Ch. Hist. [f. the name Bourign-on + -IAN.] Of or derived from Antoinette Bourignon, an enthusiast of Flanders in the 17th c., who held that the Christian religion consists in a certain inward feeling and divine impulse, rather than in knowledge and practice. Hence Bourignianism, -ignonism, -ist.
1697. State Philadelph. Soc., 30. Since these Sheets were gone to the Press there came to my Hand a Piece, call’d Bourignianism Detected.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 290. Under the name of the Bourignian Doctrine, it is … renounced by candidates for holy orders in the Church of Scotland.
1884. Brit. & For. Evang. Rev., April, 255. Dr. George Gordon of Aberdeen was deposed … for holding the principles of Bourignonism. Ibid. The Aberdeen Bourignonist was deposed.
