- published: 29 Mar 2012
- views: 1242789
The Seekers, or Legatine-Arians as they were sometimes known, were a Protestant dissenting group that emerged around the 1620s, probably inspired by the preaching of three brothers – Walter, Thomas, and Bartholomew Legate. Arguably, they are best thought of as forerunners of the Quakers, with whom many of them subsequently merged. Seekers considered all organised churches of their day to be corrupt, and preferred to wait for God's revelation.
British historian Christopher Hill explains that, long before the English Revolution, there already existed a "lower-class heretical culture" in England. The cornerstones of this culture were anti-clericalism and a strong emphasis on Biblical study, but there were specific heretical doctrines that had “an uncanny persistence.” There was a rejection of Predestination, and an embrace of Millenarianism, mortalism, anti-Trinitarianism, and Hermeticism. Such ideas became "commonplace to seventeenth century Baptists, Levellers, Diggers, Seekers, early Quakers and other radical groupings which took part in the free-for-all discussions of the English Revolution."
All over the world, people must meet and part;
There's someone like me feeling the pain in their heart.
Some may meet again under that same white star,
If maybe some night you come back from afar.
Who cares if tonight I don't know where you are?
Are you thinking of me now,
Missing having me around?
If you have forgotten me,
My world will come tumbling down.
All over the world, others are sad tonight;
There's someone like me watching the sun's fading light.
All over the sky there is the same warm glow;
Here under that star I'm wanting you to know,