32.

THE

RACOVIAN CATECHISM,

WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,
TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN:

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

A SKETCH
OF THE HISTORY OF UNITARIANISM

IN POLAND AND THE ADJACENT COUNTRIES,

BY THOMAS REES, F.S.A.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN", HURST, REES, ORME, AND
BROWN, PATERNOSTER ROW.

IblS.

8T
H80

\\5

Printed by Richard and Arthur Taylor, Shoe-Lane.

ADVERTISEMENT.

1"^^"
SEVERAL years have now elapsed since the
bllowing work was first promised to the pub
ic. A variety of circumstances have operated
;o delay its appearance; of which the princi
pal has been a painful bodily indisposition of
long continuance, whereby the translator was
unfitted for the close application, and the men
tal exertion, which his undertaking required.
A kind Providence, to whom he can never be
sufficiently grateful, has at last restored to him
the invaluable blessing of health, and enabled
him thus to put the finishing hand to his task.
He cannot send his work forth to the world
without expressing his consciousness, that it
will stand in need of much indulgence. The
reader of discernment and taste will not fail to
discover many defects in its literary execution.
A 2 But

ADVERTISEMENT.

But the translator ventures to cherish the hope
that the acute sufferings under which a great
part of it was composed, will plead his apo
logy for the principal of them, and mitigate
the severity of criticism in respect to the whole.
In a publication of this nature,, a laboured
elegance of style would have been misplaced ;
and from the character of the original would
have been impracticable in the translation.
All that has been aimed at, has been, to ex
hibit the work in an English dress that
would convey to the reader as correct an idea
as possible, not only of the sentiments, but
also of the manner of thinking, and the pecu
liar tone of feeling, which distinguished the
authors of the Catechism. In this object, the
translator is obliged to say, he has not always
succeeded to his wishes ; for he has, in his pro
gress, had to encounter difficulties which he
dares not flatter himself that he has in every
case completely vanquished. On some of the
subjects discussed in the Catechism, the au
thors and editors had not very distinct and
clear ideas; there is therefore necessarily a

degree

ADVERTISEMENT.

degree of obscurity in the language in which
they endeavour to express their thoughts.
They have also occasionally embarrassed their
style by the employment of scholastic terms
and phrases, which, without a previous know
ledge of the particular treatise or system to
which their observations were meant more im
mediately to apply, it is not easy fully to un
derstand. The translator confesses that he
has on these accounts been sometimes consi
derably perplexed: and he is not without ap
prehension, that, in a few instances, the obscu
rity of the original may have been transfused
into the translation, and that he has failed to
express the precise shade of meaning which
the authors intended to convey. He has how
ever done his best; and it will afford him
great pleasure to receive the corrections of any
persons who may be more fortunate than him
self in eliciting the sense of the original work.
It was the translator s first design to give,
with an English version of the latest autho
rized edition of the Racovian Catechism, a
detailed statement of all the alterations made
A3 in

ADVERTISEMENT.

in the work by successive editors, with the
view of exhibiting the changes which took
place in the opinions of the Polish Unitarians,
on some of the peculiar articles of their creed.
But, on making the experiment, he soon found
that he should, by such a proceeding, only
crowd and disfigure his pages, without effect
ing any valuable object. This part of his plan,
therefore, he immediately abandoned, except
in relation to a few cases, in which he has
deemed it proper to notice some remarkable
deviations in the last from the first edition of
the Catechism. He has added some other
notes of his own, partly with the view of il
lustrating the text or the notes of his original,
and partly for the purpose of explaining, to
readers not already conversant with the sub
ject, the chief points of difference between the
sentiments of the Polish, and those of the
modern English, Unitarians. These notes
are included within [ ] brackets, and sub
scribed with the word TRANSLATOR. To
these the writer does not attach much impor
tance: they may serve, however, to prevent

persons

ADVERTISEMENT.

persons who are not better informed, from
imputing to the Unitarians of the present day
opinions that were held by their predecessors,
but which they regard as unwarranted by the
Scriptures.

To the original work the present editor has
prefixed an Historical Introduction, compri
sing a view of the rise, progress, and vicissitudes
of the Unitarian doctrine on the continent of
Europe subsequently to the sera of the Refor
mation. The limits within which it was ne
cessary that he should confine himself, ren
dered it impracticable to treat this subject at
such length as its interest and importance
would otherwise have demanded : nor could
he, in such an abstract, enter into the critical
discussion of those facts concerning which his
statements vary from those of all preceding
writers on this part of Church annals. He
designs it merely as a rough and imperfect
outline of a larger History of Unitarianism
which he has for some time had in contem
plation, and for which he has collected a con
siderable mass of valuable materials. With this

work,

ADVERTISEMENT.

work, should the subject appear to be interest
ing to the religious world, he now feels dis
posed to proceed, with all the expedition
which other demands on his time, and the na
ture and magnitude of the undertaking, will
admit. It may be thought that a larger por
tion of this sketch has been devoted to Tran
sylvania than is warranted by its connexion
with the following Catechism, which relates
more particularly to Poland. But the writer con
ceived that he might be held justified, in con
sideration of the new light which he has been
able to throw on the interesting transactions,
hitherto so imperfectly detailed, relating to
Francis David. Having the means in his
hands, he felt it to be his duty to embrace the
opportunity to wipe away from the memory of
that eminent person the unfounded charge, by
which he has so long been calumniated, of
holding opinions little consonant with the
Christian revelation. Nor is he without some
expectation that his account of those proceed
ings may serve to weaken the accusations that
have been preferred against Faustus Soci-

nus

ADVERTISEMENT.

mis for the share he has been thought to have-
had in the direction of them. The Confes
sions of Faith inserted in the notes will he
read with interest, as exhibiting the religious
creed of a numerous body of Unitarians, of
whom little information has thus far been con-
municated to the English public.

The editor has now only to consign his
work to the disposal and blessing of the God
of Truth. Should it at all conduce to pro
mote the knowledge of His attributes and cha
racter, and to advance His merciful designs in
the dispensation of " Grace and truth where
in he has in these last days spoken unto us
by his Son," it will not have been undertaken
in vain, and the writer will feel amply compen
sated for all his labours in the execution of it.

London, Feb. 1818.

VOTES of the PARLIAMENT touching the Book
commonly called The RACOVIAN CATECHISM.

Mr. MilHngton reports from the Committee to whom
the Book (entituled Catechesis Ecclesiarum quce in Regno
Polonicc, &c, commonly called The Racovian Cate
chism) was referred, several passages in the said book
which were now read.

Resolved upon the question by the Parliament, That
the book, Entituled Catechesis Ecclesiarum qu& in Regno
Pdonice, fc. commonly called The Racovian Cate
chism, doth contain matters that are blasphemous, er
roneous, and scandalous.

Resolved upon the question by the Parliament, That
all the printed copies of the book Entituled Catechesis
Ecclesiarum quce in Regno Polonicc, &c. commonly
called The Racovian Catechism, be burnt.

Resolved upon the question by the Parliament, That
the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex be authorized and
required to seize all the printed copies of the book En
tituled Calechesis Rcchsiarum quce in Regno Polonice,
&c. commonly called The Racovian Catechism, where
soever they shall be found, and cause the same to be
burnt at the Old Exchange London, and in the New
Palace at Westminster, on Tuesday and Thursday next

Friday, the Second of April, 1652.
Resolved by the Parliament, That these Votes be
forthwith printed and published.

Hen. Scobell, Cleric. Parliament^

London: Printed by William Field, Printer to the Parliament of

England, 1652.

C O N T E N T S.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Page I

Preface, by Andrew Wissowatius and Joachim Steg-
man the Younger . _ xcv

SECTION I.
Of the Holy Scriptures . ]

CHAP. I. Of the Authenticity of the Holy Scrip
tures - _ - - ib.

CHAP. II. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scrip
tures - _ - 13

CHAP. III. Of the Perspicuity of the Holy

Scriptures . - 17

SECTION II.
Concerning the way of Salvation - - 20

CHAP. I. The Reasons of the Revelation of the
Way of Salvation . ;/.

CHAP. II. Concerning those Thingswhich con
stitute the Way of Salvation

SECTION III.
Of the Knowledge of God

CHAP. I. Of the Nature of God
CHAP. ll.Of the Will of God

SECTION IV.
Of the Knowledge of Christ - - 51

CHAP. I. Of the Person of Christ - - ft.

SECTION

24

CONTENTS.

SECTION V.

t)f the Prophetic Office of Christ - Page 163

CHAP. I. Of the Precepts of Christ which he

added to the Law - 173

CHAP. II. Of the Precepts of Christ delivered

by him separately - - .239

CHAP." III. -Of the Baptism of Water - 249

CHAP. IV. Of the Breaking of the Holy Bread 263
CHAP. V. Of the Promise of Eternal Life - 277
CHAP. VI. Of the Promise of the Holy Spirit 284
CHAP. VII. Of the Confirmation of the Divine

Will - - 295

CHAP. VIII. Of the Death of Christ - - 297
CHAP. IX. Of Fait* - - - 320

CHAP. X. Of Free Will - 325

CHAP. XI. Of Justification ... 346

SECTION VI.
Of the Priestly Office of Christ - 349

SECTION VII.
Of the Kingly Office of Christ - 360

SECTION VIII.
Of the Church of Christ - 369

CHAP. I. Of the Visible Church - - ib.

CHAP. II. Of the Government of the Church of

Christ - 370

CHAP. III. Of the Discipline of the Church of

Christ - 376

CHAP. IV.-Of the Invisible Church - - 381

Index of Texts quoted and illustrated - - 385
General Index - 39ti

IIISTO-

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

IN the following pages, it is intended to exhibit a
rapid sketch of the History of Unitarianism on the
continent of Europe subsequent to the aera of the Re
formation ; but more particularly of its rise, establish
ment, and vicissitudes in Poland and its dependen
cies, with a view to the churches of which the an
nexed Catechism was originally compiled.

It is not possible to ascertain the precise date to
which the revival of the doctrine of the divine Unity
ought to be referred. Long before Luther renounced
the communion of the Church of Rome, and erected
the standard of the Reformation in Germany, many
individuals had declared their dissent from particular
articles of its creed, and, in defiance of its authority,
had formed themselves into societies for separate reli
gious worship upon other principles and with differ
ent forms*. Among the tenets which were called in

question

* Such, among others, was the case of the Waldenses, who
arose about the middle of the twelfth century, and who hold a
very interesting place in Ecclesiastical History. They denied
the supremacy of the Pope, remonstrated against indulgences,
nfeflsion to a priest, prayers for the dead, and purgatoiy.
They had bishops, presbyters and deacons. Some of them
admitted the Catholic Church to be a true church, others re-
a graded

11 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

question after men had thus ventured, in spite of their
spiritual shackles, to think for themselves, and to
bring the received opinions to the test of the Scrip
tures, the doctrine of the Trinity appears to have been
one of the first. In several of the writings of this
period traces incidentally occur of antitrinitarian
sentiments, which were regarded with deep horror,
and assailed in the severest terms of reprobation,
both by persons who still maintained their fidelity to
the Roman Church, and by those who had begun to
arraign the purity of its faith in other matters. It
seems probable, however, that these censures were
drawn forth by the doubts and insinuations which had

garded the Pope as Antichrist. According to some of their
published Confessions, they seem to have held the common
opinion on the subject of the Trinity; but the following extract
from a confession inserted in a curious old work, intituled
Histoire des Vavdois, par Jean Paul Perrin, printed at Geneva
in 1618, will furnish some ground of suspicion that on this
point all their churches were not strictly orthodox. ** 1. Nous
croyons quil nest qiivn seul Dieu qui est Esprit, createur dc
toutes choses, Pere de tous, qui est sur tons, et par toutcs choses,
et en nous tons, lequel on doit adorer en esprit et verity, auquel
seul attcndons, et donnons gloire de nostre vie, nourriture, veste-
ment, saute, maladie, prosperite, et adversite, I aimons comme
authcur dc toute bonte, le craignons, comme ccluy qui cognoit les
cceurs. 2. Nous croyons que Jesus Christ est le Fife de f image
duPcre; quen luy habite toute plenitude de diuinite ; par leyuel
nous cognoissons le Pere, lequel est nostre Mediateur et aduo-
cat, et ny a point d autre nom sous le del donnc aux homines,
auquel il nous faille estre sauucs : an nom duquel seul nous invo-
quont le Pere, ct nvsons d autres oraisons que de celles qui sont
contenues en VEscriture Saincte, ou concordantes a icellcs en sub
stance. 3. Nous croyons que IcSainct Esprit est nostre consolateur,
procedant du Pere et du Fils, par T inspiration duquel nousfaisons
prieres, estans par luy renouueles, lequel fait toutes bonnes
wwres en nous, et par Uij auons cognoissance de toute verite.

in

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Ill

in some cases been hinted, more or less obscurely,
respecting this doctrine*, rather than by any public
renunciation of it; of which no well attested instance
is recorded, until after the Reformation had made
sonic progress. As far as can be collected from the
accusations of their adversaries, the persons who first
openly impugned this tenet were ANABAPTISTS of Ger
many and Holland; a designation under which were
comprised, not only those wild and infuriate visiona
ries who were at one time the terror of all Europe,
but likewise men of high character and reputation,
distinguished by their solid learning, their rational

* Of the mode of impugning the popular creed which was
adopted at this period, we have two remarkable examples in
the persons of Bernard Ochin and Laelius Socinus. Ochin is
charged with having pursued this method to bring some of the
doctrines of the Catholic Church into disrepute in his public
discourses, while he adhered to her communion, stating
difficulties and objections, and omitting to answer them, or
subjoining unsatisfactory solutions. At a later period of his
life he did the same, in respect to the doctrine of the Trinity,
through the press. In his celebrated Dialogues, (Dial. xx. et
xxi. lib. ii. pp. \46 ct seqij.) in discussing this subject, he rnsi
nuates strong objections to the popular notion, but adduces
very feeble arguments in its support j and plainly shows that
he has not without reason been charged with having embraced
artitrinitarian sentiments. Lndius Socinus pursued the same
plan during his residence in Switzerland, never, seemingly,
openly avowing his own opinions, but embodying his objec
tions and difficulties in the form of questions, which he sub
mitted, with apparent modesty ami diffidence, for the solution
of the great luminaries of the Reformation. The freedom of
some of these questions exposed him to the suspicion of he
resy, and had nearly involved him in difficulties ; and others of
them drew from Calvin a very angry letter, in which he pet
tishly observes Si plura desid-eras aliunde pctenda sunt.
Bock, Hist. Antitrin. torn. ii.;>. 485 fyc. et p. 609.
a 2

* HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION-,

piety, and enlightened zeal for divine truth ; who
shared the obloquy attached to their denomination in
consequence of denying to the rite of infant baptism
the obligation of a Christian institution.

