altogether a Socinian aspect in regard to the points most essential to that system. Nor will this surprise us, if we consider that the papers of Lælius Socinus (which he undoubtedly left in Poland), were in the hands of a great many persons; and by these, the Arians who had formerly had the ascendancy, were led to change their opinion respecting Jesus Christ.' The name Soci As they make justification to consist in a great measure in a reformation of the life, so in the explanation of this general account they introduce a part of their doctrine of morals which is contained in a very few precepts, and those expressed almost wholly in the words of the Scriptures. Their system of morality has these peculiarities, that it forbids taking an oath and the repelling of injuries. They define ecclesiastical discipline thus-It is the frequent reminding individuals of their duty, and the admonition of such as sin against God or their neighbour, first privately, and then also publicly before the whole assembly; and finally, the rejection of the pertinacious from the communion of saints, that so being ashamed they may repent, or if they will not repent may be damned eternally.(a) Their explanation of this point shows how incomplete and imperfect were their ideas on the subject. For they first treat of the government of the Christian church and of the ministers of religion, whom they divide into bishops, deacons, elders or presbyters, and widows; they next enumerate the duties of husbands and wives, the aged and the young, parents and children, servants and masters, citizens towards magistrates, the rich and the poor; and lastly, they treat of admonishing sinners first, and then depriving them of communion if they will not reform. Respecting prayer, their precepts are in general sound and good. But on the subject of baptism they differ from other Christians in this, that allow it to be administered only to adults. Baptism, say they, is the immersion in water and the emersion of a person who believes the gospel and exercises repentance, in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, or in the name of Jesus Christ; whereby he publicly professes that by the grace of God the Father he has been washed in the blood of Christ, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, from all his sins; so that being ingrafted into the body of Christ he may mortify the old Adam and be transformed into the celestial Adam, in the firm assurance of eternal life after the resurrection.(b) Lastly, concerning the Lord's Supper, they give such a representation as a Zwinglian would readily admit. At the end of the book is added Economia Christiana seu Pastoratus domesticus; that is, brief instructions how the heads of families should preserve and maintain piety and the fear of God in their houses, and containing also forms of prayers to be used morning and evening and at other times. The copy of this Catechism which I now possess was presented by Martin Chelm (whom the Socinians name among the first patrons of their church) to M. Christopher Heiligmeier in the year 1580, as appears from a long inscription at the end of the book. Chelm there promises his friend other writings of the same kind if this should be received cheerfully and kindly, and concludes with these words of St. Paul, "God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty."-1 Cor. i. 27. thoy make it to consist in immersion and emersion, and This we are clearly taught by Schomann in his Testamentum, published by Sand, p. 194, 195. Sub id ⚫ fere tempus (A.D. 1566) ex rhapsodiis Lælii Socini quidam fratres didicerunt, Dei filium non esse secundam (a) Disciplina ecclesiastica est officii singulorum frequens commemoratio, et peccantium contra Deum vel promixum primum privata, deinde etiam publica, coram toto cœtu, commonefactio, denique pertinacium a communione sanctorum alienatio, ut pudore suffusi convertantur, aut si id nolint, æternam damnentur, (b) Baptismus est hominis Evangelio credenti, et ponitentiam agentis, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, vel in nomine Jesu Christi, in aquam immersio et emersio, qua publice profitetur, se gratia Del patris, in sanguine Christi, opera Spiritus Sancti, ab omnibus peccatis ablutum esse, ut in corpus Christi insertus, mortificet veterem Adamum, et transformetur in Adamum illum cœlestem, certus, se post resurrectionem consequuturum esse vitam æternam. nian was not yet known. Those who afterwards bore this name were then usually called by the Poles Anabaptists, because in their churches they admitted none to baptism but adults, and were accustomed to rebaptize those who came over to them from other communities.2 11. The affairs of the Unitarians assumed a new aspect under the dexterity and industry of Faustus Socinus, a man of superior genius, of moderate learning, of a firm and resolute spirit, less erudite than his uncle Lælius, but more bold and courageous. When after various wanderings he first arrived among the Polish Unitarians in 1579, he