take, the barbarous and coarse style of his 25. An intimate friend of David George. compositions, for he possessed some genius but of a somewhat different turn of mind, but no learning, led his opposers often to Henry Nicolai of Westphalia, gave much put a harsh and unjust construction upon trouble to the Dutch and the English from his sentences. That he possessed more sense the year 1555, by founding and propagating and more virtue than is commonly supposed, the Family of Love as he denominated his is at least evinced not only by his books, sect. To this man nearly the same remarks of which he published a great many, but apply, which were made of his friend. He also by his disciples, who were persons by would perhaps have in great measure avoid. no means base but of great simplicity of ed the foul blots which many have fastened manners and character, and who were for- upon him, if he had possessed the genius merly numerous in Holstein, and are said and learning requisite to a correct and to be so still in Friesland and in other lucid expression of his thoughts. What countries. In the manner of the more his aims were, appears pretty clearly from moderate Anabaptists, he laboured to re- the name of the sect which he set up. For vive languishing piety among his fellow- he declared himself divinely appointed and men, and in this matter his imagination, sent to teach mankind that the whole of which was excessively warm, so deceived religion consists in the exercise of divine him that he falsely supposed he had divine love; that all other things, which are supvisions; and he placed religion in the ex-posed to belong either to religion or to the clusion of all external objects from the worship of God, are of no importance; and thoughts and the cultivation of silence, of course that it is of no consequence what contemplation, and a peculiar and inde- views any one has of the divine nature, scribable state of the soul. The Mys- provided he burns with a flame of piety tics therefore of the highest order and the and love: To these opinions he perhaps Quakers might claim him if they would, added some other fanciful views, as is usual and they might assign him no mean rank with men in whom the imagination predoamong their sort of people. minates; but what they were in particular, I apprehend, may be better learned from his books than from the confutations of his adversaries.3

him to learn the art of painting on glass, which caused him to travel in the Netherlands, France, and England. Returning in 1524, he pursued that business in his native town. The Reformation here caused considerable commotion, and in 1530 Joris for obstructing a Catholic procession was imprisoned, whipped, and had his tongue bored. He at length turned to the Anabaptists, but being more moderate than they and opposed to their tumultuous proceedings, it was not till 1534 that he actually was rebaptized. He then joined the party of Hoffmann, but he was not well pleased with any of them, and at length he united some contending parties together, and actually established a particular sect of Anabaptists. He next began to have visions and revelations. As his adherents suffered persecution in Westphalia and Holland, he often attended them and comforted and animated them in their dying hours. He saw his own mother decapitated at Delft in 1537. A monitory letter which he sent to the senate of Holland caused the bearer to lose his head. In 1539 the landgrave of Hesse, to whom he applied for protection, of fered to afford it provided he would become a Lutheran. In 1542 he published his famous Book of Wonders, in which he exposed all the fanciful opinions that floated in his imagination. He wandered in various countries till he was safe nowhere. Therefore in 1544 he retired to Basil, where he lived twelve years under the name of John von Brügge, was owner of a house in the city and an estate in the country, was a peaceable and good citizen and held communion with the Reformed Church. His son-in-law Blesdyck was a Reformed preacher in the Palatinate, and had some variance with Joris before his death. Afterwards, provoked perhaps by the disposition Joris made of his property, he brought heavy charges against him. His family and friends and acquaintances denied the truth of the charges before the court. But what they would not admit was attempted to be proved from his writings. The university and the clergy pronounced his opinions heretical, and the dead man, who could no longer defend himself, was condemned. See Schroeckh's Kirchengesch. seit der Reformation, vol. v. p. 442, &c. and Von Einem's and Schlegel's notes upon this section of Mosheim.-Mur.

2 See Hornbeck's Summa Controversiarum, lib, vi. p. 393; Arnold's Kirchen-und Ketzerhistorie, part i. book xvi. chap. xxi. sec. xxxvi. p. 746; Böhm's Englische Reformations-historie, book iv. chap. v. p. 541, &c.