The person who is considered to have been the
earliest public advocate of antitrinitarianism, is Mar
tin Cellarius, a native of Stutgard. He was bom in
the year 1499, and educated at the university of Wit-
temberg, where he is said to have studied with sin
gular success polite literature, philosophy, and theo
logy, the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee and Syiiac
languages. His learnijig and talents secured for him
the warm friendship of Luther and Melancthon,
whose principles he had embraced. Being deputed
to hold a public disputation with Stubner and Stork,
two of the founders of the German Anabaptists, he
yielded to the arguments of his acute and learned
opponents, and went over to their party ; but pur
suing his inquiries further than they had done, re
linquished, among other tenets, the doctrine of the
Trinity. His defection from the Lutheran cause, and
his open avowal of antitrinitarian sentiments, exposed
him to various persecutions, to escape which he re
moved in 1586 to Basil in Switzerland, where he re
mained until his death in the year 1564. On his
settlement in this city he took the name of Borrhaus,
being a translation of his original surname into the
corresponding Greek term, and was appointed pro
fessor of rhetoric and philosophy. He is mentioned
by Faustus Socinus in high terms of eulogy as the
friend of his uncle Lselius ; and the ministers of Tran
sylvania

fcfSTORICAL INTRODUCTION. V

sylvania class him with Servetus and Erasmus, as ap-
pointed by God to convey to mankind extraordinary
information concerning himself and Jcsns Christ.
Andrew Althamerns, who wrote a work against Cel-
larius, represents him as having revived the errors of
Paul of Samosata, c. and maintained that Jesus-
Christ was a mere human prophet*.

Contemporary with Cellarius \vas Lewis Hetzer, a
Dutchman by birth, who is usually classed among the
anabaptists, but without sufficient evidence f. He
settled at Zurich in the year 1523. Hetzer was a
man of great learning, and deeply versed in the ori
ginal languages of the Scriptures, of which he exhi
bited undeniable proof in a German translation of all
the books of the prophets,which he published, in 15 27,
in conjunction with John Denkius. Sandius states that
in his theological sentiments he was manifestly and
certainly an Arian, and represents him as having taught
that the Father alone was the true God ; that Christ
was inferior to the Father, and of a different es
sence; that there were not three persons in the god
head ; and that God was neither essence nor person,
in the sense in which those terms are commonly em-

* Meshovii Hist. 4nabaptistica, p. 3. This writer calls
him Matthias Cclhirius. Bock, Hist, slntitrin. torn. ii. pp. 223
et seqq. Sandii Bibliotheca dutitrinitar. p. 15, who quotes
the words of the ministers of Savmatia and Transylvania in
their work De falsa et vera cognltionc Dei: " Luthcro et Zwin-
gliodedit [D<?v] rcferendvs ct jmtificationis ct rei sacramciita-
i-ti .a ; Martina vero Cellario, Serveto, et Erasmo Rotc-
rodamo fractus alios prcecipuos cognitionis veri Dei et Christl,
&c.

^ Bock, ubl supra, torn. ii. .p. 232.

ployed.

VI HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

ployed*. He wrote a work against the deity of Christ,
which however was never published ; the manuscript
having fallen into the hands of Zwinglius was sup
pressed. Hetzer was put to death hy the magistrates
of Constance in the year 152,9, but historians dis
agree as to the cause and the manner of his punish
ment. Seckendorfff affirms that he was burnt at the
stake for his heretical opinions; but Sandius and
others, concurring with this writer as to the reason of
his condemnation, state, and, it would seem, more
correctly, that he was beheaded J. But some, whose
relation the learned Bock has followed, assert that he
suffered on account of his licentious principles and
conduct. This statement, however, which is grounded
on the representation of enemies, ought to be received
with much caution. At this period it was customary
to implicate in the guilt of the most criminal of the
anabaptist sect all whose dissent from the popular
faith caused them to be ranked under this denomina
tion ; and a denial of the supreme deity of Christ was
sufficient to expose any individual, however exem
plary in his morals, to the imputation of crimes the
most abhorrent to his feelings. This consideration
should incline us to believe with Sandius and Secken-
dorff, both most respectable authorities, that Hetzer s
real offence was what the latter styles his blasphe
mies against God.

* Nucleus Hist. Eccles. 4to. p. 424. Bibl. Antitr m. p. 16.

f* Hist. Lutheran, lib. ii. p. J45.

J Bibl. Antitrtn. p. 1 7.

Bock, ubi supra, torn. ii. p. 231.

With

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, Til

With the nanie of Hetzer is connected that of John
Denkius, who has already been noticed as associated
with him in his German version of the prophetical
writings. Denkius, who is mentioned as a man of
extensive erudition, and a profound Hebrew scholar,
was a native of Nuremberg, and for some time held
the situation of rector of the school of that city. He is
stated to have maintained that God was the fountain
of all created things ; that the Spirit or power of God
was the next in order ; and afterwards the Word of
God, which he had begotten of himself by the Spirit.

Hetzer and Denkius are represented as holding the
first rank among the antitrinitarians of this age in
Germany and Switzerland ; and it is said that their
fame, having spread into Italy, had the effect of
bringing over to their opinions many individuals in
that country *.

The next name that occurs in this connexion is
that of John Campanus, supposed to have been a
native of Juliers. Be settled at Wittemberg in 1528,
where he rs charged with having clandestinely pro
mulgated his opinions. Sandius states him to have
been an Arianf. He wrote a work on the Trinity,
wherein he maintained that the Son was begotten of
the substance of the Father, before the world was
created; that there was a time when he had no exist
ence ; and consequently that he was inferior to the
Father, who employed him as his minister in the
creation of the world, and in other affairs; and that

* Hock,u6/A-/</mr, torn, \\.pp. 240, 241.
f Nucleus Hist. Eccks. p. 427.

the

Viii HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

the Spiwt was not a divine Person, but meant the
nature and operations of the Father and the Son*,
He is supposed to have died about 1530, previously to
which he suffered some persecution for his opinions.

Another antitrinitarian of this period was Adam.
Pastor, a man of great learning, who had previously
borne the name of Rudolphus Martin. He belonged
to the anabaptists of Frisia, from whose society he
was excluded about 1546, on account of his senti
ments concerning the Trinity, having before held a
public disputation on this subject at Goch in the
duchy of Cleves, with Theodore Philips and Menon
Simonis. He maintained that the Father alone was
the true God ; that the Son had existed before the
world, but was not co-eternal with the Father, nor.
yet omnipotent, nor consubstantial with the Father,.
nor equal to him, but was one with him in will ;,
and that the Holy Spirit was the power or operating
energy of Godf.

About the year 1530, a person of the name of Clau
dius, called, from the province wherein he was chiefly
known to the public, Claudius Allobrex, caused con
siderable sensation by the dissemination of antitrini
tarian sentiments in Switzerland and some adjacent
districts, He denied that there were three persons in,
the divine essence, and maintained that the Father
was greater than the Son,, and was the only true God.

* Sa.iutiiBibl.Antitrin.p.\7. Bock, ubi supra, torn. ii. . ^48
249.

f Siviidii J3ibL Arditrin. p. 38. Nucleus Hist. Eccks.p. 425.

He

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. IX

He affirmed that the Scriptures were corrupted, espe
cially the beginning of John s gospel, which, he con
tended, ought to be read In principle erat verlttm, et
verl iim illud erat DEI*.

The names of several other persons occur about
this time, who are reputed to have held antitrinita-
rian sentiments ; but the limits prescribed to this
sketch forbid the enumeration of them here, with the
exception of Michael Servetusf, a man who holds a
pre-eminent rank in this class, and whose celebrity,
arising both from his splendid talents and his tragi
cal fate, entitles him to particular notice. This di
stinguished person was born in 1509, at Villanueva
in Arragon, where his father exercised the profession
of public notary. After having passed with extra
ordinary success through the customary routine of
juvenile instruction, he was sent to the university of
Thoulouse to study the canon law. During the three
years he passed in this celebrated seat of learning, he
devoted a large portion of his time to the critical
perusal of the Scriptures, an employment to which
he was probably excited by the spread of the Refor
mation, and which eventually led to his renunciation
of the prevailing opinion concerning theTrinity. Ap-

* Bock, ubi supra, torn. i. p. 103, torn. ii. p. 298.

f His Spanish name \vus SKKVKDO : sometimes he called
himself HKVF.S, a word formed by the transposition of some of
the letters of his original surname. Occasionally it is found
written REXES ; but this is an evident error of the press, the
letter u bein^ mistaken for n. At the latter part of his life he
called himself MICHAEL VILLANOVANUS, or simply Vi LLANO-
VAN ts, from the place of his birth.

a 5 prehending

X HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

prehending that in France he could not with safety
pursue his theological inquiries, or give publicity to
his own convictions, he removed, in 1530, to Basil in
Switzerland, where he obtained the esteem and
friendship of the most eminent of the reformed clergy
In that city. Having given these divines credit for
more enlarged views and a more liberal spirit than
they had imbibed, he made no scruple of avowing
to them the opinions he had been led to embrace.
But he soon discovered that they were as little disposed
as the Catholics to extend toleration to any who
pursued their speculations further than themselves;
his friend (Ecolampadius having taken occasion in
some letters which he addressed to him, to upbraid
him in no very gentle terms with the heresy of his
sentiments *. Finding himself thus under unpleasant
restraint, where he had looked for freedom, he quitted
Basil in 1530 or 1531, and went to Strasburg. In
the latter year, and shortly after his arrival in this
city, he published his first work on the Trinity under
the following title De Trmitatis Erroribus, Libri
septem, per Michaelem Serueto, alias ReueSydl Ara-
gonia Hispanum. It was printed at Haguenau in
Alsace, by John Seecer for Conrad Rouse, a book-

* Fingis, quasi nos humano more de filiatione Dei loquamur,
et crude faciamus filium Dei, uboleamusque honorem filii Dei :
id quod turn cum SUMMA DLASPHEMIA facis, deprehendo enim
DIABOLICAS ILLAS VERsuTiAS. Interim dum non summam pa~
tientiam prce mefero, dolens Jesum Christum filium Dei sic de-
honestari, parum Christiane tibi agerc videor. IN ALT is MAN-

6UETUS ERO : IN BLASPEMIIS QUJE IN CHRISTUM, NON ITEM.

Allwoerden, Hist. Michael, gerveti, p, 13. Bock, Hist. Antltr m.
torn. u.p. 331.

seller

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Xl

seller of Strasburg, to whom Serve tus had given his
manuscript at Basil. The appearance of this book
produced a very powerful sensation among the leaders
of the Reformation, who embraced every opportunity
to hold it up to public execration, as much, appa
rently, from the dread of being charged by their Ca
tholic adversaries with holding the opinions of the
author, as from their real abhorrence of the tenets it
advocated*. Bucer, who resided at Strasburg, is
stated to have declared publicly to his congregation,
that the writer deserved to have his intestines torn
from his body.

Servetusy not deeming himself secure at Strasburg:
while this storm raged, returned in the same year to
Basil; but finding (Ecolampadius most highly in
censed against him for his recent publication, he took
his departure for Lyons. On his way he passed
through Haguenau, where, in 1532, he published,

* The folios-ing may be taken as a sample of their lan^uaere
on this occasion. It is an extract from a letter addressed
by (Ecolampadius to Bucer, and dated August 5, 1531 : -
l/trixi /in:- Ii -liilniiiiitla J crnaffs, r/ni tc ct Cupitonem saint ant plu-
rimum. Liln-Uns DK/I KIXITATIS KHROKIKVS a (jnibuftdam ex Hits
riftirft <1 unfa. rut, supra inndum ojfendit. Vellem te scribere Lu~
thero, (/nod nobis invits liber alibi e.rcitsus fit. Impudentia
etiamerat adwrihere Luthcranis, justification/* ratlonem eos ig~
norare : ut dc reliquis taceam. .Serf PH OTI NIANUS Hie, vel nesdo
r.;)ns sectce homo, solus xapcn: ftibi riih-tur. Nisi ab eccksite
Hostrce doctoribits c.cjiladatur, pessivte uitditura cst. Tu, pr<&
aliis, oro r/^/Yc-v: ft .v/ /ton alibi, certe inconfittafione tun ad im*
pfi-alorcm cci-lr.\hin nostras excusa, utcunque BESTIA irrepnerit.
Abutitur omnibus in unin/i ,vcu.\/-///, iantum ne conf.teatvr Filhim
coatternum Patri ct contufyfantialem. Atqne hie cst qui suscipit
probandum,homincm Christum essc Fillurn Dei. Allwoerden, ubi
9upra f p. 29. Bock, torn* ii. p. 335.

with

Xil HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

with his name as before, his second work, intituled,
Dialogorum de Trinitate, Lilri duo ; De Justicia
Regni Christi, Capiiula quatuor. It is affirmed that,
in order to obtain permission to quit Basil unmo
lested, he bad promised to publish his recantation.
This promise he artfully contrived to fulfil in words,,
in the preface to the latter work, in the first sentence
of which he states that he retracted all that he had
written in his seven books against the received doc
trine of the Trinity, not, however, he proceeds to
intimate, because what he had written was false, but
because it was imperfect*.

On his settlement at Lyons, Servetus, in order to
escape persecution, took the name of Villanovantis,
from his birth-place. After a residence of three years
in this city he went to Paris, where he applied him
self to the study of medicine with so much success
that he soon obtained his degree of doctor, and was
admitted one of the public lecturers at the university.
From Paris he returned to Lyons. Here he was oc
cupied in superintending the press of the Trechselii^
celebrated printers of that place, for whom he edited
an edition of Ptolemy s Geography, which was publish
ed in 1535, and again in 1542; and also an edition
of Pagninus s Bible in Hebrew, with an interlined
Latin translation, which appeared in. 1542. In 1541
he removed his residence to Vienne in Dauphiny r

* Qua nuper, contra receptam de Trinitate sententiam, septem
Ubris scrips}, omnia mine, candide lector, retracto. NON QUIA

FALSA. SINT, SED QUIA IMPERFLCTA, ET TANQTJAM A PARVULO
FARVULIS SCRIPTA.

where

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. X1U

where he practised as a physician, and enjoyed the
friendship and patronage of the archbishop of the
province, to whom he dedicated the second edition of
Ptolemy s Geography.

