from Picardie, a province in Northern France, where the Waldenses were rather numerous, is wrong. Whether Nicolaus Storch and Thomas Müntzer were influenced by the Moravian Piccards, as has been suggested, is an open question.
Scheffer, Hoop and Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: v. III, 374.
|Nanne van der Zijpp|
Cite This Article
Neff, Christian and Nanne van der Zijpp. "Piccards." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 29 May 2015. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Piccards&oldid=111907.
Neff, Christian and Nanne van der Zijpp. (1959). Piccards. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 29 May 2015, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Piccards&oldid=111907.
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