3 The last and most learned of those who attacked the Familists was Henry More, the celebrated English divine and philosopher, in his Mystery of Godliness, book vi. chaps. xii.-xviii. George Fox, the father of the Quakers, severely chastised this Family of Love, because they would take an oath, dance, sing, and be cheerful; and he called them a company of fanatics. See Sewel's History of the Quakers, book iii. p. 88, 89, 344, &c. [Henry Nicolai or Nicholas was born at Munster, and commenced his career about the year 1546 in the Netherlands, thence he passed over to England in the latter years of Edward VI. and joined the Dutch congregation in London. But his sect did not become visible till some time in the reign of queen Elizabeth. In 1575 they laid a confession of their faith, with a number of their books, before the parliament and prayed for toleration. In 1580, the queen and her council undertook to suppress them. They continued in England till the middle of the following century, when they became absorbed in other sects. Nicolai published a number of tracts and letters in Dutch for the edification of his followers, and to vindicate his principles against gainsayers. In one of his pieces he mystically styles himself: "A man whom God had awaked from the dead, anointed and filled with the Holy Ghost, endowed with God in the Spirit of his love, and elevated with Christ to an inheritance in heavenly blessings, enlightened with the Spirit of heavenly truth, and with the true light of the all-perfect Being," &c. In his preface to one of his tracts he calls himself: "The chosen servant of God, by whom the heavenly revelation should again be made known to the world." His followers in 1575 affirmed that they neither denied that baptism which consists in repentance and newness of See Möller's Introductio in Histor. Chersones. Cim-life, nor the holy sacrament of baptism which betokens brica, par. ii. p. 116, &c. and his Cimbria Literata, tom. 1. p. 422, &c.

the new birth in Christ, and which is to be administered to children; that they admitted also the perfect

CHAPTER IV.

HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS.

1. THE Socinians derived their name from the illustrious house of Sozini, which long flourished at Sienna, a noble city of Tuscany, and gave birth, it is said, to a number of distinguished men. For it was from this family were descended Lælius and Faustus Socinus, who are commonly regarded as the parents of the sect. Lælius Socinus was the son of Marianus, a celebrated lawyer; and to great learning and talents he added, as even his enemies acknowledge, a pure and blameless life. Leaving his native country from religious considerations in 1547, he travelled over various countries, France, England, Holland, Germany, and Poland; everywhere examining carefully the opinions of those who had abandoned the Romish church concerning God and divine things, for the sake of discovering and finding the truth. At length he settled down at Zurich in Switzerland, and there died in the year 1562, when he was not yet forty years old.' Being a man of a mild and gentle spirit and averse from all contention, he adopted the Helvetic Confession and wished to be thought a member of the Swiss church; yet he did not absolutely conceal his doubts on religious subjects, but proposed them in his letters to learned friends with whom he was intimate. But Faustus Socinus, his nephew and heir, is said to have drawn from the writings left by Lælius his real ments concerning religion, and by publishing them to have gathered the sect.

nature of our Saviour. But in a more limited sense those only are called Socinians who receive, either entire or in its principal parts, that system of religion which Faustus Socinus either produced himself, or set forth when produced by his uncle and recommended to the Unitarian brethren (as they choose to be called) living in Poland and Transylvania.3

3. While the Reformation was still immature, certain persons who looked upon everything the Romish church had hitherto professed as erroneous, began to undermine the doctrine of our Saviour's divinity and the truths connected with it, and proposed reducing the whole of religion to practical piety and virtue. But the vigilance both of the Lutherans and of the Reformed and Papists promptly resisted them, and prevented their organizing a sect. As early as the year 1526 divine honours were denied to Jesus Christ by Lewis Hetzer, a name famous among the vagrant Anabaptists, and who was beheaded at Constance in 1529.* Nor were there wanting other men of like sentiments among the Anabaptists, though

3 There is still wanting a full and accurate history both of the sect which follows the Socini, and also of Lælius and Faustus Socinus, and of those next to them most active in establishing and building up this community. For the curiosity of those who wish to acquire an accurate knowledge of this whole subject is awakened but not satisfied by what they find in Hornbeck's Socinianismus Confutatus, vol. I.; Calovius, Opera Anti-Sociniana; Cloppenburg's Diss. de Origine et Progressu Socinianismi (Opp. tom. ii. Lugd. Bat. 1708, 4to); Sandius, Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitariorum; Lubieniecius, Historia Reformationis Polonica; Lausenti-terbach's Polnisch-Arianischen Socinianismus, Frankf. 1725, 8vo. And the Histoire de Socinianisme, by Lamy, Paris, 1723, 4to, is a compilation from the common writers, and abounds not only with errors but with various matter quite foreign from a history of the Socinian sect and religion. The very industrious and learned Maturin Viess la Croze promised the world a his Dissert. Historiques, tome 1. p. 142-but he did not fulfil his promise. [Besides the above, there are Zeltner's Historia Crypto-Socinianismi Altorfini quondam Academia infesti Arcana, Lips. 1729, 4to; Toulmin's Memoirs of the Life, Character, Sentiments and Writings of Faustus Socinus, Lond. 1777, 8vo; Bock's Historia Antitrinitariorum, maxime Socinianismi et Socinianorum, quorum Auctores Promotores, Cœtus, Templa recensentur, Köningsb. 1774-84, 2 vols. 8vo. first vol. gives account of modern Socinian authors, and the second traces the origin of Anti-Trinitarianism. The whole therefore is only a broad introduction to a proper History of the Socinian community. And Ilgen, Vita Lælii Socini, Lips. 1814, 8vo.-Mur. [Another valuable work on this subject has recently appeared in Germany, which supplies much additional information respecting the lives of two of the founders of this sect, namely, Servetus and the elder Socinus. I allude to Trechsel's Die Protestantischen Antitrinitarier vor Faustus Socin. Heidel. 1839-44; 2 vols. The first vol. is entitled, Michael Servet u. seine Vorgänger; and the second, Lelio Socini u. d. Antitrinitarier seiner Zeit. See also a brief notice of Lelius Socinus in M'Crie's Hist. of the Reformation in Italy, 2d edit. p. 424, &c.-R.