After his settlement at Vienne, Servetus entered
into a correspondence with Calvin, then residing at
Geneva. In the letters* which passed on this occa
sion, both the learned combatants displayed consider
able warmth and acrimony of spirit in the defence of
their respective theological systems ; and the freedom
with which Servetus arraigned the tenets of the
Reformer laid the foundation of that implacable re
sentment to which he ultimately owed his ruin ; for
Calvin scrupled not to avow that he would be satis
fied with no atonement for this attack upon his creed
short of the death of his adversary, should the dis
posal of his life be ever in his power f. While things
were in this state, Servetus committed to the press
his last and most celebrated work, intituled Ckristia-
iiismi Restilutio, or " Christianity Restored," It was
printed in 1553 at Vienne, by Balthazar Arnollet,
but neither the place nor the printer s name appears
in the title page : nor was the author s name at
tached to this publication; the letters M. S. V.,
standing for Michael Servetus Yillanovanus, are how-

* Thirty of the letters which Servetus addressed to Calvin
are inserted at the end of his last work, Christianismi Restitu-
tio, pp. 557 et seqq.

f Calvin, writing in 1546 to Viret, minister of Lausanne,
uses these words : Servetus cuplt hue venire: si venerit, NUN-

QL AM PATIAR UT SALVUS EXEAT. Bock, ubl SUpra, tOM. II.

j>.360.

ever

XIV HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION,

ever placed at the end. Calvin was in possession of
the secret that Servetus was the writer of this ob
noxious book, a copy of it having been forwarded to
him by the author. By means of a young man named
William Trie, a native of Lyons, then residing at
Geneva in consequence of having embraced the re
formed religion, he procured some sheets of >t to be
conveyed to France, and put into the hands of the
inquisitor at Lyons, with an intimation that the au
thor was in his neighbourhood. He afterwards sent
several of the letters which, in the course of a confi
dential correspondence, he had received from Serve
tus, in order to furnish additional evidence to convict
him of heresy and blasphemy. On the ground of
these documents Servetus was arrested at Vienne, and
committed to prison ; whence, however, he soon ef
fected his escape. After his flight he was tried, con
victed, and sentenced to the stake ; his books were
committed to the flames, arid himself burnt in effigy.
Servetus escaped early in the month of June 1553.
His intention was to proceed to Naples; and with this
view, after w r andering for some time, he went to Ge-
neva,where he was recognised in the month of August,
and at the instigation of Calvin committed to prison*
Various attempts have been made by the apologists
of the Reformer to remove from him the foul stigma
of being the author of his adversary s arrest ; but, in
truth, Calvin himself never denied or disguised the
fa^ct. On the contrary, he expressly avows it in more
than one of his printed works, and takes credit to
himself for having thus acted towards a man whose

principles

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XV

principles lie held in abhorrence, and whom, on more
than one occasion, he thought fit to brand with the
opprobrious epithet of DOG*.

JServetus, on being taken into custody, was de
prived of the property he had about him, which was
of considerable amount, and thrown, like a common
malefactor, into a damp, squalid, and noisome dun
geon. Proceedings were immediately instituted
against him for his alleged blasphemies. The accu
sations were preferred by Nicholas de la Fontaine, a
person residing in Calvin s house, either in a menial
situation, or for the benefit of his instruction; but the
real prosecutor, as was manifested in the course of
the trial, was the Reformer himself. Servetus repelled

* Calvin, in his work Fidel. Expos. Served Errorum, thus
avows the part ho acted in this transaction : Qvudquid >/* seriatu
nostro action est, m thi puxsiin aflnf-ribitur. Nee sane di&fimnlo,
wea opera conaUiotjue jure in carcerem fuixse conjecture. Qwa
recepto ririfatix /iitjus jure, cr nii mis renm peragere oportuit :
cuHxam hue HMjiie me es.se proscenium, fateor. " All the pro
ceedings of our senate are ascribed to me : and indeed I do not
dissemble that he (Srrvetu>) was thrown into prison through
my interference and advii o. As it was necessary according
to the laws of the state that he should be charged with some
Crime, I admit that I was thus far the author of the transac
tion." Writing to Sult/erus, he observes, " When at last he
was driven here by his evil destiny, one of the syndics, at my
instigation, ordered him to be committed to prison: for I do
not dissemble that 1 deemed it my duty to restrain as much
as lay in my power a man who was worse than obstinate and
ungovernable, lest the infection should spread more widely."
Tandem fine nialis aiispiciis appuhsum, unus ex syndicis, ME
AV< TO UK, in furri-reiit ihn- i jntitiit. Nctjue eni/u ili^imulo, quin
ojfit ii itit i iln,rerhii, JboMJMM plus(jii(iin obstinatnm et indomitwn
quoad i me erat compescere, nc longius manaret contagio. All-
woerden, ubi supra, pp. 61, 62. Bock, torn. u.p. 360.

the

XVI HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

the whole of the charges with great firmness, and
qpenly avowed himself the author of the writings that
were stated to contain the heretical opinions forwhich
he was arraigned. His trial proved exceedingly te
dious and vexatious, and lasted from the 14th of Au
gust to the 26th of October, when, a majority of his
judges having decided against him, he was condemned
to be burnt to death by a slow fire.

If Servetus cannot be commended for the temper
with which he sometimes replied to his accuser, it is
impossible to view without feelings of disgust, mingled
with deep concern, the manner in which Calvin acted
during the whole of these iniquitous proceedings ; and
particularly to observe the savage tone of exultation
with which, immediately after his conviction, he
stated to a friend the effects produced upon his victim
by the communication of his sentence. " But lest idle
scoundrels should glory in the insane obstinacy of
the man, as in a martyrdom, there appeared in his
death a beastly stupidity ; whence it might be con
cluded, that on the subject of religion he never was in
earnest. When the sentence of death had been passed
upon him he stood fixed now as one astounded ; now
he sighed deeply; and now he howled like a maniac ;
and at length he just gained strength enough to bellow
out after the Spanish manner, Miaericordla ! Miseri-
cordia!"* The truth, however, is, that Servetus bore
__ his

*Ceterum ne male feriati iiebulones, vccordi hominls pervlca-
ela, quasi martyrio glorientur : in ejus mortc apparuit belluina
stupiditasy wide judicium faccre liceret, nihil unquam serio hi
religions ipsum egisse. Ex quo mors ei demmciata est, wife at-

tonito

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, XV11

his fate at this trying season with great firmness and
serenity, disturbed indeed, occasionally, by the view of
the terriiic apparatus which was preparing for his exe
cution, lie never wavered in his religious faith. When
exhorted on the last morning by Farell, the minister of
Neufchatel, and the friend of Calvin, who was ap
pointed to attend him, to return to the doctrine of the
Trinity, he calmly requested his monitor to convince
him by one plain passage of Scripture, that Christ was-
called the Son of God before his birth of Mary.

The day following that whereon sentence had been
passed upon him he was led to the stake, praying,
" O God, save my soul; O thou Son of the Eternal
God, have mercy on me." In order to aggravate his
sufferings he was surrounded by green faggots, which,
after half an hour of excruciating tortures, completed
the work of death. In the same fire was burnt, at
tached to his body, his last book, ChrisLian ismi Rc~
slitutio** Thus perished Servetus at the age of forty-
four,,

tomto shnilis hcrfcrc, nunc alta suapirla cdcre, mine instar Itj.u-
phatici ejiilare. Quod post remum tande/n sic inruhtif, lit tau um
Hispa-iilco more rclnxirct, Misc-ricord ui, Miwricordui ! Allwoer-
den, nhl ,vry;r</, p. 1 13. Bock, torn. ii. p. 371.

* Bock (Hist. Antltrln. torn. ii. p. 3/(>0 has extracted from
another author the following interesting particulars of the ex
ecution of Servetus. I a d.-i.-fiis cxt ad atrnctn Hfru(irinn,fascint~
l:.s (]>ifi- t iis riridtbittt, adhuc frondosis, adutuiis Hgnix tn!cis con
st wiiim. Imp itiitt x i xt S.. ri ctus, trunco ad terrain posito, pe-
dlbus ad terrain pcrt ni^cntibus. Cupiti imposita cst corona, vet
gtrarn /u-n, rd J ro.xh d, eaque svJp/ntrc cont-pcrsd : coiyus palo
alliffutnni J crrca catena, culltnn antcm June rrusso qnadrvplici
tint ynhitiiplici huo t liber femori all tgatus. Ipsc carnijlccm ro-
gavit, ne st: din torqncrct. Interca carnifcx igiton in cjtis con-
spectum, ct delude in orbcm admovit: Servetus viso ignc horrcn*

XV111 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

four, in a PROTESTANT state, for exercising that right
of private judgement in the formation of his religious
opinions, which his persecutors had themselves acted
upon in dissenting from the Church of Rome !

The intolerant spirit displayed by the Reformers,;
both in Germany and Switzerland, towards those
who went beyond themselves in the freedom of their
inquiries, and avowed or embraced sentiments in any
respect different from their own, especially in relation
to the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, rendered it
necessary for all persons who came under this de
scription, and were unwilling to conceal or abandon
their principles, to seek a safer asylum in some other
country. The state of Poland at this period, the
freedom of its constitution, and the tolerant spirit of
the reigning sovereign, Sigismund the Second, who*
had permitted the open profession in hia dominions
of the Reformed religion of the schools both ofWit-
temberg and Geneva, naturally directed their views to
that quarter. Among the persons who first emigrated

dwn exclamavit, etuuiversumpopulnmperterrefecerit. Cum diu
langueret, accesseruut ex populo, qui fasciculos conjertim in eum
conjecerunt. Jpse horrenda voce damans, Jesu, Fill Dei, miserere
vnei, post dimidtcB circ der horee cruciatum exustulatus et fumo
sujf ocatm, animum exspiravit. It is asserted by some, and the
circumstance derives great probability from the rest of his
conduct in this business, that when Calvin beheld Servetus
led out to execution, he laughed immoderately, and was
obliged to conceal his face in his mantle. Bock, vol. ii. p. 377-
Allwoerden, p. 121, note. There is a very valuable memoir of
Servetus, grounded chiefly on Hock s materials, inserted in the
fifth volume of the " Monthly Repository of Theology and ge
neral Literature*" a work which periodically conveys to the
public a rich store of interesting and important materials.

into

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XlX

into Poland on account of their religious opinions, a
considerable number appears to have consisted of
anabaptists, or of those to whom this designation was
applied. Many of them were men of education and
learning, of sound principles and unimpeachable moral
characters. It is to one of these that the introduction
of Unitarianitm into Poland is to be ascribed.

In the year 15 M, a native of Holland, who went by
the name of Spiritus, but who is supposed on good
grounds to have been Adam Pastor, already noticed
above, settled at Cracow. Being one day in the li
brary of John Tricessius, a person of high celebrity in
that city, distinguished for his literary acquirements,
who had invited him to meet some of the most emi
nent men of the place, he took down by accident a
book wherein he observed prayers addressed to the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He immedi
ately exclaimed, " What ! have you then three
Gods ?" The conversation to which this question led
made a Jeep impression on the minds of all the party,
but especially on that of Andrew Fricius Modrevius,
the king s secretary, who shortly afterwards in con
sequence of prosecuting his inquiries upon the sub
ject, abandoned the doctrine of the Trinity, and ap
peared as the open advocate of Unitarianism in a
work which he published under the title of Syfa&*.
This proved an important event to the new settlers,
and greatly contributed to the spread and establish
ment of their opinions.

About the time when Spiritus first appeared in Po-

Stindii BibUoth. Antitrin. ]>> 36.

landj

XX HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION .

land, a circumstance occurred in Italy which it wilf
be proper to notice in this place, as it conduced in
an eminent decree to the future progress of the Uni
tarian cause in the farmer country. While Luther
and Melancthon in G^raiany, and Zwinglius, Calvin,
and their associates in Switzerland, were prosecuting
the work of Reformation, the public attention was
drawn by their labours and writings to the corrup
tions of the Church of Rome, in some of the Italian:
states, and more particularly in that of Venice. Se
veral persons distinguished for their rank and learn
ing formed themselves into a society at Vicenza, a
small town in this district, for the purpose of discuss
ing with freedom the principles of the popular creed,
and promoting the study of the Scriptures. In the
prosecution of their inquiries they renounced the doc
trine of the Trinity ; and they are reported to have
held that there is but one most high God, who created
all things by his mighty word, and preserves them by
his will and good providence; and that his only be
gotten Son, Jesus Christ, was as to his nature a man,
but not merely a man, having been conceived of the
Holy Spirit by the Virgin Mary.

The place of meeting, and the opinions of this so
ciety, having come to the knowledge of the officers of
the Inquisition, their deliberations were suddenly in
terrupted. Three of the members were seized of
Whom one (James de Chiar) died in prison, and two
(Julius Trevisanus and Francis de Ruego) were put
to death at Venice ; the rest were obliged to seek
their safety in flight. In the number of those who

escaped

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XXI

escaped are commonly named Laelins Socinus, Niccola

Paruta, Valentine G.-ntili>, I) ,M,I- S >nnus,Francis Ni
ger, and John Paul Alciutu*, and ako, though ii should
seem erroneoiihlv, Bernard Ochin. Parnta, Gontilis,
Darius Soc-inus, and Alciatus, settled in Moravia, but
Laelius Socinii-s fixed his residence at Zurich * .

* ]\,in-.f-u i-i^.n-ttil iosn Q-c. Aucture Andrta Wifsowath
adcakem Sandii Bblio h. Jutitrin. p. 20.). Bihloth Antdrin.
in vita L.Soc ni, Nic Paru <t; J. P. Alc uti,pp. 1;J, 25, & 27.
Lubieniecii Hint. Ryonu. Po oit cce, p. 38.

