PICARDS, a religious sect which arose in Bohemia in the fifteenth century. Picard, the author of this sect, and from whom it has derived its name, drew after him, as has been generally said, a number of men and women, pretending that he would restore them to the primitive state of innocence in which man was created; and accordingly he assumed the title of the New Adam. With this pretence he taught his followers to give themselves up to all impurity, saying that therein consisted the liberty of the sons of God; and that all those not of their sect were in a state of bondage. He first published his notions in Germany and the Low Countries, and, persuading many people to go naked, he gave them the name of Adamites. After this he seized upon an island in the river Lausnecz, some leagues from Thabor, the head-quarters of Zisea, where he fixed himself and his followers. His women were common, but none were allowed to enjoy them without his permission; so that when any man desired a particular woman, he carried her to Picard, who gave him leave in these words, “Go, increase, multiply, and fill the earth.” At length, however, Zisea, general of the Hussites, scandalized at their abominations, marched against them, made himself master of their island, and put them all to death except two, whom he spared that he might learn their doctrine. Such is the account which various writers, relying on the authorities of Aeneas Sylyius and Varillas, have given of the Picards, who appear to have been a party of the Vaudois, who fled from persecution in their own country, and sought refuge in Bohemia. It is indeed doubtful whether a sect of this denomination» chargeable with such wild principles and such licentious conduct, ever existed; and it is certainly astonishing that Mr Bayle should adopt the reproachful representations of the writers just mentioned; for it appears probable, at least, that the whole is a calumny invented and propagated in order to disgrace the Picards, merely because they deserted the communion and protested against the errors of the church of Rome. Lasitius informs us, that Picard, together with forty other persons, besides women and children, settled in Bohemia in the year 1418. Balbinus the Jesuit, in his Epitome Rerum Bohemicarum (lib. ii.), gives a similar account, and charges against the Picards none of the extravagances or crimes ascribed to them by Sylvius. Schlecta, secretary of Ladislaus, king of Bohemia, in his letters to Erasmus, in which he gives a particular account of the Picards, says that they considered the pope, cardinals, and bishops of Rome, as the true Antichrists, and the adorers of the consecrated elements in the eucharist as downright idolaters; that they denied the corporeal presence of Christ in this sacrament; that they condemned the worship of saints, prayers for the dead, auricular confession, the penance imposed by priests, the feasts and vigils observed in the Catholic church; and that they confined themselves to the observance of the Sabbath, and of the two great feasts of Christmas and Pentecost. From this account it would appear that they were no other than the Vaudois; and Μ. deBeausobre has clearly shown that they were both of the same sect, though under different denominations. Besides, it is certain that the Vaudois were settled in Bohemia in the year 1178, where some of them adopted the rites of the Greek, and [7:17:738]others those of the Latin church. The former were pretty generally adhered to till the middle of the fourteenth century, when the establishment of the Latin rites caused great disturbance. Upon the commencement of the national troubles in Bohemia, on account of the opposition to the papal power, the Picards more publicly avowed and defended their religious opinions; and they formed a considerable body in an island by the river Launitz or Lausnecz, in the district of Bechin, and, recurring to arms, were defeated by Zisea.