He stared at his gloves. Moonlight spilling through a window cast his horns in sharp relief, in contrast to the rest of him. "Were they friends of yours?"
"No." Lyta stamped her feet for warmth. She could just imagine what Bess would say about her muddy dress. "We take lessons together. They're... sometimes nice. I wouldn't wish harm on them."
"I'm sorry." Demon turned away from the window and began to pace.
The Universalior Cogniti Orbis Tabula Ex Recentibus Confecta Obsevationibus (Universe known world map from recently made observations, I think), by Johannes Ruysch, 1507, is hands-down one of my favorite maps.
Just look at it! First, note that there is no large region that has been left out of the top--this is a conic projection that has been "slit" down the side to flatten it into a map, my second favorite projection after pure polar projection. And when you realize that no big chunk has been left out, then you realize, oooh, that the coast of North America and coast of Asia are one and the same on this map. If you look closely, you can find "Tebet", and north of that, the land of "Gog and Magog." To the east of that, "Nova Terra" looks rather like Massachusetts (or perhaps Nova Scotia), and north of that Greenaland merges into North America. Between Greenland and Iceland lies a tiny dot, most likely Frisland--an island that appears on many old maps, often complete with cities and towns, but never existed. Between Greenland and Massachusetts, if you look closely, lie two half-moon-shaped islands, close together. These are the islands of Hy-Brazil, also mythical, whose name was later given to the country of Brazil.
Further south, we have "Spagnola" (thought to represent Japan,) part of the coast of Cuba, and a good chunk of the South American coastline.
Some of the more interesting groups:
Adamites--supposedly went around naked.
Diggers--religious communists who tried to farm on common lands, hence the name.
Enthusiasts--a dirty word for anyone with strong feelings about religion. Or politics.
Family of Love--kind of like modern hippies (see previous post.)
Fifth Monarchists--wanted to turn the English government into a new Sanhedrin to usher in the Apocalypse. Actually convinced Cromwell to try the idea. No apocalypse happened.
Muggletonians--named Muggletonians. What else do you need?
And of course, there were some famous groups you've probably already heard of, like the Puritans and the Quakers.
Familists were pacifists, believed that the world was governed by the laws of nature rather than divine intervention, and denied the trinity.
Unsurprisingly, just like modern movements of this nature, Familists were primarily students, scholars, and artists, and the faith was concentrated near the University of Cambridge.
Familists managed to escape execution and persecution by not generally telling anyone outside of the Family about their beliefs, ("The first rule of Family Club is don't talk about Family Club,") and proper respectable members of other, respected churches. They believed it was important to at least act outwardly like everyone else.
Nevertheless, we do know of a few Familists who've come to historical attention, including Phillip II of Spain's printer (he printed Catholic documents by day, and Familist ones by night,) and some of the Yeomen of Elizabeth I's guards.
Familists seem to have disappeared in the early 1700s--their low-key approach to spreading their theology had always made the group's long-term survival unlikely.