Mosheim (Cent. xvi. sect. m. part ii . note) professes to
doubt the truth of this statement with n spect t> the rise of
Unitarianism in Italy, and to question even t u ( \.stence of
this college, or society, at Vincenza : lut the reasons on which
he grounds his suspicions arc extremely weak, and very insuf
ficient to invalidate the general Authenticity of the account.
He objects, first, that " it is extremely improbable, nay, ut
terly incredible, that all the persons who are said to have been
present at these assemblies were really so;" and he mentions
m particular, Bernard Ochin, and Laelius Socinus. But allow
ing that this were the case, an error in the enumeration of
some names ought not, upon any rule of criticism, to be ad
mitted as of itself a decisive proof of the falsehood of die whole
of the story. Besides, Mosheim has by no means demon
strated, that these two celebrated individuals could not have
been members of this association. It is, indeed, clear that
Bernard Ochin could not have belonged to it in 1546, the year
in which it is stated to have been dispersed, as he appears to
have quitted Italy in 1543, and perhaps he might never have
attended its deliberations. There is nothing, however, to
render such a circumstance "utterly incredible,"or "extremely
improbable ;" for his residence in that part of Italv an d his
attachment to the principles of the Reformation, while he yet
officiated in the Roman church, render it, on the contrary very
hkely that he might on some occasions hold private confe
rences with pei^ons of congenial views and feelings But there
is certainly no good evidence of his having at this period em
braced antitrinitarian sentiments. Moslem s reasons for con
cluding that : Ladiiis Socinus could not have been present at
these assemblies, are extremely frivolous,- namely, that it
cannot be supposed that so young a man, then only twenty-

one

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

This eminent person was born at Sienna in Tus
cany, in the year 1525, and educated for the profes

sion

one years of age, "would leave the place of his nativity (Si
enna) and repair to Venice or Vinccnza, without any other view
than that of disputing freely on certain points of religion j" or
" that a youth of such inexperience should ohtain the first rank
and supreme authority in an assembly composed of so many
eminently learned and ingenious men," To the former of these
reason.*, our objector s own translator, Dr. Maclaine, has suf
ficiently replied " Is such a supposition really so absurd ?
Is not a spirit of enthusiasm, or even an uncommon degree
of zeal, adequate to the production of such an effect ?" With
respect to the latter, the least consideration will show that
there was nothing so very extraordinary in his obtaining these
distinctions, if we take into account his splendid talents, his
extensive acquirements, the high rank of his family and the
influence possessed by them in that part of Italy. It may how
ever be conceded to Mosheim, that this society was not " the
source and nursery of the whole Unitarian sect," and that the
Unitarian system of doctrine, as it was afterwards professed*
was not arranged and digested here in the manner intimated
by Lubieniecius in the passage above referred to of his History
of the Polish Re ormation.

Mosheim refers, in confirmation of his own opinion on this
subject, to the German work of Fucslin, Reformations Betr d-

fen. A summarv of the principal objections of this writer has
een given by Bock (Hist. Antitr m. tom.n.p. 405). Inaddition
to those which Mosheim has himself urged, Fueslin observes,
1. that " neither Sandius, nor Wissovvatius, adduces any au
thorities as the source of his information : and 2. that "no
other writer makes any express mention of those persons who
are said to have perished by the hand of the executioner,
though every sect is forward to celebrate its martyrs." With
respect to the first of these objections, it ought to be recollect
ed that one of these historians, Andrew Wissowatius, may
himself be regarded in the light of an original authority. He
held a very distinguished rank among the Unitarian body in
Poland, and was a lineal descendant, in no very remote degree,
of the family of the Socini, being the grandson of Faustus So-
cinus by his daughter Agnes, who had married Stanislaus
Wissowatius. He was therefore likely to have been accu

rately

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XXH1

sion of the law, in which many individuals of his fa
mily had raised themselves to the highest distinction.

Having

lately informed as to the circumstances which led to the expa
triation of his family. Sandius must have written from the in
formation communicated to him by the Polish Unitarians. He
Is, however, an historian of high re?>pectability, who was not
likt-ly to put his credit to the hazard by such a statement,
without having previously satisfied himself of the sufficiency
of the evidence by which it was supported. As to the second
objection, it must perhaps be admitted that, as far as appears,
there is. no direct mention of the persons who are said to have
perished, in the work of any contemporary writer. I have
failed to discover any in the numerous Italian histories and
chronicles of this period which I have had the opportunity of
examining ; and the learned Bock, after the laborious investi
gation of voluminous documents relating to those times, makes
the same confession. He supposes however that some light
might be thrown on this subject, could a certain work of Fran
cis Niger, one of the enumerated members of the Vincenza so
ciety, be discovered, the title of which he gives as follows
Brwis Historia <lc Faninl Favcntini, ac Dom/nici Bassanensis
mortc, (/iii tti pcr oh Christum in Italia Rom. Pont, jussu impie
occisi suntj a. 1550. But, after all, there is nothing very re
markable in the silence of contemporary historians upon an
execution of this nature. It is to be apprehended that many
of a similar kind have occurred in Catholic countries, which
have had no register or memorial beyond that of the tradition
which may have been preserved and perpetuateJ (as might be
the case in this instance) among their families and their friends.
It might be mentioned as a circumstance tending to authenti
cate the statement of Wissowatius and Lubieniecius, that they
give the names of the sufferers.

It has been judged proper to say thus much here on this
.subject, as it involves a material question of fact in connexion
with the history of Unitarianism. Bock, a much higher au
thority in this case than Mosheim, devoted a large share of his
attention to the investigation of this point, and has published
a very satisfactory dis.- .citation upon it, in his History of Antitri-
utarianism, vol. ii. p. , W5 421, which is recommended to the
iteader s perusal.

Mosheim refers in his note to Zeltner s Historia Crypto-So-

XXIV HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

Having turned his thoughts to theological subjects,
and becoming dissatisfied with the established reli
gion, he went to Vincenza, whence, after the dissolu
tion of the society, he proceeded to Switzerland, an
exile on account of his sentiments. After his settle
ment at Zurich he made occasional tours to other
countries, especially to those where the principles of
the Reformation were admitted and professed. In
the year 1551 he made a journey to Poland, which he
visited again about 1558. On the former occasion,
he became acquainted with Francis Lismanin, a Cor-
sican monk, who at that time resided at Cracow in
the capacity of confessor to Bona Sfortia, the queen
of Sigismund the First. Lismanin had already been
partly gained over by the Polish Reformers ; his con
versation with Lselius Socinus completed his conver
sion to the Unitarian sentiments of his instructor, and
determined him to quit his habit and withdraw from
the communion of the Roman Church*. Another
very important accession was made to the Unitarian
party at this period by the conversion of Gregory
Paul, a divine of extensive learning and great talents ,
who officiated as the minister of a Reformed church in
the suburbs of Cracow.

Thus far the dissemination of Unitarianism in Po-

einiamsmi. But the observations of that writer (p 301 note^
comprise merely an intimation that this alleged origin of So-

h

amined and

land

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XXV

land seems to have been effected by means of conver
sation, or discussions of a more private kind, and by
occasional publications from the press. The first
JUTS* ui who appears to have stood forward in a public
assembly to impugn the doctrine of the Trinity was
Peter Gonezius, or Conyza, who, at a synod of the
reformed clergy held at Seceminia in 1556, asserted
the supremacy of the Father over the Son and Holy
Spirit, and contended that the Apostles Creed ought
to be received as the sole rule of faith, denouncing the
Nicene and Athanasian Creeds as mere human com
positions of no authority. The sensation produced
bv this discourse on the minds and feelings of the Tri
nitarian clergy is described to have been very great;
and the immediate eifect of it was an agreement to
reconsider the subject at a future meeting, and in the
mean time to obtain the opinion of Melancthon on
the disputed points*.

In the year 1558, at a synod held at Pinczow, then
th* principal seat of the Antitrinitarians, the name of
rdandrata occurs as being present. George Blan-
drata was a native of Piedmont, of the medical pro
fession. Having embraced the sentiments of Serve-
tus, he quitted his native country and went to Poland,
where, through the interest of Lismanin, he was ap
pointed physician to the queen, Bona Sfortia. He
after this returned to Piedmont, but soon removed
his residence to Geneva. Disagreeing herewith Cal-

* Samlii Bibltoth. Antitrin. p. 41. Lubieniecii Hist. Re/or.
Pulp. 111.

b vin,

XXVI HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

vin, and dreading his resentment and power after the
recent fate of Servetus, he went a second time to Po-
kmd in the year 1558, and was appointed one of the
elders of the reformed church of Cracow*. From
Poland he removed to Transylvania, in connexion
with which country his name will again occur in the
course of this history.

At another synod held at Pinczow in 1563, we find
John Valentine Gentilis holding a public disputation
on the doctrine of the Trinity, maintaining that the
JPather alone was God, and that he had created before
all worlds a mighty spirit, who afterwards became in
carnate in the human body of Jesus. Gentilis was a
Kative of the south of Italy, and joine-d himself, as we
have seen, to the little society of Vincenza. After
quitting Italy he settled in Moravia; but removing to
Berne, in Switzerland, he was there arrested, tried
for heresy, condemned, and beheaded in 1566f.

Up to this period all the synods held in Poland
were composed indiscriminately of the members and
ministers of all the reformed churches of every com
munion, Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Antitrinitarian.
The consequences of the discordant opinions which
were held by the parties forming these assemblies,
v/ere, as might be expected, continual disputations,
which were frequently conducted with great warmth
and violence.. Several attempts were made by per-
*onswho felt scandalized by such proceedings, to pro-

* 4 S 7 a U ^ i fM wth Arititrin P- 2S Bock, ubi supra, torn, il
f Sandii Biblioth. Antitrln. p. 26. Bock, torn. ii. p. 427.

mute

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XXVU

mole peace, and to reconcile the differences, espe
cially between the Trinitarians and their Unitarian
opponents, which were the chief causes of disunion ;
but all without success. The last effort of this kind
was tried at a public conference held by appointment
for this purpose at Petricow in the year 1565, which
was attended by the chief persons of all the reformed
churches. The Trinitarians finding themselves unable
to silence their opponents, who were availing them
selves of every opportunity to promulgate their sen
timents, and perceiving that they were on this occa
sion the more numerous and powerful party, came to
a resolution-wholly to exclude them thenceforth from
their public assemblies *. From this time, therefore,
the Unitarians formed a separate religious body in the
country, having their churches, their collegiate and
other establishments, exclusively to themselves.

Notwithstanding, however, this separation of the
Unitarian from the Trinitarian reformers, it is not to
be understood that all the individuals comprised
under the former denomination were perfectly agreed
in their religious opinions. They all concurred in
maintaining the supremacy of the Father : but with
respect to Jesus Christ, some thought him to be a
-God of inferior nature, derived from the supreme
Deity ; others held the doctrine of Arius, conceiving
him to have been the first created spirit, who became
incarnate with the view of effecting the salvation of
mankind j while a third party believed him to be a

* Lubieixiecius, nbi supra, p. 201.

b 2 human

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

human being. These last were again divided into two
classes ; the one believing the miraculous conception
of Jesus, the other considering him to have been the
son of Joseph, as well as of Mary. Another point on
which they differed among themselves was the wor
ship of Jesus Christ; some, even of those who be
lieved in his simple humanity, maintaining that he
was entitled to divine honours on account of the high
yank and authority with which he had been invested
after his resurrection, as the king and lord of the
church ; whilst others held that divine worship was
to be paid to the Father alone. In relation to the
Holy Spirit, it was the common opinion among them
that it was not a Person, but the power or operating
energy of God, displayed in the miracles which were
Wrought by Christ and his apostles as the evidence of
their divine mission and authority. They differed,
besides, upon some other points of minor importance,
which cannot be enumerated in this general sketch.

Though these Antitrinitarian reformers have been
occasionally styled UNITARIANS in the preceding nar
rative, in conformity with modern usage, it must be
observed that they were not known by this designa
tion in Poland. At the period now under review,
they were called by various denominations, arising
chiefly from local or temporary circumstances. They
were first distinguished by the name of PINCZOVIANS,
from the town of Pinczow, where they had their ear
liest settlement. Some of the body were afterwards
Called FARNOVIANS, from Stanislaus Farnovius, who
held the Arian doctrine concerning the person of

Christ.

ftrSTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XXIX

Christ. Others were styled BUDN.EANS, from Simon
Budnaeus, who maintained the opinion of the simple
humanity of Christ, and denied his being a proper ob
ject of religious worship. But the designation hy
which they were afterwards most generally known
was that of RACOVIANS, from the town of Racovr,
which for several years formed their metropolis.

In the year 1579 the celebrated Faustus Socinus,
the nephew of Lrelius Socinus, arrived in Poland. He
was born in 1539, and had at an early age imbibed
the sentiments of his uncle, whose papers, after his
death, fell into his hands. . A conscientious attach
ment to his new opinions, induced him to relinquish
the most splendid prospects in his native country,
and to go into voluntary exile, in order to be able
to prosecute his theological studies, and promulgate
his sentiments with the greater facility and security.
He retired first to Switzerland, and fixed his resi
dence at Basil. From hence he was called into
Transylvania by Blandrata, to assist him in refuting
or stopping the dissemination of the opinion of Fran
cis David respecting the worship of Jesus Christ.
After that venerable confessor had been thrown into
prison, and while the proceedings against him were
yet pending, Socinus, alarmed by an epidemic dis
order which raged in the country, withdrew to Poland.

As it was understood that Socinus went further in
hh sentiments than rno^t of the leading individuals-
amonLC the Polish Unitarians, he was not permitted
to join in communion with their churches, or to have
any voice in the direction of their affairs. His splendid

talents

3CXX HISTORICAL INTROD ACTION.

talents and high character, however, soon procured
for him the friendship and patronage of persons of the.
first distinction in the country. This circumstance
enabled him to give to, the public, through the me
dium of the press, a considerable number of works,
upon theological subjects. His writings, in which he
is considered to have made liberal use of the manu
scripts of his uncle, who was greatly his superior in
learning, and particularly in his knowledge of the ori
ginal languages of the Scriptures, served to methodize
and fix the indeterminate, and frequently confused no
tions held at that time by many of the Polish Unita
rians respecting the principal doctrines of Christia
nity, and to bring over nearly the whole body to his
own sentiments concerning the unity of God, and the.
humanity of Jesus Christ*.

