Note 358 — Chapter IV · Political and Religious Lunatics and Mattoids.

Knutzen, of Schleswig, in 1674, preached that there was neither God nor devil, that priests and magistrates were useless and pernicious, that marriage was unnecessary, that man ended with death, and that every one ought to be guided by his own inner consciousness of right. For this reason he gave to his disciples the name of the Conscientarii, garnishing his discourses with grotesque quotations. He went about begging and preaching in strange garments. It is not known what became of him after 1674. His writings are Epistola amici ad amicum, Schediasma de lacrimis Christi, &c.