Abecedarians, a small sect among the Anabaptists in Germany in the 16th century, noted for their dislike to learning. They thought it best not even to learn to read, as a knowledge of the Scriptures was all that was necessary, and this was communicated by the Holy Spirit direct to the believer without the medium of the written word.
À Becket, THOMAS. See BECKET.
À Beckett, GILBERT ABBOTT, born in London, 9th January 1811, and educated at Westminster School, in 1841 was called to the bar, in 1849 became a metropolitan police magistrate, and died at Boulogne, 30th August 1856. Besides writing for Punch, the Times, the Morning Herald, and the Illustrated News, he was author of Quizzology of the British Drama, The Comic Blackstone, and Comic Histories of England and Rome, the second illustrated by Cruikshank, the last two by Leech.