The Unitarians of Poland were now become a large
and powerful body, comprising in their number se
veral of the first nobility, and eminently distinguished
by their learning, talents, and general respectability
of character. Their chief settlement was at Racow,
a city which was built in 1569 by a nobleman at-
taclted to their interest, who erected for them a
church and college-house. This collegiate establish
ment was on a large scale. It maintained a high

<* A Memoir of the life of Faustus Socinus was written by
Przipcovius, and is inserted p. 419, &c. of his Works in folio.
An English translation of this, from the pen of John Bicldle,
was published in I8mo, in 1 (>53. Doctor Toulmin gave to the
public in 1/77, an excellent life of this celebrated individual in
Svo. Bock has also inserted a memoir in the second volume
of his History of Antitrinitarianism, pp. 654 ct seqy.

degree

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, XXXI

degree of reputation, and was filled with scholars
from every part of the continent of Europe. The
number of the students amounted at one time to up
wards of a thousand, of whom more than three hun
dred were of noble families. And credit may readily
be given to the report of an historian concerning it^
that those who came there Catholics, Lutherans, or
Calvinists, were soon imbued with the sentiments of
the professors, and went away enemies of the doc
trine of the Trinity*.

The printing establishment at Racowsoon acquired
a degree of celebrity equal to that of the college.,
from the number of publications which issued from it,
the seeming novelty, the variety and importance of
the subjects to which they related, and the genius.,
learning, and talents of the writers. Besides the col
lege and printing-house at Ilacow,they had others on
a smaller scale in other towns. Their churches were
found in all the chief cities, towns and villages of the
kingdom ; but the principal were at Racow, Cracow,
Pinczow, Lublin and Lubeck,

We are now arrived at what may be termed the
flourishing period of the history of the Polish Unita
rians. For the prosperous condition to which they
had by this time attained they were indebted to the
patronage of some powerful families, to the favour
able disposition of several successive monarchs, and

* Lamy, Hixto irc (hi Sochiittnifnnc, p. 104. For an account of
theRacovian Church and College, see Lubieniecius s History
of the Polish Reformation, pp. 231) ct scqq.

b4 to

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

to what was denominated the PACTA CONVENTA, a
kind of contract between the sovereign and the peo
ple, whereby every candidate for the throne was
bound on oath, to preserve all the rights and privi
leges, both civil and religious, which belonged to the
subjects of the state*.

It may well be supposed that the Unitarians neither
acquired nor enjoyed this state of prosperity with
the cordial good-will of the other religious bodies,
whether Catholic or Reformed. Both these parties
viewed the wide dissemination of the.ir tenets with
alarm, as threatening to subvert those principles
which they held in common, and which they regarded
as the grand essentials of Christianity. They there
fore exerted, without intermission, all the influence
they could acquire, and resorted to every artifice, to
obstruct their labours, and ruin their cause. With
what success they planned and prosecuted their mea
sures will be seen in the sequel.

The first event that operated to the serious disad-
vantageof the Unitarian interest was a malicious pro
secution instituted against an opulent merchant of
their body, named John Tyscovicius, who had served
the office of Questor, or Syndick, of the town of
Biesk in Podolia, where he resided. It was insinuated
by his enemies, that his accounts had not been fairly
kept, and he was required to verify them on oath.

* Hartnoch de Repub. Polnuca, lib. ii. cap. ii. 2. Haute-
ville, Relation Historique de la Pologne, chap, xviii.

To

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XXxiii

To this he readily assented on condition of behtg per
mitted to .swear by Almighty God : but it was in
sisted that he should swear by the triune God, or by
the image of Christ on the cross ; and for this pur
pose a crucifix, with the figure of the Saviour affixed
to it, was placed in his hands. Indignant that his ve
racity should be questioned, and his religion insulted,
he threw the crucifix to the ground, exclaiming that
he knew of no such God as they proposed to him.
For this act, which was construed into a heavy of
fence against the Trinity, he was immediately arrested
and thrown into prison. Proceedings were forthwith
instituted against him, which, after repeated appeals
from one tribunal to another, ended in his condem
nation. He was sentenced to have his tongue
pierced, for his alleged blasphemy; to have his hands
and feet cut off, for having throxvn down and trodden
upon the crucifix ; to be beheaded for his rebellious
contumacy, in appealing from the first tribunal that
had given decision against him ; and finally to be burnt
at the stake for his heretical opinions. This sen
tence, horrible as it may appear, was, at the instiga
tion of the Jesuits, executed in all its circumstances
at Warsaw, on the 16th of November 1611*.

The Catholics were greatly elated by their success
in this cruel prosecution, and certainly not without
reason, as they had been warmly opposed in the
whole of the proceedings by many of the first indivi-

* Brevis RcMlo tie Juhannis Tyscovicii Martyrio, ad cakem
fandii Bill Antitr m. p. 203.

b 5 duals

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION,

duals among the nobility of the country. The if
triumph gave a new impulse to their intolerance, and
led them to seize every opportunity to prejudice the
Unitarians in the public mind, and arm against them
the powers of the government. Unfortunately, an
occasion soon offered for the full display, and the
ample gratification, of the insatiable spirit of hosti
lity by which they were actuated.

In the year 1638, some students belonging to the
college of Racow, with imprudent and childish zeal,
beat down with stones a cross which had been placed
near one of the entrances into the town. This was
construed by the Catholics into a designed insult of
their religion, and an act of impiety of the blackest
description. Notwithstanding the parents of the
youths, and the heads of the colleges, punished the
offenders, and publicly apologized for their conduct,
offering at the same time to make any further atone
ment which the case could justly require or admit ;
nothing could allay the fury of the people, who were
led on and exasperated by their religious superiors.
The cause was carried before the Diet of Warsaw in
the course of the year, and was regarded with deep
interest by all the distinguished persons there as
sembled. Eminent individuals of all communions,
of the Greek Church, of the Reformers, and even of
the Catholic body itself, interposed their influence to-
quash the proceedings, but all without success. For
a decree was passed, enjoining that the Unitarian
church at Racow should be closed, the college be

broken

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION* XXXV

broken up, the printing-house be demolished, and
the ministers and professors be branded us infamous,
proscribed, and banished the state*.

This decree was instantly executed in all its rigour,,
and proved a very heavy misfortune to the Unitarians.
For besides depriving them of their chief seminary,,
and of their principal ecclesiastical establishment, it
gave encouragement to the provincial tribunals in
every part of the kingdom to persecute with the ut
most severity all who openly professed Antitrinitarian
sentiments, aiul to prevent the unfortunate individuals
who had been expelled from Racovv, obtaining a se--
ciire and peaceable asylum in other places f.

These misfortunes were shortly afterwards aggra--
vated by an invasion of the Cossacs, who marked out
the Unitarians as especial objects of their outrage and
vengeance. In the year 1655 the peasants of Po
land also, being instigated by the Catholics, rose up,
in arms against them in several districts, and pursued
them everywhere with sanguinary ferocity, pillaging

* Lubieniecii Hht. llcfnnn. 1 vlun. p. 252. Vindicias pro
Unlfariontm in I ol.omu Rt liifiunis Libertate, ad calcem Sandii
mill. . Intitriii. />. 2J&. H rstoire du Socinia/irsme, 4to, p. 1 14.

f* Among the individuals who were at this period persecuted,
for their Unitarian sentiments, was Jonas Schlichtingius, one
of the ablest writers belonging to the Unitarians of Poland,
in K) 17 he published a work intituled Confessio Fidei Chris
tiana 1 , cdita Nomine JScdetunrwm </(( in Polonia union Deum et
i i/ini/i c-iifi iiiiifffiiituni JCXHM C/trixtum, ct Spirit urn S. profi-
itntur, &c. For this he was proscribed by the Diet of War
saw in the same year, and banished the state, and his book
was ordered to be burnt by the hands of the common hang
man. This work he afterwards published in 1651, with cor
rections and additions. The first edition I have never seen:
the second, which is also very scarce, is in my collection.

their

XXXVI HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

their property, burning their houses, and putting all
to death who fell into their hands.

The Catholics having succeeded thus far in the ex
ecution of their designs against the Unitarians, re
solved at last to put a closing hand to their work, by
either reducing them to complete silence, or forcing
them to depart the country. With this view, being-
assured of the disposition of the sovereign, John Ca-
simir, they preferred against them, at the Diet of
Warsaw in 1658, a formal accusation, charging them,
among other offences, with aiding the king of Swe
den in his late invasion of the kingdom, on the ground
of some families having, daring his occupation of
Cracow, sought an asylum in that city against the
outrages of the peasants. The charges were readily
entertained; and a decree was passed forbidding the
public exercise of their religion, or the dissemination
of their sentiments in any way whatever, under the
penalty of death ; and commanding them to quit the
kingdom of Poland and its dependencies, within three
years, unless in the mean time they joined the com
munion of the Church of Rome, or that of the tole
rated reformed churches of the Lutherans or Cal-
vinists. This dreadful edict, which was confirmed by
three successive diets, in direct violation, if not of the
positive written laws of the nation, certainly of that
enlightened spirit by which the administration of
public affairs, as respected the subject of religion, had
for upwards of a century been conducted, fell upon
the Unitarians as a calamity of the most afflicting
kind, Their body comprised several families of the

first

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXV11

first distinction, both as to rank and opulence, who
adhered to their communion from principle, and
whose convictions and fidelity were not to be easily
shaken by persecution. The alternative which re
mained to them, of expatriation, with the certain loss
of a very large proportion of their property, and in
some instances of almost inevitable and absolute pe
nury, was, however, so appalling, that they determined
to use what influence they could yet command to
avert the threatening storrn, or obtain some mitiga
tion of the sentence. Accordingly, in 1660, two
years after the first decree had been passed, a synod
was appointed, at the solicitation of some of the more
powerful of their adherents, to be held at Cracow, in
the month of March, which the Unitarian ministers
were invited to attend, in order to hold a public con
ference or disputation with the Catholics and ortho
dox reformed on the principal controverted points of
their respective theological systems. The Unitarian
ministers augured no benefit from this measure, and
being withal apprehensive that some snare might be
intended, declined being present, with the exception
of only one individual, ANDREW WissowATius,whose
name stands most honourably connected with this
celebrated assembly. Disdaining to have it imputed
to him that he was ashamed openly to avow his reli
gious opinions, or afraid to stand forward as their
public advocate, at the hazard of his liberty or his
life ^ and fearing also that if no minister of the party
appeared to plead their cause, some individuals,whose
resolution might have been shaken by their present

sufferings,

XXXviii HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

sufferings, and their dark future prospect, might*
make a fatal shipwreck of conscience by abandoning
their faith; this intrepid confessor boldly proceeded to
the place of meeting, and secured a reception suited
to the splendour of his talents and the magnanimity
of his spirit. In the disputation which followed, and
which continued from the 1 1 th to the 16th of March,
Wissowatius, though standing alone, and unsupport-
edjVanquished by his eloquence, and the overwhelming
force of his reasoning, every adversary who appeared
against him in the combat *.

This victory, however, , which was evinced by the
silence of his opponents, though it covered this un^
daunted champion with well merited honour, was
productive of no advantage to the cause he had ad
vocated. On the contrary, the Catholics, irritated

* There is asingular testimony to the triumph of Wissowa
tius on this occasion from a reverend Catholic. Being asked
by Wiclopolski, the governor of Cracow, who presided at the
discussions, what he thought of the controversy, he replied
"If all the devils from hell had been here, they could not
have maintained their religion more ably than this one mi
nister has done." Et si omnes ex inferno prodirent, non pos-
sent fortius rcligionem suam tutari quam hie unus." " But.
what," rejoined the governor, "if more of these ministers had
been present? and there are many of similar powers." " If
such be the case," answered the monk, "I do not know in
what manner we are to defend ourselves against such per--
sons." " Behold," writes a Catholic historian of this incident
in a tone of lamentation, "the advantages which Catholic di
vines sometimes obtain from the conferences they are so ready
to grant to heretics, before magistrates and others of the laity,,
who commonly understand the business of war, of courts, and
of politics, better than the concerns of faith and piety !" Epist.
de VitaA.Whsowatn, adcalcem SandiiBibl. Antitrin p. 252.
Lamy, Histoire du Socinianisme, p.\21.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXIX

by a defeat, which was admitted even by their own
friends, became more violent than ever in their hos
tility, and resorted to a new act of cruelty to wreak
their vengeance on the unfortunate objects of their
hatred. Under pretence that the Unitarians had
violated the terms of the former edict, by promul
gating their sentiments openly or clandestinely, they
procured a new and more rigorous decree to be
passed against them on the 2()th of July 1660. In
this the clause in the former, allowing to the Unita
rians the space of three years for the arrangement of
their affairs, the disposal of their property, and the
consideration of the alternative proposed to them,
was rescinded, and anew edict passed, enjoining them
instantly to leave the kingdom, or join the commu
nions authorized by the laws, empowering all magis
trates and others, in case of their disobedience, to
bring them before the public tribunals, and even to
put them to death. This unexpected ordinance
reduced them to the greatest difficulties. Their ene
mies threw every impediment in the way to their
settling their affairs. Many found it wholly impos
sible to dispose of their property at any price;
others were obliged to part with it for what was con
siderably beneath its value; so that se/eral of the
noble and wealthy families who still adhered to the
party, were reduced nearly to a level with the poorest
among them. In these trying circumstances some
made an outward show of abandoning their faith, and
thus saved themselves from the evils of exile ;~-but a
very large proportion, rather than sacrifice their con
science

x HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

science at the throne of human power, submitted ta
the painful condition of being separated for ever from
their native land. These undaunted confessors, com
prising many thousand individuals of both sexes and
all ages, yielding to their hard destiny, took a final
leave of their country, and wandered with uncertain
steps, friendless and destitute, to seek an asylum in
some foreign clime. Of this honourable band about
four hundred proceeded to Transylvania and Hun
gary; many bent their steps towards Prussia, Silesia r
and Moravia; others emigrated to Holland and the
Low Countries, and some passed over to England *.
Thus was terminated the public profession of Unita-
rianism in the kingdom of Poland, about one hura-

* There is a very affecting detail of the evils and sufferings
endured by the Unitarians on account of these proceedings
against them, and their banishment from the country, given in
a letter of Samuel Przipcovius, dated Konigsberg 16(>3, and
inserted at the end of Lubieniecius s History of the Polish Re-
formutio.i. The following passage will show the feelings with
which the unfortunate exiles contemplated their calamities.
Postu us ut calamitatis et egcstatis nostrce tibi descriptionem ex-
hibeam. Infandum tu nempe jitbes renovare dolor em, no per
vestigia luctuum iterum, et cruda adhuc et hiantia, necdum cica-
tricibus obducta retractors vulnera : horret animus ad exceptos
totfnlminum ictus, attonitus et pavens. Qui nos cams hucusquc
agitaveriut, quce-que ipse miserrima vidi, et quorum pars quan-
tulacunq-ne fid evponere, noit mens tantum, sed maims qnoque ac
calamus trepldat ac refiigit. Fuimus, fuimus Troes, et velipsa
non muhu taite, bemgnitate Dei, tot per annos indulta eccles ds
nostrisfelcitas, acriorem sensum prcesentium malornm reddlt :
ut etiam recordari pigeat, quando et quomodo et quibus gradibus,
quod t u mus esse desymus. Et nisi mentes nostrus causes, ob
quam patimur bonitas, et commendare quondam a Domino hujus
generis patientiee solatia erigerent, tanta calamitatis procella
prostratis atque obrutis pene optimum factu videbatur, quo levins
ferautur prasentia, prceteritorum memorlam amittere,

dred

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. xli

dred and twenty years after its first introduction into
that country, and after giving birth to a host of ad
vocates, distinguished equally by their learning, their
talents and their virtues, who were an ornament to
their age and an honour to human nature.