met with much trouble and opposition from very many who accounted some of his opinions wide of the truth. And in reality the religious system of Faustus (which he is said to have derived from the papers left by Lælius), had much less simplicity than that of the Unitarians. Nevertheless by his wealth, his eloquence, his abilities as a writer, the patronage of the great, the elegance of his manners, and other advantages which he possessed, he overcame at length all difficulties, and by seasonably yielding at one time and contesting at another, he brought the whole Unitarian people to surrender to those opinions of his which they had before contemned, and to coalesce and become one community.3 Trinitatis personam patri coëssentialem et coxqualem, sed hominem Jesum Christum, ex Spiritu Sancto conceptum, ex virgine Maria natum, crucifixum et resuscitatum: a quibus nos commoniti, sacras literas perscrutari, persuasi sumus. These words most clearly show that the Pinczovians, (as they were called), before they separated from the Reformed in 1565, professed to believe in a Trinity of some sort, and did not divest Jesus Christ of all divinity. For this Schomann was a doctor of great authority among them; and in the year 1565, (as he himself informs us), at the convention of Petricow, he contended ("pro uno Deo patri") for one God the Father, in opposition to the Reformed, who, he says, ("Deum trinum defendebant"), maintained a threefold God. Yet in the following year, with others he was induced by the papers of Lælius Socinus to so alter his opinions, that he denied Christ to be a divine person. He therefore with his Pinczovian flock, before this time, must necessarily have been not a Socinian but an Arian. ? This the Unitarians themselves attest in the preface to their Catechism, as we have observed above; and it is confirmed by the author of the Epistola de vita Andr. Wissowalii, subjoined to Sand's Bibliotheca. For he says, (p. 225), that his sect bore the name of Arians and of Anabaptists; but that the other Christians in Poland were all promiscuously called Chrzescians from Chzrest, which denotes baptism. 3 See Bayle, Dictionnaire, article Socinus, tome iv. p. 2741; Sand's Biblioth. Anti-Trinitar. p. 64; Przypkowski [in Latin Przypcovius] Vita Socini, prefixed to his works; Lamy, Histoire du Socinianisme, par. i. and many others. [The English reader may consult chap. xxiv. p. 101, &c.; par. ii. chap. xxii. p. 375, &c. Toulmin's Memoirs of the Life, Character, &c. of Faustus Socinus, Lond. 1777; but it is a superficial work, and consists of little else than an elogium on his character and an account of his opinions and writings.--R. 12. Through his influence therefore the 13. In the year 1563, the doctrines of ill-digested, dubious, and unpolished reli- the Socinians were carried from Poland gion of the old Unitarians became greatly into the neighbouring Transylvania, by altered, was more ingeniously stated, and means especially of George Blandrata, whose more artfully and dexterously defended. exquisite skill in the medical art induced Under the guidance of so spirited and re- John Sigismund, at that time prince of spectable a leader, the community likewise Transylvania, to send for him and make which before was a little feeble flock, rose him his own physician. For this Blandrata, in a short time to distinction and honour, possessing intelligence and address and esby the accession to it of great numbers of pecially in court affairs, with the aid of all orders and classes, among whom were Francis Davides whom he took along with many persons of illustrious birth, of opu- him, did not cease to urge the prince himlence, influence, eloquence, and learning. self as well as most of the leading men, Of these, some helped forward the growing until he had infected the whole province church by their wealth and influence, and with his sentiments, and had procured for others by their pens and their genius; and his adherents the liberty of publicly prothey boldly resisted the enemies, whom the fessing and teaching his doctrines. The prosperity of the community everywhere Bathori [or Battory] indeed, whom the called forth. The Unitarian religion, thus suffrages of the nobles afterwards created new modelled and made almost a new sys- dukes of Transylvania, were by no means tem, required a new confession of faith to favourable to Socinian principles; but they set forth its principles. Therefore laying were utterly unable to suppress the numeraside the old Catechism, which was but a ous and powerful sect.3 Nor were the lords rude and ill-digested work, Socinus himself of Transylvania who succeeded the Bathori drew up a new religious summary, which able to affect it. Hence, to the present being corrected by some and enlarged by time, in this one province, the Socinians by others, resulted at last in that celebrated virtue of the public laws and of certain work which is usually called the Racovian compacts enjoy their schools and houses of Catechism, and which is accounted