T

CHA P. IV.

The History of the SOCINIANS.

HE Socinians are said to have derived this C E N T.

XVI.

of this sect.

denomination from the illustrious family SECT.III. of the Sozzini, which flourished a long time at PARTIL Sienna in Tuscany, and produced several great The denoand eminent men, and among others LELIUS and mination FAUSTUS SOZINUS, who are commonly supposed to and origin have been the founders of this sect. The former was the son of MARIANUS, a famous lawyer, and was himself a man of uncommon genius and learning; to which he added, as his very enemies are obliged to acknowledge, the lustre of a virtuous life, and of unblemished manners. Being forced to leave his.country, in the year 1547, 01 account of the disgust he had conceived against popery, he travelled through France, England, Holland, Germany, and Poland, in order to examine the religious sentiments of those who had thrown off the yoke of Rome, and thus at length to come at the truth. After this he settled at Zurich, where he died in the year 1562, before he had arrived at the fortieth year of his age [w]. His mild and gentle disposition rendered him averse from whatever had the air of contention and discord. He adopted the Helvetic confession of faith, and professed himself a member of the church of Switzerland; but this did not engage him to conceal entirely the doubts he had formed in relation to certain points of religion, and which he communicated, in effect, by letter, to some learned men, whose judgment he respected,

113

and

[w] Cloppenburg, Dissertatio de origine et progressu Socinianismi.-Jo. Hornbeck, Summa Controversiarum, p. 563.—. Jo. Henr. Hottinger, Hist. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 417.

XVI.

CENT and in whose friendship he could confide [x]. His SECT. III. Sentiments were indeed propagated, in a more PART II. public manner, after his death; since FAUSTUS,

The term "Socini

an," bears

tions.

his nephew and his heir, is supposed to have drawn, from the papers he left behind him, that religious system upon which the sect of the Socinians was founded.

II. It is, however, to be observed, that this denomination does not always convey the same different ideas, since it is susceptible of different significa significations, and is, in effect, used sometimes in a more strict and proper, and at others in a more improper and extensive sense. For, according to the usual manner of speaking, all are termed Socinians, whose sentiments bear a certain affinity to the system of SOCINUS; and they are more especially ranked in that class, who either boldly deny, or artfully explain away, the doctrines that assert the Divine Nature of CHRIST, and a Trinity of persons in the Godhead. But, in a strict and proper sense, they only are deemed the members of this sect, who embrace wholly, or with a few exceptions, the form of theological doctrine, which FAUSTUS SOCINUs either drew up himself or received from his uncle, and delivered to the Unitarian brethren, or Socinians, in Poland and Transylvania [y].

The origin

III. The origin of Socinianism may be traced to of Socinian- the earliest period of the Reformation. For scarce

ism.

ly

[x] Zanchius, Præf. ad Libr. de tribus Elohim.-Beza, Epist. Volum. ep. lxxxi. p. 167. Certain writings are attributed to him by Sandius, in his Bibliotheca Anturinuar. p. 18. but it is very doubtful whether he was the real author of them, or

not.

[ We have, hitherto, no complete or accurate history either of the sect called Socinians, or of Lælius and Faustus Socinus, its founders; nor any satisfactory account of those who laboured principally with them, and, after them, in giving a permanent and stable form to this community. For the

accounts

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ly had that happy revolution in the state of religion C E N T. taken place, when a set of men, fond of extremes, SECT. III. and consequently disposed to look upon as erro- PART II. neous whatever had hitherto been taught and professed in the church of Rome, began to undermine the doctrine of CHRIST's Divinity, and the other truths that are connected with it, and proposed reducing the whole of religion to practical piety and virtue. The efforts of these men were opposed with united zeal and vigilance by the Romish, Reformed, and Lutheran churches; and their designs were so far disconcerted, as to prevent their forming themselves and their followers into a regular and permanent sect. So early as the year 1524, the divinity of CHRIST was openly denied by LEWIS HETZER, one of the wandering and fanatical Anabaptists, who, about three years afterwards, was put to death at Constance [*]. There were not wanting among the first Anabaptists, several persons who entertained the opinions of HETZER; though it would be manifestly un

accounts we have of the Socinians, and their principal doctors, from Hornbeck (1), Calovius (2), Cloppenburg (3), Sandius (4), Lubieniecius (5), and Lauterbach (6), are far from being proper to satisfy the curiosity of those, who desire something more than a vague and superficial knowledge of this matter. The history of Socinianism, that was published at Paris by Lami in the year 1723, is a wretched compilation from the most common-place writers on that subject; it is also full of errors, and is loaded with a variety of matters that have no sort of relation to the history of Socinus, or to the doctrine he taught. The very learned and laborious La Croze promised in his Dissertations Historiques, tom. i. p. 142. a complete History of Socinianism, from its origin to the present times, but did not fulfil this interesting engagement.