For several years previously to its suppression in
Poland, Unitarianism had obtained a firm establish
ment, and made considerable progress,, in Transylva
nia. The settlement of Blandrata in Poland in 1558,
has already been mentioned. In the year 15G3 he
went into Transylvania to attend the prince, John
Sigismund the Second, who was labouring under a
dangerous disorder ; and his success in effecting the
cure of his royal patient, joined to his insinuating
manners, soon rendered him a favourite at court.
The influence which he thus acquired encouraged him
to attempt the introduction of his theological opi
nions into this country; and circumstances favoured
his design in a degree far beyond what he could have
anticipated. At the time of his arrival the reformed
churches of Transylvania and Hungary, which were
numerous and flourishing, were under the superin-
tendance of Francis David, a divine of great learning
and powerful eloquence, who resided at Clausenburg,
or Coloswar, and whose distinguished talents and cha
racter had procured fur him the esteem of the prince,
and of many of the first nobility. David had ori
ginally adopted the Augsburg Confession, and had,
in 1556, published a work in support of the Lutheran
doctrine concerning the Eucharist. Shortly after this
he embraced the Calvinistic system, which he appears

to

xlH HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION,

to have held when he became first acquainted witl*
Blandrata. The unsettled state of David s opinions
at this period disposed him to attend the more readily
to Blandrata s objections to the leading articles of the
popular creed and the result of their conversations
on these subjects was his entire conversion to Unita-
rianism.

The joint efforts of these two eminent individuals,
after this event, to disseminate their opinions, though
at first they acted with great caution in explaining their
views of Christianity, soon attracted the notice and
excited the alarm of the ministers of the reformed com
munions. Peter Melius, the superintendant of the re
formed churches in Hungary, preferred a formal com
plaint against them to the prince, whom he prevailed
upon to convoke a synod of the ministers of Transyl
vania and Hungary at Weisseuburg (Alba Julia] in the
month of May 1556, for the consideration and settle
ment of the controverted points. To this assembly
Blandrata and David submitted several propositions,
declaratory of their sentiments ; but they were drawn
up with so much care, and expressed in such ambi
guous terms, that the synod found no cause for cen
suring them, and contented itself with subjoining to
the several articles, its own " Limitations," or Com
mentary*.

Peter Melius seems to have been little satisfied with
the result of these deliberations. Anxious to stop the

* These propositions were published at Clausenburg in
1566, with the limitations of the Hungarian ministers and the
judgement of another synod held at Vasarhelly. Petri Bod,
Hist. Unitariorum in Transylvania, p. 12.

progress

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

progress of the new opinions, and with this view to
impart to others Ins own fears, and inspire -tlifm with
a portion of his own zeal, he assembled in the follow
ing year the ministers of his own district, to consider
the best moans of effecting his olyect. This synod
was followed by some others, convened for the same
purpose. The public mind being greatly agitated by
the.se frequent public conferences, the prince, with
the design of composing the differences and restoring
tranquillity, summoned a general synod to be held at
Weissenburg on the od of March 15GS*, Blandrata
having promised that he would then publicly de
monstrate the truth of his opinions. The proceedings
of this assembly were formally arranged beforehand,
and the discussions held at it were continued during
ten successive days, the chief speakers being Francis
David and Blandrataf, on the part of the Unitarians,

and

* The disputations at this synod were inr.m-diately pub
lished at Weissenburg, under the following title : " Brevij
Knarratio DuptotottOMt Albancv (It; Deo Trino ct Chr sto dii-
/;/. (/, cor/nii Screnlstsimo Principe et tota Eccleala decent Diebits
hdbita, &c.

f If the report of the historian be worthy of credit, Blan
drata made but an indifferent figure in these discussions.
Beliii^ pressed 0:1 the ninth day by an opponent \vho had un
dertake <i to reply to some of his observations he exclaimed
- Qnofi .i<l ))if rero a f ft net Ego nee neio, xce poxi im illinl c.r-
plicurc, rani i dine Ciiitn Ittburv. Xcqite ei^o sum Doctor 77/cO-
Uttfur, AC / Mi ili -tiKC. liod x ubl supra, p. 43.

This historian relates (p. 4. i) tha 1 - in the course of this year
was coniinncil n decree which had been passed at the diet of
Thorde in l."),")7 i and afterwards sanctioned by tjie states of the
kingdom in 15(i. 5, securing to persons of all deno.ninations the
free exercise of their religion. From the UNION of the He-
tor, a cd

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

and on the side of the Trinitarians, Peter Melius. It
terminated, however, without accomplishing the ob
ject for which it was convened.

In the following year, Francis David, with the con
currence, and under the authority of the prince, con
voked another synod, of the ministers of Transyl
vania and Hungary, which was held at the town of
Waradin, on the 10th of October. On this occasion,.
David drew up a series of propositions for the consi
deration of the assembly, and comprising the senti
ments of the Unitarians with respect to the unity of
God, the person of Christ, and the nature of the Holy
Spirit*. At this synod again, the chief speakers on
the opposite sides were David and Melius. Bland rata
was present, but took no part in the public discus
sions, in consequence, it is thought, of his ill success
at the former meeting. The deliberations of this as
sembly concluded, like those of all the preceding sy
nods, without effecting any thing towards the recon
ciliation of the contending parties. Before their
separation the ministers of the Orthodox Churches
delivered in a written confession of their faith in op
position to the propositions of David, wherein, after
stating their own sentiments, they condemn in no very

formed of all parties in passing this edict, an union *o which
they were led hy weighty public reasons, they were designated
TJNITI, or UXITARII. This title was afterwards restricted to
those persons who maintained that the Father alone was the
true- and eternal God, and hy them read ly adopted of their
own accord ; while those who held that there were three
persons in one essence, were by way of opposition styled Tri-
" ril

Bod, ubi supra, p. 57-

gentle

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. x

gentle terms, as " heretical blasphemies," the system
of the Unitarians*. Not contented with this, Me-
lius full of /cal for the interest of his party, after
wards addressed a formal letter to the prince, wherein
he labours to prejudice his mind against Blandrata
and his followers. But in this object he wholly failed,
the prince having- continued to afford them hisprotec-
tion and patronage until the time of his death, which
took place on the 14th of March 1571.

John Sigismund was succeeded by Stephen Bathor,
who ascended the throne with a disposition to pre
serve to all classes of his subjects the same freedom
of religious worship as they had enjoyed during the
reign of his predecessor. On taking possession of his
.government, he declared that he was the king of the
people, and not of their consciences : that God had
Teserved three things to himself; To create some-
thing ont of nothing, to know future events, and to
*ule men s consciences, that therefore to tyrannize
.over conscience was the greatest wickedness, and an
invasion of the prerogative of Heaven f.

In the year 15J4, the prosperity of the Unitarian
>cause was seriously affected by an unfortunate rup
ture between the two individuals to whom it had
-chiefly owed its advancement and success. Blandrata
having been guilty of a gross offence, which his ac
cusers have veiled under the designation of peccalum

* Bod, ubi .v;//)r, pp. 67 ct seqq.
t Idem, p. 83.

Italicum,

Xlvi HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

Itcilicum*, David declined all further intercourse
with him, and took measures to destroy his influence
in - the Unitarian body. This conduct naturally drew
upon him the enmity of Biandrata, and paved the way
for those proceedings which terminated in his death.
Biandrata, well knowing the high estimation in
which the venerable superintenclant was held in the
country, felt it necessary to act against him with great
art and circumspection. Though Hberty was gran ted to
ail religious parties alike to conduct public -worship on
their own principles, there existed at this time a law
that none of them should be allowed to promulgate
any new doctrine without previously obtaining the
permission of the national council. Biandrata learnt
that David had violated this ordinance, by maintain
ing in a public discourse that Christ could not with
propriety be addressed in prayer, since he was not
God by nature, an opinion which was then gaining
ground among the Unitarians, but had formed no
part of their creed when the public profession of it had
been originally permitted. "His first step, after re
ceiving this information, was to request him to desist
from this conduct, intimating, with an appearance of
friendship, that if he persisted the Unitarians, inclu
ding himself, might not be allowed to remain in the
country : and then, under pretence of clearing them-

* Bod, ubi supra, pp. 84 et 102. The authority for this ac
count is a letter addressed by some of the Unitarian ministers
of Transylvania to Palaeologus, who was then absent, convey
ing to him an account of the proceedings against David. Bod
to girea this important document entire.

selves

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. xlvil

stives from suspicion, and securing the interest of the
party, he recommended to David to unite with him
in accusing two or three ministers of this offence, and
procuring their condemnation. But the pious super-
intendant treated this vile and insidious proposal
with becoming indignation.

Blandrata had now recourse to another scheme.
He wrote to Fau.stus Socinus, who was then residing
fit Basil, inviting him to come to Transylvania to aid
him in controverting and suppressing the opinion of
David, promising to defray all the expenses of his
journey, and of his residence in that country. So
cinus accordingly arrived at Coloswar about the mid
dle of November 1578. Blandrata, the more effec
tually to prosecute his design, contrived that Socinus
should be lodged in David s house, but, it should
seem, carefully concealed from both of them the real
motive of his conduct. During Socinus s residence
with the venerable superintendant which lasted four
months and a half, from November 1578 till April
1579*, he and his host had frequent disputations on
the great point concerning which they mainly differ-
-ed,-the invocation of Christ. At the conclusion of
these conferences both the disputants appear to have
remained just where they were at the commencement
of them, except that the warmth into which they had
occasionally been betrayed had excited on either side

* Lampii Hhtoria Eccletla Reformat* in Hungaria et Tra-
~*a, p. 603. Bod, ubi supra, j). 86.

& con-

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

a considerable degree of irritation, and of personal
dislike and animosity*.

By agreement, the arguments in this controversy
were from time to time comniiu-ed to writing, and the
papers were regularly transmitted by Socinus to Blan-
drata. In making these .communications, Socinus s
.motives have been severely arraigned by the friends of
David; and he has been charged with voluntarily en
gaging with Blandrata in a plot to ensnare and ruin
tiis host, while he was enjoying his confidence and
friendship, and partaking of his hospitalities. But as
far as can be collected from the evidence now before
-the public, Socinus appears to have done this with no
other view than that of informing Blandrata, at whose
solicitation he had engaged in this controversy, in
-what manner it was proceeding, and with what effect,
as respected the mind of his opponent f.

The attempt to convince David of the error of his
Doctrine having failed, it became the next object to
restrain him from the public assertion and dissemina
tion of it. Socinus states that he frequently admo
nished him on this head, and advised him to silence
not onlv from his own persuasion of the pernicious
tendency of what he calls his JMPIOUS tenet, but also

* The English reader will find some account of the argu
ments adduced by the contending parties in this controversy
in Mr. Lindsey s " Historical View of the State of the Unitarian
Doctrine from the Reformation to our own Times," pp. 174,

f Socini Opera, torn. Up. 710, Toulmin s Life of Socinus,
p. 85.

oil

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

on account of the personal danger lie might incur by
persisting in maintaining it in his public discourses and
writings*. That Socinus had good reasons for urging
the last consideration, is clearly proved by what after
wards occurred ; and, indeed, he confesses that pre
viously to his giving this warning, he had been ap
prized by ]>hmdrata of his intention to declare him
self the open enemy of David, to accuse him to the
prince, and call in the aid of the civil power f.

Shortly after the breaking up of the conferences be
tween Socinus and David, the latter having refused
to conceal his opinion, and taken occasion on the first
Sunday to preach against the invocation of Christ,
the prince, at Blandrata s instigation, addressed a
letter to the Senate of Coloswar, directing them to
remove the venerable pastor from his ministerial office,
and to put him in confinement. About the same time
a general assembly of the States was convoked to meet
at Thorda, on the festival of St. George next ensuing,
(the 23d of April,) in order to take the affair into
consideration.

Blandratawas fully aware that, from the high repu
tation of David, the increasing numbers of those who
held the same opinion concerning the invocation of
Christ, and the jealousy of the nobility attached to the

* Socini Opera, tutu. ii. p. 7U.

f The following are given sis the words of Blandrata, to
which Soeinus fedveitl in his < .i fence. Oper. torn. ii. p. 711.

/>>/ (-. \ l ,;nir sco, me /Kicttntx.s unit (It cltiraxse coram Prhir!/>t , me
case /nixti-nt fjittt; ttnf iHiu t-pn pro co me hnh - it. Frutrilnis
vcn> die, *, nt. in hij i in-tn //*.v/.v nt gotio fcrvlde pcrgant. Bod,
Hint. L ltltar. ubi supra, p. 1 10.

c Unitarian

1 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

Unitarian Churches, of any restrictions on the freedom
of their worship, he was likely to encounter formi
dable opposition in his proceedings : he deemed it
expedient, therefore, to prepare the way by prejudicing
as much as possible, against the superintendant, the
minds of those who were to sit in judgement on his
case. His purpose might possibly have been suffici
ently answered by the publication of the written state
ments, then in his possession, of the opinions of Da
vid, which the latter had put into Socinus s hands in
the course of their disputations. But as he was not
satisfied with the manner in which Socinus had con
ducted the controversy, or with the answers he had re
turned to his acute and learned opponent, he could
not consent to give these documents to the public, in
an authentic form, and under the sanction of his au
thority*. Instead, therefore, of acting thus fairly, he had
the baseness to resort to an artifice of the blackest de
scription, whereby he but too well succeeded in his im
mediate object, andalso in perpetuating an unfounded
charge against the venerable object of his jealousy and
vengeance, of holding tenets directly at variance with
his real sentiments. He drew up a series of Sixteen
Theses, purporting to be written by Francis David, and
to comprise a correct exposition, from under his own
hands, of the articles of his religious creed. To each

* The chief cause of the dissatisfaction of Blandrata and his
friends with Socinus on this occasion was, that he had ad-

W ClOj I lldt I1C It till clCl

mitted nullwn extare expressum inSacrls Literis preeceptum de
Christo invocando, that " there was no express command in

A.I.. t? 1 o __ A r .1 .. * ~ .

cini
of

vmmrv i nuwj 10 express command in

the Sacred Scriptures for the invocation of Christ." Socini

Opera, torn. ii. p. 710.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. ^i

of these Theses, severally, he subjoined Antitheses of
his own by way of answer, and which he designed as
a representation of the prevailing opinions of the
Trunsylvanian Unitarians. This extraordinary docu
ment he committed to the press after David had been
sent to prison, and when he had no means of disavow
ing it ; and having prefixed to it an address to the
members of the Diet, dated the 7th of April 1579,
wherein he seems to speak in the person of the Prince,
recommending it to their attention, he caused it to be
circulated through the country*.

