Galenists

Galenists a branch split off, in 1664, from the Waterlandians, who were Mennonites, or Anabaptists. The founder of the Galenists was called Galen Abraham Haan; he was a doctor of physic, and pastor of a Mennonite congregation at Amsterdam. He is celebrated as a man of great penetration and eloquence, and is supposed to have inclined to Socinian views. Assuming that the Christian system laid much more stress on practice than on faith, he was disposed to receive into the Mennonite Church all who acknowledged the divine origin of the books of the Old and New Testaments and led holy and virtuous lives. Such in his judgment, were true Christians, and had an undoubted right to all the privileges that belong to that character. — Mosheim, Ch. Hist. cent. 17, section 2, part 2, chapter 5, § 7. SEE APOSTOOL; SEE MENNONITES.