the worship, and keep up their public meetings, common creed of the whole sect. The ship though in the midst of continual snares. seemed now to have reached the port, when About the same time, this sect attempted James Sieninski, lord of Racow, in the year to occupy a portion of Hungary and of 1600 renounced the Reformed religion and Austria. But the united efforts of the came over to this sect, and two years after-papists and the followers of the Reformed wards caused a famous school, intended for religion, rendered those attempts abortive. a seminary of the church, to be established in his own city which he had rendered the metropolis of the Socinian community.2 1 It is therefore manifest that the modern Unitarians are, with great propriety, called Socinians. For the glory of bringing their sect to establishment and order (if we may use the word glory of what has little glory attached to it), belongs exclusively to the two Socini. Lælius indeed who was naturally timid, died in the bloom of life at Zurich in 1562, a professed member of the Reformed church, for he would not by setting up a new seet subvert his own tranquillity. And there are probable grounds for supposing, that he had not brought to perfection that system of religion which he had projected, and that he died in a state of uncertainty and doubt respecting many points of no small importance. Yet it was he who collected the materials which Faustus afterwards used; ho secretly injected scruples into the minds of many, and, by the arguments against the divinity of our Saviour which he committed to paper, he induced the Arians of Poland, even after he was dead, unhesitatingly to unite themselves with those who maintained Christ to be only a man on as level with Adam, that is, one whom God created. What Lælius left unfinished, Faustus beyond controversy completed and put to use. Yet what part he received from his uncle and what he added of his own (for he certainly added not a little), it is very difficult to ascertain; because only a few of the writings of Lælius are extant, and of those of which he is said to be the author, some ought undoubtedly to be attributed to others. This however we know, from the testimony of Faustus himself, that what he taught respecting the person of Jesus Christ was for the most part excogitated by Lælius. 2 See Wissowatius, Narratio de Separatione Unita riorum a Reformatis, p. 214; Lubieniecius, Historia Reformat. Polonica, lib. iii. cap. xii. p. 240, &c. [The Polish names of these well-known writers are Wyszowaty and Lubieniecki.-R. 3 See Saud's Biblioth. Anti-Trinitar. p. 28 and 55; Debrezenius, Historia Ecclesie Reformate in Hungaria, p. 147, &c.; Schmeizel, De Statu Ecclesice Lutheran. in Transylvania, p. 55; Lamy, Histoire du Socinia nisme, par. i. chap. xiii. &c. p. 46, &o.; Salig's Hist der Augsburg. Confession, vol. ii. book vi. chap. vii. p. 847, &c. [In the year 1568, the Unitarians held a disputation with the Trinitarians at Weissenburg (in Transylvania), which was continued to the tenth day; and of which Blandrata, there and in the same year, published his Brevis enarratio Disputationis Albanæ ; Casper Helt did the same at Clausenburg, in the name of the Reformed. At the close of the debate, the Unitarians obtained from the nobles who had been on the spot all the privileges enjoyed by the Evangelical. They also got possession of the cathedral church of Clausenburg, filled the offices of instruction in the schools with Unitarians, and controlled all things according to their pleasure. Under Stephen Bathori, Francis Davides went so far as to oppose the offering of prayer to Christ. To confute him, Blandrata called Faustus Socinus from Basil in 1578; and he so persccuted Davides, that the latter was condemned in 1579 to perpetual imprisonment, in which he ended his days. -Schl. 4 Zeltner's istoria Crypto- Socinianismi Altorfini, cap. ii. p. 357, 359. [See also Walch's Neueste Religionsgesch. vol. v. No. 3.-Sch! 5 Debrezenius, Historia Ecclesia Reform.in Hungaria, p. 169, &c. 6 Spondanus, Continuatio Annalium Baronii, ad ann 1568, No. 24, p. 704. 14. The Socinians having obtained a stable domicil for their fortunes at Racow, and being sustained by patrons and friends of great authority and talent, began zealously to seek the enlargement of their church and the propagation of their religion through all Europe. Accordingly in the first place, they procured a large number of books to be composed by their brightest men of genius, some explaining and defending their religious principles, and others expounding or rather perverting the sacred Scriptures according to the views of their sect; and these books they printed at Racow and dispersed everywhere. In the next place, near the close of the century, as appears incontrovertibly from many documents, they sent their emissaries into various countries to make proselytes and to establish new congregations. But these envoys, though some of them had the advantages of a noble birth and others possessed