* Lampius, in his Ecclesiastical History of Hungary and
Transylvania, referred to above, has given this forged produc
tion hi its original form, pp. . 505 311. As the subject is in
a groat measure new to the British public, and Lampius s work
is not of common occurrence, Blandrata s letter shall be here
transcribed entire. The Theses are given by Bod in his His
tory, but without Bland rata s letter.

EXKMPLAK EPISTOLJB CoNVOCATomiJB GBOBOII BLANDRAT/E.
Grnthivohix ctpa.rn Deo Patre, ct J)in,i ni nnstroJesu Christo.
Qmnwnn in pnt.rimh Cnmiti m lic^ni ad diem rigc s imam xc.rtum
hnjuN nn ii>ii;< 1\>ril(C iiidictis, in qnibiis cat so. FftntcitCt DetOtdU
se rio ttgetiir, ib iquc ut audiamns flu c<> scntcntia fieri non potest,
ijnhi df totn ffli^ uni m rntifttt twMnr, et de novatoribus diligcns
iit<r .ixitio ct ju l tclnm annul fiat, CJUCB Comitia conscrntnfti cst
nodus gcneralis, qua pntissimumfdci confessio, qua. far bo
ii irn i iL ^/ltu.s unit ndn-rxi fnr, cnnf>tituend<i cr ,f\ ri.suhi c*t
iiuh>s rax Imrniit admonere, ut ud utrumquc Convention ca qncs
t ml Di-i gfarttun pcrtinere vidcbnntnr, diUgenter prbu te-
ft, qn(itt. nit.\ oportwerit offeree ;>f>.v.v,7/.v. Dcnnircrso enimstatu
slff, ct nngulorum <jni in en docendt inn mis hdhcnt, ut ri-
ft i/tur. l t (iiifi-nt id cornmocRtu focere po*iti* t mitt nnus

<i l MM TUKSF.S ilc (jnihnti in Hnnndn wrt i frni-tttfi iii iri ro.ifid t-
tmix, JUKI rri diiitiis, quas nt WWttpdtlpte e.r rfrbn public? detcs-
tetur, ct qnns illi Theses oppositns ridffis (nnpl ct dnr, neceuej**
tiifiun imtiifU x, nixi muucrc smprirnn, ct c rtorr/xjani Ji, ,-/ nui-
lif. Xnii (tufciii qn rc\ti ii,n nlicni timnroit oictit/dinns, hacvo
wire voluimus, ut scilicet, tin-tn tnlaiti, contra conscicntiaai. ve.i-
c 2 tram

lu HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

The Diet assembled at Thorcla on the day ap
pointed. The nobility, who were scandalized at the

prosecution,

tram altquid vel dicatis, vel faciatis., sed ut id prtscavci-etur, et in
co vobis prodesse qfficii nostri esse arbitrate fuimus, ne quis ex
vobis aliqiiid quldpiam in tanto pericuio prce oculis habecft, quean
nnam ipsam veritatem, cujus testimonium in cordc suocoram Deo
hubere plane pcrsuasus sit Speramus Deurn vobis affuturum^
si ejus opcm, ut quidem nos facimus, sitpplices implorare in hoc
discrimine non intermiseritis. Jpse vero Deus et Dominus nosier
Jesus Christus consoletur corda vestra et sit Spiritu cum vestro.
Amen. PRINCIPE STE.FHANO BATHORIO.

ClaudlopoTi, lAprilis 1579.

Then follow the Sixteen Theses printed in two columns, the
one containing those ascribed to David, with this head Theses
Francisci Davidis; the other the Antitheses in reply to tliem,
fey Bland rata, with the title Antitheses Georgii Blandrata.
Fifteen of these propositions, that is, all except the first, are
printed, with only some slight verbal differences, in the folio edi
tion of Socinus s works, in the Bibliothecii Fratrwn Polonorum^
torn. ii. p. 801 ; and are given in English by Dr. Toulmin in his
Life of Socinus, pp. 453 463. Prefixed is the following head
- " Propositions in which is explained the opinion of Francis
David concerning the chai x acter of Christ, together with the
opposite propositions of the Church, drawn up by FAUSTUS
SOCINUS, and presented to Christopher Bathory, the illustrious
Prince of Transylvania." The reader will find some of these
propositions inserted in a note, page 197 of the following Ca
techism, where they are ascribed to Socinus. I am now satis-
iied, however, that this title was not written by Socinus him
self ; but was draw r n up and attached to this document either
by the editor of the Bibliolkeca, Andrew AVissovvatius, or by
some other person, who erroneously concluded, from the part
Soeinus had acted in the disputations with David concerning
the invocation of Christ, that these Antitheses must have
proceeded from his pen. Socinus seems never to have avowed
himself the author: nor is it very likely, considering Blan-
drata s dissatisfaction with his management of the controversy
against David, that he should so soon have been employed by
him to draw up such a document on the behalf of the Tran-
sylvanian Churches. It is worthy of remark, that this paper
was not inserted by Socinus in his own account of the controversy

with

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Eft

prosecution, immediately held a private conference to
deliberate upon the measures proper to be taken in so

delicate

with David, which he published in 1595. In the Blbttotheca
it occurs us a detached piece at the end of the account of his
controversy with Frunken, with which it has no connexion.

The copy in Socinus s works contains only fifteen proposi-*
lions, the first in Lampius s copy being here omitted. That
the original number was sixteen, and consequently that Lam-
phib s copy is the most likely to have been the one forged and
circulated by Bland rat a, appears from their being always no
ticed as comprising this number. See particularly Bod, Hist~
Unit. p. yS ; Sandius s B ibiwtheca ^Intitrin. p. 56 ; Bock *
Hist. Antitrin. turn. i. p. 241, and also p. 63, where this ex
cellent writer enumerates the.se Antitheses amongthe writings
of Blandrata on the authority of Lampius. The first proposi
tion is given by Lampius in these words,

FKAXCI&CI rA.vui;s,.
Homo ill.; Jc sus AV.:, . /v/m.v, Maria Joseph} iiroris Jilius ex
ghudem temine Jotephi concept n^ c.t natus evtf; qnacnnqne tan-
don r /tt i< me id faction sit : credimns cum Messium ilium cssc m
t Tentuiucnto a Deo promisso.

Axnifu.sis GEORGII BLANDRAT*.
illt: J-. .stis \<i.;>ir< ,ti \, in Mur ict I lr^inta utero cnnccp^
tux ca. eiKjm: n<itns exf, SpiritH Suncfv cam conceptionem citru tur-
iinlem riri alien jn.s co,t^ /-i-.v.v, // nperunte. Et qnamvis ex Josephi
M ir/,-r rift *< n ." /., nu/la prorsnx ratiouc, ncc conceptns, nee nu-
tusfncrit, rcr. rn credcnrlnm tamen. omuinn nobis r cum Mcssiam
ilium <-.s.v . n Deo in 1 eteri Testaniento promissum.

The most criminal property of this document is, that it
ascribes to David opinions which he never held, and which
Blandrata must have known that he did not entertain; opi*
nions, too, which were sure to subject him to very general
odium at the iiiae, even among his own party, and which have
had the effect ot transmitting his name to posterity with the
imputatioiu.f being a M;.Mi-.iri>.\i/i:;i, and, intact, a disbeliever
in the truth and authority of the Christian Revelation. See
Boil as above,/;. IW ; Zeltner s Historia Crypto- Socinismif
p. :J()1. To these may be added even the Unitarian writers
among ourselves; Dr. Toulmin in several passages of his Life

of

liv HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

delicate and dangerous a business. David, who had
been brought a prisoner to Thorda, hearing of their
consultation, sent to entreat they would not on his
account resort to violence., intimating that he was
prepared to suffer all things for the truth which he
had professed. Several deputations were sent to wait
on the prince to urge him to quash the proceedings
altogether, and thus extinguish the flame which had
been kindled in his dominions and threatened the
most dreadful consequences. But Blandrata, who,
with Socinos* aadothers, had arrived at Thorda a week

previously

of Socinus, particularly p. 464 j and Mr. Lindsey in his Histo
rical View of the Unitarian Doctrine, in his account of David
and his opinions, pp. 154 &c. We have David s "own autho
rity to prove th? falsehood ot" the statement 01 mo opinion on
that subject, given in the proposition quoted above concerning
the conception of Jesus ; for in his Thest-s De Fil to Dei, in
answer to a work of Bland rata s, he expressly maintains that
he was conceived of the Holy Spirit," and consequently was
not, as here asserted, the son of Joseph. This instance of
wilful misrepresentation may serve to show what credit is to
be attached to the other propositions, wherein he is made to
prefer the Law of Moses to the Gospel of Christ ; to assert that
Christ was slain contrary to the divine purpose ; and other
things of a similar character. It is a sufficient answer to such
calumnies, that the venerable confessor, when arraigned before
the Diet, partly on this very document, disclaimed being the
author of it, and charged his base and vindictive accuser with
the forgery.

These few facts will serve to throw some new light on the
history of Francis David, a man unquestionably of splendid ta
lents and eminent virtue, to whose character and labours in the
cause of Christian truth, it remains for some future historian
to do the justice which thus far has been withheld from them.

* It is proper to notice, that this is the last time the name of
Socinus occurs in these proceedings. What share he actually
bad in the persecutions which David had thus far endured can
not

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. fv

previously to the assembling of the Diet, in order to
arrange matters for the prosecution, successfully em
ployed his influence with the prince, and prevailed
upon him to turn a deaf ear to these remonstrances
and petitions. The nobility became highly incensed
by the manner in which these representations were
received, and assumed a menacing tone. The prince
was alarmed, and in order to prevent tumult adjourned
the Diet to the first day of June following.

David was at this time suffering severely from a
painful disorder, called by historians the colic, then
very prevalent in the country. In consequence of this,

not perhaps at this time be accurately ascertained. There is
in> HM>UI to UOUDT otrt that he acceded to the measnrc or hi?
imprisonment, as the means of restraining him from the disse
mination of his opinion, until the Diet should determine what
further steps it might be proper to take. Socinus certainly had
no objection to the interference of the civil magistrate in cer
tain cases to suppress opinions which he deemed antichristian
but he was averse to the punishment of heretics by death.
The probability, however, is, that, whatever might have been
the views and feelings of Soc mus in respect to this persecu
tion, Bland rat a was the moving spring which put the whole in
motion. He possessed the ear of the prince completely ; and
Socinus, who, it is to be recollected, was a stranger in the
country, could have done nothing to oppose his proceedings
had he been so inclined. The Diet, before which David was
first summoned to appear, was dissolved before the end of April
without coming to any decision. It did not re-assemble until
the first" of June following, when the prosecution closed. But
previously to this, that is, in the month of May, Socinus, as I
have observed above, withdrew to Poland. lie is entitled to a
fair hearing in his own defence ; and the reader may consult
the preface to his work DC J,:su Christ! ln> in-<itiuin , Di.s/mtatio,
&c. inserted in the Biblio hcca l- rntruin rolunontm, and Dr.
Toulmin s examination of the charges against him, in his Me
moirs, pp. 82 &c.

his

IVl HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION".

his friends, apprehensive for his life, interceded with
Blandrata to obtain his liberation until the next meet
ing of the Diet. But he replied that he would sacri
fice all he was worth rather than suffer him to be at
large, and that he would lose his life, or he should not
escape*. In order to make himself the more secure
of his victim, he obtained an order from the prince to
remove him from the custody of the ministers, and
place him under a military guard. From this mo
ment the confinement of David became more strict :
all access to him was forbidden, excepting merely to
his daughter and son-in-law, and such attendants as
were necessary to assist him in removing to and from
his bed. In this wretched state he passed a whole
month, before the expiration of which he was so en
feebled by his disorder, and the faintingfits attending
it, that he was scarcely able to speak,

On the first of June the Diet assembled at Weis-
senburg (Alba. Julia}\ and David was conveyed to that
city, distant from his prison a journey of several days,,
in a state between life and death. Almost immedi
ately after his arrival he was summoned to appear
before his judges, and notwithstanding his exhausted
condition was ordered to stand. But the prince, who
presided on the occasion, when he beheld him, was
struck with compassion, and commanded a seat to be
provided for him. The officer of the court having de
clared the charge on which David was arraigned,
Blandrata arose, and stated that he had in vain en
deavoured by conversation, letters, and messages, to
* Bod, ubi supra, p. 1 13.

restrain

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Ivil

restrain him from publicly avowing and maintaining
his opinion against the invocation of Christ, and that
he was therefore compelled, by a regard to his con
science, to resort to this prosecution in order to pro
vide against the dangers which threatened the Church,

David was then called upon to reply to the accusa
tion preferred against him, of having publicly declared
that Christ ought not to be invoked in prayer ; and
that those who prayed to Christ sinned as much as if
they invoked the Virgin Mary, Peter, Paul, and other
dead saints. And Blandrata further required that he
should answer in respect to his writings, whether ho
admitted himself to be the author of them ?

