Person seen as professing orthodoxy to mask actual belief
Look up Nicodemite in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
ANicodemite (/ˌnɪkəˈdiːmaɪt/)[1] is a person suspected of publicly misrepresenting their religious faith to conceal their true beliefs.[2][3] The term is sometimes defined as referring to aProtestant who lived in a Catholic country and escaped persecution by concealing their Protestantism.[4][5]
The word is normally aterm of disparagement. Introduced into 16th-century religious discourse, it persisted in use into the 18th century and beyond. Originally employed mostly byProtestants, it was usually applied to persons of publicly conservative religious position and practice who were thought to be secretlyhumanistic orreformed.
In England during the 17th and 18th centuries the term was often applied to those suspected of secretSocinian,Arian, orDeist beliefs.[6]
The term was apparently introduced byJohn Calvin (1509–1564) in 1544 in hisExcuse à messieurs les Nicodemites.[7] Since the Frenchmonarchy had increased its prosecution ofheresy with theEdict of Fontainebleau (1540), it had become more dangerous to profess dissident beliefs publicly, so refuge was sought in emulating the discipleNicodemus.
According to theGospel of John (John 3,John 3:1-2), Nicodemus was aPharisee and member of theSanhedrin. Although outwardly remaining a pious Jew, he came to Jesus secretly by night to receive instruction.
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
^"Definition of NICODEMITE".[...] a secret follower or adherent[;] specifically : a 16th century Protestant Christian who lived in a Roman Catholic country and escaped persecution by concealing his or her Protestantism
^"Nicodemism".The term Nicodemite, derived from Nicodemus, who visited Jesus by night, generally denotes a secret or timid adherent. J. Calvin applied it to those converts to Protestantism in Catholic France who outwardly continued RC practices. In modern times Nicodemism covers all forms of religious simulation.
Ginzburg, Carlo. "Il nicodemismo. Simulazione e dissimulazione religiosa nell'Europa del Cinquecento", Einaudi, Torino 1970.
Livingstone, E. A. "Nicodemism". InThe Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000. Entry availablehere.
Magalhães, Anderson.All’ombra dell’eresia: Bernardo Tasso e le donne della Bibbia in Francia e in Italia, inLe donne della Bibbia, la Bibbia delle donne. Teatro, letteratura e vita, Atti del XV Convegno Internazionale di Studio organizzato dal Gruppo di Studio sul Cinquecento francese, Verona, 16-19 ottobre 2009, a cura di R. Gorris Camos, Fasano, Schena, 2012, pp. 159–218.
Overell, M. AnneItalian Reform and English Reformations, c.1535–c.1585. The Open University, UK. 2008.Excerpt available online.
Overell, Anne. "A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay, 1548-46". InJohn Foxe at Home and Abroad. D. M. Loades, ed. Ashgate Publishing, Farnham, Surrey, UK, 2004.
Pettegree, Andrew. "Nicodemism and the English Reformation" inMarian Protestantism: Six Studies, St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Aldershot, 1996, pp. 86–117.
Shrimplin-Evangelidis, Valerie.Michelangelo and Nicodemism: The Florentine Pietà. College Art Association, 1989.
Snobelen, Stephen D. "Isaac Newton, heretic: the strategies of a Nicodemite."The British Journal for the History of Science, 32:4:381-419. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Zagorin, Perez (1990).Ways of Lying: Dissimulation, Persecution, and Conformity in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-94834-1.
