Adamites

The Adamite Christians believed that the mandate of clothing was the first law ever established and that to signify the fulfilment of the law, they no longer required clothes

The Adamites were an early Christian sect in the 2nd century who were notable for holding all their services nude. This was because the sect claimed that this was the practice of Adam and Eve until sin entered the world. Now that Jesus Christ had died on the cross, fulfilling the Law of Moses and taking away the sin of the world, they were no longer required to wear clothing.

According to Epiphanius of Salamis, the Adamites called their church "Paradise" and claimed that Jesus had returned it's members to Adam and Eve's state of original innocence. Claims that they practiced free love and held libertine sex orgies during worship were later attached to them, but there is no evidence for this and it is more likely that they held a conservative sexual ethic and held to nudism as a form of asceticism.

Ideas about where the Adamites may have originated are varied. Some believe they are one of the antinomian sects denounced by Clement of Alexandria, and may have originated with the Carpocratian Gnostics, while others take the opposite view and believe they split off from the mystical Montanists or conservative Novatianists.

They existed in Egypt and the Balkans for almost 300 years, before fading into obscurity by the 4th century. Later groups in 13th century Holland, 15th century Bohemia and 17th century Britain were labelled Neo-Adamites for similarly practicing Christian nudism, though no evidence of a direct connection exists between the original Adamites and the Neo-Adamites.