Their prophetical teachers had intimated that, as in the destruction of Jerusalem the Christians found a place of refuge, so would there be one now, and that, somewhere in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea.

Many, therefore, of the common people determined to seek the wished-for asylum, that they and their children (for whom the better sort were particularly anxious) might escape the impending storm, and also be able to form an independent ecclesiastical establishment according to their own notions.

To these were joined others desirous of change, or in straitened circumstances, who though not at heart pious, professed for the time to be influenced by the same principles and motives.

In fact the latter became the most numerous.

The company, when it left Wuertemberg, consisted of fifteen hundred families.