[x] Sandii Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitar.-Jo. Bapt. Ottius, Annal. Anabaptist. p. 50.-Breitingeri Museum Helveticum, tom. v. p. 391. tom. vi. p. 100. 479.

ni..

(1) In his Socinianism. Confutat. vol. i—(2) In his Opera Anti-Socinia(3) In his Dissertat. de origine et progressu Socinianismi, tum. ii. opp. (4) In his Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitariorum.- (5) In his Historia Reformationis Polonicæ.--(6) In his Ariano-Socinismus, published in German at Francfort in the year 1725.

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CENT. fair to lay these opinions to the charge of the whole SECT. III. community. But it was not only from that quarter PART II. that erroneous opinions were propagated in relation

to the points already mentioned; others seemed to have been seized with the contagion, and it manifested itself from day to day in several countries. JOHN CAMPANUS, a native of Juliers, disseminated at Wittemberg and other places, various tenets of an heretical aspect; and taught, among other things, that the Son was inferior to the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was not the title of a divine person, but a denomination used to denote the nature of the Father and of the Son; and thus did this innovator revive, in a great measure, the errors of the ancient Arians [a]. A doctrine of a similar kind was propagated, in the year 1530, in Swit zerland, Augsburgb, and among the Grisons, by a person, whose name was CLAUDIUS, who, by his opposition to the doctrine of CHRIST's divinity, excited no small commotions in these countries [b]. But none of these new teachers were so far encouraged by the number of their followers, or the indulgence of their adversaries, as to be in a condition to form a regular sect,

IV. The attempts of MICHAEL SERVEDE [c], or SERVETUS, a Spanish physician, were much

more

[4] See the Dissertation de Job. Campano, Anti-Trinitario, in the Amanitates Literaria of the very learned Schelhornius, tom. xi. p. 1-92.

[b] See Schelhornii Dissert. Epistol. de Mino Celso Senensi Claudio item Allobrage, homine Fanatico et SS. Trinitatis boste, Ulma 1748, in 4to.-Jac. Breitingeri Museum Helvetic. tom. vii. p. 667.-Jo, Hallerus, Epistol. in Jo. Conrad. Fueslin, Centuria Epistolar. Viror. Eruditor. p. 140.

[c] By taking away the last syllable of this name (I mean the Spanish termination de) there remains Serve, which, by placing differently the letters that compose it, makes Reves. Servetus assumed this latter name in the title-pages of all bis books. He also called himself sometimes Michael Villanovanus, or Villanovanus alone, after the place of his nativity, omitting the name of his family.

XV..

more alarming to those who had the cause of true C E N T. religion at heart, than the feeble and impotent SECT. ill. efforts of the innovators now mentioned. This PART II. man, who has made such a noise in the world, was born at Villa Nueva, in the kingdom of Arragon, distinguished himself, by the superiority of his genius, and had made a considerable progress in various branches of science. In the years 1531 and 1532, he published, in Latin, his Seven books concerning the errors that are contained in the doctrine of the Trinity, and his Two Dialogues on the same subject, in which he attacked, in the most audacious manner, the sentiments adopted by far the greatest part of the Christian church, in relation to the Divine Nature, and a Trinity of persons in the Godhead. Some years after this he travelled into France, and, after a variety of adventures, settled at Vienne in Dauphine, where he applied himself, with success, to the practice of physic. It was here, that, letting loose the reins of his warm and irregular imagination, he invented that strange system of theology, which was printed, in a clandestine manner, in the year 1553, under the title of Christianity restored. The man seemed to be seized with a passion for reforming (in his way), and many things concurred to favour his designs, such as the fire of his genius, the extent of his learning, the power of his eloquence, the strength of his resolution, the obstinacy of his temper, and an external appearance, at least, of piety, that rendered all the rest doubly engaging Add to all this, the protection and friendship of many persons of weight, in France, Germany, and Italy, which SERVETUS had obtained by his talents and abilities both natural and acquired; and it will appear that few innovators have set out with a better prospect of success. But, notwithstanding their signal advantages, all his views were totally disappointed by the vigilance and severity of

CALVIN,