Sabbathians

This was a radical movement which in the 1570's seceded from the Unitarian Church in Transylvania, particularly in Székely-Land and which was one of the persecuted groups of Ferenc Dávid's followers. In many points, the doctrines of the Sabbathians are very close to those of Judaism: they regarded the Old testament as a holy book and followed only its stipulations (i.e. they regarded Saturday as a holy day as opposed to Sunday, this being the origin for their name). In common with the Unitarians they believed that Jesus was a human-being, and therefore were waiting for the return of their Redeemer. As well as denying the divine nature of Christ they preached the complete restoration of respect for Moses' orders. Their most important representative was Simon Péchi the chancellor of Gábor Bethlen's, who translated biblical psalms and Jewish prayers into Hungarian from the original Hebrew. From 1595 the Transylvanian law began to prosecute Sabbathians as a result of which their sect slowly disappeared

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