The venerable confessor being himself too much
oppressed and enfeebled by his disorder to speak so as
to be heard by the assembly, obtained permission for
his son-in-law, Lucas, to answer in his stead. In re
ference to his writings, he replied that he would not
disown those that were really of his composition,
neither would he defend as his, those which were the
productions of another, and circulated under his
name, alluding to the Theses which Blandrata had
distributed with the authority of the prince. And ia
respect to the charges themselves, he stated, as to the
first, that in preaching from the account of the mar
riage festival at Cana, he had argued, that no divine
worship which was not prescribed or commanded in the
Scriptures could be agreeable to God. The invoca
tion of Christ was not there prescribed or commanded;
therefore it could not be agreeable to God. And
as to the second, he observed, that if, quitting the
c 5 Scriptures,

Ivili HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

Scriptures, and following human comments and our
own fancies, we seek for grounds for the invocation of
Christ, we may also, on the same reasons, invoke saints
both living and dead*. While Lucas was pronouncing
these answers, Blandrata, smiling sarcastically, ex
claimed, "You are returning to Judaism !" To which
David mildly replied, " Yon, Doctor, also, held this
very opinion a few years since !" Shortly after, and as
soon as the business of the assembly permitted, Blan
drata arose, and observed, " Francis states that I held
the same opinion : but I declare and protest before
God, before the illustrious prince, and the whole
Church, that I never held nor concurred in this senti
ment. But if I have either said or written any thing to
this effect, I now desire to revoke it, and declare my
recantation;" adding, " and thoti, Francis, do thou so
likewise," To this Lucas warmly and abruptly answer
ed, " He will not ; for it is not firmness but weak
ness in a man to revoke without reason, that which
he has once asserted." After this interruption,
Blandrata moved that the Theses he had printed and
circulated under David s name should be read ; which
closed the case on the part of the prosecutors.

David, with considerable difficulty, and against the
warm efforts of Blandrata and his associates, obtained
permission, on account of the exhausted state of his
strength, to postpone his defence till the following day.
On the breaking up of the Diet he was reconducted
to prison, where he was instantly surrounded by his

* Bod, ubi wpn, p. 123,

friends,

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. x

friends, who were filled with apprehension as to the
result of these extraordinary proceedings, and doubt
ful what course they ought to pursue. In the number
of these were several of the principal nobility, who
were deeply anxious to save their venerable pastor
from the danger which seemed to threaten him. David
again implored them not to involve themselves on his
account by any measures of violence, even if he were
to fall observing that the world would see and ac
knowledge that God was one, and was alone to be
worshipped with divine honours.

Early the next morning, David, unable any longer
to stand, was carried into court by four ministers.
The interval had been employed by his friends in col
lecting the writings, both manuscript and printed, of
Blandrata and others of the prosecutors in this case,
which contained the proofs, in their own words, of their
having once held the same opinion as David respect
ing the invocation of Christ. Passages from these
were read by Lucas in the defence of his father-in-law
and were most feebly met and evaded by the phy
sician, who spoke as his opponent*. The chancellor
requested that these writings should be given in to the

* Klandrata had by this time gained over to his party a con
siderable number of the Unitarian ministers, \vno afterwards
saw too late the folly of their conduct. In proof li.it liian-
drata had once held the same opinion as himself, D.iv d pro-.
duced the following argument in his own words, and Lsiiy sub
stantiated his charge, Si ulla vera ad<, ratio et cultus Dei wa-
Rifettahtt I nit in I etiiri TexfaMcnto, in a Ckri^to decliLrutiusfuit
in iY. Testamento. Scd solim Del Patris adoratio et cultus de-
flarotius a Christo. Job A. J3od,/>. 128.

court

IX HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

court ; after which David and his supporters were or
dered to withdraw while the assembly deliberated con
cerning their judgement.

The prince and the judges then proceeded to inter
rogate the accusers of David, and to demand of them
on oath whether they concurred in his opinion and
innovation ; or whether they deemed it blasphemy
against God ? Blandrata rose first to reply, and thus
expressed himself: "I, George Blandrata, profess,
before Almighty God, and his Son our Lord Jesus
Christ, before the holy angels and the elect of God,
that I neither am nor have been in any respect a par
taker in the guilt of this opinion of Francis David; and
I affirm that it is a novel opinion, and, besides, a
horrid blasphemy against God and his Son. * The
associates of Blandrata, to the number of twenty-five,
having taken similar oaths, the public prosecutor, in
the name of the prince, of himself, and of the Jesuits,
after asserting his belief in the Trinity, condemned
the opinion of David as blasphemy.

David being again brought before the Diet, to re
ceive judgment, some of his accusers interceded with
the prince to spare his life, alleging that he had been
guilty of no capital offence in what he had declared,
his argument being taken from the words of Christ.
At the same time Blandrata went up Judas-like to his
emaciated victim, and embracing him, said, in a low
voice, " Do not fear I have found favour with the
prince." David indignantly replied, " Go, go pro
ceed as thou hast begun," Blandrata having resumed

his

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixi

his seat, his colleagues again importuned the prince to
spare the life of the superintenclant. But the Hunga
rian Trinitarian ministers opposed them in a long ora
tion, wherein they exhorted the prince, on the ground
of the command of Moses concerning false prophets,
to put him to death as a blasphemer; and concluded in
these \vords : " We this day, by virtue of our office,
cite thee, O thou illustrious prince, the keeper of both
tables, together with thy consort, thy children, and
all thy posterity, before the tribunal of the awful judge
Jesus Christ, whom this man has blasphemed, if thou
suffer him to live !"

The prince, at this adjuration, changed colour; and,
calling to the officer of the court, commanded him to
give the following reply: " The illustrious prince has
heard the orations of both parties : his highness there
fore promises that he will take care to evince to all
that he will not suffer such an offender to escape with
impunity/ Then turning to Francis David, he pro
ceeded : " The illustrious prince has been made ac
quainted with the whole of this affair, in what man
ner, led by thine own fancy, and without the consent
of the Church, thou hast fallen into this atheistical,
execrable, and unheard-of blasphemy. His highness
therefore will, according to thy desert, make an ex
ample of thee, because others also ought to be de
terred from such fanatical innovations. In the mean
time thou shalt be kept in the custody of the prince,
until he shall determine further concerning thee*."

* Bod, P . 136.

David

xii HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

David was now committed to close custody in the
castle of Deva, none of his friends or relations being
allowed access to him ; and here, worn down by the
fatigues of his persecutions and the ravages of a pain
ful disorder, he closed a long life on the 15th of No
vember following, in the year 1579*.

The proceedings against Francis David being thus
brought to a conclusion, Blandrata, having now got rid
of the only adversary whose influence he feared, called
some general synods at Coloswar, for the purpose of
arranging the affairs of the Unitarian Churches con
formably to his own views and wishes. Demetrius
Hunjadinus was, with some opposition, appointed the
new superintendant; and the practice of baptizing in
fants in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, and the observance of the Lord s Supper,
which had been long disused by the Unitarians of
Transylvania, were again introduced as part of their
religious service. Only about eighteen out of two
hundred and seventy ministers refused to assent to

t Bod, p. 144. Blandrata, writing to Palaeologus on the 10th
of January 1580, gives the following account of the case, with
the view of exculpating himself. Dominns Francis voluit ca~
lamo prinnun respondere Fansto; delude Thcsibus meis. Summa
e^us doctriiiafuit : sepel endum csse JEvdngelium, et reverten-
dum ad Mosen, ad legem, ad circumcmonem. Voluit pluries tur-
bare regnum, et fieri novator, et rebellis regni pnblici mandatt.
Dicebut, tuntum esse Jeswm Christum, atque Mariam Virginetn
invocare inprecibus, Mosem et Most* lineam csse rectam, Chris
tum autem Jeswm et ejits doctrinam indirectam. Tanqnam no-
vator et turbator regni fuit condemnatus, et missus Devam ad
career em? ubi 15 Novembris cst mortuus. Neque credos me tarn
fuisse c&mmotum contra cum proptcr Jestim Christum non invo-
wprec ibm, quam -propter implas ejus appendices.

this

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixiii

this measure the rest being gained over by the per
suasion or the threats of the wily physician*.

In a short time after these occurrences Blandrata
lost his influence, and sunk into contempt with all
ranks of persons in the Unitarian body. He attempt
ed to repossess himself of the power which he had
once held and exercised in the direction of the eccle
siastical affairs of the kingdom, by joining himself to
the party of the Jesuits : but finding himself at last
an object of universal dislike, he returned to Poland
in 1580, where, two years afterwards, he was strangled
by a near relation whom he had appointed to be the
heir of his property f.

Hunjadinus was succeeded in the superintendence
of the Transylvanian Churches by George Enjedinus,
a divine of great eminence, deeply versed in the Latin
and Greek languages, and who has left an imperish
able monument of his learning and talents in his cele
brated work, intituled, Expllcatioms Locorum Vete-
ris et Novi Testament^ ex quibus Trinilatis Dogma
stabillri solet.

Notwithstanding all that had been done by Blandra
ta to establish an uniformity of Faith in the Unitarian
Churches of Transylvania, the ministers were far from
agreeing on the point which had occasioned so much

* Socinus, adverting to this circumstance in his preface to
his account of his dispute with David, writes, Jam vero, de
Fraiu-ixci l)>iri<lix c<nt.s/t, jinl n-in jicracto, ymunrix, ejiut assecke
fere ottincs, seiitcntlam de Christ o HOH iiiroauulo tie abjicere pa-
lam professi fuivent} tumcn cognitum cst postcu, id non ex
aniitin u*t iptiffacttumjmtiji {Social Opera, torn. ii. p. 7M.
f Social Opera, torn, \i.p, 538.

agitation,

Ixiv HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

agitation, and ended so fatally to the venerable confessor
and martyr David. There still remained a large num
ber who objected to the invocation of Christ, and who,
when they found themselves freed from the interfe
rence and persecution of Blandrata, made no scruple
of openly avowing and promulgating their opinion. In
order to restrain and silence such persons, it was
found necessary, by successive princes, to enact against
them new and severe laws, whereby at length all who
refused to worship Jesus Christ were excluded from
toleration. Their faith was watched with great jea
lousy by the government, which obliged them from
time to time to deliver in an authorized confession^
agreeing in all respects with the form drawn up and
subscribed by the general Synod convened by Blan
drata at Coloswar on the first of July 15J9*.

The

* The Confession of Faith then agreed upon and subscri
bed, as the standard of the doctrine authorized by law to be
professed and taught in the Unitarian Churches, was as fol
lows :

I. Credimus et confitemur Jesum ilium a Nazareth esse Fi-
llum AUissimi unigenitum, diclque Deum juscta geuuinum sen-
sum S. Scriptures propter has causas: l/Quia conceptus estde
Spiritu Sancto. 2. Quiet unctus est Spiritu Sancto prce omnibus
consortibus, et acccpit Spiritum sine mensura. 3. Propter ma-
jestatem et gloriam ; quam Pater in ccelo et in terra, postquam
resurreoccrlt a ntortuis, pleuarie dedit. 4. Quia Deus Pater in
plenitudine temporis restauravit et condidit omnia per ipsum, de-
ditque ilium nobis, ut per ilium salvemur, et vitce ceternce hcere^-
ditatem accijiiamus.

II. Hunc eundem Jesum Christum credimus colendum et ado-
randum esse, qula Pater dedit omnia Filio,et prcecepit ut ilium
audiamus, in ipsum credamus, ipsum columns et adoremus. Idea
omnes thesaurus scicntia; et sapientice in eo abscondidit, ut ex
plenitudine ejus et nos omnes accipiamus; ut scilicet cokntes Fi-

Hum,

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. lx?

The severe restrictions thus imposed upon its pro
fessors operated very prejudicially in checking the
progress of Unitarian ism, and by degrees caused the
defection of most of the noble families from the Uni
tarian party. Few events of any consequence occur in
the subsequent history of the Unitarians in this coun-

Ihtm, calamus Patrem, credentes in F ilium, credamus in Patrem,
qni Pater in b ilio liouoratur.

III. Confttemitr, quod Jesiifi tile rcrm Afcssias dnm fnit in
terris, coutnlit, ct etiam mine confert buna spiritnuHa Jidelibus
per verbnm ct spirit inn, idenquc invocandns cst, propterca enbn
a Deo Pat re in ipsnm liona o,/tn>a cullntn Mint, nt ilia ab ipso con-
Jideitter in noxtris ne<:ex.sitatibus petamnft ct xperemus. Hinc
postijnam e.iit bitus in mnudnm vcnit, ad ilium mnlfi conj i/fferunt,
dlcernnt, " J< fin, Fili D.ir/d, miserere mei" Matth. xv., Marc. x.
Item, "DoHiine Jesii . fuiscipc spiritum mewn;" Act. vii. ncqne
tunicu nf Deux illc Pater, in quo omnia, invocatur, 1 Cor. viii.
Hegue eitam ea jorma ., **" !^"!r, ij? ^ ^ ^.^2"^i * ^,-
ci ii lu, " Pater noster," &c. sal ea ratinnc, nt quod Dens Patcy
illi nnihtlit rc-rti M/HHN nohis C/irintii)n id opnlanti r Ittrifil/irinti,
qneniadiiioiluin ipxe pnnurit " Qnirqnid peticritis in nomine
inert, egofuriani," Job. xiv. Item, "Egod ibo vobis os ctsapien-
tiiiin." Luc. xxi. Item, " f itam a teriunn dabo eis" Job. x. Xc-
que enhn eo pacto Mediator noster cut, lit ni/til nubis coiiferat,
ant quod ab co ni/ti/ f/i tc-ndm/i, ej-xpertauditm, att/ne efiuin xpe-
raiidnin xit; cum co fine omnia a Deo Poire MtQ cn lcxti acccpcrit,
vt uliiptioca nmitid in //r/,v, tauquam membra tpsius, ilcricttrentur.

IV. DieiiHKx c id. it en m Saera Scnpt*ra,yiU)d JdlU ille Chris-
tus, <}>(i die/tin fapitt nostrum, fit mine qnofjiie Kcflesiartini Ilex,
et rc^nt per x/>/r/ft<>n .MIKIU fulclcs xtn>.\. " Dom/ncf<tr</nc Wft9
r/ / o.v ct mortttOt" Kom. xiv. imo, quod " re^ nt omnia rcrlio po-
te.it/fi- . .Hfr" l!cl). i. Xftm C/tristniu iden Pater n<> bi, v dcdit, vt
in tsnixjidelibitx n ni - reluct, et mix ritam cctei nam conjeraf, et
* Ipxe sit fnhiK .Mill cn ln, in nijua nomine i/n.\ xu/ro.s Jieri ojior-
tet." Act. iv. ll?. A / quamrix d/cti iir 1 Cor.