extensive learning and acuteness in reasoning, were almost everywhere unsuccessful. A small company of Socinians existed in obscurity at Dantzic for a time, but it seems gradually to have disappeared with this century. In Holland, first Erasmus Johannes, and afterwards Andrew Voidovius and Christopher Ostorodt, great pillars of the sect, laboured not without success to gain disciples and followers. But the vigilance of the theologians and the magistrates prevented their acquiring strength and establishing associations. Nor did the Socinians find the Britons more accommodating. In Germany, Adam Neuser and some others, at the time when the prospects of the Unitarians were dark and dubious in Poland, entering into a confederacy with the Transylvanians, contaminated the Palatinate with the errors of this sect; but the mischievous design was seasonably detected and frustrated. Neuser then betook himself to the Turks, and enlisted among the Janizaries at Constantinople.5 A considerable part of these books was edited in printed A.D. 1656, in 6 vols. fol. The collection indeed leaves out many of the productions of the first founders of the sect; yet it is quite sufficient to acquaint us with its genius and character. [It comprises the works of only four of their more celebrated writers, namely, Crellius, Slichtingius, Woltzogenus, and Przipcovius, according to their Latinized names.-R. the collection, entitled Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, 2 Zeltner's Hist. Crypto-Socin. Altorfini, p. 199, note. 3 Or Jansen, see Sand's Biblioth. p. 87. 4 Zeltner, ubi supra, p. 31 and 178. [Brandt, in his History of the Reformation, &c. tells us that Ostorodt and Voidovius were banished, and that their books were condemned to be burned publicly by the hands of the common hangman. Accordingly the pile was raised, the executioner approached, and the multitude was assembled, but the books did not appear. The magistrates, who were curious to peruse their contents, had quietly divided them among themselves and their friends.-Macl. 5 Struve's Pfälzische Kirchenhist. chap. v. sec. liii. p. 15. Although the Socinians profess to believe that all knowledge of divine things must be derived from the sacred books of Christians, yet in reality they hold that the sense of Scripture must be estimated and explained in conformity with the dictates of right reason; and of course they subject religious truth in some measure to the empire of reason. For they intimate, sometimes tacitly and sometimes expressly, that the inspired writers frequently slipped, through defects both of memory and of capacity; that they express the conceptions of their minds in language which is not sufficiently clear and explicit; that they obscure plain subjects by Asiatic phraseology, that is, by inflated and extravagant expressions, and therefore they must be made intelligible by the aid of reason and sagacity. From such propositions, any person of tolerable understanding would readily infer that in general the history of the Jews and of our Saviour, may be learned from the books of the Old and New Testaments, and that there is no reason to question the truth of this history; but that the doctrines which are set forth in these books, must be so understood and explained as not to appear contrary to ordinary apprehension or reason. The inspired books, therefore, do not declare what views we should hold concerning God and his counsels, but human sagacity points out to us what system of religion we are to search for in the Scriptures. 16. This opinion becomes still worse, when we consider what this sect understood by the term reason. For by the splendid name of right reason, they appear to mean that measure of intelligence or that power of comprehending and understanding things which we derive from nature. And hence the fundamental maxim of the whole Socinian theology is this: Nothing must be admitted as a divine doctrine but what the human mind can fully understand; and whatever the holy Scriptures teach concerning the nature of God, his counsels and purposes, and the way of salvation, must be corrected by art and reason till it shall agree with the capacities of our minds.' Whoever admits 214; Alting's Hist. Eccles. Palatin. in Meigs' Monum. Palatina, p. 266, &c. 337; La Croze, Dissertations Historiques, tome i. p. 101, 127. Compare Raupachi's Presbyterologia Austriaca, p. 113, where he treats of John Matthæi who was implicated in these commotions. 