Jean de Labadie
Jean de Labadie (13 February 1610 – 13 February 1674) was a 17th-century French Pietist. Originally a Jesuit priest, he became a member of the Reformed Church in 1650, before founding the community which became known as the Labadists in 1669. At its height the movement numbered around 600 with thousands of adherents further afield. It attracted some notable female converts such as the famed poet and scholar, Anna Maria van Schurman, and the entomological artist Maria Merian. Labadie combined the influences of Jansenism, Precicianism, and Reformed Pietism, developing a form of radical Christianity with an emphasis upon holiness and Christian communal living. Labadie's teachings gained hold in the Netherlands. Life The son of an officer, he entered the Jesuit Order in 1625, was ordained in 1635, but left in 1639 due to poor health and tensions with the other brothers. He then worked as a diocesan priest in Bordeaux, Paris and Amiens. He turned to Jansenism and intensive study of the Bible, and began to be drawn to Calvinism. He regarded himself as divinely inspired. Cardinal Mazarin had him transferred to southern France in 1646 as a disturber of the peace, where he changed his allegiance to the Reformed