complete history of Socinianism down to our times-see

2. The name Socinians is often used in two different senses a proper and an improper, or a limited and a more general. For in common speech all are denominated Socinians who teach doctrines akin to those of the Socinians; and especially those who either wholly deny or weaken and render dubious the Christian doctrine of three persons in the Godhead, and that of the divine

satisfaction made by Christ for the sins of men. They appeared always cheerful and in a happy state of mind, which offended the more gloomy Mystics and produced heavy charges against them. Yet nothing appeared in their mora conduct to justify those criminations. Arnold, Kirchen-und Ketzerhistorie, part ii. book xvi. chap. xxi. sec. xxxvi. p. 873, ed. Schaffhausen; and Schroeckh's Kirchengesch. seit der Reformation, vol. v. p. 478, &c.-Mur.

Cloppenburg, Diss. de Origine et Progressu Socinianismi; Hornbeck, Summa Controversiarum, p. 563, &c.; Hottinger, Historia Ecclesiast. tom. ix. p. 417, &c. and others.

Zanchius, Præfatio ad Librum de tribus Elohim; Beza, Epistolæ, ep. lxxxi. p. 167. Several writings are ascribed to him (see Sand's Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitar. p. 18); but it is very doubtful whether he was the author of any of them.

The

4 Sand's Bibliotheca Anti- Trinitarior. p. 16; Ottius, Annales Anabaptist. p. 50; Breitinger's Museum Helveticum, tom. v. p. 331, tom. vi. p. 100, 479, &c. [See above, p. 687, note 1.-Mur.

4. Those who watched over the interests of the Reformed church were much more alarmed by the conduct of Michael Servede3 or Servetus, as his name is written in Latin,

that whole sect cannot be charged with this a Spanish physician, born at Villa Nueva error. Besides these, John Campanus of in Aragon, a man of no ordinary genius and Juliers, in what year is not ascertained, of extensive knowledge. He first published among other unsound doctrines which he in 1531, De Trinitatis Erroribus, libri spread at Wittemberg and elsewhere, made Septem, and the next year Dialogorum de the Son of God to be inferior to the Father; Trinitate, libri duo, in which he most vioand declared the appellation Holy Spirit to lently assailed the opinion held by the great denote not a divine person but the nature body of Christians respecting the divine both of the Father and the Son; that is, nature and the three persons in it. After he revived substantially the monstrous retiring to France and passing through errors of the Arians. In the territory of various scenes, he subsequently fixed his the Grisons in Switzerland, at Strasburg, residence at Vienne, where he was a sucand perhaps elsewhere, one Claudius, an cessful practitioner of physic; and now, by Allobrogian or Savoyard, excited much his strong power of imagination, he devised commotion about the year 1530 and on- a new and singular species of religion, which ward, by impugning the divinity of our he committed to a book that he secretly Saviour.2 But none of these was able to printed at Vienne in 1553, and which he establish a sect. entitled Christianismi Restitutio (a Restoration of Christianity).4 Many things seemed to conspire to favour his designs; genius, learning, eloquence, courage, pertinacity, a show of piety, and lastly numerous patrons and friends in France, Germany, and Italy, whom he had conciliated by his natural and acquired endowments. But all his hopes were frustrated by Calvin, who caused Servetus to be seized in 1553 at Geneva, as he was passing through Switzerland towards Italy after his escape from prison at Vienne, and to be accused of blasphemy by one of Calvin's servants. The issue of the accusation was that Servetus, as he would not renounce the opinions he had embraced, was burned alive by a heretic and blasphemer. For in that age, decree of the judges as being a pertinacious the ancient laws against heretics enacted by the emperor Frederick II. and often renewed afterwards, were in full force at Geneva. A better fate was merited by this highly gifted and very learned man; yet he laboured under no small moral defects, for he was beyond all measure arrogant, and at the same time ill-tempered, contentious, unyielding, and a semi-fanatic. 5