6 Ziegler, in his condensed view of the peculiar doctrines of Faustus Socinus (in Henke's Neuen Magazin für Religionsphilosophie, &c. vol. iv. st. ii. p. 204, &c.) controverts this staternent of Mosheim; and maintains that Socinus aimed to base his doctrines wholly on the Scriptures, and not on reason as a higher authority. Schroeckh, in his Kirchenges. seit d. Reformat. (vol. v. p. 560, &c.) replies to Ziegler; and while he admits that Socinus professed to regard the Bible as the source of all religious truth, and nowhere expressly allows this must also admit that there may be as extinguish his evil propensities and pasmany religions as there are people. For as sions, no alternative is left but to hold him one person is more obtuse than another or to be a holy man who lives agreeably to more acute, so also what is plain and easy those precepts of the divine law which reguof comprehension to one, another will com- late the words and the external actions. plain of as abstruse and hard to be under- Yet in describing the duties of men, they stood. Neither do the Socinians appear to were obliged to be uncommonly rigorous; fear this consequence very greatly; for they because they maintained that the object allow their people to explain variously many for which God sent Jesus Christ into the doctrines of the greatest importance, pro-world was to promulgate a most perfect vided they entertain no doubts respecting law. And hence very many of them hold the general credibility of the history of Jesus Christ, and hold what the Scriptures inculcate in regard to morals and conduct. it unlawful to resist injuries, to bear arms, to take oaths, to inflict capital punishments on malefactors, to oppose the tyranny of civil rulers, to acquire wealth by honest industry, and the like. And here also we unexpectedly meet with this singularity, that while on other subjects they boldly offer the greatest violence to the language of the sacred writers, in order to obtain support for their doctrines, they require that whatever is found in the Scriptures relating to life and morals, should be understood and construed in the most simple and literal manner. 19. The Racovian Catechism, which is generally regarded as the only creed of the sect and as an accurate portrait of their religion, contains only the popular system of doctrine, not that which their leaders and doctors hold impressed on their minds. A person therefore who wishes to know the grounds and the sources from which the 17. Proceeding on this maxim, the Socinians either reject or bring down to their comprehension whatever presents any difficulty to the human mind in the doctrine concerning God and the Son of God, Jesus Christ, or concerning the nature of man or the entire plan of salvation as proposed by the inspired writers, or concerning the doctrine of eternal rewards and punishments. God is indeed vastly more perfect than men are, yet he is not altogether unlike them; by that power with which he controls all nature he caused Jesus Christ, an extraordinary man, to be born of the Virgin Mary; this man he caught up to heaven, imbued him with a portion of his own energy which is called the Holy Spirit, and with a full knowledge of his will; and then sent him back to this world that he might promulgate to mankind a new rule of life more perfect than the old one, and might evince the truth of his doctrine by his life and his death. Those who obey the voice of this divine teacher, and all can obey it if they are so dis-nered and veracious Eder not long since published a posed, being clad in other bodies shall for ever inhabit the blessed abode where God resides; those who do otherwise, being consumed by exquisite torments, will at length sink into annihilation. These few propositions contain the whole system of Socinian theology, when divested of the decorations and subtle argumentations of their theologians. 18. The general character of the Socinian theology requires them to limit their moral precepts entirely to external duties and conduct. For while they deny on the one hand that men's minds are purified by a divine influence, and on the other, that any man can so control himself as wholly to reason to have dominion over revelation, he yet maintains that Socinus, who was but a poor expositor, took great liberties with the Scriptures, and in reality practised upon the principle stated by Mosheim, though perhaps without much consciousness of it. And the subsequent Socinians, he says, proceeded farther and farther, till they at last discovered what was the fundamental principle of their theology; and since this discovery they do not hesitate to avow it. Hence he concludes that Mosheim is quite justifiable in making such a statement as he here gives.-Mur. the history of this celebrated book, in his essay De 1 Schmidt has treated expressly of the authors and Catechesi Racoviensi, published in 1707. Add Köcher's Bibliotheca Theol. Symbol. p. 656, &c. The very edition of it, with a solid confutation annexed, The Frankf. and Leips. 1739, 8vo. [There are properly two Kinder in dem Christlichen Gottesdienste in Rakow, plain statements of the Catechism originated, must read and examine the works of their theologians. Besides, the Catechism omits many doctrines and regulations of the Socinians which might contribute to increase the odium under which the sect labours, but which serve to lay open its internal character and staté. It appears therefore to have been written for foreigners in order to mitigate their indignation against the sect, rather than for the use of Socinians themselves. And hence it never obtained among them the authority of a public rule of faith; but their doctors have always been at full liberty either to alter it or to exchange it for another. By what rules the church is to be governed, and in what manner public religious worship is to be celebrated, their doctors have not taught us with sufficient clearness and uniformity. But in most things they appear disposed to follow the customs of the Protestants.2 20. Few are ignorant that the first originators of the Socinian scheme possessed fine talents and much erudition. But when these were dead or removed, the Unitarians of Poland seem to have had but little thirst for knowledge and intellectual cultivation, and not to have required their teachers to be men of acumen and well instructed in literature and the arts. They however adopted other views after they obtained liberty to open schools at Racow and Lublin, and when they had discovered that their cause could not possibly be upheld without defenders and vindicators in no respect inferior to their opponents. Their love of learning began to be ardent from about the time that Faustus Socinus undertook to sustain and to regulate their tottering and ill-arranged church; and not a few persons eminent for their learning as well as their birth, were to be found among them. For they were anxious to have the study of eloquence pursued, the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin literature taught to the young, and philosophy expounded to select individuals. The Racovians, according to the custom of the age, made Aristotle their guide in phi 1 This may be inferred from the fact, that they presented a Latin copy of it to king James I. but a German copy to the university of Wittemberg. [To show their gratitude, the theologians of Wittemberg allowed a feeble confutation of it to be drawn up by Balduinus, which was first published in 1619, and James I. con demned the book to the flames.-Schl. 2 This appears from Peter Morscovius or Morszkow sive forma Regiminis exterioris Ecclesiarum Christiana ski's Politia Ecclesiastica, quam vulgo Agenda vocant, rum in Polonia, quæ unum Deum Patrem, per Filium ejus unigenitum in Spiritu Sancto confitentur, in three books, composed in 1642, and published by Eder a few years since at Nuremberg, 4to. This book is mentioned by Sand, Biblioth. Anti-Trinitar. p. 142, who says it was written for the use of the Belgic churches. losophy, as appears from Crellius' Ethica, and from other monuments of those times. 21. At the same time the leaders of the sect declare in numerous places in their books, that both in the interpretation of the Scriptures and in explaining and in demonstrating the truths of religion in general, clearness and simplicity are alone to be consulted, and that no regard should be paid to the subtilties of philosophy and logic; which rule, if the interpreters and doctors in the highest esteem among them had considered as binding on themselves, they would have given much less vexation to their opposers. For in most of their books exquisite subtilty and art are found, combined with an indescribable amount of either real or fictitious simplicity. They are most acute and seem to be all intellect when discussing those subjects which other Christians consider as lying beyond man's power of comprehension, and therefore as simply to be believed. On the contrary, all their sagacity and powers of reason forsake them just where the wisest of men have maintained that free scope should be given to reason and human ingenuity. Although this may appear contradictory, yet it all flows from that one maxim of the whole school, that whatever surpasses the comprehension of the human mind must be banished from Christian theology. 22. The Unitarians, as soon as they were separated from the society of the Reformed in Poland, became divided into parties, as has been already mentioned. The topics of dispute among them were, the dignity of Jesus Christ, Christian morals, whether infants are proper subjects of baptism, whether the Holy Spirit is a person or a divine attribute, and some other subjects. Among these parties, two continued longer than the others, and showed themselves less docile and manageable to the pacificators, namely, the Budnæan and Favorian sects. The former had for its founder and leader Simon Budny, a man of acuteness, who perceiving more clearly than others whither the principles of Lælius Socinus would lead, maintained that Jesus Christ was not to be honoured with our prayers nor with any other kind of worship; and in order more easily to support this error, he declared that Christ was conceived not by virtue of any divine power, but in the way in which all other men are. These tenets indeed harmonise Socinian scheme, but to the majority they very well with the first principles of the appeared intolerable and execrable. Budny therefore who had many disciples in Lithuania and Russian Poland, was deposed from his ministerial office in 1584, and with his |