1 See Schelhorn's very learned Dissertation De Joh. Campano Anti-Trinitario, in his Amanitates Literar. tom. xi. p. 1–92. [He was a native of Maseyk in the territory of Liege, and came to Wittemberg in 1528; but so concealed his opinions that they first became known after he had retired to Marpurg, where he wished to take part in the public dispute and to debate with Luther on the subject of the Lord's Supper, but was refused. He repeated the same at Torgau, where he likewise sought in vain to dispute with Luther. This filled him with resentment against Luther and his associates, and induced him to quit Wittemberg (to which he had returned) and go to Niemek, the pastor of which, Wicelius, fell under suspicion of Anti-Trinitarianism in consequence of his harbouring Campanus, and soon after went over to the Catholics. Campanus went from in writing declared himself opposed to the Reformers, Saxony to the duchy of Juliers; and both orally and Arian doctrines. But he was committed to prison by the Catholics at Cleves, and continued in confinement twenty-six years. Whether he made his escape from prison or was set at liberty is not known. All we know is that he lived to a great age. The substance of his

and sought in an underhand manner to disseminate his

doctrine may be learned from the very scarce book entitled, The Divine and Holy Scripture, many years since Obscured and Darkened by Unwholesome Doctrine and Teachers (by God's permission), now Restored and Amended, by the very learned John Campanus, 1532, 8vo (in German).-Schl. [Respecting Hetzer and Campanus, with their other associates, Denk, Hoffmann, Joris, &c. additional information may be obtained in Trechsel's Michael Servet u. seine l'orgäng. p. 18, &c. 26, &c.-R.

See Schelhorn's Dissertation, De Mino Celso Senens, Claudio item Allobroge, homine Fanatico et SS. Trinitalis hoste, Ulm, 1748, 8vo; Breitinger's Museum Helveticum, tom. vii. p. 667; Haller's letter in Füslin's Centuriai. Epistolar. Reform. &c. p. 140, &c. [He first held Christ to be a mere man; but the Swiss divines brought him to admit that he was the natural Son of God, though he would not allow his eternal existence, and he positively denied three persons in the Godhead. He also maintained that the beginning of John's Gospel had been falsified. He was imprisoned at Strasburg and then banished. Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. seit der Reformation, vol. v. p. 491.-Mur.

3 By rejecting the last syllable of the name, which is a common Spanish termination, there remains the name Serve; and the letters of this name, a little transposed, produce Reves, which is the name Servetus assumed in the titlepages of his books. Omitting also his family name altogether, he called himself from his birthplace, Michael Villanovanus, or simply Villano

vanus.

The full title of this now exceedingly rare work is, Christianismi Restitutio. Totius ecclesiæ Apostolicæ est ad sua limina vocatio, in integrum restituta cognitione Dei, fidei Christi, justificationis nostra, regenerationis baptismi, et cano Domini manducationis. Restituto denique nobis regno cœlesti, Babylonis impiæ captivitate soluta, et anti-Christo cum suis penitus destructo, copied from an accurate reprint now before me, which is also scarce. It is anonymous, but on the last page (p. 734) there are the initials, M. S. V. (Michael Servetus Villanovanus) and the year, 1553. An analysis of the contents of this celebrated work may be seen in the notes to the article on Servetus, in Chauffepié, Nouveau Dictionnaire Hist. et Crit. tome iv. See also the Appendix to Henry's Das Leben Calvins, vol. iii. p. 81, &c.-K.

5 I have composed in the German language a copious history of this man who was so unlike everybody but himself, which was published at Helmstadt, 1748, 4to, and again, with large additions, Helmst. 1749, 4to. [Maclaine recommends to those who cannot read the German to peruse a juvenile production of one of Mosheim's pupils composed twenty years earlier, en. titled, Historia Mich. Serveti, quam Præside J. Laur,

5. Servetus had devised a strange system | nature of things, which were also strange, of religion, a great part of which was inti- nor can it be stated fully in a few words. mately connected with his notions of the He supposed in general that the true doc